As they left the Yellow Realm behind, Skyblue wanted to know how far it was to the next one. Helio suggested that, for the moment, they needn’t arrive anywhere at all.

“You need to rest. Everything you’ve been through needs to find its place within you. It’s like food: you have to leave time between meals to digest.”

Skyblue looked down the road. She found it hard to believe that stopping was part of the journey, too.

“If you fill every moment with a new experience, where will you leave room to listen?” Helio continued. “Without silence, there is no music.”

For the next few days, she explored the surrounding country with no destination in mind. She could sit in the grass watching the fairies work until one disappeared beneath a leaf and another came to take her place. She discovered undines tending the streams and sylphs carrying seeds. She watched them change the direction of the wind to guide clouds toward places that needed rain. What once would have seemed a simple gust was now a busy multitude.

Sometimes she closed her eyes and watched the three wheels turning within her: the red one at the base of her spine, the orange one in her belly, and the yellow one at the pit of her stomach. Their colors shone more brightly than any she had seen with her eyes open. A current rose from the first and linked them, bringing their movements into rhythm.

At last she understood why Yaseee and Helio spoke of ascending when she thought she was moving forward. The wheels, the blue scales—her body was making the journey, too.