Marked: Part 2; The Wronged

Chapter 73

Unora jumped off her horse as she trotted up a corral. Unora grabbed Amilia's reins from her and led her horse into a stable. Once Midnight came to a stop Amilia hopped off like she was told to. Amilia waited while Unora paid the stable keeper. Then she proceeded to put the two horses in their own stalls, taking off all of the equipment except the reins. Unora came back out to Amilia and motioned her on to follow her. Amilia walked behind Unora looking around at the small dinky town. The town was surely western, with it's wooden salons and dust ridden store fronts.

"Over here." Unora said, pointing to an old fashioned blacksmith shop. They heard clanging as they got closer to it.

"Ah, Princess!" The man said, looking up to Unora. "What do I owe the honor?"

"A witch in need of a staff."

"Not, you surely, princess."

"Course not, my friend needs one."

"Wondrous!" He said to them, "Come, come." He said waving them on. He went over to the side and opened the door. "Use what you must, princess. As always, I shall take care of all expenses."

"Thank you." Unora said, bowing her head. The man left them and went back to his work. Unora motioned Amilia on with her head and they both went over to the back of the shop. There was another blacksmith area, it was more closed off than the one the man worked at. You could easily see him working from just standing outside the shop.

"Come here." Unora said to her. Amilia came over and stood next to her. "These are all your different metals. Now, you don't exactly get to choose. You are going to close your eyes and let fate decide for you." Unora looked over to Amilia and then crossed her arms and looked at her with a strict look. That's when Amilia closed her eyes. Something started to glow, but Amilia couldn't tell what was. "The glowing are the metals, I lit them up so you don't go out of the metal area." Unora grabbed Amilia's hand and put it out in front of her. She lifted her wrist up, with her palm out like she was about to grab something. "Now, go ahead and choose." Amilia moved her hand from side to side until it eventually stopped on something. "Good." She heard Unora say. Then another spot lit up. She did the same thing, picking one item and then another and another until finally, the decisions came to an end. Amilia opened her eyes and looked over to the counter. Everything she had pointed to became a reality. All the ingredients were out on the table. "Let us begin." The first thing they had to do was shape the actual staff itself. Amilia already knew how to shape metal, from her apprenticeship with Oglm. It wasn't an easy job, Amilia, of course, had to choose one of the harder metals, cobalt. With it's extremely high melting point it became a long and tedious task. After quite some time they finally finished molding the staff. And as it played out, the metal had a slightly blue tint to it. After the staff cooled and was ready to be manipulated once more, they added the rest of the ingredients. Starting with adding bright bluish-teal antigravity chambers, with an antigravity string across the top. Next came the gemstone, it was a mexician fire opal. It was already shaped, at least according to Unora. Apparently Amilia picked out a gemstone and then a shape from that specified gemstone. Her gemstone was an oval shape. They placed the gemstone carefully in the opening and in between the anti gravity chambers. Amilia went to pick up the staff, but when she did her jewel fell right out.

"I thought it was supposed to stay in there. Isn't that why there are anti gravity chambers?"

"Patience, only when it's on will it all work. You have to load your gemstone with your magical power."

"How do I load it up, exactly?"

"The same way you do magic." Unora took Amilia's hands and put her palms on the gemstone.

"Now what?" Amilia said, looking to her.

"Be patient." Unora started. "Now, close your eyes and calm yourself, just like you do for your preparation." Unora paused to hear Amilia. Once she could tell that she was calm, Unora began to speak once more. "Now think of one of your spells, yet say nothing. Just focus on the magic, not the incantation." Soon enough the gem started to glow, Amilia lost her focus and took a step back away from the gemstone. It was charged up enough, to where it would work. When the glowing stopped Amilia picked up the staff. This time the gemstone stayed where it was supposed to, with the antigravity connectors glowing bright bluish-teal. "We're not done yet."

"We're not?"

"No, like every great witch you must carve something into your staff. Most of us engrave our names, and professions. Even awards we have achieved. You have never seen my staff, because I never use it, I don't need it to channel my magical energy anymore. But I engraved my name, my true name, into it."

"And what exactly do you want me to engrave into it?"

"Despite my hostile takeover of your life, well, you are right, you need more freedom and time to yourself. So this, my child is up to you." There was only one thing Amilia could think of engraving onto such a personal surface. Four simple words that describe it all; I am the one.