Although Kristoff had only seen him a handful of times, he recognized the auburn hair in the mirror instantly. There was the man who had set into motion the very events leading up to the ice harvester's capture. Kristoff sat back on his feet with the mirror shard flat on his open palms as he watched the mirror's scene unfurl. As his confusion grew over the appearance of Arendelle guards and Weselton's men, Kristoff turned the mirror shard to and fro to try and capture more of the setting. Although the location was hard to place, he knew the event in the mirror had to have already taken place. For one thing, there was still snow on the ground.

Kristoff glared down at His Royal Backstabber's face. The prince's mouth moved. Alas, there was no sound and lipreading was not one of the ice harvester's skills. He brought the mirror shard closer to his face to give a try anyway, surprised to find that looking at the mirror was more like looking through a window. It did not even show Kristoff's reflection.

In the mirror, the prince's eyes moved down as one of the castle guards approached him. The guard passed over some burden for Prince Hans to carry, though the cut of the mirror fragment made it difficult to see without moving the fragment around. Kristoff tilted the fragment toward himself, catching a flash of white-blonde hair and a silvery blue dress train. His hands froze, carefully adjusting the mirror fragment until the incapacitated Queen Elsa came into view.

"Ah!" he hissed as a corner of the mirror fragment pierced his skin. He'd clutched it too tightly when he spotted Elsa like that: helpless in Hans's arms.

A drop of red spilled onto the icy floor. Kristoff fumbled for the handkerchief in his pocket to wrap around his pricked finger.

He reminded himself that the scene was now past, but that didn't stop his blood from boiling. What did help was reminding himself that Elsa was safe in her palace right now. Kristoff suspected the mirror was showing him the day that Prince Hans and a party of men had sought out the ice palace. He just didn't understand why the mirror was showing him that particular moment.

Prince Hans hesitated as the men around him moved to leave the North Mountain. Kristoff's eyes narrowed, listening to an instinct within telling him to watch carefully. The prince looked back up toward the mountain peak as though he had heard something. He opened his mouth, but of course Kristoff could not hear what had been said. The queen was carefully handed off to the nearest guard. After another voiceless word from the prince, the rest of the party marched ahead after nodding or bowing to Hans, all save for Weselton's two men. They remained rather defiantly, but were sent off after a stern word from Prince Hans.

Kristoff only wished he could hear them. What if it was important? The red uniforms acquiesced, leaving just Hans visible at the base of the stairwell to the ice palace.

Hans stood so motionless in the mirror now that for a moment Kristoff thought that was the end of what the mirror had to show him. It was a good thing he was paying attention when the prince's features sharpened in alertness. Kristoff had been about to put the mirror down when he caught it.

Prince Hans had seen something. Not only that, but he was watching...something. Whatever it was had caught him off-guard and now approached him. Only Kristoff couldn't see it yet. Was it just Weselton's men turning back for him?

Kristoff frowned, seeing a shadow come up in the snow on the bottom right corner of the shard. It grew taller as the person drew nearer. Kristoff would have adjusted the mirror to see, but he was curious at the changing expressions on Prince Hans's face.

First, the prince narrowed his eyes at the approaching form. He tilted his head just slightly as if trying to recall something. Then his leafy green eyes widened in recognition. Even Kristoff did a double-take as the back of the Ice Maiden appeared in the mirror. She walked up to Prince Hans, her long white hair blowing across her back in the strong winds of the mountain. The prince's recognition slowly changed to disbelief. Kristoff too was not sure what he was looking at. Why did it look like Hans knew the Ice Maiden? Wait, if she was at the North Mountain that day, then—

The thought died before completion. The Ice Maiden had stopped mere inches from the prince, but Kristoff could only see the back of her head. What was she...was she talking? Was Hans? There was no telling at the current angle.

Grumbling, Kristoff jumped up and side-stepped to the left with the mirror fragment held out in front of himself. As he had thought, the mirror fragment continued acting as a moving window rather than a reflecting surface. He was able to find an angle that showed him the prince and the Ice Maiden's profiles, and then he was able to see what they were—

She had kissed the prince; the Ice Maiden had her mouth against his. She was practically sucking face with Prince Hans and taking her sweet time doing it!

Kristoff's jaw dropped. It didn't surprise him that Prince Hans wasn't pulling away in disgust; the Ice Maiden was beautiful, and Prince Hans rather came off as a sort of 'charmer' based on things Anna had shared. Kristoff coughed, looking over his shoulder as though the Ice Maiden might be watching from a distant corner of the room. Then he looked back into the mirror and—to his stomach's discomfort—found the Ice Maiden's frosty lips were still locked with the prince's.

Maybe they got stuck? he thought, groaning over more sinister probabilities. "Just what the hell is going on?!"

Why would Prince Hans know the Ice Maiden? He was from the Southern Isles! When would he have had the time to meet her up in this arctic wasteland?

Were they in cahoots to take over Arendelle?

He had to tell Elsa.

"Anna," he murmured, now fully realizing the danger Anna could be in if she had found Hans. Hans was dangerous all on his own, but the Ice Maiden could freeze people in seconds.

The memory crashed over him: Anna turned to ice upon the fjord, snowflakes whipping all around her and Elsa's sobbing form.

Kristoff dropped the mirror shard and bolted for the main doors. He would tear the doors down if he had to, but he would get out to help the sisters. He only got halfway there when an icy gale forced the doors open. Kristoff skidded to an unsteady halt as one of the ice minions entered the hall. She seemed indifferent to the fact that he'd been charging toward her. She merely marched straight to him with a plate in her blue hands.

He did not move a muscle even as she stopped in front of him, extending the plate to him. He looked down to see a pile of cloudberries on it, although he was cynical about the offering.

The minion peered around him. At first, Kristoff wasn't sure what she could be looking at. It was just him in the hall with her. Then when she snarled at him, he realized what it was. He had not worked on the Ice Maiden's mirror. Well, not in the way the Ice Maiden would have liked, anyway.

Kristoff rolled his eyes and snatched the plate from her. "Relax," he snapped. "I couldn't work on an empty stomach."

Yes, lying would be best for now.

He gazed behind her, yearning to race toward the open hall doors. But he knew he wouldn't get far with other ice minions lurking about the castle. He wouldn't be any help to Anna or Elsa if he died trying to blindly force his way out.

No, first he would have to learn more about the castle and its inhabitants.

The ice minion huffed at him to express her skepticism and then whirled away from him.

"Thanks for the berries!" Kristoff shouted after her, injecting his tone with as much sarcasm as possible.

The minion appeared not to have heard him, however, and just glided all the way back to the door. Naturally the doors slammed shut behind her after she stepped into the next hall.

Kristoff grimaced at the berries on his plate. He hoped the Ice Maiden didn't plan on an all-berry diet for him. Things were bad enough as is. But at least he'd learned something about her and the conniving prince.

Not that he had any idea what it meant yet.

Long A/N: The next few updates may be shorter chapters. I want to keep updating regularly, but it's hard to consistently write longer chapters at the pace I set for myself. If I were updating every two weeks or so, that would be another story. Actually, maybe I'll leave it up to you guys.

Would you rather have longer chapters every other week or (probably, but not always) shorter updates at the pace I've been going (every 7-10 days with some exceptions)? Let me know and I will take that into consideration. I don't want to let anyone down, but I just don't have the schedule to write lengthy chapters every week.

...or maybe I'll just do what I want! :P Jk, I need some sort of schedule to keep me going.

Thanks for following! And I want to give a special thank you to those who are reviewing regularly. It means a lot to me. :D