Chapter Two

2020: Dawn of a New Era

Author's Commentary: Hi everyone! We're going to be introduced to a few new characters, who will play a pivotal role in this story, as well as Book 5 of my series, which will take place during the war with the Empire. So though it may take a bit of warming up to, I hope you'll enjoy reading about these new characters in this new, modern world before they eventually unravel the mystery of the Snow Queen. Let's go!

TALYA

(2020)

"Your Majesty,"

Talya looked up jerkily at the archbishop before her. The elderly man in long robes glanced down at her hands. "The gloves?"

Right. Talya chuckled nervously, and began to tug off her white gloves. What was I thinking? Of course I'd have to take them off. It was all part of the coronation ceremony after all. She hated the fact that the church still stuck to this rigid tradition. If she could have her way, she would have wanted a modern party thrown in the town square for all to take part in the celebration. After all, this wasn't the nineteenth century. This was 2020.

Reluctantly, Talya stripped off the glove from her right hand. Immediately, she felt it grow cold, and panic rose. Don't panic, don't panic, she chanted in her mind like a mantra, as had been taught to her by her parents from an early age. Hide, ignore, don't let it show.

To her relief, she felt the cold particles around her right hand subside, and she tried her best to focus on something other than the coronation. Anything else. Lounging in bed with a tub of nachos, brown sugar milk tea, Netflix…

She peeled off her other glove and scrunched both into a ball, stuffing it into a pocket of her coronation dress. She hated these clothes too. Again, if she could have her way, she would've showed up in casual clothes. Skinny jeans, a nice, comfortable oversized sweater and white sneakers…Alas, it was not her call, even if she was about to be crowned as the new Queen of Arendelle.

The archbishop cleared his throat, and held out an orb and sceptre. Talya took them in both hands, careful not to let her anxiety show. She hated these public appearances, as she always feared having her secret exposed to the world. She'd managed to hide her sorcerous abilities for twenty one years, and she had no intention of letting her secret slip now, especially not when the entire kingdom and world was watching her on live television.

"Your Majesty," the archbishop whispered urgently.

Talya blinked. "What?"

"You're supposed to face the people and the cameras. Please turn around."

"Oh." Face flushed, Talya turned around in embarrassment to face the witnesses gathered in the church. Behind, multiple cameras were aimed at her, broadcasting this momentous occasion to the entire world.

The archbishop recited an age-old prayer, which Talya didn't catch, what with her trying to suppress her abilities from manifesting due to her nervousness. To her dismay, she could feel her hands growing cold.

"Queen Talya of Arendelle!" The archbishop finished.

"Queen Talya of Arendelle!" The crowd echoed, and the room erupted into applause.

Relieved, Talya quickly chucked the orb and sceptre back at the archbishop, who caught them before they fell. She scrambled to put on her white gloves in the most dignified manner she could manage, smiling and nodding in gratitude as her people cheered for their new queen. The moment the gloves concealed her hands, she could feel the sorcery ebb, as though it were a disappointed beast crawling back into its cave, having been denied its meal. Inwardly, she exhaled deeply, thankful that her secret had not been rudely revealed to the world on the biggest day of her life.

Stepping down from the raised platform, Talya was immediately flanked by the Valquerson Rifles, her royal guard which comprised of the elite soldiers in the Arendellian Field Army. As she walked down the aisle of the church towards the exit, escorted by the Rifles, she smiled graciously and waved to her clapping subjects who bowed as she passed them by. In her mind, the wheels were already turning, knowing that her life would never be the same again. This was the dawn of a new era, one which would prove more tricky now that she would have to spend most of her time in the spotlight. Talya had always wanted to be amongst people, but with her…abnormalities, she had mostly been kept away by her parents for most of her life for fear of her powers being exposed to the world. God rest their conservative souls.

Finally, she made it out of the church, earning herself a little privacy away from the throngs of Arendellians who had come out in the droves to see her. Closing her eyes, she sighed and ran a forearm across her forehead, wiping away the perspiration. Someone cleared his throat and waved a handkerchief at her. Absentmindedly, she waved it away and looked up to see her personal secretary standing in front of her, his posture upright and his face blank.

"Congratulations, Your High-Your Majesty." He said, pocketing his handkerchief.

"Thanks, Orm." She said gratefully. Orm was a graduate from the University of Arendelle specialising in administration. Talya had requested to have someone young and unsullied by stiff and rigid traditions of past royalty. She meant no offence to her parents' old secretaries and assistants, but Talya felt that she needed to be a queen in her own right.

"Any news on Valloken?" Talya asked.

"None, Ma'am." The secretary cleared his throat again, looking apologetic. "His Highness was scheduled to arrive two days before your coronation. I made sure he got the memo. The messengers assured me that they'd made contact. I should probably check again."

Annoyed, she tapped the side of her cheek. "Somehow, I think he knows." Damn it, Val. Talya sighed. I should've seen this coming. She shook her head. "What about his escorts? If we can track their signals, we'll know where he is."

"Unfortunately, that won't be an option available to us."

"And why not?"

"Because he jammed their signals."

Damn you, Val. Talya gritted her teeth and muttered under her breath. "Going through all this trouble just to spite me."

"Pardon, Ma'am?"

"Nothing." Talya said.

Orm looked uncomfortable. "I will continue to make enquiries about his whereabouts. The Royal Intelligence department within the Ministry of Information will be able to come up with something."

"Yes, yes." Talya said absentmindedly. Much good that would do, now that the coronation was already over. "Thank you, Orm."

Orm bowed deeply and made a brisk exit. She watched him leave, wondering how the hell her poor secretary was going to find her brother. In a way, Talya pitied Orm, knowing the impossible task ahead of him. If Val didn't want to be found, he wouldn't be. She knew she should've objected when her parents decided to send Val to study abroad. She'd always known that driving a wedge between them was never the answer, but of course, her parents had never listened. And now, it was inevitable that Val would harbour such animosity towards her for being the reason for his "exile".

But unfortunately, no matter how much Talya wanted to explain to him why her parents had sent him away, she knew she couldn't. How could she explain to Val that she was secretly a sorceress with cryogenic abilities and that her parents had feared for his safety, deciding that the best place for him would be the farthest place they could get him away from his own sister? She couldn't just waltz up to him and say "Hey, I'm sorry that Mom and Dad were worried about me hurting you, my baby brother, and that I'm secretly a monster."

As much as she wanted to tell him the truth, she knew he wouldn't believe her. The damage had already been done, and all she could do was to do her best to make up for it. She'd tried to start by inviting him back for her coronation. And look how that turned out. Talya shook her head in frustration, feeling the cold particles swirl around her hands underneath the gloves. How am I supposed to repair our relationship now, what with the mess our parents left us?

The captain of the Valquerson Rifles cleared his throat politely. "Excuse me, Your Majesty."

Snatched from her introspection, Talya looked up at him. "Yes, Liam?"

"I'm sorry to intrude, Ma'am, but we need to escort you back to the palace. The reception is about to begin."

Talya hadn't realised that she'd just been standing in the hallway of the church's foyer for what must have been a good five to ten minutes, and that her royal escort had been waiting for her all this time. She ran a hand through her hair apologetically. "Sorry."

Liam gave her a polite smile, and turned to bark an order at the rest of the escorts as she began to walk towards the exit. A car waited for them outside, a beautiful black Bentley guarded by even more Rifles. Taking a soldier's hand, she climbed into the car and settled down comfortably. Outside her window, Arendellians lined the streets, waving and cheering as their new queen was driven past.

Talya looked out of the window, taking in the sight. Not only were the streets filled with people, she could see citizens watching the procession from their high rise flats and office buildings. Many of them had cameras, some even looking through telescopes from their skyscrapers. She wondered how coronations of times past had been, when there were no high rise buildings, posh offices or even modern technology. What was it like in Queen Anna's time?

The Bentley purred through the streets, moving quickly back towards the palace. The royal residence had been renovated over the years, and now it resembled an enormous office building, albeit with traditional Norwegian architecture and the old trappings of royalty. It loomed over Talya as they approached, and she was filled with a mixed sense of awe and dread. She'd never really been outside the palace much in her life, but seeing her own home like this from the outside always inspired some level of fear and intimidation. The responsibilities that she would have to face now as queen were finally catching up to her.

###

The rest of the day was long and exhausting. A grand party and reception had followed the coronation ceremony, lasting all the way till late in the night. Hundreds of people had been there. Nobles, businessmen, ministers, governors, foreign ambassadors, both local and foreign media representatives, and a whole lot of other people whom Talya had already forgotten. She had spent the afternoon and evening thanking people for showing up, being introduced to one person after another, and by the end of the day, she'd expressed her gratitude at their presence so many times that it'd become nothing more than an empty greeting.

Almost every neighbouring country, kingdom and democratic state had sent a representative of some sort. All except the Southern Isles, of course. Talya couldn't remember a time in history when Arendelle and the Southern Isles had been allies. Perhaps before the time when a certain cunning Prince had attempted to usurp the throne. However, a cold war of sorts had lasted between both kingdoms for as long as Talya could remember. The Southern Isles kingdom had mostly faded away into obscurity over the decades, and were no longer the naval threat they once were. But still, Talya hoped that as one of her first accomplishments as queen, she could repair the rift between her kingdom and the Southern Isles.

By the time Talya managed to get away from it all, it was already close to midnight. Her body felt stiff and tired, and her feet were aching from so many hours in those dreaded high heels. After dismissing the Rifles, she staggered into her private chambers, a huge but old room that her ancestors had once resided in, and shut the door behind her. Kicking off those cursed heels, she sank into bed, nursing her blistered feet.

Picking up her phone which rested by her bedside, she expected to be greeted by a multitude of notifications. Sure enough, they flooded her screen. But she was looking for just one in particular, flicking and closing the rest of the messages. Alas, there was none from her brother.

Disappointed, she unlocked her phone and opened her messenger, scrolling down to find Val's contact. Opening it, she was greeted by a slew of her own messages, but none in return from Val. Sighing in frustration, she chucked her phone onto her bed. So much for being the welcoming older sister.

For a brief moment, Talya felt angry towards her parents. Good intentions and all, they had no idea that they were in fact driving Talya and Val even further apart from each other. And now that their parents were no longer around, how was she supposed to repair the rift between them?

Talya flopped onto her belly, resting her chin on her palms as she laid in the darkness. She had hoped that with Val by her side, he would have inspired a little bit of confidence in her, and together they would have met and conversed with the nobles, businessmen and foreign dignitaries from the allied countries and kingdoms. But of course, it was not to be. Hell, Val wasn't even present for my coronation.

The more she thought about it, the more it felt like it was an intentional move on Val's part. He had always been the intelligent one in the family, and no doubt he had planned for things to go this way. All in a bid to spite her.

"What am I going to do?" Talya murmured to herself, getting to her feet. She walked across her bedroom to where she had left a pitcher of ice water, which had all melted away in the hot summer weather. Pouring herself a glass of water, she downed it thirstily, and helped herself to another to quench her thirst. Deciding to take her mind off her predicament with Val, she sipped the second one slowly, pacing across her room to admire the paintings in her bedroom for the millionth time.

Growing up and being isolated from her brother and other people by her parents, Talya had always loved to spend the days looking at the paintings of her predecessors, recounting their exploits through history. All the kings and queens who had come before her, her very own flesh and blood from times past, staring back at her in her bedroom. Amongst them all, there was only one who she truly felt connected to and admired with a passion. Talya stopped in front of the largest and most valuable painting of them all, and gazed up at it to take in its full glory and majesty. Queen Anna of Arendelle.

Queen Anna was arguably the most famous of them all. Certainly the bravest and most intriguing by far. Talya couldn't help but look up to her. She had spent countless hours in the royal library - which was incidentally also named after Queen Anna. Anna's library held shelf upon shelf of academic material, maps, history books, literature, fairytales, folklore, and many other diverse seas of knowledge. But the one book which Talya had read over and over again was the biography of Queen Anna, which told all the stories of her adventures and exploits throughout her years as the reigning monarch.

Talya had always been captivated by the stories of how Queen Anna had personally had a hand in toppling the Exonian Empire's regime, and had led the Coalition of the North in the long war against the Empire. Every child in Arendelle knew of the great Queen Anna, who was said to have been the first monarch in centuries to defend her kingdom from invasion. There was even a kingdom-wide holiday on Anna's birthday to commemorate her exploits. The generations adored their legendary queen, and as a child, Talya knew that she would one day be queen, and had always looked up to Queen Anna as her inspiration. Even now, Talya could only hope to live up to her greatness.

But even with all the feats of Queen Anna detailed in the history books, there was a whole other side of history that wasn't recorded. There were books in a corner of the library which told a different and stranger story. The story of Queen Anna's own sister, the fabled Snow Queen. The books were mostly fairytale stories meant for children, detailing adventures of fantasy when Queen Anna had been in her prime, fighting side by side with Elsa, who was a sorceress and the leader of a mythical group of heroes called the League of Sorcerers.

Every child knew of these fairytale stories, of how Queen Anna had allied herself with magical entities and sorcerers, and together with her sister Elsa, had fought against the Empire in war. Countless more fantasy books had been written about the Snow Queen, of how she had abdicated the throne and became an immortal, leading the League of Sorcerers from the shadows. Legend and old folklore said that she was still alive today, hidden away from the rest of the world. Even the adults knew the stories, but of course, to them, they were only just fantasies and elaborate fiction. No one believed in sorcery anymore. No one except for Talya.

Talya knew that there was some truth to it all, especially since she herself had these strange abilities. Cryokinesis, which was the exact same sorcery that this mythical Snow Queen had. Though it was all fantasy and make believe to everyone else, Talya knew that there was something about it that was true. How could it not be? Sorcery dwelt within her, and she knew that somewhere out there, this Snow Queen was probably real.

Unfortunately, if there was really a Snow Queen, the history books were of no help at all. Academics and historians had pinpointed the "reality" of the situation: that Queen Anna's sister Elsa had indeed existed, but she had died in a forest when both siblings were still young women, and that Queen Anna had no choice but to ascend to the throne in place of her deceased older sister. History cemented that the legend of the Snow Queen was nothing but children's stories.

But Talya, in her plentiful imagination, had a theory that the historians had purposely chosen to ignore it all, since Queen Anna had been the one to recount her history in her old age. The historians had probably chalked up the more wild and magical events to an unstable old lady's mind, and changed history to be more appropriate and believable. Meanwhile, a small sect of historians who believed Queen Anna and recorded her words faithfully were put out of job for their far-fetched writings. Eventually, the stories about Elsa and the sorcerers became fairytale stories that were passed down through generations, and today, in the twenty-first century, the majority of historians' altered history had become the truth.

Sighing, Talya continued to gaze at the painting of Queen Anna. It detailed the queen in her prime, red headed and with beautiful features, leaping across a gap between two mountains with a sword in her hand and her face hardened in determination. She didn't know if it was remotely accurate, but Talya liked to believe so.

A steady set of knocks jolted Talya from her thoughts. She frowned, glancing at the digital clock on her wall. It was already close to one in the morning. What could be so important?

Still in her coronation dress, Talya answered the door. Orm stood outside, looking exhausted with heavy eyelids. Nonetheless, he drew himself up when she appeared.

"Good evening, Your Majesty. Sorry to intrude at such an inappropriate hour, but I have a feeling you'd want to be alerted immediately."

"What is it?" Talya said, neglecting to hide her annoyance.

"Prince Valloken has made contact. He will arrive in Arendelle by sundown tomorrow."