"WHAT?!" Hailey and I said at the same time. Our mouths hung open. Hailey practically rounded on Ella and she probably would have started yelling if I hadn't laid my hand across her, barring her path. She struggled against me.

"But... I thought- you said- what about...?" I stammered, my astonishment making it hard to think clearly.

Ella coughed. "I think..." She coughed again, then cleared her throat. "I think she means Melony, my foster mum, mother," she explained, ending in another small bout of coughing. I ran over to her side and sat down behind her, massaging her back like we used to all the time for each other.

"Ah," Valorie said. "Well, as Ella just told you, Melony, the one you know as Ella's mom, is not her mother. I am."

"Then where were you for all these years?" Hailey said firmly, coming to stand by us.

"Valorie looked like she had been slapped in the face. "I—"

I elbowed Hailey in her side.

"Ow," she said furiously through gritted teeth. "What was that for?"

I motioned towards Valorie, who looked like she was blinking back tears, and Hailey seemed to get the message.

"I—well, I... It's for reasons of my own, but I guess, since to heal you you'll find out soon anyways, I might as well tell you." She scooped up the shattered pieces of Ella's Egyptian pendant. "I haven't completely been disconnected from my daughter all these years. This pendant she used to summon me here—I gave it to her years ago if she ever needed me. Unfortunately, it only works once. At the time, my abilities weren't strong enough to create a lasting one, and the energy it took for me to teleport here was too great for me to handle, especially going back and forth often. By the time I did develop the strength, there was a war going on in my land. In fact, that's specifically how I gained the necessary abilities: in my training for the war.

"I managed to slip in a few visits, but the energy it took still drained me, and my duties to protecting our people took up much of my time. I wish I could have had more time to get to know my daughter through these past years."

"Enough excuses, woman! I don't care who you are; if you cared that much about your daughter—" Hailey's rant was cut off by a withering glare from me. With Elsa's face, Ella later told me I looked even more deadly.

"Let it go, Hailey," I said firmly. She grinned at me until I shot her another death stare.

Ella got up, one hand to her forehead, and walked over to her mother's side. "It's ok, Hailey. I get it. You were afraid I was hurt by her negligance. But I understand why. She had to," Ella said gently. She and her mum—her real mum—shared a look of... sadness? I could tell there was more to the story than either of them were letting on, but I didn't pry. It appeared to be personal, so it was none of my business unless they decided to tell me.

"Ok, clearly that was magic," Hailey cut in, breaking the awkward silence. "Why didn't you just say so? If that wasn't magic, then Elsa—er, Ariel didn't build that ice fort."

"Ice fort?" Valorie's eyebrows raised.

"Yeah, it was so cool mum!" Ella said. Apparently she was feeling better. "Can we take a tour? We didn't get a chance earlier, and I really want—"

Valorie cut off her daughter's rush of words with a laugh. "Oh dear, please slow down!" she said smiling. "I think I'm drowning under the waterfall of your words." Ella grinned widely at this.

"Well—"

Again, Hailey butted in. "Um, excuse me, but I have a few questions. Why did we have to "catch the time" to do the portal–thingy, and why, if you couldn't teleport here yourself, did you think Ella could do it? You nearly killed—" I nudged her, and she fell silent.

"Reasonable questions," Valorie replied, unaffected by Hailey's accusations like she was before. "I wasn't concerned for Ella; her powers are stronger than mine were at her age. As for the importance of time, Ella, why don't you answer this one?"

Ella jumped to attention. "In order to maximize the strength of the portal, one must summon it, with the aid of an Egyptian artifact, at one of the four auspicious times of the day: dawn, noon, dusk, or midnight," she said. It seemed like she had recited it. She looked towards her mother, the expression of hunger for approval on her face. Her mother smiled.

"Exactly, dear." Ella beamed.

I arched my eyebrow towards Hailey. She shrugged in response.

'What was that?' she mouthed.

'I don't know,' I mouthed back, 'but I'm getting a bad feeling.'

Ella was watching our silent conversation. Her eyes narrowed, but she said nothing.

"Ah, the ice fort," Valorie said, cutting into the tension. "Well we can go see it of course, but I wouldn't suggest using Elsa's powers anymore." Seeing the protest in my eyes, she added, "I don't want to make this worse." For a second I saw a ripple of green in Valorie's otherwise brown eyes and an echo of a laugh in my head, but when I blinked, the green was gone, along with the voice. I must have imagined it.

"Let's go," she said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So what do you guys think so far? I know I haven't been doing as well with updating, so I'm going to try to do a double whammy this weekend. Look out for the first chapter of my Born of Shadow/Soul Guardians crossover! I will update as best as I can, but I'm also exhausted. We did a week of Cardinal Craze at me school (cardinal red is one of our colors). its like spirit week but more pumped up, especially with over 900 students in a massive (HUMUNGO) gym cheering and screaming for the winners of the Guardians of the Rock of Mount Pelion, among Senior Skit and the Dancing Troup/Pep Rally Cheerleaders + one boy (lol), PLUS crew practice (4X a week), PLUSSSSS the musical scenes rehearsal. also we have the Cardinal Craze dance this weekend and i also have crew practice, so im pretty busy. anyways, advice, comments, corrections welcome and encouraged. if u liked, hit that little grey star and make it shine (really hit it hard! if ur whole arm doesn't hurt, U DIDNT DO IT RIGHT ;P ). first nice comment gets a dedication (more than like five words lol). so yup. ttys (soon) bai

-Misty out