The Second Thing

Kai shot her a look just before she walked into the study off the library, which was where Elsa spent most of her time working. Carolina was never sure if this look was encouragement or the butler's expression of "oh my god, there she goes again." Carolina was sure that Elsa worked too much, she hoped Kai agreed, but either way it wasn't going to stop her from completing her mission. It was late in the afternoon and time for something other than dull papers and diplomacy. But she knew better than to try the head on approach. She had failed miserably that way already once today. No, extracting this queen from her fortress of 'dull jane' solitude required a more deft touch, and perhaps even a bit of subterfuge.

"So, how is it going?" Carolina asked conversationally as she approached the large mahogany desk that separated the room and civilization from Elsa. The surface was entirely covered with stacks of papers, all neatly arranged, no doubt in an exact order that indicated to Elsa what they were or what she was required to do with them. The organization of those papers probably hadn't varied since her father's time either. And when she was done here for the evening, or night as it too often turned about to be, they would be equally precisely placed in the breakfront behind her. Elsa was precise, orderly, and a creature whose habits ran deep. The perfect mark for a bored, impulsive military woman with too much time on her hands.

"Not as quickly as I'd hoped," she sighed, looking up from a sheaf of papers. "Or as cleanly. I'm sure that no one is going to be happy with me when I finish with this."

"Oh?" Carolina walked behind her and leaned over her shoulder. "Whose dastardly plans are you ruining now?"

"Primarily the Swedes," she said with a chuckle. "But I'm afraid that it will be a compromise and as such no one will be fully pleased."

"Sweden?" Carolina knew that Arendelle legally was bordered on all sides by Sweden, although in practical terms Norway acted with significant autonomy despite their unsuccessful rebellion.

"Yes, they want to use our try-works, our whale oil rendering facility, for their whaling ships. It's located on one of the barrier islands not too far from here. They are partnering with several local whalers, and they want to expand the facility. They've made a generous offer. We could easily triple capacity, and the Swedes would pay for all of it."

"And this is a problem because?"

"Because they want autonomy in deciding how and when they will use it." Rolling her eyes, Elsa quoted an old Arendellian proverb, "Swedes and rotting fish are two things you should never leave unattended." Even through she had not yet been born when Sweden invaded Norway to cement its rule, Elsa held the same concern about the kingdom that most of her countrymen felt. Sweden was the bully of the block, and Arendelle's policy of the past had been to try and avoid her notice. Apparently that policy was changing.

"If we give them that autonomy they will bring in their Basque-crewed boats and not only will we have a terrible mess and stench just off our shores, but I think our own whaling boats, who are so smitten with the 'generous' Swedish offer right now, will find they don't have any whales to actually hunt."

"And your wise solution?"

"Limited access, paid by the use. Some limited expansion. Our boats have priority."

"Why not just keep them out?"

"The Dutch also have expressed interest. We need them as allies. I can't allow them in and keep Sweden out … well, I could, but I think I'd have to spend a lot of time patrolling our eastern boarder as a one woman ice defense system."

"The Dutch? It's a shame it's not Belgium."

Elsa nodded vaguely in agreement, still studying the proposal. Then Carolina's words sunk in. "You know," she said with a snort. "Not everything I do is motivated by chocolate."

"Still if you're going to get a kick back, it might as well be in a currency you desire."

"I don't get kick backs," she said defensively. "Every penny goes into improving the wharf and ..."

"I know … I know, I'm only teasing," Carolina soothed. She started massaging the Queen's shoulders. Elsa tended to hold herself in one place for far too long when she was working. "But you are almost alone in that amongst monarchs. My father would say that you are not doing it right."

"I beg to disagree. My people love me," Elsa said with a grin.

Carolina knew she was teasing as well, but it was also the truth even if Elsa couldn't always see it. "Avalon's people love their King just as the chickens love the farmer. They know where their next meal is coming from." She found a particularly tense knot, and leaned into it with her strong hands, gratified when Elsa yelped and shuddered. "They are just nervous about what happens when he's not satisfied with just eggs."

"Ow. Ow!" Elsa tried to wiggle away. "You're terrible." Then something loosened and she melted down into her chair. "Oh, yes. That's it. Don't stop."

"Hmmm, but very talented." Carolina beamed as her fingers sought out the next knot.. "So why don't you show me these … what did you call them … try-works?"

"They're barely visible from shore. Anyway why would you care?"

"Because if your Admiral Nailenssen"

"Naismith. His family came from Avalon, you know."

"Right then." Carolina winced at that thought. "If he doesn't get back to me soon, I'm going to have to take up something else. Perhaps whaling is the right profession for me."

"Right. And I'll invest in flying pigs."

"It happens on the sea … in a boat … both things with which I am familiar."

"And if you come home smelling like the try-pots I guarantee you are not sleeping in my bed." Carolina stopped her massage. Elsa sighed and rolled her head. She did have scandalously talented fingers.

"Please, I would really like to see these try-works," Carolina said.

"I told you they're really not visible from here."

"So, you'll take me to an elevated vantage point." Carolina stepped to the side and wiggled her fingers, imitating the "pew, pew, pew" noise Anna made when talking about her sister's ice magic.

"Really?" Elsa became suspicious. "Is this a ruse to get me outside?"

"Oh no …" Carolina made a cross over her heart. "Why ever would you think such a thing?"

"You are the worst ..."

"Please?" Carolina leaned down and kissed her lightly on the neck. "I want to see the concrete foundation of your sublime statesmanship."

Elsa felt a tingle run down her spine. This was not playing fair. "Very well, but just for a moment. I really do have a lot still left to do today."

"Hmmmm," Carolina replied noncommittally as she helped the Queen to her feet.

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It wasn't that Elsa didn't want anyone to see her using her ice magic. It was that Elsa was still nervous when people saw her using her ice magic. To Carolina this didn't make sense, but Elsa insisted there was a difference, and since she was the one with the ice magic, she was in charge of where it was used.

So here they were at the rocky shore nearest the mouth of the fjord. It was a good spot anyway. Elsa found it easier to create a lot of ice if there was water nearby. Not that she couldn't otherwise, but when the water was right there, it practically called to her. She repeated what Carolina called, "the safety rules," a phrase always said with disdain. Carolina did not do safety unless forced to. But she did enjoy wrapping herself around Elsa when her magic was flowing through her. She could see the blue sparks, she felt a slight tingle, and then they went flying upwards, free of their earthly fetters. When they stopped, high up in the sky, the icy platform under their feet expanding outward, they were both giddy and flush.

"That is the second best thing in the world," Carolina proclaimed, which led to Elsa smacking her arm and giggling. But in truth she agreed. This was, and being with Carolina made it that much better.

"So, our try-works." Elsa pointed out to where a series of small islands were situated off their coast. "They are over there."

"It is close," Carolina agreed. "Although not much to look at." Then she looked over the side of the icy pillar. "We're what, about 200 feet up?"

Elsa quickly raised a barrier around their platform. "Probably," she answered. "Maybe more. Please don't fall off."

But Carolina was already using the short railing as a place to climb to go higher. "Honestly," Elsa muttered to herself as she raised it higher and then made it into a sheer wall. She could be as bad as Olaf about standing still and minding her.

"You're taking away my fun," Carolina grumbled as her boots slipped sending her sliding back to the platform.

"I am only ensuring that mine stays alive," Elsa countered.

Carolina strode back to her position behind Elsa, "Then go higher," she whispered in her ear. "Please."

"Very well." Elsa didn't think there was limit on exactly how high she could go, except that like Icarus she might find herself too close to the sun. And using her magic to make something substantial like this allowed her to unleash the power that she otherwise had to keep under tight control. It was exhilarating. So up they went, flying again, the base of the tower thickening, the whole structure reinforcing itself under her control, until the world below them was distant, the castle a tiny toy nestled in someone's play village.

When Elsa stopped, when they were high enough, it seemed like everything stopped with them, everything held perfectly still in time and space. The sun was warm. The sea was so far below they could no longer hear it. The wind whistled, a beautiful pure tone matching the vibrant blue above them. They were alone in the sky.

Carolina stepped around so that they were facing. Their eyes met. "Ummm," she breathed, "second best thing." Elsa leaned into the searing kiss, while her fingers began to fumble with waistcoat buttons. Carolina gasped when chilly fingers slid underneath her shirt. Elsa's hands got colder when she was using her magic. Usually she concentrated on warming them, but now she wasn't thinking of that. She wasn't thinking, just feeling, pulling Carolina as close to her as possible, touching the whole of her partner. Sex became an extension of the magic she had just performed, and that power unfolded into the moment right there before her.

They collapsed down first to their knees and then to the floor. Carolina found herself on her back, her coat, waistcoat and finally shirt unbuttoned and pushed aside, her pants held only by boots and the urgency of the moment. And the first time was quick, Carolina panting, pushing against the bonds that were her clothing, all the time Elsa whispering things in her ear that no good queen would ever speak of.

Later things slowed down, Elsa ended up undressed, her clothing so much easier to deal with, her body immune to the cold beneath her. When furniture seemed appropriate, neck cricks to be avoided, a simple geometry problem to be solved, she made it with a flip of her fingers. The sun beat down on them warming the platform just enough that Elsa knew Carolina's quaking didn't come from the cold. There was something about being up here, outside, the clear ice giving the illusion of floating, that made time stand still and the world shrink to two people.

It was well into the evening when they ended, cuddled, wrapped in each other, limbs lazy in the afterglow, soft whispers broken only by contented sighs and throaty mumbles.

"Better than whales," Carolina murmured.

"Much better than whales," Elsa agreed.

Carolina was nuzzling a particular spot on Elsa's neck that made her shiver when she heard something that sounded suspiciously like banging.

"Do you hear that?" Carolina asked.

"No, but when you do that …. oh," Elsa said with a giggle.

"No, listen?" Carolina pointed down into the ice beneath them. It was agreed between the two of them that her hearing had suffered from one too many broadsides, so it could have been an imagined artifact.

Elsa turned her head so her ear was against the ice. Very distinctly she heard Anna saying, "Hey, you up there. It's dinner time. I'm starving!"

"Oh!" She sat up suddenly.

"What?"

"It's too pure. It's a pure crystalline structure ..." Elsa was muttering as she quickly remade her dress.

"What?"

"My ice. It's completely pure, no air bubbles, nothing to slow down the conduction of sound." She tossed Carolina's boots back to her followed by her pants.

"What?" Carolina asked a third time, her mind swimming up from the post-coital haze.

"Sounds travels really well in this ice!" Elsa hissed.

Carolina smiled and began to get dressed. Elsa was chewing on her lower lip, already turning pink. "How well?" she asked.

"I don't know, but I heard Anna at the bottom."

Now Carolina was laughing.

"Stop laughing! She'll hear you!" Elsa said, which just had the opposite effect.

As soon as Carolina was near presentable, and stationed behind her, Elsa began to unmake what she had made, the column dropping in a very controlled descent.

Carolina leaned into her and said, "Stop."

Elsa did, and looked back worried that something was wrong.

"Thank you," Carolina said giving her a soft kiss on her forehead and then her cheek. "That was amazing, and not just the sex."

"Anna …."

"Shhhhh," Carolina kissed her again. "She can wait a minute more. I just want to make sure you know this."

"What?"

"That I think your magic is beautiful. I have since the moment I saw it, and I have only been more amazed that you can do this …" Carolina tilted her head to the side, bringing her eyes down to where Elsa was shyly staring at her feet. "I am the luckiest woman on the planet."

"I don't know …."

"No, I am." She asserted. "The first thing I noticed about you was how beautiful your magic was, and the second …." she paused and pulled Elsa closer, "was how beautiful you are when you are using it."

They stayed just like that, gazing at each other, until the banging started again.

Carolina sighed, "Guess we'd better continue on. I seems like your sister might perish from hunger."

Up from the floor came the distinct voice of Anna, "Yeah … I heard that." Elsa grimaced and started the platform down again. "I heard all of that." Elsa froze. Carolina chuckled. The column began to grow again. Anna quickly retracted, "Just kidding … just kidding."