….oOo…..
The dreaded letter.
Elsa had expected it to come within weeks of her coronation, she was a young and single queen sitting atop a goldmine of fur, Timber and various other commodities as well as food and ice.
She knew very well that the international community wouldn't leave such a well self-sustained country be, however her expectations were shattered when the letter from either her relatives or a much more powerful country demanding her hand in matrimony did not arrive.
Elsa had sat in her office waiting and waiting for it for weeks on end but it just never appeared on her desk, so the queen had turned her attention to other things and forgotten about it.
That was, until this very moment.
Elsa had awoken as usual and tiredly but gracefully descended down her staircase and towards the dinner hall, when the doors had been opened for her she was very surprised to see the face of an old 'friend'
"Uncle Westcott?" she had frowned in surprise as her eyes looked form him to the very terrified staff that was serving him
"Queen Elsa, it is wonderful that you can finally join me for breakfast" the man said sharply as the maid stopped pouring him his tea then left as quickly as possible
"How long have you been here?" Elsa then questioned looking over at Kai who stood quietly and shamefully in the corner of the room
"Since two days ago" the man said angrily "but of course you wouldn't know seeing as you spend most of your time either gallivanting around on the streets or with all those…gypsy gods"
"Magical creatures" Elsa corrected and the man gave her a cold look
"Right…" he then grumbled
"Well, what brings you here?" Elsa questioned "our nations relations are doing well aren't they? And you have received all of your items for trade"
"we have" the man nodded, he was the king of a neighbouring fjord which would have been unified with Elsa's own if it wasn't for the icy powers her father's lineage gave her "however you have ignored my letters for long enough young lady"
"Letters?" Elsa frowned
"My letters!" the man shouted angrily as he slammed his fist on the table "do not try to obfuscate stupidity!"
"Oh" Elsa nodded "those…"
She gave kai a quick glance before looking back at the furious man, Westcott stood up before taking out a letter
"We have given you thousands of proposals for marriage" the man said angrily "why is it that you persist in rejecting them"
"Because they are not the only ones I have received" Elsa said "and I do not want to compromise my trade position by marrying so soon"
It was nothing but the absolute truth, Arendelle was only just recovering from its reclusion and a royal marriage with the wrong nation would leave the nation unable to regrow fully and move them under Elsa's new husband's thumb.
The man stared her over for a moment before looking away; quite content with her answer "well the other fjords and nations would be getting restless…"
"Why?" Elsa asked in confusion
"what do you mean why?" the man asked as he turned to face her once more, he then looked over at the elaborate breakfast set in place for him "do not tell me you don't know" he then said slowly
"Know what?"
"excuse me your majesty" kai said quickly "but Kristoff seems to be here with the collection of gems"
Elsa tutted "why is it that everyone is arriving at once" she said shaking her head "I'll come see him"
"You—"
"We will continue this conversation later King Westcott" Elsa said firmly "this shipment is unbelievably important"
"Never mind" the man said angrily as he headed towards the doors "you have been invited to attend an international meeting anyhow, I hope your servant can tell you just what exactly has happened in the outside world before then"
Elsa nodded before glaring at kai, she waited for the doors to slam shut before she folded her arms
"There is no shipment, is there?" she questioned
"No..." kai said slowly "well yes, outside. But Kristoff went off with princess Anna and left it in our care"
"come" Elsa ordered as she reopened the dining room doors and started to walk up to her office, she knew that she would need a seat to digest the information that her aid was about to give her.
…
Elsa's office was her temple, the room was very elaborately decorated in both intricately carved wood and ice, there were pieces of misplaced paper everywhere and a cushion on her swivel office chair which had been custom designed by Kristoff's company.
"So. You have something to tell me" Elsa said firmly
"i…" kai sighed "my queen, I have been hiding letters from you"
"Proposals for marriage" Elsa nodded "how many"
Kai walked over to a locked cabinet on the other side of the room before removing a key from around his neck and unlocking it.
What seemed like thousands of letters poured out
"They have been increasing in number recently" kai explained
"Why?" Elsa demanded
"Arendelle could not afford to be joined with another country so soon" kai said in a pleading voice "your father's main goal before he died was to build up the military, however our advancements were slow seeing as nobody has use for such a thing in peaceful times"
"Why the military?" Elsa questioned as she got up and started to pick up and read through the letters slowly
"If you married then…then Arendelle would be left unprotected" kai explained "the only reason other country's won't outright attack us is because of our 'ice queen'"
"So you hid the letters to make sure that Arendelle remained safe" Elsa nodded in understanding "good job"
Kai have a relieved sigh
"But why is the world becoming desperate?" Elsa questioned
"Famine"
The word hit like a ton of bricks and Elsa paused and gave kai her full attention "excuse me?"
"There is a famine sweeping across both the west and the east at this particular moment" kai told his queen, elsa's hand subconsciously moved down to the precious amber necklace she was wearing "even the larger countries are finding it hard to cope but we remain unaffected due to unknown—"
"I've been tampering with the weather" Elsa suddenly admitted and kai raised an eyebrow, "the trolls and enchanted trees said they couldn't get their dream gardens formed in this constant barrage of ice and snow so I built the greenhouses of ice deep in the forest and I've been making it sunny by delaying winter" Elsa explained
Kai looked out of the window "I was wondering why we were having such a beautiful northern October" the man stated quietly
"What are the larger nations going to do?" Elsa asked
"They're going to want you to marry someone powerful" kai said "the ideal situation would have been to get Anna to marry too, but I made it very clear that was pushing the line and that it would give them no political leverage or claim over Arendelle's resources"
"Marriage" Elsa said slowly before shaking her head "I won't be able to get a word in edgewise"
"Well it is going to decide the future of a nation and their allies" kai nodded "if we don't play this right then this situation could worsen"
"I know" Elsa groaned, the nations were all—although relatively aligned—split up in to several subsections of their own and allying with one meant that another would starve.
Gods she wished that kai had told her sooner, she gripped her amber necklace much harder and a voice filled her head, whispering to her soothingly
"alright, this is what we're going to do…"
...OO...
i started writing this AGES ago but never quite finished...
i don't think i'll finish this but it was intended as a postable fanfic so a posable fanfiction it shall be.