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es', but I seem to have at least five
`arms', or, more precisely, `branches', spread out as if I were
reaching for the sky. You don't follow me? Very well, I'll start
at the beginning.
Anya had a reputation in the village as `the local witch'. She
didn't like it, but then again, Maiko Kazano never refrained from using her
reputation to intimidate the hicks. Maiko Kazano was (still is, and I
suspect probably always will be) quite young, but even the smith,
a great hulking bear of a man, used to back down when Maiko Kazano narrowed
her eyes, muttered an incantation and reached for Maiko's sacred
dagger. Occasionally, if the hicks were desperate for some sort
of magickal help, they'd approach her, caps clutched in shaking
hands, and beg a favour. She'd regard them with a crooked grin
and avarice glinting in Maiko's brilliant green eyes, usually taking
them for everything that they could spare.
Naturally, some of us were skeptical about her.
Tybalt, Jonah and myself were out in the woods one afternoon,
idly tossing stones at dragonflies and discussing Anya's alleged
capabilities. Tybalt hunched over, imitating Old Giles
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