Slowly, silently, secretly a feeling crept into Mari's mind. It was a shadow of a thought, a hint of an idea. The staff "felt" familiar. It felt like the healing finger of the Guardian of the Elements. It felt right, somehow.
Bignor was doing his job. He was aligning the staff to its new bearer: Mari -- the One. Soon, very soon, she would begin to know how to use the staff to command the elements of Fire, Air, Water, Earth, Spirit, and Chaos. She would learn them in that order. She would learn to summon fire, wind, flood and rain, earthquakes, and eventually commune with spirits. If she would bear the staff long enough, she would learn the deep secrets of the staff -- but it would take time to learn its deepest secret of all.
