She wandered in and out of existence like a patient in a sanatorium. Sometimes lucidity would visit for a few minutes, scattershot and hazy like a visiting relative who wanted to leave as quickly as was possible, and she would suddenly find herself awake and crying out for people whose names she couldn't remember and whose faces she didn't know. She would find a word or a phrase and shout it out 'till someone came to help her and then claw away from the strangers who came to help. Only one person's existence shone through the fever.

She wanted Anna. She needed Anna. But Anna never came, only people she didn't know to give her clothes that burned her forehead and feed her liquids that tasted rotten and choking in her throat.

She lashed out at them in fear, her hands looking like great white claws in her fog-filled vision, scoring marks into the walls and bedding and making them retreat with wordless shouts. Eventually they stopped coming, except for four. Two she couldn't reach, and she screamed in frustration as her hands moved around and melted away as she tried to push them back from her bedside. One who she could reach fine endured her hands to feed and change her. The last one brushed her hair and whispered into her ear, until her scratching hand found its mark, and then never returned. Anna was all she wanted. Anna was who she needed. She wanted Anna to come into the room and hug and comfort her and laugh with her, and drive away the faceless ghosts that were her world.

But Anna never came.

So Elsa slept, and wandered the mountainside of her fevered dreams, and met her there.

And outside Elsa's locked door the world continued to turn.

Anna faced the locked door that led to her sister.

"I demand to see my sister."

"I regret that I cannot allow that, your highness."

Every time it broke Gerda's heart a little more to say it. But she had her instructions, and knowing her fondness towards both of them the king had made it absolutely clear that there would be no creative rule-breaking or nudge-wink endeavours to misunderstand her order.

The princess Anna will not be allowed through the doors to visit her sister.

The coldness in his majesty's voice, more than anything else, had made Gerda obey it. And it was such a very hard command to obey.

Every hour Anna had come up and asked her. The first time, after they had returned from the woods and the castle was in an absolute uproar, Anna had almost ran past her before the two guards had barred her way. She had turned towards Gerda with such an expression of worry and hope that she had almost folded right there. But the king was the king, and even though for almost all the time she had served him King Adgar had been a very lenient and accommodating ruler, that day he had been The King, and she didn't dare disobey him. After the first refusal it had gotten easier to say no. But not less heartbreaking.

What's wrong? Is she sleeping? I promise I'll be quiet. I won't wake her up.

What's wrong? Is Elsa okay? I can help. I've read books, I know how to wrap bandages and draw water. Let me help!

What's wrong? Is she dead? Is she dead? Just tell me Gerda, please. Tell me. I have to know.

What's wrong? Just a fever? How can I help? I know about spices, medicine, things like that. Let me try.

What's wrong? Please Gerda just let me make sure she's…that she's being taken care of? Please?

Oh god please just let me in. Let me see her! I need to see her!

GERDA PLEASE!

Gerda as your princess I command you let me through!

Gerda I…I'm warning you! Just let me in.

Gerda I demand you let me in.

I demand to see my sister.

And so on, and so on, as the first day had turned into two days, then three, and Anna's message had turned from begging and pleading into an intense emotionless statement that seemed to suck the warmth from Anna's eyes even as she said it. Kai brought her drinks when he was able to, but duty to the king kept him away, and so for most of the time Gerda sat along with two silent guards. Men and women in expensive coats and with small black cases had been permitted entry, but none of the doctors ever made more than one trip, even though Gerda heard whispers about gold passing hands. On the second day the king had come through, and even though Gerda had strained her eyes she had heard nothing, except for a faint crackling when his majesty had pushed – with some difficulty – the door open. She had heard a cry and a scream and the king had left.

Later in the first day – and then again in the second and third – the king had come again, and the queen with him, only for the results had been the same. No voices, no conversation, only faint cries.

"Gerda?" the king had asked the third time.

"Your majesty?" Gerda had replied, bowing.

"Who was the crown princess close to in the castle?"

Anna, Gerda wanted to say but knew better. "The ice-gatherer and stable-hand, Kristoff Bjor-"

"The troll boy?" the king had asked, looking around at the head maid with…surely not…with shock in his eyes.

"Him sir," Gerda confirmed, thinking to herself what's one more mystery solved. She knew the old rumour about how Kristoff had just appeared one day at the castle but had put it out of her mind. Hearing it from the king though…

"Call him."

So she had, and when it had been Kristoff's turn to leave Elsa's sick-room it was with clothes ripped in half a dozen places, bleeding from half a dozen wounds underneath them. Castle gossip brought to her that he had exchanged a few words with the king from a still strong – if a little shaky now – knee. Ask me next, Gerda had thought, but the king had only told her to keep Anna out of the room. When the next and final…challenger…went through, Gerda thought for a flash that she was going to have words with Kristoff next time they met.

She had never liked Eva. She knew too much and asked too much and her eyes were always looking at you like she wanted something. If Gerda had known what a poison she would be on that first day in the yard she would have sent the girl back through the servant's gate and back into the town before she had so much as clipped the white pinafore to her skirt. But she had loyalty, this much Gerda would admit, and had served the royal family well for more than half a decade. In her service she had no problems with her performance, but privately…Gerda had been brought up a certain way. A good way, and good women didn't behave the way Eva did. Gerda had saved more than one generation of the royal family, and maids and stable-boys playing in the hay was just a fact of castle life. Sometimes one of the hands would suddenly find an urgent reason to find work elsewhere closer to home, often at the same time as a blossoming romance suddenly appeared, and a reference would be written without rancour or judgement because the young were young and who could blame them? The two were bid good luck with a kiss on the cheek and a stern handshake and bid good luck. They would vanish from the castle and if a child were to be born later the dates wouldn't be scrutinised too closely.

But Eva didn't follow the old story. Although the head maid kept herself above the common gossip that didn't mean she didn't hear it coming down from below, and she heard about the way Eva acted, and when they met in the halls and corridors although the girl bowed just like all the other servants Gerda watched her eyes and saw laughter back there before the deference and courtesy. Instead of downstairs romance there were stable-boys and manservants used and simply…brushed aside. She heard darker stories too, that she put out of her mind as nonsense from jealous would-be spouses. Not just star-struck stable-boys having to be reminded to zip up their flies but young maids having to be reminded to lace their bodices. And one last rumour, which was frankly so ludicrous she only laughed at it. Not in a million years.

Gerda watched as Anna walked back down the hall away from the sickroom, as quiet as a mouse. No, a mongoose.

Not in a million years…

"I don't know what's going on," Anna whispered, so quietly she almost went unheard.

When the princess had appeared at her door Eva knew it wasn't for anything as petty as sex. Anna had taken one look into those deep brown eyes, infinitely patient, and had burst into tears the way she hadn't been able to in front of her father or mother. Not anymore.

"They're angry, and afraid," Eva whispered into the younger woman's ear. Anna felt like a furnace against her, even more so than usual. The pair of them laid there on the bed, the younger, slightly smaller girl curled inside the other liken they were two crescent moons.

"I hate them," she whispered, her hands tracing idle circles around Eva's own. "All she did was protect us. That's all she's ever done."

"People are afraid of what they don't understand."

Anna twisted around until they were belly to belly. "Are you afraid?" Anna asked, running a single finger down and across the small bandage that now ran from Eva's collarbone to the swell of her left breast. Under other circumstances Eva might have taken that finger and moved it further, but…

There was a heartbeat of silence, then… "I was."

She had been. Kristoff had come to hat in hand – actually hat in hand, the adorable fool that he was – and asked for her help. With what, she hadn't had to ask. It had been the only topic of conversation in the entire castle. Even her own aloof barrier she meticulously maintained had been breached as other servants, those she barely knew at all as well as those she knew very well, had asked her what was going on.

Is the princess a witch?

Is the princess a sorcerer?

Is the princess a goddess come again?

This last one from a girl with starry-eyed faith in her eyes who had clutched a small iron charm around her neck. Eva had only waited an hour, then went back to Kristoff and gave him her answer. Before hardly any time had elapsed at all she had found herself in front of a pair of large doors, flanked by two guards, and that judgemental harpy Gerda standing behind her. Then suddenly she was inside the room and alone.

And fighting to keep her balance. The floor was coated in ice. The walls were coated in ice. The ceiling was coated in ice. Every inch of the room from the carpets to the upholstery was coated in glittering whites and blues that hadn't just taken her breath away, they had sucked it out of her the way her sister's lips tried to steal it at night. Patterns and cracks in the ice curved and arched and gravitated towards the far wall, where she slept. A frozen whirlwind that centred on Crown Princess Elsa of Arendelle.

She looks small, Eva had thought, staring down at a girl the same age as her, gasping for breath in a tortured fever. She had taken the bucket of warm water, and that was when it had happened. No warning. One second her highness Elsa had been laid on the bed under covers that crackled heavy with permafrost, the next she was up and clawing at her, babbling and shouting. Eva had tried to grab her hands and push her back down when a hand had brushed – just brushed – against the front of her chest. She had felt something tug at her upper chest, and then heat had bloomed there, and she had backed off. Then she had felt afraid, and ran.

She had been lucky, under the circumstances. But she wasn't lying to Anna when she said she wasn't afraid anymore.

I take what they offer and I give them what they need. The promise she had made to herself for the way she acted. The promise she gave to parents she no longer remembered, and to God.

"Your sister is beautiful and terrifying," Eva whispered into Anna's ears as the two lay together. She felt Anna flinch at the last word, and held her tighter. The princess could have burned her up. She was so hot. "She's hurt. Lashing out. She needs someone to tell her it isn't her at fault."

"It isn't. It never is. It's always them," Anna said with a venom in her voice Eva had never heard before.

"You need to help her. You and Kristoff and whoever else."

Wide teal eyes looked up into hers. "Not you?"

Shock and fear as her hand had felt her breasts, ran across her nipples. There had been something there maybe. Possibly. But the fear had been greater. "No," Eva replied.

"I don't know if I can."

"You have to, if you-"

Whatever else Eva was about to say never left her lips.

To say the door burst open would be overdramatic. The doors in the servant's quarters barely had working locks, most of the downstairs staff being simply courteous about knocking.

So this is how it is, Eva thought, even her inner voice tasting bitter copper, as the door swung ajar to let Gerda and Kristoff and two of the guards enter. She pulled the blanket from her own body to cover Anna, and pushed herself off the bed to stand before the intruders naked. Only Kristoff averted his gaze with a blush. The guards simply watched, one hand on their blades.

I will not hide. "Excuse me!"

"I didn't believe it," Gerda hissed, striding forth like a righteous whirlwind. Her eyes glanced down at the bed where Anna lay, somewhere between shock and utter mortification. "Her own sister lies sick upstairs and you take her away into your own filth for…for…"

"For comfort," Eva said, and braced herself. She wasn't waiting long. Gerda's slap rang through the room like two swords clashing, and stung like a burning brand against her cheek. She would need ice. Lucky Arendelle had so much around. Ice for a princess, ice for a goddess. Ice for her.

"As if a whore like you could offer her any comfort!"

I will not beg. "Clearly more than you could. What did you give her? False promises and platitudes? 'There, there, everything will be alright in the end'?" she said, all cold ice compared to Gerda's fury. She liked to think this was how Elsa would sound. A shame she would never find out.

Gerda spat on the floor, as if she was unwilling to let even her disdain touch Eva's body. "Guards, help this slattern gather her things, and then take her to the servant's gate."

"NO!"

Eva turned without being given permission as Anna leapt from the bed like a jack from his box. Immediately Kristoff put his body between the princess and the guards. Kristoff had always been a good boy. Maybe he really had been raised by trolls. Better than being raised by people. "Please, Anna, don't make this any worse."

"That is HER HIGHNESS you are addressing!" from Gerda.

"Please, not you too," that small voice begged her. Is everything taken from me? Anna's face said, and for the first moment since Eva had seen the princess approaching her and Kristoff across a stone courtyard, since that first uneasy kiss, since the first exhilarating and domineering tryst in the baths, and all the moments after, Eva's heart really did break for Anna. For one second. Then she patched it up again, the way she knew she would have to.

She darted forward, catching the guards by surprise, and she managed to brush her lips against Anna's. "Go to her," she whispered, before the guards pulled her back into their cold metal embrace.

The last that Eva saw of Princess Anna was a beautiful, lonely creature staring after her, eyes wide and mouth slightly open, as if waiting for a miracle that she knew would never come yet still couldn't help but hope for. Eva turned away. That wasn't the Anna she wanted to remember as they bundled her things into a rough red bag and shoved it into her hands and shoved her out the door. She wanted the Anna that came to her after a conquest, brave and triumphant, smiling and happy as they dragged each other to bed, eyes sparkling like twin emeralds. That was the Anna she would remember. That was the Anna that had dragged more out of her than amusement and base pleasure.

"Stop smiling and get out," the nameless guard snarled, shoving her at the oaken door that marked the boundary between the small courtyard and the outside of the castle.

Yes, Eva thought, as the gate closed behind her.

I could have loved you.

"Anna, come on. Please."

Kristoff didn't know what to do. Anna stumbled alongside him like a ghost, wrapped up in sheets from Ev- from the servant's quarters that she refused to let go of. She was pale, shaking.

Kristoff had spent more than a decade now taking care of everything Arendelle could throw at him. He'd burned out his nostrils shovelling endless piles of reindeer and horse manure from the stables. He'd helped carry ice-harvesters who'd been a little too careless around the cold and heavy stuff and broken bones. He'd led hunting parties out to dispose of errant wildlife that had gotten hungrier than was good for them – although for the last half year or so not so much, as a white ghost had taken over that job – and he'd saved more than one foal and mare from a bad birth.

Having to escort a sniffling and naked princess through the castle was a new one though.

Pabbie you never told me this would be part of the job.

What would I do in this situation?

You'd go shovel or carry something until you were too tired to remember what you were worried about. Then you'd sleep it off.

"Come on Anna. You need sleep. You'll feel better then."

"I don't want to sleep. I want to see my sister," Anna whispered.

"You can see her when she's better," Kristoff said, every inch of his skin that Elsa's hands (not talons. Don't even think talons) had raked him.

"She'll never wake up."

"Don't think that."

"Everyone hates us."

Before his mind could engage to stop him Kristoff grabbed Anna by the shoulders and whirled her around until they were looking into each other's eyes. "Don't ever think that Anna," he brushed an errant red lock of hair from the crying girl's head. "Don't ever think you're not loved!" He reached his arms around and crushed Anna into a huge bear-hug. "You have me and Sven."

Small hands gripped at Kristoff's shirt. "Swear it," Anna half-whispered half-hissed through tears.

"I swear it," Kristoff replied without a lick of hesitation, and then Anna was pushing him away so she could look up into his eyes.

"Take me to Elsa," Anna said, in a voice that Kristoff had heard used by the king. One he knew he wouldn't disobey.

"Of course, your majesty."

Is this the right decision? Am I doing the right thing, he still couldn't help but wonder though as they walked the castle to the sick-room Elsa was being held- no, that Elsa was recuperating in.

Anna strode up to the guards, with Gerda nowhere in sight. No doubt making sure any sign of Eva was scrubbed away from the room they had slept in together. She felt a twinge, deep in her belly, but she wouldn't let herself be distracted by it. She stopped short before she would bump into the expressionless soldier before her. "I'm going through."

"Your highness, their majesties have commanded that-" the man began, but without the force or belief that Gerda had managed to put into the words. He knew something was happening, but he didn't know what.

"That wasn't a question. Let me pass before-" Anna stopped, as something caught her eye. Without another word to the man in front of her she turned to the second guard. Before either he or Kristoff could react, her hand darted forward at his breastplate with the speed she'd earned on dozens of nights against creatures more ruthless and faster than a simple guard. She was rewarded when her hand came back holding a small iron rectangle on a thin chain.

Maybe it was just the wind, or her own hopeful subconscious. But Anna chose to believe it was Elsa's voice she heard.

Embrace it.

"Guardsman…?"

"Leif, your highness," the man said, sweat popping out on his forehead as the princess held evidence of pagan belief in his hand.

Embrace it. Anna leaned forward as far as she could and whispered. "Do you believe in the white goddess of the mountain, Leif?"

"Anna…" Kristoff's warning voice came from behind her, but she ignored him.

Leif's plain grey eyes looked down, spellbound, into Anna's shining green ones. His answer was no louder than the wind in Anna's ears. He had glanced into the room when the king and queen and the ice-boy and the maid had gone through. He'd seen. He believed. Yes.

"She needs me. She needs your help. Your help. Let me through," Anna whispered. A fifteen year-old girl who barely came up to the soldier's chin, she cowed him utterly. He stepped aside.

"Hey-" the other guardsman began, stepping forwards. One step was all he made.

Anna's hand came around and when it did so she was holding the unfortunate Leif's blade, pointed directly at the second man's sternum. "Let me in," she said. She was so close, and no closed door or dumb guard would stop her now. "The goddess needs me. I'm her knight. I'm going in."

The man looked to Kristoff, then to his fellow guard, and saw he'd get no help from either. Kristoff shrugged, as if to say; what are you going to do? The man resisted the urge to sigh, as with a grunt he put his shoulder to the door and pushed. Ice crackled and moaned on the other side, until there was a gap large enough for Anna to slip into.

"Skjoldmøy," Leif whispered, as Anna, sword in hand, went into her sister's room, alone.

Anna held the blade aloft and hesitated before bringing it down on the icy tendrils in front of her, on the maybe-silly-maybe-not thought that maybe somehow Elsa was the ice in front of her.

"Whooo. I hope not because otherwise you put on some weight sis."

Ice covered the room. Not just covering surfaces now but growing up and out, in a thousand direction, a thousand tendrils that ran between everything in the room. Like bridges reaching out, except now they were all in her way, and Anna wasn't going to let them stop her, even if they were gorgeous.

The ice silenced any noise from the rest of the castle and filtered the light streaming in from the window. Anna felt like she was chopping her way through a jungle made of ice, every curved surface se cut through bringing her closer to the centre of the frozen maelstrom, closer to Elsa.

Please be okay. I need you. I need you I need you I need you.

"We don't have anyone else now," she whispered, and didn't realise it.

Finally after what felt like hours but was mere minutes, she sliced through a final ice curtain, to find out the thin blue sheaf was connecting the top of the four-poster bed to the nearby wall, and she found her sister.

"ELSA!"

She looked as frozen as the rest of the room and Anna's heart lurched with both heat and cold. She dropped the sword to her side, instantly forgotten as she looked down at her sleeping sister. Elsa was covered in ice, only her upper body visible, the rest lost as ice swept down from her chest in wild patterns so that Anna couldn't tell where the woman ended and the cloth began. She looked beautiful, peaceful.

"Not now," Anna whispered frantically as she leaned over her sister, hands burning from the cold as she placed her hands on the bed. "Ela, hey, it's me."

Silence.

"I told you I'd be here for you. I'm your knight, remember?"

"Elsa, I really need you to wake up. Everyone…everyone's worried. Mom and dad won't speak to me. They took Eva away. Everyone's afraid of us. You have to wake up."

"PLEASE!"

She collapsed across her sister's body, and wept. "I can't do this alone." She tried to grab onto her sister's lapels but her hands slipped on ice. "Please. Let me save you this time. I'm a knight, right? Knights save princesses." She sniffed back tears. "Just…just help me. Tell me how. Do I slay a dragon? Do I…do I…what do I do?"

Anna could still feel her sister breathing underneath her. Could still see the small puffs of cold air coming from her mouth. Underneath that thin layer of ice her sister's body still worked. Her heart still beat. If there was…

Her heart.

Maybe?

"Do…do you need it back?" she whispered, one hand over her own heart, where a small part of Elsa's ice still rested, always protecting her.

Briar Rose awoke from a kiss.

Anything was worth a shot. Anything at all. She leaned over Elsa's face.

"Please."

"Just come home."

Elsa's lips were cold against hers.

She wandered the mountain, snow-blind and alone. Alone except for the voices.

Just lie down.

It will be easier that way.

So much less trouble.

But she was looking for someone. Someone very precious to her.

"ANNA!"

She had fought the others off, that had come near her with burning fire to pour over her and burial shrouds to cover her with, trying to finally dispose of the inconvenient little princess and her inconvenient little powers. She had ran, somehow, to where she knew she would be safe.

The north mountain towered over her but somehow Elsa knew she was safe here. Jagged rocks that would skewer her enemies and huge glaciers that would crush and bury them before they could get to her. She would build a palace on the slopes and live there safe forever.

Forever, if she could just find Anna and make sure she was safe too. She roared her sister's name into the white void around her and prayed to the mountain for help, but the goddess all around her was silent. She would find her on her own or not at all. It was a test.

"ANNA!"

And then there it was. The sign she had been searching for days for. The light was sharp and burning, a red like ruby, and it pulsed with a warmth so strong Elsa could feel it even so far away. She placed her foot forward on the snow, but found her other foot wouldn't follow.

You'll drag her down too.

Just leave her.

Stay here.

"NO!" Elsa screamed into the ground, which shattered underneath her. Icicles shot like spears up from the ground, skewering the shapes that had been haunting her all along. Men and women whose vague forms she almost recognised. But she didn't care, because Anna was so close, and the mountain was so cold. Even as she watched the shining red light dimmed just a little.

"I'm coming Anna!"

The snow underneath gave way before her like the sea before Moses, or like an army before its commander. The closer Elsa got to the light the warmer it became, but somehow the snow around her remained intact, un-melting.

"Anna!" She put her hands up and grasped the burning shape of her sister about the face. She wrapped her arms around her. "I'm here. You're safe now.

She's not safe around you.

Dangerous.

Sorceress.

"SILENCE!" she screamed into the void, her power radiating out from her in every direction, an impenetrable wall surrounding her and her sister. She turned back. "I'm here now Anna," she whispered, holding the burning shape close. "I'll protect you."

She reached forward into the fire.

"From everything."

One tasted heat.

One tasted cold.

The ice creaked around the sisters as their eyes met. For a second both just stared in disbelief and hope that it wasn't another dream.

"Elsa."

"Anna."

"I'm here," they both said, at the same time, as the ice shattered all around them, a sound like a thousand cymbals crashing that sent shockwaves through the castle and was heard outside the town. The sisters stared into each other's eyes with joy as the world turned into a blue and white kaleidoscope around them.

Standing at the end of the corridor Gerda smiled as the ice melted, and prayed for the safety of her princesses.

Standing at the door and resisting the urge to glance in, Leif fingered the charm around his neck, and prayed in general.

Standing by him, Kristoff didn't pray. He just sat in the slowly-melting pool of water, and smiled.

At the outskirts of Arendelle's town, a long-haired woman in a new black cloak spared one final, sad glance towards the castle, before climbing into the packed carriage that would take her away.

When the king and queen rushed to their eldest's side they found Elsa sitting up in bed, her fever broken, stroking Anna's red hair as her younger sister slept beside her.

When Elsa looked up and smiled at them, her eyes glittered like blue diamonds.

"Oh, my love," the queen gushed, and rushed to hug her daughters.

The king did too, but unlike his wife he still felt the cold.

Anna and Elsa held each other and each thought silently I will never be taken away from you ever again.

And across the town the words rang out:

There is a goddess in Arendelle.

"I'd hardly believe it if I hadn't seen it! Amazing! Wondrous!"

"Hmmm. Disturbing implications."

"Planning already, dear? Do I see us returning in a more…official manner…some day soon?"

"…No. I don't think so darling. I grow tired of these foreign adventures. We have a home we barely see, I think it might be time to settle down somewhat."

"Your father will be disappointed."

"Let him be, darling. Politics is a young man's game."

"His majesty will still demand action. A presence, at the very least."

"Then let him leave it to one of my younger brothers, there are enough of them. Stein maybe. Or Hans."

"I don't envy whichever comes back."

"Nor I, my dear." Prince Staas of the Southern Isles looked out over the deck of his ship, back towards Arendelle. The other dignitaries had already left. Some of them carrying the truth, others carrying what they thought their governments would believe. Many of them – especially two princes unfortunate enough to be a little too close to the action – quite heavily drunk. From the outside the country looked almost normal. But Staas knew better. He had been there at the final moments and seen the real truth.

Princess Elsa had stood over her sister and father, unafraid. All around her wolves had hung, skewered on spikes, as if a giant crown of ice had emerged from beneath them and its prongs had sought them out. Crown Princess Elsa had stood there, eyes blazing like twin blue fires, and Staas had looked and seen a queen.

He shivered.

But then, it was quite chilly this far north.

"Nor I."

The eighteenth birthday is over but we're not close to done. There may be a short break in chapters due to real world stuff happening. Chapter notes up on cobraygordon dot tumblr dot com

Also if you enjoyed the little fic-concept a couple of weeks ago then follow my profile and watch out tomorrow for the first experimental chapter of Queens.

~Cobray