the sandman: the wake

all good things must come to an end... that's the way it is. and that's the way it should be...

from the wake, the last story arc...

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EBLIS O'SHAUGHNESSY: Sir Librarian -- the young lord in white... who was he?

LUCIEN: He is Dream of the Endless.

EBLIS O'SHAUGHNESSY: He is...? But the wake. The ceremony. I was told that Dream of the Endless was no more.

LUCIEN: Yes.

EBLIS O'SHAUGHNESSY: So... who died?

LUCIEN: Nobody died. How can you kill an idea? How can you kill the personification of an action?

EBLIS O'SHAUGHNESSY: Then what died? Who are you mourning?

ABEL: A point of view.

~
MATTHEW: Lucien? Why did it happen? Why did he let it happen?
LUCIEN: Let it, Matthew? I think he did a little more than let it happen... Charitably... I think... sometimes, perhaps, one must change or die. And, in the end, there were, perhaps, limits to how much he could let himself change.


This is the second brother I have lost, whispered Despair in her shadowy voice, and each of the listeners found herself or himself, or itself, giving an involuntary shiver, and it hurts.
I cared for him, very much. He was so wise; he seemed so certain of the rightness of his actions. And I, who do nothing but doubt, admired that in him. He was a creature of hope, for dreams are hopes, and echoes of hopes. And I am a creature of despair.

And her words moved over his listeners like a black wind blowing across their hearts; and in that moment each of them knew despair.

I think of the first Despair sometimes, said Despair. It must be over a hundred thousand years since anyone thought of her but me... An eyeblink, and she is forgotten. And you will forget: Death of life will take him from your minds. I know, whispered Despair, in her distant, empty voice.

But I shall remember him.

~
DESTRUCTION: You know you could leave all this. It'll carry on all right without you. Come out with me and walk the stars. It's astonishing how much trouble one can get oneself into, if one works at it.
And astonishing how much trouble one can get oneself out of, if one simply assumes that everything will, somehow, or other, work out for the best.

~
DESTRUCTION: Entropy and optimism: the twin forces that make the universe go round.

~
MATTHEW: He was the most important person in the world to me, and he's gone... But you can't kill dreams. Not really.
I mean, despair may be the thing that comes after hope, but there's still hope, right? When there's no hope you might as well be dead.

What's in my heart? A lot of sorrow. A little regret. And the memory of the coolest, strangest, most infuriating boss... friend... boss... I ever had. That's what.

~
And some of them spoke, that day; and some of them were silent. But we do not need to recount every sermon and eulogy. After all, you were there. You may have forgotten, in your waking hours, what you heard that day --
But you will remember it, in the soft, lost slumbering moments between waking and true sleep:.. remembering the whispering voices of the gods of earth and heaven... the piping laughter of innocent chaos... the frightened rustling of cold order...

The voices of the living. The voices of the dead.

They will haunt your sleep until you die.

~
HOB GADLING: Death's a funny thing. I used to think it was a big, sudden thing, like a huge owl that would swoop down out of the night and carry you off. I don't anymore.
I think it's a slow thing. Like a thief who comes to your house day after day, taking a little thing here and a little thing there, and one day you walk round your house and there's nothing there to keep you, nothing to make you want to stay.

And then you lie down and shut up for ever. Lots of little deaths until the last big one.

~
HOB GADLING: There's be an awful neatness to dying here, wouldn't there? Going on to whatever it is one goes on to. Like coming full circle.

DEATH: Is that what you want, Hob? If it is, I can give it to you. Just take my hand.

HOB GADLING: I appreciate the offer. I really do. But I don't think so, love, thanks. I'm not ready to die. Not today. Not yet. Maybe not ever. Anyway, Gwen'd kill me.