<span style="font-size: 15px"><span style="font-family:Open Sans">Altair looked to the captain and then to the book that was offered to him. He was angry, and full of hate, of he wasn't a man of violence. He wouldn't sully his own hands by lashing out at Cygnus, and if he had, he wouldn't go about it by slitting his throat. Killing Cygnus would not serve him, regardless. He put his faith in his goddess instead, and prayed that she would give him strength to remain true to his nature.<br/>
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He remained at the desk to read at first, quiet, and occasionally looking to the Captain to see that he wasn't bothering him. Maybe the man was testing him. If he was waiting for Altair to make an attempt on his life, it wasn't going to come. It wasn't his job to pass judgment and decide who lived or who died. That was in his goddess' hands, and she'd seen fit to take Mors, or she'd made an agreement with their sea god to do so. Altair wanted to ask about the gods that Cygnus worshiped, but he would save that for another time when he wasn't already on such thin ice with the man. If that ever occurred.<br/>
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Typically, this would have been when Altair would have slinked his way over to the cot and slid in beside his master, to rest adoringly beside him. For any other man, he might have done so, but he wasn't about to go to Cygnus willingly. Fear of what he would do, mixed with repulsion and anger stopped him. Cygnus would either think he was there, trying to kill him, or he'd take it as forwardness, and either beat him, or rape him again. There was no middle ground at all with the Captain, and Altair preferred no contact at all if given choice.<br/>
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Instead, he lowered himself to the cabin floor, behind the desk, and he took the book with him. He wouldn't be able to get any rest the way he was sitting at the desk, especially with the way the ship rocked, and so he sprawled out across his stomach, and threw himself back into learning of the Weiss kingdom. He didn't know what to make of what was written. It sounded like a place of magic and fairy tale, but some might say the same about Dusan and it's many gods. Altair was never so close minded as to doubt anything. He wondered of the being mentioned, and how this tied into the culture and politics of Weiss. He assumed it was a story passed down, and perhaps the kingdom was descended down from that dragon who didn't allow his people to be forced into extinction. Altair thought he might ask Cygnus about it more when he woke, if he was in any sort of amiable mood. After he'd familiarized himself with the words on the page, training to glean any meaning he could of what was to await him when reaching the kingdom, he finally closed it. By then he'd fabricated all sorts of possibilities, some horrifying to think about.<br/>
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Cygnus wouldn't see him when he woke up immediately since his body was shrouded behind the desk. He fell asleep with his hand on the cover of the book, and had taken a small piece of feather from atop the desk to mark the page. It might have gone unnoticed entirely if the person who placed it didn't know what to look for. Exhaustion forced him to a deeper sleep, one he was sure his body needed, and he didn't look forward to waking. He was sure pain and misery would be there to greet him.</span></span>