Chapter 3

Varzoth woke early, so early in fact he could hear Karnyx still snoring. He was eager to learn about the forge, all anyone really knew about it was that it gave them the ability to live in Romania. It gives them the ability to be resistant to fire, and they use it to make items like obsidian blades. He ran down to the underground of the castle, and approached one of the forgers.

“Hey where’s the Forgekeeper, he’s supposed to start teaching me about the heart forge.” Varzoth said to one of the forgers,

The forger had a deep voice and a large beard, “He’s in the main forge room, down the hall and to the right.”

Varzoth nodded, “Thank you sir.” Varzoth ran down the hall and into a room filled with magma, lava, and had a small device in the middle. It seemed to be glowing with heat. It was a stone, radiating heat.

“I’d step away from that if I were you.” Said a voice from behind him, Varzoth turned around and saw the Forgekeeper. “They say one touch and your skin melts from your hand.” The Forgekeeper said as he walked to a small station that had flowing molten metal in it, and the Forgekeeper literally took a clump and started shaping it with his own hands.

“How are you doing that?” Asked Varzoth.

“Well, something unique about the Heart forge is that it can imbue items with abilities.” Said the Forgekeeper,

“Just like how it does us?” Asked Varzoth,

The Forgekeeper nodded, “Exactly, I’ve specifically designed these gloves to hold anything hot and not burn.”

“Cool.” Said Varzoth,

“Yes, and the Heart forge has many other uses. Including some you might know.”

“Fire resistance.” Varzoth said immediately.

“Yes, the heart forge gives us demons' fire resistance as a gift you could say.”

“How would we say gift in any other way?” asked Varzoth,

“Well, the power it gives us. Fire resistance and magic, causes some other things. Including destroying Romania even further.”

Varzoth’s eyes widened, “Wait so the more we use this thing, the more Romania is destroyed?”

“Yes, exactly. Good listening. Other than that, we believe it has the ability to brink between dimensions allowing us to use magic.” Said the Frogekeeper,

“Wait, it destroys the world to allow us to have powers?”

“Yes, but us important’s dont think about that. It also stops certain people from having powers, including unimportant’s. It allows us to get items that can destroy the unimortants.” Explained the Forgekeeper.

Varzoth stopped, what was he talking about?

“As we speak the Emperor is probably planning an attack to destroy the unimportant right now.” said the Forgekeeper

Wait, this thing is the thing that was going to destroy all the unimportant? Why would they do this?

The Forgekeeper turned around, “On the authority of the Emperor I’ve been told to allow you full access to the forge.” The Forgekeeper looked at him oddly, “Are you ok?”

Varzoth smiled and nodded, “Ya! That’s just an incredible idea, and full access to the forge? Wow! Thank you so much!”

“Um, you're welcome kid. Now you said you knew everything about the forge, so let’s test your knowledge.” Said the Forgekeeper, for the rest of the day the Forgekeeper talked about how to use the forge. All things Varzoth already knew, and had memorised before. All he could think about though was how he was living in a world where two thirds of the people were going to inevitably die from the importants. When he got back to his room, he realized that he was already getting sick of this place. He couldn’t leave though, if he did people would die. People would die either way really. Maybe there was another way though.

When Varzoth woke up he got to the forge again, hearing things he’s heard before and seeing things he’s looked at in papers before. He couldn’t go to the Emperor to convince him not to, the Emperor wouldn’t like that. He had to find a way to take the forge. He did have full access to the forge, maybe he could steal it. That would be hard of course, but if he needed to then he would. Over the next few weeks he decided to find out how the heart forge worked and how to disconnect it.

“So how is the forge actually connected to the heart?” Asked Varzoth,

“Well, it’s connected through these pipes. The pipes lead what we call the Forges Blood to the forge base, where we actually do the molding. The heart is connected through veins, a more flexible pipe. It is also created from the forge. The veins, being a less powerful pipe, are able to be accessed and pulled to the forge base.” Explained the Forgekeeper,

Varzoth started to understand the thing he must do, if he were to disconnect the heart then he must do it so that the veins aren’t damaged and in a fashion so that the heart isn’t destroyed. Even though the artifact is powerful and can cause world destruction, Varzoth might need it for his plan. He needed to hide it! Yes. Hide it, then hide himself. Just then Varzoth realized something. However this may go, him taking it or not, Varzoth will always be destined to be the Forgekeeper.

For the next few weeks Varzoth planned, and measured the exact position everything would be in. Having full access to the forge was a useful advantage of course, but he needed to find somewhere to hide it. Maybe in the mountains! No, that would be too obvious. He needed to go to Tsami, a small fishing town to the east. Maybe there he could figure out what he needed to do. To get there though, he’d need to go through the shadowed forest. A place of monsters, and dark pasts. He started to think to go to the west, but the Emperor had more control on the west. People would find him immediately. He tried to focus on the now. He needed to make something to hold the device, he could use the forge itself for that. The forge could create an item strong enough to hold itself, all he needed to do was design a way to make one. So for the entire night Varzoth planned and designed a way to get the hearts forge out of the castle.