At first, Anna wasn't sure how much she was allowed to talk about Elsa's situation. But she very quickly realised that it didn't matter, as the news was spreading through the castle like wildfire. She found that a lot of the servants were abuzz with conversation about who the upcoming royal visitors would be. Some predicted princes from neighbouring kingdoms, while others thought they might be coming from farther away. From what she overheard, the kingdom of Germonia had been the first to write back to the queen's invitation.

Anna hadn't seen the princess around all that much. Elsa told her about the compromise she had made with her mother, and Anna knew just from her tone that while she agreed to it, she wasn't at all happy about it. To Anna, it looked like the princess was beginning to withdraw herself, being seen around the castle less, speaking to Anna less. Elsa had only really spoken to Honeymaren and the queen consistently over the past few days. Everything else had been stagnant.

Anna was in the secret dressing room, a foot rhythmically tapping away on the pedal of her sewing machine as she fed the end of Elsa's new coat through it. Honeymaren was bustling around in the background, helping Anna organise her fabrics which she always left in a mess. They could hear Elsa practising piano in one of the rooms above, the melodies carrying through the open windows. The first bars of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata began to fill the space.

"Poor Elsa," Honeymaren lamented, separating a stray maroon sheet from the reds. "She's practising again. She must be really upset."

"Is that what this is? I thought piano was just a regular princess thing."

Honeymaren shook her head. "King Agnarr taught her how to play. She hasn't done it much since he died. She only plays now when she's really distressed."

The song slowly began to speed up, as it was written.

"I get that Elsa doesn't wanna get married, but isn't the compromise a good thing? I've heard some terrible stories about princesses forced into marriages with men they don't even know who lead the kingdom to ruin." Anna tied off the loose bit of thread and moved on to the seam at the collar. "Has Elsa talked to you about it?"

"Not much, but I know her well enough. It's just the principle of it. Queen Iduna is forcing Elsa into this because she believes it's necessary that the kingdom has two rulers, but doing something just out of necessity hasn't worked out well for Arendelle before."

Anna's head shot up. "Before?"

"You haven't heard the story of Arendelle's lost queen?"

"No… ow!" she exclaimed when the needle caught the edge of her finger. She sucked on it, the sharp pain fading quickly. "Sounds like a campfire story."

"Elsa and I used to say it would turn into a legend one day. A lesson for people to learn from." Anna's eyes silently implored her to continue. Somewhere up above, Elsa's notes came faster, the tempo matching Anna's growing anticipation. "King Agnarr took the throne at the age of fourteen, when King Runeard died in battle. Didn't you ever stop to think why that was?"

Anna shrugged. "I guess I never thought about it. That was way before I was born." Then, Anna took a moment to think about it. "Wouldn't the queen have held the throne until he came of age? Like Queen Iduna is doing with Elsa?"

Honeymaren snapped her fingers. "Exactly. Except there was no queen."

The two of them flinched when Elsa played a wrong note and slammed her hands on the keys in frustration, the jarring clash startling them both. She then carried on playing as if nothing had happened.

Anna stared, wide-eyed. "No queen?"

"No queen," Honeymaren repeated. "When King Agnarr was a child, his mother Queen Rita disappeared in the middle of the night. Just like that. Gone."

That sounded to Anna a lot like a fairytale she heard growing up about a princess being stolen by an old woman in the dead of night. Except Queen Rita would have been a full grown woman. She couldn't have been stolen like that. "What happened?"

"The castle tried to cover it up. They said she disappeared without a trace, and that there was no hope of finding her. But that was a lie. She left a note."

There was that same clash of notes, except this time it didn't phase either of them.

"Some say it's still hidden somewhere in the archives of the royal library, but Elsa and I searched for it when we were kids. We couldn't find anything."

"Do you know what it said?"

Honeymaren nodded gravely. "Elsa heard the story from her mother once, when she was little. Since then, it's not been repeated. I think the kingdom wants it to stay buried."

Anna leaned forward, with all the attention of a child listening to a fairytale.

"The marriage was arranged, just like Elsa's could end up being. Queen Rita came from a small kingdom, and was told that marriage was necessary to secure an alliance with Arendelle. She believed it was her duty as a princess, so she agreed to marry King Runeard and become Arendelle's queen, hoping that the love would come later. But it never did. And she couldn't live the lie anymore. Not even the draw of her son was enough to get her to stay.

There was silence. Not even Elsa's playing could be heard.

"That's awful," Anna finally said, her heart heavy. It couldn't even be called a tragic romance, because there was nothing romantic at all about that story.

"King Agnarr was haunted by the loss of his mother for years," Honeymaren continued solemnly. "He spent so long without closure. He and Queen Iduna only uncovered the truth when they were teenagers, right before he was about to go through with his own arranged marriage."

That shocked the suitmaker. "We might not have had Queen Iduna as our queen?"

"Arendelle was weak after the loss of King Ruenard. A weak kingdom ruled by a young prince. We were an easy target. For that reason, he was going to be married to Princess Runa of Vassar, the strongest military kingdom in the region. But after he found out about the reason for his mother's disappearance, he refused. He was Arendelle's first ruler who married for love."

A silence fell over them. It was as if Anna had been viewing the world through frosted glass this whole time, but now she saw it through crystal. The secrets of Arendelle's royal family spread much deeper than any commoner could ever know, and now that she was being let in, she felt like she understood. Nothing was simple, not even the compromise Elsa and the queen had managed to reach.

The two women started when the key turned in the lock and the door burst open, and Anna turned to see Elsa walking in, her shoulders stiff. She locked the door behind her, having done so so many times she didn't even have to stop to remember to do it. It was muscle memory.

"Good practice then?" Honeymaren questioned, going back to her task as if she hadn't just shifted Anna's whole world with that story. Elsa grunted absently, hands digging through drawers.

Anna watched her from across the room. "What're you looking for?" she asked, her casual voice expertly masking the growing concern she was feeling for the princess.

"Something – anything – to get my mind off tomorrow." There was an almost crazed look in her eye when she turned to face the suitmaker. "The first of my many royal suitors is coming from Germonia to charm me or woo me or whatever it is suitors are supposed to do and I'm just about ready to throw myself under a reindeer stampede."

She rummaged through cupboards but was never satisfied with what she found. Eventually, she settled on a chessboard, setting up the two sides with swift precision. Anna and Honeymaren exchanged another glance.

"You don't happen to know how to play chess do you?" Honeymaren asked.

Anna shook her head. "Don't you?"

"I'm banned from playing after I tipped the board when I lost last time, so I don't know what Elsa plans to… yep, she's playing against herself."

Elsa stayed on her feet constantly, crossing between two sides of the table as she slammed chess pieces hard on the board with each move. She wasn't even registering the room around her anymore, just desperate for a distraction. Anna huffed. She hated how worked up Elsa was. Yes, she was her boss, but she was also human, someone vulnerable who was going through a tough time. And she was Anna's friend. Someone she had grown to quickly care about.

"Okay, that's enough," she declared when Elsa cursed after she killed her own queen. "You're gonna drive yourself crazy. Close your eyes."

Finally, Elsa snapped out of her anxiety-induced trance, taking in Anna's bizarre request. "What?"

"Or I guess if you wanna play fair, Honeymaren can blindfold you. Honeymaren?"

The lady in waiting perked up, unsure of what exactly Anna was planning. Anna just beckoned her expectantly with her fingers. Honeymaren looked to the princess and shrugged, getting a long scrap of cloth from one of the drawers and approaching her.

"What are you doing?" Elsa questioned, eying her suspivciously.

"Anything to keep you from thinking about you-know-who. Now stop squirming!"

Hesitantly, Elsa obeyed and the blindfold was affixed over her eyes. She then heard hushed whispers followed by a scraping sound that no doubt scratched up the hardwood floors, making her wince.

"Anna, Maren, I'm not really in the mood to–"

"Bup bup bup!" Anna interjected. "Just wait."

Elsa bit back a smile. Anticipation built inside her, but the good kind, not like the nerves she had been feeling for the past few days.

"And voilà!" Anna exclaimed, removing the blindfold from the princess' eyes with a dramatic flourish. Anna's fingers brushed against the side of her forehead in the process, but Elsa didn't even think to dwell on it. Something else commanded her attention.

The mannequin that had been behind a changing screen for the better part of a week was finally out in the open. Elsa had been banned from going back there because it displayed Anna's latest project, the first piece completed in the castle that was entirely her own work. The princess was good at following rules to a T, so her curiosity was never compelling enough to get her to peek. It was all worth it for the reveal.

"Oh wow," she breathed, voice full of awe.

The outfit was magnificent. The trousers were plain and simple, a neutral blue tone, but the rest of it truly captured Elsa's attention. A white poet shirt sat underneath a long chiffon coat. By her collar, it was blue as the evening sky, but as it approached the hem, the colour grew lighter and lighter until the base was white, material ruffled up in a particular way to make it look like foaming waves. It was lightweight. It was fashionable. It was perfect for summer.

"I took inspiration from the fjord," Anna said, voice miraculously steady. On the inside, she was incredibly stressed out. She really wanted Elsa to like it. "What do you think?"

"I love it." Elsa reached out as if in a trance, brushing the material with her fingertips. "Honeymaren? Help me get into it?" she asked with all the innocence of a child asking their parents for a sweet, eyes wide with hope but still cautiously treading. Not at all like the princess she was.

Honeymaren dropped what she was doing, immediately at Elsa's side and working the ties of her dress.

"Oh, uh, I can step out for a second," Anna offered.

"No, it's fine…" Elsa began, not wanting to trouble the suitmaker only to realise that she didn't exactly love the idea of Anna seeing her change. Especially since less than a handful of people knew about the true nature of her body. "Just… turn around please."

Anna obeyed without question, instead occupying herself by taking her hair down from its bun and retying it into two pigtails. Her fingers moved deftly, the movements coming easy. Meanwhile, Elsa felt herself transform as the binder was wound around her. She relaxed for the first time in what felt like days as Honeymaren dressed her. She couldn't even wait to secure her hair once it was done, she just bolted to the nearest mirror, grabbing Anna's attention.

The suitmaker inspected her own work, amazed to see how well it fitted. It seemed as if nothing needed to be altered, a miraculous achievement for a first try. She was pretty damn proud of herself for that.

Elsa's eyes were wide as she stared at her reflection. It didn't matter that her hair was down. She finally had a suit to call her own. Not her father's. Not her grandfather's. Well and truly her own. Honeymaren had never seen her smile so wide.

"Oh, Anna, thank you!" Elsa stopped herself from hugging her. That would be crossing the line from the conspiracy of their secret agreement to just downright inappropriate behaviour. The only staff member she really allowed herself to hug was Honeymaren, and even those were rare. Instead, she hugged her arms close to her chest, wanting to stay that way forever. "I truly love it."

"Good!" Anna grinned. "Because you're gonna be wearing it tonight."

Both their heads snapped to look at her with confused expressions. "Tonight?" Elsa questioned. "What's happening tonight?"

"There's a festival in town that I want to take you to. It goes on late, so we don't need to leave until after dark, in case you need time to get ready after supper."

"Festival?" Elsa repeated, the gears turning in her head. There were no scheduled festivals hosted by the palace. The summer solstice was long over. What was Anna talking about?

"My friends in the village told me about it! You're gonna love it!"

"Have you been to this festival?" Honeymaren asked.

"Well, no, but I still promise you'll love it!" She shot Elsa a hopeful smile. But the princess was still wary. So was Honeymaren.

"Hang on, Anna. So you want to sneak Elsa out of the castle tonight wearing that suit to a festival you haven't even been to yet? Are you sure that's the best idea?"

"Come on, guys!" Anna pestered. "It'll be a good distraction! Festivals like this will definitely take Elsa's mind off of you-know-what. And I know people who are going. It'll be safe. We'll keep it low-key. We don't even need a carriage! It's not too far so we can just take some of the horses."

Elsa looked between them. "Um…"

"And what will I be doing?" Honeymaren interrupted.

"You're our cover," Anna answered simply. "In case anyone asks questions before we're back."

Honeymaren took a deep breath. She wasn't sure about this whole plan, but her primary role in the palace was to take care of Elsa, and Anna did have a point in that the festival could distract her from what's been stressing her out. She still didn't want to be the one to make the final call though. "It's your decision, Elsa," she finally said.

All eyes were now on the princess who shifted uncomfortably on the spot. Then she caught sight of her flat chest in the mirror once more and a feeling of conviction coursed through her. "You know what? Let's do it."

Anna brightened. "Yeah?"

"Yes." She straightened her coat. "Let's sneak out to this festival."

This story is also available on AO3. I also have a Twitter where I post behind the scenes content, polls, writing updates and more. I also have a Tumblr! All of them are under the same username kalesalad003 and the links are in my bio!