Where dreams are made, nightmares are born.
Beneath the streets of Vienna, a hidden world runs on Nocturnal Energy, goblin ingenuity, and the dreams of sleeping children. One girl holds the key between both worlds.
A middle-grade fantasy trilogy by Michael Sokolar
The Storyworld
The nocturnal world is not a parallel dimension.
It is a hidden layer of our own.
Nocturnal creatures live in shadows and dark places, hidden from ordinary humans. Most people move through the world entirely unaware. A small number of humans know. Very few are permitted to.
Dreams are not random. They are engineered and delivered by goblin field units every night, crafted from templates and filled with each dreamer's own memories and emotions. Children dream more vividly than adults, and the best goblin engineers compete to work with them.
Helena Flinn is twelve years old, chronically sleep-deprived, and one of only a handful of humans who can sense and direct Nocturnal Energy. Among those few, she is something else entirely. Which makes her, depending on who you ask, either the most remarkable person in two worlds or the biggest problem in both.
Setting
Contemporary Vienna, with the goblin city of Vinaborg beneath it
Genre
Middle-grade fantasy, steampunk-inflected
Magic System
Nocturnal Energy — measurable, engineerable, natural
Goblin Language
Raspy, crackling — somewhere between ancient Greek and modern Arabic
Book One
The Helena Flinn Chronicles
Helena has suffered from sleepless nights and terrible nightmares as long as she can remember. When she joins a new sleep therapy group in Vienna, she doesn't expect much. Then a desperate goblin arrives at her window with a plea for help — and leads her into a hidden steampunk city beneath the streets she grew up on. Something ancient is breaking through the dream system. Helena, it turns out, is the only one who can stop it.
Details & Reviews →
Book Two
The Helena Flinn Chronicles
Almost a year has passed. Helena now moves between two worlds: by day, an ordinary twelve-year-old in Vienna; by night, a regular in the goblin dream factory below. But dream essences are losing their power, nocturnal creatures are mutating, and a shadowy enemy is at work. Helena begins to master intention — the ability to deliberately steer her Nocturnal Energy. She will need it. The ending changes everything.
Details & Reviews →Book Three
The Helena Flinn Chronicles
The trilogy reaches its conclusion. Helena Flinn, the Nightmare Squad, and the goblin world face their greatest test yet. The questions left unanswered in The Flickering Realms will find their answers here — and the balance between the dreaming and waking worlds will be settled once and for all.
Follow for updates →The IBMDN data relay carries more than dream schematics.
Field imagery, mapped territories, archived visuals — select any file to download. All assets are cleared for distribution by the bureau's public communications office.
Free to use for personal, non-commercial purposes. All artwork © Little Lights Studio GmbH.
Everything you need to know.
Almost everything.
The world below Vienna is older than the city above it. These are its inhabitants, its places, its tools, and its rules. Some entries are from the field notes of Kornelius Flinn. Others come from the Shilwani Field Guide of Curious Contraptions. A few are simply things Helena wishes someone had told her earlier. This archive draws from across the chronicles — those who prefer to discover the world through the books first should proceed at their own pace.
Six entries, drawn at random from the field archives — draw again or browse by category above.
As classified by the Vinaborg Dreamcraft Manual, 4th Edition. One further entry remains restricted.
Engineered and delivered; the dreamer's subconscious fills the variables. The baseline. Millions produced every night.
Specially crafted for highly receptive individuals. Requires a senior engineer. Not assigned lightly.
The brain injects difficult variables to process unresolved issues. Not caused by goblins. Usually helpful, in the long run.
An unresolved issue, on repeat. Treatable via the Mastery Dream technique: invent an alternative ending and rehearse it before sleep.
Possibly an unfinished engineered dream spilling into waking hours. Helena is a vivid daydreamer. Whether this is a cause or a symptom remains under investigation.
Consciously controlled by the dreamer. Rare. Trainable, to a degree. A building block for something far more significant.
The Vinaborg Dreamcraft Manual lists a seventh type. The entry is sealed. Access restricted to senior bureau members only.
The Bureau is preparing new materials for public access. Newsletter subscribers will be the first to know.
IBMDN Pre-Departure Clearance Form
An interactive assessment to determine your Bureau classification and field assignment. Five questions. One result. Shareable.
Young Explorers Programme
Reading guides, STEM connections, and classroom activities. Bureau-approved materials for teachers and librarians.
The Nocturne Codex — Full Archive
A standalone searchable archive with Bureau terminal interface. 51 entries. Seven categories. Some files remain classified.
Dream Design Workshop
Pick your essences. Choose your dream elements. Receive a Bureau-issued Dream Design Brief. The workshop has never been open to the public. Until now.
Book 3 — The Trilogy Concludes
The final chapter of the Helena Flinn Chronicles. December 2026.
Questions. Press. School visits.
Bureau-classified field updates, delivered on the first of every month. One Codex entry that goes deeper than anything on the public archive. Notes from the author's desk. First word on Book 3. The world beneath Vienna is getting bigger. This is how you stay informed.
One dispatch per month. Unsubscribe any time.
For press enquiries, school and library visit requests, or anything else — get in touch directly. Michael reads every message.
Author — Vienna, Austria
The Author
My name is Michael, though most people call me miso. I live just outside Vienna with my wife and two daughters. In my day job, I am the CEO and Creative Director of Little Lights Studio — a Vienna-based film and brand agency. I have a long history of telling stories for other people. The Helena Flinn Chronicles is where I tell one for myself.
It began as a short story about goblin dream engineers manufacturing dreams in a lab. The goblins came first. Then the city beneath Vienna. Then Helena. The world grew around them over years of writing.
Both books are available now. The third is in development for 2026. The story is not finished.