After spending over two decades in isolation, you'd think Elsa would be happy to be around other people. Lord knew Anna was. Yet somehow, Elsa found herself sitting alone in a small, dark room. It wasn't that she enjoyed being isolated, exactly, but now the tables were turned. Now being alone was the rare commodity. Something told Elsa this would be her last chance to not be in the middle of a noisy crowd for a long while, and so she was savoring every second.
Inhale. Exhale. Go over her speech in her head. Elsa was in control. Today was going to be chaos, but she would impose order. All she had to do was think of her tasks in the simplest terms. Task one: Arrive at Pagania, show off magic for citizens. Task two: Talk politics, make sure Pagania and Arendelle have good relations. Persuade Pagania to spread the word to other nations that Arendelle's resident sorceress is completely harmless and benevolent. Task three: Leave Pagania as soon as humanly possible, return home to deal with Mary. There. Elsa had a plan, and so long as she stuck to it, nothing would go wrong.
"Your Majesty?" Elsa couldn't help but wince as a servant rapped on the door, breaking her last fleeting traces of peace. "We're pulling into port, ma'am."
Elsa took one final deep breath, sat up off her mattress, smoothed her hair, conjured up a fresh ice-dress, and exited her quarters.
The instant she emerged onto the deck, Elsa had to grab the edge of the ship to keep from fainting. There was literally not an inch of empty space from the Paganian harbor to the capital city. It made Elsa's coronation look like a tea party. She tried to do a quick estimate of the number of citizens present, but all that did was leave her dizzy.
"Stay where you are, ma'am," a nearby guard told her. "We'll have to push the crowd back before anyone can exit the ship."
"Don't bother." Elsa steadied herself, then walked to the head of the ship and raised an arm. "Let's give the people what they came to see." A beam of frost shot from her palm, zooming high above the crowd's head and solidifying into a massive bridge of ice spanning from the ship to a nearby building.
Her flock of guards, servants, and diplomats seemed a bit uneasy, but they dutifully followed their queen onto the ice-bridge. By now, Elsa liked to think of herself as pretty skilled with her powers, so the bridge was more than capable of supporting everyone's weight. She'd even thought to include a rug woven from snow to keep people from slipping. Once they reached the bridge's end, Elsa conjured up some steps leading down towards a sprawling cathedral at the head of the city. Presumably, this was where Elsa was meant to go – it was the only place where the crowd was parted, and a pair of men standing at cathedral's steps, one tall and thin, the other short and fat. Judging by the elaborate gold trimmings around their white robes, these could only be the heads of the theocracy.
Elsa arrived at ground level, followed closely by her guards. As soon as the last person was off the stairs, she unfroze all the ice with a quick flick of her wrist. Then, Elsa turned to the crowd, taking in the city. Pagania's capital was a pristine metropolis with marble buildings towering over the streets, and every third one was a church. Apparently, the Paganians' purported religious devotion was no exaggeration – Many of them were dressed in thick white robes despite the harsh sunlight.
Elsa put on a practiced smile. "It's an honor to be here," she said in a loud, clear voice.
This wasn't so bad. So what if being in the middle of an impossibly large crowd made Elsa's stomach do backflips? She was sticking to the plan. Everything would be fine. Just so long as nothing bizarre and unpredictable happened.
"Praise to our towheaded mistress of the winter!" screamed a random crowd member. In unison, every last person dropped to their knees and bowed.
"W-What?" Elsa glanced at her diplomats, but they looked just as confused as her. Something was wrong. Why would these people bow to the ruler of a foreign nation? Was this some weird Paganian custom no one had told her about?
"Brothers!" Elsa scarcely had time to ponder this before a group of white-robed men approached her guards from behind. "Have you heard the good news?" The robed men gave blinding grins as they handed out various leaflets of paper. "Here, take these informative pamphlets to help let our lady and savior into your hearts."
"What is this?" Elsa started to step towards them, but her path was blocked by the two heads of Pagania.
"We're truly blessed with your presence, my lady." The tall, thin man spoke in a deep, controlled voice and gave Elsa a quick bow. "I am the Archbishop of Pagania, and this is the High Priest." He gestured towards the fat man. The two of them pushed back their hoods. The Archbishop was gray-haired and wrinkled, and his outfit was sparse of jewelry, whereas the High Priest was middle-aged, most of his head eaten up by a bald spot, and he wore a silvery seven-pointed star pendant. "My associate and I humbly ask you to join us inside the cathedral so we may speak in private."
"Oh, o-of course." Elsa motioned for her guards to wait outside, then followed them into the church.
Arendelle's chapel was none too shabby, but it was dwarfed by Pagania's. The cathedral's interior looked like a cross between a church and an opera house, though its countless pews were currently empty, and towering above it all was a stained glass painting of a gorgeous woman. There was no mistaking who it was supposed to be. Elsa blushed and impulsively ran her hands over her hips. They couldn't really be that size, could they?
"I don't know what to say," she said truthfully. "Did- Did you make this just for me?"
"It's, uh, it's kinda complicated," said the High Priest in a bouncy-yet-scratchy voice. He traded glances with the Archbishop. "Hmm, how can we break this to you gently...?"
"Don't get me wrong, I'm flattered," said Elsa. "I'm beyond flattered... but it's too much. This is more than a warm welcome – This is lavish. It's- It's-" She gave the glass another incredulous look. "It's gigantic. It must have cost a fortune."
"Nothing the tax payers couldn't cover," said the High Priest.
"I don't feel like a visiting monarch." Elsa let out an anxious laugh. "I feel more like the centerpiece of your religion."
There was an uncomfortably long silence. The High Priest cleared his throat.
"No. No. You're joking." Elsa stepped backwards, her eyes going wide. "Tell me this is a joke."
"I assure you we're entirely sincere, my lady," said the Archbishop. "Surely you must have realized that when you revealed your powers to the public, you'd spark people's faith."
"No." Elsa's fist was clenched so hard, frost was fuming off of it. "My powers don't put me above anyone else – I refuse to believe that. I'm not a goddess."
"Oh, nice," snorted the High Priest, folding his arms, "what are you gonna do next, barge into the Vatican, march up to the Pope, and say you don't believe in Jesus?"
"Jesus told people he was the son of God!" snapped Elsa. "I, the person you're trying to worship, am telling you not to worship me!" She forced herself to take a deep breath. "Please, all I've ever wanted is to be treated like a normal person. I'm telling you, I'm not a goddess, I'm just a powerful sorceress."
"To the people of Pagania, those are the same thing," said the Archbishop. "Magic is the highest force in the universe. To us, there can be no greater person than one born with powerful magic."
Elsa rubbed her temple. "Why wasn't I told about this sooner?"
"Well, if we'd told you, you wouldn't have come here," said the High Priest.
Elsa glared at him. "How thoughtful of you."
"We find most nations don't take too kindly to our beliefs," said the Archbishop. "You'll forgive us if we exercised caution, my lady. Pagania has no grief with other religions, but Christianization never truly took root here."
"We mostly took issue with the 'monotheistic' part,'" said the High Priest. "They don't call us Pagan-ia for nothing."
"Arendelle is as Christian as the rest of Europe, of course-" The Archbishop gave Elsa a pleading look. "-but we were hoping, considering its people allow it to be ruled by such a powerful magic-user, we could form an alliance anyways."
"But do you have to worship me?" asked Elsa. "My coronation was only a couple months ago. Who did the Paganians worship before?"
"We worship anyone who holds magic," said the Archbishop, "but it's been centuries since one as powerful as yourself has visited us in person. Judging by our records, magic has been growing increasingly rare over the generations."
The High Priest bowed his head. "We wouldhave worshiped the Goddess of Healing, but tragically, before her magic could be revealed to the public, the source of it was sliced off by a terrible demon who seduced the goddess with a dark spell known as 'the smolder.'"
"When most nations heard of your eternal winter, they were terrified," the Archbishop told Elsa, "but the Paganians were enamored. A mania gripped the land. If you were to publicly discourage worship, it'd cause outrage, and, frankly, I doubt it would do much to quell your more fanatical followers." He met her eyes. "My lady, I beg you, please respect our beliefs. If you deny your divinity, people will see it as nothing but a sign that our nation doesn't have your support."
Elsa slowly looked from the bishop to the priest to the stained glass window. She stayed silent for a long while. The image of a horrified mob flashed through her head, people screaming in horror as a fountain froze before their eyes... and then Elsa pictured the endless crowd at the harbor, every last person cheering as she glided across her ice-bridge.
"Alright," she said. "Alright. I'm not going to pretend I'm a goddess, but I won't deny it, either. I'll respect your beliefs." She gave the men one last glare. "And I don't want special treatment, understand? Don't give me anything a regular visiting monarch wouldn't receive."
"Snow Goddess Elsa, your sacred offering is ready!" It was at this exact moment that a serving girl scurried down the pews. Elsa caught her out of the corner of her eye, then did a double-take. She had to consciously stop her jaw from dropping.
The servant was pushing a cart piled high with... with... It was almost too wonderful to comprehend. Chocolate cakes. Chocolate cookies. Chocolate ice cream. Chocolate fudge. Chocolate pudding. Chocolate sauce. Chocolate sauce over everything. Elsa furtively swallowed lest she start drooling on herself.
"Oh, you can throw that out," the Archbishop told the serving girl. "The offering won't be necessary anymore. In a touching display of humility, the Snow Goddess has asked to receive no special-"
"Wait!" Elsa hadn't been planning on saying that quite so loudly. The bishop, priest, and servant all turned towards her. "I, err, I..." Elsa could feel herself growing pink. "I don't see the harm in receiving some special treatment."
"More chocolate, Snow Goddess Elsa?"
"No, no, I couldn't. I- Ahh." A sigh escaped Elsa's mouth as the servant massaged the exact spot on her shoulders that'd been aching all morning while the other one set to work massaging her feet. Elsa's ice-high heels, while highly fashionable, didn't treat her soles too well. "Well, maybe one more." Elsa sat up in her incredibly comfortable lavender armchair to look at the servant hovering at her side. "Would you be so kind...?"
"Yes, Snow Goddess," said the serving girl, bowing low. "Your wish is my command."
"No, no, it's not a command!" Elsa said hurriedly. "You don't have to if you don't want to. I was just asking you politely, if you wouldn't mind, out of the goodness of your heart-"
"Did you want the ice cream or the fudge, my lady?"
"Put the ice cream over the fudge."
"Of course, my lady."
Elsa nodded contently, then closed her eyes and relaxed her muscles so she could continue to focus on how wonderful these massages felt. Elsa couldn't believe she'd actually thought today was going to be stressful! And she certainly wasn't taking advantage of these people. Elsa was the queen, after all. She had servants of her own back home that could give her this treatment if she asked for it. Pagania's servants just happened to be willing to do the same job, only more efficiently and with no paycheck and an unlimited supply of the most decadent chocolate Elsa had ever tasted. And she didn't say that lightly – Elsa had tasted her fair share of chocolate over the years. Besides, it wasn't like these servants even wanted a paycheck, right? They loved doting over Elsa. The chance to massage their godd- err, powerful sorceress made their day.
"Snow Goddess." The serving girl returned with another bowl impressively quickly. She walked to Elsa's side and held out a chocolate-covered spoon.
Elsa stared at the pure, unleaded chocolatey goodness dripping off of it. Her stomach was going to kill her for saying this, but... "You know what? Why don't we save it for later? You said there's going to be a feast in a few hours, right? I don't need to spoil my appetite."
"Yes, my lady. I'll leave it in the ice chest."
"Don't bother." Elsa waved a hand, causing a flurry cloud to appear over the bowl. "Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever eaten melted ice cream in my life." Elsa knew the Paganians worshiped magic, but she hadn't been prepared to see just how awed they were at it. Elsa didn't think she'd seen anyone so entranced by such a little snow cloud since Anna was four.
Anna. An unmistakable sensation bubbled in Elsa's chest. She'd only felt this way once before – during her self-imposed exile in her Ice Palace – but Elsa instantly recognized it: homesickness. Why hadn't Anna wanted to come with her? She'd be having the time of her life right now.
After another minute, Elsa motioned for her massagers to stop. "I'd like to rest until the feast. Thank you for everything – You've all been wonderful."
The servants bowed respectfully, then exited the chambers. Elsa, naturally, had been given the most luxurious hotel room in all of Pagania. Now that she was alone, Elsa pulled down the curtains and threw herself onto a bed that was much bigger and comfier than any bed has the right to be. Oh God, this was heaven. Elsa had thought today was going to involve arguing about peace treaties. She didn't think she'd actually be allowed to sleep!
Elsa felt immensely guilty, but it was the good kind of guilty. The splurging-on-chocolate kind of guilty. It was an incredible feeling. Elsa was beyond words with happiness. She was so happy... there was... there was no reason to be crying. No reason at all.
These people... They loved her magic. They loved her magic. All those years, this was the kind of thing Elsa had never even dared to dream about. It was surreal. It was... too much...
"Hello?" Without warning, the door swung open. Elsa barely had time to wipe her eyes before Fritz entered the suite. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt your sleep, my l- err, Elsa!" Even in the dimness, Fritz looked bright red. "I was just checking on you."
"That's perfectly fine, Fritz." Elsa smiled at him. "You're not just my servant – You're my friend."
Fritz smiled back. "Yeah..." He stood there smiling and staring at Elsa for a bit longer than he probably should have.
"Well, today's certainly been a surprise, hasn't it?" Elsa chuckled to herself. "Magic or not, I can't believe these people honestly see me as a goddess. I've always felt so human."
"Yeah. You, a goddess? That would be... ridiculous." Fritz gave a stilted laugh.
"Of course, there are some downsides." As she spoke, Elsa found herself staring off into space. "Not every country is as kind to magic as Pagania. When other nations find out I'm worshiped here, they'll probably assume I'm some sort of narcissistic dictator." She let out a sigh. "Anyways, it's been considerably nicer here than I'd expected, but I'd still like to go home as soon as possible. We'll leave tomorrow once the negotiations with Pagania have been set in stone and the crew's had time to rest."
Suddenly, Elsa's eyes flitted towards something jutting out Fritz's pants pocket. "Fritz? Is... Is that an informative pamphlet?"
Boiling hot blood pumped through every every inch of Fritz's face. "Oh, look at that!" He made a show of pulling the pamphlet out of his pocket like this was the first he'd seen of it. Elsa couldn't get a good look at it in the darkness, but it appeared to include an illustration of herself coupled with words like "peace in the afterlife" and "tax exemption." "One of those cult guys handed it to me and I was too polite to throw it away but it's really stupid and I don't believe a word of it so I'm just going to go toss it in the trash bye!"
The door closed behind him before Elsa could reply. She stared at the empty space where he'd stood a second ago. Fritz was a good kid, but sometimes Elsa wondered about him.
As soon as he was safely out of Elsa's sight, Fritz smoothed the creases in the pamphlet and carefully returned it to his pocket. Today had been the most amazing day of his life. It was like all of a sudden, the entire world made sense.