He pulled the cork with his mouth as Mannat stared at him. He shot the cork aside and asked, “You think you would have understood going overboard for love a few years ago?” It was not a question. Raesh poured himself a pint, downed it in a gulp, and scowled. It tasted like spicy piss water.

“I thought you gave up drinking?”

“You want to hear the story or not?”

Mannat opened his mouth to speak, then attentively closed it. He picked up the chair, set it upright, and sat back with his back straight.

The liquor might taste like shit, but it did bring the story out of Raesh. He downed another pint, and then dived right into it, as his stomach grew warm.

“A few years ago you would have called us stupid for giving up a good life and settling in the backwaters of this god-forsaken region. You would have been right and created faults between your mother and me. At least you would have made our minds full of thoughts like you always do.”

“Was I that bad?” Mannat mumbled.

Raesh smirked and flicked the top of the cup, causing it to sing sharply. He said, “One time you asked me to stop hurting your mother at night. You were three years old then.”

Mannat’s ears glow red like the sun was shining through them, and Raesh had a heart full laugh. His laughter was contagious. Mannat couldn’t hold himself back and joined him. Mannat noticed his father’s wrinkles softening, but he didn’t point it out and enjoyed the burning wave of heat growing inside his chest. It put the cold to rest, and he liked it very much.

It took them some time to quiet down. By then Mannat was no longer sulking and Raesh had closed the bottle. Raesh and Gande had talked about lightening the boy’s mood, he was happy to have accomplished the feat.

Suddenly, Mannat looked at Raesh with glowing eyes and said, “I want to hear it.”

“Hmm… What do you want to hear?” Raesh said taking a sip of the little liquor left in his cup. Perhaps, it was the ale or he was drunk, but he was starting to like the heat flowing from his stomach.

“Your story,” Mannat reminded. Raesh slammed the cup back down on the table, his face bitter. He was starting to doubt the decision he’d made when sober, but those eager green eyes made him soft. The boy really had his mother’s eyes. Both could tear his resistance without speaking a word.

“Alright, but first I have to tell you about the capital—“

Mannat didn’t let him. “Capital city Rajpur, known for its splendor and wide cobbled roads, where even the commoners have lavish lifestyles. While other cities exports various goods and raw materials, the capital city exports kings coins. There are more merchants in the capital city than there are people. There are no farms surrounding it, but hundreds of silos full of grains that can keep the capital standing for years in case of a famine. It’s also called the city of gold because of the gold mines nearby. Gold there is cheaper than iron and even the beggars don’t want it.”

Mannat finished the summary and pumped his chin to Raesh, gesturing, ‘your turn’.

“Not bad,” Raesh said. “There were some exaggerations, like the thing about the beggars,”

“They do like gold, don’t they?” Mannat said in understanding, only to be surprised by his father.

“There are no beggars in the capital city. Whoever told you about the city was probably being sarcastic. They were most likely using the term for the commoners.”

“OH…”

“Did the witch teach you this?”

“No.” Mannat shook his head. Steady. “I read it in a book.”

This time it was Raesh’s turn to be surprised. He knew books, and the exaggerated amount of silver and gold they went for. Some books were so special that there were considered national treasures, like the book of history, dictated by the late King Abdul Jaffar Suleiman himself. It was more than three thousand years old, and one of the, if not the oldest surviving record of the past. It was stored in the royal treasury and was for royal eyes only.

Raesh coughed lightly to hide his emotional change. So the Witch had books and she was letting his boy touch and read them… The more he thought about it, the higher his heartbeat rose. Would another drink help? He still needed to tell the boy his story, and he had to be sober for that. Groaning, he saw no other option and slapped his face.

“Father, what are you doing?” Raesh heard but ignored the worried voice. His cheeks stung a little and his mind started to react to the pain, forgetting about other things. Yes, this was it.

There was a possibility of his freaking out if he knew the Witch had let Mannat borrow a book. He was blissful in his ignorance.

Clearing his throat, Raesh started the story. “Your grandfather or your mother’s father was once one of the five greatest blacksmiths in the capital. He was the closest one to become the next royal blacksmith, about fifteen years ago.”

He paused to let the knowledge sink in. However, it did toll his spirit to think about the past. The liquor wasn’t much help; it aggravated the pain instead. Nostalgia can be mentally exhausting, especially for people like Raesh who have relatively high physical prowess, but barely any mental resistance. Age and experience were his only help against it.

He expected a few questions from the boy, but didn’t expect him to ask, “I have a grandfather?”

“You never questioned it?” Raesh found it unbelievable. Mannat, as a child had more questions than he knew words. He must have asked about his grandparent at some point in life. Raesh thought so. Apparently, Mannat never did.

Raesh was appalled. “You asked so many questions, but never asked about our parents. It’s amazing that even you didn’t find it strange. I guess you are also human.”

“Actually,” Mannat said holding a shy smile on his face. “I thought they were dead like everyone else’s grandparents. I didn’t ask because I didn’t want to hurt either of you. Later in life, I was too busy to have such free thoughts.”

“That’s so,” Raesh said shaking his head. A boy worrying about his parent’s feelings… this child was too special. No wonder even someone like the Witch took a liking to him.

“Okay, where was I?” Raesh said. He pulled the chair closer to the table and sat straight on the chair. It was about time he got serious about this. “First thing you need to know about your mother's parents is that they were rich, very rich. Your grandfather had a smithy that was bigger than the village center and your mother lived in a villa with a great garden surrounding it.”

Raesh paused to let the boy speak, but Mannat had nothing to say. So Raesh continued where he’d left off.

“A large team of servants worked in the villa gardening the over twenty acres of land, cooking for just under one hundred people, and cleaning the large over thirty bedroom villa.”

“Thirty bedrooms and hundred servants feel like a waste of labor.” Raesh couldn’t figure whether to cry or laugh. The boy was unfazed by the extravagant life his mother had lived, but couldn’t digest his slight exaggeration… How was he supposed to react to him?

Seeing that the boy was waiting for him to continue, Raesh sighed. Good thing he stopped drinking midway.

“My mother, who was also your grandparent, was a maid in Noor’s family home and served the high madam, Noor’s mother. You can say that they were friends.”

Mannat’s mind flashed some thoughts and Raesh got all his concentration.

“What kind of person was my grandmother?” Mannat asked and Raesh’s eyes trembled slightly.

“She was… kind... and very hard working and had the sweetest voice I have ever heard.” He said solemnly. He didn’t explain more and Mannat didn’t ask. He respected his father’s silence.

“I was only a couple of years old when my mother got the job, and Noor was also just a little kid then. It goes to say we played together a lot.”

“You were childhood friend?”

“That’s right.” Raesh nodded.

“Then what happened?”

“Our relation deepened as we grew older, and so did my love for your grandfather’s craft. I was ten years old when he allowed me to join his smithy.” Mannat’s brows rose in excitement and Raesh also grew feverish remembering those days he had long buried in the depths of his memories.

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“I wasn’t any good at it. I was born with neither the skill nor the fate to become a blacksmith. You see, unlike most people, I was born with no skills. Your grandfather was a busy man and had over ten masters working under him. My master was the oldest person among them and had been in the smithy the longest. He was not easy to get along with; he was strict, demanding, and a perfectionist. He was the only one who couldn’t keep an assistant. But he kept with me till the end.” Raesh took a deep breath. He could still hear the hard voice of his master in his ears. The man was the father figure he didn’t have in his life. Noor’s father might have given him a place to work, but his master showed him the ropes.

“How did you get the job with your attributes?”

Raesh frowned hard. It was not a good memory. “I had to shovel coal and pump the lungs for a whole year before my master allowed me to hold a tong. Then I held the jobs on the anvil for him for half a year. I can still sometimes feel the vibrations that his hammer produced. You see, the man might be old, but he was very strong. His strength alone was over fifty points. I worked day and night as his assistant, but he didn’t let me hold a hammer for another year. However, I learned a lot from him. It was my luck that I got to watch him work. He didn’t teach me anything specifically, but he never punished me in vain either. He was a blacksmith, through and through.”

Raesh looked at Mannat. The boy was staring back at him, eyes wide and gleaming. He was completely engrossed.

“Then what happened?” Mannat asked in anticipation when his father stopped speaking. What happened? They were just getting to the good part.

Raesh spoke. “We kept meeting, of course, your mother and me. we were good friends first and became lovers later. Nobody propped,” he said calmly as if he had told the same thing countless times before. “It was like a season passed and another came. We were friends one day and then became lovers the next day, but it wasn’t long until your grandmother found out. I’m talking about your mother’s mother.” Mannat responded with a nod. “She was supportive but also told me the truth. The manor owner was the soon-to-be royal blacksmith, and I was just their servant. There wasn’t going to be anything official between us unless I surpassed him. You can guess what happened next.”

Mannat curtly nodded and said, “I still want to hear it from you.”

“When did you grow so demanding?” Raesh said but was happy to oblige to his request. It had been a long time since he last revealed his past to anyone. He had never thought about it before, but he had been very lucky in life. Not only was his master a good man, but he also married his childhood friend against all odds. He did face many difficulties in life, but he also met some real gem of people on the way. Maybe it was fate.

“Your grandfather definitely had thoughts when your mother refused to marry the son of his best friend. Noor had to face many restrictions for her decision. We could hardly meet afterward. I had to chase her around the manor and the capital to get a glance of her.” A fond smile grew on Raesh’s face. “Our meetings usually ended with a smile and without any words spoken. Then, when your mother refused to marry the second time, your grandfather asked around and he found out about us. That was fifteen years ago.” Raesh exhaled a long-drawn breath. It was harder to remember those days than he thought. His heart was thumping inside his chest as if it was eighteen years old again and meeting Noor privately in the manor pantry. The keeper’s son was a good friend of his. There was an urge by his heart to find the man, but he quickly squashed it into cold nothingness. A decade is enough time to change people.

He shook his head to clear his mind and looked back at the boy sitting opposite him. Mannat was on the edge of his seat, tightly gripping the edge of the table with one hand and rapping the tabletop with the other. It grated on his ears, but he didn’t stop Mannat. It was just anxiousness. A good story does that to you.

Raesh got comfortable on the chair and got into it once again to finish the story for the last time. “I was eighteen when Noor’s parents forced her to break up with me. She protested by climbing the manor and, warned to jump to her death. She had been fighting for years, but that evening, with the sun disappearing behind her, I really thought I was going to lose her.”

“Why did she do that?” Mannat asked. His voice tensed, chest stuffed and eyes staring. Perhaps, he forgot he was listening to a story from the past.

“Why else?” Raesh said. “She wanted me to ask her hand in marriage.” Mannat swallowed a loud breath when Raesh said grinning from ear to ear, “‘I did it right there in front of everyone, young old, soldier, noble and commoner. I got on my knees and asked her to marry me.” He quickly added, “She said, yes.”

“And grandfather agreed?”

“He agreed to put me in prison.”

Raesh picked up the cup of ale that had sat in front of him through the story. It was time to put an end to the night. He looked at the golden liquor filled with ripples in the cup and gulped it down. His stomach felt it enter as a burning fire lit up his insides. No wonder they call it fire. He thought and put the cup down on the table with a clink. Mannat hadn’t spoken, but he was waiting for him. Raesh couldn’t remember the last time someone had waited for him like this.

Raesh licked his lips and rubbed his face. His sight was getting blurry, but that was all right. The story was ending. He started slowly, “That night, Noor’s mother freed me. She did somehow. Then took me outside the city wall where Noor was waiting for me inside a carriage. She gave us some money and asked us to elope. Many things happened in between.”

He looked away in nostalgia before coming back around a second later.

“There were times when I thought we’d be caught, and I would be beheaded. Yet somehow, we always found a way. I still believe we only managed to get here by a miracle. Maybe the god of fire didn’t want to see our flame burn out. We had spent most of the money Noor’s mother gave us by the time we reached here. Whatever we had left, I used it to buy the land and built the home. Luckily, the village needed a blacksmith. You came along a few years later and life has been bliss ever since.”

Raesh finished with a grin and swayed forward. He almost fell on his face, but manage to hold on by holding the chair arms. He raised a hand to stop Mannat from worrying and fell back into the chair. He had let the liquor get heavy on him. He was stretching his head around the neck when he found the boy deep in concentration and couldn’t help asking, “What are you thinking?”

Mannat didn’t raise his head, but softly said, “I never thought mother was so courageous.”

Raesh let out a snort. “All her family members are the same. Her older brother chased after us for two months before we lost him. Maybe he’s still looking for us. You know your hair reminds me of your grandfather.”

“He has the same red hair?” Mannat asked in surprise.

“They all do. All right,” Raesh picked up the cup to call it a night but found the cup empty. The bottle was right there, but he didn’t want to open it just for a shot. Eventually, he simply got up from the chair.

“It’s getting late,” Raesh said looking at the moonlit garden through the window. “Let’s call it a night. What do you say?”

Mannat nodded and got up. He picked the lantern and walked into the dark corridor. It showed signs of life as lantern light filled the nooks and the crannies.

The bedroom door was open. Raesh entered the room and found it cold and gloomy, but then he heard the boy stop behind him. He looked and saw Mannat standing right behind him with a glowing lantern in his hand.

“Can I sleep in here with you?” The boy asked and a gentle smiled floated out on his face. “Sure,” Raesh said.

When they fell on the bed, Raesh could hear his heart gently growing louder in his ears. The presence beside him was alive and moving. It took Mannat some time to settle down before he turned the lantern off and plunged the room back in darkness. However, Raesh felt the room was somehow different.

Suddenly, a young voice came from the side.

“Father, were you going to look for mother’s family to get help?” Mannat said.

Raesh lay flat on the bed, watching the hard-lifeless wood ceiling. “Yes,” He said after a quiet moment. Silence echoed in the room before the young voice chuckled softly and said, “I’m glad I didn’t let you go.”

“Goodnight, father,” Mannat said.

Raesh replied, “Goodnight, son,” and he closed his eyes for the night.

For the first time in many-many nights, Raesh didn’t find the room cold and dark, and he fell asleep right away.