Elsa was reclining on a chaise longue on the balcony, idly firing ice magic in the air. "Iceflowers," the people called them. It was a new moon, so as soon as the glow of her magic faded her swirls and crystals disappeared from view. She was thinking about Anna and Ingrid and herself. She didn't feel like talking about it, not even with her 'reflection' in the ice mirror hidden in the former dungeon room.

It had been a month of pleasant closeness since the picnic – but not too close - a time to relax and settle into a new routine. Romantic dinners with Anna. Dancing "practice". Cuddling. But not going too far.

Working smoothly with Ingrid by her side. Her reassuring, quiet presence. Comfortable familiarity as Ingrid helps her prepare for the day, or for sleep. But not going too far.

Anna and Ingrid learning how to be around each other. Ingrid becoming more comfortable around the princess, as she had with her queen. Anna finding the right way to play with Ingrid, making her adorably flustered without frightening her.

It wasn't perfect, but it was good. Couldn't it go on like this forever?

In a curling fountain of crystals Elsa wrote A E I across the sky. She let her hand drop and pondered the luminous initials.

No, it couldn't.

With a start she realized that, like a schoolgirl at her desk, she had doodled her crushes' initials where everyone could see. She quickly adde and Å. Learn your vowels, children. She smiled crookedly at her own foolishness.

The blue-white glow of her magic illuminated a pale figure off to the side. Elsa's smile turned from wry to welcoming. "Ingrid! Join me!" She scootched over and patted the chaise in invitation.

"Ma'am," said Ingrid, and bobbed a brief curtsey. "Elsa." Ingrid sat on the edge of the chaise, at Elsa's side.

Elsa patted the space beside herself again. "Ingrid?" She snuggled into Elsa's side, Elsa's arm around her, her own arms pulled in.

She watched the glittering blue-white glow of ice magic waxing and waning as Elsa doodled across the sky. She gave Ingrid time to relax, but the tension in Ingrid's shoulders didn't change. "Something the matter?"

She felt Ingrid nod her head.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"...no..."

Elsa waited. "Do you need to talk about it?"

Ingrid nodded.

She sat up, and Elsa followed suit. They sat sideways on the chaise, skewed to face each other. She took Ingrid's hand, but it lay dead in hers. "Go ahead," said Elsa softly.

Ingrid stared at her hand in Elsa's. "I killed Hans."

Elsa fought the urge to blurt, We've been through this already. If this was Anna, she would've let her exasperation show. But this wasn't Anna. "Yes, Ingrid. I know."

Ingrid carefully retrieved her hand and sat square on the chaise, not facing Elsa. "No. I killed Hans. I killed him." Elsa crossed her leg towards Ingrid, but otherwise sat quietly and waited for her to go on. "I tried to tell you, but...I was weak. I told myself I was protecting you. I was scared. Ashamed. I should be ashamed. I lied."

Elsa let her unspoken questions float in the air between them.

Ingrid went on. "A lie of omission is still a lie. I let you believe...things." She stopped, gathered her courage, and began. "It was the night after... The night..."

"It's okay, Ingrid. I know what night it was."

"Everyone was asleep. I came to his bedroom. Hans's. I swaddled him so he couldn't move. I woke him up. No, I swaddled him, then I gagged him, then I woke him up." As if she was reading aloud from a newspaper, she told Elsa the whole story, from giving him 120 seconds to make peace with God, everything she said to him, to gathering and disposing of the evidence.

Elsa sat stunned and fascinated. She remembered how she was afraid that Ingrid would hear details of how Hans had died, messily. She should have realized how strong Ingrid was in her way, how it wouldn't have bothered her. Still, she couldn't have imagined what actually happened.

Ingrid finished her story and sat quietly.

"Wow," said Elsa in a voice just above a whisper. "I had no idea."

"Yes," said Ingrid, her back curved as she curled in on herself. "I'm sorry." Elsa stroked her back but she flinched away. "It's all right that you don't love me anymore. You've been more than kind."

"What?"

"You're disgusted with me. Disappointed."

"No, Ingrid, I'm..." Elsa shook her head to say 'No', and to try to clear it. "I don't know what I am right now. Besides confused. But I'm not disappointed or disgusted. I'm, I guess, surprised?" She put her hands together, touching her fingertips to her lips. "You did this for me."

Ingrid nodded, still staring at the ground between her feet.

"For me?" she repeated.

Ingrid nodded again, and muttered like a schoolgirl in the principal's office. "He would try to kill you again. I couldn't have that. Or Anna."

"You were acting in my defence. In defence of your queen."

Ingrid shrugged her hunched shoulders.

"I think..." Elsa touched her steepled fingertips to her lips again. "What I said before still holds. There's no real difference between dropping a block of ice on Hans or...what you did. You were defending my life, and your own, and your country. You are just as innocent as before. More than innocent. A brave soldier."

Ingrid turned to her, eyes shining with tears, and shook her head. "He was asleep. He wasn't a danger, not then. Helpless. I killed him in cold blood. I'm bad."

"I wish we had it to do over again. I wish I could've talked to you about it."

"No," declared Ingrid. "I wouldn't tell you."

"I don't follow." Elsa made a motion to touch her, comfort her, but stopped herself and rested her hand on the cushion between them. "Are you saying—"

"I'd do it again. Just the same. And not tell you. Even if it's cowardly and selfish. I wouldn't want to upset you." She sniffled. "And now I have."

"Ingrid, you haven't upset me. I'm still getting a hold of it." Elsa gathered her thoughts. "There were guards on his room. Armed guards. You could've been caught. Maybe killed."

Ingrid shrugged.

"And the things you said. About seeing your brother again. You...you really believe that."

Ingrid shrugged again, and turned to her with an apologetic smile. "Yes."

"Ingrid." This time Elsa dared to take her hands, and Ingrid didn't pull away. "You risked your life, and your immortal soul, to protect me. And even facing someone you had every reason to hate and fear, a true monster, you were polite and courteous." Elsa shook her head, then smiled a wry smile at her. "There is no one in the world like you. You are...sooey generis."

Ingrid smiled through her sniffles. "You're trying to make me feel better."

"Yes, I am." Elsa's smile grew warmer.

"But he was... He was... He wasn't a danger. He was defenceless."

"You said yourself, you knew he'd try to kill us again."

"Not me. You. But I didn't have any proof, any evidence."

"Ingrid. Listen. Do you know why we have juries, and judges, and a queen?"

"To make the law?"

"If justice was just a matter of law, we wouldn't need all this. You'd just have a clerk with a shelf of law books, looking things up. But in the end, you have to have people. Using our sense of fairness, using our judgment, to do what we believe is right. And at the end of that line of people is me. Maybe Hans didn't have any plans at the time. It's theoretically possible that he could suddenly see the light, choose a life of goodness and honesty, and change his ways."

Elsa saw the dread in Ingrid's eyes at that thought.

"But we know that's not so. He would've tried again. Somehow, some time. Your judgment was right. Mine is the same. We know it's true. You did what needed to be done, and you did it bravely, with justice and compassion." Elsa watched the dread be replaced with hope. "If you thought telling me this would make me love you less, well, you got it exactly backwards." She cupped her hand against Ingrid's cheek, treasuring her grateful smile.

Then Elsa paused. "You...wanted me to..." She frowned. "Ingrid."

"Yes ma'am?"

"When you came here, to tell me this. Were you trying to make me fall out of love with you?"

"I..." Ingrid's gaze fell again. "It would have been for the best."

"Because you didn't want me to have to choose between you and Anna."

"She's a princess. You deserve a princess."

Elsa sighed. "She's also my sister."

"Yes," said Ingrid, with an enthusiasm that startled Elsa.

"What do you mean?"

"Even if you have to hide what you feel, she's... You can walk with her. Talk with her. Hold her hand. Flatter her. Tell her you love her in front of everyone. You don't have to hide in a field in the middle of nowhere before you could feed her bits of food. You can't do these things with a servant. It's not done. People would talk."

Elsa tried to reassure her with a smile. "I'm the queen. I can do what I want."

Ingrid shook her head gently. "Begging your pardon, but no. It would be bad for things. For you. I wouldn't let you."

"You would tell me what to do?"

"I would..." Ingrid swallowed. "I would frown at you."

"Really?"

"Disapprovingly."

"I see."

"When no one was looking, of course."

Elsa grinned as she chuckled. "You're a fierce little mouse, aren't you."

"When it's important."

Elsa sighed, took her hands again. "Oh, Ingrid. You know I want you to be more bold. And you have been, and I'm very proud of you. But there is one place where you have overstepped your bounds." Ingrid's eyes widened, but Elsa kept a firm grip on her hands. "It's my responsibility to decide who I love, and who would be best for me. You're right, it's not easy, and it's not simple. But it's my choice, and mine alone. You can support me—and you do, and I love you for that—but in the end it's my decision. Do you understand?"

Ingrid nodded meekly.

"Good. Now lie down beside me." Ingrid did as she was told, as she wanted to do, and snuggled against Elsa's side. Elsa turned her head to kiss Ingrid's forehead, pulled her close. "Feel better?"

"Yes," said Ingrid without enthusiasm. Elsa shot feathery fern-shaped curls of magic into the sky, and glittering snowflakes that burst in showers of glitter, as they lay quietly together.

After a while, Elsa said, "There's something else, isn't there?"

Ingrid sighed, and nodded against Elsa's shoulder.

"You know it's all right. Right?"

Ingrid was silent.

"What you did was right, and just. And legal. And you'll never get in trouble over it."

Ingrid nodded.

"But it still bothers you."

"Yes," said Ingrid in a small voice. "I know you'd like me to feel better, and I do, but not...all better."

Instead of asking, Elsa lay quietly against her, doodling across the sky with her magic. They lay peacefully together. Even as she was concerned for Ingrid, Elsa found herself enjoying the serenity of being next to someone she cared for, and cared for her, and not having to say anything.

Finally Ingrid said, "I know what I did was...what you said. I still feel bad about it. I did what I did. To him. It's right, but it's still not right. To do that."

Elsa absorbed this. She was tempted to try to think it through. She was very good at thinking. But this was something she needed to feel.

"Ingrid?" she said gently. "There's someone I'd like you to meet. A friend of mine. A good person to talk to. Bishop Snorresgade."

"Bishop... He's head of the church, isn't he?"

This time it was Elsa who shrugged. "That's not important. He's a nice man. Very soft-spoken. Kind. And if you wanted to talk to him, in confidence—trust me, it would be in strict confidence—I think you might feel better." She paused, waited for Ingrid to agree or object. "You don't have to. But would you think about it? For me?"

Ingrid considered. "Yes."

"Yes you'll think about it, or yes you'll talk to him?"

"Both?"

"All right, both."

Ingrid sighed, nuzzled against Elsa's shoulder. "You take very good care of me. Thank you."

"You don't know how many times I've thought the same thing about you."

Then Elsa set to the serious work of filling the sky with luminous crystals and entertaining her mouse.