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2020-04-21
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2020-07-21
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Chapter 7: As someone told me lately "Everyone deserves the chance to fly!"

Chapter Text

The bad news was that when Iago had hinted that Cassim should be let off the hook for his own errands now, Fatima had just laughed in his face. The good news was that she'd dug out this cushy pillow when Cassim had mentioned the bird not having a perch or a bed. 

He listened to the chatter from the tavern coming up through the floor and couldn't pick out Cassim's voice. Too muffled, too many other noises. He was still down there, though. He'd still been having fun regaling "Granny" with his exploits when Iago had realized he was about to pass out on Cassim's shoulder, and had excused himself to go pass out somewhere more private where he wasn't going to fall on the floor and get stepped on. Boy, he was wiped...

He was on the verge of comfy unconsciousness when an odor seeped into the room. Pepper and mint, but not peppermint. And a hint of burning sage... and wet ashes.

It couldn't be.

Iago opened one eye. Half the room was filled with gauzy blue vapor, and it was grinning at him. "So you are awake!"

"What," Iago croaked.

"You look like you still have all your limbs and feathers, that's good. Al's been worried about you, pal, we really expected you back by now." The genie had now settled into a form that was almost solid, or gave the the illusion that it was.

Iago sat up. Genie... here. Talking to him. "Everyone's stuck in some death trap and I gotta go bail them out, that's it, isn't it?" he moaned. "I knew it. I knew you people would fall apart without me! Is the monkey alive?"

"Slow down, little fella! Everyone's fine! And experiencing twenty percent less ear pain since you left, at that." The Genie looked at his wrist. Some kind of band had appeared on it. Ugh, it was dizzying when he shifted around like that. Sure, cosmic being with no set form, sure. But could he stay in one shape for the length of a conversation, at least? "At least, they were fine five minutes ago." He gave an impression of biting his lip. "Hmm, I think I had better make this quick."

"Yes, quick! Yes! Why are you here in the first place if no one's dying and you don't need me?" The Genie had a funny idea of what was and what wasn't a problem. Iago wasn't gonna calm down just yet. 

"When you didn't come back after a day to make a raid on the Sultan's treasure room we kinda got to worrying that you might be the one in a death trap, birdy boy."

Iago gestured at the cozy room and the nice cushion he was sitting on. "Does this look like a death trap to you?"

The Genie glanced over the walls and the ceiling. He produced some kind of metal rod thing out of the vapor and held it up to the windowsill. "Well, I'm not sure it's completely up to code..." He floated around the room. "But it's not a prison cell, which is always a plus."

"You thought I'd been arrested already? Some vote of confidence, thanks."

"It's been a couple of weeks," said the Genie. "Have you ever gone that long without being arrested before?" 

"Yes," Iago said sullenly. "Lotsa times." So they thought he couldn't make it on his own. Nice. Classy.

"Say, what's this little gizmo?" The Genie was looking at the anti-thief box, which was lying next to Iago. 

"That's, uh, mine," said Iago. He thought maybe he should name the thing. 'Chomper', maybe? Was naming a wooden box a weird thing to do? "It's bespelled." Also, he had stolen it. The base of it anyway. He would not tell the Genie that part.

The Genie leaned in closer. "Hey, it is bespelled! Mind if I take a look?"

"Well, yes, I mind. But take a look anyway."

The Genie picked up the box and studied it- its rough corners looked strange against his round, boneless hands. "That's a cute little charm."

"Cute? That spell ain't cute, it's mean and nasty!"

The Genie opened the lid and it snapped down. "Well, it's a very impolite spell, anyway," said the Genie. He held the box out in front of him and looked from it to Iago. "Hm. It has your eyes. Are you a good witch or a bad witch?" 

"Ha! You tell me!" Would the Genie tell the others? Would he tell everybody? Maybe he'd tell the monkey.

"The bird's gone for two weeks and now he's a sorcerer." The Genie set the box back down and Iago could breathe again. "There's a pithy quote in there about how time flies..."

"Time only flies when you're having fun," said Iago. "But, wait- it doesn't surprise you that I did that?"

"Should it?" The Genie looked so calm, like he didn't know why this was even a question. 

"I guess... not?" Iago said. "But anyway, I'm fine. I haven't even gotten Cassim into trouble, he's livin' it up downstairs, go see for yourself- or don't." The Genie could wreak a lot of havoc in a tavern. "You don't need to go down there, I'm sure you're busy." 

The Genie took another look around the room. "You two aren't in the dungeon, nothing's on fire... I guess there's no reason for me to stay."

"Not unless you want to watch me take a nap." Wait, he shouldn't have said that. The Genie was weird enough to take him up on it!

"Naaah," said the Genie, "not when I could watch all the paint dry in the universe if I wanted to." He leaned forward, bracing his elbow on nothing and propping his cheek on his hand. "So you're not pining to come back home with me?"

"Did I stutter when I said I was moving out for good? Did I not speak up enough? Maybe I was too quiet. Sometimes people tell me I'm too quiet."

"I'm happy to see you too, pal."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm still waitin' for that bad news." He held up a wing. "Don't give me any bad news. Forget to give me the bad news and leave before you remember, won't you?"

"There's no bad news. Al and Jazz are having a great time on their honeymoon, and everyone's in one piece. Good luck with your illustrious life of crime." Genie swung a leg over the windowsill. He had legs now, and he was small enough to fit in the windowsill instead of taking up half the room. Watching him do this stuff was like looking through a kaleidoscope on crack. "I'll tell the kids there's nothing to worry about."

"Good, yes. You do that."

"And now," said the Genie, "to infinity-" 

"Wait, wait!"

"Hmmm?"

Iago shook out his feathers. Shut up, he told himself. Shut uuup. But he didn't shut up. "Look, is the monkey okay?"

"What monkey?"

"The monkey, Aladdin's monkey! Abu! Is he holding up okay without me? I was the only one on his level, ya know. I understood the little guy. And without me he won't know what's worth stealing and what's not, so..."

"Oh, that monkey! It's- it's not like you like him, or anything!"

"No, I don't like him at all," said Iago breathlessly, "that's right, I don't, how's he doin' though?"

The Genie winked at him. Like a star twinkling. "Don't worry, he's fine. I don't think he even remembers your name."

"Doesn't remember my name?! Oh, that little..." Iago took a deep breath. "Fine. If you see that flea-bitten furball you tell 'im..."

"Yeees?"

"You tell 'im from me..."

The Genie leaned forward. "Yeeeeeees?"

"I hope he's happy," Iago said in an acid tone. He clacked his beak. "Now get out." His voice was husky and quivering, and it disgusted him.

"Awww," said the Genie, beaming. 

"No aww, get out of here! Isn't it- what's that you always say, ten minutes to Wapner?" Whatever that meant.

"It is ten minutes to Wapner! Gee, I had better get going if you have no other last-minute confessions."

"Not a one."

"Gotcha. Good-bye, Oggs. Have a nice life. I mean that!"

He dispersed. The room was empty, now- empty and mundane, and the feeling of the veil of reality trembling and allowing glimpses of something too big and powerful to imagine was gone. 

Iago let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding, and flopped down on the pillow on his chest. He closed his eyes. Watching the Genie's form morph and change always gave him a headache. It wasn't just hard on the eyes, it was hard on the mind. No one around Iago ever seemed to grasp the implications of what they were looking at. Or maybe they just didn't dare bring it up.

There was a knock on the door. "Whoozit?" Iago barked, half expecting it to be the Genie, because jumping out the window and then showing up at the door a second later was exactly the kind of thing he would do. 

"It's only me." 

"Cassim?" Iago blinked. "This is your room, why are you knocking?"

"It seemed polite." Cassim entered the room, softly shutting the door behind him. "Were you talking with someone? I thought I heard another voice."

"Oh, you heard that?" He had almost convinced himself already that it hadn't happened. Being with the Genie always felt like a fever dream, maybe this time it had been. But if Cassim had heard him... "Uh, I was practicing voices." He didn't want to explain the Genie. He couldn't explain the Genie.

But he hoped Cassim wouldn't ask him to show off the voice. The Genie's voice was one that could never be imitated or duplicated. When you first heard it, it sounded normal. Just a guy. A guy with a warm, exciteable voice, smooth and likeable. Easy to listen to. But it also sounded like someone you used to know and hadn't seen in years, someone you'd loved once but couldn't remember the name of. And it also sounded like someone you hadn't met yet, someone you'd be good friends with for a long time. And it sounded a little like thunder... a little like the sound that ultraviolet light would make if it made a sound... and a little like crackling embers.

Uh, Iago was a pretty good mimic but he wasn't that good. He remembered taking a shot at it now and then when only Abu was around to hear, and it sounded so far off that Abu would start laughing.

"Practicing?" Cassim asked.

"Oh, you haven't heard me do it, have ya?" He brought out Al's voice. It was one he knew pretty well, and Cassim would sure know it. "Parrots are pretty talented birds."

Cassim froze. Maybe Al was not a good choice?

"Uh," Iago said, as himself, "or I could be the landlady." Her voice was a little husky but not hoarse. "Cassim, clean your room and take out the garbage," he made her say.

Cassim looked him over. "That... is uncanny." He stroked his beard. "You have only known Fatima a day and a half, and I would not be able to tell the difference. How long does it take you to learn a voice?"

"Depends on the voice." People who sounded at all similar to Iago were the hardest ones, actually. Too easy to slip back into himself. "I can do sounds, too. Comes in handy."

"Yes... I can see that it might." From the serious look on Cassim's face, it sorta seemed like he might already be thinking of some specific case in which it might be handy. 

He wasn't forthcoming, so Iago changed the subject. "Did you have a good time at the party?"

"Yes, we talked and made merry. I pretended to drink."

"You don't drink?"

"Not in a public setting, it clouds the mind." He sat down on his mat. "My men would have enjoyed the celebration."

He looked and sounded just a little bit down. Knowing Cassim was a master of understatement, that probably meant he was severely down. 

Iago's honest opinions on these things usually made people mad. And, while most of the time he considered that it was not his fault if some human was too sensitive to put up with what he had to say, he didn't want to make Cassim mad. 

"You have my sympathy," he said stiffly.

"Do I, you turkey?" 

"Yes," Iago said, and somehow, he didn't think this was working out too much better than honesty. If he couldn't win either way, he might as well be blunt. That was how it usually worked. Vice and virtue paid out equally well and vice was more fun. "Look, it stinks to be down a partner, but those guys were traitors. Sometimes you just gotta make a clean break."

"I have no choice, in this case."

"Good! No way you can go back."

Cassim looked away. His expression was hard to read, even though humans had those soft, squishy faces that usually showed up all their feelings like fingerprints in dough. "They were not traitors. Saluk's lies-"

"Cassim, it don't matter. People lie in our kind of work. They shouldn't have bought it without seeing you turn on them with their own eyes."

Cassim got up from the floor and walked across the room to stand by the window. 

Iago should drop this, maybe. But now it was bugging him. He knew he was right, was the thing. "I know you don't like hearing it," he said, "but this stuff happens. When it's over, it's over."

"It will take some time."

"Of course, of course," said Iago. "No one's telling you to dance on their graves or anything, just ease up on yourself, won't you?"

Cassim leaned on the windowsill. It was nearly dark now. Iago yawned and quickly hid the yawn behind his wing. Cassim was a more reasonable guy than most, but no one liked it if they thought you were bored by their problems. (Which, in other circumstances, could be very funny if you didn't like the person with problems.)

"You think I give too many second chances, I suspect," said Cassim.

"Boss, you give too many first chances. But, uh, what do I know anyway?"

"Fatima agrees with you."

"Well, maybe I'm wrong, then."

"Do you recall the tale she told yesterday, about the King of Thieves?"

"Uh, yeah." Iago fidgeted a little to try to wake himself up. This cushion was comfortable and Cassim's voice, smooth, calm and deep, was a voice you could fall asleep to. In a good way. "You chopped up a guy. I mean, it's not a real story." 

The sunset was behind Cassim, making the shadows so deep on his face that he had no visible expression. "In the story, there are two brothers: virtuous Ali Baba and greedy Cassim. In reality, there was only greedy Cassim, and he trapped himself in the thieve's hideout on purpose. A risky gamble."

"But a high payoff, huh?"

"I told you the previous King of Thieves was not a nice man. In reality, I am not so sure. I didn't wait to find out for myself before I challenged him to a duel."

"Hostile takeover, eh?"

"I knew only his reputation, and I have seen since how a reputation can play false. I was nineteen then," said Cassim. "A brat, really. How did Aladdin turn out so virtuous?"

Aladdin had lucked out with a genie and never had to make the kinda choices Cassim had, but implied criticism of his son was the one thing Cassim would never tolerate. That was obvious. Even to a loudmouth parrot. "So you think you're a terrible person because one time you didn't check a guy's references before you killed him?"

"It was more than one time," Cassim said.

"And? You can't un-do that. This was years ago. What, you're gonna beat yourself up forever because you did stupid things before? Now, if you do it again, come talk to me."

"Your view of morality is... interesting, Iago."

"Yeah, so I've heard."

"I imply no criticism," said Cassim. "Your pragmatism is rather refreshing, actually."

Tact personified, that one. "Look- really bad people don't even think about this stuff, Cassim. We wouldn't be having this talk, you would have just told me you were right until you got me to shut up. I think you're gonna be just fine." He yawned again and quickly hid it, but not quickly enough.

"I apologize," said Cassim. "I shouldn't keep you awake simply because you are interesting."

"Yeah, boss," he said. "We'll talk later."

"I look forward to it." Cassim paused, and even with the shadowy lack of face, he seemed thoughtful. It was in the tilt of his head, maybe. "I believe we will have a very fruitful working relationship, you and I."

"Yeah. I can be pretty useful, not to brag. Uh, good night."

"Good night, my friend."