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

Nine (these events are Ten in the revised scene list)

"When you talk these pretty silver bubbles come from your mouth...and then they pop...tink, tink."

"Daniel is not understanding you, Morpheus."

"Wherefore art thou Julien? For an orchid by any other name would smell as eternal. Forsake your father, and your maker. Swat Cobweb from your eyes and give suck to me through this gloryhole..."

"Morpheus! Morpheus!"

"Or dash my brains against this wall like strawberries and cream and read in them your future lost, Julien!"

"Amazing how much Shakespeare one picks up watching TV and reading comic books," said Jibril. He stood at the iron gate backed by ivy, dressed in black, including his Nightcloak. "Let him sleep it off, Daniel. Morpheus will be fine. He'll be all right."

Morpheus was down inside. Everything was black, and there was the web, all lacy and red, a skirling pulsating thing in the blackness and at its ends voices called to him. And there was another Morpheus, and another, so many of him. All twinkling black eyes with different clothing and jewelry and one of them was female. He tried to hold onto what they were saying, but it just went away.

Something raked his back then; it seemed Julien was there.

Morpheus came to realize that his mother was there and had been watching him. "I ate a cherry," Morpheus said.

She smiled.

Morpheus stretched his arm up over his head, pushed himself up off the ground with his wings. "I had this dream," he said, grinning.

"Can you fly?" asked his mother.

"Anything," said Morpheus. He felt himself blush.

"Laughter," said Mother. "Come on then, I thought there are some places we might go...we've got time."

Morpheus stood up, all his feathers spread and then fell into place against each other with a sound not unlike the thumbing of a deck of cards. "Where to?"

"Back to England, about 4, 200 years back...you see over time, don't you? You see them setting the stones?"

Morpheus' eyes went black to the very corners. "Yes, I see it. Is that where you want to go?"

Mother nodded.

Morpheus folded his wings about them both, and flew.

It was night, the sky was very clear; it caused a pulling in Morpheus' heart to look up at it. "It's so beautiful," he said. There was just flat land and sky and Mother was walking away from him, hidden almost entirely by what looked a Nightcloak, but couldn't actually be one. Turning to one side, he saw campfires blazing, a gray-blue column of smoke rising, blown away from them by the wind. Many Humans were gathered about the fire and away from them, under moon and stars, tall figures stood among stones and wooden posts, pointing to the sky, throwing arms out in gestures of frustration.

Morpheus walked near them. He recognized Raphael immediately, standing quietly in fur jacket and tight leather pants, as another Angel complained to him. This one was quite pale, with ginger-blond hair worn in curls; he wore a long leather jacket, and boots, in the cold air, and had heavy gold earrings from which large green-glinting feathers dangled. The same feathers dangled from his jacket like a fringe. Morpheus knew that the third Angel had to be Gabriel, because no other Angel so obviously high in rank was so obviously female, she stood close to the plumed Angel in red sheath dress and Nightcloak, blonde hair hanging all about in braids. Knowing that the other Angel was standing with Gabriel, Morpheus figured he was Raziel. It was well known that these Archangels just an order apart were practically inseparable.