Chapter 4.

I wake up to Gerda's usual knocks on the door, and her voice telling me to get out of bed and start the day. I really don't want to; after all most days, I have nothing to do. I mean, Anna hasn't called me to help her again once over the last three days. Maybe she doesn't trust me after all. Or maybe she's gotten tired of me.

Okay, so I'm probably being overly dramatic; three days is a reasonable amount of time given the redhead's severely packed schedule. She seems to always be in some meeting, out doing queenly duties, or sleeping, so obviously she just doesn't have time for me right now. I really hope she calls on me soon though, or I might die of boredom.

"Elsa!" Gerda's voice calls again, and I bury myself under the blankets, hoping to become one with the bed. "Elsa, come on, you need to get up!" She insists, but I just groan in response.

I hear her sigh. "Anna will come to collect you shortly." At this, my eyes widen and I pretty much fall out of bed in my haste to get up.

"I'm up!" I tell Gerda, who answers with a chuckle before coming into my room and giving me an amused smile.

"It seems you are quite fond of Anna, aren't you?" She teases and I can't help blushing.

"I-I just… She's so nice!" I try to defend myself.

"Don't worry dear. It's normal; everyone loves Anna, it's hard not to. Even if some doubt she's fit to be queen."

"Yeah. I've noticed." I answer with a grimace. I don't like people thinking poorly of Anna's skills as a ruler, not when the girl is literally killing herself for her kingdom.

"Don't worry about it." Gerda tells me as she chooses one dress for me to wear. "I'm sure they'll come to trust her and respect her in time. She's only been Queen for a year after all."

"I hope so." I sigh before taking the dress she's offering me. A light blue garment, not too fancy but a little bit nicer than my usual dresses, adorned with white embroidery depicting flowers. I really like this dress, and I'm glad Anna will see me in it today, so I don't waste time getting behind the changing screen. Once that's done I affix my hair in my usual braid, with a bit of my magic to keep my bangs in place; it's better than using lemon juice.

When I'm ready I give Gerda a little nod and she smiles before guiding me to the dining room, where I'll be meeting Anna for breakfast. We chat a little on the way; I tell her my headaches are a little better now, though my memory is not. She in turn tells me that the other servants are beginning to get used to my presence and don't insult me at every given opportunity. That's god, I think. It's a start. Then we arrive and she excuses herself to leave me alone with Anna, as the queen requested.

I can't say I'm not a little nervous about having breakfast with the monarch, but I'm also excited. And curious. I wonder if she's found out what happened to the classified archive and that's why she called me. Or maybe she just wanted to spend time with me. I hope it's both.

As I get in, I see the beautiful queen sitting at the table, already eating cupcakes like there's no tomorrow. Crumbs adorn her lips and her cheeks are bulging out, though her face remains as adorable as ever. I stifle a laugh behind my hand as I approach and sit in front of her.

"Good morning, Queen Anna. You look as beautiful as ever." I compliment her in all honesty as I admire her blue and black dress with pink floral patterns; comfy but elegant and made of the finest materials. Today her hair is up in an elaborate bun and she has her golden tiara atop her head.

"Good morning Elsa." She answers with a sheepish smile as she cleans her mouth with a handkerchief. "I'm glad to see you after so long. Are you doing well?"

"The usual." I shrug. "I still have headaches, greatly amplified by Kristoff's continued existence, but otherwise everything's fine."

"That's great." She smiles. "Please, take some food. Sorry I started eating before you arrived, but I was simply famished."

"Thank you." I say as I take some scrambled eggs and bread. "And… how have you been doing?"

"Well… I've had too many meetings, answered too many letters and read too many petitions." She says with a long, tired sigh. "But that's normal, so I don't complain… well, except for the investigations about the missing classified file."

"Oh! Yeah, how is that going?" Truth to be told, this is what I had wanted to ask ever since I walked in, but I figured it would be polite to make some conversation first.

"Not well." She pouts as she pushes her food around her plate. "I asked Kai (Gerda's husband) about it, since he knows practically everything that happens inside the palace, but… he says apparently my father took it out just before he… well…" She makes a vague gesture, but her sad gaze tells me all I need to know; he took it out before he died.

"Oh." I say, not knowing what to do.

"Yeah… apparently he never returned it, and instead took it on the trip with him, so now it's probably at the bottom of the ocean." She grimaces, and I know she's probably not only thinking about the paper, lying somewhere under the cold waters, but also her parent's bodies. I doubt they were ever recovered.

"Doesn't it seem a bit odd?" I ask, trying to distract her from the pain she must be feeling. "That they took such an important document with them on a trip to another country?"

"Not quite." Anna shook her head with a distracted look in her eyes, like she was trying to remember something. "They said they'd found a clue telling them how to get rid of the magic of the ice-wielders, and it was located in some western kingdom. The classified archive probably had important information about the magic of the Northerners, so they took it with them."

"Why would they want to do something like that? I thought there hadn't been any escapes in many years?" I question.

"There hasn't." She agrees. "But the question here is: at which cost?" The look she gives me when she says it gives me chills. "Many innocent people have died ever since the first ice-wielders appeared, both normal people and Northerners. Not to mention, our territory has been shrunken considerably. It would be in our best interest to find a cure, if there's indeed one."

"A cure?" I frown, not liking the idea at all. My powers, even if I don't use them that much, are a part of me; losing them would be like losing a leg, or a hand. You can live with it, but it'd never be the same again.

"I know it sounds awful." She comments, apparently noticing how I feel about this. "But I'm just saying what my parents said to me, and I have to admit that, to a certain extent, they were right. However, I doubt such thing as a 'cure' even exists."

"I… think it may." I say as my mind starts analyzing the situation. "How did your parents die?"

"Their ship sank?" Anna says, but it's more like a question.

"Yes, but how did it sink?" I ask again, trying to get to the bottom of this.

"There was a huge storm, and they couldn't make it through." She answers, lowering her gaze in grief, and though I'm kinda hating me for making her tell me all of this painful events, I know it's necessary.

"And I bet it was a sudden storm." I frown, deep in thought.

"Yes, it surprised us all. It was pretty sunny here in Arendelle." She explains. "How did you know?"

"Then it may not have been a natural storm." Her eyes widen at what I just implied, but she doesn't seem to want to believe it.

"No, that's impossible! They were like two days away from the coast when the storm happened, no one is that powerful!"

"The Ice Queen may be." I counter. "You said she keeps the entire Northern Lands in winter all year round. Do you really think causing a storm would be a problem to someone like that?" At this, she bites her lip, still reluctant to believe me, but I can see her starting to accept the truth in my words.

"But… why would she do that?" Before I can answer her question, however, she seems to realize which the answer is. "The cure." She deviates her gaze. "The Ice Queen wanted to keep them from finding it." I nod at her conjecture; I came to the same conclusion.

"It's a possibility." I say cautiously.

"But that doesn't necessarily means it exists, right? It could have been just a precaution." She retorts, and I have to agree she's right. I hadn't thought about that.

"It's still worth being investigated though."

"I'll look into that later." Anna nods with a serious expression. "And… I'll somehow find out if the Ice Queen really killed my parents." Her voice is filled with such resentment and anger, it's obvious this is still a raw wound for her… I'm just glad that anger isn't directed at me. Or at least I think it's not directed at me (I'd know if I was the Ice Queen, right?).

"I'll help you, if you want." I offer, placing my hand over hers to calm her down, but when she looks at it and then at me, I realize my mistake and get it off her like I'd been burn. "I-I'm sorry!" I hastily apologize. "I didn't mean to…"

"It's okay." She interrupts me. "It felt… nice." She blushes as she gives me a shy smile. "And it's not like I'm not touched by many people every day." I raise an eyebrow at her odd comment and she rushes to explain. "I-I mean… when the servants bath me and dress me, a-and when Kristoff hugs me and all! And I'm a very touchy person too, so…" She gives me an embarrassed smile, and I can't help giggling at how cute and un-regal she is.

"Okay then." I smile at her. "I'm glad I didn't upset you. And… it also felt nice touching you." I blush at my own words and avert my gaze, trying to conceal my nervousness. "Your hand, I mean. It's soft. And warm." I try to correct my words, but apparently I didn't help my case much, and end up feeling even more embarrassed.

"Thanks. I guess." She answers, equally awkward before we fall silent, the only sound being the one of our forks hitting the plates, for a few painfully slow minutes in which I fidget nervously and look anywhere but Anna. There's a tense atmosphere around us, but I just don't know why that is, or how to break it; just that it's making me uncomfortable.

After a few more minutes, Anna finally speaks again.

"Oh, by the way, since the scroll with the Northerner's names didn't help us to find out more about your origins, I'm thinking about sending a letter to my cousin, Rapunzel." She says in a casual tone, like the awkward interaction from earlier didn't happen. I look up at her and see she isn't flustered anymore, so I answer as normally as I can.

"And… how would that help us?"

"She's the princess of Corona, and she likes to go in town and meet all the people she can. If she hasn't see you there, she probably knows someone who has. That is, if you're indeed from that kingdom." She explains.

"I see… " I pause, trying not to show my insecurities, because really, I don't think I'm from Corona at all. "Very well. I think it's a good idea." I force a smile, but she seems to believe it, as she smiles widely in response.

"Great! I'll send the letter later today." She says enthusiastically as she keeps eating.

"Are you two close?" I ask politely when I notice her excitement.

"Kind of." She shrugs. "I only met her like three years ago."

"Why?" I tilt my head, curious about this intriguing information.

"It's better if she tells you herself." Anna smirks. "Or rather, her husband does. He always likes to get all the attention."

"Okay?" I say unsure.

"Relax, you'll like them. They're very nice people." She says, and by the way her eyes shine I know she really loves her cousin. Even if they've only known each other for a relatively short amount of time, Anna is really looking forward to seeing her again.

As I keep eating my breakfast, I can't help wondering just what kind of people they are, and if Rapunzel is like Anna at all. I can't wait to see them, but at the same time I'm nervous, because… what if Rapunzel says she doesn't know me, nor knows anyone who may know me? What would Anna do then? Would she consider that proof enough that I'm an escaped Northerner? Would she treat me differently then? I hope not. I think not; Anna is very sweet and kind after all. And yet… I've suddenly lost my appetite.

After having breakfast with Anna, she goes to do something in town and I stay at the palace with nothing to do. As always. And of course she left me with Kristoff, who didn't waste one second before glaring at me when Anna left. I sighed but proceeded to ignore him, before deciding to head to the library; at least there I can find some peace and quiet.

I started looking at the titles and picking up at least one book per subject. I barely know anything about myself, so much less about history, science and maths, right? Surprisingly though, some things seemed familiar, and as I read through each book I found I could understand the various subjects pretty well.

For example, I remembered knowing about the war between two brothers that separated Arendelle from Corona about two hundred years ago, only for them to form an alliance with the marriage of King Adgar of Arendelle and Princess Idunn of Corona, Anna's parents. I also remembered having read about Europe's economy, with Corona and the Southern Isles being two the major kingdoms that control large shares of the market. And the best part was remembering everything about geometry! And arithmetic, but mostly geometry.

I think I'll be busy designing intricate geometric patterns the next few days, but right now I wanted to keep reading, and see if I could remember something more.

However, soon it's time to have supper, and with Anna busy in some meeting, I would usually have it with Gerda. But not today, no; today I'm having supper with this bulky and smelly guard that always has a permanent scowl on his face, at least when he's with me. Yes, I'm talking about Kristoff. And let me tell you, his lack of manners is making me lose my appetite.

"Can you please stop chewing so loudly?!" I snap as he takes a big bite from a chicken's leg. When he proceeds to pretend he didn't hear me, I insist, even more exasperated than before. "Geez, it seems you haven't eaten in weeks because of how quickly you're devouring your food. It's not like it's going to run away."

"Well, excuse me, not all of us are royals." He snarls back at me, speaking through a mouth full of food.

"I'm no royal either, and yet I do act like a civilized human being." I retort.

"Ha! You sure about that, Ice Queen?"

"I'm not the Ice Queen! I mean, why would she even come here? And why would she lose her memory?" I voice the reasons I've been telling myself ever since I read the Northerner's names and descriptions and discovered the supposed Ice Queen was my only match. "And even if I was the Ice Queen, she was probably a peasant here in Arendelle." I add.

"Not necessarily." He frowns, genuinely surprised about my ignorance. "Many of the Northerners were actually nobles. Didn't you know that the ones who took the life of Anna's grandfather were in fact distant relatives of the royal family?" I blink, surprised by this new information.

"So… they actually had some sort of claim to the throne?" I ask to confirm that I heard right.

"Well… kind of. I mean, they would have still had to kill Anna's father, and a few of the higher up government ministers but… yeah, pretty much." He shrugs as he takes a loaf of bread and eats half of it with one single bite, but I'm too busy processing what he just said to even mind his bad manners.

"But… doesn't assassination attempts like that happen all the time in most royal families?" I ask, more to myself than to him. "Why did the king blame all the Northerners?"

"Well, what did you expect? That he let them go free? I mean, they did kill his father." He tries to defend the late king.

"But he could have just banished the murderers." I reason. "All the others were innocent."

"Oh, he executed the murderers." Kristoff clarifies. "So, he did spare the 'innocents'." He puts quotes the last word with his fingers. "He was a merciful and wise king." From his tone of voice I'm betting he respected and looked up to Anna's father a lot, especially after he took him in, but I have to make him see the errors on the king's actions.

"If he would have been wise, there wouldn't almost be a war between Arendelle and the Northern Lands."

"I agree. He should have killed you all before you had a chance to kill us." He snarls, pain and resentment clear in his voice. No doubt he's thinking about the Northerners that killed his family.

"Not all Northerners are bad, okay? And it's only because of people like you, so judgmental and mean, that they attack Arendelle." I answer with spite on my voice, pouring out all my frustrations on him.

"How do you know they are not bad? You don't even know where you came from!"

"Well, then...!" Before I can even begin to tell him what I think of him after he gave me such a low blow, another guard shows up and calls him, effectively ending our little dispute.

"Kristoff." He says.

"Oh, hi… uh… John?" He greets him, though apparently he didn't remember his name.

"Gerard." He corrects him, and by his name I remember he was the guard that was with Anna the other day. He's even worse than Kristoff, if I recall correctly. "The queen sent for you. Apparently, she needs you to meet her at the outskirts of the city, near the southern gate."

"Did she say why?" Kristoff frowns.

"No, but she did say it was urgent." He prompts.

"Uh… but what about Elsa?" He points at me. "I can't just leave her alone."

"I'll take care of her, don't worry." He answers curtly, like he doesn't want to prolong this conversation any longer.

"Alright, if her majesty orders it…. I guess I'll be on my way." He salutes him tiredly and gets up, and is about to get out, when he turns towards me and speaks. "Oh and, by the way, I'd go to my room and stay there for the rest of the day if I were you." He looks briefly at George in a way I can't point out what it means before retiring.

I look to my new guard and, when he just stares at me with an angry frown, I sigh and keep eating. At least Kristoff isn't here to ruin my appetite anymore, though I wonder what he meant… I hope it's nothing.

Despite spending the rest of the evening trying to convince myself that Kristoff was probably just wanting to unsettle me as I continue reading on the library, I end up retiring early to my room. As I and my guard enter the wing where my room is, though, I start to feel nervous, like a weird sensation at the pit if my stomach that tells me something isn't quite right. Every shadow looks like a monster, and every little sound is a predator trying to jump over me.

Of course, I know it's just my imagination; I'm in Arendelle's castle after all, what could possibly happen to me? Probably just Kristoff's words getting into my head, I mean, it even that dark yet! And I'm the only person here, besides Gerard.

Wait. Where is everyone? There should be servants around here at this time of the day. And why are there less lit torches than I remembered? I start slowing down my paces, hugging my midsection as my fears resurface anew. I feel some kind of anxiety and have the sudden urge to run, but still, I contain myself, trying to convince me that I'm just being paranoid.

"Turn here." Gerard says as we pass through a hall that I don't remember going down before.

"But…" I try to protest.

"It's faster this way." He insist, putting his hand on my shoulder in what feels like a very intimidating way, though is probably just placating. He must have noticed how nervous I am. Yes that must be it. I hope. But at least I'm safe as long as I don't leave the castle, right?

As we continue walking down the corridor, the silence becomes unsettling. My own footsteps seem threatening and my breathing becomes agitated. I don't know what to do, maybe I should go back? Why did I even listen to Gerard?!

Just before I can decide to go back from where I came from, I suddenly see movement at my side, and turn around to see someone launching himself at me. I try to raise my hands and create an ice barrier, but I'm a second too slow and the person manages to strike my head with whatever he's holding on his hand. I feel a sharp pain before my vision starts to fade as I crumble to the ground.

A/N: I know it's been way too long since I last updated, and this is a short chapter compared to the others, plus not much happens and it ends in a cliffhanger, but... please don't hate me, and leave a review if you can, because I will compensate you, I promise! The reason this chapter is so short is because I decided to divide it in two, and so the next week I'll update the other half :)

Also, if you want to check out the new cover for this story, you can do so at my DeviantArt, TaniaHylian :D

Thanks to my beta reader moonwatcher13.