13. Cry Me A River
Once the Khentiian delegation had finished their breakfast in the dining hall, Foreign Minister Rogalund escorted them to the ball room. Kai knocked on the study door, and the whole process of the grand entrance was repeated. Once seated on the throne, she gave the Khentiians a thorough looking-over. They were short by Arendelle's standards, but their build indicated endurance and strength. A few sported mustaches and goatee beards. They had obviously worn their best court attire: long-sleeved, calf-length tunics made of richly detailed cashmere cloth, closed at the side and shoulder with shining silver buttons, with silk sashes tied around their waists. Their boots had up-turned toes, much like Kristoff's Sami footwear.
"Your Majesty, I present to you Ambassador Nasu and his retinue," said Kai. The beardless man wearing a burgundy-colored deel that was interwoven with what must have been threads of real gold and silver bowed stiffly to her and made brief eye contact before turning his gaze to the carpet of frost.
"Welcome to Arendelle, Your Excellency," she said in Disnee. "I am ready to hear the pleasure of my valiant brother, Bolad, Khaan of Khentii." She would make the formal royal decree about the discontinuation of the use of pluralis maiestatis later.
"Your Majesty, my Khaan has received reports of your powers and has judged it necessary to treat for peace with you. My Khaan and my people wish for no war against winter's fury, and hope the Snow Queen will do us the favor of entering a pact of friendship with us," Nasu said, still keeping his eyes trained on the frost.
"I will gladly do so. I desire to live in peace with the world, Your Excellency," Elsa said. Between his choice of words and fixation on the frost carpet, she was concerned that he and his country were uncomfortable with magic. She glanced at Rogalund to get his reading of the situation, but the Foreign Minister clandestinely shrugged his shoulders.
"So we have heard, Queen Elsa. We thank you for your magnanimity." He continued to stare at it.
"I will dissipate it if it disturbs you, Your Excellency," Elsa said evenly.
"Please, no, Your Majesty. I beg you to forgive my rudeness," Nasu said earnestly, finally meeting her eyes again. "We have traveled so far to estimate your abilities for ourselves after listening to many conflicting stories. From what we have seen, Your Majesty is indeed strong enough to grant my Khaan the other favor he asks of you, if it is to Your Majesty's liking."
"And what is that, Your Excellency?" Elsa queried, dreading another appeal for soldiers or a work force.
"We would like a river, Your Majesty," the ambassador said, unabashed. "One that is wide, deep, and slow-moving, and joins with the Onon, so that we may engage in commerce with our neighbors more easily and perhaps create an irrigation network."
While most of the diplomatic missions to Arendelle had the main goal of securing Elsa's promise not to use her magic against their respective countries, every so often she encountered one that wanted her to drop a glacier on their land, albeit in a controlled fashion. They were usually desert countries or those temporarily suffering from a drought. On occasion, they wanted a wall of thick ice to secure a border, reroute traffic, dam a river, or suchlike. But since she had begun Arendelle's harbor renovation project, she had more requests like these, that involved serious earthmoving.
"Your Excellency, my policy is not to meddle too much with the natural world; and I currently need line-of-sight to do work that requires precise placements," Elsa said patiently.
"But Your Majesty, we have heard what you did with your own inlet," Nasu said, somewhat flummoxed.
"I only dredged a short stretch of it, where the end moraine of the glacier that created our fjord left a threshold that is shallower than the water behind it, and the threshold is rising even higher because the earth's crust is rebounding now that the weight of the glacial ice isn't pressing down on it anymore. That sill was hindering the ocean currents from replacing the deep water in the fjord, and the oxygen levels at the back of the inlet were low, which caused the sea life to migrate elsewhere or die out," Elsa justified herself. "It's quite different from gouging a river bed a hundred miles long and eroding mountains and highlands to give it the optimal gradient and flow rate for boat travel. To say nothing of how that would affect your and your neighbors' existing drainage basins."
Nasu and the other Khentiians stared dumbfounded at her. Now that she was interacting more freely with everyone again, Elsa had come to realize that many of the things she "just knew" went right over other people's heads -even highly educated ones- or were still considered mysteries of the universe. This was obviously one of those times.
"All I did with the fjord was unclog the opening so the water could move the way it used to," she tried again. They seemed to understand her this time. "Besides, if I make a river for you, I would have to do it for nearly everybody who asks for something like it, and then nature really would be out of balance. As would the political world, because some country would eventually ask me to make a dam on the very same river that another country asked me to widen or straighten."
"We see, Your Majesty," Nasu said glumly.
"I am sorry that I cannot help you in that way, Your Excellency," Elsa said sincerely. "Perhaps there are other options. What goods did you need to transport?"
Nasu shifted his weight and became very interested in the curled toes of his boots. His compatriots likewise suddenly found the columns or the ceiling of the ball room to be fascinating.
"Your Excellency, is that a 'It's a secret' or a 'We don't know'?" Elsa gently prompted.
"We don't really know, Your Majesty," he admitted, chagrined.
"You wanted a watercourse to ship merchandise that you don't have, Ambassador?" Elsa asked incredulously. Rogalund's mouth hung slightly open.
"Well, Your Majesty, we were hoping that if we had an easy way to reach the outside world, it would stimulate our productiveness."
"Your Excellency, does Khentii have any enterprises that can be done efficiently enough to make a surplus for export?" Elsa asked. "Textiles, for example? The material that your tunics are made from is gorgeous."
The ambassador thought for a moment before shaking his head. "Our population is too small and too scattered. Bolad Khaan knows our isolation has become a problem, Your Majesty. The world is passing us by," he said with a defeated sigh.
"Your Excellency, the same could have easily been said about Arendelle at various times in our history. Of course, we have the benefit of waterfront property, but we have faced some of the same challenges. Would you care to continue this conversation in my study?" Elsa invited. "The chairs are more comfortable there."
"If it so pleases the Queen. We have been told of Your Majesty's cleverness, and will consider your advice," Nasu said, not sounding particularly hopeful.
They filed out and once ensconced in the Queen's study with a pot of tea and another plate of pastries at their disposal, Elsa contemplated the situation. "What about natural resources, Your Excellency? Do your mountains have timber or deposits of ore and minerals?"
"Our mountains are sacred to us, Your Majesty," Nasu told her. "They are our cathedrals, our monuments, our burial grounds, the inspiration for our music and poetry."
"I can appreciate that, Your Excellency," Elsa said with a knowing smile.
"So you see our dilemma, Your Majesty. We do not have much going for us."
"You have scenic beauty, your people, and your history going for you, Ambassador. Have you thought about tourism?"
Nasu sputtered into his tea. "Clearly, you do not see our dilemma, Your Majesty!" he exclaimed.
"I was skeptical at first, too, Your Excellency, but I have seen how much people enjoy the 'regular' parts of my country. While my magic is the main draw for Arendelle's tourism, once they are here, our visitors are also captivated by our natural wonders, the narratives and relics of bygone ages, local customs, and what passes for pageantry. Many say they hope to return."
"Queen Elsa, our history is one of warfare and conquest. It is not something people would come to celebrate," Nasu said in exasperation. "If we were to allow people to visit the great Khaan's grave, all they would do is spit on it or otherwise defile it."
"I thought the same thing about the barrow of Bjørn the Berserk, Your Excellency" Elsa said with a chuckle. "But it turns out that there are no hard feelings after enough centuries have passed. These days, he's just a historical personage, as horrible as most of his deeds abroad were. And your great Khaan actually had virtues as a leader, whereas there's not much positive we can say about my ancestor."
Nasu gave Elsa a dubious look. "Well, we would still never permit outsiders to view the grave, Your Majesty."
"Then build a grand memorial elsewhere, Your Excellency. Educate your visitors about his accomplishments and controversies," Elsa suggested.
"Your Majesty, no one would travel all that way to see one monument," Nasu insisted.
"So give them guided tours of your mountains, explain your religious beliefs. I am sure your people remain great equestrians, Your Excellency. Put on a display of horsemanship for them. Races of various distances, livestock herding, a reenactment of the prowess of your mounted archers and lancers of old."
Nasu perked up. "That has potential..."
"Make a festival of it, Your Excellency. Invite your neighbors to join in to make a bigger show and draw bigger crowds," Elsa encouraged.
"You should talk with our Minister of Tourism, Ambassador," said Rogalund. "He knows how to organize things, how to get the word out - and how best to stage it."
"I'm not so sure about the staging," Elsa cut in. "He'd have hands-on audience participation in my magic shows if I weren't adamant that safety is the top priority."
"Nonetheless, Your Excellency, he has a feel for what pleases crowds. You just need to use your own judgment if he says you should try shooting an apple off of a spectator's head while blindfolded at full gallop," Rogalund explained.
"If you stay until Friday and into the weekend, you can see our Harvest Festival, Your Excellency. We'll show you what goes on behind the scenes, a tour of the non-magical activities and planning that makes everything a success," Elsa promised.
Nasu pondered it for a moment. "Your Majesty, I doubt we will be able to do everything as you do, but learning something new cannot hurt."
"Wonderful, Ambassador. I think you will find something that you can use or adapt to your people's situation and talents," Elsa said with a smile.
"And now, Your Excellency, would you and your people care to join the Daloan diplomats on a brief tour of the castle and town?" asked Rogalund.
"Certainly, Minister," Nasu said eagerly. "We heard many tales of this land on our journey here. It is amusing to see what has been exaggerated and what has been understated and what was just plain wrong."
"Then if you would follow us, Your Excellency, we will begin," said Rogalund, as Elsa stood up. The men briskly copied her. Rogalund opened the door and held it as the Queen and ambassador walked out to see the sights of Arendelle.
