Chapter Text
Corvo stared upwards from his bed at the scratched and slightly rusted ceiling. Void, it’s all gone to shit, he thought. He struggled to even remember the details. Except that witch, Delilah’s voice. That, he remembered with crystal clarity.
“I’ll cast you in cold marble,” and the sounds of his daughter’s struggle to free herself from Delilah’s magic just before she turned to stone. He remembered Captain Mayhew’s pained plea for him to find the Dreadful Wale . His life felt like it had turned into one immense joke for the Outsider’s amusement and he was left reeling with no land to swim to in sight. Despite the fact that his head felt like it had a thousand bees buzzing furiously in it, it had been an agonizingly long day, and his body finally gave into its unignorable need for sleep.
But of course, even his sleep wasn’t destined to be a respite, as Corvo sat up and felt the telltale chill of the void. With more than a few muttered curses, he began his trek to the cold stone slabs. The endless abyss beneath him made him uncharacteristically nervous without his mark, but he knew he wouldn’t be allowed back to the physical world until he’d indulged in the Outsider’s game.
“Where are you? You might as well show yourself,” he gritted out. As he approached what appeared to be a doorway of sorts, he felt the rush of air in front of him and then saw the black eyed bastard himself.
“Corvo, old friend, do I even have to say it? You’ve lost another empress. Delilah was born a pawn, but now she’s got the throne. Fifteen years ago, the assassin Daud could have warned you about her if you’d bothered to ask. But you were too busy for questions. Times have changed, Corvo, and you haven’t been watching the dark corners of the world. Maybe living in a palace has made you soft. What happens when you push a man farther than he ever thought he could go? Does he snap? And what happens when he tries to go home? Maybe you’ll finally learn what it feels like to kill an empress. Daud could have told you about that, too.”
Corvo felt like all the air had been sucked out of his lungs. Daud? What the fuck would he know? Why is the Outsider telling me this?” Before he could even voice his questions, though, he felt the searing burn in his left hand and saw his mark reappearing. When he looked up again, the Outsider was gone, but he could see the glow of a shrine in the distance. No, he thought. Please, not again. He blinked upwards towards the shrine, and felt the blood in his veins turn to ice when he saw it again. The heart. With tentative, shaking steps, he approached, and felt weak in the knees when he saw the gossamer image of Jessamine.
“I... know you. Do you remember?” Jessamine’s silvery bell voice asked. “It’s been so long, and you’ve been through so much. Even as an echo of myself, it’s good to know you’re there. Only the last of my essence, with you for a while. If only I could reach across this great expanse and take you into my arms. But, I have this to offer, my gift and my curse. Summon me to your hand, and I will guide you when I can.” Corvo took the heart carefully in his hands and cradled it to his chest. It felt so wrong to have her again, and yet it felt so right that he could almost ignore the pangs of selfishness that kept licking at his heels.
“Tik, tok, Corvo. Tik, tok,” the disembodied voice of the Outsider whispered, just before Corvo jolted awake with a desperate gasp. He sat bolt upright in his bed, drenched in sweat and panting. The tingling in his hand was a sharp reminder that he hadn’t just been dreaming. The outsider really had chosen to intervene again. Why, no one could say, although Corvo suspected it was largely for his own amusement than for any altruistic intent. Taking a moment to scrub his face and neck with a damp rag, he squared his shoulders and went into the main living area and galley of the ship. Even in his absence, Sokolov left an impression. His paints and books were strewn about the ship, and Corvo couldn’t help but feel a pang of affection for the old man. Meagan had caught him up on Sokolov’s abduction when he had first boarded the ship after escaping from the Tower, and he could only surmise that he had crawled out of the frying pan just to fall into the fire.
“Lord Attano,” Meagan said in a quiet greeting. “You’re awake. Good. Let me know when you’re ready to talk. I’ll tell you what I know.” No time to waste, then.
“Alright. You’ve explained part of it, but what were you and Sokolov doing here?” Corvo asked.
“The old man loved Karnaca, but he’d caught wind of a conspiracy tied to the Crown Killer. He wanted to warn you.” Meagan handed Corvo a newspaper with a headline about the Crown Killer that she had collected.
“There were reports about tensions rising,” Corvo replied. “Corruption. Street violence. It’s the sort of thing that happens, and usually the local authorities resolve it.” Megan scoffed.
“The new Duke has let things slide, but Sokolov concluded he might be the head of the conspiracy. He came in looking shocked, and if you’ve heard his after-dinner stories, you know that’s unusual. We were going to set out for Dunwall, but something happened.”
“The Crown Killer,” Corvo surmised.
“Yes,” Meagan said. “The hatch ripped open and Sokolov screamed. All I caught was a glimpse of someone carrying him across the deck. I followed as long as I could, toward Addermire Institute. It’s run by the alchemist, Hypatia. Maybe the Duke is using a patient of hers as the Crown Killer.”
“Addermire was a solarium years ago. If they still keep patients there, it’s worth investigating. I’ll get inside and eliminate the Crown Killer. Maybe the alchemist will cooperate, maybe she won’t. Either way, I’ll try to figure out what happened to Sokolov too.”
“I would say good luck, but I don’t think you want my luck,” Meagan said. “When you get done at the Institute, disable the watchtower. Once it’s down, I’ll bring the boat around. We’ll take the skiff to the shore when you’re ready.”
“There’s one other thing,” Corvo said. Meagan turned, raising an eyebrow in question.
“I’ve been thinking,” he began. Thanks to a certain black-eyed bastard. “Nothing in Dunwall is ever a coincidence. Everything is always tangled up like a bag of snakes. If Sokolov is being pulled into this, someone else from back in the day probably is too.” Meagan eyed Corvo warily.
“Interesting turn of phrase… Who are you talking about, exactly?”
“The Knife of Dunwall. Daud.” Meagan almost spat out her tea.
“ Daud?” She asked.
“That’s what I said,” Corvo replied, eyeing her carefully. “What’s wrong?” Meagan let out a pained noise, but turned away.
“It’s nothing,” she said. “Just drop it.”
“If there’s something you know that could help…” Corvo prompted. Meagan clicked her tongue humorlessly.
“There isn’t. Please leave it alone.”
“Okay, then. You should know your lack of disclosure here isn’t exactly a comfort,” Corvo said.
“And you should know there are things in my past that I prefer to keep there. At least until we have a little more experience together under our belts. Don’t take offense to this, Lord Attano, but you don’t particularly trust me and I don’t particularly trust you. Not yet. So for now, just know that if there is something I think is key to our success, I will tell you. And if I don’t, then please drop it.” Corvo sunk further down into the chair he was sitting in, rubbing his eyes to stave off the oncoming headache.
“She speaks the truth. Not her entire truth, but she is telling you what she feels is necessary,” the heart whispered.
“Fine,” Corvo said. “But I mean it when I say I think we need to try to find Daud.” Meagan stared down into her teacup, her silence making Corvo more and more uncomfortable by the second.
“You could start at the Overseer outpost,” She finally said. “If anyone has seen him, I’m sure the Overseers caught wind of it. Maybe they started an investigation.” Meagan shrugged. “But honestly? All of this is just one big series of shots in the dark.”
“It’s a start at least. Shoot enough bullets, you’re bound to hit something, even in the dark.”
“True enough, I suppose. Let’s just get going and get this over with. There’s a black market you can get supplies from a short walk from the pier. I don’t have much money, but what I have is yours. Of course, if you’re not too far above it, you can always get supplies through… other means.”
“If you think I’m above stealing when my daughter’s life is on the line, you clearly have a lot to learn about me,” Corvo replied.
“At least your priorities are in order. More than you can say about most these days. At any rate, we should head out. Get to Addermire, find Hypatia, and disable the watchtower.”
“And search the Overseer outpost,” Corvo reminded her.
“Yes, and that,” Meagan said, her voice wavering ever so slightly. Corvo decided to ignore her shiftiness for the time being.
“Sounds like a walk in the damn park,” Corvo grumbled.
“Always is,” Billie replied.
It was not a walk in the damn park. In fact, from the moment he stepped onto the docks, Corvo was miserable. He had not even remotely missed the sweltering heat in Karnaca. The smell of rotten fish permeated the air, and the locals met anyone new with a vague attitude of distrust. The humidity and the heat made it difficult to breathe with his mask on, but Corvo’s face was on posters all over the city and he knew he couldn’t risk removing it. His first goal was to find the black market shop and load up on supplies with the meagre savings that Billie had given him. Old habits die hard, and Corvo set about investigating the rest of the building above the black market. Glancing out a window and into the back alley behind the shop led him to make eye contact with a thin woman lounging on a rotting couch.
“Hey, come here,” she said. “Wanna help me with something? You scratch my ass, I scratch yours.” Everything about her appearance screamed “gang member,” so Corvo had a suspicion that he didn’t have to worry about her reporting him to the authorities.
“I’m listening,” he said.
“My name’s Mindy Blanchard, and that mask tells me you’re someone who goes into places where you don’t belong.”
“I need to get to Addermire Institute. Can you help?”
“Yeah, I know how to do that,” Mindy said, exhaling smoke after a long drag on her cigar. “You go get a body for me and I’ll help you with your problem. Don’t worry, he’s already dead.”
“You want me to bring you a corpse? What’s the story there?”
“The Overseers are holding him at their outpost. They think he was a kind of witch. I want the body for reasons of my own. Sneak in and take it, then meet me in the old basement below the dentist’s office near there.” The Overseer outpost, Corvo thought.
“I’ll consider it,” Corvo said, although he was thanking lucky stars that for once, the marbles had fallen into place. He could kill two birds with one stone and find a way to Addermire with the help of his new friend. He made his way back down to the black market shop, and with fresh supplies, he headed towards the outpost. The bloodflies were so much worse than when he was a child, and he had to take far more care than he ever remembered taking before to avoid them. Void, how did they get so bad? Getting to the outpost was slow going in the sweltering Serkonan sun, but he managed to get in quickly enough and found the corpse Mindy wanted. Once all of the Overseers had been rendered unconscious, Corvo began desperately shuffling through all papers and letters he could find. Surely they had something on Daud. They had eyes and ears everywhere, for void’s sake.
He was haphazardly shoving whatever papers he could find into his pockets, but one caught his eye. It had a strange symbol he didn’t recognize stamped on the top, as well as a red “SEIZED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE OVERSEERS” stamp.
Staff & Members -
Tonight’s fight will be postponed for next Wednesday, unless another fighter can be found. Our usual fighters are all still recovering after their losses, and I don’t think Jacobi will be back in the ring anytime soon. You lot struck gold finding our Black Magic Brute, but we’ll need to beef up our boys some more before we make this a regular event again. Can’t have any of them dying. We’ll keep him nice and cozy in the meantime, don’t worry.
--
Jeanette Lee
Corvo read and reread the letter at least a dozen times, his mind swimming with a thousand thoughts at once. There was only one man Corvo knew who could best anyone in a fight, and with a title like the Black Magic Brute, well… this was far more of a lead than he had expected to find. He felt foolish for even starting to get his hopes up, but he couldn’t quell it. Gathering up the remaining few bits he could find, he moved to get Mindy’s corpse so he could find a way to the Institute to locate Hypatia.
Walking down the dusty steps to the basement of the dentist’s office, Corvo found Mindy digging a shallow grave in the dirt.
“Hey, you got him,” She said. “Put it down in the hole.”
“You said you had a trick for getting closer to Addermire?” Corvo asked after he had dumped the body into the hole she had been digging.
“I just sent one of my boys to turn off the power to the carriage rails. When the juice is off, you can walk along the rails and get where you need to go. On the other side, there’s a station that will take you to Addermire.”
“You seem to have a lot of sway around here,” Corvo said.
“I have enough people on my side to keep things running how I like them,” Mindy replied, leaning on her shovel.
“Heard anything about a fight club?” Corvo asked.
“Yeah, they got a pretty big one, what I hear. Run by some group called the Eyeless or something. Supposed to be a good show.”
“From what I hear, they have a pretty good fighter. Doesn’t lose much.” Mindy eyed Corvo curiously.
“I wouldn’t know. I’m not dumb enough to wander into a rival gang’s headquarters, no matter how much they keep to themselves. But yeah, I’ve seen posters about their ‘Black Magic Brute.’ Never seen him myself, and I don’t plan to. They’ve been known to take people now and again and I ain’t aiming to be some gladiator for them. I can hold my own in a fight but the way they talk about this dog of theirs? I’m not interested in dying anytime soon.”
“Where is this place?” Corvo asked. “I’ve been looking for a good place for a fight. Could ring in some decent money.” Mindy snorted.
“You’re a terrible liar, and a stupid one too, apparently. But whatever. I don’t give two fucks what you want with the Eyeless. They’re holed up in the Albarca Baths further up north.”
“Alright, then. Thanks for your help. I’d say I hope we run into each other again, but I think we’d both prefer for that not to happen,” Corvo replied, nodding curtly before blinking back up the stairs and onto the street again. True to her word, the carriage rails had been turned off, and so Corvo carefully headed to the station and to the carriage to take him to Addermire.