“Sir, I don’t understand.”

“I have decided to suspend you from the academy until further notice.”

But I just started. How am I going to make senior harvester?

Just as my sight started blurring from the accumulation of tears…

“Because I need to train you to become the first ever junior research harvester.”

I gasped in surprise, “Uh?!”

My tears, which were on the verge of spilling, dried up almost instantly, “Sir, are you sayi-”

“No. I’m not going to help you with your research on The Convergence Point.”

My face turned down, Oh man. For a second there I felt I had made friends with the Supreme Harvester.

If only the boy knew how much I regret not starting early. He should be grateful.

—

ZAKAI

As a child, all I knew was playing around in dirt, looking for mysteries. As I had no friends, I never knew that people like me existed—people like Haji.

The scroll was such an ancient text that I worried had no author and was completely blank, but somehow Haji could read and understand it perfectly. From the time I had dug it out in Elka, there were no signs of it being supernatural, What’s this?—I thought I’d found a treasure, and perhaps it was. Being only twelve, I had grown fond of old stuff I would dig up in the dirt.

The scroll didn’t react to anything. One particular thing still caught my attention—its intactness. How can such an old piece of paper buried in dirt be that neat? It made absolutely no sense.

I showed it to my father, the then Supreme Harvester of Elka camp, Arjo Mendez, “Dad, look! I found a treasure!”

“A scroll?”

“Yes. I dug it out of the dirt at the old quarry site.”

My father was also puzzled by how preserved it appeared despite being drawn out of dirt. “Bring it here. I’ll order the research harvesters to take study it carefully.”

“You will return it, right?”

He rubbed my head gently, “If you need it so badly, you will get it. Just let the research corps do its job.”

“Okay, dad.”

He took the scroll and handed it over to the research harvesters the following day. They studied it for five years but barely scratched the surface of the mystery. Whenever my father asked the lead researcher, “How far are you with the research?”

He would respond with mild hesitation.

—“It’s coming along well.”

—“We need two more years.”

—“No dots are connecting, sir.”

After that time, they handed it back to my father, saying, “We have failed.”

The mystery behind the scroll was intriguing—it made me wonder the more, What is this thing? My father was drawn just as much to it and he decided to escalate the matter to the headquarters in Vav province.

 The Archharvester at that time, Sir Kenan Jules, was a great man and a warrior who grew up in the Onyx mountains of Teth—a place so harsh only a handful of children made it past the age of five. The Onyx mountains were the only place safe from woof-bears in all of Teth, but were elevated high into the sky. Most children younger than the age of five couldn’t survive the cold of the mountain peaks because their lungs would not be fully adapted. Sir Jules was one of the few that managed to outgrow the cold. He grew up to be a hunter who slayed woof-bears, reducing their population by almost half while losing an eye in the process.

The Archharvester took keen interest in the scroll and asked the research harvesters at the Vav camp to study it carefully. In about a month, report came to Elka that the scroll contained dangerous particles known as ultratrons. Owing to their invasive nature, these particles needed to be avoided. Therefore, the scroll was kept in the cube—a barrier in which no electromagnetic or ultra-electromagnetic waves can penetrate—at the headquarters. The cube was installed in the database’s dungeon for the purpose of ‘containing’ the scroll. Its walls were made of thick blocks of granite. At the center of the cube, there was a platform where the scroll was enclosed in a glass container.

Because ultratrons emitted ultra-electromagnetic waves,—the first of their kind—every trace of information about the scroll was removed from the Elka and Vav databases, and taken to Sao. As Sao was the first ever harvester camp, it had the honor of harboring prestigious, highly mystical and historical documents and artefacts.

My father accepted this resolve because ‘It was the safest thing to do.’ Because research was halted, neither the scroll’s origins nor its author could be known.

Two years after I became a senior harvester, my father joined my mother who had died while giving birth to me. From what my father had told me when I was a kid, she was a gentle woman who ‘carried the family on her shoulders’. My elder sister, Rose, pitied me so much that she chose to become a nun to care for kids who succumbed to the same fate I had—and eventually became an elder nun. My father’s care and my sister’s kindness is the only warmth I felt as a child.

Whenever I would attempt to do something dangerous my father would warn me, “Hey! You’ll get hurt!”

Even if I didn’t listen and hurt myself, he would still pick me up and ask, “Are you hurt?”

My sister also sacrificed her entire childhood for mine. She had always made sure I ate before leaving for school and used to help me with my homework.

Every time I remembered those moments, I trained so hard. I couldn’t miss a mission—all so that I can apply to become a research harvester so I can learn more about the scroll. The training was rough—moving large boulders, standing in the sun for hours, climbing mountains and rhythmic breathing. I enjoyed rhythmic breathing particularly because it allowed me to slow down my heart rate and concentrate. Rhythmic breathing involved taking two inhales in quick succession, then exhaling after holding the air for three seconds. The technique would be repeated until full relaxation was achieved, and heart rate stabilized.

—

The training of a harvester made it possible to ward off enemies, protect the nation and stay just as loving to loved ones. The love that was developed in battle-hardened men primarily came from community service and socialism. All my life, I was never once social except to my family, until I became a senior harvester and started going on missions. I was assigned the leader of our squad, The Flaming Blades, and had to conquer my fear of speaking up.

—“What’s your name, boss?”

“I’m Zakai and don’t call me boss.”

—“But you’re our squad leader.”

“Just don’t call me boss!”

—“O-kay.”

With the other four members of my squad, we would go on missions such as slaying woof-bears that lurked in the ‘Colossal mountains’ in Teth to stop them from getting into camp. Woof-bears were large furry creatures that stood about eight feet tall with long fangs and a taste for human flesh. Their hides were so thick that it took special swords made of a specific kind of steel—forged in Yod the ‘steel province’—to cut through.

I remember the first day when I fought a woof-bear so vividly. I looked it in the eyes and it charged at me, rushing forth. I dashed out of the way but I under-timed the move—it had already caught onto me. I dived to the left where it had thrashed me and landed on my back, my sword making a clanging sound all the way down the steep mountain. I figured it felt intimidated when looked straight in the eyes, so I kept my gaze on the feet while I still laid down in agonizing pain. My left foot had become numb, I had lost my sword, and I was wounded. Move you stupid leg! Move! I grit my teeth in pain. In that moment, I witnessed their incredible speed and insane strength.

The thing prepared to launch another attack I was sure I wouldn’t survive. It groaned, and smirked as if it were human. It sprung straight at me. This is it, I closed my eyes in fear and whispered a prayer.

I heard moans and growls, then…

CHUNK!....THUD!

—“Zakai! Are you okay?!”

It was my squad members, they’d defeated the beast. I’m alive? I’m alive!

“I’m okay! Thank you!”

I looked at the woof-bear’s corpse while still trembling—a crooked steel sword had been driven through its head as if it were placed there carefully. Dried drops of blood were all over the place and on my uniform since the beast had died close to where I laid. That was close, was all I could think of as I was helped up by my squad members.

The most boring of the missions, was looking over the camp for a week—we would rotate with one of the other four squads every week. It involved preventing the camp from intrusion of rogue harvesters who lived in secret camps. Many of those who failed to make it to the senior academy ended up becoming rogue harvesters.

—

The woof-bear attack made me realize how hard I needed to train. I trained so hard to become a research harvester—no day went by without training. After months of training relentlessly, my entry into the research corps was approved. I was sent to Vav headquarters for my first assignment by the Elka camp authorities. Then I was given two weeks to complete my assignment which involved detailing the history of my home-camp, Elka. Mmmm.. let’s see. What else apart from mining? Probably jewelry.

Fortunately, I completed the assignment in about eight days, but didn’t submit my findings just then. I wanted to have more time in the Vav database so I could learn something about the scroll, but I found no useful information. Man, who made this place the headquarters?

One day, I decided to go to the cube. That was the closest I had ever gotten to the scroll since I found it. The scroll, which was enclosed in the dungeon of the database—where the cube was located, floated a bit when I drew near. What’s this? It was something to behold. I couldn’t understand what had just happened, but I knew that I had to do more research.

After many years had passed and I had moved to Sao camp, I devoured all the texts I could find about the scroll, and how ultratrons operate, in the central database. From what I had read, I found that the scroll had only little concentrations of ultratrons—too little to cause any damage. I quickly realized that the cube was a scheme that the research team had made to keep the scroll to themselves. I asked myself, Why would they do that?

I started tracking back who was leading the research team, and found that it was Zircon. It was no surprise, since he was widely considered a ‘mischievous man’ within the nation’s research community. Other civilians just saw him as a leader who wanted to see the country become ‘great and powerful’. However, the power he intended was not about the nation but himself—he wanted to be ‘the absolute’ leader of Mushi. None of what he said sounded straightforward. He would use harsh words such as “Work harder, you maggots,” when addressing juniors, but since the Archharvester trusted him so much as the head of research harvesters, he got away with it every single time.

—

It was law that the Archharvester chooses his successor—a senior harvester—before he dies, and the time had come when Sir Jules breathed his last. It so happened that Zircon was the last to see the Archharvester. After he walked out of the Emperor’s Fortress—the Archharvester’s official home—Zircon called for a meeting with the headquarters’ senior harvesters, the research harvesters, and the igniters from every harvester camp. Word had come to Sao, where I was, through a Fortress messenger—a special messenger from the Emperor’s Fortress—that the Archharvester had passed away.

“Thank you all for coming here. The Archharvester has chosen me as his successor,” is what Zircon said to everyone who had gathered there.

No one could nullify him since he was the last to see the Archharvester, so he became the leader. It was law that the leader had to be accepted while ‘silent’ investigations occurred to determine the nature of death of the succeeded harvester—provided that death was witnessed by the successor.

—

A few more years passed as I kept on studying the scroll and ultratron mechanics. It turned out that ultratrons operate on the principles of waves. Their resonance frequency was the fundamental aspect—they could only interact with matter of equivalent frequency as them. For objects with the same frequency, the particles could be fully controlled or ‘wielded’—as I learned from ‘The Particulate in Particular’, ‘…Up to this time, ultratrons have remained hypothetical particles…’ The Particulate in Particular was a book that explained how particles operate and how they can be reprogrammed to operate in various ways. It is from this book that I learned that ultratrons were only a prediction made some hundred years ago.

—

After thorough pondering, I had arrived at the fact that, Someone must have programmed the particles in the scroll to do what they do. But who?

Haji’s father, Erasmus was a hardworking, well-mannered and strong young man I had come to know while training the seniors in Sao. I had not only become the head research harvester in Sao, but also the captain. When Erasmus was recruited to Vav with his wife Tamar, I asked him to help me get the scroll since security around the cube was partly shut down after years of failed attempts to harness its power. I assured Erasmus that I would keep an eye on his and his wife’s little child.

Zircon had become so attached to the Coastovans’ way of life that he significantly reduced research funds for the research team that was assigned to the scroll to a few hundred eulers. He instead started funding secret technological projects at The Convergence Point, so that the nation could become ‘more developed’ and ‘more powerful’—as he constantly used to say.

Erasmus spent almost one year every night making a secret passage that led to the cube. After he was done, I planned a trip to Vav, and before long I had the scroll in my custody. At long last. I got it.

A year after I got the scroll, the Sao camp Supreme Harvester at that time, Elder Fuller, resigned and appointed me to continue where he left off. A new harvester captain, Zach Flame, was chosen but I remained the head research harvester. This all happened so fast. Although the new leadership role reduced my momentum, I still had to learn.

After many experiments, I finally managed to read what was written on the ‘blank’ scroll, The prophecy.

—

Elder Zakai had told me everything about the scroll, his childhood and how he became the Supreme Harvester, but nothing about The Convergence Point.

“You now understand, don’t you, Haji?”

“I do, sir. Thank you.”

“Are you ready?”

This is the only shot I’ve got to become a senior.

“I am ready, sir.”

“Then we start first thing tomorrow morning.”