I can't remember how long it's been since I've updated. Not too terribly long, I don't think, but oh well.
Before I get into the review replies, I've got some good news and some bad news. The good news: my writing's getting better in these few chapters. The bad news: You're catching up to what I have pre-written, and soon I'll be racing to keep up, which is never good for update rates XD I'll try to stay ahead, but my Muse and I have hit a roadblock and we're arguing over what to do next. On the kind-of-bright side, we've hit performances of the play, so soon I'll have actual free time on my hands again. Yay! So I should be able to catch up and stay ahead of the game again.
With that said:
Letting it Go: Poor Anna, indeed, and I'm afraid the near future isn't looking too good for her. I'm glad you like the fact that I'm kind of keeping her specific motives under the table for the moment.
Elsa Tomago: First question: You'll have to see. Second/third questions: Probably because Letha would likely have impaled Anna if Elsa had stuck around any longer. Also because Letha just stirred up a blizzard, and Elsa has a bit of explaining to do to her people. Arendelle is one of her primary concerns - second only to Anna.
Shadowfax321: Perspective is everything. I'll leave it at that for now.
Gingersnaps: Love ya, ex-Florence XD Thank you for not interrupting rehearsal to chastise me. (I seem to be getting slapped a lot lately for my stories XD)
Fenix Fireblaze: Why, thank you, dahling! XD
Word count: 3,105
"You know, I wasn't completely kidding about f-freezing to death," Anna noted through chattering teeth.
"And I wasn't joking about sealing your throat up with ice," Letha grumbled.
"You won't do that. Elsa would k-kill you." Despite her thick layers of winter clothing, even inside the fortress and out of the wind, Anna was still shivering.
"Maybe I'm not scared of Elsa." She stalked from one end of the room to the other, fiddling with something between her hands. "She's not the only one with powers. And she can't hurt me with hers. Not anymore."
"I saw that," Anna said softly, wrapping her cloak tighter around her as she sat on the floor, knees curled up to her chest in a huddled attempt to save warmth. "How did you do that? When she struck me... she killed me. I died. Froze solid, literally."
Letha turned back to her, eyes narrowed. "Elsa struck you?"
"Yeah," she admitted. "I mean, it was an accident, but -"
"And you say you died? I don't understand."
Anna tried to ignore her rising excitement. This was the Letha she remembered, always wanting to know more, to understand her world. "Yeah. She froze my heart, so I froze to death, but right before I froze completely, there was this guy, Hans, my ex-fiance, real jerkface, who tried to kill her, so I had to save her, and it was an act of true love, which is the only thing that can thaw a frozen heart, so -"
"So you thawed out of your little ice cube and lived. Happily ever after, the end." Letha turned away again, losing interest, distracted.
Anna, however, caught a glimpse of something in her hand, and asked curiously, "What's that in your hand?"
Letha closed her fingers around it. "None of your business," she snapped, in a fierce way that made Anna think it probably was her business, but Letha wasn't about to admit that. She dropped the subject.
"Okay." She shivered. "So why weren't you affected by Elsa's magic?"
Letha shrugged, back turned to her. "Must be a side effect of the Snow Queen thing."
Anna didn't buy that for a minute. She was lying. Letha knew exactly why she hadn't been affected by Elsa's magic. "I don't think that's it."
A single pale blue eye glowed at her, such an eerie effect it took Anna a second to realize it was a trick of the light, a single ray of sunlight making its way through a hole in the ice and striking exactly the right spot. "Don't you, now?"
"No," she said, deciding to ignore the grammatical issues with that exchange. "And I think you know exactly what made it happen that way."
White-blue eyes locked with teal ones, and Anna raised her eyebrows in a challenge. Letha balled her hands into fists, and Anna knew she was right. "Maybe I do. Maybe I don't."
Anna shivered again, trying to control the shaking as Letha turned away again. "It really is cold," she said softly.
Letha didn't turn around, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "I wouldn't know."
"No, I guess you wouldn't." She shrugged. "But Elsa's going to be rather upset with you if you send me back with frostbite."
Letha laughed. "Send you back? Whatever makes you think I'm going to send you back?"
Anna frowned. "Wasn't that the whole deal? I mean, Elsa gives you what you want, and you send me back to Arendelle?"
"Oh, yes, that was the deal." She stared down at whatever was in her hand – Anna craned her neck to see, but failed – and finished, "But no one ever said the Snow Queen plays fair."
Elsa led with, "I think I know why Letha's so... different."
"Hm, power-hungry tyrant who's never been able to control her magic, can now control her magic but has to terrorize the general populace to do so? She hasn't always been this way?"
She glared, and Kristoff subsided. "Sorry."
"That's my sister you're talking about. Try to remember that," she sighed. "Sadly, your very first adjective was quite close."
He ticked back through the list. "Power-hungry?"
Elsa nodded. "Only I think it's more than that. Letha's never had power in her life. Now she has access to it, lots of it, and it's making her go crazy. It's more than just wanting more. She needs more. She can never have enough. Did you see her after she whipped up the storm around Arendelle?"
He considered that. "Surge of power, glowing eyes, creepy laugh? That?"
The queen shook her head. "No. You're missing the point. She stumbled, almost fell over from the drain on her strength. She was shaking like a leaf afterward. She almost passed out, I could see it. But she didn't seem to care. All she cared about was the surge of magical power she got from it, even though her physical strength crashed." She hesitated. "Kristoff... I think she's addicted to her own magic."
The ice harvester thought about that for a few seconds, then swore under his breath. "You're right. I've seen addicts before – I mean, never to magic, but to, um, other things – and after a certain point, nothing matters but the high they get from it. They'll do anything, give anything, to get more, no matter what kind of toll it takes on them and their families. But can you really get addicted to magic?"
"I've seen people addicted to power before," she said grimly. "'Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.' It somehow does not surprise me that Letha has succumbed to it as well. Just in a different form."
She turned and paced back across the room again, not noticing the trail of frost she left in her wake. Kristoff stood, but made no move to stop her. "Arendelle needs to know," he said.
"No," she responded immediately. He raised his eyebrows at her, and she explained herself. "It will only make them more afraid, and that will make Letha stronger."
"As opposed to them thinking their queen is losing it again?" he asked. "They're going to demand answers, soon. They're probably demanding them now. You can't fight on two fronts, Elsa. If Arendelle turns on you, it will be game over."
"Checkmate," she murmured, heart sinking as she realized he was right. She shook her head. "You're smarter than you make yourself out to be, you know that?" Elsa sighed. "I'll figure out what to say... and then we're going to get Anna back."
A sharp laugh pierced the air. Letha swept into view, carrying between her hands a globe of ice. Anna looked up from drawing pictures in the thin layer of snow covering the floor of the castle with her forefinger, bored out of her mind. "Care to see what Snow Queen Elsa is doing down in Arendelle?" she asked, cynical amusement glimmering in her eyes. She knelt, sitting on the floor beside Anna. She leaned casually against the ice bars between them, not at all bothered by the frigid surface against the bare skin of her forearm as she showed Anna the sphere of ice.
Anna realized that the Snow Queen was easily within reach of the knife hidden in the folds of the princess's dress.
A few years ago, when Anna turned sixteen, she had been given a dagger by her father, told to keep it with her at all times, hidden in a special pocket that had been sewn into all her dresses from then on. It was completely invisible to the world, but within easy reach of the princess. Even if Anna's hands were to be tied behind her back, she could, with a little stretching, reach the blade if necessary, not that Anna had ever expected to have to use it. No one else but Elsa, Gerda, Kai, and Kristoff knew she carried it. Not even Letha, to the best of Anna's knowledge. So now Letha was leaning against the bars between them, her arms extended to hold the ball of ice... her entire side exposed, unprotected, close enough for Anna to whip out the knife and slide it between Letha's ribs before the Snow Queen could possibly react.
But she knew, an instant after the thought occurred to her, that she would not. She couldn't. Despite everything, Letha was her sister. She was family. Anna didn't give up on family. It shook her that it had even occurred to her to kill Letha. To kill her sister.
Letha was speaking again, and Anna's attention was drawn to the ice in her hands. "It took me years to do this, but it was worth it, don't you think?"
"Holy..." Anna whispered, staring at the ice. Within the sphere, there were images moving, people, people in a very familiar place. "Arendelle." And it's snowing.
Letha nodded smugly, but Anna wasn't paying attention. "Is th-that actually happening?" she stuttered through chattering teeth.
"You've got it," Letha agreed. "And, oh, look. There's the queen now." She narrowed her eyes, maybe in annoyance, maybe just in concentration.
Anna watched with fascination as the scene solidified, colors brightening, gaining definition and focus. After a second, she realized she could hear the crowd murmuring, too, catch scattered voices, wondering what this was about, why the queen had called them here, where the princess was. They quieted as Elsa – Elsa! – came forward to stand on the platform above them. Elsa took a deep breath and began to speak, and both Anna and Letha listened intently.
"People of Arendelle," Elsa began. "I know you've all been wondering about a lot of things, not the least of which being the weather of late. Most of you have figured out by now that it is not entirely natural." Murmurs spread throughout the crowd, but she raised a hand for silence. "Please, let me finish. Some of you have doubtlessly, and understandably, come to the conclusion that this early, harsh winter is caused by my magic spiraling out of control." She took a breath, as if bracing herself. "I swear to you on my crown, on my throne, and on my life that this is not my doing. And I understand that an explanation is in order.
"All of you should know about this, but as she is no longer spoken of, it would seem some have forgotten the fact that Anna and I had a third sister, my twin. Her name was... her name is Letha."
Letha let out a small, incredulous noise, not quite a laugh. "What is she doing?"
In the ice, Elsa continued. "A few weeks before we turned sixteen, the word was spread that she had fallen ill, and that the illness had been fatal. That was not true.
"The truth is, Letha is still alive. She ran away just before we turned sixteen, fled the castle and, as far as we know, the kingdom, and vanished. The search parties King Agdar sent out failed to find her. The king did not want to admit that one of his daughters had run away; he was proud, and convinced that she would not return, and so the official story was that she had fallen ill and died." Elsa paused, then continued. "One other part of the story was never told. My twin sister also has ice magic, like mine."
The temperature in the room dropped even further, and Anna shivered. Letha shivered as well, but it was not from the cold. Her eyes shone as she stared at the figure of Elsa in the ice. The queen continued, oblivious to the fact that her sisters were watching from afar. "From the time we were small, Letha could never control her magic. She could never summon it. It appears that now that has changed."
"Your sister is playing right into my hands," Letha said incredulously.
"Our sister," Anna corrected her, and Letha fell quiet again, as if unsure what to say to that.
"Princess Anna and I traveled up the North Mountain, where we suspected our forgotten sister was staying, and found her at the summit. We found her there, in a castle of ice, but she was not herself. This winter is her doing."
The crowd erupted in chaos. Anna didn't need magic to sense their fear. Letha tipped her head back, drinking in the fear, the panic, lips parting in ecstasy as their terror poured into her veins. Anna watched with a sort of horrified fascination as her older sister's eyes glowed, slitted half shut as the breath left her lungs, returning in something halfway between breathless laughing and sobbing, the rush from Arendelle's panic bringing her the bliss only an addict can have, and Anna began to understand just how badly Letha was caught in her own web.
Elsa's voice shouting over the clamor from the ice sphere brought Anna's attention back to the scene within. "Please, listen to me!" she shouted, making herself heard over the noise only by way of her exceptionally strong voice. At last, she managed to get the crowd to quiet down. "Listen! Letha is still not fully in control of her own magic. She still struggles to summon it. But we know now what gives her strength, what gives her control: fear. Other peoples' fear feeds her. Your fear feeds her. She is weak, because her magic depends on others. Do not fear her. She has a castle of ice, it is true, but it is broken, splintered, its walls held up by desperate, failing efforts to keep them there. This winter is her doing, yes, but it is no snowstorm, no blizzard, and we can keep it that way. Letha is not to be feared. Fearing her only gives her power."
"Where's the princess?" someone shouted, which seemed to Anna a rather random question to ask just then.
Elsa hesitated. "With Letha," she admitted, and the crowd buzzed again, voices crying out in distress. "She'll be returning soon," Elsa hurried to add. "Despite my attempts to convince her otherwise, she believes Letha can be reasoned with."
Letha turned on Anna, a frighteningly fierce expression on her face. "Is that true?" she hissed, but it was half laugh; she was still giddy from the power surge she had received.
"Half of it," Anna answered carefully. She recognized what her sister was doing – making the situation sound better than it was. She wasn't lying, per se – if Elsa had anything to say about it, Anna would be returning soon, and her words on Anna's opinions were completely accurate – but rather, omitting parts of the truth in an effort to avoid sowing panic.
Letha had obviously come to the same conclusion; she scoffed as her twin continued.
"As I said – please, try to remain calm," Elsa pleaded. "I will personally do my best to make sure that my sister will not harm you, or Princess Anna. This will be resolved. And I promise you that this is the only secret the last king kept from you, in an attempt to avoid causing unrest and fear."
Letha let out a half laugh, as if unsure she'd heard Elsa right. "Fool," she crowed, the sphere of ice clearing to glassy transparency as she stood, even though Elsa clearly wasn't finished. "She doesn't know what she's gotten herself into. She's only made them more fearful, lost their trust, made m-" She broke off abruptly, distracted from her rant, brow furrowed in almost childlike confusion. "What... is that?"
"What is -" Anna followed the Snow Queen's gaze down to the thin layer of snow at her feet. Lines in the snow, drawn by Anna's bored fingers, traced out tiny figures. The princess was no artist; she had no patience for it, but the shapes were clear enough: snowmen, big hills, sleds, skates, dolls, and over and over, the same three little girls, drawn with childish simplicity. One with one braid, one with two, and one with her hair loose, all three of them smiling and laughing and playing in every scene. "Oh. That. I don't know. I was bored... thinking, I guess. It's us, see? When we were little. Before my memories were taken away." Letha was silent, still, troubled, confused, even Anna could see that much. "We were happy," she added gently. "Remember? Even you, most of the time. Do you remember those dolls? We had so much fun with them. Gerda made them to look like us."
Letha stared down at the simple little drawings, almost as if she was trying to remember something. Anna petered off into silence, watching her, hoping for a positive reaction – any reaction, really. What she got, after several minutes of Letha seeming to have a silent argument with herself, was an abrupt and unexplained, "There were never any sleds," before the Snow Queen turned and moved away, quickly, hurrying, almost running.
"Letha?"
She stopped at the doorway, but didn't turn around.
"It really is cold."
A second went by. Two. Five. Both of them remained perfectly still, unmoving.
Letha vanished out the door, up the stairs, out of sight.
Anna sighed, slumping back in defeat. To her surprise, her back came up against something soft – cold, but soft. She turned around to find an enormous mound of snow taking up almost half her cell, which most certainly had not been there before. Confusion lined her face for a moment, and an old memory resurfaced suddenly.
"See, Anna?" the little girl said with a triumphant grin, without a trace of darkness in her hair. "It can make you warm, if you wait long enough."
Almost as if in a trance, Anna set to work, packing the snow as she dug into it, making herself a small cave with a smaller opening, built like Elsa, with her love of architecture and geometry, had taught her, so that it wouldn't fall down on top of her. She crawled inside and within minutes, she could feel her fingers and toes again. She sighed happily, her courage renewed by the tiny act of kindness.
There was hope yet. She could feel it.
Perhaps there's hope. Perhaps Anna's just foolishly optimistic. We'll see next chapter, won't we?
Reviews, please! Thank you for reading, and I'll see y'all next time. ;3
