A/N: This one took a little longer, because I wanted it to look just right. Thanks to everyone who's been reading and reviewing so far. I encourage you to follow, as updates will be sporadic. (I also post updates on my progress on Tumblr occasionally.)
Chapter 3
The Truth
Dinner that evening consisted of soup, roast, and green salad, with choices of wine and water, and a promise from Elsa of leftover chocolate fondue for dessert. Anna did not partake of the wine (as Elsa seemed to think that was a very bad idea), but her sister did. While Elsa did not have very much, preferring to sip her water (How does she do that without freezing it? Anna wondered), the Coronans helped themselves, though they were polite enough to drink in moderation. Pascal amused himself by hiding next to (or eating) different foods and changing color to match.
"Hey, Elsa," Anna began, though since she was eating it sounded more like "Ewsha." Elsa glared at her, her face plainly expressing her distaste for Anna's lack of manners. Anna stopped to swallow, and said, "Sorry. Did you know we owned eight thousand salad plates?"
Her sister rolled her eyes, and said wearily, "Yes, Anna." Straightening in her seat, she tapped her glass lightly, and addressed the whole table. "Now, we have all agreed to tell our stories over dinner tonight," she began, setting her spoon down, "so why don't we start with our honored guests from Corona?"
"Of course," Eugene said, grinning. Clearing his throat dramatically, he said, "This is the story of how I died—"
"How you what?!" Anna blurted. Pascal smirked.
"Actually, the story is more about Rapunzel than about me," Eugene admitted. "It begins with the sun..."
It became clear that the Prince of Corona had a knack for storytelling. As he told Rapunzel's tale—her being kidnapped as a baby, living locked away in a tower, meeting Flynn, their adventure going to Corona to see the lanterns, and defeating the wicked Mother Gothel—Anna, Elsa, and Kristoff listened attentively, nodding, laughing ("You fought a sword-wielding horse with a frying pan?!" Anna guffawed), and tearing up where appropriate, while Rapunzel herself corrected Eugene when necessary.
When they finished, Elsa said to Rapunzel, "Well, that explains why your hair is so short. Doesn't it grow out?"
"No," Rapunzel replied. "But even if it did, I rather like it short, after eighteen years of super-long magic hair. It's lots easier to take care of."
"So, do you still have healing powers?" Elsa asked, curious.
"I don't know, but I doubt it," Rapunzel said, sadly. "The power in the hair vanished when it was cut, and the tears were probably a one-time thing. I haven't noticed any signs of it since."
"Thash too bad," Anna said around a mouthful of food, earning another glare from her sister. She swallowed and continued, "I think it'd be great to be a magical healer."
"It would be nice, true," Rapunzel said, smiling. "But it's all right. I'm enjoying life as a normal princess."
"Says the girl who still goes around the castle barefoot sometimes," Eugene said with a smirk.
"You see what I mean about him?" Rapunzel said, with a glare at Eugene. "Doesn't know how to behave around royalty."
"Is there a shoe shortage in Corona, or something?" Anna wondered.
"No." Rapunzel said firmly, blushing slightly. "Just an old habit, from living in a tower for so long."
"So your blonde hair came from having magic powers," Elsa stated, glancing at her own platinum-blonde braid.
Rapunzel seemed to understand her unasked question. "No one else in our family—that I know of, anyway—has had hair as light as mine was, and yours is. I think it's possible, Elsa, that if it weren't for your powers, you would look just like your mother, like I said before." Elsa blushed. "Not that your hair isn't lovely, cousin."
"Interesting." the blonde said, looking thoughtful. "Well, that was a lovely story," she said, then turned to her sister, and announced, "Anna, it's your turn."
"Wait, what?" the strawberry-blonde said, confused. "Where should I start?"
"Just tell us what happened after I left three nights ago, for starters," Elsa replied, poking at her food absently. "Don't leave anything out."
"All right," Anna said. Figuring that Rapunzel and Eugene might not know why Elsa left (despite having likely been there to witness it), she addressed them first, saying, "Since you two might not have heard, it all started when I got engaged to Prince Hans of the Southern Isles..."
She told them how she and Elsa had gotten into an argument, and how she pushed Elsa too far, making her lash out and reveal her powers. How she had pleaded for her to stay, but Elsa kept running, freezing the fjord and the summer with it. "I knew I had to go after her, alone, so I left Prince Hans in charge and galloped after her on my horse."
"Really, Anna?" Elsa fumed, "He was the best you could come up with to leave in charge?"
"Hey, I didn't know he was a two-faced jerk then," Anna retorted. "I don't even know his last name!"
"It's 'Westerguard', Anna," Elsa said.
"Whatever," the strawberry-blonde said dismissively. Of course Elsa would know that, she thought. She proceeded to tell how, the following day, her horse had gotten spooked, thrown her, and run off. She was left to trudge through the snow, tumble down a hill, and seek out shelter in Wandering Oaken's Trading Post.
"That was where I met Kristoff," Anna said, grinning. "I was just there to warm up and buy a winter dress—"
"You really should have prepared better, Anna..." Elsa began, but Anna kept going.
"—and he walked into the shop, completely covered in snow, and got into an argument with Oaken over the price of carrots and climbing gear."
"I told him if he wanted to talk about a supply-and-demand problem, he should know that I sell ice for a living," Kristoff said. Grimacing, he added, "Then he threw me out, bodily, when I called him a crook."
"Kristoff told me that he had seen something happening on the North Mountain," Anna recalled. ("Probably when I was building my ice palace," Elsa pointed out.) "After Oaken tossed him out, I bought the dress and his carrots and stuff, and talked him and Sven into taking me there."
"Demanded, more like," Kristoff said. "And she insisted on leaving in the middle of the night, which turned out to be a bad idea, 'cause we ran into a pack of wolves." At this, Rapunzel's and Elsa's eyes went wide as saucers.
"Are you all right? How did you get away?" Rapunzel asked them. Anna saw Elsa's fork ice over in her hand, but the blonde didn't appear to notice.
"Well," Anna began, "Kristoff wouldn't let me help fight them off, 'cause he didn't trust my judgment—"
"Getting engaged to a man you just met is not good judgment," Kristoff insisted, sharing a agreeing nod with Elsa.
"Well, you weren't wrong..." Anna said, biting her lip. "I decided to help anyway, so I swung his lute at one—"
"I liked that lute," Kristoff lamented.
"You should try a frying pan," Eugene said to Anna. "They're really effective."
"I'll get you a new lute," Anna promised Kristoff, and continued, "Kristoff got dragged off the sled, and I caught the torch he was holding, lit a blanket on fire and threw it at the wolves—"
"—almost setting me on fire," Kristoff added.
"Well, I didn't." the strawberry-blonde shot back. "That wasn't our biggest problem, though." She explained how they were headed for a cliff, so Kristoff threw her on Sven to get her across the ravine, and sacrificed his sled, almost not making it himself. "I meant what I said, you know," Anna said to Kristoff. "I'll replace it, and everything in it."
"Thanks," said Kristoff.
"Anyway... we hiked through the mountains until morning, and then we found Olaf wandering around."
"Who's Olaf?" Eugene wanted to know.
Anna smiled. "Olaf is a snowman that Elsa and I built as kids, which she brought to life," She grinned wider when she saw Eugene's horrified expression. "I was freaked out at first, too, and kicked his head off—"
"It was like an icy game of hot-potato," Kristoff told Eugene. "We tossed it back and forth, and she finally tossed it back at him, and it went on upside-down..." Eugene laughed.
"I fixed him, though," Anna pointed out, "I gave him a nose, and he told us where to find Elsa."
"We came to this steep cliff, and Anna tried to climb it without any help," Kristoff said. "She made it about six feet up."
"Not so easy, is it?" Eugene said with a smirk.
Anna glared at him. "Just because you can climb a tower bare-handed doesn't mean I can." ("It wasn't bare-handed," Rapunzel said, smirking at her husband.) Anna tucked a loose hair behind her ear and continued, "But it turned out we didn't need to climb it; there was a passage through the rock that led right to the ice palace."
"Flawless ice..." Kristoff said, a faraway look in his eyes.
"Snap out of it, Kristoff," Anna said, then added, "I'm sure Elsa can take us on a tour of the place someday."
"Yeah... sure," Elsa said, sounding not-too-sure. Anna wondered at her hesitation, but went on anyway.
"I told them to wait outside for a minute, so that's why they weren't there when I found you." Anna told Elsa. Suddenly feeling uncomfortable, she said, "Um..."
"...Yeah," the blonde said, sounding equally awkward, and Anna could see her wringing her hands in her lap nervously. For their guests' benefit, Elsa told how she had begged Anna to leave, but Anna had insisted she could help. "Anna told me about the winter, and tried to convince me to return home, but I panicked..." Elsa seemed to force the next words out, "and accidentally... f-froze her heart." Rapunzel gasped.
Elsa winced, hugging herself, but went on. "Anna claimed she was fine, but it didn't matter; I could feel the fear building inside me, the very ice around me reacting to my emotional state and... changing. I had to get her out, to keep her safe, so... I created another snowman to, uh, escort her out."
"That monster threw us out, Elsa," Anna said hotly. "I let it know that wasn't nice!"
"Yes, well, Anna," Kristoff said, "throwing a snowball at a temperamental snow monster wasn't such a great idea."
Anna went on to explain how the monster—which Olaf had apparently named Marshmallow (to Elsa's great amusement)—chased them down the North Mountain, all the way to a two-hundred foot cliff. "I tried to get us down safely," Kristoff explained, "even though Anna jumped a little too early. But Marshmallow started to pull us back up, and I hit my head on the cliff, so Anna cut us loose. Fortunately, we had a soft landing."
"I'm sorry you had to go through that, Anna, Kristoff," Elsa apologized. "It really was for your own safety; I didn't know what my powers were going to do. They certainly started to scare me... sharp icicles shooting out of the walls and ceilings of the palace."
"Well, I can't blame you for being scared," Anna admitted. "It was after we landed that my hair started turning white—well, whiter—well..." She trailed off, running a hand through her hair where, until today, there had been a streak of white in the otherwise strawberry-blonde locks. "Mama and Papa told me that I was born with that streak of white hair, though I dreamt once that I'd been kissed by a troll. But I've thought about it since the other day, and it disappeared when I thawed, so..." She looked at Elsa, her unspoken question hanging in the air.
Elsa was clearly uncomfortable talking about this subject, judging by the way she shrank in her seat, her arms around herself. "Anna, I..." She fell silent, and looked like she might cry. The temperature in the room dropped noticeably, and the light snowfall returned.
"Elsa," Kristoff spoke into the sudden silence. "I really think we should tell her."
"What? We?" Elsa said, looking shocked. "How... how do you know...?"
"Tell me what, exactly?" Anna wondered, but Kristoff ignored her question.
"I didn't figure it out until recently," Kristoff admitted, "but when I saw your parents' portraits in the castle, it sort of clicked."
"Wait, what?" Anna blurted. "You've seen our parents before? When?"
"Thirteen years ago... the night the trolls took me in." Kristoff answered. Elsa's eyes were wide, now; she seemed to finally notice the snow, and waved most of it away, though it still continued to fall.
"You were adopted by the trolls?" Elsa asked.
"That's right," Kristoff said. "Until then it had just been me and Sven, after my parents died when I was young," Elsa gave him a look of sympathy, and he continued, "I was eight, and I lost track of the ice harvesters I had been following. Sven and I were just heading through the woods with our small load of ice, when two horses galloped past us, going the opposite way. But that wasn't what got my attention."
Elsa had a far-off look on her face, as if recalling something. "You saw the trail of ice on the ground," she said finally.
"Right," Kristoff agreed. "I decided to follow the ice, wondering what could have made it. Eventually we found ourselves at the Valley of the Living Rock, and ran into a troll called Bulda, who promptly decided to adopt us."
"Why is it called the 'Valley of the Living Rock'?" Rapunzel asked, curious.
"Because," Kristoff replied, "unless they choose to reveal themselves, that's exactly what the trolls look like—rocks." He chuckled. "Anna and Olaf thought I was crazy, when I took them there last night..."
"So... that night thirteen years ago, you saw..." Elsa said quietly.
"Yes," Kristoff admitted. "I saw your parents there, and you, and little Anna." Turning back to Anna, he said, "Anna, I told you earlier that I had seen the trolls heal people before." He paused, glancing at Elsa, then continued. "What I didn't tell you was... it was you that I saw being healed."
Anna gasped. "You mean... I was kissed by a troll? I thought that was just a crazy dream!"
"Well, sort of," Kristoff said. Turning back to Elsa, and seeing the fear on her face and the death grip she had on her now-iced-over chair, he said quietly, "Elsa..." He fumbled for the right words, and came up with, "She has a right to know."
Elsa was staring at her lap, but she eventually managed to collect herself, and she took a deep breath. The light snow continued to fall, and when she looked up at Anna, she had a sad expression on her face. "Anna, you asked me why I shut you, and the whole world, out for thirteen long years," she began. "It's time that I told you the truth.
"Back when we were little, you loved my powers, and we would play in the snow, inside, fairly often. You would even wake me in the middle of the night, especially when the Northern Lights were out, dragging me out of bed to build snowmen and ice skate in the ballroom.
"On that night, thirteen years ago, we were doing just that. We built Olaf, skated around, and were having a great time. But when I was catching you as you jumped from snow pile to snow pile, I slipped and fell, and you were so high up, and..." She took a deep breath. "I panicked, and tried to catch you again, but accidentally struck you in the head with my magic, knocking you unconscious. A lock of your hair turned white where my magic hit you.
"I cried for Mama and Papa, and they threw us onto horses and took us straight to the trolls' valley. There, the troll elder ("Grand Pabbie," Kristoff supplied) told us that he could heal you, and did so, but also removed your memories of my powers, as a precaution."
"Well," Anna said, "that explains the streak, and why I don't remember your powers from before, or playing in the snow inside. But... why did you shut me out?"
"I was so afraid that I would hurt you again," Elsa answered, tears in her eyes. "Grand Pabbie told me that though my powers are beautiful, they are also very dangerous. I couldn't let it happen again." She paused, wiping a tear away. "He told me that I needed to learn how to control it, that fear would be my enemy. Papa thought that that meant I needed to hide it—conceal it—from the fear of others. But that only led to me fearing my powers, and I know now that he was wrong.
"Grand Pabbie's visions frightened Papa so much that he closed the gates and cut the staff, determined to keep my powers a secret. Of the staff remaining, only Kai and Gerda knew about them, and were trusted to keep it to themselves. Meanwhile, Papa started to teach me to control my emotions, to keep my powers in check, but they came bursting out at odd moments. That was when I started wearing gloves."
"And I thought you just had a thing about dirt," Anna joked. Elsa chuckled, then cleared her throat and continued.
"Even with the gloves, my powers still burst out, getting stronger by the day. By the time I was twelve, I wouldn't even let Mama and Papa touch me, for fear of hurting them." She sniffled a little, the tears returning, the room growing colder again. "When they were l-lost... I c-couldn't keep it in anymore. I couldn't even attend the memorial.
"You saw what happened on the fjord this afternoon—the snow suspended in the air, as if time had stopped. And that's what it felt like, and looked like, in my room, that day you came to my door again. I couldn't let you in, even though I desperately wanted to."
"You... you did?" Anna said in a small voice.
"Of course I did, Anna," Elsa said, smiling, and the room warmed slightly. "More than anything else in the world. Every minute of every day, for the last thirteen years, I wanted to open that door and play with you. But I was too afraid of hurting you, and it hurt me so m-much to ignore you or turn you away.
"I know I can never m-make up for all of those years together that we l-lost..." Elsa said, her voice shaking, "...but I promise to you this, Anna: I will never shut you out again. Ever."
At this Anna leaped from her chair into her sister's arms, crying into her shoulder. Elsa cried a bit, too, while rubbing Anna's back to soothe her.
After a few minutes, Anna's sobbing and hiccups subsided, and she pulled away, saying, "I love you, Elsa."
"I love you too, Anna," Elsa replied warmly, "and I always will."
"This is very touching, and all," Eugene spoke up, brushing at his eye furtively, as if there was something there, "but we still don't know the rest of the story. Like what brought you down from the North Mountain."
"Eugene, please," Rapunzel scolded, wiping her own tears away. "Can't you see they need a moment?"
"No, it's all right," Elsa said, still sniffling a little. "Anna needs to know what happened after she left the ice palace." Anna stood slowly and returned to her seat.
Composing herself, Elsa folded her hands in her lap. "From what little I've heard since returning—mostly from the Captain of the Guards—Prince Hans organized a search party after Anna's horse returned without her. The party consisted of Hans, Captain Rolf and a squad of his men, and the Duke of Weselton's two guards.
"Although he denies it, I strongly suspect that the duke gave his men instructions to kill me if I was found, despite Hans's orders to the contrary. When the party arrived at the ice palace early this morning, Marshmallow attacked them. The duke's guards saw me looking out the door, and managed to get by Marshmallow and charge up the stairs after me.
"I made it to the top floor before they caught up with me." The blonde fidgeted, absently smoothing her dress. "It became obvious fairly quickly that there would be no reasoning with them; they were armed with crossbows, and aiming to kill. It took a great effort to defend myself, and eventually I started to fight back.
"I almost lost myself to anger then," Elsa admitted, her gaze dropping to the table, ashamed. "I pinned one of the men to the wall with ice spikes, with one right at his throat. The other I forced with a wall of ice through the balcony door, all the way to the edge." She sighed. "If Prince Hans had not arrived to intervene at that moment, they would both be dead now. 'Don't be the monster they fear you are', he said. And he was right.
"However, the man I had pinned to the wall still had one arm free, and had his crossbow in hand, ready to fire. Hans saw it before I did, and managed to deflect the shot up to the ceiling. Unfortunately, it hit the support of the chandelier, causing it to fall straight down towards me. I only narrowly escaped being crushed or impaled by the falling ice, but I fell and was knocked out."
"I have a question," Anna spoke up, her tone flat. "Knowing what we know now, why didn't Hans just kill you then?"
"He may have tried to," Elsa said darkly. "It was awfully convenient that the crossbow bolt hit where it did, and he may have intended it to—I could have been seriously hurt, or even killed, and Hans could have passed it off as a 'tragic accident'. But he didn't know where you were, Anna, and without at least one of us alive his path to the throne was unfounded.
"I awoke in the castle dungeon, bound by a special pair of shackles that completely covered my hands, almost like gloves. I don't know where Hans found them, but I have a feeling that both they and the cell were designed to restrain me, specifically—on whose order, I can only guess. Hans came in then, and told me that you had not returned. I begged him to let me go, for without control of my powers I was still a danger to Arendelle. But he did not, and probably did not intend to, even if you were found."
"Well, we sort of took a detour," Anna admitted, referring to her absence.
"I took Anna to the Valley last night, because I thought that Grand Pabbie could help her, just as he had thirteen years ago," Kristoff said. "But it turns out that 'only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart'. His words, exactly."
"The trolls thought that this meant something like... like a true love's kiss," Anna said, reddening slightly, "and Kristoff assumed this meant I needed Hans. So he carried me on Sven all the way back to Arendelle as fast as he could go, for my hair was getting whiter by the minute.
"He left me with Kai and Gerda at the gates this morning, telling them to take me to Hans. When we found him, they left the two of us alone in the library. It was then that Hans... b-broke my heart and revealed his plans to me: his intent was to kill you, and be named a hero for saving Arendelle from the winter. As for me, he put out the fire and candles, and drew the drapes closed, locking me in the library to slowly freeze to death."
Rapunzel gasped, a look of horror and hatred on her face, not unlike what Elsa was feeling now. Even Pascal turned an angry crimson. Kristoff looked furious. The air in the room dropped about ten degrees, and the snow returned once more.
"I think I can guess what happened next," Elsa said, tone hard, her anger rising. "Hans must have told the other visiting dignitaries that I had killed you, and convinced them that I should be executed at once for treason. How he convinced them that he had that kind of authority I don't know, but I will let them hear about it tomorrow morning."
She took a deep breath, trying to rein in her anger. "I only just managed to escape the dungeon before he and the guards arrived. The room and shackles had been made so cold from my growing fear that both the shackles and a whole wall of the cell burst apart."
"That must have been quite a sight," Eugene commented, earning a glare from his wife.
"Yes, well, you can go see it for yourself if you'd like," Elsa huffed, "but don't expect me to go back down there any time soon." She went on, "I ran out onto the fjord, an enormous blizzard starting to form from my out-of-control powers."
"That was about the time that Olaf found me," Anna broke in. "Believe it or not, he can pick locks with his nose!" Everyone laughed at that, even Elsa, and Anna continued.
"Olaf started the fire again, almost burning his hand off in the process. I told him what happened, and that I didn't know what love was. He told me..." Anna's eyes misted over as she spoke. "He told me that love was putting somebody else's needs before your own—just like Kristoff had, and even you, Elsa." She sighed, biting her lip. "He made me realize that Kristoff had feelings for me, a-and I... I felt the same." Kristoff turned a bright shade of red.
"I know," he said quietly. "Sven tried to tell me that, too, after we left. That's when I saw the blizzard, and I raced back here, fearing you were in trouble."
"Olaf saw you coming," Anna continued, "and I convinced him to help me get out to the fjord to find you. We wound up having to go out through a window and slide down, as the entire castle was freezing over, with ice spikes blocking most of the corridors."
"I almost didn't make it to her," Kristoff said, "There were ships toppling over and falling apart, and one caused the ice on the fjord to crack open. Sven threw me across an icy pool, and fell in himself. He made it out okay, though."
"My body was slowly freezing over," Anna said, the pain from that experience showing on her face. "I would never have even found Kristoff if the blizzard hadn't suddenly stopped." She looked at Elsa expectantly.
"Hans managed to find me out in the storm," Elsa said bitterly, "and he lied to me, telling me that you were dead by my hand. I collapsed on the ice in grief." She choked back a sob, hugging herself. "I d-didn't want to go on after that, and made no move to stop him when I heard him draw his sword, moving in for the kill.
"But then you saved me," Elsa said, her eyes tearing up again, "And by sacrificing yourself for me, freezing solid so that Hans couldn't reach me, you thawed your frozen heart." Anna was smiling, tears in her eyes as well. Rapunzel and Eugene were both dabbing at their eyes, and Kristoff wasn't far from it.
"Olaf echoed what Pabbie told you—that an act of true love will thaw a frozen heart—and it made me realize that love is the key to controlling my powers." Elsa smiled, illustrating by gathering the snow and ice that had accumulated in the dining room into a large snowflake, and dispersing it. "I thawed the winter, and gave Olaf a little flurry cloud so he wouldn't melt."
"And then I punched that jerk face Hans into the fjord! Yah!" Anna said, mimicking the sharp right hook she gave the prince, and almost catching Kristoff in the face.
"Whoa, whoa, feisty pants. Calm down," Kristoff told her, holding his hands up to protect himself.
"He's locked in a cold cell below, for now," Elsa said, then smirked and added, "Maybe your marring of his pretty boy face will teach him a lesson."
Anna grinned. "I hope so. And I hope we never have to see him again."
"What will you do with him?" asked Rapunzel.
"I think the wisest thing to do would be to send him home, and let his father and brothers judge his actions," Elsa replied. "I have every right to have him tried and executed for what he has done, but I am not a monster. I must show him that I am capable of mercy, unlike him."
"What about the Duke of Weselton?" Eugene asked.
"He is being confined to a guest room for the moment," Elsa said, "and as soon as his ship is ready to leave, he and his men will be sent back to Weselton, where his duchy can deal with them."
Elsa looked around; their dinner had been half-finished or forgotten during the storytelling, even Anna's. "Well, I'm sorry that took so long," she said.
"You did warn us that you had a lot to catch up on," Rapunzel said. "And we're glad that you all made it through this okay."
"It's been a rough four days," Elsa agreed, "and as such, I believe we should all get some much-needed rest." She covered an unqueenly yawn with her hand, and added, "Tomorrow, I will decide what the Council and the people of Arendelle should be told about this incident."
"All right," Anna said. Sharing a look with her sister, she said, "Elsa... if you want company..."
"Don't worry, Anna," Elsa said, understanding. "My door will always be open to you." Her sister once again engulfed her in a hug.
"Thanks, Elsa," Anna said into her sister's shoulder, then pulled back and said to the others, "Good night, everyone. See you in the morning." She and Elsa left the dining room together.
A/N: And this proves that dinner and exposition don't go well together: they forget to eat! XD
–This whole dinner conversation between Anna, Elsa, and Kristoff (the Coronans were added later) leading up to the reveal of the ballroom accident to Anna was, in the beginning, the entire basis for writing this story. I know; many before me have done something similar, and some undoubtedly better than I have. I just wanted to give it a shot, in my own style—the whole scene had sort of been playing out in my mind for weeks, and I felt the need to write it down.
–I originally had this chapter split into two, but decided to combine it again when I did revisions; thus, it is at the moment the longest chapter by far, at 5,009 words. O.o
–I unconsciously wrote the first part in Anna's POV, and the second part in Elsa's (which is what I wanted anyway); when I realized this, I had to go back and fix a few things in both parts, so the POVs stay consistent. I hope the POV switch isn't too awkward.
–What sort of foods and beverages are they supposed to have? Food isn't too hard—the krumkake dessert probably deserves a mention somewhere—but as for drinks I'm clueless. I mean, they probably have tea (and hot chocolate, obviously), but those don't strike me as dinner-type drinks. I'm not sure about glögg (a kind of mulled wine).
–The end of Anna's POV still makes me tear up when I re-read it. I guess that means I did it right...
Next chapter: bad dreams and bribery!