A/n: Hiya! Back a bit sooner, ya? This had just been sitting on my desk (Yes, I do have a desk) for ages, so I decided to post it before I lost it or something. It will probably be continued after Frigid Winds is done.
Danazia Gray: Aww, thanks! I might post a chapter or two, but my main focus will be on Frigid Winds. Sorry!
I do not own Frozen. Disney does.
Chapter One: The Fractureling
A cloth sack was hanging in the corner of a large stone room. Its browned edges had frost creeping up on it, and it was swaying slightly. All of a sudden, a snowball connected with the target, hitting it where a person's ribs would be. The target spun around like a top, swinging wildly.
A frustrated sigh echoed through the chamber. The burst of vibrations in the air came from the only person in the room. She was both fierce and beautiful. Anyone who knew lore and legends could see the similarities of this girl and the Snow Queen Elsa of Arendelle.
This woman was not Elsa, however. She had the same silver-white hair, and her skin was a pale as her doppelgänger's, but her eyes were more muted, like freshly melted ice mixed with sludge. She wore a short dress made entirely out of her ice, which clinked by way of the bells suspended from her skirt. The bodice was a darker blue, almost black, and the skirt and sleeves were as blue as a clear ocean.
Her hands glowed a turquoise-purple when she put them together, making a sizable snowball. Without further ado she hurled it at the target, using her magic to propel the missile. The target swung from the blow.
The woman sighed and conjured up an ice bench, then sat on it and wiped a cloth in her face. At that very moment, a heavy knock echoed around the training room, coming from the leftmost of three doors.
The woman stood up and half jogged, half walked, toward the door. She opened it just as the person outside put their hand up to knock.
She would have been brained if not for the frosty shield that spun in midair between the fist and her head. After waiting three long seconds, she dispelled the magic and stepped back.
The man who was outside swung his hand back and forth like a pendulum, masking the awkwardness. "Remember to block with your hips and waist as well as your shoulders, Arken," he admonished. "Duck as well as as summon."
The woman, Arken, gave a short bow and stepped aside. "Thank you, Master," she said, letting the man walk through. "I am sorry I have trespassed over my one hour."
The Master, whose name was Trevor, shook his head. "Nay, Arken, I should congratulate you for practicing while the other trainees talked and further hindered their learning."
Trevor had bright green eyes and sandy hair. Most pheasants would label him as handsome, but here at the training center he ran, he was generally seen as intimidating and powerful.
Arken nodded her thanks. "Master, what shall I be learning this afternoon?" She asked, sitting on her ice bench while Trevor conjured up a roaring bonfire and sat in front of it. Arken was not surprised to see that the fire had not melted her ice and remained burning atop of the diamond plane.
"Arken, I think that you are the most advanced of my students, therefore you will be leaving Reta, Delle, and Hadinus behind. "We will be working on the finer points of summoning your magic for two days and then you will be the first ever student to graduate before your fellows." Trevor said all of this with serious face, his green eyes never leaving Arken's dark blue ones.
"Yes, Master," Arken said, standing up.
"Arken, you may call me Trevor in the confines of this room. I think you to be advanced and, as much as I hate to say this, you and I are of the same skill in summoning."
Arken gasped. "Master, please–"
"It is not a problem," Trevor said gently. "You have grown so much." He looked at her with tender green eyes.
"Thank you Master. Trevor," she corrected herself.
"Good. Now, we must delve ourselves into the art of summoning. Make a chain link and an arrow at the same time."
The exercises grew in complexity for the next two hours, whereupon Trevor called a halt to the magic and sweat. "Arken, go clean yourself and then join us at the dinner hall," he said, and then departed.
After a nice shower and some new clothes, Arken joined the three other fracturelings, as they were called. She sat next to Reta and Hadinus, with Delle, the youngest of the spell-weavers, across from them.
Arken let her eyes wander over, looking at Delle. The young girl was barely fifteen years old and controlled poison. Her eyes were a sickly green and her hair a wild blond.
Delle caught Arken staring at her and raised her thick eyebrows. Arken shook her head and concentrated on her food, picking at the steamed vegetables and the stew, which Trevor had cooked using his own fiery powers.
After a while, Arken noticed that a stony silence had entered the dining hall and had no intention of leaving. She looked up. "Why is everyone so quiet?" she asked. She knew Reta had a crush on Hadinus and they usually talked. And talked, and talked, and talked.
Trevor finished a carrot before looking up. "I would prefer your fellow fracturelings to answer that," he said.
Reta, Delle, and Hadinus (Nicknamed Hadin because Reta liked that better), had some sort of staring contest, which involved Delle burning a hole through the table, Hadin calling up the earth to fix it, and Reta unleashing a gust of wind in the hall, causing the tapestries to flap around as if they had a life of their own.
Finally Delle sighed as if she had lost the contest. "They don't like it," she said.
They. Don't. Like. It. Arken thought. "What is it?" she asked.
As one, the four fracturelings turned to Trevor. "They dislike the very thought of you leaving," he explained.
As the thought crashed down on her, Arken thought about how her sister had condemned herself to complete isolation because she was scared. Scared of dangerous things. Hurt. Fear. Guilt.
Elsa didn't even know that Arken was alive. She didn't know that Arken even existed. And Arken wanted it to stay that way. She had left when she was five, sustained only by her powers and her desire to live. Elsa didn't have to know that she and Anna had another sister.
No. I will not let fear control me. Arken stood up straighter. "No need," she said smoothly. "I will be gone in two days, and you three will have nothing but a faint memory of me that will fade over time." I am not like my sister.
Trevor nodded. "Well said," he praised. Then he looked down at his food and picked up his fork, speared a cauliflower on the end of it, and put it in his mouth, effectively closing off the conversation.
