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Djinn - 04 - Beers and Bikinis

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Paul took a long drag from his cigarette and looked across the ocean thoughtfully. “What if I don’t want that?”

My heart skipped and jumped like a child playing hopscotch. I considered my words carefully. “I can’t stop you from wishing for anything you want, I can’t harm you, or do anything that will cause you to be harmed,” I said.

“I wish I had a beer.”

I materialised a warm Natural Light Ice in his hand. Paul looked at it, grimaced, and dropped it in the sand.

“I wish a dozen beautiful bikini girls were dancing on the beach for me.”

I materialised a dozen beautiful bikini clad pre-teens. They began dancing awkwardly and blowing kisses at Paul.

Paul rolled his head back and stared into the umbrella above. “Nothing’s ever easy, is it?” He said.

“I’ve had it easy all my life,” I admitted. “And I’m way outside my comfort zone. I just want to be free again.”

“What if I wish you were…”

“STOP!” I yelled, jumping out of the chair and pointing a finger at him. “Never do that! Never! That’s one of those rules that I can’t get around. Don’t ever do that. You’ll end up as a slave to the lamp.”

Paul looked at me, his eyes wide with shock. All the blood drained from his face, leaving him pale. “You mean…”

“Yes,” I said, pacing in the sand, angry. Angry at everything. The situation. My mother. Lord Hatt and his cabal of cronies. Angry at Paul. And angry because I was scared of all the stuff I didn’t know and could go wrong. “Yes, that would set me free. It would also chain you to the lamp as a third rate minor Djinn granting people three wishes for eternity. And because you’re just a human, you’d probably be trapped in there for decades before you were strong enough to be summoned. I’d be left alone out here, powerless.”

He rooted around in the cooler, then closed it. “Can I get something stronger? Whiskey maybe?”

I used free action on his request and materialised a bottle of Macallan and a tumbler. He poured three fingers with shaking hands and downed it, choked a bit, then poured another.

“You’re really not trying to screw me over, are you?” Paul said.

I sighed and slumped my shoulders. “No, mate. I’m not,” I said, looking him in the eyes. “Yes, I’m using you for my own ends, but there’s no reason why we both can’t benefit from this. We can both get what we want. What do you want, Paul? What would make you happy?”

He considered it, sipping on the whiskey and pulling out another smoke. The girls had run down the beach and were playing in the water, squealing and laughing.

“I’m not a complicated guy,” He said. “If you’d asked me what I wanted yesterday, I would have said enough money to never work again.”

“That can be arranged,” I said, nodding. “Easily. But we shouldn’t use magic for it.”

He cocked an eyebrow at me.

I explained. “Magic produces something from nothing. When the magic is gone, only the effects are left.”

I materialised a solid gold cannon ball in the air and it fell to the sand with a thud. “The cannon ball doesn’t really exist. The gold isn’t real. I mean, it's real, but it's not real. If you don’t possess the lamp, if I’m no longer bound to it, it all goes away,” I said, waving my hand and watching as it dissolved into blue sparkles that whirled away and vanished. “But the hole it left in the sand is real. So money is incredibly easy, up to a certain point. I can manipulate computers and the markets and fill a bank account with millions. It’s just 1’s and 0’s. Billions will draw attention though. Doing it too fast will draw attention.”

“So they aren’t real?” Paul asked, pointing at the pre-teens splashing in the water.

“No,” I chuckled. “100% pure magic. They just seem real. Even if you sliced them up and looked under a microscope. But the moment the magic is repossessed, they go away. I can summon real things, but it takes much more power and has other consequences.”

“That was a shitty thing to do,” He laughed, watching the girls frolic in the waves.

“Yeah, sorry.” I smiled. “We good?”

“Only if you promise to never do that again,” He said. “I’m not a paedophile.”

“I swear I’ll never summon underage girls unless you ask,” I promised. “So what can I do to make you happy?”

Paul sighed. “Like I said, yesterday I would have said money. But now that there are more options, I don’t know. I’m not close to my family, at all. Most of my friends are online, so I spend all my time gaming. Never had money to travel or do things, ya know?” His eyes lit up for a moment. “Hey, can you make it so my father never enjoys a drink ever again?”

“Alcoholic?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he said. “A mean one.”

I mentally tapped the lamp and felt my way through the infinite options available. “Make the wish,” I said.

“I wish my father would never enjoy a drink again.”

I focused, then clapped my hands together and released the power. “Now he can drink like a fish, but will always be sober.”

Paul smiled grimly and gazed at the amber fluid in his glass. “I should probably watch my drinking too. I know I drink way more than I should.”

I sat down in my chair and leaned back. “I would suggest that you get magic items that buff you.”

“They’ll just vanish when you’re free,” He argued.

“Not if I make them out of real materials,” I smiled. “It’s more complex, but I can do it as long as I have the knowledge of the lamp.”

“That’s a game changer,” He said.

“Indeed,” I agreed. “So why don’t we make some protection amulets first and then work on other magical jewellery for buffs? Just use the word ‘real’ and I’ll interpret it to gather materials from whatever world necessary.”

“From whatever world necessary? Like parallel universes?”

I searched the lamp for an easy answer. “Yes. Sort of? There’s only one universe, but it contains everything. It’s just a simple set of rules that is eternally executing and creates everything around us. We see one version of reality because that’s where we were created, but there are other versions of reality that exist. Pretty much everything exists in every conceivable form. Every book, every movie, every possibility exists and is just a result of the rules. Magic works by borrowing from those other versions, usually temporarily, to keep costs down.”

“So if I wanted a real magic sword?”

“I could make one using materials here on Earth, or I could Shift? Portal?” I struggled for the concept. “Whatever, I could portal in some materials that were much more magical and create something that had a lot more oomph. Or I could portal something, I guess. Depending on the physics involved. I’m not terribly powerful, so unless you want me back in the lamp recharging for a few years, I’d suggest asking first.”

Paul gave a quick nod then yawned. “Man I’m tired. So other worlds are real? Stuff like ‘Land of Dreams’ and ‘Lord of the Rings’ are real places we can go? That would be pretty cool.”

“They exist in an infinite number of forms and are real places, yes,” I said, gathering information from the lamp and sighing at the distraction. “But again, my power is limited. We should concentrate on this reality for now.”

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

The barrier protecting us thudded like a giant was pounding on it, interrupting our conversation.

“What the hell was that?” Paul demanded, sitting up in alarm.

“That was someone knocking on the door,” I said. “They’re looking for you.”

BLAAAAAAAM!

Glowing spiderwebs ran like lightning along the barrier. I winced in pain as power was pulled from my navel to repair it.

“And that would be Mother, asking for me by name.”

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S: 18apr20

F: 20apr20

W: 1368

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