Elsa stopped herself from cackling.

She didn't want to go mad but then she wondered if she was already mad.

She had been cackling by herself for a good deal longer than is normal. And she did have ice powers. They may very well cause madness, to be totally honest Elsa didn't know too much about them, just that she wasn't supposed to use them and that she needed to control them and suppress them wherever possible.

Although if she was mad there was a distinct possibility that she didn't have ice powers but only thought she had ice powers. But she wouldn't have been a danger to the rest of the world if she didn't have ice powers so her parents wouldn't have barricaded her away. Unless if she was mad and they were trying to keep it a secret.

If she was mad had she hurt Anna deliberately?

Does it count as deliberate if you aren't sane?

She certainly hoped not. But if she had hurt Anna intentionally then she had deserved the endless solitude of her room a hundred times over.

Still they wouldn't have left her as heir to the throne if she were mad would they have? There had been mad kings and queens before.

Then again they had died very young and it was likely that they didn't have everything planned out for the event of their inevitable demise before that trip.

That trip. She had been so scared. That night she had nightmares and her walls were coated in ice. She had dreamt of their ship crashing with the waves and it did. Was that her fault?

She hoped she hadn't killed her parents.

Anna didn't forgive her for not attending their funeral.

Elsa didn't feel she merited forgiveness.

They'd spoken more at the after party than they had in years.

But if she was mad it wasn't possible that she had killed their parents. And blaming their parents' deaths on themselves is something mad people would do Elsa thought. But then, she wasn't entirely certain.

If she was mad it was possible she'd just imagined the auburn haired Scot, that the ferocious woman was born out of some incestual desire for closeness with her remaining family, her sister. The queen shook her head. That seemed weird, even for someone who was cackling all alone.

She supposed cackling to be a typical hermetical habit, much suited to her new-found hermitage. Yes, cackling was probably better than wondering if she had gone mad.

Elsa tried cackling again but it seemed to have lost its spark.

She felt like crying but no tears came.

As Merida was leaving the castle when she chanced upon a meeting with Prince Hans and several advisers in throne room.

She allowed herself to peak into the room. After all, what was being discussed could invalidate her present course of action.

"I've assembled a rescue party for Princess Anna." Hans spoke from a position of authority atop the dais, elevating himself over the gathered nobility.

Merida found it strange that someone engaged to the princess still used her formal title in reference to her.

Hans was wearing a different suit coat than the one he'd worn to the ball and members of the rescue party were clearly standing behind him with Arendellese advisers on the other side of the room. He looked sharper somehow than he had before, when he had been courting her, more wired.

"Anna left you in charge, are you sure it's wise to go off into the cold—" A stout adviser in a sea green coat began.

"-She should be back by now if Queen Elsa were to be found." Hans interrupted.

Hans had gotten ruder since she'd known him. All the mesh of manners seemed shifted, testy.

"And are you sure you trust all the members of your party" It was at this that Merida noticed the crimson suited men behind Hans and recognized the color as that of Wesselton's guards. "Prince Hans of the Southern Isles?" The adviser accentuated.

Hans grimaced when the adviser said Prince, Merida was sure of it.

And all at once Merida remembered that Hans wasn't really interested in herself but her position. Hans wanted to be king.

Hans wants to be king.

But Elsa was in the way of that and surely he wasn't planning—

This was a secret nighttime meeting about whether or not to send soldiers.

She tightened her lips.

She needed to hurry up and get to Elsa before Hans did.

The queen was in danger.