RP:The Linn-le Engineer That Could

Part of the Hour of Wolves Arc

Summary: Linn returns to Frostmaw and gets a job offer from Hildegarde.

Frostmaw Fort, Main Hall

Linn had been making his reappearances every now and then around Frostmaw, picking up what he could about the state of the city, and for once, staying out of trouble and keeping a low profile for the time being. He would be found sitting on one of the old benches in the main fort room as he used to, this time wearing some simple brown robes with a fur coat over them. One sleeve hung empty; the arm that would normally occupy it was made of pale cloudy blue stones strung together by invisible force, turning over a small leather packet that he stared at in thought. Every now and then he’d look up and scan the fort room with a light tap of his foot, looking for someone.

Hildegarde was a busy woman. An obscenely busy woman. It was almost laughable that some people actually wanted to rule countries and wear crowns, they clearly knew nothing just like that local lad Johnathan Icicle. He knows nothing. Hildegarde exits the kitchen area of the fort and into the main hall, only to swiftly pivot on her heel and return to the kitchen as if she had forgotten something. The Queen swiftly returns, this time with a plate of food and a collection of rolled up scrolls, this time intent on making it to the other end of the hall and towards her own quarters but she stops in her tracks at the sight of Linn. “Linn,” she said, almost absently before it processed properly in her mind who exactly Linn was. “Linn!” she smiled, making her way over to his bench with hurried steps. From the awkward gesture her body does, it’s clear she was going in for a hug or a handshake only to then suddenly remember that she has her hands full.

Linn had looked up to catch Hildegarde pop in and out of the kitchen, straightening up and keeping his gaze fixed on the door as she came back. Well well, there she was. He offered a wave with the flesh-and-blood hand before stepping up and walking towards wherever she had been going with the stuff. “Hildegarde!” he’s call back as they came together. “It’s uhh… It’s been a while. I’m sorry for my absence after getting out of that damned cave, but… I had a few problems to take care of.” With a bit of an embarrassed smile he held up the stony hand to show off the evidence. Perhaps it was for the best she hadn’t hugged him immediately, given the exposed barbed spines that made up a good deal of his forearm, spaced and sized to fit into bone that wasn’t there anymore. “It was no vacation though, tell you that.”

Hildegarde smiled fondly at Linn, only wavering when he revealed his new hand and arm. “Oh, Linn,” she said softly, but not with pity. “Did you get it taken care of?” she asks him. She isn’t one to mollycoddle and she knows fine well what it is like to be bundled up and babied when it isn’t asked for nor wanted! She’d hate to make him feel pitied. “What happened?” she said, gesturing to the bench awkwardly, “Sit, sit.”

Linn answered Hildegarde’s question with a quick nod, “It’s done.” He said conclusively. When asked about what happened he blew out a tense sigh, taking a seat with the Silver should she as well. “It was some… personal problems. A few things went wrong up here…” he lightly tapped his head with that stone hand. “And I wasn’t in a position where I could stay here with it. Eventually it took… this…” again he motioned with his new arm. “To get myself back on track.” He concluded with a disappointed shake of his head. Stupid brain. Eventually he’d shrug and look back to Hildegarde. “But… I’ve got a duty here, don’t I? And a lot of unfinished work. It’s sorted, so I’m back. Besides, the only people I know who can really help me fix this piece of junk live in this area of the land.” With that he let a grin come back to his expression, he was absolutely –done- letting negativity get to him.

Hildegarde sat down with Linn, setting the plate on her knee and gesturing at it when she had the chance as if to invite him to share her plate. As Linn explains exactly what went wrong and what had happened, Hildegarde lapsed into silence and listened intently. She knew what it felt like to sometimes let the mind get the better of the heart. As he talks of having a duty here in Frostmaw and the people who can help him living here, she cannot help but smile. “Well. It is good to have you back, my friend,” she tells him softly. “I have kept your things,” she tells him with a little nod of her head, “just in case. You never know when someone will come back.” Was that what she was doing with Frostmaw for Satoshi…? She missed the Coterie. She missed so many people and they so rarely came back into her life. “Well, you’ve came back in time for the troubles of Frostmaw. You have good timing.”

Linn lightly raised his hand to silently refuse Hildegarde’s offer of food with a polite smile before the stories and talk of the future. When she spoke of it being good to have him back he cracked a smile with a chuckle before the mention of his old possessions raised his brows. “Well, for once… a stroke of good fortune. I was hoping you guys had recovered it, seemed like slim odds though in that whole mess of magical loot down there though. Looks like I’m going to be needing it again too…” And just like that Hilde mentioned some of the present troubles which prompted a quick breath and a nod. “Yeah… I come back to find medical camps in the streets and… this stuff.” He twirled that little leather packet between his fingers. “So it sounds like we’ve got our hands full already. Have you found out anything about how all this came to be?”

Hildegarde grunted at the mention of the wicked substances and how it came to be. “I am no alchemist,” she tells him, “so I cannot say for sure. But what matters is that it is here. A country that has been so afflicted with war will welcome this temptation with open arms, as many have already done,” she tells Linn as she looks around the hall, occasionally finding her eye resting upon the tapestries and grim trophies for a long moment. “There seems to be two variants. Both equally different from one another. The red one… well, I had some,” she admits, “it was tossed in my face. It made me… made me feel so full of life and vigour! I felt unstoppable. But I have seen how addictive it can be and I have felt how devastating its absence is. Fortunately, I have only had a little. It doesn’t appear to have bothered me much, whether that be from the small accidental amount or due to my saurian nature is unclear.” The knight shifted slightly in her seat, picking at a piece of food on her plate. “Things are afoot, Linn. Things are always afoot. Sometimes I feel like Frostmaw is the chess board where good and evil duke it out for the soul of the world.”

Linn pursed his lips and nodded. “Yeah… I’ve already seen some of it out in the streets. I managed to find Emilia and she mentioned it too.” As Hildegarde spoke of the red dirt he twirled that packet again, staring at it suspiciously. “Looks like I have something to add to my mask just in case… Normal armor certainly won’t help from breathing this stuff in.” Again that grin came back, he wasn’t in to making normal armor though. It only widened when she mentioned Frostmaw being a chessboard. “This whole land is that way. Larket… Sage… Cenril. Sometimes I think it’s a mistake, coming back here.” He could only laugh at the statement. “But you know what? My whole life seems to be mistakes and insanity.” With a sigh he came back to a more serious tone. “So… we have stuff to do. That’s all there is. Have to figure out what this is… or really where it came from. And then how to deal with it, because stuff like this doesn’t come unguarded.”

Hildegarde smiled as Linn added to her chessboard comment. “Too big a game of chess, if you ask me,” but Hildegarde was a Queen. A powerful piece on the board. “Important business, aye, but we must protect the people. I must get in touch with the Healer’s Guild about establishing some kind of treatment for those who are addicted to the substance.” The Silver paused for a moment, looking at Linn. She knew his history and knew he would reject her next thought in the past, but would he still reject it today? “Linn. I will make you an offer. But… well. It is an offer that will both elevate you and perhaps burden you.”

Linn nodded at Hildegarde’s notion of the size of the chess game, “The further you go, the more you realize you have to do…” A small branching motion was all he could make with his hand, each path splitting into more and more. When she mentioned an offer he looked back to her, brow quirked, “An offer? Give me some details and we can see what it might do.” She had his attention now, inviting, if critical of what he might hear.

Hildegarde snorted a little at that comment of having to do more! She knew the life of duty and service. But it was offer time. “You’ve done much and more for Frostmaw. You stood by me before I was Queen. You stood by me as I fought for the crown and fought for my people, you have been there through thick and thin,” she said with a fond little smile. It was good to reminisce. “I need capable people around me, Linn. Capable people helping to keep my kingdom strong, safe. To help keep the realm safe from danger. That’s the Queen I mean to be, Linn, not just the protector of Frostmaw. I will protect the realm if I can,” she told him before finally getting to the heart of her offer. “I would invite you to take the position of Royal Engineer. Lady Alvina is the Royal Blacksmith,” Gikal was on the verge of retirement after all, “and she is learning the secrets my realm has to offer. An intuitive mind like yours? A man who talks of fixing his mask so he might avoid harmful substances. That’s the man the realm needs. My men and women would be safe with a man like you to help us. A man like you who can help us keep the realm safe.”

Linn listened to Hildegarde intently, head tilting slightly as she told her story to finally made her offer before he let out a little sigh and straightened back up. “After I vanished with all that unfinished work, you’re still willing to give me this offer?” Slowly he’d begin to nod. “I’m willing to take this position. You know I’ll still find trouble from time to time, but… that’s not exactly what I want my life to be. Building? Finding and solving problems with the tools at hand no matter what they might be? I can do that. For Frostmaw.” Again his foot began tapping as he took a light breath. “It’s… going to be something. But it’s a dive I’m willing to take.” He looked back to the silver with a determined glint and a nod.

Hildegarde shrugged her shoulder at Linn’s question regarding her willingness to make the offer again. “We all need time. I refused much that Satoshi offered me, until she stopped offering and simply appointed it,” she told him with a wry grin. “Fortunately for you and many around me, I do not have the courage to simply appoint people to positions!” She did, truly, but she liked to ask rather than appoint. “We will do this together,” she told him softly. “But you should collect your things! They’re in the room near the smithy,” appropriate place, obviously, “one of the smaller sleeping chambers. You’ll find they haven’t been touched, except for a light dusting.”

Linn took a deep breath and nodded as Hildegarde insisted on her offer. “It might be a little new, but I’ll… I’ll figure it out. That’s what engineers do, no? Figure stuff out. We –will- do it.” With a quick beckon to the Silver he stood up himself. “That food’s probably cold by now, you know. Let’s get going. Can’t waste much time in a trying period like this can we?”

Hildegarde chortled as Linn mentioned that her food would be cold by now. “Luckily, I am a frost dragon. I can handle cold food,” she told him, rising to her feet and carefully maneuvering her plate and collection of scrolls. “Let’s get you set up, then, Royal Engineer!” she begins, ready to cheerfully march along with Linn and get him set up in his new position. The Silver managed to reach the door to the chamber and swing it open, unable to gesture at the room but sort of doing so with her chin anyway. “You’ll find all your possessions in here,” it didn’t look like much. His armor, a few bags, some other items too. “I’m not one for rifling through your goods so… we had to assume it was all important to you,” including just a scrap of fabric. “Your Majesty!” Lisbeth calls out from across the hall, which causes Hildegarde to stop dead in her tracks. “The Kuronii Northmen bring word about the Northern Borne. Lord Jarith has retired from the front and they need your guidance, m’lady.” A military group without solid command. Hildegarde had no choice but to step in. “Ah, Linn, I’m sorry. Duty calls, as always. We must talk soon again,” she told him, already turning to attend to the matter at hand.