The royal wedding of the Princess and the Grand Vizier was huge and extravagant, especially when considering it was held only a week after it was announced. By all accounts, the bride and groom were in higher spirits than their individual personalities normally exposed. It was a happiness that became commonplace between them even years after the wedding.
Rumors flew about the kingdom due to the hasty nuptials and few were surprised when just under nine months later a baby boy was born to the royal couple. That same month, the Sultan voluntarily stepped aside from his duties as ruler and named Jafar as the new sultan. Jafar's first point of order was to designate his wife Jasmine as his co-ruler and that neither one had power over the other. From then on they sat side-by-side on identical thrones when holding court.
Any criticism to the birth of the royal child or the sudden change in leadership of a woman and her red-blooded husband died away immediately when the tide of Agrabah's progress began to swell high. The monarchy was busy changing laws and providing jobs, healthcare, and higher standards of living. The citizens were benefiting almost overnight. No one had the impudence to bite the hands that fed them. Praise for the Sultan and Sultaness rang through the streets while hearts began to beat in favor of them. With Agrabah's love of it's rulers came pride of the country.
In the meantime, the kingdom had lost it's Grand Vizier to promotion. Naturally, the man best fit to succeed him was the Professor, who brought in progressive ideas of his own. Economically, the kingdom grew until it was the most prosperous in the known world.
A second child was born to Jasmine and Jafar a year later, kicking off the growing family that would see three more children before the royal couple decided they had spawned enough.
Soon, women's education was officially mandated, better schools established for the poor, and more money distributed towards learning caused a growing trend in science and technological achievements in Agrabah.
Once enough jobs and education was offered, crime was drastically reduced in every part of the kingdom. People found more time on their hands which caused an explosion of culture to emerge. Strangely, one of the oldest laws to be overturned was the ban on sorcery. Magic-wielders came from all over to boost the prosperity of the kingdom in thanks.
With the kingdom's success drew many wealthy and intelligent foreigners in droves. Cities popped up overnight. Doctors and engineers contributed to the progression. Within ten years, Agrabah was leaps and bounds ahead of any other country in the world.
Still retired and living in a comfortable bungalow near the palace, Jasmine's father looked upon Agrabah with pride and regretted having abdicated the throne just when the economy was starting to thrive.
Jasmine and Jafar were ten years older, but wiser and just as busy as they had been when they were simply the Princess and the Grand Vizier. At the moment, Jasmine fed their youngest child at her breast while Jafar consulted the half stone they kept hidden inside their chambers.
"Finally!" Jafar exclaimed, reading the image the stone projected into his mind. "I have discovered how to interpret the future!"
Jasmine stared at him in amazement. The years had not dulled her admiration for him. "What does it tell you?"
"As you know, the future is not written, but magic can make highly accurate predictions," Jafar replied, squinting to clear his mind. "Our line will hold strong until four generations from now. The government may flag because of the Sultaness who will take the throne on her thirtieth year."
"I don't see what knowing that our great-great-granddaughter will be undeserving of the throne will do for us. After all, you said it yourself, one day monarchies will become obsolete for more civilian based governments. Perhaps it will be time for a change by then."
"We are parents to five children and one country," Jafar reasoned. "We both have an invested interest to ensure they all succeed beyond our existence."
"Then what do you suggest, husband?"
"It is foretold that the second son will be of exceptional abilities. We must find a way for him to gain authority."
"What I'm hearing is you want to make sure the second son of our great-grandchild will overthrow his sister to become sultan long after we are gone…"
"Yes," Jafar answered. "That is what I'm suggesting."
With a glance to the ceiling and a thought that she married someone much too ambitious for his own good, she simply shrugged and put the baby to her other breast. "If that is what you think is best."
One thing that Jasmine and Jafar had kept in tradition was to retain council with the citizens of the land. Every week they sat on their twin thrones in the giant receiving room inside the palace. The red bird that sat on Jafar's shoulder was almost always in attendance as well.
That day, two men were called to approach the Sultan and Sultaness after waiting for their audience with them. One man was older with a hunched back after decades of poring over books, drawing out schematic plans, and working the construction sites. The other was barely past twenty years of age. It was the young one that gave Jasmine pause in consideration.
While the older one casually walked down the red carpet, the younger man nearly ran until he reached the steps and threw himself on one knee, bowing low with his body mostly turned towards Jasmine.
"You are the civil engineers tasked to build the infrastructure in the port city, are you not?" Jafar inquired.
"I hear excellent things about your work," Jasmine added. "I have seen the marketplace you built and am impressed."
"Thank you, your highness," the older man bowed in sincere gratitude.
"Thank you, your highness!" the younger man expressed through heartfelt appreciation. Jasmine was again struck by how eager the young man seemed to be.
"How old are you?" she asked him. "You must be quite an intellectual to have been given such an important project for one so young."
"I am 23 years old," he replied, voice quivering in nervousness. "It is with great pride that I credit you for my accomplishments. If it hadn't been for your wisdom when I was a child, I would never have become who I am today."
Jasmine glanced to Jafar and Iago in confusion, but they could only shrug in the same ignorance. She paused in thought before speaking, "Enlighten me, young engineer."
"Ten years ago my father came to you when you were the Director of Education. You gave me a chance to take the assessment test, and when I showed aptitude, you fulfilled your promise to send me to the best school in Agrabah."
Jasmine rarely felt surprise, especially in court, but this man had managed to give her cause to gape with the memory.
"The miller's son," she recalled.
"Yes, my Sultaness," he confirmed. "My father was a miller."
Jasmine stood up and walked down the steps towards the engineer who kept his head close to the ground in reverence. Once she reached him, she took his hand and had him rise to his feet, getting a good look at his face.
"Is your father well?" she asked.
"Yes, very well," the engineer replied. "Retired now with many grandchildren."
"It was your father who recognized your capabilities, who came to the palace to plead for your case, who stood up to a room of naysayers that laughed upon hearing about a boy with ideas. Your father deserves the credit for giving you the opportunity and for you for working hard to prove him right." She eyed him keenly. "After you have completed your project in the port city, come back to the palace and you shall be given the funds to build any structure you wish."
"Thank you, your highness!" he accepted with enthusiasm. "If your majesty permits, I already have an idea in mind. I have seen the plans for the women's university and I would like to make something more grand out of it. There are some thoughts I've had that I wish to implement that I believe will make it the most beautiful building in the world."
"Than you shall have it!" Jasmine happily answered. "I look forward to your visionary plans!"
She dismissed the engineers. The young man kissed her hand in thanks and bowed multiple times as he made his way back down the red carpet.
"I think we just met our future Director of Infrastructure," Jafar said as Jasmine sat down beside him.
"Is this a personal observation or a premonition of your stone?"
"A little of both. Speaking of stones, I believe I've found use for the half that currently keeps Aladdin's memory out of existence."
"Oh, god, Aladdin…" Iago squawked quietly. "I almost forgot about him. Haha, get it?"
"There are still people who live that would remember Aladdin," Jasmine reminded them, turning to the call of the next group seeking audience with them. She watched them walk down the red carpet as their expressions revealed varying degrees of anxiousness. "I don't think we should risk breaking the spell now."
"Of course not," Jafar retorted. "The stone will be used for that purpose until long after anyone living today is gone."
"Now is not the time to discuss this," she answered, as the group reached the stairs and bowed low. "Tell me later."
Four generations later, a young man of nineteen years stood in front of the grand portrait of the former Sultan and Sultaness of Agrabah centered in the main hall of the palace. He stared at the long dead Sultan, who was surrounded by his wife and five children. The Sultaness was beautiful and proud of her family. On her bicep was the gold snake charm that was said to never leave her arm. Even in death, she was buried with it. The loyal red bird sitting on the Sultan's shoulder had it's own pages in the Agrabah history books as well. The Sultan himself was tall, dark and foreboding as any man he'd ever seen. He stared back at Adzeem in judgement.
"Great-great-grandfather would be uncomfortable with the way you stare at him, Adzeem." He turned to look at his older sister as she sidled up next to him to gaze at the portrait.
"I like to think I'm looking at myself sometimes," Adzeem replied.
"Yes, you do bear an uncanny resemblance," she admitted. "Though don't forget he was a commoner."
"While that may be true, history tells us he was an enigmatic thinker, incredibly wise and respected, and the greatest sultan to have ever graced the throne."
"You make it so void of personality when you state it that way. I like the romantic version. He and great-great-grandmother fell in love, but seeing that neither one could be ruler because only princes could be sultans at the time, they formed a love pact that was strong enough to make the world accept them as the next leaders."
"A love pact?" Adzeem mocked. "How would a love pact do that?"
"Sultan Jafar was the greatest sorcerer in the land too, you know. He would probably know how."
"I know, dear sister. He legalized sorcery in his second year of rule. You remember that I'm studying hard to be your grand vizier, right?"
"And my court sorcerer, of course," she acknowledged.
"And as a sorcerer, I know that love pacts don't work that way."
"Whatever."
"You still intend to give me the position of grand vizier?" he prodded. "Sister?"
"Of course," she answered nonchalantly. "When I become sultaness, you will be my right hand man. I wouldn't give it to our irresponsible brother."
Adzeem stared hard at her, seeking out her aura. It was black and muggy. She was lying.
"Anyway, make sure you brush up on your social graces for my birthday party tomorrow night," she demanded as she walked away. "Thirty…I'm starting to feel old."
"You spend too much money on useless extravagant parties!" he called after her, but as always, she didn't listen to her sibling ten years her junior. He turned away with a grit in his teeth, frustrated by the mockery his older siblings were making of the monarchy. He punched his fist into the wall next to the frame in anger.
The thump was hard enough to dislodge something from behind the frame. A tap of metal hit the floor and Adzeem looked down, noting a small charm in the shape of half a beetle lying upon the marble. He picked it up and eyed it in scrutiny, knowing he'd seen something like it before. He glanced up at the portrait where the Sultan Jafar still stared back at him.
Adzeem went to the Agrabah museum in the dead of night. Being an advanced sorcerer at his youthful age, he had no problems getting into the heavily armored and spell cast building since he had the resources to find out how to bypass them all.
He stole a display out of it's case. It was one half of a jeweled beetle charm found in Sultaness Jasmine's possessions after she died, thought to be given to her by her beloved husband. Adzeem put the two pieces together and was flabbergasted when the charm came to life before his eyes. It fluttered to the west, thunking into a wall and falling onto the floor, breaking in two when it hit the wood.
Gathering the pieces, Adzeem fled the museum before he could be caught.
Out in the desert upon his horse, Adzeem tried attaching the pieces again. This time he was able to follow the scarab miles into the desert until it reached an oversized dune and revealed a cave shaped as a tiger underneath the sand.
With great trepidation, Adzeem explored the cave alone, finding caverns of treasures and a room with skeletons piled one on top of the other. He finally reached a different room with a proper tomb. Pushing the lid off the tomb revealed another skeleton long since dead. The only thing to distinguish it as special was a golden snake scepter, a vial of purple liquid and a black stone still emanating power beside it. Adzeem recognized the stone right away as the other half of the heavily guarded black stone that was currently encased in a glass vault in the palace. It had been deemed too powerful and could be used as a weapon, so it was locked away, visible but unobtainable. He picked up the vial and noted nothing on the yellow parchment attached to it. He then picked up the stone and silenced it. Suddenly a word revealed itself upon the parchment.
Aladdin
The name was not familiar at all and he wondered why someone had cast a spell on this person to prevent his memory from being called. He had been dead too long for anyone to actually remember him now.
Last was the snake scepter that Adzeem held in his hands, feeling the weight of such an amazing work of art. The ruby eyes glowed suddenly and he heard a voice inside his head, dark and deep.
Second son of the Sultan, I give you the power to rule Agrabah
After the shock wore off, Adzeem gathered the staff and the stone and ran back to his horse.
The next day Adzeem stood in front of the grand portrait of the former Sultan and Sultaness of Agrabah centered in the main hall of the palace.
"Staring at Sultan Jafar again?" his sister mocked as she drew up beside him.
"I never noticed till recently that great-great-grandfather is holding a scepter," Adzeem replied, refusing to take his gaze away from the portrait. His sister looked up and paused in surprise.
"So he is," she confirmed before looking back at Adzeem. "I see you had an identical one made."
"They did say he was the most powerful sorcerer in the land…" he trailed off.
"You're obsessed with being like him," she ridiculed. "Be on your best behavior for my birthday tonight. Father's health is ailing and the doctors say he might not last another year. I want to make sure everyone there knows that I will be Sultaness soon and should respect me as such."
"Don't worry about me, dear sister," Adzeem said as she walked off. He looked at the snake scepter in his hand. The ruby orbs flashed red in response. Adzeem glanced up at the portrait of Sultan Jafar and bowed with a smile.
"My sincerest gratitude, grandfather," he said in promise. "I will not let you nor Agrabah down."
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Author's note: ...Aaaaaaaand, it's finished. This is the part where I get too wordy but I MUST express my gratitude because the work that went into this fic was not entirely my own.
First of all, thank you sooo much to FrostedRaptor who asked for a love/hate dynamic and had the initial idea to incorporate Jasmine's snake charm into the story. FrostedRaptor also served as my beta reader and made so many great suggestions to the story that improved it so much. I made some poor first drafts that would have probably made it into the story had FrostedRaptor not given me the honest truth. What we all got was a story with better flow and better characterizations of Jasmine and Jafar on the mid to later chapters when I asked for help.
I want to give credit to Hellspanda for having me break out of my comfort zone to try to add some witty, sassy banter. Thank you!
And to all the people who continually gave me encouragement to keep writing and not abandon this fic, thank you so much! For reals, without your comments/reviews/critiques I wouldn't have been able to stay motivated. Please know that every single one of you helped get this story finished!
And last of all, I'm going to embarrass myself by begging for feedback on this story for the last time. If you enjoyed/hated this fic please let me know, even if you've never told me before. If you had a problem with one of the aspects, please let me know so that I can learn from the mistakes. If you would be interested in another story like this one, please tell me. Knowing someone would read another story of mine will encourage me to post more content. Thank you!