Dear Eugene,

You're probably very busy with sorting out the volunteer groups in Hohendorf and Rugen right now, but I just wanted to let you know before any more time passes that my wedding is finally off once and for all. We don't have to worry about tip-toeing around Prince Aloysius anymore; his letters to the Regeringen were revealed in a press conference with King Castelló of Castellón by none other than himself. A Kiriba servant from our cabal switched around a few papers while my "fiancé" was sleeping off a hangover at his desk. The envelope she tucked it into landed in the lap of King Castelló, whose government usually supplies the Regeringen with the weapons that were used in the guerrilla attacks. He obviously wasn't too pleased with what he read, so he wrote an open letter to the public denouncing their partnership thanks to the Regeringen's abuse of it.

I didn't want my participation to be obvious to the brothers, so I didn't say anything directly about his interference with our postal system, but it turned out that I didn't have to; falconers and scouts from the Southern Isles came forward after Castelló made his statements. By the time Arendelle had gotten wind of it, I had to act disappointed and surprised. Prince Aloysius, who was already a sight, came to me with tears in his eyes. He even went as far as sobbing about how wrong he was. He even buried his face into my legs and said that he didn't want to lose me or be the person that he was fighting against, before speaking of how much he regretted ever hurting a man "just because the Evil Hand told him to."

Something in me tells me that he does need help while another part of me feels wrong for playing with his emotions like this, but I told him that it was too late for me to accept his excuses; his epiphany should've occurred to him after he had seen the families he had destroyed and not because our relationship is now in jeopardy. I'm not very good at watching anyone's face break, but I wasn't willing to pardon him for terrorizing innocent people. It took the form of two questions in the back of my mind: "How did you get like this, and who taught you that it was acceptable?"

Around the middle of August, the penalty for mail tampering was carried out by the Southern Isles due to the Crown Immunity Act. Prince Aloysius was flogged by Ragnar and imprisoned in Blåtårn Castle, which is a ruined fortress. Somehow, it makes me wonder if I fell for a red herring. Is King Ragnar the "Evil Hand" who "told Aloysius to," or were Aloysius's ramblings just ramblings since he's never proven himself to be completely sane? Aloysius still wrote apologies and poems to me from his location, but every time I got up to throw them away, I froze. Each poem felt like a coded cry for help.

As of today, something just isn't sitting right with me. I don't know if I should reexamine the brothers or just leave them alone. King Kasimir is the only one I could possibly get some answers from about the family's hierarchy, but if King Ragnar really is the controlling, puppet-pulling tyrant of the litter, then he might be the puppet master I've been looking for all along. What would you make of all this?

The thing that shocks me the most is that Prince Aloysius didn't go looking for the person who dabbled in his letters. He really believed it was some drunken accident. King Ragnar doesn't believe anything less. The woman who did the dabbling in the first place was bought along with a few others by King Castelló five days ago. It was King Castelló's apologetic way of taking out Kiriba children and mothers who had lost their husbands to the weapons Castellón had given the Southern Isles, but it's of my opinion that indentured servitude is still a prejudice practice whenever it involves discrimination.

In relation to the actual Kiribas, Arendelle can't bully the Southern Isles with war threats over the genocide. Because unilaterally declaring war is only effective when there is tax support, I don't have the means to prevent or punish actions of genocide that do not involve Arendelle, but Ragnar is already trying to save face. Losing King Castelló and foreign support took a huge toll on his kingdom's flexibility. He's currently swearing to make reparations for the Kiribas. At the moment, Arendelle is accepting refugees for the first time in history.

I want to get into that whole mess about the Bovi Fever scandal. I still have the same insiders, but I can't contact them again to see whether or not any proof turned up about the connection between Corona and the cove ships unless they leave the Southern Isles. The situation is too sticky and restrictive because I had to pull out against my better judgment; right now, Anna and I are just trying to help them get out. I hate making you wait like this, but I have to once again ask you to be patient. We'll get to the bottom of that skeleton soon enough.

My councillors are looking for another aspirant to replace Prince Aloysius, which I doubt they'll ever find. That leaves me with your question about Isolde and, if I read your older letter correctly, how you and I fall into that quintic equation. What you're not wrong about is the inverse nome. The Storting absolutely does want Arendelle's heir to be my son. Ultimately, that's not really their choice; if I don't have a son, then after my sister, Isolde is next in line for the throne whether they want to hail her or not.

However, outside of the coefficients you mentioned, her health and gender are such sensitive topics that I can't move myself to pass my burdens onto her. I definitely don't want to pass them down to you as her father; that's why I haven't spoken to you about it. Even if, by some miracle, Isolde's health gets better as she gets older, where does that leave you in this polynomial?

I guess what I'm trying to say to you is — if we chose to unite with platonic intentions due to all that we fear, would you hypothetically be able to live with that choice for the rest of your days?

From Arendelle,
VII of September, 1848
Thanking you for all your kindness and support,
Elsa