Heavy is the Head

Elsa - 3

Chapter 30

✧"That chill is in the air which the wise know well, and even have learned to bear. This joy, I know, will soon be under snow." - Edna St. Vincent Millay ✧

PART 3: WIND

There was only one person waiting for me on the surface when I emerged from the water and it wasn't Fae. Or at least, not the version of Fae that I was expecting.

It was a white-haired woman wearing a colour-changing jumpsuit that shifted with her mood but that was about all that remained the same. Her entire facial structure had changed for one and her hair was much shorter than it had been before, tied up in a practical bun, pulled tight against her scalp. Her eyes were now a golden brown and there were dark circles underneath them. Before, Fae had looked to be in her late 20s, early 30s at most. She had seemed untouchable and fierce, but now she looked like she was only a few years older than me. She looked soft and vulnerable.

"Fae?" 

"Yep! I finally figured it out." Fae beamed, doing a twirl.

I frowned, taken aback. This was not the stoic, stone-faced Fae that I remembered. Maybe I had drank too much saltwater. Maybe I was hallucinating. "Uh..."

"I discovered a way for me to be in control of my own appearance. I even have my own reflection!" Fae snapped her fingers and her hair fell down to her feet in a waterfall of white waves. "The only thing is, I can't seem to change my hair colour for whatever reason."

She waved her hand around, plucked a photograph of a young girl out of thin air and handed it to me, "Look."

It was her as a little girl. The exact same face that she had now except, de-aged by around ten years. Her front two teeth were missing and she was holding an enormous ice cream that was beginning to melt all over her hands and the homemade floral dress she was wearing. Three young women were standing behind her wearing red, green and blue dresses with tiny, paper-thin lilac wings sprouting out their backs. 

"Fairies." I gasped. "Are they fairy godmothers?" 

"No." Fae snorted. "They're just ordinary fairies. Sisters. Merryweather, that's the black-haired one, decided she was sick of being the youngest and convinced the other two to take me in. Then, when I was sixteen the fairy godmothers came to get me. They said I was too good at magic to be allowed to roam around freely so they forced me to become one of them."

"So you were a human before?"

"As human as you can be in this world." Fae said and took back the photo, a vaguely sad expression on her face. "Anyway, that's not the point. I can tell you've been working hard, I can sense that your magic has become more powerful."

I swooned, taken aback at the compliment. "Are you okay?"

"I am excellent thank you. Why do you ask?"

"Because you just said something nice to me. You were so grumpy last time I saw you."

"I would imagine so. When you last saw me, I was exhausted. I'd like you to try using fire magic in a world where magic is basically impossible to do, then create a portal to a whole new world, then take a child who has a thousand and one questions halfway across the ocean, then..."

"Alright, I get the picture." I said, raising my hands in surrender. "I thought you being grumpy and silent was just your whole thing. I wasn't expecting you to be so talkative and cheerful."