Took a while, I know.
WARNING: The content in this chapter is not really suited for children below 16. It's actually quite 'bloody' (graphic description of violence).
The next two chapters will try to answer your questions about the past and will reveal some interesting things about the group.
If you have any doubt, just post it and I will try and clear it. This is a long and complicated story and every tiny detail will be important as future references. Read carefully and you might just be able to reveal some secrets by yourself.
Enjoy :)
His mind was racing at a speed he couldn't control as his eyes swept the audience and went back to the paper in his hand. Thousands of questions were boiling in his mind, and with no order of priority, were screaming the words at him in utter chaos.
He didn't know as time flew and after twenty whole seconds after his last sentence, his thoughts were interrupted by a voice calling out to him.
"Alex?" Elsa asked worried as the awkwardness in the room was increasing, "Are you alright?"
Alex's mind cleared as he looked at those eyes and knew that his first priority was to not cause a situation. Fortunately, he was able to hide his emotions before Elsa could decipher them.
"Yeah, uh...right...ahem...Sorry about that, was a little...distracted," he stammered and shook his head.
He took the card under the parchment and the piece of paper itself too and kept them face down so that none of the others including the ones at the table could see the paper. Mattias's words rang in his head. 'Someone had planned this'.
"Emerson and Elizabeth wish Anna a happy birthday and... bless the marriage..." He had skipped a few lines by mistake, but it was too late now. The audience were looking confused and some even looked concerned about his health. He understood that he was too distracted to go on perfectly so he improvised.
He quickly read through the cards summarizing them in one word each, "Love, Love, Joy, Bless, Love, Joy, Luck. You all get it, that people are basically loving the marriage."
A few people laughed awkwardly while the others looked extremely confused including Anna, Kristoff, Elsa, Honeymaren, Cassandra and all the others.
He took a deep breath and taking his glass of wine, raised it, "To Anna and Kristoff."
The hall was suddenly filled with scraping noises of chairs and small thuds of the tables shaking, as the people stumbled to get up to raise theirs as well.
"Alex!" Elsa whispered shocked, while the others looked between him and the guests, worriedly.
"The meal's out in the courtyards," He continued, "and I hope that you enjoy your stay here. Anna and Kristoff will be meeting you all in a while. Thank You. And Elsa has a wonderful surprise waiting for Mattias and Yelena if they'll come over, please."
They both looked at each other and then at Elsa who in turn looked at Alex and back at them in visible confusion.
"Alex! What are you doing?" She asked him again, her voice recovering from shock.
"Is everything okay?" Kristoff asked him scared.
"Backstage now, no questions," He said quietly, heavily emphasizing each word as he watched the crowd move to the courtyards.
He saw them hesitate, but the small group traversed out of the back doors.
He took the card and the parchment and put it in his pocket.
He nodded his head as a sign of respect to a few people who bowed theirs at him as he watched Yelena and Mattias make their way over to him out of the crowd. He waited until they got close enough to follow him, then he turned and made his way to where Anna and Elsa might be waiting for him.
The questions started pouring in just as he entered the room.
"What do you think you were doing!?" Anna exclaimed.
"Is something wrong?" Kristoff asked.
"You did it all wrong!" Yelena said at the same time as Kristoff.
Elsa just looked at him worried and expecting a very good reason to do what he had done.
Alex raised up a hand to quiet them down as he told Mattias to get the doors.
He then asked them both to sit down, his tone suggestive that he wasn't about to open up unless they obeyed him. They did what he asked them to do immediately.
"Anna, Elsa, I need you to identify this for me. Don't pay attention to the date, or the names, just check the handwriting and style of writing," He said, pulling out the page. Over the years, he had learnt not to trust letters just by the names written on them.
They looked confused for a second, but they gasped as they inevitably saw the names and dates.
"No...this...this isn't possible!" Elsa said, her eyes filling up.
"How...?" Anna couldn't find the right words.
"What is it?" Yelena asked them.
"Agnarr and Iduna might still be alive," Alex said watching her closely.
She gasped, her eyes widening. Her hand flew to her chest. Her reaction was actually much stronger than he'd expected. Her eyes were on the verge of spilling tears, but he knew she had somehow held them back. The nervous gulps, trembling figurine, high intake of breath, taut jawline, multiple involuntary movements, rapid evasive eyes and tightly clenched palm facing toward herself was all indicative of a massive shock.
She wasn't the only one. Kristoff was again, shocked beyond saying anything. Olaf's mouth was hanging wide open as if his jaw was melting in the sweltering hot summer breeze. Sven looked as if he was going to pass out. Mattias was shocked for a few seconds and then he saw his face illuminate with joy as those warrior reflexes of his helped him recover quickly.
After a few more seconds of observation, he turned back to the sisters, who seemed to be deeply disturbed now.
"Anna, Elsa, is it really them?" He asked delicately.
Elsa was still in shock but she nodded.
Their gazes met, and he saw pain in them. He understood it. Why hadn't they come home? was a question everyone had.
"We have to find them," Anna said quietly looking at Elsa.
Elsa knew what she had to do.
She took the parchment from Anna, and laid it down on the floor. It was worth a shot.
She extracted the water from the paper and it started swirling around but nothing happened.
"The water's not enough," Alex told her.
Elsa was going to give up when Olaf spoke.
"Wait, water can store multiple states of molecules at once. If you can figure out every single one of them, and use that to create various different objects from different times, perhaps we will be able to find the memory we want."
Elsa nodded and got to work forming different objects midair through that water.
"Huh?" Anna asked, not understanding a word of what he said.
Alex explained. "What he means is that, if Elsa can shuffle through all the various memories that this piece of paper holds, we might find an item that is unique to an area or useful to us to locate them. But it's too much."
"What do you mean?" Kristoff asked him, finally snapping out of his daze.
"I'm saying that recalling the memories on the ship was easy because the water in there has been in a single undisturbed state for more than just five years. God knows what all this paper's been through, there might be more than a thousand states of it stored in there, literally more than thousands of memories without dates or much clarity. We might not even find them if the water's gone from there through evaporation or something. It's gonna take time. Lots of it," He answered.
As if on cue, "Look!" Mattias pointed at something in the air.
It was a sharp object with intricate patterns to it.
"Whoa that was pretty fast," Alex appreciated Elsa.
"What is it?" Kristoff asked.
"A Glitharis spearhead," Mattias said grimly.
Yelena frowned, quickly pulling herself together. "Glitharis, rings a bell," she pondered over her memories, scrunching her wrinkled face even more.
"Glitharis has been an enemy of Arendelle for about a thousand years. I thought they were all gone," Elsa explained quietly, looking at the spearhead.
"They disappeared about a hundred years ago. Their settlements burned down to the ground, No one knows who or how or why, but it happened," Mattias continued her explanation.
"Fiend forest," Yelena said suddenly, recalling something.
"What?" Anna asked, her voice still trembling.
"Myths say that they all disappeared to the fiend forests where they were cursed to stay there forever," Alex told her.
Elsa was surprised that he knew about this.
"Library books," He explained to her.
She immediately knew he was talking about the hidden section.
"Yes but, I don't think they were cursed," Anna said, her voice getting stronger with every word. "Mother's diary says that they chose not to go out to wage war against us."
"Why?" Alex asked.
"I don't know," Anna replied.
Alex closed his eyes. He had a plan.
"Mattias, spread the rumor that you...no... someone saw Agnarr and Iduna at the eastern forests," He corrected himself quickly.
"What? Why?" Mattias asked in surprise.
"We need to dampen the shock that the people are probably gonna get." He said.
"Hmm..." Mattias looked like he hadn't thought of that.
Alex continued, "And you're right. Someone has planned all of this. There's no way that page would have ended up in those cards by accident. I need you to trace it's locations to their very cores, okay?"
"Yes."
He then turned to Yelena. "I need you to keep a close eye on the tribe, especially the Nightscalers. I have a feeling that whoever planned this doesn't particularly care much about Northuldra if you guys got in the way."
"Of course." She replied.
"What are you gonna do?" Olaf asked, already guessing the answer.
Alex looked at Anna and Elsa and said, "We're going to find them," He looked back at Olaf.
"Okay," He agreed.
"In the fiend forest?" Asked Yelena.
"Yes," Anna declared.
"It's a place of no return. They don't call it a place of no return for no reason, you get it don't you?" Kristoff asked her with worry etched heavily all over his face.
"The place isn't cursed Kristoff. It's just...maybe the Glitharis aren't friends to strangers," Anna said soothingly.
Kristoff calmed down a little. He knew he was staying behind and there was no point in even arguing with her as he knew she'd win anyway. She always did. Besides, a cursed place was
bad, but a place infested with criminals was better than that at least. He trusted Alex and Elsa as capable warriors to take care of her and themselves if things went down hard.
"Then go," Kristoff said, closing his eyes to stop his tears. He was getting overwhelmed with everything going on around him, and he felt the pain his wife was feeling.
Anna knew that it had taken every last ounce of him to say that and appreciated him for it.
"But don't you ever DARE to leave me alone here, you get it?" He emphasized.
She smiled through her tears and went over to kiss him. When they broke apart, she assured him that she would never leave him alone.
He smiled at her and looked toward Elsa and Alex. "You take care of her, alright?"
"Of course we will," Elsa assured him, smiling softly.
"But first, we have to grab a few things and Anna has to change," Alex told her.
Anna blinked and a small upward curve of her lips lit her smile.
"We don't wanna meet them in your wedding dress," Alex smirked, imagining their super shocked faces when they saw her in her wedding dress.
She grinned. The shock had worn off, but the tension hadn't.
As Alex and Elsa made their way back to their respective rooms which were actually just opposite to each other, Elsa asked him, "Do you really think it's a place of no return?"
She looked worried for Anna.
"Well, why do you think there are stories about it everywhere you look if no one could survive that place?" He replied.
She didn't look completely convinced but headed inside her room anyway, giving a small nod of approval.
Alex thought to himself...'sometimes, lying was good.'
Anna met them, a few minutes later at the top of the northwest tower.
Elsa had already told Gale of the situation, and she had agreed to help right away.
"Okay, spread your arms outwards and try not to scream," Elsa instructed her.
She did as told and felt herself lift up as the wind rushed by her.
"Ooh! Nice and cold," Anna said humorously.
Then Gale lifted her fully and dropped her off the tower.
She screamed.
"Told ya she'll scream," Alex said playfully, winning the bet.
Elsa sighed and rolled her eyes, smiling.
Anna came up again, looking shaken by the sudden drop. Gale lifted them all up, and took them on a ride at a bone rattling pace. Anna still looked quite uncomfortable, but trusted fellow wind spirit.
It was a trick Elsa had discovered a few months ago, when she found that an attack was taking place a bit too far for her to get to fast, so she asked Gale to lift her up and take her there fastest. It worked.
The ride was forty minutes long, even at top speed that they could sustain. Gale had created a pocket of air around them so that their eardrums wouldn't get blasted.
There were only three people flying.
Kristoff, Sven and Olaf were taking care of the kingdom, while Mattias and Yelena got to their jobs.
Anna and Elsa talked about the why's and how's as they flew to their destination. Alex was in deep thought. Though he knew some answers to their questions, he didn't tell them those. The secrets were there for a reason he believed, but what were those reasons?
Alex was trying to figure out what all they could find when they got there.
He still had some doubts. What if something was not right? What if this was a trap to lure them in? What if this was a trick to catch Elsa? What if they really are dead? Anything could've happened in those six years. He didn't say his thoughts out loud of course or they would have frightened them to death.
He spent most of the trip gathering his thoughts. He wasn't sure what they might find, and what the sister's reactions would be if they did find them alive... or truly dead, but he was already preparing counter strikes and defenses on it to calm them down in either of those cases.
"Look," Elsa pointed to an island. "That's it."
It was a small island, with lush vegetation. There were three tiny lakes present on it. There was a small series of islands nearby, some of them having large mountains that could hide entire ships behind them. Elsa had pointed to the biggest and the most life-sustaining island
of them all. There were no indications of anyone inhabiting it, as there appeared no cut trees, smoke or boats.
"How did they even get here?" Anna asked as they began their descent.
"Probably from a southwest current from the Dark Sea?" Elsa offered.
"Don't you think we should've seen them?" Anna asked.
Elsa didn't reply. She didn't know what to say. It was quite true that whichever vessels crossed through here should have spotted them.
"Are you all sure about this?" Gale formed the words with a few leaves.
"Yes Gale," Was the unanimous reply.
They touched down on the island and felt...nothing. They were probably safe. No curses around to indicate anything, but again, they didn't actually know that as a fact.
"Gale, just stay with the Northuldra, please," Elsa requested.
The short whistles and it's path northward told them she was in agreement.
They took a deep breath, and headed in the wall of trees.
They conversed in quiet voices as they didn't want to alert anyone or anything nearby of their presence.
They walked for about an hour without anything catching their attention.
Alex had a nagging suspicion that they were being lured into a false sense of security.
Anna was walking in front of him while Elsa walked beside him on his left. They should be at the centre of the island now.
It was a little unexpected, but the trees were actually more far spaced here than at the edge.
"Do you think that they are actually even here?" Elsa asked him.
This was the most expected place for them to be. At the core of the island.
"I don't know," He replied, frowning.
As if on cue, he heard a twig snap behind him. He had experience enough to tell that it wasn't an animal stepping on it, but rather a human.
He turned around drawing out his weapon from his back.
Elsa and Anna having heard it too, followed suit, looking in the direction from which the sound had come from.
Nothing.
Alex thought he saw a humanoid shape move a little from behind the bushes.
He changed his staff to a dual headed spear, each end of the staff comprising a 45cm long, sleek and sharp blade.
His deep-black and ocean-blue themed blade cast off a cold, aggressive look, while his silver-white grip glinted softly in the mid-afternoon sun.
He heard a swish and a whistle on his right and knew exactly what it was, even before he saw it.
He turned sharply and saw it fly through the air at him. He brought his blade in between his face and the arrow. It struck and it's shaft shattered to pieces as the blade absorbed it's impact. It was one of the wonders of their weapons. The other one was to generate shockwaves that only affected a particular region.
He heard Elsa gasp as she realized what had just happened.
She turned to the bowman to disarm him with her magic. He was around 25 feet away from them, and an easy shot for her as he reloaded, without taking any cover.
Alex grabbed her arm before she could strike. "We don't want to attract attention," He whispered when he saw a multitude of shadows around them, cropping up from unknown directions.
She stopped when she noticed them too.
At that precise moment, a loud horn blew off in the distance.
"I think we already did," Anna said.
"Well, let's run," Alex suggested as if anyone else was not gonna do that.
Arrows whizzed past them.
"Oh no no no No NO!" Anna was alarmed, alerting the other two of the people surrounding the trio, and closing on them fast.
"Maybe it's time to call for Gale?" Elsa suggested.
"No! We're an open shot if we fly!" Anna yelled, narrowly avoiding a barrage of arrows.
Alex couldn't care less about flying as he saw the people on either side, NOT following them.
The walls of the people were closing on the small group from opposite sides as they ran through the middle. But those people weren't even looking at them. They were looking at each other, furiously. That's when Alex realized, they were caught in the middle of a war.
The steel clashed and the blood flew as two hundred soldiers on either side ran into each other.
He had no idea what had provoked this, but he wasn't interested in sticking around to find out. Anna and Elsa looked just as confused, but also frightened of what they were seeing.
Elsa's blood ran cold when she saw the people fighting. She had seen warriors fight before, but only in a competition, where the goal is to knock them out. Here, it was more than just terrible.
She saw blood everywhere, flying and dripping as the soldiers cut through each other. Beheaded bodies were being trampled and stumbled upon by, while the injured and the still alive but disabled were being ruthlessly killed. But it wasn't them that she was worried about. She whirled around to look at her sister.
Anna choked and threw up. She had never been exposed to blood and brutality before, and this massively overwhelmed her. She felt faint and heard someone call her name and come over to her while she released her bile. After she was done, a cool hand comforted her.
"Elsa, get her out of here," she heard Alex's voice from the distance as she felt the feminine hand on her shoulder contract and lead her off.
Her senses returned to her, and she could manage herself now.
"Wait. No. Alex?" She croaked, her throat burned painfully. She didn't want to leave him behind, all alone.
"He's okay Anna," She heard Elsa's voice from behind her as she supported her.
Elsa was just trying to get Anna out of the fray, when a soldier came out of nowhere and swung his sword at them. Elsa threw Anna behind her, and raised her sword, barely managing to block his strike at the last second. He attacked again.
Elsa turned her sword so that his weapon would be deflected without reaching near her. She used the momentum of his sword against him as she pulled him with his arm, got behind him, and used the flat of her sword, to hit him hard in his head, knocking him out cold.
She realised it a millisecond too late, that she had accidentally lowered her weapon too far down to defend herself effectively. She felt a searing pain of a slash on her back which threw her forward. Her jacket had saved her the worst, but the blunt blade of the sword had burned down on her back, leaving an ever darkening splash of crimson liquid gushing out of that wound. She restrained her immediate reflexes and took deep breaths while getting ready to face her opponent. She whirled around only to get the breath knocked out of her lungs again as she saw Anna, with her sword in another man's chest as she pushed him back into a tree, fury blazing in her turquoise eyes as she killed the man who had dared hurt her sister.
Elsa was dazed both, from the wound as well as physical and mental shock.
"Hey! Are you okay?" She heard a voice ask from behind her.
Alex was fighting off six guys as he awaited her response. His spear cut deep into their limbs, but didn't do any lasting damage. If he had chosen, that fight would've been much shorter.
"Yeah, Yeah, just a scratch," She replied , controlling her voice the best she could. She saw another man rush at her with a spear. She grabbed the spear as it lunged toward her, and pulled hard like Alex had taught her. Her back flared up with enormous pain, but she pushed on. The spearman went off balance, and Elsa used it to knock him down from behind like the previous swordsman, this time hitting his back of neck with her flat of the blade.
She glanced at Anna who was still fighting furiously, knocking out anyone who came in her path with speed, agility and precision, just as Alex had taught them.
She didn't know how long they had been fighting a war that didn't concern them, but it felt like eternity. They were still trying to find a way out of the fray, and get to safety. Elsa's back was burning. She knew that it wasn't just a scratch. She had sustained minor injuries like bruises and scratches as she fought, but she concentrated on getting Anna safe.
They were fighting back to back, taking out each of their enemies who tried to sneak up on them, protecting each other.
She was getting tired as she neatly stepped over a lifeless man, whose chest had been torn open with multiple ruthless slashes and swung her sword to knock another spearman who decided to attack Anna. She was visibly exhausted too. Elsa looked around to find something where they could escape to. She saw nothing, but an expanse of blood and bodies and fighting everywhere.
She found a way into the thick forest where no one was going. It was north of their positions, but quite far. She was just going to turn to Anna and Alex who were fighting beside her when her eyes caught a flash of golden blond hair with a familiar face underneath. Her eyes darted back to the position where she saw him, standing there, his mouth agape as he stared at his daughter. She also was looking back at him with wide open eyes.
The enemy decided to take advantage of the situation of his daze. A soldier came up from behind him, sword raised, just as the woman next to him screamed his name.
"Agnarr! Watch out!"
She reached him and pulled him out of harm's way as she took on the man with full force who had tried to hurt her husband. In a few of her strikes, he was knocked out cold.
"What the hell are you doing!?" Iduna whirled around and scolded him.
He didn't reply. Just kept looking at the girl not far away from him. Not anymore.
She followed his gaze and gasped clutching her chest and backing into a tree as she saw both her daughters, one fighting, and one looking at them both with tears in her eyes.
Alex, just done with an amateur guy, noticed Elsa looking at her parents, but now was not the time to get teary.
He was just going forward to cover her when he saw one soldier take aim at Agnarr, and another one take aim at Elsa. It was just two seconds before they released their arrows.
He couldn't possibly save both their lives at the same time. Elsa was within reach while Agnarr was out of his reach, even at Alex's loudest voice. The archers were too far away for him to tackle. He was running out of options with each passing millisecond.
So he did something he had never done in his entire life.
He swiftly launched his spear at the one taking aim at Agnarr, just hoping it would strike true before he released his arrow. He sprinted at Elsa and saw as the other one launched the arrow at her. He couldn't push or pull her as the place was getting swarmed with the soldiers. Instead, he jumped in the way of the arrow, covering Elsa with himself, hoping he didn't miss.
He felt it a millisecond later, as the arrow buried itself in his lower abdomen, deep, but saved by his vest. It knocked the air out of his lungs as he lurched forward with the momentum of the arrow, his body kicking itself into reflexes to bear the pain.
Elsa acted fast as she saw her friend getting struck by an arrow. Her instincts kicked in and she aimed her hand at the bowman, and let her powers loose. They struck home, as massive icicles went through his heart killing him instantly. But not without attracting attention from the others at that. She realized her mistake a second later as she heard a scream 'Monster!' on her right.
Anna turned. She had no idea what happened, but she saw a man fall down, Alex's spear in his head, his bow and arrow falling down limply, another one fall down with... icicles through his heart.
"Oh my god!" Anna was shocked. Elsa had never hurt a soul, but today she had killed someone. Anna had too, but she still couldn't believe her eyes.
She looked at Elsa who was leaning down beside Alex, who was hit with an arrow on the lower right side, just above his hip bone, missing any major organs. She didn't waste a second going over taking advantage of the shock of the people at her sister's sudden burst of power.
Elsa quickly removed the arrow with his permission and froze the wound. The ice was flexible. She didn't understand how, but it acted like a bandage so she used it.
"Elsa!" Anna came over. She looked at Alex who was standing up like nothing had happened questioningly.
"M'alright," He assured her, after quickly and promptly retrieving his weapon.
She was relieved for a split second, but she became tense once again.
The people were now aware of the spirit in their midst. They had stopped fighting and were looking at her, afraid. The ripple of the fight pause spread far and in just a span of a few seconds, it had travelled over the entire armada, instantly drowning out the sound of clashing metals.
She stood strong not bending under their angry and fearful gazes.
Agnarr and Iduna looked at them in wonder. Both their daughters together, free and powerful. Anna stood behind Elsa supporting her, while she handled all the blaze they were facing. The man that had saved Agnarr's and Elsa's lives was standing beside them both, looking directly at them.
They went toward them slowly at first, as their legs gained the strength to move them around.
A man approached Elsa from her left.
"You are the ice queen? The one from Arendelle?"
She wasn't queen but she didn't want to bring Anna in the line of fire. His tone suggested hostility.
"Yes," She replied definitively.
"So you're the scum who rules that hellass kingdom!" He concluded, venomously.
"Don't you," Anna started angrily.
"...dare talk about your bloody kingdom!?" He spat at her, "The kingdom which destroyed all of our lives! The kingdom of lies, trickery and bloody treachery!? Fuck you all to hell dammit!" He screamed the words, his spittle flying all over Elsa's disgusted face.
"Shut up, Klinston," A calm, but authoritative voice told him.
Anna gasped as she saw her father walk up to the man named Klinston, his jaw tightened, deep hatred flashing in his eyes.
He whirled around and found himself face to face with Agnarr.
"You...? Why are you defending them? You hate Arendelle... don't you?" He asked with doubt.
Agnarr didn't reply as his gaze shifted at Iduna who went up to her daughters from behind them.
Iduna was completely lost for words as they both turned towards her. She wanted to tell them both so much, she had so little time as the movements started taking place in both the armies. They were going to attack the tiny group when they recovered from the shock. She had to find a way to get them to safety. She wanted to beg to the lord to let him give them one last chance to tell their daughters how much they loved her.
"Mother," Anna said through her tears.
The people gasped.
Klinston took a sharp breath, his eyes widening. "She's the princess, and that's your wife. She's her daughter. You're... you're Agnarr." He connected the dots. "You traitor. I was right! I WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG. YOU TRAITOR!!" He started laughing madly screaming in his face.
"Gale, time to get us out of here," Alex said under his breath as he saw everyone in the forest getting into fight mode.
"ATTAC...!!!" Klinston tried to yell through his manic demeanor, but the last 'CK' sound was lost as his head rocked sideways with a force that broke his neck and tossed him 3 feet away from his original position.
Everything was suddenly silent for a split second, before the people started screaming as heavy bolts launched from modified extremely powerful crossbows started pelting on them from the dense areas of the forest that was surrounding them.
Each bolt was ripping through a person before sticking into the second. They were all being slaughtered.
The people rushed towards them believing it was Elsa who was doing this. Their panic was evident.
Alex tapped his staff on the ground and a massive shock wave generated out of it tore through the people around them, blasting the oncoming horde backwards into their companions.
"Now!" he yelled and Gale came spiralling down, and swept them up. Agnarr yelled in surprise and Iduna looked as if she had just met her long-lost childhood friend.
The bolts followed them as they climbed altitude.
Alex, who was an expert at deflecting arrows with swords, was having a hard time deflecting these, which had so much speed to them that he could hardly see them. He managed to deflect all which came their way but only barely; made hard by the fact that they were in the air, and every single bolt that his blade took, rotated and wobbled him dangerously.
Once they were high enough in the air, Elsa created a strong ice wall to block the oncoming arrows. They still had enough speed to get stuck halfway through the wall which was weaker than normal so as to reduce weight. But they were out of danger and everyone was relaxing slightly.
They looked down and saw a complete massacre. Every Glitharian who was alive was now dead; killed by a mysterious enemy who had some rich help. But who?
He collected one of the arrows, and studied the weapons they were holding for as long as they were visible.
Their trip calmed down as they descended from the air onto a nearby deserted island to rest and get their heads together.
It was just a few seconds after they descended. Anna and Elsa were checking on each other. Agnarr and Iduna were looking at them unsure of what to do. They already knew what was coming and they were prepared. They had hurt their daughters too much for them to forgive.
Anna was hurt in multiple places. Her head was splitting with pain and her limbs were hurting. But the way she was scarred mentally for her life, exceeded far beyond her limits. It was her wedding day and her birthday and here she was. Just coming safe from a battle that she thankfully survived, rescuing her parents who didn't even know or perhaps didn't even care for what she had to go through to hold themselves together. She felt a pity for them that they had to go through pain and suffering for Anna and Elsa, but that didn't comfort her much even though she knew that they loved them.
Her anger was damped, but Elsa's wasn't. She was furious at them, sparks flying out of her eyes as she looked at them. It wasn't hidden and Anna doubted that she was even trying. They were in trouble. Lots of it.
"Why?" She asked them coldly not showing anger or hatred if she was feeling any.
Iduna gulped and Agnarr looked nervous.
Alex was struggling. He had been awake for five days now and fought a fierce battle in one of them and worked hard physically and mentally over the duration on other days. His eyelids were heavy with exhaustion and his eyes and throat was dry. As the adrenaline receded, the pain increased in his abdomen as he became more conscious of its presence. His head was also throbbing with enormous loads over the past few days and no rest. He shut it all out and just breathed calmly, sitting down upon a nearby rock, watching them closely. He knew that Agnarr and Iduna were not at fault, but there was nothing he could do
about it. The secrets that they kept were not for faint hearts and Anna and Elsa weren't strong enough to bear them or even fully yet understand them yet. But he wondered how they were going to manage the situation. As he saw it, they had three options to choose from.
Lying to them and giving false reasons for their absence. That certainly would spare them from the sisters' wrath, but not for long.
Telling them all the secrets they held and putting them in mortal danger even though they wouldn't understand it. Their reactions would depend upon the secrets.
Telling them the hard truth that they still can't reveal them the secrets as they were extremely dangerous and preparing for the hellfire that was gonna rain down upon them.
Agnarr spoke up.
"Anna, Elsa... we know that we have hurt you terribly, and we're..."
"I don't want an apology, I want answers," Elsa interrupted him, her tone commanding as if she were queen. Anna looked at her surprised. She had never seen Elsa so angry ever before. It terrified her.
He closed his eyes before the hurt showed up in them. Iduna looked down at her feet, half ashamed and half frightened.
Alex knew what was coming even before it did. He had chosen the fourth option. Smart move.
"I'm afraid that I've been keeping secrets from you both. But I must warn you, these are not for your ears," He wasn't going to tell them all the secrets. Only the ones they needed to hear. But he wasn't going to say that 'they're all the secrets we have' either. This trick will be like betraying them, but it will save their lives. So he didn't care.
Taking a deep breath, he launched the story.
"Long time ago..."