{-Sharena-}

Most of the afternoon was spent by herself. It didn't clear her head any, though, as she thought about what Natheniel had said and whatever he was going to tell her. She ate and then started helping Fauna rearrange her room for the Heroes she'd be expecting later that night.

"I'm nervous," Fauna admitted. "This is kind of really new and I've never done this before—"

"You have seriously never had a sleepover before?" Sharena probably shouldn't have been surprised; Fauna really didn't seem to have gotten out much before coming to Askr. Then again it didn't sound like she had many human friends before this, either. "Remember, it's supposed to be fun, not anxiety-inducing."

"We should both know by now I find a lot of normal stuff anxiety-inducing. I'm just a very anxious person, apparently." Fauna shrugged and put a few glass ornaments on her dresser. "It probably doesn't help that Natheniel's freaking me out…"

"Let them do whatever and she'll tell us if she needs us," Sharena said. "I, for one, would like to enjoy this with friends. Like what our plan was before he came. Can we just continue doing that, please? Nothing bad can happen in just a single night. We'll hang out, eat some cookies, you can tell us about your boyfriend, and everything will be fine."

"He wasn't my—" Fauna sighed. "There's no way I'm winning this argument, is there?"

Sharena sat on Fauna's bed and watched her mess with a few more ornaments. "Not unless you can honestly tell me you've never kissed before and you didn't come up with cute nicknames for each other."

"We didn't do either! We weren't a couple! Just friends!"

"You're blushing," Sharena pointed out bluntly. She'd learned a while ago how to tell Fauna's blushing from her naturally rosy cheeks.

"Fine. But let's get this straight: we've never kissed, we never came up with nicknames, and we definitely never became a thing."

"Do I sense a bit of regretful longing..?"

"No!" Fauna gave her room one last look before joining Sharena on the bed. "Can we just save this for later? The others should be here soon, anyway."

…

Just like her prediction for the evening, they stayed up pretty late. Past whenever Anna went to bed, at least (Sharena only knew that since the commander checked on them on her way to her room). There was no mention to Natheniel; Sharena assumed he'd simply been sent back to the room he was in the night before. Eventually they called it a night.

She couldn't sleep, though. Despite being tired, she just couldn't actually get herself to close her eyes and sleep. After a couple hours she sat up—careful not to wake anyone, especially Fauna since she was a light sleeper—and left the room. She didn't know what she'd do, but it was better than just laying there.

Sharena wandered to the kitchen. She convinced herself not to have another cookie as she wondered why it was completely silent; it was a bit unusual for all the lights to be out and not hear at least one Hero snoring. Not to mention she hadn't accidentally tripped on Tharja, who often stationed herself by either of the Robins' room and watch them as they slept. Or maybe Sharena just didn't notice her—the dark mage did blend into the darkness pretty well. She shrugged it off.

"You shouldn't be here."

She jumped. "Don't scare people like that!" It wasn't until she turned around to face Natheniel that she realized something was really, really wrong.

Nothing would seem off at first glance. He was just standing there, head tilted to the side in a curious manner. With a better look, though, it was pretty obvious it wasn't normal. His eyes were blank and he no longer wore his feather necklace. And she had a feeling it wasn't because he'd just woken up.

"You're…not supposed to be here," he remarked. Even his voice sounded hollowed, but the forced, pained edge to it was what she payed attention to. "I don't even know why you're here…"

"I practically live here how am I not supposed to be here?" Sharena asked dully. She wished he wasn't blocking her exit; he was starting to creep her out.

For a moment, he looked confused. "Oh, so you…don't know, then. That's not good."

"I don't know a lot of things!" She was well aware of her lack of knowledge. That was Alfonse's job—to be the smart one of the two. Her job was to keep him from being too smart to the point he was an even bigger bummer that what he already is.

"What to do what to do…" Natheniel seemed to ignore her. "You've got to wake up. Preferably soon or now."

"Wake up?" she repeated disbelievingly. "The reason I'm here is because I couldn't sleep!" She hoped that he was just bluffing. But she had a feeling he was being serious.

He stepped out of her way. "No, you must've gone asleep sometime if you're here now. Don't you think it's a little odd that it's so quiet? Like…we're the only ones here? Did you ever actually see the others when you got up?"

Sharena wished she could say she had. In all honesty, she hadn't exactly been paying attention. They'd all had their collection of blankets signifying who was where, but there'd been no movement at all.

"Just find somewhere to hide until you wake up," he advised. "I can explain everything in the morning." When she didn't move, he became clearly annoyed. "What are you waiting for?! Go! Before someone else gets hurt…"

The sense of impending danger got her moving. She ran off, no longer worried about how loud she was, trying to process his words as she put as much space between her and Natheniel as possible.

(A/N: I bet you all thought I forgot about the sleepover thing. But I did not. And once again, Sharena bugs Fauna about her totally-not-but-kind-of boyfriend. I purposely left who else was there up to you.

Can you tell I've played Awakening? The only time specific Heroes are mentioned is when they're from Awakening...)