Dark blue, the sky was going Dark blue, and there was yet no moon, thought in the darkness the city floating above shone with its own light, and Morpheus saw Angels dotting the sky like stars as they flew to and from it. Beautiful, this ending of the world. Morpheus hoped Opium and Daniel would make it. He hoped they would find Joy and close the tear.

The ground bolted beneath him and Morpheus fell for the third time. He lay on the grass of his father's dying region on the ground littered with the skeletons of birds and fishes and listened to the rumbling that came from all around. He didn't want to sleep. He didn't want to find that he could die. He was crying again. But he didn't feel bad, not about the crying. Anyone would cry to see this, the destruction of The Land, the shallow world balanced between the empty one and the one shining above, the loss of its summery twilight in this beautiful violent night.

He picked himself up again and asked River if he was all right. "About as good as I can be right now," River said. As Morpheus walked across the Land his three Djinn walked behind in their mourning clothes weeping, because he told them to. They were having a little procession, mourning, because no one else really was, they were all just numb and accepting of fate.

Morpheus looked up and prayed that Daniel would get to his siblings, he prayed that Opium would be all right, and that Jibril would not find a way to die.

The ground quaked again. Morpheus could see the shining bridge across the Styx bolt and sway in the light that came from The Forbidden City where Angels and divine talents dwelt in more perfection than even those here could dream of. Morpheus wondered what those below were doing, the Satans and their minions, living in the darkness beneath The Land that was yet part of their world, in the place they called the Pit and the DarkLand. He wondered if the quaking had brought them all up.

Lucifer would probably be more pissed off that ever when he saw the ground was falling down around him, and that finally he could get up and look up at the city he was outcast from only to see it was as perfect as ever.

Morpheus walked over a hill, buckled land. And he felt another quake, they were so much more frequent as the empty reality pressed in, though the regions still fought to shift. And then the ground opened up, it was really so fast that Morpheus had no time to move. He felt as if in a cartoon, that the jagged black line would come speeding toward him, and then something funny would happen. He would stand with a foot either side, or fall down and send up a cloud of dust, or hold up a sign that said: OUCH!

But he only stumbled, fell into the crevice, fell against rock so that his arm was cut and then slid farther down. He hit his head. He lay with his eyes rolled back in his head, half-conscious wondering if the sickness would keep his wounds from healing. He heard a small voice by his ear, "Almost lost ya, boss."

Morpheus wanted to tell River to stop calling him boss, but he knew River only did it when feeling most affectionate, when he was so emotional he needed to joke. Morpheus laughed, and it hurt. And then he heard a scuffling sound, and then another voice.

"Omigawdomigawdomigawd..." And then the tiny drops of blood ran down into his mouth.

Morpheus reached up through the pain and pulled Julien to him. They were kissing desperately, caring more that they kissed a lot and did it fast than that they should really feel anything. Julien kissed each of his eyes several times, as if in a fit of panic. He was crying over Morpheus, shaking him. And when he gave that one almost slow kiss that kept him from saying "omigawd," repeatedly he began saying "IloveyouIloveyouIlove you."

"Julien," Morpheus said, "help me up."

Julien became gentle, lifted Morpheus with care, moved a hand up his spine to make sure all was in order, lay his hand to the back of Morpheus' head and rubbed it. Morpheus opened his eyes, blinked to clear his vision. His arm was stinging. Julien's eyes went down to it, and then he bent, and he sucked gently at the wound, almost as if he meant this to be making love. Morpheus closed his eyes voluntarily, braced himself as Julien's tongue probed the gash in his arm, as his lips closed the wound. For a while Morpheus sat, his arm stinging painfully, as Julien licked at it. But he knew that it had closed.

When he opened his eyes Julien was sitting back, licking blood from his lips dreamily, and he was wearing a god awful orange sequined dress with lots of layers of sheer polyester ruffles. Morpheus looked about the room, something of a wooden cell with only a mirror in it, and them, his Djinn weeping quietly, and a hole in the ceiling through which he could see The City. He looked back to Julien. His eyes were open. He noticed the dress was badly stained, and that Julien smelt bad. And he noticed a very interesting plant was wound about Julien's leg, and that Julien was in satin spiked heels.

"Julien, how did you get into Torment?"

"Well, Athen and I were on Magazine street, and there was this fog, and we kept walking, but when it cleared we were not in New Orleans anymore. I thought, Gawd, we've gone completely over the rainbow, and I've only got Athen for company, this is awful, but then we fell through something of a rabbit hole, which sounds fun, right, but instead of finding wonderland, we found Hell, and some Satans damned us because they didn't much like us, or Nephillim, these particular Satans."

"They put you in Torment?"

"Yes, and these tortures are really very personalized, I'll tell ya, I couldn't just be chained up and whipped, no, that would be bad enough, but instead they lock me in this room, and only let me out to go into the other room where every garment is a bad dress and all the make-up is totally wrong for you. And then they sent me on a stage to lip-synch to very early Madonna songs, and they through shit at me if I don't dance to their satisfaction. And I can't really escape, because I've this vine! Oh, and then it all goes over again!"

"Jules..."

"The vine was awful, but I'll tell you a secret, I've found that it was torturing the vine having to force me to do things, and so I've been giving in, rather surrendering to the torments recently for its sake. And they've realized, because most recently there's been a trailer, and we sometimes get in this awful trailer and tour, and the audiences are full of new torments. But the vine and me, we get along in secret, it takes blood from me and it strokes me with its petals so I won't feel so bad."

"You look awful."

"Yes, well, you don't look so hot."

"The world is dying."

"Up there?" Julien pointed to the ceiling. "You mean we could get out? I'm sure they'll come for me any second."

"Yes, but The Land is falling apart."

"The Land? Where are we?"

"I'll show you," Morpheus said. He looked up.

"Um, Murph," Julien said.

"Yes?"

"Well, first of all could we take the vine?"

"It'd be stealing, and the Satans wouldn't like you much, but I suppose we could,"

"And um, we've got to rescue Athen, he's here somewhere, and it wouldn't be decent to leave him."

Morpheus looked to the door. "Julien, I'm dying."

Julien shook his head.

"We're all dying, the whole land."

"Up there, it's your home?" Julien asked. He really did look horrible in turquoise eyeshadow.

"Yeah," Morpheus sighed.

"We'll be together, even if we don't find him. I saw where he is, he's in a really pretty sort of park with lots of innocent looking children who tease him. He's miserable. And your Djinn could clear the way for us."

Morpheus frowned. He broke open the door and pulled it wide.

"You're still stronger than me," Julien said. He lifted the vine to his shoulders, "Listen, we're getting out of here, if you resist and let me go I'll take you with us." And then Julien began ripping ruffles off and wiping make-up from his face. He kicked off the heels and scampered to Morpheus' side. He continued ripping at his dress till he wore nothing but a long, slinky, orange sequined skirt. "Best I can do with the ugly thing."

"Might look nice with big boots and lots of fishnet, in the right sort of place."

"It might just," Julien said.

Morpheus ordered his Djinn to assume skin-tight bodysuits, big boots and knee and elbow pads. And then he sent them after anything that got in their way to attack with well choreographed martial arts moves and loud cries.

Morpheus could still put people to sleep, all he had to do was reach into his wing for some and throw it at them. And so it wasn't actually too difficult to find Athen and take him from the park. "Saw your show the other day, it was horrible," Athen said.

"Thené, can I wear your boots?" Julien asked.

"You have gone completely," Athen said, but he stepped out of his boots as they ran and gave then to Julien.

They climbed up through the first hole they found. Julien sat and laced on the boots, Athen took a step and fell into a pool. Morpheus grabbed his arm and pulled him up onto the rock floor. "We're in Dream," he said. He looked around. They were not in the heart, but they were close to it. All around there were fallen stalactites and other formations. Julien stood up.

"Can I wear your shirt?" Julien asked.

Morpheus looked Julien in the eyes. "I suppose you would want to die looking as good as possible."

The ground quaked again, the webs quivered as rock and gems fell from the walls. The pools all splashed and water dripped anew from above. Morpheus doubled over. He sank down to the ground. Julien bent to his side. "You really are dying," he whispered.

"If Opium doesn't come through all of us will become sick...I don't know, maybe the Angels won't die, maybe they'll just live weak and dim." He took River from his shoulder and set him in his lap. He sloughed off his jacket and pack then pulled off his shirt. He offered it to Julien.

"You really giving me the shirt off your back?"

"Don't have much to give any more," Morpheus said.

Julien pulled on the black tee. "You're like that tree," he said.

"What tree?"

"The one in that book, The Giving Tree. You'll give until there's nothing left to give."

Morpheus raised his brows slightly. He took the shirt from his pack that had been cushioning the bottles, the Djinn were out, and it didn't matter. He pulled the shirt on, then his jacket. He closed his pack and drew it up to on shoulder as he noticed Julien watching him.

"You could have just given me that shirt and saved yourself some trouble," Julien said. He helped Morpheus to his feet, and then bent to retrieve River and put him under Morpheus' epaulet.

"Where are we going now?" Athen asked.

"To the heart," Morpheus said. He leaned heavily against Julien and led them through the tunnels. The ground was quaking badly when they came to the heart. The hammock had fallen and Jibril was propped up so that he could look into his scrying pool. Absinthe was standing over him awkwardly, conducting dreams as best she could and shielding them from falling rocks with her fragile wings. And then Morpheus saw that Daniel was there, and Thierry, though he looked as ghostly as Daniel.

"Thierry," Morpheus said.

The young man looked up. It seemed he had to be twenty by then.

"That can't be Thierry," Julien whispered.

"You can teleport?" Morpheus asked.

"Teleport, no, I projected myself here. Daniel told me something was wrong with the Angel." Thierry waved a hand in Jibril's direction. Morpheus looked there. Absinthe was looking at him, as if pleading desperately for help. "The Angel won't leave, Morpheus, make him leave, this place is caving in."

"He's caving in," Morpheus whispered but he crawled to the pool. "Sar Jibril, please, you must let Absinthe take you to Death's house."

"Pointless, look," Jibril said.

Morpheus looked into the pool. Opium was all by herself. The wind was very bad around her, the land shaking. He groaned. "Daniel, where is he?"

Absinthe waved her hand over the pool. Daniel was somewhere in the valley, lost.

Morpheus felt another pang in his gut. "Oooh, we'll find him. Jibril, I'll find him myself and we'll find Joy. Don't just die here, let Sin take you to Death's house, others are there, they won't be angry, they'll care for you."

"Hey, listen, Jibril, This place looks pretty bad, but Earth isn't so messed up. Opi gets this storm stopped then Earth will be OK, I'll have aged fifteen more years than anyone who stayed in the house long, but stranger shit has happened. But if you die here somehow, do you really trust Absinthe to redecorate once the storm's up?"

"Daniel, get Thierry out of here," Jibril said.

"I'll leave when you leave," Thierry said.

Jibril lifted a finger, it was the best he could manage. And Absinthe lifted him up. She glanced at Morpheus.

"Murph, come with us."

"I've got to try to find Daniel," Morpheus said, and then he coughed.

"We'll try to find someone to help you," Absinthe said, and then they went.

Thierry and Daniel faded just after the other two. And then as the ground shook again Athen lifted Morpheus and with Julien at his other side they rushed him from the tunnels. The Lethe had dried up, its source cut off somewhere, and they ran across its muddy bed quickly.

The ground quaked again, violently. Julien fell back to the ground. Morpheus fell forward. The Djinn did some nice flips. But Athen remained standing, staring at the Angels in the sky.

"This is where you live?" Julien asked.

"It didn't used to look like this, it used to be permanent summer twilight and the regions used to roll smoothly against each other in constant shifting geography, there used to be fields of grass and poppies and a brick path," Morpheus said sadly.

"This is more like I imagine the place you would live tho," Julien said, "dark and foreboding..."

Morpheus looked at Athen, he was looking up so intently. And then Morpheus saw Ariella above, and he guessed Ariella saw them. And then he guessed Athen recognized his mother, though she had wings.

She came down to them. She looked at Athen. "You don't belong here, I'll take you to somewhere a little safer, if the storm is stopped we'll send you back to your world."

Athen said nothing.

"Eventually the storm will be stopped," Ariella said.

Athen said nothing.

"Shall I send Psyche to collect you and bring you to safety?"

Athen said nothing.

And Ariella slipped her arms under Athen's and lifted him, and he didn't complain.

"That was Athen's mother, I've seen paintings of her," Julien said. He picked himself up and then helped Morpheus up. The wind was fierce, and Julien turned his back to it so that they faced each other.

"Yeah," Morpheus said.

"She had wings," Julien said.

"Well, I'm afraid they recently made her an Angel, a pretty high ranked one for a Devi."

"She didn't take me."

"You're with me, and I'm one of the sick ones, she wouldn't leave anyone like me completely uncared for."

Julien kissed Morpheus, one slow meaningful kiss, and then he turned and slipped an arm about Morpheus' waist and helped him walk. Morpheus asked the Djinn to don their mourning clothes again, and they processed before him veils flapping in the wind, weeping.

"Listen Julien, you remember Daniel, the one John had dreams about, the one in the painting on Mandy's wall above his fireplace?"

"Yes."

"He's not a regular human. We're looking for him. And if we find him, then we're looking for Joy. Now I'm sure no one will let you ever go back knowing this, so they'll probably make you forget, maybe even I will. But if we get separated, I don't want you to worry about me. I want you to look for either of them."

"Morpheus, I can't leave you."

"You don't understand, if we don't do this, the storm will continue, more people form Earth will be drawn here, and this world will fall apart, and then people drawn here will be falling into nothing until the whole Earth is drawn in, and then the whole Solar system..."

"All right, if we get split apart I'll look out for them. But what if I don't find anyone at all?"

"Then look for the city with the shining pyramid and bridge, the ziggurat and the twin towers and the winged animals in relief on the brick wall...if it's still there, and go toward it. That's where most of the sick and the lost have been taken, but it won't be safe long."

They walked on. The sky was deep black then, and something like a moon was forming above. All through the valley Night creatures and lost souls ran from the destruction.

"How will we find them in this?" Julien asked.

"Open my pack," Morpheus said.

Julien let Morpheus stand on his own and took the pack. He opened it. There were two mirrors inside with some bottles.

"Take the mirrors out, and give just one to me," Morpheus said.

Julien chose the small hand mirror with tortoise shell frame and handle for himself, and he gave to Morpheus the rectangular mirror with the silver frame. Morpheus put his in his pocket. He leaned on Julien again and looked into the hand mirror, focused it. The picture was a bit fuzzy, but Daniel was there.

"This is how. Look, it doesn't seem he can be too far. He's in the valley somewhere."

"I couldn't do that."

"Well, maybe, you could try it, try very hard while gazing at it, as if gazing into space and think of the person you want to see. Remember the way he looks now. And you know what Joy looks like, but she's been impossible to find for a while, I think her brother is blocking her."

"She has a brother?"

"Mandy's her brother."

"You know, I think he kisses like her," Julien said.

Morpheus nodded.

"You'll make me forget?" Julien asked and slipped his arm about Morpheus again.

"I'll give you Lethe water to drink," Morpheus said.

They pressed on looking for Daniel. Julien was holding the mirror, it was still focused. Morpheus glanced over occasionally, coughed occasionally. He steered Julien by pushing or pulling with his weight. Daniel was moving vaguely in the direction of the Maze of Black. Morpheus wondered if it was on purpose. But no other structure was any more visible now.

"He's heading into the storm, Morpheus we're going to walk right into the storm."

"Doesn't matter, It'll be everywhere soon."

The ground trembled, land rolled and buckled so that a hill rolled up right under their feet and threw them apart. Morpheus was wracked with coughs again; he couldn't get up. He saw Julien standing unsteadily as the ground shook, trying to get back to him. And then the ground split open again and Morpheus slipped down on a tilting piece of ground, he tried to get a hold on something, but grass and dirt just gave way.

The rains came down on them suddenly, the region shifting forcefully into a new position deeper within the storm. Morpheus looked over his shoulder. Julien was pulling up his skirt so that he could better leap across the crevice. When he was on the other side he lay down and leaned over to grab Morpheus. Their fingers barely touched. And then the ground rumbled again and the land pitched, and Morpheus cried out as he slipped down farther. Then with a jerking motion he stopped.

Morpheus stared at his wrist. The vine, it was linking their arms. It sent more tendrils snaking down to Morpheus.

The ground is giving way!" Julien cried.

Morpheus could feel it, the whole tilted piece of ground he was laying on was tilting and slipping farther down into the crack, and Julien had his weight on it too. "Go back!"

"Fly! Get out of there!"

The ground was tilting. "River, run up my arm, get out of here!" The lizard ran quickly up their arms to Julien's shoulder. Morpheus lifted his wings and beat once. "It's falling! Get back!" he screamed.

Julien's eyes stared and showed terror as he crawled backward. The vine slipped from Julien's shoulder, and then it and Morpheus slid backward. Morpheus willed himself upward and beat his wings as swiftly as he could, and he went up. He heard Julien scream as the earth shook and the two pieces of land either side of the crevice shifted so that one went to the side while the other was suddenly pitched the opposite direction and up at once, so that the surface became all that farther away, the walls higher an obstacle. And then more wet ground gave way at the edge and Morpheus was hit.

He didn't fall all the way down, into the blackness. He fell to a ledge of rock, his left wing pinned by a boulder. He coughed, and with each cough his wing felt torn. He couldn't see Julien, he could barely tell where the surface was. Morpheus tried to shift shape, but all he got was an ache in his body. He felt the orchids falling against his cheeks, his tears. Opium had become insubstantial, and he could no longer shift shape.

"Morpheus! I can't see you, are you there?"

"I'm here."

"I can hardly hear you! Are you all right?"

"Leave me, I'm pinned down, and I can't shift shape anymore!"

"But if you're hurt, Morpheus, I could try to climb down to you."

"Look, I've got this really heavy bolder right on my wing, I'm hurt, and I'm really sick now. Just send Loren down to stay with me. They listen to you, Julien, send Loren down and take the other's and go!"

He didn't hear anything. He hoped Julien would just go. And then Loren came down, hovering over him in her mourning clothes. She lifted her veil to smile sadly at him. "Sofia, come sit with me," Morpheus said quietly, "Is Julien leaving?"

"He looks in the mirror now," the Djinn said.

Morpheus coughed. He could see his blood seeping from under the rock. "Get my mirror from my pocket, Sofia."

She got the mirror out and held it up for Morpheus. He touched his left had to it and focused it on Daniel. He saw they seemed to be close, they. Daniel Pearl was with him, talking rapidly. He said, "Are you a friend of Opium's?"

And the other Daniel said, "I thought you were about to say Dorothy," and the rain fell on his face as he looked up.

"Fraid not, but my grandfathers thought Judy Garland sinister lovely."

"I think I knew men who used sinister as an intensifier," Daniel said. "Opium sent me here."

"She sent me too. Do you know what your doing?"

"I'm looking for Joy."

Daniel looked about. "Well, we might as well try getting to that tower...for a start."

"That's what I thought."

"Yes. By the way, my name's Daniel."

"So's mine."

"I know. They seem to like us, you know."

"Yeah, I think they must," Daniel said.

Morpheus glanced up. "Julien!" he called.

"What?"

"This time you better leave me for real! You're a Vampyre, Daniel Pearl isn't too good at blocking! Go find them! You can help them, and then I'll get better!"

"OK. Murph!"

"Yes?"

"I'm going. You better not die! I'll come back and look for you!"

"Just go already! It hurts me to talk!" And then Morpheus coughed some more.

For a while he lay still, in to much pain to bother looking to see if Julien had left. Some time later he looked at the mirror and saw that Julien had found the others, and he raised a hand weakly to listen in. Daniel Pearl was saying that he knew it was the other one who was important. He said Julien was a real Vampyre and Daniel should stay close to Julien during the quaking. And then Daniel Pearl said he had a good feeling about that tower. He thought it was the place they needed.

Morpheus closed his eyes and rested. He could feel his blood pooling under his right hand then. He spoke to tell Loren she might as well have some of the blood as it was just laying there. And then he felt as if falling. The land didn't move, but he felt as if he was sinking somehow. Later Loren spoke to him. She said, "Someone is coming. Will you tell me what to do?"

Morpheus didn't speak.

Someone came, he could sense them there, he could feel their hands touching his body, checking for a pulse. "Oh Murphy," it said. He thought it might be female, it sounded like it was a girl actually, but the hands didn't seem like those of a human girl, the fingertips felt very strange, and he knew the fingers were long.

The boulder was moved from his wing. He did not know how, but for an instant he felt its absence. And then another pressure came down on his wing and he felt on fire. Morpheus arched his back, gasped, his eyes opened. He had never seen a creature quite like this. It was definitely some kind of girl, but she was so tall, so slender, as some Halfangels were, her skin was dusky, her hair thick, cut in a bob at the chin and brown, with highlights of gold. She was gazing at him with two large black-irised eyes. She smiled two large flat teeth and then the eyeteeth right beside them. She extended a hand, four long fingers including her thumb. Morpheus took her hand and let her pull him up.

She was just a bit taller than he was, yet her face looked plump and childish, her breasts were barely developed, she seemed almost boyishly thin. Morpheus found himself smiling. He was still touching her hand, and it felt so nice. Touching her made him feel better. And then he loosed her hand and looked at his wing, it was completely healed, he flapped it, and then the other. Still he had the pain in his gut and in his head.

The boulder was nowhere to be seen. The girl was turned gazing at Loren. She giggled and then looked at Morpheus. "Loren, right?"

"Who are you?" Morpheus asked.

She leaned in and kissed his forehead, "Someone who knows entirely too much about you to let you go and die." She kissed his eyes. "Someone who loves you. And don't you try looking, it would just be too much for you."

"You aren't from this time," Morpheus said.

"Time? Time's gone completely haywire!" She paused. "What is haywire and why is it synonymous with chaotic? Sometimes I just don't understand myself..." She looked up. Morpheus noticed she had a silk tee on and that it had some sort of holographic logo on it that said: Vivid Sadness. "You know how it is, Murphy, if things end here, then I can't do what I'm meant to do."

Morpheus was looking at his wing again. "You must be a strong talent. You aren't an Angel." The vine writhed and snaked itself all the way up his right arm and around his neck.

"Nope, no wings," she said, "the boulder was very easy to move. And you were easy to heal." She touched a finger to one dark red and purple orchid blossom. "Its name is Fred, you know," she said. And then the girl stepped back onto a small carpet, and then sat down with her legs crossed in front of her. She was wearing a very short flared skirt and strange shoes. Morpheus believed they were called chopines, a style of platform shoe. "Well, come on, get on the carpet."

"You going to tell me it flies?" Morpheus asked.

She rolled her eyes brilliantly. "Hitachi would be out of business if they didn't, come on."

Morpheus sat in front of her on the carpet.

"Give him the mirror, Loren, and follow us," the girl said. And Loren did as she said.

The carpet moved up from the ledge and gradually hovered vaguely forward and upward till they were above ground. "Who are you?" Morpheus called back.

"Stop asking silly questions, Murphy. You can call me Pandora, though. It is my name."

"Pandora," Morpheus said. "You are a very strange girl."

"Well, maybe," she said. "So, look in the mirror already!"