There's Something About the Amulet... [Dragonsong]

[emeraldknight]

Bartley was awoken by a knock at the door of the shop. Groggily, he got up and came downstairs and opened the door to his company. "Damn. For a moment I forgot I had to deal with them!" He gestured into the building. "Come in, come in." Sitting down at the counter, he cleared his throat. "So, what did you find?"

[DragonSong]

"That...is sort of a complicated question," Lapis sighed as the door opened, running a hand distractedly through her hair.

Zahir snorted and rolled his eyes. "Just let us in. The girl is exhausted, get her a chair or something."

[emeraldknight]

"Can't you just magic up a chair or something?" He sighed. It really shouldn't have been a complicated question, and Bartley knew that what came next would be a complicated answer. "Oh, right. Zahir, I wish for you to summon a chair for Lapis."

The shopkeep could only hope they'd found something in the time they'd been gone. Well, something good, that is. "Gotta be careful what I wish for!" He snorted to himself.

[DragonSong]

Zahir glowered, but flicked his hand and a chair appeared. Bare wood covered in wicked iron spikes.

Lapis sighed, already getting used to the djinn's ornery nature, and stepped easily around the torture tool.

"You should sit," she told Bartley calmly. At this point she didn't much care what chair he picked.

[emeraldknight]

Scowling, Bartley grabbed the chair from behind the counter and pulled it out into the storefront, motioning for Lapis to sit down. He then went into the back of the store to search for some more. After much digging through piles of old junk, he found an old wooden chair, and an ornate throne he'd claimed from a lost civilization six years ago. With some difficulty, he moved both over to form a circle with the other one, and sat in the throne.

"Right, now that everyone is happy, let's get down to business. What did you find?"

[DragonSong]

"We found a way to break one of our bonds with Zahir," Lapis sighed, rubbing at her temples. "But...only one."

[emeraldknight]

"Shit!" This had to be the worst scenario possible! Bartley had been dreading that there might be a problem, but actually having to decide who would be stuck with this thing for who knows how long? Surely there could have been some kind of mistake made, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized that it was probably true.

"I suppose djinns aren't exactly usually shared between two people." Still, he would have thought that there would be a contingency in the case of this. Deciding it was best to stall the inevitable discussion until he at least had a plan, Bartley decided to get some background on their search. "Right, so how exactly did you come across this information? Just so that I can understand what's going on."

[DragonSong]

Lapis shrugged a little desolately. "Honestly I just sorta pieced it together." She glanced sidelong at Zahir. "He helped a little, but apparently even he doesn't understand all of...this."

She sighed again and rubbed at her temple. "There isn't a lot of documentation about djinn, and almost nothing about a bond being created between two masters. I'm mostly going off of old stories more than anything else."

[emeraldknight]

"Ugh. Alright then, well..." Bartley was not happy with this at all, and it was definitely showing. "So we really can't just do the thing twice? I mean, what is it that we need to do anyway?" He could only assume it was something all too complex and difficult. That was just the way things were going recently. "Probably something involving a rare gemstone that only works once and is found in the deepest jungles of Thanatos, or something like that!" Now that he thought about it, a rare gemstone did seem like a nice break from all this. Not so much the jungles though. "Maybe I'll be lucky and we can just do this thing now. Well, if we can decide who's sticking with this guy".

[DragonSong]

Lapis shook her head. "No. This is...all I could find. One of us is stuck with a djinn." She glanced sidelong at Zahir, who seemed entirely unconcerned with the whole situation. "Now we just...have to decide who."

[emeraldknight]

Bartley looked tentatively over at Lapis. It seemed they'd arrived at the all-important question sooner than he'd hoped. Sighing, he stood, figuring he'd just wing it from here, and said to Lapis "So, how are we going to do that? A coin toss? Duel? Cards? Let's me be serious here and say that there is no possible way to resolve this and end up with one happy person. Either way, one of us is stuck with the djinn forever, and the other is stuck with the fall-consuming guilt."

Bartley had decided that his new approach would be to make not having Zahir seem like the worse option. It was a long shot, but if he could just find a way to make it work...

[Ribbles78]

Warren Umami is an ex-cobbler's apprentice who has turned to adventure. Using his life's savings, he has purchased nought but an iron helm, wooden shield, and an old but sturdy short sword. He has traveled from his home town to seek his fortune in fame and glory in this land, and is weary from his long trek. "Damn! It's hard walking so far!" He slumps up against a tree, wiping sweat from his brow. "I wonder where all the adventure is."