A/N: So, it's been a while has it? Yes, well, it's certainly has been, mostly for about a few months now (sorry about that btw, college has taken up my life and time these days, also life is a pain :/). But I'm back with another chapter update for this story cause I don't want to abandon them, well, none of my stories at all. I'm gonna finish all of them, no matter how long they take. So be assured none of my stories will be abandoned, they're gonna take a while, but they will be completed in the end. I'm also debating atm if I should also upload these stories of mine on Ao3 now too, just for crossposting on both platforms or how the term goes these days.

Anyways, enough bantering from me, I'll leave you be for now.

Enjoy the new chapter! :) And a huge thanks to Collington for beta reading, it means a lot to me! :)

A message amongst riddles

"Wait… what happened?"

Agnarr only stares at Iduna in pure shock followed by a moment of silence, the king slowly sitting on the bed behind him as he tries to comprehend what he just heard from her in his mind. Iduna watches for a moment before she takes a deep breath, softly sighing as she then repeats herself once more.

"I found Elsa in her room this morning without her gloves, her room completely thawed with no traces of ice anywhere to be seen," Iduna explains, a smile gradually growing across her lips, "It's almost as if she was able to learn how to control her powers overnight, that she's now able to control her emotions more easily than before..."

"But how?" Agnarr looks at her, clearly bewildered, "How is it possible for Elsa to be able to control her powers that quickly, especially after these recent months? She had been struggling to control them to no avail because of her emotions, pushing us away as well, how can it be that she's able to control them just like that?"

He snaps his fingers as a form of demonstration, to which Iduna's smile drops as it's instantly replaced by a frown.

"Agnarr, are you not happy to hear of this? To hear that maybe, just maybe, Elsa is able to control her powers and doesn't need to hide herself or her powers anymore from everyone, including Anna?"

"It's not that, Iduna, I just… I just... "

Agnarr stops speaking as he tiredly sighs, the king then brushing his hand through his hair as he slumps on the edge of the bed for a moment.

Before worriedly looking up to meet his wife's eyes.

"I just don't want to get my hopes up yet, to believe that our daughter can easily now control her powers without hurting anyone. You remember what happened with Anna, the warning Grandpabbie gave us, what if Elsa's powers were to accidentally strike someone else the next time? What would we do then to protect her, to protect Anna as well?"

Agnarr then watches in silence as Iduna lowers her gaze away from him, her frown replaced by the emotion of sadness mixed with that of realization as well.

Because Iduna realizes Agnarr has a point, she knows he does no matter how hard she tries not to believe it. Even before the accident, they had done their best to conceal the existence of Elsa's powers from the rest of the kingdom for her protection, Anna had been the only other exception who knew of her sister's powers until the accident, of course.

However, if the people of Arendelle were to find out that the eldest princess had the powers of ice and snow, it wouldn't end well for the royal family.

Iduna knew from experience, she was secretly Northuldra after all, and from her own life in Arendelle so far, the people weren't too accepting of the idea of magic or her people at all. Even now as Queen, she was still hiding the truth of her past from everyone, including from her own family, from Agnarr.

So the thought of something terrible happening to her family, to Agnarr, to Anna, to Elsa…

No, she would not let such negative thoughts fill her head, she couldn't! She needed to remain hopeful for the future, for her family's sake, for Elsa's sake, hopeful that her daughter would soon be able to master control over her powers.

But how? Even if it was possible that maybe Elsa was beginning to gain control of her powers, there was no way to guarantee of preventing another accident, like that of Anna's, from happening again with someone else. Of preventing the kingdom from fearing Elsa if they were to find out about her powers.

Unless… unless…

"Uh, uhmm, well, if you and Papa don't mind, would you mind if I had… a personal tutor?"

The words of what Elsa had told her earlier in the morning float back into her mind, Iduna softly rephrasing it in her own words.

"What if we hired someone to help teach her?"

"What?"

Iduna looks up to be met with Agnarr confusedly staring at her, he must not have heard her well, so she repeats herself more clearly and slightly louder this time.

"What if we hired someone to help teach Elsa, someone who could help in teaching her how to control her powers?"

It takes a moment for Agnarr to register the words he just heard from Iduna in his mind; surprisingly though, his reaction isn't shocking or dumbfounded but only confusion… and maybe slightly interested in hearing what she has to say, along with a hint of curiosity as well.

"And how would that work?"

"Well," Iduna proposes, "I gave it some thought, but I have an idea. I know we can't just publicly announce to the kingdom that we're seeking to hire someone to care for Elsa and to help guide her on how to control her powers, as it would end up being very disastrous, but what if we did do it in a way that would be very… esoteric?"

"... Which means?"

"That we announce publicly we're looking for a tutor who's capable of teaching and helping Elsa, yet we do it in a way that could only be understood by those clever enough to know exactly what we need in order to help our daughter. So when she's able to learn how to control her powers, she won't need to hide her powers from everyone anymore, and our daughters, our family, can finally be reunited again."

As she finishes, Iduna waits as Agnarr gives thought to her suggestion, the king silent for a moment with his eyebrows scrunched together in careful thinking. After a while, they raise in delight, and Iduna's surprised when Agnarr leaps off the bed with a joyful laugh, the king then hoisting his wife in the air with a loving embrace as Iduna feels herself joyfully laughing as well.

"It's a brilliant idea, Iduna!" Agnarr happily exclaims, his eyes gleaming with glee, "This could actually work! This could be what we've needed, to find someone who actually knows how to help our daughter to learn how to master controlling her powers! Except..." Agnarr then carefully lowers his wife to the ground, his expression now that of confusion, "How would we do it?"

Iduna ponders for a moment before looking back at Agnarr, a warm smile crossing her lips.

"I think I might just have the perfect idea for that."

It took some time (a couple of days actually), but eventually, Iduna and Agnarr were able to come to an agreement over the idea that Iduna believed would be the best way in finding the right tutor for their eldest daughter.

The idea was simple: create a public announcement through flyers that would seem ordinary to the eye at first, calling for private tutors for the royal daughters of Arendelle. Yet, there was a twist to the announcement, there were several riddles placed in the flyers that had to be solved in order to even be considered as a possible candidate for becoming the official tutor of the royal daughters of Arendelle.

There was also another twist, a cleverly hidden one. In the riddles, there was a secret hidden message spread throughout all of them, one that wouldn't easily be noticed by the common eye. Iduna had done her best to keep it hidden, and Agnarr had also tested it out to make sure that it couldn't be easily solved. They wanted to make sure that if they were to go forth with Iduna's plan, that it would work as they had planned it.

After they had planned it out, they decided it would be best to explain their plan to the head servants Gerda and Kai, who Iduna and Agnarr trusted the most. After all, they were the caretakers of the castle, and had been with the royal family since Agnarr's childhood and knew the truth about young Elsa's powers. Even so, Agnarr and Iduna knew they would never betray their trust, Gerda and Kai cared about young Elsa and Anna as if they were their own children and wanted nothing more than to see the young sisters reunited with their parents again as the family they were meant to be.

Thus, they deserved to be let in on the plan that Iduna and Agnarr came up with.

At first, they were initially concerned, mostly for young Elsa and Anna's safety. But after hearing Iduna's and Agnarr's idea of the hidden riddle message, they were on board with the idea, giving insightful and helpful advice, like having interviews with the candidates, to Iduna and Agnarr that the two would keep in mind for later on.

The only thing they just hoped for was that nothing would go wrong, and prayed that if it did work, the family could be reunited once more and never be separated again.

"Hey, have you heard?"

"Did I hear what?"

"Why, just the announcement from the King and Queen themselves, of course!"

The two middle-aged women stopped right in the market square as they then found themselves gossiping near the fruit stands, discussing what the older woman had mentioned about the recent announcement from the King and Queen of Arendelle.

"Oh yes, I did! It's been quite a while since we last heard from them, isn't that right?"

"Why yes, it certainly has been! A few months actually ever since the gates to the castle were shut for no reason. But what's funny is that they didn't even deliver a speech or give any explanation for why they closed the gates. All they did was just announced they were looking for a teacher for their daughters, which came off quite surprising I suppose."

"I guess you do have a point, I mean, wouldn't they already have one for the young princesses? Unless they never did."

"Well, who knows? All I know is that they're now looking for someone to help tutor the young princesses, though I do find it strange the way they're looking for a tutor."

"What's strange?"

The two middle-aged women immediately turn around to find a younger woman standing right behind them, the two realizing that she had been the one who had asked them the question. Not only that, the young woman was easily noticeable by the snow-white robe she wore around her white dress decorated with various, colorful crystals, along with her long, flowing platinum blonde hair that dropped to her waist. Not to mention the glasses she wore as well.

Thankfully, without hesitation, the first older woman immediately answered the young woman's question.

"Why, they announced that to be the official tutor for the princesses, one must first solve the riddles that are found in the flyers that can be collected from the main square. I suppose that it doesn't sound very difficult at first, as there are only four riddles to be solved, but they're not easy from what I've heard. Who knows though, maybe some people will be able to solve the riddles and end up as the royal tutor of Arendelle. Certainly not me, I'm not a teacher looking for a job at the moment."

The young woman gives a nod of her head while looking around, seemingly puzzled before turning back to the two older women in front of her.

"Pardon me if I may ask, but do you know exactly where I can find those flyers?"

The first older woman then points off towards the direction right behind the younger woman, her eyes following to be met with the sight of a booth in the center of the square occupied by an Arendellian guard. She notices there's a fair amount of people around the booth collecting flyers from the guard before turning around to the two older women, giving a bow of her head in gratitude.

"Thank you for the help," the young woman says with a smile, "I really appreciate it. Now, if you excuse me, I'll be on my way. Thank you again."

With another bow, the young woman heads off towards the direction of the booth with the two older women watching her leave. As soon as they see her reach the booth, they glance towards each other, slightly bewildered.

"Quite a strange woman she is," the first older woman remarks, turning back to the fruit stands to examine the frutis, "What was with that outfit as well? Do you really believe she's a teacher looking for a job?"

The second older woman glances back for a moment, noticing the young woman thanking the Arendellian guard for a flyer before she then heads off to a nearby inn, before turning back to the fruit stands with a shrug.

"Well, we may never know. I only just wish her the best of luck getting that job."

Elsa stared at the riddle in front of her.

Then again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

She stared at the first riddle for a bit more before shifting over to the next riddle page on the desk, followed by glancing at the other two riddles by her side. She peered over them for a while, raised her hand to her lips thoughtfully, and let out a sigh as she sat back in the chair with a frown.

"If I had known that mother and father were going to do these riddles for hiring a tutor, I would've given a heads up to my younger self to make sure these riddles were easy enough for me to solve. Well, guess it's too late for that now."

With another sigh, Elsa collected the riddles and stacked them together, shifting through each of them while reading them over with the help of her glasses and the bright lamp illuminating the dark room she was staying in. It was nighttime after all, the sun had long since gone down a while ago and Elsa needed a place to stay for tonight.

Luckily, she had found a room at the inn to stay for the night, though she didn't really have enough money at this time because of her current situation of being stuck in the past. Thankfully, the elderly inn owner had been kind enough to rent the room for her at a cheap price, mostly as she felt compassion for Elsa and was kind enough to understand that the fifth spirit wasn't in the best financial situation at the moment.

Thank Ahtohallan there were still good people around in these times.

Still, as before, Elsa continued to study each riddle by the lamplight. Sure enough, as the older woman had mentioned a few hours earlier to her, they were quite tricky enough to solve, especially the way the four riddles were presented to her.

What is said to be missing and comes at any cost?

What can be recovered and sounds safe and sound?

Though what may divide a family and strike the heart?

Only what can help teach them and reunite them?

At first glance, the riddles didn't make sense to her, she even had to reread them a couple more times just to make sure she was reading them correctly. Slowly, but surely, she began to solve them in her head and wrote down the answers she found best associated with each of the four riddles.

However, as soon as she solved the four riddles, Elsa looked over the answers she had gotten from each of the riddles, observing them while thinking silently to herself over the meanings of each word.

Lost

Found

Fear

Love

As Elsa observed the riddles' answers with the dim light of the lamp illuminating them, she couldn't help but wonder to herself. Why exactly would her parents use this method in order to find a tutor for her younger self and Anna? It didn't make sense, there was no way that her mother and father would easily accept anyone that solved the riddles to care for their daughters, let alone teach her younger self how to control her powers without considering the risk of doing so.

Unless…

If there was one thing Elsa remembered about her parents, it was that she knew her mother was very clever when it came to riddles. After all, during her own childhood before the incident, she and Anna would spend their days together solving riddles given to them by their mother, who would award her daughters with chocolate and love when they solved the riddles.

Not only that, Elsa also remembered when her mother would sometimes visit her with a riddle every now and then during her isolation, just to spend time with her daughter while solving the riddle together. She even remembered one time when she questioned why her mother would give riddles for her to solve, with Iduna glancing back at her daughter with a loving smile.

"Sometimes, there's more to something than what meets the eye. You just need to look closer to be able to see it."

Those words of advice from her mother drifted into her head, and now, they even seemed to echo back into Elsa's mind as she glanced again at the riddles. She then glanced at the four words that were her answers to the riddles, her mind deep in thought as she sat back in her chair with her arms crossed together. She knew there was more to these riddles, there was no way her mother and father would use this method to easily hire someone to care for her younger self, let alone her sister as well.

"More to something than what meets the eye," Elsa muttered to herself softly, her eyes frequently shifting back and forth from the four words to the riddles, "You just need to look closer to see it."

As she examined the riddles with her answers, something caught her attention. Looking at the first riddle, Elsa noticed that some of the words were slightly darker than the rest, almost as if they could be highlighted by the lamp light itself. Raising the first riddle page by the lamp, Elsa noticed that the first two words became darker than the rest, immediately examining the other riddles close by the lamp to notice that some of the other words grew darker than the rest as well.

What is said to be missing and comes at any cost?

What can be recovered and sounds safe and sound?

Though what may divide a family and strike the heart?

Only what can help teach them and reunite them?

Upon reading all the darkened words together, she found that they had formed a message, Elsa reading the message out loud to herself to understand what it meant.

What is_can be_. Though_may divide a family, only_can teach and reunite them.

For a fact, Elsa knew that this was a hidden message left by her parents, clearly meant to be discovered by those wise enough to find it. She had to compliment her mother and father for making the message hard to find, but even so, it seemed incomplete with the, almost as if certain words were missing to reveal the whole message.

Certain words…

Elsa quickly checked her own answers for the riddles again before she looked back at the message, gears turning in her head while working the message out. Then, with a snap of her fingers, she filled in the gaps of the hidden message, a smile crawling upon her lips when she finally read the completed hidden message to herself.

What is lost can be found. Though fear may divide a family, only love can teach and reunite them.

With this, Elsa finally had the true and real answer to the riddles that her parents were using to find a tutor for their daughters, a tutor who would be able to help reunite the broken royal family of Arendelle. She didn't know yet for sure if this was exactly what her mother and father were looking for, but she just had to hope for the best that she would get the job of being the royal tutor of Arendelle.

All without raising suspicion of her true identity really was.

With a hopeful smile, Elsa glanced towards the window in her room, getting out of the chair as she made her way towards it. Once at the window, she opened it to gaze out at Arendelle, admiring the full moon in the night sky sharing its moonlight over the sleeping kingdom like a blanket. A sigh escaping her lips, Elsa felt herself grow drowsy, removing her glasses from her face and placing them by the windowsill before sharing one last glance at the kingdom for the night.

"I'll see you soon, little me. I promise you, I'll make things right this time. For you and Anna."

With that, Elsa turned in for the night, hoping that with this visit granted to her by Ahtohallan, she would give her younger self and Anna a future with their parents. A future that would show them love forever.

A/N: Second note (yes, it's a common thing of mine): I do hope this chapter is alright with you guys, I'm gonna be honest, I haven't really written anything ficwise since my 2nd semester started back in January, and this update kinda made me a bit anxious on whether if I still had my talent in writing stories or not. Thankfully, Collington, my dear best friend and most trusted beta reader, gave it a look over and reassured me that I still got the magic of writing stories in me, so thank you very much for that, my friend! It really meant a lot to me, and I couldn't have been more thankful for your help. :)

Thanks for reading this chapter and be sure to leave a like and follow if you're enjoying this story. Leave a review on your thoughts so far over this chapter and what you believe will happen next. Other than that, stay safe in these times, enjoy life, and have an amazing blessed day! Take care and I'll see you in the next chapter!

Until then! :D