Exile in the Water Kingdom (The Elemental Phases Book 3) (6 page)

I have come to the
terrifying conclusion that I am the decisive element….

If we treat people as they
are, we only make them worse.  If we treat people as

they ought to be, we help
make them all they are capable of becoming.

Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe

Since
the Fall, the King’s Chamber in the Water Palace stood empty.  Good manners and
expediency meant that it was the perfect place for Gion, though.

There
were plenty of bedrooms in the palace, but this one was the nicest and Ty had
the impulse to show off the Water Kingdom’s beauty.  For some reason, Ty cared
if Gion found his new home impressive.  She wanted him to like it.

Plus,
the King’s Chamber was one of the few extra bedrooms that consistently stayed
made up, so it took no preparations for Gion to move right it.  Nia and Tharsis
were in the Shadow Kingdom for the night, but Brokk would be looking for her.  Ty
only had a limited window of time to think about sleeping arrangements.  She all
but shoved her new citizen through the double doors and then sighed.

Typical.

Gion
looked oddly
right
in the serene space.

Which
was ridiculous, given his Jack the Ripper fashion sense.

Like
most of the Water Palace’s rooms, the King’s Chamber overlooked the sea.  The
large four poster bed in the center of the room was draped in gauzy blue
fabrics. Pastel, Minoan style murals decorated the walls.  White stone tiles
covered the floor.  Everything was designed to be light and airy, and to draw
attention to the spectacular view.

Dark
and imposing, Gion moved over to the floor-to-ceiling windows and stared out at
the moonlit waves.  Glass doors along the exterior wall led to a balcony that
overlooked the Water Kingdom’s highest waterfall.  From the bed, you could see
nothing but the endless pouring of the waterfall into the ocean far below.

Ty
had seen the sight all her life and she still thought it was stunning.

Gion
didn’t react for a long moment.  Then, he glanced at her over his shoulder. 
“Whose room is this?”

“Yours.” 
She bit her lower lip.  “Listen, could you possibly stay in here for a little
bit?  I’ll need to explain this to Brokk and…”

“No,
I mean, whose room is it
really?
  Is this the King’s Chamber?”

“It
was.  Before my parents died.”

“Well,
why don’t you sleep here, then?  You’re the queen, now.”

Ty
shook her head.  “I have my own bedroom.”  This was her parents’ room; the real
king and queen of the Water House.  “So, will this do, for now?  If you aren’t
happy here, you can pick your own room tomorrow, but I have to…”

“
You
should be in the King’s Chamber, Tritone.”  Gion looked genuinely annoyed.

Ty
didn’t want to argue.  She never wanted to argue.  “That really isn’t any of
your business.”

Gion
turned back towards the window.  “Very well.”  He brooded quietly for a beat. 
“Before you go, then, we need to discuss restrictions.  Are there any places in
this kingdom that you’d rather I not go?”

Ty
frowned.  “Well, knock before you go into other people’s bedrooms.  Tharsis
isn’t going to like it if you just burst in on him.  And I think Brokk has his
door booby-trapped, so that could be dangerous.”

Gion
shot her another look.  “I meant
other
than the occupied bedrooms,
obviously.”

“Oh.” 
Ty thought about that.  “No.”

“Do
you have a list of laws for the kingdom?”

“I
don’t think so.”  Ty’s frown got deeper.  “I guess we did before the Fall. 
But, since it’s just the three Water Phases left now –me, Nia and Thar-- we
don’t really enforce any laws.”

“Brokk
lives here, now, and so do I.”

“Brokk’s
a Wood Phase.  They never do anything wrong.”  Wood Phases were notoriously
good at following rules.

The
Council had assigned Brokk to Ty as a bodyguard due to the high number of
people who wanted her dead on any given day.  He took his job hyper-serious, so
he really wasn’t going to like her bringing Gion home with her.  In fact, he
wouldn’t be thrilled that she’d left the human realm, at all.  Brokk was
supposed to be picking Ty up from her drug counseling, but she’d skipped out on
him.  Better to have Gion’s arrival a fait accompli.  Less chance of Brokk
trying to decapitate the guy.

“My
father was a Wood Phase.”  Gion remarked.

“Really?” 
Ty hadn’t known that.  It was hard to imagine Gion being half Wood Phase.  They
were so… good.  “Were you close to him?”  Ty had adored both her parents.  She
missed them every day.

“I’ve
never been close to anyone.”  Gion carried a bag with him and he tossed it onto
the bed.  Ty briefly though how sad it was that Gion’s whole life fit into a
single satchel.  “I’d feel more comfortable if we established some ground rules
about living here.  I like to know where I stand.”

“Don’t
hurt my family.  I told you, that’s all I care about.”  Ty wondered what Gion
was expecting her to say.  Given what she knew about the Air Kingdom, probably
the show times and seating charts for tomorrow’s public executions.  “Just use
your own best judgment about the rest.  We don’t have dungeons in the Water
House, so I promise you won’t get chained-up for jaywalking.”

Gion
glanced at her sharply.  “Was that an actual joke, Tritone?”

“No.” 
Yes
.  “Um… I have to go call Brokk, before he finds me missing from the
meeting.”

Gion
wasn’t done grilling her.  “What should I do here, though?”

Ty
looked over at the bed.  “Sleep?”

“Not
in the
bedroom
.  In the kingdom.  What should my function be?”

“Um…
I don’t know.”  Ty blinked.  “Can you cook?  We usually take turns doing that.”

“No.”

“Oh. 
Well, that’s okay.  You can buy us takeout on your nights, I guess.  Pizza is
very popular.”

Gion
wasn’t satisfied with that.  “What do the rest of you do all day?”  The Air
House fostered a super competitive, Gordon Gekko-ish drive.  Gion looked
confused that Ty wouldn’t assign him some high-pressure, “complete-them-or-don’t-come-back”
tasks.

“Well…
Nia lives in the Shadow Kingdom most of the time, so she’s fixing it up to her
liking.  Plus, she works with the Council.  And Tharsis, he…”  Ty trailed off
because she had no idea what Tharsis really did day-to-day, anymore.  “He
watches TV, a lot.  He likes that show with the humans trying to be fashion
models.”

“Uh-huh.” 
Gion crossed his arms over his chest.  “And what do you do?”

“I
work on my projects on the computer.  I’m helping Job find humans with
Elemental DNA markers.”  Locating human Matches was the only way the Elementals
could stave off extinction.  “And I do research on the missing Tablets of
Fate.  Trying to discover where they’re hidden.”

Gion
rolled his eyes.  “Looking for those damn boxes is a waste of time.”

“I
wasn’t asking you to help.”  Ty assured him, a little annoyed.  “Do whatever
you want, alright?  The Water Kingdom allows everyone to find their own path. 
We always have.  What do you
like
doing?  Do that.”

Gion
stared down at the bedspread.

Ty
suddenly realized that he had no idea what he liked to do.

None.

Ty’s
heart broke a little.  Gion terrified her, but that was partly because she had
boundless respect for him.  Gion could do anything.  Next to Job, he was the
most gifted Phase in the universe.  Beautiful, untouchable, powerful, he stood
in the King’s Chamber filling the entire space with his presence.

…And
he looked utterly lost.

“Gion,
you don’t have to figure everything out today.  And you never have to worry about
making yourself useful.  No one will kick you out, even if you just want to
spend your days doing jigsaw puzzles.”

He
didn’t believe that.  She could see it the set of his brow.  Gion thought that
he needed to be contributing to the bottom line every second.  The idea that
he’d be welcomed even without exceeding the highest performance standards
seemed utterly foreign to him.

The
Water House didn’t force people into boxes or demand results from its Phases,
though.  They were the artists and intellectuals of the Elemental realm.  They
believed in personal autonomy and the pursuit of happiness.  How could Ty
explain that to a man who grew up in the Air Kingdom, where any lapse in
perfect, gold-star achievement meant scorn and ostracism?

“Don’t
you have any hobbies?”  Ty suggested, searching for something that would ease
his transition.  “You could focus on those.”

“Like
what?  Stamp collecting?”  Gion snorted.  “You don’t want to hear what I
usually do for fun, Tritone.  Trust me.”

She
checked her watch, again.  Brokk would be worried.  Especially since Parald had
kidnapped her last week.  Poor Brokk blamed himself for that, even though Ty
was the one who’d wandered away without protection.

Obviously,
if Ty didn’t give Gion a concrete role, he wouldn’t be able to adjust properly,
though.  She could see that.  Gion was a Water Phase now, but the “your-best
is-still-not-good-enough” attitude of the Air Kingdom continued weighing him
down.

Ty
had a responsibility to her subjects.  She wanted Gion content and fulfilled
and, most importantly, secure in his new home.  If he felt like he didn’t
belong, Gion might leave.  If he left, Ty had the horrible feeling that Gion
wouldn’t survive.  “How do you usually occupy yourself in the Air Kingdom? 
Can’t you just keep…?”

“I
kill people.”  Gion interrupted flatly.

“Oh
God.”  Ty shook her head.  “No.  Please, don’t do that here.”

“Mostly,
I listen to Parald’s endless, fucking yammering.”  Gion continued, almost to
himself.  “And I think of ways to undermine him.  I want to kill him, but I
can’t.  So, I start saying things or doing things that I know I shouldn’t.  I
know that they bring too much attention, but I almost
want
Parald to
understand how much I hate him, so I say and do them anyway.”

“I
see.”  And she did.  Ty knew what it was to endure Parald.

“Then,
I go to the library to get away from the other Air Phases, because I can’t
breathe with them around me.  And I try to focus on,” Gion hesitated, “something
better.  I think about ways that I might be able to have it.  To steal it, even
though it’s not mine.  I plot and strategize and wait.  It’s hopeless, but I do
it anyway.  Because, without that vision, I would have died long ago.”

There
was nothing Ty could say to that.  She stared at him for a long moment.

Gion
finally glanced at her, again.  “I’m not a good man, but I’m not useless.  I’ll
help you and your kingdom if you’ll let me.”

Ty
bit down on her lower lip.  What job could she assign him that would fit his
skill set and keep him occupied?  Something with security?  A new idea raised
its hand in her brain.  “Can you keep a secret?”

“Yes.” 
The word was unequivocal.

Ty
debated for a beat and then gave into her instincts.  “My cousin Nia is going
to have a baby.”  Excitement filled Ty as she thought about it.  “No one except
the family knows that she’s pregnant, but we won’t be able to keep it quiet for
long.”

Gion
blinked.  “A child?”  He looked shocked.  It would be the first birth of any
Elemental since the Fall.  The first new life after all the countless deaths. 
“Are you sure?”

Ty
bobbed her head.  “Chances are, it will be a Water Phase, too.”  Ninety-two
percent of children were born into their mother’s House.  “The baby will be the
heir Water Kingdom.  I can’t have children.”  Not without Phazing with Parald,
anyway.  Since that would never happen, Ty knew she won’t have a child of her
own.  “So, my niece will probably take the throne after I’m gone.”

“You’re
not going to die.”  Gion told her.  “And how do you know it’s a girl?”

“One
day, Parald will kill me.”

Ty
knew that and she liked to make sure that the people around her did, too.  Few
Phases understood that beneath the surface of his stupidity and arrogance,
Parald had a craftiness that never rested.  His schemes
seemed
to
succeed on pure luck or the talents of others, but it was really Parald’s own
flair for cruelty.  He lulled you in, until you thought that he was useless or
beaten.  Then, he struck at your weakest point and smiled as you lost
everything.

Sooner
or later, Parald would catch her and then one of them would die.  Odds seemed
good that it would be Ty.  A
fter it happened, she wanted everyone
to remember that she’d accepted her fate and no one was to blame.

Well,
except Parald, of course.

“Parald
is
not
going to kill you, Tritone.  I won’t allow it.”