Hundreds of bandits covered the rooftops surrounding the hotel. These so called chivorus thieves destroyed the walls of the hotel, breaking holes into it to get inside. In one of these holes stood one particular thief, his dark dreadlocks swaying in the night breeze as he stood where a window once had been. Esther, though as sickly as she looked with dark bags under her azure eyes, was poised and for attack, positioned in front of the children ready to protect them. The thief looked over her shoulder, ignoring her completely, in favor of the blonde haired, former prince behind her.
"Hey, mate, I've come to save you." He smiled. Behind him all those in hearing range chuckled. Saving the second leader of the Fog Troupe was just an excuse to destroy and rob one of the wealthiest and best hotels in Balbadd.
"Cassim, why did you bring so many subordinates?" Alibaba asked looking at all those he could spot, knowing that there were more than that.
Esther looked over her shoulder, at her brother who seemed startled. His hair had, to her relief, moved back over his forehead covering the third eye she made for him. With the edge of her staff, she nudged the child farther behind her, trying to hide him from the sights of the ruthless criminals. The young magi obeyed gripping the back of her top tightly in his fist as he peeked around her.
"When we found out you were abducted we came immediately. According to our reports our enemy has extraordinary skills, so I had to mobilize the whole group." Cassim responded casually smiling ever so slightly.
It was at that moment that the screams started, rising up from the many floors of the hotel as the thieves pillaged and attacked the unarmed guests of the hotel. Esther moved quickly, and with open arms pushed the children back towards the corner of the room where she could defend them better. Alibaba tried to push past her but she stopped him with the end of the golden staff.
"Cassim what are you doing? We've never attacked a hotel before!" He shouted, pushing at the unyielding staff before finally turning to the woman.
"Please let me pass Lady Hadassah." Esther turned and looked down at the teen, staring him down before looking back at the crazed Cassim who jumped off the wall and into the room.
"You, you're keeping our leader prisoner." He hissed at her, pointing his blade in her direction, but she didn't flinch, or make a move to release Alibaba. She was unaffected by the term leader, knowing better than to believe the youngster was capable of leading such a ruthless group, unless Alibaba was acting as a figurehead. Alibaba kept pleading with the blue haired woman until she finally turned to him, placing her free hand on his shoulder.
"Alibaba, if you go with that boy, you must understand, you relinquish your right for me to protect you. I will not stand in your defense, I will not save you, you understand that, right? I cannot help." She forced the matter, tightening her grip on his shoulder and lowering the stave.
He looked at her and bit his lip before stepping away from her towards Cassim. Once Alibaba got within an arm's length away from Cassim, his friend grabbed him and pulled him towards him.
"Cassim, what are you thinking?" Alibaba asked grabbing his friend's shoulders. Cassim threw Alibaba's hands off. Esther pushed the two other children behind her still.
"Idiot, if we don't go through this now, we'll die. Our enemy is here, that Sinbad." Cassim spat the name of the Sindrian king. Esther's eyes narrowed.
"But Mister Sinbad is so nice." Aladdin's small voice spoke up.
Esther fought the groan that wanted to come up as Cassim turned his eyes towards the boy and Alibaba looked at his young friend with wide eyes. Cassim walked menacingly towards the child magi, he then swung his sword towards him only to have a clang echo through the air.
Standing between the two was Esther, blocking the attack with her staff. Her azure eyes sparkling with flakes of pink, the only time she had her mother's pink eyes were when she got angry, and a sure way for her to get that way was to attack her brother. Alibaba, grabbed Cassim, pulling him away from the older woman just as she swung her staff, using a sword technique her father had been known for.
The decorative end of the staff passed Cassim's face with a whistle. One of his dreadlocks fluttered to the ground as a line of blood appeared on his cheek. Alibaba, while still living in the palace, had watched the woman duel with Barkak, and even beat him numerous times. He grabbed his friend and pushed him towards the door to the room shouting "run", terrified of the madwoman, whose fiery eyes had turned bright pink. Esther charged out of the room, leaving behind a very confused Morgiana and Aladdin.
There was a bandant standing over a young maid with wide eyes as he shook her by the collar of her dress, Esther took the end of the staff and ramed him with it sending him flying away from her. She continued fighting her way all the way to the roof, forcing the thieves to flee along the way as they called her a beast or a monster. Both, she considered, were accurate.
As she jumped to the top of the stairs she found herself facing hundreds of blades. She adjusted her grip on her staff and swung. Swords clattered to the ground, some breaking off the hilt all together. She turned and aside from the steps to the roof, found herself surrounded.
A crack appeared before her, growing larger and larger. Esther smiled and with one hand signaled for her enemy to come towards her, they did. Several charged, rushing at her just as the large Fanalis guard burst through the floor with Sin and Jafar trailing behind. Sinbad went up to her and wrapped an arm around her waist, touching her chin so she'd look at him.
"Are you alright?" he asked. She nodded, looking back at the enemy as her hand tightened its grip on the staff. "How about you Aladdin? Morgiana?" Sinbad asked looking to the two youngsters.
"Yes, Uncle." Aladdin chirped, as Morgiana nodded.
"More strange people, you think you can intimidate us? Get them!" Cassim ordered, sending his men on the offensive. Sinbad looked at the men before looking to his general.
"There's a lot of them, Masrur." He told the man who nodded and shot forward with unnatural abilities and speed, sending the people flying. Those left standing were in a daze and Masrur stood behind Cassim. Cassim slowly looked behind him, before jumping away.
"Masrur, you overdid it, use less power next time." Sinbad jokes. Esther glared at him.
"I had it under control." She muttered under her breath and sin turned and looked at her. He tightened his grip around her waist and looked down at her.
"I prefer it when I handle these type of things." he traced her jaw with a finger as he grinned, despite her glare.
"Who are you?" Cassim asked, catching Sinbad's attention again. Sibad rolled his eyes and unwillingly looked away from the woman in his arms.
"You were looking for me after all, should you really be asking?" Sinbad snapped.
"You're Sinbad, you provoked us first." Cassim growled pointing his sword at Sinbad. "Binding black fog!" He shouted and a black mass shot out of his blade Sinbad jumped and pushed Esther aside, causing her to fall over and roll to her knees.
Jafar had rushed to Esther's side, helping her up. The stun of being tossed away from Sinbad had chased away her battle rage, her eyes turning all shades of the brightest blue, though clouded with pain. Jafar grabbed either side of her head, searching for head injuries or any bodily trauma, though none was to be found. Coldness crept up her fingers and arms, the sword technique, though strong, used small amounts of magoi, which drained her little by little.
"Es, are you alright?" Sinbad asked after he broke free from the attack, standing upright. Esther looked to the man and put a smile on her face for his sake.
"Takes more than a move like that to put me out, old man." She teased him, and he growled at her in response, ever sensitive on his age. She leaned back on her elbows, half laying on the roof while Jafar checked her over for injuries.
Only half listening as Sinbad bragged about how he completed his task Jafar's fingers moved from Esther's head down to her neck to check her pulse. It was unusually hard to find, but when he did it was soft, and unsteady. He looked back at her face watching he closed eyelids flutter slightly, she was taking deep slow breaths, breaths that were very intentional.
"Miss Esther, please you have to stop them!" Morgiana shouted snapping Esther from her stupper. She was caught by a wave of dizziness before looking over at Sinbad who had his sword pointed at Alibaba, and was obviously trying to goad the young prince into a fight.
"I warned Alibaba, I can do nothing." Esther replied flippantly closing her eyes again. She focused on her breath and how the ground felt under her. Then she was lifted up under her knees and shoulders. Her eyes slipped open, peeking at Jafar as he carried her towards a wall to lean against. When she was set down again her eyes closed and Jafar called over Morgiana and Aladdin, telling them to watch over the woman. Light brightened her eyelids, to her annoyance, followed by a voice.
'I hope you know what you're doing' It was an old voice, one she had not heard in many, many years, yet she knew it still. Internally she smiled.
'For the most part.' She replied, before the voice was darked just as the light was.
Voices around her whispered, making the actual conversation hard to hear. Esther cracked one eye open, only to see that the rooftops had nearly cleared
"What?" Jafar shouted loudly near her, catching her full attention. The young advisor approached the king hesitantly, hands shaking, shocked.
"Sin are you going to fight?" Jafar asked. Sinbad turned to his advisor and smiled.
"Yep," Sin agreed.
"With Balbadd's military?"
"Yep,"
"You want to join the Fog Troupe, who are marked as traitors by the throne?"
"Yep,"
"This is too problematic, Sin. We were supposed to capture them. The agreement with King Ahbmad was that he'll reopen trade if we capture them." Jafar panicked, as he started to sweat under his keffiyeh.
Esther shook her head, watching the two friends. She grabbed her stave and used it to help her stand as Jafar continued a downward spiral. Morgiana tried to keep her from standing but the older woman waved her away, she had to step in or the man she considered a brother was going to have a heart attack.
Just as Sinbad shouted at Jafar, the decorative end of her staff went downwards and connected with the top of his head with a resounding thunk. The blue haired woman stared down the violet haired king while she wrapped an arm around the distraught advisor.
"Sin, you can be a real ass sometimes, knock it off." She told him planely. Esther turned to Jafar and patted his shoulder.
"He should have told you earlier. We had agreed, separately, that we would do what we believe is best for this kingdom, regardless of any agreement made." Esther told Jafar quietly while Sinbad continued his usual motivational speech.
Jafar leaned against her, whimpering pitifully as she patted his head. Then it happened. Her legs gave out so suddenly, that she almost took the assassin with her. He barely managed to catch her under her arms before she hit the ground. She was stunned, as was he, but she quickly pushed herself back to her feet, and ignored him when he tried to look her in the eyes to see if she knew what was wrong.
"Don't be fooled by him!" Cassim shouted stopping the peaceful talk between Alibaba and Sinbad. The young leader was shaking with rage his golden eyes gone crazed. "I'm not fooled. A king can't commit to be our comrade. All you royalty and superior people are all the same, you use inferior people to survive, eager for us to die so you can live in luxury."
In a flash of red, Jafar's assassin side revealed itself as one of his red wires planted itself next to the thief's head. He was so calm, yet Esther knew it to be his angry side, the side that went cold from emotion, numb to the world around him. Sinbad interceded before she had to, but she went up to the young thief anyways and knelt down next to him on the ground.
"I apologize, that your view of royalty has been misled so harshly due to your past. I assure you, not all are that way." She gave him a gentle smile and held her hand out to him. He slapped it away and pushed himself up on his own, cursing Sinbad and disappearing into the night, even after Alibaba asked him to stay.
Esther was frozen on the spot, her eyes glues to where the young man had been. She sighed in disappointment, feeling the rage the youngster had. Jafar was the only one who noticed the woman as her fist clenched.
"Esther, are you alright?" He placed a hand on her shoulder. She nodded and looked at him from over her shoulder.
"Do you have parchment and something to write with I need to write a letter, it's quite important." She told him.
He looked at her, about to disagree, but obliged, pulling it out of his robes of all things. He really was a brilliant advisor. She started scribbling on the paper.
'Sovereign King Ahbmad Saluja and Deputy king Sahbmad Saluja,' Esther began, staring at the title before writing the rest of the letter.
'Our deal is off, you've proven yourself an ineffective king. I will be working on helping your people free themselves from your rule, even if it means war. The peace I have kept was only in good faith because your father was a dear friend. I was your tutor, yet you seem to never listen to anything I say. Enough is enough. Learn your lesson this time or the consequences will be dire. You know I provide most of the trade to and from Balbadd are you really willing to risk this? End your reign of stupidity before it becomes too late, and save your people while you're at it.
'You are in financial ruin. Your people are suffering and dying.I can offer my aid, I've told you that before and my offer still stands. I am your only true ally don't be a fool with this. The kou don't have your best interest at heart and you know it.
'Be smart for once. I have much to offer, and the skills I provided your father are vast. Consider this seriously for once.
Esther Abraham/ Lady Hadassah'
Esther rolled the letter and pushed herself up right. She went over to the violet haired king and wrapped an arm around his, catching his attention. He paused the conversation to smile down at the prize on his arm until he saw the grin on her lips.
"I need you to do something for me," She began
The king groaned, ready to refuse already, when she held out the rolled letter.
"Give this to Ahbmad on my behalf. He won't be pleased with its contents. Thanks!" She stretched to her tip toes and kissed his cheek before bounding away to leave with the young men who offered to show her to the Fog Troupe headquarters. Sinbad held the letter and shook his head, as if he were wondering why he was stuck with that responsibility
She was cold, her hands were shaking. Somewhere along the way she had dropped her staff, it had just fallen from her grasp, and she couldn't pick it back up again. Her feet were barely lifting anymore, shuffling instead, causing her to trip and stumble.
"He can't be here. He can't be here. I'm already too late. He can't find me. They'll all find me." She muttered to herself as she tried to move quickly.
'It wasn't supposed to go like this. Why was it going like this.'
Her magoi was too low. Cold numbness crept along her body and she collapsed to the ground even as she scrambled to try to slam her mental shields.
He hadn't seen that woman in a while. Masrur looked around discreetly, not that many people noticed him anyways. In the shadow of his king he tended to go unnoticed, unless he chose otherwise. The past few days though, he'd seen things he'd never seen before in his king. Emotions he didn't think the man knew how to show. In in days he hadn't seen the king so much as glance at another woman besides the strange woman who appeared at the hotel with him.
Sinbad was a womanizer, and a passionate lover, seeing him kiss a random woman was not uncommon, seeing him concerned over her was however. He also seemed to consider her opinion, almost as much if not more than Jafar. Even though she was reserved around him, reluctantly allowing him to carry her around, she also showed just as much affection when he needed it. The woman, Esther, she called herself, was nowhere to be seen though. She had been escorted to the headquarters alone. After the debacle of a meeting with the King of Balbadd, and his even worse reaction to the letter that Esther had asked to be delivered, Jafar and Sinbad had disappeared into a meeting room, and Alibaba had gone off with the two other children. Masrur had taken it upon himself to find her, for Sinbad. He didn't know why, or how, both Sinbad and Jafar were so attached to the woman, but she mattered and that was enough for him.
Taking to the streets he lumbered down the narrow alleyways, stopping every so often to ask if anyone had seen Esther. That's when he came across it, his foot hit it first, the golden stave that she carried around with her everywhere. He knelt down next to it and picked it up gently. She would never willingly cast it aside, not where it could be stolen. He shot forward with urgency looking down each alleyway as he passed. He spotted the blue, passing it before it registered and skidded to a stop. In the middle of a dark alleyway laid the blue haired beauty, facedown on the ground. Masrur rushed to her side, and turned her over gently. She was cold to the touch, and her eyes were wide open. For a moment, he thought for a second that she was there dead, but he could see her chest rising and falling with each breath. He nodded, sealing himself, and cradled her in his arms.
Taking a breath he stood and rushed off back to headquarters with a limp Esther in his arms. When he arrived he kicked the door open, causing those inside to shout in surprise, though as soon as they saw the half dead woman in his arms the reaction was completely different. Someone cleared off the table in the common room as someone else shouted to get Sinbad.
Esther was placed on the table and a man rushed over to look her over for injuries. She had scrapes on her hands and feet from falling and tripping, a scrape on the head that looked to be caused from the final fall, but there was no reason for her ice cold skin. Masrur shuffled to the side, out of the way, watching as people fretted over the woman's body, throwing blankets over her, and applying medicinal herbs to the abrasions. The sound of running feet roared to life as Sinbad skidded into the room his eyes locking onto the group, trying to see past them. He was heaving, clothes in a disarray.
"Move, get away from her." He shouted, pushing past them. Some moved out of his way quickly, others he pulled out of his way in his need to get to the woman. When he got to her side his breath caught and eyes widened
"No," he whispered, cupping her face with both hands, looking into her clouded over eyes. "Wake up. Esther, wake up." He pleaded as tears started to prickle his eyes. He brushed aside her wild blue hair, pushing it from her forehead. Then with force he pressed a kiss to her lips, before pulling away.
"Damn it Esther wake up. You said you just needed rest. Please just wake up." Sin begged the woman. Jafar ran into the room, his clothes messed up and blood leaking from his nose. In one look Masrur understood. Jafar had tried to hold back their king, and Sinbad did not react well.
Sinbad gave a loud shout and turned, fist flying, landing a solid punch to the wall next to him. He slid down against the wall, ignoring the shocked looks of the others in the room and buried his head in his arms. He took deep breaths as Jafar carefully approached one hand outstretched. Before the advisor could get near though Sinbad's eyes snapped open and he stood. He ran his hand over Esther's face, closing her eyes, before picking her up.
"She deserves to be somewhere more comfortable when she wakes up." He muttered, walking past everyone with dead eye.
When he reached his room he placed her down on his bed and kissed her forehead. He placed Her stave next to her and covered her with a blanket before leaving.
"Where's Aladdin?" Sinbad asked one of the residents. She answered him and asked why.
"I have a promise to keep." was his only response.