“I’ll stay with all of you until your mama comes back. You have an uncle. Want to meet him? He’s Zheien, and he has two fingers, and he loves you. Want to see? His name is Paranor.”

Another diplomat came to the bed. He was crying.

“Sit here, Paranor. These are Stacy’s kids. Here’s Serie, and she’s 5, in the yellow dress. She has brown eyes and brown curls, and pretty brown skin.” As she gave each fact, she smoothed the hem of the dress on her ankle and gently stroked her arm. Serie moved closer to Suma. Touched her hair. “You have brown hair, like me.” Hers was straight.

“Yes, I do. And my eyes are brown, like yours.”

“But, you’re white.” She touched her forearm.

“Yes, I am. But skin is good, whether it’s brown or white, because it’s part of you.”

“Skin is good?” She frowned and rubbed her arm.

“Yes. Skin is good. Look at Paranor’s skin. He’s yellow.”

“And, he has two fingers. He’s an alien.”

“We’re on his planet, so we’re the aliens, now!” She giggled.

“We’re aliens! Like Guardians Of The Galaxy!”

“Guardians Galaxy boom! Boom!” The older boy pretended to take aim. “I’ll save you!”

Suma laughed. “Yeah! Paranor, this is Brian, and he’s 4. He’s got brown hair and blue eyes like Paranor has.”

“Not blue eyes.” Brian moved closer to him.

“Paranor’s worried about you, so right now, his eyes are black. When he’s happier, you’ll see the blue.”

“His eyes change? Why can’t my eyes change?”

“Because you’re not from Esta Faho, silly!”

He grabbed his hand, then let go! “What happened to his hands? Ew!”

“His hands are Zheien hands. His feet are, too. Paranor, can I show him your foot?”

“I wish nae to frighten a child! Perhaps I should leave—”

Brian got in his lap. “Don’t go! Daddy, hold me!” He hugged him and Paranor did.

“Paranor is Het Paran’s brother, so he’s your new uncle.”

“Uncle! Uncle Pear! I like pears!”

He chuckled. “Would you like one?”

“Uh, huh!”

A wave, and Paranor gave him one.

“We gotta rinse it.”

“Here is water.” He gave him a bowl of water, and he rolled it. Water splashed, and he cowered.

“O, water nae harms.” Paranor made a tiny splash, so water hit the bed. “I can run a vaporizer on the bed. See?” Another wave and white light cleaned up the water.

“Really? Awesome!”

The other kids gathered to splash and Suma smiled. Brian ate his pear while he splashed. Water in the bowl didn’t go down.

Suma gave another bowl of water to the younger boy. “This is Kerr, and he’s 3.” His blond hair was wet now, and he dripped more on it. Splashed his hand in the bowl. “In the water!”

The last child didn’t play in her bowl, but just watched her reflection. “Lucy is 2, and she has blond curls. Do you like your water, Lucy?”

She nodded.

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“Would you like a mirror?” She gave her a hand-sized mirror decorated with rainbow unicorns.

She eagerly grabbed it and looked in it. Angled it to the left and looked. Scooted over and looked. Then she pointed it so she could see the water reflected.

Now that the kids were calm, Suma talked about things they could do to feel better, since what happened was scary. Serie wanted to take a walk in Piedmont Park, and they all wanted to do that, so Suma made their new toys float along with ‘em, and off they went with Uncle Par and all five Ishah healers. Lucy let the last one carry her.

I worried, so I touched a mental display. Het Paran’s okay. He’s sleeping and his healer’s with them. Sat by Tom. Of course, he was still asleep. I looked around the room at the faces. Scared I’d find another Dosillian, but, nothing. All of the Elshars either slept, or held a sleeping Zheien with dark eyes, but some made pretty things. One waved up a holo, then an amber egg. Then he carved. There weren’t shavings, but what he carved just molded to the shape he wanted. Soon, I realized, there was a head and a body, then arms and legs.

I felt too worried to get interested in art, though someday I wanted to learn to make something. I waved up a bowl of ea fae. In Rainbow, I’d done this every day. Picked up Tom’s arm and smoothed the white foam on it. Used a slight twisting motion to pull the foam down his arm. And, while I did, I tried to see through his telepathy.

He smiled, but like Galarpah taught Micansen to do, I pulled his arm straight and held it.

The Ishah healer, Lanapah, watched me. “What is it you do?”

“This is what Galarpah said to do—”

“But he has nae twisting, in his limbs—”

“That blue healer said he needed to check everybody in Esta Faho—” I looked around and he was on the next bed, sleeping. Ella wasn’t there. Maybe she took a walk like we did.

“Everyone? But, all had healing from Galarsmen and his ennead! They refused to rest until they knew all were well. And, Pirad did a group healing for everyone. Did you nae notice the flash of white light?”

But I showed him how he healed Ella’s husband. He paled. Waved up a database. Frowned. “There is nae mention of these poisons? I will add them. Thank you, lady. Know you more?”

I shook my head. “Just what I overheard.”

“I have a list, here.” Elsie waved up a database and the healer copied all of it into his!

“Ejae nes, so many! I thought myself an expert on mine poisons, but these are worse than Moro on Ishah!”

“Galarsmen said there are a lotta poisons on our 5 worlds that aren’t in othah mines! Some o’ these are only in one mine and not in the others.”

Lanapah made lots of notes. “I send this to Via, on Ishah. He is Master Healer Of All Ishah, and we wish to know healing for all poisons.”

“But, Via’s right over there!” She pointed to an old Ishah in very decorated white robes. He wore medium blue underneath.

The healer smiled. “He is Via’s cloned bahie. All 25 Rainbow Unwell Colonies have clones of him, Feia Na, Molly, Ahstam, and all great healers. This Math~an is also a clone. When he wakes, surely he will teach many of us. I hope to have a few minutes with him, for no one knows more about unwells of feet. His wife, Ter~han has seen many already, today. She sleeps beside him. Wise healers sleep after difficult healings.”

Then, a diplomat ran in and bowed. “Yea~ Becky, your sister and her children are here.”

I jumped up . “Let’s go!”

He offered an arm and we stood on a green ship.

Myrillis sat on a leiwege with the two girls. Looked up and blinked her brown eyes. “Becky. Is it really you?”

“Yes! It’s really me!”

She leaned forward and I helped her get up. Both kids clung to her. “Oh, Babies, it’s all right. We’re going home now.”

Mama and Daddy saw us and ran over. Mama stared at Myrillis.

“Oh, you look older, Mama. Daddy’ll be mad!” She cried.

Daddy took her hand. “I’m not mad! Darlin’, I’m so happy you’re alive!”

“You are?”

“Both of us are! Oh, Honey, we have a house! We can have pets, so if you want a rabbit, or if the kids want pets, they can have ‘em!” Mama and Daddy both have brown eyes.

Myrillis looked pale, and an Ishah girl came close. “I am Tilla, and I am Myrillis’ healer, if she will let me touch her head.”

She backed up against me. “No!”

Tilla looked out the arch and a boy brought a dorna.

Myrillis watched it, with a smile. “Oh, what’s that?”

“Do you like her? She is a dorna. This is my bahie, Lansah, and my family raises them.”

“You do? Oh, she’s beautiful and white! She won’t hurt my kids, will she?” Myrillis pulled them close to her.”

“She is gentle. All of our dorna are trained to be careful of children.”

“They are? C’mon, Babies, let’s pet her!”

I tried to hold onto her arm, but she jerked it away, so I just walked beside her. Slowly, we made our way to the arch.

Myrillis stopped and looked out. Saw the yellow sky and the yellow sand. “What’s this place?”

I let her hold onto my arm without putting my hand on her. Explained. “People are nice here. No one yells, or hits.” I showed her the abuse progs.

When I explained them, she put her settings all the way. “I don’t wanna hurt my babies! People who get beat up go around beating other people up!”

“That’s not true, Myrillis. You aren’t being mean to your kids. You aren’t shoving or hitting them.”

“I didn’t stop him! I was a bad mom!”