My heart leaped into my throat.
Chaos erupted in the hallway outside my room within seconds. Screams rang out, heavy boots thundered across the floorboards, and doors slammed open as panicked students flooded into the corridors.
I grabbed my cloak, threw open my door, and stumbled out into the madness. The air in the wing was thick with acrid black smoke, flickering red emergency runes glowing brightly along the stone walls to guide the way down.
"Move! Keep moving down the stairs!" an upperclassman warden screamed, shoving a group of crying first-years toward the central spiral stairwell.
As I jostled through the terrified crowd, I managed to catch snippets of panicked shouts from a pair of senior battle-mages sprinting past us toward the main courtyard with drawn swords.
"...draining devices... they bypassed the perimeter shields..."
"...it's the unknown terrorists!"
"...they're pushing toward the lower vaults!"
