Author's Note:

Many apologies for missing last week, but hopefully this will make up for it! The last upload for Words of the Protector will be tomorrow (7/24/18), so be sure to check back in for the conclusion that will catch us back up!

xxx

Interlude – Anna and Gold

Mother had an old standing clock, that she'd inherited from her mother, who'd gotten it from hers, back many generations. She loved it, and whenever it started to wind down, she'd send out for a horologist to put all the little pieces back together. I think we lost it in the sacking of the palace.

Why am I telling you this? I don't know, honestly. Sometimes I just remember things like this, for no reason at all, really.

Anna Siguror

Beijing,

China

October 6th, 1843

Mr. Gold had felt a sudden, overwhelming loss, when Hades had died. He'd been in Beijing for some time already, working to keep the local politics from falling to the Cult of Entropy. At the time, he'd been devastated. Unsure whether there was any point to going on. After all, the Underworld had already been lost. Surely, they would overcome eventually. It was only a matter of time.

Now, two and a half months later, the old man stood on a balcony on the third floor of the magnificent Qing palace, watching the ancient city burn before his eyes. He adjusted his weight, wincing as his gimp leg protested. These were dark times. Unfortunate times. The fighting in the courtyard below was growing quiet. A more optimistic man would hope that the palace guard had succeeded in turning back the attackers.

Mr. Gold smiled grimly. He'd always been a pessimist.

He turned around just as the door to his quarters burst open. He steadied himself with one hand against the balcony railing and raised his cane, barking a vicious curse. A dark and violent form erupted from his cane, swirling through the chamber and engulfing the first few unfortunate souls to come through the doorway. Mr. Gold ignored their pitiful screams and hobbled back into the chamber, continuing to cast spells across the room.

A brilliant barrier erupted in the doorway, intercepting his next curse. Mr. Gold growled as a tall, robed man wearing a vulture mask stepped over the threshold. He lowered his arms and the shield evaporated. Behind him a half-dozen more men entered the chamber, each of them with magic at their fingertips.

"The master knows this one," the leader of the wizards said in Mandarin. "And does not require that he live. Kill him."

Mr. Gold raised his cane again and tried to defend himself, but the spells came from all sides. For five, then ten seconds he stood against them all, and then a lash of fire took his shoulder. He stumbled on his bad leg and collapsed to the ground. Groaning, he twisted to his side just in time to see a brilliant light streak across the room towards him.

He was dead before he had time to fear.

xxx

Three days later in Arendelle, Elsa found her sister in the ruins of the Saint Adelaide Cathedral. Under the iceblade, the giant church's charred remains had been cast into darkness. A light snowfall dusted the tops of the buildings underneath the iceblade, an uncomfortable reminder that the giant formation was starting to melt. Some smart people had told Elsa that it would probably be weeks before it started to collapse, but Elsa still didn't want to risk any of her populace in the shadowed part of the city.

Anna knelt in a little apse off of the main atrium, before an unblemished golden statue of Christ. The fact that the city's assailants hadn't bothered snatching it even as they set fire to the rest of the building served as a reminder that their enemy was anything but human.

Elsa felt an overwhelming, sorrowful empathy as she approached Anna. The girl's head was bowed, her shoulders sloped with defeat.

"Anna," Elsa said softly, stepping into the little nave and kneeling beside her sister, placing a hand on Anna's back.

The redhead kept her head bowed, body slowly shivering.

Elsa gazed sadly at her. She felt hopeless. She knew that there wasn't anything she could say to help Anna, yet while she did nothing her sister would keep spiraling deeper into despair.

"I know that I've told you this before, Anna," Elsa said softly, "but I still haven't said it enough. Those years, after our parents died, when I was still… when I was still shut up in my room, you were what got me through each day."

Anna turned and slid into Elsa's arms, still not meeting her sister's gaze. Elsa was startled by how slight, how small her little sister seemed. Barely more than a child.

"You were strong for me, when I needed it," Elsa whispered. "I'll do the same for you, Anna. I promise it."

Elsa stroked her sister's hair, feeling tears sting at her eyes as she thought about all the things Anna would never get to experience because of her.

"I have taken everything from you," she said mournfully. "You keep getting swept up in things that you were never meant to be a part of because of me. You keep end up being the collateral damage. I'm sorry, Anna. I'm so, so sorry."

For the first time, Anna replied, her voice shaky and pained.

"This isn't your fault, Elsa. You're trying to carry the entire world on your shoulders. Not every person who slips away is your fault."

Elsa bit her lip. Anna didn't need her pity, nor her apologies. She didn't tell her that Kristoff had done something truly heroic. Platitudes weren't going to bring him back. Elsa tried to remember what had finally let her move on, when Agnarr and Iduna had died. In hindsight, it didn't seem like there was ever one defining moment when she'd snapped out of her grief. Wounds like these took time to heal.

"I'll be here for you," Elsa eventually said, wishing she could find the words to say something better. "I won't leave you. I never will."

Anna didn't reply. She didn't need to.

xxx

Anna wanted to feel better. Before, some part of her deep down always believed that emotions were a choice. If you were sad, you could feel better if you made an effort to think positively, to act positively, to surround yourself with friends and family. Now she wasn't sure. She didn't push Elsa away, but her sister couldn't make her feel better.

It felt petty. It felt pathetic. There wasn't a person in Arendelle who hadn't lost someone loved during the fighting. In fact, compared to those who had family in Anders, she'd fared comparatively well. Everdark's forces had slaughtered them all in Arendelle's portside magnet village, and then burned the town to the ground. Most of the remains were unidentifiable. At least they'd been able to recover Kristoff's body.

Still, she wondered each morning if she would have the strength to go on. When she thought she'd lost Elsa a month and a half ago, she'd at least been sustained by the hope that she was still alive. With Kristoff, she didn't have the benefit of such an illusion. He was gone. At the moment, she didn't really care if she was being weak.

"Are you up yet, princess?" Gerda's voice came after a soft knock on Anna's bedroom door. The matronly servant didn't wait for an answer, however, and opened the door, bustling in with a hamper of dresses underneath her arm. She smiled kindly at Anna, who still lay in bed in her darkened chamber, and walked over to the window.

Gerda opened the curtains, letting in a warm midmorning sun. Anna rolled away from it, the intensity of the light hurting her eyes.

"Don't you think that's better?" Gerda said kindly, before opening Anna's closet and beginning to hang the washed dresses there, neatly smoothing out their pleats as she went.

Anna sat up, rubbing at her eyes. She felt hollow. "Not really," she said honestly.

Gerda glanced over and smiled sadly. "So much hardship, in the life of such a young woman," she said. "It's okay if you need more time, child. But I want you to know that we'll be ready to help you as soon as you're ready."

Anna knew that the woman's words were meant to be kind, but they irritated her nonetheless. Did she think that Anna was deliberately denying help? Did she assume that she had miraculous answers to Anna's problems?

She forced herself to smile. "Thank you, Gerda. I think a bit more time would be helpful."

Gerda smiled again and finished up her work, humming a soft, traditional Arendane song to herself.

On the way back out of the room, she said, "There is one part of yourself that I will not allow you to neglect, princess. You simply must find the strength to eat. If not for yourself, then think of the baby."

Anna's gut wrenched. Her child. Her last earthly connection to Kristoff. Yes. Yes, for her child, she would eat.

"Thank you, Gerda," she whispered.

The door clicked as the servant walked away.

Anna sat in silence for perhaps five minutes, staring down at her hands, clasped in her lap. Then she stood and opened her closet.

xxx

Elsa glanced up from her conversation with Hans as Anna entered the dining hall of Sadden's manor. Situated in the northeastern side of the city, the late Lord Insurgent's manor had managed to escape the bulk of the fighting – it remained remarkably intact. Elsa found it strangely ironic that no matter the hardships Arendelle weathered, Namar Sadden's ancestral home emerged unscathed.

Elsa barely had time to be surprised by the sight of her sister before Anna shouted.

"You!" Her voice threw a sudden hush upon the chamber. A servant who had been entering through a side chamber with food for the newly arrived princess stopped midstride, shocked.

"How dare you?" Anna said, storming across the chamber, her face a mask of anger, her voice dripping with cold fury as she jabbed a finger at Hans, who, to his credit, had the presence of mind to look aggrieved. "How dare you cheat death, how dare you refuse to stay dead when far better men than you only get one chance?"

Elsa glanced between the two, horrified.

"I'm sorry, Anna," he said, sounding like he meant it.

"You're sorry?" Anna said. "Of course you're not sorry! Because you've somehow managed to play the odds and convince everyone that your life is more valuable than anyone else's! But I see the truth, Hans Westergaard. You may have fooled my friends, and even my sister, but I know who you are. And you are a bad man, Hans Westergaard. You're a liar and a murderer and a villain."

Anna was crying now, silent tears streaking her face as she laid into Hans. His face was ashen as he listened to her words, and Elsa realized with shock that he thought she was right.

"I hate you," she said, a sob choking in her throat. "I hate you and everything that you represent. I hate that every time you come back into my life, everything falls apart. I hate –"

Her voice broke, and she couldn't finish. Without a word, Hans gathered some notes that he and Elsa had taken and walked from the room. Elsa watched him go, speechless. For a moment, she realized that she didn't know what to do. She should go after Hans, and apologize for Anna's outburst. He didn't deserve to be the outlet for her anger. But at the same time, she couldn't abandon Anna and leave her feeling even worse.

God, this is a nightmare.

After a few more moments of indecision, she found herself staying. Hans was a strong man. He would survive. She slumped into the seat beside Anna and placed a hand over her sister's. There would be time later to discuss with Hans plans for keeping Arendelle safe.

"You're up," Elsa said, forcing enthusiasm into her voice and hoping that it would help dissolve the tension in the room.

"Yes," Anna replied, accepting the servant's dish and taking a bite of scrambled eggs. Then she was silent for a few moments, seeming to come to a decision. "Yes, and I'm going to stay up."

"That's great!" Elsa said.

"I thought about what you said to me the other day, Elsa," Anna said. "In the church. You said that this wasn't my fight."

Anna's fiery outburst seemed to have burned away all her melancholy, replacing it with righteous fury. Elsa had never seen her sister like this before.

"And you were right," Anna continued. "It wasn't my fight. But you know what? It is now. I might once have had the option to sit on the sidelines, but I don't anymore. I want to be a part of this."

She gazed into Elsa's eyes with a ferocious intensity, and for a moment, Elsa didn't know what to say. Anna wasn't a fighter, and even training her to shoot or swing a sword wouldn't make her a match for the enemies that they fought. Besides, the thought of letting Anna risk herself fighting made her stomach curl. And then, suddenly, it hit her.

"Perfect," Elsa said. "I'm going to call an assembly of the important people that we have left in a few hours. And you need to be there."