It's dark here. Darker than most of the places in my home. I welcome the darkness, call it closer. Now that that annoying Genie girl is gone, the crystals have calmed down, and all is peaceful again.
Alone.
But that's what matters right?
I miss the noise.
Quiet you. I don't; the noise is annoying.
But I do. It's lonely down here. Nobody to play with.
Grow up. We have a job remember?
Okay. But I think we're about to get fired.
What makes you say that?
Master's on their way. How are you going to hide this? You know the rule, no visitors under any circumstances, and if people do find us, we have to get rid of them. Push them so deep in the ground they can't come back and tell people about this place.
Stupid Genie.
We can't tell Master about this, not if we wish to stay here.
She shivered, if the Master found out about the girl, she would surely be kicked out. Master would send her to live with the others. With their prying eyes, and questions. But that wouldn't even be the worst part, oh no. The worst part was the noise.
She had left the cave once, with one of the air crystals, just to see what it was like outside. At first it had been great, the grass was so much softer than stone, although it was rather dry. The breezes had felt wonderful, their refreshing air never making it down into her hollow, it had been like a dream until she left the forest.
The first town she stumbled upon wasn't tolerant of strangers, and they had made her leave a mere day after arriving. She walked along, finding another, and another, but one after the other, they all rejected her. She was too strange for this land, and knew nobody. Had no idea what they wanted when they spoke of 'money' or 'coin'. Their noise had been incessant, constantly assaulting her ears with words and gibberish, crying babies, loud animals.
Eventually, after she was run out of town for the fifth time, she didn't try again. They didn't want her, and she didn't want them either. She dedicated herself to her time in the darkness, honing the use of the crystals, and the Master was pleased. She even made new discoveries for him, after which she was given praise and gifts, well; after he punished her for leaving in the first place.
The master was the only one she trusted. Nobody else ever cared, that was why she had to stay here. To be happy. To keep the Master happy.
Maybe you're just afraid.
What do I have to be afraid of?
No answer.
She sat in the dark, the water lapping around her ankles. Although she couldn't see, she knew the caves like the back of her hand. With hardly a thought, the earth crystal in her hand began to twitch and shake. Behind her the wall began to rumble, and she got up, turning to look. After a moment, the crystal quieted, and she stood in front of a small room. It was filled with small trinkets, collected from the various people who had managed to find her over the years.
Shiny baubles, most of them. But here and there was the odd lucky coin, old rusted locket, or anything else she managed to dig up after the unlucky person had been brought back up from the ground.
In the corner was her cooking fire, she could catch fish occasionally, and she hadn't been lying to the girl when she said things fell in from time to time. She reflexes had been honed to perfection over the years because of it, but she still needed to cook whatever it was. Eating the animals raw had gotten her so sick once that Master had needed to get her actual medicine to feel better. A rare act of kindness, or, perhaps he just didn't wish to have to find another girl to work with and harvest the crystals.
She clenched her fists. It would have been so satisfying to get that pretty necklace the girl had been wearing. Her magic would have fueled many crystals, and the Master would have been proud.
But the girl had gotten away, and the master was coming to speak with her. Master would surely notice the magical activity, she was doomed. She sat down in the cave, tugging a ratty old blanket to her side from the corner, hugging it tightly.
She had spent her entire life in this cave.
She had never lost anyone until this day.
The thought made her fell different. Not broken to say, not sad. More angry, uneasy, like her perfectly balanced life was falling out of order. It was a strange feeling to say the least, and she wasn't sure she liked it. The only reason it was here was because of that... That...
Genie girl.
"Girl? Where are you?" Master. So the voice in her head had been right for once. It mostly only thought of stupid ideas, the one's that got her caught and punished by Master, but for once it had been useful.
"Down here." She called, stepping out of her trophy room, and breaking one of the yellow crystals off the wall. It automatically lit up in her hand, illuminating her and the area around her. She took another, and threw it up in the air, where it hovered, before gliding over to where the Master stood. His magic was the only one she knew that resisted being stolen by the crystal's in the cave, all the others was taken within seconds.
The crystal floated in the air next to the Masters face, and she squinted, trying to look through the darkness that always shrouded his face, created by the dark cloak he always wore. He laughed, the sound drifting away on the winds above, and she looked down quickly, unhappy about being caught looking.
"You are the only one I would ever allow to do that without smiting." The Master chuckled. "Your curiosity is what serves us well in your ventures. Have you made any recent discoveries lately? Any visitors?" Master's voice changed pitch on the last word, and he looked over his shoulder, into the dark woods. She could imagine him narrowing his eyes into the darkness, seeing things she could only imagine.
Master turned back slowly, the dark cloak concealing his hands. "You haven't had any visitors right?" Master said tightly, and she shifted her weight, clearing her throat as she stalled for time.
"Well, um..."
Are we going to lie?
Quiet, I'm trying to think.
I think we should lie.
But what if the Master finds out? We'll be flayed for sure.
But he won't.
You can't be sure of that.
I can if we go after her ourselves.
We can, you mean.
Sure.
"Nobody." She said finally. Master stayed silent, and she fidgeted. Could he tell she was lying? Oh please no, just let me get the leak myself... She could already imagine the Genie magic running through her veins, the power to create anything she wanted. Some of the crystals were already colored gold from her attempts to escape earlier, and Genie magic was a powerful thing, better than the actual Genie actually. Each crystal held enough magic for multiple spells, at least three, and she had dozens of crystals.
She longed to tell Master, to show him the discovery of the golden crystals, but to tell him would mean to give up the knowledge of the Genie girl, and that girl was her prey. She would be the one to bring the magic to her Master, and maybe he would finally let her use some of his magic. He was as powerful as a Genie plus more than one sorcerer, she could sense it.
How he did it was no concern, but if he would let her borrow some of his power for just a little bit... Of course, her abilities were best when the original bearer of the powers was dead, therefore letting her take all of them for the longest amount of time, but she couldn't get rid of Master. She didn't have the power, not yet.
At least, not until she had the powers of a few Genies harnessed for herself.
"Good." Said the Master, his head swiveling away from the caverns abruptly. He was distracted, something was going on in the forest behind him. She watched, staying silent, like the obedient servant she was; maybe if he was distracted he wouldn't notice the lingering magic in the air.
He stayed facing the other way, eyes narrowed, before raising a hand. "The empty Crystals will have to wait until another day I'm afraid. There's something going on that I need to attend to. I'll be back tomorrow, by then, I hope you have a valid excuse for not having them off the wall and ready for me." He turned back, eyes glittering from the depths of his hood. "I would also like to know the story behind all this magic in the air."
With that, Master turned, and walked quickly into the woods, disappearing into the darkness. She frowned, standing still for a few minutes, and listened to his footsteps crunch away, then... Disappear. The forest becoming silent once more.
With a shrug, she walked over to the wall that used to have the empty crystals, the ones now colored gold, picking one off the wall. "I wish to be able to access these as often, and from as far away from this cave as I please, as well as be the only one with access." She muttered, watching it with narrow eyes.
What if it doesn't work? Said the tiny voice, but she shushed it.
The crystal glittered in her hand, before the entire wall flashed and disappeared; making her nearly drop the thing in shock.
It didn't work. The voice said sadly, drawing back. No. Her hand shot out; reaching for the wall, scrabbling at the rock frantically. "Bring them back!" She demanded, without the crystals, she would be stuck here, and no doubt the Master was going to punish her the next day for lying, as well as hiding the Genie magic and then losing it altogether.
The cave was dark, the crystal not even reacting to her words. She groaned in frustration. "No! I need those! Bring them back!" Still the crystal didn't respond. She leaned her forehead against the wall, grumbling to herself. "Stupid Genie magic, so tricky. Always turning your wish against you..." Her eyes widened, and she straightened up again, "That's it! Wishes!" She narrowed her eyes at the crystal, choosing her words carefully.
"I wish I had another way to access the crystals, a way I can actually use." The crystal glowed softly, and there was a small splash next to her. Her hand snatched out, years of practice making her arm move surely and swiftly as her fingers curled around a wooden shaft. She lifted it, and looking it up and down. It wasn't a stick, which was good. Instead it was a staff, gnarled and twisted, with an empty space at the top.
Cautiously, she looked down at the crystal in her hand. An easy way to carry it, I suppose. She raised her hand, and placed the crystal into the staff, the wood conforming to the shape of the crystal, and hardening, keeping it securely in place. She felt a wild grin beginning on her face as she watched it, "Now show me how to access the others." She ordered, then gasped as the cavern lit up around her. Around her, she could see the crystals, each and every one, filled to the top, or half filled or a quarter filled, all with the golden magic; floating in the air around her.
She reached out, touching one tentatively. It felt solid in her hand, and when she grabbed it, it took on a more solid glow, coming into the real world completely. She let it go again, and it returned to it's hovering spot, floating with the others scattered around her.
"Perfect." She whispered, sending the crystals back to their storage place in limbo. The cave became dark again, and she marched into her small room, looking at all of her prizes. "I wish for a bottomless bag." She said, holding out a waiting hand.
The crystal in the staff glowed, before dimming, giving off a weaker glow than before. She had maybe one wish left, possibly two. But no matter, she had plenty of crystals left. In her hand, a bag appeared, and she looked at it, sticking her hand in up to her elbow.
Only to realize that the crystal hadn't given her a bag that could hold anything and everything without running out of room, hence the 'bottomless bag', no. It had given her a bag with a very large hole in the bottom.
"You know what I meant. Now give me a bag that can hold everything I want, without ever running out of room." She grumbled, glaring at the staff and the crystal it held. The crystal flickered irritably, before a small drawstring bag appeared in her hand, and it's light went out completely. She reached in, satisfied that she could fit her entire arm into the bag without feeling the bottom, and then flicked her staff, bringing the extra crystals to life around her.
She snatched one from the air, it's color being stronger than the others, and brought it towards the staff. The wood, which had conformed so easily around the previous crystal moved just as fast, if not faster for the second, the empty clear one falling to the cave floor below.
She didn't bother picking it up. Master could have that one. Step by step, she went around her cave looking at artifacts that she could take with her, before deciding not to take any at all. She didn't need any of them really, they were really only sentimental anyways. They had no place on her journey to kill the Genie and take her powers. She sighed, tying the bag to her belt. It could be used for other purposes surely. She could find something to do with it.
She walked from the cave, twitching her staff experimentally, and watching in delight as the crystals appeared again. Before they disappeared, she took a fire crystal off the wall, and threw it in with the gold ones, to see if she could transport them like the others. It fell to the water below, hissing in displeasure before the fire magic vacated the vessel and the empty crystal sank.
She frowned. It would be so handy to have the elements on her side, not just the magic from the genie. Who knew what she could accomplish if she put a fire crystal in her staff, not to mention it would be easier to command the crystals with her mind instead of constantly whispering 'I wish...' to get what she wanted.
"I wish the crystals of all elements could be stored with the crystals holding genie magic." She said, watching the crystal glow before she pulled off another fire crystal and tossed it into the air. This time it stayed, and it was followed by all of the other fire crystals, mixing themselves into the gold, creating an orange glow around the cave. After that, she cleaned the cavern out, taking even the black crystals, the best ones in her opinion. Black was for destructive magic.
When it was done, she gave the cavern one last look. It had been her home for as long as she could remember, but she felt no regret leaving it. There was nothing left for her here, and her prey called.
As if on cue, a loud scream pierced the woods, sending shivers of delight up and down her spine in recognition. She looked to her staff, anticipation making her jittery. "Take me there. I wish to see the genie." The staff, vibrated for a second, before stilling, the gem glowing, and becoming dim once more. But instead of taking her to the Genie, a ball of mist and smoke formed, and an image of the genie girl appeared on it, ice crawling up her leg while a blond man spoke to her in condescending tones.
She pushed down her frustration, instead watching the mist ball as the event played out. She would still go, but for now, it would be a waste of the magic to ignore this.
She hated wasting things.
Another man appeared behind the two, the first one too busy encasing her prey in ice to realize what was happening as all the guards fell next to another man who was already passed out, his face beaten and bruised. The she was free, and the ice man had fallen too.
She watched, waiting for something to happen, her bones tingled with apprehension, wanting to go after her prey right then and there. But she wasn't alone.
We can take them both. We have the elements and the Genie magic remember? She's just an injured genie with a friend.
I suppose...
She tapped her staff, dispelling the image. But not before she saw another pair of eyes in the underbrush, watching the two in the clearing. A foot began to emerge, and then the hem of a cloak, before the image dissolved completely.
Master has already beaten us to the prey.
Then we shall meet him there, and take the prey for ourselves as well as his power.
Have you forgotten why we must take down the genie in the first place? We need her magic and more if we wish to stand a chance against him.
It seems that we already have all the magic we need... She argued with herself, then pondered the thought. She did have a good amount of magic, and this was from only a few panicked attempts of the genie to escape.
Perhaps if I take down the genie fast, then go after the Master right after, She tapped her chin. No. I need time to absorb the powers. Besides, she glowered at the dim crystal in her staff. These crystals are powerful, but they don't last long.
So we wait for it to play out then?
Of course. But I do say that we need to have front row seats, and if we get the chance to take the genie for ourselves, we do it. The same goes for if she is about to be taken by Master, if we lose her, we can say 'goodbye' to any chance of going against him, and eventually taking his powers.
An excellent choice indeed.
Then she tapped her staff on the ground one last time, before leaving the crystal caverns in the dark.