Chapter 16: Governor General of New North Arendelle

Leaving the memory was just as disorienting as entering it, and Anna found herself lying on the snow, trying to swim back to the surface of reality. Slowly she gathered herself and climbed to her feet.

"And that is everything," the Bandit Queen, Idunn of Arendell said down to her from up on the balcony.

Anna quickly glanced around to make sure there were no bears again, before looking back up at her mother. Gradually her physical disorientation was giving way to an emotional one. She tried to smile, and tried to laugh, but a grimace was moving across her face.

Idunn continued, "I wanted to share everything with you, Anna. I didn't want to hold anything back. I still don't have everything myself, after Hyacenth's spell. But I do remember hiding the truth of Elsa's magic from you, and I know that was wrong. I won't hold anything from you this time."

"Mama, I.…" The grimace was returning, and twisting in Anna's stomach as well as her face.

"Before you finish that thought, there is something that I …" Idunn clasped the yellow stone as she leapt over the balcony. A puff of air dampened her fall. She ran up to Anna and squeezed her in a tight hug.

Anna's grimace morphed into a smile, then back to a frown as she hugged her mother back. Tears welled in her eyes and dropped to the frozen ground. "I've missed you, Mama."

"And I'm so sorry my child. Sorry that I couldn't go back to Arendelle for you."

Anna let go, her eyes darting to Olaf and Decker. "Oh, Arendelle. What are we going to do? I mean, you're Queen, but Elsa's also queen—I heard the old man say in Old Norse—and now we're way up here, but we'll have to … Elsa! She's not a witch; she's the benevolent Snow Queen. She would never hurt-"

"She froze your heart. I saw it."

"Yeah, but—"

"Enough. Just know that she can't hurt you up here. As for the ruler of Arendell, we have plenty of time to figure that out. In the meanwhile, I believe I have sufficient authority to claim this valley in the name of the kingdom, and appoint you as the governor general of the Spitsbergen Colony."

Excitement finally settled back on Anna's face. Governor Louis had never allowed her to run any of the kingdom's business, and Elsa had been reigning for too short a while for her to try to dabble in any of the affairs of state. "You mean it? I'm the governor general?"

"Of course. I told you child, it's all for you. Now, you must be tired after your balloon trip. I'll have Haakon show you to your room."

"Haakon?" Anna asked. She turned to see the familiar face of one of the palace guards, still dressed in his purple-trimmed teal woolen uniform. "Haakon! Oh, we were so worried about you after you didn't come back from the Northern Valleys." She dove on the man with a flying Anna-hug, then grabbed his arm and tugged him into the ice fortress, having forgotten that he was supposed to be leading her.

Idunn could hear her voice echo through the hallways as she watched her daughter walking away.

"… of course, I knew that Marshmallow wouldn't do anything to you, but Kristoff said that he thought that snowmonsters have to eat too, and I tried to tell him that Marshmallow isn't a snowmonster, just a very big and kinda scary looking …"

Idunn looked to the shadows at the entrance to the palace. "I see you hiding there, Askel."

The old bandit emerged from the shadows. "Lucky guess. Nobody can actually see me hide."

Idunn answered with a "Hmmph."

"She certainly seems chipper, after having seen her mother return from the dead and become an infamous bandit."

"I may not remember everything from before, but I always know for Anna—if you give her something to be excited about, and she will always become excited."

"So now she's the governor general. You know this isn't really a colony. It's just a fortress—fortified against the ice witch. And the ice witch is coming."

"I know that and you know that. But let Anna have her moment. She'll figure it out eventually. She is a cleaver girl."

"I'm sure! I bet she's cleaver enough to have read all the newspapers, and then forget them after."

Idunn shot him a look.

"Your sapphire eyes can't take a hold of me, my queen. But as you wish, my bandits will let Anna have the next several days to pretend she's running the island."

"This morning I saw, they're on a boat pulled by an ice whale. They've already caught up to Johno. I'm guessing it'll only be two more days until they're on our doorstep."

"Well then I'll let Anna have the next two days to run the island. In the meantime, what about them?" Askel jabbed a thumb in the direction of Decker and Olaf.

"Kjerstin says they're official guests of Arendell. Ambassadors even. And for the next two days this is a colony of Arendelle."

"Shall I set them up in the Ambassador's Suite?"

"Of course. But there are bandits about, so you'll want to make sure that their door stays locked—for their protection naturally."

"And the windows to this room, am I to guess that they should have iron bars—to keep them safe from bears, of course."

"Of course."

"Ah, the ambassador's dungeon cell. We'll make a bandit of you yet, your majesty."

As soon as Anna was well into the corridors and outside of her mother's earshot, she stopped walking.

"Okay Haakon, we're safely away from the bandits. My mother is back, and that's going to take a lot for me to deal with. But right now we've got a bigger problem."

"Yes, your highness," Haakon absent-mindedly answered, continuing down the hallway.

Anna ran to catch up. "I'm serious. Now let me tell you that bigger problem. Back when I first got kidnapped, Scuttle went off for help. Now, I know he's just a seagull, but Olaf really believes that he got help. That means Elsa is coming to rescue me. Which, I mean, she does kind of owe me one for the time I rescued her from the North Mountain… Well, I guess Hans brought her back from the North Mountain, but then he tried to kill her with that sword that came out of nowhere, and I rescued her from that."

"Uhm," was all Haakon had in reply.

"Right! The point is that Elsa is probably on her way, and Mama hates Elsa! She thinks that Elsa is some sort of dangerous … but Elsa's not dangerous, it was just an accident, and now she has control of her powers."

"I…" Haakon began, before being cut off by Anna.

"So I've got to get Mama to love Elsa again. Which shouldn't be hard, 'cause Elsa's the best sister. I mean she did shut me out for thirteen years, but that was only 'cause she was afraid of hurting me. Then she also went and ran away, and … built a snowman."

"Your…"

"That's what really gets me, Haakon. I saw it in Mama's vision of magic-which is another thing that's all whoah, but it's still not the biggest problem. What gets me is that the first thing Elsa did once she started using her magic, the first thing she did, was build a snowman. Sure, a puff from one hand, and a puff from another, and then whoosh … snowman. It's not like I'd been asking her to build one with me for the past thirteen years. But that's okay, 'cause now I'm friends with Olaf. And Elsa's going to rescue him too."

"Of course, your highness." Haakon, finally got a whole sentence in, before being cut off by Anna.

"And that's the biggest problem. Are we going to have some sort of clash of the titans? Bandit Queen and Ice Queen? No! As Governor General of New North Arendelle, I won't allow it! But it seems to me that North Arendelle is full of bandits. So I'm going to have to find some other folks loyal to Elsa to help me carry out my plan."

"Your plan, your highness?"

"And I'm also going to need to come up with a plan," Anna answered. After a moment, she stopped walking to ask, "Tell me, Haakon, where do your loyalties lie?"

He stood there a moment, perplexed. His face danced between pensive and confused. Anna could almost see the gears inside his head, twisting back and forth, trying to grind through some dust and get the machine running again. Finally he smiled and answered, "With my queen, of course."

"Good, good." Anna nodded and kept walking for a moment, but then she stopped and had to think about the answer. "Wait, no. That's no good. That could mean anybody! Seriously, Haakon. I feel like you're just being ambiguous to throw me off."

"Of course not, your highness."

"See, there you go again! And what really bugs me is that I can't even tell what you're trying to throw me off of!"

"Your highness, let me put your fears at ease."

Anna mumbled to herself, "that would be good, 'cause we both remember what happened last time an Arendell princess had too much fear she froze the whole kingdom."

Haakon went on, ignoring the mumble. "I am a loyal palace guard, of the Arendelle Castle. I will fight with all my strength to protect it."

"That's all well and good, but we're not in Arendelle Castle," Anna answered.

"Look around you, princess. This is clearly a castle. And you yourself said we are now in Arendelle."

"Yeah, but—"

"So there you go. I will protect Arendelle Castle."

"You're hopeless."

The pair of them stopped near what appeared to be a bedroom. One of many in this long corridor. This one was flanked with tall granite columns supporting the door frame. Anna looked at a moment, thinking that it must have been built to withstand an army of intruders. But the door itself was simple wood, painted with green trimming. She smiled at the reminder of her room back at home…what used to be her and Elsa's room.

"Well then Haakon, I take it this is the governor's suite?" Anna said as she walked into the room, and waived an arm to dismiss the guard.

Haakon turned to walk back down the corridor, with a frown on his face. Why was his princess asking about loyalty? He had the beginning of a thought-more of a feeling really, an instinct—telling him that loyalty was paramount to his life. He closed his eyes and tried to think. But whenever he tried, all he could see was a woman in a midnight blue bandanna, sitting across the path in the northern valleys. And as she opened her mouth to say, "Oh yes. You'll do nicely," the world would fade away, leaving only a pair of shining blue gemstone eyes against a black background.

But he latched onto the feeling of loyalty, and fished through his mind until he could find a memory for it. He was standing in the courtyard of Arendelle palace, in a formation with maybe a dozen other young men. They all had their right hand in the air and were repeating in unison, "I swear to uphold the laws of Arendelle and protect the crown from all enemies, foreign and domestic."

The crown. That was his loyalty. But the crown was just a metaphor. What did it really mean? He thought, but again the eyes saying "Oh yes. You'll do nicely." Pushing beyond them once again, he found fragments of memory. The throne. A young girl with platinum blond hair in a single braid sitting on it. Who was she?

"Oh yes. You'll do nicely."

Memories of the throne faded away, as did all thoughts of metaphors. He was back in the courtyard of the Arendelle palace, chanting "I swear to uphold the laws of Arendelle and protect the crown."

But there was something funny about this memory. He looked up, to see the sapphire eyes, hovering in the sky. And to his right, one of his fellows was not a young man, but an older, scruffy looking fellow with a midnight blue bandana as well. You shouldn't be here, Haakon thought. How did you get into my memory?

I swear to uphold the laws of Arendelle and protect the crown.

And who wore the crown? The older woman, with the midnight blue bandanna, sitting across the path. Perhaps that's where his loyalties must lay.

Things were so much simpler when all he had to do was march north.