Morpheus had expected he would have to speak to his mother, and had hoped to reunite with Sin and Laudy first, or maybe Ganymede, but it was Athen who found him, before he'd even had time to finish a meal. He had to have rushed from Julien, barely taking time to pull on a tight t-shirt. Morpheus didn't understand.

He was sitting at the kitchen table with an array of leftovers on the table, when Athen entered from the side door to the dining room. Morpheus considered teleporting away from him, just out of anticipated awkwardness, but he had River, his small collection of flowers, three bottled Djinn, and a few mirrors lain out on the table along with his food.

He had a fleeting hope that Athen would retrieve blood from the nearby pantry and leave, but that was quickly dashed when Athen sat down at the table. At least, Morpheus thought, he left an empty seat between them.

"I know it was you."

He probably meant he'd figured out it was Morpheus after the fact. Morpheus shrugged as he picked at a bits of cucumber and Feta with his fork.

"The matching shirts would have been a clue, but my mother never spoke Greek that well, and had she really appeared, Julien would have been just as shocked; he's only seen her in my paintings."

"He's pretty accepting of the existence of the supernatural...."Morpheus hedged, realizing that Athen was suggesting that Morpheus had seen his mother. And considering that Ariella had spoken most of her words in English, Morpheus figured Athen was still fishing for confirmation. "He always was."

"I didn't come here to talk about him. Unless you want to?"

"What's there to talk about?"

"Tell me first: did you see her?"

Morpheus raised his eyes to look at Athen. He didn't speak, but a slight lilting of brows with the intensity of his gaze asked: What do you think?

"You can't tell me?"

"Israfel speaks to all your mutual acquaintances about his continued wish for you to pursue singing."

Athen nodded, seemingly content with the answer. "I never actually said he couldn't be with you. Friends, or whatever."

"I don't feel like it's right to even discuss it." Morpheus wanted to. He wanted to argue. He wanted to say that even if Athen didn't say the specific words, he should know Julien could perceive meaning in his behavior or emotions. Morpheus wanted to to say Julien didn't need permission. And contrary to that, he also wanted to say permission didn't matter when vows had been made. He wanted to say he was no homewrecker, and at the same time, Morpheus was strongly tempted to tell Athen what Eros and Tristopher had done. He didn't say any of those things. "Is he...?"

"Sleeping. In his room. I saw him that far." Athen reached to a back pocket. "He wanted you to have this." It was the audiocassette Morpheus had left in Julien's room.

Morpheus took the mixtape and set it down near River's small saucer of salad. "I think he was up all day looking after you."

"I'm hardly blind to what I have in him." Athen sighed, and as genuinely affected as he seemed, his expression quickly shifted to furrowed frustration. "He started acting different when you didn't come right back. But, we didn't want to talk about him. You and me: we had...creative differences in the past. There's nothing else, so far as I'm concerned."

"You're here to talk about music? The tour?"

"You already talked to Opium?" Athen asked.

"No. Just inferred."

"The tour's already planned, and Opium's been saying she speaks for you."

"It's all right. I didn't give her much of a choice." If Morpheus had differences with his mother, they were private, at least he didn't aim to make them public.

"You're not scheduled as a solo artist," Athen said.

Morpheus nodded. He'd heard, but he wasn't sure what to say. He hadn't assumed he was important enough to headline, but he would have wanted a set of his own. Not out of arrogance, he hoped, but because his own work was different enough from what his mother had performed in the past. More recently, she'd been supporting him on stage. "Who is scheduled?" he asked, finally.

"Irreverents are the headliners, supported by Velvet - that's Joy and Shade's new act - Robert's Pill, and Toni Ciccone."

"Your stage name?"

"We've been working with Moira Ciccone from Seraph Music. I've been a Tony before." He shrugged.

"What's your act?"

"It's a performance art troupe, but everyone still markets as a band, just a very visual and theatrical one. G and Dolly are working with me. Spider and Billy. Splendor and Psyche as well. Sid, probably."

Morpheus nodded again. "That sounds like your style." He considered the fact that Athen had half the Amber Palace on stage with him. Whatever else went on, Morpheus believed Psyche loved Athen freely and of her own will, so she would want to be with him. Splendor would go because its mother did. Absidus was not only Splendor's own lover, but practically Athen's aunt. "So, Shade and Joy are still jamming?"

"They are....very much together."

"Really?" The girl who did stupid things for guys? Joy herself? The woman on whose past lives Athen was fixated? With Shade?

Athen grimaced. "Life imitating art. Yes. They released an album, and...." Athen paused. "Joy's insisting Julien and Amadeo join them as touring members."

"How the Hell does she expect them to get along?!"

"Morpheus. Language." Mother. She was teasing him, and appeared to walk from the door of the kitchen's smaller refrigerator. For an instant, he saw her the way he imagined someone else saw her: a Gothic style icon who managed to pull-off combination of Fetish and Lolita fashion. Maybe it was because he hadn't seen her in a while. Then, she was just his mother again.

"I'm sorry," Morpheus said.

"Come outside."

Morpheus shook his head. "Where?"

"Get your things. We're outside."

"I have work," Athen said. This seemed an excuse, but the politest way of acknowledging that he and Mother didn't want to speak in front of each other, which is what Morpheus supposed to be the case. Athen went first to the blood pantry.

When Athen had gone, Morpheus unstopped the bottles containing his Djinn, and asked Loren, Hepburn, and Evangelista to carry his other belongings and follow. Morpheus walked, going through the dining room and ballroom to the Palace's rear terrace.

He saw them then, about a fire in a paved pit. "Is it Lughnasadh?" Morpheus asked.

Beside him, Mother answered, "You missed the sunset."

"Since when are you so into the holidays?"

"I'm-" She stopped at the foot of the terrace steps. "C'mere." Her hands fluttered near her shoulders.

Morpheus stepped close and he felt her embrace him. He didn't know what she used - ash, smoke, air - Mother willed herself tangible enough to lean weight against him. Morpheus felt warmth and softness. He felt slender arms, and then hands along his back. "I am sorry I..."

She shushed him.

Morpheus stood there on the pebbled path, above the city and valley, beneath a full, smog-tinted moon, in firelight. Outside. On Earth. He was really back. And, Mother was so present he could feel the glossiness of her hair under his fingers. He was afraid to think he enjoyed this, because it might mean he was missing something all those other times.

"Ssshh."

Morpheus' eyes watered. He didn't want to be so affected by just one hug. "Mom!" he complained. He blinked to clear his eyes and felt the heat of a tear on his face. "Opium, it's OK."

He felt the absence of Mother's touch more sharply than ever. Morpheus could feel, now, only the presence of her soul. He saw her, standing close, holding a flower in her hand. "You...."

Morpheus wiped his face. It was wet, just a little wet. But, he knew. That flower had been his tear. He didn't know how any more than he really knew how new flowers sometimes grew where blood had been spilt, or full Angels cried flowers. Jibril cried posies, so he'd heard, and some lilies, or desert blooms. His flower looked like an orchid, darkly purple, black, exactly like the one he knew would be tattooed on his back.

Did he cry these because he remembered having the tattoo he would have, or would he adopt the tattoo because he cried these?

"Are you really all right?" Mother asked.

"Do you want me to take that?" Which wasn't, Morpheus knew, an answer.

"Let's go sit." She kept the flower in hand as walked off towards the fire pit. Morpheus could see Absinthe and Laudanum there with other members of their adopted, Earthly family. Ganymede and Dolores were there, Spider, Shio, Melalie, Ardor, Psyche, Splendor, Absidus, Shade, and Joy.

"No. We really need to talk. About at least two things."

Mother seemed to nod. "Just come say Hello."

Morpheus spoke first to River and his Djinn, "Wait on the terrace." Then, looking down at his mother he said, "I am back. You understand? I'm back, and I have goals here. I want to be part of this," he gestured toward the group making campfire pies and popped corn, "family. But I've just returned, Julien went right back to-" He sought for the best word, "mixed messages. Athen- surprised me. I want to know where I stand. I want to have time to put my things in my own room."

"OK," she snipped, and then more calmly: "OK. I'm gonna go tell them Athen is recovered. Where do you want to talk? Your room?"

Morpheus tried to think of a safe, neutral place where others were not likely to be. "The Library?"

"We'll see if no one's there." Mother left Morpheus, momentarily, to speak to the others.

The Palace's library was not unlike the library Morpheus had visited within Dream. It had a certain librariness apart from it's collection of media, which was mainly to say it had wood-trimmed walls, work surfaces, seating, and ample lighting. Morpheus noticed here the usual silence was replaced by the low hum and whir of devices that controlled the temperature and humidity of the several glass-enclosed interior chambers.

Morpheus directed his Djinn to set his things on an unused reading table near the transparent door to the Scroll Room. River hopped from Hepburn's skirt-pocket onto the table. "You want me around?"

"Yeah." Morpheus nodded, taking a seat.

River stretched out beneath one of the table's pair of reading lamps.

Morpheus took the plastic jewelcase containing the mixtape from the tabletop, just as Loren set it down. He flipped the case until he could see the hand-written track listing in Julien's cursive script. They were all Madonna songs: Secret, Sanctuary, Beautiful Scars...

When Mother arrived, she walked through the door with Absinthe.

Morpheus stood from his seat at the table. "Hey, sin."

She came to him and gave him a hug. "You really back?" she asked then.

"Yeah."

Absinthe stepped back from Morpheus, only a slight distance. She glanced toward her sister. "Then I need to go." She looked again at Morpheus, eyes green. "I had a message from Dream. Did you leave anything?"

"A few things with Maya." He glanced toward Mother in turn. "We had dinners."

Mother just nodded, then looked at the little cassette Morpheus had left on the table.

Morpheus continued, "I left a guitar at Cafe Endless, with Jericho."

"I'll fetch it and send it back through for Laudy to give you," Absinthe promised.

"Is Jibril short handed?" Morpheus asked, slowly, wondering whether he should be suggesting this to his daughters, or if they might already know better than he.

"He just said that he wants one of us close, so if you were to come back here to stay, I should go." She put some slight emphasis on "us" that reminded Morpheus of Jibril speaking of those able to take his place.

"You saw him?" Mother asked.

"We had tea with Maeve and some others." He opened his arms so that Absinthe might embrace him again, and as she did, Morpheus whispered to her, "Keep a watch on him, and then stay away from Lethe water."

Absinthe kissed his face, then turned away to look to Mother. After a moment, in which Morpheus suspected some telepathy or whisper passed between them, Absinthe turned to look at Morpheus over her shoulder. "You'll have Laudanum with you at least until you leave on tour."

"Then, you can't come with us either?" From Morpheus' point-of-view, the mess with Amadeo was likely to end before the tour started, but he didn't really know that with certainty, and he wasn't sure if these two knew near as much as he did, now.

"Laudy's going to cover my duties," Mother said, "he's done it before."

Morpheus nodded. Sleep did have 98 other sons capable of continuing his duties, even if Laudanum was the apparent heir. With Morpheus and his mother both moving about the Empty World, Laudanum would be the most qualified to watch the mirrors. He seemed to like it, in Morpheus' opinion. But if Absinthe also wasn't returning, that meant Jibril was already concerned he'd be unfit by that time. "It keeps him awake," Morpheus said, trying not to seem too obviously lost in thought.

Absinthe left the room by the same door she'd entered, and Morpheus took a seat again.

"Hey, River," Mother said, as she looked to take a seat. "Murph any trouble?"

"Opium, don't ask him to narc- to tell you my business."

"Murph."

Morpheus looked away from her gaze. "Really, Dream already scolded me-"

"You going to tell me what actually happened before you left?"

"Like everyone didn't guess?"

"Laughter," she said, "your lyrics were a little suggestive. I was all sorts of proud when I heard it."

"How's Joy?" Morpheus asked, shifting to prop his head from the table with his left arm.

"She's all right."

"She really with Shade?"

"It's not sex. Joy hasn't done that since being turned."

"TMI," Morpheus said. Not something he'd known, but not something he needed to know. "But she must drink his blood if Athen thinks they're together. Is that good...for her?"

"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."