Raider and the Lost Lamp

by Mythical Traveller
(mythmanxvi@hotmail.com)

CHAPTER I
For the first time in over a thousand years, light crept around the corner and down the ancient staircase. Panning her torch slowly around the wide hallway, eminent archaeologist and Tomb Raiding person, Clara Roft cautiously advanced. After briefly eyeballing the steps, she began descending them, heading towards a cobweb-covered wall at their base. As she came to the wall, she continued to direct her torchlight on it, while gently brushing the cobwebs away with her free hand, her parched but stillluscious lips slightly parted in an expression of the awe for what she beheld. "Magnificent!" she whispered to herself, as she admired the ornate carvings of elephants and camels, hauling stone blocks and carrying wooden logs. It appeared to be a depiction of the complex's construction. Clara shone her torch down the hallway. The passage appeared to continue for another hundred feet, before making a forty-five degree turn. Similarly engraved designs appeared to decorate both walls up to that point. Clara took two steps back, and took a photo of the wall with her heavy-duty digital camera. Being born into a wealthy British family ensured that Clara was never in want of the best equipment on her expeditions. As she removed her torch from the storage pocket on her belt and replaced it with her camera, Clara turned to face down the hall again. "Can't stand here all day admiring the work of the 9th century Persian engraver," she thought to herself. Her real prize lay in wait further ahead, assuming her research was accurate. After cautiously making her way to the turn she discovered that this next section of the passage proceeded perhaps fifteen feet before opening up into a huge circular chamber. As Clara advanced, she was surprised to discover that the chamber was quite well lit, due to a small opening in one wall that allowed the light to pour in. Basking in the sunlight, in the very center of the chamber, was an ordinary-looking stone pedestal, perhaps four feet in height. Clara let out a gasp of utter disbelief. On top of the pedestal was... Clara's attention was immediately drawn away by the sensation of the tile under her left foot sinking slightly under her weight. "Oh Blast!" she cursed as she quickly went into a forward roll, looking back just in time to see two massive wooden battering rams, suspended from the ceiling, collide at the point where she had been standing a split second ago. The ground shook and dust fell from the ceiling as the sound of the rams pounding together reverberated around the chamber. Clara looked on at the motionless boobytrap for a second, half catching her breath, half chastising herself for being so careless, before she began to hear the sounds of machinery going to work within the walls. A second later and the rams began to slowly swing back up towards the roof. "Resetting themselves for their next victim," Clara thought. "Or me, if I don't watch my step on the way out." Clara stood back up, and turned back towards the pedestal. Being extra careful where she stepped, she approached the pedestal, and the treasure on top of it. She could

scarcely believe what she was looking at. It was no more than three months ago that an archaeological team that she was with had stumbled upon the tomb of an ancient Persian noble and his princess bride. To the amazement of all present, writings in the tomb identified it as belonging to an Hal'hadin, or Alladin. Clara's colleagues scoffed at her when the discovery prompted her to suggest that perhaps there might be some truth to the ancient myth about a poor boy who was able to win a beloved princess, with the help of a genie. She began to do more research on the subject, which ultimately lead her here. Although, even Clara thought that it was unlikely that the myth held much truth. But now... could it really have been true? Could she really be looking at the fabled Alladin's lamp? As Clara reached the pedestal, she carefully scrutinised it. Her expertise told her that the pedestal was too mundane to contain any elaborate boobytraps. It should be safe to pick up the lamp. Treating it with every care that an artefact of its age deserved, Clara lifted the brass lamp from its resting place. The lamp looked just like any other oil lamp of the time, rather like an elongated tea-pot, with a removable lid, a handle, and a spout opposite. She noticed that on one side the lamp was indented with a shape that looked somewhat like an isosceles triangle, pointing down, with circles on it's two identical sides. Clara could not resist the temptation. She very gently began to rub the side of the lamp. Clara thought she must've been seeing things when the lamp's color seemed to lighten. She moved out of the sunlight, back into the shadows, and sure enough, the lamp was glowing dimly. Clara also became aware of a faint high-pitched whistle that seemed to be coming from the lamp, getting louder and louder. All of a sudden there was a blinding flash. Clara couldn't see a thing! She was certain she must've dropped the lamp, although strangely, she never heard it hit the ground. It was a few seconds before Clara's vision returned to her. Even then it was quite blurred, but it was clear enough for her to realise that she was no longer in the lamp chamber. Not being able to see the ground well enough to ascertain its safety, she stood perfectly still until her eyesight was back to normal. When her vision did recover completely, what she saw utterly mystified her. She was still in a chamber, equally as big as the one she was just in, but nowhere near as empty. The room was once again circular, with a domed roof. In the center of the chamber was a large wooden table, ancient Mesopotamian by design, but it looked brand new. On the opposite side, there was a matching chair, and in front of it a single place set for dinner. Off towards the wall in one direction was a beautiful circular bed, with transparent pink veils flowing down from the canopy above the very soft looking mattress, upon which rested several silky-looking cushions. Beside it on either side were two small wooden tables, and off to one side, a full-length mirror. Built into the wall, at equal distances were four ornate fountains. Three wooden bookshelves, two stocking papyrus scrolls, one half-stocked with books, all of which showed no signs of age, stood against the wall, almost directly opposite the bed. Beside them stood another table and chair, with an open book and ancient writing brushes and ink jars. Several more scrolls were scattered haphazardly on the floor around it. Incredibly, Clara noticed, the room was completely well lit, despite there being no discernible source of light. Even more incredibly, though, was that she could not seem to find the way she got in, or for that matter, how she was going to get out. "Best not to panic," she thought. "I've been in much tighter scrapes than this."

Clara looked up, and noticed that the majority of the domed ceiling was taken up with an exquisite mural, of what looked like a slave girl bowing before a throned queen. "Quite lovely, but no way out there," Clara thought. As she ran her focus along the floor she noticed it consisted entirely of a pattern made up of large ebony squares, separated by what looked to be strips of cedar, lacquered to a glossy finish, throughout. It was then that she noticed that her possessions, her torch, her wristwatch, her camera, her backpack and her two pistols were all lying on the ground around her... Her Feet! Those sure as hell weren't her climbing boots on her feet! They looked more like slippers. And her tatty shorts had been replaced with... were those pink silk pants? Frantically Clara ran towards the mirror. "You must be joking," Clara said aloud, with an obvious lack of amusement. She was dressed, head-to-toe in a traditional harem costume. A long transparent pink veil trailed over her hair, which was now bound in a waterfall-ponytail with a solid gold clasp on top of her head. A similar veil flowed behind her back and over her smooth creamy shoulders. Each of her wrists now had 3 gold bangles on them. A silky pink top covered her upper torso. Supported from inch-wide straps, it was tight enough to properly accentuate Clara's already attractive bust, without being uncomfortable. It was low-cut enough to display just the right amount of cleavage. Below her bare midriff were the silken pants, which Clara had hoped were just a hallucination, hanging loosely around her legs. Clara stood dumbfounded in front of the mirror for a few seconds, a look of utter dread upon her face. When the shock had subsided enough for something resembling rational thought to form within her mind, Clara decided that she needed to get out of this place, now! Before anything even more bizarre happened to her. She returned to the spot where her possessions were scattered. Throwing everything loose into her backpack, she got up and began circling the room. The walls were entirely made of shiny orange quartz, except for a dull grey sandstone section over on the other side of the room, that looked like it had writing on it. "It must be the exit... Or at least a clue to exiting," thought Clara, as she ran towards it. The script was a dialect of ancient Mesopotamian from millennia before the birth of Christ. Historically and geographically miles away from the time and place of the Alladin myth. "It doesn't matter," Clara thought to herself. "It's still a language I'm fluent in, and that's good enough for me." "Beauty and birthright you may have been given, but this door opens for neither," Clara read aloud. "I shall not bow to you before you bow to me. For common blood you would serve times three, but for me your service shall be unending." Clara noticed that in the middle of the wall section a shape was carved that was identical to the indentation in the lamp. "This door..." she repeated, "This door..." This had to be the way out. Clara pushed two fingers into the engraved shape, no luck. She tried pushing against the entire sandstone section, with two hands at first, then with her entire body, putting her full weight into it. Desperation was starting to overtake logic as the dominant force in her mind, and she walked away from the wall, only to turn around and shoulder barge it. She dislocated her shoulder and banged her head against the wall on impact, which, of course, did not budge an inch. Clara slowly slid down against the wall, until she was sitting on the ground with a sore shoulder and a

massive headache. "Clara, you stupid git, DO NOT try that again!" she said to herself aloud. It was only a few seconds before the pain in her head miraculously faded into obscurity. The pain in her shoulder also subsided, giving way to a strange tingling sensation. Then something really miraculous happened. Without any effort on her part, her upper arm moved and popped itself back in her shoulder socket. The tingling disappeared, and Clara waved her arm around, as if to make sure that she still had control over it. Clara now realised that despite the disturbing nature of the situation, she was going to need to be patient and think this one through. As her gaze wandered aimlessly around the chamber, she noticed, once again, the books and scrolls on the shelves. Perhaps the key to getting out lay in one of them.

CHAPTER II
Clara learned, all too late, the terrible inaccuracies in the legend of Alladin. Contrary to the story, the genie of the lamp did not help Alladin win the heart of a princess with whom he'd fallen in love. The genie was the princess with whom he'd fallen in love. The lamp itself was no mere storage vessel for the enchanted being, it was an ingenious trap designed to ensnare a victim, and then force them into magical servitude for anyone who subsequently rubbed the lamp. Hour after hour, Clara read through the ancient documents, first the scrolls, and then on to the books. Shifting between the 'writing desk', the main table and the bed, and occasionally back to the shelves when she'd finished another volume, Clara remained engrossed in what she was reading. Altogether, the volumes made up a journal of the lamp's last inhabitant, Zhiasa, written in her native dialect. Zhiasa was born crown princess of a wealthy kingdom in ancient Mesopotamia. Princess Zhiasa was much loved by her father, but apparently not so by her younger sister, princess Tukanni. It seemed that Tukanni was quite jealous of the attention that their father paid Zhiasa, as well as her inevitable ascension to the throne. It also seemed that Tukanni had secretly managed to become quite adept at the black arts. On the morning of her 22nd birthday, Zhiasa awoke to find a brand new oil lamp at the foot of her bed. It didn't look very expensive, so it probably wasn't a gift from any member of the royal family. "Perhaps a gift from an anonymous servant," Zhiasa thought at the time. As she examined the lamp, she found a single greasy spot tarnishing its otherwise shiny surface. Naturally she rubbed it off. "Three guesses at where this is going..." Clara said to herself sarcastically as she continued to translate the ancient Mesopotamian script. Moments later Zhiasa found herself in the very chamber that Clara was now trapped in. Although Zhiasa's initial account described the room as being completely bare, save for the section of wall with the taunting message. After several confusing and frightening hours alone in the large room, Zhiasa found herself dissolving (as best Clara could translate it) into Tukanni's presence in her sister's private bedchamber. Frantically Zhiasa tried to explain the situation to her sister, and beg for her help, but it wasn't long before Tukanni's amused smirk revealed to Zhiasa that her sister was somehow involved in her dilemma. What ensued was a bitter exchange, in which Tukanni revealed that she had enchanted the lamp, and used it to set the trap that Zhiasa had fallen into. "Why would you do such a thing?" an exasperated Zhiasa asked. "All my life I have watched you receive however much of father's attention you wish, while I have had to scrounge whatever scraps were left, like a common hungry peasant. Well from now on, dear sister, I shall feast on my father's love!" was Tukanni's embittered, yet boastful reply. "Father? You did this because of Father? He shall not let you continue this twisted game! He shall make you release me!" Zhiasa responded.

Tukanni chuckled, "My dear sister, how do you expect he will force me to do anything if he does not know that I have imprisoned you?" Tukanni removed an amulet from around her neck that she always wore and placed it within the indentation on the lamp, where it fit snugly. Both items shimmered briefly as they came into contact. Obviously, Tukanni's amulet was part of the enchantment too, Zhiasa thought. Then Tukanni spoke in a commanding tone, "It is my order that you shall never allow yourself to be seen by father. Furthermore, I order you to never allow yourself to be seen by any of the palace servants or guards." Zhiasa cringed as an internal voice told her that she must not disobey her master's commands. After several more minutes of taunting, Tukanni dismissed Zhiasa back into the lamp until she was resummoned. The scrolls then went on to describe Tukanni's amulet in more detail. A gift from their deceased mother, it was a jewel-encrusted charm in the shape of a lotus with two buds. "The symbol of royalty among ancient Mesopotamian cultures..." Clara thought. Zhiasa continued on, discussing how doubly upsetting it was that her sister had used a gift from their mother in this horrid plan to divide their family. She then wrote about how she'd learned, from various remarks her sister made during the first few years of her enslavement, what part the amulet played in this whole ordeal. It seemed that the spell Tukanni used to enchant the lamp only required its captive to obey three commands per master. When the amulet was placed against the lamp, however, the lamp didn't keep count of how many wishes the owner had made, thereby granting the owner infinite wishes, in theory. Zhiasa then went on to speculate that the amulet might also fit within the shape carved in the sandstone section of the wall of her lamp chamber, and might therefore be the key to her freedom. During these early years of her imprisonment, Zhiasa also learned about the magical powers that the lamp had bestowed upon her, mainly by granting the incredible wishes her sister made. But she also discovered that she had ceased aging, and she assumed, therefore, that she had become immortal. In addition, she realised that she could use her vast powers to her own ends, so long as she didn't disobey any of Tukanni's orders. Zhiasa conjured furnishings in her prison to make herself more comfortable, and to overcome her boredom, she conjured writing implements and began keeping a journal. Clara realised the implications of this, and decided to see if she had received similar powers. As she sat up in the bed, Clara concentrated on making a hi-fi appear against the wall nearby, waving her fingers theatrically in that direction. In a poof of smoke, an expensive looking hi-fi set-up, complete with speakers, appeared in the location Clara designated and immediately began playing some well orchestrated Bach. "Splendid," Clara smiled, pleased with the success of her first attempt at magic. She leaned over, trying to get a look at the rear of the appliance. "Ah, I see I got the model with no power cord... that ought to pay for itself when the electric bills arrive," she said as she returned to the scroll she'd been reading, this time with some pleasant background music. The next section of Zhiasa's journal went on to describe Tukanni's cruelty, and Zhiasa's growing hatred for her captor. Zhiasa began to wish her sister dead, but could not act on her desires, as Tukanni had added a safeguard to the entrapment spell that

forbade Zhiasa from ever killing or even harming another person. On one occasion Zhiasa tried to rip the enchanted amulet from around her sister's neck before Tukanni could react. Upon touching the amulet, Zhiasa was flung across the room, by a burst of magical energy. Dazed, Zhiasa heard her sister howling with laughter. "You fool, Zhiasa! she taunted. A genie can not steal from its master!" Six years after she fell into Tukanni's trap, Zhiasa became instrumental in Tukanni's marriage to a handsome prince from another kingdom. Tukanni had to compete against many other princesses who wished to marry the prince. Against her will, Zhiasa cast spells of lust on all of Tukanni's rivals. Within months, all of the other princesses fell pregnant with children fathered by common palace servants, making them unacceptable fiances for the prince, and severely embarrassing several royal families. The next few scrolls continued describing the immoral deeds that Zhiasa was forced to do over the following years. Then Zhiasa wrote about the worst day of her enslavement. As their father lay on his deathbed, Tukanni sat by her father's side holding his hand. Zhiasa sat on his opposite side, but because of Tukanni's first order, she was invisible to him. She tried to hold his hand, but hers passed through his as if she was made of thin air. With his dying breath, the old emperor said tearfully, "Oh my dear daughter Zhiasa! How I wish I knew what became of you! If only I could've seen your face one final time..." As the emperor passed on, Tukanni stared at her sister, her eyes burning with rage. Even after all these years, she had still not been able to topple her sister's position as their father's favourite. Showing no sympathy for Zhiasa's heartbreak, Tukanni ordered her to return to the lamp and sit in a vat of boiling oil until she was next summoned. It was ten months before Tukanni needed Zhiasa's services. Tukanni's reign as queen was a bloody one. She invaded and conquered many neighbouring kingdoms, always using Zhiasa to assure victory. The evil queen seemed unstoppable, until she was murdered by her husband, when she discovered his adultery. So began Zhiasa's journey of bouncing from master to master, it began with the palace chamberlain who accidentally discovered the power invested in a lamp belonging to a long-dead queen. But since none of them possessed the magical amulet, they only received three wishes a piece before Zhiasa returned to her chamber within the lamp. Most of the wishes became terribly predictable. Money, power, the ability to seduce any member of the opposite (or on occasion, the same) sex. Occasionally she would grant a master immortality. Clara continued through the final scrolls that recounted how the lamp travelled through the millennia from the hands of palace staff to thieves and antique dealers. During these years, Zhiasa learned some of the more obscure rules of her imprisonment. For example a new master could not take control of her until her current master had had his or her three wishes granted (or died). It also became apparent the she could fall asleep for decades, if she chose to, so long as nobody rubbed her lamp. Zhiasa was also greatly relieved to discover that no master could compel her to unwillingly give away her body. Sex held a great deal of magical and spiritual significance to ancient cultures, and apparently not even Tukanni's magics were powerful enough to turn Zhiasa into a full-blown sex slave. That being said, Zhiasa

had no reason to believe she could not take a lover of her own volition. She was very grateful for this aspect of her enslavement, as many masters had lusted after her in harem outfit and tried to take advantage of her. By the time of Christ, Zhiasa had discovered that man had invented books. This became a handy new way to keep her journal. In what Clara worked out was the second century AD, Zhiasa's lamp came into the possession of a neurotic Persian sultan. Having made his first two wishes, for an army ten thousand men strong, and the unwavering love of all his subjects, the sultan became relentless in asking Zhiasa about ways he could ensure that she would not fall into the hands of his enemies once his third wish was granted. Zhiasa was unable to give the sultan an answer that seemed to satisfy him. Eventually he made his third wish, for a hundred beautiful wives, and Zhiasa was drawn back into the lamp, oblivious to what the sultan then did with it. It was six hundred years later when she discovered that he'd hidden it deep within a cave. Her next master was a skinny young man. He was dirty and dressed in tattered clothing, but Zhiasa could tell that there was a handsome face under the grime. He had stumbled upon the lamp quite by accident. Zhiasa would later learn that this young man was a poor street urchin from a nearby city. Forced to steal to survive, he had become an extremely adept thief, which had recently caused the city guards to become more interested in him than he would've liked. He decided to hide out in a cave in the mountains just outside the city until the heat blew over. With little else to do to amuse himself, he decided one day to explore the depths of the cavern, and naturally, discovered the lamp. Zhiasa wasn't surprised by her master's first two wishes: A grand palace (although the young man didn't specify it coming with servants, Zhiasa generously included them in the wish), and vast riches. It also didn't come as a surprise to Zhiasa that, after hastily making his first two wishes, the young man decided to put a great deal of thought into what his third and final wish should be. So many previous masters had done exactly the same. For several weeks the young man basked in the luxurious palace lifestyle that he'd spent his whole life dreaming of. He paid Zhiasa little attention, but he allowed her to roam the palace freely. Zhiasa was grateful to not be cooped up in the lamp all the time, and she couldn't help but admire her own handiwork - it really was a beautiful palace. Then her master began to take interest in her again. In the privacy of his large personal chamber they would talk. At first he questioned her about the capabilities and limitations of her powers. But then things changed, it started with him complimenting her on the wonderful palace she'd made for him, something she was unaccustomed to. Then they began to talk about themselves. He would talk about his harsh life growing up as an orphan on the streets, and about how he would always dream of living in a palace one day. She would talk about her own past, about happier days when she had a family, before her sister had shown her true colors. Eventually, she would also talk about the circumstances of her enslavement and what happened thereafter. Zhiasa often found it hard to talk about, and many times she reached a point where she didn't want to continue discussing it. But her master never pressured her, and for that she was grateful.

Soon she began to realise that she was happiest when she was with her master, and tried to maximise the amount of time that she spent with him. Then one day he shocked her by asking her to call him Hal'hadin (a name that would be mis-translated over the next thousand years to Alladin, Clara thought to herself). Zhiasa could scarcely believe that her master had asked her to refer to him by his first name, like an equal. When she asked him why she had been granted this honour, her heart was greatly warmed to hear that it was because he considered her to be a friend. Clara quickly thumbed through the next few pages of the journal, and it became clear to her that Zhiasa and Alladin didn't remain 'friends' for too long. The name Hal'hadin replaced the Mesopotamian word for 'master' for only a few pages of the journal before it in turn was replaced, with the Mesopotamian word meaning 'my love'. Clara skipped back a few pages to try and discover how things between Zhiasa and her master moved to the next level. "I am in love!" the journal read. "Last night I was unable to contain the affection I've secretly held for my master and love any longer. I declared my love to him and he declared his to me! I am so happy! It all began as we strolled through the palace gardens in the moonlight together. We talked of many things, as we normally do, and then Hal'hadin began complimenting me, at first on my hair, and my eyes and my smile. Then he began to speak of how much he enjoyed my company. It was not my place, I know, but I could not contain my feelings any longer. I pulled him to me with my magic and began to kiss him on the lips passionately. Though I was elated by the thrill, I was also alarmed by my own audacity for but a moment, before I realised that my love had wrapped his arms around my back and was returning my kiss with equal passion. We kissed and embraced for but a brief while before my love suggested that we went to his personal chamber. I instantly transported us there, and it was there that we made love." "Tsk, Giving it away at the tender age of eight thousand. Some women have no selfcontrol," Clara chuckled to herself sarcastically as she continued to read. "Once in the chamber, we began to kiss again. I wrapped my legs around my love and he carried me the short distance to the bed. Then he let me down, and I began to raise my arm, to cast a spell that would make my clothing disappear, but my love grabbed my hand and said, "No. Please, allow me... I smiled and turned my back to him. I delighted in every sweet sensation as my love undressed me. As he unclasped and untied the various bonds that held the clothes to my body, one by one, he ran his gentle hands across my body. He slid one hand up along my waist to cup my breast. Later he moved his other hand down my waist and behind me, to squeeze one of my buttocks. Later again, his hand trailed slowly across the front of my waist, then dove down, over my silken pants, to caress the outside of my womanhood with but a single stroke, while one finger pushed but the slightest amount of the silken material into my outer lips. And all the while he continued to loosen my clothes and lay kisses on the nape of my neck. The suspense was at the same time wonderful and excruciating... Clara was amused, if a little shocked at how graphic this journal was becoming. "I suppose it was an event she wanted to save for posterity," she thought, "and she did

the best she could in an age before camcorders." Clara also figured that Zhiasa never planned on anyone else being sucked into the lamp, and assumed that her private journals would remain just that: private. Clara continued to read the journal with an amused smirk. Despite the fact that she was alone, she subconsciously felt compelled to conceal the fact that she was getting aroused by the story, herself. "For the first time I found myself becoming wet. Soon I felt the last straps securing my bustier become untied. I turned around and kissed my love on his lips, as he pulled the loose garment from my body, leaving my breasts exposed. Then our kiss broke, and my love began lay a trail of kisses down my neck and chest. Meanwhile, his hands, which had been gliding up and down my spine, travelled over my flesh to other areas, all the while pushing waves of pleasure in front of them. One hand settled into a circular pattern of caressing around my butt and hips. The other came around to knead and massage one of my breasts, in which a new level of pleasure was swiftly building." Clara continued to read intently, unconsciously trailing two fingers up and down the side of the vee of her own sex. "My other breast was also being attended to. My love had kissed his way from my sternum to my nipple. There he began to suckle on my breast, and trace circles around my nipple with his tongue. Occasionally he would stop doing this to nuzzle my breast with his entire face, while proclaiming how beautiful he found me. But his lips would soon be planted on my breast again. My nipple quickly grew incredibly hard. The delightful tingling that came whenever my love ran his tongue over it was so exciting. It caused a warmth to well in my breast that radiated throughout my entire body, and I could feel my womanhood becoming very moist." Clara herself was beginning to feel slight signs of moistness, and her fingers were now tenderly stoking up and down her labia. "I had never known delights like the ones my love was giving me at that time, but I knew that so much more laid just ahead. My love ceased his suckling and moved his hands to my hips. Then, while kissing my belly once or twice, he slowly removed my pants, dropping them around my feet and leaving me all but naked. I could smell my own arousal now. I never knew that arousal had a smell before. My love moved his face to my wet opening and breathed it in, moaning in apparent approval. And then... I can scarcely describe the ecstasy of his tongue sliding through my nether lips. When it glided across my nub, the greatest shockwave of raw pleasure shot through my entire body, and made me cry out. I think I had my first orgasm right there!" "In that case, congratulations are in order," Clara thought to herself silently. Still holding the journal with her right hand, she moved her left up her mons to slide inside her pants, which were now damp with her sweet juices. Once inside, her fingers resumed their task. Even though the pants were only a thin layer of silk, the caresses to Clara's snatch were all the more satisfying without them in the way. "I lost control of my body and magical powers for but a moment. When the sensation subsided, I pushed my love down on to the mattress with a gentle wave of invisible magical energy. He did not resist. Then I climbed on top of him and kissed him

passionately on the lips. I rested my hips against his and I could feel his rod straining to break free of his garments, beneath my womanhood. Clara slid a single finger just inside her slit. As two other fingers continued to stroke the erogenous areas around her opening, this third one began to spread her juices around and spur the arousal on from inside, gently brushing against her clit again and again. Clara began to moan, quietly. "I yearned to couple with him, but not as much as I yearned to please him. He is still my master, and I am still his slave. And I knew that our mutual pleasure could not be rushed. I unravelled my love's robes, by hand, rather than magic, for the tactile pleasure. I kissed my way down the firm skin of his chest as I slowly exposed it. His hands were coursing around my back and along my breasts." Clara willed the journal to stay suspended in front of her face, and it was so. She released her grip on it, leaving it floating in mid-air. Despite only being a genie for a couple of hours, it seemed she already knew all there was to know about controlling her new abilities. Now unoccupied, Clara's right hand moved to one of her very ample breasts, which it began to knead through the silk top. Still emitting the occasional subconscious moan, Clara continued to read. "When I reached his pants, I decided to tease him, looking up at him with a mischievous grin. I ran my hand across his bulge once and he shuddered, struggling to contain his love cream. I removed my love's pants, unleashing his maleness, which sprang up like the load arm of a catapult. As he sat up to pull his arms from the sleeves of his robes, I straddled him. Then we held each other's naked body to our own, and we kissed, our tongues dancing together." "Oh baby!" Clara exclaimed aloud, her growing arousal now rapidly subduing her conscious inhibitions. She was now writhing in the soft bed. Her right hand was still caressing and kneading her left breast, occasionally plucking the nipple between two fingers. Her left hand was still ravaging her loins. Now she was plunging two fingers into her slit at once, while the remainder continued to caress the outside, which was now covered in her own secretions. "I could feel his rod between our bodies, as I wrapped my legs around him and ground my hips against his. Our bodies rocked together, and our hands wandered all over each other. And we kissed, and kissed and kissed, intense desire building in both of us, until we could contain it no longer..." By now, Clara was sliding her fingers deep into her hot core. Parting her slick gateway of flesh as they dove in and stroking against her inner walls as they pulled out. They were also moving somewhat quicker than they were before. Her hips were gyrating in time with the movements of her hand to maximise the pleasure. Warm delight was also building in her breast, but only so much could be achieved with her outfit confining it. Clara lowered her shoulder and slid the strap of the dress down her arm. It gave her just enough leeway to pop her breast out of the bustier and allow it to sit natural and free. She continued to knead it with her right hand. It was so tender and yielding, it felt so good to have her fingers squeeze it. It heaved slowly as her lungs produced deep feminine moans of sexual stimulation. Eager for continued inspiration, Clara magically turned to the next page of the journal.

"I gently pushed my love back onto the mattress, this time using my hands. Then I lifted my hips over his towering erection, and lowered my womanhood slowly onto his rock-hard shaft. It was quite painful, and it made tears well in my eyes, but somehow, it also felt good. I pulled back, but immediately pushed myself back onto him. Every exertion I made onto his manly rod forced it deeper into my tight fissure, bought another jolt of pain, but also stirred that elusive pleasure to a more and more profound level. When the pain began to subside, I quickened my pace. I was taking his entire shaft into my body and I could feel him probing the very center of my femininity." Clara was sending her fingers as deep as they would go into her, and only partially withdrawing them. She was still stroking her outer lips with her remaining fingers. Her clit was being massaged by the edge of her palm and the base of her penetrating fingers. Her pace had increased considerably and her hips were gyrating far more exuberantly. Her every ragged breath was exhaled with a loud moan. "With each advance and retreat his manhood sent a surge of ecstasy radiating through my body. My love doubled the level of pleasure by raising and lowering his hips in time with my own motions. And as I rode my love, his hands caressed my breasts and collarbone. All this was leading to one inevitable outcome. I could feel myself teetering on the brink of another orgasm, and I knew that it would be much more powerful than the last. As I looked down into my love's eyes I could tell that he was using all his willpower to contain his load for as long as he could. But neither of us could have lasted beyond a few more moments..." Putting pressure against her vaginal walls with her fingertips, Clara searched around and quickly found her G-spot. As she rubbed this magic lamp of sexual fulfilment, the level of pleasure enveloping her increased exponentially. Her eyes closed as the last of her logical mind, which had been reading the journal, was drowned out by lustful indulgence. Her cries quickly increased in pitch, volume and frequency. Her butt lifted slightly higher with every rapid gyration of her hips. And her G-spot was sending her over the edge... Clara's back spasmed into an arch and she screamed in delight. Her right hand tightly squeezed on her naked breast, and the palm of her left had ground itself hard against her sensitive clit. With the little control she still had over her body, she continued to rub her G-spot as quickly as she could. An almost silent, tortured whimper was all that she could emit in the few seconds that she had to push as much momentum as she could into an already raging orgasm. She screamed again as she came, hard. Her body collapsed onto the mattress and thrashed around uncontrollably. As she simultaneously lost control of both her physical and magical faculties, the journal, which had been suspended in mid-air, fell onto Clara's chest and was immediately flung off the bed by her wild thrashing, although Clara was far too gone to notice, or care. The orgasm imbedded deep in her loins sent impulses of ecstasy bouncing around her body like balls in a pinball machine. A series of involuntary screams had her struggling to breathe, as the orgasm tortured her mind with an insane level of pleasure, as if to punish her for egging it on.

After countless seconds, the thrashing stopped, the screams became exhausted moans, and the orgasm faded and died like a flame on a spent candle. Panting deeply, she was too weak to move, even to pull her fingers out of her boiling hot snatch. Within a few more seconds her breathing had shallowed and she was fast asleep, a contented smile on her face, after having the best orgasm of her life. Perhaps by coincidence, perhaps by magic, Zhiasa's journal had landed on the floor beside the bed, open at the exact page that Clara had been reading. It was the last page of the entry, with only a few final lines that Clara had not gotten to read. "...My love bucked as a powerful jet of his seed fired into my womb. That was enough to bring about my own orgasm. We cried out together as rapture consumed us both. My womanhood clenched tightly on his mighty rod, as his seed continued to stream into my body, bringing with it wave after wave of heavenly delight. It was only to last for a few precious moments before my own orgasm began to subside and his loins had been drained of their fluids. I collapsed on his chest. We were both exhausted. His spent manhood slid out of my body and his arms wrapped around me. We layed there together, cuddling, kissing and snuggling for a while, before we finally said with our lips what we had been saying with our bodies all night: that we had fallen in love with each other. Basking in my love's warmth and a resonating carnal afterglow, it could not have been long before I drifted off to sleep, outside my lamp, for the first time in almost eight thousand years I am so happy! I am in love!"

CHAPTER III
Clara was roused by an odd tingling sensation in her toes. As she began to stir, she realised that the fingers of her left hand were inside her vagina. She quickly removed them and pulled her hand out of her pants as she opened her eyes and looked around. It took her a couple of seconds to remember where she was, and she moaned when she realised that her entrapment hadn't just been a bad dream. That odd tingling sensation was all through her feet now, and starting to creep up her calves. Clara looked down at her feet and let out a startled yell when she saw that her shins and everything below them had been consumed by a swirling cloud of smoke that was quickly creeping up her legs. Clara's arms sprang to into action and she began to scramble backwards along the mattress, trying to escape the ominous cloud, but it was no good. As she moved, she dragged the cloud with her. Clara could only look on in horror as her legs disappeared, then her torso and arms. She had scarcely been awake ten seconds before the cloud engulfed her head and all she could see was swirling smoke. Clara's vision was only clouded for a second or two. When the smoke lifted from her eyes, she was surprised to find herself in a very dark room, with an illuminated stone pedestal off to her side. She realised that she must me back in the chamber where she discovered the lamp. Her eyes quickly adjusted to the dark (a side effect of now being a genie, she assumed), and it wasn't long before she could make out a person standing in front of her. A man, a young man, staring at her with an expression of utter shock. Then Clara noticed the lamp in his hands and her expression almost mirrored his. Now she realised how she had managed to return to the chamber. This man had obviously rubbed the lamp and summoned her back into the real world. "Oh no!" Clara said despondently. Before she was merely a prisoner, but now she was a slave. And this fool was her master. Clara wallowed in despair. Her predicament was getting worse and worse. Eventually, she turned her attention back to the young man. He hadn't moved at all, and his expression hadn't changed. Clara now realised that he was trembling. He was obviously of western descent. He had a nice face, not quite boyish, not quite butch, but in a nice middleground, with a solid set of eyebrows that somehow made his eyes seem more commanding. He had a fairly thick five o'clock shadow, like he was normally clean-shaven but hadn't been near a razor in a few days. His hair was either black or brown, Clara couldn't be certain as most of it was covered by a light-brown akubra hat. He was also wearing an off-white short-sleeve cotton shirt under an armystyle vest that was covered in pockets, and light brown shorts that also had no shortage of pockets. On his feet, Clara noticed, were a good sturdy set of hiking boots. Clara guessed that he was about five foot nine, the same height as herself. Judging from his exposed arms and legs, he didn't look very strong, but he still had a good build. Clara watched as his eyes began to wander downward. Wondering what he was looking at, Clara lowered her own gaze. "Oh my God!" she yelled in horror, quickly turning her back to the young man. Her bare breast was still free of her top, and the front of her pants still exhibited a damp patch of her juices! She quickly crammed her breast back into her costume, pulling the strap back over her shoulder to secure it,

while summoning a magic cloud of smoke to envelop her hips and legs and replace her stained pants with a clean pair. Recomposing herself, Clara turned around, trying to act as if nothing embarrassing had just happened. Still, the young man's expression hadn't changed. "Hello," Clara said, trying to move things along. A few more silent seconds passed before the man began to quietly stutter incoherently. Clara leaned forward, trying to make out what he was saying. He soon managed to put together an audible sentence. "You're... a... genie?" he said, still staring at her with a look of disbelief. He had an odd accent that Clara couldn't quite place. "Apparently," she responded in a casual tone. A few more silent seconds passed, while the man looked her over carefully, from head to toe. "A genie?" he repeated, obviously still freaked out. "Well, I've obviously been released by a rhodes scholar. That's comforting. ARGH!" Clara stumbled backwards and held her hands to her temples as a sharp headache descended on her. "What? What is it? What's wrong?" the young man asked with obvious concern as he approached her. Clara wanted to say, Nothing, I'm fine, but her lips began to move of their own accord, forming completely different words, "I was insolent to you, master, and I should not have been." She winced as she straightened up. Clara was not a weak person. She was not accustomed, and certainly not happy to say something so submissive to someone else. But she remembered reading somewhere in Zhiasa's journal that a genie cannot lie to its master, so she was not terribly surprised by her involuntary honesty. By the time Clara was standing upright, the headache had left, as quickly as it had come. "That's... okay, don't worry about it," the young man said absent-mindedly, as his gaze focused on no particular point in the shadowy void of the chamber. He seemed relieved that nothing was majorly wrong, while at the same time bewildered by the idea that he was talking to an actual genie. He began pacing around in small steps, and after a few more seconds, he broke the silence again, "So... you're a genie? A real genie?" Clara simply nodded. Once bitten, she was too shy to poke fun at his repetitiveness again. Besides, she was beginning to appreciate how surreal this encounter must've been from his perspective. "This is ridiculous!" he scoffed. "So was the global acceptance of disco, but it still happened," Clara quickly replied. "This can't be real... this has got to be heatstroke, or a dream, or something," the young man insisted. Clara surmised that the accent was probably either Australian or New Zealander. "Look, I realise that this must seem bizarre, but this isn't exactly how I planned my day, either..."

"What do you mean?" the young man asked, his curiosity piqued by that last remark, just as his foot began to sink on the trigger stone for the battering ram trap. "Look out!" Clara yelled as she threw herself at him, pushing him out of harms way just before the massive logs slammed together. The deafening bang echoed throughout the chamber as the young man layed sprawled out on the cold stone floor, with Clara on top of him. They both layed there for a few seconds, staring into each other's eyes and catching their breath. Then the mechanical noises began to emanate from the walls and the battering rams began to part. The danger passed, Clara all of a sudden realised that she was lying on top of the young man and violently pushed herself off of him with a disgusted grunt. "Haven't you ever been in a place like this before?" she nearly shouted. "Don't you have the slightest clue about the dangers in ancient complexes like this? You bloody ammm...master." Clara wanted to say, "Amateur," but instead she stammered into addressing him by the only title that the imprisonment spell would allow, until he permitted otherwise. "Well I have been into a couple of roman catacombs, and an Egyptian burial cache, but none of them had a doorbell as loud as that," he said as he sat up, picking up his hat which had been knocked off in the excitement. "Very funny," Clara replied indignantly as the man stood up. "It sounds to me like you should stick to visiting places that come with a tour guide, to keep you safe." "Shut up!" the young man said, beginning to tire of the genie's rudeness. "What do you know about ancient ruins, anyway? Of course you knew that boobytrap was there, you were probably here when they built this place!" Clara's face tensed up with anger, and she pointed her finger at the young man as if she was about to give him a stern lecture, but when she tried to say something all she could do was mumble. Her mouth wouldn't open; her lips were stuck together like they'd been superglued. Mentally searching for an explanation, it didn't take her long to realise that she'd been compelled to obey his recent command of, "Shut up!" Clara hung her head in exasperation, before launching a long string of what seemed to be threats and curse words, mumbled incoherently at the top of her lungs. Her mood was also being clearly conveyed by the gestures of her wildly flailing arms. The young man watched her, mystified, for a few seconds, before it occurred to him what had happened. An amused smirk began to appear on his face, which only enraged Clara further. She tried to attack him with magic, but all her efforts yielded were benign waves of dim blue light fizzling from her fingertips. The magical powers that she'd commanded so masterfully inside the lamp could not be turned against her master. "You have to do what I tell you, don't you?" the young man asked. Clara silently glared at him. "One blink for yes, two blinks for no," he instructed. Clara gave a prolonged blink and continued to glare at him. "Wow!" Her tormentor was now beaming with amusement, which quickly faded as a thought occurred to him. "Hey wait a minute... I didn't use up one of my wishes by telling you to shut up did I?"

Clara blinked twice in succession, to the young man's relief. "Oh man, this is so fucking cool!" He looked Clara over again, while pondering various ways to test her obedience. Eventually he decided to take a page from a classic Eddie Murphy movie. "Bark like a dog!" Clara opened her mouth and, to the surprise of both the young man and herself, began to make the actual sound of a large rottweiler barking. "Uh, okay..." the young man said, momentarily thrown by this unexpected result. "Bark like a person pretending to bark like a dog," he commanded, trying to get the joke back on track. "Ruuff!" Clara growled in a monotonous, human voice. "Keep barking," the young man prompted with a growing smile. "Ruuff! Ruuff! Ruuff! Ruuff! Ruuff! Ruuff! Ruuff! Ruuff! Ruuff!" "Okay, now like a little dog..." "Arrp! Arrp! Arrp..." Clara began barking in a higher tone, perhaps sounding more like a seal than a dog. The young man was clearly getting a kick out of this. "Hop on one leg!" he chuckled, to bring the old routine to it's climax. As ordered, Clara began to bounce up and down on her right leg, while continuing to yip like a chihuahua. Her new master doubled over, laughing. "Okay... Okay..." he said as he tried to regain some self-control. "This is cruel..." He was about to say something else, but was momentarily distracted by the sight of Clara's attractive breasts bouncing up and down in her tight silk top. Then he quickly looked up at her face, as if he was ashamed to have caught himself ogling. The lower half of Clara's face betrayed no emotion, but her eyes burned with fury. "Shut up again, and you can stop hopping," the young man commanded. Clara stood at attention with an angry nasal huff, her lips sealed once again. She followed his every move with an icy glare as he stepped towards her. "Now if I let you speak, will you calm down?" he asked her in a gentle voice. Clara stared at him in anger briefly, before accepting that he had made a fair offer. She took a deep calming breath, and gave a single blink as the rage retreated from her eyes. "Alright, you can talk," he granted. Clara parted her lips slightly, if only to make sure she could, but said nothing. The two stood there in silence, looking at each other, neither seeming to know what the next move should be. Then after a while, the young man turned his attention to the lamp, which was on the ground, having been knocked out of his hand when Clara tackled him.

"What did you mean before... when you said that this wasn't what you intended?" he asked her as he began to walk over to the lamp, being extra careful to avoid the trigger stone for the boobytrap. "First of all, I said 'this wasn't exactly how I'd planned my day', and by that I meant... that I didn't intend on getting imprisoned." "Imprisoned? How?" he asked her, intrigued, as he bent down to pick up the lamp. "When I rubbed the lamp. It teleported me into a large chamber with no exit. Then I discover that I've been squeezed into a bad halloween costume, and I have all these magical powers..." The young man dropped the lamp, as a look of horror washed over him. "...A few hours later, I was swallowed up by a cloud of smoke," Clara continued. "The next thing I know, I'm back in this chamber and you're my master." "The lamp?!?" the young man said with alarm, "The lamp made you..." "Don't worry," Clara interrupted, "it can't do anything to you. It only takes one prisoner. " The man breathed a sigh of relief. "So, wait a minute.... You're saying that you're a human? Who got trapped?" he asked as he bent down to pick up the lamp yet again. "Was a human," Clara corrected. "Technically, I've been transformed into a genie." The young man took a good look at her once more. It was only now that he recognised her. "I don't believe it... You're... You're the young lady Roft, aren't you?" he said in astonishment. "You've heard of me?" Clara asked, pleasantly surprised. However, the surprise quickly turned to anger again as a thought occurred to her. "You've heard of me!" she said in a calm-before-the-storm tone, just as he was beginning to respond to her question. "Of course you've heard of me, you followed me here! How else could you have gotten here so soon! God, I should've realised it before!" Clara ranted to the bewildered young man. "What did you do? Hack into my research? That must be it, because there's no way that a clumsy oaf like you could've tailed me without me knowing about... ARGH!" Clara pressed her hands to her temples as she was once again punished for insulting her master. "So soon? What the hell are you..." the young man replied defensively, stopping short as his expression softened. "Oh my god! You don't know do you?" "Know what?" Clara snapped as the headache cleared. "Lady Roft, you disappeared without a trace over two years ago!"

Clara stared at him in shock and silence. ---------Clara stepped out into the daylight from behind the huge stone slab. Before Clara had first opened it, the deceivingly plain stone door appeared to be just one in a line of seven slabs imbedded into the mountainside. They, along with some fragments of wall, floor, and the bottoms of a couple of stone columns, were all that remained of a glorious building that Hal'hadin himself had commissioned there centuries ago. The ruins stood on a small plateau about a quarter-way up the mountain. All of the relevant authorities had long ago declared them to be of minimal archaeological importance, but Clara had gathered snippets of information from Hal'hadin's tomb that lead her to believe that there might've been something of interest there after all. With so little remains to search through when she first arrived, it didn't take her long to discover the pressure switch hidden between two of the large slabs. Clara had managed to push the switch by sliding a crowbar (that she'd thoughtfully bought in case she needed to do some prying) between the slabs. It activated a mechanism that opened the concealed door just enough to allow a person to squeeze through. Clara's new master followed her out of the ancient shaft. He had to carry his backpack (in which he'd stowed the lamp) in his hand in order to squeeze through the opening. Clara wandered over to her motorbike, forlorn as she noticed that there was indeed two and a half years worth of dust collected on it. Up until now she had held hopes that the young man's previous claim was some kind of sick joke. But now... there was no denying it. "Your father's been doing his block trying to find out what happened to you. Last I heard, he's still funding search parties to comb through the area all around the Alladin tomb," the young man said from behind her, not needing to see her face to know what was going through her mind. "That's over twelve hundred kilometres away!" Clara stated. "Yeah, well, that's where the last confirmed siting of you was... I'm sorry." The young man tried to be comforting, but knew that there wasn't much that he could say or do at this point to make her feel better. Clara simply stared at the dusty motorbike, lost in thought. She hadn't bothered to tell anyone where she was going, or even that she was going anywhere. After the ridicule she suffered from suggesting that there might've actually been an 'Alladin's lamp,' she hadn't shared any further thoughts she'd had about the subject. When she eventually managed to deduce a possible location for the Princess's Vault, that several texts found within the tomb had alluded to, she took off to explore it without telling anyone. She preferred to work alone, anyway. Clara turned to the young man as some internal alarm clock told her that it was time for her to return to the here-and-now. "It's fine... Can we leave now?" she asked, with newfound resolve. "Sure," he answered. He led her down the dirt track to his topless jeep that was parked just around a corner and out of view from the ruins. When they got to the jeep the

young man threw his backpack onto the back seat, while Clara jumped into the passenger side. "I need to contact my parents, where's your sat-phone?" she asked as she began rummaging through the supplies he had stocked in the back. "Sorry," the young man chuckled as he climbed in the driver's seat, "this is a no-frills expedition. Closest thing I've got is a CB." "Perfect," Clara complained to herself. "The nearest town..." "Is over four hours away, I know," Clara interrupted in frustration. "...Right. There should be a phone there, you can contact them then," the young man assured her as he took a pair of sunglasses from the dashboard and put them on. He started the engine, did a reverse three-point turn, and began to cautiously drive down the rugged mountain trail. Even at the low speed, Clara could feel the veils that ran down her back flapping in the gentle breeze. It was quite annoying. After a few minutes, the young man broke the awkward silence. "If you don't mind me asking, Lady Roft, what exactly are you going to tell your parents?" he asked. "I have no idea..." Clara replied honestly. She looked out, contemplatively, over the vast dessert they would soon be crossing. Though it was now part of southern Kazakhstan, in medieval times this entire region was part of greater Persia. "Tell me something, how did you find this place?" she asked, changing the subject. "Obviously I didn't leave a clear trail of research on my computer, if father didn't send a search party up here, and I took the only map I marked with the location of the lamp with me." "Well I don't know about any research you did, the young man answered. I never saw anything with your name published. What did keep popping up in the documentation of the tomb were repeated mentions of a Princess's Vault that Alladin built during his life. There was even an engraving on a statue in the tomb that said they were buried with a map to the vault." "That's right, except we never found any map in the tomb," Clara responded, quite curious as to where he was going with this. "Right, so I start thinking what if they weren't buried with the map, what if they were buried in the map? You remember that the princess's sarcophagus was engraved with a bunch of things on the side? A lion, a stallion, a flaming sword, a scorpion, a warrior, and so on?" "Yes?" Clara said with great interest. "Well on a hunch, I did a little checking and I discovered that every one of those things was an ancient Persian constellation," the young man continued, as Clara looked on in amazement. "When you put them all together, you can make a map, the

same way sailors used to use constellations to find their way home. I know it sounds pretty lame..." "I don't think it sounds lame, master. I think it's brilliant," Clara said with a tone of sincerity that caught the young man's full attention. He looked into her deep brown eyes for one serene moment, until the mountain trail demanded his attention back by throwing a large pothole under his wheel. "So you came all the way up here based on a theory?" she asked after the jolt knocked her out of her reverie. "Well I probably wouldn't of, except that I found out there was a set of Persian ruins at the precise location the map was pointing to." "Still... that's a pretty big leap of faith," Clara commented. "I guess..." the young man shrugged. Clara looked at him with a new feel of respect. Those markings on the princess's sarcophagus had mystified everybody involved with the tomb's excavation. They were far more ornate and detailed than any markings ever seen on caskets from that period, even the sarcophagus of Hal'hadin himself. Most of the archaeologists settled on the idea that it was made so lavish because Hal'hadin simply wanted his beloved wife entombed in a beautiful sarcophagus. Clara, however, wasn't convinced. She suspected that there was an elusive purpose behind the carvings, something that she couldn't quite put her finger on. But this young man, her new master, had cracked the code, and created an accurate map to the Princess's Vault. Clara's own method of finding the vault seemed sloppy by comparison. She knew that the vault was north of the tomb and on or near a mountain, according to texts from the tomb. Then she narrowed down her search based on known travel routes used in the time of Hal'hadin. She researched for five hours a day for two weeks before she managed to turn up a set of ruins that were dated to roughly the time of Hal'hadin, though they were quite far from any known travel routes of the day. When all the time directions to the vault had been right in front of her. The young man was obviously unseasoned. His field skill was poor (and his driving wasn't much better), but he was also clearly brilliant, with an adventurous spirit and a desire to explore. Clara could see that he had much to offer as an archaeologist and that made her smile. The jeep roared into top speed as it came to the end of the rough mountain trail. Clara's veils began to flap wildly in the wind, annoying her greatly. "So what's the deal with the fancy pyjamas?" the young man asked, apparently trying to make conversation. "They were imposed on me as part of the imprisonment spell, master." "Oh god! I'm such a goose! I never introduced myself! The name's Rourke. Jeff Rourke," he said, extending his right hand. Clara shook his hand.

"Clara Roft," she introduced herself, despite the fact that he already knew whom she was. Her upbringing had taught her that it was common courtesy to respond to an introduction in kind, if one had not already been formally introduced. "And please, call me Clara," she continued. "The only one who calls me 'Lady Roft' is the butler," she chuckled. "Righto. Pleased to meet you, Clara," he smiled at her, not really needing to watch where he was going, as there was nothing but sand in front of him. "So this spell... When you rub the lamp, it transports you into some strange chamber..." "Yes, master." "Jeff, please..." he interrupted. "Thank you, Jeff. I was not allowed to call you by name until you permitted me to do so. I think that the chamber is some kind of magical storage vessel that somehow exists inside of the lamp." "Right... So it transports you to this chamber, it turns you into a genie, and then when somebody else rubs the lamp it sends you back into the real world as their slave." "Right," Clara said with a disgruntled sigh. She didn't care for being referred to as a slave, no matter how true it was. "...But in all the stories, Alladin already had a genie in his lamp... so what happened to him?" Jeff asked. "Her," Clara corrected. "She was buried with Hal'hadin." "What? You mean the princess?" Jeff asked her, confused. "Yes. She was the lamp's last resident," Clara stated. Jeff sat in silence for a few seconds while he absorbed this new information. "How can you be so sure?" he asked. "Because Zhiasa kept a detailed journal in the lamp. Everything she learned about 'geniehood,' all her masters, all the wishes she ever granted, it's all in there." "Sounds like an interesting story..." Jeff said, implying a desire to hear it. "It would be if it didn't end with me starring in the bloody sequel," Clara said with calm frustration. Jeff chuckled. "Zhiasa was tricked into the lamp by her evil little sister, who was the one who actually created the lamp to trap Zhiasa..." "Why?" Jeff interrupted. "Zhiasa was daddy's favourite." "Oh."

"...Not to mention the crown princess, Clara continued, So Zhiasa spent the next thirty years as her sister's slave. Then the sister was murdered and Zhiasa spent the next eight thousand years bouncing from master to master. Eventually she came into the possession of Hal'hadin. He was just a peasant at the time, but he used his first two wishes to become a noble with a great palace. Shortly after that, he and Zhiasa fell in love..." "Amazing... What happened next?" Jeff asked. "I don't know. That's as far as I got into the journal before I... fell asleep," Clara answered, hesitating. She hadn't lied, just omitted some of the truth. Still, she was a little surprised that the spell let her get away with it. "By the time I woke up, I was being drawn back into the real world by you." "So, wait... you fell asleep for two years?" "It's what genies do," Clara said with a shrug. "Oh... So that's why they make you wear the fancy pyjamas!" Jeff smiled. Clara smirked, suppressing a laugh. They sat in silence for a few more seconds, gliding across an endless sea of white sand. After a while, Jeff asked the inevitable question. Frankly, Clara was surprised that it had taken him this long to raise the subject. "So, being a genie, you have to grant wishes, is that right?" "Correct, Jeff. I have to grant each master I have three wishes," Clara said, her stomach sinking at the thought of being passed around from master to master like Zhiasa had been. "Three wishes... no surprises there" Jeff paused for a moment, thinking. "But when I told you to shut up, back in the vault, you did it, but you said that it didn't count as a wish. How does that work?" "Well, Jeff, I am... your slave," Clara said, clenching her teeth, "and as such, I am bound to obey any simple command you might give me: Sit down, shut up, come here, go away... bark like a dog..." "Sorry about that." "...Anything like that, she continued. In addition, I must perform any simple task you ask of me, such as 'fetch me that pen', or 'clean up that mess'. None of which counts as an official wish." "So you only use your magic if I make a wish?" Jeff asked. Clara was beginning to notice that Jeff had a very curious nature. Yet another trait she admired. "Not quite. I can use magic to perform a task you might give me - if you did order me to clean a mess, for example, there would me nothing to stop me from cleaning it up magically, unless you expressly ordered me to do it manually. Also, I can use my magic to make myself more comfortable." Clara rolled her eyes as a thought occurred

to her. "I can't believe I didn't think of it earlier!" she exclaimed, angry with herself. She closed her eyes as she willed her magic into action. Her clothes began to change in shape, texture and color. Her bustier began to morph into a light grey cotton crop top. The straps began to expand to cover her entire shoulders, developing into short sleeves over her arms. The bottom of the garment crept down her body about an inch, still leaving most of her midriff bare. And the material supporting her breasts climbed up to form a more modest covering for her perfect mounds, while still leaving a deep V-cut that exposed a generous amount of cleavage. Clara enjoyed having the ventilation in a climate like this. Meanwhile, her loose silk pants had shrunk to become tight khaki shorts that tightly hugged her firm ass and left very little of her thighs to the imagination. Her dainty slippers had grown in bulk and crept up her ankles to become sturdy jet-black climbing boots. As all this was happening, the thin veils that had been flailing wildly from her back and hair disintegrated into trails of pink dust. The gold clasp that had been holding her hair in place likewise disintegrated. For a few seconds, her gorgeous brown locks danced behind her in the wind, wild and untamed. She looked like a supermodel doing a photoshoot. Then some unseen force grabbed the ends of her hair and began to twist them into a single braid, which ended up stemming from the base of her skull, rather than the top of her head as the previous ponytail had done. Finally, Clara held her hand up, and a pair of sunglasses appeared in it, which Clara immediately put on. Jeff had been watching this entire display, amazed. If it weren't for the fact that they were driving through a barren dessert, he would've surely had an accident. After a few seconds, Clara turned her head slightly, just enough to notice Jeff still gawking at her. "Most gentlemen would turn their head when a lady changes," Clara quipped. "Most gentlemen who saw a lady change like that would think they were hallucinating," Jeff replied. Clara turned her gaze back to the 'road' ahead, smiling. "So, umm... where were we?" Jeff asked. "You were asking about when I use my magic, Jeff." "Right, right. So... I can order you to do something magical, and it doesn't cost me a wish? So what makes a wish a wish?" Jeff asked her. Clara thought about this for a second, knowing what the answer was, but not quite sure how to explain it. "It's all to do with scale, or difficulty. Something that you could easily do yourself, or ask another to do doesn't count as a wish. Something that would otherwise be impossible, or exceedingly difficult would count as a wish, although you would expressly have to say, 'I wish...' for the deed to be done. I could transport you down to the bank for free, but if you wanted me to transport you into the vault, you would need to make a wish..." Jeff found this last remark very interesting. "You can transport me places?" he asked. "Yes," Clara replied, already knowing what he was thinking. She was no fool, she had considered telling him that she could transport them pretty much anywhere with her

magic when they first got in the jeep. She decided against it, however. She didn't like the idea of volunteering information about all the perks of genie ownership to a man she'd only just met, even if it would give her a chance of contacting her parents sooner. "Can you take us back to Melbourne?" Jeff asked. Clara had been reasonably sure that he was Australian for a while now, (New Zealanders had a slightly different accent) but this confirmed it. "I believe I can," Clara said, a little unsure as to whether she could travel that far. Jeff looked over at Clara, remembering the sadness in her eyes when he'd first told her about her two year absence. Clara could not believe what she heard when he next spoke. "How about England?" he asked her, sincerely. Clara stared at him, stunned. "If that's what you want, Jeff..." she said, unemotionally, concealing her own hopes quite well. "Then let's do it!" he said with a smile. Clara broke out into a big grin. All of a sudden, the harsh light that had been assaulting their eyes dimmed considerably. The empty white plain in front of them had been replaced by a bitumen road, lined by shallow grass embankments, which were in turn bordered by thick forests. The sky was now bleak and overcast and the wind blowing on them had become quite cool. They were on an English highway. Not even having time to appreciate this incredible transition, Clara and Jeff screamed in terror, as they realised they were about to collide with an oncoming SUV. The SUV's horn wailed in futile warning as Jeff slammed on the brakes, but with the speed he'd been travelling, they never would've stopped in time. Clara, thinking fast, teleported the jeep once again, this time to a point on the road just behind the SUV. Smoke billowed from the tires as the jeep screeched to a halt, sliding just off the road and onto the grass with strong bump. Both their pulses racing, Jeff patted himself down haphazardly, checking for injuries and briskly eyed Clara off to make sure she was okay. He turned around to see the SUV cruising down the road once again. Then he sat back down, panting, his heart thumping wildly, and after a few seconds he figured out how they'd managed to survive. As he began to calm down he turned to Clara with an irate look on his face. "I had no way of knowing that would be there, did I?" she said, defensively.

CHAPTER IV
Clara was a little apprehensive as the large wooden door before her opened. From her perspective, she had only left Roft Manor six weeks ago, and yet her family had not seen her in over two years. She knew that she would have some explaining to do. From behind the door emerged an elderly, well-groomed man in a tuxedo. He was quite tall, about six foot one and stood with excellent posture. The old man smiled in delight when he saw who was on the front stoop. "Thank goodness!" the old butler exclaimed, shirking his usual air of decorum for a brief moment. "Forgive me, Lady Roft, but we had all been praying that you would return to us, safe and sound." "Hello, Warwick," Clara smiled warmly at the old man. Jeff, who had been standing just behind Clara, smiled in greeting as well. The old man held the door wide open for Clara and her mysterious companion as they both entered, Jeff carrying the pack containing the magic lamp over his shoulder. Warwick closed the door behind Jeff and followed him into the large foyer, walking up to Clara. "I shall inform the lady and his Lordship of your arrival, milady," the butler said. He tipped his head briefly in respect and then ascended a nearby staircase to the second level of the house, turning a corner at the top and disappearing from sight. Jeff strolled around aimlessly, admiring pretty much everything; the elegant wall panels, the expensive-looking artworks hanging from them, the stained glass window above the door being illuminated by the daylight... "So this is where you live?" he asked. "That's right." Clara replied. "Not bad..." he said, in a mock-unimpressed tone. Clara sent him a genial smile and they both chuckled at the bad joke. For Clara, it felt good to be home again. Her wild heart was forever dragging her off to some ancient building or another. Occasionally, her adventures would even take her into the concrete jungle. There was nowhere she wouldnt go to find the most fantastic and well-hidden artefacts. Some she'd keep, some she'd lose, but any treasure she sought would always come into her possession for at least a time. It always felt good to come back to Roft Manor at the end of an adventure, though. She loved it here. It was the only place she'd ever really called home. Her father had given her the deed to the second-largest of his three mansions on her eighteenth birthday, but she rarely ever stayed there. Roft Manor was more than large enough to accommodate the small family of three, and Clara enjoyed being with her parents. "Clara!" a woman who could only be Clara's mother exclaimed in astonishment, from atop the staircase via which Warwick had left. Jeff could easily see the family resemblance, although she looked too young to be Clara's mother. She was very elegantly dressed, and had the grace of the classic noblewoman. Her eyes, however, showed a level of happiness that a mother of any class would have when fears for the safety of their child were laid to rest.

The lady of the manor rushed down the stairs, and embraced her long-lost daughter. "Mother!" Clara exclaimed, attempting to display a similar level of enthusiasm. It was hard to get excited about the encounter, when it seemed like only a couple of days ago she'd talked to her mother on the phone. They held each other for interminable seconds, tears streaming from the Lady Roft's eyes. "I'm so glad you're home, darling... So glad you're home," she wept. It wasn't long before an older-looking man (mid-fifties, Jeff guessed) entered from one of the ground-level passages. His Lordship, Jeff correctly assumed. He was taller than the two women, perhaps five foot eleven/six foot even. He wore reading glasses. The rest of his attire, a cream-colored woollen jumper, and grey trousers seemed much less extravagant than his wife's (Although, on second glance, the trousers did look well tailored). Nonetheless, he too had the dignified air of an English noble. "Clara!" he exclaimed, hurrying over to his daughter with open arms. "Oh Father!" she replied, beginning to get sucked up in the emotion of the moment. The two women welcomed the lord into the embrace. They stood there together for ages, holding each other tightly, the lady Roft sobbing in happiness, and even the more hardened lord and Clara struggling to hold back their own tears. Jeff, who was beginning to feel like a fourth wheel, stood in the background, silently and uncomfortably. "Where have you been all this time, Clara? We were so worried..." Lord Roft asked his daughter as the group hug broke apart. "It's... It's a long story. Let's not discuss it now," she replied, still not quite sure how she was going to explain the incredible situation she was stuck in. Suddenly, she remembered that she had not come home alone. "Oh! Father, Mother, I'd like you to meet Jeff," she said, gesturing over towards him. "Jeff... helped me to get back home." "Hi!" Jeff said, casually, with a smile, holding his hand up in greeting. Lord and lady Roft looked at each other. "In that case, we're honoured, Jeff," Lord Roft said, offering his own hand, which Jeff shook with a firm grip. "Please, you must stay with us for a while. I insist!" the lord said with a friendly smile. "In that case, I accept!" Jeff replied, returning his host's smile. "Excellent!" Lord Roft said. "Warwick, prepare a room for our guest!" "At once, milord!" said Warwick, who must've inconspicuously returned to the room some time after Lord Roft came in. Warwick turned and once again left the room via the staircase to the next floor. "I'll have the servants bring the belongings from your vehicle to your room for you," Lord Roft said, almost as an afterthought. "Oh, don't bother," Jeff said. "It's mostly just jerry-cans of water and diesel."

"You travel around with tanks of water and diesel?" Lord Roft asked, puzzled. Clara's expression became anxious - she wasn't ready to have to explain the situation now. "Well... Yes..." Jeff sheepishly replied. "My mates told me that the U.K. was a very dry country in the grip of a fuel shortage. Apparently they were having me on..." he continued, ad-libbing as best he could. Lord and Lady Roft looked at each other in confusion. Clara rolled her eyes. "I don't get overseas much, Jeff said, as an attempted explanation. "I... see..." Lord Roft responded, somewhat thrown by this new exhibit of eccentricity by the young man. "Well, never mind all that, I'm sure we all have much to talk about," Lady Roft said, ending the awkward silence. "Come, let us go into the sitting room. I'll have the kitchen put on some Earl Grey." The lord and lady lead Clara and Jeff through the house to a grand sitting room with elaborate couches and armchairs, an antique coffee table, and a large hearth with a fire burning merrily away. It was adorned by magnificent paintings and other artworks, just like all the other rooms. Jeff could scarcely believe that he was sitting down to tea in a house like this. Although when he thought about it, it was probably one of the less remarkable things that had happened to him today. The three Rofts and Jeff sat down at the coffee table and began to talk. A maid bought in a trolley with a tea set shortly thereafter and served them all. They talked for about twenty minutes. The lord and lady both hinted several times as the many unanswered questions they had about Clara's disappearance, but Clara repeatedly dodged the issue. Jeff, to his own relief, was never broached about the subject. Then Warwick entered the room. "Master Jeff's room is ready, milord," he declared. "Very good, Warwick," Lord Roft replied. "Well, it's starting to get on, and I'm sure you would both like to freshen up. Warwick will show you to your rooms," he said to Clara and Jeff. They all stood up. Clara kissed her father on the cheek, and then her mother. Jeff and Lord Roft shook hands once again. Clara and Jeff walked over to Warwick, who had been patiently waiting at the door. The three were about to leave when Lord Roft called Warwick over to him. The lord quietly said something to the butler, and Warwick nodded in compliance. Then he turned around and led Clara and Jeff away, Lady Roft very reluctantly letting Clara out of her sight again. Warwick lead the pair to a huge main hall, with a wide staircase that lead up to a platform that had two further staircases branching off in separate directions. Warwick led them up these stairs to the mansion's second floor. They walked down another wide hall, stopping a short way down at a large set of ornate double-doors. Warwick reached into the inside breast pocket of his jacket and removed a key. "When we first began to suspect that you had gone missing, Lady Roft, His Lordship ordered that no one was to set foot in your room until your return. I've been carrying this key with me every day for the past two and a half years. Somehow, I always

knew that I would be needing it again one day," Warwick said with a smile, as he unlocked the door. "Thank you, Warwick," Clara smiled. She hugged the old butler and he returned the embrace. Warwick had been serving the Rofts since long before Clara was born, even before her father assumed the title of lord, following the death of his own father. The Rofts all considered him to be a member of the family, and a trusted friend. Indeed, he was one of the few people that Clara herself did completely trust. Warwick himself loved the Roft family, but never allowed himself to rise above his station (except on rare occasions). He tried to keep an appropriate distance and always treated them with the respect they deserved. Clara entered her room, smiling at the two men as she closed the door behind her. "Your room is just down the hall, sir," Warwick said as he led on. "Sounds good," Jeff replied as he followed. They soon came to another set of double doors on the same side of the hall as Clara's room. They weren't as fancy as Clara's doors were, though. They were done in much the same style as the walls were, so they had a tendency to blend in, from a distance. "Here we are, sir. His Lordship humbly requests you to join him for dinner this evening," Warwick said. "Thanks, I'd be honoured," Jeff said, smiling. "Very good, sir. I took the liberty of placing some formal suits in the wardrobe. I believe they're all in your size. I'm sure you'll find something there that will suit you." "Oh... Well, thank you very much," Jeff replied somewhat flustered by the level of service he was receiving. "Not at all, sir. If there's anything else you need, don't hesitate to ask. We're all at your disposal. And... if I may be so bold, sir, thank you for restoring this family," Warwick said with a smile that conveyed heartfelt gratitude. "Think nothing of it," Jeff smiled and began to walk into the room. He'd half opened the door when a thought occurred to him. "Hey, Warwick, could you tell me where to find the bathroom, mate?" "The room has it's own ensuite, sir," Warwick replied, holding back a chuckle. "Oh... Right. Thanks!" Jeff replied sheepishly, continuing into the room. "Not at all, sir," Warwick repeated in an upbeat tone, as he turned to walk back down the hall. Jeff closed the door behind him. The room was quite large, with an elegant victorian four-poster bed against one wall. There was no shortage of other furniture, either. There was a full-length mirror, two bedside tables and a large wooden wardrobe (among other things), all of which looked very expensive. Jeff noticed a door on the far side of the room. Must be the ensuite, Jeff thought to himself. It was only now

that he was alone, that he checked the backpack. He'd kept it close at all times since they entered the manor. He opened it to make sure that the precious lamp hadn't slipped out at some point along the way. Then he closed it again and stowed the pack under the bed. Jeff walked over to the wardrobe and opened the doors. He looked over the suits that Warwick had put in there for him. Jeff knew very little about men's fashion, but the suits certainly looked expensive. He closed the wardrobe and walked over to the door he'd spied earlier. "Jesus, Warwick, you weren't kidding! Ensuite... This place is bigger than my living room!" Jeff said to himself. The bathroom was indeed grand; the wall tiles were the most pristine white that Jeff had ever seen outside of a showroom. It had a nice large counter with the sink only taking up maybe a quarter of its length, in the middle. It had both a bath and a shower (not a combo shower/bath) and, of course, a toilet. All the fixtures and taps looked golden, though they wouldn't have been actual gold. "They can't be THAT rich," Jeff thought. Jeff looked at the shower longingly. He could've really gone for a nice shower, but first, he turned his attention back to the counter, where he thought he'd spied a shaving kit. -----------Clara stood behind Warwick as he knocked on the guest bedroom door. The door soon opened and Jeff stuck his head out. "Yes?" he asked. "Dinner will be ready shortly, sir. I thought you might like some assistance in finding the dining hall," Warwick explained. "Oh! Righto! Well, I'm ready to go..." Jeff said as he stepped out into the hall, closing the door behind him. Clara looked him over with an approving smile. He looked quite dapper clean-shaven. The suit that Warwick had provided for him didn't hurt, either. "Very well, then, sir," Warwick replied. He led Clara and Jeff down the hallway. As they walked, Jeff couldn't help but admire Clara's new look. She had changed into a body-length black cocktail gown, with an eye-catchingly low neckline and a cut on the right side of the skirt that ran all the way from the base to the top of her thigh. The entire garment held her figure nicely. Clara had also let her hair out, which now flowed freely behind her. She looked, in a word, incredible. Warwick led the pair down the stairs at the end of the hall, and through a couple of large rooms to the largest one yet, a massive dining hall with a long table that Jeff guessed could easily seat thirty people. Tonight, however, there were only four places set at the far end. Lord and Lady Roft, who were also dressed quite formally, were waiting there for their daughter and guest. Warwick escorted Clara and Jeff over to the lord and lady, before taking his leave to tend to matters in the kitchen. The Rofts and Jeff all exchanged pleasantries with one another, before taking their seats. Warwick served as chief waiter during the evening. The meal itself was an exquisite chicken dish, painstakingly prepared by the Roft's personal chef. It was nicely

accompanied by a well-aged bottle of Pinot Grigio that Lady Roft had been saving for a special occasion. The dinner conversation during the night was quite pleasant, with the bulk of it pertaining to archaeological matters. Lord Roft, in his salad days, had been a famous archaeologist himself. Jeff had heard about some of the lord's exploits, although none of them were half as gung-ho as some of the stories he'd heard about Clara. Lord Roft had given up field work many years ago, due to health reasons, but still remained a valued consultant in the archaeological world. Up until Clara's disappearance, that is, when he began to focus all his energy on finding her. Jeff made a few jokes during the meal, a couple of which flopped, but he also went into some of his own theories on a few archaeological mysteries, all of which were quite interesting and at least somewhat founded. By the end of the night, Lord, Lady and even Clara Roft were all quite impressed with their houseguest. Clara's disappearance was not bought up once in the entire evening. All four members of the dinner party had made a silent agreement that the subject would not be discussed that night. After everybody at the table had cleared their plates, the tea trolley made another appearance, this time manned by Warwick himself. The dinner conversation continued for at least another three-quarters of an hour after the meal was over, nobody was in any hurry to go anywhere. Even when they had all tired of sitting in one spot, the conversation didn't end, as the party began wandering through the mansion, eventually making their way to the games room, where they took turns playing pool with each other. Eventually it was decided amongst the group that it was time to turn in. Clara hugged and kissed her parents once again, and led Jeff through the maze of halls and chambers back to their bedrooms. They said goodnight to each other as Clara entered her room. Then Jeff walked the short distance down to his own bedroom. Upon entering, he removed his jacket and tie and dropped them on the bed. "I think that Mother and Father were quite impressed by you tonight." Jeff turned around, startled to see Clara standing just behind him, smiling. "I guess that walls aren't much of a deterrent when you're a genie, are they?" he said after the shock had passed. "Not unless they have a central heating duct running through them. You can still walk through them, but they have a nasty habit of shrinking you clothes," Clara quipped. Jeff chuckled. "I apologise for the surprise entrance, but I wanted to talk to you in private and I didn't want to take the risk that one of the servants might see us entering the same room," Clara said. "Oh... Okay..." Jeff said, not quite sure how else to respond. "I wanted to thank you for bringing me back here. It's been very hard on Mother and Father the past couple of years. It's meant so much that I've been able to come back home and see them again," Clara said, hiding her emotion quite well.

"Oh, that's alright. To be perfectly honest, there wasn't much point in going back to Australia. I told my roommate I'd be gone for at least another five days, so the guy he's putting up in my room to cover the rent will still be there," Jeff joked. "Well be that as it may, you still didn't have to bring me back here, and I wanted you to know that I really appreciate it," Clara said, with a grateful smile. "Anytime," Jeff replied, returning her smile. After a few serene seconds, Jeff changed the subject, "Actually, I'm really glad you're here, because I wanted to talk to you myself." "Oh?" "I'm ready to make a wish," Jeff stated. Clara looked at him intently, as a tense silence grew between them. "I wish that I was rich. Really rich," Jeff proclaimed in decisive tone. "Very well, master," Clara said, quietly, as her expression began to show a hint of disappointment. She wiggled her fingers in Jeff's direction, and an expensive-looking slim leather briefcase appeared on the bed beside him. "What's this?" he asked. "Your stock portfolio," Clara answered. "You now have a net worth of three thousand million pounds." Jeff whistled in astonishment as he opened up the case and began running his eye over the papers within. "Rich enough?" she asked. "Hell, yeah!" Jeff chuckled, engrossed in the documents that outlined his newfound fortune. "Glad I could be of service," Clara said, unhappily. The recent change in Clara's mood did not go unnoticed for long, and Jeff soon turned his attention back to her. "Clara, what's wrong?" he asked, sympathetically. "It's nothing of consequence, Jeff," she responded briskly, sidestepping the truth enforcement powers of the imprisonment spell. "Goodni..." "C'mon Clara, don't make me pull rank..." Jeff interrupted, in a playful tone. Clara paused for a second, let out a frustrated huff, and then looked Jeff in the eye. "It's just that... I didn't think that you were a materialistic guy..." Clara said with uneasy frankness. "Neither do I," Jeff promptly replied, with a smirk. Clara looked at him in confusion. "As a matter of fact, money's never really been an interest of mine. But I can't deny that it's an integral part of life." Jeff sat on the side of the bed as he continued, "I'm just tired not being able to do stuff because I can't afford it. I mean I had to sell my car, and talk to three financial experts, who speak their own fucking goo-gah language, by the way, about getting my hands on some money that my parents

invested for me when I was a kid to get over to Kazakhstan. And even then I couldn't afford anything better than a rickety old jeep and the bare essentials. And then I come here, and I see you guys living in a house so big it makes a shopping mall look like a broom closet, with butlers and Gogans, and the money to go on any expedition you want, without even having to think twice about it." Looking up at Clara, Jeff could see that she was a little hurt. "I don't mean any offence, he explained. But it's hard not to notice that you've got a good thing going here. And there's so much cool stuff out there that life has to offer, and I've got heaps of ideas that I've always wanted to explore. It'd just be nice if I could do it all without having to keep one eye on my bankbook all the time." "I understand now, Jeff," Clara responded. "I do often take my background for granted. It's hard not to sometimes, as I've never known any different..." "I can appreciate that," Jeff said with a kind smile. Clara looked him in the eye, and she began to smile too. "Thank you for explaining it all to me, Jeff," Clara said, regaining her cheerfulness. "Not at all, milady," Jeff said, still smiling, and finishing with an imitation of Warwick's head bowing. "I guess you'll be heading back to your room now?" he asked as he walked over to the wardrobe, undoing the cuffs of his sleeves. "Actually, Jeff, if it's all the same to you, I'd rather not..." "Oh?" Jeff turned around to look at Clara with a very interested expression. "I mean..." Clara quickly responded, a little embarrassed by her gaffe. "I mean I'd like to return to the lamp. I'd like to finish reading Zhiasa's journal." "Oh... Well, okay. Knock yourself..." Jeff quickly stopped himself, realising that telling Clara to 'knock herself out' would likely result in her involuntarily banging her head against the wall until she lapsed into a coma. "...Feel free," Jeff said, amending his previous sentence. "Thank you, Jeff. Promise you won't let me sleep in?" she jested. "I promise," Jeff nodded with a warm smile. "Goodnight, Lady Roft." "Goodnight, master," Clara smiled, before exploding into a cloud of pitch-black smoke. The smoke quickly coalesced into a single narrow stream that began to snake its way around the room. After a few seconds it dove under the bed, and was rapidly sucked into the pack carrying the lamp. The cloud/Clara gone, Jeff turned back to the wardrobe and resumed undressing, while happily whistling I'm in the money. -----------Despite the fact that the mattress was incredibly comfortable, Jeff tossed and turned for almost two hours before drifting off to sleep that night. At first his mind was just

racing with excitement, as he imagined the possibilities before him with more money than he knew what to do with, and two more wishes to go. But as drowsiness began to envelop him, his mind wandered to other thoughts - thoughts about Clara. At first his mind's eye began ogling the image of her in that seductive evening dress. The way it clung to her body so perfectly, leaving no curve of her ideal hourglass figure to the imagination. The way it displayed her cleavage so appealingly, and how he'd glanced it a couple of times in its full glory when they were in the games room, as she leaned over the pool table in front of him. He thought of that long cut that ran up the side of the dress, that swished over the smooth skin of her right leg as she walked, hiding nothing, but never displaying her leg all at once. Despite how highly the cut climbed, not once did Jeff see even a hint of her panties. They must have held her hips quite high, or else, Jeff thought, she was naked under that dress. Then he thought back to that exploring outfit she had worn earlier in the day. He recalled how her (aptly named) shorts displayed her beautiful muscular thighs, almost in their entirety, and how tightly they hugged her incredibly firm-looking ass. He spent countless minutes admiring the mental picture of Clara sitting in that jeep, her lovely brown hair flailing full and freely in the wind, the bright desert sun illuminating all her splendid features, including the bare skin on the tops of her breasts. The smooth exposed skin extended only briefly, before being covered by textured grey cotton, which nonetheless curved around to outline the two attractive bulges quite nicely. Going back further, Jeff pictured Clara in that exotic harem costume. He retrospectively marvelled at the adventurous amount of her midriff it left exposed, and recalled the provocative sight of her curvaceous waist, smooth, flat stomach and bared navel. He thought about how that silky pink top had made her firm breasts seem just a little perkier than the garments she later wore. And he pondered the mysteriously seductive effect that those thin veils flowing from her hair and back had on her appearance. Of course it wasn't long before he remembered the erotic way she looked when they first met. With one of those perfect breasts exposed in it's entirety. Even with it's partner concealed, it looked stunning as it sat natural and free, with an average-sized areola that was a lovely pink, neither too pale nor too dark, surrounding lovely round nipple. Jeff had not forgotten the stain on her pants, either, which he had chosen to believe from the juices of her own arousal. How she had gotten in that state, Jeff could only imagine, but altogether, it was an incredibly arousing sight. Had he not been so freaked out by her extraordinary entrance, he would've almost certainly had an intense hard-on within seconds of first seeing her. Clara had the kind of body that stuck in a mans mind and knowing that it belonged to such a witty and brilliant archaeological prodigy made her all the more sexy, as far as Jeff was concerned. But Clara had a well-known reputation for being a lone wolf and although she had warmed to him since he bought her back to England, Jeff wondered how likely she was to ever be intimate with him. He let his mind run wild with imaginings of how amazing such an experience would be. Even after he drifted off to sleep, exhausted from the long day, the highly arousing images continued to haunt him.

The dream began the instant he fell asleep. He opened his eyes to see that he was still laying on the large victorian bed, except now he was laying on top of the covers, for some reason, fully dressed in the suit he'd been wearing earlier. Apart from the bed, the room - if you could call it that, was nothing like the one that he'd fallen asleep in. Instead of soft carpet, the floor was now made of large sandstone blocks, and the size of the 'room' had at least tripled. On all sides, the 'room' was bordered by a series of stone archways that were unremarkable, save for their height. They were supported on plain stone columns that were spaced about fifteen feet apart from each other, each one having a wooden torch secured to it that was burning brightly. Beyond the archways was nothing. No floor, no walls, no sky, starry or otherwise, only pitch blackness. Apart from the bed, the only other thing of interest was in the center of the room, several feet in front of the bed. It was a structure comprising of two identical lifesized statues, made of stone. They were very masterfully sculptured likenesses of two beautiful, naked women. They were kneeling, facing each other. Their private regions were obscured from view by their thighs, but judging from their realistic nipples, Jeff assumed they were anatomically correct. Together, with their upreaching hands, they supported a tray of fine silver, and in the center of the tray sat a shiny gold lamp. The lamp was surrounded by a narrow cloud of smoke that seemed to emanate from the lamp's spout. The smoke seemed to ebb and flow from the lamp in a rhythmical cycle, and it was only now that Jeff became aware of the noise. It was a deep windy sound that seemed to come from all around. Had he not known better, Jeff would've sworn that what he could hear was the breathing of huge beast, deep in slumber. Jeff began to realise that the sound was occurring in time with the movements of the smoke from the lamp, and he began to suspect that he might not be alone. "H...Hello?" he called out, apprehensively. Both the breathing noise and the movement of the smoke ceased. A few ominously silent seconds passed before the cloud of smoke turned bright pink. More smoke poured out of the lamp and the cloud began to rapidly grow. As it did, a playful feminine giggle echoed from all around. As the last of the smoke left the lamp, the cloud began to weave across the 'room', edging closer and closer to Jeff. All of a sudden the front of the cloud coalesced to form the top half of a beautiful young woman. She had long brown hair that flowed all around behind her head, unaffected by gravity, as if she was underwater. Although Jeff could tell that she was very beautiful, he strangely couldn't tell what her face looked like, even though it wasn't obscured or blurred. She had quite a voluptuous chest, which was covered by a pink, sleeveless top. Her cleavage was well exposed, thanks to the plunging neckline and her stiffened nipples were making themselves very apparent from behind the silky fabric. The short top left her midriff bare. She had no hips, or anything below. Where the lower half of her body should have been, the cloud of pink smoke remained. With an excited grin, she flew across the room until she was laying, in mid-air, right over Jeff. She looked down at him with a friendly smile. Half attracted to, half wary of this bizarre creature, Jeff returned her gaze. Her eyes were the brownest brown... like someone else he knew, but couldn't remember. He noticed that her irises eddied and rippled, like the surface of a pond. As he began to lose himself in these beautiful, surreal eyes, he suddenly felt warm lips pressing

against his own. The young woman's physical lips remained well away from him, but her mischievous grin told Jeff that she was somehow responsible. When the kiss broke off, the young woman did a small victory roll in the air over the mattress, while another feminine laugh of delight echoed all around. Jeff watched the unusual being warily, as she came to a stop, once again hovering over him, this time in an upright position. As he began to sit up, he once again felt invisible lips kissing him. This time, they were accompanied by an invisible tongue that forced its way between Jeff's lips and began teasing his own tongue. Jeff was really getting freaked out now. His eyes started darting from left to right, looking for some sort of exit. But then he felt warm hands moving in from behind him to caress his shoulders. Turning his head slightly, Jeff could see the fabric of his suit bowing under the pressure of the skilled fingers, but nothing else - the hands were also invisible. As the hands began to massage his neck and shoulders, Jeff could feel the nervous tension quickly abandon him. He layed back down on the mattress, which didn't seem to deter the invisible hands from their work, and looked up at the mysterious female, as she continued to kiss him via her magics. Her warm expression silently told him to relax and enjoy himself. The kiss broke off once again, and the soothing hands left his body. The creature moved one of her visible hands in a graceful gesture and Jeff's clothes began to leave his body, unbuttoning and unzipping themselves where needed and even unravelling at the seams. The loose sheets of material peeled away from his body and were pulled to an unseen point on the mattress beneath him, like they were being sucked down some cosmic drain. Soon Jeff was completely naked, with no trace of his clothes to be found. The creature ran a quick eye over Jeff's body. He was only just starting to get hard, but the creature already looked impressed. A contented purr echoed through the air. Closing her eyes, the creature began to caress her bare stomach with one hand, while caressing her opposite shoulder and upper breast with the other. Jeff had only a second to enjoy this spectacle, before the invisible lips again pushed themselves against his own. Then he felt invisible fingers running themselves through his chest hairs in random, gentle caresses. The kiss became merely the first in what was to be a continuous series of short, sharp kisses, interrupted every now and then by a tender prolonged kiss with tongue. To Jeff's surprise, a second set of invisible lips began kissing their way down his sternum, and a second set of invisible hands began to move up and down his thighs. His cock, now quite hard, was beginning to rise. Jeff noticed that the creature's caresses to her own body were now becoming quite intense, and judging by the smile on her face, they were also quite enjoyable. The second set of invisible lips reached his navel, and for a brief while left him alone, then Jeff felt a tongue tickling the bottom of his belly button. With so many erotic sensations occurring to him at once, Jeff's cock rose quite quickly. The feeling of two fingers from a fifth invisible hand gliding up the sides of his rod had it quickly spasming to attention. Jeff let out a muffled grunt as the invisible tongue writhed against his own in a passionate kiss.

The lovely creature opened her eyes, shooting Jeff a sly glance as she turned her back to him. Jeff watched as she somehow opened her top from the front. She let the loose garment fall, revealing her beautiful back. Turning around once again, she gave Jeff the same mischievous look, while tossing the pink top away with one arm and teasingly covering her chest with the other. While adequately hiding her nipples, her arm could not hope to conceal the amazing size of the creature's breasts. She smiled down at Jeff as she could see the eagerness building within him. She did not keep him in suspense for long, soon removing her arm to let her breasts settle into natural freedom with a little jiggle. Jeff moaned in delight as he beheld her in her full naked glory. It was a sight that became even more arousing as the creature began to slowly massage her breasts and tweak her nipples. Jeff watched the creature longingly; he wanted so badly to touch that perfect body. He hadn't long been enjoying her erotic display when his attention was consumed by the sensation of warm fingers wrapping around the shaft of his cock. The invisible hand began to move up and down his manhood, very slowly. Jeff threw his head back into the pillow, moaning deeply through yet another kiss. Fingers from a sixth invisible hand crept up from between his legs to begin fondling his balls. His rod was now hard as iron. The tongue from the second invisible mouth pulled out of his navel, and for a moment Jeff thought that it had finished with him. His theory was quickly dashed when he felt the amazing sensation of warm, moist lips sliding over the head of his cock. Jeff shuddered in shock and delight, moaning loudly. His primal mating call was answered by an equally aroused feminine purr that echoed from all around. The invisible mouth slid up and down the head of Jeff's cock very, very slowly, while the invisible hands continued to work the shaft and tease his balls. The creature's ministrations were so subtle, it seemed quite apparent that she was in no hurry for this encounter to end. Nonetheless, Jeff had serious doubts about how long he could last under this treatment. The creature looked down at Jeff, affectionately, pulling the invisible lips from his cock and giving him some respite. It was short lived, as Jeff soon felt the sensation of the invisible tongue fluttering on the very tip of his rod. "Oh God!" Jeff cried out, focusing every bit of his energy on holding his load in. He soon realised that the original set of invisible lips had stopped kissing him. In fact, within a few seconds, all of the invisible tormentors had left him. Jeff looked up at the creature, as if to ask her what the deal was. A playful feminine laugh echoed through the room as the beautiful young maiden swooped down to lay on top of Jeff, facing upwards. Jeff didn't hesitate to wrap his arms around the sexy being, caressing her stomach with one hand while reaching around to fondle a breast with the other, as he padded tender kisses up and down the nape of her neck. Feminine moans of arousal began to echo throughout the room, quiet at first, but growing ever louder. The creature lowered the swirling cloud of pink smoke (where the bottom half of her body should have been) so that it completely engulfed Jeff's penis. For a few amazing seconds, he was inside of her. The sensation was incredible. His cock felt like it was in the middle of dozens of gentle air currents, all travelling in different directions and all carrying some kind of fine powder that brushed against his cock and tickled it. It was a wonderful, exciting sensation, but the cooling effect of the air currents also helped him to prolong his orgasm.

When it seemed that the creature could moan no louder, she pull away from Jeff, flying off to a point in the air a few feet above and away from him. Jeff sat up, trying to reach over to the supernatural beauty, but he was quickly pushed back down by the invisible hands. One set resumed caressing his chest, while another resumed caressing his thighs. The third grabbed his own hands tightly, pinning them down on the mattress in a spread-eagle position. Jeff moaned as the creature's magic bought a hot, slick, invisible pussy sliding onto his cock. As her magical snatch began to move up and down Jeff's shaft, the creature began to squeeze her breasts with one of her visible hands, while moving the other deep inside the cloud beneath her waist. Jeff looked on, intently. Although her hand was obscured from view he could tell that it was conducting some kind of continuous, repetitive movement and as the hand worked, the smoke in the living cloud seemed to swirl a little faster. It was not long before the invisible lips began kissing Jeff over and over, once again. As the invisible pussy rocked on Jeff with increasing frequency, two sets of moaning began to build in the room, the masculine moans came from Jeff, the echoing feminine ones came from everywhere and nowhere. Jeff was so close now, it took every last drop of his self-control to contain his load, and he could feel his grip slipping... The loud feminine moans echoing through the room began to slowly change. What began as moans of arousal became cries of desperation. Jeff looked at the beautiful creature. Her lower hand seemed to be moving as fast as it could and the cloud of smoke at her base was now swirling and broiling furiously. She looked over at him with a pleading expression. What little of Jeff's mind wasn't consumed by desire was becoming quite worried about her. But compared to the pleasure he was receiving from the invisible pussy, such thoughts barely even registered. As the unseen vagina moved on his rod in a perfect rhythm, Jeff felt the last of his self-control slip away. With a shout of utter ecstasy, Jeff's cock fired his seed into the air. To Jeff's astonishment, the spurt flew three feet into the air, and was immediately followed by another equally as powerful. When the jet of semen reached the peak of it's climb, it exploded, like a firework, into a basketball-sized sphere of off-white smoke. The smoke remained inert for a split second, before stretching into a long trail that sped towards the cloud at the bottom of the creature, like a heat-seeking missile locked on a target. This bizarre series of events occurred for at least eight similar jets of seed fired off by Jeff's over-stimulated cock. After the eighth ejaculation the spurts began to wane in height and volume, but before all was said and done, Jeff had launched at least a dozen jets of exploding semen into the air. By the time he'd fired off his fourth load, the first stream of white smoke had entered the cloud below the female being. She opened her mouth wide, a scream of delight echoed throughout the room, and once again, the invisible hands, lips and pussy all abandoned Jeff. As each successive stream of smoke flew into her lower region, it knocked her back, seeming to throw her into a new orgasm before the last had even finished. An exhausted Jeff looked on as her prolonged moans continued long after the last smokey stream had entered her. He watched as the lines of white smoke swirling around amid the pink smoke of her lower body gradually thinned as they dissipated within her, became one with her.

She continued to float in the air, her human torso hanging horizontal and lifeless, as the feminine moans quietened and stopped. A few seconds passed, the only sound being that of Jeff's heavy breathing. Then the female creature roused, pulling herself upright as a deeply satisfied purr echoed through the room. As she flung her head back with a smile, thin strips of pink silk began to spiral around her upper body. Soon they had merged into a top that was identical to the one she'd been wearing earlier. She began to float over to the lamp in the center of the room, giving Jeff an amorous smile and a playful wave. "W...wait..." Jeff pleaded, weakly, reaching towards her as much as his drained strength would allow. But the creature payed him no attention. Her upper body dissolved into a cloud of smoke that blended with her lower half, and the single, large smokey body dove into the spout of the lamp and disappeared. Then everything faded away as Jeff descended into a level of sleep too deep to sustain dreams.

CHAPTER V
Shortly after re-materialising inside the lamp chamber, Clara realised that she had been re-dressed in the pink harem costume. She let out an irritated sigh and wasted no time in calling on her magic to change her apparel into a white blouse and track pants. After quickly looking her new outfit over, she walked over to the volume of Zhiasa's journal that she'd been reading earlier. It was still sitting open on the floor by the bed. The hi-fi that Clara had conjured into the room earlier sat silent. Clara waved her finger at it, silently commanding it to play a collection of her favourite REM songs, as her magic raised the book to a height where she could grab it without bending down. She layed down on the bed, and continued to delve into the journal. Clara discovered that within two weeks of the night that they first made love, Zhiasa and Hal'hadin were wed. The journal contained detailed accounts of a few more sexual encounters, especially the events of the wedding night, although none were as graphic as the account of Zhiasa losing her virginity. Clara was severely tempted to slip her hand down her trousers and have a little fun while reading the spicy entries, but resolved to behave herself, fearing a repeat of her last embarrassing exit. It seemed that after the wedding, Zhiasa didn't return to the lamp very often at all, as the journal was only sparsely written in from that point onward. The remainder of the journal indicated that Zhiasa and Hal'hadin lived together very comfortably in the grand palace for many years and remained very much in love. A few years into the marriage, Zhiasa bore Hal'hadin his first son. The couple went on to have three sons in total and twin girls, who would later turn out to be identical. As far as Clara could tell, the children bought both Zhiasa and Hal'hadin much joy - there didn't seem to be any black sheep in the family. "...Apart from aunt Tukanni," Clara thought to herself. Then the journal's tone became somewhat sombre. Some time after all the children had grown up, Zhiasa and Hal'hadin began to face the fact that Hal'hadin would not live forever. He was already beginning to show signs of age. Upon her master's death, Zhiasa would have been instantly pulled back into the lamp, to await summoning by her next master. Her sad, lonely life of servitude would begin all over again. Hal'hadin remembered the tales she had told him of this life, and dreaded such a fate ever being revisited on his beloved wife. He made his third wish, for Zhiasa to be free of her imprisonment, but to the surprise of both Hal'hadin and Zhiasa, the wish could not be granted. It seemed that Tukanni still had some nasty surprises for her sister, even after all these millennia. The enslavement spell had a clause built into it that prevented anyone from being able to wish Zhiasa free. After the gravity of the situation had sunk in, Hal'hadin and Zhiasa realised that they would have to go to more drastic measures to end the princess's imprisonment. Even though they speculated it would probably kill Zhiasa, the couple made the difficult decision to destroy the lamp. Zhiasa wrote about how bravely her husband concealed his breaking heart, on the day that she asked him to destroy the lamp, as she could not bear to return to her old life. But destroying the lamp proved to be easier said than done, as the couple tried many ways of accomplishing the task but never succeeded. The strongest men in the lands could not even dent it with a mallet. The greatest elephants in the land could not crush it beneath their feet. The finest blacksmith in the lands could not stoke a forge hot enough to melt it. The wisest alchemists in the land

could not concoct an acid strong enough to dissolve it. Many times the couple said tearful last goodbyes to each other, only to fall asleep that same night, holding each other tightly. Clara got the feeling that even though Zhiasa was becoming increasingly worried about the likelihood of eternal imprisonment, she was more even more grateful for the extra time she got to spend with her husband. The journal was unclear about how long it was before the couple abandoned the idea of destroying the lamp. But one entry was penned with such heartfelt despair that it even bought a tear to Clara's eye. Zhiasa had lost all hope. She tried to comfort herself with the notion that she probably had many more years to enjoy with her husband, but ultimately, she was certain that an eternity of countless cold masters awaited her. The next entry however, was much less melancholy. Zhiasa had remembered once thinking that her sister's amulet might have had the power to release her. The cryptic message on the wall of the chamber implied that some kind of key was required for her release, and the amulet was just the right shape to fit in the opening below the message. Zhiasa knew that it was a long shot, tracking down a piece of jewellery from eight thousand years ago, but at least it was a shot. As her sister died childless, Zhiasa believed that the amulet should have been entombed with her. Hal'hadin immediately summoned the most learned scholars in the land to his palace. He paid them almost insane commissions to track down the whereabouts of the ancient queen's tomb. At this point the journal became frustratingly vague. It was clear that several years passed by, with many promising leads that would turn out to be dead ends, but Zhiasa hadn't included any details about the search, or the scholars' discoveries in her entries. In her final entry, Zhiasa stated that one of the scholars in Hal'hadin's employ had sent word that he'd discovered an ancient stela, buried in the region of her old kingdom. It was worn and damaged, but there were writings on it that claimed a queen, who could well have been Tukanni, had been entombed on the peak where two suns join as one. As cryptic as this message seemed, the scholar seemed confidant that he knew where the ancient tablet was referring to. The lead seemed so promising that Hal'hadin and Zhiasa made immediate preparations to travel to the suspected site of the tomb and oversee the final leg of the search in person. They planned to meet up with the scholar en route, and then he would guide them the rest of the way. Clara sighed as she quickly thumbed through the final blank pages of the book. She could only assume that the old scholar's theory had paid off, and they had found the amulet. Zhiasa would have been too ecstatic upon obtaining the key to her freedom to pen a final entry in her journal. One thing that was obvious was that she had definitely managed to free herself, and it was almost certainly with the amulet. The amulet... at least now, Clara knew what she needed in order to free herself. She couldn't recall any pieces like it being discovered in Hal'hadin's tomb, but then, she had disappeared well before the expedition there had been completed. It was possible that the amulet had been discovered after she disappeared. She would have to ask Jeff about that the next time he summoned her. Clara spent the next several hours sitting at the desk, re-reading some of Zhiasa's earliest journal scrolls. She had a gut feeling that she might need all the information she could get about Zhiasa's kingdom. While deeply engrossed in a scroll (as she had

been for much of the night), she felt a familiar tingling in her toes. She looked down at her feet to see the smoky cloud swirling around them. Not nearly as freaked out by it as she had been last time, Clara casually turned her attention back to the scroll and finished reading the sentence she'd been on. Within a few seconds she found herself standing in Jeff's presence, once again in Roft Manor. Jeff was wearing nothing more than white cotton briefs. "Warwick's down the hall, knocking on your door. You'd better get back to your room if you don't want him to start wondering where you are," he said. "Yes, I'd better. Thank you, Jeff," Clara replied as she began to walk towards the wall. "... and you might want to change your pyjamas to something a little more English, if you don't want to get any weird looks," Jeff said. Clara looked down over her body, realising she was once again clothed in the harem outfit. "Oh blast!" she complained. "It did this to me when I went back in, I think it must reset the wardrobe to default every time I move in and out of the lamp." Her magic transformed the costume into a set of full-body, cream-colored silk pyjamas. Clara even had the sense to give her hair the untidy appearance it would normally have after a rough night's sleep. "How do I look?" she asked, spinning around to give Jeff a 360degree view. "Not bad," he responded. "Thank you," Clara smiled, taking one last look at Jeff wearing nothing but his underwear. "See you at breakfast." She turned around and walked through the wall, into her own bedroom, chuckling to herself. She couldn't help but enjoy the poetic justice she'd just enjoyed; Yesterday she was the one that had been caught half-naked. --------------The three Rofts and Jeff sat down to breakfast together in the sitting room. The meal wasn't as formal or grand as dinner the night before, but it still came with full service. After breakfast, Clara changed into a sports bra and track pants and went for a run around the manor grounds, as she often did when she was home. She still wasn't sure how she was going to explain her disappearance to her parents, but she knew that she could not put the issue off any longer. Her main concern was her mother. The elder Lady Roft tended to worry about her only child, always running off to the most remote locations on the globe. Clara had always tried to spare her mother's nerves by not telling her about the perils she faced on her adventures. But this time Clara had fallen into a trap that she could not stay silent about. One thing she was not prepared to do was lie about her absence. Growing up, Clara had spent much of her life globe-trotting, staying with her parents at the sites of her father's archaeological digs. She spent very little of her childhood in schools, certainly not enough time to make any real friends. The people she did spend a fair bit of her childhood with, the local men Lord Roft would hire (for generous wages) to work his dig sites, would often turn out to be rather unscrupulous characters. Clara learned at a young age that she could not leave a valuable unattended at a dig camp and expect it

to be there when she returned. On more than one expedition, the family stepped out of their tent one morning to discover that their entire crew, and most of their equipment, had disappeared during the night. Consequently, Clara was a person who did not readily trust others and there was only a handful of people in the world whom she did completely trust, her parents being two of them. The trust she did have with these people was of the utmost importance to her, and that is why she would not lie to her parents about what had happened to her in Kazakhstan. Clara was surprised, when she'd returned to the manor, to find that she'd shaved thirteen minutes off her previous record for the run. She realised that she must've been running at super-human speed, and was now quite grateful that she hadn't run into anyone on the way. Although she could have magically changed into another outfit, Clara decided to do things the old-fashioned way. She stripped out of her running gear and had a long, hot shower, in the small bathroom near the pool. She dried herself and changed into a blouse and long pants that she'd left in the bathroom earlier. Having lived in a house tended by Warwick all her life, Clara knew his routine off by heart. It didn't take her long to find him and ask him to summon her parents and Jeff into her father's study, where she would await them. Jeff was the last to be escorted to the study by the old butler. Once he had entered the room, Warwick closed the double doors of the study from the outside, and marched off to inform the rest of the staff that the Rofts and their guest were not to be disturbed. Then, with calm and deliberate speech, Clara explained the incredible situation to her parents, remaining truthful the entire time. She began by giving them the personal history of princess Zhiasa. Then she explained how, two years ago, she had found the exact same lamp that had kept the ancient princess imprisoned for all those millennia, and made the mistake of rubbing it. She went on to explain the events of the previous day, how Jeff had rubbed the lamp himself, summoning her out of the lamp and into his service. As Clara spoke, Lord and Lady Roft repeatedly turned to each other, with looks of disbelief. Jeff stood silently against the back wall, letting Clara handle the matter as she thought best. When Clara had finished her detailed monologue, a tense silence descended on the room. Lord Roft held his wife comfortingly as they both gazed at no particular point in the room. Their expressions laying somewhere between confusion and distress, as they processed the remarkable story their daughter had just told them, and the idea of her being enslaved by some nine thousand year old boobytrap. "Now I know what you're probably thinking," Jeff said, breaking the silence after a few seconds, and if you're gonna go calling the nut house, I suggest you book two rooms. Because I saw all of what she just told you with my own two eyes, and I can assure you that she's fair dinkum." Lord and Lady Roft looked at each other in bewilderment, then at Clara. "He agrees with me," Clara translated for her parents. Jeff wondered why Clara had just repeated what he'd just said, but said nothing.

"This..." the lord began, after a much lengthier silence, "this is unbelievable. I mean I was prepared to accept that Alladin actually existed, but the genie as well? It boggles the mind..." "You've said it yourself, father, all legends have a basis in fact. The problem is figuring out how loose that basis is," Clara responded. "Not loose enough in this case, it would seem," Lord Roft lamented. Clara nodded. "Clara, what's to become of you, now that you've been... imprisoned?" Lady Roft asked. "I remain Jeff's... slave," Clara stated, again through clenched teeth, "until he makes his third wish, or until he... dies, whichever comes first." "Hopefully the former," Jeff added. "My god!" the lady exclaim in horror. "Just a moment... Earlier, you said that Alladin managed to free the princess from the lamp, now how did he manage to do that?" Lord Roft asked. "With the amulet," Clara answered. "The same amulet that Tukanni used to keep Zhiasa in perpetual service to her can be used to open the symbolic 'doorway to freedom' inside the lamp. At least, that's what I assume..." "You assume?" Jeff asked. "The journal becomes very vague towards the end... Zhiasa was only speculating that the amulet might have the power to free her. It says that Hal'hadin sent numerous expeditions out to track down the location of Tukanni's tomb...." "He actually set out to find an eight thousand year old Mesopotamian tomb?" Lord Roft asked, surprised. "That's right," Clara responded. "...Man after my own heart," his Lordship smiled. "He was in love," Jeff said. "He was indeed," Clara agreed. "In the final journal entry, Zhiasa claimed that they had found a promising lead, and they were going off to where they thought the tomb was." "And where was that?" Lord Roft asked. "'On the peak where the two suns join as one,'" Clara said, quoting the journal. Her answer was responded to with a room-full of puzzled expressions. "...I told you, the journal was very vague. But one thing we can be certain of is that Zhiasa DID manage

to secure her freedom somehow, and it seems most likely that she did it using the amulet." "...And what became of the amulet?" Lady Roft asked tentatively. "I don't know," Clara answered. "After eleven hundred years? It could be anywhere!" Lord Roft said despondently. "Actually, I wanted to ask you about it," Clara said to Jeff. "I don't suppose they recovered it from Hal'hadin's tomb after I went missing?" "I think they recovered several pieces of jewellery, maybe some amulets, what did you say it looked like again?" Jeff asked in an unsure tone. "A lotus flower, with two buds on the stem." "Nah... Doesn't ring a bell," Jeff said. Clara looked disappointed. "But that's not to say they didn't find it," Jeff continued. "They haven't published a complete inventory of all the things they found there, and there's been very little disclosed about the last objects they removed from the tomb. So far, they've only been releasing details on the objects as they complete their lab tests on them." "I have some contacts that should be able to help us out there. Although I'll need to figure out what to tell them about where I've been for the past two and a half years," Clara said, already working on her story. "Just tell them you needed to take some time off to go and find yourself!" Jeff smiled. "Very well, Jeff," Clara said in an oddly indifferent tone. "Oh shit! I didn't mean that as an order!" Jeff said, suddenly flustered. "You don't have to tell them that, if you don't want to." "Thank you, Jeff. I believe I shan't..." Clara responded, sounding relieved. "I think we can do without the humour, Master Rourke," Lord Roft said in a disapproving tone, shooting Jeff an intimidating glare from behind his spectacles. "No, Father, it's all right. I think we're all still adjusting to the unusual situation, " Clara said, flashing Jeff a reassuring smile. "Oh, Clara... This is simply terrible! We must get you back to normal as soon as possible!" Lady Roft said, clearly distressed by the recent display of her daughter's captivity. "We will, Mother," Clara replied, with no false confidence. "We will." ---------------

Clara sat down in front of the 21-inch flat panel monitor on her desk. She used her magic to press the power button of the computer, which sat beside the monitor, and waited patiently for the system to boot up. The original purpose of the room she was in had been lost in time, but in recent years, Clara had converted it into her own personal study. It wasn't as grand as her father's was, but Clara still liked it. It gave her some space to spread out her research, being on the top floor gave it a great view of the estate grounds and, most conveniently, it happened to be connected to her bedroom via a secret passage. When the computer had properly booted up, Clara opened her browser and logged in to her internet account. One of the perks of being on the premium plan was that they never shut down your account, even after two and a half years of inactivity. Clara chuckled as she noticed that she had 4106 new emails, almost all of which appeared to be spam. She clicked on the only email in her visible inbox that had come from a familiar source. "Knock Knock!" Jeff said as he actually performed the action on the open door to the study. "Not looking at anything R-rated, are you?" "Only photos of unwrapped mummies," Clara replied facetiously. "Oh. I heard that they'd opened up a site like that! Just goes to show, there are some jobs that you can never be too old for," Jeff said as he strolled in to the room. Clara smiled. "Any luck?" Jeff asked in a more serious, but still cheery tone. "I don't know," Clara said as she turned her attention back to the screen. "I just got off the phone with one of my old colleagues from the dig. He said he'd email me a complete inventory of everything they found there." "What did you tell him about where you'd been for the last couple of years?" "Well, two and a half years ago, I was found unconscious on a mountain trail in the himalayas by a pair of sherpas," Clara explained as she continued to scroll through the long, detailed list. "Apparently I'd had a mishap while climbing. Anyway, they carried me back to their village, where I awoke a couple of days later with absolutely no recollection of who I was or where I'd come from. I lived with the people there until about a fortnight ago, when I finally remembered where my home was. I made my way to the nearest settlement with a phone, and arrived back at Roft Manor only yesterday. Incidentally, I never want to see another jug of goat's milk as long as I live." "Pretty convincing," Jeff said. "Except what were you doing in the himalayas?" "I don't remember," Clara replied with a sly smirk. She continued scanning the email, becoming less and less hopeful as the scrollbar descended further and further down the screen. "Blast!" she cursed as the bar hit the bottom. "There's nothing on there that sounds even remotely similar!" "Is there any chance he might have missed something?" Jeff asked, after a brief solemn silence.

"No. Dimitri is nothing if not meticulous," Clara sighed, clicking on the 'Log out' link. She turned off the monitor and rose out of the chair. "Zhiasa and Hal'hadin must have passed the amulet on to their children, and possibly they to their children... Meaning it could have been buried in any number of medieval Persian tombs that may or may not have been discovered, and that's assuming that it wasn't sold or stolen from the family. Father was right: it could be anywhere..." Clara said, with a false smile. "Hate to play devil's advocate here, but are we even sure that the amulet still exists?" Jeff asked, treading softly. "No. But Tukanni's spell made the lamp indestructible, so that bodes well for the amulet," Clara replied with optimism. She looked over her shoulder at the quietly humming computer. "Our best bet now is to search through every recorded object recovered from medieval Persian digs, and every recovered object of Mesopotamian origin," she said. "This could take a while..." "I get the feeling that you could use a hand. Do you have another computer somewhere around here?" Jeff asked. With her right hand, Clara made a pushing motion towards the wall adjoining the one the desk sat against. Instantaneously an exact clone of the existing desk appeared there, complete with chair and computer set. The new computer was even on, just like it's twin. "I do now," Clara smirked.

CHAPTER VI
Several frustratingly fruitless days followed. Early in the search Lord Roft had volunteered (insisted, in fact) to assist Clara track the amulet down. His Lordship made inquiries with known collectors of Persian and Mesopotamian artefacts. Meanwhile Clara and Jeff searched through all the relevant internet databases of archaeological finds in that part of the world. Clara also, with the assistance of a couple of old contacts, checked to see if any piece like the amulet had ever been seen in the antiques black market. Clara, being a genie, did not need to sleep and so would continue her research right throughout the night. Her newfound powers, though, could do nothing to guard her from emotional exhaustion. As the tally of dead ends began to mount up, Clara found herself taking extended breaks from the research, often taking a walk around the manor grounds with her mother and/or father, who were always eager to spend the time with their long lost daughter. One night, in the late hours after Jeff and Clara had decided that they had done enough researching for the day, they moved off into Clara's room to have a friendly conversation over a bottle of savignon blanc from Lady Roft's wine cellar. Jeff was surprised at first to see that Clara's room was about double the size of his own. Part of it was made up almost like a mini-living room, complete with a couch and coffee table, where the two of them sat down. Tired of reading, talking and thinking about nothing but the amulet for the past few days, neither Clara nor Jeff had any desire to talk about it now. Instead they shared their personal histories. Jeff found himself fascinated by Clara's tales of her fantastic (almost unbelievable) adventures, and Clara, ever the historian, enjoyed learning about the past of the man who had released her from the lamp. "...and then when I dropped out of applied mathematics," Jeff continued as he poured Clara another glass of wine, "I signed up for an IT course, which held my interest for almost the entire first year, while I minored in archaeology, which I quickly became quite interested in. Mind you, by this time the debt from all those other courses was starting to mount up, and short of helping me find Lincoln's gold, there wasn't much chance of an education in archaeology securing my financial future," he said, prompting a chuckle from Clara. "So I went back and finished the engineering course, got my batchelor's, and an old classmate got me a low-level job in the city planning department. I stayed with the archaeology course, part time at least, for a couple of years before work got in the way..." he lamented. "I'd kinda hoped that at some point I'd be able to return to archaeology and even work on some digs..." "...So what was that all up? Six courses you did?" Clara asked. "Uh... seven," Jeff said, stalling for a moment as the alcohol had begun to impede his ability to count. "Seven. My, my, my... You're a jack of all trades, aren't you?" Clara smiled as she sipped her wine. "...Master of none," Jeff said, returning Clara's smile.

"Don't sell yourself short!" Clara chided. "You deciphered that map carved into the princess's sarcophagus. There must have been hundreds of seasoned archaeologists who have examined that design since we discovered it, myself included, but you were the first person who managed to see more than just a bunch of pictures. I think that's remarkable." "Thanks," Jeff responded modestly. "I guess I always have been good at puzzles..." "Well there you go! Jeff Rourke: Master of Puzzles," Clara said with a smile. "It's not your fault that they don't offer university degrees in puzzle-solving." They both had a good chuckle. "When I was a kid, my mum used to buy me puzzle books all the time, you know those cheap ones they sell at magazine racks in supermarkets? And when I was, like, seven, she'd be buying me the books marked '13 years and older'..." "Really?" Clara asked, fascinated. "Yep. I've always loved the things. I always get a real feeling of accomplishment when I solve the things, you know?" "So what was it that inspired you to apply your extraordinary skills to the design of the princess's sarcophagus?" "Well... Let's be honest, this was the tomb of Alladin that you guys had discovered. You couldn't help being interested. Hell, the whole world was hanging out for ages just waiting to hear from you guys whether you'd found a lamp in there or not. And of course it was big news when you vanished without a trace. But I guess the thing that really caught my interest were the rumours that Alladin had built a vault for his wife, and that there was supposed to be a map in the tomb, but you guys couldn't find it. So I started gathering all the info I could. Just downloading all the official stuff the project managers had released to the public at first. Then I started getting my hands on inside information, through old archaeology classmates who had friends, who had friends on the expedition and research teams. I still didn't get much, but one of the things I did get was a nice detailed photo of the left side of the princess's sarcophagus. It took me weeks before I came up with the whole constellation idea. But when I did... and when I checked it and realised that it pointed to a set of Persian ruins," Jeff said as he stared out into space, a radiant smile on his face, "there was that feeling of accomplishment again." "I can imagine," Clara said. "But there's something I still don't understand. Why did you go to all the trouble of travelling to the vault yourself? I mean, if you don't mind me saying so, it was a very expensive venture considering your financial situation," she asked with a masterful balance of frankness and tact. "I don't know..." Jeff said uncomfortably, as he searched himself for an answer. "I guess... I guess I really thought that I had something, that I'd discovered something really important. I guess I thought that this was my big break, my chance to become a real archaeologist."

"But you could have had all that, anyway, if you had passed your discovery on to the members of the Hal'hadin's tomb expedition," Clara pointed out. "And then what? Become some reference in the back pages of the official report? 'Professor Drummond would like to extend special thanks to Jeff Rourke'? Clara, I thought I had a shot at doing something important. I thought that I could be the guy who discovered the princess's vault," Jeff explained, as a saddened look crossed his face. "Turns out, though, that I got there second. But I guess I should be thanking you for that, shouldn't I?" Things turned awkwardly silent. Clara's sympathetic expression never changed as she continued to gaze at Jeff, but he would not look at her. Eventually, she spoke, in a calm, deliberate voice. "Just so that you know, what you did; going out there, finding the lamp, bringing me back here... It was important to me. And it was important to my family," she said. "I know," Jeff responded, finally looking at her with a smile, which she returned. "Believe me, Clara, I'm not ungrateful. I'm really happy to see you back with your parents again. And I am so glad that I've gotten to meet you. Going to the vault was anything but a disappointment. It's just that... You know, listening to all your stories about the things you've discovered, and thinking about some of the mysteries out there that've been intriguing mankind for centuries... I just wish that I could make a great archaeological discovery of my own, you know?" Between the alcohol and comfortable mood, Jeff had completely forgotten that he was in the presence of a genie and needed to be careful about saying the word "wish". Clara's lips began to part in warning, but it was too late. Before she could say anything the wish had been made. In a poof of dark red smoke, a tablet of red granite, about an inch thick, appeared in mid air about two feet above Jeff's lap, which it proceeded to land on, with a painful-sounding thud. "Oh! Jesus!" Jeff exclaimed in agony, spilling most of his wine on the couch. "I'm sorry Jeff, I had no choice," Clara lamented. "What did you do that for?" Jeff whined, more confused than upset, as he pushed the heavy tablet onto the space on the couch between them. "You wished that you could make a great archaeological discovery. I assume that this tablet will give you the means to do so..." Jeff mumbled quiet curses while rubbing his thighs, when all of a sudden he realised what had happened. "I just used up a wish?" he asked, looking at Clara, who simply nodded in response. "Ah damnit! I didn't mean to do that," he said to himself, as he began to rub his sore thighs again. Taking a good look at the tablet of the first time, Jeff could see that there was a fairly extensive latin inscription carved into its polished surface. Jeff could tell from the classic style of the script that the tablet was probably from the roman empire, roughly around the time of Christ. All the same, he couldn't really read it. "Would you mind?" he asked, looking sheepishly at Clara. "My latin's what you could call 'crappius maximus'" Clara manoeuvred around behind Jeff, studying the tablet over his shoulder. Instantly her attention was drawn to the name carved at its base.

"Marcus Antonius," she read aloud, tapping on the name with two of her fingers. "These are the words of Mark Antony." Both of the young archaeologists instinctively leaned closer to the tablet, their interest piqued by it's famous author. Clara began reading it from the top. "On this day, those of us who remained loyal commission the greatest of all catacombs. It shall be built as the final resting place for... Oh my god!" Clara exclaimed, trembling. "I think these are directions to the tomb of Julius Caesar!" "Oh my god!" Jeff said, echoing Clara, as he became deeply engrossed in the tablet, despite the fact that he could not read a word of it. They turned to each other with smiles of giddy elation, both lost for words. "This is incredible!" Jeff eventually said, as he stared into Clara's captivating brown eyes. "Yes... It is." Clara replied, not entirely referring to the tablet. As she returned his gaze, she was instilled with an elusive sense of comfort that she'd recently begun to notice whenever their eyes met. "So... um... where does it say he is?" Jeff awkwardly inquired, turning his attention back to the slab. "Well... Now, where was I?" Clara muttered as she searched the tablet for where she'd left off. "...It shall be carved and constructed beneath the city, eastwards and downwards from midway along the third branch from where the great northern and western passages intersect... it goes on..." "A map! We need a map of the roman catacombs!" Jeff interrupted. "We have a complete set of catacomb maps in the library," Clara declared. With a graceful wave of her hand, all of the Roft's tablecloth-sized maps of the catacombs beneath Rome were teleported into the room. Together, Jeff and Clara used the tablet to deduce the route to the tomb and plot it out on one of the charts. The course turned out to lead through a previously undiscovered catacomb, walled off from a wellknown one, that in turn sported a section of wall that concealed the entrance to Caesar's tomb. Within twenty minutes they had completed a detailed map to the resting place of one history's greatest leaders. "...And there he is: Gaius Julius Caesar," Jeff announced as he drew a sloppy circle around the position they'd estimated the actual tomb to be. Scarcely able to believe what they now had in their possession, Clara and Jeff stared at each other, beaming. Caught up in the emotion of the moment, they wrapped their arms tightly around each other, laughing in delight. Then, as the hug began to break off, Clara leaned forward and kissed Jeff tenderly on the lips. She had caught him by surprise, but because her eyes were closed, she didn't notice the stunned expression on his face until the kiss ended. As she lost herself in his wide-open grey eyes, a million questions began to onslaught her mind. Why had she done that? Was it a mistake? Was she about to regret doing it? What did Jeff think about it? Did he enjoy it? What was he thinking now? What did he think about her?

Before she had a chance to even begin to answer them, Jeff pressed his lips firmly against her own. Their embrace tightened once again, eliminating the small amount of empty space between their bodies. When the kiss ended, another began, and when that one ended another followed it, each one more passionate than the last. By now, the doubts Clara had been having mere seconds ago had abandoned her completely. Clara had taught herself to never be indecisive when she was pursuing something she wanted, and right now she really wanted to fuck Jeff's brains out. Her feet pushed off the ground and she wrapped her legs around Jeff's waist, grinding her hips firmly against his body. The passionate kissing continued, and Clara moved one hand up to begin running her fingers through Jeff's thick black hair. Gentle moans of arousal began to issue from both master and slave. After one very prolonged kiss, Jeff pulled his lips away, and turned his head slightly so that he could look over Clara's shoulder to see a clear path to the bed. Clara's relentless lips continued their foreplay, undeterred by Jeff's diverted attention. She padded gentle kisses along his cheek, until she got to the bottom of his ear, which she then began to suck and nibble. Jeff, in the meantime, had carried his eager companion across the large bedroom. He had almost tripped over the small step up to the raised area the bed was on, but had managed to maintain his balance. He sat Clara down on the mattress, and she released him from her embrace, but not before stealing a long, open-mouthed kiss. She scootched over towards the far side of the bed as Jeff hurriedly kicked off his shoes, before climbing onto the mattress beside her. They were both sitting up as Jeff leaned over towards Clara to resume kissing her, while running one hand slowly along her hip and up her back. Clara's imaginative mind had already begun to think about the matter of their clothing, and had called forth her magic to give all of their outer garments the structural integrity of tissue paper, without altering their appearance in any way. Jeff had been firmly caressing Clara's back when he first heard the loud tearing noise. Breaking off an increasingly enjoyable kiss, Jeff leaned back in surprise when he saw the large piece of Clara's torn jacket, and smaller piece of her blouse, that he now held in his hand. Even horny as a rutting stag, he never would've thought he'd have the strength to accidentally do something like that. Clara chuckled at his confused expression. "Don't worry," she smiled as she began to run her fingers up the top of his chest, "I can always conjure another outfit just the same..." She leaned forward and tenderly pushed her lips against his, picking up the kiss where they'd left off. Now realising that the damage was somehow Clara's doing, Jeff wrapped his arms around Clara and began firmly caressing her back, enjoying every new tearing sound he heard. Clara's fingers had by now carved a trail of ten large parallel tears in his shirt and jacket, which ran over his collarbone on both sides of his neck. After a few more agile caresses, Clara had torn the tops of his shirt and jacket to shreds, baring everything above the shoulders. It wasn't long before the lovers-to-be were playfully tearing the clothes off each other in large sheets, giggling and laughing like two children unwrapping Christmas presents. When the last bothersome shreds of material had been torn and shaken from their bodies, Clara wrapped her scantily-clad body around Jeff's, like a venus fly trap ensnaring it's prey. All that remained of his clothing were his blue cotton briefs,

which were struggling to contain what was obviously a powerful erection. All that remained of hers were a stitchless smooth peach-colored bra, and matching panties. The bra supported her ideal breasts in such a way that it made her cleavage a remarkably inviting sight, while the panties were beginning to show the slightest signs of a damp stain. Clara and Jeff again pushed their lips passionately together, as their hands found ways of spur the arousal on in their partner's body. Clara resumed caressing Jeff's hair with one hand, while reaching down to fondle his butt with her other. Jeff's hand was similarly delighting in the sensation of holding Clara's curvaceous posterior in it's grasp, while it's partner had slid one of her bra straps over her shoulder and began fumbling around with the clasp at the back. Then without warning, his attentions seemed to lose their momentum, his hands becoming motionless. Clara noticed that her passion was barely being returned in their kisses, too, so she pulled away, realising from Jeff's expression that he was deep in thought. "What's wrong?" she asked with concern. "You remember back in the cave, how you couldn't speak when I told you to be quiet? Even though you wanted to?" Jeff said, contemplatively. He had only now noticed that Clara's hair was flowing down her back full and loose. She must've only recently unravelled her braid with her magic. "Jeff, As much as I enjoy reflecting on the past, I don't think this is really helping the mood," Clara drolly replied, still randy as a teenager, despite the implication that she was otherwise. "I can control your body," Jeff concluded, with a suspiciously subdued smile. Clara looked at him quizzically, as she began to wonder what he was thinking exactly. She didn't manage to work out Jeff's little scheme, in the few short seconds before he put it into practice. "Come," he said in a calm, but commanding tone. Clara's entire body shook violently as an intense orgasm suddenly assailed her. It lasted only a split second, but what it lacked in duration in made up for in quality. "Dear god!" Clara moaned, as she struggled to catch her breath. "That was ama..." "Come," Jeff repeated, with a self-satisfied smirk. Another tremor rocked her body, but this time the orgasm was much more prolonged. Her every muscle tensed and she bit down on her lower lip, muffling a quiet whimper. While inside, hot sexual pleasure consumed her like wildfire. "Oh...Oh wow!" Clara panted, as her body went limp again. She was still sitting upright under her own power, albeit quite unsteadily, with her eyes still closed and her head leaning over to one side. "Come," Jeff commanded again, still in the same quiet tone. Clara cried out in delight as she instinctively pushed her womanhood as hard as she could against Jeff's rigid member. Had their privates not been separated by two sets of underwear she would have buried his rod deep within herself. The orgasm lasted for countless seconds, her sex ablaze with the most powerful level of pleasure yet. But

this time, the orgasm was not as satisfying. The sensation of Jeff's mighty bulge pushing against her sheathed opening triggered a new level of lust within her. She craved Jeff's cock, now. She needed it. Needed to feel it inside of her. Needed it to feel it filling a void, a hunger, that was beginning to drive her crazy. Needed to feel it blasting the fluids of its climax into the very heart of the sex-driven creature she had now become. As the orgasm waned, Clara softly moaned as her body relaxed. Her hips slid down Jeff's thighs, and her head fell on to her shoulder. Only Jeff's arms were keeping her upright, had he not been holding her, she surely would've collapsed flat onto the mattress. Her breathing was loud and ragged, causing her sizeable breasts to heave to and fro. Jeff could not help but enjoy the appealing spectacle for a moment, before getting back to business. "Co..." he began, but before he could give the command, Clara summoned a surge of strength and hurled herself forward, pushing her lips against his in an intense openmouthed kiss. She did it partially out of a primal need to lavish affection of the man who had been pleasuring her so, but mostly to buy herself some time to recover before he sent her into another orgasm. But Clara was too out-of-breath to sustain the kiss for long. Her mouth slipped away from Jeff's and began drawing deep breaths once again. Jeff watched her with a sly smile. He couldn't help but admire her cunning method of stalling him, but he had made his decision to give her one last orgasm before the real action began. "Come," He ordered in that same calm tone. Every neuron in Clara's body went haywire as a meltdown of pleasure stormed through her. She flung her head back as far as it would go, baying a loud moan of sheer ecstasy at the ceiling. Once again her privates pushed against his ever-hardening cock, in a vain attempt to achieve penetration. Her back arched further and further with each second that passed without the orgasm subsiding, presenting her breasts to Jeff in a very attractive manner. With a considerable degree of self control, Jeff abstained from adoring the luscious mounds themselves (promising himself he would give them plenty of attention later), instead leaning forward to plant a tender kiss on the smooth skin between them. Clara could barely feel him there. She was caught in a crossfire within her own body, between an amazing orgasm, and a maddening need to have sex with Jeff. Her awareness was all but drowned out. And then in an instant, it all came rushing back, as her impassioned moan trailed off into silence and every muscle in her body went slack. She was exhausted. By now, her panties were saturated with her juices. Jeff, realising that the orgasm had run its course, pulled Clara back upright. Mustering her strength, Clara guided her heavy head onto Jeff's shoulder. "Please... Please, Master..." she pleaded, as Jeff gently brushed her hair out of her face. "It's so wonderful... so much pleasure... but I need to have you, too. Please, Jeff... make love to me!" Clara opened her eyes as she felt some strength beginning to return to her, looking up into Jeff's. Jeff gazed back, into Clara's lovely brown eyes, with a look of sympathy. They betrayed her utter desperation. He was somewhat surprised, considering the wild display he'd just seen (even watching it was exhausting), that Clara was so eager to continue so soon, but he didn't have the heart to balk at such a desperate plea.

"Alright," Jeff said, eagerly. A beaming smile washed over Clara's face and she lifted her head to tenderly kiss Jeff on the lips. As one kiss lead to another, and another, Clara lifted one hand, and waved it around in a gentle gesture and Clara's bra, panties and Jeff's briefs all disappeared in poofs of light smoke. The kissing continued for several moments before Jeff realised that they were now both totally naked. He pulled back just enough to run his eyes over Clara's splendid form, down her ideal hourglass figure, seeing for the first time the narrow trail of thin brown hair that lead down her mons to the gateway of her feminine pleasures. His attention was soon consumed, however, by her perfect breasts. Clara smirked playfully as she noticed the delighted expression on Jeff's face. She slowly moved her hands onto Jeff's (which had made their way down to Clara's waist), and gently guided them onto her breasts. Needing no further prompting, Jeff gently squeezed her lovely mounds. They felt as wonderful as they looked, filling his entire grasp with their supple warmth. Clara purred quietly, as Jeff's attentions to her breasts (which were still erogenous from the orgasms) sent a buzz of pleasure through her. "Is this everything you hoped it would be?" she asked, with a seductive smile. "It's so much more..." Jeff responded, as he continued to gently fondle Clara's breasts. "You are utterly gorgeous!" he said with undeniable sincerity. By way of thanking him for the compliment, Clara leaned forward and tenderly kissed him on the lips once again. At the same time, she gracefully slid her hips up along Jeff's thighs. Jeff moaned as he felt the tip of his cock come in to contact with the smooth skin of Clara's mons. Clara's hips did not stop there, though, continuing their slow advance until Jeff's rigid penis was gently sandwiched between their two bodies. A few seconds later, Clara ended the kiss. "This is only the beginning..." she purred, as she wrapped her arms around Jeff's neck once again. "What I'm about to do to you is gonna be more magical than all the things you've seen in this past week, combined," she declared with an almost sinister smile. Before Jeff even had a chance to respond, Clara lifted her hips and plunged her roasting hot snatch onto Jeff's magnificent erection. Clara moaned in delight as the ecstasy stampeded up her torso. It seemed like she'd been craving this forever, and for a brief moment, Clara found herself wondering just how long she had been wanting this to happen. Meanwhile, Jeff growled as the amazing sensation of Clara's slick womanhood sliding onto his cock sent all of his animal instincts into overdrive. Her lips out of reach, Jeff threw his head forward and began passionately kissing the side of her neck. What remained of Jeff's conscious mind devoted itself to delaying his orgasm as long as humanly possible - he was in no hurry for this amazing experience to finish. He waited until his rod was completely inside of her before he began to slowly rock his hips backwards and forwards. Clara instinctively began to move up and down his maleness, while her head dove forward to begin passionately kissing him once again. Jeff's hand's moved down her body to hold her firm butt and help guide her motions so that the two of them could develop a mutual rhythm. They kissed only a few times, before Clara lost herself in a reverie of sheer pleasure and began to hum an arousing song of sexual delight. Jeff nuzzled and kissed Clara's perfect breasts, as his manhood moved in and out of her heavenly opening in an ever-quickening rhythm.

After a while, Jeff leaned forward, moving his hands up Clara's back, to lay her down on the mattress, making sure that her head found a pillow. Clara's arms dropped on to the mattress, but her legs remained tightly wrapped around Jeff's hips, holding them to hers like a vice, ensuring his member remained inside her hungry pussy. When Clara seemed comfortable, Jeff began to heave and haul his cock within her once again. Clara released her embracing legs a little to allow Jeff to move in wider strokes, yet not so much that she ran the risk of Jeff's rod leaving her completely. She was riding on the edge. Her hands absent-mindedly pulled on the blanket beneath her, as her body writhed in slow, impassioned motions. Her moans were building up in volume, indicating to Jeff that her orgasm was not far away. Jeff was grinding his hips against Clara's at an ever-increasing rate. Backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards, faster and faster. With every thrust he stoked the fire burning in her sexual furnace, fuelling and inciting it. It would not be long before it became a wild inferno that would consume her entire body. Clara's anxious moans gradually began to form into words. "Uhh... Ohhh... Oh Yes... Yes... Oh God Yes! Mmmm.... Ohhhh...." The slick walls of Clara's tight canal slid over the head of Jeff's volatile cock, and along the shaft with every motion he made. Each caress of her delectable flesh threatened to be the one that would shatter his self-restraint and send him into orgasm. Jeff was somewhat relieved when Clara's moans suddenly began to rapidly increase in their intensity. "Oh Yes...Ohmydeargodinheavenimcoming! I'm coming! YES! YES! OOOOOOOOOH!" Clara's strong legs tightened around Jeff's hips, pulling his manhood deep into her body as she descended into the sheer rapture of orgasm. The sudden jolt of being pulled into Clara's tightened snatch was enough to send Jeff over the edge as well. Instinctively pushing his hips against Clara's with all his strength, Jeff uttered a guttural moan of delight, as his cock pumped mammoth bursts of his seed into the enticing center of the gorgeous brunette. As every last ounce of strength collected in his crotch, Jeff's arms began to quiver under his weight. He collapsed on top of Clara, but gently. The two of them layed there together, moaning and writhing as ecstasy cascaded through them both. Before long their mutual orgasm began to wane, as Jeff's depleted loins fired the last few spurts of semen they could produce into their tormentor. Both Clara and Jeff layed there, motionless as they caught their breath. After a few seconds, Jeff moved off of Clara, his cock sliding out of her glistening hole. Her limp legs fell away from him as he shifted, no longer constraining his movement. Jeff made his way over to the pillow beside Clara's, lying back on to the mattress with a contented sigh. No sooner had he layed his head down when Clara rolled over, draping her naked body half over his and snuggling up to him. She waved one hand, weakly, and within a few seconds, the bed blanket and topsheet had risen above their bodies, like the water level of a bathtub, before becoming solid once again. With the little energy she had left, Clara leaned her head up, and drank warm tender kisses from Jeff's lips.

Jeff wrapped one arm around her, running his fingers gently through her long hair. Clara's kisses nicely complimented the sense of exhausted contentment found in the wake of amazing sex. He wanted to reciprocate her affection, but was too tired to do anything more physical than a gentle caress. When Clara's lips slipped away from his for just an instant, Jeff gave his command one last time, "Come." Clara's eyes opened in surprise, and Jeff felt her entire body tense up. Her mouth hung open as if she were moaning, but no sound came out. Clara's eyelids fluttered wildly and her eyeballs rolled back into her head. The silent orgasm lasted only a couple of seconds. When it was over, Clara's head collapsed onto Jeff's shoulder and she was fast asleep. Jeff gazed over at his peaceful lover, admiring her incredible beauty once again. Noticing the big grin she was sporting, Jeff could not help but be proud of himself for providing her with what was quite obviously a satisfying experience. With a happy sigh, Jeff turned his gaze upward, as he began to take stock of what had just happened. He had been strongly attracted to Clara ever since they first met. For most of that time, he had secretly fantasised about making love to her and tonight it had actually happened. "I didn't even have to wish for it!" Jeff thought to himself, as he began to unconsciously trail his fingers up and down Clara's spine. He layed there for several minutes, simply enjoying the warmth of a beautiful, young, naked female body on top of his own, occasionally yawning as drowsiness began to get the better of him. Before his eyelids became too heavy to keep open, Jeff turned his head and once again admired Clara's lovely face, thinking back to something that she had said to him earlier in the night. She was right: his one-man expedition to Kazakhstan was a huge risk. But it had turned out to be the best investment he had ever made. Jeff closed his eyes and went to sleep, smiling.

CHAPTER VII
Clara awoke in the early hours of the morning. It took her a few seconds to realise why she could not feel the soft mattress beneath her. She opened her eyes and lifted her head a little, so that she could look over her sleeping master. A smile crossed her face as she remembered the events of the night before, and thought about the position she was in now. This was something of a new experience for her. Clara was by no means a virgin; she had had three 'youthful indiscretions' during her college years. But this was the first time that she had ever woken up the morning after and not regretted what had happened the previous night. She folded her fingers on Jeff's chest and rested her head on them, watching him sleep. She layed there in that pose for over forty minutes before Jeff finally roused, although to Clara it seemed like only a few moments. Waiting, after all, came as second nature for genies. Jeff made what sounded like a habitual morning groan as he began to stir. He blinked weakly a couple of times before noticing Clara, then his eyes were wide open. "You've recuperated already? I must be getting rusty," Clara joked in a quiet voice. "Well I wasn't going to tell you, but I did have to get up in the middle of the night and get a heating pad for my back, and my right leg's kinda numb," Jeff said with a straight face. Clara smiled and leaned forward to kiss him. Then she layed her head back down on Jeff's shoulders and he wrapped his arms around her. "Can I use my third wish to set you free?" Jeff asked, staring up at the ceiling once again. Clara lifted her head again and looked Jeff straight in the eye. "Would you do that?" she asked in a surprised tone. "Well... Yeah," Jeff replied. At first Clara was delighted by this response, but then a sense of disappointment descended on her. Jeff had to give that answer, regardless of whether or not he meant it. Only a total asshole would've said no to a question like that. "That's... very sweet of you," Clara said, trying to sound flattered. "But to answer your question: no, you can't wish me free," she said as she layed down once more. "Tukanni made it a condition of the imprisonment spell that the lamp's prisoner can't be wished out of their enslavement..." "Wow," Jeff responded, once again wrapping his arms around Clara. "She really wanted to make sure her sister would never be freed, didn't she?" "That's right," Clara agreed. "Bitch!" Jeff said with an odd level of bitterness, considering that he was on the master side of the spell.

"That's the understatement of the millennium... or, rather, the last nine of them," Clara remarked. "The lamp was never designed to be an object of power. It's only intended purpose was to be a torture chamber for her big sister." "You sound very sure of that," Jeff commented. "I am sure of it. Tukanni could've just murdered Zhiasa, she certainly had the ingenuity to get away with it. The throne would've automatically passed to her. No, Tukanni wanted to make sure Zhiasa suffered. The evidence is all there; the taunting message in the lamp, the mural on the ceiling, which I'm sure shows Zhiasa bowing down to her sister... and the costume! Imagine how degrading it must've felt for a crown princess to all of a sudden find herself dressed in the clothes of a concubine; clothes that basically say to any male around, My body is yours, do whatever you want to me, Clara pointed out. Jeff remained oddly silent for a few seconds and when Clara looked up at him, there was a guilty expression on his face. She wondered if her little rant had made him worry about whether he had taken advantage of her last night. "Oh, don't be like that!" she grumbled. "I enjoyed it very much," Clara said with a smile, which Jeff seemed to take solace in. "As a matter of fact, I haven't had that much fun in..." Clara paused as she recalled how unfulfilling all of her previous sexual encounters had been. "Actually, last night was, without a doubt, the most incredible sexual experience I have ever had!" she declared, immediately wincing afterwards. She hadn't intended to be so forward, but she had been caught off-guard by the truth clause of the enslavement spell. "Really?" Jeff asked sceptically, as Clara's adamant tone had made it sound like she was over-selling the experience. "Would I lie to you?" Clara asked sheepishly, as she raised her head slightly to look Jeff in the eye. "No, I guess not," Jeff chuckled, realising now why she'd responded the way she did. Clara laid her head back down on his shoulder. Jeff began to slowly rub one hand up and down her bare back as he held her. It wasn't long before she felt completely at ease again. "She made the lamp indestructible, as well..." Jeff said, sounding deep in thought. "What?" Clara asked. "Tukanni. She made it so that the lamp could never be destroyed," Jeff responded. "Yes. She was determined to ensure that Zhiasa would spend eternity being enslaved. I expect the only reason Tukanni gave her amulet the power to release the lamp's prisoner was as a safeguard, in case she accidentally trapped herself in there," Clara theorised. "Clara, do you think that Zhiasa was a sympathetic person? Towards the end of her imprisonment, I mean?" Jeff asked.

"Well, I wouldn't think she'd have much sympathy for Tukanni," Clara quipped flatly. "But in general, I would say she seemed like a very kind and thoughtful woman all through her life. Mind you, it's a biased view; I only know her through her own journal." "So that's a yes?" Jeff remarked. A few seconds later, he broke out into an almost disturbing chuckle. Finding the sensation of Jeff's chest bouncing up and down beneath her somewhat distracting, Clara sat up. She could not help but notice the big silly grin on Jeff's face. "What's so funny?" she asked him. "We are so blind," he replied in an amused tone. Clara silently asked him what was going on in his mind with a perplexed expression. "Pretend for a moment that you're Zhiasa," Jeff began, the sense of rationality rapidly returning to his voice. "You've just found your sister's tomb, gone in and gotten the amulet. Now the first thing you'd probably do is take it back inside the lamp, place it in that little niche in the wall, and, in theory, free yourself..." "Right..." Clara said in agreement. "Okay, so now you're back in the real world as a free woman. You'll probably run over to hubby and give him a big hug, make a lengthy speech about how great it is to be free, and advise all the children in the room to stay in school and out of lamps..." Jeff said, prompting a smile from Clara. "But now what do you do?" Clara thought about the question for a second before Jeff continued. "Here you are with the most inhumane prison ever created in your hands, a prison that you've learned can not be destroyed. And now that you're free, there's nothing to stop it taking another victim. You've just escaped from an eight-thousand-year sentence in there yourself, you wouldn't want anybody to have to go through the endless nightmare that you went through. But like I said, the lamp is indestructible, and if you have any foresight, then you know that eventually somebody will find it and rub it, no matter how well you hide it. Then, perhaps after having a good think about what to do next, you remember that your entire life as a genie, including your search for the amulet, is chronicled in that little journal you left back in the lamp. And provided that you don't take the amulet with you when you leave the tomb, you'll have left the next resident of the lamp directions to their own freedom..." "Oh my god..." Clara exclaimed in amazement. "That's where it is, Clara, where it always has been! On the peak where two suns join as one!" Jeff passionately declared. Clara looked down into his eyes with an excited smile. She could almost see the feeling of accomplishment in him that he'd talked about the night before. "So where is the 'peak where two suns join as one'?" Clara asked, facetiously pretending that she wasn't already impressed by Jeff's revelation. "You mean you don't know? Well, it's very simple, you just go down the road that leads to the peak where two moons join as one, but when you get to the intersection,

you hang a left instead of a right," Jeff said playfully, making Clara chuckle. "I'll draw you a map, after breakfast, if you'd like..." "It's still early. Cook won't start for a couple of hours," Clara said, deliberately changing the subject. Even though he was joking, Clara thought Jeff's suggestion of waiting until after breakfast to begin looking for the tomb was a good idea. "Really?" Jeff asked rhetorically as he sat up in front of her, "I suppose we'll have to find some way of amusing ourselves until then. Any ideas?" he asked as he wrapped his hands around her waist. Clara gently moved forward and kissed him. Her tongue moved past his lips, slithering around aimlessly inside his mouth, eliciting a buzz of pleasure in Jeff wherever it went. Jeff, meanwhile, sent his fingers on an exploration mission of their own, although they didn't venture too far from Clara's waist, as if they were only warming up for the excitement to come. "You really are brilliant," Clara smiled as the kiss ended. "Thanks, but I haven't even started yet," Jeff said with a smirk. Clara chuckled and they kissed again. "There are many forms of brilliance, Jeff, you just happen to posses at least two of them," Clara said with dash of classic English charm. Jeff seemed genuinely flattered by the compliment as he leaned forward seeking delight from her warm lips. Clara moved her hands around behind his neck, while his hands travelled down to test the firmness of her ass. They were not disappointed. "I got the distinct impression that you really got a kick out of the... more supernatural moments during our fun last night," Jeff commented as their kiss ended. "And I thought I did such a good job of acting nonchalant," Clara quipped. "It felt really, really bizarre, but SO DAMN GOOD, as well," she said, growling the last part, as the memory of spontaneous orgasms began to replay in her mind. "I never thought I'd say this, but being a genie is not without it's perks..." "You know, I've been thinking about the other ways we could have a little fun with that part of the spell, and I've just been wondering how far my control over you extends..." Jeff said. "Do you mind if I try something out? Clara shook her head, curious as to what Jeff's theory might be. "Go into a trance," Jeff commanded, in a commanding but unsure tone. Clara's eyes fell shut and her head slumped over to one side, her face expressionless. Jeff instinctively moved his hands up her body to support her weight, but it seemed there was no need, Clara remained sitting upright of her own volition. "Clara?" Jeff said tentatively, watching the motionless genie for any sudden changes. "Yes... Jeff" she responded, in an almost creepy monotonous voice. "Are you in a trance?" Jeff asked. "Yes...Jeff. You commanded me to go into a trance." she replied.

Jeff sat silent for a while, thinking about how he could use this heightened level of control over his slave to provide them both with a satisfying erotic experience. Eventually his eyes drifted over her firm, ample breasts. He remembered making a secret promise to himself the night before, to spend a great deal of time adoring and enjoying them, but in the heat of the moment, he had failed to give them even a fraction of the attention that he'd intended to. With a contented smile, Jeff moved his hands around the front of Clara, to gently cup the perfect orbs from below. "Clara?" Jeff said in a tone that suggested new commands were about to follow. "Yes...Jeff?" Clara repeated. "For starters, could you please smile? You have a very beautiful smile, Clara," Jeff requested, finding the zombie-ish aura she'd adopted to be something of a turn off. "Thank you, Jeff," Clara said, smiling as commanded. Even her tone of voice seemed to warm up. "Clara, imagine that you have within you a... pneumatic orgasm machine..." Jeff began, rolling his eyes at the corny title he'd just invented, "...and that the air valves that power this machine are on your breasts." Jeff gave the lovely mounds a gentle squeeze, and the smile on Clara's face seemed to grow. "Now every time I suckle on one of your boobs, the machine will run, and as you can imagine, when the machine is running it will be giving you a great deal of sexual pleasure, and the harder I suck, the stronger the sense of pleasure will be. In fact, if I suckle on your breasts hard enough or long enough, it will send you right over the edge, and you will have an orgasm." Jeff noticed that Clara's smile definitely grew larger upon that last instruction. "Also," Jeff continued, "on the tip of both of your nipples is a 'turbo' button for the machine. If I touch either one of them in any way, the machine will go into overdrive and you will get a quick jolt of pleasure. By the way, you won't feel the pleasure in your breasts..." Jeff commanded as he removed one of his hands from her chest. "You will feel it here..." he said, as he slid one finger slowly between the outer lips of her privates. Clara sighed happily. Then Jeff sat in silence for a few seconds, while Clara patiently waited. He thought about their sex the night before and how incredibly hot it was when Clara literally begged him to enter her. He very much wanted to see that level of desire in her again. "Now there's something you should know about the pneumatic orgasm machine, Clara..." Jeff said. "The person it's pleasuring will... adapt to it after prolonged exposure, just like theyd adjust to a hot bath. After a while the pleasure it provides will become less and less, until eventually all you will feel from it is a gentle glow of pleasure. And no matter how much you want to come, the machine just won't have the influence over you to bring you satisfaction. However, your body will, of course, still be receptive to the... more conventional methods of getting off," he admitted as he ran his fingers through her labia once again. "And if you ask nicely, I'll be more than happy to have sex with you again." Jeff lifted Clara's chin gently with his hand and planted a tender kiss on her lips. "Now once we begin to have sex, Clara, you must not come until I order you to, no matter how badly you need to, do you understand?"

Jeff commanded. He planned to keep her on edge (as well as himself) for as long as possible, then have her come just before himself. "Yes, Jeff," she replied in the same monotonous tone. "But when I do tell you to come, you will have the most stupendous orgasm that you have ever had in your entire life, and you will feel exceptionally good afterwards," Jeff said, to ensure that Clara would be well rewarded for her patience. He thought for a moment about whether there was any other commands he wanted to give her while she was in this suggestive state, but could not think of any, so he decided to wind things up. "Once I have ordered you to come, Clara, you no longer need to follow any of the suggestions I have just given you," he said. "Also, Clara, when you come out of this trance, you will not remember anything I have just said to you, or even that you were in a trance," Jeff declared, figuring that his little game would not be anywhere near as fun if Clara knew the rules. "However, you will remember it all after I've ordered you to come. Now I will count to three, and when I say 'three', you will be wide awake. One...Two... Three..." Clara's eyes fluttered open and her strength seemed to magically return to her. She blinked heavily, and shook her head, as if to clear it. "Are you okay? You looked like you were about to collapse there for a second?" Jeff asked, giving a flawless impression of genuine concern. "I just had a bit of a funny turn..." Clara stated in confusion. "We can stop. I mean, if you don't feel up to..." Jeff offered. "No, no!" Clara said insistently, lunging gracefully forward and pushing her lips against Jeff's as her enthusiasm quickly returned to her. "...Let's not do anything drastic," she smiled when the kiss ended. "What was it that you were going to try?" she asked. "You know what, let's save that for some other time. It's a little too early to be trying out exotic ideas," Jeff responded. "If you insist..." Clara said, not seeming to care either way. They kissed yet again, and then Jeff began padding a trail of kisses slowly down the side of her neck. Clara absently ran her fingers through his hair as she let him incite her arousal however he wanted. Jeff made a brief detour, kissing along the skin to her smooth creamy shoulder before making a U-turn and moving his attention down her body, with an obvious destination. Clara leaned back slightly to make it easier for him. Jeff slid a hand up against one of Clara's breasts and began gently squeezing and caressing it from below, while his other hand performed similar ministrations on one of her firm buttocks. Then he planted his lips over her other breast, being very careful not to touch the nipple itself. He waited just a moment before he began to gently suck. An unusual shiver of delight pulsed through Clara's body. Goose pimples appeared on her arms and both of her nipples quickly became erect.

"Mmm... I like that!" She purred in a velvety voice. "That makes two of us," Jeff said playfully, briefly removing his lips from her alluring mound. He suckled on her again, a bit stronger this time, and Clara began to moan, quietly at first, but quickly raising in volume. Jeff quickly found this to be an excellent way to monitor Clara's level of arousal and began to adjust the air pressure in his mouth based on Clara's moans. He teased her for a little while, suckling on her until she got to a certain volume, and then quickly easing off, (to which her moan became instantly quieter) only to gradually begin suckling harder again. Then without warning, he gave her three strong sucks in a row, and topped it off by brushing her other nipple with one of his fingers. Clara moaned deeply as she began to rock her hips back and forward, despite being several inches away from Jeff's cock. Jeff quickly reshuffled his position, moving his lips on to her other breast while his hands traded places. He began kneading one of her luscious orbs with his hand immediately, but waited until she stopped gyrating her hips before he began to suckle her again. This time he did not begin timidly. He sucked on her with considerable pressure, which he raised and lowered slightly to begin rhythmic waves of pleasure inside her. Then he touched the smooth surface of her lovely breast with the tip of his tongue, and began to trace an inward-spinning spiral around her areola with it. Clara was already riding on a high when Jeff's tongue darted over her nipple, not once or twice, but three times. She was rocked by three quick spasms in her nether regions, three short but sharp orgasms that collided with each other to become one. "Oooooooooh!" She moaned loudly. "Oh my g... Before she could finish, Jeff sucked on her breast as hard as he dared Clara's eyes closed tight as she shrieked in ecstasy. Her legs clenched around Jeff's torso just like they had the night before, and her arms pulled Jeff's face deep into her bosom as the 'orgasm machine' Jeff had created within her roared into full power. When it seemed like she was beginning to come down, Jeff pushed his tongue deep into her sensitive nipple, and held it there, while simultaneously holding his thumb onto her other nipple. She cried out again as some unseen force stimulated her entire womanhood, sending her right over the edge again. Only when the orgasm had seemed to run its course did Jeff release her nipples, while slowly reducing his level of suction. Jeff planted a tender kiss on her nipple just as she seemed to have come completely down, and she shuddered in delight. "That was amazing!" Clara exclaimed. "It was almost like you were inside of me!" "I guess I must have the Midas touch, then," Jeff said with a smile, while gently massaging her perfect breasts with both hands. "You can say that again!" she readily agreed. Jeff teased her for a while before making use of the suggestions in her subconscious again. While he continued to caress her breasts with his hands, he layed tender kisses at random points on the surfaces of her yielding breasts, alternating between them and occasionally kissing the firm space in between. But he did not go near her nipples nor did her suckle on her. Clara continued running her fingers through his hair, while periodically moaning quietly. Her eyes closed, her head swaying slowly around

absently, Clara let herself simply enjoy the sensations from Jeff's tender attentions to her chest leaving the arousal to build in her womanhood. When it seemed like she was least expecting it, Jeff ran his tongue up her breast from the very bottom, savouring the taste of the beautiful mound. As his tongue slid over her nipple, a quake of pleasure rocked through Clara's body, shaking her out of her reverie, and she cried out. Jeff's tongue continued its journey until it had reached the very top of her breast. Then, before the shot of pleasure could subside, Jeff moved his mouth back down to her nipple and began to suckle on it. Clara's breath became more and more ragged, as Jeff's extraordinarily arousing technique left her no time to recover. As he continued to suck on her, Clara could feel herself careening faster and faster towards another orgasm. Then she felt Jeff's tongue brush against the tip of her nipple and she was instantly there. Her body shook once again, although much more wildly this time, as her vaginal muscles spasmed in orgasm, drowning out every other sensation in her body with their cacophony of pleasure. Then all of a sudden it went away, as quickly as it had come. She could feel herself back near the edge, like she was almost ready to come, but not quite there, and she could also feel Jeff still suckling on her breast. Jeff began to increase the intensity of his suckling in bursts. Judging by her moans, the stronger suction gave her a little more pleasure, but not for long. His suckling just wasn't having the same effect on her that it was having before. "The built-in obsolescence of the 'pneumatic orgasm machine' kicking in," Jeff thought to himself. He decided to adore her magnificent breasts until the 'machine' became completely ineffective, even though he was pretty sure she would not get another orgasm out of it. Clara seemed to realise that her climax would need to come from another source, as well. Jeff was surprised to feel slender feminine fingers delicately wrapping themselves around Jeff's fully erect cock. Somehow she had moved her free hand down there without him noticing. Slowly, she began to work her hand up and down his shaft. For a moment, Jeff was worried that Clara might bring their fun to an end before it even really began. But she was smart enough to not be too vigorous, and besides, it felt so damn good he didn't have the will to ask her to stop. He figured it was just her way of getting him so aroused that he wouldn't be able to resist entering her. If so, it was starting to work. Before long, even tickling her nipple with his tongue, seemed to give Clara only a minor jolt of pleasure. He was still suckling on her breast, but her moans were quickly dying in intensity. In the end, they didn't fade away, rather, they abruptly stopped, just before Jeff felt Clara's hand under his chin, firmly lifting his head up. Clara quickly pushed her lips against Jeff's and began to gently caress his tongue with her own. "I'm about as turned on as I can possibly be" she admitted when the long kiss finally ended. "...And I get the feeling that you are, as well..." she said with a mischievous smile as she ran her fingers gently up the shaft of Jeff's cock. "I'm all yours. Take me." She kissed him briefly, although hungrily, before he could respond. Then she climbed off of his legs and layed down, on her belly, in front of him, all the while shooting him a seductive glare. She gave him a couple of seconds to admire her firm butt, which, until now, he had only been acquainted with by touch, before parting

her thighs to reveal her snatch, glistening with her juices. It only took a glimpse at that inviting sight to reel Jeff in. He moved forward, leaning over her, getting himself into position, and placing the tip of his penis in the warm moistness of her parted labia. Then he slowly pulled his hips forward and entered her hungry womanhood. "Oooooh Yes!" Clara purred in delight. Jeff's hips began to gyrate as soon as he was completely inside of her, and before long, Clara's moans were loud and impassioned once again. Faster and faster he moved within her, Clara clearly on edge already, the energy that would power his eruption quickly accumulating in Jeff's loins. An incredible orgasm could've been mere moments away, but he yearned to experience even more pleasures of her flesh. He ceased his thrusts and, without removing his cock from her body, silently coaxed Clara to roll over onto her side. He manoeuvred one hand below her before she got settled, reaching it around to fondle a breast as he began to exert himself inside her once again. They hadn't wasted any time in changing position, so they were both still highly aroused. Clara resumed her long, luxuriating moans as Jeff's rod worked it's wonderful magic inside her. She had already been so close to coming, and with Jeff's ever-quickening pace and his skilful massaging of her breast, she couldn't understand why she hadn't already climaxed. Then Jeff slid the fingers of his other hand down the vee of her sex and began to gently rub and tease her excited clit. Almost simultaneously he began to kiss and suck the skin on the side of her neck. All of this bought her even closer (if that were possible) to a fantastic orgasm. Yet no matter how much she tried to let herself, she could not reach it. The pleasures that were surging through her now were heavenly, but without that elusive climax they were all for nothing. While their bodies writhed wantonly together, a single tear seeped from one of Clara's closed eyes, at the hopelessness of the situation. At least her lover would not go wanting. Jeff's moans developed a sudden sense of urgency, indicating that his orgasm could not be held off much longer. "Come!" Jeff uttered the essential command into Clara's ear. Instantly her entire body became electrified with pleasure, as she hurtled into the most potent climax she had ever experienced. Her back arched, forcing her womanhood hard onto his already deeply penetrating shaft. Her every vaginal muscle spasmed uncontrollably, as her roasting canal tightened around Jeff's cock, in the most amorous of embraces. Convoys of ecstasy rushed through her body at blinding speed, through every nerve, every vein, every artery, with no telling where they had come from and where they were going. For a brief, yet endless moment, Clara's consciousness abandoned reality all together, basking in a raw coital pleasure so powerful it left no room for any other form of awareness. She was so far gone she could not feel Jeff pumping surge after surge of semen into her body. After an indeterminate time, the orgasm began to slowly release its hold on her. Clara's senses returned to her just in time for her to feel the last loads of semen pulsing through Jeff's manhood. Their moans became less frequent, and much less dire. Their tense bodies began to slowly relax, muscle by muscle. The frenzy of orgasmic ecstasy ravaging both their bodies died away, leaving a sense of thorough exhaustion, and a powerful sense of warm contentment in it's wake. They both fell silent, their breaths still deep, but no longer vocal. The hand that Jeff had been teasing Clara's nether regions with moved it's way up her body, trailing circles slowly over her mons, then eventually trailing much larger ones over her stomach.

"That was... amazing doesn't do it justice!" Clara murmured, her eyes still closed. "Ditto!" Jeff whispered. "Even I didn't think it would be like that... He padded another kiss on the top of her shoulderblade. "Mmm... I don't know how you..." Clara responded, stopping dead as it all became clear to her. "Pneumatic orgasm machine?" she chuckled in a much louder tone. "I had it custom made. Didn't think it needed a title that was geared for marketing," Jeff said with a smile. "Well, I certainly can't criticise it on performance," Clara complemented, putting a great deal of effort into maintaining a serious tone and a strait face. The pair layed there quietly for a few seconds before Jeff broke the forced silence. "It really is lame, isn't it?" he said, jovially. They both burst out laughing.

CHAPTER VIII
It was almost nine when Clara left the mansion to go on her morning run. This time, she deliberately slowed her pace. Clara loathed doing anything half-hearted, but it was only by sheer luck that nobody had noticed her running at super-human speeds last time. She couldn't risk anyone discovering her secret, and besides, she had a lot to think about. Surprisingly, the location of the amulet played very little on her mind during her run, despite the recent revelations as to where it could be. It was events of the previous night and earlier that morning that dominated her thoughts. She was not replaying memories or reliving the ecstasy. Rather, she was repeatedly asking herself how it all could have happened. Clara was not a promiscuous woman. She had only given her body on three previous occasions, to men that she'd known for years at the time. Clara had always attributed those encounters to a mix of bad judgement, confusion and in one instance, ego, after being accused of "Being afraid to..." She had scarcely known Jeff a week and they'd had sex twice! Granted, it had been a very intense and emotional week, but something was just not right about it. Clara was still at a loss to explain why she had first kissed Jeff the night before. She had never done anything like it before. Then she began to think about the twist Jeff had added to their early morning fornication. The entrapment spell of the lamp had allowed Jeff to place her in a trance, making her incredibly suggestible. So suggestible, in fact, that he could remove any memory of her ever being entranced. Granted, he had arranged things so that the memory loss was only temporary, but what if he had entranced her another time, and erased the experience from her mind permanently? She would never know. Jeff had shown a seamless ability to pretend like he had done nothing to her. Her heart sunk at these thoughts. Unable to stop herself, Clara began to consider the implications of this. Could Jeff have discovered that he could entrance her before last night? It was certainly plausible. Clara had already found him to be quite handsome, and he certainly appeared to be very nice and generous. If he could get her into a suggestive state, he could've turned her admiration of his merits into full-blown lust, and then made her forget that he'd ever done it. She remembered reading in Zhiasa's journal that the one thing she couldn't be commanded to do was give away her body. It was how Zhiasa managed to maintain her virginity until she met Hal'hadin. But none of Zhiasa's masters appeared to be as smart as Jeff. Suppose he had inadvertently found a loophole that allowed him to have his way with her. Suppose he had never ordered her to sleep with him against her will, but ordered her to enter a suggestive state, then made her think that she did want to have sex with him. Amid all these awful possibilities circling her mind, Clara reminded herself that she could not recall a single instance of Jeff being anything but kind and decent. But the

fact of the matter was that he certainly had the ability to secretly coerce her into sleeping with him, and that meant that she could no longer trust him. A determined scowl washed over her face as she powered over the large hill in front of her. To hell with risk of being seen! If she had to deal with pain, it might as well come from the track. By the time she had reached the bottom of the hill, Clara had calmed down somewhat and common sense took the reins once again. She reduced her speed to a more human one and continued on. She spent the remainder of her jog mulling over what the phrase peak where the two suns join as one could be referring to, but did not deduce a solution. As she reached the home stretch, she saw Warwick standing on the manor's back terrace, apparently waiting for her. She picked up the pace, sprinting the last few hundred feet and then up the steps to the top of the terrace. "Is everything all right, Lady Roft?" the butler asked with an air of concern as she approached him. "Yes, of course it is, Warwick, why?" Clara panted. "Well your run has taken half an hour longer today than it normally does," Warwick stated. Clara smirked, amused at her own inability to get it right. "I haven't been doing much running in the last two years. I thought it'd be better for me to pace myself..." Clara said, technically not lying to her old friend. "Very wise, Lady Roft," Warwick replied with a nod. " His Lordship asks that you join him in his study at your earliest convenience." "Very good, Warwick. Tell him I'll be along as soon as I've tidied myself up," Clara replied. "Yes, milady," Warwick said, with his trademark head bow, before turning and reentering the mansion. Clara walked over to the nearby patio table where she'd left a bottle of water before taking off on her run. Twisting the cap off in a single motion, she took several big gulps before looking over the estate's vast grounds once more and then entering the mansion to go have a shower. ---------------Clara stepped lively into her father's study, hesitating briefly when she discovered that Jeff was already in there. He and Lord Roft were leaning over a large document on the main desk, deeply engrossed in discussion. "...but I think that we can safely rule out these territories over here, and here," His Lordship said as he pointed to the chart, leading Clara to realise that it was a map. Having apparently seen her out of the corner of his eye, Lord Roft turned his attention to the doorway. "Ah, Clara! I'm glad you're here!" he smiled. "Hi!" Jeff said in an extra-friendly tone as he walked towards her.

"Hello," Clara responded coldly as she walked right past him, wiping the smile right off Jeff's face. Her demeanour had warmed right up again, though, by the time she'd gotten to her father, smiling as they embraced. "Warwick implied that you'd discovered something?" She said when the hug ended. "Indeed. I was just telling young master... Oh! Sorry!" The lord quickly apologised for his gaffe, upon remembering that his daughter was now an enslaved genie. "It's okay, father," Clara said, warmly. "I was just telling Jeff here that I believe we can deduce the region where Princess Zhiasa's kingdom was located. If you look here..." Lord Roft directed his daughter to the large map on the table. It was a detailed map of the area ancient Mesopotamia once occupied, complete with all the current cities and national borders. "Now, as you know, our knowledge of the culture so far back is quite limited," the lord continued. "But the dialect the princess used, as you've described it, was one used in the north, so I think we can assume that she was from somewhere in this area... Lord Roft explained, tracing a large, rough circle around the top of the map with his finger. "Now, if we take the journal as a reliable historical account, then we know that the kingdom we're looking for became a major military power once Princess Tukanni assumed the throne. And it bought a great many other kingdoms in the region under her dominion," the old archaeologist said with a gleam in his eye. "That's right..." Jeff commented. "A campaign on that scale would have surely left a great deal of evidence behind," Clara stated. "...And it most certainly did!" Lord Roft said with a hint of excitement, "You see back then, what was to become ancient Mesopotamia was just a collection of independent cities and kingdoms, most of which had unstable relationships with their neighbors, if they had relationships with them at all. Wars were a regular occurrence. In most cases, the defeated kingdom usually went back to living as they had before, perhaps with a new ruler. Victorious kings didn't much care for holding on to conquered territories. Having to permanently station a portion of their army in the foreign land made occupation seem like more trouble than it was worth. Essentially, wars back then were just one king's way of telling another, 'I told you so...'" Clara and Jeff both smiled as the old archaeologist continued. "I've been in touch with some of my old colleagues who are experts in pre-ubaid period Mesopotamia, and they've sent me some very interesting information," his Lordship revealed, as he flipped a transparent overlay onto the map. The overlay was riddled with many little red spots and one large one. "In all of these locations," he said, indicating the spots on the map, "various artefacts; helmets, coins, statues, etcetera, have been found that are foreign to the areas in which they were discovered, but are congruent to each other. They indicate that about nine thousand years ago one kingdom invaded all the other kingdoms in this area, imposing a massive culture change on all conquered territories. Whoever controlled this army intended to keep the lands they conquered. Now, over here," Lord Roft tapped his finger on the large red dot, which sat in south-eastern Turkey, "a small cluster of ruins have been

unearthed. The artefacts discovered there indicate that this is the place where that culture evolved naturally." "Zhiasa's home..." Clara said with a broad smile. "Father, you found it! Jeff's enthusiasm was less apparent. "We're looking for the 'peak where the two suns join as one', are there any mountains in that area?" he asked the lord. "Hundreds, unfortunately," Lord Roft replied. "Okay... Any that have a strong cultural link to the sun?" Jeff inquired. "Not that I am aware of, but once again, I have colleagues with a more thorough knowledge of ancient Mesopotamia than myself. I should ask them," His Lordship answered, already walking towards the phone on the other desk. "At the very least, we've narrowed down the search area considerably," Clara said with optimism as her father began to dial the phone. -------------Lord Roft made three phone calls in the presence of Clara and Jeff. The results of which, he didn't need to explain to them, his disappointed face said it all. Jeff, however, was more concerned by what seemed to be a deliberate effort by Clara not to look at him. That, as well as her icy greeting earlier. It almost seemed like she had become a different person since breakfast. He reminded himself that before breakfast they had agreed to keep the development of their relationship just between themselves for the time being, but he didn't expect her to treat him like this! The trio spent the day together working in Lord Roft's study, examining more and more detailed maps of the area once occupied by Tukanni's kingdom, and all the records and photos of archaeological discoveries made in the area. The situation became more and more frustrating for Jeff as the day went on. He wanted to talk to Clara in private but had little opportunity to do so. He invited Clara to join him on a couple of occasions when he went to the library to fetch books and charts they required, but Clara turned him down both times. He didn't dare order her to accompany him in Lord Roft's presence. Anything else they required, including lunch, was brought to them by Warwick. Oddly enough, Clara even timed her bathroom breaks to coincide with her father's. Jeff quietly reminded her that as a genie, she had no need to use the toilet, but she flatly told him she thought it best that the staff see her entering the facilities a few times. By dinnertime, they had not been left alone once, largely by Clara's engineering and Jeff was becoming quite concerned. After the Roft family and Jeff had finished dining together, Clara seemed to disappear. Jeff searched all the places he knew her to frequent, twice in fact. Eventually he found her sitting cross-legged on the hard wooden floor in a quiet hidden corner of the mansion's library, reading some document containing pictures of mountains on her laptop.

"You're not fooling anyone with that educational-looking webpage, Clara Roft, I'm sure that two seconds before you heard me coming you had minesweeper on that screen," he said in a playful tone. "Is there something you want?" she asked, unemotionally, turning her head slightly, but once again not looking at him. "Well, actually... I was wondering... Your mother mentioned to me that she has a nice case of Cesanese di Affile in the cellar. Doesn't mean anything to me, although it sounds quite nice. She told me to help myself to a bottle if I was interested. And I was thinking... It has been a long day for both of us, and I thought perhaps you might like to... I dunno, take a break and join me for a drink?" Jeff comically rambled, mimicking the awkwardness of a teenager asking someone on a date for the first time. "Not particularly, but you go ahead," she replied in that same empty tone, as she scrolled down the page she was viewing. "Oh come on, don't tell me my amazing charm has worn off already?" he said in a once again playful voice. Clara finally looked at him, her unreadable expression masterfully hiding the incredible rage that had just flared up inside her. Was he actually flaunting his mind control over her right to her face? "There's a great deal of information on that region that could help in locating the tomb. I'd like to get through as much of it as I can," she said, still exhibiting no more emotion with her voice than she was with her face. "You've been working non-stop all day. C'mon, Clara, you deserve to take a break, whatever angle you're working will still be there tomorrow," Jeff argued. His tone was still friendly, but inside he becoming quite concerned, not to mention confused at Clara's distant attitude. "If it's all the same to you, Jeff," Clara replied, a hint of frustration creeping into her voice, "I'd rather continue my research." "Clara, what's wr..." "I'm fine!" Clara loudly asserted, cutting Jeff off before he could ask her any questions that she'd be compelled to truthfully answer. She sat there silently for a second, considering the situation and looking for a way to avoid any other close calls. She was coming off too hostile. If Jeff realised that she'd figured out his little mind control game, then all he would have to do is order her into another trance, and she would be his little puppet once again. Her mind would be open and vulnerable and he would be free to remove all the realisations she'd had about him. She had to avoid that situation at all costs. "...I just... I really want to keep working on this," she continued in a much calmer tone. "Well, if you're sure that's what you want..." Jeff conceded in a dejected voice after an awkward silence. "I'll be in my room if you want... uh... He did not finish his sentence. Clara had already turned her attention back to her computer. Jeff turned around and quietly walked away. He had only moved maybe fifteen feet closer to the

library's exit when he stopped and turned back to face Clara. "We will find that amulet, Clara. You know that, right?" he said in a re-assuring tone. "Goodnight," Clara responded unemotionally, turning her gaze slightly away from the laptop. She listened as his footsteps became more and more distant. When she was sure that he was out of earshot, she let out a frustrated huff. Regardless of whether she was right about Jeff, or had made some terrible mistake, Jeff's proclivity for kind words was perhaps the worst part of this whole situation. With a determined shake of her head, Clara cast any further thoughts of Jeff from her mind and resumed her research. -------------Jeff stretched his arms as he awoke and lazily blinked a few times to clear the sleep from his eyes. He looked the large mattress over and let out a disappointed sigh. Twenty-four hours ago, he would never have guessed that he'd be waking up alone this morning. After lying there under the thick doona for a few more minutes, Jeff finally summoned the willpower to get out of bed. He staggered over to the bathroom, made the mandatory stop at the toilet, and then stepped into the shower. Jeff did not rush his shower. To some extent, he dreaded having to sit down to breakfast with Clara and her family if she was going to be as cold to him as she was yesterday, but he was also cautiously optimistic that her mood would improve with the new day. Jeff towelled himself down and slipped into a bathrobe that had been hanging on a nearby hook. He walked over to the counter and grabbed the can of shaving cream, proceeding to rub a lather over his face. He grabbed the razor from the holder and had almost bought it to his cheek, just like he did every morning, when he abruptly stopped. His brow furrowed and a thoughtful look grew on his face as he moved the razor back into his field of view. He looked at it intently for a moment, and then looked beyond the razor, to its reflection in the mirror. Two razors. He could see two razors, one real, one a reflection. By the time the razor had hit the sink, Jeff was already out the door. He dashed through the bedroom, into the hallway and down to the door of Clara's bedroom. "Clara! Clara!" he called loudly, as he rapped on the door. Too excited to wait for an invitation, Jeff opened the door and ran in to the familiar bedroom after only a couple of seconds of knocking. Jeff was initially surprised to find the room empty and the bed unslept in. "Idiot!" he quietly chastised himself, already turning to leave the room, "Of course she's not here! he said, remembering that Clara had no need of sleep as a genie. "...Unless someone really tires her out," he thought to himself with a smirk. Jeff tore through the chambers and halls of the manor, still in his bathrobe, his face covered in shaving cream, getting some odd looks from a couple of maids whom he crossed paths with, but not really noticing. He soon reached his destination, finding Clara precisely where he expected her to be; sitting at a table in the library, surrounded by documents, charts and open books, only a few feet from where he'd left her the night before.

"Clara!" he called out, grabbing her full attention, "I've figured it out!" he proudly declared. A look of horror washed over Clara's face, but Jeff was too preoccupied to notice. "The name doesn't make any sense does it? '...Peak where two suns join as one' How can two suns join as one? There aren't two suns! There's only one sun!" Jeff excitedly rambled, as he paced back and forth, like he was unsure where to go. "Unless you're talking about the real sun and it's reflection! So... so... so... You'd need a reflective surface, right?" he continued to babble, apparently still developing his theory as he explained it. "Water. The sea! You watch the sun setting into a water horizon on a calm day, it'd look an awful lot like there were two suns coming together. THAT'S where we need to be looking! The seaside! We're looking for a mountain on the western coastline!" Jeff declared with a proud grin. "No..." Clara replied quietly with a blank look, as her mind quickly processed this new theory. "The Mediterranean, the Black, the Caspian... they're all too far from the area we've determined the kingdom was located... But Lake Van... It's still quite far... but if we were somewhat mistaken about where the kingdom's northern border was, and if the mountain had particular significance... They might well have travelled that far to bury her!" Clara explained, pointing the lake out on a nearby map, as a level of enthusiasm to rival Jeff's visibly built within her. "A lake? Are you sure? The analogy doesn't work as well without a water horizon," Jeff argued. "Lake Van is huge! It does form it's own horizon at certain points," Clara assured him, "What's more, there are dozens of mountains along it's shoreline!" "So it's yet another haystack, then?" Jeff said with smile and lighthearted sense of exasperation. "I think we might have the right one this time," Clara said with a hopeful smile. The humour of the situation did not escape Clara as she sat staring up at Jeff, who was blissfully unaware that he was dripping shaving cream all over the floor of the historic mansion's library. And for a second, she could almost feel that same unspoken connection she made with him a couple of nights earlier, when they'd deduced the location of Caesar's tomb. But it didn't take Clara long to remind herself to remain wary of him. ------------Jeff, Clara and His Lordship spent the next two days gathering all the information they could about the mountains around Lake Van. They calculated which mountains had a view of a sunset over water, then they used geological data to rule several mountains out, based on the assumption that certain types of rock would've been too hard for a culture that ancient to burrow in to. Once they had done this, four mountains remained as possible sites for the tomb. Unfortunately, none of the information they had gathered made any of these mountains stand out as the tomb's probable location.

It soon became apparent that they had narrowed down the tomb's location as much as possible from England. All they could do now was go to Turkey and explore each of the mountains in person, searching for some sign of the tomb's entrance. By the time they had decided upon this course of action it was already mid afternoon. At Lake Van, two timezones ahead of them, there were only a few hours of daylight left. Jeff suggested that if Clara transported them onto one of the mountains instantaneously, they could get at least some exploring done. But Clara argued that instantaneously raising a person's elevation by over two kilometers had never been attempted before. While she, as a genie, would be safe, the dramatic drop in air pressure could quite likely give any human companion the bends. The lakes shore, although still several hundred meters above them, offered a much safer destination for Clara to transport them to. However, it was far too late in the day to make the trip and then climb a mountain. It was decided that Clara and Jeff would make the trip early the next morning, just as day was breaking in eastern Turkey. Lord Roft implored his daughter to take him as well and allow him to assist her further in her search, but Clara firmly denied his persistent requests. She was not about to have him risking his tenuous health by trudging up and down steep mountain trails. Clara was more than capable of navigating rough terrain and she was no stranger to the subtleties of searching for hidden tombs. The Roft family and Jeff all sat down to dinner together at the usual time. Despite the amazing progress that they had made in the past couple of days, the mood at the table was somewhat sombre. Jeff surmised that Lord and Lady Roft, to a large extent, had still not gotten over what happened the last time they farewelled their daughter as she took off on one of her adventures. The fact that he and Clara would be departing the next morning to explore the mountains of Turkey was strangely not discussed in the dinner conversation that night. After dinner, Clara asked Jeff to try and get an early night's rest, so that they could be ready to leave by three-thirty AM. Jeff agreed, once again inviting Clara to share a bottle of wine with him in his room before bedtime. Clara flatly refused, telling him that she would much rather spend her last few hours at Roft Manor double-checking their research. Jeff did not pursue the matter any further. With much chagrin Jeff climbed into bed, alone (again), just after nine o'clock. It took him over an hour to get off to sleep. The next thing Jeff knew, the lights had been turned back on and Clara was standing over him calling his name. "It's time," she told him, when his drowsy eyes eventually opened. "I thought I was supposed to be the one who gives the orders..." he grumbled as he slowly lifted the covers and sat up. Clara wandered over to the far side of the room, acting as if she didn't even hear the remark. Jeff looked her over and noticed that she was fully dressed in outdoors gear, complete with climbing boots and a small backpack. With a grunt he lifted himself off the mattress and began lumbering over towards the bathroom. "Where are you going?" an obviously anxious Clara snapped at him after he'd taken no more than two steps. Jeff stared at her with a perplexed expression, as if she'd just

asked the dumbest question he'd ever heard. "Oh, very well!" she responded, a little embarrassed by her own ignorance as she turned her back on him. "The sooner we find that amulet, the better," Clara thought to herself. "I'm starting to forget about bodily functions, for god's sake!" Clara turned around again when she heard the toilet flushing in the bathroom. A few seconds later, Jeff wandered out of the bathroom. Without a word of warning, Clara summoned a cloud of smoke to surround his feet and make it's way up his body, clothing him in an adventuring ensemble as it went, complete with the same akubra hat he was wearing when they first met. Jeff was clearly a little disoriented by this bizarre new method of getting dressed, but he quickly adjusted. Clara waved her hand in his direction and his backpack, still containing the lamp, teleported onto his back, from under his bed. "Are you ready?" Clara asked him in the same unreadable tone she'd that been giving him for the past couple of days. "I guess so..." Jeff shrugged. Clara led him out into the hallway, and down to her own bedroom. Lord and Lady Roft were waiting inside, still in their dressing gowns. Lady Roft seemed very apprehensive. "Well... we're ready," Clara announced, as she and Jeff approached her parents. "Very well, dear. Good luck!" Lady Roft said as she tightly embraced her daughter, trying very hard to conceal her worry. She held Clara for many seconds, before forcing herself to let go. "You needn't worry, Mother," Clara said with a confidant smile. "We're going properly equipped this time. I have my sat-phone in my pack, and I'll be sure to call at least once every day." "Good-bye, Nugget," Lord Roft said quietly as he hugged Clara goodbye. Jeff had never heard His Lordship use this pet name for her before, and had to struggle to keep a straight face. "If there's anything you need, any further research you need done..." Lord Roft continued. "I know, Father. I won't hesitate to call. And thank you!" Clara interrupted. Lord Roft let his daughter go and stepped towards Jeff, extending his hand, which Jeff proceeded to shake. "It's been... interesting, Master Rourke. I wish you luck..." His Lordship said. "As do I," Lady Roft interjected. "...I'm sure I don't need to tell you how important it is to my wife and I to see you both return safe and sound, preferably with Clara restored to her human form," The lord continued. "Don't worry, Your Lordship, I'll take good care of her," Jeff smiled. Clara shot him a suspicious glance, but nobody seemed to notice.

"We'd better be off," Clara declared after a brief silence, "Good bye, Mother, Father." "Good-bye," Lord Roft replied solemnly. "Godspeed," said his wife. Then in a poof of dark smoke Jeff and Clara had disappeared. Lady Roft closed her eyes tightly, and took a deep breath, mustering all her resolve to hold back her tears. Within seconds her willpower had won the struggle. Without a word she lead her husband back to the main bedchamber of the mansion to get what sleep they could and though her proud noble face clearly displayed unease, it was unmarred by tears.

CHAPTER IX
It took Clara a couple of seconds to get her bearings as she stood on the small sandy beach on the edge of the lake. The early morning light was still quite dim and Clara suspected that the sun had not quite risen yet. Even if it had, they would still be in the shadow of the large mountain looming just east of them. "Ah, nuts!" Jeff complained, grabbing Clara's attention. He quickly ran out of the freezing-cold ankle-deep water in which he'd reappeared and on to the dry bank. Clara smirked. She had not intended to transport Jeff into the water. Precision long-distance travel just happened to be one aspect of her powers that she hadn't quite gotten the hang of yet. "Sorry about that," she said flatly. "Nah, it's okay. I didn't have time for a bath before we left, anyway," Jeff facetiously replied. "Where... where..." Jeff trailed off, suddenly seeming very unsteady. "Are you okay?" Clara asked with concern. Jeff fell backwards onto his ass and Clara ran over to him. He was sitting up, but still seeming quite unsteady about it. "I'm okay..." he said in groggy speech that seemed to suggest the exact opposite. "I just... just tripped. It's so dark." "Not really," Clara disagreed. "It's the sudden drop in air pressure. You'll be all right. Just rest there until you feel better. Don't try to get up." "Can do," Jeff softly replied. Clara watched over him vigilantly until she was satisfied that the worst was over. She was quite grateful now that she hadn't attempted to transport them directly onto the peak of one of the mountains, as she had been tempted to do the previous afternoon. Clara shuddered at the thought of what condition Jeff might have wound up in if she had. As Jeff's strength seemed to return to him, Clara took in her surroundings more thoroughly. On a raised area a couple hundred feet from the lake's edge Clara could see what appeared to be a road sign of some sort. "If that's the road, then we can follow it into the town." She thought. Her intention had been to transport Jeff and herself to the edge of a lakeside town conveniently close to all four of the mountains they were interested in. The town had a vehicle rental agency and Clara had had the foresight to phone the agency the previous afternoon and arrange for a four wheel drive to be ready for them by the morning. Clara looked down at Jeff once again. As soon as he had recovered, they would set out. ------------As it turned out, Clara had transported them three kilometers away from the town. Even after the long walk, however, they still managed to arrive in the town well before the rental agency opened. Fortunately, there were no problems with the vehicle. The dealer had managed to secure for them a top-of-the-line Mercedes four

wheel drive, more than capable of getting anywhere on the mountains that a vehicle could possibly go. Clara quietly groaned when Jeff took the keys and made for the driver's side door. Jeff smiled and playfully told Clara that she could drive on the way back. Clara climbed into the passenger side, silently thinking to herself that it would be Christmas before they arrived at the mountaintop. Within an hour, however, Clara and Jeff had made their way to the end of the trail that lead up the first mountain they planned to explore. Since the capital of her empire was located far to the south, the plan was to begin the search for Tukanni's tomb on the southernmost mountain and work their way north. Exploring the mountaintops was easier said than done, especially for Jeff, with steep inclines and rocky dead-ends limiting where he could go. The treacherous terrain did not pose such a problem to Clara, however, who managed to climb around any obstacle she found with sure-footedness that would shame any mountain goat. Jeff found himself watching her admiringly, wondering just how much of what he saw was genie, and how much was pure Clara Roft. Jeff would follow Clara along the mountain trails as far as he could, and although she easily could have, Clara never allowed herself to get more than a few feet ahead of him. When they struck an obstacle that Jeff simply couldn't navigate around, Jeff would wait while Clara went on ahead to "Just have a look." Sometimes she would leave him for over an hour while she continued to explore solo. In many ways, she preferred it when she was alone, there was still something about Jeff's presence that Clara found disconcerting. But on the other hand, she also worried about him wandering off and getting into trouble while she was gone. If he was to die whilst she was still his slave, it would devastate her quest for freedom. Had it been an option, Clara would have preferred to leave Jeff back in England while she explored the Turkish mountains alone. But the spell she was under bound her to stay within a certain distance of the lamp, and it also forbade her from transporting the lamp out of the reach of its owner. Before long, the sun began to get low in the sky. The pair continued traversing the mountain for as long as they safely could before they returned to the four wheel drive and returned to the town. True to his word, Jeff let Clara drive on the return trip. Getting a motel room for the night resulted in an awkward moment for Clara. When the desk clerk asked Jeff if they wanted a double, Jeff turned to Clara, silently asking what she wanted. "Very well," she replied straightforwardly. Jeff's delighted smile betrayed his thoughts as he signed them in. Clara loathed having to give him such a mixed signal, but ultimately she thought it was the simplest and safest way of handling the situation. Once they were in the room, Clara made her way to the phone. She ran her eye quickly over the nearby instructions on how to dial out of the motel, and proceeded to dial the number for Croft Manor. Clara spent ten minutes talking to first her father and then her mother, mostly assuring them that both her and Jeff were safe and that she remained optimistic of finding the tomb, despite the day not having yielded any results. Meanwhile, Jeff had stripped down and made his way into the shower. He was still in there when Clara entered the bathroom.

Clara excused herself from Jeff's presence, telling him that she wished to return to the lamp, carefully choosing her words to make it sound like she planned to study Zhiasa's journal. Jeff gently protested, saying he had hoped they could spend the night together, perhaps finding a restaurant in the town in which to dine, but in the end he did not forbid Clara from returning to the lamp. Seeking sanctuary within the lamp allowed Clara to avoid any further advances from Jeff, but contrary to what she'd implied to her master, there was nothing else for her to learn from Zhiasa's journal. With nothing else to do Clara layed down on the elegant bed within the lamp chamber and fell asleep, knowing that she would awake when Jeff rubbed the lamp in the morning. The following three days progressed much the same as the first. Clara and Jeff combed the surface of the mountain, Clara often going off to explore on her own, but finding nothing of interest. At night, Clara would fulfil her promise to call her parents, and then quickly excuse herself into the lamp. By the afternoon of their second day in Turkey, Jeff was getting severely bored with being left alone on the mountainside for extended periods of time. He used the satphone to order the most expensive portable DVD player that could be shipped to their motel by that evening, and took it with him on the following days, playing movies in blocks whenever Clara left him to go off on her own. Jeff seemed quite proud of himself for his first instance of frivolous spending since he became a billionaire. Clara did not share his excitement. By the end of their third day in Turkey, both Clara and Jeff decided that it was time that they move on to the next mountain on their list. On it's first day, the second mountain seemed no more promising than its predecessor. But just after ten o'clock the following morning, Clara's keen eyes spotted a small cavern in the mountain face, on top of a seven-foot-tall mound of earth. The opening was small, but the mound beneath it offered the possibility that it was just the top of a tunnel entrance that had been partially buried. The pair immediately made their way over to the cavern. Clara kneeled in front of the dark opening and shone her torch into it, revealing that the passage went deep into the mountain. "See anything?" Jeff asked as he squatted down beside her. "No. But the passage runs deep. This could be it!" Clara smiled, looking over at him from behind her shades. "It's a tight squeeze," Jeff noted. The entrance to the cave was very short, but it appeared to be just large enough for a person to crawl through. "Yes," Clara agreed. "We won't be able to take these," she said as she began to remove her backpack. Jeff followed her lead, removing his own pack, taking out his own torch and, as an afterthought, the lamp as well. Even though there was nobody else around, he wasn't going to let it out of his sight. Finally, he removed his broad akubra hat and placed it on the ground, sitting his pack on top of the brim so that the wind could not blow it away. Clara pressed her body to the ground and wormed her way into the cavern in a manner not unlike the one Jeff had seen soldiers using in

stock footage of army training. She was still grasping her torch, ensuring that she was not moving completely blind. Once she was completely inside of the cavern, Jeff followed her in, his torch in one hand, the lamp in the other. The two explorers slowly moved into the depths of the mountain. The passage didn't seem to get any more spacious as it progressed, but neither did it become tighter. After moving into the tunnel just a few feet, Jeff could scarcely see anything other than the soles of Clara's boots, illuminated by his torchlight, shifting to and fro just in front of him. Clara could see little more than the next few feet of passage ahead of her, however she had observed that the roof of the passage was far too consistent for it to have formed naturally. A confidant smile grew on her face as she realised she had almost certainly achieved her goal. Ahead, she could see the ground level begin to descend. "Mind the incline," she warned. "Righto," Jeff acknowledged with a frustrated huff. Eager to get off his belly, Jeff pushed himself forward with newfound gusto when he began to feel the passage widening. Unfortunately, Clara's warning had failed to convey how quickly the ground turned downwards into a fairly steep angle. It was only when he put his hand forward that he realised that the ground was much lower than he expected it to be. He stumbled forward and began to slide down the loose earth of the cavern base, collecting Clara on his way down. The two explorers careened down the passage together like a runaway train, coming to an abrupt stop only a few seconds later. Clara grunted as she hit solid ground, the impact knocking the torch out of her hand. She grunted again a split second later, in unison with Jeff, as he landed on top of her. "I did say 'mind the incline'," she said with a slight hint of annoyance. "Yeah... Sorry about that," Jeff responded sheepishly, "I didn't expect it to be that much of an incline..." "Would you mind?" Clara asked, referring to Jeff getting off of her. She had quickly changed the subject to avoid succumbing to a burning urge to berate his carelessness. "Sure," he answered, climbing off of her as quickly as he could in the pitch blackness. Unable to see much of anything, Jeff slowly lifted his body. Upon discovering that he could now stand upright he cautiously walked over to his glowing torch, which (along with the lamp) had been knocked out of his hand, much like Clara's, when he landed on top of her. He picked it up, and walked over to Clara's torch. As he bent down to fetch it, Clara pulled it quickly into her hand with her magic. His attempt at a courteous gesture foiled, Jeff shrugged and began panning his torchlight around the nearby floor, searching for the lamp. Clara, meanwhile, was examining the slope of earth that they had just ridden down. From the bottom, it didn't seem as steep or tall as it had on the way down. Climbing back up to the small tunnel opening at the top would not be a major problem. She moved her torchlight upwards, revealing that the roof of the cavern they were in was quite high, perhaps twenty feet above them. Astonishingly, it appeared to be completely smooth, and even arched. There was no question now that this was a manmade chamber.

It didn't take Jeff long to find and retrieve the lamp, only a few feet away from where they'd landed. He crammed it as best he could in one of the deep pockets of his shorts and began to move his torchlight further afield. All of a sudden something in the beam caught his eye and his hand froze. "Clara!" he called, as a look of awe grew on his face. "Yes, what is..." She began in an incurious tone, silencing herself as she turned to see what Jeff had discovered. In the light before them were dozens of objects. Dull grey pots and vases made of clay, hunks of rotting pale timber that appeared to be the remains of decayed boxes or chests, the rare hint of severely corroded bronze, and a three-foot-tall statue of what appeared to be a soldier. Clara walked over to Jeff's side as she shone her own, more powerful torch in the same direction as Jeff's, illuminating even more parafinalia. As the two archaeologists began to slowly pan their torches around in opposite directions, they began to realise that the entire opposite wall of the large chamber was lined with ancient artefacts. "I think we're in the right place..." Jeff mused with a sarcastic hint of doubt. Clara had moved her torchlight around to discover that the chamber appeared to be rectangular in shape, with a short vestibule, in which they were still standing, connecting the main area of the chamber to the entrance passage. Clara noticed that there seemed to be a couple of short steps down from the vestibule to the chamber proper. The artefacts seemed to line all the walls of the chamber, right up to the edge of the vestibule. It reminded Clara of photos she'd seen of Tutankhamun's tomb in the state it was first discovered. "Clara!" Jeff called again, as he made another, even more interesting discovery. Clara quickly turned her gaze to the area illuminated Jeff's torch beam and her lips parted in silent amazement. There in the light was a large stone box; quite obviously, a sarcophagus. "Definitely in the right place," Jeff asserted. The box itself was relatively plain. It was a simple rectangle prism in shape, except for a rounded cornice extending around the edge of the top of the box. The lid was still upon the sarcophagus in its rightful position. The box looked strong, despite its probable age. On the visible long side, a simple pattern of vertical stripes had been carved into the stone, but apart from that, the only other notable feature on the box were some inconsistent markings carved into the nearest short side, probably writing. After staring silently at the casket for a few seconds, Jeff began to walk towards it. Clara soon followed. Jeff stumbled down the steps from the vestibule, not realising they were there, and turned his torch back to see what had made him stumble. "Sorry. I was going to warn you about those, but then I thought if I did, you wouldn't have expected them to be that much of a step," Clara flatly remarked. "ARGH!" she winced, as she pressed her hand against her suddenly aching forehead. "Is it that insult punishment thing again?" Jeff asked her. "Yes," Clara replied in a strained voice.

"Don't do that. I had it coming," Jeff conceded in an easy-going tone, as her continued walking towards the sarcophagus. Clara agreed with his statement but said nothing. "I appreciate the thought," Clara responded as the migraine left her and she resumed following Jeff to the casket, "but it's not exactly something I have control over." "Right. Sorry," Jeff said, looking back at her with a sympathetic expression. "Never mind," Clara grumbled, tired of discussing the matter. As Jeff began to slowly circle the sarcophagus, Clara carefully studied what she could now clearly tell was writing, carved into the nearest side of the box. "My God!" Clara suddenly exclaimed in astonishment. "I was so wrong about her." "Who? Tukanni?" Jeff asked, lifting his eyes from the sarcophagus to look in Clara's direction, even though the glare from her torch made it impossible to actually see her. "No, Zhiasa," Clara said. "This first line of text is written in the same dialect as the journal, nine thousand year old Mesopotamian. It says, 'Entombed within is Queen Tukanni'." "But?" Jeff asked, knowing there must've been more to the story. "But the line below it is written in medieval Persian; Hal'hadin's language. It says, '...The Forgiven.' Zhiasa forgave her!" Clara said staring at Jeff in wonderment. Thanks to her heightened genie senses, Clara could actually see his dumbstruck expression, despite the extreme darkness and torch glare. "Jesus! After eight thousand years of being enslaved..." Jeff responded in wonderment. "Who said, 'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned'?" he said in a lighter tone. "Some misguided fellow who tried to steal the Illakri Sceptre from me, Van Skaal, his name was..." Clara replied without missing a beat. Jeff chuckled and Clara smirked. "Tukanni indirectly introduced Zhiasa to the love of her life," Clara said, her tone serious once again. "Regardless of her intentions, Tukanni had given her something wonderful that she would never have otherwise had, something that Zhiasa obviously felt outweighed all the hardships she'd encountered along the way... I guess in that light, Zhiasa felt that she could no longer bear a grudge," Clara suggested. The chamber fell solemnly silent as the two explorers pondered such an extraordinary gesture of compassion. "Well... We've come all this way. I think it's time we found out if the amulet is here or not," Jeff said. Clara nodded. Jeff placed his torch on the flat top of the sarcophagus lid and pressed his palms against the lid's side. He groaned as he pushed hard against the heavy stone slab. Clara, still standing several feet away, summoned a strong burst of magical energy to move the lid with a smooth wave of her hand. Jeff was startled as the lid suddenly shifted halfway across the sarcophagus. "Wow! That was easier than I thought it would be," he said in surprise. "I don't know my own strength." Clara smirked at the ironic truth in his statement.

Jeff grabbed his torch from atop the lid while Clara strolled over to the open side of the casket. They both shone their torches into the box and examined its contents. After nine thousand years there was no body to be seen, nor skeleton. There were only scant fragments of bone, severely corroded hunks of metal (which Clara presumed was once part of the queen's funerary attire), and an awful lot of dust. "Bingo!" Jeff said in a triumphant tone, as he reached in to the sarcophagus to grab an eye-catching metallic object, with what appeared to be two emeralds embedded in it, resting in the dust where Tukanni's torso would once have layed. Jeff blew the dust off the object as he held it in his own torchlight, and sure enough, it was shaped in the form of a lotus flower, with two emerald buds on the stem. Jeff stared at the amulet, a contemplative look on his face with a suspicious-looking smirk. Then Clara felt her stomach sink as it all dawned on her. In her desperation to obtain the means to her freedom, she'd lead her master right to the means of keeping her in his service forever. All he had to do was marry that amulet with the lamp in his pocket and there would be no limit to the amount of wishes he could make her grant. Everything he would ever desire would be his, every obstacle that ever came in his way would disappear. Even her body would be at his beck and call, as the amulet would give him permanent access to her subconscious mind, and therefore, her sexual desires. Clara could only look on in alarm as he continued to gaze at the amulet. Jeff was a very intelligent man, there was no way in hell that he did not realise the potential of what he held in his hand. With a conceding sigh, after many tensely silent seconds, Jeff turned to Clara and offered her the amulet. "I bet this is a sight for sore eyes?" he said. Clara's jaw dropped. She began to shake her head softly in disbelief as she stared at him. Only seconds ago she was afraid that she had made a colossal mistake in leading Jeff to the amulet. Now she realised that she had made a much more terrible one by not trusting him. All of those horrible suspicions she'd had about him since that morning after they'd first made love, they were all wrong! From the day they first met, all he had ever shown her was kindness, and now this man, this wonderful man was sacrificing virtual omnipotence for the sake of her freedom! If this was not someone she could trust, then no one was. All at once Clara felt more touched than she ever had been before, and yet so ashamed for her mistrust and cruel spurning of Jeff, who clearly had feelings for her. Jeff did not look at her, his gaze was focused on the amulet. Eventually, Clara reached forward with both hands and cupped them gently around Jeff's hand and the amulet. "Thank you," she said in a quiet, heartfelt voice. Then Clara pulled her hands slowly away from Jeff's, taking the amulet with them. She stared at Jeff for a few seconds, and it was only now that Jeff looked up at her with a smile. Clara smiled back. "Not at all, milady," Jeff said quietly, in a warm tone. Clara simply continued to smile at him. They stared at each other for a few more seconds before Clara spoke. "I might be a few minutes. There's something I need to take care of, " she said. "Okay," Jeff responded, as Clara slowly began to dissolve into smoke, starting with her feet and moving upward. "Clara wait!" Jeff suddenly interrupted. Clara instantly paused her transformation, everything above and including her hips was still a solid

human form, whilst below there was only a cloud of smoke that lead into the pocket in Jeff's shorts containing the lamp. "I wish..." Jeff began, falling silent as he pondered how to finish the sentence. "I wish... I wish I knew why your father called you 'Nugget'," he finally said with an air of genuine curiosity, clearly making the impulsive third wish only so that it would not have been forfeited. Clara chuckled at the triviality of the request. "It's what he used to call me as a baby. He always used to say that I was his 'little treasure'," she replied with a smile. After granting her master's third and final wish, Clara was forcibly transformed into a smokey cloud and drawn back into the lamp, with the magic amulet still in her hands. Once again in the familiar lamp chamber, Clara immediately headed for the writing desk. With what she hoped would be her final magical act as a genie, She conjured several blank sheets of paper on to the desk, as well as a fountain pen. Clara then sat down at the desk and began to write the following message: "I regret to inform you that you have been caught in an ancient, magical boobytrap. Don't waste your time searching for a way out of this chamber. The only way you can be released is if another person rubs the lamp as you have just done. When that happens, they will be your master and you will be their slave. You will have to grant any three wishes that they make, and then wait once again, until someone else rubs the lamp, making them your new master. But do not despair, for there is hope. There is an amulet that can free you." Clara then gave detailed directions to Tukanni's tomb. "...You will find the amulet in the stone sarcophagus. Once you have the amulet, return to this chamber and place it in the niche in the wall with the writing on it. Be very careful whom you share this knowledge with, for the amulet can also allow your master to make infinite wishes, potentially making your enslavement eternal. I have been lucky, my first and only master is a man with a good heart..." Clara smiled as she wrote those words, "...but You may not be so. Take heart, and don't give up. I wish you luck. - A Previous Resident." Clara then wrote the same message on seven more pieces of paper, until she had written a copy in each of the eight modern languages in which she was fluent. She picked up the sheets, along with the amulet and placed the sheets on the ground, at the foot of the taunting message carved into the wall. Then Clara took a deep breath, and slid the amulet into the small enclave in the wall. The amulet fit into the space snugly. As soon as it had been pushed home, the amulet began to glow with an orangeygolden light. Clara could hear the faint sound of wind blowing, and looked around to see where it could be coming from. She looked down at her feet, half expecting another cloud of smoke to begin swallowing her up, but there was nothing there. The sound was getting louder.

All of a sudden the wall in front of her disappeared and she found herself in the middle of the fiercest sandstorm she had ever encountered. It was so thick she could not see a thing, and the howling wind was so deafening, she could not even hear her own shouting. As she shielded her face with her left arm, Clara held her right arm out in front of her, searching for some sort of reference point. All the while, a barrage of sand grains assaulted her, front-on, with incredible force. Then, after only a few seconds, the storm ended as quickly as it had begun. When Clara looked up from behind her arm, she discovered that she was somewhere very dark, so dark in fact that she could not see a thing. She could feel that somehow the amulet was back in her right hand again. Without warning, Clara was caught in a bright light, which hurt her eyes, and she once again lifted her arm to shield them. "There you are!" Jeff said, moving his torch beam slightly away from Clara when he realised that her eyes needed time to adjust to the light. "So you wanted to change, eh? Looks nice," he complimented in an overly conversational tone. Clara looked down over her body and noticed that she was indeed dressed in a different outfit. She smiled in delight when she realised how she'd been redressed. Jeff was not to know, but the clothes she was now wearing were the same ones that she had on when she first discovered the lamp. For Clara, that was all the proof she needed that her imprisonment was over. She looked back up at Jeff, beaming. "I don't know about the guns, though..." Jeff continued. "I don't think theyre necessary on an expedition like this. See, the thing about tombs is, their owners have usually already been... well, 'capped'." Without a word, Clara quickly marched over towards Jeff's torchlight. "So is that it?" he asked seriously. "Are you..." Before he could finish, Clara lunged forward and pushed her lips hard against Jeff's, wrapping her arms around him and squeezing him as tightly as she could. Jeff did not hesitate to return her affections, his torchlight danced happily around on the chamber ceiling as he threw his arms around Clara's back and embraced her as they kissed long and passionately. Becoming a genie via powerful ancient magics, only to be set free by a man her gut told her to be wary of threw everything Clara believed in into question. Mythology, history and her own instincts, she didn't know what to believe about any of them any more. The only thing that she could be sure of right now was that the best place in the world that she could possibly be was right here, in Jeff's arms. "Wait..." Clara said with a hint of regret as she broke the kiss off, "...there's one more thing I need to do. Do you have my torch?" Jeff reached into a pouch on his belt and produced Clara's torch. "Here," he said as he handed it to her. Clara turned the torch on and shone it around the room, quickly locating the sarcophagus a few feet away. She walked over to it, with Jeff soon following her. Then Clara leaned into the ancient box and carefully placed the magic amulet upon the disintegrated remains of the lamp's cruel forger. Without a word, Jeff and Clara walked around to the other side of the sarcophagus together to push the lid back and seal the casket once more. With a great deal of grunting and groaning from both of the explorers, and the occasional curse word from Jeff, the lid was eventually restored to it's original position. "It's done," Clara said as she ran her torch over the ancient box one last time.

"Let's hope nobody ever has to come looking for it..." Jeff said. "Indeed," Clara agreed. She looked over at Jeff with a smile and kissed him tenderly as she wrapped one arm around the back of his waist. "Come on, we'd best be out of here. The longer I stand in this tomb, the more I'm tempted to take some artefacts back for study," she said, gently slapping Jeff on the butt. "Alright," Jeff responded in a compliant tone. "So, is this compulsion to Raid Tombs a normal thing for you?" he asked facetiously. "Hmm... I must admit, I honestly can't recall the last time I found a nine thousand year old royal tomb and then left it without any evidence of it's existence," was Clara's droll reply. "Really?" Jeff asked with mock surprise, "I do that all the time. But then I dropped out of archaeology before they told us what you're supposed to do after you discover a tomb..." Clara chuckled as she made her way up the mound of loose earth leading to the small entrance passage.

CHAPTER X
The walk back to the four wheel drive was fairly easy. The path was far from smooth, but there weren't any arduous inclines along the way. Clara and Jeff talked the entire way. When they reached the vehicle Jeff rested by the back wheel and removed his water bottle from his pack. He drank heartily, as there was no longer a need to conserve his water, while Clara opened the vehicle's rear hatch and threw her own pack in. Jeff had only just replaced the bottle in his pack when without warning Clara placed her hands around his head and pulled him in for another passionate kiss. Clara had hoped she would be able to make it back to the motel room before she expressed her gratitude to Jeff physically, but her ever-growing desire could be suppressed no longer. Jeff wrapped his arms around Clara, positioning his hands initially on the back of her bare midriff, then sliding them down over the coarse fabric of her tight shorts. Jeff gave Clara's buttocks an unexpected tight squeeze as he pulled her hips against his own, prompting a muffled yelp of approval from his partner. Their faces, like the rest of their bodies, were covered in dust from crawling through the tight cavern, and as their lips slid against each other mercurially, the dust was swept into the kiss. For Clara, the unique mix of bland, gritty dirt, commingled with Jeff's delicious warm saliva only served to make the kiss feel that much more exciting and spontaneous. After smoothly manoeuvring her arms under Jeff's and around his back, Clara gently began to prompt him to move backwards, towards the Merc, until they were close enough for Clara to reach the back door and open it. As Clara continued to push him back, Jeff stumbled over his own pack. He briskly broke off the kiss, reached down to grab the pack and then chucked it recklessly on the back seat floor of the Merc, spilling half of it's contents, including the lamp, onto the vehicle floor. Jeff knew that he would soon be far too preoccupied to remember where he'd left his pack, and had no intention of leaving the lamp on the mountaintop. Grasping his well-defined chin between her thumb and index fingers, Clara pulled Jeff's gaze promptly back to her and stole a quick kiss before urging him into the four wheel drive with a gentle push on his chest. Jeff climbed up on to the back seat and moved over one space to allow room for Clara. Clara never once took her eyes off Jeff as she climbed onto the seat beside him with an almost authoritative patience, slowly entering the vehicle and closing the door behind her. She concealed her raging arousal behind a calm, if somewhat mischievous smile, while her eyes gazed at Jeff in such a deeply sensuous manner that he could almost hear them say, "I am going to pleasure you to brink of insanity..." She leaned over and pressed her lips against Jeff's once again, sending her tongue deep into Jeff's mouth to slide along, around and against his own tongue in a tender, intimate caress. For Jeff, it had barely seemed like that wonderful kiss had begun before he felt her palm once again pushing gently on his chest and her lips pulling away from his. She pushed him down so that he was lying back on the seat. As Jeff layed flat, the enormous bulge in his shorts became very apparent. Clara did not break the silence when she noticed it, she simply smirked. After stopping only briefly to admire the display of Jeff's arousal, Clara leaned over Jeff to again kiss him on the lips. Jeff wrapped his arms around Clara's torso and pulled her closer to him in a

passion-fuelled embrace. She kissed him many times, provoking many appreciative moans from him, but after a few moments, Clara was insistently pulling away from Jeff's arms. She looked down on him with that same conniving smirk, as her hands gently trailed over the fabric of his shirt. All of a sudden, she gripped the left and right sides of the shirt tightly and swiftly ripped them asunder, sending the buttons flying. They clattered as they bounced off of the hard surfaces of the vehicle interior. "Shit!" Jeff exclaimed in surprise, cracking an amused smile after the initial shock had passed. Quickly resuming her calm, deliberate demeanour, Clara again leaned down, this time to plant a soft, tender kiss on the top of Jeff's chest. She slowly made her way down his chest, padding kisses along it, occasionally pressing against it with the tip of her tongue, while her right hand gently coursed back and forth through the chest hairs near his nipple. "Oh boy!" Jeff sighed as he exhaled a deep breath. As Clara made her titillatingly slow progress down his sternum, Jeff contemplated the gruelling amount of restraint he would soon have to call upon to prolong his climax as long as possible. His sexual instincts had been in standby mode ever since that first amazing kiss in the tomb. Watching Clara's firm ass the entire twenty-minute walk back to the Merc certainly did nothing to calm them. Now, with this onslaught of incredibly sensuous foreplay from Clara, he was all systems go. The pressure his stiff cock was putting against the strong fabric of his shorts was excruciating, and Clara was still fully clothed! Jeff feared that by the time they actually began to make love, he would only be able to withstand a few seconds of Clara's luscious womanhood. Clara certainly did not make the task any easier as she unzipped Jeff's fly, and slid her left hand inside to gently fondle his rod through his briefs. Many agonisingly enjoyable seconds later, Clara had finally kissed her way to the bottom of Jeff's chest, stopping just above his navel. She smiled as she rose up, removing her hand from his shorts. After making quick work of his belt buckle, Clara slid her fingertips inside the waistline of Jeff's briefs and pulled them, along with his shorts, midway down his thighs in one smooth movement. Free from it's cotton prison, Jeff's rigid maleness immediately sprang to it's full height, almost as if it were doing so solely to grab the attention of the only person who could fulfil it's maddening need. If that was the case, then its mission was most definitely a success. Clara paused for a couple of seconds as she admired Jeff's erection with a keen look in her eye. Then, with a teasingly slow blink, Clara shifted her amorous gaze back to Jeff's eyes, consuming his attention as her fingers nimbly unlaced her boots just enough for her to slide her feet out. Next she began to unbuckle her own belt and remove her shorts. Jeff, realising that he had a little time before Clara resumed pleasuring him, sat up and began to awkwardly pull down his own shorts and briefs, which were still holding his thighs together. Clara had obviously only been interested in unleashing Jeff's rod, his mobility was apparently of no concern. The shorts were still around Jeff's knees when Clara reached over and firmly grabbed their crotch. She pulled the shorts down forcefully, using them to pin Jeff's legs to the seat. Then, as she held his legs fast against the seat, Clara slowly rose up. It was only now that Jeff noticed that she had completely shed her own shorts, leaving only her white cotton panties to hide her snatch. Jeff also noticed that the panties were almost

entirely wet and there was a faint smell of female arousal in the air. Jeff smirked as he realised that behind her calm, cool facade, Clara was just as horny as he was. Clara kneeled over Jeff, straddling his thighs. As she slowly layed down on top of him, she pushed her wet panties against Jeff's hard cock. By the time she had begun to kiss him, it was tightly sandwiched between their two bodies. Clara enticed him further by pressing and releasing her lithe flesh against his rod in rhythmical waves of pressure, whilst her tongue inspired his arousal by dancing playfully along the surfaces in his mouth. Over and over they kissed, as the pressings of Clara's hips became steadily stronger, more passionate. Jeff moaned happily at the deluge of affection that he'd been swept into, and although Clara remained silent, her composure was clearly starting to deteriorate. Her kisses were becoming hungrier and she was unconsciously running her fingers through Jeff's hair, and even grabbing it at times. Jeff had once again wrapped his arms around Clara. His hands spiralled over her body in wide strokes, rubbing over the back of her shirt and the butt of her panties and sliding over the smooth skin of her lower back in between. As the intense foreplay sent their body temperatures climbing, the dirt on their bodies was absorbed by their sweat, forming a black liquid. Jeff's caresses began to leave black streaks along Clara's wet skin, and dark stains on her shirt and panties. Motivated by the urgent yearning in his manhood to feel her sweet fissure and the dissatisfying sensation of his hands repeatedly rubbing across the coarse fabric of her shirt, Jeff attempted to move things along by pulling her top off. He was surprised to find just how tightly it clung to her body. Before he could make much progress Clara pulled away from him and sat up. She was still smiling as she looked down at him, but the smile was no longer playful; her lips were parted, she was breathing raggedly, and she meant business. Jeff lifted his hand up to caress her cheek as they both took a few seconds to rest. He smiled as he mused how even covered in dirt, Clara's face was, without compare, the most beautiful one he had ever set eyes upon. Even once she had caught her breath, Clara forced herself to wait a couple of seconds so that Jeff could calm down a bit. She had been mercilessly teasing him for a while now. The odds were that if she did not give him a little recovery time, they would not get to make love for very long. She held out as long as she could but eventually her craving for Jeff's rod took over. She lifted her body off of his only as much as necessary for her to remove her panties. The scent of her juices flooded the cabin as she bared her slick privates. With a single skilful sway, Clara managed to slip the panties past her right kneecap, then her left, all while continuing to straddle her lover. From there, removing the panties completely was a breeze. As Jeff looked on with an eager smile, Clara lowered her heavenly opening onto his cock. She leaned her head back, closed her eyes and purred softly as she slowly took Jeff's maleness deeper and deeper into her body. Jeff uttered a vibrato moan as the sensation of Clara's red-hot womanhood sliding down his member sent a growing surge of pleasure tingling up his spine. She did not stop until her outer lips were pressed against his body. With a shake of her head, Clara turned her gaze back to Jeff, with a look that both conveyed raw animal desire and heartfelt affection. The sides of her mouth curved upwards in a playful smile as Clara began to slowly rock her hips.

The two lovers began to moan intermittently as Clara's gyrations increased in intensity ever so slowly. She savoured the mild pleasures of Jeff's rod making the slightest movements within her, while it continued to put pressure on her most erogenous flesh with it's lust-fuelled firmness. Occasionally she would treat Jeff by gently squeezing on Jeff's rod with her privates, usually provoking an appreciative moan from him. Jeff, meanwhile, ran his hands over Clara's bare thighs and around her firm ass, eventually settling on the sides of her waist. When Clara's gyrations had grown somewhat in intensity, she removed her top, pulling it over her head and tossing it without care onto the passenger seat, all without the slightest interruption to the rocking of her hips. Jeff, inspired by the sight of Clara's ample breasts heaving back and forth in her black bra, sat up and pushed his lips firmly against hers. As their tongues began to dance yet another ballet with one another, Clara reached behind her back and began to work the clasp of her bra. It was soon undone. When Jeff felt Clara sliding the loose bra down her arms, he did not immediately break the kiss off, as it was quite enjoyable. Eventually, his desire to suckle on her luscious breasts got the better of him and he pulled his lips away. Clara leaned back slightly, to give Jeff a better angle, as his face moved down over her body. He brushed his chin over the perfect smooth skin along the top of her right breast, as he descended over it until his lips were only an inch in front of the nipple. He poked his tongue out and pressed it against Clara's yielding areola. Then he slowly slid it over her nipple, before pressing his lips onto the wonderful orb and beginning to gently suckle. At the same time, he moved his right hand up to cup and fondle her left breast. Clara moaned happily as she continued to ride him, running her fingers through his hair, with an absent smile on her face. Her mind was caught between several emotions, all of which were most pleasant. The radiating pleasure in her center was building to a critical level and with each stroke, Jeff's mighty rod incited even more bliss. His skilful ministrations to her breasts were now bringing the delight to another part of her body. And as she listened to Jeff's indulgent moans, she found herself very happy to be giving her benevolent liberator so much enjoyment. After savouring the delights of having Clara's pliant breast so welcomely wedged between his lips for quite a while, Jeff decided to alternate, moving his mouth over to Clara's left breast, while allowing his hand to get re-acquainted with the right. He moved his right hand down on to his lover's hip, using it to encourage Clara to accelerate her gyrations. The dirty sweat on his hand had left dark streaks all over the surface of her shapely breast. As Jeff suckled and teased it with his tongue, he could feel the rough dirt particles rolling over his lips and tongue. Even while contending with the salty taste of their mixed sweat and the (probably imagined) deliciousness of her velvety areola, the dirt had it's own compelling and strangely erotic taste. It had been little more than an hour since they'd discovered the long lost tomb of an ancient queen. Now, while the dust from the tomb still clung to their bodies, they were locked in coitus, fantastic coitus. Jeff could not deny that there was something incredibly hot about that. Clara, taking the hint from Jeff, began to ride him in deeper strokes. Jeff began to instinctively move his own hips up and down as much as he could. Clara's moans became more prolonged and louder as Jeff's maleness moved within her roasting snatch in a rapidly increasing span. His cock radiated with it's own sexual energy and

with each thrust, it sent a pulse of pleasure surging through her entire body. She was almost at the edge. Again, Jeff alternated his affections, returning to kiss and suckle her right breast, while gently kneading her left. Warm sexual delight radiated from her ample mounds readying her body for the spectacular climax bearing down on her. As her desire grew in urgency and became more focused, Clara began to utter coherent words between her absent moans. "Ooooh... Oh yes... Mmm... So good... Feels so good... Mmm... Yes... Don't stop... So good... Ooooh..." Clara's gyrations were now quite intense. The constant pleasure of Jeff's rigid maleness brushing back and forth along her inner walls kept feeding her desire, only serving to make it stronger. She wanted to come so badly, and judging by his moans, Jeff did too. Her hips moved with an erotically rhythmical grace as she repeatedly pushed her womanhood onto his cock, with no little enthusiasm. She delighted in her yearning center being probed by the rock-hard shaft, filled with a load of semen that it determinedly withheld, but that Clara knew would ultimately be hers. "Yes... Almost... It's so close... Ooooh Yes.... Ooooh I'm so close... Don't stop... It's so close... It's so wonderful... It's so... Mmm..." Clara continued to moan broken sentences of encouragement as a dreamy smirk washed over her face. She was so close to orgasm! Jeff had moved both his hands onto the small of Clara's back to help guide her passionate gyrations. His lips had abandoned her breasts (to reduce the tax on his stamina, Clara assumed) and he was now moaning along with his lover. Within a few seconds Clara felt her control over her body slipping away as she rode her virile stallion to an earth-shattering climax. Her embracing arms tightened around Jeff's torso, pulling her body flush against his, as her womanhood clamped around his excited manhood in an overload of ecstasy. She flung her head back, and opened her mouth, only to emit a barely audible whimper. Once Clara came, Jeff only managed a few more thrusts with his hips, before his anxious rod could resist the carnal embrace of her delectable snatch no longer. With all it's might, Jeff's manhood fired a powerful jet of his seed into Clara's amazing body, blowing back an equally potent wave of sheer euphoria into his own. As the orgasm took control of his faculties, Jeff instinctively held Clara's body tightly to his, reciprocating her own passionate embrace. He bucked forcefully with every quaking pump of his cock. "Oooooooooh Yeah! Oooooooooh Yeah! Oooooooooh! Oooooooh Holy shit!" Jeff bellowed appreciatively. An incessant blaze of pleasure racked Clara's body and saturated her mind, showing no sign of abating, while Jeff continued to be enraptured by the short, but intense, lashes of ecstasy that accompanied every ejaculation. He was buried to the hilt, but with every buck he seemed to briefly edge a little deeper, a little closer to actually touching the lovely womb of his noble English goddess. Time ceased to have meaning as they hurtled along a raging river of potent sexual bliss, locked in each other's arms. At some point, Jeff's maleness pumped the last morsels of its seed and fell inert between Clara's relenting vaginal muscles. As the two lovers regained awareness and exhaustion enveloped them, they dropped back

down on to the seat, their arms still wrapped around each other. Clara continued to moan softly as her orgasm slowly faded away. The experience had been so intense that it left her trembling in Jeff's arms. Her overwhelmed partner was breathing raggedly beneath her. The expression on his face could've given the impression that he'd just been run over by a semitrailer, but Jeff was coasting quite happily in his own sexual afterglow. A few minutes later, well after both Clara and Jeff had calmed down, Clara worked up the energy to pull her arms out from beneath Jeff and lift her hips up just enough for her to stretch her legs out along the seat. Jeff's dormant manhood slipped out of her nether lips unceremoniously as she repositioned herself. Within a few seconds she was again peacefully lying atop her lover, her eyes closed and a blissful smile on her face. "Mmm... Discovering an ancient Mesopotamian tomb, escaping eternal imprisonment and incredible sex. You certainly know how to show a girl a good time, Jeff. The tomb and the freedom were quite nice, as well," Clara purred in a sultry tone. "I'm glad to hear it. I was thinking about following the tomb by writing you a sonnet in hieratic, but then I thought that that might be too much, you know?" Jeff replied. "Oh, absolutely!" Clara responded, "Less is more!" she looked up at Jeff and they both chuckled. "Seriously, though, that was amazing!" Jeff said sincerely. "Wasn't it just?" Clara agreed with a hint of indulgent moan in her voice, as she reflected on the wonderful experience they'd just shared. They both move their heads forward slightly and tenderly kissed. After a few seconds of basking in Clara's warmth, the shiny lamp on the cabin floor caught Jeff's eye. He reached down, without disturbing Clara, and picked it up. "So what are we going to do with this?" he asked. "I don't know," Clara honestly replied, as she looked pensively at her former prison. She thought silently for a moment, appreciating the importance of Jeff's question. "My father is good friends with Sir Vernan Winthrop, the famous oceanographer. They went to Cambridge together. Perhaps we can have Sir Vernan drop the lamp into the mariana trench on his next expedition, after we've taken the liberty of sealing it in a block of concrete, of course," Clara suggested. "Sounds like a plan," Jeff said in an impressed tone, as he gently placed the lamp back on the vehicle's floor. "Well, I'm not just a pretty face, you know?" Clara said facetiously, without even the slightest trace of conceit about her actual physical beauty. She nuzzled happily into the empty space beside Jeff's neck, while an apprehensive expression grew on Jeff's face, as Clara's lighthearted statement resounded through his mind. Clara was beautiful in every possible sense of the word. She was intelligent, witty, courageous, captivating, sensuous, and without a doubt the most remarkable woman

Jeff had ever met. And the question of whether she had feelings for him was beginning to gnaw away at him. Jeff had a terrible foreboding about asking her, but he knew that the longer he put it off, the more devastating any negative repercussions would be. "Clara?" he said, in a serious tone. Clara looked up at him with a smile. "Is this... I mean this right now... Is this just, like a 'thank you'? Or some kind of freedom celebration?" The smile quickly faded from Clara's face as Jeff continued, "It's okay if that's what this is, I guess, but it's just... I need to know." "Jeff..." Clara began in a sad tone, unsure of how to respond further. "I mean after the last time we had sex, you barely spoke to me, almost like you regretted it..." Jeff said with painful honesty. "No!" Clara declared adamantly. "...I mean for a while, I might have, but..." It was ironic that words failed her when she so desperately needed to explain her actions. Clara took a deep breath and tried to calm herself, although it wasn't easy; her awful treatment of Jeff over the past few days had finally caught up with her and she was so terribly ashamed. "I... I have never done this before, I have never let myself get close to anyone like I have with you... And I suppose it scared me. It scared me!" Clara explained, with an uneasy chuckle. Although she genuinely believed it, the statement seemed so absurd, coming from a woman who had braved the boobytraps of the most intricate Aztec tombs, without even flinching. "Scared you? What do you mean?" a confused Jeff asked. Clara closed her eyes as she summoned the courage to tell Jeff the complete truth. After all he had done, he deserved no less. "I was afraid that you had used the lamp's power over me to seduce me without my knowing. I was afraid that you had manipulated me into sleeping with you," Clara said, cringing in shame. Jeff was clearly hurt by this revelation. "You deserved so much better, after all the kindness you showed me. You never gave me any cause to distrust you and I am so, so, so sorry for the way I've treated you. I'm so, so sorry I had those terrible, stupid thoughts about you. But if it makes any difference, and I hope to God it does, I know now that the feelings I had that night and that morning were genuine. I know because you gave away infinite wishes for my freedom and that means that youre too good a person to have taken advantage of me," Clara declared in a heartfelt tone. Now it was Jeff who looked as if he'd been caught out. He opened his mouth as if to respond, but Clara interrupted, "I know that you were aware of what you were sacrificing. And it is so unfortunate that nobody else will ever know what you gave away to free me. But I do, and I will never, ever forget it," she promised solemnly as she wrapped her arms around his neck in a tight embrace, fearing that it just might be the last one she would ever give him. Several tensely silent seconds passed before Jeff spoke. "I gotta admit Clara, I was really tempted to use that amulet..." Jeff confessed, looking away from Clara with a guilty expression.

"Why didn't you?" she asked. "Because..." Jeff hesitantly replied, as if he was searching himself for the answer. "Because it was the right thing to do... and... because I knew that if I didn't, you'd never feel the same way about me as I do about you. Which I guess, in the end, was what I wanted most of all..." "Do you love me?" Clara asked, looking over at him intently. As soon as she asked the question Jeff's gaze immediately turned to her, she had his complete attention. "Yeah, I do." Jeff replied, a little surprised by the question, but totally sincere. "Well then, you got your wish!" Clara said with an elated smile. A beaming smile appeared on Jeff's face as Clara's response blew his haunting doubts away like dry autumn leaves. Clara pushed her lips against Jeff's and they kissed passionately. Jeff wrapped his arms around Clara's naked body and held her tightly, just as she held him. Their mutual embrace only grew stronger as they rocked from side to side in the back seat of their four wheel drive and kissed, and kissed, and kissed. Clara snickered as she felt Jeff's cock beginning to rise beneath her.

The End