Chapter 1

An unnatural rain pounded on the roof of Arendelle Castle when Gerda woke her king and queen. "Lady Idun," she said cautiously, "Lord Agdar, I apologize for waking you at this late hour, but I'm afraid this is an urgent matter."

"Of course, Gerda," the king replied, a stifled yawn the only indication that he had been asleep. Gerda had always admired how well he held himself in any situation. He and his wife made to leave their bed, pulling night robes around themselves.

"It's a babe, Your Majesties. A babe was left at the gate, frozen to the bone, the poor dear, with a note." Gerda withdrew the note from her apron pocket and read it aloud:

"Hail King Agdar and Queen Idun

"Please forgive me for my boldness and irresponsibility, but I can no longer care for my daughter. I know that you still have not borne a child, so I consider it my responsibility to help you in the only way I can. I have no money to offer as thanks or to help with her upbringing. Please, love her as your own despite her abnormal abilities; I'm afraid she was born with them. I have named her Elsa, but you may call her by another name if it suits you. Again, please accept my deepest apologies.

"Your Faithful Servant"

"A babe? Oh, Agdar!" Lady Idun grasped her husband's arm as she spoke. "A little girl? Where is she? How old?"

"She's not but a few months old, at my best guess," Gerda said solemnly, "I ordered a few of the maids to take her to the kitchens to warm and feed her."

"What of these 'abnormal abilities'?" King Agdar asked cautiously, always the practical thinker.

"My Lord, I have not seen anything out of the norm." Gerda waited patiently as the king and queen exchanged a meaningful look.

"Please give us a moment, Gerda," the king requested.

"Of course, Your Majesties," Gerda said, bowing as she backed out of the royal chambers.

"A babe!" Lady Idun whispered excitedly, rounding to face her husband.

"At what cost?" He asked dramatically, raising his hands as he spoke, "What if this is some kind of ploy? Some kind of trap?"

"Oh, Agdar," she shook her head. "You suspect everyone of treason."

"Our safety is of utmost importance," he reminded her, "after all, our country needs us."

"Agdar!" the sternness in his wife's voice startled him, "How dare you be a pessimist in such a promising event? Give the infant a chance before you decide that she's a spy or a threat." She extended a shaking hand toward him. "Come, let's meet our daughter."

"She's not our daughter yet," he reminded her, but Queen Idun recognized a tone of resignation in his voice. King Agdar offered his wife his arm, and they made their way to the kitchens.

"Look at those blonde locks!"

"Awwwww! She has my finger!"

"Poor little dear! How anyone could leave a face like this behind…"

"What a darling! And with those shocking blue eyes!"

All of the maids cooing over the abandoned babe jumped as a throat cleared from somewhere near the door. Realizing that they were in the presence of royalty, they quickly, quietly turned and bowed.

"Your Highnesses," one of the younger maids said, as she presented a cradled baby Elsa to the royal couple. Queen Idun held back a gasp as she carefully took the child she already thought of as her daughter. Her husband stood over her left shoulder staring cautiously at the child, and Idun nearly laughed at the thought that he was afraid the baby could control his mind.

"Elsa," Idun whispered, testing the way the name felt on her tongue as she gently bumping a finger to the child's hand. Tears brimmed her eyes as tiny fingers encased her finger. Agdar knew how badly she wanted a child, and after all of the trouble they'd had trying… Of course, no one knew about that. She had listened to her mother's advice the first time she had become pregnant and waited to announce the pregnancy to the public, and she continued to follow this rule through the years. It was impossibly difficult to lose her children, but she was comforted, at least, that all of Arendelle didn't know of her miscarriages. Her doctors and staff knew, of course, but they had all been sworn to secrecy, propriety aside. Agdar would need an heir, as well. He would know if the laws could allow for an adopted woman into the lineage. Idun looked cautiously away from her daughter - there was no thinking of her as anything else, now - and to her husband.

Agdar was looking adoringly at the child, a small smile curling the corners of his eyes, and, was that a tear barely clinging to his cheek? Idun turned to embrace her husband with her spare arm, cradling their child between them. The king gently brushed a thumb along Elsa's cheek, in awe of how soft and small she was. Her blonde hair tickled the palm of his shaking hand, causing a loving smile to bloom across his noble face.

"Elsa," he answered his wife's unspoken question. The name somehow fit the crown princess of Arendelle. "I will call for a wetnurse right away," he said as he looked at his wife. She silently nodded without looking at him. "I will need to do some paperwork right away." She looked at him briefly before nodding again, then listened to his footsteps fade as she slowly swayed her daughter to sleep.

Agdar decided that it would be safer for Elsa if they kept her origin a secret from the general public. It may be difficult for her to maintain power as a female heir, but he would not allow anyone to discover that she was not actually of royal blood. Of course, the necessary officials would know, and the doctors and staff, but they had all signed contracts of secrecy in the past. And there were laws protecting her claim to the throne, but the king knew how much damage could be done by gossip, and he wanted to protect his daughter any way he could.

Sitting in the high-backed chair behind his elegant oak desk, he sighed. A sigh of relief, he guessed, a sigh of happiness. What a surprise to suddenly have a daughter and an heir! Idun's joy was impossible to misinterpret. Her poor, tired, broken heart seemed to instantly be healed by just gazing into the child's big blue eyes. King Agdar pulled open a drawer to his right, extracted a roll of parchment, and began to write a Declaration of Adoption. He smiled to himself while he wrote, his joy growing with each pen stroke. They had a daughter, a child, an heir, a family!

Two nurseries had already been prepared in hopes of a royal baby, and Queen Idun chose to house Elsa in the blue room, the room closest to the royal chambers. After lying her daughter down in her new crib, the queen bid Gerda watch over her and hurried to meet her husband in his study. She did not want to be away from Elsa for a moment, but feared their discussion would wake her. The early morning staff looked quizzically at Idun as she nearly ran through the halls, a sight they'd never seen before.

When she finally reached the king's study, the queen threw open the door with no concern for propriety or her husband's privacy. She stopped in the doorway as he met her eye. He was smiling more earnestly than she had seen in years, and she knew her smile matched his. He silently extended a flattened roll of parchment toward her, his slanted handwriting apparent through the page. Idun approached his desk to take the parchment and read the Declaration of Adoption four times over before running to her husband and throwing her arms around him. Tears were openly streaming down both of their faces as they held each other, the Declaration of Adoption fluttering unnoticed back to the king's desk.

"I'm sorry to interrupt," a voice came from behind the queen. Kai politely bowed as the royal couple quickly dried their eyes and turned to address him, but the steward could not hide the worry from his eyes.

"What's troubling you, Kai?" the queen asked gently, stepping forward in her concern.

He seemed to steal himself before he managed to say, "The babe…"

"What happened?" both king and queen said as they rushed toward the door.

"It, well, she is safe," he assured them. This only managed to slow the royal couple, but they were already through the king's study door, hurrying to the nursery. Kai ran behind them as he spoke. "But, Your Majesties, it is snowing above her crib." He nearly ran into the king as the couple abruptly stopped in front of him.

"It, what?" King Agdar replied, his royal baring faltering for the first time in Kai's memory.

"It… it's snowing, sir," the steward stammered with an embarrassed half bow.

Queen Idun gasped, abandoned all concerns for appearances, and sprinted toward her daughter. The door to the nursery was already open, an awe-struck Gerda guarding the new princess. The queen ran directly to the crib, brushing at the small snow cloud that hovered over her daughter as she reached toward the babe, but a sound stopped her from scooping Elsa up. A giggle, her daughter was giggling, and reaching tiny fingers toward the snowflakes as they neared her.

Idun held up a hand to halt her husband as she heard him rush into the room.

"She's laughing," she said in awe. "Do you think…" She looked at her husband, "Do you think she's making the snow?"

"No," he said immediately, though doubt clouded his face as he moved to stand beside his wife. Idun carefully lifted the infant from her crib and jumped when the cloud followed, hovering now just above her own head. Elsa giggled, reaching toward a snowflake that drifted above her face. Tiny blue sparks jumped between her fingers and into the cloud, and the snow intensified. Her parents' eyes widened as they looked at one-another.

"'Abnormal abilities'..." the king muttered. "We have to keep this power quiet, no one may know outside of our family." With a sigh, the queen looked back at the baby and nodded. "Gerda and Kai will keep our secret; they are most faithful servants." He looked over his shoulder to see that the subjects of his last comment had shut the door to give them due privacy. He always appreciated his wonderful staff and considered some them friends more than employees.

"This does not change anything," Idun said sternly. Her husband looked at her for a moment before shaking his head and pulling the rest of his family close, Elsa's snow falling around them.