The two sat in silence among the frozen flowers for the rest of the afternoon. Once Elsa seemed calm enough to Circe's taste, she finally decided to break the silence.

"You want to go home that badly, huh?"

Elsa slowly nodded, still not trusting herself to open her mouth on the off chance that she would start crying again.

Circe rose to her feet. "I'm going to get some things ready for you. Will you be alright if I leave you here?"

Elsa nodded again.

Circe didn't know whether her guest was being truthful about her emotional state, but she politely nodded in response and said, "I'll be right back."

Elsa watched the sorceress walk away until she turned a corner and disappeared behind a cluster of rosebushes.

While she waited, Elsa was able to find her missing glove before she decided to count the different types of flowers around her to distract herself. She started with the white flowers, before moving on to the blue and purple flowers, followed by the yellow and orange, trying to see if she recognized any of them from the books that she grew up reading about plants in.

🦚🌺🦚

Circe hummed a jazzy tune while filling a small travel bag with the essentials for "Ima's" journey. She was at first unaware of the fact that a purple conch shell on her parlor table was shaking and making low rumbling sounds. When she finally noticed the vibrating conch, Circe picked up the conch and placed it to her ear.

"Hey, Nessie," she said into the conch.

"Circe," a voice coming from within the conch responded enthusiastically. "How's my favorite enchantress?"

Circe chuckled. "Aww, Nessie! You're such a cuttlefish sometimes. Anyway, I can't talk right now, I'm dealing with something at the moment."

"I thought you said you were taking a break from boys," said Nessie.

"I am," Circe replied. "This has absolutely nothing to do with my love life."

"Oh," said Nessie. "Maybe I should stop by and help you out!"

"Yeah, I don't think so," said Circe. "I've got things covered from here. Besides, I think you've got better things to do, like, I don't know, complaining to your pets about your brother?"

The conch fell silent, but Circe was able to hear grumbling coming from inside. Finally, Nessie responded.

"Actually, they're with my niece right now."

Circe rolled her eyes. "Which niece? You have seven of them! Never mind, I have bigger fish to fry right now. See you later!"

"Those puns are only okay when I use–!"

Circe put down the conch before Nessie could finish her sentence, and she left for the gardens.