Chapter 16: Lighthouse View to a Kill
Aladdin leapt down into the alternate underground entrance of Gloloria's lighthouse. He'd arrived to his intended destination in the middle of the day, when the sun was highest in the sky. Though being underground, one wouldn't be able to tell the sun was out except for the light just outside the way he came in.
The magic thief had warned him about the high tide of the waters that were beyond the lighthouse. Where he stood was a flood zone, a place where he could easily drown if he was there too long. The last time he'd ventured in this place, he'd not only found the remains of the sorcerer Saztou, but he also found a way to defeat the Deathseeker based on the last remaining magic that Saztou left behind - a will in the form of an amulet that turned into a serpent. The area had flooded back then, but Genie was able to get them all out before they could get stuck.
Aladdin realized just how much time had passed between then and the present. He also realized that if he were to be trapped in the flood zone, Genie would not be able to help him in a pinch. Just hope I find what I'm looking for before the sun sets, he thought.
Aladdin reached the area he remembered, a secret opening to the basement of the lighthouse. It looked like more rocks and debris had fallen in the area, so he made sure to move as carefully around it as he could. The water level was low, reaching only as high as his ankles. Still, he had to make sure not to fall as he found a steady place to push up against the trap door leading into the lighthouse. It didn't give easily - taking him about three tries before he could throw ir open above him. He used his hands and arms pull himself up into the room.
"At least I can see down here without a torch, for now." Aladdin closed the door beneath him as he surveyed his surroundings. Not much had changed in the room since the last time he saw Saztou's magic at work, revealing secrets that only the sorcerer knew for years about the Deathseeker, secrets that would lead to the former sky god's demise. Saztou. Aladdin thought the name of the sorcerer with a pinch of sadness at his core. The sorcerer's body had long since perished, but Aladdin had wanted to believe they could save him in the thick of their last encounter. Unfortunately, there was nothing to be done. Once the serpent disappeared, leaving behind Saztou's magic amulet, the sorcerer's essence had disappeared for good.
Aladdin shook the memory from his head, adjusting himself to the present task. Nothing in the room indicated a door or trinket to be opened, let alone a key that the magic thief had requested. "Probably have to go up to find it," Aladdin said as he looked above him, a broken staircase leading upward into the belly of the lighthouse.
Aladdin's quick feet came in handy as he leapt from one broken part of the spiral staircase to the next. A few times the path crumbled behind and in front of him, but he kept his breaths even as he made his way upward. By the time he made his way to the door that would lead him into the main part of the lighthouse, he found it was blocked by something. Not locked, but something had fallen beyond the door, making it hard to push open.
"Doesn't seem like it's going to be easy to get through this. If I have to break this door down, so be it," he said. He thought about the vials of magic that Ezele had given him for the journey. He wondered if he could use the red vial against the door, blast a way through it without issue. As he looked at the fragile path around him, he realized that wasn't a good idea. Looking back down the path beneath where he stood, if he fell from the blast or if the path collapsed beneath him, there would be nothing to catch him. Nothing but hard stone to meet him. He winced.
"Guess I'll go the old fashioned way, then." He positioned himself in front of the door, pushing enough against it to see how far it would go. Aladdin found the place the door stuck, and began to push with his full strength against it. It took a couple of tries, but he felt it give a little on the third, and a definite shift on the fourth. When he pushed against it a fifth time, the door flew open and whatever was blocking it fell away, revealing a whole other part of the lighthouse he'd never seen before.
"Whoa. This place is bigger than I expected it to be. Still, there's not much further up I can go but one more level. Rest of the path above me is caved in. The key's gotta be somewhere in between there and here." No sooner had he spoken the words than a part of the wall fell apart, causing a partial cave in that nearly crashed down on where Aladdin stood. He was able to drop to the ground, rolling out of the way of the heavy stones just before they could hurt him.
He groaned as he lay on his back, the dust and debris settling around him. "Oh sure! This is going to be a very easy search for one small key," he muttered bitterly.
Jasmine had debated following Aladdin in, but the moment the thief magically appeared close to where he once stood, she and Abu found a nearby rock to hide behind. Without either Genie or Carpet to aid them - confronting the magic thief in that moment wouldn't have been a good idea. It also didn't help that if they tried to interfere in the so-called "thief game", it might mean terrible things for Aladdin. So, they stayed hidden, but kept a close watch on the thief's actions.
The sun was lower on the horizon when the thief entered the underground passage. She handed Abu a container of water to drink from, while also drinking from her own. They'd been outside a while. Aladdin had been in the lighthouse for just as long. Too long for her comfort.
"I hope Aladdin's okay," she whispered. "Looks like the thief's getting impatient waiting too. Should we follow him in, Abu?"
Abu shook his head, motioning with his paws a series of messages that Jasmine easily picked up on.
"Yeah, you're right. We might put Aladdin in more danger if the thief knows we're on to them. But I don't want the thief hurting Aladdin either. We'll wait here a little while longer. If Aladdin comes out of the lighthouse the same way he went in, we'll be there to greet and help him."
"Aladdin." Abu screeched softly. Jasmine ran her hand along the monkey's back to comfort him.
She looked back towards the area. "I hope whatever he's looking for, he finds soon. It's not going to get easier the closer the night comes in."
Aziz watched Aladdin from a fair distance as the boy entered the path beneath the lighthouse, but waited a long while to follow him inside. He knew it would be a difficult task for Aladdin to find the key. Though once the boy did, it would be something the former street rat would pick up on very quickly. Part of Aziz hoped that Aladdin would die trying, but using his magic to watch Aladdin's progress had proved that very wrong.
"He really is more resourceful than I thought. Not a lick of magic power on him, and he's managed to duck and dodge his way searching for one key in this rubble. Like finding a needle in a sand dune." But even as Aziz spoke the words aloud, he knew that the search would not have been as challenging and taken much less time if Aladdin had his Genie or Carpet with him. The natural decay of the lighthouse falling apart around him made the search just that much harder. That had been Aziz's goal from the beginning. But even with Aladdin's limitations, Aziz could sense the prince was close to finding it. Whether by stubbornness or determination - possibly both - Aladdin continued his search without hesitation.
"If the brat does find the key and hands it over without question, that simply means my control of Gloloria will set its wheels more quickly in motion," Aziz mused to himself as he walked further into the underground, following Aladdin's exact path. "And that will make it so much easier to end his heroic journey here. A watery grave already prepared for the Prince of Agrabah. Just need to find the means to deliver his due fate."
Aladdin rubbed at his eyes with the back of his wrist. He was already tired from searching almost every safe corner of the lighthouse he could access. There was no trace of a key - traditional or odd - that he could place. He'd searched old shelves, the uneven floor, room corners and crumbling stairs. He'd even searched the surrounding walls - which held prominently displayed key hooks, but no keys. Though imprints on the wall indicated that keys had once hung there, they were no longer anywhere near their proper places.
"So much for being easy to find," he said, looking over his shoulder to an area of the lighthouse that showed a sliver of the sky outside. He could see the sun setting closer to the water. "Been in here for way too long. Won't be much longer before it gets dark."
He wondered if he should call it a day and use the teleportation vial that he had at his back to return to Gloloria. But he felt it would be a waste after traveling the whole way there. Before he could seriously consider it, Aladdin saw something that caught the corner of his eye, a crack in the floor that a part of the setting sun caught in its ray. As small as it was, it was a clue.
"A secret room?" He mused aloud as he approached it. "Definitely not easy to access from here. Wonder where the entrance is?"
His foot caught against a jagged piece of the floor as he moved forward. As he moved to step back, he realized his error as the floor around him became unstable. Aladdin tried to scramble, but even as he tried to leap to safety, the floor that he expected to land on crumbled under him, knocking him off-balance.
"Whoa!" Aladdin fell into the hidden room, hitting the floor and debris beneath him hard. As the dust settled, he lay on the ground a long moment as he held his side, just beneath his ribs. He landed hard enough to bruise his skin, but not enough to draw blood or break a bone. His hands checked the vials at his back, and he breathed a sigh of relief as he realized they were all unbroken in the sack.
"I'll be lucky if I don't break any bones getting out of this place," he said as he sat up, groaning. He looked around the room, realizing it was some kind of study. A small desk, more shelves with scrolls that were likely ruined by flooding waters and the general dampness of the area. But it was the key rings on the far wall to the left of where he fell that he found exactly what he was looking for.
"That key...how would it be the only one that's left behind in this place? Did someone forget to take it?" Having learned his lesson from the other room, he carefully made his way over to the key holders, taking the single iron key that hung from its hook. He studied it in the dim light of the area.
"Too small for a door. Too big for a trinket box, I think. Wonder what it opens and why the thief's so desperate for it." Aladdin weighed the key in his hand. It was just about as big as his palm, heavy to the touch. Very well made from the detailing. The pattern at the top of the key particularly caught his eye - what looked like jeweled cuffs. No, not cuffs - collars. The ones that could hold back a dangerous beast at its throat. It looked familiar, but Aladdin couldn't place where he'd seen it before.
Beware, young man.
The sudden voice made Aladdin turn sharply around, eyes scanning the room for anything odd. But the mysterious voice had came and went as simply as a breath of air. Aladdin wondered if it had been the wind outside the lighthouse instead of a voice at all. Weird.
He shook his head, his attention turned back to the key in his hand. "Wonder if Remi would know where this goes to, if it was linked to one of the old tales of Gloloria. If it was left here when all the other keys have disappeared, it must've been for a reason." A feeling of sudden, unexplainable dread filled him. It was so quick that it caught Aladdin by surprise, just as much as the voice had. But one thing was clear: if Aladdin handed over the key to the thief, something bad was bound to happen.
Aladdin looked around, finding a way to exit the space. A false wall had been the way into the room, but the way out was much easier since it was clearly marked from the inside. As he stepped out of the space, Aladdin found himself a level down, going back towards the basement of the lighthouse.
"Think I'm done here anyway." Aladdin started to reach inside his sack for the vial that would transport him back to Gloloria, but the voice and figure that appeared in front of him gave him pause as they approached along the spiral staircase.
"Hello, street rat. I believe you have something for me."
Aladdin's expression soured the moment he saw the fully cloaked magic thief. "Didn't expect to see you here."
"I had a hunch that you would attempt to finish the game as soon as possible. What better way to ensure you followed the rules by tracing your steps?"
"You followed me here?" Aladdin had the feeling he'd been followed ever since he left town, but he never thought he'd been in any danger. A few times he'd looked behind him on the path to the lighthouse, but he hadn't seen anyone. Still, he felt a pinch of guilt at not being more observant of his surroundings. He should have known that the thief would make sure he'd follow the rules. He's done this before in the last part of the game when he was controlling Arzin, don't know why I'm surprised.
The thief didn't give more attention to Aladdin's comment, instead holding out a hand. "As I said, you have something that I want. Now's the time to hand it over. You do want to free your Genie and Carpet, don't you?"
"At what cost?" Aladdin snapped.
"Not your place to ask. Now give me the key! Unless you would rather guess my true name. But you haven't figured that out yet, have you?"
Of course he'd find a way to taunt me in all this, Aladdin thought bitterly. That sealed the deal, there wasn't anything else but to do as the thief willed. Without another word, Aladdin handed the key over to the thief's gloved hand. In the same swift motion, Aladdin saw the attack the thief had planned before it landed. While the thief took the key with one hand, he used the other hand to aim a magic blast that meant to hit Aladdin full on. But in the last moment, Aladdin dodged the brunt of the attack.
The blast wasn't harmless to either of them. It broke a significant chunk of the stone staircase that they stood on - sending both Aladdin and the thief falling to the floor below them, rapidly flooding with water. Aladdin tried to grab a nearby ledge to recover as he fell, but he couldn't hold on long enough.
Aladdin already survived one fall in the lighthouse, but this particular one was a much longer path down. He hit the ground hard enough to rattle his teeth, the side of his head also hit hard, making him dazed. He couldn't recover fast enough as more debris fell around him, one heavy piece falling on his lower leg that made him scream.
A distance away, the thief groaned, but he wasn't hurt as much as Aladdin was. "Okay, I'll admit it. Didn't think it would be this hard to kill you."
"Was that your plan this whole time?" Aladdin asked, speaking through clenched teeth as he tried to pull his trapped leg free. It was hard to, with water quickly pooling under him and his strength waning from his injury.
"Of course! What did you expect?" the thief said casually, shrugging his shoulders. "Once I got what I wanted, I said you would get what you wanted as well. That is, the freedom of your Carpet and Genie." Aladdin could almost hear the wicked grin in the thief's next words, though his face was fully covered. "I never said you'd survive the test."
"You..." Aladdin began, but something clicked in his mind then. The thief's voice, he thought. It's his true one. I recognize it. He's not hiding it anymore. Aladdin wasn't sure if the thief noticed the change. Maybe the fall had weakened his magic, made him unaware of the slip in disguise. But it was enough for Aladdin to follow as long as he didn't let his recognition show. He just had to hold on long enough to know the truth.
"It's just a shame that you won't be able to know who I am before you're dead, Aladdin," the thief said with a sneer. It was one of the few times the thief had actually addressed him by name. Aladdin knew he was in trouble as the thief prepared an attack with a ball of magic forming in one of his palms. Aladdin's breath hitched as he drew back from the thief's slow approach. "I'll have to make sure to tell your friends farewell for you. Abu will become my monkey, your Genie will be at my demand. Of course, your princess..."
"No, you're wrong," Aladdin snapped. It was getting hard for him to speak through the pain that ran through him, but his hand reached inside the sack at his back, hand finding the vial of red liquid that he would use at just the right moment. Just long enough to learn who the thief really was.
"Oh, you poor, desperate soul. Still trying to hang on even after you've lost the game? I pity you. Actually, no - I lied. I don't pity you at all. I'm ready for your death by my hand." The thief was also stalling for time, his magic steadily growing in strength. "Did you ever think that it was your destiny to lose to me?"
At those words, Aladdin knew exactly who the thief was. The prince felt ill at not recognizing it sooner - from the thief's ties to Aladdin and Abu, to the method of breath magic the thief used before, to the taunts about "destiny" and knowing Aladdin's past. But the knowledge gave him a strength that Aladdin chose to hold onto as firm as he could. His voice had a confidence that startled the magic thief. "No, I didn't lose anything. I gave you what you wanted, and you said you'd set Genie and Carpet free. I also finally know who you really are. So this should end the thief's game for good."
The thief's expression turned to one of shock. "How could you possibly...?"
Aladdin gave him a small, sly grin. "You should really work on not being so obvious with your references to our shared pasts. Especially since you're not doing a good job of hiding your voice anymore." The thief realized his significant mistake, his magic faltering. At that point, Aladdin readied himself to throw the vial gripped in his hand, his brows narrowing as his expression hardened.
Aladdin's voice had no warmth in his words. "Nice to see you again, Aziz."