The rogue squatted to my height. His face was now visible. He looked goofy with an unappealing, messy beard and some strands of hair that peeked from his head covering, indicating he wasn’t bald.

“You need help, kid?”

He grabbed Anna’s left arm, “I can help you.”

Anna slapped his big hairy hand and held on to me tightly.

“Get away from me!” Anna shouted, trembling with a sorrowful voice.

All the gates to camp were closed. We were inside, near the eastern gate, but the center of camp was very far off from where we were. Oh no! What do I do? This man won’t let us leave this place alive. I was sweating excessively, wanting to run away, but I couldn’t leave Anna here. This is bad.

“Kid. What’s that you’re holding?”

The rogue harvester was looking at the scroll with a ferocious smile.

I hid the scroll behind me, still holding it, “I-it’s nothing.”

I tried to look around, everyone else had fled, and there was no harvester in sight.

The man opened his left hand, stretching it toward me as if he wanted something handed to him, “Give it, boy.”

“No! It’s mine!”

The rogue’s eyebrows arched down in anger, he gritted his teeth as if to say, Just hand me the stupid thing you damn bastard!

“You leave me with no choice, kid.”

He reached out to take the scroll out of my grip. His hand was only inches away from the scroll when a spark emanated from it like what’d occurred with Mrs. Klosé, only bigger.

ZAP

“Arrrgh!”

The man was thrown to the wall strongly as if being hit by a bull.

THUD! CRACK!

Anna trembled aggressively, shutting her eyes in fear. Her face was pale as if drained of blood.

This is our chance, I thought while looking at the rogue eagerly. He sat with his back against the wall, his chin resting on his chest with his eyes closed. He seemed to have passed out from the impact of the throw. A sizeable crater had formed on the wall and rock fragments were falling from it.

I pulled Anna up and put her right arm across the back of my neck, holding her hand on my left shoulder. We started walking away, slowly, hoping to reach the open inner camp gate before the man got up. Anna was trying to get away from the scroll, moving her head away from it.

“Don’t worry,” I told Anna even though I had completely no idea how the scroll worked.

“What is it?”

“It’s a scroll. Elder Zakai gave it to me.”

The Supreme Harvester? She seemed to have thought.

That’s right, Anna.

“How did it do that?”

“I don’t know how it works.”

“…”

CRACK…SHICK

I looked back, the man was up with his gigantic bow loaded, ready to aim. Oh no!

“Let’s hurry.”

“But my knee is injured, Haji. I can’t go any faster.”

She’s right, going fast is only going to make the injury worse.

The man pulled the back arrow in his bow, aiming at me as he kept his right eye closed for better aim.

WOOSH!

The arrow was released, moving through the air with a piercing speed, making a tearing sound. We angled, moving to the left while maintaining the same slow speed. This was to avoid getting shot by the arrow. Come on scroll. Do something.

WOOSH! WOOSH! WOOSH!

The man shot three more arrows since the first one had missed us. The latter three were shot on the left, center and right. We couldn’t dodge them all. I am sorry, Anna.

PING! PING! CRACK!

“Leave the kids alone, you coward.”

It was Miss Tina, an Igniter. She had successfully managed to deflect two of the arrows mid-air, hitting them on their brass heads. She split the third arrow cleanly at the center of its shaft. Miss Tina was an excellent archer with a small wooden bow. She used sharpened wooden arrows.

Miss Tina loaded her bow to aim at the rogue. She aimed with both eyes open—she was truly a seasoned archer. From her slender look and innocent face, one might think she wouldn’t be capable of what she did. As she pulled the bow taut, getting ready to release the arrow, the rogue pleaded. “Wait! Don’t kill me!”

She unloaded the weapon and held it down.

“If you don’t leave this place at the count of three, I am going to have to kill you,” Miss Tina warned the defeated rogue.

“One.”

“Wait missy I’m…”

“Two.”

“I’m going! I’m going!”

The rogue sprung to his feet and jumped over the wall hastily.

Miss Tina looked on as if she thought, This is no ordinary rogue. The wall was so high, but the man managed to jump over it easily. She muttered, “He should be a senior Sigma dropout.”

“Uh?” I questioned for clarity.

“It’s nothing. Let’s go,” she told us, lifting Anna to carry her on her arms.

That was so close.

“Thank you, Miss Tina.”

“Be more careful.”

“Sure.”

After all she’d seen, Anna couldn’t say anything. She’d kept quiet throughout our walk into camp.

By that time, every other rogue harvester that had entered camp had been driven out.

On reaching inside camp, Miss Tina handed Anna to the medical corps to treat her injured right knee. A counselor also took me for a debriefing.

The counselor asked me many questions, but I also gave fitting answers.

—“Haji Kaira. How are you feeling?”

“I’m feeling just fine, ma’am.”

Maybe it’s because I had maintained rhythmic breathing throughout the attack. Well, barely, but it might’ve worked.

—“Did you obtain any bruises or injuries from the attack?”

“No, ma’am.”

—“What scares you when you think about the rogue you encountered?”

Well, he didn’t look so good. His smile, his face were all intimidating.

“His appearance.”

The counselor seemed to have considered that to be a common fear any kid might have while facing a rogue. She proceeded to the next question.

—“Did the rogue take anything from you?”

“No, he didn’t.”

—“Good. You can go now.”

“Thank you, ma’am.”

Those were so many questions for one kid to answer.

A day had passed and Anna was still in the camp’s Medspace—the name assigned to health institutions in the country. I decided to go and visit her.

“How are you feeling, Anna?”

“Much better.”

“Did you tell the nun anything about the scroll?”

“No. I took it that you kept it a secret since you hadn’t told me about it until then. I don’t expose people’s secrets.”

“Thank you.”

“…”

She smiled, her cheeks turning peach-red again.

I proceeded to ask, “Okay. Can I tell you about The Convergence Point now?”

“Of course.”

I told her everything about The Convergence Point and how elder Zakai planned to make me a senior. I also told her about what I’d learned about it and how I planned to go there.

“Wow! I’ve never heard of a junior research harvester.”

“Yeah. So, will you go with me?”

On hearing that, she shrank, looking down sadly after she’d been enthusiastic, nodding to all that I’d told her.

“I can’t.”

I frowned at her, “But why?”

“Because my parents won’t let me.”

Right. I should have thought that through.

“I understand, Anna.”

“…”

She’d kept quiet, so I added, “Well, I guess I will be going alone,” then smiled.

“But, Haji!”

“No buts.”

—

I hadn’t met Elder Zakai since the rhythmic breathing exercise. He had gone out of camp to Sigma, for a seniors’ swapping event with commandos. This was to reinforce Sao’s offense to rogues. Sigma was known for training versatile, strong harvester commandos. No harvester came close to their physique and tactical skills.

A swapping event between harvester camps involved taking a small number of up to five senior harvesters. The harvesters would master a specialty of another camp. Likewise, the other camp will also have an equal number of its seniors trained. If the training would be successful, then Sao harvesters won’t only defend their territory, but also mercilessly deal with the rogues in the abandoned village.

The training would take up to six months and the Supreme Harvester would travel and be with his harvesters throughout. The harvester captain would look over the camp while the Supreme Harvester is away.

Well, this also meant my training with Elder Zakai was halted until after six months. I wouldn’t be able to get trained as a research harvester while he was away. This sucks.

I spent most of my time in the library, getting to understand more about The Convergence Point and the scroll. All because I was still suspended from the Academy. I used the only skill I’d learned, rhythmic breathing, to focus when reading confusing stuff and when understanding new concepts.

Over the course of two weeks since Elder Zakai left for Sigma, I had almost mastered rhythmic breathing. The breathing mechanism even helped me escape nightmares.

Elder Zakai had issued a research permit for me before he left. Just like the research harvesters, I was granted access to the top section at night.

One night, I was in the library reading an untitled book. I was reading on a section titled ‘Wielding and Willpower’,

…A Wielder is someone who is able to tame emotional and personal energy using the mind.

 Emotional energy is the energy that arises from the changing of a good emotion into a bad one or vice versa. Emotional energy can be good or bad. Good if a bad emotion such as sorrow turns into a good one (joy) and bad if a good emotion turns into a bad one (love to hate).

Personal energy, on the other hand, is how the body reacts to the change in emotion. Negative personal energy is a response to bad emotional energy involving a physical action (crying because you’re sad). Positive personal energy is a response to good emotional energy (singing because you are happy).

FLIP

 There are three types of people: Wielders, Neutrals and Non-wielders. The strongest form of energy called ‘cosmological energy’, is the most difficult to tame. It is composed of particles called ultratrons. This form of energy can be wielded if one has personal energy equal to emotional energy.

FLIP

…Willpower is the balance between personal and emotional energy. For a Wilder, this balance exists. For a Neutral, there is an offset which tends to favor emotional energy. In the case of a Non-wielder, personal energy is favored…

FLIP

Personality influences the type of emotional and personal energy a person will have. For a bad person, they’ll have bad emotional energy and negative personal energy. A good person will have good emotional energy and positive personal energy. However, a person can have good emotional energy and negative personal energy and be either good or bad. The opposite is also true; one may have bad emotional energy and positive personal energy and be either good or bad.

FLIP

Wielders have the right balance of emotional and personal energy. In most cases, a Wielder is born with bad emotional energy but positive personal energy (being willing to try again after multiple unsuccessful attempts). The balance in energies in a Wielder makes it possible to tame cosmological energy.

I had understood most of what I had read, which led me to think that maybe I was a Wielder. I was still uncertain though, so I continued reading,

…A Neutral cannot interact with cosmological energy. A Non-wielder may interact with cosmological energy ‘repulsively’—in a negative manner. The intention or thought a Non-wielder approaches cosmological energy with determines the magnitude of the repulsion.

I thought, This should be what happened to Mrs. Klosé and that Rogue. Cool.

FLIP

…Some objects have been found to contain cosmological energy particles (ultratrons). Most of the objects remain largely unknown. ‘The prophecy scroll’ is one known such example. Such objects are called ‘Cosmological energy objects’ or simply ‘energy objects’.

The scroll, I whispered. I flipped the pages quickly to find a section written about it.

I flipped to the section ‘The prophecy Scroll’ but found nothing there. There was only a caption on the center ‘No information, author not known’.

What! After all that and there’s nothing? I was displeased at the sight of the caption. I closed the old book angrily and walked out of the library, Well, at least I know something, I comforted myself.

I walked to the dorms cautiously since it was very late. I covered my head with the cloak I’d always carry along when I went to the library in the night.

“Hey, Haji!” I heard someone call out from behind.

The captain? What’s he doing here?