"I have looked him over, and I've found absolutely nothing wrong."
"All right. Thank you."
"It was no problem at all, your Majesty."
The royal physician gave a short bow, then left the room.
Elsa stood near the bed in the infirmary, looking at the guard. The doctor was right; he didn't appear to be physically harmed in any way. But he still didn't quite look right; he sat on the bed, rocking to-and-fro, with that same blank look he had on his face back in that empty field.
Elsa cleared her throat, then spoke.
"What's your name?"
The queen felt a bit embarrassed for asking, but she continued.
"I'm sorry, I should have already known your name by now, but there are so many guards...it's hard to keep track."
The guard remained where he was, giving no response.
"Whatever happened out there...it must not have been pleasant. That's why I've decided to relieve you of your duties for the next three days. I hope you will use them to relax and try to recuperate from today's events."
There was still no response from the guard, but he stopped his rocking movements. Elsa took a step closer.
"It may be your job to protect me, but as your queen, it's my job to ensure the well-being of every citizen of Arendelle. That includes you."
The guard turned to look at Elsa, his green eyes staring into her own blue ones. Without breaking eye contact, he got up from the bed and walked over to her. He was about half a foot taller than Elsa. She now felt a bit apprehensive, like he might lunge at her at any moment.
"Johann," he said.
"...I beg your pardon?"
"My name. Johann."
In her peripheral vision, Elsa could see that his fists were clenched. The guard, Johann, continued to stare at her for a few more seconds, clenching and unclenching his hands, over and over. But nothing else happened.
Elsa watched the guard turn away from her and walk out of the infirmary. After he left her sight, she let the small bit of ice magic, that she was holding in her left hand, dissipate.
Johann walked through the front door of the modest home he shared with his wife and two children. His son and daughter looked up from the building blocks they were playing with, and saw that their father had returned. The boy got up and ran into the next room to find his mother.
"Mama, papa's home!" he said, his voice trailing out from the kitchen.
"Papa!" his daughter exclaimed, running towards him for a hug. She wrapped her arms around his leg, but Johann made no movement to hug her back like he usually did.
Johann's wife, Maila, walked out into the main living area, their son beside her.
"See, I told you!" said the boy to his mother.
Maila went to her husband and embraced him, then followed it up with a quick kiss. Just like with his daughter, Johann didn't return the affection.
"Oh Johann, I missed you. But why are you home so early? The children and I weren't expecting you for another week."
"Got a vacation," he replied.
His wife surveyed him, a look of concern on her face.
"Sweetheart, is something wrong? Are you all right?"
"Fine."
"Are you sure? You look a little pale."
"Just fine, I'm fine."
Maila looked at him, not completely convinced. But she brushed it aside and smiled.
"Well, I just finished making some soup. I'll go grab it, and the three of you can set the table. And then we can all have a nice family meal together."
Maila headed back into the kitchen to fetch their lunch. After making sure she was gone, Johann went over to the drawer and opened it. After he found the fillet knife, he picked it up, then looked back at his children, still in the room.
"Papa?"
Johann just stared.
Standing outside the house, Elsa could see the efficiency of her guards. They had already set up a perimeter around the small building, keeping all of the townspeople away from it. Most of them didn't want to stick around anyway, after what had happened.
At some point in the afternoon, Arendelle's citizens saw Johann walk outside the front door of his house, holding his wife's decapitated head in his hand and a fillet knife in the other. He held it up for the terrified villagers to see, as he screamed at them all in an unknown language. It took a full five minutes before Arendelle guards arrived, taking down their former comrade with two musket rounds to the head.
As Elsa looked at the bloody scene, Captain Byron of the Arendelle Guard walked over to her. He was separated from the rest of the guards by the gloves he wore; the Arendelle symbol on them was blue, different from the usual green that a standard guard would wear.
"Your Majesty."
"How many died?" Elsa asked.
"Counting Johann himself, four in total."
The murderer's corpse had already been removed from the area, but Elsa watched as several guards carried three more bodies out of the house, wrapped in white sheets. One body was adult-sized, and the other two child-sized. Her eyes lingered on the two smaller ones, as she shook her head in disbelief.
"How old were they, captain?"
"The boy was 8, the girl, 5."
Elsa couldn't stop a tear from rolling down her cheek.
"So young...", her voice shook.
She breathed deeply and composed herself, stifling any further emotion.
"How was Johann before all this, Byron? Before he was 'taken', as he put it?"
"Quite ordinary, my Queen. He was a bit of a family man, actually. I never would have thought he'd be capable of such a horrid act."
They were both quiet for almost 30 seconds, before Byron broke the awkward silence.
"There is something we think you should see, inside the house," the captain said.
After he led Elsa inside, he indicated the far end of the living room. On the wall was groups of weird symbols, drawn in blood. Their design was reminiscent of Egyptian hieroglyphics, but there was an otherworldly look to them.
"What is this?" the queen asked, wrinkling her nose from the strong odor.
"Johann must have written it out after he killed his family. We haven't been able to determine what exactly these things mean, but they don't correspond to any language I've ever heard of. Bit odd though, some of the townspeople said they heard him scream a bunch of words in a strange tongue."
"What did he say?"
"No idea, the people I talked to said that he was speaking far too quickly for them to pick any words out. But I'm willing to bet that whatever he said, was the same thing written on this wall."
Elsa put her hand up to her chin and thought for a moment, studying the lines, curves, and angles of the bizarre pictogram. She then turned back to the captain.
"I'll need an exact illustration of these symbols, finished and delivered to me by the end of today."
"As you wish, your Highness."
With that, Elsa walked past the captain and out of the house.
As she walked down the cobblestone path back to Arendelle's castle, Elsa felt her first twinge of guilt. She couldn't help but feel partly responsible for these events. Just one day before, there had been an entire family that lived in that house. And now, they were all dead.
Elsa wondered what Johann's son and daughter must have thought, when they saw their own father attack them with a knife. She wondered what Johann's wife must have thought when she walked in and saw the man she loved, covered in blood, standing over the dead bodies of their children.
Elsa was roused from her dark thoughts when she noticed the small, frosty path stretching all the way from the house, to where she stood. She still wasn't fully in control of her powers, it seemed. Elsa sighed as she waved it away, making it disappear with a flick of her wrist.
No matter what, she needed to get to the bottom of this.