After lunch, she sat with Sarah and Michael, discussing how things had gone with weapon practice.
It seems Michael really liked the idea of using a mace. With his strength, he could do some serious damage with such a weapon.
For Sarah, while still strong, she was more agile. She had ended up with a sabre-like weapon, made more for slashing and moving around with. Plus, being one-handed, it allowed her to use magic as well.
"Saw you went for some strange rope thing." Michael brought her way.
"Yeah…it's strange, but I like the idea of it, and how it looks."
They soon moved away from weapons and got to the topic of magic.
"Doesn't really affect me."
"Oh, why not?" She asked Michael, even though she had an inkling of why he said that.
"No magic. At least nothing's shown yet. Seems sis got all the magic in the family."
"Got the looks too, don't forget that."
A quick, playful punch followed from the brother.
"Oh, my intelligence network came through again."
Both girls just stopped eating and sighed.
"I'm being serious. Look, one of the other trainees said that he heard from his brother, who works here, that he was told by an instructor whose wife works in the administration part of the building, that her friend had been told that the magic instructor is a completely new instructor."
The smug smile on his face after he said all of that just seemed to annoy both Sarah and Oriana.
"That is quite the… second-hand information there," Oriana stated.
"Beatrice, you don't have to spare his feelings. Tenth-hand information is probably what it is; it's barely reliable in any way."
"Wha-"
"And all just to say we have a new instructor for magic training." Oriana finished off.
Sarah just started laughing at that, which kicked off Oriana and led to a momentary grumble from Michael. But he eventually joined in with the absurdity of his non-existent information network.
After they had a good laugh and finished their lunch, it was off to the classroom for more theory.
So far, Oriana had been careful in the Peacekeeper Headquarters. She was like a deer, dressed as a lion in a lion's den. Well, if the deer could also use magic.
"That's a bad metaphor," she realised.
It was, however, still the case that she didn't want to do anything too crazy and cast suspicion on herself. At least not yet.
But she was still a forest fae with a need for chaos, so she did try to mess with people here and there to get her fix. One such place was the training courtyard, where the other Peacekeepers were mainly training, allowing her to use illusions to cause all sorts of problems.
It was simple things, mostly. She made it look like the archery target was in a slightly different location for each of the archers, causing all of their arrows to end up embedded in the wooden walls behind them. They received quite an annoyed lecture from their superior after that.
She never did anything if she thought it would seriously hurt someone. There were plenty of people practising their fighting styles, either alone or with someone. When it was two people training together, she decided to steer clear of using illusions on them, lest one end up seriously injuring the other.
She did not want that on her conscience.
She caused a few trips here and there, with roots she had hidden with invisibility, one of which led to a very strange encounter.
A man was diligently training with his glaive, which he put down for a few moments to take a break. Before he could grab it again, Oriana struck, causing a root to grow just by his foot. The man tripped and almost fell straight into the training dummy.
But, as luck would have it for him, a woman of quite muscular stature was walking near the dummy when he fell. With her quick reflexes, she managed to catch the man, causing quite a meet-cute.
And as it turns out, they are getting married tomorrow.
…
Probably not true, but with the way they had left together and were stuck to each other's hip, it was only a matter of time.
---
After she finished reminiscing over the fun she had in the practice lesson, all the while failing to pay attention to the lecture on marching formations, that day with the peacekeepers finally ended.
Saying goodbye to Sarah and Michael, she headed off back to the Inn for some much-needed rest.
So far, no one had bumped into her on the way back. She expected Simon to pop up at some point, but he had been rather quiet.
And that wasn't just because she was in a different illusioned persona. He had proven quite exceptional in locating her the few times before, and she was sure he knew the Inn she was staying at. If he were around, he would have seen her.
Bethany hadn't shown up either. Although she kind of expected it. There was one time when she was sure she saw her standing by the Inn, where she thought she was up to her old 'stalker' ways again. But by the time she got nearer, she had disappeared.
It also hadn't yet occurred to her that Simon had found her easily, yet Bethany was the only one she had called a stalker.
It had been a good few days since they last spoke. Maybe it was time to try to talk things out. Deal with the situation.
She would need to find her first thought. The slums were probably the best bet.
But, for now, she fancied getting some much-needed rest after the day of training. And to get that, she had managed to dodge the last of the patrols in her way and made it back to the Inn.
At least, she thought she did.
Turning the corner, she bumped right into someone.
Someone who turned out to be a Peacekeeper.
"Hey, watch where you're going!"
The man in front of her shouted at her as she sat on the floor, having fallen from the hit. But it was at this point that she noticed him clutch his side, as if the bump that had left him standing had hurt him more than her. Hence the anger in his voice.
It wasn't until she looked up and saw his face that she realised why.
She recognised him.
This was the man whom Bethany had stabbed during the heist.
He was in his full Peacekeeper gear, travelling around on his own. Why he wasn't with a patrol she didn't know, and with the history between them, she didn't want to stick around and find out.
"S-sorry." She managed to eke out.
She couldn't help but wonder if that sorry was part of the persona she was in, or if it was more the act of agreeing and getting the man to leave, the guilty conscience hovering around her as she said it.
"You should be."
And with that, he stormed off, leaving her on the ground.
Thankfully, she was in her outgoing persona, not how she looked in reality. She also hadn't felt any coldness on her chest, which is probably what made her a little complacent there. But if anything, it meant he had no reason to suspect she was one of the girls at the heist.
She had thought that would be the end of it, but as she started to walk away, cold started to radiate through her. Could it have been cold dread at knowing their heist had sent this man down what appeared to be a very angry, possibly murderous path?
Maybe. But not quite.
No, it was the goblet on her chest signalling dispel magic for illusions was coming her way.
Looking in the direction the man was heading, she saw the patrol she had just passed now coming her way.
"Crap."
Pulling herself up off the floor, she got moving, not wanting to be caught by the patrol and that man at the same time.
"Aaron, what are you doing here. The Commander told you to take some time off."
But she paused after hiding behind the nearby wall.
"What's it to you what I do with my time off?"
"Look, I know you're angry about what happened, but don't take it out on me…or any of us." The leader of the patrol said, gesturing at the rest of the group.
"I-"
"I know. We want to catch them as much as you. You said they used illusions in your report. It's likely one of them is the same person who attacked the ball. We're on the same side."
"I know. Sorry. I just…they hurt more than just my body, you know."
"Ah, yes…your ego?"
"My honour," Aaron said in a droll voice.
"Ha, of course. I misspoke."
"Yeah, right."
"Come on, join the patrol. I think you need some company for a bit. You can go back to charging off solo tomorrow, if you still feel like it."
From there, they had a quick laugh and headed off down the path, thankfully away from her. It seemed she was safe for the moment. Which she used to finally get back to the safety of the Inn.