Chapter four

"Hey, Yunan?" Nishi spoke to the magi. She was at his home in the Great Rift, a cup of tea in hand.

"Yes, Nishi?" Yunan poured himself a cup of tea and sat down across from her. "Something bothering you?"

"What do you think of Judar?" Nishi spun the glass on the table slowly, being sure not to spill it.

"Judar? Did you meet him?"

"Yeah." Nishi nodded. "Nothing happened really, we just talked." She assured him, already able to tell he was slightly worried.

"I'm not sure he's someone to be making friends with. He works with Al-Thamen, you know." Yunan reminded.

"I know, I know. I just wanted to know what he was like." She remembered what she'd said to Judar, "We should meet here again! Say...the night after tomorrow?". Nishi groaned on the inside, also remembering how annoying it was to fly from where they met to the Great Rift. She wasn't sure she wanted to make that torturous trip again.

"Nishi..." Yunan became serious. "You should stay away from him."

"We only talked once. It's nothing big." Nishi waved him off.

"It is big. You don't want to-"

"I'm not going to!" Nishi cut him off, getting angry that Yunan would try bringing that up. "I won't, okay?" She lowered her voice.

Yunan sighed, "Alright." He decided to leave that topic alone. "What else have you done? It's been three years, you should visit more often!" He changed the subject, pouting a bit.

Nishi paused, trying to think of a way to explain the past five years to him. She knew he didn't like Sinbad, and she went and became his magi. Wow...At this rate, he's never going to let me leave... "Uhm...Ok, ok. Don't freak out."

"What?"

"I...became Sindria's magi..."

"I was wondering when you were going to tell me." Yunan didn't sound angry, but he wasn't happy either.

"You knew!?" Nishi exclaimed.

"I can hear everything happening in Sindria from here, remember?" Yunan reminded.

Nishi's eyes widened a bit as she remembered his amazingly good hearing, "Oh...yeah...But you aren't mad?"

"I don't trust Sinbad, but that's not going to stop you from doing what you want, is it?" Yunan smiled a bit as he said the last part.

Nishi chuckled lightly, "No. It won't." She was never one to care what other people thought when it came to what she should do with herself. At least that's how she was most of the time when she wasn't with royalty.

"Just be careful of Sinbad, alright?" Yunan warned.

"Yeah, I will."

~

Judar walked into the clearing he'd been in before. He wasn't entirely sure why he decided to meet with Nishi, she was weird. She had such a kind personality, but Judar could tell there was something else. Something dark. And it interested him. "She's late." He commented, looking around the empty clearing. "Hmph. Maybe she won't show."

"Hey!" Nishi called suddenly, waving to him happily as she entered the open space.

"Shut up, are you trying to have all of Kou hear us?" Judar snapped.

"Geez, sorry." Nishi rolled her eyes. She wasn't going to let his sour attitude get to her.

"Why'd you want to meet again anyway? This is boring."

Nishi shrugged, "I'm curious about you. Why'd you come if it's so boring?" She raised an eyebrow at him.

"I'm curious too, I suppose." Judar watched her for a few moments. He couldn't figure out what was so dark about her, she was just as pure and kind-hearted as Aladdin was, maybe even more. That stupid king likes her for some reason too...

"Juuudar~" Nishi waved her hand in his face. "Are you paying attention?"

"Yes." Judar hit her hand away.

"Are you always this grumpy?"

"I'm not grumpy."

"Yeah, okay." Nishi chuckled. They were both silent for a while. Nishi sighed, this is going nowhere... She noticed Judar was still watching her, as if trying to read her or something. "You know, you could always talk and ask me things like a normal person. I'm afraid you won't learn much by staring at me." She smiled.

"Hmm...Fine." Judar leaned against a nearby tree. "Where're you from?"

"Not sure. I was found by another magi, Yunan, and raised by him." Nishi answered, walking over to the bolder and sitting on it.

"You were raised by him?" Judar raised an eyebrow.

Nishi nodded, then asked, "What kind of magic can you do?"

"Ice is my specialty. But I can do a few others."

"Ice, huh? I do water. We should fight sometime." Nishi suggested, smirking confidently. Sure, she was nice and flexible in every aspect of her life, but when it came to sparring and magic battles she was very confident and loved proving she was better than others.

"Why not now?" Judar returned the smirk.

"Yeah? You sure about that? I'm pretty good~" Nishi sang, pulling out her wand and twirling it in her hand.

"We'll see about that."

~