The Hallowed Queen.
Chapter 5.
Kristoff couldn't help but feel extremely overwhelmed as he entered the main entrance of the castle. It was huge, luxurious, and cleaner then any place he has ever been inside of. He immediately started to feel self conscious about what he was wearing, and if he was dragging any dirt onto the lush carpets that just seemed to go on forever.
The walls were lit with what seemed like hundreds of candles, giving off a rich but cozy feel to the grand place. Growing up, the harvesters would talk about what it must be like in the castle. No matter where you were on the path coming down from the mountains, the castle could always be seen. The harvesters talked about how it must be filled with riches and luxuries, but nobody could have imagined this, and to think he was walking into the halls with the magical goddess Elsa by his side.
"Kristoff, are you alright? You look like you're going to be sick. " Elsa asked, noticing that the harvester's face looked a little pale in colour.
No! 'How could I be close to alright', he thought. "Its just that… Its just, this… this place is unreal." Kristoff said as he looked up and around the ceilings. Still taking in the sight, hoping to remember it so he could tell his friends about it.
Elsa started to realize that he was probably one of the only Commoners ever to walk these halls, at least in a very long time. Feeling the need to say something to ease the building tension Elsa asked. "I guess it's a little different then what your used to?"
"I've just spent my life looking at this place from a far, I never thought I would see the inside of it. I'm also used to sleeping under a branch of a pine tree for shelter, so this is, well, this is definitely not that." Kristoff said, surprising himself in allowing such a personal story to be passed on to the queen.
With a small smile slowly gracing Elsa's face she managed to carry on the conversation. "Well I'm glad you like it so far." Elsa Beamed. "It can be a busy place and as large as it is, privacy can be hard to come by. But it gets a little more like home on the upper floors and that's where we will probably find Anna." A small smirk graced the queens face "but its definitely not the same as a pine tree branch." She said with a small giggle.
Kristoff looked down at his boots and wasn't sure how to ask Elsa if it was ok to walk any further into the palace with them on. "Your majesty, I don't really want to drag dirt from these shoes into your home. I….
Elsa immediately looked down at the boots and understood why Kristoff was uncomfortable. "Humm." She thought. "Kristoff, I'm pretty sure I can take care of this problem if we use a little magic." Elsa said. "I'm fairly certain I can make you a new outfit."
"Right here in the hallway?" Kristoff asked, a little unsure of having Elsa Perform magic directly on him.
Realizing Kristoff wasn't really confident in being a test subject, the queen decided to make something out of thin air to see if she could.
Holding her hand out in front, Elsa and Kristoff looked on. "Think of something I should make." Elsa asked.
Finally realizing that he was going to see Elsa perform another miracle in front of him he blurted out "A hunting Knife."
"A hunting Knife?" Elsa repeated. "Actually, I'm not really surprised." She added.
Doing her best to remember a hunting Knife that her father once owned, Elsa started to close her eyes and focus. Almost immediately she could feel a electricity making its way from her mid section and channeling itself outwards towards her hand.
Blue and white sparks started materializing out of thin air around her hand giving way to a small cloud of vapour. When the vapour receded in her hand sat one of the finest crafted knives ever seen.
"OH MY." Kristoff said. "Wow."
Gathering himself and allowing his brain to catch up to what he just saw, he finally looked at Elsa. "That was incredible, at that knife, its, its amazing." He said, as he held his head in his hands.
Smiling at Kristoff's reaction, Elsa held the knife out to Kristoff. "Here, this is for you."
"You can't be serious, a knife like this is worth more then my sleigh." He said as he studied the incredible craftsmanship and materials Elsa summoned to create the knife.
"Well I guess that one of the weird perks to being able create things out of thin air. Its yours Kristoff, I want you to have it." Elsa said blushing a bit.
"Well thank you Elsa. Ill treasure this forever." Kristoff said, still in a state of amazement.
"Ok, so let me see what I can do about your clothes." Elsa stated.
Before Kristoff could protest, he saw the same sparks materializing around his whole body. A strange feeling of energy came over him which was so powerful it made his knees go weak and eyes roll back. It wasn't a horrible feeling; in fact it was a very relaxing feeling and one in which he welcomed.
Suddenly that same vapour took over his whole body and when it dissipated, he found himself wearing brand new clothes, custom tailored to fit, and made from very high-end materials.
"I can't even." Kristoff said grinning.
Elsa let out a laugh at Kristoff's innocent reaction. "Don't even ask me to explain how it works. I'm just happy it worked." She said, trying to hold back the laughter.
"Yeah, so am I." Kristoff said, doing his best to remain cool. On the inside however, Kristoff was overwhelmed and close to losing it. It was simply the most incredible day he has had in a long time.
"You know, E-Elsa. Your really incredible, I just want you to know that." He said looking down at his new get up.
Surprised and moved with Kristoff's admission, Elsa realized one thing. She could never hate this man. "Thank you, Kristoff. Um. That means a lot to me." She said with a beautiful smile.
Suddenly a well-dressed portly man came walking fast from around the corner.
"Your Majesty, thank god you're here. We have been looking for you for over half the day."
"Oh I'm sorry Kai, I went to town and then went looking for this man, Kristoff." Elsa said as she started to introduce the two.
"Well no need to apologize, but in the future maybe leave a note. We were about the dispatch the army to try and find you and your sister."
"My sister? Where has she gone." Elsa asked, a small bit of panic in her voice.
Kai, a man who never really gets excited about anything, and was extremely good at steeling his face to hide emotion, showed signs of panic himself. Although Elsa, and Anna were adults now, and Elsa was the reigning queen, Kai still felt very much like it was his responsibility to ensure that the girls would always be ok.
Kristoff could feel that something wasn't right about the whole situation. "Is it like Anna to leave the place without letting anyone know?"
"No, it isn't. In fact neither of us have ever really left the place, Its very weird." Said Elsa who was now visibly worried. "Kai, could you please have a few of the guards do a sweep of the town and see if she turns up anywhere. Please instruct them to not divulge that the Princess is missing."
"Of course your majesty, Ill get on it immediately.
Kristoff who was listening to all of this take place finally said "Elsa, if you don't mind, I would like to assist in finding Anna. It wouldn't be the first time I got her out of danger." Before Elsa could even answer, Kristoff was gone and out the same large doors he just walked into.
"Oh no." Elsa said to herself, thinking about Kristoff running out into Arendelle wearing the new shoes which may not provide him with the same level of performance as his old ones.
"We also have another issue that I think you might want to look into, personally. Kai said, still shaken from Kristoff's declaration and haste departure
"Oh, more important then my sister missing?" Elsa stated, not giving any care at all about Kai's other issue.
"Your Majesty, I understand, but I wouldn't dare risk taking your attention away from the Anna situation if I didn't feel it to be important.
Deflating a little Elsa gave Kai the eyes to carry on.
Taking a deep breath. "Earlier today a man who was renting a home and getting evicted became…agitated." Kai said.
Elsa's curiosity peaks when Kai stopped talking but looked like he had more to say. "Well you don't get arrested for being agitated in Arendelle." Eying Kai, to give her the rest of the story.
Taking another deep breath and letting out a nervous chuckle. "Well the house was owned by Lord Peterssen. It seems that after you removed him from council, he started trying to sell some of the homes he owns to raise money, kicking all his tenants out onto the street. This man in question assaulted Lord Peterssen after an argument and got himself arrested. Court is still in session now, apparently he also has a young son and wife who are now homeless." Kai said looking worried.
"Lord Peterssen." Elsa slowly said, visibly getting mad just in hearing the name. It was clear to Kai that Elsa harboured nothing but distain for the recently fired Lord.
"Judge Anders was proceeding the case but got called away to a family emergency, nothing appears to be going well today. Peterssen was adamite that he will get justice today and is demanding that court will be in session until Anders returns." Kai said.
"Well I believe in Arendelle, the Queen's judgement can overrule anyone so I want you to tell everyone that by order of the Queen, the case will be suspended till tomorrow morning. I will personally see to overseeing this case. Please send someone to take his boy and wife to a hotel in town for the night until we can figure out what's going on. As of right now I need everyone to focus on finding Anna and bringing her home safely. Just knowing that Peterssen is sitting in my courtroom gives me more reason to worry about my sister." Elsa said visibly tired.
"Understood your majesty." Kai said. "But if I may your majesty. You won't be much good to anyone if your tired and it looks like you had a big day. You need your rest to help find Anna, and deal with Lord Peterssen. Please try to get some rest and let us deal with getting Anna back?"
Realizing she was extremely tired, and that she wouldn't be much help running around Arendelle at this hour, Elsa agreed to try and get some rest. "Ok, Kai. I'm going up to my chamber. Please let me know if anything happens regarding Anna, and make sure every available member of the royal guard is out assisting in the search."
With a slight bow, Kai made sure to let Elsa know he understood. "Absolutely, your majesty. I will do everything in my power." With that he turned and headed away to get everything in order.
The following morning, was chaos in the court room as everyone filed back in. The man in question was sitting in the defendant isle, looking sick and scared. Half the town turned up to support this man and they filled all the remaining rows behind him.
On the other side, Lord Peterssen sat with his head in a neck brace. He had a doctor with him, and to everyone in the court room it looked as if he was just playing the part. Word had already made it around Arendelle that Peterssen had been assulted and that charges were pending. It had also made it around town that he was very not impressed in Queen Elsa's decision to postpone the trial till morning.
The defendant was happy that he was supported by so many members of the community but little did the defendant know that Lord Peterssen was very good friends with Judge Anders, and this case was going to be over quickly.
Judge Anders was making his way to the court room when suddenly, he got cut off by the queen herself in the halls.
"Anders, I'm glad I ran into you. I wanted to let you know that it was my decision last night to postpone the case till this morning, and that I've decided that I will be handling the case personally from here."
This shocked the judge a little. "Your majesty, of course if you feel your time is well spent dealing with such a minor incident, then by all means. Truthfully though, I definitely could handle this and save you the bother."
"That's quite alright Anders, but after finding out that Lord Peterssen was involved, I want to make sure that this is handled…personally. Have a good day." Elsa said, dismissing judge Anders and making her way to the court.
The doors to the courtroom were flanked by two guards. Both were equally shocked to see their queen making her way down the halls. Kai stood at the door ready to announce the queen to the room.
Kai made his way into the court room and all the occupants took notice. Finally it seamed, something was going to happen. It was apparent that the town knew this man, and felt that he was wrongfully arrested. Nobody expected that the queen herself was going to be personally looking into this. Most of the people in the room, never laid eyes on the queen. Most were still deadly afraid of her powers and the stories circling around town.
"PLEASE RISE!" Kai shouted. "Queen Elsa of Arendelle" Silence. Everyone froze as if the queen herself ice blocked the whole room.
Elsa walked into the room as regal as ever, not looking particularly impressed. Her enchanting blue eyes scanned the room and as she looked, the people started looking to the floor. Peterssen instantly realized that this was probably going to be a problem as it was less then twenty-four hours that Elsa went all crusades on his chair and had him kicked out of his job and the castle.
Elsa scanned over the man and instantly recognized him as the father of the boy who she met in town. A pang of remorse filled her stomach as she hated the fact that this man and his family had to endure the fear and worry of not only losing their house, but having Dad arrested at the same time.
You could hear a pin drop as she slowly walked past the crowd and up to the front of the room. Sitting down and looking over the paperwork she noticed that the mans name was missing as well as his signature on the paperwork where it looks as if the man refused to appoint a lawyer of his own.
"Your name please." Elsa asked coldly. She was going to play this perfectly.
Fumbling for words he finally said "G-George Rolland. Your majesty." The poor guy was horrified.
"I see here that you have chosen to not appoint a lawyer, is this true?"
"Y-yes, I couldn't afford one." The man hardly got out. He was turning green out of nerves, the crowd behind him failing to do much better. Nobody expected the Ice Queen herself to just randomly showup and handle a routine case like this, the room was terrified. Clearly half the people thought Elsa would freeze them at any moment or send everyone to the dungeons.
"Your Majesty, if I may." Lord Peterssen said.
"No, you may not Lord Peterssen. Interrupt me or open your mouth one more time in this room without me asking you to talk and see what happens." Now everyone was passed terrified.
"Well Mr. Rolland, before we can start, I'm going to need you to sign this, it states that you were made aware of your rights to self defend without a lawyer present."
"Ah, I… I don't have a pen, Your Majesty. "George said, feeling horrible about already disappointing the Queen.
"Does anyone have a pen for Mr. Rolland?" The queen asked with an emotionless face. Having had a run in with Georges family earlier and knowing Peterssen was involved, she already knew she was more then likely going to let him off. She decided that it would be best to act unbiased and emotionless to ensure it looked like a fair trial.
Nobody answered her regarding the pen. "What kind of an operation are we running here?" Elsa asked the court clerk. "This huge gathering of people are going to see that their leaders cant even arrange for the lending of a pen." Still no answer.
With an annoyed look, Elsa got up and walked over to George. She placed the paper in front of him and presented him with a pen. "Here you go." She said before walking back.
After he signed the paper, she returned to her stand and slowly took a breath.
"So Lord Peterssen, please let me know what happened."
Looking at Elsa, Peterssen realized this was his chance. "Well your Majesty, as you know I recently fell on hard times do to a lack of…Employment. So I had to remove the tenants from a few of my homes to prepare them to sell on the market. I kindly explained the situation to Mr. Rolland, but he angered. As you know I don't take well to being talked to by the riff raff in town, so I told him that he had 5 min to get out or I was going to get some men to remove his family and possessions."
"Stop." Elsa said. "George, could you please explain your side.
"Well, he's telling the truth… More or less. He asked me to immediately get out of his house. I asked him for a week to find another accommodation. He laughed at me and said he doesn't have to do anything. I told him I have a son and wife and that he would be putting all of us on the street. He began to call my family down, myself, and even had the nerve to tell my son that I'm a loser. So I hit him in the mouth and don't regret any of it. I would do it again."
Elsa knew this was the truth, just yesterday she almost did the same thing to Peterssen herself. 'God he is such annoying man.' She thought.
The room was extremely quiet. Before Elsa finally decided to say something.
"Ok, so what I'm hearing is that after losing your job, you went around kicking your renters our of your properties, with no notice whatsoever. Mr. Rolland then confronted Mr. Peterssen about it and a fight ensued. Is that about, right?"
"Yes, that's exactly what happened, your majesty." Peterssen said.
"Mr. Rolland, do you agree with everything in that statement?"
"Yes, your majesty." George said knowing he would probably have to pay some sort of penalty for hitting Lord. Peterssen. But he was not willing to lie.
Hearing that Mr. Rolland just agreed, Lord Peterssen jumped at the chance to end his case. "You see your Majesty. He admits it, the fool admits to hitting me. I want him to do time for hitting a high-ranking member of the public. I won't accept anything less then a fitting punishment.
This was the moment Elsa was waiting for. "Mr. Peterssen, I've asked you multiple times to not speak unless asked. Yet you continue to keep disobeying my wishes. The truth is that if I was renting one of your homes and you showed up on a Tuesday afternoon telling me I need to get out, I would have done a lot worse then hit you."
Elsa's words got a humorous reaction from the people in the courtroom. For a moment George felt like his world may not be ending.
"Mr. Peterssen, this case is dismissed, as you know, I have way more important things to deal with around this castle then sorting out your rental disputes.
George started to smile looking around the room. He couldn't believe his luck and the people that came to support him, were also starting to feel that this was going to turn out ok.
"Your Majesty." Peterssen started. "Truthfully I'm shocked at the outcome of this court. I was …
"Guards, please take Mr. Peterssen out past the front gates of my castle. Mr. Peterssen, you are not welcome here anymore. I have no wish to see you, none of the people in this room wish to see you. I can't stop you from removing people from your properties, but I will say that if you continue to show up here with people that have hit you for behaviour like you show, know that the results will be the same.
"Your nothing but a damm Ice Witch!" Peterssen shouted as the court room gasped. "You freeze us one day, and the next your setting examples pretending like nothing happened. Well Elsa, let me tell you, the Peterssens don't go down without a fight. You will regret this day for a long long time."
The rest of the room was in need of the Castle Doctor to recover from the shock of what was just said. Elsa just deadpanned Lord Peterssen, she was not going to allow him to get under her skin again.
"Thanks for coming out, Mr. Peterssen. Let the records show that everyone in this room, including me is deadly afraid of you, and we are all worried about the days of regret that are coming." Elsa said as the guards began to assist Mr. Peterssen off his chair and down the hall leaving the room quiet.
Finally at this Elsa gave the room a large smile. "Has anyone here started to regret upsetting Mr. Peterssen yet.
"No, your majesty." The room said while laughing in unison.
"Well, Mr. Rolland, your free to go, but before you leave, I would like to meet with you briefly." Elsa said and the room got curious.
"I'm rather Jealous of you being able to hit Mr. Peterssen and I would like a more detailed account of how it all went down." Elsa said as the crowd laughed.
Queen Elsa was certainly winning over her people in that room. No doubt this legendary trial would go down as legend for anyone that attended and witnessed the slaughter of Mr. Peterssen, by Elsa's hand.
"I would be honored, Your Majesty." George said.
A few moments later the room slowly cleared. Talks of what transpired were already taking place between the people who were in the room bearing witness to it. With all the uncertainty during the coronation disaster, the thaw, and the mystery that surrounded Elsa, nobody knew what kind of queen they were going to get. But now it was clear to everyone that Arendelle's queen, who possessed magic, and divine powers, was a people's queen.
George was led over to a small room by a castle servant. "Please wait here sir. The Queen will be here in just a moment."
"Thank you." George said feeling incredible about not having to go to the dungeons. Unfortunately he was still worried a little about this meeting with the Queen.
After a few min, the queen entered the room and sat down in front of George.
"Thanks for seeing me here." Elsa said. "I actually wanted to ask you to do a favor for me." Elsa said.
"Your majesty, anything you require, and I will do it." George said with a very serious face.
"Thank you, George, I would like you to make a list of everyone Peterssen had removed from his houses. I would like to offer them and their families temporary lodging in the east wing of the castle." Elsa said.
George's jaw dropped. "You can't be serious." He said.
With a small grin Elsa looked right at him. "I'm very serious George. My people have been through enough because of me, and I did have to remove Peterssen from his position a few days ago. Its because of those actions that you, and the others he took the housing away from are… homeless. I won't let this stand." Elsa said finishing with a warm smile.
"Well I truly hope everyone gets to see you in this light, your majesty. Some of the rumors going around about you are truly misleading and flat out wrong." George said.
"I understand, and to be honest I deserve those rumors due to hiding behind the walls of this castle in secrecy for so long. But slowly, everyone will hopefully see that I'm working for all of you. So please let everyone know to come here if they need to, they will be taken care of." She said.
With the weight of the world off his shoulders, and knowing that he, his family, and the others have a place to say he visibly looked like he could breathe for the first time today. "Your majesty, I promise to do that right away. Please, let me personally thank you for what you did today, I will never forget it." George said.
"George, one last thing. I remember how your son came up to me yesterday morning when I was out walking in town." Elsa said looking directly at him.
"Yes, I remember, he wont stop talking about it." George said laughing.
The comment also brought a bright smile to Elsa's face.
"Your son was the only person, besides my sister who wasn't afraid to talk to me. I understand he's young and maybe a little naïve, but that really touched me, and it was something that I didn't realize I needed." Elsa took a breath and smiled brightly at George. "I want you and your wife to find a house for sale in Arendelle, I will personally look after buying it for you. Elsa stated.
"Your majesty, that is extremely generous, actually its insane. I don't deserve anything like that, temporary lodging at the castle is way, way more then enough." George rambled on.
Elsa raised her hand to stop him. "No George, I know what I'm doing and its my pleasure to help out good people." Elsa said smiling brightly. "Now I unfortunately need to get going, I have some other very important things to take care of. Please take care of yourself and give your son my best. I'm sure ill see all of you when I'm out in town again." Elsa stated.
"Your majesty, its my pleasure, and a honor. Thank you again from the bottom of my heart for what you have done." George said as he got up from his seat and let himself out.
Elsa looked around the room feeling good about herself. This was a new feeling for her which she quite enjoyed. She was using the power of being queen to directly help her citizens. A pang of guilt hit her. 'Maybe giving him a house was a bit much'. She thought.
Standing up she realized that she didn't care. She was queen and if she wanted someone to have a house, well, they would be getting a damm house.
"Anna." Elsa thought out loud.
Making her way up to her study she started to feel helpless and actual worry of what might have become of Anna. 'Wait' she thought. I'm not helpless, maybe these powers can help.
Making her way into her office, she closed the door and sat in the chair.
"Ok, common Elsa, you can do this. Just think of Anna and where she is." Elsa said to herself.
Suddenly Elsa felt as if she was asleep, only she was completely awake. It was if she was in a dream only the dream drifted away from the castle and into a older house at the edge of town. She effortlessly floated in through a window and came face to face with her sister.
First she felt relived, She's ok.
However she noticed the look of fear on Anna's face, but what made her blood run cold was the man sitting on a chair in the same room.
Suddenly Elsa flashed back and awoke in her office. Shaking her head to clear the spell that had taken over her, she stood up and made her way to the door.
She walked past the house maids without looking, down the stairs, around the corner.
"Queen Elsa, Queen Elsa" Kai called as he spotted her about to walk out the front doors of the castle.
The queen paused for a moment to look up at him. Her eyes were glowing blue and furious, her platinum blond hair just sort of suspended in the air as if a gust of wind was hitting her.
"I'm going to get my sister Kai…Ill be right back.