Jasmine paced furiously, not entirely remembering to make sure her feet touched the ground as she did so. What was she supposed to do? She'd changed reality way more than she'd intended to with her wish, and now having a basic understanding of magic, she realized just how serious that could be. Several of the fixes Jon would have thought of, such as wishing for male Djinn to exist or to be a different species, were now anathema to her as they were massive changes that risked Asteria's Heart too much. She blanched at how cavalier she'd been with the stone as a human, but she needed to fix this didn't she?
Did she? Was being a Djinn necessarily a bad thing; after all becoming a magical creature was the point, and Djinn were about as magical as it got. Sure there was the issue of the changed gender, but... Jasmine caught sight of herself in the mirror once again, still stunned to see a beautiful girl staring back at her. Oddly enough, she didn't feel as weirded out by being in a female body as she would have thought; it was a new feeling, but it wasn't bad one per se. If anything it felt sort of, right? Maybe she could learn to live with this?
Then again, it wasn't just her that she'd changed. Zoe, Mikey, her mom, all three of them had been transformed by the magic and Cassandra's history completely rewritten, not to mention everyone the new Djinn Lydia had interacted with over the last two centuries. Was it fair to have done that? Plus, now she was in a world and living a life she didn't know the first thing about beyond her family tree. What happened when she went to school, or hell just had a conversation longer than five minutes with someone, and suddenly everyone was wondering why she seemed to have forgotten things she was supposed to know.
"I wish I knew what to do," she muttered before her eyes went wide as she realized exactly what she'd done. The stone flashed white and she felt the magic reach out, but instead of spreading into the world, it mingled with her own magical essence and she felt herself blending into smoke. The stone then began to pull on her, drawing her into it just as she would normally enter her lamp. Jasmine felt reality squeezing around her until, POP she found herself somewhere else entirely.
Jasmine found herself sitting on a soft grassy hill, under a cherry tree. She looked around to find herself in a verdant meadow, that was almost mystical in its beauty. There was a babbling brook flowing through, fields of myriad flowers surrounding it, and standing in the middle was a woman Jasmine instinctively recognized. Floating before her was a veiled blue skinned woman, looking down at her kindly, and somehow Jasmine knew her, Asteria.
"You've had a rather eventful evening, haven't you child" Asteria asked as she gently helped Jasmine to stand, or rather float, up. Jasmine's eyes bugged at seeing the ancient Djinn before her. Based on her previous wish she knew most Djinn believed they lived on within their Hearts, but it had never been confirmed, and a Heart had certainly never been entered before. Still, the woman who's stone she'd been using willy nilly was somehow here in front of her. "uh, Ms. Asteria, I'm so sorry-"
"Shh," Asteria interrupted as she pulled Jasmine close and stroked her calmingly on the back, "there's no need to apologize little one. You knew not what you had, or what you were doing."
"But, I must have used up so much magic, and I forced my way into your family and I'm just so so sorry," Jasmine blubbered, the enormity of what her errant wish had done crashing into her. "There there, dear, everything's going to be alright. I'm not turning to ash anytime soon," Asteria said soothingly, "And you didn't force your way into my family, Jasmine. As you'll come to learn, an open ended wish is a dangerous thing, and I chose how to grant your wish. There's a reason you're not a fairy or a succubus right now."
Jasmine looked up, teary eyed, "You wanted me to be a Djinn?" Asteria playfully booped her on the nose, "Not just any Djinn, Jasmine, my descendant. Come, we have much to talk about and we might as well be comfortable." With a wave of her hand, a giant carpet spread out before them like a picnic blanket and two plush cushions sat atop it. Asteria guided Jasmine to one cushion and sat next to her on the other one, before summoning a picnic basket with another wave of the hand. Jasmine blinked the tears from her eyes and stared in wonder; she knew form her wish that Djinn had nearly full control of the appearance of the inside of their vessels, but this was her first time actually seeing it.
Asteria reached into the basket, pulling out a sushi platter and a tub of cherry ice cream. "That's for dessert, don't worry it won't melt," Asteria said offhandedly, "Gods know I wish they'd invented Ice Cream while I was still in the world; go ahead dear, have a salmon roll." At Asteria's encouragement, Jasmine picked up her chopsticks and hesitantly ate a roll, not having been expecting to be eating sushi with the most famous Djinn to ever live.
"So, uh, you chose to make me a Galenos, why? Was it so I'd know what the Heart was?" Jasmine asked. Asteria smiled softly at her, "Not just that, dear. I won't deny that I'm breathing a little easier with my stone in the care of a fine young Djinn than a human who didn't know what he had, but that was only a small component. Turning you into a magical creature was also a huge shift, and magic flows better along the lines of least resistance."
Jasmine nodded along, "It was easier for Djinn magic to make a Djinn than some other type of magical creature." Asteria flashed a bright smile, "exactly, my girl! You're quick on the uptake." Jasmine's blue cheeks turned lavender as she blushed; she'd never been praised much for her intelligence as Jon. (What Jasmine didn't know was that she was in fact somewhat smarter as Jasmine than she'd been as Jon, as a result of her differing genetics, or the Djinn equivalent of genetics.)
"But that's a reason to make you a Djinn, not a reason to make you Cassandra's child," Asteria continued. "I must admit I did that for more selfish reasons."
"Selfish?" Jasmine asked, curiously, since as far as she knew, being a descendant of Asteria was a huge honor in Djinn society.
"A little," Asteria replied wryly, "It has to do with Cassandra, your new mother. Before your wish she was shaping up to be the last of my line. Djinn rarely have more than one or two children, you and your siblings are the exception in that regard, and she's the only Galenos of her generation. Her parents are old enough that it's unlikely they'll have another child, and her aunt sadly passed into her heart some time ago."
"So it was to make sure the Galenos family didn't die out?" Jasmine asked.
Asteria shook her head, "No, more than that it pained me that Cassandra was lonely. A Djinn can only have a child when they are in love and I wanted my Great Great Granddaughter to have a chance to have that. Your wish provided a unique opportunity due to who your mother is."
"My mom?" Jasmine asked with a confused tilt of her head.
"Yes Lydia, formerly Linda, was what made my decision for me. I wouldn't change Cassandra to force her to love someone, and I wouldn't remake another into Cassandra's ideal woman, but with Lydia I didn't have to. I could see that if the two had the opportunity to meet, they were highly compatible, potential soulmates if you will. The Metaphysics are a bit complicated to explain, but you gave me a chance to help both of them."
"Mom did seem... happier than she's been in a long time," Jasmine reflected, thinking of her brief conversation with her mother. Linda was usually carried a tension that was absent in Lydia.
Asteria patted Jasmine's arm, "Yes, Linda was a less than fortunate woman. Due to their biology humans end up in less than ideal matches far more often than us Djinn, and Roger Gibson was far from ideal." Jasmine grimaced, not having a high opinion of her former father. He'd been a shitty dad when he was around, and after running off with some woman he met in Reno, had ducked out constantly on child support. She was actually elated to no longer be related to the man. "That said, she is a resilient woman in either world and I'm proud to have Lydia join my family," Asteria complimented. "So, in short, I saw the opportunity to give Cassandra and Lydia the relationship they deserved, while also removing the negative effect Roger Gibson had on the lives of Lydia, you and your siblings."
Jasmine felt tears welling up in her eyes, before lunging forward to hug the ancient Djinn. "Thank you," she sobbed, knowing how much of a difference that would make. Roger had been cruel, and as the eldest she'd spent the most time with him. Asteria had truly given a gift to her and her mother.
"That said, I still wouldn't have done it if it weren't for one more reason, Jasmine," Asteria spoke softly as she hugged the girl gently. "I wouldn't wish to trap you in a form that was harmful to you, and well, as you know, Djinn are all female." Jasmine's breath hitched as she realized what Asteria was saying, but couldn't deny the truth of it. Even as a human, on some level she'd always wanted, needed to be a girl, even if she was deeply in denial about it. The overwhelming feeling of rightness that had been suffusing her since the transformation suddenly made perfect sense. Her effeminate tendencies had in fact been a major source of tension with Roger, even if the man likely hadn't fully understood the root of them. Asteria hesitantly continued, "I could also see that you were... unhappy as you were, even if you didn't know why. I wanted to help you become the beautiful young woman you were meant to be."
Jasmine broke into deeper sobs as she just let the emotions run there course, all the time held by the woman who'd changed her life. Asteria sat, patiently holding her, and let her newest descendant get it all out. Eventually sometime later, Jasmine pulled herself together and sat back, giving Asteria a watery smile, "I suppose I have many reasons to thank you, Asteria."
"I was happy to do it, Jasmine," Asteria replied.
