Dreamwalk

Wtensau made a long speech, and a translation of it came to Earth, that he wanted to open trade there. A lot of people didn't want Aryllans coming to Earth, and protested. He had planned a visit to Earth, but the UN asked him not to come until they did some preliminary work. There were riots on a lot of worlds he and Queen Selafae visited. I felt guilty now about my laughter.

His palace looked like a spire made of a diamond, on a gray beach, with tropical plants. A tree dropped nuts as big as my head, and they shook the ground, but he didn't show any fear. He waved to people playing in the water, families with children. At the time, I didn't lose my fear of Aryllans. Once, they had long, razor-sharp fingernails, and took pleasure from giving their victims pain as they bled to death. Contact with the Aryllan made the victim high.

Perretau gasped, then cried aloud! "I am sorry! We are all sorry! We were monsters, as Earthans put it." His points got warm under my fingers, then hot, but the rest of his skin got icy. Sweated.

I hugged him. "Perretau, I'm sorry! I shouldn't have been thinking—"

"Some of our people are still slavers! Some are still unchanged monsters, and everybody fears us!" He sobbed. Many of the others cried, too.

"I'm not scared of you! C'mere!" Gently, I grabbed wrists and pulled as many of them near as I could hug. Solin had his arms around five, and bigger Tarpa had six. Then, I tried to remember that tune that Perr hummed, and words came to me.

Aryll ki pah yi, ki pa ya, ki pah sei tsi beiya gh—

The Outer Circle I created got more detail, and Perr carried a flower as big as his head, a pearlescent white flower. He sang it in English. "Aryll is a flower, a pretty flower, like children in the sun

"We are like children, like growing children, we learn together in the sun.

"All people are our brothers, are our sisters, we reach together for understanding

"We learn together, live together, in peace we teach each other." His beady eyes stared at me, and they didn't have much expression to them, but his mouth did, and his forehead, even without but a few brow hairs. Yet, more than that, his emotion tingled on me.

He loved his home, and the Aryll flowers, which only grew with a lot of care in certain special places, almost like museums. His world had few plants that grew without cultivation. Most of them had died out, despite their scientists' best work. Many children died before puberty. Many adults starved if they couldn't trade enough to live offplanet in a colony.

Without slavery, the economy didn't work well, because few traders wanted to trade with them, because they feared being taken for slaves. Few Aryllan traders survived a trip to Elshar Mashai to be tested for Traders Service, and without TS status, in the Alliance, a trader can't make a living.

We sang in harmony, and his friends came into my mind, too, and added things about Aryll, and Abyll, its neighboring world with a dying population. When Perr was little, his family moved from Abyll to Aryll, and they nearly starved when the government was attacked. His parents worked for the new government, but Perr went with friends from colony to colony until King Wtensau came back to power, when all Aryllans were changed.

King Wtensau had his parents sent back to Abyll to their former work, caring for their aging Hub. The strains of algae that kept it alive were dying. When it did, all the progs that kept farms watered, and sick people fed, and other vital functions, would stop and all of the worlds of the Ninth Galaxy populated by Aryllans would die.

While they showed me all of this, Ahstam taught me a little Aryllan healing, and I learned it. I assumed that he heard it, and the rest of our Team. But, the Outer Circle vanished, and all of the diplomats rubbed those beady eyes.

Solin hugged Perr. "Are you unwell, my friend? Ahstam—"

He laughed. "I'm well! Zheien worry too much. Maybe we do, too. Friends, let us go to my ship. We have an embassy to build!"

PanicRun

I startled awake. My sister, Hali, helped me up off the floor. "Some dream, hah?"

My sobs startled her. "I have to go!" Like a madwoman, I jerked my dress off the hanger and shrugged into it.

"Go where? Ya haven't got school until—"

Her phone went off. "...signals from SETI are very strong. The aliens want a treaty, and it's being transmitted to the UN right now! They—"

"It's happening! I have to go on a walkabout!" It's 640 am. I pulled on my tennis shoes. They didn't go with my bright blue interview dress. Got my coat. I had a bag of magnolia seeds hanging in a grocery bag. I grabbed that, too. Ran.

"A walkabout! This is the states, you can't—"

I raced downstairs. Mum and Dad were just putting breakfast on the table. "A walkabout? Are ya daft? Ya can't do that here!" They ran after me.

My brother came last.

"Lock the door! Stay here, we'll handle this."

"Yes, sir." Knowin' Heremanu, he'll eat it all before we get back! I ran out of the door. Barely knew how to get to GSU on MARTA, but I turned right instead of left. My family ran after me. I sobbed so hard, I barely kept goin'. Couldn't see well for tears.

"What's wrong? Why ya cryin' like that?"

"He'll die if I can't get there in time!"

"Who?"

"Perr! He's Prince Of Aryll—"

"A Scottish Prince! Well!"

"He's not Scottish, 'e's from another planet!"

"An alien? You just wait!" Dad grabbed my wrist.

Just then, another man grabbed my other hand. His hand had two-foot fingernails. "Well, what a prize you are! You're my ticket onto their ship. Think of him." People at the bus stop backed away.

I tried to jerk my hand outa his but I was too scared. Our neighborhood with all its fancy houses vanished. Nearly dropped the bag of magnolia seeds I carried. In a plastic grocery bag.

He saw that, too. "Ah, a prize to bargain with. Ray, Trader Of Earth, I am Satauuver. If you value these people, you will trade with me. Eriganh is tired of your interference."

Satauuver

We appeared in a huge crowd, hundreds of people who stared at him.

A blond woman came through them. "I am Trader Ray." She waved and a light blue robe just appeared over her light blue T-shirt and medium blue jeans. Medium blue eyes, that gave him an icy stare.

But, by us, another man appeared. He stared at Satauuver, who glared at him. "This woman wants you." He shoved me into his arms.

I didn't think. I ignored his two-foot nails, razor sharp for killing victims, and I hugged him. "Perr! This is for you!" I put the bag in his hand. As I did, his long fingernails shrank so they were short as mine! He sweated, just like in my dream.

With one gentle arm around me, he waved and the bag floated. Magnolia seeds came out. He sang that song and I added harmonies. From each seed, a tree grew! Bloomed!

A scream startled me. Satauuver stared in horror at his hands! There were 16 other Aryllans and they all had short fingernails.

Ray faced Satauuver and red light swirled around her. It lifted her hair around her face. "You do not belong here! Feel the rage of your Collective? They hate you!" Blue light also swirled around him.

He fell on the floor, and red light hid him! Suddenly, all that was left on the floor were his blue robes like hers, but jeweled. They flew up and another, older man lifted his hands. The robe went onto his arms and shoulders. This is Perr's adopted father, the King Of Aryll!

Another man stood there. Ry'nao, Emperor Of The Seven. His fire-engine red skin paled to white. "What are your intentions here, Wtensau?"

He bowed with one leg far behind him. It was a split, and his forehead rested on the floor. "My liege, I surrender my kingdom to you! I, I can feel your Link, and all of my diplomats agree! I beg, these plants my son grew, may I send them to Aryll? We are dying, all of us, without this!"

I tried to run over there and bow, but Perr came with me and we did. Ry'nao put pressure on my shoulders so I couldn't bow low. "Did you mean to give these plants to these people?"

"Yes! I want to save Aryll! They are like the Zheien! See how King Wtensau prayed for them, for all of them, to be forgiven for what they all did!" I didn't have telepathy, but he saw.

Father put his hands on my head. So did Perr. They closed their eyes, so I did, too. Father spoke softly, not his usual harsh, critical tone, in a formal dialect of Aryllan they hadn't used since the Plague. Perr listened with awe.

"Father of All, I have not been able to pray, but now my children are married for time, and I wish them to be married for eternity! My daughter is without the heavy sins we bear, though she feels guilt for the crimes of the man who dared touch her against her will!

"I pray for Thy wisdom. Help me to lead my people into the light, when we craved the darkness for so long, too long! I feel many minds heavy with sorrows, and they ask of me, Father, of me, and I have no answers. All of us seek Thy wisdom, and I dare to ask for blessings. What answers shall I give my people, that a king can give? Kaling, my brother, you need to pray with us. A prophet cannot lead us without much prayer." He paused, and shuddered again. Hugged us both against his chest. Wept.

"Oh, I feel the love Thou hast for us! I feel it! Our innocent children, they are blameless, the ones who suffered while they watched others become the Adversary's. All of us who turned from the Evil, we are Thy children, and Thou lovest us! Thou lovest us still.

"Our Temple sealings are valid, if we keep the Covenants, if we pray, if we serve others, if we practice repentance! We must find comfort in Thy Word. We must gather and share Thy sweet Spirit. My people, we know what we must do, to be good. I ask that all of you, strive to be good, and repent. Try to do something to help the ones you hurt. Try to forgive yourselves.

"Then, pray for that loving Father to forgive you, and He shall. My people, we left evil, most of us. Release any slaves you might still have with you. Help them return to their families, their healers. Give them much trade, and ships that do not belong to us. Return all items not ours.

"We must not assume that all is lost and these things, this repentance does not matter! It does. We are not lost, my people. We are found. There is hope for us. Pray with me, for the blessings of Aryll we have because of Bess, an Earthan!

"We thank Thee for Aryll, the scent that brings us life, the life Thou givest to save us! We thank Thee for Bess, and her children, that she gave without asking trade! She gave the Earthan magnolias that made the Aryll bloom again. All worlds of Aryll now enjoy the scent, and feel the strength. Healers report miracles to me. We thank Thee for all of these mighty blessings! Let us never, never forget to be grateful."

He said a lot of things I forgot and shouldn't have, but the way he prayed for me made me weep. I felt the gratitude, and the tears, and the guilt of our people, but most of all, their humble joy that in this prayer, they finally felt forgiveness! This wouldn't happen on Earth. Only a telepathic species could join in prayer this way. In the other future, some were still slavers. But the plants brought minds to him, to Kaling, and there were none who didn't hear. They all agreed to release all of their slaves.