Dalaran
Anna felt the floor rise up underneath her feet as the violet energy around her body faded. Her stomach flipped one more time and she leaned over, vomiting on what looked like a nearby patch of grass just outside whatever doorway she had appeared in. She turned her head to see Elsa finishing weaving the spell, her mother next to her, still frozen in ice.
Anna caught her bearings; they were just inside the doorway of some kind of building, its walls a violet color with crystals sparkling around the door frame. While she braced herself against the door, she watched a grey-haired woman in long, elaborate purple and gold robes run up to whatever building they were in, a staff in her hand with a blue crystal on the end of it. Whoever the woman was, she was clearly furious, and Anna was tempted to stand in her way to protect her sister, had she not been so dizzy and ill.
"Apprentice Jansen!" the woman shouted harshly. "How dare you teleport to Dalaran without express perm-"
The woman stopped in her tracks as she saw the frozen figure of Iduna encased in ice, bloodstains on Iduna's clothing, the bandit's knife still visible in her back. The righteous anger in her face boiled away instantly. A boy, dressed similarly, followed just behind the woman, and nearly ran into her when she whirled around. "Page, tell Oliserra we will be arriving with wounded and to prepare the infirmary immediately," she commanded. The boy turned and ran back out the door.
Elsa fell to her knees on the hard crystal floor, tears brimming in her eyes. "Please… please forgive me, Archmage Elandra. I… I had no choice. My mother was grievously wounded in an attack and I didn't know where else I could go before I ran out of mana, before my magic depleted. I'm so sorry," she cried. She knew the penalties for violating the rules, particularly around teleportation, were severe, up to and including being expelled from the Kirin Tor.
Archmage Elandra's expression softened. "We will… discuss the breach in protocol later, my apprentice. Let us give aid to your wounded mother first. Now, let me see what you've done here." She stepped forward and laid her hands on the block of ice, closing her eyes and murmuring softly to herself as she examined Elsa's spell, channeling her own power to reinforce it. Elandra clucked her tongue. "This is very nicely done, Apprentice. Especially considering no one has taught you this spell yet. It would seem your affinity for frost magic continues to grow. Let's get your mother to the infirmary, shall we?" The archmage traced runic patterns with her fingers, soft violet sparkles dancing in the air as the block of ice containing Iduna levitated off the floor and floated slowly to the door.
Elsa breathed a sigh of relief that she wasn't excommunicated on the spot, then grabbed Anna's hand and followed the Archmage and Iduna's body as they made their way through the streets of Dalaran towards the infirmary in the Magus Commerce Exchange. Anna looked around in wonder at the magical city as she tried to keep pace with her sister and her teacher, occasionally stumbling at the unusual sights and sounds.
A few minutes later, they walked into First to Your Aid, the Dalaran infirmary where a beautiful High Elf in white and purple robes with waist-length flowing blonde hair greeted them. "Elandra, what have you brought me today?" the elf asked, her voice musical and soothing with a hint of laughter in it.
Elandra smiled. "Master Oliserra. I've brought a gravely injured woman and her…" she looked at Elsa questioningly.
"Daughters."
"Her daughters. See what you can do for them?" Elandra finished, waving her fingers and levitating the block of ice containing Iduna's body into the center of the room.
Oliserra smiled more broadly. "Of course. Thankfully it's rather quiet now. Matron Alesso should be along shortly to help with the healing as well. Ah, here she is now."
Another High Elf, dressed in flowing black and azure robes, strode in the door of the infirmary with a commanding presence. The sisters stepped back, overwhelmed at the amount of attention Iduna was receiving. Anna hugged Elsa, holding her by the elbow as relief washed over her.
"Alesso, thank you for coming," Oliserra bowed and motioned towards Iduna. "This woman has been grievously injured but is ice blocked. Can you heal her?"
Alesso nodded her head, closed her eyes, and reached one hand to the sky. Golden light suffused her form and she reached out with the other hand, her palm facing Iduna. The same golden light poured from her hand like a spotlight, penetrating the ice block and illuminating Iduna from within. "Archmage, to complete the healing, we will need to remove the blade. Can you fade the ice away please?"
Elandra touched the ice block and the ice turned to soft snowflakes as it floated into nothingness. Elsa felt a small relief as the spell stopped drawing on her magic, her knees weakening. With another infusion of the light from Alesso, the ugly blade expelled itself from Iduna's body with a clatter on the floor as the wound sealed. Oliserra, Elsa, and Anna caught Iduna's limp body and laid her down on one of the cots.
With a small flourish, Alesso took her leave, her priestly healing done. Oliserra observed Iduna's vitals, measuring the shallowness of her breath and taking her pulse. "Which of you has responsibility for this woman?" she asked kindly.
Elsa and Anna looked at each other before Anna spoke. "I suppose I do, since I live with her most of the time. How can I help?"
"She was quite badly hurt; while the Light has worked its wonders, it has left her quite exhausted. I also sense something else amiss here as well, as though the healing is not complete. I recommend that she spend the night, and possibly the next day here, just to be sure. Do you have accommodations nearby?" Oliserra asked.
Elsa stepped forward. "Yes, I'm an apprentice here. Anna can stay with me in my dormitory for the time being." She completely missed Anna's small smirk behind her back.
"Very good. Well, we should let your mother rest. Leave your dormitory number on the scroll at the door and I'll send along a novice to fetch you when she wakes?" Oliserra gestured.
"Thank- thank you so much!" Anna gushed. "I would never have been able to do any of this myself. I- we- we're both so grateful, to all of you," she said, her eyes wet, as she looked to her sister, Oliserra, and Elandra.
"Come, Apprentice Jansen, and bring…?" Elandra looked quizzically at Anna.
"Anna. Anna Jansen. I'm Elsa's sister," she said, blushing a bit at realizing that she was restating the obvious.
Elandra softly smiled at Anna's fumbling. "Very well, Miss Anna Jansen. Come along. We'll get you settled into your accommodations while I have a word with my apprentice."
The three women walked down the streets of Dalaran as they headed towards the dormitories in Runeweaver Square, passing creatures and sights that had Anna goosenecking every so often.
"So, Apprentice Jansen…" Elandra began, glancing at Elsa as they navigated the passersby on the streets.
Elsa bowed her head, knowing she deserved a substantial dressing-down. "I'm sorry, Archmage. I know the rules, that apprentices may never teleport or portal without express permission from their masters. I- I didn't know what else to do. From my reading, an Ice Block can only hold for so long before it breaks."
Elandra nodded her head. "You do your studies credit, Apprentice. And your use of a teleport was not without merit, given the circumstances. I would have done the same, in a question between rules and the life of someone I loved. What I am more interested in is how you, despite your youth and the relatively short time you've been here, have learned Ice Block at all. That is quite a complicated spell, mainly because of how easily mistakes happen to the caster. I've lost track of the number of adepts I've had to thaw over the decades. We rarely teach it except to Battle Mages because of its limited utility in daily life. To have an apprentice cast it at all, much less on someone else, is unheard of."
Elsa recounted the moment when she saw her mother, when her heart stopped. Time froze and in that brief space, she heard the song and saw the runes in her mind. She described what happened to Archmage Elandra, who slowed her walking pace as she digested the information.
"Tell me, Apprentice. Did you merely feel like time had stopped, or did time actually stop?"
"I… I don't know, Archmage. I wasn't really paying attention to the surroundings, I was so focused on my mother," Elsa admitted, wondering where this line of intense questioning was coming from. Usually, novices and apprentices found themselves in trouble for spells going wrong, not spells going right.
Elandra slowly nodded as they stepped into the dormitories, walking up a narrow staircase. "Apprentice, there should be enough room on the floor of your room to for your sister to rest. I will have a page bring up a bedroll. Please make space in your room." As the girls began to walk down the hall, Elandra interrupted. "Miss Jansen - Anna? May I have a word with you in private, please?"
Anna turned, confused. "Hi- me? I'm not a mage?" she asked, pointing at herself.
Elandra gestured for Anna to take a seat on one of the chairs in the dormitory lounge while Elsa departed, looking over her shoulder with concern.
"Yes, Miss Jansen. I had just one question for you. Would you describe for me, in your own words, what happened when your sister froze your mother's body in a block of ice?"
Anna thought back to the horrible moment. "Well, it was in the kitchen, and I saw Mama slumped over the table. She was bleeding a ton, blood was dripping down her back and onto the floor. I asked Elsa if she could heal her, and she said no, mages don't have that kind of magic. Which, by the way, seems really silly. I mean, why can you light things on fire and levitate stuff and not apply like, a magical bandage to somebody? That seems like an oversight-"
"Miss Jansen."
Anna blushed. "Sorry, um, anyway, Elsa said she couldn't do that, and the next thing I know, this huge block of ice just appeared around Mama. I've never seen anything like it."
Elandra raised an eyebrow. "So you did not see or hear your sister cast the actual spell? You are certain you did not hear a few seconds of murmuring or words being spoken, perhaps a series of gestures?"
"Not… really. She was touching Mama's back for a moment and then poof! Glacier in the kitchen," Anna grinned.
"Thank you, Miss Jansen. You've been most helpful. I shall take my leave of you now and let you rest after quite a hectic day," Elandra bowed briefly before turning and walking away, her robes making a gentle swishing sound.
Anna walked down the halls of the dormitory and found her sister's room after poking her head into a few doors, surprising at least one resident and causing plenty of mutual embarrassment. "Elsa, you'll never believe what I just saw!"
Elsa pinched the bridge of her nose. "Do I even want to know?"
"It was a giant naked wolf person! I've never seen one before! I mean, I've heard of them, but I've never actually seen one!"
"That- that's- okay, first, they're not wolves. That was a Worgen. They're from Gilneas, on the far northern edge of the Eastern Kingdoms. Second, that was Camille. She was my roommate earlier this year," Elsa groaned, holding her forehead in her palm.
Anna had grown up as many Stormwind citizens did, reasonably sheltered. Those who grew up in Redridge or Westfall never got to the capital city much, where they would have interacted with the half dozen races that made up the Alliance. Even the Westfall Brigade, despite having been to Northrend and beyond, was still exclusively human.
"Well… still, it was neat. I understand why you left home to come study here. This is… all just so exciting!" Anna hooted, bouncing with excitement despite the rigors of the day. She turned to see the page Elandra had promised, standing in the doorway with a thin bedroll and a flimsy pillow.
"Thank you," Elsa sighed, taking the bedding and dismissing the page, then closing the door to her room. Like all the novice and apprentice quarters, the rooms were cozy; enough space for bookshelves, reagents, and a study desk, a bed, and that was about it. Elsa looked at her sister and tossed the pillow on the bed. "I assume we won't need the bedroll," she grinned and winked.
Anna blushed and nodded vigorously. "Yeah, no need for that at all, sis. I'll just go bathe and clean up, and then we can get some sleep?"
"Baths are down the hall to the left. Please try not to stare at any other races awkwardly, okay?"
Elandra picked up the quill pen on her desk, making notes for her own master, Archmage Modera, about the progress of the various novices and apprentices under her care. Reviewing the day was usually quite easy, but Apprentice Jansen showed power and skill far above her station. With a soft smile to herself, she pulled out a scroll with Elsa's name on it and noted the date, then began writing.
