Chapter One: The Door Opens
6 months the war had progressed, and it was becoming painfully obvious that Arendelle was losing.
Or rather, Anna corrected herself, Arendelle was winning.
Her Uncle Jakt had laid King Josef to rest about 3 months ago, about the same time that Stronius had fallen- no, been Reclaimed. He had since ordered the removal of the offending Chart from the war room, but it did nothing to allay the new Queen's fears that her crown belonged on the head of another.
The noblemen and others continually assured her that the entire war was a particularly bad case of rebellion and treason against the crown. Perhaps the Chart had been corrupted by Elsa's dark sorcery? She wanted to believe them. Perhaps the Ice Queen had indeed found a way to channel her power into the Chart, corrupting it and bending it to her will. However, the Chart never lied. Her father, the late Josef, had a deep distrust and dislike for magic, his constant rejections of friendly contact by Elsa testimony to that. However, this unfounded dislike of magic did not extend to the Chart, and she had personally seen him seriously consider following some of its instructions before, in fact even going ahead with a few directives, winning him many engagements. King Josef disliked magic, but if it would assist him, he was fine with it. He placed utter trust in the Chart's powers, for it had helped him to forge Arendelle's empire, creating the Kingdom as it is today.
Was, a voice in Anna's mind cynically reminded her. And, you're not even the Sovereign.
Her vision clouded, and an alternate version of herself faced off against her. The replica's strawberry blonde hair was tied back in two braids, much resembling herself as a Princess, but looked older and was clad in a purple winter cloak, green and black dress under it. The crown was missing from her head.
However, those emerald eyes so known for being constantly filled with mirth and optimism, were cold and dark now. Anna's duplicate's mouth curled into a sneer, and she mockingly curtsied. "My Queen," she snickered, her voice dripping with contempt, taunting Anna where she stood.
Clamping her mouth shut and resisting the urge to launch into another one of her famous ramblings, Anna instead gathered herself. "What's done is done, Elsa has no place here."
The alternate Anna's form shimmered and she covered her mouth with her hand as she laughed mirthlessly. "Yes, and what will be, will be." As she spoke, she turned and walked off into the corridor. An invisible force bore Anna to her feet, and she began her pursuit, as fast as the heels she wore would allow. Wobbling unsteadily, she pressed forward and continued to gain on her duplicate, who had noticeably slowed down. A signal to catch up!
As she caught up and began to walk beside her duplicate, the latter spoke again. "Do you know where we are, Anna?" In response to her question, Anna looked about them. It seemed almost foolish to ask. There was no mistaking the familiar stone walls, portraits of the previous royal families on the wall, even Joan as they walked past the painting gallery. "We're in the castle…Right?" Her eyes widened in surprise as her duplicate gave a small smile and shook her head. Confused and perplexed, Anna stole a glance out of a window they passed, and gasped in shock, stopping dead in her tracks. Beyond Arendelle Castle was nothing, only tendrils of light originating from the castle and snaking out into the endless dark, sometimes gathering into clumps that emitted pulses of light once every few heartbeats.
"Welcome to your mind, Anna," her alternate proclaimed, spreading her arms wide. "What you see here, is everything you have ever known!"
Thinking it to be another taunt, Anna raised an eyebrow, unimpressed by the proclamation. She folded her arms and turned to face her duplicate, almost matching her jaded look. Only her voice bore any trace of her true self. "But… There's nothing here outside the castle!"
Her eyes nearly popped out of her head at the sight of her counterpart turning to face her, almost mistaking it for a mirror. Her counterpart's eyes were no longer cold and cynical, instead glistened with tears and were filled with sadness. The trembling of her lower lip only added to her vulnerable exterior. Wrapping the cloak more tightly around herself, she sniffled. "No, it's not much now, is it?" Anna reached out a hand to comfort her, but she flinched away. After regaining her composure, she cast a glance out the window.
Anna's eyes followed hers, and settled on a tendril of light that seemed to… be in combat. As Anna watched, blue lightning crackled along the tendril, attacking it and seeming to hold it back as it continued trying to extend itself and connect to something.
"Strange isn't it?"
Anna whirled around. That was not her voice. Who else was here?
Her duplicate had vanished, in her place was an eight-year-old girl who looked… vaguely familiar to Anna. Platinum blonde hair hung down in a ponytail extending to her lower back, the top part held in place by a blue hairband on top of her head. An aquamarine dress hung down to below her knees, black stockings continuing down to a pair of sky blue shoes, the entire colour combination seeming to complement her sapphire eyes staring brightly up at Anna.
Anna moved her hand up to push her jaw closed. A lump leapt into her throat as she stared at a face she had not seen for a total of thirteen years, the face of her childhood playmate, best friend. In fact, only friend. "Aslemai…?" She breathed uncertainly.
The little blonde nodded brightly. "I'm sorry I stopped coming to play, figured you wouldn't want to see me anymore after you fell off that sled. Wanna see where I went?"
"O-okay…" Anna stuttered, as Aslemai grabbed her hand and began to drag her along. Hidden Beauty, that's what her name means, she thought. Watching the little girl drag her along, a light bounce in her step, she still disagreed. How could there be any more beauty left to hide?
Some 15 minutes later they were climbing down the stairwell that led to the Lower Bowels, a part of the castle that Anna had seldom, if ever visited. Despite knowing that she was in her own mind, Anna soon began to feel…apprehensive. She could tell they were not alone, the dungeons' musty smell carried a whiff of an alien presence. As they pressed deeper, blue electricity appeared, crackling along the walls. Something obviously did not welcome their presence.
Suddenly, Aslemai screamed and fell to the ground, her hand held out protectively in front of her. Scrambling back frantically, she wrapped herself around Anna's leg and peeked out through her fingers.
As Anna kneeled and comfortingly (she hoped) stroked the younger girl's silky blonde hair, a lone ice warrior loomed out of the darkness in front of them. With a crackling sound it opened its gauntlet, a shaft of ice rapidly forming itself into a blade within it, humming and crackling with blue energy. Raising its sword, its entire form shimmered and it raised its other gauntlet, a single finger pointing behind them. Go back.
Anna shook her head fervently, and the warrior continued to advance. As its footsteps got closer and closer, the temperature began to drop more and more, and Anna was soon able to breathe mist from her mouth. A whoosh of cold air buffeted them as it slashed its blade through the air.
She continued to stand her ground even as the warrior clomped to a stop in front of her, its blade raised threateningly. "Anna, I'm scared!" came the frightened cry from between Aslemai's hands, and she felt moisture on her leg as the eight-year-old began to sob in fear and despair. Softly prying Aslemai from her leg and placing her behind her protection, Anna stabbed an indignant finger into the ice warrior's face. "It's not nice to be telling people what to do in their own heads!" Enraged, the ice warrior raised its sword higher, but Anna was quicker. In one smooth motion, she launched a hard kick straight at its chest, the stiletto of the heel slamming into the centre of its chest.
Spiderwebs of cracks began to spread over its chest as the frozen heart within was punctured by the stiletto shoe. The fragments tinkled to the floor along with the sword, and began to melt away into nothing. The mighty guardian was dead.
Peeking out again from behind Anna, Aslemai let out a whimper, "Is he gone?" "Yes," nodded Anna. "He's gone."
"I'm sorry for getting you into this, Anna," the little blonde looked up sadly, tears congealing in her pretty sapphire eyes. "It was an accident… Do you still wanna go with me? I keep letting you get hurt I'm so sorry-"
Anna simply reached down and grabbed her hand, cutting off the apology, and gave her a reassuring smile. Aslemai, seeing this, dried her eyes and continued leading her downwards. After another uneventful ten minutes, they stopped in front of a door at the bottom of the stairwell, crossbars intersecting all over the door, reinforcing it. It was marked with a single white snowflake. Anna stiffened.
The same flake on the Chart.
Seeing if not sensing Anna's hesitancy, Aslemai pouted and crossed her arms. "Come on, we already got this far, don't you wanna know?" Breathing in deeply, Anna turned the doorknob.
The door instantly flew open as though being sucked inwards by some invisible force. Anna felt a blinding, freezing pain in her head as she was sucked in along with Aslemai. Screaming, she watched as a few select strands of her hair turned white, running a silver streak through one of her braids. Ignoring the pain, she forced her eyes open, even as events began to re-enact themselves before her eyes.
Three years old, little Anna and Aslemai a year or two older than her, building a snowman out in the hot sun. Wait. Hot sun? She blinked and her mouth dropped open as she saw her younger self shaping snow into spherical shapes on the ground, even as Aslemai gestured all around her, summoning more snow for them as though it were a perfectly natural thing to do. Anna laughed as Aslemai conjured snow in the palm of her hand and jammed it down her parka, soon transitioning into a playful scream.
Four years old, decorating the tree for Christmas. "Mom," she whined, "our tree wouldn't look real without some snow to go with it!" Smiling kindly, her mother answered, stating the obvious as her justification. "Well dear, the snow would melt in here and we wouldn't want a wet tree on our hands would we now?" Little Anna folded her arms and sat in a corner, pouting. Aslemai stepped into the room right after. "Don't worry, little sis, let me try something," she said brightly. Turning her shining eyes to the tree, she gestured again, inducing the formation of snowflakes and icicles. Anna watched her younger self's smile widen as the tree was covered in a light dusting of unmalting snow, a giant snowflake resting on the top of the tree. She cheered and hugged her sister Aslemai tightly. Wait, sister? Anna furrowed her eyebrows. The snow was brought in by her dad… right? Aslemai was her sister? What?
Six years old, on Christmas Eve, Little Anna had been too excited to sleep, and stolen into Aslemai's room for some kind of entertainment. Needless to say, this had ended with them sneaking into the ballroom and Aslemai using her powers to turn it into a winter wonderland. Huge snowmen materialized and snowdrifts were created simply for Anna to slide on, flying off at the end into the air. "Anna, slow down!" Aslemai shouted, her eyes widened as she tried hard to catch her sister on new snowdrifts. Recklessly, Anna stuck out her tongue at her sister and threw a snowball at her.
As it struck, Aslemai lost her concentration and looked away, wiping her face. It did not take Little Anna long to realize that she was falling from a height of at least ten metres, without a buffer. She screamed. Aslemai immediately looked up and blindly fired a blast in an attempt to save her, but in uncalled for accuracy struck her head instead. Little Anna tumbled to the ground, unconscious, and Anna herself could almost feel the chill as she watched the white streak force its way down her braid. The memory began to dim, as Little Anna lost consciousness. Determined to see it through to the end, Anna willed her younger self to remain awake at least awhile longer. Aslemai cradled her ice-cold body, sobbing and whispering, "I'm sorry for getting you into this, Anna…"
"It was an accident…"
And that was the last thing before King Josef's roar, "Elsa what have you done?" caused Aslemai's eyes to shoot up fearfully and the memory went black.
Shaking her head, Anna woke again on the floor of the dungeon, staring at the bed with baby blue sheets that Aslemai now sat on. She watched in a mixture of awe and disbelief as her suspicions were confirmed. Aslemai smiled and her appearance began to shift. Her hair became longer, the ponytail and hairband replaced by a loose braid that hung over her shoulder. Her cheeks became slowly more angular and her womanly features developed, hips enlarging. The sapphire eyes faded to a more icy shade of blue topaz, yet the bright shine within still persisted. Anna gazed in wonder at the beautiful platinum blonde on the bed, smiling at her.
"Hello sis," she said in a voice like music as her smile broadened. "Now you know where I went."
Anna's eyes filled with tears as she ran into the arms of the elder sister she'd forgotten, embracing her tightly, not letting go despite the cold bleeding through her clothes from her sister's hands.
She understood now.
Aslemai.
I-Am-Elsa.