"So...that adorable little one is truly our young Aladdin?" Hinahoho asked, for some reason finding it somewhat difficult to wrap his head around the fact that the young magi was no longer the person that he remembered running happily around the palace, learning magic, and playing games and pranks and livening things up for everyone.

It was...difficult for the warrior to conceive of the kind of power that could alter someone so profoundly in such a deeply fundamental way.

"Yes." Sinbad confirmed as he quietly took a seat on one of the marble steps while tacking on, "That child is our young Aladdin. Although she has chosen a new name for herself to go with her new form."

"Selene?" Sinbad nodded his head, his expression sober as he watched the small blond run in circles around one of the large trees in the garden with Alibaba fast on her heels. While Morgiana sat in the tree's branches above the two, watching them like a hawk.

Alibaba managed to catch the girl before she could get much further away from him when she finally tripped over a tree root and nearly fell as he wrapped his arms around her and picked her up and swung her around. Eliciting squeaks and peals of laughter from the child.

"Sin, how did this happen?" Hinahoho asked after a length of time watching the child resume another game of tag with her two friends.

"Magnostadt fell. The leader of the magician's country went power mad and wanted to destroy...so many lives. No that isn't right. He did destroy so many lives. So many innocent lives were lost to his lust for power. But he didn't seem to know or realize until it was too late that those lives that he sacrificed opened some sort of gateway for a dark god of destruction."

"It was so powerful Hina that I couldn't stop it. Alibaba and his djinn equip couldn't stop it. Even the royal family of the Kou empire couldn't even stop it. We were a few second's away from being wiped out completely when Aladdin stepped up and began syphoning that monster's stolen power from it. He managed to weaken it enough to destroy it, but in doing so Aladdin fell into depravity- or at least- began to. There was simply too much darkness for him to fight off."

Hina looked down at his king with a slightly concerned expression as the man's voice cracked and waivered a bit, the only outside display of his sorrow for their young friend.

"We began to move towards him when he told Yunan that...that would have to be used to purge the darkness. We didn't know what he was talking about until Yunan had summoned the weapon and handed it to me and told me to pierce Aladdin's heart with it. It was apparently a weapon created by the gods of this world to serve a specific purpose. I didn't hesitate, I couldn't afford to. Aladdin was slipping deeper into the darkness and hesitation would allow him to sink so far that we would never get him back. I didn't know..." Sinbad took a deep shuddering breath before continuing on with his story.

"I didn't know that using the weapon on him would hurt him. I was led to believe that it would only purge him of the darkness beginning to transform him into another dark god. But it did hurt him, Hina. I practically killed him. So when Yunan disappeared with Aladdin's body and threw up a barrier- none of us could even get close to them to see what was going on. But I don't think any of us will ever forget the screaming."

"Those screams will echo in our ears forever and haunt us. They were such pained and desolate sounds, that we couldn't simply ignore them... He screamed for ten days and ten nights and then finally when he fell silent, Yunan returned with her and told us what had happened and then handed her to me and said that she was now my responsibility. Can you imagine what I was thinking the moment that Yunan said that to me? The moment that he handed Selene over to my care? I- I feel so unworthy. I mean for god's sake- I practically murdered the Aladdin that we knew! And here I am, now, responsible for his new self's life. This is beyond wrong. So much so that it's mind boggling."

"And yet you will not back down from this challenge." It wasn't a question, though it sounded like one to Sinbad's ears. The nineteen year old king slowly pulled himself back together and let his gaze flicker back to his new adopted child. His eyes reflected his sorrow, guilt, and his determination not to run away from this.

Yes. There was many things he wished that he could change about what happened to Aladdin before his change. The fact that he had felt the need to sacrifice himself for the rest of the world was simply one thing he wished that he could change for the young magi.

Another thing that he wished that he could change was the fact that he had been partially responsible for the boy's agony when he had pierced him with the holy spear. As well as the agony that he had caused him afterwards even if that had been an indirect result of being pierced through the heart.

However like Hina had guessed, he would not back down from this particular challenge.

Yunan had left Selene in his hands to be raised, and raised she would be- with all the privileges of any child born of his own flesh and blood. He would protect her, educate her in the ways of the world, running a kingdom and in magic, nurture her, be her friend, her confidant, and co conspirator in every capacity that she needed him to be.

But above all other things, he would be her father. And be damn proud to call himself such.

Speaking of- he needed to make sure that all of the fake documents were filled out and in place.

"Hina, did you get the documents I asked for ready for my return here?" The sudden and abrupt change in subject should have surprised the warrior, and probably would have if not for the fact that he was used to the way that Sinbad's mind worked.

"Yes. Everything is filled out and in place."

"Good." Sinbad said as he slowly stood up and dusted his clothing off before saying, "I want to call the court together this evening to introduce the nobles to Selene and weed out threats to her. Until then, I also need the royal seamstress summoned while I take Selene to her new room and attempt to bathe her and get her ready. I'll also want Sharkkan ready to serve as one of her personal guards along with Alibaba and Morgiana. At least until Kouen and his siblings get here."

"Yes my king, it shall be done." Hinahoho said as he bowed to his friend and then turned to leave, but not before he reached out and plucked Ja-far up and threw the young man over his shoulder.

He needed to have a few words with the former assassin about his behavior towards Selene when Sinbad was brought back unconscious before Sinbad found out about what he had screamed at the girl.