Eliseline was very famous as a mage. Even before coming to the Sovereignty, Lihar had heard stories about her. Of an old and ugly witch of the Fest family who liked to bathe in the blood and flesh of Magicracy men, who always aimed her spells against the commoners relishing in killing the weak and powerless.
Lihar felt foolish for trusting these rumors at one point in his life, but what could he do? Under Savine's lectures, he became familiar with the Magicracy's tactics of spreading information about mages to keep them in line. But before that, whatever he heard from the authorities was truth.
As for Eliseline, though all her vilifying things the Magicracy said about her was probably lies, her strength was the real deal.
Lihar could even notice that her magic power was larger than Savine's by almost 20 points. The Voice said that magic power was basically the amount of mana stored inside someone.