Chapter 1: Dreams and old friends.
Ten years, that's how long it's been since I killed Hiram, an act that should of ended the whole mess, instead I found myself betrayed by those who had claimed they wanted to help. In the end the Admiral was the only one left, I killed him too, and that was the strangest thing of the whole affair, in my whole career as the "Masked Assassin" I killed, aka 'assassinated', very few people, guards and the citizens for obvious reasons, they were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, and my targets, some, like the Grand Overseer and Pendleton's brothers were simply so foul that killing them was a mercy they didn't deserve, so I found different, creative ways to dispose of them. Hiram, however, was a odd case, yes he was a murderer, he murdered Jessamine and attempted to use Emily as a puppet ruler, and tried to frame me for all of it, but in the end, his goal was for the better of the empire, and by the time I got to him, the poor man had broken down into madness, at that point, killing him was a mercy he deserved. Admiral Havelock was a similar case, by the time I caught up to him, the guilt of everything had broken him, and it was less a fight and more him letting me end his suffering. And then there was Daud...just thinking about it makes my arm feel phatom pains, the areas where I nearly lost that arm. At the end of the fight I was ready to kill him, not out of mercy, but from true, real anger. It was his plea for mercy that stopped me and made me realize something, If I had not become the Royal Protector, what would I do with the Mark, I would have been exactly like Daud, except I had been fortunate enough to be the Royal Protector of the Empress (and perhaps a little more), that revelation was enough for me to spare Daud, not kill him or condemn him to fate worse than death, but to truly allow him to live, and finally, 5 years ago that payed off, Daud still runs an assassin orginzation, but now they're careful about who they take missions from and who they kill, and Daud has (albeit recluctinly) acknowldeged that I saved his life all those years ago and has offered me his help should I ever need. Not that I'd ever need it, the though ran accross my head as I looked over my old gear, a strange feeling of nostalgia running through me. With a sense of finallity, I closed the secret storage that contained it, and climbed into my bed, the day had been long and I needed the rest.
I awoke in a strange and familar place, a twisting laybrinth of floating architecute and whales, the beginning and end of existence, the well of magic, the afterlife, the Outside's domain.
The Void.
Great, I thought, If I'm back here and can only mean sunshines and rainbows. As if summond by my sarcasm, a entity appeared in front of me, a figure of a middle aged buisness man, with a casual grey suit and a neutral expression he looked like he was on the way to a office meeting.
"Corvo!" the figure, the Outsider said, as if though he wasn't a godlike entity that could destroy me in an instant and I was an unexpected house guest instead of unwillingly brought here. "My old friend, are you happy to see me?" no, not really, seeing you usually means the worlds gone batshit insane. "Of course you are!" the Outside said, obvlious to my internal sarcasm. His expression immedtly softened however, "Corvo, there's a reason I brought you here, this world, your world, is about to be rocked to it's core, change is coming, an ancient force is starting to rise again, and you need to help stop it, you need to go to The Pandyssian Continet". Before I could ask any of the hundred of questions that had boiled up, he vanished and the Void started to fade.
This is it, the start of a new story for me, hope you enjoy, and reviews are very much welcomed, any non-constructive criticism is not encouraged however