“I didn’t want her to forget my magic, but somehow in interfering with your spell, I must have messed up everything,” she said, getting choked up. “I lost my sister and my powers in the process.”
“It was a grave mistake,” he agreed.
“I didn’t learn I still had powers until a few years ago. They suddenly reappeared when my parents died,” Elsa added. The memory was still so painful that it hurt to talk about.
“We were all sorry to hear of your parents’ passing,” Grand Pabbie said, and the trolls around him nodded.
“Thank you. Life without them has been difficult,” Elsa admitted. “Learning I have a sister has given me hope again.” Tears sprang to her eyes. “Now I can think of nothing else but finding her. Can you help me?”
“Elsa, I feel your pain, but you must listen to me,” Grand Pabbie said, and a hush fell over the other trolls. “You cannot try to find her.”
Elsa pulled her hands away. “Why not?”
“The curse that has kept you apart is something even I cannot fully understand,” he explained. “If you remember Anna, then that magic is starting to fade, but until this curse holding you both is broken, you cannot intervene.”
Curse? Intervene? All she wanted was to see her sister. “I don’t understand.” Elsa started to cry in earnest. “How are we cursed? You truly won’t help me find her? Anna is the only family I have left.”
Grand Pabbie sighed deeply. “It’s not that I won’t. I can’t. You just need to hold on a little while longer.”
“Hold on? We’ve been separated for years!” She was sobbing now. “Anna is all I have left. Why would you use magic to keep us apart?”
“You have been through so much, child, I know. What is the last thing you remember?” he asked.
“The last thing I saw in my vision was me reaching out to stop you from erasing Anna’s memories.” Elsa looked at him. “I feared my magic had killed her, but then I found a letter from my parents that explained Anna was alive. But…I had to leave before I could find out where she was and why we were separated.”
He held out his hands again. “Perhaps I can fill in the rest.” He touched his forehead, then swept his hand into the air. A bluish-white line of stars followed his fingers, sweeping into the sky, where an image from the past appeared that both Elsa and the trolls could see. Elsa recognized the image immediately: it showed her parents, and Anna, and herself, on the night she accidentally struck her sister with her magic.
The memory replayed the vision she had seen on her coronation day, and once again she saw her much younger self reach out to keep Grand Pabbie from erasing Anna’s memories. Grand Pabbie and her mother tried to stop her, but they had been too late. Once her hand connected with the troll’s, there was an explosion of blue light. That was where Elsa’s memory had ended, but Grand Pabbie’s vision kept going.
Elsa watched as her younger self and Grand Pabbie were thrown backward. Trolls ran for cover as Papa shielded Mama and Anna. When the dust cleared, she saw her younger self unconscious on the ground. Mama gently put Anna down and ran to Elsa’s side.
“What happened to my daughter?” Papa rushed over. The image was almost too much to bear.
“My powers connected with Elsa’s.” Grand Pabbie was out of breath. “I believe it changed the magic somehow.”
“What does that mean?” Papa asked.
To Elsa’s horror, while they spoke, Anna slowly began to freeze from the tips of her shoes up to her legs. In seconds, ice would overtake Anna’s whole body.
Grand Pabbie turned around just in time. “Your Majesty, grab Elsa!” he called to the king. “Run to higher ground! Quickly!”
Papa scooped up Elsa in his arms and ran up the stone steps to the entrance of the valley. When Mama saw Anna’s small body slowly turning to ice she ran for her, but could do nothing to stop it. Neither could Grand Pabbie. Elsa felt her heart beat wildly as she watched the scene. It was pandemonium. Even some of the trolls were crying out and frightened. But as the distance between Anna’s and Elsa’s bodies increased, the ice on Anna began to melt. Mama picked Anna up and held her close, crying softly in relief.
“What just happened to Anna?” Mama cried. “I don’t understand. I thought you