The Forty Thieves I (Book)

You see a book.

It weighs 13.00 oz.

## Content

> The Forty Thieves I
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> Once there was a band of thieves who lived somewhere out in the desert. One night one of them crept into the city under cover of nightfall and intoned the sweetest of words into a young girls ear amidst flavored wine and man's revelry leading them to spend the night together. By the morning when the girl awoke the man was gone and before long it was clear she was with child.
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> Many years had passed and the child, named Marjana, was now a young woman of sixteen years. Never having known her father she lived as a peasant of the city and tended to her mother and her livelihood. Blessed with a sharp mind, agile figure, and resourceful cunning to survive she made sure the days for her mother were not without bread and water and a place always with roof and blanket. However her mother did not like to talk of her father and so simple as that Marjana knew little of the man.
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> However it so happened tragedy was before Marjana. Her mother was taken ill with a fever and the women who tended her after some days said it was without hope. It was not long before the truth was certain and so her mother drew her close and with sweat damp and beaded on her brow told Marjana of her father. Of how she met him one night and how Marjana came to be, that he was surely a thief and a bandit, and that since that night she had never seen him again. She told her daughter that she was sorry she had to speak it but with her soon passing on it was only right she would finally know where she came from and who her father was.
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> Marjana was in a bland shock as she listend to the words of her mother. That very night, not long after, Marjana's mother died. The women bade Marjana their sorrows and bid the child get fresh air to bring peace to herself. And so Marjana went out in the night and lost herself in wine and drink.
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> Still in a daze she awoke in the morning to have the sun greet her with dry-mouth and cracked eyes. As she walked she felt little, and lost and confused at what was for her now, so she wandered the streets without thought or purpose. Eventually she came to a certain square which had a fountain in its center where many congregated for the purposes of the day. It was here, though no one knew, that a Djinn had been floating invisible above. He had been there all day waiting for the right person for him to reveal himself. When Marjana entered the square he at once sensed a desperate spirit and alighted down to her as she was coming just under an archway that fanned off into a small alley.
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> The Djinn appeared so only she could see him and floated in front of her. "Greetings my child, a beautiful day, promises abound as blossoms if only we choose to water them".  Marjana taken aback immediately was unsure if what she saw and heard were true or apparition of her mind, but quick-witted as she was grew in confidence that this was indeed no dream or imagination but real. "For some perhaps, but for most thorns await he who grabs for such flowers." The Djinn smiled and took on quickly this was a girl of perhaps poor means and desperation, yes, but also of intellect and cleverness. "Such is indeed true but today I may be able to provide you the gloves you need to gain any goal you intend with hands unscathed." Marjana with her eyes flared and her mouth thin retorted "Gifts so nice are rarely given freely". His smile did not leave him and told her that if she was successful in a small favor for him he would oblige her with what she required. Marjana told him it was impossible for him to help her -- saying that there was nothing she could want but to take revenge on the man who left her and her mother, making her life so wanting and leaving her mother for dead. But this was not possible, she knew not who the man was, nor where he was, nor what he looked like. It was a hopeless thought.
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## Location

In a crate inside Ankrahmun apothecary library.