{-Alfonse-}
They spent most of the morning discussing what Líf had told him—that the two of them were the Alfonse and (while not directly announced, it was a reasonable guess) Veronica, and what had happened to the world. After a bit of mutual confusion on how Thrasir was taller than Veronica—despite seeing a picture including an older version of the latter, in which she hadn't grown at all—and the other girls successfully annoying her about it, they went back to the more serious line of conversation.
"This is the second time Líf's just walked away from a fight," Anna pointed out. "In both, he had the perfect opportunity to get what he wanted but left the moment the rest of us showed up. What kind of screwed up strategy is that..?"
"Well, I didn't come here to try to figure out the actions of the dead," Veronica remarked bitterly. "I quite honestly don't give a damn about what he did and did not do, and really it doesn't matter. The more time we spend wasting our time here the longer Hel has to ruin our own world." She didn't wait for a reply before glancing at Alfonse. "Who was the heart's owner, again?"
"Angrbooa," he answered. "Líf said he was Hel's father."
He had a feeling he should be mildly concerned at how long Veronica was thinking about that. "And the heart had the power to stop her, correct?"
Alfonse nodded slowly. "As far as they knew."
"Then the hard part's already done for us." Veronica's matter-of-fact tone and confident expression was more off-putting than what she was suggesting. "There's an Emblian temple closer to the border, said to be the resting place of the heart Líf spoke of. The idiots performed the rite discussed in legends but failed to do the latter half of the instructions, resulting in the returning heartbeat and their inevitable downfall. It stopped beating after there was nothing left to get rid of, and will not start beating again unless triggered. With that problem dealt with and the blood sacrifice needed already done, all we'd need to do is figure out where it is now, decide on who will be the most capable of killing Hel, then go back to her and let her know what it's like to die. Simple."
"Wait, when you mean blood sacrifice, do you mean, like…dark magic..?" Fauna, at least, was worried. A lot quieter, she mumbled something along the lines of "I'm not allowed to interact with anything relating to dark magic…"
"Of course I'm talking about dark magic." That was still a lot nicer than what Veronica would've been if literally anyone else had asked that question, even if it sounded harsh.
Anna didn't seem to like the idea. "We'd be putting our trust in you in order to keep the heart from beating again. Not to mention we're supposed to be putting trust on Emblian legends just because they might actually be useful?"
"To be fair," Sharena began, "The Emblians did have pretty accurate legends about the nightmares—well, more than Askr does."
Veronica ignored Sharena and went back to Anna. "I find it amusing that you're so confident I know how to do it."
"You're Emblian. Emblians do dark magic stuff." Anna didn't seem to care about the statement being rude, sounding almost exactly like most of the council members. She perfected the unintended impression with a shrug as if what she was saying was obvious. "You can't honestly tell me you don't know how to do it."
"I can, but that's not the point. All you Askrans think alike, stripped down to the fundamentals," Veronica sighed. "There's the good, then there's the bad. The only thing that separates the two is what side of the continent they were born in and who they're loyal to."
They didn't have enough time for trying to decipher their enemy's strategy, but by all means, of course there was enough time for this line of conversation. Alfonse wouldn't mind working with Veronica more if it weren't for Anna. Neither of them particularly cared for the other and it clearly showed; it was a surprise they hadn't killed each other yet, really.
"We need to keep track of Líf and Thrasir," Eir reminded them almost desperately. "They will return to Hel with this information and then there would be nothing we can do to stop her. The more time we give them the quicker—"
"If they want the prince that badly they'd look for us rather than rely on us looking for them," Veronica interrupted. "And if they're close enough to know what we're discussing, then they're close enough to know we'd be completely vulnerable for attack." She gestured to their weapons, which were sitting beside their respective packs in a pile just out of arm's reach. "I'd like to know what they hope to achieve with a plan this ridiculous."
"Maybe they're trying to be mostly random?" Sharena suggested. "Being super disorganized or just generally having no idea what they're doing is another option," she added thoughtfully a couple minutes later.
"Even if we're desperate, I'd like to believe we'd be smarter than this," Veronica remarked dully, glancing at Alfonse. "It wouldn't even be hard to lock us here, since Líf's the only one of the Askran royals here who knows how to open portals."
"You say that like it's my fault…" Alfonse muttered, more out of stating fact than showing offense. That was basically the only thing he was certain didn't have anything to do with his own choices. It wasn't like his father offered and he knew he wasn't going to learn just by asking; he was just left to question who'd taught Líf, since they were the same person.
"Believe me, if I knew it worked the same both ways, I'd show you just to pretend like that disgrace for tradition never existed." Veronica spoke casually in a way that implied she didn't actually care that much, though the fact she said it alone proved that she'd actually do it.
Eir shook her head. "None of you are understanding the risks we allow in pursuing this goal. No one can even be sure the heart is even still out there somewhere."
"You know you're definitely not looking good, right?" Anna asked, looking at Eir. "First you come to us saying you need our help. Then Líf shows up in an ambush that could've gotten both of the royals dead. Then we do what you say and follow Líf and Thrasir, leading Alfonse into a trap you should be damn well glad he got out of. Now you're insisting on something that, so far, hasn't done anything but almost getting people killed."
"It could just be a coincidence," Sharena said calmly. "There's a lot of different reasons why all of that happened when it did; Eir isn't the only mildly reasonable explanation."
Fauna seemed hesitant to join in the conversation at first, but slowly nodded. "Just because she's related to the enemy doesn't mean she wants to hurt us. I know she wasn't lying when she said she needed our help and, as far as I'm concerned, she still does until we can prove otherwise."
Eir slowly got up. "I swear to you that I have spoken only truths, and that I do not wish to harm you. You have all been considerably kind to me in my time here, telling me stories about your mortal realm and proving to me that death, while unavoidable, is not the only comfort to hardship… I do not wish to keep all of the truth from you any longer, and even if it means I will die…I will tell you the entirety of Hel's plan. But I cannot share it here. Is there a safe place near here where we need not to worry about being overheard?"
"The Order's castle isn't too far from here," Alfonse replied. "We could arrive by nightfall if we leave now."
Anna sighed. "You're the boss." She got up, gesturing for the others to do the same. "Let's get moving. Eir's staying in the front where I can keep an eye on her, and if she's smart she'll keep her mouth shut until we're there. I want the rest of you behind me and on guard since we still have no idea on where Líf and Thrasir are."
Everyone gave a collective nod, then went to go get their things.
((A/N: One of the questions that annoyed Veronica the most was "Do you think it's because of your dragon blood?" The actual explanation for it is that, though: Líf and Thrasir are the "canonical" ones. This means Líf doesn't know who Lekra is because they didn't happen, and Thrasir wasn't quite as screwed as this Veronica is.))