As she fell, Oriana reached out to grab the lip of the brickwork on the castle.
But to no avail.
Things passed by in slow motion.
At one point, she closed her eyes, thinking that maybe this was the end.
Finishing before she had even properly started.
But then, as she fell, she remarked on the oddity of why the wind felt like cloth running through her fingers.
Eyes wide open, she grabbed with as much strength as she could at what she was touching.
How had she not seen it?
The saviour of the leading lady.
…
The banners around the castle.
Sure, she got terrible burns in her hand as the fabric slid through her palm. But at least it was slowing her fall.
Slowing it enough that she had ended up along the second-floor windows.
The knights from upstairs quickly fled, seeing that Oriana had managed to survive and was going to be on the floor below.
Knowing she had little time, she fought back against the pain in her hand…and swung the banner in order to reach one of the nearby windows.
---
Using some fabulous swinging skills, she made it to a nearby window and tried to open it.
And then when that failed, she wrapped the fabric around her side and practically threw her whole body into the window to break it open.
Falling through, and in a bit of a daze, she quickly righted herself and headed out the nearest door.
But not before saying goodbye to the illicit couple that had chosen this room as a place to have some fun away from the ball.
Out the door, she looked around and found no guards in her immediate vicinity.
A quick check of herself, and aside from the pain in her hands and in her right leg, she was fine.
She also tried to cast her invisibility spell upon herself again, but as before, it failed.
"They must have put the whole castle under a dispel invisibility spell."
But, she had no time to think about it, as she needed to get downstairs and out through one of the exits.
So, she quickly became Kim Poster again, the new servant within the castle for the debutant ball, and headed down the hallway.
She passed by a few other servants, who pretty much paid no attention to her, and headed towards the nearby stairs.
That is, until she saw the Knights coming down the stairs to her floor, which were right next to the ones she wanted to head down.
In her illusioned form, she psyched herself up and headed towards them as a servant would. Looking down and trying to blend in with the background.
But once she saw that the knights had brought a couple of mages with them, she stopped momentarily and turned down a hallway.
With the magic that was used at the entrance to deal with removing any such concealment spells, it was likely they would be doing the same thing here. You had to be close to the person to use such a powerful spell, and that is where she would end up if she tried to get past them to the stairs.
So, she needed another plan.
"The servants' quarters. They should have their own staircase."
Although she didn't quite know where it was.
Wandering around, she looked for doors and areas that just spoke, servants. She also looked out for any servant who seemed done with today's job and was about to head home or take a rest. All in the hope she could find the servants' quarters.
She had to keep a low profile and even made an illusory feather duster to pretend to blow away dust from some of the picture frames and ornaments down the hallways.
It took some time, and she had to duck away from the knights who had split up into two groups a few times, but she managed to find a servant who was moving a trolley filled to the brim with dirty laundry.
This was who she needed to follow.
Sure, she could have asked the servant for directions. But there was the chance they would not recognise her, which would raise alarm bells, and what servant in the Royal Castle would not know where the servants' quarters are.
Slowly keeping out of sight, she followed the girl till she reached a door that looked more worn than the others. The girl opened it and took her trolley in, and within that brief moment, she was sure this was the place.
So, she moved up and got to the door as quickly as she could.
But it was as she pulled the door back that she noticed her hand slowly start to change colour. Back to the green she actually was.
Looking up, she saw the knights coming towards her. She had no clue if they saw her hand, but rather than think about it, she quickly dashed into the room and closed the door.
Moving away from the door, she scanned her surroundings and moved into the dark and dingy halls.
Halls that suddenly became a lot brighter as the servants' quarters door opened. Light streamed in from the brighter part of the building, and what followed was a man holding a sword. A sword that was in mid swing, flying right towards her.
She screamed. Not from seeing the sword, but from the pain she felt as it sliced through part of her shoulder. It wasn't too deep, removing the limb or anything, but it was enough to draw a lot of blood and cause her horrible pain.
With no time to think, she dashed away, heading through the servants' quarters with absolutely no idea of where to go. She twisted and turned, in agony all the way.
She had the time to make herself look different as she moved through the rooms, transforming herself into some other nameless servant, but that was about all she could manage.
She bumped into a couple of other servants along the way, not even having the time to apologise as she dashed away. Shortly after the bump, she heard screams as the servant must have seen the knight's brandishing swords, heading towards her.
Panicking, she just kept on moving. If she stopped, it would be over.
And so, she was both furious and incredibly relieved when she tripped.
Tripped and fell down the stairs in the servants' quarters.
She managed to protect her head and got incredibly lucky, as there was a pile of laundry at the bottom of the stairs. It would seem this is the area where all of it is kept.
The laundry helped save her life, or at least stopped her from crippling herself even further.
And so, with this gift, she took it and hobbled through the servants' quarters, now on the first floor.
She went to any and every door she could find, hoping to find a way out or even more stairs down, all the while listening out for the heavy footsteps not far behind her, but she ended up either stuck trying to open a locked door or found a single room with no other exits.
Before long, however, she opened another door and found herself back in the castle proper.
She had missed the servants' stairs, but there was no turning back now. Heading back in, she was sure to bump into the knights again.
Bright light flooded her vision, almost blinding her. It took her a while to regain her eyesight, but when she did, she took off running again. But not before closing the door behind her.
For one, it would make it harder for the knights to know where she went. And, for another, they would end up blind, just like her, when they opened it.
Moving down the corridor, she tried to hurry, but also act like she was just a servant going about her business. All the while, she searched for the stairs down.
She covered her wounds with other illusions, hoping to appear less conspicuous. The only downside was that she could not do anything about the pain or hide that she was hobbling, but she did her best.
"Why is this place such a maze?" She asked herself.
But then it occurred to her, it's probably to make it harder for criminals trying to enter or flee the castle. Apt for her situation.
Turning another corner, she managed to find what she was looking for. The stairs down.
Although several guards were standing on the landing by it.
"Great."
She needed a distraction.
Looking around, she saw servants passing by, heading up and down the stairs, each one checked by the guard for anything suspicious.
She had to be careful.
Moving closer, she created an illusion of another servant and sent it towards the stairs. As it reached it, she moved the illusion in front of another servant, making it look like they were about to bump into each other.
But, before the distraction could occur, her illusion disappeared.
The servant coming towards it was obviously stunned, but he did not trip and fall into the guard as she had hoped. All it had done was show Oriana that there was a mage nearby dispelling illusions.
A mage who was annoyingly part of the other knight group.
And was looking and walking, with some speed, towards her.
She had been found out.
In her defence, she didn't realise that standing nearby as you watch two servants almost walk into each other could be considered suspicious and would likely expose her as the cause of the disturbance in the castle.
Unable to get to the stairs, she ran in another direction, with no clue where else to go.
Twists and turns brought her to a long hallway, with a few doors down it, and a couple of junctions to other sections of the castle.
But, before she could go any further…both of the knight groups had turned up near the junction she was heading for.
"There is nowhere left to run. Surrender peacefully, and you will not be harmed."
The knight who spoke looked her up and down.
"More than you already have."
Oriana felt lost.
She didn't know what to do.
She still couldn't turn invisible.
Any illusions would be dispelled instantly.
She had her nature magic, but in a castle, it was like trying to conjure ice in a volcano.
Well, she was not going to end up in some prison cell.
Turning around, away from the knights, she started running again.
This time, there was only one place she could go. She knew her destination.
The first-floor window.
Being on the first floor, it wasn't too high from the ground. But with her injuries, she was sure to receive some serious damage. She might even worsen the injury to her leg, leaving her crippled.
That could just end up with her being picked up by the guards again.
No, she couldn't think like that. This was her only option.
And so, she went for it.
She smashed through the glass and leapt out into the moonlight.
And came barrelling down.
…
Into the Castle Moat.