30. Sisterly Fluff, Volume 2
"I'm sorry, I'm confused. What are you talking about?" Elsa asked in bewilderment.
"You summed it up best yourself: You do all the work while I get all the playtime!" Anna lamented.
"Anna, that was said tongue-in-cheek!" Elsa protested.
"I get the brawny but sensitive and sweet boyfriend; I get to sleep in until whenever o'clock; I get to gad about the country with an expense account that you fund; everybody calls me the hero of the Eternal Winter; everybody except a few hoity-toity people are always delighted to see me. What did you get? You get to go back to working fifty hours a week, and living in about four rooms, and to be treated like a ... like a cross between a tourist attraction and a scientific oddity who also happens to give good advice on business, engineering, and law-making!"
"I get to be who I am without hurting anybody -or being hurt by anybody- and not have to live in isolation," Elsa corrected.
"That's not a happy ending!" Anna objected.
"Yes, it is," Elsa calmly persevered. "It's the most powerful kind of happy ending. Everything else is just ornamental. I could have everything that you have and more, but I would still be miserable if I had to conceal my magic."
"You're setting the bar a little low, sis," Anna persisted. "You deserve to have more than the bare minimum of happiness."
"Wait. Slow down," Elsa commanded, and then flinched as a vision of a young girl leaping off of a tall pile of snow flashed through her mind and her own voice telling Anna that she couldn't marry a man she just met echoed in her head. A sense of foreboding rattled her core, and her magic reacted by pulsing against the various barriers she had developed over the years. She took a deep breath and soothed the inner storm and composed her thoughts before continuing.
"Anna, I think your true discontent is not having a 'real' job. You probably worry that you aren't making enough of a contribution to society, but rather than dealing with it in the normal fashion, you're compensating for it by inventing a problem with me. Please take some time to really think this through and be honest with yourself before you do anything to 'help' me."
"But you've been so busy lately with the university and the health care service. And working on getting our constitution drafted. And the construction projects. And the mediations. And meeting with all these dignitaries and scientists. And the tourists," Anna uttered forlornly and sat back down on the bed.
Elsa sighed. " 'Busy' does not mean 'unhappy.' Far from it. Different people have different concepts of what makes for a happy ending. We are very different people, Anna, in major ways and in minor ways. We always have been, and we're always going to be. But I can see that I've been neglecting you. Again. I'm sorry," she said sincerely.
"You haven't been neglecting me! If anything, I'm the one who's neglecting you," Anna countered. "You would eat every lunch and dinner with me and spend every evening and most of every weekend with me if I weren't out running around so much. I spend so much time with Kristoff. I'm always visiting with the townsfolk or exploring the countryside. I-"
"You're supposed to spend time with Kristoff," Elsa cut in, and settled next to Anna on the bed. "You two are figuring out if you want to spend the rest of your lives together. That's a little difficult to do if you don't interact with each other. It's also a little difficult to do if your older sister is always tagging along. And you enjoy visiting with the townsfolk and exploring the countryside."
"Yeah, but ..." Anna said weakly.
"There's no need to feel guilty about it, kiddo. I like to consider myself a guilt expert, so take my word for it," Elsa laughed. "It's not as though I'm surprised that you're a social butterfly. You've wanted to be around other people since literally the day you were born; you always wanted to play or be entertained; you always loved going into town or to the royal lodge with mother and father. You couldn't wait to get out of the castle, remember?"
"Yeah, but I want to do stuff with you, too," Anna said softly.
"It's just a matter of making a few compromises on both our parts. Once the storm season starts, the tourists, ambassadors, and researchers will taper off, and I'll have more time," Elsa heartened. "And fortunately, the university and health care system won't require as much of my time now that they're up and running. But I hope you understand why I have to keep Arendelle modernized. Our citizens deserve a chance for a happy ending, too, but they won't get one if I don't manage the country properly. I love you, and I want to spend time with you, but I also need to do my job."
"Yeah, I know," Anna said somewhat glumly.
"Just because Your Highness allegedly doesn't want or need to continue your formal education, it doesn't mean that nobody else does, either," Elsa said with restrained censure. "Do you really think the people would be delighted to see you if they weren't earning enough to make ends meet? If their children were dying like flies? If 'A shack in the forest, a beggar's stave. / A life of poverty and a cross on the grave,' applied to Arendelle like it does to so many of our neighbors?"
Anna sighed. "No, of course not."
"A real-life happy ending is a continuous process that must be shared with a lot of other people and requires the efforts of a lot of people, including yourself. That's just the way it goes. It's not a bad thing. It's the foundation of civilization," Elsa lectured.
"I suppose," Anna allowed, somewhat deflated. "I just wish that everybody could have more time to have fun."
"Life's necessities aren't just going to magically appear - unless they can be made out of snow or ice," Elsa quipped.
"Can't you make snowmen who love to work so that humans don't have to?" Anna suddenly asked in complete earnestness.
It was not a question Elsa had been expecting. "Anna, please stop to think that through!"
"Okay, that was a pretty bad suggestion," Anna said after a few moments of reflection.
"So why did you blurt that out?"
"Because it was the easiest solution that I could think of quickly," Anna admitted sheepishly.
"I'm sure father taught you that the solutions that initially seem the easiest or the ones that you come up with quickly often make the problem worse," Elsa commented. "You have usually overlooked something important."
"Yeah, but thinking about unpleasant stuff is no fun. And a lot of times, there isn't a good solution, no matter how much you think about it," Anna said disconsolately.
"I'm sorry I'm so much trouble, papa," Elsa said disconsolately.
Agnarr sighed heavily. "You're not trouble, Elsa. I know having these powers is very hard on you. I wish there was a solution better than keeping you isolated so much. But sometimes ... sometimes there aren't any good solutions to a problem. Understanding that is part of being a ruler. And I think you already do understand it, because you've always been a good girl about this. About staying away from Anna and keeping your magic hidden. You've had to be a good girl, and you are. You're doing fine."
Elsa closed her eyes as another fragment from an old conversation crept unbidden into her recall, and she shook her head slightly to clear her mind. "Working isn't necessarily no fun, you know," Elsa noted, yanking her thoughts back to the present. "I actually enjoy most parts of my job. I like problem solving, strategizing, logistics; I like making decisions; I like making my imagination become reality, even without using my magic. Kristoff likes a lot of things about harvesting ice. Working can be very fun and fulfilling. And I think you already do understand that, because otherwise you wouldn't be so upset about not having a real job."
"I am not upset about not having a real job!" Anna disputed. "I am upset that you still spend so much time cooped up alone in a room!"
"Well, then come help me out so I can finish up earlier and have more time to peregrinate," Elsa came back. Anna looked less than thrilled. "One day a week, just to get started. Don't make me order you."
"You just ordered me not to make you order me," Anna gleefully retorted.
"Consider it an order, Princess," Elsa growled good-humoredly.
"Drat!" groused Anna, and melodramatically sprawled on the bed and buried her head under a pillow.
Elsa rolled her eyes and moved the pillow off to the side. "C'mon, Anna, you need to start learning how to mind the country, because I need to travel to Thelir some time early next year. No, we both can't leave Arendelle at the same time. No, I can't just send Minister Rogalund and Minister Haugen to handle this. No, I don't want to leave Admiral Sverdrup in charge. No 'buts.' "
"But-" Anna began to whine.
"Just for that, consider it an order to take and pass a basic first aid class. Keep it up and I will find something for you to do every day of the week," Elsa threatened with a wily grin.
"Mean! Mean Queen!" Anna laughingly accused.
"I'm wicked, through and through," Elsa gloated drolly. "I can keep you so busy that you won't have the chance to worry about make-believe problems. And maybe I should."
Anna covered her head with the pillow again; Elsa took it off again.
"Honestly, Elsa, do you have to go?" Anna asked with a touch of apprehension.
Something twisted in Elsa's heart, and the memory of the self-doubts and fears -and that was when she thought she was being left in charge of the kingdom for a mere two weeks- surged over her. She tried to fight back the upwelling of her magic, but Anna still shivered.
"Sorry," Elsa said and reined the cold back in, nearly as a reflex. "And sorry, yes, I have to go. Believe me, I understand how you feel. But this is about much more than wanting to bring in a few tourists to look at their mountains and waterfalls. And even then, if left to his own devices, Minister Haugen would probably pick a very scenic but dangerous trail that would kill thirty percent of all the hikers who tried it. He is brilliant in some things, but positively clueless in others."
"Hey, that sounds like someone else I know..." Anna said sardonically. Elsa was either positively clueless that Frode Haugen was blatantly fascinated with her, or she did a marvelous job of ignoring it.
"Yeah, now that you mention it, he is a lot like you," Elsa registered. "You're both really bright, really social, and care about others, but sometimes neither one of you stop to think everyth-"
With one fluid motion, Anna grabbed the pillow, swung it, and scored a direct hit on Elsa's head. Her cackle of triumph was immediately muffled as she was beset from all sides by self-propelled bags made of ice-fabric stuffed with Elsa's distinctive snowball-fight substance.
"No fair! No fair!" Anna shrieked amidst the barrage.
"You're the one who failed to secure an arms limitation treaty and launched a surprise attack," Elsa said casually, and inspected her nails while her sister was gently but comprehensively pummeled.
"Stop! Sorry! I yield!" The bags winked out of existence, and Anna paused to catch her breath.
"You are just filled with bad ideas today," Elsa wisecracked. "I have a feeling it's going to take a lot of lessons to get you up to speed on governing a kingdom, even if it is for less than two weeks during slow season."
"Yeah, I have the same feeling. Are you sure you have to go?" Anna asked plaintively. "Because I would really love not to fall on my face and somehow wreck all your hard work if I don't have to."
"I need to see what Thelir has to offer and what the infrastructure there is like. They're not as wealthy or developed as we are, so I need to judge if investing in them will make enough of a return for Arendelle. There's no reason to extend our railroad into their country unless it will proportionally boost our economy," Elsa disclosed.
"We don't have a railroad," Anna pointed out.
"It's something I'm working on. It's a state secret right now."
"Wow! A railroad!" Anna said excitedly.
"You acted that enthusiastic when I first told you about the university, too," Elsa deadpanned. "It's still in the contemplation stage. You know: Think it through."
Anna completely missed the jibes. "This will be amazing! Will I get to help you?"
"You sounded that eager when you first asked if you could go to the university, too," Elsa observed dryly.
"That was back when you didn't ... back before you opened the gates," Anna euphemized.
"Fair point," Elsa sighed.
"So can I help with the railroad?"
"Maybe. It depends on how well you can adapt to 'structure.' I don't think you're going to like a lot of the analysis and planning and trouble shooting."
"Oh, how could this not be fun?" Anna challenged.
"Because you can't just say, 'I'll put a stop here and here, and lay some track through there.' This will disrupt nature and people's lives," Elsa said matter-of-factly. "And I still don't know whether the disruption would be a good thing in the long run, or even if not putting one in or waiting until later to put one in would be more disruptive in the long run."
"Has anybody ever told you that you think too much?"
"This is serious, Anna. In order for a passenger line not to be a waste of resources, I have to estimate just how many tourists and locals would use it - and if having a railroad would draw in even more tourists. We must consider how it would impact the inland communities. And how best to make it work for our future needs, because we do have problems on the horizon."
"Has anybody ever told you that you worry too much?" Anna teased. "We're doing great; you're doing great."
"Doing great is just like a happy ending: You have to keep working at it. You don't get to say, 'Well, I did great for a little bit, and now I can just rest on my laurels and everything will continue to go great forever,' " Elsa chided gently.
"Yeah, but you act like you have to put out a fire before the fire is even on fire," Anna admonished.
Elsa stood back up and faced Anna with arms akimbo. "Have you ever heard the saying that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure? I don't want Arendelle to need to rely on too many foreigners to do necessary jobs here because our own citizens aren't up to modern standards. And I really, really don't want our ice harvesters and sailors and shipwrights to have to scramble to find new lines of work and not have the skills to do anything else."
"The world will always need ships and sailors," Anna said with a bemused shake of her head.
"But what kind? This is also currently a state secret, so please keep it to yourself for now. There is a ship that will revolutionize sea travel being built in Myrcia right now. It will be powered by a steam engine and propeller, and it has a steel hull," Elsa informed her.
"A steel hull? That boat will sink right away, just like the Swedish one you told us about at dinner," Anna said dismissively.
"No, it won't, provided they design it right - and there is an extremely clever man on the engineering team. If the ship is less dense than seawater, it will float. Of course, they have to keep it balanced properly, but that can be readily done since steel's strength-to-weight ratio is much better than wood's. Myrcia has already produced some steel-hulled ships, and if they perfect this combination of hull and propulsion system, the days of large wooden sailing ships will be over," Elsa predicted.
Anna took several moments to ponder the implications, and felt sick to her stomach. "A lot of Arendellians work as sailors or at the shipyard in Grømstad. And we sell some of our timber to other countries for ship building."
"Yes. Granted, it might take a few decades before it really hits us, but if I can take the right action now, it won't ever be a problem. Our people will have the expertise and Arendelle will have products that will be in demand."
"The steel you've been testing isn't just for our new seawalls..." Anna realized.
"Yes, I have multiple motives for our steel projects. We have ore deposits. I'm also going to try to get the King of Thelir to allow us do some prospecting in his country and lease some mines to us. Our biggest problem is that we don't have coal, and neither do many other places on the Scandinavian peninsula."
"I have a headache," Anna groaned.
"Do you still think you have what it takes to work on the railroad all the live-long day, Princess?" Elsa razzed. "You gotta practice for this kind of heavy lifting."
"Yeesh, believe me, I can see that now. You know, mother and father always told me funny or comforting bedtime stories, not harrowing tales of economic doom," Anna said sarcastically.
"That's another one of the perks of being the spare," Elsa shot back.
"Now I really don't know how you put up with it, and I'm convinced that you really need more playtime. Being a ruler sounds like more trouble than it's worth," Anna said with more than a hint of frustration.
"Well, you could probably say that about any job, at least some of the time. But we do have it pretty cushy, you know," Elsa remarked archly, and began to pace the length of the room. "Do you think we'd have flush toilets, and cooks and maids, and the spare time to gad about the country if I were a seamstress or a laundress?" Anna was silent for longer than Elsa expected; the Queen started to pace more quickly and in a tighter circuit, like an agitated animal confined in a small cage. "Yeah, that's right: If I had a normal job, I still wouldn't be able to play with you whenever you wanted. I'd have even less free time, because I wouldn't be able to afford to pay other people to do my household chores. I'd go to work, and then I'd come home and work some more. Cooking, cleaning, mending. That's how ordinary people live. So I don't think we have grounds to complain too much, Your Highness. Especially given the whole Eternal Winter incident. The people would have been within their rights to turn me out. And then you would have been the ruler, and-"
Anna rose from the bed and blocked her sister's path. "Whoa, Elsa! Stop thinking before you get carried away!" Anna ordered and gave Elsa's upper arms, which were already unpleasantly cold, a gentle squeeze. The Snow Queen's panic attacks were definitely an example of an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure.
"Sorry," Elsa said bashfully.
Anna lead her to the bed and nudged her to sit down. Elsa complied, and took a few deep breaths. Anna sat down next to her, and put an arm around Elsa's shoulders, using her sister's body temperature to gauge the Queen's inner battle against her sometimes treacherously analytical mind. A few moments passed in silence, each of them taking solace in the other's presence. For all the times that they baffled and irritated each other, there were just as many instances when they were the only ones who truly understood each other.
"Do you see why I can't always take a break every time you want to play?" Elsa finally asked. "Do you see why you need to start learning the tools of the trade? Not to add gloom to your doom, mind you, but if anything happens to me, you're in charge of Arendelle, and as we saw during the Eternal Winter, you can't always trust your advisers and guardians. Even during tranquil times, the burden is on you to actively acquire and evaluate all the information you need; you cannot rely on assistants to think for you."
"Believe me, I really learned that one today with the cake," Anna said self-deprecatingly.
"Good. It wasn't a total waste, then. So, are you going to name the conspirators or make me give everyone the third degree?" Elsa angled.
"Please, please don't fire anyone!" Anna begged. "It was all my idea. They were just ... playing along with me."
Elsa looked around the room she used to sleep in and thought of the night when her relentlessly high-spirited little sister persuaded her to "play along" even though she knew better. "It all depends on their reasons for 'playing along.' I promise to keep the carnage to a minimum. I'll probably just reassign the serving maid to another department, but I won't guarantee that nobody gets fired. Names?"
Anna stared at the floor.
"To protect the innocents from the unnecessary ordeal of being cross-examined by the Queen," Elsa coaxed.
Anna sighed. "Antonia, Fredrik, Beate, Ulrikke, Valdemar, and Balász."
"Not Balász!" Elsa gasped in consternation. "He made the cakes! Well, I certainly can't fire or transfer him."
"Gee, who knew dessert chefs get diplomatic immunity, too?" Anna ribbed.
"Balász' handiwork is essential for the maintenance of cordial international relations," Elsa testified. "His chocolate roulade has smoothed over so many differences of opinion."
"And here I thought you were the mastermind behind global peace," Anna bantered.
"Oh, I am. But it's all about mobilizing your forces properly and judiciously using your secret weapons," Elsa said with a smirk. "Are you sure you've given me all the names?"
"Yes," Anna said with slight exasperation.
"I find it hard to believe that you pulled the caper off without Kai's help."
Anna squirmed. "I didn't exactly tell him about it or ask him to help ..."
"... But he didn't exactly do anything to stop you or the others, or alert me about your little plan," Elsa supplied. Anna nodded. Elsa sighed. "Well, when father reduced the staff, he didn't exactly keep a lot of people who were shrewd and perceptive and showed much initiative. In fact, most of the people he hired after I was born were chosen because they did only what they were told, and didn't wonder too much why there was snow, ice, and wind inside the castle sometimes."
"I must've inherited my short-sightedness from papa," Anna said somewhat tartly.
Elsa wearily rubbed her eyes. "Anna, we've been through this before. Our parents did the best they could with the constraints, responsibilities, and information they had at the time. And you have yet to tell me what you would have realistically done oh-so-differently if you were in the same position."
"I think I would have been better at making you feel less guilty and scared," Anna contended.
"How? Why do you think that? As if you have never, ever said the wrong thing or misjudged a situation! C'mon, Anna! Don't you think they tried? Just saying 'Don't feel guilty' or 'Don't feel scared' to me would be about as effective as saying 'Don't be clumsy' or 'Don't be impulsive' to you," Elsa insisted. "It's hard to fight against your own nature or completely natural reactions to your circumstances."
Anna sighed. They could rarely discuss their parents' decisions without getting into an argument. And usually she didn't have anything clear-headed to say in opposition to Elsa's points.
"I guess ... I guess there's really no one to blame. Except maybe Grand Pabbie," Anna grumbled. "He's kind of a bumbler when it comes to giving recommendations about your magic."
"For all anybody knows, isolating me because of Grand Pabbie's warning really did save me from being attacked by an angry mob when I was younger. If I had been trying to learn how to control my magic out in the open, there's no telling what could have happened."
Anna sighed again. "Maybe," she grudgingly allowed. "But he does have a problem with ambiguous statements and not speaking up when someone misinterprets them. We were so close to a horrible ending because he said 'Only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart,' instead of 'You must perform an act of true love to thaw your heart.' "
Elsa suddenly pulled Anna into a fierce hug, and Anna grunted in surprise. "Oh, Anna, being ambiguous was the only thing that saved us from a horrible ending! If Grand Pabbie had explicitly told you that you were the one who needed to perform an act of true love to save yourself, it would have made it nearly impossible to do. You would have never been able to put someone else's needs before yours if you knew that you needed to put someone else's needs before yours."
Anna wriggled free of her sister's embrace and narrowed her eyes. "Wait, what?"
"The motivation for the act would always be in doubt. If the act was done to save your own life, it would be rendered no longer an act of true love. Self-interest would always corrupt the act and prevent you from doing the very thing that you need to do to save yourself," Elsa clarified. "So not knowing what you needed to do was your only hope of putting your needs aside and doing something out of pure, true love."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Run that by me again!" Anna exclaimed.
Elsa smiled patiently. "Okay. First off, the act of true love had to be performed by you. Otherwise, Kristoff being willing to bring you back to Hans and leave you forever would have worked. Olaf being willing to melt to start the fire in order to keep you warm would have done the trick. Kristoff and Sven charging across the fjord, risking death the whole way, with ships capsizing almost on top of them and the sea ice breaking up around them and the temperature plummeting, is much more of an act of true love than a silly kiss, but that didn't work, either. So you were the one who needed to perform the act."
"Yeah, I figured that part out on my own afterward. That's why I'm a little bit ... miffed, let's just say, that Grand Pabbie didn't give me as much information as he could or should have," Anna said. "Sometimes, it's hard enough for me to make good decisions without people giving me garbled instructions."
"He phrased it the only way that would give you a fighting chance. So the next time you see him, you should thank him. Profusely and sincerely," Elsa urged. "He was deliberately vague in order to save your life."
"I still don't think I understand what you're talking about."
"Even if the emotion you felt for Kristoff at the time really was true love, if you had kissed him because you knew that you needed to perform an act of true love to save yourself, the kiss wouldn't have worked. It wouldn't have been an act of true love, with nothing riding on it for you. It would have been an act of self-preservation."
"Wh-wh-wh..." Anna stammered.
"If you had seen Hans about to kill me and thought, 'Aha! I'll just sacrifice myself for Elsa, and that will be my act of true love to thaw my heart,' it would have no longer been an act of true love. It would have been tainted by selfishness. You would have been doing it out of your own need."
"Oh..." Anna faltered.
"Instead of giving up what you believed was your chance to save yourself in order to save me, you would have blocked the sword from hitting me, but the deed wouldn't have thawed you, because it was done thinking that it would save your own life. You would still be an ice statue, and I do not want to think about how the rest of us would have turned out," Elsa said pensively.
Anna's jaw went slack.
"Maybe Kristoff coming back for you would have been touching enough to make you totally forget what was at stake for you, or maybe seeing Hans posed to strike me dead would have been shocking and dire enough to make you totally forget that your life was on the line, but ... but from what you've said about ... the experience ..." Elsa struggled to find a delicate way to remind Anna how terrible the transmutation had felt. She clamped down tight on her magic. "I know you don't like to talk about it ... but I gathered that the ... transformation process ... wasn't something you could ... disregard."
Anna hung her head.
"If you know that you're the one who must save yourself through your own act of love, nothing you try will work - unless you have the emotional and mental discipline to keep your needs and your desperation completely out of your mind and focus solely on doing something for love. I also like to consider myself an emotional and mental discipline expert, so take it from me that it's arbitrarily close to impossible for you -or anyone else- to do that," Elsa appraised.
"You mean ... if someone else ever gets struck in the heart by your magic..." Anna stumbled.
"All hope is lost for him or her. Unless he or she doesn't already know the remedy, or possesses an almost inhuman amount of self-control," Elsa said solemnly. "Even if he or she doesn't know what the antidote is, and we try the same ploy, finding or creating the right conditions to reverse the freeze would be incredibly difficult. So whenever I say it's dangerous and give the order to either run away or let me go, or if there's a threat and I say to get out of my way, I am deadly serious, Anna. Do not think that it's safe for anyone -especially you- to be struck by my magic because you know how to undo it. Knowing how to undo it only makes salvation all but unattainable."
Anna looked stunned.
"So, what do you think of Grand Pabbie's cryptic advice now?" Elsa prodded.
Anna's breath caught in her throat, and her eyes were wide. "I didn't ... I never ... But if ... You mean ... So he really did ..."
"I know it's complex, but that's the way magic is. He really was trying to save you. Even though it seemed like he misdirected you. Even though it would make him look like a bumbler to you. So if you were going to flout whatever it was he said that 'pertains to you,' because you think he's inept when it comes to my magic, please, please think again," Elsa exhorted.
"He told me not to push you too much, even if I meant well. He told me to let you take things at your own pace, more for my sake than yours," Anna spouted.
"I'd say that is something that pertains to you and me, not just you," Elsa reproached. "I'd also say it is an excellent and lucid piece of advice even if everything else he ever said really was a blunder. You were genuinely going to disobey it?"
"Well... I mean, not 'disobey' so much as ... I don't know the right term. Selectively ignore it," Anna beat around the bush.
"Has your opinion of Grand Pabbie's competence changed at all now?" Elsa asked dryly.
"Oh, yeah!" said Anna, still looking dazed. "In fact, I'd like to learn how to say 'Thank you very much for saving my life' in Trollish."
"That can be arranged," Elsa said with a slight smile. "Did he say anything else last night that pertains to more than just you?"
"Uh, let me think. He said you were the most powerful magical human he knows of, as powerful as the strongest naturally magical beings," Anna acknowledged. "And that you grew up too soon, but that you never surrendered, and that there's hope for the future."
"And you didn't want me to know this because...?"
"Mainly because of the 'do not push' direction. But he also made you sound like ... like you're kind of eerie and messed up."
"Sunflower, I am kind of eerie and messed up," Elsa declared with a smile. "I just gotta embrace it."
"You are not eerie and messed up! You just had ... an unusual childhood, and you can overcome it. You are overcoming it. We can fix it," Anna averred.
"I would have had an unusual childhood no matter what. And Grand Pabbie said 'embrace' not 'fix,' " Elsa emphasized. "And no, this isn't a case where telling me what I need to do would prevent me from doing it."
"But I don't think he meant that you have to be a certain way if you're really not or don't want to be a certain way," Anna advocated.
"True, but he did say to embrace my negative emotions, too. And negative emotions are perfectly natural for normal people."
"Yeah, but-" Anna began.
"Don't push!" Elsa interjected. "I recognize that you still have some qualms about heeding Grand Pabbie's instructions. You had an unusual childhood, too, and you didn't even have the modest consolation of knowing why. You were the one who was affected the worst by his suggestions and having your memories altered, and it's obvious that he didn't and still doesn't entirely understand my magic. But he hasn't been wrong per se. My intuition also tells me that I need to learn how to feel more and keep control; for some reason, my emotions and my magic do not have a stress reaction to this concept. So I trust him on this one."
"Okay," Anna said with resignation. "It seems like you're doing fine however you're doing it now."
"Anna, keeping control is also a continuous process. I don't want to scare you-"
"Oh, that is the most hilarious thing you've said all evening!" Anna broke in. "Not that that's saying much..."
Elsa conjured and tossed a few snowflakes at her and resumed: "But my powers will continue to grow, and my control must keep up with them. Grand Pabbie is right that suppressing my emotions in order to maintain control is yet another bad habit, and that as dangerous as experimenting with my magic is now, it's nothing compared to what will happen in the future if I don't learn how to keep control the right way."
"Well, you did great tonight," Anna commended.
"Almost," Elsa said, thinking of the unfortunate side table.
"You did great," Anna repeated steadfastly and smiled at her sister's shy -and somewhat sleepy- appreciation of the compliment. "With everything ... except maybe the math joke. I know I tease you about thinking too much, and I know you work way too much, but you are the best. I may be the hero of the Eternal Winter, but you're the hero of the Happy Ending."
"Happy endings don't have heroes, because there's no conflict. Happy endings have architects or engineers," Elsa deflected.
"Whatever," Anna said with a roll of her eyes. "Although 'Architect of Our Happy Ending' does have a nice ring to it."
"Remember what I said about happy endings requiring a group effort. There are lots of people working to make it happen."
"There's no way anyone else could do what you do to make it happen."
"I guess that's why they pay me the big money," Elsa said self-effacingly and stifled a yawn.
"It certainly isn't for your comedic talents," Anna joshed.
"People laugh at the skits in the magic show," Elsa said mock defensively.
"That's because Olaf and Sven are performing them. It's the delivery, not the content," Anna said smugly. "They're a walking, talking snowman and a reindeer who performs pantomime with Kristoff doing his voiceover; people would laugh at anything they do."
"Well, at least I know how to surround myself with the right people, then." She gave Anna a firm hug. "Listen, I love you no matter what, and I am proud of you. I might hassle you about your judgment, but there was one important day when you chose wisely, even when you didn't have enough information. And there was another day when you acted quickly and correctly despite my assurances that everything was fine. So remember that if you're scared that you'll fail at school or running Arendelle. And don't worry if you don't yet know what to do with all that feeling you have in your heart. You will find your calling, I'm sure of it." Elsa smiled affectionately, but this time could not hold back a yawn.
"And you didn't even participate in the snowball fight," Anna teased.
"As though participating in a snowball fight would make me tired," Elsa scoffed. "You're the big baby who took a nap afterward."
"Hey, I was just thinking ahead. It was the best idea I had all day, even though it ended with ice in my ear, which I'm certain you deny knowing anything about. Plus, I went to bed later than you did," Anna reminded.
"You also woke up later than I did," Elsa countered.
"Well, I helped Stefanie shop for a dress!" Anna said with faux self-importance.
"And plotted a seditious act against the Queen your sister," Elsa needled good-naturedly. "Meanwhile, I issued a royal decree to put an end to pluralis maiestatis."
"You can't just eradicate diseases by issuing a royal decree, you goofball!" Anna rebuked.
Elsa giggled. "Anna, pluralis maiestatis isn't a disease; it's the Royal We. Didn't you have any Latin lessons?"
Anna cringed at her mistake. "I had a few, but they weren't exactly my favorite. Too many declensions to keep track of," she said with a shudder.
"You are not going to like Trollish, then," Elsa told her.
"Sure I will. It's a living language, not something that's only useful for reading boring stuff in musty books. I can use it to talk with Kristoff's family."
"You will have to apply yourself, though," Elsa cautioned. "But I suspect learning it from Kristoff and the trolls themselves will be easier than the route I had to take. Plus, I think the trolls will make it fun for you." She stifled another yawn.
"Elsa," Anna began haltingly, "what did Grand Pabbie erase from my memories of you playing the piano?"
"It was something my magic did automatically; I never directed it. It made shapes ... well, 'shapes' obviously isn't the most helpful term, and they weren't something easy to draw," Elsa explained awkwardly. "Most of the time they were self-similar and moved along with the music. I can't properly describe it, and I didn't often look at it anyway, because I was paying attention to the keyboard. But you and mother and even father loved watching it. Grand Pabbie must have made my playing seem superb to make up for taking out the part that you really enjoyed."
"Oh. If you're ever in the mood to play again, I'd love to see it," Anna said, taking care to keep her tone neutral.
"I don't even know if my magic would still do that." Her eyelids were beginning to feel heavy.
"Even if it doesn't, I'd love to hear you play again," Anna encouraged.
"Someday. I promise. But I have to be prepared." Elsa unleashed a not inconsiderable yawn. "Sorry."
"Okay, to bed with you," Anna said with a chuckle.
"Whoa, you are capable of sensible suggestions! Don't forget what I said about working with me one day a week and taking -and passing- a first aid course. Your Highness can still have this week to play, but after the Harvest Festival, it's time to get cracking, at least a little bit," Elsa charged.
"Yes, Your Majesty," Anna said humbly. They hugged one more time, and Elsa tousled her sister's loose hair. Anna walked her to the door, and smiled as the Snow Queen yawned once more. "See you tomorrow."
"Good night, Anna," Elsa said, and squeezed her sister's hand as she went through the doorway.
Once the door shut behind her, Elsa heaved a sigh as she rounded the corner. She paused at the head of the hall to her suite, and listened intently, positive that she could hear a cricket chirping somewhere down below, and positive that the noise was coming from inside. There was undoubtedly a hole in an exterior wall or a gap in a window frame or doorway, and finding it in a place as big as the castle could take weeks, which in turn meant weeks' worth of creatures, some much more destructive than crickets, gaining entry.
Elsa put that on her mental to-do list, and mulled over the dialogue with her sister. She felt like she hadn't handled it very well, that maybe there was some truth to the indictment that she couldn't hold a real conversation as a human being if her life depended on it. She wanted Anna's happy ending to be perfect, and here she was ordering her little sister to get to work, yelling at her for not continuing her education, frightening her about what the future could hold for Arendelle, and probably giving her nightmares about being turned to ice again.
She entered her own dark bedroom, and exhaled in relief. She could finally relax some of the restraints on her magic. The temperature of the room dropped, and while it was refreshing for her, she knew that anyone else would be shaking. Spirals of frost coated the window panes as if to block out the world beyond the four walls.
Elsa plunked down on her bed and spread out, still feeling worried that she had been too heavy-handed with Anna, especially with explaining how being struck in the heart by her magic was more dangerous than before. But if Anna had felt justified in ignoring Grand Pabbie's warning about pushing because she thought the old troll was a bungler when it came to giving advice and/or was confident that another shot to the heart wouldn't be a problem, she needed to be swiftly and soundly disabused of those notions. She didn't want Anna to be afraid of her, but in the final analysis, that was far preferable to Anna being foolhardy ... and a permanent ice statue.
Elsa sighed again. There had been so many mistakes and oversights in Anna's upbringing, from her own limited involvement as a big sister and then as a guardian, to her parents' simultaneous policies of over-accommodating Anna's need for fun, over-protecting her from many of the harsher realities of life, and under-stimulating her intellect. She didn't want to make the same errors as her parents, but it was so easy to do in her endeavor to make up for ruining Anna's childhood. She had to force herself to remember that Anna was no longer a child, and that treating her like one, or -even worse- wanting her to remain one was unnatural. As was excessively fretting about it. She really did trust Anna to find her calling; and she really didn't want to interfere too much in Anna's process of self-discovery, otherwise it would cease to be self-discovery.
She yawned again, and slipped under the covers, out of respect for tradition and the skills of local artisans. The Snow Queen wiggled her toes and a pile of soft, cold, unmeltable snow materialized between the sheets to cushion and pamper her feet. She moaned in contentment, and quickly slipped into a deep slumber to recharge herself for Tuesday.
Author's Notes - My main curveball in this chapter is the fine and very important detail about the act of true love to undo Elsa's magic. I apologize if I belabored that too much for some of you, but since I have not seen anyone else discuss this or use it as a plot point, I want and need to be absolutely clear that Elsa is more dangerous than ever - and Elsa knows it. If anyone doesn't quite get it, there will be more discussion of it in later chapters. My authorial intuition tells me that Frozen's writers understood this perfectly well and that's why they had Grand Pabbie be so vague. So, kudos for Jennifer Lee, Chris Buck, and Shane Morris for being subtle! And some kudos for Grand Pabbie for being more than a seemingly less-than-helpful oracle! (And this should make you wonder if his visual aid for "Fear will be your enemy" and silence when Agnarr outlines his plan to isolate Elsa might also be for a "good" reason - hmmm, hmmm.) And some kudos for Running Red Husky for seeing it!
As to Elsa and Anna, I wanted this chapter to run the emotional gamut of their relationship. I especially wanted to show how Anna helps with Elsa's "can't stop thinking" and Elsa helps with Anna's "doesn't stop to think" - and how they fight and get on each other's nerves and misunderstand each other.
The "A shack in the forest" rhyme is by a Finnish poet whose name I cannot track down; it was probably written a few decades after Frozen's time frame but was still very applicable to what real life was like then. Fortunately for Arendelle, it had more going for it than most Scandinavianish countries did. Scandinavia's real-life scarcity of coal, along with the climate and lack of fertile soils really did cause grim living conditions for a lot of people there during the Industrial Revolution. Let's just say that Elsa's ability to create ice combined with an engine that can be powered by ice (the Stirling engine) will make her very interesting to a lot of other people.
The ship Elsa talked about is based on the SS Great Britain, and the extremely clever man on the engineering team is Isambard Kingdom Brunel. It isn't too anachronistic that Elsa would say it will have a screw propeller, since Brunel was trying to get the Great Western Steamship Company to agree to change the design from paddle wheels to propeller in 1840. I figure that Elsa has a lovely "social network" that shares all the best information with her. Grømstad is Grimstad, because the town acquired the name Grimstad via a clerical error that wouldn't have happened because Arendelle isn't a part of Norway. Showing my work, teacher!
Shout-outs to Wicked, earlier drafts of Frozen, and "More Than Just A Spare."
The shapes when Elsa plays the piano will be fractals and a tribute to a segment of "Fantasia."
