Whispers of Fire Ch9 bit – Guests

~ crossovercreativechaos

“I wonder if we can talk Alibaba’s smugglers into looking for magicians,” Sinbad mused. “After all, the more of them we find, the fewer Al-Thamen can grab to corrupt- Masrur?”

The Fanalis smiled. “Early guests.”

Taking one step back from the table, Ja’far settled himself in a quick stance anyway. Masrur’s nose could be trusted, but you could never be too careful.

Their suite door opened on a blond already talking. “-Maid said you were still here, why are you still here, world’s gone nuts… eep.”

Aladdin caught the sleeve of Alibaba’s coat and dragged him through the doorway. Morgiana followed both of them, red gaze flicking around the room in a politely obvious search for surprises.

“Hi, Mister Sinbad.” The young magi wasn’t quite grinning. “We found him!”

“Um.” Alibaba was staring at Sinbad in an all too familiar pole-axed way. “Er….”

The ex-assassin sighed. He knew Sinbad had to dazzle people, but he’d had the vague hope that Alibaba, of all people, wouldn’t be swept up in the Sindrian king’s charisma at their very first meeting. At least, not for more than an hour or two, some people managed to shake clear then-

“It’s a trap! Why the heck are you still here?”

Ja’far blinked. That was fast.

Caught mid-charming smile, Sinbad tilted his head. “Ah, but they don’t know I know it’s a trap. So it’s not.”

Alibaba stared at him for one long moment. Glanced at Ja’far and Masrur, and shook his head. “The Kou Empire’s in contact with King Abhmad, which means they know you’re here. They probably know you’ve only got two Generals with you. And if they know what your Metal Vessels look like, somebody probably told them you’re not wearing them. I’m going with, still a trap.” He looked straight at Masrur. “You’re Fanalis. Can’t you knock him over the head, tie him up, and drag him out to sea before he talks you out of it?”

“Tempting,” Masrur agreed.

21 thoughts on “Whispers of Fire Ch9 bit – Guests”

  1. When blunt doesn’t work, throw a Fanalis at the problem!

    Of course, you then might have several dozen pieces of a problem instead…

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      1. Like they say, you need the right tool for the right job. *EG*

        Though I’m thinking for some folks, Harley Quinn’s hammer is a bit too small. Need something along the size of the Goldion Hammer to pull a Hikari Ni Nare.

        (Or in non GaoGaiGar terms: Giant robot sized giant hammer which causes “Turn Into Light” trope on anything it hits.)

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      3. GaoGaiGar was doing over the top before Gurren Lagan was even in conceptual stages.

        If you really want an insane hammer, look up the Goldion Crusher….

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  2. Ja’far blinked. That was fast.

    Well, Alibaba is good at prioritizing . . . . also he knows as screwed as Balbadd is, they and everyone else will be even more screwed if the bad guys manage to kill the king of Sindria, likely with two of his Generals (because it is highly unlikely they could kill Sinbad without going through Ja’far and Masrur) or otherwise tie up the Seven Seas Alliance into a war with Kou. Which would rather distract them from stopping Al-Thamen plots or prevent them from having the resources to do so . . .

    “You’re Fanalis. Can’t you knock him over the head, tie him up, and drag him out to sea before he talks you out of it?”

    Not a bad suggestion . . . through you may want to be careful there, Alibaba. Because I have the feeling before this story is over with, someone is going to be very tempted to suggest or ask Morgiana do exactly that to you . . .

    Or maybe Ja’far will try to save himself a headache and ask both of the Fanalis to knock out those two idiots and get them out of here . . .

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      1. Very, very tempting, yes.

        Jahan is on my list of suspects . . .

        Ja’far because he likes this kid and darn it Sinbad does too and he doesn’t leave people who need him in the lurch if he can help it, especially not the sons of old friends, he has to get that kid out of the danger zone if he wants any hope of getting Sinbad to get out of here voluntarily . . . of course that is no guarantee . . . the Fanalis plan is looking more and more appealing . . .

        Alibaba doesn’t know about Al-Thamen quite yet, though….

        He needs to know about them but they might have to sit on him until he can think past the intital and entirely reasonable urge to panic and find a very deep hole to hide in. Because King Abhmad’s economic mess is one thing, the Kou Empire and its Djinn-wielding royalty is another but world-destroying lunatics is a whole other ballpark . . .

        Of course, once he gets past that, Alibaba is smart enough to realize that you can’t avoid bad guys who want to literally destroy the world. Because no matter where you go, you are still on the world. (Since we are assuming there are no space-ships or Stargate and a portal might be very tricky considering how much it took of Solomon to get any of his people from Alma Torran to whatever this planet is called . . .)

        Also it might step up his motivation to stop the Kou Empire. Because intentionally or not, they are still helping destroy the world. Which if you could prove it, would sway some of the Rens. Not the most important ones because they, like Cassim, have been coated in clue-teflon . . . but a couple of them . . .

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      3. He already has an Idea for dealing with Kougyoku. If he survives her!

        One potentially down – or rather converted . . .

        Still leaves plenty of them . . .

        Too bad the Rens are unaware of their one true weakness: Alibaba Saluja.

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      5. Alibaba and Aladdin. With Morg as backup lethal cuteness.😉 Alibaba’s plan won’t work without them!

        But of course!

        Besides the Kings do better when they have their merry band of followers / enablers / wrangelers / friends by their side, now don’t they?

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  4. Someone just made Ja’fars favourite person list. I love how Alibaba knew not to let Sinbad talk. While it might be something that he picked up from reading the stories, I want to believe it might be a tip from Rashid on Sinbad wrangling. Kind of a father and son bonding session:

    “Yes, Sinbad is an impressive man to have gotten out of that situation”

    “But how did his Generals let him get into the situation in the first place”

    “They let him talk. First rule when dealing with Sinbad, don’t let him talk. Now, the subrule is to start talking first and get him in your flow, and that leads me to the second rule give him knew information and keep him interested, if he is thinking, he isn’t talking. The third rule is…”

    Since he was grooming Alibaba to rule, I’m sure Rashid gave Alibaba tips and tricks on how to deal with their best trading partner and how not to get caught up in his momentum. For some reason, Rashid never did seem to get as caught up in Sinbad’s flow as everyone else.

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    1. I could definitely see Rashid warning Alibaba about that directly, after having seen so many people make the mistake of letting Sinbad talk first.

      After all, it’s canon that when trying to build a country, Sinbad asked if Rashid had any small bits he wouldn’t mind-

      “No.”

      ….Obviously, Rashid knew better than to let him finish. 😉

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