Chapter 2: King of Arrendale has a Quest

King Agnarr of Arendale was desperate.

Elsa and Anna had been playing late at night when they should have been in bed. And Elsa's powers had accidentally hit Anna. And now Anna wasn't moving and her body was getting as cold as ice.

The palace doctor didn't know anything about magic and had a completely irrational fear whenever magic was talked about. He couldn't go to him for this.

So he took a chance. He had heard stories of trolls and how they had magic. Maybe, maybe, magic could fix what magic had harmed.

"Your Majesty," a clearly special troll greeted him. The troll took one look at Elsa before taking her hand. "Born with the powers or cursed?"

Cursed? Agnarr thought for a second, recalling an old fable about a child who was cursed on the day she was born, but that was not here. The answer was clear.

"Born," he told the troll. If the troll actually was able to tell at a glance that Elsa was special, perhaps that would mean he would know how to fix this. How to save Anna. "And they are getting stronger."

The troll obviously considered it for a second before moving over to Anna.

"Here, here," He told Queen Iduna. Iduna quickly knelt down and offered up their precious, freezing child for the troll king to examine.

The troll laid one hand on Anna's head and turned back to him.

"You are lucky it wasn't her heart," the troll told him. Agnarr glanced down at Anna. "The heart is not so easily changed. But the head can be persuaded."

A sense of relief swept through Agnarr. Coming to the trolls had been the right choice. If they could save Anna, that would mean she would live.

"Do what you must," He implored.

The troll obeyed and with a swirl of lights, memories came out of Anna's head and swept into a vision.

"I recommend we remove all magic, even memories of magic to be safe." The troll said even as memories of Anna and Elsa playing together with Elsa's ice powers changed from indoors to outdoors. "But don't worry, I'll leave the fun."

With a swirl of light, the troll gathered the memory lights together again into his hand. With a gentle movement, the troll laid the memories back into Anna.

Agnarr swallowed.

"She'll be okay." The troll said.

Agnarr felt all the tension leave his body. A smile formed naturally as he saw his beloved wife smile down at their five-year-old daughter and then cuddle her close.

Agnarr's hand slid to Iduna's shoulder.

"But she won't remember I have powers?" Little eight-year-old Elsa asked.

His smile disappeared. Poor Elsa. Her powers were important to her. Even though it baffled him and Iduna about where they had come from, Elsa loved using those powers. And his daughters had spent weeks playing with them, ever since Anna had been old enough to start crawling.

For that to be discarded, to have to be thrown away…it must be hard on his eight-year-old daughter.

"It's for the best," He told Elsa, laying a comforting hand on her shoulder.

Elsa glanced down at her two hands. The two hands that had so accidentally harmed Anna.

"Listen to me, Elsa," The troll said as he turned away. "Your power will only grow."

With a wave of his hands, the troll conjured up illusions of light in the night sky. Blue images of a crowd and a female. The female displayed ice magic in front of them all.

"There is beauty in it. But also great danger." The light suddenly flashed red, a snowflake becoming ominous. "You must learn to control it. Fear will be your enemy."

The crowds turned red and then with a surge, they swept upon the blue silhouette of Elsa who vanished with a cry of distress.

Elsa gasped in horror and dived for his chest.

Agnarr wrapped her in a protective embrace.

"No." Agnarr denied. He couldn't let that happen. He would never let the people harm his daughter. "We'll protect her." He assured Iduna.

He turned back to the troll leader. "She can learn to control it, I'm sure. 'Till then, lock the gates. We'll reduce the staff, we will limit her contact with people, and keep her powers hidden from everyone." He closed his eyes, horror sweeping his heart at what he was about to do to his inseparable daughters. "Including Anna."

There was no choice. Anna didn't know anymore. And if she knew, she would want to play with them more.

It just wasn't safe. If Elsa lost control before she gained it, Anna could die. If Anna couldn't keep Elsa's powers a secret, then the people could turn on Elsa and Elsa could die.

"Is there anything you can do to teach her?" He asked desperately.

"No," The troll shook his head. "Her magic is a human magic. I can't teach her."

Agnarr flinched. Every profession he knew of needed experts to pass their secrets onto the next generation. To teach their apprentices. No one could become a professional without being taught. Even he had to learn from his father and his regent how to be a king.

How could Elsa learn to control her powers if there was no one who could teach her?

"But you might just be in luck," the troll added. "We recently had a guest drop in. A human mage. He might know something."

"A mage?" Agnarr blinked. "Can he teach Elsa?"

"I don't know," the troll denied. "But if you can talk with him, then maybe he can teach her."

"Of course we'll talk with him," Agnarr said. He had to ask. He had an entire kingdom, surely there was something in it that he could use to pay the mage for his time if money wouldn't be enough.

"Right, let me go get him." The troll turned around.

"Grand Pabbie, he followed you here," another troll spoke up pointing out from the ring of trolls surrounding his family.

Agnarr's gaze followed the pointed finger.

To a red haired boy. One arm wrapped in a splint. His face and skin were very different from the locals, or any diplomat from any kingdom Agnarr had ever met before.

The problem was, he was a literal boy. Couldn't be any older than Elsa judging by his height.

"Are you sure he is a mage?" Agnarr turned back to Grand Pabbie who beckoned for the boy to join them.

"Yes," Grand Pabbie nodded. "He uses magic that calls on Foundations rather use the Wise One's runes. That makes him a magus, not a seidrmenn."

"Is there a difference?" Agnarr asked before shaking his head. If the trolls said the boy was a mage, then he would have to trust them. More importantly, "Can he really teach Elsa?"

"As I said, I don't know," Grand Pabbie shrugged. "We can't talk to him."

"Why not?"

"He doesn't know our language," Grand Pabbie answered. Angarr glanced over at the boy, confirming the foreign appearance. The only thing that looked remotely familiar was him being human and his red hair. "I think he knows two languages so perhaps you, a king of a kingdom that deals with foreigners from afar, will be able to talk to him."

"How did he get here if he can't speak the language?" Agnarr wondered.

"That must be quite a story," Grand Pabbie said. "I only know the part where he magically dropped into our valley all by himself."

"By himself?" Agnarr shook himself. "That isn't what matters now. Let me try."

Agnarr stood up, shepherding the curious Elsa over to Iduna. With a deep breath, he walked over to the boy and knelt down. It was easier to deal with children when you are closer to their height.

"Hello, I am king Agnarr," He spoke. He gazed hopefully at the boy. No flash of comprehension in those brown eyes. So he tried again. "Hello, I am king Agnarr."

A third repetition had the boy suddenly get a glint that indicated understanding.

And the boy spoke something back. A gabble nothing like anything Agnarr knew.

Agnarr shook his head, the boy must have figured out that they were trying to find a common tongue not understood him, and tried a fourth language. This was one he could barely speak.

Back and back the two talked, repeating a sentence in various tongues. Agnarr was forced to resort to phrases he had heard from languages he couldn't actually speak.

If there was one language, just one, Agnarr can call for a person who knew that language and have them teach this boy how to speak their language.

But in the end, he exhausted his knowledge of languages, long after the boy had.

And towards the end, the boy just pointed at Agnarr and said one word.

"Agnarr."

Well, at least they now knew each other's name.

"Shirou Phamrsolone," Agnarr pointed to Shirou.

Agnarr turned back towards his family and the trolls who were looking at him.

"Can he help?" Iduna asked anxiously.

"I don't know," Agnarr shook his head. "I didn't recognize the language he speaks, nor did he any of ours."

"Umm," Elsa hesitantly spoke up, a spark of ice rising up from her hands before she shivered and drew back.

"Do you feel anything, Elsa?" Agnarr asked hopefully. Elsa had magic and so did the boy. Maybe magic would let the two communicate?

"I was thinking, maybe," Elsa glanced nervously up to him before going back down to the ground. "Maybe we could use sno- um, plain pictures to talk?"

"Pictures?" Agnarr exchanged a glance with Iduna before smiling at Elsa. "That's a good idea, Elsa. Let's do that."

"Ooh, let's draw!" the trolls started to cheer. Shirou jumped at the burst of noise.

It was a chaotic affair. Agnarr hadn't brought in any drawing materials with him in the rush out of the castle. And the trolls were rushing back and forth, bringing out sheets of slate and drawing on them then popping up to show it to each other, Agnarr's family, or Shirou who looked at all of this chaos in bewilderment. "What can we draw on?" Agnarr wondered.

"I will aid you," Grand Pabbie said resolutely. "What is it that you wish to show?"

Agnarr exchanged a glance with Iduna then looked down to Elsa. His father had a bit of advice that had held true throughout all of Agnarr's life. That even in crisis, there are opportunities.

"Elsa?" He asked his daughter. "What do you want to say?"

She would be the next queen of Arendale. And if the boy could teach her, then Elsa would be talking with the boy until she learned to control her powers. She would need to be able to think about how to communicate clearly for the entirety of her life. And with Anna's life saved, there was no need to rush in making decisions now.

"Um," Elsa swallowed in nervousness. "Can we ask him to teach me? But how do we show that?"

She looked up at him, her guileless blue eyes desperate for confirmation.

"Good question," Agnarr encouraged her. "Maybe a picture of your tutor teaching you something like math then replace the tutor with him and you studying magic."

Elsa nodded.

"Can you do that for us?" Agnarr asked Grand Pabbie.

"Very well," Grand Pabbie acquiesced.

With a flick of his wrist, the lights in the sky changed until there was a silhouette of a tutor standing in front of a blue girl sitting on the ground. Some numbers appeared beside the tutor and the girl nodded and the same numbers appeared next to her. The teacher nodded then moved away and a short blue figure with a mop of red on top of his head replaced her. Then the boy waved a hand and some swords appeared. The girl repeated the motion, only she instead caused crystalized snowflakes to shimmer into light. Slowly, the snowflakes changed into swords. Both the boy and the girl then threw up their arms and celebrated.

"Swords?" Agnarr looked at Grand Pabbie. "I want him to teach her magic, not swordsmanship."

"The magic we've seen him do is conjuring a sword from somewhere else." Grand Pabbie explained. "That is a magic he has. Further, as he comes from a completely different place, his culture's symbols are different from our own."

The boy on the ground gaped up at the pictures of light.

"What does conjuring mean?" Elsa asked.

"It is an act of using magical energy to bring something or someone from one place to another," Grand Pabbie taught.

"Oh." Elsa frowned. "Do I do conjuring?"

"I do not know, child," Grand Pabbie answered. "Your magic is not my own."

The picture of light replayed itself, the mage boy watching intently.

Shiriou looked down from the sky, meeting Agnarr's eyes. He then pointed up at the blue picture with red hair and then pointed to himself.

Agnarr nodded.

Shirou then pointed up to the small blue girl and then pointed to Anna.

Agnarr widened his eyes and shook his head firmly. No, Anna didn't know about magic and it would be for the better that she didn't know about magic until after Elsa could control her own powers. He patted Elsa on the head, who looked up curiously at what her father wanted.

Shirou pointed to himself, then to Elsa.

Agnarr smiled and nodded.

Shirou looked up at the sky, where the boy was conjuring swords and the girl imitated him.

Shirou shrugged.

And with a few foreign words, a miracle occurred.

Light gathered itself and shattered. Where there once had been air, a gleaming steel sword now floated proudly in the air. The hilt was plain, but made out of a soft spongy material Agnarr had never seen before. The blade was short, smaller than the length of his forearm but had been sharpened to a sharp edge that could cut through bone cleanly.

Catching it out of the air with his uninjured hand, the now confirmed mage walked forward, sword in hand.

Agnarr's breath caught. He hadn't ever faced assassins, but a bare blade definitely unnerved him when he and the trolls were the only one between a potential threat and his daughters.

The boy flipped the sword around and offered it hilt-first to Elsa.

"Uhhh?" Elsa looked at Shirou then up at Agnarr. "What am I to do with a sword?"

"I think he wants you to take it," Agnarr softly said. Shirou was waiting expectantly.

"Why?" Elsa asked even as she hesitantly stretched her hand forward.

"I don't know," Agnarr told her.

"Perhaps he thinks the picture of lights is Elsa asking for a sword," Dearest Iduna suggested.

Tentatively, Elsa gripped the sword hilt and Shirou let go of the blade, nodding with satisfaction.

The group was quiet for a few moments, contrasting with the busily drawing trolls.

"But I want to learn how to control my powers," Elsa told Agnarr.

"You might have to use them so he understands that you have them. He doesn't know you have them after all," Iduna bit her lip.

Elsa looked down at the ground, little shoulders hunched up, lip wobbling.

"You can do it, Elsa," Agnarr encouraged, hoping that he was right. "You don't have to do anything complex or hard, you can just," he struggled to find a word. Let it go? No, that wouldn't work. "turn a patch to ice?"

Belatedly, he turned to the troll whose valley they were discussing adding a slip hazard into. The troll nodded, giving permission.

Elsa shakily extended a hand forward. Shirou cocked his head, eyes locked onto the sword.

"I'll hold that for you," Agnarr gingerly took the sword from her. He didn't know what would happen when Elsa tried to shoot ice while holding a sword. But since Elsa was using both hands to hold the sword, at the very least the sword would distract her.

Elsa nodded, her mind focused on controlling her powers. Hopefully she wouldn't have another accident like she did with Anna.

With a spray of blue mist, like the foam of the ocean when it was split by the prow of a ship, white ice shot out of Elsa's hands and formed a jagged patch of ice on the stone and moss ground of the Valley of Living Rock.

The boy's eyes widened. He looked between the ice and Elsa, Elsa's hands and the ice.

A troll child rolled forward to the ice patch before poking at it.

Shirou looked up at the sky, where the lights were still playing the picture of Elsa learning magic from the boy.

Shirou pointed at the blue girl then at Elsa. He paused for a moment, before conjuring another sword, identical to the first. Using the second sword, Shirou pointed at the patch of ice Elsa had just made and now multiple troll children were gathering around.

Agnarr nodded. "Please, teach my daughter." He requested.

Shirou looked puzzled before he laid the sword on the ground and gestured towards Elsa to push towards the sword.

"What is he saying, Papa?" Elsa asked, looking up.

Agnarr looked closely at Shirou, who walked to beside Elsa and shakily pushed his hand towards the sword, before turning his head to stare steadfastly at Elsa.

Elsa just looked confused. Shirou craned his head up to the sky, watching the light show again before repeating the exact same motions of gesturing for Elsa to push towards the sword.

Iduna glanced up at the sky where Elsa was turning a snowflake into a sword. "Ah. He wants you to turn the sword into ice."

"Can I do that?" Elsa wondered.

"I don't know." Agnarr forced himself to admit. "I know nothing of magic. But if he thinks you can, then maybe you can."

Elsa nodded as one of the troll kid stepped onto the ice patch.

With frown of deep concentration, Elsa fired off a blast of snow and ice at the sword lying on the ground.

As the troll kid started jumping on the ice patch, Elsa leaned forward, looking hopefully at the sword now lying in a patch of snow.

Shirou stepped forward and picked up the sword. It was now encased in a block of ice, a fat glob of crystalline water surrounding the metal sword.

Shirou turned and handed the sword to Elsa, then gestured to the first sword, the one in Agnarr's hand.

Agnarr hurriedly gave the sword back, making sure that Elsa wouldn't accidentally hurt herself with the blade.

Elsa looked back and forth between the ice-encased sword and the metal sword.

She looked up. Agnarr waited to hear what she had to say. Maybe she had learned something, some profound lesson that Shirou was trying to teach.

"What am I supposed to do now?" Elsa asked him.

Agnarr looked to Iduna. If he was ever stumped, his much smarter wife knew better than he what to do. Because he certainly didn't have a clue.

Iduna was watching the trolls turn into stone balls and roll back and forth across the ice, the sheet not even cracking under their weight.

"Iduna?" He prompted.

"Hm?" She turned back towards him, arms still cradling the sleeping Anna. "Sorry, I'm a little tired and got lost in thought. What is the question?"

"What am I supposed to do now?" Elsa asked, still holding both swords.

"Hm," Iduna looked to Shirou and nodded. "I think we all got distracted by what is going on right now. We don't have to have an entire lesson on how to control your powers now. What we need is for you to be able to learn from him in the future. I get the feeling that learning to control your powers will be a long process."

"Your mother is right," Agnarr admitted. She usually was. "We got distracted from trying to ask him to teach you."

"Do you want to take him with you?" Grand Pabbie inquired as a young reindeer and a blond child joined the troll children playing on the ice patch.

"That will be for the best," Agnarr agreed. "It will be easier to teach him how to communicate if he is living with us."

"You said earlier that he dropped into the valley by himself?" Iduna confirmed with Grand Pabbie. "And he is from far away, so far that he doesn't know our language. Do you think he has any family here?"

"He did drop in alone. As for family, while he could be from anywhere, but it is unlikely he came from Arrendale or knows anyone here," Grand Pabbie stated.

"Then it seems like he is an orphan. We could make him a ward of the state," Iduna suggested. "It would be easier than putting him in an orphanage and having Elsa visit all the time."

"We do have that program, don't we," Agnarr recalled. The last time they had a state ward…was in his childhood if he remembered right. Right after his father, his guards, and the diplomatic entourage disappeared into the Enchanted Forest, and Agnarr's regent had taken in any children who had lost their only parent. Some of the servants now were once those very wards. "Right, that sounds good."

With Shirou in the palace, it would be much easier to hide Elsa's powers from those who could harm her. Especially with the changes he would have to make to running the palace in order to protect Elsa until she can control her powers.

"Would he even want to come with us?" Elsa asked with a wobbly lip.

"Right," Agnarr nodded. He had forgotten that. The exhaustion must be getting to him if he had forgotten. "Shall we ask him if he wants to come with us?"

"That is easy enough to make a picture of," Grand Pabbie agreed. With a wave of his hand, the lights shifted and changed. Now it showed two roads in front of a red child. One led to a rough recreation of the Arrendale palace, the other was the valley they stood in. The palace had four blue blobs, each corresponding to Agnarr's family while the valley had pictures of trolls.

Grand Pabbie lowered his hands, bringing the picture down to the earth, the two paths starting directly in front of Shirou. With a twist, the picture rotated until the palace was behind Agnarr and the valley was behind Grand Pabbie.

"Now we let him choose," Grand Pabbie said, bringing his hands down to his side.

Agnarr bit his lip. Elsa needed a teacher. Without a mage, who knows how long it would take for her to learn to control the powers she was born with. Shirou was the only mage he knew of and if he started inquiring about any other magicians out there, there would be a risk of people figuring out that Elsa had magic.

Elsa needed Shirou. He was the only one who could help.

But Agnarr couldn't just force Shirou to go along with them. How does one force a mage to obey? Also, Agnarr knew that you can't just command a teacher to teach and expect him to do a good job. You had to persuade a person to work for you if you wanted them to do a good job.

But he couldn't even talk to Shirou. Shirou was too young to care about money. He had nothing with which to persuade Shirou.

He knelt down and hugged Elsa. If Shirou chose to stay here…

He wasn't sure what he would do. Would he have to order a house built for Elsa not far from the Valley so she can come here and meet her teacher? But that could take at least weeks for a sturdy house to be built, not to mention he wasn't sure if there was a village nearby that could provide Elsa with food, much less the carpenters, the masons, and the other construction workers.

Shirou looked back and forth between the two roads. He stared at the trolls, then at Elsa, who was peeking at the red-head.

With a nod, the boy stepped forward, making his choice.

"Do you think Ophelia was actually his name or not?" A troll asked as the royal family left the Valley of Living Rock, taking the boy with them.

"Of course it is," another troll huffed. "He kept on shouting it out when Jungie was introducing himself. What else could it be?"

Thanks to wroughtironhero for beta-reading.