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

Part 9

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

Chapter 9

"No, no, that's impossible." What shocked Elsa was that it was Hans in denial about the memory, while she was completely onboard that Ahtohallan was showing the truth. He kept staring at his mother and Agnarr like it had to be fabricated. "When did the conflict with the Northuldra even begin?"

"About thirty-five years ago," said Elsa. After she did the math, she started to realize— "Wait, if you're the last son of the Southern Isles, and older than me and Anna... how could your mother have married your father and sired thirteen sons all before then?"

"I told you, they weren't all single births," Hans explained. "She had three pairs of twins and one set of triplets. That doesn't make it too far fetched."

Elsa exhaled. "Why would anyone want to have that many children in such a short period of time? And how could she have? And how did she luck out with them all being boys? And what does any of that have to do with... any of this?"

Hans gestured to the memory that had passed the threshold. "That's what I was trying to find out. But you pulled me away."

Rolling her eyes, Elsa pulled him back, to where even more memories of his mother played out. "I told you, Hans, if you go back there, there's no turning back unless you know have someone on the outside who knows exactly how to right the wrongs of the past. You'll freeze to death. I froze to death down there, until Anna saved me—and I had to use the last of my powers to imply what to do. Even then, it was kind of on a whim to see if she knew."

"Knew what?"

"My grandfather murdered the leader of the Northuldra and started a conflict that blocked off the Forest in an enchanted mist, like I said before," Elsa explained. "I didn't know that until then, so Anna had the Earth Giants destroy it—to, again, right the wrongs of the past."

Hans squinted. "But wouldn't that have destroyed Arendelle along with it?"

Elsa shrugged. "Luckily, that's what unfroze me—once the dam was destroyed, I rode the Nokk over to its giant wave before it could destroy Arendelle."

"Just with your powers?" He blinked, impressed. "Given what I've seen so far of what you can do—you just might be limitless."

"I got you here, didn't I?" she chuckled.

Hans laughed in return and... it was a moment. And she didn't hate it.

"'Right the wrongs of the past...'" he repeated, thinking. "Maybe I'm the mistake from the past that needs to be corrected. Maybe that's why the spirits don't affect me, now that I've had time to think about it."

Elsa scowled. "Just because I think you still deserve to pay for what you've done, I don't think anyone would wish you dead, let alone the spirits. I can feel it; it's not their intention, especially since they've been so friendly toward you."

Hans a brow, unsure of her assessment, but said nothing.

She looked back on the memory of her father and his mother—Majken, she remembered, or "Maj," as Agnarr had affectionately called her—and her brow furrowed. "Them knowing each other could explain a few things," she reasoned. "Let's keep going."

Nodding, he followed. There wasn't much, though.

"My father is building a dam for the Northuldra tribe as a sign of peace," Agnarr told her.