Big Mickey was striking fifteen. The Chief of Cartooning and Replication paused briefly, and continued:

"Of course it was at this point that we received the Directive from Your Disney, so after planting the information about Margarnagarr in the Great Library at Borhgillai, we followed him to Demershinnia, at a discreet distance. We knew she would come after him, and then we could put the Directive to work. We did not reckon with the sandstorm, and that meant that everything had to be done in a hurry on Margarnagarr."

Cruella de Villeneuve snapped impatiently: "We know all that, there wasn't anything to be done, Chief. I am the one to blame, if anyone. Stop apologising."

The Chief looked at her with his admiration. She was the best: the buck stopped with her. No fooling around. No wonder everyone looked up to her, feared her, but admired her.

He cleared his throat, and continued....

****************************************

It was twilight on Tern. Boukey continued:
"Let me say a bit about Demershinnia. The planet is dotted with shrines and temples to every religion and spirituality in the universe, and no one could visit them all in many lifetimes probably. The favoured pilgrimage route for Terrans or their kin is to begin at the city of Mondacc and then trek along the holy Darojn river through the desert to the monastic caves. At each daily stage in the trek there are oases and caravanserai, pilgrim hostels, and clusters of sacred spaces. There is no final goal: it is a cycle that ends where it began at Mondacc, many days or weeks or months later. The pilgrimage is itself the pilgrimage.

Among the furthest reaches of the cycle is the Geosis shrine, where was lodged some assumed remnant folk from Earth, long isolated from their brethren elsewhere: deeply holy, self-contained. It was that shrine that I set out to locate.

All the myriad beings of the Terran family shuffled along this trail, I could not begin to describe them all, men, women, children, all dressed in Demershinnian pale blue robes. Much of the day was passed in silence, but there was conversation and chatting, and exchange of provisions. There was some singing -- modern hymns, ancient Disneyfied "Mouse of Ages" tunes and so on -- but that was really reserved for the evenings. When we reached the caravanserai, weary at the end of the long day, everyone camped in a great circle, under the vast cream scythe of Luna in its new moon phase, and ate, and drank, and sang every song everyone knew. It was all not as holy as it perhaps should have been, but such are pilgrimages. Instruments of every description - souds, rrraldors, harmonicas, bloopers, Callioken guitars, you name it.

"It was on the third day that I began to feel that I was being followed, shadowed. It was impossible to determine where that feeling came from, and impossible, among so many figures, many with their faces cloaked always, to pinpoint anyone who would be taking a special interest in me. Days went by. One, two, perhaps three figures seemed to keep close to me, cloaked, dark. Meanwhile, we moved further and further out into the desert world, always with the Darojn River on our left, growing slowly narrower as we traversed upriver."

After a week, we reached the Healing Shrine of Auld, which as you know, purports to heal diseases and disfigurements of all kinds. The whole party, the thousands of us on the march, went through the Shrine,and hundreds went into the Darojn Pool for the special Healing. It was a terrible sight: but one could not help but be moved at the faith and the suffering of so many. Among the disfigured, I saw a number of Cybanian women, trying vainly to heal their facial slashes; and my heart went out to them, and to your daughter for all that had been done to her."

The Elder stopped him with a touch on his arm, and then motioned for him to go on.

"That night, as we all sat around the central fire in the vast caravanserai, quiet beginning to descend, but many songs still to be sung, one of the cloaked figures who I was suspicious of, whose face I could not see, turned to the string player and whispered for him to play. He replied, just loud enough to hear, that he did not know any Cybanian music. He said to the larger circle: "Is there anyone here who knows Cybanian clothroal?" And an eldery woman, slash down her face, said, "Yes, of course, hand me that. What do you want?" The cloaked figure said: "'Until'" The elderly woman smiled and said, "Oh, that old thing. Cassandra's song." And she began to play, and the figure began to sing:

How can I change your mind
Unravel the mystery that confines us
Silence is hiding the pain
But deep in your soul you must know
We've got to take a chance
And let our spirits flow
Love is an elusive thing
But into every heart it sings.

"And as she sang, from all over the caravanseria, from family groups, from other small fires, from dark corners, the Cybanian women came forward, leant forward, to the beautiful song. The firelight turned their faces into gold, golden tears falling down their hurt faces, many mouthing the long unheard words. She went on:" Whatever it takes to make it right
No matter how hard
I will fight for you
I swear that it's true
I want the sweetness in life with you
until this life is through.

"And they all began to sing along quietly, cracked voices, sweet voices, tuneless voices, all around. Their shadows arched tall on the distant walls, swaying in time to the clothroal's beat."

Such a bizarre twist of fate
That something so simple should escape us,
Anger and pride crowd your eyes
But this is a vision for two
There's no one else to tell my deepest secrets to
I don't want to live alone
It would be a lonely song....
Whatever it takes to make it right
No matter how hard
I will fight for you
I swear that it's true
I want the sweetness in life
with you
Until this life is through.

"And the song ended. And the women all began to speak to each other in the women's tongue, high and out of reach of all the rest. And there were many friendships formed that night. And as for me, as I had known from the first note the cloaked figure sang, I had the happiness of knowing that Sharazade had come here, to Demershinnia, to find me, and to be with me again, whatever it took."