“While there were definite downsides to them, the power of a cult of personality could not be understated. All too many historical soldiers have braved hell for the sake of a commander they wholeheartedly believed in, and as such won more than their fair share of battles.

Of course, the weakness of such a model of leadership was that if you cut off the head, then the rest often crumpled down quickly.” - Liang Si-Zhu, Famed Tactician of the Huan Confederacy, circa 92 VA.

“Big sis!” yelled Alycea excitedly when she saw the slender, tall figure of her big sister walking towards her the next morning.

Despite the early hour of the day, the little blonde girl - barely ten years old if they got their reckoning right - was already up and practicing with her long staff, having eaten breakfast in a hurry so she could get to her practice as soon as she could. It was a diligence none would have expected from a child that age, but Alycea had idolized her adopted family since she was a toddler who barely understood things, and had long wished to follow in their footsteps.

While Erycea and the other children around her age had mostly “graduated” off their training and joined the Company as full members, it had not meant that the sight of young children training themselves to their limits day after day vanished from the encampment. Instead, Alycea and the other younger children took up their place and drilled with discipline and diligence that was unexpected from a group of six to twelve year old children.

“Heya, Aly. How’s the staff?” Erycea asked back to her adopted little sister. Although their ages only differed by barely four years, Alycea barely reached up to her older sister’s chest, as she was a normal human, and had none of Erycea’s physical growth, which was somewhat faster due to her therian heritage. Even so, the little girl remained spirited, and all too eager to catch up to her big sister and parents.

“Kind of getting used to it, still a bit hard to control when I swing it hard, though,” said Alycea with a smile to her older sister. The long staff the younger girl used to train was a full-sized one, one that was a good head and a half longer than the girl was tall. When Alycea gave it a hard practice swing, it showed what she meant, as the end of the staff visibly wobbled, a sign of the flexibility of the wood it was made of.

That staff itself had a bit of a story to it, as it was a birthday gift from Salicia for the little girl’s ninth birthday.

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The Company was stationed at Jonkver at the time, and Salicia happened to browse the local markets during some of her free time when she ran into a couple adventurers - they looked and sounded the part of young adventurers - who happened to be selling off some gear to a pawn shop. The gear in question belonged to a dead teammate of theirs who had recently passed away.

It was not uncommon amongst adventurers who died in their work to ask for their friends or comrades to sell off their gear - assuming said friends couldn’t use it themselves - and had the money given to their families to live off on. It was exactly such a situation that Salicia happened to run into, and the staff caught her eye because she detected something neither the young adventurers nor the pawn shop owner noticed.

Namely that the staff was made out of precious heartwood of some kind.

Heartwood was the general term used for precious wood extracted from the core of ancient trees, which generally exhibited qualities that far surpassed other wood of its kind. They were also renowned for their ability to recover off most damage with an infusion of mana from its wielder, which made them particularly desirable as family heirlooms and the like.

That said, heartwood was near impossible to distinguish from normal wood unless one was blessed with a strong nature affinity, had strong elvish blood, or had been in prolonged contact with heartwood themselves. Salicia had no nature affinity, and while she had some elvish blood, it was a very faint trace at best. The bow she always used, however, was a heirloom of her family’s, and was made out of yew heartwood, and as such she recognized the unique vibes of heartwood from the staff.

She had purchased it off the young adventurers at a price that was a good bit above what the pawn shop owner had offered, and the adventurers had been all too happy at her offer. It turned out none of them were aware of the true identity of the staff, not even their deceased friend, as he supposedly found the staff during an excursion in the forest, and had made use of it himself since.

Salicia suspected that the staff had likely belonged to an elvish traveler who met their end in the wilderness, and the adventurer had just been fortunate to find the staff where it fell. Either way, since the adventurers were unaware of its true value, she bought it since she recalled that Alycea trained mostly with staves and polearms.

The staff of willow heartwood - as they later discovered - would make for an excellent shaft for whatever weapon the girl chose to use once she was old enough, and giving it to her when she was still at a young age would allow the girl to get herself used to its unique qualities as well.

Unlike most wooden staves, which were solid with little give or flexibility, the staff of willow heartwood was very flexible, and it definitely took some getting used to. Alycea eagerly pounced on the challenge though, and did her best to try to master the staff. Both Reinhardt and Elfriede had approved and thanked Salicia for the gift as well.

After all, Alycea was bound to be physically weaker compared to her big sister and father, so something that gave her a possible advantage without relying on physical strength or brute force would indeed be welcome. The staff she gifted, with proper training, would allow the girl to make some hideously tricky moves that made full use of the staff’s flexibility, which were likely moves nobody would have expected to see out of a polearm.

Alycea’s training with the staff for the past year had born some fruits, and she managed to get used to the staff somewhat, but there still awaited more training and challenges in the girl’s future.