Genie Chronicles - Gemini Epilogue

In flew the white light displacing the green, "to you John I grant permission and knowledge, to design and build a vessel to contain your offspring."

John thought for a moment before realizing that meant the djinn he and Rose had created that wild night.

"Is the djinn not happier free, would it not find being with it's own kind preferable?"

The white light replied, "it has chosen a vessel, it has knowledge of the bond between you and your djinn, of your benevolence and kindness and it hopes one day to be freed and claimed by a master such as you, the only rule is that once you have the vessel and the djinn is placed within, you can never open the vessel, it is yours to gift to whomsoever you deem worthy."

"I thank you," John replied his mind already awash with complex engineering ideas for how to create a tricky puzzle, the djinn although born fully grown and capable was still his offspring, he wanted to insure it's future and he decided the more complex the design the more likely the genie's master would be of great wisdom.

The blue light displaced the white and spoke clearly, "to you John I grant perception, that which resides in the corners of your vision and the recesses of your awareness will be known fully to you as usable information. John shook his head a little and felt as though he'd taken one of the pills from Limitless, although he wasn't accessing his subconscious as easily he just felt more aware of his surroundings.

The golden light hung in front of him but didn't move to him like the rest had, "my gift to you John is this meeting, a magic is in force, that prevents us from interacting with you in any other way and to interact like this requires a large amount of energy, this I happily expended as it was for you that we came, however my entire energy is directed at maintaining this contact, therefore we can only wish you well on your future journeys and remind you once more of our gratitude for all you have done, John Arthur Hardra, good bye.

The lights slowly faded, then the sky darkened, the air turned black, the grass turned black, everything turned black until nothing but black existed around John, everything was still and he felt the experience was over.

He opened his eyes.

His hands were in the pockets of his old leather biker jacket, it didn't seem strange that it had just appeared on top of his other clothes, it was a decent quality jacket that had set him back £95 and he'd bought it when he got his first proper job, he'd grown into it since his late teens.

The skies were awash with rouge, violet and indigo, a few purple-grey clouds hung in the sky and the sun augmented all the colours, bathing everything in a golden finish.

He turned on the spot, walking up the polished black granite steps towards the door of what looked from the outside to be a cathedral, he walked between vast white marble classical columns each with a thickness double that of those incorporated into the exterior of the British museum. These columns stretched up for what could equate to eight stories on a regular office block and the capitals were decorated with nude sculptures, he hadn't seen the inscription across the gable.

He approached the large doors, clearly wooden but covered in a lilac lacquer and embossed with ornate golden patterns, various archaic symbols for fertility, love, passion, health and loyalty, the doors tapering to a Gothic arched point and at their highest were six metres high, the hinge edges being a metre and a half less than that and the span of the door frame was four metres. The door itself was framed by an arch made from whale bones inset into the wall and adding a Celtic or ancient Scandinavian edge to it.

He never saw how the doors opened nor for some reason was he bothered by any of this, the imposing nature of the building crossed with it's strange amalgamation of architectural styles should have made him stop but he didn't as he leisurely stepped inside, crossing a spacious narthex he noticed off to both sides were ovoid pools, obsidian statues of mermaids occupied the centre of each pool.

Emerging in what appeared to be the vast nave of a huge gothic cathedral, John was dwarfed. On either side was a row of sixteen gothic pillars twenty metres tall and supporting gothic arches that added another ten, eight metres separated each pillar from it's neighbour, constructed from what looked like marble but the colour wasn't natural to any rock he knew. The pillars and the immense arches they supported which crossed the ceiling like the ribs of a great sea monster were of the deepest bloody crimson, polished and shining and contrasting well the erotic paintings and provocative tapestries that hung between the pillars, flanking the main aisle.

He walked, not once getting distracted by the sheer scale and grandeur of his surroundings towards the point where the transepts opened off, however at the far side of this crossing point where the nave should have continued into the choir stalls and towards where the alter should have been a wall existed instead.

The wall was made up of the same grey stone blocks that constituted the main walls of the building, stretching to the ceiling some twenty-five metres above, where the ceiling was lower than that of the nave and steps lead up to a door four metres by four metres and perfectly square, this one constructed in a similar fashion to the main door but lacquered in red. The design on it was a large circle, simple but appearing to represent nothing obvious.

The wall above it housed an immense banner with another simple design on it, what appeared to be a very simplistic drawing of an hourglass, on close inspection appeared to be two overlapping triangles.

As he approached the door, it opened again by some unseen force and again he seemed to walk, almost float through the doorway and into a darkened room, the stone walls either side hung with candles that could offered a kindly and warming light to those who walked this way, apparently avoiding the harsh glare of artificial lights although there was evidence that whoever occupied this room and indeed the people who utilised this entire building had access to modern and even advanced technology, however at this time the candles lining the corridor weren't lit.

At the end of this corridor the room opened out into a round chamber, off to the right was a large and ornately carved desk, with owls, falcons, rooks and magpies carved into the attached shelves and a lectern, behind this were book shelves and on the desk appeared to be meticulously kept records, of what he couldn't tell. Directly beside it was an alcove, the vertical sides of which were carved with Cobras and either side were statues of tigers, they were bigger than real tigers, much bigger, indeed their eyes though made of stone seemed to follow him.

Directly in line with the doorway was a large wooden chair, clearly a throne and flanking it were two more of identical ornamentation, the thrones all incorporated roses throughout their carvings, where the roses twisted together they were coloured, always one red, one white and one black. Hanging atop each throne was a crown, they too were identical, indicating the equality of whoever occupied the thrones, similarly beside each was a sword again identical and again decorated with roses.

Flanking the thrones were two alcoves, the stone carvings above them depicting a raven and a bat, in one was a longsword and hanging up in another was a gun-belt containing a pair of large revolvers.

Off to the left was a long table, above it were barrels of beer, wine and apparently mead, on the table itself were jugs of water as well as colourful foods, meats, fruits, along with tankards for the beer and goblets for the wine, each of them a unique piece, ornate and lavished with engravings and jewels.

His perception became more real suddenly as he looked around the room, picking up on the wall behind the thrones not being completely solid as he first thought, coming out beside each alcove was a two metre wide corridor, where these corridors would lead he didn't know, but he moved forwards with some enthusiasm to investigate he got no further than the centre of the circle...

John's eyes fluttered open and he breathed heavily, there was weight on him and he realized he'd been dreaming, now he was back in his bed with his five women, it was still dark, the moonlight streaming in through the window and settling across the beautiful nude forms that slumbered there, he placed a kiss on the heads of Rose and Hazel before sinking back into his pillow and going back to sleep.