Both Ways (20181228)

CH83

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"I had hoped we would have found it by now," Nasaug stated as he turned the page.

"It doesn't have a table of contents or an index. I already checked." Brigrig replied dryly. "Wait a minute..." He turned to give Nasaug a skeptical look. "Are you even literate?"

"You ask me, but not the Aleran right next to you?" Nasaug wondered.

"Don't involve me in this, please," Tavi said.

"Perhaps I had given him the benefit of the doubt." Brigrig mused as he returned to the book. "If a creature as insignificant as he managed to stand up to the likes of you... unless, of course, you are more pathetic than you look."

"I'd like to see you do better!" Nasaug challenged.

"I needn't bother!" Brigrig exclaimed. "You were the one who traversed an ocean to fight a handful of-" he gestured towards Tavi, this! Only to return, tail between legs, licking the muzzle of this 'Commander whomever.' Look at you, a pet of the Alerans. You incurred their wrath; you get what you deserve. They only spared you because they felt pity in your incompetence—a weakness on their part, in truth. And look at what we've been cursed with now! Things were beautiful until you had to try and fail to make a name for yourself."

"And how was I to know this would happen?" Nasaug demanded. "Unless you mean that I singlehandedly doomed the entire planet!"

"You are a Narashan," Brigrig said plainly. "You ruin things. It is in your blood."

"You are inconsolable," Nasaug stated.

"You are a submissive slave!" Brigrig replied. "You know what? You are like a taruga. Bigger and stronger than your master here, but certainly not smarter. Look at how he provides you with a continued, yet meager existence at his feet."

"I am not a servant!" Nasaug defied.

"A taruga is unaware of its servitude as well." Brigrig mused. "It is also unaware when-"

"Listen, you two! If we don't find this, all will be lost!" Tavi recalled the Canim's attention. He pointed to Nasaug and Brigrig. "Your home, and your home, and my home, all gone, destroyed by the Vord! For the love of all that is good, please focus!"

"Your master makes a passionate plea." Brigrig sneered while he acknowledged Tavi's request, returning to the book. Nasaug had no choice but to let the remark go unanswered; it wasn't worth the effort or the delay.

"Hmm... this looks interesting." Tavi started. "Here, it reads, 'after careful observation of the Vord's movements, after consistent, extended usage of the aforementioned techniques to avoid detection by the Vord, effectively rendering them blind to one's own movements, the Vord was found to have lost significant ability to strategize against the armies of Canea. The Vord would wander to and fro in units less than fifty, seemingly seeking targets by a chance encounter, not an overall ineffective strategy, but one far less so than the more coordinated efforts otherwise seen." Tavi had to take a moment to read ahead a bit to the next page; the dense Canish took a great deal of concentration. "As the Vord had significantly reduced their offensive action, many Canim scouts were sent deep into Vord-held lands to report back their findings-" Tavi moved to the open right page, -" which destroyed the last of the Vord's ability to coordinate their forces, leaving only handfuls of the Vord together. No more Vord armies were to be seen again, and subsequent Canim offensives all across the continent destroyed any remaining Vord, facing only the slightest amount of resistance against their eradication."

"All we can do it wait?" Nasaug was in angry disbelief. "We sing to ourselves as the Vord overwhelms our last defenses?" He snarled in frustration. "Come! Let us all die together." Nasaug stood and moved to the door.

"But we've only made it halfway through-" Tavi protested.

"And have we gained? Certainty we've already lost?" Nasaug replied. "We've had the most enormous armies this world has ever seen on our side, and yet we are outmatched! It is simply too late for us, Captain."

"I am not giving up so easily!" Tavi stated. "There is something here; all we need to do is find out what it is!"

"You've already read it!" Nasaug fumed, storming over to the book. "It says right here!" He depressed the center of the spine down, flattening the curved pages. Beneath Nasaug's claw, a thin extrusion of paper stuck up from the middle. The passage Tavi had read was a fragment from another entire page of text. All in the room saw it at once, but for a moment, there was silence.

"There is a page missing," Tavi spoke first.

"Torn out," Nasaug observed, now collected.

"The only one?" Tavi asked.

"As far as I've seen." Nasaug agreed. "The Vord, they couldn't have..."

"We've been with the book the whole time," Tavi said as he took a closer look at the edge of paper sticking out. "This was very carefully done. It wasn't torn out; it was cut deliberately." Tavi sighed as he tried to think. "When we found the book, it had not been touched by anyone in ages. We've been with it ever since. And even if someone did, the only one who could know which page to cut out this quickly would be Brigrig." Tavi said, turning to the ancient Shuaran. "And he-" Tavi blinked.

Brigrig was gone.