~Chapter 2~

Elsa

It has taken a little bit of time, but I think I had been adjusting to being Arendelle's queen pretty nicely. Not too long ago I was prepared to isolate myself for the rest of my life. At least until my husband and sister helped to tear down the walls that I had placed around myself my whole life. Powers or no powers, I knew my family loved me and accepted me. I could ask for a bigger blessing than that of my family.

The boys came back from a ride around the Arendelle borders. I thought it rather mysterious to start off my day with a note from husband left on his pillow with the most minimal detail possible. I tried not to question it, but Marcus and I promised each other not to keep secrets, I know he wouldn't keep anything from me. Summer had passed in Arendelle at it was just starting to transition to autumn. There was a slight chill in the air for most people dawning on long sleeves and closed-toe boots. Save for me since I naturally loved the cold and I always welcomed it. I threw on my long-sleeved lavender dress and headed outside to find Anna. I ran into Pieter out in the courtyard still captain of the Arendelle guard, but also my father in law now.

"Morning Elsa." Pieter greeted me nodding his head.

"I'm relieved Pieter, you've finally dropped the formalities." I winked at him.

"It takes some getting used to." He nodded with a smirk.

"Welcome to the new normal." I said glancing around, "You haven't by chance seen Anna have you?"

"She's with Olaf having brunch up on the south hill. Should I go fetch her for you?" Pieter immediately turned to leave, but I gently grabbed his arm.

"Old habits die hard…" I laughed.

"You may be my daughter-in-law, but still my queen, Elsa." He nodded with a smile.

"I know." I said with a shrug, "But I'll go find my sister, I think a morning walk will do me some good. Say hi to Rebekka for me and I'll see you both at lunch?"

"Wouldn't miss it." He smiled, waving at me as I went on ahead.

It was a short hill just outside of the gates overlooking the city. Marcus and I often took walks up here ourselves it was a stunning view of the kingdom. I should have shot myself up the hill in a few seconds with a block of ice, but I needed to walk. Something felt off today and I had no idea why, but the mystery to my husbands' absence definitely didn't help. Anna and Olaf didn't even notice me approaching until I was a few steps away.

"Elsa!" Olaf greeted first hopping over to hug me.

Anna came up right behind.

"What's up? What are you doing up here?

"Looking for you...Pieter told me where you two were having your private huddle." I winked.

"Not private." Anna corrected, "Is anything wrong?" She asked grabbing my shoulder.

"Not at all…" My voice trailed off.

"You hesitated." He said evaluating my distracted response.

"Nothing is wrong." I insisted.

My mind was ringing with questions as to where the boys snuck off to though. The more I thought about it, Marcus had been disappearing a lot lately and always with Kristoff and Sven. I had to stop this overthinking.

"Anna, do you know where Kristoff went?"

"He's with Marcus." Anna shrugged clearly not curious like I was, so unlike her.

"That's all you know?" I pressed.

She nodded.

"When are they coming back?" Olaf blurted out, "I should head to the stables and wait for them."

"Let's all go." Anna agreed.

With me getting my walk up here, I was okay to take the faster way back down. Anna and I each took Olaf's branch holding on tight.

"Hang on," I said.

I quickly blasted a perfectly sized ice block underneath our feet and then a slide all the way back down the hill. We tipped the ice block over the edge by shifting our weight and slid down quite fast. Our speed might have been an issue, but I slowed us down by carefully making a perfect snowbank to land against. Olaf insisted to wait up at the stables, though it's not like I knew when the boys would be back, but it's not like Olaf would get bored. We dropped Olaf off as Anna and I continued on walking across the bridge toward the gates of Arendelle.

"Such a beautiful day," Anna said with a bright smile on her face.

"It is." I agreed.

"I'm so glad Kristoff and Marcus have each other. I mean I can't speak for Marcus, but Kristoff has told me it's nice having a guy to talk to who isn't a reindeer."

"Y-Yeah, I know Marcus values the time too."

"But don't misunderstand, he does love Sven." Anna clarified.

"I know," I muttered.

Anna suddenly stopped looking at me seriously.

"You seem distracted. What's wrong?" She asked.

"Nothing…" I answered.

My sister frowned crossing her arms sternly. I knew that look, she clearly wasn't buying it.

"I'm worried about Marcus...is that so wrong?" I challenged.

Anna burst out laughing.

"What?" I asked curiously

"Some things never change with you, do they?"

"I don't understand…" I muttered.

My sister put her hand on my shoulder with a kind smile on her face.

"Worry. Remember what Pabbie warned, fear is your enemy."

"Oh yes, I remember that just like I remember 'conceal, don't feel'..."

"Let's just drop it. You're getting worked up over nothing. The boys will be back and everything will be just fine. You'll see." Anna said confidently.

I always admired my sisters' optimism. Maybe one day it might rub off on me. What was it about today? And honestly, deep down I wasn't sure if it was just about my husband, but something else.

We returned to the palace and as Anna and I walked the halls, we were reminiscing about how great things have been lately. Gone was the isolated traumas of the past, but now, we were making new memories. We stopped at the top of the staircase admiring a painting of us with our parents as girls.

"I miss them." Anna sighed heavily.

"Me too." I nodded.

"Do you ever think of what life would be like if they were still here?"

"All the time." I nodded again, I paused pursing my lips, "Especially considering dad would still be king."

"Good point. Hey, we should go look through the attic for some pictures or something. Gerda showed me where the ladder to the attic is."

"And why are you so set on finding pictures?" I replied, raising a curious brow.

"I'm feeling nostalgic. There's lots of storage up there maybe we could find something amazing."

"Weren't you just saying you were happy to be making new memories?" I teased.

"Still true…" Anna agreed, but quickly grabbed my hand, "Come on, it could be fun."

Hesitantly, I let my sister pull me along as we found the drawstring to yank the ladder to the attic down. Though deep down, I had no desire to unbury the past. It just hurt too much.

Anna went up the ladder first and I grabbed an oil lamp from the nearby wall before going up. It was a large open space and the cool temp I felt on my skin as we went up was soothing to me. There were stacks of boxes spread out throughout the space and even more dust getting swept up by the hems of our dresses. Prompting both of us to sneeze a couple of times.

"Well, I think it's safe to say nobody has ventured up here in years." Anna shrugged.

Further back in the space, there were two wooden chests with each of our names painted on the front.

"Oh wow!" Anna exclaimed excitedly, "Elsa, do you remember these?"

"Of course, I do." I nodded, "What do you have in yours?"

Anna lifted the lid and pulled out stacks of paper with various pictures all colored on. Bold and bright colors that took up every inch of every page.

"Some of my old drawings." She stifled a laugh, "Looks like Olaf was my main subject." As she flipped through several pages. "But there's even more of you and I together and even with Marcus too. Oh hey, there's some of my old dolls and toys down here too. What's in yours, Elsa?"

"If memory serves…" my voice trailed off trying to recall, "Lots of silk gloves."

"Psh, yeah right." Anna smirked as she took the initiative to open my chest for me and I wasn't kidding. There were stacks of gloves sitting right on top.

"Oh wow…" Anna said sheepishly.

"Told you."

I dug down beneath the gloves and I found a dear item that actually gave me nostalgia.

"Sir Jorgenbjorgen!" I said pulling it out.

"Who?" Anna asked trying not to laugh at the name.

I showed my sister my old stuffed crocheted penguin toy with lopsided button eyes with a big yellow beak with one of my old gloves tied around his neck to act as a cape.

"Uh, cute." Anna smiled.

I smiled at my old toy stroking its head.

"He was a really good listener. I told him all about you and Marcus."

My hands began shaking as a lot of memories were flooding back into my mind. Not fearful ones, but just some sad ones. I gently put the penguin toy back in my chest closing the lid. Anna grabbed my hands giving them a gentle squeeze.

"Well, now you can talk to someone real." She nodded with a smile.

"And that's the best part." I nodded.

"Maybe someday you can pass that little penguin down to your kids."

"Definitely...someday." I agreed.

The trunks were the best find even though it would have been nice to find some old portraits or anything of our parents. I just wanted to make a point to remember them every moment I could because with each passing year, I was afraid of their memories fading away. I think Anna and I were grateful for having the time with them that we had, even though still too short. At least we were old enough to still remember.

Anna turned to leave and clumsily knocked into one of the stacked piles of boxes and it crashed to the floor upside down spilling its contents all over the floor.

"Way to go," I smirked.

Anna knelt down to pick up everything. Mostly stacks of books. Made sense since Dad had an expansive library. I knelt down to help her glancing through the various titles. Books of poems and works of fiction. Classics like Oliver Twist and stories from the amazing Charles Dickens. A Christmas Carol was one of my favorites that I read when I got older. One book stood out with a brown leather cover with gold insignia on the front and side binding. Curiously, I glossed over the pages and every bit of text was in some unknown language the likes of which I had never seen. Our parents saw many people of various country origins over the years. Maybe this was left behind by them. Though as I scanned through the pages, something about this language seemed familiar to me, though there was no logical reason why.

"Elsa, look." Anna suddenly said grabbing my attention.

At the bottom of the box, she pulled out our mother's magenta shawl she always wore. The moment I saw it, tears flooded my eyes even before I could stop them from forming.

"Oh wow…" I muttered as I touched the fabric.

"Let's get this out of this drafty attic." Anna nodded.

I wholeheartedly agreed. Anna wrapped mom's shawl around my shoulders as we both left the attic with some books. Anna had found some journals that we went to go read through together.

A couple of hours flew by as my sister devoured the journals from both our parents. It was fascinating hearing the detailed entries from both our parents even long before Anna and I came into the picture. One entry our father talked about going on a trip with our grandfather when he was a boy. Anna flipped the page and on the next page Anna and I looked on curiously. There were sketches of some odd-looking symbols. Four of them sketched all over the page and our dad wrote: What do these mean? Anna and I examined them carefully not recognizing them at all. Our detective work was put on hold when Kai, one of our servants, notified us that Kristoff's sleigh was seen returning to the front gate. We hadn't realized, but Anna and I had looked over the books and journals for a few hours. It was now dinnertime. Anna and I rushed outside to greet the guys. The trio joined us heading from the stables. Sven and Kristoff seemed chipper enough, but Marcus looked off to me even upset. Though once he locked eyes with me, he smiled at me as he always did that made my heart skip a beat. I wish I knew what was troubling him and I would have to ask him later. He was home again now and that's what mattered. It put my mind at ease, a little bit at least.

We gathered in the great hall for dinner as usual. Our kitchen staff had really outdone themselves tonight, but they often did so at every meal. Delicious food all around. Kristoff and Anna were goofing off and talking about what they wanted to do later this evening after dinner.

"Ooh, we should play charades!" Anna exclaimed.

"Do I have to?" Kristoff complained.

"Oh stop," Anna smirked rolling her eyes, "It'll be fun. We should do girls against guys."

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think there's an uneven number…" Olaf shrugged with a smile.

"I'm not intimidated. Elsa and I will win." Anna grinned.

"You do have a flair for the dramatic side." Kristoff teased.

"Elsa, you with me?" Anna looked at me nudging me in the arm. At the table, I was sitting in the middle between my sister and my husband. I heard my sister's request, though not answering her immediately due to being a bit distracted. Marcus looked as white as a sheet and he was even sweating as if he just ran for miles. I glanced at his plate and he only had picked at his steak.

"Marcus?" I muttered grabbing his hand, the moment I grabbed it, steam surged out from our hands.

"Woah, cool trick. Elsa, that doesn't happen when I hold your hand." Olaf clapped.

Marcus jerked his hand away and looked at him instantly worried. He stood up grabbing his plate, but not before leaning down to kiss me on the forehead clearly not wanting to worry me. It was too late for that.

"Go play charades…" He whispered in my ear, "I'm gonna go lay down. Not feeling great."

"Do you need anything?" I quickly asked.

"No." He shook his head quickly, "I'll be fine. Stay and play games."

"Marcus…" I looked at him worriedly.

My husband leaned down and kissed my forehead again and quickly left the dining room.

"Uh oh, trouble in paradise?" Kristoff teased.

I glared at him as my sister elbowed him.

"What?" Kristoff muttered naively rubbing his arm.

"Read the mood." Anna replied, "Sorry Elsa…" Anna said turning toward me again.

"Yeah sorry." Kristoff added, "I was just teasing."

"Just for clarification, Marcus and I are great. So let's just drop it, alright? We now have even numbers for charades…let's go play in a spare room." I insisted.

Everyone was pretty much done eating anyway. The awkwardness in the room was tangible. I know Kristoff was only teasing, but I was immediately angry but bit my tongue on the matter. As everyone else gathered in the room and Anna and Olaf started making cards for charades, Kristoff pulled me aside to talk to me alone.

"Look Elsa, I'm sorry about earlier. I guess my nervousness energy took it too far." He said grabbing my shoulder.

"I appreciate your apology, Kristoff. Let's just drop it, alright?"

As I turned to leave, Kristoff grabbed my arm.

"Wait Elsa, there's more…" He said growing timid.

"What is it?"

He pursed his lips and took a few steady breaths before continuing looking at me seriously.

"Elsa, may I have your blessing in asking your sister to marry me?"

Once he got it out, he finally looked relaxed.

"Wow…" I laughed, "How long have you been waiting for that?"

"About a month." He sighed.

"Geez, am I that intimidating? I'm not her father or anything…"

"Most fathers don't have magical ice powers." Kristoff winked.

"Fair enough." I laughed grabbing his shoulder, "Kristoff, I'd be happy to welcome you into our family. I can see you make each other very happy. You have my blessing and I'm so very excited for you both. Now…" I said offering him my arm, "You prepared to lose at charades?"

"In your dreams…" He smirked, "And thanks."

Charades began quickly once Olaf and Anna had made enough slips of paper to draw for the game. Sven had the basket hung on an antler and was in charge of ringing the bell and flipping the timer for each round. Kristoff and Olaf let Anna and I go first. Anna got stuck on her first turn. She began stomping around looking angry. We all couldn't help but laugh as we made our guesses. In the end, Olaf guessed 'Hans' and Anna pointed at him to elaborate on that. I yelled 'monster' and Kristoff said 'worst mistake ever'. Sven rang the bell as the round was over

"Villain, guys. It was so obvious." Anna teased.

"It's not like our guesses were wrong." Olaf laughed.

"Alright Elsa, you're up." Kristoff urged

I stood up grabbing a slip of paper from Sven's basket and honestly my head wasn't in this game.

"You got this, Elsa." Anna cheered.

I glanced down at my paper and saw what I had to act out as Sven flipped the hourglass. My ears heard a voice. I turned my back gazing out the window towards the fjord. It called again like it was reverberating off the water. It was equally haunting and beautiful sending shivers up and down my spine. What was that? I ignored it. It was nothing. My powers and a kingdom were already enough to deal with. I refused to heed a voice beckoning to me when I was sure it was all in my head. Sven rang the bell, my turn was over.

"Elsa, what was that? Distracted?" Anna complained.

The voice called again as I balled my hands into tight fists.

"I'm pretty tired, I think I'm going to call it a night." I shrugged.

"It's only eight," Kristoff replied.

"And I didn't take my turn yet," Olaf complained.

Anna frowned walking toward me grabbing my hand as I went for the door to leave.

"You sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine, Anna."

I could tell my sister wasn't convinced, but for now that was all I could say. Worry and curiosity urged me forward as I found my husband in our master bedroom of the palace lying on his side with his back toward me. Though as I approached, he turned toward me at least acknowledging me.

"How was charades?" He asked.

"Fine." I nodded.

"Good." He muttered.

I stepped closer and watched as his body stiffened as I sat at the foot of the bed.

"Do I have to ask or will you tell me?" I asked getting right to the point.

"Tell you what?" He answered sheepishly.

"Marcus…" I groaned, pinching the bridge of my nose.

"I don't know what you want me to say!" He snapped as he sat up in a gruff.

We both were already worked up, me especially.

"The truth might be a good place to start." I replied with an accusing tone.

"There's just a lot on my mind."

"Clearly…" I agreed.

He hesitated taking a large breath.

"I've been going to Kalde."

I looked at him stunned as to why he felt like he needed to keep this from me.

"Why?" Was all I could mutter, "There's nothing left."

"It's full of memories and there are people still living out there. I'm also trying to convince them to come here."

"Why couldn't you tell me this?" I asked feeling really hurt by the secrets.

"I didn't want to burden you. It's my past, I needed to figure things out on my own."

"Marcus…" I muttered moving to sit beside him, "You think you're the only one with a past?"

He frowned sighing heavily as droplets of sweat began trickling down his forehead.

"I know that, Elsa. It's just I wanted to do this...No, I needed to do this alone."

"You didn't need to go alone. I hate that you kept this from me. I thought we told each other everything. Guess the joke's on me."

"Elsa, please try to understand…"

"No, you listen…" I growled standing up, "You had no right to keep this from me."

"No right?" He snapped defensively standing up facing me too, "I'm the king of Kalde. It's my duty to piece together what happened. It's my job, not yours."

I had seen Marcus's anger before, but it was very rare often catching me off guard whenever it showed its ugly face.

"You're seriously throwing your rank in my face right now? I thought you didn't care about that?"

"I care about my kingdom, Elsa. I always did. Just because I'm here in Arendelle doesn't mean I intend to forget or abandon my kingdom."

"Wow, we sound more like war-torn kingdoms rather than a married couple who love each other," I growled.

"Elsa, I owe it to my parents to restore the legacy of Kalde." He said with determination in his eyes.

"Great, then let me help. I'll go fetch Grand Pabbie and talk with him about all this. You and I both know he's wise and will have an idea of how to help…"

As I turned to leave, Marcus grabbed my hand stopping me.

"Elsa, no!" Marcus snapped.

A fierce heat was immediately felt in my left hand. My powers reacted and my hand emanated a blue force to cool itself, but the heat grew stronger in seconds as I cried out in tremendous pain. A fire lit up my hand as I screamed and blasted myself with my magic from my other hand. It lasted mere seconds, but the damage was done. My left hand was severely burned. I stepped back from my husband trying to process what just happened. He looked at me trying to process like I was. I tried wiggling my fingers and blast some magic, but it hurt too much. My finger was already swollen and blistered around my wedding ring on the hand. I looked up at Marcus in disbelief.

"Marcus…" I muttered.

I took a single step toward him, but he backed away looking at his hands.

"I-I'm so sorry."

I saw the fear in his eyes. The all too familiar look of fear, guilt, and shame. I hated those feelings and I didn't want the man I loved to experience those thoughts or feelings either regardless of the reason. How did he have powers? Marcus's hands began to glow the slightest hint of orange and in a blind panic, he ran out of the room.

"Marcus, wait!" I cried.

But my husband was already long gone as I heard his footsteps run down the hallway.