Anna checked her reflection on last time before leaving the room, her eyes wandering over her newest outfit. It resembled her last travel outfit in shape but the material was thicker and her signature green. Gold embellishments and contrasted short cape solidifying her new appearance as queen. Anna wondered if she should wear her crown- she'd been taking it on and off for the last hour- but she ultimately decided on leaving it on her dressing table. Today was not going to be about royalty- it was going to be about-
"Anna?" a familiar voice called from her doorway, she didn't bother with her hair. "Are you ready?"
She nodded, turned, and walked out the door. Anna did all she could to pull her shoulders back and keep her chin high, like she was treading water- trying desperately to resist the pull of the water and drown- an all too familiar feeling.
Like I dream I can't hold
…
"What you see in Ahtohallen is personal," Elsa explained. The three of them drifting on one of Elsa's ice vessels towards the white shape on the horizon. "It's all memories, so what I've seen won't be the same as what you see."
"How do you know that?" Kristoff chimed in. As always, he had insisted on dressing in his usual kofte. "Aren't you the only person who's been there?"
"Ahtohallen showed me what I needed to see…" Anna tuned out of the conversation then, only recognising her sister's expression fold in the way it used to when she entered 'Queen mode'.
Had she taken anyone else there? Or was Ahtohallen… a person? It's its own entity? Anna had considered this with the fact that each of the spirits were sentient- independent and very, very different. Or maybe it was just a glorified place of introspection.
At that thought, Anna almost completely dismissed the weight she had been putting on this event- but the just-there nudging of a single wave against their boat kept her anxious thoughts in place.
I can hear you… and I'm coming
…
Though two people had been in the room before her, the lack of footprints unnerved Anna. The sound of her shoes clicking against the icy floor, her chilled breath coming in puffs, the slight tremble in her every step only did to make her feel more alone.
"I'm no longer trembling!"
Anna whipped around at the echo. Both Elsa and Kristoff were far away from her now but her sister sounded closer than ever. She pressed on hesitantly and stepped into what was easily the largest room Ahtohallen had.
Once she was far enough into the space, Anna noticed the way in which it looked like the frosted walls were moving. She couldn't bring herself to stand in the centre of the room.
"...You'll be drowned."
Anna looked around for a source of the voice that sounded so much like her-"Mother?" but she found nothing.
Venturing to the edge of the room, Anna raised her hand to the ice. She tried to wipe the fog off the surface, thinking it would make the moving images clearer, like condensation on a window. But nothing happened. Only a voice called back to her from inside the ice.
"What do you seek?" it asked.
Anna stepped back but plucked up the will to speak. "I want to know what happened. Why- how I am alive…" Her voice only came out as a little more than a whisper but this voice seemed to hear.
The walls flashed with images, moments in time that she hadn't seen- Kristoff throwing the ring that now sat on her finger, Elsa standing over Anna's body, people crying, desperation...Anna falling… The Water Nokk.
"You have been given another life, Anna. But it won't last," The voice interrupted the tears that had tumbled out of her eyes. "For the second time in your life, you will be frozen."