"Good afternoon, Estelle."
"Good afternoon, Mama."
Estelle closed the door quietly and walked towards the desk. Elsa was writing diligently on the parchments. Estelle could smell the faint scent of ink as the quill scribbled smoothly on the stretched dried goatskin.
"Yes, Estelle?" Elsa smiled weakly, looking exhausted. But still she put on a smile, trying to show her love towards her daughter.
"I…was thinking if you can tell me about the…the…"
"Yes?"
"The mikill stórhríð." Estelle whispered, hoping that her mother would tell her the truth.
Elsa's quill dropped, she looked up and stared at her daughter. Estelle whimpered and lowered her head, discovering that frost had grown onto the floor and formed a strong clear hexagonal shape of a snowflake.
"Did someone teach you to ask me about that?"' Elsa asked sternly, frowning badly.
Estelle shook her head with fear, and the frost under feet grew thicker.
"Why would you suddenly ask about it?" Elsa tried to calm herself, only finding out her hand was cool and wisps of flurries stayed in her palm.
"Why won't you tell me?"
How could she tell? Elsa did not want to remember the past. It was shameful and unbearable to her, and all these years she had tried to convince herself that it was nothing more than a dream, but it could not and would not fade away. How could she tell that she nearly kill her sister twice? How could she tell she had almost buried Arendelle under heaps of snow? How could she tell her own foolishness had caused so much trouble to everyone?
"Go back to your room." Elsa calmed down and said curtly.
"But Mama—"
"Go back to your room."
"But—"
"Estelle!" Elsa yelled.
The little princess looked at the queen with tears in her eyes. She looked at the ceiling, trying to stop the teardrops from falling. Once she could hold back her temper, she headed to the corridor and slammed the door, leaving her mother in her room. The study was filled with Elsa's snow flurries, and frost was on the walls, glowing in bright blue with warning.
Estelle waited impatiently in front of the clock. She watched intently at the swinging pendulum and listened to the silence in her room. She could feel her heart pumping vigorously, trying to make her mind fresh and sober.
She was alone in her dark room, with only a dim candlelight swaying unsteadily in the huge room. The flashbacks were filling up her mind, she could not understand what had made her mother in such state of panic and horror.
The clock rang, Estelle got up and went out of her room quietly. As she walked alone in the aisle, her heart pumped valiantly and her breath was deep and slow. When she reached the darkest place of the aisle, she stopped and faced the door with a few inches of distance. Her knuckles hovered on the door with hesitance, unable to resolve.
"Estelle, enter."
She opened the door and found herself in a dark room like hers, but it was eerie and ghastly, the fireplace snapped with threats, making her uneasy and apprehension.
"Uncle Henrik?" Her voice shook with trepidation.
Frost grew beneath her feet. The cracking sound of the ice became so obvious that Estelle did not dare to take one step more.
"Uncle Henrik?"
"Oh, my honourable princess. You've come."
Henrik came out from the shadows, he was grinning broadly. He patted Estelle's head before he settled down in the armchair.
"Sit down, child." He pointed at the chair near to Estelle.
Estelle looked at him with worries. She did not have the courage to sit down and relax.
"Sit down, I am not going to eat you."
Estelle sat down. The fireplace cracked again, and her muscles tensed up.
"So, shall we begin the story?"
Estelle nodded.
"It all starts with the coronation of your mother." He began. "I saw that with my own eyes, but I was standing far from her so I could not see what exactly happened. But your mother shot out ice from her hand, and spikes went across the floor. All the guests cried out in shock and backed away."
"Why did Mama do that?"
"Jealousy and anger, perhaps. Because your aunt wanted to marry a prince from Southern-Isles and your mother refused to bless the marriage."
"You mean my mother loved that prince from the Southern-Isles?"
"Probably." Henrik's grin grew broader. "And she went outside to escape from the guests. According to Duke of Weselton—"
"Weaseltown?"
"Weselton." He corrected her. "He said that your mother turned the fountain into a huge threatening ice claws and even shot ice at him, nearly killed him."
"My mother nearly killed someone? On purpose?"
"Your mother tried to dodge our pursue, and created a huge snowstorm on Arendelle, freezing the fjords and the mountains."
"That's the part I heard from Aunt Anna."
"Your Aunt Anna decided to find your mother, but when she came back, she was frozen, and from what the prince of Southern-Isles mentioned, your mother froze her heart. She even created a large icy snowman and made him attack everyone."
"You mean Marshmallow was created to kill?"
"I suppose so." His yellowish uneven teeth showed themselves and half-hidden behind the lips. "Your mother was originally taken to the dungeon, the prince tried to reason with her but she refused everything and broke the dungeon wall, plunged herself into the snowstorm, trying to flee. And the prince tried to kill your mother in order to stop the snowstorm, and your Aunt Anna sacrificed herself and temporarily became an ice statue."
"My mother actually did all those?"
"I heard that your mother nearly killed your Aunt Anna when they were small. If it was not her, your mother could not live. But then, your mother struck her sister heart with ice, almost taking away her life. She had attempted to kill her twice. And your grandparents died in a shipwreck after they discovered your mother's ice power. The power is a curse and leads to disasters."
Estelle could not believe what Henrik said. The thoughts struck her like a blow, and her mind was heavy and swollen.
How could she believe that her mother had almost killed Aunt Anna twice? How could she believe that the demure and loving mother was actually a killer? How could she believe that her mother had caused threats to her country and made everyone suffer?
When she returned to her bedroom, she fell onto her bed, lying there lifelessly while staring at the dark blue sky, with moonlight penetrating into her room and shone onto the floor.