Sadira continued to navigate the city streets, Razoul and his men in close pursuit. The chase extended to a recently abandoned part of the city, a series of buildings still in shambles from sandstorms that occurred months ago. She dived into one of the wrecked houses, stopping to catch her breath.
"Where'd she go?" one of the guards shouted.
"This way!" Razoul commanded. He and his colleagues ran past the door of Sadira's hiding place, leaving their target with a moment of peace.
After the adrenaline had subsided and her nerves calmed, Sadira began to mope. "Terrific. Now he'll never be mine." She leaned against the wall in tears, sliding to the ground.
"Ah… young love," spoke a voice from the shadows of the decrepit building.
"Who's there?" Sadira shrieked as she shrunk into the corner.
"I am a friend." The owner of the voice revealed himself to be a man in darkly-colored clothes and a silvery mask covering his eyes. "And like you, I am a believer in true love."
"True love?" she sarcastically laughed. "It doesn't exist. Not only does he already have a girlfriend, but she's a rich and beautiful princess! How could I ever compete with that?"
"It's simple," the man asserted. "You have something she does not."
"What could I possibly have that she doesn't?"
"Talent," he answered. "I see it in you, an unimaginable power…"
"What are you…"
"Can't you feel it?" the masked man excitably answered, his arms outstretched and a grin on his face. "That power deep within you!"
A dark aura began to materialize around Sadira, at first frightening her.
"Do not be afraid," the man comforted. "This energy, this darkness… It as much a part of you as your thoughts. No, you should be happy! This is the power you hold, that she can never have… For you see, she holds no darkness in her heart."
Sadira pondered what she was hearing, still not completely believing it yet hoping none the less. "How do I use it?"
The man made a strange motion with his hand, conjuring what appeared to be a desk of some sort. Dust and cracks covered its surface, aged over what could have only been centuries. Several scrolls were stored in its shelves, all just as old as the desk the lied within. "Consider this a gift," he offered.
"What is it?"
"A remnant of an age long past. It was once owned by the witches of the sand before their city crumbled away."
"The witches of the sand…" Sadira thought aloud. "I thought they were just a myth."
"Every myth has its roots in truth."
"So? What is an old dusty desk going to do?"
"While the desk itself may be nothing more than an antique, there is a great deal of knowledge in these scrolls. You could learn much, from the history of the witches to the magic they used."
"Wait… Are you saying I can use magic?"
A simple nod from the man was all it took to set Sadira's spirits ablaze. She rushed to the desk, ecstatically skimming over the scrolls. It was only a matter of moments before she had forgotten all about its provider.
Satisfied with his work, the masked man summoned a portal and entered it. If Sadira had been paying attention, she might've heard him muttering to himself.
"It will only be a matter of time before the darkness takes her… Then all of Agrabah will join me." The portal vanished as if it had never been there, leaving Sadira to her own devices.
Over the course of the next few hours, Sadira experimented with the spells she had learned, creating various perfect sculptures of sand. Her final one, a perfect replica of Aladdin, thrilled her. That excitement dulled, however, when she remembered why she was learning those spells in the first place.
"This is great and all, but how is this going to get me Aladdin." She tapped her foot several times trying to come up with a plan before spotting a shimmering object on one of the desks shelves.
"What's this?" she wondered aloud, picking it up. The object was a medallion fitted with a massive red gemstone. "It's flashy, but that doesn't matter."
She tossed it into the sand behind her before noticing a scroll that had been hidden by the amulet. She pulled it out and began to read it, a huge smile appearing on her face.
She dashed back to the amulet, picking it up and pointing its gem at the sand. The sand began to rise at the stone's command, forming into a vague man-like shape. Unlike the other sculptures, however, this one was alive.
The sand creature approached menacingly as Sadira covered her face. It only stopped when the shine from the amulet met its eyes, repelling it.
The scroll was right… she thought to herself, amazed that such a thing was possible. "That's right, I have the amulet!" she boasted. "You have to listen to me!"
"Yeah, yeah, I get it, I know the rules," the sand-man responded, not at all thrilled about his current situation. "So what's it gonna be then, eh? My specialty is smashing stuff!" He seemed to be very proud of that.
"Actually, that's not really what I had in mind," Sadira explained, pacing around her giant servant. "You see, there's this really cute guy..."
The golem was infuriated that he would be summoned for such a trivial reason. "Do I look like a dating service to you?" He raised a fist and demolished the wall next to him. "I smash stuff, I do!"
It's a good thing nobody's around, Sadira thought to herself.
She raised the amulet to the creature, forcing him to calm down again.
"Alright, alright! You're the boss…" he shrugged.
With a triumphant smile, Sadira returned to her favorite sculpture. "This is Aladdin. His girlfriend is a princess." She waved her hand and created another sculpture, this one of Jasmine. "I can't compete with that! So I figure…"
"Let me guess…" the monster asked, now wearing a wicked grin. He picked up the Jasmine sculpture and crushed it, the sand flowing out of his hand. "You want me to eliminate the competition?"