“Why don't you take off the collar?” Asked Karina. Nikto looked at her warily:

“I’m a slave, have you forgotten?”

“So what? You've never led the life of a slave.”

“Really?” Nikto smoothed his hair:

“What do you know about this? I was on the “farm”, and then I was sold to the unclean, and in the city I was in prison and fought like a slave, like meat that is thrown into the front line. I was a great slave!”

“But then, when you met Arel?”

“I became his slave. His whore. Arel liked it, he fastened me to the bed for it, he didn’t order me to remove it. It takes a long time. This needs to be cut.”

“I understand. But it was possible to do it! And… And I understand now why you don't! Now it just dawned on me! You don't take it off, not because you're a slave! And not because Arel liked it! You don't take it off, because the slave is my brother! And you show it to him! He, he must walk in this heavy collar, because he is your slave! You don't film to show my brother who he is. And you treat him like a slave. And the joke is that you look like a slave – you!”

“I treat your brother very well, believe me, you just have no idea what a slave should look like in my world. What a collar and what else should he wear! Trust me, this collar is the least of what he should really wear! But this is my body too, so I limit myself to just a few attributes.”

“And the collar among them? Yes?”

“Yes!”

“I want you to take it off.”

“No!”

“But is it comfortable for you yourself?”

“Fine!”

“And he feels bad! Take it off!”

“You want to take it off right now you?! Then cut off my head!”

Karina covered her face with her hands;

“Please don't be angry, please. Maybe it's possible to put a lighter collar on him? How much does this one weigh?”

She raised pleading eyes to him, trying to put into her gaze everything that she felt, all the prayer:

“Please! Come on, when we come to Arel at the Estate, you will order this collar to be cut and put on another one, a little lighter. I am not asking to take it off at all, I understand that he is your slave and should be wearing a collar, no matter how absurd it sounds and looks, because you are one whole.”

“I'll think about it,” Nikto said, and Karina saw that he was not going to respond to her request yet.

“Better make a loofah out of a bunch of grass, as you do, to scrub my clothes. Hey? Get down to business. Your brother is fine, I didn’t do with him a hundredth part of what I had to, because I also need this body. That's all. Don't worry about him.”

Karina turned away so that he would not see her tears, and began to tear the grass.

He silently took the twisted bundle of grass from her, went to the water's edge and began to wipe off his boots from the dirt, he was silent and didn’t look at her and clearly no longer wanted to continue the conversation about her brother, about the collar, about slavery and the rules of behavior of the Demon in the human body, and the rules of behavior of the human in which the Demon settled. And she looked at him, and before her eyes there was a picture of a creature scratching its collar with its claws, with a face distorted with despair and hopelessness. Blind and dumb.

“Do you know?” She said suddenly.

“What?” He glanced at her from under his brows, not looking up from his occupation.

“Now for the first time you didn’t start to play around and come up with excuses, you now for the first time admitted that you are a Demon in my brother's body.”

“So what?”

“Nothing. It's just weird why?”

“Well, you anyway think so?”

“Yes. And I think correctly. It's true. And if had said before, I would not have left. If you were afraid to say, thinking that I would be scared and leave, and you needed me for your witchcraft…”