The general store was a large, single-floor building that seemed to combine the elements of a grocer, a restaurant, and a general mercantile under one roof. Katarina bet there was a blacksmith of some sort, from the steady ring of metal pounding against metal on the back. A place this small likely had little use for much metal; likely the smith only made things like horseshoes, nails, pots and pans and the like, and likely all from bronze. If you wanted steel, you had to go to Darnell, as steel was extremely rare on the frontier.
As she came down the boardwalk to the front entrance, a loud voice heavy with authority cracked out.
"What kind of hussy you think you are, thinking you can walk down the street like that?!"
Katarina glanced to the side; the front porch to the mercantile was just ahead and to the right. A very portly and very old brown woman, wearing a flower-print dress, an immaculate apron, and an equally immaculate bonnet sat on a low bench on the porch, eyes wide and furious in her broad face. A polished black cane sat between her feet. Katarina raised an eyebrow. This old woman was glaring at her? Calling her a hussy? What was a hussy?
"My name is Katarina, and I'm a Witch Hunter in service to the Golden Lady." Katarina replied by way of introduction.
"Witch Hunter? Witch Hunter? We don't need no Witch Hunter." The older woman immediately replied, face drawing down in a scowl, thumping her cane on the boardwalk heavily. "Ain't no call for no Witch Hunter here in these parts."
"Of course not." Katarina replied archly.
"Don't you sass me, missy. I'm not so old I can't tan your hide." She replied immediately in a voice that brooked no arguments and expected none, either. She thumped her cane again for emphasis. "You already in the shit for dressing like that. Ain't no call for a woman be wearin' trousers like a man and be showin' off her legs like that!" the grandmotherly woman argued hotly.
"I'm a Witch Hunter," Katarina repeated patiently, tossing her braid over her shoulder distractedly. "I have permission to dress the way I do from the Church. Skirts are useless for hiking through the woods and horseback riding." Katarina replied dismissively. "You can check with the pastor at yon Church." She finished with a gesture at the church down the road. The old woman frowned at Katarina.
"That's hogwash." Swan retorted hotly. "You can sit aside a horse like a proper lady."
"You're out here on the frontier, Mother Swan." Katarina began, "So you know that's simply not possible. If I were to wear a dress, I'd freeze to death, or catch any sort of sickness. I doubt you could ride sidesaddle for sixteen to twenty hours a day for months on end, either." She challenged. "It's a matter of practicality."
Mother Swan grimaced at the inescapable logic. "I also seen you be comin' out of yon inn, Miss Katarina, don't think I didn't!" The large woman exclaimed hotly. Her white hair was swirled up under her bonnet, which was as immaculate and crisp as her apron.
Katarina nodded casually, leaning against a post and glancing up and down the main street. There were only a couple of villagers moving along the road; most would be working in the woods, or on farms or in mines, whichever this village was founded on.
"Be ye married, then?" She asked, and Katarina frowned.
"Certainly not." She replied curtly, already guessing where this conversation was headed.
"Might be best ye bunk down at the Maiden House off the side of the inn, then." She suggested in a voice that made it explicitly clear that it wasn't a suggestion. "Might could be you run into less trouble that way."
"Might could be." Katarina replied, matching the woman's speech. "I'm quite capable of protecting my honor though." She added dryly, patting her holstered gun meaningfully. "Much obliged."
Sasaki smiled at this interchange, but covered her mouth discretely when Mother Swan's gaze turned her way.
"You're a saucy one, aintcha?" She glowered at Sasaki. "Don't think I ain't forgot your sass none, either." Katarina glanced at Sasaki and wondered at the "sass" the older woman mentioned.
When Sasaki didn't say anything, the old woman swept her relentless gaze back to Katarina. "We don't need no Witch Hunter here, missy. You need to hie on outta here." She remarked again.
Katarina raised an eyebrow. "I'm not hunting." Katarina replied, and with a sigh gestured to the sallow girl in the rumpled dress. "That one and I are here because I got tired of the rain and wanted to sleep in a real bed."
Sasaki chuckled lightly. The elderly woman scrutinized Sasaki and Mystia both, eyes squinting tightly.
"She's a Witch?" The woman exclaimed with a jolt. "An' you just escortin' her 'round town like a girl at Beltane? Are you soft inna head?" The woman argued, baffled. "You burn that bitch, you hear me?!" She exclaimed, hammering her cane indignantly on the boardwalk.
Katarina patted her gun ostentatiously. "You think I'd let a Witch wander around in front of me without doing anything about it?" She scoffed. "'ware your words, woman."
"No." The elderly woman immediately retorted, voice hard and implacable. "You burn that bitch, you hear me?" the woman demanded. "You burn her right now or you best gets outta the way an' let a real Goddess-fearin' woman do it." She challenged, shaking her cane at them challengingly.
"I say she's well in hand and you'll do no such thing." Katarina replied coolly, bringing her hand down to rest on the butt of her gun. There was a long pause as the two women eyed each other. The older finally subsided slowly, swallowing audibly.
"You know my name." Katarina added gently. "Might I know yours?"
"Folks 'round these parts call me Mother Swan, though I haven't mothered any kids in a long time. i've been a grandmother longer than that, and a great-grandmother even longer." She said by way of introduction.
Sasaki bobbed her head. "Sasaki." She introduced herself briefly.
"You were one of the first settlers?" Katarina asked, and the woman nodded a bit. "Might could be. Brought my whole fam-damily over sixty year' back, children and grandchildren both." She said proudly.
"That's very impressive, Mother Swan." Katarina replied respectfully. "There aren't many who live to a venerable age like yours." Mother Swan made a dismissive noise at the compliment, flapping her hand irritably.
"You be leavin' today?" Swan asked guardedly, eyes flicking to the witch, and Katarina nodded. "The rain's stopped. I can get in some good miles, I think."
Swan shook her head with a robust chortle that set her whole body quaking. "The roads are swamps of mud and gluck, girl. Your horse would take a fall and break an ankle. It's goan rain again, mark my words."
She gestured at herself. "These old bones give me nothing but the Void's own torment when it rains, and they're saying it's gonna rain for a few more days at the least." She sighed, and shook her head. "As much as I'd like for you and yours to be gone from the village, it'd be best if you dig yourself in good, Witch Hunter."
Katarina sighed resignedly. "I'd best arrange for some supplies, then." She remarked wearily, and turned to enter the general store.
"You'll wanna be scrapin' the mud off'n your boots b'fore you head inside, missy." Swan's authoritative voice heavy with age rang out, stopping Katarina in her tracks.
"Don't act like you didn't hear me, missy. You scrape your feet 'fore you head inside." she scolded imperiously. "Ain't nobody trackin' no mud in my mercantile." the woman added relentlessly, thumping her cane for emphasis.
Katarina raised an eyebrow, and considered how she was supposed to manage that feat.
"There's a scraper right there." the woman pointed at a strangely shaped wooden block near her own feet, which were clad in simple peasant's shoes. "Sit yerself a spell and scrape yo' boots."
"Why wouldn't you want an agent of the Church in your town?" Katarina asked, picking up the tool and settling herself on the bench.
"I best hear less talkin' and more scrapin' lest I go up the side of yore head." the woman replied sternly.
Katarina sighed and took a seat on the bench opposite Mother Swan, and began scraping the mud from one of her boots.
"Tha's better." the woman said with an imperious nod.
Swan settled herself down with a muttered prayer that sounded more like a curse and let out a frustrated breath.
"Cuz you bring trouble, that's why." She replied, answering the Witch Hunter's question. "You come to this town with your high-and-mighty big city ways, thinkin' you can just walk around wearing pants like men do, takin' up in the inn, doin' Goddess-knows-what with the men there..." She trailed off and gestured at Mystia. "And bringing that abomination here. You may be a Daughter of the Goddess missy, but you bring trouble."
"That's rich." Katarina replied sarcastically. "Calling a girl that's barely had her first flowering an abomination." She mocked.
Swan glared at Katarina. "You was smart, you'd march ye'se'f over to the Maiden's House and make your bunk there... and then git the first chance ye can."
Katarina snorted. "'Twould be better to teach the men not to be rapists and thieves." She remarked drily. "But I am at the Maiden House." She paused, recalling the short but brutal fistfight between herself and Sasaki earlier- the one that had put Sasaki through the wall that divided the Maiden House with the rest of the inn, and then catapulted the diminutive Yamato girl through the front door of the inn into the middle of the street. She eyed Sasaki, who apparently was considering the same fight.
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"Luck." She begrudgingly offered, and Katarina smiled.
"Skill." She offered back. Sasaki muttered something under her breath. Katarina didn't catch what was said, but smiled at the petulant tone. Sasaki was not used to being bested.
Mother Swan rolled her eyes ostentatiously at that sally. She eyed Katarina's boots. "Well enough, I suppose. Go on in, then." She waved towards the double doors of the store with a weathered hand.
Katarina nodded, and turned to go. The woman gestured at Sasaki and Mystia. "You two, keep scrapin'."
Sasaki let out a musical chuckle. "Go ahead, Katarina. I'll keep an eye on Mystia here."
Katarina shook her head. "Certainly not. She's my responsibility." Swan's eyes shifted between the three women as she tracked the conversation.
"Given half a chance that one would tell you to fuck yourself with that ridiculous sword of yours and I'd come out of the store to find her gone and you doing something wholly inappropriate." Katarina finished.
Mystia shot Katarina a sour look, who shrugged noncommittally. "Don't say you wouldn't, either. You and I both know different." Katarina replied knowingly.
"You watch yo mouth, missy!" Mother Swan interjected, eyes wide, mouth drawn down. "Ain't no call for that kinda talk."
Katarina cut her an irritated glance. "Sorry, but it's true. She can spell you into doing whatever she wants with her songs." She replied. The older portly woman rocked back on the bench with shock.
"Oh, Lady!" She exclaimed. "Think how wonderful she'd be in a choir if that were true!"
Katarina shook her head. "Even if she were to bewitch people into living wholesome Goddess-fearing lives, it would be the result of sorcery, not true devotion." She replied clinically. "Could you stand at the feet of the Goddess and hear her tell you that your entire life had been but a lie?" Katarina posed the older woman, who shuddered. Katarina nodded knowingly.
"An' still you ain't gonna burn her? Witch Hunter you be crazy." Mother Swan declared. Katarina shook her head. "She'll be brought to a church that can teach and train her to use her abilities properly, for the benefit of all, as the Goddess of the Dawn intended." She replied.
Sasaki and Mystia scraped their shoes until Swan was satisfied and gestured to the doors with a quick gesture.
The interior of the general store was a sprawling affair. Katarina eyed the map that was along the wall.
"Well, this might help a bit." She remarked sarcastically, and gestured at the map. Sasaki shrugged. "Not really. I saw it already when I arrived here days before you did."
Katarina eyed the map and pointed. "Aston is on the coast, and Higgenfal is..." She frowned, blinking. "maybe here?" She asked curiously, and gestured much further inland. Sasaki shrugged. "I came north from Begierde... Which isn't even on this map." She replied. Katarina sighed in resignation. There were no landmarks or anything to provide a frame of reference, except for rivers and trees, lakes and mountains.
"Is this even Hesperia?" Sasaki asked, and Katarina chuckled. "I've seen maps of the continent, Sasaki. This one is..." She shook her head. "Useless."
Sasaki trailed after Katarina as the taller woman strode to the counter, where the proprietor stood. Sasaki hadn't been able to understand the man at all and was prepared to laugh at Katarina's expense.
The man gabbled at her incomprehensibly, and Katarina suddenly underwent a subtle change. She cocked her hip to the side and put one of her hands to her waist and gestured with the other and gabbled right back. Sasaki's eyes widened in shock.
They gabbled back and forth incomprehensibly, Sasaki avidly watching Katarina go through a number of expressive poses, and this seemed to come to an end when they both laughed uproariously, followed by Katarina slapping the counter a few times appreciatively. She leaned forward and Sasaki finally caught something comprehensible.
"You have a candlemaker here in town?" She asked suddenly, and Sasaki frowned in disbelief. Candlemaker?
The shopkeep gabbled at her again, and Katarina nodded and made a so-so gesture with her hand, rocking it gently. The man nodded knowingly at her and gabbled at her again in his strangely accented speech and gestured. Katarina nodded, and turned to go.
She eyed Sasaki, who was staring at her wonderingly.
"I've no idea what just happened there." Sasaki replied, and Katarina smiled.
"Okay." she replied, and gestured to the door. "I'm done here for now. Unless there was something you needed?" She asked, and Sasaki shook her head.
As they stepped out of the store, Katarina glanced at Mother Swan, who nodded at her. Katarina nodded back, and prepared to head to the front gate, when Mother Swan's bold voice cracked out at her.
"You come see me on the morrow, Katarina. Mayhap you learn sommin. Anyone kin tell you where my house be." She called out comfortably. An impertinent feeling rose up within Katarina so quickly she couldn't resist; she nodded and touched touched the brim of her hat like a man and inwardly reveled in the hot look of affront that flashed across Mother Swan's face.
"Are we leaving? What about your horse?" Sasaki asked curiously. Katarina glanced back at her. "Leaving? I'm not leaving yet. I'm just having a look at yon gate."
Sasaki's face screwed up in an expression of confusion. "What? Why?" She waved her hand by her head as a bug buzzed by her ear annoyingly.
"I'm curious, is all." Katarina replied, gesturing to Mystia to catch up.
"What was that back there?" Sasaki demanded, irritated. "I couldn't understand a thing that was said between you two."
Katarina chuckled. "It's a local patois." She replied indifferently.
"What what?" She asked, and Katarina laughed. "Hmm. For you, I guess a good example would be... Picture a Yamato village. Every so often they substitute a word or phrase in Anglish in their everyday speech."
Sasaki made a sour face. "Ugh. A horrible idea."
Katarina laughed, but continued. "Now move that village to Angland and the Anglish takes over and they speak less and less Yamato."
Sasaki's face screwed up contemptuously. "Offensive." She replied curtly.
"But a necessary evolution. You might not understand, but many of these people haven't been on this continent very long. Less than a hundred years. They come from a country on the continent of Rothgar where Anglish was only passingly spoken. Here, Anglish is the primary language and theirs is the subordinate." She replied casually. "They mix. There's some of their language, some lyonesse, and some Anglish." She gestured at the gate. Sasaki blew out a breath in frustration, but slogged through the mud after the white-haired woman.
"That doesn't explain how you can speak that... whatever that was." Sasaki replied sulkily.
"Part of my training." Katarina replied dismissively. "I'm familiar with all the regional languages where the Anglish Empire has a hold."
"You best not speak to me in Yamato." Sasaki warned dangerously. Katarina laughed at that, and refrained from retorting in Yamato.
Katarina planted herself by the gate mechanism and examined it curiously. It was a thing of gears and counterweights that baffled simple examination, but after triggering the mechanism herself and watching the gate swing upwards seemingly on its own, she was able to discern its workings.
"What're you doing? It's just a gate latch." Sasaki asked, grimacing at the sucking sound of her shoes in the mud.
"This is dwarven work." Katarina replied, pointing at the mechanism.
"Bullshit. how could this be dwarven work? Dwarves don't leave their fortresses." Sasaki objected.
"Well, that's not exactly right; there are a few dwarves in Darnell, but you're essentially correct. Nevertheless, that doesn't change the fact that this is in fact, dwarven work." Katarina replied smartly.
"Okay, you raise a good point. So what's dwarven work doing in a shanty town like this?" Sasaki asked, and Katarina smiled.
"You finally ask the right question." she replied with a wink at the smaller woman.
"Okay, so what was that about a candlemaker, then?" She challenged, and Katarina smiled. "I need to get some tallow, is all." She replied, spreading her hands disarmingly.
"Why not wax?" Sasaki asked, and Katarina shrugged. "I very much doubt that there's wax here." She replied. "In towns like this, candles are usually made from rendered animal fat or beeswax." She replied. "Besides, for what I need, tallow is better."
Sasaki shrugged indifferently. "So, on to the candlemaker's shop, I guess?" She asked, and Katarina nodded. "I don't mind if you tag along, though you'll be bored."
At the candlemaker's shop, Katarina requested to use one of the tallow pails; the pails were typically used to store melted tallow while a wick was repeatedly dipped, creating the long, thin candles typically used by everyone.
Sasaki watched Katarina avidly as she dunked long strips of parchment into the hot tallow, and then spooled the saturated paper around a brass cylinder.
"What're you doing?" Sasaki asked quietly as she observed the bizarre procedure.
"One of the great secrets of the Anglish Empire." Katarina replied mysteriously, but she rolled her eyes amusedly at Sasaki.
"Not really a straight answer, Witch Hunter." Sasaki replied, and Katarina nodded. "Same for you, Mercenary."
"I told you, I'm not a mercenary." Sasaki retorted, and Katarina shrugged disinterestedly.
"You say you bare your blade for 'purpose'." She shot back, and Sasaki nodded.
"Just so." Sasaki affirmed with a nod. "My blade is not meant for the simpleminded fools with trumped-up visions of glory in their heads." She offered by way of explanation. "I was going to move on once the rains let up, but then you showed up." She added with a smile. "You're far more interesting than an exhausting slog down a muddy rutted track of a road." She finished. "I've never met a Witch Hunter. I should like to learn a bit about you before I move on."
"Everything is an experience." Katarina agreed distantly, her mind on her task. She carefully slid the brass cylinder out of the cooled paper, creating a waxed paper tube. She brought out a handful of brass caps and folding down one end of the tube, tucked the paper into the brass cap.
"I don't understand." Sasaki observed, frowning at the thing. Katarina slid the brass cylinder back into the tube again and pressed down, compressing the folded end into the brass cap. She set that aside and pulled out a pair of heavily ornamented cow horns from her pack, as well as a couple of bizarre mechanisms Sasaki couldn't begin to discern.
Katarina eyed the young Yamato woman carefully, and then pointed everything out, touching them in turn. "Priming powder. gunpowder. Patch paper. Compressor." she picked up one of the lead balls that rolled around unsteadily. "Ball."
"You're going to use all of that for... what?" Sasaki asked, and Katarina smiled. "You've never seen bullets being made?" She asked, and Sasaki's mouth twisted and her almond-shaped eyes widened.
"Bullets." She repeated slowly, and Katarina nodded. "You have a little primer in the bottom of each cartridge." She gestured, "and then your load of gunpowder. Then you add a patch, and then you compress everything with the compressor. finally the ball and compress again. Fold the edges of the cartridge around the ball and you're done." She smiled briefly. "Simple." and then let out a short bark of a laugh, startling the smaller woman. "Also boring. If you want to sit there and watch me mix powders and make bullets then that's your nevermind, but I imagine there's all sorts of trouble you could be getting yourself into out there."
Sasaki settled herself to watch as Katarina went through the process of making bullets several times, her attention never wavering as Katarina went through the repetitions. After several bullets were made with no change in the routine, Sasaki settled herself on a stool, pulled out her own small pack, and withdrew several of her own implements- a stoppered jar, and a handful of folded squares of cloth of varying textures and thicknesses.
Katarina took a moment to glance over at Sasaki. The smaller woman had drawn her sword and was wiping down the blade with some unguent that was redolent with the pungent scent of cloves.
Sasaki eyed Katarina briefly. "Nothing as sophisticated as what you're doing, I'm afraid." She remarked casually. "Don't let me disturb your work." She added, without breaking rhythm. Katarina returned to her bullet-making, idly wondering how Sasaki was able to draw her sword effectively. She still hadn't seen it done.
"Would that unguent be effective with my sword?" Katarina mused as she poured and measured.
"Effective how?" Sasaki replied. "It's a cleaning and preservative for the steel. Certainly you use something similar." Sasaki added. "Yamato or Anglish, a cleaning solution is a cleaning solution."
Katarina nodded, and added another completed bullet.
"How many of those do you need to make?" Sasaki asked as she cleaned.
"As many as are necessary." Katarina replied blandly, and Sasaki grimaced. "Your glibness does you no credit." She muttered.
"Bored?" Katarina asked, and nodded to herself. "I expected you would be. I did tell you that this would bore you." She reminded.
"I am not bored. I am curious." Sasaki replied shortly. Katarina smiled to herself. Petulance again?
"I have never been in a situation that required a protracted firefight." Katarina allowed. "Nor should I expect to in the future." She added. "However, I happen to be in a relatively safe harbor with the necessary implements available. To paraphrase from the Book of the Golden Lady, I will 'gather my rosebuds while I may'."
Sasaki laughed. "I don't think that's how it was meant to be interpreted." She replied, and Katarina nodded.