While the Southern Isles rarely suffered the blizzards sometimes blown across the northern kingdoms, the region saw unusually frigid temperatures after the winter solstice of 1825. By Christmas, the cold front had blanketed the shorelines with snow. Accumulations more inland aggravated farmers and traders who were not used to feet upon feet of it. Yes, a few inches were to be expected and were perfectly manageable, but working to clear the roads between markets every few hours after each fresh snowfall became a task even children were asked to take to.
Finally, just before the turn of the new year, the snow stopped.
But the interruption to normal life still required the royal family to enlist aid from other kingdoms. Corona and Arendelle sent crates of food to counterbalance those stores depleted by the panic. In exchange, the Southern Isles would give each of them one of the warships its navy was renown for. There was initially talk of arranging engagements between a few of the young princes and the daughters of the aiding kingdoms. But when the Arendelle monarchs seemed inexplicably reluctant and the Coronan princess herself went missing, King Graham and Queen Marianne decided that perhaps the engagements were just not meant to be.
This news was well-received by the eight princes playing in the castle grounds' snow on New Year's Day. None of them had welcomed the idea of an engagement when their five eldest siblings were already serving or training to serve in their father's navy.
The four feet of snow to sled, tunnel through and pelt at each was, however, very much welcome.
Robert and Peter, the older twins, proclaimed themselves "too old" at seventeen to join in snowball fighting. But Felix, just a year younger than them, didn't seem to mind playing along with his younger brothers. The younger twins—Samuel and Daniel—sort of took charge, dividing the six of them into two teams. They quickly claimed their favorite, Hans, for their team; this left Felix, Eric and Emil on the other side of the courtyard turned battleground.
They played for a few hours, having never had so much snow to play with. The twins were rather brutal in their snowball playing and when Emil had finally had enough of their targeting him, he concocted a plan to gang up on Daniel with his team.
Little Hans, not quite nine years old yet, was the one to notice the light snowfall first. Felix came up from behind his youngest brother, readying a snowball to splat in Hans's freckly face before the younger boy cried out.
"Hans?" Felix called, dropping the snowball as he came up beside him.
Hans bent his auburn head, one hand clutching his left eye. He hadn't heard Felix, or at least didn't seem to notice him.
"You get snow in your eye, buddy?" Felix asked with a light laugh as he looked up to see the flurries fall. It was too light to warrant concern.
Hans didn't reply though. That was a little concerning.
"Hey, are you al—"
"Enough already, I'm fine!" the boy snapped. His outburst completely stunned the older brother, who watched speechlessly as Hans ran off and abandoned the game.
Bewildered, Felix did not notice in time to escape the snowball aimed at the side of his head. He scowled upon its impact and wiped the cold fluffiness off his ear, still staring after Hans even as Daniel ran up to him.
"How did you not see that coming?!" Daniel chuckled. When Felix did not look at him, he followed his older brother's gaze toward small Hans storming back to the castle. "What's wrong with him?"
Felix hesitated. The youngest prince was perpetually warm and affectionate with his immediate family. He wasn't one to snap over little things; Felix had seen the twins tickle him to giggling tears and even when some of the middle brothers teased him, Hans just found innocent ways to get back at them. Was something else bothering the boy?
"I don't know."
It was spring by the time Felix worked up the courage to tell his mother. He'd given his youngest brother the benefit of a doubt at first. But several quitting tutors, tantrums and troubled servants' gossip later, Felix knew it needed to be addressed.
Father was out of the question. There was no telling when his melancholia would erupt in another of his violent fits. Besides, the king barely recognized his youngest sons, having even claimed—in one of his episodes—that Hans and the twins might not even be his.
It wasn't always that bad, but it'd gotten a lot worse in the new year.
Mother dealt with it in her own way, burying herself in legislature, trade agreements, letters and other paperwork; it was all an excuse to shut herself away in the study, away from the sons who reminded her daily of the man she had lost to madness. There was talk that perhaps one day the king would work himself up into a riot so volatile that he'd give himself a fatal stroke. Then, Bjorne would be king and all of the paperwork and signatures would be his responsibility.
Until then, the queen did the bulk of it.
One May morning, Felix went to the study after breakfast. As expected, the queen was already there working.
Felix winced at the annoyance that crossed the queen's face when he knocked to announce his presence. His mother had once been a much gentler woman, always lighting the room with her smile. But she didn't smile much these days.
Queen Marianne calmed when she saw it was one of her sons, not a servant, who interrupted her. She set her steel nib down and folded her hands upon the desk. "Come in, Felix," she welcomed him with a neutral tone. "I'm in the middle of a lot right now, so please keep this brief."
"Yes, Mother... err—it's about Hans..."
The queen raised her eyebrow.
"Something is wrong with him..."
After assuring her that he did not mean that his youngest brother was injured or physically ill, Felix began to describe the series of events that roused his concerns.
"...he snaps for no reason, has lied to his tutors, terrorized the servants..."
Some of this his mother was already aware of. She was the one who interviewed each tutor who came to replace the last. Each time it was hoped that the hired applicant would have the patience of a saint. But Hans's pranks never failed to drive them off. The worst Felix could recall was the second tutor—out of four now—who woke up one morning to his bedroom floor covered in honey, which had attracted flies overnight.
The queen sat in pensive silence for a moment, her green eyes fixated on some invisible point between herself and her eighth child.
"I have noticed myself that Hans is not the sweet boy he used to be," she admitted. Felix thought he saw a longing on her face. "He doesn't come running to hug me anymore. He doesn't ask me to tell him stories before bed." Then, she chuckled and waved her hand to dismiss the thought. "But you're forgetting he's growing up among twelve older brothers. You're a middle son, so you wouldn't understand, but... he probably doesn't want to be seen as weak."
Felix did his best not to roll his eyes. This wasn't about weakness. The change was too drastic for it to be that. Besides, neither he nor any of the others wanted Hans to grow up any faster than he had to.
"Even if that's the case, I've seen him bully the twins. I'm afraid if this keeps up, it will cause a rift between him and the rest of us..."
"You're not all angels either, Felix," she snapped, her eyes ablaze.
Felix immediately held his tongue. Clearly, she was growing impatient with the subject... or did she favor Hans that much?
The queen surprised him a little when she stood and walked around her desk to take his face in her hands. She placed a kiss on his forehead and said, "I'm sorry. My son... you're only looking out for Hans, I know. Promise me you always will."
It wasn't his fault that the other children avoided him. Hans had his brothers to thank for that. It didn't even bother him all that much except that his mother seemed increasingly exasperated with him. All he wanted was to pocket a few pieces of taffy and slink back off to his room unnoticed. But his mother must have been watching him, for she blocked his path to the door and sent him right back into the jaws of the party.
"This is an opportunity, dear. You need some playmates besides your brothers," she said, her firm hand on his back pushing him back into their grand hall.
Hans would have sulked if he weren't sure her eyes were on his back. What was the point in celebrating Hallowe'en? He gave a sidelong glare at the youngest children, children of the same age as him, carving ghoulish faces into turnips and potatoes. Did such things really frighten off evil spirits?
Tch. There's no such thing as evil, he thought. He hoped.
Hans couldn't help noticing all the space around him. Between his family, the servants and the guests, the hall was absolutely crammed full of people. Yet anyone who passed him seemed to leave an excessive amount of space between him and their person. He would have taken this to heart if he recognized all of them, but some were strangers—unless his brothers had gotten to them before he could even make their acquaintance.
A familiar chuckle caught his ear and he turned his head to find Samuel and Daniel with Emil, making up their usual trio. Well, if he was going to be forced to stay at the party, he might as well stick to the people he knew whether his mother liked it or not. Hopefully she would hone in on another of his siblings to pester.
The twins had their backs turned toward him as he approached, so it was Emil who first noticed him. The tenth prince trailed off and frowned, gesturing his head to alert the twins. As they turned, they scowled when they spotted Hans.
"What do you want?" Daniel asked. Samuel just looked around the rest of the room, averting eye contact with their little brother.
Hans coughed and stepped around Daniel to stand between him and Emil since Samuel clearly didn't want him near.
"Mother won't let me leave... she wants me to make friends..."
Emil sniggered at that.
Dark rage coiled in Hans's gut, but a warning look from Samuel cut Emil's laugh short. Just like that, the rage was gone. Hans took a deep breath, hoping his brothers hadn't noticed.
"So why don't you go make some friends?" Daniel asked dismissively.
"...you know why."
Emil sighed at his brother's reply. "You brought it upon yourself, you know."
Hans was worried that the rage would come back, but instead, he just felt hurt. "I know. I'm sorry. Can I just stay with you three until the party's over? Please..."
Samuel opened his mouth to object, but Daniel cut him off.
"Fine. You can join us. But we're not staying."
Hans did not miss the look of confusion on the other twin's face. Even Emil looked puzzled.
"Where are you going...? Someone will notice if we leave," Hans whispered so a servant passing with appetizers could not hear.
Samuel did not look happy about the idea, but Daniel and Emil appeared to have a silent conversation which resulted in Emil's reply.
"You want to stick with us, right?" he asked.
Hans hesitated, wondering if it was a trick question. When he nodded, Emil clapped him on the shoulder.
"Good. Then act natural and follow us to the drinks table. There's a door to the servant wing directly across. If we time it right, we can exit as people pass in front of us. We'll just linger long enough for Mother to get bored of watching us, and then we'll make our move."
Hans heard Samuel sigh. It seemed this was not the first time he was drawn into the adventures of the other two. It was not so long ago that Hans himself was part of their regular antics. But that all changed when...
"But wait. You still haven't said where we're going," he whispered, touching Daniel's arm. His heart ached when Dan instantly tore his arm away from him. "S-sorry..."
The silent pause between the four of them had Hans worrying that they'd changed their minds. But Emil suddenly crossed between them, leading the way.
"You'll see. C'mon."
The deal was simple. If Hans could spend an hour alone at the haunted cove, his brothers would let bygones be bygones and they could all just be brothers again. Months of teasing, tension and pranks against one another would be forgotten. Granted, the worst had been orchestrated by Hans himself against Samuel. It was well known among all the brothers that Samuel had a violent phobia of total darkness. When once Sam had, as a much lighter practical joke, hidden Hans's texts just before their morning lessons, which unfortunately resulted in a more severe scolding from their tutor than anticipated, Hans saw it fit to retaliate by locking Samuel in their shared closet during noon meal. Not only did the twin miss his meal, but all the brothers were about their business that afternoon, which meant Samuel was left in the small, pitch black space by himself for several hours before Daniel came looking for him and heard the crying from their room. After that, those brothers still at home began to avoid and ostracize their youngest brother.
Now it'd seemed that three of them were going to give him the chance to redeem himself. Even though a small part within him warned him not to trust his brothers, he let them row him out to the rock at the center of the cove. There they left him with a promise to return after one hour.
When he was sure that an hour had passed and they did not return, he thought at first they were just running late. Perhaps Mother was holding them prisoner at the party.
But then a second hour passed... and it grew cold out. But he'd wait just a little bit longer.
A little bit longer went by, and Hans considered swimming to the shore. After all, it didn't look that far. But Daniel had mentioned something about man-eating monsters in the water, so fear kept him rooted to the rock, staring at the little boat on the beach, so close yet so far.
He wasn't sure how much time had passed when his legs grew tired and he had to sit. He was beginning to suspect that they intended to leave him out there all night, or worse.
As he sat there, he thought of all he had put them through since Christmas. The worst of his pranks had probably been on poor Sam. But he'd ruined an innocent friendship between Peter and a girl in town by telling their mother about it. He'd stolen Daniel's knife collection, planting it under Emil's bed to see if the two would turn on each other. Of course, they did. It was a blood bath until one of the older twins intervened. Robert had caught Hans giggling just outside of the room and turned him in to their mother. But Hans made sure to get revenge by forging a letter in Robert's hand to one of the servant girls. The letter professed Robert's supposed fondness for the girl. Now, that had been awkward for everyone until the girl mentioned Robert's letter. Hans never admitted to being behind it, but he didn't have to. Robert had not said a word to him since.
No one bothered to ask him why he did these things. He wouldn't have had an answer, for he asked himself all the time.
Why?
Why would you do that?
It was the strangest thing when the darkness took over. He recalled every detail afterward, the glee at causing trouble for those close to him, the amusement when it was figured out that yet again he had outwitted them.
But later on, it would recede and he was left alone and horrified. No more was he the beloved little prince with twelve older doting brothers. Now he was a terror, a nuisance. No one wanted to be near him, for fear that they'd be his next target. Infuriatingly enough, the only one who refused to see him for what he was was the queen. No matter how many times his brothers, tutors or servants went to her with horror stories about his behavior, the queen would wave them off.
He supposed he should have been happy that her love was unconditional. Instead, he found it...annoying. Why didn't she just scold him or punish him? Instead, she would scoop him into her arms and cry over the injustice of his being the overlooked, misunderstood youngest son. A couple of times, he'd acted out and went to her himself, waiting for a tick of anger, a blink of revulsion, anything.
Perhaps there was something wrong with him. He didn't need any more of his mother's love, though. It was his brothers' love he needed.
Hans looked up, observing how far the moon had traveled overhead. He was sure now that his brothers would not return. Accepting his punishment, he felt tears sting his eyes. They frightened him at first. It had been so long since he last cried.
"Ah...!"
Pain seared across his right eye, making him clap his hand over it and yelp. His cry echoed across the cove waters as he doubled over, wincing. Something... sharp... wet... his instinct was to clamp his eyelid shut, but that just made it worse. Trembling, cringing as he reached up and had to pry his lid up, he felt his reflexes resist. He brought one shaking finger to the corner of his eye. Something pricked his skin, sticking to his finger as he brought his hand away. His hand shook violently. Dark liquid pooled over his eye, but he could see clearly with his left. A piece of... something. Glass?
He heard a woman's whisper as a blast of freezing air swept over him. Hans looked up...
A woman stood there—a woman with long silver-white hair. She looked...haunting.
"Are you a ghost?" he asked, surprised by the absence of fear. Something told him to be afraid. But she was so beautiful, how could he fear her?
The woman shook her head as she knelt before him, taking his face into her hands. Her fingers chilled him to the bone, but she was gentle as she examined his eye.
"Why are you crying?" she asked.
Hans thought about it for a moment.
"I'm alone. No one wants me around."
The ghostly woman tilted her head at that. "Is it so awful to be alone?" she asked in earnest.
"It is when you don't want to be alone," Hans told her, sniffling as he wiped his sleeve over his nose.
Then, in spite of how embarrassing it was to cry in front of a stranger, he let himself sob. The woman just sat there, not looking the least bit moved. But she was kind enough to let him cry even though she didn't know him. Part of him thought to ask how she had reached the rock. Didn't she know there were monsters in the water?
...unless she was one of those monsters?
Hans coughed and took a step away from her at that sudden thought. "Y-you're not a monster, are you?"
Something odd flickered over the woman's face. She smiled at his question and then looked immediately shocked about smiling, actually bringing her hands up to her face as though to be sure it was hers.
"No, child. At least, I won't be a monster to you."
What did that mean?
"Hold out your finger. You're hurt."
Hans looked down to the piece of silver glass poking out of his fingertip. Without any further hesitation, he reached his hand out toward her. With the care and caution of his own mother, the woman removed the piece of glass and waved her hand over his. In an instant, the cut left by the glass was gone.
The young prince turned his hand this way and that, his mouth hanging open in wonder. "How did you...?"
"Would you like to have magic like that?" she offered.
His eyes widened. "C-could I? Would you teach me?"
Again the woman smiled, though this time she looked less shocked by it. "Not now. But when you're older. You'll be stronger then."
Disappointed, the boy wrinkled his brow.
"Your eye," she said, distracting him. "Does it hurt?"
Hans nodded.
"Come here."
Having been healed by her, Hans didn't see how the woman could be a threat to him. And if she were one of the monsters from the water, she could have dragged him down under the surface by now. With that in mind, he approached her with his head held high, wanting to show her his courage.
Her eyes were an intense blue, the coldest hue he'd ever seen. They were full of time and sadness. He stood face-to-face with her now, her still kneeling before him as she reached up to touch his auburn hair.
Then, she leaned toward him and placed a quick, soft kiss upon his lips. The moment she did so, a peculiar tingling ran up from his toes to his hair. When it passed over his eye, it took the pain with it. Hans blinked and found he could see clearly through his right eye again, and when he felt with his hand, all the blood was gone.
Excited by this display of power, Hans said, "Can I go with you... please? Wherever you're going? There's nothing for me here... I'm the youngest... my brothers hate me."
She said nothing at first as she stood up, now towering over him with her silver dress billowing in the salty, chilly night breeze. Then, she shook her head.
"What is your name?"
"Hans... thirteenth prince of the Southern Isles."
"Very well, Hans... thirteenth prince of the Southern Isles. You're not strong enough yet. We will meet again when you've grown older. But I will not appear to you again until you've experienced love. I need someone who understands what I've suffered."
Hans blanched a little at the mention of love, though he had no idea what she meant about understanding what she suffered. Then, quite inexplicably, the thought of her leaving became uncomfortable.
"Can't you stay a while longer...?" he asked.
She shook her head. "There's much to be done before we meet again. But don't worry. We will meet again... and someone will be here for you shortly."
Then, abruptly, she lifted into the air. Hans yelled out, but she was out of reach within seconds, lifting up into the autumn night. He watched her fly away... and by the time she was out of sight, he saw someone with a lantern approach the boat at the shore.
It was a servant coming to fetch him. How anyone found out where to find him, Hans couldn't be sure. And of course, after the incident at the cove, Emil and the twins were in a great deal of trouble with the queen. He stopped his pranks altogether, though most of his brothers went on ignoring him. He got over that with time, focusing instead on improving himself and studying to join his father's navy. After a while, he forgot about the strange encounter at the haunted cove... or rather, he decided he'd dreamt her up.
But that icy kiss haunted him even years later.
A/N: First, thank you thank you THANK YOU for your patience! This chapter was a challenge, let me tell you. Between limited time last month because of our purchase of the house, and then moving everything, cleaning the old apartment, blah blah blah... and then having this be a HANS-centric chapter was an even greater challenge, much as I needed and wanted to do it that way. There was supposed to be an extra scene at the end here, but I left that out. Debating whether to leave it out entirely or include it in one of the other last few chapters.
And I mean that. I am building up toward the end of the story here, with plans for an epilogue or two after. Thank you to everyone who's been following and reviewing. It's been a lot of fun writing this! I'm sure you have questions, so if you leave them in a review, I will do my best to answer them in the next chapter (unless of course it's too spoilery!)
But one thing I'd like to recap from this chapter but will put this below with respect to people who don't want stuff spelled out is that...
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So yeah. Hans did not exactly tell Anna the whole story about the cove and his brothers. He does NOT have a piece of the mirror in his eye by the time he meets Anna. The mirror shard was only in his eye as a boy, basically making him act out, which was the reason for his strained relationship with his brothers. She senses one of her shards at the cove and collects it. That's what she's been doing, remember? It's strictly the Ice Maiden's kiss that's been messing with him from then on. When he first meets Anna, he's only been kissed once. When he encounters the Ice Maiden a second time at the North Mountain, that's the second kiss. This is important, so just keep it in mind.
Thanks for reading! I'll update again in 1-2 weeks and try harder to stay on schedule this time.