.

"Impatient and restless, but simultaneously exhausted and fragile.
The challenge lies in knowing how to bring this sort of day to a close."

― Alain de Botton

༺ ❆ ༻

Captain Hitler and Queen Elsa left the infirmary at noon. To the captain's glee, Queen Elsa's already delicate constitution had degraded. The head she laid against the window's jamb bobbed and rolled about as the carriage bounced, leading him to believe that she was either fading or losing her false front. How and when to get her alone bedeviled him now. He took a stab at asking her to grace him with her presence at daybreak, but she declined.

What she did promise to cede was one of her apartments. His "valiant men" would be rewarded with the same comforts, she assured, unaware of the trap that such an arrangement would set. After he thanked her for her naivete, she coggled out of the coach and into the arms of a page. The lad's heroics were turned down by her pride, but he and four others accompanied her to the castle's portico regardless. The captain thereupon shadowed her to the staircases, where he saw the tail of her cloak slither behind the door post of a room on the upper level.

"That must be her boudoir," he gathered.

"Actually, Captain,"―Kai appeared behind him with the key to his own bedchamber―"that, would be Princess Anna's."

With her house shoes still hanging off her heels, Princess Anna's body was perpendicularly stretched across her bed like a wooden plank on a table. A tottery hand reached out to slip the blonde streak behind her ear and twirl it into a corkscrew curl. Anna's face rolled out of the cheek print on her mattress to smile dopily at its fiddler. The double images of two Elsas meeting and separating from their equator slowly merged into one.

Anna sucked in a breath, turning on her voice box to scream―"Omigosh I'm gonna be LATE!"―but it conked out the second she saw the shape her sister was in.

To call Elsa sick would've been an understatement. She was drenched, powerless, and teetering towards collapse.

"...El―sa," Anna whispered. She snapped out of her trance to sit on her knees and catch the tilting queen. "Elsa, what happened to you?! Why're you―..."

The rising and falling of Elsa's chest was rapider than an overheated bird's, but what addled the princess more was the fact that she was too tired to open her eyes, dewily shine them up at her, and rasp out an excuse for her self-negligence.

"Alright, that's it. This isn't healthy anymore." Anna's frenzy converted into anger. "You need to rest." She towed her sister into the bed.

Elsa lied on the pile of pink pillows in a starfish position. After five seconds, she bent her knee and arm to sit up. "I have ― mmpf ― something important that I need to tell you first―"

"Later." Anna grabbed her shoulders to gently drive her back down.

"Anna, you don't under-stand. It's about the S―"

"Which I'm sure is doing just fine." Anna thumbed off Elsa's heels and sat a bowl of rosewater on her nightstand. "Elsa, this is too much; you get sick for four days three times a year because you get to a point where everything hits you all at once, and now you've reached your breaking point." She squeezed a rag, spanked it out, and then roughly patted down Elsa's skin. "You skimp out on sleep, you put off eating..." Anna snatched her chin and scrubbed away her lipstick, which Elsa reacted to by curling her lips under her molars and squeezing one eye shut. "You're practically killing yourself―"

"Awnmah...!" Elsa's rejoinder was stifled behind the cloth smothering her mouth.

"―day in and day out, but do you ever listen to me when I tell you to tell me when you need help? No, because you're un-be-lievably stubborn and choose to do loads of stuff behind my back. You're not a Shire horse, for crying out loud! All that hard work and planning you did for almost two whole two months! Have you even eaten since yesterday morning?!"

Elsa sighed before pulling Anna's hand down to glare at her through bead curtains of sweat. "Anna―"

"Hold that thought!" Anna rocketed off the bed to wrench her door open. "GERDA~?!"

Groaning at the shrill racket, Elsa sank further under the anthill of blankets to rub her temples.

"Could you whip up a bowl of soul for Elsa? The one mom used to make whenever I had REALLY bad flues? Oh, and that rose root from Glittertind would be great! Thank you so much!" Anna shut the door, huffed, and then stomped back to the bed with balled fists. "H'okay, now I'm going to tell Eugene that you're not feeling well and that you can't have brunch, lunch, or dinner with him today...or ever―"

"Anna." Elsa used that rocky tone she loved to milk whenever she was losing her patience with her.

"What?"

"Eugene isn't coming."

Anna stopped to gawk. "...Wait...what?!" She climbed aboard the bed and folded her legs with her palms on her knees as she leaned into Elsa. "You're...joking, right?"

Elsa bowed her head and shook it sadly, cradling her elbows like she did when she wanted to disappear.

"Well, why not?" Anna groused, flying into another rage.

"There was a protest in Corona..."

"A protest?"

"Over the union," she suffixed at an almost inaudible volume. "It left Eugene and my commissioners injured."

"Oh, no..." Anna paled. "...I-Is everyone alright?"

"They're recovering now. They were brought here by Corona's infantrymen on a Coronan vessel, but Eugene hit his head after he fell off his horse, so he stayed behind." Elsa explained it like she was the one who had been lanced.

"Eugene..." Anna sponged all of this up until her head was too heavy to hold everything, but as her horror-stricken eyes lowered to her toes, she was unnerved by another uphill battle for Elsa and Eugene. "What's going to happen to the...balls and...the banquets and the municipality visits and wedding rehearsals you two were supposed to attend together? Does this mean everything you arranged all by yourself is going to be cancelled?"

"I have to cancel them," she rued. "The Captain of Corona delivered a message from Lord Constantine that said they didn't know when they'd be able to sail to Arendelle."

"But that's not the same thing as not being able to make it before the wedding's date, right?"

"I can't keep guests hostage here to play the waiting game, Anna. We have to cancel it."

Anna's heart went out to her aggrieved sister. She knew she didn't want to marry Eugene; she didn't want her to marry him, either. She'd much rather prefer her marrying someone she loved, but Elsa said there was a lot of good that would come out of it―good that had cost time and money to procure, neither of which she had more to give, and both of which she had allowed to corrode her.

The princess rechanneled her umbrage from the marriage to the Brotherhood. "Well, what about these goons who attacked everyone?"

"The commissioners and Captain Hitler told me they were behind bars, but I want more information on them."

"Like what?" Anna wormed under the covers with Elsa and began unbraiding her sister's knotted plait.

"Like who their providers are, for one. Minister Morgenstierne said our men found matchlock guns and calivers in Corona's old oubliettes. The wardens don't use them anymore because Rapunzel and Eugene outlawed them. I remember Eugene telling me that the mural tower was destroyed during the invasion, so it's possible that no one is patrolling its underground oubliette, but―"

"Woah, what? Wait, hang on! Since when did Corona even have firearms?! Only the Southern Isles and all those other countries they'd trade that stuff with use them, like Weselton, Norrlind, Bolungar, and ―...wait. Yer' not thinking―"

"I was," Elsa repined. "That's why I wanted to leave as soon as possible. One of the elders in the People's Council betrayed Eugene for the Southern Isles in the past, but Baldor might be right about them hoarding what Ragnar had left behind. It's the more likely option, though I still want to confront the rebels who are in jail along with Eugene's castle servants."

This worsened Anna's trepidation. "Did you ask the captain about all this first?"

"Judging by what I saw of his character, I had a feeling he would say he didn't know anything about it."

"Still, now is the time to grill them more than ever. Want me to grill 'im for you?"

"The people I want to grill are Eugene and his councillors, not his captains."

"I highly doubt Eugene is mixed up in this."

"I doubt that as well, but it's possible that he hasn't been as open with me as I thought."

"What makes you say that?"

"...I'll go into detail another time, Anna." Elsa inhaled and exhaled shudderingly, turning her head forward and resting her eyes. Their hoods were so dry that the purple powder caking them had cracks. "As of right now, Baldor is asking the Storting to consider rescheduling the embargo's annulment. Once that happens, I'll go to Corona immediately."

"Ohhh no. Not like this, you aren't."

Elsa raised her eyebrows again, but she didn't open her eyes. "Anna, I don't have the energy to argue with you about this."

"Which is why we'll argue about it later. You just focus on getting better for now, because you can't go to Corona as weak as you are today. It won't help Eugene or the kingdom; it'll just make you a target."

Elsa unhooded her eyes to the vanity table at the end of the bed. Their white nooks were shiny and red, indicating that there was some self-sabotaging activity going on in her brain.

"...What else is wrong besides that?" Anna gathered the strands that were pasted to Elsa's sweaty throat.

The queen continued to have a staring contest with the table. "I haven't done enough...and he knows that," she mumbled, the saliva in her mouth sticking to her teeth while she talked. Her breathing was irregular. "He's always known that, but he's been masking his resentment this entire time. Now he has an outlet for it."

Anna had no idea what induced her to say this or what Eugene did to make her think it, but she wasn't going to accept it. "Elsa, no." She cupped her sister's face and snapped it into her direction, accidentally squeezing Elsa's cheeks to where her lips were puckered into a beak. "Eugene has always, always, always been more than grateful for your support, and not just the financial support, but the emotional support, too. You gave Corona your everything―"

Elsa's eyebrows pushed back the river of wrinkles on her forehead as her sandwiched lips moved to the mutter: "Except me."

"...What'd you mean?" Anna didn't stop Elsa when she removed her palms and looked down defeatedly.

"I wasn't there." She paused. "...Again."

Anna understood what the throaty "again" referred to. "This is completely different. You didn't have a choice―"

"Before the invasion happened; before the embargo; before the funeral, I wasn't always physically there, and if Eugene ever felt wary of me in the past because of that, then I could understand why he would distrust me now without a second thought―"

"He doesn't," Anna retaliated.

"You don't know that he doesn't―"

"You don't know that he does."

"Anna, please."

"I read some of your letters―"

"Wait a second. You did what?"

Anna made a sorry face. "Just a couple." She reverted back to her serious angle. "But he did nothing but praise you for how much you helped, so there's no way he would change his opinion of you that fast. You got to know each other too well―"

"We only got to know what we chose to show one another."

This sounded oddly self-incriminating, and also a little disturbing if it applied to Elsa's participation, but Anna shelved the soliloquy. "From what I read, you both really cared about each other, and none of that looked selective."

"Anna, exactly how much did you read?"

"Just enough to see that what you're saying right now isn't true."

Elsa sighed deeply, adjusting her head on the pillow to turn away and close her eyes again.

"He was completely torn up when you got sick over Corona the first time, especially when that virus hit you. He blamed himself for stressing you out and making you spend so much money. He went totally berserk when other all those people tried to flush your reputation down the toilet just because you were still helping him after the thief rumors got out. Sure, you guys might've had some road bumps here and there, but I thought he was really starting to respect you. Even if he doesn't feel that way about you anymore, he wouldn't throw you to the wolves after everything you've done for Corona.

Unless, of course, he's a total idiot who doesn't know what's good for him, which would totally warrant getting smacked upside the head once or twice, preferably by me, if you don't mind―...Elsa?" Anna's smile slumped into an "o" when she realized Elsa wasn't listening. "El―sa..." The redhead turned her sister's chin with the tip of her finger, and saw that Elsa was asleep.

As heavenly as the vision was―especially with her pretty platinum hair splayed out around her―her forehead was still pleated by worry lines.

'Even in sleep, she worries.' Anna pulled the covers up to Elsa's throat and pecked her temple. "You just rest..." She sprang off the mattress to ransack her closet for an iconic dress. "Aw'righty then! Time to put the big gloves on―...or, mittens. Are these gloves or mittens...? Gloves."

Anna's first mission was to sniff out Kristoff, but it was next to impossible to pick up on his scent in the fish market, something that was usually far easier to do. "Um, 'cuse me! Yes, hi! Comin' through! I jus' ― need to get wiggle on through here~ and ― OH! Fredmund!" She waved her arms to the young man on the dock. "Hey! Over here!"

He flicked up his cap and blinked at her. "Princess Anna...? Princess Anna! Ahoy, there!" He used his hat to wave back.

Fredmund was one of Elsa's youngest suitors (*). At bed-wetting age, he had lavished her with gifts (*) and kindness in hopes of winning her twenty-two year old heart, but asking for her hand in marriage was turned down with an invitation to be her ice-sculpting apprentice instead (*). Now a young captain, he helped with Corona's food shipments as his way of proving his loyalty to Elsa. He had also aided her in getting one of her snowgies over the border whenever the pigeon post closed down for winter after the embargo, so he was nifty in a pinch.

'Hopelessly in love, but an all around swell guy.'

"What're you doing out so early?" Fredmund teased puckishly.

Anna jogged onto the pier and dropped her hands on her knees, panting. "I was ― just ― gonna ― whew, hang on a sec' ― gotta-catch-my-breath..." Her head finally shot up. "Have you ― seen Kristoff anywhere? He stayed ― with his friends ― in Hardanger all December through February for harvest season, but he was s'pposed ta' be back by this morning."

Fredmund helped her stand up. "Haven't caught a glimpse of him yet, but I'll keep an eye out."

"Awgh! UN-be-LIEVE-able! Where is that big goof? I told him not to be late! ...Well...h'okay, thanks―"

"Um! Before you go, I just wanted to ask how Queen Elsa was doing?" He rubbed his throat. "I haven't really seen her since November, so I was wondering if...maybe I could see her sometime this evening? I mean, I know she's going through a rough patch with King Eugene and all this parliament stuff, but..."

Freddy's lovelorn face ripped Anna's heart. "She's..."―the princess scavenged for the words―"r-resting. She's resting. It's been...a really long day for her, so I don't think meeting up is a good idea, but I'm sure she'll be happy to see you another day."

Had he been a dog, his ears probably would've drooped. "Okay. That's understandable."

"But...thanks again for all your help." Anna put a caring hand on his shoulder, trying to smile at his cheek. "I promise to come visit you and your mom soon, okay?"

He looked at her and smiled joylessly. "She'd like that."

"Uh, oh, and by the way, just ― wondering, but...do you still have a healthy appetite for defying corrupt politicians by some slim chance?"

"Defying corrupt politicians...?"

"Yeah, you know, like ― helping your favorite princess in the whole wide world smuggle herself into Corona with your cargo?"

His eyes enlarged.

'Evidently not.'

"I'd...love to, Your Highness, but we're not supposed to be setting sail for Corona with any food until the morning after tomorrow. Those rebels really did a number on Arendelle's ships. It wouldn't be wise for you to leave with us."

Anna quailed. "They attacked the ships..?"

She gleaned from Fredmund the details of the attack in addition to the hate speeches of its assailants. His story explained why more people were huddling around gossipers than they were buying fish. Because the taxes were inflated by Arendelle's enmeshment with Corona, the attitude in the port town had been restless, but now it was volatile. This wasn't at all how she expected things to pan out. Anna decided to drop by the infirmary to brighten up the faces of the commissioners for an hour before barreling her way back to the castle.

Questioning the statsråds for information that Elsa might've omitted was like trying to draw sap from a tree with a pair of bare hands, and Captain Hitler seemed to purposely disappear when she asked Kai to retrieve him for her. Left with little else, Anna retired to her bedroom to babysit Elsa. This surveillance outlasted the hours in the day and eddied into the hours of the next. Elsa would constantly change positions, moan in her sleep, and flutter her eyes groggily, yet she would always slip back into an oasis of dreams. At first, Anna supposed it was just her body paying off all the debt it had collected from over-spinning its cogwheels, but she started to worry about whether there was something graver at work.

Her rash plan to sneak aboard Fredmund's ship tomorrow with or without Kristoff was fast becoming a bygone thought. Although sleep came later to the princess, she arose from her slumber just as late as she had fallen into it. Elsa had somehow emigrated from the pillow to the foot of the bed with the sheets tangled around her ankles over the course of that time. Thanks to its much thicker grade, her bed hair rivaled Anna's, but the crocodile texture of her skin was back to its doll-like smoothness; it was as if her body had finished a much needed detox. Relieved, Anna and her seaweed legs pottered over to her window.

The sunset outside was a scrambled egg and the sea was maple syrup-brown, which was normal at this time of day, but she was pretty sure that the pod of foreign frigates in the harbor weren't supposed to be there. Anna rubbed her eyes with her knuckles to blink wider at the orange edelweiss on some of their sails. "Wait...those aren't flowers, those are..." She gasped. Anna tucked her fists under her chin and bit her lip, hopping up and down in excitement.

She catapulted herself back into the bed and attacked Elsa's arm. "Elsa, you have GOT to wake up! You won't believe―"

Elsa unconsciously dragged the blankets over her head and grumbled, "Anna, go back to sleeeep...."

The redhead blew a curl off her nose and pouted as she crossed her arms. After taking Elsa's debility into account, she bargained a deal with her sleeping back, "Fine, then. I'll let you rest like I promised, but don't take it out on me if you miss the parade from the window." She cocooned Elsa in another blanket. "I need to have a word or two with Eugene myself before he says 'I do,' anyway." Anna planted a big fat smooch on Elsa's cheek, which Elsa's dimple smiled against.