I was vaguely aware of the subdued voices of the others, greeting Trudy’s arrival. We had our backs to them. I wanted to see what was going on, but I was also glad not to have the distraction. I tried to concentrate on the crying soul.

“Just here and with the Bears. I was there five life terms. But I like it better here. I haven’t had even a quarter of a life term here!”

“I know. Believe me, I understand. Is there anywhere else, though, that you’ve ever wanted to go? The Flowers, maybe? It’s nice there; I’ve been.”

“I don’t want to be a plant,” she mumbled into my shoulder.

“The Spiders…” I began, but then let my voice trail off. The Spiders were not the right place for Sunny.

“I’m tired of cold. And I like colors.”

“I know.” I sighed. “I haven’t been a Dolphin, but I hear it’s nice there. Color, mobility, family…”

“They’re all so far away. By the time I got anywhere, Kyle would be… He’d be…” She hiccuped and then started crying again.

“Don’t you have any other choices?” Kyle asked anxiously. “Aren’t there a lot more places out there?”

I could hear Trudy talking to the Healer’s host, but I tuned out the words. Let the humans take care of their own for the moment.

“Not that the off-world ships are going to,” I told him, shaking my head. “There are lots of worlds, but only a few, mostly the newer ones, are still open for settling. And I’m sorry, Sunny, but I have to send you far away. The Seekers want to find my friends here, and they’d bring you back if they could, so you could show them the way.”

“I don’t even know the way,” she sobbed. My shoulder was drenched with her tears. “He covered my eyes.”

Kyle looked at me as if I could produce some kind of miracle to make this all work out perfectly. Like the medicine I’d provided, some kind of magic. But I knew that I was out of magic, out of happy endings—for the soul half of the equation, at least.

I stared back hopelessly at Kyle. “It’s just the Bears, the Flowers, and the Dolphins,” I told him. “I won’t send her to the Fire Planet.”

The small woman shuddered at the name.

“Don’t worry, Sunny. You’ll like the Dolphins. They’ll be nice. Of course they’ll be nice.”

She sobbed harder.

I sighed and moved on.

“Sunny, I need to ask you about Jodi.”

Kyle stiffened beside me.

“What about her?” Sunny mumbled.

“Is she… is she in there with you? Can you hear her?”

Sunny sniffed and looked up at me. “I don’t understand what you mean.”

“Does she ever talk to you? Are you ever aware of her thoughts?”