Hidden Past, Secret Future, Broken Present - Offlined

by Queen Awinita

What if, Just after her seventh birthday, and three weeks before here unfortunate accident with Anna, Elsa and Anna were kidnapped from their parents royal flagship ? Stripped of their memories only with their names & knowledge of Elsas ice magic, they are adopted by the citizens of Warforge; Unknown to them all, their mother Idun searches each day for them. UNDERGOING REWRTITE

10. This One Leads to the 11th

Hidden Past, Secret Future

Chapter 10: This One Leads to the 11th

July 3rd 1987 Three days East of Arendelle

Kethends Compound

Kethends bedroom

Just after dinner

CRACK

Kethend laid on her bed, for once, she was completely relaxed, she was reading over a cargo manifest when she first heard it, her eyes shot up and towards the nest, A happy smile graced herface as she spotted a long thin line appearing on the massive egg. Her eyes lit up. She howled a happy sound, swiftly changing to her natural shadowdragon form "Draco! My beloved! They're coming! Our children, they're hatching!" Kethend sprang from her bed and scrambled in joy to the nest side as the crack grew on the first egg, the largest egg for that matter.

There were five eggs in total, one of them quite small for a Shadowblack Dragon, but even then, Kethend knew in her heart this was her family, her little babies, their children! Her heart hammered in joy, She was becoming a mother! This, this was what she wanted.

Draco entered the room, not scowling for once; an actual, honest smile on his face. "Go, my dear...be the first they see." He said to Kethend as he sat next to her. Like many other animals, Dragon Hatchlings needed to imprint on something to be their mother; even Draco's offspring were no different. He placed a hand on Kethend's back and nudged her gently towards the nest as another egg cracked open.

Small, high-pitched whines began to emanate from the eggs as they cracked open one by one. Draco felt his body heat up; his children had healthy lungs...they would be able to do so much with their lives. So much with their bodies that he, himself, could not. They'd be much more powerful than him; after all, his fight with Xeir Zith left him crippled long ago.

Kethend smiled and nodded, Draco was right, she had to be there, but so did he, they were his children too! Her heart soared at hearing the cries and wines, one of them, the smallest egg, the quietest. Finally after what seemed an eternity the largest egg came apart and a solid blackscaled little dragon with bright eyes poked his head up, the top of his egg like a hat of a sort as he blindly looked about before falling out of the egg around him. The little guy went about the nest finding some of the meat Kethend put there and started eating, then it smelled Kethend on the meat and started sniffing around for her in a very cute manner as the next egg broke apart and the little boy in it pretty much fell out of the nest at Dracos feet.

The bright green eyes were blind for a few hours, but feeling someone within reach the little hatchling reached up to Draco screaming "MOMMA!" Thinking Draco was his mother when he was in fact his father.

Kethend held in a chirp of laughter as the next two eggs of the five broke at the same time, two girls fell out, same sized, brights eyes and all. now there was the last egg, the smallest egg, Kethends eyes went to it, it rattled and cracked, then fell over, then stopped moving. Kethend was nervous now, she knew that inside the eggshell was nutirial liquids for the hatchlings to eat and drink, but it was possible for them to drown...

So why wasn't the last egg...

Draco looked at the Great-Dane sized Hatchlings and smirked. His hand went to the newly hatched male's chin and pointed it towards Kethend, before waving his hand away in a circular motion towards Kethend; making his scent blend with hers until he pulled his hand away, and the scent was entirely hers. Now the blind, green-eyed baby boy had his head on her claw while his own went out to grab Draco's arm; since the Ancient Dragon was still in his human form.

"No, no!" Draco pulled his hand away, reapeating the trick he'd done, but faster so that he couldn't be grabbed again. "That is your Momma." He said softly as he backed away, shifting like mist into his Dragon-form, where he laid off to the side, observing. After a few seconds, he blinked. The smallest egg wasn't hatching. He looked at the distraught look on Kethend's face and let out a soft rumble from his throat.

The rumble shook the palace to its foundation, and also made the egg wobble again, chipping one of the rocks making up the side of the nest ever so gently, and causing a crack. From there, the hatchling inside began to emerge, unharmed, and finally crying the loudest of her siblings.

"All of them...healthy lungs." Draco commented proudly.

The last egg rattled madly then, the rount of the five hatchlings within, her cries briefly ceased and the egg just wobbled a bit when... "ACHOOOOO!" it shattered like a small bomb as the hatchling, a very tiny girl compared to her much larger siblings, was tangled up in her wings and tail on her back as her egg pretty much exploded from her sneeze. Apparently her fathers rumble actually woke her up from drowning in the nutrients within the egg that nurtured her within it. as she was still soaked with it.

Kethend was overjoyed, to say in the least she was unable to really speak as she stared at her children, a proud happy mother. Finally she spoke as the tiniest, the runt, went for the meat, only to get pushed away by the twins, who were in fact pretty much twice the tinest's size. kethend speared a piece of meat and gently picked up the littest one, hand feeding the infant. "Yes" She said softly, "Healthy lungs, beautiful coloration!" Sure they were black dragon hatchlings, but still, it was the eyes she meant. She nodded to the little one that fell out at his fathers feet. "I think he likes you" She said softly, the greeneyed little boy was munching on a piece of meat just within reach of his father.

Now came the question... what were they to name them ?

Draco looked to the boy at his claw and licked him softly, letting out a slow breath. "Indeed he does...I'd be rather sad if at least one of them didn't." he said calmly. With that, he gently picked the boy up to set him to eat with his similarly sized siblings. He observed all of them. "I think we should name our...little one, first." He said, not wanting to call the littlest one what she was: The Runt.

Kethend thought but a moment as she fed the infant in her arms. Finally she said, a tone of pure happiness, "Taris." She said softly feeding the tiny girl "Her name is Taris." Kethend knew, that from size alone she'd be picked on for being so small compared to her much much larger siblings. Kethend made a mental note to dote on Taris, and dote on the girl she would!

Now to name the rest. the greeneyed boy, still scarfing down his hunk of meat as Draco put him back onto the nest looked far too familar to Kethend, reminding her of something important, something so long ago it was lost to history. Their own births. Kethends eyes were amber, but Dracos, before becoming the Lord of Shadows, weren't his eyes brilliant green ?

"This one has my eyes..." Draco muttered, looking at the one witht he green eyes. "Or...at least...what they used to be." He said, nuzzling the child gently. He turned his massive head to his beloved mate, tail curling inwards as he began to relax. "What do you think, Kethend...shall we name him after me?" He asked calmly, nuzzling the boy again, who let out a rather...annoyed whine as he continued to try and eat his meat.

Kethend smiled and nodded, "Yes, yes that is a fitting name my beloved. We shall name him after you, after all, as you are the head of our happy family, I do believe in continuing our line, iyour line/i" Kethend said "This little one, Junior we may call him if you wish it. Can continue your bloodline, Just like Taris shall continue my own!" But the other three still needed naming.

Kethends's eyes trailed over the three, the largest one, a boy, now quite full stumbled blindly through the nest to his egg remains and collapsed to sleep, the egg shell flopping onto his head like a helmet, his snout poking out as he slept. The twins however fought blindly over the last piece of meat before Junior snagged it and dragged it closer to his father to eat as Kethend smiled.

Finally she had her family, the family she had always dreamed about.

3 July 1987

Warforge

Wolfe Family Forge

Dusk

KLANG KLANG Flip the sword over KLANG KLANG Flip it over again, the mantra went through her head as she hammered away at the fifty eighth sword of the order out of sixy. She flipped the sword over again, once more hammering it out. Dinner, raw fox meat for the most part, lightly cooked, was perfect. But now she was focused on finishing that order before full dark when the merchant was to return. She was not expecting anyone to enter the forge, hell the building was closed. The only people in there were her father, at least, he was until he left a few minutes before, Mark, who as far as Elsa knew was doing inventory or looking for more metal or mostly done blades to make into weapons of art.

Outside the shop two women stopped, Idun looked at the door, it said they were closed, But the snowman guide, Olaf, wandered right up to the door, and at his stick fingered touch, the thing opened without hinderence "I think she's in here!" They'd been to twenty different shops, and not one of them had information the two sought. this was the last shop, the last Clan Forge it was known as. And it was, in a word, very big.

Looking up at the forge building, it was rather big, biggest they'd seen for sure. "This is the last one, each shop directed us to this one. That was hours ago." Tiri said softly

Idun nodded and looked towards the door that Olaf disappeared into. "Yes, they said as much. But it's our last chance, come on" Idun lead the way in, Tiri right behind, closing the door behind them Idun stared, enthralled at the pure beauty of the weapons that surrounded them. Tiri scampered to a rack of weapons and started through it, unwrapping the hilt of the blade she carried to compare the weapons.

"Did you find anything ?" Idun asked as she walked among the various weapons, halberds, spears, axes, hammers, mattocks, swords, shields, there were dozens of blades.

"Nope, none of these swords match the blade the shadowlings had with them nor this one."

"It might be a dead end on the sword, But its the only lead we have on my girls, and I hope it is truth and not a wild goose chase. Those two girls we spoke with in the market, that one, she looked like Anna would as an adult." Idun said thoughtfully

"It wont be, Somehow I know it, I think it was those girls we spoke with earlier. You think that one you kept staring at was Anna ? But as an adult ?" Tiri said thoughtfully.

"Possible, I could not stop looking at her, she looks so much like Kaedrians drawing for the poster" idun replied. "I hope its..." She was cut off from a shriek, her heart soared at the sound as she thought of one person, the only person who could scream like that! iElsa!/i

At that same moment

Inside the Forges of the Wolfe Forge

"Wow" Olaf said softly as he looked about before going into the backroom, so much heat, yet he never melted, it was as if he couldn't melt. Looking around he could feel the heat from the forges, the man never noticed him as he selected some metals and what looked to be mostly finished blades before heating them up. "So this is heat ?" the little snowman wandered further into the forges, around a smelter he spotted a small pile of white stuff. iAha, snow! Wait... snow ? YAY SNOW!/i Olaf thought seeing more snow and what had to be a Snowgie dancing around in it, perfect, now he iknew/i his maker... no, his imother/i was in there somewhere!

Olaf had just wandered around the last smelter, how many were in this place anyhow, when he spotted her. In all her beauty! Mom! Was the first word on his tongue... but instead of speaking right away, he watched Elsa as she hammered on a piece of metal, inlaying gems of varioius sizes and colors. He watched for a few moments mesmurised by Elsa's beautiful fluid skilled movements, the rise and fall of the hammer, the intent careful observence of each hammer whack. All of it

Finally he couldn't hold it in any more and walked right up to her.

"Hi Mom!" He pretty much yelled dead in her face, Elsa stared for a brief heartbeat at Olaf's huge snowy smiling head that was between her and the sword she was working on

It did not have the desired effect he hoped for

Elsa shrieked.

Olaf screamed

WHACK went Olaf's head "Ah crud, not again!" Olaf's head splattered against the wall as Elsa held the hammer in a defensive stance as she watched as Olaf put himself back together, mostly. Her heart hammered in fear. this could not be happening, This snowman, she had made it, it found her! And those with her, he lead those with him directly to her!

Elsa stared at Olaf, Wait a minute, it called me Mom ? Elsa thought, clearly confused. "Do I know you ?" She finally asked as Olaf reassembled himself, minus carrot nose he looked every bit a cute snowman until he found the carrot and put it back on.

"You made me" Olaf said simply. Elsa looked at her own hands. This was insane! Sure she had made the snowgies, but this, this was different. "Don't you remember that ?" Elsa nodded at long last. This, she felt in her heart, this was what she was dreading. Whoever came with this snowman, iher/i snowman that she created, they wanted to talk. She set the hammer down on the anvil.

She knew in her heart, this order... it wasn't real. It was to keep her busy. But why ? Was it because of her fears ? This snowman ? Finally she asked after a mong moment, "Who came with you ?"

"Uh... two women, I kinda forget their names" Olaf said

"Where are they now ?" Elsa asked

"Back there I think" Olaf pointed back the way he came, the front part of the shop, the public space really, where she mostly trained as a child with Mark.

Elsa took a deep breath, setting her knuckles on the anvil of the forge, feeling the ice cold metal against her fingers, which felt like any normal anvil metal for all she cared or felt, the cold never bothered her, so why should it now ? She stood there, both hands balled into fists, her knuckles set against the surface of the anvil. How was she supposed to do this ? She barely felt her brother come to her side as she stood there, she shook, she was scared. She leaned on her brother, Looking to him she asked him simply. "What do I do now ?"

Outside the Wolfe Forge

At that same moment

Anna ducked back around the corner, her father and sister sat beneath a window leading into the forge, just beyond her father was the back door that they used to get coal or wood for the forges and smelters. Tthey went in, both of them. They were... following a snowman" She said softly. She was about to describe the snowman as the one they once built when they were younger when they heard a childish voice scream out, most likely to Elsa herself.

"Hi Mom!" Then they heard Elsa screaming louder then they ever heard her scream in their lives then something getting whacked, then "Ah crud not again!" Then everything went quiet, too quiet

Anna turned to her father, "Did someone just call Elsa, mom ?" She asked softly, this was too weird. Her father shook his head a hand to his mouth, motioning not to speak, merely to listen carefully. First signs of trouble, block the doors so no escape could be made. Anna and Marion both nodded and the three listened carefully through the wall as Marion sat up carefully and peeked through the window, seeing the two women in the shop. She nodded, they were both inside.

Within the Wolfe Forge

At that same moment

For long moments Elsa never moved, Even when Olaf went to the door and waited for her. Finally, after a few moments of careful thought, Elsa took a deep breath and let it out slowly. The Queen of Arendelle wanted to do nothing more then speak to her. Mark had said so himself. Turning to Mark she said simply, "I want you there with me. Please" To Olaf she said, "Can you... wait for ... me I guess... outside, please ?" Olaf thought a brief moment or so that the request to wait outside the building was strange, but in the end he simply nodded to Elsa and waddled cutely out the side door, on the other side of the forge building, away from Marion, Anna, and Marcus.

Finally with the snowman outside Elsa went to the door, she took another deep breath and let it out slowly. It was time to get it over with.

Turning the nob she entered the shop part of the building and went to the area where two women waited, this was not going to be easy as Elsa felt eyes on her the moment she opened the door. Elsa saw one of the women, in a dress very similar to her own, identical actually, other then the color, going through the swords on the various racks. Well, this was interesting. Elsa recognised the sword she had made over a week or so before in that major order. However as she turned her silver sapphire gaze towards the other woman she halted, Mark nearly running into her from behind.

Idun took in a sharp breath, seeing Elsa for the first time in eighteen years. She looked ready to fall over from either shock or joy. But instead she forced herself to remain calm, it was indeed possible that her children were both dead. But Idun refused to believe that. She had no idea how far from the truth her daughters apparently dead rumor was!

Elsa spoke first, directing her words however towards the woman searching the swords "Need some help in finding something ?" Idun had to stare, Elsa would have never spoken in such a tone or manner before should she had grown up in the castle! Much more gentle, less... authoritive, more princesslike. If there was such a manner, Elsa did not possess it.

"Nope, I think I know what I'm doing" Came the reply, which sounded, to Elsa at least, hauntingly familar, but she was not able to put her mind on it right away.

"You wont find anything like that blade, at least, where you're looking" Elsa replied calmly, "What are you looking for anyhow ?"

"Trying to match this blade, with some others of similar make, once I do that I can figure out where it came from, and if I'm lucky, who made it" came the Silver's calm reply as she went to another rack. Elsa knew where that sword came from, and who made it, but she looked to her brother, then jerked her head towards Tiri, as if silently asking her brother to take care of the customer with the sword. Elsa then turned all her attention on Idun, who never took her eyes off of her.

Crossing her arms, her scarred right hand clearly seen but also covered by the pale mostly sheer ice blue sleeve of her dress, Elsa spoke to Idun "Is there something I can help you with Ma'am ?"

"I hope so" Idun replied, then she introduced herself "I'm the Queen of Arendelle, Idun, this is my sister, Tiri. He was in Arendelle recently, you were with him were you not ?" Elsa simply nodded, not speaking. "I thought so, I hoped it was true. I see it was. To a point."

"Mark said you wanted to speak to me ? To us back in Arendelle. Why ? I take it that is also why you came here to Warforge ?" Elsa asked Idun nodded but at first did not say anything. which allowed Elsa to continue. "Your soldiers, they had a poster, with my face on it. Why ? Why are you searching for me ? What importantence am I to you ? I dont even know you, at least until now"

"Word reached me while in Arendelle that someone I have been searching for was in the kingdom. Unexpected yes, but anything like that is very good news after eighteen years of constantly searching for those I had lost at sea" Idun replied, Elsa looked at her, a confused raising of her eyebrow confirmed to Idun that something must have struck her. "My daughters, they were lost at sea and yet I held out hope, I still do. That they're alive, somewhere."

"Eighteen years is a long time" Elsa replied simply, obviously not liking where the conversation was going. Something about a pair of girls lost at sea struck at her memory, however.

"Yes, it is a long time, but I never stopped searching. When they were not on the ship I searched the sea for two years, and sent word to neboring cities and kingdoms, searching for them, my daughters. My family." Idun looked around the shop then, taking in all of it. "I wanted to speak to you because I wanted to ask you not only why do you look like my oldest daughter as an adult, but... why your brother said to me the names of his younger sisters." Elsa cast a look to Mark who was watching with both ears and half an eye, so to speak. Ready to jump to Elsa's defense at the last second should she need his aid. Idun withdrew a roll of paper from her pack. She handed it to Elsa, "Your brother there, confirmed my hopes when he said your names."

Elsa took the poster to a nearby table, in the back part of the shop behind the counter and unrolled the missing persons poster and then stared at her own face, hand drawn yet perfectly matched, well, almost perfect. The only things missing from her face on the drawing were the scars, and dirt, but mostly the scars from the forges and sparks from making swords, Elsa never forgot the first sparks that bit into her skin and forehead as a child, making small cuts and mar marks along her brow. Her father said it made her look more a blacksmith then a normal visiting type child in the town as it was. But it was the writing on the poster that had her undevided attention. She stared at the date, date born, date missing, both of them, the date missing was two days before her date of adoption!

It was impossible! But no, it was iher/i face on that poster. this woman carrying it, in the contact information area, that was her mother ? The woman before her, the woman that searched to speak to her, was her birth mother ? Her true mother ? Elsa had no idea how to react, other then in complete shock or confusion. It was not until she was shown the poster with iAnna's face/i on it, in the same handrawn style as Elsa's own face was, that she said anything, "This is impossible."

"Impossible yes, but true, eighteen years may be a long time, but tell me, how was my Royal Healer able to acurately draw you, and Anna, so perfectly as adults when she never knew what you looked like to begin with ?" Idun said, she then removed something from her pack, a hair band of silver metal, little clearly glasslike yet made out of complete ice gems adorned the thing. She held it out to Elsa. "This was my oldest daughters, she had made it herself. She called it her princess crown." Elsa stared at the hairband. Memories assaulted her from all directions.

Briefly she saw a little girl and her mother, the child held in her hands a silver and white hairband.

"Momma look what I made! my own crown! Now I am really a princess!" the child said happliy putting the 'crown' on her head to show her mother, the ice gems glittered brightly.

The mother was equally overjoyed "You're learning sweetie! This is wonderful, have you shown your father yet ?"

The little girl shook her head "Not yet Momma, I wanted to show you first! But it wasn't all my work, the Royal Jeweler helped me, the crystals are mine though!"

Then another memory, this time shortly after her and Anna's adoption. She saw herself, with Mark, searching the docks and the water for her missing hairband she had made. But never finding it. Elsa had thought it lost for ever

Until she was seeing it in Idun's hands...

Snapping out her scarred right hand she snagged the hairband from Idun's hand, looking it over carefully, more memories assaulted her, of her dispair at not finding the hairband with her brother and her swimming for days until she had to force herself to give it up, to let it go. But now she had it back. "I thought this was gone forever when I could not find it in the sea" Elsa said softly. Idun however heard Elsa's words clearly.

"Dont you see it ? Eighteen years ago my daughter, Elsa, had just turned seven, we went to a friend on a island to celebrate, he invited us there along with other nobility. Can you not see it ?" Idun asked as Elsa turned away, trying to keep herself composed as snowflakes started to float around her. It was getting harder to control the onslaught of memories, both true and most lilkely dreams. "Can you come back with me, I know of someone who can perform a test, to be sure its true. In my heart I know its true, but."

Elsa took a deep breath, her back to Idun, finally she said while looking at her hairband, the hairband ishe had made as a child/i in her hands. "Eighteen years ago I and my sister were rescued by my brother and his friends. Boys my age and his. His mother and father adopted us the next day, and gave us a home. A family; a purpose." She started walking, going to the back, to the forges. She needed to work on a sword, she wanted to work on a sword, she wanted to make sense of anything. Idun however followed her, she watched quetly as Elsa picked up a rather ornate sword and got to work. "For eighteen years I learned how to make a sword, how to sell a sword, how to defend myself with a sword. But now. you are telling me... I am not what I learned ?"

Idun simply watched as Elsa looked over a blade, it wasn't finished, she stuck it back in the forge. When Idun did not answer she turned to the woman, "What am I to you ?" Elsa asked the Queen of Arendelle, point blank. it was just the two of them in the forge, her back to the forge, which with the ice cold sword was making popping noises behind Elsa

"I pray in my heart and mind that you are my daughter, my eldest child." Idun replied. Seeing that Elsa had put on the hairband. It actually looked quite pretty in her hair, even moreso as Elsa was now an adult.

"Humor me for just a moment, if you will" Elsa said raising her left hand thoughtfully. "Let us say, for the moment, that it is true, that I'm your daughter, what happened for me to show up here, in Warforge, with my sister, without our parents ?" This was mostly a test as Elsa was scared, but she also wanted to be sure. Her nightmare, no, iher memory/i, was replaying in her head again. And if Idun said what she was mentally seeing was indeed the truth, a bad memory and not a nightmare...

"There was a storm at sea, in the chaos a cannon was broken loose from its anchors. It smashed the bed my daughters shared, and in doing so, broke through the hull of the ship, the bed scattering upon the sea. We never found them." Idun said, remembering clearly the horror of waking up, her daughters missing, Anna's bed untouched, and Elsa's bed completly destroyed by the canon which by then had sunk to the bottom of the sea, the bed broken and hanging and scattered on the sea.

Elsa remembered it all, it was exactly as her dream, her nightmare the night before. She clinched her right fist. This was not good.

It was then she realised she wanted to be alone, no, not wanted, needed to be alone, she needed to think over this new revelation carefully.

It was then that everything up and went to hell in a handbasket.

The forge behind Elsa exploded with redhot energy, it was her brothers forge she had stuck the ice cold sword into, not her own! Coals white hot exploded like tiny bombs, some of them spilling from the forge to the floor where they continued popping. But it was the pain that suddenly struck Elsa as the now red hot sword exploded from the forge, In her haste to defend Idun from being struck, Elsa smashed the blade with her fist as hard as she could out of reflex, her ice forming a thin, useless barrier against the red hot metal. Searing pain and the smell of burnt flesh filled her senses as Idun screamed something. Swearing to herself mentally Elsa gave a pained look to Idun and fled the forge through the back door, and once outside, she headed straight for the woods.

"Elsa, wait! " Idun called out after Elsa as the girl fled the Forge and was about to follow when Mark and Tiri arrived, Mark stepped up in front of Idun his strong arm barring the way, he shook his head to Idun when she looked at him and was about to say something to him, it was his look that told her to keep quiet, he briefly knew one of the places where Elsa had gone, or at least he hoped he knew where she was going to be later. Only Tiri saw another woman chasing after Elsa, recogsnising her as the woman she had spoken to earlier that day in the market

Warforge, Wolfe Family Forge

In the Shop

At that same moment

Tiri went back to searching the weapon racks, The silver cloth she had used, from her own cape in fact, was wrapped around the sword as the hilt was visible only. She was comparing it with other blades to the weapon, trying to match the hilt with those weapons there. Well, no luck yet. She listened as her sister spoke with the apparent shopkeeper. Though Tiri had yet to fully notice how similar they were dressed. Muttering softly she went from one sword to the next, holding the hilt up to compare with other swords with it. Still no luck.

Mark noticed that the woman, dressed similarly to his sister, appeared to be looking for something. His eyes flashed bronze lightly before returning to normal and he walked over to her. "You appear to be looking for something, Ma'am. Anything I can do to help?" He asked calmly. He trusted his sister to keep...her apparent mother busy long enough for their father to get there and sort the whole thing out.

Mark glanced to the hilt of the sword that Tiri held in her hand. That...That was one of Elsa's personal twin swords! Made from iDuradaeden/i, no less. How...how was this woman one; In possession of it, and two, holding it without cutting her fingers off? Mark didn't dare hold it the way she was for fear of losing his arm to the sheer sharpness of the blades.

Regardless he returned his attention to Tiri; she acted as a customer, and if he was to inherit the forge, or at least part of it, he'd better act like he'd been taught to whilst working with a potential customer.

At first the woman did not look to Mark right away, holding the sword hilt to several different blades, completely ignoring the axes and spears and other similar weapons. There was no way this was even a dagger. Finally she spoke "Perhaps you may be of service." The Princess replied, she turned towards Mark, aside from her silver dress, which was, in design alone, identical to Elsa's own ice blue gown and sheer cape, her hair similar yet unbraided, a bright silvery hue. her eyes of deep silver or platinum. "I am trying to match this blade, with another like it. Or at least find the maker of it"

She held up the iDuradeaden/i blade that Elsa had made, it was part of a pair. Elsa hadn't noticed the weapon missing yet. Assuming one of the blades they were to sell was the stolen weapon. When it was in fact, not the blades they were to sell, but her own deadly unbreakable blade. "A shadowling carried this weapon. None of us can use it, for one thing it is too cold for any of those in my home to touch, or even try to carry. And two, even if one of us were able to use it, it is severely unbalanced. As if it has to be held with a similar blade in the other hand." The blade was wrapped in silver cloth, much like how Elsa had wrapped both swords in snow woven cloth when she had made them.

There was little sparks of silver energy on Tiri's fingertips, keeping her hand protected even through the cloth. She held the weapon towards Mark, the Silver Dragon princess looking alarmingly like his own sister. "Do you know who made this blade ?"

Mark tried not to smile, yes, he knew exactly who had made that sword. Fuck he wouldn't dare touch the blade with his barehands evne if Elsa handed it to him for a brief moment or two to begin with! "That depends" He said simply and as she looked at him, as if asking on what, he continued, "On what you want the maker for."

"This weapon is too cold for anyone to use, there is but one who could master such metal, such cold." Tiri said calmly in reply.

"And that is ?" Mark asked softly, giving the Silver Dragon Princess of Arendelle a calm, calculated look. "Who ?" If she said his sisters name...

"My missing niece, Elsa." Tiri said, "My sisters eldest daughter, of two."

Mark raised an eyebrow. Oh boy, this shit again, or was it really true ? That Elsas mother was there in their forge as promised ?

Tiri saw his raction, turning towards him she said simply "You know who I speak of dont you ? Ahah! Dont deny it, you know her, somehow you know my niece!"

"Who is denying what ? Look you want to buy a sword or no ? Who are you anyhow to come in here like this ?" Mark asked, this was too much, these people wanted his sisters HIS, Elsa and Anna were HIS sisters, and nothing and nobody was going to take them away from him or his parents or Marion at all, ever.

"You reaction alone proves it!" Tiri all but crowed in Marks face. Giving him a pointed look she crossed her arms, the sword still in her right hand.

"Proves what ? That I know an Elsa ? Yes that's true, my sister is named Elsa. And that's her sword you're holding, no idea how you managed to grab the thing, if that. I dont dare touch the thing." Mark was at his wits end, this woman was crazy

Tiri went oddly quiet as she watched Mark for a moment more. "You know my niece ?" Her gaze went to the blade in her hands. Then briefly to him before spotting an old drawing on the wall behind the counter, over Elsa's head as she spoke with Idun behind the counter

"I dont know your niece, all I know is my sister, Elsa, she made that sword. That's her sword, well, one of them. How did you get it ? Answer me that and maybe I will tell you what I dont know." yeah, like he'd tell her.

"A Shadowling carried it." Tiri explained, "I bested the two, but as I banished them, one dropped this on the grass, it froze the ground when it touched it"

Mark raised an eyebrow. Taking Tiri by the shoulder he went to another part of the shop, away from the counter, andspoke to her softly. "When we were in Arendelle, my sister, Elsa and I, Your soldiers scared her, they had her face on a poster. She took off because she was scared they'd take something from her. A symbol, her necklace. Had any of those soldiers touched that necklace she'd have killed them or beaten them down to take it back. And now, you have one of her twin swords. Why ? Why are you using that weapon to find my sister ? Are you even sure she is your niece ?"

"My sister lost her girls eighteen years ago in a storm at sea. Their bed was destroyed by a cannonade broken free during the storm. Idun had the ship stop, and carefully searched it. The last eighteen years she never gave up hope of finding her girls. Her children." Tiri explained to Mark exactly what happened the last eighteen years. From the storm at sea, to the loss of the two girls, all the way to the fighting the two shadowlings and finding the sword and then coming there to Warforge. "Idun thinks she found her younger daughter in the market here. I for one hope it is true they are here to begin with."

"And why is that ? It still does not explain why iyou/i are even so much as touching my sisters sword. She does not let anyone near those swords" Mark said, already starting to loose his cool with this woman, who looked impecably like his own sister Elsa, that alone made him briefly stare at Tiri before asking simply, this time as calmly as he could. "Why do you look like my sister ?"

That question caught Tiri off her guard. She looked a moment at him, unsure how to reply before saying. "How do you mean ?"

"The way you look now, your hair, braided similar to my sisters, though her hair is more white, yours looks... silverish, your dress as well is quite similar if not identical to my sisters own blueteal dress. Only yours misses the cape." Oh fuck why did he say that ?! it didn't matter. Tiri seemed confused as to what he was saying. "Then there's your... sleeves, my sister does not have what looks like scale armor on her sleeves. Nobody, not even I can get close enough to land a mark on her during training" Though, he kept to himself that she had managed on many occasions to knock him off his feet, Just like Marion.

Tiri crossed her arms, the sword held in such a manner allowing her to think for a moment, "Idun thought she saw Anna in the market, her daughter, her second child out of two. She was with another girl, a young woman niether of us have met before. They directed us here, to the Family Forges they called them. Idun could not take her eyes off of Anna in any manner." Tiri glanced towards Elsa, noticing then what Mark meant on why did she look so much alike to Elsa in the first place.

Elsa, Tiri noticed, was like herself, strong and capable and clearly skilled with swords and their making. She saw also on the girls right hand scars and burn marks, possibly from the forges, or something else entirely. Tiri couldn't tell for sure exactly what caused those marks to adorn Elsa's right hand for the rest of the young girls life. After a long moment of quiet, watching her sister, and her niece, talking behind the counter before leaving the room to go deeper into the forge Tiri turned back to Mark, softly asking "What happened to her ?"

The question had Mark think carefully before answering. As it originally wasn't his place to answer such a question. He himself had no idea how his sister got the scars, one night she did not have them, the next day she did. Without complaint at that. "I do not know" Mark replied truthfully to the Princess of Arendelle, "One night, about ten, maybe seventeen years ago, we went to bed, she did not have them then, I had business with Mother in the city proper, when it came time for dinner that day Elsa had the scars on her right hand, Father said it is worse up past her elbow and also her right side. Elsa wont tell me anything of how she got the burns and cuts. But she does not complain about them either." He watched his sister leave his sight, Idun with her. "One day she will tell me" He said before turning back to face Tiri, "Or maybe she'll keep it to herself to her own grave. Who is to tell ?"

"You still have no answered my question" Tiri said,

"About what I am apparently trying to deny ?" Mark answered with his own question

"Exactly. What are you trying to protect, to deny ?" Tiri pressed

Mark took a deep breath, to tell this woman what he knew as the truth, or not ? He chose to tell the truth. Something about the woman, the fact that she looked exactly like his sister and that she carried his sisters sword in her hands, made him pray his honesty policy was well paid up. "Eighteen years ago a ship, burning, came to Warforge, I was but a boy then, just past nine years of age. The vessel belonged to a pirate, There was nothing of value upon the vessel save for two young girls. My sisters. they did not cry for their parents, nor did they act scared, They were alone, and one could see in their actions they were worried of never getting food or shelter, or a family. Just the two of them, locked away in the ships brig, left alone. My squad, some boys and a few girls about my own age, along with some of the older kids and teens, had stormed the ship. We got them off, and to here." Mark then reached out a hand to the sword the Princess of Arendelle carried, it belonged to Elsa, and she never let anyone touch the deadly cold iduradaeden/i blades.

Tiri took one last look at the sword hilt, and then handed the weapon over, the way Mark carried it was both a sign of either fear or respect, fear of the blade and what it could do, or the cold of it, and respect of its beauty and shine ? Tiri couldn't tell. She was about to ask then what the two girls he had rescued, and his parents subseqeuntly adopted when there came an explosion from further into the forge. Mark jerked his head in the direction of his forge. Had Elsa put a cold sword in it again ? taking the blade he carried it to its place with its twin behind the counter and slid the thing next to its twin before closing the drawer as Tiri darted to the back forge.

Mark followed, arriving just in time to see Elsa slap a sword from hitting Idun, earning fresh red cuts and burns on her right hand, holding a hairband of silver. iThat must be the hairband she tried to find when we were children!/i Mark found himself briefly remembering how distrought Elsa was when finding it missing and then unable to find it. Only to have it then ? He was about to say something when Elsa gave something of a pained look to Idun and took off from the forge out the back. Idun was about to follow, but Mark had noticed that Elsa was in such worry, again, she was leaving a trail of ice in her wake.

He held up an arm to stop Idun as she called out after Elsa, but Elsa never stopped, she just kept going. Running Mark could see, to get away, from what, he did not know. But when Idun looked at him, he could see that she was about to retort at him for stopping her when he shook his head, He never saw his own sister, Marion, take off after Elsa as he heard his fathers voice as his father entered the front part of the shop. Clearly complaining about how there was no shop keeper when there were customers to be waited on.

1 hour northeast of Warforge

Woodbattle Training Fortress

1 hour later

Elsa ran for all she was worth, never answering her mother, never even looking towards her father and sisters, heck never looking behind. As she ran she left a faint trail of both ice, and blood as her right hand bled freely, her mind was a complete and total mess. Memories colloided with the world around her, she kept seeing that woman, Idun, her apparent mother. Her own arms reaching for Idun, the sounds of tearing cloth. All of it. When she finally got to where she and her brother and sisters, and all the kids their ages trained in the woods for sieges and hostage rescues, She went into a room typically used for where the hostage was kept as part of training and collpased in a corner, her back against the wall, clutching her head, weeping.

Was her way of life, her family that she lived with the past eighteen years. Was it all a lie ?

Was she truly a Princess ?