Queen Elsa spent the remainder of the afternoon in conference with her advisors, trying to devise a plan to counter the apparent threat from the Southern Isles. Lars was there as well. The old men were all suspicious of the visitor from Weselton, but Elsa allowed him to remain and they weren't about to question her. Lars wasn't entirely sure why he was there either, but Elsa had asked him to stay and he wasn't about to refuse. Lars knew his place and tried to simply observe, but as the afternoon wore on, Elsa began asking for his opinion on nearly everything the advisors said. Lars did his best to help, though he knew he was no great military mind and he had limited experience. One thing was clear, though: Arendelle was woefully unprepared for war.
Elsa's initial instinct was to simply maintain her wall of ice and wait out the Southern Isles. She thought could easily repair any damage they did to the ice wall, and eventually they would run out of supplies and have to give up and return home. But, the longer Anna and Kristoff were outside the wall, the longer they were in danger, so waiting out the enemy wasn't really an option, and Lars had pointed out that the Southern Isles were well aware of her powers and wouldn't have come if they weren't prepared for them, so her wall might not be enough to keep them out. Elsa knew eventually she would have to do something; she just didn't know what.
Even after hours of strategizing, there were still only two real courses of action, short of outright surrender. Arendelle could either try to fortify itself and wait for the inevitable attack, or it could take the offensive and bring the fight to the Southern Isles fleet at Lillehaven. The former option was conservative and carried less risk, but it meant facing the enemy forces on their terms, and if something went wrong there would be nowhere to fall back to. Attacking would be riskier, but it would give them the element of surprise and they might catch the enemy unprepared. If the attack failed, there would still be a possibility of falling back to defend Arendelle, but it was also possible that their forces would be entirely defeated in Lillehaven and that Arendelle would fall then and there.
Elsa didn't know what to do. She was terrified of making the wrong decision. The advisors had run out of ideas and were starting to repeat themselves. It was now well into the evening and Elsa was too tired and hungry to concentrate. She told her advisors to prepare their forces for either plan and that she would have a decision by morning. The advisors left to carry out her instructions, leaving Elsa and Lars alone in the study.
"Thank you for staying to help, Sir Lars," Elsa said. "I appreciate your input."
"Of course," Lars said.
"I'm sorry you're stuck here in Arendelle in the middle of all this," Elsa said.
"It's not your fault," Lars said, "and I can think of worse places to be stuck."
Elsa smiled at Lars briefly before she caught herself and regained her poise. They each hesitated, waiting for the other to say something. In the end, it was Lars who broke the awkward silence.
"May I ask you a question?" he asked.
"Please," Elsa said.
"Why did you ask me to stay?," Lars asked. "You have plenty of advisors. Don't you trust them?"
"They served my father, and he trusted them. I suppose that should be enough," Elsa said. "But I don't know what I'm doing. I was never prepared for this."
"You were always destined to be queen," Lars said. "Surely you must have been taught what you would need to know."
"I was only taught to be a princess," Elsa said with a sigh. "There was supposed to be more time. I wasn't supposed to become queen for decades. Military strategy wasn't a high priority, especially since I never expected to need it because Arendelle is peaceful. I don't even think any of my advisors were alive the last time Arendelle was at war. But, how can I make a decision based on their advice if I don't fully understand it? And, I'm their queen. If I make a bad decision, will they question it? I don't know if they would, but I'm sure you would."
"How come?" Lars asked.
"I don't know," Elsa admitted. "Maybe it's because of what you've already done: the effort you made simply to get a chance to meet with me, knowing that I might have just slammed the door in your face. There's only one other person I know who would do something like that, and she'd never let me do something she knew was wrong."
"Well then," Lars said, "I'm honored to be included in such elite company."
Lars looked over the large map of Arendelle that had been unrolled and was now sprawled across a table. Pieces from a chess set had been placed on it to represent the ships from the Southern Isles, the wall of ice Elsa had erected, and other relevant positions that weren't already on the map. Lars tried to determine if there was anything that had been overlooked.
"There's something about all this that still doesn't make sense to me," Lars said.
"What's that?" Elsa asked.
"Why didn't the Southern Isles send more ships?" Lars asked rhetorically. "Six frigates are formidable, but not necessarily insurmountable."
"Maybe that's all they could send," Elsa offered.
"Have you ever been to the Southern Isles?" Lars asked.
"No, I haven't," Elsa replied.
"Well, I have," Lars said. "They have more ships there than you could possibly imagine. For them, this is nothing. If they want to invade Arendelle, why not send an overwhelming force?"
"I don't know." Elsa said.
"And for that matter, why invade Arendelle at all?" Lars continued. "No offense, but Arendelle's location isn't particularly strategic, and you don't have any goods or resources that can't be found elsewhere. What are your main exports? Textiles, lumber, furniture, seafood and ice. They're all valuable in trade but they aren't worth starting a war over. Anything the Southern Isles would really want, Arendelle has to import from somewhere else."
"Maybe they just want to plunder Arendelle and rob the treasury," Elsa said. "Maybe that's what that big ship is for: to bring back the spoils of war."
"I can't imagine your treasury is large enough to justify a ship that big," Lars said. "No, that can't be it. We have to be missing something."
"Even if we are, I don't see how it would change my options," Elsa said.
"You're right, it doesn't," Lars agreed. "You still have a choice to make."
"What would you do?" Elsa asked.
"It's a tough decision.," Lars said. "Normally, I'd say that the conservative plan is more prudent, but you have an advantage that you never mentioned, and that your advisors all seemed too afraid to bring up."
"What's that?" Elsa asked.
"Your powers," Lars said. "You are powerful. If you led the attack and used your powers to fight for Arendelle, you could win this."
"I can't..." Elsa said, looking away.
"Why not?" Lars asked.
"I don't want my powers to hurt anyone," Elsa said.
"Of course you don't," Lars said. "You didn't ask for this fight, but don't you owe it to your people to do everything you can to protect them? How is using your powers any different than sending soldiers with swords and arrows into battle?"
"It just is," Elsa said. "I don't expect you to understand."
Lars realized that he had inadvertently brought up a sensitive topic. Even though he knew it might have been better to avoid the issue as the advisors had, Lars couldn't ignore what to him seemed like the obvious strategy. Now, in the uncomfortable silence, he wondered if it had really been worth bringing up.
"Maybe I should go," Lars said.
"You don't have to," Elsa said.
"No, it's getting late, and I'm rather hungry," Lars said.
Elsa noticed she was hungry herself, but she was dreading another solitary meal in the empty dining hall. Lunch had been bad enough, and that was before she had the fate of Arendelle and the safety of her sister to worry about. Now just the thought of being left by herself made her feel anxious.
"If you'd like..." Elsa began, then found herself stammering, "you could... I mean, would you like to... um... join me for... uh..."
"Your Majesty," Lars interrupted to Elsa's relief, "are you trying to invite me to dinner?"
"I am," Elsa said, blushing. She then abruptly turned solemn. "I... don't want to be alone."
"Well, in that case," Lars said with a reassuring smile, "how could I refuse an invitation from the queen?"