Paradigm Shift: Flamorin's Point of View

As we enter into the main entrance room of the ice castle through two gigantic doors, my eyes are presented with a sight of wonder and fascination. The walls and ceiling, although made entirely out of ice, are opaque, yet with no evidence of impurities being present. The floor is a smooth and, despite one would expect from ice, is walk-able due to the presence of a desirable amount of friction, although, as far as I am able to see, it is as smooth and fine as any marble flooring that one would find in a castle. Directly ahead of me, there is what appears to be a fountain made of ice with the appearance of having been frozen in time and its moment being captured in a solidified state. There are two ice staircases of which huge the walls with an ice railing only on the left side for the right staircase and only on the right side for the left staircase. The staircases seem to get wider as they progress upward. Both end up on the same floor, of which another ice railing overlooks the entrance on a level platform. Behind this railing, there is another door that is made entirely out of ice; however, the ice does not have enough transparency to betray what lies behind them. Other than the gothic-like and almost architectural pillars and chandelier-like ice structure hanging from the angular ceiling, the castle seems actually empty as if it was merely a sculptor or architect's masterpiece instead of a dwelling for someone to reside.

Despite the ice castle's beauty, it can easily be overlooked as being a ridiculous amount of space for two elementals and a, um, kitsune to be residing. Regardless, the castle is not important at the moment. The matter of importance is that Elsa and I are together again. Together, we are free from betrayal. Together, we are free from royal and political responsibilities. Together, we are free to be who we want to be. And together, we have a home along with Akari, my new vulpine friend.

"So, um, Elsa?"

She turns to look at me with a seemingly exaggerated smile attempting to mask something. "Yes, my Flamorin?"

I feel my cheeks slightly blush from Elsa possessively stating my name. "I am glad that I was able to find you, Els—OW!" I feel something nip me on left leg. Looking down, I find a very irritated Akari accusatively glaring at me with malevolent eyes. "Of which would not have been possible without you, Akari."

"You better be thanking for me." Akari states in a matter-of-fact manner.

Elsa merely giggles at Akari's antics of acquiring recognition from me for her deed. "What were you saying?"

"I was wondering why you are out here in this castle instead in Arendelle ruling as the newly appointed queen."

Elsa's facial expression transitions rapidly from one full of glee and euphoric gratification into one of which immediately gives me the impression that her mind seems not to be in the current moment being enveloped in emotional hurt. She seems very reluctant to look at me directly eye-to-eye and, instead, her eyes are fixated upon the icy floor. "…I-I…I'm not comfortable talking about it now, Flamorin." She looks at me very apologetically. "I'm sorry." Her eyes return back towards the ground as if fearful of creating too much eye contact.

I place my right hand on her left shoulder, grasping it gently in an attempt to comfort her. The sudden physical contact seems to surprise her in which Elsa quickly brings her attention back to me. "It's alright Elsa. You do not even need to tell me anything at all if the subject makes you uncomfortable. I was just curious. If anyone should be apologizing, it should be me."

"You don't need to apologize, Flamorin. I want to tell you; however, I just still don't feel comfortable discussing it, yet. But, there is something that I want to ask you."

"What is Elsa?"

"Why weren't you able to attend my coronation?"

"Can we sit down somewhere? I am not sure how long this is going to take."

"Sure. Just hold a second." Elsa extends both of her arms somewhat away from her body with her palms open. Mists of ice begin to congregate in front of her like an obedient icy cloud. Without any warning, the mist of ice sprays onto the icy floor and almost instantaneously solidifies and accumulates upward taking shape under Elsa's guidance. In a moderately rapid pace, the ice begins to form into an anthropogenic construction of an artistically cushion-like loveseat made out of ice. "There! Well? What do you think, Flamorin?"

"It's perfect Elsa!" I exclaim while sitting down on the left side of the loveseat. Elsa's garment shroud shortens into a length that is comparable with a formal dress. Then, she takes the spot next to me to sit down upon. She looks at me with overly excited giddiness and joy before fondly wrapping her arms around me and resting her flawless head upon my shoulder.

"Thank you! Now you can tell me exactly why you never made it to my coronation."

"Then, are you willing to tell me what led you her on the North Mountain?" I notice that Elsa's embrace to slightly tightens.

"Um, I promise that I will eventually, Flamorin…but…" She turns her head away from me shyly.

"It's alright Elsa. You do not need to tell me if you are not comfortable discussing it." I say in a soft tone trying to comfort her as much as possible.

"I wonder what happened to her? Now that I think about it. Why is Anna not with her? Did something happen to her in Arendelle? Or, maybe, she does not know what happened to Elsa. I really want to know but not at the cost of Elsa's wellbeing. Whether she tells me or not is her choice to make alone."

"So, what happened Flamorin?" I feel my heart being overwhelmed with deep sorrow at the utterance of this seemingly simple question bringing back memories of which I wish were lies. Memories that I wish were not of such tragic events. I do not shed a tear at this, even though my heart begs me to let go of this unexpressed emotion.

"Coup happened, Elsa."

"A coup by who? Please tell me. Do not leave me in the dark. Let me help you." She says while gently placing her soft, warm and comforting right hand on my left cheek attempting to encourage me to make eye contact with her. Out of fear, however, I try not look at her directly in the eyes in order to maintain my composure to explain the horrendous occurrence behind coup in Weselton.

"It was that devious and traitorous Duke, Herald Shortheim. He was responsible for the coup. He sent assassins in an attempt to murder me; however, I managed to escape from them. When I went to make sure my parents were okay, they…they were being held hostage by their very own Weseltonite soldiers. That is when that fiendish Duke revealed himself to me and divulged his maniacal plans behind his coup.

"Apparently, when I got shot by one of the assassins bolts, it was covered in a poisonous substance of which began to take affect as the Duke struck me an evil deal. He was willing to offer the antidote to the poison that was affecting my body only if I became subjected to him as one of his generals or die with my parents as the poison slowly kills me. Assumedly, you and I are not the first elementals that he has seen in his lifetime.

"When I rejected the coup, he…he….he…." At this point I find myself not being able to hold back my the sorrow of the belated emotional pain of witnessing my own mother and father being heartlessly murdered in front of me and the horrendous memory of the revelation of their deaths. I start to sob and grab Elsa into a desperate hug.

She remains stiff for a few seconds before placing her own arms around me and gently caresses my back with one of her hands. "It is alright, Flamorin." She whispers softly to me. Eventually, I am able to regain some composure and calm down and Elsa slowly and carefully moves out of the embrace as my desperate hug upon her loosens. She looks at me directly in the eyes and this time I am not reluctant to do the same. Her eyes, although betraying some sorrow, reveal complete empathy for me causing me to smile at the comfort of having someone so close and understanding to me as Elsa.

"…D-did he…um…m-make them…y-you know…?" Elsa stutters, as she seems to hesitate to find the correct way to ask me a sensitive question without having to bring back such painful and unforgiving memories back into my mind. Nevertheless, memories are memories. They are not easily forgotten whether desirable and happy or undesirable and dark. These memories are the undesirable and dark variety and they are no exception.

"Yes…he did…right in front of me." I pause to take in a deep breath before my mind and line of vision wander into the memories of which I force myself to tell aloud. "After that, I lost control of myself. I experienced that primal state."

"So, like what I have right now with this, er…What was it called again?"

"I think (if I remember correctly) that yours is called a 'garment armor shroud'. However, that was not the one that I experienced. The one that I experienced is called the knight armor shroud.

"The only thought I had was that anyone involved in the coup, anyone who knew about the coup yet said nothing, and anyone who supported the coup must pay. I was willing to see this wishful desire by any means. Nevertheless, this urge was almost immediately replaced by another wishful desire."

"What was that?"

"To warn you and save you from that unforgivable, poor excuse of a duke. Since he knew that I was an elemental, I feared that, if he found out (or already knew) that your are an elemental, he would try to assassinate you also or even force you to become one of his subordinates."

"Wouldn't that be suicide? Arendelle and Weselton have an alliance with each other. Doing something with that much psychopathic idiosyncrasy would cause an immediate termination between any trust and alliance between Arendelle and Weselton. Wouldn't it, Flamorin?" Elsa gives me a look of disbelief as if hoping somehow or someway that the things that I am divulging are not entirely true or are merely slight exaggerations of my fears.

I probably am looking at her with the most serious facial expression that I have shown to anyone until now. "Considering that it did not matter that I was the Prince of Weselton or even that my parents are the King and Queen of Weselton, if the opportunity seemed optimal to him, it would be difficult to imagine him not taking advantage of the opportunity to seize you." I look at her in the eyes with some hesitation. "I am sorry having told you this."

Surprisingly, Elsa seems to be filled with joy. "No, Flamorin." She gives me a peck on my left cheek. "I am glad that you told me this!"

"R-Really?"

"Yes! Now, I do not feel like leaving Arendelle was a selfish decision. Since that dwarfish Duke does not know where I am, and thanks to Arendellian law, they cannot name someone to be the new king or queen of Arendelle until after exactly 2 weeks have passed since a ruler or rulers' absence or disappearance without notice prior to him, her, or them leaving Arendelle's established territory. In addition, the assumed posthumously named king or queen must be of the same bloodline or of the closest bloodline. In other words, without me there, that Duke cannot gain control of Weselton without arousing suspicion."

I just look at her with a dumbfounded expression fixated upon my face. "Wow…"

"What?"

"Nothing. It is just that I am surprised that you memorized that much of Arendellian law." I explain in a playful manner.

"Hehe! Well, you shouldn't be since you were the one that helped me. Remember?"

I chuckle a bit at this. "Yes, I do, Elsa. But, aren't you, at least, worried about Anna?"

There was a sudden and uncomfortable silence within the ice castle as Elsa's mood rapidly shifted from one filled with joy to one filled with either emotional pain or cordially felt betrayal. After what seems to be forever, Elsa looks at me with a very adamantly serious facial expression.

"How about you finish your story. Then, I will tell you what transpired in Arendelle of which led me here, Flamorin." She states with monotonic apathy.

"I hope something did not happen to Anna while I was at Weselton and, inconveniently and unavoidably, fleeing Weselton. Nevertheless, I should not be jumping to any conclusion before Elsa even tells me what transpired.

"S-Sure." Still taken by surprise by Elsa's rapid transition of mood.

I tell her the rest of what happened: the second attempt of the Duke's minions trying to kill me, the hundred soldiers that threatened to kill (and then amassing a devastating power of which incinerated some of the traitorous soldiers into dust and dealing with the remaining foolishly brave soldiers), being nearly murdered by my own instructor in swordsmanship (Sir Longfield the Champion of Weselton), and being saved by Father Bart who turned out to be a wood elemental. Although I did explain how I managed to meet up with Akari, I purposefully left out my encounter with Sir Dultin Parintime feeling the urge and inclination that now is not an appropriate time to be discussing that. Elsa seems to have enough worries at the moment. I do not want to add to those worries.

"So, are you telling me that you were able to fend off a hundred soldiers thanks to your fire element as an elemental?" She asks with curiosity and concern.

"One, I told them I had no intention of fighting them and implied only a desire to leave. Two, once they saw what happened to the soldiers that tried assault and charge blindly at me, a ridiculous majority of them fled and ran away leaving me with only a handful to confront. It certainly was not easy nor 'a walk in the park'. And three, I am not proud of it."

She blushes after saying this. "S-Sorry. It's simply such an amazing and unheard deed that I am having a little difficulty believing it. That is all." She says almost hesitantly while redirecting her attention to the icy floor as if unsure of how to handle my experience and what I managed to do.

"Do you hate me now, Elsa?" trying to keep my confidence as my own paranoia attempts to excavate its way into my train of thought and alter my behavior forcing myself to look in a random direction hoping to maximize the possible of avoiding direct eye contact with the woman that I love sincerely and unquestionably. Nevertheless, who would not be paranoid about I know that we are both elementals; however, I cannot help how such a eye-opening revelation may or may not affect another's view of yourself. "I mean, I killed people with my own powers. Am I a just a monster? Why didn't I just—"

SLAP!

The sound echoes throughout the ice castle a hand slaps me on my right cheek with surprising force but not hard enough to leave a mark or to cause noticeable harm. Elsa suddenly pulls me into a tight hug. "Never, no matter what happens, think that I will ever hate you, Flamorin! I am just happy that you managed to flee Weselton alive. You only killed them because they did not leave you with a choice." She starts caressing my back gently in an attempt to comfort me.

"But Elsa—MMPH!" My protest is silenced and my mind is brought back to a sense of soberness as Elsa kisses me affectionately on the lips. I return the favor and kiss her with as much affection back to Elsa understanding her concern of me. I do not know how long we kissed but, when we finally pulled away from each other, it felt like a non-measurably amount of time.

When the kiss ends, Elsa looks at me directly in the eyes that seem to radiate with her trust, love, care, and affection for me and I cannot help but to smile happily at her with a light chuckle, which she returns with a smile of her own and her distinct and cute giggle. "I am sorry, Elsa. I guess that I have become so paranoid as to what people that I don't even know view me as that I have forgotten the one' that truly love and care about me are the only ones that matter in the end." Feeling my anxiety and worries leave me, I playful put my hand on Elsa's cheek and caress it gently. "Especially you, my love."

Elsa blushes deeply before, almost as quickly, the pigmentation on her face turns back to its normal hue and starts laughing and slides off her newly made ice-couch and roles on the ice floor with laughter that would make a hyena easily jealous. This causes me to chuckle and break into a laughter of my own, having never seen Elsa react to something humorous with this intensity of laughing.

A/N: *BOOM!* Yeah! Baby! I'm back! In addition, I am working on Chapter XVIII now! I am sorry if there is not as many "jolly" moments in this chapter compared to prior chapters. However, rest assured, there will be some comical relief in the following chapter. Until then, thanks for reading!

- A. J. F. Link

A/N P.S.: Going to Walt Disney World for vacation has really been helpful in finding inspiration and stronger drive for this story.