Tiam stood in front of his father, each one looking at the other with hatred and malice. Tiam said to his father, "Don't look at me with that look and don't pretend to be a good and innocent person. I am the disobedient son who almost killed his father. Did you ever think about what made me do that? You are the reason, father. You were an unjust father and you were the one who separated me from my siblings. You favored them over me and didn't give me the same love and care that you gave to my non-biological siblings. Because you didn't love my mother, you treated me badly, don't forget that you are the one who planted your hatred in my heart with your bad treatment of me. And you are also the reason for my expulsion from the tribe."
The father looked and said, "Maybe you're right about what you're saying, but it was me who caused this. I separated you from your siblings because of my hatred towards your mother, which blinded me and made me take you as her accomplice. I thought I would blame and reproach you for what you did to me, but maybe I'm the one who started this spark. My treatment of you was extremely bad."
Nalan and Khalid were looking at each other while witnessing the blame and accusations between the father and son. Each one of them expressed what was in their hearts and the truth began to unfold.
Tiam said to his father, "I have never regretted what I did to you for a single moment. If the days were to come back, I would do the same to you, because you deserve it and much more. You are not innocent, but rather the true criminal, and not me."
Suddenly, the winged creature appeared in the battlefield and created a circle of fire surrounding Teiam and his father. Teiam screamed at the creature and asked why this fire was surrounding them.
The creature replied, "This fire is ignited within your hearts, and it will not be extinguished until you put out the fire in your hearts."
Tiam said to the creature, "The fire in my heart has not gone out for years, and I thought it had calmed down when this man was far away from me. But you awakened it again and brought him back into my life, and the fire increased and raged in my heart. I will never forget what this man did to me and my mother. I will never forget the day he expelled me and my mother from the tribe and made Salmani the leader. I was seventeen years old, and my mother was sick, but this man showed her no mercy because he hated her for being forced to marry her by her father. What was her fault? Tell me, do you still think I'm guilty, or does this man deserve to be put in this fire and burned in it?"
Khalid and Nalan were still watching and listening to this dialogue that ignited Nalan's heart with hatred and resentment towards his grandfather for what he did to Tiam. Suddenly, Khalid asked Tiam, "What do you mean by the Salmani being favored over you? Do you mean your grandfather Salmani or someone else and what is your relationship with him?" Tiam replied, "Yes, I mean my grandfather Salmani, the reason for the suffering in my life, the cause of the hell that I went through. He didn't just take everything from me, but he also killed my eldest daughter without mercy. He didn't care that in the end, I am his brother. He killed the daughter of his own brother, so that his son wouldn't marry her and so that I wouldn't return to the tribe and take revenge on him. But I will revenge against him and all his descendants, and what is happening now is part of this revenge."
Khaled couldn't believe what he was hearing, that he was part of this revenge due to his grandfather's selfishness. Nalan's heart filled with hatred and resentment towards Khaled, and he said to him, "From now on, war will be between us, Khaled. I will take the right of my father and elder sister from you and your family." The entity blew the horn, and the sound rose in the war zone, saying, "The war has ignited between all of you. Know that the fire will not be extinguished until the fire in your hearts is extinguished. Now the fourth task has begun, and it will not end until one of you triumphs over the other and extinguishes this fire. It is time now to end this task with the victory of one of you and to extinguish this fire."
The father said to his son Tiam, "Forget, my son, what happened in the past and forgive me for what I have done. I beg you. I have made many mistakes against you. Forgive me. I am ready to compensate you for everything. Give me a chance to fix my mistakes.
I know that no matter what I do, it will not be enough to erase the traces of the past from your heart. But you, my son, do not know why I hate your mother. Not only because my father forced me to marry her as a second wife and as punishment for a mistake I made against my father, so my father chose your mother to be my wife.
But my son, your mother was insane and not normal. Every day, she woke up from sleep wanting to kill me. She saw me as a demon and screamed for two continuous hours every day, then returned to normal and did not remember anything. I thought she was possessed by a jinn, but then I knew she was pretending. She also hated me because her father forced her to marry me. Our marriage was only to make her tribe and our tribe one and end years of hostility between us. Her father wronged her, and my father wronged me as well.
It was difficult, my son, to live with someone you don't love. I also know that it was not justified to treat her badly, but I did that so her father would take her away from me and take her. But there was no use. She endured my treatment without speaking, she was silent all the time, and the situation worsened when she gave birth to you. I didn't want to see you because I didn't want a son from her, because I loved my first wife and my children from her," Tiam said. "Is that a justification for treating me so badly and forgetting that I am also your son? Do you remember
what you did to me when I wanted to marry my uncle's daughter? You took her for your son Salmani and left me heartbroken. You gave marriage the girl I loved to my brother. Everything hurts me and tortures me like you used to do. And you want me to forgive you? I will never forgive you even if we all burn in this fire. The more Tiam scolded his father, the hotter and more intense the fire became. The fire increased as Tiam remembered the pain and suffering that had lived in his heart for years."
The fire also engulfed Khalid and Nalan as the flames of hatred and resentment entered their hearts. Whenever Nalan heard Tiham's criticism, the fire increased, making Nalan want to kill Khalid. Suddenly, two swords appeared before them and asked each of them to take a sword and start a duel to see who would emerge victorious. Khalid and Nalan were both brave and skilled knights in combat. The battle between them began strongly, and each of them wanted to defeat the other. The hatred and resentment in Nalan's heart increased, as he wanted to avenge his father from the father and brother who mistreated him. Nalan's hand was strong because it was driven by hatred and resentment, but Khalid fought fiercely, and in his heart, he felt some sympathy for Tiham because what he had been through was not insignificant, and his feelings deserved to be acknowledged.
The duel between Khalid and Nalan continued, each of them wanting to defeat the other. During their ongoing battle, two other swords appeared before Tayyam and his father, as the war between them also began. Neither of them wanted to put out the fire burning in their hearts, so the confrontation came to a head. Tiam took up his sword and said, "Now fight me, father. Either you kill me or I kill you." His father also took up his sword and spoke to Tayyam, "Forgive me, my son. What happened in the past is enough. Let us tear the page of the past and let me make it up to you for what I did. Please." Tiam struck his father's sword with his own and said, "Nothing can compensate for the pain I have endured because of you. You cannot bring back my mother, who died brokenhearted because of you, or my daughter, whom your son killed. The more we argue, the more the flames intensify and heat up. No one wants to forgive the other for what happened in the past."
Meanwhile, every time Tiam spoke, Nalan felt more pain, which reflected on his father. He struck a blow to Khaled's hand, injuring him and causing his hand to bleed. Suddenly, Nalan found his hand also bleeding from the same spot where he had struck Khaled. They were shocked and didn't know what was happening. Khaled struck Nalan's other hand, and Khaled found himself bleeding from the same spot where he had struck Nalan. The spiritual connection between Khaled and Nalan still existed, as they were twins, and each felt the other's pain. However, they didn't know that they were twins. Tiam looked at Nalan and Khaled in shock, realizing that what was happening now might reveal what he had done, and that Nalan was not his son but Khaled's twin.
Tiam must finish this mission before Nalan finds out that Khalid is his brother. Suddenly, Tiam looked at his father and said to him, "I will forgive you for what you did, but on the condition that you throw yourself into this fire. If you are truly remorseful for what you did, this is the only way to prove it to me."
The father looked at his son Tiam and said, "If this will make you forgive me, I will do as you wish." Suddenly, Khalid and Nalan threw their swords to the ground and watched as the father and son prepared to face the consequences. The father slowly approached the fire until his clothes began to ignite and he started to burn. However, in the moment when Tiam saw his father throw himself into the fire to seek forgiveness, the fire was extinguished from his heart and he began to forgive his father. The flames around them were extinguished after burning part of the father's body, but Tiam succeeded in saving the secret that Nalan was Khalid's twin.
After the fires around them were extinguished, the being appeared again to announce the winner of this task. The winged being told them that this task was sponsored by Tiam and his father, and that Tiam was the one who was able to extinguish the fire by forgiving his father. Forgiveness and reconciliation were the winners of this task, and therefore the points and victory were in favor of Nalan, as Nalan is now ahead of Khaled by forty points while Khaled has only received twenty points.
The creature said, "Now you will take a full day break, and after that, you all must be ready for the fifth task in this challenge. The winner's name will be immortalized for a hundred years."
© Doaa Khaled
Washindi laws