Chapter 8: The play.

Thirteen years – Nine years.

The past year hadn't been great for Elsa, that was for sure. Her parents avoided her more than ever and casted troubled glances at her during every meal. But worst of all they didn't let Anna spend as much time with her anymore. It was as if their fear towards their oldest daughter had only increased after the revelation of the prophecy.

Still, all that didn't matter because today was the first day of spring, and therefore, there was a pretty big festival in town celebrating the end of winter. And Anna wanted to go, which meant the whole royal family was now on a carriage passing through the main street of the town. They were headed towards the place where the main spectacle would take place.

Elsa was watching her sister, who was excitedly looking out of the window and pointing at things that caught her attention. They didn't get to leave the palace very often after all, and everything was new to the little redhead. The older girl knew she probably should be excited too, or at least show some interest on the festival, but… truth to be told she was only excited about being with her sister. Seeing Anna so happy and carefree... It made her heart flutter with love, unrestrained love for her sister (maybe a little too unrestrained, but whatever).

"Hey Elsa! Look at the clowns! Oh, and the jugglers!" She kept saying, but Elsa only had eyes for her. "Wait… is that a lion? And there is a man spiting fire out of his mouth! Wow! Isn't it awesome?" Elsa just chuckled at her awed expression and put her arm around her shoulders, bringing her closer as she noticed their parents' discomfort at the gesture.

"Yes, it's great." Elsa agreed, though she hadn't seen a thing.

"I wished we could go out like this all the time!" Anna said hopefully as she reclined her head into her sister's shoulder.

"But we can't." Their father interrupted their happy moment. "We royals shouldn't spent too much time with the commoners. It'll make them think they're our equals." He explained, but Elsa was very aware that before she was born, the castle's gates were open and the monarchs usually attended every important event and even went to visit all the provinces at least once a year. No, the real reason was her powers, but they weren't going to tell that to Anna.

"Oh, look, we've arrived!" The queen tried to distract the youngest girl so she wouldn't feel so bad about her father's words. Anna's frown became a little pout, though at least she displayed a curious expression as she looked out of the window to the plaza were a small stage had been constructed earlier that day. It was made for some play that would take place later.

Meanwhile, there was a man telling a story with puppets. "Come on, let's go see what he's saying." She compelled the little redhead as she took her hand and descended from the vehicle. Elsa sighed and made to follow them, but was soon stopped by her father, who looked at her with a stern face.

"Elsa, I just want to remind you that you can't use your powers. Now more than ever this is crucial. Do you understand?"

"Yes father." Elsa rolled her eyes. "I know." That said, she jumped out of the carriage and got to Anna's side, where her sister promptly took her hand as she pointed to the puppets and started telling her what she'd understood was going on in the story. Granted, it wasn't a great story, and Elsa wasn't paying much attention. Instead she was inspecting all the people that were posted a few feet away from the royal family. The great majority were dressed in simple clothes, peasant garb her father would have called it, and constantly casted nervous glances to the monarchs. Their sons and daughters, however, were a little bolder and were inspecting Anna with curiosity. There were even some older boys eying Elsa in a way that made her feel uncomfortable.

Finding nothing particularly interesting in the crowds the older princess started looking around at the drawings that hung from various houses around the plaza. Some pictured flowers and butterflies and other things usually associated with spring, but in others… giant snow-monsters being slaughtered by knights in shinning armors, ice-sorcerers being surrounded by armies, witches burned at a stake, magical creatures in war with humans... in brief, representations of what people thought would be the end of the troll prophecy, or so Elsa assumed. Soon she was proved right when the play started and she heard the opening song, sang by some kids from the village.

"Winter's gone and Spring is springing

Shines the sun with warmth of old

Ding-dong! Ding-dong! Chapel bells are ringing!

We're done with being cold

Flowers a-bloom with odors pleasant,

All of Arendelle is glad!

Mother Earth, we thank you for the presents!

Spring's good and Winter's bad."

Elsa clenched her teeth at the lyrics. She didn't like one bit that the kids were taught since a very young age that everything cold was bad, because that put her in danger. They'd automatically hate her if they knew about her powers. Anna seemed to notice her distress because she squeezed her hand reassuringly and casted her a smile. Elsa forced herself to return the smile, but what she heard next didn't do much good to her already anxious state.

"We celebrate spring,

We know once it's here,

The ancient troll prophecy

Won't come to pass this year."

"What is this prophecy?

What did it say?

Well, that is the subject

Of our little play!"

That said, other kids entered and started making a little representation of the war Arendelle's founders had made against the magical creatures, especially the trolls, ending with the prophecy made by the oldest one. This alone wouldn't have provoked such a big reaction from Elsa, but then they started making a representation of how could the end of the prophecy be. It began with a powerful sorcerer freezing the land, followed by a cruel war between humans and snow creatures, and ending with the severing of the sorcerer's head with a sword. It didn't take a lot of imagination for Elsa to see herself there. Getting killed because of her magic while everyone in the kingdom clapped and cheered… including Anna.

Of course, Elsa knew Anna was only clapping because the play was ending, and the sorcerer was evil, so it was a good thing he died, but… it was all too easy to imagine otherwise. What if someday Anna saw her as evil? What if there really was a war between her and her kingdom? Would she take her side or would she cheer when they killed her? She didn't want to think bad of her sister, but just seeing her like that, acting like everyone else in town… It scared her, and that angered her.

Suddenly a cracking sound was heard, and when Elsa looked down to search the source of it she saw ice. Rapidly spreading ice. Uncontrollable, dangerous, threatening ice in the first day of spring.

Multiple gasps were heard and she noticed as people started looking at her in horror and surprise, while others started whispering about the rumors being true. Many apparently just wanted to kill her. Her parents, on the other hand, were disappointed and Anna was confused. She wanted to stop it, to make the magic disappear, but it was for naught and soon it was even snowing.

"She's a witch! Kill her!" A boy, probably no much older than Elsa herself suddenly exclaimed what many in the crowd were undoubtedly thinking, and before the guards could do anything, he lunged for her, aiming to grab her neck and strangle her.

She instinctively raised her hands to stop him and accidently released her magic at the same time. It penetrated into his stomach and he fell to the ground. Slowly part of his hair turned white and his skin acquired a pale tone as he started to shiver violently. Many rushed towards him, but Elsa didn't stay to see what happened; she ran for her life.

She didn't know if someone would actually kill her in front of her parents and the royal guards, especially since she'd just demonstrated she could be very dangerous, but she was scared and she didn't want to take any chances. So she ran as fast as she could and didn't stop until she was inside the palace, in her room.

"Elsa! Open up! Elsa you hear me?! If you don't open in this very instant I will…!" Elsa covered her ears with the cushion in an attempt to stop hearing her parents' angry voices demanding her to come out. It'd been hours, but she didn't intend to come out of her room until they'd calmed down. She was going to be punished, that much was clear, but she preferred to face said punishment once they weren't fuming like savage beasts. She knew she had screwed up, and she knew that even now that the snow was gone, the temperature still hadn't gone back to normal… but she couldn't control it. Each passing day she had less and less control over her powers.

She remembered how she had accidentally hit that boy with her magic, and how his hair had turned white. She wondered what had happened to him, and… she knew she wished he had died. He'd attempted to kill her so it was just fair that she killed him in return, right? That's what he deserved. Her life was worth more than his after all; she was a princess, heir to the throne, a powerful sorceress that could curse the entire kingdom to eternal winter, and so she had the right to kill him. She had the right to kill anyone who threatened her, didn't she?

Her thoughts scared her. She wanted to strip them out of her head, she knew they were bad, but… did that mean she was bad? She was evil? Maybe she was the prophecy after all. Or not? She didn't want to think so. She didn't want to start believing it, because if she thought of herself as evil, then why would anyone else think otherwise? So she tried to ignore those awful thoughts, ignore the images of death and destruction that kept appearing in her head, but after a few hours (or minutes?) she still hadn't succeed.

Frustrated, she threw the cushion to the other side of the room, regretting it a second later when she heard knocks on her door. She closed her eyes preparing to hear her parents' berating voices, but instead she heard Anna's sweet and comforting one.

"Elsa? Are you in there?" She didn't dare answer in case their parents were close by, waiting of her to open the door, but the younger girl continued anyways. "Uhm… okay." She sighed at the lack of response. "Our parents told me about the prophecy and how they believe it's talking about you." Elsa tensed at this, knowing that if her sister believed so too, then there was no way she could escape such destiny. "But I don't think so." She continued, surprising Elsa. "You're sweet and kind and… yeah, you may have crazy ice-powers, but they're not dangerous; they're beautiful! I don't think you're some evil sorceress like everyone else said you were." She paused, thinking. "Well… earlier you did hit a boy with your powers, but in your defense he was trying to hurt you. Plus, nothing happened except a slight change in the color of his hair, so… no, you're not evil. I'm sure of it, and I won't rest until everyone else sees this too." She added trying to appear cheerful, but obviously disappointed by her sister's silence. "So, uhm… I guess I'll see you tomorrow? Rest well sis. I love you." That said, Anna started walking away from the door, but Elsa couldn't just let her leave like that, not after her kind words had assured her and warmed her frozen heart. She had to at least say something.

"I love you too." She said, smiling when the paces stopped indicating her sister had heard. "You don't know how much I love you." She added with soft voice so she wouldn't hear her. She couldn't tell her that yet, not until she deciphered exactly how much she loved her and what kind of love that was, but she knew she loved her quite a lot. After all, Anna was the only one she loved… more so, she was the only one who loved her and had faith in her.

Elsa then decided that she would never become an evil sorceress… but only because she didn't want to disappoint Anna. As long as Anna believed in her, she would be good. She had to be.

A/N: Sorry for the delay. I hope you liked this chapter, and if you did please leave a review. The next one will come sooner, I promise. See you :D

Thanks to my beta reader moonwatcher13.