The next morning.
"You called for me?" asked Nia as she entered Azazel's office, she was looking better than yesterday, her eyes were no longer red, her face was no longer full of tears and she no longer looked pale, she had seemed to calm down.
"Yes Nia, sit" said Azazel in his usual demeanor.
"No Thank you, but I would prefer to stand" said Nia, she did not want to get too comfortable in his office, she was here to learn of what was going to happen to her, so she needed to be on guard.
"Well then suite yourself" said Azazel
"Yes" said Nia
"Yesterday you asked me about your new job" said Azazel as he went straight to the point.
"Yes" said Nia
"And it was a good question indeed" said Azazel
"I did not have an answer for you last night" said Azazel
"But now I do" said Azazel, and Nia held her breath, she was trying to brace herself for whatever Azazel would say.
"I have decided that I will not send you away from the camp" said Azazel and Nia's eyes flickered.
"You will continue all you duties" he said.
Nia was about to ask why? But then Azazel answered her unasked question in an instant, by telling her something that she did not want to hear.
"But to a new master" said Azazel
"To who?" asked Nia as she was curious of who Azazel was referring to.
"To Selene" said Azazel and Nia's eyes went wide.
"But… But… Why to her??" asked Nia as she could not find the right words, she did not expect that she would have to serve the person she hated most.
Selene was the first person that truly showed her what the word hate meant, that woman was just truly wicked, and she would rather die than serve her.
"Because That is who I choose" said Azazel
"But… anyone but her, I would rather die than serve her" said Nia seriously, she really did not want to serve Selene of all people.
"Do not say such nonsense" said Azazel
"Clove would not want such" said Azazel as his voice went soft as he said the name Clove
"Yes but,.. I don't" said Nia
"Enough, you will serve Selene from right this instant" said Azazel as he was not in the mood to explain any further, he was the one in charge and whatever he said goes.
"I will inform Selene about this new development later" said Azazel
"But for now, go back to your quarters, you will be called when you are needed" said Azazel
"is there a problem?" asked Azazel as he noticed Nia's unwillingness
"No" replied Nia as she sighed
"Good then, you may go" said Azazel
"Yes" said Nia as she just left, she was extremely upset, this was not what she wanted at all, everything was just going wrong for her.
Nia was so deep in her thoughts that she did not realize that there was someone in front of her and she bumped into the person and she hit her head, on the other person.
"Ouch" said Nia as she touched her hurting forehead.
"I am sorry, I was not paying attention" she said with her eyes still closed, just who in the world did she bump into?? Where they made of stone or what?
"No I'm the one that should be sorry, I should have been aware of my surroundings" said Hunter.
"Are you alright??" asked Hunter as he noticed the girl was holding her forehead.
"Ahh I am" said Nia as she frowned and opened her eyes.
"Oh" she said to herself, no wonder her head hurts, she bumped into a vampire.
"You don't look so good" said Hunter,
"No I am, it's just a little headache, I will be fine soon" said Nia
"And sorry once again for bumping into you" said Nia as she did not want to spend another second out here.
"it's alright" said Hunter as the girl did not even wait for him to reply and she just left.
"Weird girl, maybe she hit her head too hard" he said to himself as he shrugged it off and went his own way.
Meanwhile back in the camp.
"This is surprising" said Stella
"I would not have expected this to happen" she said
"Me neither" said Curtis
"But it is what it is" said Curtis as he picked up the pink crystal shard from Stella's desk and he put it in his pocket, he was going to return it to Maddie, it belonged to her in the first place.
"So what do you think about Clove's message?" asked Stella
"Well Maddie seems skeptical about the whole thing" said Curtis
"She believes that this is all a trick by Azazel and Clove" said Curtis
"Poor girl, she must know some awful things, because why else would she think that bad about her parents?" said Stella
"I don't think that we even know the surface of how much she suffered" said Curtis
"And you" said Stella
"What do you think?" asked Stella
"Well I believe Clove, she really is dead" said Curtis
"And she is right Azazel is getting weaker" said Curtis
"I can tell, this has been the longest time in history that he has not continued the cycle" said Curtis
"I was also skeptical on why he would give us time to train Annie, and he even came up with the idea of battling in the first place" said Curtis
"At that time it seemed like he wanted to spice things up" said Curtis
"But now... now I am sure that his decision was due to the fact that he did not feel like there was any need to rush and renew his powers like the past times" said Curtis.
"So what are you saying?" asked Stella
"What I am saying is that it's not Azazel himself that is getting weak, but his powers" said Curtis
"And the weaker his powers are, the less he would have an urge to renew them, and the better for us" said Curtis
"That means that there is a chance that a war will not happen?" asked Stella as the possibility of peace and not war overwhelmed her with joy.
"Yes there is a chance, a very small likely chance, but it is still a chance" said Curtis
"How much high of a chance do you think we have Curtis??" asked Stella
"I am not sure, right now it is impossible to predict" said Curtis
"There are many more factors than we know off, that affect the way Azazel acts and thinks" said Curtis
"And one of those factors was Clove, and now that she is gone, it is very uncertain to predict Azazel's actions" said Curtis seriously.
"Clove's death could either go two ways for us, the one being that Azazel will withdraw and change, and the other being that he has no reason to care anymore, and he decides to go his full force and end this all once and for all" said Curtis
"And which option do you think is going for us right now?" asked Stella
"I don't know, I am not sure" said Curtis
"We cannot eliminate the option of a truce, because we truly do not know what is going on in Azazel's mind" said Stella
"Yes, but remember that he is still Azazel" said Curtis
"He is unpredictable" said Curtis
"But do you not think this truly seems suspicious" said Stella
"As if Clove knew that she was going to die, and she set all this in preparation for when she passed away" said Stella
"That also worries me, why would she know and let it happen??" asked Curtis
"But what I am sure of is that, if she was capable of sending a crystal shard to Maddie, she could have also sent one to Azazel" said Curtis
"And if she sent one to him, the contents of that message would either resound to him, or anger him" said Curtis
"This is all so frustrating" said Stella as she sighed.
"Things were not supposed to go like this" said Stella
"If they do go on like this, and Azazel decides to strike stronger than ever, Annie would actually have to fight him head on" said Stella
"And as much as I believe in her, I just don't think that is something that she would enjoy," said Stella
"In fact I don't think that she even wants to fight anyone in the first place" said Stella
"I understand your worries" said Curtis
"But you underestimate Annie" said Curtis
"She can fight for those she holds near and dear" said Curtis
"She is more stronger than you think" he said
"I know Curtis, but still, she is just a child" said Stella
"She has not even reached maturity yet, and that is what scares me the most" said Stella
"Stella everything happens in due time" said Curtis
"Just give her time" said Curtis
"However in the time we have right now, we should start using it to create backup plans" said Curtis
"Just in case our expectations are not met" said Curtis seriously as Stella nodded.