She was trespassing, but she could hardly bring herself to care. There was only one door into the palace, and Anna would have been damned before she didn't at least try and come in.
This could be, would be, fixed. Anna would prove that to Elsa.
Anna's footsteps were far more careful than usual. A large portion of the castle was designed without a floor. One wrong move could send her to her grave, and she could never be sure if Elsa would find her or not. Even if she didn't fall to her death, the ice below her, as elegant and smooth as it was, could easily injure her were she to fall.
The torch she was holding flickered. If she had to, she would melt something, but that was only in case of emergencies. Elsa would probably be far from pleased if she found Anna destroying her creation.
There was no way to deny the beauty of the place. It sparkled, the entire place built to Elsa's wishes. Over the years, she had done her best to learn about Elsa; still, she had never known that her sister could create something as wonderful as this.
Anna headed up the ice stairway, careful to not slip. Her eyes moved around the room, searching for any sign of her sister. She couldn't have already left; the place was too new.
Anna hesitated for a moment, then spoke. "Elsa, where are you? It's me, Anna."
Her words echoed throughout the palace, but no reply came.
"Elsa," Anna continued, swallowing the lump in her throat. "I'm not here to hurt you, Elsa. Elsa, I love you."
Her words echoed once more. The sound stung.
"Elsa, you don't have to be afraid of me. I don't care that you have ice powers." Her eyes continued to wonder, though they found nothing. "In fact, I really admire what you have made. It's amazing!"
Anna picked up her pace. "Elsa, I've come here for you!"
The silence rang throughout her ears. Trying to stop it, she sped up, her earlier fears of tripping gone. She had to get to Elsa, no matter what scrapes that she might get from it.
"Elsa, are you in here?"
The stairs never seemed to end. There was no sign of her reaching the next floor any time soon, and when she turned her head she could not see the bottom floor either. There were only miles and miles of ice covered stairs.
"Elsa!" She repeated it and repeated, as if shouting her name would make her sister appear. "Elsa! Elsa!"
Again, there was no response.
This was Elsa's place, Anna knew. If she just kept searching then she would find her.
An image ran through her mind, an image of a door. It was at the top of the stairs and wide open, Elsa standing beyond it. If she could just reach that door then everything would be fine.
"Elsa!"
"Anna? Anna?"
Anna's head swam, and she struggled to make out the person next to her in the dark. For a moment, she was surprised by how warm everything was.
"Anna, are you awake?" She recognized the voice.
"Elsa?"
"Who else would I be?"
Anna's eyes adjusted to the darkness, to the figure next to her. Sure enough, she was Elsa, dressed in a white night gown, her long hair spilling down her back.
"Elsa!" she yelled. "Elsa, I thought that, that-"
"Shh," Elsa said, rubbing her back. "It's fine, Anna. I'm right here for you."
She silenced.
"It was just a bad dream, nothing that you should dwell on."
Anna nodded.
"Want to go back to sleep?"
Anna leaned her head back into her pillow. It was hard not to listen to her sister, her soft voice filled with concern.
"Good night, Anna." Elsa leaned down and kissed her forehead, then went back to sleep. She wrapped an arm protectively around Anna.
Anna didn't even notice her eyelids close.
