Ali'ite's eyes, following the motion as Ni'ka rubbed her arms, suddenly lit up. "Why...you've got tanhi!" she exclaimed with a wide smile. "And I already know that before you'd been here a week, you were able to Bond with your Ikran again. --You see, everyone? This does heal. How much, we won't know until someone's lived a lifetime with it. But our love and support added to hope and the Changed one's strength of spirit can turn things around quite a ways. Ni'ka is one of the People again in all the ways that count. The Red has no further sway over her, and I haven't heard the All-mother complain; indeed, if those tanhi returned when I think they might have, this girl has been granted her share of the Blessing."
Several of the others didn't look so sure. But 'Ohana, whose chief issue with Ash was that the Dreamwalker had not shared any hopeful news if she'd had it, perked up a little. "Then your little group *did* experience the event? It was so powerful, it's hard to imagine it not having been worldwide... But except for Ali'ite, we're all a long way from home, so we won't know what took place in our own lands until we've returned to them. So...what came to pass in your little settlement?"
Ash, her mind diverted from her personal crisis, was only too willing to reply. "Well...Rick and I were right in the middle of it when it came down, settled over us like a blanket...or maybe washed over us like the sea...only it washed into us too, changing us inside, a good kind of change. I think it was... You know we Tawtute like to write things down, pass on messages in symbols, right? And it's not always knowledge. Sometimes we just want to know 'Hey, how are you, what are you up to?' and things like that--just checking in on a friend. And if we're not close enough to do it in person, we'll write it on a bit of sturdy paper and send it along... We call that a postcard. Sometimes it'll be the first time in years that we've heard from the one who wrote it. And what happened the other night was like Eywa sending us a postcard to let us know that She hadn't forgotten about us..." Her eyes, so recently frantic, were now shining in remembered rapture, and it didn't occur to anyone to criticise her for rendering the thing into human terms.
"And then...?" Maru prompted, smiling.
"And then...well, it went differently for everyone, each according to his or her need, is my best guess," the Dreamwalker replied. "Ni'ka got her tanhi back, which I know meant a lot to her. Tsanten awoke in much better health the next morning--a healed fracture, four lively queue-strands and the attitude to match! And Tangek had the fulfillment of being at his side when it happened. See, it wasn't always obvious what each person's Blessing was. Rick felt his body become more stable; he's sure it means he's all done Changing. Brenda's Avatar was Changed earlier, but it never took full effect, and the Blessing even reversed the parts of it that hadn't 'set'. And Enya... Somehow the Blessing freed her from her dependence on her Sky Person. It's kind of technical, but her body needed the link as badly as her soul did, and now it doesn't anymore, and she's getting around like someone who *isn't* waiting for instructions on how to proceed."
Ali'ite's brow-stripes arched upwards. "Is that what it was? 'Iheyu was at a loss to explain why her 'ite refused to walk at first even after she'd mended enough to do so. It wasn't stubbornness; anyone could tell she wanted to climb and play and wander... But somehow she didn't seem to think she was supposed to, or maybe that she wasn't allowed to. So her body needed the guidance of the Other...well, that's like a normal Dreamwalker, at least. The poor thing must have felt like she was all alone and starting from scratch here... Good to know that the situation is within Eywa's power to heal."
"And what about this Brenda?" asked 'Ohana. "You were going to fill us in about her anyway..."
Ash thought for a moment. "Well...that's what I mean about it wasn't always an obvious thing," she replied. "I don't know how the Blessing helped Brenda. Maybe she wasn't broken to begin with, so the All-mother didn't See anything to fix... She was at her outpost at the time, working on sending a message across the stars to our homeworld to tell the good people, the ones who love this world, what is happening here. And she said the message went out faster and stronger than she could have possibly imagined... So maybe that was her Gift. Or maybe it's something else that we don't know about until she shares it, or even something that hasn't happened yet..."
At this, her voice faltered, and her fleeting expression was a mixture of fading hope and keen regret.