15. A Stirling Example of Human Ingenuity

"As I told Ambassador Jamang, it's not like other universities. The main focus right now is to create a skilled workforce here in Arendelle," Elsa explained as they entered the building. "Although we do have a few courses of study that you would find in a traditional school. Don't we, Princess Anna?"

"Yes, we do," Anna replied, knowing she was being goaded by her sister. "But I myself prefer the more unconventional and practical classes. Not everyone learns the same way or at the same rate."

"Very true, Your Highness," Rogalund said meaningfully, trying to keep the Queen from turning the last part of the tour into a royal bickering match about the continuing education of the Crown Princess.

They reached another set of doors, and Rogalund held it open for everyone to pass through. The room was a workshop of some sort, filled with equipment that the Daloans and Khentiians -and the guards, Minister Rogalund, Anna and Kristoff, for that matter- couldn't begin to name or state the purpose of. Elsa walked over to a table in the middle of the room and picked up a small contraption. It had a brass wheel on a bar of steel, set atop two copper discs with some kind of pouch stretched between them.

"Gentlemen, here is a brief demonstration of what the future holds," Elsa said nonchalantly as she conjured a cylinder of ice the same diameter as the discs of the machine.

She placed the machine on top of the ice and gave the wheel a quarter turn to set it in motion. To the diplomats' amazement, the wheel continued to spin at a steady speed as the membrane between the two discs pumped up and down. Elsa drew their attention to a small housing attached to the top disc. There was a piston moving inside it, connected to the wheel by a thin rod.

"What is making it move?" asked Jamang, mesmerized.

"The difference in the temperature between the ice and the air," Elsa answered and started to pace. "It also works if you put it on top of something that is warmer than the air. For instance a cup of hot tea or coffee. But since I can create ice that won't melt, we've been using that as we experiment with the Stirling brothers' invention."

Elsa was still uneasy about the implications of this ice-powered energy source, and left a trail of frost as she paced. Since no one was really sure how Elsa created ice and snow, no one was really sure how many laws of nature were being violated by the engine and what the consequences were. None of the other people in the room seemed to be troubled by it, however. Even though Anna, Kristoff, Rogalund, and the royal bodyguards had seen the Stirling engine in operation many times before, they were still enchanted. The Daloans and Khentiians were helplessly transfixed.

"Just take our money," said Jamang, spellbound.

"Take our children, take our land," intoned Nasu, hypnotized.

"That won't be necessary, Your Excellencies," Elsa said dryly. "Besides, we have a long way to go before this is developed to the point of large-scale usefulness. And then there is the not insignificant matter of designing devices that run on the electric current this engine could produce, if we actually had something that could convert the wheel's rotation to electrical energy. The Reverend Stirling and Mr. Faraday are quite optimistic, though."

Elsa could tell nobody had heard a word she said, as was too often the case when it came to this little mechanism. Right now, it was barely more than a toy, albeit one with huge potential, but most of the visitors were fascinated to the point of distraction by it. It would probably be a good idea to move it to the end of the tour of the university, rather than have it at the beginning. Between Sleipnir and the Stirling engine, she was sure the Daloans and Khentiians likely had enough to process for one morning.

The Queen tried to catch the Foreign Minister's eye as he, too, stared enraptured by the coordinated movements of the pouch, piston, and wheel. Rogalund noticed her and quickly snapped out of it. Elsa mouthed the word "lunch" to him, and he nodded his head.

"And so, my good sirs, this concludes the tour," said Rogalund. "If you would deign to come with me just a short distance to the Visby embassy, you can enjoy a relaxing luncheon and stimulating conversation with some of the other diplomatic representatives here in Arendelle."

They seemed not to pay any attention to him, so Elsa lifted the Stirling engine and annihilated the ice cylinder. This was met by a collective groan of disappointment. "Please don't fret, gentlemen," Elsa reassured them. "I am confident that you will encounter many other interesting and inspiring sights this week. I will see you all at dinner tonight."

"Queen Elsa, we thank you for your help, hospitality, and patience," Jamang said sincerely.

"Yes, Your Majesty, we are grateful for your advice, generosity, and time," agreed Nasu. Then the combined delegations bowed deeply to Elsa, as did Rogalund and the guards. She smiled warmly and inclined her head in acknowledgement before they filed out, leaving the Queen, the Princess, and the Ice Master.

"I take it you had no trouble getting back from the valley. And no nuptials," Elsa teased.

"No problems, no weddings," Kristoff replied evenly. "And Grand Pabbie was fine."

"That's a relief. I don't know what happened, but I didn't have any other glitches on the ride home or this morning," Elsa told them.

"So how did meeting the guests go?" Anna asked. It was one of the few aspects of her sister's job that Anna thought was somewhat engaging, although she found the rest of the world's general paranoia about Elsa's powers be annoying.

"Oh, the usual these days," said Elsa as she sat down on one of the stools in the workshop. "First, 'Promise us you won't use your magic to harm us.' Then, 'Could you use your magic to do us a favor?' Followed by, 'Hey, you're pretty friendly, and we didn't need your magic after all.' "

"What did these ones want?" Anna grimaced. She really, really, really disliked it when people took advantage of her sister's good nature and lingering sensitivity about the so-called Eternal Winter by insinuating that Elsa was under some perpetual obligation to prove her peaceful intentions - even if the vast majority of them truly did come to believe that Elsa was "the most gracious, gorgeous, smartest, kindest, absolutely perfect role model" by the end of their visit.

"The Khentiians need a new business plan; the Daloans need a new business partner. They were actually very nice and didn't use the 'wicked sorceress' angle at all," Elsa revealed. "I think we sorted it out."

"Well, that's good. I know you like helping people, and you're not too bad at problem solving," Anna said with a cheeky smile and deliberate understatement. "You'll eventually get the hang of this queen stuff. What's next on your agenda? I'm going back to the castle to get cleaned up, have lunch, and help Stefanie look for a dress for the Harvest Festival ball." Stefanie was a young townswoman that Anna had met and befriended on her adventures after the Great Thaw; she was now attending the university. Elsa considered the level-headed Stefanie to be a good influence on her sister and approved of them spending time together.

Elsa glanced at the clock. "I have meeting here with a new batch of magic researchers in about half an hour. So I'm just going to loiter around until then. Remember that we have a state dinner tonight, so don't go off gallivanting too far away."

"Have I ever missed a banquet?" Anna laughed.

"Actually-" Elsa began.

"It was a rhetorical question," Anna interrupted. "Are you coming, Kristoff?"

"And watch two women shop for a dress? No thanks. I'll go check on Sven. He seemed a little slower on the trip back to town," Kristoff replied.

"Well, then I'll catch up with you two later. Have as much fun as you can being sticks-in-the-mud!" Anna taunted over her shoulder as she left the room.

"I know she cares so much about others, and I wish I could get her to apply that quality to something more than being a social butterfly," Elsa said softly.

"I would ask why you can't just order her to, but first off, I totally understand that it's close to impossible," Kristoff said wryly. "And second, there's something important I need to talk with you about."

"Permission to speak freely," Elsa said somewhat wearily.

"After you left last night, Grand Pabbie warned her not to push you."

"Let me guess: she all but resolved to push me," Elsa deduced.

"More or less," Kristoff said with exasperation. "She thinks that you work too much, and that she's the best person to get you to do what Grand Pabbie said about embracing your emotions. She is sure the only thing we have to worry about is worrying too much."

"Was it another one of those vague statements like 'Fear will be your enemy'?" Elsa asked.

"No, he was very clear. Nothing sounded like a puzzle to me. He told her not to push you, even if she meant well. And to let you take things at your own pace, for her sake more than yours," Kristoff recounted. "He also told us that you are the strongest ever magical human that he knows of, but I get the feeling you already suspected that. He said that you were as powerful as the 'naturally magical beings of old' - whoever he meant by that."

"Thank you for telling me," Elsa said with a sigh. "I'll be on guard, and try to talk some sense into her."

"Please don't tell her I told you," Kristoff pleaded. Elsa gave him a confused look. "It's a boyfriend-girlfriend thing. It would be really awkward."

"Oh," Elsa said simply. "Did Olaf hear Grand Pabbie warn her?"

"I'm not certain how much attention he was paying," he admitted. "Sometimes he's like a master spy, other times he's completely oblivious."

Elsa considered the situation. "All right. I'll try to lead Olaf into telling me what he overheard. If he didn't, I'll try to lead Anna herself into telling me. Then I'll try to get her to heed his warning. I want to at least match my record of thirteen years between major ice-magic accidents."

Kristoff smiled wanly. With the two of them watching out for Anna's overzealous helpfulness, there was a chance they could see and avert the catastrophe before it occurred. Or so he hoped.

"Speaking of really awkward, I think I'll be going before the mad scientists and absent-minded professors show up," Kristoff joked.

"Save yourself. Run away while you can," Elsa bantered back. "You are much better off in the company of a reindeer."

"You don't need to tell me that," Kristoff said as he walked to the door.

"Thank you again," Elsa said seriously. "And if there's anything Sven needs, don't hesitate to ask for it."

The ice harvester stopped and turned. "It's the time of year when his hooves are changing from splayed to compact. He probably just has something stuck between his toes. It's happened before." He bowed to the Queen before he took his leave, even though he knew he didn't need to in a setting like this.

Elsa sighed and got up from the stool. There were times when she just wanted to perch on top of a jagged, snow-covered mountain and let everybody else be as crazy and stupid as they wanted to be. For all of the things pertaining to nature and mathematics that she "just knew," there were even more concerning humanity that she could not fathom. And soon it would be time to mystify the people who had come to study her magic while they in turn perplexed her.

She left the workshop, walked down the hall, up a flight of stairs, and then knocked on an unassuming-looking door.

"Who is it?" came a muffled, half-preoccupied voice.

"Elsa of Arendelle," she replied with mock severity.

"Oh my goodness! That's right! Look at the time! One moment, please, Your Majesty!" There were sounds of heavy objects being fumbled from one place to another and a chair being dragged across the floor. Elsa could only smile and shake her head.

Eventually, the door opened, and an older man with unkempt, greying hair and wearing a dark suit covered with chalk dust bowed apologetically to the Queen before inviting her in with a motion of his hand. And with that, Elsa entered the office of Professor Bernhard Holmboe.

Author's Note - For visuals of a Stirling engine, go to Youtube and check out "Bill Nye the Science Guy Demonstrates the Stirling Engine" uploaded by SophiaLearning; at about 1:09 is where the "ice-powered" segment begins. A good close up look can be found at "Low Temperature Stirling Engine" uploaded by Grand Illusions. While I'm pretty sure the materials and manufacturing processes needed to make them that small and efficient didn't exist back in the 1830s-1840s, the engine itself very much did.

Needless to say, if Elsa really had lived back then, she would have been highly sought after by the engineering and scientific community. I'm not going to focus too much on the pure science part because I don't think it can be done any better than what's in "Magic Makes Fools" by CrunchDeNumbers. But the practical applications and implications of many of Elsa's abilities create a "believable" framework for the multiple plots -some to manipulate her, some to eliminate her or at least keep her neutral- that need to converge on Elsa to put her in any kind of situation where the outcome is even somewhat in doubt.