Her great aunt Charlene begrudgingly allowed her to look through her magic item shop.

Terese Sinclair was the worst thing a witch could be: powerful and talentless. She could barely cast at all, but her powerful flesh and blood meant that she was too valuable to be left outside the family.

Scrawny and even more pale than usual thanks to having her blood drawn twice that morning, Terese drew her thick sweater close as she made her way to the back.

She knew there was something she was missing, she had all of this power in her blood, there had to be something that could unlock it.

She read every tome she could and even scoured the underweb, and came upon only 3 real ways someone could gain Gifts.

You could be given them by a higher being like a god, but most of those were dead and the ones left weren't the charitable type.

You could go through extreme trauma and hope some hidden ability activates just in time to save the day, which seems unlikely at best. Probably pretty hard to do on purpose anyhow.

The last option she found, and the most reliable was magic items. Plenty of them granted Gift-like abilities, and even better, the cursed objects were more likely to work. All magic requires sacrifice after all.

So here she was at her great aunt's shop digging through a crate full of cursed objects, hoping one of them felt right.

She found nothing but duds: a teapot that keeps any liquid at room temperature, frictionless elbow pads, a silver locket that seemed to do nothing and a pair of tweezers that rang like a tuning fork.

"Ugh fucking useless!" She quietly exclaimed to herself, throwing things back in the crate.

She picked up the locket last, glaring at it for its grand offense of not helping her.

"It's not fair," she mumbled, "I wish I had more power than anyone in my stupid family." She threw the locket with the others and turned to leave.

"As you wish"

–––

"I wish I had more power than anyone in my stupid family."

The voice boomed through the mansion, rattling the dishes and silverware of the five course meal I had been enjoying.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

"Oh," was all I got out before my stomach lurched, and suddenly my whole mansion tipped over towards the front door.

I couldn't help but grin despite my fears. As awesome as my house was, I was glad to stretch my legs.

I fell towards my door, but instead of hitting it, I simply reoriented.

Suddenly I was dark pink smoke interposed with glitter. In a moment I solidified standing next to the crate of cursed items my locker was thrown in.

"Hello-" I tried to say before my mouth twisted and ignored me.

"As you wish."

I snapped my fingers and pink lightning shot from my hand into the young woman who summoned me. She shivered and shook while staring at me, and surprisingly when it ended, she just glared.

"Take it back." She ordered.

"What?" I stumbled back, "I granted your wish, I can't take it back. Why would you even want that?"

"I'm not stupid," she spat back, "go away demon or whatever you are and take your blessings with you."

She then turned and walked away leaving me speechless. Once she got to the front of the store, however, my locket disappeared with a soft pop and reappeared around her neck, dragging me to appear before her outside.

She stopped short and crossed her arms while rain started to come down around us.

"Is that the locket's curse? I get a demon stalker?"

"No!" I barely managed not to shout out, "For fucks sake woman I'm a genie! You know? Magic lamp? I grant wishes!"

If anything, she looked even more distraught, burying her head in her hands. I summoned an umbrella after looking around, the street was blessedly empty.

"What's wrong?" I asked, holding the pink umbrella over her head.

Why is all of my stuff pink? I thought to myself. It is my favorite color but come on.

"I just wanted to find an artifact or something to unlock my magic," she replied, "it would have been my fault I had power." She lifted her head enough to fix me with another glare, "now it's yours."

Ah, I thought, it seems she has some sort of complex here, a need for independence probably.

"Think of it this way," I tried, "you did find an artifact. You found me, and I've already grabbed you more power than anyone in your family has, right?"

She nodded, still looking a bit unsure.

"So," I continued, "I'll prove this isn't a trick right now: do you know how to use the magic I gave you?"

"No," she admitted with a shrug, "no one's ever taught me after I showed no talent."

"Then how about I give you this wish as a freebee?" I asked, feeling Variable Wishes trigger as I changed the number on my watch from two left to three left. "Use this wish to know how to use your power, and then maybe use the next one to take over your family or whatever your goal is."

"Oh, that one won't be solved by you," she said with a grin, "I'll meet you halfway then. I wish I was an expert at my magic."

"As you wish" I replied, snapping my fingers. "Feel any different?"

Instead of responding, she pulled a pocket knife from her purse and pricked her finger. A small bead of blood welled up. She furrowed her brow in concentration for a moment, before the blood transformed into a spark of deep red fire.

Using the bead, she drew a complicated symbol in the air and with a flourish, the entire array flashed bright red, releasing crimson energy that flowed over her clothes and body, leaving her in a slick black dress with red heels.

She smiled with a face much healthier than the one before.

"I can't let you solve all of my problems genie,"

Call me Tristan, Master." I responded, "may I know your name?"

"Of course, my name is Terese Sinclair, and soon it'll be a name on everyone's lips."