{-Sharena-}
She knew that she was in a bed—probably in her room in the royal castle. The next thing she recognized was Lekra's faint pull. Then after she heard a page turning she willed her eyes open. She definitely was not well rested, at least.
"You're awake," Henriette observed quietly. "How are you feeling?"
It took her a minute to decide she could muster a word to respond. "Awful." She noticed the seven origami cranes on the bedside table. "Who made these..?"
"Fjorm. She came by every day to give you another one. She's probably still here, actually…"
"It's been a week?"
Henriette nodded.
It shouldn't have been surprising; really she should've been impressed it only took that long. Dreams were always shorter than they seemed to be.
"Will you be okay for a couple of minutes while I get Alfonse? He'll want to know you're awake."
"Yeah…"
Then Henriette left. Sharena turned her attention to Lekra, who was curled up in a floating ball in a corner of the room.
"Are you okay..?"
"For a week you were in such a deep state of unconsciousness that your brain practically forgot I existed," they remarked bluntly. "I'm hungry, I'm tired, and for the first time I think I know what it feels like to be sick…"
"So no, but maybe a little better if I went to sleep?"
"Probably."
"Can you wait a couple of hours, then?"
"I should."
By the time Henriette and Alfonse came, Sharena had sat up and had taken one of the cranes to get a closer look at it. She smiled when she saw them.
Peony shoved past both of them and still found a way to hug Sharena. "So you remember everything now? It was so hard waiting for you! I stayed here because I wanted to be with you but I realized I couldn't actually be with you because sometimes you just got so upset and I knew why and that I'd just end up screwing it all up!" She sniffed and went back to stand beside the others. "I'm glad you're up."
"Are you up for a bit of recapping?" Alfonse sighed. She knew he was relieved too, but there must've been something he didn't really want to have to explain.
"At this point it feels like I just woke up from a really long nap," she replied with a shrug.
"Anna went ahead and told the Heroes about Lekra and a bit about the álfar. She figured it was better for them to understand what was happening than to make random guesses."
"So Mother knows, too..?"
"She's… known for a little while."
"Like, not in the past couple of days little while..?"
"For about a month…"
Henriette looked at both of them. "You never told her?" After a moment, she mumbled, "You both communicate like your father…"
Sharena shook her head to clear it, figuring there was no point in complaining about it now. "Did the Heroes… take it well..?"
"According to Fauna, most of them were glad to have an explanation for it," Alfonse responded. "Then there were the few that could actually sense Lekra. I'm not quite sure how much detail she went into, but I believe they know the basics… I tried to tell her to leave everything she wasn't sure of to you, though who knows if she actually took the advice or not."
Sharena hoped that there was something left for her, though honestly there probably was; knowing the Heroes, they probably asked a bunch of questions that no one except for her knew the answer to. She'd have something to tell them when she got back, that much was for certain. A part of her almost feared that there was some other misconception or assumption made. It didn't sound like Alfonse was there so she couldn't even ask him what they talked about.
She thought of something else very important, though. "Has Iztali been okay?"
"He mostly stayed with Fauna since she didn't want him to bother anyone. He didn't seem any different than usual."
Lekra sighed. "His physical body means that he isn't quite as dependent on you as I am. While it wouldn't really work as a long-term substitute, he can survive off of the same things mortals do. If anything he slept a little more to make up for not having you."
…
It took two weeks for them to trust her enough to leave the royal castle. Peony left as soon as Mirabilis came back, but they saw each other in Ljósálfheimer when she went to sleep. Fjorm, Fauna, and Eir came a couple of times, bringing Iztali with them. Anna even came once, though she didn't stay very long. Sharena waited to say anything, though, until they could all be together (aside from Henriette, who she explained it to earlier).
Alfonse was supposed to be walking with her. Really, she was so happy to finally be out that it looked like he was trailing behind her in comparison.
"It's nice to know you're feeling better, but you still shouldn't wander too far," he remarked.
"After a couple of naps we were both fine! It was you and Mother that kept me there so long."
Lekra looked like they had plenty of comments, but shared none of them.
Sharena went a little quicker when they actually got close to the Order's castle's gates. Walking through them sent a bunch of Heroes rushing to greet her—and ask her questions.
"You're back!"
"I'm glad to see you safe."
"What was it like? Was it scary?"
"What's their name again? Lekra?"
"What do they look like?"
"Can they do anything special?"
"Are they always with you?"
"Is that who you talk to all the time?"
"Are you sure something isn't trying to possess you? It would be much more interesting."
"Do they always look the same?"
"Are they next to you right now?"
"Do they bleed?"
"Can I have some of their blood?"
"Do you hear them like a person or a thought?"
"What—"
Fauna came out from the gathered crowd and started shooing them all away. "All of you, give her some space! I know you're all excited but she only just came back. You'll have plenty of time to talk to her later!" She waited until they all dispersed before turning her attention to Alfonse and Sharena and said, "The others are inside. I hope you don't mind that Lucy's in there, too—Anna talked to her about the whole prince of peace and little dreamer stuff in actual detail. She's the only Hero who knows everything."
Neither of the siblings said nothing against it; given how long she'd been there, Lucy deserved to know everything. Even if they didn't, she would've found some way to get someone else to tell her anyway.
They all went to the meeting room and Sharena told them everything she understood. It helped that she had earlier clarified most of what she was unsure of with Freyr a few days ago. She knew that they didn't need to carefully watch over the line between the dream and waking realms (basically, the only thing that concerned everyone with that statement is that they could just say Freyr and Freyja). She didn't really mention how since she didn't know the details, and figured if they really wanted to she could ask Mirabilis. None of them asked, though, so she assumed they didn't think too much of it either.
Throughout the whole thing, Eir remained a rather thoughtful expression. "The time of the prince of peace and little dreamer are drawing nearer still," she remarked. "Everything will be ready soon…"
"But still not enough to explain what we're doing?" Alfonse guessed.
"It is not my decision alone to make," was her simple answer. "For now, just do what you can to prepare yourself. You should be ready when it is time for you to fulfill your purpose."
((A/N: I realized how weird it must be to know that there's someone else there that Sharena and Peony are having a conversation with, but not actually seeing or hearing that person.
I also combined two short chapters into one big chapter. It ends this part, so the second part begins on the next scheduled update!))
