Elsa dismounted from the horse the second the guards were posted at the gate – she wouldn't shut them, not even now – and practically bowled the prince over in her rush to get to Anna.

"Is this…"

"She's fine, she's fine," Elsa said, and she didn't know if she was telling Hans or reassuring herself. Anna for her part climbed down from the horse gently, like she was made of glass. Elsa tried to put a steadying hand on her side but Anna almost shoved it back off.

"I'm fine, really," Anna said, practically the first she had said since they had left the village behind. The morning after the near-riot had found the square outside the townhouse clear of both Christians and the body of their leader, only a red stain on the cobblestones evidence it hadn't just been a crazy fever dream. Leif had insisted they leave immediately and cut short their tour, and Elsa had agreed instantly. Anna had been quiet. Anna had stayed quiet, all the way back to the castle. She had changed out of the blood-soaked nightgown but she still clutched her ice-sword tightly, refusing to let it go.

Anna, please talk to me.

"I can't help but feel responsible for this your highness."

"Don't, it wasn't your fault," Elsa said. She knew she was being short with the man and that he didn't' deserve it, but she had bigger problems. Something was wrong with Anna and she didn't have time for anyone or anything else.

"But still…"

Leif approached Hans from behind and coughed softly. "They were crazed, your highness," the guardsman said. "It was a madness."

"A spreading madness?"

"Not if we have anything to say about it," Leif said.

"No." Even in the depths of her worry Elsa's mind still functioned, and she saw all too easily where that road lay. She had thought of little else. She faced the guard-captain and made sure he was looking directly at her as she spoke. "There will be no retaliation, are we clear? We aren't going to have any kind of…any kind of inquisition in Arendelle." She could see her breath misting in the air, and pushed the power back down inside herself.

"We should at least keep an eye on-"

"That's enough Leif," Elsa said, and let some of her worry turn into anger and leak into her voice. The guardsman clamped up like she had put a vice to his lips. "We'll discuss this later."

"Oh your highnesses!" a familiar voice cried out, as Gerda rushed out of the castle and practically bear-hugged Anna. Elsa glanced behind her to see Kai as well, and waved a hand; later. The old rotund man nodded, and turned back to the castle as Gerda mothered her almost-daughter.

"We'll have to do something," Elsa said, mind whirling, talking mainly to herself rather than Hans or Leif. "We should re-assure people. A speech?"

"There's time for that later," Hans said. "With all due respect your highness this is a discussion for you at your best, and you're nowhere near your best."

He was right. She rubbed her eyes and felt sleep around the edges trying to claim her. She nodded, and set off for the castle behind Gerda and Anna, still muttering to herself as her fatigued brain shot thoughts out, three a second.

"We'll need calm, room for speech. Some kind of concession maybe? Convince them he was mad? Not our fault. Say that? He did try to kill us, that's treason. But it's a delicate situation. Maybe something for his family, or would that be insulting? Should do something, prove something. Nothing we can do for him personally, what with being dead."

She heard it, barely, before Anna moved out of earshot. Little more than a whisper. Anyone else might have mistaken it for the wind, or the breathing of the horses, but Elsa would know her sister's voice in a blizzard. In a pack of roaring lions. She heard it.

"Good."

Hans had been right, as he usually was. When Elsa opened her eyes the next morning she had felt if not refreshed then at least something approaching human.

Anna hadn't been in the bed though. Her absence had been like a hole in her heart.

"There are more and more of them. He's right about that," Hans said, as he sat down in the chair closest to her. He tapped a hand on the wooden table. "It isn't bad, not yet, but there's a…division…forming. Not so much in the town and close to the castle, but in the villages out in the forests and plains there's something happening."

"Bad?" Elsa asked.

"Nobody's saying 'pick a side' yet, but…" Hands said, and put his hands out, palms-upward. What can I say?

Elsa sighed tiredly, and stared around at the room they were in as she gathered her thoughts.

She needed to do something about this room eventually. Her father had used it for meetings when he was alive. Arendelle had never used councillors or permanent advisors like other monarchies. King Agdar had always preferred to bring in the people actually involved in disputes rather than hear them at second-hand. He had told her once, sitting on his knee, you couldn't judge a man until you looked him in the eyes. He said it was more time-consuming on the crown and on its subjects, but that was a good trade for fairness and justice. When he had died Elsa had the tapestries and cloth taken from the room and stored – seeing them hurt just a little too much – leaving the wood and stone-work bare. The room was cold now, and she barely used it. Come the coronation that would change. She'd need her own symbols made up and embroidered. The crocus would always be there but some most kings added their own small symbol or seal to it. She would need to decide on that soon, too.

A year and a half.

"Are you returning soon?" Elsa asked.

"The Southern Isles need their prince. All of them, it seems," Hans replied with a wry smile. Elsa had noticed that smile come and go whenever Hans mentioned his hometown, but she didn't want to offend the man by asking. She recognised the bitterness there because she had felt it herself. Hans reminded Elsa of Elsa. In the six months since they had first met at Elsa's nineteenth birthday the man had proven himself if not a friend then at least someone…understanding. In a field of princes and dukes all watching her like a hawk and wondering if they would be the one, Prince Hans asked nothing of her. He was unthreatening. The Southern Isles were too far away to be of any risk or much help to Arendelle, hugging Denmark like a remora hugged a shark, and Hans was far too junior to ever be considered a match for Elsa, even assuming she had wanted to…anyway.

He was like Kristoff. He wasn't afraid. To Elsa that carried more weight than all the crowns in Scandinavia. She'd tolerate the occasional whispers about the two of them if it meant she had another voice to confide in that didn't treat her like glass about to shatter or a powder-keg about to erupt.

"Leif may be right however," Hans said, and Elsa realised she had missed an entire conversation.

"Sorry?"

"About the…trouble."

"There won't be any witch hunts in Arendelle, Hans," Elsa replied.

Hans leaned forward in the creaky old wooden chair. "That's the problem your highness. They don't need to search for a witch to burn. They have one."

He was right of course. He was absolutely right, and that was what made it infuriating. "There's nothing I can do about that," she said. "I won't apologise or hide who I am, or what I can do." Never again, father. No matter how many torches or nooses.

Hans looked at the queen with something between pity and sadness. "It will get worse."

"We don't know that."

"'The devil will never sit the throne of Arendelle', was I believe the phrase he used."

"He was one man."

"One man and a village. You can't avoid this Elsa…" He paused as he used her name, as if asking permission, and she nodded. "From their point of view they have proof of the forces of evil, and she's one and a half years away from taking the throne."

Elsa resisted the urge to say that's not fair, but barely. "I don't want this erupting into some kind of…religious war or anything."

"People like Leif might not agree with that." Hans reached into a pocket on his light blue jacket and brought out…

"Leif and the others know not to cause trouble," Elsa replied, looking at the small runestone pendant. She could have just had them all banned. Maybe it wouldn't have solved the problem but it would make her feel better.

God, why did it always have to be…something? She had thought that maybe when she escaped the castle things would change. Her eighteenth birthday had almost been flawless, had almost let her really come out from behind the walls she had been hidden in all her life. This trip had almost gone perfectly. All she wanted to do was…was what she had always wanted to do: She wanted to grow up, to take the throne, to lead and serve Arendelle as best she could. It seemed like the closer she got to that goal the more obstacles were put in her way. If she proved the existence of the Devil then maybe all this hardship was an existence of a God stopping her. Maybe she should lock herself in a tower like an old witch and let Anna take the throne, assuming her name wasn't tainted just as badly as Elsa's, and that thought made her blood run cold.

No. She would never deny who she was again. One way or the other she would solve this.

"Maybe you should consider reducing your time outside the castle walls. Maybe-"

"No."

Hans looked up in surprise at the steel in Elsa's voice, and saw twin blue diamonds staring back at him. "Your highness?" This did not feel like a good time to use her given name, permission or not.

"I made a promise to Anna that the castle gates would never be shut again. I won't break it, ever."

"Your highness, remember public knowledge of your...your power is still fairly recent. Maybe people just need some time to get used to the idea of a queen who-"

"They have a year to get used to it!"

"Your highness, please…" Hans whispered.

"What?!"

"My hands are frozen to the table."

Elsa drew in breath like she had punched and looked down. Hans' gloves were tinted blue where they touched the wood of the desk. A second later and he was wrenching them free with a hiss and rubbing them, but… "I'm sorry, you didn't deserve that."

"I understand it's frustrating."

"Do you?" She asked, more sharply than she meant to.

Hans blinked, and stayed silent for a second. Then: "I'm the youngest brother of thirteen your highness. I'm smarter than half of them and more suitable than... Well, I know what it's like to feel chained to something you have no control over." When he spoke now, she could hear the bitterness there clear as day.

Elsa didn't reply. There wasn't really a need to. She just stood. "I'm sorry your grace."

"Hans, please."

"I'm sorry Hans. I've been…it's been a trying few days."

"Your highness?"

"Elsa," Elsa said, on impulse. "Too many titles get in the way."

Hans smiled. "I agree completely. Elsa?"

"Yes?"

"If there's one thing I've noticed from my pleasant time here, it's that you seem to…take strength, shall we say…from a certain princess. Go and see your sister."

She nodded, and turned and walked out, trying to keep her hands from rubbing together from sheer nervousness. She forced them to stay apart, like quarrelling children.

That isn't who I am anymore.

She had almost managed to convince herself.

"Anna? Can I come in?"

Of course came the muffled answer through wood, and Elsa opened the door as gently as she could.

Anna hadn't been in the bedroom. She hadn't been down at the stables. She hadn't even been in the drawing-room that they had spent so much time in, sat at their mother's lap as the fireplace roared.

She remembered this room, even though she hadn't entered it in over a decade. It was still the same as the last time she had been here, when it had been dark and stormy and she had been barely old enough to realise how important that night would be. She remembered looking through huge glass windows at a mountain. She remembered her father's words, even now.

This girl is Anna, and she's your little sister now.

The room had been stripped of everything but the bed, as if the king and queen had known it would never be called upon to see another birth. The bed had stayed though, covered in a white cloth to keep it safe from rot and moths. To Elsa though it looked like a burial shroud. Anna stood by it, dressed in a simple woollen green dress. One hand was on the bed, the other was clutching something white and red. The nightgown, Elsa realised.

"Do you remember?" Anna asked, not looking up at her sister's approach. There was a sadness in her voice that Elsa couldn't place but made her hurt just to hear.

"Of course I do," Els said, walking towards her sister slowly, as if she was treading on thin ice. She wished Anna would look up at her, instead of at the shroud-wrapped beddings. "It was…it's the most important thing I remember."

"I remember too," Anna said.

"What? I mean…I…"

"Not really remember of course," Anna said, trailing a finger along the headboard. "But there are…there are feelings there. Pictures in my head you know?"

"What do you remember?" Elsa asked, almost holding her breath in the sudden anticipation that gripped her.

"Not much. There were…shapes. And sounds. I probably cried a lot."

"No, you were quiet," Elsa said, the memory suddenly pushing through to the forefront of her mind as clear as day. "You just watched us all."

"I remember you," Anna whispered, and turned. In the darkness of the room Elsa would have sworn her green eyes were glowing. "I remember I looked up at you and father and mother and I felt safe."

"That was all I ever wanted," Elsa said, and wrapped a hand around Anna's side. "For both of us."

"I know I should feel bad about it, but I don't," Anna said, and both of them knew what she was talking about.

"It wasn't your fault," Elsa said, glancing down at the bloodied nightgown in Anna's hand.

Anna twisted towards her sister so that Elsa had to let go, and looked at her full-on. "Yes it is. I did it Elsa."

"Only because I gave you-"

"No," Anna said fiercely. "I wanted to. He was hurting you and he was going to kill you and I couldn't let him. He was…I wanted to."

"You shouldn't think like that," Elsa said, having trouble getting out every word. She felt…touched. Off-kilter.

"Didn't you want to do it too? When he was threatening people like that? Your people?" Anna asked.

Elsa didn't even think about lying. They were standing so close together she could feel Anna's breath on her face. It was hot, almost overwhelming in the cold air of the room. "Yes," she whispered.

"I know it's…I know older sisters are meant to look after younger ones."

"I tried," Elsa whispered.

Anna leaned in even closer, until their noses were almost touching. "You did. You always have Elsa. When I killed that bear years ago I knew you were behind me. When I was out in the forests I always felt you there, somehow. When I killed that man today – when I killed him Elsa – I wasn't worried because I knew you'd be there if anything happened."

"Always." She was entranced. Bewitched, and she meant every word. "Only for you." She would stand aside and let Arendelle burn if it meant protecting Anna.

"Did you mean it when you called me your knight?" Anna breathed.

"Yes." Oh god. "Yes."

"Then let me protect you too," Anna said, eyes half-closed. "I love you, Elsa."

And then all it took was a small twist of her head, and a small push forward, and before Elsa could move or pull back Anna's lips were against hers.

She would melt. She would just be still and melt right there, as if all higher function had been removed from her body. All she could do was stand there and feel as her sister's lips brushed against hers and Anna's breath flowed into her and down her throat like magma.

Anna shifted forward and the fleeting contact solidified and Elsa could feel her entirely, Anna's warm flesh against her own, and it was hot and prickly and made her feel like pins and needles were shooting through her face and she didn't know how to react. She wanted to pull away in shock, she wanted to push closer for more. Something thick and warm probed at her slightly-parted mouth and she didn't know whether she wanted to force it out or open up and let it all the way in as Anna's tongue lapped against her lips.

In the end panic won out over whatever feeling had come into her body with Anna's breath, if only for a second. She pulled away, stuttering as half her mind screamed at her DEMON WITCH CREATURE and the other half screamed YES MORE NOW. She imagined she could feel Anna's hot breath swirling around her still and as she breathed out it came back up through her throat and mouth, warming and burning her as it did so, and when it reached her lips the noise that came out of Elsa's mouth wasn't one she had ever made before. Something low and soft and keening that tickled at her and made her feel indescribable.

She stared slightly downward as Anna's tongue withdrew. She looked at Anna to see an expression of…she knew that look, had seen it once before, when she had caught her kissing the vanished servant-girl. Anna looked like she wanted to devour her, or be devoured, and Elsa in that second wanted to let her. She looked at her little sister and felt something lurch in the pit of her stomach as Anna licked her lips and a shudder ran across the green-clad body from her top to bottom.

"I love you Elsa," Anna repeated, her voice thick and drunk. She just stood there and looked at her, not drawing back or pushing forward.

"I…" Elsa didn't know what to do or say. She felt like the heat she had taken from Anna was swirling inside her, spreading to every corner of her being. She felt hyper-aware of her own body, felt her arms shifting in front of her nervously, hands exploring each other in nervousness like they always did no matter how hard she tried to stop it. She felt her chest moving up and down and brushing against her corset as she breathed. She felt the tops of her thighs rubbing together through her skirts. It felt like any movement she made would break a spell Anna had cast inside her.

And through it all Anna stood passively, waiting for some response. The look in those green eyes wasn't worry, not yet, but Elsa knew it would be soon. She just wished she knew what to do about it. She opened her mouth, not knowing what she was going to say until she said it. "I don't…I don't know how…" was what it ended up being, and she didn't know it but she was parroting Anna year ago, and Anna knew it and smiled.

I don't know how to love you back, was what she wanted to say. She felt the heat sweep through her and settle deep in her belly where it pulsed like an angry thing.

"Do you love me?" Anna asked, no other question or rule mattering.

Elsa looked down into her little sister's eyes, almost in pain. "Yes," she said, and waited.

Anna just leaned forward and Elsa braced herself as the furnace raged on inside her. "You're all that matters to me Elsa, I won't let anything hurt you," she said softly, and kissed her sister gently on the cheek. "The monster's dead Elsa, your knight killed it. We're both safe now."

And with those words Elsa felt the tiredness and tension she had held all day flow out of her, like Anna had smashed a dam Elsa didn't even know she had built. She almost collapsed to her knees from exhaustion but she felt strong arms around her – Anna's arms – keeping her standing.

"You need to sleep. Everything will be better tomorrow. Everything," Anna said, and just hearing her say that made Elsa feel better. "Gerda."

Elsa looked around in shock as she realised that Anna was actually talking to Gerda, who was standing at the door. Light streamed in from the corridor where the head maid stood, Anna disengaged herself from Elsa when she was sure her older sister could still stand and walked over, Gerda watching the both of them, concern in her face. Fear rushed through her for a second, but only for a second as her heart reached up to her brain and said I don't care.

"Gerda, my sister has had an incredible day and is exhausted, and she needs a good night's rest all to herself, without any snoring sisters." Anna turned back to Elsa, her face outlined by the light from Gerda's lamp, and the expression there… "Can you please help her to the bedroom? And make sure she stays there, at least until afternoon? Prince Hans and Captain Leif and the others can surely wait a few extra hours. Post guards if you have to."

"Of course Anna, of course," Gerda said, not seeing Anna staring back at Elsa with green fire in her eyes, and Elsa thought; how can she not notice? "And yourself?"

Anna smiled, a perfectly innocent smile. "I'll spend the nights here, for as long as it takes for Elsa to put this night behind her."

"I'll have servants bring some things through," Gerda said.

"Can you give us a second?" Anna asked, and closed the door gently. She walked towards Elsa, who watched her transfixed. Her hair swaying in the gloom of the night, the way the material of her dress shifted and crinkled with every step. The way it swayed from side to side with the movement of her hips.

"We're both tired," Anna said, and when Elsa opened her mouth to reply Anna held up a single finger to them. "Maybe it's that. Maybe I'm crazy. Maybe we're both crazy. Maybe…" she laughed, bitterly, and looked up into her sister's eyes. "I love you Elsa. I love you. I don't care if it's wrong. I don't care. I feel better around you. My heart feels complete around you. I feel more around you, like when we're apart the world is…darker." She held a hand up to her heart. "I know there's a part of you in me, from the first time you ever saved my life. If you love me back and you know it, come here. Come here and prove it. Knock. I'll wait."

There was a part of her in Anna, there always had been and there always would be. If that was what was driving her towards her then she realised she didn't care. But she had to be sure. "What if…" Elsa started, not sure why she was asking when she was almost sure she her own answer to Anna's challenge.

Elsa could see that just saying the words brought Anna pain. "Then don't knock," she replied, and smiled in a way that almost broke Elsa's will right there. "I'll still be your knight, even if I can't be anything else."

There was a knock at the door, and Elsa nearly jumped out of her skin as Gerda's voice enquired. Anna nodded and said it's alright and then servants were pushing into the dim room with sheets and lanterns and furniture. Elsa let herself be led out and back to her – to their – bedroom. She glanced once more at Anna and saw her lips move before the door closed.

I'll be here.

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