Dishonored, Frozen 1. Chapter 1

Nathan Rowland paced around in the stingy smoky bar room nervously. He had been traveling to Arendelle for weeks in anticipation of the huge winter party that the royal family would be holding tomorrow. He was an assassin by trade and had been for several years, but found himself wanting something more. He didn't want to just fight for the highest bidder, he wanted something better. Something more noble. And then he had heard a story of a queen far away who had power over ice. Most people just dismissed it as some kind of drug induced hallucination, but he had seen stranger things than a Queen of ice. He ran a hand through his messy black hair and ordered another drink.

He normally avoided alcohol but he felt like he had to calm his nerves. It was strange how different he felt from when he was on a job. When he was off hunting for a person he was fine. He was calm. But now he didn't have any specific goal. He hoped he would be able to… he didn't know what he wanted to do. The whole thing was insane. He had no idea what he was doing. He set his drink down and paid for a room.

The room was incredibly bland. It was fashioned with some very generic looking wooden furniture but the bed looked soft and inviting, and a far sight warmer than the ones he had slept in recently. He removed his belt which held both his razor sharp sword in a dark leather sheath on his left side, and held a small compact crossbow on his right. He pulled off more bags and pockets full of things other people wouldn't touch with a ten foot barge pole. As he pulled of the final layer of leather vests and hardened weaves of fabrics he felt a sense of drowsiness overtake him in spite of the tight ball of anxiety coiled in his stomach.

He lay down on the bed, rest his head on the feather pillow and watched the shadows of the room climb the walls and ceiling until all the lights were snuffed out and his mind surrendered to the peaceful shelter of sleep.

Than he stood up. He found himself fully equipped again and felt dazed and confused. He had taken his gear off. He remembered it. Than he realized where he was. He sighed and opened the door to his room and saw… nothing. Just the blue, empty, Void. Just what he expected. Buildings shot from the depths of this nothingness and formed what appeared to be a small town, there was a few residential looking buildings, several shops, and a bridge leading nowhere at the end. He disregarded the lack of and ground and stepped off the floor of his room and, sure enough, a cobbled stone path shot up and met his foot as if it had been waiting for him. He strode towards the bridge at the end of the small town; the cobblestone path he walked on dropped back down into nothing seconds after his feet left them as if waiting to be used again. He did not do this for any specific reason, other than that he felt he had seen this bridge before. He couldn't place it but he was sure that he had seen it recently. As he climbed the few steps and got onto the flat plane meant for traffic a large wall spring up from the Void, accompanied by large ornate gates. He recognized the gates as the gates to the castle of Arendelle.

Just then the gates opened and revealed another wide expanse of nothingness. He stepped to the ledge and peered over the perfect ninety degree drop off looking for anything else. He saw nothing and rose his head again and found himself face to face with the outsider. If this had happened a few years ago than perhaps he would have surprised by this sudden appearance, but it was now to be expected with every visit to the Void.

The body that the outsider appeared in was often a thing of debate among those who have seen him. The outsider often appeared as a medium built man with a very pale skin and short black hair, wearing simple commoner clothes. One thing that was always the same was that it always had deep black eyes. Some people said that if you looked deep into its eyes that you could see the entirety of the Void in those small orbs. The outsider always spoke in a monotone voice with only a mild emphasis on some words. The form that the outsider chose today, Nathan saw, was that form that he had seen so many times in his dreams. He was floating just over the edge and looking at him with the straight-faced neutral expression the Outsider always had with her arms crossed in front of her as if he had been waiting for some time. Nathan didn't bother trying to speak, he knew he couldn't. Not until the Outsider finished her message to him. And sure enough his mouth opened and he started off.

"my, my, my" he said looking down at him "you are interesting, aren't you?" he leaned forward and continued, now staring at Nathan intently. "You had everything. You had a life of luxury ahead of you, and you knew it. You built up the reputation as one of the best assassins that has ever lived." He leaned back, a puzzled expression now on her face "And now you throw all of that away?" He tilted her head to the side slightly "Did you do it because you were tired? Tired of all the pointless killing?" his head tilted the other way "Or did you leave so that you could carve a new bloody swath through some other city's nobles?"

Nathan gritted his teeth. As always the outsider knew exactly how to ask the question he was dreading asking himself. In truth he didn't know what he was doing. He was tired of killing endless strings of nobles, one after another, each as corrupt as the last. He was not tired of killing, no. the hunt was one of the only times that he really felt he was doing what he wanted to do. Nothing could measure up to the feeling of weaving his way through patrols of guards, all to spring from the shadows onto an unsuspecting target. He didn't feel guilty for the things he had done, he felt like a rat in a maze. And he wanted out. He didn't know what he would do here in Arendelle but he wanted something different. He wanted to make a mark, to leave a lasting change somewhere.

The Outsider leaned back looking pleased with himself. He knew he had struck a nerve, but he wasn't done yet. He returned to his neutral look and continued "And then there is this business of the ice queen." He saw Nathans focus flit back to him completely "she is real. Her powers given by yours truly. She always had trouble controlling them, though, but she has come into them quite nicely. But not as well as you have, I think." His message had been delivered, but Nathan still had questions, and he still had answers. He had all the answers. But he would only give him one. He decided to answer the question most burning in him mind at the moment. "You have had years to hone your skills and learn your limits. You accepted your power with reverence towards how you could have carved your future out, but she has only come to peace with her power last summer. She was born with it, never truly appreciating the position I put her in. I've never spoken directly to her as I am with you, but I know that she would have… negative feelings towards me. Until this summer she believed herself cursed, having power but no means to control it. I never meant any harm, but it just makes things so interesting."

Nathans mind was struggling to save every bit of knowledge the Outsider had thrown at him; a queen with ice powers, her difficulty controlling those powers, and something happening over summer to change that. And then there were the subtler things. Had he come into his powers well? Now that he thought about it he supposed he had, possessing a few very useful tricks that made being undetected much easier than it would have been without powers. And this "knowing his limits", he didn't argue, he actually agreed, but did that mean that this queen didn't know her limits? If so than what was her limit? Just how powerful was this woman?

His thoughts were interrupted by the outsider again. "But those problems are to come, for now the party is what you are worried about, so take my advice going in; bring your blade."

Nathans eyes opened slowly, taking in the dark room around him. He didn't know what time it was but he did know the day. It was the day of the party. He put on all of his gear, armor, charms, and hoped he wouldn't stand out too much in a crowd of nobles.


	2. Chapter 2

Nathan saw quickly that his hopes of blending In with a crowd were very, very unlikely. His knee length grey thick leather coat stood out quite a bit in a crowd of noble's blue and red satin clothing. The large gates had not opened yet, so all the guests were standing around on the bridge, and most were looking worriedly at the blade at his side and giving him a wide birth. He found their reactions to his blade amusing, as it was customary in the cities he used to occupy to carry a weapon and display it openly.

And then, finally, the huge gates slid slowly open, revealing a huge courtyard. The stone that would make up the floor of the yard were frozen over with a thick sheet of ice, and two fountains near the center looked like the water spewing out of them had frozen in midair, and in the center of it all was a pale women in a long flowing crystalline dress that reflected sunlight like a gemstone and hair as white as the snow that was falling from the sky. She simply stood there and smiled at all the people who had been waiting outside the gates warmly. The whole scene was like something out of a fairy tale. He was never too fond of fairy tales. They always had forced in moral lessons and ridiculous happy endings.

Maybe he was just a bit bitter after all these years of killing, but he preferred the term "realistic"

The woman raised a hand and addressed the crowd with an elated sounding "Are you ready?" to which the crowd responded with a booming "Yes!" and people started pouring into the courtyard. As Nathan was pushed along into the yard he noticed skating blades forming on people's shoes as their feet hit the ice. He couldn't skate, and it had never interested him, so as soon as he was pushed fully in and his feet came down on the icy floor he stepped with his feet at an angle, snapping the blades off as soon as they formed. He looked again at the woman and wondered if she really had enough power to do all of this by herself. If it was all her, than the outsider hadn't exaggerated, she was massively powerful.

Most people started to skate in a circle around the yard, using it like a giant rink, whereas others walked up and addressed the woman directly, bowing and curtsying in shows of great respect. He, on the other hand, simply stepped to the side and leaned up against the wall by the gate and watched the goings on of the bizarre opening of the party.

As he peered around he saw several guards whispering among themselves and pointing at him and eyeing him suspiciously. He knew it was on account of the blade that still hung at his side, and he wondered amusedly if they would try and confront him about it, or if they would simply continue watching from a distance. He felt restless, he knew something would happen, he just didn't know what. Would it be guards? Or would the queen herself try and kill him? Or maybe it would be some other disaster, but he knew that something just had to go wrong.

After about half an hour of standing and watching the townspeople and nobles mingle he saw several going into a great hall looking building and decided to follow them and get out of the cold. As he walked across the ice several people started giving him strange looks. He wondered what they were so puzzled by, until a sweet sounding voice said "wow, you're really sure-footed."

He stopped and turned, finding himself facing a sweet faced girl with ginger braids down her shoulders. She was clinging to a tall blond man who was wearing a thick grey cloth outfit and had slightly dirty blond hair. Overall it looked like the man was trying to teach her to skate.

"Er… yes, I've a lot of practice."

He didn't know what else to say. He didn't particularly want to have a conversation, but considering he had no idea who this was he didn't want to offend her. He decided to be safe before telling them to go away and ask them who they were.

"And… you would be…" he asked unsurely.

The girl stuck out a gloved hand and said "I'm Anna, Princess of Arendelle."

He took a step back. He hadn't realized the queen had a sister, and he wasn't entirely sure whether or not he should shake her had or bow or what he should do. Apparently his momentary distress showed on his face, because she giggled and said

"It's alright, in pretty lax on the formalities."

She stuck her hand out a little farther, and he shook it. She had a pretty loose grip, which was not what he was expecting of someone in such a high position. Both she and the man looked at him expectantly. He knew that they were waiting for him to give his name, but he really didn't want to.

"I'm… I'm uh…"

Than a miracle happened. The pale women who he assumed to be the queen called out from a small group

"Anna, come here, look at this!"

Nathan breathed a sigh of relief. Then said "Nice to meet you." As he waved and Anna was pulled off into the crowds by her friend to go talk to the queen. But this now presented another problem, in that Anna could tell her sister what he looked like, which would make it much more difficult to blend with a crowd, and he couldn't exactly go blinking himself around in a room full of witnesses.

He resumed his walk into the great hall, now with a lingering eye on the queen and princess to make sure they didn't sneak up on him again. He was able to reach the great building housing the hall without incident. On entering the large building he found that there were even more rooms than he thought there would be and far fewer guards than he expected. On the way to the great hall he counted only six guards, all posted at doorways or other similar chokepoints. While he knew one or two guards did have the ability to stop a crowd of angry townsfolk, their affectivity was severely diminished when even just one very determined person came into the mix.

He found a chair in the great hall near the musicians, who were just beginning to play, and took a seat. If he was going to talk to the queen, he wanted to do it alone, and if he wanted to talk to her alone than he would have to wait until the party was over, and he could already tell that that would be quite some time.

But with all this time, he had time to think about what he would say.

First he needed to figure out what he wanted to do here. He had been an assassin almost all his life, but he doubted that this happy little kingdom needed a royal assassin, so he needed to find something else that a life of killing people would lend itself to.

He found his options severely limited.

The things he came up with were either some kind of guard captain or personal bodyguard. Given that he had no interest in commanding other people he found that a personal bodyguard was the best that he could do. He hoped with every cell in his body that she didn't already have one.

All this waiting was agony, he wasn't sure how long he had been sitting but every minute seemed to claw and tear itself into an hour in his mind. Eventually he looked up and saw the queen and Anna coming in the large doors as everyone stopped dancing, playing, and talking to turn and applaud the two royals.

He tried not to look directly at them, as he didn't want Anna to recognize his face, so he instead looked out the windows on the celling. Night had already fallen in that sneaky way it did in winter, and wind howled outside, he hadn't noticed, but all the people who had been skating outside had come in shivering at some point. The two royals strode over to two large thrones and stood in front of them as a pudgy looking caller announced their names.

"Princess Anna and Queen Elsa"

Elsa. He turned the name over in his mind a few times and realized that he hadn't even known her name up until this point. He looked at her as she addressed the crowd about how glad she was that they had all come, and that she was sorry about the weather, but his focus quickly shifted as he heard the familiar sound of a blade being pulled from a sheath.

His eyes darted around the room, searching for the one who had pulled a sword. He found not one, but three men standing in a group close together, two with blades drawn and one with a crossbow. They were looking right at Queen Elsa. He stood up, drew his sword, and started walking towards Elsa. He was closer, so he had an advantage there, but they had a guy with a crossbow, so he had to be fast.

The man with the crossbow took aim, and he knew he didn't have much time. He had no other choice. there was no way he could get between them in time.

He focused, and time stopped. He looked around at the frozen faces and smiled. Now it was clear. Now he knew what he had to do. Now he had purpose. Save the Queen.

He focused on a spot about three feet in front of the queen and let a burst of power go, and he was there. He had just traveled about half the length of the room in less than an instant. But he didn't have time to savor the shocked gasps that came from all around the hall, as the attackers yelled and charged. Something very, very heavy drove into his shoulder, and he felt it punch its way through his padding and armor. Nathan kicked himself mentally for even letting the man get a single shot off, than his friends were on him.

The first man to approach rose his blade above his head, obviously intending to finish Nathan quickly, and pulled it downwards with all his might. The hit would have certainly killed Nathan, if it hit. Se he ducked down and to the man's left side, narrowly avoiding the blade as it came crashing down. He then punched forwards with his own blade, and it slid in-between the man's ribs with ease. He pulled it back out and turned to the next man. He was on the floor of the hall, whereas Nathan was on the slightly elevated area which held the throne. It wasn't much, but maybe…

He leaped off the top stair and angled his blade down with his wrist. The man he was jumping at suddenly stopped sprinting at him and tried to run the opposite direction, but just ended up slipping and falling flat on his back. Nathan came down on top of him, jamming his blade point first into the eye socket of the man, who twitched and gurgled, then lay still.

Before he even looked up he prepared another blink. Time, as well as the screaming, gasping, and a good bit of crying, stopped. There was one more man, the one who had shot him, and he intended to repay him for the bolt. Nathan looked up and saw the man about halfway across the room, one arm around Anna' s throat, the other pressing his crossbow up against the lower part of her skull. If he shot that crossbow there would be no chance of Anna surviving.

He was just in range of another blink, but it would put him right in front of the man, which would likely give him plenty of time to kill Anna and Nathan couldn't take that chance. He looked around at the faces frozen in fear and puzzlement, hoping for some kind of answer from those people who were suspended in time. Needless to say, they offered no advice…

But they may offer him something else. He looked around now, not at the faces, but at the composition of the crowd now, at the structure of the groups. He looked for any opening that would shield him from the eyes of the man holding Anna. He saw a perfect opening, an enormously fat man in the clothes of a rich business man who was cowering at what was happening, would make the perfect shield. He focused there and let another surge of power loose, and he was there, ducking behind the huge man like a child behind a parent's leg. The sounds, the cries, the pleas, and the screams all washed over them again and he almost felt as if he drew power from them. He gained confidence from the fact that people still feared him, it made him feel that he was powerful. But he had spent far too long here, it was less than a second, but still far too much. He focused energy again, and again the sounds stopped. He leaned out from behind the fat man and looked at the man holding Anna. Now he would be able to get at the side he was holding the crossbow with. He smiled even wider than he had before. Now he had him.

Nathan put another surge of power as he focused on the man's side, and was there. The man hadn't seen him yet, but was just starting to glance around, a terrified look in his eyes. Nathan had no intention of letting the man see him and prepare, so he lunged forwards with his left hand and pulled the crossbow away from Anna's head and with the right hand brought his blade in an upwards slash, severing the man's hand from the rest of his arm. As all this happened, the man's grip on Anna loosened and she was able to pull herself free. She took off towards her sister as soon as the man's had came off and the crossbow hit the floor. Nathan knew the man would likely have a weapon to use with his other hand, and he wasn't going to give his the opportunity to use it. He spun his blade, ensuring that he had a solid grip on the handle, and brought it down with as much force as he could on the man's neck. The blade smoothly sang through even the bone of the neck, and exited the other side almost as if there had been nothing in the way to begin with.

The severed head hit the floor with a wet thud. Nathans smile faded. Everyone was looking at his with genuine fear in their eyes. Everyone except for Queen Elsa, who was looking at him with a shocked expression. It was clear that she had at least some understanding of what had just happened. As Nathan looked at her he saw a small spattering of blood, sharp crimson, against the snow white of her face. This puzzled him. He hadn't killed anyone in such a way that blood would get on her, and the only time he had been close enough to get any on her anyways was…

He looked at his shoulder. The butt of the bolt stuck out stubbornly from his many layers of cloth and armor, as if to remind him that despite all of his skill and power, he always could slip up. But he hadn't seen any other choice. No, he wouldn't let this wound bother him. He had to have made the right choice, he had only had one choice, other than let the Queen die, and he couldn't allow that.

Some woman screamed. This brought Nathans attention back to the situation at hand. He looked around and noticed that people were beginning to surround him, it was a loose circle, but a circle none the less. He knew that he had to leave, else he would be caught and ensnared by what few castle guards there were. He looked back at the Queen longingly, than noticed a door on the wall to her left.

A brilliant idea popped into his mind. He focused his energy and time stopped, than focused right in front of Queen Elsa, and gave a surge of power. She gasped, but he put a hand on her shoulder and pulled her close, and whispered in her ear

"I would like a word in private."

Than focused his energy again, this time his focus on the door, and let another surge. He appeared in front of the door, threw it open, and closed it quietly behind him, praying to the outsider that no one had seen him.

Nathan let out a sigh and looked around the small hallway as he walked quickly down it. It carried on to a small side entrance to the main hallway that led into the great hall. From the exit to the small side hall he was in he could see out into the courtyard, and to the gates. He saw many more guards than he had the first time through. He knew that he would be unable to get to the gates and get through without being seen, but maybe he didn't have to leave the castle at all.

He looked at the other side of the hallway and saw a set of large spiral stairs, and considered his options. On one hand, he was likely to be found it he spent all night in this castle, as he expected a thorough sweep of the grounds and everything inside, but on the other hand he couldn't go back into the town after he had shown his face to everyone. He weighed one against another, and found he liked his odds against the castle guard much more than against the whole town. So he decided to stay in the castle until he had the opportunity to slip away. Or talk to Elsa. Whichever came first. He blinked to the foot of the stairs and started creeping his way up. Luckily it seemed that the majority of the staff was posted to take care of the partygoers, leaving the upper levels of the castle unattended. He climbed to the top floor, the third, and opened the first door he saw. It looked like a small study, with rows of books lining the walls, and a large plush looking sofa sitting in front of a fireplace, unfortunaly without and fire burning in the hearth. There was also a large desk in the corner in front of a window overlooking the courtyard. This was both good and bad, good because this would let him see what was going on in the yard, guard patrols, people leaving, but bad because he wouldn't be able to light any fire or candle or he would attract attention to his little room.

The fatigue hit him like a sack of bricks. His eyelids started drooping and his limbs felt heavy. He felt so tired because of how tense and on-edge all day. And now he felt stangely calm. He felt like he needed sleep.

He took a chair from the large writing desk and propped it up against the door to keep it from opening from the other side. He doubted that if someone tried to open this door that it would keep them out for long, but it should give him time to get away. He looked the room over one last time, satisfied with his few changes, and lay down on the sofa. He was very happy that it was even softer than it looked. He put his hands behind his head, kicked his feet up on the opposite armrest, closed his eyes, and told himself

"Just a few minutes."

And everything faded to black.


	3. Chapter 3

Nathan awoke to the sound of something large slamming against something larger that didn't want to move. He opened one eye and peered around, seeing the study as he had left it. Than he shot up and looked at the chair he had left keeping the door shut. It had fallen over, probably after that last hit, and no wonder either, it had sounded like whoever was trying to open it was using a battering ram. Than a horrible thought popped into his mind. He sprung up from the sofa and walked quickly to the door, placing an eye to the keyhole. What he saw was horrifyingly accurate to what he had thought two burly guards, carrying an oversized plank of wood with thick metal bindings and handles that probably weighed as much as both of them combined, and a small scrawny guard, shouting orders to the two men.  
>"Hit it again!"<br>The two men rolled their eyes and pulled the ram back with a grunt. Nathan jumped back from the door. He could hardly believe that these guards were actually going to beat the door down. He would've found the whole situation much funnier if he were not on the other side of the door that was about to be destroyed. He summoned the energy that would prepare his blink spell, but waited to focus it until the door was down, and he had somewhere to go.

The men on the other side grunted once again, and a moment later the door, for lack of a better word, exploded off its hinges, sending splinters and shards of metal framing everywhere. The majority of the door stayed in one piece, falling to the floor with a solid thud, and the many shards fell to the floor and bounced, sounding almost like rain on the wooden floor.

As soon as the door hit the floor he focused his energy, and the shards, the door, and the men behind it, froze. He looked at the guards and cursed as he noticed that the small one who seemed to be in charge was looking directly at him. The man obviously hadn't completely processed that he was there, which was good, because it meant that he would likely just dismiss ever seeing Nathan as him just imagining things. The other two men had their eyes closed, Nathan assumed to shield them from splinters, so he didn't even have to worry about them.

He shifted his focus to the hall behind the small man, pulsed energy, and was there. Than he ducked down and started to creep away, taking wide, slow steps. He quickly came to the spiral stairs that he had used to get up to this level of the castle and made his way down.

On the second floor landing he heard two more guards talking with each other. He stopped moving and listened as closely as he could. He only was able to pick up on about the last part of a conversation.  
>"… has been under a lot of stress today."<br>"Well who wouldn't be? Someone tried to kill her."  
>They were talking about the queen? He got even more interested.<br>"I don't think she's taking it well, and how it ended doesn't help."  
>"Yea, what happened? From what I hear…" the other guard cut him off<br>"I don't wanna talk about it. Ever."  
>There was a short pause.<br>"Sorry, it's just… I… I'll just go check on the Queen. Courtroom, right?"  
>"Yea."<p>

So, the Queen was in the courtrooms. Now he just had to find those, but one guard had said he was going to check on the Queen, so he would just have to follow him. It was wonderful how things like this worked out.

Tailing the guard was easy, with only a few close calls that were born from his lack of knowing what lay around some corners, but that was to be expected with such a large unfamiliar building. At the end of his stalking of this guard who was only doing his job he came to a spacious room with many uncomfortable looking chairs, and an elevated platform at the far end with a large desk and chair, and a small door behind those. In the large elevated chair behind the desk was the Queen, looking very board. She appeared to be in some kind of trade meeting, as there was a small man standing in the large gap between the chairs and the desk, who was discussing the importance of maintaining trade routes and reliable income and other things that would likely bore Nathan to death faster than watching paint dry. He wondered if he could blend into the small number of people if he took a seat and waited, but after his rather spectacular performance last night he would likely be spotted almost instantly.

He looked to the ceiling, hoping for some alternative to waiting outside and dodging guards until this whateveritwas was over, and saw rafters lining the roof. He could get up there easily, but he didn't know how long he would be there, and it would not be a comfortable wait.

He pushed off the ground with his legs, and it was like he was caught in a sudden updraft that blew him about fifteen feet into the air. No one else in the room even noticed the sudden wind, as it was a wind that only seemed to exist for Nathan. He cursed as he ascended, he saw that the wind wouldn't carry him the whole way to the thick wooden bars, but one short blink later and he was seated on top of the bar, where no one would even think to look for him.

As he sat there, he found himself thinking again. He seemed to be doing that a lot recently. He thought about his whole life, the places he had been, the things that he had seen, and all the people he had killed. He didn't regret any of it, that was true, but he just… didn't want to do it anymore. Maybe it was that he didn't even make a mark any more. Every corrupt noble he killed was always replaced with another. There were no good men in rule of cities anymore, not where he was from. So that, he supposed, was his reason for leaving. But why come here? There was certainly a curious part of him that wanted to learn about the "Queen of Ice" as he had heard it in some bar, but that wasn't enough. There had to be something else. What was he missing?

Perhaps it was that the story in the bar had described her as a just and fair ruler, despite her power. Yes, that was it. It had to be. He was of the belief that power corrupted people in a strange way: the more powerful one grows, the weaker one gets. This Queen was very powerful in two respects, commanding both a very influential kingdom and having power over ice and cold. And yet there were people who believed her to be as pure as… well, as pure as the snow she could create. There was some sense to that, he supposed, but it was unlikely. Every noble went bad. It was always just a matter of time. But if that was the case, than why had he come? if he knew she was just as bad as the rest than there was no point in coming, and he would just be another blade for hire. But there was something else. Something deep down that he hadn't felt for a long time. Hope. A naïve, childish hope. But hope none the less.

Was she different? Could she be? He hadn't seen any signs that would indicate she was, in fact, a horrible monster ruler. In fact, the city at the shore of the castle and the surrounding countryside seemed at peace. As if the entire kingdom knew it was safe in Queen Elsa's care. Ut it was obvious that Elsa was not safe in the kingdom's arms, that much was obvious. If he hadn't been there last night than those men would have killed her.

If she was as good as everyone said she was, than he couldn't just let her die. He would not allow someone as undeserving of death just be stuck on some two-bit assassins blade for some noble far away who wanted to tear this kingdom down and suck the ruined ashes dry.

No

That was why he was here. He wanted to first see if she was as pure as her reputation, and if so, to protect her with every breath he drew. If she really was pure than he would be glad to dedicate his life to someone else. Perhaps it had something to do with him knowing that he was so impure, or maybe it was that he wanted to redeem himself, but whatever it was, Nathan knew the outsider was listening to his thoughts with a wicked smile on his face.

He refocused his thoughts. All this introspection and jumping ahead of himself was making him uncomfortable, and a bit pathetic. There wasn't much else to focus on, though, as he quickly found out. So he shifted focus to the incredibly boring business going on below. As far as he could tell it was some convoluted trade agreement between Arendelle and some place he had never heard of called "Weaseltown". From what he heard, trade between the two had been cut off quite suddenly, and Weaseltown was scrabbling to get it back, whereas Arendelle was in no hurry to get goods flowing again. The man present to represent Weaseltown was a short man in the garb of a military leader. His body size had to be one of the strangest that Nathan had ever seen, it was as if he had simply stopped growing at some point before he had turned ten, because he had a regular sized head, and a body that was about half as big as it needed to be. The Queen looked at his with a certain kind of difficult to place disdain, as if he had wronged her before and she was trying to look past what happened before.

Eventually, there was some conclusion reached. Nathan didn't know what it was, as somewhere along the line all the business and negotiations just blended into one big background noise, but the Queen stood up and announced that the negotiations had finished. Everyone in the room stood and stretched their legs. Then the Queen opened the door behind her great desk, and Nathan knew that he had to act.

As quickly as he could he dropped from the rafters and focused. Everything, including him in midair, froze. Next he focused on the small bit of floor inside the room the queen was entering. Than he pulsed his power and focused again, now on the floor inside, just behind the queen. Everything resumed for half an instant before he was able to freeze it all again, and he looked around.

It was a small room, likely meant for the queen to take short breaks in-between hearings in. as such there wasn't much furniture. It was sparsely furnished with mostly just bare wall and wooden floor space, but there was another desk, smaller than the one outside the door, and a large comfortable looking chair. All in all not too many places to hide. He at least wanted the door to be closed before he started talking to the queen. From his position behind her he could probably get between her and the door without much trouble, but that would give a rather aggressive feel, which he did not want to give her.

Nathan decided that under the desk would be the best spot. The desk was low enough and the room small enough that you could not see under it while standing unless you looked in from the courtroom. He pulsed his power and pulled himself into the shadows under the desk. The Queen closed the door and let out an annoyed sigh, then walked the chair, sat down, and closed her eyes. Now would be as good of a time as he was likely to get, Nathan figured, so he silently exited from underneath the table and stood in the middle of the room facing the queen. He was unsure of how he should address her, or if he should just wait until she opened her eyes.

Before he could decide which to do, his mouth seemed to come to a decision of its own. Without even thinking he cleared his throat. Elsa looked up, startled, and when she saw Nathan she shot to her feet and got into something resembling a fighting stance. And then they just stood there. Staring at each other.

Nathan cleared his throat again, and started speaking.

"Um… hello. I'm… I'm sure you remember me."

Wow. That was the best he had? Well he may as well just exit the room with his head bowed in shame for how well this was going. But her hands lowered slightly, it was almost imperceptible, but he saw it. Despite the pathetic start to his proposal he might still be able to pull this off. No matter how painful or awkward this got, he had to keep pushing forward.

"So, I would like to… to make a proposition to you."

Elsa lifted an eyebrow and looked a bit confused.

"I was… do you…"

He had to stop this fumbling. He drew a deep breath and felt his nerves calm.

"I was wondering if you needed a…" he stopped and thought for a moment, than continued "royal protector" he said hesitantly.

She just looked at him with a confused frown on her face. Maybe he needed to clarify what he meant.

"I would like to take on the job of protecting you."

There. Plain and simple. Hopefully that wouldn't offend her, as he wasn't actually addressing her with the proper respect that she was probably used to. She just looked more confused than anything, though. She pointed to the door, than at him, than at the floor, muttering to herself, than asked

"How did you get in here?"

"Uh…" Nathan faltered again. That was one of the things he had wanted to avoid talking about until an answer had been given as to whether he was accepted or not. He knew that she had seen him blinking around the ballroom, but she likely didn't know what else he could do, or the limits of what she had seen. He could just say he teleported into this room from the outside, but that would be a huge exaggeration of his powers. Truth was he could only blink to something he could see, and not through solid objects. The range on the blink was also limited, but it always seemed to be far enough. He had a few other powers too, but there had been no reason to use them yet.

He realized how long he had been thinking and Elsa had the look about her of "about to call the guards" so he decided truth would be best. "I snuck in" he said, a bit proud of himself, "past all the guards. After all the… excitement last night I doubt that they would just let me waltz in."

She tilted her head for a moment, as if trying to figure out if that made sense, then said suspiciously "And why should I trust you?"

Nathan was ready for this one, quickly saying "Well, I did save you" he emphasized the next word "and you're sister." He hoped that that would be enough to convince her that he didn't want to hurt her.

Elsa's hands fell back to her side in a tired sort of way, and she sighed as if she was giving up in an argument she couldn't win. She fell back into the chair and put her face into her hands.

"I'll talk to my sister about it."

Her voice was muffled and she sounded tired. Nathan wasn't sure if he should try and comfort her or just take that small victory and run with it.

He walked over in front of the large chair and knelt down on one knee and said "are you… alright? Is there anything I can do?"

Elsa looked up from her hands and Nathan thought he saw tears in the corners of her eyes. Her mouth quivered for a moment, as if she were trying to speak, and she threw her arms around Nathan, who stood as soon as this happened and started trying to pry her arms off of his neck. It didn't take much effort, but as soon as he did he saw her eyes again. There were tears flowing freely now, and she was shuddering, still trying to speak.

"I… I j-just... I d-don't know w-what t-to do."

Nathan pushed her arms back to her side and sat her back down in the chair. He couldn't help but think about how bizarre this little proposition turned out. He appeared to offer his service and ended up consoling. He had to assume that this distress was brought on by the attempt on her life. The guards had said about as much, and there wasn't much else he could imagine that would shake her up this much.

He put a hand against her cheek and said "Hey, hey, it's alright."

He was very uncomfortable. He was not used to this kind of interaction with people, so he had to get her out of this fragile state.

"it's ok, its ok, just…" he paused, thinking, and finished "focus."

Elsa's crying stopped and she focused on him. She took a deep breath and composed herself. She stood again, Nathan did the same, and walked to the center of the room.

"How can you help?"

Nathan turned to her and rose an eyebrow.

She said again, taking a step towards him

"How can you help? What can you do to stop those who would harm me?"

Nathan smiled confidently. "Finding people is… something of a talent of mine. And stopping them even more so."

She hesitated for a moment, then said

"Ok… I… I believe you."

Nathan clapped his hands together, saying "good. I expect you still have the bodies?" and Elsa nodded. "Well, let's go pay a visit." He pointed a thumb over his shoulder towards the exit to the small room and offered his other hand to Elsa, who took it and allowed herself to be guided out of the room, but dropped it when she reentered the courtrooms.

Then she started to walk in front of him and lead the way, and he had to assume that she was leading him to the place they stored the bodies. Every castle had a morgue, they had to. Every castle Nathan had ever been in had had one. At least to his knowledge. They had to. Wasn't it a requirement of some kind? It had to be.

As they walked through the halls, Nathan noticed a few things; the first of which was that she was incredibly informal with her guards most of the time, often just waving them off when they inevitably reacted negatively to seeing him, the man they had seen murder three people within the span of time less than two seconds. To be fair though, they had every reason to be concerned about the Queen being right next to probably the most dangerous man in this kingdom, even if they knew he was or not. The second thing that he noticed was that the bolt from the man's crossbow from last night was still lodged in his shoulder. The fact it didn't hurt and had not restricted his movement at all told him that the injury was not too bad, but the fact that there was not much of the bolt visible told him that it may be more dangerous than he thought. Of course it was entirely possible that the man had just been using a short bolt, as it would be easier to hide and get into a party, but he had just strode in with a blade practically on display and had got nothing more than worried looks. He gave the bolt a few experimental tugs and felt nothing more than mild discomfort. No grinding on bone and no barbs dig into his flesh. In fact, it seemed to just slide out of what turned out to be a shallow wound easily.

Now he was left with a bloody bolt in his hands as he followed the Queen which caused even more strange looks from guards. Than it came to his attention that the wound was bleeding. It was a light bleed, but enough that it would draw attention to the fact he was hit, which he didn't want. He doubted that any blood would bleed through his thick many layered armor, but it wouldn't be the first time that something like that had happened. He rooted through his many pockets for something he could just shove in the hole and not worry about until he had the time to bandage it properly. After several seconds of looking he found some odd looking tattered white rag that looked clean enough and just shoved it in the small hole in his gear. If he were giving care to someone else he would never do something like that, but he knew that he was highly resilient to disease and infection, so he knew he was safe.

As he was pushing the cloth in with a single gloved finger he saw out of the corner of his eye that Elsa was eyeing what he was doing with a concerned look on her face. She looked from his wound to his face, a worried look in her eyes, and stopped walking. She asked, with as far as Nathan could tell, real worried in her voice, which was more than he was expecting. Typically royals didn't care too much about new recruits. Perhaps she was different after all.

"Are you ok? Do you need…"she paused as if unsure what to offer him "a doctor, an-and medicine."

This made him chuckle. He tried to hide it but failed. It seemed strange to him that she was so worried, he had taken much worse before. But she didn't know that. He had to keep reminding himself that he had left his reputation behind along with all the fear he used to be regarded with. He smiled at her reassuringly and put a hand on her shoulder, saying "I've been hit worse than this, trust me."

She flinched slightly when he touched her shoulder, but didn't pull away, which Nathan appreciated. He took his hand off and swept it wide across the hall they had been walking down and said "Shall we continue?"

Elsa laughed tensely, and said "We're almost there. Just a few more turns." She was uncomfortable. Nathan could tell. He supposed that he would be too, if the roles were reversed. It's a strange feeling, knowing that someone somewhere wants you dead. A feeling he knew well.

At last they came to a small set of double doors that looked like they weren't used much. Elsa gestured to the doors, saying "Here we are." and Nathan shouldered the surprisingly heavy doors open. As the doors creaked open Nathan and Elsa were both hit with the sudden smell of blood. Elsa stayed by the doors, gaging slightly, and Nathan strode towards the corpses laying on small wooden tables in the center of the spacious room. It was surprisingly big, for a morgue, but ceiling was very low in comparison to the rest of the building that he had seen, with only room for about half his height in between his head and the ceiling.

Nathan turned his attention to the corpses. Elsa approached as he started to root through the men's pockets, looking for anything that would give him a hint as to why they had attacked Elsa. Looting the first man, the one he had stabbed in the ribs, yielded nothing but a few dirty coins and a few torn up playing cards.

Elsa was looking over Nathan's shoulder as he started on the next man, the one who had gotten Nathan's blade in his eye, and asked "what are you looking for exactly?"

Nathan smiled as he pulled a small pouch off of the corpse's belt and rifled through it, saying "it's to see if I can figure out why they tried to kill you."

Elsa nodded, than asked "And if you don't find anything?"

Nathan's smile faded slightly. "Then I go to the city and see if I can find anything there. Although If I can't than it probably means that they were working on their own."

Elsa nodded again as Nathan pulled a crumpled piece of paper out of a shirt pocket and straightened it out. As he looked it over, his eyes widened slightly and his focused more on the paper. As he finished reading he folded the paper and placed it in a pocket. Elsa opened her mouth, about to ask what it said, but Nathan interrupted her saying "It was a bar tab."

Elsa looked confused, asking "And how is that useful?"

Nathan said "it had a few names on it." In a strangely neutral tone. Elsa didn't know what it meant, but Nathan did. He was slipping into the mindset he always went into when he was on a job. When he did this he got cold and distant, and it was when he was most comfortable.

The tab had the name of a bar at the top, and a few names with sizeable amounts of money, but that wasn't enough. He needed more. He moved to the last body. The man that he had decapitated lay on the wooden table still very much dead.

Rooting through his pockets seemed to be a lost cause, as he didn't even appear to have any pockets. But nevertheless Nathan gave the dead body a pat-down and only felt extremely awkward doing this in front of Elsa. Out of the corner of his eye he could see her averting her gaze to an empty corner of the room, and he felt incredibly thankful.

Luckily, however, he did find something. A hidden pouch on the man's lower back. He pulled at it and a weak thin leather strap keeping it in place snapped. He pulled the pouch open and withdrew a carefully folded piece of paper. He unfolded it and read aloud to Elsa

"Dear Mr. Hassan,  
>you and your friends have been paid in advance as per our agreement of one hundred each. I expect the job to be done exactly to my specifications. Once complete, the remainder of your pay will be waiting at the pre-determined dead-drop.<br>Your employer,  
>Sir FishFace."<br>Nathan rose an eyebrow and turned to Elsa  
>"Sir FishFace?" he asked in an incredulous tone.<p>

Elsa couldn't help but to laugh at his reaction. She couldn't blame him though, as the name was quite bizarre. Nathan folded the paper and placed it in a pocket. Than he addressed Elsa, saying "Alright, I think I have enough."

Now it was Elsa's turn to raise an eyebrow. "Really? Is that enough to find someone?"

The corners of Nathan's mouth curled into a predatory smile, and he said "I told you, special talent, remember?"


	4. Chapter 4

Elsa suddenly found herself wondering if trusting this person was a good idea. After all, she hadn't even gotten a name from him. He had simply showed up and offered to help. What was she supposed to do but accept?

So she had provided him with a document that indicated that whatever he did tonight, he did on royal business. In hindsight that seemed a fairly poor decision, but if he were to be caught fighting by city guards they would certainly detain him and that would, as he put it "Let the leads go cold"

She had also given him a bag of one hundred coin. Not a huge amount, but to the right people it was a small fortune. He had requested it specifically, and when Elsa had asked him what good it would do him he had said "Sometimes money speaks better than even the most eloquent person." and she found herself agreeing.

And now she was watching him walk out towards the front gates, with a bag of her money, and a seal of her approval.

Yes. This had to have been a truly horrible idea. She had half a mind to call down to the guards to shut the gates and retrieve the things she had given him. But he was the only one thus far to offer any real help, all the other people had just tried to comfort her and set her at ease instead of actually doing anything to help. He was the first person to even suggest taking any sort of action against those who had attacked her.

She had seen him kill people. He had done it as if it came as a second nature. It was strange, to think that had he not been there than she would not be standing here now. And now she had seen people die. It was a simple fact, but one she wasn't sure she had fully processed. She was no stranger to death of course, being a queen left her dealing with the consequences of people dying all the time, deciding what happened to their estate if they didn't leave a will, sometimes even attending funerals herself if the person who died had been important or close to her. But she had never actually seen anyone die. She had no idea it could be so… fast. One moment those men had been charging at her, intent on her death. And then…

She looked down again and saw the man just exiting the gates. She wondered what his plan was, if he had one, or whether he really intended to help her at all. He had seemed so sincere, though. People couldn't just lie like that, being a Queen she had to deal with a lot of people trying to lie to her, and she had gotten very good at knowing when she was being lied to. He hadn't given any indication of lying, and if he was that good of a liar, Elsa couldn't help but feel he had earned the gold at least.

He was crossing the bridge now, as the sun was setting early as it always did in winter. Soon the night sky would be filled with the thin streamers of the northern lights and the streets would be lit dimly with small flames in the lamp posts that lined the streets. As he reached the main city he turned a corner, and was gone. She sighed, fed up of being anxious and nervous. She turned to the door and strode out of her bedroom, saying to herself

"I need a drink"

Nathan walked quietly through the empty streets. He was wandering in search of the bar called the "Frothy Brew". Once he got there he would ask around about Hassan, the man named in the note from "FishFace". He still had a hard time accepting that that was a name that someone had chosen and thought to be a good name. After he got information on Hassan he would decide his next move. One side of his jacket felt heavy from the hefty bag of gold he had requested, and he had his document from the queen in an inside pocket of his top-layer grey cloth coat.

Close to his bag of money he had his bandoleer of six bone charms. All of them gave off a strange, otherworldly heat. They seemed almost to vibrate with some kind of internal energy that made most people uncomfortable. Each charm had a certain affect. The effects of these charms could vary widely, as he had one which allowed him to walk on slippery surfaces unhindered, and another to fortify his focus so that he didn't tire from using his powers as quickly as he would otherwise. One of the ones he felt would be more useful tonight was the charm that allowed him to walk without leaving footprints, or any other sort of mark on the ground. One of the more minor ones that he preferred to always have was one he bought from a street side vendor a long time ago. It was one of the first he had gotten, now that he thought about it, and it was one the woman had called an "unnerving target" charm. Its effect was fairly humorous, when he was in a good position to make it work. It made anyone trying to hit him with a ranged weapon of any kind simply lose their nerve to make the shot just before they did, generally resulting in a miss by a huge degree. He didn't know how the charm did this to everyone, but it was one of the few he always had with him. His last charm was a slightly more universal use as it allowed a simple drink of water to clear his mind, thus allowing him to use his powers again if he got too unfocused or ran out of energy.

His powers all drew from a kind of central pool of energy. The amount of raw power he was able to draw from this pool was dependent on how focused he was on pulling this power. His small powers, like blink, used a small amount of energy, not enough to really cause any dent in the pool. So as long as he didn't do it rapidly he could blink indefinitely. His larger powers, however, drew quite a bit of power from the central pool. He had one power that would drain almost all his power, but he rarely even had the chance to use it. It allowed him to turn his body, his entire being, into a shadow. It was brief, barely a second, but for that one second he was a shadow. He had only found this power useful for escaping from bonds or for reaching almost anywhere, but it was effective enough to let him slip from any chains or cage. This power had saved his skin several timed before.

The sun fell quickly as he wandered through the streets, looking for the Frothy Brew. Nathan spent at least half an hour looking though empty streets before he finally heard the unmistakable sound of drunk people. Chanting, shouting, and slurred exchanges. He turned a few corners, and found himself bathed in the warm light of the bar he was looking for.

The sign to the Frothy Brew was a large affair. It hung off of a large pole and looked like it was adorned with real frozen fizz from a drink. He couldn't help but be impressed by the effect. He pushed the heavy set door open and stepped inside the seedy bar room, shaking snow off his boots.

Everyone in the bar turned and looked at him. They were the typical people one would expect to see in a seedy place like this. Most of them were big burly men who looked like they worked pretty tough manual labor. All of them, with the exception of the bartender, were turned and glaring at him as if his very presence was an insult.

He walked in and took a seat on a barstool. The bar tender walked over to him and said in a gruff voice "What'll it be?" as the drunks on the other side of the bar returned to their drink.

Nathan pulled out the paper with the tabs on it, saying "how about a little info?"

He placed the paper down on the bar and pointed to the name Hassan "Who would this fellow be?"

The barman picked a glass from behind the bar and a cloth from his belt and started wiping the glass out as he looked at the paper and grunted, then said "Just some guy. Comes 'round here all the time. Why you askin'?"

Nathan picked the paper back up and replaced it in a pocket, saying "He did something stupid. I believe he got paid to do it. I want to know by who and why." He leaned forward and said "Any ideas?"

The barman looked Nathan up and down, snorted, and said "Haven't the foggiest."

Nathan leaned back, stretching his back and said "Look" than leaned back in even closer than before

"he's dead." The barman looked at him, totally unfazed. Nathan pulled the tabs out of the pocket again, looked at it, and gave a low whistle. "Fifty coin? Must've come here often. As I'm sure we both know collecting money from dead men is hard." The barman raised an eyebrow at this, but kept listening. Nathan continued "So I'm sure that you can appreciate this… rare opportunity of someone offering to pay a dead man's debt."

The barman gave an annoyed sigh, then said "I don't know who it was, but they looked rich."

Nathan smiled slightly than said "Any… weird looks? Missing limbs? Horrible scars?"

The barman glared daggers at him and asked "Look, do you got the fifty or not?"

Nathan smiled confidently and pulled the cloth bag from a deep pocket and dropped it onto the table. The clink of coins was unmistakable by even the drunkest of man, as a few in the group who hadn't been laughing, shouting, or chugging looked over at the bag with interest. Nathan ignored them and asked the barman "How about a hundred?"

The barman stopped looking annoyed now, and instead looked very interested. Now it was his turn to lean forward. He smiled politely, saying "Ah, you know how to drive a bargan, boy." As he took the bag and placed it under the bar greedily. "Now, if I had to guess as to who this rich boy was, I'd have to say he reminds me an awful lot of that Pratchett feller'." Nathan gave a questioning look, and the barman clarified "You know, the big ol' hot shot… what do they call 'em?" he paused for a moment "entrepreneurs." He finished looking happy with himself.

Nathan gave the man a big smile. All this information was very useful, but he needed more. He asked "What kind of entrepreneur? What's his business?"

The barman laughed now and said "Ah, new round' here in Arendelle are you? He's been big recently. Got some money somewhere and started himself a boomin' fishing business." He leaned in closer and whispered, pointing at the group of drunks "them's all workers for him down at the docks and on ships. Loading crew, I believe."

Now Nathan was getting to the good stuff. The personal information was what he needed. He was confident that this man, Pratchett, was the one who paid the three would-be assassins, but he needed to know why. What would motivate a successful business man to kill the Queen? He doubted that the barman would know, but there was one more question he had that would lead him to the next step of the investigation. "And where might this Pratchett live, exactly?"

The barman now shuffled uncomfortably. "Why you wantin' to know?"

Nathan could see that he didn't want to tell him this, but he needed to know this. He was about to offer the barman more money, but before he could one of the drunks grabbed his shoulder and pulled him off the stool sending him tumbling to the floor.

The man who threw him was the biggest of the crew and looked to be in charge. He stood above Nathan in a menacing manor, leering at him from dim, sunken looking eyes. He spoke, his voice was deep and slurred heavily with drink. "Whachu wann with da boss, eh?" he turned to the rest of the men "less teach thish guy a lessson!"

The barman spoke up now saying "No, no I won't have you fighting in here. Take it to the streets or I'll beat the lot of ya!"

The leader of the men turned to him now, and said "Gladerly." With what was likely supposed to be a small nod, but ended up looking like he was trying to give himself a concussion. Nathan pulled himself to his feet only to be pushed out the door halfway sending him tumbling into the snow. He gritted his teeth, thinking that if they kept this up than they wouldn't have to worry about their hangovers tomorrow.

The leader followed Nathan out the door and lifted him off the ground by the collar of his jacket. Nathan felt his feet leave the ground and knew he had to break this hold. He whipped his head forwards, smashing his forehead into the bridge of the man's nose, which started gushing blood. The man howled in pain and dropped Nathan. Nathan didn't want to reveal his powers just yet, and he still needed information, so he decided to stay in the thick of things and see if something happened.

He landed nimbly on his feet and saw two more drunks coming towards him arms outstretched. He jumped back as one lunged at him, trying to grab him, but the man simply fell short and hit the street, vomiting as he went. The second man kept up his approach, but slipped in the pool of vomit his friend had spewed and actually went head over heels backwards. The back of his skull hit the cobbled street with a loud thumping sound and he stopped moving. A third man, who had been nursing the leader's nose, drew a small pocketknife and began advancing. Nathan saw the man's grip on the knife was very loose so he simply jumped forwards and grabbed he man's hand, twisting it until he dropped the knife.

Then Nathan heard someone a ways down the street yell "Halt, in the name of the law!" and a man, illuminated by the light of a large lantern in his hand, started running towards them.

Nathan saw his opportunity and focused. The man struggling in his arms, the bloodied leader, the guard running right for them, and even the few snowflakes falling from the sky froze in place. Nathan glanced around quickly but saw no alleyways or places he could be out of sight. Then he looked up. The flat roof of the bar was just within blinking range, and he doubted the drunk in his hold could break free on his own. He pulsed his energy, and threw the man forward. He tripped on a loose tile and tumbled over.

Nathan leapt on him and put a hand over his mouth, whispering "shout and I'll cut your throat out." The drunk struggled for a moment than seemed to process what Nathan had just said, stopping his thrashing and looking at Nathan with fear in his eyes.

Nathan uncovered his mouth and stepped back. The drunk stayed on the ground and continued to look fearfully at Nathan, who smiled and spread his arms saying "there we go, see? No one's dead. And that will remain the case…" he leaned down and sat on his heels looming over the man "if you tell me where Pratchett lives."

The man whimpered slightly and pushed himself along the roof away from Nathan, who stood back up and followed him as he went. "It really is that simple. Tell me and I'll let you go."

The man stopped crawling away and narrowed his eyes. "Just like that?" he asked suspiciously.

"Just like that." Was Nathans reply. He offered he man a hand. He hesitated, than took it. Nathan pulled him to his feet than waved a hand at the rooftops of the rest of the city "were is it?"

The man gulped than pointed to a manor on the outskirts of the city near the walls. The building was too far off the get any real detail on, but Nathan knew where his next step would take him.

Nathan grabbed the man's shoulder and blinked back down to the street. Once there he let him go and blinked back to the rooftop before the man could turn to face him. Nathan than looked back towards Pratchett's house. There was a dim light coming from the top floor windows, and he thought he could see someone's silhouette in one of the windows. He was planning to have a few words with that silhouette.

authors notes:

hey guys, thanks for reading this far. remember to leave a review so that i can improve.

Thanks!


	5. Chapter 5

Nathan weaved his way silently through the dark streets. After a few minutes he came the edge of town, with the road to Prattchet's house laid out in front of him. He walked slowly now. He guessed that it was about eleven or twelve o'clock, plenty of time to deal with whatever was on the inside of that house and get back to the castle before the sun returned to the sky.

As he drew closer he could see the silhouette he presumed to be Prattchet simply pacing from one side of a room to another on the second floor of the manor. The manor was only two stories tall, which surprised Nathan slightly, as most people with stories like Prattchet's bought the biggest home they could find, and Nathan knew that there were larger homes around town. As he came closer to the home he found a tall wrought iron fence about four or five times Nathan's high. Too high to jump, probably too slippery too climb, and too high to blink over. The fence that was at the end of the path looked much better, it was only twice Nathan's height. He could easily jump it, but he had a feeling that just going in the front door would be a bad move.

When he reached the end of the path and came to the gate he examined it. It had a large embellished blue P in the middle with lime green fish to either side.

"Huh. FishFace." He said to no one in particular as he started walking to the left of the gate. He was looking for any kind of abnormality in the gate. Holes, anything on the bars, anything out of the ordinary. After a few minutes of walking he had done a half circle around the fence and found nothing. As he circled back around the other side, however, he found a small hole. It looked like it had been dug recently and had a light powdering of snow over its top.

The hole looked like it was dug under the fence, and in it was a small box with a note on top. As soon as he saw the box he knew what lay within. He could feel the slow beating coming from the box as it there was a little heart inside. He picked up the note first and looked it over. The only thing written on it were the scrawled words

"As pay"

Nathan looked to the window he had seen Prattchet in and wondered if he was one of those crazy cultists, the ones who worshipped the Outsider. Such people tended to be quite insane, and that would fit with him ordering the death of Elsa.

He opened the box and took the hand sized plate of bone and placed it in a pocket close to his heart, glancing at the rune that appeared burned into its surface as it went. The same rune that was burned on his hand. He couldn't help but feel a bit… uncomfortable with the implication that Prattchet might be a cultist. He had never met one who didn't try and kill him.

He looked over the hole again, confirming that there was nothing else, and started back towards the gate.

When he got there the gate was as easy to get past as he had expected. One leap and a supernatural gust of wind later and he was on the other side. The yard of the manor had about half a foot of snow, just like the rest of the town, but looked undisturbed. Not even any footprints to the gate from the doors of the house. Whatever Prattchet was doing in there he had been doing for a while.

Nathan walked to the house. He could now see that its exterior was made mostly of whitewashed wood and the same radically slanted brown roof shared by almost every other building in the city. He didn't see and balcony or other such protrusion from the smooth sides of the house, which meant that he would have to find either a door or a window.

He looked behind him at the gate. There was nothing, but he felt like he was being watched. All that he saw out of the ordinary was the snow disturbed by his feet moving back to its original place, looking as if he had never been there in the first place thanks to one of his charms.

Now he walked a circle around the house, looking for any opening other than the front door. There was a small back door that led into what was probably a garden during the warmer months but now just looked like slightly larger mounds of snow around leafless trees. He tried the back door but it was locked.

He sighed. He wanted a silent entry, but if the front door was locked than he would have to use a window. Front door it was.

When he got to the front door he put a hand on the handle tentatively, there was no telling what Prattchet had put on the other side, what with him probably being insane. He turned the handle and opened the door just a crack. Something was giving resistance, pulling the door back. Not enough to keep the closed, but enough to be noticed. He let the door close slowly and it latched back to its frame.

Nathan bent down and placed an eye to the keyhole, preferring to know what was on the other side before he opened the door. He saw a thick wire tied around the doorknob on the other side, and the wire led off to a crossbow mounted in a vice sitting on a chair. The crossbow was pointed right at head level of the door so that anyone who opened the door would get a nasty surprise.

He knew that he could avoid the bolt it shot, but the bow firing would make noise. Not much, but it might be enough to alert someone in the house.

He decided to go in a window. He had wanted to avoid using any large powers, but it didn't seem he had any other option for entering into the house quietly. He decided that a window next to the front door would be best. He climbed into the windowsill and stood looking in as he focused. The mark on his left hand lit up briefly. He felt the shadows around him start to bend. And then all at once, they seemed to break from whatever was casting them. The air around him grew so dark that he felt almost suffocated. Than instantly he felt his body just… disappear. He was a shadow now, as fast and as quiet as the darkest of them. He moved through the glass of the window with extreme ease. He felt himself grow stronger as he entered the darkness of the house, away from the light of the moon. Even though he felt his inky black form grow stronger, he also felt if coming apart too. His shadow began to give way to his flesh once again. Than in another instant he was standing in the foyer of Prattchet's home.

Now the question was whether he should deal with Prattchet first and then search his house, or search the home and then kill him. He decided to search first.

He closed his eyes and called forth power, than dispersed it though the house. He started to feel al the shadows in the house. He felt a moving one, Prattchet's shadow, moving around upstairs still pacing. He felt the thick darkness of the basement, and felt several heartbeats echoing through the darkness. Most were below him, a basement of some kind, but there was one above his as well. There were too many to tell an exact number, but he felt he could safely guess three downstairs and one upstairs.

If Nathan hadn't been concerned before, he sure was now. The number of artifacts in this house was way higher than if he had just simply found a single rune, which did happen from time to time. He opened his eyes and the feeling of the shadows faded as he stepped lightly through the house opening doors and searching through drawers and cabinets for anything that may help him to know why Prattchet ordered the Queen to die.

The only place he found anything that even might help was a small office space with cabinets full of business files having to do with the logistics of fishing ships entering, exiting, and offloading in the harbor. The only thing he found there was a tattered piece of paper with a printed ship log on one side and in a messy scrawl on the other the words "IN MY DREAMS SHE WAITS". Strange, as most scribbling like this referred to the outsider as male, but Nathan supposed that the Outsider could have just changed it wasn't a hard thing to believe. And this appearing in dreams was nothing rare either, especially with so many artifacts.

He gave the room one last glance over to be sure he hadn't missed anything, but he found nothing more. It seemed there was nothing left to do on the ground floor, so he started to look for a way to the second. It took him a few minutes to find the stairwell but after he did he made his way up, taking care to keep his steps silent.

He pushed a door at the top of the stairs open slowly, being sure there was no trap set upon this one. There wasn't but he still opened it slowly and carefully. He could hear Prattchet now, muttering to himself. Nathan leaned around a corner and saw Prattchet pacing in his bedroom.

Prattchet seemed completely insane. He was muttering disjointed lined about "her" and how she was "stalking him" and how he had "failed her". Nathan was not completely how to proceed.

On one hand the man would be sentenced to death, charged with treason. But on the other hand he could have more information that may be valuable to Nathan. Nathan wasn't really sure what kind of information he could have, but these crazies always knew more than they should and dropped hints everywhere.

Nathan looked Prattchet up and down. He didn't look very strong, he almost looked malnourished as if he hadn't been eating. His hands were very boney and worked ceaselessly at his side like he was washing his hands. He was about a foot shorter than the average person, making him much less threatening than what Nathan had been imagining. What Nathan had been picturing in his mind was a huge beast of a man gibbering and gnashing his teeth with bone charms and runes bolstering his strength, but what he found was a short starving man whispering to himself in a terrified tone.

Prattchet needed to die, but he also needed information. Speak to Prattchet it was, than. Nathan stepped out of the shadows and stood upright when Prattchet turned away from him again. He positioned himself to where as soon as Prattchet turned around he would be facing Nathan and waited for Prattchet to do another round.

As soon as Prattchet turned around Nathan could almost feel his eyes dart right to him. Prattchet let out a primal howl and just ran right at Nathan. He had to admit, this move was certainly not what Nathan was expecting, but it would not be hard to deal with. As Prattchet got closer to him he shot a foot out and kicked him in the stomach. Prattchet's charge ended as soon as Nathan's foot connected, and he fell to the floor whimpering slightly. Nathan knelt down next to the fallen man, saying "Doing well, Prattchet?"

Prattchet growled in a menacing sort of way and lashed out at Nathan, who jumped back. Prattchet stood up unsteadily and raised his fists into a combat stance. Nathan drew his sword slowly, and as soon as he did Prattchet fell to his knees, whimpering again.

Nathan grabbed him by the neck and picked him up, lifting him off the ground, and placed the sharp edge of his blade to the man's neck. He didn't know why he had reacted to the blade like this, but he would take full advantage. "Why did you order a hit on Elsa?" Prattchet looked directly at him now, terror flooding his eyes. He made a few noises that may have been attempts to form words but just came out as gurgles and gasps.

Nathan realized that he was probably actually choking the short man, and loosened his grip. He asked again "Why did you try and kill the Queen?"

Prattchet looked at Nathan confused for a moment, than relief seemed to wash over him. He sighed and said "you're not with her." than seemed to relax completely, despite the blade at his throat. He smiled warmly at Nathan and said "You aren't with her? It's been forever since I talked to anyone else."

Now Nathan was the confused one. It seemed this man might be even more insane than he thought. More than just violently insane, anyways. But the strange things he said brought up even more questions. Who was this "She" and "Her" he kept talking about? He needed to figure this out. He pushed the razor sharp blade harder against the man's neck, stepped forwards, and lowered him slightly so that he would have to look up at Nathan. "If you don't tell me" Nathan threatened "I'll cut you're damn throat out."

Prattchet did something that Nathan did not expect. He started pressing his neck against his sword, saying "yes, yes please! Please, kill me!" as small beads of blood began to drip off the blade.

Nathan pushed him away and dropped him at the same time, resulting in him falling to the ground in a rather undignified way. He got back up quickly though, and started trying to throw himself into Nathans blade. Nathan put out the hand not holding the blade to push him away and tried to think about what his next move should be.

Before Nathan could decide what he should do Prattchet made a grab for the crossbow on Nathan's belt. Nathan made a jump back to stop him from actually getting the crossbow. Prattchet started running at Nathan and fell to his knees.

"Please… Please kill me!"

Nathan thought for a moment, then said "if… if you tell me what I want to know I'll kill you."

Prattchet stood up, tears in his eyes. He looked like he was at the breaking point. Nathan almost felt sorry for the guy. Whatever had happened or been happening to him seemed to have really messed him up.

Prattchet looked at him suspiciously and said "You will?" and a big smile came across his face. "Finally, someone willing to end it!" he turned away from Nathan and started pacing excitedly. "You have no idea how many people I have asked already! All of them denied, of course. I can't really blame them though. Killing someone is a big deal."

Nathan shuffled uncomfortably and said "Depends on your point of view, I suppose." Than he stepped forward "but before I do I need you to tell me about why you ordered the Queens death."

Prattchet turned back to Nathan and drew a small book off of his belt, tossing it to Nathan. He caught it and started flipping through the pages with one hand. The next thing he knew Prattchet was almost on top of him, clawing at the book, screaming "No, No not yet! Not until I die!" Nathan dropped the book and threw Prattchet off. From the dull thudding sound he made when he hit the floor hid head was the thing that hit hardest. He lay there dazed, and Nathan considered running him through right then, but Nathan hadn't had an opportunity to look at the book. Not enough at least. He picked the book up again and leafed through the pages. It looked to be a diary of some kind, and from what Nathan could tell it was very well kept with consistent entry's every day.

Prattchet picked himself up off the floor and threw himself at Nathan again, but stopped short only about half a foot away. He looked down and saw Nathans blade buried hilt deep in the center of his chest. He looked back up at Nathan and saw him still leafing through the book with one hand, and the other was holding the blade. Nathan looked up from the book and said in a quiet voice

"I keep my word"

Nathan pulled his blade out of Prattchet's chest and turned to leave the room. He stopped when he heard Prattchet trying to gasp out a few last words. Figuring that no one's last words should go completely ignored, he turned and knelt down over Prattchet, who had fallen over at some point.

Prattchet gasped and sputtered in the way that most dying people did. He reached up and grabbed Nathans shirt, pulling him closer. He coughed up some blood than whispered "thank… y-you. You ha-have t-to stop h-her."

Nathan pulled away slightly and asked "her?"

Prattchet laughed, spewing more blood from his mouth and tapped the small book in Nathan's hand "It's a-all in th-there." He smiled, sighed, and looked past Nathan, the light leaving his eyes.

Nathan remembered the bone charm he had felt up here and looked at Prattchet's belt. Sure enough there it was, clipped to the dead man's side. Nathan felt a slight guilt in just leaving it, so he picked it off the strip of leather and placed it in one of his many pockets. He didn't know what it did but he would check later.

Remembering the several other artifacts he had felt in some kind of basement he went on a search that lasted about an hour for a way to get to this basement. Once he got in he took the few runes and left the dead man's estate.

He couldn't wait to report a successful mission to Elsa. To prove he wanted to help.


	6. Chapter 6

Anna couldn't believe this. She pounded the door again, shouting "Elsa open this door right now!"

The only response she got was more retching sounds and something that might have been speech but slurred beyond recognition. Kristoff put a hand on her shoulder but she shrugged it off and kept pounding the door. "Elsa open up!"

Kristoff pulled her away from the door and grabbed her shoulders to keep her in place and said "Anna, she won't open the door." He looked at the door sadly "just let he be until morning."

He turned and found himself face to face with someone who hadn't been there before. He recognized him as the man who had saved Anna and Elsa from the men who had tried to kill them last night. Kristoff jumped back in surprise, knocking Anna to the floor. The man stood there and smiled at them like he was trying not to laugh.

Anna was the first to speak. "Who… how did you get here?"

His smile widened even more as he drew something from one of his pockets. Anna caught the glimmer of something metal but couldn't make out what it was before the man held it out to Kristoff, who held out his hand nervously. The man dropped the metal into Kristoff's hand and turned his attention to Anna.

"So" he said to Anna, pointing a thumb to the door "does this happen often?"

Anna assumed he was referring to Elsa locking herself away and drinking. "No, this… this is really out of the ordinary. She doesn't even like alcohol!"

Kristoff held up the thing that the man had given him casting a questioning look to Anna. She could see now that it was a small brass key. "But…" she looked from the key to the lock and back again "how…" she stuttered pointing to the key.

The man looked followed her finger to the key, then said "Well, are you going to use it or not?" slapping Kristoff's shoulder. Kristoff turned awkwardly to unlocked the door. As he fumbled with the key, Anna turned and said nervously to the man "Thank you."

He raised an eyebrow and asked "For?"

She almost gasped and said "For saving my life! I just…" she shuffled uncomfortably "don't know where I would be without you."

Nathan bowed slightly and replied "Think nothing of it."

Anna was about to say something more, but before she could Kristoff got the door open and Nathan turned his attention to what lay inside the room. Anna remembered suddenly why they had been trying to open this door and rushed past Nathan and Kristoff, barging into the room and got hit full on with the stench of bile and alcohol.

Anna saw Elsa's feet poking out from behind an overturned table and ran over to her as fast as she could while gaging and blinded. When she reached the table she let out a gasp and picked Elsa's head off the floor. She could tell that Elsa was still breathing, but she was obviously not going to be too happy tomorrow.

Nathan leaned up against the door frame and motioned for Kristoff to go in next. He rushed in and knelt next to Anna over Elsa and started checking the unconscious queen over. Nathan couldn't help but to shake his head. Things had certainly been interesting since he arrived. He walked over to where the queen lay and saw that she was lying in a puddle of her own sick, her ornate crystalline dress splattered with what looked to be wine and rum.

He looked around the room and saw countless bottles, some half full but most were empty. Many of the bottles looked as if they were covered with frost, and a few of them looked as if the contents were actually frozen solid. And, now that he looked, it seemed that most of the bile in several places on the floor was totally frozen. He had to wonder how much control Elsa had over her powers, as all this seemed to be totally unintentional.

If control over her power could be eroded so much by just alcohol than it seemed that she would be fairly dangerous. He had heard whisperings that she had lost control once, but had been unable to get any real specifics. From what he had heard, though, it was bad.

He turned back to the body of Elsa and the two tending to her and said "so…" he was pretty unsure of how to go about this. "I had business with the Queen, but…" he pointed to her laying on the ground and continued unsurely "but I suppose that it will have to wait."

Both Anna and Kristoff turned to him and just looked at him for a moment before Anna stood and walked him out of the room. "I'll have someone show you to a room for the night. We'll…" she looked back at Elsa still lying on the floor "We'll talk tomorrow."

…

Elsa found herself seated on the throne in the ballroom. She didn't remember coming here, but there was a lot she didn't remember. There was something off though, she couldn't place it. As if the room had been shifted or crooked to the side just a also seemed that the many lamps that lined the walls of the room were giving off a slight purple-ish light instead of the usual bright warm light. She felt uneasy here, wherever "here" was. It was like she was being watched.

She stood up from the ornate throne and stepped forward. As soon as she left the throne ice sprang from the floor and covered it completely. She jumped back in shock and felt herself collide with what felt like a person. She turned to look at who she had hit, ready to apologize, and found herself looking at the back of the man who had saved her last night. As soon as her back stopped touching him ice sprung up and engulfed him too.

She recoiled, horrified at what she was doing. This was a dream. It had to be. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself down and looked around again. The ballroom was filled with people, just as it had been last night. The man who had saved her was standing in front of her. She looked around in awe at the crowds, who were just frozen in place with shocked expressions. It was like time was just… stopped. The three men who had tried to kill her were all present as well, two frozen in the process of charging towards her and one taking aim.

Than a voice echoed through the ballroom, making her jump again. It was a dull monotone voice sounding only partially interested in talking with her.

"Hello, Elsa."

She spun, ready to face whatever bizarre adversary this dream could throw at her, but found only a man. He was hovering over the back of the throne as shadows danced behind him obstructing everything else as if to highlight him. He wore common clothes and had hair almost as black as his eyes. If she had to guess she would have said that his eyes were shadow if she couldn't see the lights of the hall reflecting off of them.

He spoke again, and Elsa felt as if she had to listen as if she didn't have any choice in the matter.

"You don't know me, Elsa, but I know you." He said, gesturing to her. "I've watched over you over these long years you've been alive with…" he leaned forwards "unusual interest." he continued "from the day you were born you've wondered why you had the powers you do. They come from me. Every shard of ice and patch of frost has been drawn from my power."

The man leaned back and spread his arms casually "It amuses me." And smiled knowingly at her. She almost interrupted, but found she couldn't "It amuses me to see what different people do with different powers." He looked directly at her now, intently, as if he was telling her something he wanted her to remember "there was once a time when people with your powers and abilities would duel, and would draw people from every corner of the globe. Even the most powerful emperors would bow a knee to the combatants before they started." He squinted at Elsa as if he was reading her like a book "And now they hide their power, or at least you have." He said almost accusingly.

Elsa was immediately aware that she could talk again, and decided to ask a question. "Where am I?" she asked confusedly, looking around again at the frozen faces of the hall. The man looked around as well, smiling, and said "This is my world. This is where I choose to stay. This is the void. Nothing, at least, nothing for most people." He pointed to Elsa casually "But you're special. You aren't like most people. You may not bear my mark as literally as others, but you do bear my power. I give the ability to do anything, anything you can make happen then watch what happens next."

Elsa's mouth hung open and she just stood there, confused. One more question came to mind as she asked "Why me?"

The man looked at her as if she had just asked why the sky was green. "Why you?" he repeated "why you? Why not someone else. Why not someone who wanted this power, who prayed to me for this power. Those people are always so…" he seemed to savor the word "boring."

The next thing she knew she was thrashing in the sheets of her bed, feeling like her skull was in shards stabbing into her brain. She stopped flailing and looked around, out of breath. She was back in her bedroom. She couldn't help but wonder how she had gotten there, as the last thing she remembered was getting into the celler.

….

Nathan paced around anxiously. The promise that the royals would discuss his… employment was comforting, but he was uneasy about what they would consider. Would they think he was too harsh, as he had killed everyone that he had come up against except the drunks. That might make him come off a bit strong. But isn't that what they would want? He growled in frustration. Why didn't he know these things?

He conjured power and focused it into his left hand. The mark on the back of his hand lit up brightly and he gestured to his own shadow. Instead of pulsing his power he let it seep slowly so that it wouldn't take anything off of his overall energy. Slowly, his shadow peeled off of the ground, warping and bending into a standing position. He put more power into the spell and the shadow grew darker until looked completely solid. A bead of sweat dropped from his brow as he put just a little bit more power into the spell, and the shadow separated from him completely, now a freestanding shadow copy of Nathan. He stopped the flow of power and stepped back, admiring his work.

Next he drew his blade and took up a combat stance. As if there was some unspoken understanding between the two, the shadow drew a similar blade of shadows. The shadow lowered itself into a combat stance as well and both stood, waiting for the first move.

The shadow was the first to attack. With unnatural speed it lunged, thrusting its blade forward. Nathan barely had time to react. He stepped to the side and bent his wrist so that the blade's tip was still pointing at the shadow. As it reached the full extension of its lunge Nathan thrust the blade out in a move that left his arm awkwardly extended to his side. The shadow seemed to realize the position of Nathan's blade at the same time he started to thrust. It was already in a lunge, so it would not be able to jump away as it would stumble. Instead it simply fell onto its back and kicked its legs up, rolling back a few steps and springing to its feet.

Nathan hissed exasperatedly though his teeth. If he had just been a little closer…

He interrupted his own thoughts with a sudden attack of his own. He bent his knees and back as much as he could, bringing his face inches from the floor, and dashed forward. As he got in range to attack he brought his blade to bear as he held it behind his back. The shadow didn't seem to notice what he was doing, which was fine by him. The shadow obviously expected him to stop short and attack more directly, but Nathan had no plans to. He ran past the shadow and felt the resistance on the blade. He passed the shadow, let go of his blade, and turned.

His blade was buried in the shadows stomach, suspended above the ground by the thick darkness. Nathan also saw the door to the room he was given open, with Anna standing in the doorframe looking shocked. The shadow figure shivered violently for a moment than flattened and flew across the floor at Nathan, making a high pitch hissing sound as it went. Nathan's blade clattered noisily on the floor making Anna jump.

Nathan walked to the blade and picked it up. Sheathing it, he said a bit awkwardly "Can I help you?"

Anna shuffled uncomfortably and said "I just wanted to talk."

Nathan clasped his hands together and strode towards her "Let's talk."

Anna turned and started walking down one of the many halls that filled the building. They passed several guards on the way who raised eyebrows at Anna when they saw Nathan, but Anna dismissed their concern with a wave.

"So…" she started nervously "how are you?"

Nathan shrugged and said "Fine, why?"

This seemed to loosen some fear in Anna, who turned to him and gripped his arm, saying "Please don't get mad at me when I ask you, but who are you? Where do you come from? I mean…" she gestured wildly around her "why are you here?" Nathan opened his mouth to respond but it seemed she wasn't done yet. "There are so many other kingdoms you could go to. Why here?" Nathan held up a hand in an attempt to stop her but she just kept railing on. "And… an-and you have powers!" she was almost shouting now and Nathan knew that anyone in the same wing of the building could probably hear her right now.

He grabbed her arm and pushed her against the wall behind her. "Anna" he said calmly "shut up." Perhaps he had overstepped some boundary, but if he did Anna gave no real sign of it other than to stop talking. He let go and backed off, saying "Yes, I have powers. My name is Nathan. I am here because I want to work for you." He spread his arms and said sarcastically "happy now?"

Anna took a shaky breath and brushed the hair out of her eyes. "I… sorry for freaking out." She turned and kept walking. "a-any ways" she continued "what are your powers? Were you born with them? They don't seem like Elsa's."

Nathan responded with a slight groan as he stretched his shoulders. "No, I wasn't born with my power, it was given to me. And from what I've heard of Elsa's power mine is very different." He didn't really want to talk about his past. It was something he was rather… sensitive about.

Anna looked at him interestedly and asked "You weren't born with them? Than how did you get them?"

Nathan sighed. He didn't want to lie, but if the questions got too specific he wouldn't have much of a choice.

"They were given to me by …" he searched for the right word "a friend."

"Oh" Anna said "I've heard of people being cursed with powers like Elsa's" she asked a bit timidly "could your powers be a curse?"

Nathan smiled a bit at this. "Perhaps. I think it would be for someone with less self-control than me." He looked at the ceiling "I have a lot of power, I just have no way to use it for myself," he looked back down "which I guess is why I want to work for you."

Anna stopped and turned to him again. "What do you mean you don't have a use of your power?"

Nathan shrugged. "I don't feel any need to kill people. Other people used to…" he stopped, realizing that she had almost gotten him talking about his past. He had said too much to stop, but he had to be more careful. "…to hire me to kill, but I never killed for myself."

Anna gulped and said "you used to be an assassin?"

He hesitated for a moment than responded "Yea, easy way to make a living. When you're me, anyway." Anna looked at him questioningly and he clarified "The powers and all."

"Oh…" Anna gave a small nod and turned, resuming the walk. "So what are your powers? I saw that…" she looked for the right word "…shadow you were fighting, what was that?"

Nathan smiled and said "Ah, that's one of them that I'm more proud of. I learned how to manipulate shadows a long time ago, but that one really pushes it to the limit. It's a spell than makes my own shadow into a physical thing and imbues it with my skills and knowledge. It's not alive, just sort of acts off of what I want it to do, using my skills and memory to do it. It's like a machine."

Anna looked down at her own shadow untrustingly "Can you do that with any shadow? Could you make my shadow tell you things about me?"

Nathan stroked his chin thoughtfully, and said after a short pause said "Mmm… no. first off shadows can't talk, but I think it would have the information. If I conjured your shadow and told it to show me to a specific part of the castle it would, provided you know where that part is. If I asked it to tell me where the part is it wouldn't do anything." He had never actually thought of using other people's shadows like that before. He had always just used his own as either a distraction or an extra blade in a fight. Using someone else's was quite a good idea.

Nathan grimaced as a sudden realization hit him. Why was he telling her any of this? He had already told her more than he ever told anyone else about his power. He cursed himself. Did this girl always appear this damn trustable? For all he knew she was planning to stab him in the back later, so anything she didn't know would be an advantage against her. But if he wanted trust from her he supposed it would have to go both ways.

But still…

He would at least have to wait until he spoke to Elsa and discussed the "Terms of Employment" with her. He supposed that she would want some explanation of how his powers worked and how he would protect her, and he didn't really have an answer other than "any way I can" which he almost knew wouldn't work.

He still hadn't had an opportunity to look through the book Prattchet gave him, and he did want to end this conversation with Anna. He cleared his throat and said "It's late, and I would like to be well rested for tomorrow." Not a lie, just not the whole truth.

Anna nodded and said "Can you find your room again? I know these halls can be a little confusing and…"

Nathan held up a hand "I can handle it."

Anna said "Ok" and turned to leave. After a few steps she turned back around gave him a small wave, saying "Good night."

Nathan waved in response and walked back through the halls to his room. It was a small room with a window that looked out over the fjord and out onto the open ocean. The room also had a small table and chair both made of wood and bearing ornate carvings of vines and various fruits. He sat down at the chair and pulled out the book, holding it to the light of a small candelabra on the wall.

The journal started off easily enough, with neat and practiced penmanship. The first entry was one that explained why Prattchet was bothering to keep a journal. The reasons he gave were that a friend he had had told him that keeping a journal was great for calming one's mind when stressed. Nathan felt that he disagreed, but supposed it would depend on the person.

He continued reading, and found that most of the entries were just dull descriptions of Prattchet's days. It was just entry after entry of boring day spent in an office or inspecting a ship or striking a trade deal. But then, right in the last quarter of the book there was an entry from about a month ago. It spoke of a dream he had one night. Nathan remembered the things Prattchet had been whispering to himself and read the entry out loud

"Last night I had a most frightful dream. I was on a ship, the Gulliver, the first ship I ever worked. I couldn't help but feel that something was wrong. I wondered the decks for some time before I found anything. As I came to the position I used to work, the netting of course as all greenhorns must, I found something that troubled me greatly. I saw the body of my old captain, entangled, hanging just out of reach above me. I tried to jump to reach him and possibly free him from the bonds, but every time I got close the net was yanked up by some unseen force. I had grown quite worried now, as despite any shouting or other such attempts to wake him he simply lay there unmoving. I turned to see if there were any gutting knives or other such tools that I may free him with, but on my turning I found myself facing a figure. It was feminine in structure and form, but wore a green cloak that obscured its identity completely. I asked who it was and the response I got shook me to my core. The figure dashed at me with inhuman speed and upon reaching me, the cloak was flung wide and great plumes of a sickly green gas were released. I shouted in shock, as I believe any other man would, and the gas came to life. It moved of its own accord and forced itself into my mouth and down my throat.

I awoke this morning screaming and sweating with the servants fawning over me. They told me that I had been shouting and thrashing for minutes before I awoke. I have never been a superstitious man, but now I have a feeling of dread that won't fade. I feel as if I am watched every moment of the day, no matter how extremely I isolate myself. I worry about what is happening."

Nathan paused before moving to the next entry. It certainly was not the Outsider, as Nathan seriously doubted that he would have constructed such a bizarre world that seemed only for the purpose of scaring Prattchet. If it wasn't the Outsider than who else could it be? Perhaps he would find the answer in later entries.

He flipped to the next entry. It was dated a week after the last one, which was strange as every entry up to this point was the day after the last entry. This entry was written in a much more scrawled hand, and was very hard to read. Nathan read:

"I have done away with all the servants. They could not be trusted anyways. She has rewarded me with a prize every time I do as she asks. She leaves them in a hole in the fence. I have watched the hole, waiting to see her deliver it but I never do. She tells me to kill someone, someone important, but I can't do it. She knows I can't too, and if I fail she will torture me like the others she showed me. I would rather die than become one of those husks. I gathered all the gifts around me and slept. It didn't help keep her away, but I feel more rested."

Nathan flipped to the next entry, still wondering who "she" was and now why she had been torturing Prattchet. The next entry was dated yesterday. It read:

"The men are going. The queen should be dead by nightfall, and she will have to leave me alone. I heard the Outsider today. He whispered in my ear through his runes and told me. He told me that there was a man who would kill me if I play my cards right. Better than what she would do with me."

Nathan paused again. Prattchet knew he was coming? He sighed. The Outsider worked in mysterious ways. The next entry didn't have a date on it at all and was barely legible. Nathan had to squint to make any of it out.

"they failed I know they did now she is coming. I heard through the runes he told me her name. I do not know what it means but she is…"

The name was illegible. It wasn't smeared or scratched out, it looked like it was in another language. Nathan flipped to the next page, finding it blank. He hissed through his teeth and flipped a few more blank pages. He dropped the book on to the table and put his face in his hands and just sit for a moment.

"Nothing is ever easy." He said to himself.

Nathan looked out the window at the moon. It was low, and he could see the light of the sun edging its way over the horizon. He didn't feel very tired, but felt he should at least try to get some sleep. He walked over to the bed and removed his gear slowly. Surprisingly for him, he fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.


	7. Chapter 7

Nathan awoke to the sound of someone knocking softly on his door. He opened one eye just a crack and looked around. The room that greeted him was the same one he had fallen asleep in, and for that he was fairly grateful. It did mean, however, that he would have to deal with the strange first impression he had made. He groaned as he lifted himself from the bed and turned his attention to the door.

"Uhhgaah…"

He coughed, cleared his throat and tried again. "Yea?"

The voice from the other side of the door was fuzzy and hard to understand. "Uh… time to wake up!"

He looked out the window and saw the sun burning brightly in the winter sky as he threw his legs over the side of the bed and stood unsteadily.

"I'll be right out."

He stumbled over to his gear and equipped himself as quickly as he could. The last thing he did was to pull his long leather gloves on as he pulled the door open quietly, as he always did. He found himself facing Anna, who had her back turned to the door as she waited.

She was wearing simple noble clothes, a yellow dress with her hair up in a bun. Nathan tapped her on the shoulder, saying "You called?"

She gasped and turned, spinning to face him and clutching her chest. When she saw it was him she sighed in relief. "Good morning, Nathan." She curtsied politely and pointed to the floor "There's breakfast ready in the kitchens if you're hungry."

Nathan returned her curtsy with a bow of his own and said "Thank you for rousing me, my…" he paused, looking at her unsurely "How am I to refer to you?"

She shrugged her shoulders and said "Just Anna is fine."

Nathan nodded and started walking with Anna towards the stairs. He was still at a loss at to the layout of this building but he felt he was becoming more familiar with it every time he traveled the halls. He stopped walking and put a hand on Anna's shoulder, stopping her.

"Wait, does that mean I got the job?"

It came out with far more hope in his voice than he had meant to have, but he didn't care. He stared at Anna intently, who shrugged and smiled. "Elsa and I talked it over and…" she paused, as if for dramatic affect. "…yes."

Nathan felt a huge weight lift off his shoulders. He felt like he needed to scream, to run, to somehow express the immense relief he felt. But he didn't. What he did do was smile and feel himself go weak in the knees. He put his hand to the wall and braced himself against it for a moment, then pushed himself off and motioned for them to keep walking.

"Will the Queen be joining us for breakfast?"

Anna sighed annoyed and said "No, she's in a meeting with her advisors, so she'll probably be in there all day." Anna turned, walking backwards to face Nathan "Elsa doesn't get along with a lot of her advisors." And she turned back around.

Nathan thought about how drunk Elsa had been last night and cringed when he thought about how she must feel right about now. He imagined the hangover that such drinking would bring on and combined it with being trapped in a room full of people he didn't like droning on and on about things he didn't care about. He started to think about ways he might get her out of the meeting.

His thoughts were interrupted, however, when the smell of food drifted into his nostrils. The delicious smell of food changed his mind completely about what he should be focused on. As he came into the kitchen area with Anna he found cooks, at least ten, going at it fervently on the stoves, ovens, and bowls.

He had to wonder who ate all this food, as surely there weren't enough people on staff to eat this much. Anna walked forward and simply picked up a plate and started heaping food on. Nathan followed suit and grabbed a plate.

After he had gotten his pile of food he looked to the dining room for a place to sit. There were at least a hundred tables, most empty. At one he saw Anna siting and eating alone. He strode over, took a seat across from her, and started eating.

Nathan felt like he should say something to Anna instead of just eating in silence, but he didn't know what to say. Before he could figure it out though, a voice sounded from somewhere he couldn't see. It spoke in a rather flamboyant voice, saying "Hey Anna, who's your friend?"

Nathan cast his gaze around him, looking for the speaker but not finding anything. Anna put her fork and knife down, turned to the side, and looked down at something Nathan couldn't see. Her face lit up and she exclaimed "Olaf!" and bent over to pick up something.

When she came back up she was holding what Nathan initially thought to be a child covered in white paint. She set the thing down on the table next to her food and smiled at Nathan, who just stared at the thing trying to figure out what it was. It had sticks where its arms should have been, and its feet had seemed almost to disconnect from the body as Anna had lifted it. It also appeared segmented, its body being made of three sections.

Anna laughed at Nathans reaction. He turned to her and asked much more calmly than she had expected, yet in a way that made the whole scene funnier "What is that thing?"

Olaf shuffled forwards on the table holding both his arms wide, exclaiming "I'm Olaf and I like warm hugs!"

Nathan leaned back in his chair away from Olaf. Anna got her laughing under control and choked out as she was gasping for breath "He's something Elsa made."

Nathan leaned forwards now, his attention grabbed. "And does she control it?" he got up from the table and started circling the table to get a better view of the snowman.

Anna, having gotten her breathing under control, said "No, he pretty much just does whatever he wants."

Nathan stopped circling the table and addressed Olaf.

"So you have free will?"

Olaf looked himself over and shuffled his feet, then said "I think so, why?"

Olaf and Anna looked at him, both wanting to know the answer. Nathan sat back down and said "Because things like you" he gestured to Olaf "are usually controlled directly by a Witc-"he stopped short, catching himself and correcting what he almost said "summoner."

Anna seemed to catch what he had almost said, but Olaf just nodded and started rolling a salt shaker from one side of the table to the other. Anna looked at Nathan with a worried expression and mouthed the word "Witch?" to Nathan. He motioned towards the door with his head and stood up, he'd had enough food anyways. Anna said something to Olaf and followed Nathan.

As Nathan entered the halls Anna came to his side. He asked her "Where is Elsa?" Anna pointed down the hall and started walking. He knew Anna was concerned about what he had said, so he decided to put her fears to rest. "Most females who use magic are just called witches." He said without looking at her. He looked up at the ceiling, thinking. "Most people think badly when they think witch, myself included, but it doesn't actually mean a bad person."

He looked back at Anna and found her looking at him questioningly. She asked "Why do you think badly about witches?"

Nathan thought, wondering whether or not he should share this little bit of his past. There wasn't much she would be able to do with this knowledge, and it wasn't a memory that Nathan was particularly fond of, so he decided it couldn't hurt. "When I was a kid I had something of a run-in with a witch who…" his face darkened "… didn't take kindly to my being there."

Anna covered her mouth with her hand and said "What did she do to you?"

Nathan looked at her and raised an eyebrow. "Scared the piss outa me. If she'd done much more I doubt I'd be alive."

They came to a large door and Anna stopped. Nathan could hear voices faintly on the other side. Anna said "Well here we are." And shuffled uncomfortably. Nathan took a deep breath and put a hand on the door, ready to push it open.

Nathan looked over to Anna and said "are you ready?"

Anna rolled her eyes and said "How did I let you rope me into this?"

Nathan smiled and shrugged as he pushed the door open. The scene that greeted him was more or less what he expected. There were six people sitting around a table, all with various papers and documents in front of them. At the head of the table Elsa was sitting with her head resting on her hands, massaging her temples with her eyes squeezed shut. The six men around the table were arguing heatedly, and their argument seemed to be growing louder.

Nathan looked back at Anna and grinned wickedly. He held out his hand and motioned for her to take it. She did, albeit hesitantly, and Nathan focused on a spot of floor behind Elsa, waiting for a moment no one was looking. He only had to wait a few seconds, as a few of the man looked over at the open door. He pulsed his energy and turned to Anna, putting a finger to her mouth. For just a second her eyes bulged out like she was terrified, but she contained any noise.

Nathan now turned to Elsa and tapped her on the shoulder. She groaned and turned slowly. "What is it now?" she sounded irritated. She hadn't opened her eyes yet, and Nathan wasn't completely sure how he should address her. He turned to Anna and motioned for her to take over.

Anna cleared her throat and whispered to Elsa "Nathan needs to talk to you."

Elsa opened her eyes and looked up at Nathan, mouthing the words "Thank you" than got up and announced to the room of bickering men "Excuse me, but I have business to attend to. If you could leave us for a while, it would be appreciated."

All the men turned, looking surprised, than shuffled awkwardly out of the room. Once the door closed behind the last man Elsa turned back to Anna and Nathan. She gave a pained smile and asked "What did you need?"

Nathan motioned towards the chair she had been sitting in, indicating she should take a seat again, than motioned to another seat for Anna before taking a seat himself. Once everyone was seated Nathan pulled out the small book and slid it across the table to Elsa, saying "This belonged to the man who paid the three men to attack you." Elsa took the book slowly off the table and flipped through the pages. At one page she stopped and her eyes widened slightly

"Prattchet…" she looked up at Nathan and asked "…It was Prattchet? But he-"she shook her head and asked "Where is he now?"

Nathan cringed slightly, realizing that Elsa may have known him. "Dead. When I arrived he was quite out of his mind." Elsa looked down at the floor and Nathan felt a pang of guilt. He considered saying that he had asked to die, but thought that it might just upset Elsa more.

She looked up and nodded towards the book "So what else is in here?"

Nathan took the book and flipped to the last page that had writing on it and handed it back, pointing to the word he couldn't understand. "I believe that's the name of the person who drove him insane. Unfortunately I can't read it, can you?"

Elsa picked up the book and looked closely at the word. After a few moments of silence she dropped the book and cringed, putting a hand to her forehead. "I'm sorry, I can't read it either." Anna drew her chair closer and put her hands on Elsa's shoulders, asking worriedly "Are you ok?" then looked at Nathan as if asking for help.

Nathan was about to tell them that there was nothing he could do, that a hangover simply had to run its course, when he remembered something. He reached into one of his many pockets and drew out a small bone charm. It hummed with a strange energy, and merely it touching his hand made his fingers start to go numb. He held out the strange artifact to Elsa, who just looked at him questioningly. "Take it." He said reassuringly. Elsa obeyed, taking the bone from Nathan's hand. As soon as she picked it up her face loosened and the tension seemed to just fall away. She sighed happily and touched the thing to her forehead.

Anna looked from the charm to Elsa to Nathan, then said confused "Wait, what did I miss here?"

Nathan turned to her as Elsa opened her eyes again and put the charm in her hand and rested the side of her head against it. "It's a bone charm," he explained "it's a little trinket that uses the same kind of magic I do." He pulled his thick top jacket aside revealing the bandoleer of six bone charms. "They give little benefits here and there. That one..." He pointed to the one in Elsa's hand "…dulls pain."

Anna eyed the charm suspiciously and said "I don't like the noise its making."

Elsa looked at Anna and said "What noise? It's not making any noise."

Both girls looked at Nathan. He shrugged and said amusedly "If she hears a noise, I guess she hears a noise." Something occurred to Nathan and he continued "Anna doesn't have the power that you and I-"he pointed from Elsa to himself "-have, so she may be more…" he searched for the right word "…susceptible to the effects of charms."

Now it was Elsa's turn to look at the charm with distrust. Nathan gave an exasperated sigh and said "It won't do any harm to her, that takes a lot of time. Sometimes charms drive people insane, but only when they've had the charm for a long time, usually years." This seemed to satisfy Elsa, who continued resting her head against the charm. Anna kept glancing occasionally at the charm but otherwise didn't seem bothered.

Nathan cleared his throat after a short pause and spoke to Elsa. "What should be done with this-" he tapped the book "business? Certainly we should do something about this, but what? We can't just wait for another attack."

Elsa looked down at the book and sighed, saying "I'll have the name copied and sent out to anyone how might know what it says, but beyond that I don't know what to do."

Nathan nodded and said "With so little information there's not much we can do."

The three just sat in silence, thinking. After about thirty seconds of this Elsa stood up and addressed Anna. "I think you should show him around the castle. If he's to defend it he needs all the information he can get."

Anna stood and nodded, motioning for Nathan to follow her. As Nathan stood to leave Elsa grabbed his hand. He turned to look at her and found her offering the bone charm back. He held up a hand and said "keep it for now, you need it more than I do."

Elsa smiled and said "Thanks." She took the charm in her hands and turned it over. As it turned, bands of ice formed over the surface and linked with each other on the opposite side. Then she worked the charm around in her hands, and a small chain of ice formed in her hand and linked to the bands. She put the chain around her neck and let the charm hang on her chest.

Nathan shook his head, smiled, and turned to leave. Some part of him envied her, jealous that she had been able to do that so easily. But another part of him reminded him that she lacked the ability to use shadows and move faster than the eye could see.

Anna was waiting for him on the other side of the door. As Nathan left the room the six men who had been inside before shuffled back in, grunting and grumbling things he could just barely make out. "Unnatural…" "Dangerous…" and of course his favorite, "Not right…"

Anna shook her head and said "don't listen to them. You'd think they'd be more open to magic, considering Elsa's powers."

Nathan smirked "Let them be afraid if they want, I don't care."

Anna felt like she needed to change the subject. "So, what happened with the witch?"

Nathan sighed. "I guess I've not got much to lose." He didn't really want to talk about his past, but if she wanted to know, he wouldn't keep it from her. "I used to be an orphan. The orphanage I stayed at wasn't exactly swimming in money. I spent most of my time stealing things. Food, pens, pocket watches, anything that I could use to feed myself with." Nathans eyes seemed to fog as he thought back. "After a while I started stealing more than just food."

They came to a room with several chairs and a large window overlooking the fjord and Nathan took a seat, motioning for Anna to follow suit. "You'd be surprised with how much food can be bought with a shiny ring." He waved a hand as if dismissing the thought "but, anyways, I was in a jewelry store, doing what I did, when I heard a crash upstairs. I figured that the owner of the shop might be drunk or something, so I went to check it out." Anna was sitting on the edge of her seat, listening intently. Nathan readjusted in his seat and continued "so I went to check it out. Figured he might have fallen and knocked himself out, you know, drunk and all. What I found when I got up there was…" he stopped, gazing off into the distance "not pretty. The jeweler was standing in his bedroom, whimpering and cowering from something I couldn't see. What I could see, though, was crows. There must have been hundreds of crows, all swarming and swooping around the room. The jeweler was screaming something about not knowing where something was, and every time he did the birds got angrier."

Nathan paused and smiled to himself. He had almost forgotten how fun talking to people could be. "Just as I was starting to think that leaving might be a good idea, the door bust off its hinges and fell on top of me. The guy stopped screaming and made a break for it. He stepped on the door as he ran, which hurt a lot. The door felt like it was crushing me, so I screamed. Next thing I knew the door was off of me and birds were holding me up in the air. Then I saw her. She looked pretty old, and I'm talking like hundreds of years old, and she had crows all over her." Anna actually gasped at this point, which made Nathan smile. "She had a real raspy, gritty voice, like two rocks grinding together. She says "You're not supposed to be here" than the birds just…" he flicked his wrist "threw me out the guy's bedroom window."

Anna sat in her chair, her eyes wide and her hand covering her mouth. "Did… did that really happen?" she whispered.

Nathan laughed and said "Yea, crazy, isn't it?" He stood and looked around the room, than pointed a thumb over his shoulder at the door. "So, should we keep-"

Anna interrupted him with a start, saying "Oh. Oh yes, sorry. It's just…" Nathan held up a hand as if to say he understood, than motioned to the door. Anna walked out of the room and he followed her.


	8. Chapter 8

After the lengthy tour of the castle had concluded Anna and Nathan returned to the conference room in which Elsa was having her meeting. They both agreed to wait outside the room until it was done to talk to Elsa again. Nathan felt better about his familiarity with the building, and he had found several points where security was a bit lacking. As they had walked through the rooms and halls, in-between Anna telling him what a room was and why it was there, she told him about when Elsa had lost control of her powers.

Anna seemed to think that the loss of control was normal, but the thought troubled Nathan far more. The idea that Elsa was as powerful as everyone said and didn't have complete control was… scary. He had always had complete control, he couldn't even imagine his powers acting on their own. He added that to his mental list of things he needed to talk to Elsa about.

They waited for the meeting to conclude outside of the door. Several times Nathan heard through the door peoples voices rising almost to shouting. Anna put her eye to the lock on the door a few times to see what was going on, but Nathan refrained. It all seemed like the same boorish politics to him, just men shouting about taxes and goods and immigration and other things he couldn't possibly care less about.

After about half an hour there was a kind of murmuring consensus of voices and the door opened and the six men started walking out, talking amongst themselves looking flustered. Nathan and Anna stood and waited for the men to pass and, once they did, entered the room.

Elsa was sitting at the head of the table as she had been the first time they had entered, this time looking more tired than in pain. She looked up from a paper she had in front of her and smiled when she saw them. "Well this is a present surprise." She said, smiling at them and standing up.

Anna ran over and hugged Elsa, asking "How'd it go?"

Elsa's grin widened and she said "I think they see everything my way now." She looked at Nathan and put a hand to the charm around her neck "And I couldn't have done it without your help."

Nathan took a step forward and asked "Sorry, what did I help with?"

Elsa sighed and said "They are always badgering me about increasing the size of the treasury and raising taxes and speeding the "growth of the country". Your little charm made it…" She paused, considering the word "…tolerable."

Nathan shrugged and said "Perhaps a little growth would benefit Arendelle."

Elsa threw a hand towards the window overlooking the city and said agitatedly "And it has been growing. At a slow, steady pace. There's no need to try and cover the world!"

Nathan jerked back a bit surprised, but nodded, agreeing with Elsa. He realized this was another thing he was starting to like about her, she didn't feel the need to increase her own power.

Elsa sighed again. "I'm sorry, it just that I've been trapped in a room with a pack of wolves all day, I'm a bit on edge."

Nathan shuffled a bit uncomfortably and Anna looked sideways at Elsa before awkwardly saying "O…k, well, let's all just… go have a nice lunch and talk about things. Ok?"

Both Nathan and Elsa exchanged glances and shrugged, moving to the door. Anna led the way back to the dining hall with Nathan and Elsa following. As they trailed behind they started to talk. Elsa was the first to speak. She turned her head to Nathan, putting a hand to the charm he had given her and said "really, thank you for this."

Nathan waved off her words and took a fist-sized bag from an inner pocket. "Think nothing of it, I've got plenty more where that came from." He started removing charms at random, putting them to his ear, than placing them back in the bag.

Elsa eyed what he was doing with curiosity. "And what do the creepy bones tell you?" she said sarcastically, rolling her eyes and breaking another smile. She figured that he was just putting on a little act to try and freak her out, and she wasn't about to let it work.

Nathan smiled devilishly at Elsa and said "All sorts of things." After a short pause he laughed to himself, then said "They make a sound, if you listen for it. You can tell what they do if you pay enough attention." He handed a random charm to Elsa and said "See if you can tell."

She took the charm in her hand and examined it closely. There didn't seem to be any real visual markings other than slight burns that would tell her what the thing did, so she hesitantly placed it up to her ear. At first the charm didn't make any noise, but as she listened and focused something seemed to happen. It was like the charm started to hum slightly. As she focused on the noise it grew until it was almost defining.

She cringed away from the charm and held it out to Nathan. He smiled and said "Don't focus too much." then pushed the charm back. She wasn't sure what he meant by that but she tried again, this time not listening to the sound itself but to what it sounded like.

It sounded bizarre. Otherworldly, almost. As if it had been pulled straight out of another world. She tried to compare the noise to anything she had heard before, and could only think of grinding metal combined with…a whale's song. She had heard whales sing before, on several trips made by ship, and the sound never failed to send an uncomfortable chill down her spine. There were several other sounds coming from the charm, like distant whispering and a kind of hissing, but those were almost too faint to place.

Elsa looked to Nathan and asked "What am I listening for?"

Nathan raised an eyebrow and said "Can't hear it?"

Elsa shook her head and replied "No, I hear too much. I can't make anything out."

Nathan shrugged, than grunted and said "Maybe…" and paused, thinking, than continued "Maybe you are focusing too much on what it is, focus on what it does." He paused again "Focus almost on the space around it. How it changes what should be, not what it is."

Elsa looked back at the charm and tried focusing on her hand. What did her hand feel, what was different? She squeezed the charm in her fingers and felt a few sharp points poke her fingertips. She squeezed harder, but no matter how hard she did it seemed the points weren't sharp enough to penetrate her skin. She looked at the points and gasped when she saw them. They looked sharp enough to rip her skin off if she wasn't careful, but she had just been squeezing hard enough force to send a few of the sharper looking ones through her hand entirely.

She looked at her hand. It looked normal enough, her skin fair and soft looking. But the hand felt strange. If she wasn't looking at it she would've sworn she was wearing a glove. She closed her hand again and felt her skin move. It was like her skin didn't want to move, like her whole hand was covered in calluses. She pinched the hand and found that the skin was actually as thick as it felt. She turned back to Nathan and said excitedly "It makes calluses!" She was proud that she had been able to figure it out.

Nathan looked at her and held out a hand. She put the charm in his hand and he held it up to his ear. He listened for a few seconds, then smiled at Elsa and said "Good job, you got it."

He placed the charm back in the bag and drew another, handing it to Elsa. She took it and started examining it in the same way she had the first. Nathan addressed Anna as Elsa focused on the charm. "So, where's the guy you were dancing with at the party?"

She spoke over her shoulder so she didn't have to turn around. "Kristoff? He's up north." She turned to look at Nathan and, at seeing the questioning expression on his face, said "He works as an ice harvester, and there are a lot of mountain lakes up north."

Nathan nodded. "How long have you known him?" he asked curiously. He didn't particularly care about the romantic affairs of the royals, but he was the protector now, so he supposed he should familiarize himself with the people they were close to.

"A few months." Anna responded happily and continued walking.

Nathan knew they were nearing the dining hall now, as he was starting to smell the food. He glanced to his side at Elsa, who was still examining the bone charm. He didn't want to interrupt her because she seemed to enjoy deciphering charms. He looked back at Anna and asked "How did you meet him?"

She looked over her shoulder and said "I'll tell you while we eat."

With that they came to the door to the dining hall and entered. The scene was more or less the same one that Nathan had entered to during breakfast, with huge amounts of food piled onto large plates on a table near the center of the room.

They all got their food and sat down at a round table to eat. Nathan got a plate with mostly cured meat, Anna got a plate of mostly salads, and Elsa got a plate of both. Nathan looked at Elsa's plate and did a double take. She had about twice the amount of food he did on her plate. He looked to Anna with concern. She seemed to see it to, and said to Elsa "Are… you ok, Elsa?"

Elsa looked up at Anna from the charm with a puzzled expression. "What? Yes, fine, why?"

Nathan gestured to her plate and said "you seem quite hungry."

Elsa looked at Nathan's and Anna's plates and asked "Is that enough? There's plenty more food, if you want."

Nathan and Anna exchanged looks again. Nathan shrugged and started eating, and Anna followed suit. Elsa looked suspiciously between the two and started eating her food. In-between bites of food Nathan started to talk to Anna again. "So how did you and Kristoff meet?"

Anna finished what food she was eating and started off in what Nathan could tell was going to be a story.

"Well, I met him a few months ago when I went looking for Elsa and had a little bit of an adventure. He helped me get to the north mountain, which is where Elsa made her ice castle."

Nathan raised an eyebrow and looked over at Elsa. "Ice castle?" he sighed and leaned back. "You'll have to show me all of these fantastical powers later."

Elsa looked up briefly, nodded, and went back to her food. Nathan snickered slightly and Anna just looked at her with concern again and continued awkwardly.

"…so anyways, Elsa threw us out because she wanted to be alone, and he took me to see the trolls because Elsa froze my heart."

Elsa's ravenous eating slowed, and Nathan asked "Froze your heart? What does that mean?"

Anna sighed and explained "It's like a curse. Slowly after she struck me with her powers I froze." She looked like she didn't really want to talk about it, but she had Nathan's interest now.

"A curse? What does that mean? And you froze, as in, like, to death or solid?" Nathan said, leaning forward again.

Anna nodded and said "Yes."

Nathan gave a low whistle, impressed at the things Elsa was being credited with. He didn't know whether or not to believe all the claims, but the claims themselves were very impressive. Something occurred to him, and he asked "And… how are you not dead?"

She smiled at Elsa, who looked up from her food again and smiled back, and said "I found true love. My love for Elsa thawed my heart and saved my life."

Nathan's eyebrows raised again and he said, a bit confused "Your love… saved you…" he pointed at Elsa "…from her."

Anna nodded and smiled at him. He, however, didn't buy it. Not entirely, anyways. He looked over at Elsa again and found most of the food that had been on her plate was gone. He looked at her and saw she was still going strong, eating the rest of the food and showing no sign of slowing. He looked back to Anna and said "Right, well, I would like to see Elsa's powers. Today, if possible."

Anna looked at Elsa, who didn't appear to have heard Nathan as she continued devouring the food. She shrugged her shoulders and pointed a fork at Elsa, saying "you'll have to ask her."

Nathan looked at his plate. What food he had gotten was gone. He set his cutlery down and leaned back in his chair, waiting for Elsa to finish. Anna did the same, and they both sat in silence. It was several minutes until Elsa finished her food, and when she did she held the charm up to her eyes again and said aggravated "I still can't figure out what it does!"

Something clicked into place in Nathan's mind and he motioned for Elsa to hand the charm to him. She did and he put it to his ear. After a few seconds he sighed and set the charm down. Elsa looked at him concernedly and asked "What's the matter, is something wrong?"

Nathan smiled and said "No, but I know why you ate such a huge amount of food."

Elsa raised her eyebrows and asked "What large amount? I didn't eat…" she looked at Nathan's and Anna's plates than back to her own "…oh." She looked back at Nathan and asked "So what does the charm do?"

Nathan looked at Anna, than back to Elsa before answering. "This…" he held the charm up so both could see it "is a charm called "Hearty Appetite", a fitting name, I think." Both of them looked at him confused.

"What is the benefit of wanting to eat more?" Elsa asked.

Nathan paused and thought. "Well, you probably won't want to eat any dinner tonight." He answered.

Elsa stood up from the table quickly and said "So you wanted to see my powers?"

Nathan stood from the table as well and nodded. Anna looked between the two and stood up as well. "Can I come and watch?" she asked, a little concerned.

Elsa turned to her and said "Of course, why wouldn't you?"

Anna looked a little relived and shrugged, saying "I don't have cool magic powers, I guess."

Elsa smiled and hugged Anna. She said "oh, Anna, you don't need powers. You're still my sister."

Anna smiled warmly at Elsa and said "thanks sis." And returned the hug.

Nathan shuffled uncomfortably behind the random scene of affection. He hoped things like this wouldn't happen often, as they made him feel rather uncomfortable. He waited a few seconds and when the two showed no signs of breaking their embrace he cleared his throat. Elsa looked up from the embrace at Nathan. He pointed a thumb over his shoulder and said "Should we… you know… go?"

Elsa let go of Anna, who did the same, and they both looked at Nathan. Anna asked "where are we going to have this little demonstration?"

Elsa pointed out a window at the courtyard, saying "We could do it out there." Then she looked at Nathan who shrugged and said "Sure, it'll work fine."

.

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Authors Thing

sorry for the delay(Hah, five days is a delay)  
>thanks so far for reading, i hit a bit of a block with this chapter. but i think its done.<br>If anyone knows where i could put this story so more people can see it could you tell me so i can put it there and more people see it.  
>so thanks, and as always leave a review.<p>

Thanks


	9. Chapter 9

They walked out to the courtyard. Elsa and Nathan faced off in the center of the courtyard and Anna took a seat on the stairs by the door to the castle. The courtyard was covered in a light dusting of snow that had fallen the night before. Several guards patrolling the wall were looking over at the strange scene in the yard. Elsa spoke to Nathan nervously "What do you want me to do?"

Nathan shrugged nonchalantly and responded "Whatever you can, I guess. Just give me an idea of what you can do."

Elsa started working her hands together, and a bright blue light started coming from her hands. She continued to work it around and after a few moments there was a distinguishable ball of blue light. She cast it into the air far above their heads. It reached about up to the highest point of the castle, than burst into thousands of brightly glowing snowflakes. Nathan nodded, impressed with the ease she had conjured such a spell with. He had seen it before, though, when he entered the party the first day he had arrived.

He motioned for Elsa to come to him and she did. "That was good." He said approvingly. Elsa opened her mouth, about to say something, but Nathan held up a hand to interrupt her. "Good, but I was thinking something more…" he waved a hand, looking for the word. "…potent."

Elsa nodded and took a step back from him. She tensed herself up and readied herself. She tried to clear her head as much as she could so she would have the most control possible. She shot a small ball of magic out of her hand at the ground a small distance away. The ball dissipated on impact, but in its place a shard of ice about half Nathans size sprang from the stone and pointed itself back at her. She looked at Nathan hopefully.

Nathan pointed at the shard and asked her "Can you still manipulate that?"

Elsa looked back at the shard and pulled her hand towards her. The shard's tip lengthened quickly and stopped inches from Elsa's head. She grabbed the tip of the shard and snapped it off, taking it in her hand. Nathan pointed to the broken tip of the shard with the same look he had had when looking at the whole shard. Elsa could tell what he was about to ask, and answered before he could. The shard tip in her hand started lengthening, and she turned it to the ground. As soon as the sharp tip hit the ground it stopped growing and she started walking, using the piece as a walking stick.

Nathan laughed and held out his hand, saying "Let me see that." Elsa tossed the long piece of ice to Nathan, who caught it nimbly in one hand and started examining it. The ice was, as nearly as he could tell, flawless. There was not a single bump on the surface or air bubble on the inside. He struck the point of the stick onto the ground and paid special attention to the vibrations that shook through the piece of ice. He was surprised at how much force the ice was able to absorb.

An idea popped into Nathan's head, and he asked "What else can you make like this?"

Elsa shrugged and asked "What do you have in mind?"

Nathan shrugged and drew his sword. "Something like this." He said and held the blade out by the handle so that she could see the blade easily. She motioned for him to hand her the shard of ice and he did. She took the shard in her hand and started running her hand down the shard while looking at the blade. Every time her hand passed over the spike of ice small dents and divots appeared. A few moments after this large pieces started falling off the main shard. She stopped and looked at the shard of ice disappointedly. Nathan could see the basic shape of something that might be a blade, with a little bit of imagination. He took the messily shaped ice blade by the hilt and tested the weighting of the thing. It was weighted about as well as it was shaped, he found, with a blade that was at least three times heavier than the handle.

Elsa sighed disappointedly and Nathan looked over at her. She was looking sadly between the real blade and the ice blade. Nathan dropped the ice blade to the ground casually and said "So making swords isn't your strong suit. So what? I'll bet you've got tones of other tricks up your sleeves." Encouragingly, sheathing his blade.

Elsa looked at him, thinking, than a smile exploded on her face. "I've got something!" she said excitedly and took a few quick steps away from Nathan. Nathan smiled and crossed his arms, waiting to see what she had in store.

She flicked her wrists towards the ground and let a large amount of energy flow through her. The magic struck the ground and where it did, snow started swirling and assembling into one massive form. Nathan heard Anna gasp from her seat by the door and get up nervously. He spread his legs to a more combative stance and readied his sword.

The swirling pieces of snow and ice assembled into a large humanoid figure. Behind it was Elsa, who looked up at the thing and laughed, like she was unsure of her ability to make the thing. Nathan looked worriedly at Elsa. She looked back with a mischievous smile at him and shouted playfully over the sudden rush of air around the thing "Are you good to fight this? Because I kind of want to see you fight it." She paused for a second and said "Now you need to show me your powers!"

Nathan gave Elsa a wolfish grin and readied himself completely for combat. He looked at the giant with a critical eye. Most of its joints were covered in ice, which he was almost sure wouldn't break with just a single blow. Its fingers were also made of ice, and seemed to go deep into the stumps Nathan would call hands, which would suggest to him that the whole thing had some kind of ice-skeleton. Overall he was confident he would be able to take the thing down, but he would have to be careful to avoid being hit, as it probably hit like a battering ram.

The golem, as Nathan decided to call it, opened its mouth and roared at him. Snowflakes and small fragments of ice were shot out of its mouth, forcing Nathan to bring his left hand in front of his face while keeping his sword ready in his right.

The golem charged at him, extending its arms in a grabbing motion. Nathan lowered his arm and saw the giant barreling towards him. He pushed off the ground as hard as he could, and an unnatural wind blew him up into the air. The golem didn't stop its charge when he left the ground, so as he came back down the golem ran under him and he came down right on the beasts shoulder. He wasted no time in plunging his blade into the ice-protected joint of its arm, the blade penetrating the armor with a loud chink.

The golem roared and grabbed at him. He tried to avoid the grasp of the thing but one icy finger caught his coat. It was all he could do to keep his grip on his blade as the golem pulled him off. The blade left its shoulder with a painful sounding grinding noise and it roared again as it flung Nathan across the courtyard.

Nathan focused and pooled his energy. The roar stopped abruptly and he stopped flying through the air, suspended in time. He cast his focus to the ground below him, a good distance from the golem. He pulsed his energy and braced his legs as they were suddenly reunited with the ground. He slid backwards from the golem about half a foot even with his surefooted charm before he stopped himself.

As soon as Nathan stopped, the golem launched into another charge. It moved at him with speed Nathan would think was impossible for such a huge thing. Instead of jumping as he had last time, he decided to do something else. He drew back his sword and readied a strike while at the same time focusing on a point next to the golem's leg. He pulsed his power and brought his blade down with all the strength he could. Just as his blink brought him to the monsters side, he brought his blade through the monsters leg. He felt the resistance of the ice inside the beast push against his blade, but it wasn't enough.

The golem roared in surprise as its leg stopped supporting it during its charge. It crashed to the ground, and Nathan relaxed, dropping his blade from a ready position to his side. Surely it was too damaged from the fall to continue fighting, right?

Only a second after it stopped moving its great arms started flailing around again. Its huge icy fingers dug into the cobblestone as it turned its massive body to face Nathan again. He tightened his grip on the hilt of his blade and brought it back to a fighting stance.

The golem seemed to be fighting defensively now, waiting for Nathan to attack it. It lay there on the ground glaring daggers into Nathan with its empty eye sockets. Nathan paced slowly in a circle around it like a wolf around trapped prey. He looked for an opening, any opening that would allow him to get in and strike a killing blow.

The golem kept itself covered well, using its massive arms as walls to block off any attack path Nathan could have taken. He thought about using the small crossbow on his belt, but he doubted the affectivity that such an attack would have.

Nathan glanced over at Elsa. She was standing of to the side now, closer to the wall now than the center of the courtyard. She was looking on with an expression on her face that was about half an impressed smile and half a worried frown. Nathan looked at Anna, who was peeking out from behind a wooden pillar, still by the stairs of the door.

The golem seemed to realize that Nathan was not giving it his full attention and decided to take a swing at him. Nathan flung himself straight back, again pushed by an unnatural wind. As he danced back the golem dug its fingers into the cobblestone again and pulled itself after him.

The golem pulled an arm back, preparing another strike. Nathan saw his opportunity and focused. He blinked to a point just behind and above the golems arm. As he pulsed his energy he drew his blade up for another strike. As he fell the short distance to the ground he angled himself in the air so that he could bring his blade down on the golem's arm.

His blade cleaved through the arm with ease this time, his blade aided by the force of his fall, steel clanging against the stone under the arm. The arm that Nathan had chosen to cut off was the one that the golem was swinging at him, so when the arm was severed from the body it went sliding off to the side, almost smashing into the place Anna was hiding.

Nathan looked over quickly at Elsa. She looked concerned and like she was about to step in and end the fight. Nathan figured it was time to end this little spat.

He was about at what would be the golem's ribs, and he wanted to get to the head. The golem started flailing and shouting in rage. Nathan focused on a spot right next to the golems head and pulsed his power. He turned and found the golems head roaring, shooting shards of ice and flakes of snow into his face. He raised his blade over his head and flipped the hilt in his hand so the blade was point down. He brought the point of the blade down as hard as he could into the golem's forehead.

The golem stopped roaring. Nathan looked back at the golem and relaxed his grip on the blade. The entire golem was beginning to crumble into one big pile of powdery snow with a few thick tree trunk-like ice bones poking out.

Nathan didn't hear Elsa approach, but as he turned back to face where she had been standing he found himself face to face with her. She was looking concernedly from the dead snow pile to Nathan and back again.

Nathan suddenly felt the eyes of everyone bearing down on him. Even the guards on the walls had stopped what they had been doing to watch Nathans battle. Elsa put a hand on his shoulder and he had to resist the instant urge to jerk away. "Are you alright?" Elsa was obviously concerned.

Nathan smiled awkwardly and said "What, didn't think I could handle myself?"

Elsa shook her head and said "Not in such a…" she searched for the word.

Nathan interjected with a word that might fit. "Spectacular?"

She pointed at him and said "Such a spectacular way. Thank you." She laughed a little bit and smiled at him.

Nathan stepped back from Elsa, trying to get her hand off of him. He got far enough that Elsa's hand dropped back to her side, but he felt something push against his back. He jumped to the side and turned to face the new thing and found it was Anna standing behind him.

She was looking him over up and down, asking "Are you hurt? Are you ok? How did you do that, it was-"

Elsa cut her off, putting a hand on her shoulder and pushing her away slightly saying "Give him some room, Anna."

Nathan looked around skittishly and asked "So are we done?"

Elsa nodded. "You did…" she paused and looked at the pile of snow that used to be a golem "…much better than I expected." She looked back to Nathan and made to touch his arm again. "You're sure you're alright?"

Nathan retreated from her touch, not enough to take a step back, but enough to make clear he didn't want to be touched. "Yes." He said in a slightly exasperated voice "I'm sure I'm fine." He shrugged and said "Even if I was hurt, so what? It was just a little exercise, right?"

Elsa looked down at the ground and said "I just want to be sure I didn't hurt you."

Nathan said in his best reassuring tone "Well I am sure you didn't hurt me. Even if the golem had, say, broken something, it wouldn't be your fault. You don't control the thing directly, so why would I blame you?" Nathan made a mental note that Elsa still had some insecurities regarding her powers.

Anna turned to Elsa, saying "Yea, if that thing hurt him it wouldn't be your fault!"

Elsa looked up from one to the other. "You… really feel that way?" both Anna and Nathan nodded. Elsa smiled weakly and her eyes started to tear up. Nathan another intimate moment looming over him and stepped back from the two sisters. Thankfully for him, Elsa took a deep breath, steeling herself against the wave of emotions she was apparently feeling. She let out the deep breath and sighed.

Anna was the first to speak after this. She spoke in her usual chipper voice, saying "So are we just going to stand out here and freeze? Let's go inside, shall we?"

This snapped Elsa back into the situation at hand. She looked up from her thoughts, shook her head clear, and said "Yes," and turned to Nathan. "let's get out of the cold, shall we?"

Nathan nodded and motioned for them to lead the way. The trio walked silently through the halls of the castle. It wasn't an awkward silence, like no one wanted to speak, but rather a contented silence, as there was nothing to say. Nathan didn't know where they were going but he followed anyways, not particularly caring where they went.

Something he found that he had to watch out for was the long crystalline cape that trailed off of Elsa's dress. Several times he nearly stepped on it, but he was able to avoid causing any problems with it. This did, however, bring Elsa's dress to his attention. It was something that he had overlooked up until now. It seemed to be made of small shards of ice, all woven together and bound intricately in patterns Nathan could hardly keep track of. The entire thing, even the sleeves were made from this woven ice. Elsa seemed to move freely in the thing. Nathan would have thought that the shards would slice through her skin like glass, but this seemed to be far from the truth. Now that he looked, even her shoes were made from ice. Even the small ringlet at the end of the intricately woven braid was made of ice. He noted how the light of candles they passed as they walked reflected off of the crystalline dress and cast an orange light off in hundreds of reflections, when it was dark enough to see them.

He wondered if this was how she clothed herself every day, or if today was something special. He though back to the first time he had seen her, at the party. It seemed so long ago, but he was certain she was wearing the same thing she was now. He thought about what it would look like if he garbed himself in his power, shadow. He snorted and smiled to himself as he realized he had done that, in a way, many times. It made patrolling guards walk past him without a second thought, and even the most attentive lookout pass him over as just a sign of missing sleep. He had never actually used his power to cover himself in shadow, he had always covered areas than traveled through the darkened place.

Anna looked back and saw him examining the back of Elsa's dress. He didn't pay her much mind until he saw her wiggling her eyebrows at him and smirking. He gave her a puzzled look before realizing what her antics probably meant. He felt his cheeks start burning as he averted his gaze to the floor. Anna giggled and turned back to face the way she was walking.

Elsa heard Anna laugh and turned to look at Nathan. He looked back at Elsa awkwardly and shrugged unconvincingly. Anna snickered even harder at this, causing Nathan to drop his gaze to the floor again and to keep it there stubbornly.

The rest of the walk was passed in complete silence. The three approached a large ornate door. Anna pushed it open and walked in. Nathan and Elsa followed Anna into the room, finding themselves in a large lushly decorated room with massive shelves at least three times Nathans height, all covered in books. Nathan looked around and asked Elsa "A library?"

She looked back at him and nodded, saying "Me and Anna always meet in here when I've no royal duties in the afternoon."

Nathan nodded and continued following her in.


	10. Chapter 10

Nathan, Elsa and Anna spent several hours in the library, just lounging around, reading and talking. After about an hour the conversation turned from random topics like favorite colors or seasons, to powers and magic. Elsa was the first to bring the topic up.

She looked up to Nathan from a book in her lap and addressed him. "Hey, Nathan?"

He peaked out from behind a bookshelf and called back "Yea?"

Elsa beckoned to him and said "come here."

Nathan walked out from behind the bookshelf and blinked right in front of her. She gave a little yelp and jumped, but then smiled mischievously at Nathan. "I'll get you back for that." She said in a mock-threatening tone.

Nathan waved a hand dismissively and said "of course you will." In a sarcastic tone.

From somewhere in the rows of bookshelves Anna's voice rang out. "She's not joking, she's going to get you!"

Nathan threw his head up and turned to the shelves, shouting to Anna. "Yea, I'm quaking in my boots right now!"

Elsa smirked, already planning her revenge. But that wasn't why she called him over. She had serious questions she wanted to ask him. She motioned to a chair across from her and said "Please, sit."

Nathan raised an eyebrow and said "Just after you threaten me?" He turned and looked at the chair inspecting it for signs of sabotage. He didn't see any telltale signs of a trap, but he was still hesitant to sit.

Elsa rolled her eyes and said exasperatedly "I didn't do anything to the chair." Nathan shrugged and sat down slowly. When he settled into the chair he gave it a few experimental shakes than seemed satisfied. He looked up at Elsa expectantly. "I wanted to ask you" she said "about your powers." She watched Nathan's face carefully. When she mentioned his powers the joking look on his face faded and were replaced by a business like visage. He sat up straighter in his chair and focused more on Elsa.

She took a deep breath and readied herself. Something about the way he reacted set her on edge. She continued, "What does it feel like when you use your power?"

Nathan thought for a moment. Did he trust Elsa enough to tell her this? Yes, he didn't have much choice there. He had already pledged himself to her, so he had already sort of made that decision. He would tell her about her powers, but he wouldn't have to go into detail. Something that he had been wondering himself, though, would help him explain it to her. "Well… what does It feel like for you? What do you do that starts a spell?"

Elsa held a hand up to her eyes and summoned a small blast of cold air, blowing several snowflakes towards the ceiling. She did it again and focused on what made it happen. It was a thought, a will to make it happen. "It's… it's like my…" she shook her head, trying to put the feeling into words. "…my wanting to make it happen and… and my belief, my thought, just… makes it happen." She looked at Nathan to see if he understood.

Nathan nodded. There was a feeling of dread somewhere deep in his chest. It didn't come from any real discernable source, but Nathan defiantly felt… intimidated by what she said. She hadn't said anything about her power tiring her out. If what she said was true, than her powers were not limited by any raw power restrictions. She could use her powers without limitation, as if it were her heart beating. Knowing that such a person even existed was scary. It was as if someone had a crossbow aimed at his head and Nathan didn't know where the bow was.

He took a deep breath and reminded himself that he was in her service, not her enemy. As long as it stayed that way he would have nothing to fear. He turned his thoughts instead to his own powers. "I have a much more… controlled way to use my powers. It's like my powers are another limb, I use them in much the same way. And, as if my power was a limb, it can tire and fail if put under enough pressure." He took a bone charm from one of his pockets and started working it in his hands. "But those are just the powers I use." Elsa gave him a confused look. He explained "My powers give me other benefits, ones I don't have to expend energy to use." He thought back to the fight with the golem looking for an example. "Like… like when I jumped onto the golem you summoned. That jump didn't take energy. The magic I have just pushed me into the air."

Elsa thought back and said "And when you dodged his swipe?"

Nathan nodded. "I was being pushed by my power." He hesitated. "Well, my power strengthened what I was doing." He didn't want to make it seem like he had control issues. "And the same goes for my health. I'm pretty resilient to getting sick, and…" He snorted, remembering a few fights from his childhood "…I can take a hell of a beating."

Elsa nodded and said "Wow, that's incredible. I sort of wish I had things that just… happened like that." She thought back to the first time she had ever fought with her powers. "I mean, I've done things like stop an arrow, but it was a more reaction kind of thing, it didn't just happen."

Nathan shrugged. "Well, I have to want to do it, it doesn't just happen from nowhere. All my other powers use up my energy."

Elsa looked at him, puzzled. He clarified "After I use my powers a lot I can get too tired to keep using them. There are some things I can do to keep from running out altogether, but I prefer to just not burn too much energy."

Elsa nodded. She understood, at least, better than she had before. Another thing she had been wondering popped into her mind, and she asked "Were you born with your powers?"

Nathan shook his head and said "No, I got them when I was…" he realized he didn't actually know how old he had been when he got them. It didn't bother him, it was just strange to think about. He decided to guess. "… probably about ten or eleven."

Elsa leaned forward at this. "Really? How did you get them?" she asked incredulously.

Nathan sighed. He considered showing her the mark emblazoned on the back of his left hand. He didn't particularly want to, but at this point there wasn't much harm it could do considering everything else he had told her.

He peeled off the elbow length leather glove and turned the back of his hand to Elsa. She took his hand and examined the mark carefully. As she did Nathan said "It was given to me by the Outsider." He stopped and asked "You… do know the Outsider, right?" Elsa nodded and he continued. "I got pretty messed up in a fight with some older kids. While I was unconscious the Outsider appeared to me and told me that he would give me some of his power. I woke up with that-"he indicated the mark on his hand "- and I've have had the power ever since."

Elsa let go of his hand and gasped. "You were fighting when you were ten?" she said worriedly. "Why didn't your parents stop you?"

Nathan laughed at this. It was a genuine laugh, but it came out sounding bitter. "My parents were long dead by the time this fight happened. And I was fighting long before ten, I was losing a lot up until ten."

Elsa looked cringed and looked down. "I… I'm sorry. I didn't-"

Nathan cut her off with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Don't be, I'm glad they weren't around." He assured her.

She looked at him sympathetically and said "But… but who took care of you?"

Nathan figured that all caution may as well just be thrown to the wind at this point. "I stayed at an orphanage for a while. It didn't have much money, so not all the kids got food. I tried to help out by stealing from shops around town."

He paused for breath, Elsa nodded and said "Anna told me about that. You started stealing jewelry and stuff after a while."

Nathan smiled. "News spreads fast among siblings, eh?"

Elsa smiled and nodded, saying "Very."

Nathan chuckled and said "Whatever, after a while I was raking in more money than the orphanage needed. To feed the kids, at least. I started setting some of the money aside and buying gear for myself and some other kid who helped me on jobs." He paused, thinking. "I… can't seem to remember his name, though." He rested his chin on his knuckles and said "Huh… I can't remember his name at all." He dismissed the thought and continued. "Anyways, I bought us gear. You know, shoes, gloves, lock picks, rope, whatever we needed to get more stuff. Me and him were the ones who took care of the other kids. He was the one who dealt with them personally, and I was the one who got most of the food."

It was strange, telling his story to someone else. He used spent most of his time alone, so he had had a lot of time to think about what happened to him. Telling the story to another person gave it perspective. He didn't think he had a sad past, but Elsa's reactions to what he said were what he would expect if he was telling her some sob story.

Elsa looked at him sadly. Nathan saw something new in her eyes, something he wasn't used too. Pity, he realized, was what he saw. He felt strange, knowing someone actually felt bad for him. He didn't like it. He didn't want her thinking less of him or looking down at him.

He started to speak, but the sound caught in his throat, resulting in a strangled gurgling noise. Elsa looked at him worriedly as he cleared his throat and beat his chest. He felt his cheeks burn red again as he slid his hand back into his glove and tried again, wondering why his voice caught. "It's not bad, it just happened."

Elsa looked him in the eyes and said incredulously "Not that bad? But you… you must have needed a parent at some point! What kind of childhood is having to care for an orphanage full of other kids?" she looked at him sadly again "you must not have had a childhood at all."

Nathan felt like he needed to change the mood at this point. He gave Elsa a joking smile and said "or maybe I'm still living it."

Her reaction wasn't exactly the laughter he had been hoping for, but he would take the small smile he got. He stood from the chair, feeling the conversation was over. He turned and started to walk back to the bookshelves, looking over his shoulder at Elsa. She was gazing back down at the book in her lap. He could tell that she wasn't reading it, though, as her eyes were glazed over and not moving.

…..

It was about half an hour later when Nathan found himself laying on top on one of the bookshelves, holding a small leather-bound medical journal over his head reading. He was reading a fascinating study on the spread of diseases, something that he had always been semi-interested in. He liked to think that if he hadn't gotten the Outsider's mark that he would have grown to be some kind of doctor or surgeon. He had always had a precision with blades and a disregard for blood, both things he thought would help in a surgery.

He turned the page and found a small sketch of a hand that detailed all the various muscles and tendons. Next to it was a sketch with the same hand but with considerable damage, with the muscles withering away. A small paragraph next to the second sketch said that the drawing was of the hand of a sick man who had agreed to let the doctor study the damage that a sickness caused his body.

Nathan held up his own hand next to the sketch and wondered what it would feel like to be reduced to such a state. He clenched his fist and felt the muscles pull taught. After a moment he unclenched his fist and shook his head, dismissing the thought. He turned the page again and found two more sketches, both of faces. One was of a healthy enough looking face, the other of a face sunken in and covered in boils and sores. An accompanying paragraph described the development of the sickness as frighteningly quick, but the nature of the disease to be not contagious.

He was about to turn the page again when he heard hushed whispering. He looked to where Elsa had been sitting when he last talked to her and found her gone. He gazed around the room, looking over many tables, chairs, and bookshelves but didn't see her or Anna anywhere. The whispering continued, and Nathan set the journal down. He stood from the flat position he had been in and looked around again.

Still, he saw nothing. He felt like he should find them. It seemed the proper thing to do, him being the bodyguard and all. He blinked to the next bookshelf over and looked over the side, searching for the two women. He did this twice more but did not find them.

He stopped and knelt down, listening intently to the whispering, trying to locate it. The library was large and furnished well, leaving hundreds of small echoes bouncing around to confuse him. He closed his eyes and focused, letting his power leak out slowly into the shadows of the room. He felt the shadows of the books, shelves, and other furnishings all static and unmoving. He also felt the movement of people. Human shadows, moving around as if talking.

He stood and turned to the direction of the shadows. They were on the other side of the room in-between two shelves. The bookshelf closest to him was just within blinking range, luckily enough. He focused and blinked onto the top of it, crouching down and taking care to make his footfalls as quiet as possible. He crept closer to the pair to better her what they were saying.

As he came into earshot the whispers started to form real words and sentences. He stopped moving and knelt down on one knee, listening intensely.

"... just feel bad for him, that's all." That was defiantly Elsa's voice. He felt a twinge of annoyance that she was still pitying him.

Anna spoke next "I know, so do I. But he wants to help!"

Elsa sighed. "I know, but my advisors made it very clear I was making a mistake."

Anna spoke again sounding exasperated "They were also going to let Hans kill you! Elsa, why do you keep them around now? You handle almost everything anyways, and you always say how much you hate them, so why keep them?"

Elsa spoke softly now. "Mama and Papa told me to trust them."

There was a moment of silence between the two. Nathan had to doubt the wisdom of Elsa's and Anna's parents if they had said that to their own children. They should have known that on matter how much they trusted their own advisors. They shouldn't let their children trust them like that. Not without some basis for the trust, and their word wasn't enough.

Anna broke the silence. "Well… I'm starting to doubt that you should. Maybe Mama and Papa trusted them, but I think they've changed since the accident."

Nathan heard footsteps and knew by the sound that it was Elsa walking. She walked to the other end of the bookshelf and Nathan followed from above. Anna rushed to follow behind her.

Elsa stopped and turned sharply at the end of the shelf to Anna, saying "You think I don't know that? They were telling me to declare a war today, Anna! A war!" she took a deep breath, calmed herself, and continued. "Sorry…I… I haven't been sleeping well. I think I'm going to seek out some new advisors."

Nathan heard both Anna and Elsa gasp at the same time. He peered over the side of the bookshelf and saw what they were gasping about.

A thin layer of frost had started to creep out from Elsa's feet, covering the floor around her and starting to work up the side of the bookshelf. Anna and Elsa were looking at it with shocked expressions. Nathan felt the dread he had felt earlier return. Elsa closed her eyes and scrunched her face up, obviously trying very hard to do something. After a few moments of this the frost receded back across the floor and back to her feet.

Nathan was starting to feel bad about listening in on a private conversation. He crept back across the top of the bookshelf and dropped back to the floor silently. He stepped out into the row of book that they were in and announced himself by clearing his throat loudly and saying "Ah, there you are, I was looking for you."

Both of them looked at Nathan, surprised by his sudden appearance. They both took a step back from him and readjusted themselves quickly so they looked more comfortable than they really were. Nathan raised his hands apologetically and said "Did… I interrupt something?"

They both looked at each other uncomfortably, Elsa turned back to Nathan and said "No, no you didn't interrupt anything. We were just… talking."

Nathan gave her a sympathetic smile and said "You're a bad liar, Elsa." He shrugged and turned to fake examine the books lined up on the bookshelf, saying in a playful voice "I guess me Eavesdropping didn't hurt either."

Anna gasped and said "You were listening to us?" indignantly.

Nathan picked a book off the shelf at random and turned it over to look at the cover. He snorted to himself when he saw the title, and he read it out loud. "The Tales of Flynnigan Ryder. I remember this book from when I was a kid."

Anna stepped forwards and pushed the book back towards the shelf, looking Nathan in the face. "How much did you hear?"

Nathan put the book back on the shelf and took a step back from Anna. "Something about advisors giving… bad advice." He said nonchalantly.

Elsa was the next to speak, saying "Nathan, I would prefer it if you would make your presence known if you find a conversation in progress." In an official, stately manner. Nathan could tell that this was not something that she took lightly.

He put his left hand across his chest and closed his hand, so that his fist was over his heart. He bowed to Elsa and said in a very respectful tone, much different from the way he was speaking prior "Of course, Queen." She regarded his bow with a strange look, something that Nathan was used to. It was a gesture of respect was something Nathan had always used, but couldn't remember where he had seen it used.

Elsa bowed her head and said "Thank you." In an equally respectful tone.

Nathan rose from his bow and again took the book from the shelf. He opened the cover of the book and looked at the intricately written title. While looking at it, he said "So, what's to be done with the wolves?" remembering how Elsa had described them earlier.

He heard Elsa sigh, but he didn't look up from the book. There was a pause in which he could hear her breathing get ever so slightly heavier. "I…. I will speak to them, and if they refuse changing their ways…" she took another deep breath "… than they will be replaced."

Nathan turned the page to the first chapter in the book, saying darkly "And if they refuse replacement?"

Nathan heard Anna's footsteps bring her up next to Elsa. "They won't refuse." she said in an unusually dark way for her normally happy sounding voice. Nathan looked up and saw Anna with a hand on Elsa's shoulder trying to comfort her.

He didn't know if he should also try and console her or whether he should leave that up to Anna. He decided that he may as well try. "In my experience…" he spoke slowly, choosing his wording carefully "… when the advisors go bad, it's… like…" his mind raced to come up with a comparison "… ingredients in a kitchen going bad." He paused, going over the comparison in his head and shrugged. It worked. "You can keep cooking with the bad stuff, but nothing you make will be as good as it could be."

Elsa looked down, thinking. After a moment she said "I'm going to tell them tonight. I want you-" she looked from Nathan to Anna "-both of you there when I do."

Anna looked worriedly at her and asked "do you think something is going to happen?"

Nathan nodded and looked to Elsa, also curious if she was anticipating trouble.

She shook her head and said "I don't know… I'd just rather play it safe."

Nathan closed the book and put it under his arm, intending to read it later. He asked Elsa "About when do you think you're going to talk to them?"

She started massaging her temples, even despite the bone charm still around her neck. "I don't know… after dinner, I suppose."

Nathan nodded in agreement and glanced around the huge room for a clock or some other method of telling time. Finding nothing, he asked "what time is it, by the way?" to no one in particular.

Anna looked at him and shrugged, saying "I don't know, but dinner is in about an hour."

…

The hour passed excruciatingly slow for Nathan. He spent most of it sprawled out on top of a bookshelf reading the story book "_Tales of Flynnigan Ryder_". He didn't particularly care for the story itself, but reading it brought memories of when he was a child back. Most people wouldn't want to remember a childhood like he had, but he enjoyed looking back on it and seeing how far he had come.

It seemed like thousands of years ago when he had been huddled around a fire with a group of other kids, all trying to stave off the chilling wind that wormed its way through even the thickest walls of the orphanage. One of the older kids read from a book, _The Tales of Flynnigan Rider_, trying to distract the other kids from the miserable conditions. It never worked for Nathan, but that didn't stop him from listening.

After a few chapters Nathan heard a voice that snapped him out of him memories. Anna called to him from the ground "Nathan, come on, dinner time!"

He put the book down on the bookshelf and dropped from the top. He hit the ground lightly and stood up, stretching his back. Anna looked at him, shocked. He motioned to the door and said "Well? Let's go."

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Authors thing:

WOO, double digits!  
>so other than that, would anyone mind if i brought some tangled stuff into the mix? cuz that's kind of what I've been planing.<p>

thanks for reading my stuff, I'll just keep posting i guess.


	11. Chapter 11

The trio walked into the dining hall and started to collect their food. The food that they got was essentially the same as what they had gotten during lunch, with the exception of Elsa getting far less food than she normally would, as opposed to the mountain of food she had during lunch.

As they approached an empty table several of Elsa's advisors approached them. Nathan and Elsa stopped dead in their tracks while Anna just kept walking, not realizing that the others had stopped. The advisors were grinning at each other like there was some joke between them.

Nathan didn't like them. He didn't like the way they carried themselves, he didn't like the way they looked at him, he didn't like the way they talked, and he didn't like them. Maybe they reminded him of the people who used to hire him, maybe he just didn't like them. He couldn't entirely tell which it was, but the feeling was defiantly there.

One of the larger men bowed to Elsa and said "My queen" in an almost mock-respectful tone. He rose from his bow and looked at Nathan distastefully. Nathan returned his look with as aggressive a glare as he could muster.

The man looked back to Elsa and said "My queen, there is something we would like to speak to you about." He looked Nathan right in the eyes "In private." And he motioned to the other side of the room, indicating a table at which sat a few more advisors.

Elsa hesitated, looking from Anna to Nathan to the table. After a few moments of consideration she gave a defeated sigh. "Nathan, just go eat with Anna." and she turned to walk to the table of advisors.

Nathan was about to speak against Elsa being commandeered by the men, but thought better of it. He her would watch from his table, and if they left the hall he would follow. He stalked unhappily to the table Anna was seated at and sat next to her. She looked from him to Elsa, and back again. "Is that it? You're just going to let them take her?" she asked in a puzzled and slightly indignant voice.

Nathan nodded solemnly and started digging into his food, looking up through his hair, fixing his gaze on Elsa at the far table. He separated himself from his food and said "They can't do anything against her, not here, not in front of so many people. If they leave I'll follow." Anna nodded and started eating. What Nathan said didn't lay her fears to rest, but they did comfort her knowing that Nathan would keep a constant watch.

The meal passed in silence. Nathan ate his food quickly and pushed his plate across the table away from him, sitting and waiting for something to happen at Elsa's table. Anna ate much slower than Nathan. She didn't know how he could stand eating with Elsa being so close to those she said she was afraid of. Eventually even Anna finished her meal. Elsa was engaged in a heated argument with her advisors, all of whom were smirking and smiling at each other in the same way they had that had made Nathan feel aggression building just by watching them.

Elsa, from what Nathan could tell, had similar feelings. As she argued with them her movements became much more animated and wild as she gestured around at things Nathan couldn't see. Her face grew more and more red and her expression gradually turned to an almost beast-like snarl. And through all this the men just sat, speaking calmly to one another and laughing. Nathan had never cared much for the formalities that royals usually insisted on, such as demanding they be called a certain name or demanding that other bow in their presence, but their blatant lack of respect for Elsa only infuriated him further.

At long last Elsa stood from the table and began stomping her way towards Nathan's and Anna's table. When she reached the table both stood and looked at her questioningly, wondering what they could have said that would infuriate Elsa so much. Wordlessly Elsa motioned for them to follow her, and she stomped her way out of the hall. Nathan and Anna looked at each other hesitantly before following.

When they reached the halls Elsa kept walking about another half a minute before she just stopped, breathing heavily. Anna put her hand gently on her shoulder and said "Elsa… are you o-ok?"

Elsa turned on her heels quickly, bringing her to face Anna. Anna took a fearful step back from Elsa and hid behind Nathan, who stood stock-still. Elsa looked completely enraged. Her normally calm face was contorted by anger, making her look like some kind of beast. Anna whimpered something from behind Nathan that nobody could make out.

Elsa's breathing lightened and her face fell. Nathan could see tears welling up in her eyes and her body start to shudder. Her knees started to shake and she brought her hands to her eyes. She started to drop, and Nathan lurched forwards to catch her by the shoulders. He stopped her from hitting the ground and set her down gently. He looked back at Anna with a concerned look on his face, and Anna came forwards to help.

"Elsa? Elsa it's… It's ok. What's wrong, Elsa?" Anna was looking Elsa over with a frantic demeanor asking "What's wrong? What's wrong?" over and over again. Elsa embraced Anna and started weeping into her shoulder. Nathan looked around them, making sure there was no one watching them. He didn't find anyone so he turned his focus back to the sisters on the ground.

Elsa stood, and her weeping got lighter. She said to Anna "T-they told me…" she choked back another sob and continued "I-if I didn't d-do what they said that t-they would…" she looked at Nathan with big, desperate eyes. "We ha-have to…"

Nathan nodded. He helped Elsa to her feet and said "I want you to come too." Elsa looked at him and nodded, steeling herself against the storm of emotion she felt and her crying subsided. Nathan put a hand on her back and said "Where would they be now?"

Elsa took the lead again. She walked unsteadily with Anna under her arm providing support. They walked for several minutes before coming to a stop in front of a small door. Elsa turned to Nathan and pointed to the door, saying "they're in there." In an anxious voice. Nathan put his eye to the lock on the door and strained to see what was inside.

It was a scene right out of many of his assassination jobs, with about seven rich looking men sitting around a table with drinks in their hands. Nathan didn't see any weapons among them, so he was confident in his ability to intimidate them and, if it came down to it, take them down. Part of him hoped that he would have an excuse to kill them.

He pulled away from the door and looked back to Elsa and Anna. He motioned for Elsa to go in first, saying "You have to talk to them first, I can't do anything until they do something."

Elsa nodded silently and went to open the door. She tried to turn the handle, but found it stuck firmly in place. She took a step back and tried again, throwing her weight against the door. It still refused to budge.

Nathan stepped forwards, about to offer o kick the door down but before he could, Elsa put a hand to the lock. Frost formed over the top of the lock, and Nathan was sure there was more on the inside. Elsa jerked the handle down. The sound of the tumblers in the lock shattering was surprisingly loud.

Elsa swung the door open and didn't even flinch as it hit the wall with a loud crash. She strode in confidently and shouted to the room "Hello, gentlemen!"

Nathan was a bit taken aback by the sudden change in Elsa's demeanor. First she's going berserk, than terrified, now she's confident? He grew more and more suspicious of the advisors every moment.

Elsa entered into the room and as soon as her foot fell onto the floor, frost started spreading over the floor and creeping up the furniture of the room. Two of the men rose from their seats and started to walk towards Elsa, but stopped abruptly. Nathan was puzzled as to why they stopped, than he looked at the floor. The frost had moved over their feet and was holding them in place.

He thought about stepping forward and pointing this out to Elsa, but she had already started speaking. "As some of you may know-" she glared daggers at the seated four "-I have been under a lot of pressure as of late."

One of the four men still seated interrupted her, saying "Ah, excellent my queen. Would you care to join us for a drink?" he poured a new glass of what looked to Nathan like brandy and offered it to the queen. Nathan almost missed it, but h saw the man dip a finger into the drink before holding it out.

Nathan had never been poisoned, but he had poisoned a fair number of people over the course of his contracts, and that finger was a definite red flag. He glanced at Elsa, concerned she might not have seen the motion.

Elsa took the glass from the man and held it to her nose, smelling it. Her face scrunched up and she held the glass away from her. The liquid inside the glass froze solid and she dropped it. The glass skittered across the floor and came to rest under some off piece of furniture. Elsa ignored the glass and looked at the man who handed it to her.

She said angrily "Do you take me for a fool, Tillman?"

The man looked confusedly at Elsa and said "No… my lady, what's troubling you?" he tried to stand, but found himself frozen to the cushioned couch he was sitting on. He looked angry now, and asked "Why are you doing this, my lady?" sounding frustrated.

Elsa threw an arm towards the man and a spike of ice shot out of the floor, stopping just short of the man's throat. "I think you know exactly what I'm talking about, Mr. Tillman. I'm talking about what you've been doing the past weeks."

The man reeled back in his seat away from the spike and shouted in a panicked voice "Queen, please! I don't know what you're talking about!"

Nathan stepped forward and put a hand on Elsa's shoulder. He felt like he had to intervene here. She wasn't talking to the man, she was just threatening him. "Elsa, perhaps you should…" he paused a second and thought "… speak your reasons for this. Give him the option to leave, perhaps."

Elsa looked over her shoulder at him and her face fell. It was like she realized she was doing something very bad. Nathan saw something in her eyes that he saw a lot in the eyes of his targets. Shame. She felt bad for what she had done so far. She lowered her arm and the spike retracted back into the floor. The man looked frightened in-between the two and said "What's the meaning of this?"

He strained against the ice that bound him to his seat, and after a moment the ice gave with a crack. He stood and took a step towards Elsa. He spoke softly as he went, saying "My queen, can you not see?" he motioned towards Nathan "He is using you." Nathan noticed an acrid smell start spreading through the room. "He is manipulating you, like a puppet!" Elsa's eyes widened and she turned back to Nathan with a distrusting look.

Anna chose this time to interject. She spoke first from behind Nathan, saying "Elsa, are you really listening to him? We came here to get rid of him!" she pushed her way past Nathan and entered into the room. She grabbed Elsa by the arms and looked straight into her eyes. "Elsa, Elsa please! You have to snap out of it!"

She turned to Nathan and said desperately "We talked about this. They do this! They try and-" Anna's eyes rolled back in her head and she fell to the floor, limp.

The man, apparently called Tillman, pointed at Anna than at Nathan, whispering to Elsa "See? He has knocked her out! Will you allow this to happen?"

Elsa put a hand to her temple and said confusedly "No… I… I can't…"

Now Nathan saw the picture. The men were manipulating her, bewitching her into doing whatever they wanted. He drew his sword and stepped forward, past Elsa and over Anna, placing himself between them. "Why don't you just leave?" he said gravely and tilted his head motioning to the door.

The man laughed. It was a deep bellowing laugh that bounced off the walls of the room. The men still sitting and the two men standing looked at the man uncomfortably. He drew back a fist and threw a punch at Nathan. Nathan leaned back and avoided the punch with less than an inch between the fist and his face.

Nathan straightened back out and swiped at the man with his blade. The man moved out of the way of his blade with a strange nimbleness. It was like his entire body contorted away from the blade that would've raked a deep gash across his chest, as if the man could move his chest just like he could his arms.

Nathan saw his blade missed and took a cautionary jump back. He accidentally slammed his back into Elsa, still standing behind him, sending her to the ground. He wanted to help her, but didn't want to take his focus off the man in front of him.

The man opened his mouth and bellowed a loud booming shout. At the same time a sickly green gas started shooting from his mouth. His hit Nathan straight in the face, and he inhaled a lungful of the stuff. He instantly dropped to one knee, hacking and coughing. He felt his body struggling to get the gas out of his lungs. The entire room started to go black and he felt like he was drifting away.

He looked up and saw shadowy figures, one was a feminine form, the other a large man. They looked like they were fighting. The fat figure was making snakelike movements and the other was shooting spikes out of the ground, but missing.

He stopped coughing and forced his throat closed. He stood shakily and gripped his blade. His vision cleared slightly and he could just make out the large man who attacked him. He was now holding Elsa by the neck, breathing fumes into her face. She wasn't breathing them, though, as it looked like a clear piece of ice formed over her face.

Nathan stumbled towards the man and readied his blade. He drew up behind him and rammed his blade into the man's back as hard as he could. The man howled loudly and looked back at Nathan. Nathan gave him a groggy smile and tried to say something, but he launched back into a coughing fit.

As he was coughing, Nathan looked at the hilt of his blade in the man's back. The same sickly green gas was pouring out of the wound, rolling over Nathans leather gloved hands. He had just enough time to think about how glad he was for the gloves before he felt a stabbing pain in the hand.

He felt the world grow dull, and wondered if he was dying. He felt his head hit the floor with a dull thud, but the thudding didn't stop. It became louder and started hitting in rhythm. His eyes fluttered open and he saw the gates of Arendelle moving away from him. He tried to extend a hand towards them, but his arm refused to move. Everything faded to black again.

He came to, and found himself being carried over someone's shoulder. He couldn't see much except rock and moss, nothing that would tell him where he was. He heard voices talking to each other, but from the echo it sounded like they were speaking into barrels. He tried to move his arm again but it was still stubbornly unresponsive. The blackness overtook his vision once again.

He heard voices again, much clearer this time, and tried once again to move. He couldn't move but he could make out some of what the voices said.  
>"-ease, help us!"<br>"What happ-"  
>"We were-"<br>"dangerous magic-"  
>"-ould wake him."<p>

Than Nathan jerked awake. He tried to gasp for breath, but found his lungs still blocked by the foul gas. He started coughing again, trying to look around. He found that he was on the ground, that he was in some sort of valley, and that he was surrounded by some sort of little creatures. He saw Anna and Elsa among them, making him assume that they didn't mean to harm him.

He started feeling faint as his coughing fit continued. He knew if this kept up he wouldn't wake up again. He searched franticly in his mind for some power that might save him.

One of the creatures approached and put a small, hard hand on his forehead and said in a deep gravelly voice "Please, be still."

Nathan waved it off. He didn't need to be still, he needed to clear his lungs. He tried to focus his power but felt it blocked by something. He tried again and again to summon his magic but couldn't. After a few seconds he realized what was blocking his power.

He stopped his thrashing on the ground and brought a knee up to his chest. He then hammered it away from him in the direction of the small thing as hard as he could. It was more dense than he thought it would be, but his leg was still able to send it flying.

He heard a few gasps as the thing flew through the air, but he had bigger problems. His mind was starting to slip back into the dark of unconsciousness from lack of air. He summoned up power from his core and released the spell. It was unfocused, but it should still do what he needed it to.

His body dissolved into one big non-solid shape. He felt his physical form give way to a shadow, and his mind cleared immensely now that he didn't actually need to breathe. The spell would only last a second, but all he needed to do was move.

His shadow jerked to the side of where he had been laying on the ground into the middle of a group of the little creatures he had seen before. The ones that saw him scattered into a loose circle around him and pulled those that didn't see him out of the way.

His body formed out of the shadow and he doubled over, gasping for air. He looked over to where he had been before he shadow formed and saw a puff of the green gas that had been stuck in his lungs, choking him just a second ago.

Anna rushed over to him and put a hand on his back. She bent over to get a better look at his face and said "Are you ok? Do you need anything?"

He waved her off and straightened up. "I'm… I'm fine." He took a few more deep breaths and looked up. He hadn't paid much attention to the little things that had been surrounding him before, but they were very hard to ignore now. Most of them were just standing around, gazing at him. A few were helping the one he had kicked back to its feet. He looked at Anna with a questioning look. "The hell are these things?"

Anna laughed awkwardly and said "Well… ever heard of trolls?"

Nathan looked around at the countless faces staring at him and shrugged, saying "I thought they'd be bigger." He looked across the sea of faces at Elsa, who was still standing by where he had been standing. She was just looking at him sadly. He motioned for her to come over, and she did. She picked her way through the crowd carefully and came to his side. "Hey" he said "what happened back there, I kind of…"

Elsa interrupted him, saying "Yea, about that…" Nathan gave her a concerned look, and she just pointed to his right hand. He looked down at the glove and almost gasped.

The leather was warped and shriveled. He lifted the bottom of it and looked at the arm underneath. He wished he hadn't. The skin was all a bruised yellow color and it felt weak. He let the glove snap back down and looked back up at Elsa. She gestured to the troll he had kicked and said "He said it wasn't good, so we just left it on."

Nathan nodded "Glad you did." He saw Elsa's concerned expression and said "It's nothing, I've got stuff for things like this."

Elsa raised an eyebrow and said "Do you get poison burns often?"

Nathan gave her a smug look and jokingly said "Maybe I do."

A voice came from the crowd. The troll that Nathan kicked earlier stepped out of the crowd and said "You should count yourself lucky, boy. You were nearly killed." He stepped forward and motioned for Nathan to bend down to talk to him. He looked to Elsa and she nodded. He knelt down to hear what the troll had to say.

"Elsa told me about you, and what you've done. I've always held a great respect for those the Outsider has chosen to mark." He motioned to Nathan's hand "I've done what I could, but I have no doubt that you have more that will help, yes?" Nathan nodded and he continued. "Good, good. But I think that everyone here" he gestured around him "can agree that only rest heals wounds like that."

The trolls around him all nodded and Nathan shrugged. "I suppose so." He didn't agree completely, but he could see the reasoning.

He suddenly got a very bad feeling. The feeling he got when he was in a trap. The troll was reaching towards his head, and Nathan realized what he was about to do. He tried to jump back, to get away, to do anything, but he wasn't fast enough.

His unconscious body slumped to the ground. Elsa and Anna picked it up, thanked the trolls for their help, got Nathan back onto a horse, and rode back to Arendelle.

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authors thing:

Thanks for reading!  
>As always leave a review, and if you like it you could do a follow or favorite or whatever it is.<p> 


	12. Chapter 12

Nathan opened his eyes. He slowly became aware of his surroundings. He was lying in a well-made bed with thick, heavy blankets. The blankets were draped over him in the same way they were over people in hospitals, so Nathan assume he had been cared for over whatever period of time he had been unconscious.

Nathan sat up in the bed and noticed several things at once. The first was that there was a person sitting opposite him with their head drooping down and their breath coming slowly. It was clear that they were asleep, and Nathan had no intention of waking them. The second thing he realized was that his gear was gone. Every layer of armor, every belt and pouch, even his gloves were gone. The third thing he noticed was a bone charm closed in his hand. He raised the charm to his ear and closed his eyes, listening. It was the numbing charm he had given to Elsa. He wondered for a moment why he had it before he remembered what happened to his hand.

He looked down at the hand and drew a sharp breath. The skin on the top of the limb was discolored and flaking off, and the veins that ran through stood out a deep blue against the pale skin, not something he was entirely ready to wake up to. He opened and closed his hand, feeling the muscles inside move. The damage seemed superficial overall, the only thing that seemed really damaged was the skin.

He looked at his clothes. His thick armor layers had been replaced by a single layer of a fabric that felt woefully inadequate in comparison to what he normally wore. The fabric was a deep green color, very similar to the green of the Arendelle seal. Nathan felt uneasy as to why his clothes had been changed, and even more uneasy about the location of his usual gear. He cast around the room, but saw neither it nor a place it could be stored.

The person seated across from him gave a jerk in their sleep and brought Nathan back to the immediate situation. He considered waking the person and asking or his gear back, or…

His face twisted into a devilish smile. Or he could find it himself, without alerting anyone. He had never been much of a showoff, but he didn't know how long he had been asleep, and he felt he needed a warm up.

He drew his legs silently over the side of the bed and slipped to the floor, silent as a mouse. He cringed slightly when his feet fell on the cold wood floor, and he found himself wishing he wasn't barefoot. He crept across the floor and made his way to the door. On the way the sleeper in the chair gave another little spasm that stopped Nathan dead in his tracks for fear of waking them, but they just drifted back off into sleep.

He reached the door and put his eye to the lock, peering around the hall outside. It was empty, thankfully, so he turned the knob and opened the door slowly. He exited the room and made his way to the middle of the hall. Now free of his bed he looked around, wondering where to go from here. He crept over to a window and looked out to see what floor he was on. He found himself on the second floor, and on the side of the building that overlooked the courtyard. He tried to remember the tour Anna had given him, attempting to make a mental map of the building, but failed.

An idea popped into his head and he smiled. He focused his power and let it go slowly, feeling the shadows. He poured more energy into the spell than he normally did so that he could get more range on it, to feel the entire building. He felt all the moving shadows of people, scurrying around in the halls and rooms like bees in a hive. Nathan ignored those, though, and focused on a distant pounding sensation. The many bone runes and charms he always kept in his pockets called to him from across the building. They were somewhere below him, but that was all he could discern.

He opened his eyes and looked up. The hall he was in went off in two directions, and he didn't know which one to take. Another idea entered into his mind, and he looked to the floor at his shadow. He gave a wave towards it and funneled another small portion of energy into it. As he did he said "Direct me…" in a voice that almost sounded too deep, and pointed to the distant artifacts in his mind. His shadow shivered for a moment, then moved against the light that cast it, pointing to the hall on Nathans left. He grinned, thankful that it sometimes seemed his shadow paid more attention than he did.

He set off down the indicated hall and continued to follow his shadows direction. It led him through vaguely familiar halls in the direction of his things. As he went he had time to think. He didn't know how long he had been unconscious. His change of clothes would suggest that he was out for at least more than a day, but his hair and nails were the same length he remembered them being, so he couldn't have been out for more than a week. He would've asked his shadow how long he was out, but it wouldn't have any good way to give him an answer, and he was using it already for navigating.

As he descended a spiral staircase he felt his gear getting closer. He came off the stairs into another wide hall and stopped. He put a hand to the floor and tried to feel the vibrations in the wood. There was a steady pounding of feet, to heavy and in-time to just be someone walking. He swept to the side of the hall and pushed himself against the wall and under a small end table. He kept his hand on the floor and felt the vibrations get closer. After a few seconds he heard the distinct sound of boots, and saw a man in a guard outfit turn the corner and start walking towards Nathan.

Nathan pushed himself back further into the shadow and held his breath, preying the green of his clothes didn't make him stand out. The guard walked past, oblivious of the person crouching under the table watching him.

As soon as he passed Nathan dislodged himself from the table and crept away from the man. Nathan continued following his shadow until it fell flat against a heavy-set unmarked door. He put his eye to the lock and peered in. there was a dark stone staircase descending into what looked like flickering torchlight. He tried the door and found that, to his surprise, it wasn't locked. He opened the door silently and moved inside.

The cold stone sucked the heat from Nathan's feet as he stalked down the stairs. His shadow danced ahead of him, still pointing towards his gear. He came to the bottom of the staircase and looked out cautiously. It appeared to be a dungeon of some kind, far below the floor of the castle above. He couldn't help but wonder why his stuff would be down here. He listened carefully to the echoes that bounced off the solid grey walls and didn't hear anything but a few rats squeaking in dark corners.

He motioned towards his shadow again, stopping the flow of power he had been feeding the spell. He would search each cell on his own. His shadows job was done. He put the power from the spell animating his shadow into sensing shadows, and felt nothing but the rats moving. Cutting the power to the spell, he crept forwards. He knew there was no-one down here now, but one could never be too careful.

He passed several empty cells all furnished with exactly what he would expect, uncomfortable looking beds, uncomfortable looking blankets, uncomfortable looking chains, and uncomfortable looking stone.

After a few of those cells Nathan came to one cell that was not like the others. The door to the cell was a solid built wooden door, with iron reinforcements lining the whole thing. There was a small slit at about eye level to look into the cell that was about half open. Nathan straightened up and peered inside.

His gear was all there. It had been put on a mannequin and the mannequin was set in the middle of the cell. He tried the door handle and found it locked. The lock looked extremely heavy. Nathan doubted that he would be able to get through that even if he could pick locks. Luckily, however, he didn't have to.

He let a good pulse of energy go and felt his body dissolve into a shadow. He flowed towards the door and through the little slit. He felt himself squeeze through and come out on the inside of the cell. He contracted his shadow form and felt his body form back out of it. He was now standing inside the cell, looking at the mannequin.

He stepped forwards and started stripping the gear off the mock-person and placing it on himself. A few minutes later he was fully equipped and ready to go.

He cast the shadow-form spell again and seeped out of the looking slit. He formed outside the cell and pulled his left glove on. He looked at his injured right hand and realized he was still gripping the bone charm tightly. He put the charm in his other hand and pulled the glove over the flaking skin, clenching his fist to make sure the glove was on as tight as possible.

He crept his way back to the top of the stairs and peered out the lock. He didn't see anybody, so he opened the door and entered the hall. Now he had to find Elsa. He let energy drip into a spell and closed his eyes, feeling the shadows.

He started his search with looking for human forms. Once he located most people in the building he thought of anything that would easily identify Elsa. Her cape, he though. It would cast a shadow speckled with the reflections of light passing through it. It would be easy to find. Sure enough, after a few moments of looking he felt the abnormal shadow of the cape. She was on the third floor in a large room with one other person. The other person was likely Anna, but there was no sure way to tell.

Nathan pointed to that location with his mind and opened his eyes, gestured to his own shadow, and said again "Guide me."

His shadow again shivered for a moment than struck a pose flat on the floor as if Nathan was pointing. He followed and it fell ahead of him, leading. It led him back to the staircase he had come down on, luckily the guard who had been in the way the first time wasn't there again.

He made his way up the winding stairs, all the way up to the third floor. He stalked through the strangely empty halls in the direction that his shadow was falling. After about a minute of creeping through the halls he came to another door. This one was similar to the study door that Nathan had gotten knocked down earlier. He peaked through the lock and saw Elsa's back facing towards him. She was sitting at a desk, hunched over writing something. He could see the edge of someone else's dress out of the corner of the lock, but no matter how he tried to turn to angle himself he couldn't get a better view of the other person.

He heard a floorboard creak behind his and turned to look at the source. A guard had just turned a corner and was about to see Nathan. He hurriedly opened the door and slipped inside as quietly as possible. The door latched shut quietly behind him as he took in the room. Elsa was still writing facing away from him, and the other person, who Nathan now saw was Anna, was looking over her shoulder and talking to quietly for him to hear.

They seemed absorbed in whatever they were writing, and Nathan didn't really want to interrupt them so he looked around, found and extra chair, and took a seat. He waited for them to either finish what they were doing or to turn around.

After a few minutes of sitting in silence and no sign of them stopping he cleared his throat. Elsa and Anna turned, gasping in surprise. Nathan smiled at their reaction and stood. He put his left hand across his chest and bowed. "My queen." He said in a respectful tone.

The two women looked at each other, confused. Elsa looked at him unsurely and said "but… but the trolls said four…" her voice trailed off and she shook her head, refocusing on Nathan. "You're up sooner than expected."

Nathan put his arms behind him and stretched them out, producing several loud popping sounds. "Yea, about that…" he brought his arms back in front and stretched again "…how long was I out?"

Elsa looked sideways at Anna than back to Nathan and said "You were supposed to be out for four days, but you've only been out for two." She looked him up and down, then said "How… how did you get all that back?" motioning to all his gear.

Nathan smiled and shrugged. "I found it." He said sarcastically. Elsa and Anna both just sighed, and Nathan laughed. "I woke up and had to find it."

Elsa's eyes widened and she looked at the door, saying "Why wasn't I told you were awake?" she looked at Nathan and said "How did you get through the door-" she took a key from the desk behind her and said "-this is the only key."

Nathan spread his arms and said "some people are just so good they don't need keys." Elsa rolled her eyes and turned back to the desk.

Anna was still looking at Nathan with a worried expression. He raised an eyebrow at her and she said "The trolls said that your hand would take four days to heal." She motioned to the gloved limb and asked "Is it already better?"

Nathan gave as reassuring a smile as he could muster and said "Yes, it's much better."

It wasn't a lie. Not technically. He hadn't said it was fully healed, he had said it was better, which was true. Besides, the damage wasn't anything to worry about anyways. He felt like he should change the subject away from his injuries, so he pointed to the desk and said "what are you two working on?"

Elsa turned in her seat to look at Nathan while she spoke. "We had that name copied and sent out to as many places we could get it. Only one kingdom has responded so far, a place called Corona." Nathan thought about the name. Had he ever ben there? No, he thought, that was the kingdom that did the weird lantern thing that he had read about once. He ran over a quick list of places his contracts had taken him in his head anyways, and confirmed he had never been. Elsa continued, "They said that if it is what they think it is, than they want to send some people our way to help us "deal with it", whatever that means."

Nathan thought he could guess what "deal with it" meant, but decided to keep that observation to himself. He looked over Elsa's shoulder at the paper and asked "So what's this?"

Elsa turned back to the paper and said "We're trying to figure out what they mean by "send some people". We were going to try and have them here by the time you woke up so that you could start working with them as soon as possible, but now that your awake we may as well just tell them to come on down."

Nathan nodded. He was eager to keep up on this problem, seeing as now two attempts on Elsa's life had been made. He thought about the journal Prattchet had given him and something clicked in his mind. "Do you still have that book on you?" he asked eagerly.

Elsa shook her head and said "No, I have it stored in my room. Why?"

Nathan thought back to what it had said, trying to be sure about the things he was connecting. "Didn't it say something about his having a nightmare about someone turning into gas?"

Elsa said "Yea, wh…" her voice trailed off and she turned slowly to face Nathan, her eyes widening. "Do you really think that…" her voice trailed off again.

Nathan nodded. "I don't see any connections to make other than that. Speaking of which, what happened with the guy I stabbed?"

Anna and Elsa looked at each other uncomfortably, and Anna said "He's… he's dead, after you stabbed him he just kind of…" she put her hands up and brought them back down slowly, blowing a raspberry as she did.

Elsa rolled her eyes and said "Very mature, Anna."

Anna turned to Elsa and said in a fairly bad imitation of Elsa's voice "Very mature Anna"

Elsa opened her mouth to retort, but Nathan cut her off, more interested in what Anna had said than their sibling banter. "So he just deflated?"

Anna rose her hands again and pursed her lips, about to repeat her little demonstration but stopped when Elsa glared at her. Elsa turned back to Nathan and nodded. "All that was left was his skin and clothes on the floor."

Nathan raised an eyebrow at her and said "There were no… organs, no bones, no nothing?"

She shook her head and said "No, just skin."

Nathan put ha hand over his mouth and looked up, thinking. "Do you still have the skin?" he asked through his hand cautiously. Elsa nodded and he took his hand away from his mouth. "Good, I'd like to see it today." He looked around the room for some kind of clock. "Speaking of, what time is it?"

Anna shrugged and said "Late afternoon."

Nathan was about to say something, but was interrupted by a sudden growling of his stomach. He put a hand to his belly and said "Think there's still some food left?"

Anna laughed at this and Elsa snickered slightly. Elsa stood up and said "I'll see if I can get you anything." Anna stood up to follow them, but Elsa waved her back. "You stay and finish the letter, you know what it has to say." Anna looked a bit dejected at this, but obeyed. Elsa walked past Nathan and opened the door, motioning for him to go first. He bowed his head slightly in acknowledgment and walked through.

They walked side by side through the halls. The silence between them started to weigh on both of them, and Elsa was the first to break the silence. "So" she said in a joking voice "did you sleep well?"

Nathan smirked and said "Yes, it's funny how that works, spells and all." He looked down at himself and continued "I think I would have slept much better if I hadn't been changed."

Elsa rolled her eyes, saying "Both me and Anna decided that locking it up would be the safest thing to do, especially with all the stuff in those pockets."

Nathan felt over his pockets to check if either one had stolen anything from him. After a moment or two of checking he said "And what sort of toys did you find in my pockets?" Elsa looked at him as if he had grown another head. He clarified his meaning "I've got lots of toys in my pockets. They're all great fun, if you know how to use them."

Elsa rolled her eyes and said sarcastically "Because all those scalpels and knives and vials seem like so much fun."

Nathan gave a loud, fake, indignant gasp. "I wouldn't be caught dead without them." He said in an accent that might have been French.

Elsa couldn't help but to laugh at this. She finished laughing, cleared her throat and asked "But really, what are all those knives for? I'd imagine you just need the one." She gestured to the sword at Nathan's belt.

He sighed and shook his head. Well, if I see a painting I like, I can't just rip it out of the frame, can I?"

Elsa smirked "Of course not! You aren't just some brute, after all."

Nathan nodded and said "Certainly not! And people tend to pay less for paintings that have the hell ripped out of them."

Elsa nodded, then said "One thing that we didn't find were lock picks. I'd expect you of all people to have a few of those."

Nathan smiled at this, and said "ha, yea. I can't actually pick locks. Not much of a point to carrying a tool you can't use, right?"

Elsa started to nod, but stopped herself. "Wait, if you can't pick locks than how did you get your stuff back?" she stopped in front of the door to the dining hall

Nathan grinned at her and said mysteriously "Maybe I'm just so good I don't need to pick locks." He stepped forward and pushed the doors to the dining hall open. He heard Elsa call after him, but he smiled and pretended not to hear.


	13. Chapter 13

Elsa accompanied Nathan while he ate his food. The first half of the meal was spent by Elsa trying to pry the answer of how Nathan had gotten into the cell in the dungeons to retrieve his gear, and by Nathan dodging and avoiding giving her a straight answer. The closest to an actual answer that he gave her was that it was "Magic" and that if he actually told her exactly how he did it, the mystery would be ruined.

Elsa gave up after about half Nathans food was gone and he changed the subject away from his powers. "So… can you tell me anything about this Corona place? You ever deal with them before?" Nathan asked through a mouthful of food.

Elsa nodded and said "Yes, we have some prior relations. There are just some pretty basic trade agreements between our two kingdoms, but apparently Anna has met the princess and the prince of the kingdom when I…" she caught herself, cleared her throat and continued "…anyway, Anna is happy that out of all the kingdoms Corona is the one that responded. I think she just wants to see them again."

Nathan nodded and continued eating. He asked "Do you know what experience they might have had with this magic?"

Elsa shook her head, saying "No, I didn't talk to them much. You should talk to Anna about this, I didn't talk to them at all beyond a quick hello and goodbye. They didn't seem like the type to deal with gas-people, though."

Nathan smirked. "Speaking of which, you said we still have the skin of that guy, right? I'd like to see it after we're done here."

Elsa nodded and looked around. The dining hall was mostly empty, with the exception of a few servants who had probably missed the earlier meal and the cooks managing the food. The windows let out to the view of the courtyard outside. Snow was falling heavily, making it difficult to see even halfway across the yard. It was a heavy storm, but it was the last of the winter. She could feel it.

She looked at Nathan, clearing her mind of everything he had done for her, and took in just his appearance. He was not someone she would expect to see in a castle unless he was there without the owner's knowledge. His many belt, buckles, pouches, and pockets made for an extraordinary appearance, as if he had some substance or elixir for every situation. Yet that was not true, she had found this out when she went through the pockets when he was unconscious. She had found a few pieces of paper, charms of bone, bags of money, and a few vials of chemicals, but noting beyond that. She had expected to find some kind of magnificent text that explained some great secret of magic or gave some knowledge forbidden from falling to mortal ears, but she had found thing that would be perfectly normal for an assassin of his caliber.

Nathan looked up from his food and saw Elsa staring at him. He averted his gaze, but kept it on Elsa from the corner of his eye. He felt like he was being examined under some great microscope, and he didn't like the feeling. He started to fidget, clenching and unclenching a fist under the table, feeling Elsa's gaze burning into him.

When he couldn't stand it anymore he stood. "Alright, let go see that dead guy!" he said with an enthusiasm dropping with sarcasm. Elsa looked at his food with a questioning look as there was still at least a fourth of it left. Nathan waved her concern off, indicating he had had enough.

She stood and indicated a door at the far end of the hall. She and Nathan set off together to see the skin of a dead man.

The walk to the room containing the corpse was quiet, and Nathan remarked to himself that it was the same room the three men Nathan had killed had been stored in. he pushed the door open and stepped inside. It was devoid of the smell of rot this time, to Nathan s surprise. He spotted something that looked like a pile of clothes on one of the tables. He pointed to it and said "Is that it?"

Elsa nodded and followed him over to it. He looked closer at the pile and took one end of it, pulling it lengthwise over the table. It uncoiled and revealed a wrinkled face amid the folds of cloth. Nathan examined the face, but found nothing that would help him. "It looks like a snakeskin." He said and started examining the pockets. Again, he found nothing that would help him.

He lifted the skin off the table by the head and held it as far off the ground as he could, leaving a few inches between the floor and the feet of the skin. The skin had some kind of weight inside it, but Nathan couldn't find where it lay.

A thought occurred to him and he drew his blade. He heard Elsa say concernedly "What are you doing?"

He drew his sword up so the point was against the chest of the skin and prepared to put it through. "Looking." He said in a matter-of-fact voice. He thrust the blade through the skin and dragged it down, putting a large hole in the breast of the skin.

He put a hand inside and felt around, scrunching his face up in a scowl. "Better be worth it…" he said under his breath. His hand met with something buried in the throat of the skin and he grabbed ahold of it. It was firmly attached to the skin by something he couldn't feel. He drew his arm up and brought it slamming down, yanking the thing with all his might. It gave with an unearthly tearing sound and came off the skin. Nathan withdrew the thing from the sack-like skin and looked at it.

It was a small round thing, like a pearl. Nathan turned it over in his hand and found the surface flawless. It glowed with an otherworldly light that seemed to come from the center of the orb. He held it up against the light of a nearby lantern to see if the light inside changed. It didn't, staying the same even though the light should have disturbed it in some way.

Elsa touched his shoulder and said "What is that?" in an almost fearful voice. Nathan shrugged and held it out to Elsa, who backed away from it like it was going to beat her. Nathan pulled the thing the thing away from her and stepped forwards

"What's the matter? What's wrong?" he asked concernedly. Elsa's eyes were locked on the orb and her hands were raised defensively. Nathan could see he wasn't going to get an answer as long as she could see it, so he put it behind his back and slipped it into a pocket, hiding it.

He stepped forwards to Elsa, his hands up to show it was gone. "Elsa… Elsa, its ok, it's gone." He said in a soft, gentle voice.

Elsa lowered her hands slowly and put a hand to her temple. "I'm fine… I just… did you hear it?" she looked at Nathan with concern.

Nathan shook his head and said "Hear what?" slightly confused.

Elsa looked at him like she couldn't believe what he had just said. "Hear wha…" she repeated incredulously. "The giant, horrible, unbearable screeching that it was making? You know-" she said sarcastically "-that!"

Nathan shook his head. "No, didn't hear it." He felt the urge to take the orb out and examine it again, but felt that Elsa would not appreciate his curiosity. He tossed the skin back onto the table it was on when he came in and turned back to Elsa. He said "So, let's go find Anna." Elsa gave him a puzzled look and he reminded her "Talk about Corona." She nodded and exited the room, and Nathan followed.

Nathan spent the walk back to the room Anna and Elsa had first been in asking Elsa about the sound that she had heard from the orb. She wasn't able to tell him much, but what he was able to get out of her was that it was a very loud sound, and that it had made her afraid. She wasn't able to explain why it had unsettled her so much, but she did say the sound was "haunting" and "sad". He asked her to try and replicate the sound, but she declined, saying that if she tried it would sound stupid.

They came to the study and Nathan pulled the door open, holding it for Elsa. She bowed her head slightly and walked in. Nathan followed her in and looked around. Anna was sitting face down at the desk, snoring loudly. Nathan snickered at this slightly, and Elsa sighed. She walked over and shook Anna awake.

Anna jerked and said "Wha… Who?" looking around tiredly. Elsa put a hand on the back of her head and physically turned it so that she was looking at Nathan.

Nathan stepped forwards and said "I'd like to ask you a few things, Anna."

She looked up at him blankly for a second before wiping the sleep out of her eyes and yawning widely. She blinked a few times and said tiredly "Ok, what do you want to ask?"

Behind her Elsa lifted a paper off the desk she had been sleeping on. Nathan could see something dripping off the paper back onto the desk. Nathan shot Elsa a questioning look, and she pointed to Elsa, the desk, the paper, and drew a line down from the side of her mouth. Nathan nodded, Anna drooled in her sleep.

Nathan shook his head and turned back to Anna, who was still looking at him blankly. He said "So… you're happy that Corona responded?"

She continued looking at him with a blank expression for a second, than her face lit up with excitement. "Oh, yea! I hope Rapunzel comes, that would be so great! It feels like I haven't seen her in forever. Where's…" her voice trailed off as she turned back to the desk and shuffled a few things around, looking for something. "I had the letter ready to be sent, but-"

Elsa cut her off by clearing her throat and holding up the soggy piece of paper. "Is this the letter, Anna?"

Anna turned, looked at it for a second, and blushed. She looked at the desk and saw a small puddle of saliva she hadn't seen before. She turned back to Elsa and said sheepishly "Well… I had a letter written… but…"

Elsa rolled her eyes and pulled a chair up to the desk. She took a seat, readied new paper and produced a pen from some corner of the desk. Anna scooted closer to her, practically leaning on her shoulder, and poised herself so she might be able to write too. Elsa looked over at her and playfully pushed her chair away, saying "Maybe I should handle this one."

Elsa started scribbling down words onto the paper and Anna huffed. She turned to Nathan and said "Did you have anything else to ask me?" sourly.

Nathan smirked, saying "Yes, of course." He pulled a chair up in front of Anna and sat down. "Who's Rapunzel?"

Anna smiled and put a hand to her chin and leaned back. She took one deep breath before starting, saying "So it all started when Elsa froze the…" she looked over at Elsa sheepishly. Nathan noticed that Elsa had stopped writing. Anna cleared her throat and continued "…anyways, there were a lot of people from all over the place when that happened, and Rapunzel was one of those people. She was here with her husband, a guy named Eugene. We met after Elsa fixed the summer, and we became friends really fast."

Nathan nodded. It seemed a pretty normal way to meet, minus the magic sister, of course. "So what experience would she have with this…" he looked for the right word for what was happening recently, but found nothing that described it adequately. "…situation?"

Anna shrugged and said "Well, I don't know a whole lot about her past, but I do know that she had some bad experiences with some woman. She never said what the woman did, though. She didn't like to talk about it"

Nathan nodded and said "I see. How long would it take her to get here?"

Elsa called over her shoulder "The trip by boat takes about two days, by land it's about a week." And continued to scribble on the letter.

"How long will the letter take to reach her?" Nathan asked.

Elsa turned to him and said "With a fast ship they'll be reading it tomorrow."

Nathan raised an eyebrow and said "I thought you said ships took two days."

She gave him a devilish smile and said "We here at Arendelle have always prided ourselves on being ahead of the game, and as such we've got a few new ship designs." She spoke like she was making a presentation to a crowd. Her public speaking mannerisms dropped away and she said almost in a whisper "You aren't the only one with tricks up your sleeve."

Nathan raised an eyebrow again. "A bit proud of your new boat, Elsa?"

She pouted and turned back to the letter, saying "Well, I have every right to be, don't I? Fastest ships in the sea has got to be worth something."

Nathan gave her a look that said he didn't quite believe what she was saying. "Fastest, eh? How'd you manage that?" Nathan didn't know a great deal about ships, but he did know that the benefits of having such a ship would be great.

Elsa perked up slightly and turned back to Nathan. She said "I use my magic to create a…" she searched for the right word "…shard of ice that has a little bit of my magic inside of it. I make the magic in the shard blow winter winds into the sails of a ship."

Nathan was caught off guard by this. She could enchant her ice? It seemed that Elsa's power grew more impressive the more he learned of it. He couldn't help but wonder if the same was true for his power as well. "Well, I suppose that would make a ship faster." He said, sounding a little more impressed than he meant to.

He shook his head. "So anyways, how long is it expected until she gets here?" he asked.

Elsa shrugged and said unconcernedly "Maybe two days after she gets the letter, so three days from now."

Nathan let a deep breath hiss out slowly from in-between his teeth. He considered himself a reasonably patient person, but he didn't know it he would be able to just sit idle for three whole days. He would have to find something to occupy his time or else he might go mad.

Elsa gave him one of those devilish smiles that he was starting to get used to and said "We could always have Pabbi put you back to sleep."

Nathan pointed to the letter and said "Don't you have something to be doing?"

Elsa smirked at Nathan and turned back to the letter, resuming her scribbling. Nathan pulled a bone charm from one of his many pockets and worked it around in his hand. Anna eyed the thing cautiously but didn't say anything.

As Nathan toyed with the charm in his hand he remembered the small orb he had gotten earlier. He pictured the thing in his mind, not wanting to take it from its pocket for fear of upsetting Elsa again. He turned the mental image over in his mind, thinking about what it could be. He'd never seen anything like it before. It was like a pearl, perfectly spherical and smooth. He tried to think of what the light inside it had been like, but couldn't recall exactly how the light had looked. He had to wonder at why it had been inside the skin of the man. For all his thought he gave the matter he couldn't come up with anything.

The thing hadn't seemed any more powerful than an average bone charm, so he assumed it would have an effect similar to a bone charm. It did have a strange effect on Elsa, something Nathan had never seen in a bone charm, making the sound that scared her. Every time he tried to think of what the light looked like he simply couldn't picture it.

He continued thinking like this until eventually Elsa stood from the desk and said to both Anna and Nathan "Ok, it's done."

Anna stood quickly and walked over to the door saying "Finally! Come on, let's go do something!"

Nathan stood and stretched his back. He said "Ah, it's about time. How long is that letter?" he stepped over to the desk and looked at the paper. It was several sheets high, and each one was filled out completely. The ink on most of the pages was dry, but it smeared on a few of the top pages. The letters seemed to be along the lines of "We need your help, weird stuff is happening, please help us"

Nathan eyed the paper, amused that Elsa could even find a way to stretch such a simple message so long. He turned to the door and walked out behind Anna. Elsa took the papers in her arms and followed them out.

Nathan accompanied them to dinner which he didn't eat, as he had already eaten. The meal passed by uneventfully, with unimportant small-talk being exchanged. The night passed uneventfully as well, and Nathan eventually retired to his bed.

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Authors thing:

hey, I'm going somewhere over spring break, so i probably wont be able to post anything for about a week or so. I'll keep writing though, so I'll probably come back with a hundred more chapters.

so woooo

remember to leave reviews and follow or whatever that whole thing is (If you want to)


	14. Chapter 14

Nathan stood on the shore of the fjord, the cold water lapping against the bottoms of his boots. The frigid air made his lips crack and his fingers numb. Despite this, he stood looking out over the distant lapping waves of the ocean, waiting for something. Some small portion of his mind told him to go back inside where it was warm, but he suppressed that small voice. He continued his vigilant watch over the ocean waves. A single solitary geyser of water blasted up from the surface, grabbing Nathans attention. Seconds later the geyser gave way to a massive hulking form.

A smile that was almost relief crossed his face as he saw the whale burst out of the water. The sight of the giant gave him some kind of comfort, the way that a ray of sunshine did for other people. Nathan knew it had something to so with the fact that all bone charms and runes were made from whalebone, but that wasn't it. Not all of it.

He focused as much as he could on the creature as it plummeted back through the water and could swear it was looking directly at him. Its eye seemed to have an otherworldly glint to it, as if it could see things that Nathan couldn't even imagine. As the last bit of the monster of an animal disappeared back into the void of the ocean Nathan heard the gravel crunch behind him.

He spun on his heel and instinctively put a hand on the hilt of his blade, ready to fight. He found himself face to face with Elsa, who was looking startled by his reaction. Nathan let out a deep breath and watched it fog up in front of his face, calming his nerves. He turned back to the ocean and said over his shoulder "What are you doing up so early?" as the splash from the whale settled back into the waves of the sea.

Elsa walked up next to him and peered out to the sea the same way Nathan did, trying to see what he saw. She had seen whales jump from the ocean but never as close as that one had. She looked sideways at Nathan and said "Whale watching?" in a slightly puzzled voice.

Nathan shrugged than after a brief pause said "Yea, I guess you could say that." There was another brief pause before he turned to Elsa and asked "Does Arendelle process whales?"

Elsa was slightly taken aback by the strangeness of the question but answered anyways. "Of course, it's a major source of revenue for the kingdom."

Nathan nodded. If they processed whales here, than he would have access to whale bone pretty consistently. If he had access to whale bone he might be able to make his own charms and runes. This job of protecting Elsa and Anna just kept getting better and better. There was a problem, though, in that he didn't know how to make runes or bone charms. Certainly he knew what they were made of and how they would be constructed, but he didn't know whether or not he would need to do something to actually make them powerful or give them their strange properties.

Something bumped against his foot, snapping him out of his thoughts. Elsa saw it before he did. She gave a little gasp when she saw what it was. It was a small plate of bone, about small enough to fit in the palm of the hand. A mark, the same one that Nathan had shown her burned on the back of his hand, was burned on the surface of the bone.

Nathan looked down and saw the rune. He grunted and bent over to pick it up. He straightened up and held the rune up to look at it. He looked out to the ocean, wondering if the whale he had seen had anything to do with the appearance of the rune. Elsa put a hand on his shoulder and said in a hushed voice "What is it?"

Nathan smiled and clutched the rune tightly to his chest. He said "It's a rune. I can use these to learn new spells." Elsa looked at the rune with interest, and Nathan held it out to her. "You take it."

She held her hands up defensively and said "No, no. I… I don't think I need it. I can make whatever spell I want, remember?" she closed Nathans hand around it and pushed it back towards him. "You use it. I want to see what kind of a spell you make."

Nathan held the rune in his palm and nodded. Elsa looked at him expectantly and he realized she wanted him to make spell right now. He turned back to the sea and closed his eyes, letting the sound of the waves wipe his mind clean and focusing his thought on the rune. He felt some part of his mind slip into the void and felt the power of the outsider surround him. He focused his power around him and felt it push the nothingness of the void away.

He was immersed in his own power, dark, suffocating shadows that responded to his every whim. He focused all the shadow into one solid shape in his hand and started working it around. As its shape changed he could feel the effects of the spell he was making changing. He formed it into a simple line, and felt the familiar spell of blink form. He stopped for a moment and considered what kind of a spell he wanted.

His job was now to protect Elsa and Anna, so he wanted a power that would allow him to do this more effectively. He considered what he could do with the spell he had. He cut a line through the line, and it turned from blink to something else. It turned into a simple spell, one that would allow him to manipulate objects from a distance. Not a spell he wanted, so he went back to working the spell around.

An idea popped into his head. He drew a thin line between one pieces of shadow to another, and pulled the two pieces far apart. The spell turned into a movement spell, and he liked the way it looked. It wasn't perfect, though. The spell would be of huge range, but highly costly in terms of energy. The energy the spell used would grow in proportion to the distance to the target, but that would make the spell almost identical to blink. Another idea popped into his head. He focused on a few more runes on his material body and tapped into their power. More shadow appeared for him to work with, and he worked it around.

He cut the line between the two pieces and used the extra shadow to make a strange kind of rift between the two. He fed a line like the one he cut through the rift and pulled the two pieces further apart experimentally. To his mild surprise, this worked, and the line between the two was not pulled or stretched at all. He put the remainder of the shadowy power into the two pieces so that the energy required to cast the spell would be lowered slightly.

He looked over the spell with a critical eye, searching for any fault or imperfection. When he was satisfied with what he had made he pushed on the spell with the power inside the runes. The shape solidified as the runes power was used up. As the last of the runes power dissipated his mind slipped out of the void.

He was, once again, standing on the shore, looking out over the ocean. He looked at the hand he had been holding the rune in. it was clenched shut over his chest, the rune gone. He opened his hand and a few clumps of ash fell into the water. He felt around in his pockets and found sever other runes gone.

Elsa was looking at him with a worried expression. He turned back to her and shook his head, trying to adjust to the sudden ejection from the void. Elsa asked "Are you ok? What were you doing?"

Nathan looked up at her and said "I was making a new spell." He looked at the ash that used to be a rune and said to Elsa "I used the power in that-" he pointed to the ash "-to make the spell."

She looked at the ash than back at Nathan. "You looked like you were just… zoned out. You were just staring forward blankly." Nathan nodded and Elsa's expression grew much more exited. "Well, let's see it!"

Nathan grinned and said "well… it's not a very dramatic spell, it's more of a utility kind of thing, but-"

Elsa cut him off before he could finish by saying "Just shut up and do it!" in an exasperated voice, throwing her arms towards Nathan.

He laughed and focused his power into the new spell. He wasn't exactly sure how to cast it, but it shouldn't be too hard. He focused the spell and felt an alien sensation in his hand. It felt like a small piece of his shadow was in his hand. He could guess what he had to cast the spell on, the same thing he always did. A shadow.

He thrust his hand forwards and gasped as he felt the piece if his shadow leave him and enter Elsa's shadow. As it left Nathans hand it formed into a snakelike streak that hit Elsa's shadow and seemed to burrow into it. Elsa's head turned to follow the streak, but she didn't react to it entering her shadow. Nathan felt the fragment of his shadow settle in Elsa's shadow, and lowered his hand.

Elsa looked at him with a puzzled expression in her face. She said "What did that do?" and started eyeing her shadow anxiously. Nathan took a few steps back from the shore and held up a hand to indicate Elsa should stay where she was.

He walked about twenty feet away than turned. He focused on the spell and felt the fragment of his own shadow inside of Elsa's. He poured power into the spell and wondered briefly what it would feel like.

The next thing he knew his shadow jumped off the ground and stood in front of him. It opened wide into a solid black hole, like a door, and Nathan felt himself yanked through. He felt briefly like he was falling down a pit. It was impossible to see anything through the inky nothingness that surrounded him now. The air around him felt strange, as if it was devoid of all light, sound, and heat. It wasn't cold, it was just as if there was no such thing as cold or hot. The feeling was totally alien.

Then, as soon as he had been sucked into the shadow, he was flung from it. He heard a splash from somewhere under him and felt his feet hit solid ground. He braced his body, expecting to fall off balance or to tumble head over heels, but nothing came. He looked down and found his feet submerged in water about halfway up his boots. He looked in front of him and saw the cold fjord again. He turned and saw Elsa just starting to turn around, probably looking for the source of the splash.

Elsa wasn't sure what she had just seen. Nathan had stepped through his shadow and then was just… gone. She heard a splash behind her, and spun on her heels to face the splashing. She found herself facing Nathan, who was looking in her direction with a disoriented look on his face. She stepped towards him but stopped when she realized that he was about ankle deep in the cold water.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts and refocused on Elsa. He stepped out of the water and let out a breath. "Well, that felt weird." He said in a matter-of-fact voice.

Elsa looked from the spot he had been standing at to where he had appeared. Her brow furrowed, and she asked "How is that different from the teleporting you already do?"

Nathan raised an eyebrow as he started shaking water off of his boots. He asked in a confused voice "Teleporting…?" he ran through his powers and realized she meant his blink. "Oh! Blink, umm…" he paused and tried to think of how to explain it. "It's like… if…" coming up with a comparison was harder than he had imagined. "If you're sewing a cloth… and the distance you travel is how far you get through the cloth… than… blinking is just sewing through the cloth, and that was like folding the cloth and putting the needle through."

The comparison didn't sound nearly as god as it had in his head, but Elsa nodded in understanding. She asked "Than why ever use your blink?"

Nathan sighed. Explaining his powers was weird. "The blink takes very little energy, and the other one takes a lot more. But Blink has a fairly short range, whereas the other one has an unlimited range." He paused for a moment. "I think."

Elsa giggled slightly at this, then said "what are you going to call it?" Nathan looked at her questioningly and she clarified in a voice like it was obvious "The power."

"Oh" Nathan said "uh…" he started pacing, thinking of what a suitable name would be. "Well" he thought out loud "it's a power that moves me around, so it should be motion based. I kind of… step into the shadow, so step is good. I come out of shadows, so I think that should be in there. How about "shadow step"?"

Elsa repeated the words "shadow step" to herself a few times. It was accurate, she supposed. He did step into a shadow, and come out of one too. It had an ominous kind of ring to it as well, like it was something to be afraid of. She nodded, approving of the name. "I like it."

Nathan smiled, feeling a twinge of happiness somewhere in his chest. He didn't know why he felt this, but he accepted he did. Maybe he was getting soft. Maybe he was in love.

He scowled at the last thought. Love? Certainly not, not ever. Maybe he admired Elsa, but he certainly didn't have feelings for her.

She motioned back towards the castle and said "you want to go in? It's awfully cold out here." Nathan only just took notice of how cold it really was. He felt his body start to give a shiver, but he tensed up and stopped it before it became noticeable. He nodded and followed her towards the castle.

The sun was just starting to come up over the horizon, bright light gleaming on the windows and rooftops of the castle. The great doors of the main entrance ground open slowly, and both Nathan and Elsa were forced to shut their eyes by a blast of warm air from inside the castle.

The pair traipsed their way into the castle and took seats by a large open fireplace. The air inside was a sharp contrast from the freezing temperature outside, the warm glow of the fire casting long dancing shadows on the wall behind them. The light of the sun, just beginning to rise, cast another shadow on the wall to the side. They sat in silence for a moment just enjoying the warmth of the spitting flame.

After both had warmed enough, Nathan said to Elsa "So, they're to arrive today. What are we going to do with them?"

Elsa sighed with just a hint of apprehension in her breath and said "I don't know, what should we do? What can we do but wait?" she put a hand to her temple, saying "we'll just have to wait and see what they say."

Nathan nodded. He didn't like it, but until the royals from Corona arrived he didn't have a clue who had been attacking Elsa, or why. Waiting didn't sit well with him. Nothing had happened in the three day period between Elsa sending the letter, but Nathan knew it was just a matter of time before something did happen.

They continued to sit in silence until the sun was casting its light right through the window, signaling that morning had arrived. Elsa pushed herself out of her chair and Nathan followed suit. Elsa turned to Nathan before exiting the room and said "Hungry?"

Nathan smiled at her and said "Ravenous, as usual." Elsa smiled at his comment. It was something of a joke that had developed between the two. Elsa had commented two days ago that Nathan had never actually gone to go get food on his own, and Nathan had retorted that that must have been the reason he was always hungry. The comment wasn't very funny, but it had seemed hilarious at the time. Maybe it had had something to do with the wine Elsa had been enjoying at the time.

They walked to the dining hall. Anticipation was thick in the air. All the staff of the castle had been informed that the prince and princess of Corona would be arriving today for an indeterminate period of time, but none had been told why. All were on edge and eager to begin serving the new royals when they arrived.

The breakfast that the chefs had prepared was even more exquisite than it normally was, with massive amounts of finely arranged edibles in artful displays. The whole thing seemed rather pointless to Nathan, as all of it was just going to be eaten, but Elsa gave her complements personally to the chef. Nathan ate his food in silence as he usually did. After a few minutes of devouring everything in front of him he looked up and saw Anna walking slowly towards him with a plate of food, yawning widely. Nathan stood to greet her as she drew up a seat at the table next to Elsa. Nathan broke his silence, saying to Anna "Happy that your friends are coming over?"

Elsa smirked at the question, thinking it was more something that would be asked of a small child than a fully grown royal. Anna looked at Nathan blankly for a moment, than her eyes open wide and she gasped. "Rapunzel is coming today! I totally forgot!"

Both Elsa and Nathan had a little laugh at that, taking enjoyment in Anna's absentmindedness. Elsa put a arm around Anna's shoulders and shook her in a playful way. "What would you do without us, sis?" she asked in an equally playful manner.

Anna looked down at her food, embarrassed, and said "I couldn't imagine." She started digging into her food and Elsa resumed digging into hers. Nathan shook his head in wonderment at the two's tolerance of each other.

"You know" he said to the both of them "most siblings can't stand even the sight of each other. How you two stand each other I'll never know. They both gave him a look that seemed to suggest they were sorry for him, and he didn't like it. "What? It's true. You twos relationship is weird." The pitiful looks they were giving him didn't stop, so he waver a hand and said "Forget I said anything."

Anna and Elsa looked at each other with a look that Nathan couldn't tell the meaning of, then returned to their food. Nathan finished off the last of his meal and stood from the table. "I've got to go take care of a few things." He said and walked off without waiting for a response.

He walked through the halls that were just starting to come to life. Various servants and servers were walking hurriedly, trying to get the morning chores done so they could have afternoon time off. One woman caught Nathans attention in particular. A woman who looked to be about forty or fifty, with shoulder length, curly black hair that had a few streaks of grey here and there. As Nathan passed her she glared at him with a hateful eye. He didn't particularly care what other people, especially servants, thought of him, but this woman had an air of power about her, like she intended to do something about her dislike of him.

He kept walking and considered following the woman, but decided against it. He had better things to do than stalk some old bat doing her job. He continued on to his room.

Nathan opened the door and stepped inside the small room. He took a moment to look around, searching for anything that was out of place or had been disturbed. He found nothing and continued about what he had been doing. He strode over to the table by the window and sat down, picking he small orb up off the table and examining it. He still knew very little about the strange object, but he had been able to fine out a few things. It contained energy, much like a bone charm. But instead of a bone charm's constant effect the orb was triggered by something. When it was triggered it let out a large amount of power and cast a spell. What spell the thing cast Nathan couldn't tell, but whatever it was it used the majority of the orbs power in one cast. The orb seemed to recharge its power slowly over time, as the glowing at its center grew brighter the longer it sat unused.

The thing had been quite the riddle for Nathan over the past three days. He had subjected it to every test he could think of, but it remained unchanged completely. Even throwing it against the hard stone of the courtyard had yielded no results. So discouraging was this lack of progress that he had considered throwing it into the sea. But as he looked at it now something seemed familiar. He couldn't place it, not exactly, but he had defiantly seen it before, and recently.

Racking his brain for what he had seen recently he looked out the window and out across the ocean. He saw a large ship, not a strange sight in a city like Arendelle. What was strange was the flag it was flying. It was a light purple background with a yellow sun in the middle. He recognized it as the symbol of the kingdom of Corona. He stood and placed the orb back on the table, the mystery would have to wait. The royals of Corona had arrived.

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Aouthors thing:

so i'm back! i may have been not posting, but i sure as hell have kept writing. to prove it i got four whole new chapters for all ya's.

remember to leave reviews and whatever.

Thanks!


	15. Chapter 15

Nathan made his way back towards the dining hall. The chances of Anna and Elsa still being there were low, but that was where he had last seen them, and he didn't feel like casting his shadow sense spell. The halls had cleared considerably, now that the morning chores were done and the duties of many were over.

He walked quickly, keeping his stride wide and frequent. He felt like he should be the first to tell Elsa that the royals had come. Part of it was some actual commitment and him feeling it was his duty, but another large part no doubt was that he wanted to beat the captain of the guard to it. The man had tried to show Nathan up at every opportunity he got, and Nathan was growing tired of it. It was childish and unprofessional. Therefor the best thing he could do was respond in kind. He look forwards to seeing the man's face with a stupid, confused look on it. But, he thought with a smile, that was the man's default expression.

He snickered briefly to himself at his own joke as he entered the hall. He looked over all the heads of people eating, looking for Elsa's distinctive platinum blond hair. Not seeing it, he turned his attention to Anna's red braids. Those stood out much less than Elsa's near white hair, but he thought he should be able to find them. After a few moments of looking he spotted Elsa's red hair. He made his way through the hall and came to Anna's side, tapping her on the shoulder.

She gasped and turned quickly in her seat. When she saw Nathan she let out a relived sigh and turned back to her plate of food, now almost completely empty. The said "If you're looking for Elsa she's gone. You kind of upset her."

Nathan gave her a confused look and asked "How did I offend her, exactly?"

Anna gave him a look like it should be obvious. "Elsa really hates being walked away from. It's one of the only things that can really get her mad."

Nathan felt his face grow cold. "Oh" he said in the voice of someone who realized they made a mistake. "well... do you at least know where she is? The royals from Corona are here."

Anna sprang out of her seat and grabbed for Nathans shoulders. He leaned back quickly and dodged what he assumed to be a hug. Anna didn't seem to notice that she had missed, as she turned away from him and made a sound that reminded Nathan of machined that were used to cut metal. She turned back to Nathan and said "Why didn't you tell me?" she shook in place and squealed "I can't believe it!"

Nathan shook his head and cleared his throat, saying "Anyways… can you tell me where Elsa is?"

Anna looked at him and stopped shaking. "Oh. Right. She said that she was going to the library."

Nathan nodded and said "Do you want to come with me?" he asked hopefully. He didn't want to face Elsa alone if he had really made her mad. Anna looked at him with a look that one would expect to be given to a toddler.

"You have to deal with her, I'm not getting involved." She said in a voice that Nathan knew he wouldn't be able to change. He took a deep breath and stepped back.

"Alright than, wish me luck." Anna smiled at him and waved. Nathan made a pleading face at her, but she just giggled and kept waving.

Nathan sighed and walked to the door to the dining hall. He wasn't especially looking forward to speaking to Elsa if she was annoyed with him. He had dealt with plenty of annoyed women over the course of his career, and he knew how… volatile they could be. He hoped that Elsa would be more patient than the women he was used to dealing with.

As he approached the door to the library he composed himself. His back straightened from its usual hunched position and he straightened his various bandoleers, bags, and belts. He took a deep breath and opened the door as quietly as he could.

He took a few tentative steps into the room and looked around cautiously. He couldn't see Elsa anywhere, and there was some small part of him that didn't want to look. He knew, though, that he had a job to do. He took a few more silent steps into the room and looked around again. Again he saw nothing.

He blinked cautiously to the top of a bookshelf and peered between the rows. Again, seeing nothing, he jumped to the top of the next shelf, peering down. Nothing. The stress of the situation was growing to ridiculous levels for just trying to both find and avoid her. He called out to her hesitantly "Elsa?"

Somewhere not too far away he heard Elsa answer "Nathan? What do you want?" in a flat voice. He almost cringed at the tone of her voice. She defiantly didn't sound happy.

He looked in the direction that her voice came from and craned his neck, searching for where Elsa was before he approached. He could only make out the end of her crystalline cape hanging off the end of a chair, but that was more than enough to tell him where she was. He focused and blinked about half the distance and swept up behind another chair. He looked cautiously out and saw her peering over the top of the seat she was in, looking out at the rest of the library for Nathan. He knew that now probably wasn't the time, but he couldn't help it.

He focused and blinked behind Elsa and pulsed his power. He then turned to find himself facing Elsa, who was positioned in the chair so that her knees were up on the seat. Nathan couldn't help but smirk at how ridiculous she look like this. He considered clearing his throat before he spoke, but decided against it.

He spoke out to Elsa, saying in almost a whisper "The royals from Corona are here."

Elsa gasped and jumped about a foot out of her seat. She turned quickly and said in an indignant voice "I do wish you would stop doing that!"

Nathan couldn't help but smile. He put a fist across his chest and said "Of course, queen." In a deep voice. He looked up from his bow and found Elsa looking at him with a very annoyed look on her face. He felt her gaze pierce into his very soul, and he straightened back up. "I really must apologize for earlier." He said sincerely. "I didn't know that you hated being walked away from so much."

Elsa sighed and said "I think I owe an apology as well. It just that…" she hesitated, obviously considering her words carefully. "…my mother and father loved me very much, and I can't even imagine what my life would've been like without them. It's just… hard to imagine that someone could go their entire life without someone caring for them like my parents did for me."

Nathan nodded, saying "thank you. You were born with your powers, right?" Elsa nodded and he continued "That must've been pretty bad, being a kid with all that…" he wave a hand. "…shit… going on. I'm glad I wasn't born with my power. I think I'd probably be dead by now if I was."

Elsa gave him a curious look and he shook his head. "Another story for another time, right now we need to prepare for the Corona royals, right?"

Elsa nodded and stood from her chair. She turned to the door and started walking. Nathan followed and said "So what are we going to do with them?"

Elsa shrugged and said "I really don't know. I guess it depends on what they say we need to do to get rid of whatever is sending stuff after me." She look out a window and stopped, looking at the sun. "It's early." She looked at Nathan and asked "You're sure that it was them?"

Nathan shrugged and said "I can't think of another reason a ship would be flying the Corona flag." Elsa nodded and tilted her head to try and see the ship. After a few moments of this she turned back to the walk and kept going. As Nathan passed the window he glanced out and confirmed that he couldn't see it from the angle given.

They walked down to the main doors to the castle and waited there. Nathan was about to ask what they were doing when he saw the captain of the guard approaching them. He was walking quickly, and had a wide grin on his face. Nathan crossed his arm and leaned up against the wall behind him. he thought he knew what the man was going to say, and Nathan wanted to see his face fall when Elsa told him she knew.

The man walked up to Elsa and bowed, saying "My queen" in a deeply respectful voice. He straightened up and turned to Nathan, saying curtly "Sir". Nathan scowled slightly at this. Nathan and Elsa had agreed that his title was Royal Protector, and Elsa had told the rest of the staff about him, so the captain referring to him still as sir was a little bit aggravating.

The captain drew up stake-straight and said to Elsa "Queen, the ship from-"

Elsa held up a hand, cutting him off. She said "From Corona, I know." She gestured to Nathan and said "Nathan here already told me." She gave a small smile to the man. The captain scowled a moment at Nathan before he realized that Elsa was still looking at him.

Elsa looked between the captain and Nathan with a concerned look. "Is… is everything alright between you two?"

The captain looked at Nathan with a stern look, than after a moment shook his head. "No m'lady. No problem at all."

Nathan gave the man a friendly smile and turned to Elsa. "See?" he said, spreading his arms. "Bestest friends!" he said in a joking tone.

As soon as his arm touched the man's shoulders, he said flatly "Don't touch me."

Nathan removed his arm quickly and said "Ok."

Elsa looked between the two and couldn't help but giggle a little bit. The captain of the guard looked at her with a tired looking frown, and Nathan smiled at her. One moment later Anna could he heard across the hall. She was dressed up in her winter attire and looked ready for a blizzard.

She came dashing across the hall, calling "Are they here? Is it time yet?" she came to a stop, skidding to just a few inches in front of Elsa.

Elsa smiled at Anna, turned to the captain of the guard and said "Well, is it time to go greet them?"

The captain smirked at Nathan and said "Yes, their ship has just docked. By the time you get down there they shuld just be disembarking."

Nathan pushed the door behind him open, letting a huge gust of cold air. Anna and the captain both closed their eyes and brought their arms in front of their faces, Nathan and Elsa didn't react to the sudden wind. Nathan stepped out into the cold and swept an arm out towards the main castle gate, sating "Well let's not keep them waiting, shall we?"

The two women walked out the door, and Nathan removed his body from the doors path, letting it fall closed. He turned to follow the women out when the door halted before it had hit the frame. Nathan turned to see what was obstructing it, and found the captain pushing it open.

The man gave Nathan a stern look as he opened the door and let it fall closed behind him. "I'm coming." He said in a stern voice. Nathan shrugged and continued following Anna and Elsa.

The walk to the docks was a fairly short one, taking only a few minutes. The quartet came up to the only docked ship that was flying a flag that didn't belong to Corona. There were a few large men unloading several large crates from the ship, and a few young couples standing on the deck of the ship looking out at Arendelle with wonderment in their eyes. Nathan wondered if one of the pairs could be the prince and princess of Corona, but he reminded himself that Anna would likely be going berserk if that was the case. So he waited to see what would happen next.

A few more couples streamed out from under the ship's deck, but given the lack of reaction from Anna Nathan concluded that none of them were the ones. He glanced sideways at Anna and observed her face. She was staring attentively at the ship, her eyes darting from face to face with dizzying speed. Every new person that emerged from the ship brought a new spark of hope to her eyes. After a moment of examining the new pair the spark fell away, but was replaced seconds later with a new one.

Nathan switched his gaze to Elsa's face. She was examining the ship much like Anna, but with a much more concerned expression. Nathan could see what she was worried about, it was clear enough. What if something had happened to them on the trip over? It was a concern that Nathan knew he shared somewhere, but if something had than he would have heard. Of all the people who knew how quickly news spread about royals Nathan might have known the most. After a few moments of looking at Elsa's face he switched to the captains.

Blank. Totally blank. Nathan smiled, knowing that the man couldn't care less about whether or not the royals from Corona had showed up. As long as Elsa and Anna were safe at the moment he was happy. "Like a dog." Nathan said to himself under his breath.

Nathan was startled by a sudden burst of noise from Anna. She started shouting and waving her arms around like a mad person. He looked to Elsa with a concerned look, and she just pointed to one of the couples standing on the deck. Nathan examined them as Anna dashed down the docks to be at the ramp as soon as it came down.

The girl looked to be about Elsa's age, around twenty or twenty-one. The man looked several years older. Something about the man's face seemed extremely familiar. Nathan could swear that he knew the man, but as hard as he tried he couldn't place him. He dismissed the feeling as unimportant and shifted his focus to the girl. She was garbed similarly to Anna, with heavy winter clothes and boots on. She didn't have any hat, though, so her short rather messily cut brown hair was free to hang at about shoulder length.

Nathans attention was again grabbed and Anna, whose exited yelling suddenly turned to a more panicked kind of scream. He turned to see what she was screaming about and saw her tipping over the side of the dock, about to fall into the icy water below. None of the loading crew were close enough to help her, so Nathan knew he had to do something. He considered using his link power, but was painfully aware of the fact the royals would likely see it. He didn't want them to be scared by his powers as so many other people had, so he decided to appear impossibly skilled rather than magic.

He bent his back leg and exploded off of it towards Anna, propelled by a strong wind. He moved much faster than he had any right to, given how little time he had to build the speed. He felt every eye snap onto him as soon as he started, but it was better than his blink giving him away. He stopped just short of Anna and grabbed the back of her collar, pulling her back up. She made a small gurgling sound as she righted herself than doubled over gasping. She looked up to Nathan and gave him a weak thumbs up, indicating she was ok.

Nathan gave her an awkward smile and looked around him at all the people staring at him. All the eyes on him made him feel extremely uncomfortable. He gave Elsa a desperate look, and she cried out to the people "Back to work!"

Nathan gave her an appreciative nod as the ramp to disembark was lowered from the ship and people started pouring off the ship. Anna rushed past him, almost knocking him into the freezing water. He steadied himself and looked to the ramp. Anna was embracing the two who were apparently the royals, and Elsa was trying to pry Anna off them. He walked up to the small group and said "Welcome!" in as friendly a voice as he could muster. They all turned to him and he suddenly realized that he would have to say more than just that. He put an arm up in the direction of the castle and said "Let's get out of the cold, shall we?"

To his relief, all of them nodded and started walking towards the castle. He felt extremely relived as he sunk back to the back of the group and followed them off. They started talking to one another and he listened in on their conversation.

Elsa was the first to speak, saying "I'm so glad you made it alright!"

The girl (Rapunzel, if Nathan remembered correctly) replied y saying "Yes, the ride was a little bit bumpy, but we made it in one piece." Nathan noticed how similar her voice was to Anna's. It was more high pitch, but quite similar regardless. She put a hand on the man's shoulder and said "I doubt we would've made it if not for Eugene here."

The man waved a hand dismissively and said "Ah, you're going to make me blush. It was nothing, really. The crew just needed a little help with their sails, that's all." He shrugged and kept walking.

Anna took Rapunzel's hand and said in a concerned voice "what happened?"

Rapunzel rolled her eyes and said "Oh, you should have seen him. He was like… like..." she gestured wildly, looking for the right word.

The man, Eugene, spoke up at this point, saying slyly "…a hero?"

Rapunzel gave him a loving look and said "A hero." Then she pushed her lips against his.

Nathan chose this moment to look out across the cold fjord. He saw once again a massive whale breach the surface of the water and look at him. He could feel the beasts eyes drilling into him, even from this great a distance. He didn't remember stopping to look at the whale, but before he knew it Elsa was tapping his shoulder and saying "Are you alright?" in a worried voice.

He shook his head, trying to clear his mind. "Yea, I'm fine." He said in as reassuring a voice as he could. She looked him over, than looked out at the whale, just disappearing under the water. She shook her head, obviously at a loss as to why Nathan cared so much about whales.

Nathan realized with a thankful sigh that they were at the castle gates. Maybe now he would be able to deal with what had been attacking Elsa all this time.


	16. Chapter 16

The five, Elsa, Anna, Nathan, Rapunzel, Eugene, and the captain of the guard, all found themselves in a large room huddled around a fire for warmth. Anna and Rapunzel were chatting excitedly to one-another about whatever it was that girls talk about. Nathan was eyeing Eugene's face out of the corner of his eye. He was sure he had seen the men before, he just couldn't place from where. Elsa was looking between the two, trying to determine why Nathan was so interested in the man. The captain of the guard was in the room simply because he was cold.

After some time of lounging around this room, chocolates and wine were brought in by a servant. Nathan had never cared much for either, but the girls all moved with surprising speed to the tray. While they were over there Eugene leaned up against a wall next to Nathan and said jokingly "Man, they moved almost as fast as you!"

It took Nathan a few moments to realize that he was talking about how Nathan had saved Anna at the docks. He nodded and smiled, hopping that he wasn't going to ask him any questions. He said "Yea, how about that, eh?"

Eugene clapped Nathan on the shoulder and said "You've got to show me how you did that!" loudly.

Nathan moved himself away from Eugene's hand and put a finger up to his lips and threw a cautious glance over in the women's direction. "As long as the girls don't know about it, alright."

Eugene looked over at Elsa with a confused look and whispered to Nathan "Why can't they know your showing me this?"

Nathan stopped and considered this. The fact was that Elsa and Anna would have absolutely nothing against him demonstrating his powers, and would actually probably encourage a demonstration. He didn't want all the attention that would come with a demonstration to everyone, but he did want to freak Eugene out, Mature? No, but it would e fun.

"Because…" his voice trailed off and he turned to Eugene. "Do you believe in magic?" he said, making his voice as ominous as he could.

Eugene smirked at this and cast his gaze back over to Rapunzel. "Yea, yea you could say that."

Nathan found himself very curious as to what Eugene had meant by that remark. He raised an eyebrow at him and asked with genuine interest "Care to explain?

Eugene smiled and said "Why not?" he took a seat in a large cushioned chair and motioned for Nathan to do the same. He said "It's something of a story, so you're going to want a seat." Nathan did as was requested and took a seat.

Eugene took a deep breath and started off on his story. "Well, it all started a few years ago i was… well I was a wanted thief. I was one of the best, no one could catch me." He looked rather pleased with himself. "After one of my better jobs I was on the run from the royal guards. I took a few wrong turns and ended up finding a tower deep in the woods. I climbed it, of course, being chased and all, and I thought I was alone." He stopped here to take another breath. "Well I wasn't. Turned out that the tower was Rapunzel's home. Now I didn't know it at the time, but Rapunzel had been kept cooped up in that tower her whole life, literally. She was being kept there by an old women, some crazy person called "Mother Gothel"." He stopped and snorted. "She was using Rapunzel's hair to stay young."

Nathan held up a hand and raised an eyebrow at this point. "Her hair?" he asked. "You can't be serious."

Eugene put his hands up and said "I know how bizarre it sounds, trust me. You know why I call her Blondie?" Nathan shook his head and Eugene smiled. "Her hair used to be about eighty feet long and golden blond."

Nathan shook his head. "No way." He said in a sure voice. "You're shitting me."

Eugene laughed, saying "No, it's true."

Nathan shook his head and said "Nope. I've believed some stupid stuff in my life, but I'm not buying that one."

A voice right next to Nathan's ear rang out, and he found that his first instinct was to throw an elbow at whatever it was. He turned his head faster than he threw an elbow, though, and was glad he did. He found Rapunzel looking down at him. He was able to pull his elbow in, but not stop it completely. It slammed loudly into the chair that Nathan was sitting in. Rapunzel gave him a concerned look and put a hand on his shoulder, saying "Are you alright?"

Nathan grimaced and drew his arm close and started nursing it. He nodded and said "That's not really true, is it? About your hair?"

She gave him a look that he couldn't quite place and said "of course it's true."

Nathan shook his head again. "Look, I just can't believe something like that without some proof." He pointed to Rapunzel's head. "If that was true than why is her hair short and brown?"

Eugene put his hands on his hips and said in a sarcastic voice "Well maybe if you would let me finish my story you would know that:"

Nathan made a wild gesture with his hands and ended it pointing at Eugene, indicating that he should continue. He laughed and did just that. "After I got up into the tower, I got knocked unconscious by Blondie and her frying pan." He pointed at Nathan and asked "Have you ever fought with a frying pan?" Nathan shook his head, and Eugene said "Well… let me tell you, it's just something else."

Nathan snorted. "Yea, getting into a sword fight with a brick would probably be "Something else" too, but it's not something that I'm particularly interested in."

Someone laughed next to him and he reacted much the same way he did the first time, throwing an elbow. He stopped himself, though, when he saw that it was Elsa who had laughed. His face once again twisted into a pained grimace as he nursed both arms at once, making for a rather stupid sight. Rapunzel put a hand on his shoulder again and asked "Are you sure you're alright?"

Nathan stood up from his seat and gestured to it, offering it to Rapunzel. She shook her head and he offered it to Elsa. To his relief she nodded and said "Thank you." and sat down. Nathan gladly stood a few feet away from the chair. Anything to get away from being touched so frequently

Eugene spoke loudly now, to get everyone's attention. "Anyways, as I was saying, I got up into her tower, and she knocked me out. When I came to I was tied down to a chair in her hair." Elsa and Anna gasped at this slightly. "I know, right? So I had something that I had stolen earlier, and she made me make a deal with her. She said that I had to take her to see the floating lanterns, it's a festival where they let thousands of lanterns into the sky. It was started by the king and queen when Gothel stole Rapunzel away from them. She said that if I got her to the festival and back to her tower, than I would get the crown back (The crown was what I stole, by the way.)

After some pretty crazy adventures I got her to the city. We danced and sang and drank…" his eyes seemed to fog over and he seemed to be looking far away. He shook his head and refocused on his audience. "We got out to some boats to get a better view of the lanterns, and we just kind of…" his voice trailed off and he looked to Rapunzel.

She spoke up, saying "Fell in love! After that I gave him the crown, and he said he had to take care of something. Later I found out that he had tried to give the crown to some people who had helped him steal it, but that Gothel had manipulated them into going for me, but Gothel double-crossed them to get my trust back. What I thought had happened was that he had taken the crown and ran away. I was taken back to my tower, and Eugene was taken to be executed. When I was at my tower I found out that I was the lost princess."

This got Nathan's eyebrows up again. He put up a hand and said "Wait, wait, wait. How did you realize this?" Anna and Elsa gave him a look that seemed to say "Stop questioning it", but Nathan refused.

Rapunzel looked at him with wonder in her eyes. She said in a kind of whimsical way "I don't know. It was just a kind of… revelation. I just looked at some things that I had painted and then it just… clicked."

There was a short moment of silence in the room before Eugene continued with his part of the story. "While she was in her tower having random moments of clarity, I was in prison. The guards were just starting to drag me off to be hanged when a group of guys I knew from a local bar got me out of it. After I got free I headed off to Rapunzel's tower as fast as I could. When I got there I called for her to let down her hair to let me up into the tower. Just when I thought she wasn't going too, down her hair came. I climbed up as fast as I could.

I got to the top, but Gothel was waiting for me. She stabbed me in the side, and I went down like a rock. Rapunzel offered something that I just couldn't believe at the time. She offered her life, she would serve Gothel forever, if she would let her heal me."

Again Nathan spoke up with a question. "Heal you? With her magic hair?" he snorted to himself and said under his breath "sounds like a fairytale."

Rapunzel gave Nathan a stern look and said "yes. With my hair. Now shut up, you're ruining the best part."

Nathan crossed his arms and went back to listening. "Gothel accepted her deal, but I couldn't. She came to heal me, but I had a shard of broken mirror ready. Right before she was able to heal me I grabbed her hair and cut it, making it lose all its power. Gothel just went…" he paused and seemed to think for a moment before saying "…hysterical. She started flailing around and screaming. Lucky for us she tripped over Rapunzel's cut hair, and fell out of the tower. Rapunzel and I made it back to the kingdom, and a few years later we married."

There was silence again for a few moments before a knock at the door made everyone jump. Anna jumped up to go and open the door. All the people in the room turned to see who had knocked, including Nathan. When the door opened Eugene and Rapunzel gasped loudly. He looked back at them than back to the door. It was the old woman that he had seen earlier. He didn't see what they were concerned about at first, than he saw the sickly green gas that was creeping along the floor with her.

Nathan shot to his feet, and everyone else followed. The woman made a wide gesture and spoke in a loud abrasive voice "Well, if I don't have the best timing!" she pointed to Eugene and Rapunzel and said "They were just telling you my story, were they?"

Nathan and the captain of the guard both drew their swords at the same time. They positioned themselves between the royals and struck a combative stance. The woman laughed and said "There's no need for that, gentlemen. "

With that, the green fog started rolling into the room and extending long smoky fingers that licked at their faces. The woman, Nathan assumed Gothel, started walking forwards. He and the captain both put their blades up in warning. The captain said, his voice quivering "I-if you d-don't l-l-leave immediately y-you with be d-dealt with h-harshly!"

Nathan snorted and said out of the corner of his mouth while keeping his gaze on Gothel "Very intimidating, good job."

Gothel laughed at this, then threw her arms up. The fog on the ground jumped up in columns and engulfed everyone's faces. Nathan, even though he had been prepared for such an attack, got about a half breath of the stuff.

It had the consistency of steam, but none of the heat. It had a choking taste and smelled like sulfur, but it wasn't the same kind of gas that he was attacked with the first time. He knew that he had to get out of the gas as soon as possible. He focused on a spot behind Gothel and pulsed his energy.

He spun around to face her, then put a hand to his head. His vision was swimming red, and his muscled ached to move. Rage filled his mind, he wanted to hurt, to maim, to kill something.

Somewhere in his mind a part that wasn't going berserk told him to look at the others who had been affected. He did, and saw Elsa screaming, Anna was tearing at the cushion if a seat, and Rapunzel was throwing punches at Eugene.

This had to stop. That much he was sure of. He could only think of one way to stop it right now.

He swiped at the woman with his blade. She spun quickly to face Nathan and laughed at him. this only made his blood boil more, and his swipes become more rapid and more wild. She dodged each swipe as fluently as if she was just a leaf in the breeze, as if she wasn't there at all.

Gradually Nathans slashes slowed and he felt his mind starting to gain traction against the rage inside him. He tried to think of what had saved him from the first time that this had happened conjuring the memory was hard, and he hadn't been killing anything, so it just sort of blended with everything else that had happened. But the solution had something to do with killing, that much Nathan was sure of. Was it one of his powers? Yes. It had to be. But which one?

Shadow form.

His mind still felt cloudy, but the answer came easily now. He focused his power and felt his body be consumed by darkness. It didn't clear his head like he had hoped it would, but it did give him the edge in his fight.

He threw his shadow body at Gothel and took great delight in the resounding scream that she gave. He felt his shadow wash over her, and positioned himself perfectly for a strike at her back. His flesh and blood reformed out of his shadow, and like a coiled spring he shot out. He saw the blade plunge into Gothel's flesh, but…

There was no resistance to the blade. What should have been blood was just another gas spraying out of the new wound. Nathan howled in frustration as Gothel turned to a cloud of gas. He swept the blade through the noxious cloud, hoping for some effect, but nothing happened. After a few swings at the cloud it started to float away out a nearby window.

He gave up trying to hit the cloud, it was clearly useless. He heard shouting from behind him and spun to see what it was. The sight that he found was one that not even he was really prepared for.

Elsa had Anna and Eugene pinned to a wall with spikes of ice jutting out from the ground. The thing that attracted most of Nathan's attention, though, was the captain. He was pinned to the wall in the same way the others were, with the exception of the fact that the spike that was keeping him on the wall was embedded in his gut.

Crimson rivulets were dripping down the spike slowly. Nathan found himself very deeply troubled. Not by the man currently nailed to the wall, but by Elsa. She was only inches from the man's face, and seemed to be… enjoying the man's pain immensely. She had such a bizarre smile that it gave Nathan goose bumps.

Elsa put a finger into the blood that was running down and then put the finger into her mouth. The look that fell across her face was the disturbingly similar to that she had gotten when she was eating chocolate. Nathan realized that the spike in the captain's gut was slowly growing larger.

Nathan didn't really like the captain, but he didn't deserve what was happening to him. Nathan focused (not an easy thing to do at the moment) and blinked right behind Elsa. He raised a hand cautiously, about to tap her shoulder, than thought better of it. If she was doing this to someone she had known for years than there would be nothing stopping her from turning on him.

Something occurred to Nathan, and he looked over at the others pinned to the wall. They were straining against the icicles that were holding them against the walls, screaming and cursing at Elsa. He looked back to Elsa with a feeling of horror. She had the others lined up, and was going to do the same to them as she was doing to the captain.

He wrapped his arm around Elsa's neck and pulled as hard as he could. As soon as his arm put pressure on Elsa's neck a huge gust of freezing wind blasted him in the face. He kept a tight grip and kept pulling, waiting for Elsa to go slack. As she struggled she threw an arm up, and Nathan felt a stabbing pain in his lower back. He looked down over his shoulder and saw a spike of ice jabbing into him.

Hurriedly he let Elsa go and focused his power. The spike stopped, Elsa stopped, even Nathan stopped. He cast his attention to the rafters far above, and pulsed his power. He knelt down and turned to look down at Elsa. She was looking around for him franticly, shouting insults and provocations in hoped of drawing Nathan out. It seemed that she was at least no longer set on killing the captain.

Nathan looked down at his new wound and cursed himself for being so careless. He put a hand to the puncture and got the blood on his glove. The blood was a bright red, and there wasn't too much of it. He gave a little thanks to whatever force in his brain had reacted so quickly and looked back down at Elsa. She didn't look like she was going to figure out where he was any time soon, so Nathan sat on his heels and watched he pace angrily around the room.

He cursed himself again. He should have known something like that would happen. He needed some way to disable Elsa first, before he went in to knock her out. He went through a mental list of his powers, and found nothing that would really work. He doubted that being attacked by his shadow would throw her much, and that was really Nathan's only power that would act directly on someone. He sighed in frustration and dug into his pockets, looking for anything that would help him.

He pulled out a single rune and turned it over in his hands, considering possibilities. He shut his eyes tight and focused what he could of his mind on the energy in the rune. The shadowy power of the bone drew him into the void, and he harnessed the power around him. He molded the shadow into a ball and thought again about what he needed to do. His brain ached from all the thinking he was doing, but he shook his head and kept going.

He looked again at the ball, and considered what this simple shape would do. As far as he could tell it would simply create an orb of darkness. He considered the effects of this, and actually found himself favoring the simplicity of the spell. The simple shape would mean it would have a very low energy cost, and the effect it had would make the spell very effective. He thought about what he could add to it to make it more effective. He drew power from the other runes he had and added them to the ball, making it much larger while keeping a low energy requirement. He added a few layers to the all that would allow limited control over the orb when it was out, and put all of his remaining runes but two into the spell, figuring he wouldn't have much use for them if he failed this.

He sealed the spell, and felt the power of the runes burn into the shape he had made. As soon as the last rune's power was gone his mind felt like it was shot out of the void and back into his body.

He was again on the rafters above Elsa, sitting on his heels and watching her. She was starting to turn the room upside-down, casting chairs and curtains aside looking for him. he smirked to himself and said to himself under his breath "They never look up."

He stood up and stretched his back. After it popped sever times he drew his left hand up to eye level and slowly funneled power into his new spell. It started as a small thing, a little marble sized ball of darkness, but as Nathan put more power into it grew to about palm size. He felt the spell reach its capacity for power put in, and cut of the flow of energy.

He gave the thing one last look as he drew it back behind his head. It was absolutely dark, no light was in the space of darkness. Nathan wondered why he hadn't thought of this spell sooner, and whipped the little ball as hard as he could at Elsa. It traveled through the air straight at her, unaffected by either gravity or the mighty winds Elsa was conjuring. As soon as it made contact with Elsa it expanded to engulf her completely. Nathan felt some small connection to the ball form in his mind, and he flexed it experimentally like a new muscle. The orb responded by growing and shrinking its size according to how he manipulated the link.

He expanded it to about the size of being able to fit around five people across inside it and found that, just as he would expect of an orb, the top expanded to almost touch the ceiling. He heard Elsa shout in both fright and frustration. A few spikes of ice erupted from inside the black sphere, but they didn't hit anything and stopped moments after their creation.

Nathan looked around the room now for anything that could give him away on his approach. There wasn't much left in its original place, most of the furniture had been lasted to the outer edges of the room by Elsa. He didn't see anything, so he dropped down from his perch and met the fall with bent knees.

He strode calmly towards the orb of darkness and flipped his sword around so that the blade was point down. He put a small bit of power into his shadow-sense and felt the orb light with information. He stepped into the ball of darkness and walked to Elsa, who was stumbling through the dark and flailing, panicking at the sudden loss of sight. He crouched down and took each step lightly to avoid making too much noise. He drew up behind Elsa and readied his blade. He brought the hilt of the sword crashing into Elsa's temple with enough force to make even him cringe.

Elsa's body crumpled to the floor, unconscious. Nathan raised his hand and waved it, making the huge ball of shadow dissolve into nothing. The screaming of Anna, Eugene, and Rapunzel stopped for a moment as they took in the sight of Elsa at Nathan's feet before resuming a second later. Nathan took Elsa over his shoulder and strode over to the captain of the guard.

His breathing was shallow and his face was very pale. The blood that was still leaking from his gut was a dark red, almost black. Nathan considered what he could do for the man and came to the conclusion that all he could do was let someone else try and fix him. He brought his blade against the spike keeping him on the wall, and the captain's body fell like a ragdoll to the floor. The spike was still embedded in his gut, Nathan knew that removing that would only speed the man's death. He set Elsa down on the floor and took the captain up instead.

As soon as the man was in his grip he blinked to the other side of the room and kicked the doors open. He bellowed at the top of his lungs "Guards!" and waited for some response. Sure enough, the thundering footsteps of many boots came from a side hall, and six men came into view. They all saw the captain in Nathan's arms and gave Nathan a fearful look. He held the captain out to one of the men and said "Get him to a medic." In a solemn voice. The man who took him nodded and went running off through the corridors. Nathan turned to the rest of the men and motioned for them to follow him.

He led the men to the area where Elsa was unconscious on the floor and the others were still bound to the wall. He motioned to Elsa and said "Get her somewhere safe, and lock her up. Don't let her out, no matter what she says, until I come retrieve her." One of the men nodded and took Elsa in a careful hold before walking quickly out of the room. The other men simply looked at Nathan with confused and worried expressions. Nathan just scowled and turned away, turning his attention back to the others still pinned to the wall.

He didn't particularly want to just club them over the head as he did Elsa, but he didn't see much in the way of other options. Now that he had time, though, he put some serious thought into it. He cringed when he realized that the answer was painfully obvious. He sighed in frustration as he drew his crossbow from his belt. One of the guards still lingering in the room put himself between Nathan and those pinned to the wall. For a moment Nathan thought the man intended to fight him, until he realized what he must be thinking.

Nathan pulled the bolt out of the track on the crossbow and reached into a pocket, withdrawing a much smaller dart. The end of the dart was coated in a wet, slimy looking substance. Nathan handled the dart with care, taking special precautions with the poisoned tip. He loaded the dart into the bow and leaned to the side of the man in front of him, shooting at the closest pinned person, who happened to be Anna.

The dart stuck in the side of her neck, and Nathan knew the poison would take only seconds to work with such a perfect shot. Anna struggled for a few moments before she went limp. Nathan pushed past the man in front of him and brought his blade against the ice keeping her pinned to the wall. He caught her as she fell, preventing her from slamming her head into the floor. He handed the unconscious Anna to the man, saying "Same as Elsa." Before turning to the other two pinned to the wall and loaded another dart into his crossbow.

The same was done to Rapunzel and Eugene, and Nathan put his crossbow back on his belt. He turned to the last guard and said "lock down the castle. I want guards everywhere, checking everything." The man nodded and went running off through the halls.

Nathan turned back to the wrecked room and heaved a heavy sigh. Gothel could still be around, and his head was mostly clear. There was no chance of him falling asleep after that, so he decided that he would join some of the guards on their patrols. He wanted to e sure that Gothel was gone, and he had a feeling that his shadow sense was the only reliable way to do that.

He walk wearily out of the ruined room and started putting power into his shadow sense spell.

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Goddammit this chapter was so close to five thousand words.


	17. Chapter 17

"Nathan, you never cease to be interesting, do you?"

Nathan peered blearily around him. He wasn't in his bed, that was for sure. He was standing in the middle of a large room that had large windows on one wall. Two small children were off to one side, frozen in time. They looked remarkably like…

"Yes, Elsa and Anna." the Outsider kept speaking "There was once a time when they did this quite frequently. But now they sit in their library, talking and reading. Strange, isn't it? How the older you grow the less fun you seem to have."

Nathan walked closer to the kids. Elsa was casting magic on the ground, and Anna was jumping from one pile of snow to another. Elsa had a very worried look on her face, and looked like she had been frozen mid-sentence. Anna, on the other hand, looked like she didn't have a care in the world. Nathan wondered why Elsa looked so frightened when Anna appeared so happy.

"You remember when I told you Elsa thought herself cursed for some time, but you are curious when this feeling started in her." Nathan couldn't help but agree. He had given the matter some thought and had only come up with vague ideas of what caused her outlook on her powers. He could guess that it had something to do with the scene the outsider was showing him, though.

Slowly, the scene came to life. Anna slowly left the pile of snow she was on and moved through the air to land on the next one. Elsa shot magic at the ground to make another pile for Anna to jump to. She slowly seemed to lose her balance and fall to the floor. Anna didn't notice and kept jumping. Elsa hurriedly scrambled up and shot a desperate bolt of magic.

The bolt wasn't aimed, though, and Nathan could tell what was about to happen. At an excruciatingly slow pace, the bold made its way through the air and collided with Anna's head. As soon as the magic made contact with Anna, everything stopped again. Anna had a pained look on her face, and Elsa looked totally panicked.

Nathan would've felt sad for her, if it hadn't already happened. His pity wouldn't change anything, this had all already happened. Nothing could change that. He turned sideways to the outsider and gave him a questioning look. Why was he showing him all this?

The outsider seemed to smirk at Nathans unasked question. He leaned back, and the scene around Nathan melted away into another.

Nathan found himself in another place. He was standing in a room with a single bed and a small bookshelf or two. The major thing that Nathan noticed, though, was the layer of frost that covered everything. It took him a moment to process, but eventually he came to the conclusion that this must have been Elsa's room. As if to confirm this, he saw Elsa sitting on the floor with her head resting on her knees. He could see tears streaming down his face and her back raising and lowering in random spasms that he knew was crying. Nathan looked to the outsider for an explanation.

"Elsa didn't take the news of her parents' death very well. She locked herself in her room, and didn't come out for days. The ruling staff had to take over at this point, due both to the fact that she was emotionally unfit to rule and that she was not yet old enough to take the throne." The Outsider looked to Elsa crying on the floor and said "she spent days like this. Doing nothing but crying. She attempted suicide twice in that time."

Nathan looked up at the Outsider, quite surprised. It was very strange to hear this information in the Outsider's flat monotone voice. He didn't know why he expected anything but that, though. He had never heard the Outsider speak with even a hint of emotion.

He looked back to the softly sobbing Elsa on the ground and wondered how she had tried to kill herself. As if in answer to this question, the scene shifted slightly. Elsa was standing in the open windowsill and looking down. Her breathing was deep and quick. Nathan knew that if she kept breathing like that she would hyperventilate. She had a strange look in her eyes. It was like she was half in turmoil and half completely at peace with what she was about to do.

Nathan stepped over next to her at the window and looked down. The ground was about three stories down, enough to do some major damage, but not enough to kill if she stayed upright. He looked sideways at Elsa and, even though he knew she wouldn't jump, he wanted to speak some comfort to her. She just looked so... broken.

Her breathing got even heavier for a moment and she put one foot out of the window. Than her breathing got very shallow, her eyes rolled back in her head, and she fell back. Her head hit the wooden floor with a thud, and Nathan let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding.

The scene shifted again, and Elsa was sitting on the floor next to her bed with a razor sitting next to her. Nathan eyed the blade with an unsure look. Elsa took a deep breath and grabbed the razor without looking at it. She held it in a shaky grip, and it almost fell out of her hands several times. She brought the lade up to eye level and slid one sleeve down and brought the knife to rest on her bear skin.

Nathan noted that the place she was going to cut didn't have enough blood flow to bleed her to death. The most it would do was hurt. She dragged the blade across her milky skin, and crimson beads started welling up out of the cut. Tears started flowing from Elsa's eyes and she brought the razor to the other arm, doing the same to that arm.

When she finished she threw the razor to the other side of the room where it clattered to the ground. A little spot of blood was left where the razor hit the wall. It dripped down slowly, and Elsa curled into the fetal position on the ground, bawling.

Nathan looked down sadly at the crying Elsa on the ground. The Outsider spoke, saying "She tried this once. After this her servants had to come and clean the blood from the floors. She never told them where it came from, but they knew where it came from, and she knew they knew. Those servants still work here. They avoid Elsa's gaze when she speaks to them. They are afraid that if they ever tell anyone they will be punished."

Nathan looked at the cuts on Elsa's arm. They weren't very deep, but they were defiantly deep enough to scar. He wondered if the scars were still there. The Outsider spoke again "Of course Elsa isn't the only one who has undergone such hardships. Anna has gone through similar hardships, but they never got as bad as Elsa's. She is a naturally happy person, so depression didn't have quite so much of a hold on her. She got over her parents death in weeks, rather than Elsa's months."

Nathan was about to ask the Outsider why he was showing him all this. He didn't really see any point to it. Than he opened his eyes.

The sun was blazing through his window into his eyes, and the knocking at his door was getting louder. He threw his legs over the side of the bed and heaved a heavy sigh.

"What is it?" he spat irritably at the door.

A voice said from the other side "Queen Elsa wants to talk to you."

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Elsa drew a sharp breath and looked around her. She was somewhere she didn't recognize. It was a rundown looking building that looked hardly habitable. The room was dark, but there was a light coming from behind her. She spun to see what it was coming from and gasped when she saw a small group of kids huddled around what looked like a pile of burning trash.

She ran over to them, calling out to them as she went. She reached them and knelt down next to one, asking "Are you alright?" but the child just kept staring into the flames as if he hadn't heard her. In fact… not that she looked, none of the kids were moving. They all seemed frozen in place, as if some bizarre force had simply called time to a halt. She looked to the fire, and found that not even that was moving.

A monotone voice rang out from the silence. It said "Hello again, Elsa."

Elsa gasped and fell away from the direction the voice came from. She looked around frantically but didn't find anything. Then, as if from nowhere, a man appeared floating just above the flames. He looked down at Elsa and cocked his head like he was puzzled at her reaction. He spread his arms and said "did I startle you? That was not my intention, believe me."

Elsa narrowed her eyes and shook her head. "Why?" she asked "Why should I trust you?"

The man smiled, like she had asked a question that had such an obvious answer that it was painful. He folded his arms again and said "I suppose you don't have to, but what other choice do you really have? What cause have you to not trust me?" he leaned forward and said in a knowing voice "I've never lied to you before, Elsa."

Elsa looked down. She didn't really have any reason not to trust him. And he had never lied to her before, that was true. She looked back up to the floating man and waited for what he would say next.

He smirked again, like he knew what she had just thought, and leaned back out. He gestured to the kids sitting around the fire and asked "Do you know who these are, Elsa?"

She shook her head and said "No… I have no idea."

The Outsider cocked his head again and said in a matter-of-fact voice "But you do. You know two of them." He pointed to one of the boys. He was huddled close to the fire, and looked like he was talking to several of the others. "Rapunzel's husband." He said "Eugene Fitzherbert."

Elsa stepped closer. He looked like he was in the middle of a story, frozen in the middle of some kind of gesture. Elsa looked him over. He was covered in dirt, and looked thin, almost to the point of being malnourished.

The Outsider pointed to another boy, one that Elsa hadn't even seen. He was short, with dark hair and sunken eyes. Elsa recognized Nathan, even years before current times. He looked much older than most of the other kids. He was looking towards the fire with a yearning expression, holding himself and looking very cold. Elsa wondered why he didn't just walk over to the fire and warm up.

Then she saw the bloody knife at his side. The room melted away, and was replaced by a dank looking alleyway. Elsa looked around her, and found more people frozen in time. It was Nathan again, this time in the middle of an action. The action, as it turned out, was jabbing a small knife into the throat of a wealthy looking man. She gasped when she saw it, and the Outsider spoke again.

"He told you that he started stealing to get food for the other children, and he didn't lie, but that's not all he did. His roots as an assassin stretch further than he would have you believe." Elsa looked up at the Outsider with confusion in her eyes. "The first person Nathan killed was another orphan, only two years older than him. He did it as both an act of self-defense, and as a means to secure food and shelter for other kids as much as himself." The Outsider looked over at Nathan and said "He hasn't stopped killing since. Not really. There may have been brief interludes between each death he caused, but it never really stopped." he looked back at Elsa and said "Yes, Nathan's past is a rather bloody one."

The alleyway melted away, and Elsa found herself standing on a small wooden platform surrounded by sheer nothingness. The outsider was hovering a few feet in front of her, looking expectantly at her. He said "Have you ever killed anyone, Elsa?"

She shook her head, unable to speak. The Outsider smirked again, and said "That time may come sooner than you think, Elsa."

With that everything faded to black. Elsa frantically flailed and blinked, trying to ring back her sight. When it did come, she found herself staring at a grey stone ceiling. She sat up on the uncomfortable shelf and looked around her. She was in a cell.

She looked down and saw the same kind of shackles on her hands as the time that she had been captured by Hans. She wondered why she was put in a cell, and tried to think back to what had happened. Some witch had opened the door… Nathan stepped forward… everything after that was just a blank. A pounding pain erupted in the side of her head and she clutched it, gasping. She called out to the door "H-hello? Is anyone there?"

She heard a crackling, and looked down to see a thin layer of frost forming over her shackles.

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Again, remember to leave some review or that kind of thing if you want.

Thanks again for reading all this! it really means a lot to me.


	18. Chapter 18

Nathan was glad in some small way that he had cast shadow step on Elsa before he went to sleep. It meant that he wouldn't have to make the long walk down to the dungeons. He gathered his gear and put it all on, ready for anything. As he got ready to cast the spell he drew his blade. "No such thing as too careful" he said to himself idly before pouring power into the spell.

His shadow jumped up from the ground and made a gate. Nathan stepped through it confidently, and fount the trip much more pleasant than the first time had had taken it. After a brief moment of sensory deprivation he found himself standing in a dank dark cell. He found the change jarring, but felt more comfortable in the darkness than he did in his bright room.

A rattling behind him prompted to do a quick turn and raise his blade ever so slightly. He found Elsa on her feet just inches away from him. The chains on her shackled were pulled taught, and she was straining against them, her eyes shut with effort. He took a small jump back and felt his back hit up against the cold stone wall with a quiet thud.

Elsa heard this and opened her eyes. She saw Nathan and stopped straining against the chains. "Nathan" she said in a panicked voice "what's going on? Where is Anna and everyone else?"

Nathan looked past Elsa and saw the bed that she had been placed on. It was covered in a thick layer of ice, and it seemed to be creeping up off the bed and on to the wall. He looked back at her and examined her worried expression carefully. It was clear that the cruel air that she had been giving off last night was gone, replaced entirely by concern for the people she had almost murdered.

Nathan sighed and sheathed his blade. Elsa, who didn't seem to have noticed the sword, flinched when she saw it, but seemed relieved when he sheathed it. Nathan motioned to the bed, indicating that she should take a seat. She did and he started pacing from one side of the small cell to the other.

"Well…" how did one explain that you had almost killed your best friends? He started again, saying "You… sort of…" Elsa was looking at him eagerly, waiting to hear what had happened. Nathan took a deep breath and started over. "You remember the captain of the guard?" he instantly felt the urge to hit himself. Remember? Why the hell had he said that?

Elsa's face darkened, and she said "What do you mean "Remember"? What happened to him?" Nathan felt the air in the room plummet in temperature. He let out a deep breath, and looked at the white mist that exited his mouth. The ice on the bed behind Elsa cracked and creaked as if made its way further up the wall.

Nathan decided that there was no point to beating around the bush. "You kind of… injured him quite badly." Elsa looked down and looked on the edge of tears. "You didn't kill him!" Nathan said quickly, than hesitantly followed with "But he's not doing too well."

Elsa peered up to Nathan with a confused look and asked "Why?" in a hurt voice.

Nathan shrugged and said "Some kind of magic that Gothel used to send us into a rage. I didn't get all of it, so I had the clarity to go for her. But you, having your powers, just kind of" Nathan waved an arm to indicate how easily she had swept the others away "beat them. Although for some reason you didn't just turn to mindless rage." He considered something that hadn't really occurred to him before. "You were much more…" his voice trailed off as he realized that if he told her exactly what she had done and how cruel she had been she would probably have a breakdown.

Elsa gazed expectantly at Nathan, waiting for him to finish his sentence. He continued slowly and carefully. "…you were much more powerful and skilled in combat, allowing you to dominate them with ease."

Elsa nodded, it made sense after all. Her powers would let her overpower nearly anyone if she really tried. "Did I hurt anyone else?" she asked as a new wave of concern washed over her.

Nathan smiled and said "No, I was able to knock you out before that happened."

Elsa put a hand to her forehead and said "That would explain the headache."

Nathan smirked and leaned back against the wall. It seemed she was totally free of the effects of the gas, so it should be safe to let her out. He was about to suggest this to her when there was a knock at the door. Both Elsa and Nathan looked over to the door, and Nathan strode towards it.

A small slit in the door slid open and a pair of green eyes Nathan didn't recognize stared through at him. a nervous voice came through the slot and said "Royal Protector, we umm… can you step out here a moment?"

Nathan exchanged a puzzled look with Elsa before turning back to the door and nodding. The door slid open and Nathan stepped out. Two royal guards were standing outside the door shuffling uncomfortably. As Nathan left the cell one closed the door behind him and slid the little slot shut. Nathan crossed his arms and leaned up against the door and said "Yes?"

The two looked at each other nervously before one said "We were sent to tell you… that… the captain is dead."

Nathan was about to respond when the door he was leaning on exploded off of its hinges. He was knocked to the ground as the door fell on top of him. He heard the two men shout in surprise and run off. He shouted a curse at them as they ran off but they didn't stop. He turned his body under the door and pushed it up, off of him.

He kicked the door up and scrambled out from beneath it. It fell back to the stone ground and made a loud crash as it hit. Nathan saw a thick wall of ice flowing over the empty frame, blocking off Elsa's cell. He cast the first spell he could think of at the door. A small snake of his shadow shot out of Nathans hand and went skittering in through the door just as the ice sealed it off. Nathan felt his shadow like with Elsa's and breathed a small sigh of relief.

It seemed that Elsa's magic had stopped, so Nathan approached the icy barrier and tapped on it with a knuckle. He called out "Elsa! Are you alright?" than put an ear to the ice.

All he could hear was sobbing. It sounded very similar to the crying he had heard from her in the vision the Outsider had shown him. He pulled his head away from the ice and stepped back. He had to calm her down, but he doubted his own ability to do so. Something he didn't doubt, though, was Anna's ability.

He set off at a sprint through the dank halls, searching for any guards. He came to the exit to the dungeon and found one man posted at the door. He skidded to a stop and addressed the man. "Where is Princess Anna being held?"

The man pointed to a door further down the hall that had another guard posted in front of it. He sprinted over and said "Open the door."

The guard looked at Nathan with a puzzled expression, saying "but you said…"

Nathan shoved the man out of the way and threw the door open. He found Anna in a small cell that was separated from two other cells by a thin wall of bars. He quickly tried the door and found it locked. He sighed in frustration and ran out of the room again.

He snatched the keys off of the guard's belt as the man was picking himself off the floor, muttering to himself. He didn't seem to notice, so Nathan returned to Anna's cell and shoved the key in the lock.

The door creaked open and Nathan squeezed inside before it had opened even halfway. He knelt down over the unconscious Anna and said loudly "Anna! Anna you have to wake up!" she stirred, but settled back down on the floor. Nathan shook her and said "Elsa really needs your help!"

This got her attention, and her eyes shot open. She sat up quickly and smacked her forehead into Nathans face. Nathan jerked back, but wasn't fast enough to avoid the hit. Anna put a hand to her forehead and Nathan pinched his nose. Blood started flowing from Nathans nose and he leaned his head back.

Anna apologized "Oh, oh sorry! I didn't… sorry."

Nathan held up a bloody hand and said "No, it's alright." He got to his feet and said "come on, we have to help Elsa." Anna got to her feet as well, and the two set off at the quick jog.

The two reached Elsa's cell, and Anna leaned up against the ice. "Elsa, Elsa come out!"

A voice, muffled by the wall in the way, came out "No, I don't want to hurt you!"

Anna threw herself against the ice and shouted "Elsa, we can help you control it, please!"

Nathan saw that this back and forth would be going nowhere, so he decided to interject here. "Elsa, you only did what you did because you were under the influence of a spell. No one will lame you for what you did, you were bewitched!"

The crying stopped, and Elsa's voice came through saying "R-really?"

Anna looked back at Nathan and smiled, grateful for his help. She said "Yea, if anything this will get people rallied against Gothel."

The wall of ice came down slowly. Anna was looking in hopefully and Nathan put a hand on the hilt of his blade cautiously. As soon as there was enough room in the ice, Anna ran through. Nathan followed, still prepared for anything.

As soon as he entered he let his hand fall to his side. Anna and Elsa were hugging in the middle of the cell. Elsa didn't look very good. Her eyes were puffy and red, her hair was messy and out of its usual order, and she was shaking profusely. Anna was putting Elsa's face into her shoulder and patting her head, whispering "It's of, it's ok." to her in a soft voice.

Nathan looked around the room. It was now almost completely covered in a thick layer of frost. The air in the cell was at most half that of the already cold dungeon. Elsa's shackles lay shattered on the ground, twisted and crumpled like they had turned to paper for Elsa to just tear off.

Elsa looked up from Anna's shoulder and said to Nathan "I want t-to see him."

Nathan turned back to them and said "I… I don't think that's a good-"

She cut him off, pushing Anna away slightly and saying resolutely "I want to see him."

Nathan looked to Anna for help. She gave him a sorry shrug and mouthed the words "I don't know". Nathan looked back to Elsa and imagined all the things that could go wrong. Two days ago he would've thought that he could deal with whatever happened, but given what he had seen her do last night…

"Elsa…" he started "…my job is to protect you and Anna." She started to speak but he rose his voice slightly and cut her off "And you demonstrated last night that you have the capacity to inflict immense damage. Now last night you were being manipulated, bewitched, into hurting others. But the fact remains that you can still do that." Elsa looked down at the floor and tears began to well in her eyes. "I have seen your powers… act up when you are…" he searched for the right way to say it "emotionally compromised." She looked back up at him and sniffled. "If you see that corpse, I don't only think, I know that you will react strongly" he stepped forwards and took her hand to emphasize his point and said "because you love." She looked up at him and got a puzzled expression. He continued talking "You loved that man. Maybe not with a romantic love, but you cared for him deeply." He looked right into her eyes and said "If you see him, you will react."

Elsa starred back at him and Nathan saw a determined fire blaze in her eyes. "I will control it." she said in a deadly serious voice "I will control it, and I will" she said emphasizing the word will "see that body."

Nathan let go and stepped back. She was standing strongly now, with her fists clenched and her breath deep. Nathan knew now that there was no way to dissuade her from seeing the corpse, so he may as well be there to offer what comfort he could. "Very well." He said in a defeated voice. Elsa got a small smile on her face, and Anna gave Nathan a puzzled, worried look. Elsa started walking to the door but Nathan put himself between it and her. "But you go on one condition."

Elsa rolled her eyes and said impatiently "What?"

Nathan put out an open hand and said "You do what I say, when I say it. If I say leave, you bolt." He put his hand out a little farther. "Deal?"

Elsa looked at him with a hard expression for a moment, then saw the seriousness on his face. Her hard look cracked and she hurriedly took his hand and shook. He nodded and moved from the door, allowing her through. She walked through quickly, leaving Anna and Nathan alone in the cell. Nathan turned to Anna and sighed, saying "Well, come on then." before turning and following Elsa.

As he passed the guard by the door he said "Let the others out their cells as well." The man nodded and walked off in another direction.

When they came to the morgue Nathan found Elsa leaning on the door, breathing deeply. He came up behind her and said cautiously "are you alright?"

She gave a weak little laugh and said "What do you think?"

Anna came up behind Nathan and waited to see what would happen. Nathan was about to say that they should leave, when Elsa pushed the door open. Nathan smelled the blood as soon as the door opened. Elsa took a deep breath and walked in. Nathan followed behind her.

The body was laying on a wooden table in the center of the room. It was still dressed in the captain's clothes, and the gaping tear in the gut was much more obvious than Nathan had been hoping it would be. Elsa's breathing started to get quick again, and Nathan considered telling her to leave. He didn't, though. He may as well just let her grieve in peace.

She lifted the edge around the wound and looked in. A horrified expression erupted on her face and she stumbled back, falling to her knees. Anna was by her side in an instant to whisper comforts and reassurances in her ear.

Nathan wondered what she had seen that would frighten her so much. He walked to the body and lifted the fabric the same way she had. Then he saw what had frightened Elsa. The man's insides were almost completely shredded, and among them were small pieces of ice, still not melted.

The part of Nathans brain that possessed medical knowledge recoiled as it realized what would inflict damage like this. The spike that had stuck the man to the wall must have been… rotating. In combination with the spikes that Nathan could see still embedded…

Nathan shuddered as he imagined what that must have felt like. Ones organs being so thoroughly destroyed? If he didn't know better, he would've thought that the man had been caught in some industrial machinery. He looked back at Elsa, unable to wrap his head around how she would even entertain this thought, let alone use it. Even he, under the effect of Gothel's spell, hadn't become so vicious. He had become angry, but it seemed Elsa had become something else entirely. He wondered what had been different between them.

He had had met a few of the medical staff, and they hadn't really impressed him. They didn't seem like very skilled medics. But now, knowing they had kept the man alive until this morning, he had a new respect for them. He looked over the rest of the body and noted that they had done a very good job of cleaning it up.

He noticed that the room had grown much colder than it had been when he entered. He looked back at Elsa and saw a light dusting of snow beginning to swirl around Elsa and Anna. Anna was looking at Nathan with a worried expression, and Elsa was starting to breathe more heavily. Anna was still whispering to Elsa, but Elsa was clearly not hearing her.

After a moment Elsa pushed Anna away and stood. She gave a panicked look to Nathan and said "I can't…" her voice trailed off, drown out by a sudden howling wind in the room. Elsa motioned to Nathan that he should get Anna out of the room. He nodded and took a step towards her.

The wind doubled, and Nathan stumbled, catching himself on the table the body was laying on. Anna has clutching Elsa's shoulders yelling something, but the howling wind choked out everything she said. Elsa was screaming back trying to warn Anna but she refused to leave her.

Nathan braced himself and stepped forward. The wind felt like a whole solid object, pushing and battering him relentlessly. He knew that trying to walk in such a torrent would not work. He focused his mind on a spot behind Anna and pulsed his power for a blink.

The spell worked, and he turned to grab Anna. He grabbed her by the shoulders and gave a hearty pull. She resisted though, swinging one arm at Nathan while holding fast to Elsa with the other. Nathan looked desperately to Elsa for help, but her eyes were squeezed shut and her mouth was moving, talking to herself.

Nathan readjusted his grip so that he had a fistful of the collar of her shirt and gave one last pull, putting all of his strength and weight into it. He saw Anna's eyes bulge out and the hand on Elsa went to her neck. He felt kind of ad about choking her like this, but Elsa was clearly not stable.

Now that Anna was not holding onto Elsa, Nathan was free to get her out of there. He blinked as quickly as he could out of the room and pushed Anna out of the direct line with Elsa through the door. She tumbled to the ground, and Nathan turned back to Elsa.

She was on her knees cradling her head like there was a massive pressure pushing on her mind. Nathan tried shouting again, but the words died as soon as they left his mouth.

His mind went to his crossbow. He still had a few sleep darts, but he doubted his ability to make the shot through the wind.

Then, as soon as it had started, the wind stopped. Elsa looked up and her hands fell to her side. Nathan called out to her, saying "Elsa! Are you alright?"

She looked up at him with an expression that projected so much fear that he couldn't help but feel his knees start quaking a little bit. Anna was up by this point, and tried to push past him. She was screaming "Elsa, Elsa are you alright? Elsa!"

Elsa's eyes flicked from Nathan to Anna, then suddenly her whole body tensed. Nathan felt something, raw power, emanating from her body. It was like a massive wave, barely contained and threatening to break through. Nathan's eyes widened as he realized the danger she was trying to keep back.

Than Elsa started screaming. It was a guttural scream that sounded like it was tearing her throat apart. Nathan realized what was about to happen, and shoved Anna to the floor again. He then returned his attention to Elsa. He was looking at her just long enough to see a blast of crystalline blue energy shoot out of her mouth. This seemed to strengthen the power of her scream, as it grew louder and all the more horrible.

Than the wave broke. Elsa's body shuttered and her pure power shredded its way out of her control. Nathan felt the magic rippling through the air just a moment before it impacted him.

His mind had time to realize several things in the time it took his body to be blasted against the wall behind him. The first was that the force of the blast was not as much as he had been expecting, what he had expected was something that would break a few of his bones on impact, but the wave that hit him was just enough to send him flying and nothing more. The second thing was that he was now extremely cold, and that the cold of this blast could still very well damage him. The third thing that he realized was that he had saved Anna from the blast. And the last thing he realized was that he could feel his mind slipping down into unconsciousness.

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as always thanks for reading guys


	19. Chapter 19

Nathan opened his eyes slowly. The stars were glimmering above him, and thin streamers of light were winding through the sky. The air was brisk and cold, stinging his lungs as he drew breath. He tried to move but found that he couldn't quite manage it. His limbs felt much too heavy to move. He couldn't even lift his head to look around him.

Than a voice rang out. It was blurred, like Nathan's head was underwater, and he couldn't make out the words. Another voice answered the first. Nathan still couldn't understand but he could tell that this voice was much deeper than the other.

He thought back to the last thing he could remember. It was being thrown against a wall by Elsa. The memory was fuzzy and he couldn't recall the finer details, but he defiantly remembered being thrown. Why had she thrown him? He remembered a blast of power, was that what had thrown him? Why had Elsa been throwing so much energy around?

Something slid under his head and lifted it slightly. He heard garbled voices again and tried to move his eyes. It was hard, but he managed. He saw three blurry figures. One of them was much shorter than the others, standing at most a third of their height off the ground. He wondered why the figures were so blurry, and one of them got closer to him.

As it drew closer its face became clearer. It was a grey stone like thing, and Nathan felt like he had seen it before. It had a big nose, and that was more or less the extent of what he could tell about it. It spoke in a gravelly voice again but he still couldn't understand. It put out a hand and set it down on Nathan's forehead. He wondered briefly what it was doing before an electric shock racked his body.

He felt his mind return to him quickly as his body gave a large spasm. In an instant he was up on his feet in a flurry of motion. He just had time to straighten up completely before a skull-splitting pain attacked his brain. He groaned and fell to one knee and put a hand to his head.

The figures around him gathered around him and started gibbering, barely audible over a new ringing sound flooding his ears. He felt them putting hands on his back and trying to pull him back to his feet. It suddenly occurred to him that he didn't know who these people were, or if they were people at all. In spite of the pain he threw his arms out at the figures and stumbled away from them.

Something caught on his foot, and he tumbled back. Before he hit the ground something much softer than the dirt stopped him. He let whatever it was break his fall and tried to focus his eyes on the figures still coming at him. His eyes stubbornly refused to focus, and he gave up on that.

Than he realized the things that were beneath him were hands. He flailed again, trying to escape. At a word from one of the figures the hands closed, completely restraining him. No matter how hard he pulled he couldn't loosen the grips the hands had on him.

The figures were getting closer to him and his efforts to escape redoubled. He tried to focus his power, but the ringing and the pain provided a massive block. He found himself unable to work his mind around the block. Not only was he unable to focus his power, he found no power to focus. His reserves of magical energy were completely empty.

The figures came close to him now, and he tried to push himself away from them. He didn't make much progress, though, and one of the figures approached him. It extended a long limb towards him, and he writhed away from it. It hesitated a moment before taking hold of one of Nathan's pouches and pulling it off of his bandoleer. He tried to think what that pocket had contained, but was too panicked in the current situation to think clearly. It pulled the pouch towards it and started removing things from it, systematically throwing what took to the ground. After several of the items fell to the floor the thing seemed to find what it was looking for.

It took the thing and held it out to Nathan, pushing it against his head. He tried franticly to pull away from it, then felt something strange. The pain in his head died and the ringing quieted. He recognized the feel of the bone charm. He stopped his struggles and tried again to focus on the figure. This time he was able to make out a few things, the primary one was that the figure was mostly the same color of Elsa's dress.

He got a sinking feeling in his stomach as he started realizing what was happening. His head was still foggy, but the pieces were starting to fit together. The small figure was most likely the troll that they had taken him to when he had been incapacitated the first time, the one that just helped him was Elsa, and the one that hadn't really done anything yet was Anna. He would've felt his cheeks burning if he were not still freaking out about the hands holding him.

Elsa seemed to notice this, and spoke a word to what must have been more trolls under him. The hands all gave one big push and he was flung to his feet. He stumbled unsteadily forwards. He would've fallen again if Elsa hadn't caught him. She pulled him up so she could look directly into his face and he stared blankly back at her. She tried to say something to him but it was still impossible to understand.

Something occurred to Nathan, and he thought to himself that he might have a concussion.

He kept staring blankly into Elsa's face as she kept talking to him. After a few moments she stopped and looked at him expectantly. A few more seconds of silence passed and the small troll next to Anna said something. Elsa took Nathan's hand and led him over to it and pushed his back to get him to bend down. He did, and the troll put a handful of leaves up to Nathan's nose. Before he could pull away he inhaled and coughed at the strong smell of the leaf.

As he coughed he said "What the hell is that?"

Elsa and Anna laughed, and the troll gave Nathan a smile. "Welcome back." he said happily and addressed Anna and Elsa, saying "his senses are back, but his body must recover normally. He requires rest."

Elsa and Anna nodded, and Nathan said "What? I feel fine now." He took a few steps around and almost fell again. Anna moved quickly to catch him, propping him up on her shoulder. He pushed her away saying "I don't need any he-" his words were cut short by a compressed gurgling sound and he felt his diaphragm tighten. He doubled over and heard what little fluid was in his stomach splatter on the ground by way of him mouth.

He spat a few times and wiped his mouth, than stood back up. He turned back to Anna and found her looking at him like he was an idiot. "I" he said "am concussed, aren't I?"

The troll nodded and said "I have done what I can for you, but you require rest."

Nathan nodded. "Rest sounds pretty good right about now." He turned to Elsa and asked "How are we getting out of here?"

Elsa was also giving him a look that told him that he was missing something. She wordlessly pointed, and Nathan saw about twenty feet away a horse stamping on the ground. "Oh." He said flatly and put a hand to his head. "I think I really need some sleep." He said in an almost pleading tone. Anna put his arm over her shoulder and helped him over to the horse, and Elsa stayed back to thank the troll.

Nathan clamored up on to the horse, and Anna followed. Elsa came back and looked up at them. "Ready to go?" she asked and both Nathan and Anna nodded. She got up on the saddle and squeezed in front of Anna and took the reins. She dug her heels into the horse's sides and took off.

After a few minutes of silence Nathan spoke to Elsa "So you got everything under control while I was out?"

She looked down and seemed sad. "Yes." She answered "in a way, I did."

Nathan wanted to get a better answer, but supposed that it would have to wait until a more appropriate time. He turned his attention to Anna in front of him and asked quietly enough that Elsa wouldn't hear him "Is she all right?"

Anna turned and gave him a look that said "I'll tell you later" and turned back around. Nathan sighed and leaned back slightly in the saddle. It seemed everything would have to wait until they got back to Arendelle. It occurred to him that he didn't know where this little troll coven was, and he put his attention to his surroundings to try and learn where it was.

The ride took them through a fairly dense forest that Nathan was overall unfamiliar with. He looked blearily through the trees and could've sworn that he saw a few pairs of glowing eyes from between some trees. He tried to point them out to Anna but they were gone by the time she looked, and she gave him another one of those looks of concern. He insisted that they had been there, but even as he was talking he started to wonder himself.

He'd never had a concussion, so he didn't know what exactly they did. For all he knew, hallucinations like that were totally normal. He made a mental note to ask the doctors back at the castle about the effects of excessive head trauma.

He wondered if his powers were still blocked. After all, the pain was gone, and that was the thing that had been the major block for his powers. He experimentally reached for his power and found very little. He chose to test with his shadow orb, and he pushed his power into the spell. A small ball of shadow grew in his hand and he held it up to his face. It seemed unchanged from what it normally was, and Nathan nodded to himself, satisfied. He sucked the power back from the spell and the orb shrank quickly to nothing.

A feeling of building pressure started in his head, and he pushed the numbing bone charm against his head harder. It didn't relieve the sense of pressure. He went for the bag on his front that contained bone charms and found it. For a brief moment felt it in his hand, than his eyes widened and he started to sweat. He remembered Elsa throwing charms to the ground. He hadn't picked them up.

He must have given off some noise or something, because both Anna and Elsa looked back at him worriedly. Elsa saw the bag in his hands and gave him a smile. She pulled a sack that looked like it was made from woven strands of grass from the front of the saddle and handed it to Anna, who handed it to Nathan than turned back around.

He took it and hurriedly dug through it, counting each charm individually. After he finished that bag he moved to his pouch. When he had the number he compared it to his last count. Than he realized that he couldn't remember his last count. He gave a frustrated sigh and thought as hard as he could about what his last count had been. The thought only made the pressure in his head worse, so he stopped.

He tried to focus on something else instead. The landscape flying by provided something to look at without making him focus too much. He watched the trees and hills whiz by, and must have dozed off at some point, because he blinked and found the horse approaching the gates of the castle.

The gates were sliding open slowly and Elsa was talking to the guard stationed on the wall above. They were saying something about people being concerned about the gates being closed, but Nathan didn't catch the details. The two bid farewell and the horse walked through the now open gate.

As the horse entered the courtyard both Anna and Elsa got off before it stopped. Nathan continued to sit on the thing, waiting for it to stop so that he could get off more easily. The two women both went to one side of the horse and looked up at Nathan, who looked down at them and said "What?"

They looked at each other than Elsa said "Nathan, you can't get down on your own and you know it."

Anna gave Nathan a puppy dog face and said "Just let us help you!"

Nathan scowled down at them and said "You think I can't do this on my own?" in an offended voice. "I'll show you." He whispered to himself as he swung one leg over the horse. Or tried to, anyway. His foot caught in the stirrup, pulling the saddle to the side. The leather band that wrapped around the horse to keep the saddle in place came loose, and the whole thing slid to the side. Miraculously enough, Nathan was still on the saddle. His grip had tightened as soon as he felt the movement (about halfway down) and he had been able to clutch on hard enough to keep him there. He just sat for a moment, upside down, his hair brushing the ground. "Well" he said from under the horse in a flat voice "I've failed." He could hear Anna and Elsa giggling at him, so he said loudly in their direction "I could use some help over here!"

The giggling got a little muffled as they covered their mouths and bent over to help. They tried to push the saddle back upright, but with Nathan in it was too heavy. They tried to get Nathan to just drop from the saddle, but he said his foot was tangled in some straps. When they looked they found a mess of leather wrapped around Nathan's boot. It took several minutes for them to untangle him, but eventually they got his foot free. Elsa took his shoulders so that he wouldn't just fall and Anna took his legs so they wouldn't slam down on the ground.

The next thing they had to do was convince Nathan to let go. He insisted that a fall from the height he was at would seriously injure him. Elsa tried to demonstrate to him that he was hardly an inch off the ground, but he insisted he was higher. Eventually she just told him to relax all his muscles. He grudgingly complied and as soon as he did she pulled as hard as she could on his shoulders. His grip on the saddle broke and he slid along the ground slightly as she pulled. Anna guided his legs down carefully and set them down gently. Nathan hadn't reacted at all when he was pulled off, just letting himself be torn off the saddle.

Anna and Elsa took a step back from him and let him lay a moment on his back. He looked up at them and said "There, that wasn't so hard was it?" Anna snorted and Elsa put a hand to her forehead as Nathan tried to clamor to his feet. As he righted himself on one knee his vision swam and he could feel himself falling. He braced his body as hard as he could, than felt the light push of the ground on his chest. His vision cleared and he saw that he had fallen about a foot from kneeling to ground. He got up and tried again, this time with the help of both Anna and Elsa.

This worked out much better, and he found himself actually able to stand with their help. The world spun wildly though, and his steps were slow and uncoordinated. He knew that he wouldn't be walking anywhere on his own any time soon.

The two women helped him into the castle and through the halls. He had to stop a few times to keep himself from falling over or spewing again. He may have passed out again somewhere along the trip, because before he knew it he was looking at the door to his room. Anna was opening the door so that Elsa could usher him through the door. He walked as best he could with Elsa's support and made his way to the chair by the small table, more falling into the chair than sitting down.

He looked up to find both Elsa and Anna standing around him. They were asking concernedly saying "are you going to be alright? Do you need anything?"

Nathan looked around the room and thought of things he might need. He looked to the table and thought of one thing that he did want. "Water." He said in a shaky voice.

Elsa looked to Anna and said "I'll get it." than rushed off through the door.

Nathan looked up at Anna and said "So, what's up with her? What happened while I was out?"

Anna sighed and took a seat on the edge of Nathan's bed. She said "Well after you got blasted, she passed out. All I could think to do was to call for the doctors. They gave you some help, but said they couldn't do anything for Elsa. We were all worried about you're…" her voice trailed off and she waved a hand at Nathan's head.

He gave her a confused look and asked "My concussion?"

Anna gave him a puzzled look and said "What? No, we knew you'd be fine, we were worried about the…" she gasped suddenly and said "You haven't seen it, have you?"

Nathan shook his head and said "Seen what? I don't know what you're talking about."

Anna got up and went to a set of drawers. She threw one open and shuffled through it, then pulled out a small hand mirror. She brought it back over to Nathan and handed it to him wordlessly. He took it and looked into it.

His black hair was marked now with several streaks of white running through. He put a hand up to it and felt the changed hair. It felt the same as the other hair, but it was strange to see something he was so used to be so different suddenly. He noticed something else, and looked deeper into the mirror.

Anna noticed his change in focus and said "What is it? Is something else different?"

Nathan pulled his eyelid up and looked at his eyes. He knew what color his eyes had been, they had been a dark brown, but now they were a faded grey-blue color. He looked away from the mirror and handed it back to Anna. She looked from the mirror to Nathan's face several times before she seemed to notice what he had seen.

She gasped again and said "Are you alright? What does it feel like?"

Nathan shrugged "Feels pretty normal to me."

Elsa walked back into the room with a glass and a pitcher of water. She stopped in the door frame and looked between them, than down at the mirror. She gave Anna a look that was somewhere between anger, regret, and thankfulness. It was a weird look.

She walked carefully across the floor, picking each spot of her foot to fall carefully until she came close enough to set the pitcher and glass down on the table. She looked sadly at Nathan out of the corner of her eye and said "I'm sorry." quietly.

Nathan poured himself a glass (taking special caution to ensure the water got into the glass) and said "For what?" he shrugged "You didn't mean to, so I've nothing to be mad about."

Elsa gave him an appreciative look and said "Thanks."

She turned to Anna and said "It's about time for bed, don't you think?"

Anna looked at Elsa and said "Wha…" than seemed to realize something. "Oh! Yes, it's getting late."

Nathan looked between the two and said "What?" in a confused voice.

Elsa rolled her eyes and said "We have some business to do with the Corona-ins. Boring royal stuff, you know."

Nathan nodded and said "I'll be here. Asleep."

The two women nodded and id him good night, closing the door and blowing out the lantern behind them.


	20. Chapter 20

Nathan woke up falling. Or, more accurately, he woke up flailing. The covers of the bed were wrapped around him and keeping him from throwing himself from the bed. After a moment of trying to grab something to stop his nonexistent fall, he stopped and realized he was reacting to a dream. He forced himself to stop and look around.

He reaffirmed to himself that he was not plummeting through the air and sat up. He looked to his window and saw the sun absent from the night sky. He stood from his bed and got his gear on. He took the bone charms that were usually across his chest and pulled the bag from a pocket. He sorted through them, spilling them out on the table and examining them.

He picked them up one by one and placed them to his ear. After he knew what the one he was holding did, he made a mental note of it and put it off to the side. He was looking for a specific charm. One that would help him to recover. The majority of charms he didn't need to check, as he could tell by just the look of the charms which were more powerful. The one he was looking for was a powerful charm, a thing called a witches charm. It was a bone charm that was made up of shards of regular bone charms.

He typically avoided such charms as they tended to do more damage than good when used. Each one had a benefit, but also a drawback. The drawback was usually something to do with the benefit, like if the benefit was you were harder to see than the drawback would be that you were harder to loose.

He moved all the normal charms to one side of the table and all the witches charms to another. He started sorting through them, and after a few minutes he found the one he was looking for. The charm thrummed in his hand and made that otherworldly sound. It was called "supernatural recovery" and he hadn't used it much. It made wounds and injuries heal at a much accelerated rate, but at the cost of crippling his magical energy.

He took the charm and clipped it into his bandoleer. Immediately he felt the well of power he had gotten in his sleep change. It didn't lessen or dry up, but it was like the charm disrupted the magic's generation in Nathan's body. He knew that he wouldn't be able to cast nearly as many spells now. Maybe a single shadow form and a blink. If he was lucky.

He looked down at the rest of the witches charms. The magic crippling effect that he had now was a common drawback of those kinds of charms was common, and it wasn't like he could generate negative amounts of magic…

He looked through the rest of the pile like a kid in a candy shop. There were so many charms he had never used. It was difficult to decide which ones he wanted now that he could use them. Of course he had to limit himself from choosing anything dangerous, which actually narrowed the selection considerably. He took a few that had the same crippling effect and listened to what the benefits would be.

One he chose had the effect of letting him fall huge distances without injury, and another made him near impossible to detect if he wasn't moving. Another one let him gain massive amounts of energy when he killed something, and yet another let his own power block physical damage directly. So many choices. He decided to keep looking through the pile.

He chose a charm at random and inspected it. It was a charm that he recognized as being called "unnatural acrobatics". It would greatly increase things like depth perception and balance, again at the cost of magic regeneration. He decided that with his concussion this charm might even his movement out back to normal, and added it to his choices.

He looked over the rest of the pile. There weren't many witches charms left, and he almost wished that he had more. The effects they had were so fun sometimes, but in the end he preferred the stability of the regular bone charms. He took the charm that would make him being detected mostly motion based, called "statuesque" and turned his attention to the regular bone charms.

This pile was much bigger than the other, with probably around thirty or forty instead of the barely ten of the others. He knew these charms much better than the other ones and already knew which ones he wanted. The pain charm was a given at this point. He reached forwards and took it first, adding it to his bandoleer. The next one that he grabbed was one called "resilient". It had much the same effect as the "supernatural recovery" but it was much weaker, and had no drawback. He didn't actually know if the effect of the two would stack with one another, but it couldn't hurt.

He didn't really have any other charms that would help him recover, so he started raking the remaining bone charms back into the pouch. Something occurred to him, and he walked across the room to his set of drawers and slid the bottom one open. He removed the little pearl that the smoke man had yielded and examined it again. It didn't look any different, but Nathan could now think of one more way he could test what it was.

He picked a charm up off the table and examined it first. It was one that he had never found much use for, called "pricked touch". It made it so that if anything living touched him it would get a little needle-like wound where it had touched him. He had never really seen the use of it, so he didn't mind losing it should something happen to it.

He touched the charm and the pearl together carefully, holding them away from him. He waited a moment before bringing them apart again. He tapped them together a few more times experimentally but nothing happened. He sighed disappointedly and tossed both back onto the table.

He started walking to the door, ready to start the day, when he heard a hissing sound behind him. He turned cautiously and saw the pearl shaking on top of a bone charm. He walked back over to the table and looked at the pearl. The light inside it looked like it was draining out of the bottom into the charm. He quickly tried to identify the charm that it was affecting, but he found that he couldn't.

After a few seconds of the pearl draining its internal glow drained completely. It stopped shaking and rolled off the top of the bone charm. Nathan picked it up carefully and felt it. It was cold to the touch, and the light had gone dark. He turned his attention to the charm that it had interacted with. It looked the same, with its cracked and slightly burnt ends.

He picked it up and as soon as his fingers made contact with it he felt something. Something strange and different than what normal bone charms did. He hesitantly took the thing and put it up to his ear. The sound that it made was bizarrely different from the other charms, but also implacably similar. He tried to listen to what its effect would be, but it was too different to tell. It was like it had become another kind of bone charm altogether.

He shrugged and added it to his bandoleer. If he couldn't tell what it did, than he would find out some other way. He took the now dead pearl and put it back into the drawer he had taken it from. "No sense in throwing you away" he said to the .little pearl "I may learn something yet."

With that he strode to the door and left his room.

The hallways were dimly lit and felt empty to him. He wondered what time it was and decided to go and see if the cooks were up yet. With some degree of effort he recalled how to get to the dining hall and set off on his way.

He didn't pass a single person for the entire walk there. Seeing the castle so still and empty was strange, and he wondered if it was like this every morning. He came to the large doors of the dining hall and found them closed. He pushed them open with a considerable amount of effort and walked inside. It was dark, with sunlight just starting to stream through the windows. He took a moment to take in how much more he liked this lighting scheme than how it normally was. He looked around at the various tables and wondered if he could jump from table to table.

He walked over to one table and put one foot up onto the table. He was about to push himself up when the world started spinning. He tried to grab onto the table to keep his balance but failed, and went stumbling off to the side, luckily landing in a chair. His stomach instantly started to churn and his head pounded painfully.

He got up from his seat and walked slowly to the door, still holding his stomach. He put his shoulder up against the door and pushed as hard as he could without vomiting. The door creaked open slowly, and he wormed his way through the narrow opening between the door and wall.

He walked slowly through the hallways, not knowing where he was going. He propped himself on the wall with one arm while holding his stomach with the other. He walked unsteadily along the wall while looking for someone to help him.

After a few minutes of shambling along the wall he heard footsteps. He turned and saw a foot just disappear around a corner. He called out "Hey! Hel… help me!" and started making his way towards the corner that the foot had disappeared around.

He took slow shambling steps, dizzy again in spite of the charm. He lost his footing, and in a desperate attempt to reach the wall, threw himself at the wall. This move worked, and his shoulder smacked into the wall with a solid thud that made Nathan glad he had the numbing charm.

He pulled himself around the corner at the same time the person did. It was a maid, as it turned out. Her head poked curiously around the corner at the same time that he did. Their faces were mere inches from each other. The woman's eyes took a second to focus on Nathan, but when they did she let out a terrified scream.

She stumbled back from Nathan and fell to her back, still managing to scoot away from him. Nathan, for his part, was holding his head in his hands still trying to recover from the pain that the sudden spike of noise had brought. By the time that his head had cleared from the pain the maid was gone.

He put his hands back to the wall and continued walking. While he walked he thought about where he was going. The library would likely be empty, the dining hall he had already been to, and he didn't want to go outside. The thought suddenly occurred to him that he didn't even know why he was up and out of bed. He stopped walking and looked down at the ground with a bewildered expression.

There had to be a reason. Surely he wouldn't have just gotten up for no reason. He wasn't that bad, was he? He looked to the side and out a window. The sun still hadn't come over the horizon yet, and the moon was just starting to dip. He saw his reflection in the glass of the window and examined himself.

His eyes were still a grey-blue color, and his hair still had a few white streaks running up and down the strands of black hair. He ran a hand through his hair and stared at his reflection, wondering why the maid had run away from him. He wasn't that ugly, was he? He looked down at his chest at the new charm he had gotten and wondered if that had something to do with the woman running away.

He looked back at his refection and felt something nagging at his mind. His reflection reminded him of someone. He tried to place who it was. It was a girl, it was someone he had met recently, it was someone important…

He cursed himself quietly and said "Come on, think!"

He suddenly associated his new partial hair color with someone and recalled her name. "Elsa!" he said loudly "That's the one!"

He turned away from the window and looked to the halls of the castle. "Now how do I get to her…" his voice trailed off and his shoulders dropped.

His stomach seemed to have calmed and his balance was starting to return to him, so he walked semi-normally through the halls, stumbling only occasionally and not falling over even once. He found himself at the base of the spiral stairs that he on some level knew would take him to Elsa's bedroom.

He struggled to place his feet on the stairs and keep his balance as he pushed himself up the winding staircase. His balance gave out about halfway up the first flight, and he dropped himself to his knees and kept climbing. By about the second floor he felt the urge to vomit return. He stopped and breathed deeply, trying to settle whatever in his body had been upset by the stairs.

As he sat there breathing, he thought about his various charms strapped to his chest and wondered how he would feel if he didn't have them. He thought about removing one to see how severe his concussion really was but decided that that would be an incredibly bad move. If the effects of the charms returned him to a barely functioning level than he didn't want to know how the crippling effects of his concussion would feel without the buffer of magic.

Then that was another thing, the magic. Elsa had hit him with a last of her magic, and beyond the head injury he hadn't felt any effects of the power. His body had changed though, minor changes, but changes nonetheless. He felt like he should feel something related to the power she had hit him with. He had seen the raw amount of power that she had let off, and he knew that he was probably lucky to still be alive. With his mind in the condition it was in and his own power blocked for the most part to help the healing, he was rather unwilling to experiment on himself to find what the effects were.

His nausea and dizziness past slowly and he continued pulling himself up the stairs. The going was slow and unpleasant, but he had to speak to Elsa. He continued crawling, walking, and pulling himself up the stairs and eventually came to the third floor. He almost cried with happiness when he reached the top of the stairs and lay flat on his back the floor.

As he lay looking up at the ceiling a faint ray of sun fell through the windows and straight into his eyes. He raised a hand to shield his face from the bright light and groaned. The light made his head hurt and his eyes ache. He rolled over to shield his eyes from the light and pushed himself back to his feet.

He continued pushing his way forward and bracing himself against the wall and window shielding his eyes all the while. He focused his mind on the things in front of him, the wooden floor, the paper on the walls, and especially the two side-by-side doors that he knew led to Anna and Elsa's bedrooms. Anything to distract him from the pain of his eyes burning. The issue of which room belonged to which person was one that he would deal with when he came to that hurtle, not before.

He staggered over to the other side of the hall and found himself regretting getting up this morning. He looked unsurely at the two doors, trying to remember which room was Elsa's. He stepped back from the two doors and examined both of them and weighed the two against each other.

One had blue diamond patters on it, the other had brownish-red patterns. Both were of identical size and shape. One was to his right, one was to his left. He shook his head to clear his mind and looked back at the doors. He felt like the answer was painfully obvious, but he just couldn't see it.

See it…

He put his eye to the keyhole on the door with the red-brown pattern and saw a wild mane of bushy red hair sticking up from under the covers of the bed. Defiantly not Elsa.

He stepped back from that door and turned to the other one. He raised his fist to knock on the door.

.

.

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sorry this one took me so long, just had to get my brain juices(?) flowing again. the next one will be soon i promise.

as always leave a comment and whatever.


	21. Chapter 21

Elsa was having a wonderful dream. It was something about bright fields and the warm sun. She was a small child, just as she had been about sixteen years ago. Anna was there too, laughing and playing with her. They were running around in the field together playing various games and having a good time.

Her parents were sitting not too far off, shouting encouragements at her and Anna in-between loving words with his wife. He and his wife were wearing casual wear today instead of the formal military-wear he usually had when dealing with ruling the kingdom. Today he wasn't the king of Arendelle, today he was a father.

After some time he joined in their game of hide and seek. Elsa and Anna decided quickly that he should be the one to seek them. He agreed and turned away from them and started counting down from ten. Elsa and Anna scurried off into the tall grass and threw themselves to the ground becoming almost completely invisible. As their father reached zero, he turned back to the direction that they had been in and uncovered his eyes.

Anna and Elsa gave a few suppressed giggles as he said "Now where could they have gone?" to himself as he brushed a few blades of grass aside so he could see a bit of the covered area. He saw the small foot of a child disappear into more of the tall grass and smiled, chasing after it.

Elsa gave a screech of delight as she looked back and saw her father chasing after her. She went tearing off through the grass as fast as she could. She ran as quickly as her little legs would carry her, but no matter how quickly she ran her father only gained ground.

She looked briefly to the front of her just in time to see Anna looking surprised at her. She rammed into Anna at full speed, sending both girls sprawling on the ground. Their father walked up and, laughing, picked up both Anna and Elsa by one leg and held them up above his head, shouting to his wife "Honey, look what I caught!"

The woman laughed and said "Put them down dear, you'll hurt them."

He looked to the two upside-down children in his hands and said "No, I don't think these little creatures are as frail as they look." squinting at them. He pretended to examine them for a moment than called out "But they might be good to eat!"

His wife laughed and the girls screamed playfully. They struggled half-heartedly to free themselves from his grip, but failed. He carried them over to the blanket that his wife was sitting on and set them down gently, wrapping them tightly in the blanket so they couldn't move. He sat down and pulled a basket full of food from somewhere the girls could not see and said "see? We've got just enough to serve them both up."

The girls struggled against the blanket that bound them, but to no avail. The king said "Of course, we'll have to stuff them first." The queen gave him an exasperated smile and opened the basket. Elsa could smell the sweet scent of the food, she could almost taste it…

.

Than a dull knocking woke her up. She sat up in her bed and looked around her. The various crystalline ice formations around her room reflecting thin rays of sun, shooting them all over the room. She rubbed her eyes and looked out her window. The sun was barely out yet, shining weak rays of light all over the room. Her first thought was wondering why someone was waking her up this early, and her second was that they had better have a really good reason too.

She pulled herself out of her bed and walked over to her wardrobe, dragging her feet all the way. She threw the doors to her closet open and took a few articles of clothing down, putting them on hurriedly. After a moment of examining herself in a mirror to make sure she was presentable she stepped over to the door and braced herself mentally for whatever royal business lay beyond the door. She opened the door and said "Yes?" expectantly.

Then she looked at what was in front of her. It was certainly not the messenger or guard that she thought it would be. Her eyes took a moment to focus on whatever it was, but when they did she gasped and stumbled back.

The thing in front of her was totally alien. It was like a mass of turning and twisting shadows had come together to form one body, barely held together by writhing and twisting bands of darkness that flitted across the surface of its body and then was wiped away the next moment. The thing was in a humanoid shape, with its arms and legs hanging loosely on the rest of its body and shoulders slumped. It was about her height and of a slightly stronger build than her. It seemed to emanate a feeling of dread, making her mind jump to horrifying conclusions as to why the thing was in front of her.

Elsa let out a horrified scream and threw an arm up defensively, prompting a spike of ice to shoot out of the ground and spike towards the thing. It dodged slowly away from the spike and said something in a bizarre voice that echoed around the room, stepping forwards towards Elsa and putting a hand out as if it was concerned.

Elsa fell to the floor and shot another spike at the thing, this time the spike looked like it grazed the things head. It reeled back from the spike and toppled over to the floor. A beam of light fell directly on its chest, and Elsa could see a patch of fabric become visible through the writhing shadows. She got quickly back to her feet and got into a more combative stance, using her magic to turn the beams of reflected light to the things face.

The twisting blackness receded to reveal Nathan's face, which said "What the hell are you doing?" loudly. She dropped her arms and rushed over to him to help him up. As soon as his face left the beam of light the shadows returned, completely hiding his identity.

Elsa got him back to his feet and said "Nathan, what is all this?" and gestured to the shadows covering him. He looked down at himself and said something that was completely incomprehensible. Elsa looked at him a second before saying "I can't understand a word your saying."

The dark figure of Nathan fumbled around with something on its chest for a minute before the shadows flew off of him and into something in his hand. Elsa looked down and saw a bone charm. Nathan was looking at it with a puzzled expression, saying "That's interesting…" before his voice trailed off.

Elsa gave him a puzzled look and gestured at the charm. He smiled and said "I was wearing it to see what it did. What did it do, by the way? Other than make you a psychopath."

Elsa sighed and dissolved the ice she had summoned into the air. She walked over to her bed and took a seat, saying "I don't know, make you a big… shadow… thing." She looked again at the window and said "Nathan, why are you up this early? You should be in bed resting. I should be in bed resting. We should both still be asleep!"

Nathan smirked and said "Yet here we are." He looked down at the charm in his hand and held it out to Elsa. "Here, use this." Elsa was about to ask him why but he preempted her by saying "I just want to see what it looks like."

Reluctantly Elsa took the charm and pushed it against her chest. She didn't feel any different, but Nathan jumped back and exclaimed "Whoa!" She looked down at herself but didn't see anything different. She stood from the bed and took a step towards Nathan, saying "Well how do I look?" in a playful kind of voice.

Nathan only tilted his head in response. It seemed that he couldn't understand her. She couldn't help but wonder where he had gotten the charm. She walked past him and stepped in front of a mirror. Her reflection was normal, there wasn't a single out of place shadow at all. Nathan stepped behind her and looked at her reflection as well. A thoroughly confused look came over his face and he said "Well that's very interesting."

Elsa assumed that her reflection was as clear for him as it was for her, and held the charm out to him. She didn't see the shadow come off of her like it had for Nathan, but by the way his eyes followed something to the charm she could also safely assume that he saw it.

He took the charm and pocketed it, nodding his appreciation to Elsa. Elsa yawned widely and said "So is that it, or…"

Nathan's eyes widened and he said "Oh!" than put a fist to his forehead and said to himself "What was it, what was it, what was it?" he turned and paced around the room a few times with his eyes closed. Elsa grew slightly concerned about him. She said "Nathan? Are you alright?" He nodded silently but the motion didn't do much to reassure Elsa. He had a concussion, and a very serious one at that. Her medical staff had told her that he might think he was fine, but he needed rest.

She stepped forwards and put a hand on Nathan's back and said "You need rest. You should go back to your room and sleep. Nathan stopped his pacing and wriggled away from Elsa's hand.

He opened his eyes back up and looked at her, saying "What? No, I'm fine." His focus returned to the mirror and he stared into it briefly. He took a few steps towards it and stared intently at his own face. Elsa was about to ask him what he was doing when he suddenly turned and snapped his fingers. "I remember!" Elsa jumped slightly, startled by his sudden movement. He looked at Elsa and pointed at his eye and hair. "What is this?"

Elsa gave him a confused look and said "It's your eye… and your hair. You've had them for some time now."

Nathan shook his head and said "No, no, the change, the pale, the white!" he stopped and took a deep breath before trying again. "The magic that caused the change, what is it? Has it happened before? It has to have some effect beyond hair dye, so what is it?"

Elsa sighed and looked down. She said "Yes, it's happened before. It's that when you got blasted, some ice formed in your body. Pabbie said that because you have power, you are more resistant though, so it won't freeze any more of you." Nathan gave her a puzzled look when she said Pabbie and she cleared it up "The troll."

Nathan nodded, than raised an eyebrow and said "When did this happen before?"

Elsa's eyes fell and she heaved an even heavier sigh. "I almost killed Anna once." Nathans eyes widened and he seemed to focus more on her. She continued "I froze her heart with my power, and she would've frozen solid if she hadn't saved me."

Nathan looked slightly worried, and asked "Am I in danger of dying like that? How would I stop it?" He started fidgeting, pulling at the strands of white hair and picking at his pale grey eyes. Elsa hated to see him acting like this. She was the reason he was doing that.

She said "Well, Anna was able to unfreeze her heart by saving me, because it was an act of true love."

Nathan's shoulders dropped and he said grimly "Well than I hope your troll friend was right, because if he wasn't… I'm royally fucked."

Elsa was a bit taken aback by his profanity, but was more disturbed by the comment as a whole. "Surely you have something you love!" she said hopefully. She wanted desperately for there to be some way that he could save himself from her magic if it started to be a problem. If he died because of her…

Nathan put a hand to his chin and started making a low humming sound as he thought. After a moment of this he stopped and said "No… no I can't really think of anything."

Elsa's face fell again, and she turned away from him. That couldn't be true. Everyone had to love something, right? Maybe he was right, maybe he didn't love. Was it because of his past; His bloody, sad, unfeeling past? He had to love. If he didn't love anything now, than he would start soon. She was sure he had at least the ability to love.

Nathan spoke up, saying "What is it with you people and love, anyways?" Elsa turned and looked at him. he continued "Love isn't some mystical, all-powerful force." He put a thumb to his chest "I have a mystical power." he pointed to Elsa "You have a mystical power." He swiped his hand through the air and said "And neither of us can claim to use love as power."

Elsa wanted to say that that wasn't true, that she had used love plenty of times, but for each example she thought of she realized that love hadn't provided any power, just shown the way to use it. Nathan continued "Now I won't deny that love has sway over people, I've seen enough to know that. But love only affects you as much as you let it." Elsa heard him take a deep breath and she looked back up at him. "Though I… suppose that could be why I don't really love anything."

Elsa looked him over now, paying much more attention to how he actually looked. He looked tired, like he hadn't gotten much sleep. His eyes were sunken and looked unfocused. His shoulders drooped and his back was hunched more than usual. His face was a stony blank expression. Elsa felt responsible for all of it. She knew what she would do if it were Anna like this.

She spread her arms and walked towards Nathan, who eyed her suspiciously. "What are you doing?" he said cautiously. Elsa didn't respond as she kept approaching him. As she got close enough to actually close her arms around him he started backing up. "Elsa I don't want a hug." he said with a growing tone of concern. She still pursued him, and after a few seconds of him backing up he backed into the wall.

Elsa took advantage of this, circling her arms around him and latching her hands together on the other side of him. He struggled against her grip for a moment, then stopped. "Just this once." He said in a grudging voice.

Elsa smiled. She knew it would work. She felt the tension in Nathan's body fall away slightly. Not as much as she had hoped, but the change made her feel good.

Nathan, for his part, was surprised at how the hug felt. He hadn't been hugged much in his life, and when he imagined a hug all that came to mind was the pressure of the other person's arms around him. This hug, however, seemed to have much more than just that. He felt a warmth coming from Elsa, worming its way through his body spreading an unfamiliar feeling. His limbs felt heavier and his eyelids started to droop.

He pushed Elsa off of him gently and blinked rapidly in an attempt to stay awake. A high pitched ringing started in his ears and he put a hand to his head. Elsa looked concernedly at him and started talking to him, but her voice was unintelligible and muted against the ringing. Pain started to follow the ring, building in his head. He dropped to one knee and gasped. He tried to make sure that his bone charms were still on properly, but his vision blurred making it impossible to see.

He felt Elsa trying to pull him up to his feet but he didn't respond. He couldn't. He felt his mind slipping into unconsciousness again and tried to stay awake. He tried focusing on anything he could that would keep him anchored to awareness. What he focused on the most were Elsa's attempts to get him to his feet. They were erratic, and didn't feel very good on his arms.

The pain started to fade slowly, and his vision cleared slightly. He could still hear Elsa's muted voice talking to him, though he still couldn't tell what she was saying. She sounded worried which didn't surprise him. If it were Elsa on the floor clutching her head than he would probably be concerned too.

He pushed his way to his feet and made a grab at the nearest thing that wasn't Elsa he could see. This turned out to be a post on Elsa's bed. He successfully caught the thing in his hands and pulled himself up on it. He stood there gasping, trying to not to vomit. Elsa was in front of him now, still talking to him even though he couldn't understand her.

He held up a hand to signal she should stop talking. She did, and he tried again to clear his mind of the pain. It faded slowly, as did the ringing, and he shook his head again to be sure that it was gone. When he was sure he turned back to Elsa and said "Ok… ok I'm good now."

Elsa asked in a gentle voice "Are you sure? You looked pretty bad."

Nathan nodded and sat down on the side of Elsa's bad. He looked at the floor for a moment than started laughing. Elsa knelt down next to him and said "What? What's the matter?"

Nathan put a thumb between his chest and the bandoleer that held his bone charms and pushed it out slightly. "Boy am I glad I've got these!" he said in an uncharacteristically mirthful tone. Elsa was caught off guard by the sudden change in demeanor and wasn't sure how to respond. Nathan just continued laughing and laughing on the side of the bed.

She stood and cleared her throat, saying "Umm… Nathan… maybe you should just go back to your room and get some more sleep." Nathan looked up at her, still giggling to himself. Than as soon as it had started, the laughter stopped. The smile on his face was replaced instantly by a pained grimace and he clutched his head again. "Ow" he murmured "perhaps your right."

He stood shakily from the bed and started trying to walk to the door. Elsa stood and quickly put herself under Nathan's shoulder, helping him walk. She heard him open his mouth probably about to voice an objection, but none came.

The pair got about halfway to the stairs before a voice rang out behind them. "Elsa, Nathan, what are you doing?"

Elsa turned under Nathan's arm to see Olaf running towards them. He was waving his stick arms at them and smiling broadly as usual. As her drew up to them and slid to a stop. He looked up into Elsa's face and gave her the innocent look that reminded Elsa of a child. She looked from Nathan and Olaf and said "Olaf, can you take Nathan to his room for me, please?"

He nodded and walked over to the side of Nathan. Nathan took his arm off of Elsa and put his hand of the top of Olaf's head. Nathan gave Elsa a sarcastic look, sticking his tongue out in a playful manner. She gave him a concerned look and waved meekly as he and Olaf went off down the stairs. She could hear Olaf talking to Nathan, and Nathan grunting in response.

She turned her back on the two and went back to her room. She shut the door behind her and sighed. The visit from Nathan had been strange, certainly, but she was glad that it had happened. She felt like Nathan had been more open with her than he had ever been.

And all it had taken was serious head trauma.

She cringed at that though, guilt returning to her mind. She settled herself under the covers of her bed and set her head on the pillow. The last thing that did before falling asleep was say to herself "Get well soon Nathan."

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Authors thing:hmm... I'm not sure i like this open hearted Nathan. I hope he gets over it soon.

so anyways, here the chapter is. hope you like it!

remember to leave a comment, follow, do whatever, y'know.


	22. Chapter 22

Every time Olaf spoke Nathan felt a spinning wheel of spikes and blades grinding against his ears. The snowman's voice was just so high pitched that Nathan could hardly stand hearing it. He wasn't even listening to what the little thing was saying, he was just trying to cope with the pain brought on by his voice. It was nowhere near the pain that Nathan had felt in Elsa's room, but with every squeak and crack in Olaf's speech got his head started ringing just a little bit more.

When at last he reached his room he walked in and pulled the door behind him, not waiting for Olaf to talk anymore. The door latched and he could hear the snowman say a few more words before he seemed to notice that his audience had disappeared. Nathan heard him bid farewell to the door before walking off.

Nathan turned back to the empty room and looked it over. It was the same as he remembered leaving it. He looked to the table and saw the large bag of bone charms. Quickly he moved across the room and snatched the bag up, berating himself for leaving it out like that. He threw a drawer on his dresser open and tossed the bag inside, making a mental note to ask Elsa for a footlocker or something to keep them more secure.

Nathan looked at his bed with an expression of longing. He was tired now, and he slightly regretted getting up so early. He climbed onto the bed and removed his gloves and boots than settled into the bed on top of the covers. His head nuzzled into the pillow, and his eyes closed slowly.

When he next opened his eyes the sun was well above the horizon and someone was calling to him through his door. "Nathan? Nathan are you awake?" The voice didn't sound familiar to him. It sounded similar to Anna's voice, but higher in pitch. He sat up on the bed and moved his feet off the side.

"I am now." He said flatly to the door. The voice on the other side was quiet for a moment and then said "Well… sorry to wake you, but I wanted to see if I could help with your injury." Nathan raised an eyebrow and got up slowly from the bed. He walked to the door carefully to avoid falling and opened it slowly.

As the door swung open he found himself facing Rapunzel. She was shorter than him, and had to look slightly up at him to talk. She was wearing semi-thick colorful winter clothes that stood out in a stark contrast to everything else in the hallway. The dominate colors of her outfit seemed to be a bright yellow with sun patterns woven into the cloth.

She brushed her messy brown hair out of her face and waved at him, saying "Hi." He gave her a tired look and she laughed awkwardly. "So… how are you feeling?"

Nathan sighed and said "Better, I guess. Haven't puked or fallen yet, so that's good."

The two shuffled uncomfortably for a moment before Nathan broke the silence by asking "So how do you plan to help me, Mrs. Blondie?"

Rapunzel groaned and said "Really? You too?" she gave an annoyed sigh than looked at Nathan suspiciously. "Did Eugene tell you to call me that?" she stood on her toes and got closer to Nathan so that their faces were inches from each other. She starred intensely into Nathans eyes and said in a threatening whisper "And don't lie. I'll know."

Nathan didn't react to her getting closer at all. He simply returned her stare with a flat look of his own that seemed to say "Really?" she backed down from him slightly and he said in an equally flat voice "No." Nathan shrugged and said "Why would he anyways? Have a lot been calling you that recently?"

She nodded and her feet went back to being flat on the floor. "Everyone's been calling me that! I don't mind the name, but it's really weird that so many people are doing it. I think Eugene told people to call me that."

Nathan shrugged again and said "I did it sarcastically to say I still don't really believe you about the hair thing." Rapunzel sighed exasperatedly and Nathan smirked. "So how do you plan on helping with my brain damage?" he asked, changing the subject.

Rapunzel looked slightly taken aback, and said "You don t have brain damage!"

Nathan waved a hand dismissively and said "Serious cranial trauma. Whatever. Same thing." He thought of all the medical knowhow he possessed and decided to use it. "A concussion is a jarring of the brain inside of the cranium. The jarring counts as damage because it interrupts the normal workings of the brain. Brain damage."

Rapunzel looked at him with a puzzled expression for a second before she shook her head and said dismissively "Ok, fine, whatever. Fine, you have brain damage."

Nathan smiled to himself and said "Although maybe I'm getting better. The fact that I can remember that…" he was cut off when a sudden pain slashed through his skull like a razor. He grunted and put a hand to his temple and closed his eyes. "Or maybe not." he said through clenched teeth.

Rapunzel put a hand out and asked if he was ok, to which he replied "Yes, fine… fine." He opened his eyes again and blinked rapidly. All the light in the hall was blurred and burning its images into his eyes. He quickly shut his eyes and shielded them with a hand.

Rapunzel asked in a concerned voice "What's wrong?" and he replied "It's really bright out here."

Rapunzel looked around her. The hall wasn't very bright at all, with only a few light sources along the entire length. She grabbed Nathan's hand and said "Come on, let's take you to the doctors. They'll know what to do!" and started pulling on him.

He stood his ground and resisted Rapunzel's pulling. "Hold it, I'm not going anywhere just yet." He said. He continued rubbing his temple and slowly opened his eyes and felt them trying to readjust so he could see again. He let that go for about ten seconds before he looked back up and nodded to Rapunzel. "Alright, let's go." He said and motioned down the hallway.

The two started walking, and Nathan said "So you never answered me, how do you plan to help with the damage?" he asked, and added "You going to use your magic hair to fix me?" sarcastically.

She smirked and said "Something like that, yea." Refusing to say any more.

The pair passed a man in the outfit of a servant and Rapunzel stopped him. "Can you find Queen Elsa and Princess Anna and tell them that we're about to try the thing we discussed?" the man nodded and bowed before hurrying off. Nathan eyed both the man and Rapunzel before saying "So I'm the only one that has no clue what's going on." flatly.

Rapunzel smiled at Nathan and said in a chipper voice "Pretty much." Nathan hissed through his teeth in annoyance and Rapunzel laughed. "Oh, come on! This is going to cure you completely!"

Nathan raised an eyebrow and said "You really expect me to believe that? Fine. I'll see what it is you've got planned, but if I don't like it than I'm not doing it."

She snorted and exclaimed "But it save Eugene's life once! I'm sure that it works just as well on a concussion as it does stab wounds." "Besides," she said "why are you so hesitant all the sudden? I would've thought you'd want to get over this as soon as possible."

He pointed to his eye and said "Because this is not my natural eye color" he pointed to the white stripes in his hair "and this isn't my natural hair color." He put his hand down and finished with "I don't know if you've caught on, but magic doesn't seem to work on me as well as others. Gothel's gas, Elsa's ice, none of it did what the person casting it thought it would, so who knows what your magic would do."

Rapunzel looked down at the floor. "I'm just trying to help." She said sadly. Nathan replied "Yes, I get that, but so far magic that isn't mine has been unpredictable at best."

Rapunzel nodded and said "Well, my power has never done anything but heal people, so I think you're pretty safe."

Nathan gave a small shrug and said "Well than I look forward to it working."

The rest of the walk to the "Medical Wing" (A medium sized room dedicated entirely to the storage and usage of medical equipment) passed in silence. When they reached the room they found Eugene, Elsa, and Anna standing in the hall outside of the room.

Nathan looked warily at the group and said "So… everyone come to see the show?"

Eugene and Anna smiled, Elsa looked slightly worried. Rapunzel walked past them and opened the door. She turned back to all four and beckoned for them to come it. They did, and found the room mostly empty except for a small bowl of water on a table and two chairs around the table.

Rapunzel motioned for Nathan to sit in one of the chairs, so he did. She took a seat in the other and looked around at the rest of the people in the room. "Are you ready?"

Nathan sighed and said "Yea, I guess."

Rapunzel looked around at the faces in the room one last time, than took a deep breath and put both of her hands on the surface of the water. She opened her mouth and started singing.

"Flower, gleam and glow

Let your power shine

Make the clock reverse

Bring back what once was mine"

The light that was filling the rest of the room seemed to dim, and her pupils seemed to take on a strange glow that was hard for Nathan to place. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end and he started getting goose bumps. Something was going to go wrong, he could tell.

"Heal what has been hurt

Change the Fates' design

Save what has been lost

Bring back what once was mine"

Small tendrils of light, like the roots of a plant, started to spread through the water from Rapunzel's hands. Nathan shuffled around uncomfortably in his seat and gave an unsure look at Elsa. She nodded and smiled at him, so he returned his focus to the bowel.

"What once was mine"

She finished, and the tendrils of light spread through the water and made all of it glow brightly. Rapunzel looked up at Nathan and said "Go on, drink it."

Nathan took the bowl in his hands and lifted it up off of the table. He held it in front of his face and looked deep into the water. The bright golden glow of magic made Nathan nervous. There was a lot of power here, and he didn't know what the effect would be. Rapunzel had said that it would heal them, but…

Rapunzel said again "Drink it."

Nathan lifted it closer to his face and felt a warmth fall over his face like he had stepped out into the sun. His hands started to shake as he opened his mouth and brought the bowl closer. He shut his eyes tight and braced his body for whatever would come.

He brought the bowl to his lips and tipped it back, taking a big gulp of the water. As soon as the water started sliding down his throat he started taking the bowl away. Everyone was looking at him with anticipation on their faces. He gave a meek smile to show that he was ok, than started putting the bowl down.

His body gave a spasm and the bowl clattered to the floor. The water that he had drank was starting to feel like it was burning him. He put a hand on his stomach and felt his body starting to disagree with the magic.

He cried out as the burning sensation intensified into pain. He felt like he had swallowed molten glass. The faces around him grew distorted by tears that were forming in his eyes. He fell to the floor and curled up in a ball. He could hear the others in in the room asking if he was ok, but he couldn't muster an answer.

He had an idea somewhere in his pain-addled mind, and decided to use some of his now scarce magic energy. He focused his power and turned himself into a shadow. This didn't do much to relieve the pain, but it did clear his mind. The water that he hadn't quite gotten down splashed on the floor and lay there, still glowing. His shadow form rose a few inches out of his chair than shot out in a random direction. He didn't care where he went as long as it was away from that water.

His physical body reformed in a corner of the room, laying down with his back propped up on the wall behind him. His stomach felt like it was coated in lead, and his limbs were not even there. The group looked around the room and he tried to call out to them, but couldn't. After a few seconds of them looking, Eugene was the first to spot him. He called to the others and ran over to Nathan.

Nathan looked up at him and tried to speak, but something blocked his words. He tried to take a deep breath but found that blocked as well.

His eyes grew in panic as he looked at Eugene. Eugene looked him up and down than seemed to realize what was happening. He tilted Nathan's torso over so that he was facing the floor than pushed his hand against Nathan's stomach.

Of all the things that Nathan had seen himself do through the years, he was sure he had never vomited sunshine. The bright light combined with water spilled out of his mouth and he felt his diaphragm tighten to get more out.

After a few moments of vomiting he felt much better. The burning was gone and he didn't feel his body rejecting anything now. He tried to stand unsteadily but was pushed back down by Eugene. "No, you need to stay still a minute." he said to Nathan.

Nathan grabbed Eugene's shoulder and pulled himself up using that. "No" he said defiantly "I'm good, just help me up."

The rest of the group had circled around him by now, looking worriedly down at him. Rapunzel was the closest one other than Eugene. She was looking at Nathan with her hands over her mouth saying "I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry!" in a panicked manor. Elsa and Anna were behind Eugene and Rapunzel looking over their shoulders, giving Nathan some room. All of them were talking at once resulting in a loud droning of voices Nathan couldn't make out.

Nathan put a hand to his head and pulled himself full to his feet. He then pushed off of Eugene and put his back against the wall. He put up his other hand to quiet the room than said "I'm good! Just…" he waved his hand in front of him "…back off a little."

They did, and he covered his eyes with his hands. After standing still for a moment like that he uncovered them and pointed to the bowl on the floor. "We are not doing that again." he said flatly.

Rapunzel stepped forward and looked down guiltily. "I'm sorry Nathan." she said "We tried it last night on Elsa, and it seemed to work fine. I don't know what could've gone wrong…" she looked back at the bowl with a sad look on her face, than looked back at Nathan with a small glimmer of hope. "I guess it didn't help much, did it?"

Nathan shook his head to clear it and held his hands up in front of his eyes. The mild dizziness he had been feeling constantly since his injury was still there, as well as the "mental fog" as a few doctors had described it. While those were defiantly still there, something did seem to have improved. He couldn't quite place what it was, but he just felt clearer.

He nodded at Rapunzel and said "I think it did, a little bit. I feel better somehow." He looked around "Like everything is… clearer, sharper." he looked at their faces to see if they understood. "You know?"

They all nodded understanding. Rapunzel started squinting at him, and he asked. "What, have I got something on my face?" he wiped his face off, trying to get any vomit that was left over. Rapunzel shook her head.

"No." she said, grabbing his arm and lowering it. "Elsa, look at this." She said over her shoulder to Elsa. Eugene stepped out of the way and Elsa replaced him. Rapunzel pointed to Nathan's eye and Elsa started squinting at his face too.

She said "What is that?" under her breath just loud enough for Nathan to hear. He was starting to grow agitated again. He said "What? What's what? What's happening to me?" panic starting to grow in his voice. Elsa turned and motioned to Anna to get something that Nathan couldn't see. She raced off to retrieve it while Rapunzel started talking to Elsa.

"Should we take him to the trolls?" Rapunzel asked.

Elsa hesitated for a moment, then said "I'd rather be safe than sorry. Yes, we should. He might be immune to my magic but that doesn't mean he is to yours."

Rapunzel nodded. Nathan spoke up again, saying "What's wrong with me?"

Elsa turned away from him and said loudly "Anna, hurry up with the mirror!" A few seconds later Anna came running around the corner brandishing a small hand mirror. She slid to a stop in front of Elsa and handed it to her saying "Here." In a flustered voice.

Elsa handed the mirror to Nathan and said "Your eyes."

He took the mirror and looked into it. His eyes were still mostly blue from Elsa's magic, but a small golden ring had formed around his pupils. The rings looked much like the magic that Rapunzel had put in the water, with small tendrils that now looked like veins winding through the pale blue that covered the rest of his eyes. He pulled his bottom eyelid down and examined the rest of his eye while saying "Huh." out loud to himself.

Rapunzel looked up and said "What? Is something else wrong?"

Nathan shook his head and said "No, I'm just wondering why all the magic that I've been shot up with recently has been showing up in my eyes."

All the other people quieted slightly now, thinking about why that could be. After a few moments of silence Elsa spoke up and said "Maybe the trolls will know." she looked around at everyone else "Maybe we should just go now."

Everyone looked to Nathan as if for confirmation. He shrugged and said "Sure, let's go. My first time going awake."

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Aouthours thing:

this chapter feels weird to me, and i cant place why.

as always leave any comments or criticisms, i read them.

Oh yea, almost forgot, would anyone be down for a S.T.A.L.K.E.R./Avatar (the cartoon one) fic? because I've been having some ideas.


	23. Chapter 23

The horse ride to the valley was longer than Nathan had imagined it. The pounding of the horse's hooves on the ground made Nathan's head ring and his stomach queasy. The whole group had decided to come, bringing three horses for all five people. Nathan was riding the same horse as Anna, Eugene and Rapunzel were riding behind them, and Elsa was on her own horse in the front leading the group.

Nathan watched the flat snowy fields and snow-covered trees rush by as a stinging cold wind slashed at his face, making his eyes water. He tried to pay attention to the route that they were taking. The trolls seemed to have some knowledge of the outsider, and Nathan assumed that by extension they would know about bone charms. He pulled the strange new charm that shrouded the user in shadow out of a pocket to ensure he still had it, and wondered if they would be able to tell him anything about it.

The snowy forest and field that they were dashing through gradually sloped down, and turned from trees and patches of grass to rocks and stone. The temperature started to rise slowly and the air gained a sulphurous tinge to it. A few geysers of some gas passed them by, and Nathan could feel the heat radiating off of them.

The group came to the clearing that Nathan recognized as the place where he had awoken several times with a weird looking rock-man looking after him. It was empty now, with no trolls in sight. There were a few scattered boulders laying around with spots of moss on the top, and Nathan wondered if the trolls used them for something.

Elsa pulled her horse to a stop and motioned for the rest of the group to stop. Anna pulled on the reins and the horse they were on slowed to a stop. Anna pulled herself out of the saddle and jumped down to the ground. Nathan was about to follow her when he remembered the last time he had tried to dismount a horse. Unfortunately for him, Anna didn't seem to recall the event, and started walking towards the center of the clearing.

He called out to her "Anna!" and she turned. He nodded his head in the direction of the horse and mouthed the word "help". Anna seemed to get the message. She walked quickly back to the horse and helped Nathan down. He could feel his cheeks and ears burning slightly, but insisted even to himself that it was on account of the cold.

His boots hit the ground, and he felt instantly better. His being on solid ground again was a great comfort to him, as he had never been very comfortable riding horses. It probably had something to do with the several times he had been bucked from one as a child, but there was nothing to be done about that now.

He thanked Anna and looked around him. Eugene and Rapunzel were just dismounting their horse, and Anna was walking towards Elsa, who was standing in the middle of the clearing talking to the rocks.

Eugene walked up next to Nathan and stared at Elsa. "So" he said, confused "is this how you "Summon the trolls"?" he put air quotes around "summon the trolls" and then folded his arms.

Nathan was also staring at Elsa with a confused expression. "I don't know, I've never been awake for It." he said, shrugging.

Eugene nodded and turned to Rapunzel and said "Do you think this is how they call the trolls?" in a joking voice. Rapunzel looked like she was about to respond, when a shocked expression came across her face and her jaw dropped. Eugene and Nathan looked in the direction that she was looking and saw what had gotten such a reaction.

Almost all the stones in the valley were rolling towards Elsa and Anna. Nathan felt like he should do something, but the fact that they were motioning for the rocks to continue their path made him think that this was what they wanted to happen. As the rocks neared them they seemed to spring up and unroll. As the rocks unrolled they formed into the small stunted figures of the trolls that Nathan remembered seeing.

He walked slowly towards the group of stone people, placing his steps slowly and carefully, trying to make his approach quiet. He could hear Elsa talking to one of the trolls, saying "Please, we need to see Pabbie." One of the trolls said something that he couldn't hear, and Elsa responded "Yes, it is my friend again." A troll closer to Nathan said something that he could make out. "Why does he need so much help?" Another troll on the other side of Elsa shouted out "Maybe he should be more careful!"

Nathan gritted his teeth and muttered under his breath "Maybe you're the one that should be more careful." In an annoyed manner. It wasn't his fault that people kept blasting him with magic, if anything it was…

He took a deep breath and calmed himself. They didn't know the details, he reminded himself. He cursed himself again for getting angry, and became painfully aware of the fog still settled around his mind. If it was gone he wouldn't have gotten mad. He was sure. He couldn't wait until he recovered completely, he had had more than enough of his mind not being entirely his own.

The next thing he noticed was that all of the trolls surrounding Elsa were looking at him. It occurred to him that trolls might have superior hearing to humans, and if they did than they may have heard his threat. The looks on their faces said that they had heard him, with portion of them looking scared and another portion looking angry.

To his relief the crowd of trolls on the other side of Elsa parted and a large boulder rolled in past the trolls. It stopped in front of Elsa and sprang open, revealing the troll Nathan remembered as Pabbie. Elsa looked down at him with a smile and knelt down, talking to him.

Nathan walked forward and the crowd of trolls parted before him. A few of them still looked either scared or angered, but most of them seemed to have forgotten his little slip-up. As he approached Elsa continued talking with Pabbie. She said something to him and his eyes squinted at Nathan and a critical expression came over him.

As he drew up to Elsa and stopped walking the troll stepped forwards and said "So, back again I see." with a little smile. Nathan nodded and the troll motioned for him to kneel down. He did, and the troll looked into his eyes. "Hmm…" he said, turning Nathan's head left and right. Nathan kept his eyes focused on the troll the entire time. "Strange… strange." Pabbie muttered. He looked up past Nathan and called "Are you the one who did this?"

Nathan heard Eugene's voice come out from somewhere behind him "Nope, not me. It was her." Nathan could just imagine Eugene taking a step away from Rapunzel and pointing at her. Pabbie beckoned towards himself with the hand not still holding Nathan's face and said "Come here, girl." Nathan heard Rapunzel's light footsteps come up behind him. The troll let go of Nathan's face and motioned for Rapunzel to kneel down like Nathan had been. Nathan stood up and let Rapunzel take his place.

Pabbie looked deep into her eyes like he had with Nathan, then said "Where do you draw your magic from, girl?" he let go of her face but she stayed kneeling down. She hesitated than said "It's the power of the sun, if that's…" Pabbie shook his head and said "No, no, where did you get the power? You were not born with it, not naturally."

Rapunzel thought for a moment, then said "Oh! My father used a magic flower to heal my mother while she was pregnant with me. I got my power from the flower."

Pabbie nodded and said "Yes, some of the power of the sun flows through you. The sun brings life-" he said, looking up at the sun in the sky "-but too much of it can burn you." he said.

Nathan stepped forward and said "But it didn't burn me, not physically, at least." It was true, the water hadn't literally burned him, but it had certainly felt like it had. He remembered the feeling that his stomach had given him, like it was just rejecting the water as if it was rotten food.

Pabbie looked Nathan up and down, then said "Can you really expect to mix the magic of the sun with your magic of shadow, and expect no variance on the effect?"

Rapunzel and Elsa along with a few trolls around them all nodded like it made sense. Nathan thought for a moment before saying "But shouldn't shadow and sun magic be more compatible than anything?" Pabbie gave him a puzzled look and he continued "Without the sun, there would be no shadows, yea? And I'm not made of shadows, so why would her magic hurt me like that? I would understand if I took a hit to my energy, but I didn't."

Pabbie nodded and said "That is something I had not considered." He smiled at Nathan "You are a clever one. That's a good head on your shoulders." He shrugged "Even if it is a bit worse for wear." He turned away from them and started stroking his chin. "it may be that your body rejected the magic simply because it was unfamiliar to you. Did it heal you?" he turned back to Nathan and looked up at him. Nathan was about to respond when Pabbie seemed to see something in his face. "No, you are still concussed."

Rapunzel spoke, saying "Will there be any effect of the magic still in him?" Pabbie looked Nathan over and said "No, perhaps he will be more sensitive to light, but other than that, no."

Elsa took a step forward and asked "What about my magic, will there be any effects of that?"

Pabbie heaved a deep sigh and said "That is a much more difficult question to answer. He was blasted with far greater amounts of your magic than Rapunzel's, and that makes it very difficult to tell what any effect would be. None of your magic seems to have dissipated as I thought it would."

Nathan spoke up now, saying "Is there any way I could use Elsa's magic that's still inside me?" Pabbie tilted his head from one side to the other as if weighing the question. Finally he said "Perhaps, but it would be difficult." He looked up at Nathan "And you would not benefit from the same wealth of power she has."

Nathan nodded. It had been a long shot that he would be able to use her immense raw energy anyways. And even if he did start using her kind of magic he would have to construct individual spells, not just use it freeform the way she did.

Pabbie spread his small arms and said "Is that all, or are there other concerns that you wished to address?"

Elsa and Rapunzel shook their heads, but Nathan said "Yes, I've got one." He turned to face the others confused expressions and said "Just go get ready, this shouldn't take long." The girls gave him a worried look and Nathan waved a hand towards the horses and said "Just go get ready. It's fine." They hesitantly did as he said and he turned back to Pabbie.

He knelt down again and dug around in a pocket for a moment. After a pause, he produced the bone charm that he had tested with Elsa. "This" he said, holding it up for Pabbie to see "is the only bone charm like this I have ever seen. I want you to tell me how it got this way."

Pabbie took the charm in his hand and turned it over a few times. He put it to his ear, than a startled expression came over his face and he let it drop to the ground. He stumbled awkwardly away from the thing on the ground with his eyes fixed on it. Nathan scooped the charm up off the ground and said "You alright?"

Pabbie stopped moving back and cleared his throat. "I'm sorry, I just…" he looked from the charm to Nathan and narrowed his eyes. "Where did you get this?" he said suspiciously.

Nathan said "I guess I made it by accident." Pabbie gave him a distrusting and also curious glare. He decided to go on with his explanation. "Did Elsa tell you about the advisor who turned into a gas guy?" Pabbie nodded and Nathan continued. "I went through the guy's skin, and found a little… magic pearl thing. It had a light inside it. I couldn't figure out what it was, so after a while I got frustrated and tossed it across my room. It hit a bone charm, and this" he held the charm up "was what I picked up."

Pabbie nodded, the distrust and suspicion in his eyes gone. He groaned slightly and said "The charm has been… changed by a powerful magic. Something with immense power has forced the charm to change. Was there any power left in the pearl?"

Nathan thought, then said "No, I don't think so. None that I could tell."

Pabbie nodded and said "Good, the magic in the pearl must have been very powerful, and very foul. Dispose of the pearl as soon as possible! Its power will only serve its master. The fact it changed your charm does not mean that it is safe, you must destroy it!"

Nathan looked down at the charm in his hand. Destroy the pearl? It was the only lead on Gothel, there could be some way to track her with it, he couldn't just destroy it. He closed his hand around the charm. "And what should I do with this?"

Pabbie shrugged unsurely and said "It is powerful. Much more so than most others you may have found. It emanates an aura of fear, and will bend shadows around you." He smiled up at Nathan "Perhaps you will have a greater use for it than most, eh?"

Nathan returned his smile and stood. He turned to find Elsa, Eugene, Anna and Rapunzel all waiting for him, already on their horses. He jogged over to Anna's horse and clamored up into the saddle behind her. Elsa turned in her saddle and shouted "Ready?" to everyone. They all nodded, and Elsa set off leading the group back.

Nathan found the ride back to the castle much more pleasant that the ride away had been. His stomach wasn't nearly as upset as it had been the first time around, and his head didn't ache so much from the stamping of hooves.

He thought about what Pabbie had said. Destroy the pearl? Why? He had acted like the thing was dangerous, but it hadn't done a thing except for change a charm. He almost hoped that the thing would recharge somehow. He wanted to see if he could figure out how it worked.

The scenery wasn't much different this time around. They followed the same path they had come by, and Nathan found himself recognizing the odd tree or rock as they sped past. The white blanket of snow made all but the most distinctive features subdued and hidden, and he could only wonder at how many times Elsa must have run this path so become so familiar with it.

The rest of the trip passed fairly quickly. Before Nathan knew it the large wall of Arendelle was in view. They slowed before they went through so the guards stationed there could confirm their identities, than trotted slowly through the town.

Not many people seemed to be out, likely on account of the cold, but those who were shouted both friendly and reverend salutations to Anna and Elsa, who responded in kind. A small group of people approached and swarmed around Elsa's horse asking questions and shouting praise to her. Nathan was just starting to lift himself from the saddle to get down and tell them to go away when Elsa waved him off. He shrugged and sat back down. If she wanted to get mobbed by people, that was her choice.

As he watched her, shaking hands and exchanging words with the small crowd, it occurred to him that these were her people. These were the people who built up her kingdom and the people who she was responsible for. He smiled to himself and whispered "I'd almost forgotten she was the leader of a kingdom" to himself.

Elsa's interaction with the crowd didn't last long. A short span of time later Elsa bid farewell to the people that were gathered around her and set off again towards the castle. The gates to the outer wall slid open as they trotted down the bridge. The group entered in the courtyard and dismounted their horses, Nathan receiving assistance, much to his annoyance.

The group moved inside the castle, glad to be back in the warmth. Anna suggested that they spend the time until lunch in the library, and there was a round of agreements by everyone. The group made their way to the library slowly, laughing and talking along the way. Nathan trailed behind the others, his arms folded, deep in thought.

The large doors to the library opened, and the dusty smell of old books filled their noses. The group stepped in and each individual member found their own little niche in the library, curled up with a book.

A few hours passed like this, until a servant opened the door and leaned in, waved to get Elsa's attention, then made a gesture with his hands. Elsa smiled at him than stood, announcing to the room "Lunch is on!"

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Aouthurs Thing:

Thanks for reading, as always!  
>I feel like i should be formatting these diffrently somehow. Any suggestions?<p> 


	24. Chapter 24

Nathan dropped from his perch on the top of a bookshelf, and smiled when he heard a startled gasp from Rapunzel. He hit the floor and bent his knees to break the fall and avoid any damage to his legs. Anna looked up from the book she was reading and laughed when she saw the look on Rapunzel's face. "You'll have to get used to that, he does it a lot."

The group made their way to the dining hall, gathered their food, and found an empty table. They all sat around the table and started talking and eating. Eugene was the first one to start a conversation. "So, have you guys heard about "The Shadow"?" Rapunzel rolled her eyes and said "Oh Eugene, not this again."

Anna looked between the two on them with a confused expression, Elsa just looked on interested, and Nathans eating slowed drastically. Elsa asked "What's The Shadow?"

Eugene laughed and opened his mouth, but was preempted by Rapunzel. She put her face in her hands and spoke through her fingers "It's some ridiculous story that he used to scare me once when we were camping. He said that it was some assassin or something that could get anybody. He kept saying that someone had hired them to get me, and that that was why we were in the woods camping."

A smirk came slowly across Nathan's face, and he continued eating. Anna asked "So what about it, what would we have heard?" Eugene laughed and said "Well, he's gone. People said that he could take out anyone, that he was the best that there ever was, and now he's gone." He snapped his fingers "Just like that."

Elsa looked over at Nathan, who winked at her than looked back at Eugene and said "Well where would he go? Why'd he leave?" Eugene raised his hands and said "I don't know. Nobody does. No one knew anything about the guy other than that he was an assassin." Nathan's smile widened and he sat back in his chair. "Why'd they call him the shadow?"

Rapunzel put her face in her hands again and groaned loudly. This made Eugene laugh, and when he was done he said "Because his shadow was supposed to be the last thing you ever saw."

Nathan turned to Elsa and said "I don't think I've ever heard about this "Shadow" guy. Have you?" Elsa gave him a mischievous grin and said "No, I don't believe I have." She looked at Eugene and gave him a joking and challenging look. "I think that you're making this all up."

Eugene looked from Elsa to Nathan, and back again. "Look" he said, raising his right hand "I swear that I am not making this up. I used to be a thief, so I know a thing or two about the "Criminal underworld". I've seen the guy before."

Nathan raised an eyebrow and said "You used to be a thief?" he looked Eugene up and down, then said "I don't know, you look a little too… posh." he finished.

Eugene looked offended and Rapunzel laughed. He stuttered "What? I… I was- I … the…come on!" Rapunzel laughed at this, than she said "It's true, I can vouch for him being a criminal." This brought a round of laughter to the table. After a short moment of silence after the laughter died down Eugene said "Well I'm not anymore. The days of "Flynn Ryder" are way behind me."

Nathan coughed and dropped his fork on the plate. Anna beat him on the back a few times, and he choked down whatever had caught in his throat. "Did you say…Flynn?" he gasped out. Eugene nodded and said "Yes, it's a name I took instead of using Eugene." He shrugged "Eugene doesn't really have the same bite as Flynn, you know?"

Memories of Nathan's childhood surfaced in his mind, and he focused on Eugene's face. Could it be? He had assumed that he had starved to death…

He stood from the table and said "Were you… do you…" Eugene gave him a concerned look and said "What? What is it?"

Nathan put a hand to his chest and took a deep breath. "Do you… remember me?" Eugene looked Nathan in the face carefully and said "No, why? Did you know me?"

Nathan brought his left hand up and turned it away from the table. He focused a small amount of his power and the mark on the back of his hand lit up, burning brightly even through his glove. Eugene was sitting with his chair slightly tipped back, and when he saw the mark he almost fell over. Rapunzel jumped and grabbed the back of Eugene's chair, steadying him. He turned to her and said "Thanks." In a breathless voice than turned to Nathan and stood up.

Nathan smiled at Eugene and said "So, a prince, eh? I guess you got your dream after all, Flynn." Eugene just stared at Nathan with his mouth gaping open with an awestruck expression on his face. He stammered "You… you're…. I-I never thought…"

Rapunzel looked between Nathan and Eugene and said "Wait, who is he?"

Eugene turned to her and said "He was one of the kids at the old orphanage." He turned to look at Nathan and said "He was the one who taught me how to steal. He's really the only reason that we had half as much food as we did. He left, though, after some…" he gave a sad look at Nathan "…bad stuff happened with some of the other kids." Nathan looked down at the floor like there was something he was ashamed of.

Elsa recalled what The Outsider had said about the first person that he had killed, and asked "What happened with the other kids?" she realized just as she finished that he probably didn't want to talk about this. She said quickly "Oh, I'm sorry, never-"

Nathan heaved a heavy sigh at this point and interrupted her, saying "No, its fine." He sat back down and continued "The kid was an idiot and didn't do something I told him to do. He saw my powers, and thought I was evil. He tried to kill me, and I had to defend myself. I gave the guy a whole bunch of outs during the fight, but the bastard was too stupid to take the hint. I had to kill him to get away." He looked at Eugene and said as I apologizing "I couldn't just go back after that, the others would be scared shitless. But I kept giving them money, at least until the orphanage burned down."

Eugene held up his hands and sat down as well. "Hey, we got the money, and probably would've died if not for you. We all missed you." He said sadly. "Everyone missed you." Nathan smirked and perked up slightly. "Except for Eddie." He said with a little snort of laughter. Eugene smiled and nodded, saying "Except for Eddie."

Anna looked from one to the other, then said "Wait, who's Eddie?" Eugene laughed and said "He was the brute of the group." He pointed to Nathan "He was the brains-"he pointed to himself "-I was the dashingly handsome face-"he waved a hand dismissively "-and Eddie was the muscle. He helped us out, until Nathan came along. Nathan found ways to do everything without Eddie. Nathan could do anything Eddie could do, but better. Eddie sometimes mugged people for money, but Nathan taught us all how to pick pockets. We didn't really need Eddie anymore, and he didn't like that. He got mean, and started hurting other kids. Nathan was always there to step out of the shadows and tell him to stop. Thus made Eddie really mad, and one day he decided to follow Nathan on one of his heists. He said how that turned out."

The table went silent for a minute and they all resumed eating their food. After a long silence Nathan looked up from his food and said "Elsa, I would like you to show we some more of your powers this afternoon." Elsa gave him a puzzled look and said "Sure, but why?" Nathan responded e saying "Pabbie told me that I might be able to use your type of magic, and I wanted to see if that was the case." He shrugged and added "Plus I might be able to give you some ideas of new ways to use your power."

Elsa looked slightly taken aback, and said "So you don't think I can come up with my own spells?" Every eye at the table moved onto Nathan, he could feel it. She had misunderstood his meaning. "No" he said quickly "I'll just provide a… another point of view. A power you've had all your life can be used in a way that you never imagined, all it takes is another person's suggestion."

There were nods all around the table, and Nathan felt like he had adequately explained what he had said. Elsa nodded, and said "Alright, sure. Go after lunch?" Nathan nodded and said "Sure, yea."

The table fell into silence again, and they all resumed eating. The rest of the meal passed with small talk being passed from Elsa and Anna to Rapunzel and Eugene, most of it being talk about things that had happened in the international world that Nathan had avoided thus far. It was dreadfully boring to Nathan, who found no interest or excitement in the day-to-day dealings and workings of international politics. The deals, treaties, trade routes and economies were all just so excruciatingly dull.

He found himself turning the charm that he had shown Pabbie over and over in his hand, singing its alien song. It didn't have a name like most of his other charms and he decided he should name it. The name shadow form came to mind, but he already had a power for that. He thought back to what Elsa had looked like when she had used it.

The shadows that had covered her had sprang out of the charm, and had just seemed to drape over her like a blanket. They had settled over her, then started writhing around like cloth in a great wind. "It should have something to do with shadow" he said to himself "but what else?" it concealed one's identity, as Elsa hadn't been able to tell that it had been him, and when she had used it all everything that Nathan would've used to tell who she was had been covered by shadow, even her voice. It was like a cloak… Shadow Cloak.

He smiled to himself and sat back in his chair. Shadow Cloak it was. The rest of the meal passed with the same brutally dull conversation carrying through the whole thing. By the time that the last utensil hit a plate he felt like beating his head against the table.

Elsa was the first to stand. She did, and addressed the table as a whole. "So who wants to come and watch me and Nathan play in the snow?" Nathan rolled his eyes, but the others laughed. They all seemed to want to come and watch, and he couldn't come up with any good reason for them to not, so they all trudged out into the courtyard back into the cold.

The others stopped at the door to watch, Elsa and Nathan walked to the middle of the courtyard. Elsa turned to Nathan and asked "Ok, so, what do you want to see?" Nathan thought for a moment than said "I don't know, whatever you can show me." She turned away from him and was about to do something when a thought occurred to Nathan. He put a hand on her shoulder and said "Wait, umm… show me how you would fight." She gave him a devious smile and he said "Without summoning anything, please."

She stuck her tongue out at him than said "Who do you want me to fight? You?" a smile that almost mirrored Elsa's came over Nathan's face, and he said "As long as you don't ki-"than caught himself. He didn't need to remind her she had killed someone. In spite of him stopping before saying it, she seemed to have gotten the drift of what he was saying. She looked down at her feet and said "Yea, got it." in a sad voice. Nathan wished that he had caught himself sooner, but there was nothing to be done now.

He removed the charms from his chest that would limit his power regeneration, placing them in one of his many pockets. "Supernatural Recovery" and "Unnatural Acrobatics" fell to the bottom of the pocket and he buttoned it shut. He felt his energy start to flow again, as opposed to the stagnant feel the witches charms had given him. He looked up and saw Elsa breathing heavily, obviously nervous about hurting him again. He called out to her "Let's start off easy. If you incapacitate me, you in, and if I…" he gave it some thought "…If I get you in a lock, I win."

Elsa raised an eyebrow, but nodded. "Alright, let's do it." she said and raised her hands into a ready stance. Nathan drew his sword and shouted "Go!" than started walking towards Elsa. He felt every muscle in his body tense, and he kept walking forwards, waiting for Elsa to do something.

After about five steps Elsa threw an arm up towards him, and a blast of bitter cold wind hit him in the face. The power of the wind was strong enough to make him cover his eyes, but not enough to do any more. Through the small flecks of snow that were carried on the wind Nathan could see Elsa's expression change from a determined look to a slightly panicked one. It was obvious that the wind hadn't done what it was supposed to do. She started to walk back at the same pace Nathan was going to stop gaining ground and stomped a foot on the ground.

A layer of ice shot out from her foot and crept it's was quickly across the ground in front of her. As it reached Nathan's feet he felt it spread over the bottom of his boots. He tried to take another step, but found that the ice was stronger than he expected. His boots stuck firmly to the ground. He gave a few experimental tugs and found a few cracks spreading out from his frozen boots. He gave one pull with all the strength he could muster, and his boot exploded off of the ice, sending small shards and flecks of ice out around it.

He did the same with his other leg, and considered the power she had just used. It would be useful in a chase as well as in a straight up fight, but he wanted to see what else there was.

He started a light jog across the ice towards Elsa. She stopped backing up and stood her ground. Nathan knew that she was planning something, and his footfalls became lighter on the ice as he readied to move in any direction. Elsa's eyes narrowed and she threw a hand up towards the sky. Nathan heard cracking near his feet and looked down. Small ridges in the ice were appearing in the ice between him and her. He looked up at her and saw her watching him carefully, waiting.

His jog slowed to a stop just before the ridges, and he looked at Elsa. She looked down at the cracks, than back up at Nathan. He smirked at her and said loudly "You'll have to do better than that!"

He heard a few "Ooh's" from by the door to the castle, and Anna's voice rang out, saying "Are you going to take that? Kick his butt!"

Elsa smiled at Nathan now, and said "sounds like I have the crowd's favor." in a confident tone. Nathan shrugged, than feigned a step over the line of ridges. Elsa reacted just how he wanted her to, throwing her other hand up. The line of erupted up into a solid wall that moved up from the ground and made a wall about Nathan's height between him and Elsa. Through the ice he could see Elsa's face fall as she realized that he had tricked her.

He dashed to the side end of the wall and charged at Elsa. She started to stumble back, and threw one arm up in a panic. A spike of ice shot up from the layer of ice covering the ground, pointed towards Nathan's chest. He tried to stop, but continued sliding on the ice. As he continued to speed towards the spike he thought of something that would work quite well.

He dropped to his knees and braced his shoulder to take the hit on the base of the spike. He focused his energy and poured it into his shadow. He pointed towards Elsa and let the spell go. His shadow peeled off of the ground, off of him, and stood up on its own. As it stood it grew darker into a more silhouette-like form. It turned to face Elsa and started running towards her.

Nathan gasped as his shoulder slammed forcefully into the spike and he felt the ones in his arms buckle as all of his forward momentum dissipate into the spike. He didn't let it slow him, however. He scrambled to his feet as quickly as he could and raised his sword.

Elsa was locked in a close quarters brawl with his shadow. It was quite a strange sight, seeing someone actually fighting with a shadow. Elsa was conjuring spikes of ice and gouts of snow in attempts to hit the shadow, but it was able to evade everything she threw at it. The shadow was making a few swipes with it sword every now and again, but it was clear that it was focusing on not being hit. Elsa was trying desperately to get away from the animated shadow, walking back as she blasted at it with her magic. Nathan took a moment to look at the spells that she was casting, looking for anything he might be able to use.

The spikes of ice seemed to be Elsa's favored move, as it was the one that made up the bulk of her attacks. Nathan could see why, too, as it was a highly effective move that would not only do damage an enemy but also had the ability to change the battlefield in her favor. But it was a very predictable move. The motion that Elsa made to do it was a large one, and was easy to see coming. When she shot blasts of just ice, however, it was quick and sudden, very difficult to react to.

As he watched his shadow take another swing and Elsa just barely slide out of the way he realized something else. He had never seen Elsa use a direct melee attack. He was sure that if she tried it, she could just reach out and slam his shadow with some kind of icy weapon. His mind went back to when she had tried to replicate his sword and the rather disastrous result that had yielded. So it would have to be something simple, like a coating of ice over her fist, or some kind of claw. Something that she could form quickly and use effectively. She didn't have much physical strength, so it would likely have to be something that didn't rely on brute force to do damage.

Elsa threw both of her hand up and a wall of ice sprang up between her and Nathan's shadow. Nathan knew that the barrier wouldn't provide much protection, as his shadow would likely just pass through the transparent ice, but he knew it was time for him to rejoin the fight.

He sprinted towards Elsa and readied himself for a stupid move that he had only used once before. As he came within about ten feet of Elsa she heard his footsteps and turned to face him. It was too late however. Nathan put one final burst of speed into his sprint before dropping to the icy sheet covering the ground. His body kept moving, carried on by the ice and he slammed into Elsa's legs. She went toppling over and he kept sliding through.

Nathan turned around as quickly as he could on the slippery ice and stood, still sliding slightly. Elsa was still trying to pick herself up off the floor, and was looking worriedly between Nathan and his shadow as if trying to decide which one was more dangerous. Nathan smiled. He knew that whatever one she chose, she would be wrong.

Unless of course…

He saw Elsa draw her arms close to her and realized what she was about to do. He charged at her again, this time accompanied by his shadow on Elsa's other side. Neither he nor his shadow was fast enough, however. Elsa threw her arms out and a blast of frigid air slammed into Nathan's chest, throwing him a few feet back, spread eagle on the cold ice. His shadow wasn't near as lucky as him, being blown apart completely. Nathan supposed that it had been weakened by fighting on its own so long against Elsa.

He started to get up when loops of ice formed around his wrists and ankles, binding him to the ground. He heard Elsa walking closer to him and said "Alright, I'll give you this one." He focused his power and his body became a shadow. He lifted himself off the ground and felt his body reform standing over the loops that held him a second earlier.

Elsa looked at him and said "You'll give me that? I had you, fair and square!" an eruption of noise prevented her from saying anything else, and Anna and Rapunzel threw themselves on her. "You did it!" Anna screamed and Rapunzel added "We thought you were a goner!"

Eugene approached Nathan with a sad smirk on his face. "I guess she really is something special, isn't she." He said, looking at Elsa. "Yea" Nathan replied "but if I'd have wanted to I could've just blinked behind her and" he snapped his fingers "I win."

Eugene gave him a confused look and said "well why didn't you?"

Nathan shrugged as he gazed at Elsa chatting excitedly with Rapunzel and Anna about the little duel she had just won. "I didn't have anything to gain from winning, I guess. I wanted to see how she fights. Thought maybe I could teach her a few new things. I also wanted to learn a few things myself. That troll said that I could use her kind of magic, so I wanted a few ideas for new powers."

Eugene nodded, then said "so what did you learn about Elsa? What are you going to tell her?"

Nathan smiled and said "She was too predictable. Except for the end there, I could tell what she was going to do. If she had tried to just…" he clapped a closed fist against his open palm "…hit me, I would've been totally off guard. She needs to work out some melee thing, because she's a great fighter, right up till you get close. Than her whole thing just kind of falls apart."

Eugene smiled to himself for a moment, then said "But you didn't get close." Nathan gave him a sideways look and said "Would you like to go up against her and see how well you do? Or maybe you'd like to go up against me?"

Eugene held up his hands and said "Whoa, no, I was just offering some friendly criticism. "

Nathan was about to respond when Anna's voice called out from the group of her, Elsa and Rapunzel, saying "Nathan, come here!"

Nathan gave Eugene a look that said "lucky you" than walked over to the group of women. As soon as he arrived Rapunzel said in a playful voice "So how's it feel to have been so thoroughly beaten?" as soon as she said this Anna stifled some giggles in her hand and Elsa gave Nathan an apologetic look.

Nathan smiled, gestured out to the courtyard, and said "I could show you, if you want." Rapunzel actually took a step back and said "Oh, ah… no thank you."

Elsa took Rapunzel by the shoulder and moved herself between the two. She said "So Nathan, you said you wanted to help. What can I do?"

A smile came across Nathan's face as he started explaining how, why, and when she should use more direct, unpredictable moves. He thought to himself "This is certainly not what I thought I would be doing two weeks ago".

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Authors thing:

holy crap i actually did some writing over the weekend! anyways, leave some reviews (They help me not feel bad) and follow the thin to do the story.  
>i think i just had a stroke<p> 


	25. Chapter 25

Elsa tried again, ice forming over her fingertips and ending in a wicked sharp point. The ice extended over the two top segments of her finger, and bent to the contour of her fingers perfectly. Nathan nodded approvingly and gestured to the burlap bag full of sand affixed to a small wooden pole that was stuck in the ice that still covered the ground.

Elsa coiled her body like a spring, putting her weight of her back leg. She felt energy build in muscles that she had never found much use for before, and when Nathan snapped his fingers, she would let it all out.

She waited…

She waited…

Nathan's fingers slid across each other and made a loud popping sound. As soon as she heard it her body exploded into action like a spring. Her back leg extended, sending her forward at a high speed. Her arms tensed and moved behind her as she moved through the air. Her forward leg extended and touched the ground, providing both a means of dissipating any extra momentum she had and a means of ensuring that she was still in control of the movement.

Her other leg came down a short distance behind the first. As it hit the ground Elsa's other leg went forward into a more lunge-like stance. Her arms came forward as she came within striking distance of the burlap sack, and the ice over her fingertips glistened in the afternoon sun. She pulled her fingers into the hooked shape that Nathan had suggested to her and brought her arms whipping out in front of her.

The icy claws that she had fashioned for herself moved quickly, and Nathan's voice echoed in her mind as she remembered what he had told her. "Don't catch too much of it on your hit. That will make too much resistance, and you're his will get caught midway through. That's almost the worst thing that could happen, because than you are stuck to them." The sharp tips of the claws met the burlap, and she was surprised with how little resistance the bag offered. She put just a little more force behind her blow and the bag was torn open, sand spilling out onto the ice.

Nathan clapped and stepped between her and the bag. "Nice job there." he said "Remind me to be ready if I piss you off."

Elsa smiled uncomfortably and shuffled around for a moment before saying "Nathan… I'm not sure that I'm comfortable learning this stuff. I mean… for you it's easy, you kill people all the time, but for me…" she looked down at her feet and said "I just dint want to hurt anybody."

It was Nathan's turn to shuffle uncomfortably. He said "Well… there could be a situation where I'm not around to help you, and you've got to look out for yourself. Besides…" he smiled at her reassuringly "… you can dull the points on those. That won't do much more that cause a little bit of pain."

Elsa rolled her eyes and said "Oh boy!" sarcastically. Nathan sighed than said "Now it's your turn to teach me something." He pulled a rune from one of his many pockets and placed it firmly in his palm. "How do I use ice?" he asked with a casual voice.

Elsa laughed and said "So you really was to do this? What, shadow isn't the best thing anymore?"

Nathan turned the rune over and said "No, it's just that I have access to it, so I may as well use it, right?" Elsa nodded, then stepped towards Nathan. She said "Ok, I'll help. What do I need to do?"

Nathan closed his eyes and focused on the rune. He could feel the power thrumming in his hand and said "Tell me where your power comes from. How you access it." than set about exploring his own power reserves. He felt nothing but the shadows he normally made into spells. Elsa's voice rang out through the darkness, saying "Well… I guess I get my power from my will to do things."

Nathan focused on his "will to do things" and only felt the shadows writhe a little more. "It's not working." he said flatly as he continued to try and get the shadows to change to ice. They didn't, and he heard Elsa sigh exasperatedly. She said "Well than try the cold out here. I don't know!"

Nathan tried to focus on the frigged air. It stung slightly at his exposed skin, but didn't feel at all magical. Elsa's voice rang out again in the darkness, saying "here, maybe this will help." He heard Elsa moving around, than felt a patch of very cold air form on the back of his neck. He winced at first but quickly got used to the feeling. As his skin numbed, he felt something change.

The shadow that he was used to started shifting. It was difficult to detect, but it was changing. The mass was starting to move more quickly as if blown by a winter wind. He focused more on the feeling of numbness and the shadow started to dissipate.

It was replaced by a cool blue light. Nathan recognized the light as the kind of energy that Elsa had blasted him with. He cautiously tried to manipulate it. It felt much different than the shadows he was used to. As he tried to move it like he would the shadow, it jerked and twisted in his mental grasp. He grunted and said out loud "How do you control it?" while he wrestled to shape it.

The cold patch on his neck dissipated and Elsa's voice said "You just have to calm down and do it. The more agitated you are, the more agitated it will be."

Nathan took a deep breath and tried to clear his mind. The blue light stopped wrestling against him and he tried to shape it again. The light felt very different than shadow. It had much more raw energy inside of it. He was used to using shadow, something he formed spells out of like he was building something out of a solid. The ice magic required much more concentration to use and shape. The light spilled over itself and moved in ways he couldn't predict. Even when he was calm, the light that represented the magic inside of him still moved and jumped around of its own accord.

He was only able to get the magic into simple shapes, and even those were the result of wrestling with it for about ten seconds. The one that he ended up with was a cone. If he was right about what he guessed it would do, than it would project a cone of ice out in front of him. He took one last deep breath to calm himself, than locked the messily assembled cone in as a spell. It seemed to solidify, and the rune in Nathan's hand crumbled into ash.

Nathan looked up and found Elsa staring at his face intently. When she saw him looking at her she said "Well? Did it work?" in an anxious voice. Nathan smiled, and in response took a step back from her and brought his hand up. He focused his energy on the new spell and let his power flow into it.

A small glowing ball appeared in his hand and hovered there. Elsa looked at it with wonder, saying "Good job!" Nathan extended his arm and opened his hand in front of him. The ball disappeared, and in its place a gout of frost and wind was expelled from of Nathan's hand. It extended about twenty feet ahead of him, forming a cone. The ice on the ground it struck got thicker. The ground that wasn't already frozen was covered in a thin layer of ice that snapped and popped as it formed over the stone. Nathan smiled as he saw what his new spell did. It was certainly more direct than anything he had used before, and there was a feeling of power in that.

Elsa gasped as the spell shot out across the courtyard. She hadn't been expecting his first spell with her magic to be quite so large. The smile on Nathan's face as the spell swept in front of him was huge. Elsa couldn't help but feel glad that she was able to help him.

Nathan pulled his hand back and looked at her. He gave a low whistle and said "Wow, that's pretty big." In a low tone. Elsa laughed and said "Well what did you expect? How much power did you put into that spell?"

Nathan shrugged and said "Not too much." He started rubbing his hands together and said "Is it getting colder out here, or is it just me?" Elsa gave a little giggle and said "Well with you throwing ice everywhere, it's bound to get colder." Nathan nodded and said "Maybe we should head back inside."

Elsa looked briefly back at the shredded burlap bag and said in a sigh of relief "We're done?"

Nathan nodded and said "We're done."

The pair turned to the door and walked inside. The change in temperature was welcome to Nathan, but Elsa didn't seem to react, as usual. The pair asked a guard where they could find the rest of their group and were pointed to a rather large room filled with paintings. Inside they found a scene that neither of them had been expecting.

Eugene was facing off with Anna, both in fighting positions and holding frying pans as weapons. Nathan couldn't help but put a hand to his face and say weakly "What… the hell…" while Elsa started to laugh at the bizarre scene in front of them. Eugene turned from the apparent duel he was engaged in and said "What? You're out there" he gestured towards the door "teaching her magic, and I'm in here teaching her how to fight."

Nathan walked up to the pair of Anna and Eugene and examined them closely. He verified to himself that they were, indeed, using frying pans as weapons. He felt his head start hurting again and, while it could be from the concussion he was recovering from, he felt that the pain was more of his body's way of telling him to correct the situation.

He took the frying pan from Anna's hand and without saying a word set it down on the ground. He did the same to Eugene's frying pan, then turned back to the pair. "Look" he said in a flat voice to Eugene "if you are going to tech her how to fight, at least teach her how to do it effectively." Elsa and Anna were barely containing their mirth at this point, and Eugene looked like he was trying very hard not to smile. Nathan was glad that he had years of experience deadpanning his face, or he would probably be laughing too.

Eugene got his laughter under control and said "Have you ever fought with a frying pan?" Nathan stared blankly back at him, and he continued. "I'll take that as a no. Would you like to try it?" he said, picking his frying pan back up off of the floor. Nathan shook his head silently but Eugene continued trying to convince him like a door to door salesman. "Well I'm sure if you just gave it a chance…" Nathan shook his head again, but Eugene continued. "Ok, how about this: you have a duel with me, me using my frying pan, you using your sword."

Nathan raised an eyebrow and said "Does this mean I get to stab you?" prompting another round of laughter from Anna and Elsa. Eugene held up a hand and said "No. no it does not. Actually…" his voice trailed off and he looked passed Nathan at the door behind him. He continued where he left off, saying "…Rapunzel went to get some dulled practice swords, but she hasn't come back yet."

Eugene shrugged and said "I guess you'll have to wait until she comes back with them. Until then, watch what I've taught her so far!" Nathan groaned loudly and Elsa clapped him on the back. She said "Come on Nathan! You might learn something."

Nathan gave her a look that seemed to say "You can't be serious". She nodded, and he sighed and stepped back to the doorframe and leaned up against it. Eugene and Anna looked at him like they were expecting something. He waved a hand at them and said "Go, go, come on! If you're going to do it, go!"

The two smiled at each other and struck fighting stances with practiced exactness. Nathan couldn't speak bad about their form; it was sturdy looking, would allow quick movements, and provided adequate defense.

They both nodded to the other, than Eugene called out "Go!" and they both leapt towards each other. The frying pans came crashing together and locked against each other. The fight instantly devolved to a contest of strength, which Nathan knew that Eugene was bound to win. As he predicted, Eugene pushed his way through Anna's guard and her pan went spinning across the floor to clatter loudly against the wall.

Eugene put his frying pan up, pointed at Anna in the same way that one would put up a sword to show an enemy that they were defeated. Anna put her hands up and said "Ok, you win!" quickly. Eugene looked over at Nathan and said "See? Think of how much you could learn!"

Nathan was about to respond when a crashing sound came from the hallway he was closest to. He leaned over and looked back into the hallway and saw Rapunzel carrying two swords and struggling to pick a third one up off the floor.

He hurried out of the room and over to Rapunzel. He picked the third sword up off the ground and said "Need a hand?" She nodded appreciatively and Nathan took the rest of the swords from her arms. They started walking back into the art room. As Rapunzel entered, Eugene charged right for her and gave her a huge hug. She looked a bit startled by this, but returned the hug with a happy look on her face.

Nathan set the dull blades down and said to Eugene "Hey, can I talk to you about something?"

Eugene smiled over at Nathan and said "Yea sure." Dismissively before dashing over and grabbing a blade. "Look at this! Alright" he struck his fighting stance again "let's go."

Nathan sighed and grabbed one of the practice blades. It would be quicker to just beat him and talk to him after, he figured.

He raised the dull blade and gave it a few experimental twirls around his wrist. It seemed adequately weighted, so he rose it up and put himself into a fighting stance. Eugene smiled confidently and said "I've learned a few more tricks since we were kids." Nathan said blankly "I'm sure you have" than motioned for Eugene to come at him.

He took a cautious step forward, and Nathan didn't react. He took another, and again Nathan didn't react. He made a cautious swing at Nathan with no intent to actually hit, and Nathan again didn't react. He lunged forward suddenly with speed that he didn't have before. He was confident that he would hit Nathan with this strike.

Nathan stepped to the side and brought the bottom of his boot into Eugene's shoulder, knocking him to the ground. He went sprawling on the ground. Nathan stood over Eugene and rested the point of the blade on his chest, saying "So, ready to talk yet?"

Eugene pushed the point of the blade off of him and pulled himself to his feet. He started to say something angrily to Nathan about what he did. "Hey, what gives? I'm just trying to have a little…" his voice trailed off as he saw the still blank look on Nathan's face. "What's up man? Is something the matter?"

Nathan shook his head and said "No, no, I've just been thinking, since I'm mostly over my concussion. I figure that Gothel knows where we are, and we've got nothing on her." At the mention of Gothel's name Eugene's face paled and his smile fell away. Nathan continued "You came to Arendelle to help stop her, and to be totally honest" he spread his hands apologetically "you haven't done an awful lot. None of us have. Which is why I figure: we're just lucky she hasn't attacked again. I want to even the odds a little bit, you know? So I need you to tell me anything that you know about this bitch that you can."

Eugene's playful countenance was completely gone. He nodded and motioned for Rapunzel to come over and join them. Elsa and Anna, who were chatting with Rapunzel, saw the motion and accompanied Rapunzel over. The group congregated around Nathan, who looked around and said "Let's find a better room for this, shall we?"

They relocated to a room that resembled an office room, with a long table set with chairs running up and down either side with one chair set at each head of the table. A large window was set in the wall behind the end of the table gave an excellent view of the frigid Fjord. They all took a seat at the table and Nathan said to all of them "It's been nearly a week since Gothel has attacked, and we still don't know anything about her." Faces around the room fell, and he continued. "I don't really fancy waiting around for her to attack again. Do you?" he asked, looking around at all of them.

They all shook their heads simultaneously. Nathan said "Good, so let's even the odds a little bit here. She knows where we live, so let's find out a little something about her. Do you two know anything about her?" he asked Eugene and Rapunzel. The two nodded and Rapunzel said "Well… we know where she did live, but that was a long time ago, and we're not even sure…" Nathan cut her off by saying "I don't care. Right now I'll take any info I can get."

Rapunzel asked Elsa for a map of Corona. Elsa sent for one to be retrieved by a servant, who scuttled off quickly saying "Yes my queen" in a nasal voice. Nathan began to feel something happening, like a shadow was falling over him. As the royals around him talked amongst themselves until the map was brought, he thought on what he was feeling. It wasn't a bad feeling, no. quite the contrary, I held a kind of nostalgic charm to it. Like he was falling back into a routine that he had dropped for some time. Than it snapped into place. Hunting. Other people hunted deer or pig in forests, he hunted men and women in cities. The two weren't so different. A smile crept across his face as he felt the familiar cogs and wheels shutter back into life in his brain that had remained still for so long.

He would need a location, possible contacts, his gear, whether or not the target was guarded. True, this information was usually provided for him, but a little scavenger hunt was fun every now and again.

The map that had been requested was brought, and all, except the servant who brought it, crowded around it. Nathan saw the key to the map, and was surprised to find that Corona was essentially the same size as Arendelle. He had heard stories about the riches that Corona possessed, so he had always assumed that it was a rather large kingdom.

Eugene laid a finger on the castle and started to trace a line out from it, whispering to himself. Nathan asked him what he was doing, and he replied "Trying to remember the way." Nathan shrugged, waited a moment, and then asked "Is it well hidden?"

Rapunzel was the one to reply this time. "Yes, very well. I doubt that you could find it without our help, even with your powers." Nathan was about to ask how a tower could possibly be hidden so well when Eugene let out an "Aha!" and slammed his finger down on the map. This arrested the question Nathan had been about to ask, as his finger was in the middle of a large ravine.

"It's right there. I'm sure." He picked up a small pencil and traced a light line from the castle of Corona to the ravine and circled the middle of the ravine. Nathan drew a small pad of paper and a pen from one of his pockets and began copying a crude replica of the map down. It was a few moments before he was satisfied with his version, but after he was he folded the paper up and placed it in a different pocket, one he reserved for mission-sensitive documents.

He took a step back from the table and said "So is that everything you have, or do you have any other information?" Eugene and Rapunzel shook their heads sadly. "No" Rapunzel said "I wish there was more we could do, but…" her voice trailed off and Eugene picked up where she stopped "…But Gothel was a horrible woman, and we assumed she was dead. We avoided the tower as much as possible, you understand…"

Nathan nodded and turned to the window. He put a hand to his chin and gazed out at the icy water. "I'll leave tomorrow. I'll go alone." He knew that either Eugene or Rapunzel would voice some objection, so he preempted that by saying "I want as many people here as possible, just in case Gothel decides to strike again."

He looked out over the water and his attention was drawn by a large building that's lights were burning bright in stark contrast to the buildings around it. Nathan could see a pipe near the bottom of the building, spilling out a dark red and brown muck into the water below. He thought he recognized the sludge spilling out. Nathan called to Elsa and said "Is that where whales are processed?" pointing the facility out to her. She nodded, and Nathan said "I would like to visit before I leave tomorrow." He looked up at the sun, still high in the sky. "It's only late afternoon. There should be time today." He said, then turned away from the window.

* * *

><p>Authors Thing:<p>

Strap in everybody, the plot is starting to move again.  
>as always guys leave some comments and share with your friends!<br>even if they don't want it  
>make them read it.<p> 


	26. Chapter 26

Nathan would've preferred to walk to the refinery, but as Elsa had rightfully pointed out, "It would be almost dark by the time you got there, and I can guarantee that no one who works there is going to want to give you the grand tour if they aren't getting overtime."

So instead he ended up riding in a carriage through the town to the butchery, or "processing plant" as they called it. He was accompanied only by Elsa. She had been the only one who was curious enough about what he was doing to come with him. He was going for two reasons. The first was that he wanted to see if there were any runes that had been found on the insides of whales, as he had heard of such things happening before.

The second reason was that he wanted to ask the workers there if they had seen anything unusual of late. He wasn't going to just flat out ask them if they had seen Gothel, but he would hint at it and, if any of them had any useful information than he would come up with the rest of the plan then. He doubted that Gothel had come to the butchery, but he would much rather be safe than sorry. The guards who had been dispatched to look for Gothel had come back empty-handed each time, without even a hint of a trail on where she had gone.

But of all the places in Arendelle for her to go to, the butchery was one of the only ones that Nathan knew for sure could have something useful to her. The whales that were processed in the massive facility were bound to have bones, and Nathan wasn't entirely sure if one cold simply be carved into a rune or if it had to be created via some bizarre ritual or even conjured from the void itself.

The carriage drew up to the side of the facility and came to a jolting stop. Nathan looked across the carriage at Elsa and said "So you ready to go and see the dead whales?" in a fake chipper voice. Elsa rolled her eyes as the driver to the carriage opened the door and bowed. Elsa lifted herself up and stepped down to the cobbled street. Nathan followed. Elsa thanked the driver and told him to wait until they returned. He nodded profusely and said "Gladly, my Queen." in a reverent tone.

Nathan eyed the man. He was small, about three-fourths of Nathans height, and looked old. Nathan would place him at around fifty or sixty years. He acted around Elsa like Nathan had seen most of the other servants act around Elsa, like they were in some kind of religious service. It occurred to him that those that worked directly for Elsa would probably see the most of her powers, but understand it the least. He briefly pondered if that would have any effect on servant loyalty before clearing his mind and refocusing on the task at hand.

A cold wind blew in from the fjord, and carried on it the metallic scent of blood. Nathan recognized the familiar smell and turned to the facility. The lights inside were shining through what windows there were, set high in the walls of the building. The sun was setting, making the entire building give off an otherworldly glow. Nathan could see now that the facility that was in operation was only a part of a much larger complex of buildings. He could see a few warehouses with doors blown open that were filled with what looked to him like various fishing gear.

The wind picked up, and the smell of good got stronger. Elsa gagged next to Nathan and reminded him that she was there. He motioned to the small door in the front of the building and said "Shall we head in?"

Elsa put a hand over her nose and nodded. The two walked to the door and Nathan shouldered it open. A rush of warm air blew past both of them and they hurried their way in. The smell of blood diminished once the door shut behind them, and Elsa took her hand away from her face. Nathan looked around and found himself in a long and tall hallway that had one door on the right-hand side and several doors in regular intervals on the left-hand side. The door to his right had a brass sign inlaid on the wall above it that read "Management" in bold black letters. The doors to his left had signs as well, but they looked wooden. The one closest to him had the words "Final Processing" written in black paint on it. The next sign further down read something different, but it was too far for Nathan to make out.

Elsa pointed to the door on his left and said "We should probably go in here, right?" Nathan nodded and pulled the door open. Again, a rush of warm air washed over them.

A voice called out from the room saying irritably "What is it now, eh?" Nathan peered into the room and found it larger than he expected. It was filled with filing cabinets about his height that obscured most of Nathan's view of the room, but he could see a few desks strewn here and there through the tall cabinets. He looked sideways at Elsa, who cleared her throat and said to the room as a whole "The Queen requests an audience." in a practiced, authoritative tone.

The voice from inside the room called out again, this time accompanied by this by thudding footsteps. "Queen? Yea, sure. Fat chance of that ever-" the voice stopped short and Nathan saw the man who possessed it step out from behind one of the filing cabinets. The first thing that Nathan noticed was the shocked looking expression on his face as he gawked at Elsa. He seemed to snap back to his senses and bowed quickly, saying "I'm sorry, my Queen. I didn't know that you would be visiting today."

He was a burly man, wearing a suit that looked like it was two sizes too small. His bulging arm muscles looked like they were about to rip straight through his sleeves. He had jet black oily looking slicked back hair, almost as dark as Nathan's. The man had a messy dark stubble sprouting from his face that gave him the look of a drunk somehow.

Elsa smiled and said "Rise, please." In a more gentle voice than she had used before. The man did, but didn't seem to be able to look Elsa in the eye. He instead chose to stare at the ground at her feet. He grumbled out in a low gravelly voice that seemed much too timid or a man of his physique "To what do I owe the pleasure, my Queen?"

Elsa opened her mouth, about to speak, than hesitated and looked over at Nathan. Nathan took a step forward and said "We're here to investigate a recent…" he paused and thought a moment. The fact that an attempt on Elsa's life had not been made public, and he very much doubted that Elsa wanted the news to start with a whaler. "…suspicious individual. We suspect them of crimes against the throne, and want to take them in for questioning."

Elsa raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything. The man looked quickly from Elsa to Nathan, then stuck out his hand, saying "H-hello. My name is Brimshaw, I'll help you any way I can." Nathan shook the Brimshaw's hand and noticed with amusement how weak him grip was at the moment. Nathan let go of his hand and he turned to Elsa and stuck his arm out hesitantly about halfway before he pulled it back in and bowed again.

Nathan peered around the room and again took note of the several empty desks. He turned back to Brimshaw and asked "Are you the owner of this establishment?"

Brimshaw turned completely to Nathan, apparently glad for a reason to not look at Elsa. He said "No, no. the guy who owns…" he stopped than corrected himself "…used to own this place was named Harry Prattchet. He died maybe..." he counted a few digits on his hand before continuing "…about a week ago. Me and the boys" he jerked a thumb in the direction of the other doors that they had seen "have been trying to handle all the technical mumbo-jumbo. It's tough, this pencil pushing." His eyes shot bugged out like he had realized something horrible. He turned back to Elsa and said in a panicked fashion "It's all good though, we got it all under control!"

Elsa gave the man a confused look and said "I… uh… do you need any kind of assistance running everything? I can send for some-"

Brimshaw got a panicked look in his eyes, and started shaking his head vigorously. "No! We don't need any help, no us! No ma'am!"

Elsa shot Nathan a confused look, and he stepped forward and put a hand on Brimshaw's shoulder, lightly pulling him away from Elsa. "Look, sir, if you can just stay focused and tell us what we need, we'll be out of your hair in no time." Nathan directed him away from Elsa, so that there was a cabinet of files between the two. Despite this, the man's gaze still flitted behind Nathan and he leaned to the side, trying to see Elsa. Nathan snapped his fingers in front of the man's face, making him jump.

Nathan said "Can I ask why you are so concerned with the Queens presence here? It's ah…" he paused a moment than said "…a bit suspect."

The man's face fell, and any color still in it drained away. He clapped his hands together and interlocked his fingers, and looked like he was about to burst into tears. Nathan knew that if this guy broke down than he likely wouldn't get any of the information he came for. He said "Hey, calm down! Just tell me why you are freaking out so much."

Brimshaw sniffled, than looked at Nathan with a sad look. "The boys out on the floor have been talking, and… they've been saying the butchery is going to get possessed by the crown on account of the boss's death. That's why she's here, isn't it?"

Nathan raised an eyebrow. That certainly made sense, he thought. He wasn't sure how the law worked in Arendelle concerning death and property ownership and those kinds of issues. It certainly sounded like something that could happen given how important Elsa had said the whaling industry was to the kingdom. Nathan couldn't tell the man that Elsa didn't want to do that, as she hadn't said anything about it to him.

He was about to ask why ownership of the facility would affect them, but before he could Elsa came around the cabinet and said matter-of-factly "Actually, Prattchet wrote into his will that the ownership of the facility would go to his "second in command". I assume by the fact that you're the one in the office that this is you?"

Brimshaw's face lifted and his eyes lit up like a kid on Christmas. His face lifted and a wide smile spread across his face. "I knew ol' boss would look after us, I just knew it! All the boys were saying…" his voice faded and his smile fell slightly as he seemed to become more aware of the looks that both Nathan and Elsa were giving him. He cleared his throat and said "I mean… uh… thank you for the news, your Highness." And bowed again.

Elsa raised an eyebrow and said "Someone should have informed you about this. I'll see to it that whoever didn't do their job is reprimanded." She paused for a moment, and silence filled the room. Elsa gave a small nod towards him and motioned for Nathan to go.

"So, Brimshaw, the reason that we are here today is that we need you to tell us if you've seen someone. Can you do that for us?" he nodded, and Nathan continued. "Good, now, have you seen anyone strange recently? Anyone who just seemed out of place?"

Brimshaw shook his head without a moment of hesitation. "No sir, no one but a few of the butcher boys come to the office. No real visitors since boss…" his voice trailed off and he picked up at a different spot "…if anyone weird does come, I'll let you know right away."

Nathan nodded, then moved on to the second thing he had come for. He pulled his last remaining rune out of a pocket and held it out to Brimshaw, asking "Have you seen many of these? You know, around?" he put emphasis on the word "around" to show Brimshaw that he knew that whales ate the runes, and that he or his workers would almost always be the first to find them.

When Brimshaw's eyes fell on the rune he made a strange movement that Nathan likened to leaning forward in interest and taking an involuntary step back at the same time. He knew from that reaction that the whaler at least had to know that the rune was more than just a slab of bone. "Ah" Brimshaw said hesitantly "I may have seen a few, why?"

Nathan smiled and avoided answering "Do you still have them, or were they…" he waved his hand dismissively "…lost?"

Brimshaw hesitated again, and Nathan thought he saw a bead of sweat roll over his brow. He started clenching and unclenching his fists and working his jaw. After a moment he said "I might still have 'em laying around, I don't rightly remember."

Nathan sighed and started reaching for a pocket as he said "That's a shame…" he said as the button on the pocket snapped open. Brimshaw's eyes flitted down to the pocket briefly before whipping back to Nathan's face. Nathan reached in to the pocket and continued "…because I…" He withdrew his hand and Brimshaw flinched before his eyes narrowed in suspicion as his eyes fell on the bag of coin that Nathan had removed. He finished "…would like to buy them from you." And the smugness of his grin broke through his usual blank expression.

Brimshaw let out a tense sigh, then said "You scared me half to death, you know that?" Nathan spread his arms and said "We have a deal?" confidently. Brimshaw grumbled unhappily "Nearly pissed myself..." before looking from Nathan to Elsa and back again. "If you're with the queen, I guess I should trust you. Alright" he stuck his arm out. "Deal."

Nathan shook his hand and said "Deal. You'll get one-fifty per rune, yea?" Brimshaw's eyes widened and Nathan saw the glisten that only money could bring to the eye. He said "Yea? One-fifty? You got it!" than moved quickly to one of the desks and started fumbling with one of the drawers. Nathan held up a hand "While you look for it" he said, emphasizing "look" over the other words "would you mind if I went to the floor and talked to a few of your butchers?"

Brimshaw stopped trying to open the drawer and looked up. "No, go ahead. They might be a little irritable, but I'll tell 'em something to get them a little more friendly." He waved to the door. "Go, go, I'll tell them!" he looked to Elsa and said "I don't imagine that you're interested in visiting the cutting floor, your Highness." He gave her another little bow, and she smirked. "Quite right." She waved a hand at Nathan "Go, I'll be fine."

Nathan nodded and walked out the door to the office. Now back in the long corridor, he walked across to the door labeled "Final Processing" and pushed it open. The smell of blood that burst through the now open door was almost too much for even Nathan to handle. He could hear large objects being moved around inside, and stepped in to investigate.

The room's ceiling was at least four stories above Nathan. Girders and support beams wove their way across the corrugated sheet metal ceiling. Nathan was surprised to see that the inside of the building shared the same type of roofing as the outside, and supposed that there must be some form of insulation between the two. A sudden voice boomed out through the massive room, and Nathan recognized it as Brimshaw's voice. It said "We have a guest today, boys! Please treat him nice, and just do what he tells you. I don't want to hear anything about you boys having lip!"

Nathan looked for the source of the voice, and found it a balcony about half way down the massive single room that made up the interior of the building. It sat just in view over a huge metal divider that sat about a third of the way down the room. A few more voices echoed out from sections that Nathan couldn't see, saying things like "All right!" and "You got it, Brim!"

Nathan looked around the section that he was in and found six men, all heaving massive slabs of meat over their backs and moving it to lines of hooks set on wheels. Nathan approached them and as he got closer he could hear them all mumbling in unison "…do we do with a drunken whaler early in the mourn…" the one at the front of the line stopped as he saw Nathan. The men behind him all walked into each other, and started shouting angrily at him. In response to their ire he simply pointed to Nathan, and the shouting stopped.

The man in front turned to the man behind him and nodded his head in the direction of the hooks and said "Keep it movin'." Before turning back to Nathan and saying in a welcoming voice "Hey, what can I do for you, sir?"

Nathan stopped next to the man and put an arm out towards the rack of hooks, indicating that they could walk and talk at the same time. "I'd like you to tell me a few things. What's your name?" he asked.

The man laughed a laugh that sounded like two boulders grinding together. "Weird first question." He remarked jokingly and then said "I'm Todd. Who might you be?"

"Nathan." Nathan remarked than said "I'd shake your hand, but…" he gestured to the bloody mass slung over Todd's shoulder and shrugged. Todd laughed at this. "So, formalities out of the way, have you seen anyone out here on the floor who shouldn't be? Anyone at all?"

Todd looked up and thought. "Let's see... nope, no one. Not many people come and visit the processing plant, and those who do don't come to the floor. I assume that you've talked to Brim, yea?" Nathan nodded and Todd continued "If no one visits him, you can be sure no one's going to visit us."

Nathan nodded again and said "Thanks. Another issue that needs to be dealt with is what happens to the whale bones left over from processing. Are they just left around, or is there some specific place you put them, what?"

Todd raised an eyebrow and looked Nathan up and down and said "What do you want with the bones, eh?" Nathan put his hand in the air in a mock innocent manner. "What, just curious." He waved dismissively "Besides, there just bones, right? What harm could they do?"

It was clear that Todd was aware to some degree of the properties that whale bones had. Nathan wondered if it was from some kind of personal experience or if it was just a kind of belief that was shared by all who worked so closely with whales.

Todd glowered suspiciously at Nathan before saying "yea, just bones. All the bones are disposed of after the meat and blubber are off. Whale bones only bring bad luck, that's what everyone says."

Nathan shrugged and said "Depends on what you want to happen, I suppose." Todd hung the massive slab of meat on the hook rack and turned back to Nathan. He was looking at him differently now, like he could be a threat. Nathan supposed that it was time to bring the search to a close. He had found nothing indicating Gothel had been here, and he had established someone that he could buy runes from. It had been a reasonably productive day.

He thanked Todd and headed back to the office. As he entered the hall again he noticed the difference in temperature between the floor and the hall. The hall felt about twenty degrees cooler than the hall. He wondered if the floor opened directly out to the fjord, or if there was some other way that dead whales were transported to the facility some other way.

He pulled the door open and found Elsa sitting at a desk with Brimshaw, a bottle of whisky and a whale bone rune sitting on the desk between them. Both were laughing hysterically and clutching glasses in their hands. Nathan took a step into the room and cleared his throat.

Brimshaw stood up from his chair, set his glass down, and stopped laughing all in one smooth motion. Nathan couldn't help but be slightly impressed by the move. Elsa turned in her seat and looked up at Nathan, a wide grin on her face. "All done?" she asked. Nathan listened carefully for any kind of slur in her voice, but didn't find any. He nodded and Brimshaw clapped his hands together loudly. "Excellent! Was everything alright?"

Nathan nodded again. Elsa stood and turned to Brimshaw, saying "Well, I suppose that this concludes our little meeting. It was a pleasure meting you, Johnathan." She curtsied politely and walked over to Nathan's side. Brimshaw bowed deeply and said "The pleasure was all mine, my Queen." Nathan took a step towards the table and took the rune in one hand, placing the bag of coins from before on the desk and giving Brimshaw a small nod.

Nathan and Elsa walked to the carriage. The driver of the carriage was still sitting on the front, bundled up in what looked like several blankets. As Elsa and Nathan sat in the carriage Nathan raised an eyebrow and said "So, Johnathan, eh?" Elsa gave him a playful shove and said "Oh shut up!" as the carriage started back off to the castle.

* * *

><p>Aouthoutrsf thing:<p>

oh my god that spelling. that was an actual attempt to spell that word.  
>My brain hemorrhaging aside, hope this chapter is liked! remember to do all the stuff. you know the stuff.<p> 


	27. Chapter 27

Nathan ran over a mental checklist as he walk slowly towards the door to his room. He had all of his runes, all his bone charms and more than enough money to keep him alive and comfortable for the trip. He cast an eye over the rest of the room, searching for anything that he had missed. Nothing sprang to mind, so he opened the door and walked out in to the hall.

He made his way through the castle to the dining hall, thinking all the way about what he would find in that tower once he got to Corona. There was no telling what it could be. It could be soaked with blood with runes painted on the walls, or it could just be a dusty tower, with no more signs of life than the moon. The possibilities were truly endless, and that made him just a tad exited. He hadn't really done anything useful in some time, and he was looking forward to showing his abilities off once again, even if there would be no one around to see them.

He came to the immense entrance to the hall and pushed the doors open with a resolve he felt he hadn't had in weeks. Elsa and Anna were sitting with Eugene and Rapunzel at a table on the far side of the room, so he took his time gathering food from the table that had been prepared. After he had piled enough to satisfy his hunger he walked over to the tale and sat down.

The quartet greeted him warmly, and he retuned their greetings in a more withdrawn manor than he had used for anything in a while. He started eating his food, then asked Elsa "So is everything ready for me to go?"

Elsa exchanged looks with everyone else at the table and said both cautiously and concernedly "Nathan… we've been talking, and we think it would be best if someone goes with you." Nathan leaned back from his food and took time to let the words sink in and to consider them. There could be many reasons for her to say that: she could think that he was still affected by the concussion, she could believe that he was in some way incompetent, or she could simply not trust him. His jolt reaction was to take offence, but he held that back and decided that a calm discussion was better than a heated one.

He leaned back into his food and resumed eating. After a few bites he spoke "May I ask why?"

Elsa sighed and looked to Eugene for help. He caught her look and sprang in, saying "No one here doubts you, Nathan." Heads around the table nodded "It's just that we have no idea how dangerous Gothel is, and from the sounds of what they've been saying about you, you are the only one who can really go toe-to-toe with her. If you go to her tower, you could walk right into a trap!" he leaned in towards Nathan and said with a dire emphasis and put a hand towards Elsa and Anna "They need you." He put a hand to his chest and nodded back at Rapunzel "We need you." He leaned back and let out a sigh. "Without you, we really have no way to take Gothel out. From what I saw of what she does, none of us even have a shot at getting her. So if she gets you…" his voice trailed off and he leaned back, letting the point he was making hang.

Nathan nodded, then said "Or there could be nothing at all. You yourself said that you didn't know if Gothel was still there. And besides…" he gave a wolfish grin to emphasize his point "…I'll be ready for her if she is. Last time she got the jump on me, and I was still able to drive her off. Trust me, if she is in that tower, she won't even know that she has company."

Rapunzel looked concerned, and said "Are you sure? How can you be so-"

Nathan cut her off, knowing what the question was. "I've been skulking around killing people my whole life. I'm sure that this time won't be a whole lot different than all the others I've done in." he continued eating as those words sunk in around the table. Nathan assumed that they had forgotten that he was, and still pretty much was, an assassin. It occurred to him how strange that must seem to them, knowing that a friend has killed more people than they could count.

Anna took a deep breath, and Nathan knew it was her turn to try and dissuade him. "We just don't want you to get hurt." she said in an almost pleading voice. The softness of it surprised Nathan, but did nothing to change his mind.

"I think that I want me to avoid getting hurt the most of all of us." He said in a slightly joking voice. This didn't elicit the reaction that he had hoped or, laughter or the mood lightning, but there were a few smirks. He supposed that he had adequately defended his position of going, and asked again "Is everything ready for me to go?"

Elsa looked down to the floor, defeated, and nodded. "The ship is ready whenever you are. It's been outfitted to be as quick as possible, you should get there before nightfall today."

Nathan was impressed at the speed that they expected, but hid it well. "Good." he nodded "I'll leave after I finish this" he indicated his food and resumed eating.

The majority of the rest of the meal passed in silence. Nathan was aware of looks being passed between the four, as if communicating through mere glances. He found it slightly irritating, but did nothing about it. It took him about five minutes to eat the rest of his food. The thought that he shouldn't eat so much just before a journey by ship occurred to him, but he dismissed it with the logic that he would be able to hold his breakfast no matter how choppy the water got.

He stood and set his utensils down on the empty plate. The others looked up at him with expressions of anticipation and worry. He said "I suppose I should get a move on. Sooner I get there the sooner I leave." And turned away from the table. The sound of chairs scraping the floor behind him erupted and he turned back to see that they had all scrambled to their feet with the intention of following him. He sighed, he had been hoping to avoid a sendoff like this, but he supposed that it should have been expected at this point.

He made his way to the main hall and threw the great doors open, letting a blast of cold air in. the procession following him did so all the way down to the docks of Arendelle. The docks were mostly empty, as the number of ships that sailed in the winter was generally much lower than the number during the warmer seasons.

Nathan thought he recognized the vessel he was to ride on sight. Not because of the royal seal as a flag, or the fact that it was possibly the smallest ship he had ever seen in the harbor thus far, but by the small ball of twisting and swirling blue magic that rested near the top of the main mast. He recalled what Elsa had said about making ships go faster with her magic and supposed that the ball was the enchantment she had used to do that. The wheel of the ship was contained in a small room on the top of the deck, with windows and a few cabinets visible. Nathan noticed something missing from the ship, and turned to Elsa. "Don't ships normally have a brig or some kind of below desk area?" he asked.

Elsa gave a small smile and said "Well, it's built for speed, not much else." Nathan nodded and said "It looks more like a canoe than a ship." in a critical tone.

Elsa stepped towards him and said "We could wait for a bigger ship, or we could send the guard on this!" eagerly.

Nathan raised an eyebrow at her and said "Relax, would you? I'm going to be fine. Why are you so concerned anyways?"

Elsa looked down at the cobbled stone they stood on and stuttered quietly "I… I think…" before she was interrupted by a loud voice from the ship.

"Ahoy! You ready to go, sir?" the gravelly voice called.

Nathan turned and smiled, recognizing the voice. Sure enough, Brimshaw was clutching onto the wheel of the ship, waving at them. Nathan looked back at Elsa, who had been about to say something. He said "What were you saying?" but Elsa just shook her head.

He looked up to the rest of the group and said "Well… I'll see you in a few days, I suppose." Eugene stepped forward and expended an arm. Nathan took his hand and shook, saying "Nice to see you again, man." Eugene smiled and said "Same here." before stepping back and letting Rapunzel take his place. Nathan extended a hand but found himself deftly pulled into a hug. He struggled a bit to disentangle himself from her arms, but eventually succeeded. She stepped back with tears in her eyes and said apologetically "Sorry." Smiling sadly "I'm no good with goodbyes."

She stepped back and made room for Anna, who simply plastered herself around Nathan in a hug so tight that it started forcing the air out of his lungs. He braced himself and heard her say "Be safe." as he struggled against her steely hold. Eventually he was able to pull Anna off of himself. She blushed and stepped back, making way for Elsa.

Elsa wordlessly stepped forward and gently put her arms around Nathan. Nathan found himself surprised, not by the gesture, but by the fact that he didn't feel the need to escape this one. He waited for a moment, then returned the hug awkwardly. It was not a movement he was used to, and it made him feel strange. He wasn't used to letting people touch him, and this was defiantly taking most of his self-control to stand.

Elsa pushed her face into Nathan's shoulder and whispered the words "I'll miss you." So quietly that only he could hear. He wasn't entirely sure why she was acting like this, being much more emotional than she normally was. He whispered so unconfidently back that it sounded like a question "I'll miss you too."

She let go of him and stepped back. "Be safe." she said in what Nathan could tell was her most controlled royal voice. He nodded and said "I plan on it." flatly.

Brimshaw called out from the ship again, saying "If we're to go, it should be soon, ma'am!" and Elsa turned her attention to the boat. She waved to the man waiting on the deck and said, not taking her eyes off of Brimshaw "Time to go, I guess." sadly. Nathan nodded and turned away from her. He walked to the boat and stepped over the side onto the deck.

The ship rocked slightly as Nathan's foot fell on the wooden planks of the deck. The ship was not nearly as small as a canoe, as Nathan had compared it to, but it was a far way away from a regular multi-decked ship. The ship gave a sudden jolt that almost made Nathan fall down. Brimshaw grabbed Nathan's shoulder, steadying him and said "Not spent much time on ships, have 'ya?"

Nathan shook his head and said "No, but we may as well get a move on."

Brimshaw nodded and walked back over to the wheel. Nathan looked back to the dock and found everyone in the group waving goodbye to him. he raised a hand and returned their waves. The blue ball of magic by the sails flared brightly, and a chilly wind started blowing into the sails.

The ship was carried out into the fjord swiftly by Elsa's magic wind. Something occurred to Nathan, and he hurriedly focused his energy into his shadow step and let a burst of power propel a small piece of his shadow out towards the waving group. He felt the fragment embed itself in Elsa's shadow, and gave a small satisfied smile. It occurred to him that Brimshaw could have seen him cast the spell, and that he wasn't aware of Nathan's powers. He turned back to him, only to find him whistling a tune to himself as he happily turned the wheel of the boat in small increments.

Nathan turned back to the harbor and waved again at the group still standing there. They faded quickly into the distance as the small ship sped off into the outer fjord and into the open ocean. The last detail that Nathan could make out was a small patch of blue spreading out from Elsa's feet. As they faded completely into the blur that enveloped everything at a great distance Nathan let out a sigh. He heard the heavy footsteps of Brimshaw come up behind him and come to rest about a foot from him.

A large beefy hand fell on Nathan's shoulder, and he heard Brimshaw's gravelly voice say amid the sloshing of water against the side of the ship "She cares about you, you know?"

Nathan turned to the man, shrugging the hand off and raising an eyebrow. "Cares about me? I should hope so, I'm the one tasked with protecting her."

Brimshaw shook his head and waved a hand like Nathan had said something ridiculous, saying "No, I mean she really cares about you. Like an emotional care." He squinted at Nathan "You mean you really haven't caught on?" he laughed to himself "And here I thought you were sharp."

Nathan snorted and said "Sharper than you. Maybe you are just imagining things." Brimshaw crossed his arms and said in a challenging tone "Sharper than me? Prove it."

Nathan turned to look him up and down, taking note of every minute detail he could. The first thing that jumped out at him were the man's swollen knuckles. "You have very swollen knuckles, indicating that you use your hands a lot. While it could be from your work as a whaler it looks more like impact trauma to me. Combined with the bags under your eyes and your unshaven continence, I'd wager that you get in quite a few bar fights." He paused a moment to take a breath, and while he did so Brimshaw's eyes widened. "You smell like alcohol, but you don't seem at all drunk, so I'll guess it's your clothes. Given that, the fights, and the fact there was alcohol in your office, I'd wager that you're something of an alcoholic too. In fact…" he glanced around the boat, then said "…You've probably got something to drink around here somewhere."

Brimshaw nodded slowly, then said "Alright, so you're good. But I'm not too bad either. You're a person who is used to not dealing with folks. You always avoided it when you could. You got good at changing face to get what you want, but it's all really just an act. You don't feel much. You're good at reading stuff about people, their clothes or their smell, but you can't read the people themselves."

Nathan sighed again. Everything that he said was true, whether he liked it or not. The man looked at Nathan with a friendly expression, like they had been friends for years. Nathan asked "How did you know all that?" with genuine curiosity. Brimshaw smiled and said "Cuz' most of our boys come in, just the same as you. Ain't got no home, ain't got no family, ain't got nothing. They come to the butchery and carve out little niche for themselves. I'd be willin' to wadger that you had a niche somewhere, doin' something you liked, but now you're out here."

Nathan thought back to what seemed like years ago, taking contracts and killing nobles every other day. He had liked it, but it had just grown so dull. Nothing ever changed, no matter how many died. He smiled to himself as he drew a comparison between cities and butcheries. No matter how many whales went through there was always another to take its place.

So what was he doing now? Protecting the whales, he supposed. Not that he would ever call Elsa a whale, of course. A leviathan perhaps, in terms of power, but not a whale.

His stomach growled at him menacingly and he clutched it worriedly. Brimshaw put a worried hand on Nathan's back and said "You alright?"

Nathan shook his head and gasped out the words "All this emotion stuff is making me seasick."

* * *

><p>Authors thing:<p>

blegh, more emotions. anyways, remember to leave a review, subscribe ,like, follow, you know the drill.

Oh, and by the way, those guys who said whales don't eat whale bones

first level, knife of Dunwal, inside the refinery, the bone charm by the bleeding whale:"Mysterious Note  
>Anton-<br>This thing was found inside the belly of catch 184 when we were processing it..."

take that!


	28. Chapter 28

Nathan jolted awake as the ship hit a particularly large wave and pitched in the water. He clutched at the side of the ship and steadied himself on the wood planking. He heard Brimshaw laugh at him from the wheel, but didn't do anything else. Nathan clutched his stomach and wondered why he had to wake back up to the rocking sea. He pulled himself to his feet and rocked for a moment before turning back to Brimshaw and asked "Are we there yet?" in a voice slurred by his mild seasickness.

Brimshaw laughed and pointed to the sun on the horizon. Nathan followed his finger to the sun and found it starting to set. The very edge of the burning ball that Nathan could make out without burning his eyes out was just starting to touch the water in the distance. He said "By the time the sun sets, we'll be there." and Nathan groaned.

He knew that it was probably not nearly as long a wait as he anticipated, but even if it was only a mere hour, it would seem like three. He walked over next to Brimshaw and peered blearily down at the wheel. There were several instruments, some he recognized and some he didn't. There was a compass set into the same wood that the wheel was set in, and an instrument that looked like it was for reading stars was laying on the flat wood behind the wheel. He picked the thing up and started examining it, asking Brimshaw "Why are you here? Driving the boat, I mean."

Brimshaw smiled as he looked out on the horizon and said "I've not captained a ship in a long time. I sure wasn't going to miss this opportunity." he gestured up to the glowing ball on the mast "Especially with that. It's a shame that you don't sail, because you'll never know what it's like to have the wind in your sails like this." He took a deep breath of salty sea air and smiled. "It's a special feeling, the freedom the wind gives you."

A smile crept across Nathan's face and he said "I think I can imagine." he said, thinking of the mission he was on now. There was certainly quite a bit of freedom, it was just a matter of using the right freedoms to find the tower and get in.

He started thinking of the description that Eugene and Rapunzel had given him of the tower. "Located in a hard to find alcove in a hidden cave" and "masked by vines that make the cave look like a wall." Finding it would be the first obstacle, than getting in would be the next. They hadn't been able to give him any useful information in that regard. Both had simply advised him to be careful and to keep an eye out for any traps.

He couldn't say that he wasn't looking forward to confronting Gothel, as there was some part of his that would enjoy taking his revenge, not only for himself, but for Elsa as well. She hadn't deserved what Gothel had done to her, and Gothel needed to pay.

Than he started thinking of himself. He had done plenty of things that people didn't deserve too. Killing for money. A better reason than whatever Gothel's motive could be, he assured himself. What he had done was business, trying to make a living for himself in a world where people needed money. He had been willing to provide a service that few others were. People had been willing to pay him for these services. He enjoyed the work, so it was an obvious choice of career.

He shook his head. He didn't need to justify himself. The past was done, and he didn't regret any of it. He had left because he needed something different. The dreariness of the city had started to seep into his bones, making every day he didn't kill someone a monotonous battle against his own boredom. So he decided to move. A simple, logical choice.

And now he was doing more or less what he had in the city, if with a little twist thrown in. no one knew anything about the target, except that she was magic. Nathan let out a sigh and tried to clear his mind, looking back up at the sun. It was almost halfway gone now, and he wondered how long he had been thinking. He looked idly around in a circle around the ship, but didn't see the slightest hint of land anywhere. He groaned and slid back down the side of the ship, his tailbone meeting the deck with a painful thumping sound.

He pulled a pouch off of his bandoleer and set it out in front of him, careful to keep it safe from the cold wind that had blown constantly through the entire voyage so far. He removed from the pouch a folded piece of paper. He knew what it was as soon as he saw the creases, and unfolded it to reveal the crude map to the tower he had drawn. He studied it for a moment. The tower was a short walk from some tavern called the "Snuggly Duckling". The name almost made him gag, but like it or not there could be something useful there. He made a mental note to at least consider going there before he went to the tower.

He refolded the paper and set it back in the pouch he had found it, removing another paper as he did so. He took this new paper and recognized it not by the folds, but by the thick parchment it was made of. Unfolding this one reviled a letter written in a far more regal fashion than he could ever hope to have. It was a Writ that, as far as Nathan could tell from the both fancy and old fashioned wording, gave him complete immunity to any legal repercussions that he might bring on himself, so long as they had to do with his mission. It bore both Eugene's and Rapunzel's signatures at the bottom as well as the royal seal of Corona. The seal was on the back of both the top and the bottom of the paper, having kept it folded shut. At some point during his sleep, however, Nathan must have broken the seal. Luckily for him nothing in the letter said anything about the seal being broken. He looked down at the letter and admired the penmanship one more time before carefully folding the letter and replacing it in the pouch.

The next piece of paper he pulled out was one he didn't remember stuffing onto the pocket. It was about the full length of his hand lengthwise and about the same of his palm in width. A large blood stain marked the back of the paper, producing a large dark red splotch on the front. Any writing that may have been on the paper was obscured completely by the dark crimson. He searched his memory for any indication of what the note was and, after a few seconds, he remembered the assassination this note correlated to.

It had been fairly normal one, some noble woman had contacted him via letter, Nathan still remembered the splotches where tears had disturbed the ink on the page, offering a hefty sum of coin in exchange for her husband's death. Nathan remembered the letter going into abhorrent amounts of detail as to why she wanted him dead, listing off innumerable offences that he cared nothing about. The one thing that was strange to him was that she had requested an amount of the man's blood for a small bonus. Nathan had meant to use a vial, but the unannounced arrival of the guards prompted a bit of ingenuity on Nathans part. He had used the first thing that his fingers fell upon when he reached into his pocket, swiped it through the puddle of blood at the man's throat, and stuffed it back in the pocket. The woman had been a bit puzzled at first when she was presented with the bloody paper and outright refused to pay the bonus because the blood was "Useless to her like this".

A week before he left for Arendelle for the first time he heard that the woman's estate had gone up for auction on account of her killing herself. It made sense, he supposed. She had been highly distraught and was obviously not very good at dealing with things.

He crumpled the paper up into a ball and tossed it over the side of the ship into the water. It occurred to him that Brimshaw might see the paper, but he didn't care. There wasn't much that he could do if he did, and Nathan was almost sure that he already knew that he was a killer. He glanced back at the wheel to see if Brimshaw had seen it, but he was looking to the horizon with one hand on the wheel and a glass bottle firmly grasped in the other. Nathan followed his gaze out onto the ocean and found a large mass of land growing closer quickly.

He could make out even from this distance the castle of Corona. It was a massive thing, built on an island and surrounded by the village that it ruled over. The entire thing looked like it had been built into the mountain, with rows of houses tiered up and the castle resting ominously at the top. The whole thing contrasted Arendelle sharply, which set him a tad on edge. He was used to nobles and royals distancing themselves from the commoners, even the castle in Arendelle was built to do this, connected only by a bridge to the village. But this castle was simply resting directly in the middle of the village.

The blazing twilight sun sent great reflections off of the snow covered rooftops of the village, making Nathan squint to continue examining the city. The houses in the city seemed old fashioned to Nathan. The few roofs that he could see through the snow were thatched, and he couldn't tell what the walls were composed of.

The ship drew into the dock and slowed. As the ship slowed to a stop a man approached and peered over a clipboard before looking up at Nathan and Brimshaw disapprovingly and said "Have you pre-arranged, or is this unplanned?"

Nathan hesitated and looked back at Brimshaw, who produced a small note from his pocket. He stepped forward and handed it to the man Nathan assumed to be the dock master. The man unfolded the paper and looked down at it, still disapprovingly, for a moment before giving a sudden jolt and a squeal of surprise. "Oh! Oh, I am terribly sorry sir!" he bowed to Nathan than to Brimshaw. "If you'll come this way, please. We will have someone come and moor your ship immediately."

Nathan raised an eyebrow and looked back at Brimshaw questioningly. He smiled as he walked past Nathan and said out of the corner of his mouth "Royal business tends to hasten peoples pace." in a satisfied voice. A smile cracked across Nathans face as he recalled all the times he had seen a crowded street clear in an instant to make way for higher class individuals. Brimshaw's words were certainly true.

The man led them to the end of the docks and gestured to what looked like a large office building with candles and lanterns burning inside. He gestured to the door of the building and said "Would you like to step in? Perhaps have a drink?" in an earnest enough sounding voice. Brimshaw looked hopefully back at Nathan, who waved towards the house dismissively. "You go ahead. I should start on my work as soon as possible."

Brimshaw nodded and turned back to the dock man and opened the door for him. As Nathan walked away he heard him ask "So what have you to drink?" before the door fell shut behind them. He climbed a short set of stairs and found himself in the middle of an empty street.

Houses and shops loomed around him, shadows cast by the last feeble rays of light forming shapes in the corners of Nathan's eyes. Unlike most people, however, the shadows set him at ease more than they did rile him up. The presence of shadows meant that there was somewhere to hide. That was how he had always looked at it.

The city setting was also slightly comforting to him. He had always preferred missions in cities. It was a shame that he would have to leave to get to the tower, but for a chance to have a go at Gothel it was well worth it. He shook his head and tried to focus on his current situation. The sun was going and temperatures were likely to get bone-freezing cold. He had no intention of sleeping out on the streets.

He set off walking up towards the castle, figuring that the lower rings were likely housing and higher rings were business. As he made his way up the incline of the main road this proved to be true, as the many houses started to thin, giving way to shops and booths set along the walls.

He continued walking until his eyes fell on one large looking building that had a wooden sign engraved with a bed and warm candlelight spilling from the windows. He made his way through the street and opened the door slowly. Immediately the sounds of happy talking and various other bar noises flooded the air. He strode into the bright room and found himself surrounded by people sitting all around him, drinking and singing merrily. All of people drinking looked very drunk, and the only ones who weren't drinking appeared to be behind the bar serving the drinks.

He crossed the room, stepping between tables and over the odd slumped unconscious or two, until he reached the bar. He put his elbows up on the table and waited to get the bartenders attention. He used the time to look over the woman. She was a thin girl that looked about seventeen or eighteen, with neck length dull blond hair. She wore clothes of a muted green and grey that seemed to somehow accentuate the fact that she was almost a full head shorter than Nathan. She looked up from pouring mugs briefly and said "I'll be right with you!" before turning back to the drinks that she was handling.

Nathan nodded, in spite of her not being able to see it. She put the mugs on a small circular tray and took the tray in her hands. She kicked a small door on the side of the bar open and walked through, and brought the drinks to a table of particularly rowdy looking men a few feet from Nathan's back. She set the tray down on the table and turned away as quickly as she could, the scrunched look on her face making it obvious that she was trying to not be noticed by the men. It didn't work, however, as one of them called out loudly "Hey, where you going?" his voice slurred with drink. Nathan saw the woman let out a deep sigh than turn back to the table, forcing a sweet smile. She said in an equally forced voice "Yes sir?"

The man motioned for her to come closer, which she did hesitantly. The man said something in the woman's that was lost to the sound of the bar around them. She recoiled, a disgusted look on her face. A round of laughter erupted from his friends seated around him. Nathan thought he could guess the nature of what the man had said, but didn't care much. Drunk men being obnoxious was nothing new. And aside from that he needed to keep a low profile. If Gothel was in the area there was no telling how far her influence would be.

Just as he decided with certainty that he wouldn't do anything and turned back to the bar, the woman's voice rang out above all of the other noise in the room. "-disgusting pigs!"

The sound of someone stumbling over the wood made Nathan start to turn back around, but before he could a massive weight slammed into him, pushing his lower diaphragm against the bar and forcing the air out of his lungs. His feet left the ground briefly, but whatever was pushing him on the bar kept him pinned upright. He was able to get his feet back under him just as the weight lifted off of him. He spun around as fast as he could and found himself face to face with the man who the girl had shouted at.

He snarled angrily in Nathan's face, spraying him with flecks of spit and almost choking him with the aggressive smell of alcohol. Nathan reached up and pushed the man's face away from him but found that he had an impressive amount of strength, being able to keep his face mere inches from Nathan's.

Nathan knew he had to keep a low profile, but he doubted that a fight in a bar would attract a large amount of attention as long as it was short and no one got too hurt. He braced his back against the bar, put his arms behind him to keep himself upright, and brought both legs up into the man's gut and pushed as hard as he could.

The man let out a grunt as he was propelled back. If he weren't drunk he likely would've been able to catch himself, but given his inebriation all he was able to do was stumble backwards. He tripped over his own feet than toppled over backwards into the table he had been drinking at. The table appeared to be fairly thick and sturdy, but this man fell through it like it was made of balsa wood. His friend's drinks were launched into the air by the two halves being pushed down so suddenly and fell on top of him, spilling their contents all over the man.

He looked up from his new seat amid the drinks and splinters of table and roared in anger at Nathan. Nathan steadied his stance, ready for the man to charge at him, but found it unnecessary. The barwoman was behind him with a bottle in her hand as far over her head as her arms would reach. Nathan thought about stopping her, but knew that if he did the man would simply continue his rampage. Him being knocked unconscious would be the quickest, easiest solution, and someone being knocked out in a bar fight was hardly unordinary.

The bottle came crashing down on the man's head, shattering loudly in the now silent bar room against the man's head. His roar stopped short and his limbs, which had been working to get himself back to his feet, went limp. A few rivulets of blood dripped down from his head from cuts given by glass shards and he mumbled incoherently.

The woman who had knocked him out looked around the bar brandishing the shattered neck of the bottle and asked loudly to no one in particular "Anyone else got a problem?"

Talking resumed in the bar quickly, and the man's drinking friends picked him up and carried him out. The barwoman let out a deep frustrated breath and staked back behind the bar. She grabbed a glass and started wiping it clean before looking up at Nathan and saying "Oh! How can I help you?"

Nathan smirked and said "I suppose not throwing giants at me would be a good start." She laughed hesitantly and brushed her hair back out of her face. She said "Sorry about that, I didn't know you were right behind him."

There was a moment of silence between the two while she looked Nathan over, and he considered his next move. Barkeeps knew a lot of things. They were a source that Nathan rarely regretted using, but he still had to keep as low down as possible. He was pondering whether or not to ask about the tower when she interrupted his thoughts. "You clearly aren't from around here" she said, leaning up on the bar and pointing at the assortment of belts, weapons and bags on Nathan's chest "so what brings you here?"

Nathan looked down at himself than looked back up at her, saying with a raised eyebrow "What, you people don't arm yourselves to the teeth? How quaint." In a joking voice. This got a giggle out of the woman, and Nathan smiled to mask the fact the gears in his head were spinning lies as fast as they could. "I'm from a little fishing village. There are a lot of bandits on the roads these days, so…" he shrugged "Pays to be careful.

The woman's face turned from a smile to a concerned look. "Bandits? Where? Which road did you take, you should tell the guard!" Nathan grimaced imperceptibly but answered quickly "Well, there were bandits, but thanks to my excellent preparation" he put a hand on the pommel of his sheathed blade "the problem was solved."

The woman gave him an admiring stare and said "Really? How many were there?" her face darkened and her smile became just a little toothier "How many did you kill?"

Nathan was a bit taken aback by the sudden change of countenance of the woman, but didn't let it show. "As many as I had too." Better to play the mysterious man card now than either the violent psychopath or the lying manipulator. Granted, he was lying, but he just wouldn't make it obvious.

The woman nodded and went back to wiping the glass. "So are you here for a drink, or just to help me slap that asshole around?" she said, jerking her head towards the broken table. Nathan smiled and said "I'm actually just here for a room." He said. The woman nodded and reached for something under the bar. When she came back up she was swinging a key around her finger. "That'll be ten coin."

Nathan dug into a pocket and tossed the ten piece coin to her. She caught it with one hand, and with the other tossed the key to Nathan. He caught it and the woman said "Upstairs, third door to the right." Nathan nodded and turned away from the bar.

As he was walking up a stairwell he hadn't seen on entering the bar, the woman called out "You know Arendelle isn't a small fishing village, right?"

Nathan paled and hurried his pace up the stairs, cursing himself. He had completely forgotten that money was minted with local royals, and that it wasn't all just money. He hoped sincerely that his little blunder wouldn't cause any issues, but deep down he knew better. He didn't see how it could, but he knew it would.

* * *

><p>Authors thing:<p>

I've made28 chapters of this? holy crap...

Anyways, leave comments, do all the stuff that people always ask for.  
>because i need validation<p> 


	29. Chapter 29

The sound of pounding boots on the wooden floor woke Nathan from his peaceful slumber. His eyes jerked open and he looked around the rented room. His search yielded nothing but the room he had fallen asleep in, and the stomping continued outside his door.

He pushed himself form the bed and got slowly to him feet. Blinking the sleep out of his eyes, he stretched his arms above his head and looked himself over in the body length mirror hanging on the wall. He looked over himself and made sure that his gear was all properly arranged so that he had the cold and organized look of a professional that he always tried to project when he was on a job. He took special care to cover the bone charms on his bandoleer with a leather fold of his coat. They were good for intimidating people, but they were very noticeable and very memorable. Both things bad for staying clandestine.

When after a few minutes he was satisfied with his look, he stepped back and looked over the room one last time for anything he might have put down and forgot. He found nothing and turned to leave the room. He pulled the door open and walked out into the brightly lit hall. Whoever had been wearing massive boots and tromping around was nowhere to be seen. Nathan shrugged and shook off the feeling that he was being watched. Such feelings were rarely wrong with him, but it was to be expected that in a major city someone would see him at most times. He had the sudden urge to get on with his mission, and set off down the hallway to the main bar room. His stomach growled loudly, and he wondered if the bar would serve something that wasn't soaked in alcohol.

As he descended the stairs he caught a glimpse of the person tending the bar. It was the woman from last night. He cursed to himself under his breath. He had been hoping that she wouldn't still be around. His pace slowed as he reached the bottom of the stairs, and he tried to think of the best way to get out without being seen by her. He could always go back upstairs and find a window to jump out of, but people were more likely to tell their friends about the guy who jumped out the window than of the guy who was talking to the barmaid.

He walked quickly across the room, now not nearly as crowded as it had been last night. There were only a few people sitting at the tables now, hunched over their steins or plates, looking tired and miserable. Just as Nathan reached the door the woman called out across the room, causing several people, including Nathan, to flinch. She said "Hey, come over here big guy!" and waved to Nathan.

He hesitated, his hand hovering by the doorknob on the exit. The woman called out again "What, you deaf? Come over here!"

Nathan let out a sigh and decided that he didn't have much to lose. Maybe he was just being paranoid. He walked over to the bar and took a seat on a barstool. "Yes?" he said in a measured, cool voice. The woman gave him a cocky smile and said "Look, your trying to stay secret. I get it. But I can help." Nathan raised an eyebrow at her without saying anything. She rolled her eyes and pointed to Nathan's chest. "I saw all those bone knickknacks last night, and there's only one thing in Corona that someone that deep into the weird stuff would be interested in."

She leaned closer to Nathan and whispered so that no one else in the bar would hear "The tower, right?" Nathan remained silent for a second before nodding. The woman smiled and said "I can help you. I can take you there." She leaned back away from Nathan and continued "For a price."

Nathan snorted. "For a price." he repeated in an exasperated voice "Always for a price. What is it you want?" The woman shrugged and smiled innocently, saying "Nothing much, just a few coins." Nathan felt a small wave of relief wash over him. Usually people asked for someone to die, or for some bizarre job to be done. Her just wanting gold was something of a relief. It occurred to him that he didn't know how much she knew about him, whether or not she knew that he had powers. He decided that not bringing it up would be a good idea.

"How much?" he asked, just wanting to get the price out of the way. She smirked, knowing that she could say anything she wanted. What she didn't know, however, was that Nathan had another means of finding the tower. If she said anything that was too high he would simply walk away and find it himself. It might take longer, but a few saved hours weren't worth being robbed blind. The woman said with a confident smile "Only two hundred."

The price came as a surprise to Nathan. He had been expecting something much higher. Two hundred coin wasn't a small amount by any stretch, but he had the money, and there wasn't much else that Nathan would be spending it on. He nodded and said "Alright, I want to leave now."

The Woman looked slightly taken aback, saying "Wait, now? I can't leave now, I've got a job to do!" Nathan shrugged and said "Than I guess you're out two hundred gold. Maybe you've got a friend who can cover for you?" he suggested.

The woman looked from side to side, than into a back room. She seemed to see something in the back room, and walked away from the bar into the back room, saying "Hey, Michal…" her voice trailing off as she disappeared into the back of the bar. Nathan waited for her to come back, looking around the bar room to pass the time.

The other people in the bar all looked very tired and very annoyed. If Nathan had to guess, he would say that most of them had been part of the large number of people who had been drinking last night. None of them looked very well rested, and all of them had large bags under their eyes. It was scenes like his that made Nathan glad he didn't drink.

Before he could notice anything else about the other patrons of the bar, the woman came back through the swinging door, shoving her arm through the sleeve of a coat and calling over her shoulder "Thanks Michal!" Nathan stood from his stool and readied himself to leave. The woman passed through a small door on the side of the bar, entering the main room. She tossed a hunk of bread to Nathan, who caught it and looked down at it for a moment. She said "What? Figured you'd be hungry."

Nathan shrugged and took a bite. The bread was fresh and fluffy, obviously of fairly high quality for a bar like the one he had found. He gave an appreciative nod as he bit into the bread and swallowed. As the pair walked towards the door a thought occurred to Nathan, and he said "I still don't know your name." as if the matter was a mere afterthought. The woman strode forward ahead of Nathan and said over her shoulder "And I don't know yours."

Nathan put a hand on her shoulder and pulled her to a stop just in front of the door. She stopped and turned, finding Nathan's hand extended towards her. "My name is Kristoff." he said without a moment's hesitation to betray the lie. The woman took his hand and smiled up at him in return, saying "Pleasure to meet you, Kristoff. My name is Lee."

They shook hands for a moment before Nathan nodded his head towards the door and said "Well, let's get a move on. I want to be there as soon as possible." Lee nodded in agreement and turned to open the door. A burst of cold air pushed its way through the door as soon as it was open, blasting Lee's hair back and making Nathan squint against the cold.

The trip out of the city remained silent for the majority of the time, Lee making offhanded comments that might have been attempts to make conversation and Nathan not taking the bait. After some time Lee simply stopped trying to get Nathan to speak as he seemed content to plod through the snow in silence, their only interaction being her looking back to make sure he was still there and him looking up to do the same.

This silence continued until the pair reached a long bridge that stretched across the bay surrounding Corona, connecting it to the main land. Lee was the first to speak, deciding that she didn't have much to lose from trying to cut through Nathan's hardy air of silence. "So, Kristoff…" she started, looking over her shoulder as she walked "…why the interest in this tower? I mean it's been here for…" she counted something out on her fingers briefly before seeming to give up and say "who knows how long."

To her surprise, he answered, saying "I guess it's just something of a hobby, really. There's something about old ruins that I just find really fascinating." the lie sounding as true as ever. The wheels in Nathan's head that usually spun when lying barely had to move at all, as they had done their work the night before while Nathan had been lying in bed.

Lee looked over her shoulder again for a moment as if sizing him up before saying "You don't know much about this place, do you?" Nathan wondered what she had meant by that comment, but saw the opportunity to learn something else. He shook his head and said "No, why?" in a genuine tone of curiosity. Lee laughed and said "Because there's something of a cult around that tower." Nathan's interest piqued, and he took larger steps so that he was walking alongside Lee as she spoke. She continued "Apparently people think that here was some kind of witch that lived there. They think that her power came from some kind of a god, so they want to get in good with the witch. You know…" she rose one hand and said "get in with the witch" than rose the other hand "get in with the god."

A smile cracked Nathan's lips, and he asked "What's the god's name?" in as exasperated a voice as he could muster, as if the notion of the whole thing was ridiculous. Lee snorted, sending a white puff of warm vapor out of her nose. "Like you don't know." Nathan raised an eyebrow and shot her a questioning look. She responded to both, saying "I've seen those charms, I know that that's all the same stuff that they do."

Nathan thought a minute and said "Oh, those! Those are just old things that I've found at other places like the tower. Do they have some kind of meaning?" in the most earnest voice he could muster. Lee looked him up and down again like she was trying to read him, then said "I wouldn't know. Maybe you can ask the people there, if they're willing to talk to you."

Nathan found himself quite eager to meet these people. Aside from just being curious as to why they were apparently worshiping Gothel, he might be able to get some runes or bone charms out of them. He asked Lee "Are we almost there?" She just smiled over at him and said "No, we've still got about two hours to go." Nathan let out an annoyed breath, than noticed something that might have slipped past someone not paying as close attention as he was.

"How do you know how far this place is so well if you've got nothing to do with the cult?" he asked. Doubt as to Lee's identity were starting to arise, and he was sure now that it wasn't just idle paranoia. The question seemed to be one that she had been ready for. She replied by giving a short laugh and saying "I'm a bartender. We know things." In a mysterious manner.

Nathan started to consider just hitting her on the back of her head and leaving, finding his own way to the tower. It would certainly save him money, plus he would feel a whole lot better without someone making ominous comments the whole way, and he didn't know if he bought her whole bartender thing.

The next hour and a half passed surprisingly fast for Nathan. The monotony of doing nothing but walking seemed to blunt his perception of time, as it felt like mere minutes as the pair made their way through snow covered back roads and frozen hills. Nathans various charms helped him on his way considerably, making his feet cut through snowbanks just as easily as they made their way through air. Lee had a much harder time of walking, slowing to nearly a crawl at some snow drifts. Due to her short stature, there was once where Nathan actually had to physically pull her out of a drift.

Just after they had both had about enough of snow for the rest of their lives, a building came into view. A sign, barely visible through a thick coating of snow, bore the words "The Snuggly Duckling", accompanied by a little illustration of said duckling. Lee let out a relieved sigh and said "Finally!" he pace quickening towards the bar. Nathan would've made a remark about the bar not being the destination that she was being paid to take him too, but she rushed out of earshot to the bar too quickly.

He followed her into the bar and was assailed by a wave of stench like nothing he had smelled in a long time. It took him a second of the airways in his throat closing for him to be able to breathe the air undaunted. The smell wasn't anything that he was used to, almost completely lacking the coppery scent of blood, instead smelling like sewage and rotting meat. The first thing that he saw upon entering the bar was that the lighting conditions in the bar were fairy poor. He wouldn't complain about this, of course, but it seemed strange to him that a place that could make so much use of sunlight had no windows.

He spied Lee sitting at the bar, perched on a stool, receiving a drink from the rugged looking bartender. He walked across the floor of the bar, feeling the gaze of too many eyes fall on him. His pace quickened towards the bar and he called out sharply "Lee!" She turned around, a large mug clutched in her hands, and said "What?" in an innocent voice. Nathan jerked a thumb over his shoulder and said "This isn't the place. Let's go." In a grimly serious voice. She looked down sadly into the mug, perhaps looking for sympathy from Nathan. She didn't find any, as he repeated "Let's go."

Someone grabbed Nathan's shoulder from behind and said in a gruff voice "Let the lady enjoy her drink." Nathan turned to face whoever was interfering and found himself looking up at a man almost a foot taller than him. A threatening scowl was plastered on the man's face as he leaned towards Nathan with a challenging look on his face.

Nathan returned the man's look with a blank expression of his own. "This doesn't concern you." he said flatly. He turned back to Lee, intending to remove her from the bar stool, but found himself pushed to the side. He was barely able to catch himself on the bar to stop from tumbling onto the ground. He heard another barstool scrape on the wood floor and looked back, hoping to see Lee doing something, but instead finding the man who had pushed him pulling up a stool next to Lee with a broad smile on his face.

The man said to Lee "So why'd you bring him here? He doesn't seem-" Lee cut him off by giving him a halfhearted punch in the gut. She hissed almost too softly to hear "He showed interest. And besides, look at him! If anybody's…" her voice trailed off as the man stood from the stool and walked over to Nathan. He towered over him like a giant, yet Nathan didn't back down. He laughed to himself and turned back to Lee. "Yea, I can see what you mean."

The man leaned in inched from Nathan's face and whispered "What do you think about magic, kid?"

A chill ran down Nathan's spine, and his arm readied to draw his blade. Did they know? How would they? "I think…" he sounded much less confident than he had hoped he would, which considering the circumstances may have been a good thing. "… I think magic is a cute storybook thing. It doesn't exist." The man snorted and looked over at Lee. Nathan took a step back from the man while he was distracted, putting a much more comfortable distance between them. Lee nodded to the man resolutely, as if she was assuring him of something. The man looked back to Nathan and gave him a sinister grin.

"You want to see some magic?"

Nathan had half a mind to blink away, to blast him with ice, to do something to get this guy off of his back. Another part, however, told him that this guy had some link to Gothel. He nodded slowly. The man's smile widened, and he drew a deep breath in. Nathan's eyes widened, and he saw what was going to happen a second before it did. He gasped a quick breath in just before the man let out his breath and a sickly green gas rolled out over Nathan. He flinched as it touched his skin, but lucky for him it didn't seem that this gas was acidic.

He held his breath carefully to avoid breathing the gas in. The man finished letting his vile gas out of his mouth and simply stared Nathan down like he was waiting for something. Nathan kept his breath tightly locked in his chest, waiting for the smoke to clear away from his face. As it did the man smiled at Nathan, clapping him on the back and saying "I think you'll fit in nicely!"

He turned back to Lee and said "You did good. I'm sure Mother will reward you for this." This prompted a wide smile from Lee, who seemed elated at the prospect. As the last of the gas fell away from Nathan's mouth he let his breath out and started gasping for fresh air. The man laughed at him, and even Lee giggled a bit. "I thought…" Nathan croaked out "I thought you said... you had nothing to do with the cult." He shook his head, trying to avoid the lightheadedness he could feel coming. "Why lie?"

Lee slid off of the barstool and set the mug down on the table. "Well would you have followed someone into the middle of nowhere who you knew was a cultist?" Nathan couldn't deny that point. He was starting to wish that he had just kept walking when she had called his name this morning. "Why are you showing me all this?" he asked, not needing to fake concern in his voice. It was already there.

The man was the one to answer the question. "You look like someone we could use. We need someone who isn't afraid to get their hands dirty. And there's a lot in it for you too, magic powers beyond anything you could imagine." His voice darkened slightly as he finished "As long as you perform."

Nathan might have laughed at the irony of the situation if he was not sure that these two were agents of the person he was looking to kill. A question appeared in his mind, and he voiced it immediately. "Why are you showing me this? Aren't you concerned I'll tell someone?"

Both laughed at this. The man was the first to stop, saying "If you turn the offer down, we'll just gas you. You'll forget you ever saw us." Nathan nodded slowly. Gothel was recruiting? That wasn't good. He felt the blood drain from his face as he came to the realization that Gothel could very well have an army of gas people. He must have shown some sign that he was on edge, because the man put a hand on his back and said "Relax, you'll do fine. From the looks of you you'll do fine. Mother will probably give you some of her power personally."

Something in Nathan's brain clicked into place. A plan started to take shape. It was a stupid plan, but it was all he had short of fighting his way through Outsider-knew how many gas people to get to her. She would likely be in the tower, and by what Rapunzel and Eugene had told him there wasn't much of a discreet way to get into the tower. This was looking like his only option.

If he could fake joining this cult up until he had a shot at Gothel, than he could take her out without a hitch. Then, depending on whether or not the gas people retained their power after Gothel was dead, he could simply shadow step all the way back to Arendelle. A smile cracked across his face, and he said to the man "Well what are we waiting for? Let's go get some magic!"

He loved when a plan came together, and looked forward even more to it working. Gothel made a mistake when she sent those men. And now she would pay.

* * *

><p>Authors thing:<p>

Ohhh, things are starting to move.  
>as always, reviews help, as do all the other stuffs. thanks to everyone who has reviewed thus far and i really appreciate it!<p> 


	30. Chapter 30

The large man raised an eyebrow at Nathan's sudden change of demeanor. He probably wasn't used to people agreeing so readily to join the cult. But Nathan didn't care. He was eager to get at Gothel and end this whole ordeal. The Man looked over to Lee with something of a suspicious expression, but she returned his look with a shrug that seemed to say "If he's ready, let's go".

He rolled his shoulders and motioned for Nathan to follow him as he started walking towards the door to the "Snuggly Duckling". Nathan followed, a new ounce to his step knowing that he was closer to Gothel. As the man pushed he door open he said over his shoulder "So what's your name, Brother?" Nathan took note of the "Brother" expression and answered "I'm Kristoff."

The man nodded approvingly. "Strong name." he said, as if Nathan was supposed to care about his opinion. The man said gruffly over his shoulder, like it wasn't something he was used to saying, "My names Alex." They quickly left the trail, walking through a few thickets of trees and flat fields. This continued for about half an hour, until the pair came to a stop in front of a sheer rock face, covered with snow and flecks of ice.

As Alex slowed to a stop and leaned up against the rock, Nathan asked "Are we there?" Alex didn't respond other than knocking on the rock a few times with his knuckles. Nathan wondered briefly if this was some sort of test before a figure robed in a dark green materialized from a niche in the rock Nathan hadn't seen. Nathan regarded the figure suspiciously, but Alex greeted the figure like an old friend.

"Brother! How is the gate? Was there any trouble while I was away?" he said loudly. The figure shook its head, and Alex said "Good, good! Now…" he gestured to Nathan and said "We have a young man, Kristoff, who is interested in serving our generous Mother." The figure turned its robed head to Nathan for a moment before returning its invisible gaze to Alex. He continued "Would you show him to the Tower so that he may be cleansed, and prepared for initiation?"

The figure nodded slowly, then turned back to Nathan and held a long cloth draped arm out to him. Alex nudged him with his elbow and said "Follow him." out of the corner of his mouth. Nathan took a step towards the figure, and for every step he took the robed person moved the same, keeping the distance between them constant.

The figure, Nathan assumed a male on account of how Alex had greeted it, walked quietly. It seemed to glide over the ground more than step. Nathan noted with interest that the snow that passed beneath the robes was melted slightly, like the figure was just giving off massive amounts of heat under the robes. Nathan strained his ears as hard as he could, hoping to catch the hint of some footstep, but heard nothing. In spite of listening as closely as he could, the only sounds he could make out were his own breathing and footfalls, not even the other persons breathing. Their absolute silence put Nathan on edge.

He was led to a hole in the rock face, almost completely concealed by vines and creepers that hung from the walls and ceiling. His silent guide pushed through the vines, his pace not slowing at all, as if the vines weren't even there. Nathan, not knowing what lay beyond, was more cautious with his entrance. He held the vines out of his way and peered into the dark cave that lay beyond.

It didn't look like a deep cave, as far as Nathan could tell it didn't slant down at all. There was a large heavy looking sheet draped across the entire width of the cave blocking any preemptive view Nathan could've hoped for of what lay on the other side. His guide continued down into the cave and pushed his way through the sheet. Nathan drew up against the sheet and put a hand on the hilt of his blade, ready for anything. With his other hand he pushed the cloth out in front of him and stepped through.

He was greeted with a rush of warm air as the sheet passed over him. The warmth was not the same kind as was found inside of buildings, but rather felt like a warm summer's day. The change in temperature was jarring to Nathan, and rather unpleasant as he had always preferred colder temperatures. The land beyond the cloth was visible now, out of the other end of the cave. Nathan saw the tower first, than noticed a mass of tents clustered around its base. People were milling around in the tents apparently doing regular everyday activities.

His mute guide put a cloth covered arm up to regain Nathan's attention. He snapped out of the little trance he had been in and resumed following the strange person. Only a small portion of his attention went to the robe, though, as the majority of it was still going to both the tower and the tents. He tried several times to count how many tents there were, but failed. His best guess was that there were at least fifty or sixty people occupying the small encampment. Not such an intimidating force under normal circumstances, but Nathan assumed that each person would have gas powers to some degree, and that wasn't a force that he would look forward to fighting.

The robed person continued their strange walk and Nathan followed, his attention turned to the tower. It looked from a distance like it was made of brick. Various types of plant were snaking their way up the side, and Nathan wondered if they were thick enough to support his weight. If they were, it would be an easy way to the top of the tower, which is where he assumed Gothel would be.

A large insect buzzed past Nathan's face, making him jump. He hated bugs, not because they frightened him, but because they were just so annoying. It took several moments to register that a bug that size was still alive in the middle of winter. He attributed it to the bizarrely warm conditions of the valley and decided that he would ask someone about it if he could. He wondered if the valley was naturally this warm, or if Gothel's magic had something to do with it. He peered up towards the sun and found a strange tint to the light. It was like the sunlight was having to push through a thick layer of air, and losing some part of itself in the process. He nodded to himself, sure that it was magic.

As his guide continued approaching the tower they entered the outer ring of tents that sat around the tower. Several people called out in friendly voices to Nathan, but as soon as their eyes fell on the robed individual several feet ahead of him they turned away and ignored him. As the two entered the middle ring of tents Nathan heard a set of footsteps start up behind him. He turned, and found Alex trotting along behind him.

He hurried his step so that he was walking next to Nathan, then said "Are you ready?" out of the corner of his mouth. Nathan gave the man an uncertain look and whispered back "Ready for what? I've got no clue what I'm walking in to."

Alex let out a sigh and said in an irritated voice "I'd hoped that Lee would've told you on your way." He took in a deep breath and started explaining "You are going to a ceremony called "The Cleansing". It washes your mind free of all impurities and earthly concerns. It's a hard process, and many of us" he gestured around to the camp "had to try many times to succeed. But once you do, Mother judges you, and if she deems you worthy than she bestows some of her power to you. The better you serve her, the higher an opinion she will have for you, and the higher she thinks of you means that "He" will give you a better lot in the afterlife."

Nathan's eyebrows rose. "The Cleansing" was clearly some kind of brainwashing method used by Gothel. He didn't feel good about going to it, but it had to work on the same level as other forms of hypnotizing. This meant that if he knew he was being manipulated than it wouldn't work. Something else that Alex had said rattled around in Nathan's head, and he asked "Who's "He", and what did you mean by "a better lot in the afterlife"? I thought that this was just a power thing." As soon as he said the last few words, he realized how much of an insult it could be. He cringed slightly, but Alex didn't seem to take any offence.

Alex shook his head and started speaking again. "No. Mother was chosen by a holy spirit, one that she said had remained outside the mortal realm until he had seen Mother's purity. He bestowed some of his power on her, just like she bestows power on us. That is why we all have to go through the Cleansing. It's to put us in the state of enlightenment that Mother was in when the spirit chose her." He paused for a moment as if waiting for another question, than shrugged and continued. "And as for the better afterlife; the spirit is a strong thing, even in the weakest individual. It is too strong to be destroyed by death, and instead the spirit takes it and shelters it for all eternity. Mother promises that through service to her, we serve the spirit, and that he will keep us safe and comfortable forever."

Nathan couldn't help but be impressed at the degree to which Gothel had twisted the Outsider's story. Of all the words Nathan could use to describe the Outsider (neutral and uncaring came to mind), holy was not one of them. The mark on the back of his left hand, covered by his glove, would likely destroy the foundations of everything Gothel had gotten these people to believe. He made a mental note that if needed, this could dissolve the whole cult. And as for the afterlife thing, he had never given much thought as to what would happen to him once he died, but he was sure that Gothel couldn't change it.

The tower was growing closer and closer, looming overhead as Nathan continued to follow his silent guide. The closer that Nathan got to it the more apprehension built in his mind. He was confident that this "cleansing" ritual wouldn't work on him, but what if it did? Elsa, Anna, Eugene and Rapunzel would all be screwed. Coming as a surprise to him, he found strength in that thought. Knowing that he had to resist whatever lay inside the tower only pushed any doubt from his mind.

Nathan's nerves steeled, he reached a door at the foot of the tower. The robed form that had served as his guide stopped in front of it and turned to Nathan as if waiting for him to do something. He stopped and looked over at Alex for further guidance. Alex put a hand on his back and said "He wants you to go in." in a quiet voice. Seeing no other option, Nathan stepped past the robed figure and grabbed a hold on the handle of the door, pulling it open.

Not entirely sure what to expect, he stepped inside the round room and the door slammed shut behind him. There were a few torches mounted high up on the walls far above Nathan's head that provided a dim illumination that made only the most obvious of his surroundings visible. A hissing sound surrounded him and he cast his gaze around quickly in the dark looking for its source. Every instinct he had was screaming at him to use his shadow sense, but he pushed the urge down insisting to himself that now was not the time.

Something stirred in a dark corner and Nathan strained his eyes to make it out. Just as he was able to make out the shape of a robe identical to the one that whoever had guided him here, it fell to the floor and left in its place only a small floating orb. Nathan stepped towards the object. It looked incredibly similar to the one that he had found in the skin of Elsa's dead advisor. Nathan put out a hand, intending to grab the thing, when suddenly a humanoid shape rushed up from the ground and surrounded it in a gaseous body. Nathan wasn't expecting this so his first reaction was to pull his blade from its sheath and bring it up into a well-practiced combat stance.

The thing in front of him was impossible to make out in the poor light, but Nathan was sure he saw it move towards him. He was about to call out to anyone that might hear that he needed help when something started weighing heavily on his mouth and nose. Realizing many possible things that could be happening, most of them bad, he brought his left arm over his mouth and nose to protect himself from whatever inhalant was being used against him.

The room sat quiet for a moment in the dark. Despite the disappearance of the gas form Nathan knew better that to remove his arm from his mouth and expose himself. He waited another minute before taking small steps towards the door he had entered through. He reached it without problem and turned his back to the rest of the room. Cursing as he saw the latch in the door had fallen and locked it, he took a deep breath in his sleeve before removing it from his face and trying with both hands to lift it. It just started to move when the hissing sound returned and Nathan felt himself thrown into the air and flat on his back on the floor. He heard his blade clatter against the cold stone floor somewhere to his left.

He started to lift himself off of the ground when he felt tremendous pressure on his face. He tried to bring both hands to shield his face, but was too slow. The gas (whatever it was) forced its way into his mouth and nose too quickly to stop.

It was a strange sensation, being forced to breath against one's will. Nathan tried desperately to push the gas out of his lungs but no matter how hard he tried the gas just pushed itself further into his system. The room around Nathan started to spin and he felt himself go lightheaded. The world around him started to fade, and he felt a cloud settle over his mind.

He was standing in the middle of the library at the castle of Arendelle. He didn't remember how he had gotten here, but he was glad he was back. A niggling feeling in the back of his head told him that he needed to remember something, but he couldn't think of what it was. Shrugging the feeling off, he peered around the room and looked for anyone who might be in the room. He called out "Elsa? Anna? Anyone there?" and waited for a moment for a response. None came.

He started to walk around inside of the room looking between shelves as he moved. The silence in the room was almost painful. He shouted again "Hello, is anyone there?" and waited another minute.

This time he got an answer. Elsa's voice bounced around through the shelves of books and off the walls making it impossible to tell where it had come from. She said "Nathan, is that you? What are you doing back so soon?" Nathan turned around and looked for the source of Elsa's voice. He found nothing, and again Elsa's voice called out "Nathan, come here!"

He started walking, not sure where he was going. After what felt like minutes of walking he came to a large fireplace, Elsa standing in front of the crackling flame. He walked towards her and as he did she turned to face him. "Nathan" she said like she was greeting an old friend "welcome back!" she ran to him and hugged him tightly. Nathan flinched, expecting some kind of a natural reaction like moving out of her range or pushing her away, but nothing came. Elsa simply pulled him tighter into her arms, and to his surprise he returned the gesture.

After a moment of embrace Elsa's arms left Nathan's waist and she took a step back from him, looking him up and down. "Oh Nathan" she said in a sad voice "you look so tired." She gestured behind her, and a large cushioned chair that Nathan didn't remember being there seemed to appear from the air. Elsa said "Please, sit, rest. You've done so much for me already."

Nathan took a few steps towards the chair than stopped. It didn't feel right. He had done much for her, yes, but it was not yet time to rest. He couldn't place the feeling, but he still had something to do. He shook his head in an attempt to clear the cloud from his mind, but nothing happened. The feeling of something not being right intensified, and Nathan got a very bad feeling of what was around him. It was like his instincts were telling him to not trust anything around him. if only he could tell why…

Elsa put a hand on Nathan's back and pushed him gently towards the chair. Seeing no logical reason to resist, he followed her guidance. Her hand was warm to the touch, spreading a friendly warmth through Nathans body. As he reached the chair Elsa helped him down into it as if he were an old man. Why was he treating him like this? Was he really an old man?

He blinked, and another cushioned chair appeared from nowhere. Elsa pulled this towards Nathan so that it was only feet away from Nathan, facing him, and took a seat. Nathan gave her a questioning look which she returned with a coy smile. "Nathan, don't tell me you've forgotten what you were doing again. Come on, you have to think hard about what you were doing if you want to remember. I'll help."

Nathan wasn't sure what she was talking about. What had he been doing? He had been looking for something. At least he thought he had been. Was he? Maybe he did need her help. "I… was…" he started, and Elsa sat forward in her seat. "I was… looking for…" his voice trailed off as this thoughts ran into the mental cloud and simply dissipated.

Elsa spoke up saying "Looking for what? A book? A person? A…" Nathan cut her off, snapping his fingers and pointing at her. "Yes, yes, a person…" his voice trailed off again as his thoughts once again ran into the cloud that made it nearly impossible to think. "It was a person, but who…"

He looked down at himself as he talked. Numerous pouches rested on a bandoleer across his front. One thing stood out to him more than the others, though. He peeled back his lop layer and reveled a few palm size charms that looked like they were made of bone. Because of the angle Elsa was sitting at she couldn't see the charms. Nathan stared down at them, thoughts starting to billow and blow through his mind, as if it were blowing away the cloud. Memories started to return to him. Where he had gotten the charms, how he found them, people he had lent them to…

People he had lent them to. Elsa was the only one who he had given a charm to. Why had he done that?

She had been hurt. She had been distressed. A slashing pain cut through Nathan's brain as he thought, but he couldn't just stop. Why had she been upset? His eyes widened as the answer came to him and memories returned en masse, almost too quickly to handle.

Someone had tried to kill her, he had intervened, tracked down the source and… and the source was Gothel.

He stood up from his chair as the cloud surrounding his mind disappeared completely. Elsa got up from her chair also, a concerned look on her face. She spoke in a voice that was a mix of both worry and desperation. "Nathan, sit back down, you'll hurt yourself!"

The blade moved almost too quickly for the naked eye to see, streaking through the air between the two like a musket shot. It lodged its razor sharp side firmly into Elsa's neck, prompting a sudden gurgling noise of surprise. Nathan might have been concerned about what he had just done, but none of this was real. It was all a trick, an illusion. Why this setting he didn't know, but it didn't matter now.

Elsa's eyes went wide with shock as she looked sideways at her new fountain of blood loss. Instead of covering it and falling, as most people would in this circumstance, she looked up at Nathan with a look that, without years of hardening to this sort of thing, probably would've ripped his metaphorical heart out.

Nathan returned the stare with the cold, soulless countenance he had worked years on to perfect. The differences between this… thing and Elsa were subtle, but they were there. Her hair was just one shade too blonde, her dress barely a tinge too blue, and her eyes; her eyes were the most obvious of them all. The only thing that Nathan really felt as he looked at the facsimile of his queen was anger at himself for not noticing the green tint in her eyes.

The world around him started to melt and he felt himself being pulled away from the fake library, returning to the real world. His eyes shot open and he heaved as deep a breath as he could muster out of his lungs. Even in the dim lighting of the circular room he could see the fumes escaping through his nose. He cast his eyes around for his sword but the poor lighting of the room made it impossible to find. For a moment Nathan believed that he was out of moves. Then he remembered the mark on his hand. Focusing his energy as quickly as he could he let it flow into his shadow sense. The room became much clearer as his spell revealed every stone, every single spot of darkness to him.

He kicked up into the air and a supernatural wind blew him several feet up off the ground. Turning carefully in midair he angled himself down to the ground and landed on his feet and fell to one knee to break the force, letting the impact with the ground push the last of the air from his lungs.

He then gasped in a deep breath and dashed as quickly as he could to his sword. He was unsure as to what god it would do against a creature of gas, but it was his only means of really combating anything. His had shot out with nearly inhuman speed and grabbed the handle of the blade deftly. He turned as quickly as he could to face the enemy that now knew he was hostile, and found a human like torso comprised totally of gas bearing down on him. It was still almost impossible to see, but with his combined sight and shadow sense he knew he would at least be able to tell it position well enough to fight. He noticed something else about the thing as it charged through the air at him. The small, faintly glowing orb trailing behind it as if suspended in the air by the fumes of the person.

Nathan thought quickly of anything he had that might affect a creature made only of air. The only thing that came to mind was his ice cone power. He didn't know much about the ways of science that weren't in the biological sense, but he knew that temperature affected air flow. As quickly as his mind would allow he poured energy into the spell.

Just as the gas-thing reached him he let the blast of magic go, freezing the very air in front of him to flakes of snow and covering the stones of the tower in ice. The gas person fell to the ground as if the atmosphere had dropped out from beneath it. It simply fell and formed something like a puddle of air.

Something clinked against the Nathan's boot and he looked down to see what it was. The glowing orb had rolled on the ground after the gas person lost their mobility. Recalling what Pabbie had said about such objects, and not seeing any other way of dispatching the creature misting around on the floor, he brought the heel of his boot down on the orb as hard as he could, shattering it to an uncountable number of pieces.

A horrible screaming noise seemed to seep out of the orb and echoed around the room. The noise itself was not loud enough to echo by itself, and Nathan doubted that the room was the right size or shape to bounce a sound like that. The scream had an unearthly tone to it what reminded him of the charm he had changed with one of these orbs. He concluded that there was something about the sound other than its volume that made it echo.

The gas at Nathan's feet lost any cohesion it still had, dissipating across the floor and stopping any unnatural movements. As far as Nathan could tell, it was just normal gas now. The gas person dead, Nathan turned his attention wholly to his surroundings. There wasn't much in the way of furnishings, with only a table and a chair shoved to the side. There was, however, a spiral staircase leading up. Nathan's shadow sense didn't extend all the way to the top. He had no idea what was up there.

But he assumed Gothel. He thought of what he knew of Gothel, from both being told by Rapunzel and Eugene and by what he was able to deduce by what Alex and Lee had told him. She was an egotistical leader who probably had something close to a god complex. Someone like that would want the biggest, most gaudy housing they could find. The top of the tower defiantly fit that bill.

He set about climbing the long staircase. All the while he was running over information he had and possible spells that might be good against Gothel. Obviously temperature was a good way to go, but it lacked control. He was much more comfortable with shadow where he could control almost every aspect of a spell, but it lacked any kind of punch.

He shook his head and smiled, whispering to himself "Maybe I can just trip her and she'll break her neck."

* * *

><p>Authors thing:<p>

thanks for reading! i totally would've had this out yesterday if my teachers hadn't been yelling at me to put my computer away.

as always i appreciate all the stuff you can do like review and stuff


	31. Chapter 31

Nathan crept up the darkness of the stairs slowly and carefully. He wanted to kill Gothel, yes, but he had no desire to alert her to his presence. One small lapse of attention could send a small pebble or a splinter of wood clattering against the stone steps he had made his way up and create just enough noise to rouse suspicion. His boots fell on the cold stone silently even to Nathan, assisted in their task by a bone charm that was attached to Nathan's chest.

As he reached the upper half of the stairs a light started to gleam from a point above him. His shadow sense still could not reach the top of the tower, and a growing sense of apprehension was building in Nathan's gut. A lot was riding on this mission. Not just Nathan's life or pay as he was used to, but likely an entire kingdoms fate. He still didn't know what Gothel's plan was, but he intended to find out while he was here.

He reached the top of the staircase and found that the light shining down was falling through a hole in a trap door set in the ceiling of the main tower. His shadow sense reveled the room above him to be a fairly spacious one, with various furnishings that fit Rapunzel's description of how she lived in the tower. The main thing that caught his attention however, was the runes. There were three in all, scattered around the area seemingly at random. He turned his attention to any movement but did not find anything.

Broadening his search to anything even human shaped, he looked again. Once again, nothing came to his attention. He racked his brain for anything else that could help him. Looking for anything at all, even the shadow that smoke would cast, he found nothing. This caution was not a usual thing with Nathan, even when he was on a job, but this target demanded nothing but all of his attention and skill.

He pushed the trapdoor open a slight crack and peeked through into the room above. His eyes burned for a second before they were able to handle the difference in light of the tower itself and the top room. After they did he gazed around. His view of the room was limited given the angle of the trap door, but what he saw was defiantly not what he had been expecting. Paintings plastered every inch of wall that he could see. The murals depicted various things, purple flowers and golden suns, and Nathan couldn't help but wonder if it was Rapunzel who had made them.

He pushed the trapdoor open completely, setting it gently on the tiled floor behind the hinge to avoid making any noise whatsoever. He pulled himself up carefully into the room and looked around. His mouth fell open as he saw the sheer amount to paintings on the walls. Every single one was done with an attention to detail that made Nathan cringe at the thought of the monotony of painting them. He shook his head and cleared it of the distracting thoughts. "Focus, focus." he whispered to himself, closed the trapdoor, and peered around the room again.

If Gothel wasn't here, than he needed to know where she was. People never just up and left without leaving something, that was one thing that years of hunting people had taught him. he walked across the room to a table covered in papers and started rooting through them, paying close attention to only the first few words on the page. Much of it seemed to be stuff that wouldn't concern anybody: orders for food, a few notes inquiring about jobs, and the odd handwritten letter or two. Nathan kept rifling through the pile until a few words grabbed his attention as soon as his eyes fell on them. He read to himself under his breath, making sure that he wasn't misreading the rough lettering.

_"The Queen of Arendelle has shown confirmed magical abilities. These powers are extend over the control of temperature, more specifically over the control of ice. She has demonstrated immense strength and mastery over this power, and it is my recommendation that if you wish her as a target you act as quickly as possible. She has shown high amounts of resilience to my attempts to destabilize her mentally, but I believe that she is cracking. Her other advisors (my colleagues) had shown much less resilience, taking only minimal amounts of power to manipulate. The only thing I see as being an issue to the plan is her new bodyguard. Nothing is known about him, and there are rumors that he also possesses magic ability. This is not confirmed or denied. The most likely scenario (in my mind) is that the Queen has found some way to imbue the man with her powers, just as you have with us._

_I look forward to serving you further,_

_Tillman"_

Nathan put down the letter and took in the information that this letter unveiled. It showed several bad things to Nathan, chief among them that Gothel's cult was defiantly targeting Elsa for a reason, and that her death wasn't all they planned. On a positive note however, the sender of the letter, Tillman, was dead. Nathan recalled the advisor that had been one of Gothel's gas people had been named Tillman, and Nathan distinctly recalled fishing the glowing pearl out of the man's empty skin.

Questions raised, however, seemed larger than the answers. What were they planning that didn't involve Elsa's death? And now that he thought about it, did all the members of this cult have the pearls inside them? Certainly the ones made completely of gas would, but Tillman had had one and he at least had skin. Nathan wondered how you went about losing your body and what it felt like. All in all it didn't seem like a very pleasant process.

A noise from behind him snapped his attention back to his surroundings as he spun around and drew his blade. As it turned out, however, the maker of the noise was a small rat that had fallen off of a stove. The stove wasn't on of course, and the rat scurried away into a hole in the wall. Nathan was about to turn back to the papers and continue his search when something sitting on the stove caught his eye. A pot far too large to logically cook anything in sat on the top of the stove, covering almost the entire surface. Nathan took a few steps across the room and came to the edge of the pot, peering in.

A bone charm sat at the bottom, as if waiting for him. Quickly he reached in and snagged the object out just barely with his fingertips. Pocketing it, he looked around the room again for anything he missed. His shadow sense still active, the remaining two runes stood out as if they were blazing torches. One was located in a chest at the far side of the room near the window, and the other was up in the rafters, stuck to the wall. He supposed that he should take them, just in case something went wrong and he had to fight his way out. A little extra power under his sleeve couldn't hurt.

The one in the chest seemed like it would be the easiest to get, unless of course the chest was locked. He walked carefully over and tried to lift the lid. The hinges moved slightly, just jerked to a stop. "Locked" he whispered to himself. He straightened back up and looked around the room for any place the key could be.

Seeing innumerable places the key might be, he focused on his shadow sense. The key didn't show up anywhere, so Nathan concluded that Gothel must've had it on her person. He tapped a boot on the side of the chest experimentally to see if he could break the box open. The force that should've traveled through his leg and into the chest shot back into his foot, stubbing his toe.

He paused a moment, holding his foot in a hand and balancing on one foot and trying to keep quiet. After the stinging in his foot faded he turned his attention up, to the rafters. They were fairly low, but not low enough to allow him to make just a single jump and reach them. He looked around the room for something to jump off of to make it and his yes fell on the mantelpiece across from the window. There were heavy curtains set in front of the wall, which Nathan assumed had a painting behind it, just like every other inch of wall in the room.

He leapt up and landed on the ledge, steadying himself with the curtains. While he struggled to keep from falling he pulled one curtain open, revealing what looked to be a woman sitting on a platform, looking out at some kind of orbs of light. Nathan noted the woman's implausibly long hair and remembered again that Rapunzel had painted this.

He slid the curtain back shut, not wanting anything to give away that he was here in case someone, especially Gothel, came in unannounced. After he had pushed the cloth back into place he turned and tensed his legs, ready to grab ahold of the rafters and pull himself up. As his legs pushed off of the mantle and a sudden gust of wind propelled him into the air, his shadow sense tipped him off to movement below him. As quickly as he could he focused his energy and blinked into the rafters.

His feet landed softly on the huge wooden beam and he turned to the trap door as quickly as he could. The trap door burst open, slamming against the tile behind it and nearly flying off its hinges. Almost faster than Nathan could count, five hooded figures identical to the one that had led him to tower rushed through the hole in the floor accompanied by the billowing cloud of acrid green smoke that Nathan felt he was starting to get used to.

As soon as the hooded figures exited the darkness below, they encircled the hole and started looking around the room intensely from beneath their dark hoods. Nathan ducked behind a vertical beam and leaned out only enough to see the hole. His shadow sense told him something else was coming from the hole a moment before his eyes did. A hunched, grey cloaked figure emerged slowly from the hole and peered around, its face blocked by its hood. Despite the lack of any real information, Nathan knew who it was. His eyes narrowed and his hand went to his blade as a new energy filled his limbs.

"Gothel" he whispered to himself. His first reaction was to leap from the rafters and put his blade through the bitch's heart, but he restrained himself. If he dropped down now, he would be choked to death by her five "helpers" before he even got close to her. He needed to wait until she was more exposed.

Gothel motioned to the five hooded figures and said "Find him! Check everywhere until you do, than kill him!" and they set off, scouring the lower level of the room. A haze of poison gas started to seep across the floor and cover everything. A feeling of dread started to grow in Nathan's stomach as he realized that they could just fill the room with fumes and he would either have to come out of hiding or die. Despite the dire circumstances, he couldn't help but feel a bit foolish for cornering himself like this. He should have expected something like this to happen, and he should have prepared. Nothing he had could beat this. The best that he would be able to do was escape.

Unless…

His mind went to the gas person he had killed below, and to the magic he had used to disable it. He doubted that his cone of ice would be able to hit them all in one go, and he didn't know how much time he would have after that first cast to take out Gothel. If he were going to take her out it would have to be now. He reached into a pocket and pulled a flat plate of whalebone and focused on it. His attention was momentarily broken when he saw a robed gasman starting to glide upwards towards the rafters, but he shook his head and refocused on the rune.

The power started to flow, and he felt himself drift into a familiar place. The energy of the rune coiled around him, shadowy and black, and he reached his mind out to it. Shadow was not the magic that he wanted though. He thought of the feeling outside the tower, outside the valley, of cold and freezing. The shadow shrank away and was replaced by a blue light. Nathan gave the magic a few experimental pushes and found it slightly easier to manipulate than the last time he had tried.

He set about hurriedly shaping the spell. He made it as powerful as possible, making the spell consume all the runes he had on him to form it. The power flooded his mind and took all his concentration to just keep it contained within him. Realizing that shaping the spell would be impossible with such a high amount of power, he put a few of the runes power back and started forming the spell slowly.

He pulled the energy tight into a sphere and took a moment to breath. A short break later he was back at it, pushing at the magic with all the strength he could muster. The ball flattened out slightly, and he added another rune of power. He repeated this process until all of his runes were going to be used, than took a final look at the spell. The disk was large and sloppy, with uneven edges and poor efficiency for how much power it would use. Nathan dismissed the shoddy construction. If it worked, he would refine the composition later. Nathan's mind flicked back to the first time he had casted his ice cone, and he recalled the feeling it had left in his hand. With the last of the mental strength he could muster, he pushed a hole in the middle of the disk so that he wouldn't be afflicted by the spell and freeze along with his enemies.

With a hurried determination Nathan locked the spell in and noted with dismay how much energy the spell would take. If this stupid plan was going to work, he would have to be very fast.

The floating cloak reached the rafters and started to look around for Nathan. Nathan looked down and saw the other four cloaks scouring the rest of the room. The gas that covered the floor was starting to seep upward towards him. Gothel, for her part, was blowing more gas all over the room, her face still covered by the hood. He clenched his fist as the cloak in the rafters turned to him and let out a blast of sound from its hood. The other cloaks and Gothel's hood turned to him and he could feel the eyes of all of them boring into him.

He took in a deep breath and funneled power into the new spell. As he did this he took a single step forward and dropped down to the floor, bringing his fist back behind him as he fell as if him rushing through the air would somehow put just a little more power into the spell. Maybe it would, maybe it wouldn't. Regardless of if it did r didn't, he plummeted towards the floor. He heard Gothel call something out to her cloaked minions, but whatever she said was lost to the rushing air in his ears.

The ground slammed into his feet, and his fist came down onto the tile. For a brief, terrifying moment, nothing happened. Than all at once, Nathan felt the power he had built up leave him at once. Twisting tendrils of ice shot out in all directions around him, creeping over furniture and up the walls in the blink of an eye. The warm atmosphere of the room was replaced by the cold bite of winter with one blast of frigid wind. Small motes of snow and ice exploded everywhere, drifting about on the new air currents like a giant snow globe. Spines of ice exploded from the ground at random, sending splinters of wood from the floor and furniture alike everywhere. The floating cloaks fell to the ground, limp, and the gas flooding the room sank to the floor and started to be sucked out through the windows. Gothel was thrown against the wall by the blast of wind, and the ice creeping over everything was quick to bind her to the wall.

His vision darkened and his limbs felt like they were made of lead. He felt the call of unconsciousness pulling at his mind, but pushed himself up standing and rekindled his mind into a blaze of purpose. He couldn't pass out. Not yet.

As quickly as his tired body would allow, he blinked around the room to each crumpled cloak and pulled the faintly glowing orb from each. After all five were retrieved he turned to Gothel and readied his blade. He walked slowly towards her. Her head was slumped down in unconsciousness and a small trickle of blood was dripping down her forehead. Her hood had been blown back, revealing her face. She looked older than Nathan remembered, with pale wrinkled skin and ancient looking white hair. As Nathan approached her he drew his blade up, ready to plunge it into her skull and end what she had started.

Nathan paused a second, looking down at the old woman with a disgusted expression. He didn't need to ask himself any deep philosophical questions like "what kind of person did this" because he knew the type. And they deserved nothing but what they got. He brought his blade down.

An instant before the point of the blade punched its way through Gothel's skull, her eyes shot open and her body started working against the ice it was trapped in. she reacted quickly, dissolving into a green mist just as the blade touched her head.

Nathan felt his blood boil, and a wave of outrage washed over him. The green cloud washed over him and rushed past him, dropping towards the floor the whole way. Nathan turned as the cloud went, chasing it. As the cloud neared the open window Gothel started to reform out of the gas, running and panting heavily. Perhaps moving about as a gas in such a cold temperature was more difficult than Gothel had anticipated.

Nathan blinked behind Gothel just as she started to clamber out the window. He grabbed a fistful of her cloak and pulled her back towards him, angling his blade so that she would fall back onto the point. She shouted loudly, grabbing at the windowsill to stop her fall, but Nathan simply pulled too hard.

Nathan felt her weight push against the sword, than felt the small of her back against the guard at the base of the blade. He looked past her and saw the rest of the blade, bloodied and protruding from her gut. Gothel writhed for a moment, no doubt not finding the sensation of a blade in her belly a pleasant one.

A smile crossed Nathan's face as Gothel struggled against him for another moment. It felt good to finally do some damage back to her in exchange for all she had done to him, to Elsa, to Anna, to all of Arendelle. A voice called out from somewhere below the window. Whatever it said was lost to Nathan, but Gothel seemed to hear it just fine.

In an instant her squirming stopped and her body went slack. Nathan thought for a moment that she had passed out. Just as his grip of her cape started to loosen, her body started to evaporate into gas. For an instant Nathan thought that she was dying, but when he saw the smile on her face he realized that she was going to escape. He made a few futile grabs at Gothel, but whatever he touched simply vaporized. As Gothel's body turned completely to gas, it stared to float out the window quickly.

Nathan jumped to the windowsill and looked down at the cloud. It reformed at the base of the tower, and Gothel looked up at him, nursing her new wound. Nathan felt the urge to simply pounce down and kill her, but his reason was starting to return to him. If he jumped from the tower than there would be nothing to stop Gothel from just stepping out of the way. He assessed the height of the tower, and deemed it "Much too high to jump". Not wasting another minute he turned from the window and ran as quickly as he could back to the trap door in the floor.

He dropped through the hole and dashed down the winding staircase, propelled not only by a supernatural wind, but also by his desire to kill Gothel. She wouldn't get away. His feet flew so quickly that they were barely keeping him from tumbling over and falling head over heels on his way down. As he reached the bottom of the tower he saw that the door to the outside was closed and latched again. Bracing his shoulder for impact and pounding his feet harder and harder on the floor, he hoped that the door was not set too sturdily in the stone.

Nathan's shoulder smashed into the wooden door and splinters went flying. The latch holding the door shut was torn off of its hinges and the door burst open, slamming against the stone exterior of the tower. The sudden change in light burned Nathan's eyes for a moment, but it quickly cleared. He looked out across the valley and saw only the many tents, now abandoned by those who had occupied them.

It was difficult to believe that all those people had been able to leave so quickly, but they were magic. Nathan started to sprint to the cave that marked the exit when he heard footsteps ahead of him. He sped up, and a voice called out form the cave "Hurry!" Nathan recognized the voice as belonging to Alex, and wondered if he was calling to Nathan or to someone else. This question was answered quickly by a feminine voice returning with "I'm trying! I'm trying!"

Nathan entered the passage to the outside and barreled through the cloth that divided the warm valley from the rest of the bitter cold world, tearing it down from whatever mount it had been on. As he did, he hit something with his shoulder, than Alex's voice rang out, saying "I'm sorry!"

Nathan beat the sheet off of him and looked to were Alex's voice had come from. All he saw was a boot disappearing around the corner of the cave. A faint whimpering behind him made him turn, and he found Lee. She was on the ground, her foot caught in a small hole in the cave floor and bent at what looked like a very painful angle. She was looking up at Nathan with sheer terror in her eyes. Nathan felt the urge to simply end her with his sword and continue pursuing Gothel, but as he thought about it she seemed more and more useful.

He took a step towards her and brandished his blade menacingly, yelling "Where did they go?" in as deadly and serious tone as he could. She whimpered again and tried to put some distance between them by crawling away, but her foot seemed determined not to move. Nathan took another step towards her and put his blade into position to strike. Practically shouting, he said "Where are they going?"

Lee held up her hands defensively, her small frame and her entrapment making her seem all the more pathetic. She blubbered a few words incoherently "P-p-p-please… I… I don't want…"

Nathan took one final step towards her and grabbed her by the throat, yanking her up off the ground and pulling her foot out of the hole with a resounding 'snap'. More tears stared to spill down her face and her blubbering got more frantic. Nathan didn't care, however, as he pulled her face inches from his and placed the razors edge of his blade at her throat. Seeing that shouting would only drive her further into hysteria, he calmed himself and said in a dangerously measured voice "Tell me where they went."

This sudden change in tone seemed to accomplish what Nathan had been hoping for, as Lee's whimpering quieted and she was able to choke out "To… to Corona…the… the d-docks."

That was all that he needed to hear. Shifting his grip on her to something more comfortable to travel with, he went dashing off in the direction he remembered the Snuggly Duckling being. He had forgotten how light Lee was. Her weight didn't slow him at all as he ran. He estimated that she only weighed around twenty pounds or so. One small part of his brain wondered why he was taking her with him. This part was answered by the years of experience gathering information on targets. Interrogation.

He saw the Snuggly Duckling, but more to his interests he saw a man tying a horse to the fence outside the snuggly duckling. The man's calm demeanor told Nathan that the man wasn't one of Gothel's drones, but that hardly mattered.

In a single motion, Nathan slammed his shoulder into the man, knocking him to the ground, slashed the leather that the horse had been tied with, leapt into the saddle, and slammed Lee down onto the saddle behind him, keeping a vice-like grip on the woman's wrists. Not waiting to listen to the man's protests, Nathan dug his heels into the horse's side and took the reins. The creature went dashing off down the road faster than Nathan ever could have done. Transportation now settled, he turned his attention back to Lee.

"What are they planning to do once they get to the docks?" he shouted over the wind howling in his ear. Lee was still sobbing, but managed to choke out the words "The-they are g-going to steal a s-ship and sail directly for Arendelle."

A feeling of relief washed over Nathan as he realized that their entire plan revolved around something that they couldn't do: beat him to Elsa. He could cast a single spell now, and be right at her side. They hadn't anticipated that. But it would be better if he could just head them off, to stop them from leaving at all.

Another thought occurred to Nathan, and he pulled one of the five glowing orbs from his pockets. "What is this?" he said, holding the thing up to Lee. She recoiled again in fear, and said "You shouldn't have that! Where did you…" her voice trailed off and she looked from Nathan to the orb and back again. Seeming to realize that she wouldn't get an answer, she said "It's how Mother shares her power with us." Nathan's eyebrows rose and she continued "She calls it "you're pearl". She casts a spell on you so that your soul is contained in the pearl, and you can live without a body." Nathan thought back to the gas men that he had gotten them from, and wondered if they could hear him now.

"Do you all have them?" Nathan asked, more than just predatory instinct driving his questions now. Lee nodded. "Yes, but they have different sizes. The longer and better you serve mother, the bigger your pearl is." She looked at the one Nathan was holding and said "That was one of Mothers most loyal." with a hint of jealousy mixed in with the fear that was evident.

Nathan asked "So does that mean that you have one too?" wondering if she had any powers. If she did, she was making the right choice in not using them. Lee seemed abashed for a second before saying "Yes. But mine is small. I'm pretty new to the group, so I haven't done much, so I don't have any powers. Others can do stuff like spit gas, but the only thing that my pearl does is to make me really light."

Nathan nodded, than asked "Why does it do that, you're like a feather." Lee shuffled uncomfortably like this was a topic that she didn't like to talk about much. "Well" she said "the gas that you use has to come from somewhere, and none of us have the same abilities as Mother, so the pearl makes the gas. The pearl is made from what's already in your body, and since you don't need much of a body after you get it…" her voice trailed off, but Nathan didn't need her to finish. Instead he finished for her "…It uses your organs to make itself. So those things in the robes…?" he let the question stand. He thought he had an idea, but he wanted it confirmed.

Lee nodded "Those are people whose pearl has become very powerful, so their whole body is used up."

Nathan nodded again. Just as he had thought. The rest of the ride back to the city of Corona passed quickly now that he had a horse. The whole time he kept an iron grip on Lee's wrist. She tried to shift Nathan's hand around several times, but each time he simply tightened his grip, eliciting a squeal from her.

The horse charged through the gates to the city and Nathan felt the fire in his chest start to rekindle. Gothel wouldn't get away this time. He would make sure to kill her this time, not just give her a little cut.

As the pair drew into view of the harbor Nathan found his attention grabbed by a large crowd milling around on one of the piers. He wondered for a second what was interesting enough to keep so many people watching when he looked out across the sea and saw it. A large ship, engulfed in a green mist, just disappearing on the horizon. He clenched his fists in anger and heard Lee squeal from behind him.

Nathan dismounted the horse and yanked Lee down with him. Since Gothel had already left, she wouldn't do him much good anymore. Her use as a bargaining chip was done, Nathan doubted that he would get any more information out of her, and she didn't have enough authority over the others of her group. She was completely useless him.

Nathan drew his blade quickly and placed the edge against Lee's throat. Her eyes went wide and her breath caught again. "What? I-I thought that's-since…" Nathan pushed the blade harder into her throat, cutting her voice off and stopping whatever she was about to say dead in its tracks. Tears started to flow from her eyes again, and her body was shaking with barely contained sobs.

She wasn't just useless to Nathan, she was a detriment to him. She was a minion of Gothel, the very person who wanted Elsa for some sinister plan. Nathan cursed himself as he realized that he still didn't know what her plan was. As he thought, Elsa came into his mind.

Lee just managed to choke out again "Please… d-don't…" Nathan turned his attention back to her, but he couldn't shake the mental image of Elsa. What would she do? He knew what she would do. She would let this girl go free, and only pursue Gothel herself. Idealistic, perhaps, but still…

Lee had done more to help him than any other, really. She had lead him straight to Gothel's hideout, and had paved the way for him to strike at Gothel.

The blade dropped away from Lee's neck. Nathan didn't like it, but he was here on the business of Elsa, so he may as well behave as she would want him to. Lee dropped to her knees and started groveling at Nathan's feet. Nathan simply turned away. He didn't have anything to say to her, and he didn't really care about receiving thanks for his mercy.

He looked out at the ship as it quickly faded into the distance. Judging by a few things that Brimshaw had told him, he could tell that the ship was going incredibly fast. Not quite as fast as the ship that he had entered the city in, but fast al the same. It would be at Arendelle in perhaps a day, maybe less. The thought of how many people were on that ship sent a chill down Nathan's spine. At least he had one leg up, he thought as he started to funnel power into his shadow step spell. They wouldn't expect much resistance, but Nathan would be more than happy to provide a little more than just a heads up to the denizens of Arendelle.

He surged the power to the spell, and his shadow leapt up off the ground to greet him, pulling him in.

* * *

><p>Authors thing;<p>

Woo,this is a big one. fifty five hundred something words!  
>Sorry about the delay on this one, but it is kind of huge.<br>As always guys, do that stuff that you always do, it really does help me out.


	32. Chapter 32

As Nathan felt himself travel through the void, he could have sworn he saw the face of the Outsider looking down at him. Before he could focus on the face and confirm what he thought, he was thrown out of the void just as quickly as he had entered it. He stumbled a moment and grasped around for anything that might help him regain his balance while h tried to regain his bearings.

A surprised shriek from his left grabbed his attention and he turned to see who it was that was screaming. He was greeted by the startled Anna, who was holding a heavy looking book a few inches from Nathan's face in a way that looked like she had swung it at him and only just managed to stop it. Nathan put a hand on the book and pushed it down, saying "Hey, it's just me." with a smirk on his face. It amused him that he had scared Anna, but he had more important things to attend to. He asked "Anna, where's Elsa…" as he turned around. His shadow step should've brought him right to her…

In a fast movement, Elsa closed the few feet between her and Nathan from behind the large chair, wrapping her arms around him as if he was a long los friend. "Nathan!" she said and she did so. "We missed you!" Before Nathan even had the opportunity to respond, Anna threw herself onto his back, wrapping her arms around his neck and saying "How'd it go, huh?"

One hug he could handle, but two was overdoing his tolerance for physical contact. He put power into his shadow form spell and pulsed just enough power through it to turn him incorporeal for an instant as his shadowy body fell and slid along the floor and reformed a few feet behind Elsa. Anna fell to the floor unceremoniously, and Elsa's arms closed around nothing for a moment before she realized what Nathan had done. She turned to Nathan and, giving him a mischievous smile, said "I really did miss you." She cleared her throat and in a much more official voice said "Anyways, how did it go? Were you successful in…" she hesitated for a second "…eliminating the threat?"

She could tell as soon as the words left her mouth that something was wrong. Nathan didn't look very different, but something subtle about the way he was carrying himself was off, like he was very on edge. She was suddenly glad for all the hours spent in boring courts where she learned to read people so well. She didn't need to ask what was wrong, however, as Nathan answered her without hesitation. "No, I failed. More than that though, now Gothel is coming here." He looked Elsa straight in the eyes "For you. Why, I don't know. But she wants you."

The air in the room seemed to drop a few degrees, and Nathan doubted that it was Elsa's doing. She looked down for a second at the floor, thinking, while Anna finished picking herself up off the floor and said "What? When?"

Nathan turned to her, more than glad for an excuse to look away from Elsa. He had failed. Something he hadn't done in a long time. "I wouldn't put it at more than a day. I just saw her leave." He said to Anna. Elsa seemed to snap out of the trance she had been in, and she said "how… how do we stop her?"

This was the question that Nathan had been asking himself. "Uhh…" his hesitation clearly didn't inspire much confidence in either Elsa or Anna, but the wheels in head were already turning, creating a plan in his mind. "Ice powers are very good against them… their mobility and the severity of their attacks is very hampered by cold, so you can help directly with the defense. They are coming by ship, so…" his voice trailed off before he remembered some of the rumors he had heard about Elsa. "You've frozen the fjord, right?"

Elsa looked slightly taken aback, but nodded. She said "Yes, why?" in an uncertain voice, like she wasn't going to like what Nathan was about to suggest. Nathan smiled as another piece of the plan in his head took shape. "If you can freeze the fjord before they reach the harbor, that'll give us a lot more time before they reach the city. They'll have to cross the ice, and out on the ice I'll bet their power are a lot less effective. It will make it easier for us to take them out."

Elsa looked like she was about to say something, but was interrupted by Anna, who asked "Why would it being cold make any difference on Gothel's powers?" Nathan turned back to her, happy to explain the weakness that he had found in their enemy. "Cold air falls, and pushes down on warm air. When it's cold, their gas powers are harder to use, because it takes more energy to move it against the cold air." Anna nodded, showing that she understood.

Nathan glanced out the window and saw a few flakes of snow drift past. Another thing popped into his head, and he turned back to Elsa again. "Can you freeze the whole city?" he asked, hope evident in his voice. Elsa looked shocked by this, her eyes widened and she tensed up. "What?" she asked "Why would I… I don't think…"

Nathan nodded and said "Yes, freeze the city. It would give us a massive home court advantage, not that we don't already have one. Think about it; if the city is frozen, there's nowhere that their powers would work properly. This defense will be a whole lot easier."

Elsa ran her hands through her hair like she was panicking. She turned to the window and gestured out to the light snowfall and said "Isn't this enough? I mean, its freezing out there! How could they possibly…" her voice trailed off and she just stood in front of the window, staring out with her hands on her head with a stressed expression.

Nathan raised an eyebrow, puzzled at her reaction to his suggestion. Anna put a hand on his shoulder and pulled him back slightly. He followed her a few steps away from Elsa, just out of earshot of Elsa. When they were a sufficient distance from Elsa, Anna pulled Nathan close and whispered "When she lost control of her powers, she froze the whole kingdom. Castle, countryside, everything. She's gotten a lot more control in the months since then, but she is always hesitant to use her powers to a large degree, and just freezing the fjord, let alone the city, would be something she wouldn't be comfortable doing."

Nathan nodded and said "That could cause some trepidation." then paused a moment before continuing "But is her comfort worth the potential damage that Gothel and her minions would do? I understand that she might be scared about what she can do, but I'm more concerned with what will happen if she doesn't. I've fought Gothel's people, and if the guard wants to stand a chance than they need every advantage they can get."

Anna bit her lip and said nervously "What if Elsa is right? What if she can't undo the spell, and Arendelle freezes?" Nathan heaved a sigh, and said "Than we freeze. But if we don't try, we could all be gutted by insane gas people." The choice was simple, and Nathan didn't mean to make it an ultimatum, but it sounded an awful lot like one.

Nathan didn't know when Elsa had crept up behind him, nor how she was able to so quietly, but she gasped suddenly, making Nathan jump. "Is… is it really that bad?" she asked, clearly very distraught. Nathan gave some thought to the question. No, not for him. He had been able to both outmaneuver and outgun the opposition thus far, but would a normal person be able to do that? The answer came very quickly. No. Nathan racked his mind for anything that would allow a person without magic powers to fight a person that did, and the only thing that came to mind was luck or surprise. And from what he had seen of the guards of Arendelle, they didn't seem big on surprise. Muskets might work, as they would puncture the skin of those that still had it, letting out the gas vital to their survival, but against those who were completely made of gas a musket would be all but useless unless a direct hit was scored on the orb, and even that Nathan wasn't sure would break it. His mind flicked to the orbs he had taken in the brief fight with Gothel, and the desire to test them started to grow. Shaking his head, he turned to Elsa and said "Maybe… but maybe not. I think that arming the guard with muskets would be a good idea, but beyond that… I can't think of much else to do."

Elsa' face fell and she looked to Anna, asking in a pleading voice "What do I do, Anna?" and putting her arms out. Anna embraced her sister and Elsa's face met with Anna's shoulder quickly as tears started to flow from Elsa's eyes. Anna gave a needy look to Nathan, who spun his finger around, mouthing "get her to face me"

Anna whispered softly "Hey, hey, hey, Nathan can help us. He's probably dealt with tones of stuff like this, right?" Elsa looked up and wiped the tears out of her eyes. She nodded sadly to Anna and turned slowly to Nathan. Nathan wasn't entirely sure on how to continue planning with someone as hysterical as Elsa was right now. Deciding that that was a good place to start, he said as evenly as he could "The first thing you need to do is calm down. You need your mind clear if you want to have a shot at repelling this attack." Elsa nodded and took a deep breath, her crying stopping. Nathan supposed that at least this was some progress. "Now" he said "can you get whoever's in charge of the guard for me? We're going to need a room to plan in, and you need to be there."

Elsa nodded, cleared her throat and wiped away the rest of her tears, composing herself quickly back into the leader of a kingdom instead of someone scared for the lives of an entire kingdom. She went walking off towards the door and started speaking with the guards outside the door, just out of earshot. Nathan turned to Anna and said "Lots of tension, eh?" with a somber note to his voice. Anna snorted and said incredulously "You just told her that her kingdom is going to be attacked by an army of people who can shoot poison out of their bodies, of course she's going to be tense! What would you do in her situation?"

Nathan gave Anna a grim smile and said "I am in her position, and so are you. We're all in the same boat until Gothel is dead. She's not a very militant leader, I get that, but I would think she would be able to handle stress a little better than this." Anna opened her mouth, about to defend her sister, but closed it again. She couldn't help but agree with Nathan. Elsa was usually so calm and collect, but now… "You shouldn't have told her to freeze Arendelle." She said in an accusing voice. "It's put her between a rock and a hard place. You almost asked her to kill Arendelle herself." Nathan's mouth fell open and he said "What? I asked her to exploit our enemy's biggest weakness, not to kill her own people!"

Anna squinted at Nathan and said angrily "You don't get it, do you? To her, it's the same thing. She said that she wanted to never use her powers to hurt anyone, and Gothel already made her break that promise. Now you're asking her to do it too?" she looked Nathan up and down, than spat "I can't believe she said she loves-" Anna's hand shot to her mouth and her eyes went wide in the familiar manner of someone who had said just a little too much.

Nathan's train of thought was blown off of its tracks so fast that it probably wouldn't even look like a train when it landed. "What did you just say?" he asked incredulously, not sure to believe what he thought she had been about to say. Anna shook her head vigorously and said through her fingers "What? Nothing, I wasn't saying anything. Nope, not me."

Nathan was about to again try and get her to repeat what she had almost said when Elsa re-entered the room with a burly looking man in the guard uniform trailing behind her. She motioned for Nathan to follow her, and he didn't have much of a choice. He walked over to the door and looked back at Anna, who was looking around the room awkwardly.

Elsa led Nathan and the burly man down a long hallway, Nathan walking shoulder to shoulder with the man he assumed was the captain. The man didn't look at Nathan at all as the two were led forward, and Nathan found himself comparing the man to the last captain. The new one was certainly smaller than this one, standing about a half a foot taller than Nathan whereas the last one had been roughly Nathan's size. The previous one had looked older, however, like he had more years under his belt than the new one. This was true, as Nathan recalled Elsa saying the last captain had served under her father as well.

Elsa pushed a large door open and walked inside, and Nathan recognized the room as the one that he, Elsa, Rapunzel, Eugene, and Anna had made the skeletal plan for his approach on Gothel's tower. Maps of Arendelle and the surrounding area were already laid out on the table. Elsa walked in and sat in a chair at the head of the table, Nathan took the seat to her right, and the Captain took the one to her left. All three of them sat in silence a moment, simply staring at the maps. The Captain was the first to break the silence, looking to Nathan and saying gruffly "So what are we looking at fighting here? Whatever it is has Queen Elsa pretty spooked, and I'm not sure we can handle something that spooks her."

Nathan replied flatly "You should be spooked. You'll be fighting people who can shoot poison out of their faces." Nathan had expected some kind of reaction from the man, but he took this statement in stride, simply nodding and saying "Alright, how do we beat 'em?" Nathan found himself surprised by the man's stoic countenance. He nodded approvingly and said "Well, we're kind of counting on the cold to hinder their abilities."

The guard nodded again, then turned to Elsa and said "Will you be helping with that, Queen?"

Elsa sighed heavily and said "I'm… considering it. As you know, I've not used my magic to such a degree as last summer yet, and I'm very hesitant to do so. I would like to do this without too much intervention from me, if it's possible."

The Captain looked between Elsa and Nathan and said "I suppose that depends on how this defense is going to go." He gestured to one of many maps on the table and said "How it the attack going to come in?"

Nathan sat forward now, and cleared a few of the other maps out of the way. "They are coming by ship" he said, drawling a circle around the fjord and the harbor "so I expect them to come in from here. Of course they could come in and attack the castle directly, but I would think that the nature of the castle would deter an attack like that."

The Captain nodded, than an unpleasant look came across his face. "Wouldn't they be able to pass the walls?" a confused look came over Nathan's face, and he said "What? They shouldn't be…" he thought silently for a moment than cursed himself. "I never saw the ones that could fly in the average winter temperature. I saw them at ground level, but I doubt that they could go much higher than that." He looked over at Elsa and said "But in ice magic they were totally immobilized."

The Captain looked between the two for a moment before saying "Wait, how did you see them in ice magic? The Queen was here he whole time." Nathan grinned at Elsa and said "I thought you would've told him." Elsa shrugged nonchalantly and Nathan turned to the man and put his left hand under the table. Putting some power into animating his shadow, he said "Well, I'm magic. Just like her. Our powers differ slightly, but she taught me a few of her tricks." As he said this, his shadow peeled off of the floor and skittered along towards the man under the table. The dark silhouette stood and straightened up behind the man.

The Captain leaned forward, interested, and said "Really? What are your powers? Can I see a little demonstration?" The movement of the shadow caught Elsa's eye, and she couldn't help but smirk. Nathan put a small command through his magic link to tap the Captain on the shoulder, and the shadow obeyed.

The Captain felt a light tapping on his shoulder and for an instant thought that someone was trying to get his attention. He was about to turn and address whoever was trying to tell him something when he saw a smile creep across Queen Elsa's face and Nathan seemed to be very focused. He figured that this was his power; some kind of distraction power. It would make sense and be useful in a fight. He resolved that this power wouldn't work on him, that he wouldn't turn around no matter what.

Nathan was puzzled by the man's seeming total ignorance of the tapping on his shoulder. His shadow continued to tap on the Captain's shoulder, but he continued to ignore it. Nathan decided that his shadow would have to do a little more than simply tap his shoulder. Acting through the link between the two, Nathan made his shadow grab onto the back of the Captain's chair and yank it back. The Captain flailed for a moment as his chair tipped dangerously back before throwing his weight forward and slamming the tow front legs of the chair back to the ground.

Sure now that this had to be some kind of trick, that there had to simply be someone hiding behind him, the Captain stood from his chair and spun around, ready to give whoever it was the yelling of a lifetime. When he turned however, he found himself face to face with a black outline. It was bizarre and confusing to look at. At first glance it was featureless, but the longer he stared at it the more depth and distinct features became visible. He tried to wave a hand through it, but his hand met with a solid surface as soon as it met with the edge of the dark figure. Then, all at once, the figure burst into motion almost faster than he could react. It seemed like it was jumping into him, but at the point where it should have impacted him and sent him sprawling, it split around him like it was running water.

The Captain raised his arms around his faced defensively as Nathan's shadow retook its place on the floor. After a moment of silence he lowered his hands and peered around him, making sure that the shadow was gone. Nathan smiled at this, always amused at people's reactions to his powers. The man turned to Nathan and said in a voice that might have contained just a hint of fear "You use black magic?"

Nathan snorted and said "Well I wouldn't call it black, shadow is more like it, but…" he put his hands up questioningly "what's the difference? Magic is magic. I don't get it from any dark rituals or anything, I can just control shadow. No different than how Elsa-" he gestured towards her "-controls ice."

The Captain gave Nathan a mistrusting glare than glanced over at Elsa. She nodded and said "He's right, now sit back down." And he did. Nathan cracked his knuckles and said "Right, now that that's out of the way, how many troops are available for the defense of Arendelle?"

The captain looked down at the map and said "Well, it depends on what you want to do." He drew a finger along the wall that separated the city from the countryside "Defense of the perimeter will significantly lower the amount of men available, but you said that they are coming by ship, so I doubt that would be necessary." Nathan nodded in agreement and drew a line across the coastline inside and slightly outside the city borders, saying "I figure that we have lookouts all along here, giving us the most warning possible. Than…" he put his finger on the area just off of the bridge to the castle in the middle of a large square "…I'd like the bulk of the force here, where they can respond quickly to anything, castle or city."

The captain nodded agreeably, then said "How will the lookouts warn if they see something?" Nathan shrugged and answered "I figured something like a whistle would do, so long as it's noticeable. What do you think?" The Captain nodded again and said "I think whistles are a good idea. Now, where do you think the combat is going to happen?"

This question prompted a sigh from Nathan. He said "I was hoping to do the fighting on the fjord, on top of the frozen water where their powers wouldn't have much on an advantage due to that there would be less terrain for them to use, but…" he looked over at Elsa, who averted her eyes "…in lack of that happening, I think that forming a wall at the docks to stop them from even reaching the inner city would be best."

The Captain nodded a third time and said "How are we going to fight these guys? You talk about their abilities, but what does it take to take them down?" Nathan leaned back and considered the question carefully. "From what I can tell" he started slowly "all of them are in varying stages of transforming into a pure gas form. Those are the guys I'm worried about, the pure gas ones. The rest seem just as vulnerable to damage from sword and shot, it'll just take a bit more. The gas ones though, the target area for actually damaging them is…" his hand went to the pocket that contained the pearls and just as he was about to unclasp it he remembered Elsa's reaction to the first one he had found. "…this big." He said, holding up a fist.

The Captain grunted and said "That does sound like a problem. You said that they would be weakened by the cold?" in a slightly hopeful voice. Nathan nodded, then said "I don't know how much, though. They were totally immobilized by ice magic…" he didn't look over at Elsa this time, but he could feel her avert her eyes again "… but I didn't see them in regular winter conditions." Something occurred to him, and he said "They made it to the ship, and pretty fast too, so we have to assume they will be at least mobile."

Elsa spoke up now, saying hesitantly "Nathan, suppose you did have ice magic backing you up… what would the plan be then?" Both Elsa and the Captain looked at Nathan, curious to hear the answer, and he replied "Well, the positioning of the guards wouldn't change much, but I would put some cannon placements on the wall of the castle. When the lookouts sound the alarm I'd wait until the ship was within sight of the harbor, than freeze the fjord. Once the ship is immobilized I'd wait and see if they charge or not. If so, send the guards out to meet them on the ice. If not, blow them away with the cannons until they did."

Nathan looked at Elsa hopefully and asked "So does that mean that you'll help?"

Elsa stood, saying "I'll think about it." and walked towards the door. She pulled it open and left, her crystalline cape throwing light all over the room for just a second before that too disappeared as the door swung shut behind her. Nathan and the Captain were left sitting in an awkward silence, just staring at the maps in front of them. Nathan was the first to speak, saying "So… meeting adjourned, I guess?"

The two stood, and Nathan asked "So when do you think you could get those lookouts out there?" gesturing towards the window. The Captain shrugged and said "shouldn't take more than an hour. I'll get the men all equipped and ready for a fight, though it would help if you would come and show them a thing or two about fighting these gas people."

Nathan nodded "Of course. I've got a few other things to do as well, I'll meet with you in about two hours." The two nodded to each other and walked out the door.

* * *

><p>Authors things:<p>

And so the preparation begins.  
>leave some stuff in the comments if you want.<p>

ehhh this one feels weird to me too.


	33. Chapter 33

Nathan pulled one of the orbs, or "pearls" out of him pocket as he walked down the hall. It was strange to think that a person's life was contained within the thing. He wondered if they were conscious, and if so, if they knew what he was going to do to them. The light inside danced around in circular patterns as if blown by some breeze inside of the little ball.

Eventually he came to the room he was looking for. He pushed the door open and walked in. The smell of black powder filled his nose, and he found himself in a long stone room with rows of barrels filled with gunpowder and shot, racks of muskets lining the walls above them, and racks of swords all along the opposite wall. The room was large enough that the armaments inside were an impressive sight, but Nathan knew that there was not enough to equip the whole of the guard. There were several rooms like this one throughout the entire castle, and each guard was assigned a certain room to report to receive their weapons.

Technically Nathan wasn't supposed to do what he was doing, but he only needed the gun for a minute. He removed one rifle from its rack and slung it over his shoulder. He grabbed a handful of musket balls and a powder horn from the barrels. His test only really required one shot from the musket, but he never used muskets much, and therefor had little confidence in his ability to make adequate use of one. A crossbow had simply always been a better option for him. They were quiet, easily concealable, and could do so much more than deliver a single kind of projectile. A musket could only launch one kind of missile, but a crossbow could launch anything you could fit in the arrow track.

New items in hand, he turned to exit the room. As he made to open the door and exit, but as he reached for the door it seemed for an instant to open of its own accord. Nathan stepped back to allow the door to swing open and found himself face to face with the Captain again. The man looked Nathan up and down as well as eyeing the gun on Nathan's back. Nathan noted the large number of men trailing behind the Captain, and assumed that he was leading them to get their weapons. The Captain raised an eyebrow and said "What do you think you're doing, exactly?"

Nathan hefted the rifle up slightly and said "Just borrowing this. I won't need it more than a minute." dismissively. He made to walk past the Captain, but found himself blocked when the man put out an arm to close the space between him and the door frame. He looked down at Nathan with a scowl and said "Only a few minutes. I won't have one on my men underequipped for the fight."

Nathan nodded. His concern for his men was understandable. He gave the Captain a smile and said "I'll have it back right quick." and made to move through his arm. Thankfully he dropped it as Nathan did, allowing him through. He walked past the many men that had accompanied the Captain and received several unfavorable looks from them. He knew that they wouldn't give him looks like that if they knew what he was doing, but he certainly wasn't going to tell them.

Clearing the all the guardsmen, he made his way to the courtyard. He figured that I would be bad form to go and fire a rifle inside. As he pushed the great doors open and stepped outside, the freezing cold air immediately started to work its way through his various layers of protective gear. He knew that the guard had warmer armor than he did, but he still couldn't help but feel a bit bad for whoever got assigned lookout duty. There wasn't much wind, which he was thankful for, as he didn't need another thing to worsen his aim with a gun.

Finding a chair pushed off to the corner of the wall he pulled it out into the middle of the Courtyard and set the pearl down on it. it was identical to the other four in every way, and thrummed softly when Nathan touched it. It sat on the chair and didn't move. Nathan found it tempting to simply level the rifle on it and fire now, eliminating the risk of him missing, but that would mess up his test.

He turned from the chair and walked about twenty steps away. When he reached a satisfactory distance he turned back to the chair and pulled the powder horn from a pocket, pouring the powder within down the barrel. Next he removed a small metal ball from a pocket and dropped it down the barrel as well.

Next, he pulled a thin and long iron rod off of the bottom of the barrel and started packing the powder and shot down into the barrel. As he did this, he was reminded of another reason that he disliked muskets. They took far too long to load. After a few thrusts he was satisfied with how it had been loaded. Pulling the rifle up against his shoulder, he pulled the hammer back and took aim at the pearl.

His finger twitched for a moment as he lined up the barrel of the gun with the pearl. It was a small target, and Nathan knew that he had missed easier shots than this. He tried to remember the things that he had been taught the first time he had used a rifle; fire on an exhale, focus on your target, and wait for the right moment to fire. A few seconds passed slowly as Nathan waited for something to change. Just as Nathan started to think that he was wasting his time just staring at the pearl, something in the back of his head seemed to snap into place. He knew that this was the moment he had been waiting for, and pulled the trigger.

The rifle kicked against Nathan's shoulder as sparks and smoke exploded from the end of the barrel. Nathan couldn't see through the smoke, nor could he hear over the blast of the gunpowder exploding, but he knew that he had hit his mark. Instead of waiting for the smoke to clear to see what the result was, he walked forward through the smoke to see more quickly. As he exited the cloud he found the pearl not on the chair, but on the cobbled stone in shards. The last vestiges of light were fading from the shards. Nathan felt a smile creep across his face as the thing he had been hoping for turned out to be true.

Even the most powerful of Gothel's minions would be vulnerable to the guard's weapons. Nathan assumed that if a musket could break a pearl, than a sword would be able to do the same. He recalled the amount of force he had put into his foot when he brought it down to shatter it, and determined that getting that much force behind a blade would be easy.

His first questions answered, he turned away from the shattered remains of the pearl and set off towards the castle. As he neared the doors, he noticed a guard standing on the porch and looking at him expectantly. Nathan regarded the man for a second before he realized what he must be there for. With a hint of amusement, Nathan handed over the rifle, the powder horn, and the shots that he had taken. The man looked relieved that Nathan had parted with the items so easily, and went dashing through the door, Nathan assumed to rejoin the Captain.

He also pushed his way into the building, intending to go to his room. He still had four pearls, and he had no intention of wasting them. He came to his room quickly, without running into anyone. He assumed that the news of an incoming attack had spread, as things like that tended to do. He wondered what the staff were tasked to do until the attack happened. He would imagine that they were likely given leave to go to the city and spend some time with family or something in case the defense went bad, but there was likely a portion of them who would chose to stay.

When he reached his room and pushed the door open he found it exactly how he had left it. The first thing that he did was walk over to the dresser and remove the bag that contained the majority of his one charms. He took the bag and turned to the table by the window, spilling the charms all over the surface. Not quite sure what he was looking for, he started rooting through the pile.

After a few moments of this he found the charm called "intense gaze", a charm that he had never really used. It was a charm that's effect was more suited for direct combat, something that Nathan had avoided in the past. Its effect was to make anyone attacking the user hesitate when they saw the user's eyes. It was almost like a melee version of the "unnerving target" charm.

Nathan pulled one of the four remaining pearls from his pocket and held the two up next to each other. His mind flicked to the first charm that had been affected, and he set the two down next to each other and returned to digging through the pile. It didn't take much searching to find, as it was a pretty distinctive charm. As soon as his hand touched it he remembered how strange and otherworldly the thing was. The sound it made was something that Nathan had never heard from anything else, and the feeling of its vibrations was almost like on opposite of what a normal bone charm was. He tried to recall what he had called it. Something like… "Shroud of shadows"? Remembering how Elsa had looked when holding the thing, he nodded. Even if that wasn't it, it was more than fitting.

Remembering how the first charm had been changed, Nathan turned his attention back to the "intense gaze" charm and the pearl next to it. Carefully, he placed the pearl down onto the middle of the charm and took a quick step back. At first it seemed that nothing was happening. Than as Nathan watched, the light inside the pearl gravitated towards the bottom part of the pearl that was touching the charm. Then suddenly the charm started to shudder and shake as if something inside was trying to get out. The light in the pearl was sucked out, into the charm, and the whole thing was still again.

The pearl rolled off the top of the charm and shattered on the floor. Paying little mind to this, Nathan rushed the pieces under the tale with one foot and took the charm in his hand. The entire thing seemed to b backwards now, as if Nathan's senses about the thing were somehow being put through a mirror. He placed it to his ear and, sure enough, the noise was now the same kind of alien noise the other had made.

Nathan didn't have enough experience with these types of charms to tell what it did, and he figured that he might as well confirm what he thought the pearls did to bone charms before he carried on. He turned to his door to go and find Anna. If anyone would be willing to help him, it would be either her or Elsa, and he didn't want to disturb Elsa.

It occurred to him as he pulled the door open that he had left the pile of bone charms simply sitting out on the table, something that he had previously been very careful not to do. He shrugged to himself and simple locked the door behind him as he exited the room. He figured that that should be a significant precaution to prevent anyone from making off with his items. Finding Anna wasn't difficult, it never was. He put some power into his shadow sense spell and let it reveal everything around him.

He paid special attention to the form of the plethora of silhouettes that presented themselves to his new sight. He ignored any that were too large, too bulky, or too small to be Anna, with the exception of noting the large force of guards that was starting to congregate in the courtyard. After a moment of searching he found what he was looking for. Anna's shadow was predictably near Elsa's, up on the top floor of the castle. Elsa's shadow (as crystalline and fragmented as ever) was in her bedroom, cast on the wall by what Nathan assumed by the flickering jolts of motion to be a fireplace. Anna and another shadow Nathan didn't recognize were outside of the room, shadow cast by sunlight from a window behind them. They were hunched down by the keyhole of the door, as if either trying to see in or speak in.

He immediately set off to meet Anna. Again, his trip through the halls yielded no encounters with the servants who usually patrolled the halls so vigilantly. As he climbed the stairs he let the spell he had been sustaining go.

He could hear them before he could see them. Anna's voice was ringing out amid the silence of the halls "Elsa, I'm sure it will be fine!" another voice spoke now, Nathan assumed that it was the man next to Anna. "Yea! Elsa, I've seen you do some amazing things, and I'm sure that this would be easy for you!"

Elsa's voice responded to this, but it was far too muffled for Nathan to make out. He crept up as far as he could without entering into the hallway and being visible. He strained his ears, trying to catch whatever words he could.

All he caught of Elsa's words were "…hurt anybody! I made that promise, and I intend to keep it!"

Anna cried out "Elsa, please! I know that you don't want to hurt anyone, but more people will be hurt if you don't! One…" her voice trailed off before picking up again with renewed resolve "…one might even be you!"

Nathan heard a door open and recoiled, thinking that they might be coming towards him. Several moments of silence, however, denied his fears. Elsa's voice came through the silence, almost in a whisper, saying "You really think I can do it?"

Anna laughed and said "Elsa, I think you could freeze and thaw the fjord a hundred times over."

Nathan heard what he thought was the two hugging, than Elsa said "Thank you, Anna." The male voice that Nathan didn't recognize spoke again, saying "So are you going to help them?" in a hopeful tone.

Tension grew in the air for a moment before Elsa responded to the question, saying hesitantly "I… I'll try." Nathan felt a weight lift off of his shoulders. Whatever Anna and her friend had said, I had certainly worked. He wished he had been present to hear it, but there was nothing to be done about that now. The door latched loudly closed and Anna let out a satisfied sigh.

Nathan straightened up and stepped out from hiding into the hall. He saw the man, and recalled seeing him before. Nathan couldn't remember his name, but he was sure that he had been present at some point during the last few weeks. He was dressed in fur work clothes, and judging by his build Nathan would guess that he did some kind of manual labor. He put his arm around Anna affectionately and the pair turned away from Nathan. Realizing that they had failed to notice him, Nathan walked quickly towards them and called out "Hey, Anna!"

Anna and her escort turned to face him, and Anna's face bore a huge smile. "Nathan, I've got some great news!" Nathan considered telling her that he had heard, but people tended to react negatively if you told them that you were eavesdropping. He decided against it, and said "Really?" in a fairly convincing tone of puzzlement.

Anna took a deep breath and started speaking. "Well, Kristoff and I came up here to talk to Elsa about the whole defending the city thing, and we found her really stressed. I guess that makes sense, considering what has happened to her in the past but… anyways, we talked, and she agreed that she would at least try to go along with your plan!" Nathan rose an eyebrow and asked "Really? How'd you do that?"

Anna took another deep breath, and Nathan smiled, remembering how much Anna liked to talk. She said quickly "We came up here and found the door to Elsa's door locked. I knew that Elsa was in her room, so I started to talk to her, just like I always do. I talked about how we were kids, and how much fun we used to have." Nathan glanced behind him, making sure that they were far enough from the door that anyone on the other side wouldn't hear them. He was satisfied with the distance, and turned his attention back to Anna. "She started warming up to the talk, and I pointed out that she could help so many people, in so many ways with her powers. Now is one of those times. It's her kingdom, and everyone in it looks up to her. She could help directly with their safety! She said that she would just be hurting someone else, but I said that those people would just as soon hurt her. Then she started to doubt her own abilities, but I reminded her that there's not a person in the kingdom who doubts her abilities."

Nathan nodded. He found himself slightly envious of the position that Anna had, so close to Elsa. He wasn't one to get jealous often, nor did he act on it, but he still wanted it. Nathan shook his head, clearing it. He had never made great use of emotions, and now was not a good time to start. His mind flicked back to something Anna had said earlier, and he asked "Remember that thing you said a few hours ago?" Anna gave him a questioning look, and he continued "Something about you couldn't believe someone said something."

Anna's eyes shot wide and her face changed to a deep shade of red. "I don't know what you're talking about." She said, a mortified look on her face. Kristoff looked between the two and said "What, what did you say?" to Anna. She blushed even harder and said "Nothing. I don't know what he's talking about."

Kristoff was about to say something else, but Nathan cut him off, saying "Regardless of what was or wasn't said, I need Anna's help with something." Elsa looked relieved to get off the topic, and said "My help? What do you need my help for?"

Nathan shrugged and said "Well… I guess it doesn't have to be you, I just need someone to help me test some stuff."

Anna's eyes narrowed, and she said "What kind of stuff are you testing, exactly?" the suspicion obvious in her voice. Nathan smiled and said "Some stuff that's going to help Arendelle safe." his grin got just a little wider as he said "That's something you want to help with, right?"

Anna gave an exasperated sigh as she realized what Nathan had done. She didn't have much of a choice when he put it like that. She was about to agree to go with him when an idea popped into her head. She wrapped her arms around Kristoff's and said "Wouldn't you rather have a big, strong man help you than little old me?"

Nathan looked Kristoff over critically before smiling at Anna. "Tell you what…" he said in a chipper voice that made Anna's hopeful smile fade "…why don't you both come!" The two looked first at each other and then at Nathan with defeated expressions. "Alright" Kristoff said wearily "what did Anna just get me into?"

Nathan laughed as he stared walking off towards the stairs. "Something that you probably won't like." he said honestly. He heard Kristoff give a heavy sigh and mutter something along the lines of "great, thanks Anna" which made a smile creep across Nathan's face.

The walk to Nathan's room was uneventful, once again passing without any contact with any servants or maids. Kristoff muttered nervously to Anna, too quiet for Nathan to hear. Anna responded equally quietly, Nathan assumed to reassure him that he wouldn't be hurt. Nathan had no plan to hurt him, of course, bone charms were powerful things, especially after affected by the pearls. He still had no idea how the pearls did what they did, and he wasn't even sure what it was that they did. But he hoped that he would find out.

The door unlocked with a "click" and swung open. Nathan stepped in and walked over to the pile of bone charms while Anna and Kristoff looked around the room with stunned expressions on their faces. The majority of their daze seemed to come from the pile of bones next to Nathan, though Kristoff gave a few apprehensive looks towards a tray of surgical equipment on the floor.

Nathan motioned for the two to come closer to him, and they did (albeit hesitantly). Nathan grabbed the bone charm that he had changed earlier and said "I'm going to test this charm of you. All you have to do is tell me what happens. What changes. Alright?" Anna and Kristoff nodded silently.

Nathan put the bone charm behind his back and squeezed it in his palm. The charm started to vibrate just a little bit more, and he felt a field of magic settle over him in the same passive change that bone charms always made. He couldn't tell exactly what it was that changed, but Anna and Kristoff reacted quickly.

Anna was looking at Nathan carefully, as if scrutinizing every detail she could detect when she reacted. She glanced up at Nathan's eyes in what was supposed to be a brief look, and reeled back, her eyes locked with Nathan's. She backpedaled and tripped over a fold in her dress, sending her toppling over to the floor. Kristoff reacted quickly by turning his attention away from Nathan and throwing his arms towards Anna, grabbing her half a second before she hit the floor. As he lowered Anna to the floor, he followed her gaze to Nathan's eyes. As soon as his eyes met Nathan's he too reacted instantly. His reaction was not as violent as Anna's, but his body seized and his eyes widened like he was staring down the barrel of a cannon.

Satisfied with this, Nathan turned back to the table and dropped the charm back onto the top of the pile. He turned back to find both Anna and Kristoff giving him shocked, horrified looks. He clapped his hands together loudly and said "So, I take it that the charm was pretty effective than? Can you tell me what it did?"

Anna spluttered incomprehensibly for a moment and Kristoff threw his hands in the air, almost shouting "You didn't even know what that was going to do?" Anna got herself under control again and said "Nathan, that was terrifying." Nathan nodded and waved a hand dismissively, saying unsympathetically "yes, whatever, what happened? Why was it terrifying?"

Anna looked to Kristoff for a moment like she was lost for words. Kristoff returned her look with an equally lost expression. Nathan rolled his eyes, not believing that he actually had to do this. "I was looking at Nathan" he prompted exasperatedly "when suddenly…"

Anna was the first to pick up on the bait. "It was like there was just… a fire in your eyes." She said hesitantly "Like you wanted to hurt me." Kristoff nodded and added "Yea, I got the same feeing."

Nathan nodded and turned back to the pile. He considered grabbing the charm again but thought better of it. Instead he took a seat in the chair next to the table and started rooting through the pile again. This more or less confirmed his theory of what the pearls did to bone charms. They greatly increased their power, but also increased their magnitude, making any effect extend to anyone, whether Nathan wanted it to or not.

As Nathan dug through the pile he asked over his shoulder "What happened to Rapunzel and Eugene? I haven't seen them since I got back." An answer came from Anna, who said "They had to return to Corona. Something about "pressing royal business". I miss them already." Nathan laughed to himself and said "Yea, you wouldn't know anything about pressing royal business, would you?"

Anna gave a little laugh than, after a pause, said "Hey!" in an offended voice. Kristoff snickered to himself too quiet for Anna to hear. Nathan found the charm he had been looking for. Holding it up to his ear, he made sure that it was in fact the one that he had been searching for. The sound seemed about right, confirming that the charm was the "Zephyr" witches charm he thought it was. He was hesitant to use a pearl on this one, as it was likely that while it would speed him greatly, it would also make him more frail and susceptible to damage. He drew one of the three remaining charms from his pocket and touched it to the center of the charm. The light inside gravitated towards the bottom again as it had before.

Anna walked up behind him and leaned down looking over his shoulder, saying "Wow" in a breathless voice. She motioned for Kristoff to come and look. He walked over and stared at the orb as well as the charm started to shake and the light started to fade. He spoke with wonder in his voice "What is that?" and leaning forward to get a closer look. Nathan considered telling him the truth, that it was the soul of some poor sap who had sold themselves to Gothel, but decided on a much more ambiguous answer. "Magic." he said without inflection.

The last of the light entered the charm and it was like it was shoved into a mirror. Everything about it flipped. The sound that it made changed to an even more unsettling tone than the other two charms. Nathan accounted this to it being a witches charm, naturally more powerful than regular one charms.

Both Anna and Kristoff took a step back, and Anna said in an apprehensive voice "Nathan, what is that?" clearly concerned about a repeat of the last charm's effect. Nathan stood and smiled, saying confidently "Nothing that should affect you." He walked towards the door and motioned for them to follow. They did, and the trio entered the hallway.

Nathan squeezed the charm in his hand and felt the effect wash over him. Everything around him seemed to slow. The change was only just noticeable, but was defiantly there. Nathan crouched down and prepared to sprint down the hall. Anna and Kristoff both gave him a questioning look, but his only response was to take off down the long hallway.

The edges of Nathan's vision blurred, and his movements were far quicker than he was used too. Despite the sudden change, he was still able to control himself and guide his movements with ease. Before he knew it his body impacted the far wall, sending a shockwave through his entire body and knocking the breath from his lungs. He crumpled to the floor.

Anna and Kristoff ran over to him and helped him back to his feet. Nathan shook his head and said in between deep gasps for air "Wow… that was… surprising." When he hit the wall, all the charms effects seemed to fade, and he had found himself incapacitated. Now it seemed to return, filing his muscles with what felt like pure speed. The slowdown of everything around him returned.

Anna looked at him concerned and said "Are you alright? You hit that wall really fast!" Nathan nodded. He had hit the wall fast, but he hadn't hit the wall hard. So why had he been so stunned by the impact?

He held the charm up to his ear again and listened for anything he might have missed the first time. His eyes widened as something about the strange sound it made snapped into place and it seemed to make sense. The charm increased his speed a huge amount more than it did before, but instead of being hit doing more damage, it would bring his movement to a complete halt.

He pocketed the charm. Anna and Kristoff gave him another worried look that he simply waved off, saying "I'm fine. Let's get back to the room." The other two turned to walk back to the room, but Nathan wanted to test the charm one more time. He took off down the hall, twisting his body so that he was able to get between the two without touching either.

He reached the door to his room in a fraction of a second, and skidded to a halt in front of it. Nathan knew that the charm was powerful, but its usefulness was limited. One glaring issue was that nothing else slowed, which meant that Nathan would have almost no time to correct his course if something he didn't anticipate entered his path. And given his experience with the wall, that would be a very bad thing.

He pulled his door open and held it so that Anna and Kristoff entered first. After they were clear of the doorway he entered the room himself and let the door fall closed behind him. He started to shuffle through the pile again, not bothering to sit down, because he already knew what charm he wanted to use the next pearl on. he pulled it from the pile and held it up. "Light step" was what the charm was called, and it was one that Nathan had always been fond of. It silenced extra noise that was made, such as footsteps or the rubbing of clothes. It wasn't powerful enough to block out the sound of something like sprinting, but in a totally silent place it had always been a godsend.

Nathan put the pearl to the charm and waited as the power flowed from one to the other. Anna and Kristoff wordlessly watched the process again, and when it was done they looked cautiously at the charm in Nathan's hand. He put it to his ear, and noted to himself how much clearer the sound was to read and tell the effect. In spite of the apparent changing of the charms polarity, the base sound was very similar to what it had been before.

He gripped the charm tightly in his hand, than turned back to Anna. His mouth opened and moved, air exited his throat, but no sound was produced. Anna gave him a questioning look, and he tried again to speak. Once again, nothing happened. He tried snapping his fingers. Nothing. He clapped his hands together. Nothing. A smile came across his face as a wide range of possibilities as to the use of this charm entered his mind.

His attention returned to Anna and Kristoff, expecting some kind of startled or surprised look. What he found instead was that they were looking past him, out the window. He turned to see what they were looking at.

A huge billowing cloud of light green mist was rolling in off the water. It wasn't very close to Arendelle, but its mere existence was a very bad sign. Nathan looked on a moment, considering what to do. Anna spoke from behind him, her voice fearful "Nathan…"

Before she could finish Nathan grabbed all of his new bone charms, squeezed the altered zephyr charm to his chest, and bolted out of the room faster than the eye could follow.

* * *

><p>Things are happening soon, i swear.<p>

So things are drawing close to an end point, but i don't want to stop writing. I've got a few ideas as to what a second "Arc" would be, but I would like some suggestions as to what you people would like to see.

Leave some reviews and stuff, it makes me feel good.


	34. Chapter 34

The Captain finished barking orders to his men and looked out over the defensive wall of the tower and across the flat plane that was the fjord. The ominous green cloud blocked much of the view that was normally there, and was the source of much tension. The men had been briefed, of course, but the cloud really put things into perspective for them. They were going up against something very big and very powerful. If the Royal protector was to be believed in his reports than there was little hope for a successful defense without the assistance of the Queen, and he had demonstrated large amounts of hesitance at using her powers on such a scale. She doubted her ability to control her power, and though he would never say it out loud, so did he.

His thoughts flicked back to a small piece of information that his mind seemed intent on reminding him of. She had killed his predecessor. Perhaps she didn't mean too, perhaps she had been under the influence of a powerful spell, but that didn't change the fact that he had died by her hand. as though that wasn't enough of a source of trepidation, he had been told by the medical staff that the man had not died peacefully. "Eviscerated from the inside out" were the exact words they had used. He had no desire to find out what that felt like.

One of his men came up from behind and saluted, saying "Sir!" he turned and found himself face to face with one of the officers he had put in charge of organizing the lookouts. Glad for the distraction from his own thoughts, he gave the man a hard look and gave him the token "At ease" that signified he didn't care too much for the formalities of the military at the moment. There were larger issues at the moment.

The man bowed his head and said "Thank you sir." The captain gave a terse nod and said "What is it, has something been spotted?"

He shook his head and said "No sir, but it does concern the lookouts. The mist…" he said, pointing out at the rolling cloud "…is posing a significant problem to visibility. Those who are posted furthest out are complaining about near zero visibility conditions."

The Captain put a hand to his chin and thought a moment. The fog would pose a significant detriment to their chances of catching the attackers, which was likely exactly what they wanted. From what the Royal Protector had said, this attack was some kind of last-ditch effort, so he doubted that they would even be stalled if the fog were to be dispersed. He thought about another thing that the Royal Protector had said, and he asked "Are the men complaining about breathing conditions? Is the gas dangerous?"

The man shook his head again and said "No sir, it seems to be just as breathable as regular air." The Captain nodded. He didn't anticipate that lasting for long. He would have to go and speak with the Queen again about using her powers, but this time it wouldn't have anything to do with the Protector's plan.

He looked down again at the man and said "Dismissed." in a sharp voice. He bowed his head again and turned to leave. The Captain was about to turn and bark another order at some men when he was interrupted by a mighty crash from behind him. He spun, putting his hand on the hilt of his blade and striking a battle stance. What he found himself facing was something that he wasn't entirely sure he was seeing correctly.

The Royal Protector was practically flying across the courtyard towards him, moving so fast that he could have sworn he saw outlines of the man behind him. A few of the men noticed both the crash and the blur speeding towards their Captain and pulled their blades. He couldn't help but feel slightly confused. He had said his power was in shadows, so how was he moving so fast? Before he could come up with an answer to this question, the Protector closed the distance between them and stopped running, his feet skidding on the stone quite a bit. He straightened up and collected himself.

The Captain stared at him expectantly, trying very hard to not betray his puzzlement by any kind of reaction. "Can I help you?" he asked, knowing that the Protector cared little for the formalities that his position would normally bring.

Nathan smiled and said "More like can I help you." The Captain gave him an uncertain look, and Nathan continued "I've been busy doing stuff… don't worry about that. Anyways, I wanted to show you a few things about the enemies that we'll be facing off against."

The Captain gave him a questioning look and said "Wait, we? I thought that you would be guarding the Queen and the Princess." Nathan shrugged and said "I figure that if I can stop them from even reaching Arendelle than I'll be doing my job even better." He waved the thought of dismissively "But to do that I'll need some help. And that help is going to need some knowledge."

He pulled the last remaining pearl out of his pocket and held it out to the Captain. "This" he said "is the most important thing about fighting them. For those guys that are nothing but gas, this is the only way that you're going to do any damage." The Captain examined the orb and took it from Nathan's hand. "It's like their heart. It's the only thing that keeps their gas form together."

The Captain wrapped it a few times with his knuckles. The dull thudding sound indicated that it was indeed a solid object. He offered it back to Nathan and asked "What is it made of? More importantly, what does it take to break it?" Nathan shrugged and said "Musket shot at about twenty paces completely shattered one, and I was able to smash one up pretty well with just a stomp." The Captain nodded and asked "What affect will partial damage have on the whole thing?"

Nathan shrugged. "No clue." He said as if it wasn't an issue. To him it wasn't, but the guardsmen couldn't blink, shoot ice from their fingertips, or animate their own shadows. The Captain turned his attention back to the billowing form in the distance. Maybe it was his imagination, but it seemed to be getting closer. Nathan noticed the shift in focus, but decided to continue talking about the tactics that they would need. "The rest of the guys should be fairly easy to deal with. As far as I could tell, a lot of them were still mostly made of meat." His unusual choice of the word meat seemed to grab the Captain's attention again, so he pressed on, smiling a little to himself. "Though, there do seem to be some in-between type of guys. Guys who have skin, but nothing but smoke on the inside. Their orbs don't seem strong enough to let them move the gas on its own, so just do enough damage to let the gas out, and they're done."

The Captain nodded and said "I'll pass that on to the men." He looked up once again at the oncoming mist, and a thought occurred to him. "While I do that, you can go and speak to the Queen about clearing this up." Nathan raised an eyebrow and pocketed the pearl, saying "What difference do you think my voice will make? She's surely seen it by now, and hasn't done anything. I think that means that she isn't too keen on doing that. All we really need her to do is to freeze the fjord, and that's all she seems willing to try."

The Captain gave Nathan a look like an elder explaining something to a child that didn't understand something. "She thinks very highly of you. Whether you realize it or not, she looks up to you in some way." He rolled his eyes sarcastically "Though why she would do that is beyond me."

Nathan laughed and slapped the man on the back. "I knew that there was a person somewhere under all that military bravado!" he exclaimed loudly. The Captain broke a smile. It was small, but it was there. He said quietly "Yep, you caught me. I'm a human." Nathan snorted jokingly and turned to leave. It was only after the Captain started barking orders again that Nathan realized his clever dodge of having to talk to Elsa about using her power. He wondered if what the Captain had said about her looking up to him was true. He knew the Captain had been joking when he said it, but Nathan couldn't think of a reason either.

Nathan started off back towards the main building, thinking of what he would say to Elsa. She had said to Anna that she would try and help, but the key word there was "try". One could do nothing but hesitate and say that they "tried" to do something. Nathan sighed.

Then there was the pressure of protecting not just herself, but an entire kingdom full of people who expected nothing less of her. It was true that people tended to work better under pressure, but Nathan wasn't sure that Elsa could be grouped with "most people". He shook his head as he pushed the great doors open and walked in. the warmth washed over him in a wave and seemed to highlight how cold it was outside. Nathan didn't think much of it, preferring cold climates to warm, but Arendelle was a very cold place. It wasn't enough to immobilize Gothel's people, but he hoped that it would at least slow them.

He found his way to the spiral staircase and started plodding up. What had the Captain meant when he said "she looks up to you"? Nathan Assumed that Elsa had expressed some kind of romantic interest in him given Anna's little slip, but the Captain's words seemed to resonate with Nathan on a whole other level. She was the one with the incredible amounts of power. She was the one with the one with an entire kingdom under her total control, and citizens that loved her. What did he have that she didn't, something that would prompt respect, a feeling almost inseparable from envy?

He recalled a few scenes in his memory of ice creeping across walls and floors. When it happened, it was always in the background, when there was something else to focus on. Another clearer memory surfaced in his mind, and he flinched as he remembered being thrown against the wall like a ragdoll by Elsa. His hand went to the white streak in his hair and tugged a few strands of it down far enough for him to see. Even the ice magic that he used was difficult to handle. It was as if it had a mind of its own. His shadow, however, was more than willing to bend to his will. Almost like it awaited the opportunity to lend itself to Nathan's needs. Maybe that was it… control. Nathan had never once accidentally cast a spell, yet he could think of several occasions in the relatively short time he had known her he had seen Elsa cast many spells on accident.

He reached the top of the stairs and turned the corner to the hall. The afternoon sun streamed in through the window. The door to Elsa's room stood silently closed, as if waiting for him. Nathan brought his fist up to the door and hesitated for a moment. He took a deep breath and brought his knuckles against the wooden door.

Silence hung in the air for several moments before the handle on the other side of the door turned, and the door opened just a crack. Elsa peered out, saying "Hello?" before her one visible eye fell on Nathan and she pulled the door open all the way. "Oh, its you. What do you need Nathan?"

Nathan looked Elsa up and down. She didn't look good. Her posture was slumped and her eyes were sunken, making her look very tired. A beam of light bounced off of one of the many crystalline objects behind Elsa and fell on Nathan's eye. He squinted and moved his head out of the way. "Ah, trying to blind me?"

He heard Elsa moving around and something that must have been ice grinding against ice. The light that had been Nathan's eyes vanished and he tried to blink away the afterimage. As his vision returned, he saw Elsa looking bashfully at him. "Sorry about that." She said Nathan shrugged and said "No problem." Dismissively.

Elsa gulped nervously and said "Is… is it time?" Nathan shook his head and said "No, not yet." Elsa looked very relieved, until Nathan continued speaking. "But we do need your help with something." Her relieved face shifted quickly to worry. Before she could ask what he needed, he told her. Pointing to the window he said "We need you to clear that away. It's a problem for visibility, and I think it could become dangerous."

Elsa looked out the window at the cloud. "Is that… is that her?" Nathan nodded wordlessly. Elsa gulped again and said "There's so much." In a distant feeling voice. Nathan did the best he could to reassure her, saying "But not very dense. A small breeze would probably be enough to get rid of it."

Elsa grimaced and said "I'll try." still sounding unsure. She walked out of her bedroom and said "I should go outside, I'll be able to control it more." Nathan nodded. Anything that would help her. The two started walking down the hall. Nathan noted Elsa's heavy breathing and decided he would try and calm her down with a little talking. "Why don't we just use the balcony in your room?"

She sighed and said tersely "I want to be facing the way I make the wind go. The balcony faces the city." Nathan nodded. He supposed it made sense the same way that he preferred to be looking where he blinked to. Another moment of silence passed between the two before Elsa asked "So how are the defenses looking?"

Nathan tried to make his voice as comforting as possible, while still keeping a businesslike visage. "The guards are prepared, I've talked to them about how to fight the enemy, and they are standing by for orders." Elsa smiled nervously and said "Good, good." nodding. Elsa waited another second before asking "Why do you need me to freeze the fjord? I mean… I know you explained it, but can you do it again please?"

Nathan smiled, glad for another chance to justify what he needed her to do. "Gothel and her people are coming by ship. This wouldn't be so much of a problem if they were just simple pirates, but they aren't. Normally I would say just pound them with cannons, but I doubt that it would do much damage to them. If you destroy the ship, I think that they would either swim or float over the water. This would let them get to a lot of places all over the city because so much of it is costal. If we freeze the ship than there's one point that they are coming from, and that point is reachable. The plan is to stop them from reaching the city altogether."

The two reached the bottom of the stairs and started to the main doors again. Elsa seemed very introverted. Nathan wondered what she was thinking about, looking down to the floor and placing each foot carefully in front of her. Nathan wished that he had the same standing as Anna, that he could just ask her how she felt. But he couldn't. Or at least he didn't feel like he could. His job was to protect her, not to be close to her. He'd seen many people fail similar jobs because of such an attachment, and more often than not he was the one to make them fail, but in the end a target was a target…

A blast of cold air slammed into his face, interrupting his thoughts. A guard posted at the door had pulled it open when he saw Elsa walking towards it. As they exited into the courtyard a few men bowed hurriedly to her before continuing on whatever task they were assigned. Elsa continued to walk slowly across the yard, Nathan trailing behind, not sure where she was going.

She walked to the gate, but instead of walking thorough into the town, she turned and walked up the steppes to the side and got onto the parapets of the wall. Those who were posted there cleared the way quickly for her, either squeezing themselves up against the banquettes or nearly stepping off the side of the wall to provide her with room. She continued walking along the wall until she came to the side of the castle that was facing the gas than stopped. She stood for a minute, starring right at the cloud, than brought her hands slowly up in front of her.

Bright blue light danced between her fingers and built up in the palms of her hands. She worked her hands together, building the power up. That threw her hands up to the sky. The blue magic flew up out of her hands and soared up into the sky, exploding into a shower of snowflakes. Almost instantly, a strong wind kicked up, and the sky darkened as thick clouds formed above them. Elsa flinched as the clouds blocked out the sun, casting their shadow over Arendelle and blocking the warmth of the sun.

Nathan turned his attention away from the sky and towards the sea again. There was a visual mark of how far the wind was reaching out, a wave traveling across the surface of the water. It sped out from the castle and seemed to charge directly at the cloud in the distance. As soon as the wave met the base of the cloud, it was like an invisible wall formed and was pushing the gas back. It didn't stop at the base however, instead it kept forcing the gas away. A smile came over Nathan's face as the green haze cleared out of the fjord and started to dissipate in the distance.

Something else started to standout, however, a large dot amid the remnants of the sickly cloud in the distance. He reached for a pocket and removed a spyglass from it. Extending the thing, he placed it to his eye and focused. The dot expanded into a white square. A sail.

Elsa took notice of the small dot as well, and asked Nathan "What is that?" In answer he passed the spyglass to her and pointed in the direction to point it. She gazed through the lens and her face fell. The spyglass dropped away from her face and she continued staring off into the distance. The wind picked up a bit more, buffeting Nathan's back. Elsa didn't seem at all touched by the wind other than her hair, which didn't move drastically enough to free itself from its normal braid.

Elsa turned to Nathan and said over the now howling wind "We wait to freeze it, right?" Nathan smiled and nodded. "We wait."

The Captain of the guard ran up to Nathan and Elsa, looking up at the clouds above him and shouting "My Queen, is this wind you're doing?" Elsa nodded wordlessly, and Nathan took the spyglass from her hand gently than handed it over to the Captain, again pointing to the distant sail. The man put the lens to his eye and pointed it where Nathan pointed. He focused on the small dot for a moment, then dropped the lens away from his face as his eyes narrowed and he handed the spyglass back to Nathan. "There they are." he said, his voice a deadly low tone "Not close enough to freeze yet, though."

Nathan turned fully to the man and asked "How long do you suppose it will be until they get here?"

He shrugged and said "Half an hour, maybe less. Something other than wind is filing those sails. Something unnatural. I expect that the ship won't be slowed by the winds." He turned to Elsa "My Queen, the men stand ready." he said with a small bow. Elsa hesitated a moment "Tell… tell them…" she looked Nathan right in the face, and he saw something in her eyes harden "…tell them to wait for the fjord to freeze, than to carry out the plan."

In spite of the lack of confidence Nathan had expressed tot himself, he felt the intensity of Elsa's words and knew that she would do exactly what she had to. Elsa turned away from the Captain and started walking back towards the great hall. Nathan followed close behind, given he had little else to do. He noted to himself Elsa's major change in posture and manner of moving. Her back was straight, and she stepped quickly and surely. Although he couldn't see her face, he knew that she bore a serious glare instead of the timid or uncertain look she had before.

Nathan wondered where Anna was, and if she was adapting to the situation as well as Elsa. True, Elsa had been hesitant and perhaps a bit fearful, but that was gone now. Anna hadn't shown too much stress, but Nathan knew that looks could be deceiving. His thoughts wandered to her friend, Kristoff, and he wondered what he thought of all this. How strange it must seem, an entire army force readying for one old woman.

Nathan grinned to himself. It was the same kind of strange that he had used for years. He wondered where he would be now had he not decided to leave and carve a new life. The days of killing for money seemed so distant now, as if they had taken place in a dream. They hadn't, of course, but Nathan couldn't shake the feeling that something bigger than just his routine or allegiance had changed.

Before he knew it, Nathan found himself in the warmth of the library again. He was sitting across from the fire, looking out the window at the flakes of snow spiraling in the wind outside. The panes of glass shook rapidly, as if they were about to be pulled out of the wall. Elsa was staring into the fireplace, the dancing light reflecting in her eyes. Nathan could hardly believe how quickly the time had passed. In what seemed like a blink of an eye the half an hour the Captain had estimated had passed, leaving Nathan and Elsa sitting in the library, waiting to be called into action.

Elsa sighed loudly and said "Should we just go out and see what's happening?" Nathan hissed through his teeth for a moment before standing and saying "I suppose we should."

Both of them rose from their seats and walked to the door. Nathan took a few steps ahead of Elsa and opened the door for her. She bowed her head and said "Thank you" in a serious voice. Nathan could see that she was still on edge, and he couldn't really blame her.

As Elsa exited the door, Nathan heard footsteps pounding towards her. He moved through the doorway and let the door fall closed behind him. Turning to the direction of the footsteps, he found himself looking at a guardsman. He was panting heavily, and had an urgent look on his face. Elsa probably would've asked him what he was doing if he didn't preempt her by starting gasping out words before he stopped running.

"It's time! You two… you two are needed as soon… as soon as possible!"

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><p>Authors thing:<br>so chapter 34. yup.  
>still going.<p>

leave some reviews because they make me happy.


	35. Chapter 35

Gothel peered out across the water through the lens that had been handed to her. What she saw made her flat out growl in anger. Her aged and withered hand curled tightly around the bronze metal tube in a way that might have cracked a few of the glass disks inside, if she were not so dilapidated. She was mildly aware of the tall man standing next to her who was now beginning to inch away slowly. It was good that he had brought this too her attention, but what it was made her blood boil.

The Queen of Arendelle was standing on top of the wall around the castle, her crystalline dress sparkling in the little sunlight that was making its way through the clouds. But that wasn't the thing that angered her so much. What set her blood on fire was the dark figure standing next to her with his arms folded, whispering something to the Queen. She recognized the figure, how could she forget? He had stabbed her mere hours ago. She didn't know how he had beaten them back, but he had.

Her eye wandered to the rest of the city. There were guards posted at every possible point, cutting off any real invasion that she could've even hoped on mounting. She pulled the spyglass away from her face and threw it at the man who had handed it to her. He was barely able to catch it in time to stop it from clattering to the floor, and said in a concerned voice "What should we do, Mother? Should we stick to plan?"

She turned away from the castle and stomped away back towards the captain's quarters, calling over her shoulder "Speed this ship up! We're going to breech the wall of the castle and take it by force!"

Alex's voice cried out to the rest of those working the deck "Hurry this thing up! It doesn't need to survive this impact!" The ship lurched slightly as those who were generating gas and blowing it into the sails redoubled their efforts. If they hadn't known that the ship was on a ramming course, than they did now.

Gothel placed a hand of the door to the captain's cabin and looked to the sky. Her cloud of gas, a spell so meticulously prepared and specialized, had been blown away by a sudden gale. At first she was willing to attribute this to bad luck but now it seemed something else. The storm that appeared to have conjured the winds appeared much too quickly. That had been the first stage of her plan, and it had been completely negated in what had seemed an instant.

But now with the appearance of the assassin who had tried to kill her almost guaranteed that the wind was not a natural occurrence. So he had tipped them off. She couldn't help but wonder what was in it for him. How much was he being paid? Certainly she could double it, if not triple it. And if she couldn't, than it would be an easy thing to bluff, than stab him in the back. Her mind dredged up the memory of the letter from Tillman, the man that had offered himself up for her use, and had served her well enough while he had been alive. It had mentioned something of a new bodyguard the Queen had gotten, and about the possibility that he could have magic powers similar to the Queen or herself. The assassin had certainly demonstrated magic powers. He had used ice powers, much like the Queen's. Gothel wondered if the Queen had found some way to share her powers similar to how Gothel made her followers more potent. If she had, than Gothel could expect much more resistance form the guards than she had originally thought.

A great cracking sound was heard, and she turned to look behind her just as the ship gave a lurch far greater than the first one. The ship almost felt like it was thrown from the water, and Gothel was thrown to the hard wooden boards of the deck. Her frail body almost broke against the deck, and she felt the wound that the assassin caused reopen and start to leak again.

As she fell, a string of curses and swearing exploded from her mouth and continued after she hit the floor. Only seconds after she fell someone was picking her up as gently as they could. This did very little to quell Gothel's mixture of anger and surprise however.

She pulled herself up using whoever had tried to help her, practically throwing them to the ground in the process. The spyglass that she had been holding only moments before rolled across the deck and hit her foot lightly. She bent down and picked it up. Straightening up as far as her old back would allow, she could see the cause of the disturbance without even using the tool.

The water from the shore to the ship had frozen solid. It wasn't the kind of frozen that she had seen in Corona occasionally, covering only the top layer of the water and leaving the majority of the rest liquid. Instead the solid ice was at least six feet thick, maybe more. She could only imagine the damage that the ship must have taken from such a sudden stop.

She brought the spyglass up to her face and peered back at where she had seen the Queen. She was looking to her side at the person that Gothel assumed to be her bodyguard. Something else caught her attention, though. A glint of light reflected from something metallic. She shifted the position of the spyglass and saw a bright polished cannon coming to bear on the ship.

Everything, quite literally everything that she had done in order to get to the Queen had been ruined by this impudent little assassin. Months of planning, months of waiting, all undone in an instant. The second that he had entered their camp, all of her plans had been ruined. He had forced her hand, made her throw out all of her careful planning, and put all of her faith into a foolish headlong charge. And now not even her hurriedly calculated charge would work.

"Everybody charge!" she shouted as loud as she could. As soon as the words left her mouth, those of her number who were blowing gas into the sails refocused their energy on getting off of the ship and making their way to the castle. Those on the deck of the ship simply leapt off, falling at least twenty feet to the hard ice below. Gothel knew that their "improvements" would protect them from the danger of the fall, but she did not bear the same effects. No, she preferred to not have to put up with the drawbacks that those pearls brought with them. True that she might have never told them about the limitations that they had, but they had never asked.

.

.

.

Nathan said over to Elsa. "See, I knew you could do It." in as pleased a voice as he could manage. He looked away from the now solid fjord to Elsa's face. She was looking down at the ice with an expression of mild horror. He looked again out to the ice in an attempt to see what had her so worried.

She whispered almost too quietly to hear "That's not what I'm worried about. I'm worried about unfreezing it."

Nathan's smile faded slightly. He wasn't entirely sure how to respond to that. He cast his gaze back to the ship and noted the increased movement from those on the deck. They started to spill over the sides and drop to the solid ice below. A few of the orbs that he knew were accompanied by the gas forms of those who had pledged themselves wholly to Gothel. He turned back to Elsa and said "Get inside, find Anna, and hole up somewhere."

Elsa gave him a worried look, but nodded and turned to leave. Nathan gestured to her as she walked away and said to one of the guards near him, saying "Go make sure nothing gets to her, alright?" he nodded and set off, trailing behind Elsa.

Nathan shifted his attention back to the ship and said to the Captain at his side "Are you ready for this?" The man looked on at the charge starting from the ship, and Nathan heard him gulp nervously. "Its not like I've much of a choice, do I?"

Nathan laughed and pulled out one of the altered charms. The Shroud of Shadows charm thrummed in his palm, and he gripped it tightly for a moment before going to clip it to his bandoleer. He stopped just a second before it was on and said "Well? Are you going to move to engage?" gesturing out at the ship that was just beginning to disgorge its foul cargo. Without answering Nathan directly, the man shouted at the top of his lungs "Charge!" and his cry was taken up by countless other men.

All at once a wave of guardsmen rushed forward from the coast and across the plane of ice. The Captain was to stay in the castle and guard it from any who got through, but Nathan was held by no such obligation. Clipping the bone charm fully to his bandoleer, he took one step forward and dropped off of the wall. The startled cry of the Captain brought a smile to his face, though he doubted that anyone would see it even if anyone were looking at him.

He dropped for a moment, simply letting the howling wind rush through his ears and sap his outer layer of warmth. Than after that moment was over he braced his body, and a wind, not the kind Elsa had summoned, but rather a temperature-less and noise-less gust, blew against his body, forcing him against the wall and slowing his fall down significantly. He felt what he imagined were a few bricks come loose from the bizarre nature of the descent but ignored them. The hard rocks that the castle were built upon rushed up quickly at him, but he steeled his nerves and braced his legs.

His feet met with the unyielding rock and thankfulness for both his powers and his well-designed boots flooded him. Without the two, he was sure that the impact would've broken his legs, but as it stood he had only a deep ache in his ankles. He straightened up and glanced up at the wall. He hadn't left any kind of trail to mark his maneuver, and he wondered briefly how many people would not believe him if he told them what he did.

The sound of a musket going off snapped his mind back to attention. The guard had set up a firing line along as wide an area as they could, and were beginning to shoot Gothel's people down. Nathan doubted that the line would do sufficient damage to completely stop the charge, but it would certainly blunt it. a few of those charging fell from the volley, but the majority kept on running.

Nathan started running off. He was to the side of the firing line, so he had to stay out of the main fight until the firing stopped to avoid being hit. He reached up as far as he could without putting himself in the line of fire and waited.

Instead of just sitting idle and wasting time, Nathan took the time he had to pick out figures in the crowd. The first one that he tried to find was Gothel. He expected this to be the easiest one, given her hunched stature and cloaked figure, but she turned out elusive amongst the running waves of those in her thrall. He realized that she must have stayed aboard the ship in an effort to protect herself. Shifting his focus away from Gothel, though resolving to keep an eye out for her, he went about marking other targets in his mind. He recognized the tall form of Alex among those in the charge. He was behind the main charge, and seemed to be driving them forward. He was yelling and screaming all kinds of profanities, some of them in languages that Nathan wasn't familiar with. As he did so his mouth became a fount of green gas that poured out over his lips and polluted the air around him. His mouth wasn't the only source of gas. It was like it poured directly out of his skin, veiling him and all those near him in a shroud of what Nathan could safely assume was toxic gas.

Alex wasn't the only one giving off toxic fumes, however. Every single one of the people charging was leaving behind a trail of toxin behind them. It was billowing up and off into the distance quickly, thanks to Elsa's wind magic, but Nathan knew that that wouldn't matter much if they got into melee range. And they intended to get into melee. He could see various weapons clutched in their hands, ranging from ornate looking objects like candlesticks and pieces of fine wood that might have once been part of some furniture, to blades and cudgels that all looked either wicked sharp, dangerously heavy, or both.

Nathan could see that they were nearing the firing line now, and decoded that an attack from the back would be a welcome assist for the men in the front. Sprinting off again, he got around the back and ran along the same path they ran, staying to the side slightly to avoid their gas. The two forces, fanatics and guardsmen, clashed against each other with cries and shouts that echoed mightily around in the fjord. Just as the real fighting started, Nathan clipped his altered Burning Gaze charm to his bandoleer, figuring that if he was dealing with both weapons and gas than he would rather his targets stand still. He cast one eye back to the ship, still disturbed by Gothel's lack of appearance, but dismissed the thought. If she was in there, than she wasn't going anywhere. She would be sighted by those on the wall the second that she poked her head out.

As Nathan entered into the fight the whole world seemed to change. The air was warmer than it had been just a moment ago, and the air smelled rancid. The noise of the howling wind that had filled Nathan's ears seconds ago was replaced by the clashing of metal on metal, and in some cases metal on wood. The thing that caught Nathan's eye the most was soldiers at the front line of the combat gagging and choking. Nathan knew that this was the same issue that he had tried to prevent using Elsa's wind, but it had been countered by the close formation the fanatics were sticking too. As Nathan reached striking distance of one of the larger men, the mark on his hand blazed to life through his glove and a blue light shimmered in his palm for a moment. Than throwing his palm out towards the mass of fighters, he resisted the urge to let out a cry and pulsed his power through the spell. The effect was immediate. Those fighting with melee weapons slowed considerably, making easy targets for the guardsmen. The haze of gas that surrounded the group was cleaved entirely in two, and the guard was quick to take advantage. They worked their way between the two now separate groups and started advancing, pushing them away from each other.

Just as it seemed sure that the force had been divided and doomed to fall, the cloaks fell away from the shrouded figures and the gas forms attacked those who were holding the line between the two. They choked and stumbled away, some fell to the ground, and the mob of Gothel's minions reunited. It was now that Nathan decided to dive into the fray, swinging and striking like a madman.

In spite of the spell used to divide them, the mob still seemed largely unaware of Nathans presence. Those who were aware fell quickly, with startled and terrified expressions on their faces. Nathan could only imagine what he looked like, cloaked in a twisted and writhing shadow and with eyes so full of what Anna and Kristoff had said to be anger and hate. His movements were quick, sped by his adrenalin and determination, but not by the altered zephyr charm. He figured that the worst thing he could do was get knocked down by something he didn't see and be stunned in the middle of a toxic cloud.

Many fell to Nathan's blade. He continued to lunge, parry, and slash countless opponents. There were a few close calls where he had only just been able to knock a blade away or to slip from a firm grasp. As he kept slicing and cutting away the cloud grew thicker and thicker. The gas from those who had fallen didn't dissipate as quickly as the rest of it had, and Nathan soon found himself battling against his own lungs as much as against Gothel's people. His lungs strained for fresh air and made his vision blur.

He leaped backwards out of the fray and gasped for air. His muscles felt heavy and his mind was clouded. In spite of the harsh conditions of the fight, many of the guardsmen were still fighting on. It seemed that the charge that Gothel had started had been halted completely. Despite this, there were still too many fighting to consider the battle even close to over.

His attention turned to the wall of the castle, and what he saw made his heart sink like a rock. The old, hunched, cloaked form of Gothel was hovering above the wall, the entire bottom half of her body a swirling mass of gas. She was blowing fumes all over the courtyard, and Nathan just saw the Captain's head fall behind the parapets.

Gothel looked down at him, and the broad smile on her face fell quickly. Her actions sped up and she seemed to get a little desperate. The lower half of her body reformed and she dropped to the wall, than leaped down into the courtyard and out of sight.

Nathan cursed under his breath. She could fly? That was not something that he had been anticipating. He cast one last look back at the fight just in time to see a man shoot a floating pearl point-blank with his musket. A loud cry split its way across the ice, barely audible over the wind and the battle. The gas that had been holding the pearl up in the air seemed to spasm, than it floated down to the ice and dissipated. The shards of the pearl were scattered over the rest of the battle. Nathan felt some measure of assurance from this, and turned his focus to Gothel.

He hurriedly clipped the altered zephyr charm to his bandoleer and started sprinting off towards the shore. A few stray shots from the fight slammed into the ice at his feet, nearly hitting him, but he ran on. The shots were likely from a few guardsmen who mistook him for one of Gothel's troops. He wouldn't blame them if he looked half as monstrous as he thought he did.

His feet, a blur to even him, hit the hard stone of the harbor and almost made him stumble. He caught himself on the iron chain that served as a guard to keep people from falling into the water and started running again. As he approached the bridge from the city to the castle the guards posted there, apparently not aware that Gothel had already infiltrated the wall, formed a line and readied their weapons. Not wanting to waste the time it would take talking to them, Nathan simply leapt over them. He went soaring over their heads, propelled by the same wind that had kept him on the wall earlier. His feet met with the stone flatly, making Nathan cringe slightly. He was thankful that the impact had not stunned him.

As he reached the end of the bridge and entered the courtyard, the sight that he found almost stole his breath out of his chest. Everyone who had been in the courtyard was down flat on the ground. Nathan didn't take the time to check whether they were breathing or not. That wasn't what was important now. What was important was Elsa. He had to make sure she was alright.

He removed the Zephyr charm from his chest and pocketed it. The speed it granted would do him little good in the cramped hallways. In the distance the sound of the battle on the fjord continued, serving as a reminder to Nathan what would happen if Elsa fell. It was likely Arendelle would too.

He wiped the blood off of his sword with his sleeve. The splinters of bone and viscous fluid dripped off of his arm slowly. He gripped the handle of the great door and pulled it open. The warm air flooded out invitingly, but it didn't hide the trickling of green along the floor and around Nathan's feet. He walked inside the now dark building, ready for anything.

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><p>Authors thing:<p>

And here is the stuff i said would happen.

apologys for the short chapter, finals are upon me and its in my best interests to pass my classes.

aside from all that, tell me what you think! I always feel like emotions in my story come across pretty heavy-handed, and that kind of annoys me.

Review! Follow! whatever you want!


	36. Chapter 36

The interior of the building was warm, but held none of the friendliness that it had held before. A haze of Gothel's green gas lay on the floor, obscuring Nathan's feet and giving the whole place a very alien feel. All the lights appeared to be snuffed out. Nathan even saw a few candle wicks still smoking.

He looked around for a minute on the bottom floor for anything, but found nothing. He heard the sound of something toppling over above him and ran to the stairs. The sound of his footsteps rang loudly through the halls, and he stopped to clip the silence charm to his chest in the place of the one he had forgone upon entering.

A scream from upstairs cut through the eerie quiet. Nathan didn't waste any more time, charging up the stairs as quickly as he could. As he came to the second floor he slowed himself and listened for anything around him. Nothing else came to Nathan's ears. He cast shadow sense, and put his focus on anything even vaguely human shaped. He didn't like what this reveled to him. The unmistakable shadow of Elsa was on the floor in front of the fireplace in the library with the hunched form of Gothel standing over her. Nathan could tell from the way that Elsa was shaking that she has crying. Another few shapes were strewn about the room, sprawled out like they had been knocked down.

Nathan crept his was towards the library. Whatever Gothel was doing, he was going to stop. One figure, however, caught his attention more than the others on the floor. It was outside the library, it's back propped up on the wall. The thing that caught Nathan's attention was how similar the form was to Elsa. He made his way across the floor to the body lying across from the door to the library. As he got close, he recognized Anna's face, slack and almost peaceful looking.

Nathan shook her gently but got no response. Another round of sobbing, faint this time, made its way through the library door. Nathan put a hand to her neck and felt for a pulse. He waited a few seconds before he was able to detect it. It was weak and infrequent, which made him worry about Anna's condition. The sobbing from the library grew louder, and Nathan knew that he was running out of time. Hurriedly, he took Anna over his shoulder and made his way to the stairs to the next floor up. They were free of the gas that coated the rest of the floor. He set her down carefully on the stairs about halfway up and made sure she wouldn't slide down.

He hurried back to the library door, where the sobbing had stopped again. He put an eye to the lock on the door and tried to see what was happening. Because of the bookshelves that filled the room, all he could see of Elsa was her icy cape on the floor. He knew that she was there though. He could feel it with his shadow sense. Gothel was standing a few feet away from the cape, and whispering things to quiet for Nathan to hear. She turned back to face Elsa and her whisperings became hissing sounds as if she was trying to speak to a snake.

While Nathan couldn't understand any of what Gothel was doing, Elsa seemed to comprehend it just fine. As if the hissing Gothel had made was some kind of grave taunt or insult, she started sobbing again, and curled into the fetal position.

Nathan pulled the door open as silently as he could, praying that the hinges were oiled enough to keep the door from squeaking. It was, and swung slowly open without issue. Nathan crept inside and jumped quickly to the top of one of the bookshelves and took in the scene below him.

A few guards were sprawled out on the floor around the room. There were several with what looked like serious wounds. Nathan thought he saw the body of Kristoff off in one corner of the room, with what looked like a nasty cut across his face.

Gothel stopped her hissing and turned away from Elsa, peering around the room suspiciously. Nathan flattened himself against the bookshelf and held his breath. A few moments of painful silence later Gothel turned back to Elsa and resumed hissing at her. Nathan was about to blink down and drive his blade into her spine, when she threw her hands up and started hissing louder. As if on cue, Elsa stopped sobbing and picked herself up off the floor. Gothel made a few eccentric gestures with her hands, and Nathan felt a pit in his stomach form when he saw Elsa mirror the movements.

Gothel grinned and threw a hand out towards Elsa. A gout of green smoke shot from her hand and washed over Elsa before forcing its way in her mouth and nose. Nathan recognized the process as "the cleansing" that he had had to go through to reach Gothel the first time. He'd had time to prepare for it, though. Elsa was having forced on her. He recalled how strange it had felt, and how he had almost fallen for the tricks that Gothel had played. He wondered what kind of scenes Elsa was having to go through.

Elsa cried out and fell back to the floor. Gothel stood over her, laughing in a way that made Nathan want to kill her even more. He wouldn't wait any longer. He dropped down from the bookshelf and started creeping up behind her. Elsa was on the floor, looking around as if just waking up, and her eyes fell on Nathan. He put a finger to his lips as he slid silently forward. Elsa put a hand up, as if to say "stop" but Nathan wouldn't. She was likely delirious or hallucinating from Gothel's spell.

As Nathan drew ever closer to Gothel, something in Elsa's eyes changed. The bleary, confused look changed to aggressive and almost hateful. She reached out again, and this time her movement was punctuated by a shard of ice flying from her palm past Gothel and nearly impaling Nathan. He was just barely able to jump out of the way.

Knowing that his stealthy approach was ruined, he dashed forward at Gothel, bringing his blade back in preparation for what would be a single beheading strike. Just as he reached striking distance, Gothel spun to face him. A blast of smoke exploded out of her hand and sent Nathan flying across the room. He tried to reassert control of his flight, but before he could steady himself he collided with one of the bookshelves sides. He felt his spine bear the brunt of the impact, and hoped beyond reason that he wouldn't be paralyzed.

He tried to push himself up off of the floor, but stopped as three separate needles of ice spring from the floor and came to rest on the skin of his neck. One little twitch would likely lead to his death, and he knew it. Both Gothel and Elsa were walking towards him, perfectly in sync during every motion. The sight sent chills down his bruised and battered spine.

He pulsed his power and his body dissolved into shadow. As quickly as the blink of an eye, he was back on top of the bookshelf and out of sight. Elsa made a guttural noise that was full of rage, and Gothel made a few disapproving clicking noises before saying "Come out, dear! You're only delaying the inevitable."

Nathan gritted his teeth and waited. He hated being taunted like this. More pressing than his pride, however, was Elsa. Why had she attacked him? Why was Gothel trying to control her? And why was it working so well?

He dropped off of the back of the bookshelf and crept through the shadows and peaked out from behind a bookshelf on the other side of the room. Elsa and Gothel were still moving in sync, walking side by side and peering into the rows of shelves. Every step that Gothel took produced a puff of green where her foot hit the floor. Every step that Elsa took left a footprint of ice on the floor.

The room started to grow cold, and the fire in the fireplace started to sputter. Nathan knew that he couldn't stay there too long, or the combination of freezing temperature and poison gas would be too much for him to take.

He focused on a spot of floor just to the side of Gothel and behind Elsa and pulsed his power. The next thing that he knew, he was standing on that part of floor. He spun as quickly as he could and lunged towards Gothel, trying desperately to kill her. Elsa turned and saw him, than shouted a warning to Gothel.

Without so much as a pause, she dissolved into a cloud of gas, and Nathan's blade went singing through the cloud harmlessly. Nathan was off balance from the miss, and Elsa took full advantage of this. She reached out a hand and grabbed ahold of Nathan's left arm. He wondered briefly what she was doing before a searing pain shot up his arm, and ice started creeping onto his clothes from Elsa's hand. He cried out in pain, silenced by hid bone charm, and launched a kick at her. It wasn't enough to really hurt her, but more than enough to get her off of him.

She grunted and his hard boot impacted her stomach and doubled over, letting go of his arm. As soon as her grip was broken, he focused on the floor just in front of the fire and threw as much energy as it needed to get him there.

As he arrived at his target location he put his left hand behind him and took a step back. His boot knocked against the protective grate at the base of the fireplace, and he knew that he was almost standing in the fire itself. Elsa and Gothel looked around themselves intently for a moment before Gothel's gaze fell on him. She smiled evil and walked calmly towards him. Elsa took notice too, and almost charged him down. Before she could break into a full on sprint, Gothel made a hissing noise at her, and she stopped. It reminded Nathan of a parent scolding their child for inappropriate behavior.

Gothel continued walking forward, saying "Now now, no need for rash action." She motioned behind her to Elsa "She saw reason very quickly. I didn't even have to do an awful lot, her fears were quite obvious."

Nathan looked back at Elsa, who was pacing behind Gothel like a bull waiting to charge. Feeling was starting to return to his arm thanks to the fire behind him, and a drop of water from the ice on his sleeve hissed as it fell onto the burning logs. The noise made Elsa lift a lip and growl at him like some kind of animal. Gothel continued walking towards Nathan, and an idea started to take root in his mind.

He pulled the silence charm off of his chest and asked "She joined you… willingly?" doing his best to sound befuddled. It was clearly not true, but he needed her to get closer and talking would be the easiest way to do that. Instead of the response that he expected from Gothel, Elsa spoke, growling out "After what you did, Of course!"

Nathan raised an eyebrow, genuinely confused. "What did I do?" he asked indignantly. Elsa only snarled at him again, but Gothel stepped forward and said "Whatever it was, I'm sure that she will forgive you if you join me and her."

Nathan narrowed his eyes and said "And why should I? You attacked Arendelle. Your people tried to kill me, and they may have killed any number of those in the guard." At the mention of the guards, Elsa's expression fell and something in her eyes changed again. She looked down at her feet as if ashamed of something. Gothel took another step forward and said "A little tit for tat, you know." she gestured to a red stain on her diaphragm "You understand. But I'm perfectly willing to forget the fact that you ever stabbed me, all you have to do is join me."

She extended a hand towards Nathan and gave a wide smile that almost made Nathan not want to gouge her throat out. "Just shake my hand and take a deep breath."

Nathan regarded her hand hesitantly for a moment before dropping his blade and reaching out grabbing it. He knew that there was no going back on the plan now, he had made himself almost completely defenseless. But it was necessary. Making absolute sure to keep his mouth and nose completely shut, He took Gothel's hand and shook, looking away to appear ashamed. He could hear the hissing of gas, and felt the slight breeze against his head. Gothel was blowing her smoke right at his face. Her voice came clear over the hissing, saying comfortingly "There, you see? It's all alright. I forgiv-"

She never got the chance to finish her sentence. Nathan yanked her arm towards him and stepped to the side. As she took his place, he grabbed a fistful of her hood and with both hands flung her into the fireplace. A shocked expression came across her face as she toppled over into the hot coals, and a horrible pained screech wasn't far behind. As much as Nathan would have loved to simply sit and watch her burn, there were still things he needed to do.

He spun around and focused his power into his shadow, than pushed his hand away from him and towards Elsa, the mark on his hand burning brightly through his glove. His shadow peeled itself off of the ground and leapt at Elsa who now looking at the scene in front of her with a shocked expression. Nathan's shadow wasted no time in maneuvering around her and pulling her hands together, putting her in a lock.

Nathan crouched down and took his sword by the handle, glad to have it back in his hand. The screaming from behind him intensified, and he knew something was coming. He blinked towards the bookshelves again but didn't hide this time. Gothel didn't have Elsa now, and would be in a considerable amount of pain. Nathan had the upper hand now.

The blazing figure flailing around in the fireplace stopped moving for a moment, than seemed to spasm. Immediately, an explosion of green smoke burst from the fireplace and snuffed out the logs within. Elsa gave a terrified shriek and tried desperately to free herself from the shadow holding her in place. A great roar came from the midst of the cloud, and Gothel, now a charred and reddened mass, came charging out. Instead of charging at Nathan, as he had anticipated, she was headed straight for Elsa.

Nathan blinked between the two, hoping to stop whatever Gothel was going to do, but her body evaporated before it ever even made contact with Nathan. The gas that took her place flowed around Nathan, and forced its way into Elsa.

She went limp for a moment, held up only by the shadow gripping her arms tightly. Than her eyes opened slowly. Nathan took a cautious step towards her. "Elsa? Are you… what happened?" she looked up at him with a terrified expression and said "Nathan, what's going on? What's happening?" she looked around the room and said breathlessly "Did I do this?"

Nathan could see that she was uncomfortable in the grip she was in. he had his shadow loosen its grip slightly. Not enough to take advantage of, but just enough to make it not quite as painful. Whatever Gothel had done, it didn't seem to have worked. Nathan lowed his blade from its ready position and let out a sigh. "No, you didn't do this Gothel di-"

His voice was cut off in a throaty gurgle and he felt his feet leave the ground. Elsa's worried expression melted into a smug smile, and her eyes changed from blue to a deep green. She snickered and said "Are you sure? Look again."

Gothel's eyes peered up at him from Elsa's face. The sight would have angered Nathan if he were not dazed by whatever had happened to him. He looked down and found a huge spike of ice jutting up from the floor and… into his gut. It didn't really hurt, which Nathan knew was not a good thing. The blood that ran from the wound was dark, almost black. Gothel laughed, and coming from Elsa's throat the sound sent chills down Nathan's spine. He was about to speak, to say something, when the door to the library opened a little more and Anna stumbled in.

The spell keeping Nathan's shadow animate faded and it slid back across the floor and attached itself to him again. Gothel flexed Elsa's arms and looked herself up and down, admiring her new body. Anna looked around at the gassy and cold room a moment before her eyes fell of Nathan and Elsa and she cried out "Elsa, what are you doing?

Gothel turned and looked a moment at Anna before spreading her arms and saying "Anna! Thank goodness you're alright!" and running to embrace her. Anna took a few steps forward and hugged her sister, but kept her eyes locked on Nathan the whole time. "Elsa, what did you do to…"

Gothel ended the hug and held Anna at arm's length, staring Anna in the eyes. "Anna, he's possessed by Gothel. She turned herself into gas and…" she looked down, and Nathan could've sworn that he saw a tear roll down her cheek. "I didn't have a choice."

Nathan's head cleared slightly and he realized that he couldn't just sit idle. If he did than Gothel would win. He put power into shadow form and felt his body dissolve. He coiled himself in the air and brought himself a few feet away from the pair. As soon as his body reformed he collapsed to his knees.

Anna gasped and skittered away from him and Gothel stared down at him with hard eyes. Nathan tried to speak but all that he was able to summon up was a splattering of blood. Gothel took Anna by the shoulder and started to lead her away. Nathan tried again to speak but blood flooded his mouth again. Forgoing any attempt to communicate, he turned his attention to any spell he had that would help. Nothing he had would help him. He had no spell for this situation. If only he had…

Had a rune. He had one rune left, sitting in a pouch on his chest. He reached his mind out to the rune and accessed the power. He could only think of one thing he could do that would help him here. He had never done this, and he had never really considered it an option…

The rune's power flowed through him and instead of crafting it into a spell, he used the raw power itself. A rush of power flooded his veins and he felt himself become saturated in magic power. A kind of magic that he wasn't familiar with became visible to him, and he reached for it. The power of Rapunzel's sun magic lit up at his contact, filing his body with warmth. He focused on it and turned its power inward. The wound that Gothel had caused using Elsa's magic steamed as the flesh melded itself back together. Golden light steamed from Nathan's insides and created little streamers that wound through the air above him. Strength returned to him, and he pushed himself up off the ground.

Gothel and Anna turned around and saw Nathan healing. Anna regarded the light with wonder, but Gothel scowled, twisting Elsa's face into an expression that had hardly ever touched on it before. Anna turned to Gothel and said "What's happening? Is he alright?"

Ignoring Anna's question, Gothel pulled her arm back and a ball of pure blue magic danced in her hand. She threw it at Nathan, sending it sparkling through the air. It hit Nathan dead center of the chest, colliding with the bandoleer that his bone charms sat on. The power did nothing to the regular bone charms, but those that had been altered started to shake. Nathan looked down at the things and realized what was going to happen just seconds before it did. He yanked the bone charms off of him and threw them out in front of him. They vibrated on the floor an instant before letting out a high pitch shriek. Nathan rose an arm in front of his face and neck to protect them, than the charms exploded.

Needle-like shards of bone shot out as the charms shattered in all directions. Nathan felt a few of them stick into his glove, sleeve and chest, but none went far enough in to do any damage. He lowered his arms and glared at Gothel, still in Elsa's body. Several of the bone splinters were stuck in her, mostly in her shoulders and arms. It seemed that Anna had been spared from the impact of the needles.

Anna looked over to her side at Elsa and gasped when she saw green gas leaking from the small wounds along with blood. She backpedaled from Gothel and tripped over her dress, toppling to the floor. Nathan could still feel some of the rune's power coursing through him, and knew that this could be his only chance to force Gothel from Elsa's body. He dashed across the space between them, his shadow growing and writhing in a trail behind him. The distance was cleared in the blink of an eye, and Nathan made his whole body shadow again. Without hesitation, he entered Elsa's shadow and, through some like he didn't quite have time to understand, her mind.

The world around him disappeared, and was replaced by a strange almost mirror version of the library. The light in the room was a strange shade of blue, the books and furniture were twisted slightly. Not in a way that was obvious at first glance, but everything was defiantly different. It was like everything was at an incline of just a few degrees different than normal.

In the middle of the room was Elsa, suspended a few feet above the ground. Hovering above her was Gothel her entire lower body gas, allowing her to fly. She had a few strands of what looked like her own magic, green and sickly, that connected to Elsa at the joints. Nathan realized Elsa was essentially a puppet in the whole thing.

Elsa looked up from being suspended in the air and called out to Nathan "Help! Please!"

Her plea for help got the attention of Gothel, who looked up from her strings and growled in anger. "Leave me be, you insolent little pest!" she cried, throwing an arm out at him. At the same time that she did, Elsa threw an arm out also. Two blasts, one of ice and one of gas, came flying towards him.

Nathan leaped to the side throwing himself to the floor behind one of the shelves. Both blasts hit the bookshelf, sending pieces of paper, wood and ice flying everywhere, as well as creating a lingering cloud of gas. Nathan picked himself up off of the floor again and leaped to the top of the shelf. Before either Gothel or Elsa saw where he went, he drew his crossbow and fired a plain wood bolt at Gothel.

The bolt flew straight and slammed into Gothel's shoulder. She waivered unsteadily in the air a moment before her lower body reformed out of the gas and she tumbled head over heels to the floor below. Elsa hung in the air, still suspended by Gothel's strings of power even though she was no longer there to hold them up.

Nathan dropped from the shelf and dashed as fast as he could towards Elsa. The power that the rune had granted him seemed to be gone, but the rest of his powers were happily intact. The supernatural wind that bolstered so many of his other movements lent its assistance to his movements here as well. He sprinted across the space and leapt into the air, slashing the strings with his blade as he flew past.

A snapping sound echoed through the room as the strings were severed and Elsa fell to the floor. Elsa recovered far faster than Gothel, pushing herself to her knees and shaking her head. Gothel, for her part, was still on the floor, trying to push herself to her feet. She couldn't though, due to the arrow lodged firmly in her shoulder.

Nathan helped Elsa to her feet and turned back to face Gothel. She was still struggling to stand, but falling back down each time she got close. Nathan and Elsa stopped and watched her for a moment before Nathan brought his blade up and stepped forward. Gothel looked over her shoulder and saw Nathan. Her eyes widened and her struggling intensified.

Just before Nathan got in range to execute a killing blow, Gothel evaporated. She didn't turn into a cloud of smoke or fly off, she simply vanished. Nathan looked around briefly before realizing that she must have left Elsa and returned to the library. Focusing on what he knew lay outside of Elsa, he did something that felt quite similar to a blink.

He staggered back a few steps and found himself back in the library. The real one. Elsa was hunched over retching with Anna patting her on the back whispering "Its ok, its ok, you'll be alright." In her ear. Nathan cast around for Gothel, and found her on the ground behind him still trying to rise up. The gas that had nearly filled the room was gone, to where Nathan didn't care. There was more ice than there had been when he had entered Elsa's mind. He wondered what her body had been doing while he had been fighting.

He took the few steps to cover the distance and hefted Gothel up by the scruff of her neck. He felt the charred skin flake and crack in his hand, but this did nothing to stay his hand. He brought his blade up and rested the point on the blade on the shoulder that didn't have a crossbow bolt stuck in it.

He turned Gothel around so that he could see her face. Her eyes lock on his with his and her fear was evident. Nathan sneered and said "No one's going to miss you."

Just before he pushed the blade into her, her body spasmed. Nathan narrowed his eyes and examined her as her eyes rolled back in her head and she sputtered a few times. Blood leaked out of her mouth and, figuring something bad was happening, Nathan made to drop her. Instead of falling to the floor however, her body stayed where he had been holding her. Nathan took a step back and saw it.

A large spike of ice was sticking up from the floor and into Gothel's body. Dark crimson started seeping down the spike and forming a puddle on the floor.

Nathan turned and found Elsa standing with her arms extended, and he knew that she had done it on purpose. Tears were starting to roll from her eyes and her body started shaking. Nathan walked towards her and dropped his sword, holding his arms out. Elsa dashed towards him and embraced him, letting the tears flow freely.

* * *

><p>Authors Thing:<p>

And in pretty good timing with the end of the school year, that "Arc" or whatever that is ends.  
>this chapter is another of those that feels weird to me, though i can guess why. As always, give me some feedback.<p> 


	37. Chapter 37

Elsa cried in Nathan's arms for several minutes. All the while Nathan could hear the sounds of the battle being fought on the frozen fjord, and all the while he had a restless urge to help. While he had no desire to leave Elsa, the thoughts of what could be happening out there without him grew to be too much. With a heavy heart he stood and told Elsa what he was going to do.

She nodded, showing her understanding, but her tears didn't stop. Anna took over comforting her while Nathan walked away through the door. He didn't look back. He didn't need to. He had every intention of coming back, and when he did he would comfort Elsa for as long as she needed.

A strange feeling grew in his chest, one that he had never really felt before. It felt like there was some kind of cord running from him to Elsa, like he was missing something without her. Was this love? If it was, than perhaps it was past due for him. Things other people did that had always seemed insane to him before made sense now. Now it was a bit easier to understand why people went mad over each other.

His thoughts turned to the people that he would be fighting and he wondered if this was the feeling that they had had for Gothel. Had she found some way to force them to feel this? It would certainly explain their fanatical devotion to her. But, ever reserved in personal matters, Nathan vowed to himself that he would not become a blind follower to love. He would never allow love to overpower reason, as he had seen so many others let it.

As the great doors opened, the blast of cold wind shook him from his pensive state. Now wasn't the time for deep an intrinsic thoughts, now was the time to finish what had been started, now was the time for cold hard efficiency. The ghost of a smile came across his face as his mind took to tactical thoughts like a fish to water. A far cry from the emotional haze it had been is just seconds before.

He started sprinting, the Outsider's wind at his back doing most of the work, and got to the gate. He exited the castle and looked out to the battle being fought. Gothel's people were certainly doomed now, their numbers had dwindled significantly and it seemed that their power had faded considerably. Nathan wouldn't say that there were more than twenty still alive, but no less than ten. As battles tended to lead to, of course, those still alive were the biggest and most capable of them all. Even at this distance he could tell that not a single one of the survivors was under six feet tall, most of the guardsmen falling short of such physical prowess. In spite of this, the remaining fighters were surrounded by the guardsmen, outnumbered and cornered, fighting for mere survival.

Nathan stopped and peered over the side of the ridge linking the castle to the mainland. It was dangerously high, and didn't have large enough supports to allow him to slide down as the castle wall had. But Nathan wanted to reach the battle quickly and end it.

The memory of Gothel fleeing from her tower after Nathan had stabbed her resurfaced in his mind, and he noted to himself how she had use her transformation into gas to completely break the fall. He jumped nimbly up on to the large stone side-guard designed to prevent accidental topples over the side and took a single step off.

His stomach felt like it flew into his chest and he regretted move almost instantly. The solid ice rushed up at him far faster than he had anticipated. As quickly as he could he focused his power into his shadow form and let it flow. His body dissolved and hovered in the air a moment before he remembered that he couldn't rely on gravity to move a shadow. His form coiled down and touched the ice just as his flesh and bone reassembled. Nathan was pleasantly surprised when he straightened up and found his legs not broken.

Making a mental note about the newfound use of his power, he resumed his dash towards the battle still in progress. The distance closed quickly and before anyone even knew that he was there, Nathan jumped into the fray. The fighters weren't producing nearly as much gas as they had been, allowing him to get much closer than he had previously. He focused his power on a spell he hadn't used in a long time, shadow orb, and threw it at his feet. It hit the ground and expanded around him, engulfing everything in a choking darkness. He cast shadow sense almost instinctively and went about the work of slaughtering the blinded fighters.

They stood little chance against him normally, and even less so when they couldn't see. It took Nathan less than a minute to kill the remainder of them. The soldiers and guards of Arendelle were smart enough to back out of the orb, and all they could do was listen to the cries of people dying. When the cries stopped, Nathan stepped out of the orb solemnly and without speaking walk away. A few moments after he exited, the orb faded and the pile of corpses Nathan left behind became visible.

He walked away from the small mound without saying a word, and a path through the guards cleared for him. A few of the men gave him concerned looks and a smaller number tried to say something to him, but he ignored them. Nothing any of them would say really mattered. He would rather be with Elsa than receiving congratulations for doing his job.

He walked quickly back to the castle, having no desire to leave Elsa crying. As he approached the castle, a small group of guardsmen formed around him. They were all slapping each other on the backs and exchanging happy words. One of them exclaimed over all the others "We sure showed those freaks, eh boys?"

Another round of cheers rang out from the men. The one who seemed to be the leader of the small group seemed to take notice of Nathan's deadpan expression and slapped him on the back, saying "Come on, where's your mind at? We just won! You should be celebrating with us!" a few of the others said things like "Yea" and "What's his deal?" quietly to each other.

Nathan gave the man a distasteful look and said "I've not much too celebrate." The men kept looking at him, obviously wanting more of an explanation. He sighed and continued "The cost of the battle was a little bit higher than you think. The Queen was…" his voice trailed off as he tried to think of the right word for what had happened to Elsa. "…was very distraught by what happened. She isn't feeling well." The guard's attitudes changed visibly, their movements becoming more controlled and the mirth fading quickly from their faces. "Where is she? Is there anything that we can do to help her?"

Nathan hissed through his teeth and said "No, just leave her be." The last thing that Elsa needed was word of what she had done getting out to the people. The man gave Nathan an uncertain nod and said "Oh… alright. Well is there anything else that needs to be done?"

Nathan thought now, trying to think of the most tedious thing he could get this man to do. As they approached the castle he saw through the open gate a body on the ground. He pointed and said "Check the body's through the castle and the grounds. I want a dead tally by the end of today. Make sure that everyone not dead gets treatment." The man nodded and motioned for his men to follow him as he ran off and started fawning of a few of the downed forms.

Nathan continued on to the great doors of the castle and made his way inside. He was glad to get out of the cold despite his usual partialness to the cold. The halls of the castle were still dark, and felt far colder than they had just minutes ago, but Nathan could guess why. On the plus side however, Gothel's gas was nowhere to be found. He made his way up the stairs and to the library that he had left Elsa in.

The room was empty, with no sign of either Elsa or Anna. Gothel's corpse, however, was still very much present. It was exactly where it had been before, suspended a few feet above the ground by a huge spike of ice protruding from the ground. Nathan poked around the room a little bit more, making sure that Elsa wasn't there before leaving. When he leaf the room he stood for a moment outside it, thinking about where Elsa could've gone.

He thought about where Elsa would go if she wanted to be alone, and the first place that popped into his mind was her room. He immediately set off towards the stairs again and started climbing. Before he was even halfway up the stairs he could tell that he had guessed Elsa's location correctly. The temperature dropped sharply compared to just a floor lower.

As he reached the third floor, he heard footsteps. Quickly, he swept around the corner of the stairs and found himself face to face with Anna. She let out a gasp and said "Oh, Nathan!" she pointed behind her, Nathan presumed to Elsa's room, and said "Elsa is sleeping, I really don't think you should wake her."

Nathan raised an eyebrow. He remembered Elsa's face, and he knew that it had not been the face of someone who wanted sleep. "Asleep?" he asked, making his doubt clear. Anna worked her hands nervously and said "Well… sort of." She turned and started walking back to Elsa's door, motioning for Nathan to follow. He did so and was lead to the door. Anna put a finger to her lips and pushed the door open quietly and walked inside.

Nathan looked around the room, surrounded by the crystalline formations that she spent the time in her room making. Nathan hadn't really hadn't had an opportunity to appreciate the objects in full, given the lack of his being in her personal chambers. The light from the window bounced around the room in numerous beams, splitting and refracting in displays that someone other than Nathan might have described as beautiful.

The thing that Nathan would have described as beautiful, albeit with immense hesitation, was Elsa. She was laying under the covers of her bed, surrounded by the near-impossibly complicated formations of ice around her. A small frown was set on Elsa's face, twitching every so-often, in time with her eyes moving around. Nathan looked over and asked "This isn't a natural sleep, is it, Anna?"

She looked down bashfully and said "No, but she insisted…" her hand went to a pocket and she removed a small object. Nathan recognized it as one of his sleep darts. He looked again at Elsa and saw a small red mark on her lower arm. He nodded slowly and said "You probably should have asked me first."

Anna gave him a slightly fearful look and said "Why? Is it dangerous?" Nathan smiled and replied "No, so long as you used less than about six." The poison that was used in the darts was made from a combination of simple, cheap herbs. Herbs that could do almost no real damage unless unreasonably large amounts were used.

Nathan turned his attention back to Elsa just in time to see another particularly unpleasant expression pass across her face. "I wonder what she's dreaming about." He said offhandedly. Anna snorted and said "It wouldn't be too hard to guess, I'd imagine."

Nathan yawned, his body becoming suddenly far heavier than it should've been. It occurred to him just how much magic he had used within the last twenty-four hours, far more than he usually used. Anna took note of his yawn and said "Oh, you must be exhausted!" she came to his side and put a gentle hand on his shoulder "Do you want some help getting to your room?"

He shrugged off her hand and shook his head, saying "No, no I'm fine. I would like to stay by her side a little longer." Something occurred to him, and he asked "What happened to Kristoff? I haven't seen him."

Anna sighed and said "He's getting treated for a broken arm. When Gothel got into the library he was the first to try and stop her." She rolled her eyes "It didn't work, of course, but he tried as hard as he could to drive her off. She blasted him into a wall and knocked him out."

Nathan rubbed his still sore back and said "Yea, I know the feeling." He gave another wide yawn and looked around him at the rest of the room. Finding a chair, he pulled it away from the wall slightly and took a seat. It felt good to let his body rest.

Anna gave him a look that he wasn't quite sure how to place before she said "Are you sure you don't need me to get you back to your room?"

He waved off the gesture dismissively and said "Are you kidding? I'm not very tired, I've been up far longer than this before… all I need is a short… little…" his head slumped over and his body went completely slack. Anna snorted amusedly. She had seen Elsa do the same kind of thing, though with Elsa it was usually some document or book being looked over, not the safety of someone else.

She giggled slightly as she took in the sight of Nathan sleeping, as if he were keeping watch over Elsa. All he needed was to be at the foot of the bed and he would be a guard dog. She turned to leave, confident that Elsa was in good hands, and Nathan look like he was in equally good hands.

She tiptoed out of the room and pulled the door shut quietly behind her. Nathan's remark about Elsa's dream came back to her, and she also found herself very curious. She would have to ask Elsa later, if she got the chance.

.

Elsa looked around her at the impossible, twisted architecture of her home. It was like some kind of explosion had blown it up skyward, than had suspended it in time. An unearthly glow emanated from everything that should have casted a warm glow over everything around them. Nothing was as it should have been, not even her room, something that she usually kept with meticulous attention to detail.

None of her icy creations were present. Not only that, but everything was on its side as if the room had been turned on its side. The only thing that seemed unaffected by the sudden change in gravity was the chair that had sat in the corner of her room for almost as long as she could remember. It hung on the wall (what was now the wall, but was normally the floor. She could tell that she was about to get even more of a headache)

In the chair was a figure, too shadowy and dark to make out. It looked familiar, but she just couldn't place it. She turned her back to it, figuring that the Outsider, the strange master of the void that she and Nathan had discussed briefly, had simply plucked some half-remembered noble from her memory and stuck it in the chair.

She turned away from the chair and walked away, pushing her way through the door to her room. She found herself facing the floor, and looked down. The rest of the hallway sprawled beneath her, much too far to drop. Never the less, a small part of her told her to jump. She knew that she was in a dream. Nothing could hurt her here. But she still felt trepidation towards simply leaping off such a high distance.

Her foot hovered over the side of the drop and her body teetered slightly on the doorway. Just an instant before she went spiraling over the edge, a figure appeared in the air in front of her. She let out a loud gasp and grabbed at the doorway, steadying herself. She looked up at the figure floating in front of her and recognized the man that had appeared to her in dreams before.

He looked down at her, his eyes as black as the night sky. A knowing smirk was plastered across his face. Elsa looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to say something. He looked back at her, and mirrored her expectant look. She could see that he wasn't going to be the one to start the conversation, so she decided to be the first to speak. "What do you want?" she asked in the practiced royal voice that she usually reserved to the courtrooms and for when Anna was being especially childish.

The Outsider's expression shifted, and he said "What do I want? I have no want from you, Elsa. I am not the one who brought you here. You came of your own accord. Regardless of this, I think that you will be glad you came. You may be unaware, but you are far from the only one whom has been affected by the recent events."

Elsa was slightly taken aback by this comment. "I know I'm not the only one who has been affected by this! Countless men were dragged into a conflict that they shouldn't have had to worry about by me, and by Gothel! I…" she choked back a sudden sob "…I don't know how many have been hurt by the conflict, but I know that whether or not I want to, when I wake up, I will have to deal with the consequences!"

The Outsider's smirk grew almost imperceptibly, and he said "Yes, you have impacted many lives today, but that is something that I would expect you to be used to by now, ruling over far more than have been affected today. But no, I didn't refer to those who were following your orders. I was referring to those close to you. Anna will believe you… unstable. It will last only a few days, but she will still believe it. Kristoff, never having seen you act with the intent of hurting any living being, will be frightened, but he will understand the circumstances."

The Outsiders speech tapered off, and a thought popped into Elsa's mind. "What about Nathan?" she asked, failing to conceal the emotion in her voice, not that it mattered. The Outsider folded his arms and seemed to lean back midair. "Nathan is an interesting person. He draws many conclusions from everything that happens around him."

Elsa's voiced slipped into a more pleading tone, saying "Please, just tell me."

The Outsider leaned back again, seeming to consider the request. After a painful moment he leaned back forward and said "His general opinion of you has not changed. If anything, his opinion of himself has changed."

Elsa narrowed her eyes and hoped that the Outsider would continue. Her vision started blurring, and her mind started to pull back to the real world. The body in the dream gave out, and she went tumbling head over heels down the halls, all the while her mind flying back into the bed.

She jolted up and the covers flew off of her. The room around her was dark, only moonlight streaming through the closed window. A soft breathing brought itself to her attention. Her eyes strained in the dark, and she was just able to make out the hunched form of Nathan. She lay back down in the bed, feeling some small measure of comfort knowing that Nathan was there, protecting her, even while she slept.

* * *

><p>Authors thing:<p>

And the first all the way summer chapter has happened! Now that summer is upon us, i hope to get more done story wise. I have had one major concern over the last few months though, and it that i don't really know if i am improving. looking back, i cant read my own stuff. i seems really poorly written and stuff, but that includes chapters that i just did. I always have the feeling that i could've and should've done it better. Just curious if this feeling is something anyone else is getting too.


	38. Chapter 38

Nathan looked around him. The dark room seemed to open around him, revealing the open blue void beneath him. He looked around him searching for the one that he knew was watching him the Outsider was out there somewhere. He always was, waiting for whatever moment he wanted to make himself known.

After a few moments of waiting it was clear that the Outsider wouldn't simply appear, and that Nathan would have to search for him on his own. He set off to begin his search.

The room he was currently in was Elsa's bedroom, or some version of it, but the view outside the window was not what it had been seconds ago. A sprawling cityscape opened up across a large river, far bigger than Arendelle was ever likely to achieve. Lights glimmered on the surface of the river like the stars in the sky, reflected from the numerous buildings as well as from ships skimming the water. The river lead out to what Nathan could only assume was an ocean, spreading across the horizon further than the eye could see.

A knocking at the door behind him drew his attention away from the window. The door cracked open and a ginger voice said through the door "Excuse me, sir?" He walked over to the door and pulled it open. He found himself facing a woman in a maids outfit who looked a rather lot like Lee. She was too tall to be Lee, however, and had a much more narrow face. She looked up at Nathan with an expression that he had seen plenty of times before. The face of a servant who didn't want to be a servant any more, of someone who was tired of living under other people so totally.

She gave Nathan an expectant look and said "Sir, if you would follow me, I'll lead you to the meeting." Nathan raised an eyebrow and said "Meeting? What meeting?"

The women gave Nathan a concerned look and took a step into the room. "Are you ok sir? Should I send for someone, or…" Nathan held a hand up, interrupting her. "No, no, I'm fine. Please, just lead me to the meeting."

The woman nodded and turned, walking off down the hall. Nathan followed, looking around at the spacious halls. They were about the size of the ones in the castle back at Arendelle. He couldn't help but wonder why the outsider had brought him here… wherever here was. He started to talk to the woman in hopes of gleaning some information on the area, why the Outsider had deigned his dream should take him here.

"Where do you come from? What landed you at this job?" he asked curiously. The woman looked over her shoulder at him and said "Don't talk like that! I love nothing more than to serve our fair empress!" Nathan rolled his eyes and said "Yes, people love to be subservient." sarcastically. There was a pause for a moment before the woman said "You certainly don't act like a royal."

Wondering what goal this could possibly accomplish for the Outsider, he continued following the woman. She didn't seem too keen on any further words, so he decided to not try. Instead, he diverted his attention to the windows along the hall.

The sprawling city Nathan had seen out of the first window proved to still be there. Bright lights shone across the water of the river, and Nathan took note of the far warmer climate than he was used to. It didn't seem that it was winter at all but rather the middle of summer in somewhere far more tropical than Arendelle. Even the air was more humid than in Arendelle.

The woman acting as his guide turned a corner and started ascending a wide set of stairs. Nathan did the same, and the ceiling of the hall opened up to the bright blue sky. A light breeze whispered its way through several small bushes near his feet that lay on a small spot of cut grass. The area around him appeared to be some kind of vista overlooking the city as well as a huge portion of the ocean that the great river ran to. A fairly large pagoda stood at the end of the path, made of the same kind of polished white stone as the path.

Two figures stood under the roof of the pagoda, looking out over the vast expanse of water and buildings. The woman leading him continued to walk up behind them until they drew up behind the two. Nathan took in the details of the two. One of them was a man about his height and with hair about the same shade of black as his. He seemed to be about the same build as Nathan, strong, but not remarkably so. Nathan noted a pistol at the man's side and concluded that he was some kind of guard, not unlike himself. The person next to the guard seemed to be far more interesting, if only for the fact that they seemed out of place. A small girl, Nathan wouldn't guess any older than fifteen, clothed in simple white garments and bearing the same kind of black hair of the man beside her. A large white bow in her hair only seemed to top off the appearance of someone who didn't really need a guard.

The woman next to Nathan cleared her throat and said "Excuse me, Lady Emily, our guest has arrived." The two turned to face him, and the first thing that jumped out at Nathan was how sunken the man's eyes appeared to be. They didn't look particularly sickly, but they were sunken enough to draw attention. The girl next to the man curtsied and said warmly "Ah, hello! We've been expecting you!"

Nathan looked around a moment before saying hesitantly "I'm afraid I can't quite recall the nature of my visit. Would you care to re-inform me?" in as charismatic a voice as he could muster. The girl, Emily, laughed and said "Did you get hit on the head somewhere between your room and here?"

Nathan allowed himself a small smirk and said "I may have." The girl's lighthearted attitude didn't seem to be reflected in any way by her guard, who raised an eyebrow and stared at Nathan. His gaze was somewhat unnerving, his dark eyes reminding Nathan of the Outsider, the only reason that he was here. He wondered if the man behind those eyes really was who the girl thought he was.

Emily motioned to the man next to her who nodded and pulled a folded paper out of a pocket and handed it to him. Nathan took the paper and unfolded it, finding hasty scribbles that were a tad too close to his own handwriting to be a coincidence. Whatever game the outsider was playing, he had certainly gone through an awful lot of trouble.

The letter contained a bit too much fluff to hold his attention, with more "Your Majesty"s and "your highness"s than he cared to count. The gist of the letter was clear however.

Someone is a threat to you, and I want to meet and discuss the method of dealing with it.

Nathan wasn't entirely sure why the letter, supposedly sent by him, had been made so wordy. If it were really him who had written it, it would've been about half of the length. This only made him more curious as to what the Outsider was getting from all of this. He folded the note and gave it back to Emily. As she took the paper from his hands a splitting pain shot through his head. He let out a grunt and fell to one knee, surprised by the sudden pain.

The guards hand shot out with remarkable speed, catching him before he fell totally to his knee. He grabbed Nathan roughly by the shoulders and pulled him back to his feet. As Nathan tried to stabilize his legs under him, memories flooded his mind that hadn't been there previously. Nathan tried to pull his attention back to the current situation, but his mind was torn between so much new information that it couldn't focus on any one thing.

He had written the letter because he needed money, he had fluffed it up with royal-talk, and gotten a response a week later. On the way to the meeting he was at something had happened to him. Something that had made him forget. But he was sure that he still knew what the threat he had talked about in the letter was. The information wasn't readily available in his mind, but he was sure that with a little digging, or a little more interference from the Outsider, he would be able to deliver the information to the two as he, or the Outsider, intended.

Emily gave a worried look to her protector and said "Is he alright?" Nathan held up a hand and waved both her and the man off, saying "I'm fine, I'm fine. Just give me a minute." A few more memories flowed into his mind, small unimportant things like names of places and scenes in time that hadn't really happened. The message that he had come to deliver started to piece together a bit more, along with his growing headache.

Emily made a gesture towards the woman that had lead Nathan here and she nodded and went scarpering off. Emily than gave a look to the man a puzzled look and asked "Corvo, can you tell what's wrong with him?"

The man, Corvo, passed a hand over Nathan's face. Nathan wasn't sure, but he thought he saw a faint glow on the other side of the man's hand. It was unlikely, but with the Outsider it was far more than possible. Could this man bear the same mark Nathan did?

Corvo turned back to Emily and shook his head. "He's fine" he said in a voice that didn't seem to believe what it was saying. Emily smiled despite the unease in Corvo's voice and said cheerfully "Good! Well Mr. Nathan, are you ready to discuss the threat that you spoke of in your letter?" as she finished talking the woman who brought him here approached again, this time with a chair. She set it down and Emily motioned towards the seat. Nathan took the seat gladly and put a hand to his head.

A few more images flitted through his mind, and he found himself thinking of the witch that he had seen in his youth. The old hag who had nearly broken his legs by tossing him out a window. Things were different however, it seemed that the meeting had happened days ago, rather than years. He wondered what the Outsider could possibly gain from all of this, and why he was the one being used in whatever plan the Outsider had. Another set of memories flowed into his mind, filing out the blanks that were preventing him from telling the two what the Outsider meant him to. Instead of trying to focus and disentangle the information he spoke without much understanding as to what he was saying.

"There's… there's a witch in the flooded district. She uses birds, crows mostly, to do her bidding. I was poking around in one of the ruined buildings looking for anything valuable when I saw her. She was flying along above the streets on a cloud of birds. I don't know what she was going to do, but I made my way to the building she came from and I found a journal. I…" he trailed off and felt his cheeks redden slightly as he realized that there was a major issues in the situation. "…I didn't take it with me. I wish I had, but…"

Corvo held up a hand, and Nathan was sure that he saw the mark burned on the back of his hand. He spoke, saying in a cautious tone "You were in the flooded district? Have you exhibited any signs of the plague?" Nathan shook his head, not sure what the plague was, but certain that he didn't have it. Another stream of information set on his mind, sending another round of painful pulses through his head. He spoke "No, I'm clean, I'm sure. The carrier rats have mostly starved and the weepers have all been cured. What hasn't been reclaimed is little more than ruin now."

Corvo cocked an eyebrow at Nathan and said grimly "Which begs the question: why were you there?"

Emily shifted uncomfortably behind Corvo and said "He said why he was there, it was to loot the ruins." Nathan grinned at Corvo and said "I've heard you've been through several times. Surely you can't deny that one finds interesting things there so long as one is looking."

Emily stepped forward past Corvo and said "What did the journal say? How are we in danger from this witch?" Nathan placed a hand to his forehead and tried to focus through the pounding of information entering his brain. Nathan spoke the information raw as it entered his mind "It said that… that she was going to attack the throne, and leave Dunwall in ruins. Why she would do this I don't know, but that is what the book said."

Corvo crossed his arms and said doubtingly "And why should we believe you on this?"

Nathan opened his mouth to respond, but no new information came forth like it had been doing. His mind was slow to come to the conclusion, but he saw he didn't have to. This was a dream, and he didn't particularly care how the Outsider wanted it to play out. "I suppose that you don't have any reason to. Don't. By all means, it's the most logical thing to do." He got the feeling that the Outsider was done giving him information, and he started to feel like he was done playing the Outsiders game.

He stood from the chair and waved off both Emily and Corvo. He turned away from them and started to walk away from them, back to the stairs that had lead him here. Corvo grabbed his shoulder in a vicelike grip in an attempt to stop him from leaving, but Nathan wriggled his way out of his grip. Emily spoke out, saying "Wait, please! Can't you tell us more?"

Nathan turned, walking backwards, a wide grin on his face. "I'm afraid not, my girl. If you want more answers maybe you should talk to your friend there." He said pointing to Corvo. "He bears all the same credentials I do, bears the same mark in his hand. If our…" he looked Corvo dead in the eyes "…benefactor hasn't decided to share these details with you, than I find myself feeling no need to do so either."

Corvo spoke quite indignantly, almost shouting "Hold on! What do you mean our "mutual benefactor"? Do you mean to say that you were chosen like me?" simultaneously lunging out in an attempt to grab Nathan. He jumped back and knocked Corvo's hand away from him, saying "It's not my problem!" and turning away. He heard Corvo's boots scrape on the stone behind him and knew that the man was preparing another grab at him. He doubted his ability to escape from his grip if he got ahold of him from the back, so he focused on the point just where the stairs back inside met the stone and pulled his power.

Instead of appearing at the point he had focused on, he found himself engulfed briefly in a bright light and with the sensation of falling. He flailed around from a moment in a vain attempt to grab anything around him before he was dumped unceremoniously onto a stone surface. He looked up at his new surroundings and saw nothing but the deep blue nothingness that had always been a telltale sign of the void.

He picked himself up off of the stone and peered around him. Unlike most of his other visits to the void there was nothing, absolutely nothing, around him. Before there had always been things that he had recognized: buildings, people, even items, but now all that he could see was the stone beneath his feet. After a few moments of silence as he searched, a voice rang out in the silence. The monotone voice that he couldn't say surprised him.

"Nathan, your decisions always fascinate me." Nathan turned quickly and found himself facing the hovering form of the Outsider. He was a few feet above the ground with his arms crossed, looking down at Nathan in the way that he always did. "I send you to an unknown land and feed you bits and pieces of information, and you play along with my game. Then, the instant I stop, you refuse to play any longer."

Nathan snorted irritably and said "Perhaps if you would show me something relevant, something I care about, I would play along for a little longer. But you give me something I don't care about."

The Outsider smirked and said "Perhaps it's something you don't care about, but I can guarantee you that Corvo will take everything you said very seriously. In fact, the timing of your departure, as well as the method you chose, will make it seem all the more dire."

Nathan raised an eyebrow. "Wait, those were real people?" he asked. The Outsider smirked again and said "What did you think? That I had just conjured up some random images? No. Those people were very real, though I doubt that you will ever meet them again."

Nathan raised his eyebrow even further and asked "Never? Why not? They are still alive, aren't they?"

The Outsider leaned back slightly and said "Yes, Corvo and Emily are still alive. Unless you can find a way to their world however, you will never meet again. Unless of course I intervene." A puzzled expression crossed Nathan's face as he went over the Outsider's words. "A different world? How can there be another…" his voice trailed off as his gaze shifted to the infinite depths of the void. "I suppose that you can do anything you damn well please in here. This is your domain."

The Outsider's smirk shifted to something a bit more neutral, and he said "You catch on well, Nathan. The void is my domain, and I have control over everything here. That includes what other worlds mine links to. There are many that I could interfere with, but none are as interesting as the ones that I do."

Silence passed between the two for a moment before the Outsider spoke again. "But you don't care about me, about my powers, do you? You want to know about things in your world. I'm afraid that you know the majority of things that would matter to you back there. If I were to tell you anything I would simply be parroting information back to you. "

Nathan looked back up at him and said "What about something I don't know? If you telling me something won't change anything, will you still tell me?"

The Outsider spread his arms. "You asking me anything will certainly change things, should I choose to answer. However I won't answer any questions you ask me now." Nathan let out a disappointed sigh. He had hoped to find out anything about Gothel, and had been about to ask the Outsider about it. But now…

"Of course" the Outsider continued "something that you didn't ask, I would be happy to answer. Gothel was an old woman, far older than you would think." As he spoke the stone Nathan stood on expanded out and turned to the dirt floor of a forest. Trees and bushes sprang up in an instant and the mood rose up over the horizon. A bright golden flower appeared next to Nathan's foot, and he remembered the story that Rapunzel and Eugene had told him. "Over two hundred years she survived using the magic of that flower. Then, one day, it was gone." The flower disappeared and was replaced by a small hole in the ground a bit too perfect to be natural.

Quickly, the scene around him shifted to the stone interior of her tower. "You know where the rest of that story goes, right up until Rapunzel and Eugene think that they killed her. After that, no one but her really knows what happened. No one but her and me." Nathan looked around and saw Gothel huddled in a corner with a cloak pulled around her tightly. A green light was coming from her palms and casting an ominous shadow on the wall behind her. "When one lives as long as her, you pick up a few things. She stayed in the tower and put the finishing touches on the thing that she would use to build an army. Her magic allowed her to sway countless souls to her cause. Before long she had a cult system running, and her at the head."

The tower interior stayed, but the contents shifted. Now Gothel was frozen in mid-teeter on the windowsill, and Nathan's blade was jammed through her lower abdomen. Ice was covering various surfaces around the room, and Nathan recalled the battle well. "Your sudden appearance forced her hand and sped her plan against her will. Her sight was set on Elsa for some time before your intervention. Her plan was to use her power in a way she never had before. She wanted to take Elsa's body, Elsa's power as her own.

The scene shifted again and Nathan found himself in the library he had become so familiar with over the past few weeks. Gothel was in mid charge towards Elsa, even the gas trail flowing behind her frozen in time. "She tried to do this as a last ditch effort, but your interference made it quite impossible to control Elsa nearly as well as she wanted. But, had you failed…"

The scene shifted yet again, and Nathan saw himself laid out on the floor, his body riddled with shards of ice. A pool of blood surrounded his body, and he could tell that there was no life in it. Elsa was standing over the corpse, laughing, and Anna looked on from the doorway with a terrified look on her face. "Had you failed, Gothel would've slaughtered anyone who knew anything about her. Then she would have ruled as Elsa over Arendelle. Her rule would have been challenged by many citizens, but she would crush any resistance brutally. After some time she would grow unsatisfied with just ruling one kingdom, and go to war to expand her influence." Another smile came across the Outsider's face and he said "Of Gothel's many skills, being a general was not one of them. It would not be many battles before even with Elsa's power she would be struck down."

The world around Nathan fell away until he was back on the slab of rock he had started this conversation on. "Arendelle would be left in ruin. The city would be thrown into chaos, and abandoned barely five years later."

Nathan nodded. People with a personality like Gothel's tended to be fairly self-destructive in the long run. It made him glad that he hadn't allowed Gothel to kill him. The Outsider gave him a smile that was somehow different from the others that he had received thus far. He got the feeling that the dream was coming to an end. The few things around him that he could see started to blur, and he could feel himself waking.

When he opened his eyes, sunlight was streaming into the room through the window. Warmth spread through the places that the light fell upon, but the major source of warmth that he felt was a pair of lips on his forehead. He looked up slowly and found Elsa smiling down at him. She gave a small smile and said "Good morning Nathan."

* * *

><p>Authors Thing:<p>

Ahh, I'm not dead. not yet. sorry about the delay again, but summer is sapping my time away far more than I anticipated. I will, however, continue to post chapters and I will try to get them out faster than this. I just gotta focus.

as always leave feedback in any form you want (preferably review).


	39. Chapter 39

Nathan smiled back up at Elsa, squinting his eyes against the bright sunlight. "Good morning to you too." he said happily, glad that everything the Outsider had told him about what would've come to pass had he failed was no more real than any of his other visits to the void. The memory of the other people he had met during the dream returned to him. They had seemed so real, far more real than anything the Outsider had done before. He had said that the people were real, and that they simply existed in a different world than Nathan's. Nathan supposed that could be the case, with the Outsider nothing was out of the question.

Elsa's bright face fell slightly and she turned away from Nathan. Thoughts of his dream were replaced by thoughts of the night before. The fight between him and Gothel as well as the battle with her minions. The repercussions of the conflict would be far-reaching, despite the fight itself being over. He stood from his chair and stepped over to Elsa and put a hand gently on her shoulder. She looked over her shoulder, and the hurt was obvious in her eyes. Nathan spoke softly to her, saying "How are you doing? Are you alright?"

She turned to him and opened her mouth to answer. No words come however, and she simply stood there searching for the words a moment before throwing her arms around Nathan and holding him tight. Her face tucked into his shoulder and she whispered "Thank you. If not for you, I don't know what would have happened."

Nathan hugged her tightly and said "Don't worry about it. I'm here, and I won't let anything happen to you." The two stood embraced for several more moments before Elsa removed her arms from Nathan and took a few steps away towards one of the many crystalline constructs that hung on the wall. Nathan looked on, wanting to say something, but he didn't know what. What did you say to someone who had gone through the kind of thing she had?

Nathan glanced out the window and took in the view. The water of the fjord was sloshing gently against the stone walls. The flags on the various streetlights and houses didn't move at all, and he smiled knowing that Elsa had at least enough control over her powers to stop the conditions that she had brought on in defense of Arendelle. A few people were visible, milling about in the commons area, most hurrying to the nearest building. He wondered if the people of Arendelle had been made aware of the reason the city had been frozen. If not, it would seem a good course of action to make it known.

Nathan put a hand on Elsa's shoulder again and said "Elsa, you're the leader of Arendelle. You have things to do." Elsa turned and looked Nathan in the eyes. In spite of the drug induced rest, she looked tired. Not physically, but rather like she was tired of leading. Like she would like nothing more than to step down and let someone else command, even for just a day. She let out a deep sigh and said "I suppose you're right. I'll get right to it. The kingdom won't run itself."

Something occurred to Nathan, and he said in as reassuring a voice as he could "No, It won't, but you aren't the only one who has to run it. I'm sure that Elsa would be glad to share the burden with you. Take some weight off of your shoulders." Elsa nodded, and Nathan added "I wish I could do something too, but I'm neither royal nor am I suited to take on the… rigors of ruling a kingdom."

Elsa fixed him with a confused look and said "You… don't want to help rule?" Nathan smiled, and even laughed a bit to himself. "I would love to help you, but putting me in charge of anything is not the way to do that. I'll be happy to do anything you need me to do, but I don't think I'll be giving any orders."

Elsa gave Nathan a smile and said "Somehow I find that comforting." She turned towards the door and started walking. As she pushed the door open she motioned for Nathan to follow. He did. The two walked down the hall and reached the stairs. Elsa composed herself and said "So, Nathan, I think the first thing that we should do is find Anna." He nodded and Elsa asked "Where do you think she is?"

Nathan put power into his Shadow Sense spell and felt the countless shadows of royal servants and guards all around the castle. He didn't know when, but at some point the servants who had been absent yesterday had returned. He pushed the thought from his mind and refocused. The process of tracking someone specific's shadow was one that he had gotten better at since taking his position in Arendelle. He took the general shape of Elsa's shadow and looked for any that were similar. A few others were similar, but Anna was shorter than Elsa, and with that knowledge Nathan was able to pick Anna out. She was in the medical wing, with the form that Nathan recognized as Kristoff.

"She's with the doctors, looking after Kristoff." Elsa smiled and said "She's probably been there all night looking after him. Do you know what happened to him?" Nathan nodded and said "He broke his arm while trying to fight off Gothel." Elsa seemed to flinch, then said "I saw that. It looked painful."

The two continued walking in silence until they reached the door to the medical wing. Even through the large heavyset doors the sounds of doctors bustling around and caring for patients could be heard. Elsa gave Nathan an anxious look before pushing the door open and walking inside. The smell of blood was thick in the air, and there were more than a few men laid out on cots with large bandages around various parts of their bodies.

Elsa looked around the room as her hands flew to her mouth and she gasped in horror. Nathan flinched as he realized the effect that seeing so many injured might have on her. He hadn't seen many injured on the battlefield, but he hadn't been paying much attention. There couldn't be more than thirty guardsmen present in the room, and most of them didn't seem very critically injured. Despite the overall good condition of the men, there were about five who had fairly serious looking damage. By far the worst looking one of them all was a man with a large reddened bandage over his chest and a short stump in place of his left arm. He was sitting up on one of the cots and arguing with a nurse who was trying to push him back down on his back. After some heated looking words he seemed to give up and allowed himself to be repositioned flat.

One of the nurses noticed Elsa and Nathan's presence and came quickly to meet them. When she reached the two she took a position in front of Elsa that blocked a large portion of the room from her sight. "Can I help you, Your Highness? What do you need?"

Elsa leaned to the side slightly, her eyes still locked on the soldiers inside. She swallowed the knot in her throat and said "Is… is my sister here? I would like to speak with her."

The woman nodded and turned, pointing to a far cot near the back of the room. Anna was visible leaning over Kristoff and talking to him with a slightly concerned look on her face. Neither one seemed to have noticed Elsa or Nathan having entered the room. Elsa nodded curtly to the woman and said "Thank you." before starting to walk. Nathan wanted to suggest that they leave Anna and Kristoff to their talking and simply find her when she was done, but he knew that Elsa wouldn't accept that. He fell into step by her side, at least hoping to block a few of the more gruesome injuries from her vision. He didn't doubt that she could handle the sight of the gore, rather that she would feel far guiltier about them than she should.

An eerie silence seemed to follow them through the room, everyone that they passed falling silent, even the doctors and nurses stopped talking to their patients as Elsa passed. Nathan wished they wouldn't. Elsa's step slowed, and her head was down, facing the floor. It was like she was in front of a huge audience and was terrified of even the slightest error on her part.

At the end of the room Kristoff pointed towards them and Anna turned, her face lighting up when she saw Elsa. She practically ran across the remaining distance and slammed into Elsa, wrapping her arms around her and nearly knocking her to the floor. A few rounds of laughter sounded from around the room, and Nathan was certain that if every eye hadn't been on them before, they were now.

Anna looked Elsa up and down. She seemed pleased, and hugged Elsa again, this time saying "I'm so glad you're all right!" Elsa's attention seemed to leave the injured men around her and focus on Anna. Nathan was glad for that. Elsa smiled at Anna and said "And I'm glad you're ok." Her face fell slightly and she continued "I'm sorry about what I made you do. It's just… it's just that I couldn't stand what was happening."

Anna held up her hands and said "No, don't apologize. I don't blame you. I probably would have done the same thing in your position."

Nathan raised an eyebrow. He hadn't been aware that the two had fought over Elsa being drugged. Anna seemed to catch his puzzled expression and mouthed "Tell you later" to him. Elsa looked between the two with a curious expression and looked like she was about to ask a question, but was interrupted by a phlegm-filled cough. Nathan jumped at the sudden noise and his hand flew to the hilt of his blade and spun to face the source of the noise.

He found face inches away from the man whom he had seen before with the missing arm and chest wound. The man's eyes were bleary and unfocused like he was still half asleep, but he was awake enough to look past Nathan at Elsa. Nathan let his hand drop away from the blade and took a step back from the man, figuring that he wasn't much of a threat. He stood, unmoving, for several moments before bringing his remaining arm into a salute and standing in what was clearly supposed to be attention. His mouth hung open and a slow leak of air made its way from his throat like he was trying to say something.

One of the doctors seemed to take note that the man shouldn't be off the cot and rushed over to help. When she got within arm's reach of the man she said "I'm terribly sorry, you're Highness! He's suffered a lot of blood loss and is very disoriented as a result. I'll take him back to his…" she put her hands on the man's shoulders and tried to guide him away, but he shrugged her off roughly and resumed his position. Instead of just a weak leaking of air, this time he seemed to be able to form words. "Qu… Queen" he got out, the difficulty it was giving him clear on his face.

The doctor made to guide the man again, but Elsa held up a hand and said "Let him speak." In a gentle voice. She faced the man again and gave him an encouraging look. The edges of the man's mouth curled into what looked to Nathan like a smile. He continued, struggling "I… I will… serve... to the last."

Elsa's look changed dramatically. Her composure faltered and her breathing quickened. Nathan was about to suggest that they leave when Elsa put out a hand and put her palm flat against the man's chest, right over his heart. She looked deep into the man's eyes and said "Thank you. I'm sorry that you had to be so…" her eyes passed over his body and lingered on the bloody stump of an arm for a few seconds before she met his eyes again "…so damaged on my account. You shouldn't have been, not on my account."

The man's brow furrowed, and another man stepped forward from the rows of cots. He had a bandage around his head covering one eye and one arm in a sling. He gave a short bow and said "With all due respect, Queen, you're wrong." Elsa looked slightly taken aback by the eavesdropping, but didn't seem to want to say anything. The new man continued, saying "All of us were prepared to fight and die for you. Our lives are little repayment for the prosperity you have brought to Arendelle."

Elsa looked around at the men around the room all with one kind of injury or another and let out a small hesitant noise. "You all feel like this?" she said disbelievingly. Both of the soldiers in front of her as well as a few on their cots nodded resolutely. The second one to have joined said "It's not just you that we were protecting, but the city as well, right? It those people had been allowed through…" his voice trailed off and he shook his head like he didn't want to consider the possibilities. Nathan finished the man's sentence for him, saying "There's no telling what damage they could have done. Good thing you were able to stop them."

The man gave a nod and smiled to Nathan. "From what I hear, you helped on that front quite a bit." Anna seemed to notice some small change in Elsa's demeanor and put a hand on her shoulder. Elsa looked to Anna with a very uncomfortable expression. Anna turned and looked around the room a moment before giving Elsa's arm a tug. "Maybe it's time to get out over here." she said.

Elsa gave the two men a sad look, but one held up a hand and said "We'll be fine. You have a job to do, go." Anna gave another tug on Elsa's arm and she followed. Just before Anna turned fully around she looked over Elsa's shoulder and gave a wave to Kristoff, who tried to wave with the arm in the sling and after a painful flinch, waved with his other hand.

Elsa, Anna and Nathan walked back to the door. Elsa walked looking around the room like she had never been there before, taking in the sights like she was in some kind of daze or trance. Anna gave most of her attention to Elsa, holding her hand a comforting her the whole way. Nathan walked behind them not entirely sure what to focus his attention on.

When they got to the door one of the doctors held it open and the trio walked through. The doctor thanked them for visiting and closed the door behind them. As soon as the door shut the noise from inside resumed. Elsa took a few steps away from the door than rounded on Anna and Nathan and said "I want to do something." She gestured to the door. "For them. For all the guards. They've done so much, not just for me, but for Mother and Father, and their parents before them."

Anna nodded and said "That sounds nice!" in her usual chipper voice. Nathan didn't share Anna's optimism or Elsa's empathy towards the troops. The men had done a good job, yes, and sacrificed a lot in the process, but they were merely doing their jobs. He chose not to vocalize the thought, however. The men had demonstrated more loyalty to them than Nathan usually observed in guards, and perhaps that was because of the caring nature of their rulers. Anna looked to her side at him expectantly and he nodded.

Elsa put a hand to her chin and bit down on her knuckle, saying "What should I do, though?" she looked to Anna "What do you think? What could I do to honor them?"

Anna looked down, thinking. Several moments passed before Elsa looked hopefully to Nathan, who simply shrugged. He didn't know what would be a good way to celebrate them. "Something not very posh." he suggested. Anna gave him an almost offended look and said "What do you mean? What do you think I would do that's too posh?"

Nathan snorted. "A ball, any kind of dance, more or less anything you can do in the castle." Both Anna and Elsa gave him a puzzled look, and he said "The guards are normal everyday men. They aren't nobles, and they aren't particularly sophisticated." He thought a moment than said "They would rather have a pint of beer than a glass of wine."

Anna put her hands on her hips and said "And what would you rather have?" in a challenging voice. Nathan gave her a smile and said "I don't drink." with and edge of amusement. She rolled her eyes exasperatedly, and Elsa giggled slightly. Nathan raised an eyebrow at Anna and asked "What do you drink?"

Anna opened her mouth to respond, but Elsa interrupted her. "She isn't allowed to have alcohol. Not yet, anyways. She's too young."

Nathan responded by saying "Too young? I wasn't aware that the age restriction…" Anna sighed exasperatedly and interrupted him, saying "The royal family of Arendelle had always held that members have to be at least twenty to have alcohol. It's something of a "family ritual" meant to ensure that those who come to power have a strong and developed mind."

Nathan bit back a witty comment, and could see on Elsa's face that she did the same. As opposed to poking fun at Anna, he opted to complement Elsa instead. He gave her a small smile and said "I see it works fairly well."

Elsa gave him a smile in return. Than the smile faded and she turned back to Anna and said "Anna, I need to ask you something. A big favor."

Anna nodded and stepped forward, saying "Of course, anything!" Elsa took a deep breath and said "I need you to… well… at least help me run things for a while." She worked her hands together for a moment before saying "I know that it's more than you've done before, and that you might not feel comfortable taking on this much responsibility, but I think that-" Anna cut off her rambling, taking her hands and clasping them comfortingly in her own. "It's no problem Elsa. I would be glad to help."

Elsa let out a sigh of relief. It seemed like a great weight had been lifted off of her shoulders. She and Elsa started walking off, and Nathan decided that he had little else to do but follow them.

He soon found himself seated in the great hall with a heaping plate of food in front of him. The breakfast piled on the plate was plenty appetizing thanks to the skill of the chefs who had prepared it, but Nathan doubted it would have mattered if it was coated in wood shavings. He found himself far more ravenous than he had thought, eating almost three times as much and twice as fast as the others seated at the table.

Anna and Elsa noted the speed and amount Nathan ate with silent looks to each other over their food. There wasn't much conversation around the table until most of the food was gone, Anna being the first to speak. "So, Elsa…" she said with a mouthful of food, than swallowed and continued "…what do you need help with? I'll be happy to do anything you need, but you'll have to tell me."

Elsa nodded and said "Can you…" she sighed "Can you take over court duties for today? I know that you hate it, but it has to be done, and I don't think I'm feeling up to it." Anna looked for a second like she had regretted agreeing prematurely, but that look faded quickly. She nodded and said "I'll get it done." like she had been assigned a highly unenjoyable chore. She looked around at a clock and jumped from the chair, exclaiming "Oh! Duties start in fifteen minutes! I'd better get going!" and running off to the doors.

Elsa slowly pushed her chair away from the table and stood, looking mournfully after Anna. After the door shut behind her Elsa looked to Nathan and said "Would you like to accompany me on a walk Nathan?"

Nathan stood and smiled, saying "I would love to." He motioned towards the door "Lead the way."

* * *

><p>Authors thing:<p>

This chapter was exactly 3,500 words. I take some weird kind of pride in that fact, despite the fact that with this part at the end that will no longer be the case.

Review, follow, do whatever, man.


	40. Chapter 40

The pair walked in silence as far as the large main doors to the castle. As they got close a man stationed by the door made to open it, but Elsa held up a hand to stop the man. She turned to Nathan and said "You don't mind, do you? It's a little chilly out." with a smile. Nathan shook his head and returned her smile. She gave another signal to the man, and he opened the door letting a large blast of frozen air in.

The change in air temperature wasn't the only thing that Nathan felt shift in the air. As soon as the brisk winter air replaced the warmth of the inside, Elsa's mood seemed to shift dramatically. Her smile faded and she seemed to withdraw into herself. Nathan couldn't help but to feel slightly concerned about her. For all that he knew about her, all that he had learned over the past weeks, he wasn't sure how she really felt about the things that had happened. She had seemed fine, but things that seemed one way were often another.

They kept walking until they reached the bridge linking the castle to the rest of the city. Elsa stopped halfway across and but her elbows up on the stone, looking out across the ocean. Nathan did the same and tried to see what Elsa was looking at. The ship that Gothel had used to get to Arendelle was in the harbor being inspected, but her gaze was out to the open sea rather than the harbor.

After a few moments of silence Elsa looked over to Nathan, and he could see something akin to desperation in her eyes. She opened her mouth, thinking for a moment than said "How do you do it?"

Nathan raised an eyebrow and said "I'm afraid I don't…"Elsa cut him off and said "Kill people! How do you live, knowing that you've ended someone's life?" her gaze drifted back to the ocean and she muttered "I can't get her face out of my mind. The way her eyes rolled back, the sound she made, it's like it's burned into my mind!"

Nathan sighed. He had been hoping that she wouldn't ask him that. "I… killing people never really bothered me." Elsa's expression changed to a more forlorn look. Nathan was afraid that he had just told her there was no way to feel better, or worse, that she would have some negative feelings towards him. He wasn't sure where these feelings came from, but certainly felt that they were unfounded in any logic. "I've always viewed it as… that I'm only expediting a natural process." he said carefully. Elsa gave him a confused look, and he explained "If I as hired to kill someone, than someone already wanted them dead. My participation in the job would make very little difference in whether that person would live, because the employer would just find some other assassin looking for work." Another thought entered his mind, and he added "And I never hurt that I never killed any innocents." He put a hand hesitantly on her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her and said "And neither have you."

She gave him a hurt look and said "What about the guard? He never did anything to me, and I…" she choked back a sob "…I murdered him." Nathan's mind flicked back to the man, and he remembered the particularly brutal way he had been killed. He nearly shuttered at the thought, but steeled himself against it. The circumstance of that night returned to his mind, and he said in as soft a voice as he could "You didn't do that, Gothel did that. She used you. She tried to make you unstable, and it almost worked."

Elsa looked down at the waves lapping against the stone of the bridge supports. The slow, rhythmic beating of the tide was almost enough to put someone into a trance if they weren't careful. She blinked a few times and shook her head, clearing it of the memories that the water brought back. Memories of her parents. A few tears dripped from her eyes and fell to the waves below, washed away the instant they touched. "You really don't feel anything when you kill someone?" She could hardly believe that he was able to simply not feel the turmoil that she felt roaring inside of her. Perhaps his unpleasant past had something to do with it, perhaps he was simply suited more to killing as a person, perhaps he was lying, but his words had a note of sincerity that she hadn't heard from him before. He shook his head and said "No, not beyond my reaction to the immediate situation."

Elsa nodded quietly and pushed herself off of the stone and continued walking down the bridge. Nathan followed hastily, not sure where they were going now. Instead of following behind her as he had before, he walked beside her. A deep know seemed to have formed in his chest, and he knew why it was there. He felt concerned for Elsa. If she couldn't handle the knowledge that she had killed, than it was likely that she wouldn't be able to rule an entire kingdom where it might be necessary to give an order that would send many people to their deaths. As regrettable as it was, sometimes such orders were necessary, and he doubted her ability to give such an order.

He hesitated a moment, then took one of Elsa's hands in his own. Elsa stopped and looked at him, a sad expression on her face. He wished that he had thought about what he was going to say a moment longer, as his mind went blank as Elsa looked at him. He said the first thing that came to his mind, wishing that he hadn't grabbed her hand. Nevertheless, he held on and stared Elsa in the eyes. "It's not your fault. Neither of them were your fault. What you did to Gothel was kinder than what I was going to do to her, and what you did to the Captain was forced by Gothel. You had to do it. It wasn't your choice. No one blames you for either one. In fact, people would probably thank you for what you did to Gothel."

She looked down at her hand in Nathan's glove and gave his hand a little squeeze while her other hand went to wipe the tears off of her face. Nathan felt very self-conscious, not sure as to what he should do now. He wanted to comfort her, but he just didn't know how. Before he could do anything however, Elsa held up Nathan's hand and said "Why do you wear gloves, Nathan?"

He tilted his head, puzzled by the question, but answered anyways. "Well, I suppose I have several reasons: they hide my mark, they provide a good bit of protection and don't limit my movement, and I suppose that I've grown used to them. I don't feel right without them, like I'm missing an important piece of gear. Why do you ask?"

Elsa gave a weak laugh and said "I'm sure that my question seems very strange to you." She wiped the last of the tears off of her face and said "I've worn gloves most of my life. I wore them because I thought that they would help to control my powers. If you tell yourself something like that for so long, eventually you start believing it. I thought that as long as I had my gloves on than my powers would be completely contained." She snorted to herself and said "Those small pieces of fabric held back so much, protected so many people for so long. And now…" she put her other hand on top of Nathan's "…almost a year after I stop wearing them, I've killed two people." She dropped her hands away from Nathan's and turned away, saying "I'm starting to consider wearing them again."

She started walking towards the city again, and Nathan found himself staring after her with the knot still present in his chest. He jogged after her and again took his place at her side. Her eyes were forward and she looked tired. Her shoulders were hunched and her feet dragged slightly on the floor. Her usually regal and ordered manner seemed to have been whisked away by the troubles that beset her mind.

Nathan said "If the gloves only made you believe that you could contain your powers, than you don't need them now. All you need is to believe that you can control it." Elsa didn't respond, so Nathan continued "Besides, lack of control over your powers isn't the issue, the issue is that you were put into situations where you had no alternative. You had to do those things. You weren't given a choice in either situation." Her step slowed slightly and she looked down at the ground and said "I guess so." in a voice that didn't sound too sure.

Nathan turned his attention back in front of him. He wasn't sure if he was helping, or if he was just making things worse. Something told him that he had done something, but he wasn't sure exactly what. He wished for Elsa's skill at dealing with her sister. If he did have it, perhaps he could set her mind at ease and make her stop feeling so bad about what she had done. But he had neither Anna's (somewhat limited) social skills nor her history with Elsa, so there wasn't much that he knew how to do. He had a lofty standing, as she did with him, but he simply had no idea how to use that to make her feel better.

The two came to the shore line, and Nathan could see the ship Gothel had used sitting on top of the waves, bobbing up and down in the tide. A few people could be seen going through several crates on the deck. Nathan assumed that they were inspecting the ship before it was sent back to its proper owners. He wondered idly if they would find anything interesting. Seeing an opportunity to start a conversation that wouldn't make things with Elsa worse, he asked "What's going to be done with the ship?" he said, nodding his head towards the vessel.

Elsa glanced up towards the ship and said dismissively "It will be checked over for any damage caused by Gothel or by the fjord being frozen, and if it is still fit to sail it will be sent back to Corona." She went back to looking at the ground in front of her. Nathan pushed slightly for her to continue, asking "And if it's not fit to sail?"

Elsa let out a frustrated sigh and stopped, turning to Nathan and saying "Look, Nathan, I appreciate it, but…" she turned back the way she had been walking and finished "…I just need to think right now." She kept walking and Nathan followed. He was still worried about her, but he was slightly glad that she had told him to stop trying to help her. It took a large amount of pressure off of him.

The rest of the walk passed in silence between the two. They walked along the edge of the Fjord and looped back around to the castle. There wasn't much too see along the way, most everyone was in their houses or places of work where it was warm. Despite the general lack of any real interaction, Nathan found himself enjoying the walk. There was something about simply being in her company that he found pleasant.

Before long, Nathan found himself standing by the main gate of the castle and looking back at Elsa. She had stopped just before the end of the bridge and was looking over the edge again. He could have just gone inside, Elsa had told him too, but he would rather wait for her. As he looked at her he wondered if the composure she had shown earlier that day had been her really feeling "together" or if she had just been putting on an act. If he had to bet, he would've bet on it being an act. He would talk to Anna about how he could help Elsa later.

After a few minutes, Elsa looked up from the water and back. She waved towards the castle with a stern look on her face, and Nathan figured that he should do what she wanted him too. He sighed as turned to walk back inside the walls. The guards along the wall continued to look down at Elsa with worried looks, but none of them tried to talk to her. It was clear that she wanted to be alone.

Nathan walked up the stairs to the castle and pulled the door open. The warm air rushed into his face and he turned back to give one final look to Elsa. She was still standing on the bridge, gazing out across the water. He turned back to the castle interior and let the door fall closed behind him. With Elsa wishing to be alone and Anna in court, he didn't have much to do. He would have liked to continue being with Elsa, but with that not an option, and his general intolerance of the dreary legal proceedings, he found himself racking his brain for anything he could do to pass the time.

The only real thing that came to his mind was the infirmary. The injured who had been there had needed attention, and the doctors who had been there seemed overworked. He had a fair amount of medical knowledge, and thought he may as well offer his skills up for them to use. He set off towards the infirmary and set about pulling the medical knowledge he had accrued over the years out of the corners of his mind.

With the mental task of retrieving the numerous medical books and journals, the surgeries that he had sat in on, and the few operations that he had had to perform on himself from his memory, the walk to the infirmary passed quickly. Before he knew it he was standing before the large door and could hear the bustle of the room beyond. He pushed the door open and took a step inside, nearly knocking someone over. He sidestepped quickly to avoid an impact and looked over the rest of the room. It was largely unchanged, with the overall layout still the same. A few more people were sitting up or standing than had been before. One man near the back of the room was being transferred from a cot to a gurney with an entourage of people dressed in sterile looking clothes who looked to Nathan like they were prepared for surgery. It occurred to Nathan that he was woefully unprepared for any real surgery, not only lacking some knowledge but also than he was in clothes that would likely infect someone with a plethora of different diseases if it came into contact with any open wound.

Another doctor passed dangerously close to Nathan, carrying a tray of various surgical implements towards the man on the gurney. He put a hand on the man's shoulder and spun him around, asking without waiting for him to greet him "Where can I go prep for surgery?"

The man looked him up and down with a confused look and asked hesitantly "To receive or give?" Nathan rolled his eyes and said "Do I look like I need surgery to you?" The man shrank back, apparently thinking that it had been a rhetorical question and waiting for Nathan to answer himself. Nathan did after just long enough a pause to make the man feel stupid, saying "To administer. Where can I go clean up and get ready to help?"

The man transferred the tray to one hand and pointed with the other to a door to the far side of the room that Nathan hadn't seen before. He nodded in appreciation to the man and set off towards the door. It opened, and the antiseptic smell of alcohol assaulted Nathan's nose. His eyes teared up for a moment before he blinked it away and took in the room. Rows of lockers lined the walls of the room, covering the surface of the room from floor to ceiling. Most of the contents of the lockers seemed to be clothing wadded up and thrown into the lockers. On a large series of hooks near the door hung a large amount of the thin cloth clothes that most of the doctors were wearing. Nathan grabbed a set of clothes and set about removing his many layers of gear.

It took several minutes, but he was able eventually to get himself out of his usual attire and into the garb of a doctor. After a brief search around the room he found a large basin and bottles of pure alcohol along the edge. He poured some out and scrubbed his hands in the chemical, making sure that he didn't miss any spots. After he was done he pulled the white gloves over his hands and scrubbed them the same way he had his bare hands. After he finished that he let the gloves air-dry a moment before grabbing the doorknob and pulling the door open.

The man who had been moved to the gurney was being wheeled into another room that hadn't seen. Nathan followed quickly, not hesitating to join the group of surgeons as if he were really one of them. Someone grabbed Nathan's arm and looked him in the face. They held him in place a moment before seeming to realize who he was and taking a step back. "Oh, I'm sorry sir, I didn't realize…" the man tilted his head and a confused look came across his face "You have medical training?"

Nathan smiled at the man and said "Well, some informal education, yes. More than enough for this, I assure you." The man gave him an unsure look, but continued into the room where the surgery was too take place. Five people, not including Nathan, had come in with him. The man on the gurney was moved to a solid metal table.

Several sharp looking metal points were sticking out of the man's belly and were surrounded for about a quarter of an inch by discolored skin. Nathan leaned in to get a better look at the pieces of metal, and a few of the others did too. It didn't look good for the man. While maybe one or two of the metal spikes might have been fine, there were seven of them overall, and they looked seriously infected. He turned to the man next to him and asked "Do you know how long those things are?"

The man shook his head and scowled at the metal bits. "No. no one else had injuries like this, and he hasn't been able to tell us what did this." Nathan let out an irritated noise, and one of the other doctors, a woman with brown hair, said "Well, on the upside; he's one of the last that need an operation."

One of the others standing by her said "Alright people, enough chatter." He brought a large pair of shiny metal tweezers and looked around at everyone around him. "You've all done well so far, and we've dealt with worse than this. Just keep focused and don't take too much risk."

The surgery was far more intense than Nathan had thought it would be. He was in the room for roughly two hours aiding in any way he could. One of his larger contributions was due to his restfulness. The other surgeons in the room had apparently been working fairly consistently over the past hours since the battle had ended. They hadn't had any time to rest, resulting in their hands not being very steady. As a result, it fell to Nathan to perform most of the tasks that required a steady hand.

The metal spikes were removed one by one, and the infected skin around the punctures was cut away to prevent the infection from spreading to healthy tissue and causing even more damage. The spikes were found to be all the same size, one and a half inches, leading Nathan to believe that it was some kind of exotic weapon choice by Gothel's people. The damage that had come from the infection was pretty major, and Nathan knew that it would take about a full month for the man to recover. After the major part of the surgery was done, Nathan took a step back and wiped the blood on his hands on the front of his shirt. One of the doctors looked up from the man and waved towards the door and said "You've done your part. All that's left is to stitch him up and wheel his back out." They looked Nathan up and down before saying "Go clean yourself up and go to Elsa. I'm sure that she needs some company right about now."

Nathan nodded in appreciation and turned around to leave. He walked back to the locker room and took off of the medical clothes and replaced them with his usual gear. Before he put on his gloves on he noticed that a small amount of blood had gotten through the gloves he had and washed it off. He pulled his long leather gloves on and left the room.

On his way out, someone called to him and he turned and found himself facing Kristoff, his arm in a sling hanging from his neck. He looked around the room hopefully a moment before asking Nathan "Is Elsa or Anna here? I was hoping to talk to them." Nathan shook his head and said "No, Anna is doing court duty and Elsa… Elsa wants to be alone." Kristoff nodded before stopping abruptly and giving Nathan a suspicious look, saying "Wait, Anna is doing court duty?" Nathan nodded. Kristoff gave an amused snort and said "Ha, I'm sure that's going well. She talked a lot about how boring she thought it was."

Kristoff looked around and flagged down a nurse and asked "Excuse me, can I go?" he held the broken arm up and said "This is all the problem is, there's nothing else." The nurse looked him over and said "Sure, I suppose you can."

Kristoff turned back to Nathan with a wide smile on his face and said "Let's go visit Anna!" Nathan rose an eyebrow and looked out the window. The sun wasn't even at its apex yet, which meant that there were still several hours until she was able to declare the daily business done. He had no interest in sitting in a stuffy room where the only thing happening was legal proceedings that were less interesting than watching paint dry. It wasn't like he had an awful lot of other things to do, however, and the possibility did exist that he would be able to pass the time in some other way. Begrudgingly, he agreed, and the two of them set off to the courts.

.

Anna rubbed her fingers against her temples, attempting to stall the oncoming headache long enough to settle the debate happening before her and declare a recess long enough for her to regain her sanity. The thing that was wearing her down the most was that it was over something that seemed like it didn't matter at all. The conflict was between two men, one accusing the other of stealing a prized family heirloom. The accuser had called the guards on the accused, and a search if the man's house had revealed that the item was in fact present in the accused's house. The man didn't deny taking it, but put up a huge fight against his being prosecuted for the theft. Anna would have simply declared him guilty as soon as he admitted to the crime, but he had used a huge sting of technicalities and fine prints to keep the trial going for far longer than it needed to.

The accused man just finished listing off listing another set of rules when she looked up and noticed the door at the opposite end of the room open and Nathan and Kristoff walk through. She perked up immediately, and the urge to call a recess now and return later intensified. The two men looked behind them looking for what had grabbed Anna's attention. She cleared her throat and managed to regain the attention of the men. They looked at her expectantly, and she found herself wishing that she had listened more to the rules or regulations that the man had spewed. She opened her mouth and was about to say something before the accused man seemed to remember something very important and started saying "And furthermore, under the jurisdiction of the…"

Her head started pounding, and her gaze wandered back to Kristoff, looking for some kind of help from him. He simply looked back to her for a few seconds before he realized what she wanted and nudged Nathan, whispering to him. From across the room there was no chance that she would be able to hear them, even if the man on the floor in front of the elevated platform wasn't making her wish he was gone. Nathan whispered something back, than Kristoff nodded and turned back to Anna.

He made a stern face and raised his good hand and pointed to the man still talking. He started moving his fingers and thumb like a mouth in sync with the man's speech. Than without warning he shut the hand-mouth and moved his hand over his mouth like he was zipping it up. His meaning was clear enough, shut the man up, but she didn't want to offend anyone, and a few of the rules the man had brought up made it hard for her to simply cut him off.

Kristoff seemed to pick up on her hesitation and nodded in reassurance. Over the nearly a year that Anna had known him, they had connected on many levels. There had been a few times that with a mere look they had been able to communicate entire sentences. Anna, the ever-curious person she was, had tried to experiment with this, but despite all her efforts the occurrence of this phenomenon seemed to be totally random. The look that Kristoff gave her now seemed to say "What are they going to do, you're the Queen!"

She shrugged. A fair point, she supposed. She stood from the chair and cut through the man's dull speech, saying "Mister Hadfell, are you guilty of what Mister Rindler is accusing you of?" The man stopped and nodded, than immediately launched into another set of rules. "But, your majesty, If you take into account the clause of-" Anna cut him off again, saying "Than I find you guilty of all charges." The man tried to speak again, but she didn't let him get a word in. "You will return the stolen object, and you will be fined as per the usual law. In addition to this, I would ask that in the future you take into consideration that the laws in place exist to smooth out the judicial process and outline a citizens rights. They do not exist for the benefit of those who spend far too long memorizing them and honing the ability to call them up off the top of your head." She waved towards one of the guards, who ushered the two men out of the room.

As soon as the two were out of the room, she stood and said loudly to the room as a whole "This marks the beginning of a half an hour recess. Please be back punctually." The few people in the room stood and shuffled towards the door. She tried to contain her joy at the session ending and restrained from dashing down the steps and hugging Kristoff. Instead, she walked calmly down and greeted Kristoff and Nathan the way that a normal royal would. Out of the corner of her eye she kept watch on the door, waiting for the last of the people left the room. As soon as the last guard vacated the room, she let the self-control go and threw her arms around Kristoff's neck and pulling his lips into hers.

Nathan's voice, monotone as it seemed to be a lot, spoke out, saying "This reunion is touching and all, but I would like to talk to you about a few things." He looked towards the table she had been sitting at and a smirk came across his face. "Given that you have the endurance, of course."

* * *

><p>Authors thing:<p>

emotions!

As always I would like some reviews and stuff, but this time I'm going to ask something slightly different. This time I would like it if you would give me your opinion of the whole story, not just this chapter. I am interested to know what everyone thinks of the thing as a whole.


	41. Chapter 41

Anna let one arm fall from Kristoff's neck and gave a heavy sigh. She walked Kristoff over to one of the benches that those who were either waiting for their turn or spectating the ongoing of the court usually occupied and took a seat. After she got herself situated comfortably she looked up to Nathan and asked "What do you want to talk about?"

Nathan thought for a moment about how he wanted to phrase the fact that he was concerned about her sister going insane. He said after a pause "Elsa has gone through a lot recently, and I'm concerned about how she's dealing with it. When we were out on that walk she said some pretty worrying stuff." Anna sat forward in her seat and the smile on her face fell away. He continued "I tried to make her feel better, to explain to her that it wasn't her fault that either of the people she killed died. I don't know if I helped or not, but she told me she was considering putting her gloves back on. I haven't known her very long, but she did explain a bit of that too me, and it sounds pretty bad."

Anna's eyes widened and she stood from the bench quickly. "She said what?" she asked, nearly shouting. Nathan flinched from the volume of her shrill voice. Kristoff put his good hand on her shoulder and said comfortingly "Hey, hey, calm down. We can go talk to her, right?" he looked up from Anna to Nathan and asked "Right?"

Nathan shrugged. "I don't know where she is, and Anna has to be in court in half an hour. I doubt that's enough time." He looked to Anna "When are you going to get off here? I think that talking to Elsa should be a major priority." Both Anna and Kristoff nodded in agreement, and Anna said "there were more people here than usual, so I really couldn't say. Maybe three more hours, two if I hurry."

Nathan nodded, than a thought occurred to him. He said "Usually royals have people for this kind of thing. You know, judges and the like. Why not just pass it off to one of them for today?" Anna shook her head and said "No, this is royal court. Only a member of the royal family can mare rulings in the royal court. It's where the cases go when they get bumped up enough from the judges, and is typically held only once a month, which is why there is such a buildup of cases when it happens."

Nathan gave and annoyed hiss through his teeth. He wanted to help Elsa any way he could, but without Anna he doubted he could do that. He found himself sincerely wishing that he had spent at least some time in his past building social skills beyond basic interactions. He had never needed them before now, and felt like he was woefully underprepared. He looked to Kristoff with a hopeful expression and asked "How about you? Do you think you could help me?"

Kristoff held up the arm in the sling and said "I don't know if that's such a good idea. She might have bad feelings about this."

Nathan crossed his arms and started pacing back and forth in front of Anna and Kristoff, running numerous scenarios through his head, trying to analyze the situation like a mission. It didn't help much, only putting his nerves on edge. The only thing that he could really do that would result in a beneficial outcome for him was to wait, everything else was a risk he didn't need or want to take. However, every minute that he waited was a minute that Elsa was in pain, a thought that didn't sit well at all. If it were a physical pain, he might be able to do something about it. Trying to make her feel better, however, was like trying to perform surgery without any knowledge of the inner workings of the body. He would be totally lost if he went alone.

He stopped pacing and clenched his jaw. "I guess I'll have to wait." he said, taking a seat on the bench behind him. Anna gave him a worried look and said "Are you sure? Will she be alright?" she looked down at Nathan's hands, and he suddenly became aware that he was drumming his fingers quickly on his leg. He stopped, and Anna said "Will you be alright?"

He nodded and said "Yes, of course." Anna looked down at his foot, and he immediately noticed that his foot was tapping on the floor. He tensed the muscles in his leg, stopping the tick. He didn't know when he had become such a restless person, but he felt that it was reasonable to assume that it had something to do with the feelings he had for Elsa. He stood from his seat and resumed pacing from side to side.

Anna looked to Kristoff and asked "Does he seem alright to you?" Nathan chose to ignore the comment. Kristoff responded after a moment of thought, saying "No. He seems like he really needs to do something about this." Nathan chose to ignore that comment as well. Anna turned her focus to Nathan and said "Stop pacing, I want to tell you something."

Nathan stopped and turned to see Anna pointing at the seat across from her, wordlessly telling his to sit. He did so and looked to her expectantly. She scooted forwards in her seat slightly and said "Nathan, it's obvious that you care a lot about Elsa. We all do. It's also kind of clear that you…" she tugged at the braids in her hair skittishly "…that you care about her differently. I would just like to tell you that she feels the same way about you."

Nathan didn't know what he had expected, but the words hit him like a sack of bricks. He had already known that Elsa had feelings for him, but there was something about such an outright forward confirmation of it that took him by surprise.

Anna let go of her braids and readjusted her position on the seat, looking at Nathan's face intently for any kind of expression. She must have seen some change that he wasn't aware of because she started trying to console him "I think she'll listen to you. You might not think so, but she puts a lot of value in what you say." She stood from the bench and held out a hand to Nathan. He took it, and Anna pulled him up to his feet. Behind her Kristoff pushed himself to his feet, and she pointed towards the door. "I can go and get a conversation going, if you want, but I'll have to come back here pretty quick after. Are you ok with that?"

Nathan gave her a small smile and said "I think I could use as much help as I can get." Anna gave him a sympathetic smile and started walking towards the door. Before she got too far, she looked back at Kristoff with a worried look. He got up slowly from the bench and joined Anna, flinching slightly as he moved. Nathan joined them hesitantly.

On the way out the door the trio passed a few men standing in the hall outside talking in hushed tones among themselves. As soon as they saw the door open they stopped talking and looked nervously at Anna. As she passed, she rolled her eyes and whispered over to both Kristoff and Nathan "They have been waiting all day for their turn, and they think that I called recess to avoid going over their case." Kristoff smiled and asked "And did you?"

Anna gave him a smirk and remained silent. He returned her smirk with one of his own. Nathan looked between the two with a brief expression of confusion before he gave up trying to understand them. The smirks that they had given hadn't been extraordinary in any way, yet they seemed to have again communicated through it. His thoughts quickly turned back to Elsa, and the impending talk that they would have to have. He had already tried once, and it hadn't gone too well. But perhaps, with Anna helping, it would go a little better this time.

Anna's help wouldn't do much, however, if they couldn't find Elsa. Anna was walking like she knew where Elsa was, so he chose to follow. If at some point Anna realized that she didn't know where Elsa was than Nathan could use his shadow sense to locate her.

The walk went by without much more happening. They passed a few servants who bowed and greeted Anna, but that was about it. They climbed the stairs to the top floor of the castle and walked to the door to Elsa's room. Nathan didn't know if she was inside, but figured that it would be worth a try. If Anna thought that she would be in her room, than he would give it a try.

Anna stepped forward and wrapped her knuckles on the wooden door. She stepped back and waited for any kind of answer from the room. Nathan couldn't help but look sideways at Kristoff, who was eyeing the door anxiously. Anna knocked on the door again, this time saying "Elsa! Are you in there?"

A few more moments of silence passed again before Anna started to knock a third time. Just as her knuckles started to hit the door, it cracked open, and Elsa peaked through the crack. Her eyes fell first on Anna, than flicked behind her to Nathan and Kristoff. Anna spoke again, saying in a soft voice and stepping in front of the sliver of space between the door and the frame "We just want to talk. Could you let us in?"

Elsa's voice said "Anna, can't you just… just leave me be?" The door started to close, but Anna put her shoulder against the door and leaned into it, keeping it open. As she did so, she said "Elsa, you can't just go back to shutting yourself in your room! Remember how happy you were when you finally came out of your room? Remember how sad you were when you cooped yourself up in there? Do you really want to go back to that? Just let us in! Let us in, and we can help you."

The door creaked open. Elsa looked up from the floor and to the trio. Before anyone could say anything, a loud and mildly obnoxious gasp rang out from inside the room, and the small white snowman ran out of the room and put his stick-arms around Anna's legs. Her face brightened, and she knelt down to be face to face with the tiny snowman. "Olaf! How long have you been here?" Instead of answering, the snowman looked back to Elsa. She said "A few hours. He's been trying to help me."

Nathan took note of the word choice "trying" and asked "And has he helped much?"

Elsa went down on one knee and patted the top of Olaf's head. "Yes, he helped a lot." She gave Olaf a little push towards Anna and said "Go on, go do something else. Thanks for everything you've done, but I don't think there's anything else to talk about."

Olaf gave her an unsure look and said "Ok." like a child. He went shuffling off down the hallway, and they watched him go. As he rounded the corner and disappeared, Nathan looked back to Elsa and said "How are you doing?" in a slightly concerned voice. She returned his look and said quietly "I'm… better."

Anna stepped forward and put a hand on Elsa's shoulder. They looked at each other silently a moment before Elsa pulled Anna into a tight hug and whispered in her ear "Thank you." After a few seconds Elsa broke the hug and looked at Nathan. She smiled at him and said "And thanks to you. For everything you've done. I still need something from you, though." she turned to Kristoff and Anna and said "Go, please, I need to talk to Nathan about something."

Anna gave a nervous look to Nathan. He nodded, showing it was alright for them to leave. Something about Elsa had changed. She didn't seem to be lying about being better. From what she said, she actually wanted to talk. Anna nodded and turned to walk away. Kristoff joined her and but his good arm around her shoulders. Nathan could tell that they wanted to stay, but Elsa wanted them to go, so they didn't have much of a choice. Elsa walked back into her room.

Nathan followed her in, and found himself surrounded by the ornate crystalline constructs that Elsa seemed to practice making as difficult to comprehend as possible. As Nathan looked at each one his eyes unfocused and his head started to hurt. He pulled the door closed behind him, figuring that it was a safe bet that Elsa didn't want anyone listening to their conversation. He turned back to Elsa and found her sitting in a chair by the window. She gestured to a chair next to her, and Nathan took a seat.

"So…" he said "…what do you want to talk about?" Elsa took a deep breath and said "I was talking to Olaf, and he said something interesting. He asked me if I could somehow share my power, like how Gothel did with her people." She held up her hands defensively "Not exactly how she did it, with the control and that, but more like what happened with you."

Nathan nodded. It made sense, as long as she didn't go crazy with it. There was still a twinge of concern, though, because this didn't seem like something that she would do. Nevertheless, Nathan couldn't deny the benefits of at least looking into the possibility.

He smiled, and said "I doubt that the method you used with me would work with anyone else." Elsa gave a light laugh, and said "Of course, I wouldn't think so. I was hoping that maybe you knew something about how to pull something like that off."

Nathan racked his brain for anything like that. The few books and journals he had found that had given him some miscellaneous information on the powers the Outsider gave hadn't said anything about sharing powers. Looking back, he wished he had kept those books. They might help Elsa somehow. But unfortunately, he had not considered when moving that he might have any further use for those ragged old things. "No, unfortunately. I don't know how you would do that." He put a hand to his chin "Maybe you could figure out how to do it yourself, if you had a rune. I would give you one but…" he patted his pockets to make sure that he didn't have any on him "…I used my last one yesterday."

Elsa nodded sadly and said "Oh, well that's alright. It's not really something that needs to be rushed anyways." Nathan raised an eyebrow and asked "Who are you planning on sharing your powers with? I wouldn't think that giving them to the military would be quite your… style."

Elsa's eyes widened and she said "No, no, no, I would never do something like that! I wanted to give them to Anna. I just… I think that it would bring us closer, and I think that she would enjoy it too. I don't think that she'll have much of a problem controlling it. So you think that I'll need a rune to do it?"

Nathan nodded. He didn't see any way that Elsa could do it otherwise. As he had heard, Elsa blasting other people with her raw power didn't end well for those on the receiving end. He didn't know of any places that could reliably provide runes, so it seemed that it would be up to chance to provide Elsa the rune that she needed.

Elsa nodded again and said "I'll contact Mr. Brimshaw and see if he's found any lately. Do you know of any other way we might find any?" Nathan shrugged and answered "I suppose that if you really wanted one you could put a bounty in them out in the public, but that doesn't tent to end well." Elsa gave him a confused look, and he added "Generally the type who have runes aren't the type you want to do business with." Memories of disgusting rooms filled with decaying meat and scribbles on the walls made Nathan wrinkle his nose.

An idea occurred to him, and he said "Perhaps I could go out and look for one, though?" Elsa gave Nathan a thankful smile and said "Thank you. It would mean a lot."

A few seconds of silence followed, and Nathan used the time to look around the room again at the crystal formations hanging off the walls and ceiling. They were still difficult to make out, but from the sitting position he was now in they were easier to focus on and understand spatially. Much of the shapes were inverted on themselves, making them give endless reflections of their interior and confusing images of different areas around the room. He squinted at a few of them, and Elsa giggled as she saw his face. He turned to her and asked "Did you make those specifically to hurt people's brains, or was than an accidental effect?"

She waved a hand in a circle in front of her face, and a spinning piece of ice formed in her hand. She made a few motions, and her image in the ice fractured into hundreds of small sections. Nathan looked on, fairly unimpressed, until each section that was casting a reflection started to shift, and Elsa's face was replaced by a different portion of Nathan's. The change in visuals proved too much for Nathan's eyes, forcing him to blink rapidly and look to the floor to reassert control over his focus.

Elsa laughed again, and Nathan turned back to her again. He was relieved to find that the plate of reflections was gone. Elsa giggled again, and Nathan raised an eyebrow. "Whatever Olaf said must have been pretty significant. Want to share?"

Elsa ran a hand through her hair and said "It wasn't really what he said, it was more how he said it. He essentially said the same thing that you did, just differently. I don't think it was really anything that could be helped, just… Olaf has a special way with me. It might sound kind of weird, but he's a part of me. I just needed to hear it from him." Nathan nodded. He wasn't sure how Elsa's link with Olaf worked, but it sounded plausible that what she said was true, that Olaf was some part of her own mind.

Nathan looked out the window and out over the city. Already he was thinking of where a bone charm might be. His first stop would have to be the whale processing plant. After that he would have to find another place to look. Elsa shot a look up at Nathan's hair, and he gave it a few brushes over with his hand. "What? Is there something in my hair?"

Elsa smiled and said "No, I was just looking at the stripe in your hair." She continued to stare at it before asking "Do you like it?" the question seemed odd to Nathan, but he decided to answer anyways. "Sure, yea. I don't see it often, so I just forget about it most of the time. I've never given much thought to how I look anyways. Why do you ask?" Elsa shrugged and said "It's almost the same color as mine." She rubbed her hands together nervously "I think that we're kind of alike. I think that you understand me in a way that no one really has before, and I think that I get you more than anyone else." She stood from her chair, and Nathan did the same.

"I think…" she took a step closer to Nathan "I think that I love you." As soon as the words left her mouth, Nathan could see a weight lift off of her shoulders. He replied, letting his feelings guide him far more than he was used to. "I think I love you too."

They looked at each other, and Nathan felt that he was starting to understand how Anna and Kristoff communicated with just looks. There was so much that Elsa's look said, so many emotions that were simply there. He felt so much coming from the simple look, so much that she didn't need to say for him to understand. She loved him, and she would never turn her back on him. She would never ignore him. He couldn't help but wonder what she saw in his eyes.

She put her arms around his neck and gave him a deep, warm look. He returned the look, and put his hands on hers. She drew closer to Nathan, eyes closed, and he leaned forward and did the same. Just before their lips touched, a knock at the door interrupted them. The two separated quickly.

Without opening the door, a voice said "Queen Elsa, your presence is requested in the courts." She let out an annoyed sigh and rolled her eyes. Nathan couldn't help but give her an amused smile. She replied to the still closed door "I'll be there as soon as possible!"

She took a few steps towards the door, than stopped and turned. She put out an arm, inviting Nathan to join her. He took her arm gladly and accompanied her out.

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><p>Author's thing:<p>

so it took forty-one chapters to happen, but it happened. Boy did I feel uncomfortable writing that part. As always, leave feedback, all of it is appreciated.

the rating for this story will be changed to T, because it probably should have been that from the start but it wasn't because I was lazy when I put the story up.

On a totally unrelated note, I started playing System Shock 2 yesterday, and from what I've seen so far it is pretty great.


	42. Chapter 42

Nathan couldn't help but smile when he saw Elsa's annoyed expression as she walked through the halls. Whoever had delivered the message had apparently cleared out of the area, a good move in Nathan's opinion. Elsa looked like she might start blowing steam out of her ears pretty soon. He wondered what had happened in the courts that would get Anna to call for Elsa's help. She had known that him and Elsa would be talking, and had known that it was important, so what could get her to call her away? Whatever it was had better be worth it, or Elsa might have a few choice words for her sister.

The servants on the way to the courts must have received some heads-up about Elsa coming, because those few that Nathan saw cleared out of the way as quickly as they could, and no one said anything to her. He considered saying something to her, but figured that it would be safer for everyone if he didn't.

They came to the large doors to the courtroom, and the guard posted at the door had to practically throw himself into the door to open it fast enough for Elsa to not slow her pace. She stormed into the courts and gave Anna a burning look at the other side of the room. She gave Elsa a helpless look and gestured bewildered at the person standing on the floor slightly below her and said "What was I supposed to do?" The guards on either side of Anna gave her a strange look, and the person on the floor turned to look at them.

As soon as her eyes met Nathan's, her expression changed to something very close to abject terror. Nathan raised an eyebrow as he took in the sight of a person that he never thought he would see again. The small frame of Lee, the woman who had lead him straight to Gothel, looked quite out of place in the courtroom. She was so short that she looked almost like a child who had wondered into the room on accident, her terrified expression not doing much to get rid of the image. Elsa strode forward towards Lee, clearly unaware of her identity. Nathan stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder, holding her back. He stepped past her and walked up towards Lee, feeling every eye on him.

As he drew closer to Lee, she shrank back and looked to the floor in terror. He looked down at her and said "What are you doing here, exactly? I thought I told you that-" Elsa interrupted him, saying "wait, you know her?"

Nathan turned back to Elsa and tried to position himself as in-between the two as he could and said "She's one of Gothel's people. Her name is Lee. She was the main reason why I was able to find Gothel so quickly. I don't think that she has nearly as much power as her other servants, she never demonstrated the ability to use any magic."

Elsa took a step to the side and looked Lee over and said "It sound like we should be thanking her." Nathan shrugged his shoulders and said "Well, I had to make her think that I was interested in joining Gothel, than I had to hold her at knifepoint after that, so there was a fair bit of duress involved."

Elsa looked up at Anna and asked "What does she want?" Anna gave her a shrug and said "She said that she wanted to talk to you. I tried to deal with it myself, but she wouldn't talk to anyone but you." Lee chose then to break her silence, saying "Please, your majesty, can we talk somewhere more private?"

Elsa looked around at all the people sitting in the benches, and every pair of eyes was either on her or on the woman in front of her. She looked to Nathan, in hopes that he would have some advice, but he merely shrugged. She sighed and turned back to the woman, who was still eyeing Nathan with fear in her eyes. She nodded and said "Fine. Follow me." In a curt tone and started walking away back towards the door. She didn't look back to make sure that she was following. She trusted than Nathan would ensure that she followed.

Nathan gestured in the direction of the door, indicating that Lee should go first, letting him keep an eye on her from behind. Her hesitation was clear, but in the end she saw that she didn't really have any choice. She fell into line behind Elsa, throwing worried glances behind her often, making sure that Nathan wasn't doing anything. Every time she did, he felt a smile cross his face. He wasn't going to do anything to her as long as she kept herself in check. The guards near the doors pulled them open and they walked out. Nathan made sure to keep himself on edge, ready for anything that Lee might try and pull. He didn't see much that she could do, though. He couldn't imagine that Gothel's death had done much good for her powers, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

Elsa led them to another room on the same floor, a study, and motioned for Nathan to close and lock the door behind him. He took the key from a desk near the door and put it in the lock, turned it, then put it in one of his pockets. Elsa pulled a chair from the desk and took a seat, than gestured towards another nearby. Lee took the chair and sat down in it, then gave one last nervous look towards Nathan, who had taken up a position directly in front of the door with his arms crossed, than looked back to Elsa.

Before Elsa had the chance to ask her what she wanted, she started talking. "Please, I want to make up for what I've done in the past." Elsa raised an eyebrow, and she continued. "I was forced into serving Gothel, I never wanted to. I was in a bad situation, and she gave me a way out. If I had refused than I would have died. I didn't have a choice." Elsa gave a look to Nathan, who shrugged. He didn't know if Lee could be trusted or not, and he didn't remember what she had said to him before too well.

Elsa looked back to Lee and sighed. "Can you prove that you didn't want to help Gothel? How do I know that I can trust you? And what services could you do for me?" Lee sat forward on her seat and spoke, clearly eager to prove that she was genuine. "Please just give me a chance! Gothel made me give my life to her, than she threw it away! I have nothing." Tears started to leak from her eyes "Please, I just want to help you. The people I was with tried to kill you, but I feel like I have to make up for them. Please, just give me a chance."

Elsa bit her lip. She didn't know what to do, if she trusted the women than she might get a knife in the back, but on the other hand, she might give the woman a new life. It was a decision that she didn't feel good about. She had decided people's fates before, in various courts and other situations, but this was different. She gave another deep sigh, and said "How do you propose that you prove it?"

Lee's face lit up and the tears stopped. She said "You'll take me? Thank you, thank you!" It was hard to do, but Elsa held up a hand to interrupt her. "I didn't say that, I asked you what you will do to prove you're willing to serve me." Lee's smile faded slightly, and she responded quickly "I'll do anything! Just name what you want me to do and I'll do it!" There was a moment of silence. Elsa looked to the floor in thought, and Lee's smile fell even more. Nathan looked on the scene and felt a bit sad for Elsa. He never envied Elsa's responsibility as a leader, and now was no exception. She obviously was having a hard time deciding if she could trust the woman. Nathan wouldn't, but he doubted that Elsa would do the same as him.

Elsa looked back to Nathan and gave him a questioning look. She wasn't asking him whether or not to trust Lee, she was asking how to know if she could trust her. Nathan thought for a moment before the conversation that they had shared before being called down to the courts. He stepped away from the door and gave Lee a stern look. "If you want to prove yourself, than go out and find Elsa runes." Elsa gave Nathan a smile than turned back to Lee and said "Yes, that's what you can do. If you go out and find runes, than I can arrange for you to have a more permanent position."

Lee nodded quickly, than turned her head to the side and asked "What kind of rune do you mean?" Nathan answered before Elsa could, figuring that he could describe a rune better than Elsa could. "The black mark on a plate of whalebone. Chances are that you saw one on Gothel." Lee looked down and said quietly "I only saw Gothel once, and then there were other things I was focused on. I you could show me one of these runes, it would be a big help."

Nathan brought his left hand up and clenched his fist, putting just enough power through his system to make the mark burn brightly through the leather glove. Lee looked on the mark for a second before her eyes widened and she looked slightly taken aback. She pointed to the mark and said slowly "That's… that's impossible." Nathan raised an eyebrow, and she continued "Gothel said that she was the only one that was chosen, that she was the only one pure enough to be marked by the Father." She looked to Nathan's face and saw his puzzled expression and explained "Gothel had the same mark on her hand, and she always said that she was given the mark because she was purer than everyone, and because of that she was given power by the one that she called the Father. According to her, the Father is a person who watches everything and sees everything, waiting for the opportunity to raise humanity to its highest point. I always kind of figured that she was lying, but there wasn't much else that could explain what I had seen."

Nathan smiled and said "Not all of it was lies. This "Father" is real, both me and Elsa have talked to him. He is no kind of father-figure though." Lee's eyes widened even more, and Nathan continued "He doesn't pick who he gives power to people based on the persons "purity", he does it by how "interesting" they are. He's called the Outsider." Lee tilted her head to the side and asked "What do you mean by "interesting"? Shouldn't there be a lot more people with powers than?"

Nathan smiled and looked over to Elsa, who gave a small smile back. He knew that she understood why he was smiling, but it didn't seem that she found it humorous herself. He reminded himself that Elsa was considerably bitterer towards the Outsider than he was. He looked back to Lee and said "If you can figure out what he thinks is interesting, you could probably become the most powerful person in the world. Good luck though, because people have given their lives trying to find that out, and end up going insane for their trouble. I would recommend not trying it."

Lee gave him a confused look and said "How do you know all this? Why would Gothel lie to her followers?" Nathan snorted at the questions. He answered by holding his hand up again and saying "The mark comes with correspondence with the Outsider. It's pretty infrequent, and usually leaves you with more questions than answers, but you get it. As for the second question, why wouldn't she? Whatever she told you, she did so you would be more controllable. That's how a cult works, the people under the leader have to have complete faith that the leader is right." He recalled the things that had happened to him when he had been at the camp, and he thought out loud "And given Gothel's set of powers, getting that level of faith wouldn't be too difficult." Another thing occurred to him, and he narrowed his eyes at Lee "…Which makes your claim that you are abandoning her, even though she's dead, a bit hard to believe."

Elsa looked to Nathan, her eyes wide as she realized the merit of what Nathan said. The chances that she had really not wanted to be a part of them were incredibly small. She hadn't seen or heard much about Gothel's camp, and she wanted to keep it that way, but from what Nathan was saying it sounded like Lee couldn't feel the way that she claimed. She looked back to Lee and narrowed her eyes.

Lee held up her hands, scared about the sudden change. She spoke frantically, saying "No, no, there's a reason I don't have the insane devotion that the others did. All of the others were initiated by Gothel herself, and I guess that she used magic to do it. I was brought in by someone else. I didn't get any magic from Gothel." She looked down sadly and said "That's why I didn't have any powers."

Elsa looked to Nathan again, and he shrugged. What Lee was saying was nothing that could really be disproven, and it actually fit with his previous experiences with her. Elsa nodded slowly, than turned back to Lee and said "If you can bring me three runes, then I'll see what I can do."

She stood from her seat and motioned towards the door for Nathan to open it. He obliged, pulling the key from the door and pushing it open. Lee gave a huge smile to Elsa and looked like she could give her a massive hug. She withheld, though, and said "Thank you! Thank you! You won't regret this, I promise!"

Elsa motioned again towards the door, and Lee looked down, abashed, and said "Oh, right. Sorry." And walked quietly from the room. Nathan waited by the door for Elsa to join them, and joined in next to her. They both walked behind Lee, making sure that she found her way out of the castle. The walk passed quietly, and before anything remarkable happened they came to the large doors to the castle. The guards pulled the door open, and Lee walked out. She cast one last look over her shoulder at Elsa before the doors swung shut.

Elsa turned to Nathan and asked "How do you think I handled that?" as they started to walk back.

Nathan shrugged his shoulders and replied "I guess you did alright. It was up to you anyways. Though I do have one question: why did you say three runes? Do you know how many you'll need?" Elsa shook her head and said "No, it just seemed like a good number. From what you have told me about those runes, there not very easy to find, so I figured that having to find a few would be a good test to see if she is genuine." There was a quiet moment than Elsa said "You didn't want to trust her, did you? You wanted to just turn her away."

Nathan couldn't help but hear a slight accusation in her words. Yes, if he had had his way Lee wouldn't have gotten a chance. But that was why he didn't like being in charge. There were far too many situations that required judgments he always seemed ill suited to make. "Yes. I wouldn't have given her a chance, she already got one from me, but I will follow your decision. What do you plan to do with her, should she come back with the runes?" Elsa gave a small groan and said "I don't know. I couldn't just tell her to go, though. She seemed that she really needed something, and I'm sure that I can find something for her to do."

They returned to Elsa's room and took the seats that they had been in before the interruption. The rather intimate moment that he and Elsa had shared just before the interruption was fresh in his mind, and a small frown came across his face. That little interruption had certainly killed the moment. There was still a warm feeling between him and Elsa, but the moment had passed. Elsa sat silently looking out the window, and Nathan ran over the conversation with Lee in his head. Elsa's opinion towards the Outsider had seemed negative, and he was interested in why.

"So, Elsa..." he said, breaking the silence "…you don't have good feelings towards the Outsider, right?" she looked back to him and nodded. He continued "Why is that? You don't really seem like the person to hold those kind of feelings for someone."

Elsa took a deep breath and let it out as a large sigh before answering. "I don't like him, no. Every problem on my life has been because of him, though. There hasn't been a single bad thing that has happened to me that wasn't at least somehow related to my powers, and he's the reason that I have those powers." She looked down at her hands "If I had just been born… normal… maybe I would be happier."

Nathan nodded. That may be true, but it wasn't the only thing that was true. "But if you were born normal, than none of the good things that have happened to you would have happened either. I probably wouldn't be here if you were born normal." A hurt look passed through her eyes, and Nathan hurriedly clarified. "If you had been born normal, than I never would have heard of you and never would have come." The words of the Outsider ran through his head, and he said "You were given power because you are interesting. You can't deny that you are interesting. No one can. But your powers are a part of you." He could feel the talk drifting into the kind of talk that would depress Elsa, but he felt that he needed to continue talking. "Even though your powers get a bit out of hand at times, you always get them under control again. I wouldn't expect anybody to be able to handle the kind of power you do and keep it completely controlled all the time."

She gave him a look that almost seemed envious and said "But you have complete control over your powers! Why can you be so nonchalant and collect, never waver and never lose control, when I can't? Why is the Outsider so unfair?" She put a hand to her mouth and her eyes widened like she regretted the outburst. Nathan, on the other hand, was glad that he had heard it. He knew the reason that he had control and she didn't. "The answer is pretty simple." He said in as a reassuring a voice as he could. She gave him a questioning look and he continued "Because you are the most powerful person I have ever seen. I haven't seen a lot of people with powers from the Outsider, but I have no doubt that you are one of the strongest. Compared to you, I am weak. The reason that I can control my powers more is because there is less to control. All of the spells that I have, I have to make before I can cast them. I have to use the power in the rune to make something that my meager little pool of energy can handle. You don't have that limitation. You can do anything that you want with your power, whereas I have to be very careful with my usage." He started to feel very self-conscious of what he was saying. He had spoken to long and he knew it.

He stopped talking and avoided looking at Elsa. He was sure that she was tired of listening to him drone on about how she was superior to him. He stood from the chair as his stomach growled angrily at him. He turned to the door to Elsa's room and said over his shoulder "I'm going to go and have lunch." before walking to the door and grabbing the handle. Before he was able to pull the door open, Elsa's arms wrapped around his torso and he was pulled into a surprise hug.

Elsa squeezed him tightly and said "Thanks for trying to make me feel better. I appreciate it. Mind if I join you for lunch?" Nathan shook his head and smiled, saying "Not at all. I would love it if you would." As the two walked out of the door Elsa slipped her hand into Nathan's and took a soft hold. He matched her hold and felt some of the warmth in his hand leave even through his glove.

Nathan could smell the food cooking far before anything else. It was the same huge plethora of choices that seemed to be served every day for those who were present in the castle. His stomach growled again, and Elsa gave a small laugh. "You really are hungry, aren't you?" she said, giving him a joking smile. He patted his stomach and said in a kidding voice "Yes. Nothing kick starts the appetite like surgery and people swearing into a life of service."

Elsa raised an eyebrow and asked "Surgery? Is that what you have been doing? I wouldn't think that you've just been sitting around doing nothing, but I didn't think you would be doing surgery." Nathan smiled and said "Well, I was helping with surgery. I didn't perform it all by myself, it was a little too bad for that." It occurred to him that hearing about the operation would likely kill Elsa's appetite, so he stopped before he went into too much detail. Elsa seemed to notice his abrupt stop but didn't push him to talk further.

They entered the large doors and walked to the huge room. After taking large plates full of food they found an empty table and sat down. They started to talk, but before long were interrupted when Anna wordlessly approached and nearly fell into the chair next to Elsa. She looked very tired.

A few seconds later Kristoff took a seat next to Anna and put two plates of food on the table, one in front of him and the other in front of Anna. Anna looked down at the food a second before sitting forward and taking the utensils in a weak grip and starting to eat. Nathan and Elsa looked at each other with unsure faces, than back to Anna. She looked up from her food and noticed their faces, and said "I'm so tired of court. I don't know how you do it Elsa. It all just seems so…" her voice faded off as she tried to find the right word. Elsa had it, however, and finished her sentence for her. "So trivial?"

Anna smiled at Elsa and said "Yes, thank you." The two started to talk about the kind of things that happened in court and about how useless it all seemed, and Nathan tuned them out fairly quickly. He ate his food and looked around the room, bored. He thought of Lee, and of where she might find the runes. He started to feel restless, thinking of all the trouble that she could get into. There was a lot, and he had good enough reason to doubt her judgment. He finished his food and stood from the table. The other three looked at him quizzically, and he answered their questioning looks by saying "I'm going to go and check on something. I'll be back later."

He turned and walked towards the door. He could hear the other three talking among themselves, probably asking each other what he was doing. He shouldered the door open and walked out, thinking of the best place to start his search. The best place to find a rune would probably be the whale processing plant, but he doubted the Lee knew that. He could ask around among the guards patrolling. Lee wasn't very remarkable, but there was a chance that one would have seen her.

* * *

><p>Authors thing:<p>

And so, with SHODAN defeated, I am free to write fanfiction again.

This one feels weird to me. Maybe it's Lee, she's pretty weird. Tell me if this feels weird.

Leave a review and do the other stuff!


	43. Chapter 43

The large doors opened and the chilled air from outside hit him in the face. He blinked a few times and started walking out the gates towards the city. He stopped next to the guard stationed just outside the gate and asked him "Have you seen a woman about…" he held a hand up to about where Lee's head would be if she was just standing "…this tall?"

The man gave a short bark of a laugh and said "Oh yea, not much interesting happens out here, so I tend to remember most people who go through. She was muttering something about bones or something. Seemed a bit crazy to me." Nathan nodded and said "That would be her. Do you know where she went?"

The man scratched his head for a moment, then said "She said something about a bar, if that helps. That's all I heard her say. Sorry if that doesn't help." Nathan thanked the man and walked away across the bridge to the city. He started thinking about places that Lee might go other than a bar. The whale processing plant would make sense, but she didn't know about it. His pace quickened as he remembered Prattchet. It seemed like so long ago that he had snuck his way into the man's house and ended his life. There had been several runes and bone charms in the man's house, and it was possible that Nathan had missed something when he had gone through the house. If Lee knew about him at all, than his house would likely be a prime spot for her to check. Chances were, however, that she would go and go and talk to the bartender and see if he knew anything. Nathan had done the same thing when trying to get Elsa's trust.

Nathan felt his back hunch slightly as he started altering the way he stepped so that his footfalls made nearly no noise. There only a light dusting of snow on the road, which was something of an inconvenience for Nathan. He had been hoping that he could use the snow to help track Lee. Footprints were a very useful thing for tracking. Any print left in the small layer of snow wouldn't be trustable. Snow like this could easily mimic a footprint with the slightest breeze.

He tried to recall where the bar that he had made use of was, and found it a surprisingly difficult task. He had had no intention of returning again, and had therefor paid little attention to its position in the city. There was the possibility that Lee would go to one of the other bars in the city. There were only two near the castle within a reasonable walking distance. He supposed that he should try the closer of the two, the one that he had gone to. He stopped some random man on the street and asked him where the nearest bar was. The man looked him over with a raised eyebrow before pointing him down a side street. Nathan thanked the man and walked down the street he had indicated.

In minutes Nathan could see the brightly glowing lights of the bar, even in the light of the afternoon sun. He made his way to the front and pushed the door open, recognizing the warm interior of the bar. He looked around the room quickly and found no sign of Lee. Stepping into the bar, he noticed that the bartender seemed to react to him, giving a wide smile and putting his elbows up on the bar. Nathan wasn't sure if the man was simply extending a courtesy that he did to all those who entered the establishment, or if he actually remembered him from their last encounter.

Nathan walked up to the bar and pulled a stool out with a foot, twisting his ankle so that the stool came to rest a few inches behind him. He took a seat on the stool and put his arms up on the table. He and the bartender looked at each other with expectant expressions for a few moments before the bartender gave a deep, bellowing laugh and said "Are you going to ask me the bloody question or what?"

Nathan returned the man's laugh with a small smile of his own. He said "I guess that people like me don't come here for drinks, do they?" the man smiled again and said "Speaking from years of experience: no they do not." He popped his knuckles "So anyways, what is it that I can help you with?"

Nathan raised an eyebrow and said "What, no price this time?" generally it wasn't a good idea to question such things where money was involved, but the man's apparent jovial nature did something to set Nathan at ease. The man shook his head and said "Let's see if I know anything about the question before I charge you for an answer." Nathan felt a bit of gratitude towards the man. It wasn't every day that one found a man so connected who didn't just want money.

He nodded thanks to the man and held up a hand at about the height Lee would be. "Seen a girl about this tall, black hair, rather disgruntled looking?" The man stroked his large brown beard for a moment before saying "No, can't say I have. Sorry buddy."

Nathan let out an annoyed sigh. If she had not yet been to this bar, than either she was very bad at finding her way around cities, or she had gone to the other bar. He took a moment to enjoy simply sitting at the bar before he made to get up and leave. Before he could, the bartender grabbed his arm and whispered "Hold it" in a voice without any inflection.

Nathan stopped moving and tensed his body, ready for anything. The bartender's eyes were locked on something behind Nathan in the direction of the door. A smile came across his face and he nodded in the same kind of way he had to Nathan when he came in, and his grip on Nathan's arm loosened. Out of the corner of his mouth he whispered "Will that girl recognize you if she sees you?" Nathan whispered back at the same volume, careful not to move anything but his mouth. The man gave an almost imperceptible nod towards the corner of the room and said "Take a seat over there. I'll keep her from looking back there. Stay or wait outside, I don't care."

The finality in his voice signaled to Nathan than this was good time to debate any objections that he had with the matter. He got up from the stool and turned directly in the direction that the man had indicated, than started walking towards the table with as straight upright posture as he could, hoping that the change from his usual hunched stature would be enough to make the walk unnoticed. It appeared to work, as he made it to the table and sat down without any kind of interference.

As he sat sown, he looked to the bar in an attempt to see if it was in fact Lee why had entered. Sure enough, she was walking up to the bar with a determined look on her face. Nathan strained his ears in an attempt to grab any part of the conversation between her and the barkeeper he could. Given that it was noon, and most people were still at their jobs, there weren't many other people in the bar to make noise, which was something that Nathan was thankful for. In spite of the quiet conditions, the conversation was difficult to make out. Lee seemed to have a naturally quiet voice, preferring to whisper anything that she said. The bartender had little choice but to match her volume, as any increase in his volume would likely make her suspicious of him.

He couldn't hear all of the words that they said, but he was able to make out bits and pieces. The bartender was the first to talk, saying "What can I do for you, Miss?" Lee's response was hushed, but Nathan was able to make out a few words. "Can you… me find… most people wouldn't touch?"

The bartender was slow to reply. When he did, he said in a semi-joking tone "There are a lot of things that people wouldn't touch, and they aren't too difficult to find. If you could be more specific than maybe I could help." Nathan smiled at how much easier the bartender was to hear than Lee. His deeper voice just seemed to cut through what background noise there was. Lee didn't speak again, but instead dug around in her pockets. After a few short moments she pulled a folded piece of paper and a pen and started to scrawl on the paper. After a few more moments she straightened up and pushed the paper towards the bartender.

He looked at the paper, and Lee said "A plate… whale… where can I get one?" The bartender gave a low whistle and said "That's a bad omen, little lady. Let me give you a tip: whatever's got you looking for these things, drop it. Nothing good ever comes to people who have those things, and even less to those who go looking for them." Lee dug into her pockets again, and this time brought out a small pouch of coins. She dropped this onto the table and slid it towards him. He eyed the bag with a sad expression for a moment before giving a deep sigh and leaning towards Lee.

Nathan saw the bartender's mouth start to move and cursed when he couldn't make out a word of it. He looked around the room for a better place that he could be while still keeping out of Lee's sight and being close enough to hear what the bartender was saying. His eyes fell upon a door behind and to the left that was open only a small crack. If he was fast, he might be able to blink to the door and slip inside before anyone noticed. His eyes flicked back quickly to Lee and the bartender, confirming that the two were focused on each other. The bartender was still whispering, and Lee was focused so intently on his face that Nathan doubted she would notice if he blinked directly behind the bartender and started dancing.

He stood from the table and focused on the door and pulsed enough power through his hand to blink. As soon as he arrived at the door he pushed himself against it and slid in, careful to do it smoothly so that no sudden movement would attract any attention. The door fell back to the cracked open position it had been in slowly. He got as close to the doorframe as he could without making himself visible, trying to catch every word.

"…and if they haven't got any, you might try the old Prattchet house. It's empty now, but people used to say that that old man was into that black magic stuff. From what I hear his house was picked pretty clean after his stuff was auctioned off, but whoever got those things might have had enough sense to leave them there. The last place I can tell you is the butcher yard over by the docks. They deal with whales, and a few of those boys have told me about some strange dealings with those bone things, that they're supposed to turn them in if they find them. That's the last place I can recommend."

Lee nodded thanks and stood from the stool. She turned to leave, and Nathan cast about the back room for any kind of back entrance. There was a door on the other side of the room, which he opted to take instead of the front door. He pushed it open and stepped out. He just started to pull it closed again when the door to the bar room slammed shut loudly. Nathan cursed under his breath and yanked the door shut quickly. He hadn't thought of that happening. He shrugged off the slight hiccup and refocused himself on the task at hand: tailing Lee.

* * *

><p>Anna gave a delighted squeal, making the Elsa and Kristoff give her a puzzled and, slightly worried look. She looked around her, feeling very self-aware, and sank deeper into her chair. Elsa gave her one last unsure look before continuing her story. "So than, after he said that, we got really close and hugged. We were about to kiss, but that's when we got called down to the courts."<p>

Anna put her hands over her mouth as she realized what she had interrupted be calling Elsa and Nathan down to the courts. "Oh Elsa, I'm sorry! If I would have known, I would've…" Elsa held up a hand and interrupted Anna, saying "Anna, it's alright. It's good that you called for me. I would rather make sure that the matter with that woman be cleared up than…" she stopped and cleared her throat awkwardly. There was silence for a short moment before Kristoff looked around the hall and asked "Speaking of Nathan, where did he go?"

The two women looked around the hall, both realizing that Nathan had been gone for some time now. He was nowhere to be found. Anna spoke, saying "He said he was going to go check on something, didn't he? What could he be checking?"

Her and Kristoff started thinking, but Elsa grew a small smirk on her face as she realized what Nathan was probably out doing. He had said that he didn't trust Lee, and he was likely out right now, trying to see if she could be trusted, if she was who and what she said she was. Elsa felt just a tad more comfortable, even though Nathan wasn't here with her.

The other two stopped their looking around, and Anna looked back to her. She said in a pleading voice "Tell me again how he told you." Kristoff rolled his eyes and slumped down into his chair. Elsa smiled and said "Well, after I told you to leave…"

* * *

><p>Lee threw a shoulder against the large gate again, and the lock keeping it closed gave another encouraging crack as a few more flakes of rust cascaded off of the gate. Lee gave a confident smile and braced herself for another try. She could already feel a bruise starting to form, but even the possibility that there was a rune inside made all the pain worth it.<p>

Nathan looked on from behind a nearby bush, keeping a close eye on Lee. He didn't know why she didn't check around the fence for holes instead of trying to better her way through the gate itself, but he supposed that whatever damage she caused to herself were a result of her own lack of consideration as to the other possibilities.

Lee threw herself against the gate one more time, and with one final cascade of rust chips, the gate bust open and Lee went stumbling through. Nathan got himself ready to follow her. She cast one final glance behind her to make sure that no one had come looking for the source of the noise she had been making before scampering off towards the large house. Nathan stood from behind the bush and followed her, stepping carefully to avoid upsetting any pebbles or stones along the way.

Lee approached the front of the building, and bent over something on the front step that Nathan couldn't see. He put a small amount of power into his shadow sense, and extended it to the range that he could feel what she was looking at. The feeling was unmistakable, there was a rune in front of her. She picked the rune up off of the ground and held it up to the light. Nathan's ability to feel the light made for a strange sensation, the light of the sun being absorbed and turned to shadow by the power of the rune.

Lee pocketed it, and started to turn back around. Nathan hurriedly turned and blinked behind the bush before Lee even had a chance to see him. He wondered if she was even planning on setting foot inside the house. Her approaching footsteps were more than enough answer. He slowly circled the bush so that Lee was at no point in direct line of sight. She kept walking, but Nathan wasn't so sure that the lone rune was all that the house had to offer. He poured more power into his shadow sense and felt his awareness stretch over the house. There were a few things inside, but nothing that was particularly remarkable.

He wondered where the rune had come from, but things like that had a way of mysteriously appearing where they were needed. Sometimes it seemed that they simply appeared out of thin air. He turned to follow Lee again, still stepping softly to avoid bringing any attention to himself.

Nathan was glad that Lee walked quickly. She made the walk from Prattchet's home to the butchery plant quickly. She was clearly very eager to complete her mission. Once she made it inside the perimeter of the plant, however, her pace slowed. She glanced about nervously as if she was expecting to be jumped by someone hiding in plain sight. Nathan couldn't help but grin when he remained undetected in spite of Lee's caution.

She entered the main building, and Nathan was quick to follow. She pulled the door to the office open and walked inside. Just before the door fell shut, Nathan put the toe of his shoe in-between it and the doorframe, keeping it open a small crack. He put an ear to the crack and listened intently to what was going on in the room.

First he heard the shuffling of papers, than Lee cleared her throat. The papers gave a sudden jerk of movement, than a wooden chair scraping against the floor and Brimshaw's voice came in a startled voice "What the… who are you?"

Lee was quick to respond, saying "Please, don't turn me away! I need your help with something." There was the rustling of fabric, and Nathan assumed that Lee had taken the rune from Prattchet's house. "I've heard that you have a deal with the royalty to give them things like this. I want to buy any that you have. Please." The sound of another bag of coins, substantially larger than the last one, came through the crack in the door.

Nathan didn't know how big the bag of coins was, but it must have been a large amount. Brimshaw hesitated for a moment, then said "I… don't know if…" Another bag seemed to be set down on a desk, and Brimshaw said "I suppose… I guess I could part with the one I have." Lee gave a satisfied sigh, and Nathan heard a drawer open. Brimshaw walked across the room. The jangling of a key ring indicated that he was unlocking something. The sound of a heavy door on hinges indicated that he was opening some kind of safe, than he started walking back towards Lee. She pocketed something. Nathan again cast his shadow sense, and he felt the light distortion that Lee had had in her pocket was sizeable bigger. She had successfully gotten Brimshaw to sell her the rune.

Lee started walking back towards the door, and Nathan backpedaled quickly. He got through the door and closed it just as Lee opened the door to the office. He quickly ran around the side of the building and peaked out. Lee exited the building and walked quickly towards the road again. As she walked off, Nathan wondered where she would look for the last rune that she needed.

* * *

><p>Authors thing:<p>

ooh, so spook.

my apologies for this chapter being kind of short.

tell me what you think!

_remember: you can always trust a bartender_


	44. Chapter 44

Lee walked back into the town, and it seemed to Nathan like she was lost. She seemed to wander aimlessly through the streets for around twenty minutes. Nathan was about to give up on tailing her when she seemed to find the thing that she was looking for. She focused on one house in particular at the end of the street by the wall of Arendelle on the other side of town from Prattchet's house.

She walked around the house a few times like she was trying to size it up for a robbery. Nathan knew that process well. The bartender must have told her that the last rune was here. The house didn't look like it had been lived in for a while, the windows were dark and a few of the wooden roof tiles were gone leaving small holes in the ceiling. Lee finally just walked up to the front door and knocked her fist against it. She waited a few seconds, then knocked again impatiently. There was still no answer, and Lee went back to circling the building. Nathan cast shadow sense one more time, and felt the darkness inside the house come into focus.

The swirling power of a rune was unmistakable, but the thing that grabbed his attention the most was the human shape standing directly across from the rune, twitching and shaking in a manner that made Nathan feel uneasy. He felt like he recognized the way that the person was twitching. He tried to make out more details about the person, but the room was dark, and as a result there were barely any shadows to feel.

Lee seemed to run out of patience and picked a rock from the ground. Taking a few steps back from the house, she brought the rock back behind her head and brought it whipping into the glass. The shattering sound of the pane made far more noise than Nathan would've made if he were the one entering the house, but he supposed that not everyone could be as good as he was in matters of sabotage and stealth. If anything, it made Nathan feel a little bit better about Lee, knowing that she didn't have much skill in those fields. It seemed to make it less likely that she would try something that she didn't have much skill at.

The figure inside the house reacted to the sound of the glass breaking, but not in the way that most people would. Instead of turning quickly towards the source of the noise, they walked to the darkest corner of the room and huddled down in the fetal position. The corner was so dark that the figure faded completely, not casting a shadow at all. Nathan knew that the person would be completely hidden unless something were to bring more light into the room, and he doubted that Lee would take such a precaution. He didn't blame her, of course, darkness was preferable to light when you were where you weren't supposed to be.

Lee cleared the shards out of the window frame with her elbow and clambered through the hole. Nathan knew that he wouldn't be able to keep an eye on her if he stayed where he was. He straightened from the hiding spot and made his way to the broken window. He peaked in and tried to see through the darkness.

Lee was approaching the center of the house, walking up to a large shrine-like structure. The near complete darkness made the shrine difficult to make out, but Nathan could tell even without shadow sense that the rune was the centerpiece of the shrine was supposed to be the rune. Lee took a few tentative steps towards it, then broke into a light jog to the shrine.

Nathan knew what happened to him when he took a rune from a shrine like that, the Outsider always had a little word with him, usually telling him some trivia about what he was doing at the time. He wondered if the same would happen for Lee. He looked around the room that the shrine was in, and noticed that the corner that was closest to him between him and Lee was the same that the figure that tucked into.

Lee grabbed the rune from the shrine and stuffed in in her pocket hurriedly. She made to turn around, but stopped about half way though and started staring blankly at the air above the shrine. Nathan shrugged. That answered that question.

A soft whispering started through the dark silence, and Nathan strained his ears to try and tell if it was Lee. The voice didn't sound similar, and Lee didn't look like she was talking. A slight shuffling sound came from the room, and Nathan could feel the hunched shape in the corner start to move again. Slowly, the shape rose again, and started to walk out of the shadow towards Lee. It started to twitch again in the disconcerting way it had been, and as it moved more into the light Nathan could see a small piece of metal clutched in the figures hand. The figures grip was clearly not meant to simply keep a hold on the metal, but rather to give some offensive power to it. As the figure continued to advance into the light, Nathan could tell that it was female roughly his own height.

Lee continued to stare up at nothing, either unable or unwilling to respond to the whispering growing closer behind her. Nathan pulled his small crossbow from his belt and took aim at the figure, ready to put a bolt in the back of their head at the first indication of hostile intent towards Lee. He knew the kind of cultists who built shrines like this, and knew that they could take some of the most radical changes in direction that he had ever seen.

The figure took a few more twitchy steps until it was nearly touching Lee. Nathan's grip on the weapon tightened and his finger started to itch against the trigger. The urge to kill the person was strong, but he held himself back, not wanting to interfere unless it was absolutely necessary. If Lee didn't snap out of whatever trance she was trapped in, however, it may become necessary very quickly. The twitching whispering woman put the shard of metal behind her back as if trying to conceal it and seemed to just wait behind Lee. Nathan's eyes narrowed as he tried to determine what the cultist was trying to do. Her whisperings sounded like gibberish and gave no hint as to her goal.

Then as suddenly as she had started, Lee gasped and stopped staring at the empty air. She shook her head and glanced around the room in front of her. Not seeing anything, she turned to leave the house. Nathan ducked down slightly to stay out of sight, and the woman who had been twitching and whispering a moment ago grabbed Lee's shoulders with both hands and nearly shouted "What did he tell you?" in a voice that sounded very desperate. Lee struggled against the person's grip, but upper body strength was clearly not one of Lee's strong suits. The woman's grip was firm, but the metal in her hand was pointing away from Lee's face. Nathan's finger twitched again, nearly triggering the mechanism that would send the pointed length of wood spiraling into the back of her head. She didn't seem to want to hurt Lee, at least not yet, so Nathan would bide his time and see what she was screaming about. Maybe even hear what the Outsider had said.

Lee gave another push against the woman, this time bracing her lower back against the flat surface the rune she took had been sitting on and pushing on the woman's midriff with a foot. The aide of the extra limb seemed to give her the extra power she needed. The other woman was thrown back, but managed to stay on her feet without much issue.

She let out a loud cry and raised the shard of metal over her head, now clearly intending to use it as a weapon. She went charging towards Lee, screeching like an animal. Nathan could see from the way that Lee was positioned that she would not be able to hold off this attack. He pulled his finger tightly around the grip of the crossbow, the trigger hardly giving any resistance.

As soon as the bolt left the groove, Nathan ducked down away from the window and started to slink away. Despite his self-admitted lack of aptitude with the weapon, he knew that the bolt had found its mark in the back of the woman's head. He heard Lee give out a cry of surprise and the limp body of the woman thud against the floor.

Nathan broke into a sprint towards the castle. He knew that Lee was safe, so long as she didn't stick around long enough for the guards to come and investigate the shouts. A grin came across his face as he contemplated what would happen if after going through all the work to get those runes, she was found with a corpse, arrested, the runes were confiscated, and her thrown in a cell.

As he reached a point where he was no longer in sight of the house, he slowed to a jog. He knew that Lee would want to return to Elsa quickly, and to avoid any suspicion he wanted to arrive before she did. He had the feeling that Elsa already knew what he had been doing, but he didn't want Lee to know that he had tailed her. He wanted her to know that he had saved her even less. He had made his position quite clear when Lee had been talking to Elsa, and he didn't want to appear that he had gone back on his opinion. Whether he had or not remained to be seen.

He jogged through the streets and across the bridge that led to the castle. He gave one final look over his shoulder before passing through the gates. Lee was nowhere to be seen. Not yet, anyways. He walked in, nodding acknowledgement to the men stationed by the gate. The men at the great door pulled it open as he approached, and he walked directly in. He pulled a servant to the side and asked "Excuse me, do you know where Queen Elsa is?" the servant nodded and said "She's in the courtrooms, sir." Nathan nodded thanks and started walking off.

When he reached the courtroom he pushed the door open and, to his surprise, saw Anna still at the head of the court looking over a few men who looked like they were in hot debate. Anna looked miserable, holding her head up with her hands, her eyes half closed. Nathan looked around at the people watching the proceedings, and found Elsa sitting next to Kristoff, both watching Anna with small smiles on their faces.

Nathan walked over to where they were sitting and took a seat next to Elsa. She gave a small gasp when Nathan appeared beside her. He gave her a comforting smile, which she returned gladly. He sat next to her, looking at Anna for a moment before Elsa nudged him with her elbow and whispered "Where have you been?" He looked over at her and gave a coy smile, saying "Keeping an eye on things. What have you been doing?" he nodded his head towards Anna "This?"

Elsa smiled and looked back to Anna. "Yes." she said "She's been trying so hard to do well, and it shows. She isn't having fun, but I think that she's learning a lot." she gave a happy sigh "It's so good to see her taking on a little more responsibility."

Nathan looked up at Anna. The pained look on her face certainly seemed to give the impression that she was trying very hard, but it seemed to Nathan that the effort she was exerting was in staying in the seat and keeping from flinging the nearest object at either of the two men who were presenting their cases, or bashing her head against the table.

There was another small moment where the only sound was the two men arguing on the floor in front of Anna, than Nathan said "She did it. Should be on her way back right now." Elsa looked back to Nathan and gave him a questioning look. She asked "Did you help her?" a smug smile came across her face and she said "You haven't changed your mind about her, have you?"

Nathan snorted and said "If by change my mind, you mean think that she's less of a threat, than I suppose the answer is yes." The death in the random house came back to Nathan, and he hesitated. Should he tell Elsa about the killing, or should he just let that sit? Perhaps Lee would tell her about it. In fact, if she didn't, that would make Nathan trust her a little less. The same could go for him and Elsa, of course. He let out a hesitant sigh and said "There was… an unfortunate incident with someone in the town. They tried to kill Lee and I was forced to intervene. There was a fatality as a result."

Elsa nodded slowly and said "Thank you for telling me." Neither of them spoke for a moment, than Elsa spoke again. "Do you know who it was? If they had some family that we should notify or…" Nathan shook his head. He said "She lived out by the walls. She was insane, though, trust me. I've seen a lot of people like that, you don't want people like that in a city. Those kinds of people can do a lot of terrible things." Elsa gave Nathan a small nod and said "I trust you." then asked "What was wrong with her? Why was she so dangerous?"

Nathan replied quickly, glad that she didn't seem angry and happy that she was listening to him. "She had one of the runes that Lee needed. She had a shrine set up for the thing and everything. People who do that are insane. They hear voices from the rune, and they will always be willing to do what it says. Sometimes it says to just stay inside and starve yourself, but sometimes it tells them to go out and do as much damage as they can. I've seen it too many times to feel sorry for them. They are just too forgone to help."

Elsa gave him another questioning look and asked "Can anyone be affected like that by the runes?" Nathan shrugged in response and said "I don't know. I've never found any pattern or sense to who goes crazy and who just disregards the rune's effects." Elsa looked back up to Anna and asked without looking at him "And you've been keeping them in the castle?" Nathan could see her concern. It was valid, of course, but the thing that she was clearly worried about would also require some amount of carelessness on his part. "Yes, but I've always been careful to keep them concealed in my room so that no one just stumbles onto one. I do the same with my bone charms."

The large door to the courtroom opened again, and one of the guards poked his head through and motioned for Nathan to get Elsa's attention. He nudged her with an elbow and nodded his head towards the door. Elsa looked over, and the guard motioned for her to come with him. She stood from her seat and started making her way to the door. Nathan stood and followed her out of the court. Nathan gave one final look behind him at Anna, smirking when he saw that she didn't look any happier than when he had entered. The door fell closed, and Nathan turned back to see the guard talking with in Elsa in hushed tones. He was able to catch the last few words: "…says that she has something for you."

Elsa gave the man a stern look and said "Take me to her." in a commanding royal voice. The man turned and started walking away. Elsa and Nathan followed. They were escorted through a few corridors until they came to a hall near the main entrance. Lee was standing between two other guards, glancing around nervously.

Elsa waved the guards away, and they shuffled away down the halls. Lee gave Elsa a nervous look before pulling each rune out of her pockets one at a time and handing them over to Elsa. After she was done handing them over, she gave Nathan a nervous glance before looking back to Elsa and saying "I did it! I got every piece you told me to. Do you trust me now?"

Elsa looked down at the plates of bone in her hands and let out a sigh. "I… I still don't know. You did what I asked of you, but…" her voice trailed off before she cleared her throat and said "You've earned a chance, at least. I'll find something for you to do. Until then, I'll have a room prepared for you." She flagged down a passing servant and gestured to Lee, saying "Can you please make arrangements for her room?"

The man bowed and said "Yes, your majesty, right away." Before turning to Lee and saying "Right this way, ma'am."

She cast a nervous look back at Nathan and Elsa before turning and following the man down the hall. Elsa watched her go, waiting until she was had turned the corner to say "She doesn't trust us, does she?" Nathan shrugged, then said "I don't know. I'd say that she probably has about as much trust in us as we do in her. She's going to have to put a little more faith in you if she wants to take real part in affairs." Elsa gave Nathan a look that he couldn't quite place and said "As will we."

Nathan looked back in the direction that they had come and asked Elsa "Are you going to wait until Anna is done in the court to try and share your power, or are you going to just pull her out and try?" Elsa shook her head and said "I'll wait. There's no rush, and I think that I'd like to get some experience with using these runes before I do anything with my sister."

Nathan nodded. Elsa never had used the power of a rune, and he wondered how she would take to the power contained within. Nathan remembered the first few times that he had he had used runes to craft spells for himself. They were terribly inefficient, and highly ineffective, but they had gotten the job done. The power within the runes had been so difficult to shape, and to predict what the effect of each shape would be. Much like when he had tried to make ice spells, now that he thought about it. He may have gotten to know the shadows like the back of his hand, but it seemed that magic as a whole was still as stubborn a mystery as always.

Elsa put a hand on his shoulder, snapping him out of his thought. "Let's go to my room again. You can help me with these things" she said, holding up the runes in her arms and giving a weak smile. He returned her smile and followed her off down the hall. They came to the stairs and ascended, neither one saying a word yet. They reached Elsa's room and entered, Elsa shutting the door behind them.

"So…" she said, putting all three of the runes down on a small table much like the one in Nathan's room "…how does this work? How do I use these things?" Nathan pulled a chair up to the table and picked up one of the runes, motioning for Elsa to do the same. She did, and Nathan closed his hands around the plate in his own hands. The bone thrummed under his fingers and against his palms, giving off a warmth that didn't seem to have any source. Elsa mirrored his movement, and Nathan could see her expression change slightly to one of surprise when she felt the humming of the artifact.

He spoke now, giving guidance that he wished he had had when he had first gotten his powers. "Feel the vibrating under your touch? Reach out with your power, and tap into that vibrating. Match your power up with the vibrations, than use the power in the rune." Elsa's eyes closed, and her fingers tensed around the rune. Nathan let his own grip on the rune in his hand loosen, and placed it back down on the table quietly. Elsa's eyes started to twitch under her eyelids, and she said "I can feel it! I can… I can see it!"

Nathan wondered what her power looked like. He imagined that it looked something like what his ice magic looked like, blue and bright, but it could be anything. He asked "Can you do anything? Move it or manipulate it somehow?" Elsa gave a small nod and said "Yes."

Nathan let out a deep breath and thought for a moment. If the process of her making a spell worked at all in the same way that his did, than she should need to form the power into a shape that somehow conveyed what she wanted to do. The issue that Nathan was running into was that he couldn't think of any shape that really embodied sharing power. It seemed that the finding of such a shape would be Elsa's pleasure.

"Make a shape and see if you can tell what the effect of that shape will be." he commanded, doing his best to sound like he knew what he was talking about. Maybe if he was convincing enough he might inspire some confidence in himself.

Elsa's jaw clenched, and she said "I'm trying."

A few seconds later her jaw went lax again, and she said "I can't. It just won't work." Nathan gave a small annoyed hiss through his teeth. It seemed that the process wasn't as similar as he would have liked. He was about to open his mouth to give her another piece of advice he didn't even know would work when she stopped and seemed to focus on something. Nathan gave her silence so that she could concentrate, and she said "There's something else. Something other than me."

Nathan raised an eyebrow. In all the years that he had been using runes to grow and augment his power it had only been him and the power. There had never been anything else, only darkness had ever been waiting beyond the power. He had always assumed that it had been the void.

Elsa sat forward in her chair, eyes still shut tightly. "I'm going to try and touch it." she said, not sounding like she was asking permission. Nathan sat forward in his chair slightly as well. He had never seen anything else when making spells. If Elsa had found something that through all of the years had eluded him, than he wanted to know what it was.

To his surprise, Elsa took one hand off of the rune and moved it forward. He had assumed that she had meant that she would try to move forward in the void, or wherever she was. She continued to move her arm forward, and Nathan saw where it was going.

Her hand landed flat on Nathan's chest, finding one of the few areas that weren't covered by the many straps, bags, and charms that always decorated his chest. Elsa's eyes flicked open and her hand shot back quickly. "I'm… sorry" she said, cheeks turning a bright red that stood out against her usually very pale skin so much that even if she had tried to hide it Nathan would have noticed.

Elsa may have been abashed about the happening, but Nathan was more impressed by the instance than she might know. "Elsa… did you just see the magic inside of me?" he asked, making sure that he understood what had just happened. She nodded, still blushing, and said "I think so. Why?"

A grin came across Nathan's face and he said "I think that's going to help with sharing power with Anna. If you can pick up on other people, than making a link with Anna should be a hell of a lot easier."

Elsa put the rune down on the table and stood from her chair. Nathan pushed himself to his feet with a grunt and looked around Elsa's room again with a sense of curiosity. The innumerable reflections and refractions of light made him feel at ease in a way that he didn't quite understand. Elsa stood next to him and followed his gaze around the room. After Nathan was satisfied with how much he had seen, he looked to Elsa and said "You did all this. It's beautiful, just like you." Elsa blushed again, and Nathan said "I think I would appreciate it if you showed me how to do stuff like this."

Elsa raised an eyebrow at Nathan and said in a surprised tone "Really? You don't strike me as a very artistic type." Nathan put a hand to his chest and scoffed in a joking manner. "Why I never!" he said in a voice absolutely dripping with sarcasm. Elsa laughed and draped her arms around Nathan's neck. Nathan continued talking in his sarcastic voice, saying "I find myself very insulted by your insinuation, and quite frankly-" his joking voice was cut off as Elsa pushed her lips into his.

The second that her lips touched his he stopped talking. He hesitantly put his arms around her, unsure as to how exactly he should proceed. Luckily for him, however, Elsa seemed to be happy to pick up the slack.

* * *

><p>Author's thing:<p>

Another chapter for you.

Ok, so I've been thinking... I want to end this story. Not to stop telling it, but to, lets say "advance" on to the next stage. This would happen soon-ish because I have been thinking about doing this for a while. I'd just start a new story on the site that picks up at some point after I end this one. so don't assume I'm dead I guess is what I'm saying.

In other news, I saw HTTYD 2 recently, and ideas have been stewing in my brain about that. The predominant idea that I've been having is basically a guy with Sci-Fi psionic powers tried to mix into Burk. I think I'm gonna give it a whirl and see what happens. Could be shyte, but that's what I said to myself about this story too.

don't forget to tell me what you thought about this chapter, of course!


	45. Chapter 45

Anna gave a tired but happy sigh as the room cleared out. She had finally finished all of the cases that had been lined up for the day. If felt like she had been holding her head to a grindstone since she had woken up. How Elsa did it so consistently without just rushing through each case and making hurried judgments to get through it all faster was beyond her. She stood wearily from the table and put a hand to her temple, rubbing the spot softly in a vain attempt to dull the pounding pain in her head.

Kristoff approached from the seats and put a comforting hand around Anna's shoulders. She smiled up to him, wordlessly thanking him for his support. She leaned into him, putting most of her weight against him, and started to walk from the room.

The two made their way slowly through the hallways and up the stairs, making their way slowly back to Anna's room. Their progress up the stairs was slow, Anna flinching in pain with each footfall on the wooden stairs. Kristoff kept shooting Anna furtive glances out of the corners of his eyes. She knew that he hated seeing her like this. She hated him seeing her like this. It made her feel small, almost weak, which wasn't a feeling that she enjoyed.

Kristoff helped her to the top of the stairs, and then through the hall too her room. He pushed the door open and walked her over to her bed. Both of them took a seat on the soft mattress, and Anna laid back flat over the covers, feeling the involuntary curvature in her spine that had built up over the hours of hunching over the courtroom table flatten out gradually and slightly painfully. She let out a low, long groan as her back straightened and the muscles that had kept her sitting upright in that chair for far too many hours.

Kristoff threw his legs over the bed and rolled across the bed in a single nimble movement to the other side of the bed. Anna followed his movement, her eyes rolling almost all the way up in her head. Kristoff slid his hands under her shoulders. Anna gave another small groan and said tiredly "What are you doing?" One of Kristoff's fingers pushed into the sore muscles in her back, and she squirmed against the uncomfortable intrusion halfheartedly. Kristoff took notice, and said "Sorry." before adjusting the position of his fingers and pulling Anna back up to a sitting position, holding her from falling flat again.

She was about to ask what he was doing again when he started to rub his fingers against the aching muscles, setting them at ease almost instantly. She let out another groan, this time not from pain. She leaned back, pushing against Kristoff's hands, forcing him to push harder against her back, making the muscles feel even better.

Kristoff gave a low whistle and said "It really hurts that much?" Anna nodded, and said in a very at peace voice "You'd be surprised at how much stress a couple of idiots arguing can put you through. I'm just happy that Elsa usually takes care of that." She wriggled up against Kristoff, wrapping her arms around Kristoff and pulling herself into him tightly. He stopped rubbing her back and wrapped his arms around her, returning her hug.

Anna looked up at Kristoff and gave him a smile just a little too sweet to be normal. She knew that Kristoff would pick up on it, so she didn't need to say anything. Kristoff looked at her face for a moment before rolling his eyes and saying "What is it?"

Anna gave an apologetic smile and said "Do you think you could head down and get me some dinner?" Kristoff sighed, then gently pushed Anna off of him and got up. "Yea, I'll go get some." he replied, doing his best to not sound annoyed. She gave him a thankful look.

Kristoff got up and walked to the door. Just before he opened it, he looked over his shoulder and saw Anna smiling at him from the bed. He smiled back at her, pushed the door open and walked out. Anna watched him leave, than watched the door close behind him. A small feeling of regret started to well in her chest as the muscles on her back started to stiffen up again. She shouldn't have sent him away. But her stomach ached from emptiness, and she didn't have the willpower to go down and get food for herself with her muscles aching as they were.

She sprawled out over the bed and stretched her limbs, hoping that it would do something to relieve some of the pain. It did, but not by much. She remembered hearing something about cold temperatures being able to relieve aches like the ones she had, and wondered if Elsa would be willing to help her out. She rolled over to the edge of the bed and, with a grunt of pain, pushed herself up off of the bed and onto her feet.

She regretted standing up almost instantly. Her legs and back seemed flared in pain. She walked over to her door and opened it. Stepping out, she looked around to see if Kristoff was anywhere near. He wasn't, so she assumed that he had walked off quickly to get her food. She shook her head and turned her attention to the door to Elsa's room. She walked over to it and wrapped on the door with her knuckles, wincing as muscles all up and down her arm cried out in protest.

She waited silently outside of Elsa's room, not sure whether or not to expect a response. She didn't know if Elsa was in her room or not. After a few seconds she turned, determining that Elsa must have been somewhere else. Just as she was about to return to her room, a voice rang out from Elsa's room. "Come on in!"

Anna pulled the door open, and found Elsa standing in the middle of the room, facing the window. Anna walked into the room and said "Elsa, I hate to ask you this, but could you help me a minute?" Elsa turned to Anna and looked at her. Something behind Anna seemed to catch her attention, but she quickly looked back to Anna. "Sure." she said with a shrug "Just go back to your room, I'll be over in a minute."

Anna nodded and turned to leave. As she pulled the door shut behind her she thought she heard Elsa talking again. As the door shut however, the talking stopped. She wondered what Elsa had been doing in there. She was prone to talking to herself, that much Anna knew. Perhaps she was making more of those pretty ice statues and sculptures that everyone loved so much. She hadn't seen any sign of that, but there wasn't much else that she could be doing.

* * *

><p>As the door closed behind Anna, Elsa looked up at Nathan and whispered concernedly "Are you alright?"<p>

Nathan put a finger to his lips as the door shut, and the top of the door slid into the doorframe, robbing him of his position. He landed lightly on the floor and looked back at the door, feeling slightly impressed that the hinges of the door were solid enough to hold his weight with the door all the way open. Elsa put a hand on Nathan's shoulder and asked "Why did you hide? Anna knows. It's alright if people see us, nobody is going to think badly about us."

Nathan nodded, feeling slightly ashamed of his reaction. He didn't know why it had been his first reaction to hide, it was just something that he had done upon an unexpected entry a lot back when he was on a mission. Something about kissing Elsa had set him on edge, and he didn't know why. "I'm sorry if… that offended you. I didn't mean to. I just… I don't know what came over me. It was just a kneejerk reaction."

Elsa pulled his shoulder lightly so that he turned to face her and said "It's alright. I know you didn't mean anything by it." Elsa gave him another light peck on the cheek and said "I should go see what Anna needs."

Nathan nodded. "Yes, I suppose you should. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help." Elsa gave him a smile and turned to leave. He watched her go. She made her way out of the door and turned to go to Anna's room.

Nathan figured that if he was needed, he would be called for. He followed her out of the door, turning towards the stairs rather than Anna's room. Making his way to the stairs, he considered what he wanted to do. Lee had been given a room, and Nathan didn't know where it was. It seemed an important detail that he might regret overlooking.

He walked down the stairs to the first floor. On the way he passed Kristoff who was carrying a large tray of food. Nathan gave him a puzzled look but didn't stop to ask him anything. He found a servant walking through the halls and stopped them, asking "There was a woman who was given a room earlier today, can you tell me where it is please?"

The servant nodded and pointed off down one of the halls, saying "Down that way, third door on the right." Nathan thanked the man and walked towards the indicated room. When he reached it he wrapped his knuckles against the door and awaited a response. Almost immediately, the door opened and Lee looked out from the room.

As soon as her eyes fell on Nathan she stopped opening the door and stood stock-still, her eyes wide as she fixed Nathan with a nervous gaze. "Can I help you?" she asked, obviously not very comfortable with the fact that it was only her and Nathan present. Nathan looked past her into the room. It was about the same size and shape as his own. It was a little less furnished, with only a bed, table and chair filling the space. The small room didn't have a window, however.

He turned his attention back to Lee and sized her up again. She didn't seem any more threatening than she ever had, still very short and with a very slight frame. Nathan spoke, trying to not be as threatening as he had been during their previous encounters. "So… how you adjusting?"

Lee looked over her shoulder at the room, than turned back and shrugged, saying "It's pretty good. Better than anything I ever got with Gothel." Silence passed between the two for another awkward moment before Nathan finally said "Yea, about that, I wanted to talk to you about that."

Lee's face paled again, and she said nervously "Ah, what about it? I used to work for Gothel, and now I don't. There's nothing more. It's that simple."

Nathan gave her an exasperated look. "That's not true, and we all know it. If you want us to trust you than you'll have to give a little yourself, right?" Lee regarded him suspiciously for a moment before her shoulders slumped and she let out a defeated sigh. "Alright" she said, stepping back into the room "come in and begin the interrogation."

Nathan stepped in, letting the door fall closed behind him. Lee walked over to the bed and took a seat on the bed, motioning for Nathan to use the chair by the table. He pulled it out and sat. Lee gave him an expectant look, waiting for the questions to begin. Nathan wasn't entirely sure where he should start. There wasn't much that he did know about Lee. At the same time, however, he didn't want to get wrapped up in a retelling of her entire life story, regardless of how fascinating a tale it was bound to be.

"Well… let's start at the beginning. Why were you working for Gothel? What let you to siding with her? You yourself said that you didn't want to work for her."

Lee looked down at the floor and said "I made a few bad choices in a row and ended up owing someone a lot of money. It was a lot more than I could ever have gotten myself, and Gothel got me out of it. All that I had to do was act like a bought the crazy cult thing that she was spinning, and she would take care of my debts. Can you really tell me that you would turn down a deal like that?" She ended with a half angry, half imploring glare at Nathan.

Nathan gave her a distasteful look and said "I wouldn't have made a deal I couldn't keep." in a tone that held just as much distaste as his eyes. To him, anyone who made a promise that they couldn't keep was one of the worst types of people there were. Of course there were exceptions, as there seemed to be with everything, but Lee didn't sound like one such exception.

Nathan let out a sigh. They were getting off course. "Alright, anyways, what are you willing to do for Elsa? You've said that you are willing to do anything for her, but I have trouble believing that." Lee shook her head quickly and said "No, I will do anything she asks me to. I got her the runes she asked for, didn't I?"

Nathan supposed that she had a point. She had completed the one task that had been assigned to her so far. Unfortunately for her, Nathan's trust wasn't easily earned. She would have to do far more than a little fetching errand. She had thrown her lot in with Gothel. While the others might be willing to overlook that, and Nathan might as well with some convincing, she herself had admitted to being exposed to Gothel's magic.

A thought popped into Nathan's mind, and he wondered If Elsa would be able to tell if Lee still had any of Gothel's magic was still in her. If there was still any of that power, than it could mean that some part of Gothel was still living on in her. It sounded a bit crazy, even to Nathan, but it was a possibility that could not be overlooked. As he considered the possibility, he realized that he was just staring down at the floor. He shook his head and looked up. Lee was giving him a slightly worried, slightly questioning look.

He waved his hand and said "What of your power? You said that you had a pearl, just like all the others who were serving Gothel. Does it still hold any power? Did it diminish at all when Gothel died?" Lee started shaking her head before Nathan even finished talking. "I said I had a pearl, yes, but it was too small to ever let me use any magic. The way those things worked was by turning your body into a pearl. It sort of… stores you, keeping you alive so that you can keep producing magic. I've heard it said that being in such a state feels similar to being asleep."

Nathan nodded. It was consistent with what he had been told so far, but he still didn't completely understand it. "You didn't answer me completely. Was it affected by Gothel's death? If you have a pearl than you must have some magic, correct?"

Lee gave a shifty glance around the room, then said "No, the pearl was not affected by Gothel's dying. At least not that I could tell. I think that it does have magic inside of it, but I've never been able to use it in any way. It just feels like there's just not enough to do anything with."

Nathan pressed on, wondering if his next question would step over any lines that he wasn't aware of. "And where is the pearl located in your body?" thankfully enough, Lee didn't seem to think that this was at all inappropriate. She pushed her finger into the spot just under her sternum, very close to where her heart would be. She said "Its right here. This is where it was for all of Gothel's people." Her hand dropped away from her chest and she gave Nathan a curious look. "You don't have a pearl, do you? I know you showed me the mark on your hand, but is that really the only thing that you use to cast spells?"

Nathan gave a hesitant nod, careful not to give Lee too much information about himself. Lee looked mystified, than asked "And how does Elsa do it? Does she have a similar mark somewhere on her body, or does she have a pearl like me?" Her eyes were almost glowing as she asked the questions. Nathan couldn't help but smirk at the wonder in her face.

To answer her question, he decided that honesty could not do any harm here. "I don't know how she does it." he said "All I know is that she very good at it."

Lee gave a small laugh. Nathan paid close attention to the sound, listening for anything that was out of the ordinary. He found nothing. The laugh sounded totally genuine.

He tried to think of anything else that he wanted to ask her about. The only thing that came to mind was the rune that she had taken from the house. What had the Outsider said to her? He contemplated asking her, but the more he thought about it the more that he felt like he shouldn't ask. If someone asked him what the Outsider had said to him, he wouldn't be inclined to answer. Or, at least, not to answer truthfully. He decided to not ask her about it. Perhaps she would volunteer the information when she was talking with Elsa later. If she didn't than Nathan would let the matter rest.

He stood from the chair and turned to the door. "Thanks for answering my questions. I appreciate it." he said over his shoulder. As he put his hand on the doorknob, Lee spoke out, saying "Wait." Nathan took his hand away from the door and turned back around. Lee took a deep breath, than asked "Was it you that shot the person who attacked me?"

Nathan raised an eyebrow at her. She gave him an insistent look and said "Please. I have to know. What damage could it do if you tell me? Just tell me."

Nathan considered her words for a moment. It was true that there wasn't much that could happen if he did admit to helping her. The only thing that he could think that would happen was that she would think that he actually had some kind of feeling that he had to protect her. That wasn't quite the case, but he supposed that such an impression could be easily dispelled anyways. He nodded wordlessly and again turned to leave.

The door opened without any further interruptions. He walked out and let the door hang open. He could feel Lee's eyes on him as he walked down the hall back towards the stairs. If she had anything else that she wanted to ask him, than she held her tongue. Nathan walked up the regal carpeted wooden stairs back to the top floor of the castle.

On the way Nathan had plenty of time to think over what Lee had said. She had been forced to work for Gothel, but she didn't want to. He supposed that Elsa had already promised her something to do, so there wasn't much point in harboring bad feelings towards her. He resolved to himself that he would at least treat her neutrally, without any undo hostility. At least not until she had earned it.

He reached the top of the stairs and walked back to Elsa's room. He knocked tapped his knuckles rhythmically, thinking it best to start making a habit of knocking before entering private rooms. He waited for a response, but none came. He waited a few more moments before knocking again. Again no answer came, and Nathan began to think that Elsa had left to go somewhere else. He didn't know where she would have gone though. She hadn't been to the library since Gothel had attacked her there, and didn't typically eat dinner so early in the evening. He was about to go and check the main hall when he remembered passing Kristoff with food.

He wouldn't have brought it to Elsa, but he probably brought it to Anna. If Elsa had gotten hungry than she might have gone over to Anna's room to get some. He turned and walked over to Anna's door. Before he even touched it, he could hear multiple voices coming from inside. He knocked on the door, and the voices inside stopped. The door was pulled open, and Kristoff stood in the doorway.

When he saw Nathan he looked back into the room and said "He's back." In a way that made Nathan feel like he had been the topic of a lengthy and in-depth conversation. It wasn't a feeling that he enjoyed. Kristoff ushered him into the room, and he found Anna and Elsa both laying across Anna's bed. Both had their heads propped up with one arm, and had a large tray of food between them. The food on the tray looked like it had been picked at noncommittally by Elsa and devoured by Anna.

Both greeted Nathan with smiles and warm looks. He nodded towards them and returned their smiles. Kristoff pushed a chair out towards Nathan, who turned it towards the bed and took a seat. Kristoff took a seat in a chair a few feet away from Nathan's positioned similarly.

Anna gave Nathan an apologetic look and said "I'm sorry about walking in on you and Elsa." He raised an eyebrow at Elsa, as if to ask why she had told Anna about that. Elsa's only response was a shrug. Anna continued, saying "Elsa said you were on top of the door, right? How did you manage that?"

Nathan gave a small laugh and said as he got out of the chair "Maybe I could demonstrate." As he walked over to the door to pull it open it again, he thought about asking Elsa to go and talk to Lee again. He looked over his shoulder at her. She looked so happy, laying there on the bed next to her sister and watching him with a leisurely expression. He decided not to. At least not yet. There was no rush, Lee certainly didn't seem like she was going anywhere. Perhaps she would do it tomorrow. It would make sense, giving Lee time to recuperate from her little adventure.

He nodded to himself. There was no rush. No need to be on edge. Some of the tension that always coiled itself inside of Nathan's muscles loosened. There was still more than enough to make it seem to anyone else think that he was very uneasy, but Nathan could feel the difference. It was a feeling that he had not felt in a long time. The feeling of being home.

* * *

><p>Authors thing:<p>

welp... another chapter. yup. I don't really have anything to say about this one, so... yea.

Thanks for reading, leave a review, like, comment, subscribe, thumbs up, praise the emperor, all that stuff. Or you could not and safe like half a minute to a minute if you are really that cramped for time.


	46. Chapter 46

After a few hours of sitting around and talking, Nathan felt like he had gotten to know Kristoff far better than he had before. He had never really cared much for the man, not having much contact with him beyond their first meeting, but he found him a pleasantly levelheaded and calm individual. This was unexpected given his relation to Anna, but he supposed that there was some merit to the saying "opposites attract". If there was, however, than he didn't want to think about what kind of opposite he was to Elsa.

It turned out that him and Kristoff shared very similar childhoods, both having to care for themselves as young children, both having to learn the skills of a trade far before anyone else in the field had. This led to both being very good and much respected in their fields. Both had become something akin to prodigy in their chosen jobs, albeit for very different reasons. Both had made names for themselves. Both had their own secrets to success. And both guarded those secrets very carefully. Nathan felt that over the time they had been talking they had loosened hose guards just a little bit.

They shared many opinions that Nathan hadn't expected, most notably on the futility of most political struggles and manipulations. Even more to Nathan's surprise, Elsa and Anna agreed as well. He found himself giving far more information about himself than he had to anyone else, at any time, and even more strange to him, he didn't feel uncomfortable doing it. "I felt like a rat, just running maze after maze. Every noble that I killed was just replaced by another, equally corrupt and equally spiteful as the last one. Nothing ever changed. That's why I left, I was just tired of running missions and jobs that were pointless in the long run."

Elsa gave him a warm smile and said "So you came here, where you knew you could make a difference." Nathan couldn't help but correct her. It was a big difference after all. "Where I hoped I could make a difference. To be honest, me coming here was based on rumors and stories I had heard for a few months. They seemed to fantastical to be real, but I knew that they were far too persistent to be fake. It was something of a gamble, but I would say that it paid off."

Kristoff gave Nathan a wondering look and said "So you used to kill people for a living?" Anna gave a small gasp and hit Kristoff with a small slap on the shoulder. Nathan wasn't offended, however. He gave a small laugh and said "its fine." to set Anna at ease. He turned to Kristoff again and said "Yes, it's a far better source of income that you would think. In reality I only needed to complete a contract about once or twice a month to stay fed and housed happily." Kristoff gave a low whistle and said "That must have led to some surplus." Nathan nodded and said "Yes, unfortunately I left most of that behind." He paused for a moment and then said "Come to think of it, I probably should have kept it. I could have donated it to the Arendelle coffers." He said with a slightly apologetic tone.

Elsa shook her head and said "No, if you have come to me at first offering money I probably would have not trusted you as much. It would have made you seem disingenuous." Nathan gave a nod, but he wasn't convinced. "Maybe I could still get it. I hid it away pretty well, but there are a lot of people who might go hunting for "the shadow's lost treasure". I wonder if any of them ever found it."

He tried to remember the number of the last count that he had taken before leaving it, but couldn't. All the he was able to remember was that it was a very large sum of money. Elsa reached over from the bed and put a hand on Nathan's back. "Nathan, don't think about it anymore. Arendelle will do just fine without your personal fortune. Now…" she clapped her hands together and gave Anna a nervous look, sitting up on the bed. Nathan had the feeling that he knew what she was doing.

"Anna, I've been thinking…" she took a deep breath and said "…would you agree to share some of my power?"

Anna looked back at Elsa, confused, and asked "What do you mean? You can do that?" Elsa smiled and put her hands on Anna's shoulders. "Yes. At least… I think I can. It would mean so much to me if you could share this with me. It would bring us so close, like we…" she caught herself, than continued "…like I stopped us from being."

Anna looked like she couldn't believe what she was hearing. After a few tense moments of silence, she laughed and said "Of course! I would love to share with you! How do we do it?" This was where Nathan stepped in, figuring that he might be able to explain it better than Elsa.

"She'll take one of the runes, and use the power inside to link her own power to you. If all this works the way that I think it will, than Elsa's power should flow freely between both of you." Elsa added onto what he said, saying "You won't have exactly the same amount of power that I do because you'll have to pull it through me. That should limit you to what you can pull."

Anna shook her head, saying "I don't care that I won't be as good as you, it's more than enough for me that you are even willing to share it!" Elsa looked over to Nathan and said "Can you go and get the runes from my room?" He nodded and stood, walking over to the door. He pulled it open and left. He walked quickly to Elsa's room and opened the door. He took the runes in one arm and made his exit quickly.

When he reentered Anna's room he found Elsa and Anna both standing in the center of the room with their hands locked together, both looking into the other's eyes. Kristoff was standing near the door, looking on at the two with a slightly concerned look on his face. Nathan stepped past him and held all three of the runes out to Elsa. She took one hand away from Anna's and took one of the runes from Nathan's arms. He was glad that she only took one. He didn't know what the using two might do.

He set the extras down on the bed and watched the girls. Elsa put her hand back up so that Anna could also put her hand against the rune. She did, and both closed their eyes. Elsa took a deep breath and focused her mind on the rune, just like she had before.

The air in the room grew colder suddenly, as Nathan started to see his own breath. He noticed Kristoff starting to shiver. A light frost was starting to creep across the floor starting from Elsa's feet. His eyes narrowed as he tried to figure out what was happening. It was possible that Elsa was creating the link, and that the frost on the floor was excess energy that had escaped Elsa's control. He wouldn't know if this was the case until she was finished, of course.

Anna let out a gasp, and Nathan noticed quickly that her breath was even more visible than his own. He put a hand out towards her experimentally, and when he pulled it back he found several crystals of ice stuck on the fingertips of his glove. He wondered what would happen if he were to step as close as his hand had been, but didn't indulge his curiosity. Small wisps of blue light started to dance between Elsa's fingertips before jumping over to Anna's. The rune between them started to collapse. It wasn't a visual thing, but rather a sense that Nathan had. The twisting shadow that always accompanied a rune started to receded back into the rune, almost seeming to rob it of its otherworldly qualities. He knew that this was the magic within being drained. It occurred to him that with all of the excess magic that Elsa was expelling, the bond between her and Anna might actually take more than one rune to form.

The amount of blue light going between the two seemed to increase, now there was almost always a blue light between them. Anna seemed to flinch, her eyes moving rapidly around beneath her eyelids and her fingers tightening around Elsa's hand. The room grew even colder, and the frost around Elsa started to creep across the floor even faster. It touched the bottom of Anna's shoes and began to creep up the sides. Kristoff took a cautious step back, and Nathan looked down at his own feet. The frost was spreading towards them as well, making small pops and cracks as it did so.

Nathan was about to look back to the pair of women when something in the layer of frost caught his eye. A few spiderlike flashes of the same kind of light that was arcing between Anna and Elsa blinked their way across the floor, seemingly contained within the frost. It didn't look like much, but Nathan figured that it would be better to be cautious than for something catastrophically bad to happen.

He turned to Kristoff and gestured to the door, saying "I think you should get out of here." Kristoff opened his mouth to protest, but Nathan shot him a look that made it clear this was not something to debate. With a defeated look, Kristoff turned to the door and opened the door. With one last worried look towards Anna, he stepped out and closed the door behind him.

Nathan didn't like that he had to send Kristoff out, but it was the best thing to do. No one really knew what would happen during this, and chances were that Kristoff would be the most at risk if something went bad. Anna was probably in more danger than he would be, but such a thing couldn't be helped, as she was the focus of the spell.

His attention was snatched away from his own thoughts when he felt all the heat in his shoe disappear. He looked down and saw the frost coving his foot. He resisted the urge to pull his foot out of it and instead waited. Sure enough, one of the spidery blue lights flashed across his foot. It appeared and disappeared as fast as lightning, but that didn't stop it having an effect. Nathan felt a surge of pain in the foot, than felt it immediately go numb. He jerked his leg, pulling the foot from the thin layer of ice and took a clumsy step back.

He felt his back hit the door and cursed to himself. He wanted to stay in the room as long as he could so that he could continue observing, but if Elsa kept letting power get away from her than he would be forced to leave.

He looked back up to the pair, and it took him a moment to process what he was seeing fully. There was much more blue light between their hands, almost as if Elsa was pouring it into Anna. Instead of just disappearing when it entered Anna, however, the blue light persisted, drawing thin dim lines up her arms along what Nathan knew were her veins. She looked like she was shivering. Elsa on the other hand just looked like she was focusing very hard. He could see that the rune between both of their hands was almost completely burned away. An irony that he might have cracked a smile at under different circumstances.

The blue glow that seemed to be working its way through Anna's body appeared on her neck, worming its way up the carotid artery. Even without having Elsa's knowledge of how her power worked, Nathan knew that this was a crucial moment. How could it not be? The magic that Elsa was using would enter Anna's brain in seconds. He started to think that perhaps the decision to try this had been a little rushed.

Then, suddenly enough to make him jump, the two broke their contact, Elsa taking a step back and Anna simply letting her hands drop back to her sides. Nathan was about to step forward when he saw Anna's eyes giving the same blue glow that racked the rest of her body, even though her eyelids. Her face looked disconcerting, with the offshoot veins from her artery making many thin web like veins in her face light up, giving her a bizarre unnerving appearance.

Elsa opened her eyes and looked to Anna. As soon as she saw her, a concerned expression on her face. Instead of going to her, she stepped over to Nathan. She put a hand on his shoulder and looked over to Anna again. Nathan put a hand on her back gently and asked "Is she alright? She looks… uh… a bit strange."

Elsa nodded silently, than looked down to the floor. "Did I do this?" she asked, scraping a foot across the floor. Nathan confirmed this, and she sighed, looking around the room. "I didn't think that I was letting too much power out. It didn't seem like much…" she shook her head, regrouping her thoughts, then turned to Nathan, a small smile on her face. "I did it though! I linked with Anna! It's a very strange feeling. I don't think I can even describe it."

She looked around again at Anna's room and said "I suppose I should clean this up." in a slightly joking voice. Without saying anything else, she put her hands out around her and rose them slowly. The ice on the floor was lifted into a ball hovering just in front of Elsa. With a small grin, she reached out and took hold of the ball with both hands, than brought her hands together. The ice and snow in the way simply disappeared.

Nathan gave another wary look towards Anna, who was still standing stock-still with her arms at her sides, and asked "So what happens to her now? Do you know how this whole thing works or are you just playing it by ear?"

Elsa picked a small bit of food off of the tray still sitting on the bed and said "Of course I know what I'm doing." before popping the morsel into her mouth and swallowing. Nathan rolled his eyes and nodded, then said "Alright, so when does she wake up? What happens when she does? Will she have powers when she does?"

Elsa walked over to Anna and looked her over like a sculptor might check a statue for errors. It didn't seem like she was looking at Anna herself, but rather something inside her. "She should wake up by tomorrow. When she waked up she will be confused, and maybe a little bit scared, but she should be fine. And yes, she should be able to use magic when she wakes up. I'll have to train her a little bit, of course, but I think that she will do well with it."

Nathan nodded again, then said "One last question: why the lines? They look quite strange. It's clearly magic, I get that, but why are they there?" Elsa gave Nathan a sarcastic look and said "Not everyone can be as adaptive as you, Nathan. Unfortunately I couldn't just blast her with my raw power, that would just hurt her. Instead I had to infuse her with some raw power, than use what was in her to make the link work both ways. The glowing is just the raw power that I put in her for the link. She will absorb it by the time she wakes up. It should be something like a jumpstart for her powers."

Nathan tilted his head to the side, puzzled, then asked "You enchanted her blood?" with an unbelieving tone. Elsa gave Nathan a smug smile and said "Sounds crazy, doesn't it? I needed to put power into very part of her, to saturate her in it so that she absorbed it properly. Her blood seemed the easiest thing to do that with. But, as I said, it will dissipate into her by tomorrow. Until then she is going to stay unconscious as her body adapts to the new power. "

The door behind Nathan opened, and Kristoff poked his head through the door. "Is it safe?" he asked, than his eyes fell on Anna, and without another word he dashed into the room, nearly knocking Nathan over in the process. He ran to Anna's side and embraced her in a huge hug, his face buried in her shoulder. Nathan looked to Elsa, assuming that she would be better explaining what had happened.

She started to, and sat Kristoff down so that he could focus of what she was saying better. While she was doing that Nathan figured that Anna should be moved. He stepped over to her, but before he even touched her he knew that there was no way to move her without it being incredibly awkward. It was one thing to move an unconscious body in the dark, and quite another to move an unconscious friend in a well lit room with others in it. He gave up before he even tried. He decided instead to leave that task to the others. If they didn't think it important, than he would let her stay.

As Elsa re-explained the process that she already had to Kristoff, Nathan took one of the runes off of the bed and turned it over in his hand a few times. He had the uncanny feeling that all of them were the same. He could think of many of the plates of bone that he had found, but none of them ever had distinct markings, not even damage. He couldn't do anything but chalk it up to the Outsider's strange ways.

He closed his eyes and reached towards the rune with his mind. The power inside of it started to reveal itself to him, taking the twisting and twirling motion of shadow. He wondered if Elsa had any other plans for the runes that Lee had gotten. If she did, than she probably should have told him about them beforehand. He blocked out Elsa and Kristoff talking, instead focusing on the power in the rune.

He thought about what he should do with the power. The power of one rune wouldn't be enough for much of a new spell, but it may be enough to modify one that he already had. He thought about the powers that he had, trying to think about what he could modify or improve. He recalled Elsa asking the question "Can you control other people's shadows?" and thought that it was a wonderful idea. He never had really considered the possibility of being able to do that, but now that he did he saw that it could be one of his most powerful spells. In a fight, it could mean that he could even an unfair fight instantly. Everyone has a shadow, after all.

He summoned the image of the spell he used to bring his shadow to life. It was very familiar, being one of his oldest spells. He had never regretted making it. It had never failed him. And now it would do even more. It took him a long time to find the proper alteration, but he did eventually find it. The solution to the issue was that he had always used his own physical link with his shadow to make the spell easier to cast. Unfortunately, if he removed the link than the spell would take far more energy to use. It took him some time, and quite a bit of headache, but he found a way to keep the link with his own shadow while still being able to manipulate other's shadows. As well. Any shadow that wasn't his own would suffer some weakness in comparison to his own, but he was fine with that.

He snapped back to Anna's room, Elsa shaking his shoulder and saying "Nathan, are you ok?" He shook his head and said "Yes, fine, why?" pushing himself to his feet. The ashen remains of the rune fell through his finger onto the floor. If Elsa noticed, she didn't react to it. "Kristoff was wondering if you could help him get Anna into bed."

Nathan nodded and said "Certainly." before looking to Kristoff and saying "How do you want to do this?" Kristoff shrugged and said "I figure you get her shoulders and I'll get her feet and we can just lift her into the bed." Nathan smirked at the complex plan. Though, to be fair, he didn't have a better one.

He stepped over to Anna's still rigid body and put his hands on her shoulders and Kristoff grabbed a hold of her ankles. Nathan pulled her back, tipping her over, and Kristoff lifted her off of the ground. Both men shuffled over to the bed and hefted Anna onto it. She wasn't heavy enough to make it difficult, so they did this very quickly. Kristoff nodded to Nathan and said "Thanks." before turning to Elsa and saying "I think I'm going to turn in for the night." and turning to the door and walking out.

Nathan sighed and said "I suppose I should get some rest too." with a glance back at Anna he said "Should be an interesting day tomorrow." Elsa gave a smirk, and Nathan continued "I would like for you to talk with Lee tomorrow. If you can get anything out of her that I haven't, that would be great."

Elsa said "Yes, I would be glad to. I think I look forward to learning more about her. She seems interesting." Nathan stepped over to the door and opened it, holding it open for Elsa. She shook her head and said "No, I'm going to stay here and keep watch over Anna, in case she wakes up early."

Nathan nodded and walked through the door, closing it behind him. He yawned widely. Even from here he could hear his bed calling to him. A call he was happy to oblige.

* * *

><p>Author's thing:<p>

So now Anna is going to have powers. great. I'm sure that's going to go just great. Other than that, I feel like I kind of overwrote that scene with Elsa giving her the magic. It seemed like a lot to me.

So tell me what you thought and all. I always love feedback.


	47. Chapter 47

Nathan's eyes opened and he sat up, looking around his room hopefully. Everything that met his eyes was, unfortunately, exactly how he had left it. He let out a disappointed sigh. He had been hoping for some kind of message or conversation with the outsider. He didn't know why he had been hoping for such a thing, they had never come with any real pattern or predictability before, but he had hoped that the events with Lee and with Anna would have coaxed him out of his perpetual state of watchfulness, but it didn't seem that he had such luck.

He swung his legs over the side of the bed and stretched. After he had finished that he pushed himself off of the bed, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and shaking his head to clear some of the bleary feeling of the morning. He started to go over the things that had happened yesterday in his head. The entire business with Lee, and the end with Anna. He nodded to himself as he organized his thoughts into order of what he wanted to do. First he needed to go and check on Anna, than he wanted to go and get food.

He walked over to the door and opened it, walking down the halls to the stairs. On the way up he passed a few servants, but he didn't stop to speak to them. When he got to the top floor he walked over to Anna's room and knocked on the door. He waited outside of the room for a few minutes before the door opened and Elsa stood in the doorway. There were bags under her eyes, and her shoulders were hunched, but she had a smile that didn't look forced on her face. Nathan looked past her into the room at Anna's bed and saw her laying under the covers. He could only see one of her arms and part of her face, but from what he could see the blue lines that had disappeared.

Elsa brushed some hair out of her face and said "Hey, how are you doing?" Nathan looked her up and down and said "I'm fine, how are you? You look like you were up all night. Was there any problem with Anna?"

Elsa turned and walked back into the room, motioning for Nathan to follow. He did, and Elsa led him to the edge of the bed. She took a seat next to Anna and ran her fingers through the sleeping girl's hair gently. "No, there weren't any issues, I just wanted to make sure that it all went well. She's almost done now."

As Elsa brushed Anna's hair, Nathan noticed something different. "What's that?" he asked, pointing to a few strands of hair that were turning white. Elsa smiled and said "Don't act so surprised!" than reached out to him, ruffling his hair. "You have them too, remember?" she looked from Nathan to Anna than back again. "Though I think they do look better on you. Don't tell Anna I said that."

Nathan put a hand to his hair, flattening it again. He had forgotten about the mark that Elsa's magic had left on him. His appearance wasn't something that he gave much attention. Something else popped into his mind, and he cast around the room for a mirror. He found a body-length one handing on the wall near the bed. He stepped over to it and took a very close look at his face, focusing on his eyes. He recalled his eyes being a very dark brown, almost black, but that was not what the mirror showed. Instead, the color around his pupil was mostly gold, giving his gaze a strange penetrating feeling to it.

He remembered that this was from when Rapunzel had tried to heal him with her own magic. He couldn't help but wince when he remembered the feeling that her magic had given him, it had been like he had swallowed a mouthful of molten lead. His body had of course acted accordingly, purging the material that was causing the feeling as quickly as it could. At the time Nathan found the experience quite unpleasant, but now it seemed that there might be another effect of the incident. He remembered the fight with Gothel, and when he had consumed a rune and used its power directly into his own spells. He had used some kind if magic that he wasn't familiar with that had healed him. It had produced a bright yellow light, just like Rapunzel's magic. He wondered if he might be able to use Rapunzel's magic in the same way that he used Elsa's. If physical markings were anything to judge by, Nathan would say that there was a fair chance that he could.

Elsa got up from the bed and walked over to Nathan. If he saw her approach in the mirror than he didn't react. She put her hands on his back and peered into the mirror, looking at his eyes trying to determine what he was staring at. From what she could tell, he was just looking at his own face. "Are you worried about something?"

Nathan shook his head and said "No, I'm just thinking." He turned back to Elsa and put his hands on her shoulders and said softly "How about you? Are you sure you feel alright? You look pretty under the weather." Elsa smiled and said "No, I'm just tired. Staying awake all night has a way of doing that to you."

Nathan gave a small laugh and replied "Yes, I suppose it would." Elsa put her arms around his neck and pulled herself closer so that her face was almost against his shoulder. She spoke softly, her voice barely audible even to Nathan. "When you said that you loved me… did you mean it?"

Nathan stepped back, holding her at arm's length and trying to look into her face. She looked down at the floor and back towards Anna like she was trying to avoid his gaze. He put one hand gently on her chin and turned her face towards him. "Yes. I meant it."

She gave him an almost nervous look and started to say something. Whatever she was trying to say, she didn't get it out. Nathan gave her an encouraging smile and said "Come on, let's hear it."

Elsa took a deep breath, than with visible effort forced herself to say "Will you marry me?"

If Nathan had been drinking anything than he probably would have choked. The question came as a massive shock to him. He wasn't really sure how to respond. His first impulse was to say yes, but his mind quickly made it clear what that would include. With a very cautious voice, Nathan said slowly "I… don't think that..." Elsa looked to him with hurt eyes, and Nathan kept talking, desperately trying to keep from hurting her feelings. "That's not a good idea. I don't think that I'm really cut out to be a king." He pulled Elsa into a tight hug and said "I think that some other gesture would be good, but I don't think that a life of royalty is the life for me."

Elsa nodded, but still looked slightly hurt. Nathan hugged her tighter and said "I love you, not the crown. You're the one I want to spend the rest of my life with, not the throne." He felt Elsa tighten her arms around him, and felt a warm feeling spread through his chest. Elsa looked at him, her eyes starting to water.

Nathan hugged her tighter, and she said in a wet voice "T-thank you. I don't think I realized h-how much I needed to hear that."

The warm moment was interrupted when both Nathan and Elsa were distracted by the unhappy groaning that started to emanate from Anna's bed. Both broke their hug and turned to the bed. Elsa rushed over to the edge and bent over Anna, checking her over to make sure that she was alright. Nathan walked over to the bed and stood behind Elsa, watching over the pair as Elsa tried to bring Anna back to consciousness peacefully.

She started to whisper to Anna, her voice sounding much steadier and sure than it had moments ago. "Anna, wake up. Come on, you have to get up!" She started shaking Anna's shoulder gently, saying "Time to get up Anna! Todays a big day, remember?" Anna gave another uncomfortable groan but opened her eyes slowly. Nathan noted that the colors of Anna's eyes had changed from the light blue that they usually were to a more deep blue that seemed to go deeper than merely her eyes. She focused on Elsa's face and gave a small smile, saying "Oh, hey sis" in a very groggy voice.

Elsa slid a hand under Anna's back and helped her to sit up. She did, than looked around the room again, her eyes only half open. She let out a deep breath, and Nathan noticed the light vapor escape her mouth. Nathan took that as a sign that Elsa's power had taken successful root in Anna.

Elsa gave Anna a small tug and said "Stand up, come on." While throwing the covers off of Anna. She gave another groan, but pulled herself to the edge of the bed and stood unsteadily. After she successfully balanced herself on her feet her eye immediately widened and she reached out to Elsa with an incredulous expression on her face. "Wow…" she said, sounding more like she was talking to herself than anyone else in the room "Is this how you always see things?"

Elsa gave her a small giggle followed by a nod. Nathan cocked his head and raised an eyebrow at the question. He wasn't aware that Elsa saw things any differently than anyone else. Anna might have been talking about the magic, Nathan didn't know what a link like the one Elsa had made with her would feel like after all. It might have resulted in some small change in physical ability. He knew that his own powers had had a similar effect, making his muscles stronger and his wounds heal faster. It was understandable that something similar would happen with Elsa's power.

Anna looked at Nathan and said "Do you see things like this? It's incredible!" Elsa looked back to Nathan as well, obviously wondering the same thing Elsa was. He shrugged his shoulders and said "I wouldn't know, would I? I've never been linked up with Elsa. I can hardly remember a time when I didn't have my powers anyways."

Elsa turned back to Anna and said "So, how do you like it?" Anna took a few steps around the room before turning back to Elsa and saying energetically "It's amazing! It's like… I just feel so much stronger, more alert, like I'm more awake!" A puzzled look came across her face, and she said slowly "There's something else too." Her eyes closed and her face tensed as she apparently started to focus on something. "I feel like there's something in my mind, something that wasn't there before. I think it's…" her voice trailed off, than after a few seconds both her and Elsa winced as if in pain, and Elsa said "Not so loud!" in a warning kind of voice.

Anna replied by earnestly apologizing "I'm sorry, it's really hard to control." Nathan looked between the two with a confused feeling. He had obviously missed something here. He got Elsa's attention than asked "What just happened there?"

Elsa put a hand to her head and said "I can sort of hear Anna's thoughts, and she can hear mine. She was focusing on the link when she thought about something, so I heard it really loudly. It was so loud that I had a kneejerk response to "shout" back. I guess that learning this link is going to take a little effort on both our parts."

Nathan nodded, than asked "How do you know so much about the link? I wouldn't expect you to know so much about it, you just having formed it and all." Elsa put a hand to her chin, thinking, then said "Well, I made it, so it kind of figures that I know a lot about it. The issue is that I'm not entirely sure how to use it."

Nathan raised an eyebrow questioningly, and Elsa said "Imagine… imagine knowing how to read a language but not knowing how to use a pen. I know what the link is and how it works, but I just can't do what I need to with it yet." Anna nodded behind Elsa and added "That's how I'm feeling too. When I focus on the link I can tell how it's supposed to work, but using it is another story. It's weird."

Nathan understood. Like learning a fighting style without having a body toned or trained in it. If it was like they said, than the ability to use the link would come with time. Elsa opened her mouth, about to speak, when Anna gasped and put her hands to her mouth. Elsa looked back at her with a look that seemed half surprised and half regretful about something. Anna looked from Elsa to Nathan, her eyes starting to water. Nathan stepped forward, concerned, but Elsa beat him to her, putting an arm around her and saying "It's alright, it's all fine. I'm fine with it. Don't worry about it."

Nathan gave Elsa another questioning look, wondering what Anna had just heard through her and Elsa's link. From her reaction he would guess that it was something that was a big emotional event for Elsa. Like what he had said to her just a few minutes ago. It would make sense that Anna had gotten some fragment of what had happened, what Elsa had felt, something like that. Nathan felt a pang of guilt in his chest. If Elsa had felt as bad as Anna looked, he had a lot to make up for.

Anna stopped her crying and shook her head, saying "Sorry about that. This link is really weird." Elsa nodded and said "Don't worry about it. We'll learn how to control it soon enough. Until then I think I should show you a little of the actual powers. Are you up for that?" She asked with a knowing smile.

Anna returned her smile and wiped a few of the tears off her face. "Sure thing, I'd love that." she said, obviously glad for a reason to think of something other than whatever it was that she had just seen or felt. Elsa walked her to the center of the room and took her hands, looking like she was about to pray. As she did this, Nathan realized something that was very unusual for leaders of countries. He had seen neither hide nor hair of any religious individuals. In his experience wherever a monarch was a priest, monk, or worshiper of some kind was never far behind. In Arendelle however, he hadn't seen so much as a church or monastery. He hadn't gone looking for them of course, but their absence was a welcome change from the usual influence that religion held over the ruling of nations. There was just something very unsettling to him about the idea that so many people could believe something that they had never seen any proof of. But he supposed he would rather meet a kindly old priest than a muttering jittery cultist with a bone charm hung around their neck. He made a mental note to ask Elsa about any religion in Arendelle and turned his attention back to Elsa and Anna.

Elsa spoke to Anna in a gentle voice. "Alright, are you ready?" Anna nodded and said "Yes, what do I do?" Elsa took a deep breath, thinking, then said "Focus on the link between us and… and pull on it. You should take some of my energy." There was a silent moment before both women gasped, and Nathan noticed a light layer of frost spreading over Anna's hands. Instead of turning red as they should have under such temperatures, they stayed the same un-aggravated tone. Anna looked down at her hands, than up at Elsa and asked in a slightly panicked voice "How do I control it? It's just kind of seeping out!"

Elsa said in a comforting voice "Calm down. Getting upset will only make it seep out faster. Stop thinking about how difficult it is to contain the power and just do it. If you think you can't control it, than it will be harder to control. That's how the power works. It's why I couldn't control it for so long. I was… I was afraid. Don't let yourself make the same mistake."

Anna nodded, and the spread of the ice across her hands stopped. She took a deep breath and composed herself. Both women broke their contact and stepped away from each other. Anna held a hand out in front of her in front of herself and spread her fingers. The same kind of blue light that Elsa's ice magic always produced flickered in her palm, making her eyes twinkle as she smiled down at the magic. Wordlessly she started to manipulate the power, moving her fingers around and watching how it made the magic move. A satisfied smile came across Elsa's face as she watched Anna get acquainted with her new abilities.

Still without saying a word, Anna threw a hand towards the floor, and a gout of magic energy shot out onto the floor, making a sharp spike of ice raise from the ground. Anna closed her hand, and the jet of magic stopped. She looked back to Elsa with a huge smile on her face and said "I can do it! I can really do it!"

Elsa giggled again and said "Yes, you certainly can." Anna let out a girlish squeal and motioned towards the spike, looking like she was at a total loss for words. She probably was, of course, but she had a good reason to be.

Elsa stepped towards her again, putting a hand on her shoulder and saying "Well, now that you have magic you have to learn to control it. Thankfully, it should be easier for you though. Because you have to draw power from me it should be pretty unlikely that you use any magic accidently."

Nathan's stomach gave a loud growl, causing the two women to look at him. Anna laughed while Elsa smirked and said "There's time for that later, for now we can go and get some food." Nathan nodded appreciatively and said "I think I would like that."

Anna left the room first, walking happily out the door. Elsa looked to the spike again and said "She's going to have to learn how to get rid of it too." In the voice of a mother talking about a child that had only half a skill. Nathan smirked and said "I'm sure she'll figure it out." She started to walk past Nathan, but he grabbed her arm, stopping her.

He felt another pang of guilt as he looked into Elsa's face. He pulled her into another hug and said "You understand why I said no, right? I don't think you would really want me holding the reins to a kingdom. I really do love you." He felt Elsa's arms tighten around him and she said "I know."

After a few moments the two broke the hug and look at each other. Elsa glanced down at the floor and said "Anna know about that… little… conversation. I accidently thought about it at the same time Anna was focusing on the link, and she was able to get the memory from it, I thought you noticed her reaction. I hope that doesn't bother you too much." Nathan gave a small smile and said "I guess I'll have to get used to things like this not being as private as I would like."

Elsa laughed softly and replied "Yes, I guess you will." She walked to the door again and stepped out, saying over her shoulder "Now are you coming or not?" Nathan followed, shrugging his shoulders in a joking manner.

He and Elsa walked down through the hall and down the stairs, keeping an eye out for Anna on the way. It seemed that she had been either too happy or too hungry to wait. The two got to the dining hall, the doors were opened and the smell of food assaulted the both of them. They gathered their food and found the table that Anna and Kristoff were already seated at.

Kristoff was fawning over Anna, asking her if she felt alright and if he could do anything to help her. As Nathan took a seat he heard Anna say irritably "I'm fine, really! You don't need to be worrying so much, it's still me, nothing has really changed." Just before bringing a forkful of food to his mouth, Nathan smirked and said sarcastically "Yea, she can just shoot ice from her fingertips, basically nothing happened." Elsa laughed than said "You really don't need to worry about her. She's handling it quite well, I'd say."

Kristoff leaned back in his chair and held up his hands, saying "Look, I'm just making sure that she is alright. You don't need to go after me for it." Elsa rolled her eyes and said "Ok, I'm sorry that I poked fun at you. Will you forgive me?" her last sentence was almost dripping with sarcasm. Kristoff sighed and nodded. Elsa turned to Nathan with an expectant look, but he didn't know what she wanted him to do. She tilted her head discreetly towards Kristoff, and Nathan got the feeling that she wanted him to apologize for his remark. He couldn't help but to feel slightly offended by the notion. He didn't know why, but it upset him slightly that he was expected to withdraw his jest.

Luckily for him, he didn't have to. Someone set down a plate of food down next to him and sat in the chair to his. He looked over and found Lee looking bashfully down at her food. The entire tone of the table seemed to change, from a warm and jovial one to a much more somber and quiet one, like no one was exactly sure how the newcomer would react to anything.

Nathan continued to eat his food in silence, hoping that Elsa and Lee would have the conversation that he had asked Elsa to have with her, but he knew that she would likely wait until the two were alone. Something that he knew both would prefer to do in private. With Anna just having received the link he somehow doubted that the two of them being alone together wouldn't be very likely.

Elsa cleared her throat and said "Hello Lee, good of you to join us. How do you like the food?" Lee nodded and said quietly "Its good." still only looking down at her food. Everyone at the table except for Lee looked around at the others awkwardly, not sure what else to say. Elsa cleared her throat again and said "Lee, I would like to talk with you later today. Is that alright?"

Lee nodded again wordlessly. Nathan looked around the table, seeing that everyone else was done for the most part with their own food. The only one left with food on their plate was Lee. Elsa broke the silence first, turning to Anna and saying "Would you like to go to the courtyard and try out a few of your new powers? I'm sure I can show you a few tricks." Anna smiled widely and responded "I would love to!" and getting up from the table. Kristoff was the next to stand, asking "Mind if I tag along and watch?"

Nathan sat, watching the small group walk from the hall. Lee finally looked up from her food, casting her gaze towards Nathan and saying "What are you waiting for? Don't wait for me, I don't intend on following them unless they call me." Nathan shook his head, denying her offer to let him leave. "No, I think they'll be fine. I think you look like you need the attention a little more than they do. Want to talk about anything?"

Lee gave Nathan an irritated look and said "I appreciate what you're trying to do, but I don't think you can help me. All I need to do is talk to Elsa, there's something very important I need to tell her. There's no rush to tell her, so I'll just wait until she talks to me later today. I'll wait before ruining her day. You should go and have fun with her, make sure that Anna doesn't kill herself."

Nathan nodded and stood from the table. Now he was more curious than ever about what the Outsider had said to Lee, but he still didn't want to ask. It seemed that she would be willing to share the information soon enough anyways. He turned to leave the hall, his mind working hopelessly to try and work out what Lee had heard. Something bad, obviously, but what? The large wooden doors to the courtyard opened, and a huge blast of frigid air and white snow slammed into him like a solid wall. He barely had time to raise his arms in front of his face before he was blown back several feet, barely able to stay on his feet.

Over the howling sound of the wind in his ears Nathan could hear shouting. Than as suddenly as it had started, the freezing assault stopped. Nathan lowered his arms cautiously, ready to raise them again at a moment's notice.

Standing in the center of the courtyard, her hands over her mouth and an immensely concerned look on her face. Nathan let out the breath that he had been holding. If Anna kept this up than he wouldn't live to hear Lee's news for Elsa.

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><p>Author's thing:<p>

Next chapter should be the last one for this arc. I'll try and have the first chapter of the next arc ready at the same time as the next one for this one.

so yea, tell me what you thought! review! Quick, before its too late!

I feel like Anna is going to be quite mischievous with her new powers.


	48. Chapter 48

Nathan felt the ice that had coated his sleeves crack as he tried to put his arms down, finding the action far harder than it should have been. One of the larger chunks separated from his sleeve and fell to the ground, shattering into hundreds of pieces. Nathan looked up and stepped out of the door again, hoping that he wouldn't be slammed with Anna's powers again.

Thankfully enough, Anna seemed too concerned to throw any more ice at the moment. She was rushing towards him with a very concerned look on her face. She reached Nathan and started trying to pull the pieces of ice off of his arms, saying "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to! I was just…" her voice trailed off and she redoubled her efforts to remove the ice from his arm. He made a few attempts to wave Anna off, but she didn't seem to get the hint. Instead of saying anything, he put some of his magic into his shadow form spell and let himself dissolve. Anna gasped and recoiled, than let it out as she realized what Nathan was doing.

The remainder of the ice dropped to the ground. Nathan let his body reform out of the shadow and looked around. A few of the guards around the yard were staring at him, shaking their heads and rubbing their eyes like they were trying to shake off a daydream. A small smile came across Nathan's face as he wondered what all of them were thinking. Most of the guards had seen his magic during the battle, but there must have still been those who hadn't.

Elsa and Kristoff ran up, both looking worried. Elsa put a hand on his shoulder and said "Are you alright?" He nodded and said "Fine now, yes." He shook the arm that had taken the brunt of the blast, starting to notice the feeling in it fade away. He waved his hand dismissively and said "Go back to what you were doing, please, don't let me distract you."

Anna turned back to Elsa and said "Well, aside from accidentally hitting Nathan, how was that?" Elsa shrugged and said "It was alright… a little unfocused, but good overall. I think you need to get a little better at controlling the power you pull, but it was pretty good. I think you were scared when you saw that you were hitting Nathan, and the fear made you lose control of the power that you had. I think you probably would have kept going if I hadn't cut off your energy."

Anna gave Elsa a surprised look and asked "You cut off my power? I thought I did that…" her voice trailed off again and she looked sad. Elsa spoke, sounding like a mother encouraging a child "You'll learn how to handle it soon enough. Just keep practicing until you get it."

Anna turned away from them and tensed her arms. Like a wave, blue light moved through her veins like it had last night, moving from her head down to her arms and coming to rest in her hands. She brought her hands up and put them side by side, palms facing out directly away from her. Her shoulders dropped as she let out a deep breath, than every muscle in her arms seemed to tense as a jet of bright blue snow was expelled from her hands. Nathan could tell that it was different that the one that he had been hit by, that one had had plenty of ice in it.

Anna's feet started to skid slowly backwards and her arms seemed to have trouble staying steady. Nathan, Kristoff, and Elsa all took a few steps back from Anna, putting some distance between them. Anna continued to blast the stream of snow for a few seconds before the flow sputtered and stopped. Anna cursed softly to herself and tucked her hands into her armpits before turning to Elsa with an agitated look and exclaiming "It's still happening! My hands are still freezing!"

Elsa nodded and said "you're letting too much power escape. You need to focus. That's the only way that you are going to get a rein on things. Your emotions have just as much sway on what happens as your thoughts. If you let them wander than your control will falter."

Anna let an annoyed his through clenched teeth. "I'm trying! Emotional detachment doesn't come as easily to some of us as it does for you." Elsa looked hurt by Anna's comment. Anna seemed to realize what she had said, and started to apologize, but Elsa interrupted her. "It isn't emotional detachment, its emotional control. Maybe if you…" she stopped, catching herself. She closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath before continuing "Anna, I know that this is frustrating to hear, but you have to work through it. I hope that I can help you with that."

Anna looked at Elsa, an angry expression on her face for a moment before her anger broke and the expression of anger changed to one of guilt. "I'm sorry Elsa. I won't let my temper get away from me again, I promise."

Elsa smiled and said "I know you didn't mean to. Keep practicing, I know you'll get it. Keep trying!" Anna turned and started to repeat what she had already done. Kristoff elbowed Nathan's arm and whispered "Did you have this much trouble when you were learning your powers?"

Nathan smirked, imagining what would have happened if he had only had as much control over his powers as it seemed that Anna had over hers. Things would not have turned out well for anyone. "No, I had much more than that. Unfortunately, I also didn't have as much base ability as her either. Bone runes were hard to come by, especially when you're just a little kid. My powers were slow to grow, but I guess the exchange was control. It's something that I've never had an issue with."

Kristoff nodded than turned his attention back to Anna. Elsa asked "Do you think that I could improve the link between me and Anna so that she could use it easier? I think that would work, don't you?" He thought a moment before replying "I don't know it that's a great idea. Give her more time to learn it as it is before you go and change it." Elsa nodded and said "Alright. I just want to make things better for her."

Nathan watched Anna shoot a few more blasts of magic before turning back to Elsa and asking "When you said that Anna knew about that conversation we had, what did you mean? How did she figure it out? How does your link with her work? I know you explained it a bit, but I would like to know a little more about it." Elsa nodded and said "Ok, ask away."

Nathan drew in a deep breath, feeling the cold air sting his lungs, than started talking "How specific of a feeling can you get through it? If Anna learned about our conversation through it, it must be able to convey pretty specific information, right?" Elsa put her hands together and said "Well… sort of. It was really fresh in my mind, and I was thinking about it. I was focusing on the link, and so was Anna. My feelings were very…. exposed. I don't know if she knows exactly what happened, but she at least has a pretty good idea."

Nathan still didn't fully understand what the link did as a whole, so he asked "So it you can only get feelings through it?" Elsa scrunched her face like she was weighing one option against another, then said hesitantly "I don't think so. I'm not entirely sure, but I think that eventually we might be able to speak through it as if we were whispering to each other. When that will happen I don't know."

Nathan nodded. "That's just what we need, you two being telepathic." Elsa smiled at the joke, but didn't laugh. Nathan was reminded of the ominous conversation that he had had with Lee. He started to feel anxious that he still didn't know what Lee wanted to tell her. It was important, but she had said that it wasn't urgent. Those two things didn't really seem like they went together very well. He said "When do you plan on talking to Lee?" not doing a very good job of hiding his eagerness. Elsa gave him a puzzled look and said "I don't know, whenever Anna tires herself out. You seem rather worried, is everything alright?"

He shook his head, trying to dispel his worries and said "Yes, everything is fine. Lee said that she had something important to tell you, but she said that it wasn't something that she wanted to rush. Keep on making sure that Anna doesn't kill anyone."

Elsa turned back to watch Anna. Nathan tried to pay more attention to what Anna was doing, but she just kept doing the same thing over and over. He eventually just zoned out, not very interested in Anna doing the same thing with minor variations each time. Anna seemed to tire quickly from her new powers, but it was more likely that he had dozed off watching her.

The sun was in a very different position from where it had been, signaling to Nathan that a few hours had passed. Elsa was shaking his shoulder and saying "Are you listening to me?" Nathan blinked a few times and shook his head before saying "Sorry, what? No." Elsa gave Nathan a smirk, then said "Anna is too tired to keep going." He raised an eyebrow, not expecting the powers that she was using to drain her physical strength. Elsa must have known what he was thinking, because she said "It takes mental strength for her to pull power through the link. I could send power to her myself, but I don't think that doing that would be a good idea."

Anna walked over to the trio and asked "Well? What did you think so far? Am I getting a handle on this power well?" Elsa, Kristoff, and Nathan all looked at each other, none of them really being sure what to say. Elsa was the first one to break the silence, saying "You've made a lot of progress today, but you still have a long way to go, I think. I think that the most important thing that I can say is to just keep at it."

Kristoff was the next one to speak, saying "It looked to me like you got a lot better today! I know that I can't really speak to this kind of stuff, being a boring normal person and all, but I really think that you are doing well." Anna embraced Kristoff in a tight hug. Elsa looked over them at Nathan with an expectant expression, and Nathan tried to think of some complement he could give that would still be applicable to Anna using powers he hardly knew anything about.

He thought for a moment before saying "You seem to be taking to your power quite nicely. I think you'll learn quickly." Elsa gave Nathan a look that seemed to say "really?" but smiled and shrugged, figuring that it was enough. Anna broke her hug with Kristoff and put a hand to her head.

"I'm not feeling very good." She muttered. Kristoff put an arm around her shoulder and started to lead her back into the castle. Elsa waited for Nathan, holding a hand out to Nathan and nodding her head over towards the doors. Nathan gave a small smile and took her hand, allowing himself to be lead to the doors up the steps. As she led him, she asked "Do you know anything about what Lee wants to tell me? You didn't really give me any idea of what to expect."

Nathan shrugged and replied "She didn't give me any really idea of what to expect either. Other than it being not good." He knew that saying that might not be the best encouragement for going and talking to her, but it was the truth. The two entered into the castle and felt the warmth of the air seep through his armor and making him slightly more comfortable.

Kristoff continued to guide Anna away. Elsa watched them go for a short time before looking around and saying "Where do you think that Lee is?" Nathan shrugged, and Elsa spoke to one of the servants walking around "Do you know where the women who came in yesterday and was given a room is?" The woman bowed and said "I believe that she is in her room, your Highness." Elsa nodded thankfully and said "Thank you."

She turned back to Nathan and started walking, motioning for him to follow. He did, and as they walked Elsa asked "Do you really not know anything else about what she wants to talk about?" He shook his head and said "No, I don't think so." He hesitated for a moment before saying "Well… it might have something to do with a little conversation that she had with the Outsider, but I dint know." Elsa gave him a questioning look, and he clarified "When she was out getting the runes that you asked her to, she found a shrine. I don't think that I've told you about those, but they are basically a place where if you take the rune from it, than the Outsider will speak to you. I don't know what the rules for them really are, but I think that Lee talked to the Outsider when she took the rune. I think that the conversation has something to do with the thing that she wants to tell you. But, again, I don't know."

Elsa nodded and said "Whatever she is going to tell me, I hope it isn't too bad. I don't think that after the whole situation with Gothel that I could take much more bad news."

The pair came to the door that led into Lee's room, and Elsa knocked softly on the door. A few moments later the door opened and Lee stood in the doorframe. She looked up at Elsa and said "Oh! I wasn't expecting you so soon today." she sighed and said "I guess better sooner than later. I only want to tell you though" she said to Elsa "not Nathan. I don't think this was for him to hear. You can tell him after, but I think you should consider it first."

Elsa looked from Lee to Nathan, unsure, than let out a breath. "If you want to tell me something than you should tell both of us. I trust Nathan with my life. If you want to tell me something than you should tell both of us."

Lee gave Elsa an uncertain look, but dropped her shoulders and got a defeated look on her face. "Alright, but please don't blame me if he hears something you didn't want him to." She turned back into the room and walked in. Elsa and Nathan followed her, Nathan closing the door behind them. Lee took a seat in a chair, and Nathan and Elsa sat next to each other on the bed. Lee sat in silence, looking at them for a moment before saying "I… I broke into someone's house to get one of the runes, and I had a vision while I was there. The thing, you called him the Outsider, right? He appeared to me and gave me a warning about things that would happen."

Elsa sat forward and said "A warning? What kind of warning? What's going to happen?" Nathan put a hand on Elsa's hand, trying to calm her so that Lee would finish talking. She looked over to Nathan briefly before letting out a deep breath and turning back to Lee.

Lee took a deep breath and said "The Outsider told me… I think I might be able to remember what he said word for word, hold on…" She thought for a moment before looking back up and saying slowly in a voice that was deeper than her regular voice and very monotone, like she was imitating the Outsider.

"Hello Lee. You look a little jittery, is everything alright? Maybe you are feeling a bit anxious about breaking into some stranger's house. I wouldn't blame you of course, if you knew the person who lived here I doubt you would have come here. Or is it that you are feeling guilty for turning your back on the woman who saved you? She's dead now, but you wouldn't want to forget what she did for you, would you? And after all the things that that woman did for you, you turn coat and side with her enemies at the first chance? I think that speaks volumes about you.

Speaking of you, I have some news that you may not like. Things in Arendelle are stable now, but they will topple over and spiral out of control eventually. I would place it within the year, but it could be sooner than that. You will be a key factor in determining the outcome of it all. Your cooperation could save Arendelle, or destroy it.

Playing a bigger part than you, however, will be Nathan. I would suggest that you keep an eye on him. I can see everything, past, present, and future, and I know that it will be his blade that starts the chaos. If you really want to serve Queen Elsa the rest of your life I suggest that you try and keep a reign on his… violent tendencies. He might seem reformed, but a life spent learning to enjoy killing is not dispelled easily. Some people say the only thing more damaging to a plan than an incompetent novice is a bored master.

Now, take my rune and go. Share what I have told you if you wish, it will only make things more interesting for me if you do. Things are working, gears turning as they always have, just out of your sight, and I wait on the edge of my seat to see what will happen when you find them."

The room was filled with a heavy silence for a few seconds after Lee finished. Nathan was sifting through the information carefully, trying to consider every possibility as he was used to doing with the Outsider. His words often had double meanings and various implications, but one thing had been very clear. Nathan himself would be the one to start a conflict that might bring Arendelle to its knees.

He looked over at Elsa, worried about how she would take a message like this. He breathing was heavy, and her eyes were darting around as she faced the floor like she was thinking as quickly as she could. Nathan looked at Lee and asked "How can you remember what he said so well? I doubt that you really could have remembered what he said word for word."

Lee gave Nathan a look that seemed to be insulting him and said "I worked as a bartender gathering information for a long time before I met Gothel. Remembering people's exact words was very important part of that."

Elsa looked up from the floor and at Nathan, looking him over like he was some kind of a threat. He put his hand on top of hers again and gave her a comforting hug with his other arm. She returned his hug, and he whispered into her ear "I promise, no matter what happens, I will protect you. Even if I have to give myself to do it, I will keep you safe. I promise."

Elsa nuzzled her face into his shoulder, than stood up. Nathan stood with her, trying to keep comforting her. She addressed Lee and said "Thank you for bringing this to my attention." in her commanding royal voice, wavering uncertainly. Nathan walked her out of the room, thinking of where he could take Elsa to make her feel better. The first place that he thought of was to Anna. As they walked through the halls Nathan looked at Elsa, and he felt something he wasn't used to. It wasn't the urge to protect her because she wasn't in any imminent danger, but something else. He wanted to find out more about what was going to happen, even if he couldn't stop it. He wanted to comfort Elsa, but he doubted that there was anything that he could do for her right now.

He dropped her off at Anna's room, explaining the situation briefly to Anna and Kristoff before making sure that Elsa was comfortable and leaving. He wanted to stay, but he had another important task in mind. He made his way down to the courtyard again and flagged down a guard. The man looked at attention and said "Yes sir?"

Nathan said without inflection "Get me a horse."

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><p>It had been hours since Nathan had left the castle. The cold air whipped and stung at his face and his whole body felt cold. The sun was ducking below the horizon, robbing the snow covered world of its warmth. He cursed to himself as he realized that he might have to return soon to avoid freezing to death.<p>

He put one final large burst of energy into his shadow sense spell, paying close attention to anything out of the ordinary. He was about to give up, when suddenly a twisting mass of shadow appeared in the middle of what he would guess from the flickering lights was a campfire. It was about two hundred feet away, off the way of the road where no one was likely to find it. Nathan climbed off of his horse and made his way towards the fire. There wasn't anybody near the fire, making Nathan feel a bit uneasy about approaching it.

He did however, figuring that anyone camping out in the frigid cold wouldn't be much of a problem. The fire came into view as he bushed a few bushes out of the way. The smoke off the fire coiled into the sky, blocking the shrine that lay on the opposite side of the fire. Nathan walked over to the shrine and, with one final look around the area, grabbed the rune from the shrine.

The Outsider appeared above the shrine and looked down at Nathan, a smug look on his face. He clicked his tongue a few times before saying "Nathan, you never can just let things happen, can you? Your concern is clear enough. You want to know if you can stop the event that Lee told you about. I'll save you an ambiguous answer. No. You might be able to change small things about it, but you will start it."

The Outsider folded his arms and leaned back in the air. "You put a lot of energy into finding this shrine. I hope you found it worth the effort. Once things get started you'll see much more clearly. War is coming Nathan, and when it does you will be one of the most important pieces on the board."

With those final words, the Outsider faded away, leaving Nathan alone in the flickering light of the fire. He sighed unhappily and clenched his fists, turning back to his horse. It seemed that whatever was coming, he would have to take when it came, and no sooner.

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><p>Author's thing:<p>

Well, that's the last chapter of this one. I know that I said that I would have the first chapter of the next one ready when I did this one, but it occurred to me that that was stupid and would detriment the new one so I decided I shouldn't do it. When I finish the first chapter of the next one I will post HALF of that one and have a link to the rest of it on the new story at the end. that is the battle plan, and I hope that it will go good.

So now that this arc is done, I think that it would be fitting to ask this: what did you think? For my first venture into fanfiction I think that it was alright, but I would appreciate some opinions on the matter. What did I do that you liked? What did I do that you didn't like? Tell me all of this please!

So thanks for reading, and I will have the next "Arc" "Section" "Thing" out soon. stay tuned for that.


	49. Chapter 49

Bright warm light, loud music, plentiful food and drink, and friendly faces all around. Overall the party might have been very enjoyable for someone who wasn't Nathan. As it was, he was standing in the darkest corner he could find with his arms crossed looking out over the large number of people, feeling very uncomfortable every time he spied someone's eyes lingering just a few seconds too long on him. Each time this happened he felt himself press a little harder into the wall behind him. He could have been down in the crowd, mingling and meeting some of the men that he had fought alongside against Gothel's people, but that wasn't a prospect that really interested him. Most of them had at very least seen him when he had… to say "flipped out" would be an understatement after Gothel died. He figured that most of them would be hesitant to talk to him, a first impression of being the most dangerous person on the battlefield wasn't the greatest to draw in new friends

A familiar sound made its way to Nathan's ears, and he shifted his gaze to follow it to its source. Elsa was laughing heartily, several men in royal guard uniform standing around her and laughing with her. Their behavior would have been highly unprofessional had they been on duty, but the entire party was to celebrate their "courage and loyalty in the face of overwhelming opposition" as well as to "commemorate the losses that were suffered at the hands of the enemies of Arendelle" as Elsa had so eloquently put it. Most of the people in the large room were royal guards, most of which were still wearing their uniforms despite being told that civilian clothing was fine.

There were a few individuals who stuck out in the crowd, wearing far more fine and ornate things than the guards, and Nathan presumed them to be various nobles. None of them had the build of a guardsman, all being either too fat or too lanky to hold a spot in the ranks. In spite of their differences, the nobles and the guards seemed to be getting along as well as could be expected.

Nathan's attention was grabbed away from Elsa when he saw a group of four men approaching him. It occurred to him briefly that he would be able to fit himself entirely behind the throne on which he was leaning if he were to make himself as flat as possible. He immediately dismissed this course of action as childish and foolish, wondering why it had even crossed him mind to begin with. He pushed himself off the side of the throne and stood facing the men, mentally reprimanding himself for the apparent lapse of logic.

When they reached him, the man leading the group held out a mug and said "Would you join us for a drink?" Nathan looked at the mug briefly, noting that it was beer instead of wine, being a fairly good indicator that the men were soldiers, as none of them were in uniform. Nathan shook his head and said "Sorry, I don't drink."

The man shifted on his feet awkwardly, then said "Uh, well… I was wondering if you could maybe talk for a while. We were kind of hoping that you could tell us a little about the battle. We were all stationed in the town when it went down, and we heard that you were pretty deep in the front. Nobody that we talked to really wanted to talk about what happened up there. We thought that maybe… maybe you would be a little more willing."

Nathan sighed, than looked past them at Elsa again. She was looking up at up, having seen the men approach him, and gave him an encouraging look. He looked back to the man and said "Alright, I suppose it couldn't hurt to give you a few details."

Elsa smiled as the men led Nathan off to one of their tables and started asking him questions interestedly. It was good to see him interacting with someone other than her or Anna. It didn't seem to be something that he liked doing.

It had been three weeks since the warning about the possible fall of Arendelle, and since then she felt that she had calmed down considerably. She had been anxious and jumpy for a while, but with time that had subsided. Nathan, Anna and Kristoff had all tried their best to set her at ease, and it had worked for the most part. The one who did the most good had to have been Nathan. The two had shared a few more intimate moments, but much to her dismay Nathan didn't seem to have adjusted well to showing his feelings to anyone but her. It was slightly aggravating, but she was more sorry for him than angry with him. Every time that he tried to say or do something in front of someone else it just tapered off into nothing.

In spite of his obvious difficulties adjusting to their relationship, Elsa loved him. She could feel that he loved her back, even if he had difficulty showing it in front of others. She was somewhat surprised by the different feeling in the love that she had for Nathan and the kind she felt for Anna. With Anna she felt a kind of familiarity, she knew her like the back of her hand. There was hardly anything that she didn't know about her, and she was always glad to have her around. With Nathan however, she felt like she had so much to learn about him even though he had shared so much of his story with her. She didn't just find comfort in Nathan's presence, she wanted him to be around her. When he was absent it felt like something was missing.

Interrupting her thoughts, a large burst of emotion flowed through her mental link with Anna. The feeling was hard to mistake, it was very similar to the one that she had just been feeling. She looked around the room and saw Anna in the middle of the floor, dancing clumsily with Kristoff. From what she could see it wasn't Anna that was the cause the difficulties. She couldn't help but give a little giggle, prompting one of the men to turn and follow her gaze. When he saw the dancing pair he laughed and nudged one of his friends, pointing to the pair. Elsa didn't interrupt their fun. If she were to be honest, she found the sight of Anna flailing with Kristoff quite humorous as well.

Elsa focused on her link with her sister and, with some difficulty, sent the words "Please be more careful with what you let through" referring to the emotions that she let through. Anna had something of a habit of letting raw emotions through the link when she felt intense emotions. It had been annoying at times, but nothing more. Thinking about the link got Elsa considering how Anna had adjusted to using her powers.

She had gotten better at pulling the power that she needed through the link, she could now do it completely on her own, without Elsa helping. With that ability mastered, her new issue was restraint. She had trouble telling how much power she would need for a certain effect and often ended up overestimating the amount by a large margin. The excess energy that she pulled was usually let off from the spell in an unintended effect, what she had called power "seeping out". On the rare occasion that she pulled the exact amount of power that she needed for a spell there was no such seeping. Elsa was proud of her sister. She had come a long way in the past few weeks and still tried very hard, and yet somehow was able to maintain her (sometimes irritating) immature, childish outlook on things. And Elsa wouldn't have it any other way.

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><p>This is half of the new thing. If you want the rest of it (which I assume you do) than you should hit up this link: s10583097/1/Darker-Days . If for any reason that link should not work than you can go to my author page thing or whatever and find the new story there, I only have two (so far). I would remind you that you gotta re-follow and fave and whatever to the new one, but I'm sure that Y'all know that already.


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