Sea salt and open air surrounding the boat as it's three occupants, one driving the boat, made their way back to Dunwall's capitol. The first was a tall, scarred man who stood before the boat's stirring wheel, the second was an older looking man who was also noticeably scarred and about the same height stood a little behind the first man and was talking to the third occupant of the boat.
Sitting a little ways behind the two men was a fairly short, slim man who had long, dark hair that ran down to the small of their back, it was tied in a low pony tail and swayed with the sea breeze, he was wearing a cotton dress shirt under a charcoal black vest. His dark, navy blue long coat was folded over his elbow, unknowingly showing off his slender figure. He wore a pair of black pants that were tucked into a pair of leather boots that reached up to his calves.
His face was very pale, making him look like a porcelain doll, he had a wide pair of dark blue eye's, surrounded by long, dark eyelashes. His pale-pink lip's were in a slight smile as he enjoyed the sea's view, making the two men before him utterly entranced by him, not that he knew he had that ability.
This man's name was Corvo Attano, he was the Royal protector, a high ranking which gave him the responsibility of personally guarding Empress Jessamine Kaldwin and the heir to the throne, Emily Kaldwin.
The boat entered the mechanical harbour that brought them into the Dunwall's capitol, home of the royal family.
"You should immediately meet with the Empress, Corvo." One of the men stated before giving out their hand as a farewell, Corvo placed his small, artist's hand into the larger hand of the sailor and shook it gently before doing the same to the other.
"I will, good day, sirs." It was obvious how awkward Corvo was with acting upperclass, considering he grew up in a lower class family.
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Corvo walked up the stairs to the gazebo as Emily followed him while holding his hand, talking about the things she had done while he had been away, Corvo nodding with a smile and replying from time to time.
While walking up the stairs Corvo and Emily passed by Hiram Burrows, formally known as The Spymaster, although by nature Corvo was always polite to people he couldn't help but feel suspicious and nervous of the man, as The Spymaster Hiram was allowed to keep his own secrets and was mostly looked over by anyone who wasn't the Empress.
There was also the way that The Spymaster would look at him, there was a sort of hunger there, and Corvo didn't understand why The Spymaster would look at him like that.
He was also disrespectful of the Empress in ways that Corvo didn't like, Hiram looked down on the lower class and obviously didn't care about them, which upset Corvo since he had been raised in a lower class family.
"G-good day, Sir Spymaster. . ." Even after all these years Corvo was still stumbling over his 'Upper class Behaviour', it was just something that never seemed to stay in his mind, he wasn't raised to be an upper class societal man.
He was raised by a single mother in a small town that cared more about how good your hunting skills were than about how you treated people in political situations.
"And a good day to you, Sir Royal Protector." Hiram gave him a smile that put a weird feeling in his gut, he didn't know why but he just didn't like the look of that expression. But, of course, he didn't point it out to The Spymaster, as from what he could remember that would be rude, so he just nodded at Hiram and kept walking up the stairs.
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He finally reached the top of the stairs to the gazebo and Emily ran over to her mother, hugging her around the waist and telling her that Corvo had arrived.
"Ah, thank you, Emily." The Empress affectionately patted Emily's head before turning to face Corvo, a weary smile on her attractive face.
"It is good to see you again, Corvo, have you gathered any information from the surrounding cities?" Jessamine asked, Corvo handed over a letter with a red wax seal pressed onto it, and the Empress opened it and began reading it.
"This isn't good news. . .I had hoped that one of the other cities had dealt with such a plague before and would know the remedy for it. . ." She massaged the bridge of her nose as she said that, before turning a tired but appreciative eye over to Corvo.
The empress looked over to the outlines of the neighbouring cities in the distance. "Cowards, they're going to blockade us, wait and see if this city turns into a graveyard." Jessamine sighed.
"Are you okay mother? You seem sad!" Emily said, walking towards her mother.
"Yes, don't worry darling. Mother is fine." The Empress cupped on of Emily's cheeks, smiling fondly down at her, before her eye's looked around the three of them. "Wait, where are the guards? Who sent them away?" Corvo turned and confirmed that the guards had indeed left their Empress's side, why would they do that?
"Mother look! What are they doing on the rooftop?" Emily asked out of the blue pointing toward's a building's rooftop to the right of them.
"What?" Corvo and Jessamine turned around to see dark figures suddenly disappearing from the roof top.
"Emily, come here!" Jessamine's arms went around Emily to protect her as Corvo unsheathed his sword and brought out his gun.
A masked man suddenly appeared out of thin air and ran at the Empress only to be blocked off by Corvo who sliced through him with his sword, his long hair whipping behind him.
Two more figures appeared out of thin air and went directly to attack Corvo, who shot one dead center in the head and stabbed the other in the chest and neck, the two disappearing before his eye's.
"Oh, Corvo, if you hadn't been here. . .!" The Empress, Emily still hugged to her side, approached and was about to thank him profusely before another masked figure appeared, except instead of confronting him head on, this one used some sort of magical power to lift Corvo from the floor, a kind of energy surrounding his neck and holding him up there as he struggled.
Another man appeared, this time not wearing a mask, and grabbed Jessamine by her neck and pushed her against the gazebo's wall as Emily fought to get out of the hands of another masked figure.
Jessamine shouted "Corvo!" before the man suddenly stabbed her in the gut, blood poured ever were, and Corvo screamed and struggled further, the let go Jessamine's body, she slumped to the ground lifelessly, the masked figure holding Emily suddenly disappeared along with the heiress.
The magic surrounding his throat suddenly slammed him down onto the ground, holding him there with the unbreakable magic as the man who had killed Jessamine approached him and leaned down over his screaming and cursing face.
"What have you done with Emily!? Bring her back you bastard!" He struggled and screamed at the man who just smirked and pulled a knife out of his pocket.
"Quite the vocabulary on ya' for such a pretty boy!" The man snorted and held the knife over Corvo's mouth, "Let's see if we can't fixed that ay?"
Before Corvo could even react the man had the knife in his mouth and began slicing at his tongue, holding it out with his forefingers and hacking away at it until all Corvo could smell and taste was blood and the only thing he could hear were his own gurgled screams.
As fast as it had come, the masked man holding him down with his magic was suddenly gone and so was was the man who had mutilated his tongue, which he could see lying next to him in a pool of his own blood-
His dark blue eye's, now severely dilated from stress, snapped over to the Empress's body and he immediately began dragging himself over to it, getting up and cradling her against his chest and crying out in gargled, bloody sobs for someone to come help why were the guards gone when they were fucking needed-
And suddenly the guards were around him pointing their swords at him as if he was the one who had done fucking wrong-
And suddenly the Spymaster's voice broke through the accusations of the guards and he stepped towards Corvo, putting what must have meant to have been a comforting hand on shoulder.
"I think it is obvious that The Royal Protecter is not the criminal here, I order you all to search the streets and any building for suscpicious looking people and Lady Emily!" Hiram yelled out as if he had any authority in this situation.
"Come now, Corvo, you wound needs to be seen to!" Hiram hefted the still sobbing shorter man up from his crouched position away from Jessamine and easily picking up in a bridal carry for what must have been for the purpose of the speed required to get him to a healer of some sort-
And then, Corvo blacked out.
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Author's note: Hey so yeah, this is just my interpretation, of course it's an au considering how freaking different this is from the canon story.
Anyway, please favourite and reveiw! Any criticism is appreciated.