The interior of the building was warm, but held none of the friendliness that it had held before. A haze of Gothel's green gas lay on the floor, obscuring Nathan's feet and giving the whole place a very alien feel. All the lights appeared to be snuffed out. Nathan even saw a few candle wicks still smoking.
He looked around for a minute on the bottom floor for anything, but found nothing. He heard the sound of something toppling over above him and ran to the stairs. The sound of his footsteps rang loudly through the halls, and he stopped to clip the silence charm to his chest in the place of the one he had forgone upon entering.
A scream from upstairs cut through the eerie quiet. Nathan didn't waste any more time, charging up the stairs as quickly as he could. As he came to the second floor he slowed himself and listened for anything around him. Nothing else came to Nathan's ears. He cast shadow sense, and put his focus on anything even vaguely human shaped. He didn't like what this reveled to him. The unmistakable shadow of Elsa was on the floor in front of the fireplace in the library with the hunched form of Gothel standing over her. Nathan could tell from the way that Elsa was shaking that she has crying. Another few shapes were strewn about the room, sprawled out like they had been knocked down.
Nathan crept his was towards the library. Whatever Gothel was doing, he was going to stop. One figure, however, caught his attention more than the others on the floor. It was outside the library, it's back propped up on the wall. The thing that caught Nathan's attention was how similar the form was to Elsa. He made his way across the floor to the body lying across from the door to the library. As he got close, he recognized Anna's face, slack and almost peaceful looking.
Nathan shook her gently but got no response. Another round of sobbing, faint this time, made its way through the library door. Nathan put a hand to her neck and felt for a pulse. He waited a few seconds before he was able to detect it. It was weak and infrequent, which made him worry about Anna's condition. The sobbing from the library grew louder, and Nathan knew that he was running out of time. Hurriedly, he took Anna over his shoulder and made his way to the stairs to the next floor up. They were free of the gas that coated the rest of the floor. He set her down carefully on the stairs about halfway up and made sure she wouldn't slide down.
He hurried back to the library door, where the sobbing had stopped again. He put an eye to the lock on the door and tried to see what was happening. Because of the bookshelves that filled the room, all he could see of Elsa was her icy cape on the floor. He knew that she was there though. He could feel it with his shadow sense. Gothel was standing a few feet away from the cape, and whispering things to quiet for Nathan to hear. She turned back to face Elsa and her whisperings became hissing sounds as if she was trying to speak to a snake.
While Nathan couldn't understand any of what Gothel was doing, Elsa seemed to comprehend it just fine. As if the hissing Gothel had made was some kind of grave taunt or insult, she started sobbing again, and curled into the fetal position.
Nathan pulled the door open as silently as he could, praying that the hinges were oiled enough to keep the door from squeaking. It was, and swung slowly open without issue. Nathan crept inside and jumped quickly to the top of one of the bookshelves and took in the scene below him.
A few guards were sprawled out on the floor around the room. There were several with what looked like serious wounds. Nathan thought he saw the body of Kristoff off in one corner of the room, with what looked like a nasty cut across his face.
Gothel stopped her hissing and turned away from Elsa, peering around the room suspiciously. Nathan flattened himself against the bookshelf and held his breath. A few moments of painful silence later Gothel turned back to Elsa and resumed hissing at her. Nathan was about to blink down and drive his blade into her spine, when she threw her hands up and started hissing louder. As if on cue, Elsa stopped sobbing and picked herself up off the floor. Gothel made a few eccentric gestures with her hands, and Nathan felt a pit in his stomach form when he saw Elsa mirror the movements.
Gothel grinned and threw a hand out towards Elsa. A gout of green smoke shot from her hand and washed over Elsa before forcing its way in her mouth and nose. Nathan recognized the process as "the cleansing" that he had had to go through to reach Gothel the first time. He'd had time to prepare for it, though. Elsa was having forced on her. He recalled how strange it had felt, and how he had almost fallen for the tricks that Gothel had played. He wondered what kind of scenes Elsa was having to go through.
Elsa cried out and fell back to the floor. Gothel stood over her, laughing in a way that made Nathan want to kill her even more. He wouldn't wait any longer. He dropped down from the bookshelf and started creeping up behind her. Elsa was on the floor, looking around as if just waking up, and her eyes fell on Nathan. He put a finger to his lips as he slid silently forward. Elsa put a hand up, as if to say "stop" but Nathan wouldn't. She was likely delirious or hallucinating from Gothel's spell.
As Nathan drew ever closer to Gothel, something in Elsa's eyes changed. The bleary, confused look changed to aggressive and almost hateful. She reached out again, and this time her movement was punctuated by a shard of ice flying from her palm past Gothel and nearly impaling Nathan. He was just barely able to jump out of the way.
Knowing that his stealthy approach was ruined, he dashed forward at Gothel, bringing his blade back in preparation for what would be a single beheading strike. Just as he reached striking distance, Gothel spun to face him. A blast of smoke exploded out of her hand and sent Nathan flying across the room. He tried to reassert control of his flight, but before he could steady himself he collided with one of the bookshelves sides. He felt his spine bear the brunt of the impact, and hoped beyond reason that he wouldn't be paralyzed.
He tried to push himself up off of the floor, but stopped as three separate needles of ice spring from the floor and came to rest on the skin of his neck. One little twitch would likely lead to his death, and he knew it. Both Gothel and Elsa were walking towards him, perfectly in sync during every motion. The sight sent chills down his bruised and battered spine.
He pulsed his power and his body dissolved into shadow. As quickly as the blink of an eye, he was back on top of the bookshelf and out of sight. Elsa made a guttural noise that was full of rage, and Gothel made a few disapproving clicking noises before saying "Come out, dear! You're only delaying the inevitable."
Nathan gritted his teeth and waited. He hated being taunted like this. More pressing than his pride, however, was Elsa. Why had she attacked him? Why was Gothel trying to control her? And why was it working so well?
He dropped off of the back of the bookshelf and crept through the shadows and peaked out from behind a bookshelf on the other side of the room. Elsa and Gothel were still moving in sync, walking side by side and peering into the rows of shelves. Every step that Gothel took produced a puff of green where her foot hit the floor. Every step that Elsa took left a footprint of ice on the floor.
The room started to grow cold, and the fire in the fireplace started to sputter. Nathan knew that he couldn't stay there too long, or the combination of freezing temperature and poison gas would be too much for him to take.
He focused on a spot of floor just to the side of Gothel and behind Elsa and pulsed his power. The next thing that he knew, he was standing on that part of floor. He spun as quickly as he could and lunged towards Gothel, trying desperately to kill her. Elsa turned and saw him, than shouted a warning to Gothel.
Without so much as a pause, she dissolved into a cloud of gas, and Nathan's blade went singing through the cloud harmlessly. Nathan was off balance from the miss, and Elsa took full advantage of this. She reached out a hand and grabbed ahold of Nathan's left arm. He wondered briefly what she was doing before a searing pain shot up his arm, and ice started creeping onto his clothes from Elsa's hand. He cried out in pain, silenced by hid bone charm, and launched a kick at her. It wasn't enough to really hurt her, but more than enough to get her off of him.
She grunted and his hard boot impacted her stomach and doubled over, letting go of his arm. As soon as her grip was broken, he focused on the floor just in front of the fire and threw as much energy as it needed to get him there.
As he arrived at his target location he put his left hand behind him and took a step back. His boot knocked against the protective grate at the base of the fireplace, and he knew that he was almost standing in the fire itself. Elsa and Gothel looked around themselves intently for a moment before Gothel's gaze fell on him. She smiled evil and walked calmly towards him. Elsa took notice too, and almost charged him down. Before she could break into a full on sprint, Gothel made a hissing noise at her, and she stopped. It reminded Nathan of a parent scolding their child for inappropriate behavior.
Gothel continued walking forward, saying "Now now, no need for rash action." She motioned behind her to Elsa "She saw reason very quickly. I didn't even have to do an awful lot, her fears were quite obvious."
Nathan looked back at Elsa, who was pacing behind Gothel like a bull waiting to charge. Feeling was starting to return to his arm thanks to the fire behind him, and a drop of water from the ice on his sleeve hissed as it fell onto the burning logs. The noise made Elsa lift a lip and growl at him like some kind of animal. Gothel continued walking towards Nathan, and an idea started to take root in his mind.
He pulled the silence charm off of his chest and asked "She joined you… willingly?" doing his best to sound befuddled. It was clearly not true, but he needed her to get closer and talking would be the easiest way to do that. Instead of the response that he expected from Gothel, Elsa spoke, growling out "After what you did, Of course!"
Nathan raised an eyebrow, genuinely confused. "What did I do?" he asked indignantly. Elsa only snarled at him again, but Gothel stepped forward and said "Whatever it was, I'm sure that she will forgive you if you join me and her."
Nathan narrowed his eyes and said "And why should I? You attacked Arendelle. Your people tried to kill me, and they may have killed any number of those in the guard." At the mention of the guards, Elsa's expression fell and something in her eyes changed again. She looked down at her feet as if ashamed of something. Gothel took another step forward and said "A little tit for tat, you know." she gestured to a red stain on her diaphragm "You understand. But I'm perfectly willing to forget the fact that you ever stabbed me, all you have to do is join me."
She extended a hand towards Nathan and gave a wide smile that almost made Nathan not want to gouge her throat out. "Just shake my hand and take a deep breath."
Nathan regarded her hand hesitantly for a moment before dropping his blade and reaching out grabbing it. He knew that there was no going back on the plan now, he had made himself almost completely defenseless. But it was necessary. Making absolute sure to keep his mouth and nose completely shut, He took Gothel's hand and shook, looking away to appear ashamed. He could hear the hissing of gas, and felt the slight breeze against his head. Gothel was blowing her smoke right at his face. Her voice came clear over the hissing, saying comfortingly "There, you see? It's all alright. I forgiv-"
She never got the chance to finish her sentence. Nathan yanked her arm towards him and stepped to the side. As she took his place, he grabbed a fistful of her hood and with both hands flung her into the fireplace. A shocked expression came across her face as she toppled over into the hot coals, and a horrible pained screech wasn't far behind. As much as Nathan would have loved to simply sit and watch her burn, there were still things he needed to do.
He spun around and focused his power into his shadow, than pushed his hand away from him and towards Elsa, the mark on his hand burning brightly through his glove. His shadow peeled itself off of the ground and leapt at Elsa who now looking at the scene in front of her with a shocked expression. Nathan's shadow wasted no time in maneuvering around her and pulling her hands together, putting her in a lock.
Nathan crouched down and took his sword by the handle, glad to have it back in his hand. The screaming from behind him intensified, and he knew something was coming. He blinked towards the bookshelves again but didn't hide this time. Gothel didn't have Elsa now, and would be in a considerable amount of pain. Nathan had the upper hand now.
The blazing figure flailing around in the fireplace stopped moving for a moment, than seemed to spasm. Immediately, an explosion of green smoke burst from the fireplace and snuffed out the logs within. Elsa gave a terrified shriek and tried desperately to free herself from the shadow holding her in place. A great roar came from the midst of the cloud, and Gothel, now a charred and reddened mass, came charging out. Instead of charging at Nathan, as he had anticipated, she was headed straight for Elsa.
Nathan blinked between the two, hoping to stop whatever Gothel was going to do, but her body evaporated before it ever even made contact with Nathan. The gas that took her place flowed around Nathan, and forced its way into Elsa.
She went limp for a moment, held up only by the shadow gripping her arms tightly. Than her eyes opened slowly. Nathan took a cautious step towards her. "Elsa? Are you… what happened?" she looked up at him with a terrified expression and said "Nathan, what's going on? What's happening?" she looked around the room and said breathlessly "Did I do this?"
Nathan could see that she was uncomfortable in the grip she was in. he had his shadow loosen its grip slightly. Not enough to take advantage of, but just enough to make it not quite as painful. Whatever Gothel had done, it didn't seem to have worked. Nathan lowed his blade from its ready position and let out a sigh. "No, you didn't do this Gothel di-"
His voice was cut off in a throaty gurgle and he felt his feet leave the ground. Elsa's worried expression melted into a smug smile, and her eyes changed from blue to a deep green. She snickered and said "Are you sure? Look again."
Gothel's eyes peered up at him from Elsa's face. The sight would have angered Nathan if he were not dazed by whatever had happened to him. He looked down and found a huge spike of ice jutting up from the floor and… into his gut. It didn't really hurt, which Nathan knew was not a good thing. The blood that ran from the wound was dark, almost black. Gothel laughed, and coming from Elsa's throat the sound sent chills down Nathan's spine. He was about to speak, to say something, when the door to the library opened a little more and Anna stumbled in.
The spell keeping Nathan's shadow animate faded and it slid back across the floor and attached itself to him again. Gothel flexed Elsa's arms and looked herself up and down, admiring her new body. Anna looked around at the gassy and cold room a moment before her eyes fell of Nathan and Elsa and she cried out "Elsa, what are you doing?
Gothel turned and looked a moment at Anna before spreading her arms and saying "Anna! Thank goodness you're alright!" and running to embrace her. Anna took a few steps forward and hugged her sister, but kept her eyes locked on Nathan the whole time. "Elsa, what did you do to…"
Gothel ended the hug and held Anna at arm's length, staring Anna in the eyes. "Anna, he's possessed by Gothel. She turned herself into gas and…" she looked down, and Nathan could've sworn that he saw a tear roll down her cheek. "I didn't have a choice."
Nathan's head cleared slightly and he realized that he couldn't just sit idle. If he did than Gothel would win. He put power into shadow form and felt his body dissolve. He coiled himself in the air and brought himself a few feet away from the pair. As soon as his body reformed he collapsed to his knees.
Anna gasped and skittered away from him and Gothel stared down at him with hard eyes. Nathan tried to speak but all that he was able to summon up was a splattering of blood. Gothel took Anna by the shoulder and started to lead her away. Nathan tried again to speak but blood flooded his mouth again. Forgoing any attempt to communicate, he turned his attention to any spell he had that would help. Nothing he had would help him. He had no spell for this situation. If only he had…
Had a rune. He had one rune left, sitting in a pouch on his chest. He reached his mind out to the rune and accessed the power. He could only think of one thing he could do that would help him here. He had never done this, and he had never really considered it an option…
The rune's power flowed through him and instead of crafting it into a spell, he used the raw power itself. A rush of power flooded his veins and he felt himself become saturated in magic power. A kind of magic that he wasn't familiar with became visible to him, and he reached for it. The power of Rapunzel's sun magic lit up at his contact, filing his body with warmth. He focused on it and turned its power inward. The wound that Gothel had caused using Elsa's magic steamed as the flesh melded itself back together. Golden light steamed from Nathan's insides and created little streamers that wound through the air above him. Strength returned to him, and he pushed himself up off the ground.
Gothel and Anna turned around and saw Nathan healing. Anna regarded the light with wonder, but Gothel scowled, twisting Elsa's face into an expression that had hardly ever touched on it before. Anna turned to Gothel and said "What's happening? Is he alright?"
Ignoring Anna's question, Gothel pulled her arm back and a ball of pure blue magic danced in her hand. She threw it at Nathan, sending it sparkling through the air. It hit Nathan dead center of the chest, colliding with the bandoleer that his bone charms sat on. The power did nothing to the regular bone charms, but those that had been altered started to shake. Nathan looked down at the things and realized what was going to happen just seconds before it did. He yanked the bone charms off of him and threw them out in front of him. They vibrated on the floor an instant before letting out a high pitch shriek. Nathan rose an arm in front of his face and neck to protect them, than the charms exploded.
Needle-like shards of bone shot out as the charms shattered in all directions. Nathan felt a few of them stick into his glove, sleeve and chest, but none went far enough in to do any damage. He lowered his arms and glared at Gothel, still in Elsa's body. Several of the bone splinters were stuck in her, mostly in her shoulders and arms. It seemed that Anna had been spared from the impact of the needles.
Anna looked over to her side at Elsa and gasped when she saw green gas leaking from the small wounds along with blood. She backpedaled from Gothel and tripped over her dress, toppling to the floor. Nathan could still feel some of the rune's power coursing through him, and knew that this could be his only chance to force Gothel from Elsa's body. He dashed across the space between them, his shadow growing and writhing in a trail behind him. The distance was cleared in the blink of an eye, and Nathan made his whole body shadow again. Without hesitation, he entered Elsa's shadow and, through some like he didn't quite have time to understand, her mind.
The world around him disappeared, and was replaced by a strange almost mirror version of the library. The light in the room was a strange shade of blue, the books and furniture were twisted slightly. Not in a way that was obvious at first glance, but everything was defiantly different. It was like everything was at an incline of just a few degrees different than normal.
In the middle of the room was Elsa, suspended a few feet above the ground. Hovering above her was Gothel her entire lower body gas, allowing her to fly. She had a few strands of what looked like her own magic, green and sickly, that connected to Elsa at the joints. Nathan realized Elsa was essentially a puppet in the whole thing.
Elsa looked up from being suspended in the air and called out to Nathan "Help! Please!"
Her plea for help got the attention of Gothel, who looked up from her strings and growled in anger. "Leave me be, you insolent little pest!" she cried, throwing an arm out at him. At the same time that she did, Elsa threw an arm out also. Two blasts, one of ice and one of gas, came flying towards him.
Nathan leaped to the side throwing himself to the floor behind one of the shelves. Both blasts hit the bookshelf, sending pieces of paper, wood and ice flying everywhere, as well as creating a lingering cloud of gas. Nathan picked himself up off of the floor again and leaped to the top of the shelf. Before either Gothel or Elsa saw where he went, he drew his crossbow and fired a plain wood bolt at Gothel.
The bolt flew straight and slammed into Gothel's shoulder. She waivered unsteadily in the air a moment before her lower body reformed out of the gas and she tumbled head over heels to the floor below. Elsa hung in the air, still suspended by Gothel's strings of power even though she was no longer there to hold them up.
Nathan dropped from the shelf and dashed as fast as he could towards Elsa. The power that the rune had granted him seemed to be gone, but the rest of his powers were happily intact. The supernatural wind that bolstered so many of his other movements lent its assistance to his movements here as well. He sprinted across the space and leapt into the air, slashing the strings with his blade as he flew past.
A snapping sound echoed through the room as the strings were severed and Elsa fell to the floor. Elsa recovered far faster than Gothel, pushing herself to her knees and shaking her head. Gothel, for her part, was still on the floor, trying to push herself to her feet. She couldn't though, due to the arrow lodged firmly in her shoulder.
Nathan helped Elsa to her feet and turned back to face Gothel. She was still struggling to stand, but falling back down each time she got close. Nathan and Elsa stopped and watched her for a moment before Nathan brought his blade up and stepped forward. Gothel looked over her shoulder and saw Nathan. Her eyes widened and her struggling intensified.
Just before Nathan got in range to execute a killing blow, Gothel evaporated. She didn't turn into a cloud of smoke or fly off, she simply vanished. Nathan looked around briefly before realizing that she must have left Elsa and returned to the library. Focusing on what he knew lay outside of Elsa, he did something that felt quite similar to a blink.
He staggered back a few steps and found himself back in the library. The real one. Elsa was hunched over retching with Anna patting her on the back whispering "Its ok, its ok, you'll be alright." In her ear. Nathan cast around for Gothel, and found her on the ground behind him still trying to rise up. The gas that had nearly filled the room was gone, to where Nathan didn't care. There was more ice than there had been when he had entered Elsa's mind. He wondered what her body had been doing while he had been fighting.
He took the few steps to cover the distance and hefted Gothel up by the scruff of her neck. He felt the charred skin flake and crack in his hand, but this did nothing to stay his hand. He brought his blade up and rested the point on the blade on the shoulder that didn't have a crossbow bolt stuck in it.
He turned Gothel around so that he could see her face. Her eyes lock on his with his and her fear was evident. Nathan sneered and said "No one's going to miss you."
Just before he pushed the blade into her, her body spasmed. Nathan narrowed his eyes and examined her as her eyes rolled back in her head and she sputtered a few times. Blood leaked out of her mouth and, figuring something bad was happening, Nathan made to drop her. Instead of falling to the floor however, her body stayed where he had been holding her. Nathan took a step back and saw it.
A large spike of ice was sticking up from the floor and into Gothel's body. Dark crimson started seeping down the spike and forming a puddle on the floor.
Nathan turned and found Elsa standing with her arms extended, and he knew that she had done it on purpose. Tears were starting to roll from her eyes and her body started shaking. Nathan walked towards her and dropped his sword, holding his arms out. Elsa dashed towards him and embraced him, letting the tears flow freely.
Authors Thing:
And in pretty good timing with the end of the school year, that "Arc" or whatever that is ends.
this chapter is another of those that feels weird to me, though i can guess why. As always, give me some feedback.