{-Sharena-}
It had to be obvious she was taken aback by the question. Only Lekra seemed to care about it; Triandra stayed as emotionless as ever, and Freyja even looked like she was somewhat pleased at seeing her confused.
"I remember the day quite clearly," Freyja mused. "It had to be around the time my dear brother saw it fit to introduce the three of you. I was dealing with my own visitor, whom I regrettably have to put up with if I value the well-being of everyone here—which I do, of course, otherwise I'd be no better than her and all the families that I rescued these álfar from. Awfully annoying, but a threat that I wasn't going to tolerate either way. She was telling me something; about a little girl with a certain connection to the dreams my brother and I have painstakingly created for your mortal enjoyment. And of course, like what she seemed to do with the rest of her problems, she wanted me to eliminate the threat the girl posed.
"For a time, I merely observed. I had no reason to intervene at that point. My time was already spent squandering away at another little dream project I'd been given earlier, I didn't need the distraction of taking care of someone else's business. A while passed after that and Freyr asked me if I could turn a child into a dökkálfar, since her and her sister's own situation was growing worse by the day and we had to intervene. I offered their friend—the same girl I'd been asked to deal with—if she would like to join us, too. Sadly, she held her doubts until the time was too late to do anything, and even then she sided with her mortal life. I can't quite say I blame her, ever yearning for the comfort her older brother gave her; it's a feeling I can sympathize with wholeheartedly…
"Freyr likely already told you what happened to the two girls who became álfar. However, I doubt he would've mentioned what happened to the girl who stayed in the waking realm. I'm sure you're already aware of the events. The cute little six-year-old found a cave on one of her wanderings, and in her amazement, showed her brother. They weren't expecting a third person to be there or even know where it was, and she was not a pleasant person to run into. With her was one of her nightmares, before it grew a will and prospered in another world. In that instant, it was like a big dog to the little girl: all it wanted was to mark her as its master, but ended up knocking her over. It didn't mean to do harm, but it did, and that alone helped the girl become a better candidate when the álfar's forms faltered.
"I'll be awfully blunt with you. I knew exactly what was going to happen and the effect it would have on her. I brought it to Freyr's attention and we thought of a solution to the problem together. Though I was disappointed that she hadn't chosen to become an álfar, I was pleased to see the three of them together and happy. But alas, I'm sure I'm not the first—nor the last—to tell you that nothing can last forever. That's when the next notable thing happened, a couple weeks after the girl had left the dream realm behind her, she fell ill. Now, this was a normal sickness; it was the dream that held importance. It was in this dream that she encountered another one of those creatures, though now possessing a form of a true nightmare. And of course, that woman I mentioned at the very beginning was there… along with all that shattered glass. Do you remember that room, by any chance? I'd think it would be rather influential, given all its meaning…"
To completely understand what Freyja meant by the statement felt like its own kind of punishment. Sharena didn't think she could've felt any more targeted than she already was—if she'd looked like a trapped animal when they came in, she definitely looked more like prey that knew it was going to die. She could tell that Lekra was trying their best to give her all the support they dared to give, though it didn't do much good. If she knew she could, she would've just found a quiet corner to just figure out what was important to pay attention to and what was being said to trick her.
"It was in that room that you bound your own fate," Freyja remarked breezily. She slowly raised from her throne, practically stalking her way over to Sharena. "You could be living happily without a care in the world should it not be for that; just if you'd done as simply as listening to your mother when she said how far you could play. Here's an important detail about álfar, dear: we don't have the luxury of forgetting about the kids we take care of like you so effortlessly discard us. No one wants to suffer… but it seems that the very cost of existing is that we must suffer. I know a way to end the suffering of a lot of people… and you, my little rose, are going to get us there." Her expression was soft and caring when she finally stopped in front of the princess. "There's two options. We could figure this out the easy and humane way, or you could chose to be complicated and learn the possibilities of what us dökkálfar and our nightmares are capable of."
Sharena knew that she couldn't afford to put up a fight. She didn't know them or this place—they'd both been here for a long time. Sure, there was Lekra, but really that only seemed to make the situation worse. The only way of knowing if Freyja was actually capable of all that was by testing it out, after all, which was something neither of them wanted to risk. "What do you want me to do?"
"There's quite the reward for having someone like you under control. I daresay He even wants to see you, one of those pesky little anomalies that weren't even supposed to exist in the first place. Well, not to this kind of degree, at least. You're on the precipice of becoming an álfar, only a shove away from being something so much different… and that's a threat." Freyja still kept a friendly tone that could've lulled anyone into a false sense of security. "Normally, we simply dispose of them and from there they can go straight to judgement. But you and your friends already ruined that plan, so we're going to have to go with the best next thing. You, my dear, need to become álfar. We were born from suffering, but you will be born to end all that suffering… a spotless lamb wandering to the slaughter with little thought of what awaited her there."
"If I do what you want, will you let me remember?" Sharena made sure to chose her do carefully, fully aware of what she was promising to do and what she'd get in exchange. "I think you know about this feeling… Even if it hurts, I need to know what it means."
Lekra seemed to know what she'd offer before she even finished. "That's an awful idea! If you're an álfar, then that means you can't go home. It's exactly what she wants you to do, because if you're like that, then she gets complete control over you. You might as well be walking right into L—"
"Shh, little nightmare," Freyja said calmly. "Don't speak of the devil, now. I work hard to keep her out of this place." She brought her attention back to Sharena. "I'd have to bring up that kind of stuff with Freyr, but it's certainly not impossible. No one would need to suffer anymore… I like it. You don't need to worry about anything, dear; everything will be right where you left it. You're going to bring us one step closer to redemption… the long-awaited endgame…"
"That's it, I'm not waiting for this to finish anymore!" The door behind Sharena burst open, and she didn't need to look to know who it was. She didn't know if she wanted to be happy that they were there, or annoyed at their timing. "Freyja, whatever you plan on doing, stop it!"
"My, my, if it isn't my dear Peony," Freyja mused, walking around Sharena in order to stand in front of the rest of them. "And Sharena's friends, of course. You came just in time to be sent back to the waking world. You see, the dear's just offered to help our cause and I can't have you here—you don't have to worry about her, though, she'll brought straight back to you when I'm done."
"You're not just agreeing to remembering, though. This is something more than that. There's no telling…" Lekra trailed off, giving everyone else just enough information to be more concerned but not the full explanation.
"I know what I'm doing," Sharena assured them. She turned around to face all of them, offering them a weak but assuring smile. "I need to figure out where I got lost. I'll see you when I get back home, alright?"
((A/N: Okay, hear me out: Loki, Thórr, Freyr, Freyja, and Hel were like college roommates. Alfaðör was the principal, probably showing incredible favoritism to Loki and Thórr. Loki was the one that, a couple millennia later, still asks them all for favors. Thórr is STILL Loki's roommate, but is pretending that Loki doesn't owe her a ton of rent money. Freyr and Freyja were those odd twins, and Freyja would bully literally any girl who so much as looked at Freyr. Hel was, of course, the one who murdered a whole world and stole a baby, graduating early because of her evilness. This may or may not be, in a nutshell, how they all know each other.
Forget what Lekra said about not being able to go home, Freyja's got other plans over here…))