#princess runa of vassar

[saanea]

― ⋆˚࿔ 𝐑𝐮𝐧𝐚 𝜗𝜚˚⋆

❝ For those who don't know, Princess Runa of Vassar is a character that appears in the novel "Dangerous secrets" about the story of Agnarr and Iduna written by Mari Mancuci ❞

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[true--north]

Could you write another quick drabble but this time about Agnarr being jealous?

AGNARR only breathed freely when he left the castle and breathed in the fresh air from the fjord.

He had spent the entire morning with Princess Runa, and it was hard. No, she was a nice person, and perhaps she also felt awkward, but still — she was an obstacle to his true love. Because of her, Iduna was moving further away from him.

Agnarr loosened his blue ascot, put his hands behind his back, and slowly walked somewhere, he didn't know where exactly. Suddenly, Arendelle became a cage for him, and only Iduna could set him free.

I d u n a

She stood on a hill near an unfinished windmill in the scaffolds. Her loose long brown hair blowing in the wind, her pretty lilac dress making her eyes so bright. In front of her stood a table with papers, pencils, and some tools. Agnarr's heart skipped a beat, and he wanted to run to her and tell her how much he missed her, how unbearable Runa's father, King of Vassar, was — he always shared everything with Iduna — but he stopped, hiding behind a maple tree, because of h i m

A tall young man in a black embroidered shirt approached Iduna with a roll of paper in his hands and unfolded the drawing on the table. Agnarr knew his name was Johan; he was Iduna's teacher and boss. But looking at how close they stood to each other, how engrossed they were in their work, how Iduna smiled at him or looked serious, trying to answer Johan's questions, Agnarr couldn't help but feel a twinge of hot jealousy in his stomach. She was with someone else.

They were similar, Iduna and Johan, and got along well. They were from the same world, the world of free people who easily found one language and had no other duty than to their family and conscience. A world to which Agnarr could not belong, in which Johan could have what Agnarr could never.

When Iduna, looking at the mill, put her hand on Johan's forearm, Agnarr could no longer bear it, it was too painful. He turned back and walked down the hill to the castle. Maybe it was all right. Maybe he should let Iduna go, not try to keep her, knowing they could never be together. He had Vassar, the Council, and the Kingdom. And Iduna should build her future without him.

All this was reasonable, but it made his heart ache even more.

Suddenly Agnarr heard quick footsteps behind him, and before he could turn around, a small, gentle hand took his hand.

"Agnarr, I was walking home and accidentally noticed you! Did you see me?"

Agnarr shrugged.

Iduna held the same drawing in her hands and looked almost like she always did before Vassar came and shattered their hopes.

"Well, how's the princess?" she made her voice sound even.

Agnarr resisted the urge to ask, "How is Johan?" and instead squeezed her hand tighter, "Iduna, will you come to the ball in honour of our guests tonight?"

She looked down at the grass, "I'm not sure I would liked to be there..."

Agnarr wanted to ask bitterly, "Is it because of Johan?" but he stopped himself and turned to her, his heart rising, "Iduna, please. Without you there, I just can't stand it. Forget about the Council, I want us to be there together tonight." he looked at her with a sad plea.

Iduna sighed and smiled, stroking Agnarr's knuckles with her thumb, "Alright. If there's a lot of chocolate there. And will you wear your ceremonial crown, Agnarr?" she chuckled, and Agnarr felt relieved — as long as they were together, probably nothing else mattered.

[fericita-s]

A Promise

Some Gerda POV for Dangerous Secrets, referencing chapters 27, 32, & 41 and based on the idea @the-spaztic-fantastic and I joked about that it would have been hard to search in the library based on the usual...activities Agnarr and Iduna were getting up to in there. As always she beta-ed and made this better!

                                                                                                          Gerda

I felt awful for Iduna.

Seeing her trembling and pale was a shock and so different from how she had been only two weeks ago, proudly telling Agnarr of Mr. Hansen’s windmill installation and how farmers all over the kingdom were clamoring for a consult with her. I loved how she brought so much joy to the castle.  

To Agnarr.  

Iduna had made the castle bright and full of joy even at the age of twelve, leading Agnarr on sock-sliding races down the corridor between lessons and playing games of hide-and-seek in the attic.  More recently, Kai and I had traded smiles when they disappeared for hours at a time into the library room they thought was secret.  We had learned to avoid the area when the echoes of laughter off the stone wall reached our ears.

Long ago, Rita had asked me for a promise.  To ensure Agnarr’s happiness as much as I was able. To keep the dark cloud of despair that weighed her down from suffocating him as well.  To be sure he loved and was loved.

So when I shut the door behind me as I left Iduna’s room, I sought out Kai and told him it was time to get to work.

“Everything is ready for the ball. What else needs to be done?” he responded, confused, running his hand through hair that was beginning to thin and then patting his belly that was beginning to thicken.  We had both been so young when Rita first came to the castle and now, firmly in middle age, I wanted to prove to her memory that we had not forgotten.

“We need to find a way for Agnarr to marry Iduna, not this princess of Vassar.”

Kai spoke to me slowly, as if I had lost my head. “We’re not on the council.  It’s not up to us.”

“We’re not on the council, but we can find those law books Lord Peterssen is always referencing - that he’s memorized. Surely we can find some minutiae or loophole or dispensation that would allow Agnarr to make a marriage of his own choosing, and not the council’s!”

“Is the library...unoccupied?” 

“Iduna is in her room, crying,” I said, not exactly answering his question but answering what he was really concerned about.  We wouldn’t interrupt the two lovers because for now, they thought they couldn’t love each other. 

“Let’s start now.”

                           ********************************************

“Still nothing,” Kai said, dropping another volume of Arendellian law onto the steadily growing pile of dusty tomes.  “I really thought I’d find it in that one, Regulations on Love Spoons and Other Marriage Traditions.”

“It’s not in this one either,” I said, placing Kransekake to Lutefisk: Requirements for Bakers and Fishmongers in the pile as well. “And that was the last one.”

“Are you sure? Maybe Lord Peterssen or another council member took some books out of the library?” 

“No, there is no space left on this shelf.  And you could see the layers of dust.  No one has consulted these books in a long time.”

I started putting the volumes back on the shelf, Kai handing them to me as we worked steadily and quietly.  I turned the problem over in my mind as I wiped down the shelves with my apron, thinking to myself that the castle staff could give this room a thorough cleaning now that the room was so often empty.

Suddenly, Kai gripped my elbow. 

“It doesn’t exist!”

“What?”

“The rule! It must not exist! If we couldn’t find it here, and there are no law books elsewhere - “

“It doesn’t exist!” I cried, covering my mouth with my hands.  

We whooped and shouted and even danced a little, Kai twirling me around then saluting me like he was King Runeard and I was a sailor rendering some brave service to the crown.  The low reverberation of the harbor bukkehorn rang out and we both turned toward the windows that overlooked the fjord.

“That must be the Vassar ship,” Kai said, but even that didn’t sink my happiness.  We’d found it - or rather, we’d shown what couldn’t be found.  And it would be the answer to Agnarr’s happiness and my promise to Rita. No law existed that prevented Agnarr from marrying Iduna.  And we needed to tell him as soon as possible.

                       ********************************************

As soon as possible turned out to take a lot longer than either of us expected. 

I wrote a note to Iduna telling her what we found - and what we didn’t - but with welcoming our new guests and the flurry of activity that followed, I wasn’t able to deliver it until she had already left her chamber for the ballroom. 

There were flowers on her bedside table with a note beside them in Agnarr’s hand, but it looked untouched.  I wondered if they had been delivered too late for her to see, or if she was trying to ignore Agnarr’s attentions, divided as they were between her and hosting the delegation from Vassar.

And then there was the ball.  

And a hot chocolate disaster.

And a hasty exit.

And a bomb.

And then Iduna was gone.

The maids had all sorts of gossip about it - that Agnarr had proposed to Iduna, that Iduna had seen Agnarr kissing Runa, that it was King Vassar’s fault Iduna made such a mess of the dessert table.  

“He’d make anyone nervous with that glower and false cheer!” said Olina, who wasn’t prone to making accusations. “Nothing ever below up before he got here.  And our Iduna has never been the clumsy sort.”

That may have been true, but she had left behind her ballgown, twigs caught in the lace edging and grass stains on the hem, the whole thing draped over the notes written by Agnarr and me.

And then she was gone like Rita.

I saw Agnarr pacing the uppermost balcony, searching the fjord like he would be able to see her on a departing ship, and I wondered how I would keep my promise to her.  I didn’t know exactly how I could, but I knew it started with telling him the truth. 

                        ********************************************

Kai hugged me, practically lifting me off of my feet as we watched Agnarr and Iduna lift two rings of the krasnekake off with the top layer. I thought I heard Iduna say Two daughters! and for a moment I smiled through happy tears, thinking about two girls with Iduna’s bright and happy eyes, sliding down hallways and climbing trees and giggling through lessons. The crowd continued to cheer and I cheered with them, so happy that what Rita had wished for most had come true.  

Her son was happy.

[fericita-s]

Dance Lessons

A story in the Dangerous Secrets ‘verse, expanding on something Agnarr mentions in Chapter 28. Thanks @the-spaztic-fantastic​ for beta-ing and coming up with the term ”practice girl” and thanks to @jomiddlemarch for use of her sweet marten. And thanks @marimancusi​ for encouraging fan fiction about these two.

Agnarr

“How are you so bad at this?” I asked, but quietly, since the dance instructor was already annoyed at us ten minutes into the lesson.  I spun her around and she wobbled a bit as her hand twirled in mine. “You can climb a tree quicker than a sweet marten!”

Iduna stomped on my toe again as I drew her close, my hand again at her waist and hers on my shoulder, our other hands extended in front of us in an awkwardly straight line, like they were trying to escape the ballroom but had to stay attached to the rest of us, trapped in this lesson.  

Iduna gave a half groan, half giggle. She sucked in her breath at the look of irritation the dance teacher shot at her and lifted herself on her tiptoes to whisper in my ear.  “That’s outside.  And in clothes that are easier to move in.” She pulled at the bodice of her ballgown, one that Gerda had surprised her with this morning.  “This dress is so wide I could be wearing snowshoes under here and you’d never know.”

“Oh, I’d know.” I whispered back.  “Because you’d step on me hard enough to leave an imprint.”

The teacher stopped clapping a rhythm and began to use his walking stick to pound one on the floor. “ONE, two, three!  ONE, two, three!  Twirl and a-GAIN!”

Iduna stopped even trying to do the dance and twirled away from me, spinning like a leaf falling from a tree in autumn, her hair floating behind her and her eyes merry. She collided with a column and laughed.  “Pardon me, good sir,” she said, bowing to it.  I laughed and the teacher threw his cane on the floor.

“Sixteen and fourteen!  You’re both acting like toddlers. I’ll not waste my time,” he said in the strange cadence he had, like he was counting out a dance with his very words.  He swept out of the room and slammed the door shut behind him.  

I could hardly believe my luck.  

But then, good things always happened when I was with Iduna.  

She looked at me, her eyes wide.  “Are we in trouble? Did I just get you in trouble?”

I shrugged.  “Maybe.  But I’m not worried. I think we learned enough.”

She walked over to me, lifting her voluminous skirts and kicking off her shoes.  “I bet I could do better without these shoes on.  Let’s try again.  It will be easier without him yelling and trying to crack the floor.”

She hummed a melody under her breath and we returned our hands to the familiar positions, recreating the waltz.  It was easier without the teacher yelling at us, even fun. Her waist under my hand felt warm and small and she was smiling.  I wondered if she was enjoying it as much as I was, and lifted my hand to spin her around.  When I spun her back towards me, we went too fast and she crashed against my chest.

We stopped for a moment, frozen in place.  She wasn’t smiling anymore and instead was looking at me with a confused expression, like I had just changed the dance without her knowing. 

I felt a flutter in my chest and had a wild desire to tuck her hair behind her ear, to rub it between my fingers to see if it felt as smooth as it looked. 

She cleared her throat and stepped back.  “I think we mastered that one.  How about a new one?”

I shook my head, trying to clear away these new thoughts and feelings that were making it suddenly difficult to concentrate on what she was saying.  “New dance? Do you know one?”

She clapped her hands and put her nose in the air.  “The disrespect!” she shouted, imitating the cadence of the dance teacher perfectly.  “I will teach you a new dance that only the very best dancers can perform!”

I laughed, the feelings that had risen just a moment ago gone as I again looked at my friend, certain she was about to make me laugh. “Let’s see then,” I said.  “What’s it called?”

She drew herself up, back straight and hands raised above her head in an approximation of...antlers?

“It is called ‘the reindeer who has to pee really badly, but is stuck inside a fancy ballroom,’” she said, hopping from one foot to the other and ducking her head low.  

I laughed and copied her and we pranced around like the wild animals we wanted to be and I didn’t think a ball could ever be as much fun as we were having right then.

Iduna

I saw Agnarr less after I was living in the castle than I had when I was living in my cottage.  Neither of us knew how to be just friends after months and months of being so much more, but we nodded awkwardly in the long corridors as we passed each other and made up reasons to leave the library or kitchens if we found ourselves there at the same time.

It will be over soon, I told myself. 

Soon he would meet Runa and he’d marry her or some other princess.  When I saw him married, a queen on his arm, then I would be able to move past this paralysis his love had cast over me.  Like I was trapped in a mist of my own making.

Gerda suggested we practice and arranged for a violinist to come to the ballroom the night before the Vassar delegation was expected to arrive.  My ballgown was getting some final alterations so I wore a simple dress, one that Agnarr had already seen me wear a million times before.  

Runa probably never wore the same dress twice.  She probably never complained about ballgowns either, had probably never caused a dance teacher to quit in frustration out of hopelessness at the likelihood of imparting any knowledge.

The violinist started a waltz and Agnarr offered a slight bow, his hand extended to me.  I took it and he gripped me firmly about the waist.  I put my other hand lightly on his shoulder, even though I wanted to grip him tightly and bury my face into his chest.  

To be so close to him was torture.  

“I don’t want to do this,” he murmured, his mouth inches from my ear.  For a moment I was crushed, thinking he meant dancing with me.  But then he continued.  “I don’t want to meet her.  Not when-”

I cut him off. “It will be fine! It’s for the best!” I had to get him to stop talking.  I couldn’t bear to hear him say he loved me. “Maybe she’ll be really nice!”  I forced a smile, hoping the tears that were building in the corner of my eyes could be mistaken for bright merriment instead of sadness.  “At the very least, she’ll be a better dance partner than me.”

“Not a chance,” he said. His hand lifted mine to spin me perfectly, effortlessly, and I thought of the last times our fingers were entwined, the two of us in my cottage, our bodies pressed together and no words spoken as we said goodbye.

"Give her a chance!" I said as the bile rose in my throat. “She could be your friend too.  Your friend and queen.” I almost choked on the words.  It was what I wanted to be.  But this was all I could be.  The practice girl.  The girl who readied him for other girls, other women, more suitable. 

He shook his head and smiled.  “No one can possibly be as good of a friend as you are to me, Iduna.” And just as the wild thought was rising in my throat to shout I’m your enemy! I’m a terrible friend! I’ve been lying to you! he put a hand on his head and - was he making antlers? I smiled before I meant to and he laughed.

“Perhaps that should be the secret sign I give you to show that I need to be rescued.  That I can’t take any more of the princely duties.” He reached for my hands again and we were dancing once more, matching the melody of the violin as it echoed across the empty ballroom.  

“Crown Prince in distress doesn't have quite the same ring to it as Damsel in Distress.  Must not happen as often.”

Agnarr nodded, considering.  “Must not have someone as wonderful as you to rescue them.”

He gripped me tighter at the waist and my breath caught, the familiar nearness of him too much.

“It's true.  You have already rescued me,” he whispered.

“Agnarr.  Stop.  Please stop.”  I stepped back from his arms, already missing their warmth and wondering if it would be the last time we touched and thinking of the first time we touched, when I had rescued him.  But he couldn’t know that.  And now he never would. I crossed my arms across my chest and rubbed at them with my hands.

He put his hands out, reaching for me, trying to calm me like I’d seen him try to calm a stray dog.  Like I was a  wild thing, unpredictable.  “No, our friendship, not even what came next.  Being your friend saved me and I don't know if I can stand to stop being your friend.”

“I don’t know if I can stand to keep being your friend,” I said, barely above a whisper.  He looked at me with pain in his eyes and I was so used to comforting him when he looked that way that I took a step forward before I shook myself and stopped.  

The violinist stopped playing.  “Another tune? Something more lively?”

Agnarr’s eyes were on mine and I didn’t know what secret sign to give him that would tell him what I wanted but what couldn’t be. “No thank you,” I called out.  “I’m just leaving now.”  

I turned and left and was in the hallway before the tears started to fall. It will be over soon, I told myself again.  You made a new start before.  You can do it again. 

But I wasn’t sure I believed it.