#chapter 01

It was a beautiful day in Equestria.

Clear skies above and a cool, gentle breeze blowing though the Everfree Forest. It was the perfect time to be outside for any young pony.

The leaves on trees and bushes swayed as a young purple unicorn stepped into a small clearing to observe a delicate flower blooming alone in the grass. Orange petals sprouting from a dark teal stem with a few oval-shaped leaves. The smell of it was subtle, almost cinnamon-like.

Using her magic, she plucked the blossom and placed it in her saddlebag. Surely it'd come in handy later while brewing potions, she thought.

As she closed her bag, rustling sounds coming from a bush behind caught her attention. Cautiously, she crouched and approached the shrub. A small, white puffy tail was sticking out from the bottom of the leaves.

"Oh? Is that a funny little bunny I see--"

Her words were cut off as she moved away the leaves, expecting the sight of a cute rabbit, but instead was met with the mangled remains of one.

It's body was twisted unnaturally where it laid, mouth open at an unsettling angle and eyes sunken in. The dirt and grass below it was soaked with blood, bile and other fluids. Patches of its fur and skin had sloughed off to expose the flesh underneath and it's spine was exposed. One of it's arms was completely missing, the bit that remained was a gnarled mess of torn skin with little bone remaining.

The areas of exposed muscle were full of purple thorn-like quills with a pink gradient towards the tip. The same quills littered the ground around the body.

The unicorn gasped and flinched back with her ears pinned.

"What happened to you... poor thing..." She mumbled to herself as she hung her head with a somber expression. Her eyes trailed to the quills surrounding the poor rabbit.

She picked up a single quill using her magic and held it a few inches from her face with a curious hum.

"Maybe Zecora would know what did this" Her cheery demeaner returned quickly as she backed up away from the bush, still looking at the quill.

"On the bright side, it could be a new species or someth-- AH!"

She suddenly jolted as she felt a sharp, stabbing pain in her hoof, causing her to accidently fling the quill from her magic grasp. Lowering her head and holding the pained hoof a little off the ground, she groaned to herself with a soft 'ow'.

On the forest floor by her feet sat thorny branches, the likely culprit.

"Ugh, Seriously? I need to be more careful..." The young unicorn berated herself as she used her magic to pull a linen bandage from her bag and wrap it around the injured leg.

Deciding it was probably better to head home than stay out now, she turned and made her way out of the forest while mumbling to herself.

"Stupid brambles"

The official coronation took place in the castle chapel, where all the kings and queens of Arendelle had been crowned. It was a sunny late autumn day and the sun's rays fell through the chapel's stained glass windows onto the wide carpet on which Anna slowly and solemnly strode forward to the altar. Her coronation dress showed her characteristic black with the wheat motifs on it, which were repeated in the cape in Arendelle green. On the long train was elaborately embroidered the crocus symbol and shimmered silvery. In front of her, in the gallery, the choir sang the traditional coronation song and the eyes of the invited guests on the benches next to her followed her expectantly.

To the left of the altar stood the bishop in his red robe, facing her with a serious look. In his hands he held a green velvet cushion on which the insignia of Arendelle lay ready. On the right side Elsa stood in her brilliant white fifth spirit dress and open hair. In front of her she held the newly made seven-pointed tiara, which was reminiscent of that of her mother Iduna and also showed the Arendelle crocus as a symbol. Anna's tiara, however, additionally included a wheat motif, symbolizing a new time in the history of the kingdom. It shimmered in gold and royal blue, and the small diamonds on it sparkled in the sun's rays.

When Anna finally stopped on the second step in front of the altar, her sister slowly walked in front of her. Then the choir finished singing and it became quiet all around. Anna lowered her head slowly and Elsa gently placed the tiara on her head. Then Elsa made way for the bishop, who handed Anna the scepter and orb to receive. She took up the insignia and turned with pride and dignity to the audience, which at that moment rose respectfully from the benches.

Elsa now stood in the exact spot where Anna had been during her own coronation. Anna was calm and composed throughout the ceremony. Fear had almost overwhelmed Elsa back then and in her memory, she saw the ice slowly forming on the scepter and orb as clearly as if it had been yesterday.

Behind Anna, the bishop now solemnly recited the words of the coronation and when he finally pronounced the words 'Queen Anna of Arendelle', all present repeated it before her. Anna turned to the bishop and placed the insignia back on the pillow, looking over at Elsa for a moment and smiled with relief. Her sister returned the smile with great pride and nodded to her. Then Anna turned to her people and the applause broke out. She had done it. She was now queen of Arendelle.

As they left the chapel in a royal recessional past an overjoyed looking Kristoff, the enthusiastically clapping people of Arendelle, the invited guests and dignitaries, Elsa involuntarily drew a comparison. There seemed to be far more people present than at her own coronation. Some representatives of the Northuldra were even present including Yelana and Honeymaren in a traditional colourful festive dress, now bowing to both of them. The people loved Anna. And Elsa was happy to have made the right decision for both of them and for the kingdom.

The Coronation Ball in the evening was cheerful and exuberant and the dessert tables, of course, offered plenty of chocolate treats. Every dignitary paid respects to the new queen. She was glad that the Duke of Weselton had been banished from Arendelle and that she would never have to dance with him anymore. This time she could choose her own dance partner and she chose Kristoff. As a precaution, however, she had arranged for Kristoff to have dance lessons a few weeks beforehand. She still remembered too well how Weselton stepped on her feet back then and Kristoff was a good deal bigger and heavier than him.

~~~

A few days later, Anna had commissioned the royal sculptor to create a large bronze statue. She wanted to show her parents at a young age, as a monument and eternal symbol of peace between Arendelle and the Northuldra. Elsa had stayed a little longer in Arendelle because of this, and when she was in the sculptor's workshop together with Anna, she created a small but very detailed ice sculpture of Iduna and Agnarr for him to use as a model. Elsa would not be able to be present in person at the unveiling later, but she gave Anna the promise to visit her regularly.

Anna's second official act was to appoint Lt. Destin Mattias as general. He had been loyal to Arendelle all his life and had been instrumental in helping her break the curse of the mist by allowing her to destroy the dam with the earth giants. Finally, it had also been Mattias who had grabbed her hand at the very last moment, saving her from falling into the depths of the breaking dam and thus saving her life. Together with Kristoff, of course, who had finally pulled her to safety and into his arms.

That brought Anna to her next thought. She had been overjoyed to accept Kristoff's marriage proposal, and that would be the next big event in Arendelle. Her own wedding.

But first, she wanted to unveil the monument. The sculptor had promised her it would be ready very soon, and by early winter it was. The finished statue stood shrouded in the square between the clock tower and the harbor, at the place where Arendelle's flag used to fly and where the Autumn Festival was held every year. All the citizens of Arendelle had gathered there on one of the last warm sunny days of the year to celebrate the great event. Together with General Mattias, Anna pulled down the big canvas and unveiled the new monument. Afterwards, she handed Gale the first of many letters to Elsa, inviting her to the charades game the next Friday at the castle.

The months passed, Anna slowly got used to her new duties as queen, and Elsa kept her promise to appear at the castle every Friday. Finally, the next summer dawned.

~~~

Peace had returned to the Enchanted Forest. The Northuldra lived their lives as before, in harmony with the nature spirits. The giants helped the inhabitants over abysses, Nokk helped a bit with fishing, Gale, playful as it was, helped to convert creative ideas into stone sculptures, and Bruni was content to help start cookfires and clear areas with fire as needed for growing food or reindeer herding.

Elsa had her own kota in the camp, but she spent most of her time in Ahtohallan to learn and find out more about the past and about herself and her magic.

One balmy early summer evening she sat with Honeymaren and a few others around the bonfire in the camp and told them a little bit about Ahtohallan. Everyone was quite curious about it because not one of the Northuldra living today had ever seen it.

At first she decided to reveal only a little of the deeper secrets there and limited herself to the description of the place itself. She wasn’t sure if this would anger the nature spirits but assumed that she would quickly notice when trouble was approaching. The Northuldra hung on her every word while she talked and now and then someone asked her for more details. But Elsa left out the pictures in the memory hall and the deeper levels of Ahtohallan with the living ice sculptures of her own past. That was a bit too private and perhaps risky.

Now that she had accepted her ability and her new task as fifth spirit, she hardly thought back to her old life in Arendelle. In the beginning she was there every Friday and sometimes stayed over the weekend to be with Anna and help her with her new duties as queen, but she had changed. Something had changed her. And it became rarer and rarer for Elsa to visit the castle.

Eventually it even became rare to find her in the forest. The nature spirits were appeased and there were no threats and no strangers in the woods. Everything was calm and in harmony. It was almost as if it had never been otherwise. Many peaceful weeks passed.

Until that one day in the early hours of the morning, when one of the Northuldra men was about to go fishing and he found a human lying at the beach motionless half in the water. The man ran back to the camp to get help.

A short time later he returned with Yelana, Honeymaren, and a healer. They took in the sight before them and drew back in shock. In front of them lay Elsa, motionless and without any clothes on her body.

The healer was the first to kneel down next to her and check if she was still alive. She confirmed it to Yelena with a relieved nod and together they carried her back to the forest.

When they arrived at the camp there was excitement and a small group discussed gesticulating and pointing towards lichen meadows and other directions. The only thing they understood in the tangle of stories was, that the nature spirits had apparently all disappeared and were no longer helping anyone as they always did.

Yelana immediately linked the two incidents and came up with the only possible explanation. Elsa was on her way back to them when all the nature spirits suddenly disappeared, and so did Nokk. So Elsa must have swum almost all the way from Ahtohallan through the Dark Sea. A wonder she could survive that at all. Yelana was now quite sure why Elsa didn't wear her white outfit anymore too. If the magic disappeared, this could only mean one thing.

~~~

Meanwhile, Anna was seriously worried in Arendelle. It had been more than a month since Elsa’s last letter and since then Gale hadn’t shown up either. Elsa had promised her that she would come to Arendelle a few days before Anna's birthday and tomorrow was already that day.

Even Olaf had been acting very strange today, insisting they remove the ice embellishments from the castle and find more ‘Anna’ decorations. He was also uncharacteristically calm. He had not visited Sven today and his curiosity and joking had also become rare. It almost seemed as if he missed Elsa very much, but in the meantime, he probably no longer believed that she would still come to Arendelle.

Anna made a decision. If Elsa did not come to her, she would have to travel to the Enchanted Forest herself. She asked Kristoff to gather all the necessary supplies for a small celebration and asked General Mattias to accompany her. He agreed as long as he could bring Halima. Anna accepted and the next day they all left very early in the morning for the north. The first thing everyone did was congratulate her on her birthday. Sven pulled the wagon, Kristoff sat in the front and Olaf in the back next to Anna. Mattias and Halima rode side by side on two horses behind them. Since there was peace between the Northuldra and the Arendellians, they declined a retinue of guards. It was supposed to be a comfortable trip with a reunion of old friends in the Enchanted Forest.

During the journey, Anna considered that perhaps this was Elsa's original plan; to relieve Anna of her duties as queen in Arendelle for a day. Once they arrive at the Northuldra camp, Elsa would already be waiting for her with a big surprise. When she thought of this idea, Anna smirked, because this would definitely fit Elsa's typical behavior for Anna's day.

On that day, Anna wore a short black jacket and green dress as her travel clothes, with a wide cloth belt similar to the one Kristoff wore and high black boots with a golden grain pattern as on her sleeves.

By the late evening, they arrived at the four big monoliths with the symbols of the nature spirits at the edge of the forest and the sun was already setting on the horizon. They got out of the wagon as Mattias helped Halima dismount. Everyone was in a good mood and grabbed the contents from the wagon. There were presents for the Northuldra and specialties from Arendelle. All of them were brought for a small feast in the camp and besides decorations for a small birthday party. They had barely finished when a few Northuldra with serious expressions already ran towards them and asked to quickly follow them. Something terrible had happened, they said.

Anna held on to Kristoff in shock and said only one word, “Elsa!”

When they entered the camp there was an oppressive silence and many lowered their eyes as they passed by. Honeymaren ran towards Anna, bowed briefly to the queen and took her hand.

Anna’s lips trembled as they looked into each other’s eyes for a brief moment. Finally Honeymaren Anna pulled gently behind her towards Elsa’s kota and said softly to her that she had to be strong now. They entered the low and gloomy dwelling. Then Anna saw her sister lying on a bed lined with furs, her eyes open. Anna rushed towards her, kneeled beside the bed and grabbed Elsa’s hand. She was unusually warm, but did not return her gentle grip. Elsa just looked up and did not react in the slightest. Anna laid both hands on Elsa’s cheeks and gently turned her head towards her. Their eyes met.

“Elsa! What has happened? What is the matter with you?”

Agonizing seconds went by.

Elsa blinked a few times and then tightened her eyebrows.

Her voice was weak and sounded fragile when she finally answered.

“Who are you?”

~~~

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I hope you have enjoyed this chapter! Please leave a comment if you liked the story, I would be pleased to read your opinions, even criticisms. If you want to be tagged as soon I publish the next chapter please let me know.

Credits: Many thanks to HARU (@ xlayers) for the commissioned fantastic work and @catastrofic-julia​ for her wonderful fanart!

Prologue

If you had told me a month ago that I would be standing on the outskirts of an airport in Fairbanks, Alaska, I would’ve said that you were misinformed. And if you had told me that the whole reason I was in Fairbanks was to catch the tiniest puddle jumper in existence to what feels like the very edge of the world—or, in this case, a town on the edge of Denali, the highest mountain in North America—I would have said that you were high as a freaking kite.

This isn't even trying to pretend that it's not poorly disguised Twilight fanfic.

The only consolation is that it seems as though our narrator might be a bit more fun than Bella. At least it seems as though she has a bit of spice.

In fact, the only thing I have been able to count on these past few weeks is that no matter how bad things are, they can always get worse…

Prologue summary: Like most prologues, I don't know why the author bothered. But here we are. Our narrator, Grace, stands in an airport in Alaska, about ready to get onto one of those tiny puddle jumper planes to go to a highly remote place.

That's it. That's literally the entire fucking thing.

Chapter 1

Seconds later, I feel the wheels skip across the ground. Then Philip hits the brakes hard enough to slam me forward so fast that my seat belt is the only thing keeping my head from meeting the control panel.

This feels like a solid case for whiplash.

Then grab onto the handle of my suitcase and start dragging it toward a small patch of concrete that I’m pretty sure passes for an airport in Healy. It’s a far cry from San Diego’s bustling terminals.

She keeps comparing San Diego with a town in Alaska that is so remote you can't even drive up to it. Like honey, I don't know what you're expecting here. I get that it's a shock, but you can't look at a place like this and be surprised that it's not goddamned California.

“No worries, Mace. Had to run a few errands in Fairbanks anyway.” He says it so casually, like hopping in a plane for a couple-hundred-mile roundtrip journey is no big deal.

My uncle is a pilot and let me assure you that it's not a big deal to them. Especially when you live in a remote place like Alaska.

...and to pull my brand-new coat more tightly around me because it’s literally about eight degrees out here...

[three pages later]

I’m really about to ride a snowmobile in the near dark through Alaska in weather that is more than twenty degrees below freezing...

Is it 8 degrees or -20?

EDITORS? WHO ARE THEY?!

“Hold on to my waist!” she shouts as she turns it on, so I do. Seconds later, we’re speeding into the darkness that stretches endlessly in front of us. I’ve never been more terrified in my life.

Chapter 1 summary: Grace is flown out to the remote town of Healy, Alaska in a two-seater puddle-jumper by her uncle's friend, Philip. It seems as though Grace's parents have recently died, and she has to go to live with her uncle and cousin. As you might expect, it's fucking cold there, which is a shock to Grace as she came from California.

Her cousin, Macy, is waiting for them in the parking lot of the “airport”, which is literally only a landing strip and parking lot. She apologizes for her father not being able to be there, since he runs a boarding school and needed to take care of some emergency. Grace isn't even sure where a school would be, since they kind of saw everything when flying into the town, but decides not to question things too much.

Grace is even more shocked when Macy leads them over to a literal snowmobile and starts to load up Grace's luggage. Macy gives her some snow pants and boots, and then an insulated helmet for the ride.

Chapter 2

Still, there’s something more to him, something different and powerful and overwhelming, though I don’t have a clue what it is. I mean, sure. He has the kind of face nineteenth-century poets loved to write about—too intense to be beautiful and too striking to be anything else. Skyscraper cheekbones. Full red lips. A jaw so sharp it could cut stone. Smooth, alabaster skin. And his eyes…a bottomless obsidian that see everything and show nothing, surrounded by the longest, most obscene lashes I’ve ever seen.

Oh boy, here we go...

When exactly did I become the heroine in some YA romance?

Unless this entire thing was intended to be read as a tongue-in-cheek meta parody, I'm kind of angry over this. Because you KNOW that it's exactly what's going to happen.

One glance and I know that this dark boy with the closed-off eyes and the fuck-you attitude isn’t the hero of anyone’s story. Least of all mine.

Chapter 2 summary: They get to the school, which is a literal castle. I'm not even going to question the logistics of building a place like that in the most remote corner of Alaska. Macy starts to unload Grace's luggage, but Grace is determined not to sit back and let other people do all of the work for her. She grabs one of the bags, but then gets winded doing simply that. Macy says that it's the altitude, and that it'll take a while to get used to it, after having lived at sea level her entire life.

As they go further into the school, Grace realizes that the other students milling about in their down-time are all staring at her. She feels gross because she's been traveling all day, and their stares make her uncomfortable. Macy tells her that there are rooms for single students, but they're all full, and her dad wanted to know what Grace wanted to do. There's an awkward moment where Macy puts her foot in her mouth about the deaths of Grace's parents, but Grace says that she'd like to bunk with her cousin.

_____________________________

All I could hear over the bustling traffic while crossing the street to my mother’s tiny, antique apartment was the deep thrumming of my own heightened heartbeat and the sound of my feet pounding on the pavement as I rushed, already late to bring my mother the things I had gotten from the store. 

I slowed my pace as I approached the door and quickly began rummaging through my bag looking for the spare key. As I was continuing my search I allowed my thoughts to drift back to the man I had just encountered and the odd experience, wondering if the situation had even occurred or was just a figment of the imagination of my overworked and tired mind. As my hands fumbled around until they found the next pocket on my bag I bit my lip in anticipation of getting a glimpse of the strange dagger again. Once my hand felt the dagger, still lying on it’s side, gleaming in the dim blue-ish light of the streetlamp behind me I let out a breath of relief. I then realized the keys were lying with the dagger and quickly reached for them. As I finally grasped the cool metal key between my fingertips there was a sudden crash that sounded from inside the apartment. I whipped my head up at the unexpected commotion and rushed to get the door unlocked. 

My hands shook as I turned the ornate silver handle. I took a few cautious steps into the house and called out to my mother. When there was no response I began moving more hastily, ducking my head into every doorway possible looking for my mother. I finally reached the living room last. My movements became more and more rushed the longer I couldn’t find my mother. That was, until I took my first few steps into the living room only to hear a sharp cracking noise come from under my feet. I quickly looked to the floor as I heard more scraping and crackling coming from the movement of my shoes. “Broken glass?” I questioned no one in particular, “What the hell?”

My eyes slowly trailed up the length of the floor in front of me as I noted that the whole floor was littered with broken glass. I called out for my mother as I quickly began to take hurried, albeit significantly lighter, steps forward until I noticed the large window, that used to rest peacefully on the far side of the room, shattered. All that was left of the once protection from the outside were a few dangling, cracked pieces of the weathered glass and the now torn white curtains flowing from the chilly breeze outside. I gasped and rushed to the window to inspect, but when I looked around there was nothing unusual to take in besides the window itself. I then turned to quickly search the room for what could have caused the shattering of the window or a clue as to where my sickly mother could be. It wasn’t until I found myself approaching my mother’s rocking chair that I really noticed something off.

There, on the old, worn wooden chair, slowly rocking in the wind, sat a fairly small eggshell white envelope with a blood red wax seal pressing it closed. I furrowed my brow as I reached out to examine it, but as I scanned the chair again in the closer proximity I noticed the small trail of bloody fingerprints, still wet. I gasped harshly and looked over my shoulder quickly before grabbing the envelope and turning to pull my phone out of my bag. I quickly searched for the right person’s contact and dialed. Pressing the phone to my ear, I swiftly did another sweep of the house to make sure there was nothing I missed and made a b-line for the front door. As I made it out of the house the person on the other end finally picked up. 

“Seungmin! Thank you for picking up.” I breathed out, relieved. “I need you to come pick me up. Something’s happened.”

____________________________

An hour later I was seated at my favorite late night diner fiddling with the straw of my vanilla milkshake while Seungmin was tiredly rubbing his eyes talking to the grandmotherly waitress with the white hair and kind smile that had known us both since our first visit here around the age of six. Seungmin was still in his too large white t-shirt and blue and grey checkered pajama pants with more than averagely fluffy hair from being woken up after working a long shift this weekend. I had never seen Seungmin at work, but I knew whatever the job was it had to be tiring as he was always working long shifts at random hours and constantly had new bumps and bruises that he rarely ever told me about unless I asked. He said he does odd jobs for different contractors and I never had the heart seeing his too tired face to question it much. 

Because of the unknowns of his work and his constant sleeping when he was off, it had become mutually known that I wouldn’t be the one to contact him unless the situation is dire. On a normal occasion he would send me one text to let me know he was alive, I would respond asking if he needs groceries again, and his next message would be hours or days later once he had rested and received word of his next job to let me know when he was free to take me to lunch and then scurry off to at each new opportunity. However, recently those unprompted lunch dates have been slim to none, as have his days off, so he came quickly to my call, knowing it must be something extremely important if I would willingly ask him to be out of bed on a day off. 

He smiled at me softly for a moment before turning to yawn into his hand while using his free one to make a small circular motion towards me that I interpreted as “go on, tell me what’s wrong.” At this, I sighed deeply and reached down by my ankle to grab my discarded bag. I pondered for a moment on telling him about the experience with the man at the subway station, but my pressing anxieties and worries about my mother spurred me to grab the letter, not the dagger, to hurriedly pull out. I flipped it over in my hands under the table for a moment while explaining what occurred at my mother’s house up until finding the chair. As I got to explaining what I found Seungmin was seemingly no longer tired and instead shoveling his food into his mouth swiftly while looking past me, seemingly in thought with the way his brows furrowed deeply. My gaze became more concerned as I raked my eyes over his face and I bit my lip as I pulled the envelope containing the letter out for him to see. As I handed it to him I noticed his hands were shaking and I assumed it was for the same reason as mine, out of worry for my mother. He swiftly opened the envelope and read the big bold letters printed there. Then, more surprisingly, his eyes drifted back to the envelope itself as he quickly drew it back towards his face before turning it over. Upon notice of the ornate wax seal that sat there he gasped and threw his hands down against the table, rattling the silverware and dishes loudly and jarring me out of my curious state, making me yelp softly. He then moved his gaze to bore into mine before saying something that left me further confused. 

“We have to go. Now. They know where you are.” He said this soft and sternly, whipping his head around to see who else was in the diner. I don’t remember anyone but us entering or leaving. He grabbed my bag quickly, shoving the envelope inside before throwing some money onto the table, leaving a little extra tip (so kind even in such a panic, I noted). He then reached for my wrist and began to pull me towards the exit. In such a panicked and hurried state I didn’t dare defy him and only tried my best to keep up with his quick pace. However, the concern and rising uneasiness in my chest didn’t stop my head from turning ever so slightly to eye whoever might have been dining with us so late tonight. What I saw left me gasping harshly for air and stumbling over my feet to try and remain balanced.

Sitting there, staring right into my eyes, in the same outfit I had seen him in before was the man. The mysterious stranger. He sat silently with his black hood resting over his head twirling a blade much like the one lying in the beat up bag on Seungmin’s shoulder and as Seungmin was rounding the corner, with me in tow, I thought I had caught a flash of teeth, what could have been a grimace or a smile.