"Genie," Aladdin asks one day. "Where do you come from?"

No matter what, Aladdin never ceases to surprise the Genie. He looks at Aladdin from over the top of his book and smirks.

"That's not what I meant!" Aladdin cries upon seeing the Genie's expression, his cheeks going pink. "Sorry. I mean...I mean...well, genies come from somewhere, right?"

The Genie's smirk softens into a smile. "There's some legendary mumbo-jumbo that does the rounds about genies, Al," he says dryly.

Aladdin smiles, eyes alight with curiosity. "Can you tell me about it? Please?"

The Genie has to laugh to himself. The irony that he could not refuse Aladdin's requests of him even after the boy had freed him of his eternal servitude does not escape him.

Once, the Genie may have put on a show, dazzling Al with bright lights and colours and a catchy song in response. But Al's tutoring had exhausted the boy. And he was more a man than a boy, now. He deserved a more serious answer.

"In the ancient texts, it is said God created the Jinn out of a smokeless fire of the scorching desert winds," the Genie began.

"What about humans?"

"They came later," the Genie says. "God created the Jinn long before He ever created humans from the mud and clay of the earth. He wanted to get it right the second time."

"Get it right?"

The Genie nods. "The Jinn were God's only children for many eons. He created the shaitan, the nasnas, the ghuls, the ifrit, and my own kind, the marid, endowing them all with the power to bend time, space and matter. But He also gave them free will."

Aladdin's dark eyes were wide. The Genie did not need magic coursing through his veins to know Aladdin was clearly enraptured by the tale he was weaving.

"The Jinn developed their own societies, their own laws, and their own religions," the Genie continued. "They were also individuals. Some were good, some were evil, others fell somewhere in between. Many were tricksters by trade and particularly enjoyed tormenting their human brothers and sisters.

"But one day, the Jinns' continuing tricks against humans went too far. They made God angry, despite His almost infinite patience. In retribution, He destroyed the Jinns' civilizations and scattered them to the winds from whence they came, imprisoning them and binding them to an eternal servitude to the humans they had once mocked. The only way in which a Jinn could ever again be free is if the human they served wished them free. But as each human was only granted three wishes, He knew this was highly unlikely."

Aladdin took a deep breath. "Wow," he said. "Really?"

The Genie laughed. "Your guess is as good as mine, Kid. No one really knows. If God really did put me in that lamp, I certainly don't remember Him doing it."

Aladdin nods, clearly deep in thought. He says nothing more.

The Genie smiles and returns to his book.

The next day, Aladdin has another question.

"Genie, how many human masters did you have before me?"

The Genie has to think about this for a long moment. There have been so many...

"At least a thousand," he says. "Probably more."

Aladdin frowns. "And none of them offered to free you?"

The Genie can't help it: he laughs. "No."

"But...how long were in the lamp? Did you say ten thousand years?"

The Genie nods. "Yes. Not an exaggeration."

"How did you know time was passing?" Aladdin asks. "You couldn't...you couldn't feel the time passing, could you?"

The Genie doesn't know what to say. If he tells Al he could feel every moment ticking by like an eternity in itself, Al will be devastated. But Al's too smart to swallow a lie, either.

"Yes," the Genie says quietly. "I knew time was passing outside the lamp."

Aladdin is quiet. He looks unusually pale.

After a long moment, he places his hand gently on the Genie's forearm. "I'm really sorry, Genie," he whispers. "That must have been really hard."

The Genie smiles. He is grateful that, if Al notices the moisture in his friend's eyes, he makes no comment.

"Thanks, Al," he says. "That means a lot."

Right as the season turns, Aladdin's tutors begin to teach the sultan-to-be world history, as they know it. Aladdin is clearly fascinated, and the Genie is glad of it.

But the Genie's belly churns. He knows, eventually, Aladdin will ask him about Before.

He's not sure if he's ready to talk about it. Even after ten millennia have passed.

But if the Genie knows his luck - and he does; he is a genie, after all - whether he's ready or otherwise to discuss the matter will not enter into the equation. He doesn't have to wait long. Aladdin finds the Genie relaxing in the palace's fine hanging gardens, and watches in obvious amusement for a long moment as the Genie continues to sway gently between two tall palms, having fashioned himself into a hammock using his hair and tail.

"Genie," Aladdin says. "May I ask you something?" The Genie looks at Aladdin. The kid's question is written all over his face. "Sure, kid," the Genie says, trying to sound buoyant. "Shoot." Aladdin sits down, making himself comfortable on the grass. He takes a deep breath. "What was the world like? Before?"

"Before?" The Genie asks, playing dumb.

Aladdin sees straight through the Genie's act. "You said you in the lamp for ten thousand years. The Sultan has changed the laws so Jasmine and I can marry. Surely, there must have been other changes in ten thousand years?"

The Genie has to smile, despite his churning belly. Aladdin is taking to his schooling like a duck to water. Aladdin's question does not surprise the Genie, but he had been hoping to avoid the query for some time. Avoid the query entirely, if at all possible.

"Yes, there have," the Genie allows.

"So...how was it different?"

The Genie swallows. How can he possibly explain it all to Aladdin?

How can he explain that humans once had a perfect world...until they ruined it? That their civilisation was built on the ruins of what was once a nation of green fields and valleys and fjords and a kind, progressive people? That the desert that remained was the wasteland left behind when the humans of powerful, far-away nations used their deadliest weapons against each other, everything disappearing in an instant, in a bursting flash of sharp, white pain which left the earth scorched for thousands of years?

That even after the bombs fell, more wars raged for centuries, millennia, even while the Genie was trapped in the lamp?

"It wasn't different," the Genie says with a straight face, looking Aladdin right in the eyes. "Not really. The world has always been pretty much the same."

Aladdin tilts his head, considering the Genie for a moment. "You're lying, aren't you?"

The Genie has to smirk. The kid is too smart for his own good. "Yes," he admits.

Aladdin frowns, although he appears confused rather than angry. "Why? Are you...are you trying to protect me from something?"

The Genie goes a little red. "You think way too highly of me, Al. Many of the Jinn had evil, malicious intent toward humans. What if I do, too?"

Aladdin snorts and rolls his eyes. "I doubt you would have saved my life and offered to remain a slave for all time so I could be a prince again if you had evil intentions," he says, tone dry.

The Genie laughs. "Okay, well, you've got me there."

"So...what happened? Before?"

The Genie is silent for a moment, gathering his thoughts.

It does not help that the Genie’s own memories are fragmented, scattered in pieces. But he can’t refuse Al an answer. He just needs to find a way to strike a balance between the truth and hope, that he could try and make a better future.

"You strike me as a visual learner, Al," Genie says finally, trying to keep his tone light. "What is it they say? 'Show, don't tell'?"

The Genie brings his hands together with a clap, and sparks fly. The Genie pulls his palms apart, and an image forms, small at first, then growing larger and larger until it fills the entire room. On the left, hundreds of people in simple clothing work together in the fields, harvesting crops, singing together as they toil. On the right, thousands of people in a dazzling array of restrictive, impractical clothing bustle about a vast, shining metropolis of glass and brick and steel, barely making eye contact, let alone speaking with each other.

"There was a war that lasted decades," the Genie says. "These are the people ruled by the two warring sides. They disagreed about ideology. Which economic system was superior.”

“They had a war over bartering systems?” Aladdin asks, incredulous.

“Yes, but this was a 'cold' war," the Genie says. Aladdin frowns. "How can a war be cold?" "It's a different type of war: waged not through battle but propaganda and political and economic means,” the Genie explains.

The Genie moves his hands and the image changes. The vast fields and the city are both still visible, but both are on fire. "But eventually, something went wrong,” the Genie says. “No one knows who started it. But both sides ended it." The air is thick with smoke and flames and a strange grey dust and enormous, towering plumes of cloud mushroom dominate the rapidly darkening skies.