Elsa of Corona Chapter 35 Part 3

[butterflydreaming]

For part 4 my current multi-chapter fic, I'm posting in-progress updates to this journal. The chapters will go up on Archive of Our Own and Fanfiction.net after completion.


Instead of being sequestered in her room, Elsa is sent by her parents to her Uncle and Aunt, the King and Queen of Corona. King Thomas and Queen Primrose are thunderstruck at the idea of caring for the girl, since their own daughter, Rapunzel, was kidnapped as a baby and is still missing.

Elsa and Anna write letters to each other while Elsa grows up in Corona and Anna grows up in a castle full of people and life. Away from the anxiety exacerbated by her parents, Elsa has more control of her secret ice powers.

Elsa's fate to become the Snow Queen, however, is not so easily escaped.

Full work through Chapter 34

Part 1

Part 2

ooo

Flynn strode along beside Elsa, letting her lead the way without letting her get ahead of him. It was a little petty of him, he knew, to use his longer stride so that he didn't trail behind her like a stray dog on a string. He expected her to throw a verbal barb or two his way. Instead, she seemed closed off, more introspective than angry.

She was starting to remind him of the girl he found hiding in an empty upstairs room, alone in a party dress and borrowed tiara.

She was probably just tired. A few hours of sleep in a feather bed had done Flynn wonders. He might still want an afternoon nap after lunch, like he used to do when he regularly stayed up all night. But he had been sharp enough to perceive that the king and queen were keen to position him in a good light. He got none of the judgement from them that he had gotten in spades from Elsa.

"I expect you to tell me everything," Elsa said, opening a door and indicating that Flynn needed to pass through ahead of her. She stepped in immediately after him and shut the door. "I want all the details of the night you took the tiara. Sit there." She took a chair behind a desk after he sat down where she pointed.

The room was a study. The furnishings were set up for comfort, so while Elsa's chair was plush and high-backed, it looked like a chair meant for long hours of reading. The desk had a blotter, writing instruments, and a lamp. Flynn's chair was a sturdy armchair. He considered kicking his feet up onto the paired footstool and leaning back. Judging Elsa's mood, he restrained from getting too comfortable. She might decide that the dungeon, after all, made a better interview room.

"There's not much to tell," Flynn said. "Once I had the jewels, I high-tailed it out of the castle. I decided that the boys -- the Stabbington Brothers -- could take care of themselves. I sure wasn't going to stick my neck out for them."

"Take care of themselves? Did you think that they had a means to escape?"

Elsa was asking the right kind of questions, but she still seemed distracted. Flynn answered, "I had no idea they would escape."

"When did you last see them?"

"Four years ago," Flynn said. "The last time I saw them, they were being marched into your dungeons. You don't seriously think I've had anything to do with them since then, do you?"

"Why don't you try being helpful, Eugene?"

Now Flynn did lean back. He crossed his arms. "I plan to be. You could give me a chance, Princess."

Elsa didn't rise to his bait. Instead, she took paper out from a desk drawer and uncapped an inkwell. Continuing in a spiritless manner, she said, "Why don't you just say what you are going to say? Anything that you think might be helpful in finding them now."

Flynn uncrossed his arms but didn't sit up. "I never knew much about them. They were supposed to have gone off to one of those eastern lands with a that has miracle doctors. It's been a lot of years. I don't remember which one, but it was somewhere that he could get his eye fixed up."

"His eye?" Her eyes flashed upward. They were bright blue and alarmed. The little bit of color in her cheeks fled.

"One of them had a bad eye." Flynn left it at that, sorry he had made any reference to Elsa's explosion of magic when the Stabbington's went after her on road.

"They were on their way to find a surgeon, then," Elsa said, regaining composure but not color. "That means they would have tried again for medical care after their escape. This is good information. I recall now the report that one of them was bandaged. With the border crossing watched, they would have had to go by sea." She frowned. "It would have been good to know this four years ago. We have a record of the foreign ships and their outbound routes. The ships were all searched, but only as much as allowed by the captains." She gave him a measuring look. "It will be a good opportunity for our new diplomat to follow up on the information we have."

"You getting used to the idea?" Flynn asked.

"My aunt and uncle seem to want a place for you. If they see the makings of a diplomat in you, then I accept their experience and judgment of character." Elsa bit her lower lip. "I guess they like you," she said, with a great exhalation. "Rapunzel is their daughter. To be honest, I never considered that you would care to be anyone but Flynn Rider, a swashbuckling blackguard."

"I figured Flynn Rider would retire someday."

"In the lap of luxury, I image," Elsa commented.

"Yes. In the lap of luxury," Flynn replied, preparing to argue. "And before you say it, that's not my goal here. In some ways, Blondie has traded one ivory tower for another. It's not the life I would give her, if I could. We'd have freedom. We'd have time to know each other before deciding the rest of our lives together." He sat up and put both hands on the edge of the desk, leaning forward toward Elsa, who stared at him with a face as bland as a mask. "We'd be happy because we'd be free to be whoever we wanted to be."

Elsa's eyes narrowed slightly. "No one gets to freely be whoever they want, poor or wealthy. Everyone has a role to play. Tell me that you are done being Flynn the scoundrel, so that I can trust Eugene the way this royal family already seems to trust you. Because if you are playing on their good will--"

"You'll have me executed? Banished?" Flynn interrupted. She was never going to trust him. What was the use?

"If you are playing on their good will," Elsa repeated, "you will break their hearts. The hearts of good people who have born a terrible sadness for eighteen years."

Flynn retreated back into his chair, sighed, and rested his arms on his knees. "I can see that they are good folks," he told her. "I think Bl...Rapunzel accepts them already. I know how I would feel in her place. Never knew my father. Barely remember my mother. It would be something, to suddenly get such a great family."

"We've digressed," Elsa said. She shuffled the papers on the desk and fussed with the ledger and the ink blotter.

"Let's get back to it," Flynn agreed.

"I'm going to give you a chance," Elsa said, surprising Flynn. "Nearly everything I know about you has been testimonial. It hasn't been things that put you in a good light. So if I see who you are firsthand, I might find out that I had a wrong image of you." She didn't smile.

"You're protective. I get it," Flynn said. He could meet her halfway. "A real chance is all I'm asking from you. So we're good for now?"

Elsa nodded, and this time something almost like a smile did touch her lips. Her spirits still seemed muted. "For now."

"Get your pen ready," Flynn said. "I think I can remember some more things about the Stabbingtons. They played their cards close to their jerkins when it came to personal information, but recall coming up with theories based on whatever they dropped. Give me a minute to think about it."

"Take the time you need," Elsa answered. "The trail is four years cold, and we have all morning."

ooo