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

Sixteen

Ganymede winced. He said something; it sounded like, "Voch!"

"It's just me," Morpheus said quietly. He peered into Ganymede's dream, long enough to realize it was a nightmare, a chaos of dogs, blood, wands, headstones, and clutching claws. Morpheus sent his voice into the dream, "You're dreaming. Our nightmares are our own, but I can send this one away, for a little while." He plucked a black feather from his wing, and pushed it into Ganymede's left fist. "Just sleep."

Morpheus lifted Ganymede fully, and then made his way up into west wing's third floor, where the Vampyres all kept their rooms. Ganymede's room was past Julien's near a painting of Hyacinth Changed into a Flower, which in Morpheus' opinion, was probably a better example of homoerotic art when you hadn't been there.

Morpheus carried Ganymede into his room. It was not so obviously personalized as some of the others, given Athen hadn't known who Ganymede was before he moved in and chose his own room. It did have a litter of cameras and devices atop the furniture.

It also didn't look like Ganymede used his bed, while his sitting room sofa had a pillow and blanket arranged for reclining in rest. Morpheus placed Ganymede on the black sofa, then pulled the blanket over him.

When Morpheus returned to the door, he sensed a presence, then saw Athen, carrying Faye in his arms. Morpheus wasn't certain Athen wanted him to witness this, and quickly teleported into his own East wing suite. Mother was already there, and before Morpheus could ask, he saw that she had his large mirror focused on the grande staircase, where Shade was carrying Min.

"I was just there," Morpheus said, "with Ganymede"

He saw Mother nodded.

"He had a nightmare." Morpheus picked-up River from the dresser, where he had a warm lamp and a dish of water.

"Has. Often," Mother said, "We know. That's not important now." It looked like Shade and Athen were taking Faye and Min to the basement. "At this rate, they'll have Joy locked up next."

Morpheus shrugged, sending River running across his shoulders. He wasn't really sure what to think about this. "Joy sometimes sleeps in a casket by choice. Faye did attack Angel and Ardor."

"I'm going to talk to Sleep, tell me if there is any change," Mother said.

"Yeah." Morpheus watched her refocus the mirror and pass through. For a brief moment, he saw his father there, holding court from his couch. Morpheus teleported next door, where Absinthe and laudanum kept a room together.

"Hi," Laudanum giggled, as Morpheus teleported into a space enclosed by shelving units. They didn't arrange their rooms like typical Humans might, so there were both labyrinths of furniture and wide open fields for activities, and most of it had the look of what Morpheus thought was called a blanket fort. Fortunately, the height and orientation of the shelves was such that Morpheus could easily step over.

"Athen just took Faye into the basement," he told them.

"He is so into bondage," Absinthe laughed. She got up from her couch and went to the collection of mirrors, frames, and framed mirrors on the wall, and touched one of the large horn-framed glasses. No image resolved. "Psyche's with him."

"She can block scrying?"

"A lot of full angels can, if your cause is not more righteous than theirs. If she's sleeping, dreaming, fantasizing, or desperate, one of us should be able to see her, or Athen at least."

Morpheus climbed over a chair, then crossed the open floor to touch the same mirror. The image resolved.

Absinthe crossed her arms and pouted, "Or, if we have orders."