Chaos Ascendant
Prologue

        The redhead stood in the center of the room, looking out across the stone floor towards where her employer had been standing. The reality of what she had been told was coming to sudden focus, and words from another time and place echoed in her mind, words spoken by a voice that had been silent to her for more than two years.
        There will come a time when I will be needed to act in a capacity that cannot be done without the sacrifice of a human soul.
        She shuddered. She’d thought it had passed. She’d thought that time had come and gone.
        She’d been horribly, horribly wrong.

        Crimson eyes filled with tears, the mortal soul within her raging with anger and despair. But the mortal soul also knew that nothing could be done. The choices had been made willingly.
        A moment passed, and the emotions fled the figure standing in the hall, yet the tears flowed on. And with those tears shimmering on her cheeks, the redhead placed her hands together and began to focus her power, calling the words of an ancient spell with a vacant voice.
        It was time, Shabranigdo had said.
        Red brilliance flowed over the figure, transforming her from a sedate sorceress into an imposing figure dressed in liquid red armor. A brilliant flame caught in her eyes, burning all trace of mortality away, and the Knight of Shabranigdo turned on her heel and left the room.