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Elsa slammed the door to her room and leaned against it, chest heaving as she tried to get her panic under control. She uncurled her hands and stared at them. They didn't look any different than they ever had. Yet less than a minute ago, ice had shot from them, freezing over her entire dining room table.

What is happening to me?

A tingling sensation pulsed in her palms, and then tiny snowflakes were dancing between her fingertips, surrounded by a faint blue-white glow. She bit back a gasp and clenched her fists. Was she imagining all of this? Or was she some kind of freak? Was there some kind of scientific explanation for all this?

Remember what Agdar said. You're a Frostahl. There are legends about the Frostahl line. When she was young, her great aunt Ingrid used to tell her stories about strange magic and trolls and mysterious queens with power over ice and snow. She had loved the stories, because she loved Tante Ingrid, but even as a little girl, she was too smart to really believe them.

They're just fairy tales.

She looked at her clenched fists again.

Aren't they?

Besides, she didn't know for sure that she was a Frostahl. She only had Agdar's word. No proof. And he wasn't the one who'd actually said it. Anna had said it. She prayed that Agdar was talking about someone else. He had to be talking about someone else.

But deep down, she knew that he wasn't talking about someone else. Agdar was as meticulous and detail-oriented as she was herself. He would never have told her something like that if he wasn't absolutely certain that it was true.

"Elsa Frostahl," she whispered, trying the name aloud. The syllables sounded almost alien rolling off her tongue. Why wouldn't they? She was a Kjarensen. Like her mother before her, and her grandmother before her, and all her mothers before her, for generations…was all that a lie? Had she ever been who she thought she was?

She heard Anna's voice in her head: Elsa, it's you…

No. She was Elsa Kjarensen, the only daughter – the only child - of Sverre Strøm and Astrid Kjarensen Strøm, raised with the extraordinary expectations that came with being in a family with a history of achievement. She was an engineer, architect, consultant; she was the daughter of a well-regarded builder and an accomplished historian.

Mama was a historian. She wrote books about the Arendelle's ancient warrior queens and their bloodlines.

Had Mama known who they really were? Had she died before she got the chance to tell Elsa? Elsa was so young when her mother got sick. Too young to understand something like that, despite her precociousness. If she'd lived, would Mama have told her eventually?

What about Papa? Had he known about Mama's family line, who they were? Maybe he had, and decided the knowledge was too burdensome for a little girl who had already lost so much. Or maybe it was just one more responsibility that he didn't want to shoulder.

I'm a Frostahl.

I'm the heir to the Crocus Throne.

Oh my God. They want me to be the Queen.

Her knees almost buckled under the magnitude of the realization, panic flaring once again. She heard a crackling sound, and looked down to see ice spreading from beneath her feet. Her knees wobbled and she grabbed at the door handle to steady herself. It immediately frosted over, and ice quickly climbed up the door and across the walls.

She was going to be the Queen.

The Ice Queen.

The barely-tolerated moniker seemed suddenly apropos.

Elsa stumbled to her bed and climbed onto it, pressing her back into the headboard and curling into a ball. Everything that had happened over the last few days - the fact that she was being hunted, that someone had tried to kill her - seemed insignificant. Fleeting and unsubstantial when compared to the crushing responsibility that had just settled on her narrow shoulders.

She wrapped her arms around her knees and buried her face in them, shuddering as she broke down. The tears flowed, soaking into the fabric of her jeans. Amidst her roiling emotions and tumbling thoughts, she managed to latch onto just one idea and hang on to it.

At least my tears are still warm.

"Well, at least I know I wasn't imagining things," Anna mumbled to herself as she stumbled her way up the stairs. Every step was completely frozen over. Her palms ached from her desperate grip on the banister, and she prayed that she wouldn't slip and bust her ass.

Anna knew the legends surrounding the Frostahl line. Almost everyone in Arendelle did, as they were a large part of their country's mythology. But they were just that – myths and legends. Anna was a pragmatist at heart; she believed in things that she could explain through observation and deduction. Her livelihood depended on that. But this…this defied explanation. Who could create ice out of nothing? Freeze a tabletop with their hands? Turn a floor into a skating rink with their feet?

Apparently Elsa can, you idiot. She's a Frostahl, a royal with a mythological ancestry.

She shook her head as she stepped onto the upper floor landing. Ice covered the floor up here as well, leading down the hall to stop in front of Elsa's door.

Obviously they're not just tall tales…

As puzzling as Elsa's…abilities - powers? Magic? What should I call it? - were, it did make some things start to fall into place for Anna. The weird temperature drops, the ice on the stairs yesterday morning, maybe even the all the erratic weather that seemed worse when Elsa was upset, and she wondered how closely Elsa's abilities correlated with her emotions.

She stopped in front of Elsa's bedroom door, hesitating just for a moment before she raised her fist to knock, feeling a strange sense of déjà vu.

It seems like I'm always knocking on this door.

Was hiding away Elsa's first reaction to everything?

"Elsa?" she called softly.

No answer. She knocked again, a little harder this time, but there was still no response. Anna laid her hand flat against the door. The wood felt unnaturally cold. She reached for the handle, then jerked her hand back with a hiss.

The handle was coated with ice.

Anna pulled her sweatshirt sleeve over her hand and grabbed the door handle again. It turned easily enough, but the door would not open. She pushed it again, harder this time, and heard the sound of ice breaking on the other side.

Did she freeze the door shut?

Anna turned the handle and threw her shoulder into the door. It flew open with a loud cracking sound, and shards of broken ice rained on her as she stumbled into Elsa's room.

She looked around in amazement even as she shivered with the sudden chill. Frost covered every horizontal surface of the room, and ice crept up the walls above the bed. Anna's breath caught when she saw Elsa on the bed. Curled in a ball with her face buried in her arms and her shoulders shaking, Elsa looked for all the world like a fallen angel, sparkling stalagmites spread above her like broken wings of ice. Her soft sobs were the only sound in the room.

"Elsa?"

When Elsa lifted her head, Anna could see the tears tracking down her cheeks.

Anna crawled onto the bed, the thin layer of ice on the linens cracking beneath her. Elsa cringed back, like she was trying to make herself even smaller, and turned her face away. Anna's breath fogged in the air, and she hugged herself against the deepening cold.

"Go away, Anna."

The words were spoken so softly that Anna could barely hear them, but the distress and bewilderment in them was clear enough.

"Elsa, please." Anna knelt down in front of her, tentatively putting her hands on the sides of Elsa's knees. "Don't shut me out. Let me help."

It seemed impossible for Elsa to curl herself any tighter, but she somehow managed it. "How? How can you help?" Elsa looked up at her. The tears falling from her eyes were now freezing to her cheeks. "How do you think you can fix this? Fix me?"

…I'm broken inside. Anna winced inwardly as she recalled Elsa's words from last night. Did Elsa really think that now?

"I can't," Anna said. At Elsa's stricken look, she went on, "I can't fix it, because there's nothing broken."

She cradled Elsa's face in her hands. Despite the frozen tears and the frost surrounding them, Elsa's pale skin was still warm to her touch. She brushed the fine ice crystals from Elsa's cheeks.

"You are not broken."

Elsa started to protest, but Anna placed a finger over her lips, shushing her gently. "This is a gift, Elsa."

Elsa stared at her, disbelief and hope warring on her face.

"It's amazing," Anna went on. "Have you always been able to do this?"

"…No? I don't know? I don't think so…" Elsa trailed off, her eyebrows scrunched in thought.

Anna relaxed as the chill in the room lost its edge. That was a good sign, she thought. She needed to engage Elsa's curiosity, keep her focused on a question, a problem, on something besides her fear and confusion so that her brain would not flee to the land of irrational thoughts.

"Anything? Any hints of this ability before? Turn your milk into ice cream when you were a kid?" Anna grinned. "Make freezer pops out of your lemonade?"

Elsa gave her a small smile. "Um…now that I think about it, I used to have a tutor who always complained about being cold when he was working with me. He always accused the maid of freezing his tea, but maybe she wasn't the one who did it." She frowned a little. "I never liked him very much."

"That's all you've got? Frozen tea?" Anna scoffed. "You were such a good girl. Now me, I probably would have done something a little more fun, like freeze all the toilet seats in a public restroom. In January."

"Well, that's just…mean." Elsa let out a little snicker.

"Or I'd chill my own drinks. Now that would be a handy skill. Wouldn't need a bar fridge. And I'd always be on everyone's party list."

Some of the stiffness seemed to leave Elsa, and her body loosened a bit from its tight ball. Anna moved closer and took one of her hands. She unfolded Elsa's fingers from the closed fist and threaded them with her own. Elsa's hand was cool, but not any more so than normal.

"Anna, please." Elsa tried to pull away. "I think…it mostly comes out of my hands. I don't want to hurt you."

Anna tightened her grip. "Elsa, if you could hurt me just by touching me with your hands, you would have killed me last night. Or earlier today." She waggled her eyebrows. "But wow, what a way to go."

Elsa flushed crimson and mumbled, "Oh my God, you're incorrigible."

"Yes, I am," Anna said, flashing a wicked grin. She kissed Elsa's hand, then pulled her closer and swallowed her in a hug. Tucking Elsa's head under her chin, she held her close, rocking gently back and forth. Elsa relaxed against her, and Anna could feel the some of the tension drain away when Elsa's arms wrapped around her. Then it suddenly hit her:

I'm holding the future Queen of Arendelle.

And I'm in love with her.

Anna squeezed Elsa as tight as she could, letting up only a little when she heard the other woman gasp for breath.

Elsa is going to be Queen.

What does this mean for us? For our future?

If what Agdar said was true, then only Elsa, now the last of the Frostahl line, could ascend to the Crocus Throne. If recent history had taught them anything, it was that the kingdom needed its Queen, and that the Queen must have heirs. And if Elsa is to be Queen -

The next thought, sharp and painful, formed before she could stop it.

- there can't be an us.

Agdar looked up from his seat on the couch when Anna came into the great room. He frowned as he noted the how her head hung down, and the slight slump in her shoulders. What had happened upstairs? Was Elsa all right?

"Anna? Is everything all right?"

Anna crossed to the bar and grabbed a bottle of scotch from the cabinet. She lifted it toward him, raising her eyebrows to ask if he wanted a drink. He nodded. Anna pulled out two crystal tumblers and splashed several fingers of the amber liquid into each one. She carried the glasses over to the couch and handed him one.

"To Elsa," he said, raising his glass. "The once and future queen."

"To Elsa," Anna replied, touching her glass to his with a sad smile.

They both took big swallows of their drinks. Agdar stifled a smile when Anna's eyes bugged out a bit. She coughed as she choked down the whiskey, her eyes watering. She quickly set her glass on the coffee table and swiped at her mouth and eyes with her sleeve.

"Not a whiskey drinker?" he asked.

"Not really, at least not a scotch drinker," she answered. "I like Brennevin, but I had way too much of it a couple of nights ago."

"Oh?"

Her face turned pink and she toyed with one of her braids. "It's a long story, best summed up by saying I got drunk and stupid."

And frustrated with Elsa in some way, I'll bet. Agdar stifled another smile, but didn't press.

"Anna, I can't thank you enough for everything you've done for Elsa. And for the country. Without you, Arendelle's very existence would be in serious jeopardy."

Anna gave him a quick nod and another one of those sad smiles. He frowned when she picked up her drink and took a taste, more carefully this time. This wasn't the kinetic and talkative young woman he'd met earlier today.

"What happened upstairs, Anna?" Agdar asked gently. "Is Elsa all right?"

Anna nodded. "Yeah, as all right as she can be, I guess, with all this. She just needs some space to think." She moved around the coffee table and sat down on the couch beside him. They sat for a while in companionable silence, sipping at their drinks.

Finally Anna asked, "How long have you known? That Elsa is the heir, I mean?"

"I've suspected for a while, but everything has come together over the last few days. Today just confirmed it for me."

"What about the thing with – with the ice? Did you know about that? How is that even possible?"

Agdar gave a small shrug. "I had no idea, and never would have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself. As for how it's possible…well, if you believe the legends, she won't be the first Frostahl queen with cryokinetic abilities."

"The Troll Prophecy? The Frostahl Curse? The Winter in Summer? I've know the stories, but I always thought they were just fairy tales."

"Apparently not. There are a multitude of myths and legends, but they all refer to the same thing," Agdar explained.

"Elsa's ice powers," Anna finished.

Agdar nodded, swirling his drink around in his glass before swallowing the last of it. "But I wonder why I've never seen any signs of it from her before."

"It explains some of the weird stuff that's been happening, though." Anna got up and started pacing. "There have been some wild temperature drops in this house since we got here, and the snowfalls have been crazy weird. Like, really heavy, and then all of sudden it just stops. Now that I've thought about it, I realize that it happened whenever Elsa was angry or upset."

"Elsa controls her emotions better than anyone I've ever met. Ironically enough, in our professional circles, she's known as the Ice Queen." Agdar shook his head. "Other than the obvious reasons, what's made her that angry or upset before I got here?"

"Well, I tend to have that effect on people sometimes," Anna said with a wry shrug and a faint blush. "But yeah, when I went upstairs, the whole hallway was covered in ice. Her room even had ice going up the walls. But once I calmed her down, it all just…disappeared."

Anna grabbed her drink and tossed back the rest, coughing a little. Then she went to the bar and grabbed the scotch bottle. She gestured to ask if he wanted another. When he shook his head, she poured more for herself, taking small sips as she stared down at the floor.

"Anna, are you all right?" Agdar asked, rising from the coach to move closer to her.

"Elsa's going to be the Queen." Anna tucked her hair behind her ear, glancing at him just long enough for him to see her miserable expression before she dropped her eyes. "The Castle's a big place, but somehow…I don't think there will be any room there for me."

Oh, Anna.

"I'm sorry," he said, touching her shoulder. "I can tell that you care about her. Quite a bit."

"I – I'm in love with her," Anna admitted, her voice catching. "But we can't…she can't…"

She looked up at him again, and he could see the pleading in her eyes. He wished he could tell her something different, that everything would work out, but he couldn't bring himself to lie to her. Instead, he opened his arms. After a bare hesitation, she stepped into them and laid her head against his chest. His hand moved over her back in soothing circles, and he could feel her thin body quivering as she tried not to cry.

She pulled away from him at the loud buzz of a cell phone. They looked over to see Anna's smartphone vibrating across the coffee table.

"That thing was going off quite a bit while you were upstairs," Agdar said. "Someone really wants to talk to you."

Anna snatched up the phone, rolling her eyes when she saw who the caller was. "What do you want, Eugene?"

"…yeah, I just turned it back on this morning."

"…well, there's a reason I haven't called. I told you that you didn't need to know."

"…what?! What did you tell them?"

"…and that's why I didn't tell you where we were going."

"…look, we're fine. There's no way they'll find us. I gotta go, I promise I'll call you soon."

She clicked off. At Agdar's questioning look, she said, "My cousin. The NPs stopped by his shop yesterday, wanting to know if they'd seen me. Don't worry, I didn't tell him where we were going."

Agdar let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding. "Be that as it may, we still should make plans for leaving here."

"Yeah," Anna agreed. She started scrolling through her phone. "Wow, you weren't kidding. Eugene called…four times, and Rapunzel called six times. I can't even count the texts -"

Anna cut herself off with a sharp gasp, staring at the phone with wide, frightened eyes. Agdar's heart skipped a beat, and he stepped closer to her.

"What is it, Anna?"

She looked up at him. The blood had drained from her face, her freckles standing out even more against her suddenly white skin. "They – they have Olaf."

"What? What does that mean?"

Before she could answer, they heard Elsa's voice ask, "Anna, what's wrong?" They turned to see Elsa hurrying across the room, her brow creased with worry, cool air swirling around her.

"Olaf. They took Olaf," Anna choked out.

"Who is Olaf?" Agdar asked.

"Her neighbor. He's just a kid," Elsa answered. "What do they want, Anna?"

Anna opened and closed her mouth a few times, then simply held up the phone so that they could see the text message, her face an anguished mess.

Elsa Kjarensen for Olaf Sommersonn.

A/N: Thanks to Vesfarhloc, Issandri, and grrlgeek72 for their help with this. You guys are awsome!