"We were looking at it from the opposite point of view. Instead of looking for a connection with the past, we had to look for a connection with the present."
"Anna!" Of course!"
"That's it." Astrid turned to face the wall of the Ahtohallan. "I've been going back in time and I've managed to find the moment when the spirit contacted your sister."
Pictures on the wall showed Anna in her room, sitting on the floor and hugging her knees. Elsa felt her heart contract a little.
"From here on, it's almost impossible for me to track it down and see where or who it's in."
"Don't worry," Elsa replied without taking her eyes off Anna. "I can see it."
There it was, as before, that black aura surrounding her sister.
"Let's get down to business," Elsa said, looking away from her and tying her hair into a discreet ponytail. "Let's go back in history as much as we can to see if we find something to help us fight it. If you lose sight of it or are not sure where it has gotten, let me know so I can help you find that bastard again."
Astrid smiled at her and Fury moved to the Viking's side without missing a beat. Surprisingly, the dragon was the best dealing with the Ahtohallan.
"Hold on a little longer, Hiccup," Astrid told herself, feeling that they were finally moving forward.
"Alright, let's put it all together and see if we can make any sense of this," Astrid said, rubbing her forehead.
The three of them had dedicated themselves to pulling the thread of the present, going deeper and deeper into the past. They had been tracking the spirit through history, but still had not found a clear timeline, since it was difficult to know exactly when each fragment found was.
With a gesture from the Viking woman, the images swirled on the wall and showed a girl of about ten years old, with silver hair, trying to stop a large adult in a strange uniform as he crossed without difficulty through a market full of people.
"No Please! It was not his fault! Punish me instead!"
The adult got rid of the girl with a slap without even stopping and this made them able to see him dragging another boy by her arm, a little older than her and with the same hair color as hers. The boy was trying desperately to get away from that huge hand, without succeeding.
"Ayn! Get out of here!" The boy yelled at the girl, who had been thrown on the ground.
"No!" She got up, with an effort, and trudged toward him again. "You are my brother! And it was my fault!"
The man dragged the boy to an elevated area in the middle of the street. There, another man dressed in the same uniform, although much less large than the first, was sitting waiting for them.
"What do we have here?"
"A petty thief."
"No Please! My sister and I are hungry! And it was only an apple! Please! Piety!"
"I will go for the saber," said the man, rising quietly and ignoring the crying of the child.
People were beginning to gather around them. Ayn slipped between the legs of the crowd until she reached the front row, where she watched in horror as the burly man forced her brother to stretch his arm on top of some kind of wooden block.
"Evest!" She screamed, putting her hands to her mouth, but her scream was drowned out by the noise of the crowd.
The other man appeared with a saber in hand and, ignoring everything else, approached the boy, who was still crying and imploring.
"If you move, it will be worse," said the man slowly.
He brought the weapon closer and placed it on top of Evest's index finger carefully. The blade gave him a small cut with just a touch.
"You got lucky. I just sharpened it."
The boy was shaking, terrified, but he couldn't look away.
"On three. One..."
And, without warning, he squeezed the saber tightly on the boy's finger, separating it from his body forever.
In the audience, Ayn kept screaming with all of her might.
The portly guard then seized the boy, who was writhing in pain, and forced him to look at him.
"Keep in mind that next time it will be the whole hand."
After that, he simply threw him off the platform to the ground, getting rid of him.
"I think we should move on from here to this one," Elsa said, waving her hand.
The images changed and showed Evest and Ayn again, this time in an alley. It was night and Ayn slept curled up in a corner, wrapped only with her arms. Evest hugged his legs as he cried silently. His hand, awkwardly bandaged in dirty rags, ached terribly. He was staring blankly though a small flame of fury shone in them.
Without the boy noticing, a tiny shadow, barely a point of darkness, was born slowly beside him. The shadow floated gently, as if watching Evest, for a few moments. Then it moved a little closer to him and the boy, suddenly, was startled.
"Who has said that?" He whispered, looking around confused.
Discovering the shadow, Evest looked at it between fear and wonder. Her face changed expression over and over again, as if he were silently conversing with that being. After a while, his face twitched and tears welled up in his eyes again. The boy nodded a couple of times and the shadow crept into his chest, heart level. Evest fell asleep immediately.
The next morning he noticed that his hand didn't hurt. Carefully he removed the bandage and couldn't suppress a cry of surprise.
"What happens?" Ayn said, moving closer.
Evest held out his hand to show her a tiny appendage that had grown in his hand.
"What? How?"
"I—I do not know..."
Evest looked away uncomfortably.
"Ok, what else do we have?" Astrid said. "Fury, you had something else from Evest out there, right?"
The dragon nodded and shook her muzzle. The images changed again, showing Evest and Ayn, as adults, hugging. It was night and they were in the middle of a forest, illuminated by a bright full moon. She was crying inconsolably. Evest body was full of arrows and wounds, and he was barely standing. He was missing several fingers from one of his hands, which was bleeding profusely.
"I am sorry, Ayn... I am so sorry I did not tell you before," he said, barely forcefully. "By the time I wanted to do it, it was too late. I was unable to control it..."
She shook her head, trembling.
"What was that thing?" She asked him.
"Actually, I do not have an idea."
His legs gave out and he fell to the ground.
"Evest!"
He gently stroked her face.
"Listen to me, Ayn. Do not tell anyone about what you saw today. They would accuse you of sorcery and execute you. The best you can do is forget all and move on."
He coughed heavily and a trickle of blood came out of his mouth.
Worried, she tried to lift him up a little to help him breathe easier, but he forced her to look at him again, taking her chin tenderly.
"Promise me!"
She bit her lip.
"I promise. But please do not leave me..."
He smiled, very weak, and dropped down.
"At least we have managed to finish off those bastards and gain control of the kingdom..."
She nodded, laughing, as tears rolled down her cheeks.
"We gave them a good beating."
He smirked.
"Move on, little sister... I... love you..."
His hand fell limp to the ground and the light in his eyes faded, abandoning himself to eternal rest.
"Great, we almost have it!" Said the Viking, ignoring the emotionality of the scene they had just witnessed. "Let's go back a little further."
She waved her hands and the Ahtohallan showed them the two brothers, slightly younger, inside a tent. They both wore armor. She carried a stout bow at her back and he carried a sword at her waist.
"You are being weird lately, Evest..."
"Ayn, don't start—"
"No! I know something is wrong with you! Is it because of the pressure to lead the revolution? Are you afraid we won't get it?"
"No! Of course not!"
"So what?"
"It is nothing..."
"Come on!"
She stood with her arms crossed, waiting for an answer, but he just ignored her and focused on reviewing a map on a makeshift table. Ayn sighed, disappointed.
"Sometimes I feel like you are not yourself... since your finger finished to grown," she said sadly, looking at the hand of her brother, wrapped in a discreet glove.
He waved his hand, not even looking at her. She clenched her fists.
"I leave you to continue speaking alone... commander."
"I think you've gone a bit far," Elsa said, grimacing.
Astrid rubbed her head with a frown.
Fury moved her paw slightly and the images changed. They were in the woods again, though only Evest was visible, pacing impatiently from one place to another. He carried a paper in his hand that he read again before furiously crumpling it and tossing it aside.
A noise was heard in the undergrowth.
"Finally!" He said.
Ayn came out from behind a tree, pointing her bow at Evest.
"What are you doing?" He asked.
In response, she shot her brother's leg.
"Hey!" He complained, barely noticing the arrow. "What is this?"
Ayn had already loaded her bow and fired again. This time the arrow hit him in the chest. She was sure she had punctured a lung. She gritted her teeth, trying to hold back tears, and recharged her bow.
"Ok..." he said. "I see you have not made me come to talk."
Evest tore the arrows barely blinking and drew his sword. Ayn managed to hit him two more times before he reached her. He threw several thrusts at her, but Ayn, used to battle, repelled them easily enough and struck him hard on the head with her bow.
"If you were my brother, you would know that I have always been a better fighter than you," she said.
Evest grunted from the ground.
"You know your brother is here too, right? If you kill me, you will kill him as well."
Ayn, with her bow already drawn, hesitated for a moment, and Evest seized the opportunity to get up, leaning on one hand and kicking her sister hard on her side. She cursed to herself for her carelessness and she tried to get up as fast as she could, but it wasn't enough. Her brother straddled her and punched her in the face, leaving her dizzy. She felt his hands searching for her neck and she tried to avoid it while the world spun around and around.
"Evest!" She said, breathing heavily. "If it is true that you are in there... please forgive me! I am very sorry for everything that happened!"
After those words, it was Evest who stopped for a moment. Ayn didn't think twice and, drawing a dagger that she wore on her belt, she sliced off several fingers from his hand, including that false finger that should never have grown again. Evest howled, grabbing his hand and backing away. Ayn leaped to her feet and grasped her bow again, loading a new projectile into it. She pointed at her brother and saw a strange human-like shadow appearing next to him, emerging from Evest's body. Surprised and scared, she shot the thing, but the arrow just went through it.
"Ayn?" Evest said in a small voice. "It is you?"
She burst into tears. It was her brother, the real one.
"Run! You cannot face it!"
But now that she had finally gotten him back she wasn't pretending to leave him behind. She loaded a new arrow and struggled to aim through the tears that fell nonstop. The shadow, knowing itself invincible, advanced towards her slowly. She fired and, this time, the arrow struck the shadow's chest, producing a brilliant flash and drawing a silent howl from the being.
The two were taken aback, stopping for a moment. Afterward, she hastily reloaded her bow, but by the time she was ready to shoot the shadow had fled deep into the forest, lost in the darkness.
Ayn fell to her knees, trembling, and walked over to her brother.
"What just happened?" Elsa said. "How she managed to harm the spirit?"
"Hiccup!" Astrid exclaimed. "He knew it!"
Fury and Elsa looked questioningly at the Viking, who showed them what she had seen a few hours before. Also, to her reassurance, this time she could see Hiccup in chains again, and with a bandage on his head. He was alive! Astrid was overjoyed with happiness and she felt her strength renewing, motivating her to keep going.
"Alright, so we know that the spirit can grow amputated limbs and that they all seem to be related to some traumatic event in the past. In Evest's case it was his finger, and in Toothless's, his tail."
"And besides, there must be some kind of resentment or something related to that," Astrid pointed out. "Both Evest and Toothless reacted to Ayn and Hiccup's apologies, which were the cause of their missing limbs."
"Yes, but... what about Anna? She hasn't any missing part of her."
"Perhaps there can be another type of materialization?" The Viking replied, shrugging. "D'you remember seeing something out of place when you saw her?"
Elsa tried to search in her memories for something that didn't fit with Anna.
"The crown!" She exclaimed.
So, using the Ahtohallan magic she showed them how Anna wore her crown even with her pajamas.
"The crown..." she repeated, more slowly, discouraged.
"Hey, what's up?"
Elsa, inattentive, devoted herself to observing Anna's past, discovering all the problems her sister had had to deal with, how she had built up stress, how she had argued over and over with Kristoff, how she had been feeling more and more lonely, and how, unable to bear it any longer, she had succumbed to the whispers of the shadow.
"It was all my fault..."
"What are you talking about? How will it be your fault?"
"Anna wears that crown for me. I delegated the responsibility of the kingdom to her and I couldn't be with her, even though she needed me..."
"You've had your problems too."
"But..."
Elsa knew Astrid was right, but still, she couldn't help feeling that pang of guilt. She bit her lip not knowing what to answer.
Fury walked over to Elsa and gave her a gentle push with her head. Elsa thanked her for her gesture with a caress on her neck.
"We'll get them all back," Astrid said. "In addition, this isn't about looking for culprits, but about finding solutions. We already know more or less how to free them from the influence of the spirit. Now we just have to find out how Ayn did it to harm it."
Elsa took a deep breath and shook her head.
"You're right," she said more animatedly. "Come on, let's check it out again."