{-Sharena-}

"A-are you mad at me..? You're looking at me like Bruno does when he's mad at me…"

"I'm not mad at you. I just… why would you even consider doing this to yourself?"

"When it comes, it's hard to resist the want to see blood… and I'd just been so upset… hurting myself felt far more pleasing than hurting you ever would've been…"

Sharena woke up to the odd conversation, only noticing the plate on the dresser until after she'd gotten out of bed. So, if nothing else, it was past breakfast. She alternated between finding clothes and eating a bit, figuring she might as well take what she didn't eat down with her when she went to see what Veronica and Alfonse were talking about.

Despite still feeling a little uneasy on her feet, she went downstairs like there wasn't a problem at all. She realized that there had been a problem for the rest of them, though, when she came into the kitchen.

Alfonse and Veronica were both sitting down, the former dressing a cut on the latter's hand. Both of them looked like they'd been out in the rain recently. Kiraat was mixing up something at the counter, and was the first to notice she was there.

"Hope you don't mind that I didn't wake you up for breakfast," he said, taking a short break from what he was doing to take the plate from her. "It still felt like you had a fever and I didn't want to interrupt your chance to rest. You're looking a lot better than you did yesterday, though. Fancy some chamomile? I can pull out another cup for you."

"I think I'm good." She gave him a weak smile for the thought and went to her seat. "So what happened earlier?"

"We're leaving tomorrow," was Alfonse's only answer. "I've already sent a letter to Mother telling her and a message to Xander to pick up Veronica. She'll still be staying at the castle for at least three days, but it's better than having her walk there on her own."

"He's not going to like what happened…" Veronica sighed.

Kiraat frowned. "Again, are you sure you want to leave so soon? I still don't know why Sharena passed out yesterday and gods forbid that happen while you're traveling."

"I'm not changing my mind," Alfonse remarked firmly. "We'll be sticking to a route that keeps us close to villages; the same route we'd used to get here. If we run into any problems, we'll simply go there and call for a ride from the castle." He nodded at his sister. "But you should still get some more rest if you ever start feeling dizzy again. I can gather all of our things so long as I know you two will be ready to go early in the morning."

…

This was a dream, right?

She'd went up to her room twice between the time she'd woken up and when they ate dinner—both were only for short naps. Then, after helping Alfonse pack their things (knowing he'd probably spend too much time doing it himself), she'd went to bed.

But what she seemed to be watching almost felt a little too real to be just a dream, but not in the same way the dreams she'd had during their trip to the world of nightmares had been. This felt familiar and welcoming, yet gave her melancholy despite her colorful surroundings. She kept thinking that she should be happy to see this, and she couldn't figure out why she wasn't. It was like when Henriette went on about how good of a family they used to be; like she was trying to find happy memories about it, but she didn't actually find anything, and it just left her confused.

Just as the place was familiar, though, so were the people. The one on the left—who made her oddly sad to see—was Peony, and the one on the right… that was Freyr. There was one other person beside Freyr who honestly looked like she was asleep, but Sharena couldn't think of her name. She knew she'd seen her before, though.

"Wait, really? You're really letting me go?!" Peony was practically bouncing with excitement, which was not something the other two possessed. In fact, from the looks of it, the only thing they all shared were butterfly wings. "I thought you said I couldn't! You looked me straight in the eye and said in that serious voice, 'Peony, you must not leave this realm' and I just thought 'well that won't be a problem—'"

"This isn't something to get excited over," Freyr told her calmly. "In fact, you should probably be dreading that it has to come down to this. We are not to interfere with this sort of things and you know that, yet this is what we must do if we want to keep the balance. We're bending the rules to keep them…"

The other person stirred a bit. "Don't try talking sense to her… you're only wasting breath… she's not going to listen to it… Look at her." She gave a half-hearted wave to Peony. "That's the look of someone who… who's too determined to… listen…" Then she yawned and seemingly went back to sleep again.

Peony, at least, ignored her. "Well, I know it's not good, but in a way, it's good! I'll get to see her again! Do you think she's taller? What am I saying, she's mortal, of course she's taller now. How much taller do you think she is? Do you think she's taller than me now? I know I've grown too but she said her father was super tall so I wonder if she is too? Wait wait wait, do you think she's taller than Triandra? Triandra was the tallest out of all of us! Heh, imagine the look on her face when she realizes she's not the tallest anymore. Or just her face in general when she hears we're gonna see her again! Are you going to tell her? You're going to tell her, right? I know you can talk with Freyja, don't look at me like you can't. Triandra's apart of this too! She deserves to know what's going on! Plus you won't let me see her. Why won't you let me see her? I can't even remember the last time you let me see her, and you know I have good memory. I know she's not dead because I wouldn't be here if she was dead and it wouldn't be a problem whether or not she was remembering us, so. And how would YOU feel if you couldn't see your sister? Oh wait, you don't like each other. Well, if you liked your sister, how would you feel if you couldn't see her? Also álfar can't die. Not normal álfar—"

"Can you please listen to me for a few more minutes?" Freyr sighed. "You must remember that we are not the only ones within these walls. You'll do best to hold your tongue and wait until I'm finished."

She gave an obedient nod.

"Good. If all goes well, you won't see her. Mirabilis has done it multiple times in the past as she fulfilled your frivolous desires, you should be able to do it as well. Remember that you're there to help her forget, not allow her to remember more. She's already remembering too much… soon enough I fear we'll be finding something in our realm that does not belong." He waited until she nodded again before continuing. "You and Mirabilis will be going together. I'm trusting you not to do anything stupid or get yourself mixed into something that you shouldn't be. The waking realm isn't a pleasant one; keep that in mind, do what you need to, and come back as soon as possible. It's not going to get any better by waiting and staying there is only going to bring more trouble than it's worth."

"Of course… Dream-King Freyr. I'll make sure she forgets us again… and that this time, it's deep enough down that she'll… she'll never remember us, like we were never really there from the start…"

…

The light knock on her door woke her up. "Get dressed and come down for something to eat. We're leaving in about half an hour." She didn't bother saying anything; she knew her brother had already went back downstairs.

Sharena just let Lekra watch her, barely paying much mind to the fact that they were there at all. When they still hadn't said anything by the time she'd finished getting dressed (and gathering up what she hadn't put away the night before), she sighed. "What is it?"

They shook their head slowly. "You're closer to remembering than I thought you were… whether that's for better or worse is something I'm not quite sure of yet, though."

((A/N: I love Peony. I decided I'm going to make her the character that just won't shut up about anything, and jump to three different thought processes in a paragraph. There's just something about that that I really like for some reason. Also, Freyr is putting way to much trust in her—then again, I can't say that I expect him to have very high expectations and isn't preparing for when he hears she did the exact opposite of what he told her to do…))