A/N: Wow. I've recieved so amazing response to this story. Thank you, both who are following, are susbrided and favorited. Thank you.

It came to my attention that the child abuse and rape warning might put people off reading this story, so I'll say that the warnings are there because those topics are mentioned, implied and sorted through the story. ANNA WILL NOT BE ABUSING ELSA, and if she does it would be unnintentional and she'll be begging for forgiveness soon after doing it.

With that out the way:

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the story... nor the characters, idea or image are mine. I'm just playing with it.

Chapter Two – The News

Clink.

"Nana?" Elsa asked softly. Her Nana for the first time in a long while had been quieter than usual. She had not rambled about her schedule the next day and she had barely talked to her about the usual Castle gossip at lunch. Something was fishy and she did not know what to think of it. "Is there something the matter?"

Clink.

"Of course not, Your Highness." The older woman said with a nervous smile and Elsa immediately knew she was lying.

Clink.

"I heard we have a visitor." The Crown Princess said conversationally. Of course she did not hear, no one ever talked to her or around her. But she could not tell her Nana that she had seen this visitor arrive and Advisor Kai been whisked away to tend to the matter.

The hands on her head stopped its ministrations and Elsa had to hide a smirk at having made the older woman pale slightly. Her Nana, just as the rest of the staff, was always the epiphany of calm indifference, never showing any real emotion or inclination to anything, really. Having her react was almost as satisfying as annoying her professors and Mistress. "Where would Her Highness hear that?"

Elsa shrugged lightly, just a barely there movement of shoulders. "I heard some whispers."

Her Nana sighed. "Her Highness should not hear things not mean for Her Highness ears." She said almost to herself. "No, we are not hosting a guest, Your Highness." She addressed Elsa.

"Then who is staying in the Green Room?" The young princess went directly to the point. She did not care they were fostering strangers in the Castle, she did not even care if they put a beggar in her parents' room, but no one should ever stay in that room. And no one would if they did not want winter to last forever. Consequences be damned.

The older woman bit her lip and had Elsa not been a little on the angry side she would find the sight funny. Who would have guessed Nanas did peasant's faces? "Your Highness," The woman began hesitantly. "That is not a matter I'm allowed to discuss, at least not until Your High-"

A knock at the door startled them both. Bed time was a time that saw Nana and Princess alone and having someone interrupting them was not heard of. There was no real reason to seek Elsa at night, whatever matters that needed to be discussed with her were often addressed just after lunch and before her evening lessons. Not even her parents sought her out after they said their goodnights at dinner.

Making sure her night robe was properly covering her night dress the young girl channelled her princess' voice and called out. "Enter."

Advisor Kai stood at the door and bowed low to the girl. Elsa, frowning, got up from her low stool and addressed the man. "Advisor, you may rise."

"Your Highness," He said. "I am sorry for bothering you, but an urgent letter has come not half an hour ago." He held out a yellowish envelope.

The young Princess took the proffered piece of paper and was not surprised to see the wax seal already broken. All the letters were read by a scribe before going to her Mother unless the letter was confidential in which case Advisor Kai would be the one reading it… and by the look of the broken seal this one had been one of those confidential ones.

Retrieving the parchment from insides the envelope, she was surprised to notice that the letter was addressed to 'Her Highness Crown Princess Elsa, Daughter of Queen Idunn, of the Most Royal Family of Arendelle'. Since when people send her confidential letters? She read the short missive quickly, her eyebrows coming together in utter confusion and dread. It was written in German so it was not that she did not understood the words, even when it was written in the most formal way possible and she had to double check some of the most complex sentences, but rather she did not understood the meaning.

Or at least, she did not want to. She refused to.

"Advisor?" Her voice trembled and she felt a heavy weight settling on her chest.

The man lowered his head. "Please receive my most deeply felt condolences, Your Highness. I sent a messenger to Corona to see if the missive is true. Her Highness would know in a week at most."

"Do you not believe this to be true?" Elsa asked as she fought to keep breathing, not to panic.

Advisor Kai sighed as her Nana tried to understand what was happening. "I believe it true." He confessed. "But I pray to the Lord the messenger will prove me wrong, Your Highness."

The blonde girl stiffened and rubbed at her temples, trying to ease the pain that was forming there. "I need you to contact Anna." She requested. "She needs to be here if- if- they-" A sudden sob cut her speech as she battled to say the words, words that were so damning to be true. She hung her head as a hand found its way to her mouth, trying desperately to muffle the sobs that were begging to be released.

The Advisor took in a deep breath. "Her Highness Princess Anna will be informed immediately… Your Majesty."

Elsa's head shot up at the new title. "No." She demanded. "Do not call me that. Not yet."

The trusted servant smiled sadly as her Nana muffled a gasp behind her hands, finally understanding what they talking about. "With all due respect, Your Majesty, we all shall get used to the name sooner rather than later."

The tears finally started rolling down the Princess', now maybe Queen, cheeks. "No." She sniffled. "No. No. No. No. N-No. No! NO!" She screamed with all her might.

Her Nana tried to put a hand on her shoulder but the Young girl shrugged it off. "Your Majesty-"

"NO!" She yelled again. She stood straighter and, even when the streaming tears somewhat ruined the image, she put on her best commanding face and used her most stern voice. "Until we know for sure and Anna is here no one will address me as that. I am still the Crown Princess, I. Am. No. Queen." She could not be Queen, she did not want to be Queen. Not yet. Not ever.

Advisor Kai gulped and for a moment he was reminded of Queen Idunn's, now probably deceased, commanding glare. There was no doubt the young girl was her Mother's daughter, not only did they share the same facial features but they had also been bred and raised to be the same kind of monarch. Seeing the somewhat small ten-years-old's posture and domineering aura he did not doubt the girl would fill in nicely her predecessor's shoes. "As you wish, Your Highness." He again took a deep breath, knowing what he was going to say would make the girl even more emotional than she was now. "However I must inform you that Her Highness Princess Anna arrived today at mid-morning so I will go and tell Her Highness this news as soon as I leave here."

Elsa's heart skipped a beat.

Around mid-morning she was with her Mistress training with her ice daggers and surely she would have seen her sister arriving to the Castle. Her sister was never easy to miss, her strawberry blonde hair always caught the sun in a way that it looked like it was on fire and her tall form, or at least she had thought of her tall of those years ago, made her one of the persons Elsa always saw first. How was that she did not see her?

And then she knew. The cloaked figure at whom the guards had bowed, the same that had knew its way around the Castle with no servant and the same that had walked in as if it owned the place. Also, it was the one that was staying in her room. "S-She arrived t-today?" Her voice failed as her heart clenched painfully. Why had not Anna go see her the moment she arrived?

"Yes, Your Highness. Her Highness Princess Anna asked to be left alone until she deems it appropriate. Her Highness has settled in her old room and has not gotten out since Her Highness short meeting with me."

Elsa's eyes were unfocussed for a second, still thinking how it was that her sister had not gotten to see her immediately. Well, it did not matter, Elsa was going to her. NOW. Before the Advisor or her Nana managed to stop her, and stop her they tried, she was out the room and headed in a furious sprint towards where her four-years-absent sister was.

Four years. Four long and freaking years since she last seen her beloved sister. Four years since the older Princess went away, partially to travel and partially to escape her marriage contract. To escape their parents. To escape their Mother. To escape the woman that constantly berated her, compared her to Elsa and, more importantly, reminded her how Powerless she was. How useless she was.

Elsa was no fool and she knew, not that it was a well-kept secret, everybody knew, that their Mother hated Anna. Not only the Queen had to get pregnant again thanks to Anna but the older Princess had made their Mother's life difficult at every turn. Anna was not Elemental and by Arendelle's law she was not worthy of the Throne, so the Queen had to have another child… it was a miracle Elsa had been born woman and had an Affinity, any other outcome would had led to their line's extinction.

She knew, she had read her Mother's hidden diaries, that she had been their last hope after a long list of miscarriages that had made the Queen and King fret and worry over who would reign once they were gone. Countless of babies had died few months after being conceived, many of them, those that had reached the second trimester before also dying, had had been males and also useless to the Matriarchal Monarchy that ruled Arendelle. Many had died before she survived.

And all because of Anna. Or so their Mother wrote.

Somehow for the first time in recent history, or at least in the last century, a non-Elemental child had been born in the family. Sometimes Queens would marry non-Elementals, but their children had always held the Power. Anna did not. She was born as normal as a peasant girl and the only reason her parentage was not questioned was the fact that Queen Idunn had carried her and she had been born exactly nine months after their parent's wedding.

Anna had been a healthy baby with a happy disposition and a smile and a laugh for anyone that came close to her crib, or so her Nana told her one night as a bedtime story when Elsa had cried over her travelling sister more than three years back. There had been no concern over the firstborn's Affinities, sometimes children took more than a year to develop their Empathies, but when Anna turned two and there was no sign of the Power…

Both the People and the Church had demanded another child and so the long years of fruitless pregnancies began. The first miscarriages were a tragedy and Fate had been blamed. Pages upon pages were wrote in her Mother's diaries asking God why they were being punished, why He did not want the family line to go on. But then, four years after the first miscarriage, something had happened that made her Mother think their punishment was not so, but rather it was a curse set upon them by no other than their first born.

Elsa had spent several hours, when she could sneak at night to the library or she would have the rare day off, searching the reason why their Mother had decided it was Anna's fault but so far she had found nothing. Once she had asked Anna why their parents did not hug her as they sometimes did Elsa and she had received her sister's week-long cold shoulder and a harsh reprimand from her Mother for her curiosity. Elsa had been four then and she had learnt quickly that there were topics that were not to be mentioned, ever.

Just as there were persons that were not to be mentioned in front of her parents: The Duke of Weselton, the Chief of Berk and Anna, among others. They were people that her parents hated on different levels and that they had to interact with for the sake of the Kingdom and they were bitter about it most of the time.

Reason why little almost seven-years-old Elsa had not blamed her sister when the older Princess decided to hit the road the moment she turned eighteen. Princess Anna had left the moment she was considered an adult and the Castle had let go a collective sigh of relief, the months before her departure had seen everyone tense and waiting for disaster to strike the more the Queen berated her firstborn and the more angry Anna become.

And so, on the Summer Solstice four years ago, the redheaded had grabbed her horse, gathered some supplies, gave her little sister a quick kiss on the lips and fled before daybreak… and before their parents could order the staff not to give her anything to take. Elsa was not sure but, considering the scary rant and the yelling her Mother did, she firmly believed that Anna had taken more than clothes and food. That she never again saw the Queen and King's crowns, crowns that had been in the family since their line ascended to power, made her believe her big sister might had financed her trips with something more valuable than gold.

Finally arriving to the Green Room she skidded to a stop. She had lost Advisor Kai and her Nana some hallways back and for once she was thankful that this part of the Castle was mostly inhabited. The Green Room, that was in reality a series of small rooms and chambers, practically had its own wing and gained its name from the old moss coloured tapestries that hung all over the place, making it dark and dreary. No one set foot there other than the newest, the ignorant, servants as some rumoured the halls in that wing were haunted, so it was no surprise there was no one around to stop her.

She stared at the door with intricate moss cravings, knowing Advisor Kai and her Nana could catch up with her sooner or later yet debating with herself if she was to knock on the door. Even when Anna had been living in the Castle Elsa never bothered her in her room, the times she had seen her were those of meals, the rare walks through the gardens and the odd together time at the library… the younger princess rarely ventured to this part of their home, not that she had had much time for visiting, anyway.

"Your Highness!" The Advisor's voice echoed in the empty hallway and she knew it would not be long before the servant arrived. That the old man believed as fervently as her parents that she should not interact with the older Princess made her instantly start pounding on the door with all her might.

"Anna!" She yelled as her small fists hit the wood violently. "Anna!"

"Your Highness!" Advisor Kai's enraged voice called even closer, making her panic. An enraged Advisor was nothing she wanted to see… or hear. She just hoped this small disobedience act did not count as losing control. She had not seen the High Priest in more than five months out of the monthly services and confessions and she was not planning on seeing him any time soon.

"Anna!" Her scream broke mid-word as her despair grew. "Open the door! Anna!"

"Your Highness!" The Advisor had finally arrived and she could see her panting Nana turning the corner at the end of the long hallway. "Her Highness- Anna did not want- to be disturbed!" He scolded her in between deep gulps of air but thankfully he did not touch her. So far so good.

Elsa frowned. She knew the only reason the old man did not want her seeking her sister was that he did not want the Crown Princess interact with the cursed older Princess. "I want to see her." She demanded in a tone perhaps more fitted for a normal, peasant five years old.

The servant echoed her frown and laid a heavy hand on her shoulder, making her gulp. "Her Majesty Queen Idunn," He said in a sombre tone. "Did not want you to mix with such scum, Princess."

Elsa winced as she let the man led her away from her sister's room. The Advisor rarely dropped the formalities and when he did it only meant he was pissed beyond rationality. "But-" She started only to be cut abruptly by a something that made her blood freeze.

"I'm sure His Grace would be willing to see you at this time, Princess." He said coldly. "Anything to make sure Her Highness is in perfect control."

"That will not be necessary, Advisor." Elsa said in a small, trembling voice.

"I am sure it won't." He concurred, satisfied.

The young Princess was taken to her room and left there. It was past her bedtime and after a long day and an even longer night she was beat. Laying on her bed she drifted off to sleep wondering why would Anna not go see her and if in fact her parents had fallen ill and died in their guest suit at Corona. Her dreams were plagued with her sister's face and her parents' pale forms, nightmares filled with the moss colour of walls and the white colour of sickness, with the sea breeze and the putrid smell of decay, with the sounds of hooves and the echo of death.

Unknown to her, in the darkest room of The Green Room, a lone silhouette stared at out the window to the cloudless sky. Its pale skin so similar to the moon reflected on the calm sea. Its red eyes a start contrast with the blackness of the night.

A/N: Leave a review and make my day?