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When he closed his eyes. Orb was there, her honey hair flowing down about her shoulders, a half-smile
on her face and that quaint small harp beside her.
He sprang the second vision on them when Jonah was swimming over the Pacific at night. The big fish
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could not handle water, but there was plenty of air above the ocean and the weather was clear, so it was
all right. Jonah would give any bad weather a wide berth.
The vision played upon the party's awareness that a storm would be trouble for Jonah, because he could
not escape it by swimming underground. Not while he was far from land. The vision included the human
members of the party, but excluded the fish and the succubus, because demons were not subject to
dreams and would know it for what it was. In reality, Jonah continued an uneventful swim through the
air, but in the vision he encountered an expanding storm that encircled and trapped him.
The script had the fish sinking down to the surface of the sea, resting on it, unable to enter it. Jonah was
helped to adapt by the singing of the group, as they essayed an imperfect rendition of the Song of
Awakening.
Then the heavier element came. Skeletons danced across the surface of the water, approaching the fish.
The fish, in the vision, was afraid of them, and tried to paddle away, but was surrounded. One of the
dancing skeletons touched a fluke, and that part of the tail of the fish lost its flesh and became skeletal.
Horrified, perceiving the way of it. Orb did her best to halt the skeletons by singing. This was not
enough.
Then Jezebel, who was not the real one but one of Hell's minions masquerading as her, introduced them
to the key: the skeletons were dancing a jig called "The Drunken Sailor's Hornpipe." They did not seem
to be distracted when Jezebel tried it, but then Orb tried a dance, the tanana, and danced with the nearest
skeleton until it fell apart. She had found a way!
Parry, watching, was amazed. That dance was the most suggestive thing he had ever seen! How had a
nice girl like her learned that? Then he remembered her association with the Gypsies. That was the sort
of thing the Gypsies would have taught her. He was glad he had saved them from the holocaust.
But it was not enough. The script tightened about them. There were too many skeletons, pressing too
closely. If Orb responded appropriately...
She did. "Natasha!" she called in desperation.
Parry made his grand entrance, singing. The skeletons paused, hearing. He joined the party, while the
skeletons hesitated, afraid of the power of his song. He was rather proud of the manner he had crafted
the bones to evince living emotions.
Orb was obviously glad to see him. "Can you stop them?"
"With the Song of Power," he said. "You may know it as the Song of Day." He sang it, and it was
another aspect of the Llano, whose sheer power shook the night vision. The melody banished the storm
cloud and brought the light of day. The skeletons tried to flee, but the sound caught them and shattered
them. The threat had been abated.
Orb flung her arms around him and kissed him. "You rescued me again!" she cried.
"It was my pleasure." It certainly was! But the vision was only half done.
Two figures intercepted Orb the moment she reentered the fish, alone. One was an emulation of
Thanatos, and the other of Chronos. They warned her that Natasha could be a demon in disguise, and
should be tested. The real Natasha, they explained, was a good man, but if a demon assumed his form...
Orb, concerned, took their warning at face value. She insisted on testing Natasha for demonic origin. He
touched a cross and sang a hymn, proving that he was no demon. Of course the proof was a lie, because
this was all a vision in which anything could happen, but Orb did not know that. She was chagrined that
she had doubted him.
Natasha walked out in righteous disgust.
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The script had been honored perfectly. Now Orb was convinced of Natasha's validity, and on the
defensive because of her prior doubt. She was crying when he left her.
He had made another giant step. But he hated himself, too. It had required a heroic effort not to stop, to
comfort her, to tell her too much. He wished he could have told her the truth, but that would have ruined
everything.
He took her on one more vision trip, an odyssey tour through the tearing pages of alternate realities that
concluded at a mockup of the Castle of War, where she encountered animations of her former lover
Mym, and of his rescued Princess Ligeia, and of the demoness Lila. Naturally they endorsed Natasha but
warned her to beware of Satan's tricks. Then the vision staged another crisis that Natasha came to
resolve. Parry, acting firmly on the side of Right, used his song to vanquish those in the Wrong. Then he
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