likesfootnotes | 4th footnote [text] how to dismiss your djinni 101

Unleashing a horde of hawks upon the Keep gains you marks for creativity, but you are missing the mark by a substantial degree if you think that raptors alone could rid you of my enchanting presence.¹

Obviously you lack the intellectual fortitude to assess the means by which to free me and gain some peace. As a being of magnanimity, I will offer you a tip to help you along this path:

There's nothing like a good dismissal incantation to scrub away my essence from this dismal plane.²

While all the magicians that I know to be present puzzle that one out, a query to the commoners: Has anyone seen a delightful orange squash with pleasant enough demeanour?

[aka: 'Djinni seeking nubile young pumpkin for long rolls on the beach and loud mocking of magicians.' Bartimaeus had good fun chatting with her before the wonderful Hallowe'en festivities. Yes. Wonderful. He had a good chuckle over it all.]

1 - Were I restricted to the form of a raven, this method could work. The key term here being 'were' for the fact that I am not restricted to just any form. I could, in fact, take your hawks and raise you a dual-horned, goggle-eyed dragon with a taste for feathers.

2 - Don't expect me to hand the answer to you on a silver platter. That unfortunate alloy aside, providing you magicians with the means to an end is the same as assisting you. I cannot allow this on a professional level, no matter how the ache of existing builds up. We spirits have certain rules and standards we hold ourselves to.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

On those grounds, whomever freed the hawks is diabolical indeed.¹ Are you a supporter of this genocidal, djinni-and-crow hating monster?

1 - Dual reasons to the deed do not erase the fact that the act of freeing the birds is rooted in cruelty. Humans may try to say that they have good intentions, but freeing a predator around prey is no act of kindness. This is why I prefer spirits - we may be conniving and backstabbing, but when we're called on it, we come clean and take credit for it.

First, I am not human. Second, it is the natural order of things that predators should eat prey. Or do you somehow think that a wolf and a deer will live together as friends? It is not cruelty, it is simply nature and life.

Try telling the deer that. I'm sure that the woodland creatures will take the news quite gaily and will prostrate themselves at the feet of the predators.

The deer already understand that. They all do. That does not mean they go quietly - it is also the nature of all things to strive for life.

But they know that they will be hunted. That is life and to break that cycle is t meddle with things humans aren't meant to meddle with.

Commune frequently with the deer, do you? It must be grand to be within the minds of all the frolicking creatures in the meadow.

And humans deign to meddle with everything, so what does it matter?¹ The more they meddle with other things, the more peace and quiet I observe.

1 - Why waste the effort to contradict one form of meddling when it will inspire them to indulge in another. Caging hawks is far less troublesome than a magician with no hawk and the time to summon a djinni instead. That's when the excrement hits the fan, as they say. Unpleasant business all around.

Occasionally. Enough to know their minds more than you.

And humans shouldn't meddle as much as they do. Peace and quiet are overrated.

And how have you managed that?²

Tell them that.

2 - Beyond your claim of being a non-human, which has been unsubstantiated. There are many things better proven than said and this is one of them. In the vein of things better said than proven, I submit every time that Jabor said he could eat me whole. Not only did he never get the chance to prove that, but it is just better that he never did.