Chapter 21: Melting Sapphire.
Anna could hear a ringing in her ear, and felt a stick poking her cheek.
"Olaf?" Her voice was faint.
"Oh, Anna! You're okay! Thank goodness!" the snowman said.
Anna turned to see her sister lift herself slowly to a kneeling position, then force one foot down, sending a jagged and crackling line of ice at her mother. "I won't let you hurt Anna."
"I won't let you hurt Anna!" Idunne punctuated her shouts with another silver bolt of magic, sending a crack through the ice propelled by steam. Idunn's steam and Elsa's ice met with a pop that echoed through the cavern.
Anna turned back to Olaf. "What are they doing, Olaf?"
"They're both trying to protect you."
"That's a terrible way to… I have to stop them."
"I don't think an official decree from the Governor General of New North Arendelle will do much to sway them. Especially because they're both the Queen of Arendelle. And Queen's outrank-"
"No, I have to stop them. I have to stop their magic." Anna made her way to her feet, but fell back to the ice as pain shot through her ankle. She looked at it to see it was swollen.
"Ooh. You should put some ice on that."
Anna reached for the crack in the ice, to see if she could find any loose floating pieces. As she pulled a chunk out, she noticed the water dripping from it glistened with a strange iridescence. It was creamy, like the light of a full moon, but also shimmered with colors, like the faint rainbows that circled the moon on misty summer nights.
"What is this?" Anna wondered aloud.
Apparently it was loud enough for Pebble to hear, because the troll rolled up and stared at the dripping, shimmering water with a feverish fascination. "It's a moon-bow…" she muttered.
"It's … what?"
Without taking her eyes from the dripping water, Pebble answered. "Elsa's ice magic comes from a drop of moonlight. The trolls' magic crystals came from bottling the Northern Lights. But those aren't the only lights in the sky. This magic … like a rainbow, that never has a chance to visit the earth. But here it is in this cavern, ha! It's a magic born of the moon—an ice magic at heart. But with all of the colors running through, it … it has the flavor, just a hint of all the other elements. Wow, Pabbie would love this place."
Idunn was quickly running out of breath. This geyser stone was different than the other troll crystals the bandits and acquired. It was draining. She could still match magic with the ice witch across the lake, but it was an even match, and each bolt of steam wore her down.
"Perhaps, my queen, it is time to try a stronger magic?" Askel had walked over the ice to stand beside her. In his hand was the red crystal.
This steam could cut through ice, but fire would cut quicker. Her lungs ached with each breath, feeling the strain of the steam stone. She nodded and grabbed the fire crystal.
Elsa saw the reflection of bright red light before she heard the crackle of flame. She turned to see the Bandit Queen holding a fireball high above her head, throwing it forward in a line-drive toward the ice under Elsa's feet. As quick as she could, Elsa threw a ball of ice magic back at the Bandit Queen.
"No!" Elsa was surprised to see it was Anna shouting this time. She was mortified to see the princess diving between the two balls of magic.
"Anna, stop!" Idunn shouted. She twisted her hand, futilely trying to re-direct the fireball.
But to her astonishment, the fireball slowed to a standstill right in front of Anna's outstretched hand. At the end of her other outstretched hand, the ice ball stood, spinning in place. Both outstretched hands dripped with a milky iridescent liquid. Between them stood Anna with her eyes determinedly closed.
Slowly the princess opened her eyes, glanced at the two balls of magic and shouted, "Ha! It worked."
"Anna? How are you … how are you doing that?" Elsa climbed to her feet and started hobbling toward Anna.
"Stay away from her!" Idunn shouted, but she hesitated to summon any more magic, not sure what Anna would do.
"That's right, I want both of you to stay away from me … for now" Anna answered. "I can do this with moon-bow magic, which apparently is in the lake. But I don't know how long it will last, so let's get this done quickly."
Idunn tightened her eyes. Anna and her schemes. The girl was the most important thing in the world to her, but she could sometimes be a petulant child. And now this petulant child was holding the deadly power of fire and ice at ransom.
"Anna … what do you mean by 'this'?" Elsa asked, still slowly limping toward the princess.
Anna took a deep breath, getting ready to explain. "First, Mama. Elsa isn't dangerous. She can control her powers and she loves me and she would never hurt me again and the last time was an accident, and you need to stop trying to set fire to her."
The fireball still twisted at the end of her hand, as Anna continued. "Second, Elsa. Mama doesn't hate you. She is still under a sorceress' cures that messed up her memories. Also some other bit of magic—a bit of sand in her eye—has given her a heightened perception of ugliness. So that's, you know, unfortunate. But it's not her fault, and you need to stop trying to freeze her. Okay?"
"Of course, Anna," Elsa answered. "All I want to do is-"
"Good," Anna cut her off. "How about you, Mama. Is it okay?"
Idunn gave a slight bow of acquiescence.
"Great. Now, the solution is clear. Do both of you remember … well I guess Mama is still under that weird spell, so she probably doesn't remember. But Elsa, do you remember when we were really little and I broke your teacup, and we got in that huge fight? Mama made us stop fighting and hug each other until we were ready to behave like civilized princesses again."
Idunn's eyes flicked between Anna and Elsa. So, that's what 'this' means.
"Go on," Anna prodded. "Hug it out. You better hurry too. Eventually this moon-bow water will drip away, and if I get burned and frozen, then you both will have done a terrible job protecting me." Anna fixed her mother a stare.
Idunn held Anna's gaze while she worked her way to her older daughter. Elsa was eyeing her suspiciously, but Idunn didn't care. The ice witch could freeze her now and it wouldn't matter as long as Anna put down the fireball. The two were standing next each other, but each holding eye contact with Anna and her magic balls of fire and ice.
"Go on," she prodded again.
Idunn nodded, as you wish my child. She reached out her hand for Elsa's shoulder. At the touch of her fingertips to Elsa's skin, she stood bolt upright, as though electricity shot through her spine.
Elsa.
This was no foul ice witch. This is my precious little girl. This was the young princess who would run into her bedroom when the thunder would roar down the fjord. The tiny baby that the midwife placed in her arms two decades ago.
Three months ago, when she first began to recover her memories, the memories had to be cajoled outward. Before, hidden recollections of the soft hand of her husband, or the warm hug of her youngest daughter, could unlock a part of her heart and carry with it a few memories surrounding the feeling.
But now Idunn saw Elsa, her beautiful eldest daughter. She finally saw through her own eyes, not through the fog of whatever curse made the world seem so bleak. And seeing her eldest daughter put the last piece of Idunn's heart in place. In a flash Hyacinth's magic evaporated from her mind. She could open her eyes, as if from a long fevered dream, and see the world as it was. She could remember everything. And she grabbed her daughter and squeezed her close.
Idunn felt tears welling up around her eyes, as the eyes themselves dropped their crystal sheen, returning to a soft seafoam white around cobalt irises. She closed her eyes, and as the warm tears flow downward, she felt a tickle, like a grain of sand was being pulled out of her eye. When she opened her eyes, she was taken aback at the beauty of this cavern.
Anna couldn't see inside her mother's head anymore, but she could still tell that something important was happening in there. When Idunn looked up, Anna could tell—this was no longer the Bandit Queen, this was her mother, the Queen of Arendelle.
And what a relief. Anna lifted her hands up, and both the ice and fireballs flew into a long arc through the air. They flew over to the far end of the lake, where the snow throne sat in a chilled isolation. First the fireball hit, melting half of the seat, then the iceball hit and re-froze it into a shapeless lump.
"Oh, uh … oops."
Askel looked on at the scene and scowled. It appeared he lost his Bandit Queen. But that wouldn't stop his grand plan.
Kristoff stared at the scene and thought, this family … what am I getting myself into? But he had another worry. The swirling snowstorm that encircled the lake seemed to be getting stronger.
"Hey, uh, your majesties," he shouted out over the ice. "I don't want to interrupt another happy reunion, but maybe it's time for Elsa to take care of this snowstorm."
Idunn looked up and answered, "It's not her snowstorm."
Elsa glanced at her mother. "It's not my snowstorm?" She closed her eyes and held out her hands, but the winds did not diminish. "It's not my snowstorm!"
Kristoff's eyes darted around the swirling snow filling the cavern. "But it's a magical snowstorm. You're not doing it, Anna?"—the princess shook her head—"then whose storm is it?"
"It's my snowstorm," a calm voice echoed throughout the cavern.
Kristoff turned to the far side of the lake to see the snow throne had re-formed, and over it hovered a giant, six-foot tall snowflake. Slowly the snowflake morphed into the shape of a beautiful woman. She had a thin face, topped with a long branching crown, but everything was blue and translucent—still pure ice. Kristoff shuddered, remembering the ice-statue that Anna had become. He shuddered again as a chill whipped through the cavern. He shuddered a third time as he put the pieces together and realized who he was looking at. The matron of this fortress. The last daughter of Negagfok. The monarch of winter. The legend. The Snow Queen.