Two days earlier, within the gold mining town of Vena gathered the chiefs of the different towns of Vena, while the festival of Ogun approached its last days.
"So, has the Ogun within the youths grown any larger or has it remained the same as the previous days?" Asked the paramount chief, a man in his late sixties wearing a cotton shirt with pure golden beads arranged in a spiral formation from the neck down, with four golden rings on both of his hands with the head of a bull carved on them.
The men sat on the floor with wool knitted pillows below them, around a long table within the large hall of the paramount chief's courtyard. With results from the scans of the youth from every town scattered on the table.
Large pins shaped like a bull made of the ore mined in each town were fitted in front of each mining town's chief as an indicator for the town they are from
A man wearing the exact same attire as the head chief, but with silver beads and rings raised his right arm to give an answer for the question asked by the head. "Well, from our research in my town, we noticed the size has slowly increased, especially from the day we stopped administering the oils of the Egwus to the youths. I believe my fellow chiefs here have noticed this too." He said as he looked through the papers in front of him.
"Yes, indeed. Just like Argeti said, we have indeed noticed tiny growths in the Ogun within the youths. Although my team of researchers deemed the growth too small to be a problem and calculated a maximum of at least fifty years before the growth completely swallows their heart again." Added the chief who sat in front of the uranium bull as he passed the result of his team's research down to the head chief.
"Well, from our research over at my town, we do believe it might grow faster than what Uunda said and the age we estimated to be the maximum age before it swallows their hearts once again came out to be just in another sixteen years." Said the chief of the mercury mining town as he passed his town's results to the chief of the uranium mining town.
The men murmured amongst themselves as most of them ended up with different maximum ages before the hearts of the youths who were now sixteen returns back to black, as they passed their results around. With some having three years from that night as the maximum age, while others had nearly eighty years from that day.
With the only similarity between all their research and results being the fact that the Ogun was indeed regrowing. And it only regrew the moment the youths stopped taking the oil of the Egwus.
The head chief raised his left arm, with his fist clenched. And silence descended into the hall. "So, what do you all believe should be done. Do we let the Egwus of Ichrak go? After all, they did in fact cure the curse and we have collected enough of their healing oils to last us for at least seven more centuries. Or do we keep them here to ensure no matter the day Ogun decides to completely return we will be ready, as the oils we have now are for the unborn generations." He spoke out with clarity as he looked at his fellow chiefs awaiting their response.
After a few minutes of discussion amongst the chiefs, the chief of the Ganbo town stood up. With his large beard and bald head, he spoke in his extremely deep voice. "I believe we shouldn't let them go. We should instead go to the Ichrak empire in an act of respect and tell his imperial highness, Emperor Fuanfo the second that the disease wasn't fully cured and that one of those being treated suddenly died..."
"Ah, how can you plan to lie to an Emperor, Ganjo. Are you planning on losing your head." Said the chief of the copper mining town, quickly interrupting Ganjo. "Head chief please do not listen to this mad man. That is too risky. What if he finds out. The military might of the Ichrak empire might fall upon us. Isn't that worse than the curse of Ogun, my fellow chiefs?" He asked as he looked around at the faces of men who already seem to be on the same page as Ganjo.
Unfortunately for Cutini, the chief of the copper town and the head chief, Ganjo had already spoken to the other chiefs before the gathering and convinced most of them to take his side as he had completely proven to them how much more profitable his plan will be to their towns and the people of the Kingdom of Vena.
And in all honesty, he was not wrong. Though it was a risky move. If they succeed, not only will they have the Egwus become a part of Vena, but they won't have to give the Ichrak empire their frozen children as payment and will have perfectly secured the future of Vena as the Kingdom of ores.
A big miscalculation by all who agreed, for none of them knew or understood the mind of the Ichrak Emperor, Fuanfo the second. The grandson of the man who completely merged all of the countries within Ichrak under his rule through strategies that would be considered impossible to achieve even in the world of old.
"PLOP."
The head of the Kingdom of Vena's paramount chief fell to the ground and rolled straight to the feet of Ganjo. With the eyes of the dead chief staring straight into his soul, as if saying, this is all your fault.
And like lambs to the slaughter the chiefs of Vena had walked straight into the hands of their killer without knowing. The emperor never planned on them leaving Ichrak whether they had come with the new ore or not. His plan was and still is to go into Vena and have it under his control, the chiefs coming to Ichrak only made it easier for him.
In panic the chiefs ended up dispatching themselves in all directions with Cutini running straight for Ganjo, slamming him into the ground. "What have you done Ganjo. Answer me?"
Ganjo who was just as confused as everyone, could not respond, seeing the head of his old friend who he had let go ahead of him to become the paramount chief back when they were younger had left him in a completely frozen state, to the point where the cries and heads of his fellow chiefs falling to his ears could not be processed by his brain.
"You really ruined Vena. Well, it's just the two of us left. Stand up, Ganjo. Let us join our brothers on their journey to meet the supreme ruler of all ores. We lost the moment we came to Ichrak." Cutini said as he pulled Ganjo up who had tears running down his face.
"I'm sorry brothers. I doomed us all." He said as he looked up to the sky from within the courtyard, the last thing both he and Cutini saw before their heads were dropped to the floor.
Back within the throne room, after the screams had died down, a young girl in her seventeens came out from a door behind the throne, wearing a pure red Isi Agu but with a lioness's head drawn on it instead of a lion. With red and gold beads around her ankles and wrist.
She walks up to the front of the emperor and bows with a knee to the ground. "Father, was there any need to kill those men?" She asked with her head still lowered.
"Arise." He said, as he stood up from his throne and began walking towards the table where the chiefs had sat.
Walking past her as his staff hit the ground sending a sharp ching across the throne room. "My, dear daughter. When fools think they can have something an Emperor desires and believe in their hearts that he won't get it as long as they play smart, you show them why you are an Emperor and not just a Chief or King, but the ruler of chiefs and kings."
She raises her head and looks at her father with disgust, knowing full well that he did this all because of his greed and nothing else. After all, he was the same man who married over three hundred women all because he wanted a son after her mother, the first had only her. With him only stopping after the three hundredth wife ended up giving birth to another daughter just like the rest.
Closing her eyes, she pictured the fall of Ichrak if a mad man like her father was left to keep ruling it. The fact he didn't truly care about the Egwus being held captive even after knowing the plans of the chiefs, through his intelligence networks over at Vena a day before they arrived. All he cared about was the ore.
The door to the throne room opened wide and the guards walked in dragging Cutini who was covered in blood along on his knees.
The princess looked at the man between the guards with disgust. How could a man sell his own people just for the opportunity to survive and rule over the land when another takes over. What exactly does he wish to rule? The ores that will be under her father's control or the people that will also be under the control of the Ichrak empire. A Kingdom completely toppled all because of two greedy men.
Without looking at her father or taking an exit bow, which was mandatory by custom, she walked out of the throne room in anger, loathing the man who had brought her into this world.
"So, Cutini where again did you say the Ore, Ogun was stored?" Fuanfo asked with a smirk on his face as he looked at Cutini who was on his knees between the palace guards, drenched in the blood of his brothers a few hundred feet away from where Fuanfo the second stood.