Chapter 4

Varzoth woke to a sunny day, and a messy room. He’d stayed up all night figuring out the spells he needed, and the routes he would take. He gathered his things, and neatly put them together. He ran down to the forge with his newest blueprints, but before he could get there he ran into Karnyx. Karnyx stared at him.

“Why are you in such a rush?” He asked,

Varzoth realized he was sweating, “I just didn’t get enough sleep.” Varzoth lied. Karnyx shrugged and continued walking, and Varzoth continued running. He needed to get to the forge, he’d use it once and never use it again. That’s what he’s been telling himself all night, and he still didn’t feel like it was a good idea. He ran down the stairs of the forging room, and continued thinking of his plan over and over. He’d make the device, it was one of his most ambitious creations yet, then he’d get the forge in it. He’d then say that he needed to get some breakfast, and then run for the gates. Simple right?

Varzoth stopped running at the bottom of the steps, and started walking normally. Not wanting to draw any attention to himself. He started molding a casing for the heart, exactly as he designed it. When it was done it was a large block, but hadn’t gone through the necessary enhancements. He started molding some of the basic gears he needed, then started working on steam powered pushers. The heart would naturally do that for him. Once he’d gotten all the essential materials he started putting the device together. It was a strange item, it was a cube with multiple moving parts at all times even without the heart inside it. He kept the item in his grasp and went back to his room, hiding it as he did.

He had no idea how he wasn’t going to get the heart out of the forging room itself, but he had an idea of how he’d hide it. He madeshift a backpack to hold the exact shape he needed, and inserted multiple mechanics he’d made in the forge to keep the heart safe. He was prepared to steal the most important item in Romania, all he had to do now was take it.

Now Varzoth wasn’t the sneakiest person, but he did know a thing or two about how to steal. He’d done it a lot when he was young, he didn’t have enough money on him to buy some bread so he stole a bunch from the vendor when they weren’t looking. Forgekeeper was the vendor, he was the one stealing it.

He walked through the forge as usual, he hoped the backpack looked alright. Nobody really looked at him, he was a normal worker here now. Not for long of course. He entered the main forging room where the heart was set, he put his backpack down and pulled out the advanced trap he’d made for the heart. The plan was that the trap would immediately trap the heart making the heart unable to do its job, the forge’s blood would slowly come to a halt. That’s when he needed to move. He held out the box, and pressed a small button he’d made. It didn’t undo. He held the box to the heart, and slowly pushed the box onto the heart. The box activated, with the small pressure from the heart the box activated and slowly formed around the heart and pulled it into the casing. Varzoth looked into the cube as it was closing, as it was he saw the heart forming into the new shape it was put in. It worked, he started to walk out of the forge. When he got to the stairs, he heard people screaming from behind him. When he looked back to check, he saw the forges blood pouring into the forges fast. It slowly emptied, and all the blood drained. Before anyone could say anything Varzoth snuck away, and acted like he was going to tell the Forgekeeper.

Once he got to the castle he walked to the exit, and planned to grab an animal or something he could ride. Anything to get him out of Roma, he found a lone hopper. A hopper was a giant grasshopper you could say, it couldn’t fly but it was fast. He heard a bell ring, and he ran for the hopper. It was tied up to a post, but it was already saddled. He ran to the rope, and snapped his fingers above it. The rope lit on fire for a moment, and then burnt to a crisp. The hopper looked at Varzoth, and turned its head.

“Ya, you want to get out of here too huh?” Said Varzoth, he jumped onto its back and attached a satchel to the sattle. He put all of his belongings in it, except for his knife and sword and of course the heart. He grabbed the reins, and realized he never had experience with riding animals. He hoped he was at least decent at it, he ripped off the forearm sleeve of his shirt and wrapped it around his face. Making a mask of sorts. “Alright, where to?” He asked the Hopper, it did a little chirp of some kind and Varzoth nodded. “Tsami it is.” He turned the hopper and galloped away on it. He heard yelling from behind him as he did, concealing his face was one thing but people would notice him eventually. He got the hopper to run as fast as it could.

Once he thought he was far enough away, he steadied. He made sure he still held the heart, and then he kept going. The forest was coming up, and he decided that he might go around it, but many instincts told him to get the important’s to lose his tracks. Before he could head for the forest, multiple guards started shooting at him. Fire bolts. He turned around and saw three soldiers, probably just on patrol. Varzoth pulled out his symbol of importance, an item they give to every important person. When they came up to him, they had swords and spells ready. He held up his symbol of importance, it was a paper. It had all of his records on it, including the ones that say that he’s an important.

He looked at them, “It’s alright, I’m one of you. I’m just on a mission from the Forgekeeper, getting him materials.” They looked sceptical, and nodded at him.

“Then why are you not dressed for a mission, and have a stolen hopper?” Said one of the guards, Varzoth froze. He put his papers away, and put his hands up. He then created a fire bolt at each of the soldiers, they all fell back off of their animals. Varzoth then knocked them out with his shirt sword's hilt.

“We got to go.” He whispered to the hopper, he got onto his new companion and ran back to the city. When he got there he ran right past it, and to the west of Romania. He needed to get a new plan.