When our hero was released from the Darkness, he was standing in the burning light of the Sahara next to a mirage he vaguely remembered. Before him was a man dressed in many layers of garments, and a small traveling caravan behind him. The man held in his hand a ring. Around the red gemmed ring was stamped NHS Lions 1987, and it gleamed in the sunlight.
“You are a Jinni?” The man said in a shaking tone.
“So it would seem.” He squinted to take in the blinding sun, trying to make sense of it all.
Many of the man’s fellows dropped to their knees in the sand, and a beautiful young woman peeked out from behind the man holding the ring.
“You grant wishes?” asked the man, who was turning giddy with fantasies of wealth and power.
Our hero’s mind pieced together fragments of memory. “From what I understand.”
The man jumped in excitement and turned to his fellows. “Up. Up,” he commanded, and they stood, though some were hesitant. “You can give us gold and food and power?”
Our hero remembered the young girl he had once saved from a warrior beast. “And travel through time and realities,” he offered, unaware of the beast he, himself, had just created.
The man’s fellows joined him now, admiring the ring, remarking on how strange it was. They all confided in each other and debated on what to wish for, while the man’s daughter remained hidden and silent.
After speaking aloud dreams of women, luxury, and fertile land, the men had settled on a plan, and they composed themselves. “Jinni,” The man with the ring cleared his throat, “I wish…”
When the wishes went well, he was offered his own palace of gold and a harem. He refused both. But, when the wishes didn’t work in the man’s favor, the Jinni was threatened with torture and was put back into the ring to be suspended in the eternal darkness. How the wishes worked out, the Jinni couldn’t control. That was in the hands of fate.
Sometimes the man wished for water and received a canteen, other times he would receive a flood. Sometimes, he wished for priceless gems, and he would be granted an overflowing chest. Other times, he’d wish for gold and be granted a single coin. Then, he wished to be king and found he had no loyal subjects, because they all wanted his power which resided in his ring.
One night, the man’s daughter entered the hero’s modest and private room. Oftentimes, the hero thought he and she had shared empathetic looks with one another, glances and nods that said I see you.
When she had slipped into the room, he saw she had the ring stamped NHS Lions 1987 pinched between her fingers. “Hello, Jinni.”
His brows narrowed as she glanced at the ring. “What have you done?” he asked, envisioning her father’s wrath once he discovered the ring was missing.
“I haven’t done much, yet. But, imagine what you and I can do together. I am the one with the power now.” She twirled the ring on her tiny index finger.
“That thing is a curse!” he spat. “Have you not seen what it has done to your father, the king?”
“What you have done to him, my friend.” Her ringed hand was seated upon her hip.
“No.” Our hero shook his head, pleadingly.
“Yes,” she urged, “you have embarrassed him and foiled him at every turn, a fate he deserves. At times, your mistreatment of him has left me feeling envious. I wish… I’ve longed for the ability to diminish him as you have, even when I was a little girl. He is a monster.”
Our hero explained in earnest, “He wasn’t before he got the ring. Once, he was a hardworking tradesman, desiring what any other man desires, and now his pride and his lust have destroyed him, as yours will you.”
“Together, you and I could rule this kingdom, which you made appear from sand and air. If you help me, rather than trick me like you do my father, I will make you king by my side.”
“No. I have no desire to be a king.”
“I will grant you your freedom. That is what Jinn desire most, is it not?”
Our hero thought on this. He remembered another girl he had saved from this fate. He thought of this tradesman’s daughter, now a princess, taking his place in his suspended dark abyss with the demons. He took a ragged breath. “No.”
“What can I persuade you with then?”
“Nothing.” He said, “There is nothing you can do that can change what is. The ring is cursed, and any good that comes from it is negated with wrongs. Wish at your own peril, but I can do nothing to save you from yourself.”
A look of piercing malice slipped across her delicate face. “Fine. So be it. When I am sovereign you will rue this day. I will make you beg at my feet, and may you never dream, and may you be cursed all your days.”
Our hero knew there was nothing he could do. His heart broke and cried out for understanding and mercy, but he swallowed it and bowed his head. “So be it then. What is your first wish?”
“I wish my father was dead.” The king died in that moment while he slept.
“I wish to be crowned Queen as his rightful heir.” She was crowned Queen the next day, and her father’s enemies struck out and attacked the palace while it was in transition and weakened.
The Queen was awoken in the dead of night and dragged to the throne room. Though she cried out wish after wish, none of them were granted, for they had wisely removed the ring from her finger while she had still been asleep. It was, after all, far too big for her slim hands.
The leader of the rebellion was her father’s brother, the man appointed to run the kingdom’s military, and he slipped on the ring as they forced her to her knees before the throne. “Jinni?”
At this call, our hero was summoned into the throne room. This was a wish the former king had made, that the Jinni should appear when he was called.
“Yes?” He swallowed as he took in the scene. He had known it would end this way. He had warned her.
“I wish the Queen, my niece, the daughter of my only brother, the girl who bows before us now… I wish she was dead.”
She died before she could gasp.
The Jinni watched powerlessly, hopelessly, as she crumpled to the floor in her silk gown.
“Hm,” was all her uncle said as his compatriots cheered. “This wishing thing is too ostentatious, and it reminds me of my brother. I prefer simplicity, less words. I wish you to do whatever it is the holder of the ring commands of you.”
Something rearranged inside the Jinni’s being.
“Granted,” he affirmed to his new overlord.
“Good. I have no use for you now. Back to your ring.”
Magick enveloped him, and he was suspended in agonizing darkness, to be alone for a thousand years. He allowed his self-loathing to spread, breaking open his soul, and he wept.
