Love Turned Cold

Chapter 10

Things weren't looking too great for the travel party either. After several slow days of climbing up, they were thoroughly exhausted. Gerda's hope was slowly starting to fade, and Anna was getting desperate. It'd been so long since she traversed the North Mountain that she'd forgotten how tough a trip it would be.

It wasn't just the exhaustion that was discouraging, it was the discovery of an ice wall that barricaded Elsa's ice palace inside and surrounded the entire perimeter of the mountain. On one hand, Anna was impressed with her sister's ever-powerful abilities, but on the other hand, this just made things far more difficult. Her sister had built yet another wall for her to get through, if only she could find a way to open the door again.

"Now what?" Robert asked. He looked left and right, the ice wall extended far beyond what he could already see, and he knew they would never be able to walk around it and get inside.

"I can see if my fire can melt the ice enough for us to break through," Soleil suggested. Anna nodded her head and gestured for the others to step back and allow the young Northuldra woman to do so.

Soleil pressed her hands on the ice as she warmed them up, the sound of ice sizzling was very satisfying and promising to the group. She concentrated as much heat as possible in her hands as her pink fire slowly began to melt through the thick ice, leaving handprint shaped indentations behind. So far, it was very encouraging. Soleil finally built up enough and fired a strong blast through the holes she created, forming thin tunnels through the other side.

Anna knelt down and peeked through. It was indeed a very thick wall, as she moved her eye around, she spied the glamorous ice staircase to her far right. They just needed to create a hole big enough to get everyone through.

"You did good, Soleil. Take a break, okay?" Kjerstin suggested, as her brother helped Soleil sit down and breathe.

As the others sat down and rested, Kjerstin joined her aunt's side, who still stared at the ice wall.

"Aunt Anna? Why don't you come and sit with us? We'll get back to the wall later on." Anna didn't respond, her stare was intense, but filled with sadness.

"I waited for so long to be able to help your mother open up to the world again. To love herself, and see herself the way I always saw her. And I always tried to get her to open that door," Anna bit her lip and fought back a sniff, "and seeing this... it breaks my heart. And I can't even fathom what must be going through her mind."

"We'll fix this. I promise... but. We do have to take care of an issue." Anna knew what her niece was referring to. He had to be taken care of. Her fists clenched at the mere thought of him, and what he did to ruin her family.

That worthless, good for nothing rat rotting away in the dungeon, awaiting the fate he knew would be coming.

"Something tells me... when we bring your mother back, we will let her choose his fate," Anna said quietly. Kjerstin's eyes grew wide. She knew what her aunt was implicating, and truthfully, it had never occurred to her, she had never heard her aunt speak so coldly before. She knew he would have to be dealt with one way or another. But given his crime against her family's crown, his treason... it was the only suitable option.

The man that was her father in law, was to die at her mother's hand, and she was not sure if she was ready. But as the queen of Arendelle, she understood her duties and would allow her mother to go forward with whatever she chose, they just had to bring her home first.

The young queen joined the little fire set up thanks to Soleil, and pulled her husband aside, he had to know what her aunt told her. This was his father that would be punished, to the extent of execution, and she had to tell him.

"Robert. We need to talk." She said. Robert quickly got to his feet and stood aside with his wife, understandably worried.

"What is it?"

"It's about your father."

"What about him?" Throughout the trip so far, Robert had been thinking deeply about his relationship with his parents, particularly his father. They had their moments, good moments, but Robert did always suspect there was more going on in his father's twisted brain than he ever let on. And it became quite evident the night of their coronation, how two-faced Hans was.

"Aunt Anna told me that my mother... should be the one to decide Hans' fate." She whispered, only so he could hear her.

Robert's breath hitched momentarily, processing her words. His father would be executed by his mother in law. Not that Robert didn't believe that wasn't the right type of justice, he fully accepted it, but hearing it being uttered from his wife's mouth was different.

During Robert's early childhood, he'd been kept away from his father's family, as Hans wanted nothing to do with them. He never really got to know his uncles until he was about 12. It was challenging to be the son of a disgraced prince, formally charged with treason and attempted murder. Robert didn't quite know how his mother, Charlotte, got with his father, but perhaps some things were better left unknown.

Several of his uncles did try to form a decent relationship with Robert as he grew into his teen years, they understood well enough that children do not always have to become their parent. And they taught him since Hans was mostly absent from that part of his life, and Robert was grateful, but sometimes he wished he had a different father.

But what mattered now was fixing the mess his father created, and to hopefully bring the family back together to support one another. He did fear though of what might go wrong if they weren't able to help his mother in law and bring her home.

No matter what though, he had faith in his wife and her family.