When I pick up the diary again, my hands are trembling.
Little one, bear with me on this history lesson. To know how things came to be, you need to know how they were. We always had a council of elected Jinn—a cross between the human world’s government and police. We were subject to the council’s decisions, but today’s types of controls and monitoring were basically nonexistent unless a Jinn was in danger of exposing magic to humans. If that happened, and it did and still does on occasion, the council was responsible for doling out punishment. But the other, more important job of the council has always been selecting humans in need of a wish. The idea of the greater good is ingrained in our species.
The difference is, in the past, Jinn volunteered for assignments. Only the best of the best were accepted as volunteers, and Jinn trained for years to achieve such an honor. Granting a wish for one of these specially selected candidates garnered much respect.
If Jinn did not volunteer for assignments, they selected their own wishees at will. Some did it randomly, some did it according to special criteria they devised on their own, some didn’t do it at all. Jinn had the freedom to use their powers however they saw fit. That’s not to say there weren’t any rules or any consequences for inappropriate behavior. It’s not like they could roam the streets doing magic for all the world to see.
When Jinn went too far, the council stepped in. Punishment was having one’s powers stripped for a certain period of time, or if the crimes were that heinous, for life.
At some point in the long history of our world, it was discovered that certain earthly compounds conflict with a Jinn’s ability to use the powers that are literally in our DNA. And, since every action has an equal and opposite reaction, other compounds do the opposite. Kind of like how magnets can attract some metals but repel others.
Therefore, the way a Jinn’s powers were stripped, at least for the past couple of centuries, was by affixing an unremovable object to a part of the Jinn’s body that blocked and prevented the use of magic. But that’s not how it’s done anymore, not since the Afrit came into power.
The Afrit took the science and perverted it. They created a compound that blocks our magic and injected it into every living, breathing Jinn. Then, the females were issued a bangle and the males a necklace. The mix of compounds inside the jewelry draws out our magic. The Afrit’s advanced powers allow them to spell the jewelry to ensure we wear them until they say otherwise.
I stretch out on the bed. So that’s why the bangle can’t be taken off by me but can be removed by them.
These enforced injections that now take place shortly after birth render our powers inert until we are given the jewelry that releases them. The Afrit can take away our magic any time they like by simply removing our bangles and necklaces. This is how they have managed to maintain their control over us for so long. We are dependent on them for our magic.
I touch my bronze bangle realizing what my mother didn’t—couldn’t—know as she wrote these words: I’m the exception. Sweat soaks the back of my shirt. Surely if the Afrit knew, they wouldn’t allow it. That’s why my mother kept it a secret. Despite the tightness in my chest, I continue reading.
The Afrit came to power at a time when the human world was experiencing its counterculture movement. In the late sixties, young people began to question the world around them. It was liberating for many humans and a lot of Jinn too. But some Jinn started going too far. The abundance of drug use among Jinn certainly played a role. But that’s no excuse. These Jinn wanted to return to a time when they didn’t have to hide their magic. They started granting too many people too many wishes without using cloaking enchantments. We came close to being exposed. Centuries ago, humans believed in magic, but not even the culture of the sixties and seventies was going to tolerate true knowledge of magic existing.
The rebellion these young Jinn embarked on hurt and even killed people, humans and Jinn alike. It was ugly. The community was afraid, but it was also outraged. They rightly blamed the young Jinn who started it all, but they also blamed the council for not clamping down on the troublemakers sooner. The change those young Jinn were pushing for? Well, it came. Just not in the way they wanted.
The Afrit family is—
Family? Afrit is a last name? I thought it was … I guess I have no idea, but I didn’t know it was a family.
The Afrit family is one of the oldest Jinn families in existence. Their magic is strong, more powerful than that of most Jinn. And they work to keep it that way, to keep their bloodline as pure as possible. But they were always a bit too conservative for the Jinn community as a whole. They were desperate to have one of their own elected to the council for decades but could never amass enough support—until the youth rebellion gave them their opening, and they took it. They used the fear that was so pervasive to overthrow the old elected council. The family assumed control and issued a sort of martial law.