AN: Not dead, but not for a lack of trying. Thank you for everyone who has reviewed and left semi-kind words. I hope you enjoy the new chapter, and that your weeks are going well and everyone is staying healthy and safe. Don't forget to tip your covid infected muse on the way out.


Markkus sat back in his chair, resting his chin against his palm. He scrutinized the letter sitting on the desktop in front of him. A letter not meant for him, though the information it contained held no less significance. The moment he found out his prisoner was a queen he knew to expect complications from that alone, complications the letter has now confirmed.

Arendelle held the Sirma encampment, which meant they were far closer to the fortress than he had expected. The tribes stopped fighting just over a week ago, without word from their Queen, it would only be a matter of time before her army takes matters into their own hands. They came all this way for her; it was doubtful they'd give up without a fight. He was confident that the fog surrounding the island would keep them hidden, but he wasn't willing to risk his plans on that single line of defense.

He needed time enough to convince the Queen that staying here, learning to control her powers was more important than returning home. Enough time for her to change her mind set from captive to guest.

The army was an issue but not the largest piece on the board; they moved at the Queen's command, if her can control her, he can control them. The unknown factor in this game was the Queen's sister. The information he had pulled out of Tyr was the girls were close, very close, he considered driving a wedge between them, knowing the more separated Elsa was, the more isolated she felt, the easier she would be to control. But dividing loved ones, especially ones that were close, was a delicate process, one that took time and patience. Like a house of cards, if you pushed too hard you risked bringing the entire thing down and it was unlikely you'd get a second chance.

However, according to the letter, the princess might not be as big a concern as he originally feared. At Elsa's request, the younger sister returned to Arendelle to tend to the country, removing herself from the board. He could use that to his advantage. If the sister was safe and the country taken care of, there would be no reason for the Queen to rush back home.

He considered giving Elsa the letter, letting her see that her sister was okay and returning to Arendelle, but he worried about the other information contained in these words. The Sirma were not only no longer attacking, but their leader's brother, Erik, was willing to seek a permanent cease-fire if not peace. The threat of the Sirma was the only thing currently keeping the Queen content in his care. He couldn't give her the letter until he had a way to ensure she wouldn't immediately demand her release.

He was going to have to alter his strategy.

There were multiple paths he could venture down, but he needed something concrete to ensure his hold over her. Willing or otherwise. He was going to have to strip away any layers of defense that stood between them, leaving her open and her vulnerabilities bare. First was the false layer of protection she believed she had by pretending she was a commoner named Joan. He had hoped she would grow to trust him and willingly reveal the truth, but he could no longer risk waiting. He was going to have to bait her into telling him.

He didn't have enough time to poison her mind against her sister, but perhaps he could poison her mind against herself with the same result. The seeds were already there; all he had to do is water them and watch them grow.

A knock on the door pulled Markkus from his thoughts. "Come in."

The door opened, and Rayna poked her head into the room before entering fully. She crossed to the desk, tugging at her sleeves and dragging her feet, looking every bit like a kid about to get in trouble.

Markkus watched her, his mind already rolling through the things that could make the girl nervous. Every one of them revolved around his prized guest. "What happened?" he asked, not in the mood to beat around the bush.

"I . . ." She dropped her eyes, fixing them on a middle distance. "Joan asked to talk to you."

"About?"

A long pause filled the air, the girl's shoulders curling in on herself. Her words came out in a rush, overlapping each other, "I thought she knew about the medicine from the apothecary, and she missed some and when I mentioned it to her she got upset and now she's refusing to eat anything and I didn't know she didn't know."

While unwanted it wasn't the worst news, the girl could have brought him. "How many doses has she missed?"

Rayna tilted her head as she considered the question. "Two as of this morning."

Markkus tapped his finger against the polished wood surface of his desk; he knew this was a possibility, one of the many things he knew could go wrong. He could use this to his advantage, he'd wait another day. Three missed doses would leave her in just the right frame of mind. "Tell her I am currently engaged, but I will come see her the second I get a chance."

"And until then?" she asked, shifting.

"Continue to take her meals," Markkus told the girl, "if she will eat. Otherwise, leave her be."

"Yes, sir." Rayna turned and left the room, but not before he saw the way her face pinched with worry.

Markkus returned his attention to the letter on the desktop. Perhaps this would give him an opportunity to strengthen his hold over the Queen. It was a delicate situation, but as long as he played his cards with care, this could be exactly what he needed. If he can control her everything else should fall into line.


"That's it?"

Anna blinked up at the man glaring down at her, and the guard seated at her side.

After discussing the events that had taken place up north, the council members had debated which duties would, in leu of the Queen's presence, require Anna's immediate attention. The conversation then moved on to what the people should be told regarding the Queen's extended absence and Anna's upcoming return north, and how much to tell them.

Many of the councilors spent the meeting alternating between arguing over what to do and trying to convince Anna that she needed to stay in the city where it was safe. She understood their concern but stood her ground. She needed to be up north when they found Elsa; she had an unsettling feeling in the pit of her stomach that it was important she was there. No matter how much the councilors begged and pleaded, she refused to budge on the subject. She couldn't.

The meeting had dragged on for several hours, going on so long that Anna couldn't help but thank her lucky stars to have been born second. She couldn't fathom how her sister did this once a week, but now understood why the woman always came out of these meetings looking like she was nursing a nasty headache.

One of the few things the council had agreed upon was that they needed to distribute the food sent from Valle as soon as possible. A small amount would go to individual families, and then the bulk sent out to the farmers who had lost their crops. After the council meeting finally ended, Anna had arranged a smaller meeting with Captain Jogeir and a few others in order to determine what would be the quickest, most efficient way to get the food out to the people. Since the food was currently being stored in the castle's cellar, they decided the easiest option was to distribute it from the courtyard. Considering recent events, Captain Jogeir voiced concerns against bringing such a sizeable amount of people into the castle, but reluctantly admitted that delivering the food would take too long, not to mention the fact they lacked the equipment or staff to do it. In the end, they compromised; the guards would deliver the allotted food to the families living on the outskirts of the city and those who would have the most difficultly in making the trip to the castle. The rest would come to the castle courtyard. Thankfully, Anna hadn't needed to worry about who got what, or how much, as the instructions Elsa left had been very clear.

So far everything had gone smoothly, but while many were grateful for the food, there were those keen on expressing their displeasure at the events that led to them needing the castle to provide food. Anna had done a decent job until now, soothing the ruffled feathers, but felt it was Elsa's gentle presence the people really needed. Even if her sister was still awkward around crowds, she could put the people's mind at ease.

"This isn't going to feed my family."

The man's harsh voice drew Anna back to the present, and she looked up at him. It was one of the woodcutters, Reid. She dropped her gaze to the list Elsa had left, double checking they had given the man the correct amount. "I promise you," she said, "there is enough there to feed your family until more food is available in the markets." He continued to glare at her, until she added, "if you believe there is some mistake, you'll have to address it with the Queen." She winced as she spoke, wishing she could fix the problem herself, but she trusted her sister had been thorough in her calculation of the rations.

Reid huffed, obviously not sharing in Anna's optimism. "And when will she be back?"

Anna swallowed thickly. "Soon," she said with a confidence she wished she felt.

The man's face twisted with a sour look, but he turned away, taking the food with him. Anna's stomach knotted at the painful reminder of everything that was happening up north. She stood abruptly, shoving her chair back. The guard next to her turned toward her with a questioning look.

Anna gave him a tight smile. "I have to take care of something," she said, sliding the papers detailing the rationing toward him. "I'll be back in a moment."

The guard nodded and turned his attention back to the line of people, waving the next man forward. Anna kept her eyes firmly planted on ground as she walked away, not wanting to risk eye contact with anyone else, not wanting to disappoint them. She automatically started toward the castle doors, but stopped halfway there and redirected to the stables, where she knew Kristoff would be.

Kristoff was lounging outside of Sven's stall, no doubt feeding the reindeer from a pouch of carrots. He turned toward the stable entrance like he had sensed her approach and greeted her with an easy grin. "Hey."

Anna immediately felt some of the tension thrumming through her body drain away. Not all of it, but enough that her shoulders relaxed, she returned the smile. Sven snuffled a greeting of his own, and she patted the reindeer's nose.

"I didn't expect to see you for another few hours still," Kristoff said casually as he palmed another carrot for Sven. "That line stretched clear out of the courtyard last time I looked." His voice was too casual, and he said it with a look in his eyes, like Anna was doing a horrible job hiding her stress.

She lifted a shoulder, intending to shrug the comment off, but stopped. There was no point in her pretending everything was okay when they both knew it couldn't be further from the truth. Nothing was okay. She paced a few feet into the stable, then spun on her heel, throwing her arms out wide. "I can't do this, it's ridiculous."

Kristoff cocked his head, brows drawing together but remaining quiet, waiting for Anna to continue.

"Here I am, safe, counting grain while Elsa—" She scrubbed her hands over her face. "She's alone and I don't, I can't help her. And I don't know what to do, and I shouldn't be here."

"Come here," he said, offering his hand. He tugged Anna back to the stable entrance, where he gestured to the line of people that snaked through the courtyard. "You are doing something, Anna. You're making sure that all these people will have food this winter be able to survive through the winter. You're making sure they'll have food to eat, to give their families."

She knew he was right, but there was no keeping back the hot tears stinging the backs of her eyes. "I just want her here, I want her home and safe," Anna said, her voice breaking. "I want..." I want her to tell me what to do. But looking at the line, she realized Elsa had done just that. She had given Anna one of the most important tasks she had—to take care of the people of Arendelle. Elsa had trusted her, and she didn't want to let her sister down.

Anna swiped a finger under her eyes, eliminating the evidence that she had given into her exhaustion, her emotion. Kristoff was right, but it didn't stop her from feeling frustrated and powerless.

Kristoff moved his hands to her shoulders, turning her toward him. "What can I do to help?"

Anna shook her head, about to tell him there was nothing when a stray thought crossed her mind, something she had been thinking about ever since Erik told them his story. Maybe there was something they could do from here.


Elsa wrung her hands together as she paced the room, working to soothe the tremble in her fingers. After Ray had unintentionally let slip the so-called medicine she had been unknowingly taking every morning, she had refused to eat or drink anything brought to her, no matter how the girl tried to assure her that there was nothing extra added to it. Elsa doubted Ray was lying to her, but she couldn't chance it. Not when she didn't even know what they had been drugging her with.

She wanted to speak to Markkus, had all but demanded his immediate presence, but the only answer she received was an ambivalent, "he's busy, but will come by as soon as he can."

That was a day and a half ago.

This morning when she woke, she'd felt hot and restless, like she was coming down with a nasty bug. As the hours slowly ticked by, the feeling worsened, leaving her chest tight, her skin hot and itchy, and her stomach twisting in painful cramps that that came and went, each one more vicious than the last.

As if summoned by her thoughts, Elsa's stomach turned without warning, causing her to halt her pacing. Pressing her forearms against her belly, she braced her shoulder against the bedpost at the foot of her bed. She squeezed her eyes shut and blew a breath through her clenched teeth as she rode out another brutal spasm. After a few minutes, the intense pain eased. She straightened cautiously.

Elsa steadied herself against the bedpost, wishing more than ever that she could use her magic. Her head felt hot and muddled, she was having a hard time concentrating on anything for any length of time, each thought slipping through her fingers like melting ice.

She continued to pace around the room, stopping when she came to the window that overlooked the ocean. Her shoulders relaxed a touch as she gazed out at the water. This was the only spot in the room where Elsa felt like she could breathe. She rested her head against the cool glass and listened to the rain beating against the window, the waves crashing against the cliff face. A welcome breeze slid in through the small opening, cooling her overheated skin. If she closed her eyes, she could almost pretend she was back home.

Almost.

Reluctantly, she couldn't help but wonder if there was something to the medicine they had slipped her, if it had been keeping her from getting sick. But it made little sense—why would they have assumed she was going to get sick? Unless there was something here in Hasvik they worried she'd catch. She heard stories of people traveling to a new place and falling severely ill to some sickness the natives had grown immune to. Perhaps they had something similar here.

A soft knock echoed through the room and Elsa to jump. She turned toward the door faster than her head or shaky body liked and barely caught herself against the wall when the room made a nauseating tilt.

The door cracked open and Ray poked her head in before swinging it open, allowing Markkus to enter the room behind her. He stopped just beyond the threshold, the corners of his eyes crinkling as he gave her a once over.

She drew her shoulders back, standing as tall and straight as she could manage. "What did you do to me?" she asked, before the man spoke. She wanted to sound strong, to look strong, but her voice wavered, and there was a tremor running through her she couldn't seem to stop.

Ray closed the door and stood just inside the room, waiting.

Markkus stepped closer, hands held up as though approaching a wounded predator. "I understand you are feeling confused and angry."

"You've been drugging me."

Markkus pressed his lips in a thin line but didn't deny the accusation.

Elsa's aching stomach dropped. Some small part of her had been hoping it wasn't true, that Ray had misspoken or there was some other explanation. "So, it's true."

"Yes, but it's not what you think."

"You have no idea what I'm thinking."

"As cliché as it may sound, it was for your own good."

"My own good?" Elsa leveled a glare at the man. "How? And if it was, why would you keep it from me?"

Markkus sighed, his expression and posture growing heavy with regret. "I shouldn't have kept it from you. That was an error on my part, and you have my deepest apologies for it."

Elsa wrapped her arms around herself and pressed back against the wall, using it for support as another wave of dizziness rocked through her body. "What is it?" she bit out breathlessly.

"Ray wasn't lying to you," Markkus said, gesturing to the young girl. Her eyes widened as he unexpectedly pulled her into the conversation. "It is a medicine meant to keep you from getting sick." He pressed a hand against his mouth, looking thoughtful. "We drew this fortress from the cliffs using magic. The fog that surrounds the island, we created and sustain with magic. Magic runs deeply through the air and in the walls here. There have been rare instances of people quite sensitive to magic coming here and falling deathly ill. We aren't sure why, but our apothecaries have been able to create a tonic that helps keep the symptoms at bay while giving the individual a chance for their body to grow accustomed to the magic here."

"And you just assumed I would be one of those people?" she asked, struggling to keep up and make sense of what he was saying.

"No," Markkus said, shaking his head. "Your first night here, when you were in the dungeon, you started showing signs of the illness. You were still unconscious at the time."

"What signs?" Elsa's head swam as she fought to remember waking up in the dungeon, how she had felt, if she had been sick. She had been feeling a lot of things in that short amount of time, not the least of which had been the aftermath from her fight with the Vindarr mages, and the lingering effects of whatever they had used to keep her unconscious.

Markkus's expression softened. "Honestly, I don't know the exact details. One of our healers in charge of taking care of prisoners informed me. I assumed you were willingly working with the Sirma and thought you were my enemy. Which, of course, I later learned was not true. I can tell you that the symptoms usually present as fever, stomach cramps, anxiety, irritation, paranoia, and fatigue." He took a step closer, just past her bed, but still out of reach. Still keeping a respectful distance.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"You had just traded one captor for another," he explained. "If I told you that you were going to get sick and urged you to take an unknown substance, would you have believed me? Would you have taken it?"

Elsa hugged herself tighter, drawing her shoulders in as her chest constricted to the point she felt like she wasn't getting enough air.

"Of course, you wouldn't," Markkus continued, taking another step closer. "After you told me you were born with your abilities, I worried that the difference in nature between your magic and ours could exacerbate the issue. So, I made the decision to have the apothecary put the medicine in your drink every morning so you wouldn't fall ill."

Elsa shook her head, turning his words over in her head. What he was saying made sense. The entire week she'd been here, they'd been giving her the drug, and she hadn't felt any different. Just normal, like herself. It was only when she stopped taking it she fell ill. Her life had been in Markkus's hands since she arrived, and he had not caused her any harm, had not forced her to do anything she didn't want. He had in good faith acted in what he believed was her best interest. He was not the first person to keep a secret attempting to protect someone. Elsa spent thirteen years doing that exact thing to Anna. She'd be a hypocrite to condemn him for something she herself had done. But there was something she still needed to know. The question that had been on the tip of her tongue since she first met the man. "Why do you care so much? You don't even know me."

"Do I really need a reason to want to help you?"

"People rarely offer something for nothing."

A look a sadness crossed Markkus face, something painfully akin to pity. "Is that what they taught you? What you grew up around?"

Elsa didn't answer, didn't know how to answer. Even isolated as she was, the world she grew up in was still full of politics, of people working their own angles and trying to put themselves in the best position to wield the most influence. A dangerous game of chess. She squeezed her eyes shut as the room pitched and rolled, threatening to drive her to her knees.

"You sacrificed yourself for your people," Markkus said, "people you don't even know, whose only connection to you is the fact they live in your kingdom. But for thirteen years you surrendered your freedom to keep them safe, without ever asking for anything in return."

"That's not the same." Her head was buzzing. She pressed her fingertips against her hot eyes, trying to steady the slow roll of her vision. "I'm their Queen."

"You were a child. That burden should have never been yours to bare, regardless of your station."

Elsa dropped head back against the wall. She was too hot, burning up. She couldn't breathe, couldn't think. Her legs were shaking so badly they were barely holding her weight, and her breath hitched as her stomach twisted painfully once more. Unable to support herself any longer, she slid down the wall to the floor, drawing her knees up, her chest heaving.

Markkus moved closer, crouching in front of her. "You deserve to be shown kindness for the sake of kindness. Without strings attached. And as I told you before, for better or for worse, fate has delivered you into my care. Like you, it is my job to protect and help those in my care." He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. "I'm sorry they have put you through this. No one should have to endure the things you have. I'm sorry I lied to you about the medicine, and I promise the apothecary will not add it to any of your food or drink from this point out. I will have Ray bring it in a separate glass with your breakfast, and it will be up to you to decide whether you want to take it. No one will force you." He pulled a small vial from his pocket.

Elsa cracked her eyes open, squinting at the blurry image of the vial, studying the foggy, unremarkable liquid swirling inside. She wanted to deny what he was saying, but she couldn't think. She was hot and tired and wanted to sleep, but her chest was too tight. She felt restless and agitated; overwhelmed and on the verge of tears she refused to let fall. She was desperate for anything that would provide even a fraction of relief. Her breath hitched, her voice coming out a thick whisper as she said, "I don't understand."

"Do you trust me?"

Elsa lifted her watery gaze from the vial to the face of the man in front of her and was surprised at the answer that came without thought. "Yes."

He reached out and took one of her hands in his. He transferred the vial to her palm and wrapped her fingers around it. "Then, for now, you know enough."