They set out just after eight, after they'd finished gearing up and Elaine had put her extra items on. She still felt slightly odd about all of this, but then, it did make a change from being cooped up inside the castle constantly.
They started at a casual walk across the castle's bridge, heading for the tall, iron gates, but when they got to within ten feet of them the two men began to blink up to the highest roof.
She stopped, and looked up; that was awfully high to her. They waved at her, and waited.
"Come on," Daud whispered, "get your arse up here."
"You're forgetting that this is the first time I've done this." Elaine said snippily. "Well...out here, anyway."
"Just pick a way up." Corvo told her. "You'll get the hang of it."
"On the job training." Daud agreed. "Best way."
"Any advice?" She asked him.
"...don't fall?"
She gave him a look, and he grinned at her.
Okay then, let's see where I can get to, she thought.
Eventually, she spotted a path and once that had been sorted out, blinking along that path was the easiest part.
"Good." Daud nodded. "Three million years to go."
She swished at his head, and he ducked under it.
Corvo chuckled. "Come on, let's keep at it. Good practise. And keep an ear out for any runes while you're there."
Steadily, they made their way over the rooftops with silent feet, the men going first and Elaine following soon after. As long as she didn't linger her eyes on the ground below too much, she actually began to enjoy it again. It was different here, in the real world. There was the ever-present danger of falling.
However, there were also many more things to blink over, including the tops of billboard signs and the flat street lamps.
She wasn't quite feeling that brave just yet, though. She religiously stuck to rooftops, and it gave her mind a thorough workout after only a few minutes. Whole new possibilities opened up to her, seeing the areas around her as never before, and in spite of her nerves, she was smiling.
"How's the trainee doin'?" Daud asked as she crept up behind them on top of a factory.
"I'm really getting the hang of it now." She beamed. "It's quite fun, actually. I'm glad I came."
"Heh. Eager pup, ei? I like that." He then looked at Corvo. "Ey grandpa, our pup's havin' a blast back here. What say we...uh, what are you lookin' at?"
Corvo's eyes were constantly welded onto the front of a two-storey house roughly a hundred yards or so away.
"Can you hear that?" He asked them.
Elaine and Daud crept closer, drawing level with Corvo, and a faint, tinkling bell crept into their ears.
"...oh baby," Daud grinned, "come to daddy."
"Actually, the next couple are hers, remember?"
"It's okay," Elaine twittered, "you take 'em if you want."
Daud shook his head. "Oh no, sweet, man's right. That little bird out there is yours. D'you hear it now?"
"Yeah." She smiled. "Never forget that sound."
"So, go get it. We'll follow you."
She looked out over the city, planning out a route inside her head, then kept herself low and started blinking towards that bell.
And was rather fast at it, as the two men observed.
Daud whistled. "Holy shit, she's flyin'. I'd say she's a natural, if that wasn't the daftest thing to say about it."
"We'd better get moving. Don't want to lose her."
They soon caught her up, as she crouched to peer inside a half-open window on the top floor of the house. A balcony enclosed that window- which she then blinked to- and she carefully squeezed herself through the gap and into the dark room beyond.
She looked every inch a cat burglar, and that made them smile.
"There's an advantage." Corvo said as he reached the window first. "We'll have to prise this over a bit."
"Eaten one too many pies?" Elaine said from inside the room.
"Cheeky bitch." Daud grinned. "You don't eat enough."
They shoved the window panel over by another few inches, then joined her in the eleven foot by twelve foot space.
Elaine was fiddling with a lamp, seeing if it would light up.
"This shit pit's probably abandoned, y'know." Daud told her. "I wouldn't expect miracles out of that thing."
"Still worth a turn." She insisted.
She then almost dropped it as it began to glow with a pale green light that grew brighter after a few seconds.
"Careful." Corvo said. "Hang on, why is that green?"
"Dunno, I didn't even turn anything." She stared at it for a while longer, then put it back on the table.
"You must have flicked a switch or somethin'." Daud guessed. "God knows what's in that, but I guess it works."
"Try to not breathe its fumes in too much." Corvo advised. "We'd better find that rune and leave as quick as we can."
They all agreed, and split up to begin the search.
"I swear it was coming from in here." She said as she started looking through drawers.
"Might be real close by." Daud agreed. "I'll check the next floor down to make sure."
"I'll go too, there's nothing dangerous up here." Corvo followed Daud out of the room and down the stairs, leaving Elaine to search her current room alone. Where the fuck is it, she thought, they'd better not all be this tough to find.
A few minutes later, while she was crouched inside a musty old wardrobe and rummaging through clothes underneath a shelf, she heard a distant crash, then someone yelling.
She stood bolt upright...or would have done, if not for the infernal shelf that was a few inches above her head.
Elaine cursed, climbing out of the wardrobe and rubbing the top of her head, sucking in a sharp breath at the pain, then remembered the noises and dashed down the stairs.
"Corvo?" She called as she went into the room on the left, then backed up and passed into the right one instead. "Daud?"
They were both standing over a body, in the back of the area.
"Nothin' to worry about." Daud told her as his eyes floated over the dead weeper. "Take more than that to get the jump on us."
"Sounded worse than that."
"Just a surprise, that's all." Corvo said, turning around to face her. "He was behind- look out!"
She felt a violently-shaking hand on her right shoulder, and whipped round with a stumble to see another weeper, mouth agape and arms scrabbling to get hold of her.
She shrieked and shoved her hands in front of her as Corvo closed in, but a bright flash of green light blinded them in the next instant. Corvo and Daud stared from behind a hand as the weeper was thrown several feet away, covered in green flames.
The body was dead before it even hit the floor with a dull thud.
Elaine backed away fearfully, with one hand over her mouth, and jumped again as she felt more hands on her.
"It's me," Corvo told her, "it's okay, it's me."
She turned round and flung herself into his arms, resisting the urge to cry as best she could while Daud moved forward to examine the scene with an incredulous look on his face.
"What the fucking fuck was that?" He exclaimed. "Did you see it? Holy shit." He stared at the body, watching as the flames began to dwindle. Bizarrely, they didn't lick out to cover anything else in fire- they only existed on the now-dead weeper. "This green fire...it's not burnin' anything else here. This is crazy. I'm gonna check the rest of this floor, stay there." He walked away.
Corvo was watching over one of Elaine's shoulders as he held onto the still-shaking woman. He saw it too. That flash. The fire.
And he'd not imagined it, as he'd first thought; that unearthly green flame had come from her hands.
Unearthly was definitely the key word.
"It's done now." He told her gently, kissing her cheek. "I don't know how you did that, but it sure worked."
"...that was me?" She couldn't believe it.
He nodded slowly. "Yeah- we both saw it. The second your hands flew out, there it was. Bright green, like jade. You killed it."
She began to move then, slowly turning round. It took a few seconds but her eyes eventually spied the inert body in the opposite room, lying where it had fallen.
Daud then came back in, also moving to hold her.
"Is there any more?" Corvo asked.
He shook his head. "No. Was just those two. Might have been drawn in here by the sound of the rune, happens sometimes."
"Or just turned right here and then stayed."
"Yeah. That too." He then gently pulled Elaine away from him a fraction, looking at her face. "You okay?" He double-checked. "You didn't get scratched or bit?"
"I'm fine." She said. "He never got the chance." Slightly numb with shock, she then moved past him and walked towards the haphazardly-lying body.
"Might not be a good idea." Corvo advised.
"...I want to see what I did." Came the reply.
They followed her into the adjoining room and took a look.
Its face was locked into a typical screaming expression, hands still forming death claws. That was fairly standard, whether they were alive or dead. What wasn't standard, were the six holes that existed on the weeper's torso. They gave the surrounding areas of flesh the look of melted wax, almost, and the dust-covered floorboards of the room's flooring could be seen straight through them. That flame had gone all the way through in just a few seconds, causing relatively-instant death.
"Fuck." Daud said with amazement. "How can somethin' burn that hot, yet not burn at the same time? There's not even a smell...well, no more than usual, anyway."
"Definitely very strange." Corvo agreed.
"I didn't...I just wanted to get it away from me." Elaine said. "I did want it to die as well, but back then? Just wanted it away."
"You managed that as well, this is how far you threw it."
"I didn't though. Didn't even touch it."
"That fire was the same as the lamp upstairs." Daud said then, putting the two things together. "You said you didn't do anythin' to that either, but now...it was you. It has to be one of your gifts. Did you know about it?"
She shook her head. "Not until now, no."
Daud briefly wondered if he'd have ended up like that too, but then quickly dismissed that thought as she'd been agreeable at the time of their unusual encounter. "Well, there's nothin' else we can do here. Not for a job like that. Let's just find that rune and get the hell out of this house."
"Don't need to tell me twice." Elaine moved first, wanting to search to take her mind off it. Corvo looked at Daud briefly, then they also moved to carry on helping her.
They eventually located the small, pale item, stashed behind a painting in the same room that the weeper had fallen.
"When it's hidden like this," Daud explained, "from outside it can look like it's in one spot when it's actually close-by in another."
"Sure wanted to keep it safe." Elaine agreed. "I will too."
She took it down from the wall, standing on tip-toes to reach it, and saw that it was quite yellowed on one side. "This might be pretty old." She said to them both.
"Roughly two hundred years." The Outsider said as he appeared a metre away in a flash of pale light.
Corvo and Daud startled slightly, but Elaine screamed.
"Fuck's sake!" She yelled angrily. "I've had more than enough shocks for one day, thanks!"
"Easy." Corvo cautioned.
"And earlier was the least pleasant, I know." The Outsider agreed. "That gift needs some focusing, I think. Your reactions cause it to lash out over too wide an area. If you use that rune, it's strong enough to help you with that."
He first went to both Corvo and Daud in turn, letting them give him a brief kiss, then the Outsider turned and began to approach the still-nervous Elaine.
"You are not the cornered tiger now." He told her. "Hanging onto such things, memorable as they are, only breeds insecurity."
As he spoke and got closer, she began to feel calmer and instead focused on his eyes, as well as his proximity.
He ended up right in front of her, and he smiled as he stroked a finger down one side of her face.
"That is more like you." He smiled. "Remember what I said, and know that I am very pleased with all of you."
He kissed her then, just the once but allowing it to linger for a couple of seconds, then he vanished again.
Her eyes opened and she looked bewildered for a moment, then turned to look at the others and saw them smiling at her.
"I think he likes you." Daud observed.
"I'd say so too." Corvo agreed.
She smiled too, then. Her eyes got drawn to the rune as she turned her thoughts onto it, and she felt a relaxing warmth flood through her hands and into her body.
It glowed briefly, then became inert as her first had done.
"...so now your flash-bang is more focused?" Daud asked.
"I assume so, yeah." Elaine shrugged her shoulders. "I don't feel any different, so I couldn't tell you."
"Let's...not go and find more weepers to test that out." Corvo decided. "I'd much rather get out of here and get those scrolls into our ownership."
"Aye." Daud agreed. "Let's move."
As they neared the location of the Overseer's Office, as the building was known, another faint bell began to ring.
"...not again." Daud groaned. "Y'know, I never thought I'd say this but after earlier, I was kind-of hopin' to not hear another."
"You and me both." Elaine said.
"We could always get the scrolls first, then see if we can find the rune for you afterwards?" Corvo offered.
"...that one's mine too?"
"Yep." Daud nodded. "Three's a magic number. Gives you a nice start, as well. After that it's open season, though."
"I highly doubt I'll be in a position to find more than you." She said with a laugh. "You go out way more than I do."
"That might change...if you get a taste for it." He winked.
She thought of those words as they carried onwards to the mass of streetlamps in the distance, ignoring that rune for now, and couldn't help wondering if he'd meant something else instead.
The so-called Overseer's Office was, in actual fact, a very large building that looked like a museum, Elaine discovered as they perched on an adjacent roof. Giant stone columns supported a pavilion-style terrace that hung over each doorway into the building, which was shaped like a large, square-edged letter C.
Several guards patrolled the area, moving along their routes in timely order, pausing briefly as they spotted the trio above before carrying on with their watch.
"What do you think?" Corvo asked her.
"Bit opulent. Looks like a museum."
He smiled. "Used to be an art gallery, over a year ago."
"Ah, that explains it then."
"Burnt-face wanted the poshest, most important-lookin' place in the area." Daud supplied. "So, he commandeered this. Had all the paintings and sculptures shipped out- takin' some for himself, of course- and then moved his scabby backside in instead."
"That's a shame. Well, they can just move back in now."
"Once Martin's finished here, yeah." Corvo smiled. "He's currently investigating the corruption that's still rife in the Watch. Until that's done, he doesn't want people touching any place that Campbell used to frequent."
"But cos' we're unspeakably amazing," Daud grinned, "we get to have a good old snoop."
Elaine chuckled. "Most action it's ever had, probably. Reckon that rune might be in there too?" She said this as the bell had grown louder with each footstep they'd taken towards the area.
"It's looking likely. Guess that suits. We can just walk right in, have a good look round and a chortle, and kill two birds with one grenade while we're at it."
Elaine and Corvo laughed at that.
"Come on, then." Corvo said as he stood up. "Let's not disappoint these guards. We're famous, apparently."
It sure felt like that, as they walked up to the stupendously-carved front door while several sets of eyes stared at them.
Corvo fished out the keys, unlocked the door, and the trio headed inside. The door was locked behind them, just to be on the safe side, and they walked through the foyer and into what used to be the building's main gallery.
Everything was pale beige; the floor tiles, the ceiling and its reliefs, the walls, the steps, the columns and even the display plinths. The only splash of other colour remaining in the place came from the polished bronze of leftover visitor rails and their red-dyed ropes, or the few large, grey urns that had been left on some of the plinths.
Nobody in the trio was impressed.
"...beige." Elaine said, the sound echoing ahead of her.
"So much beige." Daud agreed. "This is shit. This, is why you use more colours on the damn walls."
"Just in case an evil Overseer happens to steal everything?" Corvo smiled. "They probably didn't think that likely. Usually the displays would help you to forget the beige."
"Doesn't now. I still say they could have sexed up the walls."
"We sound like art critics." Elaine smiled. "Might be best to get moving before we get a hankering to wear a beret."
Daud snorted. "Fuck that shit, come on." He led the way as they walked to the right side of the building, then descended down a couple of flights of stairs...which were thankfully not beige.
Elaine passed by one door, and heard the bell grow louder. She looked at the door's plaque: Dog Kennels.
"...they had dogs too?" She inquired.
"Guard dogs, yeah." Corvo told her. "They've probably been shipped out, stationed elsewhere. I'm rather glad."
"Me too." Daud said. "Nasty fuckers, they are. Savages."
"They'd just be doing their jobs." Elaine commented.
"Oh no, kitten. They really were savages. Wolfhounds, the Watch call 'em. Ever seen one?"
"Uh...no. I take it they're quite big, then?"
Daud grinned. "Oh Gods, you're in for a treat if you ever clap eyes on one. They're huge. Got humpbacks too, makes 'em look even bigger." He began to creep towards her, hands out like claws. "They stand as tall as your hip, with big, nasty fangs sharp as daggers, and they're very fast on their feet. And they jump! At you, paws on here..." He jumped as well, clapping his hands onto her shoulders and making her yelp. "...and they snap in your face and start chewin'." He was grinning now.
Elaine was still shocked, and after he'd finished his stupid prank, she gave him a smart slap on the mouth. "Fuck off!" She yelled as he jumped back away from her, still grinning. "Stop tryin' to scare the shit out of me! It's not funny!"
Corvo was smiling. "Come on, mate, pack it in. I don't think you'd find a fireball to the face very amusing."
"She wouldn't." Daud laughed. "She likes me too much."
"I'm fast going off you." Elaine laughed in reply.
He winked at her. "Keep tellin' yourself that."
She shoved his shoulder, then walked past him and kept walking, heading to the next set of stairs in the distance.
"You're asking for it." Corvo said as he walked with Daud.
"Meh, she's harmless." Daud smiled. "Love windin' her up."
"I'm serious, you'll get more than a slap one day."
"...we'll see." He smiled.
After those stairs, they then turned a corner and were in the very bowels of the building, probably quite a few feet underground. Everything was concrete grey, and liberally coated with grime and delicate cobwebs alike.
"Here's a different colour for you." Corvo said.
Daud sniffed. "...think I miss the beige."
"Me too." Elaine agreed. "This is just depressing. I don't think anyone down here knew what a feather duster was."
"Can't be far away now, Martin says Campbell holed himself up somewhere in here. You still hearin' that bell too?"
"Bit fainter now, but yeah."
"Maybe it's in the dog kennels."
She sighed. "Okay, enough now."
"I'm half-serious. You'll have to check it out after we've found the scrolls. They'll no doubt be wrapped around a hound's cold, dead, bony skeleton jaws, waitin' for ya."
"Your arse is gonna be waitin' for my foot in a minute."
"Ooh, I like it when you get saucy." Daud teased, earning him another slap but on the arm this time.
They eventually made it into the secret room that Martin had told them about, wall-covered door still left open from whoever had first discovered it. Inside there, was wildly different.
It was grossly opulent, far removed from everything else they'd seen so far. Lights dotted the walls, giving everything a glow of honey, and a couple of ornate wooden screens hid a small-but-elegant bed that had several discarded bras dotted around it. A small table held an audiograph player, now riddled with dust all over its surface as well as the strip of card it still held, and half a dozen oil paintings were also in attendance, either hanging on walls or propped against other furniture.
Daud whistled. "Quite the pleasure den." He smiled. "Though why anyone would want to fuck that old coot is beyond me."
"Really didn't need that image." Corvo replied.
"Nor me, mate, but look at it. You sure can't avoid seein' all this shit, it's right there."
"You still had to go and say it though, didn't you?" He muttered as they began to pick through the assorted clutter.
Elaine wasn't impressed either. "Mate, an elephant's arse is right there, but you don't drag that up, do you?"
Daud turned round. "...will these fit those baps of yours?"
He was holding two bras in his right hand, one white, one pink.
Her mouth flew open. "Oh my God...do you have to just pick up and touch everything you find? Put 'em back, you don't know where they've been!"
"Of...course I know where they've been. Round a girl's tits."
Corvo started laughing. Couldn't help himself.
Elaine rolled her eyes. "Fuckin' strangle you with them, in a minute. Such a big kid."
Daud laughed, then threw the items on the bed. "And you think that I'm kinky." He said, just loud enough for her to hear.
She steadfastly ignored that comment.
After a few more minutes, they paused for a break from searching. As yet, nothing had been found. Except bras.
"Well, this is startin' to look like a wild goose chase." Daud said with disgust. "Beginnin' to think he's lied to us."
"I'm not surprised, really." Corvo agreed. "Think we need to double-check though, just to be sure."
"Shame we're not after a reward for stolen paintings." Elaine was looking at one of the larger ones that hung on the far wall, a portrait of Campbell. "This him?" She asked.
Corvo walked over. "Yeah. How he used to be, anyway, before I scarred half his face."
"Vast improvement." Daud added as he went to examine another one close-by. "I say we hand 'em in. Nice tidy sum, maybe."
"Definitely."
Elaine looked at Corvo. "Oh, a closet art expert, ei?"
He smiled. "Hardly, I just recognise these ones. They're all done by Anton Sokolov. He has a way about his work."
"They're very nicely done, yeah."
"Worth a fair bit, too." He then nodded at the portrait. "This one was done on the same day the previous Empress was murdered. Anton was painting him at the time, on that first set of stairs before the start of the gardens."
"...and it made it here." Her face scowled. "Sick bastard. I bet he kept this here to remind him."
"I bet you're right. He was like that. Vindictive. Lied so much that he believed himself."
"Still don't know how anyone in their right mind could have thought of doing what he did."
"That's the point, I think." Daud said as he came over to join them. "He wasn't in his right mind. Couldn't have been. Anyone with eyes and ears would say it were wrong. I don't care how much this is worth, I've a mind to slash it to bits."
"If looking bothers you, then don't look." She smiled.
"I've seen it now. Too late."
She smiled, and went to pick up the painting. "Let's put it over here. Can't sell it if you wreck this face too." She lifted it from the wall, then turned and bent to place it on the floor.
Corvo and Daud stared at the wall that was behind it, and both began to smile broadly.
"...fuck me." Daud said.
"I'll pass on that, thanks." Elaine joked as she turned the painting round so that the reverse faced forwards, just in case.
"You've not seen this." Corvo said.
She grinned. "Isn't that the point? I've not seen it, and-" She turned back, and also stared at the area of wall.
A very visible section had a slightly different colour.
"...fuck me is right." She said in an awed voice.
Daud grinned. "See? Don't judge before you look."
"I can now say that I'm very interested." She also grinned.
He laughed. "Don't tempt me. How do we get this off?"
"There must be something somewhere, behind all this stuff." Corvo looked at the stacks of boxes and clutter close-by.
"Time to get back to work."
After moving all of the rubbish, however, there was unfortunately no secret button or lever, and no more hidden panels.
"This don't make sense." Daud frowned.
"Maybe it's somewhere else in the room?" Corvo said.
"So what, we...have to go through all of this?"
"If that's what it takes, then yes."
"...fuck that." Daud stormed out of the room.
Elaine smiled. "I kinda echo his frustration. There's a lot of stuff here, and it'll take a fair while."
"He might have gone to get something that can help." Corvo explained. "We'd better carry on anyway, though."
They switched sides then, and began moving more empty boxes and paintings out of the way.
A couple of minutes later, Daud returned. "Stop everything," he said as he hefted a crowbar, "let's not make this harder for us than need be. I'm gonna try this."
"Where'd you find that?" Elaine asked.
"Store cupboard down the way." He began to use the tool's bladed end on one of the odd panel's visible sides. "Gimme a hand, Corvo, this bitch might be tough to rip off."
Corvo strode up and, between them and with a little effort, they were rewarded with a creaking and splintering as the panel was brutally forced off from a hidden set of hinges.
An alcove lay behind, holding a shelf and a carved stone head of Thaddeus Campbell. One of its glass eyes was missing.
"Can't escape him for long." Corvo said.
"I knew it had a key somewhere." Elaine smiled. "Trust you to get all impatient."
Daud fished into his belt and pulled out the aqua marble, bouncing it on his palm. "I got your key right here."
He fed it to the empty eye socket, and the whole alcove opened outward like a door to reveal another alcove, much smaller...
And the two recipe scrolls at long last.
Daud grinned. "Clever stuff. Course, he didn't build it though."
"Well, it's not smarter than us." Corvo took the scrolls and put them into his backpack. "And that's our reward."
"All this, too." Daud removed the other items in the alcove, which were a half dozen jewels and a gold bar. They also went into the backpack. "Split it between us, job done." He said.
"That bar's coded by the bank, you know." Elaine smiled.
"So we'll melt it down first. They won't know, will they?"
She chuckled. "I can see where Emily first picked up her fond love for shinies now."
"I can too." Corvo smiled as well. "Well, that just leaves the rune to find. And it's not in here."
"Hmm...hopefully it's not as dangerous to locate."
"There's nothing here now, not even Wolfhounds, so you're definitely safe this time."
"Hope so. Okay then, I'll start in that store cupboard down the way, see if it's got more than just tools."
Once again, they split up to cover more ground. Corvo gave the secret room one last quick look-over, then headed further down the corridor with Daud and they then split up after that.
Elaine didn't find anything in that store cupboard apart from yet more tools, building supplies and a manky dead rat that was definitely past its burial time. She gave up on the cupboard and also went down that same corridor.
She went into a bathroom and trawled through the supply cabinet, then gave up on that as well. The sound was louder than before, but it wasn't coming from there.
In actuality, she did have a slight suspicion as to where the rune could be. Inside the dog kennel room. And she really, really didn't want to go in there. Anything could be in there. Even if there were no hounds inside it- apart from maybe dead ones- and even though Daud had only said that stuff to wind her up, she still didn't want to enter that place. Because.
In the end, however, when Corvo announced that they were leaving if the rune wasn't found in another ten minutes because they'd already been there far longer than need be, she was sadly forced to go in there.
As she'd predicted, the large, long rectangle of the room was dark, and it was creepy. Water dripped from somewhere or other, probably a leaky tap. At least, she hoped that it was water.
All the cells, four a side at the far end of the room, were empty. Leftover straw bedding and baskets were all that she saw, and she was infinitely glad for that. Despite hounds sounding like savage beasts, it would have broken her heart to see a dead one.
She was too soft for her own good, sometimes.
Her heart did give a little tug when she found a cardboard box full of old dog collars in one of the staff lockers, though.
Unusual names, like Brandy and Justice, were stitched into the leather inbetween the metal spikes, presumably by a machine.
Letters were too neat to have been done by hand.
She was inevitably thinking of happy, bouncing puppies, not the wicked-looking hyena-type creatures that they actually were.
I'm definitely too fucking soft, she thought to herself.
The locker units themselves were just full of old uniforms, cups, the occasional magazine or notebook, random paraphernalia left behind and forgotten about by guards. She'd checked the one open locker door first, then gone back for the closed ones. All unlocked, strangely, and no keys to be seen anywhere.
It was like somebody had been through them before her, but at least they'd not found the rune. She could still hear it but had no idea where it was. The sound had no direction to it anymore.
She rifled through the last locker, coming across a beautiful writing pen with ornate silver holder and carrying case, and decided that she could give it a worthy home. It would only lie there and have its purpose wasted, otherwise.
She stuffed the box into her backpack.
Once she'd slung the backpack over her shoulder again, her ears looked to the left as she'd heard the sound of the bell moving.
How could it move? One of them must have found it.
She turned around, and looked straight into the eyes of the Outsider, who was barely a foot in front of her.
She startled and jumped back on instinct, and came into contact with the edge of the table behind her. The edge caught her on her backside with a sting, and her movement caused it to land heavily on the table afterwards.
He stared at her shocked face, hearing the few heavy breaths that it had made her expel before she mastered that shock. He then saw a disapproving, stern face look back at him.
"Please don't do that." She snapped irritably. "I've got enough with Daud's pranks, never mind yours."
"You do seem rather jumpy today." He observed neutrally.
"Oh, I wonder why?" She was rather cross with him. "I'll go insane, between the two of you."
"I take it that you don't want this, then." He held up his right hand, and she saw the rune resting casually underneath his slim, pale fingers. He smiled as he saw her eyes widen.
"...where was it?" She asked.
"The open locker you've already searched through. In the care of one of the guards, for a time. He then turned, and left behind his possessions as well as his desire for life."
That was...quite the back story. It made her think twice about wanting to take it for her small collection. She was now unsure.
"They all have those stories." He added. "Or similar. Left there, for people such as yourself to find. Do you want it?"
Her eyes looked at it in response to the question; it was constantly glowing with a soft, pale green, probably caused by him being in contact with it, she presumed.
After a couple of seconds, she found that...yes.
Actually, she did want it. She nodded silently.
He smiled, and slowly walked towards her. "Then you, shall need to be rather more respectful."
"You half-scared me to death. Again."
He came to a stop in front of her knees.
"It seemed like an enjoyable activity. I could not resist trying."
Probably as close to an apology as I'll get, she thought.
A faint smile touched her. "That sounds familiar."
"It should."
She held out her right hand. "May I have it then, please?"
It wasn't the rune that ended up in it; it was his other hand.
As he held onto it, he leant close to her face and then placed the cold surface of the rune to the left side of her neck. She still felt the power transfer into her, through the skin, but it felt much stronger as his hand was still holding onto it. She looked at him again, wondering what he was doing, and had a very strong urge to kiss the mouth that was a couple of inches away. But, she didn't. She waited instead, to see what he would do.
He looked down briefly to place the now-inert rune into her right hand and wrap her fingers around it, then he looked back at her face, mouth and lastly her eyes. She almost moved, almost...
He then vanished, leaving her both aroused and confused at the exact same time. She took a deep breath, and decided to sit there for a minute longer until her heart stopped racing.
She then rejoined Corvo and Daud, finding them in another storage-type area full of cleaning equipment.
"They did have dusters." Daud told her as she walked over.
"Shame they didn't use them." She held up the rune. "Guess where this little bastard was?"
Daud didn't have to say anything. He just smiled.
"At least you've now got it." Corvo replied instead. "Was there anything bad in there?"
"No." Elaine shook her head. "Was all cleared out."
"Told you. And now, I think it's time for us to leave."
"Yeah, let's go." Daud agreed. "There's more science to do, some rest to be had, and a party to plan. Not in that order."
"Definitely need some rest." Elaine smiled.
"Then ladies first." He said, gesturing at the open door.