Me: Hello Yello! This story is a story based off of themes from Disney's Frozen (if you haven't seen it already, I must urge you to watch it. Very good film). AU with Maribelle playing a role similar to Elsa. Sort of Songfic. Warning: Contains plot spoilers! I hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own characters from the Fire Emblem series nor any part of Disney.
Ice Castles, Frozen Hearts
You mustn't let them in…
I sit on my throne, watching the time tick by as the small raindrops turned to tears of delicate snow.
Don't let them see…
A small gust of wind blew through the empty corridors. Sighing, I brought myself to the front doors of the castle. Solid. Wooden. Just as I remember it. I peered about the windows, questioning the wondrous world around me as the snowflakes drifted soothingly. Men and women alike moved like tiny ants across the distant horizon. Their small shadows appearing like those visions of promise I had once heard so much about. So small…so far away…
Be the good girl you always had to be…
Placing my delicate hands on the cold door, I gave it a gentle nudge. Cracking suddenly, I fixed it with the curse I had been born with. Staring at my now freezing hands, I put my gloves back on and turn away from the door.
Isolation…
Desperation…
Sadness…
Don't let them know…
"Why are you like this?" I asked myself. I've probably asked myself this a thousand times.
Why? Maybe I'm not the one to find the answer. Maybe I'm just the problem.
Gathering my pink frills under my velvet coat, I made my way over towards my bedroom. I glance at a few servants that pass my way. Bowing slightly, they scurry off to find more things to do. Anything to away from me.
I can already feel the ice forming underneath my heels.
Rushing to my room, I close the door behind me and lock it. Twice. Throwing off my coat, stripping down my frills, and tossing those wretched gloves away from me, I breathe deeply. A vast, barren room with many windows faces me.
I close my eyes. Pushing back all the fear, all the isolation, and all the hate, I tell myself words of confidence. My shaky voice slowly turns peaceful. Each new word brings a small smile to my face. Opening my eyes, I feel the room around expand with the growing anticipation inside me. I feel my power course through my bones, ready to be brought forth from my fingertips.
And I am ready.
Let the storm rage on…
Calling forth upon the power invested within me, I blast a ray of icy magic towards the ceiling. Scattering, it spreads into a light dance, cascading down to the ground in a whirl of snow and hail. Stomping my feet, iciness spreads through the floor and up the walls. Rushing forth to the center of the room, I twirl on my newly formed skates and let the atmosphere wrap around me.
Undoing my curls, I let my hair loose, embracing it with the cold around me. Smiling, I burst open my windows. The light snow outside that flows like water from a mountain stream blew into my room and towards the spritely dance of ice around my room. Again, I shoot my magic into the air. Apparitions of icy figures waltz with me across the room, leap through the wind like deer in the winter hills, and spin around me like a flurry of bright whirlwinds.
And in the first time in forever, I laugh. I laugh a good laugh.
And I realize I can finally be a princess again.
Sadly, however, moments like these are short lived. Getting tired of conjuring the snow and ice to my abilities, I shut the windows as the ice retracts and the last of the snow dances heavily in their joy and happiness.
Soon, everything turns back to normal, and I sit alone in a vast, barren room with no one there. Just me.
Isolation…
Desperation…
Sadness…
I look at my hands. My beautiful hands. Hands that can create beautiful things.
I clench them.
And they are hands for destruction. Hands that are dangerous. Hands that can kill.
Hands needed to be hidden.
Don't let them see…
"Maribelle?" I hear a voice whimper. Light knocking follows suit.
Rushing over to by bearings, I respond with a quick tap on the door.
"Oh! Thank the gods! Are you okay?"
"Yes Lissa. I am okay."
"Hey…"
"Yes?"
"Can you come out? I want to see the horses in the stables."
Freezing in my tracks, I stare wide-eyed at the corner of my room. Looking down at my hands, I grunt in frustration and anger.
How can I even protect myself from my best friend if I can't control the monster inside?
"Maribelle?"
"I don't think I can, Lissa."
"Well…okay…"
I hear her footsteps echo down the hallway. Finally dressing myself, I slide down my door until the back of my head rests under the doorknob.
A flurry of footsteps returns to the door.
"Hey Maribelle?"
Silence.
"I know you're in there."
More silence. I hear her slide down the opposite side of my door.
"Hey Maribelle…"
"…"
"Do you want to build a snowman?"
I chuckle. "Does it have to be a snowman?"
I hear a returning chuckle. "It can a princess, a frog, a dog, or whatever it wants to be."
"That's nice dear."
"But will you please build me a snowman? I know how good you are."
"Lissa…"
A hasten of pace. "Whatever happened to us? What did I do wrong? Why did you shut me out?"
"I didn't do such a thing…"
"Then why don't you come out! Don't think you think that I miss you?"
"Lissa, please…"
"Don't you think that I worry about you?"
"Lissa. Please stop…"
"Finally, I thought. Finally, I said. For the first time in forever, I thought we could be friends again. Are you listening to me Maribelle?"
"Enough Lissa!"
"I want to see you!"
"Stop acting like a child! You are a princess of Ylisse, so start acting like one! Why are so worried about me anyways? I am only the mere daughter of a duke, not even one to take power! Now leave! Lissa…please leave."
"…"
The flurry of footsteps echoed throughout the desolate hallway. I could basically hear her tears drops fall onto the ground.
She needs to stay away.
I need to stay away.
I need to get out.
I struggle with myself. Should I? Should I not?
Lissa is my precious treasure. I am all that she has left, discounting that ungrateful brother who had abandoned her when she needed him the most. And he calls himself a noble? Ha.
But Lissa needs to rule. She needs to have what's best for her people. And, to be quite frank, I am not eligible to be so.
I am a monster. Just like everyone says I am.
"I've made up my mind," I say out loud. I unlock my doors, take a deep breath, and then run towards the direction of my precious Lissa.
I scourge the halls, looking for any hint of noise or trail of tears. I pass my servants again. They all point to a general location. And now I know where she is.
Though it's not too long before I see her, her stance had made it seem like an eternity. Perched up against the window, she stares into the distance. Shoulders slumped and pigtails tied lower than usual, I can feel her resentment radiate off of her.
"Lissa?" I question, voice still apprehensive yet curious.
Her body tenses. Her hand resting on the window slowly curls into a small fist.
"Why?"
I can see the tears fall from her face. Her shoulders twitch slightly. I know she's trying to stifle her tears. She has cried too much for too long.
"What am I to you Maribelle?" she continues.
"Lissa…"
"Don't you 'Lissa…' me! Answer my question, Maribelle. Answer it for me…Please…"
"Lissa…" I start. "Lissa…you are my treasure. You mean more than everything in this palace, everything I own. You are more than me, more than the curse—"
"Curse?"
I freeze. Staring at my gloved hands, I carefully remove them. I look back to Lissa's face. She looks hurt, but curious nonetheless.
"You mean more to me than the curse I was born with. This power I've kept hidden from you since we met. This power that defines me, cages me in a prison of its own device. You mean more than the ice I can so willingly make. You mean more than the shadows that keep me company when I am alone—"
"Maribelle…"
"—and too afraid to do anything. You mean so much, that I…"
"That you what?"
"That I consider you my sister."
Silence. We lock each other's gaze. I can feel the ice forming around my heels as the feeling spreads up my legs and through my backside.
"Maribelle…"
"Lissa. I need you to look at me," I shudder, suddenly cold from my ice. "I am a danger to your kingdom. I need to be alone. It's the only way I can keep this safe."
The ice spreads around Lissa, trapping her behind an arc of jagged ice.
"Lissa, you must go and never come back."
"I can't do that…"
"Rally up my servants and take all you want from this castle. Bring news that my county has been abandoned. Get everyone out of this place."
"Maribelle, you're being irrational!"
"Do you see this, Lissa?"
Ice has completely covered the room. Lissa's eyes widen, maybe in amusement and maybe in fear. She takes a look as shards appear out of the walls, from the floors, and down from the ceiling.
"This is who I am. This is what I am."
"No…" she whispers. "No!"
I raise an eyebrow.
"I will not abandon you in your most desperate time of need."
Desperate…
Suddenly I was writhing in anger. I seethed it.
"Lissa get out. Or I will end up hurting you!"
"No! You'd never do that! You can stop this. Maribelle!"
I chuckle softly. "Lissa…the ice has a mind of its own. Once it starts, it can't stop."
As if on cue, the ice shards grow bigger, more deadly. They discreetly leave passageway to the door.
"Lissa…"
"Maribelle…"
She embraces me in a tight hug. Holding my wrists, she makes me promise that I'll be all right.
I nod.
She smiles sadly and makes her way towards the door. Looking back at me, she smiles and says, "Love is an open door. Remember that."
She flees down the hallways in search of my staff and her forces. The courage and anger I once had now fade away. I could now hear the commotion of my castle gaining rapidly, as if it is waking up from a prolonged nap. Retracting the ice, I make my way to the window to watch from afar.
The town is already bustling. Torches are being lit. Shadows are moving across the horizon. The snowflakes seemed to have stopped falling, but it still seems cloudy. I watch in awe as the motion of my county stirs. I haven't seen sight like this since forever. It almost makes me remember the past. Almost.
Then I hear the front doors open. Footsteps are bustling out the door and many confused voices are following suit. Letting the curiosity get the better of me, I put on my gloves and watch as the people scurry out of my castle with a look of both confusion and relief. I smile, knowing that they wanted this their entire time with me. But I have my needs too, and so I just could not let them go.
My castle, now deserted, has left me a warm feeling inside. I know now that they can be safe. I know now that I can be free. Though I am alone, I can be myself.
Let it go…
I've left my past behind. I've given those under me the freedom they righteously deserve. I've let go of my precious treasure in order for her to be safe.
I've now evolved.
I rip off my gloves, letting them fall to some corner of the room. Bursting open all the windows in my castle, I let the cold wind seep through, blowing in a new fleet of snow. Calling upon my powers, I surround my castle with a wall of ice, impenetrable by human force. Freezing everything in its state, my castle glows in a radiant crystal hue. I stand is awe, for what I have done is something I would never had expected.
"I've grown," I whisper to myself, staring at my hands. Taking a look at myself from a slab of ice nearby, I see myself. Only, it is not a person I've seen before.
Platinum blond hair almost snowy white, crystal blue eyes similar to an aquamarine color, flowing dress of ice and snow I had subconsciously created, and a smile on my face—a truly genuine smile.
I started thinking back to Robin, an old companion of mine who served under that dog Crom, I recall how he had snowy white hair that radiated a sense of calm. He was very talented and very smart; he had a knack for strategy and warfare. I recall that he was sort of our tactician back when Ylisse was at war with the neighboring kingdoms, and he was even there with us for the defeat of Grima, a dragon who'd been a danger to the entire world.
But now, his soul rests at peace. I guess I'm glad for him.
I now see that my smile looks like his, unfaltering and pricked with a sense of confidence and contempt. I suppose I miss him—but then again, he was definitely one of a kind. Sort of like me.
Then the thought of him makes me think of Lissa. She was always there for me, even if I shut her out. I remember how she was my only friend growing up at school, and the only one who never seemed to bother me. She never questioned why I always wore gloves and even got me a few for occasions such as my birthday and etc. She'd be by my side on the battlefield even, protecting me with magic spells while I tended to others that were wounded. I guess she never had to protect me, but I was glad she had dome so.
My unfaltering secret would have slipped out. I guess it doesn't matter anymore. Now I owe Lissa a lot more than I thought.
I chuckle, staring to the wide open doors of my castle.
My heart is truly frozen, isn't it?
Me: Hello readers! I hope you have enjoyed reading this (even if it feels short or unfinished). If there is enough "commotion", I will try to make another chapter. Otherwise, I hope you're satisfied with it. Thank you so much for reading and please R&R. Make sure to check out other stories I've written as well. Thank you once again. Stay classy.
Songs I listened to while making this story:
-Metroid Prime OST
-Super Metroid OST
-Metroid: Other M OST
-"Mercy" by Sam Hart
-Disney's "Frozen" OST