by Tao Wong
Lily stared at me for a long time, her eyes glowing red before she finally spoke, her voice weary. “I am bound by the ring to fulfill your wishes, but I am not omniscient. I can only change what I understand, and I am not responsible for the consequences of any changes. Not that it’ll stop you from blaming me.”
I stared at Lily for a time, then slowly nodded. “You’re saying if I made a wish, you’d be forced to make it happen even if it was a silly wish. Like, if I wished for a million dollars right this second, you’d be forced to make it appear right in this room. Maybe as bills, maybe as dollar coins, which probably would suck.”
“I am not malicious, no matter what you people might say,” Lily said. “But most wishes for wealth are not well thought out. I once gave a goatherder a mountain of gold, and he and his family were killed for it. A hundred years ago, a gentleman asked for a million pounds. Of course, I had never seen the kind of notes they used, so I made the bank notes for him, a million dollars’ worth, all exactly the same. He was unhappy about that.”
I slowly nodded, staring at her. “You’re not all-powerful and all-knowing, just powerful. Like a giant hammer wielded by toddlers.”
“Yes!” Lily said, excited for a second.
I grunted, closing my eyes. The worse part was that I was the damn toddler. But still… magic was real.
I had not realized I had spoken that thought aloud till that whisper echoed through the basement. Into the silence, she slowly spoke. “Do you desire magic then?”
“With every fiber of my being,” I answered honestly. “But I can see a million, billion ways it could go wrong. Wish for magic, and I might get the ability without the knowledge to wield it. Wish for knowledge and ability, and you’d stick it all in my head and maybe make me go crazy while doing it. Wish for a mentor, and, well, it might be a black mage who comes in.”
“You did listen.” Lily’s lips twisted into a wry smile. “Though, again, not directly malicious. If you wished for the knowledge to wield magic, and that alone, I’d probably only insert enough that you would not be driven mad.”
“You can do that?” I blinked, having rattled off my words without thought. I hadn’t actually expected her to know how to inject information into my head.
“Of course. I’m a jinn who has been in the service of some of the greatest mages this world has ever known. I am no dotard myself,” Lily boasted. “Adding knowledge direct would be no different than creating a magical book of learning. In fact, it would be simpler without the preservation and containment spells.”
“Huh,” I said, rubbing my chin and staring at the girl. “So, it’s not the amount of knowledge but the speed.”
“Close enough,” she said, and I grunted.
“I guess I’d have to level up first.”
“Level up?” Lily asked, and I waved my hand toward my bookshelf where my RPG books were neatly stacked from D&D’s first editions to more recent RPGs, indie and mainstream publishers. “One second.” She muttered that word and then shimmered for a brief moment, a second at most, and suddenly all the books were stacked neatly around her. “How interesting. Entire universes written and governed by rules and dice.”
“Did you just read all of them with super speed?” I asked.
“Not super speed. That’s always more trouble than its worth. You have to deal with friction and air resistance and heat. I prefer to slow time,” Lily said nonchalantly. “I do see what you mean. These ‘levels’ characters have limit their growth, giving them knowledge and strength as they pass each milestone.”
“You’re saying it’s possible? For me to wield magic if we put it in a game system?” I said excitedly, fallen hopes rising again like a rocket at her words.
“Of course. Who do you think you’re talking to?” Lily asked.
“Perfect!” I paused, frowning as I worked out the implications. Perhaps I had found a way to cheat the system. “All right. One last question - how do I know everything you’ve said is true?”
At those words, even in the dim light, I saw Lily’s face twist with quickly concealed hurt. She looked away for a second and then back at me. “Well, that’s the rub, isn’t it? You can’t.”
That was the rub. It wasn’t as if I could look this up on Snopes or jump on Quora, seeking expert advice. The stories I did know of, they conflicted. The original stories of jinn said they were like us, neither good nor evil, creatures of free will like humanity itself. Since then, they’d been both friend and foe in a myriad of stories. Of course, it wasn’t as if I knew how to tell which were true or fake.
In the end, it came down to trust. Could I, should I, trust Lily? Did it matter though? By her own admission, anything I wished for needed her interpretation. Of course that too could have been a lie. But for a chance at magic, however slim it might be, I would take it.
With that thought, I smiled and leaned forward. “All right, so here’s what I was thinking.”
Chapter 2
-Hours later and—at Lily’s insistence—a bunch of Thai takeout later, we’d gone back and forth on the game system we might implement. Crouched over pad thai, red curry, and pineapple fried rice, I argued with a raven-haired jinn about the merits of game systems.
“We should skip character creation entirely,” Lily said, waving a pair of chopsticks at me with an egg roll still held in them. “You don’t want to go through the most equitable way of doing so—”
“I’m not letting you roll for my attributes. I am not going to risk getting a three on intelligence,” I interrupted.
Lily continued without pausing at my interruption. “We should just avoid it altogether. Unintended consequences, remember?”
“But a base ten stat option and a number of points with the ability to increase and decrease the attributes would give me more ability to customize myself,” I argued back.
“Yes, yes. Not only do we risk angering the gods if we do it that way, there’s the actual work involved. I still have to physically alter you to make it happen. If you doubled your existing strength, I’d have to balance various muscles, tendons, and ligaments to make sure you don’t tear yourself apart the moment you move. And strength’s the easiest. I mean, constitution? What is that? Your immune system?” Lily asked. “And don’t even get me started on wisdom.”
“You’ve said. And of course, willpower is the soul, which you can’t touch,” I muttered. “So I guess no altering attributes when I level up either? Fine. We’ll skip character creation and direct changes to my body, just pure knowledge.”
“Well, one change - I’ve got to open your magical pathways,” Lily corrected, a finger held up.
“Ah. Right…” I frowned, eyebrows drawn together as I stared at her. “How complicated is that?”
Lily held her hand up horizontal and waggled it sideways, then snagged the last piece of chicken from the curry. Seeing my flat stare, she said, “It depends on how innately gifted you are. The more gifted, the harder it’s going to be.”
“Isn’t it the other way around?” I frowned, and she shook her head.
“No. Because if you’re already gifted, you should be using magic already. If you aren’t, you’ve simply got a blockage that I’ll need to remove,” Lily explained.
“That’s going to hurt, isn’t it?”
“Yup!” Lily said, way too cheerfully, as she poured curry on her rice. “We should order more.”
“What is it with you and food? Can’t you just conjure it?” I asked.
“Conjured food never tastes right. There’s always something missing. Now, I saw a menu for Greek?”
For an all-powerful jinn who was about to change my world, she certainly seemed to be costing me more than she earned. As I walked toward the fridge to grab the takeout menu, I pulled out my wallet and stared at the last few dollars I had. Well, it would be worth it.
“This is a computer game?” Lily asked, poking at my screen.
I smacked her finger away, g
rowling. “Stop that. You’re going to leave prints.”
“One, owww!” Lily waved her hand. “Two, I don’t leave prints. This body isn’t exactly corporeal like yours.”
“Still. Don’t touch the screen. And yes, this is a computer version of the games we’ve been talking about. This is a single-player game where you control a party. It’s a bit dated these days, but it’s quite fun,” I explained. “This is my saved game, which lets me start from where I left off. Character creation is done, and this is my inventory…”
***
“No skills?”
“Too complicated. I’d have to either give you all or nothing. What would we use as a basis? All these systems are too broad; unless you want to end up forgetting how to swim simply because your athletics are zero. I mean, who designs these things? Swimming, gymnastics, hurdling, and sprinting all under the same skill?” Lily clicked around my computer screen.
“Can’t you just give me a low rating for a bunch of skills I should know?”
“No. You can’t handle it.” Lily waved her hands, fluttering her fingers apart. “A point in, say, science might do that. Or we could get granular and then realize we forgot some important skill like typing. You wouldn’t be able to use this computer of yours because you’ll automatically fail every attempt.”
“Ugh… okay.”
***
“Perks?”
“My ring might consider that cheating.” Lily rubbed her chin. “I could do weaknesses.”
“Hard no.”
Lily giggled at my reaction, flipping to the next page in the book while she stabbed a portion of tiramisu. “Equipment’s out, same as perks.”
“Well, shit.” I rubbed my temples, staring into space. “Way I see this, all I’m getting is the ability to use magic at a gradated level.”
“All?”
“Fine, fine. It’s a lot,” I said, waving my hands at her. I knew it was a lot. It was more than I’d had a day ago. And yet, I felt cheated. My eyes burned, and my heart ached, exhaustion finally kicking my doors down.
“Damn right it’s a lot. If we do this right, you might be the first archmagi I’ve ever been able to create with my wishes,” Lily said. “You need to rest.”
“Yeah… yeah.” I glanced at the single bed in the apartment. “Do you… I mean, well…”
“I’ll rest in my ring if I need to,” Lily said, waving me to bed.
I nodded numbly, lying back down. As I drifted off to sleep, I wondered if leaving an unbound magical being—that some might consider evil—to run around unchecked and alone was a good idea. As I rolled onto my side, I stared blearily at the raven-haired jinn who was idly chewing on a strand of hair, brows furrowed in concentration as she clicked away on her mouse, killing cows and picking up loot.
***
Light streamed in from the single basement window when I slowly woke up. The continuous click, click, click of a mouse, the occasional stab of a keyboard key, and a repetitive fantasy soundtrack punctuated the silence, making me think I was back in my college dorm with Wynn. That man had been obsessed with his 4X games. I rolled over to tell him to lower the damn volume, and I spotted discarded food containers, a pair of unwashed glasses with the last of my orange juice in them, and a stack of books. However, instead of an overweight gamer with bad hygiene, I saw a toned and very feminine body hunched over my laptop with a face that could have graced a celebrity magazine.
“Have you been up all night?” I muttered as I swung my feet over the edge of the bed. Daylight hit my eyes, and I automatically twitched my head to the side—hiding in the shadows—and corrected myself. “Day.”
“Yes. I’m level forty-seven now. Just took the portal back to town. My inventory’s full—”
“You know, you were supposed to be doing research.”
“This is research. And you need a bath,” Lily said, sniffing.
“Me? You—” Well, if she didn’t leave fingerprints, who said she sweated or had any of the other grody side effects of having a physical body? Surreptitiously, I sniffed myself and wrinkled my nose. Well, she had a point.
A quick shower later, I was standing over my coffee pot as I contemplated the remnants of my kitchen. What should have lasted me a week had been consumed overnight, leaving me with two slices of bread and the jam to go with it. As I made my meager breakfast, I said, “Did you learn anything?”
“A lot. I like these computer games better than your tabletop ones. No skills, character creation is simplified, no need to create backstory or hooks for your GM… experience is received from quests that are clearly defined, and development of abilities is clear,” Lily said, never looking up. “I think we can work with this. I can even give you all these bars, but they’d be estimations. So, something like health wouldn’t be reality. You could still die from smacking your head too hard.”
“Really? Do you think we’re ready?” I sat next to her and placed my sandwich on the table beside me. Without even looking away from the computer, she snagged half of my sandwich.
“Sure. Sure… hey, how do you pass into the level forty-seven boss chamber?”
“Ah…” I squinted, staring at the game and racking my brain. “Eh… check the Internet for a guide.”
“Guide,” Lily said, slowly and carefully.
I reached over and paused her game, then tabbed over to a browser. In a few seconds, I had a guide open. Before I could even scroll down, the laptop was snatched back, and Lily perused the level.
“Ooh… I missed this portion entirely.”
I coughed into my hand, dragging her attention back to me. “My wish?”
“Sure, sure. No character creation, no skills, magic and knowledge that’s gradated by levels, and level-appropriate quests so you don’t die fighting a dragon on your first day,” Lily said distractedly as she chewed on her hair. “I wonder what I missed earlier…”
Oh, hell. She was a completist. I rubbed my eyes. “And the ability to add patches if we realize we missed something.”
“Patches. Right. Right. Sure. That your wish?”
“Yes, I just—”
“Great!” Her hand raised and waved at me before I could finish my sentence… and then pain.
My nerves felt like molten fire had been poured along them, my entire body gone rigid as muscles locked. I tasted blood after I accidentally bit my tongue, its copper taste and blueberry jam mixing in my mouth. A moment later, an ice pick slammed into my brain, and the world shimmered and distorted in my vision. Light shifted and broke apart, and through my screams, I heard a bell chiming before a new wave of pain hit me. My existence became the pain, the twisting in my bones and nerves before I finally fell and passed out.
***
When I woke up, I found the raven-haired jinn leaning over me. She was dabbing at my face with a wet cloth that was speckled with blood. My head felt like someone had decided to use it as a punching bag, but at least the pain in my body had fallen away to a dull but constant thrum, reminiscent of a deep muscular ache. As my eyes opened, Lily offered me a pair of pills, which I gratefully took and washed down with the cup of water she proffered.
It was only after I had swallowed them that I thought to check. “What was that?”
“Pain killers. It says take one, but I figured you’d need two,” Lily said, offering me a chance to look at the bottle of naproxen. I sighed in relief, grateful for clear pharmaceutical labeling. After all, I did not want her to be grabbing my Imodium instead. “How are you doing?”
“Hurts,” I said, being careful to move ever so slowly as I peered at her. “What was all that about?”
“I made your wish come true,” Lily said, looking ever-so-slightly guilty.
“But I—” I felt a rush of anger push aside part of my pain. “I wasn’t ready…”
“Yeah, sorry about that,” Lily said.
“Sorry?! You could have killed me. And we haven’t even discussed experience and
leveling and quests and—”
“I know. I know!” Lily shouted, the loud noise making me wince. She stood up and threw her hands up toward the sky. She blushed with guilt before she calmed and squatted beside me. “I’m sorry. I… got distracted.”
“Distracted? You got obsessed,” I growled, and she nodded. I slumped backward with my eyes closed and forced myself to draw another deep breath. “Tell me about what you did.”
“What we said we were going to do. I opened your arcane pathways and inserted the basics of magic into your mind. I have my own spells that will record your progress, and when you’re ready, I’ll level you up, and you’ll get your next dose of knowledge.”
“About that.”
“What?”
“Leveling up. How do I get experience?” I frowned as I slowly sat up. “I mean, I don’t want to go out killing things if I don’t have to, and—”
“Leveling is just an abstraction of your growth and development as a mage. You gain experience by practicing your magic or studying. Though…” At my pointed stare, Lily continued. “High-stress situations are extremely strong methods of acquiring knowledge. It’s not just about sitting in your tower all day, reading books. The way we’ve set it up, you’d likely learn more this way too.”
I grunted. “So, questing.”
“Definitely,” Lily said. “Don’t worry though. I’ll make sure they’re level appropriate.”
“There’s a lot of you in this conversation,” I said suspiciously, and Lily flashed me an innocent smile, even going so far as to flutter her eyelashes at me. “Lily…”
“Well, someone has to be your class trainer and GM,” Lily said.
I stared at the raven-haired beauty for a time as a thought worked its way through my throbbing head. “What normally happens when a wish is granted? Or all three wishes?”