Cross-posting this from AO3. More chapters are available there. Thanks for reading!
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Late morning sunlight filtered through the tall windows of the castle library, illuminating the opened page of the book in the girl's lap and setting her auburn brown hair aglow. The princess completed her recitation in a bright, clear voice and lifted her head to look up at the faces assembled before her.
"As I was saying," she concluded, tapping the page emphatically with one finger, "here lies the unforgiveable error. You see, with just one passage the author renders the entire first two acts of the book utterly meaningless! I mean, don't get me wrong, everything leading up to this was great. Really epic stuff. A classic hero's journey, full of adventure and likeable characters. The castle made of ice was especially fantastic, I thought. And the bit with the water horse? Ughh! So good!"
The princess moaned appreciatively, and she thought a few of the others seemed to agree with her opinion. Her face darkened to a scowl as she continued her critique, brows drawing down mulishly over her seafoam blue eyes.
"I mean, almost everything was amazing. Personally, I didn't love the bit about the foreign prince disguised as a servant boy. I mean honestly, all the clues were so obvious from the start. How dense can you be? She should have figured it out by chapter three at least. But everything else was just… amazing, really. Which just makes it even more frustrating that after all those wonderful pages to build up our protagonist, the author just had to go and ruin it! Our heroine approached the innermost cavern! She overcame the great ordeal, fair and square. It was finally time for her to receive her ultimate reward and return to her kingdom with her crown! But what do we get instead?..."
She trailed of leadingly and was met with a stubborn silence. This time, when no one spoke up in the face of Her Royal Highness' rising literary distress, she slapped the offending page with an open palm and rolled her eyes dramatically.
"It was all a dream sequence?!" she proclaimed, horrified. "Seriously? What a…" – her mind searched for the most appropriately scathing insult - "… What a hack! What a waste of my time! Two hundred pages revealed to be naught but fever delirium? And now we are just supposed to care about starting over with different versions of the same characters in an alternate reality? Well I'm sorry but I just don't buy it."
Princess Anna loudly snapped the book shut and slumped back in her chair. From the plush, wing-backed sofa next to the library's unlit fireplace, the Professor's gentle snores hiccupped and stuttered briefly, threatening wakefulness for a moment before continuing on rhythmically once more.
"I simply refuse to read any more of this… drivel. I know this goes against our reading club rules, but we're gonna have to pick a different book for next week. Yup, you heard me folks. I won't read another page of this… this lazy, hackneyed garbage!"
Sensing reproach in the expression of one of her companions, the young woman straightened and glared back before he could speak his objections, her restless fingers fidgeting with the ends of her girlish twin braids.
"Oh no, now don't start with me today, Great Uncle Nicholas! We all know you never finished any of the previous reading assignments either. Honestly, I don't even know why you come to these meetings anymore. All you do is sit there and frown at the rest of us."
Silence met this proclamation as well. Silence, but for the murmuring snore of her tutor and the steady ticking of the clock on the mantelpiece. Great Uncle Nicholas was indeed frowning. His bushy black eyebrows were perpetually drawn down in reproach and his cold eyes always seemed to follow Anna around the room judgmentally.
She turned to another seat, her tone shifting to apologetic, eyes brimming with warmth and sincerity.
"I'm sorry, Gerty. You're right. I shouldn't be so rude to Uncle Nick. And I know this book was your pick this week. I had high hopes for it too. It's too bad the author turned out to be a total nitwit. Now, now, please don't look at me like that. I said I was sorry! How about we let you pick the next book to make up for it? But please, no series with missing volumes this time. My heart can't take investing in another story only to discover the work is incomplete."
In contrast to her great uncle, Saint Gertrude was always a calm and kindly figure in Anna's little reading circle. Plaited brown hair framed an eternally pleasant and plump face, her soft, cow-like eyes demurely cast down at her primly folded hands. Her lips, however, turned up slightly at one corner, forming her expression into a curious smile that always made Anna think that she must have had some kind of funny little secret to share.
A sudden march of footsteps in the corridor beyond was the only warning the princess had before the library's double doors were abruptly thrust open, interrupting the scene. Anna gasped in surprise and stood gracelessly, the book tumbling from her lap to the floor. A hot blush of embarrassment immediately flooded her face as she saw her father, the King of Arendelle, enter the room. As ever during this time of a workday, he was followed by a small constellation of his usual attendants and guards. To her great relief, they did not enter, but rather lingered in the hallway just outside, muttering amongst themselves.
King Agnarr paused as he surveyed the room, noting the shelves upon shelves of books all neatly in their rows, the glow of morning sun that warmed the woodwork of the central desk and scattered reading tables, and his only daughter standing in a circle of gathered chairs, upon each of which rested a portrait painting that had no doubt been pilfered directly from the library walls for her purposes.
"Father!" the princess squeaked, her blush visible from across the room. "Gosh, I… I wasn't expecting you." She took several steps towards him and spread her hands as though to block his view of the little tableau she had created with her body. Then she stopped, dropping her hands and shuffling her feet. She cleared her throat and looked down, then peaked back up at him and shrugged helplessly, a rueful little smile tugging at her lips as her eyes met his again.
The King sighed and returned her small smile with one of his own, stifling the urge to shake his head. This wasn't the first time he had caught her in a similar predicament over the years, though he had rather thought that she might have outgrown her flights of fancy by now. He couldn't find it in himself to chastise her, however. The war had certainly taken its toll. The heightened security within the castle grounds; the ever increasing isolation of the past ten years; the strict limiting of servants and staff to the trusted few, and his refusal to admit guests or visitors… It hadn't been good for their Anna. His daughter desperately needed society, he knew. Society that he couldn't give her. Not just yet, at least. Not until things were safer and the war was won. Not until that witch in the north was dead and buried.
But perhaps I should have done something like this far sooner, he thought to himself regretfully. She's a young woman now. She needs someone her own age around to keep her company, not just geriatric retainers and servants who are thrice her age.
No matter. Fate had handed him a short term solution. He was taking action now, at least, and soon enough the war would be won, the Ice Queen defeated, and things would finally be able to return to how they had once been in Arendelle. Then he and her mother would be able to give her all of the things she had ever dreamed of. Balls and parties. Festivals and dances in the castle's great hall. A thriving court filled with young nobles from across the lands with whom she could make friends and acquaintances appropriate for a young woman of her age and station. Anna would have all the high society a youthful, beautiful princess could stomach… once peace returned and Northuldra was no longer a threat.
"I'm sorry for disturbing you during your studies, Anna," the King said, a bit wryly. As ever when speaking with his daughter, his tone was brusque but not lacking in warmth. He loved her dearly, but he was also a busy monarch who was always long on duties and short on time.
"Oh! Gosh, um, you're not disturbing us father," his daughter hurried to reassure him, her earlier embarrassment giving way to eagerness. Her father almost never sought her out like this, and had never approached her before in the library during lesson hours. "As a matter of fact, we were just taking a short break… Isn't that right, Professor?" she called, raising her voice. The king's eyebrow quirked as the snoring merely increased in volume.
"Professor!" Anna shouted, exasperated. This at last resulted in a response, the old man jerking from his sleep, his snore ending in a confused splutter as he startled upright and blearily peered in their direction.
"Eh? What?... Who?" the Professor croaked, hastily righting his glasses on his beaked nose and straightening the black academic robes that hung from his bony shoulders like rather funereal window drapes.
"I was just telling the King that we were taking a short break from my studies, Professor," the princess repeated in a very kind, yet also very loud voice, mindful as always of her honored teacher's failing hearing.
"Oh… Oh! Yes, quite right, Highness. She is quite right, Your Majesty. It's important to give a young mind adequate time between difficult lessons to fully absorb the knowledge it has received." The old man nodded sagely as he tottered to his feet, bowing his head – with its wisps of white hair fraying wildly in every which direction – respectfully to his king.
"That is well, then," Agnarr said, agreeably. "Thank you Professor, for your care and diligent instruction of my daughter. If you could leave us for now, however, I have something I wish to discuss with Princess Anna. Perhaps her lessons may be concluded early for the day?"
"It is my great honor, Your Majesty, and of course I will take my leave," the bent little man intoned and bowed even more deeply with a level of solemnity that was rather ruined by the fact that the knee high woolen socks just visible under his scholarly robes did not match, one a deep blue and the other an abused mustard yellow. He shuffled past the two royals and out of the room, momentarily upsetting the huddle of attendants that still lingered in the doorway and cheerfully murmuring something about finding an early lunch as he went.
Anna stifled a giggle, smiling at her father as their eyes met.
"Dear me, I don't remember him being quite as bad as all that when he and I spoke last," her father mused, realizing with some chagrin that it had been well over a year since he had last spoken to his daughter's aged tutor. "When I was a young man, if I so much as blinked too long during one of his mathematics lectures or historical recitations, he would make me stand in that corner over there for the rest of the day to ensure I stayed awake. I swear I must have worn the carpet to threads in that spot over the years. Does he sleep through all of your lessons now, Anna? How long has this been going on? It's no wonder your progress has been lackluster of late."
Anna couldn't help but feel shame on behalf of her beloved teacher, as well as worried for him. One word from her father would see him stripped of his position and out of the castle and her life forever. She opened her mouth to deny everything, but found the words wouldn't come, a lifetime of obedience making it simply impossible for her to lie to her father.
"Oh! Oh no, that's not… I mean, yes, he is getting a bit… Well a bit scattered and forgetful sometimes, I guess. And I'll admit his lesson plan this year has not been very organized or… coherent? But it's not his fault, honestly! He's a wonderful man, father, and so good to me, and he really does try to teach me, but you know his hearing isn't what it used to be, and I'm not the easiest student. And you know, he really does need new glasses too, I think. He struggles with the small print in so many of these books and it's hard for a man his age to work for hours and hours without…"
She paused her rambling. Best not to mention directly how often he fell asleep during their scheduled lessons, she decided. Actually, better she stop talking entirely.
"… but when he's awake he is really very learned and clever and please don't fire him!" Anna concluded in a rush, cringing as she realized that for some reason everything she was trying to say to defend her teacher had instead come out in a way which really rather made things sound worse.
"Worry not, Anna, I'm not going to throw him out on the streets," he reassured her, an indulgent twinkle in his eye. "He has served this family well for decades, after all. And besides, I doubt there is another man in the kingdom who can match his level of scholastic knowledge – when he is awake, that is." Her father winked. "And I will even ask Lord Raspaitin to fashion him a better pair of reading glasses. He'll resent the distraction from his other work, of course, but that should be easy enough for a man of his abilities."
And also provide a gentle reminder that he serves at my pleasure, and not his own, the king thought to himself, already picturing his gaunt advisor's sneer of annoyance at being asked to apply his talents to so lowly a task.
His daughter exhaled in relief. She had been worried, she wouldn't deny it. The castle was a large and lonely place these days, and besides her parents and perhaps one or two of the guards and servants, the Professor was one of the only people she felt was somewhat of a friend.
"Thank you father. He really is a wonderful teacher."
"Yes, well, now that we have that sorted, on to more pressing matters." The king paused to stroke his well-groomed mustache thoughtfully, then continued, nodding. "After what I have seen here today, I am even more certain of the wisdom of my surprise gift for you. Yes… Yes, I think this is all almost too serendipitous to be believed. Sometimes good fortune favors us and we mustn't ignore it when a perfect solution falls in our laps."
"Gift?" Anna said, her excitement returning. She wasn't sure what her father was talking about, but the surprise gift bit she heard clearly.
"I have a very special birthday gift for you, Anna, and I think you will be most pleased."
"But my birthday was almost three months ago!" she pointed out, laughing. "You really shouldn't. You spoil me, father."
Her eighteenth birthday had arrived at the same time as a massive winter storm, and the royal family had spent it warm in front of a roaring fire in their private apartments in the North Wing of the castle. The king and queen had surprised her with a large chocolate cake and a dizzying array of other sweets and confections, and she had nearly made herself sick on them throughout the long, cold night. In addition to the desserts, her parents had also arranged to have her personal effects moved out of the nursery rooms of the royal apartments and into a set of her own private rooms in the mostly empty East Wing. Anna now had her very own spacious bedroom, office study, bathing chamber, and a sitting room for taking tea or meals with visitors.
Not that Anna ever had visitors. Not with the way things were in the castle now with the war and all. Her mother had joined her there a few times of an evening for tea and conversation. Those visits had been fun and joyful, and had made her feel very grown up indeed. But it was nice to dream about inviting other guests (or maybe even friends of her own!) to tea in her own private sitting room someday.
"A very belated birthday gift then," the king agreed, shrugging his broad shoulders. "And yes, I do spoil you. I am the King. I can spoil my only daughter however much I like."
He turned to face the hall, tall and strong and regal as he called for his steward, Master Kai. Anna couldn't have loved her father more in that moment. Sure, he may be distant and stern most of the time, but it was moments like these where she truly felt her parent's love.
The tall steward emerged from the corridor, his balding head shining with its ever present dew of sweat, the ring of keys that signified his office jangling loudly on his belt. His charge followed behind him quietly, head bowed as she entered the room and stood unobtrusively to one side.
Anna looked at her father, then at his steward and the young stranger, confusion writ clearly on her face. Kai's hands were empty, his thumbs hooked on his leather belt beneath the paunch of his belly. The girl's hands were also empty of any gift, clasped together in front of her plain skirts in a posture of obedient waiting. Anna looked her over in surprise, noting the simple woolen dark gray tunic and lighter gray skirt. Her white apron belted over top was lightly soiled from years of constant use. She wore no jewelry that the other girl could see, and her white blond hair was pulled back and woven into a neat, thick braid that hung in front of her left shoulder. She was dressed not unlike many of the other female servants who tended the castle, though she seemed young. She tried to catch a glimpse of the girl's face, a flutter of excitement filling her in the sudden hope that she might be close to her own age, but the girl kept her head down and facing the floor. Just as Anna turned back to look at her father, opening her mouth to speak her confusion out loud, she saw a glimpse of deep, sapphire blue eyes that quickly peered up and around the room, the gaze seeming to sweep around and through her in an instant, seeing everything, stripping Anna bare, before that intense gaze flicked back down to the floor once again.
Anna gulped.
"Father? I don't understand. What is the gift?" she asked, her throat suddenly dry.
The king laughed merrily at her confusion, sweeping his hands in a grand gesture.
"Don't be silly Anna. The slave girl, of course! I'm giving her to you. Think of her as the first official member of your own private household. It's high time the Princess of the Realm had a personal servant of her own to attend to her affairs."
The king looked at her with an expectant expression and Anna forced her face into a grimace that she hoped passed as a smile. Her father continued, oblivious to her discomfort.
"She's not been a slave for very long, and she's Northuldran to boot, so mind you are careful and stern with her at first. Oh, I know very well how you are with the staff here, Anna, and she is just a young girl after all. I doubt she will be any trouble, and I expect with that soft heart of yours, you will be a very kind mistress to the girl. However, you mustn't be shy about taking charge of her training. She is your servant now and I expect you to manage her appropriately. Ask Master Kai to instruct you on anything you are unsure of. You haven't had much experience with slaves, I know… Yet another thing which it was past time to rectify. A princess of Arendelle must be comfortable dealing with servants and slaves alike. Kai has been the acting overseer for the slaves who work the grounds and estate. I'm sure he can provide you any assistance you need with her." Here the king's jovial tone of voice became a bit more serious. "New slaves, especially wild caught ones like her, often need a firmer hand to start with. Just until they learn their duties and settle into their proper place, you understand. Consider it a part of your education, to learn how to deal with slaves properly in a civilized society. She will be your responsibility now."
Anna's head was whirling, overwhelmed by his expectations. She had never asked for this! Never wanted such a thing. Her eyes couldn't seem to leave the pale, bent head of the slave. The steward cleared his throat, bowing his own head to the princess as he spoke up after the king.
"His Majesty is correct, your highness. She has been with us over a week now under close supervision and has proven biddable enough, it's true, if perhaps a bit haughty. Ungrateful and full of herself, methinks. The educated ones often are, you know. But I must agree with the King. She is still a young girl after all, and they are usually still pliant at this age, and she has many skills which you will no doubt find useful in your service. And if your highness has any problems with her, any problems at all, you mustn't hesitate to come to me at once. I will set her right, I assure you, your highness. Or, if she proves at all dangerous or unruly, we will simply find her other, far less pleasant work elsewhere."
This last threat was delivered as blandly as a one might remark on the fine spring weather. Anna suppressed a shiver of revulsion. Dangerous? Unruly? Surely the young woman standing quietly beside him couldn't possibly be dangerous in any way. If anything, she was probably terrified, alone and scared in a foreign castle filled with her homeland's enemies. Anna felt an unexpected swell of protectiveness in her chest at the thought.
"Th….thank you? Master Kai, I… Gosh. Thank you, but… I really don't think that will be necessary! I'm certain she could never be dangerous, that is," she stammered, twisting one of her braids anxiously in her hands, her eyes still locked on the slim young woman who was apparently her belated birthday gift. As her father and the steward had each spoken, the girl in the simple slave clothes had gone completely still, her pale hands tightening their clasp and her jaw clenching. Anna wanted to melt into the carpet and disappear, so great was her discomfort at the situation she found herself in.
A slave as a gift! Given to her as carelessly as one might gift a horse or a new set of writing utensils. It was so strange, so beyond her comfort level. Yes, Princess Anna had always comprehended that there were slaves in Arendelle, and she had seen from a distance the men and woman who worked out on the castle grounds. Their pale tunics were perhaps a bit shabbier than the other servants and the guards kept a more watchful eye on them, but otherwise they were unremarkable for all that they were slaves and not free folk. Her father, in his paranoia for security, had never before in her memory allowed slaves to work inside his household. The maids, cooks and footmen who cleaned and cared for the royal family were all older retainers who had served since before the war, their loyalties proven by many years of faithful service. She was surprised he was willing to make an exception for this girl after all this time.
"It is no trouble at all, your highness," Kai assured her, smiling patiently.
Anna turned from him to the king, surprising herself with her firmness. "Father, I thank you for thinking of my comfort, but truly, I do not want a slave. It… it just wouldn't feel right."
"Don't be silly Anna," he chided, dismissing her words. "This is everything you have wanted for years now. A companion your own age; a maid servant to help you with your dresses and makeup and other such girlish matters. All those womanly things that girls your age are always going on about, and with your new apartments to maintain, you've need of a servant of your own now more than ever."
"And besides all that," he said, his voice softening a bit as he stepped forward to take his daughter's hands in his, his tone low so as not to be overheard. "I spoke with the girl a bit when she first arrived here, and I think the two of you will get on well together, Anna. I hate to see you so bored and lonely in your own home. A slave is not the same as having a real friend, I know, but I'll not have my daughter so starved for company that she is forced to converse with the wall hangings."
Anna's blush was now a permanent thing, flushing her cheeks and throat and neck, consuming her pale freckles in the inferno. She was more embarrassed than ever to have been caught conducting her "reading club" earlier. Her father must think her an addle-brained child.
And maybe… maybe he was right? It would be nice to have the company. Perhaps if she thought of her as simply a companion instead of a slave? But no, it was still just wrong to own another person as though she were an object. It was different with the other castle servants Anna knew. They were paid fairly for their employment. She could talk, joke and be herself with them, and they could do so with her in return because in the end they were always free to leave any time they wished. But this girl… This girl would be her slave no matter how kind she was to her. Even if Anna were to treat her as close as a sister, it would still be a lie, because the girl wouldn't truly be able to leave if she wished to. She would be trapped in Anna's company, and that felt so, so wrong.
Princess Anna had always known that she was vaguely repulsed by the practice of slavery, but before now it had been a distant thing. Now it confronted her head on in the form of a girl with pale blonde hair and searing blue eyes. A girl who was currently stealing more looks around the room from beneath feathery white brows when she thought others were not looking, and all the while clenching her jaw hard enough to break a molar.
A girl who, if Anna was being totally honest, she kind of, sort of, maybe a little bit… did want to have by her side, if only to ease her perpetual loneliness.
Selfish! Stupid! You cannot own a slave, Anna! It's not supposed to be this way.
"I'm not that lonely," Anna muttered, stalling for time as her mind whirred with her own indecision and deeply buried, selfish desires. "I have you and mother, and the Professor, and the other servants. A castle full of people, really."
"And now you have a slave as well," the king added with a chuckle, implacable in his stubborn surety that he knew what was best for her. Her resolve wavered even further, accustomed to bending to her father's will.
"I don't know father… I just… Are you sure?" she asked, feeling trapped by his expectations and her own heart's deep, desperate yearning for companionship.
"Sure and certain. Come now, it is already done. There is nothing more to discuss. The girl is yours. Let's stop all this fussing and allow Master Kai here to get you both settled. Really Anna, you should be happy! This isn't like you."
His disappointment crushed her.
"I'm sorry papa. Thank you, truly. I know you are always doing what is best for me. I will take good care of her, I promise."
She stepped up on tip toes to kiss him on his cheek. He gave her a brief hug with one arm in return. His daughter only ever called him "papa" when she wished to get out of trouble, and the clever girl knew it melted his heart.
"Yes, well, I shall leave you to it then. I will see you at dinner," the king said, making his farewells. His attendants and guards clamored after him in his wake, and soon it was just the princess, Kai, and the slave alone together in the library, the clock ticking away loudly on the mantle.
Anna gazed across the room, ignoring Kai for the moment, the steward hovering between the two girls like an over-dressed vulture. Her new slave's cool eyes lifted to meet hers fully for the first time, and the mantle clock struck noon with a loud series of clangs. Anna felt frozen as the cacophony sounded throughout the room, her feet rooted to the carpeted floor, her gaze caught and held by the other girl. She swear she forgot to breathe for a moment. The slave's eyes did not bend or break. The look in them was not meek, or biddable, and nor were they filled with any other hint of submission or fear which might be expected of a new slave. Rather, those cold eyes pierced her like lances of purest ice, and Anna found herself unable to move, or even draw breath for that matter. Held totally captive within the gaze of the other girl, Anna stood there like a fool as the clock chimes rang the hour, filling the room with noise. Then in the next moment the bells stopped their ringing and her new slave lowered her eyes once more, freeing Anna once again, normality reasserting itself. She took a deep gasp of air as quietly as she could and prayed for guidance.
Dear God… What have I gotten myself into?
