Ridgy returned to the Valley of the Living Rock just as the moon ended its nightly descent beside the North Mountain. The Messenger stumbled into the troll village with tiny, exhausted steps, carrying a basket half his size in front of him with both hands.
The community was quiet under the retreating darkness - its inhabitants returning to their nocturnal sleep schedule after the excitement of Kristoff's visit the previous day - and so the young creature arrival went without recognition. He hurried along the path through the dwellings, hoping that he, too, could get some rest soon. It had taken him a solid night of hard work to search for and gather the cures for Queen Elsa.
"Messenger," Grand Pabbie's gravelly voice greeted Ridgy as soon as the young troll had entered the hut, almost making him jump in comparison to the natural silence outside. "You made good time, I see."
The troll leader sat to the side of his home atop his bed of dirt. Kristoff and Sven were just to his side, dozing against the wall before being awoken by Grand Pabbie's voice. They had rested through most of the night's celebrations - sitting aside and conserving their strength, out of practice as far as dancing and feasting through the night went.
"Um, yes," Ridgy responded timidly.
The assistant approached his mentor and dropped the basket between them for inspection. Grand Pabbie took two steps forward and ran his stone hands through its contents. A bed of crushed nuts framed two golden petals - one more than he had even asked for.
"Excellent," the wise troll's tired eyes twinkled in the dimness. He removed the extra petal and placed it delicately on the ground beside his bed and then pushed the basket towards Kristoff. "It's all there," he explained."The royal physician will know what to do, I would expect."
"Thank you," the ice master stepped up from the wall and into a crouch on account of the hut's low ceiling. "Both of you," he smiled to Ridgy.
The bashful troll averted his eyes and gave his sides a embarrassed rub before nodding.
Kristoff picked up the basket with one hand and ran his other through Sven's fur. The reindeer sleepily joined him in walking towards the door.
"Tell everyone I'm sorry I couldn't stay, but I've got to get this back to Arendelle," the ice master said over his shoulder.
"We understand," Grand Pabbie answered knowingly.
Kristoff turned to view the two trolls for one last time once he had reached the hut's door. The elder was back to sitting on his bed; the younger had made a tiny pillow of dirt for himself at the opposite wall.
"I don't think I'll be gone for too long, though," the ice master admitted. "I have a feeling that Anna will want to meet with you sooner rather than later when I tell her what you said about restoring her memories, especially after Queen Elsa is all better."
Grand Pabbie nodded and yawned. "I will be prepared whenever she is ready."
"Thanks," Kristoff returned the gesture. He paused uncomfortably, refusing to move. It was always difficult to leave his family after a stay in the Valley. "I'll see you later, then," the ice master stammered.
"Yes," the old troll reassured his grandson with a kind smile. "Soon," he finished meaningfully, somehow knowing just how to put Kristoff's mind at ease.
Both Grand Pabbie and Ridgy settled into their sleeping arrangements, curling up into forms that left them indistinguishable from mere boulders. At last, the hut fell as silent as the village around it.
Kristoff and Sven simply watched the still forms for a moment.
"Soon," the ice master whispered to himself as he finally took the lead in ducking through the hut's exit.
Dee was an early riser. Daylight was never wasted on the farmstead, so she had grown to wake at the sun's first shine almost naturally over the years. Therefore, even though she found herself away from her home - laying in the slightly too-comfortable guest bed at Arendelle Castle - the woman snapped awake as soon as brightness streamed in through the suite's eastern window.
Dee glanced about the room. It all looked so foreign, so spacious, so expensive. It took her a moment to even remember where she was.
Once she did, however, the widow climbed off of the bed and set about making it with breakneck efficiency.
She dressed herself at a similar pace, taking on a frock from the room's humungous armoire. In her haste, Dee had neglected to bring any of her own clothing on her journey to the castle. The widow assumed that the selection Kai had delivered to her room late the previous night as a courtesy was made up of some of the queen's older garments.
After pulling on her chosen simple gray dress, Dee selected another from the rack - the second-closest to her preferred style, a functional reddish-brown affair - and placed it over herself in the nearby mirror, trying to imagine it on Queen Elsa. Smiling, she tucked the fabric under her arm. The widow tidied up the remaining gowns and swung the wardrobe's doors shut.
Dee rushed over to the guest room's desk and closed the gaping copy of Daniel and the Dark Mage atop it before securing the book in her free armpit and heading for the exit. She left the chamber looking like she had not even been there in the first place, only a few minutes after she had awoken.
Despite how early it was, Arendelle Castle's guest wing was not entirely empty even before the widow's arrival. Kai was already walking briskly in the woman's direction when she closed the door behind her.
"Mrs. Daleon," the servant greeted Dee with a confused look. "I didn't wake you, did I? I must apologize, I was trying to be as quiet as I-"
"No, no," Dee shook her head. "Force of habit, I suppose. I didn't even hear anyone out here."
"Oh, I see," Kai sighed in relief, his voice tired. He could not possibly have slept much and, beyond that, had spent the morning dealing with a very grumpy Geraldien ambassador. "I was speaking with another one of our guests," the servant motioned backwards to a nearby door. "He is feeling a bit ill this morning - hopefully nothing contagious."
Dee expressed her condolences with a grunt.
"He has decided to have his breakfast brought to his room," Kai continued with well-hidden annoyance. "I've already put his order in, but I could ask for something for you as well if you would like."
"I'm fine," Dee shook her head. She raised her left arm and the dress beneath it in a vague gesture. "I was going to go check on Queen Elsa. Do you know if she's awake yet?"
Kai looked quizzically at the widow's extra frock, but decided that he was far too exhausted to ask about it. "She is," he stated simply. When he received no response, the servant elaborated. "The physician woke her up early to prepare for a change of bandages, but it's quite possible that they haven't started yet. At the very least, you might be able to say good morning. Shall I show you to her?"
"Yes, please," Dee smiled sheepishly. "I think I'd get lost alone. This castle is about a hundred times bigger than our house on the farm. Do you have time?"
Kai mustered up the energy to give the widow a kind nod, his frustrations leaving him if only for a minute. It was nice to be asked.
"Certainly," the servant half-turned and gestured forward. "Right this way, Mrs. Daleon."
For the first time since she had woken up in the infirmary a day and a half before, Elsa truly felt the weight of the linen that bound her and the itch of the damaged skin underneath.
It made it worse that she could look slightly down and see her body's state now - her sickbed's thin sheet removed already in anticipation of the changing of the bandages. Pinkish cloth clung to her like a near-complete shell, failing to cover only the queen's more properly casted right leg and a few gaps around the joints below her neck. Suddenly, being able to see the way the strips tightened around her chest made it even harder to breathe; the way they gripped her arms, even harder to move.
The queen was pulled from her nervous observation by the sound of a knock at the door.
"Come in!" Elsa called, the loudest she had been since the explosion. The physician groaned from his office, but the queen said nothing more.
Elsa watched the entrance, the restrictions of the bandages suddenly starting to feel distant again. She fully expected her sister to burst through the doorway. The princess's enthusiasm would be a pleasant sight, even if she would soon have to be sent away.
The door did not open slowly, but it certainly did not swing with Anna's characteristic excitement.
"Mrs. Daleon, Kai," Elsa greeted the two visitors as they entered, only minimally disappointed. "Good morning."
"Good morning, Queen Elsa," the widow and servant bowed slightly in unison. They took their respective positions in the infirmary - Dee at the visitors' chair; Kai in the back near a bookshelf.
No one was able to say anything more before the physician had peeked his head out of his office. "Now is not a good time for guests," he scolded. "It was hard enough getting that squeaky guardsman to take a break for breakfast. We will need absolute privacy for the procedure."
"They won't be here long," Elsa answered weakly, tilting her head to the side. "Is it almost time to begin?"
"Um..." the doctor looked down at the assorted vials of medicine in his hands. Behind him, several more bottles cluttered the surface of his work desk. It turned out that his organizational system was less than efficient in practice - something he would have known had he had any prior to the queen's injury. "Yes, indeed. Just let me grab the anesthetic," the nervous man decided, scurrying back into the office.
Once he was back to scuffling about, Dee leaned in close to Elsa's paralyzed form on the bed. "How long have you been waiting for him to find it?" she asked in a whisper.
"It has to have been at least half an hour since I first checked in," Kai answered from his corner, quiet enough so as not to be heard by the doctor.
Elsa barely nodded in affirmation. Both she and the servant cracked a slight smile at the fact, but Dee was the first to burst into a legitimate chuckle.
While Kai merely continued to bury his grin in a fist, the queen was quick to join the other woman in her merriment. Although the queen's laughing was suppressed by the bandages, she once more started to grow unaware of their tight pull under the lightened mood.
In particular, she felt soothed by Dee's smile. Despite its reservations, it was the happiest she had ever seen the widow by far. Looking over her bright face, Elsa thought that it looked like rest had done the woman very well.
"What's that?" the queen asked after a while, once the laughter had subsided. Her eyes had panned down to look at the dress which her guest held against the chair's armrest now, recognizing the fabric as familiar - an old piece from her own closet, in fact, which she thought had been thrown out long ago.
"Oh," Dee took both the frock and Daniel and the Dark Mage out from beneath her arms, tucking the book under her leg for space and unfolding the garment on her lap. She looked from the design-less maroon to Elsa a few times as she bashfully spoke. "I... I didn't know when you would start feeling better, so I thought that I would bring you something to wear for when you did," the widow blushed, having decided to focus on the dress instead of facing the queen's stare. "I'm sorry, it was stupid. For some reason I was hoping that-"
"No, no," Elsa summoned Dee's attention with her kind voice. "Thank you, Mrs. Daleon," she smiled gratefully. Gradually, a normal coloration returned to the other woman's face. "I don't know when I will get out of these," the queen's eyes flicked down to her salmon casing, "but rest assured that it will be the first thing I wear."
Dee's expression could only be described as one of admiration. On cue, Kai took the few steps from his resting place in the back of the room and gingerly picked up the dress, moving to place it safely on one of the infirmary's unused sickbeds.
As the servant settled back into his nook, clattering and a hissed curse from the office indicated that the doctor had not quite identified the anesthetic yet.
A second curse, slightly louder this time, came when another loud knock intruded upon the infirmary.
This time, the sound at the door was accompanied by a voice.
"Queen Elsa?" someone asked tentatively.
It only took a few seconds for Elsa to recognize the call.
"Kristoff?" the queen asked herself quietly before raising her voice. "Come in, please!"
The ice master entered the infirmary with purposeful steps, his eyes first going to the queen, still half-surprised to see her awake even though the guards at the bridge had told him that she would be. Kristoff surveyed the room only in passing on his way to the bedside, quickly nodding at Kai and shooting Dee an odd, unsure glance.
"I didn't know you were back," Elsa said, stunned. The queen immediately noticed the unfamiliar basket that her new guest held, but she had more important questions."Have you seen Anna? Is she awake?"
"I dunno, I just got in. I thought she'd be here, actually," Kristoff answered the queen just as he stopped next to the bed. He looked over the injured woman's exposed bandages with concern. "What's wrong?"
"We were just about to change the bandages," the doctor reappeared in the office doorway with a new fistful of vials, frowning at the third visitor. "It's normal," he added flatly. "Very important, too. I must ask all of you to leave at once-"
Kristoff turned to face the physician with an almost inappropriate smile that was disruptive enough on its own. He thrust the basket in his hand forward to the interrupted man.
"A present from the trolls," the ice master offered. "Grand Pabbie said that you would know what to do."
Everyone else in the room inspected the mysterious gift from their positions. The doctor, however, was the only one who was able to look down and truly see its contents. When he did, he nearly dropped the medicines again.
"A golden petal?" the man gasped, recognizing an image that he had only seen in the most ancient of his medical journals. Despite the limited light of the infirmary, a thin leaf shimmered atop its throne of crushed kernels.
"A golden petal?" Elsa echoed from the bed. "What's that?"
The doctor's previous distress left his face in an instant. He looked over to the queen with some sort of knowledgeable pride. "One of the trolls' magical panaceas," he explained. "They are said to be extremely difficult to find - extremely difficult for humans to find, I suppose. I've never seen one myself, but, if the accounts are to be believed," the physician was glowing, "it should be able to fix your leg. It could help considerably with your burns, as well."
Elsa swelled almost involuntarily under her bandages, causing a pain that was for the moment ignorable. She looked over to each of her guests in turn to see grins just as big as her own spreading across their faces.
"These are from the mountains, too, are they not?" the doctor reached down into the basket still held by Kristoff and delicately ran his fingers through the pulverized nuts surrounding the petal.
"That's what they said," the ice master nodded and the older man finally relieved him of his load.
"They will do the rest concerning the burns, then," the physician said, satisfied. He glanced back to the queen apologetically. "Unfortunately, the bandages will obviously still have to be removed."
Elsa shook her head in grim understanding.
"I will get right to work," the doctor stole back into his office. Those in the sickroom were left curiously listening to a variety of quiet noises as he rushed about within, mixing new medicines and pursuing the elusive anesthetic with renewed purpose.
Wanting to make the most of the time before the guests were sent away, Elsa was the first to speak.
"Anna said that you went to the trolls for information on the Dark Mage," the queen accused in jest.
Regardless of her playful intentions, Kristoff was frowning when he turned back towards the bed.
"I did," the ice master answered as if he had been reminded of some deep, troubling thought. "Grand Pabbie gave me the basket after I mentioned your injuries. He wanted to help."
"I'm not complaining," Elsa clarified, noting the odd reaction.
"I know," Kristoff confirmed, but he still raised his chin contemplatively.
The queen paused for a moment before she decided to try to redirect the conversation. "How did the rest of the meeting go?"
"That's the thing," Kristoff admitted, his worries bursting forth at last. "Grand Pabbie barely knew anything about the Dark Mage. All he had was this big book with some legend in it - Daniel and the Dark Mage."
Elsa looked over to Dee and shot her a slightly melancholy smile. The widow returned its complexities tenfold.
"He said that there were a bunch of similarities between the book and the real thing," the ice master continued, oblivious in his recollection. "You see, the story's about this knight who gets possessed by the Dark Mage, I guess. He ends up attacking a castle with fire magic, just like-"
"Kristoff," Elsa interrupted to a questioning look. "You remember Mrs. Daleon, don't you? I believe that you delivered some supplies to the Daleon Farmstead a few days ago?"
Kristoff followed the queen's eyes to the woman in the visitors' chair and nodded. He had seen Dee upon his entrance to the infirmary and only hoped that his recognition had been mistaken. He had not remembered her clearly from their previous meeting - leaving enough doubt in his mind - but, with her identity confirmed by the queen, he could see for certain that before him was the very same widow who he had visited prior to the festival; the very same widow who was supposed to be in the dungeon at that very moment.
"What is she doing here?" the ice master asked Elsa cautiously, still inspecting Dee. Indeed, she looked different enough from their first meeting to explain his uncertainty, her face pulled tighter and back set straighter than he remembered.
"What happened at the festival was a misunderstanding," the queen explained. "I ordered Mrs. Daleon's release yesterday when I woke up."
"Okay," Kristoff tilted his head, not yet fully convinced, "but what is she doing here?"
"Mrs. Daleon returned to the castle last night with a copy of Daniel and the Dark Mage," Elsa spoke carefully, looking over to the widow for help assistance in explanation. "It seems that she and Grand Pabbie have come to the same conclusion."
"I believe that there's something to the similarities," Dee began quietly, her voice very different from the peppiness that Kristoff recalled. "Of course, there's the attack on the castle, like you said, but that's not all," the widow paused and sniffled. "I... I believe that my son was possessed by the Dark Mage - the host that carried out the attack."
"What? Ron?" Kristoff's eyes went wide. The image of the disheveled, rude man he had met during his delivery to the farmstead flashed through his mind.
"Yes," Dee's affirmation was slow and grave. She was on the verge of crying. "His behavior over the past few weeks had been... very similar to Daniel's description in the story - his illness, his temper... You remember from your visit, don't you?"
The ice master nodded, utterly shocked. Of course he had been struck by the other man's improper conduct, but he would have never imagined it to have been so significant.
"Mrs. Daleon and I were planning on reading through Daniel and the Dark Mage and looking for other connections," Elsa stepped into the conversation again, relieving the troubled widow. "Since what Grand Pabbie said only supports what we had already suspected, it seems that that is the best way for us to proceed. Perhaps there will be hints as to the mage's origins or purpose within the story that will translate."
Kristoff was still speechless, so he merely nodded blankly again.
Dee was beginning to recover, narrowly avoiding a fit to everyone else's great relief. She wiped the few tears that had escaped from her cheeks and then shifted in her chair, pulling the book out from under her leg and placing it into her lap.
"We... we could begin now, if you-"
"Here we are," the doctor swept out of his office carrying a small dish and a returned nervousness. The eyes of the others in the infirmary gravitated quickly to the needled syringe resting on the plate.
"Is it time?" Elsa asked anxiously, Dee's words all but forgotten at the sight.
"Yes," the physician answered. He gestured for Kristoff to move aside as he set up in his place at the bedside. "We will begin with the anesthetic, of course, before taking off the bandages," he explained to himself as much as the queen. "I must warn you, it will be quite painful regardless."
Elsa grunted lightly in acknowledgement.
"By the time I finish doing that and remove the cast, however, the trolls' cures will be ready to apply," the doctor added, trying to smile. "I would expect for you to be awake and, more importantly, on your feet in two hours, maybe three."
The physician's attempt at comfort was not completely lost on the queen, but Elsa's awareness of the tightness on her skin reappeared nonetheless. The linen felt almost like an extension of her after its days of attachment. She did not even want to imagine having the clingy cloth torn off.
Then again, she supposed that she would not have to.
"In the meantime, I have to ask everyone to leave," the doctor continued. "At the very least, I'll need absolute privacy for the next hour. After that, you all may return to wait for the anesthetic to wear off if you so desire."
When no one budged, the older man looked to the queen for some support.
"Yes, yes," Elsa pulled herself from her dread. Her eyes flicked around to each of her three visitors as she tried to muster up a confident expression. They ended up resting on the servant in the corner. "Kai, will you take Kristoff and Mrs. Daleon to the dining room for some breakfast?"
"Certainly, Queen Elsa," the servant paced over to the exit of the infirmary. He held the door open for the other visitors, but they still did not move.
"Are you sure you'll be alright?" Dee put voice to the question that both she and the ice master were thinking.
Elsa caught her own hesitation before it was noticeable and tried her best to power through it. "I'll be fine," she assured the widow as best as she could. "Let the doctor do his work. We'll get to reading as soon as he's finished."
Dee's look of concern started to dissipate. She put Daniel and the Dark Mage back under her arm and joined Kai in the doorway.
"I'll have to pass on breakfast," Kristoff spoke next. He tried to ignore the resultant groan from the physician. "I'm going to go up to Anna's room. I've got to talk to her about something," the ice master's eyes glazed over for a moment as he remembered Grand Pabbie's speech about the princess's memories. He refocused onto the queen when the doctor coughed. "I'll tell her what's going on."
"Thank you," Elsa said.
Satisfied, Kristoff shuffled over to Kai and Dee at the infirmary's exit and gave them each a nod - with quite different levels of certainty - before taking his leave. Casting their own final glances back to the queen, the other two visitors eventually followed the ice master out, turning off in the opposite direction towards the dining room.
The door swung shut and Elsa was left alone with the doctor and her bandages.
"Three hours," she reassured herself with a raspy whisper.
"Indeed, Queen Elsa," the physician, too, appreciated the sentiment.
He placed his plate on the bedside table, gingerly took the syringe in his right hand, and began. After a few minutes of restless anticipation, the queen descended into a numbing, dreamless sleep.
Even then, her body squealed and resisted vehemently on its own as its second skin was peeled away.
"Anna?" Kristoff called through the door for the tenth time, knocking with loud thumps. He had heard that waking his girlfriend was no easy task, but he had never quite expected this. "Anna?"
Inside her bedroom, the princess finally heard the ice master's voice - at least on some level. She jerked from a comfortable pose in a nest of pillows to an upright position mid-snore, though her eyes remained shut all the while.
"Hm?" Anna murmured groggily, not even loud enough to carry beyond her bed.
"Anna, are you even in there?"
"Kristoff?" the name formed in Anna's mouth like a very tired part of her was testing it for something.
Outside, Kristoff dejectedly turned, trying to think of where else the princess could possibly be.
"Kristoff!" Anna suddenly shouted in recognition, almost waking herself up in the process. She leapt from the bed in a flurry of displaced comforters - subconsciously making sure not to knock Sea of Love from its perch on the far side of the mattress lest she suffer the consequences again - and bounded for the door. The young woman pulled it open and caught the ice master in the back in one swift dash.
"Hey!" Kristoff yelped, chuckling as he only barely kept his balance under the borderline assault. After a few giggling seconds, Anna's arms settled over his shoulders, her hands barely touching each other over his chest in an embrace.
"You're back!" Anna squealed. She squeezed her boyfriend's upper body before releasing him. "How'd it go? What did Grand Pabbie say? Did he know anything?" she fired off questions rapidly. "I hope you took notes - I told you to take notes."
Kristoff turned to face the princess at last. Naturally, his look first went to her ever-brightened face - lingering for a moment in its mock accusatory warmth - but even his admiration soon gave way for amused curiosity. The man's eyes were drawn to the mop above her face, freshly frizzed by the tosses and turns of the night.
"That's an interesting look for you," the ice master grinned.
Anna's face turned the color of her hair in an instant. She had been so excited to see her boyfriend - and, of course, get a report of his trip - that she had forgotten to check herself in the vanity mirror.
"I like it, though," Kristoff's smirk was unwavering. Eventually, it started to rub off on the princess, too, but the blush only grew deeper on her face.
"Right," Anna mumbled. "You didn't take notes, did you?"
"No," Kristoff replied. "You would've had to have paid me extra for that."
Finally, Anna's smile reached the magnitude of the ice master's own.
"Don't worry, I've got a pretty good memory."
"Let's hear it, then. What did Grand Pabbie say about the Dark Mage?"
Kristoff hesitated for a time, his cheeriness fading. "Not a whole lot, really," he decided vaguely. "Nothing Queen Elsa hasn't heard from Mrs. Daleon by now, I guess."
"What Elsa heard from Mrs. Daleon?" Anna repeated, impulsively pulling her head ever so slightly back. "How did you know about that?"
Again, Kristoff paused for a bashful moment before speaking. "I stopped by the infirmary before I came here," he admitted.
The princess's eyes glittered with playfulness. "You're saying that I wasn't the first one you wanted to see on the way in?" she teased.
"Well, actually, I went there because you were," Kristoff contended. "I thought you'd be there. I was pretty disappointed when you weren't."
Anna's receding blush had a resurgence.
"Anyways, Queen Elsa told me about what Mrs. Daleon said about Daniel and the Dark Mage," the ice master continued with a satisfied look. "It's exactly like what Grand Pabbie talked about the whole time - all the similarities between the story and what happened at the festival."
Anna nodded slowly, thinking it all over. "That's all he said?"
"About the Dark Mage, yeah," Kristoff answered, his own disappointment bleeding through in his tone. "Queen Elsa and Mrs. Daleon said that they were going to try to read Daniel and the Dark Mage and see if they can come up with any other information. I don't think Grand Pabbie would be opposed."
"Is that what they're doing now?" Anna asked after a few seconds. "Reading the story?"
"No," the hints of a new smile fluttered on Kristoff's lips. "I caught Queen Elsa right before the doctor kicked everyone out because she had to go under for a bandage change. Good thing I did, too - if I'd been any later she might've had to get a whole new set put on."
"Isn't that kind of the point of a bandage change?" Anna's forehead wrinkled, noting the ice master's odd expression.
"Grand Pabbie didn't have much to say on the Dark Mage, but he gave me some stuff to cure Queen Elsa's injuries," Kristoff explained proudly. "The doctor said that she should be all better in a couple of hours. I guess a broken leg and some burns are nothing some troll magic can't take care of."
Suddenly, as if in reaction to his own words, the ice master's face dampened. His mouth tightened as a thought seemed to occur to him - a troubling one.
"Speaking of troll magic-"
Blinded - and apparently deafened - by excitement, Anna interrupted her boyfriend by pulling him into a hug.
"That's great news!" she cheered. "Thank you, Kristoff!"
The ice master returned the embrace, placing his hands onto the princess's back, but he did not speak.
"We have to go to the infirmary," Anna mused enthusiastically into his shoulder. "I want to see her. When did the doctor say he'll be allowing visitors again?"
"One hour," Kristoff said, but he sounded distracted. He loosed his hold on the princess and pulled back so that he was facing her directly again. The goofiness of her locks only cheered him up a little bit. "Listen, Anna, why don't you go get dressed?"
"Is my hair really that bad?"
"No, it's not that."
Finally, Anna let her joy die down long enough to examine the ice master's face. Under her scrutiny, he did his best to hide it, but she could tell that something was bothering her boyfriend.
"Go ahead," Kristoff nodded towards the bedroom. "The sooner you get ready, the sooner we get to go down and wait for the doctor to let us in."
"Um, okay," Anna agreed. The princess dropped her own grasp on the ice master's shoulders and stepped slowly backwards through the doorway. "I'll just be a minute."
Again, she could see the effort in the final smile that her boyfriend gave her before she awkwardly closed the door.
"You clean up well," Kristoff teased half-heartedly once Anna reemerged into the hallway.
The princess's hair had been neatly brushed - straight, without the servants' aid in braiding - and she had chosen a fine albeit necessarily comfortable pink dress for the day. In her excitement, she had decided that she wanted to look her best for Elsa's recovery.
"Gee, thanks."
Despite his joking manner and the ensuing laughter from them both, Anna could sense a tension between the ice master and herself. Whatever had been troubling him when she had left him to get ready had certainly not left his mind. In fact, she suspected that he had been thinking about nothing else while he waited for her in the hallway, leaning thoughtfully against the wall across from her bedroom door.
After the fun had run its course and the space between the two fallen silent, the princess took her chance.
"Is something wrong?" she asked bluntly. "You look all... worried, or something."
"Worried?" Kristoff tilted off of the wall, moving as slowly and unsurely as he spoke. "No, no... I'm just not quite sure how to tell you."
"Tell me?" Anna watched the man's face as he lumbered towards her. She concernedly scanned for hints, but did not know where to even begin. "Tell me what?"
Kristoff looked like he might say something, then his lips grew even tighter.
"Come on, you can't just say stuff like that and leave me hanging."
The ice master bit his lip for a few long seconds. "Yesterday, I told Grand Pabbie about how you were having trouble understanding Queen Elsa," he finally admitted.
"You did?"
"Yeah."
"What did he say?"
Again, Kristoff teetered on the edge of speech.
"You just love holding me in suspense, don't you?"
"He said that he could help you."
"What?" Anna asked, her eyes widening. Kristoff stood near-motionless. "What do you mean? And don't even try to stall it out-"
"Do you remember that day we fell off the North Mountain?" the ice master spat out the question. Instead of being offended by the interruption, Anna looked quite happy to have finally gotten him talking.
"Yeah, right, fell," the princess quipped. The self-appreciative giggle that came afterwards was short lived. Her eyes narrowed once more when she realized that she did not see the connection. "Why?"
"Do you remember how I knew that the trolls could help us when you got hit by Queen Elsa's magic?" Kristoff answered with another carefully selected question.
Anna had to think about it for a second, mirroring the ice master's pensiveness.
"You said you'd 'seen them do it before'."
"Right."
Kristoff looked blankly at the princess and she looked back. He seemed to expect her to have recognized something under his direction, but she did not have a clue what it was.
"I don't get it," Anna confessed after a while. "What are you saying?"
The ice master shook his head disappointedly. "It was about thirteen years ago. I saw Grand Pabbie help a girl whose head had been struck by magic."
The subtlety was still too much for Anna. "Why are you telling me this?"
"It was you," Kristoff breathed out, watching the princess's face as her confusion reached an entirely new peak. "Your parents brought you to the trolls. Queen Elsa accidentally hurt you with her powers while you were playing. You were knocked unconscious and-"
"Wait, what?" Anna finally stopped her boyfriend. "No, I don't think so. I didn't even know about Elsa's powers until last month."
Kristoff hesitated again before continuing.
"It was you," he repeated. "That night, Grand Pabbie told your parents and Queen Elsa that it would be best for you to forget the magic. He changed your memories - that's why you can't remember."
"Changed my memories?"
"He left everything except for Queen Elsa's powers," Kristoff nodded slowly, trying unsuccessfully to ensure that Anna was following.
"Why?" the princess demanded. Her voice wavered with the word.
Anna would be the first to admit that she did not fully grasp what she was being told, but that did not keep a strange feeling from rising within her. Kristoff sensed the young woman's emotion and would have talked even more slowly if such a thing were possible.
"Grand Pabbie was worried about what could have happened if you knew - if you tempted Queen Elsa to use her magic again," the ice master said. "He thought that she couldn't control it. He thought you might get hurt again if you kept pushing her."
The revelation hit Anna like a wave, shaking her in its wake. She could sense its amorphous significance washing over her; feel it, but not comprehend. It upset her without telling her why.
"He was just being careful, Anna," Kristoff's arm went forward and curved around the princess's neck from the side. He pulled her close and she leaned into him gratefully, shuddering.
"But if I would have known then I could have... I..." Anna began several times into the ice master's sleeve, but she could not find the words. "I... I don't understand..."
Kristoff heard a few soft, tearless, raw sobs before he was able to continue. "That's the thing," he said. "Grand Pabbie started talking about your memories when I told him about what you said in the library the other night."
The princess grew still in Kristoff's arm. Her already gentle whimper tapered off as she became almost stiff with reflection. Her crying stopped abruptly with the reminder of her true goal.
"He thinks that the changes he made to your memories could be responsible for you not being able to understand Queen Elsa," the ice master continued. "He said that you two 'view the past through separate lenses', or something like that."
Anna still felt the presence of the intense emotion in her gut. It dared her to look at it, though - no matter how much she wanted to take the bet - the princess knew such things were not possible. Not yet.
She had to understand.
"You said..." Anna sniffled with finality. She pulled her head off of its perch on Kristoff's shoulder and suddenly her voice was crystal clear. "You said that he could help me?"
"Yes," Kristoff tilted his own gaze to make eye contact with the princess. "He offered to restore your memories if you wanted him to. You would have to go to the Valley and see him in person, of course-"
"I'll do it."
Anna's stare burned with determination as the ice master met it. He remembered the look - it was the same one that he had seen that night at Oaken's shop; the same one he had seen on the North Mountain; the same one he had seen in the library.
"I'll just need to pack a few things for the trip," the princess followed up. She stepped backwards away from Kristoff and over towards her bedroom door, never losing her willful posture. "You should, too, since you're taking me and all," Anna hinted a smile with the unilateral decision. "Go down to the kitchen and get some carrots for you and Sven. And some gifts for the trolls - whatever they like."
"They like just about everything," the ice master quipped quietly.
"Meet me back at the infirmary as soon as you can," Anna said as she entered the bedroom, stopping in the doorway for only a moment. "We'll wait for Elsa to wake up and make sure that she's alright. I want to tell her where we're going myself before we leave."