Elsa being super creepy

The Duke of Westleton wondered what he was even doing here. Why had he put back into this tranquil bay, this dulcet port? He knew its appearance was deceiving. He knew the monstrosity that lurked amid the calm.

 

And yet... Arendelle's riches were too much to pass up. It was a small country, but exceedingly fertile and blessed with great mineral resources. And damn him, he was too greedy to turn away. So he was in the castle again, making his way to the great public throne room.

 

As he walked through the doors, he happened to glance around and see many familiar faces. There was the Duchess of Brughes, in all her odd grandeur; and, why, there was King Ansleg of the Dane-Lands, of all people! He even spotted Prince Karl of the Southern Isles. In fact, the more he glanced about, the more he realized that the guest list for this 'formal apology' was pointedly familiar. Nearly everyone here had attended Queen Elsa's coronation. There were some exceptions- Prince Hans was obviously not in attendance- but all in all, the guest lists were eerily synchronized.

 

But the Duke paid it no mind. Queen Elsa was not so foolish as to send her sword-hands among a crowd of nobles for some overblown revenge plot. And besides, he hadn't REALLY done anything wrong. Why, those men had both been arrested.

 

So he took his seat with his fellow nobles and dignitaries, in a crowd of chairs before the throne. There was a general din of noise and conversation, most of it centered on the Queen. But when the servants shut the windows, the noise died down.

 

"My fellow nobles."

 

The voice came from the back of the room. The Duke turned with his fellows to see none other than Queen Elsa of Arendelle, striding through the twilit doors of the throne room, a swing in her hips that was downright scandalous. She wore her hair down, as she had the day she had been captured, but her dress of effervescent ice had been replaced with a deep aquamarine gown. As she had when she was a horrible witch (because of course she was horrible still), she did not wear a crown.

 

"I suppose," Elsa said, striding to the front before the throne, "you're wondering why I called you here today. Some of you have come a very long way indeed, and I'm surprised that so many of you deigned to visit us again after the... indignity of your previous visit."

 

No one spoke. Elsa smiled, and it went all the way up to her eyes.

 

"Well, while it seems quite excessive, I have called you all here to apologize, formally, for your treatment during my coronation. The outburst of extranatural events was wholly uncalled for, and I, Queen of Arendelle, wish to extend my formal regrets."

 

Elsa raised her eyebrows in a way that was downright scandalous. The mirth in her features was difficult to conceal, and this raised the Duke's hackles. Was she about to kill them, after all?

 

"In fact, to show there is no ill will meant, I would like to offer all of you a gift. A token of my unique, peculiar generosity. Bear with me," she said, and her hands began to work.

 

The temperature in the throne room dropped several degrees. Teeth began to chatter, muted white dropped like a screen into the air. The Duke was terrified. The Queen was preparing to kill them all! She was...

 

Well, she was dancing, swishing from side to side, and her magic was conjuring swirling centers of ice in the air. Spheres spun into existence, globes of ice knitting themselves together tightly. And those globes were encased in other globes, pulling together. Still the Queen sashayed. Still the ice formed.

 

At last, there were dozens of small spheres hanging in the air, and in those spheres were smaller spheres. They began to float out into the audience, dropping into the laps of the assembled dignitaries.

 

"These globes are yours," said Queen Elsa. "They are enchanted never to melt. Take them back to your native lands with you, and let them serve as a reminder of Arendelle's craving for friendship. Thank you; you are dismissed."

 

 

The Duke of Westleton stood in the courtyard, holding his 'gift.' It was shaped, all told, rather like an eye, with a smaller sphere encased in a larger one. It seemed to peer up at him, and the more he stared down at it, the more terrified he became.

 

"I don't quite understand," said one prince, standing next to him, staring down at his own gift. "Was the whole point to put on a magic show for us? I don't-"

 

"You're a fool, boy," Westleton said.

 

"Huh?" the prince said. "What do you mean?"

 

"This!" Westleton held up his eye with a shaking hand. "This is no gift. This is a THREAT."

 

"What?" the prince recoiled from the older man's presence. "What do you mean?"

 

"You were here, weren't you?" said the Duke. "You were here the night the Queen's sorcery first revealed itself. Don't you remember? It was wild, untamed. Scarcely under her control. And now... THIS!"

 

"I don't follow," the prince said.

 

"You dunce!" the Duke said. "If the Queen can go from clumsy walls of ice to THIS," he shook the icy eye at the prince, "her mastery of her sorcery has increased a hundred fold! Think of what she's capable of now! Think of what she could do to my nation- or yours!"

 

The prince's face turned as white as snow. "I... I didn't think..."

 

The Duke turned away from him in disgust. He glanced down at the icy eye. "We shall have to treat Arendelle with more caution in the future," he said. "Much more caution."

 

"Ah, good, SOMEONE understood the point of that display."

 

"Huh?" Anna said, turning from examining her face in the mirror. She had gotten a shiner in boxing practice this morning and was wincing at the purple around her eye.

 

And she gaped when she saw her sister. Elsa was standing by the window. Her eyes were wide open, and they were blank, glowing white. Yet even as Anna watched, Elsa blinked, and her eyes were normal again.

 

"I assumed Westleton was smart enough to grasp the meaning of this invitation," Elsa said, dress billowing as she went to her desk. "And he's been the ringleader since I kicked him out of Arendelle. This should put any plans he's made against us on hold."

 

"How do you..." Anna's eyes bulged. "Elsa, can you SEE out of those things?"

 

Elsa smiled serenely at her.

 

"And HEAR?"

 

Elsa kept smiling.

 

"How can you... how is that..."

 

"They ARE made of ice," Elsa said. "And if they all take them home, as I think they will, I'll now have eyes and ears in every palace within an albatross' flight of Arendelle."

 

"Elsa," Anna said gingerly, "that's super, super creepy."

 

"I suppose it is," Elsa said, swiveling her chair around to look out the window. The dignitaries were making their way back to their ships. "But I'll always be creepy. Might as well put it to good use."

 

Was it Anna's imagination, or had the room gotten colder?

 

END