Elsa is brought out of her dozing by a gentle knocking. She blinks rapidly, attempting to wake herself up. She warily rises, wincing as she rolls her stiff shoulders, stiff body really, then rubs her eyes to get rid of blurry vision. The queen can't really say she's exhausted but neither is she rested, not even nearly. A night of going in and out of shallow naps, propped by a wall is not comfortable nor restful. Yet still it is better than experiencing more nightmares.

"Is Her majesty awake?" Comes a tentative question from the door. Elsa suspects that the maid tasked with making sure she is up in time does not enjoy her job. As if she is afraid of something happening to her for waking the queen up. It saddens but also doesn't surprise her in the least. After her isolation and the... incident people must be hard pressed to regard her with anything more than suspicion and fear. Anna says it isn't so, that people do not hold anything against her, that they are mostly filled with curiosity and awe.

Elsa knows it to be wishful thinking. People stare at her with apprehension not awe in their eyes. How could peasants not see their loss as her fault, their misfortune as their ruler's doing? They are good people, and they are loyal. But how loyal will they be should they find themselves incapable of feeding their families? When accusing whispers begin? It's in human nature to seek culpability in misfortune. They need not look far to find it, should Elsa fail to secure the kingdom for real winter's arrival.

"Yes, I am." Her voice is hoarse, her throat dry. She picks up the pillow she left on the ground and puts it back on bed.

"Her Majesty's sister is awake and asks for company." This gives the blonde a pause, she glances outside the window to see the sun hanging low over horizon. Anna is up this early? That's... unusual, and why would she send a maid instead of just coming over herself. She can do that, Elsa thinks she told her as much, didn't she? She hopes she did. She moves to the desk and glares at the broken drawer. At the same time reaching for a hairbrush.

"Tell her to meet me at breakfast. Can she wait this long?" She deduces that there are entirely too many knots in her hair for the amount of sleep she got. Normally it should be a handmaiden that does this. The hair, the more troublesome parts of a royal attire, the likes. Her mother had one. Elsa herself thinks it would be a bad idea.

She halts her movements when she realizes that the servant on the other side of the wall has yet to answer. She feels her chest tighten in sudden anxiety as she moves to the door.

When she opens it, the girl on the other side looks like a deer in headlights. quickly dropping her eyes to the ground and giving a curtsy.

"What is it? Did something happen?"

"T-the medic-" Medic? "-said that it would be u-unwise for the princess to move, Your Majesty." Unwise? She fights to squeeze words through her throat.

"Unwise? Unwise how?" What happened? The maid looks like she's ready to bolt at any given moment.

"He d-didn't say, your Majesty, b-but the princess has a r-really bad cough and is weak after y-yesterday's accident and-"

Elsa tunes out when she hears this. yesterday's accident? What yest- oh no. No. Nonononono. Her breath hitches and her hands shoot out to hold onto door jamb. This... this is... was. Supposed to be a dream, surely it couldn't have... But it did and- and she forgot, and just disregarded it as a dream, she's a terrible sister... and... and...

And she feels something touching her arm. She jerks back and violently shoves it off.

She doesn't see it but the maidservant is terrified. She had been told by Mistress Gerda about some of the queen's needs and... the more alarming habits. For the lack of more suitable word. There are rules for servants that are not to be broken, don't enter the queen's room should she be inside, don't look straight at her, don't touch her, don't change the place of any item in Her Majesty's chamber. Above all, and she at first found it strange, don't mention queen's sister around her. Naturally, when she was told to deliver Princess' wish to her queen she felt apprehensive. When She didn't seem to realize anything wrong in her sister's condition was the moment the girl first felt fear grip her. What to do? What to say?

Then the door opened, and she was asked by the clearly vexed woman the exact question she hoped to avoid. Oh her Lady was quite obviously unstrung, as the gossip says her to be in the mornings, but the expression on her face, worry, fear, hope, weariness? It's hard to tell. But it was so intense that the girl is sure she never saw another like that. Unnerved, she stuttered her way through her explanation and then, in a snap of fingers, the queen is shivering, her eyes go blank, She tries to support herself on the jamb but doesn't seem capable of doing so, sliding down and curling into a ball.

The girl looses her composure and reaches out to the queen, only to have her hand swatted away. She backs away and glances sideways, panicked, not knowing what to do. The air is getting progressively more chilly and she can now see her breath forming clouds. A sure sign of Her Majesty's great distress. But what is she to do about it?

"Y-your Majesty?" Nothing "Queen Elsa?"Tearful eyes snap to her. "Your sister is alright, there is no need to worry, she's not h-hurt." she stutters out as her teeth start to chatter from the ever growing cold.

"She isn't?" And her eyes are just so... hopeful, and fearful. The girl rubs her arms in faint attempt to warm them as she struggles with herself not to leave, she wants to help but doesn't know how, and it's too cold to stay idle.

"No, she a-asked for Your Majesty's p-presence." Elsa blinks at that, seemingly struck by these words.

And struck she is. For when she heard that she had not dreamed about the drowning, she could think about nothing else. As if her mind disregarded the fact that her sister is mostly well and even wants to speak with her, instead focusing solely on the memory of hopeless waiting, of seeing Anna diving into water and not emerging. Of Her being dragged out from it, not breathing. Of Her being laid into a coffin and... and that didn't happen, so there is no point in thinking about it. She asks for her to come, She's alive. And She wants to see her.

The blonde can't force her body to relax just yet but looking at the shivering servant that brought her the news she realizes that she must have allowed herself to cool the air.

She's alive.

It's not the most encouraging thought given how She's in the... infirmary, but it will do. She looses the grip on her arms and repeats that one though in her mind, until she knows that her body no longer radiates cold. She then stands up and turns to the scared maid.

"I... thank you for the news. I will talk to my sister soon. Now leave."

And leave she does, after a hasty curtsy she makes a quick retreat to wherever it is that she needs to be (which happens to be wherever Kai or Gerda currently are, to inform them of what transpired, yet another one of many duties that the very few servants accepted into service must adhere to).

Elsa closes the door and slumps against it. She remains in this position for couple minutes, not thinking about anything, just allowing her mind to calm down on it's own accord. She then moves to grasp her journal and opens it at the page she wrote of the accident. Her eyes rest on the page, not really seeing the words. It was not a dream, this journal is supposed to consist only of dreams.

She rips the page out.

It wouldn't do to mix dreams with reality.

I love how this entire scene lasts like... 3-5 minutes. Maybe. I do hope I delivered at least a mild mindfuck by this and the last chapter. I had this in mind when I wrote chap 7 but was to lazy to get around to writing. What with the grand idea for "Downward spiral".