Judal's insults to Sinbad's intelligence is my favorite canon.

Sinbad had picked a poor opponent in Ja'far when it came to legal matters. In a mere two weeks, Ja'far had managed to change his, and the other seven generals', names back to their original ones and outlawed the renaming of any person to 'Sin-something' unless approved by the person and at least 5 witnesses. That didn't stop Sinbad from referring to him as Sinfar, however.

And as amusing as it was – he might not look it, but Masrur did have a sense of humor – the Fanalis was glad the king and his first general were once again on speaking terms. After several more weeks of silence and uninterrupted sleep, Masrur finally stopped searching for new rooms every night and took naps in the library while Ja'far worked. The sound of parchment shifting was soothing, and the silence was never awkward or uncomfortable with Ja'far.

When Sinbad had first brought them to the new kingdom of Sindria, neither Ja'far nor Masrur had quite known what to do with themselves. For Masrur, he couldn't remember a time when he wasn't training or competing in the gladiator arena. And it was obvious to him that Ja'far felt just as lost whenever the king disappeared. When the opportunity to pick up the slack left by Sinbad's aversion to paperwork came up, Ja'far took it gratefully. Masrur, still unable to read or write at the time, contented himself with simply keeping the other company while he worked. It had been years since Masrur had last napped in the library with Ja'far; things had gotten too crazy in the more recent years.

But he should've known that the normality wasn't to last. The first sign that something was wrong arrived through his window in the middle of the night, shaking him roughly from his sleep. Masrur was an incredibly light sleeper, so it was a testament to how quiet this person was that they were able to get inside his room and shake him before he woke up. The Fanalis fully expected it to be Ja'far – the assassin was light on his feet – ready with fresh complaints about the king, but when his eyes finally adjusted to the light he saw he couldn't be further from the truth.

Standing in his room was none other than the Kou Empire's magi, Judal.

Sleep disappeared in an instant, and Masrur was on his feet ready to defeat the man, regardless of his own state of undress. But the magi just laughed.

"Relax, big guy, I'm not here to kill that stupid king today."

Even though he said that, Masrur didn't relax his stance.

Judal burst into laughter, covering his mouth with his hand. "You really do need to calm down; you're too stiff." Judal spun the wand between his fingers, walking to Masrur with an unnecessary swing of his hips. Having witnessed – more times than he would care to remember – women apply the same approach to Sinbad, it took him no time at all to identify that he was being seduced. Again.

"I know a good way to relieve some of that tension," the Magi was saying as Masrur returned his attention to the present.

"No."

That took the other by surprise. "No? But I haven't even given you my offer yet."

"You are an enemy of King Sinbad."

"I'm not here to play with Sinbad today. I want to play with you." And with that, Judal pulled out a piece of paper from his pants – Masrur wasn't even sure he had pockets in there – and waved it back and forth in front of his face. "See?"

More out of irritation than anything else, Masrur grabbed the page. He may not have been the most literate of the generals, but he could understand enough to read what Judal was showing him. Scrolled on the paper in writing too sloppy to be Ja'far's, but easier to read than Sharkkan's, were the following words:

For a good time: visit Masrur.

The Fanalis felt his eyebrow twitch. He managed to barely resist the urge to rip the paper into tiny pieces. Instead, he ground out: "where did you find this?"

"That ad?" Judal asked flippantly as he flopped down on Masrur's bed, creating a tiny tornado in his hand. "Who knows? They've been floating around almost everywhere lately. Whoops." The last was a reaction to the tornado flying off his palm into Masrur's armor, which clanked to the ground with a resounding clash.

"Get out." Ja'far always said not to pick on those younger, but Masrur was having a hard time coming up with reasons to follow that rule.

The magi rolled over, hanging his head off the side of the mattress to stare at Masrur upside down. "But I don't wanna. I'm bored. Play with me." He gave a grin that would've been wicked, had he not looked so ridiculous. "You won't regret it, I promise." Masrur highly doubted that.

He walked towards the bed, fully prepared to remove Judal by force, magi or not. But he had forgotten he wasn't wearing anything aside from his shorts, and his approach was met with a finger tracing its way up his stomach.

"I do like strong men," the magi was mumbling, "and you're one of the strongest. Physically, anyway. Maybe your king isn't such an idiot after all." Masrur wasn't entirely sure how it happened, but the next second Judal had managed to flip himself upright and was pressed against his chest, breathing against his neck. The general stood there, frozen and unsure how to act when the enemy of his kingdom was this close. He supposed he could try his hand at physically throwing the nuisance out of his room.

His luck always seemed to decrease exponentially in situations like this. The moment he brought his hands up to grab the other, the teen smiled, and in a flash Masrur was lying on his back with the other straddling him. "I knew you'd come around eventually," Judal purred into his ear.

This was not happening. This could not be happening. It was one thing to let Sinbad or Ja'far have their way with him (they never expected reciprocation!) but if the way the other was grinding against him was any indication, Masrur was expected to top and that was just unacceptable. Not only did it feel like a betrayal to his king and country, but it was also something he had no experience – or interest – in.

But the other, blissfully unaware of the thoughts in Masrur's head, continued to do…whatever it was he was doing. This had to stop, soon. If it went on any longer, the magi would figure out he wasn't interested and then who knew what would happen. They would probably have to go to war against Kou or something.

Making up his mind, Masrur placed his left hand on Judal's stomach and pushed, throwing the other back into the wall. There was a dull thud as he hit, followed by a squeak as his back slid down the wall. The two of them stared at each other, wearing identical expressions of shock, in silence for a whole minute before the magi stood up slowly.

"You bastard." Judal wiped the back of his hand across his mouth as he spoke.

Masrur knew immediately that throwing the magi of the Kou Empire into the wall was the exact wrong thing to do. He might not be as good at analyzing situations as Ja'far, but even he could tell that the fallout from this was going to be very bad indeed. His supernatural hearing picked up the sounds of footsteps running towards his room, amplifying the feeling of foreboding; he should've known they weren't being quiet enough.

It didn't matter though; his metal vessel was halfway across the room, and there was a good chance Judal was going to kill him before he could get to it. The magi already had summoned his trademark ice shards above his head. Masrur braced himself for impact as they flew at him, but it never came. He moved his arms away from his eyes to see what had happened, but all he saw was pink.

Wait. That wasn't right. He blinked and rubbed his eyes, but the image never changed. Then it shifted, and he was able to tell that the bright pink color had been hair. Another shift, and he realized the owner of the pink hair had turned around and was now addressing him. He knew this scent; he'd first smelled it in Balbadd.

"I'm sorry. I'm afraid our cute little Judal has been causing problems. I hope you'll forgive us." The young Kou princess bowed low before standing. Masrur caught the brief whiff of the sea as she returned her sword to a hairpin before stomping towards Judal.

"Kougyoku?! What are you doing here? Where's your keeper?"

She just jabbed her finger into his chest. "Kouen told me to keep an eye on you and make sure you didn't sneak away to Sindria. Again."

He cocked his head. "Kouen? But he likes war. That's why he's fun."

"Think, idiot."

"Don't call me an idiot, you old hag!"

"I'm not an old hag! I'm younger than you!"

"And still a virgin too probably."

"Why you –!"

Judal broke into hysterical laughter, his face flushing as he doubled over. Meanwhile, the princess was a brilliant shade of red as her mouth opened and closed like a gaping fish. It seemed an appropriate time for Ja'far and Sinbad to burst into the room only half dressed.

"Masrur!" Ja'far yelled, brandishing what appeared to be a candlestick holder in his hand. His headdress was gone, as was his robe and shirt. Sinbad wasn't far behind him, wearing only his shorts and carrying his bedside table, spilling lotions and god knows what else out the back. It was painfully obvious to Masrur what they had just been doing, especially since there wasn't a single metal vessel between the two of them.

"Airhead of the Seven Seas," he remarked passively to Sinbad once they were both fully inside the room.

"What?" The king pouted, having not noticed the two 'visitors' yet. Masrur could make out the thundering sounds – at least to his ears – of more people running to their aid. If they were anything like their king, then any help they had to offer was completely useless.

The reaction from the two already in Masrur's room was instantaneous.

"King Sinbad!" The princess turned an even darker shade of red and hid behind Judal.

"Sinbad the idiot!" Judal shook her off and sauntered up to the king, ignoring the daggers Ja'far was glaring at him. (He'd most likely left his real blades in Sinbad's room, after all.) "Have you come in to join us?"

"Judal?" Sinbad looked genuinely surprised. "What are you doing here?"

"Well I was going to sleep with your general, but he threw me against the wall a bit hard." Judal turned his attention back to Masrur, shooting a wink as he spoke. "Don't worry; I like it rough."

"What did you say about Masrur?" Ja'far growled, his eyes dangerous.

"I said I was going to fuck him. Why? You want a piece of him too? I'm sure you can if your king doesn't mind sharing. We all know you don't."

"Watch your mouth." This time it was Sinbad who spoke.

"Or what? You stupid king: you don't even have your metal vessels on you! You're completely worthless, and so is everyone else in your household!"

"Judal!" The princess finally seemed to regain her composure. "S-sorry, King Sinbad," she said to his feet. "Please forgive Judal. He doesn't mean it."

"What are you talking about? Of course I mean it!"

But the princess, her face still resembling a lobster of the highest quality, simply grabbed Judal by his braid and dragged the spluttering magi after her. She gave one last bow, saying "sorry" again before they disappeared out the window.

The remaining six generals chose this moment to arrive. Masrur wasn't embarrassed by his own state of undress, but the same couldn't be said of Ja'far. He turned a light shade of pink, and Sinbad thrust the table into his chest before throwing his arms out so the room was mostly hidden from view. "Nothing to see here, go on back to your rooms."

Sharkkan yawned, rubbing his eye with the hand clutching his sword. "What's going on?" He looked like he was hardly wearing anything either. God, did anyone in Sindria sleep in their clothes?

"Don't worry; we just evicted an unwanted visitor." The man still looked unconvinced, despite the other generals grumbling and walking away to bed, so Sinbad threw his arm around his shoulder. "Like I said, Sinkkan: nothing to see."

Sharkkan wriggled his way free. "I thought Ja'far outlawed you calling us that."

"No. What Sinfar did was make it illegal for me to change your names without your permission. He never made nicknames – OW!"

Ja'far, clearly over his embarrassment, grabbed Sinbad by his ear and dragged him out of the room. "Go to bed Sharkkan, Masrur. I'll make sure this idiot gets in his without causing any more problems."

"I'm not an idiot!" Their voices faded as they disappeared down the hallway. "Sinfar, you're so mean."

"I told you to stop calling me that!"

When everyone was finally gone for good, Masrur shut his door and took stock of his room. It was a complete disaster; it seemed he would have to go back to finding new places to sleep from now on.

Next chapter: Yunan