{-Sharena-}

"…up! Come on, it's almost noon…"

Sharena sat up. Her heart was pounding, and it took her a moment to remember why. "It was a dream…" she muttered. "Just…just a dream…" A freakishly realistic, terrifying dream. Right when she thought she'd had enough of them.

Fauna's hug interrupted her thoughts. "I'm so glad you're alright! Anna came earlier to get us and everyone else left but you were still asleep and didn't respond and…and…" She was crying.

The worst thing anyone could ever do to Fauna was make her cry, if not just because of how rare it was. She had always been more likely to huddle in a corner and avoid everything; only once had Sharena ever actually seen her cry before, back when Fauna came to Askr and the unexpected major changes proved a bit too much for her to handle. The two of them kept it between them for a while until Fauna opened up to Anna about it—not long after that everyone in the castle knew about Fauna's awesome cooking abilities, they had an abundance of cookies, and most of her spare time was spent with animals.

"I'm fine, really," Sharena told her gently. "Just a nightmare."

"No, I'm pretty sure that was 'just a nightmare.'" This brought her attention to the doorway, where Anna stood. Her arms were crossed and she looked serious, but it was pretty clear she was relieved, too. "Get dressed and something to eat. I'll be waiting outside for when you're done." With that, the commander left.

Fauna moved back, wiping her tears away with her sleeve. "She's been covering for you all day," she said. She got up. "Well, I guess I'll leave you to it—I need to supervise some Heroes at the kitchen."

…

Anna was talking to a collection of Heroes when Sharena found her. Among the group was Natheniel. He was intently listening to whatever Anna was saying, but after noticing Sharena, excused himself and left—several of the Heroes joining him. Anna noticed her and waved her over.

"Up for a walk? Just the two of us."

Sharena nodded. "Sure."

They left the castle, neither of them speaking until it was further behind them.

"Natheniel…told me some things yesterday," Anna said, breaking their silence.

"You believe him?" It was a casual question; Sharena didn't really care if Anna did or not.

"There wasn't much of a choice. I don't know if he was lying, but I'm not taking the risk that he's telling the truth. What he talked about, what he described…it would put you three in too much danger and, as your commander, I can't let that happen." Anna was looking straight ahead, but it wasn't hard to tell she had put a lot of thought on the subject. "Honestly, I was reluctant to accept it at first, but after what happened this morning…"she trailed off.

"So…what did he tell you?" Sharena remembered her own meeting with Natheniel. She wondered if Anna knew about that, too.

"All that matters is that I know so then I can plan ahead and prevent as much damage as possible." She glanced at Sharena. "Speaking of which, you didn't tell me that you were still hearing the voices." Natheniel had told her about it, then.

"I didn't think it was important," Sharena answered simply.

"But what if it had been? Would you have just kept it from all of us until you finally let yourself admit that it was a problem?" Anna sighed. "It wouldn't be a problem if you hadn't kept it to yourself—you know that, right? I know you're not the kind of person to hide things from her friends, yet none of us knew about it. I mean, I can somehow expect you not telling me but I don't get Alfonse or Fauna. If something's happening again you can't just pretend like it's not there; it won't solve anything."

Sharena shrugged. "It didn't just randomly start again, if that's what you're thinking. They've been there since I first heard them."

Anna definitely seemed surprised by this. "Sharena, that was months ago. Really, what if that had been serious?"

"It's not a problem, honest. I don't get why you're so worried about it…" Her voice got quieter as she continued, looking at the ground. She was waiting to get yelled at.

"Because one day, it will be serious," Anna replied in a level tone. Not actually nearly as loud as Sharena was expecting her to be. "And all of us could very well go unknowing to it until it's to the point where we can't do anything about it. You only told Alfonse about the nightmares because he caught you in the middle of the night, and you only told me over a week later when one of said nightmares nearly scared you to death. If something else ever does happen I need you to promise me you'll tell one of us before it gets to that point again. Just because it's not an immediate bother doesn't mean it's not still important. Especially now with all of this going on."

Sharena didn't know if she'd be able to promise that. She didn't like making others worry about her—nor was she even really comfortable with having several people fussing over her like she wasn't able to look after herself (sure, she had a brother and, yes, he was a bit protective of her, but that didn't mean she was completely defenseless on her own). Anna in particular had always made a big deal out of anything she thought could be serious, but it was a step better than Henriette, who considered practically everything that didn't obviously shout "your daughter's happy!" as bad.

"Look, I don't like feeling helpless any more than you do," Anna remarked. "But I can't help if I don't know what the problem is. All I want to know is if anything happens…if I know about it, you won't have to deal with it any longer than you have to."

She nodded slowly. "Yeah… I'll try."

"That's all I ask."

(A/N: Alright, Sharena, you've now promised basically the same thing to both Alfonse and Anna. Now you've got to do it.

And a bit more insight on Fauna's past in Askr! Yay!)