Part I
The heavy smoke that choked the morning skies stayed to smother the night. Ash drizzled over the Arenfjord and inside the castle's ballroom, high on a dark wall, a clock mimicked the moon that couldn't be seen. The round glass face reflected pale candlelight and claimed the time was a quarter to eight.
Lies, Marie mused. By her sore eyes and aching muscles, it must be at least midnight - and, at the same time, hadn't it been just a few hours since daybreak?
Or, since she broke the day.
Arendelle's royal family reclined on the dance floor, cushioned by spare blankets, passing tired smiles and easy laughter between them. Elsa's hair fell in thick tangles, Anna's shredded ball gown fanned around her, and Kristoff's eyelids sagged. The rest of the ballroom-turned-campsite looked similarly drained in the strange twilit purgatory.
A little behind the sisters, Marie leaned back against a column, holding the Firebird sword in a loose grip at her side. Her pose might be too openly relaxed around the people whose homeland she ruined, but it kept the weight off her leg.
Besides, for the moment everyone's attention was elsewhere. Arendellian and Northuldra, young and old, eager and resigned, clustered around the center of the ballroom to hear the epic tale of what had happened and why they were here. Marie felt she could use a refresher as well.
"It began three days ago..." Olaf set the scene with a flourish.
"Hello, I'm Marie." The snowman adopted a husky, haughty tone. "A tall, sword-wielding redhead with great cheekbones who you've definitely never seen before."
"Durr," he continued, dropping his voice further, "I'm Kristoff, and this checks out."
Ryder snorted.
"Was he really that easy?" A silky voice murmured up at Marie.
She met Elsa's teasing eyes, and noted the slight, rueful curl to her lip.
"Not as easy as you," Marie replied with a shrug.
"Shh!" Anna chastised them both in a whisper. "Respect the performance."
"Lavamanders rawr!" Olaf snarled at some children in the front row, making them giggle.
Olaf jumped on Sven, waving his hand magically, and swinging his detached nose like a sword. "Pewww, fwoom! Hot and cold, together at last!"
"But who is this Marie?" Olaf beheld Sven's countenance, pondering the mystique. "Who am I, and who are you? I have eyebrows, where did they come from?"
No easy answers. Marie saw Ryder rubbing his own eyebrows, unnerved.
"I'm melting! Elsa's melting!" The snowman let his form come undone for effect, "A cruel twist! Ice has been water the whole time."
"I don't think he knows what twists are," Ryder's sister muttered.
Olaf, on Sven again, beseeched in his husky Marie-voice, "Elsa, run away with me!"
Marie stared at Elsa's back, the tension in her shoulders and folded arms.
"Yes!" Olaf as Elsa replied.
Marie let out a short sigh.
"NOOO!" Olaf as Anna, now on the floor, cried at the reindeer plodding away from him.
Olaf then switched to his deep Kristoff-voice, "Anna, calm down, you're only mad because of your abandonment issues."
"YOU STUPID BOY, DON'T SAY IT LIKE THAT!" General Mattias yelled at Olaf's Kristoff.
"By the way, quick fact check," Olaf as himself said in an aside to the audience. "Turns out I was wrong - water does not have memory, the 'bad guy' from before is not really that bad, and not really a guy -"
At that, savvier onlookers shifted their attention from the snowman to Marie. She didn't meet their eyes - fixing her stare over their heads - but she still heard the murmurs to their neighbors. Some didn't even try to keep their voices down when they spelled it out.
"- postponing the inevitable is futile, and everything is made of lies," Olaf concluded. "Ok, where were we? Oh, yes."
"AAAHHHHHHHH," Olaf wailed in primal angst.
"Doo-doo-doo, the elements battle!" Olaf used his carrot nose, one of his snow feet, and a lump of coal as toys. "Fire beats ice, rock beats fire, and then ICE BETRAYS ROCK TO SAVE FIRE!"
Marie chuckled. Anna gave her sister a small punch to the arm.
"Marie sacrifices herself over the volcano." Olaf stabbed his carrot into the floor. The flame-like swirls of fruit punch in his snow dissolved, turning his whole body pink. "She breaks the ice cap, and burns alive in an instant… "
Every breath held, except one.
Well, two.
"Pwow, pwow. Volcano," Olaf stage-whispered while holding his pose. "It's erupting, and that's unfortunate, but it needs to, 'cause it's a volcanoooo…."
"And then Marie's ok again!" Olaf popped his dented nose back in, and smiled to the crowd, "And now we're all friends. Also, while all the other stuff was happening, Kristoff and Ryder made sure nobody died, but you already know that part."
The people clapped at that, with some relief to be back with the story as they understood it. Anna squeezed Kristoff's hand, while he fist bumped Ryder with his free one. Marie had to admit, kingship suited the man.
"Any questions?" Olaf added, after taking a well-earned bow.
Marie raised her chin to the crowd, daring them. Some of the soldiers and castle servants gawked at her features in a half-focused way, like she was an optical illusion - but they held their tongues. She couldn't easily read the guarded silence of the Northuldra, but they didn't seem fearful. Perhaps they thought of her as like Mt. Mundspell itself; a natural disaster.
"So, Marie, is that volcano stuff just a part of your body now, or...?" Ryder piped up, gesturing at the scale-like layers of cold black basalt encasing her from neck to foot.
The igneous armor was so fitted and easy to move in, Marie herself hadn't given it any thought since she reformed. Mildly curious, she tapped the hard crust on her chest, picked at a ridge, and broke off a flake - exposing skin underneath with a light sting.
"It is not," Marie reported with a slight voice crack. "I should go clean this off - at once, if I may. And if the guest bedroom - "
"The guest room is taken," the general cut in. His wife nodded in assent.
"Oh?"
"Yeah," Kristoff confirmed, unapologetic. "I didn't really think you'd still be a guest."
"Understood," Marie dipped her head to His Majesty. She closed her eyes out of
deference, for a moment, and found she preferred them that way, for another.
"Well, what about my bedroom?" Elsa asked, 'Is that available?"
Marie's eyes snapped open. Elsa faced Kristoff, choppy waves of hair veiling her expression from Marie's view.
"Of… course." Kristoff glanced from her to Marie, whose face froze in a polite mask.
Between them, Anna became fixated on the floor decals.
"Ok, then." Elsa rose, skirts flowing. It was gratuitous, how the lush ruffles made even her most casual movement an event.
The hall stirred, exchanged looks.
"I'll take you there, now," Elsa told Marie in an airy tone for such impatient words. Then she added, unprompted, "I was going to retire soon, anyway."
"Sure, thank you," Marie emitted these filler sounds as her grin broadened too much - too pleased.
The corners of Elsa's nonchalant smile twitched. Marie met her gaze, and all the faces surrounding them melted into the firelight. Her eyes were like open windows to a night beyond the smoke - wild, blue, wanting her.
Marie straightened off the column. With the first step forward, she winced - her calf throbbed something awful. Elsa quickly slid a hand around Marie's lower back, steadying her.
Though she could limp well enough on her own, Marie didn't mind Elsa's help in the slightest. She wrapped her free arm around Elsa's shoulders, brushing the blonde mane off her open back as she did so. Fingertips grazed bare skin, and Marie felt Elsa's breath catch and her grip tighten.
"Well, good night, everybody," Elsa bade the room, with a slight rasp that to Marie was better music than the purest high note.
"'Night," Anna muttered, not looking up.
"See you tomorrow!" Olaf waved to Elsa and Marie as they made their way to the door leading to the hallway.
"Uh, go easy on the hot water," Kristoff called after them. "The castle tank has enough to last a couple days, probably, but we're stretched thin."
"Good to know!" Elsa replied, without pausing.
"Yes, though between us," Marie added, with a shameless grin, "A lack of hot water shouldn't be an issue."
In low light, the red walls of Arendelle castle were the color of heady wine, with deep burgundy shadows.
"The room on the left is mine," Elsa told Marie, though she didn't need to. Marie recognized the blue diamond pattern on the double doors from down the hall - exactly the same as the single door to Elsa's old room. The door she broke into yesterday morning.
When do I bring that up? She tapped the sword handle, considering. Is never too soon?
"I think there's enough towels," Elsa added with a furtive glance at Marie. "Though, Gerda will probably bring up extra, anyway."
"I wonder what she did with the clothes I left in the guest room," Marie mused. "They were new, and I will need something for the morning - "
"Of course!" Elsa tensed - for just a breath. "I should have asked, but, I guess my shyness got the better of me."
When they reached the room Elsa relaxed her hold on Marie's back, and Marie in turn withdrew her arm from Elsa's shoulder. They parted like dancers, Marie stepping aside on her good foot so Elsa could get the door.
"Your shyness," Marie repeated, toying with the long y.
"Yes, I'm a shy person," Elsa retorted, a little pink. "Is something funny?"
Marie leaned back against the wall, grinning.
"You just told an entire room of people that you want to take me to your bed chamber."
Elsa paused, gripping the door handle. "That's… not what I said."
She blinked, and frowned. "Maybe my exact words were something like that, but not like that - oh, you know what I mean -"
"Everyone knows what you mean." Marie savored the easy line.
"You need a washtub, my room has one," Elsa persevered, her blush deepening to scarlet. "It's a very plausible, appropriate location -
"I couldn't agree more."
"Going to a bedroom doesn't require the second thing."
"Well." Marie slid her gaze askance just to be maddening. "After the first thing, I expect we'll be tired and want the bed to sleep."
Elsa didn't respond. She fumbled with the door handle, half-frozen, half-dripping at her touch.
"Are you alright?" Marie asked.
"Give me a moment," Elsa muttered, her eyes closed, her breathing shallow.
Marie chewed the inside of her cheek. She thought back over Elsa's every word, every glance. What had she misread? Elsa's intentions? Marie had openly alluded that she thought they'd be spending the night together, and Elsa tacitly agreed. This was about something else.
"You really didn't want them to know."
"No," Elsa answered Marie's statement like a question. "I mean, I wasn't trying to announce anything, but it doesn't matter -"
"Clearly, you're upset -"
"Because I don't know what I'm doing!"
Knobbly ice spread over the handle, into the lock, onto the painted wood. Elsa jerked her hand free of the crystals and stepped back from the door, gripping her palms together.
Marie straightened up and left the sword against the wall, following Elsa's movement. Elsa didn't back away from her, but she couldn't meet her eyes either.
"I… I never kissed anyone before you," Elsa whispered.
Oh. Of course.
Not a small revelation from a woman of twenty-five, and still Marie felt like she already knew. She was just too busy being a total cad to consider. But didn't she feel her recklessness at that moment? Know her awe when they broke apart? Like they'd blown past a line that maybe she didn't even think of as a line until then, just the edge of the world.
"And, as for what comes after," Elsa continued, "it's never been more than just a private fantasy for myself. But, now you're here."
Her gaze skittered over Marie, from her lips down to her legs, and back up to meet her eyes. "You expect things… "
Elsa wrung her hands as she reached the limit of what she could articulate, sleet trailing from her palms. Marie caught them, clasping the hot and cold currents flashing through Elsa's tight fingers, her fluttering pulse.
Marie held her gaze steady, breathing even. A wordless promise. No more bullying. Then, slowly, she raised Elsa's hands to the edge of her lips.
"Elsa." Marie caressed her knuckles with her name. "You're my first, too -"
"Ah, I'm not that easy." Elsa rolled her eyes, and the tension in her fingers slacked a bit.
"Let me finish," Marie told her, with a half-smile. "You're my first as myself."
Elsa blinked, eyes shifting focus, and Marie wondered if she could understand the totality of what that meant. Best to keep to the surface for now, empathize without overwhelming her.
"I woke up like this three days ago," Marie went on. "It's as if I'm fourteen again - apparently, including my sense of humor. The territory is all new, and I've barely had time to explore. At least in that respect, you're really the more experienced of us."
A gentle tease, testing the waters. Elsa flushed again, this time with a modest smile.
"You say that. But even so, you're not -" Elsa let out a strangled sigh "- falling to pieces, because you can't even open your own door."
Marie's memory chimed at that phrasing - a lesson, clear as a bell.
"It's ok." Marie released Elsa's hands. "You're alright. We don't have to do anything."
At her words, Elsa exhaled in plain relief, and leaned on her shoulder. At her breath, a feeling buoyed up through Marie's chest, one she couldn't yet name. Of course, she'd soothed runaway nerves before, but always at a cool, transactional distance. Never because she cared about what came after the night.
She gave her a chaste hug - palm resting over the knotted hair covering Elsa's back, her cheek at her brow. Elsa let herself be held, leaning into the embrace. Marie's calf throbbed - protesting the shift in weight. She gasped, but willed herself to inhale slowly, discreetly. Ignoring the pain then became quite effortless, as Elsa's scent overwhelmed all other sensations.
Twenty-four relentless hours had stripped Elsa bare of the fine floral perfumes she wore to the ball and redressed her in a primal bouquet. Heady sulfur seared Marie's palate first - sparked by flecks of ash and lahar caught in Elsa's tresses. But the stench of pyroclastic viscera was merely a garnish for the full fragrance. Marie breathed in again - good gracious - and brimstone's heat gave way to brine's sharp heart notes. She tasted harsh winds, dark waters, ferocious torrents pounding ships against rocks where sirens sing.
Unflinching, she drew her nose through the currents, to the base note. Sweat. Not a lingering exertion from the battle over the mountain, nor the race across the sea, but fresh for this moment.
Then, Marie felt a soft pressure on the cold embers coating her neck, eyelashes skimming up her jaw.
A warm murmur at her throat.
"I do want to..."
Go on.
There came a pull on Marie's back. Nails dug into the basalt sheathing her shoulder blade.
"- get you out of this armor." Elsa finished the sentence, but not the thought.
Marie chuckled - silently, but she knew Elsa felt it. They were chest to chest.
"Could you rip it off me?" Marie dared, her lips grazing Elsa's ear. "Right now."
The grip on Marie's back tightened, as did the hold around her torso. Elsa's arms were slender but muscular, with a power to rival her magic.
Oh, she actually might.
"On second thought." Marie pulled loose from Elsa's embrace. "That would make a real mess out here, in the hallway." And would likely be quite painful in some places.
"Yeah." Elsa managed to breathe. She laughed in a shudder, head tilting back, stardust in her eyes.
And Marie - as she must - stepped away.
Elsa swayed - forward, like a charmed snake, and then back, blinking and pursing her lips.
"I'll get the door," Marie smirked.
Marie grabbed the hilt of the Firebird sword. At her touch, like flint on steel, the demon's power sparked through her veins, her nerves, her bones. Intention became action; she raised her other hand, pointed at the frozen door to Elsa's room. A feathery tongue of flame wisped from her fingertip, thawing through the ice-bound keyhole. Marie then gave the handle a satisfying wrench. She swung the door open - pivoting into the room on her good leg with a gallant flourish.
Elsa stared at her a moment before entering, eyebrows arched.
"What?" Marie asked.
"You're a bit much," Elsa muttered as she and her ruffle skirts swept over the threshold.
While Elsa lit the oil lamps, Marie took in their surroundings. The shuttered windows and soft rosy glow lent the room a shrine-like atmosphere. There were personal touches - a romantic landscape painting hung on a wall beside some pastel self-portraits of a certain snowman, and a large makeup case sat on the dresser - but no clutter. Marie circled the bed, noting that the sheets were tucked into the mattress, the floor newly swept. It seemed the servants hadn't presumed the "Fifth Spirit" would stay for more than a day.
A metal click broke her train of thought. Marie looked to the door, now closed, by Elsa. They locked eyes, like a pair of creatures in a cave.
The bed lay between them.
"I'm taking my shower first," Elsa spoke.
"Ok?" Marie had assumed the reverse, given the sensual limitations of her armor.
"Alone," Elsa clarified, flicking a lock of hair over her shoulder. She crossed the room to a single door set with a full length mirror, and wrinkled her nose at her reflection. "I need to be clean, before anything else."
Fine priorities, Marie's nose did not disagree. But after the unbridled urgency of Elsa's ardor in the hall, tidiness struck Marie as a weak motive for delaying matters. She ran her thumb along her lip, considering.
"You're making me wait," she accused with a smile.
"I'll be quick." Elsa's tone was offhand, but Marie caught her grin in the mirror just before she opened the door to her private bathroom.
"Thank you," Marie granted. "But, don't you need me to heat the water?"
"The cold doesn't bother me!" Elsa declared. She held her haughty façade for an admirable two seconds before melting under the look Marie gave her.
And you say I'm a bit much.
"Anyway," Elsa laughed, rolling her eyes.
She shut the door behind her, leaving Marie with her own reflection - a woman in love.