[@TheMinorFall]

Fitz made to chase after the girl, but a hand on his shoulder brought him up short.  By then Amuné was almost to the doors.  The man was right, chasing her would do no good, and he wasn’t going to be quick enough anyhow.  “She dinnae know where he is,” he told Cain, “and I doubt she’d think of it.  Nor can I be haring off after her, wish to though I might.  I cannae ignore my post for a single child, howe’er fond I be.  Nay, ‘tis you as must protect her.  Oi!”  Fitz lifted his voice, calling to a guard  heading for the hall.  “Reggie, get this man his blade from the Colonel’s office.  Quickly, now!”  He clapped the assassin on the shoulder as the other guard nodded and continued on his way.  “Godspeed, man.”  With that Fitz turned in a different direction, angling toward a side door that likely lead to servants’ stairs.

---

Amuné wove through the other people, darting through gaps that closed instants after she left them.  Her breath was short by the time she made it out of the crowd, but still she pressed on.  The noise, it had come from the gate.  Something bad, something awful -- the alarm bell rang out its warning overhead, and the emotions around her pulsed and swirled.  Her head hurt, but she had to find Kirk, had to apologize.  He was a guard, so he’d be fighting the bad guys.  Past the library, and on through the cluster of tiny cottages and apartments that housed the majority of the staff she raced, but as she went, the pressure in her head grew worse.  Now there was fear, anger, and so much pain.  The girl stumbled, fell, and picked herself up again.  It hurt, it made her want to cry and run away and throw up all at the same time.  But she had to keep going.  Had to find him.  She pushed herself onward, each step harder than the last.  Five more houses before the gate.  Then four.  She collided with the wall of the third, went down hard, tried to get up.  A few more staggered steps and then she collapsed.  She couldn’t, it was too much.  Sobbing quietly, Amuné dragged herself to a bush by the cottage wall and curled into a ball, praying her friends would be alright.

---

The guards at the gate were doing what they could, but they were not able to do much against giant boulders.  Still, they did not flee.  Any who might already had, and those who had been assigned emergency duty as the first defense were experienced, and would not run.  Arrows hissed at the intruder with the matted white hair, and those who hadn’t been crushed by the attack destroying the gate had their pikes or swords and shields ready.

It took Reggie considerably longer to reach the gatehouse and retrieve Cain’s weapon, but as soon as he had it the older man sought the assassin out.  He didn’t say anything, giving only a brisk nod before joining up with another team.  It was clear from his face that this was not the usual sort of thing the academy had to deal with, but it wasn’t his job to wonder why, merely to defend.