Cross Purposes

by Concolor44

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Author's Note:

Elsa knows how to make a point so that it stays made.

Chapter Nine: Repercussions

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Arendelle Castle, Tuesday 07 December, 1841, 2:10pm

Throwing a majestic wake as it passed, a large, two-story house had sailed into the fjord shortly after noon. It currently sat (empty) on a nicely-square-and-level foundation of ice at the southern end of the city. Elsa planned to have it inspected for damage, repair it if necessary, and then return it to its original location.

Its former inhabitants were currently lined up in Elsa's throne room in front of Anna and her where they sat on gloriously intricate thrones of ice. Carlos stood behind and to the left of Elsa while Kristoff took his position behind and to the right of his bride. None of them looked even slightly amused.

At the left end of the line (from Elsa's perspective) stood Simon Isaacs. He was the only one currently unbound, and the only one standing, his head bowed in respect (though he still wasn't trying to fight off his smile). The other four servants, most of whom had yet to see their twentieth summer, knelt between him and Louis Cardin, whose drawn face held the pallor of death.

"So," said Elsa, "Master Isaacs, your opinion is that Mssr. Cardin's other employees hold no guilt for the things he has done?"

"Not to my knowledge, Your Majesty. They were hired back in October, when the house was leased. Mssr. Cardin saw each of them once, and then left."

"And they've been taking care of the house for the past two months? Nothing else?"

"One of us would leave the house to purchase supplies when needed, but only one at a time. Cardin left a schedule that had to be filled out. Whatever was bought had to be listed as well, and he had hired a lawyer to check in on us weekly."

"Meticulous sort, isn't he?"

"Under usual circumstances, yes, Your Majesty."

"Did no one express dissatisfaction with the arrangement?"

"Your Majesty, he paid in advance, and paid relatively well. There was no reason for any of them to chafe in his employ. Besides, the weather was uniformly wretched. No one cared to go outside."

"Did he bring you with him from France?"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"Were you consulted in the hiring process?"

"Not at all, Your Majesty."

She considered the row of prisoners for a few moments, then sighed and said, "Kai, would you see to it that these men are housed in the visiting servants' quarters?"

"Yes, Mum."

"And have a late lunch sent up for them as well. I doubt any of them has eaten since yesterday."

"Very good, Mum, it shall be done." Kai motioned to two of the Guards, who cut the men's bonds and led them away. Most of them stared back at Elsa in confusion as they left. Her keen ears picked it up when one muttered to a fellow, "That mean we ain't gonna be ice statues?"

She held up a hand.

The line stopped; some began trembling.

She motioned for them to come back, which they did, quite reluctantly. "Gentlemen, I realize that there are hundreds of tales about me circulating around Europa, and I've heard many of them. As with most such situations, you should realize they are all inaccurate, and usually to an astounding degree. I am not a witch. I am not a sorceress. I do not turn people to ice and decorate my garden with them. I do not eat babies nor drink blood. I do not consort with Satan … or Hela or Boreas or anyone else. I was born with the ability to create and manipulate ice and snow." She gestured, and five columns of flawless ice sprang from the floor. The men yelped and huddled close, watching in awe as delicate vines of blue and white formed, curling up and around each column in muted bursts of pure light. "My magic, as I was told long ago, carries great beauty. I enjoy creating works of art with it." A delicate unicorn of purest white appeared in a glittering shower. Beside it grew from the floor an intricately-patterned sphere of hollow ice. Festive scenes decorated its surface.

Elsa rose from her throne and made her stately way down to the men. She held her hands out, noting with no little exasperation how they shrank back. "I'm not going to hurt you. My goodness, why would you think I'd do so now, having discovered your innocence?"

They glanced at each other, relaxing slightly.

"Take my hands."

Eyes flicked from her face to her hands and back.

"Come on. Feel my skin. I'm human, just like you. Well, mostly."

Two of the men had begun reaching to touch her, but stopped. One whispered, "Mostly?"

"Yes. As it turns out, the reason that I have ice powers is that one of my ancestors was of the Fey."

Mouths dropped open. The same man stuttered, "The F-fair Folk?"

"Yes. Perhaps if I had known that as a child, things would have turned out differently."

Anna snorted and offered, "You can say that again."

Kristoff placed a hand on her shoulder and said, "Dear?"

She looked up at him, giggled, and settled her features into serene indifference … for about four seconds before another giggle erupted.

Elsa ignored her, and said to the men, "What I mean is that you have nothing to fear. And as long as you behave yourselves and don't break any laws, that will continue. Now, take my hands."

The first one to do so raised his brows and said, "You feel cool."

"Yes. My body temperature is lower than normal."

Another asked, "How do you make ice?"

She grinned. "Magic. Duh."

Anna hooted, "Now you sound like me!"

Kristoff said, "Sweetheart? We talked about this."

The rest of the men had a chance to hold hands with The Most Powerful Being on Earth. It was something they would tell to their eventual children (often enough that said children would get tired of hearing the story).

Once the men were gone, the ice fabrications banished, and Elsa back on her throne, she fixed her gaze on Cardin. For nearly a minute she stared at him while he stared at the floor. Finally she asked, "Where is Maria Cristina?"

He jerked up to gape at her … but soon crumpled. "You knew. Of course you knew."

"We knew a great deal. The reason we allowed you to continue your charade was to find out who was working the strings of the marionettes." She regarded him coldly for a moment, then asked, "Why in God's Name would you think you could get away with kidnapping my sister?"

He stayed quiet.

"You wanted to use her to secure my aid in some sort of conquest, so you must have known at least a little about the reach of my magic. How could you believe escape was even a possibility?"

He sighed. Looked up at her. Dropped his gaze again and murmured, "It was working."

"What was that?"

"It was working. That is, it looked like it was working. You … the way you reacted … to Maria's intrigues. She had said you were an unschooled little rustic."

Elsa smirked. "Did she now."

"She had every confidence that you had fallen for her act."

"In no respect. We knew she was lying, but didn't know why, so we played along to find out. I must say, though, your ploy with Hilde was well-planned. I have since had several conversations with my sister …" She looked over at Anna and smiled. "She has the heart of a lion, but could stand to develop a modicum of judgment."

Anna, unfazed, grinned and said, "Working on it."

Turning her focus back to Cardin, Elsa frowned darkly and said, "But that doesn't answer my question. Where is that lying, scheming wretch of a termagant?"

He stared back, smirking. "And I would know this, how, exactly?"

With a tight swirling motion, Elsa brought into existence a huge armored knight of ice. The golem picked up Cardin by one leg and held him upside down. He yelled several times until an icy gag formed over his mouth.

Elsa stood and slowly walked down to where he hung, struggling. She grabbed his hair and pulled him up until they were nearly nose-to-nose. "Mssr. Cardin, I am out of all charity with you. You can answer my questions as a whole man, or as a man missing various body parts. You need neither your arms nor your legs to speak." The gag vanished. "Do we have an understanding?"

"Yes! Yes! Put me down! I'll tell y-umph!" Hitting the floor cut off the rest of his sentence.

A tight ring of needle-sharp stalagmites grew from the floor, in toward Cardin, restricting his movement.

Elsa regarded him mutely for a bit, then said, "Tell me everything you know about Maria Cristina, and I will see to it that your execution is as quick and painless as possible."

"Exe … cution?"

"Yes."

"… But …"

"You orchestrated the kidnapping of the Princess of Arendelle. I watched as you murdered a man in cold blood. Either of those carries a death sentence. Thought you to receive mercy?"

"… Well …"

"I didn't make the laws, Cardin, but I am bound by my oath to see them carried out."

He slumped, defeated.

"Now. I can see to it that your final days are relatively comfortable, or you can spend them in various levels of agony. Your choice." She lifted his head up and stared into his eyes. "Spill your guts about that execrable ex-Regent, or I'll spill them for you. Once that topic is exhausted, we can have an intimate chat about Minister Thiers."

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6:15pm

After draining her glass of wine and setting it back on the table, Elsa said, "As cloudy as it is, I think I'll wait until tomorrow to send my birds to Paris."

Anna asked, "How do you know it's not going to be cloudy tomorrow."

Elsa gave her a sly smile.

"Ah. Right."

"Also, I'm sure she could not have made it back to her apartments by then anyway."

"Impossible," agreed Carlos. "It's over a hundred and fifty leagues from Farsund to Paris. That's at least a three-day sail, and more probably four, to Le Havre, and then another two-day trip overland, if she hurries. She won't be able to warn Thiers before we can get to him."

Elsa treated them to an un-Queenly sort of snort; looked a bit shocked at herself; composed her features, and then said, "If she's even mindful that way. She doesn't strike me as the sort of person to care about the outcomes of her actions. I think she'd toss him to the wolves in a second."

Kristoff had been in a state of agitation ever since learning the details of the conspiracy, and was especially exercised about Minister Thiers. "I still don't think you should leave him alive."

"Sweetie …" said Anna, laying a hand on his arm

"No! Didn't … wasn't it …" He caught Elsa's eye. "Wasn't it Morana who told you it was bad policy to leave enemies alive behind you?"

"Morana told me a lot of things. Please recall that the Fey have ways of behaving and planning that are exceedingly different from human standards. She also made a habit of killing her mortal lovers, which is another activity I don't plan to emulate."

Carlos deadpanned, "And you've no idea how much I do appreciate your consideration."

"Besides," continued Anna, "it will be more effective this way. Better a live example than a dead martyr. And he's got an awful lot of power in the French government."

Elsa nodded. "True. Killing him might engender a war, and that is the last thing I wish to do. Leaving him alive, but disgraced, will have a better outcome, I'm sure."

Anna asked, "Have you started on the proclamations yet?"

"I have an outline. I want to work with a few of my Councilors to get the details just right."

"Good plan."

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Arendelle Castle, East Dining Room, Wednesday 08 December, 1841, 1:00pm

The door opened and a page stepped in. "Princess Anna of Arendelle and the Countess Sofia Ventura de Tejada y Fernandez."

The two young women glided in (well … okay, 'bounced in' would be closer to the truth) and came over to the table where Elsa and Carlos already sat. Anna bent and dropped a kiss on her sister's hair. "Hi, Elsa! Hi, Carlos!"

"Hello, yourself." She glanced between the two, noting identical happy smiles, and observed, "You're in a mood." Taking in how they were dressed, she asked, "Have you been riding?"

"Yes! It was so nice today …"

"Meaning," inserted Sofia, "that it was slightly above freezing, and not raining."

"Exactly! So I figured it would be a sin not to take advantage of it, so we went to the stables and had Nebula and Gracelle saddled up, and took a ride up toward the Nissefosse."

"My goodness. That's, what an hour and a half?"

"About that, if you're in a carriage. We made it in under an hour."

Sofia said, "The waterfalls were magnificent! It was well worth the effort. And riding with Anna is … um …"

"Stimulating?" suggested Elsa.

"Dangerous?" said Carlos, smiling.

"Um … different. Your horses have been taught to rack, so the ride was ever so smooth. Until Anna would break into a gallop. Gracie seemed to take it as a challenge, so I let her have her head. Quite exhilarating."

"Exhilarating, yeah. You won the race." Anna gave her a quick hug and kissed her cheek. "You're a wonderful rider. Thanks for going with me."

"I assure you, the pleasure was all mine. We don't have such evergreen forests around Madrid. They truly are beautiful."

At that point another set of doors opened, and three women came in with a rolling cart, laden with food. They saw Anna and Sofia, and slowed down, looking between them and Elsa. The oldest said, "I understood it was only the two of you, Your Majesty."

"They were unexpected." Addressing Sofia, she asked, "Would you care to join us for lunch? Or have you eaten?"

"We have not." Giving Anna the eye, she added, "The Princess said we-"

Anna grinned, stomped a foot, and said, "Anna!"

"A thousand pardons. Anna said we might try getting something to eat from the hawkers in the market. Something about mutton pies."

Elsa nodded thoughtfully. "If you'd rather do that, it's perfectly all right."

Anna zipped over to the cart and said, "What's on the menu?"

"We have venison roast, squash soup, poached apples, and sugar-cinnamon soft rolls with ice cream."

"Hot damn!"

"Anna!"

"Sorry, Elsa." She ran back to Sofia and took her hands. "Can we eat with them? Do you mind? They had me at 'roast'."

Giving a tinkling laugh, Sofia squeezed Anna's fingers and said, "Sure. Whatever makes you happy."

"Oh, lots of things make me happy." Casting a glance Elsa's way, she smiled broadly. "Anymore."

I can see that, thought Sofia. "Is there enough?"

The older servant waved off the question. "Pish and tosh. Easy enough to bring up more."

Elsa patted the seat beside her. "Here. Right here. And tell me all about your ride."

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Paris, Friday 10 December, 1841, 10:00pm

The fog came in slowly. Naturally, almost. It certainly wasn't unheard-of at this late time of year, and aside from a little grumbling, no one gave the fog a second thought, especially here on the Boulevard Saint-Germain, so close to the Seine. Even when visibility shortened to twenty paces or less, no one commented on it, only hurrying on to their destinations and turning up their collars against the gelid damp. "At least it isn't raining," was a common sentiment.

Hanging in the darkness high above their target, shrouded in black, Carlos and Elsa waited until the concealing mist covered all. Then they slowly dropped down to the balcony of the room they wanted.

Elsa's icy spies had pinpointed Thiers's house the day before. She was a little surprised by its modest size, but Carlos reminded her that the Minister claimed to support the idea of a Republic, so it would not do for him to be too ostentatious. Still, his chambers were tastefully and expensively appointed.

The lock on the double-doors succumbed to Elsa's ice with a muted ping. Floating in, not allowing their feet to touch the floor, they made not a whisper of sound as they approached the sleeping Minister. Elsa studied his bed and how it was made up, and quickly formed dozens of spots of ice around the edges of sheet and comforter. At her command, they rose, met overhead, and twisted together tightly.

Wrapped him up like an onion.

Thiers came awake slowly under the best of circumstances, and these hardly qualified. He thought, when he could attempt to think, that he was in the middle of a nightmare, and tried to wake himself to escape. After most of a minute, he finally realized this was no nightmare. Someone had trapped him, and was carrying him away. He struggled to sit up and called, "Who is out there?"

No answer.

"If you are planning to exact a ransom for me, I doubt I'd command much."

Silence.

His fabric prison seemed to be hung from something overhead, and was swinging in slow, short arcs. Did they have him suspended from a pole? "Dare I ask why I've been taken?"

A man's voice said, in slightly accented French, "You'll soon know."

Thinking that was likely the best answer he would get, Thiers kept his peace. Hardly more than a minute passed before he hit the ground with a thump. Groaning a little, he said, "I know the King despises me, but I didn't think he'd stoop this low."

His bedclothes un-twisted and snapped out flat, leaving him only his nightcoat and hat against the elements. He shivered and took stock of his surroundings.

Forest. Dark, dark forest, little illuminated by the waning crescent moon.

"Where am I?"

"You are on a small island in the middle of the River Oise."

Whirling, Thiers took in his captors, tall and short, and demanded, "Why did … wait. The Oise? That isn't possible."

The man spoke again. "Oh, to be sure, tonight we will be exploring the limits of what you consider possible."

Even in the dim light, he could see they were dressed all in black, which gave him a chill worse than the slow December breeze. "Assassins!"

The shorter one stepped forward, said, "Hardly," and removed his – her! – scarves. Lush blonde hair spilled out.

His confusion ramped up. "… A girl?"

"A Queen."

The situation gelled for him and he took a step back. "The Ice … ah … Queen Elsa."

"Go on. I believe you were about to refer to me as the Ice Witch, yes? Is that the story you've been spreading?"

"Um, uh, not … not my story. A story, not my story."

She stepped forward; he retreated; she flicked a finger; hard, cold manacles encircled his wrists. He was pulled upward, only maintaining contact with the ground by standing on tip-toe. He screamed. Screamed again.

She smiled at him grimly. "Yell to your heart's content. I've warded this island for silence."

He stared at her dumbly.

"Adolphe Thiers, you have made an exceedingly, a resoundingly poor decision. You thought to put me in a vice; to coerce my magic to your bidding. I am here to drive home the point that poor decisions can have highly unpleasant consequences. Nature does not suffer fools to escape unscathed, and neither do I."

"What? What? I never-"

Ice covered his face.

"Lying about your involvement will only provoke me. And, trust me, you don't want me any more provoked than I already am."

The gag vanished. Cold sweat ran down Thiers's back.

"You ordered the capture of Arendelle's Princess as a means of placing me at your beck and call. The capture succeeded, briefly, but was soon rectified. Your chief instrument in the debacle, Louis Cardin, is in my dungeon now, awaiting execution."

The icy manacles moved apart and down until Thiers looked like he was on a cross. From this perspective, he could turn his head far enough to see that the manacles were not, in fact, manacles, but were the hands of a huge golem of ice. He screamed again.

"Pay attention." She turned his face back toward hers. "There was some discussion as to whether you should join him. However, we opted for a different sort of punishment for you."

"You … aren't going to … kill me?"

"Would you rather I did?"

"Ah … no?"

"You don't sound certain. Good. That means you have a bit of sense." She moved up until their faces were separated by less than a span. "Because you might change your mind later." She began weaving motions with her hands, and sparkling ice-motes followed. For several breaths, her fingers continued their dance, and all the while it seemed as if a pressure was building up in the politician's gut. She ended with a flinging motion that left him momentarily breathless.

Gently, after a quarter-minute, Elsa took the Minister's terrified face in her two hands. His trembling telegraphed plainly through her fingertips. She had yet to look away or blink, and that penetrating cerulean gaze scared him worse than anything else she'd done so far.

"Your conspiracy was doomed from the start. That, however, does not relieve you of any culpability. Your agents, at your direction, kidnapped my sister." She leaned toward him, almost touching foreheads, and an aura of cold advanced with her. The sweat on his face froze and fell to the forest floor with a light tacketing sound. "My … sister." She moved her hands to each side of his head. The cold intensified. "You took my flesh and blood. The Hero of Arendelle. The one person who saved all of Europa from my Eternal Winter. Don't think the cold would have simply gone away once I was dead. Oh, no. Without my controlling influence, even as pale and unsteady as it was at the time, the ice would have spread to cover the land. In time, it may have covered the Earth. She quite literally saved your life."

He gasped. Never had he felt such cold! It bit his skull like a driven nail. Drawing another, deeper breath, he prepared himself to scream, but then the cold faded, leaving only an aching numbness behind.

Elsa stepped away. Carlos took her place. "I wanted to end your miserable, conniving, useless life. The Queen talked me out of it, for reasons she deemed sound, though I'm not completely convinced. However, she came up with an alternative that I feel will suit your crime."

Thiers wasn't giving his full attention to the Spaniard. His head hurt too much. Gnomes of frozen steel dug through skin and bone, coming to rest in his brain-pan, setting up a regular hammering that pushed spikes of agony through his teeth.

Carlos reached up and grabbed an ear in each hand, then pulled down and away sharply.

The Minister only thought he'd been in pain before, and he gave a mighty shriek. He kept it up for nearly half a minute while his captors watched passively. At length, he panted, "What … what did you … do?"

For an answer, Carlos held up his hands, showing the ears he'd pulled off: hard, red, and rimed in frost.

Elsa stepped back up to him. "So there will be no mistaking what was done to you, I have had a proclamation written up detailing the wrongs you have committed, and my justice. Copies will be sent to the heads of every kingdom, nation, and city-state on the Continent. For tonight, you will hang there in your bonds. Tomorrow morning, the golem will vanish … and then you should see if you can get someone to ferry you off this island so you can find a physician to keep your head free of gangrene."

Carlos took up the account. "We have already sent a courier to your King. We are demanding that you be stripped of your position and exiled from France." He moved forward until Thiers could feel the heat radiating from him. "You will be followed and watched for the rest of your life; and, yes, we can do that. If you ever try anything like this again – against anyone, not only Arendelle – we will know. And you will die."

Elsa stepped up beside her fiancé. "Your days of moving pawns around the political chess board are over. I don't care what you make of the rest of your life, but you are going to do it without power or influence or riches."

Their captive sobbed, "You're leaving me … here … to freeze!"

"No. You won't freeze. I placed a ward on you to prevent it." She smiled grimly. "You'll only feel as if you are freezing. But you won't die." With a low chuckle, she added, "I won't let you die."

Thiers caught his breath, a few tears squeezing between his shaking eyelids, and fought to hold in his suffering. He would not give them the satisfaction. He would not …

He fainted.

The two Fey-touched glanced at each other. She shrugged her shoulders. He nodded and pointed up. She took his hand.

Five hours later they were back in Arendelle.

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Paris, Sunday 12 December, 1841, 10:25am

"But, Mistress, I don't understand."

"Ah, Fleurette," replied Maria Cristina, patting her cheek, "you may say that about a great many things."

The girl nearly bit her lip in holding back a rejoinder. Presently, she took a deep breath and asked, "Why do you not wish to go to your apartments? Why only me? And why the disguises?"

"She found us in Farsund. Think you she can't find us here?"

"'She?' Who … oh! You mean the Snow Queen?" Maria Cristina had mentioned her a few times on the way here.

"Too right. I intend to move to a different country, and waste no time. But she'll have spies. Spies everywhere. Magical spies. We must exercise the greatest caution."

Fleurette considered. She did have a point. Although she had not the vaguest notion as to why the Snow Queen would have taken their house. If, indeed, she had; Queen Elsa had never been anything but gracious to them during their stay in Arendelle. Her Mistress was convinced of it, though. It was all quite frustrating.

Sighing to herself, she plucked up her spirit (something she was quite good at) and set out for their apartments. Pack up the traveling clothes, pack up the small trunks, and have everything delivered to Saint-Denis. Right. Sure. Crazy, but okay. Whatever.

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End Note: Refer again, please to the Eleventh Commandment. We shall see whether or not other nations (and individuals) can take the hint. Thiers's story is going to be widely circulated, so they won't have the excuse of ignorance.

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