Aladdin waited until well after dark before putting her things on her magic carpet and flying away from the school. She flew straight up to the part of the barrier that wasn't always closed and slipped through the crack before changing direction to Sindria. A few minutes outside of the city she removed the gems that blocked her communication with the rukh.
It was nice to be able to rely on their power as well as her own. She was strong, but the rukh gave her so much more energy. On the way to Magnostadt she hadn't been able to fly all the way even with the rukh's help, but after all the training she would be able to do it. The only thing she had to worry about was not overusing magoi and hurting the baby. She ate along the way to keep from getting too tired. She flew for several hours, staying high in the sky to avoid attracting attention.
She spotted Sindria around noon. It took her a few more minutes to get to the palace gardens and land in the area where Sharrkan and Masrur were sparring. She watched their movements, how they circled each other and analyzed the others movements, how focused they were. It took them a few minutes to realize she was there. When they did Sharrkan broke into a grin and Masrur gave her the usual polite greeting.
It took Aladdin several hours to finish greeting everyone. They all wanted to hear about what she had done in Magnostadt, especially Yamraiha. The older magician hungry for details about her previous home. Aladdin didn't mind talking to her teacher about the school, but she really wanted to talk to Jafar, and it was difficult to make her rukh look normal to a magician as skilled as Yamraiha.
She finally had some peace and quite when she feigned exhaustion and excused herself to her room from the previous visit. She crept through the palace halls searching for the advisor. Normally he would have been one of the first to greet her, but both he and Sinbad were strangely absent. The rukh around the palace were so evenly dispersed it was difficult for her to tell where the largest congregation of Jafar's rukh was. Aladdin was about to use a location spell when she heard the yelling. That was definitely Jafar's voice. He didn't sound happy about Sinbad's lack of dedication to paperwork. Aladdin smiled a bit; at least some things didn't change.
She thought about leaving the two alone but lost the chance to decide when Jafar opened the door and looked at her with surprised eyes. She smiled at him.
"Aladdin, what are you doing here?"
"I came to-"
"Aladdin's here? It's so good to see you again. How was the magic scho-"
"Sin, if you don't go sit down and finish the work I gave you there will be no alcohol and no night time pleasure for a month."
Aladdin watched as Sinbad's face fell and giggled. "I'll talk to you after you finish up your work, Uncle Sinbad. I have something I want to talk to Jafar about anyway." She grabbed Jafar's hand and started pulling him away from the desk. "We will see you at dinner! Get some work done so we can have fun like normal."
Aladdin kept pulling Jafar away, turning randomly.
"Aladdin where are we going?"
"Somewhere nobody else will be."
"We should have told Sinbad to take a break. The office would have never been used again." He watched her and waited for the grin and laugh that normally would have followed. The only thing he saw was an exasperated young girl getting more and more agitated by the minute. He sighed and started pulling her in a different direction. "There won't be anyone in the Western Gardens at this time of day."
Aladdin stayed silent until Jafar had her seated at a bench. He watched her and waited as she took a deep breath and got ready to say whatever she needed. Aladdin appreciated him giving her the time to sort out her thoughts, but now that she was here she couldn't find the words she needed. She just sat there unable to say anything. Her hands started shaking when she thought about everything that was happening.
Jafar's eyes narrowed. "Aladdin what's wrong?"
"I..Judal and I…in Magnostadt…we..ahh"
If Jafar's assumption was right Sinbad was never allowed to go near the girl again, he had way too much of a bad influence on the girl. And the man was banned from even looking at a woman for three months. "You're pregnant aren't you?"
"How can you tell?"
"I have a goof instinct for things like this given all the time I've spent with Sinbad.
"Judal is going to be mad. He definitely didn't want this to happen. I had to leave the school so he wouldn't find out. I-I couldn't-"
"Aladdin, you don't have to worry about any of that."
"But he is going to go back to hating me if he finds out this happened!"
"Aladdin just calm down. I'm sure we can figure something out. And if Judal is that fickle he isn't worth your time." He had no doubt that Judal was an ass but he wasn't going to add any more stress to Aladdin.
"I should go to Reim to find Alibaba. He should know about this since he is my King's Candidate."
"Aladdin you aren't in any condition to do any more traveling. I don't think it is healthy for you or the baby."
"I don't know what else to do."
"Why don't you stay here for a while? We can hide you away from Judal if you want. No one has to see you except the eight generals and maybe a few maids."
"Don't you have to check with Uncle Sinbad or something first?"
"Given how much paperwork I have had to do for him because he was too lazy to do it on time, he owes me. Besides, Sin would never turn you away. You always have a home here."
"Are you sure?"
"Absolutely."
"Then I guess I'll stay here for a while."
"Yes, you will. Now let's go get you some food."
Aladdin followed him to the dining room and ate dinner with everyone. Sinbad kept her fully immersed in conversation. She was getting tired early though, and Jafar asked Yamraiha to take her to her room. He slipped into the seat next to Sinbad and explained Aladdin's situation.
Jafar spread the information to the rest of the generals discretely and made sure none of them said anything to anyone besides their inner circle. It would be bad if too many people discovered two magi were going to have a child.
Hello!
I promise that things will start picking up in the next few chapters. I really love writing this story.
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Until Next Time!
-Kizuna
