It was a bit of a touchy subject, and it showed on Demaht's face as soon as Tzak spoke the words. Her smile faltered and her face tightened, but a second later and she was smiling again, even if those bright orange eyes of hers had narrowed a little. "Oh, sure, ya can ask," she replied lightly. "Ya just did, didn'tcha?" And then she laughed softly at her own wit and seemed to drop the subject entirely.
Why would he care, anyway? He was one of them.
She did have to snort at his comment, though. Okay, so maybe she'd jokingly called herself innocent first, but it was still kind of funny to hear coming from someone else. Because it was the farthest thing from the truth, of course. "I was thinkin' more like smooth, white desert sand. With scorpions and snakes," she said with a slight shrug of her thin shoulders before watching interestedly as he pulled free a pair of daggers. Oh. Nice. Now he was talking.
So he really was serious about this killing business, huh? That was interesting. Demaht really hadn't expected him to take her seriously, much less be willing to do such a thing. Sure, human life to her was worthless so one or a thousand dead humans was no biggy to her, but for a human to actually agree to her test...that was strange. Perhaps this man was a criminal himself? Well, it wouldn't be the first time he'd fallen into the hands of a criminal, and she rather liked them. They were always so eager to cause trouble, and she tended to let those ones live a while without sabotaging any of their wishes--at least, not until she finally got bored with them.
But it was also true that for the great majority of her life, she had been friendless and objectified. It hadn't been since her time prior to imprisonment that she had had a friend, or even seen another of her kind. Ah...it was probably strange to think that back then, she'd even had human friends, companions, and lovers among the worshippers. They never lasted long, they were mortal after all and time slayed them, but she hadn't minded them. They fed her ego and loved her, and she loved them right back. At least until everything had gone to hell. Then...she came to hate them, and hate the Gods as well. After all, there were two types of djinn--the ones that had accepted their punishment with grace and taken it upon themselves to help humans and, through that, seek to redeem themselves, and the ones like Demaht who took it...rather poorly to say the least.
In any case, all thoughts that Tzak might be a criminal soon flew out the window at what he said next--that he would only kill evil people.
And Demaht almost burst out laughing. Hah! Who did he think he was talking to right now? She'd been called evil many times in the past. Still, she waved a hand through the air dismissively and shook her head. "Oh, whatever. 'Good', 'evil', I really couldn't less as long as ya deliver. A human's a human and I can't tell the difference," she said, smirking. "I still think you're strange. This has gotta be the first time a djinn's ever had her own genie. Well, get grantin'."
Still unaware of the AI in Tzak's ear, Demaht followed easily after Tzak, trotting alongside him effortlessly as he started off. She didn't even have to walk if she didn't want to, but it did feel good to stretch her legs and feel the sand beneath her after a great many years spent in confinement. For a few moments she was quiet, and then...
"Hmm...y'know, I s'ppose I could tell ya why I'm enslaved," she finally said, stressing the word enslaved. She hated the word, but imprisoned somehow made it seem less severe, like she would eventually be released. And that wasn't so for her. In any case, she finally relented and decided to tell him...but it had been rather shocking at first to hear someone actually ask about that. That was a first.
Most people just seemed to assume she was created that way, that all djinn came with a lamp or ring or some trinket that they were connected to. Hah. She'd never cared to go into the details, either. Wasn't like her masters would live long, anyway, and that was good enough for her.
"A long time ago, us djinn ruled the deserts. There weren't humans there yet, not even humanoids. We were there first, an' the Gods loved us, took pride in us, because we were their chosen and the crown of creation. Then...when the humans an' humanoids came, less fancy, weak, plainer versions of ourselves, well..." She smirked a little. "They thought we were the Gods. Who were we to say no? They wanted to worship us, so like hell we were gonna stop 'em if they wanted to! I was a Goddess back then, y'know," Demaht said with a dreamy sigh, tossing her hair.
"Go figure, eh? I mean with looks like mine, of course they'd think I was a Goddess. Anyway, the real Gods weren't too happy. Said we were being deceitful and usin' the ickle humans, but I just think they were jealous. Feh. We were just havin' fun! But the Gods made us lay off, and when the humans learned the truth, they saw us instead as demons tryin' to lead them astray. Hmph. And the Gods were just sooo into protectin' their little baby humans and slappin' us upside the head whenever we wanted to have fun, and then they started ignoring us altogether to coddle those stupid pink fleshy weaklings...so...I mean, is it any surprise we felt jilted an' started to lash out? I mean, here we were, being replaced by the next shiny new thing! And they didn't even do anything! They died! Their bodies broke! I mean, what's so great about that?" Obviously, Demaht was starting to grow more impassioned as the story went on, voice bitter as she all out stomped through the sand.
"So. We just figured if they liked stuff that died and broke, hell, we'd just help them out! Makes sense, right? And maaaybe we'd get some attention in the process, too. So. We started knockin' off humans. That apparently really pissed the Gods off, so...they finally paid attention to us, but only to punish us. How? By enslavin' us to humans. Hah hah. Joke's on us." Demaht finished bitterly, kicking hard at the sand in front of her.
"And that...was pretty much it, and I've been stuck in that necklace since. Fun story, that. Why'd ya wanna know, anyway?" she asked, glancing over at him.