Chapter 13

Though the sun had risen several hours ago the halls of the castle had been abustle since dawn with people scrambling about. They were all wearing their very best clothes, with the servants and guards all wearing regal uniforms while it was flowing dresses and smart suits for the nobility, while every corridor was adorned with any number of violet flowers and banners. The great hall alone had to have hundreds of flowers decorating its walls along with vast tapestries hanging down from the ceiling bearing the colors of Arendelle.

It had been a long time coming but the day of the wedding between Princess Anna and Kristoff had arrived and many people were already beginning to feel anxious. But none of them were nearly as anxious as Elsa, even if she didn't show it. It was her sister's wedding, after all, and she'd been looking forward to it nearly as much as Anna had.

Despite being crowded the mobs in the halls quickly parted before her as she walked along, offering bows and salutations at her passing. A few also asked her to give Anna their best but most did no such thing and merely got out of her way. Though she'd halfway expected some comments on the change in her appearance no one really offered any. Her normally cerulean dress had been darkened to a deeper indigo and the scales of her corset melded together into a single layer so as not to sparkle so much. It would only be her and Aaron standing beside the altar besides the priest and the last thing she wanted was to steal any attention from the happy couple, though her hair was still in its typical braid and she'd retained her cape even if it was slightly shorter.

Speaking of Aaron, she hadn't seen much of him since the previous day. Something about overseeing security or some such thing. Elsa hadn't seen him at all today but he was probably off helping Kristoff with his preparations as any good best man should. Still, he'd looked slightly perturbed about something yesterday and she was itching to ask him what it was. She just couldn't find an opportunity to do so. But we do have a dance together later today, she thought as she rounded a corner. I'll be able to talk to him then.

All thoughts of him were quickly pushed aside, though, when she came across a small gathering in the middle of the hall consisting of Lord Kai and Prince Cyrus talking to the bishop that would oversee the wedding, as well as Kristoff's crowning as a prince. In fact, he was the same bishop who oversaw her coronation all those months ago. While the bishop was wearing his cardinal robes and Lord Kai had that rich green suit of his it was Cyrus's attire that caught her eye. Most people had gone for various cooler colors like greens and blues but not him. Instead he was wearing a maroon coat paired with black slacks that had crimson stripes running along the seams. If anything it actually made him look kind of imposing.

The first to notice her approach, Cyrus turned with that cocky grin he usually wore to give her a nod. "Good day, your majesty. I hope you're ready for a wedding." His eyes gradually slid over her dress, lingering over her bodice for a moment longer than she would have liked. "And may I just say that you're looking positively ravishing."

"Thank you, Prince Cyrus," she said, returning the nod. "You look rather dashing." With that she turned to the other two men, both of whom gave her a bow. "Gentlemen. Is everything ready?"

"Yes, your majesty," Kai replied, straightening up again. "We're all set. Well, that is…" He paused, exchanging a glance with the bishop as he trailed off.

"What is it?"

After another pause he turned and nodded at a door a short ways down the corridor. "We're still waiting on the bride."

Following his gaze, Elsa felt herself frown. Really? They should be done by now. She looked back at Kai and replied, "Alright, I'll take care of that. You just get everyone into the chapel for now. She shouldn't be too much longer."

"As you wish, your majesty," he said before he and the bishop headed off down the hall, leaving just her and Cyrus.

Before she could say anything to him, some excuse to leave, he also gave her a bow, saying, "In that case I should get a move on. Of course, all this wedding talk really does make you think, doesn't it?"

"About what?" she asked. Elsa hadn't really been listening to him, she was more concerned about what was keeping Anna.

However, if his words didn't catch her attention what he said next certainly did. "About who might be getting married next." Glancing back, she saw that he was giving her a meaningful look but before she could ask if he was implying something he added, "Food for thought. If you'll excuse me, your majesty."

Elsa watched him go for several seconds, trying to decide if he actually had implied what she thought he had, before giving up with a sigh. I have more important things to worry about right now than the notions of men. Like what's going on with my sister.

Walking down the hall, she opened the door in question and stepped into a small atrium, closing the door behind her. The atrium opened into a brief hallway which, in turn, opened up into a larger room with a bank of windows across the far wall that let in the golden sunlight. Sitting in the center was a large mirror that was several feet tall with a small stool situated in front of it and small dressers along either side, on one of which sat a small bouquet of flowers and a little wooden case. Not that she paid much attention to the room. It was the occupants she was interested in.

When Kai had said they were delayed she had been afraid that something might be wrong, that Anna might be getting cold feet or something, but everyone in the room seemed to be in relatively high spirits. Gathered around the entrance was a group of ladies-in-waiting, headed by Kresta, all of whom were watching Anna, who was standing in front of one of the windows examining the dress she was wearing. And what a dress it was.

It was a elegant design with a sleek white bodice that dropped off the shoulders and hugged her waist before spreading into a flowing gown that swept down to brush the floor. The silken fabric was mostly unblemished except for a lavender embroidery around the hem that accentuated by elegant iris silhouettes. Otherwise the dress was relatively simple and refined, apart from some thin lace woven into the neckline, and when it was combined with the violet bouquet of irises Anna was holding she looked so lovely that Elsa nearly felt her eyes well up. There was also supposed to be a delicate veil that ran along the floor behind her but that was nowhere to be seen.

Fortunately she was able to quickly dry her eyes before Anna noticed that she was standing there and whirled towards her, catching her around the midriff in a tight hug. "Can you believe it, Elsa?" she asked as she tried to squeeze the life out of her sister. "It's the day of my wedding! After months of planning it's finally here!"

"Yes, it is," Elsa replied, managing to extract one of her arms from Anna's crushing grip to brush a few stray strands of her auburn hair back into place. "And yet your hair is still a mess."

"Uh, that's kind of our fault," Kresta interjected, drawing their attention to her. "It took longer than expected for her hair to dry after her bath and then there was the incident with the veil."

Elsa's brow arched quizzically. "'Incident'?"

Opening her mouth to reply, Kresta then thought better of it and simply gestured to one corner. There, draped over a chair, was Anna's veil. Most of it was fine but a large portion was horribly wrinkled and creased. "What happened to it?" she asked as she looked at the scrunched fabric.

"Well," replied Anna, disengaging from the hug and stepping back with a sheepish look on her face. "I may have accidentally… sat on it." As she spoke she gave Elsa an apologetic smile.

She was clearly expecting for Elsa to get mad at her but instead she simply laughed, shaking her head as she did so. "Oh Anna. Always so smooth."

"It wasn't my fault!" Anna protested, now with an indignant smirk. "No one told me it was there until I was already sitting!"

Still laughing, Elsa just gave her a gleeful look. "And did I hear something about a bath?"

"Oh, that was awful. They threw me into a tub of cold water and scrubbed every inch of me. It was freezing." As Anna spoke she flashed Kresta an impish glare.

"I told you, Anna. If you had gotten up a little earlier it would have been warm," Kresta replied with a grin of her own.

"And I told you I wanted to sleep in a bit on my wedding day."

"Alright, alright," Elsa said, cutting in before either could speak again. To Kresta and the ladies-in-waiting she said, "Thank you for everything, ladies. You did an amazing job. But if you don't mind I'd like some time alone with my sister."

None of them protested as the other women gave short curtsies before filing out of the room while Kresta gave Anna a quick hug. "You look amazing, sweety," she muttered when they parted, looking Anna up and down. "I think Kristoff is really going to like what he sees."

Giving a gracious smile, Anna replied, "Thank you, Kresta." She then glanced the tall mirror along the far wall. "Maybe I could take just a little peek."

Before she could take so much as a step, though, Kresta her hooked her arm around hers and pulled her back. "Uh uh. I don't think so." To Elsa she said, "I made her promise not to look at herself in the mirror until we were finished so she could see the entire ensemble all at once."

"It's so unfair," Anna complained with a huff, though she was grinning.

"Sounds rough," replied Elsa, shaking her head.

Kresta offered a few more words of encouragement and gave Anna's cheek a quick kiss for luck before heading for the door, giving Elsa a smile as she went. Watching her go, Elsa waited until she heard the door shut before turning back to Anna, who was watching her. When they looked at each other she said, "Alright, Elsa. Give it to me straight. How do I really look?"

Normally she would have thought that an easy question to answer but when faced with it she found herself at a loss for words, instead just looking her sister over again. "Honestly? You look… incredibly beautiful."

That got a smile as Anna looked down at her dress, twirling back and forth a bit as she did so. However, when she looked up again she looked slightly anxious. "Are you sure you're okay with this? With me wearing Mom's wedding dress I mean," she asked, nervously smoothing out the gown. "I know you said you were but I just want to make sure."

Laughing again, Elsa replied, "I think it's a little late to be asking me that."

"I know. It just… doesn't seem fair to you is all."

"It's fine, Anna. Honestly." As she spoke she walked forward and slipped her arm around Anna's shoulders, steering her towards a stool in front of the mirror. "I can always just make one of my own. Besides, I think Mom would have wanted it this way." Pausing, she took the bouquet from Anna and set it next to the case on the table.

"Really?" Anna asked as she sat on the stool, looking up at her.

"Yeah. Now let's take care of that hair." Stepping behind her, Elsa gave her hand a wave and a brush made of ice materialized in her hand. When Anna made to look back at her and the mirror she put her hand on her head and turned her back. "Nope. Kresta said no peeking."

"Fine, I won't look." She then glanced at the disheveled veil in the corner. "What about my veil?"

"You let me worry about that," Elsa replied as she began to comb her sister's frizzled hair, smoothing it out into a satin stream of fiery hair. As she did so an old memory came flitting through her mind and her lips pulled up in a small smile. "Remember the last time we did this? You couldn't have been older than five and you just wouldn't sit still."

"I can barely sit still now. I'm getting married in less than an hour."

"Hard to believe that my baby sister is all grown up," she said as she brushed. "Seems like only yesterday you were following me around begging me to do little tricks with my powers."

"Yeah." Her tone was distant as though she was far down memory lane but then a grin entered her voice. "You were a lot more fun back then."

"What, I'm not fun now?"

"Nope. If you were you'd let me look at my reflection. And isn't the bride supposed to get everything her way on her wedding day?"

"Maybe, but I'm also the queen, and the queen says no."

"See? No fun," Anna replied, glancing back at her but quickly looked forward again when Elsa gave her ear a flick. "Ow! Quit it!"

Grinning, she shook her head. "I told you not to look." The only response she got was a quiet grumble but otherwise Anna said nothing, just waiting until Elsa had brushed her hair into a smooth cascade she could work with. Dissolving the brush, she set about weaving the hair into a solitary braid while asking, "What kind of look do you think we should go for? Last time we did this I gave you pigtails but I don't think that'll work so well this time."

"Why not?" Anna replied with a giggle. "Pigtails are always in."

"Maybe, but I think we want to go with a slightly more dignified look." After some thought she offered, "Why don't we go with the hairstyle you wore at my coronation party? You really did look beautiful. Granted, you look even better now but it probably couldn't hurt to recreate that look."

Shrugging, Anna replied, "Whatever you think looks good. You're the only one who can see it." She rolled her eyes and shook her head as she finished the braid and began to wind it into place, occasionally make a minor adjustment as she did so. As she worked Anna sat there patiently, slowly tapping her fingertips together while she waited. Luckily it didn't take long for her to get it in place, pausing to summon a frosty pin to hold the braid in place.

When it didn't fall apart, Elsa rounded Anna so that she was in front and smiled. "It's done."

"That was fast," she said, a hand reaching up to feel her hairstyle and apparently looking satisfied with what she found.

After waiting for her to end her inspection Elsa took a step back. "Now for the next part. The veil."

"Oh yeah." Anna's eyes flipped to the one in the corner. "How're you going to fix it?"

"I'm not. I'm going to make you a new one."

…"What?"

Laughing at her confused expression, Elsa held out a hand and placed the other on top of it. "I said, I'm going to make you a new one." With that she slid the top hand away from her and off the bottom one. As she did so a shimmering mist began to trail after her hand, condensing into a web of frost that gradually grew into a gossamer fabric. It continued to grow as she repeated the gesture, lengthening with every pass of her hand until it formed it a silvery veil that reached down to the floor and glimmered in the light.

A gasp came from Anna as she watched it come into form before her very eyes but she didn't move until Elsa was finished, her eyes fixed on the growing veil. When it was done Elsa slid her other arm under it and held it up for Anna to inspect. "Do you think this will be a suitable replacement?" Elsa asked as she smiled at her creation.

"Oh, Elsa," she sighed, rising from her seat and taking a step forward to run her hand along the veil. It looked very similar to Elsa's cape, only decidedly less blue and slightly shorter, and also had a variety of embroidering in it, except rather than snowflakes and crystals she'd woven in flowers and waves instead. Looking down at it with a wondrous expression, Anna breathed, "It's so beautiful. Thank you."

Smiling, Elsa swung it around her and made to affix it to her hair. "Now hold still while I put it on you." Once it was in place she fluffed it out so that it draped behind Anna's shoulders and flowed down her dress onto the floor behind her. Satisfied with what she saw, she turned to the small case sitting on the dresser. "And now for the final touch."

Placing a hand on it, she opened the case to reveal a delicate tiara. Slightly smaller and less ornate than her own, it nevertheless signified royalty in Arendelle and was the last piece to bring Anna's appearance together. Not that she was happy to see it. Actually, she gave a disgusted sigh when she saw the tiara. "I hate wearing that thing."

"I know you do," Elsa replied, turning back to her and holding it up to put it on her. "That said, you are the crown princess of Arendelle and you need to look the part." Once it was in place she took a step back with a smile. "But, more importantly, you're my little sister and I want every jaw in that chapel to drop the moment you come in."

With the tiara adorning her hair Elsa took a step back, swelling with pride as she looked her sister over. She looked so stunning in her dress that Elsa began to wonder if her earlier fears of drawing attention away from her were unfounded. Despite this, though, Anna still had an impatient look on her face. "Now may I look?" she pleaded, gesturing at the mirror behind her.

Laughing lightly, she placed her hands on Anna's shoulders and gradually turned her around. "Yes."

Elsa would have payed a small fortune if she could have seen the shocked look that crossed Anna's face when she saw her reflection over and over again as she gave a gasp and her hand flew to her mouth. Neither said anything as she leaned forward, clearly flabbergasted by what she saw as her eyes took in every aspect of her appearance from the tiara upon her head to the trailing edge of her veil as it brushed the floor.

After a minute of staring all she could manage was a choked whisper. "I'm beautiful."

"You really are," Elsa said, stepping alongside her and also staring into the mirror. Seeing them together like this made her so happy she almost wish she could freeze time just to preserve the moment. And what she had expected was to see a look that said the same thing on Anna's face. What she didn't expect was to see tears welling up in the corners of her eyes and her fighting back a frown. "What is it?" she asked, alarmed at her sister's expression.

Letting out a sigh, Anna blinked back some tears and swallowed loudly before saying, "I just wish they were here. Mom and Dad." Her voice began to tremble as she continued. "That Mom could see me now. That Dad could walk me down the aisle."

It was all Elsa could do to keep herself from frowning as sorrow seeped into her and her eyes began to water. Trying her best not to show it, she put her arm around Anna again and gave her a squeeze, carefully to avoid creasing her veil. "Well, wherever they are right now I know they're so proud of you. As am I."

Anna drew in a shaky breath, shuddering as she did so. When she spoke her voice was a croaky whisper. "I miss them."

Elsa's smile grew as she rubbed her arm comfortingly. "I know. So do I."

It took a while, along with several more shuddering breaths, but eventually Anna returned the smile. She gave a quiet sniffle followed by a shallow breath before setting her hand over Elsa's. "Thanks, sis."

They stood there for a while, silently looking at their reflection with neither saying anything. The only movement either did was when Elsa rested her head on Anna's shoulder and gave her a brave smile, who in turn returned the smile before leaning her head against Elsa's. Several minutes ticked by with neither of them speaking as they were perfectly content just to share their bond.

Sooner or later, though, one of them had to talk so Elsa straightened up again, clearing her throat as she did so. "Now, I don't want any more talk about Mom and Dad," she said with a brave face as she made some minor adjustments to how her veil fell.

"Why not?" Anna asked, watching her work in the mirror.

Pausing, Elsa gave her a sad smile. "Because if you don't stop I'm going to start crying." Turning her attention back to Anna's gown, she took a step back to admire her handiwork. "And if I start crying then you're going to cry and the last thing we want is you looking blotchy at your wedding."

"Good point," she replied, giving another sniffle and wiping her eyes quickly before taking a step back and turning to Elsa with a shrug. "Well? What do you think?"

"Hold on." Stepping over next to the desk, she picked up Anna's bouquet and handed it to her before spinning her finger. "Give us a twirl." Clutching the flowers to her chest, Anna slowly turned on the spot while Elsa watched with her hands clasped together. Watching the gown sway and the veil shimmer around her sister filled her with such a sense of pride to the point that she was nearly crying again by the time Anna turned to face her. When she got a curious look she nodded and said, "You're ready."

Heaving a sigh of relief, Anna followed that up by a joyful laugh as she stepped forward and pulled Elsa into a hug. Sometimes Anna's hugs caught her off guard but this time she returned it wholeheartedly, holding her close. As they stood there in each other's embrace she heard Anna say, "Thank you. For everything." Then her voice dropped to a whisper. "I love you, Elsa."

Her smile grew as she pulled her sister even closer. "I love you too, Anna." After a moment or two she pulled back and, when Anna met her gaze, nodded towards the door. "Let's go get you married."