The chaos needed no invitation. It settled in on its own, with the naturalness of something that had been waiting the whole time for the right moment to explode, and when it did, it did so in every direction at once.
The Melian guards closed ranks around Kanary with shields raised and weapons ready. The royal guards responded from the other end of the hall, advancing as a unit with the determination of people who had a clear order and had no intention of ignoring it regardless of the circumstances.
The hooded figures, three on one side and three on the other, moved in directions that didn't match each other, which made it clear their purposes didn't match either. The result was a disorder of five simultaneous groups that couldn't agree on who to attack first.
