Chapter 60: Sacrifices

It had been many months since I'd witnessed a full-on argument between the sultan and his daughter. Today, that record was broken.

"There's nothing sensible about your suggestion!" Abbi raged, her body blocking the door out of the magician's study. "It's completely heartless!"

"You're just being completely brainless!" Sultan Hamed burst out with a stomp of his foot, his face an unsettling red. "This is the only way to stop the drain on your soul! Quit being so stubborn, Jas-!"

"I'm not Jasmine! My name is Abbi!"

Things had quickly escalated to this state due to me finding out that Sultan Hamed wanted access to more qumabêruh. I'd taken him to see the supply in the magician's study, a place he'd apparently never been to before. The other Jasmine, or Glasmine, as the sultan was calling her, ought to have shown him the study the morning before I was introduced to the court. However, that obviously hadn't occurred.

Thus, I had the dubious honor of escorting him and Abbi to the study for the first time. Sultan Hamed had been flabbergasted and excited to discover how much black sand and qumabêruh crystals were available. Abbi's response to the study had been a dazed curiosity.

"I dreamt about this place," she'd said, surprising me.

Before I could ask to know more, her father had revealed his reason for coming here:

Sultan Hamed wished to use the qumabêruh to destroy Ababwa since its existence was killing Abbi.

"And in exchange, you'd be murdering thousands of people: men, women, and children!" came Abbi's latest rebuttal. "It's poor Stable-Boy's,"

Stable boy?

"-birthday next week. You recommended them to the palace yourself and he's worked so hard for you and the palace all these years."

Oh!

"But now, you're telling me that him never getting to celebrate his coming of age is part of the only reasonable solution!"

"Yes!" Sultan Hamed shouted. "Because he's not real! None of them are-"

I let out a roar!

Both Abbi and Sultan Hamed looked at me in surprise. They had probably forgotten I was still here.

"Rajah?" Abbi asked.

"Don't tell me you're on her side."

"Of course, he's on-"

I growled at them both. Then I got between Sultan Hamed and the qumabêruh.

"Rajah no," Abbi said misinterpreting.

I jerked my head at the door.

"What's he saying?" Sultan Hamed asked, glancing between me and his daughter.

"He wants us to leave?" Abbi replied, bewildered.

I nodded and then jerked my head again.

"But…" they protested.

With more growling and some active pushing, I got both Hamed and his daughter out of the study. Before they got any ideas, I tugged on Abbi's pant leg and then led the way.

It wasn't a short walk. Luckily, Abbi was quite set on seeing what I had to say and despite his theatrics, Hamed had trouble defying her. Then he realized where we were going and all his grumbling about his time being wasted stopped.

We arrived at the stables and there tending to Sahara was the palace's youngest and most capable groom.

"Stable-Boy?" Abbi said tentatively.

Hakeem looked up and waved. "Your Highness," he addressed the sultan, "you're early and…apple-less?"

Abbi looked between Sultan Hamed and Hakeem. I gave her a nudge and her father took it from there. Hakeem was indeed the real Agrabah equivalent to Ababwa's 'Stable-Boy'. They even had the same birthday.

Upon completing our visit with him, Abbi looked sullener than the apple-less Sahara.

"So, you see," Sultan Hamed said far too smugly as we made our way back to the palace. "We aren't going to be committing genocide. Their true selves are all here in Agrabah."

Abbi nodded in defeat.

I didn't like to see her so down and I could understand her thought process on a singular level. I knew the other Jasmine had not been a perfect replica, but her death still was…

A lot to process.

Even knowing that most of the other Ababwans were little more than moving statues, to condone that sort of annihilation, on the scale of a whole city…

"I think," Sultan Hamed said more gently. "I can make my way back to the study on my own. Why don't you and Rajah continue to work on the speaker list for the wake?"

"Okay," Abbi answered in a tearful voice.

Sultan Hamed gave her a kiss on the cheek. "There's a good girl. I'll be back soon," he promised before he hurried away to delete a nation from existence.

I'm not sure if he was fast enough to avoid hearing the beginning of Abbi's sobs. That was one thing about Abbi:

Her court mask was paper thin.

We were in plain sight of many witnesses, but the poor girl barely got two steps before she collapsed onto me. "Oh Rajah, is it really alright to kill all those people? Even if they are copies…"

I nuzzled her. In truth, I had no answers on the moral rightness of all this. In spite of my reservations though, I was sure of one thing:

I pulled away from Abbi and held up two fingers, a difficult feat for a tiger.

Abbi understood what I meant.

If we did nothing, Abbi, all the Ababwan citizens, and even the still-missing Aladdin would be dead in a couple of days.

"I suppose so." She sniffled. "I just…"

I know.

She kept crying and I suspected it would be some time before Abbi would be well enough to do any more work. I went back to holding her and considered the guest list and speaker list for this wake on my own. We needed speakers who could share heartfelt stories about Jasmine and pledge their tears and a small portion of their life energy, along with guests who would be moved by the display.

There were some obvious choices for speakers: Sultan Hamed, myself hopefully, Jasmine's old nursemaid Aneesa assuming she still lived, Aladdin if I didn't murder him on sight, some viziers and other servants who hadn't been completely unpleasant, a few key merchant and trade partners, and perhaps, though the distance was prohibiting, Jasmine's cousin, Princess Sharma.

But that wasn't nearly enough.

According to Sultan Hamed, a Lilahan wake had only worked a couple of times in Agrabah's history. The principle of the ritual was similar to that of true love's tears, except the wake used the less powerful but more plentiful resource of tears of devotion. It sounded like the perfect solution, but Sultan Hamed had not been jesting when he said this needed to be a big event. The sheer numbers required to make this work explained why this wasn't attempted often and had succeeded even fewer times. Hundreds of speakers, thousands of guests, and countless tears, and if that weren't bad enough Sultan Hamed also wanted it to start tomorrow or the day after at the latest.

I pulled away from Abbi. She was still crying.

"I'm sorry," she said.

I touched my nose to hers and blew air in her face.

She laughed, just like when Jasmine was young. "Rajah!"

I did it again.

"You sneaky tiger, I know what you're doing."

I was lightening the mood.

After a third time, she squealed, "Stop it!" and made a half-hearted attempt to push my face away.

I chuffed. I couldn't help it.

But playtime was over.

Standing up, I touched her nose one last time and then trotted towards the sultana's study. To my relief, Abbi followed, still giggling to herself.

"Silly cat."

I would be that and more if it got this wake done and saved her life.

A/N:

That's the spirit, Dhiren!

There is indeed much to do and he definitely won't like all that's coming. However, I have good news for you, readers. I have finished drafting the climax at long last!

The site's problems slowed down my publishing and may do so again, but the plan is for me to publish a chapter of Rajah's Curse a month!

I am SO excited to show you how this story ends!

See you next month!