When Time Collides

Chapter One

Elsa

The only sound to be heard in the stillness of the night as Elsa padded carefully down the hall was the faint whistling from the wind outside, and the small breaths leaving her lips in even rotations.

There was a sanctuary to be claimed when night fell. The only time in which it was safe to sooth any plaguing anxieties and wander, as the rest of the household would by now be fast asleep and there was no chance of herself running into them. Elsa always found she could breath better when taking leave from her quarters. Though, she felt that 'quarters' was too polite a word. Calling it a prison seemed more suitable.

The irony was, she had no one to blame but herself for it. It was by her choice that she'd been tucked away, occupying a corner of solitude and isolation since childhood.

A cold spread through Elsa's hands, numbing her fingers before beginning to creep up her arms. The wind beating against the glass panes of the windows thickened, and the whistling sounds increased considerably. Elsa's features scrunched as she winced, thinking, my mistake.

Elsa felt that the only sensible thing there was that she could do would be to retreat back to her room. But that was the last thing she wanted to do. Back there, the world was a sheet of ice and buried under layer upon layer of snow. The world was cold, and small, and she was all alone. And her window, which looked out over the bridge across the fjord and the main centre of town, brought only envy to the surface. And in the right lighting, it's glass reflected the image of a girl with porcelain skin and cerulean blue eyes that told of a heartbroken sea plagued with gloom.

The springline windows lining hall cast looming shadows across the carpets, and gave a means for the night to lap up any warmth within the walls. The shadows the princess walked through, while not truly frightening, retained the power to set her on edge. Elsa squashed down the magic that threatened to bubble over the facade of calm, desperate to contain the brewing storm.

Elsa descended the staircase, keeping close to the bannister on the nineteenth and seventh steps from the bottom so as not to disturb the silence with an eerie creaking of the wood.

She continued along the southwest hallway, pausing against the wall when she saw a fraction of light and heard a murmur of multiple voices conversing coming from the third door on the left. The King's conference room. He's conducting a meeting? So late?

Elsa contemplated the rational thought of high tailing out of there. After all, it was not her business what was being discussed. But she found she could not pull herself away, and instead, her feet took her forward. The voices became clear as Elsa peeked through the crevice made by the ajar door, and she blinked to clear her vision.

The stern figures of the Arendelle Council sat around the circular table with grim faces. The King's chair was pushed back from the table, and he sat slouched, one hand clamped over his knee and the other rubbing his temple.

" I do not know what there is I can do." He sighed and with his thumb and forefinger, rubbed his eyes.

Elsa's stomach tightened uncomfortably. Seeing her father in such a distressed state was unsettling. What was it making him feel this way? Elsa listened harder, hoping to soon understand.

"Your Majesty, perhaps you should consider removing her to the dungeon. To better contain the . . witchcraft she has demonstrated to possess." Elsa recognised Sir Gerald's voice, but his words took a little longer to process.