The hearth crackled in the still room, punctuating the silence with only echoes of warmth. Anna sat on Rapunzel's bed as her cousin silently braided her hair.
Outside, the world had plunged into chaos. The tournament was officially on hold, further dinners suspended. A full battalion of special guardsmen had been assigned to the investigation of the king's death. Eugene was out with them, volunteering his services as a ex-thief and devious mastermind. Everything so far was pointing towards a regular heart attack, but that didn't mean they could rule out murder.
Murder.
Anna shivered.
Rapunzel's fingers paused. "You okay?"
"I- I don't know."
Rapunzel snaked her arms around Anna and squeezed her into a hug.
"Don't worry. If there was anyone behind this," she said, "they'll find them."
"But…"
Anna fidgeted, her thumbs picking at each other in her lap.
Rapunzel twisted around to directly face her.
"But what, Anna?"
"If it was a murder…"Anna glanced away and took a shuddering breath. "…I already know who did it."
Rapunzel's face remained calm at the admission.
"You're talking about Hans," she said.
"Don't pretend like you're not thinking the same thing," Anna said. "He's next in line to Weideland's throne. With the king dead, that means…"
Anna's stomach chilled.
Hans was going to be crowned their king.
…you were so desperate for love you were willing to marry me, just like that…
Rapunzel sighed.
"You're right about the potential motive, Anna," she said. "But that's also all it is right now. A motive. No one's found any proof of anything yet."
Anna bit her lip.
It wasn't that simple. Why couldn't she make Rapunzel understand?
"Anna?"
"Just… What if it's my fault he's dead?!"
"What?"
"Hans would still be under house arrest if I hadn't vouched for him!" Anna said. "He wouldn't have married Princess Josephine and then she would be alive and her father would be alive…"
Anna clenched her hands together until her knuckles hurt.
"What if he killed them both and I was the one who let it happen?" Anna whispered.
She felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Anna, look at me."
After indulging in a small sniff, Anna complied. Her cousin's gentle brown eyes twinkled back at her with a sad smile.
"It's not your fault, okay?" Rapunzel said. "Other ships got caught in that storm. They found the pieces of the wreck, bodies… and you yourself were the one that found Hans. Didn't you said he was half-dead when you spotted him?"
Anna nodded.
"So how was that your fault? How was that anything other than an accident?"
…I figured, after we married, I'd have to stage a little accident for Elsa…
Anna flinched away from Rapunzel's touch.
She tried to speak, but nothing came out. Anna pushed herself off Rapunzel's bed and began pacing by the fireplace.
"Even if the ship was an accident, that doesn't mean he wasn't involved with this," she said. "I mean, even if he's not here, I know there are poisons that can look like heart attacks. All he would've had to do was slip some poison in a vial, have someone give it to a servant…"
"That's why we're investigating," Rapunzel said. "If there's even a trace of poison in the king, in the food, our people will find it."
"But-"
There was a knock at the door. Eugene poked his head through.
"Interrupting anything?" he asked.
"No, we're just fine," Rapunzel said, hopping off the bed to give him a peck on the cheek. "Come right in."
As she led her husband to a chair, Anna slumped down in a nook by the window.
"Find anything?" Rapunzel asked him.
"No," Eugene said. "We've been examining the food… the wine… everything's turned up normal so far, but…"
He bent forward and ran a hand through his hair.
Rapunzel frowned.
"Anna says she thinks-"
"Yes, Hans," Eugene finished for her. "Right now, I think he's suspect number one on everyone's lists." He sighed. "The guy's gonna have a fun time winning the trust of Weideland's nobles, that's for sure."
"They can't charge him for anything if there's no evidence though… can they?"
"Not directly, no. But civil wars have started over less." He shook his head. "I remember when Belleau practically self-destructed. Be glad the two of you weren't around for that one."
Anna stared down, picking at her fingernails again. Her body was split down the middle, the fireplace's glow warming her front half as the stone walls leeched it from her back.
"Do you think Hans' brothers had anything to do with it?" Eugene asked.
It took a moment for Anna to realize he was talking to her.
"What? Oh…" Anna thought about it as she took a deep breath. "They're a petty group of pompous know-it-alls for the most part," she said, "but I don't think they were involved. None of them seem to like Hans very much, let alone like him enough to kill for him."
"Hmm…" Eugene said.
"Why? Are you questioning them?"
"Formally, no. From what the others told me, inter-kingdom investigations are more dance than investigation: one wrong step, the wrong, pissed-off person, and boom. War. But we will have men tailing them for the next couple days. Just in case."
He and Rapunzel moved on to discuss the logistics of the next several days: which guards would be assigned where, whether extra security would help ease tensions or simply increase paranoia, the official address Rapunzel's dad would have to give to the public, the further steps that'd be needed if poison was found because as much as everyone suspected Hans that didn't mean he was automatically the culprit…
"What about you, Anna?" Eugene asked.
Anna blinked at him.
"What about me?" she asked. "Are you saying I'm a suspect?"
"Of course not. But if Hans was behind the king's death, I think you'd be number two on his poisoning list."
"Actually, I think I'd be number three. After Elsa."
…all that's left now is to kill Elsa and bring back summer…
She tried to swallow; it got stuck in her throat.
"Nice," Eugene said. "But I'm actually being serious for once. We can get some extra guards if you need-"
"I don't need guards."
Eugene and Rapunzel looked at each other.
"But-"
"I just listened to the two of you talk for the last half hour about how you don't have enough guards," Anna said. She smiled. "Trust me. I'll be fine."
"Maximus has a rotating shift," Rapunzel said. "He could always…"
Anna sighed. "You want the honest truth?"
She glanced down at her hands, not exactly sure what she was about to say. They were stray thoughts that'd been circling in her head - popping in, fleeting out - over the past several months. Thoughts she'd never actually put into words yet.
Thoughts she'd been kinda afraid to.
"It's just…"Anna looked back up at the concerned faces of her friends and swallowed. "I joke about it, but I'm not sure I'm Hans' number three. Or even number ten. Or number whatever. You see… I don't think he hates me anymore. At least not like that." Eugene's face started to twist in disagreement, and Anna winced. "I know!" she said. "I know it sounds delusional! Don't think for one second that I've forgotten everything he's done, cause I haven't! But…"
Anna stared off into the corner of the room.
"After we got the stone and he didn't 'need' me to break the protections on it anymore, he had more than enough time and opportunities to take his revenge on me… and he didn't."
"Anna," Eugene said. "I hate to break it to you, but he did need something else from you. Your word. If he came back with that stone by himself, nobody would've trusted him."
"I know…"
A stray thought wedged itself in her brain.
It couldn't possibly be related to… but it was still better to make sure.
"Is the stone still safe?" Anna asked.
"Yep," Rapunzel said, seemingly eager to change topics. "Eugene and I personally check on it once a week. Still gold and shiny." She paused with a frown. "Why? You think it has anything to do with this?"
"No, I…" Anna sighed again. "I don't know what I think."
In the end the investigations turned up nothing. The Summer Tournament resumed with muted excitement and ultimately wrapped up with a fraction of the fanfare it'd started with.
The months rushed by.
Anna quickly learned that the death of a monarch meant, well… funerals and mourning, yes, but also mountains of paperwork for anyone working on the relationship-side of things between the various kingdoms.
As did the coronation of a new one.
Every so often a copy of the latest inter-kingdom trade agreement made its way past Anna's desk. She always flinched at the sight of Hans' name, printed in bold letters alongside all the other monarchs, before scolding herself for being silly.
Well, not silly.
Paranoid.
And not even unfounded paranoid at that.
Still, there wasn't anything a junior consulate member could do about the situation. Or a crown princess for that matter. If the people of Weideland were happy with him as their king, then the rest of the kingdoms just had to accept it.
Anna sighed to herself, shuffled the sheet into the rest of her reviewed pile, and continued her work.
Summer had fully chilled into autumn when the messenger let himself into the breakfast hall.
"Your majesties," he said, bowing to Anna's aunt and uncle.
Aunt Primrose put down her fork with a soft clink. "Yes?" she said while Uncle Thomas finished his chewing and dabbed at his mustache with his napkin.
"It's from Weideland," he said, passing letter to them. "They claim they're under attack."
Anna froze.
Her uncle's chest rumbled with coughs as he reached for letter. Rapunzel and Eugene stared each other, a silent conversation rapidly being passed back and forth in series of eyebrow raises and mouth twitches.
Anna glanced back at her plate.
Hans hadn't even been the king of Weideland for three months. Perhaps he'd angered the wrong person… Or a faction of older lords had broken off and challenged his legitimacy.
"By who?" Uncle Thomas asked even as he started unrolling the missive.
It had to be the lords. It was the only thing that made sense. Kingdoms didn't just hand their thrones and royal lines over to a one month marriage. Less than a month. No amount of good governing could ever sweep that into the closet…
"Stralshagen," the messenger said.
Wait, what?
Her mind called up memories of the small city-state. Sure, she'd managed to rescue them from the blizzard in time, but "in time" didn't mean thriving. For a kingdom so crippled to declare war… Stralshagen wasn't even a kingdom! The physical size of the place compared to Weideland…
And then that didn't even take into account their limited resources… population…
If Hans had been the aggressor though…
"Are you sure it's not the other way around?" Anna blurted out.
She'd been privately lectured before by senior members of the consulate about her bad habit of "threateningly blunt political insinuations," but everyone in the hall seemed to be as dazed as her.
The messenger nodded.
"There is a chance Weideland made a mistake as to origin of the attacks," he said. "But otherwise it's printed right there. Plain as day."
Her aunt and uncle were both hunched over now, sharing the small message between them. Rapunzel pushed her chair out and went to read over their shoulders.
"They don't mention any reason for…" Aunt Primrose glanced up at messenger. "Was there anything else?"
"No, your majesties. Just that. However, it was sent with one of their fastest birds. Perhaps more is on its way?"
Anna frowned to herself.
Nothing about this was making any sense…
She jumped as a chair scraped back. Uncle Thomas stood.
"My apologizes," he told his family. "But I need to take care of this."
Everyone around the table blankly nodded back at him. Rapunzel clutched her hands in front of her chest as he left the breakfast hall with the messenger, speaking in low, echoed murmurs.
Their conversation snapped to silence as the door swung shut behind them.
Rapunzel remained at her mother's side.
"I don't understand," Rapunzel said. "I thought all the kingdoms were on good terms with each other."
"As did I," Aunt Primrose said.
Her eyes lingered on the closed door for a moment before she snapped her napkin back into place.
"Unfortunately, there's nothing any of us can do about it at the moment," she said. "Your father will take care of matters for now, not there's much to take care of before more information arrives. In the meantime, it's a shame to let food go to waste." She shook her head. "It's so ridiculous… Perhaps your father will come back before we're all done with the news that this was all just some unfortunate miscommunication."
"Yeah… Maybe…"
Rapunzel didn't look as optimistic as her mother. She slunk back to her own seat, Eugene giving her a small smile before she resumed eating in silence.
Anna wished she could do the same. Her stomach still ached with hunger, her breakfast barely touched, but none of the food looked appetizing anymore.
"Wait," Eugene suddenly said. His eyes widened. "Stralshagen. Aren't they that tiny city kingdom?"
"Yeah. Run by stewards. Used to be bigger several hundred years ago, but their land's been slowly chipped away since then…" She turned to Anna. "You've been there, right? Last summer?"
"Huh? Oh… yeah."
"But why would Stralshagen ever attack anyone?" Eugene said. "I mean, that's gotta be a suicidal decision if I've ever heard one!"
Aunt Primrose, Rapunzel, and Anna all locked eyes with each other.
It was the question that'd been on all their minds. And just like that, the dam broke. Her aunt and Rapunzel instantly began discussing the possible, if there even were any possible reasons for the attack.
Anna stayed silent.
After awhile, she stabbed piece of egg with her fork and forced it down her throat.
Anna's first official Christmas away from home was a weird combination of festive delight and crippling homesickness.
Corona was really, really far south… which, sure, was great for not freezing your nose off whenever you had to set foot outside eight months out of twelve, but terrible when it came to the general feeling of the winter holidays. Only the barest powder coated the ground in the weeks leading up to it, and by Christmas morning itself, it'd all melted into squelchy, brown muck.
It wasn't the worst thing in the world, Anna supposed. A sane person would've hated the snow after everything that she'd been though.
What could she say?
She had the north in her. Now and forever.
On a more cheerful note, Anna received more presents that year than she'd gotten before. Elsa, Kristoff, and Olaf had all sent presents from across the sea: a beautiful necklace, intricately carved reindeer, and macaroni picture of Arendelle's castle respectively.
Kristoff's present also came with an attached card that made her blush. She tucked it underneath her mattress before leaving for the morning. She didn't need Rapunzel to find that…
During the main celebration with the rest of her extended family, she unwrapped a fancy, hawk-feather quill and notebook from Eugene, a painted landscape of a wintery, ice-locked fjord from Rapunzel, and a shimmering blue court dress from Aunt Primrose and Uncle Thomas.
"Continue to make us proud," her aunt said, pressing a light kiss on her forehead.
Apples from Maximus, various odds and ends from Vladimir and the other men she'd travelled with… even her fellow consulate members had chipped in to get her an extra large box of gourmet chocolate.
Anna meticulously rationed them out, but despite her tightest self-control, she could only make the box last a couple days into the new year.
"You went through all of them already?" Rapunzel asked as Anna downed the last chocolate with a slug of wine.
"Waf cannae say?" Anna mouthed. "Cholaffe an me go fvvvvay back."
The two clinked their glasses together, and then went back to their books.
It was a quiet reading night in the palace's library, an old tradition of Anna's aunt and uncle that the younger generation had picked up too. Eugene was particularly fond of swashbuckling adventures, recommending a new one every time he spied Anna browsing the shelves.
They were good stories too, but he had way more recommendations than she had time these days…
Anna swished her wine glass around with one hand while the other flipped the pages. She barely heard the knock at the door.
When she glanced up, her stomach dropped.
It was another messenger.
The past several months had brought with them both the surrender and annexation of Stralshagen. According to reports, the initial attack had been ordered by a distant royal cousin of the Stralshagen stewards, claiming they had more right to the Weideland throne than King Hans did. The few battles had been brief and mostly bloodless… afterwards everything looked like it'd been resolved…
And then Ostenberg had declared war on Weideland on the grounds that it should've accepted Stralshagen's surrender without the annexation.
From then on, the other surrounding kingdoms rose and fell like dominoes, each declaring war only to topple weeks later… and through all of it lay Weideland, completely innocent.
Never once the aggressor.
The messenger cleared his throat as if knowing his news was unwanted.
"It seems," the messenger said slowly. "Wallonia has declared war on Weideland."
Wallonia.
The kingdom next door.
In unspoken agreement, Anna's aunt and uncle immediately shut their books and left with the messenger.
Anna, Rapunzel, and Eugene were left in the library. As they looked at each other, a single set of questions hung in the air:
Would the war bleed over to them?
What if they were next?
Anna sat at her desk, her boots propped squarely up on the lacquerred finish. She chewed on the tip of her hawk-feathered quill as she reread the letter for the seventh time.
Someone knocked on the door and she quickly swung her feet off, smoothing her skit in an attempt to look like a proper adult.
"Come in!"
It was Rapunzel. She gave Anna a small smile.
"We missed you at dinner tonight." She nodded at paperwork on Anna's desk. "Wow, look at you. Prioritizing work over your stomach for once."
Anna bit her lip.
It'd be easy enough to agree with her. To soak up the complement (well, half-complement) and keep the letter to herself for awhile… pretend nothing was wrong.
Like she was capable of that.
She sighed and passed it over to Rapunzel.
"It's from Elsa," Anna said as Rapunzel began to read. "She doesn't think it's safe here anymore. She… she wants me home."
Rapunzel's brow creased more and more as her eyes travelled down the page.
"She has a point, you know." she said after a moment.
"What point?" Anna demanded. "If I'm not safe here, you're not either! What am I supposed to do? Just leave?!"
Rapunzel was silent, her eyes still locked on the letter.
Anna crossed her arms.
"I mean, it's not like Corona's going to declare war anytime soon. Are you?"
"No," Rapunzel said, glancing up. "But at the same time, we didn't think Wallonia or any of the others were either. Nothing like this has ever happened before. I don't know what's…" She passed the letter back to Anna. "If I was Elsa, I think I'd want you home too. Just for a bit at least. Until we all figure out what's going on."
Anna frowned. Her sister's tight, looping signature was etched at the bottom.
"I guess… I guess I'll at least think about it," Anna mumbled. At her cousin's insisting stare, she sighed and added more firmly, "I promise."
A/N: Sorry for the delay, especially on a cliffhanger. I was finishing my Labyrinth story up, and now that that's completely done, All That Glitters is the sole, huge project on my plate.