Sinbad awoke to something hard and pointy pressing into his side.
"Judal," he moaned, "just give me five more minutes." The minutes of silence that ensued reminded him that Judal hadn't spent the night. He quickly sat upright, fingers fumbling in the covers for what was poking into him. "What the hell is it?" he muttered to himself. His hands curled around a cold, solid object and he pulled out a tiny golden wand with a sharp crimson gem at the peak.
This is Judal's. He must've left it on accident. He sighed. What should I do? Should I look for him? Does he need it? What if he got into a fight and realized he didn't have it? Would he be able to fight without it? What if he gets hurt? How would Al Sarmen react? Oh, Sin, you have to give this to him! His life could be depending on it! Yes, I'll give it back…but how will I find him? Where does he go during the day? Great. How am I going to find him? I doubt he'd stay anywhere for more than a day…
The door burst open and Ja'far and Masrur entered the room. He swiftly moved his right hand that was holding the wand behind him. Ja'far's eyes roamed over Sinbad sitting in bed half-naked, put a hand to his head, and exhaled. "Sin, what are you doing still in bed? We have many important documents to look over and at this rate it'll take all day! You're a king! You should take better responsibility of your dut-"
Sinbad cut him off. "Masrur."
"Yes?"
"Why are you making such a weird face?"
"There's an unfamiliar scent in here. "
"Oh." Sinbad pondered for a good moment. "Oh! That's it! I'll use your nose!"
Masrur and Ja'far exchanged puzzled glances. The latter spoke, "Sin, what are you talking about? And what strange scent? Was there someone here?"
Masrur said, "I've encountered this scent before but I can't remember when."
The king made a fake laugh and thought, Should I tell them about Judal? Heh, I wonder how Ja'far would act?
Right when Sinbad was about to open his mouth to speak, the Fanalis said, "It's that Magi, Judal."
Sinbad clamped his mouth shut and bit his lower lip. Masrur, I am going to murder you in your sleep!
Ja'far's features darkened into a demonic shadow. "Sin, was Judal here?"
His king plastered on his best plastic smile and voice as innocent as a kitten's. "Yeah."
"Last night?"
"Yeah."
"In your room?"
"Yeah."
"In your bed?"
"Ye—no!"
"Sin." The general tapped his foot and arched a brow.
Sinbad shrugged. "Alright, alright, Judal was here last night…and he left this here." He held up the wand he had hidden behind his back. "I want to give it back to him, but we have no idea if he lives anywhere in particular so I was going to use Masrur's magnificent nose to track his scent so I can find him."
"I'm not a dog." Masrur mumbled to himself.
Ja'far asked bluntly, "And when are you going to do this? We have a lot of work to finish."
Sinbad stood up and began dressing. "Right now."
"Right now?"
"I've made up my mind and I'm going to look for him right when I'm done dressing."
The freckled general clenched a fist but released it almost immediately. "When we come back, you're going to work non-stop until you finish every scroll and document that's heaped upon my desk."
Sinbad began adjusting his metal vessels on himself and paused. "We?"
Ja'far nodded. "Yes, we."
The king's eyes widened and he chuckled. "Oh, Ja'far, I thought I'd let you stay here to work on those documents a bit."
Ja'far asserted, "I'm coming with you."
"You're coming with us?"
"Yes."
"Alright then! We'll be departing shortly. But first we should eat breakfast!"
A faint smile curved Ja'far's pale lips as he followed his king and the Fanalis down the steps smothered in the bright morning sunlight and into the dining hall.