::The Nightmare::

It was dark- not just the dark of a dark night, but the absolute complete dark that made you forget that you could even move. The dark that led most to flail about, afraid of any little brush of skin or hint of noise.

Juni Delisana was not most. The Elite Commander stalked through the never ending darkness, meeting this threat as she did every other- with sword drawn.

The voice that echoed through the darkness startled her, and she did jump a little, whirling around with her blade to confront it.

"Marowit Gavin Kavanagh, the bastard of a human and a zeitgeist." Juni paused her grip tightening on the hilt of her sword. Very few knew her by that name. Her muddy lineage was public knowledge... but no one ever called her by that.

Sure that whatever it was wasn't going to attack her outright, she straightened her posture to glare haughtily into the dark.

"And what of it?" Her voice did not echo like the other, seeming to be muffled by the never ending dark.

"Widow of Duke Jacobe De Winter, the former betrothed of Sir Caderyn of Llarlandl, Pairbond and Wife of Captain Luka Delisana."

Well, that was quite a resume of love affairs, wasn't it? Juni didn't answer this, instead narrowing her eyes and letting the voice continue.

"Mother of three. How easy would it be to turn them off of their path? Winter Delisana, your adopted daughter, hate runs through her veins, sleeping... her mother-"

"Her mother is me, and you would shut your mouth before I remove your tongue!" Juni was running out of patience, pacing. The voice paid no mind to her.

"Her mother... your rival. Dead by your hand. Winter Delisana is the most powerful wizard of her age, rival only to your own Grandfather... and yet now she is upstairs in hospital, recovering from our machinations."

The Night. It couldn't be- Juni had seen every one of them from foot soldier to Captain destroyed- dead, never to be raised.

"And Nicholas Kavanagh, your son. The youngest- no true blood relation to you, taken in to protect him from his father. How would he feel to know that you took him because you worship his kind? To find his mother a heretic..."

Juni's face burned in anger. It was true that though Nicholas knew he was adopted, the teenaged boy was not yet ready for the whole truth.

"And Gavin Delisana... your only biological child... an infant, lost in time, as vulnerable as he was when you lost him the first time."

Juni drew her bow and notched the arrow, sending it into the dark. She did not hear it skitter to the floor, nor the satisfying thunk of it finding it's home.

"Do not think that you've rid yourself of us yet, Marowit Gavin Kavanagh... the Night has just begun."

Juni woke up, gasping for breath as her eyes accustomed to the dark room. Her usual rooms in the castle. Next to her, Luka snored loudly, his big arm wrapping around to pull her close into his chest.

He smelled faintly of baby powder and soap.

"You'll see them all tomorrow." He muttered into her hair, nuzzling her ear.

"What?" Juni, still shaken from her dream, tried to shake the restless feeling off to properly relax in her husband's arms.

"The kids. You were talking in your sleep. We'll see them tomorrow."