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Karen and her parents, the King and Queen of Denmark, blinked in confusion at Anna while Elsa stared at her sister in astonishment. Anna didn't bother paying attention anyone else except for Karen. The younger Danish princess swallowed an imaginary lump in her throat.
"Pardon me?"
"You heard me. I don't like you. Frankly, I'm fed up with you."
"What-what did I do to you?"
"It's not just what you have done to me, but also what you have done to my sister, your sister and, apparently, my boyfriend. You sicken me."
Karen was utterly confused by Anna accusations. Well at least most of them. She leaned closer to Anna daring to gain courage and attempt to stare her down.
"I'm not quite sure I follow. But I will amend for my unbecoming behavior with your boyfriend, Master Kristoff."
"He prefers to be simply called Kristoff. Even your father ignored that request. And I'm glad you have enough courage that you admit to flirting with him. I'll forgive you for flirting with if you promise not to do it again, but I won't forgive you for what you've done to your sister, my sister, and me."
Karen tried to lean over Anna's arm and look toward Elsa for help, but Anna glared at her.
"Don't you dare look at my sister for help. Why don't you lean toward your own sister for help? You've been neglecting your older sister this whole time. And I don't care if you were busy practicing your stupid water and ice powers. Give your sister a chance to support you and lay off mine! Elsa's my sister, not yours."
Karen was utterly confused but turned toward Kristoff and Kirsten for clarification.
"Guys, do you know what Princess Anna is talking about? Has she gone mad?"
Kristoff and Kirsten looked at Karen and then at each other and just snickered. Everyone else except for Anna was baffled by their reaction. Elsa tried her best to lean over Anna's arm to make eye contact with the pair of friends.
"Why are you two laughing? What's so funny?"
Kirsten waved a hand in front of her face trying to catch her breath. "We're so sorry really. It's just that we're so happy Anna blew up finally."
Queen Isabella raised an eyebrow at her eldest daughter.
"Kirsten, what are you saying? Do you and Kristoff know something the rest of us don't know?"
"Yes, mother. We do know something that you don't."
"Well, would you care to enlighten us?"
"No. That's not my place. It's Princess Anna's place to express her frustration toward Karen. It's a….sister thing."
"We got that much," King Frederick huffed.
During that time, Elsa stared at Anna's tense back and rigid arm that created a barrier between her and Karen. Elsa's mind hadn't been working properly when Anna professed that she strongly dislike Karen and it wasn't until recent that she started to put things together. She had noticed how Anna's voice strained when she made a point about how she was her sister and Kirsten was Karen's. She didn't understand why Anna was compelled to point out such obvious facts unless she was trying to make a point with those obvious facts. Everything Anna did and said just confused Elsa even more at that point, but she recognized that her hatred toward Anna had disappeared completely some time when Anna was about to leave the room for needing to use the bathroom for such a poor excuse as to freshen up. However, while in her train of thought, almost missed what Princess Kirsten uttered next in response to her father's comment.
"I know that father. But it truly is a sister thing. It's more of a sister issue. If you had a sister you would understand. I know you and mother both have siblings, but none of your siblings are female and even if they were, you wouldn't know how it would feel to simultaneously have a sister and be one yourself."
"Kirsten, what are you trying to say?"
"I'm just trying to be a good friend to Princess Anna and hopefully be a good role model to Karen as well."
"Why?"
"Father, isn't it obvious? Princess Anna is upset about something and I know what it is. Kristoff knows too as painful as it is to keep the information to ourselves, but I belief Princess Anna wants to expose that information herself. We're simply here to make sure things don't get out of hand. Belief me when I say, if Kristoff weren't around and if Princess Anna didn't have so many…witnesses then I could imagine what she could unleash on poor Karen."
Anna briefly glared at Kirsten. "You make me sound more enraged than I actually am."
"It's close enough. Besides, I'm only teasing you. I know that you would never deliberately want to strangle my sister to death. Would you?"
Anna flushed with embarrassment. Karen looked horrified as she watched her sister speak to the apparently enraged princess looming over her like a hawk.
"Kirsten, what are you saying?"
"Karen, with all due respect, dear sister, I do love you, but that doesn't mean I'm going to restrain Princess Anna what she might do or say to you because, frankly, you kind of deserve what's coming to you."
A trace of betrayal could be detected in Karen's voice. "Kirsten?"
Anna used her free hand to turn Karen's face toward her.
"Listen up and listen good, Princess Karen. I have something important to say to you."
Karen gulped. Anna's hand slipped off Karen's face as she continued to glare at the young woman.
"I don't like you because you're the cause of this whole problem. You have caused so much pain and havoc to our lives and I can't even begin to list the things you have done to me without even being near me. I blame you for the riff that has formed between my sister and I. Although I will take partial blame for not confessing to somebody sooner, but I may as well as do it now since I have everyone's attention."
"And what would that be?"
"Mind your own business. And don't try to replace me and your loyal sister, Princess Kirsten, with yourself and Queen Elsa."
The King and Queen of Denmark were shell-shocked, Karen looked as if she was trying to pull the air back into her lungs and Elsa was utterly…utterly astonished. If she had read in-between the lines of Anna's little speech correctly, she could swear that Anna was stating that she was jealous of Karen bonding with her.
"What do you mean?"
"I don't have time for you to play all innocent. I overheard you and Elsa earlier when you guys were having tea. All I was that I had feared and felt this past few hours were confirmed when I heard something that I didn't like and made me realize that you wanted to be Elsa's younger sister."
Everyone, except for those who knew the truth, gasped. Loudly.
Everything clicked into place for Elsa. That miserable look on Anna's face, Anna's refusal to having any food particularly her favorite food items, her distant behavior and her confession of her being jealous of Karen spending time with her: Anna was under the impression that Elsa would want to replace her with Princess as her younger sister. Why Anna thought such was silly to Elsa, but she finally understood Anna's behavior and wanted to make everything better between the two of them. And she did mean everything. Elsa desperately wanted to remove the pain from hers and Anna's hearts and erase the stains that were their hatred and misunderstanding toward each other. Elsa reached up to touch stiff back with a scared hand. The moment her bare palm made contact with Anna's back, Anna violently flinched from her touch.
"Anna…"
Anna immediately pulled her body away from the table and turn to face Elsa with a most displeased and disgusted expression etched on her face.
"No, Elsa. Don't try to take some sense into me. I know you would only want to do that so you can prove to us that you'd take Princess Karen's side. But, then again, that doesn't surprise me. You've been so very close with Princess Karen as of late."
Elsa could feel her cheeks burn with sadness. She tried to gingerly lead her hand to one of Anna's hands, but Anna would have none of such contact and pulled even farther away physically rejecting her sister's touch.
"Anna, please…."
"No, Elsa. I don't want to hear anything from you and I don't want to see you. It's only befitting since you did the same thing to me not too long ago. I'm just returning the favor."
"But Anna…."
"I need to leave now. I need some fresh air. No one dare come after me."
Without another word, Anna glared at Elsa, huffed and strode out of the tea parlor slamming the door behind her. Everyone stared at the door that still rattled with the anger Anna left behind. Kristoff offered a way out of the labyrinth of tension.
"Uh…."
All eyes were on him except Elsa's.
"Does anybody want water to drink? Maybe talk about the…weather?"
Everyone else had notice a considerable drop in the temperature in the room. Kristoff twiddled his thumbs.
"Well, at least not the weather inside. Doesn't the sky look beautiful outside today?"
Elsa's ears twitched at the mention of the word outside when Kristoff tried to make polite conversation over the weather. She turned to face Kristoff before scanning the room with her eyes. Realizing that she let her powers the best of her, Elsa calmly waved her hand and the snow and frost disappeared without a trace. She sighed. Karen reached over and brushed her fingers over Elsa's shoulder.
"Queen Elsa-"
Elsa pulled her shoulder from Karen's fingers and looked at her.
"Please, don't touch me."
"But…"
"No, Princess Karen."
Karen withdrew her hand from Elsa's shoulder and placed it in her lap with her other hand.
"Queen Elsa, I would like for you to know that I'm sorry for everything that happened."
"I don't think you should be worrying about what I think of you."
Karen blushed out of shame and embarrassment. She knew who Elsa was referring to, but she didn't have the courage to look in her sister's direction. She remained silent for the time being. Elsa brought everyone at the table in her vision and cleared her throat.
"I would like to apologize to everyone for such an unusual and uncomfortable situation. What was expected to be a pleasant visit and short trade agreement turned out to be a rather….unpleasant gathering. I do not how long it will take me to locate Princess Anna, so I offer guest rooms for all you for compensation and as a token of friendship. "
Elsa turned toward King Frederick.
"King Frederick, I hope that you and your family will withhold any future trade deals with the kingdom of Arendelle as we value your tradable goods and that you will still want to continue the trade agreement tomorrow hopefully when things are better between us. I sincerely would like to continue discussing an updated trade agreement."
"Of course, Queen Elsa. I actually would like to apologize on behalf of any of my family members to have unintentionally wreaked havoc on yours and Princess Anna's family life. I hope this fiasco did not taint your image of us as trade partners and alleys if there ever be a war."
"Of course not, King Frederick." Elsa paused as she stood up from her seat. "Now, excuse me, but I have to make amends with Princess Anna before we shall continue business. Please understand this."
"We understand, Queen Elsa. There's nothing more important than family. I would be sorely sorry if you and Princess Anna separated because of this ordeal. No one should want to be the cause of family members separating themselves from each other especially when those family members are closely related and they are all that the other one has left in the world as far as blood relatives are concerned."
Elsa nodded her head to King Frederick in respect. "Thank you."
"But Elsa-!"
Elsa swiftly turned her head toward Kristoff.
"Anna said not to go after her. Don't you think she would want to be alone? Maybe she needs to be alone."
"No, Kristoff. If I don't go after her, she'll convince herself more that I don't love her and that's the last thing that I want Anna to think about. I want to prove to her that I only have love for her. It's my duty as her older sister to go after her even if she orally requests not to be bothered because, if you had siblings, you would know that is code for: please talk some sense into me even I'm too proud and hurt to admit it."
Elsa allowed herself a small smirk as she looked over Kirsten for confirmation. "Right, Princess Kirsten?"
"Right. That is very true, Queen Elsa."
"But Queen Elsa-"
Elsa looked over at Karen.
"Princess Karen, please, let me be. I don't know what you plan to say, but I'm set on going after my sister and make amends with her."
Karen was about to interject something, but Elsa beat her to it.
"Before I go, Princess Karen, I would like to impart some advice to you as a friend and advisor. While I'm gone, maybe you should take the time and make amends with your sister, Princess Kirsten. I'm sure you didn't mean for any of this to happen, but why not explain to and confide in your sister? Doesn't she deserve to be let into your life more? I'm sure you'll be surprised by how much you will enjoy talking to your sister. Trust me, you do not want to put a riff between you and your sister. Take it from a person who has had first-hand experience to know how painful it is to be estranged by her own sister for thirteen years, yet feel so relieved and happy when you two reconnect. Princess Karen, I beg you and Princess Kirsten not to make the same mistake I made with Anna. Talk. Bond with each other."
"Um…okay, Queen Elsa."
Elsa smiled.
"All right then. Please, excuse me. You are all welcome to leave the parlor at any time you wish and to be settled down in guest rooms and enjoy the castle. If any one of you is interested dinner will be served at seven. Please, try to enjoy the rest of your day."
Everyone nodded at Elsa. She turned around and left the tea parlor in the exact opposite fashion as her sister-quietly.
To Be Continued…