“While some things could be gained through various shortcuts, for most things in this world, the only way to acquire them is to walk the whole way through the long, difficult trail to reach them.” - Old folk saying.

“So, something I’m rather curious about,” asked Celia to Aideen as they walked along the road a couple days later. The two were on their way deeper to the Marquisate at the moment, as Aideen thought about taking Celia to the capital of the Empire she was born in, before they undertake the trip she had planned to the northern plains. “Why do you bother having your staff out and about in hand when you got a storage that fits it?”

“Oh, this?” asked Aideen as she twirled her staff around in a circle using the fingers of one hand, much like the way children would do with their writing implements at school. “It’s a habit, I guess. Also helps with daily training. Keeping the workout going for the arms even while I’m just traveling around. It helps.”

“Workout?” asked Celia with some doubt in her eyes. She also had a staff in hand to use as a walking staff, but the staff was made from light, if solid wood. It probably didn’t weigh more than a kilo in total at the most, and she was uncertain how that would have helped with working out.

“Here, try holding mine,” said Aideen as she handed her staff over to Celia, her hand holding it in the middle of the staff with ease. Given the way she handed it over, Celia naturally held it with both hands to either side of Aideen’s hand. Then Aideen let go, and Celia almost fell as the sudden weight in her hands pulled them down, and only barely caught herself at the last moment.

“What the hell!? This staff’s as heavy as a sack of grains!” said Celia even as she pulled her arms closer and hefted the black staff. Born as the child of farmers, she had naturally helped her parents - and later her grandfather - with tending the fields and the harvest, and had lugged around sacks of grain before. It was not outside her capability to lift Aideen’s staff without too much trouble, though she was caught off guard by its weight at first.

“That’s what I use to fight, and carry around everyday,” explained Aideen with a smile on her face even as the younger girl attempted to move her staff around but frowned at its hefty weight. “If you can get used to using something like this, you would be able to handle normal weapons much easier if you switch.”

“Alternatively, you could just stick with them,” said Aideen as she extended her hand and asked for her staff back, which Celia placed carefully on her hand. Contrary to the younger girl’s expectations though, Aideen easily balanced the staff on one finger, then twirled it around with the fingers of a single hand. “Which would put in a good bit more force into your blows. I found that it helped, since my own magical talents were not exactly useful for fighting. Took me a few years to get used to the weight at first though.”

Celia nodded her head as she brought out the sword-staff Aideen bought her out of storage and weighed it on her hands. Even with the metal blade, the whole thing barely weighed three kilos, so it was not exactly a particularly heavy weapon, especially for one with a long handle like that. On the other hand, Celia doubted it would count either for the sort of constant workout Aideen mentioned, since it was rather too light.

“Interested in trying it out?” she asked the younger girl with some interest. When Celia nodded to her question, Aideen nodded in turn with satisfaction at her reply, before she took off where she left her words. “If you want, let’s get you something similar, just in the shape of the weapon you’re using. It’ll probably be harder for you to have it around all day, but then again, travelers carrying weapons on the road wouldn’t be that odd a sight either.”

“Thanks, miss Aideen,” said Celia with a happy voice. The girl had pretty much left her old life behind entirely by then, Aideen thought, lured into the unknown future by her, so she felt somewhat responsible for the girl’s development, at least until she could stand confidently on her own merits. “I would greatly appreciate that.”

“We should reach the seat of the Marquisate in a few days, so we’ll see if we can find a decent enough blacksmith to make one there,” promised Aideen with a nod. They were taking a mostly easterly route in their travels, headed towards Levain, the capital city of the Clangeddin Empire from time immemorial. Fortunately the city was a bit to the north of the Empire’s territory as well, so it was relatively close to where they were, which was at the north-west of the Empire as a whole.

True to her words, they reached Carolus City, the seat of the Marquisate of Caroepa, not three days later. As Aideen promised, the first thing they looked for after they settled the arrangements for their stay there was to find a good smithy. There Aideen made the generous order with the blacksmith for a sword-staff like what Celia had, but made entirely of metal with some rather exaggerated dimensions for the blade to give it the heft they wanted.

The blacksmith, an old, experienced half-dwarven man, had raised an eyebrow at the usual order, but when Aideen mentioned that it was for training purposes and that there was no need to sharpen the edges - though she did ask for it to be properly tempered and hardened - he nodded in understanding, and told them that they could fetch their order in a week’s time.

Celia almost gasped at the small fortune in coins that Aideen paid as a deposit for the order, but shook her head in wonderment instead when Aideen teasingly showed her the content of her money pouch, which was mostly loaded with gold coins and even had a few platinum coins - coins that Celia had only ever heard of in stories and bard’s tales - in them. Aideen would just regularly exchange a couple gold coins for a sum of local silver and coppers whenever she needed them.

In the week that flew by while they waited for their order, Aideen took Celia around to enjoy the prosperous city, to their hearts’ content.