I

MidWinters Ball

The kingdom of Arendelle stood firmly in the grip of an icy winter, with the endlessly sterile sheets of white stretched out over the land, broken only by the dark, frigid waters of the fjord. Just before MidWinter, the denizens of the kingdom were planning to celebrate the longest night by filling the castle with light, laughter and cheer. It was the time of year when the sun barely rose in the sky and the night seemed to last forever, but despite the absence of sunlight, the town was alive with preparations for one of Arendelle's oldest traditions; the MidWinters Ball.

In spite of its ancient heritage, it had been many years since the castle had been the center of the celebration, with that tragic past still spoken carefully against the chilly air, though now only as a memory to be forgotten as the people looked forward to their future under the lauded rule of their queen, Elsa. There would be a grand feast and lots of music, dancing and cheer. The formal ball was a masked affair, archaically to scare away the spirits that kept the night long and to bring the sun back to the kingdom. Tradition and superstition dominated their preparations, some blatant and bold in the instruction of the younger generations, with others unspoken but revered.

In the heart of the town, Princess Anna had been running around as it transformed around her, overwhelmed with excitement at being able to once more join the celebrations that existed outside the castle walls. Her heart was light and a melody was at her lips as she twirled among the workers, trying to absorb every joyful sensation of the day. For years, she had watched the town filled with songs and celebration, sometimes dancing alone in front of the windows to fight the loneliness born from locked doors and secrets. Those days had fallen behind her as the castle doors were finally opened and she was eager to celebrate one of the most cherished traditions in the kingdom.

"Look at all of the decorations! I can't believe they found flowers at this time of year. Ooo, grilled mackerel!" she cheered.

Others sang around her as they worked, turning the entire town into a symphony of happiness, spurring her on in her own part in the homage to Arendelle's prosperity.

As she skipped along to the lively mood, she suddenly could hear the sound of a distant flute, injecting a lonely melody that stood out against the pulsing brightness of the town's song. The disparity between the two stalled her for a moment, making her look around for its source. While the melancholic tune rattled her embrace of the festivities, it had its own beauty and tale, something that made her want to find out where it was coming from, though she was unable to find anyone calling such gray tones into the air.

"Isn't it great? This will be the best party I've ever been to!" Olaf remarked. Oblivious to the sedated song and tagging along with her, he had been in awe at the festivities, even with his beloved summer so far away.

His reply made her lose the distant melody of the flute, and as she could no longer hear its decadent whine, she shrugged and looked down to him with a smirk.

"How many parties have you been to before?" she asked.

"None. Why?" Olaf replied.

She snickered and felt recharged by the atmosphere, jumping up to a lantern pole. "You're right. This will be the best party ever. The last one had some hiccups and kind of a lot of snow, but this time I'm sure everyone will have a great time. Especially Elsa," she said, imagining that even though her sister had been busy lately, she was secretly just as excited about the celebrations. Hopping down, she smiled as her boots spun smoothly across the frozen cobblestones, her toe kicking through a careless drift of white powder.

"I mean, we've already got the snow."

Olaf was busy rummaging through a half-built stall nearby. Many colored bottles clanked together loudly as he tossed them between his twiggy fingers. "Oh oh! Look, Anna! I have the greatest idea," he called, finding a small sheet of paper and rolling it into a cone, "We can put a scoop of snow in a paper cone, drip some of this sweet juice on it!"

The snowman presented the treat to her, which was simple but colorful and had a sweet, seductive smell. When she took a bite, it was sweet and brought a wide smile across her face.

"It's delicious, Olaf. And it's just snow in a paper cone," she remarked.

"I call it Olaf's Super-Sweet Frozen Treat," he said proudly.

"Why don't you give it a simpler name? Like, I dunno, a snow cone?" she suggested.

Olaf didn't seem impressed. "Now that's just weird," he replied.

Anna smirked at his cool response and was about to defend her suggestion when she happened to catch a glance of her sister, Queen Elsa, as she stood on the docks near the anchored ships in the fjord. As always, she was a stark contrast to the world around her, even in winter. Where everyone wore thick fur coats and heavy boots, Elsa still wore an elegant blue dress that exposed her shoulders to the elements and her bright, platinum blonde hair seemed to glow even in the dim light of MidWinter. Anna started to trot over to her when she caught wind of the disagreement that was happening between the tall officer next to her and one of the ship captains, a flamboyantly dressed man whose attention was more on the radiant queen than the matter at hand.

At a distance, Anna could only see how angry the royal officer was, and while Elsa appeared calm, she obviously shared in his mood. The princess could tell it was no time to approach them, so she lingered behind some crates and strained to listen, munching mindlessly on Olaf's treat.

"Your Highness, surely one ship makes no difference in your big, impressive harbor. My men have sailed a thousand moonless nights through waters far more treacherous than these. If you'd just grant my request to disembark, I'd no longer be a burden on your exquisite shoulders," the captain cooed in a heavy accent, his eyes laid lustfully across her bare skin.

Elsa remained cool, but the officer next to her was barely holding his anger back. "Impudent cur. Your request has been denied seven times already. To have the queen come down personally is more than a musty seadog like you deserves. Your ship may not depart until after…"

The captain suddenly shot him a glance, obviously not interested in the diversion while the infamous Snow Queen was standing right before him. "You interrupt me, sir, for I am speaking to your queen, not you. I bid you to bite your wagging tongue and allow this vision of elegance and beauty to speak on her own behalf," he spat.

The officer fumed, but Elsa's sudden step forward restrained him. "The harbor is closed until the end of MidWinter by tradition. You're welcome to join in the celebration with your crew, and when the sun once more touches the Northern Tower, you may depart," she remarked dryly.

"Your Highness, surely there is some kind of compromise that we…" he began, but her cold glance silenced him. As innocuous as she appeared, there was something behind her eyes and the air seemed to chill with her mood. Something deep inside was warning him not to go too far in his behavior.

"After MidWinter," she repeated.

With the matter closed, she turned and began to walk away, leaving the captain breathing puffs of vapor and wondering just how true the rumors were about her powers. The notoriety of the Snow Queen had stretched far outside of Arendelle's borders, propelling varying tales of viciousness and cruelty like tidal waves to the lands beyond. If she had frozen an entire kingdom, he didn't want to incur her wrath, though some muddy laughter from the deck of his ship clued him into the attention of his crew. From their perspective, he had just been dressed down by a pretty girl. On a ship where fear kept men in line, such retreat was a dangerous thing.

He also remembered that he had a very good reason to leave soon.

His back stiffening, the captain regained his smug gait and threw his boot onto the mooring post that held his ship, nodding towards the frigid waters with his roguish smile back in full effect. "You may keep your celebrations of night and winter, m'lady. The Southern Seas beckon me, and I am set to go. You may never even know I was here," he called.

The intent to defy her made Elsa stop, her shoulders tight and her posture frigid. At her side, the officer whirled angrily and was going to deal with his insolence, but she slowly raised her hand out to her side, making all that watched her quiet anxiously. With a simple flick of her wrist, a wave of ice surged up from the fjord and devoured the side of his ship, jilting the unimaginably heavy vessel to the side, creaking over wood and moor and reaching all the way to the dock, where even the captain's boot was sealed to the post he arrogantly championed. The spectacle drew the attention of the people around the harbor, a mixture of amazement and fear rippling through the air as the ship finally creaked to a halt, listing and seized.

The arrogant captain shrieked, trying desperately to pry his boot loose from the magical ice before looking to her with terror in his eyes.

Slowly lowering her hand back to its practiced place at her waist, Elsa turned her head cordially. "After MidWinter," she repeated once more, and then headed back towards the castle, leaving even her officer looking after her with a disturbed stare.

Upon getting away from the harbor and the crowds that were gathering there, Elsa tiredly rubbed her temple, trying to cool her temper. More and more, she was feeling like people were going out of their way to irritate her, making these incidents of ice more common than before. The episode with the ship captain was just the latest in a flow that was starting to make the people whisper as she walked past them, though she could barely keep her mind from the man's ugly smile when he had spoken to her. She felt like she needed a warm bath.

"What a pretentious man," she grumbled just as Anna popped out from her hiding place, startling her.

"Wow, Elsa! What was that all about?" her sister asked, a ring of blue on her lips.

Elsa was happy to see her, but her dark mood came back as she looked back towards the frozen ship. Seeing the crew of the ship trying to chip away at her ice with their swords improved her mood slightly, though the reasons behind it made her quiver, and she soon turned her attention to Anna as a way of getting away from that dark feeling. "It's nothing. A ship wanted to leave before MidWinter, so I was explaining to him why they couldn't," she replied. Anna nodded slowly, gawking at the ship and the spectacle around it, while her sister continued to avoid the scene, instead looking down at the treat she held. "What is that? And why are your lips blue?"

Anna licked a blue tongue out to try and clean her lips. "Uhm, Olaf's Super-Sweet Frozen Treat? It's really good! Want some?" she replied as she tilted the sweetened snow towards her.

"I named it!" Olaf chimed in with a hop.

Feeling a better mood come over her, Elsa smiled but raised her hands in defense to the offer. "It looks delicious, but no thanks. You enjoy," she declined. Anna shrugged and continued slurping away, while Elsa sighed and looked around at her people preparing for the impending celebration. As the disturbance in the harbor faded, seeing the town bustling with activity warmed her heart, even as it was framed by the ice and snow of the winter, two things that had terrified her for so long. "It's so nice to hear everyone singing and working to make MidWinter happen. So many times I listened to them from the castle, wanting to join them."

"It feels like a dream come true," she added softly.

Anna was trying to wipe the color from her lips with her sleeve, but shared in her sister's sentiment with a smile. "I know. It'll be so much fun to have the Ball in the castle again," she agreed as they watched the town hum around them.

"Oh!" Anna suddenly barked, remembering why she had been looking for her sister, "Have you found a mask for the Masquerade yet? I found a matching set for us."

Elsa loved the idea, but shook her head with a sad smile. "The queen doesn't wear a mask. It's tradition," she explained with a sigh, "You'll have to wear one for the both of us."

"Oh, come on. You're the queen and everything. Just change the tradition. It'll be fun," Anna suggested.

Elsa frowned. "No, we must hold to our traditions. The queen must be unmasked before her people," she explained, though she didn't understand it at all.

It was just the way things were done.

Or so she was told.

Anna frowned as well, wishing that lately she could see more of the carefree Elsa that wasn't bound by the burdens of the throne. Quietly, she wanted to find a way to help her sister more.

"Hey Elsa! What do you think of my mask?" Olaf asked.

When they looked down, the snowman had a pale turnip shriveled by months of winter storage in place of his carrot. It was in backwards. His appearance made the sisters share a much-needed laugh. The air seemed to warm, even against the winter wind, and Elsa continued to feel better in the presence of those she loved. She was eager to leave behind the heavy atmosphere of her royal commitments.

"So, I haven't seen much of Kristoff these days. Are you guys having little fight again?" she teased playfully.

At the subject, Anna groaned and dramatically threw her arm against the nearest lantern pole, trying to mine as much sympathy as she could, "You're not the only one who hasn't seen much of him. I don't know what that man is thinking. With MidWinter right around the corner, he decides to go get a load of ice from the high mountains," she sighed, then shot Elsa a defensive glance, "And no, that doesn't mean we're having a little fight again."

Elsa smirked. "He went to go get ice. For us. In the middle of winter. Ice."

Anna wasn't lost on her point, though she didn't want it spelled out to her in such a snarky tone. "Yeah, well, maybe he has some super-special ice that not even you can't make. Did you even think of that?" she replied petulantly.

"You're fighting," Elsa quipped.

"No, we're not. We just happen to not totally agree on a lot of things, like not going to get ice in the middle of winter right before a super-important ball," Anna countered.

"That's called fighting."

Anna ruffled at her own argument. "Uhm no, it's not. Fighting over something like why he hasn't even breathed a word about getting married would be fighting, but since we're obviously not fighting over why he hasn't even breathed a word about getting married, we're obviously not fighting," she fumed.

Elsa sighed, losing her playful edge. Her feelings on Anna getting married had come a long way from the disastrous incident with Hans. She knew that she loved Kristoff and that he loved her back, but also that he was also a very good man, honorable and truehearted. There were many reasons why she was satisfied with them being together, even if a part of her was also sad for it. It was a lonely thought to let go of her beloved sister. "You can't rush this, Anna. Marriage isn't some casual engagement you make on a whim and you know that more than anyone. Kristoff will come to you in his own time, and at his own pace. You have to be patient," she counseled wisely, as sister and as queen.

Anna wasn't known for her patience and folded her arms, thinking hard about her advice. "Right. Be patient. Be patient. I'm sure he'll come back just in time, dashingly entering the Ball on his…reindeer, wearing a handsome mask, and propose to me in front of everyone. Yeah! I bet that's his plan. Seems perfectly reasonable."

Elsa stared incredulously and her brows rose at the very image of it.

"Is she talking about the same Kristoff I know? Because that guy would so not do something like that," Olaf remarked to Elsa on the side.

Anna knew the idea was unreal, but her heart was searching for something her head already knew, and she had a very stubborn heart. "Well, then maybe I'll be the one who asks him to marry me. That'll work, won't it? Of course it will. I don't have a ring or anything, or maybe he still gives me a ring. Does that mean he has to wear the dress? No, we'll figure out the details afterwards. Let me think," she rattled on, putting her gloved hand to her forehead in thought.

While Anna was busy baking this new idea, Elsa's brow had furrowed, a strange smile twisting her face. Against the carefree tone of her sister's voice, she suddenly felt agitated again, though she couldn't exactly explain why.

"Wait a minute, Anna. Slow down. You can't be the one that proposes," she stated, half-laughing at the absurd idea.

Anna stopped mid-sentence and looked at her in confusion. "What? Why not?" she asked.

Elsa winced. "Why not? Because…because that's not how it's supposed to happen. Kristoff needs to propose to you, not the other way around. It's how the tradition goes," she explained, though the expression on her face showed she didn't really understand the reasons either.

"It's how the tradition goes? Why does that matter? I know Kristoff wants to marry me, and maybe he isn't the type that knows how to ride in a swoop a girl off her feet, but why does that mean I have to sit and wait?" Anna replied, feeling oddly heated by her sister's cold and familiar reaction.

"If it's the right person, shouldn't that be enough?"

Elsa hesitated. "Anna, take a moment to think about what you're suggesting. Certain things have to be done certain ways. For you to ask him is…is…" she stuttered with an unsure look on her face, "It just isn't done that way."

Anna felt even more defensive and her face collapsed in anger. "I don't care about how it's done, and I thought we were past this. Who says a girl can't ask the man she loves to marry her?" she argued.

"I do," Elsa replied in a sudden heavy voice, her hands gnashed sternly across her waist, "You're a princess, and you're being unreasonable about this. Tradition must be..."

"Do you care about tradition more than me?" Anna snapped, her tone sharp enough to make her sister wince, "I thought you'd support me about this. I'm not some lovesick girl grabbing the first guy that comes along! How can you be so coldhearted?"

The word struck Elsa powerfully. It made her think back of when they had been standing in her ice palace and Anna had been desperate to try and reach her, yet her fears had closed off her heart in order to protect everyone, including herself. Just the emotions associated with those memories made her stare at Anna with desperate eyes. "That's enough, Anna," she whispered, aware that their exchange was drawing a crowd but also aware that her voice lacked the potency it had before. She was starting to feel like her old self again. "This isn't the place for this."

Anna went painfully quiet. She could see the panic in her sister and understood instantly that this petty disagreement wasn't worth the words they wielded, but there were other things churning in her that made her more sensitive.

With nothing more than a whimper, she suddenly turned and fled towards the castle, leaving Elsa surprised as she looked after her, raising a hand out but not taking a step to follow. It was a strange outcome. She didn't care how they got married as long as they were happy, but she also felt she could never allow such an unorthodox proposal and feared the stern response she would hear from her advisors. The stresses of ruling had been cutting her patience short and bringing out more of her darker impulses, especially when things didn't go how she wanted them to, making her feel like she wasn't entirely in control of her destiny. More and more, she felt a current of wills, with hers being strangled by others and fostering the desire to press against them with her magic.

Like it had happened with the ship.

"Uhm, do you think she'll be okay?" Olaf asked, looking after Anna with concern.

His worried voice startled Elsa from her mood and she tried to regain her composure. Regally, she knit her hands in front of her waist and put on a show for the spectators, who had been speechless in watching the royal sisters bicker before them. "She'll be fine. She just needs a little time to cool off and see reason," she replied, then headed towards the castle with a practiced pace. While she put on the front for the benefit of the kingdom, her heart was aching and she worried about her sister's mood.

Secretly, she decided to visit Anna later in a more sisterly capacity.

In her room, Anna had been crying, her cheek lying across her arm, her back curved and her feet toed into the floor. The desk beneath her arm was cold and hard. She didn't know why she was so upset or why Elsa's actions made her so angry. Deep down, her idea had been little more than a silly musing, but when her sister had reacted so coldly, she couldn't control how defensive she felt. She knew the truth of the matter, that Elsa approved of Kristoff and that their marriage was only a matter of time, but that didn't lessen the pain. With his absence and a senseless fight weighing on her heart, the only thing that mattered at the moment were the tears.

"Where are you?" she asked breathlessly, fingering a snow globe Kristoff had given her months ago.

Inside a snowman was surrounded by a flurry of sparkles and white shards, with two small children playing at its base. Each time her finger disturbed the globe the flurry swirled around and reminded her of hard-to-grasp memories of her childhood.

This wasn't how she wanted to spend the days leading up to MidWinter.

Against the silence, a creaking floorboard suddenly alerted her to the presence of someone else in the room and she straightened slightly, wondering if one of the guards had entered without her noticing. She didn't really want to see anyone at the moment, but tried to make herself presentable.

"What is it?" she asked, keeping her face from the door.

"Princess Anna, I presume," said a voice touched by a strange and foreign accent.

Her heart skipping, she wiped her cheeks with a clumsy hand before standing to face the speaker, wondering if some lost visitor from another land had wandered into her room.

Instantly, she could tell this wasn't the case.

It was a figure dressed in heavy brown robes and wearing a strange metal mask on his face. A hood obscured most of his head and his appearance was almost more monster than man, with the mask in particular sending a shiver of anxiety through her. With MidWinter coming, there had been lots of them around so she didn't feel immediately threatened, but something about him made her blood chill. His entire presence didn't seem real.

"Can...can I help you?" she asked, her chest rising nervously.

The man said nothing, but pulled out a long dagger with a black blade. It was like no blade she had ever seen and she was lost in its beauty for a moment. He held the knife at his side and she suddenly gasped, backing into her chair slightly. "I'm guessing you're not here for the ball. Guards? Oh guards..." she said in a frightened voice, her hand grasping for the snow globe behind her back.

There was no answer from the dark hallway beyond.

"You will come with me, Princess. Quietly, I would prefer," the figure commanded.

The command made her gasp, but before she could fully grasp the gravity of her situation, he was approaching her swiftly. Her face was frozen with fear, but she wasn't this kind of princess that simply sat by as some stranger in her room threatened her. She would show him that she wasn't so easily taken. "Yeah well, sorry to disappoint you!" she cried, swinging the snow globe at him with all of her strength. Much to her surprise, his other hand darted from his robes and caught her at the wrist, swinging the bludgeon away and making her smash it down into the desk. His skillful movements took her off guard and she tried to make as much noise as possible, hoping it would alert the guards or anyone else. As she struggled, she wondered how he had gotten into the castle, as it was no small feat to enter the princess's room, though her impressions had to be suppressed as she concentrated on doing everything she could to defend herself and wait for someone to come.

In the terror of the moment, no one came.

Suddenly, the shadow slipped behind her, his hand coming up forcefully at her throat. The sensation of his powerful grip was strange, almost gentle, until her head suddenly became light and her eyes began to drown in a hazy fog. The only sensation she knew that compared to his grip was when the ice had overtaken her body and frozen her solid, though instead of an icy grasp, it felt like fire flowing through her mind. There wasn't even time to tremble.

As quickly as the light fleeing a room after a candle was extinguished, everything around her became dark, with her last thoughts wondering what terrible fate lay in store for her.

Without fanfare, Anna fell to the floor, laying there much like the broken snow globe that was scattered all around. The masked man was motionless, listening for any sign that the disturbance had been noticed, then slowly knelt next to her, his hand once more reaching out to her throat. Silently he lingered, listening to her breathe and feeling her pulse. After taking a moment to check her, something captured his attention and he slowly reached past her to pick up the figures from the snowglobe, turning the finely-crafted porcelain between his fingers. The two children had broken apart, leaving sharp edges and chipped paint. His eyes gazed quietly at it, and a disgusted sigh slipped from the grated maw of his mask.

From this point on, there was no turning back for anyone.

"The task begins."

Elsa was stomping through the halls of the castle, exhausted from her duties and tired of listening to some of her more long-winded advisors. Some of them treated her as if she were still a child, or worse yet some exotic creature with strange, frightening powers. Only a short time before, her temper had frosted an advisor's quill as he scratched it across some parchment, causing a disturbance in the room. She only partly felt bad about it, and excused herself with a thin apology, though such occurrences had become more common with the young queen. It happened most often when she was fatigued or under stress, but cooler heads usually prevailed, though her apologies were getting thinner and fewer, while her indifference grew. Her most trusted advisor and mentor, Regent Stenson, had followed her out and scolded her, but even his words seemed like nothing more than a nuisance today. The endless drone of tradition and expectation was weighing on her, and the queen that many wanted to see would often lose out to the person she wanted to be, at least in her heart.

Sometimes, she found herself wanting to be high atop the mountain again, released from her responsibilities and free to do as she wished, even if she could never really forget how lonely it had been.

Sighing, she was thinking of Anna. Their fight had bothered her more than expected, and she desperately wanted a shoulder to lean on. To that end, she was intent on reaching her room without being distracted and was happy that she saw no one along the way, not even a guard. The strangeness of that eluded her.

Arriving at Anna's door, she reached up to knock, but hesitated, her knuckles inches from the wood. Immediately, she realized that even though she had been so eager to see her, she wasn't really prepared to talk to her sister. She didn't know if she would back off her harsh stance or continue to uphold tradition. She didn't know if she would be the responsible queen, or the compassionate sister. There were so many questions in her head that she nearly let her hand drop to her side in defeat, but her resolve found strength in the fact that despite her many troubles, Anna would always be there for her.

Taking a deep breath, she knocked loudly on the door, her face twisted with uncertainty.

"Anna? Can we talk?" she asked softly.

There was silence.

It wasn't the response she was hoping for and she visited the many days when their roles had been reversed, with Anna vainly trying to reach her through a locked door instead. The memory made her shiver, as she found it too easy to slip back into the tragedies of the past.

Not wanting to relive them, she knocked once more, a bit louder. She leaned in close, wondering if her sister was actually this mad and that maybe even the best of her intentions would fall helplessly against the authority of the wood. "Anna, please open the door. I understand if you're angry, but if we just talk about this, I'm sure we can figure it out," she said, placing her hand against the door and trying to feel some sort of response. "I still don't know if I can allow you to propose to Kristoff, but it's not because I think you two shouldn't get married. I want you to be happy. It's just there are so many things to consider, and we have to be careful about how we do things. We have so many expectations on us. So many rules."

Strangely, she started wondering who she was talking about.

"Can I come in?" she whispered hopefully.

With only more silence between them, her eyes fell down to the handle and she hesitated, hoping for some kind of acknowledgment, or any response at all. Anna's refusal to answer once more hinted at her stubbornness and Elsa felt slightly angry, but she knew if she let those feelings push back, they would only fight again. She wasn't sure her heart could take that.

To stem her darker feelings, she reached out and pulled the handle down, happy it was unlocked, then pushed the door open to meet her sister.

To her surprise, a cold wind met her from the room and she found it empty and dim. The window was open to the lingering darkness and some of the furniture was turned on its side, showing signs of a struggle. Sparkles of glass and snow glazed the floor and the place reeked of tragedy.

Anna was nowhere to be seen.

"Anna? Anna!" Elsa cried, rushing into the room.

The room didn't answer, keeping its secrets about the fate of the princess of Arendelle. Panting, she turned to call for the guards, but the open window snared her attention. Outside, she found disturbed snow leading down from the roof and towards the harbor, with all torches and lights darkened along the way. The snow was rutted deeply and spoke of a burdened flight, stirring the panic in her chest and making her call out to the ruthless winds. There was no hope in simply incanting her sister's return, and as Elsa stepped backwards into the room, something among the carnage caught her eye. A thick scroll of paper was spread out on the desk, held open by pieces of broken glass and wood. Dark, red words were inscribed ominously to the parchment and she flew to the desk, brushing aside a shattered snowman from the paper and raising the words into the moonlight.

Snow Queen,

I have your sister.

Come to the Weeping Valley.

Come alone.