{-Sharena-}

There was nothing as annoying as hearing Lekra before she was even awake. "Come on, Sharena, I think it's about time you stop pushing how long you can sleep in. Everyone else is almost done packing up."

Of course they had to wake her up. "Happy?" she mumbled to the shadow.

"My, if looks could kill," they mused. "Don't try blaming me, I didn't do anything."

"You're the reason I'm awake now, aren't you?" She got up and began to collect her things.

"We should've been ready to leave an hour ago," Anna remarked. "Be glad you got as much sleep as you did, because we need to keep moving. Hel's not going to wait for us to come to her."

"She likely already has soldiers looking for us," Eir added thoughtfully. "It is not hard to spot the light of living in the darkness of the dead, after all."

The rustling leaves announced the arrival of another person, though her revealing didn't lower their guard or raise it. "Even to the living, you're far too obvious. Do you want to get yourselves killed here?"

Anna grabbed her axe and prepared for a fight. "Veronica, you've got three seconds to explain what you're doing here—"

"Can an empress not wish to defend her people? Where do you think Hel was before she waltzed over to you?" Veronica didn't seem fazed by the hostility she was greeted by, but her point almost made Sharena feel bad for her. "Believe me, I would never want to work with you if I had the choice."

"We were enemies the last time we saw each other," Anna pointed out. "Who's to say you're not just here to kill us?"

"Oh, please, if I planned on killing you I would've done it already," was Veronica's casual answer that probably didn't actually help at all. "Look around, do you see any Emblian soldiers—do you even see Xander? All I have is a tome for self-defense, which I believe puts me at quite the disadvantage compared to three of you. I'm only with you because Bruno said it would be safer than going alone. He said you won't hurt me knowing what I am to him… and he made me promise that I won't hurt you because, for some strange reason, he likes you." Her expression twisted into one of disgust at the thought.

Alfonse's glance in Anna's direction was enough to force her to give up. "Fine, you win. But you're up front and everything you say better be loud and clear."

"Afraid I'm going to use magic on any of you? I'm not Askran. I actually uphold the morals I was raised by." Veronica gestured around her. "Well, when are you going to be ready to keep moving? You said yourself that Hel isn't going to wait for us."

…

Sharena found herself wandering in the back of the group. She hoped Veronica couldn't hear her mumbles or at least think that she was talking to one of the others.

"I know you know her, so tell me why she feels so wrong," Lekra demanded. "It's not like Eir, who honestly I think is purposely hiding her fears from me. She—Veronica, is it?—feels like there's a different kind of shield blocking me from her fears. Something far beyond simple willpower."

"I don't really know much more than you do. She's the princess to the Emblian Empire, so she has Embla's dragon blood. Maybe that's what you're sensing?"

"It must go down further than that. You, Alfonse, and Fjorm all have dragon blood too, don't you? You and your brother from Askr, and Fjorm from Nifl… yet I have no problem understanding any of you. In fact I'm sure I've seen more fears than I was supposed to from the three of you."

"I mean, I guess it also makes her really want to kill us for some reason, if that changes anything..?"

Lekra hummed. "Perhaps there's something that makes her connection to that dragon stronger… or something that is blocking a part of the connection for the rest of you."

"Those are all questions for Alfonse. He'd definitely know more than I do."

"No, I don't think it's a type of question for a mortal… it's more of something for the Lady of Nightmares, or even Thórr, if I ever see either of them again…"

Sharena glanced at the others. Anna was arguing with Veronica about something, Alfonse was trying to get them to stop, and Fauna and Eir were upholding a casual conversation of their own. All of them would be too distracted in their own thing to pay attention to her. "She… actually has a name, doesn't she?"

"I don't know who you're talking about." They proved that they actually did, though, by looking away.

"The Lady of Nightmares. One of the people those voices are always mentioning in my dreams. Her name… it's Freyja, isn't it?"

"Shhh, you mustn't say that," they hissed.

"Why not?"

"Such a name is not supposed to be uttered by a living, awake mortal. They might refer to each other like that in their own dominion, but those rules don't apply to us here. Ideally, it isn't spoken around mortals at all. If you ever did meet a god, it would be for the same reason they call Hel the Sovereign of the Dead or just Death. They are names meant to be lost to time… names that cannot be revived without their own set of consequences. Titles like Death, the Dream-King, or Lady of Nightmares suggests presence, but not closeness. Real names give the impression of familiarity, and in their duties, it's better for all sides if there's less reason to blur the lines between their realm and yours. You're actually experiencing what happens in that situation right now… though it's more affected by the presence of two mortals."

"Who are they..?"

"The prince of peace and little dreamer."

((A/N: Sharena has been dreaming about four oddly-familiar voices since she found Lekra. Is it a coincidence? I think not!

I've always felt like the way a character addresses the people around them says a lot about them and their respect or familiarity towards said people. Lekra doesn't just call Freyja the Lady of Nightmares for the reasons stated in this chapter, but also out of reverence; meanwhile, the person that called her Freyja (and the reason Sharena knows that's her name) disregards those titles since she considers herself close to the Dream-King and Lady of Nightmares. To use examples from Kingdom of Ice—the first book in this series—Ylgr refers to Nifl's late queen as "Mom" mostly because she doesn't quite get why she needs to be formal by saying "Mother" like the rest of her siblings. Fjorm just calls Surtr by name, but not out of familiarity; unlike Hríd, she doesn't even want to consider the fact that Surtr is human, much less respect that he's the king of a powerful nation. Alfonse, Sharena, Anna, and Lucy dropped the titles a few years ago when they all felt a considerable amount of respect for one another. Fauna doesn't refer to any of them by title because it makes her go "oh gosh I'm just a normal person what am I doing here in the presence of such important people I shouldn't be here," which was a hurdle during her first few months in the Order (before Sharena revealed that none of them really cared and she, for one, would be happy with just "Sharena").

Anyway that's my infodump for the day.))