She was ready.

It had taken months of searching to find the location, and several months more to finalize the ritual. She spent half her savings on the materials, and nearly the rest of it getting to the location.

For the past week she ate no meat and drank only water. She painstakingly laid out the materials, muttering the proper enchantments and she went, being careful never to break the circle she had laid out.

At night she rested, meditated, and reconsidered her actions. He had left cryptic clues when he died. She had found them, one by one, and when she had the last one, she knew what she had to do.

On the seventh night, the night of the full moon, she set the final piece in position, finished muttering the incantation, and, taking one final breath, began the final verse of the ritual. She had played it over in her mind countless times before she came, and now it flowed out of her mouth naturally.

The air in the circle began to shimmer, then glowed warm. She went down on one knee.

“Master.”