Her boots made a tapping noise on the cobblestones. Alex's as always, remained silent. Though she knew the trick to silence that sound, she didn't do it as there was no need.

The huge gates in front of them opened immediately as the guards recognized who they were. The Arendelle castle loomed like a massive giant in front of them. The magnificent build of stone, wood and metal, had weathered even the wildest of storms and blizzards and still stood strong over the many years. She could see that a few lights were still on. Anna was apparently awake.

They walked in through the gates to enter the courtyard. It was late night. She caught a sweaty staff member taking a nap on one of the wooden benches, when he was supposed to be taking down the decorations. Smiling softly, she waved her arms without slowing down, while making her way to the entrance at the castle. A small fluffy cloud appeared over his head and showered him with a few snowflakes. Enough to keep him cool in the hot and humid summer air, but still letting him sleep comfortably. He stirred lightly in his sleep, but did not open his eyes. She knew how hectic putting up decorations could get. The staff had been working continuously for the past few days without rest to finish their work before the deadline of the wedding.

It had come as a late idea to both Kristoff and Anna, that they could hold the wedding on her birthday, and planning an entire royal wedding with just two weeks of deadline and then executing it all within time was a herculean task that the staff had managed to pull off. They deserved a break.

Alex and Elsa made their way to the entrance. He wasn't expecting any guests at the castle, as he had spotted the fact that the Coronan royal ship was missing from it's harbour when they flew into the kingdom. Apparently, they had left while they departed for Aislecia. Some of the guests preferred to stay at their ships, while the others, however royal they were, stationed themselves at one of their favourite buildings of Arendelle, specially designed to accommodate guests from around the world.

The night guards saluted the former queen, almost making her jump at the loud noise of their shoes hitting the ground.

"At ease gentlemen. There is no need for that anymore," Elsa spoke softly, but firmly to them.

"Yes my queen," One of the two soldiers said, bowing down to her instead.

She smiled lightly, nodded in acknowledgement and set down, navigating the parts of her home. She could've and even wanted to correct him, but now was not the time she decided. Even though she had abdicated the throne, people still liked to call her queen. It had been six whole months since she had decided to live in the enchanted forest, but some people never really got used to the fact that she was no longer the queen.

She still remembered Anna waking up late after a late night charades game, just three months ago. She had jumped in realization that Elsa was no longer queen, and that the

kingdom's fate was in her hands. Elsa had laughed it off, but was secretly worried that Anna might actually forget that she was queen, and cause a serious situation.

Since her abdication, she had been to a few matters regarding the kingdom's welfare, and Anna had been able to handle them quite well. While she was at the forest, she never really worried about her or the kingdom, as she knew that if Anna somehow inevitably messed up, like she herself had done many times when she had started out, Alex and Kristoff were there to help her out. Besides, Elsa had made sure that even though she was a princess, she was an heir to the throne and if under some circumstances, Elsa was not available, whether it be temporarily or permanently, Anna would be able to rule just as good as herself, if not better. However much she hated the thought about herself not being available in time of need, she could not deny the possibility of that ever happening.

Anna, though she disliked doing paperwork, and tending to letters, she loved to take care of the people around her. Not just Kristoff and Elsa, but the whole kingdom.

The corridors were lit, and the door to Anna's room was ajar. Elsa was about to knock, but stopped herself short when she heard a small snore from the inside. She chuckled lightly and opened the door, to find a spread-eagled Anna lying on the bed, snoring gently. Kristoff lay asleep beside her, his arm protectively draped around her waist. Agnarr and Iduna were nowhere to be found. Anna's right leg was dangling off the bed, so Elsa went over and gently lifted it up on the bed. Anna mumbled something about 'marriage monsters', but slept soundly again. Elsa muffled a giggle. However much Olaf believed that they had changed after their adventure in the forest, Anna hadn't changed in the slightest. Elsa kissed her lightly on the forehead and moved to the door, snuffing out all the candles with a flick of her wrist. She may not have control over fire, but she definitely could coat the candle wicks with ice long enough to cut off the oxygen supply. She gave the room one last look to search for Agnarr and Iduna, but they weren't there. She assumed that they were already in their rooms, and quietly closed the bedroom door behind her. Alex was waiting for her outside.

"They're asleep," Elsa told him.

"Maybe you should get some too," He replied.

She only realized how weak she had been feeling when he said it. The exhaustion would soon take a serious toll on her. It wasn't that she was usually just as drained as she was then, but the huge blood loss made sure she was physically weaker. Maybe it was time for her to take some rest. But she couldn't just hold all that information in, and just turn in for the night. What if they attacked Arendelle like they had attacked Cintheria, or worse, the way they had attacked the Glitharis? She hesitated to agree.

Alex sensed her thoughts, "It's alright, I'll handle this," he assured her.

"I know you will... I'm just...worried. We didn't get any useful information for precautions," Elsa said, averting her eyes.

"That's quite true, but don't worry. Everything will soon be great." Alex was not an optimistic person, but more of a realist. That's probably why Elsa always found comfort when he said

that. She knew very well, that he meant it, even though that didn't truly answer her question. She shrugged off the uncomfortable feeling in her stomach, that Alex might not have a plan, and was simply head bombing himself into believing it.

A small smile crept on her face, soon replaced by a small wince as her back stung painfully. Her reflexes made her hand reach behind her, to rub the place where it most hurt.

Alex smiled knowingly. He had worse experiences, evident by the huge and deep scars on his body, "Need help?"

"The bandage... it's... uncomfortable," she winced again before nodding and moving toward her room. Alex followed her. Though Elsa had moved into the forest, Anna wasn't ever going to move her things out. Her room stayed the same and completely organized, just like it was when she was queen.

Every room inside the castle always had a full box of first-aid in it. Not many ever needed it, since the staff and medical were always available, but if under some situation, they weren't available or in a very extreme case of emergency, the inhabitants could use it on their own.

Elsa didn't want to wake the staff, since they had a pretty hard week and there wasn't much of a reason to do so, when Alex was there right with her.

Alex extracted a box from one of the upper shelves of the room, while she unbuckled the clasps of her dress that were tying it to her back. She ignored the light tingling sensation at the bottom of her stomach, and slightly raised heat in her cheeks, and sat down on the edge of her bed distracting herself by concentrating on the feeling of relief she felt after sitting down. Alex strode over to her setting himself beside her and opening up the box full of bandages, cotton, and some bottles of medicine. She swung her hair to the front and exposed her bare back to him.

Alex knew exactly what her tensed jawline, rigid figure, evasive eyes and the light blush on her cheeks indicated. He gently slid his fingers underneath the adhesive of the bandage and carefully began to pry it off. Alex didn't have much experience with these types of bandages as they weren't the traditional 'wrap-around' ones, but those designed by one of the store owners of medical equipment and supplies. He regarded it as a genius solution as they didn't easily slip off when the user did activity. Alex immediately found the problem. The many times Elsa had moved, bent and arched her back, had made the adhesive weaker in certain patches, and the bandage brushed against the slash. Elsa winced a few more times as he pulled it away, but when he was done, the sight wasn't pretty. The wound was still quite fresh. The inner layers had healed, but the skin had still got a long healing time in front of it. The blue and black hues along with the swollen part around it did not help when he applied another clean bandage.

She relaxed her muscles as soon as the process was completed and thanked him. He smiled, giving a small nod and left the room wishing her good night.

He went to his room and laid on his bed for a while, pondering over what they had found, and what they could do to avoid a war, but other thoughts kept interrupting him.

Why had Ahtohallan chosen Iduna? What was the ultimate purpose of keeping secrets from Anna and Elsa? Why wasn't Ahtohallan answering Elsa's questions? How could he help Elsa to find what her purpose as the fifth spirit was? What or who were Agnarr and Iduna scared of, that could hurt them?

The same questions had been popping up in his mind for a long time, but the greatest question of them all was, why did Elsa have powers in the first place?

He knew that Anna believed that it was from the spirits, but he knew otherwise. If the spirits gifted every single person who had saved an enemy, there would have been thousands of kids born with powers each year.

Twenty minutes passed, but his mind was still uneasy. He took a deep breath and decided to settle the matter with them. He got out of his bed and headed outside his room. He knew through his instincts that Agnarr and Iduna were not in their rooms. He knew exactly where they might be.

He found his way to one of the big rooms in the castle. As soon as he turned a leftward corner, he heard voices behind one of the doors in the corridor leading him to the right. The doors were ajar and no light poured out of the room as it usually did.

Alex did not step into the corridor leading to the entrance to the ballroom, but stayed hidden at the bend, which shielded him from any eyes if the duo in the room were to suddenly step out.

"What can we do Agnarr?" Iduna asked, every single muscle in her body tense.

"We can't do anything about it. Not yet. Not until we find some way to keep them safe from Narsilla's eyes," Agnarr replied, calmly staring at the place where once, a tragedy had occurred.

The ballroom shone eerily in the moonlight. His cloak and hoodie covered him completely. He still remembered the incident that had happened there many years ago. The frightening few moments of their life where Elsa had accidentally hit Anna with her powers. He remembered the frantic attempts to find the trolls, as Anna got colder with each passing minute in Iduna's arms. He still remembered the terrified face of Elsa when she hid behind her mother.

"You know she will try to get to her when we reveal ourselves," Iduna sounded concerned.

"That's exactly what I'm afraid of," Agnarr said averting his eyes from the spot in the ballroom, "I'm just, not really sure if Elsa can face her yet."

"Elsa has the spirits' help," Iduna pointed out.

"But if a fight breaks out, we don't know what they'll do," Agnarr said, recalling the mist as it fell upon the forest.

Iduna looked defeated, "I don't want to keep anything from them anymore, Agnarr, we've hurt them far too much," her tone indicating that she wanted nothing more than to do it, but she was holding herself back.

"I know. I don't want to either, but we can't just tell them everything we know of," Agnarr said quietly observing her.

Alex could hear her sigh.

A momentary silence followed after their last interaction.

"You seem troubled?" Agnarr finally asked her.

She looked up immediately, and tried to say something only to lose it on the tip of her tongue. She hesitated and closed her mouth pondering over his question. She exhaled heavily, and said just one word, "Alex."

Alex smiled in understanding. She had a very good reason not to trust him.

Agnarr looked confused, "What about him?"

"He...he knows something about us Agnarr," she said, desperately pouring out all her concerns, "Something important. It's like, he knows what our plan is. There's something in his eyes that I just can't place. I'm afraid of that. I'm just not sure if I can trust him...yet."

Agnarr frowned, "Elsa has already told us everything he's done for them. He almost even sacrificed himself to save her. If he wanted to hurt them, that would've happened a very long time ago," he concluded.

"I know...I…" she hesitated, trying to find a way to express herself, but was spared the trouble when a castle guard entered the hall. He hadn't seen Alex, since the corner blocked the view to his hiding.

"Who're you?" He asked aggressively, pointing a sharp spear toward them. Their hoods made sure to shroud their faces in darkness, thus making sure that the soldier did not recognise them. The tightened security around the kingdom had certainly worked in catching two people sneaking about, but they were the wrong people to get caught.

Agnarr and Iduna both froze right on their spot, each one glancing toward each other to see if they had any ideas on how to face the question.

"We're uhh...guests...for Anna's birthday," Agnarr stammered, and realised his mistake after a split second.

The guard narrowed his eyes at them. He apparently wasn't used to people calling 'Queen Anna', just by her name, especially strangers who had snuck inside the castle in the dead of the night.

"You take her majesty's name with respect!" He snarled, closing the distance between the weapon and his throat. Agnarr suddenly wanted to laugh and say that Anna herself had literally ordered him to call her that, when he had teased her lightly by calling her 'your highness', but instead took a step back. Iduna took a threatening step toward the soldier, but immediately regretted it as the soldier swung his sharp spearhead toward her. Before either of them could react, a deep voice called out to the soldier from the doorway.

"It's alright Brian," Alex sounded stern, but slightly amused too. The guard spun around and his eyes widened and he immediately gave Alex a short bow, who acknowledged it by nodding his head.

"I'll take it from here, thank you," Alex said in a dismissive tone. He heard a small gasp and his name from Iduna as she looked at him in shock. Agnarr's face was completely reserved, but he knew that there was a storm of emotions coursing through his veins.

"But sir," the soldier tried to argue, but was cut off.

"They're with me, soldier. They're...old friends," there was no lie in what he said, but the context he used it in, was utterly visible to anyone who knew who the two strangers wearing the hoodies were.

The lower corner of Brian's jaw twitched almost unnoticeably. He nodded and immediately moved past Alex and out of the doors, his eyes fixated on the ground.

Agnarr and Iduna simply stood there, having no idea of their next step.

Alex, after confirming that every person was out of earshot, beckoned them to follow him. Iduna was initially a little relieved, but stiffened as she found that they were not being led to their rooms. She looked at her husband, who seemed just as surprised, but followed his suit nonetheless. After a minute of winding through the rather spacious corridors, they reached a set of huge double doors leading outside the castle.

"Where are we going?" Iduna asked him, a little of her suspicion and worry leaking into her voice.

Alex did not answer, but just moved out into the courtyard. He noticed the guy with the flurry on top of his head was now sleeping quite comfortably. Alex couldn't help but imagine his surprise when he woke up in the morning to find that the former queen had caught him napping when he had been given a task. The thought made him chuckle.

He reached the gates, and the massive, well-oiled doors swung open without a squeak. He went toward the bridge, and Agnarr followed him cautiously, with a hesitant Iduna behind him.

The cool air tickled his face after a long day of being exposed to summer heat, as he walked on the bridge. He came to a stop at the middle of the stone structure, and spun around to face them.

There were a few soldiers on the bridge, but he waved them off with a dismissive hand gesture.

"Alex…?" Agnarr started, but Alex already knew what he was going to ask.

"Elsa's fine, she's sleeping in her room right now," he clarified.

They were both relieved to hear that, but they had many more questions.

"What happened there?" Iduna asked quickly and eagerly.

"Perhaps, we should discuss that in the morning," he said lightly, dodging her question. It caught her off guard, making her purse her lips.

"Why did you bring us out here?" Agnarr asked, changing the topic and gazing around. Nothing much had changed, except the banners, some of which still showed the union of Northuldra, Arendelle and the spirits, and the others honoured the wedding.

"So that no one may overhear us," he said, simply stating a fact.

Iduna's jaw twitched, and she suddenly went stiff as she realised what his intentions were. Her face paled to an extent that the moon would be able to be called more colourful. Agnarr looked at him awkwardly and apologetically.

Alex leaned against the stone walls, waiting for either of them to speak.

"Alex, what you heard in there, we never meant to hurt you…" Agnarr said, misunderstanding his purpose of bringing them out of the castle. He then noticed his wife's pale face. Her eyes darted between Alex and himself.

Alex chuckled, in an attempt at lightening the moods, "I know Agnarr. I'm not hurt that easy," he said, shaking his head in an amused dismissal of the topic.

Agnarr was slightly confused at first, but it clicked immediately as he realised what Iduna was trying to communicate to him with her eyes.

"I'd like to discuss other things," Alex said, leaning forward and making eye contact with him. Agnarr immediately clenched his jaw, and closed himself off. A trait that he had seen many times in Elsa when she wanted to hide something.

Agnarr knew it as a fact that Alex wouldn't do something if he didn't have a good reason to do it. It had been clarified many times when Anna and Elsa had told them of their adventures with him. If Alex was asking about their secrets, he may have a much better reason than just curiosity. Alex struck him as a man who was definitely not to be messed around with.

Agnarr picked his next words carefully, "I trust you Alex, but these secrets are not about you in any way."

"I don't want to know your secrets," Alex said casually. "They are completely yours to keep or reveal. However, I would highly recommend that you reveal everything to them whenever you get the chance." Alex gazed at both of them.

Iduna sighed and shook her head. "You don't know these secrets. You have no idea of how much they could hurt them," Her tone was adamant, almost scolding.

Alex paused for a moment, looking into her eyes, as she scowled back at him, contemplating his next words thoroughly, "I know a mother when I see one Iduna," he said slowly, "Especially one who missed her daughter for thirty-five years."

He had said this calmly, simply without meaning any harm, but his words were able to shock Iduna to her deepest core. Her face immediately turned to one that reflected horror, fear, anguish and turmoil. Agnarr widened his eyes in surprise too.

"H...how did you…?" Iduna's voice was barely even a forced out whisper. The only person who ever knew the truth about her was Agnarr. There was no one else who knew about it...except Yelena.

Iduna still remembered that fateful day when her real parents had promised to come back to her, but they never returned. She remembered Yelena's kind and comforting eyes looking into her own as she hid beneath a shawl. She remembered her gentle embrace and her comforting shoulder when Iduna cried for her lost family. She was only five years old when Yelena took her under her wings. She treated her like her own daughter and loved her with all her heart.

The darker side to her story was that it was Yelena's father, who was one of the elders at that time. The same elder, who had noticed the dam affecting the forest. The same man, who was murdered by none other than king Runeard himself.

Her vision blurred as tears started to stream down her flushed cheeks. She felt her heart thudding inside her chest like a rampaging demon. She clutched a pole beside her, her knuckles whitening as she gripped it tightly.

Agnarr put his hands around her shoulders to stabilize her and gave Alex a half-hearted reproachful look, even though he knew that Alex was not at fault. He tried consoling her but she shook him off.

"How did you know about this?" She asked mustering up her strongest voice and standing up straight so as to not show any more weakness. She knew that it would make no difference, but she did it anyway to hide her trembling frame.

"It doesn't matter how I know," He said, shaking his head as the picture of Yelena's stronger than expected reaction flashed before his eyes when he told her about Iduna being alive. "What matters is that Anna and Elsa don't know," he told her.

"They don't need to know yet," Iduna said, trying her best to stay calm when she wanted to scream in his face. They knew it was cruel of them to deprive them of a grandmother's love, but it was more about the greater good.

"They will find out about it either way. Without anyone's help too for that matter. You're just prolonging it. And prolonging the inevitable will just hurt them more," Alex explained.

"They don't need any more guilt than what they already have on their plates," Iduna asserted forcefully, trying to prove her dominance. But she knew Alex wasn't about to back down that easy.

Instead, Alex did back down, catching her by surprise, "It is your decision in the end," He said grimly enough to send goosebumps up and down their spines, "But I hope you don't repeat the mistakes you have made before."

That last sentence was enough to crush any and all the resistance they had planned. It clawed at Alex's heart to see their faces droop, but he knew that it was for the best. It was necessary.

Alex explained further, "These past six years have been...difficult for them. They've changed drastically," He said. "Elsa is not that same afraid little girl who couldn't control her powers, nor is she the queen you raised her to be. That afraid girl died when Hans's sword struck upon Anna's fingers, and that regal queen is still trapped in the depths of Ahtohallan," the unusual way of describing change made them look up into his eyes inquisitively. It was as if he was telling a story. "And Anna is no longer an irresponsible, goofy, desperate and quite frankly, reckless lady she was years ago. She's a responsible queen now."

Tears welled up in Iduna's eyes again and Agnarr's face displayed a deep sadness. Not for the change in their daughters, but the reason they had to change themselves.

"They'll hate us," Agnarr finally voiced his innermost fears. "They probably still do hate us."

"They don't like secrets as much as you don't like them Agnarr, if not more," Alex informed. "They love you, and they forever will, no matter what. The only thing they need from you, is for you to have faith in them," Both their eyes shot up to meet Alex's pleading ones. The revelation was a surprise they never expected. Not from Alex at least.

Faith. A simple word, but one that can save lives. Not just two or five, but thousands upon thousands of them.

Alex was a complete stranger to them, yet he had an aura surrounding him. An aura of trustworthiness. However much they tried to believe otherwise, they knew in their hearts that he was right, that he was speaking the truth.

Slowly, they looked at each other, knowing they had been beaten. But for the first time in their lives, they couldn't have been more happy to be beaten. For the very first time in their lives, they had something that they hadn't experienced for a long time.

Hope.