XIII.

When I had reached the front gates, a guard asked for my name and conducted me to a wait line of citizens roughly twenty strong. I was informed that the Queen would begin seeing the people at nine-thirty, which was conveniently close to the time it was then. I glanced over at the people in front of me. They all looked dressed in their best clothes, with neatly groomed hair and shiny wooden, or occasionally leather shoes, but there was no mistaking that they weren't nobility. A few of them had brought along little knickknacks to pass the time with, while others, mostly men, just stood with their weight on one leg. I found myself in the same posture.

It was over two hours before every person ahead of me in the line had had his or her grievance received. The young, tall and brawny woman in front of me was so loud that, even from outside of the throne room, I could hear her shouting.

"Princess Anna, with all due respect, could you please explain to Her Majesty that the Great Freeze killed nearly every pig I owned!" the woman said with a raised voice.

Anna made a noise as if she was going to shout back, but Elsa cut her off with calm but firm speech. "First of all, I expect you to talk to me directly about any issue you may take with the Great Freeze. I caused it, not Anna. When you say 'with all due respect,' I hope for your sake that you mean it. That being said, the Imperial Funds will compensate you for your pigs, along with any other property directly damaged by the Freeze. There, I've fixed what I can. You may leave."

"But how much will I get? Pigs cost more these days, Your Majesty, and-"

"You may leave." Elsa killed the woman's words with a resolute order backed with a cold plate of wrought iron.

I witnessed the woman walking out with a guard, and heard a male voice call out, "Next!" I forgot to take a deep breath before entering the room, but I was too close to the thrones by the time I realized it. I looked up at the two thrones and the chairs on either side of them.

On the left sat Anna, in nondescript clothing, staring with boredom at some part of her sleeve, and on the right was a man wearing a thick wool and leather jacket, and pants to match. He swept his blonde hair to one side with a hand as he studied a sheet of paper, checking off things every now and then with a stick of charcoal.

There were two adjacent thrones in the middle, and the one on the left was empty. On the right… Elsa. It took me a while to connect the woman I saw to the anxious, stressed, and sad girl I had known three years ago. Her hair was in a loose braid and draped over her left shoulder, at which point a magnificent light blue dress that it shined like ice took over, and followed her body to her feet. She was sitting up straight, but relaxed, with impeccable poise from her crownless head to her high-heeled shoes. It wasn't the stiff and uncomfortable poise she had sat with years ago, but a structure that allowed her freedom of expression while maintaining that regal appearance one would expect a Queen to have. Her eyes were the color of a frozen lake.

The man on the right had stopped checking his list and spoke. "Please state your name and purpose."

I cleared my throat. "Erik. My name is Erik, and I-"

I didn't get the chance to make up a reason for being there. Anna immediately jerked her head upon hearing my name, and upon seeing my left arm mentally identified me. She jumped out of her seat, which made Elsa and the other man turn confused heads at her.

"Anna, what are you doing?" the man said.

"I need to talk with Erik alone." Anna caught herself sounding too confident in my name, and awkwardly tried to cover it up. "His name's Erik, right? Well, I can hear what he has to say, you two move right along to the next person, I'll try not to take too long."

Elsa was openly perplexed. "But why?"

"I… I just know him, okay? Don't worry, I'll tell you everything, but I need him to tell me everything first."

"But-"

"Elsa, you kept a secret from me for thirteen years. I know how it feels, and I'm not going to do the same thing to you. I'll tell you everything; I just need to talk with him alone first."

Elsa gave an uneasy okay, and before I knew it Anna had grabbed me by the wrist and shot towards a hallway that led out from the back of the throne room, and we ended up in a rather small space, possible a bedroom, but void of any furniture except two small, adjacent wooden chairs. Anna sat in the left one and invited me to sit on the right. Forgetting that nobody knew I was a prince, I started talking.

"You remember me? Do you really remember me?"

Anna must've remembered me, because she wasn't insulted that I didn't address her formally. "Yes, Erik, I do. Prince Erik of Fordane." A smile pushed her freckles into her eyes. "Wow, it's been so long since I've seen you, like almost a week now! How's life?"

I was about to answer that I didn't really want to talk about the last three years without Elsa there, but I realized what exactly Anna had said. "It's been a week? More like three years."

Her smile didn't disappear completely, but it did fade a significant amount. "I know, you've got a lot of catching up to do, as do I, and Elsa. And I kind of feel sorry for Kristoff, he has so much catching up to do." I assumed Kristoff was the man in the throne room. "I guess I know where to start now. You know that guard who gave you newspapers during your… stay?"

My stomach sank. "You knew?"

"I didn't just know. I was that guard."

If I had any water in my mouth I would have spat it out, but I didn't, so it ended up being a spasmic convulsion of air. Anna wasn't nearly as intimidating as Elsa, though, or even Mikael, and I found my speech quickly enough. "You gave us those papers? For three years? How? Didn't you get caught?"

Anna smirked proudly. "Not as air-headed as I look, hmm?" She thought back to the questions I had just asked her. "Speaking of us, where's Mikael? Did he not stay with you?"

I slumped my shoulders and bowed my head. "Yeah, he stayed with me, as long as he could. He got trapped in a cave by a blizzard; I barely made it out with my life."

She finally frowned. "Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that. Really, I am. And I know Elsa is too, I just… don't know if she should hear that right now. I mean, just overcoming thirteen years of fear of your power to find out that they killed someone, can you imagine?" Anna saw the look of sad affirmation I was giving her. "Oh, right, you can." She thought about my response a little more, and she leaned in with furrowed browns as she realized what I had implied. "You killed someone?"

"A few people. Guards. On my way out…"

Anna slapped her forehead. "Of course! When I saw all the guards, that day you escaped… I thought it was just some torch or something that fell over in the commotion. But you… well, I guess Mikael wasn't teaching you for nothing, but you…" She glanced over at my guilt-laden face, and tried to pick up the hint. "Right, I'll spare you the details. It's just… they looked terrible. And their families…"

My eyes got wet, and my bubbling heart wrenched with pain from a feeling like acid. "Can we talk about something else?"

Anna laid a gentle hand on my shoulder and tried to smile. "Of course. You remember the paintings much?"

I gave a little chuckle and wiped my eyes dry. "Yes, I remember the paintings. And I still think that one above the couch could have used a tree or two." The tangent was enough to get me thinking again. "So how come you know I'm Prince Erik?"

"Pardon?"

"How come you know I'm Prince Erik?"

"Because I can see your face… and not your left hand." Anna took her hand off of my shoulder. "Sorry, I don't get what you're asking me."

I breathed out and elaborated. "Why do you seem to be the only one who knows that I am Prince of Fordane, and technically King of Arendelle?"

Anna turned away. "Now that's a little bit more of a story. It happened about two months after your arrest, when the King and Prince of Fordane were called over to Arendelle for a meeting with mom and dad, the Queen and the King.