- Nah, I already ate.
- Then have some tea.
- I won't be long, Alex.
- It'll take a long time to put the kettle on.
Karen and Lucas said at the same time.
"And what kind of a bug ran between them? - I shook my head to myself.
- Well, as you know. So what are we talking about?
- Can we talk alone?
- A secret? - I was interested and licked my spoon, then glanced at the girls.
- Not exactly a secret, - he hesitated, - just something I wanted to clarify.
- So tell me, we're all friends here. Is this about those weird re-enactors I found? - I supposed.
- Them too. But it's mostly your blood stuff... no, no, it's all right, don't think so...
- I don't think so," - I shrugged. - "Anyway, why don't we mix our own blood, like you did with Eduard, and you make healing amulets?
- One more," - said Karen, quite quietly and angrily, and clenched her fists, then added louder: - Give him a rest at last!
Lucas was embarrassed, lowered his gaze to the floor and shoved his hands into his pocket.
- I'll heal it right away, I promise. It will be better than a new one.
- Can you do it, you'll drain yourself too, won't you?
- Yes, I can, I took a little from myself yesterday," - he nodded. - Two hundred milliliters, you'll need, well, forty or fifty. And soak these plates with this mixture.
He took out of his right pocket a dozen rectangular, shiny plates with rounded corners. They looked more like military dog tags than anything else. Hmm, that's what they are.
- Lucas, do you think I'm an artifactor? How am I supposed to make you custom-made healing amulets?
- Our flaming boy made arrows to kill shadows with," - he reminded me.
- Well, that's different.
- We'll see about that.
The conversation paused for a few minutes as I fiddled with my plate of vegetables with my spoon, my guest waiting for my answer.
- All right, I'll try, but not before a couple of days. And anyway, I'm going to rest," - I said. - And I have mutant blood in the fridge since yesterday, and I need to process it first.
- Well, it can wait two days," - he sighed and got up from the table. - Shall I come back in two days then?
- You'll be back in two days, won't you? Wait, what about those fellows I brought back?
The lad shot a wry look, then looked at the girls, who this time had interest written all over their faces, sighed again, and said:
- Just no one, okay? - I was asked to keep it to myself.
- Grave," - I assured him.
- Anyway, I think they're locals.
- Locals? - Aghast Karen. - In our town? Where from?
- Well, we have not even looked around the metropolis a little bit, you never know where and next to what moved it. Or on the other side of the city is a local, so we visited for the plundering, - shrugged Lucas.
- And why natives? Not colleagues of Oliver? - I inquired.
- Yes, they have a lot of scars of all kinds. And all of them old. Most of them were cut, chopped, and burned, some from strong bites, with chunks of meat ripped out.
- Well, maybe they got hurt at work somewhere," - Karen suggested uncertainly. - I've heard of machines cutting off fingers and hands, and discs breaking and splinters flying everywhere.
- When I felt a month before the transfer that I could heal just by putting my hands on, I studied some material, looked up anatomical atlases on body structure, diseases, wounds and scars. So I can somewhat understand when a person has been hit in the ribs by a circular saw or chainsaw, and when he has been hit in the ribs by a knife or cleaver. Your godchildren, Alex, have been getting regular hits from knives and cleavers, and a lot of burns in the last ten years.
- Yeah," - I scratched my forehead, - "that's the picture that emerges.
- Only you, please, don't tell anybody, - once more filled about keeping secret what we have just heard Lucas.
- We will keep silent.