Anna's mouth flew open and her hands immediately rose to cover it. Elsa managed to maintain her composure with better results, but failed to completely mask her horror. "Tell me everything."

The guard grimaced. "Forgive me Your Majesty, but are you sure?"

"Yes! Please, what happened?"

He shrugged. "There's not much to say really. The fisherman tells us he went out to sea as per usual and his son saw something floating on the water. Poor lad must have thought it was a big fish or something. The man rows over, pulls the body onboard, then panics before sailing back to hand him over to the authorities. I feel sorry for the boy though. He seemed quite young - poor kid is probably scarred for life."

Elsa imagined what it would be like to be a child and seeing her father roll a large, soaking wet bundle of clothing over, only to see a pale face staring back at her. Or would they be closed?

"Do you know what happened? Or when?" What did he look like?

Again, the man winced at her need for information. "I'm not a thinking man Queen Elsa, you need to speak to my superiors - forgive me for saying so!" When Elsa brushed his fears aside he sighed with relief before continuing. "He was in pain and he definitely died of drowning given his expression when he was brought ashore and from the state of his fingers - the man's nails were a mess. And..."

"Yes?"

"After that it's just conjecture my Queen. Our physician told me he suspects the man was thrown into the sea and weighed down on account of his lips changing colour and... other symptoms he says signify being cold."

"And he was alive when this happened to him, wasn't he?" Elsa cringed as her imagination created a vision of the rotund man, with an anchor tied to his ankle and being kicked off of a ship by a faceless maniac. She turned to see Anna looking back at her, her freckles in stark contrast with her blanched skin.

"I'm afraid so. If it's any consolation, he must have been unable to undo whatever knot the killer used, else he'd still be down there."

"Do you know when it must have happened? Roughly, at least?"

"A long time ago Your Majesty. Uh..." he scratched the back of his neck before jerking a thumb towards the noise from outside, "about when that started apparently. I wish I had a better indicator. I'm sorry."

Elsa pinched her nose. "I don't hold it against you. He asked for funding for his business and now I know why he didn't come for it. Let his family know they can collect it in his stead. Who did he leave behind?"

"A wife and three children." The words were another blow to her gut.

"Then tell them... tell them I'm sorry for their loss. And also tell them I'm sorry for doubting him. I thought he had joined the protestors, but I guess I forgot that the world doesn't revolve around me and my personal woes." She sighed, turning to meet Anna's sad gaze before looking back. "You're dismissed."

Tap tap.

Elsa wasn't sure how many knocks she'd heard in her sleep before she awoke. She pulled herself up, blinking the sleep from her eyes as she stared at the door. Anna?

Tap tap.

But the knocks weren't coming from the door... where then?

It took her a few moments to notice the shadow falling over her. She looked to her window and gasped at the shadow looking through it, pulling her quilt up to her neck. Áno chuckled, his tone quiet and gentle.

"Is that really necessary?"

"What are you doing here?" He was seemingly afloat, hovering on the other side of the glass, his face obscured by the pale moonlight shining down on him from behind. "How did you get up here?"

She couldn't see his expression, but saw a ripple pass through the outline of his cheeks which hinted at a smile. He tapped his foot on something beneath him and she heard soft thuds. "You're a good teacher."

Elsa got to her feet, still wrapped in her sheets and took a few steps towards the sill. Bit by bit, a platform of ice revealed itself to her, rough around the edges but elegant all the same. She smiled at its creator. "How did you get past the guards?"

"They're not very good at their jobs." She heard another chuckle. She would have to investigate her employees in the morning. But there were more pressing issues to be dealt with.

"You haven't told me what you're doing here - and what if someone sees you?!"

"I'll be fine. I just wanted to tell you you won't be having any trouble from now on."

"What do you mean?"

"The - Raphael and the others? They're a bitter memory now."

All of a sudden their last conversation with Anna sprang to her mind. "What did you do to them?"

"Nothing. Just trust me, you'll be fine. At least until the next dissenters come by." He took a step back. Elsa saw something strange on his face robbed of colour by the moon's interplay of light and shadow - it was as if even the grays of his visage were mismatched, or just wrong...

"Are you alright?"

"Me? I'm wonderful. I should be going now Elsa. I'm sorry about what happened this evening."

"Don't be, please. It just... happened."

"If you say so." Áno looked away for a moment. "I enjoyed it. I mean, I always enjoy our time together."

"Me too."

She could see the features of his face now, though the colours were still off. Before she could begin to properly distinguish between the dark material of his cap and his dark skin he smiled weakly at her before falling off the side of his platform. She gasped, rushing forward and pressed herself to the glass before sighing with relief at the faint, yet distinct, sound of a body sliding against ice. She waited a few moments before the structure shattered. Elsa jumped at the sound before shrugging her shoulders and returning to bed. She trusted Áno and Anna (as she had personally put her to sleep that night) to not have done anything rash. A new thought rose in her mind, but she brushed it aside. She could deal with whatever happened in the morning.

The first thing Elsa did that morning after getting dressed and having breakfast with Anna was to walk out into the courtyard. She was surprised by what she found there.

Silence.

And emptiness.

There would normally be discarded signs or a few dissenters lingering in the early hours of the day; not enough for a large protest, but enough to make her feel unwelcome nonetheless. Panic suddenly consumed her. What if she was wrong? What if Áno had attacked them? And she'd just gone to sleep after he spoke with her! What had she been thinking? She whirled around before her eyes alighted on a guard, whistling a tune to himself. She marched over to him, who noticed her presence halfway through her trek and stood to attention.

"Good morning sir. Can you tell me where everyone has gone?" She knew she was speaking with surprising nonchalance, ill fitting the fear and anger she should be feeling. She didn't even know why she said 'everyone'. Was she simply too jaded to care anymore?

"Good morning Queen Elsa. If you're referring to the rabble, the ringleaders were arrested last night."

"I gave the guards explicit instructions to not do that!"

Privately, she respected the man for maintaining his composure. "Only if they weren't to harm anyone, ma'am. They assaulted a civilian."

"What?"

"A young man, or so I'm told. Apparently he tried to speak up for you. He clearly said a bit more than was healthy..." he shrugged, before his eyes widened, "no res- I mean - disrespect to you of course, Your Majesty!

Elsa ignored his slip-up. "Thank you for informing me. I assume the Captain will have some words for me when the working day begins." She bid the man farewell and returned to the castle, worrying her lower lip.

And to think I doubted him...

"You think that was Áno?"

"Yes."

Anna had sat through the Captain's debriefing to Elsa after he'd burst into their breakfast hall. As soon as he'd left the Queen had pulled her into an empty room and explained her theory, though not before recounting Áno's night time visit.

("What's so funny?" She'd asked.

Anna had fought to keep the giggles at bay. "Er... Nothing! Absolutely nothing! Keep going!")

Elsa argued that Áno must have decided to force the guards' hands, and subsequently her own, by intentionally aggravating the mob enough that they'd attack him. Seeing the men descend beyond verbal attacks against their Queen, her guards would have had no choice but to apprehend the main offenders. Without the 'more talkative ones', as Áno described them, the followers would have had no choice but to go home. With a few days of peace, as Anna had excitedly told her, she could begin to regain the town's trust.

"I may have a lot longer than just a few days Anna."

"How so?"

"I thought you were listening when the Captain was talking?"

"I was! Just... not all the time."

Elsa sighed. "Raphael and Carsten aren't from Arendelle. Deportation isn't normally the first punishment you get for petty thug behavior like this - Áno is alive, after all."

"But?"

Elsa spat the words out slowly, disgusted by them. "It was night. They weren't of sound mind and apparently the 'victim' exaggerated his injuries when the constabulary interviewed him. At least, that's what the Captain said. Apparently no-one is going to dispute his claims."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning I could in turn overstate their crimes and remove them from the state and be legally justified in doing so."

"And you haven't already done that because..."

"Because, and I mean no disrespect to Áno when I say this, that's the coward's way out. Believe me, I want my peace and quiet. I want to... to go outside and live life and be loved like you are, but if I have to..." She trailed off.

"Well, I wouldn't think twice about shipping them off somewhere after everything they said about you. And they were the main two right? Even bigger than the third guy? Get rid of them and wouldn't that just stop everything?"

"By showing the world that they're worse than me for intentionally hurting someone, yes." Politics. That was all there was to it. Making the right decisions, though only from certain points of view. "I... I need to think it through Anna. I need to fix my reputation in the interim, thank Áno and I still need to ensure Soren's family gets his money."



The thought struck her like a lightning bolt.

"And I need to contact Weselton."

"What?"

"It's probably nothing..."

...but I may know who killed him.

A/N: Thanks for reading. I would just like to make an appeal to the user who unfollowed my story after Chapter 12. If you could get in touch via review or PM, I would greatly appreciate it and would be able to either better myself and my story or address your concerns. I hope you can indulge me in this. Back to the story.