"Wait, why is this jar glowing?" Jan asked herself. "Why is the disk spinning?" Surely no mundane technology could still be powering it after the number of centuries that had surely passed inside the sanctum. On the other hand, Jan was the familiar with the idea of disembodied souls glowing ever brighter with age, at least to the eye of a fellow spirit or a magical being such as a witch.
Of course, if Dan were really in here, then he would be centuries past having a body by now. Tears welled up in her eyes at the thought. But why would Dan be haunting a jar? Maybe opening it would be the key to finding out. Anxiety fluttered in her chest as she grabbed the lid and twisted. When it was fully open, a bright flash filled the room, and a humanoid spectre formed before her.
"Behold the genie of the jar! Who dares disturb my meditations?" said a deep, powerful, mature, intimidating voice before her. It was nothing like the boy Jan was looking for, on the surface. And yet, there were familiar hidden deep within that voice, detectable only to a parent. The ghostly figure before her was strange and mighty, but some of its features were recognizable. Jan gasped.
"Oh my goodness! Dan? No way. Dan? Is that you?" she stammered. Dan's spectral body shimmered. His ghostly grimace squinted. The voice he was hearing sounded like someone he knew, somehow. The mortal woman in his field of vision was almost like a photograph from some place he had visited or some story he had read. How long it had been since the genie had seen a human face! But he felt as though he should recognize this one. Was it his wicked sister Kat? No, not quite. He had never entirely managed to forget what Kat looked like. He had spent too much time imagining the horrible things he would do to her. But this other woman was similar, if older, and she even seemed to know who he was.
"M-mo ... mom?" he managed to utter once the word had entered his mind. It seemed he must have had a mother, all those centuries ago, when he was human. Surely he could not have had a sister without one. And he was pretty sure that he had known her and had called her "mom". Or maybe Kat had called her that. But Dan was starting to at least vaguely recall that his mother had most likely looked something like this.
"Oh Dan, baby, how did you end up in here? Only witches are supposed to enter a sanctum! I have looked for you everywhere. You must have been so lonely in here, for so long. Do you even still remember what happened?"
"How could I forget?" Dan answered. "It was Kat's 18th birthday. It probably still is, or maybe it is the day after, if the information I've read about sanctum time is correct. For me, I have lost count of how many years it has been. But I remember what Kat did. It replays in my mental vision again and again like ... a movie, we used to call it? She told me all about her powers, and how she had never wanted a brother. She transformed my body into a food item: some roasted fowl that living mortals eat. And then she stole my soul. There was nothing left of my body with bones, but she would not even let me have those. She trapped my spirit in this jar to wait here in the hope that I would become a genie. But she did not realize how foolish she was to leave me so close to her spell book and her medallion for as long as she has. I am older, wiser and more powerful than she could have ever imagined. And I am the one who controls my power, not her."
Janet was reduced to tears listening to this. She could not even speak for minutes after it was over. But she managed to say something to the genie at long last. She said to him ...