BLK: I just want it known now that there's no scecific timeline in which this story takes place. For example, Aladdin is an adult, but Judar hasn't broken away from Al-Thamen or Kou yet and Sinbad hasn't gone completely psycho.
Gasps and whispering filled the throne room as the advisers, generals, and courtmen began chattering. Sinbad exited the room that bustled with confusion and worry and headed towards his office. Everything was neat and organized, much to his surprise. Ja'far must have cleaned up after him, he'd have to thank him later for that. He packed a suitcase of personal belongings and a suitcase of useful magic tools. He grabbed a glass case containing four rings inside and frowned down at it. 'Now that I know there are five, and most likely six, Magi, I'll need two more rings.'
"Ja'far!" the king called out and within a swift, and terrifyingly silent, step the young man was beside him. "Tell Yamraiha to come see me at once."
"Of course." was all he said before making his way back to the throne room.
Within seconds the blue haired mage appeared in the office and cleared her throat. "Yes?"
"Yam, I need your powers one more time before the trip to Kou." Sinbad opened with as he turned towards her holding the box of rings. "I need three more rings."
Her eyes narrowed dangerously, "Those rings only work on Magi, why would you need a sixth and seventh one on top of the fifth one!?"
"Judar tipped me off that there's a sixth Magi as well, and why wouldn't there be a hidden seventh one at that point? What the fuck else is Al-Thamen hiding that even Judar and the French Magi don't know about? I'm taking no chances." Sinbad explained and Yamraiha nodded in agreement.
"Good plan, it can't hurt anything. Even if there is no sixth or seventh Magi, then we have two spares in case Judar goes rogue again or this French Magi goes postal on us and destroys her ring." she said as she left then set to work.
"Ja'far, send word to Aladdin that I require his aid." Sinbad called out, not entirely certain the man was even within hearing range. His doubts didn't last long as an 'ah' noise rang out from a distance and utter silence took over again. For the next couple of hours Sinbad continued packing his tools.
As Sindria prepared for their journey, a certain somebody had waltzed into the castle, albeit by invitation. The teenage Magi and his king's candidate followed by their pink haired warrior were welcomed inside the palace. Aladdin greeted all of his friends as he made his way to Sinbad's office where they were allotted inside by Ja'far. Sinbad gave the trio a warm welcome as they took seats around his desk. Inwardly, Sinbad cringed when Aladdin placed his elbows on the very spot Judar's ass had rested as he slammed into him just hours ago. Luckily their clothes had stayed on for the full duration or there might have needed to be some deeper cleaning. Much to Sinbad's horror though Aladdin did the unthinkable and shook the desk.
"Hey, why's the table so loose and wobbly?" he asked innocently, Alibaba and Morgiana thought nothing significant of the incident.
Behind them Ja'far stifled a giggle. Sinbad's face turned ghost white as he pulled a biscuit from the snack tray and stuffed it in his mouth like a starving caveman, he grabbed a second one and eagerly extended it in the direction of the Magi who was still rattling the table. "You must be hungry! Eat this!" he said quickly and nervously. Aladdin stopped rocking the desk and took the cookie slowly and eyed it cautiously before sniffing it then taking a bite. "You guys take one too!" the king said urgently and held two more out in their direction. Morgiana and Alibaba gave each other a confused look before accepting the offerings.
Aladdin finished his cookie and coughed to get his attention. "What made you ask us here on such short notice?"
Sinbad swallowed his biscuit harshly and thought for a moment, regaining his sanity. After a sip of black coffee he sighed tiredly. "Long story short, Judar contacted me. There's a fifth Magi, she's in danger, he asked me to save her, I thought he was lying." he started and Aladdin's eyes went wide. "I truly didn't believe it until the French empire sent me an invitation to come buy their Magi off of them in exchange for an alliance."
"Th-that's...absurd!" Alibaba stuttered out in horror. "But why did he bring it to your attention?"
"I'm not sure if this girl is real or not, but if she is we can't let Kou or Al-Thamen have her. In Judar's letter he went into slight detail about how she's being abused or horribly mistreated, so much so that even he felt sympathy for her." Sinbad's hands shook as he spoke.
Aladdin's eyes narrowed and his expression changed heavily. "If Judar is worried, then it's serious."
"Are you thinking of mounting a rescue mission to save her or something? Do we even know where she is?" Alibaba asked.
"Yes, and she's with Judar in the Kou empire right now." he said simply.
"Oh, so she's safe for now?" Morgina asked, only slightly relieved.
"No, she's in the most danger there. Not only is Al-Thamen there, but her empire is visiting as well. There's an event going on in Kou starting today called a 'courting' and I can only imagine what the French are up to. It is my belief that they wish to marry her into Kou and form ties with them, but the odd part is that the French also contact me personally. They offered me the same deal I think they're trying to offer Kou and they even had the sheer audacity to invite Sindria to the soiree."
"Do you think Kou even knows they invited you?" Aladdin asked pensively.
"My guess is 'absolutely not' if Judar himself felt the need to informed me, he himself likely had no idea that the French were pulling strings in the dark." Sinbad was becoming more and more concerned over the issue at hand now that he had a Magi to consult with. Aladdin was asking questions he hadn't thought of himself, bringing up points that could be dire to success.
"That makes this all the more urgent and dangerous, what should we do?" Aladdin asked eagerly.
"Aladdin, I need you to at least pretend to be Sindria's Magi during this mission." Sinbad gave him a stern look and Aladdin's eyes widened slightly at the notion. He'd already turned the man down before, but this was entirely different. "If Sindria shows up with a Magi of their own it'll show not only Kou, but the French as well, that we mean business and we don't negotiate lightly. We won't seem desperate for a second Magi if we already have one."
"Wait a minute!" Alibaba bellowed loudly. "Aladdin isn't your play thing to just-"
"I'll do it!" Aladdin interrupted and his friend's eyes locked onto him in shock. The look on the Magi's face told him everything he needed to know and settled back down. Morgiana placed a hand on the blond's shoulder and he looked at her for reassurance.
"It'll be alright." she told him confidently. Alibaba was suddenly complacent with that.
"But on one condition." Aladdin continued as he stood up and his eyes fixated on Sinbad's. "You ask Yunan first, if he says no then I'll do it." Sinbad's whole face twisted, not in disgust, but in fear.
"I don't even know how to get a hold of that elusive man..." Sinbad's heart sank and he bit his lower lip in thought. "He comes and goes literally like the wind."
"Oh do I now?" a gentle voice whispered from directly beside the king and he nearly flew out of his seat with a girlish yelp. He half expected it to be Ja'far messing with him, but to his surprise, and delight, it was the mythical Magi himself crouching down beside him. The giggling blond stood up with a hand over his mouth.
Aladdin giggled lightly. "I saw him sneak up behind you, that's the only reason I thought to make you ask him first."
Sinbad took a deep breath and let it out slowly as his heart rate settled back out of the stroke-range. The king grabbed a cookie off of the stray and shoved it in Yunan's direction haphazardly. Awkwardly, Yunan accepted it with a leer. He eyed Sinbad up and and down, then eyed the trio sitting in front of the desk.
"Don't worry, it's safe." Aladdin smiled at him. "It's not the fruit punch of a cult or anything."
Slowly and unsurely the older Magi took a bite and chewed on it like a grazing cow in a suspicious new pasture. "Soo..." Yunan said after one bite and placed the cookie atop the king's head very delicately, like a dainty woman. "I have some intel that you don't have." Sinbad tolerated the cookie crown for the sake of hearing him out. "Arajah, the French Magi, is to be wed to Judar."
'So she's real!' Sinbad thought.
"That explains a lot, but raises even more questions than it answers. Why though?" Sinbad asked as Aladdin gasped. "Might explain why he was so desperate to get rid of her actually, I mistook his urgency for sympathy."
"I did some spying on Judar yesterday, a lot more spying than I should have done to be honest..." Yunan paused to give Sinbad a knowing look. The king shrank back down into his seat nervously, cheeks red and heart rate back into the clouds. The trio all looked confused, but continued to listen to the elder Magi. "According to Arajah, when two Magi mate it is guaranteed that their child will also be a Magi. However, when a Magi reproduces with a normal human there's only a small chance. I'm not sure how her father was born, but she is the daughter of a Magi man held captive somewhere in Al-Thamen's clutches. If we don't rescue her from her awful fate, and Judar submits to the whims of that evil organization and mates with her, we'll have a huge mess on our hands."
"Magi mating?" Sinbad returned to his normal position in his chair, the cookie falling to his lap. He started down at the half eaten biscuit and pondered. "Is there even a point in having more than one Magi in your empire?"
"In some ways no, but in other ways yes. I assume they're going to dish out a Magi to every empire, plunge them into depravity, and start world-war-three. My other assumption is that the new Magi born of two other Magi could potentially be far stronger than normal, but I feel like this is less likely. It may just be more experiments that Al-Thamen is doing to see what is and what isn't possible." Yunan mused out loud.
"Is it possible that they just want to gain more allies in preparation for a war with Sindria?" Sinbad asked.
"Yes, but I feel like this is far bigger than that. Something less immediate and more long term." Yunan crossed his arms, staff trapped up against his chest, and shifted his weight to one leg. "Sinbad, I'll help you stop them, as your original Magi it is my job to see this through to the end with you."
Sinbad smirked up at the man eagerly, "Thank you."
"I'll still help too." Aladdin said as he sought an approving look from Yunan who nodded back. "But when this is all over, I get to actually be Sindria's Magi."
Yunan shrugged as he raised his eye brows, clearly indifferent.
'I get a bad feeling about this, Sinbad is way too excited about getting a Magi. At least if it's me I can dictate what happens with that power. If this other Magi joins Sinbad it might not end much better than if she stays with Al-Thamen.'Aladdin thought, unaware of the rage boiling in the seat next to him.
"What?!" Alibaba stood up and threw his palms down onto the desk. It crumbled beneath the force and everything toppled to the floor along with Alibaba. Sinbad's hands clasped over his mouth with a loud slapping noise and a deep gasp. Ja'far let loose a loud howling laugh and everyone turned to look at him.
"How bizarre!" Aladdin said in shock as he helped Alibaba stand up.
"How bizarre indeed..." Yunan noted sarcastically as he too snickered with Ja'far. The trio remained as clueless as ever. Sinbad pulled his white turban over his face and shrank into his chair again. He drew his feet onto the seat of the chair and knees up to his chest and hid behind them, arms wrapped tightly around his shins. Yunan would be lying if he said it wasn't utterly adorable to see the man act so coy.
"What the hell happened to your desk, Sinbad?!" Alibaba asked as he stood up and brushed himself off, Morgiana brushing his backside off which caused him to turn towards her and blush slightly.
Sinbad jolted into a proper sitting position, cookie still firmly in place on his lap. "I...I got piss face wasted last night, stumbled into it, broke it...and tried to fix it myself...I'm a king not a carpenter, okay?" he lied desperately to change the subject.
Ja'far and Yunan lost it and roared in laughter together again. "You used to build your own boats before you became king! You're telling me you couldn't fix a simple desk!?" Ja'far barked mockingly at him. Sinbad turned completely red again in bother anger and embarrassment that his best friend had sold him out. Yunan coughed loudly and gasped for air.
"What's so funny?" Morgiana asked innocently.
"Nothing!"Sinbad shrieked as he grabbed the half-eaten cookie and shoved it in his mouth hand retreated to an adjacent room muttering incoherently with his mouth full.
As Yunan composed himself somewhat, Ja'far remained paralyzed on the floor in the corner of the room. "Sinbad, come ba-a-ack!" Yunan called out through his giggling.
"Mhhfff, nghhfhh bbfhfhhhvv." the king muffled out, mouth still full. After a few moments Sinbad returned with a cart full of glasses and a wine bottle.
"I haven't told you something else alarming that Arajah said." Yunan said suddenly somber, the sudden shift in persona caught the king's attention. He poured the glasses of wine and handed them out as he listened to the Magi's next reply. "She claimed that Aladdin got to be the fourth Magi because..." he paused to look at the younger Magi whose eyes sparkled with curiosity. "He is the latent son of King Solomon and Queen Sheeba; a previous Magi."
Sinbad inadvertently poured wine all over the rubble of what once was a desk, mouth hung open.
"Oh..." was all that came out of Aladdin's mouth.
"I don't know how true it is, and if it is true how she or Al-Thamen would know that." Yunan confessed." But I see no reason for her to have lied about that as it was told only to Judar in secret and with no clear motive for telling him."
Ja'far's eyes widened as he sauntered over to the group to listen in closer.
Aladdin tensed up. "I think..." he paused to gauge the room. "I think I already knew that, Ugo hinted at it a few times before I came to this world."
It was now Yunan's turn to be wide eyed and surprised. "I can see why you'd keep that a secret. Also it explains how you obtained Solomon's Wisdom."
"You didn't tell even me? I thought we told each other everything!" Alibaba asked, genuinely hurt.
"I'm sorry, but this was different. It could endanger me or you somehow. Especially if Al-Thamen found out." Aladdin averted his eyes from his trembling friend.
Sinbad took a large swig of wine followed by an exaggerated deep breath. "Shit just got ugly from all sides of the battle field."
Yunan couldn't agree more. "By the way." he started as he took a cautionary step back from the king who gave him an odd look. "Why do you need more of those cursed rings? What's your real reason." The danger in Yunan's voice made Sinbad go int overdrive on high alert. Even Ja'far sensed the tension rising between the two and stood closer to his king, ready for anything. "Were you going to enslave all six Magi?"
"No!" Sinbad said astonished at the way Yunan thought of him. "It's to protect the Magi from Al-Thamen! I've tested it out on Aladdin and Judar before, it actually works!" he pleaded. "You're free to remove the ring without struggle or magic!"
"Oh I know it works, when Judar was here last night, not even I could sense his presence and I could see him with my own eyes." Yunan said deadpan.
Sinbad scoffed and blushed. "I'm surprised you watched the whole thing..."
The trio were intrigued to say the least, and Ja'far cracked a grin. Yunan was no longer amused by the topic however. "You'll do anything to get a Magi, you're shameless." Yunan said uncharacteristically coldly.
Sinbad looked down at the mess of wood, papers, and random objects in a pile on the floor. "Judar...doesn't even have to be a Magi to break my table..."
Ja'far knew all too well what his king meant, Yunan on the other hand was only just now realizing why and it almost broke his heart remembering the name uttered at the grand finale and how the king had a mental breakdown just as he was leaving to follow Judar back to Kou. He never got to witness the full swing of Sinbad's heartbreak, but he could infer it simply from the now soulless look in the king's eyes.
"Judar broke your desk?" Alibaba said in suspicion.
"He broke it with his ass, if you catch my drift!" Ja'far let loose a howling laugh again, unable to contain himself.
Alibaba's face scrunched in pure disgust as he lifted his hands up to inspect them after realizing what he meant. "I touched that damn desk!"
Sinbad fell down on the floor on his back and stared up at the ceiling. 'The betrayal...Ja'far...why?' his mind whined.
Yunan sighed. "This is why I was hesitant to eat a cookie that came from the tray on the table. It had been there the night before when it happened."
The trio turned to Yunan then back to Sinbad, who remained deathly motionless on the floor, then they all made gagging noises. They ran out of the room to find untainted water to rinse their mouths out.
"Ja'far, would you please excuse Sinbad and I for a moment. I have something personal to tell him." the Magi asked and Ja'far nodded, he was just going to eavesdrop from behind the door anyways. Sinbad lifted himself off the floor and muttered a half-hearted apology. For what? Yunan wasn't entirely sure.
"What's so secretive that you'd send Ja'far away?" Sinbad asked.
Yunan's emerald eyes engaged in a silent tango with Sinbad's golden ones. "I don't want to tell you, but I will anyways." the Magi said softly. Sinbad's head tilted to the side, a little confused. "I'm a fan of honesty and I think you deserve at least that much, especially after last night."
Sinbad's eyes squinted and he nodded dumbly. Yunan paused to stare at him for another brief moment; fists clenched around his staff tightly.
"I think, after all that I witnessed yesterday, the the only reason Judar called out to Hakuryuu at the end was because just a few hours prior the prince of Kou made a love confession to him." the Magi said Sinbad's eyes opened wide in realization, tears threatened to release, but he held back to hear more of Yunan's explanation. "A confession which he largely rejected."
Somewhere in Sinbad's heart there was a choir of angels singing, but he kept his face well pet together instead of falling apart again. "Are you certain?" the desperation in his voice urged Yunan further.
"Yes, and not only that, but when he got home to Kou he cried for hours on end. I think he broke his own heart as well, not just yours. He's just extremely confused right now, a lot is happening to him, just give him some time." Yunan said before turning to leave, Sinbad assumed to also go rinse his mouth out. Not that he truly needed to, the cookies weren't up Judar's asscrack or anything. "He's still yours." Yunan said before turning around to leave. As the fair man retreated Sinbad sank to his knees and cried softly, mostly out of relief.
"But, I wish it were me that you lusted for like that..." Yunan barely whispered, but Sinbad's ears caught it and the man's head lifted to see the Magi disappear in a pouf of light before he could even fathom a reply.
Ja'far's heart slammed inside his chest. 'I have another love-rival? I was certain after Judar I was safe!'
