Los Angeles, Halloween 2085 AD.

Daniel had been running quite a while, not really seeing anything, just running. He didn't know why he ran. Daniel just ran. And then Daniel thought he heard someone call his name and he slowed down. It was raining he realized, and he was wet.

He looked up. Someone was standing at the corner just ahead, suddenly reduced to a silhouette against the rain and streetlight, he wore a bulky jacket, boots, he was smoking. Daniel kept walking.

"Hey mahn," said the man on the corner.

Daniel jerked his head back. "I'm tripping," he said softly.

And Joey smiled at him.

He didn't speak, but crossed the street, looking back over a shoulder to Daniel, only when he was halfway across. Daniel jogged after him. "Joey?" He whispered. Joey was dead. Daniel knew Joey was dead, he'd seen him much thinner and sicker than this, seen him lain out in the coffin...but this looked just like him. An Angel, Daniel told himself. It had happened just like this in the story, the Angel appears as someone you know, even talks like him, and when things are OK, he just disappears.

Daniel liked to think that Joey might actually be in Heaven.

They walked several blocks, and after two Daniel could do nothing but think: why was it Joey who died? He thought he remembered several nights when he'd climbed into bed with Joey, John already there with him. Daniel had liked sleeping between the two of them; he'd always been so warm. Someone had always had money for food.

He saw Joey standing several yards ahead, waiting.

Daniel batted rain from his eyes. When Daniel looked up, Joey was gone, but Daniel realized he was standing in front of a familiar house.

Daniel rang at the door, then tried the knob found it unlocked. He pushed the door open and went inside. He remembered this tiny hall, the cramped stairs, and not much roomier elevator. He tried his luck with the stairs; walked two flights up to another tiny hall. The door was open.

There was music playing, not too loudly. Daniel didn't recognize the young man who sat on the low couch, though somehow Daniel felt he should. The boy looked up at him, blue hair, black eyes, friendly smile. "You've got to be Daniel," he said. The boy was wearing big black boots fastened with buckles a gauzy skirt and a large black shirt open at the chest.

"Usually," said Daniel. And then he walked inside and saw Opium standing holding a potted plant.

"Hi, Daniel," she said.

"What are you doing?" Daniel asked. He noticed there were a lot of boxes lying about, lots of gauzy black clothing thrown in piles over furniture.

"We're moving," said Opium. She looked to the boy on the couch, "I could use some hands here. It's not like I know where to put Hyacinth anyway."

The boy blew midnight blue hair out of his eyes and looked down at his hand. Daniel saw something small and green moving against its back. "I'm taking a break. Hyacinth goes with Narcissus and the rest of my plants."

"Oh, Daniel, I'm sorry, you can come in and sit down, we're not moving for a few days anyway," Opium said. She set the large purple flower down near the window with some other plants. "Would you like some tea?"

Daniel was lost, wondering who he might actually be.

"Daniel," she called again.

"Thanks, yes please," said Daniel. He walked in, smiled at the blue-haired boy as he took a seat near the couch, on the mattress he had slept on a few days ago. He realized that it was a lizard crawling on the boy's hand.

"His name's River," said the boy quietly.

The name rather jarred Daniel. It didn't seem a very usual name. He looked at Opium, strangely pale skin, black eyes, and this young man on the couch had the same pale skin and black eyes. And then it made a little sense to him.

Yes, Daniel, there is some order to the universe.

The blue-haired boy was Morpheus, and it made a whole lot of sense that Opium should be his mother being it was common knowledge Sleep was his father. (Sometimes knowledge of etymology-or drugs, anyway-was a pretty cool thing to have.) And, when Daniel thought back, he remembered Robert saying he had seen this Angel elsewhen in England, and also that he was Dream's grandson. And as Dream and Sleep were brothers, it could only mean that Opium was Dream's daughter. Yes, perfect sense. But Daniel didn't know where the black eyes came from. He wondered if the whole recessive gene thing applied to Angels. If Death had black eyes like her father Night, and these two were both Night's grandchildren....

Daniel decided to test his theory.

"Hey, Murph," he said.

"Yes?" Replied Morpheus.

"Was he always a lizard?"

"Were you always Daniel?"

Daniel smiled. It didn't really matter anymore. Another life entirely, that. He laughed.

"I heard this really weird story," Daniel said.

"Oh, tell me, I like stories," Morpheus said.

Opium walked across the wooden floor, slowly, staring at the small black teacup held between her hands. She looked nervous. Daniel stood to take the cup from her. "Nuked the water," she said. "Murph's good at telling stories, actually...he inherited all the really interesting traits."

"You probably know this one already. It starts out there was this pretty ­blue planet and a Queen and it all ends badly, sorta."

"Oh, that story," Morpheus groaned. "That is the only story!" Daniel was pretty sure Morpheus didn't mean that it was the singular story, though it was -after a fashion; Morpheus meant that this story was - to use yet another slang word or two - pretty fierc­e. Daniel thought this sounded like stuff said in certain New York clubs and in the dorm rooms of art schools.

"Laughter," said Opium.

"Paroxysms," said Morpheus with a dramatic lilt of one hand. His shirt slipped down off his right shoulder.

"It was you!" Daniel said suddenly.

"Hmmn?" Asked Morpheus and looked at him. The lizard looked too.

"It was you. You changed shape, like you did when that guy drowned, you appeared as his drown body to his wife...you were Joey!"

Morpheus sighed very dramatically, lifted a hand to his brow. "Why does everyone bring up Ceyx?" He looked at Daniel, "Ovid! I swear! Why couldn't the hack write about any of my more splendid shapes?" Morpheus asked as he framed his face in fanned hands. "And let me tell you something, I was just as beautiful, just as youthful as all those silly boys who got turned into flowers. Just because I didn't fall head over ass for one of the shining ones they think there's no tragedy in my life worth writing about." Morpheus sank back into the couch and gave River half a smile. "No one ever writes about me."

"But you were Joey," Daniel persisted.

Morpheus straightened, just a little, and nodded. "Yes. I was."

"I feel a story coming," said Opium.

Morpheus rolled his head to face her and smiled. He glanced at Daniel then. Daniel was sipping tea. "Sometimes, I actually think it would have been a lot more handy having a raven or a crow about, then I could send River into the kitchen to fly back with some cookies...but I was reading the wrong sort of comic books."

"Oh don't you look at me as if I'll blink and the biscuits will appear. Just because I smell like cinnamon...."

Morpheus turned back to Daniel gesturing with the hand River was perched on as if this would not bother the lizard, "I liked Peter Milligan's books a little more than Gaiman's...but anyway...The Crow I liked, especially the movie, they used to have showings every Friday night at a quarter after Midnight at the Angelica."

"I've been there," said Daniel.

"Did you want something to eat?" Morpheus asked then lowered his voice as if Opium would not still be able to hear, "I'll summon some real Djinn, Opium's just all...because every time we go anywhere near Arabia they try to trap her in bottles." Morpheus giggled, "I got the sound of wings and she got the scent of cinnamon."

"I am a little hungry," Daniel said.

"Excuse me a moment," Morpheus said. His eyes went all black and a large pair of feathered black wings sprouted from his back, glinting blue and violet. He spoke a charm under his breath, and then before him three shapes formed.

They were three small young women identical in features, but with different hair coloring: blue, green, and violet. Their clothes, all vaguely Grecian looking, were the same three colors in a different arrangement. Daniel smiled when he saw them. "A triumvirate," he said.

Morpheus looked at Daniel. The wings were still there but the eyes looked Human-like again. He smiled, "Have you seen much Anime?"

"Yes," Daniel said.

"Murph's a hatter over Robotech," Opium said.

Morpheus pulled his knees to his chest and spoke like a child, "Which is not like real anime, arguably, but I was just a baby when I first saw it, they all had weird hair colors, like me. And big glittering eyes...."

The green-haired Djinn went to the kitchen for a box of tea biscuits and brought it to Daniel. He nodded his thanks.

When the Djinn had joined her sisters Morpheus ordered them to help Opium pack and clean the house.

Opium said her son was lazy.

"I'm not lazy, I've just better things to do. I've just got to tell Daniel my li'l story."

"It's not long is it?" Daniel asked.

"Oh, no, not very...I'll leave the details out," Morpheus said. He stretched out on the couch and let River sit on his shoulder. "I was very young, it was my first job, I was working a mirage in the Indian Desert."

"Mirages are real?" Daniel asked.

"Well, after a fashion, reality's not really my thing. But anyway, it was a job, the Angels had given it to me, they sometimes give us jobs. I was good at it, someone would come by, I would feel the shape come over me, feel what they wanted and morph the interior of this tent I had into whatever that was. I had just two Djinn then, and a horse. This one time, I felt the shape about to come over me, I thought to myself that the last time the shape had been a beautiful voluptuous woman, and that I'd made a banquet with lots of wine and water, and that the two Djinn were always getting to appear as pretty young boys. I thought right then that this was a drag, I was really getting sick of the arrangement. I didn't know why, just that I wasn't much into it.

"Ah, but this time, the shape came over me, I felt differently. I was me! I was myself, only slightly more fabulous, I felt no need to set out a banquet, to set out money...and the two Djinn became these women in bright pink outfits that I thought so hilarious. And the he walks in!

"He said my name! Can you believe this? I'm working a Mirage and someone wanders in who's only desire is to see me? But, I didn't know him. He looked strange; you see I was very young, I'd never seen anyone so tall and fair. But, as I was in the shape he wanted, I understood that he was coming in from a time when we had already met and that he assumed I knew we had been lovers.

"I'd never been anyone's lover before, it felt amazing, better even than when I was sung into being and the Angels all came to look on me and give me gifts. I started to know that I was in love, and that was even more incredible.

"But then someone else came in, and they seemed unaffected by the Mirage and they took him somewhere. He said he wanted me to come find him when I could.

"As soon as I'd done my job, I went back to Opium and told her what had happened. I felt bad then; I felt miserable. I felt want, and I had never felt that before. Every second I was away from him, I was hurting. Opium said I must wait. Me and her, we feel time's restriction on us less than Humans do, but we're not as pure as Angels. And when Opium and me consulted our aunt, Beholder, it said Opium was right to fear I was growing. Angels just know all sorts of things right off, but me, Triquat that I am, I was growing, I was going to go through phases and stages like a Human, and even Opium hadn't done that.

"Opium had been given a job in New York so I went there to be with her, but I didn't live in her house, because that wasn't part of the job. So I walked around New York for some years, growing. I had no job, so the shapes didn't come over me. I got to pick my own. Free will, it's a real bother sometimes, all these decisions.

"One day I was walking up Fifth Avenue, heading for the park when I saw a man get shot, and I felt a shape come over me. I was happy. The Angels had given me a task, I could go say something that would help this man. So I went over and saw he was dying. So, naturally, I told him not to look at her eyes, only it came out in the speech of my shape.

"I looked up as they put him in the ambulance. I saw him!"

"Oh!" Said Daniel, "It's Julien!"

Morpheus' eyes went wide and black. "Yeah, it's Julien. And there I was right beside him unable to say anything, but what my shape would say, unable to let him see me. And I looked into his mind...I could have cried. He was in love with someone else.

"But I took him upstairs to his friend. I think sometime I'll have to go give him some nice dreams."

"You could be me," Daniel said.

"With Angels' wings," said Morpheus.

"That's probably enough for now, Murph," Opium said.

"Laughter," said Morpheus.

"Paroxysms," said Opium. She was hefting a pile of black clothing into a trunk and it looked like it was hard for her.

Morpheus snatched up a biscuit and ate it.

"Where are you moving anyway?" Daniel asked.

"Not very far," said Morpheus then licked his lips.

"Oh."

"We just don't need to be in this house anymore."

"I think you should be quiet now, Murph," Opium said again.

"I don't know where I'll go," Daniel said. He took a sip of tea. "I've heard so many strange things recently."

"I'm sure," said Opium, "You don't want to stay in Los Angeles then."

"Don't I?"

"Too many memories, it's better you move on again."

"I am always doing that."

"I know."

"Somehow I'm not surprised," Daniel said.

"But nothing really ever surprises you does it?" She asked, "you don't really stop to think about things too much, that's good."

"You don't get depressed all the time!" Morpheus sighed. "I'm getting depressed all the time, to many things to worry about. Always having to pretend you don't know things you know. Always having to watch over people to make sure they don't get themselves in trouble."

"Really?" Asked Daniel.

"Oh, they give us all kinds of jobs! Because we're so good at pretending, it is rather our thing, not that we never have anything to do with the truth. Sometimes we show things that lead people right to the truth."

"Morpheus Tyron Smith!" Shouted his mother.

"Sorry."

"Don't worry," said Daniel, "I won't tell a soul."

---

Characters from The Devil's Shadow will return in The Empty World.