LXXXII: Fields

“No, wai- ” Alyxa shrieked but the Underworld faded and then she was standing on edge of a lake. 

There were people all around her, people she did not know.

“Dreamer,” a woman in red said, “welcome back.”

Then Morpheus was there, and almost instantly his teeth were in her throat and he was drinking, drawing the blood that was his life-force directly from her jugular. 

-Morpheus, enough,- Bast’s voice snarled a moment later, -she’s weak.-

“Let the Angel do his healin’ thing, she’ll be fine,” a male voice. 

Alyxa blinked her eyes, trying to gain some clarity; there were three men she didn’t know, and apart from the woman in red there was a younger girl. Morpheus pulled back, licking his lips to sweep up the last of blood.

“We left Amy there...with him,” Alyxa murmured.

“You did what?” one of the men demanded.

The lady in red lit up a cigarette.

“The pieces are gathered then,” she said, “and you’ve brought back one of the things we needed.”

-You sent Amy there on purpose, didn’t you?!- Bast hissed, -you sent her there to sell her!-

“Lucifer would have kept Amy no matter what, an Unbound Dreamer! Unbound! He would not have let her go, regardless,” Medea retorted, “but now we have her!” 

A scarlet-nailed finger pointed at Enyo.

-You traded her! Like an object! My Dreamer!-

“The Rift will open at this rate, three Deities this side of Reveille. Bast is right, Medea, what are you playing at?” Morpheus asked, cradling Alyxa to him.

“Lucifer will bridge the Rift anyways, he wants to battle Baldur and restart everything,” Medea countered, “but with Kali on our side, the field is even.”

-Except that Kali lives only to destroy everything.-

“I am standing right here, children, I can hear you.”

LXXXI: Accord

“Is that Amy?” Alyxa mumbled as they came in.

“Yes,” he replied simply.

“Why?”

Lucifer smiled magnanimously.

“She is here to take your place,” the Morning Star told them with an expansive gesture of his arms.

“She’s what?” Alyxa demanded, shaken out of the stupor.

Amy blinked, twisting where she knelt by Bast’s cage.

“What do you mean?” the little girl asked.

Lucifer moved to kneel at her side and he laid a calming hand on her shoulder.

-Don’t touch her!- Bast hissed; her words ignored.

“I mean, little one, that if you stay here, with me, I will let your friends go. I will let them return to the World of the Living, if you promise to stay with me forever.”

Amy hesitated.

“‘Forever’?” she echoed, a little undone by the word itself.

“It is not enough,” Morpheus said, stepping forwards and setting Alyxa down on the chair Amy had vacated not long before.

Lucifer’s brilliant eyes flashed and he met Morpheus’ eyes.

“Do not push me, sweetheart.”

“If you have an Unbound Dreamer, Morning Star, we will not walk away empty handed.” Morpheus said softly, eyes narrowing.

The Prince of Darkness took a moment to consider this.

“Your suggestion?”

Morpheus raised an elegant finger and pointed at Enyo.

“Kali comes with us.”

“If I release her it should be into Reveille,” Lucifer countered.

“We will send Amy back.”

The Morning Star hesitated.

“Take the Destroyer then,” Lucifer murmured, studying Amy, “take her and go.”

-We can’t just leave her!- Bast roared.

Morpheus looked at the little girl.

“Amy?” Morpheus asked the girl.

She glanced at Lucifer.

“If you let them go and never touch them again, I will stay.”

“Then it is done,” Lucifer replied, and waved a hand, “go. Don’t worry, Bast, I will care for her.”

LXXX: Convenience

“Can I talk with them?” Amy asked the Prince, suddenly not sure about what she was doing here.

“I will let you see them,” Lucifer replied, and clapped his hands, summoning a strange bird down from unseen rafters.

It was brown, but no kind of brown that Amy had ever seen before, it was shiny and reminded her of the hair pins the Bad Lady had worn when she had stolen Daddy.

“Bring Morpheus and his Dreamer,” Lucifer instructed the bird, who took off and vanished.

“What about Bast?” Amy demanded.

“Patience, little one, Bast is already here.”

Lucifer waved a hand and the air beside the throne shimmered, revealing to golden-barred cages, one of which held the most beautiful woman Amy had ever seen and the other held Bast, although she was no longer pick-up-able.

“Bast!” Amy exclaimed and bolted forward beneath Lucifer’s indulgent smirk.

-Amy? Kittens and fishsticks, what are you doing down here, child?-

“Medea sent me, and there’s this girl who sees things before they happen, and boy name Michael, and they told me to come here and talk to him and get you out!” Amy told her in a rush of emotion, sinking down beside the cage and reaching through the bars.

Bast licked the child’s hands gently, ignoring the amused looks she was receiving from both Enyo and Lucifer.

-They should not have sent you.-

“On the contrary, little kitty,” Lucifer countered, “she is the only thing of worth that they have.”

“Huh?”

Bast bristled and hissed at him, reaching through the bars to swipe at him in her anger.

-How dare you! She’s just a child!-

“An Unbound Dreamer, goddess, is worth more than a hundred Bound Dreamers, the Witch-Queen knows that and yet she still sends her to me? How convenient.”

LXXIX: Value

“Actually, it’s been around for a long time,” Lucifer assured her, leaning back in his chair and sipping the fruit, “and witches have dealt in souls for many, many centuries.”

Amy screwed her little nose up.

“That’s gross,” she said.

“Depends on your perspective.”

“It’s gross,” she repeated.

“It raises a big problem for you though, little one, because essentially what I’ve been paid is in gods and the soul of a Bound Dreamer. The only way you can get them back is replace them with something of equal worth.”

Amy was trying very hard to listen to everything he was saying, but it was all very confusing. Daddy had always told her to ask questions if she did not understand something, but she wasn’t sure that Lucifer would understand that philosophy. She had to try something though.

“What’s the difference between a normal Dreamer and a...bound Dreamer?”

“A Bound Dreamer,” he said slowly, “is a Dreamer whose life is all tangled up with a Deity’s, in other words, your sister and Morpheus now share one lifeline. They are ‘bound’ together. He drinks her blood, she is strengthened by his energies.”

“Oh,” she replied and chewed on her lip for a moment, “does that mean I’m a not bound Dreamer? Since Bast doesn’t drink my...blood?”

Something flashed in Lucifer’s eyes; Amy wondered if they had a name for that kind of blue.

“If you have not shared your blood with a Deity or supernatural force then you are Unbound, and thus far more powerful than Alyxa.”

“Why?”

“Because Bound Dreamers are restrained Dreamers, Unbound Dreamers are not limited by the powers of their Deity. As a result, they are also much more valuable.”

“How valuable?” Amy asked softly.

“Valuable enough to trade for two gods and a Bound Dreamer.”

“Oh.”