{-Sharena-}

"What if we switched spots for a day?" Peony suggested one night after they started talking about their families.

Nothing could have woken Mirabilis up quicker. "Absolutely not! You are staying right where you're supposed to be."

Peony pouted. "Aw, why not?"

"What about oh, I don't know, Dad?" Triandra remarked dryly. "It's one of the stupidest ideas you've ever had."

"Besides," Mirabilis sighed, "Sharena shouldn't leave her home. She's safer where there's guards and adult supervision…"

Sharena might've been ignorant about a lot of things, but she wasn't stupid enough to miss the point of that comment. She knew it wasn't about her as a princess. It was about something dream related, even if she wasn't sure what it was.

Since then, she'd thought of something to ask Freyr; each night went by without her ever confronting him, though, having still not worked up the courage to ask. By now she knew from observing him the kinds of things that upset him. He didn't like hearing a child (or especially an álfar) upset, mentions of these things called "dreams" and "nightmares," or extensive talk about the events of the real world. It seemed half of what Freyja came to talk about left him in a slightly more melancholy mood than usual, too. Either he seemed too happy to disturb or so bothered by something else that she feared to add another thing on top of it. So she just tried to shove the question down and hoped that maybe it would eventually stop bothering her.

Mirabilis was there when she came and guided her to the throne room. Freyr, Freyja, Triandra, and Peony were all there waiting for them.

Peony rushed up to Sharena. "Guess what! Guess what! We're gonna become álfar!"

"We're going to stay here forever." Triandra smiled.

"It's not going to change anything," Freyr assured her. "They'll both still be here. Usually álfar lose their memories of their mortal lives but they agreed to keep theirs so they'll still remember you."

"Unless you would like to be an álfar, too, of course," Freyja added.

Freyr didn't even give her time to think about it. "Freyja, you know we can't make her an álfar." His voice dropped lower when he added, "Quit offering things you know are impossible."

Freyja spoke quietly herself, continuing the conversation that only really made sense in hindsight. "It's not impossible. You know she'd be better off if we take her. Why are you so hesitant to accept this one girl who needs our help as much as all the other children?"
"She has a family outside of us. You keep making comparisons but she's nothing like the others."

"She's going to be the second that dirty trickster gets her hands on her. You know just as well as I do what Death did and she's bound to come back eventually. We already lost him. If we can take her with us, then—"

"Freyja, we are not disputing this. She's not going to become an álfar."

Freyr turned to Triandra and Peony. "Apologies for the delay, girls. Let's get you some dream nectar, shall we?"

The only thing that immediately changed was the fact that Triandra and Peony now looked more like Mirabilis than they did Sharena. But other than that, the next change came several weeks later when they stopped coming.

Immediately Sharena remembered what had happened with Lekra and Izzy and searched for Freyr. He didn't even wait for her to say anything to make a guess on why she was here.

"I… suppose you're wondering where Triandra and Peony are..?" He gestured for the dökkálfar (who, by listening to conversations and a few previous interactions, she knew to be Plumeria, who frequently sent Freyja's messages to Freyr) beside him to leave. She obeyed and left the throne room, though it seemed like she only stopped outside the door.

Sharena nodded.

"What's happening to them is… incredibly hard to describe. I suppose the easiest way for you to understand it is to say that they're sick and, if I am going to be honest with you, it isn't looking good." He sighed. "Freyja… did bring something to my attention, however. As a dreamer, you're capable of helping them. Any dreamer would have worked, but… she said it would be better if it was someone that they knew, given a nature of binding them together similarly to the dream nectar. Would you… be willing to do that?"
"Of course! If it helps them I will!" Sharena paused and cautiously added, "But I want to ask one thing first."

He didn't seem excited to hear it, though nodded for her to continue.

"Why was I alone with you for so long? And why did Freyja not like the idea of me meeting Triandra and Peony..?"

It was clear by his expression that she had asked something she wasn't expected to, though he thought of the best way to answer all the same. "You're special, even compared to the other dreamers. There's… a couple people who want to hurt you and your brother because they think you're a threat to them. In some ways they're like our superiors. We can't stop them from coming here if they want to nor control their actions here. Our hope has always been to keep you safe for as long as possible. Freyja thought we might risk that safety by introducing you to other children, but I knew it wasn't really helping anyone by keeping you with us. Honestly, this… might put you a little further into danger than before. But I think we've all decided by now that it's worth the risk."

"Okay." That was enough for her. "Now what do I need to do to help Triandra and Peony?"

Freyr plucked one of the flowers off his throne and the petals curved into a cup-like shape. He put it in Sharena's hands and placed his hands under hers. "Let me show you how to create dream nectar."

((A/N: So in the last chapter Sharena was two to three. In this chapter she's six. Then in the next she's thirteen. Big gaps in time here, but I'm only showing what's incredibly important. Who knows, maybe there'll be some future bonuses or something dedicated to little baby Sharena.))