4
The night seemed to past slowly for Anna, the things Elsa had revealed about their mother and the real possibility that her first born daughter would be the successor to Elsa as the Fifth Spirit gave her pause.
But on top of that, she kept reliving her experience with Hans. How he manipulated her, preyed upon her loneliness, her, she hated to admit, naivety and then crushed her heart with his betrayal. In many ways that hurt her heart more than Elsa freezing it. But at the same time, she would wonder how he could do that, what makes a man that cold and calculating.
She, did remember him telling her about how three of his brothers pretended he was invisible for two years and wondered if that had an influence on his behaviour. In many ways, she didn't care, but yet she was still wanted to know. Anna knew it was just her curiosity that she had had for her whole life. Always asking questions, wanting to learn, a need to be a better leader by learning what other leaders had done well as well as their mistakes.
Then, on top of this, she was nervous about crossing the Dark Sea even though she knew she didn't have to. Anna knew this because Elsa had told her that ever since she had become the Fifth Spirit the sea had settled down to where it was almost as still as a mill pond. Well, it was whenever Elsa crossed it because both Gale and the Nokk knew she was crossing it, so they made sure it was as calm as it could be.
Then, just as she was finally really falling asleep "Excuse me Your Majesty, we are arriving Ahtohallan."
Anna recognised the voice and opened her eyes to see Elsa looking down on her.
"Elsa, you don't have to call me Your Majesty." She said with a yawn.
"I know," replied Elsa with a smile, "but, I just thought it would be nice for you to hear it, how did you sleep?"
"To be honest, not very well."
"Oh." Responded Elsa
"It's okay Elsa, just what you told me about the Fifth Spirit, plus Hans and then on top of that I must admit a little fear about the Dark Sea." Anna shrugged her shoulders.
"Anna," started Elsa," I told you the Dark Sea was calm for me."
"I know, I know, but years of reputation and of course Momma's and Papa's ship."
"I understand, I must admit, Mother and Father's ship does get to me too." She said sadly, "But, you need to come up on deck, Ahtohallan looks beautiful in the morning sun."
The two sisters raced up onto the deck and Anna discovered that Elsa was right, Ahtohallan truly was beautiful in the morning sun. The snow and ice from the glacier glistened in the morning light. The water around the glacier and the island was a beautiful turquoise blue and crystal clear. It lapped up and down on the ice gently and it just seemed so serene and peaceful there.
"Oh Elsa," smiled Anna, "you are so right, it is absolutely beautiful, I never imagined it looked as wonderful as this."
"Sort of takes your breath away, doesn't it?" asked Elsa.
"Oh yes, how close do we need to get to disembark?"
"Fifty metres should be fine." Responded Elsa.
"Captain!" commanded Anna.
"Yes, Your Majesty." He replied.
"Weigh anchor about fifty metres off shore."
"Very good Your Majesty."
The ship edged towards the shore of Ahtohallan and when it reached around fifty metres from the shore, they released the anchor and the ship came to halt.
"Will Your Majesty require a boat to get to shore?" asked the Captain.
"Actually, she won't." responded Elsa with a smile.
"Elsa?" quizzed Anna.
"Anna, you forget." And with that Elsa waived her hands and suddenly there was an ice bridge from the ship to the shore.
"Yes, I should have known," laughed Anna.
Elsa and Anna then began the short walk to the shore when suddenly the Nokk appeared next to the ice bridge, which slightly startled Anna.
"Don't worry Anna, and sadly no," said Elsa to the Nokk. "I don't need you this time to get to the shore, but I'm sure my sister would love a ride later."
The Nokk looked at Anna, nodded in affirmation then disappeared into the sea.
"A ride later?" asked Anna, "well, okay, it will be a little different to Kjekk back home, hey, my pants won't get wet sitting on him, will they?"
"I wouldn't think so," grinned Elsa, "well, welcome to Ahtohallan, my home now." Said Elsa as they stepped onto the shore.
"Wow, it's like when I first saw your Ice Castle, though you didn't build this one."
"Actually, I don't know who built this, I'm assuming the very first Fifth Spirit, who I assume was magical like me."
"I think you're right."
"Oh Anna, before we go any further, I should do something, show me the soles of your boots."
"Soles of my boots?"
"Yes, I need to do something."
"Okay," responded Anna curiously.
She then stood on her left foot first and exposed her right boot's sole, Elsa, with a flick of her wrist, placed ice spikes onto her boot, and then the other.
"Don't want you slipping in there as it is ice."
"Thanks, Elsa, oh wow, what a grip," Anna said trying them out.
They then walked to the entrance to Ahtohallan. Elsa had made stairs to make it easier to climb to the entrance.
"Well, this is it" she smiled at Anna while holding her hand.
"I guess it is," replied Anna just a tad nervous of what she would see.
They stepped into the ice corridor and as they did the walls sparkled into life showing them the way to the main chamber. Despite her new ice spikes on her boots, Anna tread carefully so she wouldn't slip. Meanwhile Elsa walked confidently and with purpose as she was excited to show Anna all the memories of the past, especially what should be Anna's real memories.
They then came to the chasm which Elsa had leapt across from ice pillar to ice pillar she created, however, since then, she had created an ice staircase somewhat similar to the one she built to the entrance of her ice castle.
"Whoa," exclaimed Anna as they entered the archway entrance to the main chamber which Elsa now referred to as the memory chamber. Her heart lifted as she remembered the joy of her first time seeing this and discovered who she really was.
"I know, isn't it beautiful," she responded to Anna.
They then entered the memory chamber and Anna saw the four elemental spirits symbols on the floor with a small white diamond in the middle.
"Now watch this," Elsa said as she jumped onto the diamond and the snowflake shape illuminated on the floor and then energy went through Elsa as she raised her hands to the ceiling and extended to the walls where all of sudden flashbacks of memories appeared before Anna's eyes.
Seeing this Anna swelled with emotion as she saw images of her mother when she was a Northuldra girl as well as images of her singing to Anna and Elsa the lullaby about Ahtohallan.
"Oh Elsa," she said as she wrapped her arms around her sobbing a little, "I didn't realise how much I really missed her until now, thank you."
"It's okay Anna, I know, I felt the same way when I first saw this and have every time since, now stand back as I invoke more memories."
Anna stood back and watched as Elsa started to command this mist that suddenly appeared. It grew and grew around them as Elsa, almost like a conductor of an orchestra, commanded evermore of it until finally she raised her arms and dropped her whole self to the floor.
Suddenly, moments from the past came to life in snow sculptures all around Anna, the first she saw was her and Elsa as little girls playing on the floor with Elsa creating the Enchanted Forest from her ice magic.
"I remember this, it was what we were talking about last night" Anna remarked, "but it was with paper dolls and paper snow not real snow and frozen dolls, that was the night Papa told us about the Enchanted Forest."
"Yes, it was" responded Elsa with a smile.
Anna then saw the two of them in bed with their mother as she sang the lullaby about Ahtohallan to which she began to hug Elsa and began crying. Not completely of sadness, but a part of joy of hearing their mother's voice again and of course of her missing their mother so much.
The next image they saw was of Anna waking Elsa up to play again and asking her if she wanted build a snowman? She then saw them entering the ballroom and saw Elsa conjure up her magic and make it snow indoors.
"Oh, if only I could remember this, it is so amazing." She marvelled.
"You know," said Elsa," that's exactly what you said then too."
She witnessed the first time they made Olaf and of skating around the ballroom on the ice power of Elsa's magic hands. Then Anna saw the accident, she saw her get struck in the head by Elsa's magic, it shocked her and what was worse, she saw how Elsa reacted, she saw the fear in Elsa's young eyes.
"Is this what really happened Elsa?" she asked
"Yes Anna, this is what separated us for all those years, this is what began my fear and my isolation and why I wore those gloves all the time."
"Oh Elsa," Anna said sympathetically as she could see how much it hurt Elsa.
"There's more from that night." Said Elsa.
Anna then saw the meeting with Grand Pabbie and saw him remove and change her memories to what they are now.
"I'm sorry Anna," Elsa said in a sad voice, "I wish there was a way to restore your real memories and not the ones made up for you so you wouldn't know my big secret."
"Elsa," responded Anna with authority, "it's alright, I understand better now than ever before, Mama, Papa and Pabbie all did what they thought was best at the time, and look everything turned out great, I mean you're the Fifth Spirit now and I'm the Queen."
"I suppose so," Elsa said, "anyway there are more memories for you to see."
Elsa was able to conjure up a memory of the two of them sneaking into the kitchen and Elsa turning the soup cold. Anna burst out laughing saying "Elsa! Really?"
"Well, back then I wasn't particularly fond of soup, I preferred.." she looked at Anna smiled then unison they both said "chocolate."
Elsa then showed some of the history of their mother saving their father and of her playing with Gale.
"I think," Elsa started, "that mother was in training to be the Fifth Spirit as she already had a strong relationship with Gale, but because she chose to leave the forest to save Father, that's when the forest was closed as she broke the link between her and the elemental spirits."
"Sounds about right," responded Anna, "Elsa, do you know who built this?"
"Actually Anna, I don't, though I have been meaning to ask Yelena about it as she has the responsibility of keeping the history of the Northuldra. I have actually been waiting until I showed you this so we could both get more answers about our mother and our family's link to the Fifth Spirit."
"Oh Elsa, that would be wonderful, thank you," replied Anna, then with a more serious look on her face, "now about this Hans thing?"
"Okay," responded Elsa, "it should be over here."
They walked to another part of the Memory Chamber and there it was, Anna and Hans meeting for the first time.
"You know," said Anna, "I wish I had forgotten this."
"Me too," said Elsa, "but it keeps popping up no matter how many times I do this."
Elsa waved her hand and the snow sculpture of Hans fell apart, but then something new appeared, to left of the memory, it was a room with a small boy curled up in the corner.
"What's this?" said Elsa, "I haven't seen this before."
Anna and Elsa walked towards the small boy and saw that he was sobbing loudly in the corner of the room.
"Elsa, is that Hans?" she asked.