Again, this is a 'when I have time and an idea' piece, so while there will be more parts, just please be patient with it.
The Lady Bartholomew cuts a swift path through the fjord, returning home after a month-long trade run to a small port in Misthaven. Liam stands at the prow, one hand casually looped around one of the lines, scanning the harbor for their berth. And possibly a welcome party.
Home.
It's a strange thing, to have been dead and reborn anew, and now finding oneself a resident of a rival kingdom. Nevermind that Arendelle as Liam knows it now was a different kingdom entirely in his youth, but the old naval officer in him still bristles at the idea of turning his back on his former home and king.
Even if that king was indirectly responsible for his death.
It's stranger still that he considers the land home, not the belly of a ship. He'd been landlocked for three hundred years, believed himself to need being at sea to be content in this new life. But he likes Arendelle and that is what brings him to call it home. A relatively new kingdom, her royal family only traces back four or five generations. Her people upheld an isolationist policy with all but the most local of her neighbors until just a few years ago. It's a small kingdom, quiet and quaint, with rich culture and kind inhabitants.
"Ahoy, the Lady Bartholomew!"
Liam grins, then waves to the woman hailing them from the harbor mouth. Quiet was not a word he would apply to Arendelle's princess, a most formidable young woman he's come to consider a good friend. Quaint, yes, and perhaps unreserved.
No, where Anna is quaint, he attributes the quiet aspect of Arendelle her queen.
Anna manages to meet the grab and her crew not long after docking. The man Liam is signed to, Greis, oversees the unloading of every trade run, which leaves Liam to release his crew to their well-earned shore leave. Most of his men have found little reason to complain for their new home port; those who did complain mostly came from a lack of companionship in port, or sharing close quarters with fellow sailors. But that's their business, or lack thereof.
Anna greets Liam with a hug. "Oh, you were gone for ages!" she exclaims when she steps back. "She's been moping, even if she does send me away when I point it out."
There could only be one she.
Liam follows Anna back to the palace at a leisurely pace, slowly readjusting to walking without counting the sea into his steps. Anna chatters on excitedly about this plan and that goings-on, things he's missed in the last month; though he's only in port but once or twice a month, he's grown used to the princess' exuberance. It's always amusing to him how different Anna and her sister are, though even with their differences, it's obvious to anyone with eyes how close they are. They seem to share a secret, silent language between them, and to watch them play off of one another often reminds him of Killian and how close they once were.
It's been several months since his return from the dead, and he has no idea if Killian has been granted the same fate. He often wonders it, but Liam normally comes to the conclusion that he'll never know for sure. The realm the Underworld had been remodeled after was nothing like the world it once resembled - something once quite like Misthaven or any of the other kingdoms Liam had grown up knowing.
No, if Killian had returned to the living, then likely he had gone back with Emma, to whatever strange land she hailed from.
And Liam will have to be content with that.
The path through the palace gates and into the palace proper is now a familiar one. Elsa's gift to him of palace quarters had been met by protests, but she'd put her foot down; something about going to drop a book to the house he'd lodged in and finding it absolutely appalling. And Liam was not in the habit of arguing with queens.
At least about particular matters like living quarters.
Anna leads him to the library, where they find Elsa with several members of her council, debating old pieces of parchment and several dozen books laid out across two long tables. She doesn't notice them with her back to them, but as Anna ducks back among the bookshelves, Liam takes a moment to admire Her Majesty.
She's as lovely as he remembers, her hair braided and coiled into an elegant knot. She's dressed in blue today, her ice gown that he particularly favors due to the manner in which it highlights her figure. Her voice is clear and calm, but Liam knows her well enough by now - her frequent use of words with no less than seven syllables betrays how irate she is about the subject at hand. He hears Anna giggle somewhere behind him when Elsa drops a ten-syllable word onto the Lord Chamberlain - Anna knows her sister as well. "Come on, they're arguing about the anniversary celebration," she whispers. She tugs on Liam's arm. "Let her get it all off her chest now and you can say hello later."
They slip out of the library and head towards Liam's rooms. "I'm sure you want a bath, I'll send someone up with hot water," Anna says. This is not unusual either; though, as Liam understands it, the palace is slowly returning to a fuller staff than it had been during his hosts' youth, Anna has taken over large portions of running the household itself and scoffs every time Liam mentions the impropriety of it all. "I made sure your leave-behind things were cleaned and pressed so you'll have something to wear for dinner, and Greis knows to send your cabin trunk to the palace. I'll have a footman bring it up, but the maids will undoubtedly want to fuss over your seams after your clothes are washed up. Honestly, it's like they've never sewn a working man's clothes before."
Anna punctuates that with a dramatic sigh and Liam holds his tongue. Likely the maids haven't ever worked on clothes for the likes of him, or at least not in a very long time. But Anna wouldn't know of things like the training of servants, particularly those for the noble houses. Princesses and serving girls grow up in very different worlds.
As Anna leaves him to change out of his working clothes and wait for his bath, he casts an uneasy eye on the quiet luxury of his quarters.
There's a stark difference in their worlds, too. Part of the reason Liam had fussed over the small suite of rooms he now occupied was that it's such a far cry from the damp hammock he'd shared with Killian as a lad. He'd had - they'd had - nothing, scraping and saving for years to buy their freedom. They'd had nothing when they'd bought their way into a naval commission for the price of a priceless jewel. And now, Liam had been reborn with nothing but a ghost ship and a crew to man her.
He feels guilty for having done nothing to earn this.
He often feels guilty for the luxury of a warm roof over his head, expensive glass windows, and a soft feather bed, when his crew settles for drafty rooms over loud taverns and mattresses stuffed with straw. There's a bellpull in every room of his suite that leads directly to the servant's hall, summoning someone as quickly as they can manage should he need anything.
He tries not to use the bellpulls. He's been a servant - a slave - though not in a great house. He remembers every uncomfortable task, every slap, strike, and touch of the whip for disobedience or tardiness.
Liam enjoys the company that the palace of Arendelle provides, the friendship of Anna and her husband, and he dearly treasures his friendship with Elsa. But he knows that if he stays for longer than a week, the opulence would drive him mad.
It's why he risks making Elsa sad every time he leaves on a job for Greis.
It's why he can never tell her of the quiet affection he has for her. She'll ask him to stay, and while he may consider Arendelle his home now, Liam doesn't know if he can ever feel comfortable here in the palace, a pauper masquerading as a prince.
Liam's almost late for dinner, having dozed off in the steaming hot bath and dressing so quickly he's not sure if he's even wearing all of the proper attire. But his worry melts when Elsa looks up from her place at the head of the table and smiles. He doesn't even have a chance to bow before she's pushed herself away from the table and hurried over to him, hugging him without preamble. Liam's reaction is almost automatic, his arms wrapping around her and holding her tight. "Anna never said you were home!"
"We just sailed in this afternoon,Your Majesty," Liam says. "The princess met our ship in the harbor and escorted me back. You were in council, so I decided to freshen up before dinner."
Elsa steps back and gives him a slightly reproachful look for his use of titles, but Liam quickly glances towards the few council members joining the royal family for dinner; there are also several men he doesn't recognize. Elsa had insisted he drop her titles very early into their friendship, but he keeps them around the company of others.
She seems to understand when she sees him look, and a faint blush appears on her cheeks. "Of course," she says. "Well, have a seat, Captain, we'll make introductions and start the first course."
He longs for a quiet dinner, just him and the royal family, but he makes it through the introductions fine and is content to listen while Anna manages the flow of conversation. The newcomers are apparently a band of Merry Men, whatever that means, separated from their fellows when a portal had malfunctioned. "A portal?" Elsa asks, tilting her head.
"Yes, milady," one of the men says. "A magic door, as it were, supposed to drop us in Sherwood Forest some months back, but we've been lost and looking ever since. Not a bad life, plenty of greedy nobles everywhere looking to share their -"
The man is elbowed into silence by his friend, but Liam suspects Anna and Elsa didn't hear the thief's admission. They're having one of their silent conversations, their attention immediately caught by the words 'magic door'.
The meat course is served in the middle of this silent debate between the sisters, startling them out of it. "Gentlemen, we should be able to help you find your way back to this Sherwood Forest," Anna says as the serving plates go around. "We have excellent maps now, though it might take some time to find the right one and have it copied for you."
This news is met with great cheer and Liam catches Elsa's eye with a smile. It's a bit concerning to see that hers doesn't quite reach her eyes, but he lets it go. She doesn't like hiding what bothers her, he'll discover it sooner rather than later.
He's stuffed from dinner and tired from the long journey, but he joins the royal family for post-dinner drinks in their parlor. Their guests have declined, which makes Liam breathe easier. At first he wonders at his friends' silence, but when the last footman leaves them and closes the door behind him, Anna bursts out, "That sounds like how we came home from Storybrooke. And didn't Robin have a group of friends he called the Merry Men? Are they the same people?"
"Oh good, it wasn't just me thinking that," Kristoff says. "I mean, how many magic doors or Merry Men can there be? How many guys want to be called merry?"
Elsa shrugs, holding her goblet in both hands. "If the sorcerer or sorceress is powerful enough, I suppose there can be as many magic doors as they can cast. I can't speak for the thieves, though."
"Oh you did catch that," Kristoff comments.
"The Dark One couldn't cast a portal, remember? It's why he needed the magic hat box - and the curse, or that's how Emma explained it," Anna says.
"Perhaps the Dark One's less powerful than he believes. Or he's just stupid. I'm willing to believe either after he locked me in that vault for being 'dangerous magic even he couldn't understand'."
Liam's caught on a few words, though. "Wait, just a moment," he says, gesturing. "Storybrooke? You've been to Storybrooke?"
Elsa and Anna look at him curiously. "Yes," Elsa says slowly. "It's a bit of a long story -"
"- seriously long," Anna adds.
Elsa side-eyes her. "But yes, we've been there," she tells Liam. "It's a very odd place, but the people are good - they're royals from Misthaven, actually, a very large number of them. They were cursed there a long time ago. Why? Have you been?"
Liam shakes his head. "No, but - Emma, you said? Is she blond, looks quite like you actually, Elsa? Bit of a temper?"
As soon as he starts to describe her, Elsa smiles so wide he fears she might hurt herself. "You know Emma!"
"Elsa called her prickly," Anna says, "but I guess 'a bit of a temper' works too."
Liam nods. "Yes, I suppose prickly is a rather adept description as well. Yes, I met her in the Underworld."
"Oh, gods -"
"No," he says quickly, pained at the horrified look on Elsa's face. "No, not like - she was there to rescue my brother. If you know Emma, you must know him, Killian Jones?"
Elsa looks as if she might want to down her entire goblet of sherry before they talk any further, though Anna could probably do with a pick-me-up as well. Kristoff seems less fazed by the news. Liam gets up and refills everyone's cups, then sits to explain.
It starts to snow in the parlor when he mentions his initial disapproval of Emma. His heart sinks as he explains his betrayal and he can't meet anyone in the eye as he finishes his tale; he hadn't told them the full story of his rebirth before, still slightly ashamed of his behavior and unsure whether or not these people would care about the details.
It seems they care very much.
When he gathers the courage to look up, he can see the struggle on Anna's face. She's torn between anger and pity and sorrow. Elsa's resting her head in her hands, the snow mostly centered around her. "It's been months," she says quietly. "And I doubt we'll ever find out, but... Liam, you're the only person Grand Pabbie's ever heard of to be restored to the same state you were when you were last alive. Reincarnation is rare as it is, so if Killian even could be reincarnated... Oh, Emma, she must be heartbroken."
"She seemed to be set on a particular plan, something about splitting her heart," Liam says, hating that he's caused her so much distress.
"It's been months," Elsa says again. "Even if she's not still down there, how long before they could escape with his soul? If his body was unpreserved -"
The thought makes Liam's stomach turn over.
He may have doomed his brother after all.
"We could ask," Anna says quietly. "The Merry Men, when we give them the maps. We could ask them if Emma came home with Killian or not."
"Or they could have no idea who we're talking about."
"Kristoff! She's their princess - the Savior!"
Princess? Liam's heart sinks further, thinking of what he'd said to her - he stood by it still, that his little brother had always struggled to remain on the right path, but -
If he'd known Emma was royalty, would have have spoken differently?
He's not sure. Princesses and servants come from very different worlds, and sometimes a firm reminder of the reality outside of the glittering world of the nobility is a necessity that they don't often get.
It takes some time for Anna to calm Elsa down enough to stop the snow, but by that point Liam's exhausted and he can see even Anna's cheery nature begin to slip into weariness. Kristoff escorts his wife out to their suite, leaving Liam to offer his arm to Elsa. "I'm sorry," he says as he walks her to her rooms.
"No, you didn't know," she says, sounding every bit as tired as he felt. "And I'm glad - I'm glad I know now. And I'm glad she's realized how much she cares for him. I know you said you don't approve, but - Oh, Liam, you should have seen her - wearing the strangest gown I've ever seen, so much of her legs on display - but she looked so happy. He paid her proper court, flowers and escorting her out. A bit more unsupervised than I expected for a pirate paying court to a crown princess," Elsa adds, "though David did his best in that regard. She turned him down, I think she's used to taking care of herself. But even if you don't approve, they do make one another happy."
There was a very strong part of Liam arguing in favor of kicking himself. The Crown Princess, gods. What on Earth has Killian gotten himself into? "She's still the reason he died," he says, feeling mulish with the point.
"I'm sure there's more to the story than that. The truth is always less black and white than we'd like." Elsa stops him in front of the entrance to her rooms. She smiles, a bit sad. "Still, thank you for telling me. And I'm glad you're home."
She rises up on the tips of her toes and presses a kiss to his cheek. Elsa smiles a little more brightly now, though, and whispers goodnight as she closes herself into her rooms.
He makes it back to his suite in a bit of a daze. He undresses and climbs into bed, exhaustion pulling at his bones, but sleep comes with difficulty. His mind is racing too much, so many questions and warring feelings left unanswered.