“I'm dying.”

“Do you need black water?”

Nikto shook his head.

“Damn, I will find it, inject you, and you will come to your senses! Fuck! Damn! Can you walk? When will your vision be restored? I’ll get you out of here! I will get you out of here, no matter what it costs me, and I will return you to Arel! Safe and sound! I pulled out Lis, and you are my brother, so I’ll get you out too! I have decided!”

Karina jumped up:

“Let's go!”

Nikto didn’t move.

“Let's go! Either now or never! You make me commit this madness and betray my father, but I can’t see it! I can’t see you like that! After all, you saved my life. Have you forgotten it?! And you smiled there, in Backara, you were a merry villain, like all your friends! I liked you more like that!”

She drew her sword:

“Move back a little…”

With force she slashed several times along the links of the chain, freeing Nikto’s hand. Fortunately, the chain succumbed. Nikto pressed his freed hand to his chest, as if it were a small wounded animal. And Karina was already pulling his other hand, lifting him from the floor:

“Let's go! If we don’t do it now, he will put you in this damned coffin forever, and I won’t be able to help you! Neither I, nor anyone else!”

Nikto didn’t get up.

“Nik! For me! For my sake – I'm your sister! And for the sake of Arel and Lis, Enriki, Tol, Squint-Eye, Vil and all your other friends! They need you! Let's go! I beg you! For the sake of your Rosa and our mother, Iness. I beg you, Nikto, let’s go!”

Forced by her, Nikto stood up. Without releasing his hands and holding the sword ready, Karina cautiously approached the door and knocked with a special signal. The guard immediately opened. Leaving Nikto for a second, Karina came out first. The guard had not even had time to ask her anything, as she, having invested all her strength, hit him with a sword in the lower abdomen, just there the protective bib ended. She turned the sword, ripping open his stomach. And when he, clutching at the falling out insides, fell to his knees, she hit him in the neck, it certainly was not Arel’s crown blow, but very rough and clumsy work, but the guard was huge and healthy, and Karina was small and fragile. And although she didn’t take his head off, this was quite enough.

“Dad, I'm sorry,” she whispered, seeing how she had like a butcher finished the guard, who, by the way, covered her all this time.

Well, okay! Well, let it be so!

She returned for Nikto:

“How are your eyes? Can you see anything?”

Nikto shook his head.

“Well! Come on!”

Having left the chamber together with Nikto, she squatted down next to the guard lying prone, unfastened his bandage and his knife.

“Let’s take his sword,” she explained, “suddenly it may come in handy.”

Both the knives and the bandage were stained with blood. She could be accused of murder and imprisoned, this was not a joke and she got into a really bad thing, Karina understood this. But she reasoned so: she will pull out Nikto, sit out somewhere, and then her father could not bear the separation and would call her back. Time will show that she was right and did nothing wrong. Maybe she could even manage to reconcile him with Nikto? And the security guard… well, it could well be self-defense, or she could even blame it on Nikto… For him it already doesn’t make any difference. Having calmed herself in this way, Karina handed a weapon to her plagued brother.

“Here it is, take a sword, it can come in handy.”

But he shook his head.

“Can’t you fight blindly?”

She still hung an additional sword on her back.