A sense of euphoric triumph flowed through Calliope as she continued to chant. She could feel the arcane powers gathering and distantly sense the runes as they began to blaze on her skin. The world seemed to sink into the gray fog that she had felt when she called the wind in Calaverde and she again felt the unnerving presence just out of sight. Unlike before, this time she could see Markus and the garrison commander clearly. Both of them were bleeding  in an exaggerated scarlet that seemed to hammer with the beat of her heart. She strained to make out the chest of gold, which seemed luminous and insubstantial. The real world seemed to be fading faster than it had back in Calaverde but she was better prepared for it. The commanders lips moved though no sound she could hear emerged from them. They spell continued to build within her like a ship being constructed at incredible speed. There was an uncomfortable sense that whatever lurked in the fog was coming closer. Without conscious thought the dagger in her hand raked across the throat of the captured officer and a sheet of scarlet, almost painful to her arcane senses, exploded outwards. Columns of black entropic energy enveloped her, Markus and the chest and everything vanished into darkness.

Hands shook her awake and the scent of leaf mould filled her nostrils. Calliope blinked her eyes, and sat up feeling decidedly queasy. The concerned face of Jim looked down at her and he immediately blushed and looked away. Markus was sitting up a few feet away from her cursing a blue streak. Beside him the chest lay across a fallen log. Calliope looked down at her hand, faint yellow gold runes were fading even as she watched.

“What… what happened,” she asked, looking around and taking in the lush tropical forest. Cannons boomed somewhere off in the distance and she heard the sound of masonry shattering somewhere nearby. People were screaming and guns were going off. The landing party seemed to be clustered around them, taking cover in the low gulch.

“We… we saw the castle… well you know,” Jim stammered. The youth’s face was smudged with ash and Calliope could smell powderburns. She didn’t know. The spell had been intended to intimidated the locals into surrendering but it obviously hadn’t worked as she had intended. She wiped her hands on the leaves, finding them tacky with blood and stood up moving unsteadily to the edge of the gulch. Across the lip she looked down into the village. Despite the fact of cannon fire there were people in the streets. All of them looked slack jawed up towards the small rocky rise on which the keep stood… well mostly stood. A great black column blazed from the heart of the structure seeming to suck in the light. It rose to the heavens like an impaling spike that some angel had hurled from the heavens. As she watched the column began to disintegrate with the slow majesty of a landslide. Chunks of the black substance reigned down on the castle like hale and where they struck the stone seemed to smoke and crumble. Within moments the whole fortification was consumed by the falling black rain, even the supporting rock seemed to crumble as though a thousand years of weathering occured within a few seconds. 

According to the spell book, what little she could make out of it, the spell was supposed to summon ‘Hyadic fire’ which she had intended to use to intimidate the locals into surrendering. It certainly didn’t mention teleportation or whatever had happened to the fortress. Her head swam with half remembered sensations and she had the odd conviction that it was something about the blood she had used for the spell which was to blame. Her hand slipped into her pouch where the codex still resided. She wanted very much to take it out and study the text and see what new insights she could gain but now was not the time. 

“Exactly as I had planned,” she lied modestly. The guns had fallen silent on both sides now as they, no doubt, gaped at the impressive destruction that had occured. Several of the crew looked at her in shock and horror, one of the triplets even made a sign against evil.

“Captain, I suspect you might find them amenable to surrender.”