Elder Djinn Q&A
After giving it some thought, you decide on what you want to do.
“Hey, Alajeem,” you say, and you hold the djinn’s gaze for a breath. “Would it help to, I guess, ‘ease’ your reservations with this if we make a deal?”
Alajeem arches one eyebrow, interest flashing across his face. “A deal, you say? That’s not what I was expecting to hear from you, mortal.” He folds his arms once more. “What sort of deal would you want to make, exactly?”
“Obviously, I can’t promise you anything too major,” you say, because you know better and you don’t want to give off the wrong idea (and you have an inclination that being firm and obvious is probably the smartest thing to do). “But… what about something like this for you: if you’re willing to answer a few questions I ask, then, in exchange, you can choose where in this shop you’d like your vase to be stored? Does that make it more acceptable?”
“Mm…” Alajeem takes a moment to mull this over, his eyes looking away from you and Akam. His expression makes it difficult to discern how it is he feels about it, but, you catch a flicker of confusion on the djinn’s face.
You glance to Akam to see how the genie seems with your suggestion. He’s removed his hand from your shoulder, and his features are neutral as he’s watching Alajeem now instead of you – he seems at ease overall, and so you get a good feeling that your idea is a decent enough one (otherwise, you get the sense that Akam would have said something). You feel better, though.
“Why would you want to ask me more?” Alajeem inquires eventually.
“Why not?”
He frowns again. “What do you gain from asking me questions? Do you not have enough of a resource for information with your current djinn?”
“You hold a different perspective than myself,” Akam answers for you. “You also have a bit more experience, which I feel my Master has picked up on.” He briefly flashes you a knowing grin, then gives Alajeem a wry stare. “Enough with this dawdling and hemming about, Alajeem. Answer my Master already.”
Alajeem’s eyes narrow. “Demanding me, are we?”
“You have no hold over me, so, yes,” Akam replies. “Though I should preface this, my fellow djinn…” He smiles wide and bright. “Be sure you don’t try to swindle anything out of my Master. I’ve grown fond of them, but, even if I hadn’t, I know your track record from the past.” His expression suddenly hardens, his eyes gleaming. “And though you may be my senior in many ways, I am far, far more powerful than you, Alajeem. Do not test my patience, and do not test what I am capable of. I will not tolerate your methods on my Master.”
You stare, taken aback, by his reaction. Yet you feel touched by it.
Alajeem seems surprised for a moment; his eyes are wide, although he smoothes his features over after a heartbeat or two. Then, he snorts again.
“Fine,” Alajeem says. He returns his focus to you. “We have a deal, human.”
You nod; you feel a little relieved inwardly that he’s agreed.
On the one hand, you do truly want to learn more about genies and the world they exist in and come from, and you can tell that Alajeem would have a lot of information to say – so, in a way, you suppose that you can understand why Alajeem would think there’s some ulterior motive going on (granted, you would’ve just asked him about it after he’d given you an answer, but, still).
On the other hand… well, you’ll see if this pans out decent enough.
“What questions do you have that you feel must be asked of me?” Alajeem inquires. “And do keep in mind that my time in the open is finite, given the circumstances at hand. Three or four, perhaps, is what you may ask.”
“Noted,” you say.
You mull over what you want to ask Alajeem for a short pause – there are plenty of things you could go with (you’re talking to a literal djinn, after all), especially when you take into consideration how there are likely going to be more things that pop into your head. For the moment, though, you settle on the first one, since it came to you thanks to an earlier comment made from Akam.
“You mentioned something about Akam and Shira being younger than you?” you say. “Does that mean that djinn can actually age? Or, that, like, there are djinn that have been around longer? I sort of thought that most of you were around the same age, but, the way you mentioned it, it sounds different.”
Alajeem strokes his chin. “Age is another mortal construct – it’s one that we djinn do not experience in the same way. But… yes, we do age, I suppose.”
You don’t respond. You wait.
“When a djinn is ‘born’ into existence,” Alajeem continues, “we are not created as infants the way mortals are – that said, a ‘young’ djinn does appear physically different from a mature djinn. Think of it more that every ‘newborn’ djinn looks more like what you would refer to as a teenager than a full adult. There is a visible air of youthfulness to their features, particularly their eyes, in a way, and their essence is noticeably young, although you cannot see it.”
“Have you noticed the way we djinn manifest from smoke, and how smoke seems a part of our nature, Master?” Akam asks, a smile tugging at his lips.
“Yeah,” you reply. You’ve definitely noticed, and now that he mentions it…
“It isn’t actual smoke,” Akam says. “In truth, it’s difficult to give what it is a term, yet I would say the closest is that what you see is part of our physical bodies. But, to your eyes, it appears to be smoke, because smoke is the closest thing your minds can visualize it as.” He shrugs. “You would be able to tell a djinn’s overall age from the smoke, however – the thicker and stronger the smoke, the older a djinn is. Younger djinn have very airy, wispy smoke.”
“Oh…” You nod slowly as you consider this. “Okay. That’s interesting.”
“I would’ve gotten to that, thank you very much,” Alajeem says dryly.
Akam shrugs.
“Regardless,” Alajeem says, and he shakes his head. “I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that, while we do age, it isn’t the same way you do. You see, while we are ‘born’ with the physical features of a teenager, our minds are far stronger and older. All djinn come into existence with an understanding of what any true djinn needs to know, you could say. We know our place in life. We know our limitations. We know about one another. We know basic knowledge.”
“So you’re basically born with an adult mind?” you ask.
“Essentially,” Alajeem replies. “Our ‘physical’ bodies age, as I said, but, only to a degree – we become, as you’ve seen, more ‘adult’ in feature. Beyond that, however, there is no real change in our bodies, unless we ourselves wish.”
You frown. “What do you mean?”
He cracks a grin. “Did you not know? Ah… of course not.” He chuckles. “We djinn can change our features, human. We are able to transform ourselves in a number of ways, depending entirely on our whims. There are rules for this, as you may expect, but, do remember that the physical body you see before you is not truly physical. We are born of what you call magic – which means, mortal, that we can do many things with our physicality without any worry at all.”
“Wow,” you say. You feel like you’re probably staring at this point.
You recall that Akam has changed his size, so you figured you had a grasp that djinn could do such a thing – but to know that they can transform themselves even further… you wonder what their full potential truly is.
‘There’s so, so much more to this magical genie world,’ you think; you’ve thought it before, but it’s even more amazing now that it’s sinking in. ‘I could probably be here all day and night, maybe even longer, with how much information there is to ask about. Not to mention having to process it all… and I haven’t even managed that yet.’ You absorb this for a moment, then, ponder what to do next. ‘Do I want to continue with this subject? Or change it up?’
“Is there anything else you intend to ask me on this topic of yours, mortal?” Alajeem asks, arching one eyebrow at you inquisitively. “Or do you plan to instead use my time to answer something else that comes to your mind?”
You don’t answer immediately; you could if you wanted, of course, but there are countless other options for you. It’s hard to really pin down a single thing when you know you don’t have all day to speak to Alajeem (and you have the other part of the deal where Alajeem gets to choose where he is stored).
You think, long and hard, on where to go from here. What indeed…
Written by Hollowpages on 08 March 2021
