He had been reading in what passed for a bookroom here, which was a usual enough pastime for him. Some published letters of Cato the Younger, who he liked in the sense of liking the idea of Cato perhaps, more than the man. He had a consistency to him, and in a very inconsistent Rome, that was worth admiring. Then again, his humourlessness made even Argentum seem boisterous by comparison, so it was an admiring best done from afar. Cato's usual place with the optimates tended to spare Argentum the tedium that regular meetings with the man would have become anyway. Still, the letters were interesting enough to leaf through with silver fingers, and ponder if their shining words could exist anywhere outside of their pages.<br/><br/>And then too keen ears picked up a too familliar din, and intellectual contemplation was sundered in the thundering booms of yells and the weight imminent violence burdened his awareness with.<br/><br/>A burst of light coursed through the halls in the same moment of his wince, wings spread fully to carry him quickly unto the tavern proper, rearing up between Sthenae and Galla, waiting with a hint of resignation for fists or serpents or both to impact upon his silver hide, radiance spilling out through the room as though he was a star fallen out from the heavens beyond.<br/><br/>"I have little wish to know how this began, in the who or how or why. I only ask for it to end. Please."<br/><br/>The calm in his voice somehow an imposition itself on any extremes of emotion, not so much soothing them as crushing them underfoot.