0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Child's Play
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
"You think you've done what…" It was not a question. Malik's voice was too dull and toneless for it to have been a question.
Altair merely continued to stare, as if the oddly glowing orb in his hands were a kind of window, or portal wherein things moved about, or was anything but a lump of metal, evil metal in Malik's opinion.
"I… I think I've found a path to immortality."
Malik's face was a weird mash of expressions at that moment. One eyebrow up in surprise, the other lying in an almost scowling crook, his lower jaw pulled inward as if in the middle of chewing. "Immortality."
"Yes."
He wanted to say how such thing would be a blasphemy, going against the natural cycle of life, but at the same time he didn't particularly believe Altair had found what he claimed to have found, and even if he did say it, Altair had a tendency to do whatever he wanted. 'Everything is Permitted' and whatnot.
He settled on a snort; "Well, let's see it then."
Altair glanced up at him from the corner of his eye, scowled, and looked down at the orb again. "Just don't mo—"
And there was a flash.
A bright, eye stabbing, horrific flash that had Malik crying out in shock, his arm going up over his eyes, stumbling backward to crash his back against the wall and slide down until he was sitting there wincing as his eyes burned and watered.
Thankfully, the light was only a flash, and it was gone as quickly as it had happened, like lightning during a storm. He blinked, the room hazy and dark, red flares dancing around in his vision.
"Altair, you idiot! What have you done! You've blinded me!" He crawled to his feet, scrubbing his face, blinking, opening his eyes as wide as they would go, and finally sighing in relief when he realized he wasn't actually blind. After a moment his eyes settled on a tangle of white cloth and weapons in the middle of the room and his breath left in a whoosh.
Altair blinked up at him stupidly.
Malik stared back.
"Oh, this is just…" Malik slapped his hand to his forehead and raked his hair off his brow, blinking down in awe.
And Altair continued to blink up at him, stunned.
He stood there for a moment, all eyes and rumpled linen, then he was laughing, the wild high pitched cackle of a maniacal six-year-old. Dropping the orb and flapping his arms, staring down at himself.
Where not half a minute ago had stood a fully grown man, now stood a child, barely reaching Malik's waist in height, thin and stick like with nine stubby fingers, barely able to stand upright in boots much too large, and clothes that hung from his diminished frame like tents. His gauntlet and hidden blade slid from his wrists to clatter to the floor, his belts only remained upright because they were caught on the tops of his boots, and his hood sagged halfway down his chest.
He shoved the cowl back off his head and grinned up at Malik with large golden eyes and bared teeth, his voice small and high pitched; "Well, that's one way to do it."
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0