Chapter 39 - The Journey of the Lightning Mother

Dawn arrived slowly, as if hesitant to break the delicate peace of the Hope kingdom the sky, woven from lavender and pale honey, stretched in soft waves above the milk sea and on one of the highest balconies of the blue tower, Saphira Noctielle watched she said nothing she observed she still wore her nightgown, a simple blue cotton tunic, wrinkled from a sleepless night ser hair was undone she had no crown, no jewels, no magical glow around her just a queen, stripped of finery, full of silence behind her, a door opened Élya, her eternal faithful shadow, entered, holding close a small doll that Saphira had embroidered the day before, a doll that cried in its sleep. Élya asked no questions she was not made for chattering.

—"You're leaving, aren't you?"

Saphira nodded she did not look away from the sky.

—"He is somewhere in the dreams, or perhaps between them i feel him he is not killing, but he devours he sucks the sweet marrow from children's dreams, and if I don't speak to him soon, that world will collapse like a castle of mist."

Élya did not reply she hugged the doll tighter then she went to prepare things. Saphira returned to her room without a word.

She dressed slowly, as one prepares ceremonial armor rather than war attire her cape, made of starry mists, settled on her shoulders like a memory her gloves, embroidered with runes of balance, vibrated softly, as if already seeking to soothe what she was about to touch around her neck, she hung the pure lightning key, an ancient artifact, capable of opening all dreams, even those no one dreamed anymore before leaving, she descended into the foundations of the prison tower. In the obsidian heart chamber, Arcanaa, her goddess-daughter, awaited her. she stood straight, made of black silence and justice.

Saphira stopped before her.

—"If I don't return..." Her voice broke just for an instant. "...watch over my worlds."

The spirit of Arcanaa knelt, one knee on the ground, head bowed.

—"You have already survived birth, Mother. You will also survive your anger." a murmur of stone echoed in response and only then did Saphira ascend the sky was darker now the pale colors of dawn had given way to a pearl gray glow. In front of the tower, a circle of black stars had been engraved in the suspended air. Motionless like a clock face frozen by the breath of too great a will.

Morpheus arrived silently, as always he was just a sigh in the air his hair was disheveled, his tunic wrinkled, his dark circles too deep, even for a god of sleep.

—"You know you might not find him or not return."

Saphira did not look at him she observed the circle.

—"I am no longer a sleeping doll. I am a queen."

Then she finally looked at him, her eyes shining with fatigue and something older than fatigue decision.

—"And he is my mistake, my reflection, my son."

Morpheus wanted to stop her, but he did not move, for he knew this journey, she had to make it alone before crossing the circle, Saphira returned to the throne room she placed a magic doll there, sewn by her hands, imbued with a song a song that only the tower would hear.

—"Every night, she will sing, and as long as she sings, I am alive." she turned.

A blue lightning bolt fell from the sky the blue lightning gate opened in a lightless breath, heading towards the dream multiverse Saphira crossed the threshold, one step, then another, and she disappeared into the dream of the dream itself far away, in a space that even the gods did not map, a place without light, a ground without ground, a sky without limits, a dream without a sleeper. Nekridhal, the veiler of souls, slowly opened an eye, as one awakens from a millennium of nightmare he is neither anger nor fear he is the abyss between the two and in his arms, he cradles something: a stolen dream, a fragment of childhood, a memory of almost intact innocence.

—"She is coming," he murmurs.

And for the first time since his birth, he hopes.

End chapter 39 — The Journey of the Lightning Mother