Terra looked over to the rose. It used to be flourishing, reviving itself whenever he was happy. Instead, all he felt was an emptiness he couldn't fathom. She had said just a few hours. Hours had ticked down to days.

After he had closed the hidden passageway, he had sat by the fireplace the way a dog would wait for an owner to come home in. When she came back in, he could tell her what he wanted to say. Elsa had made his life less empty in the mornings. Even at night, when the elementals would appear, thoughts of her being just down the stairs had made him feel weightless and invincible. He could destroy any obstacle, just by thinking of her being there. Elsa was like no other motivator for him like it had been in the past. It was as if the loyalty to his friends and the pride and admiration for his father mashed together.

Three hours later and she still hadn't shown up. Terra had to keep himself occupied by pacing back and forth. After pacing on two feet, something he had started growing accustomed to, begun to wear, he was back to pacing on all fours. But after the forepaw met a stray pebble, he had to shake it free and return to an upright stance.

An hour and a half later and he left the library. Elsa knew the way back. She had to know by now. He had showed her the tunnel. When she exited, she saw where the hidden passage was. Maybe she got tired and wanted to rest up before returning to him. He'd see her then.

As he tossed aside the evening attire, the subtle rose water from her perfume, which must have rubbed off, wafted through his nose. Terra would always associate the smell, and the flower itself, with Elsa. She was beautiful yet could be barbed with bristles. Trim the thorns away, and the flower could still be powerful in just its gentleness. Even in the harshest mountain climate, she still remained beautiful and undeterred. Maybe that was why he let her go. She was as delicate as the rose.

He looked at the purple rose and his heart just about split. The flower was complete bent over. The petals were heavy and wrinkled. The lavender petals were now gray and the purple tips were brown. The green stem looked healthy, but small streaks of brown were starting to seep through.

He groaned and flopped down on his bedding. He kept his eyes focused on the flower and the window before him. The night sky became alight. The sun, hidden behind thick gray clouds, passed through. Terra didn't eat anything that day. Why should he? The rose was dying, and he with it.

Elsa wasn't coming back. Why should that matter anymore? She was too kind, too good. Or was that all a façade from the beginning? She said herself she was cold-hearted. Terra huffed as he turned over to the brown coat he had worn that night. The rose water smell was still there. Along with it was a long hair. The color was somewhere between white and yellow, glistening bright against the tiniest traces of light in the dark room.

"What made you let her go in the first place?" Aqua was speaking from the vase where the dying rose lay.

Terra slumped against his forearms, staring out the window again. "I would have done the same for any of you…"

"It's not just that. You said you liked her. What you did goes beyond simply liking someone. You did so much for her without asking…"

"What's your point?" Terra snarled.

"You love her."

Terra looked at the empty water vase. Then down at the blonde hair. That was it. He let Elsa go because keeping her here when Anna was more important would have been selfish. Because her happiness was the thing that made her beautiful. Had she stayed, she wouldn't have been happy. Or at least, not happy because she stayed to fulfill a debt.

But, she chose to stay. She chose to spend her time with him. When she was with him, the light was still in her eyes. It had nothing to do with repaying a debt. The way she comforted him when he was injured had been a blessing. When she had held him despite him being unable to hold her without getting her hurt. Those simple acts of kindness without even questioning it. It had driven him to protect her, because…

"…you're right. I love her, and I did what was best for her. She's with her friend like she wanted."

For all Terra knew, they could be boarding a ship out of Krokus. Far away from the village where she was ridiculed. Far away from the darkness. Her light would be protected, then. He'd die along with the rose, leaving behind an untamable creature, the crystal palace would be taken by the shadows that were swallowing the walls back into the mountain, and the darkness would conquer light, just like the enchanter prophesized.

Elsa stared out the small slitted window of the cell she and Anna had been thrown into. She only said a few hours. But instead, all her warning had gotten her was time locked in a cold, damp room. None of the rooms in the crystal palace were this bleak. This place, too, was carved from stone, but it was lifeless. The village was coated in snow, resting against the mountainside with only a small amount of lanterns lit.

"I'm so sorry, Terra," she whispered to herself.

Anna was shivering on the floor next to her. "I…I should have listened to you about Hans."

Elsa shook her head. "It was never love. He was going to humiliate you. I overheard him and Sir Weaselton talking."

Anna tugged the thick gray blanket, which she had been hugging ever since their imprisonment, tighter. "And you said that the mo…Terra," she corrected herself, "is dying because I picked the rose." As Elsa nodded, the ginger moaned feebly. "I didn't mean any of this. I just wanted to be a good friend."

"None of this is your fault, Anna," Elsa said. "You didn't know the roses were tied to a curse. I didn't think the story was real until I rode Sven up to find you."

Anna looked at the door before laughing glumly. "It's funny. I spent so many years hoping one day, if I were ever trapped, that a dashing prince would save me. Now, I'm in this room, still desperate for love."

Elsa sighed. "Anna, you'll find the fairy tale kind of love you've always read about in the books one day. Hans was…ideal, yes, but be honest; did you really want to be married to a stableman for the rest of your life?"

Anna shook her head. "Sweeping up manure for weeks? No thank you."

The two women shared a weak, short lived laugh for a while. They fell silent afterwards. Anna counted the cracks on the floor with her eyes. Elsa stared at the mountain, knowing up there, the rose was dying, and with it, Terra. She wouldn't be able to go back. Come sunrise, she and Anna would be either sent off on a ship to be executed for witchcraft, or burned in the square publicly, or whatever horrible crime would be committed. The people wouldn't see the happiness Anna spread, or the intelligence Elsa spread, passed onto her by her father. They'd only see the bad…the…darkness.

Elsa's eyes widened as she looked back to the mountain. The darkness Terra was afraid of hadn't just been a looming threat. Whoever cursed him had taken all the negativity that was in the castle…the mourning for his father, the anguish and guilt that came with it, the self loathing that had been reborn alongside the curse…and warped it into a monstrous form. Terra would die, and a shadow would be left in his place. That darkness had only been driven back during her stay. The times when he was laughing with her, when he made fun of himself, and when he did kind gestures.

She looked down at her gown. The turquoise material was coated in muck, but it still retained a sparkle. All this time, the light that pushed the darkness away, was coming from her being there. She, too, had been locked in darkness, but her light had been in Anna. Terra had his friends, but they only came out at night. When she was there, that light had grown. It gave him something to push the darkness back farther. She was his light.

"All this because I thought I loved Hans…" Anna was murmuring.

"Anna, there are many people who love you. I'm one of them," Elsa said. "Anyone who doesn't is missing out."

Anna gave a sad shrug, "I love you, too, but that's in a sisterly way."

Elsa frowned. Anna was throwing a pity party at this point.

"But…"

Anna lifted her head, and looked at her. "The dream of finding love isn't gone. I keep telling myself it's all pretend, it's all something out of a book. But then I started thinking about how you talked about Terra in the bar. You weren't even drinking, so don't pull the 'I had wine' excuse. Just because I couldn't find love doesn't mean you should let your chance slip by."

Elsa blinked. "What are you talking about?"

Anna adjusted the blanket again. "Well, when you love someone, you put everyone else first. You put me first when you crashed my engagement party knowing Hans was going to embarrass me. I thought about you when I was looking for that rose. Terra letting you go, that's a good example, too."

Elsa's jaw nearly hit the floor. "Terra…loves me?"

Anna gaped in return. "He could have kept you imprisoned forever, but he didn't. He let you go so you could find me."

"I chose to stay. He technically didn't imprison me."

"My point is he could have," Anna interjected, "but he didn't. He…protected you. I think in a grumpy way he was protecting me from the weather and the dark monsters that were worse than him."

Elsa brought her hand, bound by the wrists, to the snowflake he had given her. He had been kind to her. There had been rough patches, but he never tried to hurt her. Not once. He knew he could be dangerous, and when he had shown that dangerous side had been ashamed of it. He told her his deepest secrets like his fear of geese. He had manners, after much needed prompting to remember them, and tried so hard to please her because he knew it would make her happy. Her fear of Terra had become friendship.

Anna was smirking knowingly at her. Elsa's cheeks felt hot. Was she blushing and didn't realize it? Here she was remembering the few times Terra had shown her kindness in the smallest ways. He was genuine with his offerings of clumsily cut flowers. He had eyes the color of a cloudless sky. He spoke gently to her, only raising his voice against anyone that would try to hurt his friends.

"He was a really good listener…" she murmured, remembering her most precious time with him had been the times in the library and she read her favorite childhood story to him, of the friends who broke the spell of the Snow Queen with true love. He had been sitting next to her, his blue eyes lost in her voice spelling out the tale, their hands overlapped.

"Can you read it again, Elsa?" Terra had asked.

Elsa's heart clenched. Terra loved her. What kind of person left them alone without any explanation? She was an awful person. But she had to set it right. The rose was dying, and if Terra died, she'd lose him. She had to get out this cell, back up the mountain, and back to Terra, so he could see her again before he died.

She and Anna were charged with treason and witchcraft, and sentenced to death. No. She refused to die. She began tugging at the chains on her shackles. The metal buckled. If she pulled hard enough…

Footsteps echoed outside. The guards were coming for her and Anna. No, no, not now! Anna was standing from her sitting position, alerted by the guards. The latch on their cell clicked. As Elsa continued to struggle with the locks, she kept her thoughts on the crystal palace. The nights of staring at the stars with the elementals and Terra. The picnic shared that one day despite the snow. The night he had made French toast for her…

The guards grunted in pain. Elsa snapped out of her memories to hear Anna, say, "Thank you," in a singsong voice. The door had been slammed into the guards faces. Anna's foot had been the culprit. In her hands, she held the keys. She tried several on her own shackles, succeeding after ten of them didn't work. As she unlocked Elsa's chains, they exchanged solemn expressions. The true monsters lay in the guise of well dressed men, plotting to hurt girls for their own amusement. Anna had to get out of here, too, or else Hans would catch her. Walking out the door wasn't an option.

"Stand back," Anna said, bundling the blanket around her fist.

"Wait, what..?"

Anna punched through the glass on the window several times. The crack widened with each blow. After a few dents, the glass completely exploded. Anna stepped out first, sweeping aside any extra pieces of glass before hopping out the window.

"Come on, Elsa,"

The blonde scuttled after her. They held hands and made a mad break for the mountain trail. They avoided the main parts of town, skirting through dirty, dark backstreets. Elsa told Anna to take her back to the Seventh Heaven, where she knew the secret passage to Terra's castle was. The sun was just setting, covering the world in a thick cloud cover and the wind began to howl.

"Anna, go home and lock the door," Elsa told her. "I'll be safe."

Anna smiled. "Go tell Terra you love him."