Note: So. Here we are. 4th down and inches on the longest story I've yet gotten this close to completion (I've written longer stories (well, story, just one) but that's nowhere near the end I had planned for it. Like, not even remotely close, nowhere near.) Here's hoping the end measures up for you readers.

I do not own Frozen. Please review, comment, or criticize. Most of all, enjoy.

In the Old World

Chapter 28

Marius shifted the documents beneath his hands, set against the large wooden desk, and had to sigh to himself. The aftermath was and ever would be the worst part of endevors like the one that had resolved itself a few days ago. And while Marius wasn't about to say the matter was closed, it was definitely resolved. Whether it had been resolved to everyone's satisfaction was another matter entirely. And of course, there was the aftermath.

Once he realized the potential results from what he knew they'd have to do to rescue Princess Anna, he couldn't help but wonder what the potential fallout would be. The Covenant may have had the long-term goal of total dissolution of civilization in mind, but they'd done more than their share of political assassination for hire. Among other things of truly ill repute. He hadn't expected the fallout to turn out as… what it was. To say nothing of the fact that they'd also released the actual last drakelord in existence on the world. But that was a problem they'd deal with when they had to.

Marius looked down at the documents again. Whatever he thought the Knights would be able to do with the archives of the Covenant of the Dark Flame, it paled in comparison to the reality. The sheer depth of their operations, the number of nobles and lords and kings and queens they'd brought down or killed; and that was just the ones they did out of principle. The ones they did for… Marius supposed 'clients' was the only proper term, were even more damning. The political map of the entire world could be completely re-written with even a tenth of what the Knights now had access to. The only question was, should they take that step?

Another problem to deal with when they had no choice but to.

Elsa was concerned. She was hurting. She was, if she was being honest with herself, more than little terrified. She was a great many things. But she knew, above all, there was one thing she needed to be. She needed to be patient. However hard it was, she needed to be patient.

It had been a few days since Anna had…. It had been a few days since what had at the time seemed to be the worst of the whole mess had been ended. But Elsa was starting to suspect the worst of it was still yet to come.

Anna hadn't talked to her. Or Kristoff. Or Olaf. Or that fire sorceress teacher of hers. She hadn't said a word to anyone. She just… stayed up in the tower she'd been held in, growing medicinal plants and coming down for meals. And Elsa suspected that, if she were willing to give up meat and chocolate later down the line, Anna wouldn't have to join others or even require others to feed herself. Not with her powers. It felt more like she was just… going through the motions, trying to distract herself and not think about what had happened.

Elsa knew how she felt. Far more than Anna knew. She'd been here before, years ago, after she'd accidentally struck her sister with her powers. When she decided to lock herself away. She'd been here, in secret, for days after the thaw, her mind drifting to the bodyguards of the Duke of Wesleton and what she'd nearly done to them.

Elsa knew what Anna was going through. Which was why she was content to wait until her sister was ready to talk. She wouldn't wait forever. But she'd decided to give her the space she knew Anna needed.

Elsa watched from the front of the deck as the castle came into view. The royal palace of Arendelle. She would be back. All of them, at last, would be back. Now it was just a question of how quickly they could get things back to the way they used to be. Or as close to those things as they could make them, considering all that had happened. The sound of steps told her someone was approaching, and a quick glance behind her was another reminder of how different things might remain, however close to what they counted as normal they could get things to.

"I've seen the palace from this view more than a few times," Hans said, leaning into the railing beside her. "And it never stops being breathtaking."

"You going to miss it?" Elsa asked.

"Why would I not see it again?" Hans asked in reply, half serious, half… something else.

"Well, you've probably got that oh-so-coveted throne waiting for you back in the south." The way she said it, even if she was ribbing him slightly, sounded wrong. Like she was still blaming him, angry with him. A part of her was, to be fair. A part of her probably always would. But the rest of her didn't any longer. "I also seem to recall you saying something about a ship… sailing the seas endlessly, looking up at the night sky all the time." Hans chuckled at that, and the tension melted away.

"I didn't leave the Isles under the best circumstances, if you'll recall. Besides, I've thought about it and I'd think it'd be better for all involved if I don't go back to claim the throne for… a while, at the least. The people there need time to recover, and I… well, that ship's always there, if the other plans don't work out."

"You have other plans besides becoming king or finding a cheap ship to captain?" Elsa was genuinely surprised.

"I might." A sly smile was on his face now, one he directed entirely at her. "We'll have to see how they pan out, though."

Elsa was about to reply, a smirk of her own starting to take shape, before she stopped short. It was a few seconds of thought, but it felt like minutes. Was she… she was fairly certain the two of them were descending into a bout of flirting, she'd seen Anna and Kristoff at it so many times. The question stopping her was 'Is this the time?'

Then she stopped again, and thought again. What, in more normal times, and probably if weren't Hans standing next to her on the deck, Anna would be doing if she could see her? She'd be silently urging and cheering Elsa on, holding in squeals of joy with both hands. Elsa's mind flashed back to all the good-looking princes and dignitaries she'd pointed out to her sister at diplomatic events, or the times the younger girl had practically shoved her sister towards one of the same men offering the Queen of Arendelle a dance. She thought about her interactions with Hans over the course of the whole affair to get Anna back. All the somewhat awkward moments, the moments of connection, the feelings she got when…

She knew what Anna would want her to do, in more normal times.

"It sounds like you're suggesting something, Hans." She said, letting the barely disrupted smirk out.

"I might be." He replied, the smile shifting from sly to tentatively hopeful.

"Well, from what Kristoff's told me, the guest rooms are ever-so-slightly nicer than the dungeons." Hans laughed at that.

"I'm not so sure about that. I spent some time in my family's dungeons, and I have to say…" He couldn't control himself anymore. He practically burst out laughing, and Elsa let herself join him. Their hands slid across the railing, Elsa's inching over his, fingers circling around each other. The laughter slowly died away as the Broken Sword neared the dock.

"In all seriousness," Elsa said, getting her breath back. "I'd… I'd like to see where… where this goes. But-" Hans held up a hand, understanding plastering his face.

"You don't need to ask. Take all the time you need." Both their eyes drifted to the hold, where Anna had continued her policy of a frightening-by-her-standards minimum of interaction. "Get her back, for real."

Elsa was about to reply when the ship lurched and tipped slightly beneath her. She threw a hand out, casting a long chunk of ice to steady herself. Unfortunately Hans had decided to be chivalrous and try and catch her while keeping hold of the railing. The combined efforts overrode each other, and they tumbled down and rolled across the deck. The ship quickly righted itself, and they had a few seconds to reflect on the rather embarrassing position they'd fallen into before hastily scrambling to their feet. Elsa thought she could see something moving far beneath the surface of the fjord.

Anna carefully stepped over the mass of vines and walked through the window into her room. She let her mind relax, and the vines wither away to dust. She also figured she had maybe a few minutes to bar the door before-

The handle turned, the door swung inward, and Elsa strode through the doorway. For a second, Anna had to stop and marvel at how quickly Elsa had gotten to her room from the docks. Then she figured how fast she'd be moving in Elsa's place, and had to concede.

"Elsa, please just-" Anna started to say.

"I know what you're going to say," Elsa said firmly, a look Anna was familiar with, one that was a patented combination of grim determination and love, plastering Elsa's face. "And the answer's no. I'm not leaving this room until we sort this… this out." Anna laughed sadly at that declaration.

"Elsa, I… sure, he may have been a giant, evil jerkface… and yeah he was going to… but I still," she couldn't bring herself to talk about any of it. As if not saying what had happened, happened would somehow make it not be what had happened. "How do you even…" She plunked herself down on the side of her bed, and Elsa slowly approached her.

"Anna, I may not know exactly what you're going through, but I'd like to think I know enough to help."

Anna scoffed at that. She wasn't entirely sure why. But she'd been holding in so much, since… just holding everything she really knew she ought to let herself feel in, and now whatever came to mind was what she felt, along with everything else.

"What could you possibly know about this?" She asked, immediately sorry for the venom in her voice. "The worst thing you ever did was give the kingdom a few days of early winter, maybe damage some crops. And you set all that right as soon as you knew how to. Ever since then, everything you've done is just…" Anna laughed bitterly to herself. "And what have I done? I made a cat, some herbs, and a mural. Everything else has just been pain and…" She looked up from her hands at her sister, who was giving her another one of her combo-looks. This one though, was one she hadn't seen before.

It was anger and shame.

"The Duke of Wesleton sent two men to kill me during the Freeze," Elsa said slowly, her expression shifting to one of incredible pain. "They cornered me in that central room with the chandelier, and… when they attacked me I just… One of them was pinned against the wall, and an icicle was about to stab into his throat. I was pushing the other one with a wall of ice towards the balcony ledge. They were both a few seconds from me killing them." She held up a hand as she saw the question forming in Anna's mouth. "There was this old man. No other family. Out hunting when I caused the Freeze. He nearly died from the cold, because he couldn't get through the snow in the forest. From what I hear, he's still having trouble with his left arm and can't feel any of his toes." Elsa's face shifted again, to one of utmost sadness. "I nearly killed you."

"Another one of those things you managed to fix." Anna said, the grateful smile on her face and good-natured elbow to her sister's side belying any barbs the comment would've carried.

"True, though I'd say you deserve most of the credit there." Elsa replied, a small smile on her face that quickly faded. "I'm talking about… another time. When we were little. I was eight, you were five, we were playing in the ballroom-" She stopped as Anna cried out in pain, a blinding agony shooting through her head. Memories were swirling through her mind, memories of the winter fun she and Elsa had when they were little, before Elsa locked herself away. The winter vanished, becoming a summer courtyard, the ballroom, the forests in spring. Elsa firing magic from her hands. She'd known. A lifetime ago, she'd known Elsa had powers. It explained a lot. But Anna wasn't in the mood for explaining. She wasn't sure what she was in the mood for, or even what her mood was.

"So?" She asked angrily. Now it was getting clearer. She was angry. "Just another thing that, that worked out in the end, right?" She wasn't too sure what she said after that, what she did after that. Her mind was a haze, and she realized she'd felt like this before. When she'd learned that Elsa was supposedly dead. Her mind was running haywire and everything she thought, everything her feelings conjured up, fed back into her. She could vaguely feel power focusing at her fingertips, but she didn't pay it any mind.

Then a burst of snow hit her in the face. She stopped, and looked, for real.

Elsa was backed up against the door, hundreds of thorny, acid-dripping vines reaching for her, vines that had appeared to suddenly stop. Elsa, looking at her with an expression she'd never used in relation to her sister before.

Fear.

Anna reacted almost without thinking. She flicked her hand, and her heart tore as she saw Elsa flinch at the spark of power that passed over her shoulder. The door behind the young queen separated in glowing panels, and Anna ran forward and shoved her through the opening, snapping her fingers and causing the door to spring back to wholeness. She spun in a frantic circle, casting her power around her, growing vines and trees across and in front of every possible entrance, sealing herself in a self-made prison of leaves and wood.

Everything had gone wrong. Everything had turned around on itself, in the worst possible way. For thirteen years, Elsa had locked herself away from the world, desperate to ensure she couldn't hurt anyone, not the least of all her sister. Her sister, who, almost every day of those thirteen years, had tried to entreat her to come out of her room, not knowing what lay behind the door.

Now… now it was Anna who had locked herself away, desperate to not hurt anyone. Now it was Elsa who pleaded to a silent door for her sister to come out. Everything had turned back around on itself, and it had been so for weeks. Some analytical part of Elsa took solace in the fact that her earlier hypothesis about Anna being able to provider herself with sustenance through her powers was probably right, as her sister hadn't even emerged for meals. The rest of her… it bled in agony as surely as if Fabius had skewered her back in the Covenant's fortress monastery. She'd used every question, every plea she could think of to try and get her sister to come out. She'd even tried to force her way into Anna's room, casting snow and frost at the door and windows. But the magical blockage Anna had put in place held fast.

She was walking past the door now, at the end of another day. Another day that felt wrong, because her sister was locking herself away in fear. She passed the door, gazing at it with a sadness more profound than any she had ever felt. She was just about to continue on when an idea struck her. An idea so obvious, so hopeful, she couldn't believe she hadn't tried it already. She walked back to the door and knocked, hitting the sequence she'd heard time and again for thirteen years.

"Do you want to build a snowman?" She called through the wood of the door.

She stood there, waiting, for a time she didn't care to count. Waiting, with no hint of a response. The sadness she felt earlier was nothing compared to what she felt now. She turned and started back down the hall.

Then she heard a metal click, and creaking of hinges. She turned, and saw Anna, standing in the doorway, tears running down her face, one hand covering her mouth.

The sisters rushed across the short stretch of carpeted hallway between them and nearly knocked each over as they threw their arms around each other. A promise running through each mind that they would never leave the other, ever again.

END

So. Man. I haven't actually written many stories here to completion, but it never fails to feel momentous on a personal level whenever I do manage it.

I'm a bit of a fan of open-ended endings, in case any of you couldn't tell. I think literally nearly every story I've finished on this site has an somewhat open-ended ending. Heck, the first story I ever put here, and technically finished because I was happy with where I left it, ended open-endedly because I never tried to write a better definitive ending when I accidentally made an open-ended one that worked. Sure, there are bits you don't see with open endings, but that's the point of them, I think. The future of the story is in the hands of the readers and their imaginations.

Also the writers too, I guess. But more the readers. And those are the people who really matter, right?

I'd like to give blanket thanks to everyone who has read, followed, favorited (still a word, I say!), and reviewed In the Old World. It was as much a pleasure to see the enjoyment of this piece as it was to make it. Thank you all.