Travelverse: How It Began
Itās the summer I turned 30, and I was visiting friends. We decided to take a day to go thrift shopping, and started with the flea market. T went off to look at housewares and K went for the books while I made my way methodically through the tables, starting from one end of the giant building and working my way to the other. I didnāt want to miss anything.
At a table of antiques, the woman watching over them suddenly spoke to me.Ā āThis is meant for you,ā she said, and held out a tarnished silver oil lamp.
āNo thanks,ā I replied politely, turning my attention back to the collection of thimbles as I considered buying one for another friend.
āYes,ā the woman insisted.Ā āThis is meant to be yours. You must take it.ā
I looked up, noticing for the first time the eerie pale grey of her eyes, almost white, almost seeming to glow. Then I looked at the lamp, and the price tag attached to it.Ā āLook, Iām sorry, but Iām not spending a hundred dollars that I donāt have on something I donāt even want. If you want to make a sale, Iām interested in these thimbles.ā
āFor you, a dollar,ā she said, and held the lamp out again.
That made me pause. Sure, I didnāt really want the thing, but I could probably turn around and sell it for a good fifty bucks, maybe more if I cleaned it up a little. And I already had silver polish at home.Ā āWhy do you want me to buy that in particularĀ so badly?ā
She smiles, and I swear her eyes actually do glow for a second.Ā āThey speak to me, these things,ā she gestures at the table as a whole,Ā āand this lamp says itās for you.ā
ā... Okay,ā I say, unnerved and just wanting to leave. If it means forking over a buck and attaining a genie-style lamp, I guess thatās what Iāll do. The exchange is made, and the woman carefully wraps the lamp in paper and bags it for me, and I leave, rather quickly.
The rest of the day was uneventful, although my friends did make fun of me for buying the lamp. Once the weekend was over, I headed back home, where I dug out my silver polish and prepared to put some elbow grease in to cleaning up the lamp for resale.
Thatās... not what ended up happening. About half a dozen wipes of the cloth in, smoke started pouring out of the lamp, I start having a heart attack, and the next thing I know, a big dude in fancy clothes is standing in the middle of my kitchen, calling me master and asking what I want.
Iām just gonna come right out and say it, I thought magic lamps were the stuff of stories. But I guess itās one of thoseĀ ākernel of truthā things.
The genie laid it out pretty clear. Iāve got 3 wishes. I canāt kill someone, bring someone back from the dead, or make someone love me. I canāt wish for more wishes. I canāt use the words or, and, or but when making a wish. I asked if I was allowed to have more time to decide and he said yes, and to just rub the lamp when I was ready. Then more smoke and poof, no more fancy dude in my kitchen.
It took a while to wrap my head around that, and even as I was writing out my wishes and arranging the wording just so, I didnāt reallyĀ believe it had actually happened.
When I finally figured out exactly what I wanted, I rubbed the lamp again, fully expecting nothing to happen. The genie appeared again, though, so I laid it out.
1. I wish to have the ability to use magic, including, however not limited to, being able to change my appearance both superficially as well as biologically, the ability to predict outcomes to oneās actions, as well as the ability to detect other magic in the world.
2. I wish to have the ability to learn at an increased rate, two to four times as fast as the average person on any given topic, the variance tied to the level of effort I put into it, i.e.: I learn twice as fast if I donāt study, four times as fast if I study constantly, with the variance of the middle ground working accordingly.
3. I wish to wake up the morning of my 30th birthday on my 10th birthday, to redo my life with the complete knowledge up to this point in my life, to remember the things I had remembered at that age as well as not forget the things Iāve learned since.
All wishes are to have the stipulation of not inherently harming anyone, nor is there to be any retribution, cosmic/personal/whatever, against any person I have loved, past/present/future.
The genie gave me some pretty dirty looks at my wording (however taking the place of but, as well as taking the place of and, nor taking the place of or, copious use of slashes) but he didnāt argue. In fact, he seemed almost proud, once he got over his slight annoyance.
The actual granting of the wishes was a little anticlimactic, just a wave of his hand. No smoke, not sparkles, no flash of light. But I certainly feltĀ the change. I could feel the magic inside me, and I brought my hand up. I did Reginaās signature move and just as I willed it, a fireball appeared in my hand.
Then with a flourish, the genie disappeared back into the lamp, and the lamp also disappeared.
It was two days to my birthday, and I had a lot of things to plan out.