Frozen : Battletech The Ice Duchess of the Federated Commonwealth

by The Frozen Guy

The Year is 3053. The Clan Invasion has ended with the Truce of Tukayyid. In the uneasy peace, Victor Steiner-Davion is recalled by his parents to begin preparing for his future as Archon-Prince. His first task? Attend the investment of Duchess Elsa Jorgensson on the world of Arendelle as the representative of his parents. A straight forward, ceremonial task. What could go wrong?

10. Chapter 8

Okay.

So, been a while!

This chapter is pretty huge, but I can safely say it'll be the last like this. The pieces are all in place now and we'll have things starting to move quicker, which should also lead to a much faster update cycle!
Enjoy!

Chapter 8: Revelations

---

No one goes to an investment ball expecting to see a defining moment in human history.
Let that be a lesson for you. History rarely announces itself before it punches you in the face.
- Extract from 'Elsa' by Misha Auburn. Tharkad Printing House, 3059

Duchy Palace / Jorgensson Family Residence
Arendelle
Crucis March
Federated Commonwealth
May 10 3053

"Attention all staff; the gates will open in thirty minutes. Frontline personnel to first positions".

The PA announcement across the palace and its grounds was neither surprising nor unexpected given that it was, in fact, exactly thirty minutes until the gates were due to open for the first time in a very long time. Well, outside of brief monthly tests to meet fire code regulations that was.

But it nonetheless set into motion an explosion of anxious and frantic activity.

In the kitchens of the great castle, dozens of chefs and their staffs accelerated their preparations, the best catering team the planet could muster preparing the finest meals fit for a First Prince (or his son) and their new Lady of the Castle. Musicians inside the grand ballroom started to tune their instruments as final checks of the sound systems were made, while dozens of other people started to scramble in every which direction to finalize those hundred last minute details that needed to be attended to.

Kai Brevik, Master of the Jorgensson Household, was in his element as he circled through the orchestrated chaos. He gave direction where it was needed, calmed down people who might have been a little too close to panic for his mind, but otherwise just kept everything on track to make sure that there would be no last minute surprises. But even he could not help but feel a slowly growing excitement (that he hid absolutely behind his professional mask) as as time slowly approached when the great gates into the castle courtyard would be flung open.

Truly, it was almost as if a giant reset button had been pressed on the planet. Elsa was now formally invested as ruler, ready to lead her people. Anna was once again home where she belonged, by her sister's side. All was as it should be, with time ready to start moving once again after being seemingly frozen after the tragic death of the girls parents. Once again the Castle would ring with the sounds of laughter and celebration, with a confident 'best foot forward' presentation to the planet to mark the start of this new era.

He looked around the activity and nodded once. Yes. All was finally as it should be once more.

"Mister Brevik" a young staffer hurriedly walked up to him, breaking him out of his train of thought as he raised an eyebrow at the flustered page. "Sir, Mistress Greda is ...well, she is insisting that you come upstairs to get changed at once".

"And behold the doom on those who dare cross her" Kai chortled slightly before waving the other away … but moments later, as fast as his dignity would allow, he was in motion across the courtyard heading for the palace. Technically he was Gredas boss … but that hadn't stopped her for one minute from ordering him around for a decade.

Or Elsa and Anna.

Or their parents too, come to think of it…

Shaking his head once in amusement at the thought, he crossed the courtyard towards the Castle, making a final pass over things as he did. This area, directly behind the still closed gates, would be where most of the guests would celebrate with only the most VIP of VIPs allowed into the Castle proper. Tables sufficient to seat near a thousand people were scattered through the courtyard, with hundreds of Coronan lanterns crisscrossing the sky colourfully above them and all of it set around a large dance floor laid over the cobblestones. The tall halls defining the edge of the square had all been opened up into an inside-outside style, with pop-up bars and various entertainment inside. The front of the Castle itself was now illuminated with soft blue floodlights and Kai took a moment to appreciate its beauty as he approached, the building almost looking as if it could have been lifted from a fairy tail.

Of course, Kai thought squinting up momentarily at the dark spires looming above, fairy tales generally don't have men in stealth capable power armor lurking around the Queen's Castle…

Although he couldn't see them, Kai knew a number of Infiltrator Battle Suits were discreetly stationed on the 'high ground' of the Castle's turrets, there to keep an eye out for any trouble this evening. Invisible in the darkness, they were backed up on the grounds by the normal palace security teams, plus a number of MIIO security teams Prince Victor had brought with him. It struck Kai as a little excessive, but Agent Curatis had made it clear that while he would very much work with him rather than against him, his responsibility to the Prince Victor meant this was the minimum level of force he would accept.

Shaking his head slightly as he stepped into the castle, exchanging nods with the guards on station at the main entrance, he couldn't help but be mildly bemused by the sheer paranoia of Curatis and his merry men. The man seemed to see threats around every corner and in every shadow - even to the point of requesting to reactivate the seldom used (if perfectly functional) 'Mech Hanger on the estate grounds to stash two lances of Battlemechs from the Princes escort, to have them close to hand should they be required 'in an emergency situation'.

Kai was frankly at a loss as to what possible emergency on Arendelle would require that kind of protection. This was Arendelle, not Atreus! That Mech Hanger had been for centuries nothing more than a place for the ruling royals who happened to be Mechwarriors to stash their 'mount' - and even then mostly to stop Techs at the milita base taking their mechs out for joyrides in the name of 'maintenance tests'. Technically in fact even Elsa owned a Battlemech - it was just on a long term loan to the AFFC, as she wished to have nothing to do with it.

Still, in the end he had bowed to the inevitable and accepted the request - with the provision that the damn things stay strictly out of sight unless there truly was an emergency. He knew Elsa got somewhat 'twitchy' around Battlemechs for whatever reason. And short of an emergency on the order of an Assault Mech piloted by some kind of tactical genius rising from the swimming pool or stepping out from behind one of the grounds many tall trees, he didn't want the silly things seen.

This was Elsa's celebration first and foremost. Even the Archon-Prince designate was ultimately her guest tonight. And he wasn't going to let anything ruin it for her - or her sister.

Convoy SD-Alpha
Arendelle City, Arendelle
Crucis March
Federated Commonwealth
May 10 3053

Victor Steiner Davion couldn't help but smile as the convoy pulled into the (long) driveway that ultimately terminated at the Duchy Palace and formal residence of the new Duchess of Arendelle.

Why he was smiling however would have probably surprised people who didn't know him personally.

It wasn't a public face for the throngs of well wishers just outside the main gate behind crowd control barriers; the mirror glass on his hover limo made it impossible to see him after all. Nor was it expectations of good food and good conversation tonight making him happy. If anything, Victor was mentally bracing himself for people trying to drag him into political arguments, seeing him as the political equivalent of a thermonuclear weapon they could use to advance their own agenda.

No, in truth the smile on his face was entirely down to the fact that he was back in an AFFC uniform for the first time in days.

Albeit a brand new dress uniform rather than a Mechwarrior combat vest … but he'd take what he could get at this point.

The joint AFFC Dress Uniform that had finally clawed its way out of the depths of whatever committee had been working on it since '41 wasn't the horrific mishmash of a well intentioned monstrosity he had feared it would be. A fear founded when told this afternoon by his secretary that he and Galen would be the very first people to publicly wear it at an official event, yet another idea to try and draw just that much attention to his new life and his grand public unveiling of the March Lord version of Victor. Apparently his sister's idea, Katherine had decided to enforce the plan by ensuring his old uniform had gotten 'lost' somewhere in the shuffle from New Avalon.

He could however forgive her stage management of his fashion sense on the grounds that he knew perfectly well he didn't have any. Thankfully, it seemed whoever had put together this uniform did.

The dress jacket was flashy without being over the top; a creme white with gold braid similar to the older AFFS style jacket, riding loose over an undershirt coloured for the division of the forces its wearer belonged to. In his case, the burgundy of a Mechwarrior. The unit patch of the 10th Lyran Guards and the Fist and Sunburst of the Federated Commonwealth rode proudly on his left and right upper arms respectively while the bars and Steiner Cross of a Marshal sat on each of his shoulders. A pair of well creased pants in Steiner blue descended to his polished boots, where he wore the spurs of an AFFS mechwarrior earned through an exchange year at NAIS during his training.

On his left breast, a -comparatively given his exalted rank- small line of five medals rode and Victor wore them with pride. Technically he could have worn a dozen more medals, badges and devices that reflected his political rank, noble lineage and position, but in this matter he took after his Grandmother. Katrina Steiner had made it a point to only wear an appropriate minimum of decorations on her dress uniform when she put it on, her somewhat sparse look doing wonders to mock most social generals brave enough to approach her ... what with the fact that some of them wore enough metal to probably qualify as light body-armor, yet hadn't seen an infinitesimal fraction of the combat she had.

No, each of the medals he wore he had earned the hard way like a true soldier. They had not simply given to him as part of his birthright -like his automatic promotion- and idly, he let his gaze in the window trace across them.

The first two medals were campaign medals showing he had fought in the Clan War both before and after the so-called 'year of peace' - each with two 'stars' on the ribbon itself showing he had fought in four major engagements through said war. The third was a unit citation for merit, awarded after the victory on Twycross. He had apparently impressed a lot of senior officers by keeping a level head and thinking fast when the Clans had thrown all their carefully laid plans into chaos that day. Although personally, he had given full credit for his battalion's success to his company and Lance commanders they had insisted that he deserved the credit for their victory. The Unit citation had split the difference neatly and both he and Galen wore it with pride tonight.

The fourth medal was a training excellence ribbon that signified he had graduated in the top five percent of his class at The Nagelring, putting him among the elite of that year. And more than that, it told anyone who knew about such things that he had not simply been parachuted into the AFFC by 'mom and dad', but had damn well earned his place in the armed forces - especially given the intensity of the competition for placing in that five percent and its right to request which unit you would be posted to.

Not that he had ever had even the slightest choice of being able to choose his unit, given that his parents (unlike the rest of his classes) had both the absolute power and right to tell him where he would go … but it was the principal of the thing.

And then, finally, there was the fifth medal.

Shifting his focus, Victor's eyes locked in on the colored gem inlaid on pure gold under the blood red ribbon. The 'Guardian of the Lair'. Highly prestigious, it was only ever awarded on the personal orders of the Warlord of the Pesht Military District, to soldiers who performed heroic deeds in the defence of that part of the Draconis Combine.

And it belonged on an AFFC Dress Uniform about as much as a Smoke Jaguar ristar belonged teaching anger management classes.

The Warlord (most likely at the 'suggestion' of the Coordinator or his Gunji-no-Kanrei) had awarded him the medal via the Combine Ambassador on New Avalon early this year, as a gesture of thanks and respect for his actions in rescuing Hohiro Kurita and his DCMS forces from Teniente - trashing a Nova Cat cluster that had gotten in his way in the bargain. It was a gesture clearly intended to honor his unit, but by the same token the quiet presentation of it was a message in of itself. That the Dragon appreciated his actions, but understood if for political reasons he simply could not wear the decoration.

Katherine -and no doubt his parents - had apparently decided that he should wear it however as it had been pinned to his new uniform when he had unpacked it alongside his other medals. No doubt they had intended that it be impossible to miss by various commentators, setting a specific tone around the Federated Commonwealth's current relations with the Combine - and perhaps sending them a message in turn...

Or perhaps … he was overthinking things.

Victor sighed softly to himself as he studied the dim reflection in the armored windows. These days it seemed he was wearing more layers of messages than layers of clothes-

"You know, you're not the only person in the FedCom to have been given that medal recently" Kai casually spoke up from the other side of the limo and Victor's head turned to gaze at the man with a raised eyebrow.

Kai as always, had the uncanny ability to read his mind. Which would have been rather annoying if he wasn't such a good friend.

"My uncle, along with several other Hounds and Dragoons, were awarded it after Luthien. And Gods knows they all had a lot more 'history' with the Combine than any of us" the other pointed out.

"Fair point, but I'm betting that none of them were the heir to a Successor State or two" Victor retorted dryly. "I'm sure James Sandoval would be just delighted to see me wearing this" he fingered the medal briefly, trying not to picture the look on the face of the virulently anti-Draconis leader of the Draconis March at him wearing such an award.

Not, Victor admitted, that he didn't have a lot to be bitter about.

As much as he hoped that this strange new dente with the Combine could lead to something better for the Inner Sphere and genuinely thought of Hohiro as a friend, Victor was not so foolish as to think that centuries of Draconis aggression and cultural inertia would just vanish overnight.

Still, who knew what might happen in this strange new world of theirs where the heirs of the Capellan Confederation and Draconis Combine were good friends of the Heir to the Federated Commonwealth...

"I think the entire Inner Sphere is well aware by now that you led a strike force to rescue Hohiro from Teniente" Kai pointed out, bringing his attention back to the present. "As I recall, the Sandovals publicly accepted the necessity almost as soon as it was announced-"

"-after we just so happened to drop off all the salvaged Clantech at Robinson on our way to New Avalon" Galen interjected dryly from the other side of the limo, earning a smirk from Victor-

"-and the only real complaints he made were around the lack of public recognition from the Combine" Kai finished without missing a beat. "The medal" he nodded at him, "undercuts that claim quite neatly. And you can bet that there will be press officers on New Avalon waiting to spin this as soon as the first pictures are published leaving him no room to complain".

"Publicly, at least" Victor shrugged stiffly, as always impressed by Kai's handle on political matters and trying not to think too much about the Lord of the Draconis March.

Although if the Sandovals ever found out about his feelings for Omi...

"That's the spirit" Galen approved as with a slight bump, the Hoverlimo crossed through a secondary gate in the outer palace walls, then turned right to follow a service road running between said wall and the decorative but still functional moat around the edge of the castle and inner complex. They followed the road for a time before crossing a short but heavily reinforced bridge through the inner wall where an empty vehicle park awaited them.

Well empty of vehicles anyway. But filled with security personnel.

As the rest of the convoy's vehicles smoothly fell out to park in predetermined positions, the hoverlimo drifted across to where a red carpet had been laid from the Castle and came to a precise stop. The door swung open moments later as the fans spun down to silence and the trio of VIPs exited, Victor and Galen accepting their swords from staffers who magically appeared out of nowhere. The things made one look dashing, but they were an absolute pain in the neck to wear inside a vehicle.

Glancing around, he took in the usual cloud of bodyguards and aides … then smiled as he noticed a new figure also approaching from the direction of the Castle.

"Highness" the man greeted him with a deep bow. "It is a great pleasure to welcome you to the Jorgensson Family Estate. Please consider our home, your home".

"It is our pleasure to be here Mister Brevik" Victor said to Elsa's Chief of Staff, extending a hand which the other took for a brief but firm shake, before the older man extended similar greetings to each of his companions. "It is a magnificent building" he added then, jerking his head at the softly floodlit castle looming ahead of him. To be sure it was only a fraction the size of Mount Davion or the Triad, but those 'castles' were modern fortresses reinforced to no-sell a rogue Assault Mech 'knocking on the door', with a thin veneer of 'ancient charm' over the top. They were elegant enough to be sure, but to a trained eye it was blindingly clear that they were defensive buildings first and throwbacks to Terras feudal age second.

But what this Castle lacked in size, scale or 31st century military practicality; it more than made up for in authenticity. Victor had seen enough half-assed attempts by various nobles build a 'new-old' Castle to to be able to tell that this one had been built with a meticulous attention to detail. So much so that he half wondered if, like a few other such rare examples, it had been dismantled on Terra and reassembled brick-by-brick as one of the later vanity projects in the Star League era. Lit up with blue floodlights under the evening sky, it was almost felt like he was about to walk into a fairy tale...

"Thank you, Highness - we're rather proud of it" Brevik brought him out of his admiration of the building as he invited them onwards with a polite gesture.

Nodding, Victor started down the carpet at a brisk but not hurried pace, his friends and bodyguards falling into line behind him. Then halfway to the door, he heard a voice call out.

"DETAIL … ATTEN...SHUN!"

Victors gaze flicked to follow the voice, noticing now the dozen men and women in Militia uniforms standing just off to the side of the carpet, carrying standard issue M42 rifles. He reasoned that given they were standing at parade rest and not on the ground in a pool of their own blood courtesy of his overprotective bodyguards, they were an expected presence. A guess confirmed a moment later as Kai Brevik cleared his throat, an expression on his face suggesting he had just remembered this little thing.

"Oh yes" he added belatedly as Victor offered him a raised eyebrow. "The local militia" Brevik nodded at the men and women, "have mounted a permanent honor guard at this castle for several centuries - and were hoping you might inspect them on your way in" he explained in an apologetic tone, as if thinking Victor was going to be annoyed having to deal with this.

Of course, nothing could be further from the truth and without further ado, Victor moved forward and caught the eye of the man in charge, giving him a slight nod.

"PRESENT … ARMS!" the detail leader barked in response and with a unified clatter the rifles were brought up from the ground to be held at present arms with envious unity. Then, the Sergeant who carried no rifle stepped out of line, spun on a heel and marched towards him down the carpet, halting a few meters away to snap a perfect salute. Traditionally, the sergeant would have pulled his sword and saluted with that, but Victor suspected his security details advance team had made it clear waving sharp objects in the face of their charge would be a very big mistake.

It was nothing personal, it was just that since the days of the Mechwarrior Cabal, armed soldiers tended to make the paramilitary security teams nervous. So they had a habit of disarming any 'honor guards' as a matter of routine. Well unless you happened to be a member of either the Davion or Royal Guards, who had an equally proud history of telling the spooks to bite their Battlemechs shiney metal-

"Marshal Steiner-Davion Sir!" the other barked after Victor returned the salute, dragging Victor's attention back to where it belonged. "Honour Guard Detail ready for inspection Sir!"

"Very well - carry on" he acknowledged the other. Saluting once more, the other pivoted and moved to flank him as Victor in turn started to examine the troops one by one with a critical eye. Certainly, they looked utterly immaculate in their turn out … but that was not the measure of a soldier. More than a few militias in the Inner FedCom were little more than social clubs wearing uniforms like fancy dress to pick up people. Clubs that tended to fade away the second any serious enemy force showed its face. Unlike March Militias which were line AFFC units, planetary militias answered to the local Government and were funded, equipped, trained and organized by the same. Which meant, with a few exceptions on key worlds, they were held in some level of contempt by regular troops.

And as that thought hit him, Victor came to a stop and smiled as he took in the young soldier in front of of him, who was no doubt wondering why Victor had stopped in front of him.

And why he was smiling like that.

Still, the man held his composure, which was a good sign. "Private…"

"Walters SIR, First Class, SIR!" the other barked without hesitation.

"Weapon" Victor ordered.

Now the eyes of the man shifted to focus in on the Sergeant behind Victor. And from the way his glance jerked back to him and his face went slightly pale, Victor could almost visualize the kind of glare the Sergeant had given him for daring to look at him when he had been given an order by a Marshal of the Federated Commonwealth.

To his credit, Private Walters didn't respond by throwing the rifle at Victor in a panic, but instead, he took the weapon back from Present Arms, correctly pulled the bolt to visually inspect that the chamber was empty, double checked the safety was activated and only then held it out for Victor to take.

Victor had held his training companies top time in rifle drill, able to disassemble and reassemble a weapon faster than most of the Infantry trainees across the quad in fact. It hadn't gotten him any praise from his instructors of course, just mocking comments that perhaps he should go join the Jump Infantry because he was only a so-so Mechwarrior who was an utter disgrace to his family, Katrina Steiner and Ian Davion no doubt spinning in their graves...

But he had always none the less enjoyed taking apart rifles be they slugthrowers, needlers or laser rifles and putting them back together again. The M48 was like an old friend to him and he could tell after a brief inspection of its chamber, the magazine feed and rails that while this weapon it was in excellent condition, it was also well used. Several parts were clearly replacement components for worn out pieces, with other parts showing the clear signs of being repeatedly fired...

This was a weapon regularly used and he made a note to have Galen pull the training logs for the Militia to double check that when he went back to their HQ tomorrow.

"Private Walters, this is your field weapon?" He asked without turning away from his inspection of the rifle as he worked the bolt and found to his approval it moved flawlessly.

"Sir, yes Sir!" The other confirmed instantly, so rigidly at attention the poor man's muscles looked like they were about to start spasming, no doubt just a little worried about why he was being picked on in this way. And probably starting to imagine what would happen to him if he failed his unit their inspection by the biggest VIP to visit the planet since his parent's vacation decades ago...

Turning, Victor passed the weapon to Galen, glancing at the Sergeant in passing, whose face was unreadable.

"Komondant, do you concur?" Victor asked, fighting to keep the mirth off of his face as Galen inspected the weapon carefully.

Galen of course enjoyed these kind of games too, as he passed the weapon back.

"I do concur Sir" Galen agreed - without bothering to tell anyone what exactly the two of them were agreeing to. Which was nothing of course - Galen and Victor had long perfected 'good cop / bad cop' and taking on either role as needed.

Turning back to Private Walters, he decided to have pity on the poor man before he had a heart attack at 20 years old.

"Indeed. Private, this rifle is in excellent condition - despite clearly being well and frequently used. Outstanding work" Victor nodded at the other as he handed back the rifle. "Carry on".

The pure sense of relief mixed with pride coming off this man was almost a physical thing.

"Sir...thank you Sir!" Walters barked before accepting the rifle Victor handed back and snapping it back to port arms. And with his hands only barely visibly shaking.

Moving on, Victor inspected the rest of the troops, pleased to find that they were equally meticulous in their appearance. This was a unit that had pride in itself, which boded well as a strong foundation for future growth. And grow it would need to, given the value of the planet would increase by at least an order of magnitude over the next five or six years. Reaching the end of the line, Victor turned to face the Sergeant who had shadowed him down the line.

"Sergeant, my compliments to you and your detail. Their presentation and equipment was correct in all aspects. Carry on" Victor instructed and the other nodded before stomping back into line and starting to bark orders to march off his men to disperse them back to their sentry posts - clearly fighting off a smile.

"That was fun" Galen smiled as Kai rejoined them. "Although for a minute there I thought that the poor bastard was going to throw up on you when you stopped and asked him for his weapon"

"Well that would have added an interesting twist to the new uniforms" Kai dryly put in as they moved into the Castle. Easy laughter accompanied them into the castle and guided by Mr Breivik their party made quick time through the corridors. The older man happily pointed out this or that point of interest along the way and Victor's first impression from outside only being reinforced by the attention to detail on the inside, with very few hints of modern technology showing through the building. Even the candles providing illumination looked absolutely real - only the complete lack of any smoke and somewhat brighter light levels giving the game away there. It was truly magnificent, a work of art as much as a place of residence and he looked forward to exploring it over his stay...

Still, despite the ample illumination, Victor made it a point to carefully check each cross corridor as they approached, a habit that the Chief of Staff noticed quickly enough.

"Is...there something wrong highness?" Brevik asked with a slightly concerned expression, clearly having noticed his actions as they approached the next cross corridor.

"No; just keeping an eye out for any energetic red-heads coming in from our blind side" Victor explained earning an immediate chuckle from both Galen and Kai and an understanding smile from Brevik.

And, Victor noted with some amusement, a sudden alertness in his bodyguards at the reminder that this was Anna's home turf...

"Oh, Anna is here Highness, but she is out in the courtyard with the general admission guests".

"Not in the ballroom?" Victor raised an eyebrow. It would be a slight faux pas for Elsa's sister to not be present when her sister and guest of honor arrived after all...

"Forgive me Highness" the other said with a slight expression of unease after a pause of consideration. "She seemed to be enjoying herself, mingling through the courtyard. I ... had thought to leave her there until her presence was needed. for a time. I can of course have her brought at once to-"

"No no no" Victor stated quite firmly as they approached a small antechamber for the ballroom, inside which Victor could see a gaggle of protocol people standing ready, mentally sighing at the necessity of the formality as he forced himself into 'on-stage' mode and let a wry smile pass onto his face. "If Anna is able to just enjoy herself out there and not get caught up in all this" he added with a nod of his head at the waiting people and political fun he was about to walk into, "then by all means just let her enjoy herself for a while longer".

---

As she stared at the gaggle of smirking and laughing people in front of her, Anna distantly noted that this was probably the most miserable she had been at a social celebration in her life.

It hadn't started that way though.

She'd arrived with her Aunt, Uncle and Cousin almost an hour ago, entering via the front gates as the last group of VIPs due before Prince Victor and her sister. At the bridge into the castle a media pack had waited like a firing line, their camera flashes almost blinding her as she stepped out of the limo and their shouted questions and comments overlapping and competing into a ridiculous mess of noise. However unlike earlier today, no-one had told her that she was expected to stop and talk or make a speech. So after a brief smile and wave she just ignored them, strolling up onto the bridge and leaving them behind to start crossing the moat towards her home, her cousin right beside her.

Anna stared wistfully as she approached the softly floodlit building, no words coming to mind but feeling a broad spread of emotion as she looked upon her home for the first time in many years. Punz had unsurprisingly sensed her mood quickly and offered no conversation, just walking with her in companionable silence studying the flags hanging along both side of the bridge. Each flag was the planetary flag of a world in the Crucis March and as they reached the end of the bridge Punz let out a delighted little squeal as she finally found the purple and gold standard of Corona. Anna smiled at her cousin's reaction, feeling a stirring of happiness as she saw that the flag of Corona had been given pride of place at the end of the bridge, just outside the castle and opposite the flag of New Avalon itself. It was a lovely, quiet nod to the links between the two world's Royal families and Anna made a mental note to find out who was responsible for that and thank them, before she set herself and stepped through the open gates with a deep breath …

… only to anticlimactically find herself stepping inside yet another temporary security station.

While there were what looked like a few MIIO types present, the staff mostly wore the grey and green of the palace guards and the leader offered her a deep bow of respect as she stepped inside, welcoming her back home and bringing a slight blush to her cheeks, before he promptly turned to offered a bow only slightly shallower to welcome her kin here for the first time. Apparently already satisfied they were who they said they were they were gestured through and Anna braced herself as Punz didn't quite drag her forward into an explosion of light and noise.

Hundreds, perhaps a thousand or more people were crowded into the open square just inside the castle walls. Stepping quickly off to the side from one of the doors that led out from the security station, Anna subtly waved off a far-too-young protocol officer already moving to intercept her, the man thankfully just nodding and stepping away as she and her cousin edged off to the side of the gate more or less unnoticed.

Anna couldn't have really managed more than that right now. Emotions were flowing through her thick and fast as she looked upon her home for the first time in years, filled with life in a way it had never really been since the awful day Elsa had left her-

"You okay?"

Anna's head swiveled at the question to take in her cousin - looking annoyingly stunning in one of her favorite purple dresses - who was eying her with an expression far too knowing for her liking.

"I'm good" Anna offered her a smile, one that probably didn't do too much to hide the emotion running through her body. "It's just a little ... overwhelming".

Without saying anything or any hint of self consciousness, Punz slid closer and threw one arm around her shoulder, the casual and familiar gesture doing something to ease the emotional surge running through her as she relaxed into the other.

"Take your time" she smile guilelessly before craning her neck to look at the massive castle itself that loomed above them. "I have to admit" she added "I'm totally digging the place so far".

"Wait till you see the grounds tomorrow - there are some great riding trails up into the hills" she offered, getting an excited smile from the other. Corona was famous for its incredible horses, the animals sought across the Inner Sphere for racing and personal use and, unsurprisingly, the royal stables had been some of the best. Anna had fallen in love with the majestic animals almost from the first time Rapunzel had taken her down there and had spent a lot of time learning to ride them. Indeed her instructors had tried to convince her to compete professionally - no small compliment given how seriously Corona took such things. She had declined their offers though, a little shy about the spotlight that would be put on her. But it would be nice to take one last ride with her cousin and show her off her home … and just maybe Elsa could come with them.

Or perhaps … someone else ...

"So, uh, should we head into the ballroom now?" Punz broke into her thoughts, nodding towards the main building with a second layer of guards at the doors beyond the fountain happily bubbling away.

"You go ahead. If it's okay I'm going to just wander … you know, through the crowd for a while. And mingle..." Anna let her voice trailed off vaguely, gesturing at the crowded square even as her eyes were casually sweeping it, searching...

Her body language caused an instant smirk to form on the face of her cousin and Anna realized, again, that she really couldn't hide anything from her cousin.

"Ohhhh ... looking for a certain side-burn-elevator-riding guest are we?" Punz asked in a sing-song voice with an almost evil smirk on her face.

Anna's face flushed at that and the others smile only grew as she noted the response. But before Punz could press in with her teasing, a hand landed on her shoulder from behind.

"Darling, I think we can leave Anna alone to mingle" her Aunt joined the conversation with some amusement as she and her Uncle moved up to join them in their little off-to-the-side area.

"But mom…" Rapunzel started to not exactly whine, clearly extremely eager to stalk … that is, to follow Anna through what came next. She had almost gone beserk this afternoon after Hans had left the elevator, trying to drag every bit of information she could about this incredibly cute man who-knew-her-name out of her - and had clearly been driven to distraction over the fact that Anna point blank refused to give anything away. And that he had left the elevator only a floor down before she could interrogate him.

But her Aunt was clearly not having anything about that as she started to not-quite drag her daughter off towards the Castle proper.

"Anna, Kai says he'll see you inside when you're ready to join us" her Uncle relayed in passing, looking terribly dashing in his old AFFS uniform, an understanding smile on his face as Anna nodded to him before he moved up to help wrangle Punz towards the Castle itself.

Anna watched them go with a smile before turning away, slipping out into the edge of the crowd alone. She was wearing a nice little cloak with a hood that Edna Mode had left in her room with a scrawled note demanding she wear it tonight. And it did surprisingly well to cover her dress and disguise her presence so long as no-one paid close attention to her.

Shielded in this anonymity she threaded her way through the party like a ghost, picking up on bits of conversation here and there, smiling to herself despite her nerves, at the casual, pleasant ambience - which she knew would contrast with an awfully formal atmosphere inside. A lot of people were sitting at their tables enjoying hors d'oeuvres or drinks and she recognized some of them as local vid celebrities or lower order nobility she knew she had met once but couldn't remember the names of. Once or twice one met her gaze but only in passing and without any recognition - although one incredibly cute young girl sulking in her chair saw her and her eyes went wide, causing Anna to playfully raise a finger to her lips and get a cute nod back, before slipping back into the crowd as she continued her search. She suppressed a giggle or two when she noted a teenaged guy clearly trying to put (very clumsy) moves on a teenaged girl in a small alcove she passed by - then did giggle slightly when a few steps on she heard the crack of a palm meeting a face, followed by the distinct sound of high-heels stomping away from said alcove.

More people were packed inside the long hallways that marked the edge of the square at various temporary bars, vid screens and so on and Anna glided away from them, knowing the odds of remaining unspotted were low there, instead swiping an orange juice from a waiter in passing to sip on as she searched. But after spending over half an hour looking without any luck for that distinctive shade of auburn - and with the giant vid screens mounted on the castle walls facing inwards turning on now to show what could only be Prince Victor's convoy approaching, to the cheers of the crowd, she decided that perhaps it was time to head inside…

But then she stopped as she heard her name called out.

Her heart pulsed as she worked her way towards the conversation-

"...but I tell you by God Anna Jorgensson is such a social climber".

Anna froze at that statement. She found herself standing just off to the side of a group of a dozen men and women her age, all listening raptly to a tall, lean looking young man with a not-quite-sneer seemingly ground into his face.

"I mean think about it. Prince Victor lands and barely thirty seconds later Anna is 'falling into him' according to the people I talked to! Then she spent most of the day with him! I mean that is fast

Anna felt her heart sink in her chest as the group laughed and nodded along with the now grinning man.

"I mean I can't blame her for looking out for number one" the man continued as Anna belatedly recognized him as James Forbes - the boy whose nose Anna had broken after he had called her Sister a freak on their first meeting many years ago.

Perhaps she had hit him too hard. Or not hard enough...

"After all, she's just the spare - soon to be the redundant spare. Her parents - God rest their souls- didn't even bother to give her a title you know? They just kept her hidden away here in a box somewhere, while sending Elsa to get the finest possible education and training on the other side of the planet. Then when Elsa comes back, she kicks Anna off to her relatives so she doesn't have to deal with her … well … that says it all really doesn't it? Clearly she can't stand her. Hasn't even called her since she got back home I bet!"

Anna's growing anger spluttered and died in moments; extinguished as all her other emotions came pouring in like a tsunami. Already rather on edge tonight, the insult she would have shrugged off any other day landed squarely in the depths of her deepest fears and sent anxiety surging through her body. Even as another woman in the group started to scornfully natter about how her lack of presence in 'their' social group of junior nobles proved she was 'weird', Anna felt like she was collapsing in on herself. The fragile house of glass shattering into a heap as she was confronted with the stark question of her life.

Who was she? Especially when compared to her sister?

Elsa, the Duchess. Who seemed to blast exquisite perfection in everything she did … while she was making an idiot of herself crashing into the heir to the Federated Commonwealth?

What purpose, really, did she have in her life next to that, other than being some 'break glass in emergency' contingency if something horrible happened to her sister? For that matter; what worth did she have that wasn't defined by her relationship to her sister? Forbes was an asshole … but that didn't make him wrong.

She had no role or title beyond being the sister of the Duchess. She had no holdings or responsibilities of her own, not even a plain ordinary job.

She was just … a hanger on. An accessory.

The spare.

And now she was standing here. Inside her own home she was being shown exactly what her peers thought about her … and she suddenly wanted to find some corner to hide away in. Not because of Forbes and his rudeness -and she sure as hell wouldn't give him the satisfaction!- but the overwhelming emotion of the day was just starting to be too much for her to deal with anymore. Anna wasn't someone who had anxiety attacks, but the cumulative stress of the last few days had been no small thing to keep suppressing. And as the group ignorant of her presence but a few meters away continued agreeing on her lack of worth as even a person, Anna found herself rooted to the spot fighting back the tears that were trying hard to come out-

"You are an idiot, you know that don't you?"

The voice -that voice- shattered her paralysis, cutting clean across the thunder of her heart in her ears. The tightness in her chest slackened and she took a cool cleansing breath almost on reflex, letting the panic recede as she exhaled. Recovering her poise, somewhat, she turned her attention now to the man striding into the suddenly silenced group of people in front of her and felt her eyes widen.

Not just a man. The man.

Hans Westerguard let a cool almost smirk sweep across the group as he strolled into their groups space without so much as a by-your-leave, that seemed to weigh them all and dismiss them in the same action. Standing taller than any of them in his utterly immaculate white uniform-like suit, he had them all struck speechless for a long moment until Forbes managed to work his mouth again.

"Excuse me?" Forbes offered him a sneer, puffing himself up slightly. "Do you know who-"

"No and I really don't care either" Hans cut across the other with an indifference that caused the others eyes to go wide in shock as gasps erupted from his toadies - and Anna's heart to skip a beat in (slightly malicious) glee from the sheer casual scorn the others eyes held, as if Forbes was something unpleasant he had found on the sole of his shoe. "The only thing I need to know is that you are clearly an idiot who decided to come into the Lady Jorgenessons home and casually insult both her and her sister with a disgraceful lack of manners or brains. Now" he continued with a slight shrug, "there is certainly no law against being either an idiot or rude in the Federated Suns, but it is a rare person who manages to accomplish both so … efficiently. So I suppose there is something praiseworthy about that…"

"I am a Baron you insolent fool. How dare-" Forbes started to splutter with his face going red, only to be cut off once again as Hanse suddenly stepped into the group, his body language seeming to somehow change in a heartbeat to become … dangerous in a way that caused most of the gaggle of people to edge away reflexively.

"Oh quite easily I assure you" Hans replied with a thin smile. "Living in the Outback means you learn how to deal with rude idiots lest they waste precious resources. And, as such-"

Anna did gasp at that point, loudly enough to give her away … if not for the fact that her gasp was mixed with dozens of others as, in a blur of motion she could barely follow, Hans's arm flicked out and a white glove slapped into the face of Forbs sending his head jerking to the side, his eyes bulging almost out of their sockets.

"Baron … whoever" Hans shrugged indifferently as Forbes eyes gaped, the blood starting to drain from his face with impressive speed as he realized what had just happened. "You have offered grievous insult against the Lady Anna Jorgensen and, on her behalf, I demand satisfaction".

"You..." Forbes spluttered as he fought to rally his composure. "You, some offworld riff-raff commoner from the Periphery? You think you can challenge a Baron of Arendelle?"

Anna blinked at that as his repetition of his title sunk in, realizing that with his father dead James would have inherited the title when he turned eighteen. Which probably explained the sycophancy around him come to think of it. His social group was probably made up of scions of local nobility (the worst of them she fervently hoped) but none of them had titles in of themselves yet. Making him first among equals.

But one of the rules around the issuing of challenges like this was that only a member of the nobility could challenge a member of the nobility …

Wait ... that had to mean-

"Periphery March, not the Periphery" Hans corrected the other with a single raised finger and chiding tone - even as the crowd around them grew with people whispering about what was going on in excitement (and Anna noticed to her annoyance, more than a few highly interested looks from young women towards Hans from the edge of the crowd). "And I'm actually a Knight of the Southern Isles. Now" and with that Hans's whole tone and demeanor changed to be entirely businesslike as he carefully put his glove back on. "We surely don't want to spoil the party for the Duchess's family or Archon-Prince-Designate, so I'll have my seconds call on you tomorrow to discuss the terms. Knives, swords, pistols - I am entirely flexible and ready at your earliest convenience of course" he said with a terrifyingly charming smile and brief slightly mocking bow at the increasingly white faced Forbes.

Anna couldn't help but admit that she felt a tiny little flutter in her heart as she stared at her figurative (and quite possibly literal if he had a Battlemech back home somewhere) Knight in shining armor. A man who had unasked and unlooked for stood up to defend her honor like a tale out of a book...

Then her mind came back down to reality and she realized that she had to put a stop to this. Touching gesture or not, hurtful comments or not, did she really want blood spilled? For people to risk dying over a bunch of idiots calling her names behind her back?

This was the 31st century after all, not the 13th. And this was the Federated Suns. Not the Draconis Combine, where it was apparently considered a dull party in Luthien high society if at least two challenges had not been delivered by the end of the night...

But before she could open her mouth to interject, James Forbes opened his and made the whole issue moot.

"I … well, yes" Forbs started to say as it started to dawn on him how deep he was in it - and that a quick apology might save him an awful lot of painful physical therapy in the near future. And realizing that while it would be politically acceptable to simply apologize and move on with a small loss of face, accepting the challenge, even if he won, meant he would publicly be defending what he had said about her. And, if he lost - even if he lived ...

"I think that, given the celebration we are at, it would perhaps be better if I simply expressed my … regret? That is" he added hastily as Hans's eyes narrowed dangerously again at the non-specific words, "to apologize to the Lady Anna for such rude and clearly untrue statements".

"Then in that case" Hans didn't quite hiss, "I'd suggest you turn around and do so".

Those words hung in the air for a heartbeat, as if no-one could believe (or wanted to believe) what he had just said, but then almost as one, the faces of several dozen people snapped around and locked quickly onto her. And after only a heartbeat's hesitation to school her face into the most impassive look she could muster, Anna reached up and pulled back the hood around her face, earning a sudden gasp from the crowd as her shimmering auburn hair emerged and caught the light. Many of the crowd who had gathered looked delighted -or were grinning outright at her- as if this was a sudden twist in some play they were watching.

The cluster of people around Forbes who had been enjoying insulting her, however, almost looked they were about to be sick.

Forbes face, impossibly, seemed to somehow become even paler as he saw her step forward, the crowd almost magically parting in silence for her as she held the man's gaze.

"My … my -"

"My Lady Anna?" She replied, trying for a neutral tone but not quite able to keep the acid out of it. "Or perhaps that was My Lady Social Climber?" she added causing Forbes to flinch, the man perhaps wondering if she was about to claim satisfaction with another right hook.

But as cathartic as it might have been … she knew the scandal would only increase if she did so. Her sisters great celebration ruined by her starting a fist fight over people calling her names behind her back. Especially with the number of young people in the vicinity pointing vid cameras at them.

This was not the footage Elsa would want on the morning talk shows. Nor the example Elsa would expect her to set.

He just wasn't worth it.

If he had talked smack about her sister again on the other hand … well, he should count himself lucky!

"I…" Forbes tried, drawing her attention back as he closed his eyes and seemingly forcing himself to take a deep breath, before he bowed his head and held it down. "My Lady, I apologize. There is no excuse for the slander I was throwing around behind your back. I think perhaps I have had one too many-"

"Baron Forbes, I accept your apology" she cut him off, suddenly just wanting this over with, getting a slightly surprised reaction from the man as he hopefully raised his head, before she let the other shoe drop. "But I think it would be best if you and your … companions" Anna glanced to her side to take in the still shocked group of toadies before turning back, "made a discreet exit from the party now".

There was an strangled moan come gasp of shock from the group at the news that they were being kicked out of the social event of the decade, but it died stillborn as Anna turned a not-quite-glare around them - and at the same time, they noticed that several of the guards and servants had not-quite pushed their way through the crowd to the group, clearly having caught onto what was happening and moved to stand ready should things escalate. Catching the eye of one, she beckoned him over.

"My Lady?" he asked with a slight bow and click of his heals.

"Can you please escort Baron Forbes and his friends to the door? They will be retiring for the evening. Arrange transport for them safely home if they do not have any ready. Oh and find their parents if they are present to let them know they are leaving" she added, trying not to enjoy the sudden look of terror in the eyes of most of the young adults at their parents being told their children were being kicked out of the party for insulting her.

"At once My Lady" the guard saluted before turning to Forbes. "My Lord?" he gestured in a friendly, but still rather pointed way.

"Of … of course" he muttered, seemingly grateful just to be able to leave on his own two feet and not find out if the Castles authenticity extended to it having a dungeon. "Once again My Lady, I apologise unreservedly for my rudeness" he bowed to her, Anna giving him a short nod back before he let himself be led away with a guard, the rest of his group being shepherded along behind him, none of them daring to meet her eyes … and leaving Anna in the middle of the crowd.

"I apologize for all that - please, the night is still young - enjoy the party!" Anna forced a smile and the crowd started to disperse, Anna vaguely noting the words of praise offered to her for her handling of the situation, but not really absorbing it. Because her attention was on the man who stepped forward and offered her a textbook perfect deep bow with yet more heart stopping grace and power.

"My Lady Anna" Hans greeted her as he swept back up to his tall and dashing self, an apologetic look on his face. "I most humbly apologize if I overstepped when I challenged the Baron to a duel on your behalf" he stated, looking almost sheepish in an impossibly cute way that caused Anna's heart to flutter once more … but in a good way this time. "My Brothers always tell me I keep acting before thinking. I had just intended to chastise him and tell him off … but when I saw that you were standing right there and had heard everything those disgusting people said … I perhaps got a little … carried away".

"My Lord Westerguard" Anna offered a curtsy in return, for once pulling it off exactly right before she let go of her skirt and felt her hands starting to wring each other before she forced them apart. "You don't owe anyone an apology - least of all me. I mean, I don't want people to die because they talked about me behind my back - which isn't to say I don't appreciate the offer … not to kill for me I mean but to challenge" she started at once to trip over her words before screaming mentally at herself to get it together. "But … well, I really appreciate the gesture is what I mean" she managed to say, starting to get lost in that deep gentle smile, ignoring the stares and whispers around her...

A cheer went up from the crowd suddenly and the moment was broken, Anna tearing her gaze away to note that the screens were showing Victor, Galen and Kai entering the grand ballroom inside the Castle.

"So uh, I think you should probably go inside My Lady" Hans noted gently, looking slightly disappointed for a moment before he covered it up behind another smile. "It was a great pleasure meeting you again" he said, offering another bow and clearly about to turn away-

"Wouldyouliketocomeinwithme?" Anna spluttered, before closing her eyes for a second and cursing herself for her tounge twisting itself into a pretzel and her brain for refusing to let her think before she talked, as Hans blinked in slight confusion.

"I mean…" she forced herself to take a breath and looked up into those devastating eyes. "My Lord Westergard … would you like to come in with me? As my … guest?" she barely managed to avoid saying 'date'. "To the ball?"

The other was clearly taken aback and for a heart stopping moment she thought he was about to turn her down … then he offered another of his incredible smiles and a half bow.

"My Lady … it would be my pleasure and honor" he said before straightening … and extending his arm.

Clenching the muscles in her arm for a second to stop their annoying trembling, she linked her elbow through his and tried to ignore the electric thrill that shot through her arm into her body. Suddenly, she found herself mostly ignorant to the whispered smiles and smirks of the crowd as they moved through it. People gliding out of their way as word continued to spread about what had happened; Anna ignoring the looks from young women annoyed she was taking Hans away and ignorant of the looks from young men annoyed Hans was taking her away. And soon enough, they stepped through into the castle proper heading for her sister … and Anna realized that this was the best social event she had ever been to in her life.

---

This was not Galen's first rodeo.

His introduction to the world of high nobility had been back in the day on Sudeten. Barely three years past and yet feeling like a lifetime ago now. Morgan Hasek-Davion, Marshal of the AFFC and Lord of the Capellan March had used the planet as his forward operating base during the Clan War. He and Victor after the destruction of their RCT had withdrawn there, to meet up with the reinforcements swarming into the theater. And with a number of elite units moving in, more than a few members of the upper nobility had shown up from both sides of the FedCom too - Kai Allard-Liao, then Heir to Saint Ives (and now Sian), among them.

But Sudeten had been very much a 'business meeting'. The niceties of social protocol had been put to the side in favour of the AFFC trying to come to grips with the terrifying unknown enemy chewing up any unit thrown at them as they implacably advanced from planet to planet. His first real taste of court life thus had been after Twycross. First on Tharkad, then Outreach, New Avalon…

Yet he still couldn't help but feel more than a little out of place as he stepped past the bowing palace servants behind Victor and Kai, bracing himself for the wave of people expected to come at them. Even though they were here a good thirty minutes before the Duchess herself was due to show up and so the main ballroom was only half filled, the entrance of the Heir to the Federated Commonwealth unsurprisingly caused a sudden surge and people started to round towards them.

Tonight however luck was with him. By chance or design, the first person in Victor's line of sight past the grand doors was Arendelle's ComStar Precentor. Happily, it turned out he was in fact a Tukayyid veteran; a Mechwarrior promoted to command of the local HPG station. Such a position was long considered the ultimate reward ComStar could give a member of the order; this man had clearly earned it through exemplary service on that massive battlefield.

Or, the cynical part of Galen interjected, he's part of Focht and Mori's cleanup of the old guard after Myndo Waterlys 'retirement'; replacing someone just a little too loyal to the old order…

He knew better than to ask of course. The true scope, impact and consequences of Operation Scorpion were still being kept mostly secret from the general population of most Inner Sphere nations. But especially after Kai had shared one or two stories of his time on the run from the robes on Alynia, Galen couldn't help but be somewhat more wary around Blakes followers these days. 'New vision' or not.

Still, on balance, it was an auspicious enough start to the night. It only took Victor ten seconds to determine that the man was ex Com-Guard; a former member of the legendary 104th Division. And inside a minute, the Precentor was delighted to start telling war stories, enthralling both Victor and Kai from '...and there I was jumping my Highlander out at thirty thousand feet …'

Of course, said ad-hoc tactical review quickly gained a crowd of the military and ex-military types that tended to dominate nobility in the Federated Suns, all very eager to hear of the famous battle from a first hand participant. Taking his chance with the opening, Galen slipped away through said crowd, making for the balcony that circled this part of the castle and swiping a flute of champagne from a waiter in passing as he made good his escape.

The Balcony ran along the outside of the grand ballroom, connecting two wings of the palace. Large floor to ceiling French doors were closed against the night air, but a smaller door to the side was available, with a palace guard in their green/purple uniform standing unobtrusively by it. For a moment as he approached, Galen thought the woman was going to try and deny him exit, but she hastened to open the door as he got closer with a nod, most probably recognizing him as part of Victors entourage.

Although he noted that she did quickly close it behind him.

Mentally shrugging at that, he stepped outside and took a deep breath, finding the crisp evening air filled with the scent of roses and flowers from cunningly placed planter boxes and hedges that divided up the balcony. Making it almost an outdoor garden, and quite a charming one too.

Now this was more like it. No-one out here but-

"Good evening Kommandant. Can I help you?" a voice asked from his right. Sighing slightly, Galen turned to see yet another plain clothes security type. Not one of Victors - the man was missing the tiny silver and gold fox pin his bodyguards wore; this was clearly someone from palace security.

"No, just coming out here to get some fresh air" Galen replied with an easy smile, nodding at the stone railing that marked the edge of the balcony.

The bodyguard seemed to hesitate for a split second before smiling and nodding back, fading back to his previous position blocking off the upper third of the balcony in an unspoken message that it was off limits.

Mentally ignoring the odd behavior, Galen strode forward towards the railing in front of him, casually sipping at his champagne and finding it pleasantly agreeable for a local vintage. The balcony faced north, situated on the opposite side of the Castle from the main gate and the grounds were only softly illuminated, so he had to wait for his eyes to adjust.

The immense egg shaped silhouette of the Barbarossa, Victor's command dropship, was immediately visible though, by virtue of being both the size of a small skyscraper and having its running lights on. She had flown across from the spaceport earlier today and now sat placidly on the Royals private dropship landing pad that jutted out into the fjord - probably the largest dropship to ever use it. Beyond said fjord a heavily forested bank rose quickly towards the sky with mountains looming close behind, forming a natural Northern barrier to the Arendelle city regional area. One distinctive peak in particular, only a dozen or so kilometers away, stabbed into the sky and vanished into the clouds like a spearhead..

The North Mountain he recalled after a moment, one of the key geographical features on the AO maps he had studied purely out of habit on the flight in. He admired the the distinctive knife like profile and noticed the hints of snow on the upper regions, reflecting that the one thing he really missed from Trel-I was its sphere-class ski resorts...

"Next time, I'm bringing skis" he promised loudly to the mountain with a smirk, raising his glass in a mock salute to it-

"Excuse me?" a slightly surprised and muffled woman's voice came in and Galen felt his face go red as he turned to the right. The box hedge there that blocked off the eastern third of the balcony was reasonably thick, but squinting through the hedge he could vaguely make out a figure standing on the other side.

Well that was embarrassing.

"Oh … Sorry" he apologized, feeling slightly sheepish in the way one did when caught talking to yourself. "I was just talking to myself - I thought I was alone out here".

"Oh" the other -a young woman he determined after a moment - noted. "Then … I'm sorry for disturbing you".

"No, no it's fine" Galen hastened to clarify, not wanting to offend her. "I've just been cooped up indoors or in vehicles pretty much all day, wanted to get some air. Well that and" he admitted with a slightly wry smile to himself, "these kinds of events are not really my specialty".

There was a brief pause and then the other voice came back again, this time tinted with just a hint of curiosity.

"I would have thought … that is, surely you have been to far grander celebrations than this on Tharkad and New Avalon? With the Archon and First Prince?"

Galen raised an eyebrow at that. Clearly this person knew who he was.

Then again, it wasn't exactly a state secret, was it?

"Oh, far grander" he admitted with a shrug after a moment of thought, turning back to step up to the balcony and lean against it, admiring the grounds that stretched out towards the fjord. "Peter Steiner-Davion's 18th Birthday party back in February had something like two thousand guests and some of the best bands from the Federated Commonwealth doing live performances ... and that was pretty lively".

Even more so, Galen silently reflected, when Victor had suddenly approached him on the sidelines and hurriedly told him that he had just been given a heads up from a friend in palace security that Yvonne had snuck into the ballroom incognito - with a little help from Arthur running a diversion. And if Hanse Davion found out his precious youngest daughter -who could pass for sixteen with a little effort- had slipped into a darkened room filled with alcohol and young men?

Well, no-one wanted the 1st Davion to crash the party...

Yvonne had refused to talk to him for months after he had been the one to track her down and firmly pull her out of the room and away from the three young men who had been far too interested in her for his liking.

"Still, I'm not a blueblood" he continued as he leaned down against the stone ledge of the balcony. "At a big event on New Avalon or Tharkad I'm just part of the crowd. Everyone who is anyone brings along aides and people of all sorts, so I'm not anyone special three. But here" Galen jerked his head back to the palace before remembering that the other couldn't see him, "I'm a tad more conspicuous next to the heirs of the Federated Commonwealth and Capellan Confederation as the only other member of their offworld delegation. More than a few people probably look at me and conclude I'm the greatest social climber since Cinderella".

There was something of a half gasp, half amused laugh from the other at that quip, which rapidly strangled off into an apologetic clearing of the others throat.

"Yes … I suppose there is an advantage in being 'nobody' at these events. No pressure. No expectations…" the other's voice trailed off and Galen frowned, cocking his head slightly in thought.

He had always had a bit of a knack for getting a handle on other people's moods and insecurities. More than one NCO he had served with had bemoaned the fact that he had chosen to 'waste' his talent by becoming an officer instead of the Master Sergeant he was meant to be.

And right now, those instincts were telling him that this young woman was wound up tighter than a furled jumpship sail.

Pausing, he took another look through the planter box at her vague silhouette as he wondered who she was ... and this time caught a shift of one of the guards out of the corner of his eye - and then it finally clicked who this person had to be.

And why she was out here instead of in there.

Well, it was a nice party while it lasted Galen sighed to himself as he idly considered a new career as a life coach for young nobility. So far he had held Victors hand through his first war, slapped some sense into Kai on Outreach and even run interference on Victor's parents when he had wanted to go and 'say goodbye' to Omi...

"Perhaps. Although I have something of an understanding of what it's like being trapped into social situations like this with unwelcome attention" he admitted to her, before letting a smirk come across his face as his mind flashed back. "I remember one night, back during the war, when Victor and I returned to Tharkad after Twycross. It was getting late and Vic decided we'd just grab a bite before crashing for the night - it had been a long high-G burn in after all. So," Galen chuckled, crossing his arms and leaning against the balcony railing, "he took me to a room in the Triad and knocked on the door … and moments later I found myself dragged inside by Katherine Steiner-Davion. Victor 'neglected' to inform me that this night, by pure coincidence was 'family dinner night'. And while he and his siblings ran into the kitchen to help Yvonne and Arthur cook, I spent the most terrifying fifty six and a half minutes of my life trapped on a couch opposite Hanse Davion and Melissa Steiner".

Galen paused for a moment at the memory. He had thought he had known terror on the battlefield, terror that never truly went away but could be mastered … but that hour had made the desperate fights for his life on the Clan front seem like a cadets training exercise. Even eating Yvonne and Arthur's 'creative' attempt at Spaghetti Bolognaise had been a minor thing afterwards.

Yet after surviving that night, hanging around and dealing with the events of the Royal Courts had become almost casually easy for him, putting everything in perspective …

Just boring as all hell.

"That...must have been intimidating" the other noted after a moment, now sounding mildly amused rather than anxious. Which was progress.

"Very" Galen admitted. "But I learned a rather pointed lesson that night kid. "One" he added, "that I think might be somewhat relevant to your situation, kid".

There was a slightly startled silence from the other at that and for a nanosecond Galen wondered if he had genuinely overstepped the mark … before he heard the soft but sharp sound of a heel striking stone and caught a flickering of movement off to the side. On instinct his gaze came up ...

Galen had seen Elsa before, of course.

Well, at least he had seen her image several times.

Her photo in the MIIO file Victor had forwarded to him for review as part of his briefing packet had been striking enough in a formal sort of way he supposed, but had no warranted more than a glance. And while on base overseeing the auditing of the local militia, one of the vid-screens in the briefing rooms he and his people had been using had, naturally, been turned to the live coverage of the coronation and he had seen her image more than once in passing in between data files and noted her beauty in an equally distant sort of way.

Face to face barely a meter away he found himself frozen as he met her gaze across the balcony.

The first thought that flew into his mind was that Elsa had a wash of freckles across her face. Unlike her sisters, they were incredibly faint and only visible close up. And yet they seemed to suit her skin perfectly, while also with their presence linking her to her younger sibling in a way he found entirely appropriate.

The second thought a few milliseconds later was that she was gorgeous.

Her hair was a rare shade of blond, with a light enough mix of colours that it seemed to all but glow in the dim lighting like a precious metal, shimmering in a way that made him irrationally annoyed he was utterly horrible at poetry given how it took his breath away. Not so much as one hair was out of place in the bun that swirled up onto her head, her fair skin - that he knew many ladies of the court would have happily murdered for - contrasting perfectly with the deep colors of her dress and dark eyeshadow; colours that lent her a mysterious mature air despite her youth.

But all of that was nothing as his eyes locked with hers.

Some people like Hanse Davion or Jamie Wolf were rather hard people to hold a gaze with. They had such a presence that it took constant conscious effort to not find something far more interesting in the shoes they was wearing. Other people like Elsa's sister, were so innocently honest and friendly in their gaze without any guile or deception, that you could talk with her all day without the slightest hint of self consciousness. Even bloody Curtias hadn't been able to help but smile back when Anna had given him chocolates yesterday - even if the smile had looked like his facial muscles were frantically looking up old books to try and remember how to do it.

And then you had Melissa Steiner who with a smile and a wink could make you feel that your life was complete … and it was all downhill from here the second she turned away.

But Elsa…

Her eyes danced in the dark like twin sapphires. A deep blue whose shade Galen couldn't name that held his gaze that he couldn't have looked away from even if he wanted to. There was just such … depth to them, infinite facets that hinted she was so much more than she seemed; removing all thought from his mind and leaving him simply staring at her as that gaze seemingly drew him deeper and deeper ...

"...Yes?" she asked him after a pause - and just that like he blinked … and the moment was gone. Now he was just seeing a slightly confused looking young woman waiting for him to finish his thought.

Get a bloody grip Galen! She's twenty one ... and a Duchess!

"Just remember" he said, managing to fight off his faces desire to flush bright red through sheer willpower, wrenching himself back on topic. "You are the Duchess of Arendelle. Short of Victor and Kai, you are the most senior member of the nobility in that room" he jerked his head backwards slightly towards the palace, but didn't break eye contact "and you the one that most people have come here to see. So take it from someone who has been in their position recently; they will be far more terrified of screwing this up than you could possibly be of making a bad impression of them. If you just shake their hands, smile and nod at them for ten seconds before moving on, they'll leave tonight telling everyone that you personally gave them a tour of your castle and passed on your personal phone number. If you make any minor faux pas, they'll be falling over themselves to claim that it's entirely their fault and beg your forgiveness".

He paused for a moment to let that sink in as he judged her intent expression before he shrugged.

"But, if you need a diversion to get away for a moment, just catch my eye, brush your collar and I'll have Anna crash into Victor again".

There was a brief moment of imperiously raised eyebrows - at his last comment … but then came the snicker. Then a second as she fought to keep control … and then with a strangled snort, Elsa broke out into pure laughter, letting her head slump and just letting it go.

And it was one of the most charming sounds he had ever heard in his life.

---

Kai was, to his mild surprise, having a pleasant time at this ball.

So far anyway.

Of course to be fair, the fact that it had started out not so much a ball as an impromptu and highly entertaining tactical analysis of anti-Clan tactics had helped greatly. He and Victor had managed to stretch that out for a good fifteen minutes or so, with Precentor Richards entirely happy to walk them through the famous hot-drop his division had made that had broken the back of the Jade Falcons at Robbins Crossing - with several dozen other current and retired AFFS and Militia officers 'casually' joining them, all eager to listen in on a story about the single biggest battle in the Inner Sphere since the 2nd Succession War from someone who had been there.

However soon enough, the dread secretary and protocol officer Mavis Williams, wearing an exactly suitable gown for the evening had materialized and 'politely' broken up the group, not quite dragging Victor further out into the room where masses of VIPs were forming a receiving line of sorts to greet him. Kai had taken the chance to break formation as Galen had cunningly done earlier (without either he or Victor noticing), despite the look that said 'Traitor!' on Victor's face as he did so, to circulate on his own. Understandably, most of the locals were gravitating to the Prince of the Federated Commonwealth so, for now, Kai was alone - and happy to be so in this casual pre-ball mixer.

He had been a little uncertain as to what reaction he would get tonight. His clothes were of the finest quality, but clearly not the current fashion inside the Federated Commonwealth. No, the cut and colors of his formal dress were all the rage on Sian right now. Part of his mother's Xin Sheng (or 'rebirth') movement as she worked to restructure the Capellan Confederation along the lines of the major changes she had made to Saint Ives over the years - to great acclaim. Granted, she was getting almost unprecedented support from the population as she worked to rebuild her people's pride in her nation … but his cynical side couldn't help but reflect that after Aunt Romanos reign of terror an inanimate flower pot may well have gotten just about as much support on the Celestial Throne...

Even so, the Confederation remained the Confederation and thus his clothes had been chosen with the same considered political calculus that governed all his Mothers decisions. They clearly identified him as a Capellan - but more than that as a new Capellan. Modern and vibrant, standing with the Federated Commonwealth rather than against it. Refreshed and dynamic yet proud and unashamed - and being worn by a man respected and trusted by the upper realms of the Federated Commonwealths nobility.

So … could the Confederation pretty please have a cut of the local resources to build Clan weapons technology?

Frankly; Kai felt a bit like a giant billboard.

Angling off to the side, he started to make for the very impressive looking line of drinks on a table at the back when a voice suddenly hit him from the side.

"Ah my Lord Liao - I have been looking for you!" a voice suddenly cut into his mulling and Kai pivoted to see … no one.

Until he glanced down slightly.

A much older man in an oldschool Lyran uniform was standing in front of him, bespeckled with various medals and rank signals. None of which, Kai noted, were for military service, but for noble rank and position. Honorary ranks and the like from his worlds militia most likely alongside political awards. A shockingly bad toupee on his head shifted slightly as he clicked his heels together and offered a sharp bow before he looked up with a shrewd gaze through an almost caricature monocle.

"It would seem you have found me," Kai said in a friendly sort of way, with a bow that was almost a nod. "Can I help you, Mister…?"

"Ah, 'Duke' actually" the other corrected him with the briefest flash of irritation passing across his features before quickly vanishing as the other caught himself. "Yes, err, forgive me for not introducing myself; the Duke of Weselton at your service" the other said, almost shoving his hand into Kai, shaking vigorously (very vigorously) as soon as Kai took it. "And I'm hoping that I might be able to help you my boy!"

"Oh?" Kai asked politely as he wracked his brains - and managed to untangle his hand. He knew of this man by reputation - his mother had said many unflattering things about him and his actions in the Sarna March in the aftermath of the 4th Succession War. 'Carpetbagger' being about the nicest. He also knew he was here to win contracts with Duchess Jorgensson for Arendelle's massive mineral wealth. Kai in fact had already spotted representatives from Achernar and Corean, Defiance and Universal Air moving towards Victor, based on the company logos they were unabashedly wearing on their suits. And, from the way several others were sharing in the polite glares with them and each other as they jockeyed for position to talk to Victor, he suspected many others were also present tonight.

He also knew that Victor would pretty much ignore all of them - and suspected this man had come to the same conclusion.

"Oh it's simple. Quite simple indeed my friend!" the other boldly reached up to take his upper arm … and ignoring the pointed look Kai gave it steered him off towards the less crowded part of the room, Kai deciding to tolerate the other for now. "Your mother wants access to the raw materials to begin building Clan technology, materials this planet possesses. Well! As it so happens, my company Weselton Industries -I'm sure you've heard of us- is of course well known to be the frontrunner for winning the local resource extraction tenders. Frankly we're the only logical choice" the other sniffed before sighing. "Sadly, many other companies are here to try and push their way in and slow things down and drag things out - possibly for years or even decades! I'm sure as a soldier who fought the Clans, you surely want your comrades to have access to comparable weapons as quickly as possible, do you not?"

"Well, of course, but-" Kai started to say as he pointedly removed the others hand from his arm-

"Exactly!" the other talked over the top of him, his impressive moustache shimmering with pleasure at his 'agreement'. "I knew I could count on you my boy! So, if you were to speak with Prince Victor to arrange shall we say an expedited meeting, hmmm? We can get started immediately! After all, who knows when the Clans will attack again eh? And I would not forget such … friendship when deciding who is first in line! Enjoy the evening!" and with that, before Kai could say anything, the Duke clicked his heels together and bowed sharply (the toupe looking dangerously like it was about to come off) before he was up and striding happily across the floor and leaving Kai standing there working his jaw.

Kai shook his head slowly, catching himself from the sheer speed at which the man had appeared and vanished.

That was the man's idea of subtlety?

"He'd last a day on Sian" Kai muttered as he wanted the other strut (yes, strut) away to join a large group of offworld nobles busy plundering the drinks table.

On the other hand, perhaps the man had simply played to his audience, not wasting time with innuendo or double talk. His mother did want the mineral resources, having made it clear that it would be a huge benefit for the Confederation to lock in such a supply of materials. And, with new export agreements in place soon with the FedCom-CapCom treaty signing, it would indirectly mean so for the AFFC too.

And if he didn't play along...

Kai shivered. Politics was something he truly wanted to avoid at all costs, yet he knew that it was an impossibility now more than ever. He and Victor were both trapped; both warriors who had to become politicians. Perhaps as the heir to the Saint Ives Compact he could have gotten away with abdicating to his sister and remaining a soldier, but his Mother since retaking the throne of the Confederation had been full speed ahead plowing the way for him to rule after her; rule a full scale Successor State and he could no more abandon that fate than Victor could. Even if unlike Victor he could still put it off for some time yet...

And as he was want to do, Kai started to second guess himself. It annoyed him because he knew he was second guessing himself, but he couldn't help it. Should he in fact look to bring this up with Victor with his support? Get the Confederation their 'cut', ensure the mines were up and running as quickly as possible by doing an end-run around the other companies? Or should he ignore the man - who if he then did win the contracts (which he recalled was actually quite likely) might well decide to punish him by working to ensure the Confederation was well down the priority line? Or should he back another bidder no matter the merits of the bid from the Duke? Or Play them off against each other?

With no easy answers, Kai turned away and drifted away, his body language and motion clearly dissuading the other people heading towards him as he shifted into one of the many adjoining rooms, this one thankfully empty of people right now, just off the ballroom with wonderful floor-to-ceiling windows looking out over the palace grounds.

And he stopped in front of the windows … and started brooding.

He got away with it for exactly six point two seconds.

"I know that look" a voice cut into his thoughts and caused his eyes to inadvertently widen in shock. He knew that voice. A voice that froze him in place, as it continued with a tone that was clinical … and yet tinged with amusement. "That's the 'I'm going to start second guessing myself and fret into indecision, so I'll go and sulk in a corner and hope it all goes away' look".

Slowly, very slowly Kai raised his slightly shifted his focus from the outside to the reflections on the glass, seeing now one of a woman roughly his own height. Her dark hair was cut short, just resting on her collar and a sleeveless white gown hugged her figure extremely well, leaving her clearly well toned arms free, crossed in front of her. Swallowing hard, Kai turned around.

"Is it really that obvious?" he asked, unable to help the faint smile that came across his face as he took in the woman in front of him.

"Yes" Diedre Lear noted with a thin smile - but a smile all the same- as she slowly closed the distance, making him feel like he was under a microscope as she looked him up and down for a moment, before her expression shifted. "It's … good to see you Kai" she said continued more softly than he might have expected as she halted in front of him with a whisper of sound from her gown.

"It's good to see you too" he replied, fighting the urge to step closer and brush back the hair from the side of her face … or snark back and note that that was not what she had said the last time he had seen her. "You look " -Kai frantically searched for a word- "great".

Damnit, I should have said beautiful he promptly cursed himself for wimping out. Like always.

"Thank you" she replied, her polite smile briefly softening in a way that gave Kai the uncanny feeling she knew exactly what he was thinking, before she nodded. "And I have to admit, you're actually pulling off that look rather … dashingly I suppose?"

"Well it beats looking like a complete idiot" he shrugged feeling slightly sheepish as he stared at her, lost in memories of flowing back across his mind. The weeks on the run, dodging bounty hunters, ROM agents and Elementals. Their skin-of-the-teeth escapes, the chaos as allies became enemies and enemies allies. The heated nights when their bodies had moved against each other, the tension of months or years finally exploding. And almost unwillingly, the way he started to come to understand her on a level he had never understood anyone.

And then that painful moment when he realized he had fallen in love with her … then but a moment later realized that they were simply too different as people for it to ever work. That when he had finally accepted who he was and what he did (mostly due to watching a point of Elementals break down, rolling on the ground laughing so hard they couldn't breath when they realized who they had been chasing) … it became clear that he was not someone Diedre could ever truly come to accept.

So he had gone to her, prepared to break her heart to force her to let him go … only for her to come to him with what he had later realized was exactly the same plan to break his.

It had still hurt like a gauss slug to the heart though.

And so they had separated, leaving Alyina on different dropships. She heading towards the Crucis March, he diverted down a command circuit to Sudeten where Morgan Hasek-Davion had gently informed him of his Father's death and his mother's -then secret- survival at the hands of a Capellan assassin.

Ironically, as horrible as news of his father's death had been, he had in some way almost welcomed it for the numbing effect it provided to his own pain.

But free of those events now and face to face with her, Kai couldn't help but feel that same pain at the way things had ended between them, long buried, start to rise up again.

"I …" Kai paused, took a breath and rallied as he pushed past the memories to focus on her; here and now. "I thought you'd returned to Odell after finishing up in the AFFC?"

"I did" she admitted, looking down briefly at her hands crossed over her stomach before looking back up. "I took some time to decompress from … well, everything I suppose. But I was looking for a new challenge and after asking around, I was headhunted to consider a job offer forwarded to me via New Avalon".

"On Arendelle?" Kai asked, tilting his head in curiosity. While it wasn't exactly the beating heart of the Crucis March, Arendelle was a well established and prosperous (soon to be extremely so) world. As he recalled, she had been dreaming of a challenge once her AFFC service ended, making sweeping medical improvements on far less fortunate worlds than this one...although at the time she had not so subtly hinted that it was to try and counter the sweeping destruction caused by armies and Battlemechs.

"For now, yes" she nodded once with a nod as she slowly stepped around him to start drifting towards the back of the room, Kai standing and watching as she moved. Beyond her, he was amused to note one of the CID agents on Victor's detail had quietly taken position at the door, partially to keep him safe but far more he bet to keep people away from them - as it finally hit him that the clues Victor had dropped earlier today meant he had known she would be here.

And now he wanted them isolated together in a room.

Subtle Victor, very subtle. Not that I'm complaining...

"To be honest I'm actually just passing through, waiting for my team to arrive next month. I've taken a position as joint director for regional medical affairs development in the Periphery March, part of Prince Davions push to finally start to bring the health care out there to the level it should be".

Ah, Kai thought to himself, that makes sense. The Periphery March of the Federated Suns had been created as a framework to allow massive development of the region successive Princes had ignored for centuries, leaving it a far cry from the core of the Crucis March - and on some worlds honestly little better than Periphery outposts in quality of life. Kai had seen the economic modeling that an economic chain reaction could start in less than twenty years that would have the region cease being a net negative for the Federated Commonwealth economy. And in less than fifty, probably the massive driver of growth as populations, technology and industry exploded. The Clan Invasion had diverted a large chunk of the planned funding into crash military-industrial programs by necessity, but even so it was still a hotbed of activity for the first time in far too long … and that neatly explained Diedres presence.

A chance to shape and set the foundations for medical policy for an entire March? A massive possibly impossible project to save lives by the millions?

Sounds about right.

"They couldn't have found anyone more determined for the job" he said - honestly. Hubris or not, he knew she would never stop trying.

Now she did blush - ever so slightly - as she turned back to face him, raising her chin, her eyes boring into him as if daring him to make a comment on her reaction as she started to moved back towards him.

"Thankyou, Kai" she almost shyly replied before clearing her throat and setting herself again. "Anyway; while I'm waiting I've been teaching and consulting at the children's hospital in Arendelle City. I've also been helping out directly with a number of charity clinics the Duchess was, I found out later, quietly a patron of. So she invited me …" she said trailing off and looking a little uncertain. She didn't actually say 'before I found out you and Victor were coming' - but he heard it none the less, causing him to break her gaze to glance off to the side for a moment.

"I … didn't know you were coming tonight" Kai clarified. Thank you very much Victor … although he might have thought I would just run away screaming rather than risk facing her … and damn it, he might have been right "I didn't even know you were on the planet in fact".

"Indeed?" she raised an eyebrow for a moment before seeming to nod and accept his answer. "But … I'm glad you're here tonight" she admitted, surprising him and causing him to turn back to face her, noting the uncertain but honest look on her face.

Kai started to open his mouth to say something to that, when he caught a flicker of motion out of the corner of his eye. Acting quickly on impulse, he quickly took Diedres arm and edged her backwards, feeling her stiffen at his sudden action before she seemed to relax and move with him. Just in time too as Anna Jorgensson cleanly slid to a halt where she had been standing, a tall and rather dashing young man being half dragged along with her.

As quickly as decorum would allow, he let go of Diedres arm and stepped back with a muttered 'sorry' and earned a smile back as she regained her composure, she turning to face the new arrivals and he following suit.

"I think they may have polished this floor a little too much" Anna complained with a frown directed at said mahogany floorboards.

Kai couldn't help but snicker at the observation, feeling the somber, conflicted mood around he and Deedress lift as the younger woman casually crashed into their little corner of the room - straight through, he noticed, the MIIO agent who must have been steering people away from the two of them.

Had they tried to stop her and she just ignored them? Did they recognize her as the second highest ranking noble in her own house and decide not to?

Or, based on the sudden startled look said agent was giving the three of them, she had just phased through time and space, again, to mock their security.

"Good evening Anna" he bowed to the other as the other with great interest poked at the floorboards of the ballroom with the tip of her incredibly expensive looking shoe, with a complete indifference for where she was or who she was with.

His greeting however drew her attention back and she quickly beamed at him.

"Hey Kai!" she replied, her eyes shining (they seemed to be more green than blue this evening - might be the dress?) perfectly happily. "Uh, welcome to my home and all that? Wow, did someone actually paint the windows in here?" she suddenly switched topics without reason, her head whirling like a Rifleman's targeting dish to take in the floor to ceiling french doors before shrugging and coming back to them with a huff to blow her fringe out of the way. "Anyway" she continued before anyone could even think about trying to get a word in, "so I was out in the courtyard and traveling with my hood up when I came across some people laughing behind my back at how I was the biggest social climber in Arendelle's history-"

"Wait, what?" Kai broke in at that, a sudden almost reflexive jolt of anger coming from nowhere at that statement that cut through his own troubles as he fully focused on the younger woman. Feeling a touch of guilt as he recalled his jokes earlier today to Victor about Anna being madly in love with him according to the local scandalvids.

It seemed far less funny now as he realized the consequences on Anna's reputation among her peers...

He could almost see his mother rolling her eyes at him as she mentally criticised him for only now thinking of that possible blowback. With Uncle Tormano next to her shaking his head and making him down on some giant report card as he weighed the skills of the heir to the Celestial Throne...

"Who said that?" he demanded instead, pushing that picture out of his head to focus on Anna.

"Oh just some stupid kid and his toadies" Anna shrugged it off - but Kai could see the hints in her body language and face that suggested she was putting more effort than normal into her carefree attitude on that topic, before she turned to her companion and her smile rapidly became more genuine as the other blushed slightly. "Anyway, they've been sent home for the night thanks to - wait have you met Hans?" she asked as her head snapped back.

"Uh, no I don't believe so" Kai replied, amused as ever at the rapid changes of subject Anna could speed through. He made a firm mental note though, to follow up tomorrow on the disturbance outside before Victor heard about it. If Anna was being given a hard time by some local people for daring to be open and genuinely friendly with him as a human being first and Prince a very distant second, the odds were about even Victors first instinct would be to power up Prometheus and go for a 'walk' without Katherine here to slap him on the back of the head.

Perhaps a slightly more nuanced approach could be used to help 'correct the narrative' as his mother might say?

Putting the issue to the side for now to focus on the present, Kai extended his hand and let a well practiced smile cross his face as he fouced in on the young and rather dashing man Anna seemed to have taken a distinct interest in. "Kai Allard-Liao" he said, leaving his titles out - on the not unreasonable assumption that most people would probably know who he was.

"Hans Westerguard - of the Southern Isles" the other took his hand with a firm shake - but no silly contest of strength and thankfully taking his que to also drop the titles - before in a twist shifting in a precise Capellan bow of exactly the right duration and depth as was appropriate for a distinct subordinate to give to a superior in a casual social situation. "A true honor Lord Liao - your reputation precedes you - even out on the Rim" he said as he rose back up and let go of his hand.

"Thank you" Kai replied as on pure reflex he returned the bow at the depth expected, before turning to his side. "May I present Doctor Diedre Lear? A former … colleague in the 10th Lyran Guards during the Clan War with Victor, Galen and myself"

"Doctor Lear, also a true pleasure" Hans offered her a more Federated Suns style bow, taking her extended hand as he came down to gently kiss it - in a way that was respectful and very proper.

Kai was still hit with a completely unworthy spike of possessive jealousy at the visual. And then rather embarrassed as Diedre's eyes caught him for a split second, a smile smirking out from the corner of her mouth for just long enough to say that she knew exactly what he was thinking.

Hans however didn't seem to have the slightest design on his ex, instead stepping back to Anna and exchanging a smile with her as she casually eased back into him and clamped onto his arm - like Battle Armor riding an Omnimech.

For some reason, that entirely innocent gesture and way the two kids were smiling at each other with very little in the way of thought in their eyes, flagged the attention of the part of his mind his mother had painfully trained in the intrigue and intricacies of the Capellan Court.

Mentally, Kai rolled his eyes and told his mind to shut up for once. He was here to get away from the paranoia capital of the Inner Sphere and he would not start jumping at shadows.

"My Lady Anna" Diedre continued, shifting slightly to give a curtsey to the younger woman, who half-detached from Hans to return it looking rather … what was that word Galen used?

Oh yes, 'adorkable'.

"Oh, just plain old Anna will do Doctor" Anna greeted her with a guileless smile and similar gesture before immediately starting to quiz her. "Sooooo, medical Doctor?"

"Surgeon - and call me Diedre dear" Diedre smiled at her - clearly surprised yet pleased to be asked - and falling right into the Anna trap. "Although I've been doing a lot of strategic health care policy development recently, I've also been busy working and lecturing at the local hospitals on Arendelle while I wait for the rest of my team to arrive before I head to Filvet for a March directorship".

"Wow" Anna blinked, looking impressed in that completely guileless way of hers that said she really was impressed. "That's, well … that's incredible. You're an amazing woman to be able to do all that".

It amused Kai that not even Diedre Lear, a woman who generally hid her emotions under an utterly professional persona that made the walls of Troy look weak, was immune to the simple honesty of Anna's response. Anna said she was an amazing woman - so she was amazing woman. It was that simple.

It also happened to be a sentiment Kai was in full agreement with so perhaps he was just biased?

"I … thank you, Lady Anna" Diedre managed to get out before Anna suddenly changed targets as was her want, giving Diedre previous time to regain the composure she had lost for a moment clearly touched at the casual given yet genuine comment.

"Hey, has anyone seen my cousin?" Anna wondered aloud, walking to the threshold with everyone following her, seemingly automatically, to take in the increasingly crowded room, her eyes narrowing slightly as she searched. "She'd better not have missjumped off that diet plan again, so help me God..."

"I think I saw your Aunt up by the dias at the front of the room" Kai hastily jumped in before Anna went off on a tangent. "I'm guessing she'll be around there somewhere?"

"Really? Thanks Kai! Oh and it was really nice to meet you Doctor Lear - I hope we can talk later but I should let you too get on with your date. Come on Hans, I wanna introduce you to my relatives!"

"Uh - sure, of course" the other blinked before smiling at her, then turning back to nod to both he and Diedre . "A true pleasure Doctor, Lord Liooooooo" his voice shifted into something of a startled huff of air as Anna was off again, Hans seeming to bounce along behind her like a child's balloon behind an excited child … leaving Kai and Diedre Diedre struck silent in their absence at her casual identifying of them as on a date.

Quick Kai … think of something to say he mentally yelled at himself as the silence became deafening…

"So … would this be a second date? Or do we count the Hatchetman on Twycross?"

The words escaped his mouth before he even stopped for a nanosecond to think … and now the mental image of his mother and uncle simultaneously facepalmed as Diedre turned to face him...

...and laughed

It was not a bellyache or a roof shattering laugh by any means, more of a low snicker, but it was an incredibly endearing and honest chortle as she clearly struggled to compose herself, closing her eyes and covering her mouth with her hand for a good five seconds or so, before looking at him and offering a slightly wry smile and left Kai feeling as if he had just dodged an AC-20 shell whistling past his cockpit by half a millimeter...

"You need to get out more if you think ejecting from a Hatchetman as the world explodes below you is your idea of a date" she noted dryly, brushing her fringe back as she eyed him with a considering expression for a long moment that Kai didn't want to even consider interrupting before she finally seemed to mentally make an important decision and nod slowly, once. "But … if you can find time … Friday … perhaps we can have lunch?"

Kai's response, he knew full well, should have been that he had a lunch with a Victor and a whole hoard of local business leaders, with several guest speakers ready to make long speeches no doubt about sharing the wealth around and investing in the future - preferably their company's future.

"I'd really like that" he didn't even hesitate to respond with a smile that she returned before glancing off.

"Okay then" she agreed before a slight buzzing interrupted. Quickly she reached into a small clutch she was carrying to pull out a cellphone, looking at the caller ID on the small screen before up at him, her face somewhat serious yet apologetic. "Excuse me Kai, I have to take this".

"Of course" he nodded. "I'll see you Friday then?"

With a smile and a nod she moved off, flipping open her phone and taking softly but quickly to whoever was on the other end of the line as she vanished into another antechamber.

Kai managed to resist the urge to pump his fist in the air as soon as she vanished. Barely.

Instead, he turned around and walked out back into the main room - noting it was suddenly near full, clearly Prince Victor's arrival had hastened that of others. Victor himself had shifted to the slightly raised dais where Elsa's throne now sat at the front of the room. Catching his eye, Kai couldn't help but shoot him a very discreet 'thumbs up' and Victor clenched a fist in triumph before he schooled himself back to formality as the loud bang bang bang of a staff of office being pounded on the floor sounded from the side of the front of the room.

---

"Presenting Duchess Elsa Jorgensson of Arendelle" Victor Steiner-Davion loudly proclaimed through the room and with that, Elsa Jorgensson made her entrance, her long purple cape trailing behind her as she glided in.

It was quite an entrance indeed; looking every micron from her head to her toes the perfect Duchess. Anna dared to simply stare and drink her in from her position off to the side as Elsa took her place rightful place just in front of her throne. As was protocol given their respective noble positions, Elsa first offered Victor a curtsy. Then as she rose, he fully faced her and -accompanied by the crowd as a whole- offered a bow, the entire room showing their respect and homage to their new liege. As was proper.

Off to the side of the crowd standing with her relatives and Hans, Anna also rose from her curtsey (held just a tad deeper and longer than others around her) and regarded her sister with no small amount of awe. Her sister's presence was again suddenly overwhelming, leaving her somehow feeling caught by surprise all logic, despite being rather more focused on other things.

Rapunzel, for example, hadn't stopped prying from the second she and Hans had shown up, with only the occasional look from her aunt holding her cousin's curiosity -barely- in check.

Hans though had proven to be astonishingly good at engaging her cousin in polite conversation while also deflecting her questions with an ease so smooth that Anna would have completely believed him if not for the fact that she had actually been there.

And yet he did so without actually lying even once.

Clearly someone had spilled the beans about the little confrontation outside but with remarkable adeptness Hans had quickly downplayed it as a bunch of probably half drunken idiots making stupid comments with him overreacting just a tad and Anna showing incredible maturity in handling the situation on her own.

That had earned her beaming smiles from her Aunt and Uncle - and let her hope that perhaps it wouldn't be a media disaster tomorrow once news got out.

It had also earned her a suspicious look from Punz that clearly said 'You're not telling me everything' which she had returned with a roll of her eyes that said 'Duh!'. With an implied promise she would tell her the truth later.

Well. Most of it.

All of that however had fallen off to the side as Elsa had entered the room, her heart hitting her throat as once again Elsa materialized before everyone, the moment seemingly having snuck up on her despite everything else-

"And her sister" Victor continued, shattering the moment of stasis in her mind, "the Lady Anna Jorgensson of Arendelle!"

Anna's eyes bulged for a moment as Victor turned to look at her.

Me?! she mouthed at him.

A clearly amused Victor nodded - and then she felt two hands (one clearly a young woman's and one clearly a young mans) on her shoulders push and she skidded out from behind the pillars on this side of the front of the room barely biting back a curse, walking up onto the dais, waving with a nervous smile at the masses of nobles who in turn offered her bows and curtseys as she came to a halt a respectful distance away from her sister.

Okay, a log distance away from her sister.

Victor raised an eyebrow at her - before shifting to look at someone behind her and nod. Moments later she felt the iron hands on her shoulders that she instantly recognized as Gredas and was not quite frog walked her across to her sister. Her fear spiked to the point that she was utterly unable to resist as she was dumped right next to Elsa, shoulder to shoulder - although Elsa simply continued to look out at her people and smile gently as they were both given a round of applause and Anna nervously waved and smiled back.

As the clapping died down, Victor stepped several meters in front of them, continuing to speak to the crowds (and for the cameras she could see subtlety in the back of the room), leaving them more or less alone for now. Anna managed to rally just enough muscle control to ease a footstep or two away from her sister, suddenly terrified that she would feel her personal space had been invaded by her presence.

Beyond that, she suddenly felt once more, frozen in place.

It was not quite as bad as in the Great Hall this afternoon, but not that far away either as she stole rapidly several glances at Elsa, her mind spinning at a significant fraction of lightspeed as she nervously reached up to brush her fringe back, and glanced off to the side at her relatives - who were all looking at her with encouraging smiles and utterly unhelpful happiness that ignored the fact that she felt on the verge of a panic attack-

"Hi".

One syllable. One gentle, softly delivered word pitched to reach her ears alone. It made Anna's muscles twitch and bounce in place ever so visibly as if someone had just touched her with a live electrical wire as her head whipped around to her sister … who was looking directly at her.

Anna considered it a major miracle that her voice actually sounded normal as she opened her mouth to speak to her sister for the first time in well over a decade.

"Hi … hi me?" she managed to say like an idiot, touching her chest as if in confusion over who her sister was talking to as the moment she had waited for most of her life, finally started, her entire world narrowing to the woman across from her who nodded gently - almost as if afraid of startling her.

"Oh! Um … hi?" she replied, before breaking her gaze away for a second to cringe at her utter awkwardness and study the floorboards. A moment she had dreamed for so many years and this was the best she could do-

"You look beautiful" Elsa observed with that perfect voice (seriously was there anything about her sister that wasn't perfect?!) and Anna at once felt the need to correct her - feeling perhaps irrationally- as if she was trying to downplay her own unearthly beauty by praising hers and needing to correct her at once!

"Thank you" she blushed at her sister's words. "But you look beautifuller!" she insisted, before horror hit her as she realized what she had said. "I mean not fuller" she rapidly rambled on, falling over herself to correct the error. "But more beautiful!"

Her sister gave a tiny laugh at her rambling, her smile turning genuinely affectionate at her as she tripped over her tongue and Anna firmly shut up.

"Thank you" she said kindly and they broke eye contact to look at out at the crowd, Anna suddenly very grateful for the touch of rouge Edna's people had applied that hid her blush as Elsa continued smoothly even as Anna found herself lacking anything to say.

"So … this is what a party looks like" Elsa noted, as off to the side music started to play and couples squared off to start dancing, leaving the two young nobles subtly screened by a number of palace staff to let them talk alone for a moment - with no doubt who had organized this interlude as Victor caught her eye and smiled before shifting off to the perimeter of the crowd, Galen and Kai both in tow with him (and both in turn also shooting her supportive smiles) as they dragged away a significant chunk of people in their wake as the dance got underway.

There was a wistfulness in Elsa's tone that fascinated Anna just as much as the words - as if Elsa had never been to a party before?

So many questions reared their heads - and she beat them all back down violently with a mental club, knowing this was not the time.

"It's more crowded than I thought" Anna admitted as she realized just how many people were squeezed into this part of the castle.

"And what is that smell?" Elsa wondered with a tilt of her head, Anna sniffing and closing her eyes as she sought out the scent, her eyes going wide as her taste buds tingled.

"Chocolate" they both breathed in simultaneous delight before opening their eyes to see they had unconsciously turned to face each other - and both of them broke into a giggle of laughter at the synchronized delivery; enough to actually have Elsa raise one gloved hand to cover her face as she laughed. It caused another jolt to Anna as she felt her sister's formal polite mask slip for just one second to see what she dared to name affection in her sister's eyes before she composed herself once more.

"Rita is in the kitchen making some of the deserts - but she did make a few super mix caramel truffles for snacks before dinner" Elsa explained.

"Really?" she gasped, "they're my…" and Anna paused to offer Elsa and shy knowing smile. "My favorites".

"Mine too" Elsa admitted, her eyebrow raising in slight surprise.

Why do you think they're my favorites Anna mentally thought - and, oddly, from the way Elsa's expression again softened, she had he oddest feeling her sister could read her mind...

Turning away, Anna watched the crowds of people dance and mingle with her sister, the two of them simply standing and watching the dance progress … but it wasn't awkward.

If anything, it just felt right as she stood there with her sister.

Or perhaps the fact that she felt enough emotions right now to keep seizing up her throat prevented her from chattering nervously away … but in either case, she firmly kept repeating the advice everyone had been telling her for days now.

Small steps Anna. One day at a time, one conversation at a time.

Presently, the first dance of the night ended to applause and the crowd started to move, Elsa immediately putting what Anna was already calling her 'Duchess' face back on as Victor again started to make his way back towards them. Anna suspected that he was going to ask Elsa to dance as would be the kind of protocol of these things - and part of her squeeed at that idea- but before he could approach Kai Brevik did so from the side with a man in tow.

"You Grace, My Lady. May I present his Grace, the Duke of Wesealtown-"

"Weselton" the other snapped back at him before quickly turning to face Elsa and affect a smile on his face that just looked … wrong. "The Duke of Weselton" he again stated as he approached and offered a short bow, the kind that one equal peer offered another, Elsa returning it politely. "Your Grace - as your soon to be closest partner in trade and peer, I thought it only fitting that I should offer your first dance of the night as Duchess and welcome you to our ranks!"

With that, the man sharply bowed deeply, extending his arm to Elsa … and causing his toupee to partially detach and flop down, barely held in place.

Anna's hands flew to her mouth to firmly muffle the explosion of laughter that desperately was trying to escape, turning to look with wide eyes at Elsa - who to her delight, was also clearly trying incredibly hard to not break down laughing. The moment of shared joy resonated between them for a second as they desperately worked to get themselves under control, Elsa clearing her throat and forcing herself back under control.

"Thank you" Elsa bowed slightly at him with an easy smile. "But I'm afraid I don't dance".

The Duke rose (his hair neatly flipping back into place and threatening another giggle from her which Anna managed to restrain to a slight snorting sound, as he made a disappointed noise.

"But" Elsa quickly added as she turned to look at her with something that looked suspiciously like a smirk on her face, "my sister does - very well".

Anna was so struck by the sudden unexpected smile and praise from Elsa that it took her a good two seconds to realize what had just happened - which proved to be more than enough time for the good Duke to brighten up and seize her elbow, hurrying her towards the dance floor that was starting to fill again for the next dance. Startled as her mind finally caught up to the fact that Elsa had just outsourced her dancing duties to her, Anna had just enough time to shoot her an astonished look - and get a clearly laughing Elsa shoot her a mouthed 'Sorry!' that made everything better, before screeching to a halt with the Duke.

Who started strutting like a … a … she didn't know what. With absolutely no self-consciousness at all - despite the double takes increasing numbers of people were doing of him as the music kicked into a fast dance.

Well this is … different she thought to herself in a slightly bewildered way as she placed her hands on her hips and started to move to the music as best she could.

"Like an agile peacock!" the other pronounced as he strutted around her, Anna doing her best not to gawk as his energetic movements caused his toupee to jump around hilariously. "If you swoon, I'll do my best to catch you!"

Well … he's certainly spry she noted as she tried to make heads or tails of what he was doing, it not being any dance she had been taught.

"Uh … thanks?" she managed, feeling more than a little off balance.

"Hmm. So good to be here though, with the gates open and your sister visible. Such a … reclusive' figure he noted before suddenly he leaned in close to her. "You wouldn't happen to know why she has been so hard to get a hold of, would you?"

The absurdity of this man asking a question -the question- Anna had been grappling with all her life shifted her from feeling off balance to feeling irritated. Especially with Elsa back, right here, right now.

"No" she said somewhat curtly before he took her hand.

"Ah, no matter" he smiled land with that she found herself flung in an absurd dip in a whirlwind of motion that stopped … with her upside down looking back at her sister across the room. Who was watching her and clearly trying not to laugh. Anna managed an upside down smile at her before she was back up and swinging into the dance.

Several minutes of … interesting … dancing later, Anna managed to stagger back to her sister who quickly smiled as she moved next to her.

"Well - he was … sprightly" her sister laughed softly as she adjusted her dresses straps.

"Especially for a man of that age" she agreed with a wan smile as she reached down to run her hands over a couple of points where the others steel tipped boots had crashed into her legs.

"Are you okay?"

"Actually … I've never been better" Anna said honestly as she set herself and looked at her sister. "This is just so … great. I hope it can be this way all the time now".

Instantly, Anna knew she had chosen the wrong words.

Something in those words stilled Elsa, almost as if the very air had cooled between them. The affectionate smile slowly mutating into something almost … regretful before she broke eye contact to look out at the people, or at nothing in particular.

"Me too…" she agreed. "But … it can't".

"Well … why not?" Anna asked in confusion, stepping forward towards her sister-

As quick as a snake Elsa moved, sliding away from her a half meter, her body language suddenly screaming at her to stay back.

"It just-" she didn't quite snap before the mask fell back in place on her sister with her back half turned.

"It just … can't" she finished quietly.

Only meters separated them now, it was the closest she had been to Elsa for most of her life … and yet she was starting to understand that some doors didn't need to be visible to be real as her heart sank. And against everything she had wanted to do for so many years and so many dreams … Anna took a step away from her sister.

"Excuse me" she said softly and slowly she turned and walked away into the crowd, fighting back a sudden surge of emotions that made her right on the verge of crying, her abandonment issues roaring up from nowhere and raging in her mind, leaving her desperately wanting to get out of the public eye now because she knew she was about to break down crying.

And thus she failed to see behind her, Elsa turn slightly to watch her walk away. Her mask slipping, just for a nanosecond, to show the anguish under it before her sibling forced it back on and turned to go back to work. As was her duty. But no longer with any joy in her expression.

Not paying any kind of attention in the packed room as she tried to get out it was probably thus inevitable that Anna caught the backside of an overweight man as he bowed to his partner at the end of the current dance, sending her careening to the side her arms uselessly pin wheeling with a yelp

Only to jar to a halt as a hand latched onto her wrist - her own hand instinctively grabbing onto the other's wrist as she gasped and looked up from her suspended position-

"Glad I caught you … again" Hans noted with a grin.

"Hans" she breathed - her angst flying off as her heart frantically beat from the adrenalin jolt of her near crash. Smiling with a level of class she would only have thought existed in her dreams, Hans simultaneously pulled her up, placed his champagne flute onto a passing waiter's tray without looking and pulled her in close against him as the music around them started up into a classic waltz.

"My Lady … may I have this dance?" he asked her with such gentleness it made her heart flutter again as her emotions swung from one extreme to the other.

"You may" she breathed, lost in his gaze - and with that, they were off.

They must have spun around the dance floor for a good ten minutes or so, Anna reeling with his physical proximity (and flushing bright red as she felt the rock hard muscles under the man's suit as they moved against each other) as they danced and spun and just let everything go except this moment.

It … it was like a dream.

This was the dream she had been having all her life. A strong, noble, beautiful man moving with her as one around the floor. And then around the castle. The two of them talking and laughing and sharing and joking and everything as the night deepened - with the two of them eventually finding themselves sitting on a balcony deeper in the castle, beyond the public areas - but the guards certainly hadn't tried to stop her moving into her own house. Something about this man was incredibly mesmerizing; everything she had wanted to share with Elsa, stories and events in her life, now came spilling out to this man who she felt she had known all her life! It was incredible!

"So let me get this straight" Anna said, sitting on a table with absolutely no care for decorum, hugging her legs, with Hanse across from her having made a seat out of an antique dresser in this clean, but clearly unused room. "You have twelve older brothers?"

Dealing with one sister had been impossible enough.

"Sounds crazy doesn't it?" Hans chuckled, leaning back with his eyes going slightly distant. "Although three of them decided to pretend I was invisible … for two years".

"That's horrible" Anna breathed in shock.

"Half-brothers anyway" Hans sighed. "My father married four times. The first four sons were to his first wife. The next two to his second. Five more to the third … and then there was me. The runt of the litter".

"Don't call yourself that" Anna scowled slightly at him and the offered her a wan smile, apologetic but not taking it back, seemingly having accepted the label.

"Well its part of the reason I try to keep busy offworld" he explained to her, shifting slightly. "I suppose it's sort of what brothers do with their pecking order to keep putting each other in place - Father was very supportive of having his children fight to win his approval and handing out titles and responsibilities based on some idea of who was most loyal". Hans shrugged to her horrified face. "It's a large part of the reason I spent as much time as possible offworld as an ambassador. If the brother want me to be invisible, well, that's what brothers do I suppose".

"And sisters" Anna replied, her smiling face fading away as she returned to the fact of the night. Something in the back of her mind quickly warned her she was entering dangerous waters here, but she was just too exhausted around Elsa right now to care.

She needed to vent.

"Elsa and I were really close when we were little. Then, one day she just … well, shut me out. And … I never knew why" she finished, blinking back tears as she looked away … then looking up as Hanse took her right hand with both of hers, his thumb rubbing the back of her hand and sending shivers down her spine as he looked at her with such compassion, such empathy that it made her smile despite herself.

"That's horrible. 'd never shut someone like you out" he breathed softly and Anna felt her heartbeat start racing again and that fluttering feeling in her stomach come back again.

"Really?" she asked softly.

"Really" he confirmed, his hazel eyes reflecting everything that she had ever wanted back at her as he reached out to gently ease her fringe back into place.

His finger felt like it was leaving trail of fire on her skin from the brief touch...

---

"And I do look forward to seeing you later Councilor" Victor bowed slightly to the nth VIP to gushingly shake his hand in awe. This one, one of Elsa's personal advisors, unfortunately could not be lightly dismissed as he would probably be sitting in several meetings with him at some point in the rest of the week. And it wouldn't do to get things off on the wrong foot...

Still all he wanted was to just introduce himself and his plump but charming wife, which was more than enough.

Unlike the gaggle of industrial magnates who had all with various levels of subtlety, start to feel him out to support this or that proposal to turn Arendelle into a glorified strip mine.

Granted there were trillions of Kronor of materials at a minimum in the ground just waiting to be extracted, but he would have thought they could have at least given him one night before starting in on him!

Made worse by the fact that all of them were watching each other like hawks and instantly correcting the other. It had gotten to the point that Victor had flatly told them all that there would be no more talk about business tonight. And anyone who defied him would face a summery negative appraisal for their presentations from the outset.

They had scattered like Bugmechs having a Clan Assault Star drop into their formation after that. Sometimes it was good to be the Archduke and Archon-Prince designate.

"And I'm sure we will Marshal" the other addressed him before backing away with a bow, addressing Victor but his military rank given the uniform rather than his political one.

"And … that is it" Galen noted".

"What is it?" Victor asked with only mild irritation, as he surreptitiously massaged his hand which had shaken one too many hands tonight.

"That's it for the receiving - I think we've covered most everyone in the room".

Victor looked up in surprise - indeed there was no one more seeming to want to converge on him through the gatekeeper of Mavis Williams.

"Praise be" he muttered in relief before turning on his friend with a glare. "Where the hell did you run off to earlier?"

"Outside" Galen shrugged with an utterly unsympathetic smirk. "As it so happens, I actually ran into Elsa out there".

"Ran into …" Victor left it hanging with a raised eyebrow and Galen snorted and shook his head.

"No, not like Anna" he chuckled as his gaze went distant as he crossed his arms across his uniform. "Still, she's … rather fascinating".

"Oh?" Victor asked carefully as he studied his friend's distant face with sudden interest.

"She's unsure of herself and slightly insecure, but hides it almost as well as you did back on Trel" he noted, leaving Victor wanting to protest that he had not been insecure … until he remembered that, in fact, he had in fact been damn insecure about leading a Battalion right out of school even if he had been in denial about it at the time.

And that he had been incredibly lucky to have Galen assigned to him.

Well, incredibly lucky to have Galen assign himself to him, anyway.

"She's smart" Galen continued. "She's got a sense of humor. I think she genuinely understands the sheer depth of what she has agreed to do for the rest of her life -possibly too well- and takes herself almost too seriously…" he continued. Sounding, Victor noticed, remarkably taken with the young Duchess. Casually following Galens distant gaze, he found himself unsurprised to find that Galen in fact was looking at her right now as she conversed with a small group of nobility…

No. Victor thought in growing amusement, looking back and forth.

"And she's hot of course" Victor carefully added as casually and neutrally as possible.

"Very" Galen nodded with a smile. Before blinking and hurriedly killing it. "Wait, what-"

"Oh my God you have a crush on the Duchess?!" Victor breathed in a theatrically horrified tone, grinning nonetheless as his friends almost iron composure cracked at the accusation.

"Don't be silly" he said with a snort as he turned away to face him directly (but the twitch above his left eye gave him away delighting Victor even more). "She's just a kid".

"She's twenty one" Victor retorted with his arms crossed, greatly enjoying this moment as he made Galen squirm for the first time in a long time. "You're only thirty three. Lest we forget how old my parents were to each other when they married".

"Victor, she's a Duchess. I'm the son of a farmer". And now Victor snorted, his mind starting to plot and scheme … probably in ways that would have had Katherine slapping him on the back of his head if she had been here.

But luckily his sister wasn't present, so...

"And you're a War Hero" he rolled his eyes. "You know, Federated Suns, mania for Battlemech pilots and all that? Plus if you want a noble title-"

Now Galen simply rolled his eyes, his expression back firmly under control, if slightly amused. Although Victor would have bet half of New Avalon that it was nothing more than a bluff.

"Victor" he sighed, "You can't marry someone you just met!" he pointed out.

Then frowned.

A frown shared with Victor.

Not because of the context of the statement per se. But because they both distinctly heard the slightly raised voice of Elsa saying the exact same thing at the same time. Pivoting, the two of them turned to see Anna had reappeared from wherever she had run off to an hour ago (he guessed because 'dinner' was just about to be served in the informal way chosen) and she was now standing with a tall, handsome looking AFFC officer - no, wait, that wasn't the new AFFC uniform. It was just cut remarkably close though.

At any rate, tall and red hair was standing off to the side looking somewhat ashen as Anna and Elsa started to argue openly on the dance floor, more and more people turning to face them as the volume slowly rose.

The two men exchanged a glance and without any further words, they started to drift towards the two sisters, Kai materializing from the side to join them as they moved in to defuse the situation.

---

Elsa felt miserable.

All her hopes. All her dreams of finding a way to start over had been dashed in but a moment. All her fears started to swirl around her again as she found herself once more completely unable to handle her sister.

Watching her sister, her shoulders slumped and a look of ancient pain in her eyes before she turned, walking almost listlessly onto the dance floor was almost more than Elsa could take. Her instinctive flinch away from her when Anna reached for her; a sudden compulsion of horror at the thought of her sister of all people touching her had caused her to just react. Her sister simply wanting to talk with her and being pushed away.

It's not the time. It's not the place Elsa repeated to herself like a mantra. When it's right, when it's safe, then we can talk. Carefully.

The logic was as cold as the power thrumming under her skin, but she knew it was for the best.

It didn't mean it didn't ache. Didn't hurt.

Elsa threw herself into circling the room, her face a mask of a pleasant expression as she greeted various people from onworld and offworld. Impressing all with her greeting them by name as she circulated, deftly pushing aside any questions about those damn rocks in her planet's crust and insisting that everyone simply enjoy themselves. Her sister had vanished deeper into the palace with that strange man - and she couldn't help but feel more than a little anxious at her being unchaperoned. Gerda bless her had clearly seen them leave and passed her a note, stating that she was having palace security keep tabs on them to make sure nothing untoward happened, which eased some of her stress as she simply threw herself into greeting guest after guest to keep her mind off it.

Somewhat amusingly, she noted that Galen had been perfectly correct about the guests. Most were falling over themselves to greet her and were happy enough with a brief handshake and needed nothing more than a smile and a few words she delivered over and over again. It didn't make it much easier - especially with her stomach in knots over how she had already managed to hurt Anna again, but it was at least bearable.

And then her sister returned.

It was sudden. She was talking to a Baroness from New Fredrikstad on the other side of the continent when her voice called from over her shoulder.

"Elsa!" turning sharply Elsa faced her sister as she nimbly stepped through the packed ballroom floor towards her. Quickly she turned back to the Baroness and offered a slight bow the other returned and she shifted her full attention towards her sister - who she noted slightly uneasily was happily running hand in hand with that strange man.

But the deep, dark sadness that Elsa had seen in her sister's eyes was no longer there. So she smiled a little, if carefully, as she felt the tension pull back a little from her chest.

"Uh, I mean, Duchess" Anna quickly corrected herself, skidding into a cute kind of almost bow as she stopped in front of her. "It's me again. May I present Sir Hans Westerguard, of the Southern Isles" she grandly introduced the man next to her, who offered her a perfect bow.

"Your Grace" he smiled at her … and Elsa offered him a minimal sort of nod back, suddenly for some reason she couldn't put her finger on, wary of this man.

"Sir Hans" she simply said.

And then the two of them started to babble at high speed.

"Well, I would like-"

"That is to say we would like"

"Right! We'd like your blessing" and then the two of them turned to smile and look each other in the eyes before looking back with joy on their faces.

"Of our marriage!"

Elsa stared at the two of them for a long moment, her head not moving. Only her eyes flicking backwards and forwards between them in a stunned loop.

She could not have heard that right … could she?

Her eyes wide, all she could do was dumbly repeat the word.

"M...Marriage?!"

This … this was a nightmare. An insane nightmare.

Or a joke. Possibly a joke. Oh Gods please let it be a joke.

"Yes!" Anna squealed, closing her eyes and seeming to shiver with delight before turning to beam up at Hans … with terrifyingly little in the way of common sense or restrain flowing between them.

No.

To her horror, Elsa realize that Anna was not joking and the tension returned … and doubled.

"Wait" Elsa managed to get out as she struggled to control herself, her emotions paused in shock now surging forth. "I'm sorry, I'm confused" she managed to get out but Anna flew right on, not listening.

"Well, we haven't worked out all the details ourselves" she breathed giddily, her eyes shining with a horrifying lack of guile or deception. "We'll need a few days to plan the ceremony" she considered, seemingly ignorant of the way Elsa's frown was deepening the more she rambled at two hundred words a minute. "I mean we'll of course have soup, roast and ice cream and then -" and Anna suddenly gasped and whipped around to look at Hans with wide eyes. "Wait, will we live here?"

"Here?" Elsa managed to choke faintly out as she slowly started to make her way out of shock into denial as Hans laughed saying that absolutely they would live here. "Anna-"

"Ohhh we can invite all twelve of your brothers to stay with us for the wedding! Of course we have the room!"

"No, No no no!" Elsa tried to get a word in edgeways - something that she had rarely been able to do with her sister since she had been born. "Wait!" she finally commanded and Anna in turn finally halted her uncoordinated rambling to look at her almost in confusion. Taking a deep breath Elsa tried desperately to find some kind of calm in the insane moment, putting a firm expression the like of which she used when putting her foot down in council meetings. "Slow down. No-ones brothers are staying here, no-one is getting married".

She regretted her words, or at least the tone of them almost as soon as they were out of her mouth as Anna's joy … drained.

It was not something she relished doing … yet bitterly, she realized she seemed cursed to do so.

"Wait … what?" she asked in disbelief and hurt.

A tornado of conflicting thoughts of what to do next stormed within her … and Elsa, as terrifying as the idea was to her decided that she didn't have any choice now.

"May I talk to you please?" she asked Anna directly, unable to help glancing at Hans who was looking slightly hurt and unsure - but Elsa couldn't even begin to deal with that now. "Alone?" she stressed to Anna, her voice ever so slightly wavering as she begged with her eyes for Anna to listen.

Her sister's eyes narrowed.

"No" she said, stepping back and holding onto Hans's arm firmly, seeming to close in on herself in a way that Elsa had never seen before, as if she was pulling back the heart she always wore on her sleeve.

It was painful.

A dark voice in Elsa's mind whispered that she had been hurting her sister to protect her all her life … what was one more time?

"Whatever you have to say" Anna continued, "you can say to both of us".

That stubborn tone … now that brought back memories.

She pushed the thought aside and settled herself, putting her 'Duchess' mask firmly in place as she looked her sister square in the eyes.

"Anna, you can't marry someone you just met" she flatly told her, not quite speaking down to her.

"You can if it's true love" Anna shot back with a not quite glare.

Elsa simply scoffed, feeling frustration now edging up from her normally iron hard control as her sister continued to insist on this insanity from a fairy tale! And her expression slipped with hints of exasperation and condescension creeping into it.

"Anna what do you know about true love?" she didn't quite roll her eyes. The sheer absurdly over her sister deciding to marry the first man she had met?

Insanity didn't even begin to cover it-

"More than you" Anna shot back suddenly, her tone turning hurt and even angry. "All you know how to do is shut people out!"

The words struck Elsa with the force of an orbital strike to her heart, leaving her speechless and stunned.

That … hurt.

It hurt a lot. Elsa found herself transfixed in place for a miniature eternity.

All the years she had isolated herself from her sister.

Everything she had done in her power to protect her.

Everything she had sacrificed to keep her safe, to keep her happy, alive and unharmed.

The life she had dreamed of night after night, the life she had denied herself to let her sister enjoy hers, free of the burdens she would have imposed on her with knowledge of her … condition.

All of that sacrifice for her flashed before her eyes as it was tossed back in her face by the person she had done it for.

Distantly some part of her saw the sudden deep regret in Anna's eyes. An understanding that she had gone too far and didn't really mean it. It was a statement made out of ignorance - a statement only made because she knew it would hurt because it was so false and was just her lashing out in anger.

That part of her mind was dismissed as she felt her heart pierced by her sister's words and felt her mask shatter to show the hurt in her eyes.

"You asked for my blessing" she said, "but my answer is no. Now" she turned, needing to get out of here as she felt her fanatic emotions, to her horror, start to reflect in her powers. A storm building inside her that she needed to calm down in peace. Now. "If you'll excuse me" she started to walk away.

"Your Grace" Hans started to say as she moved off, "if I may-"

"No, no you cannot and I think you should leave, now" she said without pausing, suspicious of this man and wanting him gone as she moved off towards a nearby guard. "I'll be retiring for now, I'll return later" Elsa said as she moved off.

"Elsa! No, no wait!" she heard Anna say – but ignored her as she resolutely moved towards he doors.

Right up until her sister suddenly grabbed her hand.

It had been a very long time since someone had touched her like that. The pure shock of it, combined with her emotional state caused her to half jump and spin … and to her horror, she felt Anna's grip yank the long glove from her hand. The horrible, horrible feeling of cool evening air wafting over her right arm as Anna staggered back with her glove.

"Give me my glove!" Elsa frantically demanded, with absolutely no composure, snatching for it with her left arm only for Anna to pull back, looking utterly miserable at her.

"Elsa" she gasped, her glorious eyes on the verge of tears. "Please, Elsa, I can't live like this anymore!"

There was a moment of perfect silence as Elsa stared at her sister, mentally seeming to commit every part of her into her memory as she suddenly realized there was only one way she could truly protect her sister from her.

And that this whole idea to try and find a way to work with her sister had been a terrible, terrible mistake.

"Then leave" she said simply.

Elsa felt her heart crack as she saw Anna recoil in utter horror at her response. The two stared at each other for long, horrible moments until, unable to bare looking into those eyes that she knew would haunt her to the end of her days, Elsa turned away again, clutching her arm to her chest as she started to feel confined, almost claustrophobic.

The room was too small, the dress too tight and heavy; her powers without her glove raging under her skin and feeding upon her emotions in an unstoppable chain reaction.

She needed to get out. Now.

She made it two steps before the anguished voice of her sister started to lash at her.

"What did I ever do to you?" Anna almost sobbed and Elsa squeezed her eyes shut, feeling tears well up in them.

Nothing Anna. You never did anything but love me – but it's too dangerous to love a monster.

"Enough Anna" she said weakly out loud starting to edge towards hyperventilating. She knew more and more people were staring in confusion and shock but she didn't care.

Out

She needed to get out.

"No! Why? Why do you shut me out?" Anna's voice lashed at her and Elsa hurried on, clutching her arm.

Out. Get out!

"Why do you shut the world out? WHAT ARE YOU SO AFRIAD OF?" Anna all but yelled – and for the first time in close to two decades, Elsa's control snapped as the stress of every single moment in the last day finally, perhaps irrevocably, pushed her past breaking point.

Outoutoutoutout-

"I said ENOUGH" Elsa spun and roared at her sister with raw pain, anger and grief.

And in that moment, the course of human history was forever changed as for just a split second, the raging storm under Elsa's skin was unleashed as her arm whipped out to gesture for emphasis and obeyed her raw emotional state.

In a split second a blast of white energy ripped from her arm and described an arc along the floor, exploding upwards into a forest of long spikes and shafts of pure ice … one of which intercepted the forehead of Victor Steiner-Davion as he had approached to help deal with the situation, sending him flying backwards through the air to crash to the ground with a thump that seemed to echo across the Inner Sphere.