Making his way further into the poor district, Altaïr composed himself as he began to hear the sounds of a conversation not too far from where he currently stood. Moving toward it at a pace calculated to match that of the citizens that walked these streets beside, behind, and before him, Altaïr wondered for a moment just what it was that he would ultimately be finding. As it turned out, two men were meeting with each other; one of them wearing a simple, white tunic and pants with a smoke-gray turban, and the other far more elaborately garbed in rich, wine red fabric.

"They sent word you wished to speak with me," the man in white and gray said.

"Majd Addin intends another execution today," the man in red silks responded. "We must ensure all goes well."

"It is my duty to serve," the first man said, bending slightly at the waist in response.

"Bring the document I've given you to your master," the man in red silks ordered; Altaïr narrowed his eyes slightly. "That way, he'll know where my men are at all times. And be quick about it! We can ill afford any delays."

"There will be none, you have my word," the first man said. "Is there anything else?"

After a cursory check to see if anyone was watching them, during which time Altaïr had to fight hard to restrain his amused smile, the man in red silks turned back to the man in white and gray. "We've reason to believe they'd infiltrated the city," the man in red silks had leaning his head slightly closer in that way that conspirators from all creeds and all walks of life had done before him. "Majd Addin fears for his safety."

As well he might, Altaïr mused, not feeling particularly charitable.

"Truth be told I don't blame him," the man in red silks said. "A man in his position makes many enemies."

"I am sure that your men will be able to keep him safe," the man in gray and white said, straightening up and beginning to leave the intersection of street and alley where Altaïr had found him.

"God willing," the man in red silk said, moving to leave, himself.

Altaïr, schooling his face in the wake of the new information that he'd been able to gather, moved in behind the new object of his attention as swiftly and silently as he ever had. Once the man's attention had turned fully to whatever matters that he had concerned himself, fully distracted from whoever he might encounter within the city, Altaïr swept past him, taking what he needed from the man just as he'd been taught to do by the Master himself.

And, just as he'd taught Alnesr to do, in his turn.

Moving away from the man he'd tailed, so that he would not think to pursue him once he discovered that he was no longer carrying the message he'd been given, Altaïr melted back into the milling crowds and continued on his way even as he tucked the message he'd claimed safely away inside his robes. Passing deeper into the crowds, Altaïr made his stance and stride as unobtrusive as he could manage, searching out the next person who would be able to provide him with the information he sought, though they would have no knowledge of him or what he truly sought.

As he continued making his way through the crowds, Altaïr opened his ears once more to what those who lived under Majd Addin's rule truly thought of the man; it would make him all the simpler to come to grips with, when the time came.

As he continued deeper into Jerusalem's poor district, Altaïr began to hear the sounds of yet another conversation that might also prove to have more of the information he was currently searching for.

"Did you see the order?" a man in smoke-gray robes and black sash asked of a man in a white tunic and turban, this one wearing a bright green sash. "He wants us to prepare a stage for another execution. Today. It's the one at the western edge of Solomon's Temple. I was on my way just now."

"So much death," the man in white said, in the tone of a man who had been defeated; Altaïr was cheered by the thought that, unknown though he might be to this man, he would still be lifting a burden from his shoulders.

"Were it only that our true leader might return, and bring a measure of justice to this city," the other man said, with far more enthusiasm.

"Yes, and not this mockery Majd Addin parades before us," the man in white continued; it seemed the spirit had not been wrung out of him entirely.

"How? How does something like this happen?"

If Master Mualim's deductions were indeed as well-founded as they had always been, then not without intervention, Altaïr reflected.

"Everyone appointed in Salah Al'din's stead has met with an untimely end, and so the position falls to him," the man in white said; Altaïr winced slightly at the thought that his own actions had given such a madman cause to hold power. "He who was once nothing more than a mere scribe."

"How convenient," the man in gray said, his tone making the words a jibe. "It would not surprise me to learn that he was behind these… accidents."

More and more, Altaïr found himself pleased to be able to offer the citizens of Jerusalem reprieve from what was, in the end, just another tyrant that fed on the suffering of their fellow man. Or, perhaps much worse, considering the man's affiliations.

The man in white swiftly hushed his companion. "If the guards hear us, we'll be taken for treason! Executed on very platform we have to repair. Come; let us return to work."

Turning his face back to the crowd, so that he would not appear to be taking too much note of the men whose conversation he had taken the time to overhear, Altaïr closed easily with the man in white, taking the map that he had been given to do his work. Drifting back into the crowd once he had done his work, Altaïr began once more to search for those who might be carrying information that he needed.

After continuing on his way through the city for some time, observing the ebb and flow of the crowds he passed into and through and by on his way through the poor district, Altaïr began to hear the sounds of a man haranguing the crowd around him. Turning that way, Altaïr settled himself down on a bench close enough to hear the words of the man that spoke so pointedly, while at the same time being safely out of the man's sight. After all, it was a strong possibility that this man could end up being his enemy.