It was a completely typical twilight. The violet sky and the edge of the land met at the orange-brown haze of Limbo, the cross-roads of the world. Regions shifted across the land silently. Nightfall was in the midst of shifting from a long ring of mountains to a single mammoth peak in the middle of the land and looked a tall straight range. Los Angeles, always retaining its circular map, was rolling against the edge of the world like the small toothed wheel in a Spirograph. And then the storm came.

It wasn't a very big storm, but the dark clouds suddenly billowing out of the haze of Limbo were enough to scare the souls to neighboring regions. Animals of the Night Regions took flight. The Maze Mice in the Maze of Black came scurrying up to the top of the tower. River noticed them before Morpheus did. Morpheus had been asleep.

"Morpheus, there are mice running all over the floor," the lizard said.

Morpheus sat up right away and wiped the sleep from his eyes. What had looked a writhing mass of dark and light shapes became focused, white mice scurrying across his bedroom floor. "Something is not right," Morpheus said.

"You better check the mirrors," River said.

Morpheus got up slowly. He scooped River up and sat him on his right shoulder. He called his three Djinn into the shapes of three women in pastel Chanel suits. And then he skipped over the mice to the watching room. He stood in the middle of the room searching the mirrors for a disturbance. He didn't immediately notice one. And then he focused the large mirror on the sky. It was violet as usual, though there were several Angels in flight above the tower.

Morpheus went down a flight and looked out the window. He had a view of limbo then, and he saw the clouds. And as he stood watching a great rumbling came from that same place. The orange haze was clearing up. And as Los Angeles came rolling by, it seemed to skip, and actually roll backward for a moment before passing behind the clouds. Morpheus sensed the great crying out from the city. It had actually been shaken.

"It's like in that movie!" River said.

For a moment Morpheus thought he meant Star Wars, but River wouldn't have sensed that cry that Morpheus had. "Neverending Story?" Morpheus asked and knew then he'd guessed right. River was around the same age as him, a generation or so before Morpheus, but Morpheus had been born knowing what his mother knew of The Eighties. "It looks like that movie. But the clouds aren't taking anything away...I don't know...what could cause a skip in the shifting. The shifting has always been perfect."

"In California, they call them earthquakes," the lizard said sarcastically.

"This isn't Earth; we don't have quakes," Morpheus said. And then he panicked. Obviously they'd had one. Something had caught as two regions shifted against each other. He ran up to the watching room. His three Djinn were standing about looking pretty. He focused the large mirror on Joy. He was supposed to be keeping track of her still. But nothing seemed to ever happen, and so he hadn't worried.

She was unconscious, dazed, staring into space. Not in the Palace. No. She'd gone to New Orleans with the others for Mardi Gras. She was in the attic room of Angel's house. Amadeo was leaning over her.

The window was open. Amadeo stood and looked out. Andrew was vaulting over the fence in a blur, Angel and Athen were already streaking across the yards ahead of him. Shade and Ardor stood on the porch of Andrew's house looking up at the window.

"Shit!" Morpheus said.

"What is it?" River asked.

"She's had a snap. She must have seen one of them, Daniel, or her brother. Shit! Shit!" Morpheus watched as Amadeo went downstairs. There was a videophone in the hall it's screen was flashing a message: disconnected. Amadeo had left it hanging.

Toni came in first. He studied Amadeo, they argued. Julien had called, after being missing so long—they had all thought he died in the plane crash, or went into the sand and fell asleep—he was in the IndianDesert. But Steven had called while Julien was on the other line and said that Tanya had seen a ghost in Caroline's room. Athen said he would go get Faye, she was at the hotel. Obviously Faye and he were speaking again. They would go fetch Julien, maybe he could snap Joy out of it. But Amadeo had to go to New York.

"Daniel," Morpheus said, "The ghost: it's just Joy's son."

He turned and stomped across the floor, walked back.

Angel had come into the room. The others were not far behind. She was asking who could have possibly outrun four Vampyres. Who would want to hurt Joy. No one knew. Angel kept saying that there was a case to be solved. She told Amadeo they would go out and find this person.

Athen said Amadeo had to go to New York. He told the others about the ghost and about Julien.

Athen left in a hurry to get Faye.

The others went back upstairs and moved Joy to a bedroom.

Amadeo went to his room and slouched down in a chair next to the small table his notebook was on. He sighed, and then began typing. Angel came in and stood leaning against his bedpost staring at him. "Don't flip out on me, Angel," Amadeo said without looking away from his notebook.

Raven came into the room. "Are you going to New York like they say?"

"I guess I have to. Ganymede was going to go back anyway. I think he should take Thierry back with him. I'll go later. I don't feel like it's safe here. Do you want to go with Thierry?"

"I will stay with you," Raven said.

Thierry came into the room and then behind him Ganymede slunk in wearing a neat black suit. He stopped just in the doorway. "Are we going somewhere Papa? Because Joy is not right?"

Amadeo turned away from his keys. "I want you to go to New York with Ganymede. You remember Grandma, and Grandpa, and Steven, don't you. You'll stay with them. And then I'll come after you when I know if Joy will be all right."

"I remember, and my sister, you forgot my sister, and Malik, he's my cousin, and Teri who takes care of the babies for them, and Theo, and his baby Prince Phillip, and Prince's mama that is not married to Theo, what's her name, the one with the funny colored glasses?"

Amadeo laughed. "Kim. Yes, I should have said all of them. And don't forget Caroline's mama, and your Aunt Amber and Uncle Trey. Now kiss Mama goodbye and ask Ganymede if he will help you pack."

Thierry walked across the room and reached up. Raven bent and kissed his lips. "You go with Ganymede," she said.

Thierry looked up curiously at Ganymede who still stood in the door. "Don't you worry," Ganymede said, "I had brothers and sisters younger than me, I know all about kids."

Thierry started toward Ganymede.

"What are you going to do, Maddy? Athen and Julien aren't here, think you can get Joy to tell us anything?" Angel asked.

"Well, I'll try," Amadeo said. "But just let me finish this, I've been writing down everything that happens."

Amadeo turned away from his keys. "I want you to go to NewYork with Ganymede. You remember Grandma, and Grandpa, and Steven, don't you. You'll stay with them. And then I'll come after you when I know if Joy will be all right."

"I remember, and my sister, you forgot my sister, and Malik, he's my cousin, and Teri who takes care of the babies for them, and Theo, and his baby Prince Phillip, and Prince's mama that is not married to Theo, what's her name, the one with the funny colored glasses?"

Amadeo laughed. "Kim. Yes, I should have said all of them. And don't forget Caroline's mama, and your aunt Amber and Uncle Trey. Now kiss Mama goodbye and ask Ganymede if he will help you pack."

Thierry walked across the room and reached up. Raven bent and kissed his lips. "You go with Ganymede," she said.

Thierry looked up curiously at Ganymede who still stood in the door. "Don't you worry," Ganymede said, "I had brothers and sisters younger than me, I know all about kids."

Thierry started toward Ganymede.

"What are you going to do, Maddy, Athen and Julien aren't here, think you can get Joy to tell us anything?" Angel asked.

"Well, I'll try," Amadeo said. "But just—"

"DON'T SAY ANYTHING!" Angel screamed.

The room was still, Amadeo sat in his chair with his fingers poised over the keys, Raven stood beside him looking shaken. Angel was in the middle of the room with her hands frozen in front of her. Ganymede was still in the door, he had one hand on Thierry's shoulder. The boy was looking about the room with quick darting glances.

"Did you—did it happen to you too?" Angel whispered.

"Everything seemed normal, and then you screamed, Angel," Raven said, "And I felt like it was Déjà vu!"

"Amad?" Angel asked. She walked around the room slowly.

"Something doesn't feel right."

Morpheus turned from the mirror. He'd seen it. Events had repeated themselves, a backward movement, like the skip in the shifting. A hiccup in reality. This was all very bad. Angel had noticed it too, more than the others.

Morpheus looked back to the mirror. Amadeo was standing in his bedroom telling Ganymede to get Thierry out of the house even if he wasn't packed.

Ganymede and Thierry left the room, and then Raven slipped out. Angel still looked determined to know what had happened. "I saw it Amad, we all went through the same events over again. Things like this, they have happened to me...in dreams, and when I was in that coffin."

"Oh?"

"Do you know what it is?"

"No."

"But when I spoke of dreams, something flashed in your eyes. You know something, Maddy. Like you knew all about Eros plot to make Athen and Julien fall for each other."

"I couldn't say."

Angel moved across the floor and grabbed Amadeo by the arms. "I'm not crazy, Amadeo, I saw it, I'm telling you I know what happened, and if I hadn't stopped you then you all would have gone through the events over and over in a loop. Tell me you saw it."

Amadeo shook his head. "I believe you, but I didn't notice anything till you screamed."

Angel let Amadeo go and turned away. "WHAT IS THIS?"

"Angel!"

"It's like I'm back there, in Dream, and I'm trapped again. This is exactly how it was." She turned around and stared at Amadeo. "Are you even real?"

"I'm real, and so are you. I'm sure I'm not sleeping."

"It's her!" Angel said. "Joy knows, and she's in her room rocking back and forth like an idiot, because she knows. Well I'm not going to be that. I'm going to get out of this. I have to get out of this!"

"Angel, listen. I know that you're not lying. Don't flip out on me. If you see anything else, you tell me, and I'll tell you if anything weird happens. All right?"

Angel just nodded.

"We'll go and see Joy."

Morpheus watched as they joined hands and moved down the hall. Amadeo went into the room first. He just stood there. And then Angel came in. Morpheus didn't see Joy there. "I can't see her!" Angel said.

"Me neither. She's not here," Amadeo said.

In a panic they moved through the house searching rooms. They found Ardor in the kitchen, and Gabriel in the living room, and both were scared but couldn't say why. In the dim dinning room they found Dolores crying. "There was someone here," she said.

"With Joy?" Amadeo asked.

"No, a man, he just looked at me!"

The five of them stayed together, but they could find no one else in the entire house.

And then Morpheus tried focusing on Shade. He was still there in the house, but Morpheus didn't see the other's in the hall even though Shade was in the living room.

He ran to the window again. The clouds were spreading, and there was a cold wind. And then the tower was shaken.

He went back up to the watching room. Some of the mirrors showed static in the pictures, interference. He went to his room and found a small pack. He took several of his small mirrors and set them carefully inside. He picked up a tee shirt and used it for cushioning then placed several small glass bottles inside. He put on his faux-leather jacket then ran back to the watching room. He called his Djinn into the bottles. "Do you want me to put you in the pack, or can you hold to the epaulet tight enough?" Morpheus asked River.

"You'll be careful with the pack?"

"I'll have to be."

"Put me in the little pocket where I can look out if I like," River said.

Morpheus put River into the pocket and held the straps of the pack tightly in one hand. His wings sliced out through the back of his jacket. "OK, this is how it is: I've got no idea where Opium is, but I've got to find her, or Jibril. Joy's snapped, and it's obviously created a tear somewhere, because bits of their world are coming over, and bits of this one are going."

He ran down through the maze. When he got to the doors he found them hard to open. He pushed hard, strained, and finally the door gave and the wind came into the room. Morpheus pushed out against the wind, and he flew up. From the sky Morpheus saw that the regions still shifted. Here and there he saw mild skips, worst where the storm was. It remained centered at Limbo, but as Limbo shifted toward the center of the land the storm came in contact with other regions.

If it continued...

It had to be stopped. This world would be destroyed if it wasn't, and so might other worlds.

Morpheus made his way down to his father's house. Inside his brothers were all awake. Several were watching the storm as it passed their region. "Is Opium here?" Morpheus asked.

No one answered. He ran back to the sleeper, to Metro. "Metro, what is happening?"

She murmured something. Morpheus leaned close and tried to hear over the rumbles coming from above. "Shifting lands freezing and quaking..." And then she sat up.

Morpheus took several steps back. "Metro?"

The shroud slipped from her face and Morpheus saw her as she turned. She had no hair, but her face was artfully painted and somewhat youthful. She was awake! "Morpheus."

"Yes."

"Are my babies all right?"

Morpheus took a small mirror from his pack and focused it. There was static. "Work," he said. He saw Absinthe and Laudanum with Splendor in a boat on the steamy Acheron. The storm passed by, boiling water splashed up into the boat. He saw Absinthe take flight first and help the other two up. They made it to the river bank then ran through the jungle. "They are in another region. They are all right," Morpheus said. "I have to find my mother."

"She is not here. She is in the Empty world. In their Los Angeles."

Some of Morpheus' brothers were coming. They were shocked to see Metro awake. Morpheus closed up his pack. He looked at his brother Icelos. "Tell our father that I am going to try to get over to Opium. Tell him the storm has something to do with Joy."

Morpheus held his pack close and flew.

He had no trouble trying to get to LA. He landed in the very room where Opium was. She was in the office, and Morpheus thought it strange she was in the office. Shio was there, and so was Miko.

Opium looked at Morpheus and laughed. "What's wrong. You look like you've been through Hell."

Morpheus looked about. "What's the date?"

"The 11th," Shio said. Morpheus continued to stare at her. "Of March, 2092."

"Where's Joy?" Morpheus asked.

And then Opium immediately became concerned. "We don't know, we haven't heard from anyone since they went to New Orleans, we did hear from Ganymede and Steven both. They said Amadeo was supposed to come to New York, and he never showed. It's Thierry's birthday today."

Morpheus nodded. "Something happened. I don't know how to explain, something very bad, something with Joy."

Opium glanced at the other two women. "Excuse us," she said. She led Morpheus into the library.

"OK," said Opium, "Just show me, look at me."

Morpheus looked into her eyes, and he showed her in a quick burst of images what he'd seen. She turned from him looking more concerned than before.

"You came here as soon as you could?"

"There could have been interference. I could have arrived later than I meant to."

"Or time has really become inconstant, somehow Angel and the others, they are separated from us by other dimensions. We need to get to Jibril."

"There's lots of interference in the mirrors, the storm has remained near the tower, because it's right on the border of Limbo."

"You brought one with you?"

"Yes," said Morpheus as he opened his pack.

"I'll go into this mirror; you try the best you can to get us to Dream as soon as you can."

Morpheus nodded. He watched as Opium touched the small mirror, and then became a seemingly distant reflection without an image. He put the mirror away and flew again.

Morpheus missed Dream. He landed instead above, in Beholder's region. The storm was interfering with his flight, but not in large amounts. He went down through the lake right into the Heart of the Cave of the Allegory. Jibril was there with his odd court, Alexandra, Charlotte, Shadowscream, Nightangel, and Absinthe was there. Jibril's pale blue wings were twitching nervously.

"Sar Jibril," Opium said, "Joy's snapped."

"I know. It was Misery. As I feared, seeing him without the benefit of amnesia every decade was too much a strain. She does not quite remember, but she knows she's not what she thought she was. I think that she is with Misery now, but I am not sure. Ever since this happened I have been feeling...bad."

"What can we do?" Opium asked.

"Whatever happens to me, you must close this tear. Resolve Joy with Misery. Finding Daniel and bringing him in contact with the other two should do that. But I don't know where he is. Do not try revealing the truth to Joy, Opium, she can't take it. There's something else. To prevent this from happening again we've got to find a human who isn't bound to our rules. My sisters have used Amadeo to reveal things. We can find another human, one who will become close to Joy. One who will learn her secrets."

"I know who it will be!" Morpheus said.

Jibril glanced up at him, he was looking small, dim. "You've seen him." Jibril knew, he knew it was a male.

"Joy will call him John, but his name is Daniel. He will learn about her snaps, and he will go through one with her. Opium and I will appear to him in a dream and tell him to stay close to her. And later he will confront Opium, and he will tell us that he has figured it out."

"Yes. That's the one. Go to him, now, before the storm interferes too much."

"Shouldn't we go find the other Daniel?" Opium asked. "The storm is getting bad."

Jibril looked faint. "No. First appear to Daniel Poznanski, then find the other. Do it fast, before the storm passes here again and Dream falls apart entirely."

"Father!" Opium said.

Absinthe moved to Jibril's side. "I'll stay with him," she said, "Opium, one of us has to do this, from Dream. We've got to fix things, or everything will fall apart, and Jibril will be outcast."

"What's wrong with him?"

"It's the storm, I don't know if it affects the other Angels."

"Me first, I'm afraid, too fragile and close to their world. Too sick with worry."

"All right. We'll do this; we'll try the best we can. Jibril, if we don't get back here: if we find Daniel, what then? Do you know what we should do?"

"Then you have to find Misery," Jibril said, "And he's the most devious one, he remembers."

"But he doesn't know you made him?"

Jibril shook his head.

"And Daniel, does he remember?"

"He forgets things, but he does not fall into madness as Joy does. When you find Daniel, Opium, you must be there. Show him in your eyes who he is. No one else can do it. He will know what to do when he finds them."

"Opium!" Absinthe cried.

"All right, we're going," Opium said. She glanced over her shoulder to see if Morpheus was following. They ran through the Cave of the Allegory. There was another rumbling overhead. They ran through the tunnels, the webs quivering and dropping jewels of water to the floor. It seemed Opium knew the way. Morpheus had cast dreams by being close to the dreamer, but this was different.

They came to a cavern with two portals in it. One was framed with elephant tusks, the other with polished Rhinoceros horn. "Horn, right?" Opium asked.

"Yes, true dreams, the portal of horn," Morpheus said.

Opium went to the portal and stepped up into it. She looked back. "You ready? This is the place where souls dream. It can be a little confusing."

Morpheus climbed through the portal after Opium. "You seem to know your way around."

"I was born here," Opium said.

The dreamscape before them was a labyrinth of partial buildings and strangely placed props. It was the back lot of Dream. "Even stranger than fiction," Morpheus sighed.

"No, just more surreal." Opium walked on. "What sort of dream are we looking for?"

"WashingtonSquarePark?"

"Really?" asked Opium.

"Yes, John fell asleep reading this comic...Daniel rather. You know the one I mean? I act very dejected, and you try to be cheery and we have a conversation which Daniel overhears. We know he is watching."

"I know a dream like that, c'mon, they're all probably moving along different time lines and speaking to fictional characters by now on Earth."

Morpheus took a mirror from his pack and focused the best he could on Julien. It seemed he was already in New Orleans with Athen. Faye wasn't with them. They were walking down Magazine street looking lost, and it was very hazy, an orangey sort of haze. "Julien," Morpheus said to himself.

"He OK?" Opium asked.

"Athen's taken him from the mirage already. When they came for him I didn't know this was happening. I wish I could warn him."

"Look!" Opium said.

Morpheus looked up and followed her finger. The arch was standing in a purplish pink haze. They walked through the arch and were in the park. "So we just move about and say our lines and the rest goes on around us?" Morpheus asked.

"Basically."

Morpheus sat down near a bed of flowers. "Then I think I'll be sitting here feeding the pigeons."

"Really?"

"To the flowers of course. Apparently John will already know us when he dreams about us. And apparently he knows I have some liking for mythological flowers."

"And I just look cheery?" Opium asked.

"Basically."

"See him yet?" Opium asked.

"He's coming up behind you. Start talking to me."

"What are you doing?" Opium asked.

Morpheus sat with a blank look on his face, hiding something in his hands. "Feeding the pigeons," he said.

"To whom?" asked Opium.

Morpheus opened his hands slightly to reveal a bleeding pigeon. "To the flowers..."

Opium sat up behind Morpheus on the stone. She looked up at John and grinned. "Would ya look at this...I'm in a comic book panel. We in a dream or something, Murph?"

Morpheus doesn't even look up. There's blood running from the flower box. "We must be, I gave up this black trench and pout ensemble at puberty."

"I think I see John," Opium said.

Opium pouts slight and looks up as she brushes hair back from her face. "OK. So. What should we say?

"What do you mean?"

A gray cat walks past as three Faeries appear to stand around in the park. The brightly dressed children look at Daniel.

Opium raises a hand in gesture, "John's dreaming us. You're a dreamcaster, why let him dream you so moody?"

Opium lay down along the stone with an elbow near the flowers. There were several dead pigeons in the box. Murph looked away from her.

"I don't know, it's his dream, I didn't cast myself into it, I was summoned. It's pretty damn annoying, being torn away from your own REALLY lovely dream...just to come here..."

Opium stood up then leaning against a stone rail. She had a blood-red anemone tucked in her hair. She just listened. "Where is this anyway?" Morpheus asked, "New York? I think I used to come here when I was young. You remember, when I knew who Julien was but he didn't know me. I used to sit here just like I am now, and watch him sit across the park with his friends, and that Vampyre, Athen, he would be touching him. What do you want me to sit here and say to John?

"That it's important he stay with Joy right now? That we know who that guy in Ballater was? Will he wake laughing if I say he was a Psychic Dick? He was a henchman sent by some shadier person who's after Sidhe. Jean and I have run into them in London, they think themselves rather like those mid 20th century fictional British TV show types.

"Wouldn't be surprised if they all called each other by numbers, the Psychic Dicks. Well, is there anything else I should say? You know he's going to wake thinking he made this all up himself."

Opium smiled. "You did fine."

"I guess."

Opium knelt at Morpheus' side. She looked cheery.

"I'm trying but all the Faeries around here make me think of Julien and his friends. This whole city is mad.

"You'd go mad too...if you never slept."

Opium looked serious then, looked off in the direction Daniel watched from. "New York never sleeps, and so it never dreams, it simply goes mad, stares at its ghosts, hallucinates. The City lives within the dreams of the humans who live within it. But John's dream is ending. You remember, John. Remembering's easy, you just wake so fast you don't have time to drink water from the Lethe."

John left the dream.

"What was all that stuff about Psychic Dicks?" Opium asked.

"Mostly I got it from him, but I had to really look at the possible futures for the answer. It's like I said, they are these guys who follow the Sidhe about, like the RedJacks followed us at first, before they began capturing anyone. They mainly operate in Britain."

"And they call each other by numbers?"

"I don't know, I just thought that would be funny."

"Oh, I see," said Opium. She looked about. "We'd better get out of here soon."

Morpheus got up. He looked down at the flower box. "There's a black orchid in there, like the one I've got tattooed on my back, but I don't own any mythological orchids."

"Well, black orchids are mythological, aren't they, I mean, there are no black flowers."

"The black orchids I cry are like the tattoo, dark purple, like this one, but I've never seen it."

Opium shrugged. "I suppose John has. Maybe you'll find one."

"I suppose." Morpheus followed Opium back toward the portals.

A rumbling sound came from nearby.

Opium paused and looks around. "That was close," she said.

"What was it, the storm?"

"Yeah, but I think it found a way in here." Opium went to a nearby wall and followed it till she came to an opening. Her hand came back and waved Morpheus after her. He looked around the corner. The room was like a television set, it had only three walls, two figures sat at a table within, there were two extra chairs. Morpheus looked at the face of the woman who was facing outward. It was Karen O 'Brien, Daniel's girlfriend. And Daniel was sitting across the table.

Opium went in and sat down at Daniel's left. Morpheus took the chair to Daniel's right. Opium gazed at Daniel. "You have blue eyes," she said.

"They're brown," said Daniel. They looked brown to Morpheus.

"You must be a Vampyre," Opium said.

"I have blue eyes?"

They were blue.

The room became a cave. Daniel Never sat in the place of Karen. "This is Daniel," said Opium. "He's Joy's son. His eyes are violet. He's not named after you. We sent him to New York."

The Cave became a garden. Morpheus has seen this garden, it's the hidden garden only Vampyres seem able to find. Daniel was there, the one Dream made. He looked lost; he stood looking up at the sky. "This is Daniel. His eyes match the sky nicely, don't you think? Help us find him."

The garden became a bedroom. There was a young man in bed, about twenty, sleeping. His burgundy hair and tan skin showed up well against the black pillow and a digital clock glowed beside his bed. "This is Thierry," Opium said. "It doesn't matter what color his eyes are. Look at the clock."

Daniel's blue eyes looked at the clock.

And then Daniel faded from the dream, Thierry faded.

Opium got up from the chair. She smiled. "He was in New Orleans," she said.

"Daniel Pearl?"

"I looked into him. He kept asking after the Vampyres and Shio finally gave him Angel's address. He Anne and Karen went to New Orleans. They went into Angel's house. It seems to them that strange things are happening, it seems to center around the house, and moves out from there. You know what that could mean?"

Morpheus got up and followed his Mother. "Something about Joy?"

"If Misery had her there, the disturbances would move faster, follow them across land, but the disturbances are still worst at the house. They must have come right through the tear. But Daniel's still out there somewhere; it's him we've got to find first."

"You learn anything else from Daniel?" Morpheus asked.

Opium climbed through the portal. She waited until Morpheus had come through. "The storm we see here is something more invisible there, occasional banks of strange fog, but the worst can't be seen coming, it moves in ripples, like a pool that's been disturbed by a stone. And whenever someone leaves the house and moves, it's like skipping the stone, ripples move from them. I know that Ganymede and Thierry left the house and went to New York. And I learned from Daniel that on their way to New Orleans Athen and Julien stopped in New York. New York is becoming affected as well."

"They saw Julien?"

"Anne saw him briefly. He was in Andrew's house. But that was probably before you saw him in the mirror."

"In the dream, Thierry was old."

"And I told Daniel to look at the clock, just like Daniel looked lost and I said he needed to be found."

"Well, then what's the meaning of the clock?"

"The tear is warping time, Morpheus. I'm pretty sure of it. It's messing up your flight, and every time people go in and out of that house they fall into different continuums, don't you think?"

Morpheus stood and thought about it. "They are sometimes in the same house and can't even see each other."

"Yeah. Reality itself is warping. When two folds touch they can see each other, join up, and if a wrinkle comes up between, well then it seems like people are disappearing. I'm sure there are already professors at some university picking up anomalies."

"Professors at universities are always doing that."

"They must like it, huh?" Opium said. "Can you see Daniel in your mirror?"

Morpheus took it out again. "I can't. Static."

"Try Daniel Pearl."

"He's in Angel's house, in the kitchen. They are talking about leaving the house."

"Angel? Can you find her?"

Morpheus got a fuzzy picture. "Can't quite focus it. She's with a group of others, Amadeo I think. I think they are all still together, but I can't really tell where they are."

"Who else do we have that was in the house?"

"Julien?"

"He was never in the house, but he did have contact with Athen...look for them."

"Static," Morpheus whispered.

"Try Thierry then."

"Got him. Opi, he looks older already."

Opium came to Morpheus' side and looked at the small mirror. "Oh, they're a lot older," she said. Thierry looked like he could be a teenager. Caroline was four years younger, a tall thin child with thick black braids. And there was another boy, almost as dark skinned as Caroline, and smaller.

"Malik," said Morpheus, "That's Amber's son."

Thierry was packing up luggage. Steven was in the room with him, still the same age he always looked, still with white hair. Thierry gave Caroline a disc and he gave Malik an old book.

"Boarding school," Morpheus said, "They are sending Thierry to boarding school."

"We've got to find Daniel, Murph. I don't know where to look."

"Well, we left him in New Orleans. Maybe he's still there."

"Think you can get us to New Orleans though, with all the interference?"

"I can try," Morpheus said.

"Let's go then." Opium hopped into the mirror.

Morpheus held his pack close and flew.

Right away he knew he wasn't going to make it. He was in the cold place and he couldn't reach the empty world just the other side of it. He felt the coldness penetrate him, fill his throat and move down inside him. He couldn't make himself move. And then he felt the cold things, the desperate lost things claw at him wanting to be carried. But Morpheus couldn't carry anyone. He'd been too long in the timeless cold void. He was as lost as the rest.