From inside the guest room, Princess Emma could hear the cracking and melting of ice as icicles began to fall from the roof. Her parents sent her to Arendelle to celebrate the coronation of the new queen, Elsa, but the whole celebration escalated into a frantic search for a runaway queen. Elsa's secret ice magic was no longer a secret, and people were quick to point fingers and shout monster! Emma had been stunned by the magic, but her own recent experiences with magic were telling her just how out of control it can be, so she was not quick to judge Elsa.
Emma had fallen in love with a powerful wizard from another realm, Walsh, when she was eighteen. Her parents had never arranged for her to be betrothed as a child, as they believed in the power of true love. As a result, Emma and Walsh were free to be engaged. On her twenty-first birthday in October, Walsh proposed to her. They scheduled a spring wedding, but the plans never materialized. Walsh had just been working for an evil witch who was doing anything to get to the powerful light magic inside of Emma for a spell she was working on. When Emma found out that Walsh planned on turning her in to the Wicked Witch, she was forced to use her magic for the first time. She had to defend herself, and in the process, he turned into a monkey and fell off a cliff. Emma had been heartbroken, and that was when her magic began to show itself.
Because she was the product of true love, she'd known all her life that she had magic in her, but it had always been easy to suppress it. Her heartache consumed her, then, making her magic uncontrollable. She wondered how she let herself become such a fool. Any small feeling she felt would be picked up by her fresh magic senses. Her sadness would lead to a magical thundercloud above her head, while her fleeting happiness would lead to firesparks coming from her fingertips. Her magic was all over the place, and there was nobody who could understand. Her parents wanted to find someone to help her, but everyone they knew to possess magical powers uses dark magic. The fairies were only willing to train Emma as a fairy, so Emma was left to herself to figure out how to suppress her magic as much as possible.
Emma felt all alone in her struggles with magic, until she saw the new Queen of Arendelle's powers go out of control. Her gloves seemed to be shields against the influence of her ice. When Elsa ran out, afraid of what her magic may do to her, Emma could feel nothing but empathy. She never asked for this magic, she didn't want it. Emma eventually followed Elsa out the gates to the palace, trailing behind her sister Anna. She wanted to tell Elsa that she had these problems, too. She wanted to tell Elsa that they could help eachother out. Together, they could finally get a hold of their magic. Emma was too late. She watched from afar as Elsa's magic aided her in her escape.
For the next few days, Emma was allowed to stay in a guest room of the sisters' palace. The blizzard put her in no position to be able to travel the hundreds of miles back to her own kingdom, so she was content with taking advantage of the free food and housing. For days the snow piled up. This morning, however, the snow was breaking down. Sun was beginning to stream through the vanishing clouds, and white snow was melting off of colorful flowers in the gardens. Scrambling out of bed, Emma quickly changed into her red bodice and skirts. Slipping on her short heels, she checked a mirror to make sure her long wavy blonde hair was neat enough. Once she was dressed, she flung open the door to her room in search of someone who could tell her just what the hell was going on.
She exited the palace, basking in the new sun. Bees were flying around the gardens again as if nothing had happened. It was like magic. Emma looked out on the fjord and saw a ship approaching. Off the edge of the deck, she saw the figure of Prince Hans of the Southern Isles descending into the once frozen water. He hit the water with a loud splash, and Emma could make out the sound of clapping behind her. Emma's eyes traveled up to the person who threw him off deck, and she was surprised to see Princess Anna hugging Elsa. Emma went back inside to have her breakfast, but she planned on going to Elsa to talk about magic later.
After avoiding an embarrassing situation on ice skates in the palace courtyard among all of Arendelle, Emma wandered the palace in the dark of night. She followed the hallway to Elsa's bedroom door, recognizable by the blue snowflakes painted onto it. She knocked once, surprised when it immediately opened. Elsa's big blue eyes met Emma's hazel ones, and she sighed, "I thought you were Anna,"
Emma considered turning around; Elsa wouldn't care about her. She's about to apologize and leave, when Elsa smiles and her low voice comes out, asking, "Would you like to come in?" Emma dumbly nods, following the princess-turned-queen into her large but empty room. The wooden floorboards creak under their fatigued footsteps. Moonlight streams through a large triangular window that Elsa leads them to, illuminating the room. The two girls sit on the maroon cushion, and Elsa clasps her hands together in her lap. "So are you here to speak with me?"
Emma's taken aback, "Uh...yeah. How did you know?"
"Well what other reason would you have to be here and awake after midnight?" Elsa asked, her brown eyebrows arching.
"Right...." Emma nods, almost feeling intimidated by the regalness of Elsa, "I just...do you ever...how do you feel about your magic?"
Elsa’s eyes brightened, “You….you have magic?” When Emma nodded, Elsa smiled. “I never met anyone else with powers.” She leaned forward, “Were you born with magic or cursed?”
Emma replied, “I was born with them, but they never bothered me up until recently, when something happened. They’re heavily linked to my emotions, I guess.”
Elsa's straight back slumped a little as she let out a breath, fiddling with her hands. "Well to answer your question about how I feel about magic: not that great," she replied, "I, too, was born with my ice powers, and it used to be fun, but then as I grew up, they began to get in my way. I don't like the responsibility that I feel to cover it up." Her eyes fell down to her fidgeting hands, the room becoming silent. And cold.
Emma relaxed her head against the window pane. She'd never heard anybody speak of the struggles from having magic. Her eyes wandered out the window. The sky was awake with the aurora borealis. The lights dancing in Emma’s eyes, she murmured, "I understand. My magic was never a problem for me, but...recently it's been getting in the way of everything. I wish I could control it."
Elsa reached out for Emma's arm, "I could help," her soothing voice replied. "I recently learned about controlling magic, but I still have a lot to figure out. We could help each other."
For weeks after that, the two royal girls ventured out into the woods, learning more about their magic each day. Elsa learned to control her powers while still being able to use them as Emma figured out just what exactly she could do with her powers. She realized that she excelled in fire magic. By the third week, she could aim fireballs- though she had nowhere to apply this new trick.
WIth each new revelation about their magic, they learned more about themselves. They realized that for the both of them, their magic worked best when motivated by love. As Emma attempted to use her fire magic to warm up tea, she realized that the fire burned stronger when she thought of her parents. Steam rose from the water as the memories of her feelings when she was with Walsh added to the heat. Elsa murmured a few words of encouragement, and that was what brought the kettle she held from hot to boiling. When Elsa asked what she thought about to heat up the water, Emma looked down to the boiling water, finding herself unable to answer for some reason.
Before Walsh, Emma had built walls up around her heart. Her parents’ love was strong, but other than them, Emma couldn’t see that anyone could love her. Each prince who came her way let her down. Emma knew that she’d be a terrible queen for their kingdoms, anyway. She didn’t bring anything to the table. She had nothing special about her. Walsh broke those insecure walls down. When she was with him, she didn’t need anything special. She just needed to be herself. Even though it wasn’t really love, Emma had to admit that it felt nice to feel loved.
After the truth about him, though, she went back to being an ordinary, miserable, lonely girl. She spent lots of time worrying about her future love life. It seemed like the most important thing. Luckily her parents weren’t forcing her to get married or anything, but they had true love and a kingdom of loyal subjects. People just expected it of her. However, the more time she spends with Elsa, the more she is able to let go of that stress. Elsa helps Emma realize how special she is on her own. She doesn’t need to be loved by a boy when she has Elsa.
Emma’s heart stops when she realizes how important Elsa is to her. She’s never connected with anyone outside her family the way she does with Elsa. Elsa actually understands her and her dumb insecurities. Emma wondered if Elsa could feel the same way about her. Elsa didn’t even have parents to love her. Elsa has always been motivated by her love for her sister, but perhaps she could love Emma too. It doesn’t matter, anyway. Elsa wouldn’t want to be with a trainwreck like her. After drinking the tea she made, Emma boards onto her family’s ship to travel home for the night. Maybe someday Emma could open herself up and let someone in again.
The next morning, Emma magically transported herself from her room to Arendelle. The magic brought her right to Elsa. The Queen was sitting against her door, hugging her legs into her chest. Elsa’s hand nervously fiddled with the edge of her white braid. Only the top of her head was visible as her face buried into her legs. Her body shook with each breath she took, and Emma knew that she had to do something. When Emma shakily exhaled, she saw her breath.
Sliding down next to Elsa, she let her legs spread out in front of her. “You okay?”
Elsa’s face came back up, but her blue eyes didn’t flick over to Emma. As Elsa stared straight ahead, Emma put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “I’m a monster.” Elsa’s whisper was almost silent, but Emma noticed it along with Elsa’s watery eyes.
Emma didn’t know what she was supposed to do, but she hated seeing Elsa so distraught. She grabbed Elsa’s cold hand, firmly stating, “No. You’re not.”
Elsa shook her head, a stubborn tear threatening to spill down onto her cheek. She continued staring ahead, as her defeated voice broke through the room. “Emma, you just don’t see it. I nearly killed my sister. Twice. And last night I had a meeting with a possible ally, but when we went in to shake hands, I accidently gave him frostbite. I don’t know how to use my magic. I shouldn’t be allowed to be free. You should stay away from me before I do something to you, too.”
Emma used her other hand to move Elsa’s chin, lightly pulling her face to look at her. “Elsa, you’re amazing. I don’t know anyone else who can do what you do. So what if you still have problems controlling your powers? We’re both having troubles, but we’re improving together. Because of you, I’ve gained more control over my powers. I’ve been more honest with myself. You’re no monster, and you don’t deserve to be alone. I trust you, Elsa. I won’t stay away from you because of your magic.” Emma didn’t even know what she was saying at this point. She’s never been good with talking about her feelings, but she added, “I care about you.”
Elsa rubbed her nose with the back of her sleeve, letting go of her legs to spread them out parallel to Emma’s. “I care about you, too.” She admitted.
Emma reached over to hug her. Elsa’s arms hesitantly came up to wrap around Emma’s shoulders. Immediately, the temperature of the room neutralized. When they parted, Emma stood up, offering her hand to help Elsa up. She led her out of the room, “Let’s go make some magic.”
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