Chapter Seventeen

Crash

TALYA

"No, Talya, you have to stay hidden. Remember we talked about this. Right?" King Olaf the Sixth knelt down so that he was at eye level with Talya. "Right?"

Talya refused to meet her father's gaze, opting instead to pout. She hadn't done anything wrong, except for sneaking out of the north wing of the palace without supervision just so that she could find her little brother to play with. And way after bedtime, no less. Okay, so maybe she'd disobeyed orders.

Her father sighed. "It was lucky that it was I who found you. To think if one of the staff found you and your sorcery got out of control." He frowned. "Or worse, if Valloken found out. What then, Talya? How would you explain your…condition to your brother?"

Lips pressed into a hard line, Talya clenched her jaw and kept her head down. No, she wouldn't cry in front of her father. She couldn't let him see that she was weak.

"Talya, you know the dangers of your…condition. We've talked about this so many times." Olaf pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. "If you were three or four, I'd understand. But you're not. By seven, I'd expect you to fully understand the gravity of the risks."

Talya looked away angrily. Why couldn't her father just give her a break? All she wanted was to play with her own brother, whom her parents had spent so much effort trying to separate from her. Is that really too much to ask?

"Are you listening?" Olaf asked a little more harshly. "Talya, I'm taking to you."

She scowled, but gave no response.

"I'm speaking to you, girl." His tone had gone stern, and he stood up. "Answer."

Filled with resolve, she clamped her mouth shut, holding back the tears that threatened to trickle from her eyes. Her hands had already become frosted over with ice and she clenched them tightly, feeling the ice crumble beneath her fingers.

Having noticed this, Olaf immediately began backing away. "Stop this Talya. I command you to stop this nonsense right now. I said stop, damn it!"

Hot tears pressed her eyes and Talya tried her best to fight the sorcery back from consuming her surroundings. Despite her best efforts, the room temperature suddenly dropped, and the windows became frosty with mist.

"It's alright," Her mother entered Talya's bedroom and held Olaf's shoulder. "Olaf, I think you should go. Let me handle this."

Her father gave her one last sharp look, and Talya swore she saw fear and uncertainty there. Then, with a sigh of exasperation, the king turned and stormed off, leaving Talya alone in the room with her mother.

"It's alright." Claudia knelt down in front of Talya and began wiping away her tears. "Just breathe, alright? Just breathe. I know you're angry with Papa, but I need you to calm down. Everything's going to be okay. Momma's here."

The room temperature began to rise back to normal, and Talya could feel herself getting a grip on her sorcery again. Her hands began to feel less cold, and she hugged her mother tightly.

"Momma, what's wrong with me?" Talya whispered, allowing the tears to stream down her face.

"Nothing, sweetheart." Her mother kept her wrapped in her embrace. "Nothing's wrong with you."

"Papa keeps saying that I need to stay hidden." She said between sobs. "He thinks…he thinks I'm a monster."

"No," her mother stroked her head. "No, he doesn't. Why would you say that?"

"He does," Talya protested, sobbing uncontrollably. "I can see it on his face. I can hear it in his voice. I overheard him talking to you. He said that I had a…a science disease or something."

"Scientific anomaly. And no, daddy's wrong." Claudia lifted Talya's chin gently. "You're not a scientific anomaly. You're special. Remember the magic from the fairytales?"

Her shoulders still shaking, Talya nodded.

"Well you are very special because you have magic just like the Snow Queen." Her mother gave her a reassuring smile. "And that is nothing to be ashamed of. You are very special."

"Daddy's afraid of my powers. I'm…I'm afraid too."

"There's nothing to be afraid of." Her mother told her firmly. "Your magic is a gift. I believe you were chosen for a reason."

"Chosen? For what?"

"That is for you to figure out, when you're older. Someday, you'll be old enough to explore the secrets and mysteries on your own, and you can find out more about your magic. Maybe one day, you can even find the Snow Queen."

"The Snow Queen." Talya repeated with an awed whisper.

Claudia sighed deeply. "Yes, but not today. And not anytime soon. For now, you have to remain indoors until we can figure out a way to keep your powers under control and hidden away from the rest of the world."

"Why?" Talya's voice cracked again. "Why do I have to hide from the world? Why do I have to hide from Val?"

"Because your brother's not ready. The world's not ready. Not ready to learn that there is still magic among us." Claudia paused to look into the far distance. "But maybe someday, you can show them all. You can lead our family and people into a world where they can live in harmony with gifted people just like you. But not today." She looked Talya in the eye. "Do you understand, sweetheart?"

"Yes." Talya embraced her mother and rested her head against her mother's neck.

"Don't worry, Talya." Claudia ran a hand through her hair affectionately. "I will always be here for you, to help you discover your gifts and why you have them. You will never be alone. I promise."

You will never be alone. I promise. Talya groaned, blinking away the darkness. Her eyes felt gummy and heavy, and she felt like she'd been run over by a train. She tried to look around, but saw only darkness and did her best to piece things together. The plane must have crashed and she'd likely passed out upon impact, drifting in and out of nightmares from her childhood. Some nightmare the last one was. She hadn't dream of that painful incident in years.

Her head hurt. Her body hurt. It felt like someone had rearranged her insides and dropped her from the sky. The last part was sort of true. It took Talya a good ten minutes before she even dared to try and get up. Her belly flip-flopped and she fought down the wave of nausea for what must have been the fourth or fifth time since their descent.

Groaning again, she pulled herself to her feet and stumbled towards the rear of the plane, where Val was sprawled on the floor of the plane, still unconscious. With much difficulty, she knelt down beside his still body and turned him over so that he laid on his back. He'd taken it the worst out of the three of them, having a couple of cuts and bruises, the side of his face dribbled with crimson. Feeling a surge of panic, she felt for his pulse. Thankfully, it was there.

"Val," Talya said, and then repeated his name a little more loudly. "Val!"

"Stop yelling." Val rasped. He opened his eyes lethargically, and groaned deeply as he applied one hand to the side of his bleeding head. "Are we dead?"

"No. No, we made it. Somehow." Talya grimaced. That statement was subjective, of course. The windows were shattered, the seats had been uprooted, and she could see branches and the shape of trees outside the plane.

"Where the hell are we?" Val tried to sit up.

"The far edge of the forest near the coast."

With everything aching, Talya spun round as best as she could. Peggy was up and about, though also looking a little the worse for wear. A few bruises and cuts, but otherwise, it seemed that her distant cousin was alright.

"Are you alright?" Talya asked anyway.

Peggy gave her a grim nod. "Better than our plane anyway."

"How bad is the damage?" Val got to his feet by himself, waving away Talya's help.

"Don't know." Peggy removed a towel from a medical kit stored on the plane, and handed it to Val. "Haven't been outside yet."

"Maybe we should wait till morning." Val pressed the towel to the side of his head and winced. "Who knows what's lurking out there?"

"From what I've read in the past, the Northuldra territory is pretty much peaceful." Talya offered from her memory. "No wolves, bears or any of those sort. Only reindeer and the rare sheep."

"Terrific." Val said dryly. There was still dried blood at the side of his head which he didn't bother with. "Then let's go see what's left of our plane, shall we?"

The trio stepped out of their plane, with Peggy leading the way. A torch was flicked on, and Peggy shone the torch at their surroundings. They were in a small clearing of some sort, surrounded by tall, luscious trees that blocked out most of the moonlight. However, from what Talya could see, lightning continued to sporadically illuminate the sky.

"I think you were right," she told Peggy. "The storm was most likely supernatural. Something out there meant to deter us from crossing over the sea to get to Ahtohallan."

"Well, that explains the wreckage." Val waved a hand at their aircraft.

Talya turned her torch to shine at the plane and gasped. She'd expected this of course, but this was worse than what she'd initially imagined. It was clear that they were stranded. She opened her mouth to say something but couldn't find the words, and pursed her lips together tightly.

"Is that it, then?" Val asked with an air of sarcasm as he watched Talya's expression. "Your sorcery can't fix this, can it?"

Talya couldn't help but frown. After all her brother had seen in the past few days, and he was still so reluctant to believe that sorcery was indeed real. So what if it had faded away into obscurity after the golden age of the famed League of Sorcerers? That didn't make it any less real than it was. As for herself, she was still utterly convinced that the Snow Queen was somewhere out there on her sanctuary in the middle of the sea, and that the storm, though probably supernatural, had just been a temporary deterrence. After hearing and witnessing everything that had transpired, she was so close to finding the fabled Snow Queen once and for all.

"No." Talya said with determination replacing the vexed look on her face, turning to her distant cousin who was examining the wreckage. "Peggy, how bad is the damage?"

Peggy snorted, kneeling in the dirt beside the crashed aircraft. "Navigation system's shorted out, hydraulics destroyed, and we have a leaking fuel tank. It's not going to fly again, that's for sure. Not without the tools we need to fix this."

"RIght." Talya whirled to her brother. "And you can fix it right?"

Val looked annoyed. "Do I look like an aircraft mechanic to you?"

"Well, you're the science and tech guy among us." Talya shrugged. "I figured if anyone of us can fix this, it'll be you."

"I'm sorry but I didn't have time to grab my engineering kit what with the imminent threat of getting hauled back to the dungeons."

Talya sighed in resignation, looking out towards their supposed destination. "Damn this weather." She muttered as lightning streaked across the sky and a clap of thunder followed.

"Maybe it's a sign." Val said cautiously in a calculated tone. "That we should turn back and forget about this whole thing."

"No!" Talya exclaimed indignantly. "We haven't come this far to give up the search now. She's out there somewhere." She gestured madly in the direction of the island on the other side of the sea that was now being obscured by a thick layer of fog which had materialised so quickly that it could only be supernatural. "And we're so close!"

Whirling round to face Peggy, Talya regarded her with pleading eyes. "Don't you want to find out if the tales your great grandfather told you about our ancestress are true? Your ancestress?"

Peggy levered herself to her feet, her face blank and partially obscured by the darkness.

"Don't you want to know if she really is real?" Talya went on, and jabbed out at the sea again. "Somewhere on the other side of this damned sea, the Snow Queen is alive and just waiting for us to find her!"

"Talya…" Val shook his head like a tired school headmaster. "This is absurd. Seriously. We're wasting time chasing myths and stupid fairytale legends when we should be rallying our allies and coming up with a real, tangible way of flushing Bjorn and the Southern Isles out of our kingdom once and for all."

Talya set her jaw. "You're wrong."

"No, Talya, you're the one who's wrong!" Val raised his voice exasperatedly. "Just listen to yourself! You're talking about crossing a sea that's threatening to drown us all, just in the hopes of finding some two hundred year old ancestress who you think is still alive?"

"Two hundred and two." Talya whispered, then her voice rose in indignation. "And yes, I believe she's still alive. She's the only one who can teach me how to control my powers." She looked at her hands which had become frosted over with ice in the tension of the moment. "It's the only way to get our home back. Our only hope."

Val shook his head again, dropping his pack. "Mad." He muttered, walking away from the wrecked airplane.

"And where are you going?" Talya demanded.

He whirled around. "You may be Queen of Arendelle, but you don't get to order me around." He growled acidly. "You're just a delusional sister whose obsession with fairytale magic is going to get us all killed. Someone has to figure out a real and viable solution, and it clearly isn't you." With that, he walked in the direction of the coast, disappearing partially into the fog which had now blown inward to engulf a portion of the beach.

"He's not entirely wrong, you know." Peggy remarked after a drawn out silence.

Talya rounded on her. "What?"

"He's not wrong." Peggy repeated. "I mean, chasing after a two hundred year old ancestress who you think is still alive?"

"You've heard the stories first hand." Talya reasoned. "Your own great grandfather saw her."

"He had a fever."

"You said it yourself, you're doing this for Jakob. He would want you to find her. She's our ancestress, Peggy. Even if we've been separated by generations." Talya put a hand on Peggy's shoulder. "Please, you've got to trust me. She's real, and we're so close. We just have to find a way to get across this sea. We've already come this far."

Peggy looked pensive, and glanced out at the coast. "I need…I need time to clear my head." With that, she followed in Val's footsteps and disappeared into the mist, leaving Talya standing beside the wreckage.

Frustrated and distraught, Talya sank into a seated position, leaning against the wreckage. Her clothes would be soiled by the mud, but she didn't care. All she could think about was that she was so close, yet so far from her goal.

I know that somewhere beyond the sea, she's waiting for someone to find her, Talya thought to herself. A part of her wondered if she was trying to convince herself too, and whether she was legitimately having doubts about this mission. She shook her head firmly. No, I have to believe. She glanced out at where the island was supposed to be, but had been hidden by thick fog. Overhead, thunder continued to rumble.

Elsa, the Snow Queen, is alive and out there. My ancestress, and the only one who can teach me how to harness my powers. My last hope.