Waking up to the new day, Oriana… did not get up immediately to start the day as she usually did.
She just lay in bed for a while thinking back on things.
It took a good few minutes of recounting what had transpired before she got up, got ready and headed downstairs.
"Hey, you're finally up. Normally, you're down bright and early." Robert said from his usual place behind the bar.
"Yeah, just err, been thinking about some things."
"Oh, everything okay. You can talk to me if you want. I'm a very good listener."
"Leave her alone. I know you think you're her father, but that doesn't mean you can pry into her life," said the voice of reason, his wife, as she walked out of the room behind him.
"Wha- I'm not. I don't-"
"Yes, that's quite enough." She then said as she dragged him out into the back room. But not before leaving a bowl of porridge for Oriana.
Chowing down on the meal, which tasted blander than usual, she thought about her plans for the day. She tried not to dwell on past events and so looked towards the future.
As she did, looking through the door, she saw the heads of several peacekeepers pass by through the window, likely out on patrol.
And then a few things hit her.
One was that she needed some time to go through what had happened during the heist, and how she felt about working with Bethany. But it was too soon for her to get into that. She needed some time to process what had happened.
Another was that she now had a rather big problem with how she actually looked. Her natural green skin might be remembered by that guard. Hopefully, it hadn't been, and anything he said would be put under scrutiny due to the sleeping powder. But, if it wasn't, she couldn't just wander around as she had before.
This was quite an annoying problem, as this is how she looked for her time in the Inn and as an adventurer.
She would have to be careful in both locations, lest a peacekeeper spot her…assuming it comes out that someone with green skin attacked the caravan.
There were some saving graces, however. It wasn't likely that the peacekeepers would look into the adventurers' guild for a green adventurer. They had nothing that tied her to the guild, so why would they? And, in the Inn, she had plenty of places she could hide, her room being one, should a peacekeeper come in.
She just needed to make herself invisible and slip away.
But there was still the problem of roaming the streets outside. Mages in patrols to dispel illusions, and now she might not be able to wander around without an illusion. She would have to be extra vigilant when travelling.
It was at this understanding of her situation that another revelation hit her.
With all of these problems, there was only one sane option for her to take going forward.
Her next target had to be the peacekeepers. How could it not?
Sure, it was her fault that they were out in force. So didn't it make sense for her to be the one to try to solve that problem?
She needed to find a way to reduce patrols, get rid of the mages working with them, cause some chaos and problems for the group. Hopefully with lasting effects.
Sure, it could be easier to just lie low, wait for the peacekeepers to just give up…but that wasn't really her style. If she were really backed into a corner, then maybe she could, but she had options. Plus, she was public enemy number one…would they actually give up?
It would be dangerous to be in the heart of the city's peacekeeping force, their headquarters that is. She also needed to have a reason for being there in the place.
She went over possible personas she could use. Some sort of auditor was a possibility, but that could easily be looked into.
She could become a servant girl again, meandering around, cleaning and causing trouble. That would probably work, but it did have some drawbacks. For such a militaristic place, surely there were places that a servant was not allowed.
She would need to become someone else to go to those places, which might be difficult to do so in a place with many Peacekeepers around to spot her changing her illusion of herself.
But, wasn't there a better way to gain access to the Peacekeepers guild?
Then it hit here. Didn't she recall someone mentioning something to do with the guild when she was at the Ball?
---
Something along the lines of a recruitment drive.
When she finished her grub, Oriana headed out for the day towards the middle city.
She had a whole load of coin, so she needed something to spend it on. Granted, the only things she wanted to spend it on were items that would aid her in causing chaos.
Or in this case, something to help her continue to do so.
To that end, she headed to a few magic item shops, in hopes she could find something like that.
"So, what can I help you with, Missy?"
In the third store she entered, she heard the same line that the previous two shopkeepers had said. If she hadn't physically seen each of them, she would swear that it was the same person in each store.
"I'm looking for something to help against…dispel magic."
"Against it. Huh. I don't think I've ever heard of magic items that do that. I guess the problem is that dispel magic would probably affect the item as well. I've never heard of anything being resistant to dispel magic. "
Oriana had figured. She hadn't got much information in the first shop, but it didn't take long for her to realise that something like that may be the case.
She might just have to give up on this wild goose chase for a way to stop dispel magic.
"So no. I don't think we have anything like that…although. Hold on a moment."
The man quickly headed into the back of the shop and started rummaging around what sounded like a massive heap of random magic items. The various sounds of metal scraping against metal or wood were almost deafening.
"Ah, here it is." He said reappearing.
"It doesn't do anything to combat dispel magic, but this should let you…detect it."
The item in question was a small trinket. If anything, it looked like a miniature goblet for drinking out of. Why it looked like this, she didn't know, and neither did the shopkeeper.
"It's a bit of an odd one this. Very temperamental. It's supposed to detect any magic being used. Right now, with me holding it, I can tell you are using some sort of illusion magic."
Oriana tensed up a little there on reflex.
"Hey, I don't care what you have going on. I'm just showing how it works. Thing is, it technically doesn't tell me the type of magic, just that it's being used nearby. It can also only do one type of magic at a time, and sort of does so by feeling what the person holding it is looking for."
"It feels what the wielder is looking for. How does that work?"
"Not rightly sure myself. But, the way I understand it. If the person is worried about being hit by a fire spell, then it will detect only fire spells. You can think about other spells and the like, to try and change it, but this thing looks deep into your soul. So it won't change unless the person fundamentally changes their feelings on a spell."
Oriana just blinked a few times. For such a small item, it has a very big personality, anthropomorphising it.
"But yeah, that's why I've not been able to sell it. People want items that nullify spells or detect all spells. You would need to go far and have a lot of coin to find such things. But with this, people hardly change who they are on a fundamental level, so the spell it detects always remains the same. Like for me, I've always been worried about people pulling the wool over my eyes with illusions. But, I have other ways to deal with that now, so I'm happy to let this go."
That made sense now, why he would detect the spell on her.
As far as she could see, while she would have liked an item to detect everything or nullify it as he had said, in the three shops she had been in, there hadn't been anything like that. What were the chances she would find something that good? Especially with everyone else looking for something similar.
And who knows how expensive it would be?
"I'll take it."
Along with it, she bought a chain to put it on so she could hang it around her neck, hiding it from view. All she had to do now was be sure that it did the job she wanted it to.
---
Heading out, she wandered the streets, looking for a patrol with a mage present. She was just about to turn the corner when she felt something cold pass through her.
"Oh, that feels weird."
Looking down between her clothes, she saw the goblet. It didn't look any different, but it was the only thing that could have affected her so.
Touching it, she could feel the metal goblet radiating quite a chill. Not enough to freeze anything, but enough for her to easily take notice.
Arching her head around the corner, quite a distance down the street, she saw one of the Peacekeeper patrols, and in its center, a mage.
"Wow, that's quite impressive."
There was no way this little thing was going to react to anything other than dispel magic. With how things had gone, dispel magic was a nuisance to Oriana's core, which is where the goblet pulled feelings from, apparently.
That wasn't in question. The range of it was, and she had to say, she was very impressed by it. It would be some time before the mage got close enough to her to actually see or sense any illusion magic. But the goblet could see the dispel magic right away from such a distance.
It didn't tell the direction or how far the dispel magic was from her, but just knowing it was nearby would give Oriana plenty of time to seek it out or seek out a place to hide.
And with that sorted, she felt it was time for her to get a new fake job.