Kaya didn't so much as flinch at the frigid temperature of the gales of wind that tore at her clothes. The mountains were beautiful and glistening with newly fallen snow. She walked calmly through the raging blizzard unperturbed, but stopped once she reached a cliff overlooking the valley that was the last stretch before she would pass through Arendelle.

Orinda had been sorely disappointed that Kaya hadn't killed Zmeya, as she usually was when her host refused to kill her enemies. It wasn't as if she hadn't killed before, but she used discretion when fighting her enemies, preferring not to kill them if she could help it. It was the occasional acts of mercy that set her apart from her constant companion, after all. Now the disgruntled demon had retreated to the far recesses of her mind, grumbling something about how she hated the cold.

As a fire demon, it was ridiculous to think that Orinda had been physically bothered by the cold when she had possessed her own body. Kaya suspected it had to do with Orinda's opinion that the ice and snow were "passionless", a description that she had repeatedly linked with the Snow Queen of Arendelle. As Orinda saw it, ice and fire, being polar opposites, should never be friendly with one another.

Kaya smirked. That was probably because, in the end, snow would always win over fire. Ice would melt to become water, and the water would douse the flames, losing a battle but winning the war. Orinda had always been a sore loser. Still, when Kaya, as a young woman, had taken Orinda's magic by force, the fire apparition had since held a grudging respect for her vessel and 'allowed' her to use the magic as if it were her own. Kaya knew the truth, though. Orinda would never admit it, but Kaya had won fair and square; her will had won out, and Orinda's magic had been hers to command ever since.

The woman shrugged. It wasn't like Orinda was going anywhere. After the tragic first-explosion of her power, which made her cringe just thinking about it, Kaya had searched high and low for any way to exorcise the demon from her body. After much deliberation, and plenty of scornful comments from Orinda, Kaya had decided that if she couldn't get rid of Orinda she would harness and control the demon's magic if it was the last thing she did. In retrospect, it was unfortunate that she and her father had been so mentally similar.

Kaya shook her head, effectively shifting away any lingering memories. She turned her attention back to the valley where Arendelle awaited.

Despite the fact Kaya and Queen Elsa hadn't ever met face-to-face, she'd heard the rumors of the Snow Queen that now ruled Arendelle, and the previously unknown nature of her powers, that is, until the day of her coronation, though the exact circumstances of that night changed depending on who you spoke to. Some said the Queen murdered a guest and then was exiled for her crimes. Others whispered that the Queen and the Princess Anna had argued and Anna had assaulted the Queen, forcing her to defend herself. Kaya didn't believe the former scenario for a moment. If that had been the case, her subjects would never had allowed a murderer to return, let alone rule the kingdom.

It was anyone's guess how Arendelle had become once more as peaceful as it had ever been, unlike her own kingdom, which was a hair's breadth away from all-out rebellion. Catherine was lucky she had been out of the country when her mother and their father had been murdered, and the throne stolen from their father by Kaya's murderous ex-lover. There was no telling how her gentle-hearted stepsister would've reacted to such a traumatic experience.

Eventually Kaya stopped for the night to rest after running half the way to her current location. The soldiers from Palladon wouldn't be able to follow in the blizzard. Thankfully, her magic kept her from feeling the cold for even a second. Still, it hadn't stopped her from feeling the pain of her injuries searing through her side as she trudged through the snow.

Feeling what must have been a freezing gust of wind brush her black hair back from her face, Kaya fell asleep praying that tomorrow would see her on a ship from Arendelle and far away from her snake of a ex-lover.


Elsa sighed. It was just another day of paperwork and attending meetings. Life as a queen really wasn't everything she'd read in books as a child. Although in most stories, both real and fictional, a queen would work beside a king and the kingdom would be ruled by a united pair. That was how her parents had done it for so many years.

The Snow Queen had been the reluctant recipient of the many suitors that her overzealous younger sister had shipped in from all corners of the world in hopes Elsa would fall in love with one of them. Elsa had tried to be firm but gentle in all her refusals, but when Anna had finally gotten desperate and tried to set her up with a visiting duchess from another kingdom, Elsa had put her foot down, hard.

Elsa's eyes currently scanned the asset list one of her advisors had made, detailing the financial stability of the country whose prince was to arrive any day. She had tried not to start thinking of her impending engagement to a prince as a business agreement, but after Anna's repeatedly unsuccessful matchmaking attempts, Elsa was starting to seriously consider simply finding the best economic match for her kingdom and be done with it.

She sighed again. It wasn't that she wasn't open to the possibility of 'true love', as Anna endearingly put it, but Elsa just wasn't sure that she would find it early enough for it to make any difference. Sharing sisterly true love with Anna was one thing, but romantic love? What chance did an Ice Queen have of finding that?

She was suddenly pulled from her thoughts by a knock on her study door.

Elsa bade them enter and returned her gaze to the reports in front of her until the guard spoke.

"Your Majesty..." He trailed off.

The Queen gave him what she hoped was a friendly smile. "What is it, Thomas?"

At the sound of his name, the guard straightened. "There's a matter that demands your attention, Queen Elsa."

Elsa raised a slender eyebrow, indicating that he elaborate.

"The Captain was patrolling a local tavern and a foreigner assaulted him in the course of his duty."

The puzzled expression was for a completely different reason this time.

She was unable to keep trace amounts of amusement from her voice as she said, "Since when do we 'patrol' local taverns?"

The guard blushed minutely and started to stammer an excuse, but Elsa had already stood and was making her way to the door. In all honesty, she was glad to have a reason to not look at more paperwork for the next hour.

As she walked two steps ahead of Thomas, she thought of ways to defuse the Captain's easily excitable temper in the quickest way possible. Chances were that he had simply been slacking off again and was trying to pawn it off on someone else.

Elsa opened the door and calmly walked to the center of the platform, where her throne sat. She turned her gaze to the foreigner and was surprised at what she saw.

A long, silky waterfall of ebony hair covered a face that Elsa had the feeling was just as lovely. The woman's hair looked in slight disarray, but that only served to add to her air of intrigue. Her arms were pulled roughly back by the pair of guards that stood behind her, the stance emphasizing the contours of her chest. The woman had been forced into a kneeling position that looked more than a little uncomfortable as the chains that encircled her wrists cut into her skin.

Elsa wondered what the woman could possibly have done to land herself in a situation that looked more like a trial than an audience with the queen.

Straightening her shoulders, Elsa waited for the Captain to start the accusations, as he always did.

Maybe this would finally be the day she found solid grounds to dismiss the man for good.