Episode 220: Treaties (Rhyss)

It was hard to be this close to Em, in a cell. With other people, knowing she was going to go back.

There had to be some way to talk her out of it. Get her safe.

 She was so focused on the kids they brought back, talking to each one of them. Rhyss didn’t get it. It wasn’t like he thought they shouldn’t be safe, he just didn’t understand why Em wanted to be the one to do it. She was pregnant, she had her own kids to protect, not those ones.

He decided he’d volunteer to go instead when the time came. Their kids would be safe, protected. He knew his parents would make sure she was okay, and she was so competent anyway.

And he would just…figure stuff out. His dad wouldn’t let him be in a dangerous place for long, so even if he couldn’t find his own way out of there he knew he’d be rescued.

He watched Em wake up the newest kid, one of the six year olds, warm and kind of glowing while she talked to them. She loved this. He didn’t get why. He guessed it was the same thing that made her help him when they were kids.

She just loved helping people.

Except she was pregnant and this was dangerous and there had to be someone else who could be working at that place, someone else who could be in danger so she and their kids would have to be.

That was selfish.

He wasn’t built for this kind of thing. He was, maybe, but he wasn’t ready for it right now. He wanted time for her to meet his kids. Time together to talk and figure things out. They’d barely dated even and now she wanted to leave again.

That was it, that was his problem. She was here, finally, and she was focused on those kids and not on wanting to spend time together. Precious moments, or whatever, and she was spending them doing that when there were other people here who could’ve been doing that while he talked to her.

It was stupid and selfish. Shame rushed into his face.

Hurt, too.

He didn’t want to think about it, so it was kind of a relief when the queen’s husband guy walked in. New distraction.

Greg, the husband guy, was kind of funny. Rhyss knew when he painted, he looked like that was where he belonged. Talise had told him so years ago. He was most comfortable, most relaxed, with a brush in his hand and an idea in his mind.

In a classroom full of people who didn’t know how to paint, Rhyss knew he stood out. He could figure out how to do anything with enough patience, so nothing the teacher said worried him.

Greg was the same way. He kind of seemed like he could handle anything the world threw at him, and he knew it, so he never got stressed or tense or anything.

When he walked in, he and the blonde guy that was bringing all the kids kind of assessed each other. Greg’s eyes flickered over the other guy’s body, then around the whole cell, then settled on Corban, the guard guy that Konrad was training.

Rhyss knew from talking to Spence, and his own memories of when he’d dated Talise, that Corban started guarding Talise right around when she stopped dating Rhyss.

He wondered if people knew about him back then. Not him, by name, but that she was doing something reckless, so they’d given her a guard. Corban.

He looked like he’d fit right in with Niels’s band group, so maybe it was about her meeting Niels, not about her dating Rhyss. That would be nice.

He bet Talise hated having a guard.

Greg just walked up to Corban like they were old friends and said in a quiet voice – quiet for Greg, so it was really quiet because he usually talked in a lower voice – “Aadya says to find someone who can get this to Drey.”

He put something in Corban’s hand, while Corban nodded his head.

Drey? Like, Talise’s dead dad?

Fairies were weird. Maybe it was code for something.

Greg looked around the room again. This time, his eyes settled on Em and got really wide. He shoved his hands in his pockets and looked at the dark-haired Calseasa guy. “I’m Greg.”

“Guy,” the guy said. Huh. A guy named Guy.

The blonde guy stepped toward Greg a little. “If you’ll submit yourself for arrest, I can bring one of your sons here tonight.”

Was that what Greg was doing here?

He didn’t know the queen well, but he had a feeling she was having a bad night. Labor, this…

“Just a minute.” Greg put his hand up, and everyone in the room, even the couple of kids there, stopped talking. “You have one of my sons here tonight.” He looked back at Guy.

Guy and the blonde Calseasa guy looked at each other. “Me?” Guy asked.

“You,” Greg said.

Rhyss guessed he could see it. They kind of had the same way of standing, the same hair and eyes. Not exactly the same, but there was something. An echo, almost. Guy looked at Greg, who nodded his head. “The secret son no one knew we had. You work for them?”

“I do,” Guy said, like he regretted it but was stuck. Greg clicked his tongue.

“The thirty younger boys are my class,” Guy explained, gesturing toward the couple of kids in the room.

Rhyss looked at them. It was a mistake. Em was there next to the smaller boy, telling him something in a soft tone. She wasn’t even watching any of this. She didn’t look at him when he tried to catch her eye, either.

He wiped his hands on his pants. “My first cull,” Guy said, with a laugh that sounded uncomfortable. “It didn’t go according to their plan.”

Greg looked at the two boys in the room. “Are any of them Philip?” he asked. His voice was strained, stretched out.

Okay, maybe Greg was scared.

Rhyss would be.

Guy shrugged like an apology. “I don’t have any Philips.”

Now Em spoke up. For them, not for Rhyss: “Well, Oscar isn’t called Oscar,” she pointed out.

Rhyss flexed his fingers against the air. If he was going to be useless, he might as well sit down.

“Pip’s name is Philip,” the blonde guy told Greg and Guy. “He is Greg’s. That’s the boy we’ll bring here if you come.”

Right. Greg hadn’t agreed to go yet. He was careful, talking instead of deciding right away. Probably he’d already decided and didn’t want them to know.

“I’m one of your other son’s teachers,” Em told Greg in that confident voice she had, like she could solve all the problems in the world if she tried. “He’s doing well enough. In trouble, but getting by.”

“Neron is not in trouble,” the blonde guy told her.

She raised her eyebrows, almost an eye roll. “Did I say Neron?” she said. “Guy plus Greg does not resemble Neron.”

 The blonde guy and Corban both laughed. Greg didn’t. He kept his hands in his pockets and met Guy’s eyes. “I can trade myself for one son,” he offered.

“You may not make it back out,” Guy warned him.

There was a silence. Rhyss wished he hadn’t sat down because now his muscles were all tense and Em still wasn’t looking at him and he couldn’t think of a reason to get up and move around.

“I may not,” Greg agreed.

Guy knelt down by the chalk star drawn onto the floor, for reviving the boys. “If you want to come, I can deliver Pip.”

Greg still didn’t answer. That was smart. He still had the upper hand here.

Corban must have decided that Greg was going to go. He pushed himself off the wall with his shoulders, arms crossed, and stepped towards them. “Emily stays here until you bring the boy,” he negotiated.

Em looked up at Rhyss. Her eyes were almost lavender in this lighting. “Then I have to go,” she said firmly.

He guessed he didn’t have any say. She’d made up her mind.

He bit back his anger about that.

“Why?” he asked her, and then he looked at the blonde guy. “What if I went instead?”

Emily went from kneeling to standing. “They’re letting me teach them. You’d be stuck somewhere else.”

She wanted to go back? Why? Was it that she didn’t trust him to be useful to the people there who mattered to her, or that she had to be the one in control, or that she didn’t actually want to be around him? She’d hardly looked at him, even though they only had a few minutes together.

“And…” she added. “My three youngest.”

The ones she’d been teaching before. Back when she told him she was a nanny and not part of some kind of insane project that was enemies with his family.

His family. That was supposed to include her, but she stood right there and she was more okay being across the cell from him than standing near him.

It was the biggest small space he’d ever been in, the distance between them.

The disappointment.

The blonde Calseasa guy looked at Rhyss, kind of sizing him up. Rhyss looked back at him. He wasn’t afraid to go. Maybe it was reckless of him, but he’d do it for Em. Even if she turned out not to want him, he didn’t want her back there.

Greg put his hand on Rhyss’s arm. “Your dad needs your help upstairs soon,” he said. Right, because he had luck magic. This was him saying Rhyss shouldn’t go. “Not right this minute,” Greg added, “but you should be here.”

 He wondered how Greg would like it if things were turned around, and Rhyss was the one with luck telling him not to go save his kids.

But Rhyss had kids here too. Em didn’t know about them, he barely even knew them, but they were here.

He couldn’t just leave them, for her.

But she had his kids too, growing inside her. He couldn’t just let them leave.

He looked at Greg, Mister Luck Magic. “Will the babies be okay if she goes?” he asked.

“They should be,” Greg said. That wasn’t an answer, that was a dodge. Yes would have been an answer. Should be was avoiding the question, while he tried to get Rhyss to do what luck said he should do.

“You bought the house,” Em said. “Make sure it has enough rooms? The three boys…it’s complicated, but I want to raise them. Five.”

Five she wanted to raise, or five including theirs? And how did she know he’d bought the house, anyway.

He shifted forward in the chair before his whole body got taken over with tight muscles.

“I have a mansion too,” he managed to say. “There’s lots of rooms.”

Maybe they could live there together. There was a lot more space for her to focus on kids and ignore him there.

No. That thought was so selfish. She was helping people, saving lives.

“I heard you were rich,” she teased, like everything was fine. “They’d take everything and more from you,” she told him, “because of who you are. I’m just me.”

She wasn’t just her. She was the girl who’d mowed the grass in the park and helped him get braces and helped tons of people in the neighborhood.

She wasn’t just her. She was the twins, too, growing inside her.

He clenched his jaw.

“You should enjoy what you have,” Greg told him.

Cecil pulled something from his pocket – some kind of nylon linked bracelet – and bound Greg’s hands together. “Come on,” he said, and then they just…vanished.

They were running out of time and he hadn’t talked her into staying yet. “How long do we have?” he asked Em.

“Minutes?” she guessed. She stepped closer to him and he had an excuse to stand up, finally. “I don’t want to go back,” she apologized, “but the three boys I watch…their bodies came from me. Not who is in them, but I love them the same.”

“You have kids?” he asked. So her three and their two and his two and Annatto who was kind of his. Suddenly they had a lot of kids together. And she still hadn’t come near him.

Maybe it was his fault for not being near her.

“I traded eggs, and they assigned me the boys when they were four right after, but I did tests. So they are mine in blood.”

Eight kids.

He wanted her to help Annatto. Annatto needed her, her steadiness and capableness and all the other stuff that was her. And she was going back.

“I have genuinely mine kids too. I didn’t know until last week,” he said, just in case she thought he’d kept them a secret. “Twins. Plus I adopted someone. So we need a big house.”

“A very big house,” she agreed. “The six other kids, five not counting Asa, matter to me too.” She looked at him, finally meeting his eyes with warmth instead of that efficient look she had. “How are you?” she asked.

Corban, the guard, leaned back against the wall. He and Spence looked at each other for a minute before Spence left the room. Rhyss wondered what that was about, but he didn’t want to ask because Em was finally paying attention to him.

“Um,” he stammered. “I’m good. It’s a lot of change.” He lifted his arm and almost touched her shoulder, and then he didn’t. He should have, but he didn’t. Corban was watching them and Em hadn’t even really noticed Rhyss until just now. So he straightened a little and instead of telling her he missed her, he asked, “How bad is it there?”

She nodded toward the door, that all the kids had left the cell through. “All thirty-four of those kids were dead, should be dead. Just because they weren’t the chosen kids.”

Sounded a lot like Clovercrest.

He nodded his head, like he understood why they mattered more than her kids growing inside her. “Do they hurt you?”

“No, they don’t.” She stepped closer to him. “I have a boring room now.”

Boring, to Em, probably meant the same thing it did to him: Some version of the taupe and white sterility of Sam’s house.

She probably didn’t have paints though.

“You can make paints out of food stuff,” he suggested. “How boring is it?”

She hugged him, finally. She was warm, and she was soft but more tense than when he’d hugged her last. She still fit in his arms, though.

“I wish I could stay,” she told him. In his arms, her body relaxed more, softened to what he remembered.

He rested his chin on his head. “Me too. I miss you,” he admitted. “You’d like it here.” She’d love the challenge of Annatto too.

“We could go into hiding,” she offered. “But it might hurt others.”

Corban stepped away from the wall, not exactly toward them but it got their attention. “If you want,” he offered. “We’ll protect you.”

Here, safe, with Em. It was all he wanted.

She took a step back and looked at him. “What do you want? To leave now and not look back, or to see this through?”

Well when she worded it like keeping her safe was quitting…was that really how she saw it?

He didn’t know how to answer that, so he didn’t. “I wish Greg was still here. He has luck magic.”

Corban cleared his throat.

“You have luck,” Em accused him, at the same second Rhyss realized that the eye contact between Spence and Corban was about luck magic, and him and Em, and it mattered. He pressed his palms against his jeans. “What does it say?” Em demanded, soft but expectant.

Corban didn’t look away or anything, like a lot of people would have. He was just honest and direct. “If you want to be together, this is your last chance. But there’s more overall good the other way. Even if it sucks for you right now.”

More overall good. His breath caught. He knew what Em would choose, what anyone would choose.

Why was it so selfish to just want to be good and safe and alive? Rhyss was all for helping, but if you were dead you couldn’t help anyone, ever again.

More overall good. He scowled at Corban.

“Our last chance?” Em echoed, shocked.

Corban nodded his head. He ran his thumb over the hilt of his sword, thoughtful, and then looked up at them both. “If you separate today, one of you dies. Confusingly.” He narrowed his eyes. “I’m not very good at luck.”

 Em pressed herself against Rhyss. She’d realized what he’d realized. If Greg meant it, that the babies should be okay, and one of them was supposed to die…

“And if we don’t?” Em asked, protective.

Corban’s face got vague again for a minute, and then somehow he laughed. Rhyss didn’t know what was so funny, but he hugged Em against him while they waited.

“It sounds really dramatic,” Corban said, “but…the end of the world? Not in a human lifetime, but soon enough.”

“Because of us?” Em gasped. She sounded skeptical, but she hadn’t seen these fairies in action. They knew their stuff. They were good at their stuff.

Rhyss was going to die. He was going to lose Em and die and never know any of his kids and let Annatto down and be dead.

“Because if you’re together,” Corban said in a more gentle tone, “you’re not with other people.”

Em huffed a little. “I don’t believe that,” she said.

Rhyss wanted to laugh. Because it almost sounded like Em didn’t believe they couldn’t be together and still see other people. She meant she didn’t believe the world would end.

He did. He had a choice right now, according to Corban and luck magic and all the random stuff the fairies knew, to let the world end, or let his world end.

He chose life, but that wasn’t an option either way. Apparently.

The blonde guy from Calseasa came back, this time with a little boy who was very not dead. He had wide blue eyes and looked around at everything.

Corban ignored them. He pressed closer to Rhyss and Em. “Ask me anything, I can find the answer.”

“You can find your answer,” Em argued. She took a deep breath. “What will they do to my three, if I don’t go back?”

Corban shrugged his shoulders. “Nothing. I mean, they’ll find someone new to raise them, but they’re too valuable to hurt.” He closed his eyes. He looked so much like he was meditating that Rhyss half expected him to start doing yoga. Instead he opened his eyes. “The person who would be punished is…Brandon? Brayden? Something like that.”

“Brendan?” Em asked. She sighed. “I don’t know. I…”

Wait, was she actually not sure? It was obvious she had to go back, if the other choice was end of the world. Except she didn’t believe Corban, because she hadn’t seen the fairies in action this week. She hadn’t seen how much his family knew and trusted them.

He had to do it, then. She wasn’t sure, so he had to be.

He kissed her. “I love you,” he told her. “Go do what you need to do.”

And he’d stay here and do what he needed to do, which was die. Apparently.

She opened her mouth like she was going to argue with him. He shook his head and interrupted her before she could even start. “Greg just gave himself to your people to protect his kids. There’s no way you wouldn’t do the same for yours.” He swallowed. “It’s okay,” he lied.

She hugged him. “Okay,” she breathed. “Not okay.”

He squeezed her tight in his arms, feeling her there and smelling her and wondering how he could have ever started this night out feeling jealous of the people she was saving. She was just doing the right thing.

So was he.

“Good luck, Em.”

She pulled out of his arms and kissed him. “Good luck, Rhyss.”

She stepped away and nodded at the blonde guy, and the next second they were gone.

It took him a minute for his vision to clear, as he blinked away tears. Ach and Spence came in and he looked away, towards a wall, where they wouldn’t see.

When he found his voice again, he turned to face Corban. “How soon am I supposed to die?” he asked.

“A couple weeks?” Corban estimated. “It depends on a lot of stuff.”

Well. At least he wouldn’t know when. It could be a surprise.

“Wait, you’re dying?” Ach asked.

Ha.

“For a purpose,” Spence said. It sounded like he was reassuring Ach, but Rhyss thought it was probably really for him. He should have known he couldn’t hide crying from Spence. “And not forever, I’m guessing. But Emily wasn’t supposed to know that part.”

Corban nodded his head. “Okay,” he said to Rhyss. “Your dad needs you, and this kid is supposed to go to Aadya.”

Not yet, wasn’t Aadya in labor?

“I can watch him for the night,” Ach offered.

They all started talking. Planning stuff. Rhyss left, because he didn’t really think he had much left to plan, and he wanted to be alone. Even if it was just for a minute.

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