Once Upon Another Time by James Riley

Author:James Riley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin
Published: 2022-04-05T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 20

Magic was everywhere. He could see it, feel it, manipulate it. Anything he wanted to do, he could, from the smallest of spells to the ultimate creation or destruction of entire universes.

Part of him was terrified by it all. At the slightest twitch of his pinkie, he could flick an entire city out of existence. Or if he blinked, he might accidentally change it so that the land had tides, and the sea stood still. He might breathe out and unleash hurricanes across the world, or sigh and create a sadness that overwhelmed every living thing, making it feel useless to even go on.

But the other part of Jin knew that this was who he was. This was the power of a genie unleashed, an ifrit. And someday it would be his.

SOMEDAY? said a voice from somewhere around him. It sounded a bit like the cosmic knowledge, but different enough that he knew they weren’t the same. WHY NOT TODAY?

A rush of power flowed through Jin, and he found it hard to remember why he was afraid. Any mistake he made, he could just unmake. There were no limits to what he could do!

“How?” he asked, not sure where the voice was coming from. “I’m still bound to the Golden King. I have more wishes to fulfill. And even after that, the elder genies want me to show humility.”

HUMILITY? GENIES ARE ALL-POWERFUL. WHY WOULD YOU NEED TO BE HUMBLE?

“Right?” Jin said, feeling another rush just that someone finally agreed with him. “I never did understand the point of that!”

YOU’VE BEEN HELD BACK FOR TOO LONG, JIN, the voice said, and now he could sense its location: it was coming from the magic inside him, all around him. It was the magic itself!

Hey, cosmic knowledge, Jin thought. Are you seeing this? The magic is talking to me! It says I deserve to have my power back. What do you say to that?

But there was no response from the cosmic knowledge, and he wondered if it was being blocked somehow by all the power he now felt. Who needed it, though, if he could do whatever he wanted, find out anything he needed to know?

YOU CAN DO ALL THAT AND MORE, the voice said. THE SCRAPS OF KNOWLEDGE ALLOWED YOU ARE ONLY THERE TO CONFUSE YOU, TO HOLD YOU BACK. THEY DON’T WANT YOU GAINING YOUR RIGHTFUL POWER, THREATENING THEIR CONTROL.

He’d never really considered it that way. Why did they want to hold back all the knowledge of the universe from him, if not to control him in some way? What could be wrong with knowing everything?

EMBRACE ME, the voice said. FREE ME FROM THIS FIRE, THIS SPARK, AND YOU WILL HAVE ALL THE POWER YOU WERE ALWAYS MEANT TO, THE POWER THAT YOU SHOULD HAVE HAD FROM THE START.

Jin’s eyes lit up. “Permanently? I can go back to my home dimension and leave this horrible human world for good?”

YOU’LL BE ABLE TO DO WHATEVER YOU WANT. IF YOU WISHED IT, YOU COULD SHAPE THIS WORLD INTO YOUR IDEAL HOME.

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