“Can you see Ket? Or Ilios—” He wept. One four-fingered hand rested gently on Ryee’s forehead.

  Ryee turned into a red-skinned man, fire-engine red like Ry’nao used to be. He got this rapt expression. “Fahie!”

  “Bahie! Oh, I thought I’d die without ever seeing you again!” He cried, loudly!

  “Father, where are you? What kind of ship is that? Ket, do you know?”

  Ket jumped and hugged him. “I thought ‘Ao was here!”

  “We are going to the Padrisa, for judgment!”

  Ilios’ gasp echoed on the ship. “No, no, no, they should take me! Who?”

  Yamotenanten stood. “I am Yamotenanten of the Padrisa Council, and I am taking them. Not you.”

  Ry’nao put his hand on Ilios’ face. His son’s tears made white crystals and bounced on the floor. “Be safe, dear son. I love you. You have me, the last me before Eriganh’s defeat.”

  “He’s not your clone?”

  “No, he is me, and he will stay. Azure split our timeselves. Maybe he can explain.”

  “Fahie, he cannot explain anything. He forgets things.” The anguish in that deep voice got to me.

  Then he was Ryonne~ again and Ry’nao jerked his hand off his lips. Zheien hate their mouths to be touched ‘cause they get embarrassed easily. He turned deep orange. But, he hugged him. The Emperor sobbed.

  Molly gathered up all the crystal tears and patted her pocket. Looked at Yamotenanten. “Can I get a container for these? I want to give them to Ry’nao.”

  “Why?”

  “It’s an Xchou custom, The Gift Of Tears. He’ll want to keep them to remember his son by.”

  “We do not do this or need containers.” He just looked confused.

  But I dug in my pocket of my jeans. I still had a pretty cloth bag that was gold that I found on the ground someplace. I washed it and hung it in the bathroom, and when I got dressed that last morning, I stuck it in my pocket because it was pretty. I held it open and Molly carefully scraped the tears off her hand. Then she pulled on the drawstring and tied a bow. Put it in Ry’nao’s hand. He held it to his cheek.

  Dromie touched it.

  Yamotenanten snatched his hand away. “Do not do anything!”

  “I want to learn things. I wasn’t going to steal it.”

  Ry’nao put the bag in Dromie’s hand. “Do you feel strength? Ilios’ tears have Tessite in them. Once, my tears were like this. I should not be selfish. Oh, you have an aandat. I could press a few of them into it—but it’s white.” He frowned.

  Dromie put the little bag back into his hand. “Yes, white ones already have Tessite in ‘em. This is special because it came from Ilios, and Azure.”

  “Azure? Oh, I am selfish.” He looked at the bag but when he tried to reach into his pocket his pants were just cloth without a pocket. That confused him.

  I folded his fingers around the bag. “It’s okay. I want you to have it.”

  “Did you get that bag from someone you loved?” Tears dripped onto his cheeks again.

  “No. I have the keychain Daddy brought me from Minnesota.” I pulled out a gold keychain with a blue snowflake on it. It was a tiny Austrian crystal with a snowflake pattern etched into it, and it made rainbows when the sun shone through it. The only thing he ever brought me from his business trips. On the keychain I had a butterfly that was also Austrian crystal, from a pair of earrings Mama had. She lost one and couldn’t find it, so she gave me that one, blue like the crystal. Again, about the only things they ever gave me, and they fit in my pocket. My lips trembled.

  Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

  Ryonne~ took the bag and used a loop of the bow to hang it on one of the Emperor's pins. It hung neatly between two rows of them, right in the middle. The pins made a pattern kind of like a snowflake.

  Ry’nao hugged me. “Oh, we have hard lives, don’t we? But we have each other. Friends, I am happy none of us have to face our fates alone. I’m so tired. Ryee, we should all rest. All my men. It is safe to rest.” He mumbled something else.

  Ryee stroked his gray curls. “Ea, is safe here. I shall watch, ‘Ao. Sleep now.” He also had tears in his orange eyes.

  Molly gently made him lie down with his head in her lap.

  Kia and Irdaktin moved closer. “Daka’s on Eda. Will they be all right with us gone?” Kia wept, too. They have a son?

  Dromie sighed. “It’s beautiful there, now. Granny has more family, and neighbors that are Kaswpas’ people.”

  Kaswpas awkwardly sat by us. Those four legs made it very awkward. “They will take care of them. Oh, I didn’t leave enough room for Bponas.”

  I looked up and there was that beautiful unicorn!

  She scooted in between him and me. “Oops! This is very awkward! Watch my horn, I don’t want to hurt anyone!”

  I grabbed it so I wouldn’t bump it, but it wasn’t hard like cow horns I touched when we visited a dairy at school once. This was like a rubber eraser. “This wouldn’t hurt anyone!” Her hoof bumped my leg and that didn’t hurt, either.

  “I wish I was smaller!”

  “If I made you smaller, you couldn’t carry our weapons!”

  “Humpf! I don’t want to do that ever again!”

  I hugged her neck and she leaned into me. “I wish you could live with me—well, that was stupid. I’ll never have a home, or a place for you to run or anything.”

  “Well, I never had that! One battlefield to another. I’m so tired, and my legs hurt! I’m happy to rest. So that’s what a hug is like! I could get used to this.”

  I giggled, and she laughed, too. “Thank you, Bponas. Am I pronouncing your name right?”

  “You’ll have to ask Kaswpas. He made me. But King Kerponie sent his research with me, so maybe he made me first?”

  Another goblin sat by them. “I made you. But, you got hurt and Kaswpas made you into a riding animal. We both looked like him then. I miss my legs. I can’t run like that with these short, fat legs!”

  “We can run! Watch!” Dromie ran around the huge ship. People laughed. His people all got up and ran with him.

  Then Kerponie ran, too. “No, this isn’t as fast as I used to run.”

  Dromie touched him and he grew two more legs and got tall like Kaswpas! He reached for Bponas but Yamotenanten stood. “Stop! You must not do that!”

  “But he wanted to look like he did!”

  “Do not change anyone! None of you are to do anything like that until you are Judged worthy!” He looked mad!

  Dromie cried, and his dad hugged him. “We will obey! What else are we not supposed to do?” They paled to a very light blue-green.

  “Do not use your Gifts!” He sounded flustered.

  “What are Gifts?”

  “You just used one! Surely you know—”

  “That’s why I need someone to teach me! I don’t know!” Dromie cried.

  I held out my arms. “I think he means, don’t do things that other people can’t do. I can’t change people into other species. But, I can’t learn to do that, either. I could learn to be a healer like Molly, so I think that would be okay.” I hugged him and he sighed.

  His dad laid beside him so I hugged him, too. “I’m glad you’re here. Well, I’m sorry you have to be judged, but I’m happy you don’t have to be alone.”

  “What about when he kills us? That wasn’t very pleasant.” Andy’s voice broke.

  “That’s because I was mad. I’m sorry!” Dromie sobbed. “The man who killed me enjoyed it! He scared me a lot while I died! I don’t want to feel that again!”

  I stroked their heads. “Don’t think about that. If I’m around, I’ll hold you like this while you die.”

  “You’d do that? You’re so nice, Azure!”

  “Any of us would do that!” Molly stroked their heads too, and hummed. “Gosh, you are both cold! Are you supposed to be cold?”

  “I was warm when Luna or Granny held me.” Dromie kept sobbing.

  “This floor is too cold. Can’t we have some blankets?” Molly frowned at Yamotenanten.

  Ry’nao startled. “Molly, we cannot ask him for things. It is not allowed.”

  “He said he wants to keep your people alive! I can’t keep Zheien alive if they get cold, and all of you are upset! It’s too much stress! There aren’t enough Biehshah and Bisillips, or Aryllans on the ship to keep them alive!” She sobbed as she looked at Kia’s family and King Wtensau, who held his son. “Greg and Briahh need a lot of water, and so do Biehshah, Bisillips and Aryllans!”

  Yamotenanten got upset. “You need so much! No one told me you would need things, like food and not to be cold! I cannot do anything about it! The Council will punish me!”