Work Text:
To Alhaitham, Cyno was always a stranger he intimately knows.
Once, he held in his hands the records of Cyno's life. He had to keep to himself the knowledge that the watchdog is being watched.
Now seated across from the man himself, Alhaitham knew he had the ropes to bind Cyno. Through those pages, he could force the General Mahamtra's hand.
But he doesn't.
“I chanced upon a thick notebook. The contents were all about the General Mahamatra Cyno. Your daily activities, your preferred methods of enacting judgment… Everything.”
He chooses to admit the truth, to ease his worries and to give him a chance to act free from the Akademiya's peering eyes.
Cyno came to witness firsthand that while Alhaitham craved knowledge like breathing air, he does not wield it indiscriminately. That is where it starts. The heart is touched by little kindness and from it blooms immense gratitude.