~No. No, it cannot be him.~
But she couldn't deny it any longer. How could it be?
There must have been a reason for him to hide such a secret for so long, she thought.
~No, why am I thinking that?~
Was she trying to find an excuse for him? But he had been so nice to her… How could it be him? …Still, the word "nice" had a broad meaning. After all, he had been lying for so long… Why?
Maybe she should've realized it earlier. Maybe there have been other signs about it. But if someone was so nice and friendly when he told you his name was Mage Phabian, why would you doubt it?
~How could he never tell me?~
The archmage was not known to be the traveler type… Why would he just go to Vahara Arta? ~This is so strange.~
Of course, she also remembered he had kind of insisted and hinted she should go to Vahara Arta. But she'd wanted to go too.
~How many of the things he has told me are true and how many are lies?~
Elyre's mind was a mess of questions. She had always felt that Phabian didn't communicate freely; as if there was a certain barrier between him and other people… But who could have guessed that he was actually… Aristhaeus?
The more she thought about it, the more glaringly clear it became to her, and she wondered how she had never seen it earlier when she'd had so many facts.
Early in the morning, she was in one of the common rooms in the library. There were some other people around but she did not engage in conversation.
She was just silently drinking her tea. She had all the ingredients for the supposed cure for maginopia now. This was something positive to think about, but in order to test its effects, she had to return to Wild Wood…
~Should I tell him that I know who he is? Or, should I pretend that nothing has happened?~
But how could she behave in the same way as before?… She couldn't. He was one of the two people responsible for Wild Wood's misfortunes, together with the Queen. He had the power to influence digeniche gathering, but still he simply didn't care. He wasn't working for the Queen, he was working with her!
Elyre could understand mages who worked for the government because they didn't have a lot of other opportunities to develop their talent… But to actually willingly assist the Queen, to have the power to oppose her but instead choose to help her…
All this time he had silently listened to Elyre while she'd expressed her hopes of finding a cure for maginopia… Why had he never hinted at anything related to himself?
Her reflections were interrupted as Aristhaeus appeared. Elyre's eyes were immediately fixed on him.
~He wears the ring,~ she noticed in shock as she looked at his hands.
Was he aware of what had happened the previous night? Or had he forgotten to take it off this morning? She was starting to doubt her memory... Had he always worn the ring? Perhaps she had never paid attention? ~No, he had no jewels before.~ She grew slightly anxious.
He approached her with a good morning and sat calmly in the opposite chair.
"Did you sleep well?" he inquired.
"I… no," she admitted. She wasn't sure what to say.
He did not react to that statement and looked just as composed as usual. She would prefer not to speak with him at all.
She was too confused about his identity. Who was Aristhaeus? Was he really the person sitting on the chair against her? He had built the notorious Dungeon of the Lost... Whatever else she knew about him seemed to add to this image.
She remembered Queen of the Wood-Nymphs Thyberia had told her a story. Years ago when digeniche had first begun to be gathered in Wild Wood, the archmage himself had come into Wild Wood as emissary of the Queen. Thyberia had politely informed him that digeniche was a magical herb that did not exist anywhere else in the world and was not supposed to be collected. He'd warned her in return that if he heard such words again, she would be accused of treason for questioning the Queen's decisions.
Aristhaeus was known to have been a good tactician during the war when he had been quite young. In one well-known instance, he had been aboard a ship, together with a famous general with the mission of protecting him. An enemy warship had been chasing them, and in order to escape from it, they'd attacked a friendly vessel. When the enemy had seen that, they'd assumed that Aristhaeus's ship was an ally and turned back. Thus, the general had remained safe.
Somehow, she had always imagined the archmage to be older. She realized he had been chosen because of his cunning, not his age. He did possess a clever mind. But one used to harm others.
"…I could not sleep well," she said a while after her initial "no", which seemed to be too short of an answer.
"Me neither," the archmage replied, comfortably seated on the chair against hers. He added pronouncing the words very clearly, "I never sleep very deeply."