I materialized in the middle of a vacant lot. Trash blew around on the wind, and the smell of feces assaulted my nostrils. Steven was a few feet away, pulling his pants up. A giant load of crap sat proudly on the asphalt below him.

"Did you even wipe?" I asked, more than a little disgusted.

Steven smiled. "Do you see any toilet paper round here."

A gust of wind dislodged a piece of newspaper from a chain-link fence. I snatched it out of the air and waved it at the moron. "You mean like this?"

"Yeah," Steven said, "but it was way over there. Anyway, that's kinda why I called you. I wanna make my second wish."

"You mean your third wish," I said.

"Hey! You're gonna charge me that last wish? It saved you too!"

"Rules are rules," I said. "Even if I wanted to give you a freebie, I can't." I knew from the one remaining gold link between us what I was saying was true.

"That's bullshit," Steven said.

"It is what it is. I have to be at work soon, so you're gonna need to hurry this up."

"Genies work?"

"This one does," I said.

"Fine, I wish for a million dollars.”

Why the shit is it always a million dollars? If you’re going to wish for money, why not a billion, or hell, a trillion? I searched the ether for the threads of chance I would need. Just give him his million dollars, and be free of him. Once I gathered the threads, I checked the residual probability.

"Look," I said. "If I give you this money, a lot of people are going to have terrible things happen to them."

"I don't care," Steven spat. "A lot of bad shit's happened to me, and I don't see nobody rushing in to wrap me up in caring arms!"

"You have a genie," I said. "Right now, you're probably the luckiest person on earth."

I thought about how giving Steven a million dollars would work out. Unlike with the bass, his future was a crystal ball. Was that because we were bound? It didn't matter. What I saw disturbed me. Steven would take that money and lead a hedonistic lifestyle for all of three days. Then he'd be dead. Even the disease I'd cured him of wouldn't have killed him that quickly.

"You want to live, right?" I asked

Steven laughed. "I told you threats was pointless."

"I'm not threatening you. But if I give you this money, you're going to die sooner than if you'd never met me."

Part of me wanted to give him the money and watch his descent into degradation and death. No, that wasn’t right; it didn't just want to, it demanded it. I felt myself gathering the threads to comply before I knew what was happening.

I clapped my hands to my side and gritted my teeth. "Look, there's a part of me that wants to see you do this. But there's a better way."

"Just give me my money," Steven said.

Those words robbed me of all choice in the matter. I could not disobey a direct command from my master. The threads came to me unbidden, and I watched as they materialized into bricks of one hundred dollar bills, just like on the bus. Steven's maniacal grin unsettled me as he descended upon the cash.

I recoiled as the last golden link broke. It felt like a part of me had simultaneously been ripped away and put back. Steven's threads became less distinct by degrees until they matched the background's intensity.

"Painful isn't it," Jinn said.

I spun around to see her standing on the other side of the fence. Without thinking, I tried to call as many threads as I could to me.

"No need for that," she said.

She walked through the fence toward me. For a moment, I could see the threads of chance part where she contacted chain links. The fence improbably broke apart and reconnected so fast she looked like a ghost walking through a wall.

I didn't know what to do. Jinn's energy swirled and writhed around her, but it looked more peaceful than it had on the train.

"Don't come any closer," I said.

She laughed, light and melodic. "Tell me, David, what are the Genie's Laws?"

Without thought, I answered. "Genie's first law is the Universal Law of Probability. No genie shall change Universal Probability beyond negative .01 or positive .01. All changes to local probability produced by a Genie will be balanced against the Universal Probability."

"Go on," Jinn said.

"That's all I know," I said.

"Really? I wonder…" Her voice trailed off. "Who is the leader of the Zaeim Aljiniy?"

"What?" I said.

"You really don't know?" she asked.

"What the hell is the Zaeim Aljiniy?"

"The Zaeim Aljiniy is the council that controls all Djinn. When awoken, a Djinn is supposed to gain the basic knowledge all genies need. Including our laws and who leads us."

"OK. So somehow I got left out of the loop." My impatience and fear fought for control until my curiosity flanked them both and won the battle. "I have a question for you."

Jinn tilted her head a little. "Ask."

"Why the fuck did you try to kill me?" My voice was harsher than I wanted, but someone trying to kill you isn't something you get over in a flash.

"I assumed," Jinn said, "you were another dormant genie positioned to kill me. So, I woke your power by making a wish upon you."

"And what if I hadn't been a genie?" I asked.

Jinn's smile returned. "Then, you would have had an amusing story to tell your friends.”

This whole situation confused me. "If you thought I was a genie sent to kill you, then why not just kill me and be done with it?"

"Genie's Second Law," Jinn said. "The Law of Mortal Binding. A genie may not end the life of a mortal before its natural time unless such ending is brought upon by the mortal's actions."

"So killing isn't allowed," I said. "but it's possible?"

"Quite possible," Jinn said. "But, if a genie kills a mortal, their souls become bound. The genie goes to Aljahim, where the mortal has an eternity to exact its revenge."

"Aljahim?" I said.

"You truly don't know any of the things you should," Jinn said. "Aljahim is hell, for lack of a better word."

The sound of Steven furiously trying to fill his pockets with money distracted me. There was no way he could carry all of it, and he seemed to sense me looking at him.

"Hey, genie," he said. "gimme a hand?"

I looked at Jinn. "Are we allowed to help them once the bond is broken?"

"When we are unbound, our power is ours to do with as we please," Jinn said. "It is one of the reasons the laws exist. An unbound genie is quite a powerful force."

I thought about my prediction. I didn't particularly like Steven, but I didn't want him to die. I gathered a few threads and prepared to set the remaining money on fire when a thought struck me.

There were probably a few hundred thousand dollars still piled up on the ground. I thought about all the people I'd affected by that wish. I couldn't target them directly, but I could try to help a little.

I changed the threads, and a large gust of wind blew the pile of money high into the air. I knew that somehow, miraculously, none of that money would land anywhere it couldn't be found.

"No!" Steven cried. He tried to snatch some bills from the air. "That's my money! I said, help me, not rob me!"

A part of my mind celebrated the anguish on his face. It was a part that grew larger by the second.

"Trust me, Steven," I said. "I did help you."

"Sadistic," Jinn said. "I approve."

I rolled my eyes."Yeah, you seem like the type to enjoy suffering."

I watched Steven slink away. At least he seemed smart enough not to attack an all-powerful genie. I checked his aura, and it appeared my actions had given him a chance at a long life. Between that, and spreading around the money that would help a lot of people, I was pretty satisfied.

"You know," Jinn said, "you won't keep doing that. Helping people, I mean."

"You don't know a thing about me!" I said.

Jinn's face turned melancholy. "True, but I know me, and we're not as different as you might want to believe."

"Bullshit," I said. "You're a cruel bitch that woke my powers HOPING I would be a genie so that you could fucking kill me. I'm nothing like that."

"That's because you still think like a mortal," she said.

"I am a mortal…aren't I?"

My voice trailed off as reality sank in. I knew I wasn't. Deep in my soul, I knew I was forever changed. Rage overcame me, and I hurled a fist at Jinn.

"You bitch! You had no right!"

Jinn didn't seem the least bit surprised. She stepped to the side before my punch made it halfway to her. I threw a left at her, which she dodged just as quickly. I gathered threads of chance around me, prepared to engulf Jinn in an inferno. It shocked me how easy it was. All the ingredients were abundant, and the act wouldn't even change the balance of probability that much.

Before I snapped the threads into place, I let them slip away. I wasn't a destructive or violent person, and it scared me how easily the violence had come, and how easy it would have been to act on it.

"Just," I said, breathing hard, "leave me alone."

"I will give you time to adjust," Jinn said. "There is something odd about you, and it may be that I don't need to kill you. But we will speak again."

She vanished in a puff of smoke. Just before she disappeared, I saw her body. Her lower half dissolved into mist and trailed off into the ether, connecting her to it. I looked down at my own body.

Beyond the facade of two human legs, I could see the same roiling mist. Compared to Jinn’s, mine was indistinct and appeared knotted in several places. I tried to follow its trail into the ether, but the only thing I could discern was a general direction. I checked my watch. If I hurried, I could barely make it to work on time.