Calliope sat up spluttering her lungs burned and her eyes watered. Unlike most sailors, she was a strong swimmer but, even the mightiest athlete wouldn't last long with their hands bound and their mouth stuffed with a gag. Markus had evidently removed her gag and she croaked a word of power and the bonds that wrapped her wrist snapped like parting cable. She tried to stand up but her head swam and she sank back to the sandy spit of land they had been fortunate to end up upon. Belatedly she realised that she was clad only in her undergarments, bare from the waist up save for the amulet that seemed to coil between her breasts. There was something about the amulet that felt different but she couldn't figure out exactly what. It was as though the artifact were someone feeling satisfied with itself. She reached down and touched the finely wrought amulet, feeling strength and resolve flow through her.

The Weather Witch had let go its sails to lose the way it had on as quickly as possible. Sheets of cavas flapped like vast bat wings as they blew about untethered by anything save the top yards. Ropes flew about cracking like coach whips in the stiffening wind. It would be hell on the rig but it was the only way to slow down without turning into the wind to be taken flat-a-back, which would have been a risky proposition. Sketti was on the quaterdeck now, bellowing orders as the crew worked to lower one of the boats to the gently rolling water. Calliope folded her arms over her bare breasts and glared at the captive soldiers.

Neither of the two men who had been left in charge of her appeared to be among the living, which was a pity because she would have enjoyed slicing their throats open and spilling their blood in vast crimson streams, or breathing fire over them and watching them scream as they burned... her mind seemed to skip a beat and she shook her head to clear it, unable to remember what she had been thinking. It was a bit like coming into a room and forgetting the purpose you had in mind in going there.

"I would say that your plan to recruit our prisoners has suffered some significant setbacks," she commented in a decidedly neutral voice.