RP:Iced by Black Ice

This is a Healer's Guild RP.

Summary: Linn is busy looking at a sample of black ice for his project for Hildegarde when Emilia arrives to meet him. After a short discussion Linn gets to work learning what he can of its structure, and freezes his hand in the process. Emilia uses her abilities as an ice genasi to unfreeze it before looking at the black ice herself. In an attempt to manipulate it, she ruins the material. One of the giant smiths subsequently approaches, Emilia leaves in embarrassment, and the giant urges Linn to depart and get his hand taken care of.

Smithing Supplies

Linn sat at a smaller, human-sized table set mostly out of the way of the smiths of Frostmaw, wearing his usual armor with his pack laying on the floor under his chair. Right now he was hunched over the table, elbows set on it with chin in his hands as he seemed to be simply looking at a fist-sized hunk of glassy black material in front of him for some time. After a while he’d pick it up and lightly toss it as if to test its weight, the way it reflected light, and its other superficial properties. Every now and then one of the smiths would curiously look over at him, eventual mutterings and chuckles coming about the odd ‘shiny guy’ and the apparent hesitation he was having with his enchanting project. At least, hesitation in comparison to the other events that often put him in the healer’s room.

Emilia like many had not set foot in Frostmaw since the war with the Giants. Her last visit here was to create a snow that covered the city and its gates to hide an attack. She was happy to say that today her visit was not another snow or war related visit, but one to see an old friend. Snow talks ya know. Silent steps carried the child sized Genasi into the smithing room to find Linn. Compared to the giants she seemed even smaller than compared to others more or less her size, like Linn. Stopping behind the male in shinny armor, just off to his left, she stared in silence for a time watching him toss the black whatever it was about. The air around him dropping in chill with her presence, possibly giving her away before she spoke up, “Whatcha doing?”

Linn| The hairs on the back of Linn’s neck bristled up as much as they could on the scarred skin as Emilia approached, whether goosebumps from the cold or her simple presence was probably indiscernible. His eyes snapped over to her before he turned his head with a smile, giving the substance another toss in his hand. “Figuring out what I’m going to do with this.” Another toss. “Black Ice, the giants call it. It’s certainly cold like ice, but it hammers out like metal.” He nodded over to the giants smiths in the main area of the forge and their work. “They say it freezes itself back together after being damaged. Makes for perfect armor.” Weakly he chuckled as he looked down at the mithril he wore, to the warped rims where the plates had been stamped by a number of frostmare hooves. Memories… With another toss he set it on the table before looking to Emi again, “I have a project to do a bit of enchanting with it. So… just figuring out how to make it do what I need it to. How have you been?”

Emilia listened and watched the black ice as he tossed it into the air. Reaching to pick up the black chunk from the table before seating herself on his work space like she owned the place Emi shook her head slowly, “Eh, I have been worse I suppose.” Giving the black bit a toss in the air herself and catching it she raised a brow, “Are you sure this is cold? It seems fine to me.” Of course, she was nothing more than a flesh covered skeleton of ice herself making telling the difference in cold impossible for the already frozen one. “Seems, I found that I lost some time in which I find that I lost memories or acquired new ones with a new name, but since being kidnapped into the heated desert by Desparrow I have my head back, mostly. Still cannot shake the insane headache or place some rather strange memories that have resurfaced,” Em continued on with how she’d been before offering a small shrug of her shoulders. Then she turned the question onto him, “How have you been? Aside from playing with a ‘cold’ rock. I haven’t seen you around in awhile.”

Linn couldn’t suppress the chuckle that came as Emi questioned the coldness of the black ice before nodding. “Yes, it’s cold. About as cold as you” Briefly he took a moment to roll his eyes up in thought. Made sense. An irritated sigh came at the mention of Desparrow’s name, but when she began talking about the strange memories he looked… worried? Very worried even, though it passed as the conversation went back around. A shrug. “I’ve been fine. Things have been a little nuts. But I’m fine. Managed to survive the fight retaking the city without much problem. Besides that, I’ve just been busy at home, of all places.” Another one of the giant smiths sent a glance over with a weak shake of his head at the enchanter who was making no progress, prompting an indignant look in response. He blew out a sigh shortly after before pulling the black ice close again. “I think they’re waiting for me to do something crazy. I suppose the lightshow that will come when I begin working my way into this will suffice.” A weak chuckle of his own and a shrug before he looked back to Emi. “You wanna see it? See this stuff in a way that can tell us everything about it?”

Emilia gave a priceless expression as he told her the stone was as cold as she was. That look that said ‘what are you talking about? I’m not cold, silly, you are just not cold enough’ plastered on her blue freckled face. It was a hard fact of life that she was still adjusting into even after all this time. She was cold, deathly cold, but she tried to make the best of it. “Oh, yes, I would like to see,” Em replied with a very interested high note in her voice to his question. Always curious she was. “I am glad to hear that you are ‘fine’ more or less busy, but fine,” she added a bit delayed. The black ice was a curios thing to the ghostly ice woman.

Linn grinned and nodded as Emi expressed her interest. “Alrighty then…” he muttered out as he put his left hand over the black ice, his right being held up to display the spiraled mithril ring on it. After a second of focus, the wires unspooled before a ring of tiny diamonds released themselves to encircle his whole hand, linked in a circle by thin wires of white light. “Here we go…” he whispered with a smile before channeling his power into the black ice through the hand held weakly cupped over it, forming to its structure, feeling it, scouting it out. The space above his other hand with its gaudy display began to fill with strands of blue-white light that formed a number of geometries, the planes they formed briefly fading in and out of prominence similar to how parts of a repeating pattern do all on their own. Some of the planes formed figures that could, with a stretch of the imagination, resembled cleanly cleft crystals of ice, though the structure was obviously far more complicated as more and more different forms became evident. And now a few of the giants looked back over, muttering and whispering among themselves as he worked. Linn’s expression could only be described as positively enamored as he worked through the material, the smile on his face like that of a kid in a candy shop. “What… is… this stuff.” He muttered breathlessly as he looked at the forming pattern above his free hand. “It’s almost ice? But there’s… way more to it. It’s definitely magical, seems to be some kind of self-reinforcement to hold its shape. All these bits and pieces…” he continued looking at the image, trying to point out what he was talking about with his eyes because both of his hands were locked up (pointing with one’s eyes unfortunately doesn’t work super well). “I’m definitely going to have to do some work, get it in motion to learn more.”

Emilia swung her legs like a child who couldn’t sit still while she watched him demonstrate what it was that the black ice was actually made of. Mind you to her this was a rather odd thing to watch and made little to no sense to her at all on what she was actually learning in this experience about the black ice. She was a farmer...an adventurer...not a geologist. After a long time in silence she offered her small hand out of the chunk of ice again, “Can I see it again?” She asked with a curious note in her voice.

Linn nodded, “Yeah, just gimme a bit.” The image above his hand continued forming and building on itself until he finally seemed satisfied with it and all the information it could give him. “I’ve got my work cut out for me… but this is a start. It’s gonna be a lot of a fun to work with.” And just like that, the image dissolved and the diamonds collapsed back into the ring before it respun, looking just like it did before the bright display. Setting his other hand down on the ice he lifted it back up… without grabbing the chunk. He looked almost confused, and then he fully realized the numbness in his hand as he tried flexing his fingers to no avail. “Umm…” he stammered, “This isn’t good.” Slowly the realization donned on his face before he muttered a soft curse and began weakly tugging on the ends of his glove. With a sigh he closed his right hand around the frozen left and closed his eyes, taking a second to focus before continuing to work on pulling the glove off, making slow, but steady progress getting it off of his fingers.

Emilia covered her mouth with her hand with a small gasp, “Linn!” her voice a high pitched squeal that startled the others working in the room earning her a good series of glares from them. “Sorry..” she whispered with a finger way at the giants before returning her focus back at her male friend, “Linn, how about you let me see that hand of yours instead of that black ice. I am fairly certain you have a case of frostbite...” This much she was aware of with the cold that came natural to her as she had accidentally given it to a few people in the past when her control over the element was not very well in tune. “I can fix that for you...” she added after he had managed to remove the glove from his fingers revealing the ice injury beneath. As she offered to fix the wound for him she offered out her hand to him with the palm facing up.

Linn continued carefully pulling the extensions of the glove from his fingers, and once he finally managed to get the whole thing off he just looked at his hand which had been turned pale as could be. “Definitely frostbite…” he muttered before trying to flex it at the wrist, bringing about an immediate gasp and a wince in pain as the half-frozen flesh tried to move. “Definitely magical…” he muttered with another nod before turning the frozen hand to tap it in the palm; the sharpness of the sound would indicate that his entire hand was probably frozen down to the wrist. With a shake of his head to clear his mind he looked back to Emilia. “How would you…” he cut himself off with a shrug. “I suppose you can’t make it worse than it is now.” He finished with a light chuckle before carefully extending the hand out to Emi, setting it in hers. Even frozen though the arcane energy that saturated it would be influenced by Emi’s icy nature, and for a few seconds it would intensify the cold in the genasi until Linn released another sigh as he had to begin focusing again to block out the external influences that resulted in his frozen hand in the first place.

Emilia held the hand in her own with a gentle hold much like she did when holding the hand of one of her offspring for they too were sensitive to the chill of the woman. With his hand in hers she placed her other hand over his frozen hand for a moment as she closed her eyes, listening to the words of the frost in his hand. A song that struck the ears of the Genasi where others would only hear silence. Carefully she started to trace her fingers gently over his, beginning at the tips and drawing lightly over the flesh toward his wrist. If he watched closely he would see a blue-white spark appear at her own fingertips as a strange cooling warmth seeped into his hand from her own. A repeated slow motion of tracing her flesh over his from finger tips to wrist, drawing the frostbite chill out of his hand and into her own, calling that chill to her where it belonged instead of his hand. It was a slightly slow process, but the healing nature of the Genasi slowly drew the cold wound out of his hand much like some such the poison out of a snake bite. However, she was a stranger to the feeling of warmth so she spoke in a whisper, “Please let me know when you have the feeling back in your hand...” that much she couldn’t exactly tell even though she could hear that the song of the frost was gone, she couldn’t hear fleshy warm songs.

Linn continued keenly (and slightly nervously) watching Emilia’s hand trace over his; a wince would come every time her fingers came to his wrist and the frost lanced at the sensitive joint before leaving his body. It would likely take some time as the hand was frozen deep as could be, and the ice’s magical nature gave it a little more frost to remove, but it gradually left as she continued working it. As it unfroze the fingers would slightly relax, curling up ever so slightly, but no more even after she had finished removing all traces of the ice. He nodded when she ordered him to announce the return of feeling, though it was preceded by a twitch of the fingers first. Eventually he tried bending it at the wrist again, pursing his lips in light discomfort, but not quite with all the pain that came the first time he tried. “Well, things are moving, but I still can’t feel anything. Parts of it might just not be working right now.” A weak shrug before he smiled and nodded to himself. “Well, Hildegarde mentioned hearing it was magical… I guess I have an answer for her on that at least.”

Emilia rested her hands in her lap after he hand taken his hand back from her when the deeply set in frost had fully been pulled free of his hand. Stiff and numb still, but not suffering from actual frost was a good thing she guessed. “I am sorry I couldn’t do much more. I am not the best healer in the Guild, but I am slowly working on it. I never even realized I was able to heal until the change took place...” a small shrug with a slightly sad smile on her face. “I once gave Lynn frostbite without meaning too. It took her awhile before she was able to get the feeling back in her tail again. I suppose that comes with the cold? I remember when the cold started to settle in after the Ancient undead Shaman healed my wound. First I lost feeling, couldn’t tell if I was hurt. Can’t tell you how many times Leone was yelling at me for something. Grabbing a hot pan and scalding my hand without even feeling it. Then everything went cold for awhile until it was all numb then nothing....that is about how it is now. Nothing, unless it comes to an extreme heat. I can feel the effects of it...like I am melting....” Shaking her head, “Anyways. I am sure that it was caught in time and it will eventually start moving like normal again. Can I see the black ice again?” Still curious.

Linn smiled and nodded at Emilia as she apologized for not being able to do much more. “Well, you probably saved it from anything irreversible. It’ll heal… hopefully. If I didn’t even notice it freezing I guess that’s a possible sign it was preserved? That would be good… right?” Another shrug. When she began recalling the story after her healing he turned to listen attentively. “I guess that’s just how it goes. It might still be really cold too, even if it’s unfrozen.” Reflexively he went to touch his hands together before the existence of his glove and the inability to remove hit him, a pause, then he pressed his still limp hand to his face, flinching as it made contact. “Yeah. Really cold. It’s hard to feel when it’s that cold.” When asked for the black ice he nodded before sliding it over with the unfrozen hand. “Leone saw over you when all of…” he tried to figure out how to indicate her frozen nature to no avail. “All of the cold things began?”

Emilia nodded slowly, “Leone used to be around a lot before she accepted her position here in Frostmaw. Haven’t seen her since, but she was around when I was human, when I went though the change, when I got married, when I had the children she was the one that delivered them, and was around helping with them after they were born when I fled in fear of them....” It was a bit of a hard story to admit, fleeing from your own infants, but she had owned up to it. While she spoke about Leone she had picked up the chunk of black ice. To her it wasn’t cold, but she was the same cold as the rock making it impossible for the Genasi to feel the difference in it. Staring at the piece the woman put a great deal of her attention onto the ice that was a contrast to her own coloring. Its magic was different than her own, she could feel it in the song it sung, but it wasn’t different enough that she couldn’t manipulate it as if it was plain old ice. It took a little bit of effort to make the song, making her look rather strange staring at it as if she could bore holes into with that intense stare, but without warning the chunk melted into a flat sheet of ice over a solid ball-rock shape. Setting it down before the man she left the flat sheet of black ice before him, watching it just as intently as when she was holding it. Waiting to see if it reformed itself back into its previous shape or remained influenced by her.

Linn smiled and nodded as Emilia spoke of the times she had been with Leone. Perhaps surprisingly, he seemed to understand what she meant by fearing her children. He’s seen enough of Xersom to be pretty freaked out by the guy… As she focused on the black ice, he watched intently; he knew that stare. Even a few giants turned to watch again, or were already watching the poor enchanter get his hand frozen and unfrozen within moments. The moment the ice melted he blinked, rather stunned. The giants’ eyes widened as well as the fabled material did the one thing it wasn’t meant to do: melt. Laid out in a sheet on the table, the black ice stayed that way after Emi released her control. Again, low muttering among the smiths as they watched it so easily worked. One of them even approached as Linn tapped on the material and began working on prying it from the table, electing to retrieve the darkened violet crystal that he had used to cut the stone for Lynn to retrieve a piece. Holding it out with his right hand, the bright blue veil of force sprung out and began worming its way between the ice and the table, and with a crack and a pop a fragment broke off. The giant that approached recoiled slightly at the sight of the broken material before eyeing the genasi suspiciously and rumbling out in a deep voice, “Just what did you do to the black ice?”

Emilia was surprised to see that the black ice remained laying flat on the table, part of her was expecting it to melt back together into a blob of rock again. Something was amiss though, she could tell by the way the ice was singing back to her now as compared to when it had before she messed with it. As if to prove her point when Linn when to remove the ice from the table it cracked just like normal ice would under that treatment, unlike the black ice previously where it would remain together without a scratch. Strange. It was now that Emi slipped from where she sat on Linn’s work space with a look of guilt and sorrow on her face, like a child that had just broken something in an expensive shop. “I am sorry. I didn’t mean to break it...” she whispered with a sharp edge to her voice, like she might burst into tears. She didn’t however. But the accusing words of the giant and the stares from the rest of them made the already tiny woman feel even smaller to the point she wasn’t able to handle the pressure from it all. “I...” she stammered, but didn’t finish the rest of her sentence before departing the room with haste. Not exactly a running speed, but darn near close to it.

Linn couldn’t help but keep looking at the remains of the black ice, turning the small piece in his intact hand to try and analyze it, find what changed, until the giant took his attention away. As Emilia hastily left he was left watching the doorway with a weak sigh. Again the giant spoke up. “We’ll take care of this mess. You should go get your hand looked at.” Without many more words he dismissively waved the enchanter away, who reluctantly grabbed his pack and gear to leave. There were some secrets that the giants preferred to keep, and the details behind the black ice were one of them.