A/N - My bad
Unbeta-ed
"Emperor Henry, I believe that you and my sister should get married."
Silence.
Both leaders could not believe their ears.
"U-uh, come again." Gone was the regal emperor. His voice hitched, reminiscent of his adolescent years.
"ANNA!" The chair scratched against the marble as Elsa stood suddenly.
The spymaster-cum-matchmaker eyed both leaders. "You heard me. You know it makes sense. This will only serve to strengthen the alliance in the eyes of the Hegemony."
Hiccup's thoughts whirled in dizzying directions. Marriage to the Queen.
Elsa feels heat spread from her cheeks. Marrying the emperor.
Both could not deny that the thought had crossed their mind. Their brief meeting as Ilsa and Hadrian had tickled their imagination. Both found each other attractive.
Anna pushes on. "Not only will it be a strong symbol of unity, it'll also be practical for the alliance! The common folk will no doubt find it hopelessly romantic. The stoic emperor and the ice queen! Joined through circumstance, spending their time with each other. Each melting the frigid walls of their hearts! Oh I can see it now!"
The head of Arendellian intelligence, though appearing often shrewd and ruthless, was a hopeless romantic at heart. She waxes poetic about their supposed future relationship.
"Don't forget, marriage, especially among royals, is seen not just as a binding of two people but as the binding of nations. Oh! The valiant emperor romancing the ice queen. It's a plot of a best-selling romance novel if I ever heard one."
Hiccup looks incredulously at Anna. The emperor's eyes were wide as saucers. His face was crimson. He slowly looks at Astrid.
"He-"
As he was about to plead for assistance, Hiccup notices Astrid smirking.
Astrid meets his eyes and the smirk grows into a full-blown smile.
"Excellent idea Princess! However, we need to discuss this further with the emperor." She looks at the flustered Queen. "It seems that you have to talk this through with your liege as well.
"We should take a break for now. Let's table this discussion after His Excellency and Her Majesty have both… calmed down." She fights a chuckle down. Astrid grasps Hiccup's shoulder. "Let's go, Your Excellency."
Hiccup could only nod dumbly and follow his Grand Marshall out of the meeting room.
"Let's go Elsa!" A knowing smile blooms on Anna's face as she leads her sister out of the room.
The Queen of Arendelle is seated at a round table. Head in her hands, ears red with embarrassment. Now that she was jolted out of her stupor, her thoughts were racing. She was sure the incident in the meeting room would endanger their negotiations. The emperor seems to be a serious man who doesn't suffer fools.
This whole fiasco was starting to look like a circus!
"Oooh why did Anna have to say that?!"
As if on queue, the queen's sister enters the dining room. A pleased smile is on her face and a sheaf of papers neatly arranged tucked in her arms. She takes a seat beside Elsa, placing the bundle beside her. All the while, Elsa gives her spymaster the most venomous look she could muster, though admittedly, she couldn't muster much. She loved her sister so.
The Queen sits up in her chair and waits.
To her annoyance, the shrewd spymaster seems unfazed. Anna takes the utensils in front of her and begins to eat the Smorgasbord in front of her. To the Queen's further chagrin, Anna seems to enjoy the open-faced sandwich to the fullest, evident from the sounds of pleasure coming from her sister.
A beat.
Silence. Only the clink of Anna's knife and fork could be heard.
Elsa grits her teeth, frustration getting the better of her.
"Wh-"
"This is excellent!" Anna pushes through Elsa's outburst. The Queen's mouth is left open mid-outburst. Her sister continues as she wipes her mouth with the beige table napkin beside her plate. "You may be wondering why I suggested what I did during the meeting."
The spymaster flashes a cheeky grin.
"Yes, among other things." Elsa hisses.
Fully expecting the ire and vitriol, Anna takes half of the papers beside her and hands it to Elsa.
Documented in the sheets of paper were an accounting of Lofoten's armies, fortifications, troop movements and compositions. The Queen's brow furrows in concern. They were a magnitude higher than what her armies were preparing for. Near the end of the report, vague descriptions of something called "Project Toothless" were noted. Speculations on what it was were listed ranging from magical research on par with her mastery of frost, to new weaponry capable of devastating armies, to something harmless like new farming technologies or a new system for trade.
Knowing Anna's capabilities and how wide and entrenched the Kingdom's intelligence network is, it was worrying that they could not confirm what Project Toothless even was.
Next was a report on the military assets and troop movements of the southern Hegemony. By the lookS of things, the invasion of the Rus Czardom was at least half a year away. Precious little time to prepare.
The Queen looks to her sister. The playful nature was gone, replaced by a grave expression. This was the spymaster at work.
"My Queen, as the intelligence reports suggest, the full-scale invasion of the Rus territories are at least 6 months away. Based on our knowledge of Russian tactics, and military strength, we project the war to last 6 more months to a year at most. We do not have the luxury of time to shore up our defenses and effectively train the manpower we need."
Elsa nods slightly, Anna's previous statements at the meeting table slowly made sense to the Queen. A more binding treaty with Lofoten, something much more than a military alliance, seemed necessary. The numbers that the Hegemony would be able to field at the time that they decide to invade the Scandinavian archipelago would be immense. Nothing short of a full commitment of forces between Arendelle and Lofoten would allow them a hope to match up against such military might. To form this alliance, to muster all the resources both sides have for the other, a more permanent union needs to be made.
The Queen sighs, frost forming as she breathes out. A rare occurence of her emotion releasing the tight control she had over her arcane abilities.
A shuffling of papers, and her sister hands her the rest of the documents. These pertain to some of Anna's feathers - her fjäderdräkt - as they broached the subject of Elsa's marriage. The report shows that a majority of Arendellians were actually quite positive of their Queen getting married. Also, they weren't opposed to the Emperor or Lofoten. Though Emperor Henry had taken his throne through bloodshed and violence, his reputation for temperance and fairness preceded him.
'Nothing less than an iron fist would have sufficed to quell the viking warlords' as Elsa herself agreed to Henry's rule. His leadership had brought nothing but peace and prosperous trade between the fledgeling empire and the adjacent kingdom.
She stands, leaving her lunch forgotten. Elsa reviews the documents once more.
"What does Emperor Henry think about marriage?"
Anna was a picture of calm stoicism. She walks to her sister and stands beside her, looking at the mountain range. "He is not against it."
At another room.
"What the hell are you thinking even entertaining such a thought!" Hiccup was uncharacteristically pacing as he let out an exasperated shout.
"I refuse to talk to you when you're acting like a boor. I know you're the emperor but I could still knock you into yesterday if you don't stop this." Astrid said softly.
A threat said calmly is a threat to be taken seriously. Another one of his mother's lessons, one that he had learned to heed, especially when it came to his most trusted advisor.
With a deep breath, Hiccup endeavored to calm himself.
"Very well." The Emperor took his seat and regarded Astrid. He steepled his fingers and rests his arms on the table.
"Explain."
Astrid goes to a long cylinder leaning against the wall of the suite. She unscrews the top and takes out a rolled sheet of stiff paper. She then proceeds to lay it on the round table and places paperweights on the corners to flatten the sheet.
It was a map of Lofoten and Arendelle along with the surrounding territories. Movements from the Southern Hegemony hint at an attack on the Rus is soon to come. Armies are mustering along the border. If no significant action is taken, the tides of war will soon be set upon the Peninsula. This cannot happen. Hiccup will not let it happen.
Astrid places her hands on the table.
"I believe you already know what is at stake here?" The Grand Marshal's stare catches the Emperor's eye.
Hiccup once again looks at the map. Swift action must be taken, they cannot wait for the Hegemony to strike at their lands. He furrows his brows as he contemplates the faith of his empire.
"I know you understand Hiccup. We cannot let them strike freely at the Czardom. Stopping them on the continent will be key."
The Emperor sighs. "Yes."
"But I want to speak to her first."
"As you wish." Astrid lifts her fist to her heart in salute. She leaves Hiccup to his thoughts.
The only thing that pervaded the thoughts of the emperor were eyes the color of glittering permafrost set in a face so aristocratically beautiful as the queen of Arendelle perused his prosthetic limb.