Chapter Sixty Three

The Descendant

ELSA

"The witches. They saved us."

The whispers going across the jam-packed crowd in the bunker were more or less along those lines as Elsa and Tracy descended down the steps and squeezed through the sea of Exonians. Apparently most of House Voda had made it out alive, judging by the sheer number of servants, cooks, Vodarian Eagles and family members alike who were present. It also seemed that the other households had gotten Ludwig's urgent message too, and had escaped the wrath of the Imperial Blitzguard.

The bunker beneath the cafe in Merchants' Square was packed like a concentration camp, everyone squashed together tightly as far as the eye could see. Some were sitting on the ground, crates and boxes while others stood, but all shared the same look: one of confusion, fear and despair. After all, who could blame them? Their lives had been uprooted overnight and they'd been forced to flee their homes, hunted down by the Imperial Blitzguard as traitors of the Empire. Elsa felt immense pity for them; them were Exonians one moment, and the next, they would have to live in the shadows for as long the Empire was in power.

As for Peggy, Elsa and Tracy didn't know where she'd disappeared to. After shaking the Blitzguard, the servant girl had rode with them all the way to Merchants' Square, dismounted and tied their horses somewhere further down the road, before covertly skulking their way towards the cafe on the edge of the two streets. But somewhere along the way, she'd slipped into the shadows and vanished.

Just like a spy, Elsa thought to herself. As they'd made their escape, she'd had some time on the way over to ponder. She had some idea of who Peggy might really be, but she needed to confront her to know for sure. But she couldn't exactly do that now, seeing as how the Exonian girl had just annoyingly disappeared. Could she be a double agent, playing both sides? With the Blitzguard on the attack, had she slipped off to the enemy to inform them about the bunker? But Peggy couldn't be an Imperial loyalist. She'd been the one to kickstart the entire movement, hadn't she? She had so many questions but it seemed none of them would be answered now.

Elsa and Tracy tried to locate Ludwig, but it was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. There simply were too many people, and what with House Voda whispering among themselves about the two 'witches', they were getting too much attention, something Elsa was desperately trying to avoid.

Eventually, Elsa and Tracy managed to find a spot in the corner of the bunker where they hunkered down to rest. It came as a huge relief and produced an almost cathartic reaction the moment Elsa sat down. The fatigue and exertion she'd been keeping at bay since she'd escaped from the castle now rushed to overwhelm her. And this time, there was no herbal tea from Peggy to keep her strength up. It was time for her to rest anyway. Elsa closed her eyes, ignoring Tracy's ramblings that grew fainter and more distant as the world around her drew itself into a tiny black hole and vanished.

When she did wake, it was because Tracy was shaking her violently. Every trace of drowsiness left her body in an instant, replaced by adrenaline. Were they in trouble again? Jolting, she whirled to Tracy. "What's going on? Is the Blitzguard here?"

"No. But someone else is." Tracy indicated the mysterious Exonian girl nimbly treading her way through everyone else to get to them.

Her gait was different, along with the way she carried herself now. Gone was the mannerisms of a quiet, loyal servant girl, instead replaced by something else entirely, something Elsa could not place.

Elsa's eyes narrowed. So Peggy's here. Now was the chance for them to get some much needed answers.

Before Peggy could say a word, Tracy grabbed her arm and pulled her towards the wall.

"Who the bloody hell are you?" Tracy hissed. "You've been playing us all for idiots and then you disappear? D'you wanna know what I think?"

"Tracy," Elsa put a hand on her shoulder. "Not here." The people in the immediate vicinity were already looking in their direction curiously.

Scowling, Tracy slowly let go of Peggy.

"I think it's long past time we got some answers," Elsa said in a stern tone, fixing Peggy with a cold, stony gaze.

The girl looked back unflinchingly and nodded. "I agree. But not out here," She beckoned for the duo to follow her.

"And where are you taking us?" Elsa said sharply.

"Somewhere we can talk without being overheard. Trust me, you don't want anyone else listening in on this conversation."

"I don't like it," Tracy whispered as they squeezed through the crowd after Peggy.

"She's got answers, and I want them," Elsa said firmly. "It's high time we know the truth about what's really going on here."

Peggy took them to the adjacent wall where a few doors stood shut. The people around them gave them a wide berth as they saw the two 'witches' approaching. Producing a lock pick, she began working at the lock it clicked a couple of seconds later. The trio filed into the room and Peggy shut the door behind them.

"Where's Duke Voda?" Elsa asked.

"I'm pretty sure he's in one of the other rooms, speaking with the heads of the various households. What just happened is going to change the way we operate around here," Peggy had a faraway look in her eyes as she paced away from the door and dropped into one of the seats around a small, round table. It was dark, masking everyone's features in the shadows.

"Alright, no more games," Tracy had a very no-nonsense way about her, something Elsa rarely ever saw. "Who the hell are you?"

"Well for starters, my name isn't Peggy Sal Voda. Or Margaret Sal Voda for that matter." the girl said all too willingly. "It's Margaret Jorgendal, but people actually do call me Peggy for short. And I'm not a servant girl."

Tracy snorted. "After seeing whatever tricks you pulled back at the duke's estate, anyone would know you're definitely not a servant girl. So why the hoax and how did you trick the duke into hiring you as his slave?"

Peggy sighed. "Believe it or not, this is working out the way I'd hoped."

"I would measure my words very carefully if I were you," Elsa's jaw muscles were clenched as she gestured at the door. "Janus is still out there somewhere hunting us as one of the damn Mage Slayers, all these people are now being targeted by the Empire and the Imperial Blitzguard could come crashing down on us at any minute. You mean to tell me this is all your plan?"

"Let me explain. But promise me that you'll believe what I'm going to tell you."

"That depends." Elsa eyed the girl as she inched slowly to bar the door. "I knew there was something fishy about you but I didn't know what. You've been deviously smart in masking who you really are. When Ludwig revealed that you were the one who kickstarted the whole revolution, I thought that was it. But no, you've been using that to hide your real identity. You're very cunning, I'll give you that."

"We saw the way you moved. The way you handled that rifle and killed the Blitzguard." Tracy added.

"And then there's the way you fought Janus and actually survived," Elsa narrowed her eyes. "I've seen Janus fight. Not many live to tell the tale, but here you are, alive and well. You've obviously had years of training to be able to move and fight like that. My first guess is you're a spy."

Peggy's eyes flicked between the two of them, and Elsa tensed, ready to counter if the Exonian girl came flying over the table with sword in hand. "Like I said, this is working out the way I hoped," She said cautiously. "I knew that at some point, I'd have to blow my cover and you'd find out who I really was."

"I don't buy that bull. You're saying you planned to stay hidden all this while before letting us see all that?" Tracy said incredulously.

"Yes."

"Stop speaking in riddles. Tell us who you really are. Now." Elsa demanded, hands hovering at hip level.

"I am a spy," Peggy announced in a low voice. "But I don't work for the Empire or the Equalitar."

"Then who are you working for?" Tracy asked. "The Ibersians? Molcorrans? Someone else?"

"That part's a little harder to explain," Peggy ran a hand through her blonde hair which was still covered in dust and gunpowder.

"Then simplify it." Elsa said impatiently.

Peggy looked up at the two girls. "I'm not exactly working for anyone. I'm here on a mission to destroy the Empire together with…another ally. But not in the same way that you and the League of Sorcerers have been trying to do," She paused to find her words. "I'm here to stop the emperor before he conquers the world."

Elsa looked over at Tracy, then back at Peggy. "I don't see how that's any different from us."

"No, you don't understand. That's not what I meant," Peggy said, then lowered her voice even further. "I'm not here to stop the emperor in the near future. I'm here to stop the emperor in the past."

"You're right. I don't understand," Elsa tilted her head with a heavy frown. "What are you talking about?"

"I come from the 21st century in the year 2021," Peggy locked eyes with Elsa. "And I'm your descendant in the future."

Blinking, Elsa tried to find the words to respond but couldn't. And no one could blame her. Mouth opening then closing, she stared at Peggy, not knowing what to say at all. Or what to think for that matter. The 21st century? My descendant in the future? What does that mean?

Before she could speak again, Tracy helped her voice her thoughts. "I don't understand."

"And I don't blame you," Peggy turned to Tracy. "Where I come from, the idea of time travel is still ridiculously far fetched. Even I had a hard time believing it was real until I stepped through time and wound up here in the 19th century."

"19th…So you're saying you travelled here from the future?" Elsa managed to whisper, her knees feeling weak. "And…and you're related to me?"

Peggy nodded slowly but surely. "I am. Both you and Janus are my ancestors. Just a couple of months ago, I didn't believe you even existed. I thought the tales of the Snow Queen were all a myth and that you were a fairy tale for children."

"Fairy tale-" Elsa sputtered. "I…I don't know what to say."

"I do. How can you prove any of this?" Tracy demanded. "How do we know you're really who you say you are?"

"Fair enough," Peggy reached for her pocket but stopped when Tracy grabbed her wrist. "May I?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Slowly," Tracy watched her doggedly as she reached into her pocket and drew out a slate-like device.

"What is that?" Elsa asked. She was still reeling from it all. This was a lot to take in at one go.

"This is a device from the future," Peggy waved it in her palm and set it down on the round table before Elsa and Tracy. "It's called a mobile phone. Here in this century, you use messengers and signal flashes to send messages, right?"

"Yes," Elsa stared at the device, a thin, slab of metal with rounded edges and a glass screen on its front. It certainly looked like it didn't come from this century.

"Well in the future, we can send messages in a split second. Along with a whole lot of other nifty tricks," Peggy slid her hand across the table and tapped on the screen in full view of the two girls. "Like this."

The screen lit up brightly, prompting Elsa to backpedal on pure instinct and raise a hand in defence. A faint, translucent blue light rose from the screen like an actual, three-dimensional chart suspended in mid-air. Lines joined circles together, with words written beneath those circles which had little details in them. Upon slightly closer inspection, Elsa realised that they were photographs - not unlike the rare ones created by heliography techniques.

"What is this?" Tracy asked cautiously.

"My ancestral history. I was able to find my family's historical records and covert them into a digital format," Peggy answered and pointed at the very base of the circles. "You can see that it's me, right here."

Elsa and Tracy both moved closer to get a better look. Sure enough, as Peggy had said, it was unmistakable. The photograph in that little circle was her, with the name 'Margaret Jorgendal' floating below it.

"And the bloodline traces all the way back to you." Peggy trailed her finger upwards, along the branches between the circles, and stopped near the very top of the chart.

Elsa followed her finger, her eyes resting on her own face in one of the circles. It was a photograph too, looking more like the old, rare, uncoloured ones that she'd seen before in Arendelle. It was like looking back into a mirror, point being that it was incredibly unsettling. Her eyes journeyed one step upward.

"It even has my parents here," Elsa whispered in a mix of awe, confusion and terror.

"King Agnarr and Queen Iduna? Yes, it does." Peggy confirmed. "It even goes beyond the colonial King Runeard."

"Is this really…real?" Elsa took a step back, holding on to the back of a chair in case she fainted.

"It is. All of it," Peggy touched something on the surface of the slate and the entire chart collapsed back into the thin metal slab she'd called a phone. "Do you believe me now? Or do I need to tell you about Ahtohallan too?"

"Elsa, this is some crazy shit," Tracy didn't bother making an attempt to water it down in front of Peggy. "As a sea witch, I've seen some bloody weird stuff but time travel? Mystery spy girl from the future? This one's got to be the craziest. And that's really saying something, considering the magic I've seen."

Elsa stared hard at Peggy, who levelled her gaze calmly. Ahtohallan, the place almost no one knew about apart from her closest friends and her sister. No one else knew it existed, but somehow, this girl did.

It didn't make any sense to her, but deep down, she knew that Peggy was who she said she was. Before, she'd only managed to notice a strange, passing resemblance to something or someone she couldn't place, but now that Peggy had claimed to be her descendant, she could see it now. The facial features, the tiny, almost imperceptible traits that one would not notice unless they belonged to someone who was of the same blood line. Even that far into the future, Peggy bore similar physical characteristics to Elsa herself. As for how she knew about Ahtohallan, Elsa made a mental note to question the girl further when this was all behind them.

"What happens in the future?" Elsa finally said. "You said you were trying to prevent the emperor from conquering the world?"

"That's because he did. But only because he changed history somehow," Peggy's features tightened. "In the future I live in, the Empire doesn't exist anymore. It dissolved after the end of this war to form what becomes known as the United States of Exon."

Elsa stared at her. "So we're supposed to win?"

"According to history. Exon is no longer the threat it is now. In fact, I am Exonian, even though I have Arendellian blood too. The world is more…civilised in the 21st century."

"Thanks for calling us barbarians." Tracy said.

"But we are supposed to win this war, aren't we?" Elsa probed again.

"Yes, but something changed. One morning, everyone woke up to a whole different world. The Empire suddenly exists again and has conquered five continents. And on the side of every wall is the emperor's face."

Elsa felt the blood drain completely from her face. "Hans is still alive in the future?"

Peggy looked dead serious. "He is. But I have no clue how."

"The Eternal King," Elsa declared with dread. "The demon made him immortal."

"The what? Never mind," Peggy shook her head. "He's found a way to bend the rules. He was never supposed to become emperor. In the history texts that every school teaches their children, the Imperial Horde was crushed at the Battle of Luftzeit, and the Empress was killed after the Coalition stormed the capital. Chancellor Westergaard escaped and presumably died alone, because his body was never found. Don't you see?" her voice rose into a hiss. "He never became the emperor because the Empire fell before he had the chance. But somehow, he knew about his fate and found a way to change it. And now, where I come from in the 21st century, he rules five continents with an iron fist and has established what is known across the Empire as the 'Pax Exon'."

"Exonian Peace." Elsa translated grimly.

"Bloody hell," Tracy muttered. "This really is some crazy shit."

"Exon is supposed to be a republic in the future," Peggy went on. "After the war, the monarchy dissolved and was eventually replaced by a republic. And that's why I'm here. I'm here to put Exon back on the path to being free from imperial rule. To liberate my ancestors so that the United States of Exon can exist again."

"You're right," Elsa told Tracy. "This is madness. But that doesn't mean it's not real."

Tracy folded her arms. "Bloody hell. You've got to be kidding."

"I'm not. Look, we came here looking for a way to stop Hans once and for all. And now my descendant's here from the future to help us prevent Hans from conquering the world." Elsa knew how ridiculous she sounded even as she uttered the words.

She couldn't believe this was the world she lived in now. First a whole breed of sorcerers just like her, then a shadowy cult of demon assassins and an ancient immortal demon who was working with Hans, and finally a time traveller from the future - her own descendant no less.

"I don't know about this." Tracy looked doubtful.

"Do you trust me?" Elsa asked.

"The last time I trusted you, we both got kidnapped and Hans tortured you till you almost died."

Elsa grimaced. She wasn't wrong. "I think you're forgetting the fact that you also trusted me and that opened the door to our opportunity here."

"Yeah, but-" Tracy lowered her eyes. "Ah, bugger it."

"If this is our chance to set things right, save Jade and Janus, and destroy the Empire once and for all, I'm going to take it and trust her." Elsa levelled with Tracy. "Will you?"

A long pause. "Aww, bloody hell." Tracy cursed.

Elsa let slip a slight grin, then turned back to Peggy with a serious expression. "So let me get this straight. You come from a future where there is peace. But then everything changed and you believe that somehow, Hans changed history, and you're here to restore Exon the way it's supposed to be?"

"Yes," Peggy regarded her sincerely.

Inhaling deeply, Elsa went on. "So that's why you came back to Exon as a lowly servant girl to be hired by Duke Voda. You knew he had dreams of Exon being free, and that's why you whispered in his ear about starting a revolution."

Peggy nodded. "To free my people and set us back on the right course of history."

"Honestly, you lost me at time travel," Tracy scratched her nose.

"There'll be plenty of time for me to explain later. But first, we have to figure out a way to get out of the capital," Peggy said.

"Get out of the capital? And what about your mission to make sure Exon becomes a republic?" Elsa asked.

"I've done what I needed to do to set things in motion. Before I came to the 19th century, my…allies and I had everything planned out. My part of the plan includes sparking the revolution, and then finding you," Peggy said. "And now that I've found you guys, I have to get you all out of here and rendezvous with the rest of the Coalition."

"I'm not saying I don't wanna get out of this hell of a country, but why?" Tracy asked.

"Because in this twisted version of history, the emperor kills all of you. You, Elsa, Janus…" she trailed off. "Without my intervention here, he will succeed in killing you all before you can step foot out of the capital."

"Damn," Tracy whistled and deflated. "So you're saying we're actually supposed to die in Exon?"

Peggy set her jaw. "Yes, but only in this altered, twisted version of history we're all in now. But not anymore, because I'm going to set things back on track and that starts with making sure we make it out of Exon alive. Somehow."

"I'm not leaving without Janus and Jade," Elsa made sure she sounded adamant. "Janus is still alive and so is Jade, and I'll be damned before I leave them as mindless pawns of Hans' twisted game."

"Ah, maybe we won't have to." Tracy grinned. "I might have figured it out."

"Figured what out?"

"How to counter the Mage Slayer responsible for their brainwashing. I think I know how to break the seals."

Elsa's eyes lit up. "You do?"

"While you and Janus were busy fondling each other and having sex, I was working on a way to save Jade," Tracy received the full force of Elsa's glare and shrugged. "What? It's true."

"So you're saying you know how to turn them back to our side?" Peggy asked.

Tracy scrunched up her face as though uncertain. "I think so."

"You think so?" Elsa echoed.

"You of all people should know using magic to combat demons isn't an exact science. Don't tell me you forgot how the Mage Slayers whooped our asses in the forest," Tracy scowled at her, but her face brightened again. "But as a Ha'naeth, I might just be able to pull it off."

Peggy raised an eyebrow. "Ha'naeth?"

"Basically, I'm a sea witch. I'm guessing your history books didn't say anything about me?"

"Not mainstream history anyhow. But Arendelle's royal library has tons of books about the League of Sorcerers and old diaries full of the legendary Queen Anna's adventures with the Warriors."

"Terrific," Tracy flashed her first, friendly grin at Elsa's temporal-inverting descendant. "Maybe you could show me those books. I wonder what kind of hero the historians painted me as."

"Tracy. Can you destroy the Crimson Order's hold over Jade and Janus?" Elsa asked impatiently.

"It took me a lot of work but I think I figured out a spell after you and Janus left to break into the castle," Tracy's grin vanished slowly. "But…uh…"

"But what?"

"You're not going to like it."