Who: Elsa and Xanatos What: Xanatos tries to check out Ahtohallan, Elsa saves him from the Nokk When: June 26th or so, after the Enchanted Fog plot Where: Trabuco Canyon Rating/Warning: Fairly low/none Status: Complete
Glaciers didn’t just suddenly appear, fully formed, in canyons in the middle of Southern California. If there was nothing else Xanatos was sure of, this was it. It’s sudden appearance pointed to something much more mystical than simple science, and Xanatos was nothing if not determined to discover all the secrets of the unknown.
“A little lower!” he called over his shoulder to the pilot, yelling to be heard over the whirl of the helicopter blades. Once he judged himself to be a safe distance from the top of the glacier, he called back “Hold her steady,” and then, “I’ll call you if I need you.”
And then, in full ice-climbing gear, he leapt from the helicopter, falling the remaining ten or so feet onto the glacier. He immediately started sliding down the edge until his crampons managed to find traction and he was able to dig one of his ice climbing axes into the sheer side.
Now, all he had to do was find an entrance. There had to be an entrance of some sort. What sort of artifacts the glacier held, only the gods would know - until Xanatos himself laid his hands on them - but artifacts there were. Xanatos was certain of it. And unlike the collection he already housed, these, he was certain, would work. He didn’t know what, precisely, they’d do, but they’d do something. If he couldn’t find an entrance, then he’d just have to listen for an area where the ice sounded thinner than the rest, and make an entrance.
The wide, lazy stream that surrounded it began to churn under him as he made his way, slowly and precariously, around the perimeter of the glacier, trying to peer within its depths, but if the large glacier held winding hallways and open caverns, the opaque ice kept it shielded from his view.
The water was lapping up the side of the glacier, higher now, as if it was reaching for him, and he compressed a bit of a smirk. If this was supposed to be some sort of mechanism to keep him from discovering the glacier's secrets, all it did was tell him that there were secrets to protect. The water wasn’t his concern anymore - he’d come from the air, after all, and so he paid it no mind while he continued his slow, arduous search.
At least until the water lapped over the top of his insulated ice-climbing boot. He had time to look down at it, almost surprised that it had managed to climb this high up the glacier, before the next wave hit him hard, as though he’d been struck by a horse, and he fell from the side of the glacier into the frothing waters.
And it was a horse, he saw, opening his eyes under the water, with teeth of white foam and glowing blue eyes, and Xanatos would have laughed if he didn’t need the oxygen. He doubted it was a kelpie, though he couldn’t be sure if it was a Nokk or a Ceffyl Dŵr, or one of the many other water-horses of legend, but here it was, in front of him. It’s front hooves were bearing down on him, pushing him further down into the water. He still had his ice axes clutched in his hands, and he swung them, burying them in the horses neck. At least, that was the plan, but rather than find purchase, they were ripped from his hands as if by a particularly strong current.
His eyes widened, and he attempted instead to kick at it with the spikes on the edge of his crampons, but found no purchase there, either, and when he tried to prise the creature off with his hands, he gripped only water. Then, then he started to worry. He couldn’t die, not yet, not like this, when he’d yet to unlock the secrets of immortality. He thrashed, wildly now, the breath escaping him, his lungs burning as though they would explode.
It was a stroke of luck for Xanatos that Elsa had come back out to Ahtohallan. She couldn't say what had drawn her back; maybe it was her sister being back, or maybe it was to try to prepare the place to eventually show Anna and Rapunzel, and maybe Ozma.
Or maybe something had called to her again.
Whatever the reason, she was in time to see a man in the water; and the Nokk's murderous intent.
"No!" She rushed forward, sprinting on the water like a lesbian Jesus and threw out a lasso of ice. She tugged, trying to pull him off of the person. Clearly, she and the Nokk needed to have a talking to about how to handle people trying to access Ahtohallan. Deny them, yes, but less murder.
Irritated, the Nokk dissolved and Elsa looked around, balancing on thin paddles of ice. She spotted the man, then dove in after him.
It took Xanatos a moment to realize that the horse had dissolved into small bubbles, though Xanatos was still sinking. His lungs were burning, and he frantically unzipped his insulated ice-climbing jacket, letting the heavy, waterlogged coat slip from his shoulders and sink into the river. His boots were heavy too, but he knew trying to unlace and shed them would be futile at this point.
He struggled upwards, not sure if he would make it, and then, descending from above like some sort of angel, and he reached for her.
Elsa grasped his hand and pulled. While she didn’t have super strength, she did have an active exercise regime and that plus a burst of magic helped her get him to the surface. Creating a platform of ice, she pulled him onto it and then extended the ice to the shore so she could drag him there, where it was safer, and make sure he could actually breath.
Xanatos wasn’t entirely sure if he had lost consciousness, though he thought it was likely. One moment, he was reaching for the woman, and the next, he was uncomfortably aware of being dragged across the freezing ice, his soaking wet skin goose-pimpled, coughing up lungfuls of water.
Some of his hair had come loose from his ponytail, and hung limply in his face. He tried to take a breath, succeeded only in coughing up more water, and then finally, finally he could breathe again.
Only then did he think to look for his savior. She … was a lot smaller than he had expected. “Did you save me?” he croaked, his throat raw.
Oh, good, he was breathing. Elsa was glad for that; she didn’t know if her powers could pull water out of someone’s lungs and didn’t particularly want to find out. She sat back on her haunches and smiled at him. “This isn’t really a safe place to go hiking. The glacier protects itself.”
“I noticed,” Xanatos said with a wry smile, and then couldn’t help but laugh. He was alive, and while the whole expedition could have gone a lot better, to say the least, it had still turned up valuable information. Such as the fact that there was something worth protecting in the glacier, and the nature of that protection. Now all he had to do was find a way past it. “How did you avoid being drowned?” he asked. “Not that I don’t appreciate the save, but you put yourself in danger too.”
Elsa shrugged one of her shoulders, as the water horse formed on the river nearby and started to pace, “The Nokk likes me.” She glanced back at him, raising her eyebrows and giving him a look. The Nokk huffed, but slinked away.
She pushed damp hair out of her face, then realized they were still on her ice platform in the river. Twirling her hand, she made the platform move towards the shore. Then, with another motion, there came sparkling ice and snow flakes as the water in her clothing and hair was drawn out and then frozen, dropping to the ice like little balls of hail.
“But I didn’t really think about the danger, I just saw someone who needed help.”
Xanatos blinked, staring in silence as the woman seemed to manipulate the ice around her, and then his eyes drifted from her to the glacier, another piece of the puzzle falling into place.
He frowned a little when she said that she saw someone who needed help. Xanatos had always found people like that, the do-good, heroic type, easy to manipulate. But given that she had just saved his life… well, it would be a poor way to repay her by tricking her into using her powers for him.
"The glacier's yours, isn't it?" he asked, resigned, once they reached the shore and he could step onto solid land again. "And the Nokk protects it for your sake."
"The Nokk protects it because that's what he does," Elsa smiled. She straightened, looking back towards the glacier. WIth the Nokk, the giants, Bruni and herself, that made four of the five spirits. She hadn’t yet seen the wind spirit, “This is a special place. I still don’t know why it came here, or what my role is supposed to be. I suppose nature is out of balance...”
Xanatos frowned, climbing to his feet. He brushed the dirt off his clothes, not quite a thorough job but about as good as he’d be able to do without taking his suit to the drycleaners.
“Out of balance how?” he asked, coming to stand next to her.
“With the dreamers, and everything, but…” Elsa shrugged, folding her arms. “Climate change. Maybe something is trying to give us the tools to fight it.”
It was a guess, but she could imagine the spirits trying to assert themselves. They didn’t belong, though, which only made things much more difficult to figure out.
“Maybe,” Xanatos said, not entirely sure if he bought it. Still, mythology was filled with stories of the gods trying to warn humanity by the most roundabout way possible. Whatever it was though, the tools they were being provided belonged in hands that could and would use them.
“Perhaps the answer is in the glacier,” Xanatos said, his eyes travelling back to the towering mountain of ice. “Have you found a way inside yet?”
“I have.” She probably admitted that a bit too quickly, and she frowned, unfolding her arms and taking half a step towards Ahtohallan. “There’s an old lullaby.” She closed her eyes, singing the first lines, “Where the north wind meets the sea, there's a river full of memory. And that’s what lays within. Memories. It showed me my own and that of my family, even going back to years before I was born. I don’t know if it would show anything else.”
“Memories? That’s it?” Xanatos asked, and perhaps he was more shaken by his near-death experience than he would have liked to admit, because he couldn’t keep the disappointment from his voice. Even if it did show him his memories, he had no use for anything that was in the past. Xanatos had eyes only for the future. “You didn’t spot any artifacts, or anything else?”
“It’s all ice,” Elsa replied. “It’s a very spiritual place, in my dreams it’s partly responsible for who I am. I was born with magic because Ahtohallan wanted someone who could restore balance and free the people trapped in an enchanted forest.” She smiled, shrugging, “It sounds like a fairy tale. But it nearly killed me when I went too deep.”
But wasn’t that what the Fae were like? At least in most books Elsa had read.
But Ahtohallan felt sentient. She tilted her head, looking at it, “I can show you, if you’d like, but I would not recommend going too deeply. Freezing to death is an unpleasant experience.”
Xanatos frowned to himself, regretting the loss of his insulated jacket - it surely would have been a help in this particular situation. It had been a necessary sacrifice, and it would be no trouble to purchase another.
He couldn’t let this opportunity pass him by. Entering the glacier with this woman seemed like the safest, quickest course of action, insulated jacket or not, sopping wet shoes and hair or dry.
“If it wouldn’t be too much trouble, I think I would like that a lot,” he said, brushing some of the wet hair from his face and securing it in in his ponytail. “You sound as though you speak from experience.”
“Lets just…” Elsa twirled her hand, drawing the water out of Xanatos’s clothing and hair, freezing it away. “There.”
She started across the ice bridge towards the glacier, “That’s what happened, I was searching for why the spirits trapped the forest and learned the truth about the past.”
He’d seen her do the same with the water in her own clothes, but having it done for himself was unexpected, and he grinned at the sebastian of it. “That is a handy trick,” he said. “It would make getting ready in the mornings so much quicker. I don’t suppose you could convince your Nokk to return my jacket, huh?” Xanatos wasn’t too bothered either way, except for the part where he would have liked to make it to the very heart of the glacier without risking frostbite.
“You look remarkably well for a woman who froze to death,” he teased, lightly, following her along the ice bridge, keeping a careful eye out for the Nokk, though it didn’t seem as though it would make a second attack in the presence of the woman, who, he related belatedly, he didn't know the name of. “My name is David Xanatos, by the way. Thank you for saving my life.”
Xanatos may have lacked morals, but that didn’t mean he lacked manners.
Elsa looked over to where the Nokk was stomping all over the jacket and frowned, “You know what I think I’ll just pay for it.”
Easier that way, and less dangerous. Possibly expensive though.
“I’m Elsa.” She smiled at him, before stopping at the entrance, “I don’t know what it will show you.” Frankly she wasn’t sure she should, but here they were.
She led him inside, down the long tunnels. She had to craft a bridge in places since she doubted he’d be able to follow her otherwise.
“Elsa,” Xanatos repeated, musingly, frowning at her. “Ah, you’re the architect, aren’t you? We’ve spoken over the Net.” It was a wonder that it had taken him so long to recognize her.
He took a breath in, feeling a little triumphant, as he stepped foot inside the glacier, and followed her in. He was glad for his ice climbing boots - they made it easy to not slip as he followed her down the winding tunnels and over her bridge, occasionally using his hand against the icy walls to keep his balance where it was especially slick - not that he did that often. The ice burned his bare skin if he let it linger too long.
He breath plumed in front of him, but if he was cold he didn’t let it show on his face. His skin, goose pimpled, might have given it away, but if Xanatos was master of anything, he was master of himself. Not that he was especially fond of the silence, their footsteps echoing eerily back at him. “Are you from Scandinavia then? In your Dreams, I mean.”
She squinted, tilting her head and looking more closely at him. “Ah, yes I believe we have!”
That was a mystery solved, at least.
Elsa could have worn heels and been fine running and jumping all over the ice, but she’d come to save those for special occasions. “A nation called Arendelle. A small kingdom on the coast of Norway. So, yes. My family here originated in Norway, but I’ve never taken the opportunity to visit.” She was going to take Anna though, that was a promise she meant to keep.
At least, they arrived in the chamber of memories. Elsa had already blocked off whole sections; anything that might show Anna’s memories in particular, in order to preserve her sister’s privacy despite her own curiosity. Some of her own, as well.
But many remained; conversations in Arendelle, the building of her ice palace, the trip up to the Forest. And memories of this life as well, though when she spied one of her with Rapunzel she quickly made it go away before her guest could notice.
“I’m curious if Ahtohollan will show you anything. It didn’t just show me my own, it showed me events from before I was born. But you won’t be able to go too deep. If I froze, you will too, and sooner than I did. Lucky for you I’ve walled that area off.”
“It’s a beautiful country. You really should visit if you ever get the chance.” Xanatos had gone in his twenties, chasing a rumour of some of Odin’s artifacts, though he’d never found them.
Xanatos couldn’t help but stare in silent wonder as the memories rose up around them, figures of snow and sound. They weren't his own memories - he recognized some none of the people, except for some that seemed to be shaped as what he imagined Elsa to look like as a child - and he gazed around the chamber, up to the dome, looking for any artifact that might be causing the phenomena, stepping deeper into the dome as he looked around.
Hos gaze was drawn sharply back to the figures around him as one started singing, a voice he recognized but couldn't quite place, until caught sight of the figure - his mother - stroking the hair of a young boy who was clutching a homemade stuffed animal, as he laid in bed, singing an old, forgotten lullaby. Xanatos went very still, and then stepped closer to it, reaching out as if to touch his mother’s hair, stopping just shy of making contact, as if touching the figure might make it collapse into a pile of snow.
“Sorry David, we can’t afford it,” his father said from behind him, and he scowled, the small Xanatos in the memory frowning as he put down the Optimus Prime figure. He was holding his mother’s hand, as she lay gaunt in her bed, his dad standing behind him, the doctor saying “your insurance claim has been denied; I’m sorry, there’s nothing more we can do.”
David scowled. He hadn’t wanted to see his own memories - he already knew what his past contained, and he didn’t know why he’d let himself be led here. There was nothing here but the ghosts of the past - ghosts that Xanatos had spent years carefully exorcising from his mind until he never thought of them anymore.
He turned on his heel, prepared to stalk out the way he came, when another voice caught his attention. It was his own, as it was now, though he didn’t recognize the conversation.
“In the year 2000, please deliver this coin to a young David Xanatos,” he was saying, and Xanatos turned, laying eyes on himself handing a package off to another man, both of them dressed in Medieval dress. The man Xanatos was handing the package too was sitting on a horse, nodding, a pin depicting a triangle and an eye pinned to his tunic. “And then, in the year 2020, I would like this letter delivered to him.”
Xanatos smiled, stepping closer, until the scene dissolved before his eyes, and he walked back to Elsa. “Thank you,” Xanatos said, taking one last look at the scene behind him. His mother was still singing to him in his bed, and his eyes lingered there for a moment longer before he forced himself to turn away. “It’s exactly as you described it.”
Elsa had tried not to eavesdrop, focusing her attention on a memory from her dreams, her and another woman sitting at a campfire singing together. So she jumped a little when Xanatos addressed her.
“I hope it was nothing too hard, though I’ve discovered that it can be a little bit healing when one needs it.” She did notice his mother, but thought he probably didn’t want to talk about it.
She was sure there were memories of the plane crash that killed her parents here, and memories of her parents drowning in her dreams. Elsa hadn’t seen those yet, and she hoped she never would.
“It was certainly illuminating,” Xanatos said, his lip curling, smiling at his own private joke. Quite unexpectedly, his teeth chattered, and he clamped them shut, his smile turning into a small scowl at his own lack of self-control. He waited until he was sure that his body wouldn’t betray him again before he allowed himself to speak.
“I’ll admit that it wasn’t what I was hoping to find when I first heard of the glacier, but I still must thank you for allowing me entry. If you ever need for anything, please, don’t hesitate to ask. I’m in your debt in more ways than one.”