The table wasn’t there, or any of the Councillors. My white leiwege was still on the floor where I left it, and 3 of the silver boxes stood side by side in the middle. I reached into one, and pulled out a basket with pastries! “Oh! The Zheien left us these?” It was a huge basket, and I had to hold it with both hands.

  Dromie’s people came, but there weren’t enough, so I let Bponas hold it while I pulled out other foods. No more pastries. But the rest of them were happy with fruits and veg. I enjoyed my pastry, a very sweet one. I’d been craving these. Every festival in Rainbow had pastries, and every one was different.

  Llsam pulled out drinks for himself, Irdaktin and Tanirpahadachan. I gave the last pastry to Kia. “Thanks! Oh, a sweet and hot one! I like those.” She looked sad.

  Dromie hugged her. “I wonder what the 15th will do with us.”

  Yamotenanten spread his hands wide. “We must go to the 7th first.”

  How many Councils do we have to see, anyway? I sighed.

  Llsam sat by his blue cube. “Azure could help us last. Tanirpahadachan and Irdaktin will not live long in these travels!” He clicked his face into a frozen frown.

  “Do you care what is at risk? Even the 6th is frightened! They kept the Imwa and the Laruu. Do not tempt me.” Yamotenanten watched me. “You used your Gift to tell forbiddens to an Earthan.”

  He laid down and curled up. Morgan sat against him and shivered. I put her blanket on her, then another.

  Kia put a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, they didn’t hurt us. Maybe the 7th won’t, either.”

  I looked at Yamotenanten. “I didn’t mean to break another rule. Maybe you should teach me what they are so I can follow them.”

  “I think you are not capable of it. With a thought, you could destroy my worlds.”

  “I don’t want to hurt anyone! When I went to different timelines, I know what that feels like. I know how not to do it because it took a lot of effort to do that!” I shivered, despite the blanket. The can near us made the air warmer.

  “You are undisciplined. Someone must train your mind, someone much stronger than us. One stray thought could create or destroy worlds.”

  “I’m not mad at anybody. And I never tried to create a world. How would I even do that?”

  Yamotenanten stopped changing faces and froze! “You do not know?”

  “Well, I’ve only been doing this for—” I tried to touch my green cube to see the date, but nothing happened.

  “Do not do that!”

  “I can’t use my computer?”

  “No! No tech! No Gifts!”

  “Then, how long will it take us to go to the 7th?”

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  “We do not have a way to see that. We will arrive when we do.”

  Kia frowned. “You people don’t have computers?”

  “When I need to know something, I ask my Collective, but they do not know what a computer is, and none of them ever traveled.”

  “Then, how do you know how to get there?”

  He laughed. “Our ship travels. I do not have to know.”

  Bponas looked at the ceiling. “Don’t tell me the ship is alive and can think!”

  A voice vibrated in the floor. “I live. Trust me, I travel a lot. He does not have to know things.”

  Bponas laughed. “What is your name?”

  “I do not have one. He calls me ship, so I answer. Our people provide a means to travel between the levels. But our levels stop at 5. He is 5. What are you?”

  “I don’t have a level! Kawspas had one, and Kerponie, didn’t you?”

  Kerponie startled. “My people were on the 15th, but now they are on the Council. Ry’nao’s Council.”

  “What did you do, to lose so many levels?”

  “My people chose to help Rentappenen. I asked them not to do that, but no one would listen to me, their king. So I sent my research to Kawspas, my brother. He created Bponas to help him fight.” He rubbed his face. Shifted his four legs around.

  So did Kawspas. “Then I created them, hoping they would fight Rentappenen, but he fooled them. I am very surprised they evolved into a new people! Now there are 200 of you. Are there more?” He looked at Andy.

  “Yes! We left thousands on Eda! They are with your people, Kawspas. But they are much weaker than us. We are the ones who had the Lens. It changed us. Should I give it to you?”

  He held out a rainbow globe with colors that swirled and threw light on the curved hull.

  Yamotenanten stepped back. “No! I am afraid!”

  Light grew in the middle of the ship. “Why do you think to bring these people to us this way? I will bring the Council Of The 15th!” Light got so bright, I had to close my eyes! Heat made me warm, but I still shook.

  A hand took mine. “Oh, you can look. We are here.”

  “Where’s here? I barely opened an eye, then both eyes.

  Bponas ran around us in a circle. Grass grew in rainbow colors! “Oh, I dreamed of a place like this, where Kawspas grew up. Before Rentappenen came to mess it all up!” She giggled as she ran around us.

  Kawspas and Kerponie ran past her and she caught up! They ran so fast, I could barely follow it! “Remember when we were children? We studied flowers and thought of helping our family grow more kinds.”

  They lived in a place like this? I’d imagined them in a sterile city with high towers. The sky was bands of rainbow colors from red near the flat horizon to yellow near the top, with white at the very top. Clouds reflected all the colors but had blue shadows. A yellow sun shone warm on my face. I felt about as heavy as on Earth, but I felt the same on that ship.

  A lady walked with us, in a plain white dress that reflected the colors in the sky and of the grasses and flowers. When I looked at Bponas, she had a mouthful of ‘em. “You have to taste this, Azure!”

  The lady laughed. “Nothing here will harm you. We created this world so we could speak.”

  I picked a rose, but it smelled like cinnamon. When I pulled a petal off and ate it, I tasted cinnamon, but chewy like a sweet roll. “Oh, this is good! But, how much trouble are we all in?” Around us, Dromie’s people ran and jumped, rolling in the grass near us. Some of them played leapfrog.

  She squeezed my hand. “Here is the Council Of The 15th. All our members are listening. But we already have the testimonies of all in the Council Of The 5th. Yamotenanten went back to tell them, and we gave his ship faster travel. He is there now.

  “Your friends went back to Alb on your level. I am Hionie, and I will teach you how to control your power. Rentappenen stole the Lens Kawspas found. It is far too powerful for you.”

  Kawspas ran over and bowed. “I am happy for you to have it! What will my punishment be, for causing such destruction through my creations?”