Elsa travelled upriver on Nokk's back. Her white spirit dress fluftered in the winds like a merry butterfly. It was almost six in the evening. She had said her goodbyes prior to leaving, but hadn't been able to shake off Olaf's sad face. She didn't find him anywhere after the brief period of time she hung out with him in the council chambers. Anna did promise to talk to him, but she felt horrible for not being with him for at least some time. She just wasn't there since she was helping with decorations and Anna's special day celebrations. After that, she was out with Alex and Anna to get to her parents, and then with Alex in order to try and get some information about the enemies they were dealing with. Even after all of that, Olaf was still left out from council meetings, family meetings and other potential sources from which he could understand the things that were going on. She herself didn't understand how so many huge enemies had popped up at the same time within the past months. The Forsaken Legion, The eight kids, Nightscalers, Narsilla and now this so-called 'forest witch'. Kristoff had given that name after agreeing with Alex that the thing scaring the reindeer had to be magical and that there was no other explanation for it. Elsa was frankly, quite surprised to see Anna handling things so well. Being a newly appointed queen, she had some massive enemy threats to deal with, secrecy and lies to keep and discover from fellow citizens, dealing with criminal stuff like Runeard's followers trying to dethrone her now and all the while, balancing things between caring for herself and the kingdom. Perhaps Anna was always meant to be a leader instead of her.

She was shaken from her thoughts as Nokk gave a soft neigh and animatedly gestured towards approaching torch lights. As they closed toward the lights, she could discern a large translucent wall of smooth and neatly carved wall of unmeltable ice. She felt a small bubble of pride and relief swell within her as she gazed at her majestic creation.

The darkness had started falling and it wasn't safe to be out of the wall's protection in the night. They reached the river's edge and Elsa quickly got off, melting the thin layer of ice that surfaced over Nokk's bodice and thanking him for his service to her. She also told him to meet her at the dark sea in a bit of time. He nodded solemnly and disappeared into the river. She moved the sheath of her sword at a more comfortable position for walking. The camp was fairly far away from the river, so she started walking towards it.

As she was halfway to the encampment, she heard a small unnatural sound behind her. She heightened her senses and looked behind her, resting one hand over the hilt of her sword and readying the other one with icy powers to strike at a small and simple thought. She heard a deep rumbling sound getting closer to her. But this wasn't the rumble of the earth giants' giant feet. This was the sound of hooves coming straight at her. Her eyes widened as she imagined a full scale cavalry invasion from the Nightscalers. She removed her sword from its sheath and stood facing the approaching thunder, backing away against a tree so she could have some cover if things went downhill.

The approaching hooves were accompanied by a screaming woman. Elsa immediately identified her as Joleta from the Northuldra camp. She was shouting something in old Northuldran language. Elsa wasn't fluent in that language, but she translated some words to 'the witch in white!' and 'run!'

Before she could get a handle on understanding the situation, around twenty-five reindeer burst through the bushes and raced past her in full panic. Some of them veered away from her even when they weren't about to collide with her as if they were afraid of seeing her. One of them, in trying to put distance between himself and Elsa, crashed into another reindeer and they both fell into an entangled mass of antlers. She tried to walk toward them to help free themselves, but the reindeer started to frantically kick around and untangled himself from the other reindeer and ran off, making an unnaturally high pitched voice that sent chills down her spine. The other reindeer joined him too. The thunder of hooves subsided as the last of reindeer ran to the entrance of the campsite. Elsa couldn't even think before she heard a scream from behind her. She turned to see Joleta on the ground and backing away from her, absolutely terrified.

"Joleta! It's me!" Elsa cried, trying to calm her down and approach her.

Joleta slapped a hand over her mouth and stopped screaming at seeing who it really was.

"El-Elsa?" The elderly woman stuttered out.

"Yes. I'm here now," she confirmed.

At that point, Bruni came scampering into view, possibly having been alerted by Joleta's screams. His back was on fire, but upon seeing Elsa, he immediately cut out the flames and ran over to greet her.

She had already learnt not to be surprised by Bruni switching between Arendelle and the forest so fast. She just left it out to Bruni and Gale's shenanigans as Bruni loved to fly and Gale loved to fly him around.

"Come on. Let's get you back to camp," Elsa said to Joleta, sheathing her sword and offering a helping hand to her. She gladly took it.

Elsa supported a shaking, sobbing and sweating Joleta back towards camp. She tried her best to comfort the woman, but it had little effect. She wished Anna was there with her. Elsa may have the magic hands, but Anna had the magical healing touch.

They were just a few metres away from the camp when Elsa heard another sound of thundering hooves galloping towards them, but from the direction of the Northuldra camp this time.

In no time, they were both surrounded by reindeer and their riders, armed with spears and sticks. The leader of the group immediately dismounted his majestic reindeer and hurried over to them.

"Joleta! Are you okay?" He asked, panicking.

"I...I am fine Jacob," she managed to reply to him shakingly.

Elsa was just letting go of Joleta and stepping backwards, when Jacob pushed gruffly between her and his wife, causing Elsa to stumble backwards. He never hid his hatred towards Elsa, but this was crossing the boundaries. She would have told him off for unnecessary physical manhandling, but stopped herself at seeing the apologetic look on Joleta's face as she noticed what he'd done. Though Joleta had forgiven the past deeds that had taken place between Arendelle and Northuldra, her husband Jacob hadn't done so. The only reason he was leading the tribe was that both Honeymaren and Yelena were visiting Arendelle, and there was no one else more competent than him.

They walked back to the camp, the people around her muttering to each other. Elsa caught a few phrases like '...she'll help us...' and '...where's Yelena?'

They entered the camp through a gap in the wall. Large gates of ice stood sentinel on either side of the entrance, making the camp nothing less of a fortress.

As soon as she entered the camp, people began crowding around her, each one trying to get his voice up so as to tell her about the hostile magical entity in the forest. Elsa was getting confused as she tried to make sense of the stories each one had to tell. She was just about to tell them to stop and let one person speak when Jacob gruffly commanded, "Enough!"

He came up to her and nodded his head towards his tent. He hated every single drop of Arendellian blood, but he was ready to accept help from his enemy if it meant keeping his people safe. Elsa followed him as the people parted to let them pass.

"What is happening, Jacob?" She asked as they entered the tent. Joleta was resting on a bed.

"The camp isn't safe. As you might've already heard, there's a witch in the forest," Jacob said.

Elsa took a deep breath. A witch? How could a witch even exist? She had seen things like Nattmara which induced every living soul within its vicinity with their deepest and the most terrifying of fears. It was believed that it came from repressed emotions like fear. Though she knew it had never popped up because of her own fears, she couldn't let Anna take the blame for almost destroying the kingdom on herself for saying some magical words from a book she had found. Elsa took the blame upon herself by making up a false story about bottling up her fears and anger and then, accidentally releasing them through the powers of the Nattmara. She never regretted it since she knew very well that if she had let Anna take up the blame on herself, it would have shattered her morale to it's very core with enough intensity that she would never be capable of ruling ever again. Alex and her parents were the only ones who knew what had actually happened that day, and she knew they'd keep it a secret to their graves if necessary. That was one of the only prominent magic she had seen outside of spirit nature and the sundrop and moonstone.

"What does she want?" Elsa asked.

"We don't know," he said coldly. "Perhaps, someone could talk to it?"

Elsa looked him dead in the eye, communicating a silent warning against ever calling the witch as 'it'. He stared back defiantly, but succumbed to her unwavering gaze. If something has feelings and emotions, they do not deserve to be called 'it' or treated as a disposable object. At least not on her watch.

"I suppose you want me to talk to her?" Elsa asked, guessing the answer.

"Magical spirit to another magical entity could...er...help in keeping things cool," he smirked.

"Where can I find her?" She asked.

"We don't know of course!" He replied impatiently.

"I saw her by the river just now," Joleta chimed in.

Elsa turned to her. Jacob took a chair and sat down.

"I was out there to get the reindeer watered up before they slept. It was Ryder's job as you might know already, but since he wasn't gonna be here, I took it upon myself. She was...just staring at me. Just...sitting there, on a rock...completely unmoving. She looked ethereal...like you," Joleta pointed at Elsa, who blushed deeply while Jacob huffed and leaned backwards on his chair. Elsa had never been called ethereal before.

"But something was wrong," Joleta continued without missing a beat. "I just froze there in place as she got up and walked over to me. The reindeer started to panic for some reason. It's like...they could sense something. Something too powerful and...and evil. I...I don't know how, but the next thing I know...was that I ran straight into you," Joleta completed her story

Elsa knew then why the reindeer had veered away from her, why Joleta had screamed when she saw her, why she was screaming 'white witch' while running to the camp. It was as she had said herself. The white witch looked similar to Elsa in appearance.

"I...I saw you and I thought you were the witch and you...were trying to hurt me or something," Joleta clarified, pushing back her tears of shock of that evening and looking at Elsa apologetically.

She gave her a kind smile. "It's alright Joleta. It's not your fault," Elsa said tenderly. "It's all fine now. You're safe here."

Joleta just nodded as Elsa excused herself out of the tent. Before she could be swarmed with people again, she quickly exited the camp. She could've gone towards the river, but decided against it. Instead, she traversed north of the camp.

Alex had not only taught her warfare, but also how to think like her opponents. She was quite sure that she wouldn't find her there, however hard she searched. She could only hope that the witch did not prove to be a direct threat to the camp or to herself while she travelled.

She reached the edge of the dark sea without any events. The sun had set, but the sky was still quite dimly lit to let her see her surroundings clearly. A light breeze gently fluttered her cape. She still remembered the time when she had to cross the sea while the waters and the winds raged all around her. She was still afraid what might've happened if she had let Anna come with her that day. Though she was angry at Elsa, she understood the position she was in. It was either break the promise of doing things together, or taking Anna with herself to her doom.

She knelt down, touched her hands into the calm seawater and called out to the water spirit. The mighty steed materialized out of the water and snorted happily at her. She stroked his muzzle and coated his watery exterior in a thin layer of frost. She climbed up and gently nudged him towards the glacier in the middle of the sea. Reins weren't necessary anymore.

She could only hope Ahtohallan held some answers for her.

Northern Forest, Arendelle 7:30pm

Alex expertly dodged a decapitating strike from a sword by ducking under it. His black cloak flew off his right leg as he thrust it toward his opponent, catching him in the hip and incapacitating him temporarily. He was exasperated now. These bandits didn't know who he was, nor did they know that they fought pathetically. Every single bandit, thug and citizen of Arendelle knew that Alex was the absolute best when it came to sparring and sword fights. He remained an undefeated champion in all of the Arendellian militia. That told him that the bandits who had assaulted him were either not from Arendelle, or that they were just extremely stupid.

There were six bandits who had attacked him. Three of them were knocked out on the ground. The other three surrounded him, trying to get at least a scratch on him. He was just bored by now.

"Okay guys, fun time's over," Alex said, smirking. "I got some work to do."

"Give us your money, and we'll let you go," The apparent leader of the group said.

Alex sighed for the third time. This was going nowhere. He just shook his head in mild amusement. These guys were stubborn!

"No," he answered. Partly because he didn't have much on him anyway and partly because he didn't want to give it to them because that'll just raise their egos.

"Fine. Have it your way then," the leader announced, and all three of them moved in to attack him.

Wrong move.

Alex swung his spear in a wide arc at the bandit on his right with enormous speed. He didn't have time to duck and was hit square in his left side of the face. The staff bounced off his face, and Alex used that momentum to accelerate it in the opposite direction, spinning clockwise this time. The other bandit on his left had already ducked, having anticipated Alex's move. Alex simply lowered the spear to match the height on which his face was off the ground. The two bandits hit the ground together, both their faces bashed in. The leader just stared at his fallen comrades in shock, the smirk being wiped off his face as if he had just been denied chocolate. The sword he was holding fell from his hands.

"So...you gonna clean your mess up?" Alex asked playfully, indicating around him to point out to the five unconscious bandits.

The leader collapsed to his knees and nodded weakly.

"Try not to come around these parts to rob people next time," Alex said rather merrily.

The leader again nodded weakly as Alex left him to try and wake his partners up.

He walked north, with his spear already in the sheath on his back. He considered going back to the kingdom to get a few guards to arrest them, but it just wasn't worth the time that he was already tight on. He quickened his pace.

In about thirty minutes of walking and climbing, he finally reached the valley of rocks. The trolls were slumbering peacefully, so he went to the largest one of them all.

"Grand Pabbie," Alex whispered softly, resting a hand on the top of the rock. Kristoff had told him to do that to wake him up.

The rock shuddered to life beneath his fingers and an elderly looking troll rested his wizened gaze upon him.

"Alex!" He greeted happily, but softly so as to not wake the other trolls, "what brings you here?"

"I had a few questions to ask. Could we talk someplace?" He asked.

The troll gazed at him curiously for a second and told him to follow as he rolled off the elevated stone and into the deeper woods.

Alex followed closely, but this part of the woods was quite strange to him. He remembered having traversed it before, but it wasn't the same. The trees looked... different for some reason. They were all old. The vegetation was unnaturally thick and high, filled with various different herbs and plants he had never even seen before.

Grand Pabbie must've seen his confused expression. "There is an ancient magical spell upon this place," he explained. "One which allows any magical being and their companion to see what is inside this shield."

"Shield?" Alex asked.

"Yes," Pabbie replied, smiling widely as they walked into a clearing, where a tall and majestic stone structure greeted them.

Alex couldn't help but gasp at the sight. "To protect that, I suppose?" Alex asked in awe at seeing what was in front of him.

Grand Pabbie chuckled. "Yes. To protect...the burial grounds of lord Aren himself."

The massive structure was a single tall stone carved into what looked like a human figure. The stony features were eroded with more than a thousand years of rain, frost and vegetation damage, but they were still discernible. Alex could make out the shape of a crown upon his head, and a curved sword with it's tip touching the ground. There was no doubt that this was the one and only famed sword, Revolute. His eyes stared outwards, exactly in the direction Arendelle was in. A white marble tomb lay at the feet of the gigantic statue where he assumed lord Aren rested undisturbed.

Pabbie waited patiently as Alex snapped out of his awe.

"Why hasn't anyone ever found this before?" Alex asked.

"These grounds are believed to be haunted. Non-magical people cannot see this place with their eyes. They will only see the new forest around them. This shield has protected this patch of the forest from human invasion for herbs, wood and animals and thus, it is a safe haven for all these things to flourish. The people only see an illusion of the new forest when they walk into this shield, but they physically walk in this old forest. If their clothes get caught up in one of these thorns, they believe that it is the work of an invisible ghost and they will just circle back to where they came from. I have laughed at many such people," Grand Pabbie said mildly amused. "But jokes aside, what is it that brought you here?"

Alex shook himself out of his reverie and sat down on one of the nearby stones. He could see only due to the presence of Pabbie, who was a magical being. Pabbie sat opposite to him on another stone. Alex took a deep breath.

"I wanted to know about Narsilla," he said.

Grand Pabbie's expression turned grim. "Narsilla is an evil sorceress. One who wants to destroy the world as we know it and then rebuild her version in its place. She won't stop at anything to achieve this dream of hers."

"Why?" Alex asked, just to be sure Pabbie's answer matched what he was thinking.

"To have the ultimate power of course!" Pabbie said.

Alex studied Pabbie closer. He had frantic eyes. Almost as if he was afraid of even taking her name.

"Narsilla scares you?" Alex asked, stepping cautiously.

Grand Pabbie sighed. "Narsilla scares every sorcerer who ever lived. That, once upon a time included lord Demanitus too."

Alex looked at Aren's statue. "I feel like there is a connection," he said.

Pabbie chuckled, "yes. Yes there is always a connection."

He took a deep breath to prepare to tell a story.

"You must already know the legends of lord Aren. He was the first king of Arendelle. Legends say that he rose up from the great darkness and triumphed over it by calling upon the power of the sun. The sun blessed him with the legendary sword, Revolute and that was when he carved out the fjord upon which the kingdom of Arendelle now stands," Pabbie revised.

Alex nodded.

"But the story does not begin with that, nor does it end there," Pabbie said mysteriously. "Aren was born in a dark village, ruled by Narsilla. He was once upon a time, a poor kid who just ran along the streets barefoot. One day, he stumbled on a guard of the castle. He was the knight of the kingdom, and a very cruel man. He lifted his axe to cut off the boy's head, but Narsilla was just behind them, seeing everything go down. Instead of letting him kill Aren, she instead ordered the knight to take him to the castle. Being the cruel witch she was, she killed his parents and kept the boy as a source of entertainment in the castle. Aren used to visit the library once in a while to read books, but they were not just random old books. They were books on ruling a kingdom, being a powerful sorcerer, learning about magical beings, spells and the various teachings of old legends. This was against the rules at the time and punishable by death. At that point, he had become a favourite of Narsilla, so when she found out about this, instead of killing him, she asked him to demonstrate his powers. He used many spells and immense powers that a mere fifteen year old shouldn't have been able to use. Narsilla being impressed, decided to instead make him a lot more powerful than he already was. She tutored him by herself in the dark arts and forces of magic. He kept getting stronger and stronger until a point where no one except only Narsilla herself could defeat him in battle. But it is as they say, villains are the reason heroes are made. When he found that his parents had been murdered by Narsilla, and had not died in an accident as she had previously told him, he faced her for it. As someone who had been caged inside a castle for a quarter of his life, he was enraged after seeing the state his friends were living in. There were droughts, diseases, injustice, poverty and misery all round the kingdom. The vast expanses of oceans and barren land did not hold any hope for fishermen nor for any farmer. Aren found that all the resources that the kingdom came up with, all the ores, minerals, grains, medicinal herbs and the likes all went to the armoury inside the castle. The sources for water were used for the various spells Narsilla wanted to try out and required huge amounts of flowing water to do them. The wood and trees were used for weapons of war and walls. Anyone who rose up in retaliation was killed mercilessly. They were dark times," Pabbie said.

"So let me guess. Aren then fought against Narsilla and somehow managed to banish her?" Alex asked.

"Yes, but he had help. The spirits, who had been angered on one previous occasion, had disappeared without any way to get to them. On that day, they reappeared out of their hiding and carved out four magical talismans. One with the power of bright golden light like the sun, the other with the power to extinguish that light by spreading darkness. One held powers of the earth and lightning, and the last one, held the powers of air and fire. Aren, with the power of those stones, was able to banish Narsilla to the lost realm."

Alex gave a low whistle. Everything made sense now.

"But I suppose the real reason you came to me was not to learn about what happened in the past?" Pabbie asked, guessing correctly.

"I wanted to know what happened to the stone of darkness," Alex answered.

Pabbie raised an eyebrow. "And you already know where the other three stones are?"

"I...have a general idea," Alex revealed.

Pabbie smiled and answered his question. "Many believe that the stone was destroyed when Aren banished Narsilla to the deep realms. Only some know that the stone still exists. It still is where Narsilla ripped it off Aren before she was sucked inside that portal."

Alex stared in wonder at Grand Pabbie.

"If I were to give you a hint, the darkstone stores memories," Pabbie said.

Alex was dumbfounded. Could it really be? He wondered.

"Yes, Alex. The stone lays peacefully in the depths of the glacier up north," Pabbie urged.

"Ahtohallan."