Elsa stood near the top rung of the ladder, looking carefully at each volume that sat in the tall bookcase. Her sister, Anna, sat cross-legged nearby in a velvet chair, flipping through an encyclopedia. The sketch of the off-looking pictogram from Johann's house, from the day before, lay on a footstool at Anna's side. Elsa moved her eyes along the spines of the books, then turned to look at Anna.

"Any luck?"

"Nope, not yet," Anna replied, flipping back her strawberry-blonde pigtails.

"Keep looking. If you don't find anything in that one, try the next in that series."

"Will do."

For the next few minutes, the only sounds that could be heard in the expansive library were the flipping of pages and movement of books, in and out of the shelves. As Elsa looked through one book (entitled A History of Pre-Unified Corona), Anna broke the silence.

"You know, we haven't really been in this part of the castle in quite a while. The last time I was in here, was when Mama and Papa...were...still..."

Anna's voice trailed off, realizing the old wounds she just opened. Even though it had been a little over four years since their parents died, both sisters still missed them.

Elsa stopped reading for a moment, glancing over at the big, cushioned, purple couch that sat at the far wall. As she looked at the piece of furniture, memories came rushing back to her; memories of her and Anna as children, snuggling up to their mother as she read stories to them in her soft, soothing voice. Even after Anna's accident, she still took the time to read to her daughters, although she did it with each of them separately by that point.

Anna looked up at her sister and noticed her staring at the couch, a subtle, melancholy look on her face.

"Elsa, I...I'm sorry for bringing it up. I miss them both, too."

The queen closed her eyes.

"It's all right Anna..."

She opened her eyes again.

This was not the time for nostalgia; there were more important things at the moment, and Elsa knew she needed to focus on them. Arendelle's safety was potentially at stake.

Elsa closed A History of Pre-Unified Corona and put it back in its spot on the shelf. Right after she was about to draw out another book, the main doors to the library opened. Kai walked through them, holding an envelope in his right hand.

"Hey Kai!" Anna said, as she smiled and gave a quick wave.

"My Lady," he replied back with a nod.

Kai headed over to his Queen, and as she stepped down off the ladder, he handed her the envelope. Elsa looked at its wax seal, and immediately recognized it as the insignia from Captain Byron's ring. She undid the seal, opening the letter.

Your Majesty,

Found the farmer and our missing guard, down at that farm you were at a few days ago. Found something else, too. You'll want to come down here and see.

-Captain Byron, Arendelle Royal Guard

"Thank you for the letter, Kai. You may resume your regular duties."

Kai nodded and headed back towards the door, as Elsa turned to look at Anna.

"I'm needed down at the vegetable fields. I need you to stay here and continue to look for any leads. Those symbols look really old, so researching ancient history should be our best bet."

"All right, I'll do my best. I hope everything turns out okay on your end."

"Thank Anna. I should be back soon."

Anna stood up and gave her sister a quick hug, then sat back down, resuming her scholarly efforts.

As Elsa walked out of the library, she wondered what she was going to find when she returned to that now-empty farm. So far, every other thing she had been called out to see was something horrible; she doubted this latest discovery would be any different.

Captain Byron removed the sheets of both corpses to show Elsa what had happened to them. The bodies' clothing had been removed; they were mutilated in the exact same manner as the cattle. Both the deceased farmer and the second guard left with him were drained of blood; their internal organs, removed; their eyes and tongue, gone. Even their genitals were missing, cauterized wounds marking where they once were.

It seemed more disturbing to Elsa to see humans dissected in this way. The dead cattle had only given her some sense of disgust, but this was something different. She wanted to vomit, but for some reason, she couldn't.

"What was the 'something else' you found, Captain?"

Byron motioned for one of the other guards present. He came forward, holding two objects, one in each hand. He handed them off to his captain, who, in turn, held them forward for Elsa to observe.

"We found them buried in the dirt, right next to where the corpses were."

The objects were circular plates, made of precious metal; one was gold, the other silver. They were both the same size, that of a standard dinner plate. Elsa reached out and took the silver one from Byron's hand. Despite its thinness, it felt heavier than it appeared. However, the strangest thing about both plates was the odd symbol carved on them: the plates' symbols were identical (albeit smaller) to the pattern that had appeared in the very same field just two days before.

Elsa looked at the angles on the plate, and though she was going to properly measure them when she could, she already knew they would all be 33 degrees.

The queen handed the plate back to the captain, and looked down at the two bodies again.

"Does Mr. Evensen have any next-of-kin?"

"He does not. He never married or had any children, and both his parents passed away decades ago."

"And this guard...I'm very sorry Captain, this is yet another man whose name I have neglected to memorize."

"Bjorn Alstan, your Majesty."

"Yes, Mr. Alstan. I remember now. What about him? What family does he have?"

"He has a wife, and one son. They live near the docks."

Elsa winced on the inside.

"I can be the one to break the news to his wife, if you so wish, my Queen."

"I need to be there when it happens, Captain. I feel like I'm partly to blame for this."

"You are under no obligation to-"

"I insist."

The captain paused, but knew that he would never be able to change the mind of Arendelle's monarch.

"And what of these plates, your Highness? Shall we melt them down?"

"No. I want these brought back to the castle, I'm going to study them further once I have the chance."

"Of course, my Lady."

He beckoned the guard again, and handed the plates off to him. The guard put each one into its own sizable, leather carrying case, then attached them both to a saddle of one of the horses.

"You should know...your cabinet has requested a meeting with you at the castle, tonight. They want information on the events of the previous two days, and a solution from you."

Elsa really didn't want to meet with them, but she knew it was her duty as Queen.

"...tell them I will meet with them, in the castle's council room, at 10:00 PM sharp."

She sighed. This was going to be a long day.

Elsa sat at the end of the long table in the council room. On either side of her sat the 5 members of her cabinet; the minister of agriculture; the minister of finance; Arendelle's ambassador; the attorney general; and Captain Byron, the minister of defence.

While Captain Byron was already familiar with most of the unexplainable events that had recently occurred, his fellow cabinet members had only just been informed by their Queen.

The agriculture minister was the first to voice his disapproval.

"Mr. Evensen's farm was one of Arendelle's largest providers of vegetables and livestock. This little incident is going to adversely affect our food supply. We could very well have a famine on our hands."

"That will not be a problem. We are on good terms with Corona, we can easily import more seeds and cattle from them to replace what was lost. I will use money from my own family's assets, if I have to," the Queen replied.

"And how can you be certain the kingdom of Corona will even export to us after they find out what has occurred?" Arendelle's ambassador interjected.

"I quite agree," said the attorney general. "This sort of thing is unprecedented, and it certainly will not make us look favorable to neighboring kingdoms."

"We will be fine. None of this reflects poorly on us as a nation," the Queen replied. She was beginning to display hints of stress, her left hand nearly balled into a fist.

"It reflects poorly on you as a ruler. That, in turn, makes all of Arendelle suffer," said the finance minister.

While the other cabinet members were all in their mid-forties to late-fifties, the minister of finance was by far the oldest person there. He was in his late-seventies, almost completely bald with bits of gray hair clinging to both sides of his head. His body was tall and thin, and his grey-brown eyes looked emotionally cold.

"You have only been our monarch for slightly over a year, and in my opinion, you have done an insufficient job of looking after this country's interests," he said accusingly.

Captain Byron interrupted him. "I object to that statement, and I believe you are making unfair judgements that have little to do with the situation at hand. Personally, I believe Queen Elsa has brought prosperity to Arendelle. We now export almost twice as much ice as before, and our tourism industry has never been bigger."

The old man turned to Byron.

"Oh really? I am being unfair, am I? According to you, she can't even remember the names of her own Royal Guard. Was it not you yourself who said that you needed to remind her of the unfortunate officer found dead in that field?"

Elsa and Byron's eyes briefly met. The captain was the one to look away, a feeling of guilt forming in his mind.

The finance minister looked back to Elsa.

"How are we to trust your judgement when, a relatively short time ago, you froze this entire country and ran off to the mountains? Our people very nearly froze to death, because of you."

"That is irrelevant to-"

"Irrelevant? You almost killed us all, 'your Majesty'."

"That is enough, minister. I am sending a letter to the king of Corona first thing tomorrow, requesting an import," Elsa declared. She stood up from her seat.

"This meeting is adjourned, gentlemen. You are all dismissed."

The cabinet members got up from their seats, all slowly filing out of the room. Captain Byron looked briefly at his Queen, trying to wordlessly apologize to her before he stepped out the door.

The finance minister was the last member in the room. Before he left, he walked over to Elsa. He stared at her with those callous eyes of his, and narrowed them.

"Your father would be ashamed of you,", he said in a harsh whisper.

As he turned to leave, Elsa thought she heard him mutter "Witch" under his breath. She watched as he shut the door behind him.

Elsa reached back and undid her bun, letting her platinum-blonde hair fall down past her shoulders. She sat back down in her chair and sighed deeply, her head in her hands. She remained there for the next few minutes as a light layer of ice began to form over the ceiling of the council room. Elsa knew it was there, but she at the moment she didn't care.

She was about to get up and leave, when she heard a quiet knock on the door.

"Elsa?"

It was Anna's voice.

"Come in."

Anna opened the door and walked in, carrying the pictogram sketch in her hand.

"I just got into the hall when I saw all those cabinet members walk out. Rough meeting, huh?"

"That's a bit of an understatement, Anna. But enough about that, did you find out anything about those symbols while I was gone?"

"Well, sort of...," Anna said.

"Meaning?"

"Well, I don't know what this thing says, but I think I've figured out the closest language to it."

"Which is?"

"Ancient Sumerian," said Anna.

"What? Sumerian? What was that doing scrawled in blood on the wall inside a house?"

"Well, like I said, Sumerian is the closest thing to it. I double-checked to make sure, but there's no mistaking it. The lines and curves of that language correspond pretty closely to this sketch."

"But if that's the case, where do we go from here?", Elsa thought aloud.

Anna looked at the floor, thinking to herself. After a moment, she spoke.

"Why don't you try going out to the mountains and talk to Grand Pabbie tomorrow? He's pretty old, maybe he might know something more about this sort of thing."

"That's a good idea, Anna. I'll...I'll make sure to do that tomorrow..."

Elsa gently took the sketch out of her sister's hand and stared at a random spot on the table, remaining where she was. Anna stood there, unsure of what was going on.

"Elsa...is everything okay?"

The queen closed her eyes as a single tear rolled down her face.

Elsa felt two hands wrap around her arm, as Anna helped her up out of her chair. When she was fully standing and facing Anna, the princess threw her arms around her sister, pulling her close for a hug.

"You're a great sister, and a wonderful queen. And I'm sure that both Mama and Papa are watching over you right now, and they're really proud of you," Anna whispered.

Elsa continued to embrace her sister, and let her tears come.