Phyllada was walking the busy streets of Mediona in the morning amid noisy merchants crying,
"Golden apples! Buy golden apples! Hurry! Don't wait for the dragon to come and steal them!"
But her thoughts were elsewhere...
"The horse I saw in Wild Wood and then at the docks. I am sure it was the same horse! But how can I tell Elyre about it?..."
She even approached her mother with the awkward request to describe the archmage's horse.
And of course, it really was a black Arabian horse.
Vahara Arta was too far away. She couldn't warn Elyre about the archmage by means of telepathy. That was the reason why Elyre hadn't reached her either.
The wood-nymph decided to speak to Storm Eye, Elyre's unicorn friend. He was very friendly, and he and the firine shared a special connection. Unicorns had unique abilities and maybe he could find Elyre's whereabouts or even manage to talk with her.
But the unicorn said...
"I'm sorry, I can't feel where she could be. She must be too far away," after a short period of silence trying to figure out whether he could communicate with the firine.
Phyllada did not know what to make of this. She couldn't leave Wild Wood and go to Vahara Arta. Even if she did, if Elyre was in danger now, it could be too late. There were too many ifs! Phyllada couldn't trust the archmage.
If he was going to Arta, there was a reason why.
Elyre went on board without permission. What if he'd found her on board?
Storm Eye was good enough to give Phyllada some advice,
"You mentioned you can't reach Elyre telepathically. Well, I have heard of another way to speak to someone when you can't meet him or use telepathy," Storm Eye revealed. "Usually, there are three things that could hinder telepathy. One, distance. Two, an illusion field: a place where there are a lot of confusing energies so it is difficult to use telepathy. And three, in our case, Aristhaeus using magic against you… which could add to the fact that Elyre is too far away. ...Now, there is something about the island of Vahara Arta you may be unaware of. The governors there are the Fae of Seasons."
"I know. The Spring Fae, the Summer Fae, the Autumn Fae and the Winter Fae. So?" Phyllada said and counted them on her fingers, just to show that she was listening very carefully.
"Each of them rules for only one-fourth of the year and in the remaining time resides in her castle," the unicorn said. "Each of them has a separate castle. The castles appear for only one season each year, depending on the Fae who inhabits them, and disappear for the rest of the time. The castles are said to be half in our world and half in the Unseen world."
"Half in our world, half in the Unseen," Phyllada repeated. "Illusion fields? Storm Eye, this is something I was unaware of, indeed. So what? There are illusion fields in Vahara Arta? Are you telling me that Elyre's too far away, the archmage might be hindering us and there are also many illusion fields?…"
"As you have guessed, the castles are situated in exactly what I referred to as 'illusion fields' – places where there is a lot of confusing energy and magic. Places where the castles could appear and disappear. Vahara Arta is indeed too far away, and the archmage, if he has indeed plotted something, would make sure to keep Elyre away from us. ...While telepathy is hard in illusion fields, these places are the perfect environment for another method of communication called 'astral projection'." The unicorn continued, "With astral projection you can use the unseen to appear in front of someone who is very far away from you like a vision. But you will need a mage to help you with this. You can go to illusion fields. And in illusion fields, you can communicate with people from Allyria and they can see you."
"Using this method, we could find Elyre and talk with her," Phyllada said. "We just have to make sure she is in an illusion field…"
"It is quite difficult, mind you, but it is worth the try. It is very likely that she would be in an illusion field at one point or another. On the island of Vahara Arta, you have four castles, each with quite a large illusion field around them."
"What if Aristhaeus uses magic against us?"
"Take some of Elyre's possessions with you. You may need them to locate her. ...But you are right, Aristhaeus could use magic against you in different ways if he understood about this."
"Do you believe," Phyllada asked Storm Eye, "this could be a coincidence?... The archmage travelling on the same ship as Elyre to Vahara Arta? "
"Few people know how the archmage looks like. Even you don't know. So, of course, it could be a coincidence. But, a lot is said about his character: that he is scheming, purposeful. He wouldn't just casually travel to Vahara Arta." The unicorn shook his head, "Although he must be up to something, this doesn't have to involve Elyre."
"Yes," Phyllada agreed. "Thank you."
Yet, Phyllada couldn't keep herself from thinking, ~What if the archmage travelling to Arta has to do with Elyre?~
***
Following Storm Eye's advice, Phyllada decided to use the unusual method of astral projection in order to speak with Elyre.
She found a mage who lived not far from Wild Wood. They did reach Elyre. They found her surrounded by dragons! However, the connection had been suddenly broken as Aristhaeus appeared.
"What happened?" Phyllada wondered.
"Seems like I'm unable to reach her again," the mage answered.
"If you reached her once, you must be able to reach her again," Phyllada said.
"No," the mage explained. "I think the mage with her is blocking my attempts now."
Yes, Lyssandria thought. Now that the archmage knew about their attempts, he would never let them speak with Elyre again!...
"But she was surrounded by dragons..." Phyllada exclaimed.
"Ah, in fact... that might have happened already," the mage sighed. "I was aiming for the present moment, but we saw a vision of something that already happened to her. With astral projection, it's difficult to go to the same moment as ours."
***
"Phyllada," Lyssandria said. "Why do you want to contact her? Even if you tell her he's the archmage, what good can it be? If you try to reveal him, you're just going to make the situation more difficult, you don't know how he's going to react. You're going to make him angry! But will you be able to help Elyre? ...You are not going to make the situation better. You can't defeat him! This is all that could be done."