Nathan stood on the shore of the fjord, the cold water lapping against the bottoms of his boots. The frigid air made his lips crack and his fingers numb. Despite this, he stood looking out over the distant lapping waves of the ocean, waiting for something. Some small portion of his mind told him to go back inside where it was warm, but he suppressed that small voice. He continued his vigilant watch over the ocean waves. A single solitary geyser of water blasted up from the surface, grabbing Nathans attention. Seconds later the geyser gave way to a massive hulking form.

A smile that was almost relief crossed his face as he saw the whale burst out of the water. The sight of the giant gave him some kind of comfort, the way that a ray of sunshine did for other people. Nathan knew it had something to so with the fact that all bone charms and runes were made from whalebone, but that wasn't it. Not all of it.

He focused as much as he could on the creature as it plummeted back through the water and could swear it was looking directly at him. Its eye seemed to have an otherworldly glint to it, as if it could see things that Nathan couldn't even imagine. As the last bit of the monster of an animal disappeared back into the void of the ocean Nathan heard the gravel crunch behind him.

He spun on his heel and instinctively put a hand on the hilt of his blade, ready to fight. He found himself face to face with Elsa, who was looking startled by his reaction. Nathan let out a deep breath and watched it fog up in front of his face, calming his nerves. He turned back to the ocean and said over his shoulder "What are you doing up so early?" as the splash from the whale settled back into the waves of the sea.

Elsa walked up next to him and peered out to the sea the same way Nathan did, trying to see what he saw. She had seen whales jump from the ocean but never as close as that one had. She looked sideways at Nathan and said "Whale watching?" in a slightly puzzled voice.

Nathan shrugged than after a brief pause said "Yea, I guess you could say that." There was another brief pause before he turned to Elsa and asked "Does Arendelle process whales?"

Elsa was slightly taken aback by the strangeness of the question but answered anyways. "Of course, it's a major source of revenue for the kingdom."

Nathan nodded. If they processed whales here, than he would have access to whale bone pretty consistently. If he had access to whale bone he might be able to make his own charms and runes. This job of protecting Elsa and Anna just kept getting better and better. There was a problem, though, in that he didn't know how to make runes or bone charms. Certainly he knew what they were made of and how they would be constructed, but he didn't know whether or not he would need to do something to actually make them powerful or give them their strange properties.

Something bumped against his foot, snapping him out of his thoughts. Elsa saw it before he did. She gave a little gasp when she saw what it was. It was a small plate of bone, about small enough to fit in the palm of the hand. A mark, the same one that Nathan had shown her burned on the back of his hand, was burned on the surface of the bone.

Nathan looked down and saw the rune. He grunted and bent over to pick it up. He straightened up and held the rune up to look at it. He looked out to the ocean, wondering if the whale he had seen had anything to do with the appearance of the rune. Elsa put a hand on his shoulder and said in a hushed voice "What is it?"

Nathan smiled and clutched the rune tightly to his chest. He said "It's a rune. I can use these to learn new spells." Elsa looked at the rune with interest, and Nathan held it out to her. "You take it."

She held her hands up defensively and said "No, no. I… I don't think I need it. I can make whatever spell I want, remember?" she closed Nathans hand around it and pushed it back towards him. "You use it. I want to see what kind of a spell you make."

Nathan held the rune in his palm and nodded. Elsa looked at him expectantly and he realized she wanted him to make spell right now. He turned back to the sea and closed his eyes, letting the sound of the waves wipe his mind clean and focusing his thought on the rune. He felt some part of his mind slip into the void and felt the power of the outsider surround him. He focused his power around him and felt it push the nothingness of the void away.

He was immersed in his own power, dark, suffocating shadows that responded to his every whim. He focused all the shadow into one solid shape in his hand and started working it around. As its shape changed he could feel the effects of the spell he was making changing. He formed it into a simple line, and felt the familiar spell of blink form. He stopped for a moment and considered what kind of a spell he wanted.

His job was now to protect Elsa and Anna, so he wanted a power that would allow him to do this more effectively. He considered what he could do with the spell he had. He cut a line through the line, and it turned from blink to something else. It turned into a simple spell, one that would allow him to manipulate objects from a distance. Not a spell he wanted, so he went back to working the spell around.

An idea popped into his head. He drew a thin line between one pieces of shadow to another, and pulled the two pieces far apart. The spell turned into a movement spell, and he liked the way it looked. It wasn't perfect, though. The spell would be of huge range, but highly costly in terms of energy. The energy the spell used would grow in proportion to the distance to the target, but that would make the spell almost identical to blink. Another idea popped into his head. He focused on a few more runes on his material body and tapped into their power. More shadow appeared for him to work with, and he worked it around.

He cut the line between the two pieces and used the extra shadow to make a strange kind of rift between the two. He fed a line like the one he cut through the rift and pulled the two pieces further apart experimentally. To his mild surprise, this worked, and the line between the two was not pulled or stretched at all. He put the remainder of the shadowy power into the two pieces so that the energy required to cast the spell would be lowered slightly.

He looked over the spell with a critical eye, searching for any fault or imperfection. When he was satisfied with what he had made he pushed on the spell with the power inside the runes. The shape solidified as the runes power was used up. As the last of the runes power dissipated his mind slipped out of the void.

He was, once again, standing on the shore, looking out over the ocean. He looked at the hand he had been holding the rune in. it was clenched shut over his chest, the rune gone. He opened his hand and a few clumps of ash fell into the water. He felt around in his pockets and found sever other runes gone.

Elsa was looking at him with a worried expression. He turned back to her and shook his head, trying to adjust to the sudden ejection from the void. Elsa asked "Are you ok? What were you doing?"

Nathan looked up at her and said "I was making a new spell." He looked at the ash that used to be a rune and said to Elsa "I used the power in that-" he pointed to the ash "-to make the spell."

She looked at the ash than back at Nathan. "You looked like you were just… zoned out. You were just staring forward blankly." Nathan nodded and Elsa's expression grew much more exited. "Well, let's see it!"

Nathan grinned and said "well… it's not a very dramatic spell, it's more of a utility kind of thing, but-"

Elsa cut him off before he could finish by saying "Just shut up and do it!" in an exasperated voice, throwing her arms towards Nathan.

He laughed and focused his power into the new spell. He wasn't exactly sure how to cast it, but it shouldn't be too hard. He focused the spell and felt an alien sensation in his hand. It felt like a small piece of his shadow was in his hand. He could guess what he had to cast the spell on, the same thing he always did. A shadow.

He thrust his hand forwards and gasped as he felt the piece if his shadow leave him and enter Elsa's shadow. As it left Nathans hand it formed into a snakelike streak that hit Elsa's shadow and seemed to burrow into it. Elsa's head turned to follow the streak, but she didn't react to it entering her shadow. Nathan felt the fragment of his shadow settle in Elsa's shadow, and lowered his hand.

Elsa looked at him with a puzzled expression in her face. She said "What did that do?" and started eyeing her shadow anxiously. Nathan took a few steps back from the shore and held up a hand to indicate Elsa should stay where she was.

He walked about twenty feet away than turned. He focused on the spell and felt the fragment of his own shadow inside of Elsa's. He poured power into the spell and wondered briefly what it would feel like.

The next thing he knew his shadow jumped off the ground and stood in front of him. It opened wide into a solid black hole, like a door, and Nathan felt himself yanked through. He felt briefly like he was falling down a pit. It was impossible to see anything through the inky nothingness that surrounded him now. The air around him felt strange, as if it was devoid of all light, sound, and heat. It wasn't cold, it was just as if there was no such thing as cold or hot. The feeling was totally alien.

Then, as soon as he had been sucked into the shadow, he was flung from it. He heard a splash from somewhere under him and felt his feet hit solid ground. He braced his body, expecting to fall off balance or to tumble head over heels, but nothing came. He looked down and found his feet submerged in water about halfway up his boots. He looked in front of him and saw the cold fjord again. He turned and saw Elsa just starting to turn around, probably looking for the source of the splash.

Elsa wasn't sure what she had just seen. Nathan had stepped through his shadow and then was just… gone. She heard a splash behind her, and spun on her heels to face the splashing. She found herself facing Nathan, who was looking in her direction with a disoriented look on his face. She stepped towards him but stopped when she realized that he was about ankle deep in the cold water.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts and refocused on Elsa. He stepped out of the water and let out a breath. "Well, that felt weird." He said in a matter-of-fact voice.

Elsa looked from the spot he had been standing at to where he had appeared. Her brow furrowed, and she asked "How is that different from the teleporting you already do?"

Nathan raised an eyebrow as he started shaking water off of his boots. He asked in a confused voice "Teleporting…?" he ran through his powers and realized she meant his blink. "Oh! Blink, umm…" he paused and tried to think of how to explain it. "It's like… if…" coming up with a comparison was harder than he had imagined. "If you're sewing a cloth… and the distance you travel is how far you get through the cloth… than… blinking is just sewing through the cloth, and that was like folding the cloth and putting the needle through."

The comparison didn't sound nearly as god as it had in his head, but Elsa nodded in understanding. She asked "Than why ever use your blink?"

Nathan sighed. Explaining his powers was weird. "The blink takes very little energy, and the other one takes a lot more. But Blink has a fairly short range, whereas the other one has an unlimited range." He paused for a moment. "I think."

Elsa giggled slightly at this, then said "what are you going to call it?" Nathan looked at her questioningly and she clarified in a voice like it was obvious "The power."

"Oh" Nathan said "uh…" he started pacing, thinking of what a suitable name would be. "Well" he thought out loud "it's a power that moves me around, so it should be motion based. I kind of… step into the shadow, so step is good. I come out of shadows, so I think that should be in there. How about "shadow step"?"

Elsa repeated the words "shadow step" to herself a few times. It was accurate, she supposed. He did step into a shadow, and come out of one too. It had an ominous kind of ring to it as well, like it was something to be afraid of. She nodded, approving of the name. "I like it."

Nathan smiled, feeling a twinge of happiness somewhere in his chest. He didn't know why he felt this, but he accepted he did. Maybe he was getting soft. Maybe he was in love.

He scowled at the last thought. Love? Certainly not, not ever. Maybe he admired Elsa, but he certainly didn't have feelings for her.

She motioned back towards the castle and said "you want to go in? It's awfully cold out here." Nathan only just took notice of how cold it really was. He felt his body start to give a shiver, but he tensed up and stopped it before it became noticeable. He nodded and followed her towards the castle.

The sun was just starting to come up over the horizon, bright light gleaming on the windows and rooftops of the castle. The great doors of the main entrance ground open slowly, and both Nathan and Elsa were forced to shut their eyes by a blast of warm air from inside the castle.

The pair traipsed their way into the castle and took seats by a large open fireplace. The air inside was a sharp contrast from the freezing temperature outside, the warm glow of the fire casting long dancing shadows on the wall behind them. The light of the sun, just beginning to rise, cast another shadow on the wall to the side. They sat in silence for a moment just enjoying the warmth of the spitting flame.

After both had warmed enough, Nathan said to Elsa "So, they're to arrive today. What are we going to do with them?"

Elsa sighed with just a hint of apprehension in her breath and said "I don't know, what should we do? What can we do but wait?" she put a hand to her temple, saying "we'll just have to wait and see what they say."

Nathan nodded. He didn't like it, but until the royals from Corona arrived he didn't have a clue who had been attacking Elsa, or why. Waiting didn't sit well with him. Nothing had happened in the three day period between Elsa sending the letter, but Nathan knew it was just a matter of time before something did happen.

They continued to sit in silence until the sun was casting its light right through the window, signaling that morning had arrived. Elsa pushed herself out of her chair and Nathan followed suit. Elsa turned to Nathan before exiting the room and said "Hungry?"

Nathan smiled at her and said "Ravenous, as usual." Elsa smiled at his comment. It was something of a joke that had developed between the two. Elsa had commented two days ago that Nathan had never actually gone to go get food on his own, and Nathan had retorted that that must have been the reason he was always hungry. The comment wasn't very funny, but it had seemed hilarious at the time. Maybe it had had something to do with the wine Elsa had been enjoying at the time.

They walked to the dining hall. Anticipation was thick in the air. All the staff of the castle had been informed that the prince and princess of Corona would be arriving today for an indeterminate period of time, but none had been told why. All were on edge and eager to begin serving the new royals when they arrived.

The breakfast that the chefs had prepared was even more exquisite than it normally was, with massive amounts of finely arranged edibles in artful displays. The whole thing seemed rather pointless to Nathan, as all of it was just going to be eaten, but Elsa gave her complements personally to the chef. Nathan ate his food in silence as he usually did. After a few minutes of devouring everything in front of him he looked up and saw Anna walking slowly towards him with a plate of food, yawning widely. Nathan stood to greet her as she drew up a seat at the table next to Elsa. Nathan broke his silence, saying to Anna "Happy that your friends are coming over?"

Elsa smirked at the question, thinking it was more something that would be asked of a small child than a fully grown royal. Anna looked at Nathan blankly for a moment, than her eyes open wide and she gasped. "Rapunzel is coming today! I totally forgot!"

Both Elsa and Nathan had a little laugh at that, taking enjoyment in Anna's absentmindedness. Elsa put a arm around Anna's shoulders and shook her in a playful way. "What would you do without us, sis?" she asked in an equally playful manner.

Anna looked down at her food, embarrassed, and said "I couldn't imagine." She started digging into her food and Elsa resumed digging into hers. Nathan shook his head in wonderment at the two's tolerance of each other.

"You know" he said to the both of them "most siblings can't stand even the sight of each other. How you two stand each other I'll never know. They both gave him a look that seemed to suggest they were sorry for him, and he didn't like it. "What? It's true. You twos relationship is weird." The pitiful looks they were giving him didn't stop, so he waver a hand and said "Forget I said anything."

Anna and Elsa looked at each other with a look that Nathan couldn't tell the meaning of, then returned to their food. Nathan finished off the last of his meal and stood from the table. "I've got to go take care of a few things." He said and walked off without waiting for a response.

He walked through the halls that were just starting to come to life. Various servants and servers were walking hurriedly, trying to get the morning chores done so they could have afternoon time off. One woman caught Nathans attention in particular. A woman who looked to be about forty or fifty, with shoulder length, curly black hair that had a few streaks of grey here and there. As Nathan passed her she glared at him with a hateful eye. He didn't particularly care what other people, especially servants, thought of him, but this woman had an air of power about her, like she intended to do something about her dislike of him.

He kept walking and considered following the woman, but decided against it. He had better things to do than stalk some old bat doing her job. He continued on to his room.

Nathan opened the door and stepped inside the small room. He took a moment to look around, searching for anything that was out of place or had been disturbed. He found nothing and continued about what he had been doing. He strode over to the table by the window and sat down, picking he small orb up off the table and examining it. He still knew very little about the strange object, but he had been able to fine out a few things. It contained energy, much like a bone charm. But instead of a bone charm's constant effect the orb was triggered by something. When it was triggered it let out a large amount of power and cast a spell. What spell the thing cast Nathan couldn't tell, but whatever it was it used the majority of the orbs power in one cast. The orb seemed to recharge its power slowly over time, as the glowing at its center grew brighter the longer it sat unused.

The thing had been quite the riddle for Nathan over the past three days. He had subjected it to every test he could think of, but it remained unchanged completely. Even throwing it against the hard stone of the courtyard had yielded no results. So discouraging was this lack of progress that he had considered throwing it into the sea. But as he looked at it now something seemed familiar. He couldn't place it, not exactly, but he had defiantly seen it before, and recently.

Racking his brain for what he had seen recently he looked out the window and out across the ocean. He saw a large ship, not a strange sight in a city like Arendelle. What was strange was the flag it was flying. It was a light purple background with a yellow sun in the middle. He recognized it as the symbol of the kingdom of Corona. He stood and placed the orb back on the table, the mystery would have to wait. The royals of Corona had arrived.

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Aouthors thing:

so i'm back! i may have been not posting, but i sure as hell have kept writing. to prove it i got four whole new chapters for all ya's.

remember to leave reviews and whatever.

Thanks!