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

Part 7

How was she supposed to respond to that? This was Hans. "You carried me down the North Mountain, didn't you?" she asked instead. "Because you were the only one who wasn't afraid."

"I did." Obviously he wouldn't deny it; there was nothing to gain through lying here. "I was surprised by how warm you were, even though everything else was freezing. It must have been the adrenaline rush—you're still human, after all. And surprisingly light."

Elsa snorted. "Why, because ice is so heavy?"

"I don't know what I was thinking, other than wondering how you could make something so amazing, and be so powerful, yet—the fear. And obviously that's no longer the case."

"Didn't we talk about this already?" Elsa chuckled.

Bruni scurried from behind a rock, leaping over Elsa's lap so he could settle with Hans. Hans opted to hold him in his hands, as if that would help him try to feel something. "We did," he sighed. "I was just... being a bit more introspective."

"Ah." They sat in silence for a few moments. Instead of it being uncomfortable, like it would have been just a few weeks ago, with Elsa seething, this was... calm, especially with the river gently swaying along.

"So..." She decided to break the silence. "Where did you learn that lullaby? The one I sang to you?"

Hans shrugged. "I think I've always known it—I hadn't heard it in a long time until you started singing it, and it unlocked this... memory I'd forgotten about."

Well, that didn't really help. "Do you know what it's about?"

Hans shook his head. "I'd never really thought about it, to be honest. I always thought it was something of a fairy tale—you know, the cautious ones that warned children to stay away from water?"

"I suppose I could see it that way." Hans mentioned how great her powers were; she could give visuals. "But it's not just a cautionary tale about water: it's about a place."

"A place?" he repeated. "It exists?"

"I'll try to give visuals, but 'there's a river full of memory'? It's quite literally a place where you can delve into the past, and look on your life like it's happening right before you." Elsa created her model Ahtohallan, hopefully replicating its proud peaks. "The magic there is so powerful, you can see memories from not only your past, but your ancestors', as well."

Hans only got a brief glance before Bruni, predictably, leapt right in. "And... you've been to this river—this place."

"Once," said Elsa. "It's dangerous to get to, and that's why I've been putting off telling you for this long. My parents died trying to find Ahtohallan through the Dark Sea." She conjured up the rocky shore and waves, wishing she could imitate the booming thunder. "The Nokk almost killed me before I tamed him."

"It looks a lot like the Southern Isles," Hans said lowly, taking in as much as he could before Bruni added it to his melted pile. By this point they had turned away from the river, looking on as Elsa continued to lay the scene.

This was comparable to the shores of the Southern Isles? This rocky shoreline, this unfriendly wind? Elsa wondered if the thunder was a characteristic, too.

"Conjuring memories is a new power of mine, but in Ahtohallan, the magic there is so powerful that all the secrets of your past can be revealed in an instant. It's where my powers originated." She wished he could see the Northern Lights leading there, how beautifully colors shone like nothing could touch them. "That's where the voice called me, and I think that's where it's calling you."