I hoped healers would let Tom wake up, but right after they ate several pastries, healers leaned Tom and his friends Farley, Nathanhai, and most of everyone back. I saw Micansen on a bed next to us. He’s Elshar again, and his healer’s feeding him a festival pastry. And, he has dark eyes. That Elshar Elder’s holding his hand and she looks sad, too. He and the other Elshar council member have the red glow at their temples. I’m so frustrated! So many of ‘em hurt by Mican. How many people of Escet Vu and Par Vu are hurt by him? Fa mumbled about a council meeting. Fae snored, but held two handfuls of Fa’s silver curls.

“Won’t that hurt him, Lanapah?”

The young healer smiled and pulled on Fa’s hair. The curls slid right out. Then Fae’s fingers groped again and he put them so he could grab. “See how this comforts him? He nae pulls hard, he only wishes to feel them. He dreams of him as a child, when he was younger. And Kon enjoys his touch. They shared a memory while I fed them, and they had happiness.”

Molly used to say that if her people could have happiness if not health, that’s enough. Maybe we’ll all survive this. Have to think positive!

Elsie stretched, then waved for me to come. Yelena got up with a sad face. On another bed, Bedelia got up and walked to the arch. Stacy and all 5 of her flock, with their tutors came, and an older lady. “Oh, there’s a party going on! Look, children!”

I laughed to see their little faces light up. But, my parents stood there with Rilley and her two. Stacy had a 3 and a 2, and they giggled when they saw Rilley’s!

A group went to Ella, but stopped when they saw her nose in a prog and her deep frown of concentration. Two worried healers studied Farley’s points. They went back out and stood with us. “How long are they gonna sleep? Isn’t 8 hours enough for Zheien?”

“Yeah, I wanted to play basketball, but we need one of the Tom’s, and they’re working!” A teen boy frowned.

Another teen laughed. “I’ll do hoops with you when I’m done with my tutor. I’m learning to help them write progs!”

“I guess I’ll go with you, then. Until the twins come.”

I laughed. “Hi, I’m Becky, and I’m 1st Princess. Maybe I can answer some questions for you. No, they usually sleep about 5 hours a night, but our colony’s been through a lot. Ella’s writing progs to help them get rid of poisons from all our mines. They’ll probably sleep a lot for the next two weeks. I’m impatient for ‘em to wake up, too, because Zheien are very aware during sleep. They hate this as much as we hate waiting for this to be over! But we want ‘em to be healthy, right?”

He nodded. They had two teen daughters who didn’t say anything, and another daughter school age. They just huddled together. Shy girls.

The couple introduced themselves. “I’m Casey, this is Dominique, and we run a house design business. So if anyone else comes and they want a house designed—”

Stacy held up a hand. “Could we get a house? Het was going to do that, but he—he’s sleeping in there. His progs went off ‘cause he got upset. His healer didn’t let him get up today. His father’s sick. Will he be all right?” She pulled at brown curls on her shoulders.

“Did you touch his arm? Or, you can check his progs.” I waved up his record.

“I-Isn’t that like, violating his privacy?”

“Well, Zheien don’t like people to be worried. So none of ‘em would be offended that you did this. This record is public. Notice that it doesn’t have any records of past injuries or unwells, ‘cause that could get embarrassing. See these three parameters? If they’re really low, his healer would be worried. They’re not, so he’s just getting good rest. Now you can see relatives, so let’s check on his fa.”

I waved that one up. His parameters were all over the place! But, I saw something. “What’s this?”

His healer’s holo showed. “Daughter, have you concerns?”

“Yeah! Why’s he got so much of this poison?” I couldn’t pronounce it, but I pointed to it.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Ella gasped and changed a bunch of stuff, faster than I could follow! His parameters evened out! “Becky, you’re a genius! I didn’t know you knew how to read that!”

“Oh, I just remembered the name because Elsie gave that database to Via yesterday!”

“What database?”

Elsie waved her a copy. “This is wonderful! Where’d you get it?”

“I created it from everybody’s progs. I got tired of lookin’ ‘em up.” She had this cowed look.

“Via was sure glad to have it! He sent a copy to Ishah, to his host!” Her face brightened up when I said that. That girl needs some self-esteem.

Elsie smiled, but she looked down. Poor thing never learned to take a compliment.

Ella got excited and opened still another prog screen.

But Het’s father’s healer smiled and got teary. “Becky, you saved him! Thank you. I nae knew what the substance was, but my terminal said, was a safe substance. You knew he was a poison! We are fortunate to have you here with us!”

“Thank you. I’m just happy Stacy got worried. I was showing her how to look at his progs.”

Stacy’s brown face got redder in the cheeks, but the healer smiled. “Het is a fortunate man, to have a wife with such a caring heart.”

“Oh, I’m n-not his wife.” She looked down.

“If nae, then how is his every thought of you? Lady, he loves you already!”

Stacy snapped her head up and her hair floated! “He d-does? I thought he offered to marry me because—Zheien are nice!”

The healer laughed. “Lady, if you nae had to marry, I think he could nae keep his mind from yours! Like minds attract! Fear nae, your husband loves you. He will nae wish to sever your marriage.”

She smiled and her deep brown eyes got a very thoughtful look. Then, she giggled. “Then, I am a very happy wife.”

I hugged her. “Don’t worry. Zheien never fall out of love. You’ll get through this. When you can talk to him for long, you’ll see. He’ll take good care of you and all your kids.”

I wanted to talk longer, but Feronoras came and bowed to me. “Yea Becky, are you ready to see Calladia?”

I bowed. “Yes. I will come back, soon.” I smiled at my family. Need to remember not to use contractions!

Rilley hugged me. “Go have fun. I love this place!”

“Yeah! This place!” Vera giggled and spread her arms wide.

Christine nodded.

Stacy’s kids imitated them. Her oldest was about five and spread her arms out. “I love it here! Let’s go to Piedmont Park!”

Paranor picked her up. Her new uncle had light eyes. All the kids hugged him, even my sister’s.

I didn’t get to hear how they reacted, because I had my hand on Feronoras’ arm and we stepped.

Calladia looked like Rainbow, except the Kings House—the palace—was red, but a slightly orange red. And, the Healers Chambers was light pink. We didn’t see any of the Council. Several Elshars sat in front of the doors, which had animal heads holding the rings like on every Kings House I’d seen. Beautiful work. But I compared ‘em with my mental display, and all 5 cities used a diff animal. Rahn Estar had dorna. This one looked more like a cael.

And, the market was full of them with wares on their flat backs! One trader showed another how to put them in holos. The holos stayed in place, but went transparent. And, the trader’s frayed robes looked new. He had red ones. Oh, red is for artisans! If the artisan is also a trader, he wears his blue trader’s robes over them. Feronoras explained more things today.

Again, I studied faces in the market. That gruff Elshar who was on the other end of a holo yesterday was here in person. And, about the only rude one in the market! That black-robed TS Inspector watched trading, and kept his eyes on him. But, I didn’t see any memories.

We went on to the yellow building. Here, an artisan in red robes with Tessite symbols talked about Calladian artworks. “When working with Tessite, always wear protection until it is purified. We now have a prog to do this for us. There is no need to use harsh solutions to burn off impurities as our fahies did.”

A young man frowned. “My fahie says he will not change his methods and risk his livelihood, pach ay!”

This man pulled at his dark curls. “You can see I am not a young man! I feared to change my methods, so I spoke with this Pirad. He proved to me that his methods are faster, and my healer is happier. He ran progs to remove poisons from my body and I feel younger.” As he spoke about it, he shared detailed memories, like a Zheien would share, of how exhausted he felt every day after his work, and how he forgot to put fine details. Then, he showed examples of his work before Pirad convinced him and after, and how his trade balance, and number of items traded, went up!

An older man ported in and got the memory-sharing stare with the younger blond. They ported, and half the room went with them!