Meesei stepped up in front of Sabine, placing her hands on both of her shoulders. She spoke firmly, but encouragingly. "Sabine, [i]you[/i] are the best one to wield it. Aside from the fact that you have a much stronger claim to it than I, the potential of the staff does not rely on the raw magical power of the wielder. You are creative, intelligent, and resourceful. You can do far more with the staff than the woman you took it from, and I think you can do more with it than even I can. My raw power, for a long while, has been at the point that I can simply overpower the majority of my foes. Honestly, I do not think your raw power is as far behind mine as you think it is, but...even still, you spent quite a long time having to match yourself against mages as strong or stronger than yourself, over the course of this war. You will be able to use the staff to its greatest potential."

[hr]

Ahnasha sighed, turning her gaze towards the ground. "Maybe. But I don't come from a line of proud warriors and mages. They will just want their daughter to be safe."

Pausing a moment, Ahnasha gave a quick laugh before finally turning to look at Fendros. "At this point, I'm not even sure they would [i]believe[/i] the actual truth. Once the war is over, the secrecy won't matter as much, but if something did happen to me, it might still be better to come up with a more tame story to tell them. Just so they'll believe it. Ah, well, maybe I can still just rely on nothing happening to me? That would probably be the best outcome, I think."