Martin had insisted upon being put in charge of guarding the infirmary during the queen's stay. Even though his captain had made it very clear to him that it was fully within his right to take time off following the festival - in respect of his heroics and more quantifiably his bruised forehead - he had opted to go right back to work, taking the post after a short checkup to make sure he had sustained no permanent damage from his adventure with the princess.
Martin could not quite explain it even to himself, but he felt that only he was qualified to watch over Queen Elsa.
Duties had continued as usual through the reconstruction of the damaged pieces of the castle, but from the first morning after the festival Martin saw the clues in the men's hushed whispers and shifty eyes. He remembered his fellow guardsmen's faces as they had discussed the death of William Daleon; remembered their relative inaction during the Dark Mage's attack. He had seen firsthand how scared they were - terrified of the magic that they did not understand and now made acutely aware of its nearness by the twin tragedies.
Other than Martin, there was not a man on the Royal Guard who did not fear even Queen Elsa's powers.
Of course, the guardsman never doubted his comrades' ultimate loyalty to Arendelle, but that did not stop him from leveraging his newfound hero status to take the post in the infirmary. He simply felt safer knowing that he - perhaps the one guardsman who could honestly say that he was unafraid of the queen regardless of recent events - was the one who would be watching over the recovery process.
And so Martin kept his post for nearly four days straight, only leaving the infirmary to fetch the occasional glass of water for the queen and, of course, to escort Mrs. Daleon home the day before. He ate little and slept less on account of his rigid sense of duty and thus was quite torn when the physician had ordered him to breakfast for privacy's sake during the bandage change.
Martin could not deny that the pleasant smell of food and quiet emptiness of the dining hall were relaxing. The guardsman had decided that, if the doctor would not be permitting him back to his post for the next hour and a half anyway, he would make the best of the time that he had to rest.
Martin had just hastily downed an entire plate of eggs and begun to tilt his head downwards for a much-needed nap - free from the sound of the queen's groaning snores - when he was interrupted by a new and even louder noise.
"Wow! It's incredible!"
The guardsman's head flicked sideways in reaction to the exclamation, his eyes opening instantly. It took a while for them to adjust back to the morning light streaming in through the dining room's many windows. Soon enough, however, Martin made out two figures in the room's front doorway.
"Kai, Mrs. Daleon," he squeaked their names in recognition.
"Hello again, Sir Martin," the servant returned the greeting with a bow. Beside him, Dee took a short break from marveling at the majesty of the hall to smile at the guardsman. "I have brought Mrs. Daleon to join you for breakfast."
"I see," Martin replied as emotionlessly as possible. Considering their silent journey and whatever it was that he had witnessed in the infirmary the day before, he could not exactly say that he was excited to share a meal with the widow.
"I must check on a special order for another guest," Kai began to excuse himself. The servant looked to the widow and gestured over to the seat across from Martin at the room's lengthy central table. "I will be sure to have something brought out for you right away," he said before nodding to the guardsman. "Another plate for you as well, Sir Martin. One moment."
Kai went rushing through one of the dining hall's side doors, leaving Martin and Dee alone. The widow began her trek across the room soon afterward, taking her time as she gaped at the hugeness of the table and the windows and the chandelier above.
Martin watched her out of the corner of his eye. He noted the slight skip in her step and the brightness innate in her expression of wonderment. By the time that she sat down across from the guardsman and placed her copy of Daniel and the Dark Mage on the table, he had come to much the same conclusion as the queen had a few minutes prior: rest seemed to have done the widow well, indeed. Perhaps breakfast with her would not be quite as bad as he had imagined after all.
Regardless, not a word was said between the two as they waited for their food to be delivered. Dee's eyes continued to flutter around the hall while Martin simultaneously tried to stay awake and ignore the awkwardness, several beats of sweat rolling down his forehead.
A full minute later, a new servant strode into the room carrying a plate in each hand. He placed one of the dishes in front of each of the silent diners, simply stated, "toast," and then turned and retraced his steps with just as much impassive speediness.
Both the widow and the guardsman looked down at their respective plates. Martin at first watched the perfectly singed bread with illustrative discomfort, but he was quickly distracted when Dee seemed to almost giggle at the sight. His head flicked up for the second time that morning and the woman across the table caught his questioning gaze with wide eyes.
"Sorry," Dee said, quickly stowing away the tiny hints of laughter that there had been. "I just never thought that I'd be served like this," she admitted. There was a reserved playfulness to the widow's voice, like she was shyly dancing around a joke. "I'm usually on the other side of the breakfast equation, if you know what I mean."
Martin's confused look made way for a short, polite laugh of his own.
"I never thought toast could be so beautiful, either," Dee continued, encouraged. She glanced down again at her plate and the guardsman's eyes followed hers to the various pools of brightly colored jams dotted along the dish's perimeter.
"It's definitely a step up from what we get at the barracks," Martin commented. "We have to make our own food, you know. Most of the men are far from chefs."
Dee smirked across the table, glad to have finally gotten the tired man to speak even if he had trailed back off into silence. "Only the best for Queen Elsa," she answered almost cheerily. "Her guests, too, thankfully for us."
Martin was sufficiently struck by the widow's earnest smile and nod that he mirrored them. Following the woman's lead, he picked a triangular slice of toast off of his plate and swirled it in a few random jams.
"How is she doing, by the way?" the guardsman asked timidly just before raising the bread to his mouth. "Queen Elsa, I mean. You were sent here because of the bandage change, right?"
Dee, who had already taken her first bite, nodded as she chewed. She swallowed with a big gulp as Martin started in on his own piece. "Queen Elsa's fine," the widow replied pleasantly. "Better than fine, actually. The way I understand it, that man - Kristoff - is back from seeing the trolls. He brought some medicine that will be able to cure Queen Elsa's injuries, apparently."
"What? Just like that?"
Dee cracked a smile in preparation for her next bite. "That's what I thought," she said, "but I guess so. The doctor said she will be all better in a few hours. He's removing the bandages now."
"That's fantastic!" Martin shoveled some jam from his plate to his mouth with a new slice of toast, smiling as he did.
"I know!" Dee revealed fruit-stained teeth. She had already cleaned nearly half of her plate. Taking a short break to pace herself, the widow descended into a mock coyness that suggested that she was once again trying to hint at something funny. "I get to talk to her first when she does wake up from the anesthesia, though," she teased. "She already promised me - don't even try to interfere."
"I won't, trust me," Martin joined the woman in laughter again. In fact, once he had confirmed that the queen had truly healed, he was planning to finally retire to the barracks.
"We'll be starting our reading," Dee stated proudly, now taking a fresh piece of toast off of her plate.
Martin looked up from his own food at the declaration to see that his fellow diner had been distracted. She now stared at the book beside her plate on the table as if she were in a trance. The guardsman could not say for sure, but if he had to guess he would say that her far-off look seemed to mix anticipation, satisfaction, and melancholy in equal measure.
"Uh, I'm sorry for being rude last night," Martin chirped nervously. He also glanced down at the book, his hair now clinging to his forehead, significantly dampened by perspiration. "About that, I mean," he clarified. "I... I don't really like Daniel and the Dark Mage, you see. Stories like that - where good people turn bad... I don't like any of them, really," the guardsman sighed. "Anyways, I was out of line."
Dee looked up to Martin, though the splatter of emotion remained on her face, dampening the morning brightness for the moment.
"No, not at all," the widow said through nearly unmoving lips. "Honestly, I don't like the story myself. I'm more for happy endings. To read about a man like Daniel getting corrupted by the Dark Mage - by forces beyond his control... it's difficult," she paused thoughtfully. "It makes you think. It makes you worry."
Martin nodded in agreement. Even though his eyes were locked with Dee's, it was clear to see that she was looking right through him, still thinking. The guardsman remembered all that she had said the night before. She had not merely read about a man corrupted by the Dark Mage.
Suddenly, the widow's gaze focused and she was back from wherever it was that she had been.
"Unfortunately, Queen Elsa and I must do just that," Dee decided. Her lip quivered so slightly that Martin barely saw it move. "It's... very important."
"I understand," the guardsman nodded once more. He could almost feel the sheer will radiating from the woman across the table and could not help but be affected by it.
With the young man's approval, Dee's conflicting expressions started to leave her face. Gradually, the brilliance that she had entered the dining hall with returned to her cheeks and she even managed a shadow of a smile again.
"That's enough of that, however," Dee spoke slowly, finally bringing the toast she still held to her mouth. The widow took a tentative nibble and swallowed. "About your situation in the barracks - I could lend you some of my recipes if you wanted. They're not quite this sort of quality," she waved the bread, "but most of them are pretty easy to make. They could help the less... culinary among us, I'm sure."
"Oh," Martin tried his best to shake himself of thoughts of Daniel and the Dark Mage. He averted his eyes from the book on the table. "Uh, thanks," the guardsman squeaked as Dee took a full bite out of her toast. "I might just have to take you up on that."
Finally, Martin plucked another piece of bread off of his own plate and went about dipping it in jam.
Anna carefully placed her ear against the infirmary door as soon as she arrived. When she heard nothing except for the occasional familiar snore, a smile quickly spread across her face. The princess pulled herself back and knocked.
Within a few moments, the sound of the door's lock being unlatched from the inside confirmed her hopes.
"Princess Anna," the doctor greeted her, beaming in contentment himself. "I was wondering when I would see you. I have excellent news-"
"It worked?" Anna practically demanded, trying desperately to peek over the man's shoulders and catch sight of her sister. She saw glimpses, but the Elsa that she saw looked pretty much the same as she had for most of her stay - asleep and covered by the bed sheet. The princess watched the physician expectantly and swelled when she saw his grin widen.
"It worked, alright," he commented breathlessly. "It was remarkable - it all looks as if Queen Elsa was never even injured in the first place."
The old man stepped aside to allow Anna into the infirmary. The princess swung a hefty bag - everything she would need for a proper trip to the Valley - down from her shoulder and dropped it against a nearby wall, her eyes not leaving Elsa's form on the sickbed for an instant. She quickly took her seat at the visitors' chair and went about joyously inspecting her sister.
Even though only her neck and face were uncovered, Anna could immediately tell that the queen was feeling better. Her snores had become quiet, easy, and peaceful; her visible skin returned to its normal coloration without a trace of the mild burns which had once made it an irritated red.
To finish her examination, the princess saw a hint of chestnut cloth under the edge of the sickbed's off-white sheet. She pulled the linen back to see the top of a dress that she did not even know that Elsa owned.
"What's this?" the doctor asked, still holding the door open and now eying the luggage against the wall.
"I'm going on a trip," Anna explained. She returned the sheet to its normal position. Her voice was decisive - her choice now empowered by the sight of her sister in such good health. "I'm planning on leaving right after I talk to Elsa, actually," she turned to face the man. "When will she wake up?"
"It will take about two more hours for the anesthetic to wear off," the physician replied. He finally left the doorway and started over towards his office. "Where are you planning on-"
"Anna?"
The door never swung closed behind the doctor. It stopped about halfway and was pushed back wide from the outside, revealing the interrupter - Kristoff - and two others beside him - Martin and a woman whom Anna did not recognize. The princess acknowledged them all, but none of them were looking at her for long. They all naturally were more concerned with Elsa.
"How's she doing?" Dee was the first to ask. The three new visitors moved as one to the bedside, standing around Anna's chair and looking over the queen themselves.
"Much better," the doctor answered proudly from the doorframe leading to his office. "She will be awake in a couple of hours."
Dee, Kristoff, and Martin let out a simultaneous breath of happy relief, though the widow's was clearly the loudest. Anna felt the sigh on the back of her head. The woman was standing directly behind her.
"Mrs. Daleon, right?" Anna swiveled in her chair and looked over her shoulder to see Dee.
She scanned her quickly, noting her strong frame, reserved albeit pleased expression, and the book held against her hip. So this was the widow who had tried to break into the festival - the widow who Elsa apparently respected enough to not only pardon her crimes but invite back to the castle for help in the search for information regarding the Dark Mage.
"Princess Anna," Dee tilted her head downwards. "Excuse my manners."
"No, please," Anna put her hands out in half-hearted protest as the older woman finished her curtsey. "It's nice to finally meet you. I've... heard a lot."
Dee grimaced. "I thought you might have," she said, her voice filled with the sound of regret.
"Good things," Anna clarified.
The princess could not hold any true animosity towards the widow after having heard her sister's words the previous night. Dee was a 'friend' of Elsa's, she recalled, and, although nothing more was said, Anna managed a smile. It was soon returned.
Kristoff waited for a while to be sure that the conversation would not proceed before awkwardly interjecting. "I went ahead and loaded up the sled," he told the princess.
"Good," Anna nodded. She glanced over to her bag and everyone else in the room followed suit. "I'm ready, too. We should be able to leave right after I talk to Elsa."
In the same moment, the guardsman, the widow, and the doctor stated their questions.
"Wait, what are you talking about?"
"You're leaving?"
"Where are you going?"
Anna looked around at her audience. They all watched her back with confused and somewhat concerned expressions.
"Kristoff and I are taking a trip to the Valley," the princess explained.
"What?" Martin yelped. "You can't take a trip. Not with all that had happened recently. We still don't know what's going on with the Dark Mage and then there's that stuff about the treaty and-"
"It's not up for discussion," Anna interrupted the guardsman, though she tried to keep her tone as soft as possible.
"But-"
"Sorry, Martin," the princess insisted. She turned to shoot Martin the best silencing look that she could muster, willing a bead of sweat to roll off of his face and drop to the floor. "I'll be safe, promise."
Although the guardsman did not look convinced, he remained silent.
"It sounds like you've made up your mind," Dee offered quietly in an attempt to ease the tension.
"Yes, I have, as a matter of fact," Anna nodded for a moment before her head went still again and tilted slightly downward in thought. "As I said, though, I... I need to talk to Elsa before I go," the princess spun around in her chair slowly until she was facing the widow. "I'd like to speak with her first. Alone, if that's okay," she said. "I know you two probably wanted to get to your reading. I won't be long."
From Dee's serious expression, Anna sensed that the knowing nod that she was given in response was not just a product of her royalty.
"Don't worry about it," the widow answered with certainty.
After that, the infirmary fell to silence again. Anna shifted in her chair once more and resumed watching her peacefully resting sister.
Two hours could not pass soon enough.
For a few moments, Elsa did not even notice that she had awoken. Over the previous four days, waking up had been so linked with pain that the queen was more confused than anything when she opened her eyes and felt no aching muscles or itching skin. She felt like she was still asleep - free of her injuries in restful bliss - but knew that she was awake from the sight of the early afternoon light streaking across the infirmary ceiling directly above her bed.
"Elsa?"
The queen's eyes shifted to the side and she saw her audience, watching her back with hopeful eyes. Martin was at his wall, the doctor his office doorway, and Dee and Kristoff next to Anna at her standard perch just beside the bed.
All of the sudden, Elsa remembered why she was not in pain any more.
"Anna!" she cheered, bolting up from her position on the sickbed at long last. She leaned forward effortlessly and reached across the gap between the mattress and the visitors' chair.
Anna reacted quickly with a squeal of happiness and she reached out to support the queen as they pulled each other into a hug.
"So I'm assuming you're feeling better, then?" the princess teased into her sister's shoulder.
"Yes!" Elsa replied, unable to contain the sheer joy in her repaired voice. Even though she was leaning forward, she tested her legs below, cautiously shifting them from side to side under the sheet without any trouble at all. She took a deep breath and it came out without any scratches; rubbed her face gently against her sister's cloak and felt no discomfort.
Elsa was healed.
The queen pulled back from the embrace after a few moments and looked - properly this time, with plenty of head movement - around the room, treating her visitors to the widest smile many of them had ever seen from her.
"Yes, I'm feeling better," she repeated, ending her survey on the doctor peeking out of his office. "I think I'm feeling even better than I did before. You've done some great work. Thank you."
The physician stumbled out so that he was standing fully in the sickroom. He raised his chin and puffed his meager chest outward to little effect.
"All a part of the job, Queen Elsa," he assured her in a voice that at least he thought sounded sophisticated.
Elsa giggled a bit as she moved her whole body - mostly just because she could - to face the ice master.
"And you, too, Kristoff," she continued to the man's immediate blush. "If you had not gotten help from the trolls, I..." the queen trailed off. "Thank you."
"Um," Kristoff stammered. He tried to think of something appropriate to say and ended up shooting Anna a sideways glance to find the princess grinning right back at him. "It's a part of my job, too," the ice master finally continued with a too-wide forced smile. "Apparently."
Both of the royal sisters burst out in uninhibited laughter which soon spread to the others in the room. It lasted for quite a while - too long, perhaps, on any other day - before Elsa became restless.
The queen grew conscious of the rather unclean sickbed's warmth against her back and, for once, she could do something about it.
Elsa sprung from her sheet with refreshingly little ceremony, leaving everyone speechless in the wake of laughter as she stood up in front of the visitors' chair. She looked even more staggeringly healthy at her full height - a figure of glowing skin and an old yet clean maroon dress very different from the stained cast that she and her visitors had grown accustomed to.
"Wow," Anna murmured delightedly, the closest to the stunning sight. "It did work. Where'd you get that dress, by the way?"
Elsa paced around the infirmary with muscles only slightly shaky from disuse. She grinned as she stumbled to the side, looking down at her definitely unbroken right leg.
"Mrs. Daleon brought it to me," the queen explained as she went. "It used to be Mama's, if I recall correctly. I thought that I had outgrown it, but-"
It was a few seconds into her journey towards the far wall that Elsa caught sight of something unfamiliar in her periphery vision. She paused and adopted a confused expression as her eyes panned upwards to see a travel bag in Anna's trademark pink.
"What's that?"
Anna shifted in the visitors' chair, but, of course, she could not get comfortable. She had not been able to get comfortable for the last two hours. Eight eyes fell upon her to join Elsa's own, all waiting for a response.
"I actually wanted to talk to you about that," Anna's voice went high under the pressure. She looked around the room to her audience and met their sympathetic gazes one at a time. They all anticipated the princess's question. "Do you all mind if I talk to Elsa alone?"
"No, not at all," Dee spoke for the group. She was the first to pass Elsa on the way out of the infirmary, giving the queen a reassuring nod that she did not completely understand.
Furthering Elsa's confusion even more, the action was repeated by Kristoff and Martin as they filed behind the widow.
The queen's look of concerned puzzlement only intensified after she had watched her visitors leave. When the doctor on the other side of the room retreated deep into his office and even closed the door to prevent himself from eavesdropping, she knew for sure that something was wrong.
"What is it?" Elsa asked. She made her way back across the room to the sickbed and sat on its edge so that she could be face-to-face with her sister.
"Kristoff and I were planning on leaving for the Valley as soon as we made sure you were feeling okay," Anna admitted finally, satisfied by the privacy.
"You were?" the reply expectedly elicited another question from the queen. It was not exactly uncommon for her sister and the ice master to visit the trolls - they had gone a few times over the previous month - but, if anything, the timing of this trip seemed more than a little odd. Considering Anna's apparent devotion to her throughout the recovery process, Elsa thought it strange that she would so suddenly decide to leave the castle as soon as it was complete. She suspected that this was more than just a normal excursion. "Why?"
"Well, I need to see Grand Pabbie," Anna began, lingering indecisively on the words for a while. She knew that she would have to say it eventually. "It's about my memories," the princess finally breathed out.
Elsa's face scrunched up its tightest before her eyes went wide in realization, her face twitching in surprise as she processed the unexpected declaration.
"How did you..." the queen's voice barely came.
"Kristoff told me," Anna answered. "You see, when Kristoff was at the Valley, Grand Pabbie told him that that my memories could be restored."
"Restored," Elsa echoed the word in a half-cough, still recovering from her shock.
Elsa's thoughts went back to that fateful night all of those years ago - that night when the sisters' pasts and futures had been ultimately divided. The loss of control which had led to the alteration of Anna's memories and her own isolation ranked perhaps the highest among the queen's regrets. It was something that she had hoped never to talk about again - a burden, she thought, better borne alone.
Elsa had not told Anna the truth about that night before herself because she hated thinking about it - much less trying to explain it. The queen was ashamed that she had hurt Anna; ashamed that her mistake had led to all of the others. She had never seen any benefit in telling her sister of their trip to the Valley of the Living Rock before, only the risk of reliving the guilty pain that the memory always summoned.
Of course, Elsa had never expected for Grand Pabbie to offer to reverse his magic, either.
"Oh, Anna, if I would have known-"
"Look, I don't care about any of that," Anna's interruption came out harsher than she had intended. She sighed quickly and softened her voice as she continued. "I mean, I do, but not right now... If that makes any sense," the princess bit her lip in thought. "I'm sure you had your reasons for keeping what happened from me - I'm sure Mama and Papa did, too - and I really do want to understand them, but it's not something that you can just explain to me," she paused for a moment. "You know that."
Elsa remained silent because she did know.
There was so much that the queen wanted to say, but she knew that Anna's words were true. Explanations that she did not fully grasp herself would do little to help the problem of understanding that her sister had spoken about the day before - that much had been proven time and time again.
The speech in the mirror remained incomplete. Elsa had not the words to bridge the gap between herself and her sister.
A sad feeling of helplessness started to rise somewhere within the queen, but it was dampened when she glimpsed the determination on Anna's face. Although the younger woman's lip now stuck out in pensive, troubled puffiness, an expression of utter resolve underlay it that kept both of the sisters' sorrows at bay.
"But that's the thing," Anna finally continued. "That's why Grand Pabbie told Kristoff that he could restore my memories - he thought that if I remembered, then it could help me understand things better. I think it could help, too."
Elsa could feel the princess's hopefulness flow to her through the stuffy infirmary air.
She did not have the power to explain, but perhaps the wise troll was right - perhaps there could be some other way. If there was, then...
"And I'm sorry that it has to be now, when you're just recovering and there's still all this stuff going on with the Dark Mage and the ambassadors and the treaties and whatever else there is, but this is really, really-"
"Important," Elsa stopped her sister's rapid speech with a single, quiet word. "I know. It is important."
A hint of a grin emerged on Anna's face as she went about catching her breath.
"Don't worry," the queen fed on her sister's strength to muster up a smile of her own. "I think I have things under control here now that I'm back on my feet."
"Are you sure?" Anna asked. For a rare moment, her determination faded into the background. Despite her rhetoric, she would have never truly left without Elsa's permission.
"Absolutely."
Simultaneously, the sisters leant forward and wrapped their arms around each other's backs.
Elsa could feel Anna's energy and hoped that some more of it would rub off on her if she pulled tightly enough; Anna could sense Elsa's support and tucked it away by squeezing back just as hard. They hugged for a long time, nuzzling preliminary goodbyes into shoulders.
They would have hugged for even longer had the physician's office door not swung open.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," the doctor scrambled to pull it backwards in an instant, struggling with his lack of coordination. "It, uh - it was quiet, so I thought that you might be finished. I didn't mean to interrupt," he finally managed to grasp the doorknob. "I'm sorry."
Giggles ended up dissolving the royal sisters' embrace.
"It's alright," Elsa assured the nervous man just before he had shut himself off again. The door remained open a crack. "We are finished."
"Oh," the physician's face was a deep red. "Very well," he left the door open as it was and scurried to the back of the office to recompose himself.
Elsa and Anna rose from their seats and walked together to the infirmary's entrance to reopen the second door. The three visitors waiting in the hallway all smiled at the sight of their relaxed faces.
"You said that you're all packed?" Anna asked Kristoff directly.
"Yeah," the ice master replied, his grin widening. "Ready to go?"
Anna looked over to her sister. The queen nodded first and she followed.
"Yeah, I am."
"Wait."
The princess had just turned to retrieve her bag from the wall in the sickroom when Martin surprised everyone - even himself - with a squeak.
The guardsman had spent most of his excursion to the hallway staring intensely at the carpeted floor. Something was bothering him - something that made the tiredness that he had once felt fade away in the face of matters of much greater importance.
Martin could not exactly place it, but he had a bad feeling that he had not been able to shake ever since the princess had first mentioned her sudden trip.
"As a member of the Royal Guard," the guardsman chirped, perspiration on his forehead starting up like clockwork, "and in light of recent events, I would feel far more comfortable if the princess had an escort."
Kristoff tried not to be offended that he did not count.
"I would like to volunteer," Martin added. "If you will be alright on your own from here, of course, Queen Elsa."
"I think I'll be fine," Elsa replied. "I don't think you would want to be around for the reading I am about to do, anyway," she joked, mostly to Dee's amusement.
"Happy to have you," the princess picked up her luggage from its resting place against the wall and tossed it to Martin. He caught the bag and slung it over his shoulder with a smirk. "I'll see you soon," Anna gave her sister a final grin.
Elsa nodded.
The group said their final goodbyes and the princess, the ice master, and the guardsman started down the hallway.
Dee and Elsa watched from the infirmary doorway until the party turned a corner and disappeared from sight.
"I should probably go back in and see if there's anything else that the doctor needs from me before I leave," the queen started in a monotone after a while, still staring at the point where she had last been able to see her sister.
"Right," Dee nodded slowly, the beginnings of a frown teasing on her lips. She pressed Daniel and the Dark Mage firmly against her hip.
"As for afterwards," Elsa continued, "you haven't ever read in a royal library, have you?"
Not hearing an answer, the queen broke her focus and looked over to the widow at last.
Dee was beaming.