THE LAST KEEPER

Chapter 235: 235. THE REUNION II

The training grounds of Kavuraka roared with motion. It should have been the advanced weaponry combat exercise, but right before supper. Blades clashed and Orders barked, yet dust hung in the air because of how advanced the arenas were. Warrior initiates were divided into sections now. Only over a hundred warrior initiates stood in the arena. There were over a hundred arenas in the war college, and at the moment, a dozen of them were littered with a small number of cadets. Kiuga and kaka were in one, and N’varu was in another, but he could go to him later.

He walked through it all without pause. The Red overcoat with the instructor’s mark stitched at the shoulder made him fit right in. No one stopped him as he walked to the far back, where kiuga and Kaka’s presence was thickest. Sagiri moved past squads drilling in formation, his pace steady, controlled, trying to appear as controlled as possible.

Then he saw them.

It seemed no one wanted to spar with Kaka yet. Only the best of the best joined the war college, but still, Kaka was a force and a beast.

Formation check,” he said. Standing in front of the. He felt a bit mischievous standing in a high rank as he watched the two go at each other. Is this how the instructors always felt watching them spar? Sagiri made sure to keep his voice low and slightly strict, but boredom was the spice.

The gong went by after a few minutes, and it was supper time. Kaka’s favorite time is slightly before sparring. The warrior initiates went on training for a little while longer until the senior-most instructors with the most stitches decorating their soot announced.

”Warlings stop!!” his voice tore through the place. Kaka and Kiuga, together with the other, stopped instantly and fell into an easy stance.

”Dismissed!!” A second command followed. Kiuga and Kaka snapped to attention instantly.

”Sir,” they saluted and waited for the instructors to leave before they turned to leave. They seemed to wonder why the one instructor in front of them was not leaving and, more so, why he seemed shorter and more slender than all the instructors, but it’s not like there weren’t a few instructors who did not beef up even with years of training and keeping fit. They saluted him and started to leave, but sagiri spoke again.

”There was a flaw in your stances,” he said. Kiuga and Kaka paused. He could have been right, of course, but he had only seen them train for a second. He was an instructor after all, and so they turned to him and waited expectantly for him to point out their flaws. Sagiri stood still for a moment, looking at them through the veil.

Up close now. Nothing had changed. Apart from the combat suits, which had gone from grey to black with circular stripes of white on the upper arms, collar, and thighs, nothing had changed.

”Do you not remember me?” He asked after a moment of stretched silence. Kaka frowned slightly. Kiuga’s eyes narrowed, trying to see past the hood.

”Should we, sir?” Kiuga replied. Sagiri tilted his head just slightly. Of course, it could be out of the question for them to imagine him to be disguised as an instructor of a war college, and more so to dare step into the college when there was a bounty on his head. The mandra might have made a vote, but still the vote had not broken the tie. His vote still mattered most, but it was a tie of three votes across the councils. The mandra might be the most supreme power in Tagayia, but a tie was a tie, and other councils could still use it as an excuse to practice their will. There was an unsaid stalemate. Since he had not been killed or handed over to those in support of rehabilitation, or sent south. It would be assumed that no vote had been taken. The mandra had not announced his vote, but he had to, and soon, before things could go sour.

The other warrior initiates had now left the arena, and only the three stood.

”It would be fine for Kaka to forget me, but you too, kiuga?” sagiri teased a little. It was a bit entertaining to watch the two try to rake their minds to remember an instructor at the war college.

”That voice,” Kiuga said, his eyebrows furrowing even deeper.

’What voice are you talking about?” Kaka had still not recognized a familiar voice.

”I know you must be hungry. I will let you do it. Meet me in the western high arena after supper. Come with N’varu,” Sagiri said before he turned to leave, but a hand grabbed his upper arm to keep him from leaving. Kiuga. His expression was grave.

”I will answer your questions when we meet later. That is if you want to hear what I have to say,” Sagiri said and shrugged Kiuga’s hand off before he disappeared out of the arena in a flash.

”That strange person sure moves fast. It looks kind of familiar. Is it Lotaga? Did Lotaga grow short and thin?” Kaka asked, and kiuga just sighed in defeat before the voices died down. How was he one of the best warrior initiates, but couldn’t take a hint?

Sagiri returned to the high arena on the western side of the arena. The building was made of only arenas, and the high arena was just one of the many. Sagiri perched at the back wall at the very edge of it and looked outward. The healing arena was west of where he stood, and its pristine wall could be seen even from far off. It could take at least an hour to get there. Zolinka could have to train in both colleges, and sagiri could not imagine the strain of moving between the two every few days. He had once wondered whether he would be in war college, and he would be lying if he said it did not make him a bit nostalgic.

Now that things had gone the way they had, it could be hard for him to go to college, and yet he was standing within its walls. Only that he wasn’t a student but a rogue and an enemy of Tagayia.

He would never get to be a warrior initiate or a full-fledged warrior. Some part of him must have tried to hope that he would at least become a warrior before things went south. He had even been ejected from the north. Of course, he wanted to make the northern tribes pay for what they had done, but again, he had people he cared for in Tagayia.

Nothing he could do now but go south. He no longer had a home, and it made him feel more nostalgic. He had a deep longing since his fate was sealed. A longing for something he didn’t quite know.