Her father taught her this much: never get rid of anyone if you might make use of them instead.
Emily did not kill Dr. Alexandria Hypatia, but she didn't kill Grim Alex either.
The bodies keep falling in Dunwall, but the rumors stay quiet this time, the papers print no damning headlines. Her subjects saw their Empress claw her way up a mountain of corpses to regain her throne. They know better, now, than to draw her attention. They know what sort of monster she keeps at her side.
She always returns directly to Emily after she's been given a target, creeping to the Empress's rooms without alerting a single guard.
Hypatia comes shaken and dazed, rubbing anxiously at dark stains under her fingernails. Grim Alex is ever grinning, blood smeared across her hands and hair, caked in her teeth. Emily welcomes either into her bed, soothing one and calming the other, murmuring praise for the job well done.
"You shouldn't go out on your own like this anymore."
Hypatia's hands are quick and steady as she stitches up the gash in Emily's leg. She is just as skilled working her official job.
"I can still handle things for myself," Emily says, watching avidly as the needle pierces her skin over and over.
Hypatia pauses to look up, frowning. "But you don't have to. I – " Her eyes dart back down, and her steadying hand on Emily's ankle tightens its grip for a moment. "She can do the work for you. You don't need to risk getting hurt like this."
Emily tilts her head, curious. She knows Hypatia is aware, to some degree, of what she does when she is unaware, but she has never spoken of it before, always turned away, cowered, mumbled to herself instead. Emily reaches out to stroke a hand through Hypatia's hair, trails her fingers down the side of her face and lifts her chin. Hypatia's hands slow and tremble, and Emily can feel the slight tug of the thread through her numbed flesh.
And Emily smiles. "Oh, Alex," she says, leaning in slowly, "if they were all as loyal as you, I wouldn't even need her."
The nobles in Emily Kaldwin's court never voice a single complaint anymore, but they make it clear they find her new Royal Physician off-putting. At her best, Dr. Hypatia is twitchy and strange, muttering under breath and flinching at loud sounds and raised voices.
And at her worst, well…
Emily brought her here for more than just her medical talents.