There were three cities named Ethshar, and they were big centers of industry and trade.
Then there were places like the Small Kingdoms. Which were, on the whole, not terribly large. Hence the name.
Oh they had been bigger once. Then had come a battle between the North and the South and a lot of things had gotten right buggered up. It was to the Small Kingdoms that Casia took Ranma.
On the way she showed Ranma several things. Take this herb and crush it and mix it with that herb, and you could numb the pain of a cut. Take that leaf and this flower, and you could place it up against a tooth to stop the pain.
Ranma watched as Casia paid for the voyage aboard a ship, but then made her money back on the way. Ranma watched this with more detail as Casia was indeed using chi or something very like it.
Casia used chi to convince rust to drop away from a guardsman's sword, leaving the blade sharpened as if he'd spent hours honing it. Casia used chi to "burn" a wart off a young girl's foot so that she could walk normally. Casia used a chi technique to calm another passenger's seasickness.
Casia also showed Ranma how it was done. Of course, Ranma put them all into martial arts terms as special techniques, though they weren't as combat oriented as he was used to.
Casia's shop was in a port about halfway down a coast and had once been a 'mercantile' or general store. It was old and dusty and creaky, but it had an unfamiliar peacefulness to it that seemed to seep from the cracks.
"A lot of witches keep cats, so do magicians and herbists and wizards," said Casia. "The main reason is they keep the roaches, spriggans, and mice down. Though mostly they're not that effective in keeping the spriggans entirely away."
"c-c-c-cat?!" Ranma asked, looking wildly about.
"Oh posh," said Casia, making a gesture.
Ranma felt his heartrate slow, the panicked clenching of muscles ease, the cold flush of sweating subside. "Huh?"
Casia looked him straight in the eye. "Afraid of cats. That'll never do. People will never take you seriously if you go climbing a tree because someone points a kitty at your face. Let's see now."
Ranma felt a little nervous with the paint-peeling intensity of the old woman's stare but she stopped it after a few minutes.
"Take a seat, apprentice. You've got some explaining to do."
Ranma gulped. "Explaining?"
"You're scared of cats, terrified I can see. Some nastiness in your past. To make it more problematic, you've got the spirit of a cat wrapped up in you. So sit down, start talking and we'll see what can be done."
Casia put her tea down as Ranma finished off his explanation. "I think I've got some coinage left. I wonder what kind of curse I can lay on your father. There's a local wizard who's very good with curses."
"Huh?" Ranma asked.
"Never mind for now," said Casia. "Well, this is a bit of a stew. When your cat spirit is in control, human sensibilities go out the window. Cats will do quite a few things that a civilized human wouldn't. Even a few uncivilized humans would balk at the sort of things a cat might do. So what we've got to do is ease that tortured spirit and allow you to access it more cleanly."
"Control the catfist?" Ranma asked, thinking he was following this. "Is that even possible?"
"There are a great many things possible," said Casia. "Hmmm. May have to check with a Theurgist. Spirits tend to listen more to spiritualists. We'll do it in the morning. In the meantime there's a broom over there."
"You're gonna teach me to fly?" Ranma asked.
"No, I'm gonna have you sweep out the place while I fix dinner. This is how you're paying for lessons, doing the chores around here." Casia laughed in a manner eerily similar to Cologne. "Try not to knock any of the walls down. Place is drafty enough as it is."
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(Posted Sat, 31 Jan 2004 13:38)
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