Ry’nao put a four-fingered hand on Ir’s shoulder and tapped. “Ir, I need you to call a meeting of all who hold Cubes. Let us meet discreetly in my house. I have an underground chamber for this purpose.”

Ir bowed and Ry’nao returned it. Then Ir mentally directed all of us left. He still had 151 people. Even Baker Fahnar went into Oshfah to find early festival-goers, though it wasn’t that early now. Yeff are still working their half-day as they always do on festival days. We are still celebrating the move to Alb, that we thought would be safe. Most of those Yeff, Earthans, Areonians, purple Thordes and Elshars enjoying it believe we are safe from slavers. Oh, and hundreds of red Xchou like our Emperor.

Except those holding Cubes, all of our Biehshah, and our Ry Pethe folks. All of the ones without Cubes asked people with Cubes to come with them, and I used my Cube to tell them why.

Ry’nao, Ryonne~ and his wife, Adia, all clones of the originals still on Earth, led us past the Ry Pethe colony which now had homes above ground with beautiful flower gardens. A huge one sat between Ry Pethe and its very Earthan or Areonian-German log homes with their beautiful carvings, and Xchou Ye~ with stone domes.

He led us into one that sat apart from the circle of domes and a portal took us to a stone room with Eaezhfee chairs like Adia’s Ship is made of, and people whooshed in. It got bigger as more people crowded in. The seats multiplied until there were three rows of them in a circle and Ry’nao stood in the middle.

“Friends, today, I am not here as your emperor, but as an equal. Kia, you are directing them, so I will let you speak.” He sat in a neon green chair to my right. Ir was on my left, but also sat down. Me? Every neon green chair had a different design, but other than that, they were all the same as people sat in them.

Light came from the round wall equally and sound echoed despite about 200 of us. “We need to get ready to fight.”

A lady stood, one of the Ry Pethe folks with a yellow cube. “I can’t fight him, he’ll kill my mother!”

I swallowed. “He has our baby, our son! But we have to fight. You think he will spare our relatives if he wins? We have to believe that they are still alive, but his slaves. If we act quickly—”

Ry’nao sighed and all of us looked at him. “Adia must confront Eriganh, in his time, of his choosing. We cannot interfere.”

“Even though he is cheating?” Dromie stood with his arms up. He just appeared in a chair. “We are fighting, even though it is forbidden, because Wslarc told me we must! He is from the 6th level and is a clone for our level. Wally is from the 5th and tells us we must fight. Do you know what happened? Rentappenen already killed all the Councils of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd of the Test Of Levels!”

Ir gasped. So did Ry’nao! Ir stood up. “Then, we must act. The moment Queen Adia and Eriganh finish, our Battle Of The Cubes must begin! Eriganh is so irrational now, I think it will not be long.”

Dromie frowned at Ry’nao. “You worried about him knowing of our plans, but he does. He cannot destroy Alb because Pirad and Kirnonos set up defenses he cannot penetrate. Bisillipia is at war with us against him. They have arms they kept from the last war, the one Bisillipia waged against the Jain. They still have those weapons, and the Elshar Council retrieved the ones hidden on Jain. We also gave Bisillipia weapons, vast stores of them, from Lisbaar, Luruu, Taspan, Iritt, Guaspesi, and their thousands of worlds.

“Now, Rentappenen knows what he has unleashed, and he no longer has his Ty’nirrhan body with its rainbow Tessite, because the 6th allowed Sara to take it! He cannot control but a third of his troops and many are rebelling because of his harsh rule. The War is already even, now. We brought the Jain and the Lerk back.”

Ry’nao looked dismayed! “You cannot do this! The Jain destroyed 50 galaxies in the Padrisa! The Lerk destroyed thousands!”

He grinned. “We brought them back, but Rentappenen sent half his troops to take their weapons. They destroyed each other, this time so badly we cannot bring them back! You have all of their knowledge in the Gray Cube now. Rentappenen found, to his dismay, without rainbow Tessite, he cannot make instant clones. If he makes them fast, they only fight for an hour or so before they become injured. He is using up his resources.

“Without Rainbow Tessite and the knowledge to use it, all of Lerk’s weaponry failed, but after they destroyed most of Rentappenen’s forces across their worlds.

“As I predicted, the warlike races are using all their resources and men to fight, and they are the first to fall. The races who care about lives are cautious and they will survive.” He folded his short arms across his chest.

Pinda appeared and frowned at him. “It is dangerous to bring our weapons back! My people decided peace was the only way after we destroyed most of our worlds waging war!” His cat-like ears flattened against his head, and his black fur stood on end, that wasn’t covered by his red robes.

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

“Your ancestors were good fighters, and they defeated Rentappenen’s best Harast warriors! Now Inpeten is speaking with Ser and knows what happened. I think he will caution his elite. Laruu are very smart. Rentappenen didn’t fool them as he did us.” Dromie sighed and looked very sad. “We will have severe penalties from the 6th, but your people will not.”

Ir frowned. “Our people will, but even Kirnonos knew that.”

Ry’nao got up and took his hand. “What will they do?” His skin turned a deeper gray and his tears bounced on the rock floor.

Ir made him sit down and sat next to him. “We do not know. But even if we perish, your peoples of the Thirteen will live, if we win this war!”

Mon Pa whooshed in with 6 others. “My emperor! Let me call a healer—”

“He would perish, as 5 of my brothers did today. Pirad cannot clone more of me.”

Ryonne~ gasped and put him on his lap. “They died? Ne pas!”

“As I will soon. I fear for my sons, Ryee, they are all injured and their reclonings did not go well!”

Ipano~, that orange Zheien, picked up all Ry’nao’s tears and put them in a clear pyramid. “I will fight beside them.”

“Ip, you can’t! You’re barely able to walk!”

He lifted a deep red cube, with a smile. “My Collective is strong—”

“You would die trying to direct the Flow! Listen to me, you remember skills that are ne with you now!”

Members of Ryonne~‘s family were here and their rumbles shook the room! Ipano~ tried to give the pyramid to Ryonne~, but he took the cube and it blended with the red-violet one he had.

Ipano~ looked dismayed! Another family member took him and sat. He fell asleep.

Ry’nao cried. “Keep him safe, Ryee! Promise—” His gray-curled head sank against Ryonne~‘s broad chest and rumbles shook us.

“I will.” He sobbed.

An Elshar ported in. “Habis ha! He rushed to put his hands on the emperor’s head. Wept and waved a shaking hand. Ry’nao vanished.

Now Ryonne~ held him and they all wept. He died? “Friends, as you see, war rages, and we have many casualties among my people, and among all peoples. My family also is missing many, taken by Rentappenen’s people in the night. There is ne prevention. We can only fight. As Ry’nao advised Adia, my wife’s host on Earth now, there is ne preparation. When the time comes, people in your Cubes shall advise you, what to do.”

A teenaged girl stood up. “I don’t want this thing! I want my family back!” The pink cube glowed, and people ported into the room! We all moved as a body to hug them and make them sit down. Healers ported in!

Our son wasn’t among these people, but seeing them alive gave us hope. I held my hands up to get their attention. “Don’t do that! I know you want to see people that were taken, but every use of the cubes weakens your Collective! People in them can die when you let stray thoughts happen. All of you, keep a diplomat near you to teach you. They can’t tell you how to do this, but it helps. My husband is a diplomat and he taught me a lot, then I figured some of it out. If you talk to your Collective, they can teach you things if you ask them.”

A man stood and looked mad. “My Collective doesn’t want to teach me! They think I’m stupid! I don’t know if they’ll even fight!”

“How are you talking to them? Are you polite? If you insulted ‘em, you need to apologize. Understand that your Collective might have members of alien species you never heard of, and it’s easy to do somethin’ insultin’ that you didn’t know was. Try to learn how to talk so they do listen. Mine are pretty friendly, once I understood that.”

He startled, then nodded. Sat down and got the memory-sharing stare. A lot of people who were unhappy now had that stare. It’s easy to think of these things as things, not as a group of people with thoughts and feelings and some of ‘em were slaves. “If you have people in your Collective who were slaves, let ‘em go.”

That man stood up! “But if I let ‘em go, I won’t have anyone to fight with!”

“I was afraid of that, but near your Collective there’s a lab where they make clones. In 24 hours you can have replacements. We have time, so do it now!” That just came from one of my members, not me.

People got busy and I physically felt swaps taking place. Apparently they had some clones ready to replace people. All over Alb, people came out of the buildings of blue cubes. These structures were usually underground, but looked like water in a swimming pool. They made it to the surface and healers met them. All of them were scared they’d be killed, but the servers showed healers where they were and what species they were. Across Alb, there were healers that knew some of the species. They had to teach them about aandats, that wonderful second skin that protects against disease and strengthens telepathy—they didn’t have that? And about animals and plants, but progs warned about anything dangerous, don’t they? Some are learning how to eat because they didn’t have bodily needs while in there. Wow!

My Collective didn’t have a single slave. But most of them were mostly slaves! Born and bred to sit in a room for the rest of their lives. While in it, they didn’t age, so many were children. That bothered me a lot!

“Councillors like children because they learn fast, and haven’t formed opinions on things.” Ir frowned. “I worry that we didn’t teach Daka fast enough for this! Rentappenen easy convinced entire civilizations to follow him, and they believed his lies. In all known history, he is more persuasive than any Councillor, that we learned of on the 2nd.”

Now, I trembled, too.