Chapter 13: Memories of Magic
Anna stared in incomprehensive disbelief at the figure of Queen Idunn standing on the balcony.
"I… what … how … Mama?"
"That's right, Anna. I'm here. And look around you. See this castle? It's all for you."
"I … what … how?"
"Perhaps it would be easier to explain if … reach into your pocket."
Anna reached into her pocket and found the necklace of crystals that Kjerstin had worn. She must have slipped them into her pocket before leaving. Evidently Kjerstin was a skilled reverse-pickpocket.
"Now squeeze the blue stone and close your eyes. Are they closed? Now keep squeezing the stone, but open your eyes and look into mine."
Anna looked up at her mother, and saw that her eyes had become a pair of sapphire gemstones. The vision of everything but those eyes began to slowly darken, until all she saw was the pair of crystal eyes. She felt dizzy, like her legs would give out at any moment. Pins and needles crawled up her arms. She kept concentrating on the sight of the crystal eyes. Her legs now felt like they were swimming in a turbulent current, being pushed and pulled through continuously changing tides. Still she started at her mother's eyes, blue-on-blue in an otherwise empty field of view.
But the eyes started closing, and with them Anna's vision fading completely to black. Now her whole body felt like it was being tossed about through crashing waves.
Anna opened her eyes and found herself in the cabin of a sailing ship. The cabin was painted with purple-and-teal rosemaling—the royal cabin. But the cabin wasn't still—it yawed and pitched, knocking trunks rolling, stream their contents across the floor. Behind her, she heard the crash of glass shattering. She tried to turn her head to the sound, but found she had no control over the muscles in her neck. She tried shouting, but couldn't control her mouth.
She heard shuffling to her right, someone digging through books, and heard her father's voice shouting, "I've found it!"
Without willing it, her head moved, and she saw her father holding a thick leather-bound tomb titled in runic lettering. Anna felt her lips move of their own accord, and her mother's voice emanating from them. "Can it still these winds? Does the magic have the power to stop this squall?"
Anna suddenly realized that she was seeing out her mother's eyes—reliving her mother's memory. That's what the blue crystal's magic had done! Anna couldn't control the body she was seeing out of, only view the world like it were some sort of theater set up for her. These were her memories from three years ago, during the fateful sea voyage. She could even hear her mother's recalled thoughts.
Please, get us back to our daughters.
There was a look of guilt painted on her father's face. "I'm afraid it cannot. I could never decipher … and the knowledge of magic was so arcane and convoluted … But I know this: the power in this book is so feared by Njordr and the Atlanticans, that they would never allow it in their realm." He walked up to Idunn and thrust the book into her hands. "As long as you hold the book, the merfolk will carry you to the shore—just to be rid of it. This is your passport back to Arendelle."
Idunn looked at the book, then up at Agdar. "What about you? The kingdom needs its king."
She made to give the book to him, but he pushed it back, saying, "No. The kingdom has governors. But the princesses need their mother."
The look they shared lasted only for a moment before they were knocked sideways as the ship twisted on over the great waves of the storm. Water started pouring in through the walls. The book of magic was floating at Idunn's feet, dropped during the tumult.
"You must keep hold of it!" Agdar shouted, as he picked the book up. "This book is the only …" He trailed off, muttering to himself, "shards of the mirror … they would work." He opened the book to the front cover, and started tearing at the binding.
Idunn looked on, only having time to wonder, why is ripping… before the king blew at the torn page. A dozen grains of sand flew through the air at her, a few of them landing in her eyes. On reflex, she closed them and started rubbing at the lids.
While her eyes were closed, she couldn't see the world around her turn upside-down. She only felt the twist of the ship throwing her once more across the cabin, and heard the deafening crash as the hull shattered in the force of the waves, then feel the cold water surging into the room, bubbling and splashing through the shattered walls of the ship.
The next thing she knew, hands were pulling at her, carrying her through the water. She opened her eyes once they breached the surface, to see a dozen merfolk swimming below the waves, escorting the ship down into the abyss. Had they been following the ship the whole time? Called as guards against the magic cargo?
Three mermaids breached the surface and grabbed at the Queen, two pulling her by the arms and the third by the hair. Anna, watching with rapt attention, could feel the sting as the mermaids jerked and twisted in the waves. Anna shouted out in pain; this time she heard her shout as the Queen cried out too. But Anna could only watch as one of the mermaids gave the screaming woman a disdainful look, grabbed a floating piece of the wreaked ship, and brought it down crashing onto her head.
The world was ringing as it faded again to black.
Anna opened her eyes, to see a bright Arendelle sun looking down on her. That wasn't all looking down on her. An old woman, with shoulder-length grey hair, wearing a sundress and flowered hat was smiling down at her.
"Oh, my, my! If it isn't the Queen." The old woman said. She ran a finger over Anna and her mother's forehead. Everything became hazy for a moment.
She felt her mouth open and her mother's voice saying, "Where … where am I? And who are you?"
"I'm afraid you've had an accident in the ocean. I had only come to collect this." She held up a heavy leather-bound book. "But don't worry, I'm going to take you to my garden. My name is Hyacinth," the old woman answered.
"I'm …" Idunn tried to answer, but paused. Anna could feel a struggle inside her mother's mind to try to find an answer as simple as her name.
"Oh, don't worry who you are. From now on, you are simply my guest."
The two strolled through the woods. But there was something off about these woods, Anna noticed. Everything she saw seemed somehow … uglier. The trees she knew were perfectly healthy, but every decaying branch was somehow more noticeable. All of the bugs that Anna normally wouldn't notice stood out as though they were painted bright orange. Even the flowers in Hyacinth's hat—bright roses and daffodils, Anna loved roses and daffodils!—seemed drab. It was as if she had a heightened sense of ugliness. Only it wasn't Anna's sense; it was her mother's.
Anna could feel the Idunn of three years ago thinking, how did I end up here? Why am I wet? There was a boat … there was a dusty book … there was something important about the dust. But as she walked with Hyacinth, even these thoughts became hazier.
That was a particularly strange sensation. Anna could remember everything that had just happened on the boat with the shipwreck, but this mind she was occupying had lost its ability to recall anything.
The memories jumped ahead now, and the pair were standing just within a picket fence near a cottage surrounded by flowering bushes. "I hope you don't mind, we have another guest as well," Hyacinth said.
As an aging man in oily overalls, wearing a midnight blue bandana over greasy, hair walked around the corner, Hyacinth made her introduction. "Your Majesty, I'd like you to meet Askel. Askel, you may refer to our new guest as Your Majesty."
Askel grunted a hello.
"Oh, that won't do at all," Hyacinth said, with a wave of her arms.
In response, Askel dropped to one knee and offered a "Pleased to meet you, your Majesty."
But while Hyacinth was waving her arms, Idunn could briefly see a vision—the world from Hyacinth's eyes. And there was something unusual about the gestures that Idunn saw. As though they were performed with a very careful rhythm, that almost hinted at … witchcraft.
The vision jumped several more times, and Anna could only pick up small pieces. The change of the season outside the picket fence from summer to autumn, but a continuous green growing season within the grounds. The flowers grew bright and fragrant, but Idunn still perceived them as ugly and foul.
Now Idunn was sitting down, sipping tea, with her eyes closed. Anna felt the warm feel of the teacup, and pleasant taste of rosehips mixed with chamomile. When Idunn opened her eyes, the teacup looked old and worn, the tea looked brackish—but the taste and the feeling of warmth were still lovely.
Several more jumps in the vision, as the seasons outside continued to change to winter then spring, but the gardens within the picket fence stayed summer. On many occasions, Hyacinth would use her hypnotic witchcraft to influence the mind of Askel. And every time she did, Idunn would see through her eyes as she performed the magic, slowly piecing together the all of the gestures, and even the mindset that this sorceress used to snare his mind.
Finally, Idunn decided to try the magic for herself. She found a bird perching on rosebush, although it appeared to her as a flying bag of disease and droppings on a vine of thorns. Could she make it hop on one foot? She looked at the bird, concentrated, and waved her arms as she had seen Hyacinth do. To her surprise, she felt something happen to her eyes. They were drying out, and felt more … solid? Something in them stung, a vaguely familiar sting.
Anna remembered the sting was the same as getting the grains of sand lodged in her eye. The stinging was in the exact same spot. But for Idunn, those memories were locked away.
But even more surprising than the stinging in her eyes was that the bird started to hop on one foot. Switch feet, she thought, and the bird switched feet. Well, this was interesting, but perhaps best stored away for another time.
As the seasons outside continued to change, Idunn had several more visions of magic. A blue-painted bedroom with walls frosting over as white-and-blue light flashed from gloved hands. A valley of small rock trolls conducting a symphony of geysers and steam vents. Eels with yellow eyes deep below the ocean. A frozen bowl of soup in that same blue-painted room. Smoke and lights dancing overhead as a young man and his reindeer watched from below.
Finally summer came back to the world outside the picket fence. And one day in June, Askel, Idunn, and Hyacinth were sitting outside, enjoying the sun and eating cucumber sandwiches, when from the shadows in the woods, a dozen men in midnight-blue bandanas dove over the picket fence, grabbed Askel, and made to run back to the woods. Wait, some of them looked like women, but it was hard to tell with their faces hidden.
"No, you don't!" Hyacinth shouted. She waved her arms about, casting spell after spell at the bandits. Idunn could see through her eyes that none of the spells were catching their targets.
A woman with straw-blond hair walked up to Askel, pulled down her bandana and shouted "Papa!" then ran to the man and gave him a hug.
"Kjerstin?" He asked, as realization grew across his face. He turned back to Hyacinth and shouted, "Seven years! For seven years, you've kept me here, clouding my mind. Hiding my memories! Well, now I have a band of bandits, and it's time you get your comeuppance."
Hyacinth glanced about, as if calculating how much her magic could protect her, then deciding it wouldn't, turned and made a mad dash for her cottage.
"So," Kjerstin began. "Should we set fire to it?"
"Who's to say a fire would do anything to this sorceress?" Askel answered. "No. Let's just leave. Her hypnotic spell was her only threat, and now that's broken."
Idunn knew that Hyacinth had been keeping Askel under her spell, but for the first time a new thought occurred. Am I under her hypnotic spell as well?
She walked over to one of the windows of the cottage and saw her reflection in it. She waved her hand at it, and felt her eyes drying. For the first time, she saw that this dry, stinging came as her eyes crystallized into faceted gems. She thought a command at the reflection: You will leave Hyacinth's garden.
"Oy Askel! What 'bouts her?" another bandit with stumpy shoulders and untidy brown hair called out, pointing at Idunn.
"I imagine Hyacinth would hate to lose her other guest. So bring her along!"
"Who is she," Kjerstin asked.
"She's … Her Majesty." Askel wore a confused face.
"What? She some sort of queen? We ain't got no Bandit Queen!" the brown-haired man said.
I must leave this garden. "I can be a bandit!" Idunn shouted back. "And I can certainly be a queen."
"Yeah, you a bandit ay? You know, we bandit's steal stuff. What you goin' steal?" Brownie asked, derision in his voice.
"Anything."
"That a fact?"
"Just name it."
"All right, all right. Tell you what I've always wanted—a fire crystal!"