8.
According to a big, golden, globe book, on the edge of a fjord, a deep mountain lake ringed by majestic peaks, the kingdom of Arendelle is a happy place. During the day, shopkeepers, fishermen, and ice sellers keep the city bustling. At night, the northern lights often light up the sky in beautiful patterns.
So then if that is the case why is the kingdom now a sea of white? The northern lights are nothing but the memory of the sea's foam. The shops are all boarded up, the fish having dived lower and lower into the fjord to avoid being frozen, and what of the the ice sellers? In particular one ice seller, indeed where is he now? Now that his trade is worth nothing, his love matting and plating the kingdom, the ice seller has nothing left to do other than ride, ride in hopes that he can still betray his trade and melt his product.
Therefore at this moment Arendelle is not a happy place. This desolate land that should be reveling in the throes of summer is bone white rather than the clear crystal of summer or even ice. And just like a castle hidden deep in the North Mountain, it is threaded with fear, fear of ice, fear of death, fear of a frozen life. Just now rather than the fear of a single self-indulgent girl, it is the fear of an entire self-indulgent kingdom, one that cares not who rules it, one that is looking for a hero no matter who that hero is.
Naturally the final scene of which the curtains should raise is this place, for the fjord was once seen as a gift of the gods. The fjord that blessed the kingdom with food, prosperity, and life, the fjord that could have at one time in the modest history of this kingdom been a pseudo-deified natural phenomenon is both the beginning and will undoubtedly be the ending of the kingdom whether it be due to global warming or the women standing in the middle of its dormant, frozen self.
As insignificant as the snowflakes that serve as both their background and foreground the two women face each other. One with braid unfettered and a sky blue dress belonging in an ice ballroom. The other garbed in clothes more suited for riding. She even has the tenacity to wear a bow and be armed with a horsewhip. The last time they met they were both wearing ball-gowns. The time before that one had her hair in a bun and wore clothes one could ride in. The other wore that same ball-gown. So then nothing has changed. Nothing at all except now the one wearing the gloves has switched.
"I have so many questions," Elsa says in a defeated voice, "But yo… you're dead. I killed you. I killed you so then how are you here, alive. How are you right in front of me?" She shouts the last part.
Lorelei has her pride as a magus, however she also has the coolness to disregard those emotions. But, this setting is already cold enough.
"You believed that was enough to kill me Lorelei Barthomeloi [ruby=The Queen]The Supreme Magus of the Current Era [/ruby], Vice-Director of the Clocktower, Wizard Marshal, Leader of the Battalion of Kron, Head of the Alyesbury Investigation Team. Me, who is directly descended from one of the three original Lords of the Clocktower and is blessed with the attribute and moniker 'Almighty!?'"
What a ridiculous person is the sentiment Elsa uses to face that unfazed, now perhaps even with the hint of a snowflake in her eye. "Then why did you come back for me, who failed to kill you?"
Lorelei's mind goes back to after she decided what her course of action was. After retying her hair into her typical ponytail, she set off to the castle. Knowing that it would be guarded and not wanting to deal with having to use suggestion over and over again, she decided to go around the outside to where Elsa was being held. It was not hard, Lorelei only needed to find the coldest part of the area and blow a hole in the castle. Stony faced as always but not grinding her teeth she broke the bindings, roughly grabbed the queen and left. Just as well because the door in the cell leading to the castle burst open the very next moment. Lorelei did not catch a glimpse of whoever it was, however she was sure it was that Prince Hans fellow whoever he was. That was new though since Lorelei was certain he wasn't at the coronation.
"We have unfinished business," is her simple answer.
"Then let me ask you this," Elsa continues, "What… no, who are you? Are you even the Lady Lorelei Barthomeloi from London introduced to me at the coronation?"
"If not me who else would be she?" Lorelei barks, "Everything that I have said from your coronation till now has been true. I come from an organization that wishes to rent part of your kingdom. We contacted the trolls living here and have received their approval on the condition that the royal family also agree."
"Organization? You mean there are other people like you out there, other people like me, other people who are cursed?"
"Only a fool would think something like this is curse."
"But isn't it? Just look around you. All this is my fault. All this is something that I have wrought. If I wasn't cursed none of this would have happened."
"Indeed it is all your fault. Like I said before, you're just a self-indulgent girl pushing away her responsibilities. Because of that you feel guilty for all the pain, for all the suffering that you are causing these people. You thought that they would suffer less if you left and that would be good enough, but that's just wrong. It's not your fault though since you could never understand something like that. After all it doesn't bother you does it, the cold."
With a shard of ice in her voice, "No, the cold's never bothered me. You?"
The gust of wind that is her reply, "The cold doesn't bother me."
A hopeful smile, "I see, so we're the same."
The shaking of a head, "No, we're completely different. I'll never see eye to eye with someone like you."
"Then, one last question." Elsa breathes in. "Why did you follow me? Why did you attack me? Why are you here right now?!"
"Because I wanted to find something."
"Rather than letting something go?"
"No, I wanted to find the thing that is still there after one has let everything go."
That line.
"And did you find it?"
Lorelei nods, yes, she says, yes I did.
They both let the wind's howling fill their silence for a few moments. The one that was filled, the one who became empty, this is the obvious conclusion for the both of them.
"So what now." Elsa finally breaks the silence.
"Now," Lorelei grins for the first time, "We finish what we started."
Pressured with that heavy murderous intent, Elsa jumps back unsure what Lorelei just said. "What do you mean finish what we started. I… you…."
Lorelei clicks her fingers and magic missile sweeps past Elsa's face. That is her only warning.
"You can't stand me. I see it in how your arms tremble and the way that you look at me. So why keep lying to yourself?"
"Of course I can't stand you!" Elsa screams, "You're a monster. You disregard the general good for your own self-inflated ego. You come chasing after people who obviously don't want to be found and attack their way of life, their sense of values, and their bodies. Worst of all is how you look at people. It's as if you aren't looking at them as people, as if you don't care about their personalities at all. How… how can you be this cold?"
"Because I am [ruby=The Queen]The Supreme Magus of the Current Era[/ruby]. If you don't like that then come so-called queen. I'll take your wrath, I'll take your ice and snow, so show me the full force of this so called curse of yours. Come!"
The two familiars that are summoned with that final syllable immediately charge at Elsa, but without even blinking she slaps them both out of the way using the ice in the air. She doesn't smile to herself, but Elsa isn't worried considering that she has already defeated Lorelei once before. The conditions and the nature of her own powers should make this one easier than the fight in the castle.
Lorelei finishes chanting and launches an array of magical lights and wind at Elsa. It seems that the familiars only served as a diversion.
But casting behind a diversion just shows how desperate Lorelei is. Not that it even matters because Elsa is the strongest because she is the fastest. She erects a wall of ice in front of herself and then completely freezes it making it impenetrable. Lorelei's spells clash with the wall, some of the spells make tiny dents, some embed themselves in the wall but none can make it through. That should be obvious, after all Elsa's ability is not just making ice and snow, it is also the very act of freezing something which goes against logic or this world's rules. So then how is it that Lorelei's next attack carves a hole into the ice wall so deep that Elsa can see Lorelei and her raised horsewhip through it.
Elsa's eyes narrow. She doesn't have the time to consider what just happened, she just knows that the next attack will destroy the wall she's been hiding behind so she runs out of cover, and exactly as she predicted, a gust of wind comes from Lorelei and breaks down the wall she was hiding behind.
Amplifier. The orthodox support tool for a magus. Wands, jewels, even some ritual knives all fit into this category. These do as the name states, amplify magecraft. The horsewhip that Lorelei holds is also included in the amplifier category. Even if Elsa's psychic ability creates walls that Lorelei's orthodox magecraft can't penetrate, or rather because Elsa's psychic ability creates walls that Lorelei's normal magecraft can't penetrate through, all she has to do is amplify the spell and brute force through the wall itself.
Elsa isn't disheartened though. Even if for some reason Lorelei can penetrate her defense then all Elsa needs to do is crush Lorelei before she can attack. The image in Elsa's mind is all the snow gusting around them due the snowstorm gathering and crushing Lorelei, pinning her down with sheer force. All she has to do is utilize her curse to actualize such a miracle.
As if frozen in time itself, all the snow in a twenty meter radius stops. Lorelei lowers her horsewhip. She knows what is about to happen but she has no way of stopping it with her magecraft. And then with a simple gesture from Elsa all the snow falls into Lorelei as if she is the earth and they comets, previously streaking in the sky now drawn because of some ridiculous power of attraction.
However they will never reach their Earth because the holy mithril gauntlet repels the assaulting ice with its glistening.
Limited Function. Different from amplifers which generally amplify magecraft and one's ability to use magecraft, these have a predetermined ability. When activated with a magi's magical energy they actualize a certain mystery. It is said that a lot of Heroic Spirit's proof of heroism, their Noble Phantasms were originally of this type: a spear that stabs the heart no matter what, a horn that scatters harpies into the wind, and a pelt that turns one into a boar of myth. Lorelei's mithril gauntlet is also one of these. While it is not on the level of a Noble Phantasm, it is a supreme defensive armament that can even nullify the materialized curses of a Dead Apostle Ancestor's Demonic Sword.
Elsa can't believe what is happening. While it is true that during their fight in the North Mountain Lorelei was overwhelming her at first, but as Elsa understood her power more and more Lorelei was clearly outmatched. Yet right now how is she the one being overwhelmed?
Elsa rubs her head. She has the beginnings of a headache. While she usually gets these after an extended period of using her powers like after she created her castle, or when she fought Prince Hans's men after killing Lorelei, it seems the last thing she did took quite a bit of mental energy. Or is it the stress of continually using her power finally getting to her? But no matter, she puts the pounding aside and lets her feelings consume her. She had frozen her sister's heart, she knows that much. She was imprisoned in her very own dungeon, and her people called her a monster. So then she will become one, right here, right now, facing the person who irritates her the most, the root of her problems, she will become a monster for Lorelei Barthomeloi. Damn everything that stood in her way.
The answer that Elsa never reached though is Mystic Codes, the support tools of a magus that allow one to do feats of magecraft one cannot usually perform or do so more conveniently, and it is under this umbrella term of Mystic Code that amplifiers and limited function fall into. Since Elsa is not a magus there is no way that she would even consider that these are the reasons why the battle has changed to Lorelei's favor. Lorelei has battled many Dead Apostles, some even Dead Apostle Ancestors and she has defeated every single one of them regardless of their strange powers. So then the reason why Lorelei lost against Elsa the first time in the castle was because Lorelei was fighting Elsa as a magus. Lorelei believed that Elsa was a certain standard of magus with a certain standard ability, she graded her according and decided to use sufficient force to defeat her, to teach her as a magus. However a battle between concepts is not about what is more powerful, but a measure of which rule has fewer tears. For Barthomeloi who believed she was fighting a magus and therefore fought as a magus was obviously outmatched by Elsa who fought as a pure human against a fellow human. But now the tide has changed; learning that she is a psychic Lorelei now fights Elsa as a human using tools, while Elsa still fights as a human using pure human ability. Only the conclusion will tell which of the two has the least tears in their concept.
Ice and wind clash again for the twelfth time with the ice being beaten back again and again. The strain on Elsa's face is visible now. Yet she presses on, her determination rather than her power is what is impressive. She doesn't care about the pounding headache anymore, it's just that the annoying Lorelei won't fall down, so when she sees an opening, she stretches out her hand and from underneath Lorelei's feet spikes come up to impale her once more.
Lorelei jumps back without thinking, however that is exactly the reaction that Elsa has planned for. Taking advantage of her opponent being stuck in mid-air she "freezes" Lorelei.
But Lorelei just drops down landing a meter behind the spikes.
"I can see it you know?"
Elsa doesn't speak. She doesn't know why her powers aren't working, rather she won't believe that her powers, her curse isn't working. Even if they are something she detests they are still definitely part of her. So all she can do, all her mind will allow her to do is to put her arm up and try to freeze the Lorelei walking towards her once more.
Elsa blinks in amazement. What should have frozen doesn't. Instead, something else falls onto the ground. It looks like a Christmas ornament however the inside is glowing and the outside is covered in ice.
"So Pabbie was right. I guess even psychics have to manifest their power in some way. I wouldn't have seen it if it I wasn't actually looking for it, but a snowflake, it really is quite beautiful."
Lorelei raises her head so her eyes meet Elsa's blue ones. Elsa inwardly gasps; she didn't notice before but Lorelei's eyes are different. It is as if someone has lit a fire inside of them.
Mystic Eyes. Single Action magecraft that most first class magi possess. This is a form of magecraft that converts the eyes, passive receptors, into things that can actually interfere with the world. Usually magi can only convert their eyes into charm or whisper type eyes through artificial means. Truly powerful Mystic Eyes like jinx, or extreme luck, are an inborn sorcery trait or psychic ability. The vampires that Lorelei hunts naturally have enchantment type eyes though. However, even if Mystic Eyes affect the world around them, they can also be used to see spirits, auras, encapsulated souls that are part of a Reality Marble and other information that one's normal eyes cannot perceive. By lighting a fire in her Mystic Eyes Lorelei is able to see that whenever Elsa freezes something a snowflake appears wherever the thing is to be frozen. She is then able to counter it by firing unprocessed magical energy at the snowflake so the magical energy freezes instead of whatever Elsa wants frozen.
Elsa stops and breathes in. She tries to collect her thoughts amidst the swirling storm as well her pounding headache, but her mind is still awry. Rather than calming herself down all the emotions that she has pushed down now come bubbling up and she can't help it. No, maybe she doesn't want to help it. She knows that this is for naught, that she isn't this type of person, yet now, with the fury of nature behind her, with her kingdom under snow, and her sister most probably in the arms of some foreign prince she is wrath incarnate. All her pain and all her suffering converges to one point and the winds around the two grown manifold stronger as torrents of ice and snow now completely fills the landscape white. Like the picture of a polar bear caught in a snowstorm.
Frozen with fear, yet pushed along with unadulterated hatred for circumstance this snowstorm will be Elsa's final attack. Yes, everything she's got, that is what she will use to wipe that annoyingly arrogant half-smile off Lorelei's mouth.
"So, this is all your everything." Lorelei says. "Good, I'll accept it accordingly."
Then Barthomeloi family have had a rule for as long as they can remember. It goes along the lines of "win even while the battle is proceeding," and it can certainly apply to this situation. Facing Elsa's ice storm, the raw ferocity of nature itself Lorelei ignores all that and focuses on one thing instead.
That line.
Elsa howls, launching her final at Lorelei. If the maw of the attack is a white boar then the trunk is a giant. A storm of mythical proportions it would take a team of first class magi to create something like this. The winds grow strong enough that even the thick ice below them starts to crack and the ships that are frozen into the fjord start to shake, some even falling, breaking the ice even further. And right in the center of the storm is Lorelei, her face, for the first time these past days, peaceful.
That's right, because just an hour ago Lorelei found what was left. What is left of her when everything else is taken away. It is a tiny insignificance that she never found pride in, she even had rejected it for most of her life, but perhaps it is because she had rejected it for so long, isolating it, so when the Barthomeloi name and nature collapsed, it still survived. The Barthomeloi family have one peculiarity or rather it is an extension of their absolute aristocratic nature. They view the family name as their true name and their given name as merely an attachment having no relation to who they truly are. But for Lorelei who had lost everything, plunging herself in failure, being thrust off the route of perfection, losing every part of identity except for the seven letter word that would still bind her to herself even if everything else is gone. It was the beginning of her, and one day will be carved in her tombstone.
Yes, what she found was Lorelei. Her name. So that is why even if it was Barthomeloi who got out the chair, it was Lorelei who picked up the gauntlet and horsewhip.
Elsa's winds batter Lorelei and her ice seeks to shave the rest of her off. However the mithril gauntlet will do its role in protecting her and the horsewhip will amplify the Lorelei's current shields. What Lorelei seeks isn't to destroy the current phenomenon, but rather to accept it all, to take this attack and see- See what exactly?
That line.
Even if Lorelei found her name in the depths of her despair, a name is hollow unless there something attached to it. If there is no substance behind the name then one might as well not even have a name. So then if Lorelei is what is left when everything is gone, what is Lorelei? What makes her Lorelei?
"You're right, when I look at people I do not even consider their personalities. After all, aren't the ruling class and the working class exactly the same? Yes, in the end isn't a person's [ruby=talent]special ability[/ruby] worth more than any personality, agreeable or repungent?"
This is the line.
Lorelei likes strong people, as long as the person isn't a human leech. If number twenty is a collector of treasures and the former number ten was a collector of mystic codes, then Lorelei would be a collector of people, not in the same way the former-former number ten was a collector of animals though. Other than her profound hatred of human leeches that is the core of the person known as Lorelei Barthomeloi, the part that still lingers when everything else is lost and the explanation to this entire travesty. The question had always followed Lorelei. Why Elsa? Why did she follow her, why fight her, why did she even care about her?
Lorelei told herself that she couldn't stand Elsa, that her way of living was wrong and that she was a self-indulgent girl but that is just an excuse. No matter what, Lorelei couldn't let Elsa go, it is not the type of attachment like love or obsession. It is something much more natural for Lorelei.
Right, it is that line.
So right now, even if Elsa has admitted that she cannot stand Lorelei. Even if Elsa is indeed being a self-indulgent child, Lorelei doesn't care. All Lorelei cares about is seeing the extent of Elsa's power and whether not it stirs interest within her.
It's disgusting. It's abominable. For that reason alone Lorelei ended up torturing a girl, pushing her into a corner physically and mentally, first so that Lorelei could have a shattered mirror to find the name that she used to think so little of. And now she has broken Elsa out of a prison and forced her to fight once more to not only sate Lorelei's curiosity, but so Lorelei can deem if she is or is not worth of her attention.
Yet one cannot find a speck of guilt in Lorelei's face. Her face is relaxed and her teeth are no longer grinding. Instead that half-smile speaks volumes of how much Lorelei is enjoying this. She has found who she is and will now never let something that precious. It doesn't matter to her that she ruined the life of the girl in front of her. After all that is Lorelei Barthomeloi: the troublesome, lonely, [ruby=The Queen] Supreme Magus of the Current Era [/ruby] so there is no way she could lose to some self-indulgent girl's temper tantrum. The gauntlet covering her formerly bare hand is testament to that. She is no longer the raw Barthomeloi, but the Lorelei she has concealed herself with, the exact opposite to the repressed Elsa and the one which now rages.
So as a matter of course the storm passes. The wind is still howling and the ice still batters at her riding clothes but Elsa's power over it has slackened. In fact, Elsa is lying there on the ground, her only support being the weak arms that hold her up.
"So that was it? How disappointing."
Hot, angry tears gnaw at Elsa's cheeks. Why wasn't that enough? Why couldn't I win? Even unleashing the entirety of my curse, even letting go of all my emotions, why isn't it enough to beat this woman? All those questions circle her mind. She raises her arm trying to freeze Lorelei once more but the headache is too strong, and all she can do put her hand down before she loses who she is.
So Elsa lies there in the kingdom of ice and snow she rules and wrought watching Lorelei turn on her ankle and leave.
"Love." But Lorelei stops mid-turn, her ponytail flapping and says something on a whimsy.
"Love?"
"Something that can't be frozen, love."
"What does that mean!? Can't you ever say something straight? How can an emotion be frozen, how can an emotion do, mean anything against this?" She gestures to the bone white landscape.
Lorelei shrugs without any ill will and completes her turn to start walking into the snowstorm, away from Elsa's collapsed body. She's lost all interest, even in the mission that she was given. Yes, Lorelei Barthomeloi has found something far more precious.
So Elsa's pathetic figure looks on at the fading figure. The idiot who found the most insignificant thing in the world, something she should have never forgotten while ruining Elsa's life and leaving her to her death. Indeed, she can hear him now, Prince Hans running across the ice. In a few minutes he will reach her and as the hero of this fairy tale slay the monster with the princess. He is the Southern Isles embodied, the sun of the story. The sun that shines so radiantly that all the other actors seem dim. That is the existence currently behind Elsa. If is the case though, then Lorelei who is in front of her would be the eclipse that intruded into her fairy tale, the one who never took center stage but manipulated everything into this conclusion.
And trapped in the middle of their orbit, all Elsa can do is wait for her death. Powerless, alone, exactly the same way she has felt her entire life amidst the clashing of boots against ice and the gaiety of song.
Song?
"As I strolled out to Aylesbury t'was a market day" a bell-like sound and folksy tune.
"I met a pretty little girl as I was on me way." Ah, so Lorelei is singing.
"Her business was to market, with butter, cheese, and whey," a nostalgic tune even if Elsa has never heard it before. However as she listens to it more and more she feels hollow as if… Yes, her biggest regret.
"And we both strolled on together me boys, singing fol-the-rol-iddle-ol-day."
Ah, if she could only see summer once more.
