I dressed in my sky blue formals, with a wave. This diplomat wore white.

Mama sighed. “I don’t get all this princess stuff. Your family needs you.”

“I’m sorry, Mama, but I have to take care of the whole kingdom, not just our family, while Tom is resting. Rilley’s got both of you, and maybe this won’t take long. You know I love all of you, right?”

She nodded, and pulled at her blond hair which had a few white hairs in it. I got my green eyes from her.

Like I know how to talk to him! I felt like a fake princess! But I put my hand on the diplomat’s arm and we stepped.

This city had seven buildings, but they were more blocky, and opaque, with seven spires apiece. It had a diamond-like one, and next to it where we stood, a white, opaque one with nine spires. Orange sand covered this commons, with gardens in all shapes that had borders. Outside the border that rimmed the commons, yellow sand spread. People were about half Ishah here, but peacefully walked, enjoyed the flowers, traded, or watched artisans at work. There were also many Elshars and Zheien among them. And, more than a few Thordes and even Xchou.

Here, too, a festival was going on. People were demonstrating all sorts of work and a lady offered me a pastry. We all took one, and it seemed to surprise the diplomat when I offered him a bite. He smiled. Musicians played near us. Happy faces all around. Some danced in a long line around the city. Many more people here than in Rainbow. But, even here there was a crowd around the white healer building. Buildings here were blocks with spires like onion domes, not flat gem-like buildings.

My diplomat waited for me to gawk. “Yea Becky, if you like, when we finish, I can show you Rahn Estar. Many of Esta Faho like to trade here.” Like a laser pointer, he showed me five traders and seven diplomats in the market. All of them were Elshars and one Ishah.

They all stopped trading and ran over here to bow to me! I returned the bow. “Please, rise and be comfortable!” Two had bright red robes under their blue traders’ robes.

All of them smiled, then went back to the market and the people they were trading with smiled at me, too.

My diplomat bowed again and waited for me to return it. He had dark brown curls that bounced on his collar. “I am Feronoras, Master Diplomat Of Esta Faho, and I am Stationed Diplomat To Rahn Estar. As a member of Wasa Mai’s staff, let me welcome you to us. Shall we go in to the Council?”

Oh, my! “Yes.” I hope I don’t embarrass Tom!

We entered the building, and it had a huge open space, ringed by a white table. It was seven-sided. Everyone at it stood. There were seven couples. I didn’t expect that!

Wasa Mai and his lady were to my left, and he waved. Part of the table vanished. “Please, Ella, 1st Princess Of Esta Faho, come to me.”

I tried to be poised as the diplomat escorted me in front of his side of the table. He bowed, and I bowed, and I wobbled as I came up. Embarrassing! Then, the diplomat left.

I kept my eyes on Wasa Mai. Staring is polite here, and shows respect. My eyes watered.

“Is Tom unwell? I cannot contact anyone on the Council, and I lost contact with even Micansen and Keris Pon!”

I shared memories with him of all that happened with Micansen, the Elshar Elder, Math~an and Farleikon, and what little I understood of Ella’s programming skills through Elsie, who didn’t like explaining things. I didn’t hold anything back. Kings need to know everything going on in their kingdoms. He kind of held my mind open and flipped through my memories, fast. Didn’t pry into anything personal.

His blue eyes turned black. “Then, our kingdom is unwell, Friends. We cannot fight a Councillor, and Pirad feels it unwell even to discuss it? But, Yea Becky, you have a great Gift. Will you visit all of our cities with Feronoras? Your newness gives us a great advantage, if you are well for it. If you pretend interest in learning of our trade, asking of our artisans and traders, and if you visit markets and those who tutor and make, you have excuse to visit all buildings of each of our five cities and meet many. Perhaps you find our enemies with your Gift. I apologize, to burden you with such tedium, when your family is unwell.”

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“My liege, I am here to serve you, and I wished to see all of our cities. I can bring memories back to my family, who will enjoy them.” At least, Tom will! I hadn’t done anything with my parents since Myrillis vanished except go to all her favorite places looking for her. That creep kept her in a small town in Alabama. I bowed low.

Then, I met all the members of the Council. Seris Pon was Esta Faho’s member, and he looked exhausted. His wife Etah did, too. “Please call on us when you come home. We shall be in Rainbow near your bed.” We bowed, then their healers insisted they port back there!

The other Council members didn’t look as tired. I met them all. Here, husbands and wives serve together, as in all Zheien colonies, so the husband and wife team is counted as one of the 9 members. I liked that idea. There was a lot of speculation that when Roosevelt had his stroke, his wife Eleanor did some good things for our country. I really enjoyed her poetry and a lot of the essays she wrote showed her intelligence. I wanted to be like her, for Tom and Fa.

Then, the couple who represented Rahn Estar came to me. The man was an old Ishah with very wrinkled fingers, and he took my hand as he bowed. “I am Rasanos, and here is my wife, Nitomorah.” She also had long, silver curls and very wrinkled fingers.

“Very pleased to meet you. I met with many Areonians who lived on Ishah.”

I smiled. “I don’t know much about Areon. They left Earth long before I was born. When they lived in Cleveland, it was a swamp!” I only knew about that because one of my ancestors came from Germany to it, and I was interested in genealogy for a bit. So many hobbies weren’t interesting any more, when Myrillis didn’t come home.

“What is a swamp?”

I thought about documentaries I’d watched about swamps and the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia, but I never saw one. I wanted to see a cypress tree because we went to a roadside stand that this fella polished slices from one. They were kind of a rounded star shape, light brown in the middle and reddish-brown at the edges, but that might have been the kind of varnish he used, with the red tint. I wanted to learn to refinish furniture but Daddy was worried the smells might bother the neighbors.

She was very interested in my memories, but I didn’t know that much.

A healer led Wasa Mai and his wife into a portal to Rainbow. They went towards that back hall.

We went out of the white building and went to the medium blue one. Outside it was an area with counters and traders showed holos of all kinds of things, like a giant yard sale. “Do you do much trading, Yea Becky?”

My face burned. “I never traded, but I would like to learn.”

“Did you trade on Earth?”

I showed going to Walmart to buy clothes and costume jewelry, and snacks, and school supplies. All of that was fascinating to them!

Traders begged for more, so I let Rasanos touch my forehead, and I saw every item on every aisle I ever walked down, and taught him what they were and what they did and how we used them! If I knew. Every boring trip down the auto care aisle for oil so Daddy could change it for me, and his lectures on how to take proper care of a car. That was before I decided I was happy taking buses and quit my boring job at Walmart. It wasn’t meeting the requirements for my computer science degree, so I changed my major to art and hadn’t even started trying to find a job for that.

So, Rasanos got me to think about my interest in art and I took him down the art supplies aisles at Michael’s, all those things I had to save up for. Once, I did a poster for the Environment Club that showed all the biomes of Earth, and I did a round, 8” mini-poster showing the animals and plants for each biome. They promised to give it back after their presentation, but someone swiped every part of it. I was very upset because I put three months’ work into it. My art teacher wanted to enter it into a competition. That was just before Myrillis--

But, it appeared in my hands! I remembered it as better than it really was. My zebra had stripes that didn’t look natural, and its face looked more like a cow than a horse--

“Oh, such emotion you put into your art, Yea Becky! You could be an artisan!”

We stood near the artisan area, and people left their artwork to come and look at my poster.

I waved up holos of each animal and plant, and every one of the artists who painted pots or plates or did sandpaintings, thought my work was good!

One held up a pot made of the clear stuff they make ships out of, and he showed me how he makes a painting. By heating the clear eaezhfee, he can put glazes in different colors, and it acts like paint and blends like it. Of course, my poster was in tempura paint, but this stuff acted like oils or acrylics.

He asked me to put an animal on his pot. So I drew a zebra and made the stripes more realistic, looking at the holo. I expected it to be harder, on a curved surface, but the way the paint flowed made it easy! I worked much faster than I had on my project. In college, I learned not to be such a perfectionist, and therapy helped me a lot. But I hadn’t drawn anything, or gotten out my paints, in three years. I expected it to be as interesting as an elementary school kid’s drawing. But, I wasn’t too dissatisfied with it, and it was good enough to sit on my desk in my room or something. He gave it to me. “May I duplicate this, and trade it?”

“Of course! Your kids might like one.”

“Lady, many artisans are willing to trade for her, and I will put the trade in your account! Thank you!”