Dominion of the Endless.
I'm not sure where the name came from, but when I looked deep within myself, that was what came to my mind as my scepter came to my hand. My scepter. My sigil. I had a vague recollection of my sigil being something else, something different, but that was long before I was who I am now. When, I assume, I was someone else. Someone that recognized my so-called siblings. In my heart, I am still Taylor Hebert. I am the one who became Skitter, then Weaver, then Khepri, who got everyone to work together in the end.
I meant what I said to Contessa. Scion was irrelevant to everything. Fighting him was never really about him, more about getting everyone to work together in the end. Which, finally, they had. They had behaved as they had needed to, worked together, within the order that they should have. It may have been partially my will guiding it, but it worked.
And Contessa killed me for it. If that had not been her intent, I doubted I would have met the beings who claimed to be my siblings. At least, not yet. My eyes flicked between them. Death stood there with a smile on her painted black lips. The ankh around her neck, her sigil, sat prominently on her chest, covered by the black tank top she wore. She also had a pair of black jeans and gloves on. Her skin was pale, much like my own was now, similar to my other two siblings, yet I could also see her as a dark-skinned woman, somehow overlaid on top of her. Wearing the same clothes, speaking with the same voice. Strange. Her dark hair matched my own.
Dream, by contrast, wore what appeared to be a set of suit-like robes, in pure white. Around his neck hung a gorgeous emerald, that contrasted with everything about him, including his white hair. His eyes were dark, and for a bit I could see stars within them. He smiled at me, clearly waiting on me to finish taking things in.
Despair was the final sibling here, and the one that I wasn't sure how I wanted to describe. Her looks fit her name. She resembled an obese woman; nude save for the barbed hooked nail extensions she wore on a pair of her fingers. Her dark hair was pulled into a ponytail in a way that looked entirely too tight upon her, and she was, frankly, rather ugly. But then despair often is. Necessary, sure, but often ugly.
I shook my head after a second, attempting to clear the cobwebs out. My thoughts were my own. Mine. I had my linguistic skills back, and all it took was the death of my mortal body.
"Something wrong, Dominion?" Death asked, concern evident in her voice. She really did seem like a big sister. Kind of like Anne had been to Emma and me.
"I don't fully understand things," I admitted. "Like what I am now, how you are my siblings…"
"That we are your siblings is but one facet of things," Dream said. "Being one of the Endless means much more. Perhaps we should adjourn to the Dreaming, sisters."
"I have things that I must do," Despair said. "The fight with the golden man may be over, but there are many that exist within my domain. They may give themselves over completely soon enough."
I could practically hear the salivation in her voice. She liked what she did, whatever it was. Despair.
"And while I would love to join the two of you, I have more to help today," Death said. "Dominion, if Dream gets too big for his britches, feel free to pants him."
"What?" I asked.
Dream blinked. "Wait…"
She laughed, and in the blink of an eye, she was gone, Despair with her. My so-called sisters left me in the company of my big brother.
He seemed confused; so, I stepped up to him and patted him on the shoulder. "You don't have to worry about that, Dream. You are opening your home to me."
"You are my sister," Dream said. "Family is always welcome. Even Desire, if they behave."
"Desire is more than one person?" I asked.
"No, our sister-brother, our sibling, they are but one being," Dream said as he pulled a small brown bag from within his robes. "Normally, I would not need this to return to the Dreaming, but you are newly reawakened. You are not used to your power."
"What's that?" I asked, deciding to leave the issue of Desire alone. When I eventually met them, I would figure things out. I had many things to figure out, apparently. Like why my scepter, my sigil, resembled Regent's scepter so much.
Dream reached into the bag and pulled out what looked like sand, without saying anything.
Wait. Dream. Sand. "You're kidding me."
"What do you mean, sister?" Dream asked. "I have not done any sort of joke or jape."
"Sand, brother," I said. "You're the Sandman."
"Perhaps," he replied. "But there are at least three costumed heroes that I can think of easily that share the name."
"But we're not capes," I said. I had been, when I was alive and human. But now I was… well, I suppose I was alive, but I certainly was no longer human.
"You may wear one, if you wish. I suspect it would look good on you. One of our missing siblings occasionally wore them," Dream said. He paused for a second and scratched his chin. "Come to think of it, both occasionally did, for different reasons."
I frowned. Perhaps he was thinking again as to which missing sibling I must have been. If I could have helped him decide, I would, but I was Dominion, a name that he had not heard.
He took my left arm in his right, and then he tossed the sand ahead of us. A doorway shimmered into existence in front of us, similar to the ones that Doormaker would create, yet the doorway was more ephemeral. It felt as if it existed simply to bear the two of us and no more. Perhaps it was.
Beyond the doorway was a view of two houses on either side of a crossroads. The houses seemed to be copies of each other, more massive versions of the house I had lived in when I lived in Brockton Bay. Curious.
"Where are we?" I asked. "And where are we going, specifically?"
"This is the Dreaming," said Dream. "And those, sister, are the Houses of Mystery and Secrets."
He led me toward the house on the right, and out front of the house was a pair of men, clearly brothers. One had brown hair, was the skinnier of the pair, and he had a longer beard than the other. He wore a pair of spectacles that sat comfortably on the bridge of his hawkish nose. The other brother was a bit larger, more unkempt in his suit, and he had black hair. Both immediately came over to Dream as he approached.
"My Lord, Dream," said the thinner of the pair, bowing on his introduction. "What brings you to my idiot brother's humble abode?"
"T-that's n-not fair, Cain," said the larger. He looked at me, meeting my eyes. "M-my Lady, be welcome in our homes."
"Cain, Abel," Dream said. "This is my sister, Dominion. She is visiting the Dreaming while she learns more of herself."
"Oh?" Abel asked. And he came over to take my hand, giving it a kiss. "My Lady, Dominion. It is good to s-see you. Our Lord Dream was d-distraught over his siblings being missing."
"Abel!" Cain growled. I watched as he picked up a pitchfork that he'd been working with, and he stalked toward his brother. "You are supposed to be keeping secrets, not sharing them!"
I held up a hand, forestalling him. "Forgive me, but Cain and Abel? Like the biblical Cain and Abel? I wasn't all that religious but…"
"O-oh, he isn't that bad," Abel said. "And he doesn't u-usually bury me all that deeply, either. He even got me Goldie!"
"Secrets, Abel! Secrets!" This time Cain didn't wait, and he drove the pitchfork through his brother's exposed throat. Abel fell backward onto the ground, and Cain turned toward me again, visibly calmer. "Pardon all that, my Lady. But it's the only way Abel will learn."
"You killed him," I said.
"Of course," Cain said. "I am Cain, and he is Abel."
"The first murderer, and the first victim," Dream said. "Within the Dreaming, the pair are together often enough that the cycle is capable of repeating."
"So, they're dreams then?" I asked.
"Now, they are," Dream said. "Everything around you, sister, is a dream. Someone's dream, or someone yet to come's dream. Everything you see within the Dreaming is thus."
"I'll admit that I expected something a bit more… fantastical… than a murderer and his brother when I entered your realm," I said.
At that moment, a small golden-skinned creature peeked its head out of a hole in the ground near Abel. It had large expressive red eyes, a bulbous head, and golden wings. It made a small "Awk" sound as it approached the dead man. Frankly, it was rather adorable. The word for what it must have been came to me almost instantly. Gargoyle. A young one, to be certain, younger than thirty years old. Strange to think of something as old as that as young, but such creatures lived much longer in their mythological incarnations.
My mother did always like the stories of old mythology, and she'd told me them when I was little.
"Does that satisfy, sister?" Dream asked, gesturing at the gargoyle. "Or perhaps you would wish to see more."
Huh. I wasn't entirely sure whether the gargoyle was male or female from looking at it. I didn't know how the dimorphism for their species worked, and given that it was a dream, it certainly could have been either, both, or even neither. "What's the gargoyle's name?"
"Her name is Goldie," Cain said. "And she belongs to my brother. She'll make sure that he gets back to work when he wakes again. We do have much to do, my Lady."
A tickle at the back of my mind, almost like when I controlled my bugs or people as a parahuman reared itself with Cain so close, and Goldie as well. I frowned and pushed it back. This was Dream's domain, not my own. It would not do to exercise any sort of control over his subjects. He kept the order here.
Hell, I didn't even know if I had a domain of my own. I didn't know much.
"As do we," Dream said. "Come, sister. I will show you more of the Dreaming, and what I have rebuilt of it after the last calamity."
"The last calamity?" I asked as the two of us started down a path. His emerald gleamed in the ambient light of whatever sun was overhead. "What do you mean?"
"The death of my predecessor," Dream said simply. "My death, and my change into myself. It is a long, arduous story, and I do not believe that it would help you, at the moment. Your involvement in it may bring you unneeded pain, depending on which sibling you were. You may remember it on your own, though."
"I see," I said. I didn't, but it was a little early to press. I was learning. I was new. Even if I was old, I was new, and Dream was to be my guide. Already he was better than some of the others that I had dealt within life. However, I will admit that I did not fully understand.
We traveled further down a dirt path that turned paved with dark cobblestones. On one side of the path was a desolate landscape, with barren trees, branches blackened into sharp spears, moving in a wind that did not hit my face. Spiders of all sizes roamed along the branches, creating massive webs. Even within their chaotic fearscape, they imposed order.
On the other, the world was green, rolling hills, flowery landscapes. Unicorns trotted in herds, and I could sense even more mythical creatures. As each creature saw us pass by, each creature bowed in greeting. They recognized us as above them, or at least they recognized my brother as such.
"What are we, exactly?" I asked. "Death described us as Endless, and I get that has weight, has meaning, but I don't understand it."
"Death has also described us as anthropomorphic aspects of concepts before. I am Dream, Death is Death, and you, dear sister, are Dominion," Dream said. "Here, I am the Lord of Dreams and Nightmares, responsible for maintaining the dreams of all sentient beings in the multiverse. On your Earth Bet, but also on every other Earth and every other planet that has beings that dream. Our sister Death is there for every single being that dies. Be they plant, animal, or something else entirely. So long as they are capable of seeing her, her responsibility is to be there for them in their death."
"And what are my responsibilities?" I asked. "Do I even have them?"
"They will come to you, in time," Dream said. "We may need to speak with another brother of ours, if you are unable to figure it out on your own. But, being Dominion, I would wager that your responsibility is to the hierarchy of things. The bringing of order from chaos. I rather suspect that the people you were raised among may need your help soon enough. And my own."
As we walked across a bridge that passed over a massive river, in the distance, I could see a dark castle. The castle was so large that I could not help but wonder how I could not see it before. The towers and parapets surrounding it took up so much of my view, and the winding road up to the castle lacked any sort of siding. On either side were simply pink clouds, leading to, what I presumed, must have been an endless abyss. Everyone had that dream of falling before, after all.
When we got to the gate, three guardian beasts sat at the edge. A gryphon, eagle-faced and leonine, a red wyvern, and a hippogriff of sorts. All three bowed to Dream as he approached.
"My Lord," said the gryphon. "And guest. Are we to have new guests in the castle now?'
"My sister will be staying for some time, Gryphon," Dream said. "She is to have free entry and exit from the castle as she chooses. Her name is Dominion."
"Lady Dominion," said the hippogriff. "You shall be free to roam the castle, as my Lord Dream commands."
"However, I would recommend caution," said the wyvern. "As there are nightmares that roam about. And creatures that even the Endless might wish to avoid."
"They will not harm you, sister," Dream said. "But you are learning yourself."
I nodded. I was a little out of my depth here, unsure of what specifically I needed to do. With Scion dead and my job done with that, I lacked purpose. However, I would need to figure out what that purpose would become.
"Come, sister. I have some responsibilities to attend to this evening, but I will lead you to your chambers," Dream said. "I will ask Matthew to be your guide while I am unable to. Feel free to ask of him any questions you may have."
"Okay," I said. I was certainly treating this much more passively than I wanted, but for once, I wanted to understand the full depth of what I was getting into before gathering my control of it. Besides, Dream was being kind. Like I imagined an older sibling was supposed to be. As he led me into the castle, I tried not to react as I would have as a little girl, but the castle itself was… to be blunt, a dream. A wonderful, beautiful dream. Everything seemed to be in place, yet I got the feeling that the walls and hallways could change on a whim.
We passed many of my brother's subjects on the way to my room, which was located on the second floor. The plush carpets that led to it were a dream to walk on, and when he opened the door, the room we entered… well, it started as a chaotic mess, with a bed on the wall, and everything haphazardly thrown about. But the moment my foot touched the floor, the room shifted in organization, to something completely and perfectly organized the way I kept my room in the Chicago Wards building. There were some books upon a shelf in the room, and I simply raised an eyebrow at my brother.
"You are Dominion, sister. The room is keyed to you," Dream said. "Perhaps, in time, you will remember who you were. Take some time to rest and gather yourself. Dinner will be in three hours."
I nodded and entered the room, sitting upon the bed as Dream closed the door. I removed my glasses, setting down my scepter, and then I rubbed my eyes. I didn't need the glasses here. That was different. But… at the same time, I felt that I should not be without them.
"So, you're his sister, are you?" A male voice asked, as I heard the flutter of wings. "Well, you certainly look the part. Even if you do look different than the last time that I saw you."
I looked over at the voice's source, and a black raven was perched on the edge of my bed. Why not? The animals outside could speak, and I knew that ravens and crows of the waking world were capable of imitating speech. "Last time you saw me? You've seen me before?"
"Well, I saw the mortal version of you," said the raven. "Skitter. Weaver. Dream didn't ask me to keep an eye on you, but his brother asked nicely. I guess I can see why now."
"Ah, so you hadn't seen me as his sibling before."
"Well, that's not a true statement, kiddo," said the raven. "I've seen both of the missing siblings before. Destruction and Delirium. Nice kid and… well, an okay older guy. But you, you're different from them both. Heard your name is Dominion now."
I shrugged. "It felt right."
"Well, that's the thing about you Endless," said the raven. "You do what you feel is right. Even if it's not."
I put my glasses on and picked up the scepter. "So… you know who I am… what I am. Who the hell are you?"
"Matthew, kiddo. Dream asked me to help you out the way I helped him," said the bird. "And we'll do what we can, won't we?"
I didn't see much choice.
