"What are we doing here, mirror?" asked Anna, gasping for breath as she trekked across the frozen fields of the North Mountain. While Elsa's magic had been lifted, the North Mountain was high enough that it had a layer of snow all year regardless of her and Anna had not come prepared for the cold. The additional exhaustion of mysting was an unexpected and unwanted additional complication.
"There is much I have left to teach you, your Highness, and the North Mountain is sufficiently isolated that any unwanted visitors can be dealt with accordingly," said the mirror.
"It also isn't anywhere near food or shelter," said Anna with a shiver.
"Beg pardon, your Highness, but yonder ice palace should provide sufficient shelter enough for now," said the mirror with a glance up the mountain.
Anna turned around to see what he was talking about at and realized that she had totally missed Elsa's ice palace. When Elsa had recalled her magic for the first time, she'd left a few things that she'd created alone. Anna had known about Olaf, of course, and once he'd wandered down from the mountains she found out about Marshmallow, but Anna hadn't known that she'd kept the Winter Palace as well.
"Not an option. I don't want anything to do with Elsa or anything she made from before," said Anna as she started to turn away from it.
Or rather, that's what she tried to say. What came out instead was "Nn … no … option … anything …" It seemed that she was colder and more exhausted than she'd realized.
"Yes, your Highness. If you like I could show you how to summon a servitor to aid you," said the mirror.
"Servitor?" Asked Anna, but she already knew what it meant. It meant something like Olaf, or Marshmallow. She concentrated, drawing on the last of her strength and focused on the simple idea of something that might help her.
"No, your highness! You aren't strong enough to do it alone," said the mirror in protest.
Anna ignored it and sent out a wisp of magic and shadow to give her aid before she collapsed. She'd seen Elsa do this any number of times now, and Anna was sure that if Elsa could do it, she could do it too.
It didn't take much and soon Anna saw the shadow take shape. It was vague and formless for the most part, but when it was still it would flicker into a male form that was somehow familiar.
Then she fell to the ground, finally worn out from her efforts.
The Servitor
Love her. Protect her. Shelter her. Sustain her. This all passed through what might pass for the Servitor's mind as it went to pick up its mistress and take it to the protection of the Winter Palace. It did not know why it knew this, only that it would save her from the cold snow around her.
Foolish girl, what were you thinking? Why would you think that you could create a Servitor without me, The Servitors heard the Mirror wonder. It turned and glared at it, such as it could.
The face in the mirror said nothing, content instead to speak directly into the core of the Servitor's being. That you have enough of a mind to be offended by me would be laughable if it wasn't cause for concern. If she truly wished for protection I could have used her power to conjure up an army that could quest out whatever she desired. As it stands now I think that there is nothing that can be done except for you to wait for her to die. This place was not meant as a home for the living and I did not intend for her to try and fend for herself without me.
The Servitor scowled at the Mirror. It did not like this intruder into its mistress's life, no matter how responsible it was for its own creation. The Servitor went over to its mistress, gently lifted her into its arms, wrapped itself around her and let her sink into the warm core of its being, taking care that no more of her was exposed than was needed.
Laughable.
Nothing that could be done.
Bah.
The Servitor looked around; trying to see what could be done. There were trees whose branches could be formed into a kind of bed, to keep its mistress away from the cold, but that would not be enough for long. Something more had to be added. It looked harder, and off in the distance it spied a fluttering purple cloth.
Making sure that its mistress was secure, it bounded off towards the cloth.
She'll still die, you know. She'll die and there'll be nothing but war ever after said the Mirror as it left, but soon it was out of range and it was just the wind, the sky and the mistress.
It didn't take long to reach the cloth. Much to the Servitor's relief, it was a thick wool thing meant to keep a person warm. Memories that weren't its own flashed through the Shadow's mind, memories of a coronation and party that went wrong somehow, then went right again in the end.
Elsa.
The name floated to the top of the Shadow's mind and it dismissed it. If this cloak was Elsa's, whoever she was, then she would still have it. If nothing else, the Shadow's mistress needed it more than this Elsa did, and it was sure this Elsa would understand a theft of necessity.
The Shadow pulled its mistress out from the depths of its being and wrapped the cloth around her, taking great care that she was bundled up nicely.
Its mistress gave a contented sigh and stopped shivering. At least, she stopped shivering as much. There was still much to done for her, though, so the Shadow slipped her back into its core and went to hunt for food.
Anna
Anna awoke in Elsa' Winter Palace and found herself lying on a bed of pine branches, covered with a thick, purple wool cloth. In front of her was a fire with a skinned rabbit on a spit. The shadow creature she'd called up was sitting close by, constantly turning the rabbit to keep it from burning while watching her all the while. It was in its man form again and the mirror was nowhere to be found.
"I wonder how long I was asleep for," pondered Anna as she looked around the Winter Palace. She'd only had the chance to look at it for a moment the first time she visited, but now that she was inside it the whole thing seemed to be a larger, grander version of their castle down in Arendelle.
"Three hours, thirty five minutes and fifteen seconds," came a muffled voice from beneath the pine branched. "In that time, I have acted as the base of your bedding for two hours, fifteen minutes and forty six seconds. I would like to be relieved of this duty, if your guardian allows it."
Anna laughed and pulled out the mirror and plopped it down on the other side of the fire. "I didn't mean to fall asleep like that," she said after the pile of branches had been reshuffled by the shadow creature, turning the rabbit all the while.
"I should not have pushed you the way I did. It was an almost fatal mistake on both our counts. If not for your servitor, you would have died in the snow. I would have acted had I been able, but my powers are constrained to flow only through those touching my surface."
Anna began to get up to reset the mirror so that she could see it, but then the servitor took the rabbit off the fire and handed it to her. It also mimed that it would be a good idea for her to rest more before attempting another go at the mirror.
"Thank you, then. Both of you," she said with a smile to the shadow creature. It bobbed its head in appreciation and seemed to scowl at the mirror.
"Think nothing of it. Now, once you have finished regaining your strength, we shall work on how to create a more effective protection servitor."
Anna nodded and took a few more bites from the rabbit, then handed it to the servitor. "I'm fine for now, I can finish this later. What do I need to do?"
The face in the mirror nodded in approval. "Place your hand upon me so that I might aid your conjuration. You are strong, but what I have in mind might incapacitate you again without my help."
Anna put her hand upon the mirror and felt its power churn beneath the surface, just waiting to be tapped into.
"Before I just poured a piece of myself out and hoped it could help. What's so different about this?" Asked Anna. The sensation of being of two minds about her magic returned. One part of her wanted to retreat and explore what she could do with the shadow creature, but a hungrier part of her wanted the mirror to show her the proper way to protect herself.
"This time, you will ask it to guard you, and defend you. It will need to be powerful and ruthless. Think of that, and it will come," said the mirror.
It spoke to her more like a schoolteacher guiding a particularly slow student instead of a magic mirror showing her tricks now, so Anna nodded and thought of what it told her, pouring all of her defensive thoughts into it. A part of her frustration came out as well as some of her anger at what Elsa and Kristoff were up to, but she was sure that wouldn't hurt anything. She thought she could feel something else slid into the well of shadow and magic she was pouring out in front of her, but she ignored it. Another stray thought, she supposed.
When she stopped, the thing in front of her reared up and took on a blobby, hungry shape. Gaping mouths opened and shut all over its body and it didn't seem to have any more form than a pillar of smoke might have.
Anna would have shrunk back in fear if she wasn't secure in the knowledge that this thing would obey her.
Probably.
"I want you to go out and make sure that I'm safe, ok?" She asked it and it almost instantly soared out of the room, each mouth slavering in anticipation of stopping whatever wasn't safe.
"Now," began the mirror.
Anna interrupted it. "Now I'm going to finish my meal. I'm protected enough and that took a bit out of me. Lessons can wait."
The mirror nodded and the first servitor she'd created handed her back the rabbit.
She had only just finished it when she felt a surge of pain and weakness. Something had destroyed the shadow guard and she suspected that she knew who. Kristoff and Elsa were on their way.