Calliope - In The Arms Of Morpheus

Chapter 2

Teleute openly giggled, when they re-emerged from the changing rooms of the bath. She looked him over from head to toe, making him feel even more awkward, than he already did. Looking like he was a physical being, and then being exposed to the eyes of strangers was not what Morpheus, or Dream, as his sister called him, liked.
"You look cute in this!" Her white teeth shone in her warm brown face matching the color of her soft white peplos.
"This is not a place I would rather be." Morpheus said stoically. It was also not the time to look as uncomfortable, as he felt. The stupid short cloth barely covered his thighs! He even had to manifest an additional pocket to be able to hide the golden watch like device, that had brought them to ancient Greece.
"Aw come on. You agreed to help." Teleute playfully slapped his naked shoulder. "Women are not allowed in there, and changing anatomic gender always confuses me for days at a time."
Maybe this was helpful for Morpheus' research. Maybe this was just an experience to be had. Maybe this was just stuff to be used in a nightmare. He shrugged. "Let us go on then. Where am I headed?"
Teleute pointed at an entrance in the large atrium. "The Men's hot rooms."
Sweaty and naked. This was truly the stuff for nightmares.
Morpheus embraced gravity and walked towards the door. Hopefully this would be over real quick and he could get out as fast as possible.
"I will be waiting on a bench over there." Teleute's laugh chimed behind his back.

****

When he was gone, Teleute walked across the courtyard towards where she knew her old friend was every moonday at that time. "Mnemosyne!"
Mnemosyne looked up from the bench, where she had been cooling from the steam, her mouth open and her eyes wide. "Teleute! But- it's not our day..."
"I know." Teleute sat beside her friend and took her hands in hers. "It's an emergency. I'm not the one you'll be meeting next month, like you do every year."
Mnemosyne, being a goddess and used to all kinds of weird stuff, looked mildly surprised.
"I come from the future. Please remember, when you say goodbye to me on that quest, in about, hmmm.... twenty-one years, or so, to tell me that my brother Dream has the device to come back to you, okay?"
"Is that some kind of prophecy?" Mnemosyne tilted her head.
"Not really. I've lived it. But now we need to hurry. I need your foresight, and in the time where I come from, you'll be hard to find. In fact, all gods will have hid themselves fairly well."
"Okay."
"Well, you know, I kinda like this world. But I have a bad feeling. Something is going terribly wrong with the universe, and I can not pinpoint what that might be..."

****

Morpheus pushed at the door and was hit by a cloud of burning hot steam reeking of stale sweat and sweet pine. As his vision cleared, the golden light from the oil lamps revealed a window-less room with built in stone benches. In its middle was a large metal basin filled with glowing stones atop a fire. A man poured water on the stone and a cloud of sizzling pine scented vapor slapped Morpheus in the face. "Sowwy, fow the steam..."
"It'ff fucking fupposed to be fteaming, Idiof!"
Human cleansing rituals. Morpheus mimicked the other men and sat on a bench, bending forward, arms on my knees, imitating their prayer-like meditation-stances.
Low conversations circulated among the sweating men. Across the room, the hunk with the lisp, only covered in an exomis the size of a handkerchief, explained to the scrawny companion how to neuter a dog. Handled that way, the poor animal was sure to bleed to death in the process. His companion clearly knew better, but disguised his criticism in such complicated and whimsical answers, that the hunk seemed to be unable to understand, that he had just been contradicted.
Ignorance, paired with an inflated ego. Stuff for nightmares, indeed.
The door opened and creaked close. Two sweaty men, one in his twenties, athletic with blond curly hair, the other older, his exomis barely holding onto his large portruding belly, emerged from the steam cloud and climbed on a bench higher up, taking seat above and behind Morpheus. "I should congratulate you, Marcos," one said, with a slight cough.
"Much thanks. I am proud: beautiful Chloe chose me of all competitors at her trials as her husband."
A bead of sweat sidled into the corner of Morpheus eye. Before another one could sting the other one, Morpheus wiped at his brow, only to make the stinging burn of sweat even worse and silently hated how much corporeality he had to conjure for this occasion.
The man above him chuckled hoarsely and coughed again. " So tell me, my chaste friend, have you finally been introduced to the joys of marital bliss?"
"To be honest, I imagined bliss to be quite different."
"What do you mean? To me, she looked, chaste, beautiful and obedient enough." He rasped and inhaled raggedly.
"Sure. But she is not as fond of marital bliss as I am."
O-Oh! Did Desire mess up again? Usually they were responsible for more agreeable experiences amongst newly-weds.
"After the first times she turned more and more reluctant and aggressive. Seems to me like women don't have the same drive we men have." The newlywed man sighed.
The other chuckled under his raspy breath. "I agree. Women are like that. They need to be forced..." He inhaled and coughed again, this time sounding as if he was ejecting parts of his lung. "... to perform their duties." He inhaled again, his breath wheezing.
"Caius? Sir?!"
The breath stopped mid-wheeze. Seemed Morpheus had found his sister's client.
"Sir!!!"
Morpheus rose from his bench, glad that the sweating was nearing its end, and stretched his hand in greeting to Caius. "Good afternoon, Sir." Caius looked at his unmoving body, partly covered by a frantic blond Marcos, slapping the body's face. When he looked back at Morpheus, confusion shone in his eyes.
Morpheus should say kind words, like the ones his sister so patiently found on these occasions. Anything. You dumb fool, you just ruined someones life, would probably not do. Oh well... "Would you please be so kind as to follow me? My sister awaits you on the outside."
Once they had left the room, Teleute would take this burden from Morpheus and do her fluttery-angels-wings-thing, put him to rest.
There she was, coming towards them across the courtyard.
"Um, Teleute?" A woman on a bench in the distance yelled.
"Yes?" His sister stopped mid-way and turned.
"Tell your brother, that a quick visit to the Muses, while he is here, might be of help with his little dilemma."
"Sure, thanks!" Teleute turned back to them. "Hello Caius. Let me take you real quick, and them I'll be back with you, dear brother."
And then Teleute did her fluttery-angels-wings-thing, disappeared, and left Morpheus alone in the courtyard.

(If you're ready to meet Calliope, vote, and hop over to the next chapter.)