Taking a step back, Rajhu looked the man over once more. To him, here and now, he looked like a man, and nothing more. Could it be true that this elder was actually a Djinn?

It didn’t take long for the man to reach Rajhu. He grimaced as he reached out with strong hands, grabbing Raj’s collar. ‘If you won’t give it to me, I will take it from you!’ he spat.

The man lurched to one side, tossing Rajhu away with incredible strength. He tumbled through the air for but a moment before crashing to the hard ground. He rolled to a stop, groaning as scrapes and knocks of pain flashed across his person. Rajhu struggled, but pushed himself up off the ground. He was a good four meters away from the old man now. As he looked across the distance, he saw Will striding forward, shouting at the man. Rajhu wanted to call out to him, to tell him to stop, but everything was happening so fast.

The man’s hand struck out, catching Will in the side of the head, sending him tumbling through the air. He collided with a nearby fruit stand, and slumped to the ground.

Rajhu forced himself to his feet, his head spinning. As he worked to steady his footing, the man moved across the street to Rajhu’s bag, ripping it open.

‘Hey!’ Rajhu called, stumbling forward. ‘You can’t just do such a thing!’

The man straightened, pulling free the glittering form of the lamp. He flicked his free hand, snapping his fingers. Instantly, a burst of flame sailed forth, exploding at Rajhu’s feet.

‘You dare object to this?’ the man growled. ‘After you take my property from me, after you defile this sacred vessel! I am Ferro, Once Djinn over the Eastern Sea… Made Magi, by your violation!’

‘I paid you!’ Rajhu countered. ‘It’s all a legal transaction!’

‘I should tear out your tongue for speaking to me in such a manner! Do you not know who you’ve crossed? You and your little friend here have taken the lamp of a Djinn!’

The man rushed forward with inhuman speed. Before Raj could react, a hand was firmly clamped around his throat. Rajhu tried to breath in, but it was impossible. This Ferro was far too strong - Beyond anything a human should have claim on.

‘Take…’ Raj gasped. ‘Lamp…’

Ferro tossed Raj to the ground. He lifted the lamp in one hand, looking down on Raj with wild eyes. ‘Unfortunately it’s not that simple, Rajhu Heroh. I’ve already tried to bond with my lamp with no success… You have taken something from me that cannot be returned…’

Rajhu tried to stand, but a scowl from Ferro told him it would be better if he stayed on the ground. Still, he forced himself up onto an elbow, rubbing at his throat tenderly.

‘I give it back to you, freely. Whatever it is I took, I give it back. Just leave us in peace!’

‘Leave you in peace?’

‘Let us be!’ Rajhu insisted.

‘You still have no idea what you’ve done, do you?’

Rajhu shook his head. ‘I’ve wronged you… I am sorry. But please, I… I want no trouble. Take what you’ve lost, and go… Please!’

‘My dear boy…’ Ferro laughed. He stepped forward, a hand reaching down. Rajhu felt himself hauled to his feet, his attention drawn to the rage of the Magi’s eyes. ‘You’ve harmed me… In a way I cannot express to you. Even my harshest punishment wouldn’t suffice to show you the pain you’ve caused…’

Ferro flicked his wrist, and again, Raj went flying through the air. He didn’t know where he was tumbling to, until his back collided with the stone wall of the inn. Something cracked under the assault, though Rajhu was sure it wasn’t his bones.

Pain snapped through him as he fell to the ground. When he finally looked up, the Magi was there, the lamp grasped in his hands, his eyes seeming to flash red as he glowered down on him.

‘You’ve split my magic… Broken an ancient seal. You may have harmed me, most foul… But you’ve done worse to yourself, yet!’ He crouched down, a fist hammering into Rajhu’s face. Darkness crept at the edges of his vision, but he pushed back against it. He wished it back with all his might.

Slowly, his vision cleared.

The fist came again, and Rajhu lifted a hand, but before he could block it, a wave of blue energy washed in front of him, taking the brunt of the impact. The shimmering magic hung in the air before his eyes, like a bubble.

Ferro laughed, pulling his hand back. ‘And there… you see? It’s already begun…’

Rajhu glanced from his hand to Ferro, something stirring inside. ‘What’s begun? Do you… know what’s happening to me?’

‘You’ve cursed yourself, Rajhu Heroh… you’ve split my magic, and awakened a dark power within yourself…’

‘What do you mean?’

‘You’ve become a Wishcharmer… Rajhu. It would be in my best interest to kill you, right now…’ He lifted his hand again, rolling his thumb across the tips of his fingers. As he did, electricity crackled into life. Soon, its form grew, curving into the unsteady visage of a scimitar. The Magi stood, a smile curving across his lips.

‘Goodbye, Rajhu… Know your death will bring me a moment’s purest pleasure!’

The electric blade plunged downward, and Raj held his breath, bracing for the end, when a voice cut through the street, loud, clear, and angry.

‘Hold, I say! By the authority of the Sorcerer Council, and in directive action for the Djinn Hierarchy! Desist!’

Raj waited a moment, but when no horrible pain pierced his chest, he cracked his eyes open, looking in the direction of the voice. As he let his eyes open wider, they beheld a young girl, dressed in polished leather armour. She had long black hair that hung, braided, to the base of her back. Strong, dark eyes held him and the Magi like a vice. Her soft features, while fair, were cold as she observed the scene. A large cat sat at her feet, its tail coiled around itself. Behind the two of them, a very large number of armoured soldiers stood. In a great ringing of steel, they drew their swords, taking one step forward, past the girl.

Raj glanced to the Magi, then gasped. The blade of the conjured scimitar hung only inches from his chest, but Ferro was not paying any attention to him, at the moment. His dark eyes bore through the empty street, lingering on the young girl.

‘What say you, girl? Do you think I care what authority you claim hold on? I am Magi! I fall under no direct council! The Djinn do not want me, and your pathetic Sorcerers… Hah! They would as soon kill me as this beast that lays before me!’

‘Ferro… You don’t want this fight.’

‘You are right, girl. I have no wish to engage you. Perhaps you would let me do what I came here to do, and then you would owe me a favour!’

The girl’s voice came again, a grumbling edge to it now. ‘You know I can’t let you kill him, Ferro.’

The Magi chuckled, furrowing his brow. ‘And why should I suppose to know any such thing? He is a Wishcharmer! By the very dictate of every council you have claimed privy power from, he is sentenced to death, by very fact of existence! Tell me I’m wrong, and I will lay down my sword… Otherwise, let me finish this, and have my revenge!’

‘The council’s have dictated that the Wishcharmer be kept alive… for now.’

Rajhu couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Whatever this Wishcharmer business was, these two people seemed to think he was one. Whatever a Wishcharmer was, he was certain he didn’t want to be thought of as one, considering the callous nature in which the Magi and this girl could discuss his eminent, or eventual, demise.

‘Don’t I have a say in this?’ Rajhu asked.

‘Quiet, whelp! Lest I slit your throat before hearing the young Sorceress out…’

There was a silence from the ranks of soldiers. In another moment, the girl pushed her way through the line of men, planting her feet and staring at the Magi.

‘I propose a trade…’

Ferro smiled. ‘But you have nothing to offer me, child. I am a wanted man, ever despised by the Djinn for this revenge I sought. A fallen Djinn, and you speak of a trade… Trade of what, dear girl? Stories? You have nothing I want, and I have everything you desire.’

‘We won’t take you, if you hand us the Wishcharmer… Alive!’

‘My freedom?’ Ferro laughed. ‘Young Sorceress, I hope you haven’t yet studied the arts of negotiation. Elsewise, your instructors have sorely done you a disservice. I have my freedom!’ he insisted, throwing his arms up. ‘You cannot bargain with it, when you haven’t the power to take it from me.’

‘I will, if I have to…’ the Sorceress growled.

‘And I will kill the Wishcharmer before you raise one hand to strike me,’ Ferro countered, smiling as he returned the point of his blade to Rajhu’s chest.

Things were spiralling out of control. If he didn’t do something quickly, he would be dead. If he waited for these two to settle things, they would end up fighting each other, which would likely mean he would be dead.

He hated the Powers… They never let anything remain simplistic.

While the Magi and the Sorceress continued to throw threats at each other, Rajhu desperately tried to think. There had to be some way out of this! Some kind of escape he hadn’t thought of already…

For a moment, Rajhu wished he’d had powers, magic… Like the kind he’d used in the desert, against the Kilrot…

Magic…

Rajhu cursed himself under his breath. Of course! He had power! He had magic! While these two argued over it, Rajhu remembered with alarm, just the kind of magic he had.

Was this what all the fuss was over? This magic he had used… This was what a Wishcharmer was?

It was the escape he wanted, and needed. But how could he use this magic? How had he done it in the desert? Thinking back, he realised he hadn’t really thought on it all that hard… It had simply been reflex.

‘Reflex…’ Rajhu whispered.

‘Shall I cut out your tongue to keep you silent?’ Ferro barked, turning to stare down at him.

Rajhu smiled. ‘You forget, my boy… You’re dealing with a Wishcharmer!’

He threw his hands forward, willing the magic forth, from whatever ancient well it sprung from. He envisioned huge ethereal hands launching forward, and blasting the Magi across the street.

As it was, nothing at all happened.

Ferro looked down on him with increasing disgust.

With a glance to the Sorceress, the Magi scowled. ‘Do what you will, young one. For now, I shan't stand in the presence of this abomination a moment more. Now he dies, by my hands!’

Rajhu cursed under his breath.

‘I really wish that had worked…’

The Magi thrust the scimitar towards Rajhu’s heart, but as the magic blade drew near, blue energy burst free from his palms. The smoke-like magic swirled and formed into huge fists. They rushed forward, throwing the Magi across the street, and through the stone wall of the adjacent building.

‘Stop him, now!’ the young Sorceress cried, but Rajhu was already climbing to his feet and dashing across the street.

Rajhu bent low, scooping up Will in one arm, as he threw the other skyward. More of the blue magic streamed forward, as soldiers, rushed them. Rajhu suddenly felt the magic that wound it’s way across the sky connect with something. Looking up, he could only just make out the giant blue hand, as it seemed to grab onto thin air. With another thought, Rajhu felt himself pulled from the ground in a rush of speed. The magic was drawing him up, and forward, over the city, toward the sky, as it wound itself up, like a fishing line being drawn back, in a rush.

Below him, Rajhu saw the Sorceress and the soldiers looking on helplessly, as he shot higher and further away from them. They grew smaller as they receded into the distance. Looking about, Rajhu could see he was sailing high above the countryside, the walls of Cavrey nearly an hour’s distance away already. The lush green meadows of Cavrey’s farmlands fell away rapidly into thick forest and rolling, steep hillsides.

Suddenly, the magic flickered, then faded away altogether.

Rajhu hung in the air for a moment, Will’s unconscious form held firmly with one arm.

‘Koliba!’ he cursed. They slowly began to plunge toward the earth. Fear clawed at Rajhu’s mind, as he shifted in the air, trying to position himself better, for what little good it would do… Below them, a forested hillside sped up to meet them.

Rajhu felt himself impacting the hard ground. He felt trees shattering around him, he felt rocks digging their way into his skin. Then, he didn’t feel anything.

Then… everything went dark.