In a strangely moving episode of The Sandman, dream lord Morpheus calls upon his family for help. The Furies will soon be after him, and he must test the boundaries of the rules of his universe to try and escape certain death.
His first visit is to Destiny, his brother, a hooded man holding a book at all times. The writing in the book appears on its own, but once it is written, all Destiny can do is read it out aloud—and whatever is bound to happen will.
The last time Dream came to visit, he ignored his brother’s counsel. This time around, Destiny opts not to bother: “You may see it for yourself,” he says, and allows Dream to look into his book. To Dream’s surprise, the current page is empty. Could his fate yet be undecided?! “One’s destiny is determined by one’s actions,” Dream’s brother admits. He is an observer more so than an architect behind the scenes.
Hope flares up in Dream’s heart, but he dares not believe he is out of the woods just yet. Swallowing his pride, he shows up at one of his least favorite doorsteps: his father’s. As usual, Time has few words for Dream, let alone kind ones. “My children seem to think that because I am Time, that my time cannot be wasted.” Ouch!
But eventually, Dream gets to ask what he wants to ask: Can he be saved? After all, the blank pages in Destiny’s book… Alas, time waits for no one. Not even cosmic beings. “Well, the specifics of your death,” Time says, “how it happens, when it happens, may yet be unwritten. But make no mistake: Destiny’s book has an ending. And so do you.”
Dejected, Dream shuffles his way back to the door of his father’s office. But he does note a lack of specifics. If Destiny’s book ends, what happens after? Will time itself stop passing? Or is the end of the last chapter simply the start of a new one? And if there’s neither a how nor a when for his demise, who’s to say it’s to occur this time around at all?
Even if our next step is extra scary, we can’t know in advance: Is it fate or just a phase? The truth usually only reveals itself much later, if ever—but perhaps this is supposed to comfort us rather than frighten us even more. Keep up the conversation, but never stop making choices. Just like Dream chooses to visit his mother, Night, next in his attempt to avoid the supposed inevitable.
Whatever the rules of your universe, stretch them as far as they will give in service of your dreams.
