So...who's seen Frozen 2? Not me lol. If any future chapters connect to or are similar to the movie it's completely unintentional.

Chapter 17: Reunited

"Couldn't this have waited until tomorrow? Now I've lost my train of thought." They were in a small office connected to the library where Queen Mirella was sitting at a desk covered with scrolls and papers. Among the bookshelves was a glass case displaying an array of ship models, taxidermy animals, and other trinkets all placed in an unorderly manner. On the walls were shadow boxes with butterflies and other insects pinned carefully against a canvas, the scientific names scribbled underneath each specimen. A telescope stood in front of the window by a massive star chart, and various breeds of antlers adorned the room. As Elsa stood with her arms pinned behind her, it occurred to her for a moment how out of place the fashionable queen appeared among all these curious objects.

Sigurður, who posed next to her, shook his head scoldingly at the three guards. A tall lanky guard barred the door to unnecessarily prevent Hans' escape. The one with the black beard stood against the wall gripping Elsa's arms painfully while the short chubby one grasped two wriggling sacks of snow.

"And you, Siggi," Mirella spat. Sigurður's face would have gone white if it wasn't already naturally. "Why did you lie?"

"Lie...Your Ladyship?"

"If you had told me the truth, we could have sent someone to finish the job-" Elsa winced. "-And no one would be interrupting my work right now."

"My sincerest apologies, my lady," Sigurður pleaded. Hans, who stood calmly in the center of the room, glanced at Elsa's helpless expression for a moment.

"Never mind," she snapped, eyeing Hans curiously. "Prince Hans," she called to him sweetly. He quickly turned his gaze from Elsa to Mirella.

"I'm not a prince," he corrected.

"The youngest of the royal Westergaard family. And, I daresay," she added, "the handsomest." Hans glared at her. "I've made a trip or two to the Southern Isles," she explained. "Unlike some monarchs I know," she sneered, glaring at Elsa, "I like to form a bond with my neighbors. But you probably don't remember me. Your brothers never really let you in on foreign affairs, did they?" She said it sympathetically rather than mockingly.

"How do you know all this?" he asked.

"I know things," she responded flatly, "I know that the late King Caleb Westergaard II had thirteen sons, but I never saw more than five of them at a time during my stay. But who doesn't know about his youngest son, Prince Hans? How you attempted regicide and left my precious Anna to freeze to death...You're probably the most famous Westergaard of them all." Hans cringed. It was a fact he would always fail to forget.

"I'm very impressed actually..." she continued. Hans glowered at her. He did not want the respect or adoration of this woman. "...If it weren't for the fact that it was my throne you were trying to steal. But you didn't know that, I guess, so I forgive you."

Hans furrowed his eyebrows. "What are you talking about?"

"Oh, my cousin didn't tell you?"

"Cousin?"

"Elsa," she clarified. Hans slowly peered at his friend, who was looking at the floor. "She's nothing but a fraud. Her father exiled my father, the late king, sending him here and then ordering him to be executed so that he could have the throne for himself. Hah!" she laughed, pointing at Hans, "Kind of like you!" Hans made no reaction. He was only more confused. Before his first arrival in Arendelle, he had heard nothing but the highest praise for King Agnarr. "And then, naturally, Elsa decided to horde the throne for herself when her parents died rather than seek me out."

"But I didn't kn-!" Elsa tried to shout, until her captor abruptly put a scaly, rough hand over her mouth.

"But it's okay now," Mirella continued, "She agreed to give me back my kingdom, and I agreed to give her back Anna, so we're all squared away. So now that Elsa's a worthless nobody, what do you think of her?" She signaled to her cousin, and Hans turned to her in disbelief. A tear formed in Elsa's eye as she searched his expression in order to decipher what his new opinion of her was. She couldn't read him.

"Hmmm," Mirella mused when Hans didn't answer, "Now the question is, what should I do with you? I could just kill you like Siggi failed to do…" Elsa gasped. Hans shivered and gazed at Mirella in fear. "But maybe…" Suddenly her eyes went wide as if she was having an epiphany. Then she smiled sweetly at the captive. "Let's keep him too," she exclaimed. Elsa and Hans both sighed deeply in relief. "Maybe he can join us for my step-son's birthday celebration tomorrow." Hans hardly heard what she said. She laughed at his dumbfounded reaction to the recent revelation. "Clean him up and get him ready for dinner, and tell the servers to set another place at the table."

"What about these, your Ladyship?" the stout guard asked lifting up the wriggling sack with difficulty.

"Uhm…lock them in the ice box. We'll deal with them later." Elsa had no time to retort before she was being dragged out of the office.