After the fourth mission was completed and the fires were extinguished, Tiam took his father to his palace to treat the burns he suffered from the fire. Khalid went with Nalan to the palace as well, where Tiam ordered the servants to prepare a room for Khalid and to send someone to treat his wounds and Nalan's wounds, and to send a doctor to treat the burns that had afflicted Tiam's father. Hatun left her room to go see that Nalan and Khalid were bleeding from the same places, and she saw a stranger with Tiam whom she did not know. She was confused about where to go, to Nalan or to Tiam, to find out who this man was, but her heart could not bear it and she went straight to Nalan's room to find out what happened to him and to treat him herself.
Hatun entered the room in anxiety and fear for Nalan and approached him, asking him what happened and what afflicted him. He told her that what happened to him this time was too much, he did not imagine that his grandfather was still alive and that what he did to his father was unbelievable. His father has the right to hate this family that claims to be the Salmanis, and now he wants to win over Khalid and win this time no matter what happens, even if it means taking his father's right and my sister, who was killed without any guilt, has become confused and doesn't understand what Nalan is saying, or which grandfather is still alive.
She said to him, 'Please help me understand, my son. Tell me everything from the beginning.' Nalan began to narrate everything from the beginning to the end, including Tiam's victory over himself, the extinguishing of the fires, and the man who is with Tiam now, who is his father and the cause of his suffering and loneliness. Hatun couldn't believe what she had heard, but she understood that Tiam had met his father who had put him in a coma. For the first time, she learned the reason why Tiam did that to his father and for the first time, she knew that Tiam and his mother had suffered in their childhood because of his father. The biggest surprise was that Salmani is Tiam's elder brother and Qasim is his nephew. What a shock it was when the brother killed his nephew with cold blood. Therefore, what Tiam is doing is his right, and the fire in his heart will not be extinguished by anything, and time will not change anything that happened in the past."
On the other side, Khaled was in his room with some servants trying to dress and clean his wounds. He was in pain and at the same time felt that he would return to his people defeated. However, after what he heard and learned, he didn't know what to do. He believed that his grandfather, Al-Sulmani, was wrong and that the mistake he made was unforgivable. He also believed that his grandfather and great-grandfather were criminals against the man named Tiam. He thought about what he would do if he were in Tiam's place and something like this happened to him, would he act like Tiam did?
However, when he looked at the city that Tiam had built and the people under his control, he began to see that without that punishment and desire for revenge, Tiam would not have been able to become better than Al-Sulmani and to be the king of a country he established, with his own laws. Tiam had used his hatred and malice to raise himself and his status.
He had become a successful person in his private life and was not the bad person that his father had portrayed him to be. The motives were what led him to do this, and even now, the guilty parties in this story were his grandfather and his father, Al-Sulmani, and also Al-Qasim, who did nothing to restore the rights of the girl who died because of him. Many thoughts began to swirl in Khaled's mind, and he began to analyze the situation. But the more he thought and analyzed, the more confused he became.
While he was thinking and the servants around him were treating his wounds, Yasmina entered Khaled's room secretly without anyone from her family or brothers seeing her. She came to check on Khaled. Khaled couldn't believe his eyes when he saw Yasmina in his room. She was a girl of extreme delicacy and beauty. She said to Khaled, "I apologize for entering without permission, but I came to check on you. I knew that you were injured in this mission. Although I still don't know what missions you and Nalan are doing, no one in my family has told me what is happening and what the story is. I came to you to tell me the story and how you came to our city of Ashendi and what is the secret of the laws that you are enforcing."
Many questions were asked by Yasmin to Khaled again without taking a breath. Khaled was absent-minded, listening to Yasmina and daydreaming while looking at her, unable to take his eyes off her. He wanted only to see her and hear her voice. While Khaled was lost in Yasmina, she felt embarrassed and blushed, looking at the ground and asked him, "Won't you talk to me and answer my questions?" He said to her, "I'm afraid to tell you because you might hate me, and I have no fault in all that happens." She said to him, "Don't be afraid. I won't hate you, but please tell me the story from the beginning, from the day you came and entered Washindi until this day." He looked at her and then at the servants, signaling her with his eyes to ask the servants to leave the room so that he could tell her the story from the beginning. Yasmina understood from him that she should ask the servants to leave. Yasmina ordered the servants to leave the room now and that she would continue to treat Khaled herself. The servants left the room, and Yasmina began to bandage Khaled's wounds until she finished and said to him, "Now you can talk. I am all ears." Khaled began to tell her the story from the beginning, from the first story of the tattoo on his leg until the moment he found out they were relatives and what happened between him and Nalan in the fourth mission. He said to her, "But there was something strange that happened this time when Nalan was sparring with me, and he hit my hand, and it was injured, but he was also injured in the same hand. When he injured me, my hand was injured too, automatically, without him touching me. I still don't understand this." Yasmina sighed after hearing the story from beginning to end and was confused and sad about what she learned from the story and her father's sad story. Khaled looked at her and said, "I know you
hate me now that you know the story, but I have no fault other than being the son of Al-Qasim. You know, Yasmina, what I wish for now?" She asked him, "What do you wish?" He said, "I wish this conflict would end and the two families would be reunited, but what happened in the past has a great impact on everyone's hearts, and it seems that this conflict will not end. "I will not forget that this book was commanded by your father to be in the chain of my descendants after me for eight hundred years, and I am the first of the story. But what will happen next? Jasmine's heart is now in confusion between her father and Nalan and Khalid, as she feels some feelings towards him.
She did not understand what these feelings were and why she felt worried about him. While Jasmine was sitting on a seat next to Khalid, Hatun suddenly entered Khalid's room but was surprised to find Jasmine with him. She asked her, "What are you doing here, Jasmine, and why are you sitting with this young man alone? Have you gone crazy?" Jasmine became flustered and began to stammer in her speech, as she could hardly keep her nerves from the situation. She said, "I found... the servants in this room... so I entered to know what they were doing here. I found our guest here bleeding and wounded, so I helped him and treated his wounds, and ordered the servants to bring him something to eat."
Hatun angrily told her daughter, "Go to your room now, and I forbid you to ever stand with him again!" Yasmin's eyes filled with tears and her heart pounded as she hurried out of the room to hide herself in her own room and cry away from the eyes of others.
Hatun looked at Khaled and said to him, "Listen, guest, don't you dare look at my daughter or even think about her. Don't forget what your father did to her elder sister, the guilt still hangs around your neck because of your father. I hope you understand my words well, and don't forget that this war won't stop until after eight hundred years. There's not much left for the final task, and then we'll know who the winner will be, your tribe or ours."
Khaled said to her, "I hope this war between us ends, and reconciliation is made between the two families, for future generations have no fault in what happened in the past between our fathers. Please help me to end this war." But Hatun interrupted him and said, "I used to think like you, but after knowing the rest of the story and how much pain Tiyam suffered because of your family, I'm the one who wants this war to continue and see your family worried and fearful for the next eight hundred years."
Khaled felt disappointed that reconciliation between the two families might not happen and that talking might be useless. He didn't know if he was fighting to win or why he was fighting since he began to feel that he was fighting for something he didn't know. Suddenly, Khaled remembered that Tiyam also killed his twin brother, just as his grandfather killed Tiyam's daughter. Nalan is also fighting for his father and sister, so he is now fighting to avenge his twin brother. Khaled found a reason for war and a desire to win, as the war between them has now become a war of revenge, and he also wants to be the victor for future generations of his offspring.
Hatun left Khaled's room, and Khaled was left with his thoughts. He said to himself, "There is no time for love or heartbeats, for the matter is bigger than this. Perhaps after eight hundred years, the war will end, and future generations will live in peace."
Hatun went to Tiam to comfort him and sympathize with him in this difficult situation he is going through. She entered their room and found Tiam sitting on his big chair with sadness in his eyes and tears filling his eyes, but he was trying to hide these tears so as not to feel weak. Hatoun approached him without speaking, but she sat next to him and hugged him tightly, saying, "Please, take it easy on yourself. If you want to cry, then cry and don't keep it in your heart. I have known the truth, and how much you have suffered, I didn't know all of this. My heart is breaking for you. Cry out the pain in your heart. Maybe if you cried, the pain in your heart would lessen. I beg you to cry to relieve yourself. You have been carrying all this sadness in your heart for years, Oh Tiam. You have been carrying all of this alone without talking about it. You are such a strong and persevering man who has endured so much. Despite all of this sadness and what you have been through, you created one of the greatest cities and spread justice among its people. Despite what you have been through, you did not harm anyone from your people, and you prevented injustice from them. Even when you took in Nalan, who is not from your lineage, you now know that Nalan has a blood relationship with you as he is the son of your nephew. Despite what your brother did to your daughter, you did not kill him and made him your son. You did not differentiate between him and our children for one day. How great you are, my lord."
Tears began to flow from Tiam's eyes like a child's, as he began to feel that with each cry, a burden from his heart was lifted. He had kept so much inside and never allowed himself to cry. But in the embrace of Hutun and her love for him, and the warmth she enveloped him with, he felt safe with her, and that she was his support throughout his journey since the day he met her. She gave him a love like a mother's, and compensated him for all the pain and deprivation he had experienced in his life. Hutun was the best wife and companion he ever had in his life. Tiam stayed in her embrace for a long time, as she hugged him tightly to make him feel close, loved, and comforted. Time passed by like this until they forgot themselves, and Tiam fell asleep from the exhaustion of crying. She gently placed his head on the pillow and let him sleep in his place, not disturbing him and allowing him to rest from this heavy day.
Khalid is in his room, Nalan is in his room, and Yasmina is in her room. Everyone is thinking and thinking, and their thoughts almost made them go crazy from too much thinking and from the difficult situation they are in now. The day passed and everyone was in their room, everyone is in pain, and sadness fills their hearts, and they do not know what is coming next.
© Doaa Khaled
Washindi laws