Wally smiled. "It is time for famines to end on Thorde. You Elders, go to Alb Seer and work this out! Jarfus, assign one to go with them."

He laughed. "I can send 500, one for each Elder!" He waved a flipper and all the Thordes had an animal beside him. Every one wore a blue vest and top hat. Nobody on the ship noticed them!

"We saw how Ray used love in her Cubes. Just this morning, she defeated Satauuver using love. Eriganh's Collective and Rentappenen's, they are livid! Those who favor love are using hate against the ones who hate."

I hugged both of them. "What can I do to help you? I am Queen Of Rainbow, as of—well, when I get 100 followers." Eap ran to me and paled. Imwa are dangerous, everyone said, in Rainbow!

"Oh, we represent many more than 100. My people will follow you, because they respect you!" Jarfus laughed.

Theapet bowed and waited until he looked at him. "Pardons, but she means she must have followers from our level for an Alliance Colony Charter." Kerjie came beside him and bowed, too. She wore beetle green, a formal dress in his family color, so they must be married now!

"Alliance? Should it nae be Alliance and Unified, since Alb is both?" I bowed to Theapet. He's First Prince Of Fhiah. I also bowed to Kerjie, low enough for a princess.

He bowed to me again, and lower than you'd bow to a king. He's treating me like I am already Queen Of Rainbow, but higher rank than that? It's not as low as they bow to Ry'nao. "I will add a Unified provision, Molly."

Wally bowed to me, that low. "Then, I shall create Wslarc for Rainbow Unwell Colonies, and he shall live on Alb Seer with his Collective. There is plenty of room near Kirnonos' Lab, if he is agreeable." 

Eap nodded.

Pirad appeared with Kirnonos. They bowed. The more angular Bisillip spoke. "I think this is a wonderful idea! Wslarc always listened to us. The Council needs him. But, Wally, I think you should wait until this matter with Eriganh and Rentappenen is resolved."

"Why? I do not fear either of them!"

Kirnonos frowned, and his face got frozen dismay! "You should fear them! Your Cube is not as powerful—"

Wally laughed. "It is not only the Yellow Cube Of Healing," he looked at Suma, "but the Blue Cube Of Trade," he looked at Ray, who stood there, "The Gray Cube Of Judgment," his blue eyes fell on Ry'nao, "and Ray can influence The Red Cube Of Fire. We also have Azure and a Cube that can change time itself! Molly, Deb and Kia have greater healing than an Imwa. All of us together are a new Council, to fight for the weaker members of the Council. They act through me because I convinced them.

"Why do you see all of these Earthans with Gifts? Ry'nao, I say to you, because the Council Of The 5th is angered at Rentappenen and his abuses. Not the 5th of the Test Of Levels, that is destroyed. The 5th above the Test Of Levels is angry, and sent me. You may call me Wally, but I rose to the 5th eons ago, and I came back long enough to set this right. Those whom you call Imwa represent the ones of us who chose to stay, to observe, to make sure Eriganh and Rentappenen didn't happen, but they did anyway. Pinda had all the Gifts for his world, that slavers destroyed. He unleashed them on Earth! We are all the secret defeat of Rentappenen and his rogue Cubes."

I worried that he's telling them all about that right now! All three Bisillips looked frozen horrified, that he's talking about this! Ry'nao is worried that Wally's people followed Rentappenen until Adia talked to him today. This morning, when they brought Suma to the ship! I didn't know about that!

"We learned that sending Councillors from upper levels to fix things didn't work. This is how we lost the 4th and 5th in the Test Of Levels. The 3rd is fragile, the level from which you came, Bisillips. Without you, it is near collapse." What?!

"We are learning that civilizations cannot continue to rise so quickly, because there is chaos on the lower levels that they left. So, I am sorry to tell the Zheien that they must stay until the Thordes and Aryllans are ready. There is only so much we Imwa can do, and I must say, we have not been very successful.

"Eriganh and Rentappenen are proof that when Collectives are unstable, disasters happen. They both chose hate to be their driving forces. They are insane. Civilizations died because they broke the rules. Rentappenen wants the Padrisa." That's the Virgo Supercluster of galaxies!

Ry'nao went gray as his uniform! Ket grabbed him and made him sit on a bench he waved up! Wally lifted a flipper and yellow light blazed around him. He wasn't gray now, but still white.

"Ry'nao, you expect us to be wise and fix this situation, but you must realize that we are no smarter than you. There is no help for you other than our knowledge that our interference did not help.

"However, there is the fact that Gifts are unpredictable. We sent a Councillor to look at timelines, to try different things. Rentappenen created the Cube Of Many Colors to do this. He did not know that many of his Collective are ours.

"Of all the worlds we could have chosen, Earth is the unique one. In this timeline, many problems were solved. Of course, many new problems arose. It is up to you, my friend, to coordinate this new talent and try to find a path forward."

He spoke right to Ry'nao! His expression seemed a mix of exasperation and dismay!

"You have brief glimpses of futures. This is all we can give you. Once you run out of futures, you must do the best you can, as civilizations before you had to do.

"Cubes are not the only way to accomplish work. There are many other methods that are better. But, the Council chose to create Cubes. This is done. So you are stuck with this method until the Zheien, Thordes and Aryllans rise. All of you must work together, in Alb, to make sure that when you rise, you do not leave a mess as did the Chor, the Tidalh, the Imwa, the Xchou, the A'laf and the S'ai did. Your S'ai are the ones who chose to stay in this level, to observe, as we did.

"My advice to you is, learn from these Earthans with Gifts. Let them try. Some will fail as we did. Some will succeed. Wslarc knows about most of these failures that caused disaster, if his clone absorbs enough memories.

"I must now leave you, because the 5th level will suffer without me. It is up to all of you to defeat Eriganh, then Rentappenen and his Councillors. The Alliance renounced slavery, and just now, Bisillipia signed the new Alliance Treaty and will renounce it to stay in the Alliance. I will not take my jarfus brother or Suma. Wslarc will come when he is ready."

"But you can't leave us behind! We don't know enough! How can you expect us to defeat Rentappenen when levels above ours could not?" Jarfus cried.

Ry'nao still looked shocked. Ray did defeat Rentappenen, in the other future. Didn't she? The answer I didn't want to hear came. There are thousands of other Cubes, and no, Ray did not defeat them all!

"Brother, I can't stay! Do what you can to help this mess." Wally put his hat on the jarfus and hugged him, then vanished in yellow light.

Ry'nao had dismay on his face! So much of this I can't understand! And Deb stood there. People weren't looking at us. Ryee was explaining the choices in the Alb System to Liz' friends and many of mine. Nobody saw anyone. Liz and Ray were staring at Wally.

Across the ship, Kia startled and ran out.

Mike hugged the jarfus, and Suma ran over there and helped him sing healing. He stood taller. "Then, Mike, you must lead these Elders you spoke with on Thorde."

He paled and shuddered. "I am only a healer."

I smiled. "Mike, you are an Elder. The first Thordes Elder! You convinced them to come back to Alb with jeia leaders to reclone! Didja hear about all the changes on Elshar Mashai today? How Ray defeated Satauuver and all the Aryllans are much like Zheien again? Deb saw it all!" I put a hand on his forehead and he got the blank stare. Jarfus let me see all of it, from five people's point of view. Ryee knew about it when he trained me to use my telepathy this morning and hid it from me.

A girl came to the ship looking for the prince of Aryll. Wally appeared and brought Aryll's royalty. Ray changed them this morning, and they just finished a treaty they started before the Aryllans turned into monsters. She also brought Tch'lanterah, the Zbbat king and Lyyyrah, the Esteerrian king! Leaders of the largest slave net!

That was right after they saw Liz' memories of running to stop Lyyyrah and Tch'lanterah, got her, when they invaded Ye~. She had the Diplomatic Link and Doe told her how to talk to them. He was amused because he thought her attempt to speak his language was victory squeals! Lyyyrah heard her and stopped their attack on Ye~.

Pirad made a Zbbat clone of me that taught them English. Siasch's been making clones of Zbbat and Esteerrians to infiltrate their Nests with Taredias, another Bisillip. One of his clones is here in Pirad's Lab.

I felt overwhelmed, and I could just imagine how Ry'nao feels right now! We're on our own?

But Ry'nao held one of the Jarfus' flippers and Mike's hand. "My sons, I know you can do this. We are part of a larger picture than we see. Let us merely do what we can.

"Tch'Lhanterasah is now on Ye~, and he wants you to give this to Mica." He put a large necklace with huge yellow and green stones in his hand. Heavy! They got the memory-sharing stare. She came to Rainbow on a slaver ship, and caused the slaver so much trouble, his guards revolted. Mica stood by Mike.

Because of her, many important diplomats escaped slavery. She took advice from another Mairan on how to kill animals and nearly died fighting one the Zbbat Colony had in a pen, to try to earn Mike's love. She earned that necklace for her bravery. I convinced Mike to marry her before she died fighting some other one! He nearly had a stroke! He loved her but didn't feel worthy—just remembering that made me shudder.

Mike was always one of my best healers for Thordes. Hal Fon was the other one. Each jeia of the purple people is almost like another species, diff language, diff herbs, and diff healing. They rely on pocket doctors from their jeia. But, those are for emergencies. Mike saved lives because he knew healing for 300 diff provs. He already saw his future and married Mica this morning. They've been on Thorde recruiting Elders all day!

A man who looked like Ryee came, but he just wore a diplomat's uniform. Bowed. "I am Wyonea. W~Via is ne born yet. My fa and Adia married two days past." His orange eyes had tears. He introduced himself to Jarfus, not to Mike.

"Wyonea!" Mike hugged him. "If we can't have W~Via, you're the best we have! You convinced a lot of them."

Goes bowed to Jarfus. "I am Goes' 5th clone, and I took his name. I have all of his skills. We went with Mike and Mica. Thordes ne like cloning, but it was Mike's memories of W~Via and Kieta that convinced them."

Mike startled. "They all know Goes! His speaking ability convinced them, his and yours. They were all angry that I was named the first Elder before Stepan De." Both of them shook their heads.

Ry'nao smiled. "Mike, you are too modest. If you were not a healer, you could be a diplomat, and you accomplished great diplomatic work today."

A lot of those Thordes had been having heated arguments. They all startled and stopped! All of them, as a body, got that stance like a soldier ready to defend an objective.

I had that feeling that something's about to happen. Deb, Suma, and Liz looked scared. It's not just me. Ry'nao didn't go to his room like Ket was trying to get him to do. He went to Pirad's Lab with Pirad, Kirnonos and Taredias.

Across the ship, I saw Kia with Irdatkin, and she had that look, too. What's going on? All the Collectives are upset! I wish I could just stop listening! Adia also had that fear in her blue eyes, and Ryee hugged her.