Chapter 36 - The Dream Storm

The silence of the blue tower was not peaceful it was heavy for two nights, Saphira Noctielle hadn't truly slept fragments of broken sleep, barely touched half-dreams, too many voices, too many queens, too many decisions even the gods, even the towers, had calmed down, but not her.

She had spent the night contemplating a ceiling she knew too well, her fingers clenched around a cushion that Élya had discreetly slipped to her, hoping a little softness would help calm her queen. But Saphira had not calmed; she had tossed, sighed, muttered disordered thoughts in the darkness and then, at the dawn of an unreal morning, just before the sky of the hope kingdom tinted with lavender, a black feather had fallen to the ground silent, it bore a single word, written in ink too heavy to be ordinary.

 —"Need help dream world attacked. Morpheus."

Saphira didn't need to think she opened a rift with a single breath not a ritual, not a theatrical gesture, just the pure exasperation of a celestial child who hadn't slept for too long the rift led her to where dreams are born, but this time, the dream was dying she set foot in Morpheus's world and was immediately struck by chaos everything, everywhere, bore the trace of a nightmare gone mad the wool forests were blackened, scorched the rivers of starry milk had been replaced by torrents of black ink children floated in the void, their sleeping bodies slowly falling into infinite abysses without ever touching the bottom in the sky, a shattered moon wept feathers, and in the center, Morpheus was exhausted, his arms trembling, his eyes heavy like a millennium of vigil.

—"They came from outside," he gasped. "Unleashed nightmares, freed by Beelzebub. They devour pure dreams they gnaw at symbols. I can no longer contain them". Saphira did not reply her eyes were calm tired too tired she observed a child who dreamed he was falling endlessly, another, pursued by a monster born of his own regrets deformed creatures, made of fangs and poorly digested memories, danced in the sky like wounded gods and she, she clenched her fist.

—"I haven't slept," she said simply a flash crossed her pupils."I have a headache." A shiver seized the dream space then her voice turned to ice."And they dare to attack dreams."

She raised her hand, and the world shifted the lightning was not violent it was silent, like a thought fading. In a single breath, she erased everything Beelzebub had left behind: the nightmares, the screams, the crawling creatures, and the fissures of the subconscious. A perfect, blue void. Morpheus remained frozen; his gaze trembled. Saphira had just erased the very concept of nightmares' existence.

—"No… Saphira… you shouldn't have…" 

—"What?" she replied, eyes half-closed. 

—"Nightmares are necessary they balance dreams, they densify them, they teach us fear, shame, grief they give depth to peace." Saphira sighed deeply, then lay down on the celestial ground, staring at a burst cloud that no longer rained. 

—"You mean I just ruined a millennium of unconscious symbolism?" Morpheus slowly nodded.

—"Yes." she closed her eyes."Great." But she didn't get up she stayed there, exhausted, worn out, but thinking and then, slowly, she stretched out her arms blue fireflies emerged from her chest in order, they flew, danced, and began to rebuild what she had destroyed, but differently. each resurrected nightmare changed one became a mastered fear; it still pursued, but it slowed when the child turned to speak to it another, which screamed impossible truths, became a reflection; it now whispered, just enough to warn finally, a filthy beast that devoured sleeping children became a guard dog with sharpened fangs, watching over wounded souls. Morpheus, silent at first, finally approached his eyes were misty but full of admiration. 

—"You didn't just rebuild them…" He knelt beside her."You… understood them." Saphira opened her eyes.

—"I don't want to see them scream anymore."

 —"And now… they won't scream anymore they will learn."  the dream world regained its harmony the children slowly fell towards beds of feathers the sky became soft again the sleep carp returned to swim among the clouds, and Saphira simply lay down her dark circles formed perfect circles. 

—"I just want to sleep." 

—"You can," said Morpheus, wrapping her in a cocoon of light. "You will sleep for twenty minutes." he cradled her. 

—"Or a hundred years i will watch."

End of Chapter 36 — The Dream Storm