The duration clause is one of the more controversial parts of spiritual contracts. Some feel one should never be added, that spirits should be forced to return to their homes when the summoning ends. This provides safety in case of a poorly worded contract; keeps the rest of the world safe should a spirit slay their summoner, and gives the spirit less time to think of ways to subvert the contract it is bound by. Proponents of the clause note that many tasks take more time than even the best summonings force a spirit to remain. Two different camps offer two different answers to the other objections. The first line of thought is that there those concerns are far less important when summoning nature spirits and doing a little work is a fair price not to worry about such things. The other camp says that if they die, they don't really care about what happens to the rest of the world.
When used, a duration clause changes the nature of a spirit's stay within our realm (or that part of the realm, for nature spirits). The spirit's true location ceases to be where it was summoned from and becomes the place it was summoned to. Essentially, the spirit can no longer be considered summoned. To compensate for this, most duration clauses include conditions (sometime several) under which the spirit must return to where it was summoned from, often in the form of time limits, completion of a task, or a command by the summoner. Even without these conditions, a dismissal ritual will send the spirit back. Note that unlike demons, many nature spirits consider this a favor, as traveling back to their preferred location under their own power could take some time.
From Common Spiritual Contracts
Nabiki walked downstairs, grabbed a glass from the kitchen, then filled it with hot water from the tap. If that didn't prove hot enough, well, she'd have to boil some water. She'd fulfill her part of the contract for sure, then - water just didn't get hotter than that. Returning to her room, Nabiki felt her nipples firm again. Akane's little brick shard must have created a draft when it broke the window.
"Here you are," Nabiki said, stepping back into the room.
"You left me alone!" Ranma protested.
"Strangely enough, I don't have a hot water tap in my bedroom," Nabiki said dryly. Since the rip in the circle might be repaired, Nabiki didn't want to drench it beyond saying. She reached inside, grabbed Ranma's hand, and pulled the spirit out of the hole her sister had inadvertently made in the protection.
"Hey! You mean I could have gotten out at any time?" Ranma demanded, hands on her hips.
"Looks like it," Nabiki agreed sweetly, keeping her eyes fixed on the spirit's face. Well, mostly.
"Great," Ranma grumbled, then grabbed the water from Nabiki's hand and poured it over her head. Suddenly Nabiki was the only occupant of the room.
"How did she manage that?" Nabiki asked herself. Theoretically, as Nabiki hadn't ordered Ranma to remain there, the spirit could leave whenever she wanted to. Practically, Nabiki had never heard of a spirit teleporting like that. Well, there was a simple solution to this. Nabiki unrolled another summoning circle and set to work.
Three tries later, Nabiki gave up. This was very frustrating; she was unable to compel Ranma's presence. That meant that "Ranma" couldn't be the spirit's true name. Spirits normally gave out use names, but this one had been so naive that Nabiki was a little surprised she'd used even that much caution. More ominously, it had to mean that their contract was not in effect. A spirit summons implied an order; while a spirit summoned by a use name could choose to decline the invitation, it still knew it was being summoned and by whom. If Ranma was under contract and got her summons, then she should have gone along with it.
What could have voided the contract? Nabiki brought the hot water and, damn! The spirit insisted on Nabiki making her human. Worrisomely, Nabiki couldn't recall the exact wording the spirit had used. There were at least two possible flaws in the contract. It might be impossible for Nabiki to turn Ranma human, thus preventing the contract from forming in the first place. Alternately, Ranma's wording might have implied that the contract only began once she was human, and Ranma was under no obligation to allow Nabiki to perform that transformation, assuming she could find out how. That was subtle, very subtle of the spirit. Perhaps it was best she got away after all. A trick spirit could find ways around even the best written contracts, and Nabiki really didn't need to deal with that sort of creature.
Nabiki frowned. She'd heard rumors about this sort of thing, but never really expect it to happen to her. The redheaded nature spirit had decided to 'play' with her. At first, Nabiki just thought it was bad luck. A book falling onto the summoning circle at the wrong time, startling her mid-chant. Saliva getting into her lungs making her cough at the wrong time. It could have been luck. A number of her summonings went off without a hitch. Only occasionally did Ranma appear, walk out of the inevitable break in Nabiki's protections, and ask for hot water. Nabiki didn't like that she tended to get flustered those times, but mistakes in these rituals were the sort of things that made you nervous - and for good reason. She didn't want to find out what Ranma could do when upset, and as the water seemed to dismiss the spirit, Nabiki had complied each time.
Her second rationalization had been carelessness. Let's face it, when the consequences of getting a ritual wrong were no longer a painful death but instead a cute redhead with a thing for hot water, you weren't quite a careful about dotting all the I's and crossing all the T's. However, no matter how careful she was, Nabiki kept on making mistakes. It had to be Ranma teasing her.
Well, she'd see about that. Nabiki was prepared this time. Instead of the normal paper base, Nabiki had started this circle with a plywood platform. Two different protective circles had been carved into it, filled with the appropriate powders, then sealed with shellac. This spate of problems went a long way to show Nabiki why stone floors with protective circles etched into them and filled with metal was considered the opium setup. Still, this was the best Nabiki could manage, and to use it she'd have to take over the dojo.
Nabiki was tired of this. She would start using the smaller, inner circle from now on. If Ranma ended up appearing, hopefully the outer circle would still hold the redhead. Nabiki would offer a bribe to be left alone and, after mulching a park or something like that, would hopefully be back in top form.
Ranma had gotten pretty inured to his curse. Being invisible was great for surprise, as was attacking through sold objects. Weapons were really useless against him as a ghost. The temperature didn't bother him, and he didn't get hungry, which was good, because his fat slob of a father figured out that splashing him was good way to keep Ranma from getting at the food. The best part might be how he could so easily dodge that insane girl after his father's head. Pops could deal with his own problems for once. Sure, there were problems. He still slipped through the floor of buildings at times, and even diligent practice hadn't raise his flying speed. Seeing everyone pretty much naked sucked, but he'd gotten used to it. Even turning into a girl wasn't so bad since nobody could see him.
Well, there was that one girl, but she was nice. Nabiki didn't hit him or yell at him, even though he was always naked and could see her naked. She always stopped whatever it was she was doing and got him hot water. Ranma's gotten to like their little visits, even if he had no idea what caused them. Nabiki was a lot nicer to look at than his Pop and the Guide. Also, seeing Nabiki meant he'd get hot water, something his father rarely could find in the middle of the Chinese wilderness, except at the end of the day, and there were serious advantages to sleeping as a ghost, not the least of which was his father having to find him to start training each morning.
So, when Ranma felt that little tug that meant he'd be visiting Nabiki again, he's said something like "See if I talk to you again Old Man." Pop never figured out that Ranma was sometimes gone; Ranma started throwing in comments like that to explain his sudden silences. Not that he thought the idiot would figure it out; the dumbass still hadn't realized why his panda body insisted on squatting to take a leak.
When the world faded in around him again, Ranma didn't see the bedroom he expected. Instead, he was inside a dojo, standing on a big piece of wood with a crack in it. Nabiki was stomping on some bugs, muttering under her breath. "Hi again," Ranma said cheerfully. He could see a bunch of the bugs inside the wood. "Want some help?"
"No," Nabiki sighed, "just a little frustrated with the termites." The girl straightened her shoulders, which did interesting things to her breasts, then continued. "Look, Ranma, this has been happening a lot. Each time it does, you ask for hot water, then leave. What else is it that you want from me?"
Ranma blinked. What did she mean? Of course he just wanted hot water; he'd never asked for anything else. Was she asking why it was happening? No, she asked about what he wanted since he came over so much. . .
Of course! Nabiki wanted to know if he was just using her for the water, like his stupid father would do. She didn't mean what did he want like what could she get for him, she meant what did she want between them! "I want to be friends," Ranma replied.
The answer was nothing like Nabiki expected. Could that have been it? Ranma hadn't been taunting her, but trying to show that, even when she held every advantage, she wasn't hostile? Had Ranma been, well, courting her? Courting her friendship, of course. It made a certain amount of sense. Having a spirit as a friend would be extremely helpful. Nabiki wouldn't have to worry about proper contracts at all when dealing with Ranma. On the other hand, betraying that friendship could have severe consequences. Nabiki didn't have friends, not since they all turned on her in middle school. People turned on you or let you down. Still, Ranma wouldn't think Nabiki was strange, or a freak, and there was no crowd of other girls to poison Ranma's friendliness. Besides, they could always invoke a contract to ensure they'd remain friends . . .
"I'd like that," Nabiki answered.
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(Posted Fri, 11 Mar 2005 03:25)
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