"Sorry for the sneaky entrance, Kristoff. But I didn't want to get the attention of the dignitaries." They would get their introductions and pleasantries out of the way with the Queen, and a report on getting the messengers to Mariabronn. Then Lun got right to it.

"May we see her now?"

"Yes, of course." Elsa felt a certain unease with letting strangers go and gawk at Anna. This would not be the last time, however, and the feeling would not leave her any time soon. Once they entered the portrait hall the Centurion leapt up from his snow mound and shouted;

"Who disturbs the Princess?" Lun's eyes became as big as saucers. In all his travels, he has never seen a magical living creature.

"Did you create this being, Elsa?" Lun gave the centurion a poke in the belly with his cane. "Hey!" The Centurion responded.

"Yes."

"Are there others?"

"You mean like me? Hello, I'm Olaf, and I…. like… war…." Olaf's voice trailed off when he realized the gravity of the situation at hand, he was growing in wisdom, after all.

"You are completely sentient, are you not?"

"I'm not sure I follow your question, but am I alive?, yes."

"That will do, Olaf. A side bar, Pabbie?" The old man and Gran Pabbie went to a private corner and had a somewhat lively discussion. It would be about the Prophecy, and Elsa's unchecked power of life and death. It would also include what they should try on Anna.

"We would like to run some tests on the statue…."

"Anna!" The Queen barked.

"Forgive me, your Highness, I forgot my manners. Some of these tests may be disturbing to you. I would recommend you leave the room."

"Thank you for your concern of my delicacies, but I shall remain here. However, Olaf and the Centurion will leave."

"Yes, Elsa." Olaf really didn't want to be around at this moment, and he and the Centurion left the room together.

Lun and Pabbie spent a few minutes just studying her. Lun seemed particularly enthralled with her beauty, and how well preserved she was. Tiny details like her freckles embossed in her skin, and her full, curving eyelashes. But the frightened expression on her face disturbed Lun greatly; he hoped one day to return her smile.

The first thing they would try would be several incantations. None of them even caused a drip to form. They would then try more dire measures, first of which would be a tiny hammer to remove a small chip from Anna's boot. When the hammer head got close to the heel, it shattered. So they tried something bigger. Any object they swung at her would shatter before it made contact.

"Has anyone touched her without gloves?" Asked Pabbie.

"I tried once." Stated Kristoff. "It felt like instant frostbite."

"And your Majesty?"

Elsa would now relive the moment on the fjord, everyone could feel her tension, which now was causing frost to creep across the floor. "Yes, I have been in contact with her, I am immune."

"That would make sense. Let's try some melting…" Lun approached the fireplace and pulled out a half burning stick. When he approached Anna, the flame would go out. They tried this several times, with increasingly larger flames, all to no avail. Then they tried a hot metal rod, which had become cherry red in the fireplace. As soon as it got close to Anna, it would become cool to the touch. When Lun accidentally dropped the rod, the end that had been heated shattered.

"Rarely in this life have I been at a loss for words. I am at that point now, your Majesty." Lun spoke with his head low.

"We should probably check out Hans and his person effects now."

They went down to the dungeon to inspect Hans's corpse. On the way Kristoff finally worked up the nerve to ask Lun the question that has been worming into his soul;

"Did you feel a living presence in Anna, Lun?"

"I cannot say for sure, Kristoff. It was like a frail voice whispering across a great roaring chasm. I may have been just imagining it, or it's some echo from the past. Either way, it suggested something painful; I hope we find a solution. If not, we should find a way to end her suffering." Kristoff felt his heart sink, but it was too soon to give up now.

Hans had been put in one of the cells that still had walls. He had been cleaned up and redressed. Elsa may have been careless in bringing about Hans's demise, but she would insure he was now treated with respect. She decided to sit this part of the investigation out, having no desire to be around him.

"Do you feel anything, Pabbie?"

"There is something here, what it is, I'm not sure. Although,.. it feels,…..dark." They went over his body, making sure he didn't have anything subcutaneous planted on him.

"Nothing here except a feeling. Let's check his effects, shall we?" Hans's personal belongings were being kept in Agdar's study. Everyone was glad to be leaving the dungeon. It certainly felt even colder there.

Lun, Pabbie, and Kristoff rifled thru Hans's blood soaked clothes, only to find nothing.

"What about his sword? Were the pieces saved?" Lun inquired to Kai, who was accompanying the Queen, and had just entered the room.

"Only the hilt was recovered, the rest is unaccounted for." He previously had the sad duty of overseeing Hans's recovery from the fjord.

"Good, bring it to me."

"What do you expect to find, Lun?" Questioned Elsa.

"Hans may have been influenced in his thinking, and I want to leave no stone unturned."

"Here is the hilt, wizard." Kai gave it to him hilt first, the blade wrapped by cloth. As soon as he touched it, he said quite sharply;

"Get back! Everyone! Pabbie, come here!"

"What is it, Lun?" Inquired the queen.

"Magic, a most foul and evil magic." Lun set the sword's hilt on the table with the pommel hanging off the edge.

"Pabbie, hold down the blade, while I try to twist the pommel off." Lun figured Pabbie would be mostly immune to the blades evil effects. "Can you feel it, Pabbie?"

"Yes, this would explain a lot." The pommel finally started to twist off, revealing a hidden chamber. "OK, Pabbie, tilt the blade up." Lun cupped his hands beneath the chamber. A small vial slipped out.

"Is that what I think it is?" Pabbie asked in awe, as Lun carefully set the vial on the table. "Just wait for it to settle." As the vial sat, the brown liquid inside separated into two liquids, one clear and the other black.

"Just as I suspected,… Hemlocia." Lun took a step back from it, with a look on his face of strange fascination.

"I've heard about this potion for decades, but have never seen it."

"Is it rare?" Asked the queen, both Lun and Pabbie burst out laughing.

"What you're seeing in that vial is worth a king's ransom, maybe one hundred pounds of gold." A collective gasp was had by all.

"So what exactly does this potion do?"

"When it sits like it is now, it's inert, and harmless. But when stirred, it is a powerful anaphrodisiac that radiates from the vial; there is no need for ingestion. Hans kept his sword with him often; he would have been exposed to the effects of this foul liquid for a very long time. You may have done him a great service by ending his life."

"So Lun, does this mean Hans would be incapable of feeling love?"

"Yes, or expressing it as well. I don't think Hans would have done this to himself. Besides the great expense, he came here in search of love, did he not?"

"More like a big chair, and a crown,…and a kingdom." Kristoff spouted with an air of vitriol.

"True, but that may just have been an effect of the Hemlocia."

"Did he say anything to you, Queen Elsa?"

"All he had to say to me was lies,… well,… except before his death. He did make an audience request like many other suitors, but I rejected them all,…. for obvious reasons."

"Then he found Anna, and latched onto her? Very interesting. Do we have any record of what Anna and Hans said to each other?"

"Sadly, no….. But wait! Olaf!"

"I'm sorry Elsa, but I may not be of much help. We spoke of Hans betrayal, and acts of true love. Which then led me to talk of Kristoff's love for Anna."

"I never said that!" Kristoff's face flushed bright red, while his eye's shot daggers at Olaf.

"Did I say something wrong?"

"No, Olaf. It's OK, we want as much information as we can gather." The queen said with a smile on her face, she was happy that Anna could attract a good man, as well as a snake.

"We saw Kristoff returning and made our way out onto the fjord, unfortunately, I was blown away by the wind."

"So Anna was supposed to do something with Kristoff?" Lun was on to something.

"It was suggested that a kiss would be an act of true love by the Trolls." Blurted out Olaf.

"Is this true, Gran Pabbie?" the Queen was now glaring at him, tapping her foot, while little shards of ice shot out from under her shoe.

"Your Majesty, while it may be out of place for me to speak here, when Anna arrived here in this very room, she grabbed Hans by the collar and begged him to kiss her." Kai felt a high level of embarrassment by this statement, one of the sacred oaths taken by servants of royalty is, never air out their dirty laundry.

"Well, that sounds like Anna, always impulsive."

"Everyone left the room except for Hans and Anna; we… wanted to give them… privacy. If only someone would have stayed…."

"You did what you thought was right, Kai. No one will blame you for what you did, or didn't do. There was no reason for anyone to believe there was something nefarious going on."

"Still, I'm sorry, your Majesty. I failed your sister, I failed to protect her."

"There is plenty of blame to go around, and I'm at the top of the list, Kai. But this is getting us nowhere in finding a solution for Anna."

Lun appeared to be deep in thought, and not paying any attention to the group, when he shouted; "Ahah!" This caused the entire group to jump.

"When Anna froze, the Hemlocia in Hans's sword must've had just enough power to block Anna's act of true love!"

"Pabbie, does that sound like a reasonable hypothesis?"

"Yes, your Majesty. It is certainly plausible."

"So what does this mean?"

"It means your Highness, we need to seek out an antidote for the Hemlocia."

"So one exists?"

"We'll have to ask the maker."

"How do we find him?"

"Well, there's only one maker, and she's on the other side of the planet, thus the cost."

"Who will I find for this mission?" That's when everyone looked at Kristoff. Who's only thought now was Sven looking at him and saying; "You're an idiot!"

"Gran Pabbie, take the Hemlocia and secure it to some kindling." Pabbie did as the Queen instructed.

"Now bring it here, and hold it a foot off the floor." Once it was held steady, Elsa cast it in a large block of ice. "Centurion!" He then came thru the door.

"Yes, Snow Queen."

"Take this block of ice to the edge of the fjord ice field and cast it into the sea." Lun gave the Queen an incredulous look. "Your Majesty, maybe you should let me handle the disposal of the potion, I could become a very rich man."

"You could also become a very dead man, what would work better for you?" Elsa raised an eyebrow, Lun failed to see the humor in her last statement, and gulped.

"Go quickly, Centurion!" He picked up the block and ran down the hall, his steps were thunderous.

"I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm ready for some dinner, shall we?" Elsa was ready to call it a day, and so was everybody else. Kristoff however, was at the cusp of some seriously life altering events, and his meal wouldn't set well with him.