The Dragon's Princess

12.

We walked out to the front of the estate where a carriage was waiting for us. Amadeus told the driver to take us to the shopping district and we were off. I was too busy admiring the old yet beautiful buildings to even bother keeping up some sort of conversation.

"Everything looks exactly as it did the day it was built," Amadeus said.

"That's rare to see," I mumbled, still completely focused on what we were driving past.

"It was just kind of agreed on, I saw my dad and granddad do it." He said. "Any repairs or anything that needed to be done were done by the same people using the same materials." He said.

Before I knew it, we had come to a stop and we were out and walking around. It was mostly a lot of window shopping at various boutiques and clothing stores. Everything was very beautiful and held a magic aura to it. We didn't go into any of those shops though, but the shop that we did go into was a magic shop.

When we walked in, the walls were lined with staves while the various display cases were filled with wands, crystal balls, enchanted weapons, various books, etc. It was harder to find shops that only sold high-quality items for magic users. Even in Litha, they were rare and it's the Magic Kingdom of the world. This was truly a sight to see. Every piece was clearly handmade by someone and the magic energy pulsing in each item was powerful.

"I knew you'd like this place," Amadeus said as he nudged me with his elbow.

"It's all so beautiful," I said in awe.

He let out a laugh, "Anything you want, no matter the price tag."

I looked at him like he was crazy, which he clearly was. He didn't say anything else, he just motioned to the store which was enough to get me going. I glanced at the wands and weapons but ultimately found myself looking at the staves. My eyes scanned over every single staff in sight trying to find the one that called out to me the most. As I was looking, I felt Amadeus' arms slip around me while he lightly laid his head on top of mine.

"Why a staff?" He asked. "Is it just a sorceress thing?"

I laughed a little, "Most sorceresses don't use anything, but my dad was an exception. He always used a staff but he specialized in protection and energy magic so he had crystals that would amplify it. We used to have a joke about how it seemed like he had a staff for every day of the year."

"What happened to him?" He asked quietly.

"I don't know," I said quietly. "He went had business outside the Kingdom one day and just never came back. I was too young to be apart of the conversation mother had with everyone in the palace, but I vaguely remember some men coming to talk to her. She never talked about it and refused to ever tell me when I asked. It was after that when she became very strict about all of my training."

"You never tried looking into it?" He was pushing at this point, but for some reason, I didn't mind.

"I decided it was best to leave it alone. Something always told me that I didn't want to know."

Before he could say anything else, I slipped out of his arms and walked over to one of the staves on that was in one of the holders on the floor. Something about it drew me in. The base was twisted wood but at the top, the wood extended like branches. In the center of the branches sat a bird cage where a crystal was clearly supposed to sit.

"You've got a good eye girl." A man's voice spoke. I looked over and there was a man who looked not much older leaning over the counter.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"That staff you're eyeballing is made of cherry wood which has a more centered and grounded energy. Most aren't drawn to it because most don't have the controlled power to use a staff like that." He answered.