Ms. Harrow pushed a strand of red hair behind her pointed ears, which Nazanin tried not to stare at as she anxiously flexed her fingers. “Well, Ms. Shirazi, you are a great candidate for a job here at Ever After, but—”

“I am?” Nazanin said, sitting up hopefully.

“But we don’t have any princess roles available. Even our Captive Princess, Disguised Princess, and Bored Princess roles have been filled for the time being. If you want, I can put you on a list and notify you in a few months if one becomes available.”

“A few months?” Nazanin sat there, considering, but her stomach was already tied into knots just thinking about how she was going to pay rent in a few days. If she could at least tell her landlord that she had gotten a job, she might be able to arrange something with him. But she actually needed to get the job first. “Is there anything else available?”

“Hmmm.” Ms. Harrow hummed, running her fingers down the sheet that seemed to have the list of available jobs, which Nazanin sat up a little straighter to see if she could make any out. “We have Cobbler Elf, Golden Harp, or Living Puppet roles which fit with your aptitudes. They’re all starting major narratives soon, so your pay will be doubled for the duration of the story.”

“Living puppet?” Nazanin asked, confused. The Ever After Jobs Agency advertised that it could make you into the characters. But how could she be made into a living puppet?

“Excellent choice, it’s a delight—”

Nazanin cut Ms. Harrow off, “No, I just meant it as a question. You can’t actually turn me into a living puppet.” She looked again at Ms. Harrow’s ears. “Can you?”

“Only when you’re on the clock, I assure you.”

The queasy feeling in Nazanin’s stomach only worsened. “Do you have anything else? Maybe something magical? I know I said I wasn’t interested in magic, but maybe you have something like a Wizard’s Apprentice?”

Ms. Harrow frowned but looked again at her list. “Magic roles tend to need extra training, given they can be extra dangerous for…” Ms. Harrow stopped and tilted her head, as if considering. Nazanin’s heart sped up.

“There is one role, magical, that requires no magical training. We can get you in right away, and I will say that the pay is excellent. But there is—”

“I’ll take it.” Nazanin said quickly.

“But you haven’t even heard what it is.”

“I don’t care. Whatever it is, it has to be better than Living Puppet or whatever.”

Ms. Harrow nodded, turned to her computer, made a few notes, and the printer whirred to life. She got the sheet, and a tome of a book that was the ‘Employees Handbook,’ and presented them to Nazanin. “If you would, sign here, here, here, anywhere it tells you, and we’ll get you squared away. You’ll have plenty of time to read the Handbook later.”

Nazanin scribbled her name on each paper Ms. Harrow pushed in front of her, not noticing anything amiss. Standard employment language; time keeping, dress code, and the like. She signed her name and initials until her hand cramped, and signing that last page felt like a relief. She had a job again.

“Excellent,” Ms. Harrow said, quickly organizing the papers into a folder. Then, she pulled something else, something golden, from a drawer, which she presented to Nazanin. “And, here are your Genie shackles.”

“My what?” The moment Nazanin looked at them, the golden objects vanished from Ms. Harrow’s hands and clasped around her own wrists. Nazanin jumped out of her chair, as her leather jacket and jeans vanished into the ether, replaced without sound or light effect with a blue vest and long skirt. “What the hell role did I get?!” Nazanin shouted.

“We’ve been looking for a magical Genie for a while now. Of course, everyone else backed out when they heard what it was, and what it would entail.” She pulled another object out of a desk drawer, causing Nazanin’s eyes to go wide when she saw it.

Her lamp. There was no doubt it was hers, as she could feel it tugging on her already, trying to pull her inside its confines. Trap her in servitude.

“I quit!” Nazanin said, trying to pull the shackles off her wrists. But they wouldn’t budge.

“I’m sorry, Ms. Shirazi, but employment here tends to be…Ever After.” Ms. Harrow said, lifting the small lid on the lamp.

Nazanin gasped, as the soft tug on her turned into an inexorable vortex, as powerful as the tides. More powerful. It lifted her off her feet, drew her body into smoke and light, spiraling down and down, endlessly down, into a space far too small for her, squeezing her into the form of an ideal magical servant.

And as she reformed inside the golden walls of the lamp, with its plump throw pillows and silky curtains, the enormous tome of the Employees Handbook landed on a seat beside her.

She stared up at the golden ceiling of her new prison cell, wondering if she even needed to talk to her landlord about rent anymore…