"Elsa!" the princess of Arendelle shouted excitedly. She was only halfway up the wing's main spiral staircase but had already begun to call for her sister and quicken her pace. In her haste, Anna had to remind herself not to get careless and lose her grip on the recently-fitted icy handrails.
Anna loved reminding herself of the many things that had changed around her over the past few weeks. The castle walls which had been the boundaries of the redhead's world for so long were only vaguely recognizable under Elsa's redesigns, yielding many episodes of confusion and then excitement when she momentarily forgot that dinner was not to be eaten alone in her room anymore - instead with guests in the dining hall - or that she did not need to ask for her favorite chocolates to be brought in from the market - she could fetch them herself, now.
And that was not even to mention the truly mysterious lands that had opened up beyond Arendelle proper - places she had only dreamed of before waiting to be discovered and studied by the habitually curious princess.
Anna kept track of the changes and lessons - relished in them, even. There was so much to learn, now, and although the princess had never thought of herself as an intellectual she found herself more studious than ever in the grand class that was open-gated life.
"Elsa!" Anna yelled again once she had reached the staircase's last few steps, confident that her sister would be able to hear her by then.
"Yes?" came a quiet response from Elsa's room.
The barely audible response, to Anna, meant that the queen was sitting at the desk in the back of her quarters again, toiling away on something important. The management of the kingdom was valuable and rewarding work, to be sure, if not a little time-consuming.
Indeed, the queen had dedicated most of her hours under the title to the betterment of Arendelle, signing off on a multitude of official documents and reading reports from the kingdom's many departments and experts each day, often at the expense of free-time. The princess had made no secret of her disapproval of such strict work-ethic, yet her protests seemed to have little to no effect on the resolute leader thus far.
Anna decided against slowing down as she bounced off of the final step, planning to fly through the open doorway into the room and wrestle Elsa from her official duties if she had to.
"I've got a very important idea that absolutely needs your approval, so you'd better put down that treaty and listen-"
Anna made the quick turn from the hallway into Elsa's room only to find her sister already standing at attention, nowhere near her beloved work desk.
The queen's room was easily distinguishable from the rest of the castle. Despite most of the grounds' recent redecoration at Elsa's hands, her own room was set apart by its unique aesthetic. Whereas the queen had taken special care to incorporate her talents into the preexisting foundations of the rest of the royal abode, she had freed herself of such restrictions when reimagining her bedroom. It was the only place in the castle where her powers were allowed to reign fully supreme and unfettered by the restrictions of the non-magical, resulting in a carefully-raised ice floor topped with a collection of translucent, light blue furniture sculpted by her majesty's powers alone, all tied together by winding, subtle designs of ice which danced across the chamber's walls in curved strands that eventually made way for right angles, unifying its design simultaneously under the banners of both delicacy and harshness.
To the left of the doorway was an azure skeleton of a bookcase. Its two shelves were sparse, populated only by the mostly unbound reports that Elsa was working through at the moment, for the queen preferred to do her reading in the library now in one of her own small exercises of newly afforded freedoms.
Next to the bookcase, in the corner, was a workstation, a conjured recreation of her father's old oaken masterpiece which she had inherited years before but recently retired to one of the castle's galleries in its wear and tear. Papers and pens neatly lined the edges of its surface in a peculiar yet orderly pattern, the only truly open space on the desk being the few square inches of exposed coldness directly in front of the sturdy yet comfortable chair that Elsa had designed with her rigorous work schedule in mind.
In the other far corner, a mirror was cradled upon a slightly raised floor, facing the queen's bed and stretching halfway up to the incredibly high ceiling. It had taken Elsa several attempts to get the layered ice to reflect correctly, however what resulted from her hard work was a slightly tilted rounded rectangle that threw back its surroundings with more clarity than any glass in the kingdom.
Elsa often thought to herself proudly that staring into the looking glass was almost like peering through an open door. Many times, she fancied that she could have mistaken the mirror for a portal if it weren't for her own image watching back from within.
Only two aspects remained from the room's previous iteration. The first was the latticed glass window that covered nearly the entirety of the far wall, inviting sunlight to bounce freely off of Elsa's crystalline walls and soak into the deep blue of the floor, making the whole chamber sparkle during the daylight hours. The other was the extravagant bed that the queen had slept in since she was a child, fifteen feet wide and with a mattress and pillows imported from places where birds' feathers were much softer than they tended to be in Arendelle. Anna noticed a small group of wrinkles at the edge of the bed's topmost cover where Elsa looked to have just risen from a still-frosty seat in front of her mirror.
"Oh, good," Anna said, the grin on her face, spring in her step, and her unblinking eyes all serving as worthy ambassadors for her inner excitement. "You're not even busy."
"I..." Elsa began, her voice still quiet and trailing. "No," she coughed softly and to the side, clearing her throat, "no, I was just taking a break."
"You do realize that you can take your breaks outside of your room, right?"
"I was just about to come downstairs," Elsa tried to smile, the mind behind her practiced face quickly compartmentalizing thought after thought - of the kingdom's day-to-day operation, of her continuing studies, and, most of all, of the mirror - to focus on her dear sister.
"Anyways, do you want to hear the idea?" Anna asked. She finished her approach to her sister, pulling Elsa into a casual hug which had become an odd, meaningful sort of normal between them.
"I'd love to," Elsa said, still attempting to focus. She wanted to hear Anna's idea - that much was true - however the queen couldn't help but remain distracted by other matters, even when she allowed herself breaks. She led her sister to the bed and they both sat on the chilled cover where the queen had been resting.
Elsa was unable to keep her eyes from gravitating back towards the mirror, but upon seeing the reflection of Anna displayed she quickly managed to recover, turning her whole body towards her sister but still failing to keep the mirror out of her peripheral vision.
"Let's hear it," she encouraged finally.
"Well, there I was this afternoon, wandering through the marketplace with the royal ice master," Anna started, forcing her lips to turn down for dramatic effect. "We weren't looking for anything in particular - Kristoff calls it 'window-shopping', which is funny, since there are no windows - but, anyways, we were just there with the people of Arendelle. You know, all those people who you've been working so hard to take care of since you came back?"
Elsa once again shot her sister a facade of a smile as her mind dissembled the princess's speech, processing it in a way that had become the norm after years of self-loathing isolation.
When she had been lucky to get a conversation each day it was difficult for the girl to avoid hanging on each word said, studying the way that her tutors had structured the lesson or the nuances of her parents' voices when they told her that they loved her. The analytical habit was one that Elsa was still unable to shake, and, instead of being eliminated with her increased frequency of interaction, her mind now merely had more material to work with. Anna's words swirled around and around through her sister's thoughts, simultaneously retaining their meanings and taking on new, imagined, terrible forms.
Came back.
"Yes?" Elsa stammered, hoping that the princess wouldn't leave it at that.
"Well," Anna said carefully, wrinkling her forehead, "They all just struck me as so happy, so I was thinking that maybe perhaps possibly it'd be definitely nice for you to see that, too," she finished quickly, her thoughtfulness sticking to composition over delivery.
"See what, again?"
"Arendelle!" Anna practically cheered, excited by the mere fact that her vague idea hadn't been rejected to begin with. "The people of Arendelle, that is. I mean, you've done so much for all of them, what with all of the new trade agreements and..." Anna paused, only to resume seconds later with a nervous giggle, "you know, that other stuff you do."
"All of that is my duty as queen, Anna," Elsa dismissed the praise.
"Yeah, yeah, I know, that's what you always say," her sister shot back. "But don't you want to go out and see what's come of all of your hard work in here?"
"Not particularly."
"Of course you don't," Anna whined, dropping her shoulders forward in a characteristically exaggerated gesture.
"Anna," Elsa said, her voice measured and confident and royal - not at all an accurate representation of her still recovering mind, "you must understand that I rule Arendelle for our people, not for the thanks of our people. I need no confirmation of success as long as success is being had."
"Yeah, but..."
Anna was once again thinking over how to put her thoughts into words, gazing out the window to her left and envying her sister's ability to speak so effortlessly.
"It's just that I haven't seen you outside since you put the ice-skating rink in the courtyard," the younger sister ventured, turning back to Elsa. "Have you even been out of the castle since then?"
Now it was the queen's turn to look away. Her eyes didn't wander over towards the window but dashed right for the mirror, examining the sisters' images in the ice.
"That was a whole month ago, Elsa."
"I just enjoy my time most when I'm alone or with-"
"Well, we all know that," Anna said.
The princess instantly regretted what she had said, even though Elsa showed no visible reaction apart from a drop in volume when she finished, "you."
The damage was done. Both of them went silent for a while.
"I'm... I'm not going to make you do anything that you don't want to do," Anna finally said, her words weighty. "If you like to stay up here and be alone most of the time that's fine, okay? Really. I would just love if you'd come out every once in a while, too."
"I do come out," Elsa answered, turning back to her sister with a voice not quite as confident as it had been before. "We read together yesterday. And remember when we showed Olaf the furnace room the day before? Not to mention the fact that you and I spend every meal together, now, and-"
"I know, I know, we spend more time together now than we have in forever," Anna clarified quickly. "But your people want to see their queen, too! The trouble's all behind us, now, so we should be making up for lost time, not going back to how things were!"
The princess's voice was not aggressive - actually, it was as hopeful as ever - but her words alone managed to make up for it, providing Elsa's head with a few more devastating things to put on a loop.
Lost time. How things were.
The queen didn't speak. She had to focus her entire being into keeping her expression neutral.
"And you know what?" Anna continued, mistaking Elsa's pain-induced silence for a concession. "I think that you want to see your people, too. It'll be good for you," Anna was grinning again, sensing that she had won.
And she had, just not in a way that she had intended or even recognized.
"So what do you think? Come on. Give me something."
Elsa sighed, but the chilly release gave her no reprieve from her guilt. "You don't..." the queen started but found herself at an utter loss for words for the first time in the conversation.
Once again she sighed, knowing that she wouldn't be able to finish what she wanted to say - not yet, at least. There were too many thoughts for even her to crystallize into speech without more practice.
She glanced over in the direction of the mirror again.
"Okay."
"You don't sound very into it."
"Are you never satisfied?"
"I'll take it," Anna said hastily, fearing that her sister may change her mind.
"So you would like for me to go shopping?"
"Well, about that..." Anna bit her lip in a way that she knew at least Kristoff could never resist, preparing for what she had guessed would be the hardest part of her proposal to sell to her sister. "That's the second part of my idea, you see."
"Second part?"
"Yeah," Anna continued. "I didn't know if you'd agree to leave the castle, so I figured I'd make sure that's a lock first before I moved to the second part."
Elsa's eyes widened.
"And it is now," Anna nodded, trying to reassure the both of them, "so now we can proceed to the festival."
"The festival?" the queen asked, surprised. She didn't like the sound of that.
"Yeah, that's right, the festival," Anna crossed her arms. "I thought that we could have some sort of a celebration. That would be the perfect excuse for you to get out, don't you think?"
Elsa considered it. "What would we be celebrating?" she asked cautiously.
"So many things!" Anna knew that she had to tread carefully once again, but hid her care with enthusiasm. "Arendelle is doing better than it's done, like, ever - at least that's what I've heard - and the coronation's festivities were cut a little short, so..."
The queen turned away from Anna's expectant smile and to the mirror again, her gaze unfocused. "I don't think that this is a good idea," she said, the words themselves almost yet another sigh.
"I'm so glad that you're back, Elsa. I'm so glad that everything's so much better now," Anna somehow managed to make things worse, placing her soft fingers on her sister's shoulder and gently turning it back so that they were facing each other again. "Everyone else is, too. That's what we'll be celebrating."
Better now.
And thus Elsa was once again defeated, helpless in the face of Anna's unintentional summoning of her guilt. She looked for any hint of manipulation in her sister's eyes already knowing that she would find none. Anna's words were innocent, as always, but similarly never failed to take the queen's mind back to the shut doors and the storm.
Elsa could not refuse the princess - not again.
"I understand," she said.
"What? Really?" Anna could scarcely control herself in excitement.
"I place you in charge of the preparations," Elsa said, her face barely moving again, having fully reassumed the graceful form which she had practiced for so very long.
"Elsa!" Anna squealed. She pulled the queen into another firm hug. "I'm so happy!"
Elsa returned the embrace wholeheartedly.
"And that makes me happy."