The Empty World | The Empty World Sequence [complete | rewriting]

Deleted Scenes: One (Draft 2.5)

Morpheus was spoken into being knowing many things. He knew there were others who called Mother by the name Opium. He knew that he had two parents. It seemed natural to call his second parent his father, as he more or less preferred male pronouns. Father had many names; the easiest for Morpheus to say being Sleep. American was his mother tongue.

There was someone named Maya who had been created in the same instant to the same parents. The word for her was sister.

Morpheus knew the place in which they had come into being had the same name as his father. He knew that Sleep was but one region of many in the Night Regions. Morpheus knew Night was his ancestor, possibly his grandparent or great-grandparent. Some concepts did not translate well to and from American.

Morpheus knew that there were many worlds, and in them many souls and bodies. He knew that his mother was one-half Human, and that in her tongue his father's kind were called Angel.

Morpheus had memories that came to him from his mother. He knew the places she had lived: Bóinne, Paris, and Los Angeles. These were places in the world of his mother's mother. Morpheus did not know who Opium's mother was. It seemed odd among all the other facts: this absence of knowledge.

Morpheus wondered. He wondered who his grandmother was.

Yet, he was not bothered by the absence. Nothing bothered Morpheus. Life seemed just about perfect.

He was invited to sit on a couch. Its base was made of wood that was black, ebony he thought was the word. Its cushions were the same color, made of a fabric spun from thread excreted by small animals, silk. It was decorated with large black plumes that glinted green and violet. This style, Morpheus knew, was typical of Sleep.

They had seated his sister, Maya, beside him. Newly created and half delirious, Morpheus gazed at her. He smiled and reached to touch her long black hair, noticing the skin of his arm was white while her skin was blue.

There was blue in his hair. He knew this without viewing himself. When Morpheus willed himself more like his sister, he changed. Once he stopped concentrating on their similarity, he shifted back to his natural state.

Soon, others came to look on them. All bowed politely, many smiled and gave their preferred names, and some brought gifts. First came the tall Angels with elaborate wings, then the smaller bright-colored ones, and later the small paler ones. After these came a procession of Angels cloaked in black; these were Children of Night, as Sleep was. Other Halfangels, like Mother greeted Morpheus and Maya. Finally, their brothers came, ninety-eight of them....

And then ninety-ninth, heir apparent to Sleep's regency should he ever abandon it. He brought with him his half-sister, who was not Morpheus' sister. Morpheus liked this brother immediately and realized he knew his name.

"Laudanum," Morpheus said as the cinnamon-haired Halfangel kissed his face. He blinked slowly as Laudanum kissed Maya.

The other, her relationship to Morpheus difficult to translate, bent over Morpheus. Green tendril-like wing parts reached from her back to touch his arms.

"Absinthe," Morpheus sighed. He knew her father was Opium's father.

The last person to which Morpheus and Maya were introduced could not come to greet them. She slept beneath a thin shroud on a bed placed near the couch. Laudanum said her named was Metro, and she was mother to him and Absinthe. Morpheus knew she was a prophetess.

Morpheus felt as if something cool had shot up his back and into his head. Though the experience was new, he knew it indicated the sensing of something. He looked for Mother and saw her take Maya's hand.