◆︎ Assorodus ◆︎⌛︎◆︎ Morpheus ◆︎ The Sandman ◆︎

VI.

The humid breeze of Greece clung to my robes, far from strong yet, but it brought the smell of the nearing storm with it. Flashes of lightning attacked the horizon, sending the sea into turmoil. As if emerging from the water itself, he stood in the white salty froth, midnight-black folds locomoting around his skeletal frame, a mirror of grief and despair. I approached him, his mind openly screaming to mine, yet his face was of stone, the lashing waves aligned with his emotions.

"He died, did he not?" The Hellenistic vista all around held little beauty for either of us at the moment, trepid oil branches shook, bearing the loss of the greatest mortal rhapsodist ever lived.

"I wish." His eyes brimmed with tears as he turned to me, spilling down his cheeks amidst his suffused feelings. "Is it callous to wish for the death of my own son?"

"What happened to him?" Pressing on gently, I tried to get to the truth. Maybe I hoped for something I can do. "What became of Orpheus?"

"He didn't pass on." Voice breaking, he looked down the beach line. Further sharp rocks interrupted the landscape, mossy and ancient. I needn't ask again.

"Have I been a bad father?" A deafening thunder rumbled through the sky, his sorrow called down the rains of the Dreaming to the human lands.

"You cherished him through his childhood," I answered him honestly. "Then you distanced yourself. I think you were afraid of losing him, for he was a mortal and you an Endless."

"I failed him then."

"To an extent." Even in his pain, he deserved my true words, without a coat of pity he would resent. "However love makes a fool out of everyone, no matter what they say. Your son was a victim of his own love. But you do know that."

"All too much." He sighed, the rising wind ruffling his onyx locks.

"Then you understood him more you can imagine." I placed a tender kiss upon his hairline, to which a feverish tremor got hold of his lithe body. "You will know where to find me when you have need of me, Dream Lord."

"Don't leave."

I let him hear such things he shouldn't have from me, his anguish infecting my heart.

"I'm always here for you Morpheus. Always."

Ashen, our tired boots tread the corridors of Hell's palace, followed by an eerie silence, the journey here weighing down on all of us. The path that I followed mere two days ago is no more, the landscape changed by the whim of it's ruler, hard to navigate without aid. The daemon Squtterbloat was initially not keen on helping us until we had to resort to threats to make him obey. Then still, he veered off the trail, pushing my patience to it's limits, leading us towards an abandoned skerry with cells carved into it for the damned. There, enclosed by noxious thorns I found myself facing a familiar set of eyes, from when the Earth was younger and humanity did not rise to the extent it is now. I saw her before, bloody and broken, crashed on the rocks in the depths. Adamantly, her song still sang to me, not returned by Death, still valid and ready to be fulfilled. Dear Nada, waiting for relief over the centuries. As we passed her, haunted by her pleas for freedom, Morpheus reached for my hand and I couldn't deny it from him, for no one should face the horrors of Hell alone. Matthew of course asked questions about her, I did my best to answer them with prudence.

As we walk along the scorched black floor, I contemplate whether I should tell him about my previous visit, as he is still unaware about it, kept in the dark for his own safety. I was bribed with his vulnerability, his wavering state on the throne of his realm. Hand in hand my fingers squeeze his, reinsuring that he is still by my side as if he could disappear at any given moment. I don't doubt the Lightbringer has the power to tear him away from me, especially in their realm, where every ion bids to their decree. And still, they don't want to rule.