Fa sat with us. “I can teach—”

“I must object! You are nae recovered from Esteerr!”

He laughed. “King Lyyyrah learned healing—”

“He nae gave any concessions when you visited two days past, and I had to force regen on you! Will you lose this telepathy?”

“From Earthans, as weak as their—”

Pas frowned at Fa! “It takes much stamina to teach any Earthan, and you think to train 7 at one? I agree with Konomai. You must ne attempt this. I think I shall ask of one of our diplomats—”

“O, Pas, I think I am well for this!” Antomias sat with us.

“After you went with Konaris?”

He laughed and pulled Pas’ orange hand to his forehead. “I nae ever served a mission but in my memories. I am Antomias’ ba who shall serve missions in his place. Antomias, 2nd Prince Of Esta Faho, at your service!”

Pas laughed. “I pronounce you healthy, and ea, you are well for all seven.” He rubbed his bald head. Odd, I never saw a bald Zheien, and we went to a lot of Zheien worlds. Fa had a full head of blond hair. Not a silver hair in it, though he definitely had some lines at the corners of his eyes.

“While we wait to lift, let me show you your new home, and I can help you site and design them.” The orange of the ship and all the noise of Earthan conversations faded.

We stood in the middle of seven buildings, that each had seven sides. Near the sky blue one. Like giant gems shining under a yellow sun. The yellow sand felt warm on my feet. A lady ran to us with a tray of pastries, and a little girl Allison’s age had a tray of candies. Allison smiled. Like her, the girl had brown eyes and carrot-bright hair. “Hi, my name is Mias and I am 7. Wish you to see how these taste, or do you wish to taste Mea’s pastries first? Candies keep in stasis but pastries are unwell after two days, even in stasis, so you might wish to put two candies in your alt storage.”

“What’s stasis?” Rose surprised me by venturing the question.

“It is when timespace slows about an object. I nae understand it, but I like to try. Things become very cold and most foods nae spoil. But festival foods are only available during festivals because we can nae grow many, though our growers research to find ways to grow more.”

Allison nodded. Usually, she doesn’t respond to people and just wants to do art. She’s in special ed at school because she won’t talk unless she’s in her room with just one of us. But she wishes she’d been there before Millie died. Her problems started last year. I explained all of it to Pas, and heard him warning everyone not to expect her to answer. But it felt good to see her responding to Mias. Usually she ignores other kids.

Mias kind of broadcasted what things tasted like, and Antomias handed Allison one candy after another as Mias showed us.

Karl frowned. “Hey, no fair! I wanted to try some, and she said two.”

“Karl, there will be more of these that you wish, and I shall find them for you. Your sa needs them, for she has disabilities.”

“So do I, and Jo, and Rose! We’re all disabled! I’m ADHD and have to take meds for it. Allison’s just mental. She’ll be a mass murderer—” His abuse prog went off and we didn’t see him!

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We girls gasped! Yeah, I read that, too, but nobody ever talked about it!

Allison turned away and hugged her knees.

Antomias put her on his lap. Stroked her pigtails. “Nae believe these harmful words! I see that you have this prog running, that hides your ba. O, I am sorry he said this to you! Allison, nae fear to speak. Nae here will laugh at you if you mix your sounds.”

“You know? Oh!” She pronounced the ‘k’. Covered her face. Shook.

“I enjoy your voice, Allison. Nae fear. You may speak if you wish, but I will nae anger with you if you nae wish to speak. You speech need nae be perfect for me.”

“No? Okay.” She put her head against his chest and sighed.

Antomias’ brother the 3rd prince sat by Karl, who was very red-faced. “Are you all right?”

“Why do I do this? I always say the wrong things and do the wrong things, and I’m always in trouble at school, and nobody likes me! I wish I could just play baseball for a living and not--”

This Antomias put Karl on his lap. I tensed. Expected Karl to accuse him of being a child abuser or something. But Karl let him. “I like you, Ba. I worry that you have such fears! My ba holds Allison. If you wish to apologize to her, speak, and my ba brings your words to her.”

“You’re not going to fuss at me for upsetting her?”

“I will nae. You know that is unwell to tell her such a hurtful thing, and you have guilt. How can we help you so you can say more helpful things to your sae?”

“I don’t know. I guess I worry about her ‘cause she holds everything in. Bullies tease her all day at school, then she comes home and I’m worse! I want to do better, honest! Everything bothers me. I don’t like being a 3. Daddy doesn’t like bein’ a 3, either, but he said you can’t change from one Enneagram Type to another.” He sighed.

“O, there are many theories of personality, and I think you should merely strive to be better. What do you think would help your sisters?”

He swiped tears off his face. “I wish I hadn’t stomped all of Jo’s Barbies, or ruined all Rose’s art projects. They’ve been really depressed, and it’s my fault.”

Antomias waved, and all Jo’s Barbie’s, collector ones, repaired themselves. Rose’s art projects also, especially her rainbow unicorn that won 1st Place in the Georgia Day art competition. The theme was Georgia Exports so she made little models of a peach, a peanut, and other major exports and hung them on the mane and tail. It was very realistic and Mama made videos of her making it so the judges believed Rose really created it. The whole project was paper mache and the peanut and peach opened to show the inside.

But, his prized Batman Hot Wheels Special Edition that I stomped also repaired itself. Good. Mama said it wasn’t a good idea to give him a taste of his own medicine. He was better for a while, then worse than ever.

I apologized to him and he actually gave me a hug. “I deserved that! Before you did it, I didn’t realize that what I was doing to all of you really hurt. But, I should’ve stopped.”

“Bro, you shouldn’t be so hard on yourself. Setting these impossible expectations for yourself keeps you upset. Nobody is perfect.”

“Zheien are. I watched a lot of vids about ‘em. Kids behave. They don’t act like me.”

Antomias shook his head sadly. “This is nae true. We all must repent, daily.”

I’d thought Antomias forgot all about teaching us how to use our telepathy, but he did. While he comforted each of my volatile sibs, he was showing each of us how to keep our private thoughts to ourselves. He didn’t use the formal terms, Inner Circle, or Outer Circle, but naturally, when we were sitting in the festival, we learned to keep our thoughts on the Outer Circle, where a shared place like Esta Faho is. When he spoke to ‘em individually, he taught ‘em to keep their private thoughts in the Inner Circle. Wow. What a skilled teacher! The thought hit me, that’s how Farley described his fa teaching him. It’s hard because when you teach, you have to grab the stray thoughts and show the person that you grabbed it and virtually, give it back while you’re blocking that thought from your consciousness. At the speed of thought. Every thought takes energy. And, that quickly adds up to exhaustion! Telepathy is mentally taxing.

“What do you repent of? You said you’re a clone of the real Antomias, so like, how old are you? I bet you haven’t been around long enough to repent of anything!”