I

Shadows and Mirrors

In the blossoming days of a new summer in Arendelle, the starry night sky had fallen away to a new dawn. The previous year had been full of storms and the kingdom was looking forward to not only the warmth of summer, but the looming celebrations that were just around the corner. Where one royal wedding had come and gone, seeing Princess Anna joined together with Kristoff, another was just beyond the horizon, marking the day that Queen Elsa would finally crown her king, though the apparent merriment on the faces of the citizens appeared as masks in light of the whispers being shunted throughout the castle, whispers of things that threatened to push that anticipated day of joy into oblivion, or tear it from the future all together.

Standing before his queen, Captain Johann had been dutifully reading the daily reports from a stack of papers in his hand, ironically filling in the position he had once held as baron of the Royal Guard, though now his presence before her wasn't due to the machinations of his father, the former regent, or any of his own desires. He was standing in as head of the Royal Guard due to a far cooler reason, and it showed by the apparent melancholy he had for the task.

"The Kingdom of Overlake has responded to the wedding invitations and would like to send a delegation of fifty guests, of which I recommend politely responding that they limit their delegation to the direct royal family. We can't very well pack the chapel with so many people that they're spilling out of the windows and into the fjord," he remarked, shuffling through his papers, which was dominated by the responses of other kingdoms to the wedding of Queen Elsa and Prince Yasha, something that had once burned bitterly in the depths of his chest, though now was nothing more than a duty to be handled.

Elsa wasn't paying attention. Her chin slumped into her palm, she had been staring past him with eyes lost in another world, for she hadn't been able to concentrate on anything for several weeks now, even when it was her duties to her kingdom or the details of her upcoming wedding.

Johann wasn't lost on her mood and looked to her in concern, wondering if she had heard anything he said at all.

"Queen Elsa?"

"Hmm? I'm sorry, Johann. What were you saying?" she sighed, rubbing her eyes as she straightened her back, if only to try and break the posture that had frozen her so stiffly to the throne.

He let out a worried sigh and let the papers fall to his side. He had rarely seen her so moody, which was a grand statement considering their past and how many of her foulest moods had been because of him. The reason for her mood was well-known, even outside of the castle, and he didn't blame her for a moment for the way it consumed her.

It was the same reason why he was standing before her in his previous capacity, in lieu of the true baron.

"It's nothing that can't wait for another time, Your Highness," he replied, shaking his head and hoping she would use the opportunity to go and rest.

Elsa nodded mindlessly, though not because she acknowledged his words, but because everything he was saying seemed to blur together and become lost in the cold air that pierced the warm summer breeze. The days were running together and being lost to the rhythm of her aching heart, and she could barely recall what day it was, though she could vividly remember how many days had passed since she had been stricken by sadness.

Ultimately, there was really only one thing she wanted to hear from him and her eyes lifted, glimmering in some small hope that he would have some kind of news for her.

"Have you found anything at all?"

Sighing again, Johann shook his head, showing that strangely enough this was something that was affecting him as well. "I'm afraid not. No one has seen Yasha for several weeks, and our scouts found nothing even outside of the kingdom. The expedition to Fria also turned up nothing," he reported, his brow crushed by the frustrations of losing the head of the Royal Guard.

"What could have happened to him?" she whispered, knitting her hands across her lips as she leaned forward, once more falling into deep thought as to why he suddenly disappeared from her life. They had been absolutely content, the happiest they had ever been as they planned for their wedding. There were no more battles to be fought and no more villains to vanquish. They could just be together, yet they weren't. The constant flow of responses to wedding invitations only made his continuing absence that much harder to bear and her chest felt like it was constantly being thrashed by a thousand ruthless crystals of ice and glass.

Johann was watching her with concern. "I promise you that I won't stop looking until I find him, Your Majesty," he vowed.

Elsa smiled slightly. "Thank you, Johann," she replied, amazed at how far he had come from the wicked, scheming princeling that had done all he could to try and pry Elsa and Yasha apart. Since the moment the regent had been unmasked, his son had dedicated himself to his duties to the kingdom and the queen, even swallowing the defeat to his rival Yasha and endorsing the betrothal of the two, bringing in line any of the lingering nobles that still murmured against such a union. The young man was now the strongest voice for Yasha's ascension to king, even though she could still see how bitter it was to lose the one he had loved since childhood.

She found his strength in that remarkable.

Disturbing their meeting, the doors to the throne room suddenly popped open and in walked Anna, walking gingerly across the empty floor with her eyes firmly planted on the two. She had expected to see her sister quietly mulling with dark clouds above her, so finding her talking was a welcome sight, though a playful smirk was dancing across her lips as she focused her attention onto Johann, as if his mere presence had completely made her day.

"Oh ho, what's this? In here making a move on the queen again, Johann? What a sneaky little captain you are," she said, giving in to the persistent joys she had in teasing him.

He returned her smirk as he turned, giving her a curt bow and parrying her as deftly as he always did. "Those days are behind me, Princess Anna, and I'm a better man for it," he replied, watching with quiet amusement as she was already trying to figure out how to continue their fencing match, though after giving a short glance to the expression on Elsa's face, he realized that his place wasn't in between the royal sisters, but out fulfilling his duties, which included finding the absent baron of Guard.

"In truth, I was just leaving. I have many other duties to attend to."

"Queen Elsa. Princess."

After offering them both a respectful bow, he turned and marched out of the throne room, gesturing to the guards to close the doors behind him and give the sisters their privacy. Anna watched him leave, amazed that he was such a different man, and her attention turned back to Elsa as she threw her thumb over her shoulder.

"That one's come around, hasn't he?" she remarked.

Elsa nodded. "He has. It's hard to believe he's the same man as before," she agreed, though signaled with a frown that she wasn't really interested in talking about Johann and that her heavy mood lingered even in the presence of her beloved sister.

Anna picked up on her mood immediately and mirrored her frown.

"Still no word, huh?" she asked sadly.

"No. Nothing," Elsa sighed, frustrated as she stepped down from her throne and walked to the side, looking outside the large windows, as if she would somehow find him standing there. Suffering the currents of her heart, she clenched her hands at her waist, consumed by the pain that his absence caused. Quietly, she was twisting the glowing ring on her finger and still marveling at how it was cold against her skin, the magically-forged metal a chilling reminder of how extraordinary her connection with him was. "I don't know how to plan for a wedding when the groom has suddenly disappeared. I have no idea what to do, Anna."

It was no secret that Anna adored Yasha. The frequency that she met him bred rumors, though they had never become nothing more than amusement between them, for they knew their attachment was not romantic love, but a powerful friendship, even if she still had a hard time convincing Kristoff of that.

In truth, her heart was just as broken by his disappearance as Elsa's, even if she hid it better.

Pursing her lips, Anna stepped up to her side and slipped her arms around her, hugging her tightly and laying her head onto her shoulder. The warmth of her sister instantly melted away the tensions and Elsa buckled against her, leaning her head in and closing her eyes. Her body shook a few times as she vented, with her sister carefully stroking her and trying to cheer her up as only she could.

"You know, he's probably off sulking somewhere because he feels like making you marry him is an inconvenience or something like that. If you haven't noticed, he's kind of a drama queen, er...prince...uhm, baron. Wait, what is he again?" she said, feeling Elsa's body shudder in a bleak laugh but finding that it made her feel better as well.

Being comforted made Elsa's heart calm down and she looked to the floor, her smile fragile and her eyes looking for the answers that had so far eluded her.

"Do you think he's all right?" she asked quietly.

Anna dismissed her concerns with a burst of air rippling her lips. "Are you kidding? He's a drama queen, but he's also the most stubborn man I've ever met. I don't think anyone could make him do anything he didn't want to, and after everything we've been through, I'm actually starting to wonder if he's immortal or something," she replied, though seeing as it still didn't wash the concerns from her, she decided to dismiss the jokes and tell her sister exactly what she knew in her heart, as she affectionately reached up and wiped a tear from her cheek.

"Don't worry. He'll come back. I know it."

The feeling of her hand on her cheek made Elsa give in to the consolation, nodding as she could do nothing more than accept her sister's word. In truth, she also believed in him, even if she could barely stand a moment without him. Whatever his reason for leaving her, she believed he would return.

Believing was the only thing her heart could do.

Feeling tired from the constant worrying and eager to move on from the painful subject, Elsa shook off her mood and slipped her hands into her sister's, facing her fully and giving her every part of her attention. If she were to spend every waking moment in despair, she would miss the other important things in her life, especially the one that was right before her eyes.

"Well, enough about that. How are you feeling? How's the little one?" she asked, her eyes falling down to the slight bump at Anna's stomach and her lips spreading in a genuine smile.

Anna's face stretched as she sighed dramatically, rolling her head along her neck. "Ugh, don't ask. The doctor told me everything's fine. The nursemaid told me everything's fine. Nobody told me about the backaches and the heat waves, and don't even get me started about the cravings!" she groaned, showing her thrashing mood as her sister looked on. "Do you know what I ate last night? Pickles and ice cream. I don't even like pickles, though if you happen to stick them in a creamy bowl of ice cream, they're increeeedible."

Elsa laughed, finding that while not many things could really get to Anna, this one certainly shook her up. "I guess that comes with being pregnant. You should've thought of that before you married Kristoff."

"Oh, you don't want to talk to me about Kristoff. Kristoff is the whole reason I can't sleep at night. Kristoff is the cause of everything! Sleep on your back, Anna. Sleep on your side, Anna. Put this pillow under your legs, Anna. If that man gives me any more advice about how to sleep, he's going to be out sleeping in the stables with the reindeer!" she threatened.

"I thought he liked sleeping with the reindeer," Elsa remarked.

"He does! But that's not the point," Anna groaned, feeling heated at the conversation and happy to have someone to vent at, "Do you know what he did when he found out I was pregnant? He read a book." For a moment, she waited for that to have some kind of effect on Elsa, though her sister seemed lost on the significance. "Kristoff doesn't read books! You know, unless it's about ice or something. So he reads this book all about how to help your pregnant wife deal with this thing growing inside of her..."

"That sounds sweet," Elsa replied with a smile.

"It sounds idiotic!" Anna shot back, not giving him the same benefit and clawing her fingers, as if she were strangling him. "Everything in that book is wrong! It said to massage my feet to help with swollen ankles, but he's so clumsy with his fingers that I almost kicked him off the end of the bed. He knows my feet are ticklish!"

Elsa couldn't help but feel sorry for Kristoff, even as she was trying to sympathize with her pregnant sister. Just imagining him stumbling through her tantrums made her laugh carefully once more, wondering if she should spend more time with her just to give him a break.

"Poor Kristoff," she said, letting her thoughts slip.

"Poor Kristoff? How about poor Anna? I'm the one eating everything in sight and getting fat and suddenly crying at the dumbest little thing that just happens to pop up in front of me," she heaved, though Elsa still seemed too amused at her complaints. "Oh, just you wait. When it's you that's raiding the pantry and trying to figure out how to get comfortable in bed, I'm going to stand here just like you are and only worry about how Yasha is…"

Anna's words fell away. The return back to the delicate subject made Elsa's expression weaken and she instantly knew she had moved in the wrong direction, for she faded away in her thoughts and anger, reminding herself that there was no place to sit and joke about how Elsa would feel when she became pregnant when the man she was set to marry wasn't around to perform the necessary acts.

"Oh Elsa, I'm sorry," she said, feeling her temper retract and her heart shift gears.

Elsa sighed, but then shook her head. "No, it's fine. We need to start thinking of what will happen when he does come back, even if I'm not so excited to enjoy the same wonders of being pregnant like my poor little sister," she replied.

Her apparent management of her sadness made Anna relax. On some level, she was surprised with how well she had been handling it, for when she tried to imagine Kristoff suddenly disappearing from her life, she felt she wouldn't have the same level thinking as her sister was suddenly showing, and just the thought of it made her decide to let up a little on him. At the same time, she was also planning on what she would do when Yasha finally made his way back home. She imagined it would involve a lot of yelling and possibly making good on all of the various threats she had made at him since they met, as payback for how much he was making them worry.

Then, she would make him spend the next year or two apologizing to them both.

Elsa, hiding her hurting heart and showing the playfulness she had before, suddenly turned and locked her arm into Anna's, an impish expression working over her face as she decided it was far more important to take care of her at the moment, even if it was in a whimsical sort of way.

"Now, why don't we go see if we can find you some pickles down in the kitchen, and you can tell me more about just how much fun it is to be pregnant."

Later in the evening, when most of the castle had gone to bed, there was a pale glow burning through an open door in the castle, its lonely light projecting in angular lines across the empty hallway, signaling that someone had entered Yasha's room.

Elsa stood by herself, her arms tucked into her body as she stared into the vacant room. She had been standing there for longer than she remembered and a despondent sigh slipped through her lips as she rested her head against the door, her mind trying to unravel the mystery of her missing fiancée. Her fingers were playing over her ring again, wondering if she would ever get the chance to finally marry him.

With a bittersweet smile and her eyes wandering over the room, she thought on how it still didn't have much that reflected on him, though compared to those first days in the castle, he now had a much larger imprint on the room. There were decorations from the artisans of Fria, a reminder of his homeland, but there were also signs of Arendelle, mainly gifts given to him from the people whose lives he had touched, bringing balance to the once monochromatic room. In a vase on the desk, there were wilting stalks of foxglove, a flower that he claimed reminded him of her. Next to the vase was the seal of the baron of the Royal Guard, left standing erect in its case, yet untouched next to a growing pile of documents that required its attention. The fireplace at the center of the room was cold and unused. The bed had not been bothered in weeks.

The room cried loneliness to her, and her heart resonated loudly.

Perhaps the most telling thing about the room wasn't what was left there, but what was missing. No matter how many times she had looked, she couldn't find the black-bladed dagger named Xenocryst, meaning that when he disappeared, he had been armed. It was a relic of his past and the focal point of his violent heart, the part of him that frightened her and made her wince every time she saw it. Since becoming baron, he rarely carried it with him, so its absence was the biggest reason why she worried for him and his fate.

"Where are you?" she asked the empty room, running her hands up and down her arms, as if she were trying to warm herself as proxy to his embrace. In spite of the brave face she showed, her every thought had been cast by the void he left in her heart, and while she had been honest in her belief he would somehow return to her, she felt like there was something she should be doing, or somewhere she should be going.

Desperately, she wanted to know what she had to do in order to bring him back home.

As she stood there, struggling to feel the lost heat in his empty room, the flame in her lantern suddenly flickered, sending a wave of dancing shadows throughout the room and catching her attention. It wasn't as much the flicker of light that captured her, but rather a strange, familiar feeling that crept up into her chest.

Straightening, she suddenly felt a presence in the hallway and picked up the lantern, then took a quick step into the dark corridor to try and figure out if anyone else was there. Squinting and hearing her heart beat faster, she thought she saw a shadow at the far end of the hallway, lingering just at the edge of the lamplight. Its blurry form made her gasp slightly, though she found that she couldn't simply dismiss it as her eyes, or her heart, playing tricks on her.

"Hello? Is someone there?" she called, though the cavernous hallway was quiet in response and the shadow seemed to fade away from her sight.

Her first reaction was to doubt her eyes, for she was tired and torn by emotion, but there was something alluring about shadows in the night and she slowly began walking down the dark hall, unsure there had been anything there at all.

The corridors felt uncommonly still as she moved forward, pausing every once and awhile to look behind her but finding the path behind her just as quiet, as if the shadows that surrounded her were at once both her origin and destination. No matter how she moved the lantern or how quickly she walked forward, she couldn't see the shadow for anything more than a moment, and it seemed to lead her away from the heart of the castle, down several flights of ancient stairs and winding quietly through the dark. Her mind was trying to convince her heart of the silliness chasing a shadow through the castle, though as she finally came to yet another long hallway, her feet came to a stuttering halt and her eyes widened.

At the other end of the hallway, there was no shadow, but a figure lingering before a large portrait of the king and queen, Elsa's parents, as if it blended in with the scraping strokes of ancient paint. Her heart was in her throat as she lifted the lantern and tried to focus on the figure, finding that its black outline almost faded like mist into the darkness, making her unsure where it began and ended. Her first reaction was to call for the guards, for this shadow was obviously real, yet didn't seem to belong there, though a strange beating of her heart made her hesitate, instead taking a few steps forward, her red lips quivering in the dark.

Possessed by her heart and feeling strangled by her thoughts, her eyes began to play tricks on her and her voice suddenly summoned the name of the one she longed to see, despite the impossibility of it being true.

"Yasha?"

While no reasonable expectation would have allowed her to simply conjure him before her, she wanted nothing more than this shadow to be her betrothed, wondering if magic could grant such wishes. The shadow stirred at the name, then slowly turned to her in the dark, revealing its ashen face and making her gasp loudly as the lantern dropped from her hand and clattered to the floor at her feet.

Staring back at her from under a thick hood was a mask, but it instantly registered in her memory. It was a mask of the guards of Fria, with its metal maw fanged sharply down around a grated mouthpiece and two dark eyes staring back at her. She still saw them around the market, though they were little more than trinkets now, yet where this mask most brightly burned in her memory was in the dented one she had picked up from the cavern floor of Yasha's grotto, on that day long ago when she had first met him.

It was the mask Yasha had worn when he kidnapped Anna from the castle, and set their entire future into motion.

While she was speechless and frozen in place, the masked man stared back, not answering. A tranquil moment lingered between them and she truly thought she was dreaming now, but the dream suddenly cracked as he slowly turned and continued heading away from her, denying her the response she desired to hear.

"Yasha, wait!" Elsa cried, rushing forward into the darkness and leaving the lantern glowing brightly behind her.

She passed the portrait of her parents and entering yet another hallway, where she saw the figure continuing on and disappearing down another darkened flight of stairs. Scrambling frantically in the dark, she stumbled against stone walls and tripped down uneven stairs, but her eyes never moved from the shadow that stalked before her and her feet never stopped in their pursuit. The shadow's movements defied logic, for as slow as it was moving, her hurried pace should have allowed her to capture it, yet every corner she turned found the figure far beyond her reach, as if she were fated to never catch up. Her heart was racing and her breath hissed loudly in her ears, making the world seem like a cold, dark blur as she stumbled down into the deepest parts of the castle.

After a desperate chase that left her panting and pushing through a slightly parted door, she suddenly cried out as she bumped against a ghostly form before her, her fingers clawed out and her heart roaring loudly. It took a moment to calm down, but she quickly handled the rigid object, her fingers splayed out into the darkness. It felt like an old table, though a dusty white sheet had been draped over it to try and help it endure its storage. The room she had entered was filled with unused furniture and forgotten ghosts, making her look around fearfully, but still searching out the shadow that had so far eluded her. Without her lantern, she could barely make out anything, with only ambient moonlight sneaking in from thinly-slotted windows near the ceiling. There didn't seem to be any other ways out of the large room, though she couldn't tell what lingered at the other side, as it was cavernous and frightening, and she struggled to keep moving forward.

That was until she saw the shadow standing just beyond the periphery of darkness, motionless and real, as it if beckoned her to continue.

"Yasha! Please wait!" she cried, sliding past the table and immediately bumping into another ghost, making her spill onto a covered couch.

Her temper flared as she felt like the ghosts were impeding her reunion with her fiancee. She rose to her feet, then began to weave her way through the sheets, her eyes locked on the shadow, while her breath filled the silence and she coughed in the musty air. "Why won't you answer me, Yasha?" she said, encouraged that he was no longer running, but chilled at why he wouldn't respond. A part of her feared that this was all just a dream and that she was truly chasing shadows, but the way the terrifying mask stared back at her dispelled common sense and she could think of nothing more than pulling it away to find her handsome prince smiling back at her, reaching out to her and telling her that everything would be all right.

Just as her heart was warming and she was coming into reach of the masked man, she suddenly felt her body wrench her back, something that made her cry out and look backwards fearfully. Instead of some monster clutching her, she found that the cape of her dress had gotten caught between two pieces of furniture, preventing her from going any further. Pulling on it, she suddenly looked back to the figure, hoping he hadn't slipped away from her. The masked shadow remained and she let out a sigh of relief, though she continued to try and pry her dress loose, frantic that he was so close, yet just beyond reach.

"Why won't you say anything? Is something wrong?" she panted, suddenly tiring from the chase as she let her grip loosen on her dress and feeling that as long as he was there, she didn't have to worry anymore. "I was so worried when you disappeared. We've been looking for you everywhere." The silence of the shadow didn't warn her and she continued to embrace relief at his apparent return, oblivious to the darkness around her.

"I've missed you so much," she called and smiled at the the figure with hazy eyes, hopeful for his warm response.

Suddenly, the masked figure began to step back and fade into the darkness once more, making a flight of panic rise up in her as she reached her hand out to stop him. "Wait! Where are you going? Don't go!" she cried, her outreaching hand seeming like it could simply close around him.

With her dress still caught, she began wildly pulling on it again, trying as hard as she could to reach him before he faded away, until the cape finally tore and released her, sending her stumbling forward into the dark until her hands crashed into something. Slowly opening her eyes and feeling something cold and hard, she found there was a face before her, but not the one she had expected.

Instead of Yasha, she found that it was her own face that stared back, her eyes wide in shock and her mouth hanging open. Her hands were pressed against the stone wall at the other end of the room and framing an ancient, ornate mirror, while the shadow was nowhere to be seen.

Finding the mirror staring back made her pant a few strangled breaths, her eyes searching her own face for answers, then slowly lean her head forward, letting a choking sob well up in her throat, her foreheads touching. The entire chase suddenly seemed like a prank played upon her by a lonely heart and she began wondering if the shadow had existed at all.

Bitterly, she hated her heart for offering such false hope.

"Elsa."

The sound of her name made her head snap up, staring at her own reflection with her breath trapped in her seized throat. The voice was distant, but frighteningly familiar. She immediately suffered the same sin as she projected her desires into reality and searched the reflection for any sign of the shadow.

"Yasha?" she asked, her own voice echoing into the empty room.

"Elsa."

This time, the voice was clearer, feeling closer and even more familiar. As her eyes searched, a subtle turquoise glow began to churn within them, filling the darkness with a glow that seemed to cover the frame with ancient markings, though so dimly that she didn't see them at first. She also couldn't fool herself into believing this was Yasha's voice, for it was a woman, and it stung painful in her memory.

"Who are you? Where are you?" she asked, her eyes searching around.

As if answering her, the depths of the mirror erupted with light and instantly snared her, for there was nothing else in the room but the ghosts that haunted the darkness. There were swirls of light and dark in those fathomless depths, as if an entirely different world existed between reality and reflection, and Elsa was astonished at their beauty, though the fearful mood of the dark room still composed her and she felt an overwhelming urge to step back from the mirror.

Despite that, she remained chained to it.

"You've finally come," the voice called, chilling her for its spectral tones and its elusive origins. "It's time for all of your questions to find answers. It's time for you to come home."

The voice was now lucid and Elsa could no longer escape the realization that seized her, for she suddenly remembered the last time she had heard it and why it struck such a desperate chord within her. Memories of the monstrous form of King Nazir flickered through her mind, his lava-stoked rampage destroying the kingdom of Fria and threatening to devour all that escaped it, while the voice that she now heard had been speaking through her own lips. It was a voice that thanked the lifeless Yasha for destroying the FireHeart, then turned on the monstrous Nazir to encase him in an eternal tomb of ice and snow, after bidding him a bittersweet farewell.

The memories burned within Elsa as if it had only happened yesterday and she suddenly felt the significance of seeing them once again.

"Lind?" she gasped.

The voice seemed pleased. "Come to me, my child, and I'll reveal everything to you about the ancient magic. You'll find me to the north, in the frozen kingdom of Lapland. Come to me, and I'll give you everything you've ever wanted," it said, then began to fade away as the swirls in the mirror followed suite, slowly slipping from view as the mirror became black and dull.

"Come to me, Elsa."

Elsa panicked, gripping the edge of the mirror. With everything that had happened since last hearing her voice, she had nearly forgotten about Lind and her connection to her icy powers, so to have her sudden reappear in her life, especially in conjunction with Yasha's disappearance, made an overwhelming fit of emotion grip her chest as she tried to strangle more answers from the dying mirror.

"Wait! What do you mean you'll reveal everything? Answer me, Lind!" she cried, her magic causing frost to creep through the ornate designs of the mirror and turn it from a brilliant gold into a pale blue, while the blackened surface began to crack and splinter. Her heart was raging out of control, taking her powers with it, and she once more feared the resonance of her magic with the voice of Lind, though she was willing to risk reliving those memories if only to have a few answers to her many questions.

At the moment, it felt like her hurting heart had only questions to keep it going.

In response to her magic and in a brilliant burst of light, the mirror suddenly shattered in her hands, making her cry out loudly as she was thrown to the stone floor, her eyes full of dust and her body twisted in pain. Her chest felt like it was being pierced by countless shards of glass and an overwhelming cold overtook her. Even her voice was silenced by the pain and a thousand ghostly images that flashed through her mind, as they had once before when Lind had first touched her heart. An entire lifetime of pain and loneliness impaled her, choking the breath from her chest, until she finally felt blackness wash through her and she went limp on the stone floor, alone and in the dark.

A dark sleep overcame her, giving her the rest she had been denying herself for days, but saturated in ancient magic that enchanted her heart and her mind.

It was a dreamless slumber, and she remained in the dark for a long time, her breathing pulsing in the silence and her body shivering, until another sound permeated the room, stirring the silent ghosts and pounding off the ancient walls.

A pair of heavy boots approached the sleeping queen as the masked shadow had come again, the devilish face staring down at her and its black body still blending effortlessly in the darkness. After looking over her helpless form, it slowly knelt down next to her and reached out a gloved hand like a demon's claw, yet carefully brushed aside the hair that had fallen in her face, giving a clear view of her beautiful features and the way her lips were pulsing with soft, tormented breaths.

Seeing the angelic sight, the shadow appeared taken by her, running the back of black fingers down her cheek softly, while two eyes gazed at her from behind the mask, making sure to consume as much of her as the darkness would allow. As gently as a shadow could, the claw moved down her body until it rested on her hand that was clutched to her chest, closing around her fingers and raising them up towards the fanged mask, as if the demon would begin to devour her at any moment.

With both claws clutching her hand, the figure hunched forward solemnly, placing her curled fingers against the metal grate over its mouth, then ceased to move entirely. The only sound it made was a low, shuddering moan as its chest rippled forcefully in response to the moment it had with the radiant queen.

If reacting to the way it was prostrated before her, Elsa's face twisted slightly as her lips parted to utter a single name to the darkness, the one name that had dominated her for what seemed like an eternity.

"Yasha..."

With the name echoing in the dark room, the shadow suddenly recoiled, as if she were the most frightening shadow of all. Feeling the weight of the moment, he trembled in the dark, then stepped back further from the silent queen, its black body fading into the darkness once more and leaving only the bright sheen of the mask, until it too disappeared into a swirl of fire that blew back the darkness for a moment, and then left her alone in the room.

She would lie there, unconscious to the waking world beyond the windows and unaware that when she finally awakened from the night, there would only be more questions for her, along with the ghostly summons of a voice from her heart and a place where she must go to find her answers. Even in her sleep she could remember it, spoken by Lind's crystal clear voice.

You'll find me to the north, in the frozen kingdom of Lapland.

Come to me, and I'll give you everything you've ever wanted.

My dear child.

Elsa.