We're headed into the final 'act' of the story now and as much as this is a bad time to do it I can't really guarantee weekly updates anymore. The end of the year means the end of the semester and deadlines, so as much as I do love writing, from this point on consider the update schedule I so lovingly kept until now No Longer A Thing. Sorry!

~Cobray

She looked out over the mountain and saw the fires burning there. Just a few, small ones. She felt a tremor go through her. Just a small one. But it was there, nonetheless.

"Hey."

Elsa felt heat enfold her as hands slid around her waist, and she sighed as the small little fears, from this and that and a dozen other little things, bled out of her as Anna's hands enfolded her, and Anna's chin rested itself on her shoulder. She twisted her face so that their lips met, and she closed her eyes unconsciously as for a moment all she could feel was Anna's scent and heat against her. She could let herself be swallowed up in it, like she had a hundred times before. But…

"You shouldn't be up," Elsa whispered when they finally parted.

Anna smiled at her. "I just wanted to wish you a good morning," she said, and peppered Elsa's neck with kisses.

As much as she wanted to…but no. Elsa turned and pushed Anna backwards towards the bed, her hands running down Anna's stomach as she did so, supple and toned from endless archery practise and from the swordsmanship lessons. Not ones she took, not anymore. Ones she gave. Finally though her hands went too low and…

"Ah!" Anna hissed, and gritted her teeth.

"See?" Elsa said, the same way she had last night and the night before. She gave Anna one last push and her little sister fell backwards onto the bed. "You need to stay in bed."

"Says who?" Anna said, pushing herself up onto her elbows, her red hair splayed behind her like they had just finished making love.

"Says the doctor." Who patched you up and told me how close it could have been. "Says Gerda." Who worries so much and will never get used to her little Anna holding a blade, no matter the circumstances. "Says me." Me who watches as the stitches close and the blood was wiped off your perfect skin.

"I'm fine," Anna lies, her arms shaking from the effort of holding herself up.

"You aren't," Elsa says back, and brushes a stray red hair from her eyes, where it falls among the rest. "You aren't."

"DEATH TO THE WITCH QUEEN!"

She heard the voice but it didn't register, not at first. Her brain just didn't accept the words it was hearing as the man broke from the pack of merchants. Her world became paintings, flashing in front of her eyes one after another:

The look of surprise on the face of the merchant as he was pushed aside.

The knife glinting in the spring air as it came from the folds of his coat, pointed right at her heart.

Her guards moving to intercept him, steel armour – all her guards travelled fully armed and armoured now, no exceptions – flashing in the same air.

Anna, unarmoured, but faster than them for it. A blur of green and red as the sword she had given her came free from the sheath in one smooth move.

The tangle as the sword and the dagger crossing each other.

Anna and the assassin falling to the ground together, a tangle of limbs as the momentum from the already-dead man carried his weight onto her.

And then the paintings had resolved themselves and time had begun to flow as normal again, and Leif was dragging Elsa back as Anna climbed to her feet, her red clothes redder, but a smile on her face as she looked into Elsa's eyes. "You're safe," she said, as the blood from the wound poured down her shirt.

Only Elsa's self-control had prevented her from screaming.

Only Elsa's self-control had prevented her from freezing the entire gathering to the bone.

"Elsa," Anna said quietly, and ran a finger down Elsa's jaw, reading her mind like she had always been able to do, even before they were together. "I'm still here."

She resisted the urge to fall down into Anna's embrace, but it was a close thing. Instead she turned away to change, before Gerda entered the room. Even now, months later, she was still…she still hesitated. She knew it could only end one of two ways. But still she would put the decision off, just a little longer. Well, not really a decision. She couldn't imagine throwing Anna away, not now. That only left one option, and both of them knew it could only end in tears. So put it aside.

"I should be there with you," Anna said, from behind her.

"You should go back to sleep and heal."

Anna harrumphedand threw herself back down, pouting. "I've slept for weeks!" she complained, childlike and adorable, as if it had been nothing more than a fall from a horse or a slip on cobblestones, and not an assassin's blade scything across her chest. "I need to do something! I need to get back and practise before I lose my edge." Anna's hand wandered across her own chest, across the small scar that was already fading there, even after only a few weeks. She was incredible. "I can't protect you from a bed."

"My warrior princess," Elsa said with a smile as she unbuttoned her nightshirt and began to change. She was aware of Anna's eyes crawling all over her back, and felt herself shiver. She loved the feeling, they had discovered early on, as she was…learning. The first handfuls of days they had rarely slept as they explored each other in every way possible, as Anna had used everything the long-gone milkmaid had taught her and then they had gone further together. Anna could bring heat into places deep inside her body Elsa hadn't dreamed possible. Elsa could straddle Anna and watch as she mewled and struggled below her, brought over an edge again and again that seemed to last for minutes. Eventually the sun rose and found them both tangled around each other in an exhausted and satiated trance, bodies pressed together so close they felt like one person.

"How bad is it?" Anna's voice came from just behind Elsa's ear as she fastened the corset. Strong fingers wrapped around lace and tightened it around her.

"Not so bad," Elsa said, aware of how silly that sounded, with her sister behind her with a scar still healing across her chest. "Only a few."

Only a few. The fact that there were any at all still made her mad, made her want to scream and shout and throw things at walls. Hadn't she been so good to them? Hadn't she made proclamations, visited villages, punished her own supporters who them looked at her like she was the one who had done wrong?

You shouldn't have to beg them, Anna had said, when Elsa had stepped away from the balcony after the first time she had done it, even as she knew that Elsa was still going to do it. Because even if they were ungrateful, angry children they were still her people. That even as they screamed obscenities and demanded her head Elsa still wanted to try and get through to them. But if there was some magic word or phrase she could use that would convince them she wasn't the monster they all said she was, she hadn't found it yet, and until she did there would be blood.

Elsa finished buttoning up her clothing. God, but she found it so tiresome these days. Layers and layers of buttons and catches and cloth. Sometimes she wondered what would happen if she just…threw it all off. Turned up to the final council meetings before her coronation in her nightgown.

"You look beautiful," Anna said from the bed, curled around the sheets like a cat, watching Elsa as she finished dressing. The wound was only a slight ache or pinch in her skin now, and it would vanish soon enough. She still remembered the knife the assassin and had held and how close it had come to Elsa. It had been terrifying. She hadn't thought, she had just thrown herself between them. The blood had been a small price to pay to make sure that Elsa was safe, and she had made sure the man paid. He hadn't been as tough as the bear, one stroke had been enough. Not as much blood as the bear, either.

She watched Elsa finish her morning routine with a smile on her face. Just being able to be near her love again made her deliriously happy. It had been agonising being apart from her for so long, trapped in the small recovery room with strict orders from the doctor and the queen-to-be to take it easy and relax, her only visitors the doctor and his helpers as outside the world still needed ruling. It had been the first night they'd spent apart in years and it had been so lonely.

A week later, the first night she had returned to their shared bed, Anna had sent the servants out of the wing and locked the doors and made Elsa scream. Next time the blade won't reach me, she had promised herself, as she had ran her fingers over Elsa's perfect skin and plunged them into her again and again, and watched her lover below her shake twist and bite the bed sheets in ecstasy. I have to be better, for her. She had started practising again the next day.

Elsa opened the doors at the knock. "Kai." She turned, perfect and graceful. "Be good Anna."

Anna smiled back from under the covers. "Promise."

She paused at the entrance to the meeting hall, to listen.

"…had this discussion before."

"And we'll have it again when her highness arrives."

"With all due respect your grace her highness has made it crystal-clear what her position is. Are you disagreeing?"

"Yes."

She sighed. Hans. Making the same argument again. She could see the logic in it and could see he meant well, but she still wasn't prepared to agree with him. Not yet.

"Arendelle has one problem-"

"Arendelle has several problems."

"Forgive me sir but they are all the same problem and they all come from this indecision yourselves and her highness insist upon."

"And your solution is what? Different schools for different followers? Segregate the villages from each other? Require all citizens to wear a symbol of their faith around their neck? Is that what we want, after King Agdar – god rest his soul – worked so hard to bring this country forward? To fall back into some dark age where people throw salt over their shoulder to ward off evil, and think the world is flat, and the followers of different gods assault each other as heretics?"

"This is already happening. The Queen is already a legend, as is her sister. Or do you not keep up with the stories they're telling outside the walls? The Snow Queen and her invincible Valkyrie?"

"The princess Anna is not invincible, as the last few weeks will remind you."

Enough. She reached forward and swept the doors open. "Gentlemen." She looked around the room. Prince Hans sat at the long table's side, his clothes a little ruffled and dirtier than they had been when they had first met, but still impeccably-groomed. Across from him sat the general of her army, an old grizzled man who had served her father. General Gunnar had seen Elsa's powers and like all old soldiers he had shrugged at happenings above his station, and got on with his job. Next to him sat the admiral of the navy – a much bigger job, but one that barely saw any work these days. The mayor of Arendelle and her regent – in name only – sat on the general's other side, a great big bear of a man who kept the markets running and the granaries full. All good men, all thrown into a situation none of them could have ever prepared themselves for. "What are we discussing?"

"The same thing we were discussing at our last meeting your highness," General Gunnar said bluntly, keeping his eyes on Hans. The old man didn't like the Prince much.

"What now?" she asked, and dreaded the answer.

"Another battle. Not a fight, a real battle."

"How large?"

"A few dozen on either side. It was between two villages, too close together. One kept the cross, the other the iron."

She resisted the urge to ask; who won? God, what a nightmare. "Was there an…instigator?" she asked.

"There was," Hans answered. "A priest passing through whipped them up and pointed them, and that was it."

She tapped a finger on the oak table, and tiny snowflakes appeared under her hands. "Who was he?"

Hans shrugged. "Nobody knows. He wasn't local, to anywhere." He looked at her pointedly. "To anywhere in Arendelle."

"Conspiracy theories again, your Grace?" the admiral said.

"With all due respect admiral, they're not theories if they really are out to kill you." He turned away from the old man and looked to Elsa. "More and more are coming from other countries to preach here."

"Conjecture."

"Reality," Hans shot back without turning away. "They see it as their holy duty to turn the pagan peasantry back towards God, and they're being allowed free travel to Arendelle. Not all of them are satisfied with just preaching. Your highness, nobody admires the effort you've put in more than me," Prince Hans said. "But their people and your people are oil and water."

"They're all my people prince Hans," Elsa said, a little more sternly. "Let's not forget that."

"Then you need to bring them under control."

"How dare you!" the admiral shouted.

Elsa raised a hand at the man, before he could go any further. If you wanted to talk about oil and water she had her example right here. "What are you suggesting Hans?"

"Acknowledge the people worshipping you. Accept it."

A year ago she would have smiled and laughed. Six months ago she would have said no. Now though things had gotten bad enough that she didn't dismiss it out of hand. Because it really wasn't just a few crazy old men anymore. It was small children in the streets who talked about the amazingly powerful Snow Queen, and the amazingly strong and brave knight that protected her, just like in the fairy tales. It was workers in the fields who prayed for the ice to spare their crops this harvest and for old mothers hoping that the snowfall wouldn't bury their houses this year. It was farmers kissing their runestones and intoning the name of the warrior-princess to ward off the wolves and bears.

And she could do it. More and more they went around the country as Elsa did what her father had done; go to the real people and try to find out how to make their lives better. They would visit the farmers snowed in for the year and she would make the ice on their grain vanish, or they would visit an old man with one arm and two graves in his garden, and Anna would track down the wild man-eater and dispatch it to make the village safe again. She couldn't say no, not when she had the power to act. They would fall to their knees and thank her for making sure they wouldn't starve over the winter, or thank them for their sons who could now gather wood without the risk of being devoured. Every time she did so the stories would grow a little more, spread a little farther.

And every time she did so, and more people worn the small inscribed runestone that had become her totem, other people who still held to the book or the cross would hate her and curse her name. A few might hate her enough to do something about it, as the man with the blade had.

But she couldn't stop.

She was trapped by love.

"Your majesty, that would create a huge danger," Gunnar said, ever cautious. Elsa didn't think the old man was even a Christian. If he followed any religion it was the soldier's own: realism. "It would be a beacon and not a good one."

"Her highness can handle anything that the world can throw at her."

"I'm so glad your grace that you – yourself one of these outsiders – would think so," Gunnar said, chiding the man in the most respectful way he could. He turned to his queen. "My job is the defense of this country and your highness, proclaiming yourself a living goddess would make the world descend on you."

"They already are," Hans replied.

"Well, well, look who's feeling better."

"Quiet you," Anna said, punching Kristoff lightly on the arm. "What's up?"

The man wiped the sweat from his face and rubbed it off on the cloth by his side as he put down his ice-saw. Kristoff always worked shirtless when he cut ice, or he'd have ruined a hundred good shirts by now. It was quite the performance and spectacle. All the young maids in the castle agreed, which was why Kristoff only did it inside the stables now, lest work in the kitchens slow down, as people came to watch. Anna didn't appreciate the sight of him working, but she could appreciate his strength. Was a little jealous of it in fact. She wondered how good Kristoff would have been, if he had went on to become a knight like she had thought he would. He'd never shown even the slightly enthusiasm for it though, the only blades he ever used the pickaxe and the ice-saw.

I like life too much to kill, he had said. The people who raised me taught me that.

Kristoff shoved the ice-saw into the block he was working on, and turned to Anna as he wiped himself down. "How are you feeling?"

Better than the man who tried to kill my sister, Anna bit back the urge to say. "Better than I was," she said, her hand rubbing the thin wound under her leathers. "Thanks for the poultice."

"No problem, the trolls used it on me when I fell down a lot, I know how well it works" Kristoff said, and smiled. He had dodged past the guards and almost had to knock the doctor out to avoid being detected. "It's actually…err. It's related to that, kind of. Why I wanted to see you, I mean."

"What is?"

Kristoff took a deep breath and steadied himself. "Have you ever considered visiting?"

Anna blinked. "The trolls?"

"Yes."

Anna leaned back against the stone wall of the stable. "Huh. Now you mention it…" Had she met them before? She vaguely remembered something about them. An old memory barely there, like a book page that had been exposed to sunlight too long and faded away. "I don't think so."

"Well, the offer is there."

"You know Elsa doesn't like them that much, I never found out why," Anna said before she thought, and her eyes opened wide as she realised it. "Sorry! Sorry!"

For one second Anna could have sworn Kristoff looked…darker? No, there was no way. Kristoff wasn't bright in a way that some people were, like other people said she was, but he was never actually sad. He just went on and on, like a clockwork soldier that had always been there for her, when she needed someone to talk to that wasn't Elsa or Gerda or Kai. She had experimented talking with Hans a couple of times, as the prince had visited more and more recently, but she had never really connected with him, even though he was much closer to her level. Oh he was nice and polite, and he smiled enough, but whenever they talked Anna got the impression there was always somewhere else the prince of the Southern Isles wished he was. In the end she had stopped trying. Elsa liked him, and she knew he had helped out a lot with the trouble they were having, and that was enough reason to tolerate his presence in their lives. But anyway. "I'll…think about it," she said. "Who's asking, you or them?"

"Them," Kristoff said.

"Well, maybe when all this mess calms down," she said. Kristoff didn't wear the cross, or the iron. Anna didn't even know if he believed in anything except himself. Compared to her he was an unchanging rock.

"If that ever happens," he replied.

"Of course it will," Anna said, and caught a look from Kristoff. "What?"

"You don't see the same things I do," Kristoff said, and picked up his saw again.

"What? Explain," she said, and tried to avoid making it into a demand.

Kristoff sighed as he made the first cut on the new block. "People are scared."

"Of what? Of us?" Kristoff nodded. "Why? We've done so much good!"

Kristoff paused between strokes of the ice-saw. "People are scared for different reasons. A lot of them aren't scared of Elsa, they're scared of each other. Nobody knows what's happening."

"Elsa's trying to keep everything together," Anna replied, trying to avoid feeling like she was under attack. She knew he didn't mean it badly. She kept telling herself that.

"People are…a little confused. The Christians feel like they're under attack." Kristoff remembered scared faces behind closed doors as he delivered ice. "The…the others…feel like they'll be under attack soon, because of all the preachers going around talking about doom and death." Other faces, these ones just as scared.

"Elsa doesn't want people to feel like they need to pick a side," Anna said.

"There are already two sides Anna. There just isn't anyone from above making them stop."

To that Anna had no reply. She stood up straight from the pole she had been leaning against, and left without another word. She had to think, and these days she found she thought best and quickest when she had something in her hands. "Thanks Kristoff."

"Anytime."

She spared him a glance and a smile as she left. "I know you are."

"Only one other thing, begging your majesties' pardon."

"Yes mayor?"

The mayor of Arendelle shifted in his seat. He was here mainly because Arendelle was the biggest town with the biggest trade, and the old King had always valued the input of people who had to live with the laws they had made. This que- princess made him a little nervous. He had been appointed as her regent when His Majesty, god rest his soul, had died, but she had…well…she had never really needed him. He was an honest man though who had never shirked a duty in his life, and this one was written down in the book of law. Even so he'd have quite happily thrown this particular duty into the river and washed his hands of it.

"There have been…well…with your highness coming of age soon, one of the traditional things has been…er…"

Elsa put the poor man out of his obvious misery. "Marriage."

"Yes!" the mayor, and wiped the sweat from his brow. At least that mess was out of his hands.

It was a bigger mess than any man around this table possibly knew of. Elsa put her hands to the table, fingers touching it. She had her speech ready in her head. They all looked up at her. "I know it's an important question, but with our current…situation…I don't think it's the time to talk about it."

"A marriage could bring powerful allies. Or at least support," Hans said. He looked around at the others. "Sorry."

"It's a good point," the admiral chipped in.

"We're not talking about it," Elsa said. They admitted defeat when they heard her voice and saw the look in her eyes.

SCENE BREAK

Elsa watched as Anna drew the bow back. She was a joy to watch. The bow came up as her breath came in, the wiry arms that hid a strength few knew about and the smooth but firm muscle in her chest all working together in one smooth movement. A hair's-breath of silence and stillness as she held the pose, and then…

THUNK

The crudely-drawn picture of the man, outlined in chalk and paint on the old and knotted oak tree, now had an arrow protruding through it, perfectly on target.

"Anna," she said, barely above a whisper, and smiled as her sister heard her anyway. Anna dropped the bow to the ground and walked over. Her eyes flicked around, but this little garden was theirs, and hardly anyone else ever came. They kissed, slow and deep.

"How was it?" she asked, as she went back to her bow. Anna spent endless time practising when she wasn't with Elsa.

"Awkward," she said.

"Marriage," Anna said with a disbelieving smile after Elsa had finished. She adjusted her arrow, and it went…a little lower than the head.

"Quite."

"I can see some problems with that."

Elsa sat on the garden's lone wooden bench and watched her sister. "What would you say if I had to? If they made me?"

"I'd say they'd have to get through me first," Anna said, only half-joking. She hesitated before speaking again. "I talked with Kristoff."

"How is he?" Elsa asked, feeling a little guilty. She hadn't met with him in months now, ever since…ever since everything got so tense. She missed him.

"Oh you know him. He has his ice and his reindeer, he's happy. He asked…"

"What?" Elsa asked, feeling rather than seeing the hesitation on Anna's face. She had been able to do that more and more ever since they became one. Nothing like mind-reading, but she could see the feelings in her sister's heart, and Anna always knew when Elsa was worried.

"The trolls wanted to speak with you."

She resisted the urge to shout NO as the memory swung up into her mind, as sharp and clear as it had been nearly two decades ago. Even as she was an adult and knew they had always been trying to help, a small part of her replied they tried to take her from you. "About what?"

"Who knows?" THUNK. "Your magic maybe? They do know a lot about it." She drew another arrow. "That wasn't all he talked about."

"Oh?"

The third arrow went to join the first, perfectly on target. She didn't feel anything though, not like she did when...well. She wasn't protecting anyone or anything by putting wood through wood. She just had to do it. When she had dispatched the assassin she had felt justice. She put the bow down, and sat next to Elsa on the bench, leaning into her slightly, their fingers entwined on the wood between their thighs. "He talked about…the trouble. He sees a lot with his job."

Confusion, Elsa thought, as Anna told her what Kristoff had said. The same thing that Hans had said.

It was a big leap though. So big she could barely get her head around it, and maybe that was why she had never considered it as a serious option for helping deal with this pit it seemed that Arendelle had fallen into. She wasn't some kind of goddess, not like some past monarchs in her history books had considered themselves. Maybe she had powers and abilities that others didn't but she didn't believe in some kind of divinity that put her above the country. To Elsa her command over the ice had only ever made her feel closer to the ground, to the fields and the people on them, and to the mountain that watched over the country. She wanted to be there for her people, not to be above them, which was why she visited the country so often and helped them when they asked.

But if Kristoff was right… "What do you think, Anna?"

Anna looked up at Elsa. "You've always been a goddess to me," she murmured, her head on her sister's shoulder. "I wish other people would see you like that too."

Some do, and that's the problem. But it was a problem she was going to have to face, one way or another. She looked out above the garden. Above the slate of the roof she could just barely make out of the peak of the north mountain. Inside her head the argument raged.

Why not?

Because it's silly. I'm no different from a thousand other people in that city.

Liar.

Then…because it would prove what they say about me. That I'm some creature come to enslave them.

So prove them wrong and don't. Make them think like Anna. Make them love you like you want to love them.

"I don't want to be worshiped," she whispered.

"Tough," Anna said, and twisted Elsa's head gently 'till they were looking at each other. "Not a goddess then. But you're a queen, our queen. Would it really be so bad?" People don't kill what they love, Anna was thinking. She was thinking; maybe she should put aside her dislike, and go to speak with the too-smooth Prince Hans.

They left the garden later, Anna wrenching her arrows from deep in the tree and Elsa lost in her own thoughts, her mind filled half-and-half with thoughts about how to solve the crisis that she had put her own country into. Six months of meetings and small crisis and increasing demands for action were weighing on her.

The coronation, she told herself. Everything will be solved for the coronation.

Apparently now she had to be decided what she wanted to be 'coronated' as, because as much as she just wanted everything to go back to the way it was, for her people to calm down and become rational again and for other countries to stop this ridiculous hidden campaign against her, a small part of her thought of the idea of herself ruling Arendelle from the mountain, a queen of ice. She had a quick glance back at the garden and the mountain towering over it.

The title would suit you well, it whispered.