Jellicle's Creed
Frozen Memories
Sequence 3
Memory 2: {Wo}men of War
12 may 2051
Duke of Weselton Manor
Basement Cells
Dusk
A transport spell activated. It was time. Snowfeather arrived through it; With her was Elsa, In the strictest of confidence the plan was laid and details were given before footsteps were heard. Elsa nodded and went back through, She'd make sure they'd arrive safely within her bedroom on the other side
As soon as the Duke had left the cell and the news reached their ears, Snowfeather picked up her sister from where she had hit the wall, quite hard at that and helped her up, casting a look around she activated the transport array and sent her sister through. Then she setup the trap.
First Snowfeather set the wooden items within the cell against each other in a fire ready fashion. Then she used the air and water around the cell lock to make sure it as rock solid and rusted out, useless. Then she cast one hell of a fireball. The dry wood lit like hay in a barn. It'd spready quickly she knew, but only so far once put out. The dead body Blackmane and Elsa tossed through the transport array just then landed in the fire.
Perfect! What made her smile somewhat sadistically was that the dead body was none other than Prince Hans elder brother Henri. Apparently Elsa had discovered the ruse and had done something about it seeing the ice upon the body. It hissed and steamed but did not melt. Well, this was not going to go well. A quick look around and Snowfeather smiled as the smoke billiowed out from the fire location before she too jumped into the transport array and disappeared from Weselton Manor.
Not more than three minutes later had Hans and the Duke both stood and helped put the fire out, when it was finally out they saw a dead body within it. But Hans knew that body, it was Henri. His body was frozen solid. Elsa had figured out the ruse quicker than he had expected. When Henri's body was finally pulled from the rubble and soot, Hans started pacing, "This is not going to plan, Henri was my only link inside Arendelle Castle." He grumbled. "He's gone now. So how are we supposed to spy on the queen ?"
"Easy, your brothers took images for us and sent them to us, let them continue their work as they have been. We'll get our chance soon." The Duke replied, "Besides, if Elsa caught Henri and recognised him, she'll know who else to look for, but if she caught him and did not recognise him, then she does not know what we're planning, unless she searched his body like most assassins do when they make a kill."
"That is a thought. Bring him over here." Hans replied, he motioned to his brothers to bring Henri to the nearby table, he then broke the ice that encased his brother, patting his brother down carefully he found everything on his person, well, almost everything, his weapons had been taken, naturally, along with his money, also naturally, and lastly, his orders from Hans himself were also found to be missing. "Damnit, they have his orders direct from us." He slammed a fist on the table.
"Should we recall Walter and Brian ?" Brad asked.
"No, they're working with the Arendelle Guard, not with the castle staff directly. They wont have any contact with Elsa as long as they work with the guards, unless they're assigned to guard duty within the castle gates directly." Hans replied aving off his brother. Hans started pacing. This was going downhill fast. "It is a strong possiblity that Henri destroyed his orders, if they were taken, Elsa would have found Walter and Brian by now and sent them back to us like this." Hans leaned on the table, both hands on the surface.
"What is the chance in that ?" The Duke asked.
"A pretty good one I'd say" Said Brad who stood next to him. "Normally the guards change, and given they're new recruits, so to speak, they'd not be part of the inner castle guards if at all this soon unless the inner guard are drawn out or thin ranked, regardless, after what we have heard of the death of one of our men, Illitain, and all his soldiers loyal to our cause freezing within heartbeats when Elsa slew him. It is quite possible that our brothers are in danger."
"Possible yes, but Elsa never met them, she has no idea who they are, they know the risks of this job, if they're found out its on them, not us, but if they still have their orders from us here, then we've got a problem." Hans replied
"So what do you suggest ?" The Duke said thoughtfully.
"We continue with our current plan, have Walter and Brian keep tabs on Elsa and keep the Arendelle Guard busy; we'll even let them take Arko district as well, there are plenty of other districts in Arendelle, it is a large city to begin with. Have our men pull back to one of the larger districts away from the castle and librated districts so far, their next target after Arko is most likely Roughwater or Westwater, possibly also Northshire or even Whitehall. Have our men group at Whitehall, its the least defended at this moment. We'll let them take the other districts." Hans said, Brad nodded and left to send word to his brotheres still alive in Arendelle while Hans would see to the proper transportation and burial of Henri.
Arendelle Castle
Elsa's bedroom
At that same moment
As soon as Snowfeather fell into view and the transportation array faded out of sight and memory Elsa stood at the door, the window was wide open letting in both a breeze and taking out the scent of smoke and soot. When Snowfeather stood on her own two feet she saw a snowflake pattern embedded into the floor. There was no rug as far as Snowfeather could see and the transportation array fit into the snowflake perfectly. Elsa turned towards her. A questioning look was on Snowfeathers face. And she saw that Elsa held her mothers journal protectively against her chest.
Looking first to Elsa, then to Blackmane, Snowfeather asked. "Do I want to know what happened for the body to be frozen through the transport array ?"
It was Elsa that spoke first as she all but collapsed into the chair at her desk. "One of Hans brothers tried to harm me. Before he could get close enough I froze him. Once I knocked him out I went over his body, took his weapons, even some money he had on him. He also had this." She held out a paper to Blackmane, who inturn could not read the writing so she handed it to Snowfeather who easily translated it as she read it aloud.
"'As instructed, you are to take out Queen Elsa as quickly as possible, use whatever means needed to do the deed but make it look like an accident befell her. You are not, under any means, to reveal yourself to the castle staff. Your brother, Hans'" Snowfeather held the note as if it was about to bite her.
Seeing her holding it in such a way, Elsa said simply "Get rid of it, like how I got rid of the body, just get rid of it. Prince Hans tried to kill me and my sister, but my sister sacrificed herself to save me when she was almost frozen solid. Get rid of that note. I saved it for you to read, now I want it gone" Snowfeather noticed that Elsa seemed freaked out by something. So she did as told. Snapping her fingers she produced a flame on her fingers, while underher fingers trails of energy formed a pattern catching the ash and turneing it into harmless snowflakes that quickly faded away.
"Done." Snowfeather said, "You can relax. You defended yourself before you were harmed. Was anything changed around in the room ?" Elsa shook her head, she had turned it upside down since sending Henri through the transport array and found nothing wrong. But it did not hurt for both Blackmane and Snowfeather to make sure.
The three of them went through her bedroom, checking over everything carefully, not missing a detail. Finally Elsa gave a sigh of relief and sat down on her bed. Setting her mothers journal on the nightstand beside the bed. Elsa spoke, her head in her hands. "Why didn't you tell me before ?"
"Because we wanted to be sure the ruse would hold. And when it did hold for the desired time, we chose to tell you" Blackmane replied, somewhat harsh was her tone, yet it was a good reason. "I am sorry we had to do such a thing, Elsa, but it had to be done. The only way to learn what the Duke and Hans were planning was to infiltrate their realm for a year."
"With no word from us either, though we got many carrier doves ourselves from the Duke. We burned them all. And replied to none of them; save for that last one. About Arko district." Snowfeather replied
At the mention of Arko District Elsa perked up a bit and looked to Snowfeather "Arko District, you mean between the port and Roughwater districts ? We took it ?" Snowfeather nodded, "When ? Why was I not told ?" Elsa pressured
Snowfeather smiled. "While we were screwing around with Prince Hans at the Dukes place, when you came back here as planned when the Duke returned, we were taking Arko from the Templars, its librated now." Snowfeather explained the plan then to Elsa, not leaving out any details. Matthew had sent Elsa out of Arko due to the sheer number of Templars in the district alone. Which was why she had gone to... Snowfeather in the Marketplace District. While Elsa was with Snowfeather and the two of them went to Weselton to bring back Blackmane
Snowfeather said nothing of what the duke was planning, speaking then in Arabic as if swearing or the like, Blackmane replied in kind in a confused manner wondering what her sister meant by 'nothing is said; it might just be a ruse. Say anything about what the Duke said and Elsa wont go on her annual trip. She must go on this trip, otherwise her people will think something is wrong.' Blackmane reluctulantely agreed.
Elsa sighed and lowered her hands. "I don't get it, why ? Why lie to me ? Why wait until now to tell me the truth of who really went to Weselton and who you really are ?"
"You trust me, do you not ?" Blackmane asked. She knew that Elsa would kill her given the chance, but so far, Elsa had yet to see that need or chance to take down Blackmane. So all Elsa could do was nod in reply.
"I am sorry we had to lie to you Elsa, but it had to be done. It was the only way to ensure that the Duke would give us the information we wanted, but even after a year we do not know what they are planning, other then take you down and make it look like an accident." Snowfeather said.
"What do you suggest ?" Elsa said, she set her hands on her knees, "I'm open to offers and thoughts here. What do you have in mind, because I can't think of anything right now."
Blackmane and Snowfeather traded looks; It was now or never. Blackmane spoke first. "What we're about to tell you, cannot be told to anyone else." She said, Elsa looked up at her. What did she mean ? Blackmane continued "When I told you of the legend, how I knew of it. It was my doing that ensured your birth when Queen Marissa, your ancestor, was married to King Joseph; the Templars plotted to kill Queen Marissa, and so I stole into her chambers without being seen." Blackmane saw that she had Elsas undevided attention as she spoke.
"I slew the Templar as he was about to strike down your ancestor. Your ancestor, Queen Marissa did not trust me either, and asked me if I could be trusted. I gave the same answer that I gave you, if you do not trust me, strike me where I stand, and then bury me in a watery grave I said." Blackmane explained then how both Queen Marissa and King Joseph acted and wanted her to be part of the family. But she had tasks to attend to and had to decline the offer.
"When you sent the dagger out, when Matthew picked it up and sent it to me. It made me remember your ancestor." Blackmane then explained the very brief vision she had of Marissa at the throne on the day Blackmane had left Arendelle for home nearly four hundred years before.
Finally Elsa spoke up as she got back to her feet. "I think I understand now. What you did for my ancenstor, what you did here. You had to lie and cheat to get the job done, it is understandable I will understand that. But having to lie to me for a year of where you really were. That I cannot come to grips with at this time. Maybe tomorrow when I am more awake, but right now, there is just too much going on for me to think rightly." Elsa said.
"Well, actually, We're all needed for something important, Arko was just librated, and now we need to make sure it stays that way. Come on, lets do some recruiting around the librated districts. You may have to slay a few templars, so have your sword ready." Blackmane said, turning to leave. Only to halt fast as a icicle shot from Elsa's fingers and locked the door.
"Not until you explain to me exactly why you did this to me. Why you lied to me this past year." Elsa said getting to her feet. Blackmane knew the only way out was to tell the truth. But she was not here the last year, she kept her mouth shut as Elsa glared daggers at Snowfeather. "Once you explain it to me of why you did it, then we go to Arko and finish the libration."
At those words, Snowfeather explained everything carefully. Leaving out no details until Elsa was satisfied with her explination. When Elsa was satisfied with what Snowfeathe told her the ice on the door melted as she moved from the bed to the side table and picked up her mothers journal. Going to her desk she locked the journal inside with a snowflake lock. She turned back to the others and nodded, she was ready. They had some assassins to recruit.
Arendelle
Port District
A few minutes later
Elsa went with Snowfeather to the Port District while Blackmane returned to the headquarters building for the Assassin order. Moving through a few groups of people Snowfeather withdrew from a pocket a device of some form. "What is that ?" Elsa asked.
"Smoke bomb. Switch to eagle vision when I set this off, this will help us take down our enemies unseen." Snowfeather explained. She then handed a hidden blade to Elsa, "I think you need one of these." She said
Elsa smirked and produced her own, made of ice, something she had experimented with for a long time since Matthew took her back under his wing. Unseen on her arms until she willed them to appear, the twin ice blades were both sharp and deadly yet amazingly beautifully crafted. Snowfeather returned the smirk and placed the hidden blade in a pack. "I think I will be ok" Elsa replied.
"Alright, come on" Snowfeather said, they rounded a corner and came upon a group of templar soldiers harrassing a Arendelle citizen. Elsa held her hand up to keep Snowfeather from barging in. The young man the Templars were harrassing was innocent and Elsa felt that she should free him. So, she produced a pair of snowflakes, one in each hand, they looked like smaller versions of her sword. They were knives.
Elsa then stalked forwards, though she was in her queenly garb, the silvery green dress with ice highlights shimmered in the darkness as the streetlamps came on. Elsa moved forwards and easily slit the throat of the leader of the group of Templars. With their leader down, the other six split, three towards the queen, three towards the commoner they were originally harassasing. Within a minute the six were all cut down.
When the last templar fell the young man turned to Elsa and dropped to one knee, Elsa's snow knives disappeared as she held out a hand towards the man. "I am sorry to have drawn the eyes of our Queen to me with what I had done, I will repay the innkeeper sevenfold." The young man was apparently skimping out on paying for a meal and thought that the innkeeper that owned the place he had ate at sent for her to track him down.
Elsa reached down and pulled him to his feet. "Don't worry" She said, "Those were not men sent by the innkeeper. Here." Elsa produced a coin, "Pay back what you took, And then go to the marketplace, look for a woman named Blackmane, she will see to your needs." She felt Snowfeathers eyes on her as she spoke, the young man trembled as she held him. "Look, whatever happened for these men to corner you, the man you stole from did not send them after you. I've seen you before... haven't I ?" Elsa said
She then remembered the young thief clearly, the man had tried to steal from the castle, only to flee when spotted. The young man gulped hard and dropped to his knees, "I did not mean to cause trouble, I am unable to hold a job and thus had to resort to stealing just to survive. Please, don't hurt me your highness." He said trembling on the ground on his knees.
Elsa smiled and pulled the man back to his feet. "Relax, I wont hurt you, give the man you stole from that coin, and then go see Blackmane in the marketplace district. Lets put those stealing skills to proper use." Elsa said to the young man. The man nodded and after a brief bow of thanks he took off with the coin. Snowfeather never asked where Elsa had gotten the coin from. There were some secrets best left unsaid and unasked.
Instead Snowfeather stepped into view "Very good for the first recruit you've made. Normally recruits don't do the recruiting, and yet. Here you are, recruiting another into our ranks." Snowfeather said, Elsa smiled, "You did good, sparing his life, giving the thief the coin with which to pay for something he had taken. You did well in defending him also."
It was rare, Elsa stared at Snowfeather, the woman rarely praised anyone, let alone her! "I'm sorry, but, what are you saying ?" Elsa was confused over what Snowfeather meant, was she supposed to harm the young man she'd just saved the life of ? "Was I supposed to harm him ? Threaten him ? Advise him ? What was I supposed to do ?"
"What you did, was what you were supposed to do. Good job. You will make a fine assassin for sure. Now, let me get rid of these bodies, then we'll meet up with Lansing and Wolfe." Snowfeather said, the mere mention of Mark brought something of a smile to Elsas face, she liked the second class Assassin. Thankfully Snowfeather never saw the smile as it disappeared as quickly as it came. Quickly setting up the bodies into a funeral peir of sorts, Snowfeather threw some fire onto the deceased and within scant moments the seven dead templars were gone.
Elsa of course was spooked by the fire and flames used by Snowfeather, white, teal, even green fire was used to burn the bodies, however Snowfeather had pickpicked each before burning the bodies. Snowfeather turned to Elsa "Come on, lets get going, we still have to meet up with our fellow assassins." With that the two of them left the scene.
Arendelle
Arko District
One hour after full dark
When Elsa and Snowfeather arrived within the Arko District, the first thing the queen noticed was a dozen dead bodies, none of them her own people, but templars. She heard the sounds of fighting not far off still going on, and after trading looks with Snowfeather Elsa turned and took off in that direction.
On the northern end of the Arko District, Which was devided into north and south by way of the Bridge from the Castle to the Mainland. Elsa heard the sounds get louder as she got closer. Moving fast as she was able in her royal garb while barefoot was one thing entirely. She rounded a corner and saw Mark, and Matthew, cornered by a dozen or more Templars, each man jeering and trying to make a mark on both men.
They saw her come around the corner, but they never gave notice that Elsa was there. Matthew however flicked out his hand, as if throwing something, instead he flicked out frozen droplets of blood at the Templars, who easily batted aside the rocks without a care. But Matthew was trying to tell Elsa to use her powers. The Templars never looked behind when they had a enemy cornered.
Elsa caught the looks thrown her way and nodded stiffly, without a sound she flicked her wrist and a snowflake appeared, the largest snowflake Mark had ever seen. Tinking her fingernail against the center of the snowflake, Elsa shattered it, and blew the shattered points of the snowflake, sixteen of them in all, from her hand.
Each shard struck each templar perfectly in the neck, sending them all to the ground like sacks of weat. Stone dead. Elsa then made a handgun motion with her hand and blew on her fingertip as if blowing out smoke from a smoking gunbarrel. To Matthew she said "Miss me ?"
"One could assume so" Matthew replied. He disbanded his sword and stepped over the dead as Mark checked each over both for orders and money, and weapons. Two of the templars gave off heavy duty cash, the rest did not, only one had medical supplies on him. And from what Mark could see, Elsa did not need any throwing knives. "What kept you ?"
"Duke of Weselton" Elsa replied calmly. She said nothing of why exactly. At leat until Matthew managed to corner her briefly inside the den when she'd explain, but at that moment they were more focused on clearing out some more groups of Templar holdouts before moving towards the den. It was interesting in a way; Elsa in her full beautiful queenly garb, the dress she herself had made seven years before. Killing templars left and right as needed, but always from a distence.
When they finally got back to the Arko District Den, Matthew turned to Elsa, "I thought you had cut off all trade ties with Weselton. What happened."
"We did cut ties with Weselton." Elsa said, then she sighed, should she tell her mentor or no ? "But you remember, Snowfeather went there last year. We had to pick her up" Elsa said,
"I remember Snowfeather going, but picking her up ?" Matthew said. "When did this occur ?"
"Blackmane activated a transport spell thing. Took me with her. Once on the other side Snowfeather explained everything she had learned, but soon as I got back I found one of Hans brothers, Henri, snooping about in my room, I snuck up on him and knocked him out, picked his pockets, and then froze him over in ice before sending him back through the transport thing" Elsa explained. But she was keeping stuff from them, and Mark could sense it.
Seeing his cue as Matthew looked at Elsa sternly, as if she were holding information back on him. Mark spoke up. "And was anything amiss in your room ? Anything that should not be there ?"
"If you mean traps then no, Snowfeather, Blackmane and I searched through the room carefully before asertaining that Henri was not able to set up anything. But the letter and orders he had on him however directly from Prince Hans. Make it look like an accident that took my life." Esla said
"Alright another question, since you seem to be holding back something. Something that you are not telling us exactly." Mark hated doing it but with Matthew there and no doubt about to grill Elsa as if she were hamburger to begin with. Mark took over the questions. "Why a year ? Snowfeather went to Weselton yes, but why did you go ? What purpose was that for you ?"
Torn between keeping a dire secret and telling her mentor the truth Elsa chose to tell the truth over getting whacked solid. Matthew tended to break something when she lied or held back information. So she explained everything that Snowfeather and Blackmane had told her, though before she said anything she made them both swear that they'd tell no-one else.
Through it all Matthew was silent, for the first time in his life with Elsa he let her do all the talking, even Mark was quiet at the time as well, which meant trouble. Mark was already feeling guilty of grilling Elsa, but it had to be done. The young queen looked quite uncomfortable as ice was growing out from her feet as she explained her doings. Even though she felt she was breaking Snowfeathers trust, it was for the best. She saw Snowfeather out of the corner of her eye nodding. Apparently Snowfeather approved of her telling Matthew and Mark what was going on.
Elsa explained everything she could remember clearly, leaving nothing out, including her discovery of Henri snooping in her room and her knocking him out from behind, finding his orders and then freezing his body in ice before sending him back through the transport spell thing.
But she could see that the more she explained the more Mark and Matthew wanted to know more, it made her ever the more nervous that she was treading on thin ice. Someone must have noticed as suddenly there was an explosion of purple smoke in their midst and Elsa felt a firm hand on her pulling her away. Within a minute Elsa was outside with Blackmane.
Seeing who she was with after getting blinded by the smoke, Elsa was scared. "Blackmane, I'm sorry. I can't not tell the truth to Matthew, my teacher. You know that."
"I understand" Blackmane said, "It is alright. Everything you told to Matthew and Mark you were told for a reason. Do not worry, it was nothing important to us, you did not tell of what Snowfeather and I truly did. You let them believe that I took you to Weselton. And that is what counts." Blackmane said, she had a smile on her face.
Elsa smiled in return. "Thank you Blackmane, for your help." She said.
"Think nothing of it, Elsa, it is what we do. We work in the dark to serve the light, we are assassins. And you are a Queen." Blackmane said
"I am both queen and assassin, I can work both ways to get my kingdom back." Elsa replied, Blackmane smiled. "Besides, with you and the others teaching me the arts, as Matthew calls them, I can learn to also protect myself as well as Anna."
"I do not think you need to worry about Anna, she can protect herself quite well from what I hear of her venture to Blackrock." Blackmane said, Elsa smiled as the two started walking along the lane towards the Bridge to the Marketplace district and then to the castle gates from there. "From what I understand, you refused to let her go on the trip, until it was too late to stop her from leaving. Is this correct ?"
"Yes" Elsa said as they walked. Stepping onto the bridge steps Elsa halted, "Anna only wanted to help me, and to do so she went to find what she could, she brought back a device, a ball of some sort, said it activated at her touch. Called her Queen Idun, my mothers name." Elsa explained the device, how it looked and the lines it held.
Blackmane nodded "Ah" She said softly, "So your parents possessed a Piece of Eden ? Wise of your mother to hide it at Blackrock. I am quite surprised that the Wolf Queen did not hear of such movements going on in her realm."
Elsa looked at Blackmane confused. "The Wolf Queen ?" She had heard of the legends. But if she were truly around.
"A mere story most likely. But should you find out anything, look deeper into it. Perhaps then we shall know what is going on at Blackrock. If it is merely a story, or the truth. Either one." Blackmane said. "In the meantime, it is best you get some sleep. Dawn breaks early tomorrow for Assassins, and what sleep we can get is a gift." With that the Queen and Assassin parted ways for that night.
Elsa thought carefully on what Blackmane said, Wolf Queen, a story, or the truth ? And if a story, why had she never heard of it ? And if it were the truth, even then, why had she never heard of it ? With that on her mind Elsa walked back to the castle, for the evening with the gates wide open as always, Elsa spotted briefly a faint red outline of a enemy soldier before it faded quickly. Confused she merely went past the two soldiers as both men stood guard at the gates.
Elsa went straight to her room and placed a snowflake lock on the door. Locking herself in. She never saw the massive eagle alight outside her north window. Going to the desk she saw her mothers journal. It was opened to a page addressed to her. Elsa smiled, lately she'd been finding many of her mothers journals, Most of them in the library, kept there and all of them addressed to either her, or to Anna. But Anna never read the ones addressed to her.
It was scary to think of what her mother might have told Anna. Hence why Anna refused to read the journals addressed to her. Elsa however read everything addressed to her. But her mother was scared of splitting them apart as children, scared for what it might bode for the future. But Elsa knew it was for the best, their parents had wanted them to be the best girls they could, and then they perished at sea. And according to Matthew, her mother was slain by pirates two days before the storm that destroyed the ship.
Elsa steeled herself against the memory, Her parents loved her, that much she knew, and she never forgot them either. She knew that her sister even ment well, Matthew never asked any questions about the Piece of Eden that Anna had brought back the year before. That made her slightly happier.
Arko District Bridge
At that same moment
Blackmane slowly walked back to the district den. Thinking over everything Elsa had told her, everything said told a story and Blackmane knew in her heart that Elsa was keeping information from her, or just did not know enough to tell everything she thought. But her mentioning to the queen of the Wolf Queen and Elsa's complete confusion of such a person made her wonder exactly what was going on with the Queen and her family history.
On that note Blackmane turned to a bookshop, renovated it, and went inside to look through their history section carefully. Looking for information of the royal family tree of Arendelle itself. As she searched she found several books related to the Wolf Queen. Of course each was written up in the years well before her first time there. Which meant problems. Someone had erased all traces of the Wolf Queen from Arendelles history. And only scant bookstores had it in their history books.
Seeing who she was the shop keeper let her take the books to the den to research some more. Saying that he'd shop around the kingdom to get more, Blackmane gave him the adress of the Marketplace District den to deliver the books there before leaving the shop. She had her face in a book as she stepped from the shop and deftly missed groups of folk as they moved around the area.
She returned to the Arko District den. Only to find Mark and Matthew arguing about something. Or rather, someone. In Marks stance, Blackmane saw something of guilt for grilling Elsa for information, she could see it clearly. Matthew however, she was unable to read.