Chapter 4
The clouds rolled lazily over the blue canvas of the sky, framed by the idyllic mountain-tops and the faded brown buildings. A group of children were running around with one waving a wooden sword while screaming and another one stood awkwardly on the side. That boy was Jasper, his tousled brown hair hanging over his brows and a rather frightening gash ran over his left eye.
The wooden sword he bought was lent out to the other children while he himself couldn’t find it within himself to run about screaming like what he considered an idiot. Although he knew that he was acting rather strangely, he refused to engage in something that was tantamount to self inflicted torture at himself. Releasing a long inhaled breath in yet another sigh, he simply lay down on the cobbled stone floor and looked at the sky amid the cacophony of children. A few of them became curious and went over to see what he was doing.
“What are you doing?” Marigold asked. She was in the group who came over.
“Oh just watching the clouds.” He replied curtly.
Seeing that he wasn’t going to say anymore, she laid down on the ground next to him and a few others followed suit. The rest rejoined the more active group.
A few minutes passed tranquilly as they watched the wind blow the puffy cotton-candy like clouds across the sky. The weather was very comfortable despite being in the middle of summer and it was very easy to doze off with the breeze caressing their skins.
“Look at that cloud! It looks like a chicken!” Marigold exclaimed, breaking the serenity. The others started to try to make out the shapes of the clouds as well.
“Fish, look fish!”
“There, it looks like my house!”
“No, it doesn’t! It looks like my cow!”
Rambunctious squabbles ensued but Jasper just continued staring at the clouds.
“If I could just cut out that bit off the top it’ll look just like a swan…” He mumbled under his breath. It was barely audible but Marigold caught it.
“Can you cut up those clouds high up in the sky?” She asked innocently, her face beaming with expectation.
Jasper was stunned when he saw her expression that seemed to believe it to be possible. His eyes squinted as he fought against the urge to laugh and replied.
“I can’t, but I bet those Magi with their powerful companions in stories could.” He looked back up at the skies, lazily putting his hands behind his head.
“I heard that they become friends with the powerful djinns and they help the magi do amazing stuff!” Marigold said excitedly.
With the topic now on djinns they engaged in yet another squabble about what djinns could do.
Jasper closed his eyes. Djinns. One name inadvertently came up in his mind. Gaius Rome, the djinni that was the object of his revenge. His smile faded, replacing it was a cold glint in his eyes.
Djinns, creatures born of smokeless fire, immortal until killed. They exist in the astral plane of the world and their numbers stayed the same until one dies and another is born. They were natural shape shifters as they can take the form of any beast in the world and had the ability to channel magic through their special bodies. However, they were not without faults: having astral bodies, they required magic circles to anchor them to the material plane. They also require mana, the essence of life, to live and grow but their bodies can absorb very little compared to humans. Thus, when the humans and djinns discovered each other aeons ago, their strongest kings had made a pact. The humans will allow some djinn to descend unto the material plane by making them an astral vessel carved with the magic circle unique to each djinn and the humans will share with them their own plentiful mana while the djinn will swear loyalty and offer his services to the human supporting him for the length of his lifespan. The first Magi were born into the world then.
The contents of the pact also contained two more promises from the djinns and one from the humans. First was the contracted djinn may not harm their masters and second was they may not take the form of humans without their permission. From the kings of the Djinns, the humans are not to kill any Djinns by pitting them against each other.
Then how had Gaius Rome, Jasper’s contracted Djinn, kill him in the first place? It was a question that had baffled Jasper throughout his first few incarnations. He desperately gathered information, chasing even the smallest leads from every walk of life he got born into. He had become a thief, a merchant, a noble, a metalworker, a traveller, a shipwight and many others. The effort piled up and during his last life, he managed to climb to the top of the Magi Association and became privy to a great deal of confidential information.
The dark djinns. They have broken away from the authority of the seven immortal kings of the djinns because of conflicting ideals. Where the kings advocated a give and take mutual relationship, the dark djinns considered humans to be inferior to djinns and are tools for their use. They have forced their souls away from the influence of the pact and in fact, often kill their masters for their mana. The information was not circulated by the Association, but it was known that only five of the djinns had truly managed to disregard the pact and are collecting power to overthrow their current seven kings. Of which Gaius was one.
“Quintus… Quintus!” Marigold’s voice brought him back from his thoughts. “Its lunchtime already, I’m going back first okay?”
“Ah, right. Sure.” Jasper replied and saw that the number of children in the square had diminished a lot. He sat up and stared pensively at Marigold’s retreating back while wondering what in the world attracted her to him. He felt that she was talking especially much to him this past week.
Muttering an “oh well” to himself, he got up and went home as well to help himself to the lunch Quintus’s mother prepared for him. Egg and tomato sandwiches. Their household had a surplus of eggs everyday from their hens and bread from breakfast, so he ended up seeing a lot of them everywhere. Hard boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, egg soup, vegetable fritters all with bread on the side. Thankfully there were a million ways to cook egg or he might have gotten tired of it very soon.
A metallic lustre gleamed on the tabletop, catching Jasper’s attention. With half a sandwich wedge hanging off his mouth, he took the object into his hands and examined it. The wooden handle was worn smooth and while the blade was still quite sharp, the irregular edge was testament to the years of grinding.
In a moment of folly, his finger ran along the knife’s edge which he then he placed the blade right above his wrist. The sharp metal started to draw droplets of bright red blood as he pressed harder. However, slowly shaking his head he decided against it. How many times had he tried that, only to be reborn somewhere else, some other time. These endless years, a curse to him, and the only thing still driving his weary soul was the unreconciled hatred within. Another bitter chuckle escaped his lips; it has truly become an ingrained habit.
Nibbling at the half gone sandwich, he twirled the blade between his fingers deftly. One of the requirements to become a full-fledged Magus was to master the arts of rune-carving. The Djinns required the runes to anchor themselves for one, and the runes themselves had a wide range of uses from protection, scrying and lastly and most importantly, as a catalyst for any large magical array. But he won’t be carving runes anytime soon. First he must make up a pretence that will allow him access to knives. No sane parent will allow their 8 year old child to play with knives.
Rebirth Online World 