Frozen 3

Chapter 70

Kristoff

"Did you kill him?"

"No. I do not kill anyone."

"Did you put him to sleep?"

"You can say that."

"How did you do that?"

Anna kept asking questions to the old woman who had led us to her tent. It was one of the last that was still standing, and yet the interior gave the impression that a hurricane had passed by. It was all over the place. More unlikely objects than each other were scattered on the ground and we still managed to hold six inside. Silja had laid Ryder on what seemed to be her bed and was preparing a strange plant-based porridge that she crushed with a stone in a polished wooden container. When it seemed smooth enough, she applied it to the places where the young man had been beaten. The latter grimaced in pain every time she laid her hand on him. I glanced at Honeymaren. She was prostrate at the back of the tent, her arms wrapped around her legs. I sat down beside her. We remained silent for a moment, observing the gestures of the old woman.

"Is everything all right?" I finally asked.

She nodded.

«Seeing your face, that's not what I would have said», I teased her nicely.

A tear fell on the young woman's cheek.

"Hey... What's going on? I worried.

"Everybody knows. I don't know how, but everybody knows," she said.

"Aware of what?"

"What happened between Ryder and..."

She stopped and looked at me in despair.

"And Elsa?" I finish.

Honeymaren answered nothing. We stood beside each other, not daring to look at each other.

"Are you mad at them?"

"Of course! How can you not?"

"Ryder remains your brother..."

"Precisely! It is even worse.... It is because he is my brother that I resent him. He should never have done that."

"Put yourself in her shoes..."

"I would never have done that! Never! I know where the limits are to not exceed, unlike him!"

I sighed, saddened to see these twins torn apart.

"You know, I didn't have a brother or sister and I missed it. I would have loved to have a fusion relationship with someone like the one you had with Ryder just a few weeks ago. I tried to fill this void with Sven but I only do monologues in reality. We've been through a lot of things together, but he's still an animal and I'm still a human. It's an impossible boundary. "

"It's up to you to see if there really is a border or not," suggested Honeymaren.

I looked at her, astonished at her answer.

"Anyway, you're twins," I said. Like it or not, you will always be connected to each other and this reality will catch up with you much faster than you think. I know it's hard, but...you should make up. "

"It is up to him to take the first step.

"What about Elsa? What are you going to do with her?"

"I don't know..."

"Do you think you can forgive him?"

"I don't know— On the one hand, I want to, but on the other, I can't help but think about what happened and tell myself that she's just as responsible as Ryder in this story. And...she's getting weirder and weirder. I don't recognize her—

"Bizarre? "

"Yes. She always reacts much more violently than before and her emotions seem tenfold. She scares me sometimes...

"Have you tried talking to her?"

"Not really. We're not very open to dialogue right now—

"When was the last time you spoke to him?"

"The day after the disappearance of the spirit of water. "

"What then?"

"She was... weird. I could see she was not well so I asked her a few questions but she never answered them. At least not honestly.

"What did she have?"

"She was crying when I arrived and she seemed to have some pain..."

The young woman's flow of words had slowed as her sentence progressed. She seemed to think as she spoke and frowned more and more.

"Honeymaren?"

"I... I shouldn't tell you all this..."

She got up and joined Silja who had just finished applying her homemade ointment on Ryder.

"Why is it said that spirits are all connected to the fifth?" she asked.

"Who told you that?" said the old woman, suspiciously.

"I... Uh... I read it."

Without a word, Silja went to rest the container she was holding on a small wooden shelf already loaded with trinkets, grabbed a tambouret that had been overturned and left as is on the ground, put it back on her feet and sat on it. With eyes closed and hands on her knees, she seemed ready to reveal something important that we should not miss. And yet, while we were hanging from his lips, it was only a snoring coming out of his mouth. Anna, Honeymaren and I looked at each other, surprised.

"I think she fell asleep... whispered Anna, holding back her laugh.

"It's impossible, how..."

The old woman suddenly raised her head, opened her eyes and said in a panicked voice:

"Spirits disappear from this world when the fifth no longer provides continuity between the human universe and theirs.

"What does that mean?" said Anna.

"The fifth spirit being supposed to be a bridge between Men and the elements, it must live in harmony with both worlds, continued Silja. If this harmony is broken on one side, it affects the other, and chaos spreads."

***

"I really hate to let Honeymaren sleep in the living room...

"Yes, so did I. But she was the one who proposed it and insisted that it be done that way. You know her, when she has an idea behind her head it is better not to go against her. And then, she could sleep with Ryder... " Anna remarked.

"She will not. It is too soon. "

"You... You knew what had happened?"

"Not really. But I think what we heard earlier suggests...."

The young woman was lying in front of me and seemed anxious.

"Elsa is not like that," she whispered.

"She changed, Anna, a lot..."

We had a moment, lost in our respective thoughts.

"Kristoff, have you ever wondered what happened to your parents? "

"I haven't considered them part of my family for a long time, you know. If they abandoned me, they didn't want me. "

"They didn't completely abandon you... They put you in someone's care to make sure you had everything you needed. "

"It's more about that person that I care about. I don't know what Aksel has become—

"Aksel? You never told me his name."

"I never considered him as my father but, in hindsight, I realize that he did a lot for me when he had not asked for anything. I left one day and I never thanked him for what he did for me. He can't even know I'm still alive..."

Anna put her hand on mine in a gesture of compassion.

"Oh, don't worry," said I, laughing, "trolls, you and Sven are my one and only family, and I'm very proud of that."