The queen of the castle–so to speak–was ready to defend her city herself if it came down to it, but in a blink of an eye, the army that had roused such a ruckus was wailing and gone right before her eyes. Through a mounted telescope atop the stone walls of the city, she stared at the dwindled crowd far up ahead. Reduced to only a cluster of a few, in just a blink of an eye she'd missed everything.
"What happened?" She asked the leader of her troops.
The man looked on at the site the same, his expression unchanging, and yet a single twitch of the eye explained everything to the queen. Returning to the burnt fields before her, she expected further spectacle; a blinding flash of violet light burned those expectations right away. Shielding themselves from what felt like the very sun burning in front of them, the soldiers, the council members, and the handful of noble citizens breathed whispers of doubts or screamed and prayed.
