● Helena ●

"Hey!"

Sophia had chased her up the stairs, and it brought memories from childhood Helena had worked long and hard to bury to the back of her mind. Kronk was following her meekly after she'd threatened to push him down the stairs if he continued to touch her. Sophia looked a lot less good-natured now that they were alone. Good, she should show her true colors instead of acting over them.

"Oh, right, I forgot. I can't even have one second to myself!" Helena's words slurred a little at the end. She shouldn't have drank the wine that fast. The sweet liquid hadn't stopped Sophia's annoying stories, it had just made them more bearable. Her sister was closely followed by an Arendelle guard.

Sophia quickly caught up to her and shoved open one of the guest bedrooms, "Get in there, dear. We're going to have a little talk."

Helena shook her head stubbornly, "I don't want to talk to you!"

Sophia tried to push her inside, but the younger princess wouldn't budge. More memories from her troubled childhood flooded her mind as she resisted her sister's shoves. Finally, Sophia sighed in irritation, "That's unfortunate... for you. Kronk!"

"Sorry little Lady," Kronk lifted her right off her feet like she weighed nothing. Helena yelped and kicked her feet, very much like a brat, but it didn't compare to the man's strength. He placed her down inside the room and quickly backed away as Sophia joined them, shutting the door behind her. The guard that had been with her was probably stationed outside.

"You're going to stop this childish attitude right now and tell me what the hell you did to these people, Helena." Sophia peeled her gloves off as she glared at her younger sister. "From the beginning."

Helena ignored every single word out of her sister's mouth. "Why did you have to bring up the blue skin? That was so humiliating, Sophia!"

Faster than such a skinny body should be able to, Sophia crossed the room and grabbed Helena's arm in an iron grip. Helena winced, but her sister's eyes were furious now.

"They have to see that you're human! They've probably written you off as a monster." Sophia's grip tightened, "It's important that they see that you're a human, just like them, and that you're bound to make mistakes! If they distance you away from your humanity, it will be all the more easy to condemn someone that they see as a monster. Telling silly childhood stories like that... they show that, all in all, you're still just a kid."

Helena jerked her arm away, hating that word. Monster. That's what she'd called Elliott back when she was on the study with Andy. 'Your monster brother.' How the tables had turned. Now she was the monster. Helena wiped her nose with her sleeve in a very unladylike way, "You know about Elliott, right? The curse?"

"Johanna sent me a message. It reached me before we arrived... so yes. I wouldn't have believed it, you know. Elliott seemed perfectly normal, but then... that snowman," Sophia grimaced, probably thinking about the unnatural creature. "That thing with the sword? It moved!"

"It also talks," Helena's mind wandered to a certain ice dragon she had defeated not too long ago. The thing could be dead... or still lurking the North Mountain. She didn't know, she had no way to. "Elliott has some incredible power."

"I know. Astrid feels threatened by that." Sophia raised her eyes to the ceiling, as if there was something written there for her to see. "Gods help us all if this gets out of hand." The words sent a chill down Helena's spine. Astrid could be ruthless when she wanted to.

"Anyway..." Sophia glanced at her youngest sister, her smile more collected, "Let's calm down. Take a seat... yes. Good girl. Now, tell me everything." Sophia sat down across from her sister with a fancy coffee table between them. She gestured her bone-thin fingers at Kronk, "See if we can have some tea sent up here, please."

"Right away m'lady."

"Go on," Sophia prompted after Kronk had left to ask the guard, "Speak freely, dear. Kronk is no one to worry about. Leave nothing out."

Helena took a deep breath, bunching up her skirt in her hands. This would be the first time she told the story out loud, recounting every single thing. From the beginning, eh...? From the moment she'd left the Southern Isles she'd felt an incredible sense of freedom. She was sad to leave her horse behind, she had Nepe since she it was a foal. Sometimes it felt like the equine was her only friend in the world. But she'd soon left that sadness behind and focused on her motivation for this trip; the available heir to Arendelle.

Her cousin Lucille had let that amazing catch slip away from her a couple of years ago. She had messed up. She'd had Andy wrapped around her little finger, but quickly dropped him in favor of Elliott- who wouldn't even look at her. Helena had been closer, but her ambition had got the best of her in the end and her failure was now worse than stupid Lucille's. Helena wondered if she should leave their dear cousin out of the story.

"Okay, well... I suppose it all started with me getting lost shortly before the coronation started. And then..." Helena closed her eyes, willing for the memory to come back, "... then the boy with the green eyes crashed into me."


Sophia was a good listener. She only made the occasional comment or snickered on the good parts. She even praised Helena for taking action to care after Arendelle after Elliott went away to the mountain. Their people love you, that's perfect was one of Sophia's comments. She was impressed by the ice dragon, the palace, all of that. Helena wouldn't lie; it felt good to show off the good things. She had craved for the approval of her siblings for the majority of her life; she'd never imagined this is what it would take. But the dread settled in her stomach the closer they got to... the study.

There her sister got quiet, as did Helena's voice. Saying it out loud was so much worse than thinking about it. Admitting to it was torture. Sophia, being the master of acting, had a flat expression on her face. It made Helena nervous. Sophia only spoke up again after Helena told her about the dignitaries agreeing to go after Elliott because he'd allegedly killed his own brother.

"They bought it? Really? Wow," a proud smile slowly replaced her older sister's previous blank stare, "You have learned a thing or two from me, huh? Did you use something for the tears? Liquid garlic, some onions?"

"They were real," Helena said, and with a tinge of embarrassment she remembered thinking about Sophia on that very moment. She had wondered if her acting had been convincing, if Sophia could have done it better.

"You handled it masterfully, dear. I am impressed." she said. It was so rare to hear praise come out of any of her sister's mouths, Helena couldn't help but feel good. "Did you wait the appropriate seconds after every grief-stricken word? Was the light in that room flattering for the scene?"

And just as fast, Sophia had managed to ruin the moment with her annoying questions. Her sister had barely blinked when Helena had described what had happened in the study, but this dumb part had poked her interest. Helena scowled, "Who cares. The worst is about to come. So I went to check the dungeon, but the king was gone..."


After the tale was told, silence followed. Sophia's expression was thoughtful. Helena felt like a spike had been removed from her soul, weird as that might sound. Telling the story to another human being, with no censors, no holding back, it was... refreshing? Liberating? Helena didn't know a word for it. Her sister wasn't judging, in fact, she wasn't saying much of anything.

"Well." Sophia looked down at her empty tea cup. Kronk had managed to bring two cups and plenty of cookies to go with the story, but those had barely been touched. Helena's stomach was still rolling from the wine she'd had during dinner. Finally, her sister's eyes landed on hers, "Get some sleep. I'm going to mull this over, and we'll talk tomorrow morning. Early." She exchanged a look with Kronk, who had been silently standing on the other end of the room the whole time. "Be here around five."

"Five?" Helena echoed, a little indignantly.

"Six for you. Kronk and I have to... make arrangements," Sophia's smile was playful. She stood up and squeezed her sister's shoulder, "Rest. We'll talk tomorrow."

"Before you talk to Elliott?"

Something dark flickered across her sister's face, "...yes. Before I talk to Elliott."


Helena barely had five minutes to get dressed before her sister started drilling her with questions. It seemed a good night's rest was all the seventh princess needed to be brimming with energy. The sun was barely out over the fjord, and the kingdom of Arendelle was just so waking up, along with Helena who wasn't a morning person at all. Kronk was fresh and ready at the time he was requested to be, and again he was standing quietly by the sidelines while the sisters talked. The first of her sister's questions almost sent Helena toppling backwards in her chair.

"Are you with child?"

Helena's eyebrows shot up so high they almost reached her hairline. The question was so absurd, for a second she could not understand what the older woman meant. "Are you asking me if I'm pregnant?"

Sophia looked her up and down, as if looking for a baby bump, "Yes."

"Why would I be pregnant?"

"To secure your position, Helena!" Sophia spread her thin arms dramatically, "If you were bearing the prince's child, then he'd be faced with two options: let you raise his bastard, which would be dishonorable. Or marry you." She pursed her red lips in annoyance, "Did you sleep with him?"

The thirteenth princess' face was on fire. "N-No, I did not-"

Her sister's sigh was exasperated, "That's inopportune. Now you can't trap that one!"

"Oh, gods, excuse me for not being a whore like you!" Helena's temper flared faster than she could stop it. It stung even more because it was close to the truth. Sophia had been one of the more... volatile of her sisters when it came to sharing a bed with men. It's too early for this shit, Helena lamented.

"Ah, ah, ah," Sophia wiggled her finger like a mother scolding their kid, "Careful there, dear. I'm the only friend you've got in this dump. Call me another name and you'll be on your own."

"I'm sorry," Helena's tone was not sorry at all, but she tried to make her eyes as pleading as possible. Sophia was probably asking these things just to make sure, maybe Astrid had put her up to it. At least it was Sophia asking and thankfully not someone like Cristina. She remembered the immense feeling of relief she'd felt when she saw her getting off that ship, with her dyed hair and her seemingly readiness to fix things.

The seventh princess nodded, accepting the apology. "From what you've told me, things are not as hopeless as our dear sister and queen thought." The mention of Astrid made Helena frown. "It is unfortunate that you are not with the prince's child, but we'll work around that." She kneeled in front of Helena, and clasped her clammy hands, "We cannot afford to lose Arendelle. We simply can't. So we're going to make this right." Her blue eyes were so earnest Helena wanted to believe her.

"Now, you said you kissed him. That's good, that's brilliant. It means you at least made an effort," her sister said. "Now, your evil little speech you could have held back... but we'll just blame it on the fear you felt during the heat of the moment... the Elliott thing is serious, but... Astrid will figure something out," she winked, like that empty promise was supposed to be comforting.

Sophia stood up and gestured at her companion, who had been standing quietly by the door. A silent message passed between them, and the man got to work. He quickly grabbed Sophia's folded clothes from the bed and stuffed them back inside her suitcase. Helena's frown deepened. He was packing. "Wait... are you going somewhere?"

"I'm afraid so, little one. I'm going back to the Isles before the sun fully rises." Sophia walked over to the mirror and popped open her makeup bag. Helena was much too stunned to even react, so she stayed on the chair, gripping the armrests. "I was sent to assess the situation. I have assessed it, and I'll go back and report to Astrid what I have learned."

"You were a scout," Helena shouldn't be surprised, but she was. Sophia was leaving her. She'd been handed a tiny bit of familiarity, and it was being taken just as quickly. Her older sister's fingers were swift and precise as they worked on her own face. She applied makeup expertly, and Helena was too dumbfounded watching her hands to do anything else.

"If you wanna call it that," Sophia pulled out a fleshy-like fake nose from the makeup bag and placed it over her real nose. She was transforming herself. Helena had seen it be done twice, and both times her sister had ended up unrecognizable. "I'm sneaking out. And no," she said before Helena could open her mouth, "You can't come with me. We need you here, but we'll return. Don't worry. Trust us for once in your life."

One second, Sophia had been a woman in her early thirties. The next her face looked like an old man's, with wrinkles and gap-toothed and everything. Her thin and nicely plucked brows were now thick and specked with gray, even her cheeks sagged. Helena felt unnerved when her sister turned to grin at her, with the face of an old man and the body of a woman, "How do I look?"

Before she could give her a piece of her mind, Kronk pulled out two cans from the suitcase, "Smelly Garbage or Old Dumpster, m'lady?"

Sophia was by his side in an instant, pulling out rags from the suitcase. She draped them over herself before grabbing one of the cans and spraying it on. Helena's nose picked up the scent almost immediately, and it made her recoil, "Gross!" she put a hand over her nose and mouth, trying to stop her eyes from watering, "What the hell?"

Sophia took a big whiff of the disgusting smell and sighed, "Ah, nothing like the smell of rotting eggs to make a disguise perfect, wouldn't you agree?" Sophia hunched her shoulders, "I think I'm ready," her voice was perfectly croaky, and Helena was too disgusted by the smell to really appreciate her sister's masterful acting.

Helena ran over to the window and opened it. She filled her lungs with the fresh air and vowed to not return until the smell was completely gone. She sat on the windowsill, listening to Sophia's struggle to find some gloves to cover her hands. It was just gods damn awful that Sophia didn't want to smuggle her out as well, but somehow her sister's words had been reassuring. She would talk to Astrid, and they would fix things... Or they could abandon her.

The nice smell didn't last long. The source of it came bounding to her, her perfumed self reeking of, well, garbage. "I have to go now, dear. Don't do anything stupid. Astrid's probably already planned the whole thing. She just needs to know what happened from me, and things will go well, you'll see. Alright?"

She really¸really wanted to believe her. Trust would make this so much easier. But Helena could almost taste the abandonment in her mouth. How easy it would be; to just ditch her here with these people.

"Please don't fucking leave me." Helena's voice was soft, and vulnerable. She did not like it one bit, but her sister's early departure hurt more than she wanted to admit. Having a familiar face around here, even if it had been for five seconds, had comforted her a lot.

Sophia sighed, probably remembering the person in the middle of this mess was none other than the youngest of her sisters. The family baby. "It's not forever, dear. This is how it must happen. If you were to come with me, it could mean war," Helena didn't know if her sister was acting, and if she was she was damn fantastic. "So wait. Wait for us. You're not alone." Gloved fingers closed around her chin and she met Sophia's old-man face, but her blue eyes were her own. "You wouldn't believe how much this situation has united us. Everyone's worried."

"Everyone?" Helena echoed. Sophia cracked a smile, the yellowing fake denture she'd put on made it creepy and yet it was familiar.

"Everyone worth giving a shit about," she corrected. "So Johanna, Maddy, Sonja- and many others. You can count the hateful ones in one hand, Helena. They don't matter. Keep your chin up," she ordered with more firmness to her voice, "You're a Westergard. Don't let them see you cringe."

They've already seen me cringe and worse. But her sister's words did fill her with hope, and she'd learned long ago to hold on to hope for as long as she could. "How are you so sure they're just going to let you leave?"

"Oh, they aren't! That's what my disguise if for, dear. Kronk here will stay behind and keep you company."

"That's not right! You're just going to offend them and make things worse," Helena wanted to curse herself for feeling hot tears starting to gather in her eyes. One thing was crying to herself when she was alone, another completely different one was doing it in front of one of her sisters. That was a big no.

Sophia scoffed and waved her hand dismissively, "You just tell that Elliott I had to leave on an urgent matter. Tell him it was life-or-death, yes? We will return. Three days at most. If I play my cards right and say the correct things, maybe the Queen herself will show her face around these parts."

What? She intended to bring Astrid here? "How is that a good thing?" the thirteenth princess demanded.

"Our beloved ruler has a... way with words. She can be very persuasive, you know. She will deal with this in her special Astrid way, you'll see," Sophia said. No matter how many assurances she got, Helena was not convinced. At all.

"'Special Astrid way,' huh? You mean intimidation and blackmail-"

"Most likely. She'll get this sorted out and that's all that matters."

Helena grunted, getting more frustrated by the minute, "Maybe I should go to trail like I'm supposed to? Answer for my crimes and all of that-"

"No!" Sophia said sharply, swiftly cutting her off. "You attempted regicide, girl. The magnitude of that... you have no idea how it could affect us. Affect you. Perhaps you could get off the hook with the Anders thing, claim he was delirious. But there are witnesses to your attempt against Elliott's life. Too much evidence. You'll be convicted and-" Sophia shook her head and held up a finger in a final way, "We're not having it. We are simply not."

"M'lady, it's time," Kronk said from the door. "The guard's shift is changing, you must leave."

Helena's heart raced with sudden panic. She shot to her feet, "Wait, Sophia, please-"

Sophia, or 'smelly old hobo' considering how she looked now, didn't even turn.

"Stay. Put."

And she was gone.

● Elliott ●

"So... let me get this straight," Elliott said, his face doing nothing to hide the aggravation he felt after getting word from Helena. He woke up at a decent time, shaved, put on one of his new Edna Mode's sharp suits, dealt with General Winter's morning madness, passed a sulky Andy in the hallway, only to be greeted with the news that Sophia Westergard was gone already. He'd been ready for their meeting, to talk at long last with someone that wasn't Helena or his own family about what had happened, and just...

"Sophia's husband is suddenly sick," Elliott said each world pointedly, not bothering to hide his skepticism. "And she had to return immediately... without consulting with me first... leaving her ship, and Kronk behind? Really now?"

"I love my brother-in-law very much, Your Grace. It was only right for Sophia to go and be by his side," Helena said with no hesitation. None Elliott could pick up on, anyway. It was almost like she'd rehearsed the words. "She's very sorry, but someone else from the Isles will have to answer for me. They'll be here in three days, at most."

Elliott tried not to be angry, but he was. He had been prepared to wait, but then this Sophia had appeared sooner than expected in a way that was almost insolent. And then she'd left just as fast, like she'd never been here in the first place. "...I see."

"It could be Astrid," Helena said, like that was of any consolation. "It's better this way. You can speak King-to-Queen. Your... equal. Not some Princess who's seventh in line. We do not wish to offend."

She was saying the words he wanted to hear, but judging by her face he knew she didn't mean any of it. She looked just as annoyed as he felt about her sister's early departure. The wine from last night seemed to still have a lingering effect on her, Helena's eyes were darker and her words had a harsher edge to them.

"You do not wish to offend," Elliott echoed, for lack of anything better to say. He didn't bother to hide is annoyance. It was just the two of them in his office, the faithful Kronk was standing outside, as was General Winter. So it was just them and a stack of paperwork Elliott should definitely get around to look through, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. The summer festival was getting closer every day, and Elliott was practically drowning on how much it was going to cost. He was probably going to have to ask for outside help, which made him anxious. After his coronation disaster, only a handful of monarchs still wanted to hold relations with Arendelle. He was going to have to think of something.

"We only wish for the best outcome possible," Helena said, still in a monotone-like voice. Like she was being fed every word. Elliott didn't know what Astrid Queen of the Southern Isles looked like, but he could easily imagine a miniature one perched on Helena's shoulder, whispering her the right things to say. Like a little devil.

"That's enough of that," Elliott said, trying hard not to grind his teeth together. "I am not interested in your sister's excuses. You sound like their puppet."

Her face remained neutral. "Is that so?"

"It's their words, not your own. You're reciting lines," Elliott said, forcing his eyes away from that impassive face and to the window. Another sunny day, it seemed. "Repeating all the pretty little words they taught you."

Helena shrugged, joining him in looking out the window. "Pretty little words, pretty little lies. What does it matter? They do what they want, my sisters. I can't stop them, all I can do is hope to stay out of their way as they charge through this life."

Elliott looked back at her face. It had some fire to it now. "Ah, see. Those words are yours."

"Yeah. But it's not something you wanted to hear, is it?"

"I guess not. It doesn't matter." Elliott folded his hands under his chin, "I don't know if you realize it, but every time you speak about them- about your sisters- you're giving me little bits of information. Bits that I'm piecing together inside my head. So, thanks to you- I've got a pretty good idea on their character." Astrid to be specific. After Zazu told the story about the Southern Isles, Elliott had been keen on learning more. He didn't want to feel at a disadvantage when he finally met the infamous Astrid.

Helena laughed, dry and forced. "You've really got no idea. You met Sophia. Sophia's just a little bird. Sophia is a slice of heaven. Astrid?" the princess got a dark glint in her eye, "Astrid is fire. Hellfire. She will-" Helena cut herself off, as if her puppet strings had been viciously pulled.

"If Astrid is the fire in this analogy of yours, does that make me the ice?"

"It does." Helena didn't need to say it out loud. They both knew; fire melts ice. It cuts right through it and leaves steamy water behind. What could be a respectable glacier of solid ice could turn into a puddle of nothing if the fire burned hot enough.

"I think... that if the ice is cold enough, it may just freeze the fire." Elliott let the words hang, let them have their impact on the young princess. He wasn't just ice. He was a storm with skin, and no fire burned bright enough or hot enough if a harsh and unforgiving storm was released upon it. The cold eventually got to you. He used to think such power was unstoppable- until Andy. Until Andy's... Andy's act of true love thawed that ice. It hadn't been fire, it had been love. And Elliott was pretty darn sure Astrid Westergard didn't have much love going for her. So the center of his power wasn't within the Queen's reach... at least he didn't think so.

Helena would have probably rolled her eyes if she hadn't been before a king. Elliott suspected she'd had plenty of practice holding back things like that, since her sisters did not sound like very nice or tolerating people. "Of course, Your Grace."

They had failed to convince each other of anything, so Elliott just shook his head at her as they silently agreed to disagree. "Well. That's all," Elliott said. The silence stretched, bordering on awkward. "As you surely understand, you aren't allowed to leave the palace. If you want to go somewhere, within these walls, it will be with an escort and checking with me first."

"Wonderful." Helena said, her tone flat.

"General Winter!"

Before the princess could even think to protest, the door swung open and the small snowman came bumbling in. He quickly surveyed the room with his snowy head before trotting over to Elliott's side, "Yes, yes, what is it?"

Elliott gestured at the girl across from him, "You'll be accompanying Lady Helena for as long as she stays with us. You'll be my eyes and ears."

"Eyes and ears," the snowman repeated. He used his index and middle fingers to point at his ice-shard eyes and then point them at Helena in a 'I'm-watching-you' fashion. He then proceeded to pull out his sword for dramatic effect, "Consider it done!"

"What?" Helena snapped, "Can't babysit me yourself? Or have some guard do it?"

"You've already proven that guards are no problem for you. As are ice dragons," Elliott added almost without meaning to. It was still incredible to think the eighteen year old across from him had not only maimed, but probably destroyed his Blizzard dragon. Just another reminder of how dangerous she could be. "I'd like to see how you do against my old friend."

Andy had told him the ice-Helena Meltling had been destroyed by General Winter. He hadn't got into details, his brother was still reluctant to speak about what happend in the study, but that was enough for Elliott to trust the General with this task. Meltlings had been vicious snow-monsters he'd accidentally created with his bottled-up feelings of loneliness and resentment, if the General could handle those surely the real princess would be no problem.

Helena didn't hold back in rolling her eyes before leaving, but Elliott didn't mind at this point. He just smirked as the very annoyed princess curtseyed before leaving the room, General Winter already right behind her. The door was shut for approximately ten seconds before Andy walked in, "Oh, hey. I just...are you busy?"

"Ah..." Elliott's ever-growing stack of unread papers practically glowered at him out of the corner of his eye, but the king decided to ignore it, "No, it's fine, I'm not busy. What can I do for you?"

Andy's face brightened as he pulled out a scrap of paper from his vest pocket and smoothed it over, "I just thought we could continue on with the list."

"The list?- Oh! Of things we absolutely have to do." Elliott couldn't help but smile at his brother. The last couple of days had been, for lack of a better word, crappy. Both of them could use some fun.

"Yeah, yeah. Krista's... talking to her uncle right now. So..." he suddenly looked anxious. "You sure it's a good idea to leave Helena, essentially, alone?"

"She's not alone. General Winter's keeping an eye on her."

Andy had seen firsthand what the snowman was capable of, even more so than Elliott, so that seemed to calm him. "Oh, okay. Good call. I wouldn't trust anyone else around her, except for maybe you." Andy made a small finger-gun and pretended to shoot Elliott with a pew sound, probably trying to imitate his powers. "You could, like, turn her into an ice sculpture if she tried anything."

Elliott grimaced. Not too long ago, Andy himself had been deathly close to becoming an ice sculpture. "Poor choice of words, brother."

"I know, I know. I'm sorry." The prince ran a hand through his hair, a deep sigh escaping his lips, "We shouldn't... dance around what happened. We... should...talk. About it."

Elliott suddenly felt uncomfortable, self-conscious even. "Oh?"

Probably sensing Elliott retreating back into his shell, Andy quickly waved his list in the air, "We could play twenty questions! Maybe that'll help? Help us talk, I mean?"

"That's on your list? 'Play twenty questions'?"

"It's either that or we could try baking a cake," Andy frowned at his list, "...I'm not that great at baking..."

Wanting to avoid a house fire at all costs, Elliott agreed. "Twenty questions it is! Do you want to sit down? Or remain standing? Or-"

"I'm not gonna sit down! That would feel like an interview... let's just... lay down. Right here. On the carpet."

If it had been anyone else suggesting that, Elliott would probably have declined. But it was Andy. He owed him this. They would be 'stargazing' at the wood panels on the ceiling, if nothing else.

"This is not weird at all," Elliott left the comfort of his chair and lowered himself down on the soft carpet. The pile of paperwork at his desk was screaming at him silently, but again Elliott decided to ignore it. Andy's happiness was more important than a stack of paper.

"It's kinda nice. Like when we were little, looking at the Northern Lights?" Andy lay down as well. "Okay... who goes first?"

"I'll let you do the honors," Elliott sighed and tried to pretend he was not a grown man laying down on the carpet of his office. Instead he tried to channel his younger self, the one that had been a fearless snowman builder that enjoyed playing with his little brother. "Ask me anything."


● Maddy ●

"... not as bad as we thought, all things considered."

Silence settled over the Council of Thirteen- council of Twelve, as of right then. The chairs on the council room were arranged on a 'U' shape, with Astrid at the middle. To her right was Maddy, and to the left was Cecile, strapped to the chair. Normally the third princess wasn't allowed out of her room, with her sickness and all, but Astrid had summoned all of them. Even Daria had shown up, she hadn't been seen around these parts for years. The last chair to the right was empty, almost hauntingly so.

All thirteen sisters had made it thus far in life. Some of them had had close calls with death- got some scars to show for it, but no fatalities. But now their youngest was in danger. Sophia had just finished recounting her visit to Arendelle and they were all waiting on their Queen's verdict. Maddy didn't like the look on Astrid's face. It spelled W-I-C-K-E-D.

"...I suppose we have no choice," Astrid spoke finally. She raised her cold eyes to meet each and every single one's gaze in the room. "I'm leaving for Arendelle." She settled to look into Cristina's equally icy stare, "Ready your fleet, Admiral. If things don't go as planned, I want our full naval power waiting behind the fjord."

Cristina smirked with her shark grin, "I thought you'd never ask, sis."


~Fun fact before the real author note~ The name of Hans' horse is Sitron which means Lemon, so Helena's horse is Nepe which means turnip. idk just throwing that out there :p

++ Well, I asked for opinions and opinions I got. Wow! Thanks to everyone who sent a review regarding Helsa, it was very interesting. From what I read it was pretty equal... but I'll stick to the plot I had in mind from the very beginning, I think. I've taken what everyone said into consideration and... it's not going to be Helsa, for now. We'll just have to see how it plays out with the idea I had before starting the sequel. It could happen, but as of right now- rest easy, it's not going to be a thing, even if it feels like I hint at it or whatever, it's not. I'll let you all know if this changes.

+ But someone brought to my attention; does Elliott need a partner? I wouldn't mind leaving him single, honestly, but I'd like to know opinions. I'm garbage at writing romance anyway. but I know some people really like that kinda thing so I could try.

aaaaaas always, thank you for reading!:)