2021

DAPRIMA:
… Lu, I got your message. Did you find anything  
to help with my wish to free Io from the lamp?

HARMONIA:

Can’t go and free a genie that way. Why,  the lamp holds his
life force. Free him from it and he’ll turn to dust
right before your very eyes. 

LU:
Is that true? Why haven’t you mentioned this before?

HARMONIA:
Why? What’d I say? 

DAPRIMA:
We’re talking about freeing Io and you just said
that if we do, it could end his life.

HARMONIA:
Did I really say that? Hmm, sounds important.

LU:
It is. You know,  it’s very frustrating when you blurt out useful
information and then forget all about it 3.4 seconds later.

HARMONIA:
I imagine it would be, but I ain’t doin’ it on purpose.
So go on and tell her what ya found out and maybe
something else will come to me.

LU:
Right. My research hasn’t provided me with any proof
of a living ex-genie anywhere. So I reached out to my father …

HARMONIA:
Daddy’s  always lookin’ for magic of any kind, plus - he’s under a
youth spell so he’s been around since dirt was new.

LU:
I wouldn’t say that. He’s only approximately 287 years,
5 months and 9 days old.

HARMONIA:
Louisa, can you explain to me how that is an approximation?

LU:
There’s no way to calculate the exact time the youth spell took affect.

HARMONIA:
Cheese and crackers, all ya needed to say is Daddy’s almost
300 years old. Daprima would’ve gotten the point.

LU:
That would still be incorrect.
You know how I hate that.

DAPRIMA:

Um Lu - did Trey have anything to contribute?

LU:
Yes. He believes Io was born human. 

HARMONIA:
And that’s good, cause if he began as one of us,
he should be able to go back to it, easy pea-sy.

DAPRIMA:
OK great. Is there anything else?

LU:
Yes, I’ve been able to piece together the history of genies.

HARMONIA:
And it’s an in’eresting story too. You best sit down,  this may
take a while. It begins with the Elves about 10 millennia ago …

LU:
True. I won’t attempt to give you an exact date. Anyway, the
Dessert Clan traveled into this realm collecting slaves.
The slaves would escape, or try to. 

LU:
… To put an end to this, they decided to bind the slaves to objects.
Their mages got together to perform the spell, and it worked,
but as you know, magic can be unpredictable. 

LU:
… All the mages’ magic was unintentionally transferred into the
objects, and the slaves became the conduit to its use.  And so
genies were created, along with all the rules that go with them.

LU:
… In the process, the Dessert Clan lost their magic, making them
dependent on the genies. Io was most likely human when he
was captured by them, long ago, when this spell was cast. 

HARMONIA:
Now tell her what ya told me about them ex-genies.

LU:
I was getting to that.

 

LU:
… I couldn’t find a written record of a freed genie. If it’s been done,
perhaps they don’t retain their memory of being a genie? 

HARMONIA:
- Or, the genie goes and catches up with its actual age
and dies. And we don’t want that to happen to Io.

DAPRIMA:

No, that’s not an option, and it goes against my premonition.
So what if I wished him to be as he was right before he became
a genie? Like I did to wake Es from that sleep spell?

LU:
That should make him human …

HARMONIA:
But to be extra safe, ya need to  make him master of the lamp.
He probably won’t  be able to access its magic but …

DAPRIMA:
- If his life force is linked to the lamp, the connection
wouldn’t be severed, and he’d be safe.