Disclaimer: Aladdin is the property of D*sney, and I claim nothing but my own silly ideas.
Chapter 2
Choosing your battles
The Sultan handed the matter of Mozenrath's release over to his Royal Counsel and, partially due to Jasmine's own streamlining of their bureaucratic process; the matter had been resolved in only three days time.
Those three days following the feast had included a great deal of contemplative silences, followed by irrational outbursts that left most of Jasmine's handmaidens cowering in her closet. Of course the palace residents took note of her change in mood, but the blame was laid at the feet of the usual monthly suspect and no further questions were asked on the subject. The three nights were spent in a similar fashion, split between dark dreams of the walking undead and maniacal laughter that chased her into the darkest corners of her heart.
It took Jasmine a full day and a half to notice her irrational behavior.
The day after her discussion with Genie, Aladdin arrived in search of her company and, she strongly suspected, a decent meal. Having no desire to return to the scene of her most recent public embarrassment, they took the evening meal together in her rooms. Genie entertained himself and Iago by changing Abu into different items and having the parrot guess the names and purposes of each. Considering the jinn's penchant for time-travel, Jasmine found the majority of the game to be immensely unfair to the sour tempered bird.
Their meal had been oppressively quiet and although she knew Aladdin suspected the cause, he was unwilling to broach the topic. He had taken to wandering around the room with pieces of food pinched between his greasy fingers as he ate. She shuddered a little at the sight. Jasmine was still picking at the remains of her dessert when Aladdin spoke up from the vicinity of her dresser.
"How did this happen?" his voice was careful and uncharacteristically quiet.
Jasmine looked up to see him cradling the broken pieces of the comb as one might hold the most delicate glass, or the greatest of treasures. The anger in her chest began to heat and bubble at the memory of that night, but she was heavily restrained by guilt. How could she have forgotten? His mother's…
Aladdin's gaze hardened when she didn't answer.
"Jasmine, how could you be so careless? I would have thought that someone who was raised with as many nice things as you would know how to take care of them!" his voice grew steadily louder until he stood on the threshold of shouting. "It might not be gold or silver, but it's one of the few things I have left of her and I trusted you with it!"
She found her eyes tearing up from the effort required to not shout back. However, Aladdin mistook the reason for their appearance and immediately calmed himself. He moved to the chair beside her and reached out to offer comfort. She resisted his supportive embrace.
"Jaz, look, I'm sorry I yelled. I know you would never have broken it on purpose." He wiped a tear from her cheek as he said this and gave her a false half smile.
Her chest contracted on the anger and Jasmine felt guilt overwhelm her at having destroyed so precious an item. 'Over what?' she asked herself as she hung her head down to stare at Aladdin's threadbare knees. But the answer was the same one that had been floating around her head for the past 36 hours.
Mozenrath.
She must have spoken the name aloud, for in the next instant Aladdin's entire frame tensed. She raised her head slowly, as if the weight of all her responsibilities physically lay on her simple headpiece. The fact that she was completely unable to decipher the look on his face made it all the more difficult to hold his gaze. Aladdin spared her the shame of looking away first.
He sighed heavily as he stood and moved towards the empty balcony. She wondered bleakly at what point Genie and the others had left. He stopped at the threshold and seemed to consider something hard. He must have reached a decision on the point he was considering, because he abruptly turned and retraced his steps with greater speed than he had previously displayed. He took the chair across from her this time.
"I know that this thing about Mozenrath is upsetting you," he began, once again enunciating the man's name as if it were a slur. "What I don't understand is why it's bothering you so much."
Jasmine felt a small pinch of laughter bubble up inside her as she considered telling him that she was wondering the same thing.
He was quiet long enough that she realized that he was going to wait for an answer. She was just as interested as to what her response would be as he was.
"It was my victory. I beat him fair and square all on my own and they're going to take that away from me." She disliked the tone of her voice as she said this, but it couldn't be helped. Jasmine had promised herself to stop whining years ago.
"But Jaz, we've beaten lots of bad guys! Why should this one matter so mu-" She cut him off there.
"No! You have beaten lots of bad guys. And I've helped. Mozenrath's defeat was entirely mine. Now he's going to be released on the small technicality of him being the ruler of a malicious wasteland and me being a capricious female!"
She let out an angry snort that made Aladdin's eyes widen to the size of dinner plates. She turned to face the wall, but found herself staring into the mirrored version of her own anger. Jasmine abruptly refocused her gaze on Raja's sleeping mat.
"I didn't know you felt this way. I've always seen our victories as just that, ours." She bit her tongue to keep from lashing out. Apparently he was challenged when it came to recognizing just how much of the glory he was constantly taking for himself. Sometimes she honestly couldn't understand how Genie was unfazed by his behavior.
He was trying to pull her eyes to him, but she was determined not to let him see the anger there.
"I know you're upset now, but soon you're going see how pointless it is to keep getting mad over this. We've beaten Mozenrath and others like him before, and if he get's his turban in a knot again, we'll just have to remind him of that." Aladdin might have sounded a little too excited at the prospect of "reminding" the sorcerer of his defeat, but she didn't comment on it.
As upset as she was over Aladdin's arrogance, the princess found a small measure of relief in his statement. Yes, they had beaten him before. They could do it again. She could do it again.
Jasmine was finally was able to meet his eyes and felt moved by the genuine concern she found there. The princess took the first step and reached across the table to hold his hand.
"I am sorry about your mother's comb", she said softly. And she meant it.
"It's ok. I told you I knew it wasn't on purpose. I think my Dad carved it for her out of some old bone for a wedding present. It probably wouldn't have lasted much longer anyway." His smile was as brittle as his words.
Jasmine knew all to well the pain Aladdin felt for his lost mother. She sympathized considering that she had never met her own mother the queen. Yet, she knew for a fact that had their situations this evening been reversed, she would not have been as understanding as this orphan who had watched helplessly as the woman who gave him life wasted away from disease.
As her fiancé moved forward to place a kiss on her lips, Jasmine resolved to let the issue of the sorcerer rest for the time being.
The princess was formally informed of the counsel's decision late in the afternoon of the third day. She spent some time afterward walking the familiar paths of her private gardens in the receding heat. Raja had grown tired of following her constant movement and was currently reclined in the shade of a large tree panting heavily, with one yellow eye lazily focused in her direction.
Jasmine herself was moving from one flowering bush to another, allowing her nostrils to soak up the sweet scent of life. The sun inched closer to the horizon with each passing minute and the warm wet of evening was descending on her refuge like a fog. Eventually the rising humidity forced her to recline on the edge of the fountain, dipping her toes in while she re-read the missive in her hand for the umpteenth time that hour.
She understood their logic and even agreed on the course of action they had chosen. But not even understanding could dispel the unease in her gut. Fear was mixing with injured pride to create a volatile cocktail than churned with each sweep of her eyes along the page. She ran her fingers along the smooth line of ink illustrating his formal title and felt a distinct shiver of anticipation. She could beat him again. Anytime she wanted to. Anytime he felt the need to challenge her. She was almost looking forward to his release.
Her excitement was cooled by the knowledge of what was to come. Jasmine waited quietly in the fading light. She knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Aladdin and the others would have heard the news by now. He would arrive soon and beg her not to go. She knew it like she knew her name. However, she would not allow him to talk her out of this. As the Sultan's daughter and the so-called 'hostile' party, it was her responsibility to meet with Mozenrath in the desert and discuss the terms of a truce.
Aladdin's exclusion from the expedition had had more to do with his (she quoted the missive again in her head) 'personal conflict' with the Lord of Black Sand than his current political status. 'But' she thought ruefully, 'there is a comment being made regardless of the given reason.' She frowned at the implications.
Raja lifted his head with a slow flick of his ears in a gesture that said he had heard something, but was unconcerned for her safety. She had to respect the kind of perception it took to be able to discern the soft sound of thread riding on the evening air. She rose to meet them as Carpet landed gracefully at her side and steadied herself for the arguments to come.
.
.
.
Later that evening, after Aladdin's fears were soothed and his concerns addressed, Jasmine prepared for bed with a new sense of purpose. In a little under a week she would be traveling to dagger rock with a small contingency of loyal guards and her father's Chief Advisor, Hasim. While she seriously doubted that the guards themselves would pose any threat to the sorcerer, the small bag of magical tricks Genie had promised her earlier would certainly put a limp in his step if he tried to cross her. Between that and the fact that Aladdin had convinced her to take Carpet as an exit strategy, Jasmine felt relatively sure that she would be meeting the sorcerer on her terms. And only her terms, she thought with a smile.
Her gaze was drawn to the broken comb, which lay across her vanity table with it's shattered pieces in place as a body being reassembled for eternal rest. She ran the fleshy pads of her fingers over it's smooth surface and wondered at the surprising texture of the material. Not cold, like the gold, silver and bronze of her usual adornments but slightly warmed. As if it was made to both absorb the bearer's warmth and use it to create an internal flame of it's own. She felt the sharp ridges of the ornamental carvings that were so at odds with the natural bows and ripples of the surface and decided it would have been just as beautiful in it's natural state without the embellishments. Jasmine lifted the dull ivory surface of the largest fragment to her lips for a moment, praying a small silent prayer for forgiveness from Aladdin, before laying the pieces to rest under the velvet lining of her jewelry box.
Sleep was elusive after she retired to her bed, but she comforted herself with the knowledge that she was prepared for the tasks ahead. Jasmine reminded herself repeatedly to be especially greatful for the temporary comfort of her matress and was lost to the haze of sleep a short time later. What the Princess could not have known, as she slipped through consciousness into a deeper and deeper slumber, was that she and Mozenrath shared an unexpectedly large number of personality traits. And while it would not be fair to criticize Jasmine for making the same mistake the sorcerer had made only three weeks prior, it is important to note that she was seriously underestimating the man by assuming that he was not ready and waiting for her arrival with a number of tricks stuffed up his voluminous sleeves.
A/N- Hello again. I seriously hope I have figured out this formatting thing now, it must be hurting your eyes to have all those paragraphs squished together! Couple of short notes for a short update: I really wanted to bring in Moze at the end of this chapter, but then Aladdin popped his head in and demanded some more of my time. I'm trying to establish where he and Jasmine stand before our charismatic leading man pops in offers his sarcastic input. I promise that the Captain of Cadavers will be making his big dramatic entrance in the next chapter, which is all sketched out, I just need to find the time to put text to docx, if you catch my drift. I will probably update before Wed, but I make no promises. Thank you so much to those of you that have taken the time to review! It means the world to me to know that you're enjoying this. Catch ya later!