[Translated Text]
So everyone is safe, now?
Are we certain?
I hear people can come back from the dead. It is not right, that so many were killed when their actions were not their own. It seems I have a few apologies to be making.
Malkus. Friend? You are well, I hope. Not avoiding me?
Are we certain?
I hear people can come back from the dead. It is not right, that so many were killed when their actions were not their own. It seems I have a few apologies to be making.
Malkus. Friend? You are well, I hope. Not avoiding me?
Unless you want them back. In which case, why?
1 - This is not my taste in dining. Jabor tended towards this and never was it said that his opponents came back from the dead to harass him. Well, except for me.
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Been having trouble keeping people alive here?
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Now. What was this talk about magic?
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Correction! There was no talk about magic at all, only magicians. It's a fine distinction you know. 2
2 - Some djinni take offence when their hard work is credited solely to the work of the magician. I'm more forgiving in that, but it doesn't change the fact that magic has nothing to do with the magicians. Mark my words: Where you see magic at work, there's a magician filing his nails and a spirit doing the hard work.
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[Even so, Dastan figures this person must be mortal, or he would more or less be angering the gods by calling himself one of them.]
So... you're saying magicians can't use magic? Spirits create magic for them?
...What about magical objects?
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Spirits are the magic. 4 We are the ones doing all the dirty work and casting all the spells. Have you ever seen a man levitate? There was, at least, a foliot at work there. Two, if he was particularly obese.
Magical objects are nothing more that spirits sealed into someone's old crockery. It's a rough job, you know. Ever been stuck inside a rusted lamp for a decade, waiting for some shmuck to come along and polish it to release you? It's never pleasant and usually you have to stick around to grant wishes.
3 - The physics of the human world require spirits to take form and substance. These two things are what we dislike most (after being summoned, that is). Believe me when I say I would dissipate happily into the Other Place if life would just let me.
4 - With the exception of summoning and some cruel punishment spells designed to torment innocent spirits such as myself.
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So when you mentioned a djinn... is that... what you are?
[There is awe in his tone. He's heard stories, certainly, but this?]
And how did you end up here?
[There is a small pause here. Dastan grins slowly.]
Oh, I don't know. I've seen some pretty powerful magic, but it came from a different source, in my world.
[It came from the gods.]
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You could call me that, but even djinni does not do me justice. I am one of the fourth level! 5 A being with power beyond the mortal scope. I am Bartimaeus of Uruk and no task has conquered me.
As to the matter of my presence, I suspect a dismissal gone wrong or the work of another summon. As they say, to err is human and this is a very, very large err.
[To that last bit? He's rolled his eyes. Humans.]
Then you have not realised from whom that magic came. All great magicks are the work of spirits - be they imps or marids, or a class in between. 6
5 - This is not inconsequential in the slightest. I may not be a Demi-Afrit, but I am no slouch. Why else would I be so popular with the magicians? I have made certain that it was not for my sunny disposition.
6 - There is one class beyond, but it is wise not to discuss the greater beings. To summon one is to end the world, bring about the apocalypse, and generally make a mess of a good day.
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Wait. No task has conquered you? Does that mean you know of a way out of this place? Could you return people to their worlds? There has to be more to it than that...
Imps... in-between... as far as I am concerned, I do not rightly care where magic comes from as long as it is used with good intention. My brother and I need to get home. Lives depend on it! My entire world depends on it.
Please. Is there anything you know that could help us return home? If we don't get back soon... it may be too late.
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None! I even single-handedly dispatched the great spirit Ramuthra! 8 There is nothing beyond my league.
[If this was audio, here would be the long pause.]
...except that. Right now, at least. I haven't yet exerted my influence to that problem. 9
Meanwhile, you and everyone else need to get home. Take a number and line up until it's called. And don't think the end-of-the-world ploy will make yours any greater a priority. Civilisations end every day and new ones rise. You get used to it after the first dozen or so.
7 - It's nothing against you humans. You simply lack the creative power to grasp the innumerable forms that my power takes. An evolutionary defect that's unfortunate, but incorrectable in the few decades that your kind live ( ... )
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[Yeah, Dastan's not all that amused about that, but he brushes the words aside.]
So you didn't fight this great spirit? Someone else did, with your ideas?
[There would have been a pause here, in turn.]
I never said my cause was a greater priority--merely that it is a priority. And it's the people that make a civilization great. No two people are the same, so I suggest you reexamine your take on life in general, for it means the world to us 'humans.'
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I disagree. Civilisations are made and remembered by the great constructs and relics that are left behind. 10 Have you ever heard a scholar talking about how old Essuru made Sumer great? Hardly!
Of course the world means too much to you humans. What's so grand about a bunch of dirt, polluted air, and masses of like bodies all thronging together like badly oriented sheep?
10 - Constructs which I had no small part in making, mind you. Relic-making, however, is a hobby of magicians and involves trapping spirits in all manner of things for one purpose or another. We've already covered off how unpleasant that can be.
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