Note:

Wow – the ONE TIME I wanted it to be up on Friday, it ends up taking forever to chop down and get out. Oh well, it's here – the long awaited chapter nineteen. Also, I started posting some fanart on my instagram – jyrusquash_og. If you wanted to see what some characters look like, that will be your best bet at finding out. That account is mostly for myself and these fanfics I write – I'm not doing any commission work or publicizing anything on a major scale. It's just for fun! Anyway, enjoy! Twenty will be up in July, I think – I know for a fact that one will be a doozy to hammer out.

[x] Song: "Higher", by MOZAIA (from her 2023 album 'HONEYJAY')

Disclaimer:

All of this is for my enjoyment as a fanfic writer – I do not own any part of the Frozen Franchise (which is owned by Disney). The original characters and plot line are my own though.

Happy Reading!

-JQ

Chapter Nineteen: Feeling Everything All At Once

[The Enchanted Forest, Norway]

It has been one week since Elsa, and the Nattura siblings, returned to the Northuldra Settlement in the enchanted forest. Since getting back, the ice wielder had been going through a myriad of different feelings after reflecting on her time in Arendelle. It was crazy to think that everything happened just one week ago. One week since reuniting with her family and meeting several new friends. One week since one of the most emotionally charged moments in her life. One week since discovering the whirlwind of latent emotions that had been held inside of her soul, apparently only surfacing because of an Icelandic princess. So how was Elsa doing after this one week?

Pretty miserable, honestly.

She groaned for the millionth time before turning over and screaming into her pillow. Judging by the way the light was streaming in through her cabin's bedroom window, she could tell that it was almost noon and she would almost certainly be expected to be out of bed by now. She didn't exactly have much going on this week, but not being around the Northuldra settlement in one week would certainly be cause for concern. She just needed to find the will and the drive to just say goodbye to whatever she was feeling and move on.

Sighing once more, Elsa just accepted that whatever she was feeling was going to take much longer than a week to subside. She didn't want to delve into why that was, however – delving into the feeling would probably just make it worse.

The worst part was that she knew it was because of her vastly unresolved feelings with the Princess of Botarskal (and soon-to-be Queen of Vennesvurg). Elsa just had to go and make everything complicated for herself. She just had to explore something she never explored with someone she just met. Why couldn't she just...not?!

The simple explanation was that the ice wielder hadn't ever really experienced romantic attraction prior to meeting Tina. She never really thought she needed it and didn't expect it to show up so...late? She had gone her entire childhood and adolescence never really having a 'crush' on anyone before Tina. The only reason she understood any of these things was because she read them in books or spoke to her parents about their own love story when they had been alive. She thought back on her entire life and wondered where these feelings even were – perhaps she had missed something over the years. Maybe she had experienced this before, and if she did, she'd remember how to get herself out of this funk.

Maybe she liked that one young man who came to see her coronation? The one from Denmark?

No.

Okay...

Maybe that one woman from the Americas? And her father was a commander in the English army?

Hmm.

No.

Groaning again out of pure frustration, she tossed and turned in her bed sheets. Elsa just desperately wanted this feeling to be over. Turning over to the right side of her bed, she noticed something sitting on her bedside table, peaking out from under one of her books.

Tina's letter.

Elsa narrowed her eyes at the offending object. Since receiving the letter, she kept it hidden away. She knew that she'd probably have some sort of closure after reading it, but she just couldn't find the courage to put an end to what that letter meant. Opening, and reading, the letter meant closing the chapter on what she had discovered with Tina, which would probably help her move on. But...it also carried the possibility of making the feelings worse. Elsa didn't know – she hadn't ever been through this before.

Elsa sat up in bed, suddenly thinking of an idea.

She hadn't been through this before...but maybe one of her friends had.

...

"You want help with what, now?" Honeymaren asked, utterly perplexed. She turned around fully to see Elsa give her a nervous smile. Honeymaren was minding her own business, hanging up some laundry outside of her hut, when Elsa suddenly showed up with a strange request.

"I...uh...need your help and...um," Elsa said shyly, "I need you to talk to me about your most recent romantic relationship...?" Honeymaren narrowed her eyes at the ice wielder and crossed her arms over her chest. She had no idea what this could possibly be about.

"So...let me get this straight." Honeymaren stated, pinching the bridge of her nose. "You don't show your face for a week and suddenly want me to talk about something that could possibly be traumatic for me, without any context whatsoever?"

Suddenly acutely aware of her socially catastrophic error, Elsa just shrugged and tried to mask the awkwardness with a crooked smile. "Um...yes?" Honeymaren just shook her head and rolled her eyes.

"No."

Well, Elsa thought, time for 'Plan B'. The blonde abruptly dropped to her knees and grasped at her friend's leg in utter desperation. She had to thank Anna for years and years of the dramatic demonstrations she was currently basing her performance off of.

"Please, please, please?!" Elsa pleaded, hoping that her friend would understand her predicament, "Please – listen, okay?" the ice wielder asked again, searching her friend's face for any sign of sympathy (or pity – she'd honestly take that as well at this point).

Honeymaren gazed down at her friend – squarely confused yet somehow feeling as if this was a very important issue. Anna was normally the dramatic one, out of the Arendellian sisters, and seeing Elsa in such a state was...almost horrifying. Honeymaren sighed and pulled Elsa up, urging the blonde to continue her explanation. After taking a deep breath, Elsa continued.

"I...I am utterly clueless about all of this... 'feelings' thing." the blonde admitted in a very small voice. "I just want to move on but I have no idea how to do any of that."

"Move on from what?" Honeymaren asked, innocently enough.

Elsa sighed. "Tina...I want to move on from Tina."

"Oh." Honeymaren said. As she realized that the gravity of this situation was pretty heavy, she took hold of Elsa's hands and guided her to sit on a log by the fire pit. Elsa smiled at her, silently thanking her friend for understanding her.

After settling down a bit, Elsa started to speak about her predicament again. "I've...I've never felt the way I felt for her before. And I figured that – well – you've been in a few relationships before. I figured that you'd know what to do about feeling like...this."

"You've...you've never felt like...you've never had a romantic connection to someone?" Honeymaren asked, not knowing this fact about her friend previously.

Elsa shrugged. "I...don't believe so."

"Not even one-sided romantic feelings?" Honeymaren questioned. The blonde just shook her head.

"I mean...in the days before Tina expressed that she liked me back, I thought it was." Elsa explained. "Does that count?" the other woman shook her head.

"No." Honeymaren answered.

"Oh." Elsa stated. "Then yeah...nothing like this before for me."

"Huh." Honeymaren said, pondering this situation as best as she could. "I've never met someone who's never had a crush on someone before. Or like...never realized it until later on in life."

Elsa suddenly felt very nervous – as if she was about to be called an outcast again. "Is...is that bad?" at the blonde's change in tone, Honeymaren jumped into action. She wrapped an arm around the blonde's shoulders and gave her a reassuring squeeze.

"No, absolutely not." the raven-haired woman told her, "Just because I've never met anyone like that before doesn't mean it's bad. I mean...you're also the only person I know with ice powers, so I'm not surprised that you're also the first person to tell me something like this." she gave the ice wielder a reassuring smile, hoping that Elsa would understand that she wasn't weird or abnormal for her particular experiences.

Elsa gave a shy smile to her friend. "Thanks, Honeymaren. A-And...I'm sorry for just barging in here and demanding things without explaining."

"It's okay – just don't make it a habit." Honeymaren said, taking Elsa's hands in her own. "And thank you for sharing this with me."

"Thanks for listening." the blonde replied.

"Well...we never talked about this stuff, together, before." Honeymaren stated, as an idea slowly crept into her mind. "Maybe I share something about my ex, and you can share a similar feeling that you had with Tina. You know what I mean? Like a comparison. We can work out something logically, that way." Elsa considered her friend's suggestion, thinking that it was probably better than stewing her troubles into madness on her own, in the confines of her cabin. Ultimately, she knew that Honeymaren's idea was better, so she nodded enthusiastically.

"Okay. Let's try it."

...

After going through Elsa's experiences with Tina and comparing them to Honeymaren's previous relationships, they ended up coming to the conclusion that people just got over certain relationships differently. Honeymaren also prefaced a lot of her information and advice with the fact that she, primarily, had been in relationships with men. Elsa also shared the fact that Tina had written the ice wielder a letter and that she wasn't obligated to read it. Honeymaren was a little confused because she thought that the letter could be a possible form of closure for the blonde. After all the intense feelings Elsa had described, Honeymaren was sure that reading the letter would give her some sort of emotional resolution.

"Are you sure you aren't going to read it?" she asked Elsa, trying not to convey too much concern and judgment in her tone.

"She said I didn't need to." Elsa reiterated for her friend as she shrugged her shoulders. "Tina said it would just feel better for her if she knew I had it."

"Interesting." Honeymaren commented. "What do you want to do with it?"

Even though Elsa knew that Honeymaren was going to ask her that question, she was still woefully unprepared for it. She knew that she wanted to get rid of it, but something inside her told her that just tossing it out wouldn't be fair. "I think I'm going to have to get rid of it." she said with finality, despite her own inner dialogue.

"Want me to build a fire?" Honeymaren offered, even though she really didn't want Elsa to get rid of the letter. "I can gather some driftwood and you can find Bruni."

The blonde just shook her head. "N-No. No thanks, Honey. I think it needs something a little more symbolic than that." she thought for a moment before coming up with the perfect 'goodbye' for Tina's letter. "I'll toss it down into the waters of Ahtohallan, when I go up there next week."

"Dramatic." Honeymaren said, thinking it over. "I dig it." Elsa was an adult and could do whatever she wanted with the letter. She just hoped that her friend would find some inner peace from this and that it wouldn't backfire or make things worse. Well – fingers crossed.

Elsa released a sigh of relief. She truly thought that having a plan for the letter was making her feel infinitely better than this morning. "But I think that, for now at least, I'm ready to just get back to helping the forest magic." the blonde said as she walked over to her friend and wrapped her up in a tight hug, hoping to convey all of her gratefulness for the other woman. "Thanks, Honey."

Honeymaren just smiled and returned the hug with fervour. "No problem, Elsa – I'm down to help you talk things out any time." she then pinched the blonde lightly on the hip, causing her to let out a small yelp. "Just don't barge in here demanding that I share personal information without an explanation again."

...

[Vennesvurg, Sweden]

A week after arriving in Vennesvurg had proven to be an...interesting time for Princess Tina. After her and Karl's first meeting, the two had agreed to remain civil and try to make the most out of their terrible situation. While they didn't enjoy the prospect of becoming one another's life partner, they did discover that they had a mutual love of cartography and geography (don't ask how they figured this out – it was a very complicated discussion that they made into a game). They both dreamed of travelling the world and learning about the cultural histories of places that they had never seen or heard of before.

Anyway, trying to make the most out of their situations, Karl and Tina had been brainstorming a possible route for their upcoming honeymoon. Tina had come up with a route between the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean that would allow them to visit certain places. She knew that Karl really wanted to go to Portugal, and she hadn't ever been anywhere until now, so she was excited to show him her new idea. She had tried to find Karl earlier, but he wasn't in his bedroom as expected. The castle was so large and she had no idea where to start looking for him. She decided that the best place to start would be the kitchens where she could ask the servants. Thankfully, the servants at Vennesvurg castle had taken to her quite well and were very nice in their interactions with her.

"Morning, Tilda! Morning, Brunhilde!" Tina greeted, upon entering the kitchens. "Have any of you lovely ladies seen His Majesty, this morning?"

"Good morning, Princess!" said Tilda, with a large smile on her face.

Brunhilde offered a similar expression as she greeted the princess. "Good morn, Your Highness! And yes – he was on his way to the stables about fifteen minutes ago."

"Yes," Tilda nodded along in agreement, "he should still be there."

"Thank you, ladies!" Tina said with a wide smile and bowed at both women before exiting the kitchen. Once she was out of earshot, the servants let out a series of harmless giggles.

"It's so lovely that they are spending so much time together, isn't it?" Tilda commented. To every unsuspecting staff member, in the castle, Tina and Karl looked as if they were absolutely smitten with one another. As such, every staff member was thrilled to see the King and future Queen in such great spirits within such a small amount of time.

"Ah, yes. Young love." Brunhilde agreed, "A magnificent sight to see. Their wedding will be such a fantastic event." and with that, both servants went back to work, getting ready to prep the kitchen for brunch service.

...

Before reaching the stables, Tina had expected Karl to be there with one of the stable hands or his assistant and good friend, Ethan Lindahl. Upon reaching the stables, Tina was shocked to see Karl and Gunn-Britt conversing with one another, while brushing a horse's mane. Tina tucked away, behind the door, trying not to be seen just yet. She wanted to see their interactions. From what she could gather from the conversation thus far, she suspected that Gunn-Britt was telling the king about the time she fought off a pack of wolves during the harvest period. A few years ago, there was a plague that was tormenting the livestock and they had to ration meat products very carefully. The wolves had discovered where the meat locker was and Gunn-Britt was the only guard stationed there that day (her size and training made her the perfect candidate for covering unexpected shift changes).

"...and you did all of that yourself?" Karl said to Gunn-Britt, utterly amazed. "What with all those...several –!"

"Dozens." the personal guard clarified sternly.

"Sorry – dozens of wolves?"

Gunn-Britt huffed and shrugged her shoulders as if her tale of great heroism was just an every day occurrence. "It was protocol for the Royal Guard of Botarskal. Nothing to be scared of." she told the king, "But the Yak war of 1847...that was unprecedented." the thought of the yak war sent a shiver down her spine in a very unwanted way.

"Gee..." Karl said, looking up at Gunn-Britt in awe. "You're pretty brave." Growing up with four sisters (and Ingrid) Tina couldn't help but to over-analyze the situation. She noticed how Karl was looking up at Gunn-Britt and couldn't help the feeling that someone, very recently, had given her the same look before.

Someone with ocean blue eyes.

And ice powers.

Intrigued, Tina continued to remain in her hiding spot and watched more of the interaction between Gunn-Britt and her fiancé.

"And strong. Do not forget strong – it is key trait in Botarskal." Gunn-Britt added with a tone laced with authority. "Without strength, our society would crumble."

Karl just sighed happily at the guard without a single care in the world. "Fascinating." at this point, Tina figured that she had had enough of being a fly on the wall. She proceeded to slam the door to the stables against the wall, as if she had just entered the space. The King jumped a little, in shock, while Gunn-Britt remained as stoic as she always was.

Princess Tina waved at the both of them enthusiastically. "Hey, guys!" she greeted with a big smile on her face.

King Karl waved back, not hiding his coyness. "H-Hey, Princess!" Tina smiled even wider when she noticed the rather deep blush that painted his cheeks.

"Good morning, Princess Tina." Gunn-Britt said as she bowed towards her homeland's princess. "Did you sleep relatively well?"

"I did." Tina answered as she hugged Gunn-Britt. "What about you guys?"

"I slept fine." Karl answered, still dazed at Tina's surprise entrance.

"I slept the requisite hours, prescribed to me by the training academy." Gunn-Britt told Tina. The princess just laughed and saluted her personal guard proudly.

"Excellent." Tina told her, "Well, since you're both so busy, I'll just –!" she was attempting to leave when the guard placed a hand on her shoulder.

"It is okay, Princess." Gunn-Britt told her as she halted the princess from turning around, "I was on my way to find Ingrid. I have hole in sock and need it repaired." before Tina could say anything further, Gunn-Britt shucked off her boot and showed off the hole in her sock. The hole was quite obvious as the first thing Tina noticed was the fact that she was making direct eye contact with Gunn-Britt's right pinky toe.

"Oh – okay." Karl said, surprised (and a little disappointed) that Gunn-Britt wanted to leave so quickly, "Um, i-it was lovely talking to you Gunn-Britt." Tina, once again, took note of the look that Karl was giving Gunn-Britt. She smiled, suspecting that her fiancé was quite enamoured with her personal guard.

Said guard just bowed toward the young king. "Likewise, Your Majesty."

"Bye, Gunnie!" Tina said, hugging the guard before she made her hasty exit.

"Goodbye, Princess Tina and King Karl." Gunn-Britt said one final time before exiting the stables.

Karl watched as Gunn-Britt left, barely taking his eyes off of her movements. All the while, Tina didn't take her eyes off of Karl. She smirked, already going through the barrage of questions that she had for him in her mind. Once the stable door shut behind her personal guard, the princess immediately turned to the king and promptly started grilling into him.

"So..." Tina said, nudging the king's shoulder with her own, "I'm no love expert, but I saw that look." Tina wished she could bottle up the shocked look that laced the young king's face. He paled and instantly started to panic.

"Huh?!" he asked with an incredulous tone. "What look? What are you talking about? There was no look! I wasn't looking!" Tina just shook her head and crossed her arms over her chest. She had gone through this line of questioning many times with her sisters. She was prepared.

"Ah ah ah! I saw it!" Tina said, wagging her index finger at him in an accusatory motion. "You like my personal guard. As in...like, like, her." the king just huffed indignantly and turned away from her, having a full-out adult tantrum.

"What?! Preposterous! W-W-We are engaged! I'd do no such thing! Never!"

"Yeah...makes sense..." Tina said, absolutely not buying anything Karl was telling her at all. "I mean...I don't wanna marry you. And you don't wanna marry me. And she's just some...personal guard."

"Yeah." Karl nodded. Tina just kept smirking.

"...a very tall and strong personal guard..."

Karl's eyes widened and he started reminiscing about his and Gunn-Britt's height difference. "...Yeah..." he sighed, trying to keep himself in one piece under the princess' scrutinizing gaze. Realizing that he was steeling himself, Tina decided to kick it up a notch.

The princess invaded the king's space by standing next to him – shoulder to shoulder. Karl was wholly unprepared for her close proximity, but he kept up his resolve. Tina then began to whisper to him in a sultry tone. "...she's six foot eight of pure woman..."

"Y-Yeah..." Karl said dreamily, quickly losing said aforementioned resolve.

Tina continued her onslaught of suggestiveness through her tone. "...and her long and luscious blonde hair...as thick as sailing ropes..."

"Is it really?" Karl questioned, snapping out of his trance to clarify that odd fact.

Tina just nodded. "Oh yeah. Braiding her hair is a nightmare." she said, with added emphasis on the word 'nightmare'. "And she's like two hundred and fifty pounds of pure muscle. But she's also one thousand tonnes of fluffy and huggable teddy bear!"

"Fine!" Karl exclaimed, giving up on his terrible attempt at lying. "Okay...I think your personal guard is..."

"Yes?" Tina prodded.

"Beautiful." Karl said quite dreamily. "Purely, utterly, and magnificently beautiful."

"Ha!" Tina said, pleased at her intuitive skills. "I knew it! I knew I saw 'the look'!" before she could celebrate any further, Karl grabbed Tina by the shoulders – forcibly making her look into his eyes. He looked crazed and panicked.

"B-But you cannot tell anyone!" Karl stated with fear in his eyes, "Please! Our adultery laws are dreadful." Tina carefully shimmied out of his grip and took his hands in hers.

"Yeah. No worries. You're secret's safe with me, Kingly Boo." she emphasized her promise with a wink.

"Fiancé Fortress?" Karl asked. Tina just nodded.

"Fiancé Fortress." this was a code name that they came up with, a few days ago. Since they were going to be married to one another, and needed to pretend that they were in love, they decided that they needed a special phrase to signify which information needed to be kept between them. The phrase 'Fiancé Fortress' just seemed to be the one they mutually agreed upon.

Once he was sure that Tina was finished teasing him, he decided to try it himself. "So...what do you know about 'the look' anyway?" at the question, Tina's face changed, but she didn't look nearly as shocked as Karl had looked.

"I...have it for someone else." she admitted carefully, "Or...had it for someone else."

"Oh? Tell me!" the king insisted.

"Fortress?" Tina asked. It was Karl's turn to nod.

"Fiancé fortress!" he stated with his hand over his heart. "Is it Arnold?" he asked, trying to guess. Now that got a reaction out of the princess.

"What?! Ew – no! He's like my brother." Tina said, looking completely disgusted at the thought. "My annoyingly tedious and rule abiding brother." she shivered, still thinking about how weird it would be to even think of Arnold and her in any kind of romantic setting. Truly dreadful, the princess said to herself. She did love Arnold – but definitely not in that way.

"Okay, okay! Sorry!" Karl apologized, backtracking and trying to think of another guess. "Then someone back home?" he asked, thinking that was the most probable situation to have during an arranged marriage. The princess just shook her head and sighed. There was absolutely no way that he'd guess what the answer was. Not unless he could read her mind or see into her deepest desires.

"Someone..." she said timidly, thinking about that someone, "...someone I met in Arendelle."

"Oh? Who?" Karl inquired, clearly on the edge of his seat. He really wanted to know who captured his new friend's (soon-to-be wife's) interest. It was only fair, since she had just interrogated him about Gunn-Britt, not even five minutes prior to this conversation.

Tina knew that she could trust Karl. Even if she didn't, she had blackmail over him regarding his feelings toward someone other than his soon-to-be queen. She had no reason to fear his disloyalty, but the idea of telling him was still nerve-wracking. She took a deep breath before telling him. "I had the look for...Arendelle's former queen..."

The gasp that escaped Karl's lungs was loud and his expression was nothing short of stunned. "No way." he said, barely above a whisper.

Tina just shrugged with a shy expression and a heavy blush on her face, "The one with ice magic." she decided to clarify, just to make sure he knew the exact 'former queen of Arendelle', even though there was no other plausible option.

Karl covered his mouth with his hands, still completely astonished. "Shut. UP!"

"Nope." Tina told him as she shook her head. "I'm being serious."

Karl could hardly believe it. "You met and courted THE Queen Elsa?" almost as quick as a blink, Karl had Tina's hand slapped over his mouth. He then found himself being dragged into an empty stable cell.

"SHHH!" Tina said, forcibly keeping his mouth closed. She really had to get quieter friends. Or – at the very least – friends who wouldn't shout things that could get her prematurely removed from the physical world. "A-And I wouldn't use the word 'courted'." Tina clarified. "...but..." she said, awkwardly scratching the back of her neck, "...we did kiss." the princess admitted to the king. She then remembered the last time she kissed Elsa and her blush got even more prominent. "Plenty of times."

"Oh...my...GODS!" Karl exclaimed in a loud whisper tone.

"Yeah." Tina could hardly believe her own experiences at this juncture. Everything that had transpired between her and Elsa seemed like a fever dream. A very lovely and short-lived fever dream.

"Then why the hell are you stuck marrying me for?!" Karl said, almost angrily. "You should be with your Ice Queen!" Tina then looked down at her feet, feeling morose.

"And you should be with my personal guard." she told him, with sadness in her eyes. Karl just stared back at her – his blue eyes mirroring her amber ones. "We are in a very big predicament, my friend." Tina said, voice quieter than it had ever been in front of Karl. He then stood beside her, their backs to the wall of the stable cell.

"Yeah." he agreed quietly. "I wish we weren't."

"Me too." she told him. "But I'm glad we are starting off as good friends, at least." she smiled at him and he returned the expression.

"Truly." He said. "You're a great person and Elsa is lucky to have known you and been with you that way." Tina reached for his hand and gave it a squeeze.

"And Gunnie is lucky to have your interest."

And so, Tina and Karl just stood in the stables. Two hearts being sewn together while they were already tethered to others. They silently hoped that in an alternate universe, they didn't have to live this way.

They certainly didn't wish this fate on anyone else.

...

After brunch service at the castle, Tina and Karl were in the king's private room. Like Arendelle castle's library, there was a small room hidden away where the king would sit and read. He showed it to Tina and they met there often, to talk about anything and everything. Tina had showed him the map that she wrote notes on, for ideas on their honeymoon. While they weren't exactly jumping at the chance to be married, they were looking forward to an adventure together. Both of them hadn't travelled out of their respective countries much and really wished to visit other places that they have learned about. Once Tina mentioned the idea of sailing to Portugal, he was immediately hooked. He had never been to Portugal, but his brother had told him about the food and the beaches and he was instantly intrigued.

Ever since he was young, Karl had loved the idea of the ocean. Vennesvurg was not near any major bodies of water, so he always loved the idea of being close to the sea. When he heard that his fiancé was coming from a sea faring kingdom, he was excited to hear about her ways of life and what it was like to live on the shores of a powerful sea. And of course, Tina was a great storyteller and catered to his sea-deprived needs as best as she could. This is when they both discovered their shared ideas of exploration and dreams for travel.

Somewhere between talking about their upcoming honeymoon, and discussing other routes in the case an alternative was needed, Karl had a random thought.

"So..." he said, getting Tina's attention, "if you weren't to become Queen of Vennesvurg, what would you wish to do?" Tina looked up from her map, slightly puzzled at the question.

"Me?" she asked and he just nodded. "Well...I had dreams of going to school and becoming a teacher." she told him honestly. "Or, I could travel to our allied kingdoms, teaching everyone about Botarskal's history and bringing more knowledge back home to my Kingdom. We have been so reclusive for years, unbeknownst to even my own family. But no longer – my sister is going to change things around back at home, when she becomes Queen." Karl was amazed at her aspirations. He wished that he could dream like her. Hell, he wished that they could both continue to dream.

[x]

"Awesome." he said, feeling very proud of her and her wishes. However, he did feel a slight sadness, knowing that she would not be able to pursue it as his queen. "You would be an amazing teacher." he told her with all of the truth he could muster up. Tina just smiled at him gratefully. Although she wasn't ever going to love him in a romantic sense, she knew that she was beginning to appreciate how kind and caring he was towards her. They'd never be in love, but she could feel herself loving him as much as she loved her sisters.

"Thanks, Karl." she replied, every bit as honest as she could be. He smiled back and she decided to toss the question back at him. "What about you, Karl? If you weren't King, what would you do?" Karl seemed to light up at the thought and smiled as wide as he could.

"I think I'd like to become a scholar in philosophy." he said with pride. "I'd love to specialize in it and travel around. I was actually enrolled at the University of Cambridge before everyone in my family died. Ugh. Ruining my plans even from beyond the grave." at his grouchiness, Tina let out a small laugh.

"At least we can travel together between royal duties and stuff." she said, trying to make the most out of their situation.

"Yeah. At least." he agreed.

Deciding that they had enough of their mapping and routing for the day, Tina and Karl tidied up their respective work spaces and started to venture out of the private room. As they walked through the aisles of books, they began to hear some muffled speaking and heavy footsteps.

"Hey – what's that sound?" Tina asked in a hushed whisper.

"It's coming from the council meeting room." Karl stated. The royal council meeting room was situated at the west end of the library – currently opposite to where Karl and Tina were. As the meeting room's handle began to twist, Karl pulled Tina into him and he tucked them away and out of sight of the meeting's attendees. Tina and Karl peeled away some books to peer through them and observe the attendees leaving the room. It was almost the entirety of Karl's royal council with his advisor, Malkvist, leading the way.

Tina knew very little about being a royal, but this felt wrong. "Should they be meeting without you?" The princess asked the king.

"Absolutely not." Karl answered, with a look of fear on his face. The council was only ever to meet at the planned times or when the King requested a sitting for an urgent matter. Knowing that his council was meeting without him was troubling and very peculiar. He didn't exactly know why, but he was feeling a weird sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. Perhaps it was a sign that he needed some help.

Tina began to look cross. She stood up and rolled her sleeves up to her elbows. "Why I ought to give them a piece of my –!" but the king's hand on her shoulder dragged her back down to their hiding spot.

"No! Don't!" Karl advised, shaking his head. "This seems pretty serious." he told her with a grave expression coating his visage. "We need to find Lindahl. And fast."