Bartimaeus and Marie
After my essence had fully healed, I was quite contented with the fact that the magicians had recorded me as dead. The idea of never being called back was blissfully welcomed. Until, once again, I felt the all too familiar tug of a summons. I appeared as my true self, not bothering with a guise, hoping to scare who ever this was into dismissing me. As I materialized, I tried to start talking but was interrupted by the magician. "Yeah, yeah, you're the great and mighty Bartimaeus, Sahkar al-djinni …" Her sentence was reduced to rambling as she studied my form. I stared gawking at her, no one, not even my more powerful masters (I exaggerate "powerful" for most) interrupted me before I even started talking. All of a sudden her face lit up, "Perfect! Thank you Bartimaeus!"
This is where I completely drew a blank of what to say and turned a djinni version of pale. Only for a fraction of a second, before I regained my voice. For, this tiny little blonde, had shifted into the guise of me. Only then she paid me any mind, "Well? Aren't you going to be like the rest of them and ask me questions?" I then shifted into the form of Ptolemy, she did likewise. I took the guise of a raven, so did she. This went on for a while, until she got bored and turned back into the innocent looking blonde. "Seriously," She said "In all of what I've read about you, and, I admit, spied on you, you have never been this quiet!" I was Ptolemy again. "Is that a spell?" Not the smartest thing I've ever said, but come on, a magician shifting forms? She laughed a high pitched laugh and said "Of course not you idiot. I didn't say any words, Duh!" I took a second to gather my thoughts and went on in a more demanding voice, hoping to regain my dignity.
"Alright then, um, first question; what is your name? Second question; if it wasn't a spell then what was it?" She rolled her eyes at me, this girl was starting to really annoy me. "One; even a baby knows not to tell djinni's like us their names, two; I changed form." Well then, this surprised me a bit. "What do you mean "Djinni like us"? By the looks of it you're just a puny, where are we, America?" She nodded her head. "A puny American girl who found an old magic book." I expected her to be offended by the insults, but instead she used my form and said "Well what am I now?" She answered her own question. "A back talking djinni who exaggerates his stories a bit too much." NEVER, had I EVER been summoned by someone so… just… well, I guess you could say… like me. "Except I'm not really a full Djinni, just half." I snorted at this, "How can you be only half djinni? You must be lying, there is no way-" She interrupted me by sighing a long and bored sigh, as if she'd explained this a lot. "I can change form," She took Ptolemy's form and then changed back. "I can fire detonations, spasms,-" She listed all types of attack, making me dodge each and every one, but I'll save you the trouble of reading that. Thank me later. "But" Her eyes lit up in a way that made me only a fraction fearful. She then reached down to some objects in her pentacle I hadn't noticed before. "I can touch iron." She dipped her finger into a bowl of iron filings and pulled it out, dusty but unharmed. She did demonstrations like this with a couple different herbs, too. I had tried to speak but I couldn't. After she had finished with the herbs she said "Now that is a spell" By now I was fuming at this… thing (What else am I supposed to call it?). She turned her head to look for one last item. It was then I noticed how the room seemed untouched, even with a couple layers of dust over everything.
We both heard it, footsteps on the stairs. I saw panic flash on the thing's face. Quickly and expertly she uttered the dismissal spell, and sent me back to the other place, with a lot more questions.