{-Henriette-}
She never wanted her children to get hurt or get wrapped up in things they shouldn't need to worry about. But she'd always known that it was too perfect of a wish to come true; then from the moment she met Thórr, she realized she couldn't even promise them a mostly-peaceful life. It seemed like every time she saw them they grew up so much more, barely recognizable from the two kids that would run around the fields without a care in the world.
Henriette knew that there was nothing to worry about, yet she chose to stay with Sharena anyway. Someone needed to be there when she got upset and explain to her what she missed when she woke up. At least there wasn't anything else going on.
Most of her time was spent reading, having a couple (incredibly sappy romance) novels she'd been meaning to read for a while. If not that then she was sorting out papers for Alfonse or writing letters to her friends. She didn't mind the quietness; in fact it felt calming, though she wished this didn't need to be what had to happen in order for things to feel like it was slowing down.
The door flung open, but it took the boy who did it a moment to poke his head inside. "There you are!" Iztali beamed.
Henriette gave him a small smile. "What are you doing away from Fauna?" she asked softly. She didn't mind if he was here, but she knew Fauna was supposed to be keeping an eye on him.
"She's having an adult conversation with Alfonse," he replied matter-of-factly, strolling over to her. "I got bored. Peony was talking to the other álfar so I couldn't play with her. Ylgr got to go on a mission with the Heroes which is really unfair. You and Sharena are the only interesting ones left! And it's kinda just you, since Sharena's still sleeping…" He quickly noticed that she was reading. "Oh! Can you read me a story? No one's read to me in forever!"
They both knew, of course, that "forever" meant "four days ago," when Sharena had read him a bedtime story.
"Alright, but nothing out of this." Henriette marked her place and sat the book beside her. She took another book—a book of fables Sharena had always kept in her room—and opened it up to the table of contents. "What do you want to hear about?"
He thought long and hard, looking through each fable's title and rattling off the ones he'd already been read. Eventually he pointed to one. "That one! The… The Story of the Un…Unknown World." He stuttered over the title, though honestly she was surprised to hear he could read that much.
She went to the page and began reading. "We have always thought that there is more beyond what we know…"
…
"…'Let us live together,' she pleaded before the gods. But there was nothing she could do now, because the damage had already been done: the lands were now separated by ocean, thick fog and perilous storms keeping the two from over reuniting. Now stands the Known World, the domains of Askr, Embla, Nifl, and Múspell on one side, and the Unknown World on the other, its habitants just as mysterious as it is."
Iztali had been awed into silence from the beginning, now bursting with the rush of excitement the story gave him. "Do you think we'll be able to go there one day?"
"I'm not really sure," she responded gently. "It might just be the boring adult in me, but I don't even think a place like that exists."
"It does! I heard those mean ladies talking about it sometimes. They mentioned people named Eitri and Nótt. The place they talked about wasn't any of those four! But they did mention them, too. I don't think it was as a kingdom. It was like they were talking about a person."
"It's… not impossible. All four of those kingdoms are named after the god that created them." She tried not to seem surprised; she shouldn't have been, knowing that something happened to the boy before Alfonse and Sharena found him and it definitely wasn't anything normal.
"Do you think we'd ever get to meet them, too?"
The laugh that followed was more nervous than anything. "No, I don't think we ever will."
((A/N: For the duration of this chapter, until Iztali casually wanders back on his own, Fauna considers looking for him every couple of minutes. Alfonse assures her that he's probably not bothering anyone and they continue with their conversation.
Would you believe me if I told you that story is technically foreshadowing? And will you even remember this chapter when the bonus revealing why it's foreshadowing comes out at the end of the next book? I wouldn't, so I won't blame you if you don't, either.
A fun fact: Iztali, Lekra, and the álfar either cannot read and write or can only do so very poorly. Generally with their line of work they don't need to know that kind of skill and it's considered a waste of time to learn it (even if álfar remembered learning it, their education never went high). Hel, Eir, Freyr, and Freyja, on the other hand, probably have a god-given ability to understand all mortal tongues and thus can technically read and write any mortal language. This is mainly due to the universality of their jobs and the fact that language cannot be a barrier. All álfar and the dead can understand all mortal languages and speak them so there's also no barrier in terms of actually speaking a language.))
