Wax and Stone
By Tenshi no Shin
Somewhere, deep in the heart of the Dreaming, Sukie could feel Daniel creating something. The comma patient had spent over a year in the Dreaming and it seemed as though she was slowly becoming a part of it. She'd grown to know the Dream King so well that she could feel it when he manipulated the threads of the Dreaming and it felt like a tickling on the back of her neck.
Sukie lay on her back in the sun of what had once been Fiddler's Green and wondered, what could he be making now? A flock of cheerful blue butterflies giggled at her as they fluttered over and the girl had a strong urge to chance them, but stayed as she was in former paradise. The tickling suddenly grew so strong that Sukie couldn't help laughing, but as quickly as it had come, the feeling was gone; the Dream King had finished with his work. Sukie closed her eyes and when she opened them she found herself standing at the gates to the castle. It was simple enough to will herself from place to place in the dreaming, but nobody aside from Dream could go any closer to the center of the Dreaming than those gates.
The young woman looked expectantly up at the gatekeepers. The wyvern, the gryphon and the hippogriff all stared down at her, their gazes unchanging as stone. "State your business, young dreamer," ordered the gryphon, not unkindly.
Sukie sighed. Despite the fact that every time she came to the gates she gave them the same answer, they always asked her to state her business. "I've come to visit the Dream King." Tradition was tradition.
"He has not yet returned from his private chambers. Mattew will show you to the drawing room."
Suddenly, a large black raven appeared with a "POP!" He looked down at the young woman and probably would have smiled had he been capable. "Hey, how's it going, Sukie?"
"It's going pretty well. How are you?"
The raven perched on her shoulder. "Busy! The Kid's new project is taking up so many resources around here that it's had Merv running all over, trying to keep the whole castle from falling apart!" Sukie chuckled at this and Mattew gave her directions until they entered the drawing room that was just off of Dream's quarters. The young woman was the only one of Daniel's guests to get that close to them. "Hopefully he'll be out soon," sighed Matt, "I'm starting to worry about him, yah know?" He ruffled his feathers as though shivering and flew off, leaving Sukie to wait alone. And wait she did.
There was no movement of any kind for another three hours, at which point Taramis brought her sandwiches and tea. After that she visited the library. Lucian was as collected as ever, sitting in a green, high backed chair reading a book called The Death Ship Goldfish though how Sukie knew this was confusing as it was written in Chinese and the young woman had never in her life learned a word. This didn't bother her too much; dreams were odd things. "Greetings, Miss Sukie," said the head librarian, glancing up at her over his book.
"Hello, Lucian, I'd like a book to read while I'm waiting for the Dream King. Any suggestions?"
Lucian sighed dubiously and handed her a book from the tall stack beside his chair. It was about as thick as an English dictionary. "Dreamt by a literature-history major at the turn of the century. Fantastic compilation of Roman and Greek mythology, slightly romanticized, but over all, a delightfully slow read."
Sukie took the book back to the drawing room and began reading the story of Icaris, the young man who, in his glory, flew so close to the sun his wax wings melted and he fell into the sea.
Eventually, there was a knock at the door. Sukie jumped up to see who it was and was more than slightly disappointed to find yet another of Dreams servants, this one to inform her that her query would not emerge that night. The young woman sighed unhappily and went up to the rooms Daniel had created for her on her arrival. She and the Dream King had grown to become close friends over her months in the Dreaming. He'd been very interested in her from the beginning and rumor had it that this was because the Dream King had at one point been human himself and was interested in them inherantly. This didn't bother Sukie, Daniel was by far the most interesting person she'd ever met.
The rooms Sukie had been provided with were large and luxurious, but the finery of them made her uncomfortable. She did everything very carefully while in her room, afraid to break or tare something. Secretly she missed her slightly dingy New Jersey apartment. Sukie changed into her pajamas and climbed into the titanic four-poster featherbed. She felt herself sink into the downy softness and tried to fall asleep, but something was nagging at her. She decided to block it out by reading some more of the book Lucian had leant her. When she finally fell asleep the dream she had was a strange one.
Flying over the ocean, the sheer joy of it was overwhelming. Sukie soared and dove happily, playing in the clouds. Something inside encouraged her to fly higher, closer to the happy warmth of the sun. She rose quickly and felt the heat of the sun on her back. She looked up to let the light fall on her face and had a vision of Daniel's pale face in the blinding flare and felt hot wax dripping onto her shoulders. Then came the fall… Sukie woke breathing hard and drenched in cold sweat. Rather than melting away like most nightmares, the girl's vision seemed to solidify in her mind.
By that morning, Daniel still hadn't emerged and Mattew was more worried than ever. Lucien, Mervyn and even the rest of the castle staff seemed agitated. "He finished that new dream last night, and he doesn't normally do things like this," worried Nuala, Sukies faerie-maid, "And Mervyn and Mr. Lucian are worried that the castle is starting to deteriorate."
"Mattew wasn't joking then," said Sukie, thinking aloud as she got dressed, "How can that happen?"
"We don't know. The only time it's ever happen before was when Lord Morpheus disappeared for eighty years."
"But the Dream King's still in the Dreaming, isn't he?" Asked Sukie, starting to worry just as much as everyone else.
"Yes," Nuala thumbed the crystal pendant on the chain around her neck, "that is what is so frightening about this whole thing; Lord Shaper is in the castle, in the heart of the Dreaming."
"I'm sure there's a reason for all of this," said the young woman, trying to push the bad feelings from her mind, and heading for the door. "If Dream comes out, please send someone for me." With that, Sukie disappeared into the gardens of the castle. She didn't want to be amongst the dreams, they were adding to her fears and worries. She sat alone in a over-grown rose garden, jutting out over the purple sea. The subject of the Dream King was drowning almost everything out except one thing; death. Death was constantly on her mind these days, hovering over her while she slept, lurking behind her eyes while she was awake. In a hospital somewhere, her body lay in a cold bed in a quiet room, the silence broken only by the beeping of the heart monitor. Somehow, Sukie always knew, somewhere in a deep corner or her mind, what was happening in the real world. Recently, her parents had discussed pulling the plug. Sukie had seen this coming; they were slowly finding it harder and harder to see her "suffering," and they'd known her views on such issues. Now, she often thought that if this was what happened to people in comas, they should just be left alone, but then, at the moment she seemed to be the only coma patient in the Dreaming. "You're really in it, huh?" Sukie turned from her thoughts to find Mattew perched on a stone gargoyle above. The raven ruffled his feathers, "He's coming out now. Thought you should know."
The emergance of the Dream King was slightly out of the ordinary as it was the first time the entire staff was waiting for him in the castle beyond. They all stood there, waiting for him worriedly, Sukie amongst them. "See?" said Mervyn, leaning on his mop and taking a drag on his cigarette, "Kid's alright, just like I said he would be." This, of course, was untrue; Merv had been spouting doom and gloom for two days, but no one bothered to correct him, they were all too happy that the Dream King had returned.
Daniel looked as he always had, pale, young and beautiful. The Dream King reminded Sukie of an ice flow; bright, sparkly and inviting, but here too, below the surface was something icy and dark. On this particular day, however, the surface was so dazzling Sukie thought it might blind her. Daniel was very happy with his creation and it showed. He seemed not so much paler as brighter and for a moment, Sukie remembered her frightening dream. This, along with everything else was forgotten with the entrance of Daniel's newest creation.
Sukie's jaw dropped. In her wildest dreams she'd never imagined Daniel would ever make the dream that stood before the crowd; it was as though he'd used the young woman as a base and drawn out all her potential, while erasing all of her flaws. The similarity between Daniel's dream and Sukie was obvious. All in a second she was honored, and then angry, and then sad, and then angry again. She looked around the room to see if any of the others had noticed that this dream was Sukie 2.0. The men's eyes had glazed over somehow, as though the rest of the world didn't exist and the woman looked downright furious. Sukie weaved through the throng until she found her way to Nuala, who looked just as she felt. "I can't believe what he's done," whispered Nuala, "I thought he preferred me without my glamour! I wish he would have said something, rather than going about it this way. And in front of everyone!"
"What are you talking about? He's remade me. I guess I just wasn't beautiful enough, I mean, I know I'm slightly pudgy in some places, but I didn't really think it mattered this much…"
"I don't understand; she looks nothing like you," replied the faerie, refusing to take her eyes off of the new dream.
"Well, she certainly doesn't look like you," retorted Sukie, feeling her temper rise.
"Who are you looking at?" demanded Nuala, turning on her.
"Woah, girls," said a voice behind them. The two turned to find the Corinthian looming there. He was only male in the entire room who wasn't completely dumb struck by the new dream. "She doesn't look like either of you; she's more like a lump of clay than a woman."
"What?" Both Nuala and Sukie did not understand in the least.
"She was made to take the form of the most beautiful woman you can imagine. Every man in this room sees something different, and every woman in this room sees herself as she imagines she would be were she perfect."
"So, if that's how she works," said Sukie, thinking aloud, "how can you see her for what she is?"
The Corinthian shrugged. "It's not in my nature to be interested in women."
Daniel walked up to stand behind the thing that looked like Sukie and put his arm around her. "Her name," he said, with an uncanny smile, "is Galatea. I hope you make her feel at home here."
Galatea curtsied to the crowd of dreams and graced them with a smile, though it was obvious that she was sizing everyone up. She was a beautiful person, and she knew it. And with beauty always came power. Sukie felt her skin crawl. She hated Daniel's new creation. As did all of the other women. "I wonder what he sees," whispered the Corinthian.
For the next few weeks, that the became the number one question on the women's lips except for it was asked with dripping disdain. Nothing in the castle or even in the Dreaming was getting done properly. Merv and his entire crew were constantly thinking of jobs to do to impress Galatea, Lucian even pined over her, presenting her with books of love poetry and taking her on tours of the library. Daniel was by far the worst. By the time a month had gone by, Galatea had amassed an entire extended wing, three private gardens, a manajary, a fleet of servants and a boatload of gifts and trinkets. It seemed that Daniel didn't consider her one of his creations, but as his fiancé . And by the time a month and a half went by, he was never around. Summoning him was impossible, and should any of his subjects have trailed him to Galatea's wing, he was unreachable, it was as though nothing else existed. It took Sukie over a week to get a hold of the Dream King for more than five minutes. He invited her for tea in the very same drawing room in which she'd waited for him what seemed like years ago.
"I've been informed that you have wished to speak to me about some serious matters and have been unable," said the Dream King as Taramis poured the tea, "I apologize. I have been caught up in other affairs that required my attention."
Sukie bit her tongue and decided not to bring up the fact that those other affairs were more than likely all Galatea's doing. "It's alright, you're a busy man."
Daniel seemed to relax a little. "What is it that you would have us discuss?"
The young woman dropped three sugar cubes into her cup and looked up at him. "I think I may be leaving the Dreaming. My family is planning on taking me off of life support fairly soon."
"I cannot stop my sister from doing her task, should that come to pass."
Sukie sighed and nodded. "I thought you would say something like that, but I was just wondering if maybe I could stay here anyway? Mattew told me that he's died a couple of times and yet he's your raven, so I figured the rules kind of bend a bit for you…"
"In a manner of speaking, I suppose they do."
"So after I die, could please let me stay here? I'd be so grateful." Begged Sukie.
Daniel coolly sipped his tea. "I shall see to arranging it, should that truly be your wish when the time comes." Sukie thanked him profously and together they enjoyed their tea until Dream was called away. This didn't bother the young woman; his infatuation with Galatea would pass and she'd have the rest of eternity to spend with him.
After yet another month of the Dream King being nearly unreachable, Sukie began to worry again. Since nearly all of the male population of the Dreaming was busy fauning over Galatea, dreams were not being made and the grounds were no longer being up-kept. Nuala had the idea of organizing the female dreams to take over for the "living dead" as they called the men those days. She often included Sukie in her plans, which was a new experience for the girl. She did all sorts of jobs, anything from placing lily pads to making frightening shadows on the walls during nightmares, to assembling forests. One day while she, the Corinthian (the only male roped into Nuala's plans) and the Fashion Thing were busy painting the sky, a frightening thought crossed Sukie's mind. She turned to the Corinthian, who had a large smear of orange paint on his cheek, and asked, "If the Dream King says he'll do something, he does it, right?"
"He is a very responsible personfication." Replied the serial killer, smearing some more sunset over the pale blue sky. "But since Galatea has come along, I have noticed some shirking of the smallest duties on his part. I don't think it's really anything to worry about though; he'll get around to everything." Sukie could not be convinced that there was nothing to worry about. She knew how close her parents were to cutting her life line and weighed that against Dream's obsession with his new creation. Death was so close it made it hard to sleep or eat or work or hold normal conversation. All Sukie could think about was the fact that she could die any day and that there was no assurance from the Dream King that she wouldn't just be banished to the afterlife.
Things were getting worse and worse as time wore on. It was obvious to Sukie when she spoke to Mattew and Mervyn. Mattew could only say that he wished he was human again so that he could be with this woman that was attractive in all the ways his ex-girlfriend were at once. Mervyn would just mutter about how "dames ain't that bad…" and how "a broad like that knows how to make a pumpkin happy." Pretty much speaking to any male in the Dreaming, dream and dreamer alike, would cause them to make some declaration of love to Galatea so sappily sweet it would make anyone sick up. And Galatea was eating it up.
Whilst everyone was trying to court the most beautiful woman in the universe or trying to patch up the dreaming, more pieces of it would fall apart. "Alright, girls," said Nuala, bring the weekly planning meeting to order. The elf looked over at the Corinthian and blushed, "and boy, down to business: someone needs to respectfully tell Lord Shaper that both our resources and tempers are running thin."
"I'm certainly not going to do it," came a voice from the crowd.
"If we don't make him see what's going on," explained Nuala, "the Dreaming is sure to fall apart and disappear altogether!"
Sukie thought for a moment. What was happening to Daniel frightened her, as did the idea of going to the afterlife with no chance to stay in the Dreaming. The thing she wanted most of all was to stay in the Dreaming with him, forever, and the only way to keep that hope alive was to show Dream what was happening to it. She slowly raised her hand. "I'll do it."
Nuala smiled, "Thank you, Sukie, I'm sure you'll do just fine. Just tell him he needs to start paying more attention to the Dreaming. Nicely."
That wasn't the only thing Sukie was interested in speaking to Daniel about; her family had been spending a lot of time at the hospital which seemed to be a sign of her impending doom. The walk to Galatea's suite was the longest walk of Sukie's life. It reminded her of descriptions of the walk down death row. The walk that lead to the chair. Her life came churning around behind her eyes, memories, hopes, dreams, thoughts stored away blurred her view.
She came to the massive double doors to the wing and her hands were shaking uncontrollably. The doors swung open as thought they were nothing and beyond them, in the grandest splendor Sukie had ever seen, sat Daniel and Galatea, sipping tea from fine china as though the world wasn't falling apart around them. Sukie fought the fear in the back of her throat as she approached them. Galatea glared at her, but she pretended not to notice. It was obvious that Daniel's new creation was as protective of him as the males were protective of her. As Sukie drew closer to the pair, she realized something was horribly wrong; Daniel's emerald, the core of his power was being worn by Galatea. Losing all of her cool, Sukie stormed up to the woman and pointed. "Why are you wearing that!" she demanded.
Galatea looked up at her defiantly, "Daniel gave it to me. He loves me."
Sukie turned on Daniel. "Of all the irresponsible, stupid, childish things to do! You can't fall in love with her; she's your creation! In a way, she is you! And what kind of sick, anthropological, narcissistic incest would that be!"
Standing, green fire flashing in his dark eyes, Daniel lashed back at her. "I do not like your tone, nor do I take well to being told what I can and cannot do. I am lord of this realm and you are but a guest here. What right have you to order me to do anything? Who do you believe you are!"
Sukie choked back her fear once more. "I'm worried about you. I'm your friend, and I love you."
Daniel's face softened for a moment. "How can you listen to one who is nothing but an insubordinate child?" demanded Galatea, leering at Sukie.
"And what are you," replied the Dream King, as though coming out of a chance, "if not that insubordinate child? She is my friend, and I love her also." He turned to his creation. "Galatea, return the emerald; I was in error to give it to you."
"Never!" exclaimed the woman, transforming before their eyes. She was going from beauty to an utter beast, "Never, never, never!" Suddenly the dreaming shattered like a mirror. There were reflections everywhere. Millions of emeralds, millions of Galateas, millions of Dreams, millions of Sukies. The young woman, not sure which of the Sukies was herself, reached out for Daniel, but he was not there. She could feel him straining to pull the pieces of the Dreaming back together, but too much of his power had been invested in the emerald. Sukie pulled her tendrils of conciousness from the waking world. They slid easily like shoelaces through mud, though she felt something snap toward the end. The girl sent them out into the Dreaming to find the stone, willing them to scent out the essence of Daniel's power. They squirmed and probed and despite her best efforts to evade them, they lead Sukie to Galatea, who stood, clutching the emerald to her deformed breast. "You can't have it!" The monster screeched, "He gave it to me! It's mine!"
"It's not yours and you know it!" exclaimed Sukie, lunging forward, "Stop hurting the Dreaming!"
"I'll do what I like!" Galatea held out the stone tauntingly as Daniel fell to his knees, succumbing to her force, "I have the power now!"
Sukie's anger spiked. "YOU HAVE NO POWER OVER ME!" Before she even knew what she was doing, the young woman's hand shot out and seized the emerald. With a quick jerk the chain snapped. For a brief second Sukie held her stone of power above her head and felt the glory of absolute rule. And then, with a zeal she didn't know she possessed she smashed it on the floor.
Instantly, Daniel was returned to his former magnitude. Sukie smiled at his recovery and then the pain hit her. It was Earth-shattering, white and felt like it was rending her insides. She couldn't breath and collapsed on the suddenly cold stone floor. Daniel knelt over her, his cool, smooth hand caressing her cheek. He looked sadder than she'd ever seen him. Galatea just looked sulkily at the attention that was being directed away from her. And then the other woman, Death, knelt on her other side. "Hello, Sukie."
Sukie stared up at the pale young woman, "They pulled the plug, didn't they?"
"They did."
"So I've died?"
"You have." Death's eyes looking into the girl's soul. "You have a choice to make now."
Sukie looked up at Daniel. "Is it possible for me to stay in the Dreaming?"
Both Dream and Death nodded. "If you feel he deserves another chance." Death turned to look at her brother, "And if you stop this utterly stupid pining over your own creations."
Daniel nodded shamefully. "I'd like to give him another chance," decided the young woman. The Dream King stood and helped Sukie from the floor. Galatea looked as though she'd swallowed something puetred and sour. Gazing at her with a stare that could have frozen men's blood in their veins, Daniel spoke to his creation for the last time. "I was a fool to have created you in the manner which I have, that was my error. However," his voice was slate gray and just as stony, "your error was in trying to manipulate me. That is a betrayl for which I will not stand." And with that Galatea was unmade with a little gasp of breeze. Afterwards, Daniel seemed saddened, not that Sukie could blame him; completely infatuation was a hard thing to come away from. She approached him slowly, not sure how he might react, and seeing the pain in his eyes, Sukie placed a gentle hand on the Dream King's shoulder and smiled warmly. "To err is human," was her reminder for him.
Daniel's eyes fell upon her, not sadly, or angrily, but with love. "To forgive," he said, green shining in his pitch eyes, "divine."