The world around her continued to fade; with every passing second her connection to reality grew more tenuous. Indiscriminate, blurry shapes had replaced the people and furniture around her. Any spoken words were so faint to her ears that they might as well have not been said. And, even if she had been capable of hearing what was said, none of it would have meant anything to her.

She didn't even know who she was anymore. All of her memories had faded completely; save for a lingering image of a beautiful woman with platinum blond hair and a warm smile. Despite all of her efforts, she couldn't place a name on that woman, or remember why she was important.

All she knew was that she was fading away. Just like her thoughts, her body was slowly dissolving...becoming just as airy and indiscriminate as the world around her. Soon, it would dissipate completely, and that would be the end of her.

For some reason, she felt sad.

\

Evangeline sat in her office, doing her best to write down everything Drell had said. Her memory was keen, but the spymaster couldn't let any potential leads go to waste. The head of the snake may have been captured, but there was likely more than one conspirator who continued to plot. Anna had killed many throughout her adventures, and even more had been slaughtered the previous night, but Evangeline wouldn't rest until every last one was brought to heel.

She needed to speak with the Queen as soon as possible, but Elsa remained by Anna's side. If only her men had found her sooner...the girl's fate remained precarious. Anna had advantages that most women did not, but it was hard to imagine that anyone save Elsa herself could survive twelve hours lying unconscious in the snow.

Damn it all to hell! Right now, she had more important things to deal with. Drell was imprisoned in the cellar, isolated from most human contact. Only a few individuals currently knew about his betrayal. Even with proof, the announcement that a respected Arms Master was a traitor would cause an unpredictable reaction throughout much of the Castle, particularly amongst the soldiers. It was imperative that the Queen be focused and ready to respond to any complaints or concerns when the truth became widely known, and right now that was clearly not a possibility.

Which also meant, unfortunately, that his interrogation would have to wait.

"Milady?"

The spymaster looked up to see a messenger standing in her doorway. Not betraying any hint of rising emotion, she nodded for him to step through the threshold. In his hands was a large envelope marked with an elaborate royal seal.

"Yes, I'll take that," she accepted the invitation from his hands and sent him on his way. It was common protocol for Evangeline to handle correspondence to the Queen when Elsa herself was indisposed, and this was clearly one of those times.

Evangeline calmly opened up the letter.

Queen Elsa,

I will not mince words. King Gustav of Eldora...my father...has passed. He died in his sleep three days ago, brought down by the heart problems that have plagued him for the past three months. This is a time of tremendous grief, both for myself and my nation, but Eldora still requires a ruler. Despite my pleas, my mother has insisted that the crown pass to me, and although I am barely of age, I have no choice but to accept.

His funeral was a private affair, but for the sake of tradition my coronation will be a different matter. Eldora has therefore invited many heads of state and their entourages to witness my ascension, which is to occur on the last day of the next month.

Please do not mistake my lack of enthusiasm for disrespect, Elsa. Arendelle has proven itself a dependable and invaluable trading partner to my small nation, and you have my personal appreciation for the extra ice you created and shipped to us the previous year. Likewise, your promise of military protection, while thankfully unnecessary so far, remains a great gift.

I know it is a week's journey, but I hope you will choose to attend. I do not relish this time of mourning being interrupted by a dozen foreign delegations, but your presence would be a most welcome exception. It would be a strong show of support by an ally, and I am eager to speak with you again.

May the Sun Light Your Way,

Princess Marisol

Evangeline stared down at the letter, thinking back to the last time she had had contact with the Eldorans. It had been at Elsa's coronation, over six years ago, and the Eldoran delegation had been a noteworthy addition to the ceremony. Arendelle and Eldora did not quite share the close relationship that the former did with Corona, but over the last few decades they had become steadfast partners nonetheless. Eldora needed ice. Arendelle lusted for the spices found in tropical regions. Thus, an agreement had quickly been forged between the two nations.

Elsa, the spymaster remembered, had spoken briefly with the Princess during the latter's stay in Arendelle. Like Marisol, Elsa had been quite averse to hosting hundreds of foreigners so soon after her parents' demise...which was probably why the soon to be Queen had seen fit to mention it in her letter. Evangeline distinctly remembered overhearing a few words of support as Marisol had offered her comfort to Elsa, and now the Princess likely hoped for a few in return.

It would be a stretch to say that the two women were close friends...they had only met a handful of times. But Elsa had never had much opportunity to speak with women her age, and (if the spymaster remembered correctly) the two had shared a tray of tea once or twice. Evangeline had even noticed a few...risqué glances on Elsa's part towards the younger Princess, even if they had only been driven by subconscious impulse.

The spymaster had suspected Elsa's true sexual leanings long before the Queen herself had realized them, but Evangeline had known it was not her place to discuss the matter with her liege. Still...in many ways they were similar.

Evangeline had lost the one she'd loved. Elsa might be about to go through the same thing.

\

"Leave us for a moment," the Queen spoke to Anton and the other physicians. There was nothing they could do for Anna now, and this moment deserved to be private. To her surprise, the group nodded solemnly and left the room without a hint of protest.

They know there's nothing they can do. They think I want to say goodbye.

Fresh tears dripped down Elsa's cheeks, and the young monarch stifled yet another sob. This...this couldn't be happening! Much of Elsa still refused to accept it. Only her drive to claim Anna as her wife prevented the Queen from falling to the floor and curling up in a ball.

She approached Anna's bedside. The Knight was still breathing, but even slower now. Her skin was still a sickly blue; if anything it had gotten even worse. Her lips...they were stark white. Simply seeing her consort in such a state filled Elsa with almost unbearable amounts of love and pain in equal measure, but the Queen forced herself to press on.

Elsa had heard Anton and his assistants talking as she'd approached the room. They'd been almost certain that Anna had less than an hour left.

Gods, Anna. I'm so so sorry...this isn't fair. She doesn't deserve this! In that moment, Elsa would have given anything...anything, to take Anna's place on that deathbed. She would have quickly traded her own life, her Castle, even her entire kingdom to save her loved. Her father would be ashamed of her, but for all Elsa was concerned Arendelle could go to hell if it meant that Anna could open her eyes.

No, I can't abandon my kingdom. It's my duty...and Anna would never forgive me if I did.

Elsa could not let the end of her prosperous reign be Anna's legacy. Ruling Arendelle had always been a burden, and from now on it would be outright painful. Yet it was worth honoring Anna's memory.

She knelt down on one knee before the dying Knight. Despite her grief, the words came easily.

"Anna, you are everything to me. Every moment spent at your side is a gift I can never repay. After five years of emptiness...you gave me love again. I..." she stopped as a sobbed wracked through her.

"I've wanted...want...to spend the rest of my life with you. I've known that for a long time. I hesitated, wanting to wait until everything was stable, and that will be forever remembered as the greatest mistake of my entire life," she revealed as her freely flowing tears began to drop to the floor. "Kai and Gerda...they said you would have been willing to marry me. And now, all I can do is fulfill your last wish. I am unworthy, Anna. There is no one on this earth worthy of you. But I know this is what you would have wanted, and all that matters to me is your happiness."

Elsa paused, taking a deep breath. To be official, an Arendellian marriage ceremony required two things: the groom to place a ring on the bride's finger, and for the two of them to kiss as the ring was still worn.

If not for her overpowering grief, the absurdity of the situation would have made her laugh. She, the Queen of Arendelle...the most powerful woman in the world, was marrying a former peasant with only minutes to live. Princes, nobles, and even Kings had sought her hand, and yet it was about to go to someone who now had literally nothing to offer.

She doesn't have to offer anything. She's given so much already.

"Anna, as is my right as Queen of Arendelle, I declare us united in holy matrimony for as long as...as long as we both shall live," she intoned tearfully, placing the ring on Anna's finger. It looked beautiful on her.

Elsa leaned in to place a gentle kiss on Anna's stark white lips.

/

Almost gone...she was almost gone. Her entire body had all but faded into the air. This was the end of her.

She didn't have a body. She didn't have a mind. They were gone...if they had ever even existed in the first place.

It didn't matter now. Her emotions fading, she allowed calm to wash over her as she dissolved into nonexistentance.

She was nothing. She was...

BANG!

A blast of light filled the world, shining for just an instant but illuminating more than a thousand suns could ever hope to reveal. And as it faded, pain exploded throughout her body.

She had a body! So all consuming was the thought that she barely even registered falling to her knees in shock.

Around her, the world was beginning to solidify. Everything was still a blur, but she no longer felt that she was going to fall through the floor.

Her entire form reappeared, almost completely solid and whole. Mist still trailed off the surface of her flesh, but her arms and legs had stopped dissolving. And her memories...

My name is Anna. I am a citizen of Arendelle...the personal Knight and lover of Queen Elsa. I have to tell her that she...she's a goddess reincarnated! I was dying. Am I still dying?

"Listen to me," intoned a deep yet feminine voice. Anna's head lifted up in shock. There, imprinted on the room's ceiling was an apparition of a woman with light brown hair and olive colored skin. Her green eyes shown with concern.

What the hell?! It was as if this woman was there, but not. It almost looked as she was standing on the opposite end of a portal through which Anna was looking into, obscuring much of the ceiling overhead. On either side of the woman stood two massive walls of red brick that went beyond the apparition's vision.

"Who are you?" Anna demanded. One thing was for certain: the two of them had never met before.

The other woman's head shook slightly. "There is little time, and there are several things you must become aware of before you wake. I only hope that your mind will remember them."

"Am I going to die?" the Knight asked.

For the first time, the olive skinned woman smiled slightly. "When the gods ruled your realm thousands of years ago, it was not only their children who were granted access to magic. The mortals chosen as their consorts were rewarded with powerful magic of their own...magic like the abilities you have now possessed for several months. You thought it was the product of Elsa's healing magic constantly being bestowed upon you, but..."

"I have magic because I'm Elsa's consort?" Anna's mind was still operating below its normal speed, and information such as this would have had even Elsa's head spinning.

"Yes. This phenomenon was weaved into the fabric of magic by our King at the insistence of several lesser gods; it was a spell that took him many years to perfect," the other woman explained. "As romantic affection and attachment between a god and a mortal grows, the mortal becomes steadily more powerful...eventually gaining immortality."

Anna's jaw dropped. "I'm immortal?!"

"No. Elsa possesses only a shadow of her true strength, and she herself is not even immortal. If she were at her true power, you would also be far stronger. Yet even this tiny fraction of what you would otherwise possess has granted you abilities far beyond your fellow mortals," the goddess (she was certainly a goddess) answered.

"It wasn't enough power to keep me from getting killed," Anna pointed out. Ordinarily, she would be extremely interested in this goddess's words, but right now she really wanted to know whether or not she was going to live.

The goddess frowned. "It was not," she agreed. "Yet in the last few minutes, your strength has grown. Elsa has decided to fully accept you as her consort. Even now, she proposes marriage..."

"She's marrying me?!" Anna couldn't help but jump up and down in joy. Finally, they would be committed to one another forever. The Knight would never again have to doubt that she wasn't worthy of her Queen. Oh my gods...I'm getting married! ...And it sounds like I'm going to live! That's good too...

Again, the goddess offered her a small smile. "Yes. Now that she has chosen you completely, your magic has grown to the point where your body is strong enough to fight off your hypothermia. And, judging by your reaction, you are accepting her proposal. A consort's magic only grows to its most powerful once both parties have chosen one another completely. If Elsa was at full strength, you would now be immortal. And even though this is not the case, you've grown strong enough to survive your current injury."

"Yes!" Anna hopped high into the air again, utterly exhilarated. Her head reached within inches of the portal.

The goddess paled. "Stop! You must not pass through the veil! Once you pass into the Realm Beyond, you can never return to this world...consort of a goddess or otherwise. This portal is only a one-way door, constructed only so that I could contact you."

Landing on the ground, Anna nodded. "Got it. But how come you've..."

"Never contacted you before?" the goddess asked. "Our King transported all gods and goddesses through a rift into this realm, the realm of the deceased, where the rebels could be more easily controlled. We can see everything that happens in your realm, but none of us are capable of returning to it, not even our King. As I said, none who pass through these walls can ever return. The only reason I can even contact you is because you are so close to death that you have drifted near this realm."

Anna frowned. "But why did you...I mean, didn't we win? I thought this was all over."

With a sigh, the goddess shook her head. "If you do not heed what I will reveal to you now...or fail to remember it, disaster the likes of which you have never imagined will soon strike. I cannot see the future, but it is easy to predict where your current path will lead."

A pang of dread cut at the Knight's heart.

"Fear not. As long as you are made aware of the truth, you and your Queen will have nothing to worry about. You likely have thirty minutes before you wake, and we have wasted enough time dawdling. So...listen closely," the goddess intoned.

Anna obeyed, and over the next twenty-five minutes, she learned all that she would ever need to know. The other woman could see everyone and everything on earth through her position in the Realm Beyond, and every bit of information she passed onto the Knight was crucial.

The longer she spoke, the greater Anna's terror grew. At first, despite her glee at finding out she was going to live as a married woman, she had been unnerved. Knowing how close she had come to death, closer than ever before, had put her on edge. The goddess had never said it directly, but it was clear to Anna that if Elsa had hesitated for even another few minutes in choosing to marry her, it would have been too late. No matter how strong her connection to Elsa became, nothing would have been able to bring her back from the realm of death.

But by the end of their conversation, death ranked low on her list of fears. What had been set in motion...it was too awful to even think about. Death was nothing compared to what would come to pass if she failed to heed the goddess's warnings.

I can't let that happen!

\

Elsa was only millimeters away from Anna's lips when she heard a slight intake of breath.

The utterly shocked Queen pulled back, staring at the dying Knight. Anna was still unconscious, and for a moment Elsa feared that her brief flare of hope had been a cruel illusion.

Then she noticed the slight rising and falling of Anna's chest.

Anna!

She lowered her ear to the Knight's body. There! Her heart was beating slowly, but noticeably faster than it had before...and perhaps it was starting to increase in speed. Raising herself up to stare at Anna's skin, Elsa couldn't help but think that it had gained a degree of its color back. And was it just her imagination, or were Anna's lips no longer completely white?

"Anton!" Elsa called.

Before the physicians could run back into the room, the Queen's eyes fell to the ring recently placed on Anna's hand. Should she remove it? Elsa had completely committed her heart to Anna, but if the Knight was indeed going to live...this wasn't the right time for them to get married. To be sure, it was not that the Queen herself wasn't ready for the commitment; she wanted nothing more than to call Anna her wife.

But Anna deserved a real marriage...one she was actually conscious for. And, since their lips had not met, it would still be authentic. They were not yet married. Just before Anton and his aides walked into the room, Elsa reluctantly removed the ring and placed it in her pocket.

It was a painful thing to do. Still, the Queen did not want Anna to think that she had been proposed to only because she was on her deathbed, and that meant letting no one know that this proposal had ever happened. Anna needed to know that Elsa was asking for her hand because the monarch wanted them to spend the rest of their lives together, not because she simply wanted to give Anna a place in the history books.

If Anna survived, Elsa vowed to propose to her within the month.

\

The first thing Anna heard was the crying.

She opened her eyes only to see a field of white. Or, more accurately, see a field of platinum blond. Elsa's head was resting on her chest; the Queen's face was all but buried in her shirt. From her limited field of vision, the Knight gathered that she was lying near the fireplace in their room.

"Elsa?"

The Queen's head snapped up so quickly that Anna feared that the monarch's neck would crack. For a moment, the two women simply stared at one another, their eyes expressing what words never could. Then Elsa was leaning down, claiming Anna's lips in a kiss not of passion, but of love. The Queen's arms wrapped around her, seizing Anna into the tightest embrace she had ever experienced.

Anna's arm reached around for the Queen's back. Twirling her fingers, she drew soothing circles into the Queen's skin. She could feel Elsa's tears dripping onto her cheeks; the Knight's own soon joined them. Love and relief swept through her in equal measure. She was alive.

Her memory was a little hazy. She remembered the meeting with Drell, his revelations about Elsa's divinity, the fight alongside Evangeline's archers, and her clash with Rohan. But there was little she could recall beyond that. The very last thing she remembered was trying to claw her way up a tree and out of the snow. After that…absolutely nothing.

For a moment, her happiness faded as a strange sense of foreboding rose deep within her. Was there something she had failed to remember? It was a strange feeling...like she was grasping at the remnants of a forgotten dream. Or nightmare.

Then the sensation was gone, and all of her worries with it. Elsa was holding her, and that was all that truly mattered.

Responses:

BreeBear98: Not true love's kiss; that works for curses, not physical injuries. But yes, I am cruel.

DimensionalLover: She's fine for now.

Shtoops: Yes, you will. Although if anger and suffering brought her back, she'd probably be back already.

ClaireCooper: Maybe I should find a bunker to hide in.

WinterWolfDragon: I hope you keep saying that.

Jascmaster: Very interesting theory…not really what I had in mind, but a good idea nonetheless. This fic doesn't quite have plot armor.

3Gs: Build you up only to knock you down.

RAM00: Neither would I.

RareID: Yeah…

Frost108: Good!

Syrathia: I think she would still try to be a good Queen, but she would grow cold and emotionless towards those around her. And if she met the people who killed Anna…

Guest 1: The only real spoiler I've said from the beginning is that Anna is a completely ordinary person. No royal blood, no goddess reincarnation, no prophecy that pertains to her. Just the right person at the right/wrong place at a certain time. She obviously has an important role to play, but it has nothing to do with fate. There will be plenty of surprises, however.

Knziewrwlf: Hopefully you can relax now.

Awesomenessunleashed: Hang in there!

Guest 2: I'm writing as fast as I can!

R3dNote: Not quite.

No.18: That would be satisfying, but Anna's not a goddess.

Strab: Hopefully.

Zen: No. She's already dying from cold. Freezing her would just kill her sooner.

FreelanceBum: Old laws?

ThunderChild14: No one is invincible.

Arkanderu: Not exactly, but it's a reasonable theory.

Shadowfax341: We're not even close to wrapped up.

RR: Is she the main character?

Kyoko-nyaa: Nope. Kisses work for curses, not physical injuries.

TaniaHylian: I love to make you cry!

ObsessiveImaginings: Elsa doesn't know how to do that.

Guest 3: Going as fast as I can!

Icy-Windbreeze: Thank you!

JPElles: I'll do my best.

Gwiley161999: There are many chapters left but keep in mind that life isn't always fair.

Punky32: Thanks!

95Riley: No true love's kiss yet…

Mpsatniago: Of course Elsa is not self-aware, we've seen through her eyes many many times. That doesn't mean the conspirators were completely wrong however.

Superjoshe: Agreed.

Malekoydaerb: Anna's alive, but not because of lack of warnings. I don't believe in triggers/warnings; the rating is all you get. I don't like to give the game away too early. Important characters have died already, and they will again.

Sephyxia: Nope; true loves' kiss only works for curses.

Sedryn: Here's your hope.

LordOba: Yep.

Guest 4: I'd like to think that Elsa would try to avoid making Anna's legacy death and destruction, but she would certainly become bitter.

DVINM: Excellent review, on point as always! Hold on to those poems.

PascalDragon: No magic ring.

Darthcadeus58: Not quite, Elsa's not turning into a goddess form right now.

Guest 5: I love Anna, as much as if not more than I love Elsa. Anna always gets hurt because she always throws herself into dangerous situations and is simply not as smart as the Queen. More importantly, Elsa is far more powerful than Anna; she's almost invincible in a fair fight. Anna is strong, but not invulnerable.

Yanitsuki: Yes, at this point Elsa has no idea that she is a reincarnated goddess.