Even after the steel was removed, Elsa continued to writhe and scream and fight, her mind overcome by the pain, instinct kicking in and telling her to attack back. Her eyes were wild with terror, a truly primal fear shining in them, a need to survive.
The guards came to deal with her quickly after, picking her up kicking and screaming, dragging her along the dirt back to the room, where she was roughly shoved inside. She let out a cry of fury as the pain grew even greater, and then she collapsed on the straw, suddenly too weak to fight, ending up a sobbing mess on the thin straw floor.
"Elsa!" Odd's relieved cry was loud in the small room, though it was barely more than a whisper, as he rushed over to help his poor wife, who was still writhing in agony. Anna and Kristoff came closer too, although the children stayed behind, watching fearfully, except for Mia who simply wore a look of understanding and deep sorrow on her face. Nothing was truly registering in her brain, but it was possibly better that way.
Elsa moaned quietly as she thrashed about still wildly on the floor, completely out of control, her thoughts taken over by a primitive need to escape from the danger. As her family grew closer, warily, careful to avoid her flailing limbs, they could quickly tell what had happened from the faint smell of cooked meat; Anna gasped and began to sob along with her sister, while Kristoff remained absolutely horrified, and Odd bared his teeth, his hands clenched in rage.
It was at least half an hour before anyone could even get to Elsa once she'd finally began to calm down, the pain still torturous, but she'd at least stopped fighting. Odd was the first to approach her, gently placing his hands under her shoulders and lifting her up into a sitting position, to which she let out a yelp of pain as he accidentally brushed against her now red-raw skin, and he quickly backed up a little, in case he scared her any more, because he accepted that she'd obviously be jumpy after the ordeal. His heart ached, though, at now being able to comfort her any.
Anna came over slowly and she whispered quietly to her, gently. "Come on, Elsa," she said in a soft voice, "Come this way, so that we can see what's wrong." She offered her sister a hand, and helped guide her over to the sliver of light which crept in over the top of the door. She paused her there, and then she gasped even louder at what she saw. Kristoff and Odd came over too, and both were sickened that anyone could have done this to her.
"What is it?" Elsa whispered slowly, before coughing quietly. Kristoff shook his head, signifying that he had no clue, and Odd just muttered, "It looks like symbols, or something." Anna, however, frowned, and then seemed to notice something.
"Not symbols - they look like old runes," She said in a raspy voice, but her face was held in a frown. "I don't actually know-" She coughed for a second, before continuing. "Know how to read runes, though - Papa didn't see the need to teach me as a kid." She cleared her throat after speaking so much, the rough air attacking her throat, and she frowned as she tried to get the soreness to heal.
"That's because he... taught me. Describe them... please?" Elsa whispered nervously, with shaking hands and a quiet voice laced with pain as she spoke. The three adults with her looked at each other in concern, unwilling to cause her any emotional hurt to go with the physical agony of the burn, but Odd eventually gave in when his wife looked at him hopefully; though he couldn't understand how knowing what it said would ease her mind, he finally gave in, hoping that the knowledge would soothe her, because he knew how much not understanding could eat away at someone.
"The first, it's... it's sort of like a mix between a H and an N." He said slowly, coughing as the air ravaged his own throat - and thinking savagely that they'd probably end up wearing the skin of their throats raw from all the pressure. After he'd finished clearing his throat, Elsa nodded slowly, showing that she understood as she whispered that it was, indeed, the letter 'H'.
Odd looked over to Anna and Kristoff next, hoping they'd take over while he gave his own throat a rest, and the latter took over, for he hadn't been subject to the horrid air as of yet.
"The next one looks like an M," he said in a scratchy voice, though he didn't need to cough yet, luckily. Elsa nodded, and waited for him to continue. "And the next one looks like a C, made of two straight lines."
Anna quickly cut in here, pointing out that it was actually the same as a 'greater than' mathematical sign, before she finished off, saying that the last symbol was like an S, made of three straight lines.
"Thank you," Elsa whispered as she thought about what the others had said, and then her heart fell when she finished the translation. She let her head drop down slightly, as she hung it in shame and refused to make a sound.
"Elsa..." Anna whispered fearfully, not sure whether she wanted to really know what it said. "Please, speak to us?"
There was a pause before Elsa could find the words and the courage to speak. "It's a mockery of me, teasing." She said slowly, with even more pained words. "The runes are a disguise- they are hiding the truth. It's basically saying that no matter how things seem, the truth is ... though the runes seem artistic and nice, but their meaning isn't... isn't so nice." She took a breath, and then let it out quickly, as another tear leaked from the corner of her eye. "It's relating to my magic. Even if people accept it, it doesn't hide the fact that it's still evil."
Anna shook her head in frustration. "Elsa, you know as well as I that you aren't even remotely evil." She said firmly. "What do the runes say?"
Elsa shook her head, the truth of what hid in the symbols hurting her, but the words slipped out of her mouth anyway. "Heks," She whispered in her Norwegian tongue. She repeated a second later, slightly louder, shaking more and more as she believed it more and more. "Witch."
Odd frowned more at those words, shaking his head in frustration, as he banged it against the soft wooden wall behind him in anger. His fists clenched together tightly as he let out a low growl of annoyance, before Elsa gently touched her hand to his to calm him down, before quickly jerking away.
"It's fine, Odd." She whispered painfully, as she looked away towards the door of the cell, so that she couldn't see any of her family. "It's true; I'm dangerous. I'm a monster. Always have been."
Odd huffed. "It's no good if you let them get to you, Elsa," He said quickly, coughing once before continuing. "You're not a monster, and you never have been. Even when you froze Arendelle, you weren't a monster; you were just naïve because your parents hadn't helped you learn to control your powers."
Elsa opened her mouth to complain, but this time, Kristoff cut her off. "There's no point trying to argue that you are, Elsa." He said slowly. "There are two people on either side of me who-" A cough, before he continued. "Who have absolutely crazy stubborn streaks - Odd not quite so much, but still - and they know you're not dangerous. And so do I, or I wouldn't let Anna sit so close to you."
The said princess huffed quietly in annoyance that her husband would control her so much, even if it was for her safety, but then she realised she should say something too. "Elsa, your powers are amazing, and you know it! Besides, how can they be all that dangerous, when you've struck me twice and both times I've come out unscathed?"
"I nearly killed you, Anna. Twice." She whispered quietly, and her gloves began to grow cold from her magic, though no snow or ice erupted around the room. Anna frowned, and then reached out, slapping her sister's cheek scoldingly, but not hard enough to be painful, more of a shock than anything, for the poor Queen was undoubtedly in enough agony as it was with her shoulder.
"Oh, stop it, Elsa." The Princess snapped, suddenly getting annoyed, not in a harsh voice, but not as sweet and gentle as before. "Stop shifting into your old mindset with every. Single. Tiny. Critique! You're not dangerous, and you never were - we all just didn't understand. It was my fault, our parents' fault, even the Kingdom's fault, but not yours; our parents locked you away, I was the one that pushed you at your coronation, the Duke declared you to be a Monster, and our people just accepted it." She coughed loudly after her long rant, and her little fit didn't end for almost ten, maybe fifteen seconds. When it did, her voice was weaker, but they still held some of the firmness of before. "Your magic is beautiful, Elsa, and you're in control now, so stop being so ridiculous! Hmm?"
Elsa frowned at her sister's words, shocked at her sudden outburst. She didn't say anything in response, and Anna decided to try a different tactic.
"What about Mia? What about my daughter?" She demanded in a scratchy voice, "Is she dangerous? Is she a monster?"
Elsa's eyes widened in shock, as she stuttered nervously, "No, no, of course not-" in a broken voice. Anna grinned triumphantly.
"But you said it yourself, Elsa, when she was born - she'll be stronger than you some day. She probably is already, so surely if you're a Monster, then so is she?" Elsa felt nervous as she tried to think of a way to respond, and in the back of the small room, Mia's eyes widened as she whimpered, her previous numbness wearing off as her own Mother seeming criticised her. Anna felt her heart ache when she heard, but she hoped that she'd be able to make her see that she didn't actually mean it after the conversation; right now, she just had to get her sister to see sense again.
"Mia never froze her Kingdom, though." Elsa replied unsurely, and Kristoff was the first to offer a response to her meek argument.
"But then, Mia wasn't locked away for years, so she never had the chance to grow truly terrified of her powers." He said in a gentle, though scratchy, voice.
"Not to mention you managed to thaw an entire Kingdom in seconds, if what Anna told me was correct, and no one was hurt." Odd pointed out as well, and Kristoff nodded.
"Except Hans." The older Princess pointed out, and Odd chuckled.
"Except Hans, and let's face it, no one cares about him." He amended his original statement.
Elsa smiled weakly at the comment, finally beginning to calm down again at her family's support. However, she frowned as her shoulder began to twinge more than a second ago, and her eyes shut tightly in pain as a fresh wave of burning agony overtook her body, a moan escaping her lips at the additional torture. Anna was quickly by her side again, holding her hand gently as she tried to calm her down, but Odd stayed where he was, frowning in both concern and thought. His mind wandered to what Anna had said about Mia being quite possibly stronger than Elsa, and his emerald eyes sparkled lightly through the darkness as he got an idea.
"Mia?" He called in a soft, though slightly rough, voice, and the young princess approached slowly, looking at him quietly.
"Yes, Uncle?" She asked in her small voice, and Odd softly pulled her closer to him, rubbing her back gently to try and calm her down, mistaking her silence for nerves, but she was still feeling the numb sense of acceptance she had before.
"Do you reckon you can try to use your powers for me, Sweetie?" He said gently, and the request did succeed in getting a little surprised and uncertain reaction out of her. Still though, she nodded slowly, as she scrunched up her face in concentration and tried to bring force her magic, visualising gentle snow falling gently from the ceiling, but when that failed, she tried to focus on creating a raging snowstorm in the room, but still to no avail. She gasped after perhaps twenty seconds, maybe a little more, but the only sign of any success was that her sewn-on gloves had gone almost-icy cold; this was, however, good enough for Odd, who gave a vague grin of triumph.
Carefully, he squeezed Elsa's hand softly. "This is going to hurt," He warned, as he beconned for Mia to come over, and as he locked his fingers with her - with Anna softly stroking the back of her other hand softly to reassure and comfort her too. Mia called up her powers again with a little difficulty as she came forward, then timidly came forward and rested her hands upon the general area of her Aunt's burn. As Elsa flinched away, she jerked back a little too, and Kristoff had to gently ease her hands back onto the red-raw skin as she began to feel a few nerves.
It was a few agonising minutes before the Queen finally began to stop twitching from pain, and eventually, she sighed in relief as the coolness of Mia's gloves soothed the burn. She let a tiniest smile of relief settle on her face, and when she turned around, she pulled her niece into a weak, one armed hug, careful not to move her injured shoulder too much.
"Thank you, Mi." She whispered gently, though her throat was not only scratchy now from the air, but incredibly dry from thirst. Still, she tried to ignore this, hoping her captors would have the decency to give them some food and water soon, and allow them outside for a quick stretch of the legs, and a hurried toilet break.
She looked up slowly, suddenly realising the task she now had at hand.
"I've got some news." She said cautiously, and coughed a little, actually grateful for the seconds it took to put it off slightly. "And you're not going to like it."
It's crazy - I've been rereading Frozen Powers I, going through it for mistakes etc so that I can post it to Wattpad, and I never realised quite how much less dark it is than its sequels... Wow. It's so weird, but it's quite nice, going through it and realising how much stuff I forgot about. Like, does anyone remember that Anna had to go to Corona to take the King and Queen's place when they died, because Rapunzel and Eugene were missing? I certainly didn't recall that!
Also, there's currently a 'Disney Fanfiction Award 2015' being hosted by a person on the wattpad website (if you search 'Disney Fanfic Awards' in Google it'll probably be there) so if anyone happens to have a Wattpad account, or has free time to make one, I'd appreciate any votes for my story! But only if you think it's worth a vote, though!
Another thing, I'm making a promotional video for the series to post onto youtube, and I was wondering if anyone could make some art for me to include in the video? It doesn't have to be amazing, and you don't have to do loads - whether it's just one, or more, I don't mind. The only thing I will say is that it must good enough so that people can recognise what it is (so, if it's Seier, it can't really look like a giraffe...)
If anyone can help out, I'll be so grateful, and I'll make a list of everyone who does on the video and here!
One last thing, Jealouswayward is writing a fanfic for this fanfic about Seth - keep an eye out for it!
Love y'all!
-SG