“Go ahead if you want, Vivian,” June said with a shrug. “I’m gonna review our flight plans for tomorrow, make sure everything’s in order.”
Vivian smiled and picked up the lamp. Despite some oil on the sides, it still felt cool to the touch. “Well, let’s see if the story that shopkeeper told you was true. Here goes!”
She began to gently rub the surface. Nothing seemed to happen, at first, so she picked up the pace.
Then she heard shelly gasp from the other side of the table. All three girls’ heads turned to the lamp’s spout, where purple smoke was slowly pouring out.
“I hope that’s nothing toxic…” June mumbled.
The smoke kept floating out, thicker and thicker, circling around Vivian. She dropped the lamp on the table.
“It’s real…” Shelly said in awe.
Vivian felt the smoke wrap around her, feeling strangely warm to the touch. Her heart raced. This was just some fancy trick, right? There was no way she was actually going to get turned into a genie? But another, smaller part of her felt curious. What would it be like in the lamp? What sort of power would she have?
Her body began to feel light and airy, her head a little dizzy. Looking down, she could see her arms and legs turning purple, the same hue as the smoke around her, before they seemed to split and dissolve into that same smoke.
“VIVIAN!” June and Shelly gasped.
“What’s it doing to her?” June stammered.
“Vivian I’m sorry!” Shelly reached out to her friend's hand, only for it to pass straight through.
Vivian felt a strange pulling sensation. Her whole body became lighter than a feather,bending at every and any little force acting around it, becoming an indistinct mass of smoke. The suction grew stronger, and she could see herself getting pulled into the lamp’s spout!
And then, darkness.
But that darkness was soon interrupted by a small light in Vivian’s vision. Then another. Then another. Multiplying exponentially with every second. Like a starry night’s sky above her, below her, all around her. She pictured something like her human body at the center of it all, and felt this comforting, warm sensation from every light source around her.
The warmth built up, and began to feel different. It was more than simple heat; it was energy. Power. She felt eons of information, knowledge of processes natural and unnatural flowing into her. She could picture her artistic abilities being amplified, her control of her motion more fine tuned and precise, letting her re-create any image exactly as it was in her mind’s eye, be it through painting, sculpture, or another medium.
Then it went beyond. She saw how to paint the fabric of the universe itself, to mix the colors and create something new and spectacular!
Her body, or rather her image of it, began to change in subtle ways. Hair getting longer, eyes looking clearer. Her clothes began to take on an arabian flair, gaining ornate tassels and flowing sashes, though they were far less revealing than the belly dancer outfits typically imagined on female genies. They started as a pure white, but with a flick of her fingers, Vivian began to add spots of color. A splotch of red here, a dab of blue there… at first, it might have looked like the result of someone dipping their paintbrush in every color of the rainbow, and flicking it all over the girl’s clothes, a few dots even landing on her face and arms. And yet, despite the random look, no color clashed with any splatter that landed next to it, no, they seemed to compliment each other.
As her changes finished, the inside of the lamp became like a little palace around her, full of comfortable seating, blank canvases, endless paints in every color, marble blocks ready to be carved, and more.
Vivian felt amazing; she’d never been so full of energy, so inspired! She simply had to share her gifts with whoever rubbed the lamp next. She couldn’t imagine holding back!
She felt a subtle shake, and then a sensation like a gust of wind, blowing her out from the lamp’s warmth, and back into their hotel room. The smoke that was her body solidified from the waist up, and a paintbrush appeared in her hand.
She looked down at her two friends, both staring up at her with mouths agape. Even without having seen it, Vivian could tell that Shelly was now her Mistress. Her word, and the rules of the lamp, were now her law.
“V-Vivian…” Shelly gulped. “Are you okay?”
“Oh, I feel amazing, Mistress Shelly!” Vivian cheered, hugging her friend. “Don’t worry about a thing! I volunteered, after all, and I’m SO glad I did!” She flew in a little loop-de-loop. “Oh, ‘phenomenal cosmic power’ is wonderful! Not only can I do incredible things, but I get to do them for you!” She grinned.
Shelly looked relieved, though June still seemed concerned.
“Why are you calling her ‘mistess?’ She’s your friend.”
“Yeah,” Vivian said with a dismissive wave of her hand, “and while I’m a genie, she’s also my mistress. Unless she wants me to call her by name only I don’t see a reason to leave out her title.”
“That sounds fine to me,” Shelly said. “So… I guess I should probably make some wishes so we can get you back to normal, right? Do you know if you have any rules about what wishes you can grant?”
Vivian sighed. “Yeah I do… I guess ‘phenomenal cosmic power’ is overselling it a little bit. The lamp actually only makes minor genies, and we’re a little weaker than most. Can’t quite snap our fingers and rearrange the cosmos, unless the portion of the cosmos you want to change is something that’s our specialty. But we can perform a lot of little tricks and tasks. We can do things that would take a human a few days of work in seconds, or minor magics like making something invisible for a week.”
She drifted down, her smoky tail landing on the bed. “So, rules, guess I’d better go through those. The shopkeeper already told you about my granting three wishes then going back to human form. So the other rules... First, no wishing for more wishes. Second, no wishing for more genies.” She laughed softly and winked at Shelly. “We follow those rules to the letter.
“Next, the ones you heard from Alladin, no killing, no forcing people to fall in love or have sex, and no bringing people back from the dead. We follow the spirit of those laws too, so no using your first wish to make me drop an anvil from fifty feet above a person, with the intention of catching it before it lands, then wishing I wouldn’t catch the anvil after it’s started falling, and no ‘you’d be surprised what you can live through’ crap either. Trying to get around these rules has serious consequences, and even though I know you two would never ask for something like that, I want to beg you to NEVER break these rules, because you DON’T wanna find out what happens if you do.
“Seven is more a rule for me, than you; if I can’t grant a wish for any reason, I must tell you so, and that won’t count as a used wish. I can, however, offer you close equivalents, like if you wish for immortality, I could “immortalize” you through making you able to create art that’ll long outlast you. Or through… other means. Eight: no wishes that would make me unable to grant wishes, excluding granting a third wish restoring me to human form, natch.”
June cocked an eyebrow. “Why would someone wish NOT to get wishes?”
“Some humans in the past got what they wanted with their first two wishes, and used the third to sadistically deny the genie the hope of ever being allowed to fulfill their purpose, apparently.” Vivian looked uncomfortable for a moment, then smiled again.
“Okay, enough about what I CAN’T do for you, lemme tell you what I CAN do! So, the bottle makes people into minor genies, each with a speciality in which they’re almost as powerful as a major genie. And I’m a minor Genie of Art! Which means I have nearly unlimited power when it comes to granting art related wishes! Want to have the skills of a master painter or sculptor? Or inspiration for works that’ll capture people’s heart’s for centuries? You need only ask. Or you can commission any work you’d like from me. I could bring works of art to life... Or make people into works of art.”
“Wait, I thought you said you can’t kill anyone,” June interrupted.
“I won’t.” Vivian shook her head, rising up again. “But turning someone into art won’t kill them. Not the way I can. Their mind would change to match; they wouldn’t be able to get bored or go stir crazy, it’d be a calming, zen-like experience, for centuries, potentially.”
“...Right…”
“Yeah, I know it’s kinda hard to believe, but I wouldn’t lie about that!” She shook her head, then snapped her fingers, a canvas appearing between the hotel room beds, which she turned to and started painting on. “Aside from artistic stuff, I can grant minor wishes, like I said before. Magic that’s slightly out of the ordinary, but wouldn’t make a big fuss if people noticed. Making magic from other sources last a little longer than they were originally meant to... Completing mundane stuff faster. That sort of thing. But whatever your wish is, I’ll happily do my best to grant it.”
She looked back over her shoulder at them. “No need to rush, though. I really want to enjoy the feeling of being a genie while it lasts.”