A milky-white sky lay over Arendelle, veiled by thick clouds that smothered the sun's rays. The fire surrounding the castle had subsided slightly, and for the first time in weeks, no ashes were falling on the town, giving the streets and rooftops a welcome relief.
Three days had passed since Elsa's excursion to the lower quarters. Three days she had spent debating with herself, wanting to ask Anna for explanations, then changing her mind. On the few occasions the Queen had crossed the corridors, she'd been in the company of advisors or absorbed in piles of documents, her face scowling in concentration.
Today, however, Elsa had convinced her sister to get some fresh air. She herself couldn't bear to be enclosed for so long, no matter how spacious the castle was. They had walked through the gardens, picking the rare flowers that had survived the biting cold of the beginning of the year. Their steps had led them to the top of the hill where two menhirs stood - their parents' graves.
They had been standing there for several minutes now. Anna had knelt down, placing their meagre bouquet in front of the stones and murmuring prayers half-heard, her eyelids closed. Elsa preferred to stand with her hands clasped in front of her, waiting for her sister to finish. The wind was sweeping over the hillside, and intruding unpleasantly under her tunic.
She realized that Anna would probably reproach her for not mourning. So she imitated her, approached a menhir and pretended to pray, placing a hand on the cold, worn surface. She would have liked to cry, to express the love she felt for her parents. But there was only a great emptiness inside her.

"Do you think they were happy?" she finally asked, staring at the moss that partially covered her mother's name.

Anna turned her head towards her sister, surprised by the question. Then she frowned, thinking for a moment.

"I'm sure they did. They loved Arendelle, and the kingdom loved them back. They were kind and righteous, and Arendelle owes its posterity to them. And they loved us above all," she added after a second's hesitation.
"What about you? Are you happy?"

Elsa turned to her sister, who wavered, taken aback by her question. She recovered quickly and stood up, nervously dusting off her dress.

"Being Queen isn't exactly how I imagined it. Sometimes I feel I'm capable of facing anything. And then there are days when it's terrifying. The duties, the responsibilities, knowing that every choice, every gesture, can turn the lives of hundreds, thousands of people upside down. There's no one to guide you, but you. You're the one everyone's watching. You tell others which path to take. It's up to you to make choices, sacrifices and concessions."

Anna paused for a moment, the words weighing more heavily than she had intended, before looking up at Elsa, seeking an ounce of comfort from her sister.
All she found was an absent gaze, as if her words had collided with an invisible wall.

"Speaking of choices," Elsa continued slowly. "Is the alliance with the Southern Isles... reasonable?"

Anna sighed, but couldn't hold back a saddened smile. She had heard this question many times from her advisors when she had taken the crown.

"I know what you think, and what the people think. That's where our parents were heading when they died. But we need this alliance, Elsa, I need it to protect Arendelle."
"Protect it from what?" asks Elsa.
"For a start, from all those people who don't understand the extent of my decisions," replied Anna sharply. "From those who think ruling is easy, from those who think killing me will solve their problems. From those who think they can do better than me. From those... Ouch!"

Anna jumped, a sharp pain radiating from her hand. She looked down to find her hand clenched, blood dripping between her fingers. She had clenched her fists so tightly that her nails had cut into her palm.
Without a word, Elsa pulled a handkerchief from her pocket. She approached Anna, took hold of her injured hand with an almost mechanical delicacy and began to wipe away the blood.

"You should be careful," she murmured, her gaze fixed on Anna's palm, which she was bandaging with care.

Anna watched her sister, looking for a trace of empathy, of genuine concern, but found only a disturbing calm. Yet something about this precise, almost tender gesture, touched her more than she wanted to admit.
When Elsa was done, she turned back to the menhirs in silence. Her face closed, she was obviously lost in her thoughts. Anna arched a mischievous smile and slipped behind her sister's back before putting her arms around her shoulders.

"I know you're worried about me," she whispered in her ear. "But everything's fine. Everything's going to be all right."

Elsa put her hand on Anna's and leaned her head against hers. She hooked a smile on her lips, but her eyes were still veiled.
The rumbling of doubt persisted in her ears, buzzing and insistent. She tried to shake it away.

"You were wrong about one thing," she finally murmured.
"Which one?" asked Anna.
"You said you had no one to guide you, that there was only you. But I'm here. I'll always be here, Anna, by your side."

A tear of gratitude rolled down the Queen's cheek, and she tightened her embrace, as if afraid that one day this presence might slip away.

"You're right."

Anna's office door slammed behind her back as she let out a sigh. With a nonchalant gesture, she lit a crackling fire in the imposing stone hearth that dominated the wall to her right.
The left wall consisted of a huge bookcase, with the exception of a family painting that sat in its center, the subdued sunlight revealing the brushstrokes. A light layer of dust on the shelves indicated that the Queen hadn't had the pleasure of delving into the books for some time.
The desk itself, imposing and elegantly carved, sat in the center of the room, in front of the high windows. It was buried under tall stacks of parchments, books, inkwells and dry-pointed quills.
Anna sat behind her desk, mechanically scanning the maps and reports awaiting her attention. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, letting the scent of lavender, arranged in a vase in the corner of the room, fill her lungs.
She opened her eyes again with a resolute look, ready to work. She slid one of the reports onto the map of Arendelle that covered almost the entire surface of the desk, grabbed a quill, dipped it in the ink and began to read. It took her some time to realize that she had reread the same sentence several times without paying attention, twirling the tip of her feather between her fingers.
With a sigh, Anna gave up, throwing her head back against the back of her armchair. Her gaze fixed on the dusty chandelier above her, she pondered.

"I should explain to her," she whispered.

It was one thing for her advisors to question the alliance with the Southern Isles. But Elsa had never doubted herself. Her sister had always been on her side. It wasn't her habit to question her about alliances, let alone show any interest in politics. Elsa had always taken a back seat on such matters. She should have been happy that her sister was finally taking an interest in her reign, but in reality, it troubled her more than anything else.
She doesn't trust you.
Anna shook her head at the thought. It was simply laughable. She didn't understand - that was all. How could she? Nobody could. Everything Anna had done, since she took her place on the throne, had been motivated by words only she could remember.
"Only eternal cold can save us." Grand Pabbie's voice rang as clearly in her ears as if he was standing next to her. These words had haunted her for years, feeding an anguish she dared not confide to anyone.
Sometimes she dreamt of it, terrible nightmares in which a shadow stretched toward her, paralyzing her legs, creeping up her arms, squeezing her chest, suffocating her. She'd wake up with a jump, her sheets soaked with sweat, her hands clutching her neck to chase away this invisible threat.
The mere memory of this nightmare was enough to make her pale. Anna leaned over, opened a drawer with a sharp movement and pulled out a parchment, which she unrolled on her desk. Another map of Arendelle lay before her, profusely annotated at the northern mountain, where she envisaged every possibility of attack.
The eternal cold could only come from there. From those sharp, frozen peaks that never melted even in the middle of summer. It didn't matter who - or what - lurked in those peaks. Anna's fingers tightened on the edge of the map.
She had made sure to protect Arendelle, with the help of the Southern Isles soldiers. It was costing her dearly: her reputation, her sleep, the provisions and morale of her people. But she had no choice. She had to protect her kingdom. No matter the cost.
A knock on the door brought her out of her dark thoughts.

"Come in."

A soldier stepped through the door. His eyes quickly scanned the room, resting everywhere but on the Queen. In his forties, his eyes were weighed down by dark circles, his cheek barred by a fresh scar. His beard and pulled-back hair were already revealing many gray hairs.
He was holding his helmet to his chest like a shield, twisting it nervously. His behavior puzzled Anna, who could already feel a hint of exasperation inside her.

"Well, speak," she ordered in a weary voice.
"Majesty... I bring you information about your sister."

Anna straightened up immediately. The eternal cold and the northern mountains vanished from her mind.

"What do you mean?" she asked, trying to hide her concern.
"It seems that Lady Elsa was spotted a few days ago in the lower quarters of Arendelle..."
"Is that all? She can still wander wherever she likes, even in this stinking pit."

She lied to you.
She remembered what Elsa had told her in the infirmary. She'd said she was going to the fjord. Why would she lie to her?
Anna shook her head. It must have been to avoid worrying her after what had happened that same morning.

"That's not all, my Queen," continued the guard in a trembling voice. "It seems she was seen with a suspicious woman."
"A woman?" repeated Anna.
"Yes, Your Majesty. Our soldiers on post have not been able to identify her companion, but we believe she may have a connection with the resistance."

These last words left an unpleasant sensation in Anna's mind, a numbing cold that invaded all her limbs. The fire in the hearth roared, its high flames flooding the room with hellish heat.

"Why wasn't I informed earlier?" she barked.

The soldier took a step back, huddled in on himself.

"We wanted to check our information, and the guards who saw her didn't... Well... We deliberated until we decided that I should be the one to tell you the news."
"I don't care about any of that. Find this woman. If she's still in town, I want her arrested and questioned. Immediately!"
"Yes, Majesty!" he replied, straightening up with nervous rigidity before retreating, not without relief.

The door slammed behind him, leaving Anna alone again with her thoughts.
Elsa, with the resistance? That couldn't be. Maybe she didn't know who she was talking to. Perhaps the guards had made a mistake. After all, she was her sister, her only family, her best friend and confidante.
She lied to you that day, and she was questioning your reign even this morning.
Elsa had never lied to her. She had never been interested in Anna's politics. She was content to stand back and watch, to protect her when she was attacked, and to listen when Anna needed to talk.

Her eyes drifted back to the map on the table. The eternal cold. The northern mountains. Those frozen peaks, covered in snow and ice... Anna had been so focused on Grand Pabbie's prophecy that she'd forgotten why her parents visited the trolls in the first place. What if the eternal cold was...?
Anna shook her head, closed her eyes for a moment and inhaled deeply. The flames in the fireplace seemed to quieten as she eased the pulsations of her heart. This was ridiculous. Elsa was her sister. She could only trust her.
But you're hiding things from her too.
She opened her eyes again, and her expression hardened. She had good reason to keep certain things from her. Her reign and Arendelle's well-being were at stake. But if Elsa was lying, if she really was involved with the resistance... then she would destroy everything Anna had sacrificed to protect the kingdom.
She couldn't let that happen. Anna straightened in her chair, her hands clenching on the armrests.
She had to know for sure.