Part One: Things Unravel.

The sound of rumbling could be heard as the inner walls of the complex shook. As she proceeded down the stairs, she could hear the rumbling of artillery shells being dropped and her once luxurious estate being decimated. All around her, everything that she had been working for was being demolished and ruined bit by bit as Amanda made her way down to the secret underground chamber of her complex.

“Was this the end?” she thought to herself.

As the battle to defend her mountain retreat continued, she would creep deeper and deeper down the staircase. While she herself was secluded and way too buried to be hit by a stray bomb, a good airstrike would no doubt bury her citadel and trap her in a tomb of her own hubris, yet Amanda pressed onward. She would not let defeat get to her, not now. She proceeded to go down the dreary staircase, all the while snapping her fingers to emit small embers upon torches to light her way deeper and deeper until her slippers finally made the last step to the bottom of the rocky staircase.

It has been several long and painful months for the baroness of Greater Spagonia, ever since the United Federation landed on the beaches of her southern shore, things have not been going as planned to say the least. While she realized GUN would eventually try to retake what they once had, things were direly miscalculated. Now, she could have very well be standing within in her own necropolis.

She walked through the pitch-black hallways, of an archaic like hallway from a stronghold made in long years past. Amanda did not even know why she was trying; her forces were surrounded, and she would be surprised if they even were able to survive to the end of the day. Yet, something inside the witch beckoned her to continue, something deep within her very mind was calling out to her in this dire time. Could she had just stayed in there and shot herself, or allowed herself to be captured? Maybe, but the vixen was far too ambitious and if there was anything, she could do to turn the tide in the most drastic of ways at this point, she would take it.

Amanda moved over to the inside of a chamber; it was a simple communication post to relay to the outside of the bastion. In a depressed stupor, she turned on the communications relay as it blinked with an emergency alert message. To humor herself, she turned it on to hear just who was on the frequency. Would it be one of her own still holding out, or would it be the humans and their primal lapdogs “offering” her a chance to surrender?

“Signora! Signora Bradanska!” a Spagonian accented voice called out to her as she could hear the distinct sound of laser fire, clearly whoever called her was from her personal guard unit.

“Si, what is it?” Amanda replied out of pure curiosity in a monotone like voice.

“This is Lieutenant Donetello Lamboso! United Federation forces have breached the inner compound! I do not know how longer we can hold them off! Permission signora to fall-AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” She heard as a loud scream after the sound of a gunshot was heard, followed by pure static.

“Idiotas!” She let out as she then slammed on the button of the com station to turn it off.

At this point, all she could do is sigh deeply and lean her elbows on the console. Within hours, no within minutes she could be facing a horde of G.U.N forces. While she could perhaps take them out, the situation looked hopeless. However, as she panted and her ears twitched to the sound of explosions and blasts that were faintly above in the citadel, she heard something…a voice. She then began to have a form of meditation or half-light sleeping. It had been a long day and all the running she did outside from gunfire had made her tired. Oh, the irony if she just fell asleep and was captured without resistance, the great baroness Amanda Bradanska, apprehended while she was asleep.

“This is not the end…There is always hope……the book…..”The voice called out to her in an astral state she was in, almost like being spoken to while in a trance.

She twitched as she soon awoken from her light slumber, in only seconds her mind was filled with a single thought, the blue book that she had found buried deep in the tomb in Shamar. The one with the eight sided star on it, the very presence of the tome was so unnerving to her that she had a completely mystical and psychic null assistant place it in a box and transport it all the way here to be stored. Was this some sort of option? Did her grandmother call out to her from the great beyond or was something far sinister afoot? Either way, she did not care. She was either dead or a candidate to be tortured anyways, if there was one thing a Bradanksa would do however, it’s use everything in their disposal on their deathknells however. She then stood up and began to head towards the hidden compartment that was sealed away by a removal part of the wall. On the way she would snap her fingers and flicker more illuminating green flames as she walked towards it.

Soon she would reach the hidden crevice in the wall and began to feel around for it. She would push in a compartment in the wall and a hidden compartment would open. She then took out a box and headed back over to the comm station area that was illuminated long enough for her to read it. When she got there, she opened the box and took it out, and just immediately she felt her bones shake and a sense of nausea. However, something was calling her to open it, something she could not mortally ignore.

Amanda gulped, prayed to her goddesses one last time, and hoped someone would burst through the door and just gun her down. Sadly, fate has a funny way of things. She opened it, blowing off dust as she began to turn page to page to read it. As soon as she began to make and read out the inscriptions, a voice came to her in the back of her mind. The voice was calm and feminine, and whispering to her. Something that made her spine crawl. Was this her ancestor? Who could say?

“Listen Amanda…listen to what I have to say….”

“What is it? Nonna Aurelia? Have you come to mock me one last time?” Amanda replied mentally, clearly delirious of this all.

“Dear Amanda, she cannot hear you now…but I can…..” the voice replied back to her.

“Many spirits can, but I can choose to ignore their pleas. If you are the owner of this book, you’re not getting it back so there.” She replied, with very much a bravado that was sarcastically of her towards the supernatural.

“No dear Amanda, you can keep the book…It is your salvation…..” The voice replied back to her once more.

“Oh, and who are you then?” Amanda thought back.

“I am Yaga…the Lady of Change…You seek power, si? Is that not why you opened the page, is it not?” Yaga replied back.

“So what if it is, spirit? Soon I am to meet my end by mortal methods, what could you offer me?” Amanda thought, now having a natural curiosity.

“I could offer you the power to control this world…power beyond your mortal understanding…All you have to do dear Amanda….is read.” Yaga replied to her.

There was no way out of it now, Yaga’s voice was far too alluring for her to turn back. Now, Amanda had dealt with the supernatural before. But this time, it was not some squabbling ghost of her grandmother or some vengeful spirit. The voice seemed, welcoming to her. As if it knew her, more than herself. Did she have second thoughts? Of course, but things were far too in motion for her now. She began to ready the first page; the book was called the Tome of Tzeentch.