Episode 155: Heading Home (Pish)

Morning saw another Teyless day, this one preordained.

He was beginning to wonder whether he’d done something wrong, something to offend her. Maybe she’d discovered the lie. Maybe she realized he was the least interesting male specimen in the sea.

Maybe she’d found someone else.

Kevish was a relief because he’d planned his trip home a day earlier than usual, so he took a half day at lunch and made his way over the top of the city, like he swam in a great dome overhead, and only returned to ground level when he neared his childhood home.

He swam in the door without knocking rocks together to announce he was there.

There’d been an argument once, between his brother Cander, and his mom, about it. Words like independence and mollycoddling had been used.

Pish, for all his knowledge, still hadn’t sorted out what mollycoddling meant.

His mom had used the phrase: “The day I make him knock to come home is the day he stops visiting,” which, Pish assumed, meant she thought he’d have to knock if he stopped visiting.

He made sure to visit every week so she wouldn’t make him knock, because he couldn’t stand the idea of knocking at his own house. It wouldn’t feel like home anymore. He would feel like an outsider.

He swam into the apartment. It was four rooms – the front room, which was long and narrow and mostly for guests; two middle rooms, which were smaller, one for eating and one for birthing; and a back room, up through a tunnel, which was subtly partitioned for family beds.

The only ones left at home now where his mom and the baby.

Neither one of them was in the front room when he arrived. “Hello?” he called up the little passageway toward the eating room.

His mom swam down to meet him. She pulled him into one of her hugs that enveloped him like a wave. “How are you?”

How was he? Home, he was home, and that was his safest place. “Home,” he told her. “I need to find a new assistant if I can,” he said. That was his biggest problem. He was Teyless. She’d never missed a day. His instinct told him it was related to the mating, and that she wouldn’t be back.

“What happened?” his mom asked.

“I’m not sure.” He shrugged and smiled a little, embarrassed. Imagine if she knew, if she found out what he’d done. “She quit, or stopped coming for some other reason. She’s never missed a day, she wasn’t at her house.”

There. That was a nice summary that didn’t mention mating in any form. He hadn’t even talked about plant reproduction.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “How is your research going?”

He wondered if she was really sorry. People always said such mundane, compulsory things without thinking about whether they meant them. If a person had a problem or a personal loss, everyone who knew them was automatically sorry. He didn’t see why his mom should really be sorry. It didn’t affect her.

“Well,” he lied about the research. He told her that every week, because once Cander had told him nobody wanted all the details of the science and troubleshooting he did everyday.

If at first you don’t succeed, try try again. And again. And again…

Well was a generic answer. It seemed to satisfy his mom and keep his brother from being annoyed with him.

He tried to remember what else he was supposed to say. “How is the baby?” he asked.

“Don’t call him that,” she admonished. “He’s playing.”

That didn’t tell Pish how he was, but that was okay. The baby was usually loud, needy, covered in food or ink or who knew what else.

“And you?” Pish asked. He hoped she was okay. He wanted her okay even though she was a widow with a young child.

Unlike Cander, he wasn’t in any rush for her to remarry. It was her life, her choice.

“Hey,” Cander called from below.

Pish sighed. He’d gotten a few moments at least.

“I’m well,” his mom assured him before Cander and his wife swept into the room and hugged his mom. “Welcome home,” she told them.

Pish was the exact size and shape for a Pish.

Cander was not. He flourished on muscle and brawn and other manly Cander-shaped words.

Pish was all lavenders and teals, soft, where Cander was reds and oranges like the fire in the rift.

Even Cander’s voice was red.

“Titon should be here soon with Yreilia.” He ran his hand through his hair. “We need to talk.”

“Trouble at work?” his mom asked.

Cander was second in charge of the military. What it meant was that Cander did all the work while someone else got all the credit. This annoyed Cander, although it would have been a relief to Pish.

Cander turned his red voice on Pish. “You lost your assistant?”

Oh, how did he know?

Pish just nodded his head.

“You’re about to lose your lab,” Cander accused. “Maybe our home too.”

“Our home?” their mom repeated. “What happened, Cander.”

“His assistant,” Cander said, pointing toward Pish somehow by just using his head, “did something illegal. Thelos married her to his son Rykos to keep better control of her but there’s a chance she was pregnant before the wedding.”

See, that was a summary that did involve mating. The entire goal of today was to keep mating out of all discussions.

“Pregnant?” Pish asked, the palest sliver of turquoise in his voice.

Cander put his arm on Pish’s shoulder. Like he owned him, like he approved of him for the first time ever. “It’s a natural consequence of finding your land legs, buddy.”

His mom gaped at him, mouth open wide like a whale. “You’ve been seeing a girl?” she asked.

Heat flooded his face. It wasn’t anyone’s business. “I…” he stammered. “She left.”

“She married Rykos,” Cander informed him. “You said you bonded to her?”

“It seemed to matter to her, that I have a bond,” Pish defended. He could feel Cander’s wife’s eyes on him, judging. He wished he could remember her name.

Not Tey’s – he knew all of Tey, more of her than he knew girls had. He was looking forward to continuing that, not to this.

“Did you?” his mom asked.

He felt as though he were on trial. “No,” he said flatly.

Titon and his wife arrived, quietly. Titon was Cander’s son. He followed after his dad in every way except that two people couldn’t both be second in command in the military, so Titon had a lower rank.

“Good,” Cander said. “Everyone’s here. We should leave while we can. Pish can get a job on land somewhere while we figure things out.”

“What do you mean, land?” Erie asked. Pish could remember her name, because she was skittish too. Out of all his family, she was the one he understood a bit, and they weren’t even related.

“We are taking a little trip, to make sure everyone is safe,” their mom explained, and she hugged Titon and Erie.

“Why?” Titon demanded. He was a perfect mirror of his dad.

“Thelos is acting, moving against our family,” Cander explained.

Erie pressed her palms against her abdomen. “Why would he do that?”

Cander and their mom shared some kind of worried look. It completely left Pish out of whatever they thought.

“Old secrets and new problems,” Cander explained. “The point is, I don’t think any of us will have jobs or homes by the end of the week.”

It couldn’t possibly be that drastic, just because Tey had mated with him. There must be some other reason, something he was missing. Something his mom and Cander knew, information no one trusted him with.

“We should swim,” his mom said. “We can talk on shore.”

While Titon and Erie launched into a discussion about the risks to Erie, who was from a good family and would probably be safe, coming with or staying…Pish looked at Cander.

“What about Tey?” he asked his brother. No bond aside, she deserved to be safe. He wanted to protect her.

Cander let out a huff of bubbly air. “Even if you could get to her, she’s not thrilled with you.”

That was right. He wouldn’t be able to get anywhere near Prince Rykos.

He felt his mom’s arm slide across his shoulders and settle its weight on him. “We’ll find you a new research assistant. If you didn’t bond…it’s better to start new.”

But what about the baby?

“If she’s pregnant…” he protested.

“She’s married,” Cander barked.

Pish closed his mouth and thought about Tey. He wasn’t that attached to her, but she was a person. She should have had rights, not been forced into a marriage with a not-quite-prince.

If she was pregnant, and Thelos knew she was pregnant, then his baby would be treated differently by Thelos. Mocked, among the royals.

He clenched his teeth. He knew someone who would help him. Two someones. He’d never met them but they were scholarly and travelled a lot and if anyone could get Tey for him it was those two. He just had to find them.

“We’ll sort it out, Pish,” his mom promised. “We should go now, if he’s planning something.”

“We should go hours ago,” Cander complained.

They wouldn’t make it more than a few hundred feet. “He’ll know we’re leaving,” Pish pointed out.

“He’s busy this morning,” Cander told them. “Some noble family is trying to arrange a marriage for their daughter.”

“Good. It will take time to swim.” Their mom moved toward the door. “Anyone who wants to be safe, we’re leaving. I have to get Nooryan and I’ll be at Maiden’s Refuge.”

Not there. That was in Teca. Pish was almost certain that whatever was wrong with the bees, had started there. Instinct told him the place was plagued by something that was as against life as bees were for it.

But his family would never listen to him, even though he was the only one of them who’d spent any real time on land. He’d have to make a different argument.

“Are we splitting up?” he asked.

“We should go to one of the selkie temples,” Cander decided. “They don’t like Thelos. Maybe not to one, because they don’t like us either, but near one.”

Better. There was a temple in the Dells. It was actually the temple closest to them.

“Near one it is,” their mom agreed. “The one to the east. Or does he like that kingdom now?”

“He hates the Upper Dell,” Cander said, with a smile.

Good. Pish didn’t even have to make a case for the Dells. He thought it was possible Cander would argue if he spoke up, just for the sake of it.

“Will you be travelling with Cander or me?” his mom asked.

“With you,” Cander said.

Pish swam a few feet away. He knew Cander disliked him, but the dismissiveness stung to hear.

His mom put her hand on his forearm. “Do we need to kidnap Tey or can you survive this?” she asked.

Why would Tey being pregnant result in his death?

He studied her, serious and trying to be comforting, and realized she meant could he be okay, emotionally.

“There are people on land who can find out if she’s even pregnant,” he told her. The prince in hiding in the Upper Dell, he just had to find him, he’d know where to find anyone.

“Are we leaving her then?” his mom clarified.

“We shouldn’t endanger ourselves,” Pish decided. If Thelos had married Tey to his  own son, she would be safe. His son would protect her.

Pish hadn’t. He knew there was something he was supposed to do. He should be protective of Tey, that was the job of the male in any mating relationship with mammalian creatures. But Tey was very self-sufficient and Pish was very not, so in a way him protecting her didn’t make sense.

He swallowed back the feeling that he was failing as a male. “I have friends who may help us.” Not really friends. Persons of intellect who had written him letters during his stay in Angmaan. “People who know my research even though I don’t know them,” he modified. “One of them lives in the Dells.”

“We’ll be there soon,” she promised. “Nory!” she called the baby. “Time to go.”

The baby came out. He wasn’t really a baby anymore. He was five or eight, somewhere in there. Ten, maybe, or four.

“Would you like to swim?” Pish asked him.

“Where? No.”

So young still. His answer to everything was no. Pish thought he had trouble either with processing questions or with giving answers, so he said no to buy himself time.

“I have a treat for you,” their mom offered.

“No, I want to play here,” Nooryan insisted. He started to swim away; that was a real answer, not his default no.

“Do you want to see land?” Pish asked him.

“What man?”

“Land,” Pish said more carefully. “Not water.”

“We’re going on a trip, Nory,” their mom explained. She’d taken Nooryan’s hand in hers. “Come on, you’ll see the sun too.”

The sun caught his interest, Pish saw. The way his eyes lit and he backed away a little and said, “I guess,” like he didn’t want to.

Pish smiled.

“It’s a race to the Upper Dell,” their mom said. “Can you beat us?”

“Yeah!” Nooryan shouted and he took of swimming, into the city and upwards, angled toward the surface of a distant shore.

Pish hoped that prince who wrote the letters was still there. He didn’t have a backup plan.

<- Episode 154 | Episode 156 ->