His name is Zane Julien, and he is lonely.
He should not be lonely, he knows he should not be lonely. He has his sea creatures outside the tower, his tea server inside the tower, and his father. But he is lonely.
Zane thinks his father is lonely too. That must be why the visitors come to the tower, even though the visitors dislike Father and would hurt Zane if they knew he existed. Zane would take the company of people who dislike him over the company of no people at all any day.
Zane loves his life. He loves his sea creatures, his tea server, and his father.
(But sometimes, Zane wants more.)
His name is Zane Formerly-Julien, and he is alone.
He should not be alone, he knows he should not be alone. He should have his sea creatures, he should have his tea server, he should have his father. But though he has his creatures and his server, he does not have his father.
This is what happened: visitors come to the tower. They stay longer than any visitor has stayed before. They leave; they all leave.
(When Zane thinks it is safe to come out, although he has not been given the signal it is safe to come out, they have taken his father away.)
Zane cries a little, missing his father. Zane laughs a little, because he did not know he could cry. Zane cries a lot, because Father will never know that he can cry, because Father is gone and Zane is alone.
His name is Echo Zane Julien, and he is no longer alone.
Visitors come to the tower. They find him, but they are kind and good and remind him of his father. That is, they are like his father and they tell him about his father. They also tell him about his brother who is also Zane but the original, and his brother's "brothers".
They do not tell him they are sorry for taking his father away, but he reads it in their eyes.
Echo Zane did not know he could read eyes.
(Echo Zane did not know his father could do so many things and say so little about them.)
Echo Zane learns about many things. He learns about lip reading and physical comedy, he learns about wishes and djinns, he learns about friends and fighting, he learns his father and his brother and himself.
He learns about time paradoxes, but then he unlearns that and everything else, including not being alone.
His name is Zane Used-To-Be-Julien, and he is lonely and alone.
Something is missing. Someone is missing. Father is missing, and more than Father is missing.
No visitors come to the tower.
(Zane cries more, then gets over it.)
He does nothing except wait. He feels nothing except loneliness. He is nothing except- no, he is nothing.
His name is Echo Julien, and he is no longer lonely.
(Visitors come to the tower.)