Serena

"It's all my fault," Larna moans, "I was the one who was not content, I was the one that kept coming back, kept engaging with the mortals. She followed me, and then she went beyond me. I was playing with the mortals, but I wasn't aiming for worship. I was just getting off." Serena stares for a moment, and shakes her head, "What do you mean by 'playing with the mortals' exactly?" she asks. Larna smiles, gleaming & wicked. "How explicit would you like me to be? Gods in general are passionate by nature, try to imagine for a moment what it's like to be a god like me....My realm is pure sensation: in a disembodied state, I tend to lose my sense of self. Embodied, I'm pure lust, I'm a predator. I like to feel alive, I like being inside a body, it's what I'm about. I love fu-" Serena stops him before he can finish, "All right, I understand," she sighs. She hasn't decided if she wants to tell him about the strange dream she had, with the Lord of Dreams, though she'd like to ask him what he knows about this immortal, because she's not sure how much he is her ally at all. "You know," he says suddenly,"My half-breed children are incredibly charismatic, they usually used to serve in the temple. If you were to bear a son of mine, we could raise him like they used to do, to live in her service. One of mine could round up a cult for her quite easily when he came of age...." Serena rolls her eyes, "We don't have that kind of time, and even if we did, Larna, the whole idea is disgusting...I wouldn't bear a child just be used like that, I couldn't do that to a person." Larna raises his eyebrow, "Weren't you raised to serve? Wouldn't you expect your children to follow in your path? Why not then bear a child to me? Wouldn't you prefer to serve in a proper temple, anyway, like your ancestors?" Serena stares for a moment, taking in what he's been telling her. The world is full of stories of children humans have born to mortals, heroic demigods with violent, passionate natures that lead to both their greatness & their inevitable downfall. Those stories are all ancient: people no longer believe in that kind of thing, Serena was never quite sure she believed it herself. She remembers one story, about a girl who was given a magical incantation, to summon a god. She summoned the god of the sun, just to see him. But of course once he was summoned, he wanted only one thing, and when the girl tried to back down, saying she was young & just a virgin, he took her anyway. And she bore him a child, that very night, because, the story said, anytime a god makes love to a human girl, it produces a child. Stories like that always bothered Serena, which is why perhaps she's never believed them....it seem like such a low & human kind of behavior for a god, and surely can only have happened in a human's imagination. But the more time she spends with this god in her house, the more probable the old stories become.

Sleep brings Serena another nightmare of searching for Byron, hearing him call her, chasing after him only to have his voice call again, from a different direction. Even being aware that it's nightmare, that her search is futile, Serena presses on, running & falling through treacherous swamps. If Byron needs her, she can't just stop trying..."Had enough?" a flat metallic voice asks, as a pale hand extends to lift her from a puddle of muck she's become mired in. Again, he appears in the form of the actor, Gavin, and as soon as Serena puts her hand in his, the swamp dries into a pleasant garden: in fact, it's her own yard. "Why did you put me through that?" she asks him angrily. The immortal raises an eyebrow & laughs a silvery laugh. "I don't personally arrange people's dreams any more than the mayor of Los Angeles personally entertains your tourists....you came here of your own will, what you do here is entirely your own concern....usually, that is. Right now, I am concerned with you, because I need your assistance, and I haven't the patience for you to indulge in a fearscape." Serena thinks this immortal is perhaps even less likeable than Larna, but she pushes her personal feelings aside. Byron needs help, and Serena will make all kinds of uncomfortable alliances to give him that help. "Trusting a deity is always dangerous," the lord of dreams says flatly. "The love deities in particular: I wouldn't trust him too closely, in your position. He'll betray you, if it is to his own benefit."

Bright silver shines in the dream lord's eyes as his pale hand flits across his brow. "I speak from experience, I was foolish enough to trust her & look what she's done, betrayed me, stolen my servant, using powers she learned from me...," he says heavily, and explains that Odessa has got Byron not only under the spell of her charm as a love goddess, but she's also gotten control of his consciousness, "I taught her how to do that," he sighs, "Because I loved her. I, I, could not withstand her power: she wanted love from me & she made me love her, & tell her things I knew better than to reveal. You, you Serena, somehow withstand this power, even with a love god panting on you, you don't give in." Serena knows he means it as a compliment, that he's admitting to her what he perceives as his weakness, and her strength...but somehow, she feels the picture it paints of her sounds rather cold & passionless. "She knows I'd come looking for my own," the dream lord continues, "She can't come with him into Dream, and he is mortal, so must visit my realm...so she's used my own powers to make it so he doesn't see me when I meet him here. She's also put a charm on him, to make him invisible to anyone like yourself, looking for him here. But I can take you to where he dreams, and while he will not see me, perhaps he will see you."

Byron is dreaming about her mother's house, about the garden in back, where he & Serena used to play as children. "He's caught in a loop," the lord of dream explains, standing behind her, "He thinks he left something important here, and repeatedly comes back to look for it." Serena feels hot tears welling up in her eyes, and she doesn't wait for the immortal to tell her what to do, seeing Byron here again, in the very place where they shared their first kiss, made love for the first time, there's only one thing to do. Serena walks up to Byron, folds her arms around him & holds him in a tight embrace. Then, Serena is standing in an empty landscape, holding nothing but air. Byron must have woken up, she realizes, waking up herself. If that was real, did it do any good? Serena wonders. Every evening that follows, Serena has the same dream: she meets the lord of dreams, who escorts her to Byron's dream, like the first always taking place in her childhood home. Some nights they relive scenes from their past, some nights she just embraces him until he disappears, like the first time. Every time, Serena wonders if this lord of dreams is even real, or if she's just finally gone crazy from her grief & desperation, making herself believe she can help Byron just by going to sleep every night. After a week of these dreams, Serena gets a call from Alison, "Hey, I've had kind of breakthrough with Byron," she says, "He actually answered his phone & talked to me...so there's a remote chance he might come to this art gallery opening I have to go to...Gavin is opening a new art gallery & Byron was asking about him, he seemed really interested in what Gavin is doing...so I don't know, he might actually show up to this thing." Alison gives Serena the gallery address & the hours for the opening reception. It's a remote chance, but Serena will try anything. Though she'd rather not bring Larna out with her at all, if Byron does show up to this event, Odessa will likely come along, and Serena will need the love god with her, though she still doesn't trust him.

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