AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hey, everybody! Disclaimer: I'm becoming a scientist, and I know absolutely NOTHING about law. Thankfully, because this is Arendelle, I get to make it up. ALSO, I'm PMing a bunch of different people right now; if I'm not getting back to you quickly, it's because I'm losing control of my life, not because I don't adore you. Have a great day!
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24: POLITICS
After breakfast, Elsa took Jack down a number of hallways twisting and turning through the castle, her heart pounding as she struggled to keep her breathing even. Passing the numerous nobles, servants, representatives, and everyone else that one would usually see in such a place, the Spirit of Winter was invisible to everyone but her, but that didn't make the experience any less intimidating. At any moment, she half-expected to hear some high-ranking official or member of the nobility give a dramatic gasp, followed by a demand to know what official business the strangely-dressed, white-haired young man had, cryptically following the Snow Queen through the castle. At which point, she would have to leap in and try to explain.
And what an explanation that would have to be.
Thankfully, the worst-case scenario confrontation never came, and Elsa was able to continue politely acknowledging all of the customary bows and curtsies and pledges of loyalty to Arendelle without incident, acting as though everything was perfectly normal, regally sweeping through the richly-carpeted halls with the frozen, forced smile of The Queen Face plastered over her features.
At last, coming down a well-kept but silent hallway, Elsa sharply drew in her breath, gripping the cords of her small, velvet bag so hard that her knuckles turned white. The solitary guard at the enormous wooden doors bowed regally, carefully holding his gun pointing straight into the air. Elsa drew herself up.
"I will be requiring some privacy with the records today," she ordered, her hand trembling as she reached into the bag. "P-Please make sure that no one enters the library after me until I give the word."
He nodded. Stepping to the side, he then let Elsa pass by him, pulling a tarnished silver key out of the bag as she stepped up to the doors. Swallowing her heart back down, she closed her eyes, pulling in a long breath.
Elsa stuck the key into the lock.
Readjusting her grip and leaning into it, she pulled it down, turning the key to the side with all her strength. The lock opened with a dull clunk, and the door swung back, revealing an enormous room filled with light.
Pulling the lock back out and drawing herself up again, Elsa regally glanced back to the guard, smiling politely and walking forward. Jack silently leapt into the air, flipping forward over her through the door before the guard reached in to pull it shut.
As the Snow Queen whisked in her capelet from the hallway, the guard nodded, the enormous door creaking on its hinges as it slowly swung back after him.
Clunk.
One could always get out of the records library, but it remained locked to the outside at all times. Only a few people—like her—had access to one of the enormous silver keys that would open it.
Without saying a word, Elsa turned and swished her hand across the door. An enormous snowdrift materialized out of the air and swept up against it, and with a dull rumbling resounding through the room, she then raised her arms, pulling a huge wall of ice from the ground. Pushing her hands in front of her, she shoved the wall up against the snowdrift, smashing the snow into the enormous door from the bottom to the top, sealing the cracks.
Crunch.
Elsa took a few steps back and put her hands on her hips, eying her handiwork. She then looked to Jack, and realized that was staring at her with a slightly dazed, glassy-eyed smile again. It was the same look he'd had when she'd pulled ice crystals out of her braid that morning.
She shrugged. "Soundproofing."
Snapping out of the haze, Jack's eyes suddenly came back into focus. He laughed under his breath, shaking his head and looking back up at her. "I know," he said quietly. "It's brilliant."
"Thanks." Elsa blushed slightly, smiling.
After a long moment of staring into each other's eyes, she jolted, spinning around. "Right! Records," Elsa blurted. "Let's see… I think we're in the M's, over here…"
She paced quickly down the long row on the edge of the library, between the grandiose bookshelves and the wall, her sea-green capelet flowing behind her. The library—or rather, the royal records collection—was an enormous room, with a line of large windows around the top of the grand arched ceiling, filled with row after row of towering shelves. All of these shelves were filled with hundreds of years' worth of all the records of Arendelle's doings—and its secrets. Hence, why it was kept locked with a guard. Hence, why Queen Elsa had a key, or at least, had a key until Anna was able to come off of her leave.
Ahtohallan might have had the Nokk to protect it, but in the "real" world, locks, guards, and paranoia were about the best you could do.
"As I recall," the Fifth Spirit mused, pacing down one of the aisles as Jack flew after her, "Court records are all filed under C, and then organized from there."
"Court records?"
Elsa paused and turned to him as he lit down upon the carpet again, bouncing on the balls of his feet as he did so and slowing down to match her pace.
"What do you mean, court records?" Jack asked, "I thought we were researching the laws themselves."
"In my experience, the law itself is a lot less important than how it's being interpreted and used in court," she replied, taking a few steps back and staring up at the shelves. "I figure that we should start with the last few years of court records, and then we can do more research from there. You know—get an idea if any of the laws are even being used."
"Wait—law is a matter of interpretation?"
Elsa, not seeing what she was looking for, turned away again and ran out to the end of the aisle. "If you can convince the jury that it is, then yes," she explained, taking another step back and staring up at the shelves. They had now crossed to the other side of the library, which opened between a few of the shelves to a large table, flooded with sunlight from an enormous set of high windows in the late morning. "Welcome to the judicial system."
He raised his eyebrows. "I thought that the whole point of a law was that it couldn't be open to interpretation," he scoffed.
"Court is a wars of words," she sighed, "And words can be twisted, if they're not written clearly enough. Which is usually the case, by the time that the politicians get done arguing about them—Ah! There they are!"
Jack looked up as Elsa pointed. On the third row from the top of one of the sets of enormous shelves, and spilling over a few feet into the fourth row, was a large set of navy volumes. The table was now directly behind them, and the Snow Queen ran to the other end of the long shelf, grasping a wheeled ladder and pulling it back. Stopping in front of the row and looking up, Elsa daintily stepped out of her icy high heels, then hiking up her skirt and scrambling up the rungs.
"Let's see," she muttered, running her eyes over the labels as she climbed, "…Intellectual Property Cases… Immigration Cases… Health Cases…"
Finally, near the top of the shelf—about 30 feet in the air—Elsa reached the navy volumes. "Family Cases!" she exclaimed, "Ah-ha! I was right!"
Grasping the shelf underneath the ladder, she shoved herself to the side, and the ladder went bumping and rolling down to the end of the aisle. As it hit the end of its wooden track, it jolted to a stop, with Elsa's long, hanging capelet swishing to the side underneath her. She reached for the last of the navy blue books, and then paused, realizing how high up she was. And how large the volume was.
She bit her lip, feeling the edge of the enormous book and glancing down through the ladder at her feet, 30 feet in the air. She usually would have just flicked her fingers and made a slide to send it down, but it was—fragile. Elsa gripped the ladder slightly tighter, her throat hardening with embarrassment.
"Could you use some assistance, ma'am?"
Elsa snapped her head up, looking beside her. With a slight smirk on his face, Jack Frost was suddenly floating cross-legged in the air next to her.
Feeling blood rushing to her cheeks, Elsa adjusted her grip on the ladder. She smiled sheepishly in spite of herself. "Show off," she mumbled. Jack grinned.
"Seriously, though," he laughed, "Do you want to hand something to me?"
"Are you sure? They're super heavy. And fragile."
He rolled his eyes. "They're books, Snowflake," he chuckled. "I'm pretty sure I can handle thOH!"
As Elsa pushed the enormous volume off the shelf and into his outstretched arms, Jack's body lurched forward from the sudden weight, dropping five feet in the air. Catching his breath, he then righted himself, pulling it up and hovering back to Elsa's eye-level again.
She giggled, covering her mouth with her free hand while gripping the ladder with the other. "I told you it was heavy!" she exclaimed.
"Yeah, but not heavier than you!" Jack readjusted his grip on the book, his staff tucked under his arm. "What is this printed on, lead?"
"I'm certain that isn't heavier than me," Elsa retorted. "It's just parchment."
"Lead… parchment…" he muttered, turning away from her and flying down to the table.
Elsa pulled another volume out onto the edge of the shelf. Jack was back up in a few moments, holding out his arms again. This time, he had braced himself, his eyes narrowed with determination. She restrained from laughing, seeing the intensity in his expression. Jack Frost was no weakling, but in terms of upper-body strength, he wasn't exactly Kristoff, either.
Pushing the second book off, he caught it, this time only dropping a few inches, but still clearly straining. Elsa said nothing, smiling quietly to herself and looking down, feeling for the rungs of the ladder and beginning to descend.
Jack had placed both of the books on the enormous oak table in the opening between the shelves. As she stepped off the ladder, not bothering to put her shoes back on, he looked up into her eyes, leaning onto the wood.
"So…?" he prompted, "Now, we're trying to find… what, exactly?"
"We're trying to find references to child abuse laws," Elsa said, pulling out a chair from underneath the table. Watching her intently, Jack did likewise. "If we see any patterns in the court records, we'll know which ones are being used the most. Or if they're being used at all. Well—recently, anyway."
"How do you mean?"
"Every year, all the transcripts of each category of court proceedings are gathered and bound into a new volume of these books," she explained, grasping one of the volumes and pulling it towards herself on the table. She sat down on the chair, smoothing her dress and capelet underneath her as she did so. "We just pulled the volumes for last year and the year before. You can do last year's, if you like. Start close to the present, and work backwards."
Jack was looking at the enormous volume, staring blankly forward, a slightly worried expression on his face. "Um… so we just… start looking, or…?"
Elsa looked up at him, raising her eyebrows. Then, she shook her head, getting onto her feet again and reaching for his volume, a mischievous smile twitching out of the side of her mouth.
"Oh, yes—that's right," Elsa said slyly, pulling the book towards herself and heaving it into her arms. "You don't know each other!"
"Wait, what?"
Elsa turned to the book, beaming. "Let's see… Arendelle Family Law Court Records Volume 284, meet Jack Frost. Jack," she said, looking back to him, "Politics."
And she slammed the volume down onto the table.
WHAM.
Jack's face drained of color. After a few moments of horrified silence, he slowly looked back up into her eyes, pointing to the text.
"I have to search through all of this?" he squeaked.
"Oh, don't be silly, Jack!" Elsa chuckled, gesturing to the enormous wall of books behind her. "Those too."
His eyes widened. Looking deflated, Elsa watched as he then slowly opened the cover, grasping all of the pages into a chunk in his right hand, and flipping to the back. A look of confusion swept over his face, and he then jerked his head back up, looking to her. "Wait. Where's the index?"
"Chronological order. No index."
"What?"
"Jack, these are court transcripts," she explained, sitting down across from him with the other enormous volume. "But there should be a table of contents, with the name of each prosecution and defense. Law and politics and policy often blend together in a kingdom this small, but you can still be grateful that we're not having to really go all that deep."
"Wow," he scoffed. "That is breathtakingly unhelpful."
"Welcome to the judicial system."
"I'm sensing a pattern here."
"You're not the first." The Snow Queen sighed, opening her own book and flipping to the first case. "Start. Reading."
Jack bit his lip, looking back to the text. Then, defeated, he pushed all the pages back to the other side of the book, going to the beginning and resting his face on his hand.
"Just so you know," he grumbled, "I am the best friend ever."
"I had a feeling you might be."
.
.
.
"Gaaaaaaaurgh."
Elsa looked up. A great deal of time had passed, and Jack, his face slipping down from his hand, slowly turned a page of the text.
"What is it, Jack?" she asked.
"My braaaaaain," he groaned. "I think it's disintegrating."
"Well, if you aren't used to long reading—"
"—It's not the reading," he scoffed, sitting up. He looked into Elsa's face. "The reading is fine. I have no issues with long reading. It's just the people."
"What about them?"
"They're… idiots." Jack leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table and kneading his eyebrows. "I've never read a book before where every. Single. Character. Was an idiot..."
"Oh, come on," Elsa retorted, "That's not true. It's just that court has a tendency to bring out the worst in—"
"—EVERYONE IN THIS BOOK IS AN IDIOT, ELSA!"
"Watch yourself, Frost!" she chuckled threateningly, "I'm in that book!"
"REALLY? An intelligent person? A single voice of sanity?" he sputtered, flipping forward through the pages. "Well, in THAT case, let's go straight to that part!"
"Well—alright, maybe not that book," Elsa admitted. "That's the in-progress compilation for this year's volume, and I wasn't reinstated as the queen until about a month ago. They'll add my part in. But I'll be in the next volume."
Jack bit his lip. Then, opening his mouth to say something, he looked to the book, and to Elsa, and then back to the book.
"I—!"
His voice trailed off. Elsa watched as his eyes rolled back, and he collapsed forward, slamming his forehead against the table.
BANG.
"Oh, just be patient," Elsa continued, struggling to keep a straight face, "If you'll just wait until the end of January, they'll compile this year's records, and you'll have another brand new volume to explore! Just think of all the exciting reading that—"
BANG. BANG. BANG.
"Oh, come now, Jack. It's not that bad."
BANG. He stopped, slowly looking up to Elsa and raising his eyebrows. He then let out a sharp bark of bitter laughter, shaking his head.
"These people have been arguing for the last 14 pages," he groaned. "About a cow."
Elsa turned another page, not looking up. "Oh, yes—I vaguely remember Anna telling me about that one," she mused, "It was pretty early in the year, like February or something, right? Who got it?"
His hand slapped down on top of the column where she was reading. Looking up, Elsa found herself staring into his strikingly blue eyes, hardly an inch from her own, as he hovered over the table.
"It. Died. Sixty. YEARS AGO," he enunciated.
She burst out laughing, seeing the intensity in Jack's expression. "Oh, that's right! Divorce court!" she exclaimed. "My favorite part of the entire legal system."
"Really?"
"No."
"Good. I was worried." He flipped upside-down in the air, casually staring at her from above the table with his white hair hanging down in front of her face. "And finish whatever sentence you're on, because we're taking a break."
She looked towards the sun in the enormous windows above them, eying its position and doing a quick calculation in her head. "We've hardly been at this for three hours, Jack!"
He raised an eyebrow, beginning to pull the book away from her across the table. "Elsa, can you please take a moment to think about that statement?"
"Three hours of research is nothing," she protested, grabbing the volume back and pulling it towards herself. "I don't miss this part of being the queen, but I still know how to do it. I mean, I haven't even found anything relevant yet, and—"
"—That would be a reflection of the lack of relevant material, not our lack of work," he retorted. "Come on, Elsa. We had a deal."
"Just a few more minutes! I promise!"
Jack rolled his eyes, darting up into the air, and the Snow Queen shook her head, turning back to the page she was on and finding her place again. Just as she was reaching her hand forward onto the column, a sudden gust of cold wind rushed past her, blowing all the pages to the side. She snapped her head up, groaning in frustration.
"JACK!" Elsa protested, "What are you—EEK!"
FWOOM!
Her chair suddenly blasted backwards, and Elsa squeaked in shock, gasping and instinctively grabbing its arms as it shot across the ice-covered carpet. Just before it hit the wall, the chair crashed into a pile of soft snow and crunched to a halt.
Jerking her head up, she saw Jack Frost standing casually on the table, grinning. Tossing his staff into his other hand, he laughed, leaping down onto the icy floor.
"A deal's a deal, Snowflake," he chuckled as he walked towards her. "And I'm not letting you back out of it."
Elsa scoffed, shaking her head as she pushed herself up out of the chair. "Then what do you expect me to do?"
"First," he retorted, that same sly little hint of a smile twitching out of the side of his mouth, "I'd recommend making yourself some ammo."
Elsa's breath caught as the Guardian of Fun flipped his hand over, revealing a snowball materializing in his palm. Looking to her mischievously, he then bent down and blew across it, setting the ice particles aglow with sparkling blue magic as he peered up at her through his eyelashes, tossing it playfully in his hand.
Her heart leapt.
"Oh, you are so on," Elsa breathed, beginning to roll her hands in the air.