Whispers of Fire Ch6 – This is Balbadd

~ crossovercreativechaos

A/N: Fridge supposedly fixed. *Knocks on wood!*

Morgiana frowned. “So why does taking slaves make a difference?”

Sin blinked, caught off-guard. “This is Balbadd.”

Morgiana frowned harder. “So?”

Sin’s jaw dropped. He looked at his companions.

Masrur had a slight smile. “It was a surprise, to find out.”

Sin shook his head, and looked at her with… something soft in his eyes, she didn’t know what to call it. “There are no slaves in Balbadd.”

Morgiana blinked. Looked at Masrur. They had to be trying to trick her. “There’s slavery everywhere.”

“Not in Balbadd,” Masrur said bluntly. “And not in Sindria. No slaves. Ever.”

“Oh.” Aladdin blinked somberly, as if he were looking beyond Sin to all the dizzying city around them. “So that’s why it made Alibaba so sad. It’s that common?”

“Yes,” Sin said, one brow rising in curiosity. “Unfortunately, it is. Where did you say you met Alibaba, again?”

“Oh – in his wagon, eating his watermelons,” Aladdin said brightly. And ducked his head a bit. “Only they weren’t exactly his, and he kind of got in trouble…. So if being a pirate is so bad, why did somebody let some of them get away?”

Morgiana hid a grin. So he had been paying attention. Good.

“Because Abhmad is a fool,” Ja’far said coldly. “A blind one, who can’t even see he’s driving his own people to defy him.”

“You’re not sure of that,” Sin murmured.

“I suppose I could be surer if the dock-master handed me a signed confession,” Ja’far smirked. “He might as well have, to anyone paying attention. The speed at which he made sure those executions were carried out….”

Oh. That made sense. Morgiana nodded, relieved she finally had something familiar to grasp. “He was trying to be sure those he didn’t let loose were dead before anyone above him could interfere.” That, she’d seen before, as a slave to Lord Jamil. Usually whoever was responsible only got away with it once. “So… what made those men pirates to him and everyone else, but not pirates to his lord?”

16 thoughts on “Whispers of Fire Ch6 – This is Balbadd”

  1. For a minute, I thought the title was a 300 reference. Given how you’ve mentioned nastiness about to hit the fan (metaphoric, not paper) I was prepping for an ominous fight scene buildup.

    Sinbad being stumped that two kids don’t understand “the obvious” is better than a fight scene, though!. Yes, Sinbad, you //do// need to spell things out from time to time. Not everyone is as knowledgeable (or as certifiable) as your Generals.

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  2. So someone let some of the pirates get away? Well Cassim’s people won’t let them get to far if they are aware of this.

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    2. >Don’t worry. Cassim knows exactly where they went.:)>
      And Depending on where they are heading along with his and Alibaba’s plan, said pirates are either being tailed so their boss can be caught or simply nabbed+lynched.

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      2. To wit, the only sane response should be: Run.

        Also, if they weren’t such unprintables, I would be tempted to pity them. As it is, I do hope some remembered to bring their brown pants.

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  3. Slavery is everywhere except for Balbadd and Sindria, ain’t that a sad commentary on the world?

    Being a little or a lot world ignorant makes sense for Aladdin and Morgiana. Aladdin because you probably can’t get more isolated than where he grew up. Morgiana because historically most slaves have been kept as ignorant as possible by their owners. Especially little things like the fact there were places where slavery wasn’t allowed. Because some of them might take it into their heads to head in that direction. (And some probably have).

    And Ja’far is very correct about what Abhmad’s stupidity is doing, Sinbad. Considering your own history, you ought to know that rulers can only push their people so hard and so far . . .

    Thinking Abhmad has no concept of the following:
    “What is the mob to a king?”
    “Usually lethal.”

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    1. Eh…. Depends on the type of slavery. Historically slave-owners have found it quite useful to have highly educated and highly skilled slaves, to whom they could entrust the education of their offspring and the management of their business affairs.

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      1. Some of them were that. It depended entirely on what the slave-owners wanted to use them for. Hard labor for example doesn’t require much education. And the laws because there were places were it was, for example, illegal to teach slaves how to read and write.

        Or they might be highly education in a particular niche, like say blacksmithing, but restricted from learning much outside of that highly specialized skill.

        Also some slaves, especially slaves captured as result of warfare (which Alibaba said is probably what happened to Morgiana), might have been educated by their home culture prior to their enslavement.

        As I said. It just kinda of depends.

        And regardless of how educated or not they were, no slave-owner wants their slaves hearing too much about freedom or places where they would be free if they could just get there. Because all types of slaves, even the highly educated, the highly skilled, and the trusted, have escaped or tried escape slavery.

        In Morgiana’s particular case, I doubt seriously that Jamil had her educated outside how much of psycho he was.

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    2. I suspect slavery is either minimal or nonexistent in the rest of the nations of the Seven Seas Alliance, but I’m not sure we have canon confirmation one way or the other.

      Morgiana was kept as a spy and muscle; so there are things she would know about (like executions) and things she’d be clueless about (like tides). Trying to strike a reasonable balance. And Aladdin doesn’t know enough about the world yet, but he is working on it. 🙂

      Canon, Abhmad’s stupidity brought Cassim down on his head. In this AU… well, we’ll see. He’s not getting off easy, I know that!

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