A/N: And Chapter two! Wish me luck!
Chapter 2: Lightning meets Rock
A noise at the entrance to the study wakes me from my meditations. I had been waiting for around an hour, and after finding the paper and writing out what I could, I went through my personal moving meditations to rest and calm my mind. It would have been quite a sight; a man, dressed in pure white assassin's leathers, contorting in nigh-impossible ways while caged lightning arcs across, around and even through his body. As it was, I only glanced at the door briefly to see who was there. Seeing only the Queen and the Princess, along with a burly looking blond man with a large-ish nose entering, I move into still stance, and wait until they have closed the door again before I finish my sequence.
They hadn't noticed me yet, as I was clinging to the ceiling post in a lotus position, my power creating a magnetic attraction to the steel bars anchoring the roof to said beam. As they finally look up, I begin the last sequence, a hidden smirk on my face.
Dark violet lightning arcs from my hands, and forms a swirling vortex across my body as it loops around before freezing into gauntlets around my hands, crackling lightly. As this lightshow goes on, I drop to the floor, landing in a deep crouch, the same time as my gauntlets finish forming. As I stand up to my full height, around six feet tall, I mold my lightning once more into something else- A simple jewel the color of my lightning and eyes. As they look at me in shock, I pull out a tooled white leather wristband, a hole in the middle just the right size to hold my lightning gem. Putting my gift together, I present it to the Queen on one knee along with a paper out from my belt.
The princess seems to be almost vibrating in place with excitement, so much so that I wonder if she remembers that she is in the same room as an accomplished silent killer.
What caught my attention and fueled my humor was her response;
"Ooh, Elsa! He came with gifts and everything! Wait, wait, what does the paper say?! Tell me, tell me!"
Well, looks like I don't intimidate her at all. Huh.
Looking at me nervously, the now identified Elsa starts to read the letter out loud for the benefit of the others, ignoring the proffered wristband for now.
"I'm reading already Anna, so just take a breath and listen!" she scolds, before continuing.
"To the royals of Arendelle:"
"I am, indeed, the one known as the Silent Assassin, and I will not harm you. Although, I was sent here to kill you."
At this, the ambience of the room goes frigid. Literally- I can now see my breath. Woah, I might have wanted to start with something else.
Holding my hands out in the universal 'Wait!' gesture, I motion for her to keep reading.
Still glancing at me in fright, she complies.
"I was not myself these past nine years; I was under control of one General Czin of Weseltown. He has a tattoo on his arm that lets him take complete control of one person for up to nine years. He used it on me- my last assignment was given to me seven months ago, and was to kill the Queen and the Princess before ending my own life. The only reason that didn't work was because of his wording of the orders- it gave me some leeway in my mental prison, just enough that with my seven month trip and scouting, I was able to restrain myself from killing your guards, and finally break the control before I reached the throne room. After seeing me stumble as a result of regaining control, the others with me opened fire, as you remember. The rest you can recall for yourself. The reason I am still here is that you essentially offered me asylum; if that offer is indeed open, I would graciously accept."
As the queen lowers the parchment page, the room goes silent. The man is staring at me, inscrutable. The Princess Anna is looking at me with pity, and Queen Elsa…
Is, of course, looking at me in suspicion and fear. Well, it looks like she might send me away after all.
After a moment of silence, I stand up from my kneeling position and hand her the rest of the pages I wrote. She glances at them, and does not take them. Defeated, I slump, dropping them on the floor. After bowing to the two others, I sign a military goodbye, and focus my power once again. The Queen reacts to the emergent sparks with a wave of frost headed towards me, but I am as fast as lighting when I need to be, and I had zapped away before the ice could catch me. I had aimed for the highest point in Arendelle, the North Mountain, and arrived there to a most unusual welcome.
-Winter Lightning-
Back in the adviser's chamber, there was quite an uproar between the sisters as Kristoff stood by and watched.
"ELSA! HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO HIM! He was only looking for shelter and a place to stay! He had been manipulated and violated!" Anna cries, shocked by Elsa's actions.
Elsa, however, saw things much differently.
"Anna, he was probably lying! What better way to take down a kingdom than to place a famous assassin there, and then to have the ruler declare him to have amnesty?! The other countries would have placed such trade sanctions that Arendelle would have withered and died! Plus, he has powers too! Once he was done driving us to ruin, he could have annihilated us, Anna! I had to think of the kingdom! It was probably all falsehood, anyway. What better method to lie than to only be able to write, anyway?" she spat.
Anna, visibly horrified, recoils from Elsa's words. "You don't know that! You couldn't know that! …You could at least have tried to find out!" she exclaims.
Elsa, now looking tired from the intense argument, speaks wearily. "Anna, I have no way to know if he tells the truth or not. I simply couldn't take the risk."
At this, a silence comes across the room, as the royal sisters look down at the same time, both seeing the others point. Kristoff, his brow furrowed in thought, pipes up with something that had been itching in the back of his head.
"What if, and only if, Elsa, we could see if he was truthful?" He asks.
Elsa and Anna, both looking hopeful, ask in unison: "How?"
Kristoff replies, looking smug.
"Troll magic."
The sisters look at each other in shock and break down into relieved giggles. Elsa speaks first.
"Well, if Grand Pabbie can indeed see if his memories are truthful, then I could offer him asylum- in a way. I could put him up as a guest, give him a new name, records-"
Anna, beaming brightly, finishes for Elsa; "We could give him a new start, with nobody the wiser!"
All three smile and nod, then break up to try to find out where the strange man had gone, Kristoff heading out separately to prepare to meet the trolls.
-Winter Lightning-
'Well, when I arrived at the North Mountain, I was expecting cliffs and snow, not Ice Palaces and angry animated snowmen!' I muse as I dodge another sweep of a giant spiked limb. I dance backwards, and almost lose my footing on the slick ice floor of the palace. The giant snowman really wanted me gone, and had roared at me- then, before I could say a word, he attacked.
Risking a glance backwards, I see a large door. Seeing a chance to create distance, I take a chance. I zap myself over to it, startling the snow monster. Before it can roar or charge, I try to talk to it, making shapes of words with my lightning. Seeing them, it pauses for a moment, trying to make sense of them… then roars and charges me once more.
Great, a giant ice-brute that can't read. And even better, I only have enough juice left for one more zap. Looks like I gotta go anyway- I have a better chance to escape from the Arendelle castle, so I focus and try to zap to the biggest concentration of magic I can find, reasoning that Elsa's would pull me close. Well, that and the knowledge that I can break out of any prison they could build to hold me.
I disappear, and re-appear in a dirt clearing with lots of round rocks clustered in circles. The last thing I see before unconsciousness takes me is the biggest one unfurling into the shape of a small man.
Wow, getting ko-ed in weird places is getting to be a thing for me, huh?
-Winter Lightning-
Anna and Elsa were worried; they couldn't find any word of the man for days, so either he was hiding or was already gone. The ship the assassin's had come in on had been impounded, so he could only have left by foot- and it was winter. He wouldn't have made it anywhere. Worried, they asked Kristoff to take them to the troll village, thinking that Pabbie might be able to find him.
Heh, if only they knew.
The group was silent on the trip over, Anna worrying about the man and Elsa worrying about her reaction to the man, and what he would do when he saw her again.
Kristoff was more worried about the wolves. Practical man, Kristoff.
As the group came closer to the geyser fields, Sven began to become antsy. Kristoff knew what this meant, and urged him on. All too soon, the terrain became too rough for a sleigh, and they had to walk. As they slowed for a dismount, a nervous Kristoff confided his suspicions.
"Guys, we need to be careful. Sven here smells wolves, so we need to move fast. Got it?" At Anna's fearful nodding and Elsa's nervous "Yes", they continue on.
They covered half the remaining distance before the wolves caught up. The first sign was when Sven froze in place and stared straight ahead. Anna and Kristoff knew what that meant, and so they grabbed Elsa and the trio went back to back against Sven, watching for the wolves.
They didn't wait long; the hungry animals swiftly surrounded them, and soon they were hemmed in by a circle of snarling wolves.
Elsa flexed her fingers in preparation of using her powers.
Anna hefted the lute she had grabbed.
Kristoff held his icepick, ready to swing.
The wolves charged.
Elsa yelled in panic, and froze one.
Anna grimaced and bowled one over.
Kristoff adopted a snarl of his own and swung at a wolf, braining it and sending it into the rest of the pack, giving the trio room to maneuver.
I awoke to the panicked yell.
The trolls didn't know what to do with the stranger who arrived in a bolt of lightning; they could tell he was mute, and had suffered great mental trauma; it was so great Pabbie could see it without skin contact.
They REALLY didn't know what to do when I suddenly stood bolt-upright at a faraway yell and proceeded to rush towards it at inhuman speeds.
Something urged me onwards, something primal. My powers flared wildly, fully charged for the first time since I had been freed.
I flickered through the geyser fields, homing in on the sounds of snarling and the yells of panic and rage. It is only seconds before I arrive, and it is a good time for me to appear, it seems. Kristoff is holding his own, broad swings of his icepick keeping the wolves well back. Anna was doing well, too, as she had placed her back to a tree and was swing wildly with the lute, keeping the wolves at bay in the same manner as Kristoff.
Elsa would have been doing the best, as she had multiple frozen wolves around her, at least half the pack. But she had failed to see the trio approaching silently from the rear, one of which was leaping for the neck now.
The primal feeling rises in me, and I slip into my flow without thinking. My rage and protectiveness make my instant movement much louder than my normal "zap", instead making it a full-blown thunderclap.
I appear between the Queen and the wolf, my arm outstretched. I snatch the wolf out of the air, and hold it up, growling myself. I don't notice until later that I was making a sound- it was metallic-sounding, but it was a human sounding growl.
The pack stops at this sight- I must be holding the alpha. Still snarling, I push spare current to my eyes and make them light with red, angry lightning lock gazes with the captured wolf. With a whimper, it tucks its tail between its legs and lowers its gaze.
Satisfied that I will not be attacked again, I put the wolf down. He rejoins the pack, and they melt off into the woods as the group turns to look at me.
Kristoff looks at me approvingly, having probably deduced where I had been- I smelled the valley on him, so he had at least been there before too.
Anna is just drained, but she gives me a smile of thanks as she leans on the lute. Feisty one, that.
Elsa looks… relieved? Huh. Wait, she's talking.
"Well, it looks like you have saved me again, sir. I do believe that I would, indeed, like to offer you amnesty, on the condition that you come with us to the valley of the Trolls and let them inspect your memories and mind for falsehood."
Ok, so the choice is this; freeze to death in the wilds, possible prison time, or a magical lie detector?
I nod so quickly that my head must have almost been a blur. The sight causes a recovering Anna to lose the breath she had regained in gales of laughter; Kristoff chuckles too, and even Queen Elsa lets out a soft giggle at my antics.
With the destination set, I take the lead, remembering where I need to go from my mad rush outwards.
After around a half hour of walking at a normal pace, we come across the trolls. They see me in the lead, and back off slowly, wary of me. When they see that I am escorting Elsa, Anna and Kristoff, they break into relieved cheers and invite us all in. After a barrage of questions aimed primarily at Elsa and myself, as we were the unknowns, the one I was told was Pabbie gestures for silence.
"Well met, Queen Elsa. What brings you to me this wintry day? I have not seen you since that day your sister was struck by you power."
I spot a small flinch at that comment, but she pushes past easily. "Well, Grand Pabbie, I have come for a request. This man here" she points to me, and I give a shallow bow "Is mute, and I need to confirm some things he wrote were true, as well as his history and intentions. Could you do this for me?"
Pabbie looks solemn at this. "While I can delve through memories, true, I would not do this on a whim. It causes the person to relive the events as they come, and so it can be dangerous for their mental health." At this I snort, and point at myself, as if to say, "Who, me?" then shrug, and spin my finger around my temple while going cross-eyed and hanging my tongue out.
This causes all assembled, even Pabbie, to laugh at my antics. Mood sufficiently lightened, he asks me something else in a serious tone.
"Young one, do I have your permission to do this? I will not perform the magic, otherwise, Queen's order or not."
Gladdened by his show of support, I bow deeply, and nod, taking a knee.
Pabbie takes a deep breath, and projects a magical oval into the air, blank for the moment. "All your memories will be shown and condensed into the key points, on that surface. I will start from wherever you first concentrate. If Elsa wants to see earlier, I will pull you back to then. Ok?"
I nod. My life is not the best story, but I am not ashamed of my earlier days.
He places his hands on my head, and winces at the remnants of the curse sitting there. He kneads his hand around, pulling the lingering bits away, and casts them into the sky; my mind feels lighter. He looks at me and smiles. "That chore over with, let us begin."
I concentrate on my earliest memory and feel Pabbie startle because of my willingness to reveal my whole life.
Then I feel it all again.
I weather through it all, from my painful, sickness filled early years, all the way through my joyous days with Sensei. I revel in my memories of my Dojo, my own home, built with my own hands.
I grit my teeth as the memory of the attack surfaces, and brace myself for a great dark deluge.
The dungeon.
The Hand.
The KILLING.
I weather it all, only kept sane by Pabbie's reassuring presence and my own strength of will.
My power sparks around my body as I recall, but I ground it all out into the sulfurous sands around me, making a sheet of sparkling glass just underneath the surface.
Finally, it ends after the happenings of the royal study. The strain of the recollection is too much for me, and as I come to consciousness, I feel hot tears on my cheeks, and my throat is sore, as if I had been screaming.
It turns out, I had; hoarse, near inaudible breaths of despair.
The next thing I recall is Elsa, rushing over to hug me, whispering comforting nothings into my ear as I fall to sleep, completely spent.
The last thing I hear is my name, said for the first time in nine years, and something I still can't quite believe.
"Raiken, you will have a place here, always."
A/N: Ehh? Ehhhh?