{-Sharena-}
Alfonse had stopped by earlier and told them what Henriette said about meeting on New Year's day. Somehow Sharena was able to convince Lekra not to worry about it until then and went on with her day. She still got Eir, Fjorm, and Peony to join her in her room (Fauna opting out partially because she was tired and partially to watch over Iztali) and they ended up talking about their plans as if nothing had changed at all.
"It's all your first New Year's in Askr! It should be special," Sharena insisted. "I mean, sure, we could sit and watch fireworks but half of us always do that! Well, I don't know if Nifl does and the realm of the dead definitely doesn't… Oh! What if we went Hoshidan-style? I bet Mother would help if we asked her. And we can drag Alfonse and Anna along too!"
"You might be getting a little ahead of yourself," Eir remarked quietly. No one seemed to pay attention to her.
"That sounds fun!" Peony beamed.
"Does Askr do a midnight kiss..?" Fjorm asked hesitantly, her cheeks getting red as she avoided everyone's gazes.
Sharena grinned. "Depends, you've got someone in mind?" She didn't personally care for anything like that for herself; but she will admit, she did inherit some of her mother's nosiness on the matter.
Fjorm just grew redder. "O-of course!"
"Care to share?" Even Peony caught on.
"Well, she's pretty and I may have only met her a couple months ago but I think she… She's charming. And friendly. And honestly I think she might be the most beautiful woman I've ever met…"
"Is it someone from town?" Sharena guessed.
"No, she's much closer than that…"
"Do we know her?" Peony questioned.
"We all know her."
Lekra sighed. "If I had to guess she's in the room right now," they remarked.
"Really? Who is it?" Peony, in her excitement, got close enough to Lekra that they fled all the way to the other side of the room.
"I'd assume it would be the one person she danced with," they replied.
Peony didn't seem to get it, but Sharena did. She blushed a little when she looked up at Fjorm. "Wait, am I—"
The door burst open. Iztali came in and threw himself on top of Sharena, sobbing.
"What's wrong?" she asked quietly. "It's alright, I'm right here…"
"I—I had a bad dream," he mumbled after a while. He was holding on to her like she'd disappear if he let go. "You and Alfonse and Eir, you—you all left… you said you were going to meet the mean ladies. You said you'd come back and everyone will be happy… and I waited and waited… but none—none of you came back…" He continued to cry.
"We're not going to leave you," she said as reassuringly as she could. "Even if we did go, we'd come back. It was just a dream." Everyone in the room knew that something like that was hardly ever just a dream, though.
"So he has a bit of understanding of what is going to happen to his dreamer…" Eir muttered. "With any luck what he saw will not come to pass."
"Eir..?"
She shook her head. "It would be a lie to tell you not to worry. So instead I will assure you that, if we are prepared, we will not need to fear her games."
((A/N: Here's what happened to their New Year's Eve plans: they got everything ready, but Freyr didn't let Peony go (since Mirabilis mentioned sensing the same "them" she talked about earlier in this story), Fjorm suddenly collapsed and couldn't go, Sharena couldn't convince Alfonse to join them, and Eir decided there was literally no one left and was the one to officially cancel the plan.
I've already mentioned that Henriette reads sappy romance novels. Usually she compares that fairytale romance to her own and finds things she was glad they didn't do and things she wished they did. Sharena, if she cared to read anything, would probably also read sappy romance novels. Instead, though, she'd contemplate the characters' feelings for each other and wonders if she's supposed to feel the same about someone in her life. And, as a fun fact, I'll have you know they're both incredibly up-to-date on all of the noble gossip.))
