Ratko and Maksim's reaction to Nikolai's… souvenir… was far more aghast in nature than Vitale's own, making him personally feel a bit more secure in his position as a man who had certainly seen the king do worse.
It was an odd relationship, his and the king's. When alone and standing off against each other, all previous dispositions that Vitale rotated through, depending upon whose eyes were settled upon him, dematerialized like gas escaping a vial, never to be capture all together again. Until, of course, Nikolai allowed it. It was unsettling to admit that the Krov brought out in him his true nature.
But when they were allied against the world, standing side to side, rather than face to face, the alchemist had it in him to be far more iniquitous than others believed him capable. Except, of course, Nikolai.
