Of Wish and Fury (Seven Kings of Jinn)

Charlie nodded. After a few days of hounding Jack to teach him how to power his magic into talismans, Jack finally gave in. Jack set up a little workshop in the basement. Spread out on a pasting table were necklaces with stone pendants, round, square, octagonal metal seals, rings, and small rocks.

Jack pointed to the seals. “The metals last longer than some of the semi-precious stones. I don’t have any platinum because it’s too expensive, no white-gold either. But I have yellow-gold.” He pointed to a gold circular disk engraved with foreign script. It was smaller than the palm of Charlie’s hand. “Silver.” He pointed to the square piece of metal. “Bronze and some pure copper.” There were several bronze and copper seals. “Easier to get a hold of. Some of our seals are actually melted down old cents or imported currency like the British one and two pence.”

“And you can channel your power through these?” Charlie quizzed, eyeing the metal greedily.

“Yes. You’ll be able to do minor stuff with these. Mostly conjuring small items. You need to upgrade your metal if you’re conjuring something bigger or from far away. You get a feel for what exactly the metal is capable of. Platinum and gold are also useful for creating binding enchantments. You can lock people out of somewhere or in somewhere, or use them to power a temporary protection enchantment. All the things that come naturally to many full-blooded jinn? We need these metals to do. And when it’s in your hands, you’ll feel a hum, a vibration. Here.” He placed a copper seal in Charlie’s palm.

“Whoa.” Charlie’s eyes widened as static shot through him, the piece seeming to vibrate with life in his hand.

“That’s it reacting to you. You’ll know when you’ve sucked the energy out of a seal or a talisman when you no longer feel that hum from it.”

“Okay.”

“Now, sorcerers tend to use stones.” Jack pointed to a section of rocks, pendants, and rings. “I haven’t got an emerald, but I can tell you it’s the rock of Mount Qaf. Emeralds from our realm are not as powerful as emerald from Mount Qaf, but they are still extremely dangerous. An emerald can fuel a hybrid’s power for years. It’s also the only stone that a hybrid can use to tap into the cloak or the peripatos.”

“Wait.” Charlie held up a hand in surprise. “We can use the cloak and the peripatos?”

“Only with an emerald. And an emerald can be intoxicating. It can breed addiction to the magic.” Jack frowned. “The Guild banned casual use of the emerald. You need permission to access one and they only grant permission to guild leaders under dire circumstances.”

Charlie tried to squash down the voice inside him that whined, ‘I want an emerald.’

“Obsidian is useful. The different types do different things.” Jack held up a necklace with an attractive black pendant. “Black obsidian. Can literally create blackouts if you need a quick escape. Or the opposite… it can steal light into it.”

“Cool, like the Deluminator.”

Jack looked at him blankly.

Charlie grinned. “Harry Potter.”

“Who’s that?”

Disbelief shot through Charlie. Surely everyone in the world knew who Harry Potter was? “The wizard.”

“A sorcerer?”

Charlie choked. “He’s a fictional character. A fictional character that everyone knows.”

“Clearly not everyone.” Jack sighed and turned back to the stones. He pointed to the green and blue obsidian. He explained that green obsidian could pull on anything physically bonded to the earth — plants, trees, etc. An extremely powerful sorcerer could even use the power of green obsidian to split the ground and use rocks and sand and dirt as weapons. Blue obsidian was a water stone. But blue and green obsidian together were healing stones.

“So every stone can do something different?” Charlie asked in awe.

“Yes.” Jack nodded. “You have a lot to learn. Like sixteen years of training packed into a few days. You sure you’re up for that.”

Charlie nodded. “I’m sure.”

“Alright then.” Jack gestured to Charlie’s hand where he held the copper. “Conjure something small from your room.”

“My room here or in Ohio?”

“Has to be here. Copper won’t produce enough energy to power a conjuring from that far.”

Looking down at the piece of metal humming on his skin, Charlie felt his gut twist. This was it. No going back. “What do I do?”

“Concentrate on the metal, feel it become a part of you.”

“What—”

“Just do it.”

Concentrate on the metal, Charlie sighed. Sounded like some New Age crap to him. Still… focusing in on the metal, Charlie let the hum vibrate up his arm, felt the metal heat in his hand — imagined it as a part of his palm instead of just an object sitting on it. After a few seconds, he felt inordinately warm and he could swear he tasted metal on his tongue.

“Do you taste it yet?” Jack grinned at him.