As the festival went on, damage to the floats continued, fire spread amongst them, and the civilians had all headed back to the safety of their homes.

  And as much as she would like to continue with the spectacle, with all she had done to make it a possibility, she was starting to reach her limit with her magical ability.

  To that end, she let the spells she had been casting drop off. Revealing the truth of what had occurred.

  Living in the forest village, a place that had been Oriana’s home since she was born, there were certain expectations of her.

  Expectations of her as a person and expectations of her race.

  As a Forest Fae, everything she was expected to do was related to nature.

  She had grown up with an innate understanding of nature and its magic, allowing her to use plants and trees in myriad ways, such as binding roots to entrap people.

  But there was another area that she seemed to have an aptitude for.

  And that was Illusion Magic.

  Once the floats stopped moving, the peacekeepers had to quickly rub their eyes as the floats flashed out of existence and then flashed back in a split second.

  They didn’t understand what had happened. Some thought they had reset themselves, returning to the position they had been in before the chaos had started.

  But, for the floats that the peacekeepers fought back on, they could see a multitude of arrows and blast marks in the ‘reset’ floats.

  It was odd, considering how when they had been fighting the active float, their attacks didn’t seem to do anything to it. They didn’t seem to cause any damage to it at all.

  Yet now it looks like they had obliterated it.

  Before they could ponder on this some more, with the calm now setting in, it didn’t take long for one of the many peacekeepers to spot the lone stranger standing on the nearby roof.

  The shout from the guard was deafening now that silence had descended, aside from the sound of the fireworks still going off.

  It was heard by many of the peacekeepers, all of whom turned towards Oriana up on the roof.

  It also meant she knew it was time to head off.

  Oriana was by no means an idiot.

  She did very well in school, earning nearly top marks.

  She would have been at the top had it not been for Stephanie Fairbloom.

  The story of Stephanie cheating her way to the highest marks in class was another story, though.

  With Oriana having the intellect that she did, having an escape route was something she ensured to set up well in advance of the spectacle she had orchestrated.

  At the rear of the roof, she took hold of the stylised stick she had created, looped it over the vine that was attached to the chimney of the building, and with great ease, stepped forward.

  The peacekeepers were astonished to see the lone stranger just zip along a vine, passing by buildings in seconds, and travelling a great distance ahead of them.

  As the peacekeeping force in the city, they were good at their jobs. They could deal with drunken brawls, the occasional thief and very rare assault or fight. But, it would seem that with things being so lax, many had not kept their cardio up to standard.

  Oriana landed on the pavement and started running. But not in the direction away from where the peacekeepers were coming from. If anything, she was moving perpendicular to where they were heading.

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  She soon came between two buildings with a narrow alleyway between them. Knowing this was the right spot, she quickly cast her spell, causing a wrought iron fence to appear between the buildings.

  Once it was up, she turned and started heading away, in clear view of the fence.

  As the peacekeepers got to this street, heading down the alley, they quickly saw the large iron fence ahead of them. It was tall, imposing, and clearly had no way to open it.

  “Damn, quickly, go around the building,” shouted one of the peacekeepers.

  Like soldiers following orders, they quickly took his words to heart and headed back the way they came, splitting up and heading around the buildings nearby.

  A delay in the chase, which very easily allowed Oriana to slip away and head into a nearby building several streets away.

  Heading in, she made sure to compose herself and very quickly disabled another spell.

  A spell that pretty much made anything the peacekeepers had glimpsed of her completely useless.

  A quick flick of her fingers and the illusion that she had cast upon her person quickly revealed her true form.

  Where she had originally looked like a human woman with fair skin, she now looked like the forest fae that she was.

  Green was the colour of her skin, with varying hues and bright green swirling lines forming natural tattoos across her arms and legs. Dark red hair in a ponytail pooled down her back as she removed the hood of her cloak.

  As she stepped through the doorway of the building, the light illuminated her face, revealing the emerald-green irises of her eyes, the scar on her lower lip, and the amber jewelled stud earrings in her ears.

  With large almond-shaped eyes, high-defined cheekbones and a small, slightly upturned nose, she had a mischievous look to her. Coupled with the wide, open smile she wore, especially coming into its own when she laughed, showing the true delight on her face, added to the mischievous side she showed.

  Turning her hand over, she touched the obsidian black ring on her finger, allowing her to send her cloak into her magic storage. With it gone, it was clear to see the battered leather armour that she wore.

  Covered in scratches, dents and the occasional stain, it looked well-worn, and an armour that had seen a lot of action.

  At least that is how Oriana wanted it to be.

  “Ori, you’re back. I heard there was some commotion at the festival.”

  “Yeah, it was horrible! The floats all came to life and started attacking people!”

  “That’s terrible. You’re not hurt, are you? How did you get away?”

  The man showing his fatherly concern was the bartender and owner of the Inn where Oriana was staying. With the amount of time she had been living in this Inn, they came to become friends as they went about their daily lives.

  Although with Robert having recently become a father, it would seem that he had been expressing fatherly concern for her whenever she got into a scrape as well.

  A fact that was quite funny, given that Oriana was older than the man, given that she was a fae. Added to that, his concern over her getting hurt came from her job as an adventurer, not that he knew it was a cover for what she was really doing.

  “I’m fine. I’m an adventurer. Something like that isn’t going to take me down. And I got away with everyone else. People were running down the streets from the get-go, and I ended up getting dragged along.”

  Oriana patted down the leather armour she wore, removing some of the dirt from it.

  “Ended up a little turned around with all the confusion, but as you can see. I made it back fine,” she continued, showing her lovely smile to show that all was well.

  Robert’s fatherly side kicked in as he decided to look her over quickly to check she wasn’t lying about not receiving an injury.

  “Robert,” Oriana called out immediately when she saw him looking at her with worry.

  “Ah, sorry.” He rubbed the back of his head, ”Fine, I believe you. Now sit down, and I’ll get some grub for you.”

  Heading over to her table, she sat down and rested her legs, sighing over the fact that everything had gone perfectly.

  Her first mark on the world, and it had gone exactly as she had hoped.

  The chaos, the destruction. It’s like it had added an extra spice to her life, and she hoped it had added the same to many other people as well.

  The fireworks setting fire to the floats was a nice touch. She had thought they would just blow up against the buildings, charring them up and raining colourful lights on the Peacekeepers. But for them to have ended up hitting the floats just added more fire to the flames brilliantly.

  Turning a festival of peace into one of chaotic beauty was sure to get people talking and make them realise what they had been missing since this era of peace started.

  The question was, what was her next target going to be?

  “Here you are?” Robert said as he lowered the plate of stew with various vegetables and bread.

  “Thanks, Robert.”

  Looking down at the meal, she couldn’t help but shake her head as he walked back to the bar. She couldn’t help but think that while Robert was a nice guy, he could do with updating his menu. Having stew several times a week was getting to be quite the bore.

  “Would be nice to try food at some of the upper city restaurants. But I definitely need more coin for that,” she thought to herself.

  So far, she had been living on the coins she had from her savings back in the village. But as time went on, that pile was getting shorter.

  “I really don’t want another job.”

  All Oriana really cared about now was getting out there and bringing some much-needed excitement to the world. Sowing chaos to really get people waking up in this world.

  “Saying that. There’s nothing to say I can’t get some coin while causing chaos and having fun at the same time.”

  At that thought, the door to the Inn opened.

  And what followed were four Peacekeepers walking into the establishment.