"Do you want to stay with us?"

"Yes."

"Though I probably said it wrong: it"s us who are with you."

"No. It"s me who is with you," Nikto said. "It"s me with you," he repeated.

He finished his wine.

"I feel so bad! If you could know, Lis, you wouldn"t say I"m able to do anything. If it were so, would I let myself get into such a condition? Oh yes, it is not my body, I don"t need to spare it, I forgot. Sorry, Lis, you made such a beautiful and neat construction that I even enjoyed it."

He clenched his arm where his damaged veins were. "Shit, will it ever end?!"

"Do you really feel pain?"

"Yes," Nikto said. He got up and hobbled to the bar leaning onto his cane. He managed to pour some wine.

"Why are you limping?" Lis asked.

"I don"t know. As long as I remember myself, I was lame. I wasn"t mute or insane. I was lame…" he said thoughtfully. "I barely remember anything about living with my mother. Sometimes I have memories, especially when I have a dose of "black water"," he laughed. "No, Lis, I"m lying, I recall. I was insane and mute for two years after I was captured. Later I restored but everyone thought I got possessed by the devil. And I didn"t reassure them. When I say that I restored I don"t mean I became as I had been before. I lost a lot and I can"t bring it back."

"You were captured by the Red and they broke you. It is true, your tattoo witnesses it. But I can"t understand," Lis paused thinking, "I had to know you! If you were held captive by the Red why didn"t I know anything of you?"

"Why should you have known about me? They had many captives. Well, you didn"t ever take any captives, you preferred to kill them all straight away, including women and children. Right, Atley Alis – or Sigmer? Which of these names is the real one?"

Lis screwed his eyes shut suddenly as if he were in pain.

"You found out. I was prepared to that."

"It wasn"t difficult. Three years passed but the Black at the borders still cannot forget you and your army. They call you Sigmer the Death."

"Yes, I know. But it isn"t me any more."

"Why did you betray the Red?"

"It"s a long story. I fell out of grace, was accused of all deadly sins and sentenced to death. I had no other way but to run to save my skin. My mother was Black, you know that, I was born at the border and grew up among you. I even fought against the Red for a while. Then I found my father. He accepted me and named me Sigmer, in the manner of the Red. That"s how I became Red. I fought for them for almost ten years but one day my power was destroyed. I returned and got my former name my mother gave me. I couldn"t stay at the border, too many people knew me there. I came to the city and met Orel. I used to have everything. Now I have nothing… but Arel."

"What happens when the Black buy you out?"