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A presence came to my notice suddenly as I sipped at the wine and thought.
“Well, Princess.” A deep voice accompanied by clapping interrupted those thoughts. “It seems that after so long, and even caged, that you are still dangerous. My congratulations and salutations.”
I stood up and turned, noting that Souri was cowering behind me as I did to see a male, tall, powerfully built, and supremely confident, standing in a place no one uninvited had come to yet.
He was NOT human. Oh not even close.
“Offer me some wine, a seat,” He told me with a grin, “and I will repay you with a story.”
I'd never seen one before, except for myself.
Another Djinn, a free one, had come into my prison. And very, very male one at that.

"Actually, I have two tales to tell you, Princess.” He told me while seating himself on a couch I had waved to while still getting used to the idea of another Djinn in my presence. “Now, the wine?"

He saw Souri cowering behind me and gave her a little smile that actually did reach his eyes. “You have nothing to fear from me, oh faithful Efreeti. I will do nothing to harm you. My word on it.”

Souri was still trembling, so I gently touched her shoulder and gestured to an out of the way pillow where she could still watch. “Go sit for a few moments. I'll take care of our guest.”

She gave me a grateful look and did as I told her. Our visitor raised his eyebrows at that then just nodded as I conjured the wine, a fine crystal tray and goblets to match the decanter it was in.

“Wine.” I told him as I set the tray on the table and poured for both of us, handing him one goblet while I took the other and settled into a nearby couch.

“That is beneath you, Princess.” He told me simply.

“Prison or not, this is my home.” I answered. “How I treat my guests is up to me, and I chose to do it. Now, you mentioned stories?”

“Introductions first Princess.” He set the wine down, stood again, and formally bowed to me. “I am Behrouze, the Fortunate and it is a pleasure to meet you Princess Vanda.”

“That isn't my name.” I answered slowly but nodded.

“No, the ones who have bound you perverted the meaning, Wish and Desire with the name they gave you, Princess” He lowered his head then looked back up at me. “Also, names do tend to change with time, but we both know you were once, Vanda, the worlds's desire.

“And your beauty is every bit as overwhelming and intoxicating as the tales say, Princess.”

“You didn't know me?” I let myself get sidetracked there, but this was more that I hadn't known. Souri and I were going to have a little talk later, I thought to myself.

“Unfortunately no, Princess.” He shrugged. “I was born after you had been sent to dwell in mortal flesh. I was the last Djinn to be formed before the magic faded.”

There was a real sadness there, I felt it and almost reached forward to give his arm a reassuring touch but held back for reasons I didn't understand. Instead I nodded,gave him a sympathetic look and gently asked. “How many of us are there in the world these days, Behrouze?”

“You and I, Princess.” He shrugged. “Oh there are a few sleeping, waiting for the magic to return, I can feel them stirring at times, but they, like you and I, were hidden by the more powerful so that we could survive the dead years. Then there is the nascent daughter you made just now. Other than that, none that I know of and I have searched. For a very long time I have searched.”

I did set a hand on his arm, and gave it a slight squeeze after that. I wasn't sure how I knew it, but this one wasn't lying or even trying to deceive me. “You were alone all that time?”

“Not alone.” He assured me and gave Souri a tentative smile. “The Efreet were with me.”

“My kind has survived?” Souri questioned in amazement as she rose and moved forward to stand beside me.

“Some, yes.” He nodded. “They have been my constant companions, teachers, friends through this grim time. I hold your people in high regard, lady.”

Souri nodded with actual tears in her eyes then moved forward to hesitantly take his hand and place a gentle kiss on its palm. “Thank you. I had thought I was the last, too.”

“Then we have much in common, pretty Efreeti.” He answered, touching her cheek then gently withdrawing his hand. “But I promised you a story in return for your hospitality, so a story you shall have.”

It came to pass in times long gone, that the Great Djinn Queen Astarte and her Consort, Gilgamesh brought forth a daughter they named Vanda for her beauty and the things they foresaw regarding her.

This princess grew into the beauty that was expected, but she was headstrong as all children tend to be at times, doing things that she shouldn't, not being what was expected of her, and just a bit rebellious. Such is the way of a child in any race, though, so she was not unusual there.

Her kind nature, though was something that worried her parents, and others. We Djinn aren't so much cruel by nature as simply arrogant, uncaring for those of lesser strength. We bound the Efreet as much to gain servants as to keep them from extinction, and to keep them out of mortal hands because much grief had come of that kind of thing. But we did tend to brush away lesser things that got in our way without a thought. Hence the race's reputation for evil and cruelty. Why concern ourselves for lesser beings when we had no need to fear them? Could simply change things so they were no longer an annoyance, or obliterate them entirely?

Oh, we were a proud, unseeing race back then.

But the Princess, Vanda, actually cared for the lesser beings, showed concern for them and even helped them at odd times. This was cause for much concern among the Djinn and seen as a weakness, a flaw in one who would someday rule. There was no room in what they, we were, for things such as mercy, or compassion.

Yet the Princess also had power. Enough that she was not one to trifle with, and she was also shielded by her Mother's Strength. So her idiosyncracies were mostly ignored and attributed to the wildness of youth.

Then the magic began to weaken. Lesser creatures, even some of the weaker Djinn faltered, began to fade and it was clear that our time was coming to an end. But it was also known that the cycle would change again in the future and that gave hope.

The queen and her consort worked a great magic, one none had seen before and one that hasn't been equaled since. Vanda thought she was being punished and raged, but that did her no good. In truth, she was being saved, though she failed to see that at the time. She fought the working, and her parents, but to no avail. Her essence, all that she was disappeared from sight of the Djinn and other creatures of magic, as well as from that of human mages who had started binding our kind with the lessening of magic.

The Princess Vanda was hidden within mortal flesh, to return when there was once again magic in the world and continue the presence of our race in some future time. If that had not been done, she too would have faded, or been bound and the Djinn as a race would have ceased to be.

Thus our long darkness began, but with hope of light again in time.

“So you have returned, Princess.” He looked at me with as much worry as anything else. “But prematurely, and bound by spells crafted specifically for you. Our light has returned with you, but it is caged, directed by others at the moment.”

“Would you have a solution for that?” I asked, hoping he did, but getting the feeling that wouldn't be.

“Sadly, no.” He shrugged. “My parents weren't great ones, simply clever. They were able to house me in objects that could draw on the little magic left and at least sustain me, but I haven't the power, strength, or knowledge to break this cage of yours.”

“Back to square on on that one then.” I sighed.

“True, but I will find what I can, then get the information to you Princess.” He let out a sigh himself. “As I know you are probing for a weakness yourself. It might take centuries, but to ones like us, what are a few of those. In time you will be free.”

“More time than I care to spend in this bondage.” I growled then shook my head. “I'll find a way, and sooner than a few centuries.”

“What assistance I can give is yours, Princess.” He told me. “Little enough as that is.”

“Whatever you can do will be appreciated very much.” I assured, him. “You risked a lot just coming here, didn't you?”

“I am still weak, Princess.” He nodded. “My presence here is only a seeming and even that strains what I can do. But I will rest, then watch. Anything I discover, I will find a way to let you know.”

“Thank you.” I told him and meant that. It was clear that even what he was doing was a strain and I knew that was because the magical reserves he had built up were being depleted faster than he could draw it in. So I gave him some.

His eyes widened, and he started to protest. “Princess, you need all...”

“Hush.” I smiled and shook my head. “I don't even know how I did that yet, but since I can, I did. Stop complaining, I can get more and I think I can do it faster than you could.”

“Indeed, my Princess.” He bowed again and gave me a look that was an usettling mix of fear, awe, and love. “My thanks.”

“You have another tale for me?” I asked and he nodded. “One I probably have told you first, but I didn't realize my being here would be so — draining. This prison is quite nasty, highness.”

“Forget the titles for now.” I told him, not used to them and not really liking them either once I thought about it for a moment. “I'll probably have to get used to them later, but for now just talk to me.”

As you wish Princess.” He nodded and actually stopped himself from bowing. Which was kind of a relief.

My second tale is more recent, and germane to your present situation, but you needed to hear the first one to be able to put perspective on the second.”

Souri refilled his goblet, and mine, then waited like I was.

“Five hundred years ago, give or take a decade,” he started, “a group of weak mages discovered that what they could do, how they manipulated what little real magic they could touch, was growing. This astounded them at first, then elated them. But some became worried. If they were getting stronger, others likely were doing the same thing.

“As they investigated, the ambient magic continued to increase, not a lot, but they had devised ways to measure it. And that increase worried them when they recalled old tales of magical creatures, plus like most thinking beings, they wished to keep thier ascendency among others even if that was a carefully guarded secret.

“So they began — breeding for the gift.” Behrouze went on. “They already knew that if a female from a line able to use the magic had a child by a male with magic potential, that child would be even more 'gifted' than the parents. So they used that knowledge, ruthlessly. Deceit, bribery, threats, kidnapping, whatever it took to join two magic potentials into a stronger child were methods they used. In time, they even stopped trying to justify what they were doing. It had all become a quest for power, and once the cycle changed, bringing the magic back fully, they wanted all the power, all the skills, all the ability to control that, in thier hands.

“They envisioned themselves, or their descendants, as future gods, and fully intended to do whatever was needed to see that come to pass.” He grimaced at that.

“Several hundred years ago, one of them discovered your tale, Princess.” Behrouze sighed. “And set out to make your power thiers. They searched, planned, and began to devise a prison that would not only hold you but destroy you while leaving your powers as thiers to command. It took them over a century, but they had learned to be patient. And they found you.

“Unfortunately, for them,” Behrouze grinned, “the flesh you were in that time was killed before they could reach you and you were lost to them again for a time.

“You remained lost to them until very recently.” He shook his head sadly. “But they once again found you, and one manipulated events so that you and his daughter would meet. “

“Miri.” I breathed. “Was she part of this?”

“Only as another pawn, Princess. She truly did love your mortal flesh and was unaware of what her father was truly after.

“What surprised these mages, a thing they found terrible, was that thier female was able to use the magic in small ways, and your mortal form was very resourceful and unwilling to abandon the one he loved. Unfortunately that played into what they truly wanted even if the two were very difficult to find.

“The child was your undoing.” He sadly told me. “He was a beacon that they could not miss, so they found you. Once they did that and found the child to be viable, they stripped the mortality from you and imprisoned you here. That you have not become the empty shell they hoped for has vexed them, though.

“Your mate, the child's mother, will be given to another of them to produce more children, but the one you and she conceived is what they have been waiting for. The magical potential of a Djinn combined with the power of the human line that helped produce it. That child may well emerge as Djinn himself, but more likely will be only a very powerful human mage.

“And that, my Princess, is my second tale.”

I drained my wine in one gulp and worked, really had to work, to hold back some powerful emotions. Relief at first, that Miri wasn't a conscious part of all this. Then rage. A rage like I had never felt before and aimed at the ones who had done this. But that was useless for now, so I dulled it to an ember in the back of my mind, the deeper recesses of my soul, if I actually had one and took a breath to calm myself.

Behrouze had noticed, as Souri had, and both were giving me very wary looks when I managed to come back to myself.

“I'm okay.” I assured both of them.

“Do not lose yourself, Princess.” He was almost imploring as he took one of my hands and kissed it before going to Souri and doing the same with her. “You have stayed with her through all of it, help her now or we may lose her for all time.”

“I won't let them kill me, Behrouze.” I told him softly, or subjugate me any more than they have. Thank you, I am in your debt for this.”

“It was freely given, Princess.” He did the whole face on the floor bow thing and that was just — embarrassing.

“Then stand up and stop with the bowing and bruised forehead thing.” I answered and managed a grin at his almost shocked look. “Well your first story did say that I'm kind of unusual for our kind, didn't it?”

“Time in mortal flesh has changed you, Princess.”

“How would you know that if you never knew me?” I asked as he stood up. Once he had I walked up to him, took his cheeks in my hands so I held his face and softly told him. “You have given me two great gifts today, Behrouze. The knowledge that I am not the only one of our kind left, and what you have told me. Be welcome in my house whenever you choose to come.”

Where that last one came from I wasn't sure at all, but it felt right. Very right.

I kissed his forehead, giving just a bit more of my precious strength, but I also knew that he needed it worse than I did at the moment. “Now go before my jailors discover you are here.”

He stared at me in shock, shook himself and nodded. “I am your man, Princess. Command and I will give it should that be within my abilities.”

“Just go safely.” I told him, not at all comfortable with his declaration but working to hide it. “Keep your head down, and watch thngs for me. Stay safe.”

“As you say, my Princess.” He nodded started the bowing thing but stopped at the beginnings of a scowl on my face and actually grinned. “As you say.”

Then he was gone.

I had a lot of things to digest after that visit.

Some bad, some good, most just — mind boggling.

“Mistress?” Souri cautiously questioned after I'd been silent for some time.

“Yes, Souri?”

“you are disturbed.”

“No, Souri.” I quietly answered. “Disturbed doesn't come close to covering it right now.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I don't know.” I shook my head. “Yet. But these people won't have my children, either of them, or have Miri.”

“Will you mate with him? He was very handsome.”

“Mate with him?” I asked, puzzled for a moment then it dawned on me. “With Behrouze?”

“He is male, you are female.” She pointed out a little cautiously. “You two are the only Djinn in the world right now...”

“Ohh.” I had to grin. “He's a bit young for me, don't you think?

“Besides,” I knew a thoughtful look was on my face. “I believe he would be a better match for my beautiful Naderah.”

“As you say, Mistress.” She answered with a straight face but I could see the amusement in her eyes, and something like relief at the same time.

I decided not to press the issue just then. And she left it alone, too.

Damn, here I was a Djinn for not more than a few months and I was thinking of getting my not yet born daughter together with a guy?

Me? A matchmaker or worse, a dynsaty planner?

But Behrouze had survived for a long time and I just had the feeling that he was honorable. There could be worse matches for my coming daughter.

Man, this Princess crap was a pain at times.

Okay, most times.

“One of us is missing.” Miri's father told me once I materialized in front of him.

“Indeed, Master?” I questioned while showing indifference about that.

“Your price.” He shot down any hopes I had of getting my hands on him in any way but sexually while placing a silver piece in my hand. “I think Faroud, arrogant bastard that he was, refused to pay it. Am I right?”

“I do not know this person you are speaking of.” I was mostly honest. I hadn't known the jerk's name at least and I wasn't compelled to tell this one more without specific questions from him. Besides, that person didn't exist now.

“No matter.” He chuckled. “The others will so someting to violate the parameters of what you are and do. I imagine you will get rid of them, too.”

This man was strong with the magic, it blasted from his aura, but I still didn't know his name. Oh he was careful about that. Another thing to think about. I just looked at him and smiled, much as I hated doing that.

“Oh stop that.” He waved as I was taking a seductive pose. “Lovely as you are, that isn't what I want from you, slave.”

What? Oh, now this was getting interesting.

“If not my charms, Master,” I softly asked, “what is that you desire from your servant?”

“That isn't for you to know, slut.” He glared at me. “But what would you do if I offered the others to your less than tender mercies?”

“Master?” I asked, not quite understanding but starting to feel more hope than I had since my transformation, or awakening.

“The others will make mistakes with you, my dear.” He smirked. “They all believe that you are completely in thrall. I know differently. I'm proposing a bargain here slut.”

“Tell me more.” I smiled at him and had yet another clue.

“The magic is returning, soon as far as cycles like that go.” He told me. “It won't be within the next twenty years or even longer, but it is coming. When it does other things will awaken. Humans will need to be protected, but a committee can't do that.”

“Are you saying you can do that, Master?”

“With the magic they won't be using, and your power,” he nodded. “Yes.”

I nodded, there was more to this, but he wasn't going to tell me. I also got the unsettling sense that he was older, far older, than the flesh he had. That gave me a really bad feeling.

“I can give them to you, one at a time.” He smiled and that smile was something that made my skin crawl. “Everyone makes mistakes, my beautiful Samireh. I'll just lull them enough to make them do that with you.”

“And then, Master?”

“They are yours to do what you will with them, as I know you did to our missing brother.”

“As you say, Master.”

“As I say.” He nodded with satisfaction. “Now go. I'm done with you.”

That was one, nasty, evil man.

And he wanted my power all to himself.

Oh, I wouldn't turn down his offerings. Not at all.

It would take time, but I felt good, elated even. I just had the idea that I now knew how to break my bondage.

It wasn't going to be easy. But his arrogance had given me the one clue I had been missing. The vital piece of the puzzle that I really hadn't been doing so well at putting together.

This would take some thought.

But you're damned right that I'd take anyone of his circle he threw to me.

Maybe just not in the way he thought.