Jelsa -ice alliance ?

THE COUNCIL

8: THE COUNCIL

At the end of the day, Queen Elsa still had the last word, and would lead her kingdom as she saw fit. However, to do so without the approval of The Council was to guarantee that some random aspect of her life would suddenly, and inexplicably, become impossible to manage. Whether they did it by working to sabotage her agendas in congress or by using the threat of political offense to pressure her into uncomfortable state dinners and unnecessary foreign debates to take her away from her sister, when the beautiful young queen "misbehaved," in the eyes of The Council, they would always find a way to punish her.

It wasn't that she didn't know what they were doing, because she did—the men on The Council made sure of that, despite the subtle, sneaky, and above all impossible-to-prove tactics they used to try and control her. For Elsa, every new reform and attempt to improve the kingdom was a personal sacrifice. But that didn't stop her from doing what she believed was right.

In the young queen's eyes, sacrifice was simply a part of the job.

Gripping the file to her chest as she stood outside the conference room, she closed her eyes, shakily pulling in her breath. Forget the young man in her sleeping quarters, for now. She had to focus. She had been preparing for this moment for three months.

Which somehow made everything even scarier.

You can do this, Elsa thought desperately, pressing her lips together. The peasantry needs this. You've spent the last three months setting this up under the table. Just stay calm. Calm, cool, confident. Be. The Snow Queen...

Slowly opening her eyes, she saw the heavy doors before her being pulled open by the guards, the long, dull creaking of the hinges familiar and terrifying all at the same time.

"QUEEN ELSA, OF ARENDELLE," the spokesman announced.

With the sudden bustle of pushing back chairs and grunts and groans, the dozen or so men seated around the long table all dutifully stood up, turning around and staring at the young woman in the doorway.

Elsa's heart leapt into her throat.

Queen Face!

Fighting against a sudden wave of panic, Elsa frantically forced a smile, drawing herself up as she gripped the file to her chest. The men around the table smiled back threateningly, and she stiffened, struggling to keep her breathing even as she started the long, sweeping walk past all the members of the Royal Council to the end of the table at the opposite side of the room.

They've got nothing on you, she thought desperately. You've got everything figured out. The funding, the construction time, the economic benefits. All in this folder. Just stay calm...

It wasn't like she didn't know these men. Most of them were personal friends of her father's, members of the nobility that had watched Elsa grow up, taking over the affairs of the kingdom during the three-year gap between the King's passing and Elsa's coronation.

Despite the overwhelming success of Elsa's previous reforms, the unspoken rule in the Council was that anything new, original, or different was unacceptable. After all, to a group of people that profited off of tradition, there was nothing in the world that was more offensive than a new idea. Especially in the case of something so dramatic, like this. The housing reform was Elsa's most recent secret project, the numbers and estimates and plans that she gripped with white knuckles, desperately trying to prepare herself for this moment.

Because today, Elsa told herself, she was going to do it. Despite the personal risk and sacrifice, the Snow Queen was going to push this reform through.

And they were not going to like it.

Finally reaching the end of the table, Elsa stood up as straight as she could against the knot in her stomach, silently begging the air around her to not become spontaneously populated with snowflakes.