Chapter Text
Once upon a time, there was a boy.
The boy was from a very poor family. Besides him, there was the father, the mother, and the little sister. They lived together in a shabby little house in the surroundings of the capital.
The family barely had enough to survive. The father worked in different jobs for a living and the mother sold wool shawls when she was not taking care of home affairs. The little sister was still young and was not allowed to work outside, but she helped the mother at home. Very skilled, the boy ran several errands for money.
Back then, life was hard, but no impossible.
Everything changed when the boy was twelve. One day, his father was accidentally murdered. He was mistaken for a person who had pick up a fight with the palace guards. Nobody ever cared to find out which guard did it, the man was too poor and irrelevant. What they did was to send the man’s personal belongings home, back to his family. His house directions were the father’s last words before closing his eyes forever.
When the mother learned about the news, she was sad, very sad for being left alone in poverty. She tried hard to hang on after her husband’s death, but her earnings were insufficient to feed the three remaining members of the family. She was a woman, so nobody wanted to employ her, and the money she made from her craft wasn’t enough.
Desperately wanting to help his family, the boy became skilled in small thefts. Most of the things he picked were food, but sometimes he went after money as well. When the mother found out about it, she was disheartened and ordered him to stop.
He wished he had listened to her.
One day, during an important religious festival, the boy was caught stealing a piece of jewelry that belonged to someone who worked at the palace, and not only that, but the person was also a powerful sorcerer at the service of the Sultan.
A guard held the boy’s left arm firmly and was about to cut his hands off to punish him for being caught stealing, but the sorcerer intervened. He made an offer: if, and only if, the boy helped him retrieve an important treasure, he would drop the charge. The boy, terrified of losing his hand, agreed immediately.
They travelled through the scalding desert for days. Guards, servants, and a person who seemed to be the sorcerer’s aide followed along. On the fourth day, they finally reached their destination, but there was nothing there.
The sorcerer took a few steps, stopping ahead of the group, raised his hands and said what appeared to be an enchantment. Whatever they were, the sorcerer’s words made the ground start to shake! And from the sand a cave in the form of a lion emerged. There really was a hidden place in the middle of the desert!
But the entrance is so small that only the scrawny boy could enter. The instructions were clear: he must retrieve the treasure and bring it back to the sorcerer. Only then he would be forgiven.
The boy went through the entrance and the group waited. They waited for hours, which became days. On the seventh day, when they were about to give up, the boy finally reappeared. His clothes were in rags, his appearance disheveled. On his hands, a beautiful, shiny gold lamp.
The sorcerer smiles as the boy handled him the lamp. He looks at the sorcerer expectantly and all the man can do is laugh. No promise is kept. The boy is allowed to keep his hands, but he is convicted to stay in that cave forever as a punishment for his crime.
The guards force the boy back in. He struggles, but a malnourished kid is no match for four sturdy guards, so he is shoved back inside the cave, trapped for life.
Or so thought the sorcerer.
Inside the cave, the boy smiled a bitter smile, and retrieved from his clothes a beautiful lamp just like the one he handled to the sorcerer, but this lamp is far more magnificent because it is ornated with shiny rubies and intricate flower ornaments in silver.
Turns out that the boy already had a hunch that the sorcerer could betray him, so he gave the man a fake lamp. He only wishes he could see the man’s face when he realizes he was tricked!
“You can now come out.” He says to the lamp and a genie floats out of it!
“I must say, master, you are truly mischievous for someone so young. I cannot wait to learn what you will wish next.” The genie smiles a cruel smile, but the boy only gives him a blank expression, vaguely showing interest.
For his first wish, the genie had agreed to help him to get out of his predicament and deceive the sorcerer and his party.
But sooner or later, the sorcerer would realize the deception. And, for the boy’s misfortune, it did not take long. Infuriated, the sorcerer ordered the boy’s family to be summarily executed.
When the boy manages to return home, he is greeted by the beheaded bodies of his mother and sister. There was so much blood, and all he could do was to vomit and cry. He grieves for days and swears that he will spill every drop of royal blood to avenge the wrongs that the royalty committed against his family.
The boy spent the following years plotting an intricate revenge, and when his plans are put into motion not even the Sultan is spared. With the help of his second wish, he infiltrates the palace and gains each and every person’s trust, before stabbing everyone in their backs. The sorcerer is left for last, and the boy, now a young man, knows he is not able to defeat him through mere assassination. Face to face with the man that ended his family, he voices his third and last wish: to become a powerful genie himself, the most powerful in the world, and to be able to defeat him and every other sorcerer in the Scalding Sands.
His genie is beyond ecstatic with this wish and laughs like a madman.
“As you wish, master.”
“Have you gone mad? You will become a slave, just like him!” The sorcerer roars, his eyes reflecting a fine, beautiful young man with long, brown hair, tied in a low ponytail which is ornated by three little braids. On his face, there is a blank, disinterested expression.
The young man is in no position to care.
“As long as I can defeat you.” His smile is one of sick delight.
After granting the third wish, the genie disappears forever. In his place, a more formidable genie is born. His true form wears black and red, skin grayish, and his long, silky hair resembles snakes.
The young man laughs, mad from all the power and execute the last step of his plan. He defeats the sorcerer not by killing him, but by humiliating him, stripping him from his powers, and severing his limbs. The man did not deserve the peace of death. Staying alive, living the rest of his life as a miserable crippled beggar would serve him right.
Having completed his plan, the young man is left alone in what used to be a sumptuous hall of the palace. His expression is sad, tired.
“Mom, dad, Najma… Now you can finally rest in peace.” Are the last words he says before being claimed by the lamp for a life of servitude.