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Alice closed her eyes and felt her memories and skin being ripped from her once again. It hadn’t actually been like that. In real life, she hadn’t figured out her memories were being adjusted for years, and she’d undergone the flensing willingly. But once she learned that her mind had been altered without her knowledge and that removing her skin had not been necessary but was done for the profit of her “uncle,” well, the nightmares about being violated had been unceasing. She was sick and tired of them in fact. And when Alice was this done with something, she always fell back on her main coping mechanism. Grenades. (No one said it had to be a healthy mechanism. And anyway, it had been healthy for her, many times.) She wasn’t entirely sure if dream grenades could affect actual nightmares, but she sure as heck was going to try. And if it was the thought that counted, maybe it would even work.
——
“I hate to ask you this, Gault, but it has to be a Major Arcana and I have a feeling Fiddler’s Green is too peaceful and the Corinthian is too violent. I need someone who can talk her down.”
“Of course, Lucienne. You know I will always be willing to help you.”
“I know, love! But be careful, will you? None of the nightmares who have been assigned to her this week have come back, and we don’t know what she is doing to them.”
“I promise to be careful. I’ll come back to you, Lucienne. Major Arcana, after all. And hopefully whatever she is doing to her nightmares, she won’t do it to a dream.”
“Go with my love, then.”
——
“I’m sorry, Jed, I won’t be able to go adventuring with you tonight. Would you like me to bring you to Unity’s? Or Fiddler’s Green?”
“Oh, why? Are you busy with something?”
“Yes, Lucienne’s given me a task, and I need to take care of it for her.”
“I could help you with it? To make it go faster?”
“I appreciate the offer, but Lucienne would never forgive me for bringing you into it. It could be dangerous.”
“Danger? Danger is my middle name! The Knight of the Dreaming will protect you!”
“Jed, this isn’t a child’s game. Nightmares are going missing. Let me bring you to Unity’s for cookies and tea.”
“No, Gault, I want to come with you. I will make sure nothing bad happens to you!” Jed’s eyes glinted yellow, reminding Gault strangely of Desire, and she felt her will softening.
“Well, okay, but stay behind me and do what I tell you, okay?”
“Don’t worry, I’ll protect you!” Gault wasn’t quite sure how she’d gotten here, but she took Jed’s hand and leaped into the dreams of Alice Price-Healy.
——
Alice grabbed the next grenade from her backpack; whatever the next nightmare was, she wasn’t letting it get too close this time. There was the shimmer… she wasn’t sure exactly why they’d started to shimmer as they appeared. Maybe it was part of her lucid dreaming? She’d wished for a warning sign and made it happen? In any case, it was almost time. She pulled the pin on the grenade. Shit! No! That was an iridescent black fairy with a little knight hiding behind it! She didn’t hurt kids! She threw the grenade over her shoulder instead. Hopefully it wouldn’t pierce a hole in the wall of her dream. Or if it did, maybe she could get help from a dreaming family member?
“Who are you? What are you doing here?”
The kid stepped forward. “I am Jed, Knight of the Dreaming. It is good that you chose not to harm Gault.” Gault, that must be the fairy. She stepped in front of the kid again.
“Alice, I see what has been happening. You must stop harming the nightmares.”
“Yeah, I don’t think so,” Alice said, and dove through the hole in the wall of her dream. Hopefully it was family.
——
Annie reached out again into the fog. “Sam! Sam!” she called. This awful nightmare again. It had only been days for her, though a full year had passed for him, and yet her psyche was having a hard time letting go of the fear of losing him again. Or more precisely, of being lost to him. It was taking some time for them to find equilibrium in their relationship again, now that he never wanted to let her out of his sight. She reached out again. Sometimes if she pushed hard enough through the fog, she could sense him just on the other side….
Crash! With the sound of glass shattering, the fog behind her splintered, and as she looked at it curiously, her Grandma Alice rolled through. She looked 30-something at the moment, about ten years older than Annie. Annie was just glad she’d picked an age older than hers to stop her constant magical rejuvenations.
“Annie! Am I glad to see you!”
Annie put her fists on her hips and stared at her. “Grandma! What are you doing in my nightmare?”
“Ah, well, it’s a long story. Let’s just say, explosives aren’t meant to be used on nightmares and the consequences may be catching up to me.”
“Grandma!” Annie wasn’t totally surprised though. Grandma did love her grenades.
Just then, a gorgeous black fairy stepped through the hole in her dream, followed by a little knight in shining armour.
“We need Sam,” Alice said, and as Annie turned back to the fog, where she could still sense his presence, it slowly solidified into gray glass and then cleared to become a window. Sam stepped up to the other side, putting his hands on the glass, and Annie met him on her side.
“What are you doing?” the lovely fairy asked commandingly.
“We need family,” Alice retorted. At her words, the glass dissolved between them and Annie stepped gratefully into Sam’s hug, his simian tail curling tightly around her as she kissed his monkey/human hybrid face.
“Annie! Alice? And who are you?” he asked, looking at each of them in turn.
The beautiful dark fairy sighed. “We need to talk. Jed, you can put away your sword, I’m sure we can work this out without any further violence.” Annie considered this, looking askance at Grandma Alice. She wasn’t as talented at talking as she was at violence. But no, she seemed more relaxed with family beside her (Annie squeezed Sam’s hand again), so maybe it would be okay.
——
Gault made a tea table with a fancy tea service in the middle of the foggy dream space. Alice seemed a bit more relaxed now that she had her family around her, and hospitality and courtesy did wonders, in Gault’s experience.
“Would you like some tea?” she asked. Jed pulled out a chair for Alice, who seemed a bit uncomfortable but nevertheless accepted the seat and the tea Gault handed her. Sam seated Annie and took the spot beside Jed. Jed even remembered to offer the little sandwiches and pastries around before taking one of each for his own plate. Gault would have to tell Unity; she would be so proud of her grandson.
Once they were all served, Gault took her place and sipped her honey tea. (It always made her think of Lucienne, who had been the first to tell her that she could have sweetness in her life. Today, it gave her courage to face these volatile strangers.)
“So. Alice. I gather that you got tired of your nightmares and decided to deal with them with grenades.”
“Oh, Grandma!” Annie exclaimed, while Sam snorted a laugh. Alice had the grace to look a little sheepish. Gault smiled at the couple.
“Yes, exactly. Grenades are not an appropriate method for dealing with nightmares.”
“But I’m sick and tired of that nightmare! It happened enough in real life. Why can’t I be safe in my dreams, now that I am safe when I’m awake?”
“Hmmm, yes, that’s a valid question,” Gault admitted. “If your nightmares continue to recur, that means your psyche has not finished processing the fear. Are you able to face the fear rather than running away?”
“I’m not running away! I don’t run away, I jump in, knives out!” And suddenly her hands were indeed full of wickedly sharp looking knives. Jed stood, putting his hands on the table.
“Now then. I won’t have you threatening Gault.”
Alice glanced over at his solemn, dark face. Gault could swear she saw his eyes glint gold again. And then Alice reluctantly put the knives away.
“But Grandma,” Annie said, “attacking your fears is not actually the same as dealing with them. Have you gone for counselling? I know Grandpa talked to you about that.”
Alice heaved a put-upon sigh. “And who exactly am I supposed to talk to about having my memories edited by a cuckoo and being flensed by a naga? Especially when I’m not allowed to hop dimensions anymore.”
“Ah, now that’s something I may be able to help you with,” Gault said. “If nightmares are not helping you face your fears, perhaps we can send you a counsellor-dream, who will help you talk about them instead.”
Alice shrunk into her seat, suddenly looking all of her 70 years. Annie shook her head gently at her.
“You have to learn to talk instead of fighting someday, Grandma.”
Alice sighed again, more gently this time. “Yes, dear. I know you’re right. I’ve just been doing it this way for a very long time.”
“I know you have. But it won’t serve you well as you settle down to be a Grandma to Alex and Verity’s children.”
“Okay, okay.” Alice looked up at Gault. “I accept your offer.” Annie and Sam smiled happily at her.
“I’m so proud of you, Grandma.”
“We’ll be there for you,” Sam added.
Jed stood again to make a pronouncement.
“Alice Price-Healy, once you have faced your fears by talking instead of fighting, I invite you to join the Order of the Knights of the Dreaming.”
Oh no, Gault thought. What is Lucienne going to say about that?!
“Now,” she said instead, “I think it’s time for you three to enter your deeper sleep. Alice, I believe we will talk again, and hopefully next time there won’t be any grenades. Annie and Sam, rest peacefully.”
“Thank you,” Sam replied, as the two women gave identical curt nods of acknowledgement.
“Jed,” Gault said as they faded away, “we need to report to Lucienne.”
——
“Thank you for your report, Jed. I’m glad everything worked out so well, without the need to resort to heroics. I look forward to hearing more of your thoughts about the prospective Order of the Knights of the Dreaming.”
Lucienne and Gault said goodbye and goodnight to Jed, and once he was gone Lucienne turned to Gault.
“My love, what were you thinking, bringing a child with you into a potentially dangerous situation?”
“Well, that’s the most interesting part of the whole situation—“
“Even more interesting than a woman who can kill nightmares with a grenade and break the walls between dreams?”
“Yes! When I told Jed he couldn’t come with me, his eyes shone yellow for a moment—like Desire’s—and then I found myself agreeing with him. Later I watched him order Alice not to hurt me, with the same hint of gold and unlikely successful result.”
“So you are saying… he’s using his Endless family blood to get what he desires?”
“Yes! Exactly!”
“Okay. I’m going to call a family meeting about this. We’ll see what Rose, Unity, Lord-Lady Desire and Lord Morpheus have to say.”
“That’s brilliant. You always know the right thing to do.”
Lucienne laughed and put her arm around Gault.
“It’s funny you say that, because I’m calling the meeting exactly because I don’t know the right thing to do this time!”
Gault turned to wrap her in both her arms.
“Well, in this case, calling in the big guns for help sounds perfect to me.” Laughing again, Lucienne melted into her embrace.
“Thank you for your help today, dear.”
“Anytime, my love.”