Jarl Balgruuf had made Lena a thane of Whiterun, granted her permission to buy a house within the city walls and assigned her a housecarl – Lydia.
“This is all extremely inconvenient” – Lena noted thinking over her investigation for the Dark Brotherhood at breakfast. “I hope the group here isn’t going to be spooked by my status and will still take the bait and contact me.”
Lucien had arranged for rumours to be spread that Lena was the one who murdered the woman at the orphanage in Riften in response to some young lad’s summons. One small detail however: it happened before Lena returned to Skyrim, but Lucien summised correctly that the group of Skyrim assassins wouldn’t know the difference. Information wasn’t their strong suite. All Lena had to do now was wait for them to take the bait and contact her, and being a thane – even just in title – was very inconvenient for that.
“Jarl Balgruuf just wanted to be the first to claim the Dragonborn” – Hauk seemed to have read her thoughts. “You are here for Lucien, aren’t you? No, no, don’t tell me – it’s your affair.” He broke five eggs for an omelette.
“How did you know?” – Lena needed some answers now, and Hauk saw that.
“I didn’t, but I guessed. You had no intention of going to Skyrim before, in fact in the past four months you’ve repeatedly said you were not ready. Then suddenly you were leaving immediately. It stands to reason you got an assignment to follow through, and that could have only come from Lucien.”
“It could have come from any number of sources – the Fighters Guild, the Mages Guild, the Legion, the… what do I know!” – Lena wasn’t satisfied as yet. The omelette bubbled and squeaked in the pan filling the hunter’s cabin with enticing aromas.
Hauk gave her one of his looks taking his eyes off the pan for a moment – oh please!
“The Fighters Guild does not operate in Skyrim, they are terrified of the Companions, so no. The Mages Guild or the Legion – I would have known, as I’m a member of both, and in fact you haven’t joined the Legion yet, so don’t exaggerate. What is left? A personal favour for someone? Possible, but I doubt it would have carried this urgency.”
“Ok” – Lena conceded that he could have just deduced that, accepting a plate with half an omelette that Hauk handed to her. “But how did you know I was going to meet Lucien when I left the Shivering Isles? I didn’t know it myself, I was just going to do a few things and come back.”
“I know Lucien.”
“How?”
Lena was pretty certain that Hauk had never been a member of the Dark Brotherhood. Of course one did not need to be a member to have heard of Lucien Lachance, but Hauk’s knowledge of him seemed to be more than hearsay.
“Our paths have crossed during the War. No, he wasn’t after me and I wasn’t after him, but we appeared to have had the same target, although with a slightly different purpose. I wanted information, and I reached the target first. Admittedly, there wasn’t much left to do for Lucien when he appeared, but I let him fulfil his contract. We had a chat and parted ways. So I got the feel for the man.”
“Which doesn’t explain how you knew I’d be meeting him” – Lena wanted to know more, Hauk’s delicious omelette disappearing quickly.
“When Garrus mentioned that someone gave you flowers that you carefully kept fresh in an urgently ordered urn, I knew it was from Lucien. Garrus was teasing me of course, but I knew just why you kept them – a reminder of things past, a recognition of his gratitude, more than gratitude – lily of the valley, was it? Of course you kept it, regardless whether you felt the same or not. And goldenrod and morning glory – back to business, sister. You’ve been promoted, whether you know it or not, so a special assignment wasn’t far off. I wasn’t certain of course when it would come exactly, but I didn’t think it would be too long.”
Lena suddenly saw a whole different side of Hauk. There was a lot more to him than met the eye, even after some four months of adventuring together, all the fights, the wounds and the campfires shared. With everything he just said, he still hadn’t told her a thing about his duties during the Great War – that information wasn’t his to give, the Legion was keeping its secrets. The same as Hadvar – be convincing without revealing anything of importance.
“I see…” – Lena started thoughtfully, picking at a bunch of grapes, deliberately, one by one. “Well, since you’ve figured out that much, you won’t be surprised when something odd happens. Come with me to High Hrothgar, I need to follow up on that Dragonborn business anyway, and I could use the company while… well, I could use your company” – she concluded firmly, looking straight at him.
“Not taking Lydia with you then?” – Hauk gave her a wink, slicing up some cheese. “‘I’ll protect you with my life!’ She’s very eager, you know.”
“‘I am swooooorn to carry your burdens’ – yeah, right” – Lena was particularly annoyed by that line. “She’ll only get in the way and get herself killed. I’m not the kind of thane she was hoping to get assigned to. Although you might have been one – we can bring her along, if you like.”
Was it time for another one of Hauk’s looks? Perhaps. But he kept it to himself and just laughed.
“Ask Wolf to come too” – he said. “I think he’s had enough of Sven’s mother.”
Masser and Secunda 