Hello again my lovely readers! After all these months, here it is! The sequel to TEC. As of now, The Emissary Clause is officially complete! I hope you enjoy this new story as much as you did the first. Please remember to follow this story, as TEC will no longer be updated, i.e., no more notifications (unless you're following my profile, in which case, GOOD ON YOU MATE!)

And don't forget to check out:

-Crystal Springs, by SafyreSky, and

-Frost and Fire, by WinterFrost15.

There is plenty of Bernora fluff in both of these, not to mention they are simply excellent stories. Remember to favorite and follow them as well!

Let's get started then.

All the Best to You and Yours,

-Ana

TEC2: Defining Elle

Prologue: Ideas, Thoughts, Reflections

It had been a long two years.

First, there had been the Emissary Clause. So many things had happened in a matter of months; lives had been changed, history altered, requirements met. Serious, life choices had been made that a girl of seventeen wouldn't normally face at that point in her life.

Then, the Escape Clause. She and Bernard had gone away on a three month vacation, the vacation she had convinced him to take. Well, had had Santa convince him to take, with her. It had been wonderful, that vacation; even though they had spent a large part of it worrying about what might go wrong in their absence. Turns out, they had been right to worry.

Finally, the Deliquesce. All of those crazy, worrisome days when no one had been sure who was capable of what. She had almost lost her best friend a second time.

The one thing all three situations had in common? Somehow, they had all turned out alright.

But then, Ellington Sophia Connelly had had more than her average share of magic, and that is partially what found her where she was today.

Today was the 25th of October. It was a normal workday, pretty much like every ordinary one before it…well, as normal as could be expected, considering where she worked.

Ellington, now called Elle by those who knew her best, worked in the most magical, amazing place anyone ever could; quite literally the stuff of legend. A place so secret that she couldn't even tell her own family where she really was, where she had really been for the past two years. A place that only a child would agree even existed.

The North Pole.

Yeah, somehow she couldn't find an easy way to break that bit of news to the parents.

That, or the fact that she had become an elf to be able to work there permanently.

Alongside her fiancé.

Who was also an elf.

Santa's head elf, if that made any difference. And she was Santa's Number Two elf.

Sometimes, in the early mornings before getting up for work, Elle would count ten impossible things about her life, just to assure herself that she wasn't in some kind of a dream. After all that had happened in those twenty three months, she still had to remind herself that she wasn't dreaming from time to time. Just imagining a better life when she was actually back at home in her room, sleeping peacefully before another early morning in Seattle as a university student.

Sometimes, it was as easy as looking out her window. Snow in July is a pretty accurate indicator of a Polar climate.

Other times, it took getting up and going to work to fully grasp the reality of the magical world that she now lived in.

It had been the latter kind of morning. After two cups of coffee (third still in hand), Elle had made it out of her room and into the Workshop...Santa's Workshop, she reminded herself, gazing around fondly at the other elves, working cheerily to the tune of Christmas carols. It had taken some getting used to, the constant, year-round Christmas tunes. In fact, she had since instated 'Pop Culture Friday' as a means of coping with the barrage of repeated lyrics.

That, and the music tastes of Santa were decidedly stuck in the seventies. How else were the elves going to learn about Avicii, Ellie Goulding, Zedd, and the countless other amazing artists of the 00's and 10's, if not from her? So every Friday, Archie (the Workshop DJ) would play music from the 'real' world. Technically, many of these tracks were out ahead of their release dates; but Father Time had worked a little magic on her iPod for her eighteenth birthday, allowing the device to stay synced with the date of her departure from 2013. It was Elle's favorite day of the week, and it made the elves move a little faster too, counteracting the weekend wind-down of activity.

It was the little things like these; things that the others did to make her feel more at home that had helped her to adjust to life up north. It still was a bit of a shock; after giving up a promising college career (if you could call it that, exactly) and life as the eldest, most eligible daughter of a wealthy businessman. Not that she regretted it; one the contrary, she loved her new life much more, for many reasons. But the greatest reason of them all was Bernard.

Before the Clause, before she had ever come to the Pole, Ellington had had little interest in having a love life of any kind. She had preferred to read, write, study on her own. And with Jacquie, of course; sometimes her sisters. But mainly on her own. She hadn't made it a habit (like Dottie did) of keeping a boyfriend handy. She didn't need, or want to.

Then she'd come to the Pole. She and Bernard had set each other off, with how similar they were. Honestly, she never could understand the phrase 'opposites attract', even less so now, when they had fallen for each other so…well, dramatically. Of course, that had been in great part because of their circumstances. If Jack Frost hadn't messed around with their budding relationship, it was possible that they would have kept on ticking each other off until the day she left. Maybe they never would have fallen in love…but then again, there was the Clause.

The Emissary Clause. The one thing that had kept Bernard from caring for her in the first place. He stubbornly refused to see the real reason behind it, choosing to believe that it was just a trap, to catch him in an unhappy relationship that he didn't need. Or want.

She knew now how much regretted that he had pushed her away in those first few weeks. He'd told her more times than she could count…apologized, really, for everything. How he'd been oblivious to the wiles of Jack's elf, Tabitha; as she tried to elbow Ellington out of the picture by force. How he had ignored his feelings, hoping they'd go away when she did.

But Jack had intervened. For whatever reason, he had taken an interest in Ellington, and that was what had gotten under Bernard's skin, in the end. Jack had sent Tabitha and driven them apart, using his wily charms (though she didn't fall for those), Nightmare dust, and the tools of several other Legendary Figures, including Father Time's pocketwatch and Cupid's arrows (ones fired by Cupid himself, even.) Despite his best efforts, or rather, in spite of them, they had somehow magnetized to each other. Broken through the barrier and become friends…for a time, until Tabitha threw her final wrench into things, and Jack had resorted to using Time itself against them.

And that had been when she had lost, and gained, everything.

It had taken about six memory relapses, four months and the Escape Clause for Sandman and the rest of the Legendary Council to realize that the memories from their little bout of time traveling were too traumatic to be permanently repressed. The strongest Amnesia dust in the world couldn't keep out the past memories – or, as it were, future memories– of who Ellington was before the alternate reality, of all they had been through together trying to bring her back. The alternate reality being the one they now lived in, oddly enough. That had come as a bit of a shock; as had the memory of Phillip Connelly's terminal cancer diagnosis. Ellington was grateful for the reversal of that alone; not to mention the better fortune her family now enjoyed, with her mother cured of her illness as well, and all of them living quite happily in a big old house on East Hill in Seattle.

That life was something she, and they, only had because of one Jack Frost.

As much as she hated to admit it at times, Ellington owed a lot to Jack Frost. He had ended up making her life better…though, she suspected not in the way he'd originally hoped to. But his jealousy and revenge had actually bettered many things. The same was true of his eventual repentance. Of course, this was more believable before the events of the Escape Clause…and the Deliquesce, as well. But after he had been reunited with Jacquie and the rest of the Frost family, Ellington had realized that Legendary or not, Jack was very human in his emotions. He made mistakes, bad choices…and repented of them just as quickly, or slowly, depending on the situation. The fact remained, regardless of any lingering animosity Ellington still felt: he had saved her life, literally and figuratively. She owed Jack a debt that normally could never be repaid.

With the situation being as abnormal as it was, they were just about square.

These ideas, thoughts, reflections; whatever they could be called, were all part of Ellington's normal morning routine. It helped her remember why she was here, why she had given up her old life for this one. As out of place as they seemed, what with being quite dismal in such a happy, bright, magical place, they kept both of her feet on the ground. Firmly planted in the snow of the North Pole, beside Bernard; where she belonged.

Only, there were times when it didn't all seem as simple as that.

Because truth be told…

…It wasn't.

Next chapter already posted. Just press that little sideways arrow for more…