Chapter 2: The Rules
The genie appeared with a shower cap and rubber duck, "It never fails. You get in the bath and there's a rub on the lamp. Hell…oh?"
Finally noticing the sorcerer, the genie managed to surmise, "You're not Al."
Jafar smiled. "No, I am not."
The genie deflated. "Well, shoot. I guess I'm not getting free anytime soon, huh?"
"And trap an innocent in your place? I think not," the sorcerer said.
"It's hardly that," it replied moodily. "No one is truly innocent after all. But enough about that." As if a switch had been flipped, the genie beamed at Jafar and exclaimed, "This is about you!"
The sorcerer watched the genie begin its magically enhanced song and dance. Things appeared from nothing and the genie's forms were fluid as it continued, "How may I serve you, new master? I can tell you're a man who means business. It's rare for a person to find the ring and the lamp in their lifetime. So, what will it be?
Wealth?
Power?
Something more specific?
I do a mean philosopher's stone.
Or perhaps you prefer a sweet elixir of life?
And oh! Lemme tell ya right now. I ain't picky like some of my kind. My only zeal is for life, freedom, and the open road.
You want a roc egg? It'll be over easy, with lamb, fava beans, and a nice chianti." The genie and its doppelgängers, for there were several now, leered and made a strange sound through their teeth.
Jafar's own smile widened.
Encouraged, the genie added, "But wait, there's more! Tell him what he's won, Genies."
A gaggle of newly conjured genies replied, "Thank you, Genie. Master, you have the fabulous options of…
unicorn horns, grimoires, gold,
a fancy hat and a kingdom too,
ancient tomes, diamonds, fame,
new spells, slaves, the moon,
war or peace should you conspire,
near anything your heart desires,
most any whim your mind can conjure,
no need to hesitate or wonder,
go on and take the stand.
Your wish, master, is our command!"
The sorcerer did no such thing.
The genie's large podium remained empty. The heaving female dancers who looked suspiciously like Princess Jasmine remained in their elaborate final poses. The sparkly choir held their notes and waved their jazz hands endlessly. The drumline dressed in full marching band regalia kept their drums rolling. And everything else the genie had summoned gleamed tantalizingly in the moonlight from its lunar re-creation that was the size of a horizon. All of this spectacle was left unattended, for the genie's new master only had eyes for it.
The sorcerer had never lost track of the being during its little cabaret act. Now that the show was over, his only response was to continue to gaze into the genie's eyes and bare his teeth in an inhuman smile.
That was when the genie knew for certain what type of wish its new master had in mind. As suddenly as they had come, all its glamoured treasures and superfluous copies vanished and the creature returned to its energy-efficient subservient form. Its voice was quiet and dull as it said, "You don't want any of those things. Do you?"
Jafar waited, still smiling.
The genie attempted to resist the truth that it had probably suspected from the beginning one last time. "Come on, you're a sorcerer," it implored. "You know my rules."
The sorcerer's smile turned manic as he said, "Oh, but Genie, rules were made to be broken."