Oddly enough it's the change of subject to Kadar, rather than speaking of the incident that took him from them, that helps to cool those ugly feelings in his belly. It still hurts to talk about him, but remembering the fonder times did help to soothe the ache. They should keep the good times in their memory more than his loss. He's somewhat surprised to hear that Kadar seemed to know that Altair had a crush on him, maybe at the time it was only to tease, but then... Kadar had watched Altair closely, the pair of them talked more about things Malik never had interest in. Maybe they had shared this one truth at some point.

"...I suppose, being there with the pair of you near me, it was the only time I could honestly rest. When I knew that the two people I loved most were safe and not far from me."

And though he doesn't think Jacob would ever have the patience for Chess, he sees more and more how one could almost compare Altair's relationship with Jacob, to how he was when he'd been running around with Kadar.

"It's only fair, you two wore me out on a daily basis of course. Chasing you around all over Masyaf."