The Mist and the Lightning. Part 13
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“And of them too,” Nikto answered him calmly.
“You said we had won!”
“Have we lost? Have we surrendered? Is the fort captured?! Lis?” Nikto raised his voice too.
“Do you perfectly understand what I mean, how long will we last?”
“We have enough reserves.”
“And the soldiers? Do we have enough warriors? The siege will drag on, who will remain? Who are we going to Ore town with?”
“I’ll go along the mouse hole, I’ll come to a high mountain,” Nikto said thoughtfully and as if to himself.
“What?”
“There are many mines and underground passages in Ore town, all the land under Ore has been dug up.”
Lis stopped for a second, as if pondering the words of Nikto:
“Nik, if the siege drags on, there will be two or three hundred of us left. And the red ones will call for help. You understand?!” Unable to bear it, he screamed again. “Or will you lead the unclean ones through the Port?”
“I cannot lead an army through the Port and you know it.”
“How then to act?!”
“Hold the defense, Lis, motherfucker!” Nikto also shouted. He swore in unclean language, insulting Lis, very rudely indicating who he thought he was and what Nikto thought of him. Lis paid with his own coin and swore at Nikto in red and black at the same time, remembering all the Demons in general and him in particular. Lis didn’t pay any attention to Kors, and he sat down, realizing that they were really deep in shit.
“Lis! You are a rotten commander! What the panic, damn it, how are you fucking me up with your tantrums!” Nikto hit his forehead with his palm, closing his eyes, and obviously trying to calm down, but he could not succeed. “Fuck, not only are you a noise-head, you have regular tantrums, like girls have their periods! Stable! No wonder you fucked everything up in the past, with your eternal fucking attitude! Do we have people now?!”
“Yes!” Lis snapped.
“We’re inside, reds are outside, right?!”
“Yes,” Lis replied grimly.
“Then what? What the fuck is the problem now?! We must hold the defense further! I am not omnipotent! Keep up the defense! Keep up defense, fuck you, motherfucker! What are you as a commander to do now?!”
“Hold the defense!”
“So hold it! Don't fucking give up like an asshole!”
“I don’t give up!”
“Well done! Do what you must and don't panic! Do you understand me, you red-haired bitch?!”
“Well, okay,” said Lis, seeing that Nikto was wounded, and deciding, out of harm's way, to slow down, “I will do everything in my power, and you are responsible for your words.”
“I am responsible! You want to show me now that I am not responsible for my words?!”
“Not now.”
“Then fuck you!”
“Here are the lists for you, I put them on the oak stump!” Lis threw the lists of the dead onto the table. And he left, slamming the door loudly.
Kors shook his head.
“As you speak, it is unacceptable. For Alis it is okay, but don't answer him like that, don't stoop to his level, Demon.”
Nikto just looked at him gloomily.
“Alis is furious, he's going to cripple Karina!” Kors worried.
“He won’t. He will get stones and that's it.”
“She will fall under his hot hand, he will take out all his anger on her.”
“No, she won’t fall under his hand, she perfectly knows how not to shine at such moments. Don’t be afraid for her.”
“And you don't be fooled by his provocations, answer him coldly, politely and with contempt.”
“I can't do that. He turns me on.”
“Yes, damn it, you are mirroring what they put into you,” Kors thought, “we need to somehow untie you from him emotionally. Have you and Lis been lovers for a long time?”
“We are together now,” Nikto answered gloomily.
“When do you have time?!”
Nikto was silent.
“You're upset. You let him yell at you, now you sit sad. Maybe I don't understand something? After all, he is also your slave, you just have to order, and your Lis will bend down in front of you.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you bend him over now? Didn't show him who is in charge? I don’t understand!”
Nikto didn’t answer anything.
“Do you, perhaps, love him?!”
“Yes.”
Kors shook his head in disappointment.
“Oh! This redhead drove everyone crazy. Karina, you… He does what he wants, considers himself the coolest, how does he do it?”
“No way. He's really cool.”
“Bullshit! And don't love him, he doesn't deserve it! He doesn't care about you, he uses you, he also demands: “Where is my victory?” He is completely insolent! He doesn't love you, Demon!”
Nikto was sitting sad and silent, and Kors physically felt how he yearned for Lis, regretting that he was gone. He wanted his love and recognition.
Kors was stunned by it:
“No-no, I won't leave it like that! I promised to help you, and I will put something else in you, the right thing. I'll squeeze out all the shit that Lis put into you. Firstly, it is unacceptable to talk and communicate like that, and I will take care of your upbringing, your culture of speech. And secondly, I will explain to you that you should not love those who don’t reciprocate and just use you. This is not the case! Do you agree with that?”
“Yes,” answered Nikto indifferently.
“Do you understand that Alis doesn't love you? He probably doesn't love anyone at all!”
“I understand everything,” Nikto quickly touched his face with his right hand several times in a row.
“Maybe he only loves himself,” Kors continued, “and even then, I doubt it very much, looking at how he fights, this is not even courage, it’s some kind of suicide, he doesn’t think where he is going.”
“He thinks,” Nikto tightly grasped his left wrist with his right, trying not to make uncontrolled movements.