Black Pawns

To Break the Curse

"If anything happens, you have to choose the child."

Elsa had told him that, had made him promise that to her, during her pregnancy with Wilhelm. She knew of the risks that came with childbirth, of the complications that may arise, and the lurking possibilities that they may had to choose to save just one. She had been more than willing to sacrifice her own life for the sake of their son's, had come to the acceptance that her death meant that their son would live.

It had frightened him so much then, though he had never once showed it to her. Georg, his fifth brother, had lost his wife during the birth of their child, and even then the boy had never took a taste of life as it had been born lifeless as well. It had broken the fifth Prince of the Southern Isles, grief weighted him down so much that he had never been the same ever again, had turned to drinking his pain away. None of the brothers had bothered to come and talk to him -who had decided on locking himself up in his own bedchamber, except for him, despite Lars' advise. He had tried to understand, to listen to one of the few men he had once looked up to, of his pain and his lament, of his blame to God for taking his wife and son even before he could live a life he always dreamt of.

Hans had become his only company, until he had to leave for Arendelle to marry Elsa.

He had thought that he had understood of his brother's pain then, had prepared himself into not turning the way he was should similar fate was to befallen him.

He was wrong.

Because now all he wanted was to rid of the burning pain within him, of the suffocation that he had to endure as he dragged his feet forward, his surrounding had turned back into tall trees and crunching dried leaves under his boots.

Now he truly understood what Georg had gone through, of his reasons of wanting nothing from life, of how difficult it was to even wake up each morning to a reality that had taken it's darkest turn on him.

Gentle hand pressed against his face had made him stop, and for one moment it had felt as if it was Elsa who had cupped his face, to coax him into turning his head to find her with a comforting smile on her face, telling him that it was all nothing but his own thoughts twisting his view due to exhaustion. But it was far too small to be her hand, and a tad too warm, but when he did turn and looked down, it was still her eyes that he saw, just on a face that he had seen from the portraits of his younger years.

Wilhelm.

Elsa was willing to sacrifice for the sake of their son, she was willing to fight and discover the truth herself just so she could keep the boy out of harm's way. If he was to give up now, if he was to succumb into the darkness, then everything she had worked hard for would go in vain because then he would abandon their son all by himself.

Wilhelm had lost his mother today, he couldn't have him losing his father as well.

Pressing a gentle kiss on top of his head, against the auburn locks that had grown much thicker than any child's hair thanks to his mother's genes, he had let the boy wrap his arms around his neck, feeling him burying his face against the crook of his neck.

"Papa will protect you, Wilhelm," he promised as he held the child closer, letting out a small sigh as he pushed himself forward once again. "Papa will do anything in his power," no matter how lacking it was compared to the one that his wife possessed, "to give you the life that you deserve."

There was another problem too.

The mist still stood, the curse unbroken, and none of them could leave the forest. What they were supposed to do now? The people of Arendelle were waiting for their return, for them to restore their kingdom into what it once was, yet they were just as trapped as the Northuldra and the Arendellian guards now.