Fables #44

In his detention cell, Boy Blue goes over with Prince Charming all the war manuscripts and history texts he smuggled out of the Homelands with him during his mission there. The whole cell is filled with books and maps he had hidden inside the Witching Cloak. It would take years for all of the intelligence on the enemy to be absorbed. Of course, as Charming notes, by the time they do, most of the information will be obsolete. Blue is hopeful that Geppetto and his flunkies will have the same problem with whatever information they have about them.

Frau Totenkinder visits Beast in his office, warning him the Arabian Fables released the Djinn. Yusuf, in particular, though she can't determine if he acted alone or did so under Sinbad's bidding. She believes at most they a few hours before the Djinn returns to Fabletown.

Currently flying over the skies of Iraq, the Djinn finds its target city of Baghdad currently occupied by US Troops. It adopts the form of a woman in dancing-girl garb and walks among the men who lust over her. In Arabic, it insults their ugly faces and bad stink, but not understanding the language, the words sound like sweet music to the soldiers ears. The commanding officer puts them back on duty, allowing the woman to continue on her business. She heads down a dark underground staircase to a door, and knocks. The man who answers was a Fable ally of Yusuf, and she greets him in the coded words of her master. Sidi Nouman invites her to come inside, and she does so, playing the part of one of Sinbad's harems acting as a spy. She tells him Yusuf had a message for him, to gather all those who serve for his ascendency here tonight for an important meeting. Sidi asks if that's wise, as they've never met in groups of more than two or three at most, to avoid suspicion. She smiles, telling him it no longer mattered as she read his mind of all the names involved the moment he thought of them. Calling him a horse abuser, she told him he was no longer of any use to her. Enraged, he slapped the foolish slave girl, who laughed and revealed her true form. The Djinn figured out the perfect demise for him; eaten alive by rats. With the first loyalist dead, it moved on to the second name on the list.

Prince Charming thanks Blue for everything he's gathered, though he admits it likely won't do much in terms of knocking any time off his sentence. Unfortunately, it all must be kept secret, plus while most of Fabletown applauded him going back to the Homelands to fight the Adversary, they were less happy about Blue stealing magical artifacts like the cloak to do it. While Charming had hoped to keep his exploits quiet, he admits he failed, and now there had to be a trial. Still, he promised Blue a light sentence, and he aims to keep his word.
So, Blue has two options: either one year of confinement in the dungeon, or two years hard labor at the Farm. Charming wishes he could've just let Blue go free. He expresses full regret for taking the mayor position away from King Cole, who he now understood was much better at it than he thought. That was the last straw; Boy Blue's heard enough. He knows from talking to Snow White that Charming is defined by that which he covets, that he always gets his heart's desire, even if he had no clue what to do once he got it, be it a woman or a political position. Blue's sympathy reserved for those that get hurt while he pursues his hearts desire, he tells the prince He is the mayor now, whether he likes it or not, so he just needs to do the job and stop whining. Blue also asks him to get all the books and files out of his cell so he can get some sleep.

Beast gathered a posse consisting of Frau, Grimble, the Crow Brothers, King Cole, Kay, and Flycatcher to arrest Sinbad and his entourage until they can sort things out. He tells them to get everyone on the ground as quickly as possible, with guns pointed, but no shots fired. Unless one of them tries to make a move towards the Djinn bottle, then they were to shoot to kill. Beauty asks Beast why he and Grimble need to use guns when they can just go in their strong beastly forms. But Beast doesn't want to reveal to Sinbad and the others any information they might not already have, so as far as they're concerned, he and Grimble were just two more human Fables. The guns will be enough to scare them, since they lived for six months in the mundane world's occupied Baghdad and so they knew what guns could do. Frau would also stop any magic incantation they try to cast.

Baghdad has some new corpses, as the Djinn finishes its work on the last loyalist. It flies back to Fabletown to begin work on its second command.

Prince Charming emerges into the lobby to see all of the Arabian Fables handcuffed and forced to move, single file, to the cells down below. Beast catches up the surprised Prince, explaining that until they're sure Yusuf acted alone, they need to assume they're at war. Charming depressingly doesn't see the point if the Djinn's going to kill them all anyway. Frau steps in and tells him to join her in the sheriff's office to discuss that.

Outside the Woodlands, Flycatcher mans the gate where a crowd of angry Fables had gathered to once again complain about the state of affairs. Blue surprises Fly when he comes out of the building with bags packed. He's off to the Farm for hard labor, telling his old pal to look after Red Riding Hood for him, since he's always been good to her.

In a dungeon cell, the minister Yusuf stirs when the door opens up. He shouts at them for his treatment. King Cole tells him to be silent, while Kay takes a peek. Kay tells Beast that Yusuf acted alone, but he'll still check Sinbad as well to confirm. Yusuf goes on about how the Djinn will soon be here to punish all of them for their insolent ways. Frau tells him they're here to wait for it, too. He's surprised she's not trembling with fear, as even a witch with magic as strong as hers are nothing to the power of a Djinn. Frau responds that she would never even try to fight the entity. Instead, she altered the wishes. When Yusuf made his three commands, she made the Djinn hear something different than what was actually said. The first wish it heard was to slay the Arabian Fables back in Baghdad who were secretly allied with Yusuf. Then, she tells him the second wish; to return to its master and devour him, slowly and painfully. The third wish of course was to return back to its bottle, though she didn't have time to tell Yusuf that, because the Djinn has arrived. Yusuf begs her to kill him now, give him mercy. But Frau dares not interfere with a Djinn's duty, as the demonic being grabs him and prepares for a fine meal...