Chapter Text
"My Lord."
"Yes, Lucienne? Is there any particular reason you have come to disturb my work?"
"Well, yes and no, my Lord. There seems to be a new arrival in the Dreaming, sir."
"As there always is, Lucienne. Every night, in fact."
"Yes, I understand that, my Lord. However, I do not think this young lady is asleep, in fact, she seems to be fully conscious."
"Intriguing, tell me more of this visitor."
Lucienne sighed tiredly. The man was working fervently on a new Nightmare, especially after the flawed Corinthian. Would it hurt him so if he had worked on a new Dream instead?
"My Lord, I'm afraid I cannot, she has no records in the Dreaming."
"In the waking world?"
"None, my Lord."
Morpheus paused, a vortex perhaps? But, if she was a vortex, then she would have a volume in the Library. And the last vortex, Unity Kincaid, she had already been taken care of. That was unless Desire and Despair had already returned to their scheming?
"My Lord, would you like me to bring her here?"
"There will be no need for that."
With the addition of a new voice, Morpheus was torn away from his work. How did she make her way to the Palace? Was she, in fact, another vortex? Had that time already come again for Dream to destroy another one?
"No, I am not a vortex. And neither am I a Dream, nor a Nightmare. I just need to know if you are Dream of the Endless."
"A simple request with a simple answer. Yes, I am."
"King of Dreams, listen to me carefully."
The woman's face was hidden under a thick, hooded cloak. It was futile to even attempt to see her face from where Lucienne and Morpheus were standing. Her entire being was covered from head to toe in a velvet cloak, lined with thin strips of gold.
"You will be brought into the waking world once more, forced to return to the people that betrayed you those hundred years before."
Her outstretched hand, seemingly outstretched to the Lord of Dreams, was bare and pale. It was fair, and gentle. Her hands alone, gentle and outstretched, revealed an unknown power within her. A power so unfamiliar to Lucienne and Morpheus.
"Prepare yourself, and your realm. For if you don't, you will be at fault for its downfall."
An arrogant smirk made its way to Dream's face, almost unnoticeable if one had not been paying attention.
"And who are you to warn me, strange visitor?"
"I am the moon, and the stars. I am the Sun in the sky, and the raging hellfire from below. I am nothing that you can, or will, ever be able to perceive, my Lord. And I am the only one with the power to prevent the destruction of the Dreaming."
Her hands tightened into a fist, and released a dove into the Palace, a beautiful white dove.
"Dream of the Endless, heed my warnings. While this visit may be one of peace, the next will not."