"Come on, kid, just give us the sword and we may leave you alone."
Two men wearing dark clothes and hoods had cornered a traveler in the forest. They each had a sadistic smile on their faces and obviously wanted more than to rob their victim.
"You want this sword? Take it!"
The traveler drew his sword and charged his enemies, he handled them easily since he was a highly skilled swordsman yet he failed to notice the third bandit emerge from the bushes until it was too late and quickly received a hard blow to the back of his head. The traveler fell, dizzy and disoriented, he saw a blurry figure raising a weapon to finish him off. He raised his hand to block the blow and saw a flash of orange just before passing out.
Elsa was in her study writing yet another rejection letter to the Duke of Weselton for his third letter requesting she rescind her moratorium on trade between them. With this being the third request, she kindly reminded him he was lucky to have his head after he sent his henchmen to kill her after she accidentally froze the summer. She then signed the letter and imprinted the paper with a snowflake before putting it in an envelope with a wax seal.
Elsa slumped back in her chair, exhausted, and looked up to the painting of her father.
"How did you do it?"
The painting stared back at her with the same resolute expression that answered her every time in the past. She was startled when an unexpected knock came to the door.
"Who is it?" She asked, hoping it was Anna.
"It's Captain Tiberius, your majesty, may I come in?"
She allowed it. The captain entered, his short, wide frame deceived only by his deep voice yet he was still very strong and not too round.
"My queen," the captain continued, "we finished our search of the burned forest and found no major loss of property but there is one thing I wish for you to see down in the dungeon. I could not for the life of me describe it so I thought it best for you to see it for yourself."
The queen was puzzled at the captain's lack of words since he usually described every problem with eloquence. Her work was done for now so she decided to see what had the captain so excited.
Tiberius directed Elsa to one of the cells with a prisoner inside, he was unconscious.
"We found him at the origin of the fire with three charred corpses around him; miraculously, he was the only one unscathed which leads me to believe he is the arsonist."
"If he caused this fire then why did he let himself get caught?"
"I'm not sure, your majesty, you can ask him though, the chloroform should be wearing off any minute now."
The queen gave the captain a puzzled look.
"We had to sedate him because he resisted us as we tried to grab him."
Elsa fidgeted nervously, she had suspicions of her own about the prisoner.
"Oh, yes! I also wanted you to see these."
The captain walked over to a table and dumped a pack of its contents. He first selected the sword which was made of high quality folded steel and had a gold plated hilt with a blue sapphire embedded in it.
"This also gets my suspicions up that he is a thief as well, I don't recognize where it might be from but it was definitely forged for a king. There is also a bag of gold coins with an unusual royal seal on them and a pair of old leather gloves."
Elsa picked up the gloves, uninterested in the other items, and examined them herself. The thick leather was hard to bend and the inside of the gloves were black and smelled burned.
"Open the cell." Elsa ordered.
The captain acquiesced, drawing his sword and readying to act at the first sign of trouble.
Elsa entered the cell and saw the prisoner huddled in the corner with his hands tucked into his sides. She recognized immediately that was exactly what she did when she was trying to conceal her own power.
"What is your name and where are your from?"
He looked up at the queen, his eyes filled with a familiar fear.
"I-I'm James, of New Callette."