Icy heels clicked quietly on the floorboards as she descended the stairs. The sounds dulled further when the wood turned to stone and the dungeons were right there on top of her. Elsa had been so caught up in life and in the busy nature of being queen that she’d almost forgotten the young prince who’d been chained up for crimes against her crown.
Crimes against herself.
Hans, prince of the Southern Isles. He had tried to take her life and had left her sister for as good as dead. But though the circumstances had been dire, she and Anna had never been closer. The red-haired princess had never been happier.
But that didn’t make him less of a criminal.
Cool air rushed around her as she practically floated to the door where she saw his hands before she saw his face. Greyed gloves were what caught her attention. He seemed so different from the pristine, polished prince who had stood out so starkly at her coronation.
"We are both well, Hans. With no thanks to you." Her fingertips secured together as she trembled. He and the fear he brought out in her were things she had to contain. She was sure he had seen into a part of her - how else would he have known how to stop her from killing the men in her castle?
At least in some ways he had stopped her from becoming a monster.
"Though somehow I doubt you truly hope those things and would much rather I come with grim news, considering the circumstances in which you remain in my prison."
♔ -- Her words were as cold as her powers. They stung and he felt a twinge of sadness from emotions he had long since put under lock and key. As of right now he could only feel the same fear that she felt. Fear that she might become a monster or come with news that he was to be executed for his crimes against her and her family.
"Queen Elsa..." how to begin? She wouldn't believe him and he didn't even have an answer. He gave the same answer to his parents and his brothers when asked why he did what he did. I don't know. And he truly didn't. Anna's feelings of betrayal had made him betrayal itself. Something that had never happened before. He mirrored not transformed.
"I truly mean what I say, as hard as that is to believe. I wish nothing but you and Princess Anna good health." The prince gripped the bars a bit tighter, wetting his chapping lips. "If I believed for a moment she'd believe me or hear them, I'd ask you to give her my best."
Hans lowered his gaze feeling this was pointless and speaking to her anymore of her sister might upset her. He didn't wish to die or be executed for an act he had not meant. But the fact of the matter was he had done it and so here he was, justly put in a place where he couldn't harm anyone again.
"Queen Elsa, if I may, why are you here...?"
