Years passed. Three, to be exact. Each night, Esme would arrive at Dream's castle in the heart of the Dreaming. She became quite accustomed to the wonderous rooms and unusual inhabitants of the place. In fact, it almost became like a second home to her.

As she became more comfortable with her surroundings, Esme also cared more and more for its lord, Dream. He wooed her like she knew no mortal man ever could. After a few months, she found herself responding to it and, to her surprise, returning his affections. She started going to bed early and sleeping late into the afternoon just to spend more time with him in his realm. The two became inseparable. It became a common sight to the castle's staff to see Dream and Esme walking down the castle corridors, hand-in-hand.

However, their relationship only went to a certain point and never entered the bedroom. Esme wouldn't allow it. Despite several valiant attempts by Dream, she refused. So their relationship remained chaste. He learned to become satisfied with her love and the occasional kiss. He was really, truly happy, as she was....

The refreshing night wind whipped through Esme's hair, which now extended past her shoulders and down her back. Her hands clutched at the leather reins and wrapped them tightly around her wrists. A serene smile on her face, she gazed down onto the pasture below and the glass and silver mansion in the distance. She gave gentle pressure on her mount's sides with her heels. "G'wan, Tranquil!"

The silvery unicorn bounded down the hillside and over the vast expanses of the Dreaming's heart. Esme laughed with delight as he leapt over a large rock. Loving the exhilaration of the ride, she urged him on faster and faster. Under the moonlight, mount and rider galloped over the grass like there was no tomorrow. A pale man watched from the top of a mound.

Dream smiled. "I haven't been this content in a long while, Tethys," he said to the white bird on his shoulder.

"To be fair, M'Lord, you haven't been around very long," she replied.

His face became serious again. "You forget," he responded, a slightly annoyed tone in his voice, "that I am Dream of the Endless. I have been in existence since nearly the beginning of time. My memories extend far beyond that of this aspect. When I say a long while, I mean a long while."

Tethys ruffled her pure feathers in a disconcerted fashion, a few tufts of down floating away lazily in the breeze. "Sorry, M'Lord. I have trouble understanding the situation at times."

"As I would expect." A small grin returned to his lips as he watched Esme approach.

"Hi, Dream." She smiled down from the saddle.

"Hello."

Esme hopped down onto the ground and hugged Dream's waist happily.

"You are dismissed, Tethys," Dream addressed the raven, conveying his in his voice that he wished to be alone with Esme. Understanding, Tethys quietly flapped her white wings and took to the air, letting the air currents lead her to Eve and her cave.

One arm still around Dream, Esme turned to scratch Tranquil's nose. "Just us, then?"

He ran his thin fingers through her blonde hair. "Seems so."

Esme's eyes looked up to the sky. "It's beautiful tonight."

"Yes," Dream agreed. He followed her gaze up to the large moon hung expertly in the sky by Mervyn's crew. He remembered the day before when he'd ordered the special starry sky and silver moon for Esme's ride. He'd have to do something nice for Mervyn and Abudah soon. They deserved recognition for their efforts.

Tired from the ride, the girl sat on the grass. Dream had no choice but to do so also. As he looked at her, Esme ruffled his hair playfully. She was the only being alive whom he would allow to do that. She turned her eyes upwards once more. "Really something..."

"It is quite perfect."

"Reminds me of the nights when I'd camp out on the lawn and watch the meteor showers." Esme sighed contentedly. "I haven't done that for years now...."

Without a word, Dream raised his hand to the sky and seemed to run his finger over the scattering of stars. Slowly, streaks of light began to pierce the fabric of the sky. The sky became filled with white meteors. Dream looked over to the girl beside him.

Her gaze was fixed on the display above them. "Just like I remember..."

The spectacle, which covered the whole of the Dreaming, from the Love Fields to the House of Secrets, lasted for a good ten minutes. Somewhere, Mervyn could be heard cursing about the mess he was going to have to clean up in the morning.

Despite the fact that all dreamers and dreams alike that night were witness to the sight, it was meant solely for Esme.

After a lengthy silence, Esme spoke up. "How long has it been, Dream? How long have we been together?"

"Three years, I think." He held her close. "And many more to come, I hope."

"You know," she continued, the gaiety leaving her voice, "that it can't last forever."

His head lowered a bit. "Yes... I know."

"I wouldn't have brought it up, usually. It's just that I've been thinking about it lately." She looked over at him slowly. "Did I ruin the mood?"

He shook his head. "No. I would be lying if I said that the subject had never occured to me." His eyes closed for a brief moment. "However, I chose a while ago not to think about it."

Esme touched his cheek sadly. "You don't honestly think this can go on forever, do you?"

All he could do was look into her green eyes pleadingly.

She began to play with his ear. "I am mortal. I'm going to die someday...."

"I know," he said, his voice a little weaker than usual.

Wrapping her arms around his thin neck, the young woman tried to comfort him. "I guess we should cherish this time while we have it, huh?" He could feel her smile. Esme nuzzled her nose in his soft hair, breathing in his smell.

"Yes..." Dream stared into space, trying not to imagine life without his beloved. He felt her soft lips against his cheek. "I...must think. Excuse me." He released himself from Esme's embrace and stood up. "I shall call you when I need you."

Esme stayed on the grass and watched him dissipate into nothing. She was a little perplexed. "What does he need to think about, I wonder...?" Standing up herself, she took Tranquil's reins once more. "Let's get you back to the stables, boy. Maybe I'll feed you some carrots."

Dream of the Endless walked the winding halls. He didn't care to go his throne room at the moment. He felt that he had to keep moving so that the pain of knowing wouldn't catch up with him. Esme's observation rang all too true with him. It was undeniable that she would die and he would live on without her. However, no matter how much he knew it, he couldn't accept it. I can't lose her, he thought to himself.

As he traveled through his home, his mood became darker and darker. The nearby servants made sure to stay out of his way. It was always apparent when the Lord Shaper wasn't to be bothered. It could be felt in the air, almost smelled. Like the electricity before a thunderstorm. It was rumored that a couple of minor dreams had been banished to the Darkness years ago just for drawing his attention after he'd had a bad spat with his sister Death. True or not, it made most avoid him when he didn't want to talk to anyone. That was perfectly all right with Dream.

It horrified Dream to even consider spending the rest of eternity without Esme. So he didn't consider it. It was Esme that he relied upon to give meaning to his existence. She was a part of him by now. He didn't just love her. He needed her, in the most desperate sense of the word. In fact, Dream couldn't even remember how he'd gotten by before her. At the thought of losing her one day, he felt ill.

There must be a way. He closed his eyes in thought. Somehow, he navigated the halls perfectly, even without seeing. There must be some way that I can... He stopped in his tracks as he recalled his Treasure Room. Surely, there would be a solution there. Not wanting to wait through the walk there, Dream merely was there.

He reached out and opened the doors to the Treasure Room. As he stepped in, he realized that he'd never really been in there before. Not once in his reign as new Dream Lord had he set foot in there. Of course, he still had memories of the place and knew where everything was.

The room was littered with little trinkets and magical baubles, some of which had been there longer than the universe had been in existence. Only Dream and a very small handful of others were allowed access to this room. Not even Lucien, one of Dream's most trusted staff members, was allowed to even peek inside. Lucien wasn't of the overly curious type, so this had never been a problem. Probably no more than five individuals in the whole history of the Dreaming had ever been in there.

I really wish that I'd been able to keep this place relatively tidy, Dream thought. Over the aeons, the shelves had overflowed, and the room became too cluttered to even consider cleaning up. Not that Dream would have allowed any of his cleaners in the place to actually do the job. It was inconceivable the damage that could be done should even one of the objects in the room fall into inexperienced -- or worse, diabolical -- hands.

There was a wide variety of little, and not-so-little, treasures in the room. Love potions. Secret spells written on bits of skin in languages from long-dead worlds. Glamour gems. A couple of bottled-up demons that had crossed the old Dream, Morpheus. Even a mundane egg, one of the only two known to still exist. The other belonged to Titania, Queen of Faerie. These, and many other things, occupied the infinite space in the Dream King's Treasure Room. In boxes and chests. On shelves and tables. Whatever Dream needed, he would certainly find it here.

Dream took a silent toll of the room and focused his attention on a dark wooden cupboard set inconspicuously in a corner. He went over to it and opened it. Sitting in the middle of the spacious cabinet was a small, plain box, carved long ago out of driftwood from the Shores of Dream. Picking it up off of its soft pillow, Dream could feel the gentle heat pulsating from the inside of the box.

He popped open the lid and smiled. The perfect gift.

Esme stepped into the small, yet luxurious, room. Dream saw her and stood from his seat at the small table in the middle of the room. "You called for me?"

He walked over to her. "Yes, I did. I have some things that I would like to...discuss with you."

They locked hands. "Oh... What kinds of things?"

Dream hesitated, obviously disturbed by the matters at hand. "I started thinking...about what you said earlier on about your dying...."

"Uh-huh..." She kissed his shoulder and listened.

"Well, I..." He paused. "Would you like to talk about it over dinner?"

Esme grinned. "Sure."

They both sat at the table, which had a wonderful view of the Dreaming from a large window beside it. Esme had never seen this room before.

"Why don't we eat in the main dining hall?" she asked.

Dream rested his chin on his thumbs. "I feel that the main hall is too public for this discussion. I prefer some privacy."

"Oh..." She blew a stray strand of hair out of her eyes.

A dream thing approached them, pencil and paper at hand. "What would you like this evening?" it asked.

Dream thought for a moment. "I think I shall have stuffed mushrooms and a small bowl of bird's nest soup."

The dream waiter scribbled it down. "And to drink?"

"Some of my finest fairy wine."

"Very nice." The thing turned to Esme. "And you?"

"Um... I'll just have two slices of cheese pizza and a Coke. Lots of ice." Dream grinned slightly at her choice.

It wrote the orders down on its pad of paper. "Your food will be here shortly." The waiter silently walked off to what Esme supposed was a kitchen. She couldn't be sure.

She looked back at the man sitting across from her. "So?"

"So...I wanted to discuss your...mortality."

"Yeah? What about it?" She leaned back and folded her arms across her chest.

"Our talk earlier, as I said, got me to thinking. About us. Our future."

Esme idly played a monotone song on the tines of her fork. "Yeah. Our future..."

"To say the very least, it pains me to think of ever losing you."

Their food was set in front of them. Esme marveled at the speed of the service.

Esme took a bite of her pizza, which was delicious, and swallowed. "Dream, what are you getting at? You know you can't change it."

Dream rested two fingers on a small box whittled from grayed wood. "You would be surprised."

Esme eyed the seemingly unimportant box with curiousity. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that I can change it. You don't have to die."

She gave an almost nervous laugh. "You can?"

Dream nodded and handed the small box over the table to her. Esme took it in her hands and felt a strange warmth coming from it. This box was very special. "It is a gift," Dream said. "A gift that mortals kill for. Some spend their whole lives in search of what is contained inside that unseemly little container."

Esme looked from the box to Dream's eyes.

"Immortality."

Esme's hands started to tremble. It was so bad that she nearly dropped the box. After setting it down on the table, she hugged her arms and looked over to the side. Dream couldn't tell whether she was excited, overjoyed, or frightened.

"Dream, I..." She looked down at the floor and then out the window. "I..." She couldn't seem to get past that part of the sentence.

"Open the box, and you can have it. It will transform you, but I promise that it won't hurt." He watched her expectantly. "It's a new soul."

Slowly, Esme stood up, carrying the box with her. "I...like my old soul, Dream."

He wasn't sure if she'd actually said that. Was she refusing him? "What?"

She stood beside him. "Dream, I don't want it." She placed the box back in front of him. "I don't want to live forever."

Dream stood up quickly, almost upsetting the table. "Why not? Don't you want to be with me?"

"Of course I do," she replied as she walked over to the window.

He followed her. "Then, open it." He tried to hand the box back to her. Esme wouldn't take it. "We could be together forever. I would marry you and make you my queen. Queen of Dreams. Don't you want that?"

Esme stared out at the Dreaming far below them. "I'd love that...."

Dream didn't understand. "Why...?"

"The price would be too great."

"What could you possibly be losing that would hurt you so?"

Her eyes remained focused on the distant horizon. "My mortality."

"Why would you miss that?"

She lowered her head. "You can't understand...."

Dream hugged her small waist. "I can try."

"Sure, you can try." Esme solemnly pulled his arms from around her. "Can you possibly imagine what it's like to not know how long you're going to be around? Can you understand what I go through, as a mortal? I don't know whether I'll be alive tomorrow, Dream. I don't know if I'll even wake up tomorrow morning, feel the sun on my face.... Can you even begin to comprehend that?"

Dream thought, and, to his dismay, he couldn't. "No."

Esme sniffed and blinked back tears. "Then, you can't understand why I refuse." Somehow, she felt the need to try to make him understand. "It's life's...brevity that makes it so wonderous. I don't know how long I have on earth, so I treasure every little moment. Life...is so short. For me, at least. You have an eternity. You can't see things the way I do. In a strange way, I almost feel sorry for you...."

He shook his head, unable to know what she meant. "I always thought that all mortals wanted that gift."

"Not me," Esme replied solemnly.

He felt the wooden object still in his fingers. "I have been begged for this. Tortured for this." He recalled those years ago when he -- no, Morpheus -- had been imprisoned in that goldfish bowl, his captor trying to bargain for power and eternal life.

Tears ran down her face. "I'm sorry."

"Do you really mean it? When you kiss me? Do you really love me?"

A small laugh came from her throat. "Yes, I do. I may not have said it that often, but I do."

He knew she was telling the truth, and that comforted him. But still... "If that's true, then I don't see why you would turn this down."

"Dammit, Dream," she said in a shaky breath. "I can see what it would be like if I opened that little present of yours. Became immortal. I know we'd be happy at first." Esme wiped her face with her sleeve. "It's always wonderful at first. After a while, though, you'd get tired of my face. You wouldn't want to see me everyday. Eventually, you'd tuck me away in a little corner of the castle. A space for myself where you'd never have to worry about me again. That's what would happen. You'd go and find someone else. I know you would."

"I would never..." Dream seemed to choke on the words. "I will always care for you."

"I know. But you'd forget that you did."

He couldn't argue. Deep down, he knew what she was saying was true. And it hurt more than the thought of losing Esme ever did.

She spoke up again. "Don't you want to remember us like this?" Turning around, Esme wrapped her arms around him. "With the magic between us? Full of love and happiness...? If it lasted forever, we couldn't have that." Dream could feel her voice in his chest. "This is the way it should be. That's why we have to end it now." The last few words were a dagger in Dream's heart, sharpened by the cold, hard truth. "After all," she continued, looking up at his face, "how can you treasure something that lasts for eternity?"

Dream wrenched away from her as he felt himself being torn apart from within. He knew that it was all over. His beautiful world where love conquered all came crashing down, the shards scattering at his feet. This is why, he thought. This is why the Endless and mortals aren't allowed to love each other. I finally understand the rule.... He took a sharp breath inward. "Then...you must go."

Esme accepted it. Things could never have been the same between them after this if they'd decided to go on with their relationship. Not after this. She put a hand on his shaking shoulder. "May I ask a favor of you?"

"Yes," said Dream without turning to look at her.

"Please allow Tranquil to stay. Don't uncreate him."

His head turned slightly to glance at her. "How can I? He's no creation of mine. Tranquil is yours." There was a pause. "He will always have a place in my stables."

"Ride him for me, okay?" Esme's hand grasped his.

He squeezed. "I will do this...."

Finally, she couldn't stand it anymore. "Dream, why don't you cry?? I'm standing here, blubbering like an idiot, and all you do is stand there!"

"I am Dream of the Endless. I do not cry." In all honesty, he couldn't remember a time when he'd ever felt the urge more strongly than at that moment. However, he couldn't -- wouldn't -- allow tears to come.

"You need to loosen up, you know?" Esme said to him almost playfully as she ran her fingers through his hair. "I'll miss you."

He nodded, and she turned to go. Dream stopped her. "Wait."

She turned toward him again. "Yes?"

"I still owe you a gift."

"I don't want that box, Dream...."

"I know. I speak of a different gift." He pulled her to him and kissed her lightly. He released her after only a moment. "There."

"A kiss?"

"No. I gave you the memory of us. When you awaken, our years together, our love, will stay with you."

"That'll cause me pain...."

He gazed down at her. "I know." He knew it would hurt her, of course. It would hurt her just as it hurt him. It was fair. "This way, you can treasure it. However, I never said the gift would be without its disadvantages...."

"Thank you. For everything. I love you." She gave him a sad kiss on the cheek. "And I'll miss you." Esme turned and left the room, never looking back once. She knew that if she looked back, she would run back into Dream's arms and never leave them. She couldn't let that happen.

From the window of the small dining room, Dream watched as his love exited the doors and left the grounds through the Gates of Horn. Despite the barriers he had constructed in her presence and how much he struggled to maintain his dignity, a single tear escaped his eye and rolled down his cheek. Dark storm clouds gathered in the skies of his realm, and, as the drop slipped from his white chin, thunder rolled in the distance. The sky let loose with full force, releasing sheets of bitter rain in quaking sobs. As the Dream King watched from his window, the Dreaming cried for him.

Copyright Diana Marsh, 2000 (Dream and all Sandman characters are the creations of Neil Gaiman and Mike Dringenberg and trademarks of DC Comics and Vertigo. Tethys belongs to The Dreaming comic series. Esme and Tranquil are my creations and not to be used in any stories without my permission. This is a labor of love, and no money is being made off of it. Yadda, yadda, yadda...)

Thanks to queenB and Eden for their help and encouragement on this story. Hi, guys! Also, a huge thanks to the late and great John Lennon and his musical talents.