per aspera ad astra

MAY YOU NEVER LOSE YOUR HYPERFIXATION

I adore this painting and I have so many questions about it. How did Sokolov get him to agree to it?? When did it happen?? Was Daud one of his students during his time at the Academy of Natural Philosophy?? What drove him to paint him in the first place??

Going by the uniform, Daud already was a master assassin so WHY WOULD DAUD ACCEPT TO BE PAINTED??? Unless Sokolov didn't even ask for permission, but that would imply that he had a bunch of secret sketches of him to use as reference and (again) how??? when???

When I first caught sight of Daud I was just a broken kid, staying alive out of spite. He cut the throats of three men without making a sound, leaving only blood and death in his wake. I don't know what I was hoping for when I followed him that night, but he shared his strange magic with me, and more than that. His skill, his time, his trust. And sometimes his secrets.