Chapter 25 – Actual Real Live People

The coachman opened the door to the carriage, allowing a brief gust of the warm, moist summer air to enter the cab. It was already drawing into evening, but the long summer hours of the northern kingdom provided ample sunlight. Two Royal Guards took position on either side of the coach's door, as Elsa exited, followed quickly Anna. A short distance away were the open front doors of the Alweign manor house, a large residence of brick and stone, commanding three stories in height and spreading across the property, a wide central structure intersecting with residential wings on either side. And standing just inside the aforementioned front door were a number of people, among whom Elsa recognized the two young women that they had met several days before at the dress shop, Helga and Britta Alweign. Next to them were an older couple, presumably the head of the household and his wife.

Helga, the younger of the two Alweign sisters leapt ahead eagerly, breaking out of her mother's restraining grip, and performed a quick curtsey. "Queen Elsa, Princess Anna, I'm so happy you came," she said quickly, unable to contain her enthusiasm. As Elsa and Anna closed the short remaining distance to the door, the man stepped ahead and bowed formally. "Your Majesty, Your Highness, I am Olvar Alweign." Raising his arm towards the women, he continued the introductions, "My wife, Gunfrid, and my daughters Britta and Helga. Welcome to our home."

"Thank you," Elsa replied. "I do hope my Royal Guards have not put you to any great inconvenience."

Lady Alweign spoke up, "Oh no, not at all." She smiled caringly at the two royal women almost as if they were her own daughters. "Especially considering what just happened, we all just want to be sure you are both safe."

Lord Alweign stepped to one side. "Please, come in," he entreated of them. "I hope you enjoy the evening. There is plenty of food and wine, and, I hope, the good company of my daughters and their friends. If, however, you decide you'd like some more mature conversation, Gunfrid and I will just be over in the East Wing. Just ask Jarlevis," he concluded, indicating a tall man, formally dressed, standing at the end of the foyer.

Elsa and Anna followed the two Alweign daughters down a short hallway. The butler Jarlevis opened a pair of doors to a large room, full of people who suddenly quieted.

The man announced stentorianly, "Her Majesty, Queen Elsa of Arendelle!"

Just two hours earlier, Elsa and Anna met in their shared dressing room to prepare for the evening's gathering.

Anna was already there when Elsa entered, sitting at one of the dressing tables, her handmaiden Bree working on her hair. Noticing Elsa's arrival, Anna called out, "Hey, Elsa, look what Bree's doing!" Bree, however, found herself in a difficult position, her hands full of combs and locks of the Princess' hair, and needing to turn and curtsey to the Queen. Noticing her contortions, Elsa calmed her, "It's okay, Bree. Just take care of Anna."

Bree still managed an awkward bending of her knees, then returned to her work. For a party where a more formal dress was expected, Anna was having her hair prepared in something other than her usual two pig-tail braids, though Elsa could not image what the purpose was of the two thin sticks that Bree was inserting through the bun of Anna's hair now gathered at the back of her head.

Rising, Anna turned towards Elsa and removed her dressing gown to reveal her dress. Definitely not of a Scandian style, much less Europan, the dress was colored as red as Anna's hair. The bodice wrapped around her jacket like, a seam embroidered with gold thread tracing from the high neckline, across below the right shoulder and then down the right side, the sleeves coming down only just past her shoulders. The waistline fit snug along her figure down to the skirt which fell in a straight line to her ankles. A filigree forming a floral pattern followed along the seam to the waist where it then scattered across the skirt to the hemline. The ensemble was completed with a pair of sandals, color matching the dress.

"Wow," gasped Elsa. "It's beautiful."

Anna looked down at her dress and then back at Elsa, "I know, right! I was going through that atlas some more, learning my kingdoms for when I start travelling for you, and I got kinda lost and was looking at some of kingdoms all the way over in the Orient. I also had a book that talked about the cultures, you know, the language and the food and the clothes, and I saw a picture showing the Emperor of Sinhua, who was in fancy armor and a gold coat, and his Empress, who had a dress like this. So later, I was talking to Pree about it, and she said her aunt was a seamstress and could make me a dress like it, but I told it there wouldn't be time since the party was tomorrow, meaning today since we were talking about it yesterday, and Bree said her aunt could do it so I said that would be great, and Bree came back just a little while ago with this dress and isn't it amazing!"

Elsa smiled while the words and Anna's joy washed over her. "Yes, it is." Turning to Bree, "My compliments to your aunt."

Hands now free, Bree was able to perform a proper curtsey. "Thank you, Your Majesty."

Anna turned her attention back to her sister. "So, are you going to wear your ice-dress to the party?"

"Well, with all the talk about it in town, and other women having their own dresses made like it, I don't think I should wear that dress again. But I have been thinking about a new ice dress…" She raised her arms, drawing the power, but then stopped. "I really should change out of this dress first. It would be lost in the transformation, and I do rather like it."

Elsa stepped behind a dressing screen. One by one, pieces of her current outfit appeared on the chair sitting next to the partition, until finally Anna couldn't think of anything that was left for Elsa to remove. "I guess the cold doesn't bother you…"

The temperature of the room suddenly dropped, and a swirl of snow and ice formed above where Elsa must be standing on the other side of the screen. The miniature blizzard twisted about and then reached down, spun for another few seconds, then suddenly flew apart and dissipated. A moment later, Elsa emerged.

The skirt was the color of new fallen snow and hugged her hips and thighs closely. The hemline, however, angled jauntily, starting just above her left knee and concluding about the middle of her right calf, a short, snowflake-patterned lace trim following along the lower edge. The dress rose snugly up her waist, ending low on her back and rising to a heart-shaped décolletage. A shimmering, light blue gossamer fabric rose from each side to the edges of her shoulders, and cascaded loosely down her arms. A glistening chain of ice encircled her neck, from which hung a handful of crystalline snowflakes. Her hair was in her now signature braid, which she had drawn over her left shoulder, and was interspersed with snowflakes matching those on her necklace. Completing the outfit were a pair of icy, glass-like heeled shoes, snowy white laces rising twistingly about her ankles.

Anna smiled approvingly. "Beautifuller!"

"Her Highness, Princess Anna of Arendelle!"

There was a short flight of two steps descending from a small landing at doorway of the great-room, creating the effect that Elsa and Anna stood atop a platform from which they addressed their subjects. This was only reinforced by the quiet, attentive stares they were now receiving from the room's occupants.

"No." Anna's word cut through the silence. She turned to her sister and repeated it, more quietly. "No. We're not here to be all special and royal. We can do that back in the castle. We're here so we can just be normal, meet people, make some friends. Okay?"

Elsa turn to Anna and whispered back, nervously, "I… I don't know. I know how to be the Queen of Arendelle; I've been training to be that all my life. I just learned how to be the Snow Queen," she said, raising her hand between them and creating a tiny puff of snow, "But I don't know how to be… normal."

Anna grabbed and held Elsa arms and squeezed them affectionately, "It's just like being a sister. I know you can be that." She glanced briefly towards their befuddled audience and then back to Elsa. "Let me handle this."

Letting go of Elsa, Anna turned fully towards the gathering of people staring at them. "Alright, we're going to try this entrance again. But this time, we're not the Queen and Princess, we're," she bit her lip, deliberating, "Elsa and Anna Agdarsen, from a respectable Arendelle family with long history in civil service." Then, grinning, she added "and recent interest in the ice business."

A few moments later, they, along with the Alweign sisters and their butler, were back in the hallway behind the once again closed door.

Britta took a few step closer to Elsa. "Are you all right, Your Majesty—"

But Anna interrupted, "Elsa. Tonight we're just Elsa and Anna. Okay?"

Britta blushed nervously, "Umm. Lady Elsa, are you all right? Would you like a drink? Some water?"

Elsa breathed deeply, steadying her nerves. "Actually, some wine would be nice."

The butler, Jarlevis, nodded his head. "My Lady. It will just take a moment," and strode purposefully down another the hallway.

The four women stood there uncomfortably quiet for a few moments, until Anna finally broke the tension, "So, this is a nice house."

"It's been the Alweign family home for almost two hundred years," Helga responded, eager to fill the awkward silence. "Oskar Alweign built it in 1655, though it was just this middle part back then. Great-grandfather Olvein added the two wings about sixty years ago, after making money during the First Iberian War. He sold food and boots to the Catalonians—"

Helga's family history lesson was interrupted by Jarlevis' return, bearing a tray with four tall glasses of a deep, red vintage, which he then presented, bowing cautiously, as to not risk spilling his cargo. "My Ladies."

Elsa and the Alweign sisters each took a glass, but Anna hesitated, glancing at Elsa. But Elsa just nodded, smiling indulgently. "Oh, okay. Great," Anna prattled, finally taking her glass. After a few sips, though, Anna wasn't sure if she actually liked it or not.

Elsa, after taking a few drinks herself, finally turned to the tall man. "Thank you." And raising her free hand towards the door to the great-room, "If you would…"

"…and this is Frederik and Etta Lavrants," cited Britta, introducing the couple to "Ladies" Elsa and Anna. This would be the third such introduction she will have performed so far. "They just returned from Bergen where Frederik has been studying law for the last three years."

"We decided to return to Arendelle, where we both grew up," explained Etta, "when we discovered that I was with child."

Elsa smiled and commented, "That's wonderful." Then, turning to Frederik, "So, what form of law to you practice?"

"My practice is primarily international contract law," he explained. "I am often hired by local merchants to assist in drawing up contracts with the shipping companies. Matters have gotten a good bit busier recently, due to the, ah, recent change in the kingdom's trade policies."

Elsa nodded, appreciating the man's efforts to maintain the little charade. It was the kingdom's change of policy, not Your Majesty's. Then she noticed her sister, standing to her right, but twisted around, something else clearly having caught her attention. Elsa gave her a nudge to draw her attention. "Anna, we're over here."

Anna turned back suddenly. "What? Oh, congratulations on your practice child." Grabbing her sister's arm and pulling her away, she whispered, "Elsa, come on! We should go talk to him," she said, nodded her head towards a small gathering on the opposite side of the room, "Helga says that he's been over to the new colonies on Terra Nova, practically grew up there. Isn't that amazing?"

Elsa managed to extract her arms from Anna's grasp. "Why don't you go on ahead, I'll catch up with you in a little while?"

Anna placed both her hands on her waist, arms akimbo, and looked at her sister. "Fine, but don't you go hiding in a corner. Meet people, make friends." Looking around, Anna homed in on a target, "Why don't you go talk to him. He looks interesting." Then, grabbing Helga's hand, Anna rushed over to her original objective.

Elsa glanced to the remaining elder Alweign sister, "Sorry, Anna does tend to get a bit excited…"

Britta smiled, "Nothing to worry about; Helga is much the same way." Turning her head towards Anna's latter discovery, she continued, "however, she was right, he is interesting."

The man was tall and immaculately dressed in suit of southern Europan style. He wore a well-manicured mustache and van-dyke beard, the dark hair matching his equally well coiffed shoulder-length hair. Having just emerged from the next room, he was now selecting a fresh glass of wine from a passing servant. He turned to greet the oncoming Britta and her guest.

"Ah, Britta, where have you been, I have missed you all day," he intoned. Taking Britta's arms into his own, he gave her a light kiss on her cheek, and then turned to Elsa. "And who is your lovely companion?" He spoke with a rich Gallic accent, a lot like that of the dignitary from Lorraine who attended the coronation, but somewhat richer, the consonants sharper and the vowels more elongated.

Turning to Elsa, Britta performed the introductions. "Jean-Pierre, may I present Lady Elsa Agdarsen. Elsa, this is Jean-Pierre, le vicomte du Mont Blanc."

The gentlemen took Elsa's hand and gave it a light kiss. "I am enchanted to meet you, my lady." His Norse was quite good, the Gallic accent making all the more alluring.

"So, what brings you to Arendelle?" queried Elsa conversationally.

"Ah, I could say it was the company, the food, or even the brilliance of the aurora at night. But the truth is, it is the weather. The heat, back home, is unbearable in the summer." He smiled, took a drink of his wine, and continued, "And so to escape it, I come visit my dear cousins living here in the more pleasant northern climes."

"But as the Viscount of Mont Blanc," Elsa conjectured, "could you not simply climb your mountain until you reach a comfortable altitude?"

The aforementioned viscount raised his glass in acknowledgement, "An excellent point, my lady. Indeed, my family has a château up in the heights, and it is quite comfortable. But mother and father, are busy with matters of state, and my brother is off with the legions, leaving me quite alone. And so, instead, I chose travel to find the far more pleasant company here. That, and the possibility of attending your namesake's coronation, made this the far more promising choice."

"You came for the coronation?" asked Elsa, curious.

"I tried, but my ship was forced to dock in Lisbon for nearly a week to repair damage due to storms we encountered, and when we finally arrived, I find that I had missed all the excitement. Quel dommage."

"Peut- être," responded Elsa, "je souhaite que vous avez trouvé l'excitation depuis."

"Ah, you speak la belle langue. This is why I love visiting Arendelle, the women are as intelligent as they are beautiful." After another quick drink of his wine, he leaned toward Elsa, "I'll let you in on a secret, I once asked my dear Britta for her hand in marriage, but she turned me down. It seems that she has pledged herself to some navy captain—"

"Lietenant Siggursen, serving on the HMS Trondheim," corrected Britta.

"—and so I am left to spend my days alone, bereft of love, forced to wander from party to party, in search of any soul who may heal my broken heart." Britta gave him a playful shove at his farcical soliloquy.

"We're cousins, but only distantly," she explained. "The connection is from many years ago, but our families have remained close, and we visit each other often."

There was pause in conversation, then Elsa inquired, "Has there been any resolution on the King of Sardinia's claims on Savoy?"

Jean-Pierre raised his eyebrows in surprise, "You are aware of the politics! Most people this far north are barely even know where the Duchy of Savoy is located—it is down there, somewhere," he said raising his arm, waving his hand, "—much less know the goings-on of the region. That is the matter that forced father to remain in the heat, rather than escape to a more temperate refuge. The claim is baseless, of course, and Sardinia knows it; but they make the claim in order to exert leverage. They will negotiate and they will barter, and some small islands may be changing their flags, but it will not amount to anything of significance."

Britta jumped in, "Let's not discuss politics, all right?" She glanced sympathetically towards Elsa.

"But about what else should we be talking? Perhaps we should review the party's sartorial choices?" Smiling at Elsa, he continued, "I must say, you made a lovely choice, makes quite a statement and is unique. So many others, including our little Helga, have been enthralled such that they all want a copy of your queen's now famous dress."

Barely pausing, he maintained, "Britta says that Her Majesty will be coming to this very party. I would invite her to return with me and use her magical gift to put a light frost upon the Duchy of Savoy to abate the terrible heat, but I fear the people would depose us and elevate her in gratitude."

Britta burst out laughing, startling the man. "I can't let you go on any further, J.P.," she started, "This is Queen Elsa! She and Princess Anna," she explained, indicating the bubbly redhead in the next cluster over, "told us to treat them like regular people during the party. But you hadn't come out from your rooms yet, so you didn't know."

"Mon dieu, of course! Je suis un idiot." He bowed to Elsa formally, "Your Majesty, I must apologize for any offense I have given."

Elsa touched his arm, indicating that he should stand straight. "There has been no offense. In fact, it has been fun. I am finally enjoying myself, so thank you."

"Well, thank you for your clemency… Lady Elsa," he said, exaggeratedly, now knowingly playing along.

Elsa simply nodded back, smiling.

"And, with that concluded," said Britta purposefully, "let us move on to the buffet, which Marcell and his crew have work on so deliberately. Jean-Pierre, would you be a gentleman and escort the Lady Elsa while I let the rest of the party know?"

Jean-Pierre bowed briefly to Britta. "It would be my pleasure." Turning to Elsa, he offered his left arm, elbow extended, "My Lady, if I may have the pleasure of your company."

"…and snow went everywhere, but he just said 'It's okay, I don't have any bones.'" The small crowd of party guests all laughed at the conclusion of her Olaf-story, which, perhaps, came close to violating the Not-the-Queen-and-Princess rule for the evening, but Anna had decided that a good tale trumped a strict adherence to the rule.

"So, Humfred, you said you've been to Roma?" Anna kept going, uninterrupted, "I've only seen pictures of it, but it looks amazing. What was it like? – oh, hey, Elsa!"

Anna broke off from her assemblage and walked quickly, trying to act nonchalant but failing, into Elsa and Jean-Pierre's path. "So Elsa, who's your new friend?"

Indicating each person with her left hand, since her right arm was still intertwined with her companion's left, "This is my sister, Anna. Anna, this is Jean-Pierre of Savoy, the Viscount of Mont Blanc."

Anna looked him up and down. "He sure is."

"I say," said Jean-Pierre, "has is suddenly gotten colder in here?"

Meanwhile, Anna's small party arrived behind her. Grinning teasingly at Elsa's discomfort, Anna turned halfway in order to be able to address both the newly arrived people and Elsa.

"Elsa, this is Humfred Alversen, and he's travelled all over Europa, his family is part of a big import-export company, and so he and his father and uncle travel all over. And this is Jonn and Løssi Stotl, and they're farmers, well they don't actually do the farming, Løssi's family runs a large manor north of the city, and this is Hedin and his family is into real estate, and this is Mina Murrick and she's going to be a doctor! And you already know Helga. Everyone, this is my sister Elsa."

There followed a series of greetings, complete with a few awkward half-bows and unsure half-performed curtseys, the assemblage not knowing quite how to greet a temporarily-not-queen. Luckily, it was soon interrupted by Britta's arrival, urging all to move on to the buffet. Elsa released Jean-Pierre, and held back a bit to talk to Anna.

"So, Anna, are you enjoying yourself?"

"I sure am! How about you? Having a good time with Monsieur tall, nice clothes, and gorgeous accent?"

Elsa laughed, "That's Viscount gorgeous accent, and yes, I am."

"Good! But, if he starts up anything, like trying to usurp the throne or anything, you just let me know and I'll give him what for, just like I did for Hans—" she said, winding up her right arm for a punch.

Elsa reached over and took Anna's arm in her hands to settle her down. Still holding, she met her sister's eyes, and whispered, "Thank you."

"Uh, sure," replied Anna. "What for?"

"For being you. For getting me to come out, to be with people, like this. It's still hard for me. But with as long as we're together, I think I can do it."

"I'll always be right here for you. Just let me in."