[OOM] Day Fifty-Four: Arabian Niiiiiiiiiights, like Arabian daaaaaaaaays

It was majestic. More magnificent than all of Jafar’s years of searching had prepared him for, a tiger’s head of sand, glowing from within, looming up over the desert. The briefest glimpse of an end to his searching, a way to the power of the lamp.

Then it was gone. The moment that fool thief had set foot in it, the jaws had closed, and the Cave of Wonders had collapsed in on itself, with one last command to seek out the diamond in the rough.

Iago had ranted and screamed, while Jafar waited in the cold desert, trying to quell the feeling of disappointment. This was just another obstacle to overcome. The last obstacle.

“I must find this one,” he murmurs to Iago, once the bird had calmed down some. “This diamond in the rough.”

“A most worthy goal.”

Jafar sucks in a breath, snapping his head to one side. The speaker was small, and nearly obscured by the night. One triangular ear twitched.

“I apologise for the abruptness of my arrival. I’m an emissary of Daybreak Town.”

Jafar’s eyebrows rise. “Daybreak Town, you say? My heart is quite secure in my chest, thank you, I will have no business with them.”

“And yet, you may find they have business with you before long. Why not make use of them before long? I will see you handsomely rewarded for it.”

---

“Hey, loser,” Alvis says over breakfast. “You, me, and Freyra. Mission.”

Eden’s halfway through tinkering with the arm for one of the training robots, but he pauses for a moment, looking up at Alvis.

“... Sure. I need the munny,” he says.

“You still owe me, after all,” Adelle adds, grabbing another waffle and stuffing it whole into her mouth. Eden gives her a slightly sour look.

“The Chirithies are already preparing us a path,” Freyra says. “Our target: Get enough hearts that it bumps us up the rankings. Or at least enough that Ed can pay off his debt.”

---

The Lanes spit them out in the middle of a throng of people: Brightly clothed men hawking wares with all the enthusiasm of Mog at an end of week sale; people buying from them and chatting among themselves; tiny, small people laughing and yelping as they weave their way around the legs of the proper-sized people; and people dressed in rags, settled against walls, asking for coin.

It’s louder and busier than anywhere Eden’s ever been, and the heat of the sun beating down on them doesn’t help. There’s a part of Eden that wants to react somehow, but he doesn’t have any fragments of memory that correspond to this situation, no guidelines on what reacting to it is meant to look like.

Alvis seems unperturbed, though, and sets off immediately, and Freyra takes Eden by the arm to drag him along. The Heartless don’t seem that prevalent in the city, but they discover pockets of them here and there, in dark alleyways and the more ragged parts of the city. They’re all the same: Floating, three-tendriled spheres of shadow, like the ones they saw in Wonderland.

“More Darkballs,” Chirithy says, eventually, after Eden cuts one down. “But they’re not native here, either.”

“You encountered these same Heartless in Wonderland, isn’t that right?” Alvis’ Chirithy asks, materialising on his shoulder. “It’s odd that these Heartless in particular should be so widespread.”

“Even if someone were intentionally spreading them across worlds, they’re neither especially intelligent nor notable in their power,” Freyra’s Chirithy adds.

They all vanish at once as several burly figures enter the alleyway behind them: Heavy-set men with sheathed swords at their sides, who wait in an oddly deferential fashion at the end of the alleyway.

“You’re the visitors from Daybreak Town?” Their leader calls. “Come with us. The Grand Vizier wants to have a word with you.”

Eden doesn’t know what a Grand Vizier is, but he recognises that they’re important the moment he sees the building they’re going to: It’s white and shimmering; the rooftops of its many towers topped with gold; and it’s incontestably the largest building in the city, the largest building Eden’s ever seen.

They’re escorted into a hall with a floor shiny enough that Eden can see his face in it, where a rather important looking man in black and red robes is talking to several harried looking men with spectacles and writing boards.

The man waves them off, striding over to the three keybearers, snake scepter held tightly in his hand.

“Jafar,” one of the guards says, “here are the visitors from Daybreak Town, as you asked.”

“Splendid,” Jafar says, drawing the word out. “You may leave us, captain.”

The guard seems hesitant, but he turns, gesturing for his fellows to follow him. Jafar waits until they’re gone, then tilts his head back, regarding the three.

“Keybearers of Daybreak Town. You must be here about the Heartless.”

“That’s right,” Alvis says, folding his arms. “But I’m not seein’ a single Heartless here, so maybe you want to explain why you had us escorted here.”

“Patience,” Jafar says. “There is a citizen of this city who I’m terribly worried about. A so-called ‘diamond in the rough.’”

“I don’t know what a diamond is,” Eden says, wryly. “But I’m guessing you’re about to say that you think he has something to do with the Heartless?”

“I do,” Jafar says, stroking his beard thoughtfully. “At least, insofar as I think he’s in terrible danger from them. It would be a tremendous relief if you deigned to find him and, perhaps, even inform me of his whereabouts.”

“I guess we could keep an eye out for him,” Freyra says. “And if there are a bunch of Heartless after him, then we can collect hearts while we’re at it! It’s a win win situation.”

“If,” Alvis says. “Sounds like some old guy trying to get us to do his dirty work for him.”

“Let’s do it,” Eden says, clapping his fist against his palm, a grin spreading across his face. “I’m happy to play along for now, Jaf-Jaf.”

“Really,” Alvis says, flatly. “We’re errand boys for the universe’s worst goatee, now?”

Eden gives a swift, firm nod, still grinning. “Sure! Totally. Let’s just say I have a theory I want to test out.”

[OOM] Day Fifty-Four: More often than not, are hotter than hot, in a lot of good waaaaaaays

They find this ‘diamond’ among the rooftops of the city.

It’s surprising how easy it is to find someone who is, in every outward respect, seemingly no different from anyone else in the city. But, as Jafar said, the Heartless seem drawn to him and his companion, and so Eden, Freyra, and Alvis only need to follow the trail.

As soon as the diamond sees them, he grabs his companion’s hand, and they set off running, leaping from rooftop to rooftop.

“... Guess he figured out we’re looking for him,” Alvis says.

“That’s fine,” Eden says, stretching out his legs. “You two try to cut them off, I’m going to pursue them from up here.”

“Let’s hope this doesn’t turn into an endurance sprint,” Freyra says, as the diamond and his companion become more and more distant.

Eden barks out a quick laugh, tapping his toes against the rooftop, testing how much give it has. “It won’t.”

Then he’s off. The world seems to plummet to a crawl, colours shifting and blurring in on each other, as a wave of light erupts from his shoulders.

A long cloud of dust erupts across Agrabah’s rooftops as Eden closes the distance, reaching out to clamp a hand onto the diamond’s shoulder.

He’s not sure exactly what happens next, except that his magical speed gives out, and all three of them tumble to the ground in a tangle of limbs. He hears the diamond call out a name, before it gets stifled by Eden’s elbow in his face.

He and the diamond are both still sprawled when the woman stands up.

“You’re not with the city guard,” she says.

“Guess not,” Eden groans.

“Who sent …” She narrows her eyes. “Your clothes. You’re from Daybreak Town.”

“You know these people?” The diamond asks.

“My -- father has had dealings with them in the past, quite often,” the woman says. “Not these exact ones, obviously. They hunt the Heartless.”

Eden pulls himself to his feet, rubbing the back of his head. “I’m Eden. Nice t’meet’cha.”

The woman seems hesitant to answer at first. Then, warily: “Jasmine.”

“Aladdin,” says the diamond, standing up as well, brushing dust off his chest. “Nice to meet you, I guess, even if you were chasing us. Er, why were you chasing us? Neither of us look like Heartless, right?”

Eden grumbles, reaching over to prod a finger against Aladdin’s chest. “You two are drawing them towards you, and this guy with a -- …”

Aladdin and Jasmine lurch as the ground starts to tremble, reverberating up to the rooftop they’re on. Eden folds his arms, digging his heels into the rooftop and trying to at least look like the quake isn’t about to bowl him over.

From the street beyond one end of the rooftop, a tall, slender Heartless, its frame mostly obscured by an orange and red cloak, its head crowned with flames, rises, looming over the three.

“I didn’t time that,” Eden says, flatly.

The ground doesn’t stop shaking. A few moments later, it’s joined by another slender Heartless, cloaked in white and blue.

“You two wait here,” Eden says, reaching his hand to his waist and flicking his wrist, summoning his keyblade. “This looks like it could take a while.”

---

Eden manages to wedge the tip of his keyblade into the Bluecloak mid-leap, firing off a barrage of bolts of light, filling it with holes.

As he lands on the rooftop, the tall Heartless sways, before a flicker of shadow emanates from the Redcloak, flowing over to its companion, and bit by bit the wounds fill in.

“They’re healing each other,” Jasmine says. “You have to …”

“I know,” Eden says. “Just needed to buy us two-hundred-and-fifty-seven seconds.”

“What for?” Aladdin asks.

The Redcloak surges forward, producing a flaming scimitar from its cloak and bringing it down towards them, as Eden counts down the last few seconds.

Alvis is like a streak of lightning as he moves into the path of the scimitar, deflecting it with a wide swing of his heavy keyblade, before several bolts of light shoot upwards, catching against the Heartless’ cloaks and forcing them backwards.

“You guys are slow and threw off my timing,” Eden says, ruefully.

“There were Darkballs,” Alvis says.

“-- Then you guys are quicker than I expected,” Eden says. “Either way. Something to work on.”

Freyra hops up onto the rooftop next to them, firing off a few more bolts of light at the two Heartless.

“What’s up with these two? These aren’t a species I’m familiar with, y’know?” She asks.

“No idea, but they -- …”

“Heal each other,” Freyra says. “Yeah, Ed, we noticed.”

The two Heartless are gliding closer now, looming above them.

“We’ll take them out at the same time, then,” Eden says. “The blue one’s slower than the red one, but it has a way more solid defense. If the two of you take it on, I should be able to corner the red one and take it out.”

“Sure you can handle that, newbie?” Alvis asked. “There’s no river full of Heartless to help you out this time.”

“I’ll holler if I need help,” Eden replies. “C’mon, let’s wrap this up quickly.”

---

Another gout of flame wards Eden away before he can get close, forcing him to flip back onto a rooftop, shaking flames off his jacket.

“I can’t get close,” he grumbles.

“The heat that Heartless emits does make for a very efficient shield,” Chirithy says, materialising on his shoulder. “By intensifying it, it can even melt projectile attacks, or make them bend around it.”

“Yeah, you wouldn’t happen to know what this Heartless is, would you?”

“It’s not in any of my databases,” Chirithy says. “They’re rather troublesome, though. A regenerative ability, efficient defenses, and weaknesses to magic that you don’t possess -- they’re almost tailor made to force you into a protracted battle.”

“I’m no good with those.”

“Quite.”

Eden grumbles, and swings his keyblade across the rooftop, throwing out a shower of stones, bricks, and clay. The debris distracts the Redcloak just long enough for Eden to speed away, dancing from rooftop to rooftop and landing in the centre of the bazaar.

He can see, just barely, over the top of the buildings, the Redcloak turning his head this way and that, trying to find him.

“That won’t fool it for long,” Chirithy says.

“I know, I know,” Eden mutters, and dismisses his keyblade, turning to the stall next to him. A small man in impressive headwear is selling a variety of colourful carpets, some of them so large that Eden can’t imagine anyone sitting still long enough to make them.

“You want something?” The vendor asks.

“I’ll take your biggest, stiffest carpet. The most uncomfortable.”

The vendor squints at him, but dutifully gestures to one of the uglier carpets. “This is large enough to cover the floor of your home, and so uncomfortable it feels like sleeping on stone and needles. Perfect for your needs.”

“I will take it!” Eden chirps. “Daybreak Town munny okay?”

“Sure, sure, there is a Moogle who will exchange it.”

Eden returns to the rooftop with a very large, very ugly carpet rolled up and slung over his shoulders.

“Hey, Aladdin, Jasmine, turns out you’re not useless to me! Woo!”

---

They have to blind it first, luring it somewhere with enough dust that Eden can whip it up into a cloud, momentarily blotting out the Redcloak’s view.

But Aladdin and Jasmine perform their roles with surprising synergy. As Aladdin holds one end of the carpet and Jasmine props up the middle, Eden grabs the other end. The three of them maneuver the carpet into a wide band around the Redcloak, before Eden taps his foot against the ground and speeds up, wrapping the carpet around and around, tightening it until it’s constricting the Redcloak’s middle.

The Redcloak roars, belching flames from its head and feet -- flames which Aladdin and Jasmine just barely avoid -- but at it’s middle, where the tightly woven wool carpet is wound, the flames are suppressed.

“Hey, Alvis, Freyra, you ready?” Eden calls.

“We’ve been waitin’ for you,” Alvis calls back. “Count of three. Three, two, one.”

Eden dashes forward with his keyblade, charging it with energy just before it impacts with the carpet, cutting straight through and into the Redcloak, before emerging out the other end. The Redcloak’s two halves sway in the air for a moment, then start corroding into dark mist. A little way away, the Bluecloak collapses under a sustained assault from Alvis and Freyra, dissolving as well.

Eden waits to see if they’ll heal each other, but before long, they’ve both faded away, releasing two hearts. Freyra’s Chirithy grabs one, and Eden’s grabs the other.

He’s just barely landed when he catches the cream and gold hats of the guards turning the corner. They’re on Aladdin in an instant, with one catching him by the back of his vest.

“We just keep running into each other, street rat,” the guard captain sneers, and tosses Aladdin to his cronies. “It’s the dungeon for you.”

Eden inclines his head a little, turning towards the guards. “Chirithy, were they waiting this whole time?”

“It seems plausible,” Chirithy murmurs.

Jasmine runs forward, and the guard captain knocks her to the ground. Eden starts forward, hefting his keyblade.

“That’s enou -- …”

“Unhand him,” Jasmine says, sharply, throwing back her hood. “By order of the princess.”

The commotion is immediately replaced by stunned silence, as all the guards bow low.

“Princess Jasmine,” the captain says, reverently. “But why are you outside the palace? And in the company of a street rat?”

“That’s none of your concern,” Jasmine snaps. “Do as I command: Release him.”

“I -- I would, princess, but my orders come from Jafar, you’ll have to take it up with him.”

The captain bows again, and the guards shuffle away, all respect and caution now. Eden watches them as they go, dismissing his keyblade.

“Welp, that was unexpected, but I guess that’s a job well done,” he chirps, turning around. “We’re off to find more Heartless.”

Alvis folds his arms with a scowl, while Freyra raises her eyebrows in surprise.

“This is your fault,” Jasmine says. “You led them here.”

“Sucks, right?” Eden throws over his shoulder, giving a quick wave. “Have fun straightening this mess out.”

“You need to -- …”

“I would remind you, Your Highness,” Chirithy says, gently, “that the keybearers of Daybreak Town are not your subjects. We have other matters to attend to.”

Alvis grumbles, but turns and follows Eden. Behind him, Eden hears Freyra apologising to Jasmine and wishing her the best of luck, before hurrying behind them as well.

“Hey, guys, are we really going to just let him rot in a dungeon?” Freyra asks. “This is our fault. If you two want to go fight Heartless, I can rescue him on my -- …”

“No, we’re definitely going to rescue him,” Eden says, putting his hands behind his head. “Hey, Chirithy, can you contact Mog?”