{-Alfonse-}
It was quickly decided that the morning would be spent finding Líf and Thrasir. They wordlessly wandered to the village, but the sight didn't get much brighter from there.
Everything was quiet here, too. There wasn't any signs of conflict; it all seemed to be in the same place it had been when it was used, completely untouched by whatever took away the people who lived there. It was an unnerving kind of peaceful, in a way, and a scene best shown in a painting rather than being all around them. If not for the clearly manmade structures that were beginning to erode away and the signs of daily life that had been interrupted, it could very well be assumed that no one was ever here to begin with. There wasn't even wild animals that had come to take advantage of the disappearance of the village's residents.
Like many of the other villages close to either of the castles, Alfonse had been here many times before with Sharena and Zacharias. Even at night, it had always been bustling with activity. All of the children, pets, and merchants kept the streets busy whenever they'd come there. He didn't really want to consider what had happened to cause such a change, praying that whatever it was wouldn't happen to their world as well.
"This is the second time in the past six months I've walked through a completely abandoned place with the four of you," Veronica remarked dully. "Which, mind you, is more than I've seen in my sixteen years of existence."
"You say that like it's normal for us," Sharena muttered. "I'm almost two years older than you and I haven't done this any more than you have."
"Almost is the key word there. You've got a few weeks before you're actually eighteen." After realizing the stares of the others, she continued in a casual manner, "You might be surprised how much Bruno talks about you when he thinks I'm not listening. I know just about everything he knows about you and I doubt he's even aware of it."
"There's like five different ways that could go but I'm going to take that as a statement admitting to be able to blackmail us one day." Sharena generally shrugged it off, though still stepped a bit closer to Alfonse.
"Can you guys shut up?" The first answer Anna got was the look from both of the girls that definitely meant "no." "The only upside to everything apparently being dead is that, if Líf and Thrasir are anywhere nearby, we'd be able to hear them. That also means that they can hear us, so keep the hell down or so help me…" Her point still stood even though she trailed off.
"The…Hel..?" Eir seemed honestly confused.
Veronica, at least, gained a bit of amusement out of this; even if Anna gave a quiet moan of annoyance before declaring, "I'm not explaining how curses work." and walking quicker.
Eir was never actually given an actual explanation before they fell back into silence, making their way to the center of the village.
What was set up there added a whole other kind of unsettling to the area. Dozens of flowers—old and new alike, all the same type and color—were scattered around, slightly more concentrated as it got closer to the center. Six candles sat in a circle in the middle, looking like there was a scrap of paper in front of each of them with something scribbled on it (though he was too far away to tell what it said), though all but two were out. And standing in front of the candles, each setting down another flower beside the unlit ones, were Líf and Thrasir.
"Just a little longer, guys," Líf muttered. "Everything will be back to normal soon. We have them exactly where we want them…"
"There's still a lot we'll have to work out, but we'll be doing it as allies now. If only you could've seen how we've grown, what we've achieved while the rest of you are away… I hope you'll be proud of the choices we had to make to get here." Thrasir got up. "Líf, we should get going."
Líf slowly got up as well, but his eyes didn't move from the candles. "Do you think we could actually do it? What would need to be done in order to all be together? It's only like this now because of Hel's powers…without them, you two would be like you were then. Which was definitely not good."
"Don't remind me. But now isn't the time to be questioning such things." She gave him a smile. "We'll think of something when we get there, like we always do—except this time, there'd be six great minds at work."
"Yeah…I guess you're right." Líf nodded, stepping back. "Let's finish this and bring them back."
When the two were beginning to turn in the six's direction, they quickly divided and hid between the stalls on either side of them. Luckily, Líf and Thrasir walked past them without seeming to notice that they were there.
Once the pair was out of sight, Alfonse waited a couple more minutes before gesturing that it was probably safe to come out. He didn't exactly wait for the others before walking further into the center of the village, carefully moving around the flowers to get to the candles, faintly aware of the others following him (he chose to ignore Anna's statement of "We know which direction they're going in but we're taking the time to make a detour here..?").
When he was close enough to read what each of the scraps of paper read, he noticed a piece that was in the center—'For those that protect us: may they find a way to stop the heart.'—then moved to look at the scraps by the candles.
He was a bit hesitant to read what they said, beginning to understand this set up, but did it anyway. Alfonse grew increasingly unnerved as he walked around the circle, reading each of the names and recognizing all of them. The unlit ones were 'Sharena,' 'Anna,' 'Fauna,' and 'Zacharias' (there was a much smaller, almost scribbled out, 'Bruno' underneath it)…the two that were still lit were 'Alfonse' and 'Veronica.'
No one needed to say anything for the others to read them as well. This didn't make sense compared to what Líf and Thrasir had said while they were here—there wasn't even a practical explanation as to why they were here at all, if they were only who they said they were. Well…who Gustav said they were, since they'd never actually proven themselves as the first king of Askr and the first empress of Embla.
As soon as Eir saw this, she was all but trying to take their attention away from it. "That isn't important," she insisted. She was pretty much ignored, though.
"I want to ask what this means but I have a feeling I don't want to know…" Fauna remarked quietly. She joined Sharena in the general huddle between Alfonse and Anna.
"It's an older practice," Alfonse began, aware of the fact she didn't really ask for an explanation but knew it was something she should be familiar with. "Kind of like a way to show a person—or more commonly, people—that they're in the thoughts of the citizens and believed to 'protect' them, in a way. Though it's not something you'd come across in more recent years, they'll still be set out in certain villages if it's the right circumstance. Each of the important people—generals or other military officers during a major battle and royalty during a time of plague are a few examples—either involved significantly or otherwise effected are given a candle. The candles then stay lit until the person they were assigned to dies, in which they're then snuffed out to show that there was one less 'light,' so to speak, remaining. It's considered a bad omen when over half are out, but it's believed when the remaining ones burn out on their own then the problem will be solved or the conflict will be over." He paused. "The flowers, then, are just in memorial to those who've fallen as common courtesy to the dead."
Needless to say, Anna was already turning around to follow Líf and Thrasir. "Well, that's enough of that. Let's get going before we completely lose track of them."
Everyone wordlessly agreed, following behind her. This gave them a bit more to think about, at least, whether they liked it or not.
((A/N: It took four stories, maybe seven or so months, but you finally know how old Veronica is. I can't even say "you now know the name of every character worth mentioning if you've read all the stories" because I don't think I ever said Bruno's age. Actually, I'm just going to say it all here and now: as of the start of this story, Bruno's 21, Alfonse is 20, Sharena's 17, Veronica's 16, and Fauna's 15. You don't want know how old Lekra or Eir are.))