The Outskirts: Thé Crystal Keepers (Jace x OC)

The Crystal Keepers: 4

Joe booked a pair of adjoining rooms on the second floor of a big inn made of concrete blocks. One room contained four narrow beds, the other two. All of the beds had mattresses that looked and felt like the mattresses I remembered from back home, though a bit thinner. A couple of cowhide rugs softened up the cement floor.
Me and Mira shared the room with two beds.
After we both took showers and got clean clothes, we met up in the boys room.
"An actual faucet," Dalton said, standing by the sink. "With hot and cold running water."
"A toilet too," Cole added.
Dalton twisted on a faucet and let water run over his hand. "What a miracle."
"The showers are in a common area down the hall. I see the girls found them," he said, smiling and gesturing to our dripping hair. "They have one washroom for men and another for women. But in the city, we'll have showers in our rooms."
"Sweet," Cole said.
"This might be my favorite kingdom." I added, flopping down on the bed beside Jace.
Joe sat on the edge of one of the beds, hunched forward, hands folded. He cleared his throat.
"It's time I tell you my story."
I perked up. "Why you wanted to get away from Zeropolis?"
Joe nodded. "That and more. As long as we're together, the mess I made for myself here could affect us all. Kendal, Cole, Dalton, in a lot of ways, we're in the same boat. I tried to get back home, and you deserve to hear about the problems involved." He rubbed his thighs and chuckled. "I hardly know where to begin. Some people know pieces of this, but I haven't told all of it to anyone."
"You're from Monterey?" Dalton prompted.
"Right," Joe said with a smile that was almost a grimace. "That's a place to start. I'm, what, thirty-four now? I was thirty. I worked as a paramedic, and occasionally as a studio musician."
"You were in a band?" Cole asked.
"Yeah, a few, when I was younger. Later on I just helped out when other people needed stuff recorded. Guitar mostly. It was fun work. I did most of it in the Bay Area, some in LA, even a few in Hollywood."
"You played in Hollywood?" I asked, in awe.
"You can shred on guitar?" Dalton asked, impressed.
"I did." Joe said. "And if shredding is required.
That hasn't been the handiest skill here.
Knowing some first aid helps at times."
"Like with Sultan," Cole said.
Joe winced. "I wish I could have handled that better. I'd never worked on an arrow wound."
"I wasn't criticizing," Cole said. "At least you did something."
"Have you guys been where he's from?" Jace asked.
"Monterey?" Dalton clarified. "I haven't."
"Me neither," Cole said.
"I've been to Los Angeles, but not Monterey." I said. "Don't they have an aquarium?"
"A famous one," Joe said. "And a lot of natural beauty. Great coastline. Nice bay."
"How'd you end up here?" Jace asked.
Joe clapped his hands together. "It's a painful story. But it's part of what I need to tell you.
Let's see . . . I was engaged to be married. Gwen Saunders, the love of my life. Our wedding was coming up. We were about ready to send out invitations. Her family had some money, so it was going to be at a fancy country club. Some of my friends were lined up to provide live music.
It would have been awesome."
"What happened?" Cole asked.
"I was walking by the ocean one evening," Joe said. "I was lost in thought. Feeling grateful, mostly. Gwen is amazing. It's ridiculous. She's so smart. A lawyer. The kind you don't want working against you. She's beautiful. We both love music. Especially some of the oldies.
Anyhow, the air in front of me opened up, and before I knew what was happening, I got sucked through to here."
"The air opened up?" Cole asked.
"It was a Wayminder," Joe said. "I wasn't part of her plan, apparently. Just a mishap. She wanted to cross over to the Outside, and I was in the wrong place at the wrong time."
"Did you ask her to send you back?" I asked.
"You bet," Joe said. "And she told me the same thing you guys have heard. Once we cross to the Outskirts, we can return home temporarily, but we can't stay there. And those who know us best forget us the most."
"Gwen?" Mira asked.
"Bingo," Joe said. "I ended up in Zeropolis, and my fiancee forgot she ever knew me."
"You're sure she forgot?" Cole asked.
Joe scrunched his nose. "I'm sure. There's more to the story."
"How did a Wayminder bring you to Zeropolis?" Dalton asked, "I thought their shaping worked in Creon."
"Or Junction," I said. "Like when we came through."
"Their shaping messes with time and space,"
Joe said. "The time manipulation only works in Creon. They open ways by tweaking space. That works best in Creon, but it can be done all over.
A Wayminder could explain it better, but I think they can borrow space from Creon wherever they go."
"That's right," Mira confirmed.
"The Wayminder felt bad," Joe said. "She tried to make it right."
"She was a girl?" Jace asked.
Joe nodded. "Sallanah. When I came through the way she opened, I broke her concentration and the way closed. She couldn't open a new one right there, so we moved. She sent me back as soon as she could-within four hours of me crossing over. She got me close to where I had departed from. I ran to my car, drove to Gwen's place. She answered the door . . . and looked at me like a total stranger."
My stomach flipped. I imagined getting a look like that from my mom. Or my dad. Or my sister. Is that what the future held? I glanced at Dalton and Cole. Based on their expressions, the same worries were attacking them.
"Sallanah had warned me what to expect" Joe said. "Since I'd only been in the Outskirts a short time, I kind of hoped the side effects wouldn't take hold. I said Gwens name, and she asked if she knew me. I told her my name and got a blank stare. It was right out of a nightmare. The more I tried to talk, the more I hinted at details I knew about her, the more uncomfortable she became. Before things got out of hand, I walked away."
"Did you get sucked back here?" I asked.
"In less than two hours," Joe said. "After Gwen, I went to visit a good friend who also had no memory of me. I called in to work. Nobody knew me. I found a place to park my car and just sat there, trying to think. I felt like I was losing my mind. For a good while I couldn't stop laughing. Not healthy laughter. Before too long, the air over the passenger seat started to ripple. A way opened up and I was back in Zeropolis."
"That's horrible," I said.
"That's not even the worst," Joe said. "The worst is coming. Sit tight. Sallanah came and found me not long after I returned to Zeropolis.
She apologized again, and explained that I was stuck in the Outskirts. She helped me get a freemark, an identity card, and a place to stay.
She gave me some money. I was in a daze at the time. I couldn't appreciate how lucky I was to have someone to orient me."
"Are you still friends?" Dalton asked.
"Not really," Joe said. "In theory, I guess. I wasn't overly nice to her. In spite of her help, she had kind of ruined my life. Looking back now, I can at least appreciate how she tried to make up for it. I don't think she's in Zeropolis anymore. My understanding is she returned to Creon."
"You got stuck here," Jace said, "Then what?"
"I found a hospital," Joe said. "Since I'm a paramedic, they became very interested when they learned I was from Outside. They hired me, and we taught each other some techniques.
The medical care in Zeropolis is pretty good.
Some of their technology surpasses what we have back home, though our medicines are more advanced."
"How'd you get involved with the Unseen?" Cole asked.
"Gradually," Joe said. "I began to notice how controlling the government is here. I could never shake the hope of finding a way back to Monterey. You meet a lot of people as a paramedic. I kept my eyes and ears open. I started to hear about thruports that could connect to our Internet back home. When I met the right people, I started asking questions.
Within a couple of years, I connected with some members of the Unseen who helped me get online."
"That's so weird they can get our internet," I said.
"It takes help from a Wayminder," Joe said.
"Under normal conditions, a Wayminder can only hold a way open for a limited time. But some can open tiny ways for a really long time. The Wayminder opens tiny ways near a wireless router in our world, a tinker makes gear to pick up the signal, and before you know it, they're online. Some tinkers even own routers in our world and pay the access fees and everything."
"Did you try to contact Gwen?" Mira asked.
"What do you think?" Joe replied. "Nonstop.
She never opened a single email from me. None of my friends or family did either. I went through some of my obscure contacts and tried them.  Sometimes I'd hear back. We'd make idle chitchat. I never tried to tell anyone where I was. I knew how it would sound."
"That must have been so frustrating," I said as my hopes of emailing my family crumbled. This story was creating a dark, anxious pit in my stomach.
"Still gets worse," Joe said. "See, I know the password for Gwen's email. She had mine, too.
She never changed it. So even though I couldn't contact her, I could peek at her life. I could see the emails I sent, sitting there unopened.
She opened everything. Even half of the spam.
But nothing from me."
"Man," Dalton said.
"Bummer, right?" Joe said. "I'd check up on her from time to time. Meanwhile, the more I learned about the Unseen, the more I believed in their cause, and the more involved I became.
I began to understand how completely Abram Trench wants to control life in Zeropolis. And I came to realize the tyranny of the High King. If I was stuck here, I wanted to help this world become the best it can be. I mean, slavery? Are you kidding me? As a fringe benefit, the Unseen gave me access to thruports so I could keep peeking at my world."
"Because thruports are illegal," Dalton said.
"The Grand Shaper does all he can to shut them down," Joe said. "But the Unseen are well organized here. I had good access."
"How'd it get worse?" Jace asked.
Joe sighed. "About six months ago, I started to notice some of Gwen's emails taking a turn for the worse. I can read her pretty well. I know how she gets when she's frustrated. She's type A
—works hard, plays hard, and takes things hard.
She internalizes every little failure. I helped balance her out there. I helped her have fun. I helped her shake stuff off. We'd listen to music, or I'd play my guitar, or we'd get Italian, or we'd ride bikes along the coast. She was going into a downward spiral like I'd never seen. It wasn't clear in most of her emails—mainly the ones to her sister, and hints in the messages to her mom.
"Did you feel bad spying on her?" Jace asked.
Joe rubbed his face. "Well, yeah. But it was my only form of contact. I couldn't resist. As time went on, I realized that she felt alone. Maybe it's the romantic in me, but I thought maybe even though she couldn't remember me, a part of her was grieving my absence."
Suddenly I was fighting back tears. Were my parents like that? Could they feel something was wrong, even though they had forgotten me?
Were they depressed without knowing why?
Even if it caused them pain, I couldn't help hoping that some part of them deep down remembered me. I had to believe there was some hidden refuge of memory that might be wakened somehow.
"That must have been difficult," Mira said tenderly.
Staring at the floor, Joe folded and unfolded his arms. "It wasn't a picnic. The longer I watched, the clearer her sadness became. I couldn't take seeing Gwen like that, unable to help her. It led to a crazy, stupid plan."
"What?" Cole asked.
"I decided to bring her here," Joe said.
"Did you do it?" Dalton asked. "Did it make her remember you?"
"I'm getting there," Joe said. "I checked with a Wayminder. Not Sallanah. She was long gone.
He told me that bringing Gwen here wouldn't make her remember me. But Gwen fell in love with me once, right? I'd woo her again. I'd fix the emptiness I saw in her. And maybe fill the void inside of me."
"But she'd be stuck here too," I said.
Joe nodded, rubbing his hands together. "I thought that through. If you're not a slave, and you live quietly, keep your head down, it isn't so bad here. We could live fulfilling lives, especially if we had each other. What I had with Gwen was epic. Whether or not she could remember me, I knew we'd figure it out. I convinced myself that if given a choice, Gwen would want to be with me. So I hired the Wayminder. My plan was to kidnap my fiancée and bring her here."
"How'd that work out?" Dalton asked.
Joe winced. "Could have gone better."
"Tell us," Cole urged, obviously hooked.
Gazing down at the floor, Joe wiped a hand over his face. "I knew it was a risk. That she might see me as a villain. But I thought we could overcome that. She was still Gwen, right? And I'm still me." He fell silent.
"It went badly?" Mira guessed.
"Imagine this. We opened a way to the street in front of my fiancée's apartment. Ex-fiancée?
Anyhow, I knew she was bad at locking the back door, and sure enough, I hop the fence into her little yard and find it open. I creep across her kitchen in the dark and up the stairs. It's all way too familiar. Almost like I never left. I'm going quietly. I know that to her I'll seem like a burglar. By the light coming through her window from the street I can see her sleeping. She's so pretty. Without the worst luck ever, she would have already been my wife. We would have been married for years." Joe folded his arms. "There I am, in her room. I just have to get her down the stairs and out front to the way. She's no weakling, but neither am I. I was sure I could get her there."
"But," Cole inserted.
Joe grimaced. "But there she was, snug and safe in a city without slaves, a place where she was free to live however she chose. How could I take that from her? Take away her home. Her family.
Her job. Her life. Without permission."
"What a nightmare," Mira said.
"I couldn't do it," Joe said. "I wasn't just worried about her thinking I was a villain. I knew in that moment that if I took her, I would be a villain. However much I loved her, however much she once loved me, I had no right to drag her here. So I left. I came back through the way empty handed."
"She's still there?" Cole asked.
"And I'm still here," Joe said. He smirked. "The next time tried to check up on her using a thruport, I got caught. City Patrol raided the place. The guys running the thruport got taken away. It was my first offence. I got probation.
It's what wrecked my true ID. The City Patrol is aware of me now. It makes me less safe to travel with."
"You used your fake ID today without trouble?"
Jace asked.
"Yeah, it went well," Joe said. "We should be all right to take the monorail tomorrow. How backward is a place where it would have been legal for me to kidnap Gwen and bring her here, but I'm not allowed to browse the Internet? I could have made Gwen my slave without any legal trouble."
"This is why you wanted to leave Zeropolis?"
Mira asked.
Joe nodded. "I got depressed. Really low. I knew I'd never see Gwen again. I was on probation. I was done with Zeropolis. I needed to get away. I went to the Unseen and told them I wanted a mission as far from the city as possible. I'd done some good work for them. The right people trusted me. That was when they let me know about you, Mira, and sent me on a mission to warn you about the legionnaires coming for you."
"You went straight from that to this?" Mira said with concern.
Joe flashed a tight smile. "This was exactly what I needed. Something to lose myself in. I threw myself at the danger. Part of me didn't mind the idea of dying. But I keep surviving. And now fate has brought me back here."
"What are you going to do?" I asked.
Joe gave a grim chuckle. "I've been pondering that long and hard ever since I learned we'd be coming here to find Constance. I think I'll just keep helping you kids. Focus on the work. Do I still miss Gwen? Take a wild guess. I'll miss her until the day I die. I know you guys hang on to hope that there might be a way to get home. I'm open to that, but I don't dare to hope for it yet. I don't think my heart could take another disappointment. But I won't tell you to give up.
If you find a way, please take me with you."
My throat felt thick with emotion. It was hard to feel hopeful after hearing Joe's experience.
Cole spoke up. "Trillian told me that there might be ways to change how things work here.
It kind of makes sense. Pretty much everything else can be shaped. I'm not giving up until we try every option. We'll bug the Grand Shaper of Creon. We'll find out more about shapecraft.
We'll go back to Trillian if we have to. We'll figure something out."
"Man, you guys really hate it here," Jace said.
"It's not our home," Dalton said.
"No, but it's my home," Jace replied quietly. "And I've lived most my life as a slave. So I get not loving it."
"I admire your optimism, Cole," Joe said. "I know you really mean to tackle the impossible. I'll help however I can."
"First thing I'm going to try is getting some sleep," Jace said. "Those days as a wolf are catching up with me."
"We're all tired," Joe agreed. "Sorry for the long story."
"Don't apologize," Mira said. "It was brave and generous of you to share it. We'll do our best to help you."
"Sorry about Gwen," Cole said. "That's really
rough."
"No worse than what you guys are going through," Joe said. "You were ripped away from your families. I can only imagine what that feels like at your age."
I just looked at the ground, trying to ignore the concerned look from Jace. I could tell he wanted to talk, but I didn't feel like talking to anyone.
"Thanks for telling us what we're up against." I managed.
"It doesn't paint a pretty picture of our chances to retum to our normal lives," Joe said. "But you deserve to know."
"We always knew it would be hard," Cole said.
"I some times suspected they were bluffing about people forgeting us. I wondered whether we'd really get pulled back here if we made it home. I wanted it to be propaganda. A trick to keep us here. That hope made your story kind of disappointing, but it's good to know the truth.
We just have to find. way to change how it all works. Somehow we'll do it."
"We start by surviving tomorrow," Joe said.
"Let's get some sleep while we can."