“But you regret doing so then? Are you sorry? Well, confess to me! Confess that you could have done differently!”

“I could. But I don’t regret it!”

“You regret!”

“Well, I'm sorry, but I don't care what you think about it. And then it was too late! And now even more so.”

“I don’t think so, he’s not as bad as he seems, he’s better than other people of the prince. Well, of course! How could I have thought that you would accept him! How would you introduce him to all your pompous friends. Tell them that your son is a slave, a rag from the “Lower”, and a half-breed.”

“And a drug addict.”

“Yes!”

“With a redone body, a disfigured face, head to toe covered with tattoos, the prince’s slave wearing his…” Kors froze in mid-sentence.

 “Wearing his what?!” Karina didn’t understand.

 “His brand. The brand. Clear?”

“Yes! It's so awful! It outweighs everything, and the fact that he is your blood and flesh and that he is your desired son and son of your beloved woman. I wonder if his mother would accept him as anyone? I don’t really know him, but I accept him as my brother, no matter what he is!”

“You won't accept him. Neither I nor you. He is not a member of our family – he is nobody, in the literal and figurative sense of the word!”

“You are so embarrassed about him that you are ready to believe and convince yourself that demons exist, and they inhabit human bodies and live in our world.”

“Yes.”

“Father, don’t you find it funny yourself?”

“It’s not funny! It’s not at all funny, Karina. And I hope that when you were there in the castle, you didn’t communicate with him.”

“I communicated with him! He saved my life, in the “Lower” people of the Black Bey ambushed us, and Nikto closed me with his body, and received a strong poke in the stomach.”

“You lie, I didn’t see any scar on his stomach, just a small burn, and even that seemed to be putting out a cigarette. What I quite believe. He has a scar from a stub on his stomach, not a sword!”

“Because he used the “black water” and “sama” to heal the wound and stay alive. I saw it! He saved me! And I thank him for that!”

“You hope you didn’t tell him in a burst of gratitude about your assumptions about your relationship?”

“No, I didn’t. But I showed him mother’s medallion.”

“Oh! Now it’s clear how he knew about Iness.”

“Yes. And I think he understood everything, and if he didn’t understand, then I will tell him anyway! Let it be for him even a small consolation that I admit him, since his father betrays him and betrays him time after time!”

“You won't tell him anything! You won’t even get close to him. By the way, he is contagious. You are very lucky that you didn’t pick up an infection from him in the Castle. Why are you keeping silent? Agree, lucky?”

Karina pulled herself together:

“It doesn’t matter! What matters is what you are going to do with him! Is not a drop of gratitude stirred in you after I told you? That he saved my life.”

“No. Quite possibly, it was all rigged. He is cunning. He almost took me for the ride as well as you. He managed to deceive you!”

“What does it mean: “He almost took me for a ride? You scare with these words.”

“Never mind. The main thing is that I resisted.”

“Have you even tried to talk to him? Or did you immediately hit him, father?” Karina looked doubtfully at the dried blood smeared on the floor.

“Well, why couldn't you just try to talk to him?”

“No need to make me a monster, as you love it! I talked to him normally! I behaved with him kindly!”

“Are you serious?!” She was delighted. “And he?”

“He… he also behaved normally,” Kors muttered.

“Here you see! When a person is treated in a good way, he behaves appropriately! I knew this, he wasn’t at all some kind of a moron and a drug addict, how you present him. Ruined his soul and became a demon! Nonsense! There is still a lot of good left in him. It's just that no one has ever treated him humanly. He saw only evil. And you were no exception. I am very sad, father, you, who may be the only one who could, who had to support him, seeing his brand and what else, immediately turned away with disgust! I hope he still doesn’t know that you are his father, otherwise he really felt very painful. If I had a son, I would accept him in any way, even demon, at least a thousand times a murderer and a criminal. This is your child! What else can you talk about!”

“I think he doesn't know,” Kors said.

“What doesn’t he know? That he is your son?”

“Yes.”

“What was it worth talking to him calmly? Just try to find out?”

“I talked to him! I figured out! Look.”

“What is it?”

“Your mother’s engagement ring. It hung on his neck.”

Karina took the decoration:

“Lay me like a seal on your heart, for love is strong as death.” She said. “You have exactly the same. I remember this engraving.” She looked at her father’s right hand, Kors never took off his ring, he wore it all his life, and Karina from childhood remembered it.

“Yes.”

“So he knows?”

“No. He believes that this is a ring of his girlfriend.”

“Rosa?”

“Yes. If he doesn’t deceive me on purpose.”

“So mom…” Karina hesitated, and tears appeared in her eyes, “she put her wedding ring on his neck…”

“Apparently so.”

“So you find him and recognize him! Do you still doubt it?!”

“Never mind. Don’t get involved in this anymore. Listen to me and don’t meddle, I beg you, Karina. I ask you in a good way, still!”

“Father, you're wrong…”

“Leave me. Go do something.”

“What?!”

“Go, talk to Donatella Valerie. She went to the doctor. Clive watched her. Her doctor was questioned and claims that she had a concussion. She was hit with something heavy on the head, but she says she fell down.”

“I don't care about that! It is not interesting. And even if she was hit. Even if you are hinting that Nikto hit her, then there is a way for her. I will not collect facts against him!”

“I don’t claim that it is he. So go and bring me evidence that it’s not him.”

“Will this change anything?”

“I don't think so.”

“Then I don't want to!”

“You have to do your job and my orders! Why is Clive doing his job, and you are not? Do you want me to fire you?”

“In that case, I’d better go and question Zara, according to agents, a former slave from the farm…”

“Why do you need her? Because Lis visited her? You are fixated on Lis, and Arel, and now Nikto!”

“I'm not fixated!”

“Zara is of no use to us!”

“As well as Doni!”

“Why should I argue with you?! To persuade you! You constantly do everything contrary to! I didn’t let you go to the Castle to Arel. I didn’t let you make friends with them. But you wanted to figure it out! You want to figure it out on your own!”

“But my information helped you, and try to say that it is not so!”

“How did it help me? You were just trying to find reasons to soften the accusations. They are all victims of circumstances! And Chris Wass, and Vish Cazen provoked Arela themselves, going up to him at the autumn ball, and summoned him to the battle.”

“Yes!”

“And in your words I provoked Arel, and because of my words he killed Lamy.”

“Yes!”

“And now you don’t want to go to Doni Valerie, because you don’t want to know that your unhappy offended friends beat her on the head.”

“I just want justice, father. I still don’t know for sure what happened to my maid, and who is guilty of the death of the singer from the “Lower”. I don’t justify them, but I want everything to be fair!”

“I will remove you from this business altogether! Do you understand me, Karina?”

Chapter six

Karina and Dony

       “I'm in a hurry, I have a lot of things to do,” Dony was not at all disposed to host Karina as a guest. She didn’t even offer her tea.