❖ Betrayal was a familiar tale to Anna. Her sister, disguising powers for years. her parents, doing the same. And then Hans, disguising his true intentions. All the lies and hidden agendas had ruined her for trust, or it should have. She found herself listening to stories with wide eyes and an open heart. The lesson hadn’t struck home yet, though she was learning. In time.
“You learned it?” Anna was astonished. If he had a natural talent with it, like Elsa, she may have been more sympathetic. But he’d sought to control fire, to use it for his personal benefit. Elsa had been blessed with the ability. The princess worked her fingers nervously over one another, hands clasped before her.
”The court — Elsa — they have to know.” As the cause of the ship’s destruction, and such a potently deadly power, Anna could only hope people would listen to her. Elsa’s ice powers had gone years without being revealed, and Hans had injured people. Terribly. Perhaps even fatally. She couldn’t allow that to go unknown.
”I’m… I don’t know what to say.” Anna felt breathless, and unsure. She should leave. That was all her mind kept telling her, as she shifted her weight, foot to foot, scared to turn her back or turn away.
❂ For those that could have looked down on him right now, heard what he was saying and chosen to judge, anyone could have thought that he learned those powers for a dastardly deed. But it had merely been acquired because of a child’s curiosity. Once he had come across the page in the spellbook, he had to find out. See if it was real, and once he realized it was, he needed to know more. It was all for his own entertainment, not for any other kind of use.
As a grown man now, who would believe that he still had these powers just out of curiosity? And after what he had done, it was even more doubtful than it could have been before. There was no way he could talk his way out of it, and to be honest, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to. It wouldn’t truly change his condition–with Arendelle or with his own homeland.
When Anna called out what he had done, it took Hans almost all of his resolve to not shrink under her scrutinizing gaze. The former prince only averted his eyes like he had before, closing them and keeping his nerves as calm as they could be. He wasn’t sure what he could say or do at that point–wasn’t sure what could be done other than accept his worsened sentence that was sure to fall upon him.
"You don’t have to say anything. Just do what you must.“ He let out a small sigh and clenched his hands into slight fists. If he was spilling forth all of this, he could have gone on about what he had done to the kingdom was not of his own will. The desire may have been his, but it had been buried too deep for him to even think about. Something–someone had forced it forth. It was not in his place to say any more, however.
❖ Anna was running out of patience for these cryptic responses. Hans behaved like a flag struck by indecisive winds, flipping back and forth. But there was recognition at least, that he’d done wrong. That in trying to save himself from a trial, he’d setenced so many other men. And that read in how he hunched, avoided her eye — Hans was a shell of a man, who’d ripped lives apart all for his goals. That much was clear. And since he’d candidly admitted the truth of the boat’s fate, all Anna had to do was tell — someone. The guards? Elsa? Someone! That would be decided later when she had a moment to herself.
The prisoner’s inconsistent communication was another matter. With no words yet, it was left to Anna to discern their meaning, and that wasn’t working out at all. Finally, when Hans decided to speak again, he didn’t fight her accusations. A shift in the air seemed to bring warmth to the air, spinning out from a bright spot by his hand.
Hans embraced the title of monster, much like the swirl of fire, and curled into himself. Complacent, in a word. But the fire! That was what truly stood out in the dank cell, now that she saw it properly. That he had summoned the fire, as Elsa summoned ice, was really unexpected.
And was that a tint to his eyes? Or were they merely catching the flame by his hand — which, really, should be stranger. But it wasn’t. Surprising, yes. Alarming, also yes. But not as new a concept. Elsa had ice. And Hans — no. Impossible. She’d have known, right?
Like you knew about Elsa’s ice powers, a voice scolded in her mind.
“What…” A pause, her lips catching up with her mind. “What was that?” A sister, Magic and spells had been part of cautionary tales. They were never supposed to exist in the real world. This preconception was shattered by Elsa, and now by Hans.
❂ The sudden jump of what he knew could be confused as courage was gone as fast as it had come, and the former prince found himself having some trouble meeting Anna’s gaze. The surprise was to be expected, even with Elsa’s powers being out there and known, but other than that, he wasn’t sure what he should say or do otherwise. His own powers weren’t even close to being as developed as the ice queen’s, which was exactly what had landed him in this position.
The fire had been snuffed, but he could still see Anna clearly, and when she asked him what that was, the man could only shrug slightly and look down to the side once more.
“Unlike Elsa, I wasn’t born able to do this. I used to read all about witches and sorcery, and one day, I came across a spellbook. It showed me how to summon fire and control it, and I used to practice it all the time when I younger. My brother’s caught me once and threatened me if I ever did anything like that again.”
And numerous nightmares afterwards, depicting what would happen if he was accused of witchcraft, he stopped, leaving what he could do to be forgotten. "I stopped and forgot all about it. I supposed my cowardly mindset brought the memories back up so I could try and escape.“
❖ A year ago, the prospect of picking and choosing conversational partners was a laughable dream, unless one counted Sir Stuffington or Deweybelle. A duck and a cow, toys from her childhood. Not the point. At the throaty sound he made, as if to draw attention to his answer, Anna was all painfully attentive. Fingers clawed at her palms, lips tightly drawn, shoulders pointed and tight. The mystery was revealed, and it was as bad as — worse than — she had anticipated.
A sound of discomfort came from between her clamped teeth, even as she tried to fight her anger. How had he done something so selfish — oh. Right. Of course. The strawberry blonde felt a cold chill down her spine. A selfish act had lost lives. Hans had gone from trying to destroy her life, to destroying the lives of so many others. How many little girls and boys would never see their fathers again? And what of their wives, to lose their partners in a simple trip to a queen’s coronation.
A wedding had taken the lives of her parents, and countless others. Not that the wedding had enacted the ship’s destruction. A quick trip across the sea had seemed so harmless, but it lingered in Anna’s mind. An all too familiar sensation rose in her, she felt it erupt in a hiss. A near-growl, beyond any ladylike sound she’d ever allowed pass in the company of others. This wasn’t the time for propriety.
“A fire?” Anna finally articulated, tact a nonexistent term to the princess. “You’re trapped on a wooden ship at sea, and you start a fire on it? Why? To save yourself from — what?“ Anna couldn’t form any cohesive argument, too drawn into the situation at hand. "If those men aren’t found, their families… Their families!” That’s all she had to say, a tiny fist hitting the ground beside her. She covered the snap quickly, wobbling to her feet.
”At least one thing hasn’t changed since you life — you’re the same monster that I remember.”
❂ If he hadn’t been so out of practice with what he could do, he would have just kept the fire small, in the middle of the deck and contained. As much as it would have tried to spread, he could have kept it from going anywhere else. But he had no practice. Hans forced them to surface after so long of not being used, and it spread too quickly, was too powerful for him to control. And when he had been released from the cell, it was too late. The ship became an inferno and all he could think of was escaping.
The noise that came from Anna clearly voiced her displeasure with him, the anger that boiled up inside of her and was so close to spilling over. The bars may have kept her on the other side, but his words only made his sentence to be so much worse. And the moment she started to speak, his posture slumped slightly, shoulders hunched as he listened. A prince was to keep himself straight at all times. Perfect posture, stern frame, ready to fight back and take charge and show that he was not weak, but Hans wasn’t a prince anymore, having disgraced himself by his first actions, and then with this.
Taking in a deep breath when she called him a monster, Hans collected himself as much as he could, even with the thoughts of having ruined the lives of those men and their families with what he had done. He truly was a monster. There was no denying it. But if he was to be called as such, he would just show how he was even more so of one.
From the usual, grassy green his eyes were did they change, darkening to a near crimson red as he focused on the air before him. It was a bit harder with the humidity and dampness in the cell to dry it out, but he managed, and when he did, a hand raised, fingers snapping and causing enough heat to light a spark. A small flame appeared above his fingers, and as he opened his hand the flame grew ever so slightly, hovering a few inches above the skin and holding there.
“Yes. I’m a selfish monster that was only thinking of escaping, not of anyone else. I started the fire in the middle of the ship as a distraction. I thought I could contain it, hold it as it was and extinguish it while I fled.” His hand closed around the flame and it dissipated, eyes fading back to their previous color before looking at Anna.
❖ The man before her had been sent away with friends of the kingdom. Men that were part of neighboring kingdoms, and those whom Arendelle had been responsible for. The unseasonable cold had resulted in an unpleasant stay, and now those men were tossed to the waves. Could it have been a storm? The very thought made her eyes shut tightly, hands still clenched at the bars. She loosened her grip now, as he turned his attention to her.
An apology was heard, but unacknowledged. She merely dropped her attention, a respectful bow of her head. The man was a cruel thing, devoid of all the qualities she’d once thought he embodied. A foolish thought, clearly. But his question took her by surprise.
“I have questions, yes, but only because no one will tell me anything of it.” The truth of the matter was, Anna had eavesdropped (accidentally!) on a maid who’d burst into Elsa’s den. She played with a bookend and stared all about, but the name was unmistakable. The man they’d sent to being trialed by his own kingdom was back, in the dungeon.
And so the princess rushed down to the dungeons, and now she had more energy than productive thoughts. Her hand rested by her chest then at her shoulder, to protect herself from the chill in the air. Faint blue edges played at her ruddier spots, her knuckles, her nose.
”Do you know what happened?” There were many on the ship who’d braved the unexpected winter, so many that deserved a happier life than being lost at sea. It was all Anna could do not to cry, thinking of her parents, of all those who’d never see their homes or families again. But she kept that aside, for now, as some may have survived. They had to.
❂ For no one to have told her anything, it was to be expected. For Elsa to even know what had happened would be near impossible as that knowledge belonged to Hans and Hans alone. The crew would have only seen a fire suddenly blazing about the deck before they had to abandon ship. Only Hans knew that he had started the fire, and anything that happened afterwards as all because of him. The guards let him out so they could keep him imprisoned, but once the bars were open, the fire jumped before him and walled him from the men.
He deserved to be there.
As much as he deserved to be consumed by the fire.
His gaze dropped when she asked what had happened, knowing that he had set himself up to spill it all forth. But even thought he felt as if he had been ready to do just that, his nerves were getting the better of him. Anna would despise him even more than she already had, if that was even possible.
However, at that point, what she felt towards him should have been the last thing on his mind.
Clearing his throat slightly and looking back up to the princess, the former prince squared his shoulders and took in another deep breath before he spoke.
“It was a fire that had started on deck that caused the ship to go down. It spread quickly and I–” he paused for a moment, swallowing the jump that had worked it’s way into his throat purely from guilt.
“I started the fire. As a distraction to try and escape. Going back to face my brother’s and the punishment along with it frightened me to all ends. I thought that I could get away somehow if I could just get out of that cell.
All I did was cause more destruction.” His voice was softer with the last comment, hands gripping into fists and nails digging into the palm of his hand. He should have just stayed where he was. He shouldn’t have tried anything and just gone back to his brothers. Banishment wouldn’t have been too bad, right?
❖ In spite of their history, the prince was the first person she had connected with in years. And on many levels, she understood now it had been one-sided. And it would be so easy to tell herself that, over and over, but loneliness skewed a person’s judgement. Scraps of affection were banquets, and any words were better than silence. The silence from Hans now was disconcerting. Anna remained by the bars, fingers flexing against the metal.
”Did you need anything?” Uncertainty broke her speech apart, the princess a fraction away from kneeling down. She hated to be ignored, more than anything else. To be left alone in the cold, with no direction, no response, was her ultimate distaste and her reality for a time. The princess glanced back to the guards, emphatically raising her brows.
“Go check! Please?” A smile punctuated her command, which wasn’t all that commanding to begin with. Anna awkwardly knelt by the cell, no thought to the silk of her dress.
”Hans?” Did you need anything?Did you hear me? But of course he’d heard her. Stupid question. Anna tutted it away, squaring her shoulders, head dipped lower. As if she could catch his eye, or any reaction from him at all. But no. He was drawn into himself, denying her even the faintest hint of respect. Which was reaaaally annoying, Anna noted.
Elsa had been informed, but she remained upstairs. Kristoff was out working. And really, she shouldn’t be so close to the bars, she shouldn’t be on her knees, she shouldn’t be down here at all. But Anna was down here, and stubborn as ever.
”If you aren’t going to speak…” A threat, with no threat attached.
❂ When Anna had asked him if he needed anything, Hans had heard her, but with his own thoughts reeling about in his own head, it took a few moments for him to process what had been said. Did he really need anything at that moment? Other than to be released so he could leave and wander, pay his own penance in whatever way it needed to be done? Other than wanting to know what had happened to the men on the ship?
No, he didn’t think he really needed anything.
His head lolled to the side ever so slightly while Anna ordered the guards to check on the rescue party and she knelt to the ground. Eyes darted to look at her before moving his gaze back down, unsure of what he could say. Ever since he had first met her, he held the utmost respect for the princess. Even if such a thing hadn’t made itself present.
It was funny, though, how thinking and ignoring could easily be confused. How his silence could be called deliberate and disrespectful instead of the man just trying to sort out this thoughts.
When the empty threat was spoken, the former prince was able to pull himself from his mind. He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, letting it out in a sigh before fixing himself where he sat on the ground. Hans turned his head and faced the princess, gaze meeting hers sternly even as his brows stayed furrowed with slight uncertainty.
“I…” his expression softened before he continued, “apologize. I was not ignoring you, only thinking. I don’t need anything.” As horrid as the situation he was in was, being formal in his responses could only to more good than harm. He was going to stay as truthful and polite as he could be.
"Did you want to know anything about what had happened?“
That was who she was trying to be, withheld, regal, anything but the girl she was inside. Perhaps if she could pretend to be a competent, commanding presence, this exchange wouldn’t feel so dangerous. Not that she feared Hans; she feared what he could twist with his words, and what he had once done to her. Puddled on the floor of a cell hardly bespoke of the prince he had once been.
Yet there it was. My men. Were they even his men? The compassion was unexpected, and something Anna hadn’t expected. Stupid, really. He could perform with the best actors, drawing along a crowd with a silver tongue. She thumbed the cell bars, feeling too withdrawn, too emphatic of her title. It almost broke her heart, how upset he was.
seemed.
And then there was the answer to his question that sat at the back of her throat, unable to be spoken. She looked sideways, to the guard on her right. The man shuffled his posture, stern and foreboding.
{ “Unclear. We’ve yet to recover anyone.” A pointed look. “Aside from you, that is.” }
Anna’s brow twitched, little more allowed to pass over her face. It was hard, being guarded. She wasn’t like that. She was open, and friendly, and light, and wanted to know others were okay. “I’m sorry.” She snapped before looking back to Hans, to then frown once more. More questions popped up, but none were voiced. This wasn’t her place. She shouldn’t be prying. For his sake, or for her own sake, it was unclear.
”Could one of you go, check in with the rescue party?” The men lost had been guests of Arendelle, and all this brought back memories of her parents. She’d have hoped search parties had been sent for them; she hoped it wouldn’t be too late. Before she received a response, Anna turned back to Hans. Still, speechless. She hadn’t liked him, but she also hadn’t wished death upon him.
❂ It was funny how Hans could easily tell what Anna was feeling, could almost see the fear in her features for what he could say or do. Said fear wasn’t linked to what he could physically do, what he had done to the ship that no one other than the crew members knew about. It was for how he had treated her when under the spell, where his deepest and darkest of desires for power caught him by the coattails and dragged him along.
The looks that she was giving him was enough to make him turn his face away once more, avert his eyes yet again as the guilt only sunk deeper into him. Oh how he wished that he could escape once more, that he could be released and just go about to wander elsewhere.
Facing his brothers and family would lead to nothing but isolation in a cell, if not banishment.
Facing Anna as he was now or even the queen under somewhat better conditions wouldn’t have been any easier on him. But the former prince was stuck, nowhere to go, facing three walls and bars to keep him where he was.
A spike of regret, guilt, and anger hit him when the one of the guards that came in beside Anna had said that they had yet to recover anyone else. Those words, even if not spoke by him, left a bitter taste in his mouth, brows drawing together and his teeth gritting.
He didn’t even notice that Anna had turned back to look at him, listening to what she was asking of one of the guards to check in with the rescue party. Hans knew that the ship had smaller boats that could have been hoisted into the water, for those to escape safely and not to succumb to what he had created. But there was no one else that had been found.
It was all his fault. He should have gone down with them.
Hans still could not bring himself to look to Anna, even more so now that he knew of the consequences that had come with him trying to escape. The more than possible losses and even greater treason to his home and his people.
❖ It pained Anna to see the man again. For many reasons, that begun with how sweetly he’d first seemed, to how viciously he’d cut her down. This recognition was etched into her expression, a slight awe to her lips and a furrow to her brow. It couldn’t possibly be him. Of all the men to survive the ship’s destruction, it had been the imprisoned prince.
Between two guards she had arrived, and between two guards she remained. They stood back, respectfully so, but were ready to move forward at any moment. Anna (politely) ignored them, for the prisoner.
for the prince.
Soft hands wrapped around the bars of the cell, the infrequently used space so dusty and damp. It was a strange mix, and only made her nose twitch and eyes water. This wasn’t a place anyone should be kept, but it served it’s purpose. If a man got too drunk, or someone got into a brawl, they were put here for a time. That’s what Anna knew. When it had been last used, she couldn’t say.
The perpetually vivacious princess was lost for words. Attempts were made of course, her lips puckering and shifting. Nothing sounded. Not for several minutes. Was she glad he hadn’t died? Was there any gladness to be felt? She narrowed her eyes, meeting his face.
“What happened?”
What did you do?
❂ The silence was unbearable, a pregnant pause that settled in and worked it’s way into his body. His chest felt constricted and breath was coming up short, feeling as if he was unable to truly get the air that he needed. With everything that had happened, that he had done, Hans would have expected for the princess to start interrogating him, to yell and accuse him of everything that he had done. To question him about what had happened.
But the time in between when she next spoke up was almost deafening.
He could see her step up to the bars of the cell out of his peripheral vision, not wanting to meet her gaze from the guilt that he had felt. The prince’s mind reeled and thoughts swirled in his mind, trying to think of a plausible story to respond with. In doing that, worry for the crew members that were on the boat aroused and he turned his head to look at her, brows furrowed.
“What happened to the crew?”
Though he wanted to avoid the question that she had asked at all times, he wanted to know if what he had done caused any casualties. He felt as if he needed to know.
"Are my men – “ Not his, how could he even call himself a prince now "are they alright?”
❖ Within the castle of Arendelle, news had spread. A shipwreck, drowned men, and a man named Hans brought back to shore. The name was unmistakable. That didn’t stop her from second-guessing her ears, underused in her years alone. But as she approached the cells, the truth appeared.
”It is you.” Simple. Accusatory, even.
❂ It was his luck to land right in the arms of Arrendelle’s guards, for them to find him after he had escaped the burning ship and landed along the docks. They grabbed him and threw him into the dungeon, tossing him into the disgustingly humid cell and giving him old, weathered clothing to change into and replace the burnt tatters that was his own suit.
It would be sooner or later before either Elsa or Anna would have come to see what had happened. And when Anna appeared, he was wondering why he didn’t let himself go down with the ship.
Hans opened his mouth to say something, to want to explain what had happened, but after what he had done – even though his actions were not of his choice, he couldn’t find the words to say. His mouth closed and he sat back against the wall, head resting against the stone and averting his eyes.
☼ –– It was due to his own stubbornness that he didn’t want to know where he had landed up when he awoke. Definitely a mistake that would have led to a meeting like this sooner or later.
{ I’d love one! Thank you. It’s almost 1am for me, too. GMT+10 represent. xD}
{ GMT -4 here so I woke up about an hour and a half ago. XD Since I’m just getting settled into the muse, do you mind if it’s just something small? >< }
