"We would have kidnapped her already if it wasn't for the Princess of the Perfect's interference," Mage Darian reported. "The Princess of the Wood-Nymphs and the Princess of the Perfects together were too powerful for us. If the Princess of the Wood-Nymphs had been alone..."
"Darian, be quiet," Mage Eyvind whispered to him. He was older and was just trying to give him a piece of good advice.
"Don't try to excuse your failure, Darian. Where is she now? Together with Aristhaeus! Do you know it would be very difficult if not impossible to kidnap her now?! And if he understands about us, he'll make sure that we lose track of her!" Mage Vardanis answered.
"Don't be so angry, dear!" his wife said, "Although the archmage is with her, maybe he doesn't know the truth."
"Who could say how much he knows?! If he doesn't know, then why would he approach her?! We spent years to find her whereabouts and now it could all go to waste!" Vardanis continued. "We just lost a wonderful opportunity, our last opportunity! When we were warned in advance that the archmage was seen in the forest... you should've been more careful!"
"The Princess of the Wood-Nymphs is always with her. She is quite powerful," Mage Eyvind answered. "Moreover, Elyre's amulet is an incredible protection. She is pretty much invulnerable. As for her powers, yes, she is not a mage and has never studied magic, but her natural power is great and thus she could be quite unpredictable in battle, discovering certain skills on her own or slightly losing control of her power. We can't blame only our mages..."
"I know," Vardanis tried to calm down. "The Proud Mountains are too close to Wild Wood. The governors have close relations and often communicate with each other. The Princess of the Perfects is often in the forest and she goes there on a whim..."
"What could Aristhaeus's aim be?" Vardanis's wife said. Naturally, she was quite powerful and trained in magic, but since women were not allowed to receive "Mage" titles, nobody called her a mage.
"Not sure yet," Vardanis said. "He must know something about the amulet. Otherwise, why would he contact her? And then suddenly the two have gone to Vahara Arta. It's too suspicious."
"I do not believe in coincidences," Mage Darian said. "How could the two of them choose the same destination, the same ship? It seems to me he wanted to separate her from her friends, and he managed to do it quite quickly..."
Vardanis shook his head. "There is a reason why he's the archmage. He's able to use circumstances to his own advantage. She's quite inexperienced. I guess she wanted to leave Wild Wood, and he just appeared at the right time, lucky... Anyway, our spies don't give us a lot of information now. So we could only guess."
"But we are not enemies with Aristhaeus..." Eyvind tried to say, but he was interrupted.
"People like him do not have friends," Vardanis said.
"He is young. I am sure he's unaware of Elyre's secret," Eyvind whispered.
"He'd better be unaware. If you're thinking we could have a deal with him, you're wrong. It's better if he never understands that we know something about her." Vardanis was thoughtful for a moment, then he turned to Darian, "Mage Darian, you are one of our youngest talents. But we must be very careful and think twice before we act. The archmage is much more powerful than us. I will let you know what to do later."
Mage Eyvind sighed,
"What worries me is Aristhaeus is very close to the Queen. If the Queen understands about Elyre, what do you think she would do? Will the amulet be able to protect Elyre against the Queen's wrath?"
"Who could say?" Vardanis whispered.