New Year, New You (One-shot)

New Year, New You

(a Jonas Silversmith story)

By Devin McTaggart

December 29 th, 2024

I often tell you that many of the tales I'm having you commit to this journal for me have a moral baked into them, but this one might seem especially blunt in its message. Still, nevertheless, a tale has been requested of me, and so a tale I shall tell. This one begins with a warning I feel should need no repeating or even speaking aloud in the first place, and yet... here we are - never trust a djinn.

On this particular night, I was having dinner in a nice quiet London restaurant with an old friend, Anippe Najjar, and her husband, Edgar Simonson, and as was customary for them being near the end of the year, neither of them was in good spirits.

Some ten years ago, Anippe had come across a magic lamp, the kind of lamp mythical tales caution the wise and the wary about. The kind that contained access to a djinn named Expotchkizen, a notorious trickster and mischief maker. Both Anippe and her husband are archeologists, and I have had an arrangement with them for many years that should they come across any magical artifacts or objects, they are to contact me first and certainly not to go mucking about with them.

But, as humans are often known to do, Anippe thought that she could outwit a demonic species that has been at this game for millennia. Allow me to illuminate a bit about djinnic nature for you. The whole 'trapped in the lamp' schtick is just that, a prank being played on humans in order to project weakness, to bolster arrogance and overconfidence, so that a djinn can be allowed to work its magic on these planes.

I'll let you in on a little secret about how djinnic magic works. On their own planes of existence, the djinn are strong casters, much like the members of our Deck. There are only seventy-seven djinn alive at any one time, and for a new one to be born, an old one must die. And while they are strong on their own plane, on ours, their abilities are almost limitless. Or, at least they were, before the Djinnic Wars of the fifth century B. C. when Morgana La Fey, Merlin and the other members of the Deck at the time stepped in.

What? No. Ha. No child, this was slightly before my time, although not by too much.

As part of the Djinn/Humanity treaty, Djinn were only allowed to interact with our world through a lamp, in which they would be allowed three gifts to the human, within a handful of limitations, obviously. This gave the djinn a chance to enjoy using their skills in an environment with less friction, but very much kept them from meddling in the affairs of humans beyond a small amount of fun they were allowed to interfere in.

I've never really understood why the treaty was reached, what benefits the djinn got out of using their powerful skills in such narrow practicalities, or what benefits humanity got out of the deal, other than an end to all the fighting, I suppose.

I'm getting distracted by the minutiae again, aren't I?

Yes, well, I suppose that may be a personal flaw I should endeavor to correct at some point.

Really, all that matters from that is that djinn are interdimensional creatures who gain amusement by offering 'wishes' and then manipulating them for their own amusement.

So yes, back to my story. Anippe thought she could outwit a djinn by attempting to be gregarious with her wishes, thinking of other people instead of herself. Her first wish was for her daughter, Eman, to always be the most beautiful woman anyone, man or woman, had ever laid eyes on. Her second wish for her husband to get a second chance to fall in love with her all over again, to reexperience their romance when it was just in its infancy, two people madly infatuated with the other with so much to discover.

It should be rather telling that Anippe's third wish was simply for the djinn to stop her from blowing up her own life even further, at which point the djinn left her alone, having gotten his share of fun from her first two wishes.

"I'm hoping this isn't just a check-in call," Anippe said to me as she sat down at the table, her husband sitting down next to her, with desperate hope in his eyes. "I don't know that I could take it if it was, so if you don't have--"

"I think I have a solution to your problem, Anippe." My words seemed to ring through them like a single gunshot in the middle of the night. I could see their eyes dilate in response, as the bottom of their hearts fell out, and they were brushed by hope again, something they'd all but forgotten.

"You think or you do?"

"As with all things involving countering djinnic magics, I cannot promise that it will work, but I have very strong feelings that it should work. Everything I've done in my research says the spell, given the right ingredients, but... there's a big ask in here, and I'm... well, I've had to ask a lot of people for a lot of things over the years, but this is going to be a big ask."

"This is a big curse you're going to be breaking," Anippe replied. "I would imagine it would have to."

Anippe had felt like her husband and her relationship had gotten a little stale ten years ago, and her first wish had been for the two of them to go through the early stages of their relationship again, to rekindle that old spark that had slightly faded. The genie, laughingly, had agreed.

Now, every year at the stroke of midnight between years, Edgar's memory was wiped away by the djinn's magic, and all the experiences he and Anippe had built up disappeared, and he could start anew. The first time, it had been wonderful, except all the little problems kept working their way into their fresh new beginning, one at a time. Edgar and Anippe had built a long life together, and with it all gone, they found themselves struggling to keep their lives functioning at the basic level. And every year, when New Year's came around, they found themselves struggling to write or record all the information they've developed over the course of the year, and to let Edgar remind himself that Anippe is his wife when he emerged with memory wiped clean.

"But if you can fix this, Silversmith, we would both be even more in your debt than we already are," Edgar said. "It... it has been living torture, not knowing all the things I have lost over the years, all the memories we had that have disappeared like clouds on the horizon. I... I've considered taking my own life this year... I... I can't remember if I've had that thought in years before, but it wouldn't surprise me if I did."

"You have," Anippe said, holding onto his hand, clenching it very tightly. "I've always talked you out of it, but some years it's been harder than others. And more recently, it keeps getting harder and harder. I don't want to lose you, Edgar."

"I know, Anippe, I know. But I... I can't go on losing parts of myself."

"Can... what do you need to fix this, Jonas?"

I sighed a little bit, leaning back in my chair, because I knew this was where things were going to get seriously tricky. I was going to be doing some rather... morally questionable things, things they were going to agree with me in the end were the right thing to do but wouldn't agree with if I told them about it in advance. "You're going to think I'm crazy."

"Jonas, you have proven that you're the most knowledgeable person we know tied to all things magical and mystical," Anippe said. "Whatever you tell us you're going to need, we're going to give it to you."

"I'm going to need to sleep with your daughter."

That hung in the air for a lot longer than I expected, and the answer that followed wasn't the one I was certain I was going to get.

"Alright," Anippe said quietly. "That can be arranged. Is... will this cure of yours solely affect Edgar or will it fix Eman as well?"

I shook my head, as my hand in my pocket clutched around one of the small copper test tubes I kept in there. "Just you."

A single solitary tear dropped from Anippe's eye, and I reached out with the copper tube and let the tear fall into, keeping the tube hidden beneath my palm, so it looked like I just wiped the droplet of extreme sadness away with my hand. Before either of them could catch on, I pushed a cork into the top of the tube and tucked it back into my pocket. "Is there a chance--" she asked.

"Not yet," I told her. "Not now. Maybe eventually, but right now, I don't see a path to that outcome. I'll keep working on it, but this? This is only going to take care of you. If that's not good enough..."

"No," Edgar said, placing his hand on top of mine. "We understand you can't solve everything. But our daughter has the right to make her own choices. We can arrange a meeting, but... we can't force her to sleep with you."

"She's had more than enough of people trying to decide things for her," Anippe said. "But if she thinks it's a bad idea, then we'll just have to find another way."

"Don't worry, my love... she will... for us..."

I had to hope that they were right, otherwise all my plans were going to fall apart, and absolutely nobody would be happy, not even me.

December 30 th, 2024

Sitting around waiting in one of the most expensive penthouses of the most expensive hotel in London is not how I expected my day to go, but I knew enough to do what I was told when it came to meeting Eman.

The rules were in play for a reason.

When Anippe had wished that her daughter would always be the most beautiful woman any man or woman ever laid their eyes on, her intentions were good. But like most things, she hadn't thought out the ramifications of what it was she was asking for before she asked for it.

Since Anippe had made her wish, Eman couldn't go out in public. Hell, she couldn't let anyone see her, because they would become smitten, infatuated with her in a way they couldn't understand and often couldn't even control.

Within minutes, Eman had been forced to completely reevaluate how she lived her life. She'd been a swaggering Londonite her whole life, but trying to go anywhere in London now, she was constantly mobbed, and couldn't go anywhere, couldn't talk to anyone, couldn't do anything. As such, she'd taken up living in a small cottage removed from everyone and everything.

After a year, she'd needed additional help and so I'd gifted her with Samson, a golem who could pass for a human, as long as you weren't asking it to engage in a conversation on 18th French philosophers or something. He could keep her safe, he could run basic errands for her, and he could drive her around and look like a massive bodyguard, as long as nobody bothered look beneath the surface of his skin, in which case they would've been up for a right fright.

When I'd asked to meet with Eman, I'd made clear two very important things - I would go wherever it was she wanted me to, and I would follow any rules she set down for me, including leaving my bodyguard Kelly in the lobby, something I am loathe to ever do. So, the fact that Eman wanted to meet me in London was... a little disquieting. It meant we would have to be twice as careful that she didn't get seen, and it meant that she was growing less concerned with her own personal safety, which had me far more concerned.

The penthouse was lush and lavish, the windows all one-way glass and the view of London's late-night swagger on full display for our eyes. The bedroom was bigger than most of my homes, and while there was a patio, we wouldn't be using that. And I'd made abundantly clear to the staff that if we requested room service, it was to be left outside, and we would go get it ourselves.

I'd left the door unlocked and when I heard the door open, I felt my breath catch as I turned to look at it, a cloaked shadow moving inside of the door before closing it again. I understood now how she had bought herself the tiniest amount of freedom. Eman was dressed, covered head to toe in a burka, with the small space for her eyes blocked out by a pair of stylish wrap-around sunglasses, certainly an oddity at night, but in the city of London, her look could be anything from a diplomat's daughter to a celebrity trying to remain anonymous. It would draw attention, but not so much as to rattle anyone's cages. Still, the slightest slip would run the risk of the entire area running rampant, so I could see why she'd only use it during certain circumstances.

"Hello again, Jonas," Eman said to me, her voice like the greatest symphony never composed. "My mother said you needed to speak with me in person. Something about a solution for my father's problems?"

"It's..." I started then stopped. "It's complicated. More complicated than I probably should get into, truth be told, but it's brought me here, and the idea of not presenting you with the option seems far worse than hiding the option from you."

"Do you..." she started, but then it was her turn to stop, as she walked further into the room, careful to keep herself entirely covered up. "What is the option? Will it bring my parents peace?"

I sighed, standing up, reaching into my pocket again, my fingertips closing around another of the copper test tubes contained within, as I gestured for her to remove the sunglasses with her other hand. Once she did, I felt my heart tighten in my chest as I got the tiniest sliver of vision of her radiant beauty. Normally, I am able to completely ignore spells, but djinnic magic ignores even the Dragonborn's natural resistance. Even that small amount of exposure to her beauty was starting to pull on my willpower, pushing me to do and say reckless things. "I'm afraid not," I said to her. "I lied to them. I cannot cure them, but I think I may be able to cure you."

She looked down at the floor and a single tear started to escape one of her eyes, so I reached up quickly, and again, giving the impression that I was wiping it from her cheek, moved to slide the tear into the tube. Once my arm had lowered, I stoppered the tube and slid it back into my jacket pocket, the motion going unnoticed by her, just as it had with her mother earlier. "Why... why would you do such a thing?"

"It's part of the spell," I said to her. "In a few days, I will make all things make sense to all parties, but if I'm right, if this spell works, you will be back to yourself again on New Year's Day, if you still wa--"

"Don't be fucking stupid, Silversmith," Eman spat angrily at me. "Of course I still want to be free of this. I've never wanted anything so much in my entire life. I'm... I'm just angry that you had to tell my parents they would be free when they wouldn't, but when it comes to magic, you've always known far better than any of us, so for now, I am choosing to believe you had your reasons, no matter how cryptic to me they may seem. What do I need to do?"

I chuckled a little bit, shaking my head, unable to look in her direction. "This bit will also sound a little bit self-serving, but I assure you, it's more punishment than privilege for me."

"Enough with the verbal theatrics, Silversmith! Will you speak plain and true for once in your damnably long life?"

"Part of the spell involves me sleeping with you."

The room was silent for a moment and then there was a putter of laughter. "I can't believe I have to ask you this, Jonas, but are you sure you can handle that?"

"That's... well, that's part of the spell, I'm afraid..."

Eman nodded and then began to slowly peel off the giant tarp she had draped around her form. "Then gaze upon me with wonder, joy and horror, Jonas Silversmith, and be confronted with the greatest beauty thy eyes will ever see," she said, as she continued to remove layer after layer before standing before me entirely nude.

In that moment, I had my suspicions confirmed, and my heart rebroken all in the same moment.

The figure standing before me was not one new to me, but instead that of a woman named Salomé, a face I had not seen in over two thousand years. Her skin was that of the softest desert sands, her hair a shade of brown like that of the sturdiest palm tree that hung down just past her shoulders. She had small breasts, but they were the perfect size for my hands, and a smile that could warm my heart from even the coldest of moods. She was, as I fondly remembered her, just a few days past her twenty-first birthday. Fragile and yet unyielding; beautiful yet resolute; eternal and yet consumed in the past.

Even though I knew it was coming, I was so astonished to see it that I almost forgot to reach up and wipe away my own tear into another test tube, closing it with a quick stopper. Though plenty more tears would follow, it was the first one that was the one that mattered.

"Who is it you see when you look upon me, Jonas? How long has she been gone?"

I let out a heavy sniff, trying to stave back the tears, although I knew it was futile to do so. "Her name was Salomé. She... she was my wife, before I knew who and what I was, before I had learned a single spell of magic. We... I was a traveling merchant, a spice trader. At one point, I met a man who could not afford to buy my spices, even though he knew what he would make back in sales would more than triple what he would pay me. And so, he offered me his daughter, Salomé, who had just begun her search for a husband. I said I would take no woman from a man without her permission, and then he told me Salomé had asked about me numerous times over my previous visits. I spoke to her that day, and a week later, we were wed. I... there was a great storm, some three years after we'd been married, as we travelled, and it... it set upon so quickly... and the desert consumed us both. Only I was... I am... dragonborn, and while the sands attempted to swallow me whole, they spat me back out again, leaving me lost... alone... confused... but still very much alive to my great shame and agony..." The tears ran heavy down my cheeks like small rivers, and I looked up at her, trying to offer her a comforting smile, only to see she had one to offer me in return. "You... you knew this would happen."

"Not this specifically, but something close to it," she said as she placed a hand upon my shoulder. "Those who have been given access to, or achieved through means of their own, great magical power... they usually know if they've encountered their soul mate or not, and if they aren't sure, they ask to see me, to confirm or deny their suspicions. The djinn cursed me to appear as the most beautiful person specifically for each person, a mirror into anyone's soulmate, if you will. So, for a time, I earned my keep by allowing those with great wealth, power and influence to pay me for a visit, so they would be confronted by the most beautiful thing they would ever see, and either confirm what they already suspected, or refute what they might have feared. Very few left my arms happy, although there were a couple, one of which surprised even me."

"Dare I ask who?"

"I'll tell you when you have cured my father," she said with a warm smile, stroking my face the same way that Salomé used to. "Should that ever get to be a thing you can do. Come, let us go to bed, because I can see that look in your eyes, and you strike me as the sort of man who may have confidence issues once confronted with his true love's visage once more, and I want you to be able to have whatever you need to execute your spell, whatever it may truly be."

Despite the great beauty, Eman was not the sort to be generous as a lover, and while it was true, I did have confidence issues, after enough time, we were able to overcome them, and I did my best to make sure we were both satisfied at the end of the evening.

When I closed my eyes and laid with my arm around her, I was able to feel at the edges of the enchantment, able to get tiny glimpses of the true woman resting behind the industrial wall of illusion that had encircled her very essence, and felt sorry for her, having been placed there by her mother's decision, and not her own.

December 31 st, 2024

In the morning, she had showered and redonned her concealment garb before I awoke, so I opened my eyes to see the black cloaked shadow sitting at the edge of the bed. "I wish you hadn't put false hope in their hearts, Silversmith," Eman said, her eyes back in their shell behind the sunglasses once more. "I'm not sure what reason you had for this cruel game of yours, but--"

"I must confess, Eman, I have been deceptive in a manner most foul," I admitted. "But not just to your parents, but to you also. Can I entreat you to remain in this hotel room for twenty-four hours, and your assurance that you lay with no man or woman until my return?"

She removed the sunglasses once more to narrow her eyes at me, a conflicting signal to see such beauty struggling against such consternation. "It's no trivial thing you ask of me, Jonas," she said, frustration in her voice. "I run some risk, and Samson will have trouble discouraging the maids."

"I will leave my bodyguard and assistant, Kelly, behind, to ensure you won't be disturbed, but it is vital that you do not have sexual contact with anyone until my return," I said to her.

"And what will I get if I do this?"

"I will cure both your father and you," I told her. "Not just temporarily, but permanently."

She gasped slightly, as if trying to sense if I'd been lying before or now, but found my more recent words to ring more true. "If that is true, you can have your twenty-four hours."

"There's only one final thing."

"What's that?"

"You'll need to sleep with me one more time."

It was difficult to see behind the burka, but I am fairly certain I saw a smile there, before she nodded. "You weren't bad enough to merit a black mark in my book, Jonas. I'll fuck you a second time. But you had better be able to deliver."

I offered her a slight smile and a nod. "I have the only key to this room, and Kelly will make sure no one else will come inside, as she'll be sitting outside the door. Order room service and she'll make sure it's waiting in an empty room for you to come and get it."

"Hurry back, then," she said, "because I want to see what lies you've told and how they can explain this tangled web you've tossed us all into."

I grinned at her and nodded. "I'll see you in the New Year's, Eman."

I headed back to the small local lab I had rented out, and began working on my first spell, using the tube with Anippe's tear in it and the tube with my own, mixing the two together and combining them with a rather elaborate tincture, resulting in small amount of liquor, a soothing light blue, like curaçao, which I poured into another copper tube and stoppered up.

That took up much of the afternoon, but when the evening began, I sent Anippe and Edgar a message, telling them to meet me at the middle of the Millenium Bridge two minutes before midnight, and that if they were late, everything would be for naught, and so they had damn well better be on time.

That meant they were at the Millenium Bridge nearly an hour before midnight, and well before I got there, but it had the needed effect of ensuring their presence and in time.

Twenty minutes before midnight, I met the two of them, cold and shivering, bundled in their coats, as I walked them both towards the center of the bridge, seeing confusion on both of their faces. "Jonas," Anippe asked me. "What is going on? Are you still going to be able to cure Edgar?"

"Listen closely to me, Anippe," I said to her. "If you and Edgar follow my instructions exactly to the letter, I will be able to cure both your husband and your daughter. I'm sorry I had to lie to you before, but I needed to get a pure tear from each of you, one of sorrow at a beloved's pain, without you being aware of it. Yours will be for your daughter's vial, and hers that she shed last night to me was for you. I told her that I would be able to cure her but not you."

"Telling us the truth would've tainted the tears?"

"It needed to be completely natural, untouched by magic, induced naturally," I said, reaching into my pocket before pulling out the small vial with the blue liquid. "Now, Edgar, when you see my phone's clock tick to 23:59:59, I need you to swallow the contents of this vial, all at once. I didn't have a chance to adapt the taste, so it may be a little rank, but you need to swallow it all and immediately at that second. Do you understand me?"

The clock on my phone said 23:56:33, so we had a couple of minutes where they could ask questions, but I noticed that Edgar had already made sure to remove the top of the vial, and had his thumb over the top it, so no moisture could get in, and so he wouldn't encounter any troubles in trying to drink it. "I follow, Jonas."

"And this will cure both of them?" Anippe said.

I shook my head. "No, this will cure Edgar, but in doing so, it will give me the final ingredient I need to cure your daughter."

"What will you need from me?" Edgar asked me.

"A tear from the moment right after your cure takes hold."

"And I will keep this year's memories then, shall I?"

"If it works, Edgar, you're going to get all of them back... every last one of them. Everything from before, and everything in each of the ten years you've lost."

"Wait... what?"

I smiled at him, giving him a little wink. "Get ready, here comes the flood."

All around us, I could hear drunken swaggering Londoners starting to shout out the countdown. Ten! Nine! Eight! Seven! Six! Five! Four! Three! Two! One!

On the 'one' Edgar took his thumb off the top of the vial, brought it to his lips and downed the whole thing immediately. As the city of London shouted, 'Happy New Year!' I watched Edgar's form shake off a golden outline, a shadow of light bumped loose from him before shattering and disintegrating like dust mites on the wind. It was so impressive, I almost missed grabbing his tear, but that first tear that fell from his eye, I scooped up and put into another copper test tube, tucking it away in my pocket, as Anippe held onto her husband's shoulders, praying he would still remember her, unlike the previous ten years. "Edgar? Do you remember me?"

Edgar's face looked as though he'd emerged from a thousand years of darkness and had just rediscovered the warmth of light. "I. Remember. EVERYTHING."

I patted Edgar on the back as Anippe threw her arms around him, clinging to him tightly, holding his body to hers, the two of them both weeping fountains of joy, their long nightmare finally over, as I turned and left them to it, heading to walk back into London's blustery midnight air.

January 1 st, 2025

I needed a few more hours at the alchemy lab in the wee hours of the morning, mixing the tear I'd just gotten from Edgar with the one I'd taken from myself two nights before. Two tears, each a powerful resurgence of a memory long since forgotten, blended with a number of other ingredients, and this time I even took the extra twenty minutes to make the concoction taste like vanilla. I wasn't in any desperate rush.

When I returned to the hotel, I found Kelly waiting outside of the hotel suite and could hear her sigh audibly once she laid her eyes on me, her tiny fae form rushing to her feet and clinging to me in a giant hug. "I don't like being away from you that long, boss," she said to me, clutching me tightly.

"Nearly done," I told her, kissing the top of her head. "By this time tomorrow, everything'll be back to normal. I'm just cleaning up some messes for some old friends."

"Well, tell your old friends to stop doing stupid shite," Kelly giggled before she pushed me towards the door. "I'm here when you need me."

I stepped inside of the hotel suite and heard the television on in the living room, so I walked into it, feeling my heart get kicked in the teeth again when I saw Eman dressed in just a t-shirt and pajama pants, seeing her frown when she looked at me. "It didn't work," she said with a frown. "You still see her, don't you?"

"Of course I bloody still see her!" I said with a slightly annoyed chuckle. "You haven't drunk the potion yet!"

"Did... did it work for my father?"

"You can call him yourself if you want, although I imagine he and your mother are getting caught up for lost time a bit," I said, covering my eyes, making my way blindly over towards her, my hand reaching into my pocket to pull out the small blue vial, thrusting it out vaguely in her direction. "But you need to drink this before the curse on you is broken."

I felt her take the vial from my hand and heard her uncork it, as I turned to look at her just in time to see her down the liquid, swallowing it in one gulp. As my eyes settled on Salomé's form for one last, fleeting glance, before the glamour shattered and started escaping from my eyesight, revealing Eman's form to me once more, a form I'd not seen in over a decade. She'd been a bright young college graduate student working on her Masters' when I'd seen her last, and now that Salomé's visage had been taken from her, I was surprised to see quite how similar the two were naturally. Eman was curvier, plumper breasts, much darker hair, but the two had facial structures that were more alike than they were different.

The irony was not lost on me.

"You... you see me, don't you? Not your wife from thousands of years ago, but me. Me me. The real and true me. The one nobody but me has seen for over a decade," she said, tears of joy in her eyes as I nodded in affirmation.

"You're back, Eman. You're free of the curse, and able to come and go as you please, do whatever you want, talk to whoever you want, able to be you once more again."

She laughed, a sharp bark of laughter like all the tension of a thousand locked away days exploding all at once, before she turned to look at me once more, still giggling, wiping the happiness waterworks off her cheeks. "What do I do now that I'm free?"

"Whatever you want to, I suppose," I told her with a smile. "But I was kind of hoping you'd let me prove that the old you, the one nobody's seen in a decade, wasn't the cause of performance issues you'd encountered while you were under the curse."

That set her off giggling all over again, but when she could finally speak again, she pulled her t-shirt up and over her head, pointing at the bed. "C'mon then, I've got ten years' worth of lost fucking to start in on making up for."

"Yes ma'am... But before we do..."

"Want that last little secret, do you?"

I grinned and gave her a playful wink. "They are the best currency to be bought and sold with."

"Alright then... I spent the night with Morgana La Fey... she wanted to know what she'd see, and while she couldn't cure me, she gave me a great number of magical items I keep in my house to make my day-to-day life easier..."

"And? Who did she see?"

"Merlin, to her great delight and frustration. I've never seen a woman so happy and annoyed all at once. I do wish you could've seen it."

"Enough of that," I told her with a laugh and a swat on the ass through the pajama pants. "It's time for someone to love the old you new again..."