Chapter 7

Varzoth got to Lilith who said everyone was there and accounted for, they’d be getting water and food from the villagers soon. Varzoth on the other hand needed to assemble the guardians.

“Alright, so I’m obviously new here so what is this all about?” Baal asked while in the forging room.

“It’s about the Emperor, he’s planning something.”

Malakath nodded, “Well, we knew that.”

Varzoth shook his head, “No, I mean. My mother said that they were going to all be sentenced to murder.”

Lilith nodded, “So did all the other prisoners.”

“Exactly, for some reason the Emperor is putting his plans in work now. Why? I thought he was going to do one whole sweep of killings, not sentence a group of them to murder one at a time.”

Azazel entered the room, “Yes, I agree with young Varzoth. They’re changing plans, too many unimportant’s have gone missing because of our efforts and now he has to overwhelm us with as much as he can. This also gives him an excuse to put them to death, we’ve been disconnected to the outside for a long time as we have discovered with Baal. We need more information about what the Emperor is planning.” They all turned to Baal and waited for a response.

She jumped when everyone did this, “All I heard was the forge telling me to take it and the Emperor saying he had to change his tactics.”

Varzoth nodded, “He’s changing his operations. We have no idea what his next move will be.”

“Precisely, and with the Forge’s Awakening being in…” Azazel started.

“One month.” Varzoth finished.

“He wants it to be as small as ever, and if we can’t focus on that…

“He’ll win.” Lilith said, “And half of the population would be gone, and the other half would worship the Emperor like a god.”

Varzoth shook his head, he’d saved his mother. He wanted to save more, but if it meant losing the only chance they had at saving Romania what could they do? “Lock down the Village.” He said, “The Emperor’s not going to stop the awakening, we keep it safe and controlled. Nobody gets in or out for the next month, I’ll start setting it up.” He started walking out of the forging room, but was stopped by Lilith.

“Are you sure about this?” She said,

“Of course, why?” He asked.

“We’ve stayed disconnected from the outside for so long now, we had no idea this was a threat so soon. Right now is not the time to hide. It's time to prepare.” Lilith looked into his eyes, and pulled him close and kissed him. When she pulled back everyone was staring at them, “Go prepare, and save us.”

Varzoth smiled, “Come with me, I’ll need your help.” She smiled, like she wanted him to say that. They ran out into the village, and started planning for the Awakening.