At the sudden sound of men shouting and running, Elsa snapped her book shut, took a moment to check her appearance in the mirror, and walked out of her cabin. She was almost run over by a sailor rushing past.

"Begging your pardon, Your Majesty!" he said breathlessly, terrified that Elsa was about to rain down the wrath of royalty upon his head.

"It's quite all right," she assured him briskly. "Carry on."

He nodded and ran up the stairs. Elsa followed him. She didn't run, but her stride was that of a queen determined to know what the commotion was about.

On deck, Captain Peter Danielsen was giving orders to his men. Elsa hung back and did not interrupt him, for if this was an emergency, she would simply be in his way. She waited until he finished before approaching him.

He turned to the queen and spoke a single word. "Pirates."

He looked to starboard and Elsa followed his gaze. A brigantine was headed straight for them.

"Can we outrun them?" she asked.

Captain Danielsen shook his head. "We were heading into the wind, and they're riding with it. They came from the other side of Naess Island and cleared the promontory at the same time we did. We can turn and run, but they're already so close that they'll catch us long before we can reach safety. I made the decision to stand and fight." The question hung unspoken in the air between them: would his queen approve of his actions?

"You've done well, captain," Elsa said. "I defer to your knowledge and wisdom in these matters."

"Please secure yourself in your cabin, Your Majesty," he said.

"Will the pirates begin their attack with a cannon volley?" Elsa asked.

"Yes," he said. "In about thirty seconds, I'd say."

Elsa quickly removed her bracers and shoved them into her pocket. "Then this should be over swiftly. I won't be going below, captain, but thank you for your concern. Please do not argue, I don't have time to explain."

Captain Danielsen nodded and shouted at his men, "Prepare to fire, hold until my order!"

The pirate ship turned so that its guns were pointed at the Andersen. Moments later, a series of explosions rocked the pirate ship's deck, along the side nearest the Andersen.

The Andersen's crew stared, mouths hanging open, as the pirate ship dissolved into fire and chaos.

"I think you'll find that the pirates have lost their stomach for battle," Elsa said, putting her bracers back on.

"What just happened?" Captain Danielsen asked.

"I blocked up their cannon muzzles with ice," Elsa said.

Captain Danielsen looked at Elsa, dumbfounded, then looked back at the pirate ship.

The Andersen, its crew cheering wildly, quickly left it behind.

 

Elsa enjoyed a lovely visit for two days with the king and queen of Norway before moving on to Sweden. She then visited several of the German and Prussian states, which was a little tricky politically, as there was now such animosity among them that some people were predicting the German Confederation would dissolve soon.

She gladly left all Germanic politics behind to visit Denmark. It was here that her breath was taken away, when King Christian introduced her to his daughter, Princess Stefanie.

Stefanie wore an elaborate beige gown and beautiful jewelry, but it was her flowing brown hair, her smile, and the intelligence evident in her eyes which took Elsa's breath away. Elsa smiled with delight upon meeting her. "It would be lovely to spend some time with you before I leave," she found herself saying, then mentally kicked herself, wondering if she was being too forward.

"Why yes, of course!" Stefanie said.

It took all of Elsa's willpower and training to keep her mind focused during the rest of the evening. She gave the royal family a brief demonstration of her power (paying careful attention to Stefanie's reaction, which didn't seem to be too bad), and reassured them of her harmlessness and her commitment to peace. But throughout the conversation, her heart did little flipflops whenever she looked at Stefanie.

When she retired to her guest room for the night, she had trouble writing in her journal. She had trouble falling asleep. All she could think about was Stefanie.

As Elsa lay in her bed and stared out the window, she reflected on the irony of it all. She had prepared herself for political intrigue, for mistrust, for requests to use her magic in warfare, for trade agreements, and for a dozen other scenarios. She had not prepared herself for the possibility that she might fall in love.

She tried as hard as she could to be rational. She now understood how Anna had felt when she had rushed in and breathlessly announced her intention to marry Hans. The euphoria of discovering That Magical Someone was overwhelming. And yet, Stefanie was nothing more than an acquaintance she had met that day!

At this point, Elsa was about halfway through her tour. She had scheduled two nights each at most of her stops, but she had scheduled a third night in Denmark, thinking she might need the rest, and that extra day now seemed fortuitous. The next day, she and Stefanie rode through the countryside, and found they had a lot in common. They discussed international politics as easily as they did gardening and ballroom dancing.

The following afternoon, Stefanie taught Elsa how to play chess, but despite Elsa's intelligence, she couldn't quite grasp the strategy. Stefanie told her that it was a complex game which few ever mastered. Then Elsa joined the royal family for a game of croquet, and they all laughed and had a marvelous time.

After dinner, Stefanie asked Elsa to take a walk with her. They strolled in the moonlight along the promenade by the river which ran next to the castle.

"My father has entertained the notion of asking one of my brothers, or one of our high-ranking noblemen, to court your hand," Stefanie said.

Elsa gave a tight, polite smile and looked down in humility. Stefanie, not unkindly, observed her reaction carefully.

"But I think I can talk him out of it," Stefanie continued. "My father is a brilliant man, but in some things, he is not as perceptive as my mother and myself."

It took a few seconds for her words to register. When they did, Elsa looked at Stefanie curiously.

"My dear Queen Elsa, you are a polished and practiced stateswoman, but there are some areas in which your skill at hiding your feelings is simply dreadful!"

Elsa just stared at her, not knowing what to say.

Stefanie just smiled back. She stopped and held Elsa's hand. Elsa realized, with an electric tingle all over, that this was the first real physical contact she had actually had with Stefanie.

"I will be very blunt," Stefanie said. "I am happy to know you. You are an amazing and beautiful woman, and you have a keen intellect. I expect, and hope, to correspond with you for the rest of our lives, and I am sure we will have the most incredible discussions. But I have no romantic or sexual interest in other women. I am attracted to men. I am sorry, but I cannot be the woman you want me to be."

Elsa's face was tight. To her immense shame, tears pricked her eyes. She desperately tried to hold them back.

"It's all right," Stefanie said. "Your heart has never been broken before. Mine has, so I know what it feels like." She put her arms around Elsa and held her tight. "Let it out."

Elsa sobbed on Stefanie's shoulder. They stood there for many minutes. Stefanie never rushed her, but held Elsa for a long time, until the queen had cried out all her grief.

Still holding her, Elsa said, "You must think me a fool, to hurt so much over someone I've only known for two days."

"No, I think you are someone who has been locked up for most of her life and never known love."

They gently pulled apart. Tears still streaked Elsa's face. "That's one of the many reasons I am in love with you," Elsa said. "You are wise beyond your years."

"Only because I have been hurt before. You are wise in your own way, for the same reason. It's life's oldest and greatest paradox: wisdom only comes from pain and loss."

Elsa gave a small smile. "I suppose that's true."

"And I know that a woman as wonderful as you will find your love. Perhaps not today, perhaps not tomorrow. But soon."

"I hope so."

"It doesn't feel like it right now, but it will get better."

Elsa smiled. "Thank you for your kindness."

"I count you as a friend. I could do nothing less."

They smiled at each other.

"Now, my mother wants to play some songs on the organ tonight, and we have asked a local group of singers to come sing for us," Stefanie said. "What do you say we go to the parlor and enjoy the evening?"

"I would like that very much!"

 

Anna dipped the tiny quill into the ink and made a delicate check mark next to the date and the words Denmark 3.

It was Elsa's itinerary. Her visits had been meticulously scheduled, and Anna knew that Elsa desperately wanted to be punctual at each one. Even though the sisters couldn't communicate across the distance, Anna began each day by checking it off the itinerary and imagining the land Elsa was visiting that day. In her mind, she created the foreign castles and towns and waterfronts. She imagined what the leaders of the other countries looked like, and what Elsa might be saying to them.

After indulging in these fantasies for about five minutes, Anna did what she did every day: she set the paper aside and resolved not to think about Elsa for the rest of the day.

There was a knock at the study door.

"Come in," Anna called.

A councilor entered and said, "Prince Heinrich of Weselton will arrive in about fifteen minutes, Your Highness."

"Thank you. Have Gerda send up some delicacies, and show the prince in here when he arrives."

"Yes, Your Highness."

When she was alone again, Anna suppressed a shiver and pressed her hands together as if in prayer, trying to calm her nerves. Elsa had promised to honor whatever she did as acting ruler, even if it wasn't what she would have done. But Anna wanted to do a job Elsa would be proud of, and that meant not screwing up the new trade agreement with Weselton, which it fell to her to negotiate. She had spent the previous two days preparing in every way she could think of.

Anna took a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to release the stress of having a nation in her care, and silently wished for Elsa's speedy return.

 

As Anna made a checkmark on a piece of paper hundreds of miles away, Elsa took her leave of the royal family of Denmark. She knew she had made a lifelong friend in Princess Stefanie, and invited her to visit Arendelle whenever she wished. Stefanie promised she would.

As the Andersen set sail, Elsa marveled at all she had just experienced. In a span of three days, she had fallen in love, had had her heart broken, had grieved that heartbreak, and had already begun to heal. If emotions could be compared to weather, she had just experienced a tornado: a brief, all-consuming, terrifying, destructive whirlwind which struck without warning and, upon passing, left her wondering what the heck had just happened.

She would never chastise anyone for falling in love at first sight again.

She spent every waking moment writing every detail of the experience in her journal. Not because she needed a record of it, but because she needed to get it out of her. She needed to be free of all emotional baggage for the rest of her tour, so she furiously poured her feelings into her journal, desperate to finish before they reached the Netherlands.

She completed her task just before ten that evening. Mentally and emotionally exhausted, she strolled around the deck for a few moments, breathing in the fresh air and filling her mind with the cloudless, starlit sky. She took off her bracers for several minutes and let her power flow, making a few ice sculptures to amuse the crew.

Then she went to bed and slept as deeply as she ever had.

 

Her composure restored, Elsa enjoyed her time in the Netherlands and in Belgium.

In Belgium, Elsa fretted deeply when word reached her that the Grand Duke of Luxembourg felt snubbed because she wasn't visiting him. So Elsa sacrificed another rest day she had scheduled in order to fit one more country into her tour, and technology allowed her to do this.

The King of Belgium helped her to send a message to the Grand Duke of Luxembourg by telegraph, an invention Elsa had heard about but never seen. Then she was introduced to another technological wonder she had heard about but never seen: a steam locomotive. A train ride of several hours was all it took to visit Luxembourg for a day, where she was well received. She marveled at the technological achievements of instantaneous communication over distance and speedy travel over land.

The extra trip to Luxembourg left her exhausted. She knew she should have slept on the return train ride, but she couldn't stop gazing out the window, marveling at the sight of land passing by so quickly.

Then it was on to one of the stops she was dreading: The Southern Isles. Not because she was expecting to be treated rudely, but exactly the opposite. She knew King Brogan would fall all over himself to apologize for his youngest son, and while an apology would be nice, she didn't hold him responsible, and she didn't want him to make a big deal out of it. She also didn't want King Brogan to think she was visiting just to get an apology, which was why this stop was near the end of her tour; by making it one of the last countries she visited, she was hoping to imply that it was a visit like any other.

King Brogan did indeed apologize profusely for what Hans had done, and it took all of Elsa's diplomatic skill to assure him she was all right. After the first few hours, she enjoyed her visit in the Southern Isles much more than she thought she would.

Then it was on to France, where, unsurprisingly, the king asked her to use her magic in his service, promising rich rewards in return. Elsa adamantly proclaimed Arendelle's neutrality, and she had to reiterate this so much that she became quite stern and almost lost her patience. She also had to reassure the King of France that she had no intention of helping the Netherlands, Spain, England or Portugal.

She received the same propositions in Spain, Portugal, and England. She had expected it. They hadn't quite finished carving up the New World, yet. Elsa was secretly disgusted by their desperate need to outdo one another, by their insatiable hunger for more land and more power. Arendelle got along just fine with the rich and wonderful land it had. She wished other nations would do the same.

Elsa had been looking forward to her visit with Queen Victoria the most, but actually meeting her was a disappointment. Queen Victoria visited with her briefly, then fobbed her off onto some lesser nobles and Elsa never saw her again for the rest of the visit. Aside from repeatedly denying their request for a formal alliance, she felt like she accomplished almost nothing in England. She gave the usual speech about how she was a peaceful ruler who had no intention of using her power, and that she had no control over the natural winter, but she got the distinct impression that they simply did not care. She was an afterthought to them. It was a sad and perplexing end to what had otherwise been a successful and memorable tour.

Elsa chose not to worry about it. England could take care of itself. She indulged in some pride, knowing beyond doubt that her tour had created an enormous amount of goodwill, and had done more to secure Arendelle's future than a thousand warships could ever have done.

Elsa had calmed the fears of her people; she had found a way to control her power; and she had calmed the fears of her neighbors. For the first time since the night of her coronation, she felt truly at ease about the future.