40: Power Of Wind

Power Of Wind

After filling a crate with spices, she saw the porters hold nails and hammers. They started to seal shut the wooden crates.1

'Wait, what are they doing? If they nailed it shut, how am I going to get herbs from it? It's not like I can destroy a crate unnoticed! And if all the herbs in stock were sold to Ron… Damn it, leave something for me!'

Helplessly, she watched as one by one the crates were getting filled and sealed. There were only five porters inside the storage house. The right-hand man ordered the others to bring in other boxes, which were filled with textile such as satin and silk as gifts for Merchant Finn. 

"You, once you seal the last crate, load it to the cart," the right-hand man ordered the thin man from earlier, before leaving to oversee the carts.

'A chance!'

No one aside from the thin man was in that area. Oriana threw a pouch filled with silver coins towards his feet, with a few of them spilling out. 

The thin man was frightened to see a masked person in pure black attire standing in front of him.

"Who are you—" 

"That's not important." She held another pouch. "Do not make a sound and that coin pouch on the floor is yours. If you listen to me, I will give you this second pouch."

The thin man hurriedly grabbed the pouch on the floor. He was smart enough to guess the intruder's intention.  "What do you want me to do?"

"Those five stalks of black nightshade."

The man shook his head. "One."

"Five."

"Three."

"Five."

The thin man looked torn. He looked around and as there was no one, he eyed the other pouch in her hand. "Hand me that one first."

"First give me the stalks."

They heard voices that indicated people were coming over. 

"We don't have much time," Oriana said calmly, but inside, she was being impatient at his indecisiveness.

"Your bag," the man said.

Oriana got the bag from her back and opened it in front of the man. He dug through the crate that was already filled with coriander and grabbed the nightshade roughly with his hands before tossing them inside Oriana's bag.

Orianan threw the other pouch at him and hid behind the stacks of crates once more, while the thin man started to seal the crate in a hurry. 

The right-hand man of Conor appeared together with another porter. "Aren't you done yet?"

"I-It's almost done—"

"Wait!" the right-hand man said and the thin man froze. Suspicion was thick in his voice. 

"Why are there spices spilled on the ground? What did you do?"

The right-hand man had keen eyes. He immediately discovered the two pouches of coins bulging from the thin man's pockets. He grabbed one of the pouches.

"Silver?"

'Damn it!' Oriana cursed. 'I need to run!"

"Tell the truth about this instance."

A shaking porter immediately fell on his knees. "S-Someone took a portion of banned herbs and threw these coins at me—"

The right-hand man kicked the kneeling man in the face, causing him to pass out, before shouting, "A rat sneaked in! Catch the intruder!"

Oriana was about to sneak out through the only door, but two men were guarding it while the rest were searching for her. One of the porters even went out to inform Conor and call for reinforcements.

"He must still be somewhere inside. Search!" the right-hand man shouted once again as he joined the search as well.

'What should I do? I can't let them catch me at any cost.'

She looked around, her heart pounding in nervousness. There was only a single entrance, and the windows were barred, a precaution of a veteran dealing with banned goods. There was no way to leave.

Everywhere, there were goods, crates and boxes. There were also stacks of hay on the side, probably horse feed. 

An idea struck her. 

'I need to shake everything around.'

Oriana closed her eyes and focused, her brows creased. The next moment, there was a strong gust of wind that circled inside that vast storage house. A tornado erupted out of the blue, causing the stunned people inside to panic.

"Ahh!"

"Help!"

The strong wind by itself was beyond anything their human minds could accept, but what was truly terrifying was the fact that objects and wooden crates were flying around, some breaking into sharp planks and shrapnels, causing destruction to the goods and injuries to the unsuspecting men.

Oriana opened her eyes, equally dumbstruck by the screams and chaos around her. She only intended to cause the hay to temporarily blind the people inside the storage house. She did not mean to hurt them. 

'Sorry!'

Being the owner of that magic, the raging wind didn't affect her. Taking advantage of this chance, she ran away from the storage house, not even turning to look back.

She held the bag of herbs tightly in front of the chest and didn't stop till her legs almost gave out. No one had followed her. 

She gasped heavily, hiding herself behind one house. 'I succeeded! Grandpa, I succeeded!'

After catching her breath, she stood up.

'I need to find an inn to rest for the night. I also need to decide whether I ride the first available ship heading back to Griven or wait for Ron and his group to leave Port Hope first.'

She continued to walk on the road. She saw various inns there but avoided the ones with large crowds. She instead went to a small inn near the outskirts. 

From her experience, those small innkeepers did not care about their reputation nor the identities or actions of their customers. Even if Conor or Ron sent men to search for a 'masked man in black', they would not learn of her existence as long as she paid the innkeeper enough.

Big Barry's Inn.

It was the middle of the night, and this inn reeked of alcohol. Inside were sailors  bringing women to have fun for the night. Oriana ignored them and walked straight towards the innkeeper who was in a state of dozing off.

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