The Sandman

My lord,

I... I take it Queen Nada has left us.

She's gone.

To the waking world.

I'm so sorry.

The palace staff were wondering what you'd like done

with the suite of rooms you created for her.

Erase them.

As you wish, sir.

And I would appreciate it

if the palace staff would refrain from mentioning her name in my presence.

I will see to it, my lord.

Do you think I am incapable of love?

Did Queen Nada tell you that?

She said she did not know if my kind was even capable of it.

Lucienne...

In my personal opinion, I think that you have a...

Boss? Boss!

Sorry to interrupt, but we got a situation downstairs.

The guardians have captured an intruder.

Hello, Dream!

She says she is your sister.

I'm afraid she is my sister, wyvern.

Put her down.

Whee!

My lady...

-I must apologize. Had I but... -It's okay.

I liked it. It was fun. Especially the swingy bits.

I always thought I ought to have a pet.

The wyvern is not a pet.

-What about your blackbird? -Raven.

Also not a pet.

Delirium.

This is Matthew.

I remember Matthew.

No, we've never met.

We have. You just don't remember me.

No. You, I would remember.

Why are you here, my sister?

I came to see you.

I mean, to talk, not just see.

You have a gallery for that.

I know.

But if I called and you said no,

then that would mean you wouldn't talk to me.

And last time I called, you said no. And the time before that.

So I thought if I just showed up, then maybe...

Please don't make me go away.

I saw it was raining outside when I came in.

Water.

Or whatever it rains in dreams.

Yes.

You must be in a very bad mood.

Must I?

I knew you'd be this way.

You're always so scary.

So I thought I'd really try to be good.

And I'm trying very hard to be good.

But you're still being horrid to me.

And laughing at me behind your face like you always do.

And I really was trying this time.

I've been somewhat distracted as of late.

I'm not angry with you.

I'm sorry.

You just apologized to me.

Yes.

You never apologize.

You just act like you know stuff I don't that makes everything you do okay.

I see. Well, I have apologized.

Now, why don't you tell me why it is you came here.

I was thinking about things.

About why everything feels so wrong.

It all keeps moving.

And it won't stop.

And I just want it to stop.

And when it doesn't, I think, "What if it gets worse?"

And then I try to remember a time when it didn't feel this way.

And then I remembered, it was when he was here.

Our brother.

I would go and see him...

and no matter how bad things got...

he would make it okay.

But now he's gone, and everything is broken.

What do you mean?

Destruction's realm is still there.

Things are still being destructed.

But nobody's in charge of it.

It's out of control.

Look what happened when you left your realm.

I did not leave my realm by choice.

No, I know.

He left because he wanted to.

That was so long ago.

What if he's embarrassed to come back?

Or what if he's been captured the way you were?

Or what if he's sick or has amnesia?

He abandoned us.

He abandoned his realm.

He abandoned his responsibilities.

An act of profound selfishness which I shall never understand nor forgive.

Did you ever tell him that?

No.

Don't you kind of want to?

Find him and yell at him and bring him back?

I do.

Will you help me find him?

I feel like...

someplace nobody goes anymore.

Our brother chose to leave us.

We must accept that.

That's what Despair said.

You asked Despair to go with you?

She said no.

She said you'd say no too.

I take it you asked Desire as well.

I was actually in Desire's house when I had the idea.

Oh, I'm sure you were.

It doesn't matter who I asked when, does it?

They didn't want to come with me.

But you do.

Don't you?

Will you excuse me for a moment?

Desire.

I stand in my gallery before your sigil.

Will you answer me?

Dream. How delightful.

Delirium is in my domain.

Oh.

Yes, I had a feeling she might come looking for you next.

-Are you coming through? -No, I shall remain here.

Well, in that case,

I'll come to you.

She wants to find our lost brother.

Yes. I know.

Where might one sit in your gallery,

if one were invited to?

She tells me she decided upon this idiotic course in your company.

Well, I had nothing to do with it.

Just as you had nothing to do with what happened between Nada and me.

Look, I hate to disappoint you, Dream,

but you managed to fuck that one up all on your own.

You don't believe me.

I swear it.

By my heart.

-And by the other side of the sky. -Enough.

Neither your 10,000-year-old heartbreak, nor Delirium's obsession with our brother,

is of my doing.

She showed up to my realm uninvited.

She did the same to me.

She was in floods of tears,

saying if we could just find our big brother,

that everything would be fine.

Well...

she is not wrong about that.

So, you're saying we should find him?

No. I'm saying that if she feels that things are broken...

it is because they are.

Our brother broke them.

Good. You had me worried for a second.

About?

That you would go looking for him.

Or worse,

that you would use Delirium's little quest as an excuse to go out and look for Nada.

The idea never occurred to me.

Then tell the little gleet to get on with her life.

The sooner you get rid of her,

the sooner you can go back to doing what you love...

Feeling sorry for yourself.

Little sister?

You came back.

Yes.

I didn't think you would.

I have spoken with Desire.

Are they mad? What did they say?

That I should send you home immediately.

Then I'll ask our older sister to go with me.

If she says no, then I'll ask Destiny, and if he says no, then I'll go on my own.

It's just that I...

I often get distracted.

And I get lost kind of easily.

Sometimes I have very bad days where, you know,

I just want to hide or scream or bleed or something.

If you were to seek our brother,

where would you begin looking?

I suppose I'd start by

finding his old friends and asking them if they know.

I'd ask them very nicely.

Do you know any of his old friends?

I made a list!

And I wrote down

all the people our brother used to know

that I'd ever met

that wouldn't be dead yet.

A long-lived mortal, a god, and a figure of myth.

I'm impressed.

Lucienne,

my sister and I will be making a short journey together.

Uh, you will?

We will.

Oh.