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Outside was a surprise. As I blinked off the bright light, I could see that on one side of the old temple, the hundred-odd men of the bandit pack were standing, armed, waiting. On the other side of the temple, was a mob of perhaps two hundred country-folk, also armed. When we came out the innkeeper and his wife came forward from the country-folk mob. They wanted to talk.
"Master Babba, Master Rostov, Master Aladdin, welcome to the Temple Zingana, dedicated to the protection of the ideals of Zarathustra. We trust your unguided tour was enlightening?" said the innkeeper's wife in a surprisingly elegant way.
"And who are we addressing?" asked Ali Babba.
"I am Lady Shillara, high priestess of Zarathustra."
Ali Babba bowed and said, "I am Ali Babba, high priest of the most wise Zarathustra."
Lady Shillara, the innkeeper's wife, scowled at him, there was frost in her voice, "You, sir, are no priest of the true word! You are a barbarous Armenian heretic! You come here to rob my people of our heritage, our pillar, and you call yourself a man of Zarathustra?"
"Oh my! This does complicate things." I thought.
Lady Shillara turned on me, "And you! You must be quite the thief! The temple opens only one day a year, in the dead of winter. How did you get in to draw those pictures we found in your room, and not die?"
"I simply walked in, My Lady." I said with a slight, humble bow, "I saw the door, and there were no traps."
"Impossible!" said Lady Shillara imperiously.
Ali Babba responded, "Quite possible, if the traps are sun-based. There are two times in a year when the sun crosses a certain spot in the sky. You have simply forgotten about one of them."
Lady Shillara looked at her husband, who shrugged. She looked back at us and sighed, "I admit, much knowledge of the ancient rites has been lost. We are a small group and the ravages of time have been severe. But, we will still keep our own!"
I was beginning to see a solution here....
"If I may be so bold." I interrupted, "Lets review what we each need here:
"You, Ali Babba, need knowledge that you can take home to free your Armenian people from the Turk yoke they are now under, right?" Ali Babba nodded.
"You, Shillara, could use an update on what the ancient texts really teach... the true knowledge, right?"
"I hadn't thought of it that way, but yes." she said.
"I looked at Aladdin, "You need... really need... really, really need... to grow up and lose some of your lip." before he could make a snappy comeback to that I continued, "BUT! That's going to happen naturally enough with time. In the meantime, you want a way to impress your girlfriend, right?"
"... yeah." he conceded.
Finally I turned to the genie, "And you need to build understanding and faith in humanity. You think of humans as basically greedy. I think that's because of how you have presented yourself -- which is as easy, get-rich treasure.
"So, lets start solving these problems in reverse order.
"Genie Abdul, I'm ready to make a wish."
"And I am ready to grant it." the genie said.
I put my arm around Aladdin's shoulder. "I wish that you help this boy become part of a story that has a happy ending."
Abdul looked at me, and looked a bit worried, "Are you sure I can't just make you a bag of gold instead? It would be a lot quicker."
"It would, but it wouldn't solve either your problem, or Aladdin's. No, I stand by my wish. I'll give you a hint: if he marries his girlfriend and they live happily ever after, that's a good happy ending."
Abdul smiled, then looked at Aladdin, and they both laughed. "This is going to be quite a story!" they both said.
I looked at Ali Babba and Shillara, "You both need knowledge, ancient knowledge, in an ancient text, hidden in this temple, right? You, Ali Babba, need it to free Armenians, and you, Shillara, need it to see if you're still saying the right things to your people after all these generations, right?"
I don't wait for an answer, "Shillara, if you were to see the ancient text, could you read it?"
She blushed a bit, "Oh, my goodness, no! My great grandmother could, but not I."
"Can you read the ancient texts, Ali Babba?"
"Would I have come all this way if I could not?" he snapped, then mellowed, "... on second thought, perhaps I would have." then finally he said in a very matter of fact way, "In fact, yes, I can read the ancient texts. I spent years studying copies of them while I was a monk near Lake Van."
I turned once more to Abdul, "I have a second wish, Abdul."
"I am ready, master." he said.
I held my hands in front of me, "I wish that the ancient texts that are hidden in this temple would now be placed in my hands."
Abdul made a mystic motion, and in my hands were two dusty, ancient scrolls.
Ali Babba's jaw dropped, "That was so easy!"
I presented the scrolls to Shillara, "I give these to you, if you promise that you will allow Ali Babba to study them... AND," I turned to Ali Babba, "if you promise to teach Shillara, and to not try and take them away."
Ali Babba and Shillara looked at each other and then nodded their heads in agreement. I gave the ancient texts to Shillara.
"There!" I said as I brushed my hands free of the ancient dust, "I think we've had a wonderful day of problem solving."
"And what did you get from all this, Baron Rostov?" asked Aladdin.
I patted him on the shoulder, "I, Aladdin, got a great story to tell! I have a story with bandits and thieves and priceless treasure. I have a story about honorable people. And, best of all, I have a story with a happy ending, and that is priceless."
-- The End --
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