A/N: So hey, guess what, I'm not dead! Years later and we're still kicking! I said I was going to finish it and I'm going to finish it. Let's get cracking! And yes, I'm going to try and update at least once every two weeks if not before that. Also last chapter I think before that time jump I mentioned! Hope everyone is still well and as always, thanks for reading.

Chapter Fifteen

Secrets of The Past

"Magnus… Magnus…" Elsa studied the royal lineage scroll again, going back generations and generations until she did not remember the names of relatives written on the paper. She lifted her hand and let the scroll roll back into a pile. "I give up! He's not here! There is no Magnus!"

Hans didn't want to admit it, but he thought Elsa's lineage was rather easy to track, unlike his own, thanks to his family size going back years. He abandoned his own scroll in favor of going to her collapsed form and leaned over the chair, rubbing her shoulders. "We'll find something," he encouraged, unrolling her scroll a little further and setting an inkwell on the edge to keep it open. "This is your father's side?" he questioned, and Elsa nodded. He followed the names back, starting from the beginning. "And he had only one brother?"

"That's right," Elsa replied half-heartedly, reaching for a cup of steaming hot chocolate on the table and sipping from it as she cleared her mind. She smiled at her sister as Anna leaned over and dropped a few marshmallows inside the cup.

"And your only relative on your mother's side is Frederic, King of Corona, your mother's brother?" Hans asked, feeling sorry for pressing his already-flustered wife.

"Yes. Our extended family is small. That's why this makes no sense. He couldn't be our cousin," Elsa murmured, kneading her forehead.

"But your uncle… the one on your father's side, his brother, where is he again?" Hans directed the question to Anna.

"I don't think we ever really met him," Anna replied, bashfully going pink in the cheeks. "We were a little secluded for a while growing up. I barely knew anyone outside the gates."

"Where would we find out more about him?" Hans asked, getting up and going to the library shelves.

"I've never read anything about him besides boring lineage stuff," Anna said, scanning the bookcases herself. "And I've read pretty much all of these at least three dozen thousand times growing up."

"Do you remember his name?" Hans questioned with a vague look of amusement, shelving one or two of the confirmed books that had no information, Anna's dry humor not lost on him.

"I think it was uncle… Nikolai? But my father never really spoke of him, in fact, I think he died before we were born," Elsa murmured, taking another sip of her hot chocolate, licking the froth from her lips. "I would say we're stuck." She closed her eyes, setting the cup down, and took a deep, reserved breath. "We can't give up. We have to keep Arendelle and its people safe. We have no choice; we have to search the records again, from the beginning."

There was a cautious knock at the door, and one of the older servants, Kai, entered the room. "Queen Elsa," he regarded her for permission to come in, "may I enter?" In one hand he held a tray to collect the supplies for hot chocolate.

"Of course," Elsa waved him onward, her expression waning of hope.

"I couldn't help but overhear you, your majesty," Kai continued, taking her empty saucer and setting it on the tray, collecting the teapot as well. "As you know your father and I were very close. I was his confidant long before your mother and he began their rule over this land."

"Yes, I know," Elsa stated with a small smile. "He trusted you with many problems that required advice."

"I did not know your Uncle Nikolai, but I know who would have answers, as well as where to find them," Kai elaborated.

"What?" Elsa snapped to attention. "Who? Why didn't we know about it?"

"Because it is not found in Arendelle's written history texts… I believe no one living human can give you the answers you seek, your majesty… but… you might ask… the trolls."

Elsa blinked, taken aback. "The trolls? Why? What would they know of it?" Her mind instantly thought back to their last meeting, to her questions about her child, which had only led to more questions and cryptic answers, and her spirit dropped.

"That is something you will have to ask them, my queen. I only know this: your mother's line has always been generous and open to the natural magic this land contains, and by extension, your father… I think meeting with them… this may be the only option we have if you want any answers," he stated, putting a hand on her shoulder.

Elsa knit her hands together and pursed her lips, thinking. She was not particularly eager to speak with the trolls again so soon again, especially after without concrete answers to her last emotional questions, but their kingdom's foundation was already weak, and she had seen the look of bitterness in Magnus' eyes, a look of burning anger, of true hate, and it frightened her. Fear, she knew well. But real anger… that was not something she was acquainted with well. She tensed suddenly as she felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to look at Hans, who rested his glove on her shoulder. She shared a moment with him, and silently, she felt his support radiate from his gentle grip. She placed her hand on top of his and nodded. "Alright. Let's go speak with the trolls… tonight. We cannot wait."

"I agree," Hans replied, leaning and giving her a kiss beside her ear. "We'll get to the bottom of this," he murmured, his stubble growing in tickling against the skin of her cheek.

"We have no choice," she replied, nodding to attempt to give herself strength. "For the safety of Arendelle and all who live here… I'll step up and defend it as its queen. I have to."

"And I as its king," Hans stood to his full height and went to a chair nearby, lifting up his sword sheath and wrapping the leather binding around his chest so the scabbard hung comfortably along his hip, a weight that seemed to hang heavier than he remembered as he let his fingers grip the pommel.

##

So it was, late that night as the rest of the kingdom slept, Hans and Elsa with the company of Anna and Kristoff and a few trusted soldiers visited the trolls a second time, but this time, the fog was heavy in the air. Elsa left her skittish horse a little ways off to avoid scaring it, walking the rest of the way to the clearing, her torch burning bright against the heavy swamp of air around her. "Grand Pabbie?" she asked out loud, her voice echoing into the emptiness of the gorge. "Grand Pabbie, we must speak with you again! It's a matter of life and death!"

"Sh!" scolded a nearby voice, and from the darkness came forth the elder troll, his crystal faintly glowing in the night, casting a pallid, weakened glow over his rocky chest. "Oh, it's you, Elsa," he commented as his dark eyes scanned the rest of the company, motioning for her to come forward, his voice low. "The land trembles, I fear something dark is afoot."

"Where's Bulda?" Kristoff asked before he could continue. "Where's everyone else?"

"Do not fear, Kristoff," Grand Pabbie held a hand up for reassurance. "I have gathered everyone deep into the mountains as soon as I felt the earth shudder. We are safe, and we are not leaving, simply taking refuge until we determine what has caused such a stir."

"Yes, what you fear is true, Grand Pabbie," Elsa continued, kneeling down to his level. "We were threatened by a man, a man I don't know. He told us horrible things, threatened the kingdom and everyone in it. He wielded some kind of magic, magic that I've never seen before, and he called me cousin. His name was Magnus. Can you tell us anything? We've exhausted all searching within our history records and we've found nothing."

Grand Pabbie's mossy eyebrows furrowed and he shook his head, murmuring in another language, something gravelly rising in his throat and he coughed, putting a hand to his head. "That name… I had hoped… I hoped we would never hear of it again."

"Grand Pabbie, I must know," Elsa urged, reaching out, taking his stony hand in her own, the cold rock hard against her own "You must tell me what you know, everything."

The troll frowned deeply, but his forehead remained crinkled in deep thought. "I have not spoken of your Uncle Nikolai since your father's time, long before you were born, Elsa… I have long since dreaded speaking of it again. It fills me with pain to do so, but now I see the time has come when I must look beyond that pain to tell you the truth. I only pray I did not wait too long… come, all of you… Anna, he was related to you as well…. And Kristoff, Hans, you both must now be ever vigilant to protect those you love. Now… come, come close and we will bring the crystals into the open to shed some light."

"We could make a fire," Hans suggested, the coolness of the air seeming colder to him than ever.

"No!" Pabbie exclaimed in a sudden gasp, keeping his voice low as he shook his head and gestured, bringing them all closer to nearby shrubbery, and motioning as he led the little party through the brush into a cave opening. "No, that we cannot do…" He leaned down against the floor of the cavern, touching the crystal around his neck to the floor, and a pattern of swirling, ancient light began to snake its way along the cracks in the walls, ancient magic tingling along Elsa's fingertips as she touched it in curiosity. "There, now…" he murmured, sitting himself against a flat sheet of rock near the wall. "We should be safe here for a bit. There is protection yet in this land." He stared at the ground before him for a long moment. "I can only show what has been, not what will be… remember child, your father never meant any wrong."

"Never meant any…" Elsa murmured, her eyebrows furrowing.

The ancient troll leaned towards the light, waving a hand in a fluid motion, then both hands flying towards the cavern's ceiling, and suddenly figures sprung forth, made of rainbow lights resembling the cool tones of the aurora borealis. "Elsa," he began in a low, crackling voice, as two men appeared, side by side. "Your father had a brother growing up, the one you know as Uncle Nikolai. They were inseparable as boys, even as your father journeyed into the unknowns in his youth, found adventure, found love… it seemed he shared his fondness over the ideas of the foreign magic he discovered there with your uncle upon his return…together they poured over the books and the legends they heard."

Elsa smiled softly, fondly at the image representing her father. Not a day went by when she wasn't reminded of his presence, living in his castle, ruling the kingdom where the denizens deigned her a fit replacement for the man, and then Hans… but she knew the story could not end there, and she nodded to show her intent listening.

"But there is an underlying desire that accompanies the allure of the unknown, a fuel to know more about it." The elderly troll ground his hands together as he stared into the luminescence of the crystal's lights, faint figures of two men appearing before the little party, together, interacting through a few motions. "Such thoughts about the unknown turn into curiosity, a healthy curiosity that helps one learn… and then to a study, a desire to discern what is truth, what is false…" His eyes glistened as the two figures seemed to get into an argument, gesturing wildly at one another, pointing, hands flying in arcs. "…then to passion, when a fine line is drawn."

"Yes?" Elsa persisted quietly, worried for the look in his eyes.

A smaller figure, one that resembled a child, appeared beside one of the men, grasped tightly, pulled alongside him, away from the other. "Sometimes… such passion… it becomes madness."

"I don't understand… I don't know what this means," Elsa weakly protested, watching the colors flare, turning redder shades, flashing as the figures gestured more and more wildly to one another.

"When your father brought Anna to us as a child, asked us to help heal her from the accident that led to me blocking her memories, he asked if you were born with the magic… or cursed with it," Pabbie murmured, shaking his head from side to side, his eyes drifting downward.

"And I was born with it," Elsa persisted, quickly adding, "right?"

"Yes, my child, you were… but your cousin, Magnus… was not," Pabbie breathed, a sound like crushing gravel into dust sounding as he exhaled.

Elsa inhaled sharply, taking a step back, looking to the brightly flashing images for answers they could not give, denial taking control of her as she shook her head. "No… no, that can't be, we're not related, he's not my cousin, uncle Nikolai never had any children!"

"No, Elsa," Pabbie corrected her, meeting her fearful gaze. "He had a son."

For a moment the cave was silent as the group absorbed the information, processing, pondering what this meant. Hans stepped forward, thinking back to the look of burning hate on the man's face as he so easily dispatched them, as he showed so little fear, overflowed with certainty. "Then this Magnus… he really is Elsa's… he does have power over fire... powers like hers."

"Indeed," the old troll confirmed, rubbing his hands together uncomfortably. "I had hoped you would never meet him… would never have to face him… but I see the time has now come to reveal the truth to you… it is an unfortunate truth we cannot become blind to, not now when he has found you and the kingdom."

Elsa let the truth sink in beyond her skin until she could feel its reality. Then she looked up at the elderly troll and bend to his level, on her knees, and rasped out with a shuddered breath, "How?"

##

"Long ago, before you or your sister were born, but after your father first began his research into the idea of magic, your uncle had a son. His name, as you've come to know him, was Magnus. Your father was always respectful of our ways, knew the danger of toying with the unknown. But Nikolai, he did not see things this way. He determined magic was equal to power, and whoever possessed it would go on to possess all they desired. Soon he began to push your father to believe this as well, harder and harder as the days went on, until he was willing to put his theories to the test. He believed if he could force magic into his son, he would be a force to be reckoned with, and together, your father and himself would prove themselves worthy to the world. So you see, Elsa… you may not have been cursed with your power… but Magnus was."

Elsa's eyes widened, her breath catching in her throat. "You mean… they cursed him…"

"On purpose, yes," the troll sighed, a sound low and ancient.

"No wonder he is angry with us," Hans replied, eyebrows furrowing, his jaw tightening. "But what of his father?"

"Dead, I'm afraid," Pabbie confirmed with a nod. "Your powers were always difficult for you to conceal, Elsa, but Magnus' were impossible. As his anger grew, so did the fire within him. He was pressured year after year to control his curse, until one night, your Uncle Nikolai's kingdom, and all within it, burned to the ground. None survived. The earth shuddered that night… and told us the grisly fate of the people."

"And my father…?" Elsa questioned breathily.

"He knew Magnus would not stop. He blames all for his fate, your majesty, yourself included. Your father was terrified you would share a similar destiny. He sought to keep you safe, by any means necessary. He was simply terrified you would become overwhelmed, and hence he did all he could to help you conceal it, whether by gloves, isolation, anything… to help you not feel… he thought it was the only way." The troll stopped speaking and the cave seemed darker as the party let the explanation sink in, until it was suddenly broken by the sound of pebbles shifting and Hans leaning away from the wall, standing straight, a surprising lack of fear in his eyes.

"Be he magic or not, he has threatened the people, and he has threatened all of us. And we have to stop him… while we can. What can we do?"

Elsa also straightened, looking back at the opening of the cave into the darkness beyond, and let her thoughts align themselves. "We must… do what we can to prepare the people for the threat. Largely due to me…" she began, wringing her hands only a moment, "…the existence of magic in Arendelle is no surprise to them. We cannot allow them to sit idle in naivety while we struggle to contain the truth. I will call them together, tomorrow, and we will announce to them all that Magnus has come here, and he has come here with hostile intention. Then… we will tell our soldiers to prepare. We will fortify our stock of weaponry, ensure the walls are strong, the…" she paused, seeing Anna's disturbed expression, and continued on, "…the doors will remain open, the courts continue to hold open audiences, but we will continue to hold our resolve, whether it be days, months, years… I've seen what he can do…we must be ready."

"Ready for what, Elsa?" Anna asked softly, biting her lower lip as she neared her sister.

Elsa's hands clenched into fists, her mouth setting into a purse expression which spread over her face until it resembled an unbreakable statue of stone. "… anything."

##

"Anything?" Allowyn repeated to herself, her face pursed in thought as the servant brushed through her long voluptuous red hair and began weaving it into an intricate braid. "And he really said that?"

"I swear to you, mother, as I'm standing before you, it's what he said," Heinrik replied, fidgeting in place as he waited for the wooden curlers in his hair to be removed. "That I should wear anything."

"That's not like him," she mused, fingering listlessly among one of her jewelry boxes idly in front of her, searching for something to wear, letting the golden chains pool among her fingers and sifting them away.

"It sounds as if it would be a response for his depressed ambiance he's taken on recently, but no. He seemed cheerful, mother, exuberant, even. Have you noticed over the past few days he's seemed to be much more lively?" Heinrik asked, his foot jiggling restlessly up and down as he rocked back and forth on the footstool.

"Yes, and I've also noticed the wine cellar has been much more empty…" Allowyn murmured, her lips pursed as her hair was wound about her head, then undone and rewound in a second attempt to make the style less lopsided, her face ever stalwart as pins were carefully placed close to the scalp, and her tiara prepared. "I don't know what to do about it… if I tell him he's drinking too much, he only becomes sulky and morose and I don't see him for days on end. If I don't say anything, he's happier, almost like his old self, and it doesn't seem to affect his love for Julia. In fact, he's grown more willing to see her after his periods of libation."

"I wish I had more advice for you, mother. Alas, the one time I as the son get to lecture the mother, and I come up empty. What is the world coming to?" Heinrik sighed heavily, dramatically collapsing forward on the vanity in front of him.

"Don't slouch, you'll ruin your curlers, and I want the family to look good for this portrait! It's the first portrait we'll have made with Julia and Lily honored as part of the family and I won't have any one of you making a face, or pulling down another's trousers, or wearing mismatched socks, like you have in the past years!" Alloywn scolded lightly, though it was in vain with the follow up of soft chuckling. "You'll be going back out to sea soon and I want a good portrait of you while you're gone to look at," she added.

"Oh, mother…" Heinrik groaned, straightening obediently. There was silence in the room as Carla finished with Allowyn's regal details and moved to start unwinding the wooden curlers from Heinrik's already curly hair. "Thank God, I never thought I'd be done."

"I've never known him to put himself or anyone else into danger," Allowyn said after a moment, rising from her plush seat gracefully in a single, smooth movement. "And if he needs a little drink now and again to feel like himself… I don't know if it's such a bad thing to forbid…" she mumbled, glancing to her reflection in the mirror. Since when did she look so old? Were her wrinkles always so visible under her eyes? She sighed, a small sigh, tucking back a stray hair. "For the time being… until we think otherwise… let him enjoy himself. I say… let him have a drink… but… I wouldn't be opposed to you letting me know what you think… I know my judgement is not perfect… especially when it's regarding happiness for my sons… any of you… do you know what I would sacrifice?"

Heinrik shook his head as the last of the curlers left his hair, his bouncy rings of fiery hair flouncing about his face. "No, what?"

She smiled at him, her eyes soft. "…Anything."

So yeah. It's been a while guys. Again, apologies for taking so so long and giving you little compared to some other chapters lengthwise. I promise the next one will be longer, we will have a lot to cover. Don't worry, I don't plan on leaving it alone any time soon. Settle in! And don't forget to leave me a review saying hey if you're still around! Would love to hear from yall and how life is treating you.