Chapter 7

Early the next morning Sarah and Ruth, leaving Alex still sleeping, went in search of breakfast. They wandered the halls of Arendelle Castle, taking random turns in hopes of returning to the dining room and found the library, a picture gallery, and increasing hunger and frustration. They finally encountered a guard and were led to the dining room where they found Queen Elsa finishing her breakfast. She waved them over so they could join her.

"Good morning Your Majesty," said Sarah.

"Good morning. How was your rest?"

"It was wonderful, Your Majesty. It was a relief to sleep in a bed that doesn't move."

"Excellent. I have to get to work, so Anna will be helping you coordinate the servants so you can open up your new home and start setting up Ruth's workshop and Alex's lab."

"Thank you Your Majesty. Do you know when Princess Anna will be available?" asked Sarah.

"Anna usually sleeps as if she were drugged. She'll probably wake about the same time as Alex does," said Elsa with a sly grin, and she left the room.

"Wait," thought Ruth, "is she teasing us?"

"And so we plunge into a maze of mirrors," thought Sarah, her eyes narrowing. "She knows that I know that she knows that I drugged Alex. I wonder if she knows why?"

"Ruth, tell me precisely what you and Princess Anna discussed last night."


Three hours later Sarah and Ruth had visited the cottage they would be occupying for the coming year and returned to the castle. They had a guard lead them back to the dining room where they found both Alex and Princess Anna finishing breakfast. It had been a silent meal, with Anna still waking up, and Alex pondering his first investigations in light of the previous night's demonstration.

"Sarah, Ruth, did you find the cottage adequate?" asked Alex.

"It's cozy, but we can make it work," said Sarah. She addressed Anna, "Your Highness, Queen Elsa told us that you could help us coordinate moving everything to the cottage, workshop and lab."

"Sure, I can do that. Let me grab some servants and we'll get you set up. Keep enough stuff out of your trunks for the reception tonight and another overnight stay, ok?"

"Thank you, Your Highness."


As the last of the crates of equipment was being moved into the laboratory, Alex asked Anna, "I beg your pardon, Your Highness, but do you know of anywhere that I can obtain ordinary ice?"

"Do you mean ice that my sister didn't make?'

"Exactly."

"I've got just the guy for that," Anna said with a smirk. "I'll introduce you to him when he gets back in town the day after tomorrow."


The reception that evening was composed of five groups: doctors and midwives, academics from the college, jewelers (Arendelle having glazers, but no hot glass craftsmen), the Morris family, and the Royal family. Anna had had a heavy hand in the guest list and chosen the invitees so that each member of the Morris family would have a group with which they had something in common. Everyone was wearing their best. Elsa and Anna were resplendent in ice and party gown respectively.

Elsa's ice regalia, by now a common sight in Arendelle, didn't attract much attention from the majority of the reception guests. It was a major source of distraction for the Morris family. From the ice in her hair to the high heeled ice slippers on her feet there was something to attract every family member's attention. Alex marveled at the flexibility and compliance of the cloth-of-ice of the gown and cape and the strength of the ice that made up the slippers. Sarah was entranced by the delicate filigree of lacy ice and the way it seemed to flow and change. Ruth gazed in awe at the entire ensemble.

Ruth whispered, "Mom, check out the lace at the top of the Queen's gown!"

Sarah whispered back, "It's ice, dear. You can forget about buying a sample. The entire gown is ice."

"How does it move that way?"

Alex leaned over and whispered, "If it were like fish scales there would be a lower layer they would be attached to, but it's obvious there isn't in the sheer ice on the arms and the cape. I'm guessing it's magic."


After dinner each professional group engaged in the time honored tradition of trading war stories. There was a wide gap between the medical practitioners and the other groups, as their stories tended to be about illness, amputations, births, deaths, and who had taken what out of whom (and what it looked and smelled like). The academics traded stories of the follies of their students, and the jewelers traded stories of work they were waiting to be paid for. Sarah and Alex were in their elements, but Ruth, being younger, not working in metal and not interested in running a shop was feeling a bit left out. Princess Anna was hovering on the edge of the medical crowd, listening with horrified interest and looking a little queasy.

Queen Elsa was circulating between the academics and the jewelers when she noticed Ruth drifting toward the edge of the room. She caught up with her.

"Is everything all right, Ruth?" asked Elsa.

"Oh, yes Your Majesty. Except that I don't really fit in with the jewelers. All they talk about is problems I hope never to deal with. Whenever Dad's colleagues laugh I always think they're laughing at things I probably do. And don't get me started on what midwives and doctors talk about." She shuddered, "Yecch!"

Elsa laughed. "I understand. How is your family progressing with getting set up?"

"We visited the cottage and started getting stuff moved in there. It's nice. And I started moving things into my workshop. It's exactly what I need. Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Elsa and Ruth watched the three groups in the middle of the room for a moment.

Elsa looked over at Ruth, grinned, and said, "Anna tells me that your father finds my magic 'fascinating'."

Ruth groaned softly and slumped a bit. "I'm sorry, Your Majesty."

"Oh, come now, he can't be that bad."

"Your Majesty, sometimes Dad can't see a tree for its bark."

"Don't you mean he can't see the forest for the trees?"

"No, Your Majesty, I don't. Dad gets really focused."

"Give me an example."

Ruth thought for a moment. "Your Majesty, do you have a copy of the book that Princess Rapunzel illustrated about your coronation?"

"Yes, I have a copy that the princess hand watercolored in my library." Elsa didn't mention that the book sometimes induced nightmares, but her sudden anxiety caused the temperature in the room to drop several degrees.

Over among the academics, Alex noted the temperature drop and looked around the room. He noticed Ruth talking to the Queen and started to disengage himself from his colleagues.

"Ok, believe it or not, Your Majesty, that book is where Dad got all of the data for his paper. If you think of the story the book tells as the forest, then the individual illustrations are the trees."

"I'm keeping up with you so far," Elsa said, somewhat sarcastically.

"One of the things Dad used to estimate the energy required to melt the fjord was the thickness of the ice sheet. Your Majesty, where do you think he got that number?"

Elsa tried to remember the illustrations, but couldn't recall any pictures showing the thickness of the ice sheet. "I don't know."

"If you asked Dad, he'd say it was the picture with the reindeer."

"The only picture with both a reindeer and ice that I recall is the one showing Kristoff and Sven bringing Anna to the gates of the castle, but that one doesn't show the thickness of the ice sheet."

Ruth suddenly looked very nervous. "Um.. the picture Dad means has a reindeer standing on an ice floe."

"I don't remember a picture like that," said Elsa. "What else was in the picture?"

"I-I'd rather not say."

"I insist. What else was in the picture?"

"Um.. Your Majesty.. please, please forgive me for bringing this up, but, um.. It's the one where you're kneeling on the ice, a-and.. Prince Hans is approaching with a sword, and.. P-princess Anna is running to stop him."

The temperature in the room plunged as Elsa remembered the despair and guilt she'd felt when Hans had told her that she'd killed her beloved sister. And dropped again as she recalled the image of Anna turned to ice. Ice started spreading from her feet and snowflakes started drifting down from the ceiling.

All eyes in the room turned toward Elsa and Ruth. Anna sprinted to Elsa while Alex and Sarah rushed toward Ruth.

"Elsa, what's wrong?" asked Anna.

Hearing Anna's voice recalled Elsa to the present. The room warmed, the ice retreated, and the snow disappeared.

In tears, Ruth said to Anna, "I'm sorry, Your Highness. I mentioned Princess Rapunzel's book on the coronation and it brought up bad memories. I'm so, so, sorry."

Elsa reached out and hugged Anna, took a deep breath, and let the memories of that terrible day go.

Elsa straightened, raised her voice and said to the assembled guests, "Princess Anna and I will be retiring for the night. Please, continue your conversations. The guards will see you out when you wish to leave." She and Anna left the room almost immediately after.

As Alex watched them leave he turned to make a comment to Sarah, but she held up a hand and cut him off. "Not. One. Word," she said. She turned to Ruth, who was leaning against the wall, ashen faced.

"Ooh, I've really messed up," thought Ruth.

"Ruth Alice Morris, what have you done?"


Rapunzel's book on the Arendelle coronation lay open to 'that page' on Elsa's bed.

"That's the one he calls 'The picture with the reindeer'?!"

"Yes!"

"That's not focus, it's like he's wearing blinders! Do you really want to work with someone so.. so.."

"Oblivious? Insensitive? I'm not sure. At this point we're stuck with him for a year, and we can't say that King Philip didn't warn us."

"What about Ruth? Could she have done this deliberately?"

"No, if I hadn't teased her, none of this would have come up. And she tried to stop but I kept on pushing. The worst she could be accused of would be not thinking ahead."

"Maybe we ought to follow King Philip's example and set up a Morris Family Cell in the dungeon. Or maybe a punch in the face can get Mr. Morris to focus on the foreground."

For the first time since leaving the reception Elsa finally smiled and relaxed. "I don't think that will be necessary."

"Are you going to be ok tonight? Do you want me to stay with you to help with the nightmares?"

"I'd appreciate it. Thank you, Anna."


Alex and Sarah were in their room, finishing a postmortem on the evening.

"I'll need to add a safety precaution if I ever actually get to work with the Queen."

"What's that?"

"No work with Queen Elsa unless Princess Anna is also present."


In Ruth's room, there was nothing but the occasional sound of sobbing.

A/N - Many thanks to reviewer PascalDragon for noting that I had implicitly made a promise in the previous chapter and hadn't fulfilled it. To wit, describing the Morris family reaction to Elsa's Ice Regalia. This revised chapter fulfills that implied promise.