Dying hurt, the boatman decides as he stares upward into the darkening sky from the floor of his beloved Amaranth. The sunset is exquisite- if not highly ironic- the different shades of orange, red, purple, blue and black clashing together like an inventive masterpiece emulsioned by some underalded Diety for the world to witness.
He could think of worse ways to die besides being oscillated gentle by the sea he loved within the one object he cherished most with such a wondrous view. For expample: He could be here.
"Oh Samuel, what am I going to do with you?"
... He needed to learn to keep this thoughts to himself...
"I cautioned you not to let him in."
If this is going to turn into another 'I told you so' disquisition, the boatman wants to die faster. He doesn't want to hear how right the other was and how fallacious Samuel was for having optimism in a man he shouldn't have. He was already dying for his blunder the least the other could do was permit him to sucumb in peace.
An amused laughter filled the air before the night sky was replace with eyes reflecting the void.
"Sorry Samuel but I fear out indentures not finished just yet. After all," The smile upon the Diety's face reminded the boatman a lot of a shark detecting blood in open water, "You did promise forever."
The last thing Samuel Beechworth sees in the darkness of the void held within those unnatural eyes.
Its pitious, Erland can't help but think as he stares down at the body within the bottom of the Amaranth. He had always warned his boatman the other's kindness would see him killed. He had bluntly warned Samuel to stay away from Corvo Attano.
Corvo Attano was not a safe man to be around. He wasn't safe before the Empress' assasasintion nor his rather extended stay within the walls of Coldridge. Afterwards, The Royal Protector was fragmented, nothing more then a silent killer driven by revenge and monophonic protectiveness.
Maybe he should have done more? Been more forceful in his insistance the boatman avoided the man? He should have dragged the other, kicking and screaming if necessary, into the void for his own safely once the Boatman had made his intentions clear. Would it have made any differnence? The boatman cared too much and would have attmepted to help fix the broken man one way or another.
"I should have taught you to be more selfish."
Or at least how to tell when the person you where trying to help went from friendly into outright creep.
It doesn't matter now though. Samuel had died a rather messy and bloody death but Erland wouldn't permit the boatman to stay dead, he just needed to figure out exactly where he wanted to place the other...
Well there was one place he could think of.
Every since her son, Harry, had been announced stillborn; life had slowly but surely been crumbling around Lillith 'Lilly' Potter nee Evans. Her parents where dead, her sister dispised her soley for existing, an unforseen complication in the pregancy had left her barren, her son was dead before he even had a chance, and her husband couldn't stand to be in the same room as her- let alone actually look at or comfort her.
She was desperate, so she did something. Something she hadn't done since she went to Hogwarts, since she discovered she was a witch. She went to back to her Family Occult.
The Outsider was said to be a being of unfathomable power, a being capable of wrapping reality itself. Surely he if no one could grant her what she desired.
Though she had hoped, Lilly hadn't actually expected the ritual to work.
Yet there he stood holding a bundle of golden fabrics within his arms.
"His name is Samuel."
Emerald eyes glance, she could just see the tuffle of black hair and pale skin from within. A baby, the thought alone caused the rouge's fingers to twitch in the urge to snatch the young life away from the avatar before her. Yet she forces herself to resist the urge, stealing from a God wasn't a wise idea after all.
"Now, now Samuel. There is no need for such language even if she can't hear you. "
An amused smile twists onto those lips as void black eyes gaze down into the bundle accommodating an open fondness before they flicker onto her being as boredom becomes the prominent emotion.
"Lillith Potter, I have an assignment for you."
Samuel Beechworth wasn't a man to usually consider revenge.
He had witnessed first hand how it twisted and swiveled good men into monsters. He had heard the countless of screams as the once Royal Protector carried out his own revenge, he had witness the waters turn crimson, observed those crimson waters becoming nothing more then a sea of bodies wrapped in white. And to think he played a part of that, he had ferried death.
He had even attempted to save the monster that slathered death with its every breathe. He was naïve to actually believe he could aid the other, he sees that now, you can't rehabilitate someone who doesn't want to be after all. It was rather obvious how his endeavors turned out...
Samuel Beechworth wasn't usually a man to consider revenge, but right now; in the body of an infant being held to the bosom of a woman he knew to be a witch in a world of magic; Samuel was reconsidering his policy on revenge.
Witches...
Erland was giving him to a witch...
Good Gracious Father Above...
"Its not that bad Samuel."
Yeah right, being a witch in Dunwall- Natural Born of not- was practically the worst thing a person could be.
"Then its a good thing you're not in Dunwall."
...What?
Samuel pities the man that is conjectured to be his father and he pities the lad he is supposed to replace. He abhors the woman that is presumed to be his mother. Adoption is brilliant and all by the once boatman's book yet to completely eradicate the memory of a child who never had a chance and make the world think he is that child...
It makes Samuel sick.
Since he is stuck in a infant's body his protest of the inhumane act against his moral code is rather petty. Lilly still hasn't figured out why he screams like a banshee every time she gets within ten feet of him. James just laughs and says it because he's a 'Daddy's Boy'.
Samuel can feel his pity for the man growing with every passing second.
The once boatman doesn't believe in Prophecies, to be honest he fount many of them self-filling. If you openly acted, whether against or for a prophecy they tended to come about, but if you ignored them as a whole they would fade away into nihility. He also fount them exceptionally vague, holding an indefinite amount of ambiguous meanings and no practicable way for a lucid answer.
Then there was the issue of this prophecy having absolutely nothing to do with him.
For one, his parents had defied a tremendous number of people, but Samuel doubted a Dark Lord capable of using magic was on the list. Secondly, he was born on the tenth day of the Month of Clans- a time of ice, darkness, being ensnared within one's home and family- the Dunwall equivalent of December.
So why where they still going on about him or the Longbottom Child being the Prophesied One? Why where they discussing moving from the assured safety of the old Potter Manor and century old wards for the less then safe; Godric Hollow Cottage where loose lips -or cowardice, if they actually plan to use the rat-face Pettigrew- would get them all killed before morning tea?
Wizards, Samuel finds, have an unnatural lack of common sense. He ponders if its a Curse on the Society as a whole, after all, no one could possible be this stupid without outside aid...Right?
For now the first time in his life the man once known as Samuel Beechworth hates being right. James is likely dead downstairs, Lilly is lying on the floor before the once Boatman and his crib while a Dark Lords ashes rest across the room.
Erland is gone and if not for the scar on his head and the fact he wasn't as dead as everyone else in the household, Samuel would have thought he imaged the deity ever being there.
"Lilly!"
A man in black robes rushes into the room, dark eyes quickly darting about before landing on the woman upon the floor. The man doesn't even seem to realize Samuel is there as he cradles the body close, a pained bawl that could only come from a man who lost everything tearing from his throat.
Its a sound the once boatman has perceived too many times, one he had aspired to avoid hearing for some years to come. If he could, Samuel would walk away; but since he's currently trapped within a wooden prison the once boatman just looks away, permitting the man to grieve in the closest thing to peace he can offer.
Its only after the bat like man is gone with a sharp crack does Sirius appear. The man always reminded Samuel of an older, male Emily; so the boatman sees no problem in sleeping within the safely of his arms.
Its a mistake he promises not to make again as he's woken on a cold November morning, wrapped solely in only a thin practically burnt blanket to the sound of a shrill scream.
If Samuel is honest, he never liked horses.
They where beautiful, yes, but he never saw a reason to own one. Compared to the river and his beloved Amaranth they where a rather uncomfortable and a slow means of transportation. And unlike his beloved Amaranth, they tended to drop shit everywhere they went while prancing about all high and mighty.
Petunia reminds the boatman significantly of a horse. Every time she opened her mouth utter bullshit would come flowing out. Samuel likes the woman less then horses. At least horses didn't throw one year old into a dark cupboard and forget them for a week. He feels half deafened when the woman finally gets the dignity to check upon him only to scream at the sight of a completely heathy infant.
For some reason Samuel gets the intuition she had wished him dead.
Challenge: Harry Potter & Dishonored Crossover. SB as HP. Issues by Red Sova.
Erland: A name derived from Old Norse Erlendr meaning "Outsider" or "Foreigner"
Amaranth: An imaginary flower that never fades