***
{Inside The Projection}
Malik had returned...
To the sa hill, the sa night.
Before the sa edge, next to the sa tal pole.
The place where his victory over the king was announced to all.
Wind welcod him with silence, and the world seed to hold its breath.
Though only for a mont—
"Elder Brother!"
Feathers collided into his chest, wings fluttering in frantic disarray.
A black owl...
Its eyes were wide...
His tiny heart was beating fast enough to break a rib...
’His.’ Right, Malik recognized the bird.
It was Sinbad.
"I... I say with no embellishnt..."
He latched onto Malik with talons that trembled.
"None at all... That those ten minutes of separation felt like an eternity drawn thin."
His words were screeched in shrill panic, and yet they still sohow sounded calm.
"To be severed from your soul was a sensation most intolerable. My mind raced with every horror conceivable... I feared the very worst."
He fluttered in orbit, circling Malik’s head, performing an inspection mid-crisis.
"Your presence... it vanished entirely. It was as though the thread between our souls had been violently severed. I nearly collapsed. I truly—"
He froze, wings pausing mid-beat.
His pink eyes blinked slowly, so very slowly, as if staring into sothing unholy.
It seed that he felt it now... the change.
"...What... what have you done to yourself?"
His voice lowered to a near whisper, trembling beneath the syllables.
"I can scarcely describe the sensation of your soul..."
He slowly hovered back to Malik’s shoulder.
"Fractured, tortured... f-foreign. As if... as if torn from a thousand lives and fused anew. I’ve never known sothing to be so... barely held together."
He moved around Malik, scanning his body once more, or rather, scanning his soul.
The bird wasn’t mistaken; it was mangled.
Twisted and burned in places, warped beyond repair in others. It was a miracle that it was still intact. A miracle it had returned at all.
"It doesn’t bleed now, and yet you are so very wounded. And not in any way I have words for."
Malik said nothing.
He just calmly sat on the boulder, the sa one watching the kingdom below.
Sinbad, barely calming himself, perched on his shoulder once again.
A long, quiet mont passed until finally Malik spoke:
"Two souls."
The words were simple...
Yet they spoke of a lot.
Sinbad’s feathers rustled.
"rged?"
Malik gave a faint nod.
Sinbad exhaled softly, wings folding across his chest.
"Extraordinary. That would account for the dual Blessings. The resistance to Corruption. And the resilience against... madness."
He looked down.
"A lesser soul would’ve shattered."
Still, Malik said nothing.
Sinbad spoke again after a pause:
"Tell . Did you choose it? HELL?"
The "Hollow King" slowly turned his head, just a little.
"...How did you know?"
Sinbad straightened, his eyes glimring.
"Because I am of you. Upon our... embrace, your pain sang through like a hymn."
A beat passed, then Malik flatly asked:
"How do you live with it?"
Sinbad answered with a soft chuckle:
"You already know. For I have endured by walking the path you carved."
Malik held another silence then lowered his head.
"I’ve been given two requests upon my descent."
Sinbad tilted his head, listening intently.
"One... was to allow our lovely flower to bloom again."
He turned slightly toward him.
"The other was to relinquish what remained of my Aether and divinity. Give it to you."
The owl blinked, both happy for Malik and surprised about this... action of his.
"You really thought of before ’Him?’"
"..."
Malik gave no reply, and Sinbad chuckled once more.
"Ingenious. Even at the gates of HELL, your mind found loopholes most would never have... I’m surprised ’He’ allowed it. While we are of each other, we are still different beings. ’He’ must not be a stickler for the Law."
Malik looked away.
"...So what remained after my ascension... was sufficient to elevate you to Mithqal?"
Sinbad puffed up with pride, nodding once, like a cute little sage delivering absolute truth.
"Indeed. re minutes ago, the breakthrough occurred. I bypassed the Jinn Divine Rank entirely. A leap most unprecedented."
He added a few words at the end, almost to himself:
"You never thought it to be you, even when knowing you are the very cause... you still underestimate yourself. Even now, with the world ever generous with burdens."
"Hm."
That was all of Malik’s reply.
Sinbad didn’t seem to mind as he proceeded to ask:
"Forgive the assumption, Elder Brother, but... these two souls. Am I to believe the world perceived you always as thus? That long before the rge actually occurred, even before we t, you were Embodied?"
"..."
"..."
"..."
The pause was long.
Malik didn’t answer, perhaps surprised.
Oh, no, he was certainly surprised; his brow had moved a fraction.
To Sinbad, that was everything.
"You underestimate , too, it seems."
His eyes smiled, happy that his Elder Brother was still at least sowhat capable of showing the tiniest semblance of emotion.
"This rge mirrors Corruption, does it not? The way ti folds before it. As though all beginnings were rewritten once the soul changed."
Again, Malik said nothing.
And again, Sinbad didn’t mind.
He leaned in gently, brushing against his neck with the side of his beak.
"You are still yourself... No matter what has been added or taken."
Yes, though he was forever changed, he was still Malik, the Elder Brother he so loved.
Malik acknowledged him with a look, watching Sinbad curl into him, tucking himself under a wing and breathing softly.
The owl slept.
It seed that those ten minutes took a lot out of him.
With that, ti passed...
Embodint continued as it was.
And the "Hollow King" did his duties.
He stabilized the kingdom.
He attended Samir’s funeral.
Then, before its attendees could notice, he left.
His destination was what he always chased after.
The capital of Markaz, the Holy City.
Its Holy Palace.
Cyrus’s ho.
Malik wanted revenge.
He would kill the Sultan.
And finally, finally, he now had the chance.
There was no need for any more delays.
"His head will Fall."
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