🌙 A Night to Misremember:
Mirage has cast a spell on Aladdin and Jasmine, and now upon each fall of midnight, one forgets the other! Can Genie help them fall in love all over again before the great Fasir falls? Can the long-suffering seer convince Mirage to believe in love once more? Interwoven with the story of the rise and fall of Mirage and Fasir’s relationship, this story is full of romance, laughs, and adventure!
The sound of Nefera’s broom against the cool stone mingled with the smell of incense and the hum of Mamoura chanting. It was the ambiance of the temple of Maukaara. Of home.
Her spell isn’t going to work, Nefera thought as she moved the dust into the pail. Not without–
“Mulled apple!” Mamoura exclaimed. “Nefera!” Mamoura approached the girl, “Go into the market and get me three apples. Make sure they are–”
“The reddish yellow ones. From Kamal’s stand,” Nefera finished for her, taking the coins dropped into her palm. She dropped the broom on the floor and hurried outside, down the steep steps, and into the din of Suketra.
Suketra was a desert town marked with rock, sand, and palm trees. Stray cats weaved in between the feet of racing children and gesticulating barterers. There was always someone in a pothole trying to fix the wheel of a cart full of recently harvested and imported goods. There was always an urchin trying to steal from it, and usually a mother slapping his hand. The buildings and awnings were colored sloppily with different hued dyes, making the town look like a pile of gems in between a beige desert and a crystal river.
“Three apples for the usual price,” Nefera offered the coins to the vendor.
He had the bag already packed for her, “Thought you’d be back.”
“You know Mamoura,” Nefera couldn’t finish rolling her eyes before a boy violently bumped into her as he ran by.
“Hey!” She shook her fist at him and watched him run excitedly to a crowded corner. People gathered with interest at a figure she couldn’t quite make out from her distance.
“There’s a new magician in town,” Kamal said, following her gaze. “They say he heals.”
“Only priests can heal,” Nefera scoffed.
“I’m not saying I believe it. But I will say my cousin Hamza had a gnarly gash last week. Goat rammed him. Grabbed a splintery post on the way down. Saw him yesterday.” He held up his hands and turned them back to front. “No gash.”
Skeptical but intrigued, Nefera made her way to the corner.
Parlour tricks, she thought to herself as she watched the mystic. He was tall and strongly built, dressed in pale greens and blues, with a grey blindfold tied beneath his brow. His hair was pulled up carelessly in a voluminous black bun.
The healing was mostly on little scrapes and bruises. He’d touch them, and they’d vanish. But then a child had brought a kitten to him with a bent tail, and with a wave of his hand and gentle incantation, the tail reformed into a natural curve.
Impressive, she thought without admitting belief to herself.
After the kitten, he signaled with his hands that he was done for the day. Children moaned, and the adults nonchalantly tossed coins into a ragged bag at his feet.
The mystic slipped away. Nefera waited for a break in the crowd then slinked behind him down the alley.
“How’d you do the kitten trick?” she called after him.
“I healed it,” he answered, without stopping or turning.
“Ha ha,” she replied with a sarcastic bounce.
No response.
She caught up, swerved in front of him, and held out an apple. “An apple for your thoughts?”
He seemed to meet her gaze through his blindfold for a moment before musing, “I think your Priestess will need all three of those for her ritual.”
She cocked her head and mocked him, “A seer too?”
He grinned and walked on.
“Well you’re obviously not blind,” she taunted. “So why the blindfold?” He kept walking as she warned, “Just a heads up, I’m very persistent.”
He stopped but didn’t turn around. With a grin, she walked up to face him again.
He relented, “Give me the apple, and I’ll tell you how I did the kitten trick.”
She handed it to him.
The mystic took a solemn breath before answering, “I healed it.”
Annoyed, Nefera swiped the apple back before it reached his mouth. Then, pulling an earring from her ear, she sliced a small cut into her hand. “Heal me.”
“That’s gonna cost two apples.”
She rolled her eyes and held them out to him.
He paused before refusing them with a grin and a head shake. He took her cut hand, uttered something inaudible, and gave it back to her.
The cut was gone.
“How’d you do that!”
“You’re right,” he deflected with a smirk. “I’m not blind. The emblem of Maukaara. It’s on your beads.”
Nefera felt the beads clasped at the bottom of her charcoal dreads.
He continued, “Three apples from Kamal’s stand. Red and yellow. Perfectly ripe for the ankh sumara ritual. But you’re not a priestess. Dressed too common for that. You were running an errand.”
His voice was deep and beautiful. He mocked Nefera without antagonizing her, and for some reason she found that it thrilled her.
“And the blindfold?” she pressed, brow raised as he turned to walk away again. “Does the blind beggar act help you get more coin?”
He stopped and slowly turned, cautiously lifting a hand to his brow.
“Appearances can be deceiving,” he warned as he revealed his eyes.
I'm watching the Aladdin TV series and shipping Mirage and Phasir. Like Mirage went all evil and is now Evil incarnate and Phasir is still trying to bring her back to her old self and trying to remind her of how love is stronger than anything else and it's cliche but I ship them so much because Phasir still hasn't given up and he can see into the future (I think?) so he knows what's going to happen and probably the horrible things Mirage will do but he won't give up on her.
I ship them so much. I just want Mirage to return to her good self for a moment and Phasir being all happy and then Mirage going back to her evil self because that would be painful.
