After dealing with Alex Burgess, escaping his captors and getting his Ruby back, Morpheus felt bored. He had so much happening all at once, and now it's suddenly over. His palace in the Dreaming now restored, his library now restocked with the written lives of mortals and all their dreams as well as nightmares.

Morpheus sits brooding on a bench in a park within the waking world, feeding the birds pieces of bread, watching the world go by, he spots a young woman sitting down next to him