This chapter is pretty darn important guys; it might seem a bit out of the blue, but I plan on making this fic pretty long, so we'll be back to this soon
Chapter 19
"You'll be fine." Nikolai urged, brushing snow off my shoulder.
"If your mother is anything like your father, I will not be fine." More powder piled up on the floor.
"My mother is a lot kinder and far more reasonable than my father is capable of." I thawed the pile of snow and checked on Alyssa. Still sleeping.
"Will she notice?" I brushed my thumb across her chubby cheeks and smiled when she leaned into it.
"My mother has been sick for a long time now. Her thoughts are scrambled. As intelligent as she is, she won't even consider she isn't my daughter." I spotted a circle of frost patterning in the corner behind Nikolai and glared subtly around the room, trying to tell Jack to thaw it. I bundled Alyssa up and carefully lay her head on my shoulder.
"Wish me luck then." I smiled. He kissed my cheek and when he pulled away I felt a cold, invisible hand run its fingers across the spot. I forced my smile to hold when I left the room. The second I closed the door Jack made himself visible. "Stop it." He walked beside me down the hall, only visible to me.
"Well I'm sorry, but when you get your memory back, you get the emotions back. The fact that everyone thinks he is my daughter's father and that he's married to my almost-fiancée makes me angry. He makes me angry." I sighed. Just because he died to protect his sister, doesn't mean it was his choice to die and leave me alone, with Nikolai as the best option for my kingdom and nothing but my shattered heart in his way.
"How long are you here for anyway?" I shrugged, carful not to jostle Alyssa's head too much. I craned my neck to see the steps in front of me.
"How ever long Desmond wants us here." I spoke softly, careful not to let my voice echo, making it sound like I was talking to myself.
"Why do you cave to his word?" I gave him a sidelong glance as he floated down the stairwell while I had to concentrate on each step in front of me.
"He controls the trade routes to Arendelle, his son is my husband, he can easily use threats to force Nikolai into doing something to my Kingdom. The list goes on." Jack raced down ahead of me, waiting at the bottom of the staircase. He held the door open, letting cold air and a flutter of snow into the building. I wrapped the blankets around Alyssa even tighter and ventured out into the white courtyard. I kept my head down and followed the path through the snow to the other wing of the castle. Knocking on the door, the butler answered and ushered me inside. He closed the door on Jack, but the Guardian of many mysterious abilities simply floated his way through the door.
"I hate this castle. You know, one day, I won't be able to do that, but people will see me and hold the door until I enter." I tried not to laugh, but couldn't help the smile spreading across my face. I followed the butler's sharp steps down halls, through a grand gallery, up a flight of stairs and down yet another hall until we reached the tall double doors of the Queen's quarters. He bowed as I passed, leaving his colleague to the door opening business this time. I thanked both men before turning my back on them to enter the room. Ayana sat propped in her bed with a book resting on her knees. Upon noticing my entrance, she set it down, corner folded, on the dresser.
"Elsa, dear, how nice of you to finally come and visit us." She spoke in a way that made it seem like we'd met many times before, yet I barely knew her name until after I married Nikolai.
"It's a shame this couldn't have happened sooner, but I didn't want to travel pregnant or with a baby so young, you understand I'm sure. First child and all." She smiled and tried to crane her neck to see Alyssa's still sleeping face curled against my chest.
"I remember I worried a little when Albert and Viktor were young, but after those two I loosened the reigns a little, Elias was even born at sea when we were travelling to my husband's cousins' kingdom far in the west." She smiled and held out her hand to Alyssa, gesturing she would like to hold her granddaughter. I hesitantly pulled the blankets from around her face and lay her in the Queen's arms. Thankfully, her smile held, though her own fiery red hair hung neatly around her face, she didn't seem to notice there was a distinct lack of red in the baby's hair. Nor did she notice the lack of darker eyes or skin tones; she was too wrapped in Alyssa herself to notice any individual part of her. "She's just breathtaking, aren't you little one." She ran her thumbs over Lyssa's cheeks, cradling her head in her hands.
"I like to think so." I smiled at the scene, though Ayana isn't either of Alyssa's grandparents, it's a touching moment. I could almost think her own children didn't think to bring their babies to see her when they were this little.
"She takes after you, I see." I tensed and Jack stood up from where he was reclining on a lounge.
"Yes, we noticed that. The brown must be some of him though. My own family history of brown hair must have muted the red." I hoped she would buy my cheap explanation of her looks, which she must have because she continued to coo to the sleeping baby without a care in the world. Jack stood on the other side of the bed, watching Ayana with his daughter. I eyed him warily, sure if he caused any problems with his magic, I can explain it away as my own, if he reached out and tried to make contact however… I can't explain that away. I sent a glare in his general direction, careful to make certain Ayana didn't see me glaring at her sofa.
"Has she been sleeping well?" I smiled, focusing my attention on my daughter.
"Marvellously, better than I hoped. She goes down without a fuss, feeds as much as she should during the night and nods off again when she's finished." Ayana made faces at Alyssa, who was starting to stir in her arms. I saw Jack jump up and catch onto whatever constituted as wind inside the room and watch the scene from above. I shot him another look, to which he responded with a snowflake frosting my nose. I quickly wiped the snow from my face before Ayana looked up. Looking down to see my daughter's eyes flutter open, revealing their cocoa brown colour. I tensed when Ayana looked up to me, a curiosity on her face that was both intrigued and concerned, but I couldn't discern which was stronger.
"Brown eyes?" I smiled,
"My mother's eyes. Mine were altered by the magic, much like my hair." I forced warmth and truth into my smile, trying not to look to my left, where Jack decided to set down to keep an eye on Ayana.
"Such a mix of the whole family, aren't you young Princess?" She cooed to Alyssa, who made a gummy smile at her. I silently breathed a sigh of relief, but couldn't entirely relax until Jack decided to back away and stop almost dropping a blizzard on the Queen and our daughter. I stepped back a moment at the word princess. It's her birthright to be my heir; well it would be if she were actually my husband's child, but that title came with so many meanings and roles and responsibilities and enemies a baby did not need on her shoulders.
"Okay, the Queen has held my daughter and believes her blood runs through her veins, now can we go?" I couldn't smack him upside the head, nor could I answer him verbally, but I'm sure he got my message through just the look on my face.
"So beautiful." Ayana murmured. "Just like your mother, aren't you?" She lifted her up and rubbed their noses together. "I wonder what would happen to the two of you if anyone found out you are not my son's daughter?" She spoke as if she was still cooing meaningless words, but the second the words left her lips I froze all over and Jack raised his staff. "Oh please, Guardian, put it away." He all but dropped the wood to the floor in realising she could see him.
"How do you know?" She smiled, as though she would laugh hysterically if amused further.
"Aside from your poor excuse for lying and the confession of your lover, there is a blatant non-existence of my son in this baby. Sure, those who want to believe this is Nikolai's child can buy your stories, but to me your baby is nothing but a whore's child." Jack raised his staff again, but he didn't have the chance to use it before my hand grasped his arm. I slowly turned my head to look at him, flicking my eyes back to Ayana every few seconds.
"She is holding your daughter. Are you really going to hurt her?" It seemed as though he finally registered that this woman could potentially do something to Alyssa. Her fragile little body lay helplessly trusting in her faux grandmother's lap, making gurgling baby noises to the air as the tension thickened around her.
"How dare you marry my son, come into my kingdom, pretend to have thought yourself worthy of bearing one of my grandchildren, and think I would not notice your lies. Words of your relationship with the common boy before his so-called death spread far and wide my dear." I kept my hand on Jack's arm, unsure if he would strike despite the danger to Alyssa if he charged at Ayana.
"Here I was trusting your son when he said you were ill." She laughed, a shrill sound that sounded as if it had ricochet of a sheet of ice.
"Oh child, I am ill. I'm dying from something no physician can cure, which I have long accepted, but that does not mean I am weak. I still see the Guardians and I can still use my own magic." I stepped back with one foot, but the other stayed planted, wanting to rush forward and take my daughter from her arms. I started to feel something bubble up from within me before everything started to go dark, where am I? How can I breathe in this darkness? Where is my daughter? Where is Jack? The panic continued to spill out and I screamed, sinking to my knees. Without another second, I could see again and my irrational panic that I could now feel I had only touched the surface of settled into the pit of my stomach.
"You should be dead. You died for Emily. I know this story, we all know this story." Jack stood over Ayana, now sprawled on the floor with the staff pressing into her throat. I almost started to give into the panic again before I saw Alyssa curled up in the crook of Jack's other arm. Ayana's eyes flicked over to see me sitting back up. I got to my feet, and without needing to be told Jack kept his eyes and his entire focus on Ayana, but handed Alyssa to me.
"I didn't die Jack Frost. I jumped out a window. I survived. I would have died for my daughter, but once I survived that drop I ran and never went back. I thought she would have died on her own anyway." I stepped away from the scene, covering Alyssa in a blanket.
"What did you do to me?" I demanded, surprised how it mixed with an involuntary growl in my throat.
"Oh, my dear. Don't you know my story?" I trained my eyes on Jack's back, waiting for him to explain what he knew, who Ayana was.
"She isn't invested in this marriage for anything but the power. Her name is Ayana Pitchiner and, a long time ago she was married to a man named Kozmotis Pitchiner, and they had a daughter named Emily Jane. They were attacked in their home with the aim to destroy Kozmotis' spirit by destroying his family, but the only one there was Lady Pitchiner. In her love and determination to keep her daughter safe from the Dream Pirates, Lady Pitchiner grabbed a doll that beared resemblance to her daughter, who had snuck out to explore, and tucked it under her cloak just enough to make the Pirates think it was Emily. She jumped out of a window and to her death." His voice sounded as though he spoke through clenched teeth, which is highly likely to be exactly that.
"Only I didn't die. I found my way back to my husband in his new prison guard position and found myself dragged into the depths of a dark pit of fear and panic in a locked room. You know the story of the birth of the Nightmare King, but I doubt anyone told you it was me who whispered in my husband's ear to have him infected with Fearlings. I was the driving force for him to go after the Man in the Moon before he had the chance to rise up. What can I say? I panicked." She laughed again and filled the room with an ice cold feeling of dead, so harsh that Alyssa started to cry. "Not even the King and Queen of Winter, with their powerless baby Princess of all can bring down the Goddess of Panic."