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Tears of Ice & Blood of Fire

By Corvus no Genmu

01: Frozen Heart

"Cut through the heart, cold and clear.
Strike for love and strike for fear.
See the beauty, sharp and sheer.
Split the ice apart and break the frozen heart…"

As Elsa watched her sister vanish away into the crowded ballroom, she couldn't help but wonder if a brief experience of happiness swiftly followed by countless days of despair was to be her lot in life. Growing up with a closed door locked good and tight between them, there was little in life that made Elsa well and truly happy as she once had been in those secretive nights of childhood's past. That's not to say that she didn't have her moments of happiness throughout her budding years. Elsa had two loving and well-intentioned parents for most of her life, and try as she might to avoid her sister, there was no stopping Anna from getting close enough to try some errant mishap at mending supposedly broken bonds at the dinner table or the palace library.

Elsa still hadn't quite forgiven Anna for the "caterpillar incident."

However, there was one thing in particular that brought a joyous smile to Elsa's face and made her firmly believe that the blizzard inside her could be quelled into silence.

When she was younger, before the accident, her father had been in correspondence with another king from a far off land, a king who just so happened to have a child Elsa's own age. Elsa never learned whose idea it was to have the two young royals begin a correspondence of their own but she was thankful for it all the same. Even back then, Elsa was wanting for someone closer to her own age that shared a few of the same concerns as she did being the heir to a throne. Of course, she was rather hesitant to the idea until she received her first letter.

She remembered the words to that letter still to this day, the words neatly memorized in her mind no matter that the grammar was atrocious, the spelling even worse, and the handwriting akin to chicken scratch at best. The young prince, who insisted they excuse formalities and just be themselves, had written the letter by his own hand, something that even Elsa's parents hadn't expected of the young royal. Feeling almost challenged by the prince and not helped by little Anna's comment that his handwriting still looked better than Elsa's own, the young princess took to writing her own letter herself rather than letting either of her parents write it on her behalf.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

A forgotten history, she thought rather morosely to herself. While the time between letters has always been quite long the last letter had been several long months ago. Her letter and her invitation should have arrived with plenty of time for him to answer and perhaps even show up on the one and only day she would have the gates opened to the world before she locked herself away to protect it from herself.

"Your Majesty?"

Elsa gasped and turned sharply to her left, nearly leaping back at the close proximity of a young dignitary who had apparently been watching her for a while. A foreigner, of that she had no doubt by the thin almond slant to his startling golden eyes that seemed perpetually set in an amused twinkle. His black hair, longer than any man's hair ought to be, was tied into a tight braid that trailed all the way down his back. His clothes were distinctively stitched in the styles of the East Orient and colored in shades of darkened reds with highlights of autumn oranges and summertime yellows. For a moment, Elsa wondered whether he was a prince or perhaps—

"A thousand pardons, Your Majesty," said the young man with a slight inclination of his head. "But seeing as yonder Duke was granted the honor of a dance with your sister, I was wondering if perhaps you would allow me the same by dancing with you this fair night?"

Elsa smiled with slightly forced ease as she raised her hand to wave away the young dignitary's offer, "I—"

"Aye." He grasped her hand and with a slight tug, stumbled her into his awaiting grasp before he took them both out to the dance floor. "That means yes in the sailor's tongue, correct? English is such a versatile language…"

He chuckled while Elsa was torn between being mortified and terrified ironically for the same and yet entirely different reasons. For while both emotions could be applied to either reason, even Elsa herself couldn't decide which took greater precedent, her concern that her steadily failing control would slip and she'd freeze her dance partner where he stood or if she'd make an even greater fool of herself than the Duke of Weselton.

The guests made way for the pair and the orchestra —much to her steadily increasing anxiety— decided then was as good a time as any to begin a slow romantic song. Her partner took her left hand in his right and placed his left gently upon her hip. Terrified azure eyes fell to her gloves, waiting to feel the bitter cold to amass at her fingertips but no sign of frost permeated the cloth but dare she believe…? She wasn't cold, the storm was silent and… and she was warm.

Elsa swallowed her nerves and mirrored the motions with a quiet confession, "I actually don't know how to dance…"

It was a partial truth. She had learned the motions and practiced by herself but never with anyone. She couldn't risk it.

Her partner's smile only warmed further in delight as he whispered right back, "There is no knowing in dance. There isn't any thinking either. You just have to hear the music, feel the rhythm, and just…" He shrugged. "Dance."

Elsa couldn't help the small smile on her face as she glanced up at the young man who stood only marginally taller than her and yet felt almost monolithic within his gentle grasp. "So may I know the name of my partner?"

She realized too late how easily her words could be misinterpreted by the foreigner as his hazel eyes widened in surprise and the warm smile grew into a teasing grin. "Partner, Queen Elsa…?"

"Dance partner, sir. Dance partner." Elsa stressed, not quite realizing that she had loss enough of her usual control to allow pinkish warmth to flood into her cheeks but no magic. There was nothing worth worrying over except perhaps for the twinkling amusement in her dance partner's eyes increasing their luminosity.

Elsa could tell, however innately, that she would soon dread that twinkling gaze for the headaches it would bring.

"My name is Shido."

She waited a moment to see if he had anything further to add and to her frustration, he didn't. "And where are you from, Sir Shido?"

He chuckled again, a sound that Elsa refused to like hearing no matter that it made her want to smile in kind, "Now how am I to keep dancing with you if I tell you everything about myself, Your Majesty?"

Elsa turned her head away, her head held high in a gesture she remembered her mama doing whenever she was upset with papa and not feeling at all inclined to inform him on why. She glanced out the corner her eye at Shido's smiling face and allowed herself a small smile of her own.

Maybe tonight won't be so bad after all.

"I said ENOUGH!"

Ice, sharp and wicked, emerged from the floor before Elsa, staving off her younger sister's approach. Caught between horror and fear, Elsa looked to her sister and hastily looked about the room like a cornered animal. Her eyes fell upon Shido, the only one that she had touched, however unwilling she had been, in the past thirteen years. Like everyone else in the crowd whose eyes were filled with fear, confusion, and a dash of anger on top of it all, but his golden eyes were not upon her but the crowd around him.

He frowned and met Elsa's eyes, his own openly showing confusion and concern as he set aside the glasses of wine that he had gone to fetch for them both before the sudden arrival and spat between Elsa and her sister. Was he really concerned for her? Why would he be? Did he not see what harm she was capable of doing? Did he not see the harm that she had already done, there upon her sister's head…?

"Elsa…"

Her younger sister's voice brought her back to reality and Elsa did the one thing she thought was sensible in doing.

She turned away from her sister and ran.

Why did she run?

Ice spread across the fjord like a cancer, anchoring entire ships to the surface of frozen waves.

Why was she afraid?

Impossibly, in the midst of a summer's night, snow began to fall as the air began to cool with a wintry wind.

Why did no one, not even her sister, know of her power?

A young woman promises to return and set an equally young consort to safeguard the kingdom in her stead.

Why?

The same young woman rode off on horseback into the blizzard, to find and bring back her sister, to end the winter she unknowingly brought forth.

I don't know.

A young foreigner looked down at his hand and closed it tightly over the elegantly blue glove carried to him by the north winds.

But I am going to find out.

Elsa sat in her new bedchamber trying to feel that same elation that she had when she first constructed her new palace, when she had let go of her ironclad control and just let the magic flow and do what it will. It was a beautiful morning, the dawn's light painting the walls of her new palace in a stunning myriad of shimmering pinks in a sparkling sea of blues. She wasn't cold but she wasn't warm either and perhaps therein lied the problem. She tried to smile, really she did, but no matter how at ease she felt, no matter how much she tried to relaxed and recline and simply enjoy her freedom for what it was…

She just—"Will flicker into light…"

She blinked. "Wait, what is…?"

She turned to the open stairway and slowly walked towards it as the faintly familiar voice continued singing softly down from the bottom floor.

"There's a spark inside us that we can all ignite and all that's dark inside us will flicker into light… There's a power in every breath, there's a power in every note…"

Elsa descended the stairs fully and carefully looked into the room. She was surprised to find Shido standing by the icy replica of a watery fountain.

"A power that starts within the heart, a power that rises through the throat…" Shido sung, swaying to music only he could hear as his voice echoed throughout the chamber. "And when it sails up through the air, more beautiful than any prayer… This power can right a wrong, and it will always thrill the ear of those that have the power to hear the magic of the song…"

He trailed off, staring off into space for a moment before sighing, his breath coming out in a thick mist, before he turned to regard Elsa. His eyes widened at the sight of her changed attire and blood rushed through his face like liquid fire.

"Hey give it back…" He murmured quietly.

Despite the sheer absurdity of the situation, Elsa could not help but find herself curious to just what the young dignitary could possibly be insinuating she stole. "Give what back?"

"My breath…"

The absolutely sincerity in such simple words left her breathless, a strange tickling sensation rising in her stomach as a rosy blush blossomed across her pale face. Nothing in the interior of the castle reflected just how she felt but the exterior… Crystalline butterflies were forever captured in midflight along the icy walls of a starry night sky as a jovial beaming sun and a beautiful demure moon danced in perpetual silence.

Elsa shook her head and focused a resolutely royal glare upon Shido as she descended the last of the stairs. "How did you get here…?"

"It was not easily done, I assure you." He shook his head. "But you are not so concerned with how I came to be here but more as to why I am here."

Elsa crossed her arms and waited.

"I am here…" Shido spoke like his was speaking the very secrets of the universe to an unaware disciple, "because I care."

That… She blinked as she tried to make sense of his words but her mind seemed unable to do anything more than replay his words over and over again. That's…

She hadn't been expecting that or the sadness that welled up in Shido's eyes as he took notice of her surprise.

"Is it so strange for me to care about you?" he asked her, sounding almost hurt by her reaction.

"Yes!" She snapped, a flurry of snow falling around them as she lost control alongside her temper. "We've only just met! How can you possibly care about me?"

"Wait, what?" Shido blinked and tilted his head. "You mean you don't…?"

She had expected his surprise but she didn't expect him to start laughing. Not chuckling quietly, nor giggling foolishly, but a fully belly laugh that had tears trailing down from his almond shaped eyes and him half collapsed to the floor. Ah well, at least her surprise had quieted the storm both inside and out.

"Wh-What's so funny?!" She demanded, stamping her foot and causing the icy floor to slicken to an unprecedented degree and still he surprised her by remaining on his feet.

"You, I had thought you were playing earlier at your coronation party but this…" He shook his head, chuckling softly under his breath as he wiped the remainders of his jovial tears away. "So tell me, what's next on the… how you say… vacation plan?"

"I—What?"

"Vacation… That is what this is yes? Surely you don't intend to make a life here beautiful though your new palace is."

Elsa was rather offended by Shido's words and it showed with a frosty frown as she crossed her arms and asked, "No. This is my home now so if you'd please just go away—"

"What's for feasting then?"

"I would—wait, what?" Blast it there went her train of thought again! Would he never cease in his attempts at derailing it? "What are you talking about now?"

"Feasting? No, wait, that's not right. Um… How you say… breakfast? Breakfast, that's it! What's for breakfast?" Shido was beaming like a child that had managed to enunciate a particularly difficult word.

"I'm not—" Her stomach interrupted her attempt at denial with one of its own, a particularly loud vocalization that sounded more like the displeased growl of a large feline than anything else.

Elsa turned away from Shido's knowing grin with as much regal dignity as she could amass given the rather loud protestation made from her stomach. She hadn't really thought that far ahead in hindsight. She imagined that she could perhaps use her powers to try and catch some of the local game but… Well, to put it frankly, for as knowledgeable as Elsa was in a vast variety of subjects, from geometry to politics, she had no experience in the culinary arts.

A faint rustling sound drew her gaze back towards Shido and her eyes widened as he held a small bag in one hand and a tiny piece of chocolate in the other. He smiled knowingly at her as he tossed the candy up and down into the air before suddenly tossing it towards her. She caught the candy clumsily and was rather surprised at how delightfully warm it felt and yet it somehow retained its starry shape.

"It's not much, and it's certainly not peppermint, but I hope it will do for now." Shido said as he approached her and offered the small pouch to a stunned Elsa. "I've no idea of the game in this land but I'm certain that I can find something fit for a queen by day's end."

"… It's morning," she muttered more to herself than to him.

"Then I hope you will not devour the lot before then," he said with a teasing wink before he turned and started for the open door.

Elsa watched him go in silence before she looked down at the star-shaped chocolate in her hand. She placed it delicately in her mouth. It was delicious, as to be expected, but more than that it was—

Warm…

True to his word, it had taken the better part of the day for Shido to find something worth bringing back as a meal fit for a queen. Of course, he hadn't really intended to take quite as long as he had but really, how was he to know that Oaken's place was on the opposite side of the mountain? Still, the man had been very understanding and more than welcomed his foreign currency for gold was still gold, no matter its conformation. Shido was halfway back up the mountain to Elsa's palace with a packed meal in hand when he heard the monstrous roar echo like thunder from the peak.

He blinked and in that same instant he was off at such incredible speed that it was a miracle that fire did not trail in his wake with how fast he was traversing up the mountainside. The basket of food was left behind somewhere amidst the endless whiteness of the North Mountain's snow as he ascended towards its peak. The roars continued and it was all that he could do not to answer in kind as he caught sight of the palace and the vanquishing form of its guardian descending down into the shadowed depths of the earth below.

He saw the soldiers of Arendelle and that one prince that was with Anna, the one who likely sparked the sisterly spat which led to all this, but he hardly cared for any of them. The door to Elsa's palace was open and he knew that it wasn't by her invitation as it had been for him. Shido all but flew past the contingent, slamming the doors with enough force to shatter them free from their icy hinges. His eyes jerked up to the ceiling and saw three shadows moving against the ice and in that next instant, Shido was racing up the stairs. Familiar flashes of azure light sparked through the translucent walls like lightning and again he came crashing through the open doors and took a hasty look about the room. His breathing was ragged. Sweat dripped from his brow in large rivulets but his hands were clenched tightly, his every panting breath thickening into clouds of steamy air.

There, two men and—

"Elsie!" He gasped.

Unsurprisingly, at least in his opinion, the two attempting assassins were easily overmatched by Elsa's magic, but where he had expected her to be showing them mercy she was instead continuing her wrath. One was pinned to a wall and the other shoving fruitlessly against an unstoppable wall as she urged her ice to continue, one to pierce and one to push but both leading to the same fate for both men. The pale blue of her palace would be colored red and her hands stained by the same precious liquid if he let her continue.

"Elsie, no!" Shido reached out with an imploring hand to the raging Snow Queen, "If you do this… There is no turning back from this! You will truly become the monster you fear you are!"

Elsa's eyes widened and she turned to face Shido as the magic ceased its harsh flow from her hands, moments away from ending the lives of those who would be her own murderers.

"What did you call me…?" she whispered. No one called her Elsie. No one but—

Shido suddenly turned just in time to watch Prince Hans race past him and grapple the arm of the pinned lackey of the Duke and turn the firing crossbow up into the air where its bolt struck against the precarious chain of the icy chandelier. Elsa looked up and gasped as the chandelier started to come crashing down towards her. She started to run but for once in her life, ice had turned against her as she stumbled for proper footing.

"ELSIE!"

The icy floor beneath Shido's feet cracked loudly and the walls shook from his roar as he leapt through the air, impossibly fast and incredibly far, and caught Elsa up in a bridal carry but he too slipped against the ice and landed hard on his back. They slid along the floor as the shards of the chandelier scattered across the room.

"Ouch… That's going to hurt in the morning…" Shido looked down at Elsa and saw her eyes were closed and she was lax in his arms. His eyes widened in panic for a moment before he saw the shallow rise and fall of her chest.

The small troop of soldiers immediately surrounded the pair, the captain kneeling down beside the pair, his eyes firmly on his queen. "Is she—?"

"Unconscious but alive…" Shido looked up with a snarl at the unpinned lackey of the Duke who was trying to shuffle around the ice wall that had nearly pushed him to his death. "No thanks to them!"

"Arrest these men for going against my orders," snapped Prince Hans, glaring spitefully at the pinned lackey.

Shido's eyes narrowed as he rose to his feet, still holding Elsa in his arms and ignoring the trail of blood the fell down the side of his head. "And for conspiring the murder of Queen Elsa."

"Ah, yes…" Prince Hans nodded in agreement and watched as the soldiers took care of the Duke of Weselton's lackeys. He spared a glance at the unconscious Elsa, frowning slightly at the way Shido was carrying her despite the offers of the soldiers standing nearest him to relieve him of his unconscious burden. "My thanks for the timely intervention good sir and, pray forgive me, but… just who are you?"

As the two men spoke, one of the soldiers who remained at guard near the staircase happened to glance downwards at the floor and saw something rather peculiar. He supposed that it had been damaged by the fall of the chandelier, perhaps even by his queen's actions in defense of her life but still… It was rather strange that the floor where Shido had stood and leapt to the defense of the young monarch was damaged. Yet the ice had not been crushed, cracked, or even broken. If anything, the young soldier could almost swear that it had been gouged by something with wicked, sharp claws…

The Duke of Weselton walked briskly through the halls of the castle, intent on finding his two men before Prince Hans had a chance to interrogate them and find the truth behind their motivation in murdering the sorcerous queen of Arendelle. His mind raced as he sought of ways to advance his position in the eyes of the Arendelle's new king whilst sparing his men. He didn't truly care for them all that much but there were his sister's husband's nephews… God only knew what kind of hell she'd raise if she got word that he gone and let them both be executed.

A hand reached out and gripped the Duke's shoulder in a tight, unforgiving vice.

"I would have words with you, Duke of Weasel Town…" whispered Shido.

"It's Weselton!" He exclaimed, whirling about to find himself glaring up at a foreign dignitary, the young lad from the Orient, Shido-something-or-other. The Duke didn't know much of the man or from where he had come, only that he had been in the arms of the queen prior to her monstrous reveal of character. So the Duke had little reason to trust this dignitary. Why, for all he knew, he was a far worse monster than the queen herself!

The Duke blinked when he realized the neutral expression on the dignitary's face was gone, replaced by a fierce scowl of fury the likes of which the Duke had only seen on the face of a man whose woman had been grievously insulted. Why, if the old gentleman didn't know any better, he'd swear there was fire burning in the foreigner's eyes.

"… Did I just say that out loud?"

"Oh, you most certainly did." Shido grabbed the lapels of the Duke's coat and lifted the man up into the air before slamming him hard against the wall.

"Gah! Unhand me at once you—you ruffian! Guards! GUARDS!"

"Be silent you old fool. Your men have already sung your wicked praises," snarled Shido, "the guards will not aid you nor will they hinder me. You plotted to have Queen Elsa murdered. Your men came close to succeeding. Were we in my country, it would be my honor to end your life and leave your body for the crows."

"B-Bu-But—!"

"But we are not in my country. We are in Queen Elsa's and as soon as she awakens, we shall see what can be done with you. Perhaps, she will be kind and allow me to do with you as I will but be assured Duke. It will not be swift or just."

"B-B-B-But sh-she—! She—!"

"Speak up!" snapped Shido, his patience at an end with the old man's babbling.

"She killed her own sister!"

Shido's eyes widened and the Duke thought himself safe from the man's wrath, but realized too late that the visiting dignitary's earlier anger had been but a simple candlelight to the full inferno of his rage.

"You lie!" He growled, his eyes truly aglow with fiery light as they narrowed into thin, angry slits. "Elsie would sooner take her own life before she'd let any harm befall her sister!"

The Duke, faintly wondering why he smelled wood smoke, choked out, "Bu-But it's true! He-He told us himself!"

"Who told you such blatant lies?" Shido snarled. "Tell me!"

"P-Prince Hans! Prince Hans said that Princess Anna named her sister as her killer before she took her marriage vows with the prince and died in his arms!"

"… Marriage vows?" Shido blinked and lowered the Duke down just enough that the man's toes were lightly touching the ground. "He couldn't possibly…"

CRICK.

Shido looked down the hall and saw, much to his surprise, small spears of ice appearing along the rafters.

"You see?! You see, she's a monster! She needs to be killed now for the—"

"Be silent." Shido muttered, cuffing the Duke across the brow.

"URK!"

Shido dropped the unconscious man to the ground and wasted no time traversing through the hallways of the castle. He knew that Elsa would eventually break through her steel bonds, he had all but guaranteed it really with his claims that steel would work far better in securing a sorceress than iron, but if what the Duke had said was true…

He hastened his pace to a full sprint.

Shido's eyes were tightly clenched against the wind as the snow hurled past his face and hissed angrily into thickened clouds of steam as he pushed his way forward. With the storm howling like a deranged beast freshly loosed to the hunt, Shido knew that calling out to Elsa would be a lost cause. Trying to see her through the increasingly thickening mist of snowfall, especially with her being dressed in a gown made of ice, was only marginally easier than trying to locate a needle buried in a mountain of hay. Even tracking her unique scent, the crispness of evergreen with an underlying scent of peppermint, was quite impossible to sniff out. All that he could do was try and find the light of her magic amidst the storm.

Not so easy a task as it sounded for the entirety of the storm, from its swirling clouds to its tiny snowflakes, was ingrained with her power. It was akin to finding the North Star whilst being undeniably drunk and somehow managing to be caught in the roaring arms of a tornado. So no, not so easy a task as one would like it to be. Still he pressed on, knowing that the storm would not end so easily despite his fervent hopes to the contrary.

"… Huh." Shido looked back the way he came and watched as the misted clouds rolled away and vanished into the ether. "That's… different."

He looked around him and, to his surprise, found that the snow had been frozen in place. Not one tiny snowflake amidst the countless falling throughout all of Arendelle was moving and were all hanging perfectly still in midair. Shido frowned and felt a strange sense of déjà vu.

It is not the same thing but this is a lot like when… His eyes tracked along the frozen waters of the fjord and there, in the distance, he spotted a glistening star. Far across the fjord was Elsa and there at her back standing tall over her as she kneeled in misery was Hans with a sword slowly unsheathed for a killing stroke.

There was no time to blink, no moment to speak, and not even a second to think.

Elsa was in danger.

So he ran.

The ice beneath his feet screeched in agony with every footstep as thick, steaming gouges were left in his wake. His misted breath came out in thickening puffs with the clouded air darkening to a degree that faintly resembled smoke. Far away as he was, there was no way that he was going to make it in time, but still he tried.

Got to make it!

The sword was raised to strike for avarice and pride. His eyes began to shine as fury began to claw deeply from the recesses of his soul.

Got to make it!

Still Elsa refused to try and defend her innocent life. His pupils contracted tightly, thinly, as fear pierced through his heart.

Got to make it!

Still the sword came down to offer the killing stroke. His mouth opened wide, sharpened teeth gleaming as he roared in despair.

"NO!"

It took Shido a moment to realize that it was not just his voice that screamed in defense of Elsa's life. He skidded to a halt as the magical backlash washed over him, cooling off the fires of his fury as Hans was knocked aside like a ragdoll while the defender, Elsa younger sister Anna, turned completely into ice. Shido watched with wide, disbelieving eyes as Anna's last breath left her in a small, quiet hush of air and looked away as the light of her heart began to dim as death welcomed her into its embrace.

"Anna?! Anna…! No! No, please…!" Shido's eyes clenched shut as Elsa broke down into tears. "Anna…!"

"Anna?" A quiet voice drew Shido's gaze to a snowman that had waddled up to the scene and were the situation not so utterly despairing, he might have been amazed at what Elsa had unwittingly done for surely there could be no other source to this living body of snow. He glanced away from the tiny snowman and saw the hesitantly approaching figures of a mountain man and a reindeer. The man looked like the world had just been pulled out from underneath his feet and the reindeer looked just as devastated as the snowman, bowing his antlered head in silence.

Now, more than ever, Shido was certain that he had missed something in the last few days.

… thump…

Shido turned sharply to the frozen Anna, clutched tightly in her weeping sister's embrace. Was that…?

… Thump.

The snowman looked up gasped in delight for the ice that had been Anna was melting, slowly but surely as life returned to her body once more, her heart beating strong and loud. The reindeer nudged the mountain man who took in the sight with a relieved smile while the queen herself looked up into her younger sister's eyes with tears shining wetly in her own.

"Anna…?" She gasped, standing upright and pulling her sister into a tight hug that Anna returned gladly with a quiet murmur of her sister's name. "You sacrificed yourself for me?"

Shido winced at how honestly surprised Elsa sounded. Did she truly think that she was of so little value in the eyes of her sister?

"I love you," said Anna in answer and Shido smiled as the snowman gasped with realization.

"An act of true love will thaw a frozen heart!"

"Love will thaw…? Love…! Of course!" Shido smiled and crossed his arms, knowing what was to come though Anna appeared both confused and hopeful.

Elsa raised her arms up the heavens and with the motion so too did the ice and snow follow, flowing upwards in thin, tiny strands of frozen might as the oceanic waters of the fjord broke free and rose the ship beneath the group up on its waves. The snow and ice gathered in flowing swirls high above the city as the heat and warmth of a summer sun began to shine brightly in the morning light. The swirls condensed together into the shape of an utterly massive snowflake before it too was vanished away with but a gesture of Elsa's arms.

"I knew you could do it," said Anna with a teasing smile aimed at her sister as Shido leaned against the mast of the ship with an exasperated smile of his own.

"Hands down this is the best day of my life and quite possibly the last." The snowman proclaimed as the blistering warmth of summer fell upon it like a crushing weight, its body melting rapidly though it seemed no less jovial.

"Oh, Olaf! Hold on, little guy!"

Olaf? Shido mouthed to himself, testing the strange sounding name as Elsa gestured at the snowman and created a miniaturized winter cloud above its head or, to be more specific…

"My own personal flurry!" Olaf giggled in delight; dancing in place as its—his— body was restored to full form.

A pained groan drew everyone's gaze to the recovered Prince Hans. Shido was hardly surprised to find the mountain man making way to confront the man but was amused to find Anna stopping him. Her handling of the prince involved a few short words followed by a swift punch to the face that knocked the man overboard and into the drink before resuming hugging her sister.

Shido barely repressed the urge to laugh. He didn't want to break the moment, so he remained behind the mast of the ship, out of sight of the others on board. He would his talk with Elsa, he was quite certain of that. For one thing, he had become a riddle in her eyes and if there was one thing that Elsa just could not stand, it was unsolvable riddles. Besides that there was the issue of transportation. Namely the fact that the boat he had travelled on to get to Arendelle was currently half sunk in the water.

Ah well… Wasn't really going to need it anyway…

Shido stood in a back corner of the courtyard freshly converted into an ice rink by Elsa's magic. He leaned against the barrier wall of the palace and watched with crossed arms and a small smile as the people took joy and merriment in Elsa's power and the wonders it could bring. He caught the scent of evergreens with a faint undertone of peppermint and his smile grew as he turned to the approaching Elsa.

"Your Majesty." He greeted her.

She paused, her lips dipping into a small frown too quick for most eyes to catch before she greeted him in kind, "Sir Shido."

His smile widened to a full grin. "Ah, I suppose that I should be calling you Elsa then if we are on a first name basis, Queen Elsa?"

She blinked, surprised no doubt by his sudden elation, before she smiled with a touch of exasperation to her lips as she resignedly shook her head. "I believe you make it a habit to catch me off guard."

"For as long as I have known you." He agreed with a careless shrug.

Elsa's eyes narrowed. "Yes, so you claim. I don't suppose that you would be willing to stop with this game of yours and tell it to me straight would you?"

Shido looked out at the crowd as he spoke, carefully avoiding a chance at seeing Elsa's eyes and caving instantly, "I think that this is a conversation for only our selves, aye? I care not if you wish to have Anna beside you as well but she appears to be… how does the saying go…? Otherwise preoccupied?"

Elsa spared a glance and couldn't help a fond smile. Anna had again taken to the rink with Olaf leading her into the proper ways of skating. It was an amusing sight considering that the snowman didn't really have legs much less skates. She regained her dignified neutral mask and nodded imperiously at Shido.

"Follow me."

He had expected the throne room to be her first choice as an apt place to interrogate him. Especially if she wanted to better emphasize her ruling as royalty to his unknown status amongst the nobility. The dance hall made for a good second option if only to give her wide, open space to wield her ice if she thought of him as a threat. As it was, he was pleasantly surprised that she had invited him into her family's art gallery where many wondrous painting lined the walls. The paintings were nothing at all like what he was familiar with in his home country with a sense of realism to them he thought impossible to capture with brush and inks.

A polite, and slightly impatient, cough interrupted his silent enjoyment of the gallery and he turned an apologetic gaze to the queen who was looking pointedly at him, waiting for him to finally put all of his cards on the table.

"Do you want to hear a story?" he asked

Of course, leave it to Shido, who had no real concept of Western card games, to start his hand by laying down the Joker. Elsa looked even more disgruntled with the amber-eyed man but nodded for him to continue, silently praying that he was going somewhere with this or she'd truly go spare.

"Once, there was a boy who corresponded with a girl through pen and paper. The boy lived far to the east and the girl in the west and both of them had many things alike to the other just as they did differences. One such similarity was their respected isolations, both for protection of those most precious to them. They were loners, the two of them, but could never truly stand the thought of being alone. They loved to read and neatly devoured their respected libraries of their favored entertainments, she the arts of geometry and architecture and he of the arts of music and song.

"Yet for their similarities, there were differences between them. He detested most sweets save for peppermints while she adored anything with a speck of sugar to it, chocolate most of all. He preferred the warmth of a nearby fireplace while she liked the cool breeze by an open window. Yet the greatest difference between them both was the matter of language for neither could speak nor write in the others' own. The boy, seeking to impress the girl, learned enough of her language to make a good attempt at a letter but failed to realize that he had incorrectly written his own name. Rather than admit to his mistake, he allowed the girl to call him by the name of—"

"Cid…" Elsa's eyes were wide as she stared at Shido while her face gained a rosy tint. "You… You're Cid?"

Shido chuckled. "Hi, Elsie."

"You, you imbecile!"

Shido blinked in surprise. "Eh?"

"You—All this time, why didn't you say anything?" Elsa demanded, marching up to him as ice cracked outwards with every petite stomp of her feet. Shido backed away from the approaching queen, not scared of her power but the look in her eyes told him in no uncertain terms that he had incurred her wrath and though he knew not who had said it, he was well aware of the old adage that spoke of a woman's wrath.

"I… thought it was not a good time?" He answered.

Of course, Shido also had no idea of a similar proverb of men and rampant idiocy.

"A good time? What on earth makes you think that this time was any better?" Elsa demanded to know.

"Well, you see," Shido said, looking for about the gallery as though hoping to find something, anything, that could make the situation better. "There are reasons for my being here asides—besides your coronation you see. Reasons that I was… hesitant to reveal so soon after… Everything."

"Oh?" Elsa was quite close to him now, nearly in his arms as she had been the night of her coronation. "What reasons could you possibly have to make a fool out of me?"

A creaking of the gallery's door opening preceded the voice of a maid whom stuck her head into the large room as she spoke, "Ah, Your Majesty, Princess Anna was wondering—" The old maid, one of the few that had been amongst the staff since the incident so long ago, spotted the pair and her eyes widened before she smiled with understanding.

"Ah, I see! I shall let her know that you're merely getting acquainted with your betrothed then!" She called to the pair with a rather delighted air before she departed. She had every right to be after all, how lovely was it that young Elsa was to marry a long-time friend, especially one so exotic as that young lad! Ah, if she were a few decades younger…

"My…?" Elsa parroted the maid's words before looking up at Shido, her hands somehow clutching tightly upon the cloth of his shirt and inexplicably finding it impossible to freeze even as the ice beneath her spread outwards like an unwinding serpent. "Betrothed?"

Shido glanced warily down at Elsa who was staring listlessly up at him. "Ah… yes, that would be one of the littler things I was to discuss with you…"

One of the littler things…? Elsa thought to herself. One of the littler things!?

Well. She didn't know quite how he had did it but Shido had, yet again, distorted Elsa's worldview to such a degree that contrary to previous occasions where she could otherwise ignore or go along with it, Arendelle's queen found herself with only one viable option left to her.

She fainted.