Disclaimer: I do not own Frozen or anything else recognizable in this work belonging to Disney. This work is purely fictitious and any characters resembling recognizable, real persons both living or otherwise is coincidental and unintentional.

Author's Note: This is set in an kinda-AU I've been planning to use at some point. Hope you guys enjoy while I try to get out of my writer's block funk for my trilogy I'm currently working on!

[EDIT 12 July 2017] This posting is intended to be complete with no real ending (the actual fic will follow a traditional format for a plot). Each chapter is intended to be snippets of time and self-contained.

[EDIT 18 July 18 2017] This fic is dark since it contains subject matter such as death, insanity, and implied suicidal actions. This list is not comprehensive, h̶o̶w̶e̶v̶e̶r̶,̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶w̶i̶l̶l̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶w̶r̶i̶t̶t̶e̶n̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶a̶ ̶w̶a̶y̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶b̶r̶e̶a̶c̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶p̶a̶s̶t̶ ̶T̶-̶r̶a̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶e̶r̶r̶i̶t̶o̶r̶y̶.̶ ̶H̶o̶w̶e̶v̶e̶r̶,̶ ̶f̶e̶e̶l̶ ̶f̶r̶e̶e̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶m̶e̶s̶s̶a̶g̶e̶ ̶m̶e̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶f̶e̶e̶l̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶r̶a̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶s̶h̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶c̶h̶a̶n̶g̶e̶d̶ ̶a̶t̶ ̶a̶n̶y̶ ̶t̶i̶m̶e̶.̶

[EDIT 25 July 2017] This fic is now rated M since the addition of the chapter titled "Illusion" under my own discretion. I felt that the subject is pushing too much into grey area that I don't want to worry about rating anymore.

The chill grew stronger in the kingdom of Arendelle, its citizens struggling to keep warm. At this rate, there was no way he would be able to return to Weselton. And to add to the ever-increasing frustration, that foolhardy prince that Princess Anna had left in charge was recklessly giving away all the rations and supplies to the people in the town.

Of course, Prince Hans had pulled the "I'm in charge of this place" card when the duke pointed this out. And when the duke suggested the idea that Princess Anna was possibly an accomplice to the sorcerer queen's actions, that friendly face the royal had given as first impressions turned terrifying.

But oh, did the duke ever notice that slight hint of doubt and fear that the prince's "beloved Princess Anna" wasn't the person to help bring back the summer.

It was in that moment that the duke realized that something about Prince Hans was not adding up.

So when the royal gathered volunteers to retrieve the princess, and hopefully end the mad queen's terrorization of the kingdom, the Duke of Weselton decided to take it upon himself to investigate the Prince of the Southern Isles by asking around.

The people of Arendelle were of no help to him.

"Never heard of him in my life," one citizen told him. "But he seems like the perfect kind of man for our Princess Anna."

"I've heard the Southern Isles had thirteen princes, but Prince Hans definitely wasn't as active socially as some of the others," another said. "He certainly carries the same generous spirit his family is famous for, that's for sure."

So on and so forth. But he was no closer to any clues to the Prince Hans' backstory. What was he in Arendelle for? Why not one of his brothers? What kind of rumors surrounded him? Because one knew a lot about a person through what passed through the grapevine. Not what was explicitly said, of course, but there is usually some modicum of truth in them that makes lies seem like they can be taken as facts. All you needed was enough pieces to figure it out.

Surprisingly enough, the visitors to the kingdom had a lot to say about Prince Hans.

"He hates the public in his home kingdom," a dignitary from Spain had told him. "He's rarely seen out and about, and I'm pleasantly surprised that he didn't carry that attitude over here. It seems that he enjoys the work."

"A friend of mine who lives in the Southern Isles told me that he liked to hunt," another visitor said. "Now that's all fine and dandy; after all, a man of his status is expected to engage in some kind of sport. However, my friend said Prince Hans is obsessive about it. Knows the ways of a crossbow like nobody's business. Can kill pretty much anything with one shot, his target never knowing what hit them. Now, that's not even the most interesting thing I heard about the guy: what kind of man who hunts as humanely as possible would tear up the animals like a madman afterwards?"

The duke was almost going to give up on his efforts since it felt like there was nothing to glean from the populace. They were telling him things that he already knew: his contradiction in character, that there was very little that anyone knew about the Southern Isles' prince. Though that story about Prince Hans' fixation about hunting was disturbing.

Then there was one person who had that final piece that put it all into place.

"The people over in his homeland call him a 'fae child,'" the visiting woman told him. "Since out of all of the princes, everyone agreed that he was the most peculiar one, that there's this strange atmosphere around him every once in a while. There were even rumors that there was magic in him, but we all know that's impossible. He's well past the age where they go homicidal, of course. Oh, poor Queen Elsa. Her family likely didn't know about the madness that accompanied her powers. Or Arendelle, for that matter. They don't even have a mandate about magicians, can you believe it?"

While the fact that Arendelle had no policies about people with magic was interesting, the fact that Prince Hans himself was rumored to be a magician was even more intriguing. After all the Southern Isles, while not the strictest when it came to a magician gone mad, was the most thorough in outing them. The fact that one of their own in the royal family had something as dubious as being called a "fae child" in such a place?

This prompted the short, elderly man to wander around the courtyard, trying to piece together the puzzle that was the suspicious Prince Hans.

The lack of congruency in character, the fact that he was already well into his twenties, mutilation of animal corpses, just secretive in general? The prince could just be a by-rote case of insanity, if he didn't appear to compose himself so well.

Add in the possibility that he could be a magician? Now the stories looked like the feeble efforts of a man trying to hide something. Something dangerous. Like magic.

However, it was likely a preposterous idea. Something as bold a statement as that was dangerous to make if one didn't have enough evidence. Queen Elsa made it easy for him due to her very public display during the ball.

Prince Hans, on the other hand? The clues were subtle. Too subtle. Enough for the duke to just go back to square one and ask around again.

But then he caught a flash in the corner of his eye.

He turned his head to see it was light being reflected into his eyes from a mirror just inside the foyer of the open door to the castle. He almost wrote it off as insignificant – until it occurred to him that the sky was overcast with clouds. Such intensity of light should not have been reflected.

He looked around, trying to figure out where the light must have been to be the source of the reflection, even so much as stepping up the stairs leading into the castle. He took care not to slip on the accursed ice as he did.

Then a thought struck him, a faint recollection of the heated events after Queen Elsa fled and left everyone else to suffer.

How in the world did Prince Hans know he slipped on ice when the man wasn't even around when it happened?

The duke looked at the mirror, then the ice at his feet.

With a scowl, he came to a conclusion: Prince Hans was a magician.

The Duke of Weselton made it his duty to end the prince's "perfect" charade.

Author's Note: As you can probably see in me not updating Immurement for so long… I've come to accept the fact that I've caught a case of writer's block. For the few weeks leading up to my intended update schedule, I was in denial (What? Me? Writer's block? Impossible!) for a while, thinking my inability to write was simply because I had no time. Well… I've come to terms with it, now. I'm sadly not immune. Hopefully giving myself some time away from obsessing over the plot will allow the words to flow easy once again after my little break.

And so, to hopefully make up for the lack of any kind of update, I present a little one-shot in apology. It's actually a whole full-fledged idea that I was going to write after I finished my trilogy, but here's a little peek into it. It's not going to be a part of the actual story, per se, since it's following the mind of the Duke of Weselton, but the events themselves follows pretty closely to what I intend to write in the future.