Anna groaned.

Her head was throbbing like someone had just bashed the back open with a sledgehammer.

"Anna…"

The voice trickled in from somewhere distant. She scrunched her eyes tightly together and tried to ignore it, but it kept repeating itself, growing increasingly louder and annoying.

"Anna."

She groaned again, finally mustering the strength to blearily blink open her eyes. The world was hazy, its lines non-existent and colors shifting. It made her head spin and her stomach heave. She pitched sideways, her gloved hands clawing against the ground in an futile attempt to hang on.

"Anna!"

There it was again. A worried, familiar voice…

The world finally righted itself.

Hans was leaning over her, one hand wrapped around her side while the other gently brushed her bangs from her face.

Anna was sitting with her back against the wall of the cave. Up above, the constellation-like lights still cast their phosphorescent light. The far end of the cave was still bathed in whatever mysterious golden glow awaited them.

She shifted and winced as pain tangled its way through her head like a giant ball of roots.

"What happened?" she croaked, barely managing the second word before dissolving into a coughing fit. Her throat was parched; it was hard to breathe…

"Another earthquake," Hans said. He reached in their pack for a small skin of water and held it out to Anna who drank messily. "No idea whether it was from the storm or a leftover from the enchantment we broke. Whatever it was, it knocked several rocks loose. One hit you on the back of the head before I could warn you." He took a deep breath. "You fell… and… you didn't get up. I… I was…" Whatever Hans had been about to say, it was lost forever to the silence of the cave. He cleared his throat. "But you're awake, which is good. Assuming you can still walk, we should keep moving. Before anything else happens."

Anna paused halfway through wiping her mouth with her sleeve.

She glanced around the cave. She couldn't remember whether she'd felt a tremor or not, but there were a bunch of small and medium-sized rocks scattered around now that hadn't been there before. That and the golden glow of their ultimate destination still shone in the distance, pure and unaltered.

The thought that Hans had simply waited for her to wake up instead of running ahead to claim his prize was weird. Weird… but not entirely unwelcome either.

"You're right," Anna said. "Moving is a good idea." She started to stand up, all too conscious of the way Hans hovered next to her in apparent concern. Her head still throbbed, but she did her best to ignore it.

They'd made it this far… to be so close…

Anna took a step and nearly fell all over again, her left knee exploding with pain. The bone felt cracked, although more likely it was just bruised; she must've landed on it when she fell. She inhaled shakily and started to shuffle her way forward, careful to keep most of her weight on her opposite knee.

"Do… Do you need me to carry you?" Hans asked, preemptively holding out his hands.

Anna stared at them and then at the muscular arms they were attached to. She bit her lip. It was rather tempting…

She shook her head.

"I got this." She continued to limp forward, each frail step taking her closer and closer to the glow. "If all this earthquake nonsense starts up again though, you have my official permission to toss me over your shoulder like a sack of potatoes and run," she said with a smirk.

"Permission noted."

Anna glanced at the prince, expecting a wry grin or some smug smile in return, but his face was blank and sobering. Her grin died.

She turned her attention forward again, puzzled.

Perhaps it was nerves. Perhaps Hans wasn't as sure about all the mysterious book's claims as he thought he'd been. For not the first time, Anna wondered what would happen if they reached that final turn and found… well, nothing.

Technically it wasn't a very hard question. They'd die, plain and simple.

If the cold of the blizzard didn't kill them, the lack of food eventually would. Anna absent-mindedly wondered if they'd face the end together or if Hans would kill her and take up cannibalism in his desperation.

She shuddered in disgust at the thought.

The glow grew brighter still.

It was agonizing how slow she had to take it, and it was clear that Hans was getting restless as well. She could see it in the way his fingers twitched as he walked. Again, she debated the pros of him carrying her before deciding again that no, she was going to have to get down the mountain eventually. Better to walk it off now.

They finally turned the last bend and Anna gasped.

The tunnel had led them to a small circular cavern with no other exits. In its center, a rather rough and unremarkable stone pedestal rose out of the ground. On it, bathing the room in a shimmering sheet of gold, rested a glowing, well…

A glowing rock.

"I think that's it," Anna said, pointing at it.

"Your powers of observation astound me."

She peered at the glowing rock and took a couple steps closer.

"It's a bit… small," she said, rotating her hands for measurement. It was about the size of a child's head. "You really think it has the power to get rid of this winter?"

"Would I have dragged us all the way here if I didn't?"

Anna rolled her eyes at him. "Point taken," she said.

She approached the pedestal slowly, careful and on high alert for any secret booby traps, but the room was silent. Even her footsteps were muffled as she made her way towards the pedestal.

Power or not, the stone certainly was otherworldly. Other shiny things had a surface. Even crystals that you could see through were still… there. The stone, by contrast, seemed to be made of pure light. Pure light that had somehow been captured and then squeezed and squeezed into something stone-like.

As she stared at it from straight above, Anna wasn't sure she'd even be able to grab it. It seemed more likely that her fingers would just pass through.

She reached out a hand to try and then paused.

Bad things happened to people who just touched things. Innocent and lovely as it seemed, this stone was no different.

"Something wrong?" Hans asked as if by cue, coming over to stand next to her.

Anna bit her lip.

"How do I know this stone does what you say it does?" Anna asked. "What if it's a stone that kills people? Or no! What if it does what you say it does but there's one more secret protection that zaps me into small explody bits" — she mimed the explosion with waggling fingers — "and then as I'm falling into little chunks on the floor you're free to pick it up and waltz right out of here?!"

Hans gave her a Look.

"If you're that concerned," he said with a sigh. "I'll pick it up."

He reached out to grab the stone with both hands.

"Wait!" Anna yelled.

Hans flinched. He remained frozen in place, his fingers barely an inch from the stone's surface. Anna watched as he raised an eyebrow at her, annoyance carved clear across his face.

"What- What if it actually gives magical powers to first person who touches it and you suddenly gain all the cosmic forces of the universe?"

Hans stared at her.

"And then with that you would fly back to our kingdoms and leave me here all sad and unmagical?"

He continued to stare at her.

"Anna," he said. "You're being ridiculous. If you can't pick up the stone and I can't pick up the stone, what do you suggest we do?"

Anna pondered that. Then it hit her.

"We pick it up together," she said with a grin.

"Together?"

"Yep! Either we both die or we both get powers or — better yet — nothing happens at all."

"You know… of the three, I'm fine with either the powers or the nothing, but I fail to see how both of us dying accomplishes anything."

"We're picking it up together," she said firmly.

"Alright! Alright!" Hans stared at Anna seriously. "Together then."

They stood across from each other, their hands placed at equal distance from the stone. Anna looked up at Hans. He seemed a lot more self-assured than she did. She hoped her paranoia was just that.

Paranoia.

"Ready?" Anna said. "One… two… three!"

Her hands snapped out and she scrunched her eyes shut, fearing the worst. Her fingers landed on cool, solid stone. She held them there in place for one second… two…

Slowly Anna cracked open one eyelid. Then the other.

The room was exactly how she'd last left it. She and Hans were both holding onto the stone and nothing had happened.

"I don't know," Hans said, glancing at the stone. "I might be getting cosmic energy as we speak? I'm not sure. Any idea what it's supposed to feel like?"

"Oh, you can just shut it," Anna muttered. She yanked the stone out of his hands, stumbling backwards slightly at the weight. "We're safe. We have the stone. That's the important part."

They had the stone.

Anna looked down at where it lay cradled in her hands.

Was that really it?

She'd expected something a little more climatic to be honest. But at the same time, she wasn't about to argue with the universe to chuck some more snowballs at them just because things were starting to feel easy.

"Here," Anna said holding the stone out to Hans. "Hold it for a second."

She passed it to him and swung their pack off her shoulders. There weren't too many things in it, but she dumped them out all the same so that stone wouldn't crush them. Hans gently lowered the stone into the pack and Anna piled their supplies back on top of it. Without the stone to cast its light, the room was a lot darker.

After tying up the top flap, Anna hauled it back onto her shoulders with a great heave. The new weight pulled her back slightly and she teetered a bit as she fought to keep her balance. Her knee continued to throb.

"Are you sure you got it?" Hans asked in a tone that blatantly presumed she didn't.

"Yeah," she managed, though slightly breathless at the exertion. "It's all downhill from here, right? Well, literally downhill. Not metaphorically downhill. Well, I guess it could be metaphorically downhill but, I mean, I really hope it isn't and—"

"Anna," Hans said, interrupting her in mid-ramble.

"Hmm?" She blinked at him, waiting for the inevitable jibe.

He stared at her briefly and then snorted. In the haziness of the cave, she thought she saw him smile.

"Let's go home."


Anna blinked in the harsh afternoon sunlight. Whatever magic the stone possessed, it was already starting to do its job. The wall of snow that'd blocked the entrance of the cave had fully melted, although the mountain itself was still blanketed in the stuff.

To be honest, even after reaching the cave, finding the stone… she hadn't quite fully expected it to actually work.

"You doubted me?"

Anna belatedly realized she'd said that last part out loud and blushed.

"Who wouldn't?" she murmured.

She gazed out across the horizon. The blizzard had dissipated where they were standing, but she could see still it raging on to the north. White billowing clouds stretched their way from the forest floor up and up into the sky as far as her eyes could track. They crashed against an invisible wall that curved inwards in either direction, creating a protective bubble with her and Hans at the very center.

Anna readjusted her pack, the weight of the stone inside simultaneously reassuring and unsettling.

If all they had to do was walk and let the stone take care of the rest… It was scarcely believable, but hey.

That was magic for you.

"You know," Anna said cheerfully. "I don't know if I can manage the idea of not traveling through a storm of death with hungry wolves on our tail and God only knows what else. Think we'll be able to handle it?"

She glanced sideways at him when she didn't get a reply.

Hans was staring out at the vertical wall of clouds, his face blank and eyes distant. If he'd heard her, he was doing a good job of hiding it.

"Hans?" Anna asked. Her brow creased slightly with worry.

"We should get moving," he said, not looking at her as he spoke. "Once the snow fully melts, it will make it harder to get down."

Anna's eyes widened. A sudden tightness formed in her chest as Hans brushed past her, carelessly knocking aside her shoulder.

Something was wrong.

She lingered in the mouth of the cave, her fingers clutched tight around the straps holding her pack — and the heavy stone inside. The back of Hans' head gradually shrunk as he grew further and further away.

Eventually he turned around, one eyebrow quirked in annoyance.

"Come on!" he called back with a slight scowl. "Before the sun sets and we have to make camp on this blasted mountain."

When Anna didn't immediately reply, he let out a sigh of frustration and kept going.

Anna mentally shook her head, knocking her brain to snap out of it.

This was simply who Hans was. Who he'd always been and always would continue to be. She really shouldn't have expected anything different and the fact that she… well, the fact that she'd begun to hope he still had some teeny tiny kernel of human decency beneath it all was testament to just how harrowing of a journey they'd been through.

Nothing was wrong. She was just exhausted and delusional.

Yes. That was it.

If Elsa had been there, she'd probably even praise Anna for her slow, yet final, return to sanity.

Anna took a deep breath and lifted her foot to take the first official step of many towards home. Towards a place where things would finally make sense again.

She glanced down at the snow right before her boot crunched into it…

And paused.

A line of footsteps extended outwards, connecting the mouth of the cave to Hans himself. From a distance, they looked like any other footprints in the snow, but from straight-above she could see right down to the bottom, where his boots had crushed the soft powder into hard, creviced ice.

It was black.

Anna shifted the weight of her pack a bit, so she could balance on one leg to look at the sole of her own boot. It was also black.

She scrunched her nose in puzzlement and swiped a finger across the rubber. The blackness clung to it. Anna frowned, then rubbed it and her thumb against each other, watching as the blackness fell away.

Ash.

Anna glanced back into the darkness of the cave.

She couldn't help but feel that there'd been something else in that book. Amidst all the maps and riddles. Something that Hans was still hiding.

A small breeze curled around her and she shivered.

The stone's weight hung heavily against her back. All she had was Hans' word that the stone did what he said it did, that it'd do what he said it would, that he wouldn't tie her up and run as soon as they reached Sitron again…

Anna looked again at the vertical wall of storm clouds. The world stopped at that wall. Everything beyond was a barren wasteland of ice and death.

In the end, Hans' true motives were a secondary concern. Whatever he had planned, whatever the stone's true powers were… it was stopping that. It was parting the clouds and returning the sun. People were dying, and she was carrying the power to save them.

She pushed all her other doubts to the side and took her first official step home. And then her next. And her next, until she was soon leaving her own ashen trail in the snow.


As much as Hans had grumbled about not making it off the mountain before dark, the two arrived at camp with hours left of sunlight.

After both the climb and the decent, Anna was exhausted, but she couldn't just sit there and burn time while people were still freezing to death up north. With only some minor needling, she got Hans to help her pack up their meager camp and they were off.

Rather than tie the pack to Sitron's side, Anna held it in her lap as they rode. She ignored the solid feel of Hans' chest against her back, the occasional warm puff of breath on her neck, and kept her mind focused solely on the mission. Focused on the stone wedged snugly between her legs.

The valley river was already starting to swell with the melting snow, but the great tree they'd used as a bridge was still there. They crossed with minimal effort and began trudging up towards the ridge on the other side.

The sun was dipping low and red as they approached the top of the ridge, so they stopped as soon as they found an acceptable area and set up a new camp.

The skies had cleared with them as they travelled, the world thawing with each step. By the time Anna finished setting up their usual two-tarped tent, the snow had completely melted from their small clearing, transforming the ground into a squelchy brown and green mess.

Anna grimaced as she slowly gathered an armful sticks and branches in the muck and attempted to find the least miry spot to make a fire. The ground was wet. The wood was wet. The cut on her hand still occasionally stung from beneath its bandage. If she could get anything to spark, she'd consider herself a goddess.

Hans came back with several rabbits while she was still struggling to ignite the pile.

"Here," he said, holding out the dead carcasses. "Switch."

Anna raised an eyebrow at the curt demand, but tossed the spark rocks over. She was about to wish him a snide "good luck" when he scraped them together and the twigs instantly ignited.

"Seems like not all of us have the touch," he said with a tiny smirk. His first since the cave.

Anna let out a big huff. "Well," she said. "It's always easy when someone else does all the actual work first."

"The actual work?"

"My attempts dried them out."

"Sure they did."

Anna rolled her eyes in response and plopped herself down on a nearby rock to skin Hans' catch.

Although she'd never admit it to his face, she was glad to hear his sarcasm again. It still annoyed her to no end, but his sudden distance over the past couple of hours had been even more — was still — unsettling.

And her reaction to that made no sense.

Days ago, his silence would've thrilled her. She would've been thrilled that she wouldn't have to interact with the slimy jerk. That she could've pretended for hours and hours that he wasn't even there.

But now…

Anna tried to tell herself it was nothing as she stripped the rabbits from their furs. The two of them still had a long journey ahead. If Hans played the part of a paralyzed mime for the rest of it, she'd die of boredom.

Her feelings were as simple as that.

She hissed as she squeezed a bit too hard on the dagger with her injured hand. After she had the two carcasses cleaned and roasting on a spit, Anna examined her cut. Her blood had stained through a bit of bandage; it'd be good to re-bandage the wound before she went to bed that night.

Hans was sitting on the other edge of the fire and fiddling with a bit of the trapping wire. If his cut was bothering him like hers was, he didn't show it.

Anna coughed. "I can't believe it's already gotten so warm this quickly," she said as she turned their makeshift spit, letting the other sides cook a bit. "It's amazing, isn't it?"

"Hmm," Hans said. "So it is."

Anna's stomach dropped.

"I mean," she tried again. She forced a chuckle. "It feels like, what, April? And it was pure December-ish this morning, so by that rate we should be back to July by midnight!"

"I suppose."

Anna frowned. Hans wasn't paying any attention to her at all. The prince stared straight ahead into the heart of the fire, the flicker of the ever-shifting flames reflected in his eyes.

"And then," Anna said rather loudly. "Since we're obviously rushing through seasons so quickly, I guess it'll all be for nothing and we'll be back to December by the following nightfall again."

Hans' eyes snapped to hers. "What do you want?"

"Me?" Anna's face flushed an indignant red. "I want—" She took a deep breath. Her thoughts were threatening to spiral out of control and her tongue along with it. "I want to get home," she said. "I want to be free of annoying back-stabbing jerks. That's what."

They stared at each other.

"Good," Hans finally said.

"Good," Anna spat.

"And watch the rabbits, they're starting to burn."

"Fine!" she yelled before pausing. "Wait, what? Oh, no no no!"

Anna shoved all thoughts of Hans to the back of her mind as she raced to get the rabbits off the fire. Once they were safe, she glared at him like it was his fault that they'd almost gotten charred.

Because it was his fault for distracting her.

"Here," she said, snapping the spit and thrusting one half in his face.

Anna sat down and tore into her rabbit, ripping off jagged chunks with her bare teeth. She chewed in silence. She was frustrated at him. Frustrated at herself for letting him frustrate her.

But as much as she'd always wished she could dish out the cool, silent treatment like Elsa, Anna had always been terrible at keeping her mouth shut. She itched to talk and if Hans didn't feeling like talking back, she'd fill his ears with whatever nonsense she wanted.

"You know the first thing I'm going to do when I get back?" Anna said. "Well, other than jump in a hot sauna forever and ever and ever… Okay, I'm not sure the southern kingdoms even have saunas, but still— Oh! And I'll be able to meet up with Maximus and Thomas and the other guards again! Now that the snow's gone, I'm going to feed him every apple in the kingdom. Both kingdoms. More than both kingdoms… How many kingdoms are there between Corona and Stralshagen again? Whatever, I'll just feed him apples from all of them.

"Oh my gosh! And I just remembered: Rapunzel's birthday is coming up! Ugggh, I know it was at least a month away before this whole storm started, but I have not been keeping track of days. Have you? What if we take too long getting back and I completely miss it?!

"Alright, alright, I know. That is wayyyy not the most important thing going on right now. I mean, now that I think about it, I'm not even sure there's going to be party after this storm. Arendelle had to ration some stuff after Elsa's whole thing due to the crops freezing and all, and that was just after two days!

"Oh, or maybe they'd have a party in spite of the storm? Like a kingdom-wide celebration with her lanterns as symbols of hope and working together-ness. I think that'd work pretty well. Oh, right. Hans, do you know about the lantern ceremony?

"I've never seen myself, but I hear it's just amazing to see. The entire city gets together and makes these paper lanterns and then at sunset they all gather to—"

"I know about the lanterns," Hans said. "God. Every royal kid grew up knowing about the lanterns."

"Well, excuse me," Anna said. "I was only making sure. My bad. Anyways, I just think it'd be rather peaceful, you know? After all the chaos, to just look up into the night sky and see thousands and thousands of lights twinkling in the summer breeze? I really think it could give a lot people closure and—"

"Why are you always so damn cheerful?!" he snapped.

Anna stared at him in shock.

Hans looked down right venomous. His nostrils flared in time with his heavy breathing, and the sharp slant of his eyebrows twisted his face into something dark and pained.

Anna's mouth dropped slightly as she tried to figure out what to say. To figure out there'd been something that she'd said. It was all so confusing. He was confusing.

"Hans," she finally said. "I know something's wrong. Something that you're not telling me. You can trust me. Please."

"It's nothing," he bit out. He'd finished his meal awhile ago and was now poking at the fire with the stick it'd been cooking on. "Nothing at all."

"But—"

"Just keep talking about your silly horses and apples and birthday parties since you love them so much."

Anna squinted at him, still completely lost… and then she suddenly understood.

At least, she thought she did.

After they returned to Stralshagen and brought back summer, Anna got to waltz off into the sunshine and pick up her life from where she'd left it. She'd get to explore and celebrate and do all the wonderful things she'd been planning to do.

Hans got to return to his tower cell.

She frowned in an odd mixture of guilt and vindication.

Hans had made his choices just as she'd made hers. The thirteenth prince of the Southern Isles was hardly an innocent man condemned to an unjust fate.

Anna hesitated before reaching out with her free hand. For a moment she thought he was about to shift away, but then he stilled and her hand rested gently over his knee.

"Hans, I…" Anna began uncertainly.

What could she do? Apologize? Apologize for what? If anything, he was the one that still need to apologize to her.

Would she try to blindly tell him that everything would turn out okay? Oh, yeah. She knew he'd be real receptive to that.

"I just… I'm here for you," Anna ultimately said. She closed her eyes. "Regardless of whether you want me to be or not. Whether you hate me or not. If you ever need help… I'm here."

Anna glanced up, hoping for… well, she didn't know exactly what. His face was impassive, unreadable.

Hans cleared his throat.

"We- We should refill the water skins," he muttered.

He grabbed the skins and stalked off from the clearing, pushing between two bushes before vanishing.

Anna blinked at the empty spot he'd left. She turned to Sitron for some sort of guidance or insight, but Sitron merely snorted and tossed his head, the beast's confusion clearly mimicking her own.

So she sat alone in the muggy darkness, picking off the remaining scraps of her rabbit.

A half hour or so later, Hans returned and tossed her one of the water skins. Anna ventured a smile which he didn't return.

That was the extent of their interaction.

As Anna used the water to help wipe clean her dagger, she found herself yawning. The quicker they got to bed, the quicker they could start off again. Anna tried not to think of the farmers still shivering up north in their small houses… of Rapunzel and her family trapped in their great castle… Hans' brothers… and Elsa…

Anna prayed that Elsa had stayed put for once. The last thing she needed when this was all over was a report about Elsa rushing over to Corona in the storm and vanishing en route. Anna would have to start another quest all over again. Hans would probably have to join her for reasons unknown.

It'd be one giant cosmic joke and she'd be the punch line.

Anna wrapped her cloak tighter around herself.

Despite the temperate night air, there was a still a lingering chill in the breeze. Although she'd gotten along fine before, sleeping alone was suddenly not the inviting prospect it once was.

She wondered.

Anna took a deep breath and yawned loudly, stretching her arms up towards the invisible tree tops. "Well," she said with only a meager attempt to stifle a second yawn. "I think it's just about time for me to hit the hay."

She peered at Hans out of the corner of her eye, attempting to remain inconspicuous. Her efforts didn't seem to matter; the prince had his eyes locked on the fire again.

"That's nice."

It was all he said.

Anna frowned. "I take it you'll… be sleeping out here?" she asked. She didn't want to seem pushy, but—

"Yes."

She cleared her throat awkwardly. "You sure you'll be fine?" she tried again. Her final, somewhat embarrassing and revealing attempt. "I mean, it's still a bit cold. And a bit wet. Wet and cold… It's not gonna be very pleasant without a tarp."

"I'm sure."

Anna's face fell. She grabbed the main pack and stalked off towards the tent before she continued to babble things she just knew she'd regret in the morning.

She accidentally tossed the pack in with her bad hand and hissed at the resulting sting.

Right.

The re-bandaging.

Anna cut some new strips from the cleanest bits of her clothes with the dagger and then flinched as she unwrapped the old, dirty cloth from her palm; some of the fibers had stuck to the wound. There was no way any of this was sterile. She bit her lip in concentration as she clumsily tied the new wrappings. It was difficult doing it with only one hand…

She paused.

Hans had struggled the same difficulty. Not only that but he'd need the dagger.

As soon as she'd knotted the ends, she poked her head out of the shelter. Hans was still sitting next to the fire.

"Hey!" she called, almost brandishing the dagger at him before she realized what that'd look like. "You want help changing the bandages for your hand?"

He looked up at her, sighed, and then turned back to the fire. "No," he said. "Go back to sleep."

Anna frowned.

She took a deep breath and strode over to him. "Well," she said, holding out the dagger. "You're going to need this if you want…"

Her frown deepened as she caught sight of his hand. The wrappings around it were loose, nearly falling off. She sighed in exasperation.

"Look, if you're not going to change them," she said, reaching out her hand, "you need to at least keep them—"

"Stop!" he snapped. He yanked his hand from her grasp. "I don't need your help!"

Anna froze.

Her fingers hung uselessly in the air.

"R-right," she finally managed. She nodded to herself. "Right."

Anna retreated back to the shelter, her face burning. As she kicked off her boots, she tried to focus all the positive things they'd accomplished that day instead of whatever it was that was peeling away at her heart.

She lied down on the tarp's surface; it was damp and lumpy and not at all comfortable by any definition of the word. Then she sat up and opened the top flap of her pack.

The stone's light washed the interior of the shelter in a gentle gold. She flexed her hand, checking her fingers for any potential lingering frostbite damage. Everything looked and felt okay though, so it seemed doubtful.

Anna flipped the pack shut, and the tent plunged back into darkness. She pulled the pack close to her and closed her eyes.

As had become tradition, Anna found it difficult to get to sleep. Tonight, she decided to blame her restlessness on the constant nights of hard ground. Rocks and mud were no substitute for the feathers she'd grown up with.

Yes, it was definitely her back keeping her awake.

When Anna finally got back to Corona, she'd have Rapunzel make her up the best bed in the kingdom. Then she'd be able to bury herself in fluffy pillows and maybe everything would start being okay again.