By Maren, Head Liaison of Northuldra-Arendelle Relations
“Depuis quelque temps, Arendelle a deux souveraines: Anna, que règne sur la ville, et Elsa, responsable de la Forêt Enchantée.” – La Reigne Des Neiges II, L’admirateur d’Olaf
Recently, I’ve been kept up at night by many questions. There are the immediate, like how I can put aside my suspicion of Viola Mundilfari and work with her: she’s my new prime minister, after all. She was all about invading Northuldra just months ago. . . !
Anna assured me that I’ll still report directly to her rather than Vi, and that the passage of the Northuldra-Arendelle reintegration bill won’t be interrupted for Vi’s sake. In fact, it’s the Countess who’ll need to swallow her pride and learn a thing or two about the real Northuldra, the real us. Fair enough, I guess. It’s about time.
But even if Vi were sincere, the debate about Northuldra has moved far ahead and way beyond the Mundilfari perspective since I last wrote my column for this paper.
I’m thankful to Northuldra Trust for picking my recommendation, Ryder, as its leader. There was talk about whether it could be co-chaired by an Arendellian as well as a Northuldra tribesperson, and there were thorny issues about a fair balance and who had the “right” to steer this group. The Trust has launched several projects, many of them in collaboration with Arendelle’s institutions. For example, we’ve started a monograph of Elsa’s discovery of Ahtohallan. Yelena is negotiating with the University of Arendelle about the latter’s wish to document the secrets of the mystic river, like its ties to human memory and the Five Spirits.
But all this activity is useless if the Trust isn’t able to fulfil its main purpose: building goodwill between Arendelle and Northuldra’s people. And progress is slower than we’d hoped.
There’s an understandable gap between the people and the government’s understanding of the relationship shared by Arendelle and Northuldra. Many citizens have sympathy and respect for the idea of our two lands as one. But a nation-state love alone doesn’t make. Since Anna became queen, the Crown has moved towards a legal understanding of our two regions as one sovereign realm, co-ruled by the Diarchy of Anna and Elsa. But it doesn’t feel that way for a lot of us, because things have been moving so fast in the political realm that our societies, including our own tribe, haven’t been able to keep up with the rapid pace of change.
That’s one thing that Anna and I have discussed on many a late night: how quickly we should move ahead with reunification. We even joked how our bill being bogged down in the Great Assembly might actually be a blessing in disguise, and give us more time to hammer out the finer points.
But there’s one more urgent point of action which is of utmost concern to Anna and me.
In the past few weeks I’ve been receiving intelligence about several disturbing incidents involving the infrastructure that both the state and private firms are building between Arendelle and Northuldra. Sections of several rail lines, none of them completed, have been sabotaged, blown up by unknown explosives that we’re still investigating. The outposts that we were constructing to facilitate communications have also been ransacked, their wardens attacked and left with severe injuries.
Even more disturbingly, several junior ministers in our government responsible for coordinating Northuldra’s development with me have reported receiving threatening letters, all of them written by the same hand with the same message: to stay away from the north or risk abduction.
We don’t know who is committing these criminal acts, or why. They haven’t made any demands yet, but from what we can see, it’s obvious they want to disrupt the nodes and channels physically connecting Arendelle and Northuldra. The implications are potentially disastrous for everyone.
I’ve lived in Arendelle for quite a few months now, serving as Northuldra’s advocate in Anna’s reign. Even among the most traditionalist political circles, I haven’t met any statesmen who would hate Northuldra so much as to attack the government’s own infrastructure or private business.
That’s a relief, but I’ve also grown fearful. Because if the culprit isn’t from Arendelle, then they probably come from Northuldra. Perhaps they’re from within our own tribe, although I can’t fathom who. I know for sure that Yelena and Ryder haven’t the slightest idea who this would be.
The question I must ask now is why they’re moving against us like this, and how I can stop them from destroying Anna’s core political legacy.
The Arendelle Guardian 
Wow, a lot to unpack here, so….
First off, yeah, it feels a bit weird that things have gone so slowly in terms of unification between Northuldra and Arendelle. I am sure you and Anna and any other parties involved will be able to get this figured out. If you need me to speak on the importance of unification, you know, to sorta hammer that home in terms of how important it truly is, let me know, I would be more than happy to do so.
Second, maybe things need to slow down a bit, try to take this all step by step instead of all or almost all at once, if you know what I mean. I don’t expect all of this to be done in a matter of days, weeks, or even a couple months, its gonna take longer than that. No one should expect things to get done so fast, its impossible. Still, I can understand the urgency.
Third, while at least its not Viola or someone from her camp that isn’t (allegedly) the person messing up rail lines and sending threatening messages, but to that regard, whoever it is, I’d like to say to them that you DO NOT threaten abduction, BY ANY MEANS. That’s straight up bullshit, and I will not stand for that. The Northuldra are amazing fighters, I have seen that in part and have heard by all accounts. This perp’s threat to, “stay away from the North”, seems very interesting, who other than the Mundulfari would want to mess with you guys? And I say that as the Mundulfari never should attempt to mess with you either, just to make my point clear.
Finally, with all that is going on, the hope I have is that I can be with Elsa in Northuldra every now and again. Not only do I want to spend time with her, as I have wanted to for the longest time, but aside from that, I want to show you all the work I have done to improve my fighting skills (self-trained, I might add). I’m not saying I am on-par with a fighter such as yourself, Mattias, heck, even Anna with all of her training. And I am certainly not anywhere close to being on-par as a fighter with Elsa, Hilde or Viola, those three are on another level, Hilde and Elsa especially. But I am certainly no slouch either, I have really put in the work. And, when it comes to this mysterious person attacking these setups, I want to put it out there that I am open to fighting alongside you all against them, whomever they may be.
I wish you and the Northuldra all the best, and, I can’t wait to visit at some point in time, hopefully sooner rather than later.
Alan
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Dear Alan,
You’d be surprised at how hard it is to simply unite the two regions legally. Formally, Anna and Elsa claim sovereignty over both, but until our bill for reintegration is fully approved by both the Ministers and Jarls – which Anna and I are furiously lobbying ministers to pass – it’s a claim that other countries don’t recognize. And that leaves Northuldra right open, a flank that leaves us exposed. If you could join us in our lobbying, I’m sure it would be of great help to Anna.
We must move persistently and quickly, but as you say, with patience as well. That’s politics in Arendelle.
What worries most, as you picked up on, is this shadowy saboteur who has been disrupting our infrastructure networks between Northuldra and Arendelle. They haven’t been shy of using physical threats and violence, and I’d say their actions mimic those of insurrectionists that I’ve read about in other distant nations. I’ve been wracking my head over who is committing these crimes. If they were from Arendelle, Mattias’ soldiers and intelligence network would’ve nabbed them long ago. But if these people are from the very region I call home… I shudder to think of their motivation and their plans.
Finally: what are you waiting for? Anna’s very understanding and I have a lot of leave days to head back home. I’d like to welcome you there, so you can see Elsa too.
Sincerely,
Honeymaren
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Oh most definitely, Honeymaren, if there is anything I can do to help with the delegation, by all means, I would be happy to join in and help persuade the ministers and jarls.
Indeed, patience is key.
Yeah, its very scary to think who could be doing this to the work that Northuldra and Arendelle have done, and that it could be one of your own. I hope they get ratted out sooner than later.
I know she is, Honeymaren, and I appreciate that. I’ve just been assisting her with a few matters and such, as well as continuing my training as I mentioned before. But I definitely want to make that first trip to Northuldra soon.
Alan
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Alan brings up some very good points that can’t add to. I spoke to my people at A&N and so far, they have not been molested by this mysterious force.
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