To Your Majesty the Queen,
I haven't heard from Your Majesty in over a month, and I more than likely won't be hearing from you again for a very long time, but I've taken it upon myself to make do with the pigeon post. I was going to use this blank sheet of vellum to write about how offended I was by some of your implications in the middle of April, but none of that matters at this point in time. I'm very sorry that you feel like I'm not being real with you, Your Majesty, and maybe I have been forcing myself to bite off more than I can chew, but if I have your permission to be real right now, then I want to say that you've given me the same impression five times out of ten. I feel like you do plenty that you force yourself to do on behalf of everyone else.
For one, you ignore your health. You apologize for fragile moments that make you feel more personable to me. You replace them with extravagant language and formalities despite the tear stains you leave on your letters. The fact that you're stressed out, irritated with me, unable to sleep, and angry about an abominable situation is not completely explicit all throughout your reply, but I can feel it steaming off compound predicates that look proper and polite. I'm probably overstepping my boundaries by saying this, but these are what my honest thoughts look like; no spiel and no puns. (And very little sobriety, since I'm not totally liquor-free today).
I'm not looking to guilt-trip you or make you feel like you're not talking to me the way you should be, but I think we have habits that are frighteningly similar. Somewhere down the line, those habits will have to be accepted as parts of the packages we come in. The other facets of this conversation will have to be put on the back burner because I want to talk about what I woke up to this morning. I received something that turned whatever balancing acts our worlds had very upside down. This is the physical page of the news column:
QUEEN ELSA
WRANGLES WITH PARLIAMENT
OVER CORONA
In the hour of April's first cockcrow, Queen Elsa of Arendelle shipped cartons of Nutrition Therapy across the sea for the emaciated children of Corona, "a move which cost her shippers their health," Storting members say. The sick seamen returned to the North with fevers that claimed half of the Hanseatic Wharf eftsoons. Special healthcare hospitals were quarantined and eastern medicine was delivered by Chatho and Chosŏn, something Corona has yet to see a jar of. Exotic disease specialists in Arendelle have given the outbreak a name:
"It's a lesser known ague, but Chosŏn and Chatho called it the Bovi Fever in the 30's, which is short for "bovine" and "bovidae" fever," explained Dr. Aldrik. "Grazing livestock that inhale bacterial spores are the main hosts. They start to lose offspring, get weak in the shins, lose appetites, and more. Predators and humans can naturally get infected by eating those sick animals or exposing themselves to their milk and waste. Their contact with other livestock can also cause the infection to spread like a forest fire. The situation is dire."
Other Arendellan specialists went on to say that some people don't show signs until a week later.
"Others will show them erelong," Dr. Aldrik added, "Early stages can be handled, but late and chronic ones can take four years of remissions and rebounds to nix. Arendelle caught it at an early stage. A less developed monarchy with a rural outbreak may not."
More than 70% of Arendelle City's patients have been rehabilitated whereas Corona can't even begin to utter the same. Rather than show reluctance to future contact, Queen Elsa told columnists on April 27th during her Crisis Conference that she plans on sharing inoculations with Corona Kingdom and asking for support from the East, but the continent hasn't been willing to support Corona since March. Sovereign states have decided to ignore Corona over a rumor from the North that followed the backlash King Eugene received prior to his coronation. Queen Elsa is the only one who intends on meeting with King Eugene, Coronan villagers, government officials, and famine victims to "improve the quality of life for the people of Corona" because she can't "turn a blind eye" to her cousin's homeland. As bold and beautiful as the conjuress may seem, her praiseworthy posturing will hardly bear fruits in the real world:
"Her Majesty wishes to reestablish fractured relations between Arendelle and Corona after Queen Rapunzel's state funeral, but the timing is against her," Deputy Chairman Stoltenberg argued. "A visit to a poorly quarantined country is a hazardous proposal, and it is inadvisable. There are peers in the Storting who may support her campaign, but there are others who oppose it. Her Majesty can't fight King Eugene's battles and lick his wounds for him at the expense of her own or Arendelle's."
Votes in the Storting have blocked Her Majesty from using federal funds for a month's tarriance in Corona as of May 15th. Arendelle citizens have rioted for the Storting to revise the "Spending Funds Act" clauses, but Deputy Stoltenberg says no such thing will be done until Corona has become a safe zone. No new reports or speeches have been given by Her Majesty as of late.
Before I say, do, or ruin anything else, I want to apologize from the bottom of my heart for endangering Arendelle, your sister, and you. I jeopardized every last one of my quarantine camps and my citizens on the island. My fatal mistakes are eating me alive. I can't even begin to sit here and think about how much energy the Storting is drawing out of you, but I agree with at least one thing Stoltenberg said. Put and take care of yourself first before you try to take care of anyone else.
Your very life depends on it, Elsa.
From Corona,
XXV of May, 1847
King Eugene
*Chapter Notes:
This story was written in 2017 long before Covid.