WHEN Amadeo woke up Psyche was gone from his room. It was the day before Halloween. It was midday. He still felt good. Of course Psyche had explained that unlike those only partly Angelic in ancestry she was Devi, born otherwise but now the equal of a full Angel. She had betrayed the slightest scorn toward those only partly Angel though she had been born completely Human where Morpheus was the son of a Full Angel and a Halfangel. Amadeo wondered if Halfangels and their like were as good lovers.

He opened the closet and found other clothes hanging with the one he had brought. They didn't seem like things he would wear at first, a light gray skirt suit with a pale blue shirt, a sheer orange shirt, red sequined shorts, a red frock coat, a black one in shimmering fabric, a ruffled sheer white shirt and a pair of black shorts made of panne velvet. He spent some time trying them on. They fit him perfectly and he was surprised the colors looked so good on him. He wondered whether Julien had made them. He left the orange shirt on and put on a pair of his denim shorts. Amadeo heard a scratching noise and realized then the clothes had not been the only things left in his room overnight. In a decorative gold-finish cage two white rats scurried about a dish of food. Pets, he supposed. Amadeo put his sandals on and left his room. Amadeo went down to the first floor where one of the servants said Steven left word for him to meet him in the dining room.

He had lunch with Steven and Amber. She said that she had found a black kitten in her rooms, over their brussel sprouts and chestnuts. Amadeo had eaten the same dish at home many times. It was even better than he remembered. Steven wanted to know all about their family. Amadeo admitted to being one of the Fay. Steven nodded. He knew the word but he didn't know much about them. Amber was telling him though. She didn't quite get it all right, but Amadeo let her tell it anyway. If Steven really wanted to know what Amadeo thought, he could ask.

"I try to keep track of them all," Steven said. "I remember we used to call your father Li'l Steven. Your mother I never met in person, Julien was younger than Nancy and he stayed in San Francisco after school and had Emily. I was in hiding then, I was on a wanted list by those agents we called Redjacks, which's the reason I left finally. But I kept track as I could..."

"We never blamed you for leaving," Amber assured him.

"Our father told me he thought you had left to protect the family. Everyone still talks about you with respect, like a legend."

Amber giggled. "It's still so unbelievable. They always tell the stories, show us pictures as the family aged...you are really our Great Grandfather!"

Steven beamed. "I hope that you will return every year. I do plan to go back and be with the family but I hope you understand...you all understand that just as you are surprised it is difficult for me to see the older ones. But I do mean to return, now that things are not dangerous."

"I can't imagine what that would be like, living long enough to see your children die of old age," Amber said. I am sorry I didn't think of that."

Steven shook his head. "You have no need to be sorry." He laughed. "What you can do is pass along in person my invitation to correspond with the family again. I could start doing that, writing letters, maybe sending stills."

"We'll be sure to tell them," Amber said. "You know Julien has family in San Francisco still, though Mom and Uncle Scott moved back to New York."

Steven nodded. "Athen watches them for me, owns a house there."

"Shade calls him that. Is it his real name?" Amadeo asked.

"I believe so," said Steven, "Pronounced a-the-neh. It's Greek. But even Shade will shorten it to Athen or Aten." He nearly giggled. "Julien says Thené."

Steven suggested they help out by taking the dishes to the kitchen to be cleaned. Amadeo gathered up the used tableware and followed Steven through the neatly split tapestry and into the kitchen. It was a large room, with gourmet arrangement of utensils and pans about an island and industrial sized steel-fronted appliances along the back. Morpheus was there and the thing that wasn't a dog was apparently Troy.

Morpheus smiled. He was leaning against the rear cabinetry cradling a bowl of fruit in one arm. "Hi, Murph, River," Steven said. There didn't seem to be anyone else in the room.

Amadeo followed Steven's lead by placing the dishes in a basin. The Wolf was near Steven's leg. It made a low sound in its throat as Steven pet its head. It had a thick studded collar about its neck. "I didn't forget you, Troy," Steven was saying, "Maids shoo you out of your sleeping place again?"

Morpheus bit into a golden apple.

"Hello again, Morpheus," Amber said, "Eating again or got lost on the way to the kitchen?"

Steven had taken something from the walk-in refrigerator, a bottle and was filling a sturdy metal bowl on the floor where the wolf waited. "He knows who's always feeding him," Steven murmured as Morpheus laughed.

"It's my third stop," Morpheus said to Amber, "It seems anything in this world I eat isn't enough to make me gain weight, or maybe the shape-shifting burns a lot of energy."

"Did you know Morpheus shape-shifts?" Amber asked.

Steven was at the Triquat's shoulder. "I bet you're hungry too." Amadeo noticed the green lizard clinging to Morpheus' shirt at the shoulder. "I'll take you into the yard."

Morpheus smiled in Steven's direction.

"Watch over the grandchildren?" Steven asked, "the two together can't be trouble."

"No, two is fine. River likes your walks."

Steven took the lizard in one hand. He took his leave and left through another door to the mudroom and rear yard.

"Show Amadeo how you do it, if you don't mind," Amber said.

Amadeo looked at Morpheus expectantly and gasped as he saw his hair which had been deep blue and cropped short near instantly was about shoulder length, wavy and brilliant rose red. He smiled then and as his lips shifted from one position to another their coloring shifted from asphyxiated blue through violet and stopped blackberry red. In another split second it was Joy standing there, plum in her hand dressed in black fishnet and vinyl. Several seconds passed as Amadeo looked at Amber.

She seemed more accustomed to this and looked gleefully toward Morpheus. Peripheral vision told Amadeo something had changed and when he looked it was Morpheus again only now he was naked to the waist and had large black feathered wings growing from his back. He made an elegant bow.

"That really is amazing! You can be any shape?"

"I don't do mineral and vegetable and lower animals. I can also effect the form of certain elements when in close range, make instant sandcastles or little people of salt walk across the dining table. Apart from that so far I have discovered the abilities to cast dreams, travel over time forwards and back with only slight disorientation and see possible futures and past events if I make the effort."

"You can really time travel?" Amber asked, "When have you gone?" She asked again quickly before he could answer.

Morpheus smiled again. He nodded. Travelling backward makes me ill if I go too far at once, like motion sickness in people. I have gone at least 4000 years back and as I can move instantly across distance as well, which is not so uncommon in winged part angels, I visited the building of Stonehenge with my mother. What I like to do is read about old wars or natural disasters and visit those areas just before the destruction to save items I like or look important. Some of them I can sell later but not too far in the future or the aging effects make them seem fake. But museums will take them usually, or we keep them."

"Amazing" Amber said.

"It's nothing, stuff I was born knowing. I mean it's fun at times but often someone in the family finds some task I'm perfectly cut out for and then it's all work. I had to learn to play guitar, Opium taught me. I'm pretty good she thinks."

"We both took piano and dance lessons," Amadeo offered.

"He's better at both," Amber said, "very good. I think I might be a better painter than he is."

Amadeo gave a tip of his head toward his sister. He had seen her paintings.

"My sister is a twin too," Morpheus says, "Maya is very unlike me, much more Angelic in some ways though we have the same parents. She can't travel well in this world at all and can hardly change her body or make a person sleep or dream. But she can create illusion out of nothing, can fool every sense that way. She doesn't even look like me. She's got four arms, no wings at all and she's blue-skinned with black hair."

"But rather the Hindu to your Greek?" Amadeo asked.

Morpheus looked thoughtful. "Sorta. Our mother was Leanan Bean Sidhe to the Celts."