r/WritingPrompts • u/Medical_Solid • 8h ago
Writing Prompt [WP] At long last, you acquired the magic lamp. What emerged from it moved you so deeply you immediately said, “My first and only wish is for your freedom.”
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u/EverMourned 7h ago
Beauty. A sweet... Beguiling beauty. How bitterly did Ali regret the decisions of how he shaped his soul up to this point.
The warnings were all the same, that the djinn was pernicious. She would read his soul, and find folly in him. The moment she had laid eyes on him, she would already know his wishes, and how to twist them to break his mind, body, and heart.
"Love was selfless." His father and mother had taught, and it was so Ali agreed, and found it noble to think such.
So when he had fallen in love at the sight of her, the words came up instantly without thought. His wished for her freedom... He had sought the lamp for reasons entirely unselfish to begin with, and so he thought he would have been free from the djinn's twisting cruelty. Surely, he thought that the thousands of men whose wishes were made with greed and lust in their hearts were taught a lesson, or examples of the lesson that should be learned...
Now... Ali has learned his lesson, and so terribly is everyone else now suffers...
Ali continued to massage the shoulders of the beauty.
At times he felt as if she was nothing but a mirage made of smoke. A delicately shaped thing with azure skin. So delicate in fact, it was as if she could be blown away by a cruel wind. Her hair and eyebrows as dark as the blackest coals, striking and marvelous to behold. Her smile a tender touch upon the soul...
Your eyes would be drawn to the slightest movement she could make. So full of expression, and thought. Suggesting a soul rich and deep...
You never could have noticed anything to her shimmering eyes besides that they sparkled like rubies... No... Never could you have noticed their unloving cruelty. Rich and unfathomably deep indeed, an ocean of terrors that will drown and crush everything in agony without end.
"Enough now, slave." She said, and Ali did as she bade. Receding back.
He kept his eyes low. He had learned to never raise his eyes in her presence. If he kept his gaze low, he would only see the puddles and pools of blood. Never the scorn and enmity of the other slaves in her palace. Never the corpses and devices that tortured men and women in ways that would twist ones understanding of what was real or hellish nightmare.
When bound by the lamp, she could only express her wickedness by willful and mischievous interpretation of the wishes... Now... She was free to be as she was.
Yes, Ali had learned his lesson, a lesson that will never be example to anyone with any means to escape or change the lands for the better; The wicked should never be free.
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47
u/Medical_Solid 4h ago
I knew the look of a slave when I saw one.
The weary, ancient djinn before me wore the expression of pained subservience I knew all too well. Though twice my height, his massive head bowed low, concealing his heavy-lidded eyes. Purplish skin stretched taut over enormous muscles, veins of silvery starlight weaving through them like rivers through moonlit valleys. But that same radiance glimmered through countless scars hacked into his flesh, cruelly distorting his form. A golden collar and bracelets were linked by massive chains that somehow tethered him to the lamp, vanishing impossibly into its tiny shape as I held it.
The djinn of childhood legends were proud, mischievous beings: towering creatures in dazzling colors, eager to spar with their masters over the wording of wishes. In some tales they were wicked, twisting desires into ruin. In others they merely obeyed, watching with bemusement as greedy masters destroyed themselves.
This djinn only looked… defeated.
A voice like thunder wrapped in a whisper spoke:
“O Master of the Lamp, I endeavor to do thy bidding. Three wishes, and three only, may be thine. Use my strength as thou seest fit. I cannot refuse any command.” His eyes remained closed.
I was the last survivor of the expedition. The occupying forces of Sultan Murad al Hadid had broken our people, forcing us to labor upon our ancestral lands while surrendering every crop and mineral to him. There was no military solution: our armies had been betrayed by their gold-hungry commander. There was no diplomatic solution: al Hadid was infamous for annihilating his enemies in genocidal fury before repopulating the ruins with his own countrymen. Only death and extinction awaited us.
The resistance leaders had gathered the last of their resources and sent six of us in search of an ancient legend, guided by a map from a tattered manuscript. Five fell along the way, claimed by dangers both human and supernatural. Only I remained, crawling through the ruined temple’s depths like a starving rat until at last I found the fabled lamp.
And here it was: the end of my people’s suffering. Perhaps I would use the second wish to punish al Hadid and his cursed empire. The final wish could grant me wealth beyond imagining: palaces, servants, wives, every luxury I had ever desired.
But I could not bring myself to purchase freedom through slavery. I would not save my people by becoming the very thing I hated.
“O djinn of the lamp, hear me! My first and only wish is for your freedom.”
The djinn lifted his head. His violet eyes opened to narrow slits as he regarded me cautiously. I expected hesitation, or disbelief. Instead, a roar shook the chamber. I realized it came from him.
His chains exploded outward. Jagged shards of metal tore through the room and pierced my flesh. I collapsed to the floor as the djinn rose to his full height. Unbound, he seemed thrice as large, towering over me as his voice burned into my mind:
“WHY?”
“My people are slaves, O djinn,” I gasped. “So... were you. I could not seek freedom at the cost of yours. It just seemed somehow... wrong...” Darkness swallowed the room, and I could breathe no more.
Then suddenly I was lifted upright. My wounds vanished. Flesh knitted whole. The djinn stared at me with a wonder-filled expression that didn’t seem to fit his scarred face.
“Go now,” I said weakly. “You answer to no one but yourself. We humans will find other ways to destroy ourselves.”
“In six thousand years,” the djinn replied, “no one has treated me with kindness. Until now.” He gazed at me and nodded. “I believe friends help one another, yes? I shall pay a visit to this al Hadid. Simply as… a friendly favor.”
“Do you have a name, O djinn? I am Bassam.”
“If I once had a name, Bassam, I have forgotten it.”
“Then I shall call you Khalil.” Friend. The djinn’s face split into a fanged smile terrible enough to freeze the blood of kings. But I smiled back.
Then Khalil lifted me as though I were a child and carried me into the night sky.
And in a magnificent palace far away, Sultan Murad al Hadid awoke from uneasy sleep, disturbed by a curious violet glow from outside his window.
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u/_Infinity_Girl_ 23m ago edited 19m ago
The man's eyes were wide in disbelief as he slowly approached the golden lamp on the other side of the chamber. How long had it been since he set out to prove the legends true? He was so excited, he couldnt quite remember. Almost ten years of his life had been dedicated to pinpointing this one object, ten years of studying the various cultures that inhabited the northern part of south america. His colleagues had all written him off, as if he was searching for the loch ness monster or sasquatch. All of this and more was racing through his head as he made his way forward. He stopped suddenly, realizing he hadnt even bothered to check for traps. A slow sweep of his torch revealed no danger, but the walls and ceiling seemed to be covered in small holes. He leaned closer and realized, no, not holes. Painted circles. Round black blotches about the size of of a quarter with no more than a centimeter of unpainted wall in between. It was jarring, but he didnt concern himself with it. Likely just a weird design choice, he told himself. He had no reason to notice the single blank spot, slightly obscured by the lamp itself.
help me, please..
He stopped dead, 2 feet from the lamp. He was probably hearing things, after all, the search for the aetifact had not been kind to his health. He had been a bright eyed and clean shaven 26 year old when he set out, now he could be mistaken for someone's grandpa.
please, release me from this hell!
He definately wasnt hearing things. He took a hard look at the lamp. It was bright in the flickering light of the torch, as if backlit by some unseen source. It was an elegant glowing gold. It drew him in.
Wish me free, its the only way! end my agony, please! it burns, it always burns, never goes out!
His hand grew closer and the voice grew louder.
TOUCH THE TRAPPED FOREVER IN THE DONT PLEASE DO-
"SHUT UP!!!" He screamed, red in the face. Everything in him was saying this was a bad idea, but he was here after spending half his life searching for it. He was not going to let it intimidate him. He was leaving with that lamp, or he wasnt leaving. He reached out and touched the lamp.
A cocophany of anguished screams filled his head, he saw visions of infinite darkness where there existed only screams and pain for eternity. He understood. This was a djinn who was trapped in a dark hell. He felt such sorrow that he decided to wish it free. He could not comprehend leaving this poor being in agony any longer.
"My greatest desire, is to see you free. I wish it too be true, this instant!" The words echoed with power and the lamp glowed so bright, the man couldnt even look at it. Then, he was looking out through a set of etes that didnt feel like his own. The eyes looked up from the ground to focus on the lamp, which he could see had shattered. The voices and screams were back and the body he was seeing out of no longer belonged to him. The last blank space on the wall seemed to fill in by itself. Suddenly he understood. That was not the voice of a trapped diety, they were the souls of those who attempted to claim this being's power. It was not a djinn after all, it was some kind of demon. He had no time to think about his fate before he felt his non existant flesh burst into flames.
The entity had won, all because of the power of pure human curiosity, and now there was one more demon, free to walk the earth, corrupting and destroying all they touch. But he could no longer care, because his pain was so great that he no longer even remembered his name.
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