Gods and Monsters (11 page)

Belus offered the genie a glance as he yawned. “He won’t intentionally try to kill you, but if you agree to the three inconveniences, you must understand that they will likely cause a greater failure later on. It’s just how it works. They are sacrifices after all.”

“When will the inconveniences occur?”

“Over the course of the remainder of your life,” Belus said sympathetically.

“Oh, for craps sake, like I need another threat looming over my head.”

“You will know after each inconvenience occurs. That is one of the written rules.”

“If I agree to this,” Cori looked to the genie for her answer. “If I agree to my debts, what exactly happens?”

He smiled at her and again it was an honest smile. “The option to renege on your current fortunes in exchange for your misfortunes will expire in 48 hours. After that, you will permanently be placed in this life with no option to return to your other life. If you agree, simply hold the lamp by the spout and handle and say “genie I accept your offer” and I will send you back to your former life: Gypsy will no longer be employed here, your path of normalcy with your mother and fiancé will be exchanged for your previous happy existence here at the prison.”

20

“You don’t have to answer now, if you don’t want to,” Danato said when Cori hadn’t looked up from her lap in over a minute. “You can stay at the house tonight, and sleep on it. Give him your answer in the morning.” She caught a glimpse in her periphery of the nonverbal debate, that statement sparked, but in the end, Danato slammed his fist into the desk and Belus walked out.

She looked at the genie and scanned his tattooed spells. “Why?” She asked.

“Because I think a decision this important should be given time, plus you look like you need some rest,” Danato answered.

“I don’t think that’s what she’s asking,” the genie said staring at Cori as hard as she was staring at him. “Why don’t you step outside a moment, Danato?”

“I don’t think so.” The genie turned away from Cori and glowered at Danato. “You have no power here genie, don’t waste your lure.”

“I have more than you think, now go. I won’t ask again.”

Cori could feel his full form return, more than see it. As far as her eyes could see, he was the same, but her heart raced and she felt the fear and attraction, she had felt before. She was certain Danato could feel it too, because he left without another objection. He may not have been her Danato, but she was pretty sure it was against several protocols to leave someone alone in a room with an active genie.

When he turned back to look at her, the volume of his magnetism was turned down dramatically. He was either trying to make her more comfortable, or he intended to have an honest conversation with her. “You have something to say?”

“Why do you do this? All this scheming and turbulence?” She asked.

He leaned forward as if he was going to tell her a secret. She resisted the urge to lean in. “For the same reason that you take air into your lungs…because I have to.” He motioned to his tattoos.

“Breathing is an involuntary response. If I don’t breathe I die, but I can’t choose to not breathe. Even if I held my breath I would just pass out and continue breathing normally in my unconscious state. Are you saying you have to do what you do because you have no choice, or because you don’t like what the choice is?”

“Why are you asking me this?”

“Curiosity I suppose, but mostly I think I just want to know if I should hate you or not.”

“That is my prison.” The genie nodded to the lamp on the desk. “The rules that I abide by are written in my scrolls. The scrolls are what you should hate. I am merely the enforcer designated to carry out those asinine things. And to answer your question, I do as the scrolls demand because if I don’t I will be tormented.”

“Torture?” Cori asked.

“Yes, though not in the form you might think. Pain is corporeal. The torture I receive is more…cerebral, but it is none the less torture.”

“Why you? What did you do to deserve your prison?”

He chuckled. The sound was merriment and manliness combined. When he had finished he settled his arm on the back of her chair and started stroking his fingers along her temple. The contact didn’t feel flirtatious, but she got the sense that she should still be flattered that he deemed her worthy of the gentle gesture.

“Have you ever caught a firefly in a jar?” He asked. She nodded and closed her eyes to concentrate on his touch. “You thought nothing of it, did you?”

“No, but I always let them go again.”

“Fireflies only live long enough to mate and lay eggs. Hours inside a jar might seem like nothing to you, but an eternity to them.”

“How long do you live?” Cori opened her eyes and saw that he had closed his as well. His almond eyes opened and met her gaze with an auburn iris that in the right light might have seemed red. Though he had no hair to speak of, she imagined he would look unjustly attractive with a mop of messy auburn waves to match his eyes.  

“Death is corporeal, but I maintain sentient thought for over one thousand years.”

Cori’s mouth dropped open, not because of shock, but because she had too many competing questions, and she wasn’t sure which one to start with. She pulled her leg up under her and leaned over the arm of her chair. His caress had since stopped, but at some point she stopped being so intent on receiving it. “What happens after one thousand? What were you before the thousand years?”

“I was not aware before, and I will not be aware after, but for now, I am aware, and I have control of my power.”

Cori took in a breath. “What are you? You said you were as close to a god as earth allows. Are you a demi-god?”

“I suppose that’s as good a name as any.”

“But why are you here? Why are you imprisoned?
How
are you being imprisoned? What’s more powerful than a demi-god? Were you imprisoned by a god, the God, or was it the devil?”

He chuckled again. “I know not of gods and monsters,” he said as if he were quoting a book. “I only know of men, and they are neither; but masquerade so well…as both.”

Cori shook her head in vein trying to make the conclusion she had come to go away. She stood and grabbed the lamp. She was careful to touch only the handle of it, but she was pretty certain that until her situation was settled, she would not be subject to anymore wishes.

She examined the text on it. At first glance she had assumed it was Arabic, but only because she had watched Aladdin too many times growing up. A closer inspection would have left her assuming Egyptian, but there weren’t any birds or dog headed figurines. She racked her brain for the owner of the only other pictographic language she could think of.

She looked back at him. “This is Sumerian isn’t it?” The twinge of surprise on his face answered the question. “How the hell could men bind a demi-god to earth?”

“As I said, I was not self-aware prior to my thousand years. The Sumerians were very talented conjurers. I was bound to that lamp, long before I was ever aware of my own existence.”

Cori carefully set down the lamp again. “Why?”

“Have we come full circle or are we still answering your original question?”

Cori sat back down beside him. “Why would they do this to you? What was their purpose?”

“Because they could. I may be powerful now, but once upon a time I was just a firefly—a very powerful firefly.”

“But the scrolls are so definitive, and vindictive. Why would they devise such turmoil?”

“Those scrolls are literal interpretations of fluid concepts. My imprisonment was designed to offer rain in times of drought, fertility to the barren, and health to the sick. 5,000 years ago you would not have thought twice about sacrificing one life, to sustain your crop and feed hundreds. Had you need, you might be willing to risk injury to two people so you could bear a child. And to heal the sick, three minor inconveniences are nothing. Nature demands balance, for every wish there is a sacrifice.”

“But I don’t want my wishes! Why do I have to pay my sacrifice?”

The genie crinkled his nose. “That’s where the literal text starts to get tangled with modern day scruples. At the time that I was bound, the Sumerians didn’t ask for things as frivolous as wealth and fame; they wanted food, water, and health for their entire kingdom. The text interprets seeking wishes for individuals without dire need, as narcissistic and gluttonous, therefore three sacrifices are inflicted without wishes being granted because you are considered unworthy. You did not intentionally seek me out, but you were in a need of help, so therefore the wishes were granted.”

“Even though I didn’t want them or ask for them.”

“That’s where the scope of my power as a sentient being and the decisive nature of the text start to be counterproductive. You were not granted three wishes with sacrifices as the Sumerians were. You were bestowed three blessings. It’s because you didn’t ask for them that you did not have to sacrifice for them. However, since I am not an intuitive being by nature. I don’t know what you want unless you specifically ask for it. That leaves me to grant wishes that you may not really want, or, in your case, devising my own interpretations from vague statements.”

“Why does undoing the blessings mean I get punished?”

“In your text it’s referred to as the mollycoddle clause. It is designed to punish the ingrates. Returning blessings isn’t really considered polite.”

“Oh,” Cori lowered her head feeling sheepish about considering the wishes a burden. It obviously took a great deal of power to make someone come back from the dead, and change the path of her life. She shouldn’t have taken that for granted. “Sorry.”

The genie tipped his head eying her carefully. “I don’t take offense to you wanting to go back to your old life. It is your choice to make. I do wish that I could make the change without the sacrifices, but alas genies don’t get to rub their own lamps.” He winked at her and she tried not to smile too big at his humor, since she didn’t know if it was an intentional or incidental innuendo.

Cori looked over at the lamp and back at him. “So, how long are you stuck to the lamp?”

“My servitude will expire long after my sentient years have passed.”

Cori frowned, mortified to hear this. Her reaction seemed to amuse him, but he didn’t laugh. Instead he twisted his finger around in her hair. She wasn’t sure what the rules were regarding contact between him and his wishers, but she was getting the distinct impression that he hadn’t spent this much time with a flesh and blood human in a while…or ever.

“So, your entire sentient life will be spent fulfilling wishes.”

“I know nothing more.”

“Can’t someone just wish you free like in the movies.”

“No, it doesn’t work quite like that.”

“But there is a way?” she asked and he nodded combing his fingers through her hair. “What is it?”

“I can’t tell you.” He motioned to his tattooed spells again. “Against the rules, I can’t tell you how to free me. All I can do is answer your questions, or not.”

“Great another riddle to solve.”

He chuckled at her and brushed his hand across her forehead. “You don’t really want to free me do you? I’m an earth bound sentient demi-god. I could devour your freewill like candy even in this state. Imagine what I could do with freedom.”

“What do you mean devour my freewill?”

His aura changed tangibly and Cori felt the awesome power she had felt from him before. It was even stronger than before, and she could feel herself gravitating toward him uncontrollably. She reached to his tattoo filled chest, but he grabbed her hand and pulled it back.

“Careful, they’re sticky.”

She looked up at him for further explanation. Her eyes locked and she understood fully what he meant about freewill. He would only need to ask and she would have done anything. Not
anything
meaning offering herself to him or killing for him—though she would have done that too. She would have done
anything
meaning she would have cut her own hand off and eaten it. That was too much power for any sentient being to possess for any amount of time.    

There was only the tiniest sliver of hope left inside of her to think otherwise. That was the part of her that was still cognizant enough to realize that he wasn’t actually asking her to do
anything,
despite having her fully under his influence.

His aura shifted again and his presence reduced back down to resistible levels. “See, I would be a terrible burden on this world.”

Cori shook her head. “I disagree.” His eyes widened with surprise. “You aren’t human, so you aren’t predisposed to being greedy and selfish. You aren’t a wizard, so you aren’t guaranteed to be an ass. I think you would have to abide by the same basic principles of balance as you do now. If you were the one choosing to make the changes, then you would have to choose the consequences. I think once you got a taste of the eye for an eye, karma’s a bitch lifestyle, you wouldn’t get too carried away.”

“Interesting theory, though I still doubt you would want to free me if you knew what it entailed, so there is no point in debating it. Have you made up your mind about the present offer?”