“You have to be crazy to do this voluntarily,” Marcus whispered, looking at Lis with such fear in his eyes that Lis didn’t even consider it necessary to answer.
“Will you make gunpowder?” He just asked again.
“Did you save me because of this? When I said that I was a scientist, did you decide that I would make you gunpowder?”
“No. I pulled you out of there because I felt very sorry for you. About gunpowder it occurred to me later. And now I regret that I succumbed to emotions then!”
“No, don't be sorry! I will do!”
“Let's see,” Lis handed him a mask. “Put it on.”
And Marcus, unable to restrain himself any longer, wept bitterly:
“I can't do this… all this… my whole life… it was as if it was crossed out, on the day they grabbed me there, in the cave…”
“Well, why the hell are you going there alone, and even so far away? You entered their territory.”
“I studied stone flowers,” Marcus looked at the cabinet, inside which behind glass doors, interspersed with all sorts of artifacts, there were several stone flowers. “This… Nikto needs drugs? A stone flower is suitable for this. You just need to dry it and crush it. Or if you are sorry to ruin completely, cut slightly and collect the juice.”
“Marcus, you got me sick with your fauna!”
“Flora.”
“Stop shedding tears, it has already happened! And it was foolish to think that the unclean would chat with you, listen to your lecture on stone flowers and let you go. Your naivety has ruined you.”
“Yes,” Marcus agreed bitterly, awkwardly smearing tears across his face, trying to wipe them away, but he couldn't, because they continued to flow from his eyes, and he was unable to calm down. “But what you did to me, you… you look at me… everyone was laughing. Why aren't you laughing?”
“There’s nothing funny at all, dry your tears. If you shed tears in a mask, everything inside will be wet and very unpleasant.”
“I know,” Marcus sobbed convulsively.
“You can't help yourself with tears.”
“They… they got me dirty, not only my face, touched me, and inside too… they got all dirty, I can't forget it!”
“Stop your hysteria,” said Lis sternly. “The importance of it is not great. You shouldn't attach such great importance to this. It's just a body, the main thing is that your brains aren’t spoiled. Everything else is fixable. Feel less sorry for yourself.”