Talisman of a Jinn

Emilia held the gold-framed glasses in her fingertips, examining each detail carefully as she did. The lenses were dusty, smudged, in need of cleaning. But she dared not rub them, out of concern that her latest experiment might be affected by the outcome. Just barely, she could make out an engraving along the outer rim, in a language she'd seen within books in her vast library, but one she could not speak nor read herself. Not that she hadn't tried, but the language of the Jinn, mystical entities often thought of as the neutral faction compared to angelic and demonic beings, would not allow mortal humans to read it. Every time they came close to deciphering an object, the symbols would rewrite themselves, changing shape and order to confound every researcher that has studied them.

"What I always found so fascinating about the Jinn is their uniqueness even amongst themselves." Emilia lifted the glasses up into the light, holding a lens up to peer through them at you. "They'll happily let children's cartoons tell you that they all live in oil lamps, but Jinn actually choose the shape of their summoning talisman, did you know that?"

You shook your head. You'd been quiet for a while now, despite being quite talkative when you first arrived on Emilia King's property with a business proposal in mind. Something about the eerie way Emilia discussed folklore and fact chilled you deep in your core. That woman was hard to read--at times, she felt like she was a caring, altruistic friend. At least, until the side of her that behaved like a curious scientist watching a lab rat search for cheese reared her head. Even that was tolerable, though, as those aspects of Emilia made sense: sympathetic ears and cold logic were easy to understand. Her creepy demeanor in this dimly lit room, as you sat in a chair between the panels of the Phase Binder, only reminded you of movies of supervillains before the camera would cut away from some sort of gruesome **** session. That wasn't her, though, right? It had to just be the atmosphere?

Emilia held the glasses up again into the light above. "Like this one, this Jinn decided on a pair of glasses. Probably not at first, no doubt she shaped these later, glasses as we know them were invented nearly a full millennia after her people were embedded in their talismans. She could no doubt shape it again and again into other objects. But, at some point, she chose this shape." Carefully, Emilia unfolded the hinges, and placed the frame gently down onto her nose. "Maybe she did so at my grandfather's request, as he wore them all the time after all. Easy to keep track of a Jinn assistant that way."

You shook your head a little. "Sorry, I'm not sure how any of this is relevant to what you want me to do. What's going on, even? I was just hoping you would be able to front me some cash as a sort of business loan, or--"

"Taylor Spellman. Early thirties, entrepreneur. You've got a nice girlfriend, although she's somewhat distant, and no kids. Your cat's named Bagel, and your parents watch her more often than you do since you're out of town so often on these business trips. All because you think you've got the next big idea, ready to disrupt the whole tech ecosystem. How am I doing so far?"

With a gulp, you nodded. "You, uh, did your homework, I see. Read a little further than just my pitch packet." It seemed Emilia had found your social media accounts, despite your best efforts to keep your business and personal lives separate.

"The business pitch was uninteresting to me, I'll be honest." Emilia handed the glasses over to one of her assistants, who carefully carried it over to the Phase Binder. "Building a virtual reality space using a portion of each player's brain as a co-processor to enhance realism? I don't enjoy playing games much, so you came to the wrong woman on that front. But, what I do like, out of everything I learned, is how you've run up so much debt that you're willing to throw yourself at the mercy of some of the more eccentric billionaires in the hopes that one of us will fund your little Dreamlink project. That's the kind of desperation I like in my associates for some of my more... aggressive experiments. Hence, why you're seated within the Phase Binder."

Emilia's employee set the glasses down on a table in front of you, also within the range of the Phase Binder. This all didn't sound as bad earlier, when you had assumed you were going to be rubbing a magic lamp and asking for wishes on Emilia's behalf. "But what about all this stuff? The phase thingie? These glasses? If you're serious about these genies and all that, can't I just give you some of my wishes in return for making one of my own?"

"Oh, it doesn't work quite like that. Instead, I have a theory. From everything I'd studied, a Jinn's talisman has the instructions written on it for the Jinn's contract, basically: how to summon, how many wishes, clauses that end a summoning prematurely. Those remain static because the talisman itself is static, it has no mind of its own. But, if the talisman were to be alive... well, that's when things might get interesting! I believe that you, as the Jinn's talisman, could rewrite the rules, and enforce them such that the Jinn must comply eventually. That's the purpose of a talisman, to compel the affected Jinn to behave a particular way."

"Why me, though? I mean beyond the whole desperation part you mentioned." you asked, bewildered by this whole absurd plan. Emilia's employees tapped at a screen attached to the Phase Binder, as the device began to glow a faint orange. "I don't know a single thing about this whole Jinn stuff. For the first bit earlier today I thought you were talking about ****, not genies!"

Emilia laughed a little. "The desperation is the only part that matters! One can't learn how to embody a magic talisman, that wasn't even a possibility until recently. We're all standing at the edge of the unknown. An 'expert' in Jinn folklore won't be able to do anything more than you might, but you... the motivation of having your pet project totally funded, with the right engineers to follow your vision, I know that will inspire you to get the most stubborn of Jinn to cooperate."

Your eyes widened, before the brightness of the Phase Binder's energy coils **** you to squint again, your eyes flooded with light. You could only really see a silhouette of Emilia now, feeling like you were about to wake up from a dream. "Are you serious? You'll do all that if I just say yes to this project and let you merge some old glasses with me?"

Emilia smiled again, at least you thought she did, as it became harder and harder to see her as the lights continued to brighten around you. "I already knew you'd say yes some time ago. But it's not mere participation that will earn you that monetary grant, Taylor. You need to make this Jinn as much a partner to King Enterprises as you yourself will become while under my employ. And I am giving you a deadline of one month to figure out what makes this Jinn tick, and make her something more than simply a being who carries out orders on my behalf. Particularly if you can get past her own stubbornness... you'll see what I mean. I have a particular task in mind for her and you, and completing it will require her full cooperation. At that point, you can consider your business fully funded for the next decade."

Emilia waved a hand, signaling to the others that the experiment was ready to begin. You didn't have even the most fleeting thought to back out or run away, so enthralled were you by the idea of someone taking you seriously in your business offerings! Or, at least, you would happily pretend to be taken seriously, as Emilia's agreement with you would have been absurd in any other circumstance. It all seemed like a big joke. At least, until the strange orange liquid hit you, causing you to pass out as it enveloped both you and the ancient spectacles all at once.

When you came to, you opened your eyes to find yourself staring at a concrete ceiling. Shaking the aches and mental fog from your head, you looked down at yourself, finding that you'd been moved to a old, frayed couch like one might see for free at the side of the road. The couch was inconsequential when you realized something about your arms--they were covered in tattoos! It looked like some sort of fancy language, but you couldn't read a single bit of it. The words spiraled along your forearms, along the back of your hand, shrinking in size as they curled along your index fingers. Were these like the words Emilia was talking about earlier, the language of the Jinn? You assumed there were more words to be found elsewhere on your body, but you didn't get a chance to look as a voice tugged your attention away.

"Good, you're finally awake."