As she walked outside her lodgings the familiar cold air hit. Even if the rest of her body had to deal with the chill, one advantage of her scarring was that her face was largely unaffected by the weather. After the healers had done their work it never physically gave her any trouble at all. The ice had somehow fused with her biology so even in the rare encounters with warm conditions, the scarring remained unaffected, if it were less visible it would be advantageous.
She strode off at a quick pace without looking back for Hans. The faster she got more of whatever that Tavern called a drink, the better. The wind was getting stronger and started to blow the snow off the top of the surrounding buildings into her. The accumulating moisture caused her armour to glitter slightly, accentuating the patterns carved onto the breastplate. When she first started out she knew the imperial insignia could lose her a lot of work, so as a pass-time she carved elaborate patterns around it in an attempt to hide its true nature. She was still naively hopeful back then that she could maintain some youthful charm in her life, the artwork allowing her to keep up a creative aspect. She had long since given up on it, now she trudged through the snow with no intention other than to get out of her own head.
"I found a spare key lying around and locked the house's door," Hans said, he was breathing slightly heavily as he had to run to catch up with her.
"There's nothing in there of value anyway," she said. The only things she needed to look after were the sword currently in its sheath, the shield mounted on her back and the armour she was wearing. The shield was just as high-quality and sturdy as her armour which was forged back in her royal days. She learned from the veteran mercenaries in her travels that the key to staying alive was a strong defence. People who focused primarily on attack often did not last long. She set aside a bit of money on each job so she could invest in a custom-made shield out of the finest materials a blacksmith could get hold of. On the other hand her weapon was a standard short-sword, it did the job and she did not care enough to put the same effort into saving for anything of higher quality. She did not always make a point of having them with her at all times but this was a precaution in case the man she attacked wanted to go for round two.
"Can I ask you something," Hans said, he had caught up now and was keeping pace.
"If it's a question about how I feel about all this then you won't get a word until at least another four pints," she said. Drunk Anna would either be happier to be emotional or just outright attack Hans, either was fine with her.
"I'll bear that in mind, but what I wanted to ask you about was your sister. How she became what she is today, I mean fear is one thing but I never could have imagined how far she was willing to go," he said.
She sighed, "Olaf and Sven died when Weselton first attacked, two of the small group she knew well died just after she let herself back into the world. "
"The snowman and the Reindeer?" Hans said.
"Yes the snowman and the reindeer," she said in a tone to discourage Hans' obvious scepticism.
"A flaming catapult projectile melted Olaf after impact and a wayward crossbow bolt hit Sven, having those close to her die so suddenly might have triggered something in her, or she regressed. Over the years Elsa became…"she stopped, unwilling to finish this train of thought and unsure of how to truly describe what had become of her sister.
"It's okay," Hans said, putting his hand on her shoulder.
"No, it's all the past now. She is what she is and there's nothing we can do about it" she said shrugging off Hans' hand and with a reinvigorated determination to get to their destination.
When they reached it they saw the man she had attacked lying on the ground outside, he was still out cold with red dots of snow around his hand. Someone had at least bothered to wrap up the wound. Evidently management's solution for the mess was to just chuck it out the door. Anna stepped over the unconscious man without a moment's hesitation to get inside.
"Is he going to be alright?" Hans said
"He'll live," she said merrily swinging open the door. She stopped in her tracks as inside talking to the tavern's owner was an imperial officer with two ice warriors in tow. Any human guards became officers by default to manage the ever-increasing number of ice based demons that made up Arendelle's forces. Ice warriors were an intimidating sight to most; icy spikes protrude from their torsos and their piercing red eyes could unsettle even the most experienced fighters. Warriors tended to vary in size a lot but these two had huge sharp pointed icicles for arms and stood at seven foot, dwarfing the officer between them.
"You can't just leave someone outside like that," the officer said.
"An imp officer showing concern for others? That's a good one, got any more?" the tavern owner said, being difficult for the imperial authorities was one of the only thrills left these days.
"He could be dead for all I care but it's an offense to the empire to have litter lying around like that, especially so close to our capital. There are standards we have to maintain," the officer said.
"Yes can't have people like us messing up your glorious cities now can we?" the tavern owner said as he mockingly performed a bow, once he raised his head back up he spotted Anna frozen to the spot in the doorway.
"Ask her to take him out back, she was the one that attacked him. All we did was drag him outside so he didn't get blood on the bar or something," the tavern owner said.
The officer turned, when he saw her he let out very slight chuckle.
"So it was you was it?" he said approaching her, ice warriors in tow.
"I didn't expect someone like you to be in with a crowd like this." He then waited for a response. All she did to respond was look at him with an angry expression on her face. She was not sure what else to do. Her carelessness had been punished so quickly by this officer showing up and recognising her that she was stuck in a difficult position.
"Not feeling talkative eh?" the officer said. He turned around and addressed everyone in the tavern. "Everyone else leave," he said.
A few patrons mouthed off about how that was never going to happen and how he expected to enforce this when there was only three of them and a whole tavern willing to fight.
"There's three of us now, don't do as I say and you'll get to face a whole contingent of these two's friends," he said pointing back at his warriors. This was met by silence across the entire room; the patrons were eyeing each other to see if someone would make the first move. After a few seconds the owner broke the tension.
"Fine everyone out, I don't want to be the empire's next conquest," he said.
Imperial officers did no favours for the empire's now practically non-existent popularity amongst the peasantry. This officer was actually relatively tame compared to what she had heard of others. Most would have jumped straight to the part where a contingent of warriors would wreck the place.
"And take that trash lying out on the street with you," the officer said as they all filed out. Hans had stayed put by Anna's side the whole time.
"You need to leave too pretty boy," the officer said.
"He's with me," Anna was not ready to see the last of Hans just yet .
"Happy now?" the owner said as he moved to clear up for the night.
"No, you leave us be as well," the officer said.
"This is where I live," the owner said.
"Well go check stock out back. I won't ask again," the officer said
The owner mumbled inaudibly as he grudgingly made himself scarce, despite all the big talk in this place no-one really wanted to mess with Arendelle.
"So I'm on my way back to the capital and spot that man outside. I thought it would be just a routine reminder to behave, maybe fine the place. Then in walks the traitorous princess herself," the officer said, his smug satisfaction was so much worse than anything Hans had ever managed.
"What's your game?" Hans asked as he must have been less content with Anna's silent strategy.
"No game, it was a decree from the Empress to all officers that this situation needs to be handled in a delicate fashion," the officer said.
"I'm not going with you," she said, she doubted it would make much of a difference but wanted to stall just a little bit longer.
"UnfortunatelyI don't have a choice, if it were up me I'd execute you on the spot. Running from Arendelle, turning our own against each other in your cowardice," he said.
Not all Imperial guards were blindly devoted to Elsa's will. More than one of them rushed to defend Anna when she made her escape four years ago. A snow-golem was her last hurdle to freedom. It had managed to strike her down with one of its claws; she was helpless as what was now her facial scarring started to set in. It was too excruciating to immediately carry on, if it were not for the intervention of one of the guardsmen staving off this attacker she would never have gotten the time to recover and get away through the series of secret tunnels Elsa had put in place. She liked to think there were still some good men left but had cast it from her mind as everyone who helped her that day had probably been executed for treason.
"You're only loyal because you get to live in your ivory towers whilst the rest of us suffer, Arendelle is toxic to every land it touches," Hans said.
The anger this caused the officer diverted his attention and subsequently his warriors enough for Anna to make her move. The whole time the officer had been talking with the patrons and now with them she had subtly shifted her position and stance to be ready to attack at a moment's notice. She dashed forward and hacked at one of the warrior's waists, it was a strong enough strike to cut it in half. The two halves of the body crashed to floor and she stamped on its head to prevent any unwarranted attacks from the legless warrior, breaking the head was one of the few ways to stop these things for good. As she did this she unmounted the shield from her back and faced the remaining two adversaries.
"Stop her," the officer blurted out in disbelief, stepping back to allow the warrior to protect him. No one ever suspected just how quickly she could switch from zero to lethal. She bashed the flat edge of her sword on the front of her shield a couple of times, goading the warrior to attack first. It took the bait and swung at her, a quick parry with her sword set it off balance allowing Anna to set her feet and put all her strength into striking the monster hard with her shield. It shattered from the impact, sending shards flying across the tavern. The ice based beasts were weak if you knew how to attack them. Any hope the officer had to regain his composure was dashed when both of his guards had been dispatched so quickly, like many of the officers he had gotten lazy over the years. Why fight or keep up training when you can get the ice warriors to do it for you. He drew his sword nonetheless, it was ornate and more for show than dealing with the likes of Anna's armaments.
"You think that'll stop me taking you in?" the officer said, however the fearful tone in his voice and shaking sword-hand revealed this as the empty threat it was.
"In this situation I'd advise against annoying her further," Hans said. He had just stood back, happy to have watched the whole thing happen without having to expend any effort.
"For your own sake you can walk out and forget any of this happened," Anna said.
"I won't do that, I can't do that," the officer said with a surprising amount of confidence considering his situation.
"I was hoping you'd say that," Anna smirked as she lunged forward, the officer's lack of combat practice meant it was over quickly. The scattered remains, icy shards and the now dead officer littered the tavern. The commotion had not escaped the attention of the owner who had come from out from behind the bar.
"Oh this isn't good," he said as he saw the aftermath of the fighting, a dead officer in his tavern would not be good for his business or health.
"You didn't hear anything that was said did you?" Anna asked.
"What? Erm, no." he replied, Anna knew that an armoured woman with blood on her sword was someone you wanted to appease.
"I'll clean this all up and stay quiet I promise," he said.
"You don't have to lie for me, if they question you just tell them the truth of what you saw," she said sheathing her sword. She was not willing for this man to face imperial wrath on her behalf.
"Thank you I guess, I honestly didn't hear what caused this but seeing that smug imp dead is enough for me to owe you one," he said.
"Just don't do anything stupid that would bring even more trouble on your head," she said.
She gestured to Hans she was leaving; as they stepped out she saw the man was still on the floor. None of the other patrons had bothered to move him.
"We need to leave this place," she said.
"You know, I think I know some people that can help you lay low," Hans said.
"Shut up Hans," Anna said.