The Empty World | The Empty World Sequence [complete | rewriting]

Four (Draft 3) "Allies"

Morpheus swatted at webs and pale roots overhead and almost missed the pool of water at their feet. "Watch the water."

Daniel stopped and stared into the pool.

Morpheus laughed. "No, I mean you have to look out for the pools, so you know where they are. Waters here..." It was difficult to put into words. "You could step into someone else's dream."

"Daniel falls into pools." Daniel hopped over the water.

"If your mother sent you, I suppose Jibril will let you stay. Though..."

Daniel gasped and ran forward. "A cat!"

This cat looked back at them with blue eyes, then ran off into a cobweb-draped tunnel.

"It's hard to tell with cats, but most of the spiders are white, so we're near the Heart of the Allegory. We must have just skirted the labyrinth."

Water dripped from above, along the roots and webs, decorating the cavern in glittering droplets. Spiders worked the webs, only a few dark in color now, passing drops of water from leg to leg and strand to strand, each the seed of someone's dream.

As the chamber widened, there were snakes pure white and slithering on the floor. Pale fruit hanging, from strange white trees in the mud of the floor. A small white rabbit twitched its nose as it sat beside a misty, mirror-smooth pool.

As Morpheus neared the pool, Jibril rose from the hammock just the other side. He was camouflaged against it, pale in color and dressed in gauzy clothes. His powder-blue hair and wings were covered in shreds of old spider silk.

"Hello Morpheus."

"Grandfather Jibril."

Jibril shifted his all-colored eyes to Daniel. "Daniel Never Fortnight. Don't be afraid. I knew you would come and you're welcome here."

Daniel stepped forward, face turning from Jibril to the rabbit. "May Daniel touch the rabbit?"

"If Dodgson lets you."

Daniel darted towards the pool, but the white rabbit hopped away.

Jibril looked bemused with this. "I can have Penelope find a room for you," he said, gesturing towards that blue-eyed cat resting in the hammock. "But, you do not seem to have need for an enclosure. Perhaps it is better I grant you the ability to find your way. Then all the Allegory will be your home."

"Yes. Daniel likes Dream."

Jibril turned to address the cat. "Penelope, arrange for Daniel to know his way through The Allegory. Let all who live within our region know that he is not to be harmed or led astray. And I think some butterflies are also in order. Violet to match his eyes."

Penelope leapt to the floor, landing on four feet. She walked to Daniel and nudged his leg with her body. "Come along, Daniel Never," she said with a vaguely English accent.

Daniel followed Penelope from the chamber.

Jibril looked then to Morpheus. "Set your pets down, I'll have Alexandra feed them."

Morpheus set the box near the pool, where a large, shiny, black spider descended on a silken thread. She was the only one of her color present, the others so pale as to be translucent and hidden against the webs they tended.

"You are not alone."

Morpheus nodded. "Yes, Jibril."

Even if he hadn't felt it, Morpheus had known it. Jibril was his grandfather, and Opium and Absinthe his daughters were each only half Angel. Obviously, Jibril knew what it meant to have a relationship with one from the Empty World. Metro was here, in the Night Regions, but it seemed likely Opium's mother, like Julien, might live still, in the Empty World.