I have been neglecting this story. I apologiez. It is mainly because I am not good at writing romance. I have no idea what I was thinking when I made this story, ugh.

One another note I don't think this will be one of those mushy romances. Sure there will be touches and words and teases but honesty I don't think Jafar is one for sappy stuff.

I have also been updating more on Wattpad (oops) because I have the app on my phone. Sorry. This chapter has been up on Wattpad for maybe a month? I am not sure. I apologize for all the users. Haha

It should not be easy to sneak up on Sinbad, Jafar thinks. Sinbad is a king, idiot or not, it should not be this easy to glide into his study and easily sneak up on him. Then again, Jafar is a trained assassin, he would be beyond impressed if Sinbad did see him over the mountain of paperwork.

All it took was Jafar reaching forward for a lock of that dark hair and twirl it around his index finger for Sinbad to tense. Jafar would have snorted but instead he drops his hand now that he has some of the king's attention.

"Sham Lash." Jafar says after a moment of listening to Sinbad's pen scratch across the paper. SInbad pauses in his writing, eyes narrowing a bit.

"Sham Lash?"

"Hn, the organization I used to be in before I came here."

"What is here?"

Jafar only hummed, "Sindria," he answered, he will elaborate about that later. For now, Sham Lash, "Sham Lash was an organization that used to be owned by Parthevia, but after it fell it associated and still associates with the Kou empire. I left before that happened." He will admit that he was a bit happy that he did leave. He knew how miserable he was while in Parthevia, he didn't need to visualize what the Kou empire was like.

Things begin to piece together and maybe these events were connected of some sort. Maybe he wasn't thinking enough or maybe he was thinking too much.

"The other night I encountered two members, I'm pretty sure they were part of Sham Lash or whatever they call themselves now."

"If that's so, that would mean that Kou is in Sindria."

"Yes." Jafar says while walking toward the window and sitting against the sil. His back against the wood. He looks outward and Sinbad side glances at him. "If that's the case then there are many things that they could want."

"Correct."

"Jafar." Jafar looks over at the king's tone to see Sinbad standing.

"Sinbad," Jafar starts, not using any familiarity, "Right now the number one thing we need to know is what they're after. Like you said there are many possibilities and that could mean that you can be in danger as the king."

"I understand where you're coming from, but that will not stop me from finding out."

"Understandable," Jafar hops down, folding his arms in his sleeves, and walks toward the desk. He stops once he's face to face with Sinbad.

"As of right now, you're the first priority. Have your generals on guard please." He turns toward the door. "And do not watch my ass as I leave like you did last time."

Sinbad would have laughed if it were not for the tension in the air but he did crack a smile.

"Are you saying that you know I'm attracted to you?"

"Yes, I've just been waiting for your dumbass to say something, and just to make sure you don't look and keep working." Jafar placed two fingers between his lips and whistled.

The cub- it wasn't a cub anymore, no one could tell Sinbad anywise- came stalking in toward Jafar. Jafar snapped his fingers and pointed downward and the cub laid on the floor, keeping his eyes on Sinbad.

"Seriously, Jafar?"

"Yes." Then he leaves.

Jafar, damn well knows that Sinbad could have easily ordered him to stop, turn around, anything really but the older man didn't. Jafar shakes his head as he walks down the corridor.

Rune snorts and sniffs at the clothes that Jafar has laid out across the bed. The clothes smell weird. Not weird in a bad way. It's weird because he knows Jafar does not have a scent and this particular scent is confusing him.

"I don't like it."

Jafar inclines his head at the boy. "Oh?'

"It smells weird, like there is a scent but it is coated." The boy scrunched up his nose and Jafar hums.

"You're not supposed to be able to track it." Jafar states. Rune seems to ignore this or stays silent, Jafar can't seem to tell. The boy makes his way toward the older and sniffs the air around him, content when he didn't smell anything.

Jafar notices that Rune has grown quite some centimeters. The boy must have had another growth spurt because now he's at Jafar's chest when he used to be at Jafar's waist.

He discards that thought for now as he tightens the belt around his waist. He has to wear it under the robe Sinbad supplied him with. It had a few things he carried in his old uniform.

Rune pokes at the pocket that had a tube of white powder in it. Jafar pushes the boy's hand away with the shake of his head.

"It's poison. It'll put a person to sleep before it works."

Rune seems to blink at this and steps away, moving toward his bed.

"So you are going out tonight?" Rune questions with a tilt of his head. It is a habit, Jafar has seen the boy do it many times before.

"Yes," He answers, "I should be back before anyone wakes up if I am not back then don't looks for me."

"What do I tell that man?"

Jafar hums to himself as he takes inventory of everything under his belt once more. "What you always do, be the little sarcastic shit I raised you to be."

Rune snorts and Jafar knows he is smirking. In the back of his head, he thinks that maybe he should teach the boy about manners and the proper way to address the king and his generals. Then again Jafar did not know shit about respect when he was Rune's age, especially when it came to higher authority. He also observed that it was mainly Sinbad that got the bad end of Rune's manners. There was also Sharrkan but that was because Rune often spends time with Masrur and the older finalis pays little to no respect to the man.

"He will be worried," Rune speaks up when Jafar laces up his boots.

"He always worries." Jafar knew the exact reason why.

"He likes you."

"I know."

"He told you?"

"I figured it out on my own."

There is a pause and Jafar moves to his other boot.

"You didn't do anything?"

"Not really."

"You humans are weird," Rune concludes and Jafar shakes his head.

"I am more concerned about getting things done than those matters Rune. I also do not wish to speak about it with a child."

Rune puffs his cheeks when Jafar turns toward him and it reminds Jafar of the time the boy had so many fish in his mouth he looked like a chipmunk.

"I am not a child. I am probably more mature than some people here."

Jafar could not argue with him there.

Instead, he wraps his weapons around his arms and makes sure they are secure. Rune watches a bit with that bored expression. Jafar heads to the balcony.

"Goodnight." He tells the boy, Rune tells him the same and Jafar is off into the night.

"It's not Kou." Amasis is quick to say it and Jafar and Vittel keep quiet. Amasis licks her lips before speaking again.

"I've managed to gather some intel from a few friends and members. Some of them are 'stationed' in Kou and can easily slip in and out the system. None of the 'new' Shamlash are there."

"Then what other nation does Sindria have heat with?" Vittel sighs out.

"Just about every nation that isn't in the Seven Seas Alliance," Jafar speaks up, "I assumed it was Kou because that's what Sinbad has been dealing with the most."

"How fortunate to have a good source of intel on the king," Amasis comments, "Keep a lookout for what he does, those generals too Jafar. You really are our main source of information when it comes to things such as this."

"Noted," he answers, "Anything else?"

"Magic tools." Vittel comments, "I ran into one the other day, had something on him that was draining the magoi clean out of him. Fucker must've overused it."

"That reminds me," Amasis moves a bit closer, "That encounter we had a few weeks back, they were using magic tools too. I managed to scavenge a fragment of one of their weapons and there were commands and leftover magoi in it. It's not magoi manipulation either. It's a bit more advanced than that."

"So you're saying that the people we have been fighting are using magic items?" Vittel deadpans. Amasis nods.

"If we could get one of them hostage I can confirm a few things," She turns toward Vittel, "What happened to the one that attacked you?"

"It faded away," Vittel answers it without missing a beat and his eyes scan the area once more, "Body and all, no trace, didn't even leave a scent."

Amasis scrunches up her face. "There's no way the bodies of the first encounter will be there as well," She runs her fingers through her white hair with a sigh before looking at Jafar. "Chief?" She questions.

Jafar mulls the information over in his head before speaking.

"If you have another piece of that fragment, or if you can break a piece off then I should be able to take it to someone who can analyze it more.

Amasis raises an eyebrow but nods. She reaches into her pocket and pulled out a red pouch. She unties it to pick a small piece up.

"It is small, I'm not sure if it'll be efficient."

"It should be enough." Jafar wraps it in his own cloth and places it in his belt pocket.

"Who are you going to show it to?" Vittel questions.

Jafar narrows his eyes, "Sinbad has a magician as a general. From what I heard she's practically a genius and has her own lab. Since she has more resources I figured the examination would go a bit faster and we'll get finer results."

Vittel nods his head and Amasis hums.

"If you need another piece do not hesitate to ask," Amasis concludes and Jafar nod. "Tell the king the information we came up with."

"Right. Dismissed."

The three of them part ways.

He does not mean to startle Yamuraiha the next morning. Then again he thinks that she had the right to be startled when she saw him standing dead in the center of her laboratory skimming over a few books. She had yelped and nearly dropped the books in her arms but Jafar had caught them with ease and him by the wrist.

"Thank you." She breathes out while he hands her the stack of books. She places them on a rare empty table before spinning around to look him up and down.

"When and how in the world did you get in here?"

Jafar looks at her, taking in her appearance. She's a bit disheveled and she looks a bit tired. However her face is clean and her hair is only a tad bit messy, her hat hangs on her back.

"I've been in here for around thirteen minutes and twenty-seven seconds." He says it as if it does not matter.

Yamuraiha gawks a bit. "How-"

"Honestly your lab isn't difficult to find. It's the only place with metal doors and has the scent of chemicals in it. You should crack a window around the left side over there." He points to a particular blue concoction that is steaming fairly good. She scrambles to open the window by it.

"I didn't even hear you."

"I came through the ceiling window."

She huffs a bit and straightens her attire. "I guess you are in here for a reason. What is it?"

Jafar removes the pouch from under his sleeves. He was now wearing the Sindrian robe Sinbad provided him because he didn't want to seem too suspicious.

"Are you able to analyze objects? Like tracing its origin and finding out what it is made of?"

She furrows her brows as he unwraps the fragment. Her eyes narrow as she takes it out his palm and looks at it.

"I should be able to. It depends on the type of material it is made up of. It will also help if you knew where it came from."

Jafar folds his hands under his sleeves. "It's some type of magical tool used as a weapon."

Yamuraiha stiffens in her observation of the fragment.

"Does," She licks her lips, "Does King Sinbad know of this."

Jafar tilts his head to the side to stare at her and she feels a shiver down her spine.

"He will," Jafar answers then looks toward the doors. "I debated whether I should see him first but I figured that you and I are the only ones up at the ass crack of dawn."

She stifles a snort and wraps the fragment back up in the cloth. "It should not take long. Give me a few days just to be sure and to confirm a few things, then I'll show you and King Sinbad."

Jafar hums and thanks her, then leaves.