A fog had settled over Dunwall's skyline as night began to creep in, casting the entire city in soft grey as though someone had taken watered down paint, and had brushed it over everything. Moisture clung to the windows of Dunwall Tower, the glass cold to the touch. It was the perfect night to disappear. As the clock tower chimed the hours of the early morning, Emily crept out of her chambers the way she had the night Delilah had locked her there. Her signet ring slid into Sokolov's lock with ease, the door sliding open without so much as a whisper.
The instant Emily's boots collided with the rooftop, her entire body relaxed. This was her city, and this was where she belonged. The surface beneath her feet was slick with water from the fog but she was better now. Gone were the mistakes of miscalculating jumps the way she had when she'd escaped Dunwall Tower on the seventh day of the Month of Rain. Gone was her uncertainty that had led to being too cautious. Emily Kaldwin had been shaped by time, and by the tides of the Void until she knew exactly what it was that she had to do.
She hoped that her journey would allow her to be back before her father was any the wiser, but every second she spent worrying about getting caught was another second she lost. The silk scarf pulled taught around the lower half of her face was a reassuring feeling that she had missed ever since she'd returned from Serkonos, but what she missed more, was the feelings of pins and needles that danced across the back of her left hand as she raised it before her. The Void's song grew to encompass everything else as she pulled herself across the space, leaping from the roof of Dunwall Tower to the streets below. The bonecharm sewn into the arm of her outfit granted her temporary invisibility until she landed with a rush of wind on a nearby roof.
The electricity of the Void in her bones crackled as she gave herself a split second to admire what she had just done. Both times before this, she'd not had the Outsider's gifts aiding her, and by the Void, was it far more exhilarating this time. Moisture began to gather on her raven hair with every passing moment, and trying not to dawdle, she began to run. She disappeared from one spot, and reappeared in another, conserving her momentum to use it to pull herself to another spot altogether. She granted herself fewer than three seconds between each instance of her power, simultaneously trying to be efficient while conserve her energy but she had to know.
To anyone else, travelling from Dunwall Tower to Slaughterhouse Row would have taken several hours. Emily Kaldwin, fuelled by curiosity, desperation, and the Outsider's mark, managed to do it in just over one. She almost wished she hadn't. She almost wished that she'd taken longer, given herself more time to think about if she truly wanted to see this scene for herself.
But it was too late now.
Slaughterhouse Row had grown over the years, expanding from the single street it had been so long ago, to a sprawling district in its own right where the streets ran red with the blood of whales, tainted silver by their oil. The stench of rotting flesh was heavy in the air and noxious fumes was almost stifling but Emily had bigger concerns.
Such as to why the slaughterhouses were completely empty.
Not just of workers—though that was to be expected, given the hour—but of the whales they were meant to be harvesting oil from. For every five slaughterhouses, there was perhaps one whale between them, and the whale was half the size of what she was expecting to see. While the gangs had largely been reigned in with Corvo's assistance, there were still several groups scattered around large fires, boasting about their day with a bottle of Old Dunwall in their hand. Calling upon the Void, Emily pulled herself down behind a group of two muttering to themselves. She darted behind a box before anyone could notice her, straining her ear to overhear their words.
"They say that even the Watch is pulling outta 'ere." a woman grumbled. "You know we're royally screwed then. The Watch is made up outta a bunch of whiny little babies but they wouldn't abandon their posts. Not like this."
"We might be royally screwed, but you know the royals are gonna be too." her partner replied with a small but angry chortle. "They're saying that we have weeks."
"They're always saying something." the woman replied. "Especially if they think we're gonna die. Wouldn't that be great?"
Emily considered her risks. She could press these two for more answers, and risk getting into a fight, or she could walk away and risk getting caught by people she hadn't known that were there. Granted, she could always just flee but how far could she run away when the answers were here? Counting her blessings, she stepped out from behind the crate, judging their reactions before saying a word.
The woman only scoffed. "Why you lookin' at us like we're gonna bite?" she said, brow raised. "I'm assumin' you heard that, so why would I wanna kill you when we're all gonna die anyway?"
"I may require some...help." Emily admitted. "It never hurts to be cautious."
"Is that why you're wearing that scarf?" the man asked. "You lookin' not to get recognised, or something?"
Behind her scarf, she cracked a smile. "Or something."
The woman snorted, and lit a cigar using the fire without managing to burn her hands off in the process. "Can't help you much, lady." she said. "Work at them slaughterhouses, so unless you want some whale guts—"
Perhaps it seemed that the Outsider's attention was giving her more blessings than usual. Her luck hadn't been this great for over a year, and now she just happened to run into a woman who could help her. "Actually, I do not need whale guts but I need something of the sort." she said. "An answer, to a question."
"Answers might actually be easier to get than whale guts, these days." said the woman, handing her cigar off to her partner. "Name's Hattie. What can I help you with?"
"Meagan." Emily lied, saying the first name that came to mind. "I need to know when this first started happening. The slaughterhouses shutting down. The whale supply running dry."
Hattie looked to her partner who only shrugged. She turned back to Emily. "It didn't get bad until about yesterday. No whale was brought in. At all. The whales you see here today were from the day before. Normally we get at least one, even if it's a bad day."
When she was pulled into the Void by someone other than the Outsider, Emily realised with a start.
"In my opinion though, things started going south about eight months back." Hattie said. "Wasn't at the place I worked, but rumour has it someone brought in something they shouldn't have. Nothing's been right since."
Eight months back... Emily paled at the approximate date, realising it coincided with the day her father had awoken with the mark back on his hand. Something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong. She muttered her thanks, and an apology for interrupting their conversation before disappearing into a back alley where she pulled herself back up onto the rooftops, mind churning with possibilities. She almost didn't notice when she ran into a man wearing a mask that resembled a skull.
"I still have to go to Serkonos." said Corvo Attano though his displeasure was evident.
She nodded solemnly. "I know. Even if the Outsider's dying, we still have to protect our people."
"He won't die." Corvo said with a little too much conviction and certainty. "He's the Outsider."
"He wasn't the first."
Her reply caught him off guard, and he looked down to the ground. She had a point. There had always been an Outsider, always had been a representative of the Void. But it hadn't always been him. It was entirely possible that his time was almost up, his turn almost over, but there was no account of a situation such as this ever occurring. Corvo supposed he predated any existing documents but there had to be something. He'd lived in a time where they must have had tales otherwise his killers would not have known that he had to be sacrificed to the Void. He was the only one who would know, but how could he foresee his own death? There were many things that the Outsider could do, but as he had admitted, he was not omniscient. Not even a god such as him could see his own death.
When he looked back up, Emily placed a hand on his arm. "You're right. My duty lies here. I can take care of this. You need to go to Serkonos."
It was rare that his daughter changed her mind. She was as stubborn as he, with Jessamine's pride; a dangerous combination that often resulted in overconfidence, and arrogance, but on this occasion, she was right. Still, as her father, it did not stop him from mocking her. "A change of heart?" he teased. "That's a first."
She only rolled her eyes—an action that Callista surely would have condemned—but she looked so much like her mother in that instant that his heart panged. There wasn't a day that passed that he didn't miss her but to know that Emily was by his side...he was provided with some sense of comfort. A part of Jessamine lived on in their daughter, even if Jessamine didn't. He could only hope that he had done right by her, but even if he hadn't, he knew that she would be proud of the woman their daughter had grown up to be.
Sometimes, he didn't give her enough credit, he knew that, but as her father he was supposed to challenge her to do better. He knew that Emily couldn't always understand that but he hoped that she understood just how proud he was of her. He had heard of all the things she had accomplished in Serkonos, heard of how she had handled the situation with a delicate and just hand, exacting justice if and only when it was needed. She had liberated the people of Serkonos from the tyrannical reign of the Duke—who she promptly replaced with his fairer double with none the wiser. She had cured the newest great mind of their age, Doctor Alexandria Hypatia, and had saved countless others.
And he couldn't have been prouder of her.
Jessamine might have disapproved of Corvo ever condoning Emily taking a life at all but if he didn't...would she even be alive now? Sometimes, he wondered if Emily—of all people—would be able to have done it. Outsider knew that he couldn't. In his attempt to save Emily, he had spared as many as he could but there were always those who'd pulled their pistol out before you could, those whose sword was a little too close for comfort.
And then...
Then there were those who simply had it coming.
The Lord Regent had been one of those.
At least Waverly Boyle had survived, even if Corvo hadn't quite wanted her to.
"I'll see you back at Dunwall Tower." Emily said after a long moment, eyes cast downwards. She quickly kissed him on the cheek, a rare demonstration of affection that court often did not permit before calling upon the Void once again. She did not look back. Her heart was too busy racing for her mind to even consider looking back. Did the disappearance of the whales bode the end of all things? She hoped not. She was practically praying not.
But the Outsider was scared, and that most certainly did not bode well.
Without anyone maintaining the Void, it would devour all the lights in the sky, and what were they supposed to do then?
She knew what the answer was, but could she become the people that had watched as innocent bled out on an altar before them? She would as bad as the people she'd tried to save her kingdom from. Perhaps her intents would be good—saving the entirety of the known world—but she would also be subject someone to spend a millennia in the Void, with their humanity stolen from them. She would be condemning someone to spend a millennia alone.
She had seen what it had done to the Outsider; warped him beyond all sense of the human he had been before, corrupted him so thoroughly with visions of potential futures and their terror that he would never be able to prevent unless he broke the one rule that governed him and meddled.
Could she bring herself to do such a thing, if only to save the world? Even if it meant seeing the death of someone she considered to be a friend, even if he lacked the capacity to feel the same?
Honestly, she did not know but she hoped it would not come to that.