Dark Waters
It becomes such a regular occurrence, their battle, that hardly anyone so much as bats an eye at the deluge of water, the torrent of ice raging about the coast and surging across the skies of Arendelle.
How long can you keep this up, Elsaaaaaa?
From where she stands at the very peak of Arendelle Castle, Princess Elsa can look out and see the infinitesimally small city sprawled out far, far below, the lives of its denizens tiny, tiny things. Snowflakes flicker through the howling storm, intermixed with drops of freezing-cold water, but she keeps her eyes fixed on the coast.
She sees a lone figure standing atop a spiral of water, and even from afar, Elsa imagines she can see her foe. Princess Anna is her antithesis. Where Elsa stands tall and regal, Anna stands with her body bent like the curve of a bow pulled taut. Elsa trains her features into an expressionless mask, but Anna smiles widely and her eyes are alight with mad glee. Elsa stands and counters her enemy with carefully measured movements, summons her powers with grand, sweeping gestures; Anna dances on the water, an uncatchable specter that never once stops leaping across the roiling waves.
Don't get too distracted, Elsa. Winning by default is booooring.
There are two battles going on, the one that is direct and brutal, and the one taking place in the skies. Elsa battles Anna for control over the weather, trying to freeze each and every droplet of water that escapes the cold burst she launched up above, but she's learned that complete victory is impossible. After the first few cuts from water pressurized into thin blades, Elsa learned to surround herself with a barrier of ice at all times.
And all the while, Anna sends tendrils of water whipping across the air, and Elsa has to freeze each one and redirect it. Where there powers meet, for that fraction of a second when the water is still Anna and the ice spreading over it is Elsa, their minds connect. Elsa sees glimpses of the mind behind the other princess, the other one who is burdened by their gift of magic, but she sees none of the weight that she herself carries. Anna revels in her power.
There's no point regretting something you can't ever change, Anna thinks, and besides, being normal is overrated. Elsa never responds, but maybe Anna can tell her thoughts anyway because before the link winks out of existence, she always hears a saccharine laugh.
Elsa freezes some of the rain into a barrage of icicles, each one as thick as the arm of a grown man and sharpened to cruel points, and launches them at Anna. They cross the distance between them so quickly they resemble shooting stars; Anna is forced to abandon her spiral but regains her footing on yet another whirlpool bursting upwards from the sea.
Anna pivots on her heel and swings her arms up and around, and a very similar barrage of water flies back towards Elsa. She blocks each one with a wall of ice, never once looking away from Anna. Two geysers of water erupt high into the sky, one on either side of Arendelle Castle, each one reaching as tall as the building itself, and they conjoin above Elsa before slamming down together.
Harder to freeze that one, but still doable. Elsa reaches up and forces her power into the crushing wave of water, fighting both Anna and the inexorable push of gravity; but slowly, surely, ice snakes from the tip and around, capping the bulbous end and then up along the entirety of its length to leave something like a heart-shaped sculpture around the air.
Your move, Elsa.
She frowns at being handed the initiative, as though she had not won it – Anna laughs again and whispers something about her being petty – but Elsa knows to capitalize. She flings her hand out, fingers curling into a claw, and the fjord around Anna begins to ice over. First the surface, but her power sinks deep and latches to water further and further down, until a good meter of the sea is frozen.
Anna stamps her foot before the ice can snake its way up her platform. Instantly, the ice flakes and shatters, and the geyser Anna stands on undulates wildly as though shaking off the remaining frost. It raises her higher and higher, and Elsa can see clearly when she drags both hands up through the air, lips pulling back into a laborious snarl. From beneath her ice, water drills upwards and shatters their obstacle. Anna meets her eyes, and then all the water surges forward as one.
Elsa throws out both her hands and meets the water with ice. Somewhere between the coast and the city proper, Anna and Elsa meet. Water freezes and melts, ice melts and refreezes, again and again until neither of them can tell where their own gift ends and where the other's power begins. It's a perpetual struggle, both ends unable to push any further, and pressure builds and builds and builds…
Shards of ice and bullets of water explode outwards with a thunderous roar, and even Elsa is forced to close her eyes to avoid the backlash.
By the time she opens her eyes again, the waters are calm and Anna is gone.
See you next time, Elsa.