The Autumn Fae. She must have been involved in the dragon attack… Long ago, the archmage and Lady Opalle, the Autumn Fae, had been friends. They had grown to dislike each other during the time when the lady had been chosen for an Autumn Fae.
There had been a competition and Aristhaeus was in the jury who had to pick the new governors of Vahara Arta. Of course, she had expected his support, but he believed another candidate was more suitable for the position. He had won his own archmage title fairly, and he did not want to vote for someone just because they were friends. Lady Opalle began to hate him when she realized how he'd voted. As for the other candidate, she was initially chosen but died mysteriously soon enough and Lady Opalle took her place.
The worst thing of this situation was the Autumn Fae could reveal his identity.
There was only one solution to this problem. To be faster than the Autumn Fae. If he did not react in any way to her attack, she would attack again or do something else unexpectedly. It was better to confront her and ask her what she wanted. He planned to visit her castle.
He and Elyre woke up early in the morning. He didn't think that the investigation of her amulet would be hindered in such a way.
"Elyre," he said. "Someone may be after me. ...Do you trust me?"
"Yes. I do believe someone may be after you!" she exclaimed. It sounded like a joke but at the same time it was serious.
He seemed to read her thoughts and added,
"...You will have to trust me. We will have to visit a place on the way to Vahara Arta."
He touched her back and pushed her gently along the way.
"What place?.." Elyre wondered. "If you don't tell me, then that's abduction!" she said.
"Don't speak like that," he laughed. "It's not... We're going to visit a castle..."
"Castle?" Elyre said. "What castle?"
"The Castle of the Autumn Fae. I need to speak with her. You will see when we arrive..."
~The Autumn Fae? One of the four governors of Vahara Arta?~ Elyre thought.
They kept walking and before long they arrived somewhere... To Elyre it just looked like a small forest. But from the way Aristhaeus was looking around, it seemed he could see more than she could.
"What is it?" she said. "Shall we continue along the way?" The road ahead was unclear and she could see only mist.
"Be quiet," he said.
They heard a terrifying hiss. In a moment he added, "The guards will come. Close your eyes. They are lizartides, the gorgon type."
"What? What guards? What are they guarding?" Elyre was startled. Of course, what else could she meet while she was with him? He was like a magnet for trouble… Dragons, gorgons, all this mythological stuff. She didn't want to offend him, but he really was…
The island of Vahara Arta was inhabited chiefly by lizartides. They had a lot of features similar to those of reptiles. The Fae of Seasons were lizartides too. Gorgons were a rare type of lizartides, notorious for their ability to turn everyone who looked into their eyes into stone. Well, almost everyone. Sommeis could withstand their look because they had the ability to reflect gorgons' magic.
"So you expect me to just close my eyes?!"
"You understand so quickly!" he smiled.
Elyre closed her eyes, because what else could she do now.
They could hear hisses, but there were trees and bushes and the gorgons couldn't be seen. Not that Elyre was looking for them...
"They may try to trick you into opening your eyes but you should keep your eyes closed no matter what," he warned her.
The noises around became louder and she could distinguish flapping of membranous wings and slithering bodies. How many gorgons were there? He'd called them "guards." What were they guarding - the bushes?! In case that they couldn't meet their victim's gaze and turn him into stone, gorgons would strike with their weapons and cut him into pieces. They could also flit short distances with their underdeveloped wings. Even though she couldn't see the gorgons, Elyre already felt like stone.
"Good day, strangers!" one of the gorgons hissed. Elyre judged by the sounds around there were at least three of them.
"Seems like you've got nothing better to do and thus came to our lands?" another one added, her voice more unpleasant than the first.
They were about a meter away from Aristhaeus and Elyre. Although it was not a very short distance, the archmage and the firine could feel the creatures' breath – an acrid, hard to forget smell.
"We won't trouble you. We will continue on our way," he told them calmly.
"But your way is through our lands..." one of the gorgons said.
"Please stay!" said another.
Suddenly, Elyre heard a hissing voice coming from her left side. She had thought that all gorgons were in front of them. She jumped toward Aristhaeus, almost hitting him. A hand, its skin rough like stone, grabbed and tried to pull her away from the mage. Elyre's first instinct was to open her eyes, but she realized this was a very deceptive feeling. Her eyelids remained closed, and the next moment, the mage pulled her back.
"Don't be too friendly," he said. "We just come to visit the Castle of the Autumn Fae."
"And we came to deliver a message from our mistress. She invites you into her castle," one of the gorgons said.
These were the last words they heard. Now Elyre understood. They must be guards of the Autumn Fae's castle.
The gorgons gave a withered rose to the mage, and he took it reluctantly. Aristhaeus knew all about illusion fields and knew that the rose was a key to the castle of the Autumn Fae. He also knew her castle was here.
Elyre opened her eyes when the gorgons finally left. Aristhaeus and Elyre kept on walking just a little bit more and stopped in front of what was to become the castle of the Autumn Fae, but at present was a big heap of autumn leaves. It was strange there were autumn leaves there since the other plants around were green. It seemed to be midspring. It looked as if someone had forgotten to throw away the trash.
The mage cast the withered rose into the leaves and suddenly they scattered into all directions. They were so many and flew so quickly, Elyre could hardly see in front of her. But it seemed that the scenery around changed as well as the location. The next moment, the leaves froze motionless in the air. Elyre could finally look around.
There were some trees whose crowns resembled giant peaches. Leaves were falling down from them so evenly as if they were rain.
Yellow leaves like little stars, red leaves like fallen warriors. Even in autumn, nature was so beautiful and tranquil as if she knew she was eternal and rejoiced in her existence.
Elyre recognized a figure coming towards her. A beautiful, tall woman with golden skin and brown hair. Her hair spread as if it was a cobra's hood, her light brown locks were hidden under golden scales… It was hard to mistake her. The Autumn Fae. She moved so effortlessly as if floating in the air. She stared at Elyre and said,
"Do you like gardens, Elyre?"
"Oh… yes, I suppose," Elyre admitted. But why did the Fae know her name?
"Then," she smiled thinly, "you will like my garden."
A storm of leaves again, more severe than the first one, forced Elyre to close her eyes and brought her to a garden with withered leaves, withered trees and flowers. A very scary autumn. Elyre was alone. Every step of hers was marked by the rustle of dry grass underneath.
The magic of the Fae had taken mere seconds. Aristhaeus had been unable to prevent it. Now he stood alone against the Fae. Did she want to speak with him in private? Probably.
Maybe it was better that Elyre wasn't there. The Fae knew his identity, and she wouldn't be too shy to casually share the information. He didn't know exactly where Elyre was, but anyway he wasn't planning on having a long conversation. He just wanted to see if the Fae was related to the dragon attack and whether the attack could be more complicated than it seemed.
Elyre touched the trunk of a high tree. A hoarse sound, which reminded her of the dragon they had met, frightened her. But she calmed herself down. No. It couldn't be another dragon. They couldn't see a second dragon in a single day... It was just a garden.
…Elyre didn't have a clear idea why Phabian had to visit the Autumn Fae.
Then, unbelievable as she considered it to be, she noticed two eyes in the bushes.
~Be a nice pet,~ she thought. It was indeed a dragon. A real dragon. It moved slowly, almost phlegmatically. Perhaps the animal had just woken up? …This did not prevent him from immediately sending a blazing fire towards her.
The reason why the Autumn Fae had attracted his attention was still a mystery to Aristhaeus. But this reason could not be anything beneficial to him, and therefore he had to neutralize her quickly.
She wasn't very talkative when she spoke to him. He asked her a few things, but he quickly understood that she was not about to tell him anything useful. She was one of the governors of Allyria and he couldn't just casually get rid of her. Therefore, the best way to deal with her was to "lull" her to sleep through magic and make her wake up the next autumn.
Elyre lost balance and fell into one bush. The dragon was coming after her. It didn't take her long to realize that although this castle was supposed to be half real, half an illusion (the castles of the four fae of seasons were often described as 'belonging to a different dimension'), the behemoth's attacks were quite real.
She ran and hid behind a wall of bushes in order to consider the situation. The animal was following her. Fire was the least of her worries… She was a firine and thus naturally almost immune to it. But dragons had other means of attacking as well. She looked around only to notice many more pairs of glistening eyes in the nearby bushes and leaves. Could it be?...
"What is going on?" she wondered. Was this place some type of dragon nest? She did not waste time to see what the dragons would do but immediately ran in the opposite direction. The first reptile, the one chasing after her, still wasn't giving up.
The foliage was dry and burst up in flames under the animal's attacks. The smoke made it harder to breathe.
Elyre noticed big leaves falling from the trees… and then, then disappearing into the ground. The trees were so gigantic they somehow reminded her of Wild Wood; only that those were darker and seemed unfriendly.
While she was running away from the dragon, she stumbled on a dry root, lost balance again and hit a trunk that was on fire. She fell and lost her sense of direction in the smoke. She stood up. The next moment, a cracking sound was heard, and before she could sense, one of the big branches of the burning tree flew down toward her.
That very instant, somebody pushed her away. She, together with her savior, fell to one side. Despite the shock, she managed to clearly see the person. It was Lyssandria.
Lyssandria, who was supposed to be in Wild Wood. How was it possible? Maybe Elyre was asleep – and this was a nightmare?
She was dizzy, but still able to observe what happened next. All dragons suddenly came out of their lairs. The one that was chasing Elyre turned into dust and vanished, which was accompanied by a low, rustling sound, similar to the one when dry leaves are smashed. All other dragons followed suit; they seemed to wither like plants, turn to dust and disappear.
What truly happened, and Elyre was unaware of it, was the Autumn Fae had been rendered unconscious by Aristhaeus's magic. As a result, her dragons were disappearing. She had been giving power to those half-illusory creatures, but now she was gone and without her, there were no dragons.
Elyre looked at Lyssandria. She also recognized Phyllada and Bayan's silhouettes in the distance and stood up, but then someone touched her arm and whispered,
"They are an illusion. Let's get out of here." It was Aristhaeus.
Since all of this was like a nightmare, Elyre couldn't wait to escape and was glad to see his face.
Initially, it had been hard for Aristhaeus to fathom the Autumn Fae's intentions.
Now he had seen the place where Elyre had ended up and he'd realized... The Autumn Fae hadn't told him anything important. She hadn't wanted to meet him. It had been a trap for Elyre. But the Autumn Fae would not attack a civilian like Elyre without a reason behind it. Obviously, she was working with someone else.
"You did all the job," Elyre thought, looking at Mage Phabian, "but why do I feel so tired?"