47 Celestial Armaments little Grand Opening

Several days passed like a blur since Aaron and Myra came back from Firestone. With Alyn, Nell and Liam leaving to hunt down the Lindwurm and the opening of Celestial Armaments going to take place soon, Myra was really busy giving not just the shop's decorations, but also the items they wanted to sell some finishing touches.

A pretty signboard, nice looking shelves and display cases, with the help of Yannis everything was prepared and put into the place where it belonged.

The shop was rather big, especially for the currently small number of items that they had for sale, but Myra expected this to change as soon as they received more materials.

"Do we have everything prepared?" Myra asked and took yet another look around the shop.

"I think so Miss Myra, we should be ready to open."

"Don't forget that the normal enchanted weapons in the displays can be sold as usual. They are all unique but not to the point where I worry about how the owner uses or treats them, but those with spirits should neither be displayed nor sold to just anyone."

"Who will we sell them to?" Yannis was not really sure how to pick the right person for these weapons. He never was in such a situation before.

"Nice people. You can leave it up to me if you like. If I'm around and see someone who needs a weapon and who will treat them well, I might consider selling them."

With Myra living right above the shop, stopping by to take a look or help out with something would not be a rare thing to see. After some time of getting Yannis used to it, he will probably know by himself when to consider selling someone a weapon with a spirit.

--

There was no big opening ceremony, no big announcement about Celestial Armaments opening, but those who specialized in magical items were all aware of it nonetheless.

Being a Princess and known for her great rune work had its advantages. Even though Myra decided not to sell any runes directly, in order to prevent her from starting competition for the Heliphos family, there were various other things of interest to be found in the shop.

The first person to enter the shop was a middle aged man, with a serious no-nonsense face and clothes that were simple, but definitely well made. He looked like someone who didn't want to get noticed, but didn't bother to hide himself either.

Myra was sitting at the back of the shop working on another design, wanting to keep an eye on their first few customers.

For some reason this man looked familiar, but she couldn't exactly say why.

When Yannis kneeled on the floor and mumbled "Your Majesty" though, it did make some sense that he looked familiar.

'He looks like Lisette.' Myra could not help but think. As she had spent hours doing her best to get the poisoned girl healed, she was rather familiar with the princess' looks, even though they never really exchanged any words.

While Yannis was busy with pleasantries and welcoming the Emperor in their shop, Myra gave a polite bow, that others might see as disrespectful, but seeing that he expected her to be the heir of another empire, a much stronger one at that, she felt it was acceptable.

Emperor Vandor was different from what Myra had expected. She could not help but have the picture of a gaudily dressed arrogant person in her mind in the past, but the person in front of her looked rather approachable.

Soon after the emperor headed over to her. As Myra expected, he was not just here to buy some magic items. Even though the Emperor might also want to buy some magic items from her, he would not come personally just for such a shopping trip.

His real aim was to talk to her directly, something that Myra could only agree to. A discussion like this seemed long overdue. After all they pushed her into the role of a princess of Luminos', likely even his daughter or grandchild. She on the other hand used that identity several times now to resolve problems.

By now Emperor Vandor would have surely heard about the situation near Firestone and Myra was curious how this conversation would develop.

She quietly led him to a little receiving room upstairs and made some tea for him.

"Your Majesty, it's a surprise to see you here in my shop, although I would have expected for you to summon me earlier to have a talk."

Myra felt unusually relaxed during this conversation. She was in the middle of her home, she already explained her plans to Jaros and she no longer felt guilty about using an identity that was not really hers.

"You must be the young Princess who is causing so many discussions in my court over the last months. I also owe you my thanks for saving my daughter." Emperor Vandor chuckled and could not help but to inspect her once more.

'She doesn't look like a typical princess at all. She doesn't even have the usual flair of nobility about her. It is really strange, why does it feel as if it is normal for her to just talk to me as if I was an equal?'

He frowned and considered all of this for a moment. 'No, it's not like she is talking to an equal, it is more like she is being respectful to an older person and talking to me as an equal, but her standing is actually much higher.'

'Is this what a divine bloodline really means?'

Myra had a hard time figuring out all the different expressions on Vandor's face. He seemed to switch from frowning to smiling to a confused expression.

"I am sorry if I have caused your people any trouble, but this was never my intention. If I had known, that my name would cause such an uproar I wouldn't have mentioned it, but I was unaware of the significance of it."

Vandor just waved his hand, as if to shoo away a fly.

"This isn't a problem at all. I should probably have talked to you much earlier like this."

"I have to say, your plans rather surprised me. It is quite different from what any of even the most power hungry of my vassals would try. Much less subtle but much larger in scale."

He took a sip of the tea and a delighted expression crossed his face. 'What an unusual taste.'

Did it taste good? Not really, but tasting something new for once was really interesting all on its own.

"If you were a child of mine I would be delighted at your interest and do my best to help you rule in my stead. As you are not however, this would cause quite a few problems, as you can probably imagine."

He shook his head and sighed. "None of my kids is interested in governing though."

"Anyways, this has nothing to do with you really, I shouldn't bother you with my own issues."

Myra agreed. This really had nothing to do with her. She didn't want to be put on the throne of Luminos either way. Creating something new from the ground up was very different than being handed such a responsibility.

"How should we resolve the issue of my identity? I'm not a princess of this empire."

Vandor frowned. He couldn't just change what he said before and tell everyone that she was not his daughter. It would really look odd if he suddenly changed his mind about something like this.

"I've heard that you have family in Firestone?" Vandor carefully asked. "My men couldn't find out a lot of details, only that you seem to have grown up there from what the villagers told them."

Myra couldn't just tell him, that she was not from this world, therefore she decided to tell him the truth, but not all of it.

"I'm not from Luminos originally. I lived in Firestone since I was five. They are my adoptive parents, but as I've been living with them for nearly all of my live, they are no different to me than real parents."

It seemed to answer many questions for Vandor and even though he was already making wrong conclusions again, she at least didn't lie to him.

"What about I just adopt you as well? We're obviously not very close, but this way, you could keep the title of a princess and it also wouldn't be strange if you start your own place. Did you consider what you will do about laws, about government about all the social requirements for a country?"

"A country simply doesn't start with someone deciding to make one after all. There are quite a lot of things involved."

Myra shook her head. "We're not that far yet. There are still many things to consider."

"How about you don't just make a totally separate country, but place the kingdom under the borders of Luminos? Have your own autonomous place, and let us deal with all the bureaucratic things. You change for your kingdom what you think needs changing and leave everything that you think works fine as it is up to me?"

Myra was really confused why Emperor Vandor would make such an offer. She didn't think it was because he hoped to expand their own borders or use them as a safety measure to avoid other empires from invading them, although that surely was a nice addition for him.

"Why would you offer me that?" she asked after a while, still unable to figure it out.

"Well you see, I am rather old now, even though I don't look like it. This empire needs someone younger than me to help them create their hopes and dreams. The younger generation is no longer the same, they want different things, have a different way of living and different expectations of their ruler."

"Change is not always easy, especially for someone as old as I am. You are much younger, you will see things differently and will make changes in your kingdom that I would never even think of. I might learn something from you."

That sounded rather convincing, but Myra had a feeling that this was not all of it.

"And what other reasons?" she asked bluntly.

Vandor laughed out and had a happy expression on his face.

"See, none of my subordinates would ever ask me like this or doubt my intentions openly. It's a rather refreshing concept."

"You are right, I have some other ideas in mind. After all you are still young. If your status as my adopted daughter will be made public, no one will argue about whatever happened so far, they will all say you made some reasonable decisions and it was fully within your rights to do so."

"You will have a high standing, but you will still be unproven. It would not be strange though, if you have your own autonomous kingdom, that you will soon gain experience and many will watch how this kingdom progresses."

"If there ever comes a point where you have success, making you my heir if you ever want to expand your domain to all of Luminos might be a very real possibility. Take it as an old man who wants some peace trying to pander off this empire to someone who wouldn't lead it to ruin."

Both of them laughed, the idea of Myra taking over Luminos was still a concept very far away that she didn't even want to think about, but getting adopted by the empire for real this time, was an unexpected, but nonetheless very elegant option to solve their issues.

"It should be easy to allow you to create a kingdom next to Luminos, and giving you that hill as well as the land surrounding it in the western regions as a gift. You're turning 16 in less than a year right? It would just make sense to make a nice gift for your birthday and then setting up the basics for a kingdom will take you at least several months, even with all the necessary resources and funding. You've already shown that with such projects and skill you are a young woman and no longer a child after all."

"That sounds great, thank you, your Majesty." Myra replied, relieved that this whole charade would end from now on, even if she still ended up having to live with the princess title. Now she couldn't even tell her friends that she was no princess.

"Call me Vandor please little one. We both know that you will not call me father, it would be really strange, but there is no need for unnecessary formalities, especially while I am in your home."

Seeing Myra nod he was happy as well.

"Now why don't we take a look at this little shop of yours? I heard a few interesting things about your skill with enchantments and runes."

He put the teacup back down on the table before he started to walk back down towards the shop again.

"Oh, by the way. This tea has a very interesting taste. It is horrible and really not a good tea, but the taste is new and uncommon. I will send you some from the palace soon, maybe you like it."

Myra stared down at the cup of tea in her hands and couldn't believe he just told her that the tea was horrible in such a way. She took a sip of it again and found nothing wrong with it.

'Isn't it just tea? Why be so picky about it?!'

She quickly followed him down to the shop, in the end, she still had to make some profit and sell some items and her new adoptive 'father', the second one in her life so far was an ideal target with lots of money who surely could use a few magic items.