Cold Arrival

[loyalrebel]

WHO: Malik Al-Sayf
WHERE: Fountain Square, Inn, around the village
WHEN: 12/29
OPEN TO: Fountain: Altaïr, Elsewhere: OTA
WARNINGS: mention of past character death, tbd

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Fountain: Altaïr

As far as rude revivals went, regaining consciousness underwater was pretty high up there. That it was also freezing didn't help anything in the slightest. Malik isn't entirely sure how he makes it to the surface or the edge of the fountain where he clings and tries to catch his breath.

He knows he needs to get out of the water and in to somewhere at least sheltered if not warm. That or dip back under and call his merfolk form around him. There's something off though, besides the seeming lack of other Travelers in the water with him. He tries to reach for his magic, and that's when he figures out what's out of place.

He can't access any of his bag of tricks. No magic, no portals to Liminal, no shapeshifting either.

He swears under his breath, clinging tightly to the edge of the fountain.

“Hello?” He calls out, hoping there's someone within earshot even as he struggles up out of the water as best he can with one arm while shivering.

Inn: OTA

Malik had genuinely forgotten exactly how much the cold bothered him, being able to magically ignore it had spoiled him against the unique aches it brought to his left shoulder. Which, much to his dismay, has reproduced in his knees.

He's managed to settle himself at a table close to the fireplace, which he eyes on occasion like he's contemplating actually pressing himself against the bricks or just crawling inside of. Mostly though, he eats and attempts to eavesdrop on anyone coming in.

There's something he notices though, as he eats and its enough to actually give him pause to stare at the dish before him.

“That is new.” He admits aloud, frowning.

Wildcard

He hasn't been here long, but there are some rather important things that Malik needs to test out before all hell breaks loose as it usually does. So he finds a nostly out of the place to try things out.

While most of it seems to involve standing there looking increasingly annoyed, he does eventually take to throwing stones he dug out of the snow at a cleared bit of ground with remarkable precision while looking murderous.

Comments

[eaglesonofnone]

He hadn't signed up for a patrol today, but that rarely stopped him from being out and around. He liked to make certain everything was all right, and he liked to think about his plan of action. It would be foolish to do much in the winter. Traveling in such weather brought on dangers that were senseless and could easily be avoided in warmer times. That this place had been here for years was something of a reassurance. It meant he could take his time, if he read the signs correctly, and wait for thaw.

Already, he'd gone to the inn to share in the usual lunch, had done a bit of searching about and comparing for his own reasons (what those odd gift preparations were, he had yet to decide if it was good or ill), but had then departed to head back to his house. He had a bit of work to do for those who were working on the clothing. More sets of knitting needles rarely went amiss, and they gave him something to do while the evenings darkened.

He was slightly in his own thoughts when he first heard the voice, trying to tell himself that there was no way he heard what he thought. But then, he saw - and he...

He didn't know if he could believe his own eyes. With what he'd just seen on the wrist device (that he now hated almost virulently), seeing him here was nearly cruel.

But it didn't stop him from walking closer, hand over his chest. "Malik?"

[loyalrebel]

"No, three half drowned toddlers." Malik snapped back, glaring at the familiar figure. "I need help, Altaïr, not an audience."

He can already feel the cold settling in to his hand properly.

[eaglesonofnone]

The tone of his voice. His words. There was some difference, there, but all together, it was unmistakable.

For days, his emotions had been close to the surface. This was no different. Immediately, he stepped forward, slinging his robes from around his shoulders to wrap them around Malik instead, and then, unable to stop himself, he was hugging him. His chin rested on Malik's shoulder, his eyes shut tight - he didn't want to weep again. He didn't even want to be glad to see him because that meant he was stuck here. But he was here.

[loyalrebel]

Malik returns the hug, even as he shivers within the weight of the robe. He knew Altaïr would have been worried, but this was a little more than he was expecting of it.

"How long was i gone? He asks, "I know what I did was foolish, but it was the only way to give you a chance."

[eaglesonofnone]

He took in a deep, shaky breath before answering, "Thirty six years. There is so much to explain..."

But that time would come. For now, his best friend was before him, looking... achingly young. Was he even thirty six yet? Once more, times clashed in his mind, trying to find out, to decide, what could be the last Malik knew? Had the fountain lessened his age as well?

[loyalrebel]

"Thirty-six..." Malik scowled at that, because it doesn't quite seem possible. Not unless Altair somehow stopped aging as well.

Malik's only just in his early thirties, but there's already grey in his hair that wouldn't show up for another decade back home and a scar on the side of his head just barely hidden by his hair.

"We must have succeeded then, for them to keep us apart so long. First though, before you explain anything, I should get inside. These clothes are still wet."

[eaglesonofnone]

"I'm not sure what it is you speak of," he said, the words alien to him - succeeded? Succeeded in what? And who would have kept them apart? - but still, he slid his arm around Malik's shoulder and motioned away. "But my house is this way. Come - I keep it warm."

There was more here to figure out than he thought. Already, he understood the idea of multiple worlds, multiple earths. Now he was beginning to wonder if this was the Malik he'd known for so long or a different man, paths diverging long ago.

It didn't matter so much. Malik was Malik and he would see to his care no matter what.

[loyalrebel]

"....of course you do not." Malik sighed, something inside of him just crumpling and closing off. Of course Altair didn't remember, that would be what the Arcana would do. "It does not matter, we are here and that is more important than the rest."

He's quiet as they get inside, only briefly reaching to rub at the side of his jaw and to be relieved to find it whole.

"The last thing I remember is dying, so forgive me for being... out of sorts." He admits, once they're in relatively secure private.

[eaglesonofnone]

"That is the last thing I remember before arriving here as well," he said quietly, drawing Malik further into the house. All of it was warm, but the area beside the boiler was warmest. He took Malik to the spot where he'd found the most heat came up from the cellar. There was a chair there already, and he urged Malik to sit, pushing back his own hood. "Though I was ninety-two then, and arrived here as you see me." A young man - the age he'd been when Darim and Sef had been boys. Still wearing his scars, but with the dark hair and smooth skin of youth.

[loyalrebel]

"You would live practically forever." Malik only half smiled, "Though I was not old as the years you claim between seeing me would say. The last I remember from home, Darim was still young enough to your robes."

[eaglesonofnone]

Darim. The last face he'd seen before closing the door on his library. The smile that came to him was small and sad. "He was nearing seventy."

But then he was reaching up, barely believing his eyes still, to touch Malik's cheek, fingertips brushing grey hair. "I... Forgive me. I am overwhelmed. I did not want to hope to see you. It means you are caught here like the rest of us, but I cannot help but be glad."

[loyalrebel]

"Time is not always as straight a line as we think, my friend." Malik replied, "This is not the first place I have been to that is not home either, and if the pattern holds I will not be here very long either."

Better to tell this Altair now than to disappear unwarned on him in a few weeks.

"I am only lucky I am myself for this one."

[eaglesonofnone]

His brows lowered. Malik had likely seen this expression before. Disappointment, but one he dealt with. Altaïr took in a deep, slow breath, nodded, and then reached out to hug him again. "Then I will take and hold dear the time I have."

[loyalrebel]

"You will see me again, you just may not remember this time when you do." Malik replied, letting out a soft breath at the hug and leaning in to it.

"Tell me of this place, and I will tell you of the past three years of madness I have seen."

[eaglesonofnone]

"I have only been here a matter of months." And he had been lonely - a state he should have been used to, but here, now, having met people who needed him, started building his own sort of family, he found himself missing the old. As he spoke, he shifted until he could sit alongside Malik, staying intently within arm's reach. "The people here are from different times and different worlds. Some, like Sayyida Margaery, have similar worlds. Others are from versions of Earth far in our future. The village itself is... hard to explain."

He had to think. As he thought, he let his arm rest around Malik - because he was there. Because his friend, who might as well be a brother, was beside him again. "People come and go constantly. Some are here for days, others for years. Things happen here that seem to be controlled from the outside, but I have yet to find the source of the control. I have been trying to help many of them learn how to manage in a place like this - their society, as it has advanced, has left behind many of the basic skills. They have never had to keep animals before, and the like.

"There is a place a few days' travel from here known as the Bunker. It has devices inside the likes of which I have only seen from the Apple. People arrive there in tubes - it is where you were before you arrived in the Fountain, I have no doubt."

[loyalrebel]

Malik hummed in acknowledgement, quietly leaning in to the warmth of Altaïr. It had been a while since he could remember anyone besides Melissa being so willing to be this close.

"I am well familiar with the ignorance of people after our time. Most of them barely speak two languages, things become... impersonal." He sighed, "They do not even pay skilled craftspeople enough to live on in most places."

His eyes close, and Malik just looks exhausted.

"I spent the past nearly three years as a pawn in a cosmic game of power between beings called the Arcana. They took people from their homes, claimed us without permission and would send us to different worlds to interfere with current events. We would often end up living the life of a version of ourselves who lived in that world, living their life as those who stayed themselves tried to do things.

"Some of us banded together recently and tried to kill one of the Arcana. I...died doing so, and I do not know if the others succeeded. You were there, so I assume Tower was felled."

There's more, so much more and while some of it was good there were a great many terrible parts as well.

"I doubt I can help much beyond whatever chores need doing." He admitted, "My skillset is not often needed around people from the future, or if they are there are a half dozen others who are already doing it faster than I can."

[eaglesonofnone]

But Altaïr shook his head, even as he lightly squeezed Malik against him. It settled even more of what had been uncertain inside him, more than he'd felt since... Well. Since death. "Your skills would be invaluable here, Malik. I've begun a village watch that keeps patrols around the borders. Your mapmaking may be the best way we could have to search for more secrets that have yet to be found, including the way for people to leave here of their own choice. You know more about making certain resources go to the places where they are needed than anyone I've ever seen. And while I am not the leader here by far, people seem to be eager for the experience people like us can bring. There is nothing from the future here beyond people and their memories. Most here are fighters. Few have the ability to build or craft as is needed."

The rest of what he said - if anything, it made Altaïr all the more protective. Arcana? Being claimed and used as... what, pawns? That went against their very nature, his and Malik's. No wonder he'd balked and killed one of them, whatever these 'Arcana' were. "I am only sorry that you've gone through so much, Akhi..."

[loyalrebel]

"Except I am tired of trying." Malik admits in a quiet voice. "I am tired of everything, but it never stops long enough to rest. I am here now, and you are asking me to help and I know I will whether you take the request back or not."

He's aware enough of himself to know that, and what he's wanted hasn't held much weight in what he does for most of his life anyway. The Brotherhood came first, the people he cared about mattered more.

"Give me a few days and I will at least look at what I can do with a few weeks."

[eaglesonofnone]

"I will not ask you to help. I only mean to reassure, Malik - you always have a place wherever I am. All I want of you here and now is rest."

Altaïr half-turned, resting his chin to the top of Malik's head. "I had the chance to grow old. I've learned what it is to have people who matter. If I only have you for a few weeks, I will make certain you leave here rested, fed, and well."

[loyalrebel]

"It will take longer than a few weeks for me to be well." Malik sighed, rubbing his hand over his face. "I would rather stay here and not return unless it is properly home."

[eaglesonofnone]

"Then I will do what I can." He pressed his face gently against Malik's hair before beginning to stand. "For now, I can offer some soup that I keep on the stove. There are no lentils here yet, but it is close to what we used to have at home. Would you eat a bowl?"

[loyalrebel]

"That sounds excellent." Malik nodded, "Lentils or not. It has been a while since I had something someone else cooked."

He's thankful that he's at least thawed out enough to stop shivering now.

"I assume I can stay here with you? I do not mind sleeping on the couch or sharing if need be."

[eaglesonofnone]

"I have an extra bedroom if you wish," he said, "but you are welcome to sleep wherever you want. There is every chance I will wake you by checking on you." He placed his hand on Malik's shoulder. "Stay here, get warm. I'll be back in a moment."

And that was how Altaïr left him for a matter of minutes. While he was still getting used to the layout of this kitchen, he'd at least been able to cook. The soup was hearty, made from potatoes, onions, and pork from the beast he and the Iron Bull fought together, kept warm on a banked stove in the kitchen. He portioned it out into a bowl and brought it, as well as a chunk of bread, to Malik's chair. He placed both on the table beside him, and then fetched a glass of cool water.

"There is a modest variety here as it comes to foods," he said. "When spring comes, I'm hoping to put in a well at the side of the river to irrigate a field for rice. You will have to wish me luck." If anyone knew just how little Altaïr knew about the practical parts of farming, it was Malik. Theory - certainly. Theory was simple. But Altaïr was not a man who had held traces and guided an ox through its paces.

[loyalrebel]

Malik fixed Altair with a flat look when he mentioned attempting to farm, pausing before he begins eating to slowly raise an eyebrow.

"Altair, you are my closest friend and one of the more clever men I have met in my life." He said with calm deliberstenes, "But the only thing you have talent at doing in a farmfield is riding through them on horseback while chased by guards. You will need more than luck for your career as a farmer."

[eaglesonofnone]

"I know." And he very nearly laughed, looking at Malik with eyes almost purely helpless. "I am doing many things here that I know little of. It is like looking into the Apple. I see what can be done and what needs to be done to make it possible, but I haven't the skill. But I need to learn. This is not Masyaf - I cannot simply send down word and expect it all to be done. I must have my hands in it here.

"So far, I have established a watch to be aware of external threats. I have been urging people toward things that suit their talents. We had an illness sweep through, and I did what I could for the ill. Most here simply wish to leave. I..."

He had just been speaking to Takashi days before, and he had decided if a risk was to be taken, someone like him should be the one to take it. Now, at least for a while, he had Malik to take care of. He couldn't take that sort of risk until his oldest, dearest friend had something more steady under his feet.

"I do not mind it so badly, being here."