Chapter Text
Light never seemed to travel far when you were out at sea, but the Dark sea wasn’t called the Dark sea for no reason. The sun seemed to be swallowed by the sea itself, and legend said that the sea didn’t have a bottom and that if a ship sank, it kept sinking and sinking until, eventually, it started rising more than sinking. People used to swear they could see something massive swimming in the rough waters as quickly as a duck in a pond, and that that same being had been responsible for the hundreds of missing ships that had gone missing in its waters.
“Aw you’re full of shit Charles!” a voice cried out on the top deck where three guards sat at the bow of the ship with a lamp sat on the makeshift table, they sat at with a pint of grog each. They were supposed to be on night watch, but they all knew that no one was crazy enough to venture into the Dark sea unless they had a death wish.
“Like yours was any better!” the other man cried, “Come on! A poisonous water rat that can kill cattle a hundred feet away? That’s such bullshit!”
“It’s true! All of my neighbor's cattle were dead in the water when he went to check on them in her early morning! No wounds! Nothin!”
“Maybe it was somethin’ small like a needle or something?”
“Who would go around and kill over 200 head of cattle with a needle for fun?”
“I don’t know, maybe the same person that duke was talking about!” the sailor huffed and threw his hands in the air, nearly toppling his grog.
“God, would you two shut up!?!” the third man joined as the other two burst into tipsy laughter, “You’re gonna wake the captain!”
“Kid, let me let you in on something,” one of the men said, wrapping his arm around the other man's shoulder and pulling him close, “The captain is an old superstitious bastard who believes in sprites and spirits. He knows all of the old songs about myth and legend and believes where we are right now,” he swung his arm out wide to the vast sea surrounding them without a soul or light in sight, “is home to one of the most powerful beings this world has ever seen and that the monster we’ve got below deck,” he stomped his feet, “could kill us all with one blink,”
“Yeah, but…”
“So, if the captain does come out here and sees us sharing a drink and telling tales then we could simply tell him we were getting our liquid courage up and spreading some knowledge to the youngers!” he finished loudly and downed the rest of his grog with a chuckle and joined the other man at the table. He eyed him for a moment before giving out an exasperated sigh.
“What? Don’t tell me you believe in all those stories the captain tells!”
“You seem to,” the younger retorted
“Poisonous water rats are on thing, but the things the captain spouts?” he shook his head, “the wind carrying a soul? The Nokk? A place that holds the answers to everything? Just delusions of an old man past his prime I say,”
“I’ve learned that every story has some bit of truth to it…”
“And I’ve learned that the more grog you drink, the less you care about the world around you!” the other man said in a bold voice and finished his pint. The younger glanced out to sea for a brief moment before giving in and sitting back at the table to finish his pint. What the hell? One night wouldn’t kill anyone.
Whereas the Dark Sea was a place of seemingly endless darkness and pitch, Arendelle was a place of seemingly infinite light and warmth. Lamp posts lined the streets and lit the roads with a soft, warm glow. Stores, long since closed, still kept one lantern lit inside to allow the guards to see inside. Even in the dead of night, one could still see the life and love that worked in the area even when its occupants were asleep.
Most were asleep, but if one looked to the castle which sat on the water, one could see the silhouette of someone walking by the windows before finding a spot on a secluded balcony. If you were new to the town, you would have sworn up and down that it was a ghost you saw walking the halls. The ghostly white of its hair and clothes would seem to shine almost blindingly in the castle lamplight, and the way the figure would move with such pose and balance could only be the cause of a long-dead relative of the royal family come to walk the halls of the castle where it once lived.
Only you’d be wrong. Those who had lived in the town for a few years now knew of the former Queens habits of walking the halls during the late at night though they could never figure out why; Maybe it was sleeplessness, maybe nightmares, or perhaps the former Queen had no need for pointless needs such as sleep. For years there were whispers among the townsfolk about the then Princess Elsa who no one could ever recall truly seeing in person for more than a few minutes at most. There were whispers that she was an illegitimate child, a bastard, because of her pure white hair. Some called her merely a ghost and hallucination to everyone who had seen her, but others said it was something…else.
When Elsa first heard those whispers and rumors, she wanted to tell them it was sleepless nights, that she wanted to walk the halls without the eyes of the maids and guards watching her move because she knew how they liked to talk. Still, now that she knew some prying eyes were waiting to catch a glimpse of her in the massive windows, she made it a point to stay as far away from them as possible. Tonight though, Elsa didn’t care. Let them wonder why she was walking the halls once more because, after all, they had no one what happened to her after she abdicated the throne. Even if they asked her why she was back in her wandering ways, she wouldn’t be able to give them an answer, at least, not one they could understand.
She was the very definition of restless. Anytime she closed her eyes, they were back open like a spring lock. Her legs bounced nervously anytime she sat down for longer than a minute, and she caught herself twisting the ends of her hair in anxiousness. She knew that this didn’t go unnoticed by her sister. She saw her whispering in hushed tones to her fiancé more than once during dinner. She didn’t even know if she could explain it to her, the last piece of a family she had left in this world.
“If coming back to Arendelle makes you this anxious these days, then we can always meet up at the forest, so you’re more comfortable,” came her sister's hushed voice as Elsa stood on the balcony looking out towards the direction of the Enchanted forest.
“No, it’s not that,” the elder sister replied as Anna wrapped her arm around Elsa’s and joined her in staring out over the water.
“What is it then? Something wrong with the forest?”
“I…I don’t know,” she admitted with a tired sigh, “it’s like there’s this…knocking in my chest like someone knocking on a door leading to an empty room,” Elsa expected her to joke saying how she knew what the sound of a knock was, but there was only silence.
“It’s like somethings trying to get my attention but doesn’t have the strength to call out as the others have. Sometimes I think its all in my head, but then it’ll knock on the door…”
“Maybe you should go back…” Anna said quietly and leaned her head on Elsa’s shoulder, “Just to be safe. What if something is wrong with one of the spirits, and they can’t call out to you anymore? What if…”
“They are fine, Anna,” she said to her younger sister, “I know they’re all fine this is just something else, and besides, I promised I would stay for the ceremony,” Anna reluctantly let go of her sister's arm and turned back to the door.
“Well, can you at least try to come back to sleep? We have some new guards that don’t exactly know that much about you yet, so they might raise the alarm and I don’t want to wake the whole town up because of it,” Elsa took one more look out the water before turning and following her sister inside.
The following morning was a flurry of activity as people rushed about preparing the courtyard for today’s ceremony. A large white archway stood in front of the castle doorway, and hundreds of chairs sat in neat rows in front of it. Hundreds of red, orange, and yellow flowers adorned the standing columns and walled archways and made the air smell sweet and fresh. A band was softly warming up to the side with each member wearing their most elegant attire; Lively notes filled the air before being cut quickly by the lead band member.
Elsa watched over it all from Anna’s bedroom window while her sister tugged and squeezed herself into her wedding gown with the help of Gerda. The sister had chosen a beautiful yet simple white dress. It wasn’t big, but the fabric adorned with little stitching of forest scenery and the 4 four spirits. You had to look pretty hard to tell what they were, but Elsa was touched by detail none the less.
“We owe them so much, so I thought it would be fitting to honor them in some way…” she explained when Elsa first saw the dress. Even though she knew the Earth Giants and maybe even Nokk themselves were indifferent to the gesture, Bruni and Gale loved it; The latter of which was helping those outside place decorations in hard to reach places.
“Earth to Elsa?” she heard her sister call out as she shook her head from her thoughts. She turned to look and saw Anna had finally gotten herself into her dress and was now fumbling with her hair with no small help from Gerda. Anna looked at her sister with a tired “please help me” smile that Elsa had come to know all too well. She stepped over beside Anna and carefully pulled apart the younger's hair, grabbed a brush with the desk nearby, and slowly went through brushing out every single little knot and tangle.
“I wish I was born with the ability to look good when I wake up and not the back end of a manure wagon,” Anna sighed and melted into the smooth brush strokes.
“That’s what makes you, you, Anna,” Elsa said, “I wish I was able to speak what I wanted to without having to worry about the repercussions,”
“But that kind of stuff takes a lot of time and practice and…oh,” Elsa smiled to herself as her sister clicked the pieces together with a nervous laugh. Elsa grabbed three strands of hair and slowly began braiding along the length of Anna’s hair, creating a waterfall-like effect. Once she finished, she carefully crafted a perfect ice flower and stuck it in her sisters’ braid.
“There,” she said with a lovely smile as Anna stood and looked at herself in the tall bay mirror in the corner of the room. Elsa’s heart swelled with love, but it seemed to hit a point where the feeling of warmth it caused faded in her body and now seemed to cause pain. It was like a small break in her heart seeing her little sister standing before her remembering how she talked about a royal wedding to a handsome prince and would tell her all about what it would be like. She doubted her sister ever saw herself as sitting Queen marrying a former ice harvester, but life was funny like that.
When the time came for the ceremony, the entire courtyard filled with people all over the land. Anna had extended a hand of invitation to everyone in the town of Arendelle, and the whole town showed up plus a few from neighboring towns and kingdoms. Many had to stand along the sides and in the back of the courtyard, and Elsa could hear the rising chatter and low music as the band played idly. They snuck along the back path of the castle to reach the front walkway without anyone seeing them. Anna nervously stood beside Elsa picking at her nails and jumping at every small sound, and when the wedding hymn began to play and the chatter died down, she felt her sister's pulse hit the roof. Anna once again slipped her arm around Elsa’s as the pair started walking towards the carpet that led to the archway.
“I never did get the chance to say how proud I am of you and how you’ve turned out to be,” Elsa said quietly, and she felt Anna grip her arm tighter as the pair began walking towards the carpet.
Anna had asked Elsa to walk her down the aisle months before the ceremony since neither girl how much in the way of a family left. Kai or even Olaf could have walked her, but Anna asked her instead, and of course, Elsa said yes, but now as she walked towards the pearly white arch with Anna hanging on her arm she could feel the stares of the wedding guests not looking at the bride herself but at her. She felt their stares like a heavy blanket, but she forced herself to ignore them and stare straight ahead at Anna’s soon-to-be husband, Kristoff. The former mountain man cleaned up nicely wearing a lovely piece of royal attire that Elsa helped get fitted. Beside him stood Sven wearing an adorable bowtie; When asked about a best man, Kristoff answered that Sven was the only person he needed standing beside him.
As Elsa and Anna made their way up the steps to the alter, Elsa very softly gave Anna away to her waiting husband-to-be and took her place beside her with Olaf already standing there with his big goofy smile. Elsa felt slightly better at seeing the snowman’s signature grin, but one glance at the crowd showed more people then she could have ever imagined all to see her sister’s wedding. If she ever got married while she was Queen, would as many people show up?
She felt terrible to say that after the first 20 minutes of the bishop reciting passage and speaking prayer, she stopped paying much attention. She had heard a long time ago that royal weddings often went on, but she didn’t expect this. For a while, she let her attention drift to Anna and play with “What if’s.” Then, her attention turned to the crowd where she realized that she could feel almost every emotion in the courtyard from the crowd; Love, fondness, jealousy and even boredom swelled and circled the room like wind with different emotions become stronger at different parts, but then she noticed another feeling, unease, and it was coming from the small wind spirit she could see dancing just out of the corner of her eye.
Gale’s regular movements were slow and graceful, but now she could see the spirit moving sporadically much to the annoyance of the guards and guests in the back row. Gale was always the jumpiest of the four, but why now? There wasn’t a threat here in the castle; She was sure of it.
When the ceremony was finally over, the guests threw flower pelts in celebration as the new couple walked back down the carpet into the town where a feast and party was in order for the wedding. Elsa waited for most of the crowd to follow behind before she stepped from her place, but Gale was already circling her chirping excitedly.
“What’s eating you?” Elsa asked the spirit, who paused briefly. Gale spoke in a soft trill before moving out towards the water in the direction of the forest, “Something wrong with the forest?” Gale chirped again and tried pushing Elsa towards the sea before Elsa snapped at him.
“Gale, I promised I would be here for Anna, and you know that,” she spoke with the harshness of a mother scolding her child, “and I can’t just run off right after that’s not fair to her,”
“Go find out what it is,” she said as she turned her back to leave as the spirit drifted alongside her, “By the time you get back it’ll be time for me to head back anyway, and if it is something then…” She paused for a moment like something in her chest echoed once more, “then get Nokk, and I’ll be home as soon as I can,”
Gale seemed to pause for a moment, and with one quick trill, the spirit took off over the fjord with surprising speed. Elsa watched the spirit go as she turned and went to join her sister.