Sorcerer's Wish

Chapter 10: The Trade

Jafar gasped for air. The stale miasma of the underworld filled his lungs. He coughed until he tasted the bloody copper of life.

He was alive!

He turned and saw her pale ghostly shape looming over him. "Nasira."

Jafar gazed up at her for a moment. Then he grinned like a man a tenth his age. "I did it."

He glanced at Hades. "I did it!" he repeated. A flood of joy that had been accumulating for decades descended on Jafar all at once. It overwhelmed his senses. He started to laugh. The sound of it filled the space, a higher pitch, more crazed, and less human than any of the cries coming from the damned and forgotten.

Hours might have passed before Jafar heard the king of the underworld say, "Yeah, yeah, big whoop. Stop giggling and get up already. It's soul time."

After another minute or two of cackling, Jafar reached for the lamp. It was where he had left it, though now it was cold to the touch.

When he got up, the genie was there, staring mournfully at its master. "I don't deserve this," it pleaded. "I'm innocent I tell ya."

"No one's truly innocent, Genie," Jafar repeated to the creature with relish. "Now cease your foolish blubbering and prepare to meet your fate."

The genie just trembled and wept.

The sorcerer gave it a predator's smile and then made his announcement, "For my second wish, I wish for Nasira to have a safe and conscious journey back to her body where nothing will be able to harm her until after she reconnects her soul to her vessel and comes alive again as young and as healthy as she was on her 28th birthday."

The genie slowly moved its fingers even as it tried to stop itself. The magic that bound the genie, strengthened by the stipulations of the sorcerer's first wish, made it nigh impossible to disobey or tamper with the sorcerer's latest order. With a snap, the deed was done.

Nasira raised an eyebrow before she gave them all a secretive smile. "A genie? Very clever, Jafar."

Jafar smirked right back at her.

"Hurry it up, love birds," Hades muttered.

Jafar scowled, but not even the god of the dead who had nearly been the sorcerer's undoing could dampen his triumph for long. He addressed the genie once more. "For my third and final wish," he began.

"No," the genie whimpered.

"I release you from your lamp to be bound to Lord Hades as his slave..."

"No!" the genie cried out.

"...and as part of this wish I offer myself in exchange so that unless another takes my place, I will be the genie of the lamp for the rest of my days."

This time, the genie fought like its life depended on it. The creature twisted and morphed its shape, summoned copies and objects big and small, foreign to even the well-versed sorcerer.

As Jafar watched this bombastic tragedy play out, he felt the euphoria rise in him again. It overtook him. For once delighted by the genie's antics, he cackled and howled like a god. Even after its fingers snapped, its magical circus evaporated, its manacles fell off, and Jafar was consumed in an icy fire, the sorcerer's manic laughter rang on.