A/N: Wow that was a long week! I had so much work and revision it was ridiculous! but it's finally Friday (frickle frack Friday I might add ;)) and I've managed to finish this chapter for you guys. I'm going to try and write a few more chapters over the weekend so that I have them ready in advance for when I get caught up with a massive work load again! Nothing else to add apart from sorry for the wait, I hope you enjoy this chapter and please leave a quick review letting me know what you think :P
WARNING: Incest, possible trigger warnings like last time as rape is mentioned/hinted at.
Chapter 8: Icy fears
It had been a slow morning so far. Elsa had woken up feeling the after effects of drinking several glasses of champagne, wishing she could go back to sleep and hide under her covers. Alas she was the Queen and she had duties to uphold, so she found herself sat in the large dining room picking away at some breakfast as she waited to see if Anna would ever show up.
It's not like she always turned up for breakfast anyway, known for her late starts the Princess could be missing all morning sometimes, only showing up just before lunch unless she had plans with Kristoff or Elsa. Today however, Elsa had hoped her sister would change her mind and make an effort to get up early, so that the two of them could talk about things. Sighing to herself and pushing her plate away from her, she realised it was foolish of her to wait any longer for something that wasn't going to happen.
She simply had too much work to do for her to be distracted by things like this. Elsa got up from the table, a servant taking her plate to the kitchen once she moved out of the way, and she made her way to her study were a large pile of documents awaited her.
Anna jolted up right in her bed. The sudden movement caused her head to flash in pain, it wasn't as bad as last night but it still stung. Getting over the pain she realised she was in a cold sweat, and her hands were shaking. She remembered her dream, a flash of silver, two harsh hands, hot breath and a probing tongue; it was more of a nightmare. Anna closed her eyes and hugged her legs to her chest.
Now that the alcohol was out of her system and her concussion had faded, she was struck with the gravity of the situation, and it just served to remind her how scared she was. Unable to really comprehend the events of last night while they happened due to her intoxication and head injury, she was now bombarded with the memories and it terrified her. Shaking her head with angry tears in her eyes she thought, 'Why didn't I just stop him?! I could have stopped him easily, I could have burned him!' but the truth of the matter was, she was too scared at the time to do anything, she had become numb to the world, an onlooker outside of her own body.
Taking a deep breath Anna supressed the urge to cry, and composed herself before getting up from the bed and going to the bathroom to check the mirror. A small whimper escaped her when she saw the big, angry bruise on her arm just below her shoulder; it was a dark red and was slowly discolouring to purple. Testing the skin she gently brushed it with her fingertips, flinching when pain shot through her at the touch, that was going to hurt for a few days and she wouldn't be able to hide it very well. Everything else looked fine and intact, there was a slight bump on her head but it was only noticeable if you knew it was there.
The strawberry-blonde returned to her room, her mind still full of different images she was trying to supress. She was stopped dead in her tracks when one in particular came to the forefront of her mind, her sister's burnt leg. Anna almost dropped to the floor and succumbed to her emotions when she also remembered the flash of silver, the dagger.
"Elsa."
A look of pure fear on Anna's face, she started to rush around trying to find something to wear that would cover the bruise as much as possible. Once she had found a simple green dress with half sleeves, the young woman was out of the door and running down the hall. She needed to get to Elsa but she didn't want to be questioned, the important thing now was that Anna needed to warn her sister.
Before it was too late.
"How many times does that man need to be told?! We are never going to do trade with him again!" Elsa complained to her empty study as she declined yet another trade offer from the duke of Weselton. That was the fifth time this week alone, and it was starting to irritate her that the stupid little man wouldn't take no for an answer. Mindlessly the Queen reached out to grab another document, but her hand grasped at empty space, looking up from her current paper she saw that she had finished all her paperwork for the day.
Smiling at her small accomplishment she quickly stood up and scooped the finished documents into her hands, before leaving the study and going to find Kai so that he could put them in their correct place. Now all she had to do today was, check everything in the castle was running smoothly, see to any town's people if they wished to have an audience with her, make sure everything was ok with Prince Eldric and fix things with her sister.
Elsa sighed as she felt her thigh twinge in protest as she walked down the hall. It wasn't sore, just an annoyance, after all she just used her powers to treat it straight away speeding up the healing process. She just hoped she would be able to talk some sense into her sister, and they would be able to fix this minor problem together. But until she actual had chance to speak with Anna they wouldn't be able to do anything about it, and considering she hadn't seen her sister all morning it was probably going to be a while longer till she would see her.
Just as Elsa was walking past the library, Kai walked out into the hall closing the door behind him, he bowed when he saw the Queen. "Queen Elsa, lovely day isn't it?" Kai addressed her politely as he waited for a response.
Elsa smiled back, "Yes it is, Kai could you please file these away" she motioned to the papers in her hands, "I need to go to the throne room to wait for Arthur, another meeting about the outer town."
Kai chortled and took the papers from her, "He still going on about expanding?"
The blonde just nodded, "Yes, I don't know why he insists, he knows I'm not destroying the surrounding forests just because he wants more land, it would upset the balance."
The servant shook his head and smiled at her before bowing again, "Well you best get along then, don't want to keep him waiting, I'll get these put away now and before you know it there will be more paperwork on your desk."
"Thanks Kai" she laughed in response and continued down the hall.
Letting her feet guide her, Elsa groaned as she thought of the upcoming 'meeting' with the stubborn man, he was almost as bad as the duke! She soon found herself staring at the door to the very place she needed to be, she opened it and entered the room, but due to her inner thoughts she didn't hear the rushed conversation going on further down the hall from where she had just come.
Looking from the Large throne to the long table in the centre of the room, to the large window at the other end, Elsa hoped that Arthur wouldn't be much longer as she wanted to get this inevitable argument out of the way, and get on with something that was actually productive. Finding herself muttering, "finally" under her breath when the door burst open, she was surprised to see her sister stood in his place looking dishevelled; all of a sudden Elsa was hit with a strong feeling of Déjà vu.
"Elsa, you're ok, you're ok, thank god I was so worried that something, something might have happened and I would have been too late, but you're ok, you're fine" Anna started rambling as she took further steps into the room getting closer to Elsa but not closer than a few steps between them.
Elsa was confused and it showed on her face, she started to walk towards Anna but her sister backed up keeping the distance between them, she was shocked, "Anna what's wrong, what are you talking about? Why won't you let me closer, is this about last night?"
Anna flinched at the reminder, but not for the reason Elsa thought as the Queen's expression changed to hurt as she saw her sister's response. Quickly trying to correct herself, Anna shook her head immediately regretting the decision as she flinched again in pain, she stated, "No Elsa, no, look we can talk about that later, but right now I need to tell you something…"
The blonde wasn't taking any of it though as she interrupted, "Anna please, you don't have to worry about it really, I'm fine you didn't hurt me, I fixed it up right away, please don't be scared, let me help you and we can fix this together." She tried again to close the distance between the two sisters, but Anna was adamant about keeping her personal space.
"Please just stay there, it's fine really Elsa, I just, please stay there you don't have to get any closer, just let me tell you…" Anna held her arms out to show Elsa she meant what she said, but in her hurried motions the sleeves on her dress scrunched up just enough to reveal the battered skin beneath.
Elsa gasped when she saw the swollen, red area of her sister's arm, Anna tried to pull down her sleeve quickly, but the damage was done and Elsa now knew she wasn't telling her something. While Anna let her guard down the blonde slowly made her way over to her sister, who noticed and started to panic but the older woman stopped and gently said, "It's ok Anna you don't have to be scared, please I just want to help you, will you let me help you?"
Anna bit her lip in nervousness, she didn't like where this was going, Elsa would find out what happened and then she would want nothing to do with her. Why would Elsa want to touch her again after she finds out that pig, that monster had his hands all over her? But the worried look Elsa was giving her showed just how much her sister cared about her, all she wanted to do was help her, she could let her do that right? Closing her eyes she nodded her head before she changed her mind.
Before Anna could say otherwise, Elsa moved over to her sister to look at her arm and could feel many emotions coursing through her as she saw the injury properly; it was clearly in the shape of a hand, with distinct finger marks where they had held onto her sister's arm. Anger filled her very being, when she finds out who did this to her sister, her Anna, she was going to make them rue the day they were ever born. She was about to start shouting and demand to know who had done such a thing, when she saw the tears welling up in Anna's eyes. Her anger dissipated to be replaced with sorrow and sympathy, she reached out to pull Anna into her embrace, but the girl flinched away for a second before allowing Elsa to hold her.
Gently Elsa stroked the trembling girls back in comfort and cooed softly to her, trying to calm her down. They stood like that for a while until Anna was still and resting her head against Elsa's neck, visibly more relaxed now than moments ago. Elsa whispered gently, "Anna its ok, you don't have to tell me until you're ready, just remember I will always be here for you, no matter what, ok?" she waited for the girls response, a few seconds later she got a small nod of her head, Elsa continued, "Ok good, now I believe you did want to tell me something when you came in here, do you still want to tell me?"
Anna lifted her head from the safe confines of Elsa's neck and nodded, she refused to make eye contact though as she stated, "you're not safe."
Elsa hadn't heard her sister correctly had she? Confused she asked, "What?"
Looking up into her sister's face Anna squeezed Elsa's shoulders as she repeated, "I said you're not safe Elsa! We need to get you out of here and away from him!"
Completely confused and a little worried about her sister she put her hands on top of Anna's and replied, "What?, Anna you're not making any sense, who's him and why am I not safe from him?"
Anna was starting to panic again and was looking around wildly to the doors as if she expected someone to burst through them at any moment. She exclaimed, "Last night he had a dagger, and he was going to kill you, Elsa you aren't safe here, we have to get you out of here!"
What? A dagger, kill her? Elsa was only just keeping up with her sister's panicked comments, trying again she calmly asked, "Anna you're going to have to tell me who if I'm going to be able to do anything about it."
"Prince Eldric! Eldric was going to kill you!" Anna shouted without warning, her statement echoing around the large hall as the two stood there staring at each other.
Elsa was astonished; Prince Eldric had attempted to assassinate her? Was her sister's wild accusation true? As Elsa thought about it the more it started to make sense, he had asked her on more than one occasion to do something that would cause them to be alone, a private tour of the castle, a stroll in the garden, everything added up. Then Elsa put two and two together and her eyes fell to her sister's arm.
Carefully she asked, "Was it him? Did he do that to you?"
Anna started to tear up again; Elsa had clearly hit a nerve and didn't need an answer to affirm her question. Then Elsa thought of something else that could explain her sister's peculiar behaviour, she again asked carefully yet with a tone of anger, "Anna, did he, did he touch you?" The girl in question let out a small sob as she held her head down away from the blonde's intense gaze. Elsa couldn't just stand here anymore, she was furious, she was going to find Eldric and when she did she was going to make him suffer for committing such an atrocious act to her sister.
As Elsa stormed towards the door, Anna tried to stop her by grabbing her arm and explaining, "Elsa no! He's too dangerous, you'll get hurt! He didn't, I mean, I stopped him before he…. Before he…" she couldn't bring herself to finish her sentence, a sob welling at the back of her throat, her emotions threatening to show again.
The blonde stopped and turned around quickly, pulling Anna into a tight embrace, which she didn't flinch from this time but welcomed it and let herself go, sobbing into her sister's shoulder. Elsa gently stroked Anna's hair and made soft, comforting sounds her own tears trickling down her cheeks, "Shush, shush, it's ok, I'm here, I will always be here" she placed a soft kiss onto the girls head, "Always, no matter what."
They didn't have long to share the touching moment before a guard ran into the room, looking around wildly until his eyes landed on the two royals, he then bowed and stated, "Your majesties" once the two girls separated from their hug, Anna tried to subtly wipe her eyes and Elsa placed her full attention on the guard, he continued, "Queen Elsa you are needed immediately!"
"What's the problem?" She asked, taking note of his serious tone.
"Prince Eldric was found coming out of your study with a dagger" he exclaimed with shock, Elsa copying this attitude with her expression, he continued, "He has been charged with treason and is now in the dungeons."