He thought, “I’m going to call you back now. If after all this you don’t call me back for a turn, I’m finished with you.”

Then he started thinking about the River, and wondering what Emerald might know, until he was Emerald again.

Then Emerald walked up to the mayor, who was Sapphire’s host. He said, “So you will accept me as Blue Sword Honor now?”

“Oh, that’s not up to me, is it?”

Emerald replied, “You’re not going to tell me you had nothing to do with this. You had the Dojo and the swords ready.”

The other smiled but said nothing for a moment. Then, “I notice you always communicate with me through our human hosts, never elder to elder. Did the death of your last host hit you hard? Have you lost part of yourself?”

Emerald remained silent, not wanting to give away more than Sapphire and or Firkin already knew.

This time the voice was just a tiny bit different, and he thought it was the mayor speaking. “Speaking of this Dojo, do you want to help me clear up the mess?”

Somehow it seemed disrespectful to the dead human to refer to his body and blood as a mess. This bothered Emerald more now than it might have once. On the other hand he was tired, and the human hadn’t been concerned about respect for him.

He merely said, “I think not. You set this up and you can take care of it. And I seem to recall your host has connections if you want to hire discreet help. And you can give me back my gun now.”

“Are you sure you’re the owner of record? Do you have a license for it?”

Emerald didn’t understand all the strange laws he found in Joey’s brain. He turned his back on the mayor. He saw that Jake was one of those who had followed him down and walked over to him. “My host and I both want to talk to you.”

Jake raised his eyebrows. “You didn’t use to respect your host’s opinions so much.”

Still concealing his own weakness, Emerald didn’t mention how much that had been forced on him by circumstances. “I’ve been through a lot and done some thinking.”

“Did you lose any of yourself detaching from your former host?”

Emerald nodded, the strange human gesture seeming oddly appropriate. “Maybe, but I don’t want to talk about that or the attachment to my new host right now. Something else. In private.”

Jake hesitated. “Sure. Why not? Come with me.”

The other led him to the stairs. Some of the others had started climbing the stairs ahead of them, but that didn’t seem to worry him. When they reached the ground floor he didn’t follow them, but took Emerald to another staircase, this one carpeted. They ascended to the second floor of the house.

Jake said, “When this was still the good side of town, not all these rooms were bedrooms. But Firkin owns this house now, and he likes to encourage us to stay here where he can keep an eye on us Riverfolk. I’m planning on buying a house in silicon valley eventually, but I do have one on the other side of Babylon as well. For now this room is kind of convenient though.”

Jake led him into a room decorated largely in green. There were a few pictures and a few three dimensional puzzles on the dresser, but other than that he didn’t seem to keep much besides clothing here. Smart of him. Anyone could get in. Even putting a lock on the door would have been no defense against the mayor when he owned the house. Other than that, it had a bed, a desk, and a couple of chairs. Jake pulled the door shut, and they each took one of the latter.

It occurred to Emerald that Joey did not seem to remember where he lived – if he even had a home. He had been housed by the military, then been in Leavenworth. He didn’t seem to have much money either. A room might be just the thing. And it might happen if Sapphire didn’t know how much he needed it.

He said, “Seeing as I didn’t die, you think Sapphire and Firkin would give me a room too, where they could keep an eye on me?”

Jake nodded casually. “Firkin didn’t actually get rid of your old host’s possesions. Your room is untouched. Malachite had a different one.”

“Where is my room?”

The other man looked at him in surprise. “I’ll show you but … how much of your memory have you lost?”

Emerald suddenly realized he had given away the extent of his weakness. He might be forced to trust someone though, at least partly. Jake and his elder were the only ones who hadn’t demonstrated active hostility yet, and even offered a bit of support.

“Almost … almost all of it really, both me and my host. I know I’m an Elder of the Eightfold, which is made of a great many species. We’ve come to this world to help Humans learn about the rest of the multiverse and join the Eightfold, but it has to be done carefully because species and civilizations have been destroyed by the shock. Also, the River …”

His voice trailed off. What did he really remember about the River?