A Prince's Confession
The final rays of sunlight were hidden from the prince's view by the building in front of him, casting a dark pall over him. The glass of its windows, colored and shaped into designs intended to glorify some greater power than the prince could understand, only looked black from where he stood; black but for the faint flicker of the candles being lit inside, their glow barely visible.
But the stones and windows of this place were no darker than those of the castle where he had spent so much of his life. And within these walls was the only man in the Southern Isles who could answer his questions.
Prince Hans Westergaard, thirteenth son of King Haakon of the Southern Isles, approached the doors of the cathedral, raised his hand in a closed fist, and rapped his gloved knuckles on the thick timber in three knocks.
It could not have been more than a few minutes that the prince stood there in the cold shadow of that holy place, feeling some of the first few flakes of snow brushing against his right cheek.
But to Hans, it felt like an eternity. The cold northerly wind reminded him of his failures a mere five months ago, when he had fought so hard to win a crown, and his freedom.
You shall not commit murder.
You shall not steal.
Hans knew the scriptures well enough, though he had been foolish to believe that any man would actually live by them. That revelation of his former naivete, when Anna lay freezing in Hans' arms, pleading for the love that he could not give her... that nobody could give her...
That revelation had turned him into everything that he hated about his brothers.
And even so, he had failed where they surely would have succeeded. How? Why?
They, of course, would say that he could not do anything right. They had jeered at him so cruelly for his powerlessness against the Snow Queen's magic... his failure to win her hand in marriage... his failure to win her kingdom...
But there had to be some greater reason, Hans knew. Something had stopped his attempt on Queen Elsa's life: Something that he couldn't have predicted, and only the priest who was just now opening the door could tell him what. Hans was prepared to explain all, even confess what the old priest would probably call his darkest sins, if only he could learn...
And never fail so miserably again...
"Thank you for receiving me, Father Kierkegaard," Hans said to him, passing across the threshold into the soft candle-light of the sanctuary. The priest's face was lined with age, but his grey eyes pierced Hans like blades of steel as they followed him.
"Many who were lost have come to me for direction, Prince Hans. I see that you are troubled. Heaven willing, I shall help you however I may."
Hans walked up to one of the benches near the door and sat. "Do you recall the coronation of Queen Elsa of Arendelle?" he asked the priest. "Much happened between then and my journey back here to the Southern Isles, and if I don't speak of it... I'm not sure what will happen."
"Yes. She had been kept in seclusion for most of her childhood for reasons unknown, until she revealed at her coronation that she had a gift for ice magic," said Father Kierkegard. "For a few days, summer turned into winter as she conjured her deathly cold magic upon the land, until her sister Anna convinced her to reverse the spell and restore summer. Is this what you speak of?"
"That... wasn't exactly what happened," Hans said. "Queen Elsa fled Arendelle after revealing her magic, and Princess Anna set out to find her and, as you say, convince her to reverse the spell, but... Let me start with my own journey there, and what I sought to accomplish...
"The official reason for my journey to Arendelle," Hans continued, "was to court Elsa and convince her to marry me, but soon after my arrival I learned that Elsa had a younger sister, Anna, who had apparently spent her childhood in seclusion as well, and who seemed... ecstatic... at the gates being opened for her sister's coronation. Anna was very pleased to meet me, and I suspected that it would be far easier for me to marry Anna and... arrange an accident to ensure Anna's coronation... than to try to marry Elsa."
"You speak of murder." Father Kierkegard's whisper struck Hans like four hammer-blows, in a way that a shout could not have done.
Hans hesitated. The condemnation struck him like ice, for Hans had not initially intended physical harm upon the queen... but in the end, it hadn't mattered; in the end, he attempted regicide, and his more benign intentions earlier had only paved his road to hell.
"Murder, yes," he finally said, declining to argue the point. He was here at Father Kierkegaard's pleasure, and he still needed the priest's counsel desperately enough to forfeit the last vestiges of his pride in exchange. "While Anna was eager to marry me... too eager, in fact... Elsa did not consent to the marriage. It was during an argument between them on this subject... one that I find all too familiar... that Elsa revealed her icy magical powers, and then fled to the mountains.
"Anna insisted on following her; I don't know why. If one of my brothers had the sort of power that I saw Elsa conjure that night, I would have stayed as far away from him as I possibly could. Whatever the case, she took her horse and rode off in search of her sister; at her request, I took charge of the governance of Arendelle in her absence."
Hans looked up at the white-haired priest, who was looking back at him with the same intense scrutiny as before.
"I did what I could to keep the people safe from the cold, even insisting that the emissaries of the other kingdoms contribute to the upkeep of Arendelle. The people were cold, of course, and needed food and warm clothing, which we provided. The Duke of Weaseltown was-"
"Wesselton," Father Kierkegard corrected.
"-particularly reluctant," Hans continued, "to give away the woolen cloaks that he had brought for trade, but lives were at stake."
"You would murder a queen," the priest whispered again, "yet you would not allow a serf to die of cold."
"Nor a soldier," Hans added. "The next day, Anna's horse returned without her. The people insisted that I send soldiers to search for her and Elsa, and I agreed. The Duke of Weaseltown ordered-"
"Wesselton," the priest corrected again.
"-two of his soldiers to accompany my men, and we set out. Their orders, as issued by the Duke, were 'to end this winter.'
"High in the north mountain we found a fortress made entirely of ice, and there we found Elsa. The Weaseltown soldiers fought-"
Father Kierkegard remained silent.
"-particularly hard against her, but there was no overcoming her icy magic. No doubt they feared, as their Duke did, that Elsa was some monster rather than a human; and Elsa was just about to kill them with her magic when..."
Hans paused and looked the grandfatherly priest in the eyes again.
"You did not kill her," the priest said. "I know that."
"I told her not to become the monster that they feared she was." Hans swallowed to compensate for his dry mouth. "It might have been so much simpler for me if she were... but then again, perhaps not. I thought it better to pass up an opportunity for regicide, of which I might have many more over the years, than to risk leaving the kingdom in endless winter.
"We captured Elsa and brought her back to Arendelle, and I tried to convince her to undo the spell, but she insisted that she couldn't. She pleaded with me to let her go.
"Though we hadn't found Anna in the ice palace, by sheer luck she had made her way back to Arendelle on her own, and the servants hurried her to me. She asked me to kiss her, saying that Elsa had cast some icy curse on her heart, and that only an act of true love could save her."
"But you could not give her true love's kiss," Father Kierkegard whispered. "Could you?"
"Indeed I could not. And here I had a more promising opportunity than I could have dreamed of. Elsa had used her magic to curse Anna, just as I had suspected that she might, and Anna's hours were numbered. The servants had seen Anna's discolored hair and felt her chilled body, so they too knew what had happened to her. All I had to do was wait for Anna to die and execute Elsa for killing her, and Arendelle would be mine."
Hans felt rather than saw the steel gaze of the priest. "That did not happen either," the priest said.
"Elsa escaped from my custody," Hans continued, "and fled across the frozen fjord. I pursued her as fast as I could, but if anything, her magic was stronger than ever. Finally I found her, and finally I had the opportunity for which I had been waiting. But just as I was about to strike her down...
"I don't know what happened next." Hans swallowed again. "I think I saw Anna coming between me and Elsa and raising her hand to try to block my attack. She must have been so solidly frozen that my sword could not even scratch her. In fact..." Hans reached into a pouch on his belt and drew forth a thick cloth holding several shards of steel, one of which was quite clearly the hilt of a sword. Despite the relative warmth of the sanctuary, the sharp edges of the shards were coated in frost. "...the sword shattered, and the pieces have been as cold as ice ever since that day.
"All I know is that when I awoke, Queen Elsa and Anna were both alive and well, and summer had been restored, as though Elsa had never cursed the land... or Anna."
Father Kierkegard looked curiously at the shards of steaming, ice-cold metal but did not touch them. He turned his eyes to the young prince.
"Peace be with you," he whispered, and Hans flinched at the sound. If Father Kierkegaard's judgment earlier had struck him like an icy hammer, this offer of peace struck his heart like blades of fire.
"I did not come here for peace," the young prince growled, and again he raised his head to meet the old priest's gaze. "I came here for answers. Why would Anna come to Elsa's defense after Elsa froze her heart? What act of true love could have saved her? How could Elsa have reversed the storm after my attempt on her life when she clearly couldn't or wouldn't before?"
The priest held the prince's gaze patiently. "If what you have said about your attempt on Elsa's life is true," he whispered again, his "t"s cutting the air like the frozen shards lying near the prince's hip, "and in particular, that Anna tried to protect Elsa by blocking your attack," he added, "then I believe that despite all appearances, Anna truly loved Elsa. That she was willing to stand before your sword, rather than let you kill Elsa, recalls to me a reading from the Book of Johannes: 'There is no greater act of true love than to lay down my life for my friends.' As the Book speaks true, such an act too might thaw a frozen heart."
"Despite everything, Anna and Elsa love each other..." Hans uttered the words slowly, as though reciting an unfamiliar language. "No greater act of true love than to lay down my life for my friends." He spoke more clearly now. "For Anna to be willing to come to Elsa's defense... that's much different from me and my brothers. I... gravely misjudged them." He stood up and wrapped the shards in their cloth again. "To lay down my life for my friends... Like a soldier who willingly stands between the enemy and his own comrades, I suppose. Is that an act of true love?"
"It is of a much different sort than true love's kiss," replied Father Kierkegard, "but yes. To put the needs of another before your own needs, even to risk your life in saving the lives of others... Yes, that is true love."
"Thank you, Father," Hans said. "I think I understand what happened better now. I did indeed misjudge Queen Elsa and Princess Anna."
"You have made unwise decisions, but that is the first step on the path to wisdom," said Father Kierkegard. "Your heart is good, Prince Hans."
"Princess Anna claimed that the only frozen heart in Arendelle was mine," said Hans as he tucked the cloth-covered metal shards into his pouch again. "Even so, I appreciate your confidence."
"Faith," corrected the priest, leading Hans back to the door. "Even if Princess Anna was right about you, yours is not the only frozen heart in the Southern Isles, Prince Hans. One raised among vipers may be forgiven for acting as a viper does, until he learns better."
"Now I take my leave to return to a nest of fourteen of them," sighed Hans.
"You know your parents and your brothers better than I, Prince Hans," said the priest. "Though you did not come seeking peace, I bid you depart in peace." He opened the door. "Farewell."
"Farewell, Father," said Hans. "Peace be also with you."
The prince stepped over the threshold, out of the light of the candles illuminating the inner walls of the sanctuary and into the darkness outside.
He walked toward the dark walls of the castle as slowly as he could, dreading each step. No love from brother or sister awaited him there. He envied the bond between Queen Elsa of Arendelle and her sister Anna, the bond that he had so rashly attempted to cut asunder, not even knowing what it truly was until it was too late.
And yet... they had clearly been angry at each other on the night of the coronation...
What have I ever done to you?
That's enough, Anna!
No! Why? Why are you shutting me out? Why are you shutting the world out? What do you fearso much?
I said, that's enough!
When he was younger, Hans had had similar arguments with his own brothers, though fewer with Lars than with the others.
Lars... Hans could still remember the last time they had talked, when Lars had learned of Hans' failures last summer. Of the twelve princes, Lars' reaction to the news of Hans' failure had wounded Hans most deeply. For though Lars had not scoffed at Hans for failing to woo Elsa, nor ridiculed his miserable attempt on her life, nor even had a hint of such mockery in his eyes at they met Hans'... what was in Lars' eyes was a thousand times worse: Fear.
Never before in his life had Hans seen Lars so afraid. Worst of all, it was as clear as ice to Hans exactly what—or rather, whom—Lars was so afraid of.
The one brother whom Hans trusted most now feared him most, and Lars didn't know the half of what Hans had done; Queen Elsa's accusations had been mercifully vague, and until tonight Hans had never expounded on them to anyone.
Lars was not going to like what Hans had to tell him, but afraid or not, he was the best brother Hans had. He was currently visiting their father's castle, and Hans knew exactly where to find him.