Okay so, the stuff written in italics are the thoughts of the characters in first person. This chapter was a lot of fun to write as I discovered a few plots myself. Yeah, I know it's my own brain, but oh come on! I guess that's how writing works. By the way, this is actually my first time I'm writing...well...anything apart from an essay on green energy sources.

MaloKen17: Thankyou so much for your kind review. Honestly, it motivated me a lot. I will definitely try my best to keep up the quality.

Okay so...

Enjoy :)

The day started bright. The summer breeze lightened his heart as he stood by the northern walls waiting for Elsa. Gale had promised to join them when they were ready.

Aislecia wasn't an enemy kingdom. On the contrary, the people there really liked visiting Arendelle. It was a small kingdom located just south of Cintheria which was located to the east of Arendelle. Though it was small in size, it was in no way weak. Being a military kingdom and advanced in weapons technology, it was easily one of the more powerful allies of Arendelle. Aislecia mainly traded in weapons and rations. It didn't have many farms, thus depended upon the surrounding oceans for food and trade for grains. The kingdom was a massive fortress with walls able to hold through cannon fire and even huge boulders launched with trebuchets.

The fact that Elsa was coming with him made things easier for him. The guards there wouldn't stop the way of the former queen of the most powerful kingdom on the map. That title was previously held by Corona as it had a huge military might, but Arendelle shattered their record with it's massive magical might. The addition of four of the most powerful magical beings as the kingdom's guardians and a warrior tribe to Arendelle's already mighty military contributing heavily to the kingdom's success.

Speaking of Elsa, "I'm so sorry I'm late." She gasped coming to a halt in front of Alex. It was strongly evident that she had ran all the way from the castle. For someone who had been locked up inside her room for half her life, she had an enormous amount of stamina. Almost comparable to Kristoff's.

Alex chuckled softly and went over to support her. It was understandable that she was exhausted from running that much amount of distance even when she had lost a huge amount of blood in the battle two days prior. He offered himself for her to lean on. She gladly accepted.

"I got caught up with mother and father." She told him apologetically.

"Hey, it's alright. You don't find such moments everyday." Alex said smiling at her putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.

She smiled back at him. There was a small amount of sadness in there too. She knew the story of his parents.

He let her catch her breath. He called for Gale when she was ready.

Gale was always ready to help. The kids especially loved to play with him. The twigs, leaves and small stones gave him a friendly appearance. He was no less playful than them either. One day, he played a small prank on Joe who was the head of the sweepers in Arendelle. Everytime he cleaned the streets of stray and dried leaves, Gale just swept them back. Poor Joe couldn't identify the source of trouble at first but when he saw the flying bundle of sticks and stones, he was furious. If Anna hadn't dived in, a serious battle of sweeping the streets would have begun. Gale would have won easily, but the street workers were no less than warriors with brooms instead of swords. After collecting the dried leaves at a place, they used to cover it with a cloth and put heavy stones on it so that Gale couldn't lift off the cloth. This continued for a while and actually amused the kingdom. The workers were delighted to have a challenge saying that 'the boring everyday job was livened up when Gale pulled pranks on them.' Joe after being calmed down just chuckled and raised his hand to wind spirit who, with his twigs and stones formed a hand and hi-fived it.

Gale lifted them off and they headed straight into the sun. They stayed below the cover of cotton white clouds. It partially shielded their eyes and provided them with cool air.

"So why didn't you stay with them?" Alex asked Elsa.

She knew he was going to ask that. He was just as close to her as Kristoff and Anna were so she didn't mind. "I just...needed a break. That day's events just... overwhelmed me." She said looking into the distance.

Alex could understand her. She had just found her parents to be alive. The wound inflicted was still fresh. Just like the slash on her back. Though she showed that it didn't hurt to an overcautious Anna, he knew it was hurting her a lot. He had been inflicted with similar wounds before her. The marks were present to show it.

"Will it leave a scar?" Elsa asked him out of no where, still staring at the water beneath them.

He thought about it for a second. He knew it was going to leave a scar, but wondered why she was asking.

"Yes. It will." He said.

She smiled.

Alex gave her a questioning look.

"I guess I'll finally have something to show that I've fought a battle." Elsa explained.

He chuckled as a memory came rushing to him.

Flashback (2 years ago)

"Haha!" Elsa laughed excitedly.

Their weapons clanged, very near her neck.

She had her back to his staff. Her hands above her head, holding her sword parallel to her back, it's tip pointing downwards. She had just defended herself perfectly.

Alex beamed at her. She certainly had a lot of skill.

"Good job!" He appreciated her. "Now duck!" And he spun the other way round attacking her from her front. He swung his staff in a wide arc. He knew she'd ducked already as he saw the movement from the corner of his eyes. He could easily attack low and catch her off guard, but it was just a demonstration of how an opponent could attack her.

But what he hadn't expected, was for her to spin while she ducked. It caught him off guard and his mind was a tiny bit too slow to process what she was doing. It hit him a millisecond later...literally.

Her left leg's shin connected with his calves. Not many people of her size could knock his feet out from under him, but her daily workout routine made sure she was one of the few to be able to do so.

"Whoa!" He toppled over, the momentum of his staff rotating him so that he fell on his back.

In one swift fluid motion, she got up undeterred and pointed her sword to his neck, winning the round; fair and square.

"Whoo-hoo!" She celebrated victoriously waving her left hand up in the air, her right one still pointing her sword at his neck. "Gotcha!"

He chuckled after recovering. "Impressive." He praised her as she helped him up.

"Hope I didn't hurt you too bad." She said apologetically helping him to dust himself off.

He only laughed. "No! Of course you didn't! But, you did catch me good there, I'll admit."

She smiled happily.

"Your majesty, I think it's time to get back to the pending workload of the kingdom." Harmann said almost as if he was being forced to move his tongue through gritted teeth.

He was the captain of the south walls battalion, and absolutely hateable. He enjoyed insulting the queen, and the only reason he was still the captain, was that he was a valuable asset in planning security. He had gotten them out of a few tight spots earlier, and thus earned the soldiers' respect. Anna straight out hated him and Elsa never enjoyed his company. Kristoff always wanted nothing more than to bash his face against a battering ram every single time he saw him. But that was all on the path to changing as Alex climbed up the ladder of promotions fairly quickly and had proven himself to be much better than Harmann; in both, manners and planning security. But Harmann seemed to have taken this as a challenge to make the worst last days for them. There were rumours that he had let criminals enter the kingdom, and though there was no hard proof supporting it, he certainly was capable of doing such a thing.

Elsa ignored the tone of his voice, but acknowledged what he said. They had been practicing for the last two hours and though it was a Sunday, she was never on a break. Anna was out on a date with Kristoff so she couldn't make it to the training grounds. Alex had already given her the day off saying that she needed fo spend time for herself too. Elsa sheathed her sword and went over to wipe her face clear of sweat. Alex did the same, but not before shooting a venomous look at Harmann. Though slightly smaller in physique than the captain of the southern walls was, Alex was never afraid to face a challenge. On the contrary, he enjoyed it.

In an attempt to strike up a conversation, likely to trap her in one of his disgusting loops of arguments, Harmann commented Elsa. "Your MAJESTY..." He spat the last word "...You don't really have a need to overexert yourself with learning how to train in battle techniques."

"I am a queen Harmann. That doesn't mean I can't have a hobby." She said casually.

He scoffed. "It's the soldiers' job to have such a hobby. Not a woman's." He spat.

She was already used to such comments by then, but still got angry at it.

"Every leader must be able to protect their subjects. Otherwise, that leader cannot be called capable. And I think it's best if I learn to protect myself." She said clearly not pleased with the last comment.

"You doubt the skill and loyalty your own soldiers?" He asked hatred shining through his voice.

She turned to face him this time.

"No Harmann. I doubt the loyalty of SOME of my soldiers." She said emphasizing heavily on the word 'Some'.

It was extremely rare for Elsa to hurl a stinger, but when she did, it always hit hard and true.

Harmann's face turned beet red with suppressed anger. He would have started cursing if she wasn't queen, so he just stormed off.

Alex chuckled. "That must've hit pretty hard." He commented her smiling proudly. The very thing he loved about Elsa was her down-to-earth nature. Even though she was royalty, she never bragged about it. Her modest and noble nature even had some of the other royals extremely confused at first. But most of them appreciated her for who she was.

"I just wish they'd stop judging me from what a woman shouldn't be." She sighed turning away.

Alex smiled knowingly. This was a common issue all around, that even royals suffered.

"You actually are the first ruler to rule solo. People think that you're too weak to rule as efficiently as a pair would."

Her jaw tightened. "Am I? Too inefficient?"

"No. Actually, I believe that far more experienced pairs of rulers would pale to your comparison." Alex said.

Elsa knew for a fact that Alex avoided lying where he could and false praise was never what he ever gave nor would ever give. She turned to face him.

"You really think so?" Elsa asked him hope in her eyes.

"Yes Elsa. But it's the world you have to change. It's not so easy." Alex told her.

"How do I do that?" She asked curiously.

He burst out laughing. "A few battle scars should do it!" He said clearly sarcastic about battle scars. "Trust me Elsa, if I knew how to do that, the world would've been a very different place than what it is now."

Elsa relaxed and smiled, her grateful eyes locking into his. They were both in this together.

The rest of the trip to Aislecia went uneventfully. Except Gale taking them through a few rain clouds just for fun, so they were all dripping wet.

It hardly took them twenty minutes to get there.

"Okay. So where do we land?" Elsa asked.

"The forest at the north walls should do. I daresay I know a guard there who might help." Alex said.

They were already flying low over the trees. Elsa almost got hit by a bird who just took flight out of the trees unexpectedly, but Gale swiftly avoided the contact. All they could hear was an angry squawk behind them.

Gale set them down at the northern borders before flying off to provide surveillance from the air.

They walked for a minute or two until they reached the north gates.

"Halt! Who are you?" A soldier asked gruffly.

"Let them in!" Another soldier commanded.

The first one whirled around to face his captain. "But sir?!"

"I know who he is. Let them in." The captain told him.

The first one reluctantly opened the gates.

They went inside.

"Hello old friend." The captain greeted Alex with a handshake.

"Hello Rufus. How're you doing?" Alex greeted back.

"Fine. Kids too, thanks to you." Rufus beamed.

Alex smiled and acknowledged. He turned to Elsa.

Rufus, this is Elsa. The former queen of Arendelle. Elsa, this is Rufus, captain of Aislecian guard.

Rufus bowed low. "Milady, it's a pleasure to finally meet you."

Elsa smiled and curtsied. "The pleasure's mine captain."

Rufus turned to Alex. "So, what owes to this pleasant surprise?"

"Unpleasant reasons Rufus. Perhaps you can suggest a place away from where someone could overhear us?" Alex was grim.

"Yes of course. Follow me."

He led them to a secluded place in a pub. "Drinks?" He asked when they sat down at a table in the corner. Elsa sat beside Alex and Rufus infront of them.

"No thanks." Alex and Elsa said simultaneously.

He shrugged and and ordered for a beer. "Okay. We're safe now."

"I wanted to know how much you can tell us about this." He pulled out the Steelwood arrow and kept it on the table.

"Well, you must already know it's a Steelwood arrow if you tracked it down here. These arrows are made at only one place here. That's at Barton's weapons shop six blocks away from this building. They are very expensive and extremely strong. Mainly because the wood needs a lot of fine tuned care. You can also see the Barton's insignia on this one here." He showed them a small 'B' written in cursive on the rear end of the wooden shaft.

Alex nodded and pulled out a paper from his pocket. "And, I also wanted to know about this crossbow."

He unfolded the paper and showed him a neatly drawn crossbow. The weapon wasn't a standardized version of a crossbow. It had a thicker prod and a considerably longer tiller. The bowstring had a pulley system attached to it so as to reduce the weight of drawing the string back but increasing reload times significantly. The entire setup increased the weight to reduce the recoil value. Even the best crossbows failed to pierce through bone and flesh, but the sleek and heavy design of the Steelwood arrows and extremely high powered modified Ectari crossbows made it possible to hit two people in a row.

The frown on his face was genuine. "These crossbows, they are modified version of the Ectari crossbow."

"What's an Ectari crossbow?" Elsa asked curious.

"It's the most powerful crossbow ever built. This thick prod made sure that the bolt travels lightning fast and the extended tiller made sure that it accelerated for a longer duration before it launched. But it never got sanctioned due to costs and significantly high recoil and reloading times. Only two of them were ever made. The recoil was high, but sustainable. But the reloading was the hardest part. The power required to pull the string back was so enormous that even the strongest men failed and sometimes even snapped their fingers off if the string was released accidentally."

"So you didn't think of using the gear system?" Alex asked him.

"We did, but you would get beheaded until you reload with that, in a battle. The only way to survive that..."

"...was to organize a well coordinated attack or defence." Alex completed the sentence for him as he recalled the back and forth movement of the attackers with each taking turns to fire at the Glitharians while the other reloaded.

"Exactly." Rufus exclaimed.

"But you couldn't do it because the mass production costs were too high." Elsa guessed.

"Yes, but why do you ask all this?" Rufus wondered.

"We were attacked with these weapons." He gestured at the Steelwood arrow and Ectari crossbow.

"Impossible!" Rufus exclaimed completely shocked. "One of the crossbows was destroyed by melting it and the other one is in the king's heavily guarded treasury. I saw it myself just yesterday, and the day before that, and everyday before that."

"Then how do you explain hundreds of these already manufactured and used against us and the Glitharians?" Alex asked leaning forward.

Rufus was completed dumbfounded. He gaped with his mouth closing and opening at intervals. "Glitharians? Hundreds of Ectari? No...I...I...don't know what to say..." He stammered.

"We have to find who Barton sold those bolts to. It's our only chance to find who this enemy is." Alex told him.

Rufus took a deep breath. "I'll help you. But...if the king orders me to do something, please forgive me. My loyalty lies toward my king."

Alex understood but wasn't going to back out. "If the king orders you to wage war against Arendelle for no reason, it's best if you stay loyal to your family."

It was an advice. Alex wasn't telling him to be a coward. It was absolutely true that Arendelle was many times stronger than Aislecia. And Corona won't hesitate to form allies with Arendelle. The odds of winning against two of the strongest kingdoms weren't very bright for them. The king of Aislecia had only formed allies with Arendelle for trade. Otherwise, he held quite a grudge with Queen Anna. He was crazy enough to even start a war.

Rufus walked infront of them lost deep in thought. Alex and Elsa walked together.

"Are you sure we can trust him?" Elsa asked.

"He's been one of the best soldiers I have known. He concentrates on justice. If you will, he's like the king of the Aislecian armies. So in all, yes, we can trust him."

"Through here." Rufus called behind him.

He led them through a backdoor to a store. Barton's weapons store to be precise.

There was a plump man sitting on a stool. He was wearing protection gear to protect himself from the heat of the multiple forgeries in the next room. The heat radiated in the room they were in too.

Rufus called him. "Henry, we have visitors."

The plump man turned to face them. As soon as his eyes fell on Elsa, they widened. "Goodness gracious! The snow queen herself in this...well...hot place! I'm honoured." He grinned nervously at his own joke and bowed down to her.

Elsa nodded and curtsied. Snow queen wasn't her favourite title but she rolled with it. It reminded her of a story written by Hans Christian Andersen. She had sworn a long time ago, not to go on the same path as that snow queen had.

"I didn't know you were in town." He told Elsa. "Please, have a seat." Henry asked the trio gesturing to the five stools in the room.

Rufus started. "I'll get straight to the point here Henry. I'm on a mission to find a certain...culprit. I need to know if you sold your Steelwood arrows to someone."

"Well, there's a lotta people comin' and goin' through here who buy Steelwoods. Ya need to be a bit more specific here."

Rufus opened his mouth to speak but was cut off.

"Preferably over fifteen hundred bolts. Enough for a small army." Alex said.

Henry Barton just chuckled. "No army who wields the Steelwood arrows is small. But in answer to your question, there was a certain chap who wanted 'em yeah. Full two gran' of 'em that too."

"Two thousand bolts!" Rufus nearly jumped with shock.

Henry made an annoyed clicking noise with his tongue. "Call 'em arrows ya 'diot! Don' insult them like that! 'ave some respect!" And he caressed a Steelwood bolt in his fingers in a manner of speaking to it and even singing a lullaby.

Rufus rolled his eyes. "Who did you sell them to!?" He asked angrily.

"Chill dude! He was wearing a hoodie. I got no idea." Henry said.

Rufus slapped his forehead. How could he possibly do such a huge transaction and not know who he did it with!

Someone was yelling for the store owner outside now.

"But he did leave this behind." Henry said piquing their curiosities.

He held up a golden amulet. "Poor chap couldn't pay for all the arrows, so he gave me this in addition to some bags of gold."

Rufus rushed over and neatly plucked the amulet out of his fingers before he could tighten his grip.

"Hey! Give that back!" Henry almost yelled.

But Rufus didn't hear it. He was busy staring at the ancient seal on the amulet. "Look! This is the Cintherian Royal Family crest!" He said shoving the jewel into Elsa's hands.

It was a gold amulet with a ruby on top and two torches crossed perpendicular to each other, with a sword pointing downward from the centre. Myth had it that the name 'Cintheria' came from the word 'Cinder' when they tossed hot coals and burning torches into the ranks of their enemies and then, taking advantage of all the confusion, ran them through with swords defeating their foes mercilessly.

The voice of the person outside the store was getting louder by the second.

"Do you think it's a forged piece?" Elsa asked Alex.

"Forged!?" Henry exclaimed. "I can tell you that this is not fake as clearly as I can tell oil apart from water, your highness."

Elsa didn't look completely convinced.

"And if it was fake, why would he promise to come back to collect it?"

"Wait a second, he's coming back!?" Rufus and Elsa exclaimed.

"Yeah. That's him right there yellin' his head off outside m' store."

A beat later, Alex heard a bang of a door close behind him and Rufus was missing. Oh no! He thought.

Alex and Elsa rushed out of the door leading to the main selling hub of the store. If had all kinds of various weapons kept on it's racks for display, and had a large counter with foldable open doors.

Alex caught sight of the guy who was yelling. The man looked at him and started backing off. Rufus, who had run around the store yelled for that guy to stop. Wrong choice Rufus. Alex thought as he sprinted to the counter chasing after the guy who just took off.

Alex did an expert spinning vault over the large counter which helped him to not slow down even the slightest. Parkour was an art that came bundled with the job of chasing criminals all around for a few years. Elsa, though still working on her Parkour skills, managed a graceful, basic left handed vault and a slide over conjured ice that left the people gaping that the former queen was in their presence and was chasing a guy with warrior like skills.

Rufus gathered some soldiers on his tail as he followed the man through narrow alleys and crowded squares. Elsa froze the ground beneath him so he would slip, but his heavy studded boots made sure that he never slowed down. The weight did make him slow down, but it would have been an easy catch if he didn't keep shoving things from the streets in their ways, slowing them down considerably effectively. They were almost at the north walls again. Alex predicted the direction he would go in was a left alley and then circle a few blocks to get to the western docks. He broke off from the tail of the captain and took a shorter route to intercept him from the front. Elsa kept with him, even though she was getting tired quickly. He slowed down a little for her. He'll be able to catch him anyway.

Elsa noticed the drop in speed and immediately looked at Alex desperately. "Alex go! I'll be fine." She told him breathlessly. He looked back at her, smiled and drew his staff out.

Alex drew out the spear blade of his staff, turning it into a weapon looking like a Naginata. He saw the man running along the wall, to reach the gate to the docks. He apparently had taken a shorter pathway than he had thought he would. Doesn't matter. He thought. I got him anyway. Alex and the culprit were perpendicular, closing in on each other. He took careful aim and launched his weapon in a spear throw like motion.

Elsa already knew that Alex had not taken aim to kill the guy, but just to trap him. But it didn't stop her heart from beating faster and faster as the blade of the spear came dangerously close to his head. The spear missed the man's head by a full fifteen inches flying from the front of his face, but until the man crossed those fifteen inches, the extremely sharp blade of the spear wedged itself into the wall beside him.

The man realized it a little too late, and tried to stop but failed.

Elsa heard a sickening crunch as the man's nose bashed into the shaft of Alex's spear which was buried hard into the wall, and he fell flat on his back.

The surprise came a few seconds later as he got up and tried to run again. He saw that he was completely surrounded from all sides and the gates to the docks had been closed. He tried to grab Alex's weapon, but was blown off by a strong gust of wind. He rose ten feet in the air flailing around before he crashed on the ground, finally knocked unconscious.

"Thanks Gale." Elsa said gratefully for the help.

Short chirps indicated a "Welcome" response from the wind spirit.

Gale wasn't violent, but if someone threatened his beloved fifth spirit friend, he could get quite furious.

"Get his ass in the dungeons. I want him for interrogation." Rufus growled.

"Yes sir!" A few soldier followed the orders.

"Next time we're in a chase, try to make the ice grab his foot instead of trying to make him slip." Alex whispered to Elsa. She chuckled lightly. Why didn't I think of that!? She scolded herself.