One of the little people walked in front of the red man. Screeched in that horrible language. Every one of them laid, face-down in the sand like Dromie! Then, he laid himself out like that. “Emperor Ry’nao, we are the last of our people. Rentappenen controlled us! Enslaved us! None of us thought we were strong. I am our leader. I judged our strength to be inadequate.

“Yes, we helped Rentappenen, and the Lerk, and the Laruu, and the Jain. And, the Imwa. We are older than all the galaxies of the Padrisa.

“But, this one, who calls himself Dromie, came to me. He found me in Rentappenen’s home where I was his servant. He told me that we had to believe we could win. I gathered what few of our people could live, and you see them here.

“We rose up and defeated Rentappenen, and brought back all the galaxies. You blame Dromie, but he never destroyed a galaxy. He lied about it so Rentappenen would not kill him. We are good at lies, but I want you to know, we lied so Rentappenen would not know how powerful we are. So civilization would not fall. I let Dromie kill us, all of us, and Rentappenen could not reclone us. He punished Dromie. I beg for his life, for he is my son.

“I ask that you punish me and not my people. I am the one who decided we all must die, that Rentappenen did not have unlimited power. My son had just enough strength to kill us, and stay alive. He is the weakest of us, and I am the one who discarded him, and yet he lived.

“Now is the time of truth. There is no reason to hide. We are the hope of your Thirteen, for a battle is now in progress that is not fought with Cubes or other methods you may know. The Padrisa is at stake now.

“But, you wish to exile my son. Our lives are measured in terms of length I cannot name in your language. If you exile us, we will merely wait until your civilization ends and a new one comes. My opinion is that it is unfair to judge and mete punishment to one person for the acts of a people. What you decide must be the fate of all of us, and my gesture to you is to make all of us mortal.

“If you truly wish to end us, I will not stop you, as my gesture of goodwill. But I ask that you consider the needs of the Padrisa over the needs of the Thirteen. We are badly needed in this battle that will never involve you.

“My words will never be enough. If I wanted to destroy your Thirteen I would have let Rentappenen have you. I nearly did because I made a bad decision. My son convinced me that the Thirteen is good.

“However, levels above this one sent us here as punishment. Friends of Rentappenen on the 6th sent us here to help him win.

“So, by the rules of levels, and the rules of Five in the Test Of Levels, you are the one to give final judgment.

“All who knew us are dead. We could not bring them back. We did not destroy them. Rentappenen did.

“This is for you. It is our most powerful weapon.”

This man left a green cube in the sand.

“With this, think to end us and we are gone, permanently. But with us ends the Padrisa, and the hope of your Thirteen. If the Padrisa falls, you are next.”

He put his face in the sand and wept.

Another being came. This one was purple and his face changed constantly, though he was so bright to look at, the faces weren’t clear. “Ry’nao, what he says is true! They are tied to the Padrisa, even though they are not part of it now. The cube he made will only work if you control it.”

“I fear to touch it! The Padrisa?” His skin wasn’t red any more. Pink.

“Do you think it is safe to let them live? They were once on a level 300 times as big as The Padrisa. It is destroyed, and we know nothing of the conflict or how it happened.”

Molly shook all over, still in that bow to Ry’nao. “If you kill them, no one will know. You said if we know history, we can avoid repeating it.”

“Molly, there are some weapons no civilization should know. This,” he looked down at the green cube at his feet, “is one.” He shook harder than she did. An old fella. Even his gray curls jiggled. Sweat dripped off his hair and his skin and made dark spots on the orange sand. “I do not know enough to decide this. I am not sure our Council should make such a decision. If your people affect the Padrisa, I think the Council Of Padrisa should decide.”

Dromie’s daddy quivered. “We were made to be weapons against the Padrisa. The Council that sent us destroyed itself, and all the levels to the Padrisa. They felt we were too dangerous to stay there, so they sent us to the 6th. The 6th sent us here. No one wants us. No one loved us before this family loved my son. He told me he loves me. But he tells me this woman, who does not know us, loves us. She loves the Thirteen. This reminded me, I loved the Padrisa. So I did not kill it. Dromie taught me love again. He said some things are worth dying for.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“So I ask you, Ry’nao, is it better that we die? I do not know if we can help the Padrisa win. You fear, and Wslarc fears, that we are a worse danger than this war. I can see it and you cannot. If I show you, this will kill you and you cannot decide our fate.”

“Can you show Dromie? Dromie showed me that he could help me, and he didn’t hurt me.” Molly stared at Ry’nao.

“Molly, I fear to have any contact with his mind, with any of their minds. They are so powerful in their telepathy, I cannot explain why all of you did not die, instantly!” He sat in the sand. His healer sat by him but not touching him.

Molly sat by him, careful not to touch that green cube. He was very careful not to touch it when he sat down.

“Should I take it back? You fear it.”

“Yes, take it.”

Dromie’s daddy put his hand over it. When he dropped the hand, the cube wasn’t in it.

“May I ask what happened in the Padrisa Council?”

“They do not speak in words as your Council. They gathered a thousand diplomats to speak to me. I tried to speak but I did not know they could be hurt. After 3000 they did not try again. They left. Rentappenen took us by force. Took my son, by force. Your language is difficult.”

“Daddy, you hurt them. Your mind was too strong. Mine is not. I can talk to them now. If I don’t die. No one taught any of us that we should talk weak. Our makers taught us be strong so we destroy. Now we know it is wrong to destroy. We think now.”

“Yes, we were weapons. Now we think. Now we know life is important. The Padrisa did not know this. We know something the Padrisa did not know. Or did we? Maybe we did not listen, because to listen, we have to be weak in our minds. If we are strong, people can’t live to speak.”

Ry’nao looked at Wslarc. “Do people of the 6th have stronger telepathy than we know?”

“Yes! They have to use species with stronger telepathy to communicate. But, if I understand him correctly, they were weapons and became sentient.”

“Or, we are not understanding them correctly.”

“I see your point. If we do not have contact with them, we cannot know their intentions. But I feel they are too dangerous for this contact!”

Ry’nao frowned. “If we felt that way on the Council, no one would ever have spoken with Zbbat or Esteerrians. Or, people of Ctral.”

Wslarc gave a tired sigh. “It is your Thirteen. We do not have anyone who can speak with The Padrisa.”

Ry’nao smiled. “Now, we do. I think these people deserve a chance to live among us. I can find willing volunteers to speak with them and teach them how thin their telepathic contact must be. When we train them, we can send one representative to the Padrisa and they can say what they intended to say, or what they intend to say, now.”

“I can cite many civilizations that fell because someone like you wanted to try speaking with them. Or speaking through a species with more powerful telepathy.” Wslarc shook his head.

“But, my friend, if no one tries, miscommunication can make a species seem criminal when they are not.”

“I say again, it is your Thirteen at risk.”

“And, I will say, I do not wish to risk the Padrisa. If your people are willing to be careful, we will try to avoid mistakes. Will you live on the world Pirad chose, until we have the opportunity to build trust?” Ry’nao spoke to Dromie’s Daddy.

“I will be happy to live with my son. My people, will you go with him to his world? I will go with you.”

“You will, Daddy?” Dromie giggled.

Luna hugged him. “Yay! We’ll all be together!”

Gwen frowned. “Can we talk about dis? I want to live in that Black city on MarKu! I’m not wid’ him! An’ I don’ want my Mama wid’ him!”

Wslarc put a hand on her brown curls. “I expected him to increase your telepathy, but it is weak. You are safe to be around Earthans. The child, also.”

“C’mon, Mama!” She grabbed my arm.

“No, you go ahead.”

“But, Granny, you an’ Dromie have to come!” Gwen pulled Luna away.

I hugged Dromie. “I’ll go back.”

“You can’t be serious, Mama!” Gwen stood up and held screaming Luna!

“Weren’t you listening at all, Gwen? This is bigger than our family! It’s intergalactic peace! I’m old. Let me go with ‘em. If they can learn to all talk to me, they can talk to the Padrisa, can’t they?”

“You’ll die up there! We nearly did!”

“Honey, I’m old. You expect to lose your parents. You’ll be okay without me. It’s for 13 galaxies. I’m the one who asked Dromie to save us, an’ he did!”