# Kultura > Letërsia shqiptare > Krijime në gjuhë të huaja >  The school of the jinni, {inspired by harry potter}

## Ad'Anderseni

Synopsis:

Amelia Winehouse lives a troubled life. Her mother has disappeared when Amelia was very little, and a horde of barbarian relatives have invaded her house. They have pushed Amelia to live in the attic, together with her father. One night, a witch called Margoll comes to visit Amelia. She is the former empress of the ''Empire of the Twenty Eight Islands''. She puts Amelia to sleep and then hides an egg inside her bed. The egg hatches and a creature called Darguard ( Dark Guardian) is born. After Margoll flees, two people, a woman called Meryem Windsroar, and Amelia's only friend, Eugene, arrive at the Winehouse and save the little girl's life at the last minute. They explain that they are jinni, and the Darguard is a jinni hunter, created with the purpose to hunt them and kill them, and in six days he will return to the Winehouse to kill Amelia. Having no other choice,the little girl decides to fly with them to Eljinn, the city of the jinni, and enroll in the school of the jinni. Once arriving there she befriends Amri Asahara, an ex princess who has escaped the palace to avoid becoming a child bride, and Sven the Finn, a male nymph who has traveled from the underground world of the nymphs to find his lost love. Miss Windsroar reveals that the jinni are a self-created middle class, placed between the angels who are the upper class, and the humans who are the lower class. The humans are called ''Future Dead'', since as mortals they have no future. Above them stands a supreme creature,Garu, The Great Architect of the Universe. Miss Windsroar is the headteacher of the school of the jinni, and Firdus Algus, nicknamed Al-Goose for his long neck, is vice headteacher. Mirhani and Mirhana Moorhen are the flight teachers, mister Losenhope is the fairy teller, miss Golosal is the Glossary teacher, and aunt Healness is the aromatherapist who teaches them how to heal their illnesses using the smells of the plants. Amelia and Amri live together in one room, and their first days in Eljinn are peaceful. Then, one night, a horde of wild beasts, guided by a ghost named Sarus, a former slave merchant, attack the dormitory of the borrowed kids. Amelia and Amri push back the beasts, but many of their friends get killed. Finally, after everything looks to calm down, a lawyer called Lawrent ( the lawyer who rented the law) arrives in Eljin, accompanied by Talos, a giant made up of coins. Lawrent asks the jinni to pay the rent they own to the Baklava Bank, otherwise, Talos will demolish everything. Mis Windsroar sends Amelia and Eugene to find a treasure hidden under the ocean. They find the ship and load the gold into their carpets, but something unexpected happens...


Chapter One,The Infamily.

 In the suburbs of Durbin, on a three-store wooden house lived a thirteen years old girl named Amelia. She was the only daughter of mister Richard Winehouse ,a blacksmith, and miss.Mary Winehouse,a tailoring.The Winehouses were not natives. They had migrated to Durbin before Amelia was born, and purchased half of an old wine factory who's owners were planning to demolish. Back then they had a different surname,  one lost in time as they liked to say, but when they entered their new house they so much liked that piece of ruin that smelled of wine, that they adopted the word Winehouse as their new surname.
Mister Winehouse was a tall man, with black hair, gray eyes, and dark skin. Miss Winehouse was a short woman, with yellow hair, green eyes, and white skin. Amelia was somewhere in the middle with brown skin, black curly hair, and green eyes. They repaired and furnished the first floor of the factory, transforming it into a real home, and left the rest of it untouched, to save some money for their future offspring. Miss Winehouse dreamed of five more children. Mister Winehouse thought three were affordable. Amelia, for as much as she could understand, had no problem with numbers, but she was very curious to see the upper floor of the house, and above all the attic. As her mom once told her, the attic was the kingdom of a bad witch who lived there with her big army of red cockroaches. She didnt like visitors, had a bad temper and a taste for little kids whom she often visited. Every night, after her parents had fallen asleep, Amelia would take her sheets and hide under the bed, waiting for the bad witch to come downstairs. But the witch never showed.
One day, after her parents had gone to work, Amelia, now six years old, curious to see the witch and tell all her friends about it,  climbed on the upper floors. Giant spider nets stretched all over the rooms of the second floor, and some tubes and pipes, leftovers of the old factory. At the attic, an old bed covered in dust, with no sheets, and a small wooden table, were the only furniture. A pair of shoes lied on the floor. Long and black, they looked just like the shoes that a witch would wear. Amelia sized them, went downstairs, and waited for the owner to come and search for them. Three days later, miss Winehouse disappeared. Amelia, who believed the bad witch had kidnapped her mom, climbed again at the attic. It looked as if someone had been staying there lately because the old bed was cleaned from the dust and covered with sheets. On the table, she saw pieces of fresh bred scattered all over it, leftovers of somebodies meal. She left the shoes on the bed and waited for her mom in return. But three years passed, and she never showed, and Amelia slowly started to forget about her. Then, on the first morning of the fifth year since her mom's disappearance, and Amelias eleventh birthday, an uncle with the name Robert Robersclub came to visit them. He brought with him his wife Robin,  his daughter Roberta and his son Roben. They were pretty desperate and for a good reason. The bank had just sized their house, and they had no place where to go. Memories of a bitter past rounded up in mister Winehouses mind, upon seeing them, and above them stood the image of his brother Robert, who use to beat him so bad. He leased them a room on the first floor, but suddenly the  Robersclub sized all of the floor, and filled it with some huge size furniture. Amelia had never seen such furniture before. The closet alone was so big that surpassed two times the height of the front door.  How they had managed to slip them inside the house, remains a mystery to this day. The Robersclub themselves where giant people, tall and robust, but still Lilliput in front of their furniture, so they had invented ways to climb on them. The chairs, for example, had stairs attached to them. Since no space was left for them on the first floor, Amelia and her father moved their tiny furniture to the second floor and decided to make it their new home. The quick spread of the Robersclubs inside his house, had shocked mister Winehouse. Immediately after the resettlement, he suffered a brain lock and closed himself in the attic. The Robersclubs saw this as a good opportunity to clean the house from some precious items, like the antique vases, the crystal glasses, and the old china cups, some of them dating from the nineteenth century, part of miss Winehouses large collection. They even eyed the old books, witch Amelia managed to rescue at the last moment, carrying them at the attic. It was her third visit at the nest of the witch. In the old bed, she saw the long black shoes again. It looked as if someone had used them for a long walk because they were torn apart and covered in dirt. Was it the witch? Amelia couldnt tell.
The next year an aunt that Amelia had never seen before came for a visit. Everyone in the house was stunned by her appearance. She was a tall fat woman by the name Helga, with long grey hair and small yellow eyes, wearing a white mourning dress, like the traditions of her dead husbands  family required. At childhood a car had struck her left leg, leaving her only the right one functioning. Her father bought her a walking stick, and some times she would use it to beat the other children who made fun of here, and later her own children who abandoned her because of that walking stick. Unlike the Robersclub family, she had brought no furniture, except ten vases with carnivorous plants, had no bed and slept standing on her walking stick by day, and came around her empty room all night. Her way of living made her hilarious, especially among the Robersclubs, who couldnt stop whispering against her. Aunt Helga gathered all this whispering  through a magic device called Helgas Ears, a kind of Viking helmet with the horns turned upside down and attached to the walls, and planed a revenge. She went to the kitchen, sized the cups, the crystal glasses, the antique vases, and the china plates, all belonging to the Winehouses, and hid them in her room. The next day, when uncle Robert tried to steal some of them, he found none. Aunt Helga so much liked the precious dishes, that she decided to keep them forever. Amelia on the other hand so much disliked these people who had invaded her house, that she nicknamed them  Infamily, short for Infamous Family.And they proved they deserved that name, when three years later they kicked Amelia out of the room and forced her to climb at the attic where her father lived. Mister Winehouse had got out of the brain lock lately and was now living in his world of dreams, where his wife was still alive and was playing hide and seek. All day he would search for her in the attic, not daring to go downstairs, where monsters like the ones that had visited him during childhood lived.
So far so bad, but it didnt end there because another danger lied at the school: The Smo  Kings, the triplets who lived in the orphanage nearby, the horror of every kid of the town. Once a week they would appear at the schoolyard with their bicycles, their smoking suits, and their smoking pipes, searching for a lonely student, a sheep separated from the heard like they used to call them. Upon finding one they would capture him and milk him of his money. Those who had no money, were kept as hostages and later sold to their friends or relatives and some times even to unknown people who wanted to taste the pleasure of buying a human being. Although Amelia, like all the other kids, tried to avoid the Smo Kings, that day she would come face to face with them. She had taken a nap on the last lesson hour, and upon waking up saw she was all alone in the classroom. She took her bag, and run out. Before reaching the front door, she heard laughing coming from the sportive arena and immediately recognized the voices. It was the Smo Kings, who apparently were playing with their new victim. She became curious and thought with herself whom did they catch today?.She approached. The  Smo Kings had transformed the volleyball net into a ****, and they had pushed their victim inside it. Now he was going to remain hanged in there until he would pay them the sum they had in mind. Amelia heard his voice and immediately recognized it. It was her friend, Eugene, a boy as weird as her in many aspects, appearing some times like from nowhere. He was a few inches taller than her, had deep black eyes, and white  ponytail style hair. He liked carpets and kept a miniaturized model of them attached to his keys. Eugene was Amelias only friend,and she had to do something to free him, so she started digging in her pockets in search of money. Meanwhile, the Smokings were pushing Eugene towards each other. They had counted the money he had given them, and not satisfied, where now squeezing him, hooping to milk some more. Amelia, nearby, had already found one pound. It was difficult to bribe the Smo Kings with so little, so she kept searching for more, but soon there were no more pockets left to search. She had drilled them all. The Smo Kings on the other hand, had no intention of getting stuck from Eugene before sucking the last penny out of him, and they stretched the ****, making it so small that Eugene was now barely breathing.
Hey, what are you doing, said Amelia and approached, you are suffocating him.
The Smo Kings turned their heads back and released the ropes around Eugene. Amelias appearance had frightened them, since, like all criminals, they hated having witnesses around them, or even worse, behind them. Maybe someone else would have run, but not the Smo Kings. They kept their ground, and told Amelia to disappear, or join her friend inside the ****.
Or, if you want, you can pay the ransom for him, said one of the Smo Kings.
With pleasure, I will pay, said Amelia, and handed the pound towards them, but the Smo Kings were not seduced. They simply kept looking at it for a couple of seconds then took their pipes out of the mouths, and started making circles of smokes. Now they were thinking, and from the size of their circles, you could trace their thoughts. If the circles were big, they would accept the offer, if small they would refuse it. Unfortunately, this time they were small.
One pound for a human being, said the first Smo King, Not enough. And he put his pipe on the mouth and turned his back on Amelia
Not near enough, said the second Smo  King and he also put the pipe on his mouth and turned his back on her.
This is all I have, said Amelia, all I found in my pockets. Take it or leave it.
We leave it for now, said the third Smo King, who was a girl in short hair, Search again, and when you find more, call us. We will be here until midnight, but we dont know if your friend will still be alive by then, and she put her pipe on the mouth and turned her back on Amelia.
Do what they say, Amelia, said Eugene from inside the net, search again in your pockets.
Amelia started digging again on her left pocket, and her hand went deeper and deeper as if the pocket was sucking it. Suddenly she touched something and pulled it out keeping it just with her nails. It was a shining, golden looking coin, with a city carved from the one side, and the letter J carved from the other side
Hey guys, take a look at this she said.
The Smo Kings turned their heads around, saw the shining coin, approached and put their pipes out of their mouths and started making circle after circle of smoke, a sign they were excited.
Holy smoking spirit, said one of the Smo Kings, tell me I am not dreaming. I see a gold coin in front of me.
You are not dreaming, said the second Smo King, I see it too. Could it really be gold?
Well, lets taste and say said the third one, and grabbed the coin  from Amelia s hands and bite it.Glorious smoking spirit, this is real gold.
So, it's enough for my friend's freedom than, said Amelia.
Its enough for more than that, replied the Smo King who had bitten the coin, and started playing with it. Suddenly the coin fall to the ground. Two of the Smo Kings jumped on it, but the coin slipped,and they clinked their heads with each other. Once on their senses, they saw the coin running away. They jumped on their bicycles and started chasing it.
Amelia turned to Eugene, and for a moment thought he looked good inside the net.
Well, said Eugene?
What? said Amelia
What do you mean what? Get me out of here.
First, tell me were that coin came from and what those symbols meant, then I release you, said Amelia''.
I have no idea, said Eugene, I didnt even saw the coin. The Smo Kings were in front of me, remember?.
The smart ass among the fools is the one who rules, said Amelia repeating a phrase Eugene had once taught her, today you are him and you fooled us all. You are free, but first, let me take a picture, she put out her phone and made a picture of Eugene inside the net.Thats nice, she said and released the rope. Eugene splashed on the ground.
That hurt, he said, cuddling his butt.
You deserved it for not telling me, said Amelia and they both laughed.
They installed the net back on its place and walked to the outdoor, just to find it closed. The Smo Kings always liked to have the last word, even after they were paid.
Those guys are evil dumb's, said Amelia
Yeah, said Eugene, and I hope that one day they fall on someone like themselves.
Come on, said Amelia, and started climbing the fence. Eugene followed. A police officer passing by saw them, stood for a minute to decide what to do, and then walk away, saying to himself just kids. At the bus station, an old lady with a black dress, a black headscarf and a black bag attracted their attention. She looked lost, and all the time would put out her foggy glasses and clean them. A minute of wearing them, and the glasses would become foggy again, and again she put them out and clean them. When Amelia and Eugene approached, she stared at them and smiled like she had found what she was searching for. A row of people who gathered in front of the bus engulfed the old woman and carried her inside. One of the passengers offered his seat to her, and the woman sat down, thanking him for his kindness. The tone of her voice made Eugene tremble. Amelia paid no attention. She knew Eugene was claustrophobic and found it a kind of funny. On the next station, Eugene rushed out without saying goodbye, and headed home, looking back all the time to see if the old woman was chasing him. Amelia felt a kind of offended by his attitude, and swore not to talk to Eugene for a month. When she arrived home, she knocked and knocked for fifteen minutes until someone finally opened up. Amelia saw first half of a mans body, and then raised her head and saw the other half and his balded head that surpassed the lamp. It was her very tall and very talking uncle Robert, who started addressing her with a slow-motion voice.

Well, finally you found your way home, you little worthy niece. You know you are fifteen minutes late, dont you? , and he put out a notebook and a pencil, Now, pay attention. There are twelve items missing today, twelve. Five cups, three glasses, one spoon, and two knives. Do you have any idea where they ended up?
No, said Amelia, and I didnt found any of them on my way home. Besides, five plus three, plus  one, plus two, make eleven and not twelve.
Very funny, said the uncle, but since they are lost, and they belong to the house, we all have to pay to buy them back. I made a calculation and I found that your contribution must be around.hmm, let me see, he looked at the notebook where he had written the names of  Amelia , Amelias father and aunt Helgas, together with the amount of money that each one of them had to deliver, ah yes,15 pounds,.The others have already paid theirs, now it's your turn.
Amelia had no intention of giving him 15 pounds for the lost items because she knew very well that Robert had stolen them, and probably sold them. Now he was trying to extract more money by forcing the others to pay for them. Everybody in the house knew this game, and of course, they had landed no money on him. She wanted to climb upstairs, but Robert insisted on the 15 pounds contribution, and he had blocked the entrance with his huge body.
I dont have 15 pounds, she said, but I can tell you how to make them.
Robert smiled, put his notebook and pencil on his pocket, opened his eyes wide, and enlarged his ears, to hear better. Now he looked like a mythological creature. Amelia had no idea how her uncle managed to move his ears and eyes like that. She was convinced that, if Robert would had used this talent to entertain the people in the circus, he would have made a fortune.
There is an old vase hidden in aunt Helgaroom, painted with dragons around, and a man dressed as an emperor in the middle. I saw her yesterday when she put it out, from the closet on the floor. It must cost a fortune, and a guy like you would not let this opportunity slip way, would he?
Describing an old ancient vase in details, and speaking with his own slow-motion voice, was everything you needed to convince uncle Robert. In his fantasy of thief, the vase was transformed into an old Chinese mourning vase that contained the ashes of some dead guy, probably those of aunt Helgas husband, but who cares. An ancient vase always costs a fortune, and as for the ashes, they would be safer buried, rather than transported around, always with the risk of being lost. He retreated in his room to plan the theft in detail, and the way was open for Amelia, but the troubles were not over yet. In the stairs, her cousin Roberta quickly appeared in front of her and pushed her to the wall. Amelia was surprised to see her. She looked fatter than the last time they had meet.
You did it again, ha?  said Roberta.
 What did I do again?, said Amelia.
You took my shoes, she said, in a very fast motion voice.
No , said Amelia,  I havent taken your shoes.
The cousin wasnt convinced.
Give me  your shoes, she said, I am gone a try them, and if they fit me that means they are mine.

It was a ****, but not a surprise for Amelia. She knew that Roberta was a devoted follower of her father, and had perfected the tricks of robbery inherited by him. One of them was the trick of shoes.She would find someone with the same foot number as hers, try his or her shoes, and immediately claim he or she had stolen them from Roberta's closet. To convince the victim, she would scratch her initials on the shoes, or hide small papers with her name inside them,and allow the owner to discover the proof. By doing so, she had managed to build a huge collection of shoes, without spending a penny. Among them was a pair that Amelia had received as a gift for her thirteen birthday.
I have taken nothing from  you people, said Amelia.Its you who have taken everything from me, and stared at Roberta to message her that this time she was getting neither her shoes nor her socks.
Roberta understood. The bluff wasnt working. She released her, and retreated at her room slipping backward like a shrimp, closed the door, and decided to spy Amelia through the keyhole. After liberating herself from the uncosy cousin, Amelia had one last obstacle: the empty room where aunt Helga lived, but luckily she was sleeping, standing like always on her walking stick with her eyes closed, surrounded by her carnivorous plants, looking more like a statue in the park, rather than a human being. Her flowers were also sleeping, and Amelia slowly slipped through them, trying not to wake them, and found herself in the attic. Her father, as usual, was searching for his wife, and there was nothing she could do to help him. She entered her room, drop her bag on the floor, and splashed on the bed. Beside her was the Snow White and Seven Dwarfs book. Amelia took the book and opened it up, read the first lines, and suddenly closed it and drop the book on the angle of the room.
So much for fairy tales, she said, nothing comes out of them anyway.The wind that slipped in  through the open window, moved the pages of the book one by one, until it stopped at the picture of the old wich knocking on the door. By then, the little girl had fallen asleep.

 Chapter Two,The Empress.

It was 12 past midnight, when she heard the first knock on the door, a soft friendly knock, yet enough strong to wake her up. She jumped out of the bed, and for a moment thought she was still sleeping and the knock was part of the dream she was having, a dream where her father had finally found her mother, and was bringing her home. But another knock, a longer and more persisting one, made her understand that she had woken up.
Roberta, she said, and run to the door to capture her cousin who used to play like that all the time, but there was nobody out there. Then she heard the knock again and understood it was coming from the front door of the house. She took a candle, put her snickers to make less noise as possible, walked downstairs, approached the door and whispered who is it.The response was another knock, and then the steps of someone walking away. Amelia waited for a while, then moved the key and the door opened. Her heart beat's fast from fear. She made three steps outside. The whole neighborhood had sunk into the deepest darkness she had ever seen. She turned the candle left, and suddenly a figure was illuminated. She screamed, and the candle fell from her hand, but the figure quickly captured it.
Be careful, said the figure, or you will burn your hand.
Who are you, said Amelia, with the trembling voice of someone whos fear had stuck into his  throat, and he couldnt either swallow it nor spit it out.
The figure approached the candle close to its face, and Amelia saw an old woman, covered in a large robe, with a puffy face, big potato type  nose, small eyes, smiling with a mouth where was hardly any teeth left. She resembled the old lady she had seen at the bus station, and even had a bag like hers. Amelia was crossing over the shock she suffered when she first saw her, and as her heart beats were slowing down, so did her doubts. She saw nothing threatening in this old woman.
Here, take it, said the woman, and handed over the candle to her.
Amelia took it.
I hope I didnt scare you before.
You did scare me, said Amelia, but quickly repented for her words, because they seemed rude.
Forgive me, I am an old and dumb woman. I come from far away, and I am searching for a place to sleep tonight. I knocked in a lot of doors, but nobody opened up.
There are hotels in this town, you know, replied Amelia, and then said to herself what am I saying to her, why am I  not inviting her in, but then added, it's not normal to knock in the peoples door in the midnight, and ask for a place to sleep.
In the lands where I come from, this happens all the time, and you dont need to knock, because the doors are always open, said the old lady, Why dont you in this land do the same, leave the doors open and welcome everyone in?.
Because then we end up in the attic, said Amelia more to herself.
I beg your pardon
I am sorry, I  didnt mean to be rude to you. You can stay at my place tonight of course, but please try to make as little noise as possible. There are some very weird people living here, and I know how they will react if they see you.
Oh my dear chosen one, dont worry about me,I will be as quiet as a sleeping child said the old lady and slipped inside.
They entered the house, and Amelia closed the door.
Allow me to introduce myself, said the old woman, My name is Margoll, but you must call me  Empress Margoll, please.
You are an Empress?, said Amelia in amazement.
 I was, said the old lady, a long time ago. Now I only have the title, but no more an Empire, or a crown if that matters
Amelia bowed a little, to honor the first monarch that had entered the Winehouse.
I am very happy to meet you Empress Margoll, and please forgive me about the words I said. If I knew you were an empress I wold had woken up all the Infamily.
Better not do that, said Margoll, now, show me my bed for tonight,please.
Yes your majesty, said Amelia, this way.
Margoll started climbing the stairs one at a time, as all old tired people do. Amelia, who was starting to like the role of the consort, grabbed her from her hand to help her and felt a strange cold wave penetrating her body. When they arrived at the door of the attic, she had totally frozen and was shaking. She stuck herself from Margoll, and felt the warmth of her body returning, but her legs were still frozen, and she was now walking slower than the old woman. Margoll paid no attention and entered the attic. Amelia followed and closed the door of the attic behind them. Margoll looked around, saw the sack full of books, took one of them and read on the first page the name M.Winehouse
 East and west, home is best, she said to herself, and it hasnt changed a bit
Yes?, said Amelia who had heard her voice, but not her words, are you in need of anything, Empress Margoll?
Oh, no, nothing. Dont pay attention,I was just talking to myself like all old people do, said Margoll, and came around the attic touching pretty much everything. Amelia saw that Margolls long black shoes were almost torn apart.Her long eagle likenails, where scratching the floors.
You must have traveled a long distance to come here, she said.
Yes, said Margoll, thousands of  miles of time
Amelia scratched her head, trying to figure out what Margoll meant with  miles of time, then added:
That land of yours were all the doors are open, must be a very peaceful land.
Oh, my dear chosen one, my land is the most peaceful of all lands. And the city, oh the city, its so beautiful that you fell in love with it from the first time you see it, and she described it in such a way, that brought into Amelias mind the city she had seen in the golden coin.
But, why did you left than.
I was accused of a crime I didnt commit, and I couldnt prove I didnt do it. So, I was condemned with exile, and my Empire and my subjects were taken away from me, said the old lady. Then, to change the argument, added You got so many books,and I sense that humidity is killing them.
I know ,but there is nothing I can do to save them,said Amelia,as you can see there is not enough space here for books.Thats why I keep them on sacks. 
Where did you find all this rarities,said Margoll,opening the books one by one.
They were my moms collection, said Amelia, she left them to me before she died.
Dyed? I am so sorry, said Margoll.
She always dreamed of buying a library and putting  the books there, Amelia approached and took one of the books, thats what my father once told me.
A library, said the old lady,hmm. Let me see, maybe I  can find one inside my bag, she dropped the bag on the bed, and half of the bed sunk down to the floor.
Amelia paid no attention to these last words, as she thought Margoll was joking. But Margoll truly opened her bag and started searching for something inside there. Finally, she put out something. It was a small miniature library,with two soldiers in red uniforms carved on each side.
Here, I found your library my handsome deer, said the old lady, and hand it to Amelia. Amelia didnt like her comparison with a deer, but made no objections, always keeping in mind that she had a monarch in front of her. She approached, took the toy looking library, turned it around, and then said:
It's very beautiful, but I doubt it could take all of my books..
But it might, said Margoll, it might if you want to.
If I want to? I dont understand Empress Margoll.
It's very simple, said the old lady.If you want this library to take all your books, all you have to do is wish for it. Make the wish, and I will realize it for you.
Amelia, still believing that this was a joke, not wanting to offend Margoll by refusing to make the wish, said Ok, I wish that all my books fly into the library.
Immediately after, the books jumped from the sack and started to float, and a cloud  of them was formed over their heads. 
Now,lets clean them ,said Margoll,and she closed her fist like she had a spoonge on her hand,and drops of tiny rain started falling from the cloud of books.Margoll had cleaned the books from their long lasted humidity.
Once the cleaning was over, the books started to become smaller and smaller.Now each one of them was no bigger than a box of matches,and one by one they all entered into the tiny library that Amelia was keeping on her hand. She felt the weight increasing, turned to Margoll and said This is amazing. How did you do it Empress Margoll?

Margoll spelled no word. She simply turned her back on Amelia and started searching for something else inside the bag. From the rumor, someone might have thought there was a lot of stuff inside that bag. Her attitude made no impression on Amelia. She knew from fairy tales that royalties always ignore the people. Finally Margoll found what she was searching for. A big, red apple.
This apple is also magic, she said.You eat a piece of it, and you fall to sleep, and if you see the most beautiful dream, when you wake up,  the dream becomes a reality.
Her words were tricky, like those of someone who has another thing in his mind and spells other things with his tongue to cover up his real purpose.
And if I  see a nightmare, is that going to become a reality?
Oh my dear chosen one, you dont have to worry about nightmares. Nightmares are not dreams, and the apple doesnt realize nightmares. It only realizes dreams, beautiful dreams, like the one you were seeing before. Remember?
Yes, I remember, but how do you know about my dream?
Oh my dear, you will be amazed if I tell you how much I know about you, said Margoll, but let's forget what I just said. Tell me now, do you want to see your mother again?
Yes, said Amelia, more than everything else.
 Eat the apple than.
Amelia wasnt convinced. Her mom had once told her not to accept fruits from unknown people, especially old people. It was a piece of advice that had sunk deep into her mind after her mom's disappearance, and now was surfacing again, like a warning.
I forgot to mention that the apple can realize two wishes, said Margoll, and I see you have two wishes in your mind.
Margoll had traced her thoughts. Amelia truly had a second wish, to kick the Infamily out, and hoped Margoll would order them to do that, and they would obey. If not, the queen would order her army to take care of them.
She must have an army, she thought to herself, all queens have armies, and imagined the Infamily and their furniture being escorted out of her house.
It will happen, said a voice inside her head, a voice that sounded just like Margolls. just eat the apple.
Looked like there where two Margolls now, one in her head, apparently her fantasy, and the other one in front of her.
What, now? said Amelia to herself
Now  or after now, its the same for me, said the Margoll in front of her,.I can wait, I got plenty of time to live.
Amelia cut a chunk and started chewing it. It tasted like a cocktail of fruits, mixed with milk. She swallowed it and felt a big weight landing in her stomach.
What is it, my dear, said the old lady, with a very worried expression in her face.
I dont know, I feel like.sleeping, said Amelia, and laid down on the bed. The apple fall from her hand. The old lady picked it up, smiled, and put the apple back into her bag. Then took an egg out of the bag, a big black egg, and put it into Amelias arms, and covered both of them in blankets. Then she opened the closet, took more blankets out of it, all she could found, and dropped them on the girl. It didnt look quite enough, so she walked into the room where Amelias father was sleeping, and took his blankets to.
The apple didnt kill you. You are a strong girl, and you have a lot of warmth, much like your mother once upon a time.she said, and cuddled her hair, Sleep well my dear, sleep well for three days, warm up the egg and bring my child to life.
Suddenly a roaring raised up from her stomach. 
''Margoll is hungry,'' she said to herself,'' Margoll has to eat''. 
She walked downstairs, took only bread from the closet of the Robersclubs, and returned to the room. She cut the bread into pieces, filled the mouth, and tried to chew them with her toothless jaws. Pieces of the bread fall from both sides of her mouth and scattered all over the floor, and suddenly some big red cockroaches surfaced. They ate all the pieces of bred they found on the floor,and they where transformed into tiny soldiers with red uniforms. Some of this soldiers even climbed on the table ,and collected all the pieces of bread left.When the dinner was over,they where once more transformed into red cockroaches,and sunk again under the floor. Margoll, with her stomach full, sat down on the chair, put her legs on the table, saw her torn apart shoes and thought it was time for a new pair of ones.

Chapter three, The Two Weirdos.

Two days after Amelia's disappearance, uncle Robert penetrated into aunt Helgas room to steal the ancient vase, the one painted with dragons and emperors, and who probably contained the ashes of her dead husband inside. Helga was sleeping. Uncle Robert , walking slowly on his naked legs, trying to make as little noise as possible, approached the closet on the floor, opened it and saw hundreds of cups, glasses, spoons, knives, and plates. In an angle, hidden between the other items, but still visible, was his prize. He picked it up, close the closet and while trying to get out, he slipped and the vase fell on the ground. It didnt break, but whatever it contained inside was scattered all over the floor. The vase itself made a circle around the room until it stopped at Helgas legs. Robert approached walking with both legs and arms like an insect, took the vase and turned to flee. Helga, who had been watching Robert from the moment he entered the room, grabbed him from the legs with her walking stick.
 Are you living so soon, brother, she said, You not gone a wish your sister god night. and she kindly hit him with her walking stick.
Robert didnt move, he just stood on his knees keeping the vase on his arms, like a baby. At childhood Helga used to hit him with her walking stick all the time.
Then something strange happened. The ashes that had been scattered all over the room,  gathered at one place and raised up in a human form. Helga smiled. Robert was terrified. The human made of ashes resembled very much his sister's dead husband, whos picture he had once seen.
Put the vase on the floor, said Helga to Robert, and he quickly obeyed. Then she pointed at the vase with her walking stick and said to the man of ashes Inside, and he approached and entered into the vase. Helga took it, closed it, and then turned to Robert and said  You still want it?
Robert screamed and run out using both legs and arms, while the laugh of his sister followed him until he found his room, closed the door and hide under the bed. For a moment there was silence. Then he heard the steps of someone approaching. Robert froze. Was it the man of ashes? That someone pulled the sheets, and Robert saw the face of his wife.
So, there you are, she said, I have been waiting for you for three hours.
Robert was amazed. He thought he had been under the bed only for a couple of minutes.
What  happened, said the wife,  did you stole the vase or not?
Robert opened his mouth, but no words came out of it. Suddenly steps where heard from the room above, where their daughter Roberta and their son Roben lived. Hundreds and hundreds of steps. It looked as if a whole army was marching above their heads. Robert's wife, worried about her children, rushed on the second floor, and Robert followed, keeping a reasonable distance from her. She knocked, and nobody opened, and she got angry and broke the door. The kids where fine. They had both climbed at the top of the closet, while below them the shoes of Robertas collection were parading. They had come alive and jumped out of the closet the moment when aunt Helgas vase was opened.
What is going on here, said miss Robersclubs.
The shoes, who had long waited to get out, rushed at the entrance, pushed miss Robersclub on the floor, and headed for the attic. Someone up there opened the door of the attic, the shoes entered, and the door was quickly closed again.
The Robersclub family gathered under the door of the attic. Nobody spoke a word.
Could it be Her? said Robert after a while, staring at his wife.
I am afraid so, said his wife, she has returned.
Both kids stared at their parents, trying to understand what was happening.
We have to go then, said Robert, and turned to his children, pack your things, we are leaving, now.
What about my shoes, said Roberta.
Forget about them, said Robert with a tone that meant no discussions.
Where are we going, said Roben
As far away from here as possible, said miss Robersclubs.
In less than one hour, the Robersclub family gathered all their things and their furniture and vanished from the Winehouse. How did they manage to get their huge furniture out of the house remains a mystery to this day.
Meanwhile, at the attic, Margoll had found a pair of leather shoes for herself and was quite happy. She no longer needed the rest for them. She approached the window, open both frames and said Go now. All of you. Find your former owners, and the shoes jumped from the window, with each pair of them heading for the house of their former owners, just like Margoll had ordered them.
It was evening. The streets were empty. A heavy storm was hanging over the town. With the first drops of rain falling, Margoll decided it was time to close the frames. She had already closed the left one when she saw a flying carpet circling around the house. Margoll quickly closed the frames and retreated in the middle of the room, near the bed where Amelia was sleeping. The flying carpet approached the window. Margoll put two more arms out of her body and created a sword for each one of them. If the person on the carpet would break in, she would cut him into pieces. Her cockroaches also surfaced, ready to assist her in the upcoming duel, and when the door of the attic opened and the man of ashes appeared, she felt confident. Her army was ready. But the person on the carpet had no intention of intervening in whatever was happening inside the attic. He turned around and flew away. Meanwhile ,a baby crying came from the bed were Amelia was sleeping. Her creature had come to life, and Margoll lost no time. She quickly picked him up, covered him in a black robe and got out of the Winehouse.
Twenty four hours later, two more people on carpets approached the Winehouse and broke into the attic. One of them was a woman. Her carpet was transformed into a scarf around her neck after she jumped from it. The other one was a boy that Amelia knew very well. His carpet took the size of a matchbox after he jumped, and the boy took it and attached it to his keys. They looked around. The attic was empty. Whoever had been living there the last days, had now disappeared. Pieces of a black eggshell were scattered all over the ground. The boy picked up one of the pieces and gave it to the woman.
 We found the nest, said the woman, but the birds have flown.
The host is still here, said the boy. He approached the bed where Amelia was lying and put out a long knife.
Put it away, said the woman, it's not her fault.
But, she is a witness miss Windsroar, said the boy, she has seen and perhaps will remember.
I know Eugene, said miss Windsroar, I know, and she approached Amelia, removed the sheets and embraced her frozen body, transferring some of her living warmth to the little girl. Amelias white face became brown, and then red. She opened her eyes. Above her stood a woman in a white dress, with a headscarf, kindly-looking face, shaped like a diamond, big blue eyes, smiling with a mouth full of white teeth. Was it a transformed Margoll? Probably. Amelia had read a lot of stories about bad witches who were suddenly transformed into a beautiful enchantress.
Am I dead? she said
No said the enchantress
Am I dreaming?
No.
I am awake then. Strange, I feel like I have been sleeping for eternity.
You just woke up from an eternity, said miss Windsroar, what happened to you in this three day happens only once in a lifetime.
Are you the witch my mom told me about?
No, said miss Windsroar, I am not a witch. The other woman was.
The other woman. The old woman, said Amelia trying to remember her face who was now merely a shadow in her mind, is she the witch of my childhood? Is she who took away my mom and locked my father's brain somewhere?
She is, said miss Windsroar.
Then, who are you?, said Amelia
 A friend said the voice of someone who was hiding in a dark angle of the room. He slowly came out of there, and Amelia saw Eugene standing with his arms crossed on the chest. He had taken a kind of ceremonial stand, unusual for him, and kept staring at Amelia like she was guilty of something terrible that had happened.
Eugene, you scared me, said Amelia, I thought you were another relative of mine.
 Eugene didnt respond. He crossed his hands backward where he had hidden the long knife, waiting for the right moment to stab Amelia.
 How do you feel? said professor Windsroar, signaling Eugene to step back on his intentions. Eugene released his hands and put them in his pocket. Maybe miss Windsroar was going to kill Amelia herself.
My body hurts, said Amelia, and turned around and undressed the left part of her body. A big red wound came out. She tried to stand up, before falling down in the bed again.
Stay calm, said professor Windsroar , dont force yourself, you havent recovered yet, she opened her bag, and put out a bottle with a blue liquid, You are exhausted, havent been eating for three days. Here, drink this. It will give you some energy.
The eyes of professor Windsroar shined goodness. Amelia didnt ask what it was, she just took the bottle and drunk all of it.
How do you feel now?
Hungry, said Amelia.
Is there any food in this house?, said Eugene
Downstairs, in the fridge, the first floor, said Amelia, but please try not to wake them.
 Stay with her, said miss Windsroar to Eugene, and walked downstairs, and took milk and butter from the fridge, and bread from the table
You saw them? said Amelia once she returned.
No, I saw no one, except an old woman sleeping on her walking stick in an empty room.
Aunt Helga, said Amelia, but the rest of the Infamily, where did they go?
They fled yesterday in a rush, said Eugene, I saw them 
And their furniture, did they took it with them?
All of it, said Eugene, such huge furniture, I had never seen something like that in my life.
The Infamily has gone, said Amelia to herself. She had dreamed about this moment for so long, and now instead of feeling happy, she felt lonely.
Margoll must have scared them. Apparently they knew her well, thats why they fled in a rush, said miss Windsroar.
Margoll promised me she would kick them out and she kept her promise, said Amelia, I have to thank her for that, she was happy but the disturbing idea of loneliness just kept growing inside her. She wanted to cry and laugh at the same time.I wonder who she really was.
She was once an angel, said miss Windsroar .Angel Margoll, that was her real name. Now she is a witch, and she travels around the world, keeping an egg on her bag, and she knocks on every door. Whenever she is invited into a house, she puts a member of that house to sleep and hides the egg into his arms. The egg sucks the living warmth of the human body, and a creature is conceived, a creature called Darguard.
Darguard?.
It means the Guardian of Dark. It takes three days for the Darguard to come to  life, and another three days before he starts hunting.
Hunting  who?
Hunting me, said Eugene, and at that moment put out a lamp, and handed it over to Amelia, and professor Windsroar, and all the other jinni around the world..
The jinni? , Amelia looked at him and then she stared at the lamp, you two are jinni?
We are, said miss Windsroar laughing as she knew very well what the little girl was now thinking.
Amelia got scared. She thought these two people in front of here where insane weirdos. Perhaps they wanted to kill her or kidnap her, or even worse, use her for the fulfillment of their perverted passions. All maniacs and dreamers are alike, and Amelia had seen a lot of documentaries for such people.
Alright, she said walking out of the bed, I believe you. I got to be insane not to. Now, with your permission jinni, I would like to go to the bathroom. You allow?
Of course, said Eugene, you dont have to ask us for anything in your house.
You want me to escort you, said miss Windsroar.
No, thank you. I know my way out, said Amelia, walking slowly backward. Once arriving at the door, she quickly closed it from the outside and run downstairs to wake up the Infamily, and tell them about the two weirdos she had locked on the attic.


Chapter Four, Goodbye Winehouse

What  happened here?
This was the question Amelia made to herself the night she saw the empty house. She came around, entering every room. Nothing there, no people, no furniture, only open windows and the cold wind of the night playing with the curtains. She searched on the bathrooms, and even opened the refrigerator, but still no one to be found. Finally she climbed to aunt Helgas room, and for the first time she was happy to see her. Apparently Helga was waiting for her.
Where is everybody? , said Amelia
Gone said aunt Helga, and you will go to, as my ears tell me. Finally, the house will be all mine.
I am not going anywhere, said Amelia, and the house is mine.
Not for long, said aunt Helga, while steps where heard above their heads, and dust fell from the old woods, your guests are still here. They are waiting for you, she approached and pushed Amelia with her walking stick Go now. Before Margoll and her son return.
Amelia had never seen such a menacing Helga before. She slowly moved backward, and then run into the attic, who looked like a much safer place now. Miss Windsroar and Eugene were waiting for her.
Found anyone, said miss Windsroar
Only my aunt, said Amelia, and she wasnt happy to see me.
I hope you believe us now, said Miss Windsroar, but I see you dont.
Of course, I dont. I am not stupid you know. There are no jinni in reality, only in fairy tales and legend are some, and you dont look at all like them.
You want us to look like them? , said Eugene, wish for it then.
 Wish?, she looked at him with suspicion, Alright. I wish that you look like them.
Eugene made three steps backward, opened his arms and suddenly his body grew, and his legs were transformed into a  tail of smoke. His eyes became red and frightening. He was now truly a classic  looking jinni like the ones Amelia had seen on her books.,
Are you satisfied now? he said and  Amelia approved with her head. Eugene released his energy, and his body became smaller again and his tale was once more transformed into legs, while his eyes took the old deep blue color Amelia so much loved.
What you saw is our classical appearance, said miss Windsroar, but please dont ask us to do that again. We hate that look.
You are right, it's pretty frightening. But, can I wish for something else.
Of course.
Amelia opened her mouth to spell a wish, but so many had gathered in her mind that she just couldnt pick one.
I want to enter  the lamp, she said finally, picking the last wish on her list
Hugh me, said Eugene.
Amelia approached and hugged him.
Now say the words I wish we enter the lamp
I wish we enter the lamp, she said, and their bodies, transformed into dust, entered the lamp. Upon touching the bottom of the lamp, their dust bodies were transformed into human flesh again and separated. Amelia cleaned her clothes with her hands like she wanted to get rid of the dust.
Here we are, said Eugene.
The space inside the lamp looked huge and infinite, and Amelia understood just how small they had become.
So, this is where you jinni live.
Not exactly, said Eugene, we use the lamp shelter as a temporary hideout when our lives are in danger, but most of the time we live in normal houses, like the Future Dead, do.
The Future Dead? Who are they?
The humans, said Eugene, thats how we call them because they are mortals and have no soul.
And what about the jinni, do they have a soul?
We have a Sabra, said Eugene, a kind of a soul. Each sabra has four elements: calmness, anger, love, and hate. The future dead call them feelings, but we jinni call them energy fields.Combined with the Magicnetics, our creative knowledge,the Sabra forms a powerful spiritual force that helps us to realize the wishes that you future dead ask all the time. The Sabra evolves into a second personality inside every jinni and becomes his true self. When the jinni dies, the sabra escapes his body, and becomes a free  soul.
 Eugene said something else about the Sabra, but Amelia paid no attention. She had just spotted a closed door and became curious.
Is that the exit?, she said and approached, but Eugene grabbed her from the hand.
No, he said.
Suddenly the voice of miss Windsroar echoed inside the lamp.
I am scratching the lamp now, she said, get ready to come out.
Ready to come, said Eugene.
Miss Windsroar scratched the lamp and they were both transformed into smoking tornadoes and thrown out of the lamp. In the rush, he had grabbed Amelia's hand so hard, that it hurt her.
You hurt my hand, she said, moving all the fingers to see if they still worked.
Forgive me, said Eugene, but inside the lamp, the time stops, and the jinni loses his powers, and he cant get out of there by himself''.
And someone has to scratch the lamp from the outside, to get you out, said Amelia,  I know that. It's just like in the fairy tales I have read about you.
Thats right, said miss Windsroar, and just like in fairy tales, if no one does it, the jinni will stay inside there for a long time. Some jinni whose lamps have finished in unreachable places have stayed inside their lamps for thousands of years before they were rescued. Others were not so lucky. Thats why we jinni are claustrophobic, and we rush out on the first chance we get.
Well, thank you for the rush, said Amelia. Since you are jinni, I guess you can realize a lot of more wishes of mine.
Eugene was going to do that, said professor Windsroar, trying to stop Amelias rush towards the wishes, he was instructed to befriend you, become your personal jinni, and perform his coming out in front of you''.
His coming out?
Thats what we call it when a jinni reveals himself. He bows in front of the master he has chosen, and the master grabs him from his pony tale accepting him as his personal jinni. Thats what Eugene wold had done. Unfortunately, Margoll appeared, and she destroyed your chance of having a jinni. It is dangerous to assign a jinni to a person who has brought a Darguard to life.
It wasnt my fault, said Amelia'', I didnt knew what Margoll wanted from me.
Of course, my dear, we are not blaming you at all. But, since you have been abused once, you will be the first person the Darguard will follow after he starts hunting. He will use you as a bait to reach to your jinni, and he will find him, and he will kill him.
And me?
Yes, right after him, said miss Windsroar.Darguards kill both the jinni and their masters, which they consider witnesses
Wait a second, said Amelia, you told me before that Eugene hasnt done his coming out yet. So, he is not my jinni, and I am not his master, and the Darguard has no reason to kill me? Right?
Wrong, said professor Windsroar, he will kill you anyway. As I already told you, you are now a witness..
But I brought him to life, said Amelia desperately, That makes me his mom, in a way.
He has only one mom, Margoll, and he will do whatever she tells him to do.
And what am I supposed to do?
You can hide for some time until the Darguard finds you, or you can come with us to Eljinn, said Eugene.Its the city of the jinni, the one you saw at the golden coin. Remember?
I remember, said Amelia, But I cant come with you. I have to go to school tomorrow.
You dont have to worry about school, said miss Windsroar, after all, you are not excelling there. Dont misunderstand me. I dont mean to offend you. I am just saying that kind of school is not for you, thats all. If you want to continue your education, you have to change school. We have a school at Eljinn, where we teach all the borrowed kids how to become future jinni. You can enroll there if you wish, and learn to use the magicnetic powers that the jinni have. This is your chance for a new beginning, she approached Amelia and put both of her arms on the little girl's shoulders, trust us, Amelia.
Her eyes shined kindness.
I trust you, said Amelia, and I will come with you, but what will happen to my father? I cant leave him here with Helga. She will feed him to her flowers.
Dont worry, said miss Windsroar , we will find a dissent place for him.
We can send him to the  Oldin asylum, where we have send other parents before,  said Eugene.
Yes, thats the best solution for this case.
So, we both have to leave this house in the end, said Amelia.
He will be treated kindly there, said miss Windsroar.The asylum is in a safe area, and is run by our friends, the Oldins.She put out a list with signatures, written in a language unknown for Amelia, and said  There is one empty place at the end of the list. Sign up, come with us, and start a new life in Eljinn.
Amelia signed and saw the letters of her signature changing places with each other, and doubted again.
 Dont worry, said miss Windsroar, it's just anagram. We use it to protect your signatures  from being copied. Eugene, take the father..
Eugene went to the other room, grabbed a sleeping mister Winehouse, and walk out. Amelia and miss Windsroar followed them. Once outside, they opened their carpets and jumped into them. But Amelia didnt want to jump. She was scared and wondered if the carpet would keep her weight.
Come on Amelia, said Eugene, it's very easy. Just put your right leg into the carpet, and the left will follow.
Was it really so easy? Worth a shot anyway. She followed the advice, and put only the right leg into the carpet. Unexpectedly the left followed by itself, and then her whole body was lifted in the air. Before she could understand what was happening, she found herself into the carpet, next to miss Windsroar. Fear evaporated. The idea of losing the balance, slipping and falling into the ground, had all gone. It was strange but looked like the carpet possessed a kind of magnetic field. She felt attached to it, like they had become one, and didnt felt the need to be grabbed by someone to stay in it. They flew away, and Amelia turned her head back to catch the last glimpse of the house who was becoming smaller all the time.
It took half hour to reach the asylum of Oldin. Once they arrived, they were surrounded by some very old people with long white hair and stretched to the ground beards. They didnt talk and everything was brief. Miss Windsroar delivered the father to them,  and Amelia didnt even had the chance to say goodbye to him. Looked like everyone was rushing. She didnt even had the chance to spot the asylum itself. Only after they departed, she took a look underneath and saw an ancient building surrounded by walls. The only thing she would later remember from all this short encounter was that one of the Oldins kissed miss Windsroars hand before they separated.
Where are we going now?, she asked, and miss Windsroar replied to the airport, to catch the last flight.
They silenced for a couple of minutes, then Amelia said again: those people, the Oldins, they looked older than my father.
Yes, said miss Windsroar, they are older than your father and older than any future dead. Some of them are more than 300 hundred years old.
How is it possible they live so long?
Be patient my child, said miss Windsroar, you will learn everything in the appropriate moment.
When they arrived at the airport, upon entering the front gate, who resembled an arc of triumph with the columns covered in reliefs, one of the customs officers stopped them. Miss Windsroar and Eugene gave him their passports. When Amelias turn came, she looked at his face, and it was totally flat. His eyes, his nose, and his lips looked more like painted, and they were white. He looked and acted more like a pantomimist, rather than a custom officer. He approached his hand at Amelias face, then closed it fist and splashed it at a new passport, and gave that passport to Amelia. The passport was blue, and It had the mark J carved at the front page. When Amelia opened it, she saw her face stamped in one of the pages and realized what he had just done.
You took my face?, she said and touched her face with her hands to see if it was still there. The pantomimist officer responded with his hands in a way that meant  goodbye.
At the next stop, another pantomimist officer took her fingerprints, and a sample oh her hair, for which she strongly protested. Once they arrived at the door of the terminal, two guards with turbans and the mark J carved on them, crossed their spears. Miss Windsroar showed them the passports, and they moved aside in a mAmeliar that looked more like a ceremonial dance. Inside the terminal was full of kids. This where the famous borrowed kids that miss Windsroar had mentioned before. Some of them kept big bags on their shoulders, others had smaller bags, and the rest had only empty hands on their pockets. Amelia felt a great desire to mingle with them, but she was afraid of losing touch with miss Windsroar and Eugene. She looked around. The space was huge, with beautifully carved columns like those of a temple, and dazzling chandeliers. Dust was falling all the time from the chandeliers, a kind of gold dust that shined beautifully at the light of the chandeliers. It looked like golden rain, and some of the kids tried to gather a little bit of it with their cups and heats.
''This is amazing'', said Amelia to a nearby girl.
The girl smiled and then opened the umbrella to protect herself from the golden rain.
When all the borrowed kids had finally gathered, the siren of departure sounded and the crowd walked out into the airstrip, where two zeppelins had just landed. Amelia had never seen a zeppelin before, and she felt excited that they would fly on one of these legendary machines. At the door of the zeppelin,  a couple of guards like the ones they had encountered at the door of the terminal, appeared, and after a short discussion with miss Windsroar, and after they took the list form her, they stepped aside and all the borrowed kids rushed in. Half an hour later both zeppelins had departed, and the airport, the chandeliers, the terminal and the front gate with beautiful columns and reliefs, disappeared as they had never existed.


Chapter Five,The Genesis  of the Jinni

Inside the zeppelin, miss Windsroar separated from them and went up to the second floor. Amelia and Eugene decided to wait for her in the hall. The interior of the zeppelin was spacious, and there were a lot of chairs and tables for everyone, although the majority of the kids preferred to hang on the windows and enjoy the view below them. In an angle, there was even a bar where you could order drinks.
Just like a pub, said Amelia, and then added, all these kids separated from their families, their moms and dads, and yet so happy.
 Eugene didnt respond.
I wonder how do you choose them. Is there any criteria for being borrowed.
'None, for as far as I know, but we mostly choose unhappy kids, the abused, the neglected, the orphans and the adopted ones. Some rich lonely kids are also included, and believe me they are the ones who dont even think of going back.
Does it happen every year? The gathering, I mean.
No, said Eugene, only once in a hundred years. It's a chance for the unlucky ones to escape their malfunctioning world''.
A world like mine, said Amelia, the world of the Infamily. ''I beat you had a family like that too, that's why you escaped.
I dont remember much about my family, said Eugene, I was borrowed a long time ago. Sometimes I cant even remember the faces of my mom and dad, thats why I carry this picture with me, he put out a picture and handed it to Amelia. The picture was black and white and looked pretty antique. In it, there was a couple, dressed in an old fashion, with a little boy in the middle. On the backside of  the picture was the date  1865. How was my life back then, I dont know, but of course, it must have been awful since I was borrowed.
That little child is you I guess, said Amelia, and then looked at Eugene, and looked at the picture again. She could spot some similarities between the little child on the picture, with his classic hair cut, dressed in a nineteen-century fashion, and the guy in front of here with a ponytail hairstyle, dressed in blue jeans .You have changed a lot since then, but you havent grown up a lot. How old are you in this picture?
Five, I believe, said Eugene, maybe six, judging from my appearance. If I could remember my date of birth, I could say for sure, but I  have forgotten that too. It happened a long time ago you know.
And how old are you now?
My age is one hundred and forty-three years, counting it from the day I was borrowed , said Eugene, and I have one hundred and twenty-two years that I serve as a jinni. I had nineteen masters until now, and I have realized twenty-two thousand wishes.
Amelia didnt like this kind of response, that looked more like a report. From the moment they had entered the zeppelin, Eugene had become less friendly and more formal, and somehow impatient. Something had changed between them, and the last response with numbers he gave fueled her suspicions. The boy clearly had a secret, one that Amelia would discover by the end of this journey.
'You remember your masters and their wishes, and you don remember your mom and dad. Have you ever visited them after you became a jinni?
'No, it's not allowed to visit your parents after you become a jinni. You can watch them from a distance or find a way to notify them that you are alive, like sending a telegram with no picture. But it wasnt always like this. Before the Darguards where created, the children could meet with their parents once in a while, and some parents were even allowed to visit Eljinn.
Really?
Yes, said Eugene, Even today some jinni visit their parents in disguise, and some of them have even kidnapped their parents, and brought them to Eljinn.
Is that still allowed, said Amelia, thinking of her father back at the asylum.
It is tolerated when it happens, but its only a one-way ticket. If an adult human travels to Eljinn today even by mistake, he gone a have to stay there forever. There is no going back for him.As you can see, we have so many rules and restrictions, but dont worry, they always change from time to time. Only one thing never changes, one thing is always allowed for a jinni: to participate at his parents funeral, under the disguise of course.
At that moment miss Windsroar reappeared. She kept a bottle with a blue liquid and three glasses.
Jinn tonic, she said, the one and only drink of the jinni. Come, let's take a seat.They took a table and three chairs and put them near a small window. Miss Windsroar opened the bottle and filled the glasses with its blue liquor.
Tell me something about Eljinn, said Amelia.
Don't rush so much, said miss Windsroar ,.In a couple of hours, you will see Eljinn with your own eyes. Meanwhile let me tell you the history of the Jinni: Everything started five thousand years ago when the long war between the angels and the humans ended with the victory of the humans. The great architect of the universe, Garu shortly, a God hidden behind his shadow, whos voice could be heard but face couldnt be seen, awarded the humans with a world of their own, called the World Earth. He transferred all the humans there, and then he created a giant bell and hanged it at the courtyard of his palace in heaven. It had a long rope, made with the hair of the humans, that stretched from the heavens, down to  World Earth. Each time the humans were in need of something, they pulled the rope, the bell ringed, and Garu would send his angels to help the humans. The angels, now lowered to simple slaves of the humans, and even forced to bow to them,  suffered harsh treatment from their new masters. They wanted freedom, and the only way to achieve it was to turn Garu against humans. Knowing how much the humans wanted to see Garu, they plotted a ****. Archangel Gadriel prepared a statue of clay, and offered it to the humans, saying to them  this is the image of Garu, made by him as a gift for you. Worship it, and the humans bowed in front of the statue. When Garu saw the humans bowing in front of a statue of clay and calling it their creator, he felt betrayed. He cut the rope of the bell, and the bell fell from the heavens down to world earth.
The sound of the impact was tremendous.  World Earth was shaken. The humans gathered around the bell, and they understood they had lost Garus protection. So, they decided to build a huge tower, reach the heavens, and put the bell back on its place. When Garu saw what the humans were doing, he ordered the angels to destroy the tower, something they did with great pleasure. He then hit the humans with all kinds of diseases. It was the start of the biological warfare against humankind that continues to this day. Although they suffered, the humans didnt change their minds, and for a reason Garu didnt understand, continued to worship the statue of clay. Then  Garu decided to give them the final punishment, make them mortals. He notified the angels that from now on, the humans would be called  Future Dead, since, as mortals, they had no future. As his next move, he melted down the iron ball at the center of world earth, transforming it into an erupting ocean of lava, and opened giant chimneys in the surface of the earth, from where the lava spread across the planet and devoured most of the humans. Only the lucky ones, mainly those awake, managed to escape. Chased at every step by the lava, they found refugee in high hills and mountains. When Garu saw this, he attacked them with hail from the sky. Many more humans died, and those who remained found shelter in caves. Still, the humans continued to worship the statue of clay, expecting help from it. When Garu saw the stubbornness of the humans, he decided to send among them his most trusted angel.
Margoll, said Amelia.
Yes, Margoll. He prepared a female human body for this angel and ordered her to fly to World Earth and mate with a man called Gog, a prophet who lived at the cold lands, and the last human  faithful to him. Garus plan, composed by his ten highest priests, was called The Clergy Plan.The aim was to create a new race of faithful subjects, to replace the existing infidel one. But, because Margoll was not a naturally conceived human, instead of giving birth to living creatures, she gave birth to thousands of giant eggs. Winter came fast that year, and the eggs, scattered all over the cold lands, froze and cracked. The starving future dead, who had migrated to the cold lands, to escape the lava, ate the cracked eggs and survived. When Garu saw what happened he ordered Gog and Margoll to abandon the cold lands, and move to the sand fields, in the eastern part of world earth. A garden was created for them near the sand fields, with all kinds of fruits, so they wouldnt starve. When the time came, and Margoll gave birth to her eggs, Garu ordered her to cover them up with the sand. The eggs hatched, and after a while, a new race of humans came out of them. Garu was very happy to see them. Finally, he had created the perfect race that will dominate the planet, and worship him day and night. Unfortunately for him, and his newborns once more he had made the calculations wrong. The new specie, although physically strong, was mentally dumb, and it couldnt be taught how to worship. Garu was disappointed. To make things worse, after living for a long time under the extreme heat of the sand fields, his new humans started to slip from dumbness to madness. Garu called this new race The Madgogs.He made them all mortals and decided to abandon them in the fate he had created for them. To free his conscience from guilt, he used his tools, Margoll and Gog, as scapegoats. They were banished from the garden and cursed. Margoll became an old ugly witch, while Gog was stripped from his post as a prophet, and was made a shepherd for the floating sheep, sacred animals dedicated to Garu.
Meanwhile, one of his angels who had just returned from the world Earth, reported that some future dead had acquired supernatural abilities, and they had used it against him, making him flee. Garu was impressed. As immortals, the humans were quite capable of beating an angel, but once they were stripped from immortality, their powers were reduced. Now suddenly they had regained their former strength. How had that happened? There was only one explanation: Someone must have taught them the secrets of the energy fields, locked in the books of his personal library at the havens. Garu suspected of angel Algadin, the old tutor of the humans. He send a team of angels on World Earth to find out the name of the traitor. In the meantime, he upgraded angel Algadin with a new higher position near his throne, to keep him on check. The team returned sooner than Garu had expected and informed him that the name of the traitor was Galadin. Since there was no angel Galadin in heaven, Garu suspected that this was a nickname or an anagram, created to hide the real identity of the traitor. The angels said that the followers of Galadin had built a temple on his honor, at the Hunchback hill, and were now organizing a pilgrimage. Garu ordered the Madgogs to attack it and exterminate them all. Although the followers of Galadin possessed some divine powers, they were still amateurs in using them. And, with only a few of them, against waves of Madgogs, the fate of the battle was sealed. The temple fell. Most of the followers were slaughtered and the remaining ones escaped.
For a thousand years nothing was heard of them until one day the spies of Garu informed him that the followers of Galadin had reemerged again. They where now living among the future dead, and were planning to create an alliance with them, to not fight alone in the next wars. They had given themselves the title Geniusis and had opened a school to teach the future dead a primitive form of writing and the art of storytelling, and to the most talented they even taught the secrets of the energy fields. Garu ignored them for some time, and the geniuses grew fast. After the school, they build a mountain temple and then a city around it, which, after a suggestion from a genius from Andalus, was named El Pais de Geniuses, or Elgen shortly.Development run fast inside Elgen and from all over the World Earth, the future dead send their children to the geniuses, and their numbers grew. The prestige of the city reached the heavens, and the angels started whispering against Elgen and the geniuses, calling them a threat to Garus throne. Garu, like every deity, valuated his throne higher than everything else, even above the lives of his creatures, for whom, he, of course, doesnt give a ****. Although worried by the whispering on his court, he needed proofs. As a proof, the angels mentioned the appearance of the flying carpet, the first flying vehicle the geniuses had constructed. It was made with the wool of the floating sheep, the sacred animals dedicated to Garu, that no one was allowed to touch. The wool was supplied to them by the shepherd, Gog. 
Garu was terrified. Now that the geniuses could fly, it wouldn't take long for them to reach the heavens. He ordered  Margoll to gather the Madgogs and attack the geniuses. Margoll responded that, with so few Madgogs remaining, and with the humans allying themselves with the geniuses, their armies will be defeated. The only way to beat the geniuses now, she said, was to turn the future dead against them. Garu liked the idea and got to work. First, he ordered his angels to kidnap three hundred children from the future dead and he enrolled them into his newly opened school of the prophets, to teach them the secrets of the energy fields. Once graduating, they were sent back on World Earth, to live among the future dead. They feed the hungry, healed the sick, and some times even resurrected the dead, something the geniuses couldnt do. At the same time, they blamed the geniuses for all the misfortunes of the future dead. If a future dead was sick, that meant a genius had invaded his body, and if he was mad, that meant a jinni had invaded his brain. Slowly the prophets made a lot of disciples among the future dead, and they recruited others and build a huge army with them. When the time came, the disciples ordered their army of future dead to attack Elgen, and exterminate the geniuses and their supporters. Fathers slaughtered sons, and brothers stabbed brothers, in an evening named afterward as the sunset of the betrayed.Elgen was destroyed, and the mountain temple was razed to the ground. Almost all the geniuses where massacred, and in the morning their bodies and their books were put on fire.
Nevertheless, a handful of geniuses managed to escape. They fled to another land, and build another city, which they called New Elgen.The world of the future dead, after losing the knowledge provided by the geniuses, sunk into the dark ages. The prophets became priests and rulers of the dark ages. But ''New Elgen'' survived and became a bright spot of civilization. The geniuses copied the old texts of knowledge and advanced them by inventing the magicnetics, the field that combines magics and telekinessis in one single art. To populate the city, they decided to borrow children from the humans, and so their number grew again. When Garu saw this, he understood he had failed once more, and gave up on the idea of exterminating the geniuses, and made a truce with them for 2000 years. He temporarily accepted their existence and their status as a  self-created middle class between the angels and the future dead. In exchange, he asked two things: first, the name of the traitor among his angels, and second that the geniuses change their own name since the title genius was only reserved for him, as the only creator. The Geniuses accepted the terms, and they revealed that the traitor who had supplied them with knowledge, was the long suspected Algadin. As a punishment, he was made a future dead, bound on a rock ,and everyday a vulture would come and bring him human flesh as his only food. Than the Geniuses changed their name to ''Jinni'', and called their city Eljinn. That was the day when the jinni were officially born. They promised Garu they wouldnt interfere into the world of the future dead, because that would erode his authority, and Garu ordered the angels to stop whispering against them.
Miss Windsroar stopped for a moment, took a deep breath, and drunk a glass of jinn tonic.
What happened next, said Amelia.
Both sides had no intention of keeping forever the promises they made. While the jinni needed the children of the future dead to grow their numbers, the future dead needed the knowledge of the jinni to develop their worlds and turn themselves into civilizations. The jinni taught the future dead how to dismantle the creatures around them and copy their abilities, which gave birth to technology. Finally, they helped them find sources of energy, like coal and oil, that would make this technology function. More advanced the future dead became, less they worshiped and prayed. In the end, technology killed the need for  God. Soon the future dead forgot about the jinni to since they no longer needed their knowledge of the magicnetics. Garu blamed the jinni for this development, and responded by creating the Darguards, using once more Margoll and her eggs,.He ordered them to hunt down all the jinni who would cross the border and infiltrate in the world of the future deads, and send the captured ones to the Nogo valley for immediate execution. So, from that moment the Darguards started chasing us, and we to run away from them.
Seems like cat and mouse game, said Amelia, and then added What happened to the Madgogs?
The majority of them were killed during the war against the jinni. Those who remained where ordered by Garu to mate with all the females they could get their hands on, and have a lot of children. One night, one of the Madgogs kidnapped a future dead female, and the other night he kidnapped another one. When these females came back after a couple of days, they said they were raped by the Madgogs. This horrified the people, and since there was nothing they could do to stop him, they took their belongings, sold all their properties and settled to another land. After some time, the girls that were kidnapped by the Madgogs gave birth to their children.When these children grew up, they showed the same attitude as their fathers. Thats why they were expelled from the village, and once more the villagers took their belongings, sold their land and settled somewhere else. But the Madgogs, driven by their sexual instinct, will follow them wherever they go. Their name is attached to the final prophecy.
The final prophecy? What does it say
The final prophecy says that one day the Madgogs and the Darguards will unite and attack Eljinn from the land, while the angels will attack us from the sky. They will kill all the jinni, and the middle class will cease to exist.
But you said Garu made a truce with the jinni, and he accepted their existence said Amelia.
Truce is not peace, said the teacher, its a pause. A calmness before the storm. Besides, the truce was only set for 2000 years, and we are already approaching the end of the timeline. We can only hope that Garu will extend the truce further.
And what happens if he doesnt?
'The prophecy will be ignited and another war will start, said miss Windsroar calmly.
Silence fell after these last words. Amelia drunk a little of the jinn tonic, then pushed it away and looked outside at the darkness around them.
All these stories of wars and massacres , she said after a while, and creatures who hunt you down, and want to burn you in sticks, all this life of yours that is about to be mine, it's making me change my mind now. I think I dont want to become a jinni anymore.
You are right to be scared, said miss Windsroar, but we like to see the positive side of our life. It's not all threats and dangers. There are benefits too. For example, the jinni lives longer than the future dead, and ages very slowly. Eugene is 143  years old, and he is still a teenager. Of course, we dont force you to become a jinni, if you dont want to. Just remember what Eugene told you about the sabra, the path to immortality, and the powers we have that are the dream of every human being. I am sure they are your dream to.Her voice was always kind, but Amelia wasnt convinced. Miss Windsroar, who had a lot of experience in recruiting children, understood the little girl needed more time to think, Now, she said, let me offer you another jinn tonic, and went at the bar to order the drinks.
Amelia didnt speak. Eugene drop the last jinn tonic on her glass. The little girl paid no attention. She had signed to travel to Eljinn and became a jinni, hooping for an adventurous life. The reality was now revealing to be a lot different. She pushed the glass and stood up.
Where are you going, said Eugene, and stood up to, but then sat down after Amelia signaled him with the hand to stay where he was.
Please, just leave me alone , she said, I need to think, and run away downstairs to the first floor, in the corridor and entered a bathroom. There was a broken mirror on the wall. She stared at herself for a long time and probably would have stayed there forever if the other girls wouldnt have knocked on the door. All in all, there were four bathrooms on the zeppelin, and every one had its own needs. She washed her face with cold water and got out. In the corridor, she saw a boy with a guitar on his hands. She approached. The boy was handsome, with blue eyes, golden hair and red cheeks. He looked just like the Russian poet Yesenin, whos books Amelia had started reading once.
Hi, she said.
Hi said the boy.e
Whats your name?
Sven, said the boy, Sven the Finn. I came from the lakes of Finland.
You were borrowed to?
No, said the boy, I volunteered, and he laughed, showing the wires on his teeth who looked pretty much like the wires of a guitar. Then he turned his guitar around, and Amelia saw there were  no wires on it.
What happened to the wires she said pointing at the guitar, did you put them on your teeth?
Maybe I did, said the boy and laughed again.
What is there to laugh about? Do you know that from now on you gone be hunted for the rest of your life?
Yeah, I know, said the boy laughing again,  And it's gone a be a long life. Cool, isnt it?
It's not cool, it's hot, and I dont expect you to understand the difference, said Amelia and went upstairs. Miss Windsroar and Eugene had not touched their new bottles of jinn tonics. They where sure waiting for her.
She sat down on her chair, took the glass of jinn tonic, and toasted with their empty glasses without saying a word. The atmosphere was icy, just like the cubes on her glass. She stared at the blue liquor for a while, then drunk it, and the ice broke.
I see you have finally decided to join us, said professor Windsroar, opening the bottles, 'it makes us very happy.
Amelia didnt respond. She had signed but had decided nothing yet.
Tell me something more, she said.
About what?
About everything. About the city, the school, about your life as jinni. I want to know everything.
Suddenly, she saw the guy with the guitar and said Hey you, volunteer, come stay with us.The boy found a chair, and he sat down, while Eugene stood up to order another bottle of jinn tonic.

{end of part one}

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