Calliope - In The Arms Of Morpheus

Chapter 15

"So, have you finally arrived, dear brother." Desire moaned, their feet propped up, against the backrest of their open-mouthed shiny red throne, their body flowing upside-down on its rose tongue-cushion, revealing hard nipples on the flat chest through the open shirt.
"Greetings, my Sibling." Morpheus would not be upset by his sibling, nor let them amplify his already racing pulse. "I've come to hear what you have to say about my current increasing corporeality."
"Hmmmm..." They sucked at their finger. "Tell me first: how is it affecting you? Do you like what you feel, my restrained brother?" the words flowed like poisoned honey from their lips.
"That is of no importance to you." Maybe breathing evenly would help with Morpheus' intensified reactions.
"Oh, but it is." Their smile did not reach the eyes. They turned and sat, now leaned forward, the heels of the Luboutins digging into the shiny red floor of the heart shaped throne room of the threshold. "I believe you seek my help. Depending of the stage of your... affectedness, you might have different desires, no?" They leaned forward, revealing the other pierced nipple too.
This was not going anywhere. Morpheus needed answers and then time to think. "Quite the opposite. I need to stop this corporeality, in order to prevent a disaster, and you, of all beings, know that very well."
"Yes, I do." The smile in their face became barbed. "But let me enjoy this for a minute. My dear, oh so very restrained brother, is getting controlled by his body." They enjoyed every syllable of the sweet words. "Finally, he has proved, that he, too, is able to feel the most important, that is needed to advance humanity: desire."
Disgusting. Morpheus pushed the rising anger away. "It is not about who is more important. It is about restraining oneself enough, to be able to make level-headed decisions. I am ready to suffer if it is for the right, and well thought-out cause. But these... feeelings..." of darned desire, every time he saw, or even thought of Calliope, "...prevent me from thinking."
"Right." Their gaze slid down Morpheus' torso and got stuck at the height of his groin, which was thankfully obscured by his coat, since his previous thought had stirred it, again. "Oh." They rose an eyebrow. "Already."
As if they knew what Morpheus was feeling. Technically, yes, they knew, he was in their realm. Morpheus had made the fatal error to meet them on their turf. "I need to leave." Morpheus turned away. He would not let his sibling toy with him.
"Wait!"
Morpheus looked back.
Desire stood, hands on hips, golden eyes staring at him. "Have you ever considered, why you became corporeal?"
Indeed. Morpheus existed to serve humankind. He created to serve humankind. He changed, according to humankind's needs. Did he need to become a sexual being? But why? There were still rules: No Endless should ever procreate. He existed for dreams, not to copulate his way though humankind, like his driven sibling thought he should.
Fornication was Desire's turf. Desire was so lonely, and ready to do anything to distract themselves from their own solitude.
He was Dream of the Endless. he was corporeal, but he was not ready to break the rules, not even to be with sweet and needy muse Calliope. Maybe Morpheus had changed, because he was right. Humankind needed better dreams. And right now, Morpheus knew how to achieve that, without permanent damage.
"Thank you Desire. Fare ye well." There were more important things to attend, than sparring with his jealous sibling.
"Uh, one last thing, dear brother." Desire chirped.
Morpheus stopped.
"You do know, that your precious little muse needs to lose her virginity, in order to be a muse, don't you?"
Morpheus gritted his teeth and refused to turn. "Of course. Thank you, dear Sibling." It wasn't important if his sibling was right.
The thought of Calliope with someone else hurt physically. His body missed her. But before he could go back to her, to tell her a few harsh truths about himself, he had something else to do.
Behind Morpheus' back, Desire started laughing, hysterically.

****

Calliope found herself at the large and colorful see-through doors to the room of scrolls, Lucienne called the library.
"There you are." Lucienne beamed and motioned her to come in. "You must be unfamiliar with books."
She nodded and followed Lucienne across the area with the empty table and little lamps. "I can't even read them, they aren't in Greek."
"I see. It's good that we are in a dream, then." Lucienne stopped at the shelf, where Oneiros had shown Calliope her first book. Lucienne reached and withdrew the same book. "There you are. The Little Prince." She handed it to Calliope. "Come, you can read it in my reading nook."
Calliope followed her back, halfway through the library and then up winding stairs into the upper level. There, between shelves, was a small desk, stacked with heaps of books, and a chair. "I'll be working here, if you need me." Lucienne told her, then walked on, to the corner of the library past another shelf.
In the space between two shelves was a large window, overlooking the sea in front of Oneiros' castle, the hand-held bridge up to the gate of ivory. "This is amazing!" Calliope gasped.
"I love it too. Look, you can sit here, while you read." Lucienne indicated the large bench spanning the window, stacked with colorful cushions. At one side was a smaller table, holding a steaming pot, a cup, a covered pot, and a small jug with milk. There were also another pair of the face-ornaments she called glasses.
Lucienne poured the steaming liquid into the cup, added a white cube from the covered pot and milk from the jug, coloring the brown drink with white swirls. "Tea?" She asked, holding up the cup.
"Yes, please." Calliope sat on the bench and took the scalding brew. She blew across the liquid's surface then carefully sipped. Calliope smiled. "Oh, I like this." The dream-tea looked delicious, but did not taste.
"Yes." Lucienne sat beside her. "It has become quite the tradition at our times, to sip tea while reading. Now try the glasses."
"You said they were only for the weak-eyed."
Lucienne smiled. "Remember, you are in a dream. If you want them to be a translating device, they will be. It's your dream, after all."

***

A delicious while later, Calliope had finished the magical story of a man, learning to take care of his precious woman, and a fox teaching him how to do so. She walked back to Lucienne, who was engulfed in her work. Not wanting to disturb her, Calliope decided, that she wanted to read more, take advantage of the translating glasses, as long as she dreamed them. She walked back to the nook and browsed the writing on the backs of the books, until a name caught her attention: Urania.
Like her sister, how funny. But there, right beside it, was also a book inscribed Polihymnia, and one called Clio, and there they were, same size, same color, twin books, Melepomene and Thalia. They were all there, including Euterpe and Erato.
Calliope choose the one wit her name, and started to read:

Calliope, youngest offspring of Zeus and Mnemosyne, was born on the banks of the Hippocrene.

She opened the book at the end:

She chose the book with her name, and opened it at the beginning. After having read a few sentences about her birth, she closed it, and opened it to read the end.

Nothing she did not know herself, then. But it would be interesting to read about her sisters.
Calliope stretched her arm, wondering which one to pick. Erato. She always wanted to know what was going on in her head. Maybe she could help Oneiros with whatever he sought out with her.
"Calliope?" Lucienne walked out of her area of the library.
She looked at her, frozen.
"Oh, there you are." Lucienne looked at the book in Calliope's hands. "You know, you probably should not read your sister's books."
She was about to stuff the book back into the shelf, when Lucienne gasped. "Oh, I'm so so-o-o-ohhh...!" Lucienne sneezed, and dissolved into thin air.

(If you want to find out where Lucienne went, and why Dream is so reluctant with his feelings toward Calliopoe, vote for this chapter and read the next one.)