Both my arms and my legs were all chained up to the wall of our cell. Joining me were Anna, Elsa and Sven and they were chained up like me. As if our chains weren't very heavy and squeezing us very tightly, the whole cell being too dark and smelly wasn't helping much either. Neither did the fact that we ate and drank very little and none of us including everyone in Arendelle, who were all now Hans's prisoners like us, had washed at all. Another thing we couldn't do now that we were chained up was a game of charades.
Elsa's hands were not only cuffed up, but they were covered up by more metal things. Every now and then, she tried to use her magical powers to break her chains like she did when Hans had her put in the dungeon eight years ago. No matter how many times she tried, she couldn't break free at all.
"These chains and cuffs are too powerful," she told us. "They must be magical. I think it might be something to do with Hans's hooded friend."
"Do you think he's as magical as you are, Elsa?" I asked. "Maybe even more powerful than you?"
"I don't know, Kristoff. The only thing I do know is that I don't trust him one bit." Then she sighed. "Olaf is our only hope for Arendelle. I sure hope he will bring help to us."
Then I thought of our allies outside of Arendelle. "What about our goblin friends? Marshmallow and the snowgies? The Northuldra?"
"I hope they don't get discovered," Elsa said.
"Well, with all the kingdoms Anna has made as allies, I'm sure Olaf will get help. Do you think so, Sven?"
"'Sure, Kristoff'," I said talking for Sven. "'I have complete faith in Olaf'."
"I like your positive thinking, buddy," I said. Then I turned to Anna. "How about you, Anna? What do you think?"
Anna hadn't said a word since we were thrown into our cell last night. She was silent as one of the graves in the Arendelle since. Then she started to make some noise – crying her eyes out. And I knew why.
"Hey, Anna, don't worry about Kasper and Rika," I said as reassuring as best as I could. "You did all you could for them. If I were in your shoes, I wouldn't have done anything different."
"But I always feel like I could have done something different and I should have," she sobbed. "I'm a terrible mother."
"No, you're not," Elsa and I said together.
"I am! I tried my very best to raise our kids. I tried my hardest to help Rika control her powers, but Kasper always being jealous of her doesn't help at all. I just…" She sighed. "I was doing everything I could to not repeat history, but I'm feeling I might be making things even worse. I might be worse than our parents and maybe even our grandfather. I'm a failure at everything: at being a mother, a wife, a princess and a sister."
"Anna, you are the best wife I could ever wish for," I told her. "My life has improved a lot since I met you."
"And, Anna, you are the best thing that has ever happened to me," Elsa said. "Being your sister and being an aunt and godmother to your kids means more to me than being Queen of Arendelle or having magical powers. The best days of my life was when you were born, when you came back to life after you died, when you and Kristoff got married and the days when your kids were born."
Anna's tears of sadness turned into tears of joy.
"And as for raising kids, you are doing a lot better than our parents and grandfather put together. If I ever get married and have kids, I only hope I can be as good as you. And do you remember my maid of honor speech at your wedding?"
I sure did. I could never forget about our wedding day. Elsa had very kindly arranged a royal wedding for Anna and me and everyone in the kingdom, the entire Northuldra and many other royal guests, including our prince and princess friends from other kingdoms, came to celebrate. There were plenty of wonderful gifts, including the mansion Elsa gave us just near the edge of the kingdom, and there was a lot of yummy food. I never forgot how beautiful Anna looked in her wedding dress and Elsa in her maid of honor's dress. But the one thing that really touched both of us that day was Elsa's maid of honor speech. No one could ever forget it.
"Thank you all for being here," she said to everyone. "It means the world to me that you're all here to celebrate the wedding of my sister and best friend Anna, whom I love so much. Neither me nor Arendelle would be here if it wasn't for her. It was her who helped me learn how I got my powers and how to control them. It was her that summer was able to come back to Arendelle. It's her wonderful advice that helps me rule this kingdom and her excellent negotiation skills that it made proud allies with other kingdoms. But the things I admire about her the most is her wonderful warm heart and how she never gives up on those whom she loves.
"And as for Kristoff, the more I got to know him and how much he loved and cared for Anna, the safer I felt for her. Like my sister, he has proven his worth and more than just being an ice master. Over the time they spent together, I have seen much he and Anna love and support each other and how they truly deserve each other.
"Words cannot express how honored I am to be Anna's maid of honor. It's something I thought I could never be able to do, but I'm very glad I can and I am. Just as glad I am to be her sister." Then she raised her glass and gave a toast. "To Anna and Kristoff. I wish you all a very happy and wonderful life together."
Everyone raised their glasses to me and Anna and they applauded. I never forgot that speech nor everyone rising their glasses to me and Anna. Neither did Anna, who was still crying but still of joy. I was crying of joy as well. It was still touching to this day.
"And neither this queen nor this kingdom could have had a better princess than you," Elsa went on. "Who needs a king or a husband when I have you to support me and Arendelle?"
Then the door on our cell opened before we could get Anna's reaction to Elsa's latest compliment. Three of Hans's soldiers stormed in and freed us from the wall, but we were still cuffed up as we were pushed out of our cell and dragged through the dungeon corridor.
"Where are you taking us?" Anna asked.
"Shut up!" one of the soldiers yelled, yanking her forward by her arm.
If we weren't cuffed up, Elsa and I would have each given that soldier a piece of our minds.
The soldiers took us to the courtyard. As we continued to walk, we were shocked to see our fellow Arendelle friends, including the youngest of children, working like slaves. They were guarded by Han's armies from the Southern Isles and Weselton. Some were armed with swords or bows and arrows while the others were whipping our friends when they weren't working fast enough or they did something out of line, intentionally or unintentionally.
We were pushed to the far end at the courtyard where Hans was sitting down on a chair and we were pushed down before him. The hooded figure served the new king of Arendelle a cocktail glass. After he drank it, he gave it back to his hooded servant and dismissed him. Like Anna and Elsa, the more I saw the hooded figure, the more I became suspicious about him.
Anna gasped. "What are you doing to our home?" she yelled at Hans.
I looked what where she was looking at. I saw not only was the courtyard being rebuilt, but the whole castle that had never been modified ever since Arendelle was first built.
"I need to make it more presentable for my new empire," Hans said.
"Empire?" I was confused. "Are you a king or an emperor?"
"Well, now I rule Arendelle as well as the Southern Isles and Weselton," I said, "I believe there will be a ceremony to declare me emperor."
"How did you conquer those kingdoms before ours?" Elsa asked. "Was it your hooded friend? How does he serve in your 'empire'?"
"You're right, Elsa," Hans said. "None of this would have happened without him." He stood up and looked away from us. "It all started when I was thrown into the dungeon back at home for trying to save an innocent kingdom from this snow monster here." He was pointing to Elsa as he said, 'snow monster'. "Then that hooded creature was thrown into my cell one day."
"That hooded creature?" Anna said. "Even you don't know his name?"
"He never told me his name or where he came from or had ever taken his hood off for me. We were forced to work together, but we found out that we had so much in common. We were only doing right things and being punished for it. For him, he was kicked out of his city. Then he made new friends who were looking for the city, so he decided to take them to it. But the entrance was blocked off to his surprise. When he tried to explain what happened to his new friends, they tried to kill him. He escaped then and had been on the run since then.
"After he was brought to work with me – and my parents didn't tell me why they throw him in here – we made a deal. If he could help me become the new King of the Southern Isles, I would make him a free man and pardon him for all the crimes he was accused off. He became interested and we started to plan our revenge."
"The next day, the royal guards came to collect us for our day's work, but I pretended I was still asleep while my new friend sorted them out by serving them drinks with what I think was poison. Then we escaped, disguised ourselves as waiters and gave my whole family the same drinks for breakfast. My father, my mother and all of my twelve brothers." He grinned with both evil and satisfaction. "It felt so good."
"So, everyone else in the Southern Isles had no choice but to accept you with as their new king?" Elsa asked.
Hans turned to face us. "They did have a choice. A choice of life and death. As promised, I rewarded my hooded friend for helping me become king by making him a free man and my chief advisor. The very first advice he ever gave me was, 'Why stop at being king while you can become an emperor? Or even better a god?'. So our next stop was Weselton. I swear, taking that kingdom was easier than taking my own."
"No one will worship you, not after what you did," I said.
"You're right," Hans said. "Three kingdoms are not enough. I will need to conquer a few more kingdoms before they will worship me."
"It's one thing making me surrender our kingdom to your empire," Elsa said. "We will not help you take over more."
"I'd be careful how you speak to your future emperor, Elsa." Hans clapped his hands.
Two of his soldiers slammed down a wooden casket in front of us. They opened it up and we were shocked to see who was in it: a dead goblin from our goblin friends. Then they closed it up again and they chucked it with the other hundred wooden caskets in the far distance.
"Your goblin friends can't help you now," Hans said. Then he clapped his hands again.
We turned to see our Northuldra friends and their reindeers arrived. They were all in chains and being escorting by Hans's army. Then more soldiers arrived with my family: the trolls! I recognized all of them. There wasn't one missing and they were all in their own individual cages. Like Elsa, none of them, even Grand Pabbie, could use their magic to break free from them. It was probably the work of that hooded creature.
Hans turned to Elsa. "I will give you only one chance of this, Elsa," he warned her. "Become my empress, if you want your family and your friends to survive. Refuse me and all these people will be dead like your globin friends."
Elsa looked at Hans and then at me, Anna, Sven, our friends from Arendelle, the Northuldra and the trolls. She sighed and finally said, "I accept."
"Wise choice," Hans said. "But first things first. For you to become my empress, I shall need to be emperor first. And the ceremony will start in two hours so get ready." Then he and his soldiers left us with our troll and Northuldra friends.
"Elsa, you can't become his empress!" Anna cried.
"You know what he will do if I don't, Anna," Elsa cried.
"You're doing all you can for all of us, Elsa," Yelana said. "We are grateful for that."
"Are you guys all right?" Anna asked.
Yelana said the Northuldra were all right, despite the surprise attack from Hans's soldiers and being arrested by them. None of us knew how Hans and his army discovered the Northuldra. He didn't even ask about them, but even if he did, we wouldn't tell them.
"What about the spirits?" Elsa asked.
"They escaped," Yelana explained. "And left us to be captured."
Then we turned to the trolls and asked what happened. Grand Pabbie told us they found them while they were still rolled up back in the Valley of the Living Rock. They still didn't know how they captured them as trolls were never easy to catch.
Then I, Anna, Elsa and Sven knew who could be behind it. "That hooded guy," we said at once.
Then Anna turned to Grand Pabbie. "Grand Pabbie, is there any hope to stop Hans's rising empire?"
The troll king sighed. "This is the work of a higher magic, even more powerful than me and Elsa and those spirits in the Enchanted Forest. There may be one person that can stop this."
"Who and where is this person?" I asked.
"I do not know," Grand Pebbie replied. "The only thing I do know is that this person that can save us can also be the one that might doom us even more."
We were grateful for his honesty, but we didn't feel any more hopeful than before.
Then the bell rang. That meant it was time for Hans to become an emperor. We, along with the trolls, the Northuldra and everyone in Arendelle, were pushed forward ahead to the Arendelle cathedral for an event none of us were looking forward to yet couldn't escape. Then I remembered that Marshmallow and the snowgies weren't here which must meant neither Hans nor his soldiers discovered them yet. And I sure hoped they never will as I hoped Olaf will be getting help from wherever he can.