Anna's eyes snapped open.
Something had woken her. She tilted her head to the side to look out at the sky. It was still dark, silver shafts of moonlight were filtering in through the window.
"It's just me," came a whisper from next to the bed. "I'm sorry I woke you."
Anna had no idea how late it was, but considering how long she'd been tossing and turning before finally succumbing to sleep, she guessed that Elsa had stayed in the picture room for at least another couple of hours. Doing what, Anna didn't know, but she wasn't going to ask.
She felt her sister slide into the bed next to her, pressing herself into the younger girl's side, nudging her chin with a cold nose. Anna recognised it as a wordless appeal for comfort, so she turned, gathering the girl into her arms and holding her tightly. She felt Elsa's wet lashes against her cheek and the queen's breath on her neck as the older girl spoke, voice hoarse from her emotional tirade.
"How much do you remember of our parents, Anna?" She rasped.
The younger girl knew where the question had come from, but tried to pretend she didn't. "I remember a lot of things, I guess. Why do you ask?"
Elsa didn't respond immediately, choosing to let silence settle over them instead. After several minutes, Anna almost thought she'd regretted asking the question, when her sister's voice came again.
"Do you remember what mother was like?" Anna was becoming rather confused.
"Well, yes, I suppose so," she replied, waiting for her to elaborate. When no explanation was forthcoming, she decided to just continue with whatever came to her mind. "She was quiet. And kind…oh, and she loved chess!" Anna chuckled softly. "I remember her trying to teach me when I was younger, but I never had the patience for more than four or five moves. Most of the time I'd just snatch the little horse ones – what are they called – the knights off of the board and play with them instead." She moved a hand to lightly rub her sister's back, adding, "I feel like there's another question here that you're not asking."
She felt Elsa shrug under her palm. The display of aloofness was soon contradicted by a third question. "Do you remember how she smelled?"
Anna felt a tug at her heart, and she hesitated before answering the older girl. "Honestly? Not anymore. I mean, for a while after-" She inhaled shakily. "for a while after their funeral, I'd lie in bed at night and run through everything I could remember about them. The way mother's eyes crinkled when she smiled. The lilt in her voice when she read me my favourite story. How strong father was but how gentle his hands were." She paused, wholly unprepared for the sudden pang of loss that shot through her. "But months passed, and I found I could no longer remember the exact colour of her eyes without looking at a picture, or the smell of his cologne without visiting his study. And I panicked, because I thought I was forgetting them." She blinked a few unshed tears away. "It took me a very long time to come to terms with that. It felt like I was losing them all over again."
Elsa began to play with a loose thread on the redhead's nightgown. "I'm sorry you had to go through that alone."
The younger girl shook her head, "I didn't. Not really. Although I couldn't see you, I knew you were going through the same thing. And so all those times I sat on the other side of your door, even if you didn't say anything, I just- I didn't feel so lost. Because someone else understood."
Her sister made a noise that Anna couldn't decipher. "I don't think I did. Understand, I mean," the queen admitted. The younger girl furrowed her brow, waiting for her to clarify what she meant. "What you said before, about forgetting things after the funeral. I never felt that."
The queen shifted nervously. "I lost my parents when I was seven. When they died eleven years later…I didn't remember enough about them in the first place to really forget anything."
Elsa's words were hitting her with all the gentleness of a charging reindeer. Just like the epiphany she'd had watching the queen unleash her fury in the picture room, Anna realised that there was so much she still had left to learn about her sister. About the childhood that she spent locked in her room.
"I was so afraid of hurting them like I hurt you, that I just pushed them away," the older girl continued. "The time we did spend together was filled with father trying to give me advice and mother just staring at me with sorrow in her eyes." She exhaled sadly. "I didn't want to go to their funeral, because without seeing their graves, I could just pretend that they hadn't really died. That they'd just…stopped visiting because he had run out of advice and she could no longer look at me." Elsa moved a hand over her sister's chest, clenching it into a fist. "Sometimes I get so angry at them for not trying harder to find a way to fix me. And other times I miss them so much it tears my soul to pieces."
Anna wanted to say something, anything that would convey how sorry she was that her sister had never properly grieved for their parents. That she never got a chance to see them as the doting mother and father she remembered them as. But all she could come up with was "I miss them too."
The blonde's reply was an unclenching of her fist as she sighed, kissing Anna's temple before settling into her side again, closing her eyes and attempting to escape into sleep. The younger girl watched her sister for a few moments before trying to do the same.
Morning came too early for either girl, rays of sun illuminating the room seemingly mere minutes after the two had finally drifted off. No words were exchanged as they dressed, but Elsa was particularly affectionate, stealing several sweet kisses, as if she were trying to commit the feel of Anna's lips to her memory.
Finding Kristoff in the dining room, already halfway through breakfast, Elsa let him and her sister do the talking as she silently filled a plate.
"I have to make a delivery to Oaken today," he began, grimacing. "Guy needs ice for some bizarre cool room he's got up there. Guess he found the sauna less profitable now that our crazy winter's over." Looking at Anna, he asked, "You want to come along?"
The girl smirked. "Why? Are you afraid he'll throw you ten feet in the air again if I'm not there to protect you?"
"No," the man huffed. "Besides, you were there last time, and he still threw me out. And it was only two feet. At most."
"That was hilarious!" Anna said, laughing. "Alright, you've convinced me. I'll tag along. I really want to see what Oaken has up his sleeve for you this time."
Kristoff shot a playful glare at the younger girl. "He'd better not have anything up his sleeve if he wants that ice I'm bring-"
Boom
A muffled explosion cut him off. The ice harvester dropped his knife and it clattered to the floor. Elsa's head snapped up to find her sister looking at her in alarm.
"What the hell was that?" Anna blurted out.
The queen shook her head. "I don't-"
Boom
The noise came again.
Elsa's eyes went wide. "Oh no…"
She leapt up from the table, chair falling backwards and crashing onto the floor, and flew out of the dining room to the castle's entrance hall.
"No no no no no! Fuck!"
Anna raced after her, Kristoff in tow. "Elsa! Wait!" She yelled.
The queen just kept running, throwing the front doors open, heading for the docks.
"What's happening?!" The younger girl tried again. "Where are you-" she was stopped in her tracks by the sight before her, Kristoff skidding to a halt nearby.
The inlet that led to Arendelle's port was a war zone. Cannon smoke clouded the air as ships circled around each other, wooden debris already littering the water.
BOOM
The huge frigate from the Southern Isles fired its broadside cannons in a deafening chorus, splintering the hull of a brig flying Arendelle's flag. She watched in horror as the brig tried to ram the frigate, only to find itself of the receiving end of a devastating barrage of chain shots from Karl's ship, and its masts collapsed.
Anna's hand flew to her mouth. "Oh my god," she breathed. She heard Kristoff swear under his breath.
And Elsa's destination suddenly became clear.
Panicking, she started running again, desperately trying to catch up to her sister. "Elsa! Elsa! Stop! You can't go out there!"
The queen slowed, whipping around to point a finger at Anna, but with her gaze fixed intently on Kristoff.
"Get her somewhere safe!" She yelled. "Now!"
The younger girl felt the ice harvester take her hand, tugging her in the direction of his home. "Come on, Anna. We're getting a head start on our trip to Oaken's."
But Anna didn't hear him, her gaze fixed on Elsa's retreating form boarding the Valkyrie, yelling at the commander to mobilise the ship. She pulled her arm from Kristoff's grip, starting after the girl once more. "Goddammit, Elsa! Don't do this!"
She only made it halfway down the dock that ran alongside the brig before she felt the ice harvester grab her around the waist, trying to drag her in the other direction. Terror was clouding her mind. She heard the man grunt as one of her elbows collided with his ribs, but he held fast. "Let go of me!" She cried.
Then, with a gut-wrenching scream, she called her sister's name one last time.
"ELSA!"
The older girl finally looked back at her, and Anna saw the intense fire of both determination and regret in her face as she mouthed a silent apology.
"No…" The word tumbled from her mouth as she slumped against Kristoff, watching in disbelief as her sister sailed into the deadly fray.
Elsa raced towards the helm, dodging frantic crew members as they yanked at cordage or rolled barrels of gunpowder across the deck.
"Commander!" She yelled, "What's going on?!"
Halvor looked terrified to see her on board. "My queen! You can't be here! It's too dangerous!"
Elsa reached his side, scowling at him. "The hell I can't! What do your men think they're doing out there?!"
The commander knew he wouldn't win a battle of wills with the queen, so he yielded. "Our brigs returned from Trondheim earlier than we expected. I'd sent men over to the north this morning to warn them, but since the prince had blocked our sea route, they had to travel by sled." He shook his head. "Obviously they weren't fast enough. The brigs arrived just as Prince Karl was sinking a merchant ship headed for Arendelle, and they stupidly tried to defend it."
Elsa ground her teeth as she stared at the battling ships. "He's trying to force my hand." Turning to Halvor, she growled, "Get us out there now." The commander held her gaze for a moment, before looking ahead once again and pulling on the wheel, turning the Valkyrie hard to port.
Arendelle's two brigs were being crushed under the sheer force of Karl's assault, one of them unable to move, its masts in fragments, drifting amongst the rest of the debris already in the water. The crew were trying to take cover against a withering volley of musket fire from the giant frigate, and the queen watched in horror as several of them were cut down in explosions of red. Bodies already littered the deck, and when Elsa witnessed one of the frigate's crew execute a clearly injured man who was clinging to a floating piece of wood, she snapped.
With a roar of uncontrollable fury, she let loose with a devastating eruption of ice, demolishing the entire starboard side of the giant vessel. Churning water quickly rushed inside the hull, the men inside scampering like rats from the powerful swell. The ship tilted under the weight of the onslaught, cannons pulled from their anchors and rolling towards the ragged hole, falling into the water and leaving huge geysers of white spray in their wake as they quickly sank out of sight.
The deck of the Valkyrie lurched suddenly, throwing her off her feet, and she landed painfully on her side. Whipping her head back towards the bow, she saw one of Karl's brigs had just rammed their ship at full speed, shearing off the entire bowsprit, taking several of the crew with it. Throwing her hands out in front of her, she sent thousands of frosted shards in the direction of the brig's sails, ripping them to shreds and splintering the masts. Men jumped overboard to avoid the deadly blast, only to be forced to dodge the huge poles that came crashing down into the water behind them.
BOOM
The cannon fire was absolutely deafening now that Elsa was in the thick of combat. A second brig had approached the stern of the Valkyrie, round shot flying from its port side.
"Brace yourselves!" came Halvor's booming voice, not a second before an overwhelming storm of iron assaulted the ship. Slivers of wood flew into the air all around Elsa as she scrambled towards the rear of the vessel, conjuring a sheet of ice in front of her only just in time to block a particularly sharp fragment heading for her face. Adrenaline pumping through her veins, she barely gave the crude spear a second glance before throwing her hands out to send a torrent of snow and ice as close to the keel of the brig as she could manage.
The ship groaned as it surged out of the water, the sudden blast underneath it forcing it upwards. No longer balanced on the surface, it tipped to one side, men screaming as they were thrown off the deck and into the sea below. The brig's starboard side hit the water with a resounding splash, followed seconds later by its masts, which snapped like twigs on impact. Bizarrely lopsided, the ship began to sink as the sea mercilessly filled it, dragging it down into the murky depths.
"Incoming mortar fire!" yelled a man from the bow of the Valkyrie. Elsa's head snapped to the sky to see hundreds of flaming projectiles tracing a blazing arc from Karl's ship, before gravity took over and they began to fall at great speed towards her.
She launched a flurry of enormous hailstones towards the mortar shots, knocking several off their intended path. Slamming her hands together, she conjured a massive expanse of ice two hundred feet in the air above the deck, attempting to block the violent reckoning bearing down on the Valkyrie.
But the missiles just seared through her defence. Elsa's face changed from one of determination to one of astonishment as they kept coming, barely a hundred feet away now.
A huge weight threw itself into her side, and she went flying. Her stomach bottomed out as she realised she had gone over the railing, and the sea was rapidly rushing up to meet her. Hitting the water with incredible force, she barely had time to take a breath before she went under.
The subsurface world was terrifying. She couldn't see more than a foot in front of her, and churning water assaulted her from every side. An orange glow shone briefly before an almighty explosion reverberated in her ears, and thousands of pieces of flaming rubble littered the water above her.
Desperate for air, Elsa swam upwards, breaking the surface between two bits of burning wood. The Valkyrie had been completely obliterated by the mortar fire, and the third brig was quickly approaching the wreckage. She moved to swim in the opposite direction, but a hand on her arm startled her.
It was Halvor.
"I'm so sorry, my queen. I had to get you off the ship," he apologised.
So it was the commander who'd slammed into her. He'd been trying to save her life.
Elsa could only shake her head. The impact of hitting the water had winded her terribly.
Halvor's voice was firm. "I need to get you out of here before they start murdering any survivors." Grabbing her around the waist, he instructed her to take a deep breath before diving below the surface.
His powerful strokes pulled them underneath the carnage that lay atop the water, which seemed to go on for miles. Bodies of the Valkyrie's crew floated amongst the remains of ships, like some grotesque diorama of the crushing defeat they had suffered at Karl's hands.
Elsa's lungs began to burn, and bile was rising in the back of her throat. But Halvor kept swimming. She fought the urge to inhale.
Black spots danced at the edge of her vision, and just as she felt like she would pass out, the commander gave one last powerful kick, and they broke the surface. Elsa gasped for air, spluttering as Halvor coughed beside her. She'd had only a few moments to recover before he was pulling them towards the docks.
The commander heaved her up onto the closest pier, and Elsa fell to her hands and knees, Halvor pulling himself up after her. Water poured off the pair and quickly drenched the wood around them.
Weak, struggling to breathe and weighed down by her sodden clothing, Elsa was too spent to even feel the tiniest lick of fear when a chilling voice came from above them.
"I thought you didn't enjoy swimming."