Chapter One: Broken
While Adrendelle was a monarchy, there hadn't been a monarchy for several years. As the late King and Queen had created a council to assist them, however, the issue was solved more easily than it might have otherwise been. The council had ruled during the regency period before their new Queen could take the throne, and now, Elsa could tell that they were not impressed with her.
Councilor Karl Leonardsen, the head of economics, had been glaring at Elsa since the moment she had arrived in the Council's chamber and sat down amongst them for her first meeting. The room was small, circular, with bookshelves and maps taking up all of the walls. The only other feature of note was the large oak table in the center of the room, built to allow ten to sit around it. At the moment there were nine people in the room: two guards standing by the only entrance and exit; Elsa, who was looking over a series of documents at the moment and ignoring the glares; Councilor Steensen, the head of agriculture; Councilor Leonardsen, who was continuing to glare; Councilor Erickson, the head of foreign relations; Councilor Arnesen, the head of internal relations; Councilor Haakonsson, the head of justice; and Councilor Hummel, the head of military.
Once Elsa had finished looking over the reports, she lifted her gaze from them to settle on her Council. "Leonardsen," she began, trying her best to ignore the look he was giving her. "I suppose that you wish to begin this meeting?"
"Yes," he began, his voice trembling with anger. "I don't suppose that you had any real, rational, reason for cutting off trade with Weselton?"
"Besides the actions of their Duke, no. I don't feel that I need another reason at the moment," she answered honestly. Memories of recent events flashed through her mind, unbidden. With a moment of slow breathing, she calmed such feelings.
"Well," Leonardsen continued, "because of your cutting them off, we now have to trade with France, and I cannot guarantee that we can continue with trading if we continue getting the same turnouts from there. Simply put, you forced Arendelle out of agreeable trades, ones that we needed. The amount of people without jobs has grown from this."
"What exactly have prices risen on?" Elsa asked him. Having been isolated for three years, and then gone completely for several weeks, there hadn't been much time to look over the state of Arendelle's imports. She privately wished that she had done so during her time on her own.
"Foodstuffs, mainly fruits that can't grow in this climate," Leonardsen answered. "The freeze also destroyed a good portion of our crops."
"Steensen," the queen turned to the short, plump woman that was on her left. "What can you tell me about the state of the farms?"
"Your Grace," Steensen began, with an air much calmer than the other councilor's had been. "The worst of the damage was near the palace itself, and in the close-by farmlands. A circle around ten kilometers in diameter worth of crops, centered around the capital, were utterly destroyed. Others have merely been weakened by the blizzard. Hence, the need to import new crops."
"Not to mention that with the sea frozen over at such an unexpected time, several of our ships are now in mal-repair," Councilor Hummel mentioned. "I need workers to fix those."
"And none of you bothered to check with one another?" Elsa asked rhetorically. "Start hiring people to begin repairs on the ships, as well as more people to help with replanting the farms. That way there are less people on the streets, and our fleets are fixed. Leonardsen, I'm sure that you are capable of finding ways to pay them."
The Councilor nodded, reluctant to say anything else, and pulled a sheet of parchment to himself, and began to write. "What of foreign relations, anything new to report?" the queen asked, turning once again to another.
"Nothing new. At the moment, we suspect that the other nations are evaluating the, change in scenery," Councilor Erickson said. "Another matter of importance, the British have lost their colony in North America."
"Their bid for independence was successful," Elsa wondered aloud, surprised. "Any thoughts on how that will change the current political climate?"
"They'll likely look into other colonies after this, maybe in the Pacific."
"Alright," Elsa let out a slight breath. With the British controlling the seas, there had always been a sense of pressure coming from them. Still, being thrown out of North America would hopefully give Arendelle some breathing room, especially to move their ships throughout the seas. "And anything else?"
"Corona had members of its royal family here, during the event," Erickson began, and Elsa noticed how he intentionally went out of his way to not refer to her actions by any sort of name. She silently thanked him for that, not wishing to remember what had happened. "They are fine, at this moment, and back in their homeland. They have expressed a desire, however, to send members of the royal family to Arendelle in some months for the purposes of a diplomatic visit. I have yet to give approval for such a visit, and was wishing for your approval."
Elsa nodded, keeping silent as she thought. There were dozens of small kingdoms that had yet to be gobbled up by the larger nations. Corona was one such place, located on the eastern coast of the Pyrenees. From what Elsa understood, their had been a succession crisis for over a dozen years. Like how Arendelle had yet to be taken into a larger nation, so Corona had avoided both France and Spain for years. The two had been allied for some years, as the smaller nations of the world often times had to stick with one another.
"Tell them that they are welcome whenever they wish to come," Elsa finally decided. "I suppose that they would prefer to further our alliance."
"I would hope as much," Erickson admitted. "I'll send the documents."
"Good. Do you have any ideas as to who they'll send?" Elsa asked. The last thing she needed was someone like the recent bout of diplomats in her life again. There were nights when she would wake up, frost covering her sheets, screaming as she remembered the horrid days that had just occurred.
"They're daughter has little experience in the world," Erickson replied. "They have mentioned potentially sending her." Elsa nodded mutely, not having anything else to say on the matter.
"And on internal relations?" Elsa asked, eager for the morning's meeting to be over. There had been several meetings scheduled in the afternoon, and, being her first day truly in the role, Elsa had wanted to take things at a slower pace than she expected she would be forced to take them at later.
"Nothing hugely," Councilor Arnesen answered. He was a rather stout man, with a double chin and a large onyx beard that covered most of his face. He was the one member of the Council that Elsa had met with regularly before. She had made acquaintances with the others before, but it had been her personal mission to make sure that she met with Arnesen several times before she assumed the throne. "The people have reacted, relatively well, I would say. Their loyalty to your parents has extended on to you." Good, Elsa thought to herself, the last thing I need on top of everything else is for an unruly mob.
"If there are no other matters of great import, then I shall take my leave," Elsa said. There were no other voices rising, so she stood, as did the others. They all bowed to her, and with that she turned to leave.
After a few hallways of turns, she heard someone walking beside her. Elsa turned to look, and saw that Arnesen was struggling to keep up with her. "Councilor," she said. "Is there anything that you need of me? I would think that the meeting went well. Relatively speaking." In truth, she had hoped that the others would be a little more accommodating, but she supposed it was better than demanding her abdication.
"You haven't seen much of what else they speak of," Arnesen replied. "You know how they can overrule your decisions so long as all of us vote unanimously?" After Elsa nodded, he continued. "They doubt that you can perform well. They intend on overruling you at every chance they get. Leonardsen is more blatant than the others, but they all intend on reining you in."
"And you?" Elsa asked. She noticed a thin veil of icy mist coming from her hands, and after a moment of focus it faded.
"I intend on remaining loyal to the family," Arnesen answered. "Your parents were good to me when times were hard for me. I intend on repaying them to the best of my abilities. Still, the others could remove me from the Council if they wanted to, and replace me with someone more to their liking."
Elsa gave a small smile, hoping to bring the older man's spirits up, and placed her hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, Arnesen. It won't come to that."
He shook his head sadly. "Don't be so sure. This nation may look strong from the outside, despite what has happened. There is too much in-fighting, though. In truth, Arendelle is broken. A structure still made out of the scraps that it had once been. All it takes is a strong push to knock us over."
The rest of this fanfiction can be read at: /works/1137946/chapters/2301353 (put this after archive of our own on the URL).
Please do so (it has about 10 chapters so far).
Update: Thank you to all the people who told me that the link was broken, it has been fixed. And apparently, after looking at an update, it hasn't. For whatever reason it keeps on deleting the first bit of the link, so I'll just tell you all that it's on Archive Of Our Own, under the same name. It has quite a few chapters on there, and I regularly update it there.