Karina looked up in surprise and pulled away:

“What are you talking about?”

“And you?”

“I wanted to talk to you about Nikto…”

“About whom?!”

“And what did you think?”

“About Clive Gabriel!”

And seeing the slightly confused expression on her father’s face, Karina laughed:

“Dad! You thought I would ask you… pooh… I don’t even have my tongue turning to say such nasty things!”

“So you…”

“I don’t need him, and that’s all! Don’t even dare to think about this!” And, seeing how frank relief was reading on her father’s face, Karina pressed herself against him again, straightened tenderly his white gray lock, beautifully removed from high forehead. That was the only grayish strand among thick dark hair.

“How could you think!”

“What should I have thought?! First he comes to me and asks for you. Then you come and want to talk seriously about something!”

“He came to you ?! Oh! Damn! I don’t want to hear anything else about Clive! I came to talk on a completely different topic. Absolutely!”

“There will be no indulgences and condescension for Nikto, keep this in mind, and you can even not start.”

Karina pulled away from her father, got down from his knees and went around the table. She pursed her lips and sat in a chair opposite:

“Because he is garbage, trash?”

“Yes, if you want it to be put so.”

“And he is half-breed.”

“It has nothing to do with it,” Vitor was embarrassed.

“I see,” said Karina knowingly, seeing his embarrassment. “So what do you intend to do with him?” Her voice fluttered. “You want to execute him, yes?”

“Let's just say this,” Kors hesitated, as if picking up words softer, “let's just say that he has no place in our world. He is called the son of the devil, so let him go to his world, to his father. Let him return to his father. I'll get him home, that's all.”

“Is this a joke? Do you think this is funny?”

Kors shrugged.

“Well, as I tell you, he really has to go back home, to his family, and to his father.”

“But his father is you!”

Kors grinned.

“Karina, I don't have much time.”

“Very well! That's when you see him, when you see… you yourself will understand everything! He looks like his mother, they are like two drops of water!” Karina took a portrait of Iness, which always stood at the desk of Kors. “I don’t even have to prove anything, just take off his mask and look.”

“Karina…”

And you know, when I saw him, there, among the people of Arel, in the “Lower”, where you will never meet a man with white hair and bright eyes, where he is like a thorn in everyone’s eye, so different from others, I thought, Glory to the Gods, that I was not born so bright! There are holes in his lower lip, from the rings, because he wears half-blood marks. Because he is a man of the second grade, he is a half-breed, and not “black”! And I thought, I just thought, looked at it all from the other side, discarding all this romance about your mother and your great unearthly love, which I heard a lot from childhood. I thought about how it was possible to take a woman of a different race, from another world, drag her here, and begin to make children with her as a routine. Give birth to half-breeds! How old was I? I was not even three more years, probably, when he was already on the way. And I’m sure that if she hadn’t been stolen, it would not be limited to this. In the sense of me and him. You would still give birth to light, dark, spotty, but not “black”! How did you even imagine that? That your children will walk with holes and rings in their lips? How would you explain this to them? Would you do this procedure with them yourself? I was lucky, but how would you explain to him? This humiliation? You will understand this when you see him, you will understand everything! Why did you take mom here?! You knew that the “whites” were being stolen, that they were being hunted because the white-haired slave was worth her weight in gold! You knew that you were putting her in danger and didn’t guard her properly! I saw such a slave in the castle of Area, she is not “white”. She is half-breed but still light, like Nikto, both hair and eyes. Her name is Mina. She doesn’t even remember how she appeared there, at Arel’s place. She was stolen and sold when she was a girl. And so with everyone! And with Nikto as well! He was sold to a local witch, into the forest, into some dugout with witch's potions and dried paws. And there, he spent most of his life! Therefore, you didn’t find him!”

“Enough!” Cried Vitor Kors. “I no longer intend to listen to this nonsense! What are you blaming me for? You are all right, and no one forces you to wear rings!”

“Yes, with me, it’s all right, relatively… but I'm sorry, this is not your merit! This is a happy coincidence. Gift of the Gods! Looking at Nikto, I imagined how my life could have developed, if I had been born so light. Where would I be right now? Surely also rotted in someone's castle as a slave! Yes, I’m very lucky, but even they humiliate me! Unobtrusively make it clear. Remind.”

“Who?!”

“Never mind! I'm fine, yes. What about mom? What about brother? It's your fault! There was no need to drag her into our world! You know, Nikto, after all, also had a “white” girlfriend, her name was Rosa, it seems. But he sent her upwards, saved her from such a slave life. Maybe you’ll say that he didn’t love her enough?”

“Are you now retelling the play of Donatella Valerie?”

“Yes, I am. Because he told her this story about himself. Why didn't he stay with Rosa? Maybe because he understood that he would not have life in this world, not him, not their children. And I don’t blame you, don’t look at me like that. You were young and everything is clear. It's just… you blame yourself more than I blame you! Only you blame yourself because you didn’t save her, but you have to blame yourself because you took her from the Upper World initially!”

“I didn't take her! Everything was mutual, and the children… we were so happy when she realized what was waiting for you…”

“Don’t…”

“We didn’t think about anything, you are right, we were just happy. Unacceptably happy! And you… you were born dark, understand? There were no problems, and we didn’t think. And… I wanted a son, and she, she wanted to give me a son. We didn’t think about what he would be, light or dark, or rather, we were probably sure that he would be like you – dark.”