Part Eleven
197S9.9.18
Baralai's in deep trouble, seriously. Those tyshat pycdyntc of Squad Three… they did something terrible to Lai. Who does duels these days, honestly? I thought such things were outdated. Well, I guess you never know what to expect from Spirans, so set in their ultra-traditional ways.
So they attacked us when we found the water today… it was like they followed us and decided to claim what we had found for themselves. Fortunately, they did a bad job of it… I swear, those guys couldn't hit a shoopuf with the way they were shooting.
And then, their leader decided to lie out his ycc and accuse Baralai of murder. Little Baralai, the mage, the one who had healed one of his squad before. I mean, the guy who got killed… man, I think that I killed him, not Lai. In fact, I think I killed him defending Lai. I'm not even sure – it all happened so fast and I was so tired and fatigued from searching for the water that I didn't know what was going on.
Before I knew it, Lai had accepted this ridiculous dueling idea, swearing to defend himself with that staff against this man who probably triples him in size and weight. I couldn't even find appropriate words to stop him or to tell him how stupid it was. These guys, who obviously were terrible enough to follow us and try to steal our water, would likely have a dirty trick up their sleeves.
Especially when I saw what their leader carried in his pockets. I mean, sometimes you can just tell what's going on… me? I can see what people have in their pockets. He had a vial, and I heard liquid splashing in it as I fought him off me in the scuffle that ensued before Lai got challenged. I heard water, but it wasn't water… and considering how desperately dehydrated that team looked, I knew it couldn't be water. Judging by the wounds some of them had, it wasn't a potion, nor a phoenix down or they would have used it on their fallen comrade.
It was poison. I knew it, but I didn't know it. I had no proof except for hearing something as we were fighting... and that could have been anything. A feeling's a feeling though, you know? I've learned to trust them in this desert, even if I have no proof, and I knew that in hand-to-hand combat, the kind that Lai wanted to do, that guy would have poisoned whatever weapon he decided to use… and Lai would have been done for. We haven't had any antidotes here aside from the herbal remedies that we ran out of yesterday when those Sandragora attacked us again. I mean, all it would have taken would have been a little scratch somewhere on Lai's body – which wouldn't have been hard to do, considering he was already injured and fatigued from the earlier fight -- and if that poison was strong enough, it would take him from us in moments.
I don't really know what I was thinking when I suggested we use the syacdanbecdumc. I mean, it seemed logical in my head at the time… I'd been carrying them this whole journey across Bikanel, and they had just been useless weight. What better use than to save Baralai from a poison-wielding enemy? I guess. I mean, I don't know… the whole thing seems treacherous. I hate the idea of using them…
But Lai would be gone otherwise.
At any rate, it was up to Nooj, but in the end he seemed to agree with me… and by then, Paine had joined my side too. I don't even know how it was my side, exactly, except that I was the one who first brought it up and I was the one holding the syacdanbecdumc. When Nooj gave the final word to use the guns, Baralai looked… well, pissed, to say the least. He got that downtrodden look when he's feeling useless… but it would have been a useless waste of life.
I'm just surprised that Nooj wound up going along with it. I mean, I thought the guy was all about honor? Using these weapons is anything but honorable.
But yet… to save Baralai… it's worth it. Maybe Nooj thinks so too.
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Baralai did it. He withstood everything and went through with it. The pistols are back inside of my pants, certainly located in an area where the Maesters won't think to look. Heh. If they touched me there, I'd kill them.
The guy is dead. Nooj is kinda standing around looking thoughtful. I think this has hit him a little harder than anticipated… I can tell he's trying not to show it, but I can just tell, you know? Once you get to know a guy, you can tell when they're brooding. Nooj is definitely brooding. And… I think I get why.
Taydrcaagan. Deathseeker, in Spiran. He sacrificed a bit of his honor for Baralai… and yet, there I was, practically demanding it of him, even though I swore the last time I typed in this thing that I would help him on his way to the honor he sought in his death. I don't think Baralai realizes exactly what Nooj did for him, or even the magnitude of all of this.
I wonder if I should tell him. Could I? Would the words come to describe what it feels like when, as I did a few minutes ago, I tend to Nooj's machina half and can feel the desperation for… well, nothing? There's no passion in the man anymore, only a longing for the death he seeks. I can feel it in every word he says.
Something about this training, this squad, this desert… it's all changed me. I can feel things better now – the location of water, Nooj's longing for death, and even my own thoughts and inner desires more acutely. Right now, all I want is to lay with Lai and tell him that I'm happy he's still able to be with me. What is this nonsense? Gippal doesn't do this sort of cred. What happened to the untouchable caq sylreha that I was when I left on that idiotic Summoner-kidnapping expedition? Now all I want to do is hold a Yevonite of all people and tell him I'm thankful for him… since when has an Al Bhed been thankful for anything involving Yevon?
Since I met Baralai, I guess.
197S9.9.19
The Maesters want to see us, I guess. We have to tell them what happened… why? Wasn't this their plan all along, to pit us all against each other? Maybe they're wondering how Baralai managed to win against that guy. Well, you can't argue with a good shot, right?
Right.
It'll be just fine. Baralai will go in there and make pouty faces and act distraught, Paine won't say a word, Nooj will report it like a military commander, and I'll do what I do best.
I'll tell them a story.
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Well, that went off rather well. Maybe one day I'll write a book – in Spiran, to prove I'm not an 'illiterate Al Bhed piece of trash' as the bald-headed Maester called me in the little interrogation session – and entitle it "The Pistols Sent From Yevon" and detail every bit of the heaping pile of cred I shoveled into the Maesters' laps today. I just hope I can remember all the extraneous words I put together about the guns being half-buried in the sand outside of the cave and how they disappeared afterwards; maybe I'll even include the bit where I mentioned that I thought more of the existence of Yevon now for protecting someone as 'holy' as Baralai.
Heh. 'Holy.' If only they knew what I had just finished doing to him a few hours before… that'd give them a whole new perspective on 'holy', I think.
And now, Paine has stolen us some alcohol of some sort. I've never heard of this 'brandy', but it certainly smells good. I deserve to indulge for the fabrications of the day. Baralai does too – the alcohol will dull the pain of his still-recovering wounds, anyway, and maybe his still-lingering sense of shame at using treachery against treachery. When I told him about the poison that I thought the other was carrying, he told me to drop the subject. I don't think he'll ever mention the incident again.
That's fine by me. Hopefully he'll have plenty of good things to remember instead of this one incident of doing what needed to be done. Someday, maybe he'll realize that it wasn't treachery… but until then, I'll keep his mind off it.