---

 

“A mirror, Souri.” I told her. “I need a mirror.

“It is done, Mistress.” She told me as a full length mirror just showed up in front of me.

That nearly undid, killed, the old me when I looked.

Oh, I knew my new body was one for adolescent wet dreams just from the feel of it.

But it wasn't the large, full, firm breasts standing out almost insolently, or the thin, almost tiny waist that led to very generous hips, slim arms, small smooth hands with long, delicate fingers, or the long, gorgeous legs that hit me.

It was my face.

Staring back at me from that mirror, atop a sex kitten body was a face I would never forget.

Miri was staring back at me.

“Damn you.” I breathed, moaned, then fell to my knees. “Damn all of you to any Hell, from any god that exists!”

Seeing that face, that beloved face, on me, and knowing what the ones who had done this to me intended nearly unhinged my sanity.

They knew I would hate myself for what they made me do. Putting Miri's face on me was a calcultated strike to make me love her less and start thinking of her as nothing but a plaything, a whore.

Each time I was called, had to do what they wanted, I would know, know, that the face of the person doing that was Miri's.

I had run out of curses, damnations, Rage.

Now all I did was hurt. Where their other manipulations had failed, the pain had a good chance to undo me, the me I had always held to so stubbornly. The me that I had always thought of as the core of my being.

But I'd found that was wrong. I wasn't at all what I had once thought I was.

But what, just what the Hell, was I?

Who was I?

“Come back, Mistress!” Souri's distressed cries and shaking finally roused me a bit. “You fade! That is death for your kind! Come back to me!”

“Death.” I whispered. “That would be a good thing right now.”

“No, it would not.” My servant firmly told me then asked. “Would you leave the shell of your form, your power, for any to use as they see fit? If you fade that will happen, Mistress.”

My muddled thought processes realized that was probably exactly what the ones who had done this to me wanted. In fact, I had been told that I would lose myself in time. That I would not let happen if there was one shred of self left to me.

So I fought my way back. And it was a fight.

Part of me didn't want anything to do with coming back, being what I had become. Another part grieved at the loss of Miri and our son and was looking for oblivion because of that. But another part, an important part, was angry, determined, and intent on surviving just to thumb my nose at Miri's father and the others if nothing else. Guess which part won?

“Vengeance.” I barely sighed. “I will have it.”

“Spoken like a true Princess of the Djinn.” Souri gave me a quick hug, then jumped away with an apologetic look. “My apologies, Princess. I grew too familiar.”

“It's all right.” I gave her a weak smile. “I don't believe that I'm exactly what you think I am, Souri.”

“You are my mistress, my princess.” She had her face pressed into the carpet again and her voice was muffled because of that. “Others better than I have died for such temerity.”

“Just what are you, Souri?” I asked as much to change that subject as to give myself time to figuratively regroup after my meltdown. “A prisoner here, like me?”

“Only because you are here, Mistress.” She answered carefully. “I was pledged, pledged myself to your service long ago. I am here because you are.”

“You spent twenty odd years waiting in this bottle for me to show up?”

“Oh I have waited far longer than that, mistress.” She told me then got a dreamy expression on her face. “Your father was a great one, your mother a queen beyond compare among the Djinn. I was there at your creation, your birth, over five thousand years ago. I knew then that my fate was entwined with yours and that I would serve you for all time. I held you as an infant, played with you as a toddler and child, and helped you find your own beauty as you matured. When you were hidden among mortals I thought I would fade from the grief but I have watched you, watched over you through all these years.”

The time span she was talking about was more than I could get my head around just then. Not to mention what she had said about my supposedly original parents.

But the absolute, unyielding love and committment that came from her as she had said that was something I had never experienced before. Or could deny. It was a palpable force in the air between us, around us.

It was a powerful as what I'd felt from Miri, but without the sexual overtones. It just was.

Wow.

I managed to get up and even gently pull this child-woman who claimed to have been my nurse, nanny, playmate, and confidant to her feet. Something in me quite firmly insisted she was telling the truth. I hugged her, tightly.

“I don't remember, Souri. I can feel it but I don't remember you. I'm sorry.” I told her once the tenseness in her body relaxed. “I am so sorry.”

My hug was returned, lightly, and she pulled herself away from me shaking her head. “You were awakened prematurely, mistress. You may regain those memories, or not. I have no way of knowing how this works since you are the only one of your kind to be hidden in mortal flesh. No matter, I am here to serve you, help you and if needed, teach you. If you will have me.”

I wondered if I dared trust her. And felt guilty for that thought almost right away. But with what had happened to me lately it was hard to trust anyone I hadn't already known. But I felt like I'd known Souri for a long, long time. I decided to deal with that later. I had something I desperately needed, another person in this prison of mine. Even though the idea that she was there voluntarily, for me, boggled the mind.

Not to mention the five thousand plus years of faithful watching and waiting she had told me about.

“I would be honored to have you stay, Souri.” I told her and not really sure where that came from. “You have been faithful to me for a long time from what you say and I feel that is truth. Refusing you would be unconscionable. Unforgivable.”

“All those years in mortal flesh have changed you, mistress.” She gave me a careful look and shrugged. “Perhaps that is no bad thing so long as it didn't make you weak.”

“Well, we won't know until things happen, will we?” I answered. “When they do, we deal with it.”

She had no response to that other than a nod of the head.

“Are you Djinn, Souri?” I asked once all the angst had settled down. “You say you have been with me one way or another for a really long time.”

“No mistress.” She shook her head and even appeared a little shocked. “I am Efreeti. A female of the Efreet. We have magic, are magic, are usually full of mischief, love causing trouble, and like you — the Djinn, we too can be bound. My kind are wild, and rarely allow ourselves to make promises of any kind then find ways to get out of them if we do. Djinn always keep thier promises, mistress. Always.

Your kind bound mine long ago, some say to keep the damage down, others say it was to save us, others that it was simply that you did not wish for your power to be contested with. Your kind was, and is, cruel, mistress, but also fair. You, your kind never punished for caprice, but the punishments were never easy, or kind.”

“Was I like that?” I asked, apalled at the idea.

“At times.” She told me, but you were different. You refused to punish on a whim, among your kind you were the gentle one, the one who considered others when deciding things. Your parents often berated you for that weakness, but you simply bowed, gave them the respect due to them, then went as you had been. That might be why they hid you in mortal flesh, my princess. They knew that hiding would have a chance of success with you. Another Djinn would have been destroyed by that.

“But to your original question, the culture you call modern, and its precursors confused us with the Djinn because of our similarities and because we were the ones mortals usually encountered. But no, I am not Djinn. We Efreet are as children standing among adults to the Djinn. Even gods were wary of your kind, and respected your people, mistress. There is no comparison at all between my people and yours other than the magic.

“I do not think those who awakened you realize just what they have brought back into the world.” She finished with a little smile and shrug. “And you did promise them things, mistress.”

“That I did.” I nodded slowly. “But I didn't tell them, or say anything.”

“A thought is as good as a word, mistress.” She told me. “You made promises, you will keep them or cease to exist for trying to keep them.”

“Oh, that's interesting.” I blew some hair out of my face with a puff of breath without even thinking how wrong that would have been for me not long ago. “So I have to careful about what I think as well as what I say?”

“Indeed, mistress.” Souri gave me an approving look. “A promise, even unspoken, is your word. You would die rather than go against a promise.”

“Interesting, and kind of disturbing.” I sighed while wondering if I could actually find all the hells I'd promised to the ones who did this to me.

“If you can't find them you could create them.” Souri told me.

Oh, now that was someting I was in no way ready to think about, let alone hear.

Okay another file away for later thing there.

I had magic, was magic. That was a bit hard to comprehend.

But I could feel it even if I didn't yet quite believe it. And what I felt told me that the magic around me, the potential was slowly getting stronger.

Interesting and more than a little scary. I was getting more powerful with every passing second. But I was still nothing more than a slave.

That was something I needed to end, somehow, before real magic flooded the world again.

I didn't know how to do that. Yet.

But I would figure it out.

What I did know was the ones who had done this me, awakened me, wanted a nearly mindless shell they could command and one that would comply with those commands without demure.

So I resolved to show them that when I was called, no matter how repugnant it might be.

Those bastards were not going to keep me chained.

There was nothing wrong with my brain, or mind no matter what had happened. And I had been a math and computer major...

There had to be a way to get free.

I just needed to find that loophole.

 

---

 

I had magic, was magic. That was a bit hard to comprehend.

But I could feel it even if I didn't yet quite believe it. And what I felt told me that the magic around me, the potential was slowly getting stronger.

Interesting and more than a little scary. I was getting more powerful with every passing second. But I was still nothing more than a slave. That was something I needed to end, somehow, before real magic flooded the world again.

I didn't know how to do that. Yet.

But I would figure it out.

What I did know was the ones who had done this me, awakened me, wanted a nearly mindless shell they could command and one that would comply with those commands without demure.

So I resolved to show them that when I was called, no matter how repugnant it might be.

Those bastards were not going to keep me chained.

There was nothing wrong with my brain, or mind no matter what had happened. And I had been a math and computer major...
There had to be a way to get free.

I just needed to find that loophole.

As I was thinking those things a truly odd sensation hit me. A tingly pulling like everything about me, physical or not was being prodded, then gently pulled at. Almost like a mild electric shock and a sense of moving even though I was standing still.
Then I got the feel of being in a really powerful sports car that had just been accelerated suddenly. I was pressed back a bit and then pulled forward.

To find myself in a different place.

“I trust your new accomodations are satisfactory, Samireh.” A voice I will never forget spoke once all that had finished.

It was Miri's father smirking and admiring me.

“They are adequate, Master.” I answered carefully as I bowed to him.

Ignoring me, he turned to another person in the room. “Here she is boy, give her the price she demands.”

The boy, a pimply faced teenager stared at me in mixed awe and fear for a moment, then almost hesitantly moved forward, took my hand and pressed something into it.

I knew it was a silver coin of some kind. Debased, not pure, but still, it was silver. I sent the coin to my newly acquired home, prison, and gave the kid a smile. “The price has been met. What would you have of me, Master?”

“She is yours for the night, boy.” Miri's father told him, then added. “Perhaps she can make a man of you since nothing else has worked.”

So my first was to be a youth who for some reason had not measured up to what his elders thought he should be. He was nervous, even frightened, so I gave him a reassuring smile and held out a hand. “Come Master, tonight I will show you things most mortals only dream of. I will give you a taste of heaven.”

Why did I say that, while cocking a hip and smiling again? The spell that had made — awakened me? A compulsion to act the shameless harlot? Both, neither? I didn't know just then and could do nothing to change things even if I had. “Come Master, join me and I am yours for the night.”

I was not under the illusion that starting me with this boy was a mercy. It was a test, for me, and likely for him. My 'creators' weren't yet sure of me so were cautious about making use of what I had become and sent a near child to risk any deceits I might pull. Oh there would be deceits, I was sure of it, and the first one would be tonight, but not at all what they half feared. I would not harm this boy or even try to.

No, the ones I intended to harm would not see anything other than the compliant little magical whore they had made. For this night, and a number of others, I was sure. I would give them no hint that I wasn't what they had planned for me to be until I was ready to show them.

Then, oh then, they would wish I had sent them to some mere Hell. But I had to be patient, and learn. Even though biding my time would involve things I had no wish to do.

The youth took my hand and we were back in my prison, my so opulent prison. It was clear enough then that I would be given no hint of freedom, not even when performing my — duties.

“Souri!” I called and clapped my hands. “We have a guest! Bring refreshments for him!

“Now, Master,” I whispered while leading him to a couch, “what is it you would have of me?”

He hesitated, then told me. No wonder He hesitated.

“Master, I am sorry, but that is not in my power to do.” I sadly told him, running into another limitation to how I could show myself. My first preferred men.

“But they said...”

“That I could give you your heart's desire.” I touched his lips to stop him. “That I can do if you are brave enough to take what I offer.
“What will they do to you, if you don't pass this 'test' they have given you?” I asked.

“They will make me become a woman.” He answered. “But I won't be a complete one, and they are cruel to women, especially ones like me at the best of times.”

“Ahh, and if I could help you avoid that?” I asked. “What would you say, or do to have it?”

“They are watching.” He nervously told me.

With a look to Souri I nodded and something we'd planned early on happened. Once I was sure it had worked, I smiled at him. “They will see what we wish them to see. Nothing more, nothing less. Now, back to my question, what would you give me for something like you desire without the abuse you would get for it otherwise?”

“Anything you ask.” He simply told me, then amended that. “Other than killing my father and uncles.”

“A favor would be all I ask for it.” I smiled at him marveling at his concern for men who obviously had little for him. They fully expected him to fail here.

“A favor?”

“A favor.” I nodded. “That I will call in when I need it. Nothing more.”

“How large a favor?” He looked worried, this boy was no one's fool.

“Does it matter that much?” I shrugged. “Information, answering a few questions when I ask them, nothing else. I'm not asking for your soul, child. Or for you to kill anyone for me. Oh believe me, I don't want them dead at all. Not at all.”

“But...”

“Hush.” I touched his lips with a fingertip again. “Yes or no is all I require here and the cost will not be so onerous for you, that is a promise.”

He thought about it, the alternatives, and slowly nodded. I caught images of the abuse he had already endured and was actually very impressed that he didn't want bloody revenge for some of things he'd been through. “All right. I agree.”

“Good, Naderah.” I answered, giving him a name that meant Rare, which this boy really was. “Now sleep that I may do my work.”

I touched him, felt his very being, and set it to shape its physical self to his mental and emotional one, but with a trigger to start that. I also made sure that the magic he could touch would not become inaccessable once he had transformed. One like this deservered more than that, but I couldn't give it, only make sure that when Naderah came to be she would be beautiful as her soul was.

“You will return, and they will change you, dear.” I told his sleeping form. “I am sorry for that but it must be for this to work. But the changes they make will be added to by what I do and you will emerge like a butterfly from the coccoon as what you have always wished to be. But you will have the power to make certain you are no longer abused even after the real change. Do not, I ask, misuse it.”

I really wanted to send him back smelling of sex with a woman, but that would have been painful and repugnant to him. And would have delayed the changes he truly wanted even with the culture he lived in.

“Sleep well, my little Naderah.” I touched his forehead and somehow knew I had my first daughter. “I will be watching over you, my beautiful child.”

So my first sally against those I hated was made, provided the precautions Souri and I had taken really worked. Even if not, my first daughter would walk the world within months anyway.

Because there was nothing, nothing at all, a mere mage could do to halt the birth of a Djinn.

Yes, that was a very satisfying first time for me.

“That was interesting, Mistress.” Souri told me once the boy had gone back. “But a boy as your daughter?”

“Didn't you see his soul, Souri?” I asked.

“I didn't really look, it is not my place.” She answered.

“His soul is female and in a lot of pain right now.” I told her then added. “From now on, look — really look, at the ones who come here. Your insights will be helpful on that count. Besides, did you feel the power in that awkward form, the sheer ability to manipulate magic?”

“Well, yes.” She admitted.

“My — creators, or awakeners — whichever you prefer would have stunted that, maybe even killed it. I couldn't let that happen, Souri. I just couldn't.”

“As you say, Mistress.” She lowered her head as she agreed. “It was well done on two counts. Now you have a potential ally who is free and owes you that favor, and you have a daughter.”

“That I do.” I nodded thoughtfully. “That I do.”

“Nicely done, Mistress.” She grinned.

I had to return the grin. “Now if our little trick works. If not I will have to find a way to keep Naderah from being bound.”

“Leave that to me, Mistress.” Souri answered quietly. “I am not bound to this place, only to you.”

Now that had possibilities that would need thinking about. I upgraded my chances of gaining my freedom by about twenty percent after hearing that. They were still pretty slim at the moment, but I was pretty sure other things would come along to improve the odds, too.

If only I was smart enough to not only see them, but use them.

“This is a very fine, tight net they have woven around you, Mistress.” Souri sighed as we looked at the spells that bound me to this bottle and to the will of others. “They worked for years to perfect this before using it.”

“There has to be something they've overlooked in here.” I muttered while taking in the web of magics designed to hold me and force my compliance with the wishes of those who had set them. “All we need to do is find that one little gap, one chink in this wall.”

“I fear that is far easier to say than do, Mistress.”

“The one thing I remember that is important here, from my old life — the one I remember, anyway — is that nothing is fool proof or airtight. No matter how strong some firewall or internal defenses of a system are there is always something, usually a little thing, that the makers overlooked and will allow it to be exploited. It is going to take time, but there is at least one of those in all this. There has to be.”

“Solomon left none.” She pointed out.

“These people aren't Solomon and he had a god helping him.” I answered and at least hoped I was right. “They had to have screwed up somewhere and all I have to do is find that one little weakness.”

“It is good to see,” Souri tilted her head and gave me a thoughtful look, “That the resolve, the strength that you had is still there.”

“I'll find a way.” I told her almost dreamily while examing the web that made this place my prison. “And when I do...”

“Indeed, Mistress.” Souri actually smiled for the first time in hours. “I do believe you will.”

That silver coin I had been given, niggled at me for some reason. But I couldn't find just why that was. Though in time I'd either figure it out, or start ignoring the thing.

“Mistress?” Souri questioned. “Why do you keep looking at that coin, touching it? In your position I would want nothing to do with it at all.”

“Normally, I'd chuck it far away where I couldn't see it, too.” I agreed while staring at the thing in the palm of my hand, the 'price' that was given for my sexual favors. I had a number of them already and yes, I should have hated the sight of them. “But I can't get past the idea that this is important not only because it's the price men pay to use me...”

“How could that be?” She asked.

“I don't know, Souri.” I shrugged and tossed the thing back into the small pile of others that had accumulated over the past while. “But I do intend to find out.”

My first real clue came around the twentieth time I was summoned. And no, I will NOT describe the previous times. Lets just say that most who called me would make perverts look clean and civilized.

Interestingly, all of them called on gods I had either vaguely heard of or not at all. Not one of these 'pillars' of Iran once invoked Allah.

I was pulled from my own search, and musing again to find myself in an opulent bed room with an older, but still hale man looking at me.

“What is your will, Master?” I asked softly, bowing and appearing meek and accomodating as much as I hated that.

“Why does anyone call you, whore?” He smirked. “You know what I want.”

“And you, Master, know the price for that.” I quietly answered.

“I helped make you, whore.” He still had that smirk on his face. “I have no need to pay for your services. You are my slave after all.”

No price offered, and I was still present. Now that got me thinking so I thought I'd try something on my own for a change.

Smiling seductively I lowered my lashes and watched him through them while holding out my hand. “As you wish, Master. “Come. Take what is yours.”

With a broad, self satisfied smile he reached out to take my hand.

He blinked once we had returned to my prison. Looked around as if he owned everything in it, including me and took in my face and form again. “Strip, dance for me, whore.”

The compulsion wasn't there. For the first time since this had started I wasn't made to simply acquiesce to a command.

I smiled at him and just stood there.

“You heard me, bitch!” He spat out. “Strip and dance for me.”

“Oh, I think not.” I returned his smile and shook my head. “You see, you owe me a price, even if you don't wish to pay it. Now that you are here, it is mine to collect as I see fit, I do believe.”

His eyes widened and his mouth started to form the words of a spell.

“Be quiet.” I told him and his mouth stopped making sounds. “Now stop that, too. This is my home and you have entered it without the right safeguards. I don't want you say a word until I say it is time for you to do that. Clear?”

His mouth snapped shut, and the gestures he had started making stopped. It was my turn to smirk. “Now, what to take from you for my price?
“Don't move.” I ordered him while walking forward to stroke his bearded cheek and he went still as a mouse in the presence of a hungry cat.

“That's better. In this place, if the price isn't met beforehand, it seems that I have the power. Isn't that interesting? Thank you for showing me that.”

I saw a glint of gold at his chest and pulled a medallion away from him. It burned, slightly, but I'd noted that Souri was staying well clear of the thing. A sharp tug broke the chain around his neck and I took a few moments to examine the thing before closing my hand and sending it — elsewhere. Don't ask me where that is, or the mechanics of the act, I couldn't describe either, but when I opened my hand it was gone.

“You thought that would protect you?” I watched the fear in his eyes and gave him a gentle smile. “Your kind have been dealing with creatures you thought were Djinn for so long you have no idea of what a true one is.

I waved Souri forward and without that medallion in the area she did so without hesitation, bowing to me and giving the mage a look of pure hatred.

“Souri here is of the kind you think of as Djinn.” I told him almost off handedly. “She is Efreet, however and no, it is not the same thing. The Efreet were and are servants of the Djinn. That charm would have held her away once you invoked it, but as you noticed, I'm sure, it didn't really bother me all that much.”

He was struggling to speak. I gave him a nasty grin and shook my head.

“No spells, prayers, or invocations from you.” I waved a hand in front of him. “Other than that you can speak now.”

“What are you?” He whispered.

“Djinni.” I shrugged. “But it's pretty clear you have no real idea of what that is, do you?”

Of course, I really had no idea either, but at the moment I had the upper hand and there were things I wanted from this man. Careful to make sure he had no other nasty little tricks waiting, I also admit to a bit of cruelty there in really wanting to get some of my own back on one of the men who had wrecked my life.

“But the real question here is what am I going to do with you?” I thoughtfully tapped a finger against my chin. “What payment would possibly make up for what you and your companions did to me, took from me?”

“Anything.” He answered hoarsly, already having found that nothing he did would break the binding I had placed on him. “I'll give you anything at all, just free me.”

“Anything?” I sighed and waved at our surroundings. “Can you release me from all this — luxury you've imprisoned me in? Can you give me back the life you took from me? The love I had and the child I may never see? Can you give me that?”

“Anything else.” He answered. “Not those, but anything else. Ask and it is yours.”

“Here, in this situation,” I just looked at him, “I command, not ask.”

If he could have moved to cringe, I think he would have. And yes, I am ashamed of myself over what I did with that man. But there were months — I think — of pent up rage, frustration, degradation, humiliation, that had to come out. I have no excuse for that because there isn't one. I know I was needlessly cruel and was enjoying it. But the experience did teach me a few lessons about myself that were good to know.

“So what?” I looked at him. “What should I take? Your miserable life? Maybe your soul? Possibly your very existence? What should I do, in your opinion, mage?”

He had nothing to say to that.

“I have it.” with a nod, I smiled at him. “Information. You tell me things and I promise you'll live through this.”

Souri started to say something, probably protest that offer, but I stopped her with a shake of my head then looked at the mage. “Answer my questions, tell me what I want to know, and you'll leave this place alive.”

Needless to say, after a bit of thought, he spilled his guts. What he admitted to, when questioned, and let slip at other times, almost staggered me. Not enough information to let me break free of the prison I was held in, but more pieces of a puzzle that was slowly starting to come together.

They hadn't cared about Michael or Miri. What these bastards wanted was our child.

Oh, if I had anything to say about it, or could do about it, that was NOT going to happen. What these people would do with the child of a Djinn and a magically powerful human wasn't something I even wanted to think about.

“So I gave you what you wanted.” He managed to tell me, beginning to act as if he had some control in all this. “You promised I would be free once I did that.”

“No.” I answered. “I promised you would live through all this.

But don't worry, I'll free you to live your life, just as I said I would. My kind always keep our word, mage.” I reassured him and watched the relief show in his eyes for a moment. “Oh yes, I'll set you free, and let you live.

“But I really don't think you'll enjoy that life, Fariba.” The name was a woman's and meant charming, enticing, or both. I sealed his magic potential away from any reach he might find then started the transformation.

“You are beautiful, inviting.” I told the nearly hysterical girl that resulted from what I'd done. “Your husband is a very lucky man, Fariba.”

“Nooo!!” Was all she got out that was coherent.

“Oh yes, girl.” I answered without a trace of pity for her. “You are young, beautiful, fertile. Quite a catch, actually.

“Oh, another thing.” I said as if it was an after thought. “You and your companions mouth the praises to Allah in public but believe none of it. Well, now you'll find that you are a good little muslim girl and wife, and you'll be able to tell no one who you once were or what happened to you.

“Have a good life, beautiful Fariba.” I told the shaking girl. “Give your husband many sons.”

With a wave of my hand she was gone. To the 'freedom' I hadn't quite promised. But she was still alive.

And you know what? I felt more than a little dirty after doing that.

“Souri, take my bottle back to where that one took it from, if you would.” I requested instead of commanded. “It wouldn't do to have the others discover the things we did this time around, would it?”

She blinked out then was back. “It is done, Mistress.”

“Good, thank you and please bring me some wine. I have a lot to think about right now.”

“You have no need to ask, Mistress.” Souri told me primly as she produced what I'd requested.

“Oh, I think I do, Souri.” I answered tiredly. “I really think I do, and should.”

She said nothing at all in response.

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 a very, very male one at that.

 

---

 

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.

 

---

 

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.

The man's capacity for betrayal surprised me, but then again it didn't.

The feel that he was older — far older — than his body was disturbing, though. Very disturbing.

What was he? A human who had discovered a rather unpleasant way to prolong his life? A magical being who was hiding in human flesh? A mix of the two? Had the original at one time made a pact with something for that ability and been joined or even subsumed by the being it had been done with? Some investigation was in order there.

But more importantly, I knew how to break the bonds that held me. Oh it wasn't going to be easy to get what I needed, but now that I knew what it was at least I could work around the constraints that had been set on me enough to get it done. It wouldn't be an instant fix, but now I knew, KNEW, what it was I had to do to be free.

Then, oh then, there would be a reckoning. I would have my vengeance, and set a few other things right at the same time.

Oh yes. All that and more.

In time.

And as Behrouze had said, I had all the time in the world to do it in.

The puzzle finally made sense.

Now all I needed were the missing pieces to complete it.

And that bastard who was Miri's father had just offered them up to me. The Fates do have a sense of humor, it seems.

“Oh, my poor, beautiful daughter.” I mourned while watching what Nadereh was going through. The surgeries, the beatings, the drilled in training.

“She knows what waits at the end of this, Mistress.” Souri told me quietly. “She has endured worse already and you know that. She is anticipating her true birth.”

“I just hope she isn't born a bitter, hating creature.” I sighed.

“Your beautiful souled, Nadereh?” Souri shook her head. “There is no hate in her, Mistress. Not even now. She will be all that you hoped she would be, I am certain.”

I could only hope Souri was right.

Another interesting wrinkle in things, as you probably noticed there, is that I can see the ones I've touched, or changed. Though that wasn't always the blessing you might think.

“Fariba has adjusted more quickly than I would have thought.” I mused while watching the other I'd changed.

“She knows that what she is, Is, Mistress.” Souri agreed. “She has a strong spirit that has been changed by her new form into something it never could have been before.”

That was true. Fariba really had become that dutiful, loving wife I had sentenced the one she had been to being.

“In time,” my servant and confidant thoughtfully went on, “she may well see what you did to her as a gift rather than a punishment.”

“We'll see.” I sighed while reaching out to test her. By allowing just little of her magical ability to open up. “What she does with this will be interesting and important to her future.”

“As you say, Mistress.” Souri nodded.

Fariba felt the slight return of her magic and started as if she had put her fingers into a light socket.

Then a slow smile grew on her face and she looked up, as if actually seeing me and whispered. “Thank you, Mother.”

That set me back a bit.

“Mother? She calls me Mother?”

“Any you change, Mistress.” Souri told me. “Any of them, are your children even if they remain human.”

Now that was going to take some thought, and getting used to.

And the possibilities just kept growing.

“But they must come to you willingly, Mistress.” Souri added. “You won't get that effect if you just randomly change people. Those who come of thier own accord are attuned to you from the start.”

“Sheesh.” I shook my head. “I hope I can be a good influence on them, then.”

“That worry.” She smiled at me. “Is needless, Mistress.”

“Huh.” Was about all I could come up with for an answer to that one.

“You are the coming Mother, Mistress.” Souri told me simply. “The Queen who will make the Djinn a gentler, kinder people.”

“I don't think I'm quite ready for that yet.” I couldn't get the idea of being a Queen into my head even if everyone I'd met outside of those mages called me Princess.

“When the time comes, you will be, Mistress.” She told me with a simple confidence that warmed my heart and soul. “But do not worry. Being Kind and caring does not mean one is weak.

“If you succeed here, your people will be strong and for once, loved by others.”

Well, that was another of those 'think about it later' things. That succeeding part was what I really needed to concentrate on at the moment.

I looked at the still small pile of silver coins I had accumulated, separated the dross from the pure, and noticed that what was left was pitifully small. But again, I had time. Now to see if I had the patience. And the strength to do what was needed.

My mouth was engulfing his penis, taking it all in and working it with teeth, tongue and throat.

When he erupted, I swallowed all of it, then tried to get more.

Pulling away, I cleaned him, then brought him back to arousal.

Then climbed on top of him and rode that newly revitalized rod like a child on a pony. I used him until he was too exhausted to go further and much to my lessening distress, the sex was good. Very good. My body was singing with the pleasure I had felt, and wanted more.

But the vessel I had been tapping was empty.

Not that it stopped me from trying.

What I pulled from him then was something entirely different.

I tasted his masculinity, his maleness without the disguising flavor of sexual acts.

And I drank that in, too.

Oh, it wouldn't show right away, but with that I knew I had gained another daughter. One that no one suspected at all.

So discovered there was more than one way to take the ones I needed into my own circle. Interesting, satisfying in several ways, and oh so good in both ways.

Okay, I admit, the me that was now really enjoyed the rutting part of things. I couldn't even blame myself since that was how I had been made. I'd tried to do that to fight it, but it was as much a part of me as my hands, or head now. Not something I could get rid of without rather disastrous results.

A person has to adapt to realities or just cave in and stop being.

I was NOT going to do that. Giving up was just not in my nature. Either nature I recalled.

“Very nice, little whore.” That hated voice congratulated and taunted me as Miri's father stepped into view. “You had a very appreciative, and surprised audience for that last performance.”

“I wondered what he meant when he turned away from me and told someone. “Well, go ahead, pay her price.

“I find reunions to be so uplifting.” He grinned nastily at me as the person he had addressed came out of the shadows and hesitantly put a silver coin in my hand.

It was Miri.

Her expressions were many and varied. Shock. Pain. Sorrow. Outrage. And worse, the worst of them all, a trace of disdain.

 

---

 

“Very nice, little whore.” That hated voice congratulated and taunted me as Miri's father stepped into view. “You had a very appreciative, and surprised audience for that last performance.”

“I wondered what he meant when he turned away from me and told someone. “Well, go ahead, pay her price.

“I find reunions to be so uplifting.” He grinned nastily at me as the person he had addressed came out of the shadows and hesitantly put a silver coin in my hand.

It was Miri.

Her expressions were many and varied. Shock. Pain. Sorrow. Outrage. And worse, the worst of them all, a trace of disdain.

I just looked at Miri as she stared at me without being able to say a thing. No matter what had happened to me, I still loved her and the things I'd seen in her face hurt.

“I'll just leave you two to enjoy this.” Her father said and left the room, closing the door behind him.

“Bastard.” I breathed.

“Oh yes.” Miri nodded. “That and worse.

“Oh, Mike, what have they done to you?”

“What you see, what you saw.” I shook my head. “I can't help being what they have imposed on me just now.”

“They're watching.” She turned to look at the walls and everywhere else with real concern.

“No matter.” I shrugged, reaching out to make sure what they saw was an argument that I hoped wouldn't really happen. “They are seeing what I want them to see right now.”

“You can do that?” She asked with a surprised look on her face.

“Oh, yes.” I gave her a little smile. “They may have me bound, but I am finding more and more ways around that every day.”

“Then why?” She asked simply. “Why do what you just did?”

“Miri, it's hard to explain other than to tell you that the binding spells they put on me make that a part of my nature that I can't fight. And don't think I haven't tried to do that. I still love you Miri, even with how I look and what I am.

“This.” I looked down and the silver coin in my hand with a slow smile. “May just be part of what I need to get my freedom.”

“Can you do that?”

“In time.” I nodded.

“I want my husband back.” She wistfully told me.

“Miri.” I tried to think of how to tell her and just decided to say it. “What you see is me. Michael was a shell, to hide all this.
“I was born so long ago that no civilazation that was there exists in any more than ruins and interesting things in museums today. This essence you see was hidden away in mortal forms that changed with each time I died and was reborn into a new one. What your father and his companions did was to strip that mortality away, destroy it so the essence was forced to take shape just to survive. And they had their trap well set before they did that.

“But I have no real memories of that long ago life, or of the human lives I've lived beyond that of Michael's, and like him, I do love you Miri. And the people who have done this to us are going to pay.”

“Can you take your old, Mike's shape?” She asked. “I want to spend at least a few moments with the man I loved. If you do have that kind of power, and are the Heart's Desire' of anyone who pays your damned price, I want Mike back for a little while.”

I tried, oh gods I tried. I could take any female form someone wished, could become any woman in the world or fantasy. But I couldn't go back to being a male for even one second for the person I loved in life more than anything I had ever known.

So I clothed myself in an illusion, for her sake, to at least appear to be what she wanted so badly to see.

“I can't hold this for long.” I told her with tears in my eyes. “And probably will never be able to do it again. Taking a male shape is just something my essence fights.”

“Oh, Mike.” She was weeping. “I miss you so much.”

“I miss you too, Miri.” I hugged her and just holding the illusion was taking a lot my strength. “But I can do no more than this. I'm sorry, my love.”

“It was enough, just to know that you still exist in whatever form.” She answered with her face pressed into my chest. “I hate my father. That was the last look you saw on my face, it wasn't meant for you.”

“The shock, pain, and sorrow nearly undid me.” I softly told her. “To think that you hated me was almost more than I could take.”

“Oh, never that my love.” She quietly answered as my illusion shimmered and vanished. “You were the love of my life, the one who refused to leave when you were in danger because of staying with me, the father of my son. I could never hate you even if seeing what you have been made to do is painful.”

“Our son.” I let out a breath looking at her trim figure. “He was born, and is well?”

“Oh yes.” Miri nodded and smiled through her tears. “He looks like his father, and is very healthy.”

“And you?” I asked. “What about that arranged marriage?”

“Well I'm not being auctioned off to a member of my father's circle.” She answered. “His name is Miles and he isn't that bad at all.”

“Miles?” I asked.

“He was born in England and raised there.” She told me. “So he isn't all that big on the making women bow down and all that crap. And he is a good man, Mike. Not part of the inner circle, just someone with a lot of potential they want to tap and he's related to some of them.”

“Then try to be happy with him, Miri.” I told her quite honestly. “I can't ever be what I was with you again. Your father and his friends saw to that, I'm afraid.”

“Then make love to me as you are.” She looked at me, and began taking her clothing off. “I know who's in that body, please make love to me.”

So I did.

And you know? It was just as good as when I had been Michael.

“Never forget that I love you, Miri.” I told her when we were finished. “But I can't be Mike for you.”

“They saw to that.” She nodded and I could see the anger in her.

“I can give you something that will make things easier, but you have to promise me not to try and get revenge on people if I do that.” I told her as I held her.

“What?”

“I can open your magic to you, Miri.” I answered. “But only if you promise me not to use it right now. They would kill you if you showed it here.”

“Magic?” She shook her head. “Females can't use magic.”

“Miri.” I took her cheeks in my hand and looked her in the eyes. “You have used it. When you swore you and our son wouldn't forget me. It isn't that females can't use magic, just that they have been taught that they can't. You hid us for several years while we ran from your father, you know. You just didn't know you were doing it. Just use it to make sure you aren't mistreated or you will suffer. You wouldn't be strong enough right now to fight the circle.”

“I know, love, I know.” I tried to soothe her. “I can give you that gift, but if you use to fight them you will lose and find yourself bound far tighter than I am just now. If you can't promise me that you won't use this against them, I will not open it to you, and if you even try to fight them, I will close it again. Do you understand? This is simply something to make your life better, not a thing for vengeance.

“Believe me.” I told her while giving her a tight hug. “I intend to take care of that and will.”

“I want them to pay.” She whispered.

“Oh they will.” I promised. “Just don't, please don't, try to do it yourself. I WILL take care of this. Believe me.”

“Are you strong enough?”

“Oh yes.” I nodded with a little smile. “Back when, even gods hesitated to fight with my people. Oh yes, I can do it.”

“I'll hold you to that.” She told me.

“I will do it.” I promised. “And with a promise, my kind are bound just as surely as we can be by magic. I've made that promise to you, it will happen, my love.”

“I don't know why, but I believe you.” She answered softly while hugging me tighter and pushing up against me. “I believe you.”

“One of them already screwed up, and has paid for it.” I told her. “The others will, too.”

“If one of them is beaten, does that weaken the spells that hold you, make you do those things?” She asked.

“No, I wish it was that simple. The spells binding me have been in the making for over a century, Miri. But I think I've found another way. If that doesn't work there will be another, or another. I can afford to be patient, if I have to be but believe me when I tell you that bindings or not, the ones who did this to us won't enjoy what they've done for long.”

“Patient?” She almost exploded. “I don't have eternity to wait, you know.”

“I know, I know.” I hugged her and ran a hand through her hair. “This Miles you told me about, he is a good man, really?”

“Yes.” She nodded and her face flushed. “But I thought just going to him would betray you — Michael.”

I nodded. “How does he feel about raising a son that isn't his?”

“He's told me that Michael is my child and he will treat him as his own, and I believe him, but...”

“No buts here, Miri.” I set a finger lightly to her lips. “The one, the one really important thing about love is that you want the one you love to be happy. I can never be Mike again, or even male other than with an illusion. I'm not even human now. If this man is what you say he is, and he will love our son as his own, go to him. Be happy with your life. That's what matters to me here. Do you understand that?

“You being happy.” I finished and kissed her cheek.

“But...”

“No buts, here, Miri.” I gently told her. “You have to get on with life now. And don't worry. The Circle, or whatever they call themselves, are going to have a lot more to worry about than screwing up your life or doing anything to our son very soon. Really soon.”

“Promise?”

“I've already promised you that, Miri.” I grinned. “Don't worry. Marry this Miles, let him get you out of this damned country, and I'll handle the other things. Okay?”

“All right.” She reluctantly answered. “But what about you?”

“Oh, I have plans of my own.” I told her, okay kind of lied to her, but I would have those in time. “I'll be fine.”

“That isn't what I wanted to hear, you know.” She poked me in the ribs.

“Okay, okay.” I took her hands and kissed both of them. “I honestly don't know what is going to happen with me right now. But I do know that this bondage I'm in is not something either Mike or my original self, Vanda, would tolerate for long. I'll get out of it, and trust me, people are going to regret what they've done. That's all I can tell you right now.”

“But what about love?” She asked.

“I've had it, still have it.” I kissed her and then did it again. “I'll find it again, I'm sure. Right now we need to worry about you.”

“I'd say that was bullshit.” She kissed back then pulled away. “But I have our son to worry about now.”

“I'll be watching, Miri.” I told her, promised without saying it. “But you're right. Just make sure he grows up to be a good man. I wish I could be there to help, but that isn't going to happen. Other than me watching.”

“If you really are what you say,” she whispered, “that should be enough.”

“And the magic?” I asked. “Will you take it, and not try anything stupid with it?”

“Yes.” She had to think about that but closed her eyes and repeated it. “Yes. Provided you hold to your promise about things.”

“My kind always keeps our promises, dear one, my love.” I assured her.

“All right.” She tilted her head in that way that used to drive me crazy, and gave me a sad smile. “I'll accept that and go on with my life like you've asked. Without trying to do anything to those bastards who did this to us.”

“Good.” I smiled and reached in to really open up her access to the magic. “Teach our son well, Miri. He is going to be something really special.”

She felt what I'd done and her eyes widened as the sense of the magic flooded her being, her mind, her soul.

“Now you feel it.” I told her and pulled her back into a hug. “Now you know, so learn. And do no harm with it, my love.”

“I won't.” She promised and I knew that was the truth.

“I have to go now.” I was crying, but what the hell, I'd have done that if male or female. “Goodbye, Miri. Live well, love well, and be happy.”

“I'll do it for you.” She said and her cheeks were wet, too.

“No, my love.” I corrected. “Do it for you. You deserve it.”

“Mike...”

“Call me Vanda, Mike is gone.” I answered though it wrenched my heart to say that. “That is my name, Miri, Samireh is one forced on me. Call Vanda if you need me and I will come. Another promise.”

“I will.”

“Oh, don't forget to look angry when you leave this room.” I reminded her. “Our watchers have been enjoying a pretty nasty argument.”

“Oh, that won't be so hard.” She grinned at me. “I AM angry. Just not at you.”

“Have fun, get out of this place, and live well, my love.” I hugged her again.

“I will.” She told me. “That's a promise.”

“I have to go now.” I didn't want to, wanted to take her back to my my prison, but that wasn't something that could be. “I love you Miri.”

“I love you, too, and always will.” She answered as I faded away.

I cried for hours once I had returned to my prison.

I stared at the small pile of pure silver I had managed to accumulate.

Once the impurities had been taken out what was left was kind of disappointing.

But that was the key, I just knew it. Why I knew that? Don't ask because I don't have an answer. I just knew it.

I ran my hand through the precious metal, felt a tingle, and found myself looking at a flat disk of silver that was probably around two ounces in weight.

“Wow.” I looked at what was left after that and the small pile was really discouraging if that disk was what I really needed. It would take forever and then some, to get enough for what I was thinking.

Inanely I recalled a sequence from a movie called Switch that I had once watched. A woman got out of a limo wearing a fur coat and some activist confronted her and yelled. “Do you know how many innocent animals had to die to get you that coat?”

Her answer was quite succinct. “Do you have any idea how many animals I had to fuck to get this coat?”

Now I really understood what she was talking about.

Shit.

I knew what I had to do. How to do it. What it would take to do it. And it wasn't a happy thing, let me tell you.

“This is alduterated.” I frowned and tossed the coin back to the man who had offered it. Granted, that took some effort, but I did it. Yay me. “If you really want me, get me a pure coin.”

“You do not dictate here, slave.” He flatly told me while tossing the coin back at me. “That is your price, take it and obey me.”

“I don't think so.” I smiled at him and with a wave removed the scant clothing I'd been wearing. He didn't even realize I'd moved us into my prison he was so caught up in the view and surprised that I had refused him. “After all don't you think I'm worth the pure coin instead of that cheap imitation?”

“The rules are quite clear on that one, whore.” He spat back even if he was kind of distracted by my deliberately sexy poses. “If it is silver, you have been paid and must perform as ordered.”

“Rules can change.” I told him simply. “I've just changed this one. Now my price is pure silver.”

“You can't do that!” He protested, then demanded. “Show me the proper respect while you're at it slave, or someone you love will suffer for it.”

“Don't threaten me or mine in my own home, Master.” I put as much contempt into that title as I was able and watched him finally notice where we were. “As for changing the rules? I guess someone forgot to tell me about not being able to do that and as you know, it is a woman's prerogative to change her mind.

“Well, I changed mine, and oddly, here you are with me, in the place you and your companions made to hold me. Without having paid my price.”

I let that little thing sink in for him and watched in amusement as he went from anger to worry, then to outright fear. “I command you to return us to where we were!”

“Oh, no, revered master.” I smiled and it wasn't a nice one at all. “Here, in these circumstances? You don't rule, I do. I have three words that very neatly sum up this situation...

“You are mine.” I finished then proceeded to show him that.

When I was finished, I told the very subdued male. “When you return, be sure to let the others know how my price has changed, would you?”

He nodded, unable to even speak just then.

“Good.” I purred, then reached out to stroke his now beardless cheek. He flinched and I have to admit I hadn't been all that kind, but then again, he had threatened Miri. “Once you do that, you will leave the area and your magic will close to you. Try using it before then and I guarantee you won't enjoy the results. Do as I say and you will be a cherished young wife, try to fight and you will be at best a concubine and at worse a common whore. Do you understand?”

He nodded again and I waved him back to where he had first called me.

Oddly, as angry as I had been, I didn't savage him. Oh trust me, I scared the crap, and other things out him, but I actually did very little of anything truly pyhsical to him.

Oh, no. All I'd done was tell him about the new life I had planned for him.

Needless to say, that terrified and horrified him.

Oh well.

And yes, I'm a bitch.

“Why are you asking for pure silver?” Miri's father shouted at me.

“But my price is a piece of silver.” I answered simply. “You had people giving me things that were not so except for coatings. My binding demands silver, not imitations, Master. Have I not performed adequately once the price has been paid?”

He didn't like that answer, but had no response other than. “Yes, little whore, you have satisfied all your customers.”

“It pleases this slave that she is pleasing her master.” I did the whole prostrating on the floor bow thing. “Would master care to sample what I do?”

“Yes.” He gritted out, not wanting to, but also wanting to.

“You know my price, Master.” I gave him a coquetish smile and waited.

That was the most unpleasant of all my times. But like the others, I was able to take things from him other than his manly seed or the small coin he had given me.

But the thing is, he gave me another bit of what I needed to be free.

Just to spread my legs and spurt.

I was never so glad that mortals couldn't get a child on me as then.

I bathed and scrubbed for hours following that one, even had Souri almost flail me with the scrub brush.

But even after that, I still felt soiled in a way I never had before.

With each thing I tried, each little success, I would check the weave of magics that imprisoned me.

The web hadn't weakened at all. But...

“Is that a gap?” Souri pointed at one small, very small, blot at the base of the corruscating web designed to subjugate me.

“No.” I answered beginning to think about allowing the elation I was feeling to come out. “Oh, no, Souri.

“That.” I watched the tiny, so tiny, dark spot in all that brightness with a smile slowly growing on my face. “That is the tip of the blade that will rip a gaping hole in all these spells.”

“Then it is starting.” She gave me a hug and a satisfied smile.

“Yes.” I hugged her back. “Yes it is.”

“It is a good thing those idiots had no real idea of what they were trying to hold.” Souri grinned at me. “I do look forward to seeing what you do to them, Mistress.”

“Now that Miri is safely in England, and reunited with her mother, and both have their magic opened, as well as Miles being taught, I know my wife and child are not going to be harmed.” I nodded while my expression turned grim, “So yes. It is time to get this really started. Past time.”

“I so want to hurt them.” Souri sighed. “They took a Princess, A PRINCESS of a race they can't even begin to comprehend and made you into a common whore!”

“Souri.” I took her face in my hands and gently kissed her forehead. “Your fidelity, your love for me does you a great deal of honor. It actually humbles me to know what you've done, what you would do for my sake. But this is for me to do.

“They stole a life from me even if they did give me back my true self. They have humiliated me, degraded me, and worse, they want my son. They will NOT have him, Souri. I am going to see to that.

“I know, I know.” I hugged her again. “You are raging, wanting to harm the ones who have tried to harm me.

“I've seen it in you since all this started.” I told her. “But to act would be more than dangerous for you, it could destroy you. These mages are powerful enough to not only bind you, but end you. If that were to happen I don't think this country they live in would survive my response. Please, please don't do something that would make that happen.”

“You, you would do that?” She actually looked surprised and more than a little pleased as she asked. “For my sake?”

“That and more, Souri.” I nodded. “If they really harmed you, I would pull the gates of whatever Hell I could find, bring it here, and walk them through it.”

“For a mere servant?” She asked in wonder.

“Oh, I'm beginning to see that you are far more than a 'mere servant' Souri.” I answered. “You were with me, in every life I lived, weren't you? You watched over me, helped, protected, prodded, whatever it took to make certain I lived at least happily.”

“She nodded with tears in her eyes. “Yes. Part of me has been a lover, a spouse, a friend, a parent, a child, even an enemy if that was needed. Yes, I have been with you through all that time.”

“And you have to ask if I would do what I said if something happened to you?” I asked with tears in my eyes, too.

Looking into her eyes, I saw something familiar, very familiar. But decided not to press that just yet.

“I would, I will if they harm you.” I promised, and she felt the force of that as surely as if it had been a major magical working. “I would hunt them, and any like them to the ends of the Earth, and beyond to avenge you. So please, don't do something that would make me do that.”

“As you wish.” She let out a long sigh but I could tell she was still thinking about it.

“Just keep doing what you are doing.” I grinned. “That is a lot more help than you seem to think.”

“Your Miri and her mother are becoming quite adept.” She answered with a little grin of her own. I'd sent Souri to teach them both how to make use of the new access to magic I'd given them, and she was also carefully guiding Miles into the ways of using his own potential.

“And Naderah?” I asked.

“She is going to be like her mother.” Souri actually smiled at that. “She already reminds me of the child I fell in love with so long ago, Mistress.”

“My name,” I told her while lifting her chin with a forefinger so she was looking into my eyes, “is Vanda. Please use it, dear one.”

“That, that would not be proper.” She told me.

“Oh, I think you've earned the right.” I said in return.

“This is going to take some getting used to.” She mumbled.

“Just try, you'll get used to it.” I chuckled.

“I doubt it.”

“Again, just try. Please.” I asked.

“That was well done, Princess, or possibly I should start saying, my Queen.” A familiar voice congratulated me as I was thinking about things involving Souri, and sadly, my vengeance.

“Oh?” I turned to see Behrouze standing there in all his male glory and he not only bowed to me, he prostrated himself before rising and nodding.

“The fidelity, the perserverence, the love, that little Efreeti has given you has already become legendary among the survivors of her kind, you know. In time, that one will be a queen in her own right.”

“She is a queen.” I nodded. “She has shown strength, and great deal of restraint through this, though she has badly wanted to do more. She deserves much more than simply being able to use my name to address me.”

“Indeed she does, my queen.” He bowed again then grinned. “I don't suppose you have any under used and not yet appreciated wine sitting around?”

“Always, my friend.” I laughed and made it appear.

“And where is your faithful Souri right now?” He questioned while taking an appreciative sip of what I'd called up.

“Off teaching my daughter how to make the best use of her magic.” I chuckled.

“An excellent teacher for that.” He smiled back then got a slightly nervous look on his face. “As for your daughter...”

“I know you've been visiting her, too.” I laughed and poured some wine for myself while sitting on a couch so I could look at him. “I do hope your intentions are honorable?”

“I'm besotted with her.” He let out a sigh then gave me a weak grin. “I don't know if it just because she is only the second female of our kind I've encountered in so long and is nowhere near as intimidating as her mother — yet, anyway, or if it truly is what I think it is.”

“And what would that be, Behrouze?” I prodded a little wickedly, but hey, this was important and not deadly dangerous for a change.

“I think I love her.” He answered carefully.

“Think?”

“All right, I do love her.” He admitted. “She has such beauty, of form and soul. How could anyone not love her?”

“I named her well.” I smiled. “She truly is a rare one, isn't she?”

“That she is, my queen.” He answered with a little shrug then looked at me. “Would you object to my trying to show her that, and hopefully wooing her?”

“Not at all, Behrouze.” I smiled and reached over to pat his hand. “You are a good one, my friend, and my daughter deserves a good man in her life who will live long enough to really be with her.”

“Then I have your blessing?”

“Oh yes, contingent on her being willing, that is.” I told him.

“I would never force myself on her.” He actually looked a bit outraged at that.

“Peace, dear.” I smiled. “I know you wouldn't do that. I take it she has shown interest already?”

“Do you watch everything?” He asked.

“Only until it reaches the really personal parts.” I nodded.

“I'm going to have the mother-in-law from Hell.” He shuddered but was grinning while he said that.

“I like you Behrouze, but don't push it.” I gave him a mock severe look then went on. “Just make her happy. After what she has been through she deserves that.”

“And more, my queen.” He agreed.

Just promise me that you won't do things to hurt the ones who have hurt her in the past.” I ordered. “Magic is coming back into the world and our race was not well loved the last time around. Part of the reason there are so few of us is that no one wanted to help us when the magic faded. I won't have a repeat of that.”

“As you say, my queen,” He bowed, “So it shall be.”

“The go show my daughter what a wonderful man you are.” I chuckled and shooed him off.

Damn. If circumstances had been different, I would have grabbed that guy and run.

But he was a good match for my daughter.

“Building a dynasty are you?” Souri asked with amusement as she shimmered with the effect that happened every time either one of us returned from somewhere.

“Yes I am.” I admitted without shame. “The Djinn could do far worse for a crown prince, you know. And Naderah is besotted with him, too.”

“So she has told me — in great detail.” Souri laughed.

That pleasant interlude was short, but needed.

Now, now, I had all I needed to gain my freedom but the quantity. The best part of that was making the ones who had done all this suffer, and change, as I did it.

I have mentioned that I can really be a bitch, right?

Then there was the queen thing.

Me?

Queen of a race that contested with gods? And won as often as they lost?

That one, I was really going to need to think about.

I had touched, changed, every one of the circle who had done this to me.

Oh, not all of them had been transformed into females. But every one of them, with the notable exception of Miri's father, were now mine to use as I needed.

Odd. I was their sex slave. But they were my slaves.

And, as my pile of pure silver grew, that tiny dark spot in their magics grew.

My time was coming.

Oh, yes, it was close now.

I would have my payment, my true price, soon.

 

---

 

I had touched, changed, every one of the circle who had done this to me.

Oh, not all of them had been transformed into females. But every one of them, with the notable exception of Miri's father, were now mine to use as I needed.

Odd. I was their sex slave. But they were my slaves.

And, as my pile of pure silver grew, that tiny dark spot in their magics grew.

My time was coming.

Oh, yes, it was close now.

I would have my payment, my true price, soon.

The Price of Freedom

My true price. Now that was interesting.

Even the ones I hadn't changed into females were going through a slow, and probably at least emotionally painful metamorphosis. They were losing their manhood, but slowly. Incrementally.

Hey, I did tell you that Djinn had a streak of cruelty. These people had ripped me prematurely from safety, and destroyed a life that I was truly happy with then endangered somone I loved. They had to pay for that, and hopefully, learn a few things while they did.

I still had plans for them. All of them.

And no, I'm not at all gentle with my enemies. But I could have simply wiped them out of existence and didn't. As the saying goes, where there is life there is hope. I wouldn't deny them that one solace.

But they were going to pay my true price, in full.

As with many things, that was far more simple than most people would have thought.

They would learn what is to be female in a society that not only pushes females down, but often brutalizes them. Let them feel at least some of what they did to me, and to my poor, beautiful daughter, Naderah.

Hopefully, that will open their eyes to other things, too.

If not? Well they were being, or going to be quite adequately punished.

Not by being female, oh no. But by how the culture they were part and parcel of treated females.

I'm sure that those lessons would be hard ones, but illuminating.

Very illuminating.

“The tear in the binding spells grows.” Souri noted as we looked at them again.

“Yes.” I looked at the once tiny spot of darkness in all that light and color and nodded. “Everyone I take, each one, adds thier power to the breaking. It looks slow, but spells, bindings like this are at best very difficult to unravel.

“But when they do...” I smiled in satisfaction at that thought. “They collapse completely. There is no slow unwinding, or unraveling, it simply rips and that is that.”

“I look forward to the day.” Souri told me.

“Oh, so do I.” I answered with grin I knew was nasty. “Oh, so do I.”

“They are sooo, cute!” Souri laughed as she watched over my shoulder.

“That they are.” I chuckled while watching Naderah and Behrouze. “They dance around each other and their feelings for the other while being like opposite poles on a magnet. The attraction isn't something either one can stop. I think it's about time they stopped being careful and just move into being the couple that they are.”

“Are you going to help that along?”

“Why?” I asked and shrugged. “It's going to happen, they know it, we know it, and all that stuff. Let them do their mating dance and we can tease them about it later.”

“Me? Tease a pair of Djinn?” Souri actually looked outraged and fearful at the same time.

“Dear.” I told her. “If any of your people have earned that right, you have. Behrouze thinks very highly of you, and Naderah only knows you as my very faithful, long time companion. So yes, you. Feel free to tease them about this because I know I will.”

“I don't know...” She shook her head doubtfully.

“Souri, look at me.” I asked her, no command, just a request. Once she did I smiled at her. “You are a queen in your own right, mighty Efreeti. Behrouze respects you beyond mere acceptance, your own surviving people revere you. Get used to it, my little darling. You are now officially one of the Powers in the world.”

“Me?” Her eyes widened and she started to deny that.

“You.” I nodded. “Not only are you the eldest of your kind now, you have been inspiring your people to work at survival for a very long time. Admit it or not, like it or not, you are their Queen.”

“I think I need to go and do some thinking here.” She quietly answered that one.

“Take your time, dear one.” I gave her a smile and a hug. “You will see that I'm telling you the truth here.”

“Queen Souri.” She shook her head again. “That just does not sound right at all.”

“Oh, in time it will.” I assured her. “It is, after all, a responsibility you won't ignore. Just as you've stayed with me all this time no matter how hard that must have been for you off and on. Believe me, Souri, you are special, very special.”

She disappered then, gone to think, pout, and get used to the idea, I'm sure.

Souri wasn't the only one who knew her companion inside and out, you know.

“I need to talk with you, Mother.” Naderah told me after she appeared in my opulent prison.

“About?” I asked with a little smile.

“I'm in love.” She answered a bit uncomfortably.

“With your husband?” I asked, deliberately drawing this out.

“No.” She kind of shook herself and shook her head. “That one could hang for all I care. No it's someone, something else that I've met.”

“Oh?” I gave her an interested look and let that hang.

“He is Djinn.” She said in a rush. “The last male Djinn in the world right now. He should be yours, Mother.”

“Why?”

That question surprised her. But she rallied quite nicely. It is so good to be proud of your children and at that moment I truly was proud of her. “Because he should be yours, Mother.”

“Again, why?” I prodded and hid my amusement behind a genuinely curious expression.

“I am still a child!” She shot back. “He has lived through centuries, like you. He should be yours, not mine!”

“Naderah.” I touched her cheek and caressed it for a moment. “Behrouze was born after I was hidden in mortal flesh, and he has not been in the world all that much himself. He is a child to me just as you are. Why do you think I would take a child for a husband?”

“You know him?” She actually appeared shocked at that one.

“Yes.” I nodded. “He is young as you are in experience, my beautiful child. The two of you should be allowed to mature, to grow, with each other.”

“You aren't angry.” She wasn't asking, just stating something.

“Not at all.” I said with a wink and smile. “He is for you, you are for him, what else is there to say?”

“But...”

“Hush.” I stopped her. “I want grandchildren like any mother would. Let him love you, love him. And give me those grandchildren.”

“Did you manuever this?” She asked suspicioulsy.

“No.” I laughed and grinned at her again. “I simply let nature take it's course. And yes, I approve. Let him be your man, daughter. He should be a good one to have.”

“But what about you?”

“I have my own loves, sweet.” I answered simply. “Go get yours.”

She grinned back and I could swear that I heard a very enthusiastic 'Yahoo!' as she left.

My pile of coins was growing.

What I had to do to get them? Well I'm sure you already know that so I will not go into the nasty descriptions.

If you are wondering why I didn't just pull silver out of the earth to get what I needed there is an answer to that.

The silver I needed, had to be given to me in payment for my — services. I could have accumulated a fortune in the metal, but it wouldn't have done me any good if I had gotten it for myself. The bindings demanded that what I used were payments.

Unpleasant as that was at times.

On the other hand, off and on, what I had to do was feeling kind of good.

So tell me I should fight it more. Go ahead.

I am female now, very female, and the Heart's Desire of any man who calls me.

At some point it was either start to enjoy being a female or go hopelessly insane. I took option one there.

Accuse me of weakness if you like, it doesn't matter.

When you think about it, I had been female a lot longer than I'd been male in any and all incarnations.

The soul knows, and I knew.

I was now quite unabashadly female.

And even if I was still a slave of sorts, I was glorying in it.

And again, my time was coming. I would be free.

And have my vengeance.

Now what more could you ask for?

I had all that I needed.

I had also, whimsically, put my face on one side of the coins and a hangman's noose on the other. They were actually quite pretty, and rare. They would become collectors items almost immediately, espcially since all of them were two ounces of pure silver.

I carefully put the coins into a very fine leather bag I had found and tied it so nothing would spill out. Losing even one coin just wouldn't do and I had no intention of doing that.

Weighing the bag in my hand, and listening to the muted tinkle of coins bouncing against each other, I had to smile. It had taken years in mortal terms.

But I held my freedom in my hand.

Now. Oh, now, it was time to go get it.

Along with some retribution.

Life can be good at times, can't it?

 

---

 

I had all that I needed.

I had also, whimsically, put my face on one side of the coins and a hangman's noose on the other. They were actually quite pretty, and rare. They would become collectors items almost immediately, espcially since all of them were two ounces of pure silver.

I carefully put the coins into a very fine leather bag I had found and tied it so nothing would spill out. Losing even one coin just wouldn't do and I had no intention of doing that.

Weighing the bag in my hand, and listening to the muted tinkle of coins bouncing against each other, I had to smile. It had taken years in mortal terms.

But I held my freedom in my hand.

Now. Oh, now, it was time to go get it.

Along with some retribution.

Life can be good at times, can't it?

In my hand. It had taken years, but I held it in my hand. Freedom.

It was held in a really pretty little leather bag I'd found in a second hand store.

And yes, I could wander, watch, whatever, so long as I remained at the beck and call of the ones who had enslaved me. I could even go shopping.

But my freedom was in my hand. I could feel it's weight. Along with the sense of joy that release was.

More, I could feel it's power. Even in my hand and not being where I needed to get it, I could sense the weakening of the bindings that held me.

“It's time.” I nodded to myself.

“Past time, Princess.” Souri nodded. “I'll go gather the others.”

“I'll get Miri.” I told her and she nodded. “We'll meet you there.

“Good.” I smiled and actually felt the smile as something that lightened everything that had happened to me over the past years. All the losses, all the gains, all the revelations.

The most staggering one was about Miri's father.

“How many bodies have you stolen from innocents, Ephriam?” I asked once I had appeared in his study.

“What?” He jumped a little when he heard my soft voiced question and turned to glare at me. “You have no business here, I didn't call you.”

“Answer my question, and aren't you curious about how I know your original name, Ephriam Abu Ghorbani?”

“That one died centuries ago.” He countered, still trying to avoid the question and the fact that I was standing in his study without having been summoned. “I command you to stop this line of questioning and to return to your bottle, slave.”

“Oh, I don't think so.” I smiled at him and he flinched at that. “You don't command me any longer, body thief, and you certainly aren't going to steal the body of my son. I'd kill him myself before that happened just to save him the pain you have inflicted on so many others.

“But that won't be necessary now, will it, my so arrogant Master?” I asked almost sweetly then let the bag of coins jingle in my hand as I bounced it a few times. “You had no idea of what you were trying to bind with me, but at first neither did I. No matter, I know now, and in a short time, you will too.”

He thundered a curse at me that had power behind it. I simply stood there, absorbed it and dispersed the thing harmlessy then shook my head with a little laugh.

“You would send me away in that manner when I've brought you a gift? How rude of you to treat a guest that way.”

“You aren't a guest, you're a slave.” He blustered, but I could see the growing fear in his eyes as he tried another spell. Which I ignored much like the first.

“But you have invited me into this place before, master.” I shrugged. “While not revoking that invitation once. Sloppy of you. But arrogance tends to make people careless.

“You may be powerful for a human, Ephriam,” I let out a little sigh while lowering my eyes then looked back up and allowed all the anger, all the hate, all the pain this man had caused to show. “But you are nothing, nothing at all compared to me.”

He tried again and I let him, while feeling the others arrive and Souri departing. “Oh, forgive me, my gift.”

I tossed him the bag and with typical reflex action he caught it without thinking even if he did flinch. I felt the last of the bindings on me unravel at that and nodded in satisfaction. “I think the going rate for betrayal used to be thirty pieces of silver? You have your payment now.”

“Payment?” He had felt the bindings let go and was truly afraid for the first time in a long time.

“You betrayed everyone who ever trusted you, Ephriam. Your companions, the innocents you displaced and destroyed when you took their bodies for your own, your own daughter. What more fitting payment for that kind of thing than thirty pieces of silver? Except for your daughter Miri, everyone of those thought you were their friend.

“Well that ends today, mage.” I glared at him and he flinched again.

“What are you going to do to me?” He asked with a sneer, still trying to regain control. “Kill me and I'll simply take another body and start again.”

“Oh, I'm not going to do a thing to you.” I gave him an almost gentle smile then gestured as the door opened. “They are.”

Everyone in his former circle, whether from fast changes, or the more painful slow ones I'd inflicted on them were female by then and had been for a number of years. They silently filed in to form a circle around the two of us, then Naderah entered with the presence of a true princess and took her own place in the circle.

“Hello, Father.” Miri entered last and the look she gave him was filled with contempt, loathing, and yes pure hatred. “You stole my happiness from me once, and now you planned to take my son from me? We can't allow that you know. You've done enough harm already you soulless creature.”

With a wave, I took his magic from him and with another returned it to those in the room who had lost it before. They felt the return and were startled for a few moments, but remained silent, well schooled in how a woman behaves in a man's presence in this culture.

“You have all paid my price.” I looked at them and nodded. “I hope you learned some lessons from that even if they were hard ones. And you all know the one rule for keeping what I've just restored.”

“Do no harm.” Everyone but Naderah and Miri whispered. Those two already knew and practiced that.

“Good.” I looked at each of them, in a way each was another daughter, then to the still stunned mage and body stealer in the middle of their circle. “In this instance, that is rescinded. You can't kill him, but be creative, ladies.”

With that I walked out of the room.

Outside the room I still heard the murmurings of their discussions, though not what they were planning. Oh I could have, but there wasn't any need for that. Everyone in that room had changed from what they had been in more ways than the physical. Whatever they decided would be justice, I was sure.

I also heard the body thief's voice, first trying to command, then cajoling and promising, which was answered with silence. Then he started to plead with them.

Then he started screaming when they began the retribution they'd decided on.

Yes, that made me feel a bit dirty, but it was also quite satisfying in a way I truly prefer not to dwell on and hope I never feel again. That old saying people have been using for years about being a prisoner, 'Don't let them give you to the women?'. Well it's true. Females tend to be far more inventive, and cruel, when someone is really at their mercy. Ephriam was now discovering that for himself. After all, he had betrayed, and harmed each of the people he faced now and was most definitely at their mercy.

So okay, I admit it. This felt good. Even if I didn't much like myself for thinking it did at the time. This man had taken young bodies for centuries, leaving the children he'd displaced in aged, dying husks without a hint of remorse. Oh, simple death was way too good for this one. My daughters and former wife would make sure that was redressed one way or another. And each of the ones working on him had been abused at some point or another. Because he had betrayed them.

So this was theirs to do, not mine. Letting them do it was enough for me. Vengeance can get old and I'd had plenty of that in the years since I had been changed.

“It is done, Mother.” Naderah told me as she walked out the door. “I think you'll find our decision to be appropriate for the crimes.”

The creature I saw huddled against itself on the floor when I entered the room almost had me laughing. Oh yes. Appropriate? Try poetic.

Stand up, Samireh.” I gently ordered the former mage who looked up at me with shock in her vividly green cat slitted eyes. I shrugged and shook my head. “You corrupted my own name after you stripped the human shell away from me, and gave that one to me. I find I don't need it any longer so it is yours now.

“Evening's Entertainment.” I chuckled while looking at her, still unbelieving touching breasts, hips, bottom, and other things. “That is indeed what you are now, little succubus.”

I looked at the one time mage and smiled again. Voluptious beyond mere human, beautiful and sensuous simply standing there shivering, and her little horns were so cute. “You will be pleasing a lot of men in the future, Samireh, but now that is in your nature. And in keeping with what you once did, you will be taking a bit from them in return, it will be how you feed, after all.

“Only now you won't be taking bodies from innocents.” I had to smile at that one, and that the one who had sentenced me to what he thought would be an eternity of being a whore was having to face that just made it all the better. “You'll be taking in the male seed, and their lust. Which will likely mitigate other things they might do without your services. For once, you'll be doing something good even if it isn't all that decent.”

“No.” She whispered in a voice that was like velvet so smooth, soft, and charged with potential electricity.

“Yes.” I nodded and again handed her the bag of coins. “Take them out, count them.”

She didn't want to do that, but did.

“How many are there?”

“Thirty.” She answered.

“Each coin represents a century.” I told her. “That is your sentence. With each hundred years, one coin will disappear until they are all gone. When that happens you'll be free. Much better than the eternal whore you had planned for me to be, don't you think?”

“Three thousand years?” She'd done the math and was appalled.

But you are assured of your freedom at the end of that.” I pointed out. “Something you wouldn't give me.”

“You call THAT a mercy?” She screamed at me while her tail lashed and her leathery wings beat at the air.

“It's as merciful as I get.” I answered. “I am a Queen, little succubus. A Queen! Of a proud race that contested with gods, and you would have had me playing the obedient little whore for eternity. I could have done much, much worse to you. You know when your freedom will come. You didn't give me that, or give it to anyone you betrayed in your former life.”

She screamed, raged, fought, but those of us watching just did that, watched.

“I even have a home for you, Samireh.” I gave her a nasty smile as Naderah brought out the bottle that had been my prison. “I have no need of it now, so you may as well use it.”

She stared at the thing and shuddered, then shook her head in denial.

“Time to go home, Samireh.” I told her and the bindings that had held me for so long snapped back, but around her this time. “Go.”

She screamed as the bottle sucked her into it, dwindled as if going into the distance, then she was gone, inside the prison she in another existence had so carefully crafted to hold me.

And hate me for that if you like. But it was very, very satisfying and my son was safe at last.

If she ever touched him, it would be to give pleasure rather than pain and loss. And she would do a lot to ease male frustrations and aggressiveness.

“Three thousand years?” Miri asked.

“You think that's harsh?” I asked my former wife who was still lovely enough to make my heart ache when I saw her.

“It wasn't enough.” She said with a frown. “And worse that one will be free when that time is up.”

“Miri.” I had to grin at her in spite of her anger or maybe because of it. “Did I once say that she would be male, or even human once she was free?”

“But...” Then her eyes widened as understanding came.

“Yes, dear one.” I softly answered. “After that much time being what any man who calls her wishes, drinking, feeding off male lust, desire, aggression and seed, do you think she could go back to being a male, or even human? No, even free, she will be what she is now. For a very long time.”

“Return to your lives.” I told the others in the room once all that was done. “What I have given you back should ease them now if they were unpleasant, and remember this. Even if you are human, you are all my daughters, and I will watch over you, and watch you. Misuse your magic again and you'll lose it forever. Be wise, be strong, be what you are and live well, my children.”

You know what? Each one of them came up and hugged me.

“Thank you, mother.” The last one smiled at me once she had done that. “I truly wish our first meetings had been different, but what can you do? I and the others have learned our lessons well, thanks to you. With the magic returning, we will grow stronger, but we will also be careful with how we use it. I hated you once, after you changed me, but as you say, I learned things, important things while that was happening and after. I have daughters, sons now, and all of them have the potential to use magic. I'll do my best to guide them, teach them, and to make sure they know that people are important no matter who or what they are. But most importantly that no one deserves to be punished for simply being different.”

“Fariba, my beautiful daughter.” I smiled at her and nodded. “I know you and your scattered sisters will make me proud to be your mother.”

We'll try our best, mother.” She told me.

“That will be enough.” I answered and kissed her cheek. “Now return to that family of yours and love them as you teach them. Though you might want to keep who your children's grandmother is to yourself for the time being.”

“Just come visit once in awhile.” She told me.

“Oh, I think I can do that. Now go, get home my dear child.”

“That was interesting.” Naderah told me once Fariba had gone. “Do they have any idea that they are already half Djinn, or of what will happen to them and their children once the magic does come back completely?”

“No.” I shrugged. “I'm sure they'll understand when it happens, though. And our race will be renewed through them if they don't mess up before that time.”

“When the world changes, it will be flooded with Djinn.” She shook her head and laughed. “As busy as those girls have been.”

“Hardly.” I had to laugh at that idea. “At least this time around maybe we won't be hated and feared by everyone.”

“Good point, mother.” My so lovely Naderah nodded thoughtfully and gave me a mischievious grin. “Well, time to go. Behrouze is waiting for me.”

“Enjoy him.” I had to grin back.

“Oh I intend to.” Naderah laughed as she vanished.

“So where does that leave us?” Miri asked while looking at me quizzically. “Am I your daughter, too?”

“No.” I moved forward and took her into a hug. “You are the love of my life, all of my lives beloved.”

“What?”

“You'll understand in time, Miri.” I told her. “Until then just know that we will never be truly apart. I will always be with you, you will always be with me.”

“But.”

“No buts, Miri.” I smiled and kissed her, really kissed her as I did when I was Michael. “Our love transcends time and it always has. When the time comes we will truly be together again. I promise.”

“I'll hold you to that, you know.” She kissed me back and smiled.

“You better.” I answered. “Now, you have children to raise and teach, and a very good man waiting at home for you. Take the blessings you have and enjoy them, Miri. Live well, love well, and we'll be reunited in due time.”

She just nodded, tears in her eyes and used her own magic to return to her home outside of London.

*

“She is happy, Vanda.”

I looked at the source of that voice, my always faithful Souri and nodded, then walked to her and gave her a gentle kiss while I hugged her. “I know you are. Hello my beloved.”