"May I ask," Leo responded, "Why did you get rid of the whip after the first attack failed?"
"Your sword was more powerful. While I might have gotten lucky, I didn't see me succeeding with the whip."
"Never give up on your weapon unless it gets destroyed. It wasn't damaged in our fight. I'd say your whip is at least advanced tier. You must have a lot of practice with it."
She nodded, "it's my go-to weapon. I have others and I had to invent attacks against those snakes. The good thing is my ability offers versatility."
She looked thoughtful. "Can I try something with you?" She grew an elephant ear, infused with her energy. "Can you try to cut this with your sword?"
Leo nodded then swung his sword. The leaf was knocked way but not damaged.
"Interesting." She thought for a minute then wrapped her arm in her vine in addition to what she was still wearing then wrapped the stem of the leaf as well. "Try again please?"
This time it moved less. "So it's me, not the leaf," she sighed then withered the leaf.
"Thank you, Leo," she once again bowed down, thanked everyone for watching out for her and left the dojo. As she walked out, she heard Quinn saying how good he thought she was. She had a smile on her face.
To her friends, "Let's stop by the library on the way back to the tree. I want some chocolate. It's faster and safer to buy it from the market place."
Leaving the library with a case of 50 chocolate bars, the friends made their way to her tree to prepare dinner.
***************
There was a knock on a door at the top of the second-year building. Pucket listened for the response before opening the door and walking in. Duke waved to the front of his desk with an angry expression on his face.
"I'm going to cut straight to the chase. I went to look at the footage of our little friend today and the recording was nothing but static. I suggest you figure this out and fix it. Here is a new camera. There won't be another one. Now leave!"
An hour later, Pucket is on the roof of the first-year building. He has invited up a level 1 boy named Duff to have a friendly conversation.
Pucket slapped Duff across the face, "I offer you protection and this is what you do to me? The video was all static. Explain this!"
Duff was crying, "I don't know. I checked it before I uploaded it and it was clear. She was performing all kinds of moves and I had her writing in her book. She's working on some new move. She thinks she's got it figured out and plans to try it in a few days."
Pucket handed him the new camera. "You have better not screw up like this again. Get the footage."
**********************
While eating and celebrating her small victory, she received a text from Logan.
Come to my room before you go to your room tonight. I need to discuss something with you.
She sent him a thumbs-up emoji.
They all caught each other up on the days events. She was looking forward to tomorrow when she would see Sil again. They wanted to keep it looking like she was just receiving lessons from him for obvious reasons. She was feeling really good about life right now and thought she really could have a bright future. After enjoying the company of everyone, she packed up the kitchen since she waited a bit longer today, normally doing it right after the cleaning is done. Then they all headed back to the dorms together. Lana went up the stairs with Dobin and the others then kept going, eventually letting herself into Logan's room.
Logan had been waiting for her and just doing menial tasks before getting engrossed in something exciting once he was done with this talk.
"You may want to sit down for this."
She did as she was bid at the seat he provided her by his desk.
"I decided to look at your file last night and I found videos of you."
"Excuse me???" She was shocked.
"I fixed that in my own way but there is someone watching you and making videos of what you are doing. May I suggest you take a few of these devices," he handed her a bunch of small square-like devices, "place them around your tree and other areas you hang out. I would place 2 in your lab and your little bedroom. That's footage you don't want getting out…" Her face went red. "In addition, take these spiders with you. When you place them, state the location you place them. They are cameras and listening devices that won't be blocked by those other devices. From what I can tell, the military is issuing low-grade or mid-grade cameras. Mine are something that cannot be bought on the market. We need to find out who is behind this and how to stop it and get you protected. I know the person who uploaded the footage is someone named Duff from our class. I suggest not confronting him. Bring all these cameras to homeroom tomorrow and I'll place one on him."
Lana was in shock at what she was hearing and thankful to have Logan at the same time.
"Thank you, Logan. I owe you a lot of sandwiches!"
"Oh! Speaking of owe. My parents' company needs your payment information. I didn't take note of it before. They need to pay you for the commercial you did. You are to get a stipend based on how many times the commercial has run. May I see your watch?"
She took it off and handed it to him. A second later he handed it back. "Thank you." He then placed his hand on his computer and the screen glowed for a second. A few moments later she received a notification of a deposit into her account. She looked at it and wanted to feint. "If you want a career in commercials, let me know. I must get to work now."
She smiled brightly and was majorly dumbfounded at the same time.
"See you Thursday for my sandwich delivery!" and off she went.
She decided to stop by room 2215 and see Vorden for moment. When she did, though, there was no answer. A tad disappointed, she went to her room and did her pre-sleep meditations before climbing between the sheets.
She lay there trying to go to sleep but the day's event kept going through her head. She was still elated over the assessment with Leo, shocked at the numbers her watch was displaying. And terrified that someone has been watching her and recording everything. She thought Dens changing her file would make it safe for her. Is Truedream really going to come after her? Does he already know about her?
She really wanted to tell Vorden what Logan told her but Vorden did say Sil has a temper. What would Sil do if he found out? Would he blow up so bad that he will endanger us all?
Perhaps it was best to just work with Logan for now. Is Duke behind this in support of Truedream? Or are the white coats influential with this school?