Nabiki cursed herself. Of course, of course Kasumi would zero in on salt spilled all over the house. What Nabiki knew as a vital line of defense, Kasumi thought of as just a wasteful use of a cooking ingredient.
With a deep, heavy sigh, Nabiki sat in her room after applying a fresh defensive barrier at her door and window. There had to be a way to ward the house from the Deep Ones and...and whatever other things lurked in the veiled shadows. But if she just spread her salt as she did before, it would just get swept up and her supply would be depleted further to no benefit.
There has to be some way. How can I defend the house without setting Kasumi's cleaning senses off? Nabiki began to pace her room. I can't salt every door and window. Kasumi will probably sweep up the salt I just set at my door any minute. If there was some way I could be discreet and defend the house, then...
She stopped pacing as a spark of inspiration struck. Wait a minute. Fengshui has something to do with building orientation leading to a proper karmic balance, or at least something like that. And Onmyoji of the Heian era studied geomancy...
Recalling that there were old books on Fengshui and similar mystical concepts among her dad's collection, Nabiki bolted from her room and dashed downstairs in a blur. She rifled through a bookcase of her dad's books and collected any that seemed even vaguely on the subject of geomancy, and then barreled back upstairs to her room. She dropped the armful of texts on her bed, and then plopped down on the mattress to read.
***
"No!" Nabiki tossed a third book aside. "Damn it, how many of these stupid books are about arranging furniture?" With a frustrated growl, she picked up the fourth book. "A Beginner's Guide to Geomancy?" She opened the text and scanned the table of contents. "I swear, if this is another book about which way the couch should face--Oh!"
Chapter 5: Basic Concepts of Spiritual Defense
Nabiki flipped forward to the fifth chapter and began to read.
While the specific method of defense against the supernatural will vary (use of a holy icon, charms, garlic, salt, etc.), the proper defense of a wider area such as a home or shrine is most effective by channeling the ward through the building's focus. The focus is the point on the grounds that holds the greatest amount of spiritual energy. The specific position of the focus varies greatly with the grounds in question, and may not be obvious.
"A focus?" Nabiki blinked. "What would that be for this house? The dojo? Or maybe..."
"Oh my." The soft tone of Kasumi's voice was barely audible through Nabiki's door. No doubt she had found the fresh line of salt Nabiki had set in her own room's doorway.
Nabiki groaned. "Oh, no." There was no purer being in the house than Kasumi. Her room was in all likelihood a beacon of purity and a powerful focus. I know that the book said the locations might not be obvious, but where else in this madhouse could it be? She read further in hopes that the book would provide some method to divine the best way to identify a focus.
Sat Dec 29 03:36:51 2018
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