Initiating scheduled scan…

Scan in progress…

Scan in progress…

Warning, class 53B anomaly detected. Recording…

Anomaly recorded. Running Class 53B contingency protocol…

Communications established. Forwarding recorded data…

Communications marked as received. Anomaly marked as flagged for contingency response. All required measures fulfilled.

Resuming scan…

----------------------------------------

Saydaa lowered to the ground as the magic circles around her vanished. The glow around her body and in her eyes faded, her hair returned to normal though still floating in the air. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, slowly opening them as her feet touched the ground.

Then suddenly she jumped and her eyes widened. She ran over to Kiyosuke.

“Oh crap! Um, I can fix this, I can fix this!”

She gathered power to her hands as she stared at Kiyosuke's. She jumped again as she felt Bob place a hand on her shoulders. He shook his head at her.

“Those wounds are caused by overexposure to magic. If you plan to use magic to fix them…you need to wait.”

Saydaa opened her mouth, then closed it and bit her lip. Kiyosuke just shrugged. He went to put his hands in his pocket, wincing the moment they grazed his clothes. Bob just heaved a sigh.

“We’ll get the expert to take a look at it. Let’s go home.”

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The team arrived home, taking Kiyosuke to their doctor.

The results…were not encouraging.

His hands could survive, maybe even be useable with time.

But Kiyosuke was a shinobi. And the excessive mana had burned out his chakra meridians.

So if he wanted to continue fighting he would need extensive healing…or replacements. But he was in no danger besides that, and, well, Bob already knew where to get good prosthetics.

It was a few days later, when Bob gathered the team together in the room. He looked to Saydaa.

“Saydaa.”

“Eep! Um, yes, boss-man?”

“Would you like to learn the truth?”

Saydaa tilted her head.

“Um, what? What truth?”

“The truth about your origins.”

Saydaa’s eyes widened. She began to tremble. But she slowly turned around, glancing at the rest of the team behind her. She gulped and turned forward and her eyes narrowed.

“...yes.”

Bob nodded and pulled out a lamp, rubbing it. Red smoke began to pour out of it…and formed into the genie, facing Bob with his back to the rest of the room.

“Yes yes, let’s get this over with. Tell me your second wish, then find out in about a month that your life is a mess and wish for me to undo it all.”

Bob smirked at the genie and pointed behind the mystical being.

“Actually, how about I grant one of your wishes?”

The genie just sighed.

“Games huh? I hate it when they try to play games. Think you’re so clever, huh? Not going to give until I play along, huh? Hah, fine let’s see what the big fuss isssss……?!!!”

The genie’s eyes widened as far as they would go.

“SAYDAA?!”

Saydaa’s eyes widened too. The genie suddenly jumped and waved his hands around.

“I mean! Uh! Oh, look, a half-genie! A, um, completely unrelated half-genie I’ve never seen before in my life. Um, don’t see one of those every day! Got so surprised I, uh, read your name right out of your mind! Well, good job good job you got me, mortal. I commend you on your surprise. N-Now go ahead and give your second wish or whatever and back to the lamp for me! N-Nothing more to do here, nope.”

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

Saydaa was trembling as the genie tried his best to glance away from her.

“I wish you would tell Saydaa here the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about your relationship to her.”

The genie spun around and glared at Bob as hard as he could, pulling on his hair. Saydaa trembled as her eyes quivered. Kiyosuke placed a hand on her shoulder and she spun around. He, Arvid, Elise, and Nana all nodded at the girl. She took a deep breath and glanced up at the genie’s back with quivering eyes.

“...what truth?”

The genie glanced back over his shoulder at her whisper. His eyes quivered as they met hers. He heaved a massive sigh and turned back around, shoulders drooping.

“Saydaa…I’m so sorry. For everything. You see…I’m your father, Sadid the Harmonious.”

Saydaa gasped. She opened her mouth…but the words were stuck in her throat.

“...if I deserve to be called that. Your loneliness…your suffering…it was all my fault.”

She shook as her mind and heart raced. So many things she wished to say, she wished to ask, all forgotten as she took in the genie before her eyes. Eventually, she hugged herself, took a deep breath, and whispered.

“...tell me everything.”

Sadid slowly nodded, heaving another sigh.

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A woman stumbled through ancient stone ruins. Her once exquisite and expensive robes were torn and caked in dirt and sand. She was surrounded by glimmering treasures on all sides. Gold coins that could not be counted. Shimmering jewels larger than her hands. Ancient swords humming with power.

She ignored them all.

And she made her way to a humble stone pedestal in the room, where rested a dull oil lamp, its shine long gone as time wore on its metal exterior. She lifted the lamp with trembling hands, tears filling her eyes.

She rubbed the lamp.

“Who has released me?”

“I did, Samima Abdulzaid.”

The genie, Sadid the Harmonious, crossed his arms and nodded solemnly.

“Then speak, mortal. For letting me out of my prison, I shall grant you three wishes.”

He sneered at her.

“But be careful what you wish for.”

Samima stared up at him, her eyes unwavering. Sadid’s smile grew and he quietly cast a magic spell. This woman seemed to have an unusually strong will for someone relying on a magic lamp to fix her life. He was curious what she wanted, so he decided to take a little peek into her mind.

“I wish for…”

His eyes widened and he flew over to her, slamming his hand over her mouth.

“Are you an idiot?! Didn’t I just tell you to be careful what you wish for?! Do you have any idea what you were about to do?!”

Samima glared at him. He heaved a sigh.

“Look, lady, you were about to wish for a child right? Not the ability to have children, not for a guaranteed safe birth, but for a child. Directly. Right?”

Samima kept glaring at him but nodded.

“You absolute idiot! A child is not some piece of treasure I can just conjure up with my magic powers! That’s a real, living being with a soul! Nothing I can create with my magic will even come close to that! There’s only one way for me to create a child and that’s the same way as everyone else! And since I am compelled to grant the wish I will be compelled to use that method on you, until you have a child! You understand what you almost just wished for?”

Samima continued to glare at him but slowly nodded. Sadid sighed and removed his hand.

“Hah, ok, then, now that that’s settled, come up with a less dangerous wish…”

“I wish for a child.”

Sadid’s eyes widened, then he grit his teeth and pulled on his hair.

“You idiot! You absolute idiot! Did you hear nothing of what I just said?! Do you understand what happens now?!”

Samima nodded.

“Yes. Well, let’s get to it.”

Sadid tried to hold in a scream, a muffled whine coming from between his clenched teeth as he threw his head back, clutching his face with both hands. Finally, he heaved a sigh and snapped his fingers.

Samima found herself at an expensive restaurant. Across from her sat Sadid, now in human form and wearing formal clothing. A waiter stopped by and gave them both menus. The woman raised an eyebrow.

“This is dinner, not child-making.”

“Shut up! I’m a millenia-old genie and I’ll interpret your wish however I want! And I say a child needs a father, which means you need a husband, which means for me to give you a child we need to get to know each other first! So there!”

“Or you could stop deflecting and get started.”

“Shut up! This is necessary.”

Samima tilted her head for a bit and then smiled and giggled.

“What’s so funny?”

“I see, you’ve never been with a woman before, have you?”

“What?! That’s not…it’s not like that…”

She smiled at him, narrowing her eyes.

“You’re very innocent, aren’t you? How cute. Don’t worry, I won’t bite.”

“Shut up! I’m fulfilling your wish, my way. So cut that out and choose something for dinner.”

Samima giggled, then sighed and picked up the menu. Well, she had waited this long. A while longer wouldn’t hurt.

Besides, when else would one get the chance to tease a millenia-old mystical trickster?

----------------------------------------

Sadid heaved a wistful sigh as he spoke to Saydaa.

“Your mother…was divorced and abandoned for being barren. She became obsessed with having a child. She thought it was the only way to clear her shame, to get back at those who shunned her. She was very…insistent.”

Saydaa narrowed her eyes and furrowed her brow, looking to the ground.

“So what? I was just some sort of wish? A tool for revenge?!”

“No!”

Saydaa jumped as her father clasped her shoulders.

“Oh, I’m sorry. No, maybe that’s what she thought at first, but that all changed once you were born. She fell in love with you. We both did. We would have done anything for you.”

Saydaa’s eyes began to moisten.

“Then why?”

Sadid looked down at the ground.

“...it was my fault. They came for me. They always do. Your mother…she…”

His eyes filled with tears.

“...I told her to escape. I could’ve saved us all. But your mother…she saw it differently. She knew…someone would always hunt the lamp. And the woman who found it. And if they discovered you…with your powers…she…told me to leave. She used a wish to make me take you to safety, where they wouldn’t find you. And then to return the lamp to its resting place. That…was the last time I saw her…”

Both genie and half-genie had tears streaming down their faces.

“I tried to stay with you…to protect you…but the power of the wish compelled me. I knew…I would have to return to the lamp eventually. So I cast a spell on you. To protect you until you found a family that would love and protect you in our stead.”

“...my random luck?”

Sadid nodded.

“The spell protected you from harm and those who would harm you. But…I made a mistake. My blessing...became your curse. No normal family had the ability to protect you. So…the spell kept you from them too. Prevented anyone from getting too close.”

Saydaa’s eyes widened.

“So…all this time…”

“They were all forced to reject you…until you made a contract on your own that superseded the spell, and broke it. I doomed you…to lose your parents, and to a lifetime of loneliness. That’s why…I thought…I would never see you again. I would at least…let you hate me.”

Saydaa burst into tears. Sadid slowly, hesitantly reached out to her before stopping.

Then Bob pushed his back.

Sadid fell into Saydaa.

All the pain and hurt…all the longing and loneliness…the hopes and fears…burst forward in that moment. Saydaa clutched onto her father, sobbing heavily. Sadid cried as well, slowly, hesitantly wrapping his daughter in his arms.

“I’m sorry…I’m so sorry…and I love you. We both did.”

Bob motioned to the rest of Nemesis and they quietly vacated the room.