It seemed so bittersweet that after the worst storm Elsa had ever seen came the most beautiful sunrise. The sky was alive with vibrant orange and blue, reflected in brilliant detail on the fjord; the water that had tipped and turned so violently in the night was now so calm that she couldn't see a single ripple across its smooth surface. It had been so long since she had seen the dawn, and its beauty might have astounded her if her heart wasn't leaden with guilt.
She was stood on the rickety wooden dock by their little rowboat when she heard the rustling from the trees behind her, and whirled around to face it. Dalli emerged from the thick forest, using a sturdy bough that must have fallen in the storm as a makeshift crutch, and hobbled slowly towards her.
"How do you feel?" she asked tentatively, moving forward so as to hold his arm and guide him towards the boat.
He gave her a faint but steady smile. "A lot better," he remarked in a hoarse whisper. The boy paused for a moment when he felt her touch on his arm and met her gaze. "And it's all because of you."
"I was the one who got you into this mess in the first place," Elsa remarked with a humourless smirk as she carefully helped Dalli descend into the boat. It wobbled uncertainly on the water as if it might capsize for a few seconds, but eventually he settled himself on the seat that she had occupied on their journey here. "No – I'll be rowing us back," she said firmly, shooing him on to the opposite seat.
"You've done too much for me already," he responded seriously. The leader of the trolls emerged from the woods and was moving towards them when Dalli held out a hand towards Elsa to ask her to stay. "I honestly cannot thank you enough for what you've done for me."
She was caught off guard for a few seconds, before shooting him a weary half-smile. "Don't mention it," she muttered in exhaustion as she walked to the end of the dock to greet the approaching troll.
"Your Highness," he greeted her solemnly. "I must tell you that I greatly admire your decision. To sacrifice another for the sake of love is . . . it's not an ultimatum that I would wish to face."
"And I hope that you never have to," Elsa responded gravely. She extended a hand to pat the troll's shoulder, noticing the long strands of hair growing there were matted with sweat from their stressful night. "Thank you for your help."
He closed his eyes and nodded. "It has been an honour – although with all due respect, Your Highness, I hope not to see you here again." The troll placed his own cool, stony hand on hers. "At least, I hope not to see you in such dire circumstances."
"Of course," she responded naturally. They stood that way for a few moments, gazing at each other in shared but concealed sorrow, before she drew herself away. Elsa had walked a few paces towards the boat when she turned back quite swiftly, and returned to the side of the troll. "I just have one more question."
The troll nodded, frowning at her return. "What is it, Princess?"
She leaned closer towards his ear and lowered her tone in the hope that Dalli wouldn't hear her. "Is there any way of knowing what will happen now? Who will be the sacrifice?"
With a soft sigh and a grimace, the troll shook his head. "Fate will run its course in the end, my dear – whether it takes a day or a decade, fate will run its course." She was about to leave once more with a frustrated expression on her face when the troll called to her suddenly. "Ah, but there is something I've forgotten!"
Elsa wheeled around hopefully. "What is it?"
"You mentioned your sister, and how she now knows about your hidden powers."
She couldn't conceal her slight disappointment and the seemingly irrelevant comment, but nevertheless she tried to smile. "I suppose we shall have to find some way of getting around that," she muttered resolutely. "After all, she can never forget now that she knows."
The troll gave her a secretive smile. "Perhaps she can," he whispered as he reached his hand into a mossy pocket and withdrew it in a fist clenched around something. He revealed a tiny glass vial full of a clear blue liquid. "It's lucky that I still had a little of this in stock – it's a serum for memory loss, Your Highness. If you truly wish for her to forget about what has happened, this should do the trick; she won't recall a second of the past month."
He tried to push it into her outstretched hand, but she stepped back apprehensively at his words. Do I really want Anna to forget everything that happened? There was an opportunity here to rebuild a friendship that had been so heartbreakingly shattered all those years ago – a friendship that might blossom in the open air of honesty.
Seeing her hesitation and knowing that she was on a strict schedule, the troll merely opened her curled-up fist and delicately placed the vial in her palm. "I shall leave the decision to you, Princess," he remarked softly as he began to move backwards into the trees. "I must go – the others are waiting for me. Have a safe journey home."
Elsa might have responded to his farewell, but her mind was too busy with thoughts of her sister, and so she remained totally silent until she heard Dalli's voice. "Should we go?" he asked tentatively, clearing his throat with a cough. She hastily tucked the vial into the pocket of her cloak with Alred's diary in it.
"Yes," she replied, shaking away those worrying thoughts and turning to face the boat. Her arms and legs still ached from rowing to the dock, but she wasn't prepared to let the injured boy suffer by taking over. As she settled herself on to the wooden seat and started to untie the rope from the boat, she caught Dalli watching her carefully. "What is it?"
He blinked at her with a slight smile across his tired face. It took a few moments for him to choose the right words in his fatigued state, but eventually he opened his lips to respond. "What do we do now?"
Elsa swallowed hard, and with a quiet grunt of effort, she pulled the oars towards her and shifted the boat into open water. She waited until the rotation of a single oar had spun the boat back to face the shore of Arendelle before she considered the question. "Well," she began with some difficulty, "I suppose that we row back to the dock, and . . . and you'll get ready to go home."
"And after that?" Dalli's eyes searched hers intently. She instinctively looked away.
She increased her pace until she was rowing at full pelt, and beads of sweat began to drip from her forehead – they were racing against the sun to reach shore before the villagers were out in the streets, but she couldn't help but feel compelled to shorten the journey just to avoid the boy's impromptu inquisition. "We'll live separate lives, Dalli," she puffed breathlessly.
"That's not living," he retorted immediately.
She shot him a frustrated glance. Guiding their vessel towards a lifetime of separation was difficult enough without his input. "That's reality," she snapped. "That's what has to happen, and that's what is going to happen. Believe me, I hate it as much as you do." Her mind was overflowing with images of all those days, all those years, shut alone in her room that she would have to repeat without him, but she determinedly shoved them away.
They sat in silence for an uncomfortable expanse of time until they were so close to the shore of Arendelle that they could see a few figures silhouetted there. "I could still stay here, Elsa," Dalli murmured, watching her as her rowing pace slowed with exhaustion. "It's not too late for me to change everything."
She caught his eye and shot him a sorrowful glance behind the blurry layer of tears that she felt building over her eyes, though she had told herself firmly since the start of their journey that she would not cry in front of him. "Everything has already changed," she whispered in response as they drew in closer to the docks. Her journey from the castle last night had been so dictated by her rage that she couldn't remember which dock she and Dalli had argued on, and so she simply aimed the rowboat for any of the empty spaces she could see.
He suddenly reached out and wrapped his hands around hers, holding them still so that the oars no longer moved around them. The boat began to slow down as it drifted closer to the shore. "If I can't change your mind, then at least let me tell you what's on mine." She froze for a moment or two of panic, before conceding to the warmth of his hands on hers and letting him speak.
The boy took a deep breath. "I will never forgive myself for lying to you, Elsa," he said, focusing on her gaze in the dawn light which beautifully illuminated her face. "However, I can't leave this kingdom without telling you this: before I met you, fate was just a word that was peddled in Groveston to describe a rare gift of the elite. Before I met you, fate didn't mean anything to me." He paused to brace himself for the next statement. "And then, when I finally saw your face, I realised: you are fate to me, Elsa. We were meant to be."
She opened her trembling lips to speak, trying desperately to stop her tears from flowing, but he shook his head.
"I understand that you don't want to hear this now but it's the truth, and if we never meet again, this will be my last opportunity to say it." He shot her a brief, melancholy smile that sent a sob shuddering through her body, though her tears remained unshed. "Of course, I know that we will meet again. Fate, if it is as true and beautiful as I now believe it to be, will bring us together."
Elsa sniffed hesitantly. "A-and if it doesn't?" she asked in a whisper. The boat was drifting ever closer to shore, and she would soon have to take up the oars again to guide them into the dock – though the very thought of dropping Dalli's hands made her physically whimper in distress.
Dalli saw her pained expression and tried to smile optimistically for her. "If, for some unknown cosmic reason, fate does not reunite us," he responded in as calm a voice as he could muster, "then I will never need to sleep again for the rest of my life, because I know that these days with you have been better than any dream I could ever have."
He gently untangled his hands from hers, withdrew his warm touch from her chilled skin, and shut his eyes to the slight autumnal breeze that was drifting over the fjord. With a final stroke of the oars, Elsa's shaking hands guided them back into a dock, and Dalli had regained enough strength by now to reach over the side of the rowboat and tie it up.
The voices of sleepy villagers were floating through the streets towards them, but Elsa calculated that there would be time for one final note in the symphony of their romance.
"Dalli?" she called out in a hoarse, tear-stricken voice.
He had been about to rise from the boat, but at the sound of his name, he immediately dropped back on to his seat. "Elsa?" he responded quietly, holding her gaze uncertainly.
She did not reply with a speech of her own, but expressed the thumping of her heart in a single movement: with trembling fingers, she moved forwards until her fingertips grazed the damp material of his drying cloak, and leaned in to kiss him.
It lasted for a few seconds – only as long as they had before they would be spotted, Elsa had calculated – but it was enough. And when they parted, as they had so dreaded to do, they left without a word but with the taste of a love they had barely known on their lips.
Author's Note: Hi again! I wanted to say another thank you for reading this story (and for all your lovely reviews, follows and favourites, as always!) and also give an apology - I had been posting a chapter a day when I started this story, but due to my workload from school, that rate of updates may have to go down to once every two days. We're on the final stretch - nine chapters left! - so please bear with me for the next week or so. In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and thank you!