What Nobility Grants

By technicality it can be said that the sun is always up somewhere on earth, this was a fact understood by every being save the most spiritually infatuated humans. As a Genie, Anacletus had found the subject of human ignorance rather amusing, though this sense of whimsy had long fallen away, long about the time of his hundredth summons.

Anacletus doesn’t quite recall how many times since then it was that he’d been bound in such an odd manner that his day did fill the eons with unseen sunlight at his back. Still, that was the curse on the paper as read by the lone noble, a strange understanding bearing no fine-print upon the page itself.

Lucky him.

Anacletus tapped the under-dressed ingrate on the shoulder, knowing full well that the true nature of his bindings would likely be a point of ignorance for the likely high strung sorcerer.

He turns with expected concern and whimpers, “who’s there?”

Anacletus hummed a bit, realizing that he’d made a minor misstep in his want to prove a point, that being that he’d neglected to make a proper visible appearance.

He snapped his fingers with an amused smile as his visage became a good guess of his Caller’s embarrassment. A frame likely to the tooth as far as gentlemanly fashion plates, and a face to a poet's dull preference.

“You called?” he said, with a smoother deeper voice than he would usually. Anacletus was no mind reader but he knew at least how humans behaved when they were surprised.

The amateur looked at him for a long moment, before looking back at the magic circle he’d painstakingly drawn and the book he’d so carefully copied from.

“I thought you were supposed to stay in the circle?” he asked, scared from what wits he possessed. Good he thought, as it was the very least of respectable postures when engaging with any kind of hidden peoples.

“Now, Why ever would I do that?” he responded tempting, “my presence wasn’t going to be bound by such a drab drawn circle.”

“Drab?”

“Not badly so, but you’ve got no rhythm to your lines. And really, your strokes are overcareful.” he said, maybe a little too coarse in that moment, Anacletus pulled back a bit from what could be misidentified as arrogance. “Still, I’m not here to teach you magic in a day.”

“What have you called for?”

The human asked, holding back a stammer, “I have so much to ask, though I’m not sure how to.” It was almost with curiosity, but Anacletus needed the work.

He was faithful after-all in the debinding of his curse.

“You have the hours that carry the sun, and no more. Though you can make any request you’d trust in that time.” he meant it, as such the request could be small and still mark his payment as due.

“Thank you for your honesty.”

“You're welcome, though I don’t have all day.”

“I’m curious, what gifts can you bestow?” the human asked, calm now that they’d gotten past the subject of his lacking skills as an illustrator, “the book mentions you but it isn’t all clear.” he says, presenting the cursed page in question.

“I can grant you many things, and since I’ve been invoked for it I assume you’ve the will to ask outright.”

The man is a boy then, his gaze, his disposition, though he is still bound to his past by the vice grip of age. “It’s quite a silly thing for me to ask for, being born to such good standing. I have a notion of normalcy, but I know it isn’t really mine.” 

“I want to become an athlete. And if I could have the knees for it, a long jumper.”

“Well, that’s quite a request. For someone of your age.” the Genie said, barely concerned.

“It is, I know, but it’s been a dream of mine. Since as long as I can remember.”

“And why have you not?”

“If I were honest I’d say it, but I prefer to think it was a frailty of my position.”

“Why have you asked me? Couldn’t you’ve done it on your own?” Anacletus asked honestly, he didn’t much understand human limitations. Even the ones on his granting weren’t much to sneeze at, “If you’ve always had the funds, why ask me now?”

“Money is no object, but that doesn’t change the expectations of my position. It’s one thing to drive and lead, or shoot, it’s another to prove one’s skills with something so lacking as far as dominance.” he said meaning it, it was quite amusing to see someone besmirch his standing in such a manner.

The sight pulled on a memory, but Anacletus hardly saw fit to reconstrue what good times there were back then. “Aren’t your kind beset with poetry?” he laughed in saying.

“No, we are simply entertained by it. Privilege may require education but it often enough serves to platform inadequacy.”

“I’m sure your governess would roll in her grave.”

“She would, though it would be much the same for anyone groomed to mollify my succession.”

“And still you choose to invoke my powers?”

“Yes.”

“Just making sure of it, of course. I’d rather not subjugate myself to a sorcerer more ignorant than that.”

“I understand, I guess my question, before you make the time for it is, what would be the most sensible course in your estimation?”

“As far as your wish?” he thought out loud, while Anacletus did like to bind even his temporary captors to his own interpretation, it was hardly necessary given a clearer request.

“That’s a rare question. I suppose there are a few ways. Since age is a factor in most cases concerning sports it might be sensible to simply beg for a do over.” he answered at first, continuing, “not to a time when you were young but for a body that was akin to that state.” he said to clarify. 

“Though it would be just as easy to bind your soul to a convenient body if it was only the experience you longed for.” The phrase was a bit too smooth with his current voice, but it was a truth as close as he could say.

“Convenient?” the human asked, caught off guard by the implication.

Finally thinking about what he was asking for.

Did he think it would be easier to make a body and identity from scratch?

“Convenient. Some other body under the privilege of advanced physical education.” he clarified, the human backing away almost into his own circle. 

“It would be theft of course, but it would hardly be anything with my power.”

He meant it, it was quite literally nothing for something like him, even bound as he was by his curse.

The human looks to be sickened, the body wouldn’t be his, not at first, but maybe never might be the first horrified thoughts for a human. “I don’t know how you could do it, steal a body like that.” he says, stricken.

The Genie corrects, “I’d really be fencing it, but what’s the difference? Either way you’re probably stealing someone’s future.”

“That’s an awful thing to say.”

“And many truths are.” the noble looked up at him, wanting to refute his statement. Anacletus smiles, “Still, that’s the one you asked after. Do you still not want your life as it is?” the human looks away quickly, caught in his self delusion.

“even without youth betrayed by persecution.” he asks, wanting to be sure. As Anacletus was if nothing else a generous caster.

“I suppose not.”

“Then I suppose you’ve chosen your fate.” he says, before the human voices his wish.