Initially, the audience couldn't understand what was happening. By the time Elyre and Aristhaeus managed to reach the stage, Mage Thrace took Coralia's unconscious body and brought her to the doctor's room.
Aristhaeus and Elyre followed Thrace to the physician's. They waited outside in order not to disturb him. There was a small garden nearby where Elyre and Aristhaeus sat at a table and waited. They weren't the only ones who had come. Heliona was there and some of the contest organizers too, and some curious onlookers as well.
~If the wine was poisonous, the servants were surely involved…~ Aristhaeus thought. As if to answer his suspicions, one of the servants came crying, explaining she was innocent. She truly looked frightened... One thing was certain: Coralia had collapsed immediately after she drank the wine. It was surely poisoned.
~The attack on Coralia was no coincidence,~ Aristhaeus thought. But most probably it was aimed at confusing him, so that he couldn't fathom the real reason behind the previous attacks.
~But I already know that Elyre is this reason. In fact, for me this attack on Coralia just confirms that the real target is Elyre.~ His intuition gave him many answers, but he also needed some concrete facts.
Who could be behind these attacks? Someone quite rich, able to pay for mage mercenaries. Maybe the Queen herself. Aristhaeus could easily imagine some dirty secrets related to Queen Lyneanne's regency. But there was one question that remained unanswered... If Lyneanne knew about the existence of a living heir to the throne, if this heir was Elyre,... why would she let her live, and not even try to imprison her?...
Suddenly, a voice coming from behind sounded strangely familiar to him and made him turn and look around.
He only saw a seemingly unknown girl who was asking what had happened to the woman from the contest, Coralia.
The unknown girl was actually Pressianna. He gave her a side glance. She was Coralia's friend from the castle, so she was naturally worried about her. She had transformed her appearance again, so Aristhaeus could not recognize her. But changing her voice had always been a problem. Voice was the one thing that was very difficult to influence.
She was quite far away from the archmage, and perhaps a bit disappointed that he had such good sense of hearing.
Many people had similar voices. It was hard for him to understand who she was. Soon, she passed by Aristhaeus's table. She remained composed and even smiled cold-bloodedly when she noticed that he was observing her.
But the revelation of her identity was a matter of time.
Pressianna belonged to the iny race and Aristhaeus was well-acquainted with their abilities, that's why he had always been careful with her back at the castle, even though they had been on good or neutral terms.
What if this unknown girl was really Pressianna? Who'd sent her here? Was she after the archmage? If he didn't make sure of that now, he might have no other chance. There was only one way to understand the truth… He clenched his fist under the table when he realized that. He had to attack her directly with magic, breaking her camouflage. He had to make her reveal her true self.
What if it wasn't her? …Well, she'd be scared but she would get over it eventually. The magic used to force revelation could not cause death or any major problems for its target, even if the target was wrong. In the worst case, the girl would probably fall onto the ground and feel unwell for a while. But there were people around; there would be questions, witnesses.
~There is no other way,~ he thought sullenly. He had to know how many spies exactly were hovering around him. ~She is like an octopus.~
If he didn't do something now, she might change her appearance again next time and he might have no other chance to recognize her.
Her illusory forms were as good as real. And it had to be so -- she'd spent years learning how to create the most believable illusions, from changing her iris color to being able to achieve complete transformation and take on various physical features. The metamorphosis was usually quick, although there was also a slower type of transformation, less effective and mostly employed by beginners, more unpleasant to the eye since one could see the actual deformations that occurred in the body during the process.
She moved away. Aristhaeus stared at her back, reaching for his powers. Suddenly, she screamed as if someone had pulled her hair. She turned round to look at him − the first sign that she was not who she pretended to be. How did she know the right direction to look at?
The next moment, she dropped down onto the ground in a crouch and couldn't stand up. The people nearby began asking her what was wrong, but that didn't disturb the archmage. As he intensified his magic, her shape began to dissipate, as if she was becoming a different person, and her body changed.
Elyre, like many of the people around, had become an unwilling witness. But unlike the others, she could recognize the person on the ground, now that her illusionary image had disappeared.
~Pressianna.~
Judging from Phabian's focused expression, he was the one causing the trouble...
~He really knows her?~
Pressianna was finally able to breathe normally. Whatever magic Aristhaeus had used, it was over. But she was still lying on the ground and she felt that the difficult part was yet to come. She was dizzy, so she kept her eyes closed for a while. She rose to her feet. She stared at him and he stared back, angry but silent.
"Miss, are you alright?" Somebody from the crowd said and touched her arm in order to help her as she struggled to stand up. "You should go to the doctor. How are you?"
"I'm fine," Pressianna replied, still holding Aristhaeus's look. "It's just because of my magic… I… lost control. I will be leaving. I'm fine, really."
Aristhaeus still kept his blank expression. Pressianna finally looked in another direction – that of a boy from the crowd who was helping her. She went away.
~If he knows her, could he really be the archmage?~ Elyre thought.
Nobody paid attention to her at that moment, so she could calmly consider the situation.
~When I think about it, he did manage to defeat so many mages on his own when they attacked us in the forest. But I believed this meant he was talented, not necessarily the archmage. I'm sure there are many skilled mages just like there are many skilled warriors…~
Now, Pressianna had left and it seemed that this was what he'd wanted.
Elyre couldn't forget Pressianna, who had fixed her look on the firine for a very short while just before leaving as if she was blaming her. As if she thought that Elyre had betrayed her to Aristhaeus. Could this mean that he was the archmage? The answer was clear, but Elyre couldn't believe it.