She made her way into the throne room, striking down every intruder unfortunate enough to cross her path. Her very presence served as a beacon of hope to the beleaguered defenders.

A chilly cyclone continued to circle around the Queen, protecting her from constant attacks by the mercenaries. They tried everything they could: powerful bows, throwing knives, and even attempting to throw their swords through the freezing winds. But it would take a person of Anna's strength to have a hope of penetrating the vortex, and none of these mercenaries could hold a candle to the Knight.

Anna. Since she could sense that all five of her creations remained intact above, Elsa could safely assume that the redhead was still safely secure in their bedroom. As long as her icy warriors remained in place, the monarch was confident that no physical harm would come to her lover. Even if the unthinkable happened and she tried to hurt herself, Elsa had given her creations orders to prevent self-inflicted harm.

Please, please. Gods, don't let it come to that.

Over a hundred combatants were fighting in the throne room. The odds for the defenders were better than they had been in previous battles, as many of the Guards that had been freed by Elsa's victories had spread out to join other fights. The mercenaries still had the advantage of numbers, but the Royal Guards were making up for that with their superior skill.

And the Queen was about to render all of that moot.

Ten Royal Guards stood in a circle, facing outwards. They were surrounded by nearly twenty attackers; both sides were tentatively striking at the other's defenses. Elsa glided up behind them, raising her palms and striking several of them in the back with shards of ice. Flying around to the other side, she summoned a massive pile of snow and dropped it upon another ten invaders. Cheering heartily, the defenders pressed their advantage against the now outnumbered mercenaries.

"Your Majesty!"

Elsa's heart lurched. On the other side of the room, near her throne, Arms Master Drell was facing several determined attackers. Behind him stood Lord Arald, a line of blood visible through his severed sleeve.

Within seconds they would be overwhelmed. Drell was a skilled warrior; there was a reason she'd chosen him to mentor Anna, after all. But he was somewhat past his prime and beset by more than one experienced swordsman. They were well away from any other defenders, and Arald had no skill in combat. And as more mercenaries came to the aid of their fellows- seeing a prime opportunity to eliminate two of their targets, the odds were growing long indeed.

Elsa shot forward like a cannon, flying high over the masses of fighters below. She struck down several lone mercenaries as she glided towards the Arms Master; the actions were so smooth that they didn't even require her to pause. By the time she reached Drell, an invader had already scored a glancing blow on his leg. He raised his blade high as the Arms Master fell into a crouch.

Drell was less than a second away from losing his head when Elsa released another torrent of icicles from her palms.

The mercenaries were cut to ribbons. Drell's attacker slumped forward, a two-meter long shard of ice lodged in his back. For once, however, Elsa's aim had not been perfect. One of her projectiles had slipped pass the attackers; the edge of it sliced through Drell's arm.

"Aah!" he gave a cry of pain, but the flow of blood emanating from the wound was more of a trickle than a flood. It probably stung like hell, but Drell would live. The Queen wished she had the time to heal him, but for the moment there were others who required her aid.

"Your Majesty!" he called after her, but Elsa was already flying towards the opposite end of the room.

All around the throne room, the mercenaries lost their cohesion as razor-sharp blades of ice hailing down from above suddenly assailed them. Mindful of what had just occurred, Elsa did everything she could to direct her aim perfectly. But despite all of her practice, the Queen was not infallible when it came to directing her powers. More than one Royal Guard was struck by a glancing blow of a falling icicle, though her aim was precise enough to prevent these wounds from being fatal.

The same could not be said for the mercenaries. Many were simply killed outright by her magic, and those that survived suddenly found themselves surrounded as their allies crumpled to the ground around them. The Palace's defenders pressed their advantage as Elsa continued her barrage; more enemies fell every second as the Queen and her subjects worked in cohesion.

Suddenly, it was over. What had been a pitched battle for the throne room suddenly became a mop up operation as the invaders found themselves outnumbered by more than three to one. A tide of surrender rolled over the room as the majority of the mercenaries dropped their swords and raised their arms in defeat.

Elsa couldn't help but scoff at their naivety. If they thought that they would receive mercy from a Queen, even one who was known to be kind and forgiving to her subjects, they would be sadly disappointed. Their interrogations would be harsh, and the best they could hope for would be a life sentence in prison. Of course, continuing to fight would have inevitably led to their deaths, so perhaps they didn't have any good options.

As it should be, Elsa thought to herself. They forfeited their lives the minute they attacked my subjects and challenged my reign.

Her lips setting into a grim frown, the Queen took off through the open doors of the throne room and towards the sounds of continuing battle. She would not stop, could not stop, until every invader was subdued utterly.

It was going to be a long night.

/

The Palace's defenders were gaining ground. As Elsa fought her way through the crowded hallways and towards the entrance hall, the Royal Guards were pressing their advantage against the mercenaries. More than a small number of invaders saw the increasing futility of their efforts and laid down their arms.

But the struggle was far from over. The entrance hall was still the sight of a pitched battle, she knew. And dozens of small skirmishes continued throughout the Castle's corridors. But at last, the end was in sight.

She glided through an archway and arrived in the entrance hall. An equal number of Royal Guards and mercenaries were fighting throughout the massive room.

The entrance hall was a simple yet vital location. It's main feature was a massive door that constituted the primary entryway into the Palace. As if to emphasize that the current threat had come from within, the massive structure remained closed. Other smaller (yet still large) doors and archways led to various rooms and galleries throughout the first floor. If the defenders gained control of it, Elsa knew, the invaders would lose their last strategic advantage.

It was the biggest room in the Castle, and the Queen couldn't clear it all at once without wiping out her own men. An icy cyclone still encircling her, Elsa flew through the air. With every blast of ice from her hands, another attacker fell. She fought towards the doorway, seeking to divide the remaining mercenaries into two smaller masses.

"Your Majesty!"

Elsa turned to her left. Her heart nearly stopped. Evangeline and two of her archers were standing in a corner; they were besieged by dozens of attackers. The spymaster and her agents fired with incredible skill, taking down an enemy with almost every shot, but there were too many attackers for even their abilities to keep at bay indefinitely. Cut off from the rest of the Palace's defenders, they would be overwhelmed in moments.

No! The Queen's hands shot forward. A large wall of ice sprouted from the ground in front of the archers, shielding them on all sides. Elsa glided towards them, ready to finish off the mercenaries who-

WHOOSH! A powerful gust of air broke through Elsa's cyclone and impacted the Queen's side with tremendous force. Then she was hurtling through the entrance hall; her body was a second away from splattering against the main door.

Desperately, she loosed another blast of ice from her palms. A massive one. The magic hit the door with a BANG; the structure immediately began to collapse inward. Still unable to control her flight, the Queen went flying through the newly created hole and out onto the Palace grounds.

With an urgent flick of her wrist, a tall patch of snow materialized above the grass...twenty feet away from the shattered door. Elsa landed on it...the impact was still enough to send her head spinning.

What the hell was that?

Elsa's fall had disrupted her concentration; the cyclone was gone. And now, running through the broken doorway, was a young man. He couldn't have been much more than twenty years of age. Even at this distance, the monarch could discern his youthful features and light brown hair. None of that, however, distracted from the sense of danger brought upon by the thin, black longsword he held in his hands.

He was charging towards her, angling his sword towards Elsa's position on the ground. But it was speed that was truly frightening. He raced across the ground faster than any normal man could ever hope to move...perhaps even as fast as Anna could manage.

The Queen's mind raced. She was facing an enemy mage, one with the ability to control air. Apparently, his powers extended to more than just creating gusts of the element for offensive purposes. By decreasing the air resistance around himself and using the element to amplify his movements, he could move faster than even the most trained and talented athletes.

She hopped to her feet and lifted her palm, creating a field of icicles in his path. Snarling, the mage jumped impossibly high; a blast of air underneath his feet propelled him over her magic. He landed smoothly, ten feet away from her position.

By the time he hit the ground, Elsa was already assailing his position with a torrent of icicles. His reflexes were impressive; he managed to dodge several of the projectiles, but the mage could not keep his efforts up for long. Her enemy gave a cry of pain as one shard scored a glancing cut on his arm, and then another as a second icicle embedded itself in his leg.

The Queen could have killed him then and there, but with a sigh she lowered her palms and broke off her magic. With the mage's appearance, the dots were rapidly connecting in her mind.

Tonight's events had been no ordinary uprising. Somehow, the conspiracy that had been dogging her steps for months was involved. The presence of this mage turned any other explanation into a chain of coincidences far too long too believe.

They've been running out of numbers and resources. So when my relationship with a known criminal came to light, they used the opportunity to stir the conservative nobility into rising against me. We've suspected that they still have an agent in the Palace; perhaps he was the one to provide them with the intelligence and give them access to the armories.

Most of the mercenaries probably knew nothing of the larger scheme they had become pawns of. But this mage was almost certainly one of the conspiracy's direct agents, having been inserted into the mercenaries' ranks and ordered to aid their efforts. He probably knew more than any of the other attackers, and that meant his capture was a necessity.

She twitched her fingers, allowing the icicle in his leg to dissolve. There was no sense in risking his death by hypothermia, after all. Another flick of her wrist caused icy chains to sprout up from the ground and reach for his hands.

But even while wounded, his speed and reflexes were almost superhuman. He rolled to the left, narrowly dodging her magic, before jumping high into the air. His momentum carried him towards Elsa, and his sword was angled for her neck.

A barrier of ice materialized between them as Elsa raised her palm contemptuously. The longsword glanced off the shield harmlessly. His blow deflected, the mage fell to the ground and tumbled past. He climbed to his feet awkwardly as the Queen dispelled the barrier.

"You're no match for me," Elsa declared. "Surrender and I will let you live."

In response, the mage threw both of his hands forward, creating a wave of air larger than any the monarch had seen him manipulate thus far. The gale zeroed in on Elsa, as if the air itself was eager to knock the Queen off her feet.

Air was not her forte. Elsa was the mistress of ice, not wind. But creating cool air had always been a secondary ability granted by her powers. And her magic was powerful enough for even its lesser applications to overwhelm another mage's primary gift.

She lifted one of her arms above her chest. With nothing more than a single thought on Elsa's part, a massive gust of freezing wind swept forward from her palm. The mage's own blast of air was overwhelmed almost instantly as the Queen's attack shot forward.

The mage was lifted into the air, and he went vaulting towards the outer walls behind him. The momentum carried her opponent nearly fifty meters away, but at the last second he shot a small blast of air towards the ground. His fall cushioned, he dropped onto the grass. Then, under his own power, he took off flying towards the sky. A jet of air from each foot sustained his flight.

Elsa cursed. She was faster than he was, that was certain. But he already had a head start, and by the time she reached him, more of her loyal subjects would perish inside the Castle. Lamenting her foolishness in propelling the mage so far away, she turned around and made her way back into the building.

/

The outcome was now certain. Pockets of fighting doubtlessly continued throughout the Castle, but the victory of the defenders was all but assured. Thanks to Elsa's magic, what had been a desperate fight for survival had turned into a rout of the mercenaries.

But the Queen did not consider this night a victory. By allowing a battle to have been fought in the first place, she had failed her people. True, the outcome could have been far worse, but many innocents were dead or wounded.

Thanks to the cover provided by Elsa before her duel with the mage, Evangeline and her archers had made it through unscathed. Much of the Council remained unaccounted for, however. The Queen made her way through the Castle, helping her men subdue the last pockets of resistance and helping anyone she could. Her instructions were simple. Civilians were to gather in the throne room, which had been secured completely and was now protected by a large complement of Royal Guards. Also now under control was the entrance hall, where a makeshift infirmary had been established. Periodically, Elsa returned there to heal the heavily wounded. Every prisoner was escorted to the dungeons, one of the few sections of the Palace that had not come under attack in the first place.

She was gliding down a hallway near the servants' quarters when she heard the voices...and the sobbing.

Elsa quickly moved to the source of the sounds. The corridor was clear; there was no sign of mercenaries or servants. But as she rounded the corner, the Queen came upon two Royal Guards posted in front of a doorway.

The room they were standing in front of was known as the Servants' Lounge. It was a spacious, comfortable room where the staff could relax after a long day's work. The lounge contained many sofas, tables, chairs, and even a small library. And, most importantly, it was the source of the crying that pervaded in Elsa's ears. The voice sounded hauntingly familiar.

Noticing her, the two guards paled. "Your Majesty, we did the best we could- the survivors are safe within this room. My Queen, I apologize, but-"

"Out of my way." The guards hastily moved to the side as she marched forward, hurriedly barging through the door.

What she found was a collection of maids, servants, and guards- dozens of them. Many were wounded, and those with a paltry amount of medical knowledge among them were tending to the injured as best they could. Her gaze swept across the room-

A torrent of emotions radiated throughout Elsa's entire being. Shock. Disbelief. Rage. Then all else was swept away as an overwhelming tide of grief seized her heart, stronger than any she had experienced since the deaths of her parents.

Sitting on the ground, weeping, was Gerda. All of the staff were staring at the woman, a mixture of grief, revulsion, and sympathy plain on their faces. Kai was slumped in the head maid's arms, a massive, bloody wound prominent on his chest.

"No!" Elsa sobbed as she fell to her knees. All sense of royal decorum was gone. She shuffled forward, desperately placing her hands on Kai's chest and filling it with as much healing magic as she could muster. Gerda looked up at her in slight surprise, but the maid's eyes were absent of hope.

"It happened...an hour ago...too late," Gerda managed. Looking down at the butler's body, Elsa knew that the words were true. His shirt glistened with drying blood. Kai's face, always filled with calm loyalty and dry wit, was now devoid of life.

Before her, Gerda struggled to speak, but all she could manage was another strangled cry. It didn't matter. The Queen could pierce together what had happened. The mercenaries had targeted Kai and Gerda. Elsa had known they were after her administration, but she hadn't realized that their list would include her seneschal and his wife.

How did I forget about them?! I could have...

Of course. It made sense. Kai had helped manage much of her affairs and was a trusted, if informal, advisor. Gerda led the Castle's staff. Both possessed utmost loyalty to the crown and would never have bowed to a usurper. The nobles had considered them threats, and the guards had only managed to protect one of them.

Instinctively, she reached forward, wrapping the maid in an embrace that was quickly returned. It was only when she felt the tears dripping onto her arm that the Queen realized that she was crying as well.

At another time, Elsa would have noted how wholly inappropriate this moment was. Sobbing into the arms of a member of her staff, even one she was close to, in front of dozens of witnesses was not proper behavior for a Queen. Yet right now, that was the last thought on Elsa's mind.

Kai had been there for her since the minute of her birth. Alongside his wife, he had helped raise her, protect her, and nurture her while Elsa's otherwise loving parents were busy handling the affairs of the realm. He'd been an unshakable pillar of support for her entire reign- utterly loyal and always dependable. Despite the veil of formality that had always existed between the Queen and her servants, he was one of the few people she had been willing to call friend.

And now he had been taken from her.

They were going to pay. These monsters who had come within a hair's breath of murdering Elsa, mutilated her cousin, tortured her love, and killed dozens of her innocent subjects in their mad quest...they would pay. She would hunt them down to the ends of the earth, and they would all suffer for their crimes.

Reponses:

MpSantiago: Thanks! That balance is something I've been striving for. It always annoys me in fics where she acts too cowardly to defend her kingdom/people. She has guilt and anxiety issues, but she's not a coward.

3GS: I definitely wouldn't want to be in their shoes now.

Mickehe11: It wasn't a good option, but she didn't really have a choice. The Castle would have fallen if she didn't intervene.

SleepingZombie: Sorry, Anna didn't get to be the hero this time.

DarthVaderisNotMe: Can't say much except: excellent analysis.

WinterWolfDragon: She couldn't save everyone.

Snowboardgurl: Oh, just wait.

Syrathia: Couldn't have put it better myself.

Guest: Hey, at least I update every week!

Suroir: Unfortunately not.

Leelan: I'm sure Anna feels the same way.

Shtoops: You're welcome!

ClaireCooper: So what's this, then?

Sedryn: Looks like you were right to be worried.

Knzoewrwlf: Thanks. I thought it was time for a change of pace.

JPElles: Yeah, she's pretty angry...

Moonwatcher13: Don't worry, there are more battles for Anna to fight.

Jascmaster13: You never know...

Sephyxia: Dont worry about that...

ObsessiveImaginings: Fixed, thanks!

PascalDragon: You'd be right.

Arkanderu: She won't be killing innocents, but the problem of their families will be addressed.

Anonoodles: Thanks! I've tried to keep the mystery relatively vague. Hopefully the answers aren't overly convoluted.