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A cacophony of noises echoed around the workshop, making it difficult for Anna to think clearly. Snapping, crackling fires. Clinking, clanking metal striking against metal. The satisfying sizzle of hot steel in water.

'The hell is this?' General Hardier wore a look of mild disgust, 'We told you to clear the area.'

'S-sorry, sir.' The blacksmith, Bo, fumbled to place his tools down and bowed deeply at Anna and Hans, 'you're a little early.'

'I believe we're right on time,' Hans glanced at his pocket watch, snapped it shut, and clapped his hands, then bellowed throughout the workshop, 'Alright, everybody out, now! Chop chop! Off you go!'

The workshop rapidly emptied. All the blacksmiths, apprentices, merchants and others milling about for whatever reason had pretended to be focused on their work. But realistically, no one had ignored the party of five. After all, it wasn't every day they were graced with the presence of not only General Hardier but Admiral Brage, A foreign Prince soon to be Arendellian Duke, the beloved Princess Anna herself, and a painfully docile Elsa, dressed as bland as any unassuming handmaid.

Nobody had expected Elsa to drink the compliance potion, in its entirety, without hesitation. Like a cup of juice on a hot, dry day. What a way to make an impression at one's first council meeting! She would only have to do it once - such a symbolic gesture of submission was more than enough to put the council's minds at ease. She had apparently tired of arguing her sincere, genuine willingness to cooperate. Her lack of ill will. She didn't wish to go into great detail regarding her intentions. These brutes wouldn't have understood the poetic melancholy of Elsa's reasoning, anyway, nor her inexplicable devotion to Anna - even Anna didn't quite understand that. And something like inexplicable devotion could easily be used against the both of them in ways Anna would rather not even consider. Better Elsa remained mysterious to them. Still, it was difficult to see her in this helplessly compliant state, eyes glazed over without even a shred of her own will remaining. Her only request was that Anna stay by her side until the effects of the potion subsided.

'Your Highness, I'm terribly sorry,' Bo said, 'but I'm going to need to request that you kindly move out of the way.'

Slowly, stubbornly, Anna removed her hands from Elsa's shoulders and stepped aside. The two of them had discussed at length how little say Anna had in any of this. That when Brage and Hardier agreed on something war related, there was little even even the gods themselves could do to stop them. Elsa stood by her choice to stay, knowing very well the nature of politics and power and military men and the growing conflict in the Baltic Sea. But despite this Anna felt like she was letting her down. Failing Elsa in some way. Failing to inspire her confidence. A sense of safety. Trust. After all, the amulet was still stuck fast, wasn't it?

The men wasted no time in directing Elsa to the bench, rolling up her sleeve unceremoniously, and retrieving a large collection of pliers, bolt-cutters and other intimidating metal tools. Nobody spoke of the faded brown bruises on her arm, still lingering from Hans' late-night visit last week.

Nobody expected simple bolt-cutters to work, but they had to at least be able to say they'd tried the simplest option first. Nobody, however, expected the bolt-cutters to literally fall apart under the straining weight of Bo's muscles against the unassuming dull metal cuff. Except perhaps Elsa. The briefest flash of amusement managed to surface on her face beneath the alchemically induced blankness.

Nervousness hid in the men's shared chuckle, and they talked war to soothe themselves. Three more ports fallen. Battles erupting in the south. Hundreds dead. Troops advancing from the east. The first imports delayed - coffee and silk. Arendelle trade cogs vanished without a trace. Anna blocked it all out. She had enough to worry about. Like Hans moving into her space, placing his hand on her shoulder, constantly searching for her eyes with his own.

Going out of his way to remind her of what she was desperately trying to forget.

Anna wondered what emotions, if any, swirled beneath Elsa's bored expression as the men adjusted her arm to and fro, measured the cuff, squeezed it, tapped it, squinted at it and confidently theorised as to its likely origins - none recognising the Fae stone, of course.

Eventually they agreed on the next tool - another set of heavier, sturdier, bolt-cutters. They were comically large. A two-man job. Longer than a grown man's arm, and reminded Anna of the novelty scissors she used to cut novelty ribbons at grand openings of civic buildings. 'These ones are tungsten, hardest metal known to man. Reinforced with a diamond coating. We use them to break apart old reinforcements, gates and the like. But they've also snapped more than a few cursed rings in their time!'

Once the cuff was securely gripped in the formidable claws of the contraption, Bo held it steady with the bottom of the handle resting flat against the table. Brage and Hardier both leaned onto the top handle, pressing down with all their weight, faces turning red with exertion. Absolutely and completely in vain. The amulet had not even a scratch.

'Alright, don't worry yet,' Bo's worried voice betrayed him, 'It might be a bit of an awkward fit, but there's nothing the crusher can't crush!'

'Whoa, uh, the crusher?' Anna said, 'That sounds a teeny bit kind of, um...dangerous.'

'Absolutely no need for concern, Your Highness,' Bo moved over to the corner of the workshop with Elsa trailing behind, toward a very intimidating contraption, full of metal cogs and bars and joints, eight feet high off the ground and culminating in one fat metal cylinder below and one fat metal cylinder above. 'It's very advanced technology. Extremely precise. Won't hurt your little friend at all, I promise. Allow me to demonstrate.'

He placed a wrench on the lower cylinder and moved over to the other corner of the room where he turned a loose crank with one hand. The crank triggered a chain reaction - one cog turned, connected to a larger one, then to a larger one, and a larger one still, each rotating in a long train of slow, creaky movement until the top cylinder slowly descended onto the wrench. Bo used only the smallest exertion, letting the weight of the machine do the bulk of the work. Anna stared, equal parts impressed and suspicious as the top cylinder moved steadily down onto the bottom one and the wrench seemingly disappeared between them. When he finally wound the crank backward and retracted the top cylinder, all that remained was a flat, silver pancake, no longer resembling a wrench in the slightest.

What a time to be alive.

The monstrous machine was...unsettling, but the best Anna could do was hold Elsa's arm in place, ensuring nothing but the edge of the metal cuff was in the path of the crusher, and that neither her own fingers nor Elsa's fragile flesh were in harm's way.

Bo turned the crank again, quietly confident, and the metal monster groaned as it brought down its massive force and weight onto the indestructible cuff. Even Elsa held her breath and raised her eyebrows, apparently not entirely sceptical this time.

As the machine attempted to squash the cuff, an awful screeching noise rang through the workshop and the crank stopped still. The metal creaked in short, ugly grunts, reflecting the frustration in the room.

Bo swore and kicked over a bucket, then composed himself, 'My Lords, I apologise. We do seem to be running out of-'

'I think I've seen quite enough of this newfangled bullshit,' Hardier shoved his hand into a protective mit and grasped a bucket of molten iron that had been simmering quietly in the forge, 'there's nothing a bit of good old fashioned heat can't fix.'

'No, you can't!' Anna cried, 'It'll burn her! You promised you wouldn't. Papa said you mustn't!'

'We agreed not to maim or mutilate her.' Hardier poured the glowing hot liquid into a long, thin inlay, as if about to make a sword, 'this will just be a little burn. No worse than a standard smithing injury.'

'A small price to pay for freedom.' Brage had already agreed, 'I'm sure Elsa would agree. Wouldn't you, dear?'

Constrained by the potion, Elsa managed only a weak, 'okay.'

But a weak "okay" under the influence of a strong compliance potion wasn't convincing enough for Anna. 'Stop! I can't allow this!' She tried to step in between the men but found herself blocked expertly by Hans. Brage guided Elsa onto the seat in front of the inlay where the glow of molten iron cast a warm light onto her blank features. He held her shoulders firmly in place, as if he expected her to faint. Hardier held her arm steady, carefully aligning the cuff with the sizzling strip of yellow heat.

'Stop!'

Anna struggled to reach the unacceptable scene playing out in front of her but Hans held her back, gripping her shoulders harder than necessary.

'I'm afraid this has been sanctioned, dear princess. So I advise that you calm down or we'll have to remove you.' And with that, Hardier lowered the edge of the metal - and by extension the underside of Elsa's upper arm - into the scorching inlay.

Elsa's eyes rested on Hans' fingers clinched into Anna's shoulders, before they rolled back into her skull and she went limp.

Anna's heart hammered against her chest. Her pulse roared in her ears. She wanted to scream. She also kind of wanted to vomit. From the cruelty and the shock and the sickening scent of burning flesh. But she barely had time to react at all, the men moved so quickly. They held Elsa's arm there for about twenty seconds then twisted the cuff around to reveal a good chunk of it glowing red from the heat. Brage supported her unconscious weight from behind and held her arm straight out while Hardier quickly hooked the diamond coated tungsten bolt-cutters onto the cuff and prepared to apply all his weight to the handle. Bo added his weight to the handles, their faces turning red as the glowing coals, perspiring as they exerted all the strength they had in this limited time before the cuff cooled to grey.

All for nothing. The cuff didn't show so much as a dent.

'Enough! That's enough!' Nobody argued. It was as much failure as anyone could tolerate for one day, apparently. In wordless agreement, Anna was released and she rushed to the bench, laying Elsa down, taking her head into her lap. She was still floppy, deadweight, but her glazed eyes fluttered open. Two small patches of frost covered the ground where her feet had been.

'Leave us!'

Anna sat for some time in the dingy, soot covered workshop waiting for her heart to quiet and Elsa to wake up properly. She felt like a complete and utter failure. Complicit in this awful spectacle. No wonder the amulet wouldn't come off. How would Elsa ever trust her when she'd let this happen?

'Di...cuma...arm..' Elsa attempted to speak.

'Shh. It's over now. I'm sorry.' Anna ran her hands through Elsa's hair and wiped the sweat from her brow. Guilt flowed through her chest, hot as molten metal, twisting her stomach. She tried to reassure herself as much as Elsa. 'Just relax. It's over now.'

Elsa blinked up at her with some unreadable emotion trapped beneath the compliant blankness, 'Did they cut off my arm?'

'What?' That hadn't even occurred to Anna but now that it was said out loud, fear gripped her heart. There was no way the possibility hadn't crossed Hardier's mind. 'No! Of course not. I'd never let them do that!'

She pulled Elsa up into a sitting position and wrapped her arms around her waist from behind. It was easier like this. She didn't have to look into those helpless blank eyes. She nestled her head into the crook of Elsa's neck, feeling a hot, sweaty cheek against her own. Their fingers interlaced and their breathing slowed to a synchronised, steady rhythm.

Elsa's voice was barely audible above the crackling fire but her words made Anna want to vomit, again. 'They will.'

I watched the wedding from a guard tower with Kristoff. Well, not the actual wedding. We watched the crowds crammed into the courtyard and spilling out into the township, clamouring over each other like pathetic little ants. Crisply uniformed guards with straight backs and blank faces held them back from the chapel where the wedding was held. I doubt either of us would have had the emotional fortitude to watch the actual ceremony, even in the impossible event that nobodies like us were invited. She was the people's beloved princess, Arendelle's only heir, but she was our Anna.

Kristoff was silent, but I could see his anguish in the whiteness of his knuckles, gripping the stone turret like the reins of a spooked horse. In the tight muscles twitching over his big, square jaw. In the heavy way he breathed like he was exerting himself greatly, standing still and allowing this travesty to happen.

'What part do you think they're up to, now?' He asked me. 'Do you think they're saying their vows?'

I don't know why he expected me to know. I responded with sarcasm perhaps undeserved.

'Kristoff...this may surprise you, given my obvious wealth and power and high societal status, but I haven't been invited to all that many royal weddings in my life. So unfortunately, I couldn't tell you.'

It was a beautiful day for a wedding. Not a cloud in the sky. The last remnants of autumn warmth still wafted on the sweet breeze. I wished more than ever in that moment to be freed from the amulet, to break the sky's heavenly blues into heavy, black clouds. To bring down bitter cold winds that would whip at people's flushed red cheeks and spread a rapid, cutting frost over the town like a curse, shattering windows, extinguishing hearths, sucking the life from flowers in window boxes. Alas, the sun shone on.

'So, how's it going with that cuff thing? Has Anna tried-'

'Yes, she's tried.' I interrupted him. The topic upset me. I hated how weak I was. How broken I must have been to keep myself trapped in that device when the key was apparently within my reach the whole time. How stupid I was to have allowed myself to be tricked in the first place. I felt like a dumb animal with its leg stuck in a bear trap.

The burn from the blacksmith still seared with heat, slathered in salve and wrapped in bandages under my sleeve. In some funny way, I found the pain soothing. Like a kind of penance for the crime of being so damaged, so stubborn, so useless as to resist Anna's gentle touch. To throw her patience in her kind freckled face.

'She tries every morning and every night, and I'm just…' there was no need to share my lifetime of self-loathing with this man who I'd met only twice. 'I feel like I'm letting her down.'

'Aw, nah.' Kristoff said. 'Trust is complicated. You can't force it. Anna understands these things. She's special like that.'

That much we agreed on. 'She is.'

'Do you ever dream of just…just stealing her away?'

The resignation in his voice was unmistakable. He loved her. What exact flavour of love, well, that was unclear. But in his own true, honest way, he loved her.

There was no point rubbing salt in that wound. I simply smiled at him, 'Kidnapping a princess, my friend, even if she is agreeable to such a thing, would be treason in the first degree. But yes. Yes, I do dream of it.'

He elbowed me playfully, 'Oh, and what you two were doing in the bushes last Saturday wasn't treason?'

I smiled at the memory of Anna's soft lips, her curious hands, her body pressing down upon mine. I had hoped we might continue exploring what we started in some sense, back at the castle. But so far she had been far too preoccupied with the impending wedding and the reminders of it shoved in her face, every moment of every day. Her anxiety was a stark reminder of her innocence. She'd been safely locked away in her tower like a precious princess should be. Despite her obvious desires, those thresholds of adulthood were uncrossed, momentous in her mind.

I hadn't thought I'd find myself a lover of women. In fact, I'd never particularly thought of myself as a lover of anyone. Not that kind of love, anyway. Such things just aren't usually on the cards for people like me. But surprisingly it felt very right.

'Rubbish. I seek only to serve my princess, with the loyalty and devotion of any upstanding citizen.' Then, in a moment of foolishness, with my head still foggy from the compliance potion even days later, I said something I shouldn't have said. 'The way he treats her is treason.'

I heard Kristoff's breath hitch in his throat and knew I'd messed up. He turned to me, gripping my shoulder, turning me toward him, demanding my absolute attention. 'How bad is it?'

I'd never been a good liar so I stumbled around a vague non-answer, 'That's a difficult thing to quantify. He's...a deeply unpleasant man.'

'Is she scared of him?'

I didn't know what to tell him. Sometimes it's easier not to know things. Awful things. Things we're powerless to change. But sometimes despite that, we need to know.

'Elsa, tell me the truth. Is she scared of him?'

Like I said, I've never been a good liar. 'Sometimes.'

'I'm in the reindeer stable. At dusk. Every day.'

'What?' I was still foggy headed and didn't understand, at first, exactly what he was telling me.

'If you ever wanna, you know...commit treason in the first degree together.'

I nodded. He nodded back. Nothing more needed to be said. The chapel doors opened and cheers erupted for the waving newlyweds. The guards stood at attention, maintaining order, keeping the rabid crowds at bay. The carriage wheels glinted golden in the sun. It was done.