Just as Elsa had promised, Anna was busy the moment she'd been rudely awoken by Gerda. "Up, girl!" the woman shouted from the hall, "The Queen doesn't have all day!"
They sat now in Elsa's study, which was too quiet for Anna's taste. She preferred the noise of rowdy taverns herself, but she could understand why the Queen would prefer this absurd quiet.
The book in front of Anna was larger than anything she'd ever read. The last thing she could recall reading was a menu, and that had been difficult enough. But this monstrosity, all one thousand three hundred and twenty nine pages of it, was overwhelming.
"Read the title." The Queen commanded, leaning back in the tall velvet chair.
Anna simply stared at her. The queen's hair was in the same braid she'd worn it in the night before. Her dress, however, was different.
A good different.
Instead of the cool crystal blue, it was a deep, evocative shade of carmine made of velvet, low enough to reveal her collarbone while still remaining modest.
Anna, found her eyes wandering from the skin of the woman's neck down, to her collar, her chest...
Focus!
"Foreeen. For-For..." She stopped. "What?"
She glanced at Elsa who she could tell was desperately trying to hide her laughter. "Foreign," The Queen corrected, "Try the next word."
Anna gave Elsa a pleading look, but the Queen simply motioned back to the cover. The red-head heaved a sigh and reluctantly set back to work. "Afray. Aff.. Affairs?"
"Very good," The Queen complimented, "And the next?"
Anna furrowed her brow in concentration. "And..." It took her a moment, but she finally came up with: "Relations?"
"Perfect."
Anna looked up to see the Queen smiling slightly at her. It brought a sudden warmth over her, one that spread throughout the entirety of her body.
Her teeth are so white... And her face is just... are people allowed to have a face like that?
"Open the book now."
Anna blinked. "But I could barely read the title! How am I supposed to read all of this?"
Elsa shrugged. "If it makes you feel any better, my father started me off with books on philosophy. I remember the first words I saw as a child were 'Tractatus de intellectibus'."
"Show off..." Anna huffed, fiddling with the new tunic she'd been given. It was lighter than anything else she'd ever worn, more fit for combat than the dress. It was a plain beige color with brown trousers and had a hold for her rapier. It certainly wasn't flattering, but it wouldn't draw attention either. "That really doesn't make me feel any better."
Elsa chuckled. "It wasn't supposed to, now open it. Trust me, if you start with the harder words, you'll be skimming through the easier ones in no time."
Anna did as she was told and opened the book, one big word staring right back at her. "Weh... Wess...Wess-el-ton.." She paused. "Weselton?"
Elsa's lips curled up into a smile.
Gooseflesh suddenly ran down Anna's arms and legs.
God, that smile...
"Go on."
Now emboldened, Anna looked diligently at the numerous paragraphs lining the page. Surprise overtook her for a moment. The text was so small, and there was just so... so much of it. Hesitantly, she started. "Terrrrrrraaayyyn? Terrain?"
The girl looked toward the Queen who gave her nothing but an encouraging nod to continue on.
Anna's eyes skimmed over the next few words. It took her a while, and the sentence wasn't fluid, but she managed to put it together.
"Proximal to the coast."
Their time continued on like that, with Anna reading and Elsa sitting idly by, nodding whenever she'd manage to put more than a few words together, even complimenting her when she pronounced a difficult one.
She read about places like Weselton and the Southern Isles, and the important people there, although she didn't quite understand any of it. Elsa helped a little, confiding in her of the Duke of Weselton's fiasco with his toupee.
"It really fell right off his head?" Anna's grinned from ear to ear.
"It was only once. The other times it would bob up and down like it was begging to come off of him."
Anna doubled over laughing, pounding her fist on the rich wood of the desk. It almost made her want to meet the man just to laugh at him.
"Now," Elsa urged, tapping at the opened book.
Anna groaned as she leaned back in the chair. "I can't read another word." She said dramatically, straightening out the sleeves of her tunic. "We've been going at it for hours."
Elsa quirked a brow. "It's only been two."
Anna lifted up a finger. "See? Hours!"
The two stared at each other for what seemed like a long time. Anna's look was pleading, but over time, it grew softer as she examined the Queen's face. The kiss of freckles on her cheeks, her perfectly arched brows, how blue her eyes were.
"Alright, what would you rather do then?"
The red-head blinked. "What.. what do I want to do?"
The Queen nodded, "Don't you have things you like to do?"
Anna bit her lip. "Of-of course I do, it's just..." Her eyes met Elsa's, and all the courage she'd mustered up until then vanished. She turned her head away, preferring instead to focus on the light coming from the window, even the red mark on the woman's hand. "They're just not very um... Queenly..?" She cringed at her own phrasing as she dared to look in the woman's eyes again.
Elsa seemed undeterred, even curious. "Like what?"
Anna's hands wrestled restlessly with one another by her lap. "Well, you know... taverns, drinking... bar fights?" She look down to make sure the Queen didn't spot the embarrassed blush on her cheeks. "The usual.."
She couldn't see Elsa's expression, but she could feel her eyes. It was judging, Anna assumed.
Why couldn't you have said something normal? She scolded, Maybe horse back riding, or painting? Hell, even reading would be better than-
"So when are we going out?"
Anna's head snapped to the Queen. The redhead's eyes were filled to the brim with surprise. "Excuse me?"
Elsa shrugged. "It does get more than a little boring here Anna," She pinched the bridge of her nose as if the thought of it made her nauseous. "Paper work gets tedious and meetings become frustrating. Even the Queen needs a good time every once in a while." Elsa was suddenly smiling, no, smirking at the girl. Anna couldn't help but throw her attention desperately elsewhere. If she looked at the Queen, she'd never look away. "So, when are we going out?"
Anna's leg began to bounce underneath the desk. God, she could smell the fresh air, she could hear the noise.. She couldn't remember the last time she'd been this excited about... anything! And experiencing it all with the Queen no less? "How about a little before sunset?" Even she was surprised at the eagerness in her tone, "It's quieter at that time normally so you can get used to it. When the sun goes down it gets a little crazy. Oh! And you'll have to get used tot he smell too. It's a little, um... sorry.." She was rambling again.
Anna didn't know what to do with herself as she looked at the Queen. Well, she was really watching the Queen look at her. Elsa's eyes searched her, and Anna didn't know what for. There was hardly anything interesting. "What?" The red head finally asked when she felt a little too self conscious for comfort.
"Nothing." The smile on the Queen's lips betrayed her words. "For the time being, I want you to go to the library and practice your reading," Elsa rose from her chair, "I have a few things to do before we go. I'll have Gerda fetch you when it's time."
Anna eyed the Queen carefully. "So you don't want me with you?" She asked, rising from her own chair as well. "What if someone tries to hurt you? I should be by your side."
Elsa shook her head and chuckled as an adult would to a naive child. "Anna, my castle is plenty safe. If anyone in this place were to try and hurt me, I'd know about it before they even reached my room. And besides, I can handle myself, although I appreciate your concern."
Anna swallowed, her fingers absentmindedly coming to hold the rapier's handle. "Right... of course, but it's my job to protect you and-"
"And you don't have to right now," Elsa took a step toward the girl, and Anna couldn't help but notice the racing of her heart. "Really, I'll be fine. Here, if you don't want to go and read, then by all means do whatever you'd like. Wander around, I don't care. You're free to choose."
Anna fought the urge to laugh. Had the words 'free' and 'choose' really been used in the same sentence toward a servant? "So I can just go anywhere?" Anna inquired, making sure Elsa knew what she was saying. "Nothing's off limits?"
The Queen shook her head, "I don't see any reason to forbid you from going into any particular room so yes. You can go anywhere. The only thing I'll say is don't break anything, and- what are you, Anna, what are you doing?"
The red head had dropped to one knee and had taken the Queen's marked hand and pressed it to her forehead. The servant was, in a word, overwhelmed. She'd been preparing for the worst for years, she'd been expecting to have an evil overlord order her to massacre thousands. Instead, she ended up with a woman who only wanted her to read, gave her freedom without strings attached. "Thank you.." The words fanned through the silence that had gripped the room, thickening it, and the grateful kiss Anna pressed to the red spade had it closing in around them.
"You're welcome..." The Queen's reply was soft.
Elsa's hand stiffened in Anna's grip, and the redhead took that as her queue to release her. She stood and stepped away from the Queen, heading toward the door. "I'll um... be in the library."
The Queen only offered the girl a nod goodbye, and Anna snuck out the door, spinning and closing it with her back. Each breath she took in was more shallow than the last. Shivers ran down her spine just remembering holding the Queen's hand. It was cold against her skin, but a refreshing kind of cold, a beautiful kind.
She smelled like winter... she mused, like pine trees and fresh snow... and... what kind of perfume was that?
Vigorously, Anna shook her head.
Library, Anna. Library.
She blinked as she turned her head down the hall.
Where was the library?
/
It was only with Gerda's guidance was Anna able to find the room full of books. It was cozy, with warm walls, a sofa a safe distance away from the fire place, plenty of shelves, with the spine's filed neatly and with care. The air was dry and held a fading aroma of smoke from the fire or earlier times, Anna couldn't tell. Under any other circumstance, she would have called the room boring. She wasn't exactly the biggest reader as Elsa had seen first hand, but she had nothing else to do, at least not at the current moment.
She'd have to be content with running her hands over the cool dark wood of the shelves, over the rough spines of the books, barely being able to read the titles.
"How am I supposed to know if it's interesting if I don't know what it says.." She mumbled and she dropped her hand back to her side. She took her time looking at the books, if not admiring the words inside, then enjoying the covers and the feel of them. There was something secure about holding it, something empowering about having knowledge right in her palm. It was knowledge she could barely access, but it was a small amount of power nonetheless. She'd take those morsels where she could get them.
There were other things to look at, thankfully. Antiques lined the walls, collecting dust as most things that were fragile did. There was a model boat, carved with excruciating detail. It was must taken the carver years, maybe longer. A quaint grandfather clock, a myriad of flowers in a multitude of vases, and pictures.
So many pictures.
Some were small, just recreations of a spring or summer, even winter days, filled with color. Some were abstract, merely shapes, some even just lines. The colors were many, jewel tones like topaz, amethyst, sapphire, ruby. A far cry from the grey and brown the girl had known all her life.
The bigger ones were mostly portraits, depicting stiff-backed people in luxurious restricting clothes. Their eyes seemed to follow Anna wherever in the room she went, imploring her to look at them for a little while longer. It was the only thing the people in the painting had left. With their lives left behind, they depended on people like Anna to keep their memory alive.
They must have been jealous, Anna thought.
Because this one... whoa...
The largest portrait in the room, and the most stunning one at that, stared the girl right in the face.
A man dressed in black, his chest decorated with medals of every color. A newly placed crown on his head. An orb in one hand and scepter in the other. She couldn't tell if his hair was dirty blonde or red, or a mix of both. There was nothing in his green eyes at all, his face was all poise and calm. Anna could only imagine how long he'd stood there for that portrait. "That probably wasn't the best day of his life.." She murmured, giggling at her own joke.
The frame was gold and thick, and at the bottom, something was engraved. A word. No, a name.
"Aouw.. Aooo..."
Come on, Anna. You can do this.
"A-Aus-" She paused. "Austen..."
She stared at the picture for a little while longer before shrugging. It was a nice portrait.
Her eyes went to the table it was perched above, and her brows furrowed. The book resting there was large, much thicker than what Anna had read in Elsa's study, and that worried her.
It wasn't dusted over like the others, this one was used frequently. Maybe the words on the leather binding would tell her why.
There were only three of them, and they were fairly short.
"Ho-ly War..." Anna's eyes went wide. "Holy War Records..."
The girl opened the book with a fervor she never thought she could possess. The desire to know took over her, and soon, she was lost in the pages, in the information they held.
Page 1
Queen Ingrid of Arendelle
Occupation: Queen
War Number: Seven
Servant Summoned: Caster
Win or Loss: Loss
Death by Master or Servant: Servant
Anna gulped as she continued through the book.
Page 479
Soren Rannes
Occupation: Merchant
War Number: Three Hundred and Five
Servant Summoned: Berserker
Win or Loss: Loss
Death by Master or Servant: Master
And Faster.
Page 894
Kristoff Bjorgman
Occupation: Ice Harvester
War Number: Five Hundred and Thirty Four
Servant Summoned: Lancer
Win or Loss: Win
Wish Granted: Not Disclosed
Until she finally reached the end.
Page 1574
King Austen of Arendelle
Occupation: King
War Number: Seven Hundred and Twenty Four
Servant Summoned: Assassin
Win or Loss:
Death By Master or Servant:
Anna's brows furrowed at the lack of information on the previous King. Elsa's father, she realized. Obviously he'd lost, right? If he'd won, then wouldn't he be here? Her eyes went to the last profile on the page.
Page 1574
Queen Elsa of Arendelle
Occupation: Queen
War Number: Seven Hundred and Twenty Five
Servant Summoned: Saber
Win or Loss:
Anna forced the book closed. She didn't want to read another word.
She stepped away from the table and walked toward the window, grateful for the sun's light and warmth. From below, the town looked alive. The lanterns were starting to be lit, the sky's blue was morphing into swirls of orange, pink, and red. The taverns were starting to be filled.
Her hand subconsciously went to her rapier, rubbing her thumb over the leather handle, the smooth gold guard, the engraved words she still couldn't read. Maybe she should give it a try.
She unsheathed the beauty and held it on its side, revealing the intricate cursive. "M-my..." She squinted. It was hard enough reading normal print. This was just ridiculous. With a frustrated sigh, she sheathed the blade. She could always just ask Elsa for help... but she didn't want to be a burden, and the writing was meant for her.
Someday... someday I'll understand it...
/
"So what have you heard?" The Queen's voice only served to thicken the silence in the room. The council chamber was normally tense, but these were completely different circumstances. This wasn't plain treaties or civil affairs. This was war.
Looking around at the faces of her advisors, they all seemed to be aware of the dire circumstances. Everyone was grave, serious, stiff. It was in this moment that Elsa appreciated her time spent with Anna in the morning. The day had seemed so much brighter then. "Anyone? You can't tell me you all have nothing."
A tall man in a sharp looking red suit cleared his throat, wiping his wisps of blonde hair away from his eyes with a tan hand. "Two have been spotted in the Southern Isles, your Majesty," the man informed, "Berserker and Caster."
Elsa gave the man a grateful look. At least someone was doing their job. "And how long ago was this, Klaus?"
"A few days ago. They were just summoned."
Elsa clasped her hands together, her eyes lingering on the red spade. Three out of seven. Her head lifted back to the display of people around her. "And Rider?"
A woman bit her lip. "Already defeated, your Highness. The Master as well."
Elsa's eyes went wide, and murmurs began around the circle of chairs. "What? By whom?"
"I don't know," The woman answered honestly, adjusting her raven hair. Elsa searched the woman's blue eyes, but there was nothing in them but sincerity. "I've heard rumors of Assassin."
Elsa sighed, rubbing at her temple. So it's already begun...
"Lancer is in Weselton." The Queen's eyes shot to a man on the other side of the table. His dark hair was slicked back, and the navy blue tunic he wore fit him almost too well. The black gloves he wore pulled the outfit together. "My sipes reported in earlier today."
A muscle in the Queen's jaw twitched, her hands began to shake. Her stomach was in knots, her head felt light.
Rider defeated.. she worked out in her mind, Lancer in Weselton, Berserker and Caster in the Souther Isles, Assassin on the loose... "What of Archer?" She looked back to the round table, an expecting look in her eye. No one said a word.
"I'm sorry, your Highness." The man in navy blue spoke up, "We've been trying for days, but we can't trace Archer or their Master."
Anger suddenly flared in Elsa's chest.
What do I pay you for? She sneered silently, but she couldn't find it in her to be disappointed. It was a difficult and dangerous task. They were already putting their lives on the line more than necessary. "It's alright, Seir." She addressed the man, "You've done enough. We know where a majority of the servants are, and that's enough for now."
The man gave her a smile, one she could barely return. The entire atmosphere was tight. "We'll reconvene tomorrow." A break, she thought, would be best. "If you have any further updates, please let me know."
All in unison: "Yes, your Majesty."
Elsa let out a breath. While the hard part wasn't even close to being over, she was grateful to be off the subject. Klaus looked ecstatic to be moving on, adjusting himself so he was more comfortable in his seat. Seir straightened his posture, ready to move on to something less draining. The looks from everyone around her told Elsa they were ready to do the same. "Now, about-"
The doors were thrown open, and Anna emerged, her expression grave and serious, even angry. It was a side to the girl Elsa didn't think she had, nor would ever see. "Anna?" The Queen stood up slowly, her brows furrowed in confusion. "What are you-"
The redhead unsheathed the rapier she held at her hip. Klaus was out of his seat now, stepping toward the wall, away from the girl in fear, Seir stepped back, gulping as he watched the woman intently. "Anna," Elsa hissed, "Get yourself under control, ple-"
If the red head heard her, she didn't show it. The girl sprinted toward Elsa with blinding speed. Elsa blinked one moment and Anna was there the next, in front of her. Elsa opened her mouth to speak, but the girl had turned, swinging the blade once through the air. It seemed that there was nothing there, like she was slashing at an imaginary friend she'd come to hate. Until..
Pop
A sound came from the other side of the room, and Elsa turned her head. Her heart raced as her eyes settled on something that had stuck itself into the wood.
An arrow head.
Elsa's breath was ragged, her hands shaking violently as she turned from the pointed metal to the girl in front of her.
"My Queen," Anna dropped to one knee, a sight that was becoming common between the two of them, "Are you hurt?" The redhead took Elsa's hand, and pressed a loyal kiss to the red spade.
"I.." Elsa took in a few breaths, staring incredulously at the girl in front of her, the girl who'd just barged into an important meeting, and the girl who'd just saved her life. "I'm alright. Yes, Anna I'm fine." She swallowed. "Thank you."
"Your Highness," Klaus spoke hesitantly, his eyes flicking from the new arrival to the Queen. "Who is this?"
"This is Anna," Elsa motioned for Anna to rise to her feet, and the girl obliged, sheathing the sword as she turned to look at the group gathered. Her eyes lingered on Klaus, glaring daggers into him, "My servant."
The room was quiet, fear consumed everyone's eyes except for Seir's. "Your Majesty, this is remarkable. Your father would have been so proud. You've summoned Saber!"
He took a step forward, and Anna's hand immediately went back to the sword, her teeth bared. Seir stopped where he was. It was only Elsa's hand on Anna's arm that made her relax. "Let's retire for the day. This meeting can wait."
Everyone let out sounds of agreement as they filed out of the room, glad to be out of the unnecessary danger they'd be put in, until Elsa and Anna were the only two who remained.
"Are you sure you're alright?" The serious nature of the red head disappeared. Her features were soft now, concerned. Elsa preferred it over the anger she'd seen moments ago.
"Yes." She reassured the girl, hugging herself in order to stop her hands from shaking. "How did you know?" She gulped, "That I was in danger?"
Anna never broke the woman's gaze. "I felt it." She murmured, "I felt him... Archer."
Elsa's heart pounded against her ribs. It seemed their outing would have to wait.
"He's here, Elsa. Archer is here."