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Djinn - 07 - Fight and Flight

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He pointed a shaking finger behind me. “Kill him!”

Turning, I saw Paul fighting desperately against a larger opponent.

Two options. Okay, I got this.

I bounded across the room and interposed myself between Paul and the stranger. Grabbing Paul by the shirt I lifted him from the ground and said, “Paul Paul, Lamp Lamp.” Then flung him across the room where he slid to a stop next to my wounded Master.

Whirling back around to face the stranger, I carried out my Master’s wishes. Materialising a sabre, I slashed it across the strangers throat. He fell to his knees, clutching at the ruined mess of his neck. Blood ran in rivers through his thick fingers.

“Not him, you fool!” my new master screamed, struggling with Paul over the lamp. “Kill this man!”

I smiled and shook a finger at him. “You forgot to say the magic word.”

A look of confusion ran across his face and turned into anger. “I wish you would kill this man attacking me!”

I sighed. Okay, that’s specific enough I guess.

Materialising another sabre from thin air, I started walking towards the struggling pair at a normal pace.

“Hey Paul,” I said conversationally, swinging the sabres in dazzling arcs. “I’m going to kill you in about 5 seconds if you don’t get your game together.”

I watched Paul erupt in fury, beating on the guy like a monkey playing drums. He wrestled the lamp away and rolled to the side just as I wound up for a swing. “I wish you would take care of this mess!”

Invisible chains of compulsion snapped and new ones flowed from the lamp to bind me once more into slavery.

“As you wish, Master.” I gritted.

Materialising a sturdy wood chair and rope to hold my prisoner, I grabbed at my previous master. An electric shock ran up my arm like a bolt of lightning and dropped me to the floor. “Gah!”

I rolled around for a minute in agony until my arm was filled with pins and needles instead of molten lava.

“I’m sorry, Master.” I whinged at Paul. “I cannot touch that man.”

Paul wiped blood from his face and got back to work, beating the stranger with my lamp until he curled into a ball. I watched, filled with strange emotions as my hatefully beloved and indestructible lamp was abused in such a manner. He grabbed a silver chain with a large medallion hung around the man’s neck and attempted to remove it, but it refused to slip off. Shrugging, he planted a knee in his attackers back and used the chain as a garrotte, holding it tight until the man convulsed, beating against the floor, then stopped moving. Paul held it tight for another minute and removed it.

“I’m thinking that maybe unbreakable amulets might not be so cool after all,” Paul said, fingering the one around his neck. Looking at the mess I had left of the other man, he shook his head. “Damn. I really wish one of them was alive so we could get some information.”

I struggled to speak, but the old rules were in effect and the chains stronger than ever. Paul would have to wish for me to speak freely before I could advise him again. I twisted the possibilities, trying to interpret the command in some alternate manner, but there was only one real option available.

“As you wish, MASTER!” I screamed, hoping to get the point across.

Rising to my feet, I drew deep on the core of the lamp and funnelled the purified mana-water I had collected into the necessary power. The corpse slid into the centre of the room and a glowing circuit of Kufic appeared underneath it. It quickly filled with energy as I tapped my reserves, glowing with a dark nimbus as magic was channeled into the design. Paul watched, speechless, as forbidden words rolled off my tongue and actuated the magic. With the sound of tearing cloth, the veil between Life and Death was split asunder and a ghostly mist flowed into the once living body.

It twitched. Then opened swollen eyes and grinned.

From across the room, bloody fingernails scrabbled against the hardwood floor.

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S: 10may2020

F: 10may2020

W: 715

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