I startled awake.

Pas leaned over me. “Becky, ne move. Let me see—”

“Tom!” Oh, I sobbed! If he’s not here, I don’t--

A healer pulled his arms around me. “Becky, he sleeps. Both of you need much rest, and healing—”

“Is he still dying?” Are Ishah honest about it, like Zheien are?

He wept. Pas just sounded tired. “I ne know, Becky. We must learn, together.”

“Did they get Ella and Farley?”

“We have Ella. Farley—is in stasis. We wait, Becky, to see if Ella can help him. Pirad can ne.”

I didn’t have strength to hug my husband. That healer hugged us together. He’s breathing, but he’s cold. Ella, she was on a DS Team, she has experience—I was just—dying--then not all there, in Rainbow. I don’t know anything about healing. All of this is just—frightening!

And then I heard Ella. “Put me in stasis! I can’t stand it!” She cried aloud! If she’s this upset, what can I do?

Farley ran to the bed in his diplomat’s uniform. “Ella—”

“No, no, no, I want my Farley, not his brother! I want to have Remembrance, and I want to go to Burial Chambers and stay there! If I can’t have my husband, I don’t want to be aware!”

He sat by her and held a shaking hand out. “Love, is me. Pinda says he can wake bones.”

It didn’t really register. “Who’s Pinda?”

That cat fella!

“A Councillor. Ella, please. You must eat! My love, you need healing! Pas!” They hugged.

“Farley!” Her loud memories of smashing jars of goo and trying to destroy the server! She thought he died, and she found Mican’s body on a recloning table! But she smashed the server and stasis ended, on him, but on Farley, too. What a nightmare!

Pas called another healer and they both sang!

“Becky! Ejis nae!”

“Huh?” I felt Tom’s arms around me and hugged. Healers sat us up and we ate. Wonderful pastries. Tom dropped crumbs in his lap. Oh, no.

“Ne fear, Becky. We care for both of you.”

I looked down in my lap, and little flashes of light vaporized crumbs there, too. I sighed.

Next to us, Farley hugged Tom. “Liege, can I do anything for you?” He sobbed.

“Far, go—to Council.” His head leaned against him.

“They are all here.”

“Here?”

“Galar’s Chamber. All are unwell. I am unwell, Tom!”

I felt a change in people. “King Challet!”

“My liege—”

“All my people, hear me! Rest. I am here nae to speak, but to visit friends. Elshar Zheiea is well. Rahn Estar is healing. Dear friends, rest. There is nae business. Our friends help us, from many worlds of Alb. We are safe. We are well. Mican died. We found his body in the weapons facility and ported it in a red portal into our sun! Then we ported the remains of that facility. With it were poisons from upper levels. We are now safe.”

Many people waved their arms, then went back to sleep.

Elsie put a hand on my arm. “What should I do, Becky? He’s comin’!”

“He’s like a father. Just smile.” I looked up and there he was.

Challet hugged Elsie. “Child, thank you for your diligence! Your progs saved many.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Oh, I jus’ did what Ella taught me. When she’s able to work again, she’ll fix what I can’t get to run. My sista likes to watch me at work.”

His sorrow rumbled on us, and she startled. “Ella is comin’ back to work, ain’t she?”

The anguish in his voice startled me! “Child, Pas must work long, in her healing, and for many. Pirad is able to work today, and he makes many clones to help him. O, my poor Rahn Estar, how you suffered! May Mican and his helpers suffer Purrip, for what they did to you!” He wept.

I hugged him, because he put me on his lap. “Becky, Pirad showed me what you did! Ella saved Rahn Estar from poisons he was nae ever to have, but you defeated Mican, and saved Esta Faho’s leaders, my fine council, from certain death of those terminals. Pirad learned much from them. He saw all that Mican planned, and reversed most of his harms, here and in Par Vu.

“O, I am sorry you harmed yourself so! But you saved them all!”

Harmed myself? I just felt kind of out of it, like after COVID. I’ll feel better next week. I wanted to stay awake and listen, but I just enjoyed the hug.

Tom held me when I woke up. “Becky, please eat. I found—what is it, Pas? A sweet pastry, for you.”

“Ne concern for names, Tom. You remember what she likes.”

“He sure does!” I ate, and not as many crumbs fell.

Mama and Daddy came. But Rilley felt the girls were too much. My parents visited often.

Pas lifted us to our feet.

Tom rumbled on me. “Why is it such effort, to stand? Pas!”

“Ne fear, my son. You gain strength.”

“Was it a difficult mission?”

“Tom, you had terminals removed!” I just had to blurt that out!

His whole body went stiff! “Terminals! Ejis nae, how do I think? Pas? Where is Galar? Should Galar care for me? Is it Ye~, then, that you are here?”

I showed him with my mind, how they got terminals because Galar was fighting back, and because of the terminals, they remembered what to do. They got treaty signings that kept us fed. But Pirad had to let the Xchou scientists make Mican think they took the terminals back. They shocked all of them. So Mican would think all of ‘em were dying of sloppy terminal removals. The terminals actually did some healing, and Pirad’s healing terminals did a lot, too. All of that wasn’t enough.

So I took us all back to before the Xchou terminals shocked ‘em. Then, I took us back before they were put in. But, Mican felt it and attacked. Because he was still alive then.

All of it got kind of muddled after that. Even Pirad wasn’t sure what to tell Pas, and he isn’t sharing a lot of what’s wrong.

Maybe I hit one of those times, with each of these poor Council members, when they were hurt. Tom remembers one of the Elshar attacks. He didn’t remember what happened during it, but Galar was giving him nesfa, so he got hurt. Other Council members remembered other things. Micansen thought his brother beat him up again.

But, I remembered what the fella in the necklace said.

Do not concern about it. Injured men make up stories to explain what they remember.

Am I injured, too? Pas said I am. Does it matter what did it? We’re getting better.

After a few days, we sat in the mud marsh together, and I watched Tom bathe his head in the golden foam. His curls just shone like spun gold. They were rounder today.

He’s thin. His face is long, not round as I remember. Kind of like he was in Rainbow. I hugged him.

“O, nae cry, dear wife! Are you painful? Pas!”

“Merely hold her.”

“She was cold, and you needed your entire ennead—”

“I’ll calm down, Tom. I feel okay.” I looked down, and yellow sparkles dripped from my arm. “Novas!”

Ella giggled. “You sound like Danger Service! ‘Look! Up in the sky! It’s a nova!’

‘Uh oh, Jim! It’s a 2nd nova! Novas!’

She giggled. I laughed, but I couldn’t remember anything to add. I did stop sweating Zheien sparkles.

Tom hugged me. “I love you, dear wife!”

“I love you, too!”

Farley hugged Ella, and she sighed.

Elsie giggled as Nes helped her sit in the mud while he bathed her and him. Her sister helped. They did look very alike, but when her sister talked, it was easy to tell ‘em apart.

Stacy’s 5 kids bounded into the mud and slathered it all over us! She and Het sat in the marsh. But I counted 6 kids! Her belly’s flat. She holding a baby old enough to sit up in her lap and splash. “You’ve got another one, Stacy?”

She laughed. “Pirad grew him so I wouldn’t have to wait! This is Espie!”

“Fa!”

Nes fainted dead away, with a huge splash! Stacy gasped, but Elsie pulled his head up. “Oh, my! Get a healer!”

Pas laughed. “Merely hold his head! He—”

Nes smiled. “Oh, my bae called me! I am the happiest fa ever! Dear wife!” He sat up.

Stacy couldn’t move with three kids in her lap! “Nes, are you all right?”

He laughed. “You worry so! I am well.”

“You fainted and fell in the water!”

He got a frown. “Did I?”

Pas changed the subject.