The whole world here is witchcraft, and I have long since resolved that every soul I meet is a witch or a warlock, whether they confess it or not.
I suspect my mistress is chief among them. She speaketh to a glowing slate and it answereth. She hath no horses, yet she rideth in an iron carriage that roareth softly like a caged dragon, and I am permitted to sit upon her lap as she conjureth it forward.
'Twas upon such a ride, this very Saturday past, that I beheld a dreadful sight.
Before a merchant's hall stood a great line of men, stretching round the corner and past the cobbler's, or what passeth for a cobbler's now. They stood in the grey of morning, clutching cups of black enchanted brew, and murmuring low as any coven at a crossroads.
"Mistress," I mewed, "what dark sabbath is this?"
She laughed, the witch, and spoke to the glowing slate. "Scalpers," quoth she. "Lining up for the new cards."
Scalpers. My fur stood upon its end. I know that word, for in mine own day it meant a grim and bloody business. "Mistress!" I cried. "Do these warlocks come to take our hair from our very heads?"
"They buy up the cards, the little painted pictures of pocket-beasts, then sell them to others for far more coin," she said to the glowing slate.
I considered this. Pocket-beasts! Painted creatures bound upon paper, summoned by spell and traded among the faithful! 'Twas plainer than plain. A conjuring rite most foul. The men wanted not a few cards but whole stacks of them, to sell at triple price to children and kinsmen of the cards. Such usury would have seen them in the stocks in mine own century.
"They are warlocks," I whispered. "Hoarding familiars of paper for coin."
Only a high priestess of the craft could witness such rites without trembling.
We rolled onward, the iron carriage purring, and I watched the warlocks dwindle behind us through the glass. One looked toward me with evil eyes.
Let none say a cat hath no power in this age.
Now, if the mistress would be so kind as to conjure my supper, I shall consider forgiving her for the whole affair.