"How was your little visit with Thorel and Tara?" the Queen asked nonchalantly as I returned to the Sanctum. The windows were left slightly ajar, letting in a slow breeze, and the heavy, towering double doors, too, were left unlocked. This was quite uncommon, due to the fact that the historical artifacts that resided within the Sanctum were worth more than the rest of the palace combined. I wondered what had given my mother such a sudden burst of newfound confidence. It certainly couldn't have been a good sign.
"Uh..." I paused before answering her question, not sure exactly how much she knew.
"It's alright, I'm not displeased with you," she laughed. I couldn't help but notice the stark contrast between her dry, humorless chuckle and Tara's uplifting, lively laughter. "I wanted you to have a chance to meet your sister, anyway. Any young Iceheart-to-be should be educated in both possible Turning processes."
"Wait...there are two?" I raised an eyebrow, a bit confused.
"Yes," the Ice Queen nodded. "The first one is the one that most people are familiar with: the combination of the Iceheart Serum and complementary procedure. The second, however, is much more difficult and time-consuming, not to mention painful for the would-be Iceheart. Due to unfortunate circumstances in her early childhood, that is the process that your sister is currently undergoing."
"What is it?"
"Torture," my mother said simply, as if it was the most common, acceptable thing in the world.
"That doesn't make sense," I frowned. "People have been torturing other people for ages. Why didn't those people Turn?"
"Do you mean to suggest that all torture is the same!?" the Queen gasped, looking gravely offended. "You have a lot to learn, dear."
I gulped, not wishing to engage in any further discussion on the unsettling subject.
"What's that?" I asked, pointing to a long object in a glass case. It stood to one side of the gigantic, marble statue of Lumys that occupied the back wall of the Sanctum. From its position, it looked to be very important.
"That, Viviana, is the sole reason that our family is in power," my mother said, her voice suddenly growing deep and reverent.
"...it's a stick."
"I will overlook your impudent comment," the Queen scoffed. "That is King Airel's staff. It's worth over two billion duvats- that's a whole fifth of the Arystenn fortune, to put it in perspective. Legend says that it was given to King Airel by Lumys herself, and that it holds inexplicable power that defies the very Laws of Aurology themselves."
"Power in a staff? That's magic, though. You're the last person I expected to believe in stuff like that," I said honestly.
"Vivi," she replied seriously, gently touching the glass case that contained the staff. "There is a very fine line between Aurology and sorcery. The rightful wielder of this staff can blur that line."
"Who's the rightful wielder?" I asked, perhaps a bit too eagerly.
"There hasn't been one since King Airel," the Queen said with a hint of sadness in her voice. "It isn't like the Gift, that has to appear once in every generation. In fact, there's no pattern to its manifestation at all. Or, if there is one, it isn't known."
"Is there any way to...identify the wielder?" I raised an eyebrow.
"If there is one, it's not you or me, if that's what you were thinking," the Queen chuckled. "However, Gifteds can still use the staff. We have a certain connection with it. It's not as strong as that of the wielder, of course, but it's still there. Due to the absence of a true wielder, the staff has been passed down from Gifted to Gifted since the time of King Sakarus and Queen Shehallie."
"Interesting," I nodded, looking at the wooden staff. It was approximately five feet long, and Old Lessaenite words were etched into every inch of its surface. Its head was carved into the shapes of two ferocious Mountain Nyvae, standing back to back as they roared. The carvings were so realistic that I almost expected the Nyvae to leap off of the staff and fly away. The other end was sharpened to a wicked point, and coated with metal that hummed softly with Aura. It was now clear that the staff was intended to be used as a weapon.
"Someday, it will be yours," the Queen smiled proudly. "Would you like to give it a try?"
"I'm not sure if I should be trusted with a fifth of our fortune," I said nervously as she pressed her hand to the front of the staff's case. The case beeped, recognizing her Aura, and its front panel slid to the side. She reached inside with great care, taking the staff out with both hands.
"You're going to need to learn to use it, anyway. You might as well do it now."
Holding her palms out in front of her, she presented the staff to me. The respect and care with which she held it proved that it was indeed of great importance to her and to our family.
I took it, feeling the smooth, aged wood in my hands.
"What do I do?" I asked.
"Feel the staff," my mother ordered.
"Okay?"
I closed my eyes, reaching out with my Aura and allowing it to wrap around the staff, merging with the Aura that was locked within it. My eyes flew wide open, glowing a brilliant blue. The staff was somehow triggering my Gift! It was true; King Airel's weapon did indeed contain some sort of power.
The staff was greatly displeased with me. This I knew, as it poured a deluge of discontentment straight into my receptors.
"I think it's trying to talk to me," I said. "Is that normal?"
"Don't worry, it can't actually talk," the Queen laughed. "It simply contains a small fragment of King Airel's Aura. This fragment is imbued with his personality, and is able to send raw emotions into the receptors of whoever is holding it."
"In that case, I don't think King Airel likes me very much," I winced.
"No, he's just disappointed that you're just another Gifted. He did that to me when I first used the staff, too. The poor guy's been waiting for the next wielder for nearly a millennium, now."
"Oh," I sighed.
Wielder of the Staff, huh?
A new level of complexity had just been added to my already swamped mind.