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

Twenty

"I switch." Morpheus grinned.

"That makes sense," Shade said, with a wave of fingers toward Morpheus' person. "I am not one to submit easily. But, we are digressing." Shade lifted a cosmetic pencil from his dressing table. "Will you not be at the Ball this year?"

"I think it would be too soon."

"I have been distracted with my own friends these past couple years," Shade admitted. He drew a black line just below his lower eyelashes. "I will keep an eye on him."

"I didn't mean to suggest somehow that he requires watching, like...." Morpheus hadn't spoken a request at all, but Shade seemed to know all the same.

No sign he would harm himself? Shade probably knew as well as Morpheus that there had been attempts in the past.

"No," Morpheus answered aloud, "I don't want to break his trust, but I would tell you if was as bad as that."

Shade smiled as he looked at Morpheus. He spoke in Greek then, "Είναι πιο...διορατική, όταν τη λήψη φαρμάκων." Morpheus wasn't sure in which sense some of the words were intended, but he thought Shade said that Julien actually had greater telepathic ability when under the influence.

"How can that be?"

"Your friend never lacked the ability itself. He lacks the ability to consciously focus the...quantity...the level he has. This is how he sometimes accidentally enthralls Humans. I do not ask you to break a trust, but if you by chance partied, he may know more than either of you meant to share."

"Night's eyes!" Morpheus whispered.

"Here," Shade said. He got up and went to a desk. When he returned, he gave to Morpheus a leather-bound journal. "You may find this useful. Take some time. See how you feel. Then come back to us."

Morpheus stopped by the music room to collect a few guitars that had come into his belonging, and then he went to Dream.

Morpheus arrived within the Allegory, which here appeared to have open skies, though proper entrances to the region were through lake and cave. He saw Daniel Never nearby, followed by his usual flurry of butterflies. The ghost boy parted ivy with his slender, translucent hands, and looked beneath.

There were a number of hidden rooms and gardens along these paths, and sometimes dreamers found their way here, as well as visitors from neighboring regions, though most dreamers remained in shifting architecture through the Portals the other side of the Heart of the Allegory.

The path shifted from stone to grass, as enclosing walls shifted from stone and fence posts to sculpted hedges. "Ribbon Lady!" Daniel sang, and seemed to pass through a hedge.

Morpheus followed, pulling the soft, guitar cases in after him. The enclosed space was both freshly-mown meadow and orchard of fruit trees. There were some blankets lain out, a striped canopy, and a large umbrella. Maeve sat in dappled light, on a floral print sheet, with litter of fox cubs about her, and what looked to be crafting supplies.

"Hello, Maeve," Morpheus greeted her.

"I recognize you, House Cimmerian," Maeve whispered, "And Master Fortnight." Maeve smiled. She did not pass for Human as easily as some others who were half Angel, with her upturned nose and pointed ears.

Morpheus sat himself on a vacant section of bedsheet. "Lady Pallador."

Maeve hugged a struggling fox to her breast, as she looked toward Daniel, "My little boy had violet eyes like that," she said, "My foundling Jean-Daniel."