"Ahh. Yes, that sounds plausibly safe enough."

"He has no way to know we were already in Greece. Can the older kids watch the younger ones? I'd rather leave sooner."

"I think so, yes. As long as they have enough food and know not to wander too far."

"Okay. Tell them we'll be back soon."

Nod.

She tells them that she's leaving, reminds them where the food is and that they shouldn't go far, tries to impress upon them the importance of making sure that Ragna eats enough, and then they can head out.

It's honestly a substantial trek but they've gotten lots better at walking.

They sure have. It turns out humans are pretty all right at it once their bodies have figured out that that's something they should be working on.

(He's so glad he got a human who likes wandering the continent.)

She's so glad she got a fairy who likes taking her places!

Eventually they reach the other fairy court, and are invited in. (He murmurs to Catherine in Norwegian that they should probably avoid eating too much, since they have enough to pay for the emperor and not much more.)

The other fairy court is in fact delighted to be free of their unwanted indebted human for enough books and stories and paper to cover his debt.

Then she can give them stories and paper and her book.

And they can take their human. What does he look like this time?

Not obviously Scandinavian! (That happens, it's all of the kidnapping foreign women.) He's darker than last time, and younger, maybe late thirties.

Is he gonna walk with them or is he gonna be difficult about that.

Eh, he likes them better than the other fairies. He'll walk.

That's good of him. "How'd you end up down here? I thought we were actually in territory you didn't control by now."

"You are! But it'll be on the agenda in the next few decades, so I figured as long as the world was frozen it might be worth taking a look around."

"I wouldn't travel this close to night, personally. Fairies are pretty unfriendly to anyone in their territory when it's dark."

"Honestly fairies seem pretty unfriendly all the time."

"I'm nice to Catherine."

"You seem to be! Honestly, Catherine, I'm very impressed. You're left without any allies on earth, you get yourself kidnapped by fairies who try to enslave anyone who so much as eats food growing in a forest, you charm the fairies, you get them to kidnap half our children, you get them to kidnap me, you make a bold effort to avenge your sister, and then you go on to chase me across half a continent - that's really something, most people in your position couldn't have pulled that off. I know when I'm defeated. You've won the day, darling. Send me home, and I'll never bother you again."

"Wow. You, like, really think that's going to work, don't you."

"Seems worth a shot."

"I can't send you home right now because you're absurdly indebted to me. Enough so that I felt it when you stabbed someone, by the way. Among fairies you can only do violence to people in your debt."

"Huh. How would we fix that?"