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Chapter Seven
Genie had just cleaned up the two of them from yet another hour of intimate fun, though she did let the human plaything have a rest for the time being. She was pondering their future, such as how long to keep him before going out and finding some other unsuspecting human, when she felt the disconnect. She had only one reaction to it.
"Hadji!" she screamed and lept from the bed to rush over to the doors. If she could just get back to her lamp, she'd be safe from the consequences. She never reached those massive doors for they had disappeared in a familiar blink-sound. An unwelcome djinni stood in their place, dressed in the normal styles and colors of a present-day djinni.
"The slipper is on the other foot now, Genie!" Jeannie said calmly, her anger fuming through the words. Genie lost all the color in her beautiful face, yet she had no time to react in any other way as Jeannie pounced. She had both hands out, fingers curled like the claws of a great cat, eyes burning with a fury known only to Djinn and their Masters. Her attack took the temporarily powerless djinni by surprise, just as Jeannie got two big handfuls of fluffy djinni-hair.
Genie instinctively tried to use her powers on Jeannie without remembering that they had left her and that mistake cost her valuable time. As Jeannie had both hands into all of that silky light-brown hair, she twisted the two of them around to get behind Genie, pulling her head back as she blinked. Like all of her fellow Djinn, Jeannie naturally had superhuman strength as a kind of side-effect of her magic powers. So it was no trouble for Jeannie to overpower the 'woman' in her grasp. Her blink had produced Genie's lamp into the air between them as the lid opened up and found all that hair. Upon contact with Genie's silky tresses, the magic of the lamp took hold. To the casual observer, it would have looked as if Jeannie was literally stuffing the other woman into the top of the lamp, shrinking her down to just wad her inside. The magical lamp was merely taking claim of its former occupant once more and bringing her into its metallic embrace. Jeannie let go and stood back, making sure Genie was not up to any tricks during the process.
It took the lamp only several seconds to consume the djinni, the lid snapping into place with a satisfying ring of metal on metal! Jeannie saw the magical seals return and Genie was trapped once again. Only another human could release her, and she knew the answer to that. Grinning at capturing such an evil djinni, Jeannie reached out to take the lamp just as Hadji appeared before her. Normally, Jeannie would have dropped to her knees and bowed before the Great one. However, the circumstances and her utter delight trumped that formality. Jeannie handed over the lamp before she jumped up and wrapped her arms around Hadji for a great big hug.
"Oh, Hadji! Thank you so much! I do not know if I can ever repay you for this." Hadji chuckled at her reaction, forgiving her for forgetting the proper greetings.
"Just keep up the good work as your Master's djinni, my dear. You should go to him now," he said, nodding over to the bed behind them. Jeannie's face lit up as she bounded happily over to her Master, now groggily getting up from the covers and silks. Jeannie was at his side in moments, hugging him and helping him up. Hadji walked over and helped Jeannie with her husband and Master. Jeannie stood up with her Master, supporting him under his right arm. Hadji then took the three of them and the lamp out of the world.
Three figures appeared on the far side of the moon, their faces turned to the deepness of space. Tony was stunned when he saw where they were, gaping first at Hadji, then at Jeannie. She smiled her best at him, hugging him all the more. No words were needed in that exchange as Tony hugged his djinni in return, holding her close as Hadji glanced over to them. He looked down at the lamp in his hands, sighing at what troubles it had caused.
"You will never learn, Genie, so I am banishing you from humanity. You will never trouble them again," he said. He could see her inside, livid with rage yet powerless to get out or do anything at all about her fate. Hadji let that be the last image he had of her, as a reminder that she could never be released to human society again. Their current level of social and spiritual evolution would never be ready for the likes of her, now or in the future. They were not ready to confront and control such a beast of a djinni for a very long time.
Hadji took hold of that large golden ring at the back of Genie's lamp, raising his arm high in the space above and behind him, and with as much power as he had within him, flung her lamp into space. It vanished from sight in mere moments. Jeannie was humbled by such a punishment. Tony was still trying to come to terms with being on the Moon without a spacesuit. The visage of the lamp disappearing into the deep black sky was only a blip in his current recovering state of mind.
"Hadji? Was that not cruel to send her out into space?" Jeannie asked meekly. She knew better than to question the Great One's motives, but the circumstances in their case were very unusual. Hadji looked at her with moistened eyes and a slight smile.
"No, child, not this time. She will be allowed back to the Earth in 10,000 years. Humanity will be long gone by then and she will have no one to control ever again."
"What do you mean by that? Where will humans—all the people be?" Tony asked, dumbfounded that humanity would leave the Earth permanently for any reason. Jeannie tugged on his clothing to get his attention, but Hadji held up a hand first.
"It is part of our Sacred Texts and is not for humanity to know at this time. Fear not! Humans will advance with the Djinn and all will be well. So it is written!" With that, Hadji took the three of them out of existence once more and returned them to the palace. Looking around him in the main lobby, he was still impressed with the styling.
"Genie still has the knack for opulence, I'll grant her that. Now, you two heal and take care of things here. I have two other loose ends to tie up. Be well, Anthony of Nelson. Salaam, Jeannie!" He bowed to both of them and disappeared. Jeannie and Tony greeted one another all over again, happy to be free of that other Genie, yet remaining disquieted by Hadji's punishment of her. They could forget that easily enough as they embraced and kissed, oblivious to the world and everyone in it.
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Upon returning to the hotel room, Hadji changed the bed back into what it had been while shrinking the room's spatial dimensions accordingly. He then brought his hands up in a gesture very much like what he had used to get Roger to the Minaret of Lamps and returned the human to his presence once more. Roger looked about him in shock, recovered and then cowered before Hadji, afraid for the consequences awaiting him. He had enough sense to ask about the reason he went to that minaret.
"Did it work? Are Jeannie and Tony okay?" Hadji's grin was all the answer Roger really needed.
"They are safe, Roger of Healey. The threat is gone and they will be returning to your presence soon. I think they want some time to recover and make-up," he said with a wink. Roger sighed his relief at hearing that and chuckled as he knew all too well just what his best friend and wife would be doing to "make-up".
"Oh, that's such a relief!" he said, wiping his brow. He still had to let Hadji know of that little bit of stumbling in the lamp-room and he didn't want to bring it up.
"The lamps you knocked over will be safe, Roger of Healey. The fire is out and they have been returned to their proper places. You will never be going back to that room again, not with that performance!" Hadji bellowed, grimacing at the human. He held that face for only a few moments, then a broad grin formed in its place.
"However, there were some, how should I say, mishaps with the powers of two djinn and three djinn-animals. The animals formed new friendships while one of the other two Djinn is in a bit of a scrape right now. I will be rescuing her from her own selfishness soon enough. I will have to tell you that story another time, though it is one I think you would enjoy, since you know her, being Jeannie's sister, Jeannii," Hadji said with a rare laugh. Roger found he could begin to like the leader of all the Djinn and allowed himself to mellow enough to laugh with the ancient djinn.
"As for the bottle that was broken…" Hadji started and then did another rare thing: he hugged a very stunned and taken aback Roger. The other man did nothing for what do you do in that kind of situation? Hadji patted Roger on the back rather hard, making him grimace, though he didn't show it to the djinn.
"You have just released all of the Djinn from a curse unfairly placed on us all after the time of the Great Suleiman. A powerful sorcerer discovered the Seal of Suleiman and twisted its intent. Thus, that bottle was born, trapping the Djinn in time and preventing any evolution along with humanity. It is more than a physical evolution and one that has also lost further hindrance with the exile of my Genie. You will not live to witness it, but perhaps Jeannie will travel back to your time here and tell you about it. I do not doubt that she would do that for such a friend as you.
"Now then, Roger of Healey, I do believe that some form of reward is in order for your assistance. What form should that take for you?" Hadji asked and for once in all the time Roger had ever been around him, the Great One folded his arms like he was awaiting the granting of a wish. It took Roger off-guard much as everything else in that eventful and long day had done. He only gaped at Hadji for a few seconds when he characteristically recovered and launched back into good old Roger Healey mode.
"Oh, well then, I think my very own djinni would be just the thing! What kind of lovely djinni-girls do you have ready to please ol' fun-loving Rog?" he said, excited almost beyond words. Hadji smirked at his request before explaining.
"That I cannot provide. A djinn or djinni can only be found and rescued or you must be picked by the djinn or djinni to be his or her Master. Those are the rules."
"Oh! Well, that's too bad. Do you know any that would like a Master?"
"Roger of Healey! I cannot supply a djinni to you. If you persist in this line of requests I shall just have to leave and you will get no reward!" Roger clammed up for fear of losing out on anything. His one track mind was fixated on the acquisition of some lovely ladies once more, as he recalled the harem Jeannie had blinked up for him earlier and dispatched to his apartment. And that was it! Although it was nice to have that small harem, what he really needed was a much larger one to attend to all of his needs.
"Okay, okay! How about some harem girls then? At my apartment, with all the other, not here," he said, waving an arm around the room. Hadji smiled at that request and came up with a compromise that could encompass the human's existing harem as well. He held out his right hand, and an ornately decorated djinni bottle appeared in it. He handed it over to Roger as the other looked on as greedily as ever.
"My own djinni bottle! But, I thought you said I couldn't have a djinni?"
"You cannot. That is a bottled harem. Uncork it, rub the side to summon her and a harem girl will smoke out. Rub it again and she will smoke back into it. The next time you rub the bottle a different harem girl will appear. No two are alike, no matter how often you rub it."
"Ooooo!" Roger cooed and immediately tried it out, uncorking the silver and gold bottle. He ran his fingers down the side exactly as he had done all those years back when he had summoned Jeannie that first time. As his fingers reached the base of the bottle, golden smoke began to issue forth. It arced over to his left and quickly deposited a brunette haremgirl in gold and white harem clothing. She brought her hands together to bow to Roger, looking back up to him with a broad smile of magically perfect teeth and tea-colored lips. Roger could hardly hold himself back, but had to see if the other part worked by rubbing the bottle again. The haremgirl lightly blinked her deep blue eyes once without nodding her head or folding her arms and turned back into golden smoke. She formed the familiar column that Jeannie used and smoked back inside Roger's harem-bottle. His hands were shaking with excitement as he corked it and managed to shake Hadji's hand in utmost thanks.
"Thank you, Hadji! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" he said, still shaking the Djinn-leader's hand. Hadji managed to extract his hand from Roger's, without his usual annoyance. The human did save his favorite djinni, her Master, allowed him to finally exile the worst of his kind and released the Djinn to their proper evolution, so he had to let the human have his excitement for such a simple reward. He grinned to himself, though, at the knowledge Roger of Healey would learn later when the bottle-harem start to use their powers. Oh, nothing like granting wishes unless those wishes encompassed getting a backrub, a scented bath, a feast or any unlimited number of pleasures a good harem girl could provide with a little of her own magic powers. It would be enough to satisfy him and the rest of his harem without going so far as giving him his own djinni. Although the vision was cloudy, Hadji could tell a djinni was indeed in his future. He could see no more than the fact that one would come to him. It puzzled Hadji sufficiently that he made a note to himself back in his official chambers. A magic scroll unfurled itself there and his thoughts were scripted onto its surface as if someone were writing the words with an invisible quill. He would research this conundrum later.
"You are most welcome, Roger of Healey. If that is all, I must go. Jeannie and her Master will be returning soon, so I suggest you take care of yourself and your reward. You may call on me, but only if any problems arise with any member of your harem. They should not disobey you, but as I supplied the magic that creates them, it will take my magic to correct any difficulties. Salaam, Roger of Healey," Hadji said with a flourish and vanished with his usual thunderclap just for good measure. He would be keeping his eye on that one, and not for any minor reason.
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