Heat flooded Mandy's cheeks as Jacinth's laughter echoed through her living room. She sank deeper into her recliner, wishing she could disappear into the cushions.
A quick glance at Kieran made her wince. His otherworldly features had settled into an expression of such profound offense that she half expected him to turn her into a toad on the spot.
Jacinth must have noticed his expression too. She sprang to her feet with preternatural grace.
"Oh! I just remembered something terribly important!" Jacinth's chocolate-brown eyes dancing with mischief. "I'll have to come back later to hear all about this spreadsheet!"
Before either of them could respond, Jacinth vanished in a dramatic poof of blue flame that left a faint scent of cinnamon in the air.
"Traitor," Mandy mumbled, and sneaked a sideways look at Kieran. Maybe it would help if she showed him. She dislodged Bach from her lap, who suffered the indignity with silence, disappearing into her bedroom in high dudgeo. Rolling her eyes at feline drama, pulled her laptop onto her knees and opened it. Once Excel was up, she turned the laptop so he could see the screen.
"See, I can organize everything into categories - Health, Financial, Personal, that sort of thing. Then I can assign priorities to each potential wish. Right now I'm using High, Medium, and Low, but..." She paused, considering. "Actually, a five-star rating system might work better. That would give me more nuance in the rankings."
Kieran stared at her with unnerving intensity. “A five-star system.”
"Yes." She clicked through her categories, turning the laptop to show him how she'd organized her thoughts. "Like here, under Health - obviously fixing my back and knee would be amazing, but there are so many factors to consider. Do I justwish for perfect health? Or should I be more specific about exactly what gets fixed? And what about future health issues?"
Her earlier embarrassment faded as she explained her system, replaced by the familiar comfort of organizing complex information into manageable chunks.
"And here's the Animal Welfare category," she continued, clicking to a new section. "Things like creating a no-kill shelter network, or finding homes for all the strays. The logistics of implementing something like that properly, making sure it's sustainable..."
Mandy clicked to another tab in her spreadsheet. "I have a column for questions too," she said, scrolling down to the relevant section. For instance..." She paused, choosing her words carefully.
"Just hypothetically," she said, taking a steadying breath, "could a wish grant complete fluency in another language? Speaking, reading, writing, understanding - everything?"
The question had been burning in her mind ever since she'd started compiling her spreadsheet. Her memories of struggling with Arabic grammar during her time in Cairo made her wonder if magic could truly grant such comprehensive knowledge.
When Kieran stayed quiet, she pressed on. "Language has so many layers - idioms, cultural context, regional differences, formality levels..." She waved her hands. "Can magic handle all that?"
Kieran's eyes gleamed with something that might have been amusement. "Certainly. Language acquisition is a fairly simple wish to grant." He tilted his head, studying her with that otherworldly intensity. "Did you have a specific language in mind?"
Mandy couldn't help but chuckle at Kieran's question. "After all my reminiscing about Cairo, do you really need to ask?"
His lips curved in a rare smile that transformed his otherworldly features. "I suppose not. So, specifically the Arabic spoken in Cairo?" Kieran's deep voice carried a note of genuine curiosity.
Mandy wrinkled her nose in thought. "Egyptian colloquial Arabic is completely different from classical Arabic in many ways. When I studied there, I studied both. Modern Standard Arabic - that's the classical form - for reading and writing, and Egyptian colloquial for actually talking to people." She smiled, remembering her early struggles with the two varieties. "Related but distinct. Like... imagine if Italians wrote in Latin, although they speak in Italian."
A strange sound made her look up. Kieran, the normally composed Djinn prince, had made something that sounded suspiciously like a laugh - a short, startled burst of amusement that seemed to surprise him as much as it did her.
"That is... a surprisingly apt comparison," he said, his deep voice carrying traces of that unexpected mirth. His silvery-blue eyes gleamed with appreciation for her analogy.
Mandy felt a small thrill of satisfaction at having provoked such a reaction from the usually reserved Djinn.
"It's true though!" she insisted, encouraged by his response. "The grammar structure, the vocabulary - they're connected but different enough that you basically have to learn two separate but related languages." She gestured enthusiastically as she spoke. "And that's just Egyptian Arabic. Every region has its own dialect. Moroccan Arabic is so different from Egyptian that they might as well be separate languages entirely."
She regarded Kieran, her head tilting, as a new thought came to her. "Come to think of it, how do you speak such excellent English? I don't hear even a trace of an accent that would suggest it isn't your first language."
Kieran's his mouth curved in a faint smile that transformed his austere features.
"All Djinn can speak any language we wish," he replied, his deep voice carrying that familiar note of subtle amusement. "We are magical beings - human languages are a natural part of our abilities."
Envy tinged Mandy's thoughts as she considered Kieran's casual revelation about language abilities. An idea sparked.
"Could I..." She hesitated, then pressed on. "Could I wish for that? To understand all languages?" Her mind raced with possibilities before common sense kicked in. "Well, maybe not all of them. Just the major ones in use today?"
Kieran's blue eyes crinkled at the corners, amusement dancing in their depths. "It could be granted," he said, his deep voice carrying a note of caution. "However, I would not recommend it."
"Why not?" Mandy shifted in her chair, curiosity piqued.
