Diamond in the Dust
Chapter One: There's a Storm Coming, Your Majesty
The streets, the houses, the air of Arendelle itself was alight in activity. Positive energy emanated in waves outward from the heart of the festivities and soaked through thick brick walls down to the interior where the chambermaid set the long table, humming an old tune softly to herself.
Though she at the moment had the expansive room to herself to do her work there wasn't a second that passed that she didn't sense the hustle of those around her: floors were being swept, silvers were being wiped, passports were checked, the kitchen was ignited with chefs tasting dishes, tasting wines, tasting liquors, tasting champagnes and then tasting the liquors again for good measure.
even in the weeks and days leading up to the crowning of their newest monarch the spirit was somehow...different among the citizens of Arendelle, in a way that quite simply hadn't been felt in years, the same as if they had all been awoken from a deep, long slumber. And now that the ceremony was less than a day away that inner jubilance finally broke through the surface with flourish and vigor, yielding singing, cheering, dancing and music of all sorts conglomerating into a singular, triumphant note called joy.
She and her husband, she reflected, were mere newlyweds when they last walked together by the castle gates swung wide open; now they had a son together who, in his eleven years, has never known a world in which they were open, or why exactly it was a big deal, but nonetheless was all too happy to jump in on all the treats and fun that opened a lane for him. She imagined herself a tourist in a foreign land, and how she would respond when asked where she was from. When before, she would tell them she was from Arendelle because it just happened to be the most simple answer, today, she could tell them as such because she was proud to be from Arendelle.
Letting out a satisfied breath, she stepped back and examined the spread before her, appreciating each bit of flourish and shimmer she spared it. It was a somewhat underappreciated and time-consuming art to setting a good table only exacerbated by her perfectionism and attention to detail, but she figured it was worth the extra hour of effort to ensure the centerpiece in the main dinner hall would feel a little extra special. Mentally preparing herself to repeat her success for the next dozen or so rooms and halls, she gathered her things and turned around with a youthful skip in her step only for her view to be filled entirely by a strange man staring back at her.
"AHHH!" The maid shrieked bloody murder and flailed back, slamming her hip roughly into the large table and sending freshly-watered flowers, freshly-flowered water and something like a combined quarter-mile of silk, cloth and décor cluttering to the ground.
"Whoa, whoa!" The man arched back, holding both hands up in a peaceful gesture. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you! Are you alright?" The woman panted and blinked several times, unwilling to either turn her eyes away from the newcomer or in any direction toward the mess pooling at her feet.
Waiting until the moment her breathing settled, he continued. "I...was just wondering if you could help me with some directions. I'm looking for Castle Arendelle, and if you could just point me in the right direction I'll just be on my way."
Focusing entirely on the young man's completely straight-faced request, the maid felt her age collect within her along with bundled interest. She relaxed her jaw and proceeded to answer his question to the best of her ability. "Guaaaaaard!"
"Anna! Princess Anna!" The tired, slightly overworked young woman huffed as she crossed the doorway, pushing her spectacles back to her face and staring resolutely toward the corridor just as a mischievous red pigtail disappeared around the corner. "Would Your Highness please just let me finish these measurements?!"
The...Highness in question failed to suppress a snicker at the footsteps approaching down the hall. She pushed her back from against the wall and stepped the other way to make her escape, only to yelp in shock as a slender pair of hands caught her by the waist. "Ah, you got me! How'd you do that?" She giggled to the seamstress before she glanced over at the room she came out of, remembering it having doors connected to both hallways. "Hey...looks like you're finally starting to learn the shortcuts!" A gruff voice sounded from inside as the royal registrar cleared his throat, evidently not incredibly pleased to have his personal office referred to as a "shortcut."
Anna smiled sheepishly back at the elderly gentleman and the seamstress took advantage of the opening, snatching the princess's arm with one hand and pulling out measuring tape with the other. "Yeah, I'm learning all about the castle thanks to having to chase you around it all the time. Honestly, would it kill you just once act your age...ma'am?" But despite her words, when their eyes met again she couldn't help but crack a small smile; her enthusiasm was just too infectious.
"Sorry...I guess I'm just excited since it's not like there are any other women my age who come the place...case in point." The redhead lowered her voice to a murmur, gesturing discreetly toward the record keeper as he glued himself to a stack of paperwork. "Besides, it's only been like a few months since the last measurement, what gives?"
"Okay...first of all? You're at least five years younger than me, probably closer to six as a matter of fact." The seamstress motioned for Anna to lift her arms so she could wrap around and measure the bust. "And secondly, as a younger and still-growing woman we have to make sure everything's exactly right so we can make you look your best for Her Majesty's coronation. And god knows how far into the morning we're going to be working on it what with the fabrics not coming in until the very last minute." She pursed her lips at the choice words her father shared earlier that morning. "By the way, if you want a specific color you should go ahead and tell me now."
"Oh, I'm not that worried. I know it'll look amazing regardless. But...does that mean you won't be staying long?" The princess's smile faltered.
The seamstress pushed up her glasses and responded with an apologetic look of her own. "I'm afraid not, ma'am. I've kinda already stayed longer than I planned to." To the credit of Castle Arendelle, its reputation as a tightlipped bastion of absolute seclusion was exaggerated, if only by the smallest of degrees. In any case, despite their god-knows-what reasoning as to declaring a closed gate policy thirteen years ago, the old king and queen would recognize that there were many situations that their short-handed emergency staff alone couldn't provide. After all, food has to come from somewhere, supplies have to be restocked somehow, and many things that get broken have to be fixed or replaced; and as fate would have it clothes have to be worn, so when her family was released from the direct service to the crown to the spoils of the open market they remained proud to occasionally be among the few to cross that boundary as they were called upon to freelance.
She made with the final measurements, snaking her measure around the younger girl's hip followed by the waist. "In fact, once I get ahold of the queen, that should about wrap it up for me here."
"Yeah...good luck with that one." Anna tried valiantly to disguise her melancholy to the humbled worker. Their monarch's furtive nature was far from lost on the woman, and more than once she'd left the castle wondering about the relationship between the two sisters. But not for nothing, on the rare occasion that she had the gumption to voice said thoughts, the redhead was always quick to her relative's defense, chalking it up to her always being "busy".
"Ah...I beg your pardon." The two girls perked up as the elderly registrar poked his head between them. "I couldn't help but overhear, and if my records are in order then you may in fact be in luck. Her Majesty should be coming this way any moment for her appointment in an hour."
"Well I'm glad that's about to work out for you but I still wish you didn't have to...whoa, wait just a minute!" Anna frowned just as her mind caught on to the abnormality in this routine. "You said she has an appointment? Since when did we start having appointments around here? For what purpose, exactly?"
"I believe that said purpose is called diplomacy."
"Your Majesty!" The seamstress bowed her head deeply for the surprise visitor coming around the corner, and in spite of her confusion the teenager couldn't help the brightening of her eyes to see the blonde woman for the first time that week...and maybe a bit longer.
"Elsa! Uh...hey. So...diplomacy huh?" Anna was suddenly struggling to find her words. "But what's so important that they couldn't come to one of the adjuncts? You'd tell me if we were at war...right?" Her mind traveled directly to the worse-case scenario, even as the prostrating woman went to plant her lips on the monarch's gloved hand, only for it to be swiftly and unnaturally jerked from her reach.
"That's quite unnecessary...please rise. And no, Anna, nobody's about to go to war. At least not unless I somehow find a way to really screw this up." After an excruciatingly pregnant pause in wait for the two women to do anything but stare mutely horrified at her she offered a shaky chuckle and cleared her throat. So much for humor, then. "Anyway...he claimed to be in service to the King."
"Okay..." The redhead furrowed her brow. "Which king, though? Down in the Isles? Over to the West?"
"Anna, you're not getting it." Elsa stressed her next words very carefully. "I'm not talking about one of our kings...I'm talking about The King."
Recognition ever so slowly leaked across the girl's features. "Wait...surely you don't mean the outmost Borders...the door between worlds...you're telling me it's really real? That King?"
The blonde gave her satisfied smirk. "The one and only," she confirmed, and her sister's face grew a thousand watts in an instant.
"I still don't follow...what borders?" The seamstress dared to interject, shifting her head worriedly between the two members of the royal family.
"Oh...I'm sorry," Elsa acknowledged the confused tradeswoman, "But that information is not exactly—"
"Okay! So, you know all those kingdoms that are coming to be represented and stuff for the coronation tomorrow?" Anna jumped ahead in front of her sister, bouncing fervently on the balls of her feet until the woman gave an affirmative nod of her head. "Well, for some reason it's completely impossible to travel too far outside those territories or at least no one's ever succeeded in trying and according to old legend it's part of a system set in place by some other unknown kingdom who made it their job to protect all the borders from threats and stuff and for all we know they're still at it to this day assuming of course it exists in the first place!"
"Wow...I-I'm not sure I've ever heard of that legend before," she stammered, eyes wide like saucers.
"Well I, for one, am sure you haven't heard it before because nobody's supposed to have heard it!" Elsa crooned in a drippingly sweet tone before whipping her attention toward the younger woman. "Bless the skies, Anna! I don't know whether to be appalled or furious at you so casually divulging our family's secret oral tradition, or just be impressed with you doing it in one breath!"
"I didn't think it was that big a deal," the princess attempted to reason. "To me it was just some story Papa would tell us whenever I thought monsters were hiding in the closet. I don't see what the point is in keeping that type of secret like that—"
"The point is to keep people from getting hurt," Elsa snapped, raising her voice to just below a full-on shout. "Just like any other type of secret!"
Just where in the world did that come from? "Okay! Okay! You're right, Elsa...that was thoughtless of me." Anna looked down and hugged an arm to her shoulder, withering like parchment under her sister's incomprehensibly volcanic glare. "I'm sorry...okay?" And in that instant, just as soon as it had set in, all the heat vacated the queen's countenance, leaving her slacking the tension in her fists, shoulders and jaw, unable to find words to excuse herself.
Nearly another moment passed in silence with the two women willing to look everywhere besides the face of each other. "Oh yeah!" Both queen and princess flinched as the seamstress suddenly chirped. "I almost forgot! If it would please Your Majesty, I'd still need to get your measurements...for the dress tomorrow."
Elsa hesitated, blinking her eyes rapidly before regaining her bearings. "Ah...yes, of course. Be my guest." Though she inwardly recalled having had measurements done not too long beforehand, she welcomed the woman to finish her job, thankful for her having broken the recursive loop of hurt and regret that rebounded back and forth between the two sisters.
"So..." Anna began, careful to feel for the atmosphere before diving all the way in. "How do you know they're really who they say they are?"
"Well, ideally that's what I'm meeting him to figure out. But, you have a point that it's hard to be for certain," Elsa admitted, but grew a thoughtful expression. "That being said...the way he appeared to me out of nowhere...his strange clothes and cryptic statements...and, at the very least him seeming to know about the legend at all...I don't think it's completely unsafe to assume that he's not from anywhere around here."
"You're saying he just came to you and left?" Anna wondered. "What's he like? Another stodgy old guy?"
Her sister shook her head. "Not at all, he's a pretty young guy, actually. Probably around our age."
"So a pretty young guy...a pretty young guy..." Anna repeated, mulling over each syllable as it escaped her mouth. "So he's pretty then?"
"That is NOT how I meant it, Anna! And you know that, perfectly well." Sighed Elsa in exasperation, nearly moving the measuring tape out of the seamstress's hands.
"Alright, point taken...so he's not pretty?" Anna pressed, raising her arms innocently.
"His attractiveness has absolutely nothing to do with the issue here!" If it hadn't been for the Southern Seas to claim him, she would swear it would be the sheer stress of having to deal with the teen's relentless boy-crazy phase to send her dearly departed father to his early grave.
"Did this happen yesterday, then? Because I think I saw him too." The seamstress gulped from her spot measuring the queen's inseam as both royals looked down at her to elaborate. "When..when I came by to try to get all this done yesterday and then you told me to hold off on it? Well, before that a guy I've never seen before came by out of nowhere...scared the daylights out of me but he said he was just leaving." She tucked away a bang of chestnut hair as Anna continued staring beseechingly. "And, um...I found him quite fetching, Your Highness."
"I remember you going around yesterday and you were looking for your glasses the whole time," Elsa accused. "Can you really be so sure about that?"
"I'm still looking for them, actually." She fumbled with the hand-me-down spectacles borrowed from her father and about a size too big for her face. "And with all due respect...I stand by my assertion." A tiny smirk crept up her face.
"Let's review the facts then, shall we?" Anna said with a gleam that took Elsa off her guard. "There you were, minding your own business, when a—handsome—stranger, from a faraway, distant land appeared before you. And then he promised to come and see you again." She stepped in a semi-circle around her, eying her sister with what the blonde could only describe as a wolf-like aura. "And now you're getting ready to see him...and spend time with him...alone." She finished her assessment with a purr directly into the cringing older woman's ear which then gave way to a shrieking fit of teenage giggles
"I hope you realize that you're completely outside your mind right now. I really do." Elsa grimaced, and tried to not let it melt slowly into a genuine smile as it threatened to.
She picked her head up as Anna suddenly stopped jumping around and snapped a finger. "By the way, I just thought of something! Elsa, tell me a color. Any color, just the first one that pops up in your head."
"Okay...green?" The princess's ability to just stop on a dime and change gears left the blonde slightly dizzy.
"Ooh, green's a good one!" Anna smiled triumphantly, making eye contact with the equally-amused seamstress, who nodded to her non-verbal command. "Tell me, is that the color of his eyes?"
"No...as a matter of fact, they're blue." It wasn't until the words already left her mouth and her sister's smile only further deepened that Elsa realized her slip-up. "...I think."
Anna looked ready to open her mouth again, so the woman threw a hand up to stop her. "Enough with the silly romance talk, okay? I just told you about how an entire kingdom nobody knows anything about outside of fairy tales actually exists, and I'm about to possibly make first contact with their representative! Does that part really not interest you at all?"
She smiled soberly, eyes from the outstretched palm to her sister's face itself. "Of course it does, Elsa. All those things are amazing...but what's even more amazing to me is seeing you actually be interested in something for once...or someone for once."
At this the queen closed her eyes and drew a long, heavy breath. "The main thing I'm interested in is to know what all this could mean for the kingdom. And to learn maybe a little bit about the world outside those borders, and I'm sure you can appreciate that as well."
Anna simply shrugged. "Honestly, at this point? I'd kinda be happy to settle for learning about the world outside these castle walls...for you and I both. Wouldn't you agree with that?" Another sharp wave of regret sliced through the older sister, as she inwardly became aware of her own dried lips and her hands sweating from inside their gloves.
Her mouth hung open, but she was saved from being forced to think of something to say by an approaching chambermaid, stumbling and out of breath. "Your Majesty! Ma'am, we have an intruder! I don't know where he came from but he said he was here to see you!"
"He's here already?!" Elsa whipped around to where the middle-aged lady stood panting, subconsciously reaching to fix her bun.
"Uh...yes, ma'am." The maid looked confused but at the same time relieved to see the queen's recognition. "There's a guard holding him at the foyer."
The blonde nodded in response. "Tell the guard to stand down...for now at least, he is our guest. And let him know I'll come down to receive him in just a moment." She commanded, looking for all the world like someone who didn't just catch her heart in her throat, and the chambermaid obliged.
As she stepped in the maid's direction to follow in that direction, she suddenly turned again, looking to face the seamstress and registrar, who again poked his head at the sound of more commotion. "Not one word of this conversation leaves this hallway," she intoned, sharing a severe expression between the two underlings. "And that is an order, is that understood?" She waited until they mutely affirmed, and then turned her back and began walking away.
"Elsa, wait—"
"If you'll please excuse me, princess." She turned the corner without breaking stride, and was gone to the teen completely from sight.
"Okay, bye..." Anna murmured to the air, at that moment becoming aware of it's stuffy and enclosed feel. "Nearly thought we bonded there for a second, silly me..."
The sound of rustling fabrics caused her to look around and locate the seamstress, still kneeling down and gathering her materials. "Looks like you're about done here too, huh?" The older lady straightened her glasses and slowly nodded. "Well, then thanks for your work. I'll be seeing you around sometime...I guess."
She pressed her lips together, taking in the princess's vaguely pained expression before coming to a decision. "Well...Mama and Papa will probably be wanting to work on them both, but after we lay down the foundations I bet they'd just focus on Her Majesty's outfit anyway. I could try to talk them into letting me put the finishing touches on it myself and come back tonight and use the sewing room here..." She faltered suddenly looking up to see the teen's face brighten a few degrees. "That is...if Your Highness approves, of course."
Anna gathered her into a tightly squeezed hug, nearly making the glasses fall yet again from her face. "Yes, of course! I'll let the guards know you'll be coming so they won't throw you in jail!" With renewed vigor, she dashed down the corridor and disappeared around the other corner. "Hey!" The seamstress turned again before leaving to see the girl stick just her head out. "Green dress, okay? Don't forget!"
She softly chuckled and signaled a thumbs up.
"I must say we have to stop running into each other like this." Elsa slowly crossed the stairs down to the ground floor of the foyer, selecting to make her entrance known with a dry, playful quip. Still, as her new guest looked up with a striking glance to meet her own she had to swallow as a hot, prickling sensation dotted across her face. Damn you Anna for putting such silly ideas in my head!
The young man chuckled, even as the sound of shifting metal echoed as the guard behind him tensed up. "Actually, that sounds like a great idea, Queen Elsa. I, for one, hope it turns out that way."
"I should remind you for full disclosure that technically speaking, I haven't become queen just yet" She'd bounded the final step, crossed the length of the large room in smooth, confident steps to face the man in its center. Without shoes on, she figured she'd go up to just past his chin. "If I may beg your pardon, I don't recall asking how I should refer to you. Shall I call you an envoy, or emissary perhaps?"
At this he ran his hand across the back of his head, evidently not entirely comfortable with the suggestion. "Eh...I'm not that great with things like titles, to be honest with you. If it's not too much trouble, I'd rather just go by Riku."