3 No female mages

Soon enough Phyllada was summoned by the Queen. She left her sister in the parlor.

"I should go. Let us not make Queen Lyneanne wait. Won't you wish me luck?" Phyllada said.

"Sure. Good luck," the firine said. "If the Queen is in a bad mood, don't let that make you feel nervous..."

"Of course!" Phyllada answered. But she was by nature rather timid. Although she knew what she had to do, sometimes it was difficult to do it. Yes, sometimes she wished she had Elyre's way with words. The firine seemed to always know what to say.

She had to remind herself~~

She was the Princess of the Wood-nymphs and represented the whole of Wild Wood! She was not allowed to get easily embarrassed or mumble under her breath! She had to be prepared and confident for her meeting with the Queen. The whole future of Wild Wood depended on it...

~~ You can do it!

In the meantime, Elyre was left alone in the parlor. She waited and waited but Phyllada was still not coming back.

Then it occurred to her that anyway she was in the legendary castle... It felt like an incredible chance for her to take a walk around the historical building. It couldn't go to waste! Who knew if she'd ever had the chance to come again?

She had seen only a few people in the corridors. And she thought they wouldn't pay much attention to her if she went for a walk. It was afternoon and people wanted to have a break. With that thought in mind, she left the parlor.

It was so quiet around that she could hear her own footsteps. She tried to memorize her way back to the room so she could return safely. She was well hidden in her cloak so no one could recognize her.

She walked around... and walked... Simply walking around usually did not fill her with so much excitement as now. She sort of expected to find something -- anything -- alas, there was nothing unusual.

Finally, she stopped in front of the closed door of a hall. She heard some voices inside and she thought this had to be Phyllada speaking with someone. She had to make sure, so she listened with both ears for speech coming from inside. Unfortunately, she caught only a few indistinguishable words.

She looked around and found that the corridors were completely empty. As there wasn't a soul about and no one could see and reprove of her actions, she carefully laid her ear against the door to hear the voices better.

At that moment, out of thin air, a black figure appeared from behind her. It was Archmage Aristhaeus. He liked to be as quiet as smoke when using teleportation. Thus, he often gave people a jolt. This time, however, it was he who was surprised when he noticed Elyre, obviously too busy eavesdropping.

Her cloak outlined a body that didn't look very masculine. Aristhaeus couldn't believe -- could this be an intruder? Outsiders were not allowed in the castle. And there was another tiny detail -- women in Allyria were forbidden from becoming mages. This was strange, bearing in mind that the Queen herself was both a woman and a powerful mage... Yet, this was the law.

Aristhaeus touched her back. She nearly jumped out of her skin on realizing there was a person beside her. She could swear that a second ago there had been no one around!

"May I pass?" he said. She straightened up and made way for him.

It seemed he wanted to enter the room, but he looked at her again,

"There are no female mages," he informed her in a level voice. "You'd better disguise as something else."

She was too shocked and embarrassed to reply.

"Who are you?" he smiled but she obviously wanted to escape.

How to answer?

"... ...It is not important," she said in a while.

"Unimportant person," he stated and looked away. "I see."

Once he was gone, she quickly returned to the parlor.

"Why is he so sure that I am a woman?..." she thought, "...I may be a powerful sorcerer intentionally disguised as a female!"

She sat down in the room, quietly observing the hands of the clock. She had no wish to meet any other strange people. They said "time flies" but it was flying too slowly, for Phyllada hadn't come back yet. Once she returned, Elyre stood up,

"What happened?" she said.

But Phyllada was not in a good mood. She shook her head.

"The Queen said they would continue to gather digeniche. I am sorry. I did my best to convince her..."

"Oh," Elyre sighed. "I am sure you did. What did she say?"

"She kept insisting that she needed digeniche for the army as medicine. I told her in Wild Wood we need it too, but..."

"It sounds as if you spoke different languages," Elyre said.

"...We even kept silence in different languages!" Phyllada exclaimed. "Oh, Elyre... ..."

How would they return, bringing sad news to the sylvan dwellers?!

"There must be a way to convince her?! Maybe if you ask this lady-in-waiting, Jarrah, she could give us advice?" Elyre sighed.

Phyllada shook her head. She knew Elyre only wanted to help.

"She is just an uninfluential lady, a dancer in the castle ballet," Phyllada said.