The woman who still crouched naked in the water leveled a glare at the Valkyrie. "What do you mean you don't know?"
Anna felt like someone had wedged the padding of her armor directly into her skull. Her thoughts zipped too and fro, bouncing off the sides while whatever still sane part of her brain jumped desperately in the middle, trying to grab even one coherent thought.
Who are you? Well that's easy, I'm Anna, the Valkyrie! Wait no, no, I can't say that, humans that are still alive can't know that.
What are you doing here? So funny story - I felt like I needed to be here and find you and I know why but I can't tell you or you won't believe me, or maybe worse you will believe me and then we're still stuck because-
Life or Death?
This question was causing the most trouble. Anna felt the answer gallop up her throat again, only for it to wilt and corkscrew off somewhere else as it neared the tip of her tongue. It leaped up her legs and tornado'd around her insides like a rock trapped in a gale, bruising everything it touched, but still it didn't make itself known to her. It was a pressure, the kind that rattled the lid of a pot over-boiling above the cookfire.
Anna shook her head, feeling more than a little dizzy. The remaining part of her brain that was still running around for a legitimate answer grew tired as well and sat down, which prompted Anna to do the same, plopping down onto the rock below her feet in an unceremonious heap. The woman across from her flinched.
"I guess I mean," Anna replied slowly as she crossed her arms over her chest, "that I really don't know. And that's never happened before."
The woman narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Which part?"
"All of them. Oh!" Anna pounded her fist into her palm. "Except the first question, I can answer that one. I'm Anna!" She grinned broadly, just like she had for the warrior in the battlefield. "It's nice to meet you."
"I wish I could say the same," the woman groused, "but considering the circumstances, you will have to forgive me for not feeling the same."
"It's certainly odd," Anna mused aloud, putting her chin in her hand. She missed the other woman's exasperated expression entirely. "Today started out so normal but now everything is strange."
"That I can agree with."
"I know!" Anna threw her arms out. "First there was the fight, then my plans changed without warning and I miss my ride home, then I stumble-sprint through the forest following your voice and now you're talking to me and-!" Anna pulled up short.
She was having a conversation with a human.
A live human.
Which meant…
"Hey, this is going to sound like a trick question but, you can see me, right?"
The woman blinked, a furrow deepening between her brows. "That… does seem like a trick question." Anna waited patiently, and saw the moment the other woman realized she would have to answer: a defeated drop of her shoulders. "Yes. Yes I can see you."
"Oh good!" Anna chirped. "I mean uh, not good, actually," she frowned and looked to the side, thinking. "Well not baaaad." Anna bobbed her hands in front of her, as though physically weighing the implications on a scale. "Just… unexpected, y'know?"
The look on the blonde's face told Anna that she did not, in fact, know.
"I… can imagine that thinking you can't be seen, only to be seen, would be… unexpected," was the diplomatic reply.
But Anna had already retreated back into her own head, her mini-me having rested long enough to start picking up the pieces and sorting them into piles. Piles of Normal, piles of Weird, and piles of Highly Irregular.
Being seen by a living human was definitely Highly Irregular.
Maybe something had gone wrong with the magic today, or by leaving the company of her sisters the cloaking spell had frayed and broken with distance. Regardless, if this woman did not suspect Anna's true nature, then she supposed it wasn't a big deal. She still had the largest issue at hand anyway.
Again the Choice stirred under the skin of her palms, racing past her funny bone in a jolt and stinging the junction of shoulder and neck before disappearing like a snuffed candle.
"Any update on that second part," a voice startled Anna from her thoughts, "or are we free to move on with our lives?" The woman in the water had started to shiver, goosebumps covering her arms and legs.
"I'm sorry!" Anna jumped up and reached out. "Here, let me help you up."
The blonde looked at her hand like it was a poisonous snake. "I'm more than capable of getting out myself, thank you." Her gaze flicked back up to Anna's, "Especially because you won't tell me why you're here. Or you can't remember, which I can't say is any better."
"Oh, right, well…" Anna withdrew her hand and rubbed the back of her neck instead. "I'll let you do that then."
A beat passed before something seemed to click in the woman's brain. "You're just going to stand there?"
"Huh? Yeah?" Anna cocked her head, "I mean, we're both women."
"We're also strangers," the woman responded, grinding the final word between her teeth.
"Sure but, it's not a big deal, I've seen plenty of naked women."
This time it was the blonde who blushed, making her hair stand out more starkly against her reddened skin. "Right," she said flatly. "Be that as it may, if you're so determined to stay I'd prefer it if you at least turned around."
"I… of course. If it makes you more comfortable." Anna spun on her heel, her back to the water. Throughout their conversation, the strength of the tugging had ebbed, less a riptide and more a kitten batting at a string of yarn, pulling against the middle vertebrae of her spine.
If the woman replied it was lost in the swoosh and splatter of water as she moved from the middle of the stream to the bank. Anna heard the droplets of water splash onto the rocks below, sometimes more, sometimes less. Perhaps she was wringing out her hair.
"Don't peek," the woman scolded.
"I wasn't going to!"
"Prove it. Close your eyes."
Anna nearly turned around to answer in spite, but caught herself and set her eyes straight into the trees. "I'm already facing away from you, isn't closing my eyes a little much?" But Anna did as she was told.
"No," came the muffled reply, as though the woman had turned away from her, also. There was a ruffle of cloth and the sounds of dressing, the clasp of a belt and the slide of shoes.
And then there was the knife.
It was nearly impossible for someone of Anna's age and battle prowess to mistake the sound of a blade leaving it's sheathe. And even if she had, the tether pressing against her back suddenly ignited - combusting, roaring and leaping against her like a brush fire.
In a heartbeat Anna whirled around, knees bent and legs spread apart. The woman stood before her a few feet away, now dressed, though water still dripped from her legs and soaked the fabric of her dress at the collar. Between them was a hunting knife, pointed at Anna's heart.
"You're armed!?" Anna blurted out.
"Isn't everyone?" The woman called back, gesturing with the tip of the knife to Anna's waist before aiming right back at her center. "And so are you, by the way."
"Yes but that's because I'm-!" Anna clapped a hand over her mouth in the nick of time. She couldn't just say she was a Valkyrie, there had to be some kind of rule against that.
"A warrior, I know." The woman scoffed. Anna swore for a moment her eyes flashed like the glint of sea rime at dawn but it was gone just as fast. "Come from the battle up the hill have you? Is that why you won't tell me what you're doing here, you're not sure whose side I'm on? Whether I'll run away from you or into your arms? Or are you a deserter? Tucking your tail between your legs and winding up here, caught without a backup plan?"
"Yes! No. What? Absolutely not. A-And no! In that order!" Anna straightened, rubbing a hand on her temple. Her head was starting to ache, not just from the situation (which was already far, far beyond what she'd ever imagined), but from the strain of the pull on her body. Never had it lasted so long or been so overwhelming. It trod up her sternum and into her throat, dancing along the edges of her jaw. Anna ground the heel of her forward foot into the rock below, needing to physically restrain herself from walking forward. The woman noticed her shift in posture and took a half step back. "Yes, I came from the battle," Anna said, taking a deep breath. "But not because I was involved in it. I came here because… because I needed to find you. Because I heard you singing."
Well that was true enough, Anna thought to herself. "Who lives and who dies is important to me," she continued, finding her way through the half truths that would have to bear her along, like stepping stones made from clouds. "But equally important is that those who are not destined for combat are spared. That those whose lives are decided by other things are not drawn into battle needlessly."
The woman knelt slowly, keeping her front towards Anna at all times while retrieving a bag from behind a rock. She slung it over her shoulder before speaking. "Oh, so you are a judge, too," she said icily. "Well then decide. But bear in mind - your choice is not the only one guiding my fate today."
Decide. Choose.
The words barked in Anna's head, bayed like hounds on the scent. The Choice bore down on her again, like the stones that crushed guilty men, one on top of another.
"My name is Anna," she said gravely, drawing upon the power with which she made Choices before the war drums had even played their first beat.
"Part one," the woman counted, standing tall.
"I came here to solve a mystery, to find whomever was at the end of a string… a song."
"Part two…"
Anna felt it, the Choice zinging up her arm, raising the hairs on her neck, feeling the thrum of her heart in her chest. It was time.
"And I choose... to let you go."
Silence passed between them, and then the woman frowned, the tip of her knife dropping just slightly. "What?"
"I mean, I never meant to keep you here, and I'm sorry that you felt threatened." Anna placed as much compassion as she could muster into her words, which was quite a lot. One didn't get good at comforting dead souls by being callous for hundreds of years. Besides, this woman was only human, and if there was a problem with Choosing, that wasn't her folly but Anna's, and something she needed to investigate on her own. "You must live somewhere nearby?" Anna coaxed. "The village southwest of here perhaps, down the hills? I'm sure they'll be happy to see you safe. I won't tell anyone you were here, just in case. But it's not safe to stick around. You should go back home."
"Home…" The word fell oddly from the blonde's lips. "Yes I-, I'll do that."
Anna rocked back on her heels, hands settling genially on her hips. Despite the draw she still felt between her and this woman, it was manageable now. She wasn't sure what she was going to tell her fellow Valkyries about this, but she'd cross that bridge when she came to it.
"If it's all the same to you," the woman said, interrupting Anna's thoughts, "I'll wait until you leave. You've made yourself more trustworthy than you first appeared, but I'd not like to take chances."
Anna smiled despite the scrutiny. "Well I was going to offer to walk you home, but you seem like you can take care of yourself. That knife has hardly lowered once."
"I think that's a genuine compliment, for which I'll say, 'thank you'." The flicker of a smile came and went in the dappled sunlight across the woman's face, so quickly Anna almost missed it. "Don't take this the wrong way… Anna," the woman spoke as Anna began walking back into the forest, "but I hope I never see you again."
The Valkyrie's heart trilled at the use of her name, even as sadness dampened it's cheer. It was entirely possible they'd never meet again. Perhaps on the next morn, battle long over, Anna would wake and the pull would disappear completely. Freed from the burden of Choice until it came around next time, for someone new. Though, Anna hadn't been lying when she said she'd arrived following a mystery. And mysteries hated going unsolved.
But for now she trudged through the trees back toward the hill, throwing a last hand over her shoulder in farewell.
With each step the tug grew lighter and lighter - a snag, a tap, a whisper across the room, until finally it was only noticeable if she concentrated.
Clear frost filigree inside a spyglass.
Elsa waited until the Valkyrie was long out of sight. She sheathed her knife only when birdsong came back to the wood, and with that movement went the last of her strength.
She fell to her hands and knees, trembling.
A Valkyrie. A Valkyrie had come looking for her.
In all her years, all her centuries of life, Elsa had never been so close to one. She knew who they were and to whom they were sworn. What they dedicated their life to. Reaping souls for the glory of another war and leaving the rest to rot.
Elsa breathed heavily, her brave and icy façade melting as her lungs begged for air to quell the panic in her heart. She'd made a mistake reacting to the Valkyrie's presence, even if it had been a genuine surprise. Humans couldn't see Valkyries, and if Elsa wanted to remain hidden, she needed to keep pretending she was human.
But the Valkyrie… Anna..., had seemed distracted too. Something had been bothering her, or maybe even hurting her.
Yet she'd been armed, and knew how to use the sword at her hip. She was a woman who decided whether a person would continue on to see the sunset or not.
Even though she'd been kind, Elsa had not been willing to take the risk.
Elsa's jaw clenched, her hands forming fists, drawing lines in the sand and loose dirt of the riverbank. She'd been clumsy but she hadn't been caught. Her secret was safe, for now. The Valkyrie still thought she was nothing but an innocent woman, bathing too close to a battlefield.
She gathered the rest of her things, not that she had many. It was time to disappear and lay low for a while. The song she was singing before came back to her mind, but now it felt tainted so she didn't even hum. Her malaise showed despite her best efforts however, in the irritable swish and flick of her tail beneath her dress.
That is when she had felt the most terror. Anna had not just come upon her naked in flesh, but in spirit.
Every moment she'd crouched in the water had been eons in her mind. Her muscles still ached with the effort of keeping her tail wound around her calf and ankle. Praying that the Valkyrie would have the modesty not to look, or if she didn't, to be unable to see through the ripples in the water.
Coupled with the intense need to keep her front to Anna's at all times, lest she see her back, left Elsa with hardly enough energy to stand.
That's why Elsa had asked her to close her eyes, even with her back turned. She couldn't trust the Valkyrie's word, not when Elsa didn't know the true reason she'd come. While her lie about following a song hadn't been entirely false, it certainly wasn't the whole truth. At least Anna had complied with her request. Elsa wasn't sure what she'd have done if she hadn't.
Probably disappear into thin air.
But that would have been more suspicious, and Elsa had known she still had a chance to ward off the preoccupied Valkyrie. Though she'd been successful, that triumph, in its wake, only made her light headed, with nerves so bundled up in her core she felt nauseous.
Elsa checked her surroundings one last time before reaching out in front of her, a little above her head. She felt for a Seam, running the pads of her fingers up and down, along divots and warps until she found one and pulled. An opening appeared before her, like a drape pulled away from a window. Inside the world was muted, duller, quieter.
Elsa took one last breath of fresh air before she stepped inside, feeling the doorway close behind her.
After all, the Hulder did say she'd go home.