Chapter 7.
Elsa & Anna plus the start of Elsa's first day as Queen.
Note: Reviews are welcome.
Silence.
Anna grimaces. "I may not have read as much as you have, Elsa. But I know that."
Elsa completes Anna's sentence, "One of most important things a king does is have an heir. A male heir, if at all possible."
Both sisters nod at each other.
A pause.
A look at Kai, by Elsa. "How much time do I have?" She asks him.
Anna also looks at him.
He clears his throat, "This is the first day so being on time would be important. But, given the events of last week, I believe that most people, including an overwhelming number of Councilors, thought that you would wait until Monday. So... A few minutes, probably, would not hurt."
"See to it, Kai."
"Blame me, if you have to, Kai." Anna adds, "I'm sure that you will have to in the future, anyways. So you better try in out, now."
Kai nods and leave the room.
Elsa sighs, releases Anna's hands and leans back in her chair. "I had hoped to avoid this. Or at least, to wait a few days before we have this...this conversation."
Anna looks down at her snow-covered hands and rubs warmth into them, "Yeah. I can see that. Do you think that is wise?"
Elsa grimaces. "I do not know, Anna. Putting things off, procrastinating... is normally bad. But."
"But. This time..."
"Give me a minute to think, please." Elsa requests.
Anna replies, "Yes."
A minute later.
"I think I can talk about it, quickly, Anna. But, I do not know how...I will react to your questions." Elsa says in small voice.
"Well, that I can solve." Anna says, decisively. She stands up and pushes back her chair from the table and sits down again.
"Here," She pats her lap, "Sit here and explain."
"Huh?" Elsa's jaw drops. "Why?"
"You are not the only one that dreamed about the day we could talk, and what we would do then." Anna states as she pats her lap, again.
"Please?" She asks in a desperate voice.
Elsa slowly gets up and sits in her sister's lap.
'Do I refuse her?' Elsa thinks, 'How can I? I owe her everything. At least no one else will ever know.'
Anna's arm wrap and Elsa and draws her close. "Now tell me." She whispers in her sister's ear, a hint of laughter in her voice.
Elsa tries to giggle, then shifts so she can hug Anna.
"You, I think, were too small to remember about the first time Mother had a miscarriage." Elsa begins.
"I know that she had one when I was nine, if that is what you are talking about."
Elsa shakes her head, "No. You were...four when she had her first one."
A pause, then, Anna says as she remembers. "Those couple of weeks when she could not play with us?"
Elsa nods. "An attempt to have a son."
Anna grimaces.
A sigh and Elsa speaks in a whisper, "After I hurt you." A tight squeeze of Anna, which causes Elsa to pause for a second. "Father did help me. Or tried to, anyways. Concealing my powers and isolating us was his idea. The gloves were another. He, even, found time to play with me, at first. I was still the good girl I had to be. The perfect girl he wanted." She finishes in a whisper.
Anna hugs her.
"After, though, I became a woman and began to bleed. They tried again. That is the one that you remember. Father...after that became distant. Especially after I asked him to help me study to become a Queen. That day." She pauses as tears form and drip down her cheeks.
Anna hug becomes tighter. "There, there." She whispers softly, lovingly, into Elsa's ear.
"That day...things changed. Oh, Father was still father, but. The needs of the Kingdom started to prevent him from seeing me, and when he did find the time... Each visit was smaller and smaller. He never had time to do anything more than give me new books to read, or to introduce the rare new tutor."
Anna begins to tear up.
"Mother... She never really recovered from the shock of my hurting you, Anna. And... Gerda took over more and more of her duties." A gulp. "She never even told me about...the blood. She had Gerda do it."
Anna grins, tightly, in sympathy and says, "Same here."
"Oh... I suppose, if I was looking at it from their perspective. My, even, limited control of my powers was fading at the time. I do not know what was happening, but from the time I started to bleed, up until a couple of years ago...my powers just would go wild at times. I was just barely able to prevent them from freezing the castle. Especially, when I would have nightmares of our parents death."
"Yeah. I still have nightmares about that." Anna says into Elsa's hair. Her tears are wetting it.
"Mother's third miscarriage came when I was 15."
"Just after I became a woman." Anna whispers. "That month visiting family."
Elsa nods. "Even that fatal final trip that was her doing. She pushed for a formal visit, time away from here. So, she could be alone with Father."
"A chance for a new baby." Anna adds, thoughtfully.
Elsa says cautiously, "I think... Father had an affair... With one of the maids."
"I wish... That I could say that I'm shocked." Anna says softly. "but, that makes sense. They did seem... different when they left. I just assumed it was the trip."
Elsa nods.
"And," Anna begins to speak, slowly, "That is why you are afraid that Father hated you."
Elsa's crying increases.
"Elsa... I don't think he hated you. I just... Your powers..." Anna's voices catches as she tries to find the right words.
She plays with Elsa's hair, as she thinks, 'I can't screw this up. Say the right thing.'
She finally says, "He was not ready for. And...without a son. I... just think that he made some bad decisions." A snort of laughter. "Like I am an expert on good decisions."
Elsa hugs Anna, tighter. "That's fine, Anna."
"I think..."
"If you want to read his or mother's diaries, they will be available."
Anna nods, "Yeah. Sometime, perhaps."
Time passes as they hug each other.
A knock on the door.
"Time's up. Are you ready?" Anna asks, as she wipes her face.
Elsa wipes her face. "Yes. Actually. Talking about this...helped me a lot more than I thought it would." She breaks the hug and stands up.
Anna also stands up.
They leave hand in hand.
The door from the interior of the Castle to the Great Hall, where the throne is.
"Ready?" Queen Elsa asks Anna as they stand front of it.
She is wearing a dark blue version of her coronation gown, but with a shorter cape. 'Walking around, especially at night, with that long cape was a pain.' She thinks. Her hair, though, is still in the loose left-sided braid she adopted at the Ice Palace.
Anna, even hampered by her dress, takes a couple of quick steps and waves her arms around in excitement. "Yeah!"
Elsa quickly steps back, away from those flailing arms. She smiles, "You will go first."
Anna smiles, "I have practiced this, sister. I go first and stand to your left. Kai will be on your right."
Elsa quickly hugs her sister. "You'll do great."
Anna hugs Elsa. "So, will you."
Gerda quickly approaches from deeper in the Castle carrying a large massive gold and gem studded crown on a pillow. "Found it, finally." It has to weigh pounds.
Elsa looks at the huge crown. "Grandfather's?"
Seeing the size of that crown, Anna asks, "what about Grandmother's?"
"Used to make your mother's." Gerda replies.
Kai coughs into his hand, "Your parents crowns were lost with them, Queen Elsa."
Elsa thinks, 'Forgot about that. That tiara was new, because of that.'
She states, "I'm going to look foolish with that massive thing on my head."
"We must try." Gerda says as she places the crown on Elsa's head. Elsa is correct. Her Grandfather was a large man, she is not. It slides down her head until her ears catch it, barely.
"No Way." Anna exclaims. "You look like a child, Elsa."
Elsa removes the crown. "Not the impression I must make."
Kai states, "I do have a new, plain gold crown, sized for you, on order. The goldsmith said he would have available by late tomorrow." He coughs into his hand, "At the time I asked him, I was assuming that it would not be needed until Monday morning."
"Not a lot of help, now." Anna remarks. She brightens up and asks, "Could you make an Ice Crown. A Tiara, like you had, Elsa?"
Elsa licks her lips, "Yes. That might work. Most of the people are going to standing far enough away that they could not tell the difference."
She holds her hands together facing up. An Ice Tiara forms, looking close to the one she threw away. She tries it on. "Will this do?"
Anna, Kai and Gerda walk around her. Gerda pulls out a couple of pins, plays with Tiara and pins it into place. "Now." She remarks.
The others look at each and say, "Yes," at the same time.
"At least for today." Kai adds.
A servant gestures to Kai.
Kai states, "Your Majesties. It's time."
The Door opens. Kai nods to a guard, who stamps his pole-arm weapon on the floor, signaling the people in the Great Hall.
Queen Elsa of Arendelle's first formal session is about to begin.
Queen Elsa is sitting on her throne. Princess Anna is standing, directly, to her left.
Kai is standing to her right, but several feet in front of her.
People are standing around the room, against the walls. Watching and whispering as they look on. Many are castle servants, it is still early in the day and word that Queen Elsa is holding court has not spread widely, yet. As time passes, more and more common citizens of Arendelle slip through the open doors.
Only one member of the Council is present. The head of the fishing guild, an old man heavily bent and scarred from years at sea. His grandson is standing next to him, helping him. He watches her with suspicious eyes.
"The Captain of the Arendelle Royal Guard, Marcus Erikson. And prisoners."
Marcus Erikson, the Captain, is an older man, with grayish brown hair, a pug nose from it being broke several times, and facial scars mostly hidden under his beard. He is a solid, thick, but not a fat man, a little under 6 feet tall. Behind him are six Guardsmen, they are all manacled. The Captain's uniform and the Guardsman's are all perfect.
"Captain? What brings you before me?" Queen Elsa asks.
"The men behind me are charged with Treason, Your Majesty. They helped Hans of the Southern Isles in his attempt to kill you and Princess Anna."
A hush spreads throughout the room, then excited whispers sweep the room. Rumors about the events of the last week has spread all over the city. How the Queen handles this will answer some of those rumors.
How will the new Queen handle the men that helped capture her?
Will she be mean or merciful?
End chapter 7
Hopefully a different look at Elsa's Mother.
As far as the guards go, yes, you could see some of them at the end of the movie, but... you'll see next week.
OH, just talking about something will not fix it. It helps, a lot, sometimes. But Elsa and Anna will have this discussion in different ways, several times, before things settle out.
And if the royal protocol is different from normal... Arendelle was a small city-state with its own unique customs, Ok.
I'm trying to get some reaction from you, the readers.
Thank you for reading
jeff