THE LAST KEEPER

Another two days had gone by since sagiri trained with Salka, and he had been training even harder than before. After seeing how far beneath someone like Salka he was, his hunger to get better had increased. Even when the power within him had taken over, he still had not stood a chance against Salka. Killing starshaped must have been luck because he was already weakened, and the two, well, it was all the power within and not him. His body did not get tired easily, nor did the archive exhaust him after reading a few pages anymore. He had ended up finishing five whole books a day that were not in the syllabus. The central pentagon was full of knowledge, and the archive inside of him had always been hungry. He also wanted to get stronger on his own and not to depend on the power he could not yet understand.

It had been a long day. he trained in hand-to-hand combat alone, trying to imagine Salka as the opponent. It pushed him to go beyond his limits. He then took on dagger handling and training after ten in the morning. His skills had improved, but he knew he was still far behind. He no longer dropped it, and implementing what Kaka had taught him, he had finally begun to learn how to become one with the blade and merge his will with it. A short blade should be like an extension of your arm, and he was beginning to understand. With his current rapid growth, even his thrusting had become more powerful, and the straw man looked tattered when he was done.

After lunch and after eating quite a portion of food, he was more than ready to go to the library and let the archive feed its hunger. He settled on the fourth year’s books, and they were larger and deeper than the other years’ books. It made the archive even happier, and all he had to do was skim page by page so that the archive could rewrite it to be as one with his memory when he finally rested or went to bed. even the archive that used to feel like a foreign part of his brain had begun to feel like a part of him. a part of his brain. His growth had brought him so many discoveries.

Supper came by quicker than expected, and he was ready to eat. He went to the dining wing ahead of the instructors. He did not feel comfortable eating at the same wing as his superiors, and he did not think he could anytime soon. The mid-year exams were also days away, and he wondered if he could be allowed to join the others. The footsteps that always followed him still did and even when he went back to the training pit, he could hear them. He had stopped caring about them since the person had not tried to harm him. He could perceive grief hanging around the person more than ever and he wondered whether the grief had anything to do with him.

Even when night came, he still trained hard in the pits, trying to merge his hand-to-hand combat with the small blades. He had been allowed to have two by Torena when he saw him training with sticks.

It was past ten o’clock when he finally dropped on his back chest heaving and muscled burning. His chest rose and fell rapidly as he tried to catch breath. He had been going and going for a while, trying to perfect what he had learned, and perhaps being alone with his own thoughts had turned him into a training psychopath like Kaka. Thinking of Kaka, he couldn’t help but remember his always scowling face and how he and Maita had gone against the intruders without a second thought. The Bami clan descendants were really admirable.

He was still thinking about anything and everything while he rested, when he perceived the grief now closer than ever. He paused in his thoughts and pushed his senses out. lying down on his back. His ears were close to the sand, and he could hear a pair of footsteps approaching. They were so subtle as if the person was tiptoeing, wanting to catch him off guard. He remained as silent as possible and even closed his eyes. The person stood at the edge of the pit, and he could feel him watching him. He must have been convinced he was oblivious to his surroundings because he jumped into the pit arena and walked slowly, closing in on sagiri’s position where he was lying down.

Now that he was closer to the grief he perceived earlier was much thicker, mixed with a hint of revenge.

Revenge?

What had he done for someone to want to take revenge on him?

The person came to a stop a few feet from Sagiri and Sagiri remained still for a few moments, waiting to see what the person wanted to do. The sound of blades being drawn reached his ears. His eyes snapped open, and he only managed to roll away to avoid being stabbed by the two daggers aimed for his throat. He rolled again to create distance before coming to a stop on his left knee and his right hand. He lifted his head, and his eyes finally met with the attacker. It was a familiar face. The junior instructor who had given him a tour on the first day he arrived.

Only now, he looked like a shell of the man he was when they first met, his eyes twisted in pain and the urge to revenge. Sagiri cocked his head to his side to understand what he had done to the gut to deserve death, but he could not come up with one excuse. They had never met again after he gave him a tour. Perhaps only in passing or during assemblies, but he could not, for his sake, think of something he had done to the man that made him change from an instructor to a man filled with grief and the urge to revenge.

”You wish to avenge me, why?” Sagiri asked, standing to his feet. If the guy wanted to kill him. The least he could do was tell him the reason.

”You really don’t know?” he asked, and Naga’s lips trembled with pain and rage as if he could not imagine sagiri did not know what he had done.

”I do not, or I could not have asked,” he said matter-of-factly, and Naga’s hands tightened around his blades.

”My brother was killed during the exercise because of you. I overheard Senraki saying the intruders came for you. My brother wanted to become a captain. and you took that away from him,” he said, each word with venom, and his lips trembled even more. sagiri could now understand why the man reeked of grief. He had lost his brother, which was a good reason to grieve and seek his revenge.

”Did you know the two instructors were cut into so many small pieces? The psychopaths who did it did not stop cutting them, even long after they were dead. All because of you!” His voice trembled when he said the last part and the grief hanging around him became bigger then. ”I had to identify him through his only remaining finger. He couldn’t even be married with a full face. He was a good man and he died because of you. you should have never come to galka war academy! perhaps my brother could be alive!” Naga gritted his voice breaking as if he did not want to remember what had become of his brother.

”I see. Will killing make you feel atoned?” sagiri asked wondering what he could do to make the man quench his thirst for pain. He had felt the same urge toward the tamelku twins. the urge to punish and he could only imagine how the man felt after losing his blood brother. Naga must have not expected his calm question and he got angry thinking Sagiri was mocking him.

”You dare mock me?!” Naga seethed, pulling his blades back into an attacking stance.

”No. I want you to go ahead and kill me. If it will make you feel atoned.” Sagiri said. he meant it. He did not know whether he would die from being stubbed anymore but he knew it was partly his fault those instructors had died. To show his sincerity, he lay back down and closed his eyes awaiting to be stabbed. He did not want to fight naga and perhaps accidentally kill him. The power in his veins did not understand sympathy and it only understood self preservation. If he fought Naga he would surely die, and killing a griefing man was not honourable as kaka could say.

”what are you doing?” Naga’s voice changed from that of rage to that of confusion. Perhaps he had not expected his revenge to fall into his hands just by asking. Even so his urge was far from quenched and his blade remained pulled out.

He moved closer to sagiri and drew his blades back. sagiri could hear him tremble as if he was fighting to kill him or stop. Suddenly however Naga’s presence disappeared and sagiri’s eyes snapped open. He however did not expect to see Nagas body fly into a strawman shattering it in half before a person dressed in an instructor combat suit with a solid gold sash. a commander? Why was a division leader using so much force?

He then proceeded to hold him by the throat before turning to face sagiri. He had a wicked smile on his face and something was telling sagiri that the man was not a commander.

”So you are the one I have been looking for.” The man’s voice reached Sagiri’s ears and if he was not sure before now he was sure the man was not a commander of the galka war academy.

Another intruder?

Deep in the central pentagon?

”Run!” Naga breathed but the man elbowed him to the side of his face, silencing him.

”Our friend here has a long mouth.” the man laughed and sagiri shifted on his feet. ”I did not think all I needed was a uniform and a sash of higher rank to break into the galka war academy. I have been here for more than two weeks and no one realised I am an imposter.” The man laughed so hard. cack;led more like until the whole arena shook.

”What do you want?” Sagiri asked at the end of his rope with everyone trying to steal him as if he was some precious rock.

”I want you to come with me or I’ll kill your friend here.” The man said, pulling naga’s throat further back.

”He was about to kill me for what you gang did. What makes you think I care if you kill him?” sagiri asked. it was true he was no friends with naga. As much as he did not want the man to die he was not willing to sacrifice himself for a aman that almost just killed him.

”What if I kill him and say you helped me do it because we are in this together. You know they don’t already trust you here.” The man said and sagiri shifted on his feet. nvaru had also told him that he was still very much under scrutiny and being thrown into a situation he couldn’t explain would work to his good.

”No one will believe that. It’s your word against mine.” Sagiri said, not giving anything away. He had read that line in one of the books that talked about cases when it was one’s word against another.

”Who said I don’t, I happen to have a witness.” The man laughed, his head tilting to one side.

”An instructor got you in.” sagiri said finally putting the pieces together. breaking into galka war academy was not easy unless he had help. sagiri should have been surprised but he just sighed. He was tired of people dying just to get him and he did not want to add naga to the pile. He could at least live to become captain and fulfil his brother’s dream.

”Let him go. I will come with you.” Sagiri said, meaning it. After they got out of the inner nonagon and naga was not in danger he would find a way to break free.

”I see you plotting, boy. If you try anything stupid, I hear you have a friend.” The man said and at the mention of nvaru the power inside him stirred merging with his urge to protect. He however fought his urge to lose control and nodded stiffly even as his hands curled into to form fists.

”Let him go. I said I’ll come with.” Sagiri said in a low tone, anger sipping into his voice.

The man threw Naga to the ground like a sack before he led the way. He must have been too confident to not even watch his back.