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

Twenty-Three

"I don't know," Mother said, shaking her head.

"And she wants Amadeo and Julien to go on tour with us?"

Mother didn't answer immediately, and seemed to look away toward some leather-bound books. "Did Athen tell you?"

Morpheus sighed, then straightened in his seat. "I knew it was a possible future from when we talked to Raven and Jean-Daniel, I inferred the rest. Do you know? About Thierry?" Last Morpheus had seen Jean-Daniel on his own, he'd popped further into the future so as to not disrupt that meeting with Raven and him.

"Raven's son?" She looked directly at him.

"Yeah. Who his father is."

Mother shook her head, again.

"And, my father still has you and Laudanum watching to see why Metro will lose her vision?"

"Amad's his father?"

Morpheus nodded. "I heard it from Daniel Never. He doesn't know how to lie. He also has no concept of time." Morpheus shrugged, "There's a sister. A younger one. She wouldn't be born yet, but she exists. Now."

Morpheus was sure his mother was thinking about what this meant. "Julien had said something, before you even left, about Amadeo having someone in Paris."

"Where Raven used to live, before she went to Spain and she and Thierry stayed with Gabriel."

"She- she stopped Thierry from telling us about his father!"

"Yeah." To Morpheus that wasn't a big deal, but he guessed from Mother's tone it was more of an issue that Raven, who had once been a close friend had intentionally kept this from her. "Obviously she knows Amad's a Jewel and she could get in trouble for having been involved with him, but that's not really the point. Daniel spoke of Thierry and Caroline together as his children, meaning the only ones."

"If they exist, then Amadeo must live until they are conceived, but what happens afterward is an unknown future."

"We know he's coming here."

"But how-"

"Angel. Blade. It's her. It's always been her! The tower where they kept prisoners she took. Her surrender. Her transport. Faye's attack on her."

Mother shook her head.

"She's lucid."

"What!?"

"Splendor and I saw her. "

"Dream has to-" Opium moved from the chair.

"He knows."

"But-"

"Father is safe. I thought- I don't know if he felt responsible for whatever would happen to Metro- I didn't always understand- the prophesy part of her being a sleeping prophetess comes from Dream."

"We have to stop Blade. Whatever she may do."

"Mom! Opium. It's done. Well, it's in motion. We could only stall what will happen. None of us can harm Amadeo without violating those protections Shade, and Gabriel and Zerachiel have put on the Jewels, but none of us can hurt Blade without giving Lucifer an opportunity for vengeance. It means..." Morpheus lowered his voice as he continued, "Your father will allow Blade whatever she needs from Amadeo, but then he pays. One part of that is that Daniel, Joy's son, is made to serve Amadeo's children."

"How long have you known?"

"What? Only just. Splendor and I saw Blade, together, just before I was summoned back. I heard from Daniel some while before that, but I hadn't figured how it was connected."

"They could ground him," she whispered.

And if they didn't, Jibril was one more offense toward a grounding. "So, how is Joy, really?"

"She seems fine." Mother paused. "She still remembers in her sleep. It means she doesn't actually lose the memories, she only forgets she has them."

Morpheus knew how that went. "But she's going on a tour. Including places she's seen in other lives? Whose idea was it?"

"Hers...after Julien watched some old concert film."

"And he...?" Morpheus wasn't sure how to finish his question.

"Murph." She pouted at him, arms crossed beneath her breast. "He's been taking lessons from the Irreverents for a year and a half. He supervised the remix of your song."

He hadn't been the same after Morpheus left.

They were going on tour.

And though Julien might ignore him a while longer, ultimately they were going to be together, until Julien got on that plane to Karachi which would crash in the Thar Desert where Morpheus had kept his mirage. And he would leave that Morpheus to go with Athen, because something was wrong with Joy.

Everything Morpheus did to go toward the future where Julien met him in the mirage was also going toward Joy being in trouble.

He'd known. Morpheus had known it most of his life. But now, things seemed his fault.

"I'll help watch her. I'm back. So, I can help watch her."