Episode 129: Zero (Rhyss)

He stood in the living room, facing his dad’s office door, with a box of junk in his hands.

Any minute now, someone was going to come through and ask him why he was just standing there. They couldn’t stay at that festival thing forever.

Rhyss had only come back to the apartment because some kid no one knew fell climbing the fountain and hit his head and breathed in too much water, so Zero had been treating him.

He hadn’t left his office yet, so Rhyss assumed he was still in there. Or he’d transported somewhere else and Rhyss was wasting his time.

With a sigh, Rhyss knocked.

“Come on in,” Zero called.

He had a decent voice, for a dad. It made Rhyss wonder what his own voice sounded like. Probably not confident like Zero’s but maybe at least it was masculine.

Rhyss pushed the door open with his foot and stood there in the doorway for a minute. If Zero was surprised to see him, he didn’t say anything. If Zero was mad about him being drunk last night, he didn’t say anything.

Rhyss set the box down on Zero’s examining table. “It’s not much,” he apologized, “but it’s what I have.”

From the box, he pulled out three photo albums from his childhood, the part of it from before Jill disappeared, anyway.

And his owl, the one Emily had teased him about, the one from the picture.

Zero picked up the album from when Rhyss was oldest and started thumbing through it. Jill had taken all the pictures, so they weren’t great. Some were blurry, or in bad lighting, but they were still Rhyss. They were all he had to give Zero, in exchange for the ultrasounds.

“Thank you,” Zero said after a minute. He’d stopped at one of Rhyss on Jill’s old bike, with the pink tassels and the white wicker basket on the front.

Now Zero reached into his cabinet and held out a disc. “Konrad dropped the videos he had off. And there are albums in the living room,” he added.

“Thanks,” Rhyss said. He set the disc in the bottom of the box, with the owl. “I mostly just wanted you to see I still had the owl, but the pictures…you can keep those as long as you want.”

He wasn’t giving Zero the owl. Not when he was sleeping in a strange realm alone.

Zero didn’t try to touch the owl. He just stood there and looked at it. “I remember the day we got him for you,” be said. “It was your first birthday. We took you to the zoo.”

He’d never been to the zoo, or even really thought about it. He tried to imagine little baby him running around a bunch of exotic animals and couldn’t. He had no idea what baby Zach was like.

So he asked, “Was I more like Ella or Jax or Silas?”

Zero still had his eyes on the owl. After a minute, he looked back at Rhyss and said, “Almost identical to Jax.”

He wondered if Zero had guessed before. But no – how could he have, he thought Rhyss was dead. Just like Rhyss thought he didn’t have kids. If he’d seen Ella and Jax anywhere else, with Talise not there, he never would have guessed.

He thought about last night, about that feeling like they wanted him to be someone he wasn’t.

He thought about his life, ways he could be himself and still be someone they wanted, maybe.

He cleared his throat. “I do.” He said. Then after a second he added, “Remember you.”

Zero set the album down on his desk. “What do you remember?”

“Water, somewhere,” Rhyss said. He closed his eyes and he was there – blue-white water, in the jungle, maybe, or inside. The memory always shifted. “Being scared to go in and you telling me it was safe.”

Not just telling: Holding him, splashing water on his toes so he could see it was safe. And dipping his toes in.

“I have a pool at my house in Sylem, designed for Jinx,” Zero said. He looked at Rhyss. “Do you want to see it?”

“You still have it?” Twenty years was too long. It seemed impossible. In Clovercrest, nothing but decay lasted that long.

“I do,” Zero said. He had some kind of fancy travel pack so he could transport right from his office instead of going to a conference room.

Rhyss knew what it was from the book he’d gotten, to learn how to make travel packs, but he didn’t know how to make one. It took more than he understood about magic.

Zero put his hand on Rhyss’s shoulder.

Except his kids, and Talise, no one had touched him in days. He wasn’t that used to touch yet. Talise, Emily… Ella, Jax…

He didn’t shrug off Zero’s hand.

They transported to another room. It was a medical office just like the other one, except with wood. There was wood everywhere. Clean and warm.

“This is your house,” Rhyss realized. He knew these walls. The memories were old and scabbed over, not like his memories of his house in Clovercrest that were raw, but he knew these walls.

“Not what you expected?” Zero asked.

Rhyss looked away. He didn’t know how to explain the way this place felt like home, and he didn’t feel like sharing it with someone he wasn’t sure would get it.

All he said was, “I could never figure out where memories of wood walls came from.”

“I’ve always tried to ensure Jinx feels comfortable. Lots of wood. Your mom…Indigo has a flying squirrel.”

He didn’t remember the flying squirrel but he remembered her.

He said so. “Somewhere outside,” he told him.

“She had a garden,” Zero explained, like that was where it was, but Rhyss could remember the parking lot, the smell of summer heat, hot tar from someone paving nearby. Not a garden.

“She didn’t garden much, but she liked painting in it.” Zero added.

That was weird. Rhyss thought Indigo liked painting, not his mom. “She was somewhere with a lot of cars and she was upset. I think I must have almost gotten run over or something.”

Zero led him down some stairs into a jungle room with a miniature river, indoor trees and plants, and a wall of glass that looked out onto big green lawn and the ocean past that.

“Look familiar?” Zero asked.

Too familiar. This, more than anything, told him he belonged here. With Zero and Indigo and all those brothers and sisters. “And the waterfall,” Rhyss said. “Yeah, I remember this place.” He pointed to the lawn. “There used to be a playground there.”

“We’re building a new one for Silas,” Zero said. His eyes were on the window, but Rhyss kind of got the feeling he wasn’t really seeing the lawn. Not the way it was today, anyway. “The old one was destroyed in a storm,” he said.

They looked out the window together. Rhyss wondered how often the peninsula got hit in bad storms. None of the rich people who lived here seemed to mind.

After a while, Zero asked, “How was meeting your kids?”

“Good,” Rhyss said.

Sam’s house had a playground still. That whole place had been preserved by magic strong enough to protect it from any storms, apparently. “They played at the beach on the bay,” he said, pointing. He didn’t know why, but he didn’t really want to tell Zero he’d taken them to Sam’s house too.

“Giving them back was hard,” he added.

Zero rubbed the heel of his hand across his jawline. “Have you considered an attached apartment?” he asked.

“Is that even a thing?” Rhyss didn’t see how that would work. Living almost with Talise. No way. She was married, it was a bad idea.

Zero shook his head, like he could read Rhyss’s thoughts. “Acheron and Spence share the apartment,” he pointed out.

Great, yeah, Rhyss and his surprise brother could both go live with their ex.

That wouldn’t work either.

“She might have said something about that,” Rhyss said. He didn’t know how to tell Zero what a bad idea it was, but he had to try. “I didn’t stop…just because she left…I don’t know what to do.”

The last time he’d talked to Talise, just like the last time he’d talked to Em, they’d discussed marriage. Seriously, not just casual. It was why she’d told him she was heir to something he assumed was a cult. He’d even gotten her a ring, but someone had stolen it while his mom was in the hospital.

“You two are tied together,” Zero said. “You share a birthday. Is being a king on your list of aspirations?”

Rhyss laughed. “I’m not even sure about what I’m doing in Sylem right now,” Rhyss said. Lieutenant Governor was bad enough, never mind king.

He looked at Zero, where the light from the fake river rippled across his face. “What do you mean, we share a birthday?”

“She was born on June 8th, three years after you,” Zero told him. “About nine months after your death.”

Wow.

Rhyss looked at Zero.

Zero looked at the lawn.

He wondered if Zero had been there for that. Delivering someone else’s kids on the first post-death birthday of his own son. That would suck.

“It’s why I had the other twin theory,” Zero said. His voice changed, then, and he told Rhyss, “Her life is about to change in some ways. She’s predicted to die this week.”

The air rushed out of Rhyss.

“What?” he gasped.

“We’re trying to keep her safe,” Zero said, like trying was enough.

Everyone Rhyss knew was trying to stay safe. It didn’t usually work.

“But she and Indigo both are supposedly going to die, temporarily.” Zero went on.

Indigo. Rhyss didn’t know her really at all yet, but she seemed pretty harmless. Maybe a little entitled. And Talise, Ali, whoever she was…

Niels Poulsen better be freaking out.

“What do we do?” Rhyss asked.

Em and Ali, both in danger. Rhyss opened and closed his hands, flexing the fingers.

“I don’t know,” Zero admitted. “Prepare defensive spells. The fairies are immersed in feuds that span centuries.”

That meant Zero didn’t even know how or when or who would be involved.

“Well,” Rhyss looked at his feet. “It’s Friday, so the week is almost over. That’s not so bad. Just one more day and a little bit, to get through.”

“Yes,” Zero said.

Rhyss didn’t think he agreed, though.

“You have feelings for her,” Zero prodded. He stepped away from the wall of windows and looked back into the jungle room. “But what about Emily? And the other things going on. The whole picture matters when it comes to her.”

Rhyss shrugged his shoulders.

He wanted Em.

He wanted to have never lost Ali at all.

They couldn’t both be things he could have.

They might both be things he would never have.

“She’s married,” he said. “And I’m engaged, and happy about it. More than anything, it’s shock.”

That sounded good, anyway.

“Today is Sendvish,” Zero declared. Right. Elesara had weird weeks. Rhyss didn’t get it. “We have three more days in Elesara. And when she dies, she will be single.” Zero met his eyes. “You should keep in mind that you’re happy with Emily.”

“Why will she be single?” Rhyss asked, confused. “Is Niels supposed to die too?”

“When she dies, the wedding vows break. She’ll have to get married again,” Zero explained. It sounded like he didn’t think Rhyss should be with Talise-Ali-whoever she was anyway.

Rhyss got that. He wasn’t anything special, and Spence already was married to Talise. Maybe she’d hurt him and Zero was protecting Rhyss.

It didn’t matter. Rhyss had Em.

Put them in a room, side-by-side, and make him choose…he wouldn’t be able to. But he didn’t have to. He had Em, it was easy. He just had to get her back. He said so.

“We will,” Zero promised. He walked over and shut off the waterfall thing, and then got out some kind of narrow brush and started scrubbing the place on the fake rocks where the water came out. “First thing that comes to mind, no holding back,” he challenged. His eyes were on the rocks and not on Rhyss. “What do you want from life?”

That was easy. “To be a good dad.”

Easy, but harsh. Probably not what Zero wanted to hear.

“Lots of kids?” Zero asked.

“Not a ton,” Rhyss specified. But yeah. He wished there was another brush thing so he could help Zero.

“I’ll make sure the apartment idea gets to Aadya,” Zero offered.

Rhyss tried to imagine living in the same house with Ali-Talise. With their kids. With her single.

With Em out there, somewhere, fighting for her freedom.

No, he wouldn’t hurt Em.

“I really…I don’t think that would be a good idea until Em is here,” he warned Zero.

“It will take time to put together,” Zero promised. He turned the waterfall back on and a curtain of water separated them.

He reappeared. “Talise and Niels will never know how you feel unless you want them to.”

Rhyss nodded his head. “Is Indigo going to be okay? She doesn’t seem upset.”

Ali did. She was at least as tense as when he’d known her, maybe more.

“Part of her has always prepared for this,” Zero explained. “She is the princess of the Upper Dell,” whatever that was. “A war replaced her line.”

He had a lot to learn, he decided.

There was some kind of library at the palace. He needed to go there and look things up, like Upper Dell, and whatever that war was.

“And someone’s missing,” Rhyss asked. Camilla, or Mills, or something. Or they were the same person. “Who?” he asked.

“When she was the princess, she had a daughter: Camilla. Indigo took the trial to become the queen and failed it. As a result, she needed a new body.”

That made no sense to Rhyss. He’d have to look up trial too, when he was in the library.

“Camilla, as a princess to that throne, was taken,” Zero continued. “We suspect to be bred so her offspring can wage war against this kingdom. We’ve been advised to allow her the chance to rescue herself.”

“For character building or something?” Rhyss asked. He pictured some kind of rich-people psychiatrist convincing people that it was better for victims to solve their own problems.

Not Zero though, he didn’t seem like someone who would fall for that. Neither did Indigo.

“So she doesn’t die,” Zero answered.

His voice was steady, but his hands did the flex thing Rhyss’s hands did when he was stressed.

“Apparently,” Zero added, “our attempts to help would seal that fate.” He started waking and his tone of voice shifted again. Rhyss guessed he was done talking about Camilla. “It isn’t shared, but Aadya has a magic to help us get Emily back. Her boyfriend has two sons there. She’s working,” he promised Rhyss, “even if it feels like you’re just waiting.” He smiled. “She can behave like a cat at times. Waiting to pounce.”

Maybe, but Rhyss wondered how helpful she’d be if it was just Em. If she wasn’t showing off for her new boyfriend.

He didn’t understand these people at all.

It was all really cushy and nice, but he was lost outside Clovercrest. At least he knew where he stood, there.

“Will you tell me if I do stuff that’s wrong?” he asked Zero.

“I will,” Zero promised. “Most of the magic is trial and experience. You have strong lineage, it’s just about directing it. In the early morning, Konrad has a mind focusing class. You may want to participate at some point.”

Huh. Mind focusing.

Rhyss wondered what that was about. How that was even a class. “I can look into that,” he said. “But I don’t mean the magic, I mean…in general.” There were a lot of ways for him to screw things up, and he didn’t want to.

Zero put his arm around Rhyss’s shoulders. Fatherly. “I know,” he said. “I will be as much of a father as you will let me be.”

Rhyss thought that was kind of the idea.

He made that same promise to Ella and Jax, to be what they needed.

He had nothing else of real value to give them, so he offered this because it was what he had.

Maybe Zero knew he was helping Rhyss know what to do, and maybe he didn’t, but either way it was working.

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