Yue

 11th January

09:48 GMT

Hinon taps the transparent hemisphere. "Plastic."

"The original was glass."

"An imitation. And not even an accurate one."

"You… Want them to put an accurate replica of a device that can trap one of the Endless on display to the public?"

"Don't be absurd. It wouldn't trap one of the Endless unless they walked into it. The magic bound to it is the dangerous part." She turns away from the inverted plastic goldfish bowl. "What does the pamphlet say?"

"They're going with the 'allegedly' angle. Most of this is about what happened to the people involved, and the pre-Order of Ancient Mysteries history of the building."

"'Order of Ancient-'… Do you mean to tell me that they were classicists?"

"On Earth, original magic research is pretty much the provenance of the Atlanteans."

Hinon squeezes her eyes closed and shakes her head. Not as a 'no', but as if to clear her head of the sheer lunacy of it. "So they read a ritual someone else already wrote?"

"Probably." Ah…

"Someone on this planet already knew how to bind the Endless? I… Don't.. Believe…"

"Has one of the Endless gone missing?"

"Delight. And Destruction vanished a while ago."

"And… When they die... Someone else gets the job."

Daniel. Son of Hector and Hippolyta Hall. I haven't met him, but I saw a picture when I visited his parents' house. Not the new Dream yet. Perhaps never. Or… I don't know. I only read Sandman because Eastbourne library had it, and I doubt that I read all of it. Other things are different to the various comics I've read over the years, why should I assume that Sandman would come through untouched?

"So in theory the last use might have resulted in the death of the one-."

"Stop."

Hinon floats upwards until our faces are level, her right hand coming down hard on my left shoulder. Her eyes are glowing. And… The patterns of orange light inside her are… Shifting, changing in how they relate to one another. I think this is significant, but I don't have a reference framework. Am I seeing her underlying character, bereft of the grandmotherly dust sheet? Or have I just pissed her off this much?

"Explain how you know any of that."

I meet her stare. "Either justify that request or say 'please'."

"I came here because you asked me here."

"I asked you to come to Earth to check I wasn't leaking. I brought you here because I thought you might find it interesting, and everyone in America won't be up and about for another four hours."

"Do you know what happens when one of the Endless dies? The sheer.. devastation it wreaks across the universe. I'm old enough to remember when the last Despair died... Hateful.. monster." Her eyes widen slightly as she continues to stare me down. "And I find that this planet has ways to make that happen. And they know it. My species was rendered incapable of dreaming due to a broken love affair, and I can only guess at what the ongoing side effects of that are."

I frown mildly. "I seem to remember something about him being a dick to his ex-girlfriends."

"To my species. How our inability has altered the way we think. And no, rather than give me the information I need in order to patch yet another hole in the functioning of this misbegotten universe… You're taking the opportunity to play a game. To remind me that I don't control you as the Guardians control the Green Lanterns."

"So that's what you want?"

"Yes. Because every time wiser heads have relinquished control, some idiot brings everything crashing down. I. Want. Control. Not because I wish to control people as an exercise in egotism, but because I want to prevent things like…" She finally released my shoulder, turning away and gesturing to the plastic enclosure with both hands. "Like this. Have you any idea how many people across the galaxy were comatosed, or rendered incapable of sleeping bereft as they are of the exotic protections my own people can use, or simply driven insane by nightmarish visions conjured from the newly ungoverned Dreaming? How many times those nightmares became real, breaking into the material universe to wreak havoc?"

"Weren't you in a coma yourself-?"

"I reviewed my laboratory's recordings while we had our first conversation. And I've been going over them ever since. I haven't wanted to push this point since we appeared to be heading in the same direction, but seeing this lunacy has rather pushed me over the edge."

"I read it in a comic book in my home parallel. Also, 'please' would have been faster."

"A.. comic..?" Her eyes dim, and her soul structure is once more becalmed. "Why?"

"You'd have to ask Neil Gaiman's editor. It was written as a work of fiction." I shrug. "My misspent youth as a reader of low-grade wish fulfilment fantasy means that when I actually started interacting with-."

"We're a work of fiction where you're from? That's what you're saying?"

"You didn’t appear as a named character. But yes. That's how I know about a lot of things."

"The Anti-Monitor, what do you know of the Anti-Monitor?"

"DC wanted a way to merge the superheroic setting of the golden age comics of the thirties with the setting of the silver age comics of the fifties. They wrote a storyline where a being empowered by eliminating parallel universes attacked all of their settings, destroying everything and leaving a single universe that was an amalgamation of what had gone before. The Anti-Monitor. Historical events and personal timelines were altered and individuals' memories were rewritten, except that some things didn't quite fit. For some unfortunates, their history changed as they lived it as the universe tried to accommodate irreconcilable events. And some remembered the whole thing, immune to the event which reformed the universe."

"I take it that's not actually what happened?"

She takes a deep breath. "A child's fairy story of it. Any number of beings with more knowledge than sense might be allowing corrupted records to slip into your home parallel."

"So?"

"So… What do you know about this?"

"Not a lot. The man who headed the ritual wanted to stop dying and so tried to bind Death. He got Dream, stole his mask, powder and gem and left him here. Dream eventually got out, tracked down his equipment and went back to the Dreaming. Things had fallen apart since he left…" I shake my head. "I know he ended up dying and being replaced by someone called Daniel. I don't think that's happened yet. Might not happen at all."

"I can only hope. And the ritual itself?"

"I don't remember it. Everyone who took part is dead now, have been for years. If it was written down as they performed it, then it might still be around somewhere. If they were using a variation on a pre-existing ritual instead then I rather imagine that it's gone."

"Very well." She raises her hands, orange light strobing around the room. "I will continue to study the site. Go and make yourself useful elsewhere. I'll tell you when I need you."

I perform a sweeping and not at all sarcastic bow. "Of course, Controller Hinon