As they exited the armory the gunnery school was a hive of activity. Men were running too and fro, carrying armfuls of weapons, parchments and the other minutia of modern war. It looked to Emmaline like a hive of pantalooned ants had been struck with a stick and that there was a much chaos as there was order to their frenzied activity. Despite their haste, the presence of a woman drew attention and more than one engineering apprentice ran into his fellows or tripped into one of the shallow trenches which crisscrossed the gunnery parks.

"Maybe we should try to get out of the city," Emmaline fretted her eyes following a well dressed apprentice who seemed to be sauntering rather than rushing.

"It's possible they haven't surrounded the city yet, we could take ship down river, I don't know if chaos spawn will be able to invest the city that fully," she rambled. The well dressed apprentice had reached the built up entrance to what she assumed was a magazine of some kind.

"Every single person in the city will be rushing the barges, we will be lucky if we..." Neil began but Emmaline's eyes suddenly locked on the handsome apprentice. He crouched down and took a lantern from his satchel. It was the kind with heavy glass panels to shield the flame from the wind.

"Neil..." the apprentice pitched the lantern into the doorway of the magazine. Emmaline lifted her hands and golden light sprang from her palms a moment before the ground humped up and an enormous concussive blast shattered the gunnery park. The apprentice was reduced to a mist as the granite blocks which had formed the firewall of the magazine blew outward like razor sharp glass. The blast struck Emmaline's glowing shield and picked the two thieves up, slamming them back into the armory in a tangle of arms and legs. Dust and smoke filled the air, blinding Emmaline and Neil. She could hear nothing other than a dull ringing. The golden light of her impromptu shield flickered and went out, the stunning force of the blast cracking the shield like an egg. Neil was already pressing himself to his feet, shaking his head as if to clear it. Emmaline followed suit woozily. Neil was speaking but Emmaline's ringing ears couldn't make out anything he was saying. She followed him out to what had been the gunnery park. A huge crater had been opened up against the south wall. Dirt and stone were still raining down. Several other members had survived judging by the screams of pain the slowly broke through the ringing in Emmaline's ears.

"What happened?" Emmaline asked, falling silent as one of the outbuildings groaned and collapsed in an avalanche of shattered red bricks. She had the memories of what happened by the shocking detonation seemed to have robbed her of the abillity to make sense of it. Neil layed a steadying hand on her shoulder.

"Someone just blew up three quarters of the cities gunpowder."