"No! Oh, no, Quilina!" Jacqueline instantly had tears in her eyes. "Wake up, darling, it's only a dream!"
Finn was closest to the child and leaned toward her with the still-wailing Ivan in her arms. The baby apparently objected to his change in position, because he suddenly arched his back so violently that he managed to nearly tumble out of his mother's arms.
She instinctively turned him over to his stomach within her hold to avoid dropping him altogether, but he continued to flail as Quilina began to roll and thrash.
Alarmed at the harm that might come to her baby, Finn tried to stand and move away to let Jacqueline and Naomi handle Quilina's terror, but the hem of her dress caught on her foot and she had to struggle to free herself.
The little girl's thrashing sent her squarely onto the young mother's legs, and Ivan squirmed again.
Near panic at the imminent threat to her child's safety, Finn was relieved when Naomi, who was sitting next to her, managed to grab Quilina's arms and pin them to her sides before trying to lift the little girl away from Finn and Ivan.
The infant was not done with his acrobatic attempts and kicked his legs so hard into his mother's stomach that he drove some of the breath out of her. The effort was enough to propel him towards Quilina, and he whacked her on the top of the head with his hand.
Instantly, both children calmed. The immediate silence was as shocking as the sudden screams had been.
"What just happened?" Jacqueline asked in the quiet. She was looking down at her daughter, who had fallen back into a peaceful sleep, as if it had never been interrupted.
"I have no idea," Finn was staring at her own child, who had settled back into her arms and now reached for the sunlight playing on a loose tendril of his mother's hair.
"That was… strange." Naomi looked between the children and their respective mothers. "Is Quilina all right?"
"Yes, the nightmare appears to have passed," Jacqueline said with a strange tone in her voice. "That's never happened. Every other time, I've had to wake her up to make the screaming stop."
"What could have caused that?" Naomi's eyes drifted to the now-giggling Ivan. "I don't want to sound dramatic… but did it seem like he sensed the nightmare before it came? And then… chased it away? That probably seems crazy."
"I would say it does, if I hadn't had a similar thought," Finn admitted. Ivan had gotten upset first, and then practically thrown himself out of her arms toward Quilina when she began screaming, and then they'd both immediately calmed after he touched her head.
That had to be a coincidence, didn't it?
Finn turned the events over in her mind again, and wondered if Gwen would be willing to shed any light on the circumstances.
The elusive Fae didn't immediately appear, and the ladies were left in silent contemplation of the events.
"I would appreciate it deeply if neither of you share this information with anyone," Finn said, swallowing. "I… don't understand it, but I do know I don't want people asking a lot of questions about my children."
"You have nothing to fear from me," Jacqueline said. "No one would believe me if I said anything about it, anyway."
"Thank you," Finn sighed with a little relief.
"I can promise the same, I think, only," Naomi paused. "May I tell Caspian? I do not like the idea of keeping secrets from my husband."
Finn studied the woman for a few moments. She fully understood not wanting to keep anything from one's spouse, but at the same time…
"I don't know him very well, Naomi, and to be honest… neither do you. You've only known him for a matter of weeks. Surely failing to tell him about one occurrence in your day will not affect your relationship. If it becomes somehow relevant to him, I will share the matter myself."
She didn't want to say outright that she thought her children might be considered as heirs to the leadership of Ceto. Or that Jimmy's lack of warning and her own recklessness might have imbued one or more of those children with some sort of magic. What repercussions might there be for such a thing?
"I suppose that is all right," Naomi looked uncertain. "I will not mention it to him… and I will not ask more about the matter, or your children. The less I know, the less I must keep from him."
"Thank you," Finn understood from the tension rolling off of her friend that the matter was bothering her, but she appreciated the discretion.
Quilina yawned and began to stir, drawing the attention of the three ladies. Ivan giggled and pulled at his mother's hair, earning a bare smile as she removed the strands from his tiny grasp.
"Did you have a nice nap, dear?" Jacqueline asked her daughter, with only the merest hint of fear in her voice.
"I had a bad dream," The little girl blinked sleepily and rubbed her eyes. "But it went away."
"Went away?" Her mother's eyebrows rose.
"Yes. Tamas was there. He was… mean to me," Quilina shuddered, "It was dark, like it always is when he's there. But then, a light came in. It pushed Tamas away, and then it was calm and bright."
The women stared at her for a few moments in silence before Finn gathered her wits together to reply.
"I'm so glad your nightmare went away, Quilina. I hope the bad dreams are gone forever."
"Me too. It feels like they are. Tamas didn't want to go, but he couldn't stay with the light." She squinted as if thinking through the dream again.
"We should be getting back home, I think. There are still chores to do, and we're having guests for dinner." Finn decided, beginning to gather up the leftover food.
The ride back into Klain was a peculiar mood. The excitement and hope that perhaps Quilina's nightmares were gone forever was mixed with the confusion about how it happened.
Layered into that was Finn's trepidation about Ivan. She fretted. Part of her argued that, logically, this could only be good. If her son had some way of defending against the Void, surely that was something to be celebrated?
On the other hand, such a thing would make him a prime target for the Void's attacks. If he did indeed possess some kind of ability as a mere infant, Finn doubted the Void would want him to grow into an adult.
No evil force would want to take the chance of him becoming more.
That was another reason she wanted the secret kept. Who knew what spies were roaming about? Halflings were easy enough to recognize, but if moles were the choice of animal assistants over wolves now, it would make sense for the Void to have branched out in other ways as well.
The anxiety of it took root in her heart, and she wished harder than ever that Roland would come home soon to share her heart and worries with.
_____
Duncan watched as Caspian endured the Council meeting with all the patience he could. They discussed goings-on within the City, congratulated themselves on the prospect of using Finn's repellant in their efforts to thwart the invasion of the moles, and brought up the subject of Brenna again.
"Has she made any moves since being put in jail in the township?" The Judge asked.
The Peacekeeper and the General exchanged a glance. They both had men involved in guarding the woman. It was a hybrid situation in which she was technically a military prisoner, but had also committed crimes, albeit in foreign lands.
It was better to have guards from multiple branches of the government as a check and balance against one another.
The Council had learned the hard way that their government was not immune to the presence of spies and traitors. The firm trust they had had in one another's integrity and national loyalty had been wounded, but they were doing their best to make sure to guard against infiltration a second time.
Especially now that they knew the Void could send its minions in perfect disguise.
Duncan had been privy to many of these discussions, as an expert on the Void's strategies and talents.
He doubted that he knew all of its tricks, but he certainly knew more than anyone on the Council.
"She stays still, and reportedly avoids sleep all she can," The Peacekeeper reported. "Though the guards take shifts, none of them sees her rest for any significant amount of time."
"Does she speak?" The Judge asked.
"She speaks very little. She cries often." The Peacekeeper shrugged. "My men have conflicting opinions on whether it is an act or sincere."
"Mine as well," Put in the General. "It is apparently a topic of heavy dispute amongst them."
"Have opinions changed amongst us, Gentlemen, about whether she should be executed?" The Judge looked carefully around the room. "Or should that topic remain tabled for another time?"