{-Sharena-}

She felt so relieved to be around everyone else again. Never mind the fact that all of them looked like they'd encountered something unpleasant. Peony, for instance, looked completely out of breath and maybe even on the verge of collapsing.

"Okay," the ljósálfar mumbled. "Note to self: don't try banishing four nightmares at once… And Lekra, be more helpful next time. I was not expecting to do that all on my own. You're here for a reason."

"Quite frankly you should just be lucky you didn't target me with that little light show of yours," Lekra shot back. "One day you're going to kill me, I swear."

Sharena, though partially in a playful manner, took up the role of the responsible older sibling. "You two be nice to each other, or else I'm taking away your privileges to cling to me."

All five of them had a different reaction to it: Peony giggled, Lekra muttered "Seriously..?", Alfonse gave her a weird look, Anna probably mentally facepalmed, and Fauna looked like she didn't know if she wanted to find it cute or not.

"Uh, to bring this to something a bit more relevant…" Fauna was the first to try to get them back on track again. "What was that..?"

"Right! That's something worth explaining, isn't it?" Peony seemed to just shrug off her fatigue, and likely would've smiled if the topic was any brighter. "There was one teensy tiny little thing that I forgot to mention before. You guys, as mortals, are incredibly susceptible by nightmares here; they kinda just flock to human emotions, thoughts, and fears. The bright side is, since I've already scared away four of 'em, they're probably not going to come back unless you try really, really hard to invite them in. Another good thing is that nightmares means there's dökkálfar nearby, which means that they probably know where Triandra is, which means I can check on her before we go and see Freyja."

"If you were any of mine, you'd be getting a pretty long rant about how stupid that was," Anna remarked bluntly. Sharena knew that "mine" referred to anyone in the Order, or more generally, everyone Anna felt like she had the power to boss around. "But I'll spare you the time."

For a minute, Peony stayed silent. It was like she was trying to find an excuse to get them to stay for a little while longer. "Lekra, do you think you'll be able to deal with nightmares on your own if you come across them?"

"I don't see how it would be too different than what I already do every night," they responded. "More importantly: should I be concerned?"

Peony ignored the question altogether. "Great! We'll split into two teams to make sure the coast is clear and free of nightmares before we find Freyja. I'll go with Sharena, and everyone else is going together. Lekra's gonna keep you from getting stuck in another nightmare, so they're pretty much in charge." Her goal couldn't have been any less obvious; there was six of them, meaning three could be in each team, yet she was purposely making sure that it would only be her and Sharena together. She wanted something that she believed could only be achieved if the two of them were alone, and she was doing an awful job at making it inconspicuous.

Still, no one said anything or opposed to the idea. Though given a few skeptical looks, they all nodded and left.

"Guess we should get going too," Sharena mumbled, trying to act like she didn't notice how odd it was for it to be just them. She started to walk in the opposite direction of the others, though stopped when Peony grabbed her hand.

"You're allowed to talk about it, you know. I saw it for myself, so it's not like you think you'll be saving me from whatever truth was behind it." Peony held her hand a little tighter. "You don't have to lie to me. Neither of us were the same kids we were back then."

"You saw my nightmare…" She didn't need a full-on explanation in order to understand why they were alone now.

"Only yours," Peony confirmed with a nod. "Lekra probably saw it too, since they are your nightmare and everything… I know this is going to sound like I'm prying, but I need to know. That man was Natheniel, right? One of the people you told me about in your recap of everything I wasn't around for."

Sharena slowly nodded. "Lekra's original dreamer. He stayed with us for a while, but at one point he ran off and ended up getting killed."

"Were you there? When he..?" Peony trailed off to prove that she didn't want to finish the sentence.

"O-oh, no! I didn't even know it happened until Lekra told all of us the day after I became their dreamer!" Sharena was quick to deny the fact, though understood where this conversation was meant to be going. "The reason I know what he was like… that's kind of complicated. Lekra has the ability to see my memories—that's how they know as much about me as they do—and, apparently, to some extent, I can see theirs. One day they were just reminiscing while I was asleep; lo and behold, I dreamed about it and watched the whole thing through their eyes. I know they didn't mean to, and honestly I'm not even sure if they realized it happened. Either way, I pretty much spent the whole day feeling like I couldn't breathe and hoping that no one noticed anything off. I couldn't tell if the pain was coming from me, Lekra, or generally just some weird thing the dream did."

"You both talked about this emptiness," Peony then ventured to mention, succeeding in startling Sharena. "It's kind of like something's incomplete, isn't it? That there's something inside you that's missing, but really only makes a small difference in performance?"

She didn't even want to show how right the álfar was in that description. It wouldn't have mattered either way; she was sure that her expression gave away more answers than she ever would've admitted to out loud.

"Before we go any further, you need to know something. That feeling, at its root? Commonplace here. Most of the things that help keep the álfar grounded and helps them move forward is gone once they take up the role as a protector of dreams. Me and Triandra are one of the only pairs of siblings that are both álfar, out of the countless children that have been offered the nectar. It's a reason why we forget: to save us that emptiness of knowing that, somewhere, the sibling that you looked after or looked after you is either still suffering or dead. It keeps us from facing the hard truths. That's why, when álfar start getting bothered by those feelings, they ask to forget again. And a lot of them, whether knowingly or not, treat that little right of forgetting like a drug. They grow dependent on it, and while they can't really overdose… it still effects them. A lot." Peony took in a deep breath before continuing with her thought. "I know you're not really an álfar. All of our rules might not apply to you. But I think, no matter what you end up doing, it's important to remember that memories are all you have. They're what helps mold you into the person you are now—if you hadn't experienced everything that you have, you probably would've been a much different person. I know that the thought of just wiping it all away and starting fresh sounds like a good idea—or even just simply letting someone tell you the meaning behind your own thoughts—but don't depend on it. The best way to avoid a drug is to not have any of it to begin with."

Peony finally let go of her hand, and took a step back. "I'm always here, if you want someone to talk to. It probably sounds weird, coming from someone who honestly knows more about you than you know about me, but… if there's a way I can help you, then I will. I meant what I said when I told you that we weren't the same kids we were then. I'm not backing out, thinking it's the safer option. Not this time. That's why I'm slowly losing the only good part about our mortal lives… I won't let that same thing happen to you."

((A/N: Woah, Peony got serious all of a sudden!

I'm just going to bluntly say this now: Lekra probably just guided the others over to a patch of bushes or something, then they all spied on Sharena and Peony together.))