"Tol-Namith?"

"Yes. The ancient city of the djinn."

"But-"

"James, no one who goes there ever returns." Afifa informed him.

"Please tell me you have a better idea then."

Both women were silent.

"I'm sorry. I know this is hard for you. You have my word though that as long as I am living, I will not let anything happen to either of you."

They rode northeast, away from the approaching army and towards Tol-Namith. On the way they encountered beasts twice, but nothing like the manticore he had fought previously. James mostly left the two women in peace, not knowing how to properly encourage them or cheer them up. When they stopped to make camp, James used the hoard in his inventory to pull out camping supplies for them and after showing them how to eat some MREs or meals ready to eat he finally began to make small talk.

"So...your name, Shaherabad. Is it similar to Scheherazade?"

"No."

Ah, sorry. I ask because where I am from, we have an old legend about that name."

"What happened?"

"Well...long ago, there was a king who was betrayed by his wife." James began, quickly getting into telling the story. "In his anger, the king decided to marry a new woman every night and kill them the following morning. So the king's vizier, his daughter asked her father to marry her to the king."

He paused to take a drink from a water bottle.

"What happened then?" Shaherabad asked him.

"The vizier protested, but eventually agreed. And on their wedding night, Scheherazade had her sister rush to her side. And then in the presence of the king, she told a story. But she did not tell all of it, leaving her tale on a cliffhanger. So the following night, the king allowed her to finish her story. As soon as she was done with one story, she immediately told another, always ending her stories in the middle and leaving the king wondering how the story would end. And after a thousand and one nights, Scheherazade had had three children and had won the king's heart."

"But why did the first wife betray him?"

"Why did the king take his anger out on so many innocent women before Scheherazade? We don't know, and the story may or may not be untrue. But many stories have lessons in them. Is there a favourite story of yours?"

"I have one. It's about a knight who sings to a princess and together the two of them leave and become peasants."

"Ah, a romance story! Those can be nice."

"I have always had a special fondness for a story of a wise king who had two subjects" Afifa spoke up. "Both made the same claim, but only one of them told the truth. So the king said that he would act as if both of their stories were true. And when one begged the king to not give her what she had asked of him, he knew she was the one who was truthful."

"I like that. A story with an important life lesson can teach a lot."

They continued to talk, and gradually James began to learn a little bit about the two women. He learned that Afifa's name meant virtuous, and although her marriage to her husband Hisham had been an arranged marriage they were both in love to the present day. Shaherabad, although young, was or rather had been betrothed to Prince Ali of Vishath. The very prince whose father was at that moment marching to make war on Melech. Neither of the two women could guess why events had transpired as they had, but James privately guess that it was partly a way to break the betrothal without having anyone question the prince's integrity or character. As James listened to stories of their life in Melech and their time at court, the hours quickly fell away and thus it was very late by the time the three of them decided to settle down to sleep. Although James tried to stay up to keep watch, his eyes quickly betrayed him again and he soon fell asleep on the desert sands.

The next morning, the three of them continued on. While the two women were undoubtedly unused to their new nomadic lifestyle they made no complaint. Reminded of his time spent travelling with Jessica and later Elizabeth, James wondered if his next travel partner would also be a woman, because at this rate he felt he might as well be a tour guide.

It was only days later that they came to a wide valley. Knowing that they were close, James stopped their progress there and they rested early. In this way they were refreshed enough to be ready to face Tol-Namith with full stomachs and energized after a good night's sleep.

"Alright, stay close. If anything happens, call out."

James went first, advancing through the valley. The valley was steep, with tall towering cliffs watching over them like sentinels. There was no noise beyond their own movements, and the walls of the valley cut smooth by time and wind twisted and turned like snakes. As they passed they came across a camel skeleton. One that still had a piece of rope going to its white jawbone. At last they turned through the valley one more time and exited from the barren rock and sand of the desert to see a city. They had found Tol-Namith.

The city was magnificent. Looking like it had stopped in time, they saw walls larger than any others that any of them had ever seen. Fortunately the gates were not locked, and James was able to simply pull the doors of the city gate open wide enough to allow them to pass. How the doors had not rotted away or fallen off their hinges he could only guess.

Inside they found no people, but everything seemed perfectly preserved. There were massively wide streets where stone had been laid underfoot, and absolutely enormous buildings that reminded James of Roman temples with their decorative round columns, only these had images all along the columns. Wild animals, famous events depicted and images of rulers. Many of them depicted various races working with smoky figures. He realized that they were djinn. There were also cast figures of people on horseback, and various marble statues of different races all along the main road. Nagas, saytrs, mermaids and centaurs and beastfolk. What caught James' attention the most though was the greenery, where trees and plants and flowers scattered around the city appeared perfectly trimmed and pruned. Either the city had stopped in time, or someone was still living there.

He paused. As much as he kept telling himself not to think, something troubled him.

"Hey, Afifa? Do you know why...no...I mean..."

"What is it?"

"It's just...this is supposed to be a deadly city from which nothing ever returns. So where is the danger?"

As if on cue wisps began to coalesce into faint spectral forms.

"There's my answer. Get behind me please."

Pulling out his bow he fired a shot at the closest white thing, but it passed right through.

"Wraiths."

James put away his weapons. He had one trick left, but without being able to test it he was less than happy about it. Gritting his teeth, he charged forward and activated drain. As he came in range, the wraiths seemed to be sucked towards him as if by a vacuum. Relieved that this worked, he quickly turned back and rejoined the two women. Keeping them within range of his skill, they began to enter further into the city. They paused several times for James to devour the wraiths, as the further into the city they travelled the more wraiths there were. James could only guess that this was the result of some ancient magic or summoning that had gone wrong. But why was the city so perfectly preserved?

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James checked his character sheet, annoyed that he didn't have a new quest to protect the women. Why was the System being so stingy? He did however enjoy going house to house and building to building, finding only simple household items but later rich tapestries and works of finely crafted bronze and later even books, scrolls, bolts of cloth and magic materials. Resolving to examine it all later, James finally stopped so the ladies could rest in what he guessed had been a rich merchant's house. With the threat of the wraiths, they could only huddle close to each other while the ladies lay down on a cot on the second floor. The problem there was that James couldn't rest, as any time without him being alert enough to use drain could be deadly. A single wraith could kill them, from what the women told him was an ability called Wraith Touch. Since the wraiths were drawn to the living, there was nothing James could do but stay awake, forcing himself to stay sitting so he wouldn't nod off.

A few hours later, thoroughly exhausted, he escorted the ladies out of the city and back towards the canyon. While they did not go back, they stayed there until James could also rest. Since they were outside Tol-Namith, they were safe from the wraiths. However, when James made ready to reenter the haunted place the two women pleaded with him to not do it and remain there in the canyon. This left him feeling torn, conflicted between his promise to Jessica and his duty to the two women. His temporary solution was to go just past the gate that encircled the city and wait for the wraiths to come trickling out. He did this for two days, and after talking with the women he created a campsite for them out of sight in the valley walls. He also left them shelter and supplies, along with a long thin spear and a rapier. Feeling guilty but consumed with the need for answers about the Djinn King, James dove back into exploring the city. Everything and anything from paintings to cookware to sculptures went into his inventory. There would be no stone or fibre left unturned for him.

He continued to devour wraiths, and it was enough to push his drain to level nine and his character level to twenty-one. He quickly put his stat points into agility, wanting to quickly be done with his task and return to the royal family.

At last in the very center of the city he found a tall building built like the ancient Greek temples. There were tall circular columns holding a towering rectangular roof, with a large image shown in polished metals under the overhang where the two halves of the roof met. It looked similar to but not entirely like the symbol of the Gravitus. Could this be where that family had taken their family crest?

Advancing inside, James found a large cavernous room that was rather like an ancient Egyptian tomb. There were images on the walls of war and conflict between djinn and various races, and they all had a pattern of the djinn growing weaker. At last on the far wall the images came together to show one male djinn making something of a last stand. Below this image were several words in an unfamiliar language, but strangely James could still read what was written.

I the Djinn King have fought for millennia. Now tired of war, I leave our city and our treasures to one who is worthy of them. If you wish to retrieve a djinn that has been enslaved in our long wars, place their container on the stand and pour your magic into the object. May this world one day finally know peace.

James looked from the words to a single stone stand that stood in the exact center of the room. Could it really be so simple? Unsure what to do, he fingered the necklace while he reexamined the walls.

"Jessica? Can you hear me? What do you think?"

The necklace was inert, without so much as a hum. Deciding to just go for it, James stepped forward, removing the necklace and placing it on the stand.

For a long moment, there was only silence. Nothing happened.

"Darn it!"

Half a second later a firework show seemed to erupt as the necklace looked like it was exploding. Panicking, James lunged forward to retrieve the necklace only for his hand to touch flesh. Startled, he saw that a hand was now gripping his. As he continued to watch, the hand grew into an arm, and then a wisp of hair slowly appeared or grew. By now there were edges of a tail, and before James' delighted eyes Jessica continued to appear as if she was being assembled. Slowly, hardly believing what he saw, James curled his fingers around Jessica's hand.

"Jessica?" he barely whispered.

She smiled at him.

"It's me."

James screamed with happiness and embraced her, scooping her up and dancing as he twirled across the room. He was so happy to see her that he literally danced with joy. After a few moments of this he abruptly stopped and sat down right there on the flat stone floor. Taking his left hand, James traced her hair and brought his lips to hers. As they kissed, James knew that he had never been so happy before.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"Don't be. I knew you would keep your promise. And it was nice every time you touched the necklace to think of me."

"You know about that?"

"Babe, I know everything that you've done until now. Thank you for working so hard for me."

They kissed again, and James pressed his forehead to hers. He couldn't believe that he had his bitch back.

Their reunion was interrupted as the stand that James had placed the necklace on abruptly started retreating into the floor. As they watched, the one stand was removed and replaced with two others. One had a scroll closed with a wax seal, and on the other a large black egg with red spots on it rested in a depression in the stone that matched its shape. Picking Jessica up, he approached these new objects and saw that the scroll had a scrawled note on it that stated it was a method to free djinn. Storing it away, James next looked to the egg, but his analyze ability only revealed question marks. It did however say that the egg was a legendary creature, which was more than enough reason to take it with them. Having done what he came there to do, James looked at his mermaid with her black hair and pink tail wearing the same clamshell bra she had worn in Sagaste. To him nothing could be more perfect now that he had her in his arms again.

"Let's get out of here."

James hoped that she had enjoyed her time in the necklace. Because at that moment he hoped to never let her go again. Checking his character screen, he saw that his Reverse the Curse quest was marked as completed. Selected it, he chose the marriage certificate as his prize but didn't tell Jessica about this and simply placed it with everything else in his inventory. And as they walked out of the building and exited the city, James and Jessica barely noticed the remaining wraiths as they kept kissing.