"Dream of the Endless: ah, there's a conundrum.
In this aspect (and we perceive but
aspects of the Endless, as we see the light glinting from one tiny facet
of some huge and flawlessly cut precious stone), he is rake-thin, with
skin the colour of falling stone.
Dream accumulates names to himself
like others make friends; but he permits himself few friends,
If he is close to anyone, it is to
his elder sister, whom he sees rarely.
He heard long ago, in a dream, that
one day in every century Death takes on mortal flesh, better to comprehend
what the lives she takes must feel like, to taste the bitter tang of mortality:
that this is the price she must pay for being the divider of the living
from all that has gone before, all that must come after.
He broods on this tale, but has never
questioned her about its truth. Perhaps he fears that she would answer
him.
Of all the Endless, save perhaps Destiny,
he is the most conscious of his responsibilities, the most meticulous in
their execution.
Dream casts a human shadow, when it
occurs to him to do so."1 |
