Four of them walked in. Head to toe in armour, bestowed upon them by the Peacekeeper initiative. It was a brilliant white and came in a few different variations.

  The ones that walked in wore the light version. Made for mobility, agility and speed. Also likely to be used by archers or mages for survivability, where dexterity is needed.

  The Peacekeepers were not a gang or mafia. No one tensed up when they entered an establishment. In fact, they generally received a warm welcome.

  “Hey there. How’s it going? I heard all sorts of things about the festival.” Robert greeted them as they entered.

  “Ah, Robert. Yeah. It has been a long night,” was the response from the peacekeeper in the lead. “Quite a mess. Had to cancel the rest of the festival.”

  “I can imagine. Fancy a drink?” he said as he pulled out four glasses.

  Looking at each other, there were a few faces of concern. This was likely from the fact that, with the mess that had been made at the festival, this wasn’t a social call.

  So, to stop and put their feet up would be entirely unprofessional.

  But honestly, with the night they had, having a quick drink seemed like the smart thing to do.

  “Sure.”

  Up at the bar, all four of the peacekeepers took a much-needed break. They savoured the golden liquid that Robert had provided, and talked about the incident.

  Exaggerating the story came very easily to the Peacekeepers. Why they did so, Oriana couldn’t tell.

  Maybe to make it look like they went through something horrible for sympathy.

  Maybe they hoped to get an extra ale or something.

  Or maybe, they wanted to make themselves look like proper heroes, hoping word of mouth about how brave they were would do something for them.

  Whatever the case, they went on to talk about how they fought back against the rampaging floats, where people were knocked down and injured by the monster floats attacks.

  One of them talked about having chopped the arm off of one of the monsters, while one of the others removed its head.

  Really.

  What a load of rubbish.

  There was no way that any of the Peacekeepers ended up hurt. If they did it was through their own fault.

  She had power over illusions, not the animation of inanimate objects. And illusions never hurt a fly.

  Make you look stupid or embarrassed, sure.

  But the attacks she made the floats perform had no effect on the peacekeepers.

  And why would she want to? She wanted to bring a bit of chaos and bring some much-needed fun to this world.

  Hurting or killing people did the opposite of that. And so, she would try to ensure such things never happened from her chaotic escapades.

  “Well, we can’t sit here all day. We have a job to do,” the lead Peacekeeper said as he put down the glass, now devoid of ale.

  “Yeah, saying that. Have you seen anyone suspicious come in here? Wearing a cloak, probably acting frantic and panicked.”

  “Someone also said they may have been either human or elven, based on their skin tone and height.”

  Oriana was a little impressed. Someone managed to see her face from that distance.

  She had the illusion up to be safe rather than sorry, or in case something unprecedented happened. But she didn’t actually expect someone to have seen what she looked like.

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  “Err, no. The only one that’s come in recently is Ori, and it obviously wasn’t her.”

  Hearing that, Oriana was unsure how to feel about that statement.

  “Also, not to do your job or anything, but with everything you said that happened, being frantic and panicked is probably how everyone's going to be acting.”

  One of the Peacekeepers just shrugged at that. It makes sense to him, of course, but they did have very little to go on.

  “Oh.” Said one of the guards. “How can you be so sure it wasn’t her. We are after a very clever criminal here. They must be, to have eluded Peacekeeepers. So, who’s to say it wasn't her?”

  “Greggory, stop talking. Just look at her, it obviously wasn’t her”, the lead Peacekeeper said as he took a swig of ale. When he ordered another one, Oriana wasn’t sure.

  “We don’t know what we’re dealing with. Magic can do a lot of things, can’t it? Who’s to say the culprit isn’t standing right in front of us?”

  “Just look at her, Greggory.”

  “W-what do you mean. Why is it so-”

  Turning to look, all he could see was…green.

  An act that made his face turn a bright shade of red. Mainly out of embarrassment, but also maybe for another reason as well.

  “Sorry.”

  The lead Peacekeeper did take another look at Oriana again. It seems that Greggory’s comment about magic doing all sorts of things caused a little bit of doubt in his head.

  He then looked at Robert, but just saw him shaking his head, as if he knew what he was thinking, and that clearly he was wrong. So, he put those thoughts to the back of his mind.

  Once that was said and done, the peacekeepers finished their drinks. One of them patted Greggory on the back before they all headed out of the Inn.

  “Good to see you again Robert…and err, sorry about Greggory.” the lead Peacekeeper said in Oriana’s direction.

  Oriana just nodded, showing that she understood.

  “Come on, let’s get to the next location. Even with all the other teams out there, it's going to take all night to search them all,” her said as he ushered out his men.

  Oriana turned to Robert and saw a rather odd sight.

  A smug smile was beaming back at her.

  “I think that Greggory may have fallen for you at first sight,” was the comment from Robert, as he raised his eyebrows.

  “…”

  “…”

  “…So,” was the only response he got back in return.

  After that ‘altercation’ was dealt with using minimal effort on her part, Oriana retired to her room in the Inn.

  Heading up the stairs, she could hear some of the goings on happening in the other rooms.

  In one room, there was silence, followed by periodic snoring. Being the evening, to many it would be odd for someone to be asleep at this time, but Oriana knew that whoever it was that stayed here worked through the night. It would only be a few hours, and they would probably be waking up.

  In another, there was a lot of talking. As far as Oriana could tell, one of the tenants brought several friends over on occasion. Whether it was some sort of party or some secret cult meeting, she had no idea and didn’t really care.

  As long as the cult didn’t want to sacrifice her, she had no problem with whatever rituals they could be doing.

  If anything, having a cult start appearing around the city might just make things more interesting.

  And for the last room on this floor, it was very clear as to what was happening there. The noises left nothing to the imagination.

  As did the periodic shaking of the walls from something rhythmically hitting against it.

  And so, before she heard any more from the two lovebirds, she headed into her room.

  There wasn’t much to look at in her room; she didn’t really have personal possessions.

  Because of that, the room was pretty much a blank slate. As clean as it was when she first rented it.

  Aside from the stains that were on the bed. She made sure to clean them up hard before she got to sleep for the first time.

  Within the room, she had her practical supplies, a small amount of non-perishable food, as well as a few jugs of water, should she need them. Clothes, underwear and the odd item of jewellery that she owned were also present.

  Then there were her personal hygiene items, ensuring that her mouth, face and body were kept in good condition each day.

  That was pretty much all that was in this room.

  The only other personal item that she had in the room was a small trunk, which held a collection of sorts. A collection that she can not even recall starting, but one that she constantly kept adding things to.

  It was a collection born from taking items from all of the buildings she had caused trouble in.

  Were the trophies, or were they the result of some psychological need to take something at inopportune times? She did not know.

  But what she did know was that she had odds and ends from all of the places she worked at in the forest. This ranged from ornate and engraved cutlery to scraps of cloth and doilies. Whether the chaos and problems she caused were intentional or by accident, she took something from the abode anyway.

  She also had a single earring that she took from one of the teachers at school, after she caused what is now known as the ‘Fake Foodfight’, where she used illusions in the cafeteria, causing the other students to panic, sending food flying, which then ended up with everyone getting involved. The earring was dropped by one of the teachers who was trying to insert it into her ear when a spoonful of gruel hit her in the side of her face.

  Last but not least, there was one of the foam eyes from the float of one of the monsters. A hydra, if she was recalling correctly. With the number of heads it had, it was probably easy to miss a single eye missing from it. That, or someone repaired it after she left the warehouse once she had set everything up.

  Putting her odd collection to the side of her mind, Oriana changed into her night clothes and jumped straight into bed.

  All the while, she looked forward to the next day. Something she hadn’t ever really had the chance to do before. During her time in the village, the next day was always the same day.

  Here, the next day was a new adventure.

  Hopefully, a new day for sowing some chaos in the city.