Jinnine and Trollgu
t was in the time of the Great Magic War1 that a Vampire2 and an assassin of the Saviorship3 met in the most unlikely of circumstances.
The Vampire was a young woman named Jinnine. She had a great talent for the use of Dust4, and yet she was unhappy with her life. Jinnine had not become a Vampire by choice. She had grown up in a small town named Dustharbor, until the day that the formidable Vampire Ghulaus passed through. Ghulaus was searching out magical talent, and demanded to meet with all children of the town under a hundred and fifty moon cycles. In these meetings, he gave each child a small sample of gold Dust and commanded them to move a blood-red pendant of his. When it came to Jinnine's time, she came crying, as she did not want to leave her toys.5 Ghulaus forced the vial of gold dust into Jinnine's mouth, and shouted forcefully at her to move his pendant. With an enraged look in her violet eyes and two winglike streams of golden Dust emanating from her back, Jinnine tightened Ghulaus's black collar and flung his pendant to land between his eyes. With a cold casualty, Ghulaus turned his forehead to stone. The bloodred pendant hit uselessly off of the rock and landed back on the table, as the gold Dust ran out and Jinnine collapsed with exhaustion.
She awoke the next day in an unfamiliar bedroom in the halls of the Vampires. A smirking Ghulaus congratulated the girl of only a hundred and eight moon cycles on her achievement, for he was a member of the Vampiric Council, and had initiated her into the ranks of the Vampires. She was to be his ward, and would serve him in whatever he requested, or else face severe punishment. To demonstrate, he gestured to a glass decanter sitting on the table. Inside was a flowing red liquid, and suspended therein shimmered a glittery scarlet substance. "This," he said in his cold, deep voice, "is scarlet Dust. You saw me turn my forehead to stone earlier? This is what allows me to do that." He took the decanter and poured himself a small amount into a waiting glass, then drank it, with eyes intent on Jinnine. "If you ever act out, or disobey me in any way," Jinnine cried out as her left hand contorted and aged before her eyes. "you will feel greater pain than you have ever known."
Under Ghulaus's command, Jinnine learned to use Dust with immense skill. She became his weapon, an expert tool in both battles and political conflicts. Jinnine despised her life under Ghulaus's command, but whenever she tried to rebel against him, he would torture her by marring her face through use of his decanter that he always kept full of scarlet Dust. As Jinnine grew older, she became ashamed of her disfigurements at Ghulaus's hand, and longed to rectify them, but Ghulaus kept scarlet Dust as the one variety that he would not teach her, nor even allow her to touch.
As Jinnine was entering her second hundred of moon cycles, her reputation as a ferocious warrior on the battlefield grew. Trollgu was an assassin in the Saviorship, an organization aiming to save the world from users of magic, with Dust as their main opponent. The Saviorship worried about the famed demon sorceress, whose dealings in death left her face cruel and twisted, and whose violet eyes, dripping rivers of blood,6 were the last thing seen by entire armies. Trollgu was known for his prowess in fighting against Vampires, and so was assigned to kill the demon sorceress.
Trollgu crept into the lands of the sorcerers and approached the halls of the Vampires. He perched on the window he had identified as belonging to the demon sorceress, and nocked a bolt into his bow. He peered carefully inside, and was taken aback to see a young woman sitting on a bed and crying into her hands. For a moment, Trollgu questioned whether he had found the right room, but then he saw the woman remove her hands from her face. The face was a disfigured mass of lumps and contortions, peppered with spots of stone, wood, crystal, and other materials that fused into the flesh. The only areas that seemed unaffected were directly around her eyes and mouth, as Ghulaus would not weaken the potency of his weapon. To his surprise, Trollgu saw in Jinnine's eyes pain and sorrow, and he unconsciously lowered his bow. Suddenly, the pained eyes snapped to his, and he raised his bow in anticipation of an attack. However, Jinnine did not appear to make any move to attack him. Indeed, she turned towards him, her body seeming to spread out to form a larger target. Trollgu hesitated, then cautiously stepped into the room, keeping his bow on her. Jinnine kept her body turning to follow him as he circled the room, until she suddenly turned away upon his reaching the wall opposite the bed. Curious, Trollgu glanced at the wall behind him from the corner of his eye, and saw that it was completely covered in a large mirror. Jinnine tried to look back at him a few times, but she instantly ducked away each time she saw her reflection. Indeed, this was the very purpose that Ghulaus had placed the mirror there, to further torment his servant with the hideousness that he had inflicted on her.
Finally, Trollgu broke the silence. "Why do you not attack me, demon?" Anger flared in Jinnine's eyes at the last word, but it quickly faded back to sorrow. She said simply, "Just kill me." "You have killed so many, won countless battles singlehandedly. Why do you submit yourself to death?" asked Trollgu. He was shocked to see Jinnine burst into further tears at his words. "Why? Why do you not attack me, kill me where I stand? Why, after all you have done, do you suddenly have a conscience?" Trollgu had worked himself into a rage, but Jinnine was suddenly on her feet in front of him, with a rage to match. "I have always had a conscience. It is you who do not. Why do you send so many to fight me, send so many to force me to kill, force him to make me—" She cut off and collapsed back into shudders on her bed. "What is this?" asked Trollgu roughly. "You are the one who kill. We do not ask you to kill us. We fight to stop you and your kind. We fight to stop your atrocities." "I am not an atrocity!" shot back Jinnine. "It is him. He forces me to kill you. To kill all of you..." She trailed off and started shuddering again. Trollgu wondered at this suggestion in his mind. Could it be that anyone could control the demon sorceress? "Who is this?" He asked. "Who forces you to kill so much? How can anyone possibly command the demon sorceress?" "I am not a demon!" Jinnine shouted. "You are a demon." Interjected Trollgu. "It is made plain from the scars of your face the evils that you have committed." Jinnine recoiled at the mention of her face, and whispered quietly, "This face is not mine. It is him. Master Ghulaus. He punishes me by increasing my wretchedness whenever I displease him. That is how he controls me. That is why I kill." "That is no excuse!" Trollgu replied. "You can't defend the murder of thousands with the fear of not being pretty enough." "And you know the pain, then?" Demanded Jinnine. "You know the immense torment in my skin every time he twists me in his anger? The wish to be able to be loved, to just, for once, be beautiful, instead of this?" She gestured to her face, then collapsed again in sobs. Trollgu continued to stare at her harshly, but as he watched her cry, his gaze softened. "Fine." He said at last. "Where is this Master Ghulaus of yours? If these deaths are truly his fault, then my mission here is to end him." He glanced to his right, and was startled to find that there was no door into the room. He looked back at the window he had entered from, and found a wall of solid stone. "Master Ghulaus," Jinnine said softly. "He closes me in here every night, so that I can't try to sneak away or attack him while he sleeps. You must have come in before he got to the window." "For how long?" Asked Trollgu. "When are you let out again?" "He will come in, in the morning, to teach me or to punish me, or to give me another command to kill." She replied. "Then I will wait for him." Stated Trollgu.
And so they waited through the night. Jinnine eventually blew out her lantern, but the sleep that took them both was light and uneasy. At last, Trollgu woke to the sounds of footsteps on the stones in the hall outside. He stood to check on Jinnine, but found her asleep. He ducked again and slid himself under her bed, and watched as the stone fusing the wall shut severed and slid apart to present an old but intimidating figure. He entered the room and sneered at Jinnine's sleeping form, before walking over to a small table and placing something shimmering on it. Curious, Trollgu shuffled forward under the bed, and saw it was a decanter full of red liquid. This was the same decanter that Ghulaus always brought with him, kept full of scarlet Dust to intimidate Jinnine, and to punish her when that was not enough. Ghulaus poured himself a glass of the viscous liquid, and drank it slowly. He paused for a moment, turning to Jinnine, then suddenly roared, "Wake up!" Jinnine shot awake, and immediately began to scream, as the flesh of her cheek contorted. "How dare you sleep in my presence?" Ghulaus's deep voice demanded. "You serve me, and shall be awake when I need you." Jinnine tried to apologize, but was unable to form coherent words through her moans of pain. Finally, her roiling flesh settled into shape, a new knob of stark white bone jutting out from the cheek. Under the bed, Trollgu furiously watched the scene's reflection play out. This creature was a demon that needed to be killed, whether or not he was actually the cause behind the sorceress's actions. And as he watched Jinnine whimper and bow before him, most doubts about that fled as well.
"Come to the mirror." Said Ghulaus sharply, as he walked to the wall opposite Jinnine's bed. Jinnine whimpered, but came obediently, ducking her head down so that she wouldn't have to see her reflection. "Look at yourself." Said Ghulaus coldly. Jinnine hesitated and trembled, and Ghulaus commanded sharply, "Look at yourself!" Jinnine raised her head and looked at her reflection. Tears welled in her eyes, but she would not look away and incur more of Ghulaus's wrath. With Ghulaus facing the other way, Trollgu started to crawl across the floor towards the table with the decanter, meaning to destroy the object that had caused so much pain to Jinnine and his people. "This is who you are," Ghulaus said to Jinnine. "This is the ugliness that pervades every action you take. It is permanent. It is forever. You cannot change who you are. The only thing you can do is obey me completely, and not let the disease that you are spread any more than it already has. Let any more spread, and you shall continue to—"
Ghulaus cut off, for his gaze had drifted to the reflection of his decanter of scarlet Dust, and the young man with the bow who was attempting to quietly remove it from the table. "Who are you, boy?" Said Ghulaus in a quiet and dangerous voice. "I will have you know that thieving from me is a crime that demands immediate and painful death." He started to stride toward Trollgu, but was startled to see him throw the decanter to Jinnine, who, looking just as surprised, fumbled and managed to catch it. "You!" Ghulaus roared. "You dare disobey me, dare even to touch my possessions, not to mention bringing a thief in here to steal one? You shall feel fourteenfold of any pain you have ever felt before! You shall look as nothing, a formless lump of flesh and bone with only the smallest of eyes and mouth necessary to fulfill the tasks I command of you!" He made to snatch the decanter from Jinnine's hand, but, in a sudden motion, she removed its lid and raised it to her lips, then took a long drink.
Ghulaus went deathly still as Dust as red as blood started emanating from Jinnine's body in rivers. In a voice so powerful it startled even herself, Jinnine said, "Give me your other Dusts." Ghulaus backed up a step, and said fearfully, "I don't—" Ghulaus's right hand boiled and fell to the ground in a lump of flesh. It happened so fast that he didn't even register the pain, instead staring at the flesh on the ground, uncomprehending. He then fumbled around in his robes with his remaining hand and drew out eight bottles, small, but each containing a large sum of Dust in a different color. "Assassin, bring them to me." Trollgu was staring at Jinnine in fear as well, for now he saw the demon sorceress of stories, but he gingerly brought the bottles to her, afraid she might turn her wrath on him. One at a time, Jinnine removed the lids of the bottles, then drank them each in turn, letting them shatter to the floor when they were finished. She began to lift off the floor, and the swirling Dusts emanating from her formed coils around her legs and fingers, a multicolored cloud of power. Then, as Trollgu watched, Jinnine's face boiled and smoothened, the lumps and bits of material vanishing, forming a face with tan skin, high cheekbones, long ebony hair, and piercing violet eyes. Trollgu looked at the girl he had been sent to kill, the girl he had pitied, the girl he had started to hope would overcome her cruel master, and realized that he had fallen in love with this girl in only a single night. "This is who I am." Jinnine said to Ghulaus. "I am power. I am beauty. I will take back both which you have stolen from me for so long." Ghulaus fell to the floor and writhed in agony, as his flesh contorted and disfigured. He cried out for only a moment, for as soon as he started, Jinnine sealed his lips together. "You get no voice. You get no name. You get no identity." She turned to Trollgu, the boy who had rescued her, the only boy who had ever shown her kindness. "Come here, assassin. Come here, my love." Trollgu stepped toward her, and she lifted him in the air to be level with her. "What is your name, my love?" She asked him. "Trollgu." "Trollgu. It is beautiful. I realized that we had not exchanged our names before. Mine is Jinnine." "Jinnine..." Trollgu repeated the name lovingly. "My dear Trollgu, this one does not deserve his own name. I think he should get a scrap of yours, for he is not as worthy as you." She turned to address Ghulaus directly. "Hear me, creature. You are nothing. You are less than nothing. You do not have your own name. You and your kind shall be known as trolls,7 for you are inferior even to the simple assassin who rescued me." Shouts sounded through the rest of the building, and Trollgu wondered what was causing them.
Jinnine turned to her window, but stopped upon facing its stone covering. "Furthermore," she said, turning back to face Ghulaus, who had become covered in misshapen lumps of flesh, "Since you had forbade me from the sun with walls of stone, I hide you and your kind from it forever. If any of those that used to be Vampires try to step into the sun's light, they shall crust over in stone, and never be free, suffocating and rotting away inside their stone shell." With that, the stone behind her burst away, letting in the rising sun in a ring of light around the silhouettes of Jinnine and Trollgu. Ghulaus immediately stopped writhing, and crusted over with a black stone. Trollgu looked in wonder at the form on the floor, then felt a lurching as Jinnine pulled him along into the air high above the Vampiric hall. "What are those screams?" He inquired of Jinnine. "The rest of the Vampires, love, experiencing the same torment that that first troll did." Trollgu looked at her in shock. "I understand why he needed to be punished, but why the rest of them?" "Because, love," she responded darkly, "It was not just him. It was all of them. They allowed him to do what he did. They encouraged it. They honored him for the crimes he committed. They are all guilty in his sins. Now tell me, love, where do you live?" Trollgu felt a little uneasy, but thought about it and pointed out the direction. As they soared towards the Saviorship, Trollgu looked behind him and saw the plants around the Vampiric lands dying, and great mounds of stone rising to cover the halls. "What are you doing, Jinnine?" He asked. "I am reshaping the world." She answered. "The age of Vampiric tyranny is over. A new era shall emerge. One of peace and satisfaction."
As they started to descend into the main fortress of the Saviorship, Trollgu found it odd that there were no cries of alarm from the soldiers at seeing a sorceress enter their territory. As they drew closer, he heard a cry emanating from the fortress. "Jinnine! Trollgu! Jinnine! Trollgu!" They seemed to be cheers. "Why are they shouting our names?" Asked Trollgu. "Because, love, I have told them our story.8 They are cheering the couple that put an end to the tyrannical rule of the Vampires, who will herald them into a new era of peace." They touched the ground, and the crowd of people quieted as Jinnine began to speak in a ringing voice. "Welcome, my people, to the beginning of a new era! Too long, you and I have been oppressed by the Vampires, but no longer! No longer shall you be oppressed! No longer shall you be denied your own power! No longer shall you be denied anything ever again, for this shall be an era in which all shall be satisfied with whatever they desire!"
Trollgu was still trying to understand what Jinnine meant, when he saw the people around him fall to the ground, writhing. "Jinnine, what are you doing?" He demanded. "I am giving them everything, love." She replied. "I am giving them the power to create anything and everything their hearts desire." "But that's not what they want!" he pleaded. "They don't want any magic. They live their lives in peace without it. Don't force them to be something they don't want. Don't force them to be as you were." Jinnine laughed, a tinkling sound that broke Trollgu's heart. "My dear, with my gift, they can be anything they want."
She lifted the decanter, the same one that Ghulaus had used to torment and twist her for so many years, and took a drink, preparing to finish her work. Trollgu looked around at his people, legs and fingers replaced with shimmering strands of multicolored yarn. Grimly, he pulled a bolt out of his quiver and nocked it into his bow. As Jinnine lowered the decanter to her side, he released the bolt. As ever his aim was, the bolt flew true, shattering the decanter into a thousand shards of glass. Jinnine looked down in shock at the bolt that had dispersed her source of power and lodged itself in her heart. "Trollgu... my... love." She whispered. "I'm sorry, Jinnine. I couldn't let you twist them, like Ghulaus had done to you." "It... it is already done." She rasped. Trollgu looked around at the people on the ground, trying to find their footing with their new bodies. "Well then, I have prevented them from changing any more than they already have. Please, Jinnine. Forgive me." "Love... of course I do." Their tears mingled as they kissed, the kiss that would end an era of pain, the kiss that would start an era of peace, the only kiss they ever shared.
Jinnine died in Trollgu's arms, and Trollgu never loved again. He lived a solitary life, much as the trolls he gave name to, making his way in a changed landscape until the day he died. He was the last human to walk the land, as Jinnine had succeeded in her final goal, to give all the people in the world the means to have everything they could ever want. The jinn soared high into the sky on their magical threads, and named themselves after their benefactor.9 Dust never needed to be collected again, for Jinnine had taken its magic and locked it into the jinns' threads. The decanter was left in shards, and glassmaking was forbidden for its role in tearing Jinnine and Trollgu's love apart. They told down the story of Jinnine and Trollgu for all time, for their love had caused the rise of their people, and enabled them to live in peace forever.
Historical Basis
It is believed and has been passed down for millennia that the story of Jinnine and Trollgu is indeed true, but some specific details have devolved over its many retellings. Through a thorough analysis of the historical situations surrounding the events of this tale, we have tried to corroborate what we believe is the most accurate version of the story for this document. For further notes on relevant information and particular detail and dialogue choices, please see the footnotes below.
1. This is the colloquial name of the fourth era after The Shattering, and was the more common title of said era, especially in the fifth era, when this story was most often told. This story discusses the events that ended the fourth era and began the fifth.
2. The Vampires were the highest rank of sorcerers in the fourth era. Sorcerers were a group of arcanists who specialized in the use of a magical substance known as Dust (see footnote 4).
3. The Saviorship appears to be one of many groups that existed in the fourth era, whose dedicated purpose was to destroy all use and users of magic, particularly Dust. The difference in views on Dust caused wars to spread through nearly the entire era, which was the source of its aforementioned colloquial name.
4. Dust was a source of magic that was prevalent in the fourth era. It was called such because it would gather on surfaces that had been abandoned for a measure of time, and was similar to normal dust in appearance. Dust could only be gathered within a solution of blood, and would be ingested by the user in order to manifest its powers. Due to the significance of many specific varieties of Dust in this tale, a quick guide is provided below to reference each color's use.
6. One side effect of the use of Dust is that it would cause its user to cry uncontrollably while it was used. It should be noted that these were completely normal tears, however, the common retelling of this tale tends to most often have Jinnine crying blood in the Saviorship's tales. This seems to suggest that this was the actual rumor in the Saviorship, likely due to overdramatization and fear when spreading tales of their adversary.
7. The trolls were a race of creatures during the fifth age after The Shattering. They were indeed known for being lumpy and misshappen, and would turn to stone when exposed to sunlight.
8. It is a common theme in the retellings of this story that the people of the Saviorship already know Jinnine and Trollgu's story by the time they arrive. It seems most likely that this would be due to her transferring it to them through use of orange Dust.
9. The jinn were also a race of creatures during the fifth age. They had tails and fingers made of threads that they could weave together at will to make objects to perform any task they desired. Additionally, the jinn lived in buildings constructed in the sky, and had discovered a method to fly using their threads, which was one of their main forms of travel, due to their lack of feet.
-Intrallagnyn Historical Database Keepers
1. This is the colloquial name of the fourth era after The Shattering, and was the more common title of said era, especially in the fifth era, when this story was most often told. This story discusses the events that ended the fourth era and began the fifth.
2. The Vampires were the highest rank of sorcerers in the fourth era. Sorcerers were a group of arcanists who specialized in the use of a magical substance known as Dust (see footnote 4).
3. The Saviorship appears to be one of many groups that existed in the fourth era, whose dedicated purpose was to destroy all use and users of magic, particularly Dust. The difference in views on Dust caused wars to spread through nearly the entire era, which was the source of its aforementioned colloquial name.
4. Dust was a source of magic that was prevalent in the fourth era. It was called such because it would gather on surfaces that had been abandoned for a measure of time, and was similar to normal dust in appearance. Dust could only be gathered within a solution of blood, and would be ingested by the user in order to manifest its powers. Due to the significance of many specific varieties of Dust in this tale, a quick guide is provided below to reference each color's use.
Gold: Telekinetic control of nonliving objects
Silver: Telekinetic control of living objects
Scarlet: Reshaping and transmutation of living objects
Navy: Transmutation of nonliving objects
Teal: Influence of emotions
Orange: Transmission of thoughts
Violet: Creation or destruction of magnetic attraction between nonliving objects
Magenta: Creation or destruction of magnetic attraction between living objects
Green: Reshaping of nonliving objects
5. The object that Jinnine is playing with, or the activity she was doing at all, is one of the most common points of fluctuation in the story. Of all the activities we have recorded it being told that she was doing, this seems the most likely, but we have left what she was playing with vague, due to its general lack of significance and the conflicts of retellings.
6. One side effect of the use of Dust is that it would cause its user to cry uncontrollably while it was used. It should be noted that these were completely normal tears, however, the common retelling of this tale tends to most often have Jinnine crying blood in the Saviorship's tales. This seems to suggest that this was the actual rumor in the Saviorship, likely due to overdramatization and fear when spreading tales of their adversary.
7. The trolls were a race of creatures during the fifth age after The Shattering. They were indeed known for being lumpy and misshappen, and would turn to stone when exposed to sunlight.
8. It is a common theme in the retellings of this story that the people of the Saviorship already know Jinnine and Trollgu's story by the time they arrive. It seems most likely that this would be due to her transferring it to them through use of orange Dust.
9. The jinn were also a race of creatures during the fifth age. They had tails and fingers made of threads that they could weave together at will to make objects to perform any task they desired. Additionally, the jinn lived in buildings constructed in the sky, and had discovered a method to fly using their threads, which was one of their main forms of travel, due to their lack of feet.
This article is a part of Llagnyn Era 4: The Magic War
This article is a part of Llagnyn Era 5: The Era of Satisfaction
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