Rifiuto: Non Miriena
A/N: I know, I know, it sounds far fetched, doesn't it? Well, look at it this way- we know very little about Iduna before she came to Arendelle; we know she was part of the Northuldra tribe, had a special relationship with the wind spirit, and saved Agnarr before the mist fell.
In theory, we could look at Yelena and Iduna being related, especially if Yelena was older than Iduna at the time the mist fell and cut off the forest. She may be old, but she is not ancient, probably early to mid fifties at most, which, if we go by Zani's timeline, then Iduna was only about thirty-eight when she died, meaning she would have been born in 1803, making her ten when she and Agnarr meet (also based off the deleted scene from Frozen II). So she would have had Elsa at around nineteen, in 1822, and I'm sure she and Agnarr would have married probably a year or two before that (as was exceedingly common in those times), because Elsa was 24 (going on 25) in Frozen II, and this is set two years after, making her 26 going on 27, 1849.
Zani is basing this off of Iduna being born in 1803, and Yelena in 1797, meaning for this story, Yelena would have been six when Iduna was born, sixteen when the mist fell and Iduna disappeared, forty-four when Iduna died, and fifty in Frozen II, making her fifty-two for this story. As for Honeymaren and Ryder, Zani has Honeymaren and Elsa at the same age (25 (Honeymaren) and 24 going on 25 (Elsa)) in Frozen II, 27 and 26 going on 27, respectfully) in this story, with Ryder two years younger, so twenty-five in this story, and twenty-three in Frozen II. Again, this is all so it fits into Zani's story.
Written: 2019 - Licia
Hans looked up to see Elsa standing before them, her mother's shawl around her shoulders, hair tousled from the wind, eyes wide in surprise because of what she'd walked in on. Yelena winced as she realized that she'd never thought to tell Elsa, and this was the last way she wanted to young woman to find out. A range of emotions flitted across Elsa's features, her big, expressive blue eyes- so like Iduna's, Yelena thought- filled to the brim with shock, pain and surprise, tears misting on her lashes.
"Elsa, it's not-" Honeymaren reached for the girl, but the blonde held out a hand, her gaze never leaving Yelena's.
"What... what do you mean I'm your niece? What do you mean that my mother is your sister?"
Yelena lifted her chin, meeting the younger woman's gaze. "You are my niece, Spirit. Iduna was my younger sister; our father was the chief, our grandfather was the chief who was murdered by King Runeard, in the act that caused the spirits to turn on us and curse the forest. Iduna saved your father, and got them both out before the mist fell-"
Elsa held up a hand, stopping the older woman. She didn't want to hear it. She didn't believe it. She knew that her mother had been Princess of the Northuldra, because she had been the granddaughter of the chief that had been murdered that long ago day, but she only knew that because Yelena had told her, not long after she returned to the tribe after abdicating, that her her mother's family were essentially royalty, because they were the oldest family of the Northuldra, and had been gifted the chiefdom at the start of man.
So, either way she sliced it, Elsa was a royal.
Now, though, she wasn't even sure she could true what Yelena told her ever again.
A moment passed, before she glanced up at the chief. "Why didn't you think to tell me after I first returned to the tribe, after the dam fell? After I abdicated for Anna? After I-" She stopped, and Hans started. Wait a minute, Elsa had abdicated? Well, that explained why she was no longer in Arendelle.
"I was going to, once you had gotten settled and adjusted to your new role-"
"It's been two years, Yelena! You couldn't have thought to have told me at some point in the last two years?"
The once smooth ice the children had been playing on began to crack, the wind began to pick up, but it wasn't the wind spirit; it was Elsa as her temper began to flare. The children scampered to their parents, ducking into huts and peeking out; everything fell silent. Elsa's gaze locked on Yelena, who moved away from Ryder, Hans and Honeymaren, stepping towards Elsa, who backed up. She could feel the frost begin to slide over her hands and along her skin; the temperature within the camp began to drop, and soon everyone could see their breath. Bruni hid in the coals of the cooking fire, the only reason the fire itself had not extinguished with the wind and drop in temperature. He poked his head out, watching.
"Spirit-" Elsa shook her head, covering her ears. "Elsa!"
The blonde looked up, blue eyes narrowing at the woman. "You knew. You knew all this time, about my mother, but every time I asked, you always said you-" She let out a groan of frustration. "That you had never met her, that you had no affiliation with her, even though you lived within the same tribe! That you only knew stories of the Northuldrian princess who had disappeared the day the mist fell! And you questioned, two and a half years ago why Arendelle was rewarded with a magical queen! It was because of her, Yelena! My mother! She saved my father- saved her enemy! And I was the reward for her bravery, her selflessness! Yet every time I asked to know about her, you shut me out! You lied, and told me you knew nothing! I was the heir of two kingdoms, but no one ever thought to tell me!"
She turned, storming through the camp, determined to leave and return to Ahtohallan, to be as far away from everyone as humanly possible right now; first Anna and her bipolar insanity-written letter, her silent banning of Elsa from the sisters' birth kingdom and her people's lives... and now... this? This... betrayal by the chief of the Northuldra, the woman who was now claiming to be her aunt, that they were related... the winds began picking up, snow beginning to swirl around her; for the Northuldra, it was the first time they had ever witnessed Elsa's powers reacting to hurt and anger; for Hans, it brought back memories of Elsa's coronation and the fear that had built up the storm on the fjord.
Yelena sighed, seeing the tears sliding down Elsa's cheeks, but unable to comfort her for the strength of the wind almost forcing her to stay away. "It wasn't my place, Spirit, Iduna should have told you-"
The Snow Queen turned back at the entrance to the camp; blue eyes blazed with anger and pain, as snow whipped around her, engulfing the camp in a blizzard, temperatures biting cold, but not fatal. The Northuldra knew nature, understood it, and for them, Elsa was just an extension of that- her being the Fifth Spirit and all.
Seated on the bench between the siblings, Hans turned to Honeymaren. "Why does she call Elsa 'Spirit'?
The young woman thought a moment, glancing from Yelena to Elsa and then back to Hans. She sighed, and opened her mouth to speak, but never got the chance, as the wind picked up and the temperature dropped further; Elsa's voice then broke through the raging wind.
"Iduna never said anything about her heritage, other than that lullaby! Iduna gave me her shawl when I turned sixteen!" She choked on a sob. "My mother didn't get to tell me anything about her past because she and my father drowned on the ship that was taking them through the Dark Sea, towards Ahtohallan, so they could find answers about me!" She screamed, tears flowing freely down her cheeks.
I want to know what happened to them. Her own voice from that long ago day echoed on the winds; within the storm, she could see her parents' last moments, as she had that day on the ship when she'd used her magic to pull the droplets of water from the rotting wood- except these were different, it was them- not water reworked into the last memory of them- them, Iduna and Agnarr, her mother and father, Mama and Papa, the two people she loved most in the world, the two most important people in her life, looking as flesh and blood as she herself; she could see her mother's dark hair, pulled back into a crown braid, the crown she wore still tucked within her hair, the dress a dark purple with the familiar rosemåling design that was so significant of Arendelle.
The last memory she had of her parents hadn't been of their arms tight around her in a warm, protective hug, but of her curtsying to them before they left. She knew that Anna had slid past her door, and rolled her eyes, unaware that her beloved older sister was free of the heavy wooden door of her room, waiting downstairs to tell their parents goodbye, too afraid to be in the same room as her little sister.
"Do you have to go?"
"You'll be fine, Elsa."
Father, looking dashing as ever, his piercing blue eyes- eyes she had inherited- warm and loving, his voice deep and gentle, and Mother, silent but tender by his side. Though she hadn't hugged them as Anna probably had, Iduna had gone to her oldest before they'd boarded the ship, resting a gentle hand against her daughter's cheek, even as the eighteen-year-old had tried to pull back. But the queen had held firm, eventually pressing both her palms to her daughter's cheeks, thumbs stroking the apples as she'd stared into her beloved daughter's eyes.
"You are the light of my life, the light of Arendelle. You could never harm us, never. Because your heart is filled with so much love to give. And if you ever fear that you will, remember that loves thaws. And that Papa and I love you more than life itself. Love will thaw your fear, and even when you fear it won't, believe that it will, because Papa and I will always be here to catch you when you fall. I love you, Gitta, my darling."
It was why the words had wrung so loudly in her head that day on the fjord; they were her mother's words; Iduna's words. She looked back up at the couple before her; her father clutching tightly to her mother as she clung to him, burying her face in his chest as the waters crashed over the ship, washing them out to sea, ending their lives, and stealing them away from their beloved daughters.
"Are you sure we're doing the right thing?"
"We have to know the truth, Iduna!"
"Ahtohallan has to be the source of her magic!"
"We keep going, for Elsa!"
"The waves are too high!"
"Iduna!"
"Agnarr!"
She choked on a sob, wrapping her arms around herself and curling inward. "That shipwreck was my fault! They were look for answers about me, Yelena! I'm responsible for their deaths! If I had never been born with these... these powers... this... this curse... they would still be alive! My mother would still be alive!"
"Spirit-" Yelena stopped, deciding to try a different tactic. Her voice was soft, as she cautiously moved towards the young woman. "You are not responsible for Iduna's choices, Elsa."
"No, just their deaths!" The blonde screamed, meeting Yelena's eyes, and everyone saw now that despite her discovery that she was the Fifth Spirit, despite the two years she'd been in the forest, her parents' drownings still weighed heavily upon her mind, still filled her with guilt. And Yelena revealing that Iduna was actually her sister had just added insult to injury, magnifying the guilt Elsa felt, for Iduna's death had stolen her not just from her daughters, and the country she ruled over, but her tribe, and her sister- a fact Elsa had never known, for she had thought for years that Anna was the only family she had.
"They left because of me! They were afraid of me! They wanted to find the answers to me and my magic!" She choked on a sob. "They were going to find something to take away my magic!" Everyone jolted; somewhere, in Elsa's clouded, guilt-ridden, betrayed thinking, the fact that they were going to Ahtohallan to find the answers to her magic, and the possibility that they wanted to take away her magic, the very thing that made her so uniquely special, became jumbled, working itself into one tangled, nonsensical thought that, in that moment, with the revelation of Yelena's connection to her mother, rang true within her head.
But it was a thought that was furthest from the truth.
"They thought I was a monster! If it wasn't for me... if they'd never had me... they'd still be alive..." She shook her head. "And now... now you tell me that... that my mother was your sister? You knew who she was, and you know who I am, and you never... never thought to pull me aside one afternoon and... tell me the truth? To tell me that I'm not alone, that not all of my family is gone?" When she looked up, Yelena was before her, somehow braving the blizzard that surrounded the camp, reaching out to take her hand. "No!"