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She buried them near the tree, and that's where Elsa found her. Rumi, standing before three graves, one of which bore her name despite being empty.
Rumi's hair was shorter now, falling in purple waves down to her shoulders. She wore a long black cloak, hands stuffed into the pockets. Her shoulders were drawn, and Elsa could see the weight of the world on them.
There was a certain knowing that Elsa possessed. That few on this Earth could ever understand. To have, to hold, to lose while remaining ever unchanging. And Memory could be such a fickle thing. She could still see their faces, hear their voices, but time would dull those memories. Just as time would dull, somewhat, the aching grief that came with loving someone and losing them.
So it was as much for herself as Rumi when Elsa lifted her hand, waving it, drawing upon the moisture in the air and that within their bodies. Her magic sparked and swirled, and three icy figures stood between the graves and Rumi. Their arms were wrapped around each other and their faces, frozen in laughter, glittered in the afternoon sun.
Breath hitching, Rumi took a step forward, one hand pressing against Zoey's cheek and the other Mira's. Her head bowed for a moment against the sculpture of herself, her shoulders shedding some of the weight of years. She straightened after a moment, turning to look at Elsa with glistening eyes, "Thank you."
There were a few lines on Rumi's face. Laugh lines, mostly. She barely looked to be in her thirties, but Elsa knew better. She'd known Rumi for over sixty years.
She's had days like this. When she'd buried first Honeymaren, and then Kristoff and finally Anna. Elsa knew how hard it could be, even if they hadn't all passed at once. Once before, over a century ago now, she'd buried someone else. And now, here she was again.
She supposed she was cursed to find beautiful women and love them and then be left behind. This one, at least, she still had.
Zoey and Mira had passed peacefully together, which was all they could have hoped for. She always let herself get attached, "I should thank you. For letting me be a part of your lives."
Rumi's lips turned up into a soft, broken smile, "They told me they were happy I had you. They hated the idea of me being alone."
"I would too." Elsa offered her her hand, and Rumi came closer, taking it, "But we'll see them again. Different faces, but you'll know them on sight."
"I'll need a little bit," Rumi admitted, and started to walk with her. "To mourn them the way they deserve."
Elsa knew where Rumi's feet would take them next. Three more graves, three more hunters. She'd met Celine a few times. Interesting woman. A little scary. She squeezed Rumi's hand, "If there's one thing we have, it's time."
Rumi lifted her gaze, eyes on Elsa's, "Do I?"
"Like calls to like."
Elsa thought back, to a being the color of fallen snow on a moonlit night. Wild and born of magic, just like Elsa had been.
"Most immortals hold no regret," Elsa added, echoing the words of another. "Because they have never known love. To be human is to regret." She sighed, "A friend told me that. Decades ago now, I think. I disagreed."
"How did you disagree?" Rumi asked, stepping away from her mothers' graves.
"To be human is to love," Elsa replied. She squeezed Rumi's hand again, "To feel joy and sorrow both. I would never give up love to take away the sadness."
"I'm half-demon." Rumi's lips took on a crooked smile.
"You're the most human woman I've ever met." Elsa lifted her hand to her lips, kissing the knuckles.
"Do you think I'm immortal?" Rumi asked, as they started to walk again.
"I've seen you age. Slowly, but you age. I think we'll know for sure in a decade or two," Elsa replied. "But I'll walk with you through the time you have if you'll let me."
At the bottom of the hill they found the hunters training. Three girls, younger than Elsa had been when she'd lost her parents, sparring with practice swords. The generation before them watched, correcting them but mostly talking and laughing amongst themselves. Elsa knew them; one was Rumi's granddaughter.
A far cry from how Elsa had been told Rumi had been raised.
At the house, she could make out Rumi's daughter at the window, now almost twice as old as Rumi looked.
"Come with me," Elsa said, watching Rumi as Rumi watched everyone else. "Let Huntrix pass on into legend. Let the world think your body lays where your heart rests."
"Poetic."
"I try."
"So reinvent ourselves?" Rumi asked. The raw grief in her eyes gave them a dark edge, the golden brown muted. Even having years to prepare for the inevitable, it had still hurt her.
"Yes. There's so much I can show you. The Nokk isn't the only spirit of water. Spirits are everywhere. In this land and mine, in the Americas and Africa, on every continent. I know a lilac wood with a friend I've always wanted you to meet. But she's secretive. "
Rumi let out a breath, turning fully towards Elsa, hand rising to cup her cheek, "Can you wait a few days? I still have a few things I need to settle, and Miyeong would never forgive me if I left without giving her a few more days."
"Well I am her favorite aunt. And only one," Elsa replied, smiling. "I'll stay as long as you need."
Nodding, Rumi brushed her lips against Elsa's before she walked off towards the house. Elsa lingered on the path a few moments longer. Rumi's heart, she thought, would not be mended by time or distance, not the way hers had been. While she'd always have that ache where her family resided(Mira and Zoey now included), it wasn't the same as being absent soul mates. Rumi had lost two-thirds of herself and there was no knowing when or how they'd be reborn. But Elsa knew they would be; she'd met them once before in the decade following the First World War.
Since Elsa had met this incarnation, she'd spent more time among people than she had the previous nearly two hundred years combined. She'd remembered what it was like to not be alone. Rumi wouldn't have to be alone on her long journey, Elsa swore this.
As she started down towards the house, she wiped at her eyes—whether she had decades, centuries or longer, she wasn't going to take Rumi's presence for granted and treasure every moment.
A memory swam up, and she didn't need to use her powers to see it. Zoey and Mira both, wisened with time but still so beautiful.
'Take care of our girl.'
'Let her take care of you.'
"I will," Elsa whispered a promise to ghosts both recent and long past. She walked down, and into the house, embracing Miyeong. They'd given her a family, a real one for the first time since she'd laid Anna to rest, and she was so grateful to them for it.