The group nodded in agreement, and, after Elsa froze her body for good measure, they began to head back to the castle, quiet and contemplative, thinking about the day they'd had, still shaken from everything that had gone on.

Later that day, when a team of men returned to get rid of her body, there was no body left to destroy; the only evidence that she'd ever been there was a large puddle of water, and the shape of a body pressed into the mud.

"It's done," Ayla said, as her legs gave way and she collapsed onto the floor in fatigue, her magic reserves drained, leaving her whole body feeling like a block of lead. She winced slightly as a wave of pain cascaded upon her mind, the start of a promisingly horrific headache - an unmistakeable symptom of how much she'd exerted herself - and she sighed in frustration when she realised she'd have to endure this for at least five minutes, until she regained her strength to use magic to heal her head. Trying to block out the sharp daggers which were making her mind ache, she smiled gratefully as her son helped her get onto her feet, which her consort soon came over to help with too, and together the two males of different generations helped her to the sofa. Hans, of course, took most of her weight; the youngest Prince's body was too small to support a fully grown woman.

"Ugh...'' Ayla groaned, as she rubbed her forehead tenderly, as if it would make the nagging pain go away, but it helped none at all. Deciding that it would do no good, however, to just brood over her discomfort, she sighed and sat up a little straighter- she was never one to show weakness. Lesser people did that, not her.

Noticing that Hans was beginning to get impatient waiting, she began to explain what she'd done, but not before she made sure to send Seth out - and she watched him leave until he closed the door, so that he couldn't just sneak back in camouflaged.

"It was a simple enough plan, really - with a few more taxing bits of magic in between. The people of Arendelle were having a race today, an old tradition which, it would seem, Queen Elsa decided to bring back to celebrate this new year, so it wasn't hard to get noticed. I made an illusion of myself half-way around the track, so that I could launch a surprise attack on the racers who, if my plan worked, would have hurried back to warn the people of my presence, including the royals. Of course, then, Elsa and Anna would have come to find me, and from there, I would have had a small fight with them."

Hans frowned as he listened to his consort's short speech, and then held up his hand, interrupting her. "Wait a second - you seem to be implying that everything didn't go to plan?"

Ayla shook her head, but was smiling at the same time. "It went better than I'd thought, actually." She admitted, "It turns out that both Prince Kristoff and Odd were actually in the race - not only were they there when I showed myself, but then the Queen and Princess turned up too, so I had the whole group of them present to witness things. Then, lo-and-behold, who should race around the corner but young Princess Mia, as well? The look on the child's face when she saw me... she was absolutely terrified, and it felt good that I could get back at her slightly for being such a brat when she was here."

Hans chuckled slightly, looking pleased with how things had turned out, as he nodded for Ayla to continue. She paused for a second as a wave of dizziness came over her, and then she recovered with a groan.

"Ugh, I need to get my magic levels back up..." She groaned, but shook off the discomfort, trying her best to block it out. "Anyway, it was easy at the start - I played around with the young Princess for a bit, popping the illusion of myself in-front of her as she tried to run away, which made her panic, but it was certainly amusing, working her up. After a little while, though, she just hid behind her Mother, so I couldn't tease her any more."

Hans frowned at this, a little annoyed that his consort couldn't torment the brat of a child more, but he didn't say anything and let her continue.

"So, then, Queen Elsa actually shot a beam of ice at me - clearly she didn't appreciate my presence there - and I dodged that, which was easy, considering it was just all just an illusion. She then continued to send another at me, and I threw back a coloured beam of light, which created a mini-explosion when they collided. The force knocked everyone else present out, and I made the illusion act as if it had been killed by the blast, which would highlight the weakness of our kingdom... or at least, how we want them to see us. If I was so powerless, and frankly - no offence - I'm probably the strongest person in the Southern Isles, then surely everyone else would be in an even more sorry state, right?"

Hans nodded. "That does make sense, I guess." He admitted, "They'd think we were being over-confident when we were actually helpless, at least in their eyes, and so in the future, they'll overlook anything we do."

Ayla looked pleased that she'd gotten her point across. "Exactly," She agreed, "But next came the reason why I'm out of magic at the moment - I had to solidify the illusion when the Queen's consort came over, to see whether I was alive, if I had a pulse. It took it out of me, to say the least, but I managed it; I made my copy a real body, but didn't give it a pulse, to fool them all." She grinned at her achievemnt, although the pounding in her head made it feel much less satisfying. "Anyway, he reported me dead, and Elsa froze my body for good measure, then they left to get everyone home in case there was more danger on the way, or something. But that's not all; there's something I didn't mention when I first told you the plan."

Ayla grinned as she saw Hans' face frown again, a mixture of uncertainty and distrust in his eyes as he waited for his Consort to elaborate, but when she did reply, she didn't disappoint.

"When they left, I figured that I'd gone to too much effort just to make them think us weak, especially now that they consider me dead. So then, I had a stroke of genius, if I say so myself; I returned the body back into being an illusion, and then... I hardly know how to describe it, and gosh, it was horribly difficult to pull off, but I managed it. I changed the illusion into a gas - more like fire, actually - and then melted the ice around it. After that, it was easy. I just let it, I don't know, get absorbed by the earth, so that now, the soil of Arendelle will constantly have a part of me, in a way, hidden in it. I'll be able to get inside information on their Kingdom, like a spy, which we can then use to our advantage."

Ayala looked at Hans with pride shining in her eyes, as she grinned at her achievement, but then noticed his confused expression, for he was still lost about what she'd actually done, and she sighed, right when her mind decided to begin aching again. "Look- don't worry about trying to understand what I did, just accept that I did it. And now, we have a spy behind enemy lines which can't even be detected!" She rubbed the back of her nack in frustration. "It has its limits, of course - I can't make out brilliantly anything that' seeing said, maybe only enough to get a gist of it, and it'll be exhausting to... Link to the spy, so to speak, but I do think it could give us valuable information."

In agreement, Hans nodded slowly. "Okay, then." He said, trying not to think too hard about what Ayla had tried to explain before, about how she'd achieved it. "Good work." He remained silent for a few seconds, and then stood up when he noticed how his consort was resting, with her eyes closed and her mouth parted, clearly in pain from the headache, which, he figured, was probably going to turn into a migraine soon, and her magic reserves didn't appear to be restoring themselves.

"I'll get someone to make you a cup of chamomile tea," He eventually said, and stood to find a maid or servant to fetch one for his consort, which she could drink whilst he attended a meeting which had been planned between himself and his brothers. Ayala nodded gratefully at his offer, though she hated to feel dependant, but the pain really had begun to make her feel queasy.

She cursed in her head silently as she tried to ignore the pain. Sometimes, she really hated using magic, when it caused her such discomfort, especially now; her love for Seth had made her magic stronger, to be sure, but it also made her recovery time longer. And she didn't appreciate that one bit.

Okay, just about managed to get it published on Sunday :D yay! And now I'd better go to sleep or I'll die at school tomorrow...

One last thing, no, Ayla won't be able to create illusions to fight battles for her. To confuse enemies, perhaps, but to make a clone of herself to fight elsewhere with actual magic would be too much strain and kill her.

Yes, I can hear you begging me to make her do it so she dies, but no. She's too smart for that (and enjoys being alive and tormenting everyone else too much to commit suicide).

-SG