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Jack slanted him a careful look He was overall a taciturn and very for a moment of solitude on their second day with The Guild and he’d asked hiht what idiotic scheme had driven him to wish to become a sorcerer When Charlie had told hied Like Charlie, Jack had lost someone he loved to the Jinn He’d lost his wife

So Charlie had started hanging out with the olderquestions about The Guild, about different types of Jinn -- in particular the Labartu Apparently, they were the worst of the female demons Despite the Su -- the daughter of the Babylonian sky God, Anu -- the truth was there werethe world The Labartu destroyed life They specifically targeted children Some ate their human flesh and drank their blood; others, like the one that had killed Mike, turned it into ga to a child’s death

You knew a Labartu was nearby because plant life died, rivers and streaes went up Their chosen targets would often suffer nighth Charlie when Jack had told hiht on with hiet Mike to talk about it Mike had just blown up at hihththt" Jack sighed "I can’t kill the thing that killeddishonor upon o after that bastard You’re going to do this with or withoutchance"

Charlie nodded After a few days of hounding Jack to teach hiiving in Jack had set up a little workshop in the base table were necklaces with stone pendants, round, square, octagonal s, and ser than some of the semi-precious stones I don’t have any platinuold either But I have yellow- gold" He pointed to a gold circular disk engraved with foreign script It was just a bit smaller than the palm of Charlie’s hand "Silver" He pointed to the square piece of metal "Bronze and some pure copper" There were nuet a hold of Some of our seals are actually melted down old cents or imported currency like the British one and two pence"

"And you can channel your power through these?" Charlie quizzed softly, eyeing the metal thirstily

"Yes You’ll be able to do s s soet a feel for what exactly the old are also useful for creating binding enchantments You can lock people out of somewhere or in somewhere, or use thes that come naturally to many full-blooded Jinn we need these metals to do And when it’s in your hands you’ll feel a hum, a vibration Here" He placed a copper seal in Charlie’s palh hi to vibrate with life in his hand

"That’s it reacting to you You’ll knohen you’ve sucked the energy out of a seal or a taliser feel that hum from it"

"OK"

"Now, sorcerers tend to use stones" Jack pointed to a section of rocks, pendants and rings "I haven’t got an emerald but I can tell you that it’s the rock of Mount Qaf Emeralds from our realm are not as powerful as eerous An emerald can fuel a hybrid’s power for years It’s also the only stone that a hybrid can use to tap into the Cloak or the Peripatos"

"Wait" Charlie held up a hand in surprise "We can use the Cloak and the Peripatos?"

"Only with an e It is thought that it can breed addiction to the ic" Jack frowned "The Guilds have banned casual use of the emerald You need perranted from Guild leaders under dire circumstances"

Charlie tried to squash down the voice inside him that whined, ‘I want an emerald’

"Obsidian is useful The different kinds do different things" Jack held up a necklace with an attractive black pendant "Black obsidian Can literally create blackouts if you need a quick escape Or the opposite… it can steal light into it"

"Cool, like the Delurinned "Harry Potter"

"Who’s that?"

Disbelief shot through Charlie Surely everyone in the free world kneho Harry Potter was? "The wizard"

"A sorcerer?"

Charlie choked "He’s a fictional character A fictional character that everyone knows"

"Clearly not everyone" Jack sighed and turned back to the stones He pointed to the green and blue obsidian He explained that green obsidian could be used to pull on anything with a natural hand in the earth -- plants, trees etc An extrereen obsidian to split the ground and use rocks and sand and dirt as weapons Blue obsidian was a water stone But blue and green obsidian together were healing stones