Soon enough Phyllada was summoned by the Queen. She left her sister in the parlor.
"I should go. We can't make Queen Lyneanne wait. Won't you wish me luck?" Phyllada said.
"Of course. 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!
***
Elyre was 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 opportunity to come here again?
She had seen only a few people in the corridors. And nobody seemed to pay much attention to her. It was afternoon and people wanted to have a break, eat and sleep.
With that thought in mind, Elyre went out of the room.
There was no one in the corridor.
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... No one could recognize her.
She walked... 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, everything was disappointingly normal.
Finally, she stopped in front of the closed door of a hall. She heard some voices inside. Could this be Phyllada speaking with someone, perhaps the Queen? She listened with both ears for speech coming from inside. Unfortunately, she caught only a few indistinguishable words.
The corridors nearby were still 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? 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 hall. He looked at her again, she looked at the ground.
"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. It seemed he wasn't over because he didn't move away.
"Who are you?" he asked 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 quickly stood up and approached her,
"What happened?" she said.
Phyllada was not in a good mood. She shook her head.
"The Queen said they would continue to gather digeniche. I am so 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?!
"It's impossible to convince her. She basically thinks that there are many other forests where we can live, and that we don't take good care of the forest if its condition is worsening, and so on... And, in fact, she does not think that lack of digeniche causes any problems. She even dropped a hint that I am failing at fulfilling my responsibilities, though I am still not the official governor of Wild Wood... How could she accuse me in advance?" Phyllada almost whispered her words.
"There must be a way to convince her?! Maybe if you ask this lady-in-waiting of hers, Jarrah, she could give us advice?" Elyre sighed. "She must know Her Majesty well."
Phyllada shook her head. She knew Elyre only wanted to help.
"She is just an uninfluential lady-in-waiting, we can't ask her for such a thing. I heard she's just a dancer in the castle ballet," Phyllada said.