The palace of king Sinbad of the Seelie Court sat sprawled over a rocky islet in the midst of a lavender sea. Mist hung over the water and the air smelled of dew and wildflowers almost every day. A wide strip of land led from the islet to the mainland, and this was the path most took to approach the vibrant palace of the king. During the wet season and the high tide, the sea rose and the pathway disappeared, and then the only way to and from the palace was by boat.

However it was common knowledge among those who frequented or resided within the palace that the front gate was mostly meant for visitors, and that side passages and hidden doors were marks of familiarity. Each and every fae who took harbor in Sinbad's palace had a favored entrance.

Alibaba's preferred path lay on the western side, where the islet swooped down to meet the sea. Here, the foundation of the palace almost dipped beneath the water, and an invisible pathway of slick stepping stones rested just beneath the mist. He had skipped along the wetted rocks since he was but a child, steps light and sure on the slick stones.

From the stepping stones the prince would leap ashore, and there was a crevice in a wall through which he would slip and find himself amidst the palace gardens on the other side. It was not unusual for familiar faces to appear from nowhere within the palace, and so he was always greeted warmly once he was spotted.

Alibaba responded to these greetings cheerfully, and inquired after an audience with his king.

While he waited for summons to meet with Sinbad, Alibaba returned to his own chambers for the first time since before the rebellion had begun. They were as he'd left them; wide windows thrown open and possessions in pleasantly unkempt arrangement, giving his rooms a homey feel. Fresh flowers grew in all the vases, and the gold laced into every piece of furniture glowed merrily in the sun.

He bathed in the rose quartz tub in his washroom, lounging in the cool spring water dashed with salts that cleansed the skin and aura alike. As he soaked, he indulged himself in a pipe filled with the dried petals of flowers from the gardens. Breathing in, the taste was a sweet melody of summer, and when he exhaled the plume of smoke was the color of peonies.

Alibaba soaked until the pipe was through, then set it aside and slid his body down, fully submerging himself beneath the water. It was tranquil, silent, only the resonating pulse of the magic in the rose quartz and his own heartbeat. A few moments lasted an eternity, and then he drew himself up again, rising to his feet and stepping from the tub.

He didn't concern himself with a towel, leaving it to the breeze and the sunlight to dry his body. A platter of dried fruit and succulent meats had been delivered to his room while he bathed, along with a jug of dandelion wine. With nothing to do until he was granted a meeting with Sinbad, Alibaba fell upon his bed to wait.

This is where a servant found him some time later, stretched out atop the disarray of sheets and blankets, teeth tearing through a chunk of meat held between messy fingers.

"King Sinbad will see you as soon as you are ready to greet company, my prince." The servant had the head of an owl, but possessed eight spider-like eyes rather than two. They all blinked simultaneously. "He sends his apologies for not greeting you when you returned."

"Ahh, it's fine. He was probably busy, wasn't he?" Alibaba dismissed. He tilted his head back, dropping the meat into his waiting mouth. "I'll be down in a bit."

The servant bowed, then took their leave.

Alibaba stretched luxuriously before hopping from his bed. He licked his fingers clean while he sought after fresh clothes to wear, dressing himself casually, and without real attention to his appearance.

The walk from his rooms to the chamber where he would find his king was not particularly long, if one knew the byways and false doors of the palace as he did. It was more of a casual stroll, and did not afford him much time to consider how best to phrase his request.

Despite what he had said to Kouen before they parted ways, Alibaba had absolutely no idea whether or not Sinbad would be willing to help them recover Hakuryuu from the mortal realm.

It stood to reason that, being involved with the prince's affairs thus far, Sinbad shouldn't have a problem extending further help. But Alibaba knew himself to be notoriously emotional in his thinking sometimes, especially when it came to friends and close comrades. And for him, none were closer than Hakuryuu.

However, it was entirely possible that Sinbad may choose to write Hakuryuu off completely and proceed without his support. The rebellion's initial goal had been of the UnSeelie prince's design, but it held even without him there to represent it. Perhaps he would be considered an acceptable loss.

Alibaba sighed dismally to himself. He could only hope that his own affection for the prince would sway Sinbad's decision somewhat.

As if sensing a conclusion to his musings, the door to the chamber he sought appeared before him, resolutely posed in the middle of the stonework. The wooden frame seemed to hold itself with the sternness of an elder, observing all who entered it with shrewdness.

Alibaba had been there many times, enough that the door's dour presence no longer bothered him. Beyond it lay one of Sinbad's favorite meeting rooms, a place where friends felt comfortable and strangers felt entirely unsettled.

Through the door, which shut behind him, lay a vast room with only three walls. Where the fourth should have been, there was only an empty cavity, supported by two engraved columns that stretched from floor to ceiling.

The floor was smooth stone, but the walls on either side had been left rough, as if carved directly from a mountainside. Sparse furniture decorated the room; rugs and collections of embroidered cushions sat nestled into either corner, and a setting of low couches and a long, squat table rested in the middle of the floor.

In the space between these and the columns, a strange structure had been carved near the lip of the precipice. A pool had been gouged into the stone floor, reaching from one end of the room to the other, its depth impossible to tell. It was fed with water from the lilac sea, which came cascading down waterfalls that had been carved into the walls.

Two people resided in the chamber when Alibaba entered, one settled comfortably on a couch, watching as the other emerged from the water.

Even at a distance, Alibaba recognized the sleek fae that came prowling from the pool. Faded scars wrote history over his skin, interrupted occasionally by patches of glittering scales the color of evergreens. His hair was unruly about his head and long at the neck, and more of those vibrant scales framed his sunflower eyes. Few were permitted to see this fae without his golden armor, needle-like blade slumbering at his hip.

To strangers, he was known as Drakon, and to friends, he offered the name Dragul. The name was used sparingly, and only by those seldom few who were closest to his heart, for it carried a weight of power with it that was difficult for some to bear.

Dragul paced casually to Sinbad's side, unperturbed by Alibaba's entrance. The king was holding a towel for him, eyes shamelessly scoping over his knight's slick skin, hunger barely concealed in his smile. Their hands lingered together when Dragul took the cloth, as if they could not quite bear to pull apart.

"I can come back later if I'm interrupting!" Alibaba called out as he crossed the floor.

Naturally, this was a jest. There was no interrupting Sinbad and Dragul, because that implied that there was either a beginning or an end to what was between them.

"I fear you would be gone quite a while if you were to leave now, my boy." Sinbad mused in reply.

Dragul scoffed.

Alibaba's laughter echoed against the craggy walls, distorting itself around the room in duplicates. He dropped himself onto a couch lined with silk, mirroring his king's pose with one leg crossed over the other. A companionable nod was shared between himself and Dragul before Sinbad finally dragged his eyes from his knight, turning his attention instead to his prince.

Sinbad's youthful face was always betrayed by his eyes. They were golden discs, molten like the sun on a summer day, entrancing and painfully beautiful to behold. Fae had been known to lose themselves in those eyes, offer everything they possessed to their owner, and crave desperately for his gaze. Lives had been lost, taken by jealous others or themselves, in pursuit of his gaze.

Alibaba had been raised under it, though, and as years went by more and more remarked how his own eyes has begun to take on a similar quality.

Sinbad smiled.

"Welcome home, Alibaba. You have been missed."

"It's good to be back, Sinbad."

The king gestured invitingly to the table, where there lay a tray of roasted fowl garnished with fresh apples and pear, and a jug of fragrant wine. The fowl had already been picked at, and the wine was a third empty, clearly having been meant for Sinbad's private consumption.

Had this been a casual meeting, he would have gladly partaken of both wine and meat, but Alibaba politely declined. It was best to imbibe nothing the king offered when one wished to discuss business, it was far too easy to lose oneself in the comfort of a good meal.

Sinbad's smile widened.

"So," he began, turning his head so he could watch his knight as he dressed. "Things are proceeding well with our "rebellion" are they? Your last report contained some interesting developments."

"As well as can be expected. It still feels like we're fumbling about in the dark, but I'm told that our actions aren't raising much of a stir in UnSeelie at the moment."

"You were told by our new comrades, I assume?"

"Lord Kouen, yes."

Dragul flicked his hair free of the collar of his shirt. He twisted one of the long tails as one might ring a cloth, sending a cascade of water to the floor. Sinbad's fingers twitched, yearning to touch.

"From what I had gathered from your friend," he said. "His family would be of no aid to his goals."

"And I wouldn't doubt him for a second in that belief, but I met with Lord Kouen myself. His intentions are genuine, and where he goes his siblings will follow without question."

"Do you think him trustworthy?"

Alibaba sighed, rubbing a hand through his hair.

"I do, but even if I didn't, I don't think it matters." he said candidly. "We need their help."

Sinbad finally drew his eyes from his knight, cocking a brow at Alibaba in question. It was Dragul who responded, however, leaning his hip against the couch as he tied a sash around his middle.

"At present, we are moving blindly. We have no timeline for the event we are preventing and no specifics of the event itself." He finished with his sash and crossed his arms. "We do not even know what it is we are meant to be stopping, only that at some point in the future, it will occur. We are in desperate need of information."

Alibaba nodded his agreement, and Sinbad regarded the both of them thoughtfully.

"Very well, I can't argue with the both of you." the king sighed, though it came out as something of a whine. Dragul rolled his eyes and Alibaba resisted the urge to snigger.

"But," Sinbad went on. "That is not why you met with Kouen. Tell me what you learned of our friend, Hakuryuu. You omitted that from your letter."

And so, Alibaba told the king and his knight about his meeting with Kouen. His tale wound up the mountain with them, through the snow where life was scarce and up to the clearing where the ambush had laid in wait. Careful mention was made of Hakuryuu's pursuers, of how he'd helped many of his comrades escape, of just how many fae had been there to meet him on the mountainside.

Sinbad's expression did not change as Alibaba described the freshly grown sapling emerging from the snow, though Dragul sucked in a breath. He had seen too many forests grow, springing to life where so many of their fellows had fallen.

When he reached the part about the tear in the veil, where a vacuum was slowly refilling with magic, like cloth being stitched back together, Sinbad's expression flickered. For a moment there was confusion, then comprehension, then a dark shadow over his eyes. These all passed swiftly enough to be missed, if one wasn't looking for them, but they made Alibaba's shoulders tense.

"The attack was meant to silence the prince," Dragul noted, once Alibaba was done. "Not the rebellion."

"Mm." Sinbad hummed in agreement. "For our purposes, that's good. We will be able to continue as we are, overlooked. In the end the attack was only dire on the surface, the outcome could be much worse."

The king stopped here and cast an appraising gaze over his prince. Alibaba had always been expressive, his feelings showed through his entire body, and just then he was resisting the urge to leap to his feet and yell at Sinbad for his callous reaction. It wouldn't be the first time.

But he was controlling himself, not out of some ingrained sense of self, but in the interest of protecting his friend. His outburst might sour Sinbad's mood, and then any hope he had may be lost.

Sinbad chuckled through his nose, smiling fondly.

"But you don't care about the rebellion." he said. "You want to find a way to retrieve Hakuryuu."

"Yes!" Alibaba exclaimed, sitting forward. "Opening a gate to the mortal realm isn't difficult, and if we sent a small band—!"

"I will not send any of our comrades after him."

The despair was immediate to paint itself on the prince's face.

"Then, just me!" he pleaded. "I can glamour myself better than almost anyone, I could be in and out of the mortal realm before anyone noticed I was gone!"

"No. You are forbidden from going after him either."

"But-! Sinbad! If he hasn't returned by now then something must be-!"

Sinbad held up a hand, silencing his prince. Alibaba's mouth remained open for several moments, struggling for words, before he finally shut it. The glare that followed did not impress Sinbad as much as the continued attempt to speak. It was the first time in a long while anyone had sought to defy him.

Dragul was watching him from the corner of his eye. He refused to interfere, as he always did, but Sinbad could feel his gaze regardless. There was no judgment or displeasure in it, but he knew his knight did not entirely approve.

He had always had a soft spot for the prince they had raised.

"Be that as it may, I cannot allow for any reckless rescue party to go traipsing about the mortal realm with my approval. There is too much danger in it. Even if we opened the same gate, in the same place, there is no guarantee you would find yourself in the same place as Hakuryuu."

The mortal world is small, he read in the prince's eyes. It can be searched.

"Mortals themselves do not concern me, they are easily bewitched and ensnared—But their creations. Iron and chemicals, false earth that suffocates the life from their world. No, there is too much risk."

Heat had begun to emanate from the golden prince, his hands fisting white knuckled on his knees. Fire rested on his tongue, embers in his throat. If Sinbad were anyone else, he was sure that all of the sun's great fury would be unleashed upon him right then.

Another smile curled his mouth.

"I cannot help Hakuryuu now." he intoned. "But that does not mean he cannot be helped. Think, my boy. Think like Hakuryuu would, were your roles reversed. Think, and then do."

Sinbad flicked his wrist, and Alibaba took this for the dismissal it was. The prince rose and swiftly exited the meeting room, anger threatening to boil from within him and escape through his skin. He contained himself, swallowed it all down until he was several halls away, and then allowed himself to seethe.

Yellow flames burst to life around his clenched fists. The fire licked a trail up his arms to his shoulders, snaking about his skin in aimless patterns, rising and falling in time with his breathing. The flames danced, sending sparks to the stone beneath his feet as he walked briskly through the corridors. He had no destination in mind.

His anger was swift to burn away through, dimming down to a low simmer and finally resting itself in the pit of his stomach, where it smoldered gently. Alibaba ran both hands through his hair, following some nameless instinct as it led him through the palace.

If Sinbad would not send anyone, and he was forbade from going, then what was there to do? Kouen said himself that he could not leave UnSeelie court, and if he could not then surely his siblings were in similar positions. There was no one else, that Alibaba could think of, who he could call upon.

He gnashed his teeth and gripped his hair, feeling the fire threaten to leap from his skin again. But he forced himself to be calm. To think of what his king had said.

Sinbad had told him to think like Hakuryuu. If it were him stuck in the mortal realm, in who knew how much danger, what would Hakuryuu do about it? Well, Alibaba would like to think his friend would leap through the nearest rift and hunt him down, but that seemed too hasty a response.

There was a riddle here. Alibaba released his hair, crossing his arms as he walked and began to organize his thoughts.

What would Hakuryuu do were he in his place. That was the important part. Alibaba thought of his place explicitly, making careful note of all things relating to himself and the current circumstance. The conclusion he came to was thus:

Given that time had passed since the attack, and the discovery of the ambush and subsequent escape, Hakuryuu wouldn't leap to the most emotional conclusion. In the moment, if he had found everything right after the attack, maybe. But given time to think things over, he would surely be more rational.

Hakuryuu had no king to rely on, and he himself often said how he could not turn to his family. Without these things, that left just the rebellion and his own self to depend on. Someone had to lead their comrades, and Hakuryuu would never abandon that post. Likewise, he would be hesitant to send any of their number on a mission unrelated to their cause.

So what would he do? Who would Hakuryuu, who seemed to stand alone in UnSeelie court, call upon in a moment of need?

It all clicked.

Of course.

He would call upon someone that he would ask for aid in no other circumstance. Someone he trusted, but warily, always conscious of the vicious teeth so close to that hand that fed.

But for Alibaba to ask them for aid… Sinbad had seemed sure of his conclusion, but that meant very little when it came to dealing with ancient things like them. Because it was Hakuryuu, perhaps he stood a chance at escaping an encounter intact, but—

There was nothing to do but try. Another fae would be hesitate to summon creatures like them from the depths of Sidhe, to dare to impose on them and ask for their aid without proper retribution at the ready. Alibaba was a special kind of brazen, though, and Sinbad knew it.

Back through the halls, up stairways and through passages, in the meeting room Alibaba had abandoned, the king and his knight remained.

"Sinbad," Dragul sighed. "You could have just told the boy what to do. There was no need for games."

"Ah, but what's the fun in that?"

"His friend may be in peril, and you are thinking of games?"

"I always am, my dear dragon."

Exasperation knitted the knight's brow as his king extended his hand towards him. He had been inching across the couch, trying to sneakily grab hold of him, since Alibaba left. Dragul remained staunchly where he stood, just out of reach.

"Besides," Sinbad went on, grinning as his fingertips finally brushed his dragon's elbow. "It is good for him to think for himself. His emotions cloud his eyes at times, he must learn to see through them."

"You're the one who riled him up, you know."

"Ah, was I?"

A retort was on the tip of Dragul's tongue, ready to lash his king appropriately for his behavior, when there was a knock at the door. Both men looked up, and Sinbad called for their guest to enter.

A handsome fae with silver hair and a smattering of freckles over his nose entered. Sinbad beamed at the sight of him.

"Ja'far! You just missed Alibaba, he was in a real temper—"

"Your fault, no doubt."

"Says who!"

Dragul and Ja'far exchanged bemused looks. Sinbad huffed, as if he were really insulted.

"Much as I would love to scold you for toying with our prince's temper," Ja'far said. "I am afraid I am the bearer of bad news."

He crossed the room to Sinbad's side, pulling from his sleeve a letter sealed with silver wax. Both knight and king straightened at the sight of the UnSeelie seal, gazing warily at the letter as it was transferred to the king's hand.

It was opened with caution, the seal broken first. Dragul's shoulders tensed, as if expecting some backlash of physical force to strike them, and did not relax even when it did not come. Sinbad unfolded the letter, holding it open so his two companions could read over his shoulders.

Their eyes skimmed the neatly inked letters.

"Ah." Sinbad said, after a moment of silence. "It appears I am being accused of kidnapping the Prince of UnSeelie court."