[ WP ] `` You may have one wish granted . '' `` I want all my debts cleared . '' `` How much do you owe ? '' `` You misunderstand . My debts are not monetary . ''

The Djinn looked at the man, measuring him. Humans seldom had the capability for considering beyond their own selfishness, but this was a different sort. The man looked intent, not scared or startled. He had n't broken a sweat, and was sitting comfortably in a chair, his gloved hands white from completely the summoning sigils in chalk. This clearly was n't his first time sharing a dalliance outside his kind. 
 
 Pulling his hoofed legs up under himself in a cross, he floated above the ground considering his host. An eternity passed before he stated, “ Tell me what you desire. ” 
 
 The man uncrossed his legs, leaning forward in his chair. “ Were you aware of my existence before I summoned you this evening? ” He asked, no hint of malice nor fright in his voice. 
 
 The Djinn laughed, almost a small cough. “ Do n't flatter yourself. Beyond contractual necessities, I rarely concern myself with your kind. ” 
 
 “ Do you remember any with whom you have, ” he paused a moment, catching himself before continuing, “ contracted with? ”. 
 
 Losing patience, the Djinn responded “ If we have business, I care. If we do n't then I have none. The point, please? ” 
 
 The man stood, clapping white chalk from his gloves. The small cloud dissipated as he stepped through it. He was a young man of about 28, wearing gray slacks and vest. His eyes and hair were both brown and perfect, not a single imperfection. He was a handsome man for his kind, mused the Djinn. His irritation turned to laughter. “ Your theatricality is best saved for a more easily entertained audience. ” 
 
 The man proceeded as if the Djinn had not spoken. He started to pace around the Djinn. “ A long, long time ago, a young man fled to this country seeking refuge. He thought he could start fresh, a new name and home to keep him content and safe from the troubles that plagued him. The many things he failed at, his optimism never halted. It was one of two redeeming qualities, ” he stopped pacing and eyed the Djinn. “ The other was his willingness to try anything. ” 
 
 The Djinn's mood turned. “ Buyers remorse makes not a tale interesting, and reciting it does n't give you power! ” His booming voice shook the empty building, the wood floors seeming to buckle under the onslaught of the Djinn's wrath. 
 
 The man stood, unmoved by the emotional outburst of the demon. “ It's not that he entered a contract with you, but it's what he wished for. ” 
 
 “ And what was it he wished for? ”, spat the Djinn. 
 
 “ He wished for his family to be released from your curse. His father, and his father before him had been cursed by your visits. Since you ca n't seem to recall beyond your immediate contractual obligations, I have no knowledge outside anecdotes how many of my family you have taken, but it's academic. The truth of it is that it simply is. ” 
 
 The Djinn felt a sense of anticipation. He'd heard this tale and hundreds of other like it, but the ending was always known. For the first time in his memory, he did not see an end game. 
 
 The Djinn probed, “ I ca n't release your family line from a contract if you were not the one who wished it, nor would I be obliged to grant any wish that would condemn myself in some way to prohibit collection of your being. ” 
 
 The man continued his pacing. “ I know both of these things. I know that my father tried to leave a country to get away from you. I know he changed his name, his habits, his everything. I know this, because he kept a very detailed journal. It was a journal kept by his father, and his father before him, and so forth. All hoping that someone would eventually find you, and stop this nonsense. ” 
 
 “ Nonsense!? ” The violence of the outburst reverberated throughout the building. “ I've entertained your arrogance long enough! If you know these things then you know the futility of this grand gesture! ” The man stood, observing, unwavering. This stopped the Djinn, mid tirade. “ If what you say is true, then I would have come for you. Why hasten your exit from this mortal coil? ” 
 
 The man returned his stare, answering “ I made a new deal. Not with you of course, but once you open that door it's a veritable buffet of discordant options. Which brings me to back to you. You're not well liked among what I assume are your peers. ” 
 
 The Djinn's astonishment slowly curdled. The man slowly walked back to his chair. “ As far as I could understand, your kind derives power over those whom they have contractual obligations with. Beyond that, you are no more harmful than your wits and trickery allow. Someone as old as you is certainly powerful in your own regard, but that age and power comes with a weakness much more powerful. ” The human walked up to the edge of the sigils, and squared with the Djinn. “ Hubris ”. 
 
 All senses left the Djinn at that moment, save rage. Howling, he leapt to tear out the throat of the human, only to be stopped a hair from the man. The Djinn could no longer move, blink, or even talk. The rage vanished, replaced only by fear. 
 
 The human held his gaze, slowly releasing it as he walked back to his chair. “ You've probably done this longer than humans have recorded history. All summonings look the same more or less, so what's an extra sigil here or there. No use beating a dead horse, I'm sure you would have worked it out. Your contract, however, was with the father of every first born male child in our family. I assume some idiot in our family decided metaphysical intervention was preferable to our rapidly diminishing lineage. Oh our males are miraculous, seemingly blessed at all things until a son comes along, and then a heart attack here, a stroke there. All thanks to you. ” 
 
 The Djinn was still stuck motionless inside the sigils, desperately trying to escape. “ The contracts kept with your kind are passed from one to the next so killing you serves little point other than my satisfaction. The debt that I owe you, however, is n't mine to owe. Whatever sins my family made we've paid for them a hundred times over. So release me from my debt, or we will both meet a terrible end. ” 
 
 The man slowly moved his overcoat from the chair he was sitting in, and the chair as well. It had obscured another ring of sigils, looking far more sinister than the ones used to summon the Djinn. The demon understood what they meant, whom they were meant for, and terror overtook his senses. The human carefully walked over, pulled out his journal, and flipped to a bookmark. After a moment of reading, he crouched and carefully erased the top most tip of a “ v ” looking sigil to the Djinn's right. The Djinn started shrieking, “ It's done, you are cleared of all debts, just please let me go! ”. 
 
 The man stared, unflinching at the spray of spittle from the Djinn. “ Then you'll have no problem notarizing it? ” He produced the journal, and flipped to the very last page. The Djinn was awestruck at the foresight and control this human had. As the human crouched to clear another part of the same sigil he touched earlier, the Djinn's left hand slowly regained movement. The human held the journal just close enough for the Djinn to sign. 
 
 I, the signator of this document, hearby renounce all claim to the ancestry, past, present, and future, of the familial line of the aggrieved party, and will make no claim on any debt made prior to this signature. 
 
 The man took the journal, blew on the page for whatever the signature was made in to dry, and sat in the chair. After a moment, the Djinn stated, “ I have fulfilled my part of the bargain, now release me! ” 
 
 The man replied, “ I never stated I would release you, though I implied. Certainly you would never be as complacent as you are now, so I see no reason to court such a danger ever again. As far as my debts go, that's slightly more complex. You have n't really underestimated me, but the others you fulfill contracts with are different. You must have suspected, given that so few humans possess knowledge of anything beyond what they see. The occult still carries a taboo, a topic reserved only for the desperate and foolish. I may be a bit of both. ” 
 
 The man gingerly pulled off the glove of his left hand, revealing a cut, bruised, and blistering ring finger with a small obsidian ring. He inhaled sharply as the glove came off, the move exacerbating the wound. “ The sort of desperation stretches both ways. The point is you prayed you on the wrong demons, and as for me? ” The human walked slowly over to the incomplete sigil ring behind the chair and completed it. He stood, delicately fingering the ring on his finger. “ I've made some new family of my own, and they are not fond of you nor the contracts you lorded over them. Now they are free of you as well. By your own hand I might add. ” 
 
 Dark clouds and ichor slowly crawled, tendril like, from the completed circle, ebbing towards the trapped Djinn. “ They are n't fond of humans, but I'm sure in a couple of hundred years they may warm up to me. Releasing them from you is a step in the right direction. ” As the human walked out of the room, darkness enveloped the Djinn. His last was a wish to be anywhere but there.
