A/N: I'm (known as vortexofdeduction on tumblr and ao3) and I'm translating JLAT's fic of the same title which can be found here: s/12415169/1/Untangling-the-Frozen-Knots
"I the undersigned, Queen Elsa of Arendelle, take into account the above contract and commit my kingdom to respect the writings during the entire duration of the agreement."
Elsa had written this sentence about twenty times, every day since the castle had reopened its doors and the summer had been restored– in other words, for almost a month. To sign administrative paperwork did not bother her, she even found it relaxing, but she began to get seriously tired of it.
She dropped onto the back of her chair and stretched her arms upward, then closed her eyes. It was only nine o'clock in the morning, and the young woman with platinum blonde hair was already exhausted. After spending almost all of the previous night discussing the new layout of the harbor with the council of the kingdom, she was empty of energy and allowed herself a short pause before resuming her work.
The fine morning rays pierced the window behind her and pleasantly heated her exposed neck. She smiled as she heard the shouts of distant voices from the alleys down below, which reverberated to the castle. She even thought she could see the merchants' trading posts through the other window in front of her, but the height prevented her from seeing lower than the surrounding wall. Her smile faded and she looked down at her desk, which was strewn with piles of papers, envelopes and letters. Her work plan made her nauseous, but she stamped the royal seal on the letter she had just finished. She could indeed have asked for help from a subordinate, or had an assistant, or even entrusted the task to the staff of the castle who was in charge of the mail so far. Nevertheless, she preferred it this way. She had almost always done everything alone, without the support of anyone, and from now on it was her duty as queen.
She put the envelope on the ridiculous little pile on her left, which was the finished one, and scrutinized the other stack: about ten times as many letters were waiting to be opened. Suppressing a sigh, she opened the next one and read it in silence, then dipped her pen in the inkwell and resumed writing. She knew she was doing this because it was her situation, and that her kingdom depended on the merchant contracts she signed, and this thought gave her the faith she needed to overcome the hours of work 'announced. She smiled softly and signed, then absentmindedly nibbled the silver tip of her pen as she reread.
"SURPRI-AAAAAH!" yelled a voice as she entered the room.
Elsa raised her head just in time to see a crimson mane collapse head first into eight centimeters of fresh snow.
"Anna?"
The aforementioned shook her arms out of the pile of snow trembling.
Elsa immediately replanted her pen in the inkwell and rushed to her rescue, trotting lightly on the bright white layer that covered the floor of the room.
"Oh Anna, I'm so sorry!" She helped her stand up.
"Sorry, I was so focused I wasn't paying attention!"
"I see that," smiled the younger one who looked around while shaking the snow off her dress.
The majority of the cabinet was under the snow, but it stopped just at the desk and the first books of the library.
"Hold on."
The queen gently waved her wrist in the air and then snapped her fingers. Immediately, all the snow disappeared, including the snow on Anna, and turned into purified flakes, which joined the decoration of the ice chandelier in the middle of the room.
"Here. Is it okay? You're not cold?" The eldest immediately saw her shivering.
"No, no, it's fine, "Anna lied, smiling, but the chattering of her teeth betrayed her.
Elsa chuckled at the intersection of embarrassment and tenderness, and embraced her sister tightly.
"Sorry, I did not think anyone would come in, it fell on its own while I was thinking," apologized the more beautiful blonde whose voice was stifled by Anna's dress.
"It does not matter," she said, returning her embrace. You're warming me up now!
It was actually half true, because despite the warmth of the hug, Elsa's body remained eternally cold.
Anna yawned loudly on her shoulder. Her elder sister then noticed that it was relatively early for her, given that she usually slept until ten or eleven. However, she was already dressed. The queen gently moved away and watched her tired face.
"Have you been up for a long time?"
"I could ask you the same question," Anna mumbled, rubbing her eyes.
Elsa smiled, shaking her head and affectionately squeezing Anna's shoulder. "Did you get up early to come and see me?"
The princess nodded, her red hair coming untied in the movement. "You don't want to go outside?"
She offered the younger sister the piles of paper that adorned the desk. "No, Anna, sorry, I'm overwhelmed by work right now." Elsa returned to her desk reluctantly, ready to plunge back into her reading.
"You've been saying this for a week," Anna sighed, but the remark sounded more dejected than she had intended, which caused her sister to raise her head.
"I'm really sorry, you know, it's just that we're late-August and these contracts need to be signed before," said the queen, pointing at one of the stacks, the very highest.
Anna lowered her eyes and sighed quietly - which, with her usual exuberance, was equal to a normal sigh. "I understand."
"You can ask Kristoff if he has free time," Elsa offered, heartbroken by her disappointment.
"He left two days ago to get ice cream with his team at the Western Plain,"Anna murmured, suppressing a nervous laugh.
"Oh, sorry, I had forgotten. Yes, it is true," she remembered, "he came to me to sign an agreement for the passage of the trolls bridge. It was two days ago already…"
"And Olaf left with him," Anna added, her voice broken.
Elsa raised her head again. Her younger sister looked away and stared at the stones of the fireplace. The blonde bit her lips and put her pen back in the inkwell.
"Anna…"
Elsa held her arm over the desk to catch Anna's hand. At the contact, the younger immediately emerged from her reverie and plunged her turquoise-colored eyes into the azure eyes of her sister.
"Anna, I'm really sorry. I didn't think that giving him that title would occupy him so much."
"He's not the one I'm worried about," confessed the princess, sitting down on one of the chairs in front of the desk. "It's you. Every time I come to see you, you're always overwhelmed."
Elsa sighed as she closed her eyes and leaned back into the chair, then rubbed the edge of her nose. "You're right ... I can't see the end, it's horrible."
The redhead giggled and put her elbows on her desk, showing an enormous smile. "It doesn't matter, I'll help you! With two, we'll go faster. And besides, I'm the only other person who has the right to sign the royal papers," she reminded with a proud pout.
Elsa giggled, raising an eyebrow. "That's very kind of you, but... you're a little awkward. I'm afraid it might be a bad idea.
"Just show me the papers to sort out," suggested her sister, ignoring her mockery.
The elder indicated the heap of letters that had not yet been read. "You can open the envelopes if you want. Do not take it badly, that's all I can offer you."
But Anna had already begun to take the first and tear open the opening.
"Wait," Elsa interrupted her. Take my paper cutter, it'll be better. You're gonna ruin them like that.
Anna took the letter-opener her elder held out to her and continued to unseal the envelope in silence. The queen took the opportunity to resume reading her contract but was distracted again about four seconds later by the all the noise that Anna was making.
Concentrating all the energy possible not to laugh when she raised her head, Elsa looked at her younger still struggling with the same envelope. "Need help?"
"No, no, I'm fine, it's just that... This knife is strange…"
"You're holding the blade upside down," Elsa remarked. "You have to turn it the other way."
"The engraving is not supposed to be on top?" Anna said with a frown.
"Yes, but this paper cutter was made to me and I'm left-handed," Elsa explained. She held out her arm and returned it to her hand.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Your dear Majesty Queen Elsa of Arendelle, I did not know that you had your office supplies customized," Anna mocked in a haughty tone.
"Don't be ridiculous," the elder sighed, though not without a smile. "I was given it."
"A gift? From whom?" asked her sister immediately.
One could read in her gaze that the thirst for gossip had replaced the joke. This did not escape Elsa, who chuckled imagining her sister's imminent disappointment.
"An old merchant to whose cart I repaired last week."
"Oh," Anna said, slumping her shoulders. But then she realized that this memory was familiar to her. "Wait ... It wasn't the cart we had…"
"Exploded at the end of our sled race? Yes, very likely."
The two sisters laughed loudly, and their laughter reverberated on the wooden walls, agreeing with the glow of the sun that embalmed the room.
A few minutes later, when Anna wiped her last tears and Elsa had to calm the cramps in her stomach, they decided to go back to work. Anna continued to open the envelopes one by one, more and more easily, and Elsa wrote, signed and stamped the contracts.
The hours passed and the sun's rays crossed the room as they finally reached the end of the stack. While Elsa sealed the last letter, Anna stretched and then checked that they had gone around the mail. Putting the piles on the desk, she noticed a very special envelope next to the blonde's right arm.
"What is it?" Asked Anna, surprised by the eccentricity of the letter.
All those she had hitherto outstretched to Elsa, and even all those she had never seen in her life, were adorned with a crocus, the family coat of arms, or the complex coats of arms of the neighboring countries. But that which Elsa kept near her was embellished with a symbol in the form of sun so simple and so peculiar that one would have first thought to be a drawing.
"Nothing important," Elsa hurriedly threw the envelope on the pile of papers to discard.
"You didn't even read it," remarked the redhead. "At least read the ex-"
"Anna!"
The younger had stretched out her hand to the letter, but Elsa, quicker, immediately put her on before she reached it. Their skins touched and Anna jumped as she felt her sister's frozen fingers.
There was an awkward silence and Anna pulled her hand away.
"Sorry."
"No it's my fault. I... I was planning to read it later, that's all."
In a new silence, Anna saw Elsa dismiss the mysterious envelope, but she knew well that neither of them had detached her attention.
"Elsa, what are you hiding?"
The queen raised her head in surprise. Why did Anna have the same tone as her mother once did, and why did she reassure and hurt her at the same time?
"You know what this letter is, is not it?" guessed the redhead in a soft voice.
Elsa looked painfully away.
"Your hands are frozen," Anna remarked. "And the temperature of the room is again as cold as when I arrived."
The queen opened her eyes, realizing that the stamp she was putting away was tinged with silver because of the ice that was forming there, and she tried to calm her emotions.
"You know what's in it, don't you?"
If it was because she heard her mother's voice calmly ask her what was wrong, or because she never wanted to hide anything from her sister, she could not tell, but she grinned and handed her the envelope. While Anna took it in her hand, the room temperature returned to normal and the thin layer of ice on the surfaces disappeared.
"I've been receiving this letter for three years," Elsa confessed in a broken voice. "I know what it is. An invitation for a festival that takes place every year during the last week of August. The festival of the Lanterns of Corona."
"For three years?" Repeated Anna, understanding what this implied.
Elsa was surprised to see that it was the point that she had noticed most. Given the situation, Anna's festive and excited air had given way to worry about her sister. This realization filled his eyes with a beginning of tears.
"Since the year when Mom and Dad died, yes."
She closed her eyelids so as not to cry not to know what state Anna was in.
"They were going into a kingdom off to the south, now that I remember," Anna murmured. "I imagine it was Corona…"
"Yes," said Elsa, opening her eyes. "They were invited to a wedding."
There was a silence, so Elsa preferred to say everything right away.
"If it is like last year, this letter is signed by the king and the queen in person, who invite us both to come and join them the evening of the release of the Lanterns." I think… Elsa took a deep breath, which allowed her to control her tears, and at the same time the cold that surrounded them. "I think they should be forgiven for the misfortune that has happened."
Anna understood what she was implying. It would be cruel to blame anyone for their parents' death at sea, but if they really had to point their fingers at a cause, their trip to Corona became so. Even though no one was responsible for the accident, Elsa had many times in her years of isolation blamed the mysterious people who had invited her father and mother that day.
She noticed that Anna was staring at the paper. After everything, despite the tension of the situation, she remained as curious as always.
"I'd rather have you read it," Elsa confessed, her voice weak.
Her younger sister nodded and opened the letter, realizing she had made the right decision. In any case, she would bet Elsa was right: the message would be exactly the same as the previous two years. Anna cleared her throat, held her sister's eyes to know when to start, and then began reading aloud.
"Dear Majesty Queen Elsa of Arendelle, Dear Princess Anna of Arendelle, we inform Your Highnesses that they are invited on the 30th and 31st August 1844 to the Festival of Lanterns of our Kingdom in honor of the Princess Rapunzel of Corona. You are also cordially invited to a private dinner with Her Majesty the King and Queen of Corona as well as Princess Rapunzel and Prince Eugene on August 31 at 7 pm"
Elsa took a deep breath, and Anna prepared to fold the paper. But the letter was not finished.
"Ah, there's a lower inscription," she remarked. "'Hoping to count you among us this year,' signed with the royal seal."
Anna gave a nervous cough to hide her emotion and she raised her head to her elder sister, who surprisingly did not seem disturbed by the letter nor particularly moved. The redhead also discerned that the temperature of the room had not changed a bit, and that Elsa's hands were quietly resting on her desk. Then Anna jumped as she realized Elsa was staring at her. "What is it?" Anna asked.
"Nothing, I was just thinking," the Queen replied calmly, and continued to gaze at her.
"Did I… have I said something that shouldn't have?" Anna blurted, searching for her mistake.
The blonde did not answer, keeping her azure iris locked on her face. Suddenly, she straightened up and got up from her chair. She walked slowly to the window and then stopped.
"Is everything okay?" The younger lady worried, twisted in her chair to try to see her expression, but Elsa had her back to Anna.
There was a long silence, during which Elsa reflected deeply. "Anna?"
"Yes?"
The queen turned round, and to her sister's great surprise, her face shone, and a smile appeared on her lips. "Would you like to stay at Corona?"
Anna's eyes widened and leapt from her chair. "You're joking, right?!" It was her turn to have his face smashed. The adrenaline had taken over and activated the natural excitement of the princess.
"Not at all," replied Elsa. "Listen, I've been thinking, and ... Every year I get this letter. Every year, they contact us especially to join them. So I tell myself that it can no longer be due to chance. Whether they want to be forgiven, or just talk to us, or just meet us, whatever. We have to go. Do you agree?"
"Do I agree?" repeated Anna with a mischievous smile. "Elsa, this is the first time I have the opportunity to travel outside Arendelle, and for a festival, and what's more with you! I would never miss such an opportunity."
Elsa smiled broadly.
"Thank you. I'm glad you accept. I thought of it, and, uh... I don't know if it's the right choice." She was fiddling with her hands while looking away, far from confident. "But given my need to redeem myself with the collaborating countries," she went on, "and also given our relation to the king and queen of Corona,"
Elsa did not have time to finish her sentence before her sister ran into her arms. The elder chuckled and responded to her embrace as Anna laid a secure hand against her back.
"Your reaction is normal, Elsa. It's a good decision," Anna assured her as she pulled back to show her confident smile.
"Then I must hurry to reply," she said, already returning to her desk. "Otherwise it will be too late for the invitation."
As she crossed over the carpet, Anna stood by the window, pensive, holding her chin. "Do not you think it strange, this private invitation, precisely?"
"What do you mean?" The blonde asked, turning around slightly.
"Well, normally, the royal family of each country receive an invitation, just like that, but then it looks like... Looks like we're entitled to preferential treatment. I mean... A dinner with the king and queen, anyway! Generally, it seems to me it's just a banquet, right?"
Elsa stopped dead, and turned to her completely. "You mean that...:"
"Yep," Anna said simply, nodding her head.
"So it would really be for that reason." Anna nodded as she shared the same thought. "We really have to go."
"Yes really." The younger girl saw her sister's worried look and continued: "I mean, obviously they want to see us specially, right?"
"Certainly, yes. But I am still a little anxious about it."
"Don't worry. Everything will be alright. And also, we'll have fun! It's a festival, after all!"
Elsa smiled nervously but stressed a bit at the thought. "So it's good? We'll go? Are you sure?"
"Certainly!" Exclaimed the redhead, radiant.
"Very well" said the queen in a clear tone, more to give confidence than to confirm their journey.
An angel passed, but the silence was interrupted by their bellies gurgling in unison.
"I'm going to get some food to celebrate," Anna laughed.
She immediately ran to the corridor at the speed of a tornado.
"Anna!"
The younger squatted on the threshold and turned, her face streaked with freckles still illuminated with joy.
"By the way... There's something I've never told you about the title of "Arendelle Ice Master and Deliverer" that I gave to Kristoff." Anna was surprised at the sudden change of subject. With an embarrassed air, Elsa crumpled her platinum blond braid. "It was not just for…"
"It was also to spend more time with me," said the princess, smiling.
Elsa was taken by surprise and her heart missed a beat.
"What ... How did you know?"
"I know you're making every effort in the world so we can spend time together again," Anna said. "I understand that it has been hard, lately, with all your hard work. But now we have the unique opportunity to spend two days together!"
The elder gave her a smile of relief, then Anna nodded and headed to the door.
"One week," the blonde said. Elsa would have liked to thank her for her support or say anything else, and preferred not to let her excitement overwhelm her emotions. But in the presence of such an outspoken sister, the temptation was irresistible.
"Wait... What?" Anna froze, though she heard perfectly.
"One week," Elsa repeated. "We're going to stay for a whole week. From Monday to Sunday. Not only for dinner, but also for all the events of the festival." She improvised every word, and was more and more excited at every thought, even if she strove to preserve the royal and reserved air that she always had.
"One week... A WHOLE WEEK? OVER THERE?" Anna cried, shaking and clenching her fists, wide-eyed. "SEVEN DAYS?"
The queen nodded with pleasure, and the red-haired girl burst into joy, then ran into the office, leaping, brushing the ice-luster with her agitated arms.
Elsa smirked slightly. The last time she had seen her so excited was during the coronation festival, but she had not been able to enjoy it, and it seemed to her far too long ago. It was time to tighten the bonds between them and unravel the knots.
"That's what it takes to see as many things as possible. This will be our first trip out of Arendelle," noted the elder, especially for herself.
"THIS WILL BE GREAT!" Shrieked her sister more beautifully, who had begun to dance.
"Well, it's time for you to go," Elsa cut in reluctantly, "I need to reply to this letter."
Anna finished her dance by suddenly hugging her sister, who nearly lost her balance but then returned the embrace with the same force. The princess drew back, her face still barred with a gigantic smile, and was about to cross the threshold of the door a second time.
"Say, you could have told me earlier that you knew, for Kristoff's title," Elsa whispered. "Even if I still do not understand how you knew."
The younger chuckled. "You've never been very good at giving names," Anna confessed, pulling her tongue out of the room.
Elsa wanted to reply, but the smile that was born on her lips in spite of herself betrayed her.
"I'll bring you some chocolates for when you're done," the princess said, running down the stairs. "Do you want white, black or milk?"
"All three," cried the queen in the frame. "And don't eat all of them!"
Anna's unique laugh resounded in the hall and reached Elsa, warming her heart like a thousand suns.
Elsa went back to her desk and opened a drawer from which she took out two blank letters. She first addressed the castle of Corona by responding positively to the invitation, then signed and deposited the wax seal of the kingdom. She then got up to the library and pulled out a gigantic manuscript, which she placed heavily on the table, then scrolled through the pages to the letter C.