I hope this letter finds you all in excellent health.
First of all, I'd like to express how happy we are at our old friends' arrival. We understand the situation, and are ready to help in any possible way, at the slightest of notices.
Secondly, we'd like to congratulate Queen Anna and Sir. Kristoff Bjorgman for your wedding, and wish you good luck for your future. It truly is an honour to serve with you.
Thirdly, I'd also like to express my deep sadness at the lives lost at the Fiend Forest. I hope they find a better afterlife.
Lastly, I propose we keep each other updated at the progress we make in eradicating this threat. If you need anything, please don't hesitate to ask. We are just a whisper's distance away.
Yours sincerely, King Frank of Corona.
(Signed)
"Well, this sure makes things easier," Anna smiled in relief at reading the letter out loud.
It had been just a few hours since the fight against the mob threatening to harm the Northuldra. Though there were no serious repercussions to this mess, Mattias had already posted his most trusted men on the job to look out for any other Arendellians looking to hurt the Northuldra community.
The Northuldra were located at a small forest-like patch on the outskirts of the kingdom. They preferred to stay there as they felt at home, whilst still having a wonderful change of scenery from the top of the cliffs.
"How do we track down these Eight Kids?" Iduna asked concernedly.
"Mattias has already scheduled to dispatch a squadron of spies into every kingdom. He's also increased the internal security of Arendelle and is currently reviewing every person's identity and reasons to be here," Kristoff stated. "Perhaps that should get the job done?" He asked, looking toward Alex.
Alex wasn't paying much attention to his words. He was busy writing something.
"Umm...Alex?"
"Hmm…?" He said distractedly and then snapped to attention, "Oh no no, that wouldn't help at all."
Kristoff and Anna just blinked in confusion.
"What?" Anna asked in disbelief that he hadn't informed her of this earlier. Elsa was already pretty much used to it by now and just looked at him, mildly amused.
"The Eight Kids are discreet. We wouldn't know of their presence in this room if they were here, among us," Alex said in a neutral voice.
They were all alarmed at his words and looked at each other worriedly.
"Oh look there he is!" Olaf yelled pointing out to an open window in the room.
Sven jolted up while Kristoff withdrew a hatchet from his belt. Anna quickly drew out both her swords and brandished them at the gently waving curtain, ready for a world-war. Elsa sat quietly, but still readied her hands for combat in the case Olaf wasn't pulling their legs. Poor Agnarr and Iduna, oblivious to Olaf's tendency to prank people at the worst possible moments, took up a hard cover heavy book and a glass vase, respectively.
Olaf was dying of laughter at successfully pulling off a prank. Alex didn't bat an eye through all of this, and continued what he was writing earlier. He looked up at them and laughed amused, "Relax guys, I know them inside-out. They're probably hundreds of miles away from here by now."
They breathed a sigh of relief.
"You seem to have a history with them?" Agnarr asked curiously, while Anna scolded Olaf for scaring her with his prank.
"Ah yes!" Alex replied, "I have known them for about two years before I came here. They were one of my biggest rivals in the competitive field of assassinations and mercenary jobs. Of course, like the name says, they're a group of eight assassins. They're ranging from twenty-three to thirty-five years of age, so not really kids. Three of the eldest are brothers who hold the highest ranks, thus the triangle at the centre. The vertices of the pentagon are representing the other five assassins."
"Oh wow. You were an assassin?" Iduna asked, incredulous.
Alex nodded his head in response.
"But then how do we track them?" Anna asked, turning back to Alex, and interrupting Iduna's other question.
"Easy. We don't," Alex said in a strangely merry tone and smiled, keeping his pen down and folding up the paper.
Anna was confused, so Alex explained further, "We're never going to find that group, however hard we try. Instead of putting spies in the kingdoms to track down this group of assassins, we can use those resources to track down the enemy Cintherian army."
"They call themselves The Forsaken Legion," Agnarr informed.
"That's a...rather interesting choice of name," Kristoff said, raising his eyebrows.
"Eugene would be proud," Olaf said, to which everyone agreed.
"Thus, I was just writing to some spies I know of who are capable of this mission," Alex explained.
"So, you think that the Eight Kids and Forsaken Legion are somehow connected?" Elsa asked Alex.
"It is strongly evident, but not proven," Alex said. "The kids do their work for money. The legions have stolen more than just a shipful of money from Cintheria. They would surely be able to afford the services of more than just a few assassin groups, The Eight Kids included. Besides that, we did find the shoulder badge of one of the assassins. That's one very serious indicator. If the page was meant to lure us in the Fiend Forest, we played right into their hands, but they might not have expected us to be able to get away."
"What do you mean by 'serious indicator'?" Kristoff asked Alex, surprised.
"Assassins don't drop clues or anything for that matter by accident, especially the ones we are facing," he held up the leather shoulder badge. "I have a feeling that we are being played around with, for something. I'm just not sure for what exactly."
The same thought crossed through everyone's minds at his words. Perhaps the forsaken legion was trying to lure Arendelle in the same way they had lured Cintheria into their trap.
"Okay, so what can we do on this?" Anna asked.
"We just wait," Alex stated simply.
Anna was absolutely dumbfounded. "W...wait?" She sputtered incredulously.
She had expected some very complicated plans on how to face these threats, but all he suggested was to wait! If the kingdom was threatened, no monarch would ever wait around for the enemy to make their move, especially those which are extremely lethal enemies like the Forsaken legion and Eight kids!
"Think of this as a game of chess," Alex said, smiling happily. "We played our move when we escaped from the Fiend Forest. Now, it's their turn to play."
Anna wanted to argue, but Elsa caught her eye and shook her head slightly, in the manner of saying 'Listen to him. He knows what he's doing.'
One of the few pieces of advice Elsa had given Anna when she accepted the throne was to let Alex do what he did best. Though he practically never discussed security with Anna or had never even done so with Elsa, he never slacked off. There were a few life-threatening situations, but none of them even had any scratches to show for them.
It was six in the evening. The whole kingdom was abuzz with the widespread rumors of the old king and queen's return. Many had already swept the eastern woods to catch a glimpse of either of their old leaders. There were hundreds of theories floating around regarding how the king and queen may have survived. Some of those theories came dangerously close to reality, but they were immediately classified as far-fetched or too complicated to be true. The anticipation had built up in tremendous amounts. Many of the citizens had already approached Anna and Elsa to confirm that they knew about these rumors.
Word had already reached some other kingdoms and letters asking about the truth were already entering the castle in mass. Most of them were hopeful and happy while some of the others were angry and full of curses on how the previous king and queen had shut off the whole kingdom and about how they should have remained dead at the bottom of the seas.
Anna just ignored these letters and threw them in the fire as soon as she had read through them.
The plan had been set into action. Anna got some people to spread the rumor that they had seen Agnarr in the northern forest, closer to Arendelle. This lit the townsfolk up on fire. The excited and happy chatter made everyone in the castle smile. At this point, it wasn't a rumor anymore. It was an expectation, and it was soon to be fulfilled.
The next morning, the former king and queen were going to make a public appearance in Arendelle. The event with the mob that morning had left them shaken. However much the theory Erik had come up with was false, it had sense to it. Though most people dismissed him as crazy, some others had brought that story and had been caught plotting against the Northuldra by the soldiers posted by Mattias. Needless to say, they had immediately taken the decision to risk it without coming up with a proper story. They were nervous, but Anna and Elsa were going to help them. Afterall, Elsa too had made a public appearance after spending a very long time in her room. She had at least had some experience in handling the situation.
They had formulated up a mostly-true and small part-false story. Except for the part about Narsilla and the threat to Elsa, they had decided to tell them everything truthfully. If anyone asked why they hadn't come home from the Fiend Forest, they could simply tell that they had to prevent themselves from being recognised by the Glitharis and also that they had no way to return since it was an island and escaping it was extremely hard or impossible. It was the truth, but not the whole truth. The story was believable and simple enough to not raise many questions.
The morning star illuminated the delicate chimes of the clock tower as they rang to mark Ten O'clock. What made the chimes special on that day, was the deep, booming tolls of a massive bell at the front of the castle ringing along. The bell rang five times, indicating to the citizens of Arendelle to come at their earliest whenever possible. That bell was mainly used to make announcements to the entire kingdom all at once.
The people all had a surprised look on their faces. Some of them were astonished, since the last time that bell had rung, it had brought the grave news of the death of the former king and queen. They hoped that no such danger had befallen them once more. They dropped the work they were doing and trudged to the castle, chattering excitedly and looking around to see if anyone knew what was happening.
Inside the castle however, things were quite tense.
"Relax Kristoff. It'll be fine," Iduna calmly told him as they stood tensely in the main courts. Elsa, Alex and Olaf were outside the castle watching over the gathering crowd in the courtyards.
"I know, it's just that, I've never stood in front of so many people. It's making me a little nervous," he replied.
"Don't worry. You'll get used to it in a few months," Agnarr smiled.
The side doors to the main entrance hall swung open and Alex came in. "They're all here. Seems like they already know why they're here," He told Agnarr, smiling widely. The rumors were quite strong indeed.
"Okay. Are you guys ready?" Anna asked the trio, entering the room from the stairs above.
She was dressed in a dazzling golden-white gown, and looked marvellous. Her hair was tied up in a bun and she wore a long white cape with a golden Crocus on it.
Agnarr, Iduna and Kristoff nodded, albeit nervously.
Agnarr and Iduna, both were dressed in the same clothes they were dressed in at the time when their ship sank, and Kristoff was dressed in a black suit with a green shirt underneath.
The castle entrance opened to peering eyes of the citizens.
They took a deep breath and started walking to the entrance. Anna, Sven and Alex escorted them to the doors, as Elsa looked behind her and smiled encouragingly.
They saw the people waiting in anticipation. The walk was taking forever for them as well.
The trio came into the light. There was such a stunned silence for about three seconds, you could hear the shuffling feet of people who stumbled backward in their huge shock. And then, all of Arendelle exploded with a mighty joyous celebration. The bright morning was lit up with many happy faces of all the Northuldra, some other kingdoms' officials who had decided to stay back after the wedding and all of Arendelle as they all cheered and clapped.
Agnarr and Iduna's nervousness melted away as they smiled at the accepting faces of all their fellow ex-subjects with tears in their eyes. Oh how they had missed meeting all their friends for six whole years!
The loudest cheer among them was from Peterssen, who was just getting up after falling backwards.
The spirits had also curiously peeked at the source for the mass congregation and were overjoyed to see their old Northuldran friend among them. A frozen Nokk and Bruni on top of his head galloped into the courtyard. Gale swivelled around Iduna, greeting her again, but with a shower of Crocuses this time. Anna had no idea where Gale had found Crocuses in summer, but the smile that lit up her mother's face was priceless.
Elsa felt the same. Her heart swelled with joy at seeing her family so happy. Anna stood holding hands with Kristoff on her left and Iduna and Agnarr on her right.
A silence fell upon the crowd after a while. Anna broke the news of Kristoff officially being in line to the leadership of Arendelle.
As Agnarr and Iduna had legally stepped down from the throne and denied the claim to it, Kristoff accepted the responsibility of the kingdom by becoming king. The coronation was scheduled to be held in a month's time but until then, Kristoff was an acting king.
The crowd once again cheered happily. His ice harvester buddies apparently had prepared various names to call him. Alex couldn't quite hear what they said as he was standing guard with Mattias away from the family and near the cheering citizens, but he saw them roar with laughter as Kristoff blushed with embarrassment. Elsa gave them a playfully-stern look and Anna broke down into a fit of giggles at her husband. Agnarr and Iduna just looked between them, confused and amused at the same time.
The crowd calmed down once again, and Anna announced the news about the impending threat upon the kingdom. She left out the part of how the Forsaken Legion had infiltrated Cintheria and looted it, but did let them know of the fate that had befallen the Glitharis. While some of them cheered at the fall of the old enemy, most of the citizens were more horrified at the raw power they were facing.
"What now?"
"What are we going to do?"
"Who is responsible for this?"
The citizens were panicking as they calculated their options.
A few of the soldiers looked at Mattias for permission to silence the citizens and let the queen talk. Mattias nodded firmly.
The courtyard was immediately filled with loud booming ensembles of spear butts hitting the ground and swords banging upon shields in periodic intervals, as the soldiers attempted to silence the crowd.
It worked, but at the cost of surprising Anna and the others and intimidating the citizens into silence. The booms died down and Alex leaned in toward Mattias and whispered, "next time, perhaps use a more friendlier way to calm down the citizens."
Mattias nodded. It had certainly attracted the attention of the earth giants the last time he'd done that on a dam.
Anna was slightly thrown off by the sudden noise, but grabbed her bearings in time. She explained the new security measures for the entire kingdom, applied from that moment onwards. They included surveys of people at the gates, tighter securities around trading posts, thorough checking of all the pathways leading into the kingdoms and surveillance and patrols around the clock on the walls. They weren't the best measures, but that was all they could place on such short notice.
Alex saw the chattering group relax with each precaution being announced. The kingdom trusted their monarchs and military. Out of all the chaos, he noticed that Gale was missing. "Odd," he thought to himself. The wind spirit never just flew off in such times of crises. He put it at the back of his mind, but he had a small nagging sensation that something was wrong.
4:00PM, In the castle council chambers.
Agnarr, Iduna, Kristoff, Sven and Anna had taken to roam the kingdom, answering the questions the citizens had. Elsa, Alex and Olaf opted to stay behind.
Elsa had just attended a council meeting as Anna's representative. As a former queen, she still had the right to become queen in Anna's absence. Though she hadn't been briefed on some matters by Anna, Alex being one of the councilmen had already told her of the various happenings around the kingdom. It had gone just as smoothly as ever. While Elsa was catching a few breaths after the meeting, Olaf had come into the room with many questions regarding the adventures they had in the past night. Apparently, no one had enough time to explain everything to him in detail since the threats had been detected. Elsa promptly sat him down and began the tale. Alex was again, filling up some paperwork and listening in to Olaf and Elsa's conversation.
"So...let me get this straight," Olaf said after Elsa had completed the story, "you guys snuck into a kingdom, caught a thief there, interrogated him, escaped alive from there when the king clearly wanted to lay his hands on you, snuck into another kingdom, assaulted the royal couple there and escaped alive from there...again?"
Elsa bit her lip. Now that she thought about it that way, it did not seem a very good idea. "Yes...but," She started only for Olaf to squeal with excitement, "will you take me the next time too? please? That sounded fun!"
Alex chuckled at him. Elsa was more amused than surprised. She knew his tendency to sometimes overlook the terrible stuff and just concentrate on the good stuff. She was pretty sure that he only remembered the part where she and Alex had chocolates as snacks.
"It wasn't exactly that much fun," Elsa said gently and continued to bite her lip, cursing herself for popping his happy bubble and waiting for the pleading puppy eyes of Olaf. They thankfully never came. Instead, he just nodded in acceptance.
"But why did..." Olaf started just to be interrupted by a small knocking noise on one of the windows.
Their gaze shifted to see a patch of floating twigs, stones, leaves and a small, neatly folded paper outside the closed window.
Elsa hurried over and opened the door as Gale swooshed in, revolving once around the trio and dropping the letter into Elsa's outstretched hand.
Alex looked over at her curiously.
She opened the letter and read through it, the frown on her face increasing with each line.
"What is it?" Olaf asked, lifting his head onto his hands to get a peek, even though he was far too short.
"Trouble. At the Magical forest," she replied, tense. Her worried eyes locked with Alex's calm and contained gaze. He gave her an inquiring look.
"Something is scaring the reindeer," Elsa explained. "There have been...strange sightings around the campsite. The letter doesn't mention what, but it does say that there's a reason to believe this is someone hostile."
"Do you think this is the work of the Nightscalers?" Olaf asked.
"No Olaf," Alex said. "I don't think humans can scare these reindeer."
Olaf gave a huge gasp. "You mean there are wolves in the forest!"
"I'm pretty sure these strange sightings don't mean wolves," Alex hinted, glancing at Elsa, willing her to understand.
Elsa just gaped at him. If she was right in thinking what he was getting at, it could very well mean a huge thing.
"Olaf," she called out, "will you take this letter to Yelena? I think she will be at the north tower."
"Okay!" Olaf replied excitedly, taking the letter from her.
"And also, just tell her I'll meet her in the Enchanted forest," Elsa added.
Olaf's face fell at that. "You're leaving already?" He asked sadly.
Elsa hesitated. She didn't want to leave the kingdom in such a state, but also couldn't leave the forest to be threatened. "The forest needs me, Olaf. I'll have to go," she decided.
"Okay. Just stay safe," Olaf said and quickly waddled out of the room with the letter, even before she could say anything.
Elsa sighed sadly and walked over to her seat. Alex had been watching her quite keenly. Her features looked more troubled than he remembered them ever being like that. Something else was bugging her too.
"What is it?" Alex asked as she sat down.
She paused for a few seconds before answering, "Yelena. There's just something odd about her."
Alex knew where this might go. "In what way?" He asked.
"The way she reacted that day when you told mother could still be alive. It's...almost as if she had known her for her whole life," She said. Alex was frankly, quite surprised that she had caught Yelena's reaction at that moment.
"Well, they're both Northuldra," Alex said, "they may have known each other before the mist fell. Or they may have been close."
"That's the thing! Yelena never mentioned mother's name for the whole time I have been living in the forest! It's... almost as if she's hiding something," Her voice was turning accusatory with each word, her eyes flaring up.
Alex had to tread carefully around this area. He had to uphold his promise to Agnarr and Iduna, even though he didn't know why. He trusted them to have a good reason to hide this information from them.
"Maybe they were just sad memories she wasn't ready to talk about?" He suggested. He knew very well that if 'bad memories' and 'hard to talk about' came in the same sentence while talking to her, she would immediately reflect on herself, and calm down. It made him feel terrible at exploiting this weakness of hers, but he knew that there was no other way to defend this secret.
Her eyes softened immediately. "Maybe," she said distractedly, getting up again to walk up to an open window and stare out to the setting sun over the wide sea.
One thing that became clear to Alex at that moment was that she hadn't fully let go of the past. That she may have forgiven, but she had not forgotten.