A familiar scream erupted from the castle.
Elsa collapsed her icy walls and dashed into the ballroom. The once clean and pristine building had given way to ruin. The once gilded walls of a vibrant dance floor had chipped and blackened from years of neglect and a long past inferno. Blinds hung in tatters and the floor covered in dust and debris. The high ceiling had collapsed to reveal the stars in a patchwork of holes and exposed support beams. Only the stone pillars seemed unaffected by the transformation.
"Anna! Where are you!?" Elsa screamed from the top of her already exhausted lungs.
"ELSA!"
She quickly followed the sound of her friend's voice up the stairs and into her short-lived bedroom. She found Anna sitting on the ashes of a bed in a heap of confused emotions.
"Elsa! I was— I was here and— and I was playing with the children and then— *huff* and then things started to get all weird. First, the Captain was there and then the kids started moving around like...like… not moving their feet. Like just floating or, or something. And then— and then people turned into PUPPETS! With strings attached to their bodies and creepy wooden eyeballs. And then they started yodeling, and then there was a GOAT! And, and, and… what the hell is going on?!"
Elsa ran over and quickly grabbed Anna in a fierce hug. "It's ok. Everything's ok now. I know what happened here."
"Wait, you do?! What happened? What happened with the Baroness?"
"I'll explain it to you on the way. We should get out of this place. We should also… get your real clothes…"
Elsa looked down and then quickly looked away for reasons she had yet to understand. Anna followed the gaze to her body which was basically clad in nothing but thread and soot from a long disintegrated dress.
"Great. I kinda liked that dress too."
To Anna's horror, Elsa rummaged through her still intact closet to find the original drab dress that she arrived in. Through much protestation, Anna redonned the brown, itchy dress and the two women left the ruins of the Von Trapp castle behind and made their way back to Uuenia.
The Next Morning
Abbess Virgilia sat at her meticulously kempt desk, her reading glasses nestled atop the bridge of her nose and a quill in her hand as she wrote the day's agenda for the Abbey. A chill crept up her spine so she removed her glasses and stood to close her window only to find that it had been shut the entire time. She wondered for half a second before turning her gaze to the sudden appearance of a visitor quietly sitting in the chair in front of her desk.
"Sister Elsa. What can I do for you."
Elsa sat with her arms crossed, her leg draped over her knee and her braid resting against her chest. Her sandaled foot hung in the air over her light blue traveling gown that shimmered in the shadows.
"I am no Sister, Abbess. And you are no saint."
"I take it your mission… was a success then?"
The Abbess stood behind her desk, resolute as the icons in her church.
"You sent those women there to die. You sent Anna there to die! Why?"
"Fräulein Elsa, I know that you are a pagan woman, but I had hoped that you would stay long enough to at least be saved. Ignorance is an easily curable ailment. Those women, however…, and fräulein Anna, they have a disease. And it is God's will to make sure that disease does not spread. Witchcraft is a sin. And its only solution is God's flame."
"You don't even know Anna!"
"Please. Anyone can sense it. The way that she acts, the way that she behaves with the other Sisters, the way that she looks at them. I knew from the moment you both walked into my church."
Elsa stood erect and angry, her chair falling behind her to the floor.
"You killed Baroness Schraeder. You used magic to bind her soul to that place, twisted and mangled her and used her to murder more women. Is that not itself witchcraft?!"
"If it is the Lord's will then it is a Holy power bestowed upon me to carry out his great plan. Baroness Schraeder fled here from a neighboring kingdom. They had discovered her secret and relayed it to me. Captain Von Trapp took her in, put under her spell as it were. She had already spread her disease to many young girls in Uuenia by the time I had found out. I had to put an end to the epidemic. What better way than to use the source as the cure."
Elsa's fists were shaking. Her teeth clenched and her jaw tightening from her building rage.
"Those women did nothing wrong. Anna did nothing wrong. She has never hurt anyone, yet you stand there and speak to me of death and hold your head up high as if righteousness falls upon you. You are a hypocrite and a murderer."
"I am the Abbess. I am the word of God. I am his Holy flame sent to protect those worthy of His love.
The Abbess turned her back toward Elsa and faced the window. The rays of the early morning sun bathed the tapestry of wrinkles in her face with the warmth of a new day. Her eyes fell as she basked in the glory of her deeds.
Seeing that words would no longer reach her, if they ever could, Elsa let her rage subside. She unclenched her fists and regained her composure. She spun her own back toward the Abbess and calmly walked toward the door, her soft footsteps silent on the stone floor.
As she opened the door, she turned one last time to look over her shoulder. The Abbess remained standing like a statue in her mausoleum of granite and mahogany. There was still a rage behind Elsa's eyes but it was combined with growing sadness and fear at the possibility of Anna meeting the same fate as the Baroness. She had known since the first torch was thrown at her head as a little girl that the fire could one day be her fate. She assumed that Anna was implicitly safe from that possibility yet she had come closer to the pyre on their journey than even Elsa with all her magic.
"I would like to think that I am a better person than you…"
In her mind's eye, Elsa watched as Anna was tied to a wooden beam standing atop a funeral mound of hay and tinders. A torch placed at the base of her feet as she cried out into the sky.
"but I am not."
As her last step left the cold floor of the dark room, her sole left behind a single, minuscule, infinitesimal snowflake. The door closed and Elsa strode down the arched hallway, never looking back toward the room now lost to an arctic abyss.
Elsa found her way to the central courtyard of the Abbey where she encountered a growing tradition of hugs and goodbyes from her ever glowing companion.
Sister Berthe shook Anna's hand, an entirely different demeanor from the cold, uncaring Sister that had greeted Anna's rambunctious behavior only a few days prior.
"Thank you so much for all of your help. I can't believe that it was the Abbess who killed those poor girls…"
Anna, feeling much more comfortable in her own traveling dress, was more than pleasant to the faux tormentor.
"Hey, don't sweat it. This is what the Rangers are all about. Helping people in need. I gotta say, when you asked us to look into a disappearance of girls here at the Abby I was totally skeptical. I mean, if it was me I woulda ran outa here without a word too. Who woulda thought that the Abbess was using dark magic to kill them?"
Elsa had casually made her way to stand next to Anna as she made her farewells.
"The authorities will be here soon to take the Abb— former Abbess away. The Abbey owes you both a debt of gratitude. I will be praying for you to have a safe journey."
"And I will be praying that you… don't have any more people get killed around here, I guess. Well, so long, farewell, auf wiedersehen!"
Around Lunch Time
"Anna, we should really get going."
"Elsa, we are in Uuenia, and we are getting strudel."
The two women sat at an outside dining table meant for two, sitting under the awning of a seemingly popular café. Anna was bouncing up and down despite Elsa's refusal to allow her any of the ever increasingly popular drink called coffee.
A posh waiter came out with a silver plater that was more clear than any mirror. Atop its polished surface sat two plates, each holding a delicate envelope of thin pastry wrapped around exotic fruit and accompanied by a generous blob of cream. The waiter had an equally polished pot with an equally polished spoon sticking out of the top. He pulled out the spoon and sprinkled a fine, white powder over the pastries.
"Danke!"
Anna could not wait to dive into her strudel. She jabbed with her fork and cut a massive slab that went straight into her mouth.
Elsa sat across the small table. Even as the aroma of sugar, fruit and baked sweetness filled her nose, she found her thoughts unsettled. All she could do was stare at her companion as she scarfed down her pastry.
I can't stop these images from entering my mind. Anna engulfed in flame... Anna crying out for my help…
Anna…
Anna's lips pressed against that woman...
Anna…
She's… she's already finished her strudel. That took her three bites. Did she just order another one? She doesn't even realize her face is a mess. She's got sugar all over her nose and even her eyelashes. How is that possible? A light dusting of white powder sprinkled amongst her freckles…
And so it seemed that a little dusting of sugar could quiet her mind, relax her thoughts, and even, perhaps, cause her heart to skip as she enjoyed her strudel amongst the growing list of her favorite things.
A/N:
I hope you all enjoyed this journey through the Sound of Music. I now know that the movie is not all that popular with everyone. I hope that it was at least a fun ride. The Sound of Music holds a special place in my heart and I really loved seeing the girls in that setting.
But now it's time to move on. To soar to different heights. To find the second star on the right, and head straight on till morning.
Elsa and Anna will return in... Pay the Piper