Rajah's Curse

Chapter 49: A Consolation

My dreams continued to shift from one good memory to the next. Sometimes I was a tiger and sometimes a man. My final dream took me back to one of my last nights as Ren.

*****

About a week after our qumabêruh-fueled cleanse had begun, Jasmine had pointed out the strategical disadvantage of having our most precious resource all in one place. The critique made so much sense that I was ashamed I hadn't thought of it first.

However, as the princess and I started placing qumabêruh throughout the palace for emergencies, I thought of an improvement that could be made. It occurred to me that the princess and I should also have some qumabêruh secreted away in places that were unknown to even each other in case the worse happened.

There was just no telling with magic. It was so insidious.

I carefully considered where to put my small supply and after much thought, I found a few viable spots. On this night, I presented my idea of personalized secret stashes to Jasmine by bringing her to an unused guest suite and asking her to find out where I had hidden my personal tin.

I merely wished to have a location that Jasmine would not discover in minutes, but it seemed I needn't have worried. To both our surprise, Jasmine failed to come close to finding my hiding spot. After searching all night, the princess still hadn't guessed where the qumabêruh was.

"Princess," I began.

"Just 15 more minutes?" she asked, I heard her move something inside the rooms. I was standing out on the balcony in a shadowy corner so as to not be seen by a casual observer. From my vantage point, I could see the sky was beginning to lighten to a morning blue. Dawn would be here soon.

"Jasmine, come on," I pressed. "It's almost daybreak."

There was a loud sigh. "Fine," she said, exasperated. She stomped over to the balcony curtain. "You win."

I grinned before I reminded her and myself, "This isn't-"

"A competition," we finished together.

"That's what you keep saying," she added, "but your smug tone makes that hard to believe, Ren."

"I'm not being smug," I argued. "You're just upset you lost."

"I thought you said this wasn't a competition," she said archly.

I opened my mouth and closed it.

Damn it.

"Well," I began again, "perhaps it has become a bit of a game." I hadn't meant it to be, but with Jasmine asking for more and more time, it had sort of morphed into something like a game which I had won.

"It is a game," she asserted, "and tomorrow, it will be your turn to play. We'll see how you like wandering around the same rooms for hours."

"That's what we do every night," I pointed out. Although, these days we also spent a good portion of our nights exercising curses as well.

"Semantics," she argued. "The two are hardly equivalent. These rooms are woefully lacking in scrolls, documents, and magic."

"Not completely lacking," I reminded her.

I could practically hear her scowling.

I relented. "I didn't mind the change of pace," I offered. "We have been rather busy lately."

"I suppose it was nice to puzzle through a new problem," she said, begrudgingly. "I might have had some fun, but not as much as you."

"I'm glad you got some enjoyment out of it." She could grumble all she wanted. I knew she'd loved this much more than I had. I just wished that we could just keep going, "but, I really do believe that it is time for both of us to retire, princess. It's very late."

If we kept talking for much longer, we might forget the time. Then I'd end up transforming mid-sentence again. This had already happened more often than I cared to admit and both of us always found such an abrupt end to our night unnerving.

"Ren?" The fact she still wanted to talk wasn't unexpected, but her tone was. Jasmine's voice had gone soft, almost tentative.

"Yes?"

"Can I come outside?"

I thought I knew what she was asking, but I pretended not to. "Why?" I asked.

There was a silence. I wondered if she would start asking me questions that I couldn't answer again, but instead, I received my second surprise of the night. Jasmine tried to make up for lost time, by saying in a rush, "I want to look at Agrabah with you. We're up so high and on the eastern side of the palace, so the view must be splendid right now."

I felt frozen. The view was splendid. I could see the north gardens, the outer palace, the city, and beyond the northeast hills, a sliver of the gleaming ocean was also visible. I was sure Jasmine would enjoy the sight, but again, I was running out of time. We had less than 10 minutes.

I debated with myself.

"Ren?" she said after a bit. "Are you still there?"

I squeezed my eyes shut. I knew this was a bad idea, but... "Yes, I'm here and yes, you can come outside," I said. "Just don't expect me to remain with you that long."

The princess needed no more prompting. She walked out without her blindfold as I suspected she would.

I stayed in the shadows.

"It's beautiful!" she declared. I couldn't see her face, but she was outlined in the light.

"It is," I agreed.

Then to further tempt the gods, the princess held out her hand.

"Jasmine..." I began. I was perfectly fine where I was.

"I promise I won't look," she offered.

"You're really pushing it today," I huffed before coming up to stand beside her.

"You had me search those rooms for hours and they weren't even yours," she complained.

"I never said the rooms were mine," I pointed out. "You just assumed." Though I had performed a variety of experiments in my rooms lately, it would have been inappropriate to do today's test in there.

Jasmine's fingers flexed expectantly.

I took her hand begrudgingly and tried to keep my counter-argument going despite the contact. I said, "And I tried to dissuade you from searching all night but you refused to give up. Honestly, princess, you have no one to blame but yourself."

"Regardless," she said, brushing aside the truth of all my points. "I'm taking this as my consolation prize."

First, she tries to blame me for her hubris and now she was talking about consolation prizes?

I chuckled. Sometimes, she could be so...

But whatever adjective I was going to use got lost because the princess squeezed my hand.

My heart thudded in response and I glanced down at her.

From this angle, I could just make out her expression. Jasmine's mouth was curled into a mischievous smile and her eyelashes fluttered, but she resisted temptation, leaving me human for a few more moments.

For those few blessed moments, the princess and I stood with our hands intertwined.

Jasmine looked out at Agrabah.

And I looked at her.

The sight of my princess gazing at her city was the last thing I saw before I woke up.