Destiny's Fool

In which we learn some stuff about Jinn. It should be mentioned that a boring backstory chapter was sort of necessary, because Jinn has twice as much history as he actually talks about here. 9.9;; He's a long running character of mine. I've known about the plotline of Destiny's Fool for awhile, but this is me finally getting it down.

Jinn goes on to have many many more adventures and whatnot.

But anywhoo, here's the chapter. ^^;

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“Kit…? Wake up…”

Kit opened his eyes, stretching, realizing he was naked but not really caring. He rolled over, feeling Jinn’s arms wrapped loosely around him, facing the elf.

“Yes…?” he asked.

“Are you up?”

Kit jumped a little, realizing the voice wasn’t Jinn’s, sitting up and turning with a jerk. Holy stood there with his hands on his hips.

Kit made sure both he and Jinn were covered up. “Y-yeah, I’m up,” Kit whispered.

“So what are you going to do?” Holy asked.

“Do?”

“About all this Melanie crap,” Holy replied, “I just wondered if you had changed your mind about saving the planet, seeing as you aren’t supposed to be here.”

Kit was silent. He’d nearly forgotten about all that.

“I’m not… sure,” Kit replied. He looked over at Jinn, who slept on, after a moment reaching for Kit with a pouty look on his features.

“So you and he…?” Holy asked.

“Yeah,” Kit smiled, “First time.”

Holy nodded and paused. “First time… As in you two… y’know… went all the way?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Kit replied.

“Aw!” Holy clapped his hands together, “My little Kit is all grown up and losing his virginity! Congratulations!”

Kit blushed.

“So, how was it?” Holy asked, sitting down.

“Can we not have this discussion while I’m naked next to my naked sleeping lover?” Kit asked with a small sigh.

“Wake him up, he can talk about it too,” Holy suggested.

Kit just stared.

“Whaaat?” Holy asked, “Fine, get dressed and whatnot, but I want every detail when you’re all up and about.”

With that, Holy stood and walked out the door. Kit sighed and turned, poking Jinn’s face.

“Hey, wake up,” Kit said.

Jinn muttered something and swatted at Kit’s hand, rolling over. Then, seeming to think better of it, he turned back around and tugged Kit down with him. Kit gave a small squeak of surprise and sighed, smiling.

When Jinn had relaxed, Kit sat up again and stared at him. Finally, he leaned over and somewhat hesitantly ran his tongue up the inside of one of Jinn’s oversized ears.

Jinn sat upright so fast that Kit nearly fell off the bed in surprise.

“Agh! No, no, no, no!” Jinn said, rubbing at his ear vigorously.

“What?” Kit asked, amused.

“Don’t lick my ears!” Jinn whined, “You like the licking of the ears so I can do it to you, but it just makes me feel really weird.”

“Well, I had to get you up somehow,” Kit said.

Jinn huffed.

“Hey… Holy asked me something interesting,” Kit said.

“Which is?” Jinn yawned.

“He asked if I was still going to save Aradon,” Kit said softly.

Jinn paused. “Well… Branret told me about how you were pretty much tricked into coming here,” Jinn said, “But that heightens your chances of dying, since you being here defies destiny.”

“It does?” Kit asked.

“Well, don’t get me wrong,” Jinn said, leaning back, “If you save this place, a planet somewhere else won’t be blown up or anything. But, if this place is supposed to be destroyed and you stop that from happening… Destiny tends to ask for some kind of sacrifice. That is, if you change destiny… You have to give up your own destiny in return.”

“So it’s either save the planet or live,” Kit muttered. “I suppose I knew that the minute I came here.”

“Kit…” Jinn said suddenly, “I’ll… I’ll figure out how to contact Idio and you and I can get out of here. I could even relocate the others if you don’t want to see them stay here. There’s plenty of peaceful planets out there. Then you and I can find one of those planets and stay there for the rest of our lives…”

Kit was silent.

“Are you listening?” Jinn asked, trying to get Kit to look at him, “This tail was never meant to be permanent. It’ll go away. I can find a way to get it off. And we’re free.”

“I can’t… just turn my back, Jinn,” Kit said.

Jinn paused and stared at the blonde-boy, who wouldn’t meet Jinn’s eyes.

“Kit,” Jinn said, “This planet is supposed to die. You’re supposed to live. Don’t you realize that you and this god-forsaken place can’t both live at the same time? It’s one or the other…”

“I’d be alive knowing I could have saved all these people,” Kit said, suddenly meeting Jinn’s eyes, “What kind of life is that?”

“One where you and I get to be together!” Jinn said, taking him by the shoulders, “You’re not doing anything but letting destiny take its course…”

“If I hadn’t already denied destiny,” Kit said, smiling, “I would have never met you to begin with. Something tells me if I run, you’ll be taken away. By coming here, by meeting you and the others, I’ve already started down one path. If I change paths now, I think I’ll have to give up everything I’ve gained.”

Jinn was quiet for a long time, pulling Kit to him. “Kit… I can’t just watch you die. I can’t see you give yourself up for all these people when the one I care about is you…”

“Then we’ll have to have faith that, no matter what Flora and Ezra saw, this is what destiny really wants…” Kit said.

“I can’t change your mind…?” Jinn asked softly.

“No,” Kit smiled a little, “I stand on my own feet now. That means making my own decisions.”

“Guess I could cut those feet off,” Jinn muttered.

The two of them sat there for a long time, saying nothing, just revelling in the scent, the warmth and the feel of one another.

Finally, Kit stood up and got dressed. Jinn followed his example, slipping on his own clothes and sitting on the bed.

“Jinn,” Kit said, sitting next to him, “Tell me about you…”

“What about me?” Jinn asked.

“Where are you from? What are your parents like?” Kit said, “Stuff like that. You’ve never really told me much of that stuff.”

Jinn looked thoughtful. “I’m from a realm. It’s… like a planet, only with hardly any structure. It’s basically a chunk of land floating in space, held together by pure magic,” Jinn explained, “On that realm, my species kind of hung out. The name of the species is called jinns.”

“Why are you named after your species?” Kit asked.

“Let me get there,” Jinn smiled a bit, “My mom… My mom was so awesome. She was funny, sarcastic, spunky… But she made a mistake. She breeded with a human. I’m not sure why it matters. Our genes are so dominant that it’s impossible to tell that I’m half-human. I’m still immortal, I still look like them… Except…” He paused.

“Well,” he began again, “Jinns all have one color that their entire body follows. Like, if your color is blue, your eyes are blue, your hair, your skin is a tint of blue, everything. And jinns don’t have names. They’re referred to as The Blue Jinn, The Red Jinn, so on and so forth.”

“But your eyes are golden,” Kit said.

“The only proof I have that I’m half human,” Jinn replied, “Jinns are like… really drag-down people, my mom being the only exception. Their lot in life is to kind of help people out. Though why they were chosen is a mystery to me. Not exactly people persons…

“Anyway, breeding with a human is forbidden for a jinn, so they were kind of pissed off that I was born. They sentenced my mother to be sealed away while they decided her punishment. Then they had a meeting to decide if I should be killed or kept.”

“Aw,” Kit frowned, “Why would they wanna kill you?”

“I dunno, I was a cute sucker,” Jinn smirked, “In the end, one of the jinns said that he could train me. So he proceeded to. Only with his expectations set to ‘worse.’ It didn’t help that I’ve always been a tad rebellious. The pattern was this. He would try to force me to learn something useless. I would refuse, half-ass it or run off. He’d beat the crap out of me and we’d start all over again.”

Kit was staring at him. “He hurt you?” he asked.

“Don’t act so freaked out,” Jinn said with a small smile, “I honestly wasn’t even fed. I probably needed a few smacks to the head anyway.”

Kit was still frowning.

“It went on like that,” Jinn shrugged, “Towards the end of those days I was dragged to the Guardianship Realm.”

“Guardianship?” Kit asked,

“You’ll become familiar with them as soon as you see some other planets,” Jinn said, “Basically there’s lots of planets out there and each one has someone who is destined to protect it. Those people are called Guardians and they’re trained to do their jobs at the Guardianship. Some live there, as well.

“As I was saying, I got dragged over there because there was a new Great Guardian for the first time in forever. The Great Guardian’s the dude who is charged with guarding all the planets and leading the Guardianship. Back then, he and I were just a couple of small kids. His name is Idio. He’s from Template – that is, Earth -- like you.”

“Really?” Kit asked, surprised.

“And that’s why a lot of people were against his becoming the Great Guardian,” Jinn sighed, “Idio still isn’t really a true Great Guardian. Other people are still making decisions for him. But I could definitely relate, y’know? My species didn’t want me and the Guardianship didn’t want him. So we made nice and we’ve been best friends ever since.”

Kit smiled. “That’s sweet.”

“Yeah,” Jinn grinned, “I miss him so bad… If only I could get in touch with him… But anyway, he’s kind of emo and depressing sometimes, but once you get passed all that…”

“What then?” Kit asked.

“Well,” Jinn frowned, “I guess… I dunno. I got more powerful than the jinns could deal with. Even worse to them, I was assuming the name ‘Jinn’ which was a huge insult to them somehow. So they started sending me on tasks that were practically suicidal. Sometimes I came back half-dead, but goddamnit, I was still alive and I planned on staying that way. Once they realized they couldn’t get rid of me that easily, they made plans to kill me themselves. But the mistake they made was… was killing my mom first.”

Kit fell silent.

Jinn took a deep breath. “I loved her more than anything, Kit,” Jinn said softly, “Even sealed away, I could still speak with her. She always said the right thing and gave me the right advice. She always told me to escape the jinns while I could and I just… I couldn’t leave her. And I couldn’t give the jinns a reason to kill her. I had clung to the hope that I could unseal her and we could go somewhere else and be happy.”

Kit reached over and took Jinn’s hand.

“They murdered her,” Jinn said, his eyes hardening, “She didn’t even have a chance. I showed up just in time to see it and I… went balistic. I don’t even know what happened, just that I woke up at Idio’s place feeling completely drained. After that, they sent some people after me, but once I killed a few of them, they stopped. Last I heard, their Realm got destroyed.”

Kit leaned against him. “I see… So what about your dad?”

“I have no clue who he is,” Jinn said, “I imagine since he was human, he’s dead.” Jinn shrugged.

“Mm,” Kit nodded, “What else?”

“Well, I already explained the scar on my chest,” Jinn said, “I’d tell you about previous lovers but I am unashamed to say there are too many.”

Kit frowned. “Like lover lovers or just lovers?” he asked.

“None of them meant anything to me,” Jinn said, “I usually try to make sure its vice-versa too. It’s all business.”

“Anyone you did fall in love with?” Kit asked.

Jinn’s eyes changed to a distant sort of coldness. “One,” he said.

“What were they like?” Kit asked.

Jinn was quiet a long time. “You don’t want to hear this story,” Jinn told him.

“I do,” Kit said, “I said everything.”

“Yeah, but it’ll make you feel… Well there’s no way to describe how a person feels about someone they want to kill but they won’t ever even meet,” Jinn said.

“What?” Kit was confused.

“Kit, have you ever hated someone with everything you have? A sickening, burning anger? So much that if you ever saw them, you’d murder them in cold blood without even knowing you were going to, and not regretting it after you had?” Jinn asked.

“No,” Kit said, “but Jinn, what…?”

“That’s how you feel about people that have seriously hurt those you love,” Jinn said, “Some of them are long gone. Some are still there. The ones that are gone are the worst because you can’t do a damn thing. It causes regret.”

“Tell me,” Kit said firmly.

Jinn sighed. “He was my first boyfriend,” Jinn said, “I was still a virgin. I thought he was a dreamboat. I followed him like a lost puppy. Turned out he had been hired by my old relatives the jinns to kill me. And before he did, he brutally beat and raped me. Idio saved me, but not until after he had…” Jinn faltered. “But it doesn’t matter. I’m over it, so you shouldn’t…” He glanced at Kit and sighed again.

Kit found that he understood what Jinn had meant about hating someone that much. All at once, he felt sick, he felt a desperate need to undo what had already been done to Jinn, and an anxious beating of his heart that anything like that could happen anyway. Beneath that, like an angry monster, rage and hatred were bubbling for whoever had done that to Jinn.

“Kit, he’s dead,” Jinn whispered, “Idio was the one who got to do it. I repressed the memory for so long and when I finally remembered, I also remembered just how kind and compassionate Idio had been. Because of him, it doesn’t matter. What happened, happened.”

“H-how could s-someone… And you… and he… and… That’s…” Kit bit his lower lip.

“I told you, you didn’t want to hear the story,” Jinn said.

“I’m glad I know,” Kit replied.

“If you say so,” Jinn pulled him close.

Kit was quiet for a bit, trying to put what Jinn had said out of his mind. “Jinn… You know, if there’s anything I could do to… you know, not die…”

Jinn pulled him closer.

“I was thinking,” Kit said slowly, “Could I learn magic?”

“Mm?” Jinn paused, “I’d say you have potential. Do you ever do supernatural things outside of using those cards of yours?”

“I get premonitions and stuff,” Kit replied, “I’m almost always right about weird random stuff. Or I know things just before they happen.”

“Hmm, I wouldn’t be surprised if you had a few psychic tendancies,” Jinn said, “And I think being able to use the cards at all is a sign that you’ve got some natural power…”

“So, you think I could?” Kit asked.

“It definitely wouldn’t hurt to try and teach you a few defense spells,” Jinn said, facing him, “All right, let’s see if you got any natural magic in you… Close your eyes and concentrate.”

“On what?” Kit asked but closed his eyes.

“I want you to imagine power,” Jinn said, “Raw power deep in your gut. It’s swirling around in there, wanting to be let out. Do you feel it?”

Kit frowned. “No… yes… kinda…”

Jinn smiled. “Take your time.”

“I feel… I feel something,” Kit said, “It’s kind of warm and buzzing. But it’s like it’s only there when I call it up. Or does that mean I haven’t had breakfast yet?”

“Take that feeling,” Jinn said, ignoring the last part, “Imagine it flowing like water up into your hands.”

Kit instinctively held up his hands, eyes still closed, trying to do what Jinn said.

“Now imagine that power coming from your body in the form of a small ball,” Jinn said, watching his hands intently, “All magic has to be given some kind of physical form before it can interact with the physical world.”

Kit nodded and concentrated, imagining a little ball of light in his hands. Jinn continued to watch his hands. At first, nothing happened. Then, slowly, carefully, a small ball of light began to grow. It was small at first, but grew to the size of a golf ball, then a baseball.

Kit opened his eyes. “Oh!” he said, “I did it! Hey! Cool! I’m doing magic!”

“If you did it right…” Jinn said, reaching towards the orb, “It should be a useless little ball of light.”

Jinn picked up the ball as though it was a regular baseball or something similar. He smiled and looked at Kit.

“Congratulations,” he said, “Your very first spell.”

“I thought you had to say things to make some spells?” Kit asked.

“That’s a dirty trick, actually,” Jinn replied, “If you yell out what the spell is before you cast it, it’s because words bring to mind images. And the people around you can enhance your magic by imagining what it is your summoning. Like Branret. When he commands the desert, he says that so the people around him will imagine the sand under his control. The magic absorbs those thoughts and is stronger.”

“That really works?” Kit asked, awed.

“Yeah,” Jinn nodded, “Magic is simple, really. It’s your imagination taking a physical form. If we weren’t hindered by the laws of physics and whatnot, anything we imagined could be real. But magic spells are about taking something from your mind and crafting it into something real. You do that by the warm buzzy stuff in your stomach.”

“What is the warm buzzy stuff?” Kit asked.

“It’s your power level,” Jinn replied, “Everyone’s is different. It’s kinda like the amount of talent you have for doing magic. Some of its natural and some people start off with more than others. Like Idio and I. Because of who we are, we started off with unusually high levels. Since you’re a human on a planet that doesn’t have magic, your power level is relatively small right now.”

“I think I get it,” Kit said slowly, “So if you practice, your power level grows?”

Jinn nodded. “Same as anything,” Jinn said, “It’s like being an artist actually. An artist that draws from their imagination. The artist imagines a person and draws them. But the less-practiced the artist is, the less likely the artwork is going to look how they imagined it. The better it is, the closer it is to what they imagine. But we’ll never be able to create anything we imagine, the same way no artist in the world has ever done a piece of art exactly as they pictured it.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Kit said, admiring the little orb.

Jinn held it up and raised both hands, clapping them hard onto the orb. The little ball disappeared.

“Where’d it go?” Kit asked.

“Most spells, once they’ve served their purpose, or when they’re destroyed, return to the caster’s body,” Jinn said, “Listen, this is important. What turns your thoughts physical is your power level. Your power level is also called your magical energy. When your magical energy is low, you only have so much to use to cast spells. If you use all of it, you start breaking into your life energy. That’s the energy you need for your body to keep working.”

“So I take it that’s bad?” Kit asked.

Jinn nodded. “Losing all your magical energy just makes you pass out for awhile until you can sleep it off,” Jinn said, “Using your life energy makes your body start to shut down. So keep this in mind: Conserve magical energy in a fight so you have more to use in an emergency and so you don’t weaken in the face of your enemy, and to never tap into your life energy unless its life or death.”

“So is anyone ever born like the Picasso of people who use magic?” Kit asked.

Jinn paused. “Occasionally someone will have extraordinarily high natural power levels,” Jinn replied, “Those people are either very dangerous or very cool people. Also, the more magical the planet you’re born on, the more likely you are to have a higher natural level.”

“Why is that?” Kit asked.

“I think I’m confusing you enough,” Jinn smirked, “But be glad you could even make that orb. Most people from Template -- er, Earth – couldn’t have made that.”

Kit nodded. “So now what?”

“Well… Let’s try to cast an actual spell,” Jinn said, “One of the simplest spells to create is a binding spell. I want you to latch onto your power and imagine it restraining me in some way.”

“K…” Kit said and concentrated, pushing his power through his hands. He was startled when the power burst from his hands and wrapped around Jinn’s wrists, pulling them together and holding them that way.

“Wow,” Jinn blinked, “That’s a fairly advanced binding spell to begin with.” He paused and concentrated, the spell breaking. “The problem with binding spells is they’re easily broken. More advanced casters can make very intricate spells that are hard to break.”

“How do you make a spell more intricate than that?” Kit asked.

“There are certain learned techniques,” Jinn said, “Imagining certain symbols while casting can enhance the spell, making it harder to break. There’s tons of different things you can do. Idio’s probably the best caster I’ve met because he can come up with new stuff off the top of his head. The rest of us have to read books and stuff to learn what we know.”

“This makes my head hurt,” Kit sighed.

“And using magic for the first time is always exhausting,” Jinn said, “Just one more thing then… Imagine a square or a cube next time you cast the binding spell. It’ll make it more solid. Try shouting the word ‘bind’ or ‘restrain’ or anything that brings to mind being bound. And just practice. The higher your power level, the harder any spell you cast will be to break.”

“One more question,” Kit said, “how is it your tail limits your power?”

“Ah,” Jinn sighed, “My cat form was a spell that not only changed my appearance but sealed up my magical powers. Being teleported to this planet broke most of the spell but not all of it. So part of the seal is still there, hindering my power levels.”

“How badly?” Kit asked.

“I’d say I’m operating at one-fourth my usual power levels,” Jinn lamented.

Kit smiled and kissed him. “Thank you, Jinn. Let’s grab a bite to eat, okay?”

“All right,” Jinn said, kissing him back before getting up and heading out of their room.