The Sandman #26 through The Sandman #50

Complete listed story — includes the ending

The Sandman #26

The faerie emissaries Cluracan and his sister Nuala arrive late to the gathering at the Ghost Castle of the Lord of the Dreaming, Dream. He greets them amiably, and invites them to join the other visitors in the banquet hall.

In the hall, the various visitors interact with one another. Thor shamelessly flirts inappropriately with the cat-headed goddess Bast, while Odin keeps watch over Loki, who has chosen not to eat, but rather observe. Meanwhile, Shivering Jemmy demands more icecream.
Before entering the banquet hall, Cluracan admits that he has a private message from his masters, and Dream hears him out. The faeries have been required to sacrifice nine of their wisest and most beautiful to Hell every seven years by ancient pact. He pleads that it is in the faeries' interests that Hell remain empty. The faeries have sent Nuala as a gift to Dream, in order to help convince him. Dream promises to consider the offer, and sends them on their way.

Later, Odin catches Dream's eye, and the Norse god requests an audience. Dream promises to grant that audience later in the evening before walking on. Meanwhile, the sleeping humans whom Dream has drawn into the Dreaming are acting as waiters and waitresses, and one of them happens to become infatuated with another. Nearby, Choronzon and the Spider-Queen Merkin share a strange flirtation. Chronozon wonders what the other gift that Azazel intends to promise Dream might be. Merkin promises to tell him later. Not long after, Bast becomes upset with Thor's advances and scratches him across the face.

As entertainment, Dream arranges to have Cain and Abel perform magic tricks (though Cain is merely taking advantage of his brother's immortality when he saws Abel in half). During the show, Dream is approached by Susano-o-no-Mikoto, Azazel, Shivering Jemmy, and an emissary of the Lords of Order.

While Bast complains to Dream of the advances made by Thor, Merkin and Choronzon retire to her bedroom. Bast eventually admits that she also has an offer to make, and again, Dream promises to meet with her later. Choronzon and Merkin get closer, and begin kissing and peeling off each other's clothing. As Choronzon raises Merkin's dress, a number of spiders come from beneath it, and begin crawling up and down Choronzon's back. Before he can tell what's happened, Choronzon has become encased in a thick web. Teasingly, Merkin announces that Choronzon himself is the other gift that Azazel plans to offer Dream.

Once the magic show has ended, Dream announces that dinner is over, and advises his guests to return to their quarters before the banquet hall disappears. His human servants begin to return to their beds, and the infatuated man never learns the name of the woman he has come to love.

Eventually, a flame appears to guide Odin to Dream's room. Odin explains that he fears only Ragnarok, and he has spent a great deal of time trying to avoid it. Some years ago, he created a notional dimension in which he fashioned a tiny Ragnarok. Inside a small bubble rages the eternal last battle. However, recently, the little world has gained some further warriors. He indicates that his notional dimension has entrapped Wesley Dodds, a man who shares part of Dream's essence, and he offers the man in return for the key to Hell.

Next, Dream meets with Shivering Jemmy of the Lords of Chaos. Rather than offer any exchange, she grows monstrous and threatens that unless he gives them Hell, the entire host of Chaos will be at his throat until the end of time. Dream is unimpressed, and sends her on her way.

The emissary from the Lords of Order visits, bearing a cardboard box which contains the essence of Kilderkin of Order. The box manifests a message within it which offers the dream essences of the newly dead, having been collected by the Lords of Order for some time, all in exchange for Hell. Dream responds that he could have collected these things himself. The box provides another message which promises to plead the rightness of its claim on the next day.

Susano-o-no-Mikoto has come not as an emissary of his pantheon, but the gods of Japan are expanding, and they feel that Hell should belong to them. He offers that whatever price that Dream asks, he and the Japanese gods will pay it.

Bast offers information. Through the eyes of cats she can see many things. She has seen the location of Dream's missing brother Destruction. If Dream will give up the key to Hell to she and the other Egyptian gods, she will tell him where his brother is.

Azazel visits next, expressing his feeling that Hell belongs to the Demons by right, and demands that it be returned. In exchange, he offers the captured Choronzon - a chance at revenge for the theft of Dream's Helm. Additionally, he offers Nada, the woman that Dream condemned to eternity in Hell because she refused to be his lover. He warns that if Dream does not accept the offer, he will devour her soul. Dream's response is the same as for all others: wait until tomorrow. This, despite having travelled to Hell in the first place with the intent of rescuing Nada.

With many things to think about, Dream contemplates simply throwing the key away. He attempts it, but it somehow lands just at his feet. He has a decision to make.

The Sandman #27

The delegates from Faerie wake in the Ghost Castle, preparing to hear Dream's decision as to what to do with the key to Hell. Cluracan believes that they will not be chosen, and so has taken to drink and sex. His sister Nuala wonders what use she will have if not to be exchanged for the dream lord's decision in their favour. The faeries gather in a great hall along with all of the other delegates, waiting for Dream's announcement.

Dream, meanwhile, remains in his quarters. He receives a visit from Matthew the Raven, who is surprised to find that Dream has not come to a decision overnight with regard to Hell's destiny. They are interrupted by the appearance of the angels Remiel and Duma. They bear a message from the Creator: there must be Hell. There must be a place for demons. Hell is Heaven's reflection and shadow. Hell provides Heaven with its meaning.

The Creator decides that Hell's custody should be remanded to Remiel and Dumas themselves, to do with as the Creator determines. Reluctantly, the angels accept their creator's decision, and Dream gladly gives over the key to their keeping.

Dream arrives at the hall to make his announcement. He explains that he will not be giving Hell to any of the assembled, as it is not his to give any longer. The angels appear, and they announce that Hell will again be the abode of the Demons and the damned, who will return and be punished. With this decision, the delegates are annoyed. Azazel warns that this decision means that he will not return Nada to Dream, and he will devour her soul happily. In response, Dream reveals that he offered hospitality to all of his visitors, including those who are prisoners of his visitors, such as Nada. Dream then enters Azazel's mind in search of both Choronzon and Nada.

With relative ease, Dream finds Choronzon first, and not long after, he finds Nada. He offers them both freedom, and they escape from Azazel's clutches. Unfortunately, Azazel refuses to let Dream himself leave. However, the Dreaming is Dream's world, and it conforms to his wishes. Dream traps the demon in a bottle, and drops him in a chest.

Afterwards, Dream says goodbye to each of the delegates. He regrets his inability to accept the offers made by each, and the benefits of the deals they would have struck. The Faeries and the Japanese god Susano-o-no-Mikoto stay behind for further audience, and Dream agrees to see them. Before that, though, he asks Matthew to invite Nada to have dinner with him.

The Sandman #28

In Hell, the angels Remiel and Duma watch as the damned and demons begin their return.
In the Dreaming, Dream finally meets with Nada, the woman who chose death rather than to join him as his queen. He had been so vindictive at this rejection that he had condemned her to Hell for thousands of years. Now, appearing to her as Kai'ckul, he welcomes her to his chambers. Awkwardly, he offers an apology for his hastiness, but his confession of guilt is halfhearted. Nada sees through his flimsy apology and condemns his attempt, slapping him across the face. Angrily he begins to threaten her until he realizes that nothing he could do to her now is worse than what he already has done to her. Finally, he relents, and offers a sincere apology. After a pause, Nada accepts.

With that out of the way, Dream once again offers her a place at his side in the Dreaming. As in the past, Nada refuses, and reminds him that he could leave his post, if he wanted. Dream will not leave his responsibilities, and so the old lovers are at an impasse. Ultimately, they will have to decide what to do with Nada, if she will not stay with Dream.

Later, Dream catches Susano-o-no-Mikoto attempting to leave the Ghost Castle without saying goodbye. Dream correctly guesses that this is not Susano-o-no-Mikoto at all, but Loki, who has switched places with the Japanese god in order to escape eternal torture beneath the surface of the earth. Meanwhile, the real deity will be subjected to that punishment. Dream cannot allow this to continue, though he does not necessarily see a need to return Loki to his fate. He proposes a deal in which he creates a dream image of Loki, allowing both gods to go free and have no one be any the wiser.

Elsewhere, Cluracan prepares to leave the castle with his sister Nuala. However, he has not yet informed his sister that she is not going to be leaving. Dream arrives, and Cluracan explains that Nuala was meant as a gift from the faerie queen whether he accepted their deal or not. As such, it would not bode well for anybody if Dream refuses to accept her as a gift. Dream is no happier with the arrangement than the distressed Nuala is, but he begrudgingly accepts. He prepares quarters for her, but before he allows her to stay, he demands that she dispel the glamour she uses to appear attractive to others. Reduced to her true fairy form, Nuala and her brother part ways.

Later, Dream and Nada prepare for their plan. He promises her that he will still care about her, and remember her for all time. She wonders if she will remember that he still cares, and he admits that she will not. He ushers her toward a bright light, and on the other side, she is reborn in Hong Kong as an infant. Dream visits her in the hospital, and promises that he will never forget her.

On a beach in Perth, Western Australia, a man approaches Lucifer. Lucifer is enjoying the sunset from a deck chair, and the man joins him, admiring the beauty of that sunset. After the man leaves, Lucifer cannot help but admit to the Creator that the sunsets are beautiful.

In Hell, Remiel stops a demon from torturing one of the damned, warning that Hell is no longer a place of mindless torture and violence, but a place of redemptive punishment. While the demon shall proceed in his torture, the purpose will be different. This hell will be one of redemption and correction. He ignores the victim's cry that the change just makes the torture all the worse.

Elsewhere, Destiny closes the chapter of his book, seeing the fate of Hell dealt with, and Dream's role in that complete.

The Sandman #29

In 1794, Dream visits with Johanna Constantine - a woman who had once attacked him as a demon five years previously. Today, he comes to her with a proposition. He requires a mortal agent to perform a special task for him, and in return, he will give her what is in his power to give her. Johanna accepts.

Nearly one month later, in the guise of a peasant, Johanna is encounters a pair of French revolutionaries in Paris. They detain her and demand to know what she carries in her satchel. She resists, but they force her hand, and she produces a severed head from the bag. She explains that it is the head of an aristocrat who biolated her sister three years ago. After he was decapitated, she begged the executioner to give her his head. She intends, she reports, to take the head back to her mother so that they can both spit in its face together. Before letting her pass, the guards inspect the head and rip an earring from its ear.

After getting back home, Johanna apologises to the head, which happens to belong to the immortal Orpheus, son of Dream. Orpheus warns that Robespierre's men will soon be searching for her. They cannot leave Paris until the next day, which means that they must thing fast, lest they be caught in the meantime.

Eventually, Johanna is caught, though the guards cannot find the missing head anywhere. The guards prepare to torture her until they are interrupted by Louis Antoine St-Just. He takes personal custody of her, and drags her out into his carriage. It becomes clear that Johanna has already seduced St-Just under the name of Jeanne, though he seems to show no inclination to let her go free. He accompanies her to the prison in Luxembourg, built inside a large palace.

One day, from her cell, Johanna watches as the revolutionaries make puppets of the decapitated corpses of the aristocrats. She is visited by Robespierre himself, who professes to know much about her, including her real identity. He demands to know where the head is, because destroying it will help further his cause. Once they find the head, they will have her killed by guillotine. That night, Johanna dreams of Dream, and they concoct a plan together. He has her drink a special concoction that will allow her to remember his words after waking. Soon, she is roused by Robespierre and St-Just, who drag her down to a special chamber. He announces that he has realized where she hid the head: in the same place that they keep all of the other severed heads from the aristocrats. Dragging her into the chamber, he demands that she pick out the head she brought from the pile within.

Picking up Orpheus' head, Johanna reveals to whom it belongs. She orders her companion to sing for them, covering her own ears. The sound of his voice leaves Robespierre and St-Just standing in awe. After Orpheus' song is finished, they still stand, and she grabs the head and escapes.

The next day, St-Just, a great orator, fell silent during his speech before the national convention. Robespierre attempted to cover for him, but embarrassed himself. That very night, he and his faction were arrested, and on the next day, they were put to death by their own weapon of execution, the guillotine.

Months later, Johanna returns Orpheus' head to the priests in Naxos, Greece. She never saw him again, but she occasionally sees him in her dreams, and wishes that she could sometimes sing the song he sang to people in authority.

The Sandman #30

In the month of August, the dwarf Lycius is called to an audience with Caesar Augustus. Today, Caesar asks him to teach him how to appear to be a beggar, and then, they will go out into the streets as beggars, forsaking their nobility for just one day. Lycius shows Caesar how to appear boiled and blistered by rubbing soap on his body and covering it with vinegar.

Together, they sit on the steps of the Temple of the Avenging Mars and beg for money. There, Caesar explains how he came to be chosen as his uncle Julius Caesar's successor, and the way in which the Roman people make Gods of their rulers.

Eventually, Caesar confides that he knows the future. He has read every book of prophecy, and he discovered that there are two possible futures: one in which the Roman empire falls in just a few hundred years, and another in which the entire earth becomes a province of the empire. He chose the future that seemed most right to him, and burned all mention of the other. Caesar admits that the reason that he has become a beggar for the day is because he had a dream in which a strange man informed him that in order to appease the gods he fears, and hide his actions from them, Caesar must become a beggar for a day. On that day, the gods will not be able to hear his thoughts. Dream reveals that he knows that Julius Caesar, Augustus' uncle had raped him as a boy, and that it is he whom Augustus fears.

The day over, Caesar and Lycius part ways, and some years later, the dwarf met the emperor playing beggar again, but they did not speak. The empire did not expand beyond Europe and Africa, and Lycius wonders if this is the future that Caesar chose.

The Sandman #31

At San Francisco in September of 1859, Despair taunts a man named Joshua who has fallen into her domain. She sees in him a potential for despair, and calls on Dream to help redeem him. Dream refuses outright, but his sister taunts him, and warns that his other siblings would expect him to comply. Reluctantly, Dream sends Joshua to sleep.
In the dream, Joshua introduces himself as an entrepreneur and inventor. He feels that once he had room for dreams in his life, but now he has lost everything, and has nothing left to dream of. From outside the dream, Despair taunts her older brother with the notion that he may not be able to keep Joshua from despair long enough to prevent him from being taken by Death. Compassionately, Dream gives Joshua a dream.
Afterwards, Joshua leaves his apartment and delivers a proclamation to the local paper. This proclamation declares Joshua himself as emperor of the United States of America. By that authority, he orders the representatives of each of those states to assemble in the city's music hall on the 1st of February. This meeting will make alterations to laws that will relieve the country of evils it is belaboured by. By virtue of the audacity of the proclamation, the newspaper decides to print it all the same.
Death confronts Dream, remarking that the two of them do not get involved in the games of their younger siblings. He admits to having been provoked, and the two of them hope that he knows what he's got himself into.
Five years later, Joshua continues to believe himself a king, but spends most of his day standing outside the offices of the local newspaper, penniless. An editor named Sam has befriended him, and today he decides to take Joshua out for dinner. There, Joshua remarks that some have thought him mad for his plan to build a bridge across the bay to Oakland.
Also in the restaurant, Dream receives a visit from Delirium. She comments that Joshua ought to belong to her by now, given that his dream of being emperor of the United States is like unto madness. However, in every respect but that dream, he is sane.
Joshua realizes that Sam is a good storyteller, and offers his friend a gift. He writes down an imperial proclamation on a napkin that Samuel Clemens, who also writes under the name Mark Twain, shall hereby be the official story teller to the United States of America for the duration of his moral lifetime. Thanking Sam for the meal, Joshua leaves the bar and Sam to think about his writing. Watching, Delirium realizes that it is Joshua's madness that keeps him sane. Dream remarks that he is not the only one for whom that is true.
In 1875, Joshua Norton is still under the impression that he is emperor. One day, a tourist family from Kansas happens across him and they ask him if he will take their imperial tax of fifty cents in exchange for a receipt that they can take as a souvenir. Apparently, he has been doing this for some time. Later, a Chinese immigrant comes to him with a report about the spread of the Tong gangs. The man brings a further message that Joshua's presence is needed at a place called the Cobweb palace.
There, Joshua is met by a man calling himself the King of Pain. He claims to be dead, and that his principal has sent him with an offer. The visitor reminds Joshua that he has no empress, and therefore no way to ensure his dynasty. In exchange for a wife, the King of Pain demands only a tiny favour: he has to want one of the women. Sternly Joshua announces that he is the emperor of the United States and wants for nothing. The city has been charitable to him, and he is happy.
The King of Pain returns empty-handed to a coach outside, where Desire waits. Desire is confused as to how Joshua could refuse the offer, when he obviously lusts after women so strongly. Dream responds that the man's dignity was stronger than his lust. As Desire drives off, it vows to cause Dream to spill family blood; to bring the Kindly Ones down on him.
Five years later, Joshua finds himself caught in a torrential rain storm and eventually, when his umbrella flies from his hand, he collapses. Despair approaches and wonders that despite the fact that he now dies in the gutter, Joshua never despaired. Somehow, Dream won the contest. As consolation, Dream offers his sister a statuette that is sold in the city's souvenir shops commemorating their self-proclaimed emperor.
After both Dream and Despair have gone, Death arrives for Joshua Norton. As she leads him away, she tells him that of all the kings and queens she has met, she liked him the best.

The Sandman #32

In a certain dreamer's land, the inhabitants worry that their future is a gloomy one, as their dreamer has not visited in nearly two years. With her gone, the Cuckoos will likely kill them all. One of them, Martin Tenbones speaks up, announcing that he has the porpentine, and will seek out the dreamer in order to save their lives.

In New York City, Barbie has lived by herself in a crappy apartment for two years. One day she is wakened by her friend Wanda, who decides that they are to go shopping, despite the fact that neither has any money. As she wakes, Barbie comments that she doesn't dream anymore. While Barbie puts on her makeup, she has Wanda ask around the other apartments for some cream to put in her coffee. Finally, she finds some, but in the end, the coffee is bad, and they decide to go out to Tiffany's, knowing that because they haven't got any money, it won't matter whether they shop there.

In the Dreaming, Dream and Matthew sense a change. Something has travelled from one state of existence to another. Reaching into his sand pouch, Dream peers into the event's consequences, and discovers that they will likely be negative. However, he intends to do nothing about it.

On the subway, Wanda and Barbie are approached by an elderly beggar woman. Barbie offers the woman some change, but suddenly the woman is frightened by a nearby dog. She is so completely afraid that she runs from the train. When she gets to the street, she comes face to face with Martin Tenbones - a giant dog. In her fear, the woman collapses. Over real coffee, Barbie and Wanda return to the subject of dreams. Barbie explains how she used to dream of a strange land with a giant dog named Martin Tenbones who protected her in it, but after one particularly weird dream, she woke up and decided that it was time to end her relationship with Ken. After that, she never dreamed again.

After their breakfast, the girls walk out into the street only to find themselves amid a crowd of people trying to see past a police cordon. Over the people's heads, Barbie catches a glimpse of Martin Tenbones. Seeing her, Martin approaches, but before he can reach her, the police open fire on him, and fill him with bullets. The big dog lies bleeding in Barbie's arms as he struggles to explain that the land needs her. He gives her the porpentine, and then sadly, dies.

Wanda walks Barbie back to her apartment, and Barbie asks to be left alone. Outside the apartment, Wanda bumps into a man named George, who inquires after her. Meanwhile, Barbie examines the porpentine, confused as to how her dreams could seem to be becoming real.

In his room, George catches a crow, and swallows the bird whole. He warns, grinning, that while Barbie doesn't know the children of the Cuckoo, they know all about her.

The Sandman #33

While examining the mysterious porpentine, a gem given to her by a friend from her dreams, Barbie is interrupted by her neighbour Hazel. Quickly, she hides the gem and then lets Hazel in. Barbie is taken aback when Hazel - an out lesbian - reveals that she thinks she might be pregnant. She had got drunk and had sex with a waiter, and thought she would be safe from pregnancy because they had had sex standing up. Barbie tries to remain calm and helpful despite her friend's startling ignorance on the subject of human reproduction. She admits to having been pregnant once, and having had an abortion. She tells Hazel to get a pregnancy test and talk to her lover about it.
Still very tired, but afraid to sleep after the previous day's events, Barbie watches some TV. She is so tired that she begins having hallucinations about Hazel's future baby. Then, she sees something new, a strange looking woman who introduces herself as Nuala, and warns that something bad is about to happen. Then she begins to hallucinate that her ex-husband Ken is appearing on a talk show accusing her of being an attention seeking person, who is secretly boring.
Finally, Barbie falls asleep, and for the first time in years, she dreams. After passing through a world of curtains, she comes face to face with Wilkinson - a rat in a trenchcoat and fedora.
Elsewhere in Barbie's apartment building, each of the tenants spends their time in their own way. George waits patiently, Foxglove sleeps while Hazel reads, Thessaly brushes her long hair, Wanda struggles to sleep as she hears the hum of Barbie's TV next door.
Once everyone has fallen asleep, George undoes his shirt and uses a box-cutter to slice down his sternum, peeling away his skin to reveal a bare rib-cage. Out from underneath his open ribs fly several Cuckoo birds.
Wanda dreams of dress shopping, and the proprietress promises to give her all of the dresses she wants for free. Afterwards, the kids she went to school with express their envy of her. Graciously, Wanda shares her dresses with them. Still dreaming, Wanda doesn't notice a Cuckoo perched on her shoulder. In her dream, she dreams of a Weirdzo woman talking to her, only she is a man. The dream turns into a nightmare when the Weirdzos capture her and force her to have gender reassignment surgery.
Hazel dreams of being on a train, but she has no ticket. The ticket inspector takes her down to a cellar, inexplicably still on the train. In that cellar lies a box which contains the prize she won with her ticket. Foxglove watches as Hazel opens the box and finds the corpse of a baby that has been autopsied, dead nearly 70 years, but perfectly preserved. Foxglove already has a baby, and they put the two babies in a crib together. The dead baby comes alive and devours Foxglove's. Hazel knows it will come for them next. Both Hazel and Foxglove sleep with Cuckoos on their shoulders.
Foxglove dreams of being visited by her dead ex-lover Judy, who was killed by John Dee. Judy blames Foxglove for her death, and demands to know if she is seeing someone new. Foxglove admits that though Hazel is not as pretty as Judy was, she never hit her.
When the Cuckoo lands on Thessaly's shoulder, she wakes and catches it. She slams the bird against the wall, killing it, and then sets it on fire with her mind. The action seems to cripple George. Thessally dresses herself and knocks on George's door. When he answers it, she hides a knife behind her back.
In her dream world, Barbie meets the other residents of The Land, Luz and Prinado. She doesn't recognize them fully, and they are incredulous that Martin Tenbones thought she could save them from the coming peril. Even still, Wilkinson urges them not to give up on her. They begin their journey to the Brightly Shining Sea to stop the Cuckoo.

The Sandman #34

Late at night, both Hazel and Foxglove wake from disturbing nightmares and hold each other in tears. Their dreams were so vivid that they seemed real. They are too scared to go back to sleep, so they both just sit there with the light on holding each other.
Not long after, the couple receive a knock at their door from Thessaly. They attempt to play off their fear, but she questions them directly about whether they've had any bad dreams. She tells them that she plans to check on Wanda, and both girls decide to accompany her.
Unsurprisingly, Wanda has also been heavily shaken by a nightmare, and all of them start to sense that there is something more to these nightmares than there appears to be. Thessaly expresses concern for Barbie, and Wanda manically bangs on her friend's door, calling out to her. Thessaly insists that something is wrong, and Wanda uses her spare key to open the door.
Inside, they find Barbie lying on her bed, clutching the porpentine to her breast. Thessaly commands the girls not to touch the gem, as it may be all that's keeping Barbie alive. She has Wanda carry Barbara carefully up to George's room while she looks into some things. After Thessaly has gone, the girls talk amongst themselves about Thessaly's strange behaviour, and apparent knowledge of the situation. As Wanda hoists Barbie up into her arms, Hazel notices that she has a penis. Wanda comments that it's impolite to point out a lady's shortcomings.
In George's apartment, they are surprised to see a poster of Barbie on the wall, solidifying their feelings that he is a creep. Thessaly returns, and orders them to place Barbie on the couch, casually commenting that George is in the bathtub because he's dead and she killed him.
After the girls verify that George is indeed dead in the bathtub, they insist that the police be called. Thessaly explains that none of them can leave the room unless she wants them to, challenging Wanda to try. Wanda is perplexed to find that she cannot, in fact, leave the room. Thessaly explains as much as that George had sent the birds around the apartment building to give all of the girls bad dreams. She plans to get answers from George (despite his being dead), and believes that whatever his plans were, Barbie was central to them.
Thessaly slices off George's face, and - to the girls' disgust - nails it to the wall. She removes his eyes, nailing them in place, and then returns to remove his tongue by ripping it out with her teeth. With George's face recreated in a macabre façade on the wall, Thessaly calls on him to answer her questions. To everyone's surprise, the horrible face responds.
George claims to have been Gwag-y-Gwog, a servant of the Cuckoo. The Cuckoo had promised him things in exchange for watching the Princess Barbara. The Cuckoo intended to consume each of the girls by their nightmares, and have them destroy the porpentine. Thessaly demands to know where the Cuckoo resides, and George responds that it lies in Barbie's dreams.
Despite the supernatural situation, Wanda admits that she will do anything to protect her friend from harm, and the other girls agree. In order to help, Thessaly demands some menstrual blood - which means Foxglove, who is currently menstruating is the only one who can help, given that Wanda is transgender and Hazel is pregnant. The Dream King is not known to listen to the pleas of women, but the moon is ever woman's.
Thessaly instructs Wanda to stay with Barbie while she, Foxglove, and Hazel gather around the bowl of blood and say the words that will take them into the dream. The moon is drawn down, and Thessaly calls on the moon to help them rescue Barbie. The moon responds that they should have asked Dream, but the moon is Thessaly's to command, and it does as she asks. Despite Wanda's desire to go with them, the three women are taken away, leaving Wanda standing alone in George's apartment with the sleeping Barbie.
Uncomfortable, Wanda talks to Barbie in order to feel more calm. She finds it strange that Hazel and Foxglove simply fell into the strangeness of it all, while she vomited. Wanda is suddenly horrified when George's face, still nailed to the wall asks to speak with her.

The Sandman #35

In The Land, Barbie and her companions struggle to cross an icy tundra, with no cover to hide them from the Cuckoo's black guard. If they make it across the plains, they will come to a dangerous forest, where the mysterious Tweeners and even the trees will pose a threat. Though she is surviving, Barbie is very cold. A ways ahead, Barbie spots something in the snow, and when they investigate, it turns out to be the frozen, mangled corpse of the Tantoblin. Barbie remembers him as a kind man who helped her once, long ago. He still holds in his cold fingers the message that he intended to deliver to Wilkinson, Luz, and Prinado before dying. The message contains several photos of Barbie from the real world, and a description of the behaviour of young Cuckoos.

Barbie insists that they bury the messenger. Once complete, they are suddenly frightened by the approach of the Black Guard, and they seek shelter under a small outcropping. Fortunately, the Black Guard marches past without noticing them.

In the Dreaming, Dream reiterates his decision to do nothing to do nothing about the danger that is occurring within the skerry in which The Land resides. Nuala the faerie interrupts to inform him that she warned Barbie of the danger in her dreams, despite Dream's orders to observe but do nothing. She apologizes, and after a pause, Dream admits that she did the right thing.

Barbie and company find their way to the forest, where there is no snow. They eat fruit and mushrooms harvested from the ground, and head deeper into the forest. Though they know they are not being followed by the Black Guard, they adventurers feel as though they are being watched. One day, Prinado failed to return from his scouting, and the group was forced to press on without him. That night, they wake to find the monkey's corpse dangling from a nearby tree. He had been killed by the Tweeners. Without hesitation, Wilkinson calls out for them all to run. Fortunately, the porpentine suddenly issues a glow which illuminates a path for them to take. The Tweeners will not follow them, and Luz, Wilkinson and Barbie manage to escape with their lives. They emerge at edge of the ocean, and Luz offers to go and fetch help for them from the village. Waiting for Luz' return, Wilkinson suggests that it was more than luck that got them through the plains and the forest without any problems. He is sure that when they get to the Island of Thorns that something will somehow show them how to use the porpentine to save The Land.

Finally, Luz returns, but the friends she's brought with her are not there to help. She brought the Black Guard. She betrayed them. Wilkinson boldly steps in front of Barbie and tells her to run, but his throat is cut and he is skewered by the Black Guard's spears. Barbie fails to escape, and she is caught and taken into the city. Luz leads Barbie in shackles to the home of Cuckoo, inside a house that looks identical to the house where Barbie grew up, in Florida.

The Sandman #36

In The Land, Barbie is surprised by the familiarity of all of the objects she sees in the house she grew up in, which happens to be the home of the Cuckoo, who poses a threat to The Land and all of its inhabitants.

Barbie encounters a small blonde girl who claims to be the Cuckoo. Not only that, but she claims to be Barbie - an aspect of her that exists within The Land. She explains that the name Cuckoo comes from the idea that little girls often fantasize about being a princess from another land, and that one day, their real parents - the king and queen - will come back for them. She drags Barbie into what was once her old bedroom, and shows her how the friends she made in The Land were merely her old toys brought to life; a dog, a dodo, a rat, a monkey. The little girl asks whether Barbie likes her, whether she has a right to live, and to be happy. Barbie admits that the girl has a right to live and to happiness, though she is becoming more and more confused and dazed by this experience. The Cuckoo asks whether Barbie would mind it if she had to kill and destroy her. She claims she needs to in order to be really happy. Still in a defeated trance, Barbie simply agrees. The Cuckoo then strides outside and orders her Black Guard to take Barbie down to the Isle of Thorns.

Late at night, Thessaly, Foxglove, and Hazel walk the path of the moon until they find themselves bathed in sunlight in The Land. Thessaly realizes that they are in a very old dream, and she is determined that they should find the Cuckoo. As they wander around the landscape, Hazel stumbles upon the corpse of Wilkinson the rat. Fortunately he has not been dead long, and Hazel prepares to ask him some questions using her witchcraft. Wilkinson isn't happy to have been contacted after death, but he does tell them that the Cuckoo resides in the city below, and offers his apology to Barbie for having failed her.

Afterwards, Foxglove can't help but asking Hazel whether it's true that she got herself pregnant. Hazel admits that while she hasn't taken a test, it seems likely. Foxglove is angered by this, but eventually, she comes around to the fact that her girlfriend will be having a man's child. Hazel promises that she really does love Foxglove.

In the room where Barbie's body is sleeping, Wanda Mann watches over her friend, trapped in the room with the re-animated face of George. George comments that there seems to be something wrong with Barbie, noting that the porpentine around her neck is flickering. Suddenly a crash from outside catches Wanda's attention. The wind is dangerously strong, and she looks out the window to see someone trapped under some garbage bins on the street below. Putting on her coat, Wanda struggles to get outside. She finds an old woman - the same woman who encountered Martin Tenbones earlier - and helps her to her feet. Carefully, Wanda drags the woman indoors and up to George's apartment.

Cuckoo drags an unconscious Barbie to the Isle of Thorns with Luz' help. On the island stands a monolith called the Heirogram. It is as old as The Land, and Cuckoo supposes that the man they call the Heiromancer was able to understand the characters inscribed on it. Cuckoo hopes that when the sun sets, she will be able to use Barbie and the Porpentine to escape the skerry and make her way into real worlds and other dream worlds.

Suddenly, Cuckoo spies Thessaly and her companions on the horizon. Knowing they've come for her, she rushes up to Thessaly and claims that the Cuckoo has kidnapped Barbie, pointing to Luz. Dutifully, Luz admits to being the Cuckoo, and without hesitation, Thessaly snaps her neck. She explains that the lesson she needed to teach the Cuckoo was that there are no second chances. Cuckoo begins influencing the women, entrancing them as she begins to wake Barbie and take her up to the Heirogram. She reveals to Barbie that the destruction of either the porpentine or the heirogram signals the death of The Land, the destruction of both ensures it, and once done, she will be able to travel to new worlds. Cuckoo leads Barbie up to the stone. There, Barbie swings back her arm, porpentine in hand, and brings the gem crashing down against the monolithic heirogram. There is a brilliant flash of light, leaving neither the gem nor the monolith intact. Cuckoo dances around happily, pleased at having won. In the real world, the porpentine disappears from around Barbie's neck.

With the two totems destroyed, Dream finally decides to take action. He appears in The Land and demands to know who called him. Cuckoo doesn't know who he is, nor that it was he who created The Land in the first place. Dream turns away from her, sensing that it was actually Barbie who summoned him, despite not being entirely in control of herself. He returns control to her, and she rushes over to her friends. Dream releases them from their trances too. He has them all keep quiet while he begins to uncreate The Land.
First he turned to Luz, and drew her into his cloak. Then came the entire population of the world, each entering the blackness of his cloak and disappearing. Finally, a beautiful woman approaches. Dream explains that by the terms of the compact, he must uncreate The Land which he created for her out of love. Sadly, she enters his cloak as well. At the last, he scooped up the entirety of The Land in his hand, and allowed it to blow away like dust in a breeze.

Now, turning to the three women who came on the moon's road, Dream demands to know if they are aware of the trouble they caused. He recognizes Thessaly as a Thessalian, a witch. Because of them, the moon has tumbled into the sea, and they have no way to get back home. They are now trespassers in his land without his consent.

Back in the real world, George warns that the storm outside is more than a simple storm. The building is old, and it may not survive the strong winds. As if in answer, the roof suddenly crashes open, and Wanda, Barbie, George, and the old woman are buried in debris.

The Sandman #37

In what little remains of The Land, Dream informs Barbie that she can ask of him just one boon. She considers having him kill the Cuckoo, or to recreate the land, but ultimately she has to take more time to decide. Dream then turns to the three women who found their way there through witchcraft, and informs them that they will all be trapped there as punishment for entering a skerry without his permission.

Finally, Barbie decides that her boon should be that they all be sent home safe, and sound - including the Cuckoo. Surprised, the little girl thanks Barbie, and then transforms into a bird and flies away. Because she asked to be sent back safe and sound, Dream cannot comply with the boon yet, and so the girls must all stay in the skerry until such time as it would be safe for them to return home. Dream bids farewell to Barbie, and then to Hazel and Foxglove who he warns were lucky in getting to go on this adventure, and then to Thessaly who he chides for having been unconsidered in her actions. After Dream has gone, and after some time of sitting alone, the girls suddenly feel the sensation of waking up.

Some time later, Barbie is in Kansas. She goes to a diner, where she meets with Wanda Mann's aunt Dora. The woman is reluctant to acknowledge that Wanda is not the man she once was, Alvin. She warns that in talking with Wanda's parents, Barbie should refer to her old friend as a man. As it turns out, the hurricane in New York City destroyed the building and Wanda was killed. Barbara had awakened in the rubble of her old apartment building, saved by the corpse of the old woman that Wanda had brought inside. Seeing Wanda's body was traumatic for her. She recalls that Foxglove, Hazel, and Thessaly all survived as well. Their landlord had survived by being out of town. After talking for some time, Wanda's aunt drives Barbie to the funeral.

Wanda's parents and family make Barbie uncomfortable, and she stands in the back during the service. Afterwards, she pays her respects, leaving a Hyperman comic on her friend's coffin, and using lipstick to scratch out Alvin and write in Wanda on the headstone.

On the bus to Indianapolis, Barbie dreams of Wanda being taken away by Death; happy.

The Sandman #38

A man from Poland tells his granddaughter Celeste the story of a young boy named Vassily from the old country, who encountered a Romany Gypsy peddler in the forest. He was kind to the woman, but his father found him and warned him against associating with outsiders. The boy could not help his curiosity, and returned to find her again. After a time, she gave him a locket with a picture of the duke's daughter in it. She asked to tell his fortune, but when she did, she was so horrified by what she saw that she ran away.
Eventually, the boy became so obsessed with the girl in the locket that he could no longer take pride in his work. So, he ran away from home, taking what few possessions he still had. On his path through the woods, Vassily discovered the gypsy woman's body; she had already been dead for some time. He collected her goods, and took them in to the next town, claiming to be a peddler himself. At a local inn, the innkeeper suggested that the forest was populated by monsters, and doubted Vassily's having come from there. That night, the boy slept on the floor, and in doing so, narrowly escaped being murdered by the innkeeper. Afterward, he killed the innkeeper, and took his money back.
On the road, Vassily encountered a tall and thin man, who inquired about a book that he believed the boy was carrying. He asked the boy his price, and Vassily responded by showing the picture in the locket: the duke's daughter. The thin man could not pay that price, and so Vassily walked away. When he looked back, the thin man was gone.
Three days later, Vassily arrived at the edge of another forest, only to meet the tall man again. The man offered a sack full of gold in exchange for the book, but Vassily did not want gold. Frustrated, the man allowed Vassily to leave with the book once more.
One night, Vassily tracked a dear into a forest, but it was caught by a girl before he could catch it. He asked to accompany her back to her people and she allowed him to go with her to their encampment. There, he met Baba Yaga, who was intrigued by his offer of the emerald heart of Koschei the Deathless in exchange for passage to the duke's palace.
Upon arrival there, he was greeted by a man in a powdered wig who treated him like an honoured guest, and led him down some steps to a waiting room for meeting the duke's daughter. The man was lying, of course, and he trapped Vassily unwittingly in the duke's dungeon. After some time of waiting, Vassily was visited again by the tall man. Even though he was likely to die soon, the boy refused freedom. He wanted only the girl.
Frustrated again, the man took the boy through a magical door to a strange castle. They tried to sneak through the castle, but the man's master, Dream caught them easily. The tall librarian admitted that he had lost a book from the great library. After Vassily told the lord of dreams his tale and his price, Dream had the boy return the book - a copy of Christopher Marlowe's 'Doctor Faustus' - and then they travelled to the bedroom of the Duke's daughter.
The girl was sleeping in her bed, dreaming. Vassily saw that she was very beautiful as he woke her. Now that he had seen her, Vassily handed her the locket. Turning to dream, he expressed his hunger, and asked to be taken from there. Dream had him fed, and afterwards, the boy woke in the forest. One night, he travelled the forest in the shape of a wolf, and found his mate - the girl who beat him to the deer earlier. They lived happily ever after.
After the story is finished, Celeste believes that it was a parable meant to discourage her from dating her current boyfriend. Her grandfather explains that the story was true, and it was really about why the boy had turned his back on the duke's daughter. Closing the door on her, he tells her that he wishes she could have met her grandmother - she had never let him forget that she had beaten him to the deer.

The Sandman #39

Separated from his father and uncle, Marco Polo wanders the, trying to find his way back to the caravan. Eventually, parched, he collapses in the sand. He remembers that his mother once told him the legend that when he sleeps, the sandman pours magic sand into his eyes, and that is what he rubs out of them in the morning.

Rising, and wandering once more, Marco hears voices singing unfamiliar songs. He follows the voices, hoping they're those of his traveling companions. Finally, he hears a voice calling his name, and turns to see a man he does not recognize. The man asks him how he came to be there, and eventually, it becomes clear that the man, Rustichello da Pisa is from 30 years in the future, where he has already met Marco Polo, and is now recording the history of his travels. Each of them concludes that the other is simply a character in his own dream.

Eventually, the pair catch sight of a fire, and head toward it. They find a strange looking man, who welcomes them to sit with him. Rustichello hopes to have some dream-women and wine conjured for their enjoyment, but the man explains that he has actually come to this place in order to escape his master's frequent traipsing about with his current woman. He does, however, have wine.

Marco tells the tale of how he and his father and uncle had ventured to Cathay to see Kubilai Khan, and the Khan had demanded that they go back to the pope and return with 100 Christian miracle workers, who can match those miracles of his Buddhist priests. They went back to Italy, but the pope had no miracle workers, so they made their return to Cathay empty handed. On the way, they passed through the Desert of Lop, and now here stands Marco.

The strange man explains that they are in a dream of sorts; one of the world's "soft places", where the edges of dream and reality blur together. There are few remaining due to cartographers and explorers, who have made the earth stabilize its form. He himself is a soft place known as Fiddler's Green. After offering his new companions sandwiches, the strange man disappears, leaving the men alone in the desert. Likewise, Rustichello bids adieu to Marco, and soon the man is left alone, back where he started.

Suddenly, a pale, thin man appears nearby. Marco correctly guesses that this is the Lord of Dreams, and begs him for help. However, Dream has just managed to escape from his long captivity, and so lacks the power to help Marco. The man offers Dream the last dregs of water left in his flask, and Dream is moved to use what little power he has left to return Marco Polo to the real world and his family.

The Sandman #40

One day, Lyta Hall puts her son Daniel Hall to bed while she talks to her friend on the phone. In sleeping, Daniel enters the Dreaming.

On the steps of the House of Secrets, Daniel encounters Matthew the Raven and Eve, who lead him inside to take tea with Abel. Their gathering is interrupted by Cain, who maliciously suggests that each of them tell a story to the little boy.

Cain offers a mystery; the mystery of the parliament of rooks. Each member of the corvidae family of birds has an interesting name for a gathering thereof: a murder of crows, a tiding of magpies, an unkindness of ravens, and a parliament of rooks. The last gets its name from the fact that often, these gatherings of rooks will form a circle around a single rook, like in a parliament or trial. That bird makes specific calls until one of two outcomes occurs. Either the entire gathered parliament flies away leaving the lone rook alone in the field, or they all turn on that rook and peck it to death. The reason why the birds do this is the great mystery.

Next, Eve reluctantly tells a story. She explains that Adam had three wives. The first was Lilith. She was a powerful woman, who would not be subservient to him, and as such, she was expelled from the Garden of Eden, and would not return. Some say, she mated with the angels and demons. The second wife had no name. She was made from nothing, before Adam's eyes. He watched as her bones formed, and then her organs, and then her muscles, bile and skin. Because he had seen what she was made from, Adam would not look at her. Some say she was destroyed by God, others say she was simply cast out of the Garden. At last, Eve was made from Adam's rib, and as is commonly known, she and Adam ate from the Tree of Knowledge, and were cast out of the Garden as well.

Next, Abel tells his story; a secret. He tells that long ago, before the known world was a speck in space, Death and Dream went walking. One day, they passed by two brothers who were fighting. The one brother had offered a sheep to the creator, and the other his crops of fruits and vegetables. The creator was more pleased by the sheep, and so the elder brother who had offered crops became angry, and killed the younger. Death came to him, planning to take him to a garden of her own. Dream, however offered the younger brother a place in his own garden, as a guardian of secrets. He was given his own house full of secrets to look after, but he soon grew lonely, so he visited Dream. Dream offered him a gift. When the younger brother returned to his home, he found another house full of mysteries next door to his own, and his elder brother was its custodian. Reuinited, the brothers lived side by side for eternity.

Matthew wonders if all of these stories are true, and Abel nearly gives away the secret of the parliament of rooks, but Cain prevents him, sending everyone home instead.

As Eve carries Daniel and Matthew from the house, Abel defies his brother, poking his head out the window, and revealing that it is not a parliament at all. The rook in the centre of the circle is a story teller, and the result is the other rooks' response to the story. Angrily, Cain kills his brother again, warning that mysteries are more exciting to the mind than the secrets behind them.

Lyta realizes that it's her son's dinner time, and goes to wake him. She picks him up in her arms, but she is confused to find a very dirty raven's feather with him. She thinks little of it, wondering about the mysteries that surround her son.

The Sandman #41

On a remote island in Greece, Andros Rhodocanakis is one of the last of a group of monks who protect the location of the head of Orpheus. Every spring day, he walks up a hidden path which leads to the grave marker of Johanna Constantine, lays a flower on it, and then checks in on Orpheus. As he now does this, his father and grandfather did so before him.
In London, a chatty homeless woman begs for change, and comments to a passerby about the sad state of affairs when a young person like her companion ends up on the streets. Her companion is Delirium, who is blithely oblivious to the dangers of being a scantily clad young woman on the streets when it looks as though it will rain soon. When the older woman suggests that she go back to her parents, Delirium recalls that it is not her parents who left her, but her brother. She decides that she should seek him out, and nonchalantly gets up and walks away, desiring change.
Delirium talks her way past a bouncer at a local S&M club, and walks inside. All the while, she struggles to remember what the jelly-like substance inside the human eye is called. Inside the club, she encounters a woman whom she thinks bears a strong resemblance to her older sister Death. When she realizes it is not her sister after all, she is disappointed, and moves on. She wanders over to a couple sitting at a table, but her general confusion suggests to them that they should get her to a doctor. Before anything can be done about it, Desire appears, and promises to look after her.
Desire takes Delirium back to its domain. Delirium wanders into her sister-brother's gallery, complaining that she misses her older brother very badly. She asks whether Desire knows where he is, but she does not, and nor does she care. Moving through the gallery, Delirium stops at Destiny's book, and wonders if Destruction's location is somewhere written in it. Finding little help from her sister-brother, Delirium calls on Despair to give her entry to her domain.
Delirium finds Despair looking through one her numerous windows at a man whose wife has just left him after discovering that he had created child pornography with his niece. Despite having come this far, Delirium is reluctant to ask her sister what she has come to ask. Instead, she asks what the jelly in human eyes is called, and Despair responds that it is called 'vitreous humour.' She refuses to get to her point unless Despair promises not to use a certain voice that makes her uncomfortable. Finally, she asks whether Despair will help her find Destruction. In giving her answer, Despair draws her own blood with a barbed ring from her finger. She says no, simply, and Delirium decides to look to Dream next.
Despite what she said, Despair does miss her brother. To stifle the emotional pain, she stabs herself in the eye with the barbed ring, so that the vitreous humour within leaks down her face. She recalls the last time she was alone with her brother. It was during the time of the plague, and she had left her domain to personally visit London where pits were piled high with bodies of the dead. Destruction had appeared, pleased to see her out and about. He explained that things were soon to change, and that destruction is the agent thereof. Before long, he had to go already, and he kissed her on the cheek for the last time. The next time she would see him, he would be leaving forever.
Sadly, Despair ignores Desire's pleas to speak about the danger that Delirium's quest could pose.

The Sandman #42

In the Dreaming, Dream is heartbroken over the loss of his most recent love interest. She has decided that she no longer loves him. As a result, he orders his servants to have her quarters erased, and that they never mention her again. His depression fills the Dreaming with endless rain, which oppresses its inhabitants.

Finally, a distraction comes when the Gryphon and Wyvern guarding the gates to the Ghost Castle announce that they have caught an intruder claiming to be Dream's sister. They have, of course, caught Delirium. Dream recognizes her, and has her released. The girl's fear of her older brother is obvious, but he invites her inside for some dinner, glad of the distraction.

After eating, Dream takes Delirium to his gallery to speak about the reason for her visit. Awkwardly, she explains that she thinks they should try to find their brother Destruction. She admits that their sisters Desire and Despair refused to help. Hearing that Desire was involved, Dream calls on his sister-brother and asks about Delirium's cause. Desire professes no involvement in Delirium's impulse to seek out their brother, and further, she denies involvement in the end of Dream's relationship.

Meanwhile, Delirium remembers vaguely a time when she was known as Delight. But things had changed. Destruction came to her, and told her that the time had come for change, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. Dream interrupts her, and, surprisingly, agrees to help her find Destruction.

Lucien challenges Dream on his decision, warning that it may not be wise. Dream admits that he doesn't expect to find his brother, and he and his sister leave.

The Sandman #43

Bernie Capax is a lawyer, but he was not always so. He has been alive for at least 15,000 years. However, as he walks down the street, a brick wall collapses on top of him, and Death comes to him.

Meanwhile, Dream and Delirium arrive in Dublin, hoping to meet Pharamond, a man whose domain is transportation. After an administrative struggle, the pair manage to get an appointment with Pharamond (who goes by 'Mr. Farrell') who graciously arranges travel for them for the duration of their stay on earth. Unsure of where to start, they decide to visit the people on the list of known associates that their brother Destruction had, though Delirium has written rather incoherently.

One of those on the list is a woman named Etain. She has just wakened from a dream in which she heard a beautiful poem. She sits to write it down, but realizes that she can't remember a word of it. Suddenly, having smelled gas in her apartment, she grabs her purse and uses it as a shield as she crashes through her window, and leaps out onto the fire-escape. Dropping down into the alley below, she runs away just in in time to avoid the explosion which destroys her apartment. Still in her underwear, she wanders into a K-Mart, and buys some clothes and shoes.

Elsewhere, Destruction works on his painting, and is unimpressed with his canine companion Barnabus' attempt at critique. Suddenly, the dog hears a sound from within their house. Behind a door which has not been opened in some time - Destruction's gallery - is a pool of water which sloshes about. Destruction explains that this is a sign of trouble.

On a plane to the United States of America, Dream and Delirium sit next to one another. Nearby, a young girl wakes from a dream that she nearly became lost in it. Her mother assures her that it is not possible to get lost in a dream, before going to the washroom. While the mother is gone, Dream tells the girl that it is entirely possible to get lost in a dream. Before taking her seat again, the girl's mother asks a stewardess whether Dream and Delirium are famous, because they seem familiar. When she returns to ask her daughter what she and the pale man had talked about, the girl replies "true things."

A woman named Ruby picks Dream and Delirium up at the airport, and they head off in search of the lawyer named Bernie Capax.

The Sandman #44

Somewhere in the North of Scandinavia, a Sami Alderman named Leib Olmai senses trouble after watching the Northern Lights. He checks the traps he set in each of the four directions, and finds that the trap in the south has been triggered. He transforms himself into a bear, and sends his shadow to return home in his place.

Meanwhile, Dream and Delirium arrive at the home of Bernie Capax, who was once a known acquaintance of their missing brother Destruction. However, they find that he was killed just the day before by a collapsed building. His son Danny was so disturbed by what he found in his father's locked office that he took to drinking, and is already quite drunk. He leads the pair down to the office to show them that his father apparently lived a life that would rival that of a spy or thief. He does not know that his father had been alive for nearly 1500 years prior.

With Bernie dead, they decide to see the next person on the list. Her name is Etain, and she lives in Ohio. Their driver Ruby refuses to go the whole 15 hour drive over night, and so they go to a motel. She gets them three connecting rooms, though their eccentricity is growing tiresome for her.

Delirium tries to think of the people on her list, and she reaches out. She finds that Bernie Capax is certainly dead, as there is nothing but darkness in his space. Etain has moved from her original location. She has taken refuge somewhere. She considers that some old power may be blocking her from knowing exactly where Etain is. There is something strange and different about the familiar impression of Lieb-Olmai, but she moves on. She senses the dancing woman, a stripper. Reaching out, she appears to the dancer and warns her that they'll be seeing each other soon.

In his room, Dream contacts Lucien in the Dreaming. Despite having no wish to find his brother, Dream senses that there seems to be a force that is attempting to prevent them from finding him. He asks Lucien to have someone look into that for him. Lucien comments that he hopes that they do find Destruction, as he was a well-liked and respected man.

Dream recalls having long ago spoken to his brother. He had been walking the streets with the Corinthian when he was accosted by Destruction. Suddenly, Dream caught a pickpocket by the arm and demanded his Dreamstone be returned to him. The pickpocket professed no knowledge of the item, so Dream warned that until the day that the man is hanged, he will have nothing but nightmares of the event, and his future would be coloured by images of his own death. Finally, the man gave up the stone.

Destruction commented that the threats were unnecessary in recovering the stone, adding that times are changing. To demonstrate this, he took Dream to a college where scholars were depending more and more upon reason and science. In this particular college a scientist was performing a vivisection on an orangutan. Destruction explained that soon, there would be a shift in the thinking of man that would put reason at the forefront, and the chaos of destruction would no longer be needed. In this way he foreshadowed his own abandonment of his post.

Dream returns from his reverie to find that the room he is in is on fire. As it turns out, Ruby fell asleep with a lit cigarette in her mouth, and set her self and her room on fire. He heads out into the parking lot, where he finds his younger sister waiting. He explains that Ruby has died, and suggests that the deaths of those who are supposed to be helping them suggests that something is trying to prevent them from succeeding. Delirium only takes from this the fact that she is now free to drive their car.

The Sandman #45

Ishtar stops by her coworker Tiffany's apartment, noticing that the girl still appears very sick after she spent the previous night vomiting. Ishtar has brought breakfast, but when she makes food for her friend, the smell of it causes her to vomit all over again.

Meanwhile, Dream has allowed his sister Delirium to drive their car, and her poor driving alerts a local traffic patrolman. He pulls them over, but his outrage makes Delirium feel threatened and she sentences him to be plagued by invisible insects for the rest of his life. In order to help Delirium drive more safely, Dream has Matthew the Raven instruct her.

Tiffany recovers from her illness, and she and Ishtar prepare for work. Tiffany wonders why Ishtar never dances to her full potential. She knows she has seen her friend dance well, but on the stage, she never dances as well as she can. Ishtar responds that the audience only wants tits and ass, and the dancing comes second, so she never gives more than necessary. Getting into their car, Tiffany complains that she has never found a nice guy. Ishtar responds that she once found a nice guy, but it was a long time ago, and she had to split up with him because of family fighting and his job. She wonders where he is now.

Arriving at the club, the girls' topic changes to prostitution, and Ishtar recalls - with perhaps too much nostalgia - that there was once a time when girls would prostitute themselves outside of a temple. Their friend Nancy, who has her masters in Women's Studies, clarifies that young women would be required to wait in the temple courtyard for men from the village to pay them. Then they would be required to go with the man, and have intercourse. Ishtar heavily suggests that she was once one of those women.

Ishtar goes out on stage and does her dance, still holding back. Meanwhile, Dream, Delirium, and Matthew talk their way into the club. When Ishtar catches sight of Dream she runs offstage in horror, and hides. Dream finds his way to her, and she expresses great bitterness that he had pressured her to end her relationship with his brother Destruction. After he explains that he has not come to bother her, he asks about Destruction's possible location. She does not know. Before leaving, he warns her that some force is trying to stop them from finding Destruction by killing the people they are visiting.
After Dream and his companions leave for their next destination, Ishtar walks out on stage and, for the first time in a long time, she dances to her full potential. The power of her dance kills all of those inside the club, and eventually, the entire building collapses around them. Fortunately Tiffany has already run outside to safety - albeit completely nude. There, Desire appears to her and offers its coat, muttering that Dream had been warned of the danger.

The Sandman #46

In his place of hiding, Destruction - having given up his post 300 years ago - attempts the creative endeavour of poetry to limited success. His canine companion Barnabus is certainly critical. Destruction comments that he doesn't dream anymore, lest he give himself away to his younger brother. Barnabus doesn't know why Destruction is so worried about it, but Destruction responds that that is because he has never met his family.

After having travelled across the country, and witnessed the death of yet another of the people on Delirium's list of Destruction's known associates, Dream decides to call off the search. His sister is quite upset with him as a result, but he resolutely returns to the Dreaming, leaving her alone.

Upon his return, Dream locks himself in his throne room, and closes many of the doorways into the Dreaming. He informs Pharamond that he has finished travelling on earth, and apologizes for endangering his employee Ruby, who burned to death - likely as a result of the search for Destruction. Afterwards, he creates a new region within the Dreaming.

There, he meets with Bast, the Egyptian cat-goddess. He hopes that she can make good on her promise of two years ago to tell him where his brother is, as he suddenly thinks it may be more necessary than desirable that he find him. Unfortunately, Bast has does not truly know where Destruction is. She has news that sixty years ago, he was seen in Paris, but that is all. After rebuffing the cat-goddess' attempts to seduce him, Dream returns to his castle.

Later, Dream asks his librarian Lucien if there is any news on who might be behind the deaths of those people he and his sister had been involved with on earth. Lucien has no news, but he does note that something strange has occurred. In Dream's gallery, the window into Delirium's world has been blacked out. This is troubling. He calls on his elder sister Death to help him. Death is angry with him, knowing that he is likely responsible for whatever upset has caused Delirium to close herself off from the family. Eventually, she forces Dream to realize his responsibility, and he agrees to go to Delirium's world and set things right.

After his youngest sister condemns his treatment of her, Dream apologizes, explaining that he had selfishly agreed to join her search because he had secretly hoped that he would encounter the woman who had left him recently. Once things had become dangerous, he had decided to call off the search. However, now he understands that they must continue their search. After Delirium presses Dream to admit that he is fond of her, she agrees to return to the search with him as her partner.

The Sandman #47

In his hideaway, Destruction decides to practice the art of cooking, explaining to his canine companion Barnabas that even cooking is a method of creating. Barnabas has little enthusiasm or hope for Destruction's ability to create food, let alone art; he notes that the sculpture outside is little more than a block of marble with holes in it.

Meanwhile, Dream and Delirium have decided to resume their search for their elder brother, though their list of leads is now essentially useless. Dream decides that their next step should be to speak to their brother Destiny in his garden, but in order to get there, they will need to find a maze. Delirium transports them to an amusement park on earth, where a maze of sorts is kept. Entering it, they find that each maze throughout the universe is connected at its core to Destiny's domain.

Naturally, Destiny has been expecting them, and he knows why they have come. His advice is merely that they give up their search, but he knows already that they will not. Cryptically, Destiny suggests that pursuit of Destruction will have negative side-effects for Dream, but he cannot or will not elaborate. Unwelcome is Destiny's further information that the woman Dream pines for will never be his again. Finally, all Destiny can tell Dream is that they need an oracle who can tell about the Endless. The only such oracle that they know of is Dream's own son Orpheus, to whom he has already promised that he will never visit again.

Dream and Delirium arrive on the Greek isle where Orpheus' shrine lies guarded by Andros Rhodocanakis and his family. After some delay, Dream reluctantly speaks with his son while Delirium plays beside the gravestone of Johanna Constantine. After a time, Dream returns with the knowledge they were seeking, admitting that the information came at a cost.

Andros' son Kris rows the pair to a neighboring island where it turns out that Destruction has been staying for some time. Finally, Destruction greets his siblings and welcomes them into his home for some dinner and talk.

The Sandman #48

Over dinner, Dream and Delirium have little interest in the mortal food that their brother Destruction has made for them. Delirium explains the lengths to which she and Dream went to find Destruction, and Dream tells of how the rest of the family is; more or less the same. Finally, Destruction asks what they plan to do now that they've found him.

Delirium hopes that he will come back with them, and take up his post again. Dream explains that he came out of honour, having witnessed a mortal named Ruby killed as a result of their search. Destruction comments that Dream's feelings about Ruby suggest that he has changed significantly over the last 300 years. Eventually, though, he admits that Ruby's fate was likely the result of safety mechanisms he set up against being found when he left.

Destruction explains that he left because the Endless are not the agents of the domains over which they preside. Destruction occurs with or without him, and certainly has without his influence in the 300 years since he left. Likewise, each of them is but one side of a two-sided coin. Without destruction, there can be no creation. Without despair there can be no hope. Without dream - perhaps there can be no reality. Sadly, Destruction resigns himself to the fact that he must leave again, in order to escape his family.

Before going, he wraps up his sigil - a sword - in his handkerchief. He bequeaths his canine companion Barnabus to Delirium, as some consolation for the fact that he himself will not be rejoining them. He bids each of them farewell, and walks off into the stars.

Afterward, Delirium and Barnabus return to her domain, while Dream prepares to face his son one more time. He has a debt to repay him; he must kill Orpheus.

The Sandman #49

Keeping his promise to his son, Dream visits Orpheus in his temple. Though he is scared, Orpheus has asked his father to give him death. HE has lived for years as a disembodied head, protected by the family of Andros Rhodocanakis in the temple. Reluctantly, and with sensitivity, Dream picks his son's head up, kisses his forehead, and then takes Orpheus' life. The act causes his hand to be coated in blood.

Dream wanders out of the temple, his bloody hand dripping into the grass underfoot, and sprouting new blood-red flowers where it lands. He joins his youngest sister Delirium outside, and they are then joined by their sister Despair. She asks after Destruction, and she is pleased to know that he spoke fondly of her. After Dream takes his leave, Despair confides in her younger sister that she regrets not having come with them to find Destruction, and she regrets not having seen him again - as befitting her name. Delirium soon leaves as well, with her canine companion Barnabus in tow.

Despair returns to her gallery, bringing with her two of the red flowers. She finds her twin Desire waiting there, and offers her one of the flowers. Desire is somewhat melancholy; perturbed by the fact that Dream will have to pay a great price for seeking out Destruction. While she had warned that she would one day see Dream spill family blood, she had not expected it to feel this way. She admits to her sister that she is scared, and Despair admits that she is too.

In the Dreaming, Dream sends a message to Andros Rhodocanakis that his last task as guardian of Orpheus should be to bury his head safely, but erect no marker. He returns to his castle, where he recognizes the pendant around his faerie friend Nuala's neck as having once belonged to the woman who left him. He realizes that perhaps he has finally got over her. Afterwards, he instructs Lucien to find a way to thank and reward all of those who helped him find his brother.

In the privacy of his quarters, Dream finally washes the blood from his hands, and in the basin, he sees an image of his son. He tells the boy that he should have gone to his lover's funeral to say goodbye to Eurydice. Having done this, Dream sits down and laments.

Elsewhere around the world, all of those who were involved in his journey deal with the repercussions thereof - positive or negative. Meanwhile, Andros and his family bury Orpheus' head, the old man knowing that he will not live to see the nearby cherry tree blossom again.

The Sandman #50

Caliph Haroun Al Raschid, King of Baghdad, lives in a beautiful city of wonder, enjoying the pleasures of his harem, and occasionally sneaking out in disguise to experience strange things with his friends. However, during the month of Ramadan, he becomes listless, wanting none of the pleasures that city or palace have to offer.

Finally, he descended deep into the lowest part of his palace, where he finds room after room of strange things. Finally, he comes to a magical orb, and collects it. Returning to the very top of his palace, he uses the orb to call upon the lord of dreams. He warns that if the Dream Lord does not come, he will shatter the orb, in which a number of evil creatures have been imprisoned. Receiving no answer, he heaves the orb above his head and tosses it out over the city. Moments before it makes contact with the ground below, a pair of pale white hands catches the orb.

Dream appears, and confiscates the orb, demanding to know why he was summoned. The Caliph explains that he would like to make a bargain, and in order to do that, they had best go to the marketplace. He fetches a magic carpet, and the two ride out into the city. Dream remarks that the city is a remarkable place. The Caliph Haroun wonders if Dream might like to buy it from him.

Caliph explains that he knows the city will one day fade. He worries that the wonder and beauty of his city will die. He wonders if Dream will purchase the city from him; take it in to the Dreaming. In exchange, he wants the city never to die. Dream responds that he can do this, if Haroun tells his people the plan. So, the Caliph gathers his people and tells them of his plan.

Not long after, the Caliph wakes in the market place with little recollection of his dream. He passes by a tall pale man and wonders what it is that he's holding. The man responds that it is a city in a bottle, but that it is no longer for sale. The Caliph returns to the crumbling, dusty palace as the pale man watches.