Chapter One

Chapter 22: City of Fear

ANNA

The ship docked securely in the harbour under the watchful eyes of many soldiers dressed in muddy red uniforms, all bearing muskets and standing crisply at attention. She accepted help getting out of the ship even though she didn't need it, and acknowledged the soldiers who bowed at her entrance with a false smile.

Anna stole a quick glance over her shoulder and was relieved to see that her "guards" and her "assistant" were following behind closely.

A seedy looking soldier marched up to her and sketched a bow.

She noticed the two straight stripes on the shoulders of his uniform that denoted his rank of a lieutenant, and nodded.

"Welcome to the Empire, Your Majesty." The man said in English. His voice was rough and coupled with the thick Exonian accent, it made for a rather unpleasant listening experience. "Lieutenant Dolan of the First Imperial Guard, at your service." He motioned at the soldiers standing by with a cabriolet by the street. "My men and I will be escorting you to the castle to meet with Her Imperial Majesty."

"Wonderful." She smiled at him. Maybe if she did it often enough, she would be able to master the fake regal formalities that she always found insincere and detested so much. Nonetheless, she could see how it could come in handy in times like these. "I take it the Empress knows of my visit?"

"Of course. Please." Lieutenant Dolan gestured to the cabriolet that was meant for her. "Your servants will ride separately with my own men."

Anna glanced at the Warriors and nodded. To her surprise, they bowed to her and it took her a moment to register that they were keeping up appearances too. She climbed into the cabriolet and Dolan sat opposite her. Inside, she put a hand on the wooden side.

It was freshly painted over, but it was without a doubt an old cabriolet. It had probably belonged to one of the working class citizens of the kingdom who transported people around the land for a living, and after the Empire had invaded and occupied Denmark, the cabriolet among others had been gathered up by the Exonians to be used for their own means and conveniences.

She bit her lip as she thought about all the lives the Empire had affected. All their businesses, their livelihood, all stomped out because the Empress wanted to satisfy her craving for power and territory. It disgusted her. As the cabriolet passed through the city, Anna looked out of her vehicle and took in the sights, which were rather unpleasant.

The streets were generally empty, apart from a few homeless people who scurried away quickly the moment they saw the entourage approaching, while others who were looking out of their windows backed away. Anna could have sworn she noticed the fearful faces of the people before they fled out of sight.

Apparently the sight of the First Imperial soldiers had such a terrifying effect on the citizens of the occupied kingdom. As they turned a corner, Anna saw a small group of men dressed in similar outfits crowded around something at the end of the street. The cabriolet drew closer and Anna saw that they were also Imperial soldiers dressed in their muddy red uniforms, and were gathered around an elderly man who was evidently defenceless.

To her horror, she watched helplessly as the soldiers kicked viciously at the man and took turns to beat him with the butts of their muskets. As she passed them by, she could hear the laughter echoing through the empty streets as well as the impotent cries of the victim.

Further down the street she witnessed another similar event, but this time the soldiers were dragging a well-dressed aristocrat out of his home, and began stripping him of his expensive clothing. After encountering some resistance, they simply speared him with the bayonets attached to their muskets, laughing and whooping as they did so.

This was sick. Anna gritted her teeth and gripped the side of the cabriolet while trying to suppress her anger and indignation. How could anyone be this devoid of humanity?

"Is something wrong, Your Majesty?" Dolan's voice pierced through her thoughts. His tone was falsely innocent, and it made her all the more furious.

"Yes. Those people," she managed as calmly as she could. "What was their crime? They didn't do anything wrong."

"Treason." Dolan had the gall to say.

She fought down an impulse to scream. "Treason?"

"Of course. In one way or another, they act against the interest of the Empire, and our valiant Guard has no choice but to suppress their threat." Dolan answered. "They're a danger to the Empire and themselves."

Anna gripped the side of the cabriolet till her knuckles turned white, but she wasn't worried about Dolan noticing. The man was too busy admiring the handiwork of the First Imperial Guard who were marching through the streets in small groups on some kind of patrol and sowing fear wherever they went.

The situation was worse than Anna had expected. She wondered if Elsa and the rest had already seen this sort of violence in Denmark upon their arrival. It made her want to tear up in rage, seeing the helpless innocent people getting manhandled by their occupiers. She had to do something about it. But what? And how?

They soon arrived at the castle where the Empress had made her new headquarters. The entire place was heavily guarded and patrolled, with scores of soldiers patrolling the grounds in pairs, while others were armed with rifles, perched high up on vantage points around the balconies of the front entrance of the castle. No doubt the other faces of the castle were guarded too, making the entire place an impregnable fortress.

The Empress was right to be paranoid though, since Anna and the rest were in fact here to dismantle her regime. But first things first.

Accepting the hand of Lieutenant Dolan, she disembarked from the cabriolet and straightened out the creases on her formal dress. In front of her, Tracy, Will and Maui had already gotten out of their carriage, being watched closely by the Exonian soldiers.

"This way, Your Majesty." Dolan signalled to his men to escort her into the castle.

Anna and the three Warriors were brought into the grand palace, where she put on a haughty front and waved away the Exonian soldiers once they had arrived outside the doors of the royal court. They bowed and left at the command of the foreign queen.

"What now?" Maui whispered.

"Now," Anna straightened up and made sure her hair was neat. "We meet the Empress."

"Right. Always wanted to meet a tyrant." Tracy opened one of the two doors and Will opened the other.

Here goes. Anna strode into the royal court calmly, where at the other end of the room, a young woman clad in an expensive looking black dress sat on a sturdy, ornamented throne. She was being attended to by her own servants and advisors. No prizes for guessing who she was.

As Anna slowly drew nearer with her escorts, her guess was confirmed by the woman's striking red hair and distinctive appearance. It was Eleanor, the Confederation representative from Exon who was at the Summit more than a year ago. Upon noticing the arrival of her guest, the Empress said something in her native tongue and the rest of the Exonians evacuated the room promptly.

"Queen Anna of Arendelle!" The Empress switched to English in a jolly, lighthearted voice, standing to her feet and hastening to meet them in the centre of the room. Her Exonian accent was refined and was one that marked her as an upper class citizen, or in this case, the most powerful individual amongst her people. "Welcome to my Empire."

"Thank you, Your Imperial Majesty." Anna curtseyed lightly.

"Please," the Empress waved her hand nonchalantly. "Eleanor. Just as long as we're not in the presence of anyone else."

Anna took the hint. "These are my escorts." She gestured politely at Maui and Will, who bowed deeply. They did look convincing enough to be Arendellian soldiers. "And this," she gestured at Tracy who attempted to curtsey. "Is my administrative assistant."

Eleanor gave a light nod of acknowledgement, a pleasant smile - though probably fake - plastered across her face. Her green eyes were bright and eager, more so than Anna had remembered from their brief encounter at the Summit.

"We'll be fine alone, thank you." Anna said loudly enough for the Empress to hear.

"As you command, Your Majesty." Tracy said, awkwardly recovering from her curtsey. She was followed by the bows of the other two, and they left the room.

Eleanor waited till they were finally alone before she spoke, and then regarded Anna with thoughtful green eyes that were partially masked by streaks of wavy red hair. "Queen Anna. I seem to recall you had an older sister. What was her name again?"

"Elsa." Anna couldn't help but feel a little impatient. Eleanor was stalling with pleasantries, most likely on purpose.

"Ah yes, Elsa. The famous Snow Queen." There was no way Eleanor could have forgotten, so what was she playing at? "Whatever happened to Elsa, if I may ask?"

"My sister eventually grew tired and decided that it was in Arendelle's best interest to abdicate," Anna answered truthfully. "And she wanted me to take over in her place."

"I must admit, I'm a fan of your sister. I'd heard stories about her heroics with the fabled League of Sorcerers." Eleanor said. "I was there at the Summit that day, when the Confederation representatives were so vehemently against the idea of sorcery being used for good intentions."

"I remember seeing you there."

"Likewise." Eleanor kept the smile on her face. "I was shocked to hear about her abdication. She was someone I admired, but let's just keep that between us."

"Of course." Anna decided that if they were going to get anywhere with this meeting, she was going to have to be the one to push it in the direction she wanted it to go. "Thank you for having me here, Eleanor. I apologize that it has been on such short notice."

"Nonsense." Eleanor waved her hand dismissively. "It's not like I'm busy or anything. Just settling in to my new place here."

"No need to stand on ceremony. I know you're very busy running your Empire and I appreciate you taking time to have this meeting with me."

"If by running the Empire you mean expanding our territory?" Eleanor seemed to catch on. "Then yes, actually. Things are going well and we are preparing to proceed with the campaign any day now."

"Ah. Just to satisfy my curiosity," Anna continued. "Why did you choose to leave Exon to come here? Surely you trust that your general would have ensured the success of your campaign?"

"General Kane is more than capable." Eleanor kept the same wide smile on her face, and Anna wondered how she managed to do it. Her own jaw muscles hurt from keeping up the pretence. "But I thought I owed it to my people to take a more active approach and role in the expansion of the Empire. I figured it's only right that I position myself in the centre of the action."

"And aren't you afraid of getting injured in the process? War's a dangerous expedition, as I'm sure you know better than I do."

"I'm quite confident of the First Imperial Guard's ability to keep me safe. Besides, I like to be in the heat of things." Eleanor gestured Anna over to a seat by a large table in the centre of the court. "So, I'm guessing you didn't just come all the way here to inquire about my safety."

Anna laughed politely as she sat down. "Not exactly."

Author's Commentary:

Do take the time to read this, please. I think this chapter hit a little too close to home for me while I was writing it. A little bit of background about myself, I live in Singapore, one of the countries that was occupied by the Japanese during World War 2. My grandfather lived through the Japanese Occupation, and survived to recount his experiences to me, and thus was the inspiration for writing about the Empire's occupation. This might possibly be the most relatable part of the story for me, thinking of how my own flesh and blood had gone through something so horrific in the 1940s.

I hope it painted an accurate picture of how things used to be like in the past. Despite the fact that this story takes place in the 1840s and is ultimately a fantasy, it doesn't change the fact that there was still brutality, war and ruthlessness that stretched all the way through history and back to the dawn of time.

Since then, the world hasn't grown any better if I'm being honest. At the time of this writing, the news of George Floyd's death is still pretty raw and recent, which is why I'm resolving to address and touch on themes of prejudice and racism in Book 4. I believe that through stories and fiction, we can slowly change our mindsets and perceptions, being forced out of our comfort zones to tackle issues like these that are still prevalent in our society today.

Here's hoping the world never has to go through another world war. As much as you can tell by now, this story has some pretty heavy war themes, and as much as it's interesting to read, we should never forget that these things can happen and aren't just figments of our imagination.

I'll love to hear your thoughts. Do leave a review for me :)