On Sun, 21 Mar 1999, Jed Hagen wrote:

At 06:21 PM 3/21/99 +0100, Ronny Hedin wrote:

held it, she felt a sensation run up her arm, as if the thing really
were possessed with magical power.   Her Devil Hunter ring

the thing - it - was

It's in the subjunctive mood ('contrary to fact'), and therefore correct 
as is.

Ex: 'If I were a rich man...'

Just to be picky, although I admit I'm not gramarian, I thought the
subjunctive represented 'opinion' or 'conditionalness', rather than
necessarily expressing contrariness to fact.

If I say, 'Black is white', I'm not using the conjunctive, but if I say
'If Black were white', which is a conditional, I am.

I admit I may just be smoking crack here, though.

John Walter Biles :  MA-History, Ph.D Wannabe at U. Kansas         
ranma@falcon.cc.ukans.edu       
rhea@tass.org              http://www.tass.org/~rhea/falcon.html
rhea@maison-otaku.net      http://www.maison-otaku.net/~rhea/

Bailesu:  But the plot had so many holes, I could fly the Yamato through
it.