Rapunzel and Elsa were seated at a table in Elsa's study. Rapunzel was writing out the title of Chapter 6 in her book in elaborate cursive. Elsa was answering letters.

Then Rapunzel said, "I will be going away for several days. I'm testing out some magic."

Elsa nodded. "Thank you for telling me," she said. Then the full meaning of the phrase reached her. "Magic?"

"I'm sure Anna has told you about the magical chessboard that she found in the attic."

"Oh certainly," Elsa said. An edge had come into her voice. "She found a magical toy that she now frequently plays with. She and Kristoff disappear at odd times and reappear hours later. Are you interested in that sort of thing?"

"Well." Rapunzel stuck her quill behind her ear. "I think that the toy might actually be useful. One may travel into the past in order to see the past more clearly."

"I thought it only sent you into the future." Elsa was frowning. "If you travel into the past, won't you meet yourself there?"

"Perhaps."

"And you could get stuck there," Elsa pointed out. "At least, Anna has never gone into the past. And when she goes into the future, she only travels a few hours."

"There is always a risk," Rapunzel admitted. "But Eugene and I will be careful."

Elsa swallowed. They would both be gone? What if she had a question or a problem she could not solve? She could talk it over with Anna but Rapunzel and Eugene simply had better judgement. She could never be sure if her own ideas were good unless one of them confirmed it for her. Then, she thought of Rapunzel traveling through time alone and shivered. Anna only used the chessboard with Kristoff. Likewise, for Rapunzel, it was probably best to go with Eugene.

"Enjoy yourselves!" she said airily, hiding her emotion.

Rapunzel looked at her sympathetically. She could read Elsa fairly well by now. It's for your own good, she thought. Only you don't know it yet.

It was five days later. The journey Rapunzel and Eugene had undergone was rather exciting and free from any dangers or strife. They had traveled forward through time four times using two white pawns on the chessboard, as well as the white rook and the white knight. They had seen a thing called a car and another thing called an airplane, both of which defied description. Once they had returned to the present, they had travelled to the past exactly once and Rapunzel got to watch herself as a child, painting up in her tower. Her adorable ten year-old self had not seen or heard them, which meant that you could not meet yourself in the past. You could only observe like a cloud in the window. Now that they were back to present time, Rapunzel felt that the chessboard was ready.

The more difficult task would be getting Elsa to agree.

"Good luck!" Eugene said. He had gone along with her plan with a cheerful and amused manner that infuriated her. He did not really believe that it would lead to anything.

She usually met with Elsa on Wednesdays and Thursdays by the lake to look at scriptures and talk. It was a Thursday so Rapunzel got to the lake early and completed a painting of an intricate cathedral. Her heavy Bible lay on a rock nearby and the chessboard was on the grass next to it.

When Elsa came along, she noticed the chessboard immediately. She also noticed that some pieces had already been moved on both sides.

"Why do you have that thing with you?"

"Because we won't be looking at scriptures today," Rapunzel said. "I have a rather dangerous proposition to make to you, Queen Elsa." She tried to smile because she knew her words must have had quite an effect.

Elsa had turned pale. "Well?"

"I'd like us to travel into the past together."

Elsa crossed her arms. "Why? I'm not interested in playing around with my memories. They are too precious for that."

"This isn't play. Look." Rapunzel turned her cathedral painting sideways. "When you look at the picture from this angle, it looks very long and flat. When you come and look at it from over here, it looks a bit more rounded. It all depends on where you stand."

"You're saying that I don't see things correctly?" Elsa asked. "Then explain to me what I don't see. I will listen."

"It's not something that can be explained. You have to actually go there. If you go back to several moments in your past and watch them really closely, you will see that they are a bit different from what you think. Then, you will look at yourself differently and at your family too."

Elsa was shivering. "So you've travelled into the past?"

"Once."

"And how can you be sure it will work again? We'd be experimenting with magic as well as with my memories."

"But it has to work. It makes sense. And we can't possibly get trapped in the past."

"Oh, can't we?"

"Look at the chessboard." Rapunzel pushed it towards Elsa, who drew back. "The way the pieces are arranged now, we can easily travel into the past using this knight on the right. Then we return to our present time by moving either the knight, or the rook forward or the bishop forward or literally any of these pawns. So many more pieces travel forward so it is always easier returning from the past than going into the past."

Elsa glanced at the chessboard but her heart was pounding too hard for her to pay close attention to it. "Do you really think it will help me?" She trusted Rapunzel's judgment more than anybody's.

"Yes," Rapunzel said firmly.

"All right," Elsa said. "But on one condition. We will not travel to my childhood. There are enough memories in my adult life to choose from."

Rapunzel bit her lip. She had made a list of the memories she would like to take Elsa to and this declaration removed the first one on the list. "Then, we go to the day you found out your parents passed away."

Elsa flinched. "And if I wish to leave?"

"You move one of the chess pieces I mentioned earlier. But I have to be touching the board while you do it or you might leave me behind."

"I might? So you don't know for sure how it works," Elsa said flatly.

Rapunzel was getting exasperated. "Obviously, Eugene and I haven't attempted to leave anybody behind."

"Very well," Elsa said, tight-lipped. "Let us go and get it over with."

If anybody is interested in seeing the actual chessboard with the moves, PM me and I will send you the image.

I would post it but fanfiction doesn't allow images.