Chapter 1: Tempest

Word was the war lasted less than a day.

But Princess Anna of Arcadia knew better. When Queen Edea of the Kingdom of Dis declared war, Arcadia had fallen not in less than a day, but less than hours. There had been no warning, no indication that there was any cause for alarm, not when Arcadia and Dis had such good relations all these years; but even so, Arcadia was more than prepared for invasion. Flatly refusing the terms of surrender, Arcadia readied itself for war. Whatever earthly force dared to strike at Arcadia would be met by one of the strongest navies and one of the most united nations in the world.

Whatever earthly force.

Anna had been there to witness it, a lone, innocuous battleship sailing from the south that brought with it an unstoppable tempest of destruction.

"What is that?" Anna asked.

Beside her, King Agnar had no answer.

From the top of Arcadia Castle, Anna peered through a spyglass and saw an opaque ship sailing across the seas—with no sail. As she watched in disbelief, the battleship surged over the waves completely unaided. It looked as though the ship propelled itself through force of will, conquered the ocean through tenacity alone. It followed a course too direct, too consistent to be coincidence. Having scarcely managed to comprehend the impossibility of its movement, Anna noticed next its beauty.

"It's made out of ice," Anna breathed.

It was so very out of place, here, at the forefront of impending war.

Again Anna had to marvel at the impossible feat, because the sun beat down with summer heat and the coastal waters were warm, much too warm for ice. Even forgetting that—how could an entire ship be made out of ice? Completely flawless ice, with no veins or air bubbles or debris of any kind to mar the transparent blue surface glittering like diamonds as it refracted the light. Ridges and crests formed what was indeed a battleship: stern, bow, masts, and then as if to further pronounce its ethereal existence, the ship slowed to a halt, and from its icy mast emerged sails.

"I had heard the rumors, but—!" Agnar took in a sharp breath. His hands darted forward to clutch the balcony as he leaned forward and peered over the edge. "Someone is coming."

Both he and Anna looked on with breathless anticipation.

A woman stepped out to the bow, looking nothing like any warrior or herald. Anna had been outfitted in armor, unfitting though it felt on her slight frame, partially for her protection but mostly to inspire the citizens of Arcadia; but even in her most regal dresses, she would have felt inadequate compared to this woman. Platinum blonde hair and white skin Anna could only dream of, a bloodless, porcelain complexion, as though she had never once seen the light of day and her blood had iced in her veins. She was not dressed for war, garbed instead in a dress that bore some resemblance to the ship, crystalline blue and somehow transparent and opaque both. A long cape trailed behind her, seeming to meld into the deck of the ship. All this – her dress, her ship – seemed an extension of her being.

At the center of it all was the stranger who stood silent and unmoving.

"That's Queen Edea," Agnar said, sounding more frightened than Anna had ever heard.

"But," Anna muttered, unnerved by the strange sight and not knowing why, half-trying to convince herself that all was still well. "What will one odd person manage, after all?"

She found out when Queen Edea raised her hands to the sky and summoned death.

Anna had seen her share of Mother Nature and her fury, princess of an island-nation privy to windstorms and tidal waves. What she knew as fact was that there were always signs beforehand, patterns that signaled the coming disaster, and despite the chaos there was yet still rhyme and reason. Weather patterns could be predicted. Even natural disasters could be mitigated.

Nothing like this apocalypse.

Queen Edea stretched out her hands, and from a clear blue sky erupted a blizzard that blocked out even the sun. Within seconds, roiling stormclouds blotted out the skies like a spreading plague. It was wholly unnatural. It was not, Anna realized, just force of nature. It was nature controlled, tamed and bridled, with all of its power directed with malignant purpose. Snow curved through the air in tendrils and waves, crashed into the walls, and the entire castle seemed to tremble to its very foundations. Anna could feel the shock vibrating through her bones. Lightning struck the towers and sent an avalanche of debris crashing down, until the roar of falling stone became all that she could hear. Frost spread from the mysterious battleship to blanket the fjord, freezing over its waters and leaving behind a rutted field of ice.

Even as Agnar sounded the alarms, Anna knew an undeniable truth. Dread and awe settled into the base of her stomach and burned like hot coals, even as her blood seemed to run cold.

There was nothing they could do.

"Kill the sorceress!"

At Agnar's command, archers fired from the castle walls and trebuchets launched entire boulders at the woman, but she remained standing calmly with arms outstretched. A great wall of ice rose from the ground and caught every single arrow, resisted the impact of dozens of boulders, all without leaving a scratch on its clear-blue surface. As soon as the barrage ended, the wall fell. Anna could catch a small pull at the corner of Edea's lips.

She wants to see this, Anna realized. That was the only reason the wall fell. Edea wanted to watch the fall of Arcadia with her own eyes.

Ice rained down from the heavens and impaled a thousand men, like holy judgment from the Queen watching from her seat of glory.

With its entire navy frozen uselessly in the banks and its army decimated by an indefensible assault, Arcadia offered surrender.

Queen Edea did not accept.

An army of soldiers stormed through Arcadia without resistance. Queen Edea walked unhindered to the castle gates, froze them until they were brittle and waved them aside with a gust of icy wind, and she strode inside to meet the royal family.

"There will be no more surrender," Edea said, very calmly, as though stating simple fact while she sat on the throne and the King of Arcadia kneeled on the floor with a blade of ice hovering at his throat. "Surrender means negotiation. There will be no negotiation. Only my terms will be heard."

"Then what do you want, Edea?"

"Absolute fealty," Edea said. Agnar moved to speak, and the ice moved closer as he straightened. He flinched back, silenced, as a thin line of blood ran down his neck. "I will have complete sovereignty, though you may keep your throne as my vassal. You will complete demilitarization within a month. You will pay us tribute every month, the amount of which I may dictate at will. You may conduct trade only with Dis, in both import and export. And…"

"That's ridiculous!"

Despite her father's protest, Anna sprang to her feet from where she had knelt beside him. There had been nothing hindering her, likely because Edea thought her no threat; but as Anna stood, snow coalesced into strange, lumbering beasts and they began to converge, wickedly sharp icicles sprouting from their misshapen limbs. Anna raised her head towards Edea, standing with a straight back and uncaring of the danger, and Edea waved a hand. At once, the creatures subsided.

"You may speak your mind," Edea murmured.

"I don't need your permission to speak my mind," Anna said, taking a step closer to her father's throne. Edea had no right to be seated there. She had no right to be here at all. "What you're demanding is completely unjust!"

"Anna, please, stop before you're hurt–"

Edea glared down, gaze frigid, and the temperature in the throne room dropped until frost coated the windows. Agnar silenced once more, and only then did the temperature ease back. Not comfortable, but tolerably cold as long as one wore enough winter clothing. Anna was not. She felt no cold, only burning, righteous anger that boiled her blood. She had never felt so energized, so terribly alive.

"Continue," Edea said.

Anna pursed her lips. "Firstly, Papa will not be your vassal when this is our kingdom–"

"A conquered kingdom," Edea corrected, throwing a quick glance over to the defeated king, and Anna followed her gaze to see Agnar clench his jaw as though restraining himself from speaking.

It surprised and offended to see her father effectively silenced. Anna would have expected it to be him standing here, speaking up against tyranny—and yet he was silent, powerless.

"Secondly, how will we defend ourselves if another person like you comes along and our military force has been dissolved?" Anna neglected to mention just how very effective their military had been.

Edea nodded. "I offer you protection in return for your loyalty."

Anna wasn't appeased. She only grew angrier at the supposed generosity. It wasn't Edea's place to protect them, not after causing so much harm. "Trade, then! How are we to survive trading only with you? And we can't give you tribute, not after what you've done–"

"I will, of course, unfreeze your fields and the fjord," Edea said. "Your domestic economic activity will remain untouched. I will also offer you proper compensation. I would not have Arcadia starve."

That was not what she had meant. Edea spoke about the physical capability of giving tribute; Anna had been decrying the morality of it, of paying tribute to one who had so utterly violated their home. Anna felt another swell of anger at this disregard for her people's dignity, and her collected resentment and hate finally burst into full-blown fury towards her oppressor.

"You don't know anything about Arcadia!" Anna cried. "You don't know the people, you don't know our culture, so how will you rule? You don't deserve it!"

Anna's breathless shout echoed through the throne room, and she heaved with the force of both the shout and her emotions. Angry tears prickled in her eyes. She knew nothing she said would change anything. She found herself thinking of the fairness of this situation and knew any argument she could offer was weak. Anna knew she had never been much of a princess, hardly someone capable of making big decisions and logical arguments, but she couldn't mutely accept this fate. What would the people do? Anna wiped the tears from her eyes before they could fall.

Edea stared at Anna for long moments, roving her eyes over Anna's features with an unreadable expression. When Anna noticed the scrutiny, she glared back into frigid blue eyes that widened ever so slightly at the daring act. She refused to back down, even as the temperature once again plummeted. If this was a test, she would bear it. She would have this victory, at least. Time passed silently, until Anna felt her hands grow numb and her entire body began to shake. Frost crept over her armor and even the exposed skin of her neck, her face, even her hair, but still she did not look away.

"Are you done trying to scare me?" Anna bit out, and Edea widened her eyes once more, almost imperceptibly. Only Anna, who dared to so directly meet her gaze, could have noticed.

Edea was the first to break eye contact. At last she turned away from Anna and glanced towards the floor, oddly docile, and the warmth returned fully so that the ice melted from Anna's skin. Edea said nothing for a long while, considering something, and Anna realized for the first time that Edea did not look very much like an adult. She could not have been much older than herself, caught in time somewhere between a girl and a woman—but her eyes were old.

Finally, Edea looked back to Agnar with her lips pulled into a frown, and her face was no longer that of a girl but a queen.

"In that case, I have one more stipulation," Edea said.

"Edea, you've already demanded everything I have to give," Agnar said wearily.

"Not everything," Edea said. As she spoke, the spear of ice pointed at Agnar dissolved into water and bled harmlessly into the red carpet. Even the snow-beasts collapsed, leaving only mounds of snow where they once stood. "There's just one thing, and if you agree, I can promise Arcadia leniency."

Agnar raised his head. "What would that be?"

Edea nodded at Anna.

"I want her."