The door opened with a creaking noise, and in front of the door Kadar met 2 men in uniforms, clearly military. "May I know who you are?" He asked, and the older one of the men answered,
"I am Hakir Al-Khatun, lieutenant colonel of Khandavan investigation department; and this is my assistant, Officer Tushar. We are questioning and inspecting the domiciles of all the fishermen who went out in the ocean recently."
"I see, then what can I help you with, gentlemen?" Kadar said courteously.
"Yeah let's not waste anymore of your time." The colonel took out his monocle, wore it, pulled out a file out his bag and started questioning Kadar, "Let's start with how many family members live here with you?"
"4, including me; my two sons and my daughter." Hakir listened closely to Kadar's words, and ticked something on the paper.
"Two sons?"
"Yes, my sons."
"Hmm. And did you go near the waters between the Republic and us in the last like 19 days?"
"Yes." Hakir ticked something again.
"And did you perhaps find anything unusual?"
"No, I did not." Suddenly the colonel stopped and looked up at Kadar.
"You sure about that?" Hakir asked in a rather calm yet unnerving voice, "Perhaps, something or rather someone got caught in your net?" Hakir smiled a little, but the smile only made Kadar even more uncomfortable.
"I can assure you, I found nothing that would concern you." Kadar replied sternly; and suddenly the smile on Hakir's face vanished, and a serious expression took its place.
"I read your file, Kadar Jahan. Your wife passed away long ago, and yet here you are, raising 3 children, all on your own. Quite commendable, I also read the missing report you lodged. Your son went missing, in the woods. Azar, that's his name, is it not?"
"It is."
"Hmm. But the authorities didn't find him even after 2 weeks of searching, and you didn't report anything else after that either. May I know why?"
"I… uh was relieved, to see my son again. I must've forgotten to report his return, I apologise." Kadar stuttered a bit, a faint hint of nervousness started appearing on his face.
"Oh! No, no, you don't have to apologize, not to me at least. I also have a son you know, he went to join the war; haven't heard from him for quite a long time, no idea if he's even alive or not. If he were to return safely, I'd also be too happy. But, there's this one thing. May I see him?"
"See who?"
"Oh, your son of course. He survived that long in such a hostile forest, I'd like to meet him once at least. And while you're at that, why don't you just call all you children here? Seeing them for myself will easily clear all suspicions."
"Call them out? Here? It's still early in the morning, they are sleeping."
"Ah! That's a shame, I really wanted to meet your children." Hakir said while handing the notebook to his assistant; it seemed they were about to leave. Kadar was relieved, but not for long. Suddenly the colonel turned around and said, "You know what? I'm not that much of a gentleman. I would like to see them for myself, now."
"Now?"
"Yes! NOW."
Kadar realised there was no way to talk his way out of this mess, so he called out Adil. And then said, "Adil, keep these men company for a while. I'm gonna go wake up your sister and brother." Kadar turned around but was stopped immediately.
"Stop!" Hakir said playfully, "I don't think I would find your youngest son as much of a good host as yourself. You stay here, he can go fetch them, no problem in that, right?"
Kadar was trapped; only he had the key to Blaze's bindings. But now he couldn't give the key to Adil in front of the officers. Adil went to the room where Blaze and Noor were, all the while Kadar stood in silence; he was terrified. If he was caught, he would be executed for treason.
"We are in trouble." Adil exclaimed as he entered the room.
"Someone came looking for me?" Blaze asked.
"Yes!"
"Then just unchain me. They don't know what your brother looks like, I can just act to be him."
"The keys. Abba has them. Oh shit!! We can't do anything! Even if we try to break the chain, they can hear the noise." Adil was panicking, and Noor was nervous as well.
After thinking thoroughly for about a minute, Blaze spoke, "Adil, Noor. I think I can get us out of this mess."
"How?!" Adil asked hectically, "No! no need to explain just do it."
"Yes, Azar. Do it." Noor requested.
Noor calling him Azar, troubled Blaze, he spoke looking straight into Adil's eyes, "I need you to trust me, okay?"
Both Adil and Noor nodded.
And upon that, Blaze pulled the chain, wrapped it on his palms, and held them tight.
"What are you doing?" Adil asked cluelessly.
"SHH! Let me focus." And he focused.
In mere moments his hands started heating up. Both Adil and Noor were confused and fascinated by what they were seeing. Blaze melted the chain, and set himself free. Adil realised; they never had the means to stop this boy; they were only able to because the boy let them.
"How long does the boy need to wake his siblings up?" Hakir asked.
"I don't know what's taking them so long, I'll just go and bring them out."
"No! I gave them enough time to come out. Now, they failed to do so. Then, I will go in. Step aside, Kadar Jahan." Hakir tried to enter.
"Wait! I have a young daughter in there. And I mean no disrespect, but you cannot enter my home as you wish." Kadar stopped them sternly.
"Ah! I think my gentle voice gave you the wrong idea. I am not requesting for your permission to enter. I'm ordering you to step aside, I will not hesitate using lethal force."
"Abbu?" a voice came from behind Kadar, "What's going on?"
Kadar turned around, only to see Adil and Noor standing beside the boy who called himself Azar. Hakir expected to find an anomaly so much, that seeing all three children confused him a little.
"So, you are Azar?"
"Yes, I am. But can you tell me why exactly were you threatening my father without any basis?"
"I had my suspicions. But, I'm sorry for my rude language. So, Azar. May ask you a question?"
"Yes, you may."
Hakir stood there in silence, only looked at Blaze from head to toe.
"Sir?"
"Hmm, interesting." Hakir mumbled, and then spoke loudly, "I apologise for waking you kids this early; I will just get out of your hair now. Stay safe, and have a good day."
Hakir and his assistant left; without saying much.
Kadar and others finally let out a sigh of relief.
On their way-out assistant officer Tushar asked Hakir, "Sir, why did you let them go? We already heard from the other fishermen that Kadar Jahan's eldest son was dead. We should've just arrested them."
"And that exactly is why you're not in charge of this operation, assistant." Hakir mocked him.
"What?"
"There's no official report of death. Arresting them on the basis of someone word of mouth would be foolish."
"Still, we could've just imprisoned them temporarily. And if they were innocent, we could just set them free again."
"Oh, I did consider that. But one of my attributes stopped me from doing so."
"What? What attribute?"
"Intelligence, assistant. That boy has to be a spy of Agnisthal. But those people were protecting him, helping him; and I don't think they are doing that out of fear. If we tried to arrest him then and there, they may have overpowered just the two of us."
"So, now what?"
"Sometimes to go forward, you need to take two steps back. We will strike, and when we do they won't be ready."
============
"So, now may I know who you are?" Kadar asked, on his face there was a slightly angered and distrustful expression. Blaze couldn't look them in the eye, he felt guilty for lying.
"I am sorry, but I only lied because I needed to."
"That is not the question I asked! You have elemental affinity, no soldier of Agnisthal has that. So, either you tell me your real identity." Kadar pulled out a harpoon-gun from a casket nearby, "Or I shoot right through your damn skull!"
"I was about to tell you, no need for threats." Blaze lowered his head and said, "My name, my real name is Blaze Kamiyama; I'm a member of the imperial family."
Everyone present in the room was shocked, of everything they thought of, this was not expected at all.
"Why did you lie?"
"Because I didn't know if I could trust you or not."
"No, not that. The name you said, why did you say that? How did you know his name?" Kadar suddenly shouted, full of anger, "HOW DID YOU KNOW HIS NAME?!!"
"I really don't know, I heard it in a dream or something. Trust me."
"Trust you? My family was put in danger because of you, YOU!" Kadar held the harpoon too close to Blaze's face.
"Abbu!" Adil stopped his father, "We are still safe, and that is also only because of him. I know he may have lied, but he exposed himself, for our sake. Please, at least give him a chance. We were helping him before, the fact that he's a Royal Blood, shouldn't change that."
Kadar looked at Adil, and saw contempt. He backed off, "Fine, as long as he doesn't cause any problems." And left the room.
"Now, I have a matter we need to discuss." Adil said to Blaze.
"What matter?"
"Well, I just kinda saved you from my father, after my father saved you from literal death. So, I was thinking, maybe we deserve a reward."
"A reward?" Blaze lifted his head and asked cluelessly.
"Yeah, a reward ya'know. Like a few thousand gold coins, or something, maybe?"
"Wait! Did you take my side in front of your father, because of that?!"
"Uhm….. I might've done so." Adil said quite hesitantly, averting his eyes from Blaze.
"Pfft! Hahaahaha." Blaze was utterly amused by how naïve Adil was.
"Don't laugh at me! I had to, we need it, kinda."
"Need it?"
"We are gonna leave our home, and go live somewhere we've never been to. It may not be that obvious, but our wealth isn't all that abundant."
It was true, and Blaze did notice it. Old, rusty boat, creaking doors, a house in the middle of barren land; so, Blaze assured Adil, "Fine, I will make sure, you are handsomely compensated for all your troubles, alright?"
"You will?" Adil looked genuinely happy, but then suddenly tensed his face to look serious, "I mean, of course you will. And remember, I'm only helping you because of the compensation. I. Don't. Like. You!"
"Yeah buddy, I won't forget that. And there's another thing I won't forget." Blaze said, to which Adil asked, "And what is that?"
"The fact that you looked like a hero jumping in front of the harpoon to save me, because you thought I'd pay you for that. Hahaahhaa!" Blaze started laughing at Adil again.
"YOUU!!" he chased Blaze, while Blaze kept laughing and teasing him. Then Noor joined them, and the three of them started laughing and playing. Kadar saw them from far; a part of his heart felt warm, seeing his children running around, laughing.
But they were all oblivious to the danger that was about to dawn upon them.