The Mist and the Lightning. Part 19

“Good,” Nik made such a quick gesture with his hand, familiar to Kors, as if he wanted to remove the bangs from his eyes, but, like the rings under his nose, he now also didn’t have a long bang, and Nik, clearly not understanding how to calm his involuntary movements, doomedly clutched his fingers at his wide belt.

“If you’re wearing a mask and they tell you to take it off, do it. Don’t glue the mask to your face. Because I will meet you, and we will immediately go to a very respected institution to make documents for you, and there you must be with an open face. And you must have half-blood rings in your lip.”

Nik clutched at his lower lip, from which Kors had pulled his badges of affiliation only this morning.

“Documents? At the Upper?” He asked in surprise, not reacting in any way to the fact that Zagpeace, without any requests, quite categorically ordered him to put a humiliating mark on his face.

“Yes! At the Upper, because you’re half true black!”

But Nik looked at Zagpeace somehow very skeptically:

“Half black, and somehow that half is not fucking visible!”

“Nik, trust me, it’s visible! At the time of your birth, your mother was not a slave, Kors had freed Inness and married her. You were born in an official marriage to a noble black. Whatever your father may be, but he is a true black, a descendant of the ancestors of this world, and the blood of the higher flows in you. I’ll do the documents for you. And then you will have my pass and an official document proving your identity, and the Upper will be open to you.”

“Oh…”

“Have you thought about a name?”

“Nik.”

“But understand, this is no good! You should have a longer name.”

“Nikto,” said Nik, and, looking at Zagpeace a little frowningly, he smiled. He smiled so simply, with a little provocative smile, and seeing this, Kors stirred everything inside from love for him. Now that Nik’s smile was no longer crooked due to the scar, it became very clear that smiling made him look great, and he became even more attractive.

Nik became very cute when he pouted a little or pouted his lower lip forward and looked a little from under his brows, but his now not crippled, completely natural smile was no less attractive. Previously, when Nik smiled, his inferiority and the fact that the right side of his face was paralyzed immediately became noticeable, but now, when the paralyzing poison leaked out and the scar healed, Nik could smile freely, and it turned out that he had a very beautiful open smile.

And looking at Nik, Zagpeace smiled back at him. He smiled, not mockingly condescending as before, but somehow truly, honestly and sincerely. Kors heard Zagpeace think of his son, “He’s damn charming! Andhe knows how to fight spectacularly. Difficult, hard fate, tattoos of unclean ones on the face — the audience will be delighted. Everyone will want to come and see him!”

(I will kill you, Peace! My son is not some strange animal that people go to see!)

“All the Upper will want to look at the redeemed Son of the Devil, whom I directed on the true path and, according to the precepts of the Holy Fathers, helped the lost sheep return to the flock.”

(Gods, what a hypocrite you are, Peace! How I have been friends with you for so many years and didn’tnotice this!)

“It will only be necessary to keep an eye on him, and, probably, I will have to assign a reliable person to protect him, otherwise my warriors will get him drunk and fucked. At first, it will be needed to watch him constantly.”

But Zagpeace said aloud:

“I propose something more suitable, showing your belonging to the true blacks. For example, Michael or Sebastian.”

“What? Aha! No, I’m not good enough for such names,” Nik laughed, “I have snot hanging under my nose.”

And Zagpeace laughed too:

“It suits you.”

“You don’t have names for people like me,” Nik said, “these are your names, they belong to true blacks, not to me. If they call me like you, you will laugh at me behind my back. My name is Nik, the short name of a slave, and it is more honest,” he finished even with some pride.

Zagpeace paused for a second.

“Okay, we’ll come back to this later, and you know, your father’s last name is not worth mentioning at all and…”

“Uh…” Nik tried to protest. He was pulled back, and he barely kept his balance, clutching the edge of the table with his hand.

Zagpeace chuckled, realizing that Nik was drunk, and immediately said conciliatorily:

“I gave you food for thought, we’ll talk more when we make the document. After that, I will sign a contract with you. This is how free and honest people interact with each other.”

“Contract?”

“Yes, the obligations of the parties and the terms of cooperation will be spelled out in detail. I am very good with my mercenaries. I pay them well. They have everything! Both money and reputation!”