Quills: the Rise of the Northern Matriarch-Chapter 80: Dreams

"Nora. Sweetheart. Wake up. It is just a dream again." Liem gently cooed. He heard her crying in her sleep and shook her awake. Dreams had really started to become frequent recently. She dreamed so vividly, usually it was mundane nonsense. She was dreaming in her own language, which usually meant her mood was not great. He stroked her cheek and wiped her tears.

"Bad dream again?' Kai woke up and pulled her into a big hug. "I have a trick for those," Kai said groggily. "You just have to imagine another ending to the dream and practise it." Kai said.

"It was not a bad dream, I cannot imagine another ending to something that actually happened," Nora said, sniffling. The part at the end was different and really unsettled her. She looked at Liem with brand new eyes.

"Why not?" Kai said.

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"They will both stay dead, and die in front of me, no matter what I imagine. It does not work that way. I have tried in the past." Nora said honestly. "The dream is the accident that killed my mother and sister and what gave me this scar here." Nora said, pulling her hair up to show a long scar.

"Oh, wow. This is a scar?" Kai said as he ran his finger along the scar. It was raised. You did not see others healed this way. Hers was jagged and mended together. He felt complex emotions. It was proof, physical proof of what had happened to her. "That must have really hurt, it must have taken a long time to heal." Kai said. His deep cuts were all healed across his body by the Setton physician. The Matriarch of Setton, Hera, used to abuse him in the mirrored room. She would taunt him and torture him that nobody would know what he felt or happened in the room.

"It took a cycle." Nora said. "My arm and leg bones broke too." Nora pointed to her limbs. Her trauma was still visible, an old scar and so much more under the surface.

"It is really hard to face those painful memories, Nora. What about redirecting your memories", Kai said.

"When I was a boy, I was abused by our Matriarch in a punishment room. It was all mirrors. So I could see it all, no matter where I looked. So whenever I have a bad dream about her, I just run past her and through a hall. Sometimes I find my Father, my brothers, and we go out and sparr." Kai said. "Sometimes I find you instead." Kai said and squeezed her in a warm embrace. "It is okay to dismiss bad memories. It is also important to your family to remember them fondly. If I ever died, I would only want you to have good memories of our lives together. So before it happens, you all go elsewhere and avoid it" Kai pecked her on the forehead as he talked to her. "Do you feel like you need some Liotte to calm down or fall asleep again?" Kai said. Nora turned her head and planted a nice firm kiss on his lips.

"No, thank you though," Nora said. She turned to place a kiss on Liem's lips, who was stroking her hand.

"Are you still upset about the vote, Nora?" Liem said as his brow crinkled. She nodded.

'Obviously, you cannot shield kids from the truth, especially since they are my children and just like me. It is better they know, so they do not easily trust outsiders of the family, than figure everything out by themselves. I do not want them to hurt like I did.' Nora thought.

The family had a meeting during their main meal. They decided to hold off on teaching the children Korean until they were older. Although Nora championed keeping the plan and technology business away from the children with passion, she was outvoted. They decided teaching them the language when they became of age was a satisfactory resolution. She made peace with the vote, although her heart was troubling her. Nora was worried that they would just piece it together eventually if they were exposed to it enough. She figured out her mother's French over her shoulder. Her daughters could very well surpass her.

"I am still concerned about our discussion last night. I have been thinking a lot about my childhood because of how Astra, Sirona, Ivy and Fiona are all developing so fast. They remind me so much of myself when I was young. I noticed that they are able to learn very quickly. It is not a matter of 'what if ' they learn, it is a matter of when. If they do not know who or when they can discuss what they know with it could become dangerous to us", Nora said, airing her stress."During this period of their lives they are able to easily pick up languages, especially when they are exposed to it a lot, imagine that and their ability to recall?" Nora elaborated.

"There is always the possibility that someone else will figure out Korean, so when that happens we will learn another language." Kai repeated the same answer she heard the other night. Nora sighed and got up out of bed.

"I think I will go and have some Liotte after all." Nora said and got up and walked out of the room and towards the kitchen. They did not understand the dangers, so she would have to be involved and watch her children. In that dream her subconscious was reminding her that she could never forget. Perhaps they will never be able to forget things either. How could she teach them to be thoughtful and reserved about what they could do around other adults and children? How could she do this without stripping away the joy of childhood that they should experience? She sighed as she padded towards the kitchen and pulled a Liotte Iced Tea out of the fridge. She opened the cartoon and poured herself a large glass and sat down and silently sipped it. She attempted to do some mindful breathing and could not settle her mind.

Nora got up and grabbed her Teere and walked to one of the farthest rooms away from the nursery and began to record the songs that her Mother used to sing and play for her.

'If her Mother had lived her dreams; would she still be performing music? What would Ivy have done? She was a girly-girl. Would she have gone to college with her early or would they have stayed in high school like normal girls together? Life is too cruel.' Nora thought. She opened her Interface and started to record. She picked at the Teere strings with her nails and started to play "Chasing Pavements" by Adele. She then recorded "Bleeding Love" by Leona Lewis and finally lost herself in the rewritten version of "The Sound of Silence" by Paul Simon that she had finished writing. She finished to see Kai standing by the door with a blush across his face.

"The last one was just so beautiful, but so sad," Kai said. Nora stopped recording and looked at Kai.

"I could not fully imagine the fear that men go through every day here. I imagine it must be hard to be brave enough to want to change things for the positive. Especially against a group of individuals that could easily eliminate you. It is so brave, but being quiet about it is just others enabling it." Nora said, looking at him and setting down her instrument.

"The sound of silence is frustrating when so much is wrong with the world," Kai finished.

"I am so scared for us and them. It has just been so hard." Nora said.

"I know. I will bring it up to them again. Come back to bed, we have that banquet tomorrow." Kai said to Nora, who was sitting on the edge of the bed in the room he never used. He noticed how considerate they were in their decoration and sound proofing. He could not hear anything until he turned down the hallway. He assumed that this was because the door was open. Nora sighed.

"I am still a little tense," Nora said. Kai walked to the door and closed it to complete the soundproofing of the room.

"Then, I will help you relax," Kai said. He walked to her and sat down beside her and pulled her into his lap. He started to plant kisses on her neck and collarbones and stroked her body. She responded with a soft moan and reached into his lap.

"No, Nora, this is just for you. Lay down for me." Kai whispered in her ear. Nora felt goosebumps rise on her skin. Nora's eyes widened as he pulled off her bottoms.

"There is no time for this." Nora said. Kai spread her legs, his hand venturing between them and he trailed kisses down her body.

"I can do this quickly, I know this body." Kai said as he kissed and nipped at her thighs.