"Are you all right?" Elsa draped an arm over her sister's shoulder. "It's a lot to take in."
"I'm fine." Anna lifted the torch to get a better view of the lower halls. "At least, I think I'm fine. There was so much before that didn't make sense. Even if Hans was the world's greatest actor, there are some things you can't fake".
"Anna," Elsa warned, "It could still be a lie. A trick by the southern kingdoms. A plot to take over Arendell from within".
"It could be." Anna set her jaw. "If it is, you can send their balmy tropics to the depths of winter".
"Anna!" Elsa reproached her.
"Shh!" Anna froze, putting her ear up against the cold stone. "Do you hear that?"
"It's like a moaning," Elsa frowned, "Or a singing".
"But it's from above". Anna shook her head, "Hans would be below, if he is here at all. Why do we have such a large dungeon complex, anyway?"
"From the old wars, in the time of the sundering". Elsa sent a swirl of frost down the corridor to search out the air patterns, looking for any hidden openings. "The first kings were embroiled in endless wards. Arendell was built at the price of much blood and pain. Yet, the dungeon's have a good history as well. In times of siege, these walls protected the people, and not just our own. This island became an oasis, a refuge for all those who no longer had a place, who had lost their own homes to fire or their families to the sword".
"I never paid much attention in history". Anna shivered, wishing everyone had stayed together rather than splitting up to look. Still, perhaps it was better if Kristoff wasn't with her when they found Hans, even if she would have liked the moral support.
The frost flurries were acting up. "That way," Elsa gestured. Soon they could hear noises and shouts; apparently the guards had discovered something as well. The air grew cool and the floor rough as the two girls found themselves traipsing through rubble.
"This is near where I escaped," Elsa said quietly.
"Over here, your majesty". A guard called, "We found something."
Anna rushed over, Elsa on her heels.
The cell was blasted in, the walls and doors collapsed. There was dried blood on the floor, a knife that had seen a fight, and manacles on the floor. Someone had pried the manacles out of their anchor in the stone, perhaps with the bloodied knife. There were drag marks on the floor.
"Whoever was imprisoned here escaped majesties, but he would have been sore wounded," the guard informed them gravely.
"The cell," Elsa winced, "It must have been blasted when I made my escape."
"Then you probably freed Hans, too." Anna reassured her. "Can we track which way he went?"
"I think so." The guard nodded, holding the torch to the stony floor. "Follow me".
They spent a half hour slowly and painstakingly tracing the path through the winding and many layered dungeon. Finally, the tracks turned up, leading back towards the main castle.
"Wait". Elsa finally said, "I can feel him." She ran ahead of the group, returning a minute later to fling herself in her sister's arms. "I'm so sorry Anna! I'm so sorry!"
"What is it?" Anna reflexively hugged her sobbing sister tight. "What happened to Hans? Is he dead?"
"Worse," Elsa sobbed harder into her sister's shoulder, "I killed him".
Even with Elsa's confession, Anna was not prepared for the sight that greeted her. In a larger room, one of the guard stations, Han's had come to rest. He had never made it out of the labyrinth of cells back up to the castle proper. He had never made it back to her.
"Oh, Hans." Anna leaned down next to his frozen form and cried, stroking his icy hair. He was sitting at the guard's bench, leaning his chest over the table. He would look asleep, if his body was not a statue.
"I was so concerned with getting out of the castle," Elsa came to sit next to her, "I didn't know he was nearby. I must have struck him in the heart".
"And he froze here, all alone". Anna collapsed over his torso, "I think he might be the first person I met who was lonelier than I was. But I'm not lonely anymore, and he's gone. He should have never met me".
"Don't say that." Elsa petted her hair. "We would both be still alone in this castle if he hadn't. We owe him a debt."
"That I can't repay." Anna shivered, feeling the cold of his back through her clothes. He was ice, yet he was so cold that he did not melt. "We should move him somewhere nicer than this."
"The Hall of Heroes". Elsa agreed, referring to the castle's statuary hall, where all the great leader's and heroes of their people were commemorated.
"There's -" Anna sat up, startled, fingering a parchment on the table. "There's a letter. He wrote a letter. Elsa, he wrote me a letter!"
