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

Nine (these events are Ten in the revised scene list)

Miami, last decade of the 21st century. Opium had searched for her fellow Sidhe, and found none of them earlier in the century, and that worried her. She had to know if they had survived, and so Mother had called to Morpheus, not being able to cross time herself. They realized as soon as they came into the new time that their kind had not been completely destroyed. They were few, but they were always concentrated in the large cities, and they had formed a network of havens and safehouses to protect themselves.

But none of the Halfangels they came across in the British Isles had been Sidhe, though they all knew of them. They crossed to Paris then. Mother could feel when certain types of people were about, she found the haven easily. They met Wraith there, a shapeshifter of sorts, his ability to change shape was not physical but a simple trick of the mind, only causing people to think he had a different face. He knew of the Sidhe.

Baobhan Sidhe had been Mother's closest friend in that time, and Wraith said that she had been living at the Haven for some time, but that she had left a few years back. It was obvious that he knew more of the circumstances surrounding her departure, but he wouldn't speak of them. He did tell them that she had moved to Spain, that she had been using the name Raven Pelolobo last he saw her, and that he suspected she had been taken in by her mother's people.

They went to Barcelona by train. Mother explained that being Sidhe had nothing to do with being Irish, it had merely happened that, as the lands around the Mediterranean were given to Human rulers, Halfangels had moved north, afraid that the true Angels would not protect them from Humans. When Humans had come to the isles from the south the Halfangels had banded together to protect each other, they built the earth mounds to shelter them and retreated. They were the oldest organized group of Halfangels that she knew of.

Baobhan was, other than the daughter of an Angel, one of the Wolfbreed. Most Humans called them Werewolves, or similar names, but they were not like Vampyres, they couldn't create another through a bite, only their children were like them. They had existed alongside Humans from the beginning, created by the Angel Gabriel whom they held special devotions to. A lot of them were actually Catholic, except those living south and east of the Mediterranean, these were devote Muslims. Mother explained that Pelolobo was the name of the Wolfbreed tribe of which Raven's mother had been Matriarch, and that, even before she had been called Baobhan, she had been called Little Raven. Raven, as her father was called by his human worshipers Ravenstar, the Angel commonly known as Mephiztopher.

"She is a very interesting woman," Mother said of her.

But, they didn't find Raven in Barcelona. Wolfbreed there were convinced that Opium was actually a friend of Raven, and told Mother that they should ask for her in Madrid, but they thought she was not actually there anymore. In Madrid, there was only one family of Wolfbreed; the woman of the house described a Vampyre and said Raven had lived with him. The Vampyre was hard to find, because he did not smell as Wolfbreed or Humans do, and he was blind, which meant even Angels could not steal from him his sight and see the place he was hiding.

Mother laughed, as they went out to look for the Vampyre. It amused her that they thought a blind Vampyre would be hard to find. "Do you see how it is funny? For me, a blind person is the easiest to find, because I have no substance to reflect light here, like Wraith my appearance is all glamour. Blind people can see me! He will find us, this Vampyre!"

They waited for night, visited the noisiest most crowded clubs. Mother was of the opinion that Vampyres could not resist these mortal throngs. Eventually, they found him: good-looking and vaguely Moorish, eyes swimming behind tinted glasses. He approached cautiously.