Work Text:
Sleep of The Just
1. Dream of the Endless ruled over all that is the human unconscious. Dreams and nightmares have been created under his touch and ruled by his hand for centuries. But those who wish to capture his sister, the Lady Death, are given falsehoods in the form of the Magdalene Grimoire. Rodrick Burgess, a mortal man of greed and wealth, sought to tame death and return his son to his side. Instead, he captures the maker of dreams and no angel of death.
“From the dark, they call you...
Into the dark, they call you.
Here in the darkness...
Here in the darkness...
Here in the darkness...
We summon you, together.
Come!”
2. With the Dream King enclosed in glass and iron, and surrounded by runes and people of mortal magic, the people of all the realms suffer. Some do not sleep, some dream of terrors so frightening they do not wish to sleep, and others do not wake at all. Burgess, now knowing that he had Dream, not Death, demanded of him gifts beyond his station. Gifts of immortality, of power. Dream stayed silent as his tools of office were taken from his grasp. Sand in a pouch, a helm of state, and the ruby dreamstone. Though the first two were useless in Burgess’ cause, the ruby gave him peaceful sleep and good fortune in money and fame.
Trapped.
Observe.
Threats.
Patience.
For fourteen years, all is the same. Burgess rises and Dream falls, and the Dreamers suffer. Then Mr. Sykes, the righthand, and Miss Cripps, the mistress, flee with the sand, the helm, and the ruby. For seventeen more years, all is the same. Burgess grows angry and Dream grows tired, and the Dreamers suffer. Then Burgess dies. And Dream is still trapped.
3. Alex Burgess was not likened to his father, for he had no want for wealth or eternal life. But he feared Dream and his revenge, so Dream remained in the darkness of Wych Cross. But like his father before him, Alex was angry, and as the years dragged on, the more the anger spilled from his lips. Dream waits, for man will always fall, to death, to dreams.
Soon.
It begins.
It was not Alex who released Dream nor was it Death’s touch on the aging man’s skin. Paul, his lover, who watched Alex’s dissent and Dream’s prison, scrubs runes with a shift of his foot. And Dream is free. The dreamers wake. And Alex sleeps. Forever.
4. Weak, the Dreamlord begins his journey home, where dreams and nightmares are crafted, where dreamers dream. Njorun's hall to some, the Dreaming to most. But in his absence, his kingdom crumpled, and his people fled, so to Midgard in search of him and others to the dream stuff from which they were created. With little power to rebuild, Dream began to seek out his tools. The endless being called forth the Three-in-One, Urth, Verthandi, and Skald, The Hecate.
Gifts for all,
Questions for the three who is one,
The one who is three.
The Maiden and the Sand,
The Mother and the Helm,
And the Crone and the Ruby.
Constantine.
Hel.
And from mother to son,
The ruby falls.
Dream A Little Dream of Me
5. The Constantine family runs deep into history, from father to son, from mother to daughter. Serving as a guide for the dead and ridding Midgard of cruel monsters, John Constantine sleeps less than needed but Dream finds him all the same. He asks the mortal man for his pouch, the sand from the shore of the Dreaming kingdom. Like his ancestors, Constantine guided the Dream King to his home and then to his former lover by way of a chariot. The woman they find is dying, succumbing to the sand in the pouch. She dreams and drowns in a falsehood life. Starved, she begs for more. By Constantine’s request, Dream gives her peace in a final dream.
For his trouble,
the Dream King frees him,
From the haunting of nightmares.
For just a little while,
Constantine rests.
With his sand in hand, Dream ventured to Hel.
A Hope in Hel
6. The dead of Hel continue their lives as they once did. They drink, play, and sleep for eternity now. There are no battles to fight, no diseases to weaken, and no death to come. The goddess of this realm waits for Dream, as he moves from the gates to her side with Fenir at his front. She asks:
What do you seek,
Oh, Dream King?
In Hel,
Will you find salvation and rest,
Or a soul to take?
Dream demands his helm, the shield of his state. The goddess, Hel herself, answered, for the helm was hers in fair trade but in a challenge the Dreamlord could win it back.
Dire wolf verse horse-mounted hunter,
Horse fly sting,
Spider eats,
Snake devours,
Ox crushes,
Anthrax destroys,
A world is born,
Nova burns,
The universe expands,
Anti-life ends,
And finally hope saves.
The Dream King leaves Hel with his helm of state and a threat at his back.
7. From mother to son, the ruby falls. Miss Cripps dies as Dream exits Hel and her son escapes his prison holding. With his helm, Dream spies his dreamstone held in safekeeping for John Dee. The gem is changed and rejects its creator by Dee’s own plan. With the stone in hand and Dream lost to darkness, John Dee drives the mortal world mad. The Dream King wakes and watches, mortal men trapped and controlled. Murder and chaos swallow them whole. They beg and cry and worship at Dee’s request. They tell him his future, of dreams and Dream himself. Finally, the endless being arrives, bodies litter the ground at John Dee’s feet.
Listen,
The screams of men,
The wails of women,
Eating the world whole,
Return the stone,
Or it will all collapse.
John Dee desires destruction and for Dream to dream no more. Kill the Dreamlord and become the Dream King. To enter the Dreaming, John Dee sleeps and wakes in dreams. In Midgard, chaos continues. In Dreams, Dee searches and the dreamers suffer. With the ruby’s power, John Dee strikes and drains the endless being.
The ruby cracks.
Violent and bright.
He has won.
The dreams are his,
And everything else, too.
In the palm of his hand, John Dee stands, small and frightful under Dream of the Endless’ large gaze. For the ruby is crushed and rushes the power of endless into its host. Dream is whole once more. Instead of death, the Dream King returns Dee to his prison home. The world is silent. Listen.
Sleep Again.