“First things first: Proper transportation!” Ammeline pulled out her cell phone and pressed an icon. “Jerwin? Car.”

“Wait!” Jenny said. “What about Kyle?”

“Are you attached to him at the hip?” Ammeline said. “Men should be left alone frequently, it reminds them what they're missing.”

“Yeah but...” Jenny looked back and forth between Betty and Ammeline. “It's just strange, you know? Ever since I was sum..since I got to this country I don't think I've left Kyle's side.”

“All the more reason!” Ammeline said firmly. “He'll understand. And if he doesn't, he isn't worth your time.”

“Well...” Jenny pulled out her own phone and called Kyle. It went to voicemail, like she expected. Kyle was in an exam after all. “Hey Kyle, listen me and Betty and Ammeline are gonna go buy some clothes for the dance. I feel kinda weird leaving you, but then I also figure that's kinda the thing you were worried about where I'd defer to you too much and treat you like that M word like we were talking about so I'm just gonna go. Okay? So yeah I'll see you.”

By the time she was done with that the car had arrived. Jenny hadn't even been in the modern world a full year yet, and she knew absolutely nothing about cars, but even she could see that the vehicle rolling into the school parking lot was meant to be something expensive. Long and sleek and black, not a limo but certainly impressive, with a strange twirling hood ornament. The windows were tinted black, but the driver's window rolled down to reveal a hugely muscular blonde man wearing a jet black suit and mirrored sunglasses.

“Car, Miss Trent,” the man said, climbing out and opening the passenger door for them.

“Thank you Jerwin,” Almmeline said, sliding into the car. Jenny and Betty followed her. The seats were leather, the air perfectly cool. The inside wasn't arranged front to back but rather like a limousine, two couches with seatbelts facing each other. Jenny found herself sitting next to Ammeline, with Betty facing them.

“Where to, Miss Trent?” Jerwin asked once he was back in the driver's seat.

“Just to the mall today Jerwin, thank you,” Ammeline said.

“Very good miss.” Jerwin closed the privacy shield between the front and back sections of the cars, and they began to move off.

“I must admit,” Betty adjusted her glasses. “I knew your family possessed great wealth, but I was not fully prepared for this car.”

“Is this how you come to school every day?” Jenny asked, running her hand up and down the seats.

“No,” Ammeline said, a little uncomfortably. “No that would be a little much, don't you think? Besides, as the captain of the fencing team I believe it's better I should walk to school and practice with the others. It helps build team unity that way. But my parents do insist that Jerwin stay close, and I must admit it is very convenient for occasions like this.”

“Which would explain why I have never seen this car before,” Betty said. “But I am surprised your personal wealth did not come up during your self imposed rivalry with Jenny.”

“I consider my personal wealth the least impressive thing about me,” Ammeline said dismissively. “Anyway the trip to the mall will not be long. And once we arrive you can both benefit from my experience! I must admit, Betty, I have been curious what you'd look like made up.”

“I assume you mean dressed up and with makeup on,” Betty said. “I can assure you that I exist.”

“Mrow!”

“Oh I completely forgot about your cat!” Ammeline said, staring down at Moonlight. “What was his name?”

“Moonlight,” Betty said. “I failed to consider him as well.”

“Row!!”

“Will this cause difficulty?” Betty asked. “I have never attempted to bring a pet to the mall before.”

“Keep him in your bag and everything should be just fine,” Ammeline said

“I've got a question,” Jenny said, raising her hand.

“Yes, Miss Ragbah?” Ammeline said.

“What exactly is a mall?”

“Ahahahahaha!” Ammeline said. “Another victory! Albeit a low scoring one, given the cultural gap. It is an indoor marketplace.”

“I have not spent a great deal of time there myself,” Betty said. “Some say the prevalence of online marketplaces will eventually make malls completely obsolete, but others suggest the mall offers a unique experience of its own. Which is certainly true of the Allpines Mall, where I assume we are headed.”

“Correct!” Ammeline said. “Or very nearly, because we are already here!”

The car parked and they got out. The mall was...a revelation. In fact it was almost nostalgic.

Very, very little had been similar to what Jenny knew when she'd last been outside the lamp. And that wasn't all bad. In fact it was kind of nice. A lot of things were better. Some things were a lot better. But no matter how much better the world gets, you miss what things were like before the change, if only because that's how you first learned to be in the world. The translation spell she'd cast had given her a vague sense of the word “mall,” which Ammeline had helped focus, but it wasn't until she was inside that she really understood.

This was a bazaar.

The glass walled building was three stories tall. The inside of the building was mostly open, built around a huge central space with balconies looking down from the upper floors, lit from within by the glass ceiling. And on the lower floor, clustered around a huge fountain dominating the center of the building, a scene that would not have been out of place in the Uzbedi of old, crowds of people chattering and yammering as they squeezed between merchants stalls. The style was different, but the feeling was the same.

Jenny loved it.

“Excuse me!” a voice that reminded Jenny of the hosts of those game-shows she'd watched with Kyle cut into her thoughts. “Is there anything I can help you find today?”

Jenny turned to see...a golem.

No wait, new word for them now. Robot. That was it, a robot. No magic involved. Besides, golems looked more human. Instead of legs the thing she was talking to had a thick rectangle with wheels underneath. It had a torso kind of like a human, but the arms were jointed sticks ending in soft edged clamps and the head a flat box with two cameras inside of it. The whole thing was covered in white plastic, and a square of lights glowed in dancing patterns as it talked.

“Robot?” Jenny asked.

“I'm a Series 3 Type 6 Mall Consumer Assistance Machine!” The robot said, sounding almost proud. “Is there anything I can direct you to?”

“No thank you,” Ammeline said. “We're good.”

“Just remember I'm here to help!” The robot said. “My sole purpose in existing is to guide customers to the store they're looking for!”

“Then why do you have hands?” Betty asked.

“Sometimes I also hand out coupons and pamphlets!” the robot said. “I'm sorry, there are no coupons or pamphlets available at this time.”

“We know where we are going,” Ammeline said, turning away from the robot.

“Thank you very much,” Betty said as Ammeline pulled them away.

“Was it necessary to thank the robot?” Jenny asked. “It was my understanding they aren't alive.”

“Yes but you can never know,” Betty said. “Should it ever become sentient, a little basic kindness might help us avoid a Terminator situation in favor of a Short Circuit.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“This way!” Ammeline said, pushing through the crowded mall. “There are twenty seven clothing stores in this place, but only three of them are worth mentioning! We'll check all three!”

“Please do consider that our budgets will not be nearly the same as yours,” Betty pointed out, adjusting her glasses.

“We are heading straight to Bertram's!” Ammeline corrected, leading them confidently through the crowded mall. Jenny got to experience her first escalator, confusing Ammeline by how excited she was. Jenny tried to tamp it down. Sometimes it was hard to tell what was common or obvious in the twenty first century. The robots, for example, seemed unique to this mall. Although she'd seen five of them since she they got to this modern bazaar so they couldn't be that unusual. Escalators, on the other hand, seemed so common it was safer not to comment on them. And finally they made their way up two escalators, on the very top floor, they found Bertrams.

This time Jenny paid attention to Betty and Ammeline's reactions. Apparently an entire store full of nothing but racks upon racks upon racks of clothing wasn't all that unusual in this time and place, but it looked amazing to Jenny. There were stores that sold only clothing in her time, as well, but they were only for the incredibly rich. And they didn't just have it out there for you, if you wanted that you got the cheap stuff at a market stall, they tailored clothes specifically to you. This was...

Better.

“Now let's see,” Ammeline said. “Do either of you know your color wheel?”

“My what?” Jenny blinked. “I understood all those words, but not the way you put them together.”

“She is asking whether or not we know what color clothes suit us best,” Betty explained. “And I believe my color wheel to be mostly composed of grays.”

“I don't know,” Jenny shook her head. “I don't usually wear a lot of clothes. Having to wear a top all the time since I got here...it's been an adjustment.

“How European,” Ammeline said. “Or Uzbedi, I suppose. Still I think it's for the best you keep covered up while you're here, at least for now.”

“All I know is that it makes my nipples itch,” Jenny complained. There was a strangled cry from behind them and the turned to see a store employee passed out on the ground. He was frothing at the mouth, still clutching the shirts he had been stacking on a nearby table.

“What's wrong with him?” Ammeline wondered.

“I believe openly discussing your nipples was more than he could handle,” Betty adjusted her glasses.

“Coward,” Ammeline said dismissively. “Well how about it Jenny? I see you...purple. Pink and purple. For some reason those are the colors that come to mind when I look at you.”

“Oh really?” Jenny asked a little nervously. Ammeline had just done a fair job of describing her natural skin tone. “I suppose we could...”

“Dammit!” someone snapped from behind a rack of dresses. “What do you even wear for a date with a sentient tapeworm, anyway?”

They peered around the rack to find Goldie glaring at the dresses like they'd insulted her personally. Or possibly beaten her at chess.

“Your name's Goldie,” Jenny said. “Right? You're the one Evan asked to the dance.”

“You are?” Ammeline asked, mouth open.

“Tricked,” Goldie glared at them. “I'm the one Evan tricked into going to the dance.”

“Oh that makes more sense,” Ammeline nodded.

“Technically he did not trick you,” Betty adjusted her glasses. “He bet you he could beat you at chess, and you accepted. A bet is not technically a trick. Especially since you had lost to him several times by that point. He did not shark you in any way I can confirm.”

“Was Evan always that good at chess?” Ammeline frowned.

“He's been practicing a lot lately!” Jenny said with a huge, bright smile.

“Well whatever he did,” Goldie snarled, “he is not going to be able to say I went back on a bet.”

“But Goldie why are you here?” Ammeline asked. “You've got plenty of nice clothes. I've seen you wear them.”

“Nice isn't good enough!” Goldie snapped. “I need to make the little shithead's eyes bleed and roll out of his skill. I want to look so good it causes him physical pain. I want to sparkle until the bastard goes blind.”

“Ahahahahahahaha!” Ammeline said. “I understand perfectly! You don't just seek beauty. You seek revenge.”

“Yes!” Goldie clapped her hands. “Exactly!”

“I think we can pull off something like that!” Ammeline said. “Especially under my tutelage! Come, my apprentices!”

“When did I become your...”

“Come along!” Ammeline cut Goldie off.

Danny was asleep in his cell when the efreet shouted him awake.

Hey! Hey get up you useless idiot!

“I'm not useless,” Danny mumbled, sitting up in bed. “What do you want?”

I can't watch everything, but I've been doing what I can to keep track of the magic going on in town. I think we might have an opportunity. But I need some of your power to do it

“I thought you said I wasn't strong enough to do anything long distance?” Danny asked suspiciously. “At least not without your help.”

Neither of us are. But this is different. This is more like...poking something awake. It's a chance to take out the genie girl and the chick with the glasses, but if you're not interested...

“Nah nah I'm interested,” Danny stood up and stretched. “What do we gotta do?”

The efreet told him. And with their powers combined, cast across time and space, something stirred within the depths of the mall's foundations.

Something old. And...hungry.

Let's go with hungry.

The afternoon was a revelation of Jenny. Never, in all her centuries of living, had she been able to experience the simple joy of trying on clothes.

She'd never thought much about clothes. They were itchy things that covered up her skin and locked her breasts in place, when really she preferred to have them flying free. She'd always figured they were a human thing. But now...

Now she had so many choices.

She'd never really had choices. Either she was stuck in the lamp, or her Master was making all the choices for her. Now she could...she could wear a pink and orange sweater, if she wanted to. She didn't, it was hideous, but she could. It was entirely up to her. She'd never had so many options before. And she'd never gone anywhere with friends before, either. People were all so different from each other. Her Masters had been very much the same.

Well, except for Kyle. When he called back she'd been sure he was going to order her to return home, but he just told her to have fun. Said he was glad she was having fun. Glad. None of her other masters would have said that, ever.

And the dresses themselves. Jenny still felt better with the girls loose in the wind, but she had to admit she looked nice And the others looked so pretty, too! The afternoon passed too fast, in a swirl of sparkles and fabric, until finally the only one of them who hadn't chosen a dress was Goldie.

“Stay back!” Goldie said from inside the changing room stall. “Stay away! I don't trust you with that camera.”

“Do you mean to imply I would attempt to take candid photos of your body while changing?” Betty asked. She was indeed holding a camera. The plan was for her to take pictures of everyone as they tried on outfits so they could see how they looked, but she'd been unfortunately interested in every step of the process.

“Yes!” Goldie said.

“That is ridiculous,” Betty said. “I would ask for permission before I used such photographs for anything.”

“There!” Goldie said. “Right there! You didn't say you wouldn't take them!”

“Maybe you should stand back a little,” Ammeline said.

“I would be upset about this if I had not proven myself entirely untrustworthy,” Betty adjusted her glasses. “I also do not fully understand what the difference is between my seeing her undressed while we are all changing and my taking pictures of the same for reference.”

“Hey Betty?” Jenny asked. “I've been meaning to ask. Ask again I mean, because something always seems to keep you from answering the question. What's this big project you're working on?”

“Oh I would be more than happy to discuss that,” Betty adjusted her glasses. “You see...”

“Row!” a paw snaked out of Betty's bag and slapped her in the back of the head.

“Moonlight seems to believe that should remain a secret.”

“Know what your problem is?” Goldie said. “You've been hanging out with Evan too long. That would warp anybody's eeeek!”

Ammeline moved first, thought they all had the same impulse. Ammeline ripped open the curtain of the changing stall to find Goldie sitting on the ground in her underwear, pointing at the mirror.

“There was....” Goldie shook her head. “There was a face. Some old guy.”

“A peeping tom?” Ammeline asked, looking around. “Betty, put the camera down. One's enough, don't you think?”

“I was merely looking through the lens to see if it's increased focus revealed anything,” Betty said. “Goldie has made her position on candid photographs quite clear.”

“I don't see how anyone could have been peering in here,” Ammeline said, looking around.

“Didn't people say this mall is haunted?” Jenny said. “Maybe it was a ghost!”

Ammeline and Goldie whirled on her, in almost perfect unison.

“Don't say that!” Goldie snapped.

“Really,” Ammeline said. “I don't believe suggestions like that are constructive. There's no such thing as ghosts.”

Jenny and Betty exchanged a look, and then looked back in the direction of the other two girls. Not directly at them, but in their general direction.

“Don't do that!” Goldie snapped. “I can see what you're doing, you're looking behind us to freak us out and make us turn around!”

Another glance shared between Jenny and Betty.

“Yes!” Jenny said, a little too brightly. “Yes that's exactly what we're doing!”

“You have certainly caught us,” Betty adjusted her glasses. “Of course what would really show us is if you didn't turn around and just walked towards us slowly, without making any sudden moves.”

“What are you babbling on about?” Ammeline said, turning around. “See? There's nothing there!”

A third look between Betty and Jenny. There had been something there, a second ago. The figure of an old man in dirty rags with a wrinkled, leering face. But it had disappeared as soon as they'd turned around, which was typical. Every ghost Jenny had ever known was...what was the modern term? A jerk. Ghosts were jerks. Unless they were dangerous.

“I'm telling security you saw someone,” Ammeline said.

“You don't think I was imagining it?” Goldie asked. “I almost do, by this point. Where could it have come from?”

“I certainly don't!” Ammeline declared. “Besides even if you were, isn't it better the store be alerted? Just in case? I'll be right back. Goldie, you ought to get dressed.”

“Yeah,” Goldie nodded, turning back to her clothes as Ammeline left the room. “Yeah I should. Or....or...”

She turned around with a leering grin on her face.

“Maybe I should take more off,” she cackled. “Yeah, strip naked and run through the halls! Sounds fun right?”

“What are you talking about?” Jenny asked, blinking in confusion.

“I'm talking about a great big orgy!” Goldie said. “The whole mall can get in on it!”

“That is not a suggestion I would expect from Goldie,” Betty adjusted her glasses. “Though admittedly--”

“I think she's been possessed,” Jenny hissed.

“Ah, yes. That makes a great deal more sense.”

“Got it in one!” The ghost in Goldie's body laughed. “I've finally got a body to test drive again! What do you say girls? Let's get naked and make out!”