Elsa couldn't help but sigh as she conjured her ice-dress into an ice-nightgown and crawled into bed. Today's agenda had been attending mind-numbing council meetings, and tomorrow's agenda called for the same. And probably the day after that's agenda, too. Elsa tried to keep her chin up. Today really hadn't been that bad. The one good thing about spending years in isolation was that every other day looked fantastic by comparison.

"Mama?" Mary entered the bedroom. "I've been thinking. You said you'd make me ice-accessories, remember? I want a pair of glasses."

"Glasses?" frowned Elsa. "But your eyes are magic. You'd think that'd give you twenty-twenty vision..."

Mary laughed. "My eyesight's fine – I just want to look smarter."

Elsa laughed back. "Alright. Never made glasses before, but it should be an interesting challenge." She held out her hand, causing a stream of glowing blue snowflakes to emerge and swirl around Mary's head. A pair of icy spectacles came to a rest on her nose. "How's that? Is your vision too distorted?"

"They're perfect." Mary beamed at her, then turned to examine herself in the dresser mirror.

"I like them," said Elsa. "They make your face look more distinct from Anna's and mine. I just hope you keep better track of them than your shoes." She glances down at Mary's high heels. "Did you leave them lying around outside your personal flurry? They look half-melted."

With an absent wave of her hand, Elsa repaired the melted shoes. Mary let out a little yelp as her feet suddenly rose a couple inches higher. "T-Thank you, Mama." (Elsa remained pleasantly oblivious to the exasperated sigh Mary made. It'd taken forever for her heels to melt enough to be comfortable.)

"Now then, I believe I also promised to brush out your hair." Elsa seated Mary in the dresser chair before the mirror, then glanced around. "I don't see my hairbrush anywhere, so I'll have to-"

"Don't worry, Your Majesty!"

Out of nowhere, a scrawny boy in an ill-fitting servant's uniform scurried into the room.

"Fritz?" frowned Elsa. "What are you doing here?"

"Kai assigned me to be your personal manservant," said Fritz.

Elsa pictured Fritz following her around twenty-four-seven. "No!"

"What?"

"I mean, err, it's too much work for you," said Elsa. "You should take it slow"

"Don't worry, Your Majesty, I can handle it," said Fritz. "I'll go get you your brush!"

"No, that's okay, I can just-" Fritz was out the room well before Elsa could say, "-make one from ice." She shook her head. "Well, Mary, I could probably just use my magic to untangle your snow-hair, but that seems like cheating, somehow."

The next instant, Fritz was back in the bedroom with a brush in hand. "Here you go, Your Majesty!"

"'Elsa' is fine, Fritz," Elsa laughed as she accepted the brush.

A tinge of red entered Fritz's cheeks. "Not when I'm on duty, Your Majesty. I'm your servant now. Is there anything else I can get you?"

"No thank you," said Elsa. "I don't need a servant right now. You're excused."

"Of course, of course. Thank you, Your Majesty!" Fritz scampered off.

Elsa turned to Mary, raising an eyebrow. "He seems... enthusiastic."

"He's just nervous," said Mary.

"Really? Why's that?"

"Anyone would be if they had a visit with Fritz's mother looming on the horizon..."

A gray-haired, beady-eyed, lumpy-headed old woman sat on a musty cot in the middle of a dank, dark prison cell. Her terrifying gaze was currently fixed on the bowl of colorless sludge in her hands.

"Hey, you!" she barked at a guard standing on the other side of the bars. "This food stinks! I've eaten reindeer droppings that taste better than this dreck!"

"Maybe you should've thought about your culinary needs before you decided to mouth off at the queen," said the guard.

"I'll mouth off at whatever socerery-spewing devil-child I want, you son of a-"

"Mrs. Gudmund?" Just then, another guard approached the cell.

"Whattaya want?"

"You have a visitor."

"Really?" Mrs. Gudmund's face lit up. "Somebody came to see me? Somebody really cares about-?"

"It's your son."

"Oh." Her face immediately returned to its usual sourness. "Yeah, bring him in, I guess."

Fritz approached the cell with a cautious smile on his face. "Hi, Momma. Sorry I couldn't visit you sooner."

"No, no, it's fine, Fritz," Mrs. Gudmund said theatrically. "Why should you bother finding the time to visit your poor, elderly mother who's been left all alone in this miserable prison?"

"It wasn't my fault!" squeaked Fritz. "After that the prison island was evacuated, there was a big mix-up and now they've finally settled on leaving you in this local jail. I actually had to go through a big trail of paperwork just to find you-"

"Sure, Fritz-muffin, whatever you say." Mrs. Gudmund's nose pointed to the sky. "I believe you. And I'm certainly not trying to insinuate you ought to be ashamed of yourself for being such a miserable failure of a son."

Fritz winced and shut his eyes. "I'm not a failure, Momma. I have a job now. After you..." His eyes met the floor. "...disowned me, I got a job with the royal guards-"

Mrs. Gudmund snorted. "A guard? You?"

"It was a mix-up, kinda," said Fritz. "I wasn't really qualified. The point is, I met the queen, and now I'm employed as one of her servants. We're really good friends."

"You just wanna bang her, don't you?" Mrs. Gudmund deadpanned.

Fritz reddened. "N-No! I don't just want- I mean, I don't want to bang her!"

Mrs. Gudmund fixed her blood-curdling glare on him. "You'd better not be fooling around with any sinful women. Utter failure that you are, I draw the line at letting you turn into your father."

Fritz pulled back from the bars. "Uh, no, I... I'm not fooling around with anyone. I-"

"He has a girlfriend."

Mrs. Gudmud stumbled backwards, pointing and shrieking at the woman of ice who'd approached the cell. "What the-? What is that thing?"

Mary tensed. "'That thing' is a snowwoman brought to life by the queen's magic," she said tightly.

Mrs. Gudmund's breathing slowed. "Oh, I see. I'd heard that sorceress harlot could make snow-monsters, but I didn't know she could make them look like little tramps."

Mary's face turned bright blue. "And I'd heard Fritz's mother was an insufferable hag, but I didn't know she'd look like a moldy prune that's been left in the sun too long."

"I think it's time to go!" Fritz hurriedly grabbed Mary's arm. "We really need to get back to the castle. Nice seeing you, Momma!"

As he and Mary scurried down the cell, Mrs. Gudmund's scratchy, aged voice grew fainter and fainter behind them. "Ha! Just when I thought you couldn't get any more pathetic, Fritz! You couldn't even get a real woman to fool around with, so our she-devil witch queen had to conjure up that freak for you! No son of mine's dating some- some snow-person!"

By the time they reached the prison entrance, Mary was almost spasming with rage.

At the front door, Fritz asked a guard, "Are you sure she can't be moved to a home? I mean, she's always been like this, but it's gotten so much worse lately... I think she's kinda losing it with age, you know?"

"You'll have to take it up with the queen," said the guard. "But for what it's worth, I'm rootin' for Mrs. Gudmund to leave, too. She's punched out no less than twelve guards so far. No offense, kid, but your mom's a real-"

"-piece of work, I know."

The guard smirked. "That's not what I was gonna say, but yeah."

"Why do you put up with that harpy?"

By sunset, Fritz and Mary were back in Arendelle's capital, making their way towards the ice-covered castle looming over the buildings.

"You were the one who encouraged me to visit her," said Fritz.

"That was before I knew she really was as bad as you and Elsa said." Mary threw her arms in the air. "How do people get to bethat horrible?"

Fritz let out a heavy sigh. "My dad promised he loved her, then abandoned her. It messed her up."

Mary seemed to lose her thunder. "I see," she said quietly.

"But she's still my momma," said Fritz.

"Well, it's clear she doesn't love you at all," said Mary. "You don't owe her anything."

"You're right. Guess that's the last time I visit her..."

Mary took Fritz's hands in her own. "You were abandoned too, Fritz. We both were. But it's never happening again. We have a real family now."

A smile crept onto Fritz's face. "I love you."

Mary responded in kind. "I love you, too." She leaned in for a kiss.

Fritz and Mary held their kiss for a long while. It was just as they were getting to the good part that... something happened. A sound hit Mary's ears – a sound she could only describe as ethereal. It was peaceful and rhtymic and beautiful and heartbreaking all at the same time, and it made her want to move her body.

It was impossible to explain aloud. The most she could manage to say was, "W-What is that?"

"Looks like someone's playing the violin." Fritz pointed to a man standing on a street across from them. He was unshaven, dressed in ratty clothing, and the greatest violin-player in all of Arendelle. The instrument case lay open at his feet, filled with coins.

Mary's mouth was hanging open from smiling so hard. "That's... That's music?"

"Wait." Fritz's mouth hung open for a different reason. "You've never heard music before?"

"I know what it is, but I've never heard it in person," said Mary, "It's incredible." She wrapped her arms around Fritz. "Honey, can I have some coins?"

Fritz fumbled though his pockets for some change, and then Mary waltzed up to the street performer. "That's beautiful music." She tossed the coins into his case.

"Ah, that's what I like to-" The man glanced up, then turned deathly pale. "Sweet mother of Bach! What ARE you?"

"What? Oh, I'm one of the queen's-"

"Stay away from me, you freak!" The man ran off screaming through the streets.

"Wow," said Fritz as he neared Mary's side. "What an-" He was interrupted by the man suddenly returning. He silently picked up his violin case full of money, staring at Mary the entire time, then ran off screaming again.

Frost had piled up on Mary's cheeks. "Oh- Oh yeah?" she screamed after him. "Well, I didn't even like your music anyways!"

Fritz watched the man shrink in the distance. "Hey, Mary? You okay?"

Mary brought a hand to her eyes. "Let's go home."

Fritz nodded. "Yeah. Hopefully that jerk will be the last snowman-racist we-"

"Hey, you!"

Fritz and Mary turned around to see a large, bald, musclebound man walking towards them from a nearby pub, though it was maybe less "walking" and more "wobbling." Despite the cool April weather, he was going sleeveless, probably to show off the vast collection of tattoos on his bulging arms.

Mary's nostrils flared. Snowmen happened to have a highly acute sense of smell – even the ones whose noses happened to be carrots. This man absolutely reeked of alcohol.

Mary found herself hiding behind Fritz. Going out in public usually drew a crowd, but most people weren't bold enough to approach her on the street like this.

"You one of the queen's snow-monsters?" the man spat.

Mary squeezed Fritz's arm. "I'm Queen Elsa's creation. Her child."

The man snorted. "And you think you can just walk around the village like a normal person?"

"I think I can mind by own business," said Mary.

"Know how I got this?" The man pointed to a jagged, white scar running from his forehead down his cheek. "It was during the queen's eternal winter. When the princess went missing looking for her sister, I was one of the volunteers to search for her up on the North Mountain. When we go to the peak... one of the queen's snow-monsters ambushed us. Came out of nowhere."

"Then take your problem up with Marshmallow!" snapped Mary. "I hadn't even been created yet back then."

The man took a step forward. "You're all the same. Just because you look more human than that creature doesn't mean you are."

Mary held out her arms, scowling. "Fine, go ahead and hit me. I can't feel pain."

The man swiped at Mary's head. She stood her ground, but her glasses tumbled off and landed on the cobblestone. The man proceeded to stomp them under his boot. Mary cried out in shock, then caught herself and made an effort not to let her eyes water.

"Oh, come on!" yelled Fritz. "That's just petty!"

"Aren't you chivalrous?" The man's eyes fell on Fritz and Mary's hands, which were intertwined. "Looks like the rumors are true. The queen really shapes these things like girls to give freaks like you something to play with."

Fritz went red. "What? No, that's not-"

"Guess that's not too surprising seeing as she lets her own sister date a rock troll."

"Um, I don't think that's-"

"Shut up." The man turned to Mary. "Hey, does your boyfriend not feel pain, too?"

Mary's snowy eyebrows quivered. "Leave him out of-"

Crack.

Fritz went skidding across the pavement like a rag doll. For a moment, Mary simply watched in silence. Then she turned to the man. Mary's bloodcurdling glare could've given Mrs. Gudmund's a run for its money.

"I will break every bone in your body." It was a statement of fact.

"Oh yeah?" The man gave Mary a shove. "And how are you gonna do that, girl?"

"Girl?" Mary laughed, surprising herself with the chill in her voice. "I thought you said I was a monster."

On the last word, Mary's hands warped and twisted into a pair of icicles, the tips pointed outwards. Then, her entire body seized up and stretched itself, flattening and losing detail until the face smoothed over and the hair and dress sunk into the ice, leaving Mary as a tall, slender, faceless snow-creature with limbs just a bit too long.

The man shrieked and made a run for it, but Mary was upon him in an instant, moving with superhuman speed. She jabbed an icicle-arm across her prey's face, leaving him with a second, identical scratch opposite the first one.

"I've read up on human anatomy, you know." Mary's voice was barely audible over the man's screams. "This one's your femur-" Crack. "I think the fibula's right here." Crack. "Ooh, look, your tibia." Crack.

"Mary!"

Mary halted and swung her featureless head towards Fritz. Fritz had backed himself against the wall of a building. He seemed to be alternating between gasping for air and sobbing, "Stop it! Stop it!"

Mary looked back at the man sprawled across the ground before her. She leaned into his face and said, "Tell Fritz you're sorry." One of her icicles morphed back into a regular hand so she could grab him and prop him towards Fritz.

"I'm sorry, oh God, I'm sorry!"

Satisfied, Mary tossed the man into the street, where he tumbled for a bit before lying still. Mary ignored his cries of pain and dashed over to Fritz's side.

"Are you alright-?"

"Stay back! Stay back!"

Mary was shocked. The instant she'd moved close, Fritz had backed away, shrieking at the top of his lungs. "Fritz, it's – it's me! I saved you!" Mary glanced about. All around them, villagers was fleeing in terror. "I saved you..."

"What did you do to yourself?" Fritz managed to ask through chattering teeth.

"I- I think it's my 'battle mode,'" said Mary. "Like how Marshmallow has those icicle-spikes."

"I, uh, don't suppose you could change back?"

"Hmm..." Mary struggled for a moment. Her other icicle arm morphed back into a proper hand, but other than that, her body failed to change. "I don't think so. My other form was too detailed and lifelike. Looks like we'll need to get Elsa. Come on, let's head back to the castle."

"B-But Mary..." Fritz gestured to the passerby. Many of them had stopped fleeing and were instead gaping at Mary from a safe distance. "You kinda made a scene."

"I'm sorry, Fritzy. I got carried away when that man hurt you." Mary wrapped her arms around Fritz, but oddly, he didn't seem to blush the way he usually did. "I'm sure Elsa can get this sorted out, but right now we need to get to the castle. You need a doctor."

"We should probably be more worried that you broke that guy's leg..."

"Do you have a concussion?" asked Mary. "I read a book about concussions. Do you have any dizziness or nausea?"

"I think I'm okay."

"Alright then, honey. Here, let me kiss it better." Mary put on her sugary voice, but somehow, it didn't have quite the same effect. Mary leaned in, then caught herself. "Oh, wait, silly me, I don't have a mouth." After a minute of straining, Mary's jaw wrenched open. "There we go."

Several seconds later, she withdrew her lips from Fritz's. "What's wrong, dear? You're not using your tongue like you usually do."

"Uh, let's save the kissing for once you've turned back, okay?"

Mary frowned at him. "You don't want to kiss? Am I not fetching enough?"

"You're, uh... not as fetching as you could be, no."

Mary made an indignant gasp. "Are you saying you only wanted to kiss me because you liked the way I looked?"

"No, no, baby, I love you! Really!"

After that, Fritz made out without protest.

Elsa was the most precious thing in the world to Mary. Her creator. The person Mary was literally designed to love unconditionally. Elsa's slightest praise left Mary reeling with delight. Elsa was gorgeous and kind and perfect.

And, when she wanted to be, Elsa was downright horrifying.

"I've spent nearly my whole life terrified that one day a magic-hating mob would show up on the castle doorstep to kill me."

It would've been easier, somehow, if Elsa was screaming, but instead she simply sat her throne, her posture and face perfectly rigid. Her voice was slow, calm, and calculated.

Mary was sitting before the throne on her hands and knees. Elsa had yet to return her from a featureless snow-creature into a beautiful ice-girl. "Mama, I-"

"Don't talk." Elsa's gaze made Mary's insides cold, and Mary couldn't get cold. "Now, miraculously, even after everything that's happened, after everything I've done, the people of Arendelle don't all hate me – many of them actually respect me – and then you come along and break a man's leg in front of the entire village."

"He punched Fritz!" Mary pointed to her boyfriend standing across from her.

"So call the town guard over to charge him with assault!" snapped Elsa. "It's their job to subdue criminals, not yours."

Mary bowed her head. The way Elsa put it, doing the calm, rational thing sounded so easy.

Elsa took a breath, her hands gripping the armrests of her throne. "Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

Despite her current lack of eyes, tears trickled down Mary's face. "I'm sorry, Mama. I'm so sorry..."

Elsa nodded slowly. "I accept your apology."

"And I'm sorry, too," said Fritz.

Elsa gave him a sad smile. "You have nothing to apologize for, Fritz. I'm just sorry you were hurt."

Fritz winced and clutched his ribs. "I'll live."

Mary scrutinized Fritz carefully, then froze. She couldn't believe it. He'd just given Elsa the look. The look where he turned bright red, glanced at Elsa out of the corner of his eye, then darted away and pretended he hadn't been ogling her. That was Fritz's look for Mary! The look he hadn't given Mary at all ever since she'd gotten trapped looking like this... this thing. Mary glanced down at herself. Her icy body was scraggly and shapeless, like something a child might mold from clay.

"Now, then-" Elsa turned back to Mary. "-there's the matter of your punishment."

"Punishment?" The jaw in Mary's blank face re-formed just so it could drop. "That's not fair!"

"You're right," said Elsa tightly. "What would be fair is for you to get sent to court over this and face the possibility of jail. Luckily for you, I love you too much to allow that, and making sure the public accepts my snowmen is extremely important to me, so instead, I'm going to track down the man you hurt, pay for his hospitalization, and bribe him into not pressing charges."

"But doesn't this man deserve to be punished, too?" said Mary. "He came out of nowhere and provoked me!"

Elsa raised an eyebrow. "You don't think having his leg snapped is punishment enough?"

Mary faltered. "Well..."

"Now, seeing as reading books is what you enjoy the most, it seems to me the best punishment would be to deprive you of that for a week."

"A... A whole week?" Mary repeated to herself. She tried to rise to her feet, too, but she was feeling a little weak at the knees. "I don't think I've ever gone that long without reading a book before..."

It was at this that the sobbing began. "Mama... I- I'm sorry. I'm so sorry..."

"I know, Mary. I know. It's going to be okay..."

After that, Elsa used her magic to sculpt Mary back into her lifelike, female body, complete with a new ice-dress, glasses, and another pair of high heels. This time, Mary wore the heels without protest. Elsa led Mary into her bedroom, where Elsa tucked her under the covers and kissed her cheek before turning to leave.

But just before she headed out the door, Elsa paused, then turned back and said, "Mary, listen... I know how it feels to be persecuted, and when you're so much more powerful than they are, I know how tempting it is to... to hurt your persecutors. But you can't give in to it." She shut her eyes. "If you bring yourself to that level, people will never accept you."

In the center of a large, dim, candlelit room, a man in ragged black robes stood hunched over a cauldron, stirring its contents with a large stick. All was silent in the chamber, save for the sloshing of liquid and the crackling of fire beneath the pot. Then, from behind him, there came the sound of footsteps.

"How comes the offering?" asked the tall, thin man in white robes.

"The ritual is almost complete, my lord. Soon the brew will be ready for our purposes." The hunchbacked man let out a raspy cackle.

"Ready for our purposes?" The tall man folded his arms behind his back. "The brew must be more than 'ready for our purposes.' It must achieve perfection. The cosmic importance of this ritual cannot be overstated. This brew holds the fate of our entire kingdom- nay, our entire universe. The very balance of reality itself rides on the offering being accepted. Do you realize the consequences it would bring to humanity if the Snow Goddess is anything less than totally pleased with it?"

The man in black robes shrank back, shuddering. "O-Of course, my lord. I won't fail you."

"I'll be the judge of that." The man in white stepped forward, bringing a hand into the folds of his robes. "And I suspect you haven't gotten the ingredients quite right."

The man in black gulped. "You- You think so?"

The man in white retrieved a long, jagged dagger. The man in black's eyes seemed drawn towards the tip.

"Allow me to help you..." The man in white stepped forward, holding the dagger high, then, in one quick gesture, brought it down... into the cauldron. The dagger emerged covered in a thick, dark liquid. The man in white raised it to his own mouth, then slowly licked the flat of the blade.

"M-My lord?" squeaked the man in black, wiping sweat from his brow.

There was a long silence.

"Needs more cocoa butter."