Full summary: Arendelle. The Great Thaw marked the beginning of a peaceful time for the rising mountain kingdom. With an alliance underway and a stable relationship with neighboring lands, things were pretty great for the monarchs and their people. But the disappearance of one of the kingdom's trustiest leaders, Captain Rossing, leaves many questions behind. It's not at simple as it seems; royal secrets spill and ancient enemies rise whose sole intent is to destroy the kingdom. There's more to being a Snow Queen than Elsa was aware of, and it involves great danger.


"There is no darkness but ignorance."

William Shakespeare


CHAPTER 1

"Guess it's showoff time."

The pale blonde's steps on the crystal floor beneath her feet echoed as she approached the blinding light ahead. She looked back over her shoulder for one last time, as if to make sure she was finally alone, but deep down she knew that would never be possible. She gulped one time. Twice. And after a third she pulled herself together and walked up the stairs.

She had to cover her vision yet again. Those ocean blue eyes couldn't do it for themselves. The undying sunlight from outside hit the high pyramidal ceiling with the strength of a thousand race horses, for it to be then reflected onto the three thrones. Hers was the first, marked with an elegant snowflake the size of a plate on the top. As it was born of cold and winter air…

"No," she muttered to herself, closing her eyes. "That's not it."

Tripping over her own thoughts, she found herself in doubt yet again. Then it felt like a slap on the face; only that because of her insensitivity to external pain she opened her eyes again without uttering a sound, and her expression returned to the usual neutral, hiding an entire war inside. It was a mask she found herself to be an expert wearing. She put it on every time she had to play sane; these were most times, unfortunately. People liked it that way and wouldn't tolerate otherwise.

She shivered, similar to a damsel dressed in a summer dress in the middle of one of those especially devastating winter winds. She sat on the throne, slowly letting her arms loose on both sides. She breathed in, breathed out. And then it was done. It couldn't be undone. The memorized words eagerly came out of her mouth as if they had their own mind before she could even reason.

"Ih vasaat lit sid, xalfetekam."

And the pain began.

Shooting up her limbs, stiffening her muscles; she remained as still as a rock, but not as senseless. She did have senses. She just tried to ignore them most times. And so it quickly left her gritting her teeth, yet still unspoken.

But then it became worse. With the pain creeping up her vertebrae, she bit back a grunt. And from the spine, the so beloved base of every human's form, it grew into her ribs, making bone after bone ache. This particularly maddening hurt left her gasping against the seat, closing her eyes shut and tightening her hands' grasp to the armrests. But she knew the worse was yet to come, and the sole thought made her eyebrows frown in discomfort.

It soon stabbed her chest, and she thrashed in unexplainable pain. Tapping the armrests with her hands clasped in fists, she howled, shrinking back in the throne, reducing herself to nothing more than a struggling hunched figure in the middle of a forgotten monument.

But she knew she was born of cold and winter air, and mountain rain combining. But they had left her, they hadn't deemed her worthy; she wasn't good enough to hold that place. But why? Why? Hadn't she got the skill and body to keep up with them?

Something told her she was missing the soul. And faster than she would have preferred the thought dissipated and she was left with despair.

Her whole body fell to the floor with a thud after failing to support herself. The pale blonde with ocean blue eyes managed to get on her knees, only for her head to descend back and her jaw tighten as she coughed, and coughed, as if her lungs were to get out of her body, but instead it was only blood what came out. Only blood. And dripping down her chin, it stained the crystal floor, and the sun above made her hair look the color of a sunflower.

Then she blinked, and heard the shattering of glass. Seconds after, that swordstaff was lying on the floor just in front of her face. A blade made out of solid blue glass; its heavily ornamented figure was formed with elegant, sharp spikes in different directions resembling the shape of an S, glittering like magical snow in a tranquil night.

So then the pain subsided, little by little, and her trembling hand approached the ancient weapon.

"I… did it."

And she held the blade close.

Born of cold…

"I'm not. I am not," she said with a shaky breath, flexing her legs and closing her eyes. "I'm the First Guardian now."

Maybe she wasn't beautiful, powerful, dangerous, or cold.

But she was the First Guardian.

A killing machine.

/ / /

"Anna!"

Her head shot upward, making its way through the thick covers. Something was wrong. Something was seriously wrong. How come she was being woken up?

"I'm up, I'm up, I'm going, Ger—Wait, what?" After rubbing her eyes, that blurry figure in front of her slowly took the shape of her regal sister regally dressed leaning against her bedroom's wall with her arms crossed. And a few moments after, her vision regained its full potential and noticed that glare—that loved and killed at the same time—which seemed far too familiar.

"Anna." Her sister got closer to the bed and put a hand on her shoulder with an unamused look. "You have to get up." Luckily, the voice stayed soft, and full of love, as always.

"I'm forgetting something, am I?" the redhead said as she put a hand under her chin, trying to think. Before she could realize it, her eyes closed yet again. But a hand on her cheek made her regain consciousness immediately. Something was up. Something was… seriously up? Whatever. She was lost; she got lost in so many dreams and nightmares with reindeers and yellow fluffy ducks. The nightmares with ducks were definitely the scariest, because it was so weird to see tiny cute ducks with terrible demon wings and…

"Anna."

This time it wasn't so soft.

"Oh, Elsa, of course! The alliance!" she spat after noticing her sister's special attire. By special, it meant she wasn't wearing predominantly any shade of blue, of course. That one day her dress was dark green with little details in light blue across the front. She also had one of those majestic purple capes she seemed to adore so much. "Sorry! I'm so sorry! Totally forgot about it. I'm gonna get dressed in a pinch. Don't worry," she said with a nervous smile as she tried to remove her sleepy limbs from under the bedsheets. Maybe her sister realized what a hard time she was having performing such a simple activity, because she giggled and nudged her gently.

"Actually, the alliance is tomorrow, so I pretty much know you didn't pay attention to what I told you," her sister said with that annoying teasing tone as she got up from the edge of the bed and approached the door handle. "Get dressed nicely, Anna. I'll tell you everyone's names for you to memorize at breakfast. See you later!" And she disappeared in a purple blur.

Breakfast?

She eyed the wooden tall clock.

Seven and a half in the morning.

"What a stinker!"

"I heard that! I know I am."

Oh, how badly she had missed those times of aggressive-passive sisterly bond.

/ / /

Things were fairly great in Arendelle, Anna liked to think. She also had liked to think she was great at chess, thanks to her hours of playing with paintings—which sadly didn't have a mind of their own, so she had to challenge herself with new ways of defeating herself—but once the Queen found time to play a match, the princess' will and self-esteem was broken in half. Little did she know Princess Elsa was also a lone player. She still considered a mistake to have played shortly after the Great Thaw, when things were still a bit shaky, because Elsa destroyed her at that game and soon started to feel guilty. Yeah, that was a mistake.

But apart from that? Economy was great. Probably. Why would they make an alliance with Arendelle, then? To be honest with herself, Anna didn't think she was an adept economist, even though Elsa did everything in her power to teach her the ways of the bald, short old men. Also known as accountants. Luckily, she met three or four times a week with Kristoff and Sven to distract herself from princess-ly duties and bald, short old men. Olaf also got in the way. He always changed the topic to summer, though.

But she never got enough of her dear sister. Be it snow fights, garden walks, kingdom sightseeing or book discussions—they loved to do those in cold nights—Anna enjoyed every single moment she spent with her favorite platinum haired relative. Those days of solitude, of striding around the halls with no one other than armor sets; they seemed distant already, but still present in her memories, like an unwanted nightmare.

Sometimes she walked past those aisles and stopped for a moment there; visualizing that red-haired, two-braided girl helplessly waiting for an answer behind a white wooden door. And she stared, and stared, at the nothingness itself, for five, for ten seconds even; but after a moment she would shake her head and wave goodbye to that tiny figure. Then she'd approach Elsa and talk about little animals, and how beautiful winter was.

/ / /

"Why did you wake me up so early?" the redhead princess asked as she sat down, putting a hand under her chin to support her head, fighting for her eyes to stay open as she yawned ungraciously.

Breakfast was minutes away. The table was already equipped with empty, shining white plates, and the smell of the delicious melted chocolate sauce was already driving her crazy. You could've said it was the very only thing keeping her awake at such an untimely moment. It was better for those cooks to hurry up, because her consciousness wouldn't last for long.

Her sister remained unshaken towards her goofy behavior, but Anna could've sworn she saw a tiny smile behind that fake serious expression. "It was a necessary evil. Today, the Prince, King and authorities of the kingdom of Ewigglanz will be coming as representatives to form a commercial alliance with Arendelle. Tomorrow, though, will be the official ceremony in the Gardens."

"The kingdom of Evig… what?"

"Ewigglanz, Anna. It's German, and I predict you'll have to practice to get it right." And she stared at the table with a thoughtful gaze, and suddenly all that anticipation made more sense for Anna.

"So, basically, these are the guys that are going to supplant the Weaseltown thugs, right?"

The maids gave her a nervous look, but she didn't care. What else than thugs would they be called? Weasels? Cute looking mammals? That duke didn't give her a good first impression the first time they met, that time she had to share a dance with him because of her sister's strange inability to move her feet accordingly to the rhythm of music. At first Anna had thought he was just a little weird man trying to achieve trust and moneys, but things escalated really quickly and from the moment he called her sister a monster and insults alike she wouldn't be able to think about him without a flame of anger building up inside of her.

"You could say they are," Elsa said. "We are in need of another solid trade partner, and the Ewigers are the perfect match. Safe and quick maritime travel through the North Sea; resources arriving in less than a month. Just what Arendelle needed," she said with a satisfied wink as she approached a cup of hot chocolate from a metallic tray the cooks had just left on the table. Grabbing it with her left hand, as always Anna happened to notice, she added before sipping: "They've got great chocolate, too."

"I'm in, then!" the princess exclaimed, and they both giggled. "So what did you want me to memorize?"

"Oh." And the queen's expression blanked a little as she searched on an adjacent table. "Here it is. The dignitaries' names and some information; only the ones we are going to address at the first meeting," and Anna received a rolled piece of paper from her sister's warmed hands. She was the only human being Anna knew to date to drink hot chocolate in the middle of a pleasurable summer.

She unrolled the strange parchment and her jaw dropped.

"I wrote them down for you."

/ / /

"Elsa, this is a lot of people!" Anna couldn't take it. These weird names in German, one after another written with perfect calligraphy, of presumably old bald men… How was she going to learn them? She wasn't! Okay, maybe she needed to. She was awkward enough in her simple talk; add forgetting names to the mix and she would be dubbed the hollowest princess of Europe. "When are they coming?"

"In a couple of hours. I'm sorry; I should've given them to you yesterday, because I received it yesterday morning from the advisors. I was a bit too caught up with the meetings…" And her expression was out of sudden filled with that guilt Anna knew too well.

"Oh, Elsa. Worry not. I have great memory."

"You do?"

Did she?

Anna smiled nervously, but nodded vigorously.

/ / /

"Gosh — How do they even manage to say this thing?" she said with her mouth full of chocolate pancakes as she pointed to a name in the list.

"That's… Ulz Berchtwald," her sister pronounced as she sat beside her. "Their minister of economy."

"How do you even know German?"

"I saw some when I was little, but I've since forgotten," Elsa explained, clasping her hands. "The pronunciation got imprinted onto my soul, though."

That last hour had been tough. Gulping down pancakes as she simultaneously read names and processed information wasn't being an easy task, but she had already gotten most of them nailed. Had she? She wasn't sure, to be frank, but she was born ready. She was even born ready to jump off a cliff and dive feetfirst into the snow. But it was her first meeting with dignitaries from overseas; most times she had accompanied the queen in navy update meetings—yes, those were a thing—or heard a thing or two from the Army General, but that was about it. Whatever, she liked to think; it wasn't going to be that hard, right?

"I think I got 'em," she announced after a couple of minutes, grabbing that last piece of pancake and stuffing it into her mouth. "Wasn't that hard. Definitely." Then she patted her sister's stiff back and smiled reassuringly.

Wait.

Stiff back?

"Are you okay, Elsa?" Anna made sure to ask, her voice failing in hiding her concern.

The queen seemed to jump at the comment, apparently correcting her blank expression and regaining the regal look she had managed to develop. "Just a bit nervous," she said, the words coming fast out of her mouth. "Nothing else." And she replied with that same reassuring smile Anna had given her earlier, only that the redhead knew it was fake, but no one else. One of the few, if not the only feature she disliked with passion about her sister. An ability she had mastered, useful for those meetings with old bald men; but completely distasteful for a chat with your little sister.

"You're gonna do great, Elsa! Believe my sixth-sense-sister-senses. They never, ever, fail, and if they do, it's because I couldn't express them the right way." What was she saying? She didn't know herself, but she knew Elsa liked to listen to her ramble irrationally because she found it funny.

Elsa nodded briefly and grabbed the hot chocolate cup. To warm her hands, maybe? On a summer day? It was something that only anxious snow queens do. Or maybe only Elsa. "I know. The nerves get to me a little. You know me, after all." And she lowered her head just a bit, staring at something, but Anna couldn't figure out what. Her heart ached a little every time that happened; every time Elsa's saw beyond what she could see. Or maybe just lost focus. She tried not to be very dramatic.

"I know more about you than you do yourself, Elsa." Anna put a hand on her shoulder, looking at her with love, a cure she knew always healed. Elsa replied wordlessly after blinking a couple of times and smiled to her with even more love, a simple and pure gesture that always meant 'thank you'; but seconds after something seemed to snap and provoked a raised eyebrow in her sister's face.

"Whoa. Hang on, there. What do you think you are?" The redhead exhaled silently, because her sister's stinker side was at it again, which was definitely a good sign. "Did you know that I love being bossy?" she said with a smirk as she stood up.

"Well… It's pretty notorious, I'd say," Anna replied as she stood up with her. "But did you know that you snore pretty heavily?"

This was it. The perfect comeback! Would Anna be able to win the daily teasing battle, just once?

"Huh? What about it? What for it?"

But her sister didn't even stutter.

"Actually, I did know," the queen of wolfish smirks said as she exited the room.

Oh, man. How ready she was for this parade of old bald men.

/ / /

"General Hensarme," her sister acknowledged in front of her.

Oh. The aisles they were transiting were crowded; there were twice the amount of servants than most days, the guards walked from here to there all the time—what the hell were they doing in the first place?—and Anna was constantly able to catch a glimpse of many familiar faces. They were then ahead of Alexander Hensarme: a tall and thirty-something man who sported dark brown hair wearing Arendellian colors on his suit and military hat. He always looked dead on the inside and outside, though. The wrinkles and tired eyes came a lot sooner than they should have for him. Poor man. Maybe he couldn't sleep at night, Anna used to think.

"Your Majesty, your Highness," he greeted with a respectful bow and a firm voice. "It is with satisfaction that I meet you both here. May I ask you whether you are heading for the reunion to be held with Admiral Myklebust and Captain Rossing?"

"We are, precisely," Elsa answered with a nod. "We will arrive there in just a few minutes."

Anna knew Myklebust and Rossing pretty well; at least she had them nailed by sight. The leaders of Arendelle's Navy and Guard Force, respectively; they didn't look nearly as half as dead as Hensarme did, fortunately, even though they were decades older. Her first memories of them go back as far as her father's reign, seeing them go around in the halls, while she waited for a door to be opened. The oldest, Osvald Rossing, was the one Anna remembered to be especially kind to her. One time, he gifted the princess with one of those tall and heavy guard hats. It didn't end well, of course, because the little redhead couldn't keep herself from putting it onto her head and screaming orders at everyone, but Anna kept the memory close to her heart.

"Fantastic. I will see you there." And with another bow, the man walked past them and dissipated into the crowd as fast as he had appeared.

"Wasn't this a commercial alliance?" Anna asked as they walked. Fortunately, they didn't need to avoid anyone; the people made way for them. Or more like for Elsa, who everyone seemed to adore and fear at the same time, a strange combination to happen. "Why are Myklebust and Rossing there if we will just discuss money?"

"Every authority will be present," the queen explained, placing her hands behind her back. "And, you know, I just hope I don't get too angry or anything, because the temperature drops are…" she looked at her hands with a sarcastic smile, "…Noticeable."

"So that's why you were nervous."

Elsa gave her that one look. Yes, the 'you-caught-me' one. Then she looked away for a second, and Anna could predict her face reddened. "I just don't want to mess up, that's all." And then a nervous giggle. They were rare in Elsa's habits. But every time that happened, it reminded her of Olaf.

"I get it, sis. Just relax."

"I am perfectly relaxed."

"Great."

"It sure is great."

"Let's go already," Anna said as she grabbed her hand with excitement radiating from her face. "They're gonna say we're un-punc-tu-al!"

/ / /

Some footsteps caused her eyes to flutter open in restless attention. She couldn't afford to lose the weapon at this point, no; not because she was sprawled down breathing heavily in a puddle of her own coughed blood. But her heart calmed down and her heartbeat slowed as she saw that short, hooded figure approach her, not without a heavy limp on her right leg that reminded the pale woman of just how much that child had lost. It looked almost painful, even, how her right arm remained uncomfortably motionless in the act of running; in those moments she wanted to look away and forget everything that happened for good.

"Hey! A-Are you okay, Laure?" the child said, now kneeling beside her.

The blonde looked up and saw those eyes again. "I'm okay… yes. Long time no see," she muttered after a sigh of relief. "You shouldn't have run."

"What… What happened to you?" The child seemed to choose to play deaf. She eyed the blood, her furrowed brow and startled eyes displaying her uneasiness, and put a hand over the blonde's shoulder, but little it did to reduce the pain the woman was going through.

"The Pact of Blood was a bit rough on me," she explained, her voice coming out like weak squeaks when she attempted to use it on a louder tone. "But… I'm okay. I'm feeling better already."

"At least—At least let me help you sit up, okay?" the girl said as she held the woman's shoulders and gently raised them up, until the blonde's back was straight against the throne's legs. The woman breathed heavily, almost panting, and after seconds of thoughtful doubt, she finally let her head fall onto the child's side, breathing in and breathing out, finally with ease, but never letting go of the ornamented blade she was holding dearly on her left hand. It was too costly, to ever get her fingers off of it.

"Thank you," the blonde said, closing her eyes yet again. "My muscles appreciate your help," she added in a whisper.

"I'm so sorry you had to go through this," the girl said, keeping an arm below the blonde. "You must be—You must be in so much pain," she said, and her voice sounded as if it paled out of sudden. "Can I—Can I help you?"

"Don't worry about me," the woman said softly. "Worry about yourself. I told you, you mustn't run."

"But Laure, I saw you there in the middle of a puddle of—"

"I'm the one who should be holding you right now," she cut off, her tongue as sharp as a knife, and her sea blue eyes adopting the looks of a frozen ocean. The child's voice halted to a stop as if it had never existed in the first place, and the woman gulped with guilt shooting through her chest, but managed to keep on a serious expression. "You're limping even more, Auguste," she added, paying close attention to her voice's tone, making sure it sounded as delicate and soft as possible after such a snarly remark.

"Am I?"

"Yes, you are." The woman slowly straightened her back further with her teeth clenched, in order to gingerly lower the child's hood, revealing light brown hair, and take a look at that gruesome injury covered with a headband. When she saw the tiny stains of blood still plaguing the cloth, she was reminded of that event all over again. That thud and that scream still roamed her worst nightmares; the seemingly endless sleep the child had fallen into. The awakening was bittersweet, though; she woke up in so much pain, only to try to stand up hours after and failing. It wasn't until a couple of days that the child was finally able to concatenate words to form actual sentences and the right side of her body started to respond a bit more.

"I'm—I'm okay. Really. Don't worry," the girl said, removing the elder's hand and raising her tunic's hood. "I didn't come all the way up here for you to play doctor with me," she added with a tiny smirk. "You—You rest, now."

The blonde shook her head with her brow furrowed. "There are things I must do." And grabbing the throne's armrests, she raised her body in order to stand up, supported against her will by the child's hands under her shoulders. This simple action left her panting for air, but after a few seconds of leaning onto her weapon with her back slouched, she managed to elevate her head and talk. "Let's catch my not-so-pale chosen twin for once, and end all of this nonsense."

And so the Second Guardian, that brain-damaged kid, and the First Guardian, that other pain-ridden woman, limped their way out of the crystal castle to hunt the Trinity.

/ / /

That was one big table.

What else could she be thinking about? Anna had never attended a meeting in that room. It was the International Meetings Room—her sister seemed to have a pretty low skill for choosing interesting names—and it was downright huge. With its beige walls with red-patterned high plinths and decorated with painting depicting beautiful works of art, Arendelle had nothing to envy to those larger kingdoms. Arendelle was fancier than all of them.

She was sitting right next to the Queen, whose posture Anna reminded herself to try to imitate at all times. Elsa was at the moment rummaging some papers in a box, apparently getting them ready for the big meeting to be held in mere hours, but it seemed like she wasn't finding the right ones, something Anna could tell from looking at her sister's especially cold expression. Some minutes after, though, she salvaged them from the sea of documents and put them on the table. The queen sighed in relief, and looked with an unreadable expression at the tall clock in the room. It was already late, Anna thought, wasn't it?

But their temporary silence was interrupted when the duo of men scurried through the door and bowed briefly.

"Your Majesty, Your Highness," Hensarme said, evidently out of breath, followed by Joakim Myklebust. "There is a… problem."

"What happened?" Elsa asked, her voice as indecipherable as her face.

"Captain Rossing is nowhere to be found."


Welcome to The Unshaken. This is a story I've been wanting to write forever, and, welp, it's finally here. Please point out any grammar mistake you find as I'm not a native speaker.

I have a couple of chapters already written and I will publish them when I manage to write some new ones. There'll be fantasy, adventure, and a lot of magical drama ;)

I hope you have fun!