I'm Afraid of What I'm Risking if I Follow You

Part 7

"She doesn't know what she's talking about," Elsa scribbled. "I feel so connected to Mother, and this is what I was meant to do with my life."

As she wrote that, though, she realized she couldn't see where she'd be ten years down the line. Five. Hell, even one. In Arendelle, there had always been that clear path she'd been preparing for all her life: the role of Queen (and look how well that turned out—freezing her entire kingdom before realizing years down the road that Anna was far more suited for the role as the people's advocate). Here, there had been finding the elements, yes, but now that she could communicate with them, could understand the Northuldra better and feel her mother's guiding spirit wherever she went, well... what now?

"I'm going to prove Yelena wrong." She underlined that several times.

That was enough catharsis to start her letter to Anna—and it might take a few attempts before she had the right wording.

The first attempt had been too casual, the second got straight to the point too fast. Elsa tore up her attempts, crumbling them up afterward.

Middle ground. She could do this.

My dearest Anna,

I hope this letter finds you well—I know we haven't talked since you were preparing for your voyage, and while Corona isn't that terrible a trip, I imagine everything going into it must have been exciting and busy. We owe them that much, given their princess and prince were stuck in Arendelle during my coronation. I hope your trip went well, and that relations between our two kingdoms will continue to flourish.

I also hope Kristoff, Sven, and Olaf are doing well, too. Did they like Corona? Did Olaf like how warm it was out there? Did Kristoff and Eugene get along well?

But I'm not only writing to just play catch up—much as I'd like to visit the moment you return. I'm making sure you read this letter once you're back in Arendelle, settled in first, because you might want to sit down for this next part.

Hans is back.

He ran away from his sentence on the Southern Isles over two years ago, and has freed himself from being a prince. The Northuldra found him injured outside the forest, and they've been nursing him back to health since. Don't worry, I've been observing him very closely, and luckily, he hasn't tried anything.

But he hears the voice, Anna, and right now, I don't. Not only that, but he doesn't react to any of the spirits. Bruni sits on his shoulder on a near regular basis without burning him, Gale can't even rustle his hair (and his hair is long enough to tie back now—how strange is that?), and the Nokk can't touch him unless I've covered the water in frost first.

To add more to this mystery, he knew about the dam, when even we were only taught about it from stories, and have never seen its mention in any history books on Arendelle—yet he had no idea about the spirits.

He also knows Mother's lullaby. But I don't know if he knows Ahtohallan even exists, or what the song means. These are mysteries that unfortunately I have yet to uncover, given Hans probably still doesn't have the strength to cross the Dark Sea just yet. But the moment I do, he's out of here, I promise. We'll go back to the way things were, and I'll make sure we never cross paths with him again.

I can't bring him back to the Southern Isles; it's clear his brothers won't care enough and will just allow him to escape again. It's also painfully clear, after a few years and from what I've gathered, the last thing Hans wants now is to usurp a throne. I think he just wants closure, and escape from his home.