As the dry storm lashed the khan, Izzi’s mind roiled in similar turmoil. For an hour she entertained thoughts of going along with the plans of Balthazar the djinni. She would accept his offer and turn her disaster-of-a-life into a triumph. She even decided on her three wishes: to become a powerful sorcerer like her mother, to fall in love with a prince, and to stop the devastating war between Kythia and Zakra. She luxuriated in the idea of a life of power and privilege as a ruler of a peaceful kingdom.

Then for an hour reality kicked in. Bal was an ifrit djinni, a trickster that could never be trusted, and he now had a hold on her to help him wreak untold damage on herself and the kingdom. She imagined the things that would go wrong, and they were without limit, ranging from her imprisonment as a traitor, to the sacking of Zakra by its enemies, and even to her eternal damnation as a ghul after the djinni cast away her soul. She had to banish him just one more time to be free of him, and at the very next opportunity she would do just that, take her setbacks as hard lessons, and move on with life with her own skills. She needed no bargain with a djinni to make something of herself!

She tossed and turned on her hard bed until she was twisted in the rough bedsheets meant for the servants and staff, and alternated between visions of those two futures as the haboob thrashed. It was only after the winds finally abated, and some calm descended on the city and her thoughts, that a third, more dangerous idea came to her.

Whether anything Balthazar said was true or not, there was something he needed from her, and that put her in a position of power. That meant there was one big secret he was holding from her, and if she could work out what it was, then with her already ample knowledge from Myzina’s early lessons, and from her nightly poring over her journals and spell books, she was more than capable of beating the djinni at his own game, and in the end forcing him to grant the three wishes. And along the way she could take advantage of his machinations.

She knew it was probably an extremely bad plan that could go horribly wrong, but she held to the notion that banishing him from her life was only a single statement away. If things got out of hand, she would simply extract herself. 

And that led her back again to the luxurious idea of a life of power and privilege, living in a palace with her prince at her side, and ruling a kingdom with her benevolence bringing bounty to all.

But morning brought a harsh, more immediate reality.

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