I then got up, subconsciously expecting the woman to grab me once more, but she kept true to her promise, and I soon found myself kneeling down next to the man I had seen encapsulated within the vibrant barrier. To my relief, he looked to be breathing, but I couldn’t understand as to why he still hadn’t gotten up. Though I didn’t have any sort of measures of telling time, I could imagine we had been there for quite some time, and the fact that he hadn’t gotten up in that amount of time baffled me.

Despite his abnormal ability to sleep for a long while, the man seemed fairly normal; the first real human I had the pleasure of encountering, and for that, I felt a sense of relief wash over me for the first time since I had gone to bed that night.

A strong wave of curiosity also began to take hold of me as I noticed something shimmering against his dark skin. I began to extend my arm to grasp it when I felt a small gust of wind as it began to dance beside me. At first, I assumed it was the wind as it blew through the cracks in the stone-built walls, but then I heard a sudden voice whisper in my ear.

“What do you think it is?”

I felt myself fall backward in fear, landing on the back of my head. I quickly pulled myself back up and noticed that the woman was now sitting next to me, that mischievous grin stretching her crimson lips.

“Don’t ever do that again,” I said with a shrill, anxious tone as the woman simply chuckled.

“Duly noted.” Was all she had to say to my beet-red face.

I began to assume that if that one heart attack didn’t happen naturally, it would definitely be caused by this one Djinn.

I took a deep breath, regained my composure, and extended my arm out once more.

“It looks like an Ankh.” I whispered to my Djinn as I took hold of a small, silver charm amongst the man’s warm, deep copper skin.

I then felt myself being involuntarily thrown on my back once more, for suddenly, the man who was once unconscious sat upright like a vampire in a coffin.

Stay calm, stay calm.

“Bloody hell!” I shrieked with flushing cheeks, coming to sit upright, staring curiously at the man in front of me.

“Who are you?” The man asked, his deep voice cracking in spurts of ragged breathing, “Where am I?”

“Wow, what an idiot?” Jumi said smugly, shrugging her shoulders as the man regarded her with an irritated look, “You really don’t remember the tomb you tried to rob before you died?”

“Excuse me?” The man asked, turning his angered gaze back in my direction, as if I had the answers to any of his problems.

“Um,” I began, quickly realizing this man also spoke clear English, “It’s true, I rescued you from the dead, I think.” I pressed my lips together in thought, “I’m sorry to drive us off-topic, but you speak very good English.”

“What are you talking about?” He asked while narrowing his eyes, and we instinctively both turned to look up at Jumi.

She let out a long, drawn-out sigh before she began to explain,

“Well, I’m not going to be the one manually translating between you two, that would be way too much work for me. Instead, since I have some power hidden within Mirella,” She gestured in my direction, “and I at least own your dumb soul for that wish you asked of me,” She then gestured to the man in front of us, “I’m using the connection I have between you two, and some of my magic, to make a translation between you both. So, Mirella, he’s not really speaking English, and you’re not really speaking Arabic to him.”

“I suppose that makes sense.” I nodded wearily, not even bothering to ask how she knew my name and not his. I blindly assumed it had something to do with "magic" or whatnot. I also assumed that I would now have to get used to this “magic” because I had a strong, visceral feeling that it would be playing a prominent roll in my life starting from that day forward.