The next stretch

In continuation of yesterday’s story, it is time to die you the next part. There is no news. As I personally see it, the news has become a much larger soapbox for big business and politicians. As such I can weave my own yarns and likely more entertaining. So where was I? I ended yesterday with 

“His mind felt around the direction where the pulse was from. He was feeling something, but he had not felt this in centuries. It was time to find what was happening.”

The sensation was coming from the north north east, far beyond Ad Durar Street. He walked towards Yas Mall and decided to walk into IKEA. He walked into the restaurant and ordered the Salmon Teriyaki with Mango salsa, sparkling mineral water and a large coffee. He put 4 notes of 20 dirham in the hands of the lady and got some coins back. He needed and sat at a table by the window. There was not anything owe could do, but now he had a better feel of what was happening and the mall was not in the way of any interrupting feelings. He concentrated and viewed the people with his other sight. There was nothing out of the ordinary of anyone he could see, whatever this was, it would have a dark aura, optionally bordering on black. With every bite and sip he took, he was looking to the people in the back, even there, there was nothing to show him what was the cause. The weird thing what that he had not felt this feeling in over 15 centuries.  And this kind of power does not usually hide. It was more common in the 5th century when the Jinn were a lot more common than they are now. But they might be hiding in the folds of safety. Still. He had not felt this way for a long time and if there is a new player in town, he had to know. 

By the end of the meal, he had another blip, it felt like to was around Noya Luma. As such he decided to walk there. It took him around 45 minutes. He was taking his time to scan and see the people he did notice. It was more of a community, so the people were weary of him, they had not seen him before and after a while a person walked up to him and said “hal yumkinuk musaeadati min fadlika?” Apparently the man needed help. He nodded and followed him, his mind saw that there was no one to see and no cameras. The man wielded a knife and pointed it at him “Your money, now” He saw this coming a mile away and he smirked, the man pushed the knife towards his chest and he grabbed the hand holding the knife with his left hand, his right hand went around the neck of the man. His concentration told him that he was out of sight in every way. He felt the ring on his right hand. And he squeezed a little more and the next second the man was turning to ash, the power of his strength had evolved over the centuries, as such he was very blessed to turn this man to ash, even the bones dissolved, the calcium lost its coherence on the spot and he went away in a cloud of ash, the ash fell to the ground, but he knew that the smallest breeze and some water would be all that was needed to remove whatever evidence ever existed. He saw a few items, which he left where they were. The knife he would cast in some trashcan the first moment he found one. He continued on his route and when he arrived, he saw nothing of worthy, but he noticed a Starbuck sign and decided to sit down, have a sandwich and more coffee and feel the surroundings. 

When he got his coffee with a dynamite chicken sandwich and sat down, he could relax for now and feel what more could be coming his way. He was sitting for at least an hour when he felt the air change. It was what he expected, it seemed to be a jinn, but not a normal one. Darker and a lot more dangerous than he had ever seen. He saw none of the people that gave the vibe, but then he saw it, the aura was none existent, a weird setting, but it made sense now. It was not a Jinn at all, it was an afreet and not a normal one. He was seemingly a lot stronger than anything anyone in his larger family had ever faced. As such, he was not going to approach it now. He watched the man and saw the man was fitting in, not wanting to stand out. He liked that, because an afreet is normally full of chaos and destruction. This one was different, but he was not taking any chances. He then felt a larger different pulse, not anything he had ever felt, it felt Egyptian in origin, but he had no idea who it was, merely that it was massively old, older than he had ever felt. Optionally older than his grandfather, which was the weirdest of feelings. His grandfather was here before mankind was, so if it was older. What was it?

He binned his trash and walked back. Time to get back to the hotel, but the idea of getting food at that Rainforest cafe. The lamb mandi meal radiated with appeal and he was getting hungry. He was walking towards the Mall when he suddenly felt weird, his senses alerted him and he felt the afreet right behind him. No-one had approached him unfelt for centuries. He stopped and turned around. The man looked at him. Who are you? He asked. I go by the name Lavrinthi. And you? Let me introduce my self. I am Al-Malik al-Aswad, I am also known as the black king. I noticed you Olympian, but you are not really Olympian, are you? There is something different about you. Lavrinthi looked at the man. The other filing was not you, was it. Lavrinthi shook his head. I seems Egyptian, but I never felt anything like that before. The man nodded. I will let you leave now, the afreet turned around and walked away. Lavrinthi looked at the afreet walking of and went towards the Mall. Time for some diner and time to consider what he had experienced. He considered his options and decided to take another path. He decided to see if the afreet would approach him, or if he would keep his distance. After his meal he stopped at a coffee place and had another coffee. Time to get back to that Warner Brothers hotel, he was so looking forward to the breakfast they serve, but that will come after the night he has coming and it would be time to erect a very different kind of protection, because he had not experience anxiousness in many centuries and getting approached unseen was a really new experience for him.

What happens next? See another day, the next installment might come in the next few days.

Well this part is also for ADTV (or its parent Abu Dhabi Media). Perhaps they like it, perhaps not. I am getting my creative soul fed and that is good for me, a lot better than weeding out BS from optional BS, which is how I see a lot of the media exposure. And when the Financial times is giving us ‘Trump administration asks OpenAI to stagger release of new model to vet users’ as well as ‘Trump administration allows some access to Anthropic’s Mythos’, so whilst some people are considering that “Unease over Washington’s ad hoc regulatory approach remains.” And in all that time no one is considering that it opens up the European markets for DeepSeek and whether the next part is real ‘Microsoft Now Wants Users To Adopt Chinese DeepSeek AI After Failure Of Copilot’ (source: Channel News) is unknown, but that is opening a few Chinese walk ins into the west. The status? I have no idea, I honestly don’t. But some are saying that the race between China and the western AI markets are much harder to see and I get it, but what happens to that famous ‘Big Beautiful Stargate’? Consider that this is a $500 billion market being poured in a second or third placement and as I see it (and written about several times) set for a non-existing AI, or as I prefer to call it a fake AI. So we see a massive public-private AI infrastructure venture aiming to invest up to US$500 billion to build the world’s most powerful AI data centers and Europe and optionally the Commonwealth as well are setting up Chinese walls (a happy coincidence expression) against United States data centers. So, investing that much in data centers that are keeping track of a population of 349 members of the United States? I very much doubt that and I reckon that these centers will be avoided by China and several others as well. Did anyone consider what happened to the $500 billion? Just a questions to ask. 

Have a great day.