Disclaimer I don't own Dishonored,
also want to thank my beta reader Mega Kilo 69 for betaing this story, hope you people like it!
also it doesn't contain any spoilers from the DLC, so don't worry, so enjoy :3
They returned from the party of Lady Boyle in complete silence, neither wanting to talk to the other. Corvo didn't mind that much, he was tired and to be honest with himself, he wasn't really in the mood to hear Samuel preaching about how bad it was already the situation of the city and having him, Corvo, adding more corpses to the piles that the plague had already take. But of course Samuel didn't understand that sometimes it was them or him and so, Corvo had to take the lives of the City Watch men. Not that he really regret it, but sometimes it was easier that way. But that night he hadn't just takes the lives of a couple of City Watch men and some Tallboys, he had taken the life of Lydia Boyle, the mistress of Hiram Burrows. He initially hadn't want to, but upon meeting Lord Brisby, he had conclude that it would be more merciful to end the life of the woman rather than to give her away to a man he didn't knew. So when Samuel had pick him up and see the blood in Corvo's sleeves he had simply shook his head and didn't speak to the Serkonan for all the trip back to the Hounds Pit.
Corvo stretched himself and started walking toward the inn, already whishing he would be in his bed on top of the building. Once he had reached it he started undressing himself. He took off his weapons and placed them in the table alongside with the mask, he took off his belt, the long coat, the vest and the white shirt. He sat down on the bed and threw the boots away. He gave a sigh and looked at the Heart, he passed his hand around it with tenderness and place it in the small table that was near his bed. Since he had received it, he had treated it with great care, of course he knew of who it was. Yet the Outsider had never said anything of it, it had just been a 'gift', a cruel and mocking gift from Corvo's point of view. He had wonder more than once why he had never let her rest. He gave a sigh and lay down on his bed, he passed his hand over his face and then turned to face the Heart.
"Good night Jessamine," he said softly as he turned out the lights.
Corvo awoke suddenly, not by the woman that was running into his room, but by the screams of despair that were coming from Emily's room. He looked around just to find Callista at the door of his room.
"Corvo!" she called out in panic. "You are awake, oh, good. Emily. There is something wrong with her, she just started screaming some minutes ago, I tried to calm her down but she just keep screaming and…" before Callista finished talking to Corvo, he had already pass her and was on his way to Emily's room.
He did hear the screams of his little girl, but just as he had opened the door they had ceased. He entered the room and rushed toward Emily, who was lying in her bed, sleeping soundly as if nothing had happen. Corvo heard Callista entering the room and whispering something. He knelt next to Emily and shook her softly, enough to awake her up.
"Emily, Emily wake up," he said in a low whisper, he noticed that her cheeks were wet and wondered if she had dreamed again of when Jessamine had died.
The girl awoke with a start and looked straight at the man that was knelt beside her bed, staring as though she didn't recognize him. Then she said "Why did you awake me up?"
"You were screaming Emily, Callista tried to calm you down but when she couldn't she decided to come for me," said Corvo trying to see if he could read the face of his daughter.
Emily had already sat at the edge of the bed and was looking at both adults from one to the other.
"I'm fine, thank you for worrying about me," she said with complete calm and cold tone.
"Do you want me to stay here tonight Emily?" asked Corvo as he touched her cheek, smiling softly.
There had been other nights similar to this one where she screamed and he came to see her. When she pretended to be completely indifferent to what had happen, like in that moment; he simply did something simple like hug her or any other show of affection and she usually broke into tears and he usually ended up comforting her. But this time the girl even looked at him with disgust. Corvo looked at her with surprised, but she quickly composed and pushed away his hand.
"I'm fine, thank you, Lord Protector, Miss Callista…" she said in a serious and cold way. "If you excuse me I would rather like to have some sleep," and with that said she lay down and gave her back to both adults.
Corvo looked at Callista and move his head, indicating that he wanted to talk to her outside. They entered the building of the Hound Pits and he faced her. He could easily see the concern in her eyes.
"I really don't know what happen there Corvo… I'm sorry that I disturb you," she said as she moved her hand against her arm.
"There is no problem, I had already heard her and was going to see her, had… had she…?" but he decided not to ask the question after all it was a silly question.
"Acted like that before?" she finished his sentence. He simply nodded. "No, is the first time, it also surprised me, but taking in count all that she had been through, I think is only natural. I better go to get some sleep too, good night Corvo," and with that said she left him.
He didn't know why but he knew there was something wrong with Emily, she would never called him Lord Protector. Not even in front of other nobles or anyone, he had always been Corvo. He wondered and hoped that Callista was right and that Emily had only had a bad dream and didn't want to talk about it.
He had hoped that the next day she would want to talked to him but she behaved in the same cold and distant manner that the night before. It seemed to him that no one else had notice the change in Emily's behavior, or at least think it was odd. But quite the contrary Pendleton and Martin seem to think that she was finally acting as what she was suppose to be, a future Empress.
"You seem concern Corvo," said Havelock as he stood next to where he was sit.
Corvo eyed the Admiral and then returned to looked at Emily, who was just about to finish her lesson with Callista, without a single interruption. "It's nothing Admiral," he said with his indifferent face fixed. "I was just thinking in Emily, that's all."
"Poor girl, she had been through so much and now looked at her she seem to finally getting out of it. She will make a fine ruler, just like her mother," he said as he drank from his beer. Emily eyed both of them as she rose from her seat and walked away.
"Is that… She seems different…" Corvo said without thinking too much.
Havelock laugh, "Oh, Corvo, I think that if your old self would see you right now he would think you are a total stranger. Maybe is that she had finally come to terms with what had happen and finally had overcome it. Also I think you are too tired Corvo and maybe are giving too much thought to a simple thing."
Corvo decided that maybe he was just overreacting and that Havelock was right and he was too tired and seeing things where they weren't. So he simply nodded and headed to his bedroom a bit of rest would surely help him.
The day that follow wasn't different form the last one. He had to admit that Emily was behaving extreme well and didn't have her childish behavior of running away from Callista. Corvo still thought that Emily's behavior was odd and strange but most of the people in the Hounds Pit seemed not to care or rather than that thought that she was finally behaving. But of course they didn't know Emily from before so they really didn't know that she was acting differently. He wondered what Jessamine would said if she would see their daughter behaving so well. But he knew that rather than behaving well she was behaving in a cold way and even a bit despotic.
Corvo wanted to talk to Emily in private, he wanted to know what was wrong with her. Maybe she was afraid that she would soon become Empress or maybe it was that if she did become Empress she would really knew that she would never see her mother again and that she was terrify and that she secretly hope that Jessamine was alive. Maybe it was that, yet he didn't know and he wanted to talk to her. He waited until she had finally ended her lesson with Callista and then waited for some time before going to search for her. Corvo wonder a bit off the Hounds Pit just to hear her laughing at the watch point of the tower, but it wasn't a childish laugh. No, it was cruel laugh, he walked silently toward her, and she seemed to be enjoying herself, she began whistling a tone that he had never heard her sing before.
"Emily?" he called her from behind just a few steps away from her.
The girl turned and looked at him with anger and then she composed herself. "Master Attano, do you need me for something?"
Corvo shook his face and walked toward her. "I just wanted to see were you where and how you are doing, I'm worry about you Emily…"
The girl opened her eyes and then faced the river. "I'm fine Lord Protector. I was just looking at the Dunwall Tower. Soon enough I will be sitting in the throne room."
Corvo looked at her and then leaned at edge of the stone rail. "Yes, you would soon be Empress, Emily. But there is no need to hurry that," he said with sadness in his voice, and then he turned to look at her. "Do you want to play hide and seek? Just like we used to play back there at the Tower?" he asked smiling.
Emily looked at him coldly and shook her face. "I rather not, Lord Attano, yet I do wonder if you know when you would be taking out the usurper of Hiram Burrows? As I wish to be crown Empress as soon as possible…" she said in cold and cruel way.
Corvo looked at her with a mixture of surprised and confusion, he couldn't believe what she had just asked him. "I… I don't know Emily…"
"Hope it will be soon enough. Also I would like to see the man put to the blade if it is possible as I'm sure it would be better than any other way…" she said then she added looking straight at Corvo's brown eyes. "Tell me Lord Protector, would you give your life protecting me? You wouldn't let any harm fall upon me, would you?"
Corvo smiled in a sad way toward Emily, so it was that, she was afraid that the same fate that her mother had would happen to her. Corvo knelt and took Emily's hand into his hands and said. "I would never, ever let something happen to you Emily. You are the only thing that I have left in this world, and I would rather see myself death than know that I have failed you protecting you. I promised your mother that I would find you and protected you, and I will," he said and hugged her, but she didn't return the hug.
"Well then I hope you are faithful to your word Royal Protector and don't let me face the same fate than the late Empress, since it seems it was your fault that she died. But now if you excuse me, Lord Protector I had to go and do some other things, it was nice talking to you… and I would rather prefer that you refer to me as Lady Emily at least," she said and walked away.
Corvo stayed there motionless unable to believe what had just happen, he wanted to grabbed her and asked what was wrong with her, but he couldn't even found his voice. So he stood there for a couple of minutes. He couldn't even think straight, he guessed that he could speak to someone about it and ask if they had notice something different in Emily, hopping that anyone would had already notice something. Yet he didn't know who to talk about. The loyalists were out of his list immediately, he hardly think that they would really care about it. Probably Pendleton would said that she was finally acting as a noblewoman of her status, Martin would said that the Outsider was playing tricks on him and Havelock that he was just overreacting. Cecelia and Wallace, well he hardly knew them so there was no way he would talk to any of them. Lydia, she was nice but she gossip far too much. Piero, well Piero sometimes didn't even knew how to behave around other adults and probably would simply listen to Corvo but wouldn't really say something to him. Sokolov, well he was a crazy bastard, and even he had met Emily before all this, Corvo bet that he didn't even remembered how she was. So it was only Callista and Samuel, he guessed that he could first go and speak to the old sailor and see if he would give any advice to him or at least notice something strange in Emily.
Corvo approached Samuel, who was working on this boat as always. The old sailor looked at the Lord Protector as he approached him and stop doing what he was doing and simply stared at him.
"Samuel, can we talk?" asked Corvo.
"About what Corvo?" said the other man. "I'm a bit busy right now, but don't tell me the Admiral had send you to tell me that we are about to leave, had he?"
"No," said Corvo and then looked around. "Is about Emily…" he said with concernment.
"What about that sweet little girl?"
"Haven't you notice her a bit different lately?"
Samuel passed his hand through his face and then reply, "What do you mean by different?"
"Well, she had been acting too odd, and… she… she doesn't want me to be with her anymore or play or do anything that she used to do. And well she calls me, by other names rather than Corvo, as she had always called me… I don't know what is happening to her."
Corvo looked at the other man, who was looking at him in a cold way. "Well Corvo maybe is that she knows what you had been doing and doesn't want to be near you anymore. I don't want to sound rude, but taking the lives of others is a nasty business and maybe this is the toll you have to pay for what you had done."
Corvo looked at the man in a cold and piercing way. "I see, thank you Samuel, I think I will leave, you seem busy…" he said and give half turned and started walking away. He suddenly stop and was about to say something to Samuel but decided to leave the boatman with his ship rather than to tell him that he was also responsible of those deaths as it was him the one that take him to his destinations.
Corvo make his way toward the Hounds Pits, he entered and saw Emily talking to Admiral Havelock, he passed them by and made his way toward Emily's room where he found Callista recording an audio graph for her uncle. When she finished she looked at Corvo.
"Corvo what can I do for you?" she asked as she took the card and put it aside.
Corvo had already sat down on Emily's bed and grabbed the Serkonan doll that he had gave her the same day she had arrive to the Hound Pits. He passed his hand through the doll before looking straight at Callista.
"Do you think there is something strange with Emily? Like if she isn't herself?"
Callista sat in front of him, and could clearly see the distress on his face, she grabbed his hand. "I really don't know her that much Corvo, so I couldn't really tell you that she is acting strange, or more strange than normal. Yet I do find this well behaving as a sight that maybe, she is growing up. I know it might be difficult for you, but she will eventually grow into a woman and will need you less."
"It isn't about the fact that she would need me or not… By the Outsider I don't know what is wrong with her," he said as he pressed one of his hands against his face. "There is something wrong with her, I just know it… she had been acting as she was someone else. I know that eventually she would have stop being my little girl, but she asked me to kill Hiram Burrows. To put him to the blade, I can't understand it Callista…" he said with frustration.
"Corvo looked at me," she said as he met her eyes. "She wasn't your little girl, she was the daughter of the Empress, I know for what I had seen that you care about her deeply, but she isn't your daughter. And the fact that she wants to see Hiram Burrows death, well if I was her I would also like to see the man that sends my mother to be killed death. I know it isn't comforting but is the truth. Maybe if you came to terms with it, you will see that she hadn't change that much," she said smiling at him.
Corvo looked at her with frustration and got up, he left the doll in the bed and left the room. He was angry at Callista, how could she say that Emily wasn't his daughter, but then he stop at the door of his room. No one really knew that Emily was indeed his daughter, that he had fathered her, there had always been speculations. No, no one knew, he remembered when Jessamine had proposed him to become her Emperor consort to what he had always said that he would rather stay being the Royal Protector and her lover than seeing someone else with less ability taking care of her and later on their daughter. But what use had it been, he had failed her and let her die. Corvo pressed his hand against his face, stopping the tears of frustration of coming out. Maybe everyone was right and he was just too tired and somehow wanted to hold onto the days of pass and didn't want to accept what was coming. He took several deep breaths and took the book that he had been reading in the last days and went to the ceiling of the distillery to keep reading.
He sat at the edge of the building and looked down, just to see Emily wondering around and whistling that strange song. Corvo wondered what Jessamine would have said if she saw her, he didn't knew why but he took the Heart out. Maybe it was to get a bit of comfort, but then he saw Emily again and felt that the Heart was beating incredible fast, just as if it was in front of a rune. Corvo then looked at Emily and he heard clearly in his head, her voice whispering.
"There she stands, young lady Emily… Emily? Where is she I cannot see her, yet there she is… Who is that that walks in Emily's image? Where is my little girl? She is lost… lost in the Void, I need to find her. She is scared Corvo, she is lost here in the Void… That girl isn't Emily Corvo, she is something wicked. You promised me you will keep her safe, you said that you would find her, yet she is lost… You promised me Corvo… Emily, where are you Emily?!" and then the Heart didn't beat any longer or whispered anything else in Corvo's ears. Corvo could only felt how his blood ran cold and the air escape him. Then he knew that he wasn't wrong, there was something or rather someone in Emily.
That same night he had to go to Dunwall Tower, when he turned to look at the Hounds Pits for one last time he saw her, standing there proud and arrogant with the three Loyalist behind her looking straight at him. Corvo turned and faced the other way, he was glad that he had his mask on. As they approach the Tower, he couldn't but think in what the Heart had told him about Emily that same day. Was she really lost? Could there be a way for him to bring her back he wondered? He really didn't heard Samuel in anything that he said, Corvo could only think that he needed to finish his business with Burrows as quickly as he could and get the hell out of there, but maybe there would be something in there that could help him.
Just after he had dealt with Hiram Burrows Corvo made his way toward Emily's room, at least he was glad that after the commotion there were practically no guards left. He entered it and quickly looked around. He walked toward her bed and grabbed the doll that was in the middle. He knew pretty well that doll it was Mrs. Pilsen, he had never liked that doll to tell the truth. He had always found it creepy with its empty eyes and porcelain features. Yet it had always been the favorite of Emily so he put it inside of his coat and made a run toward Samuel's boat. Once he had reached the boat the old sailor started the engine and they retreated. Corvo notice that they weren't going back to the Hounds Pits.
"Where are we going Samuel?" he asked.
"The Admiral asked me to get some things as soon as you had dealt with Hiram Burrows, we are going to a safe house to get them then we will return to the Hounds Pits."
Corvo nodded but he had preferred that they would have gone directly to the Hounds Pits. They reached the house and he remained in the boat until Samuel turned and looked at him.
"What are you waiting Corvo, we are passing here the night, come on."
Corvo rose from the boat and followed Samuel into the house. They entered and he sat down in one of the beds that where there. He removed his mask and took out the doll. Samuel lay in the bed next to him and then said.
"I'm proud of you Corvo, not taking the life of that man that was the right thing to do…" Corvo eyed him but remain silence. "I know is not an easy decision but sometimes the right things are more difficult to accomplish."
"It's not that I didn't want to kill him Samuel. He paid the killer to murder Jessamine, but… then I remember what Emily told me…" he said as he passed his hand through the dolls face.
"What does that sweet girl told you? Did she ask you to spare him?"
Corvo shook his head and then looked straight at Samuel's eyes as he said in a cold tone, "She asked me to put him to the blade." The other man looked at him in surprise. "It's as if she isn't herself anymore… like she was someone else, do you think it could be possible?"
"I don't know Corvo, yet we leave in strange times and I had seen strange things myself… Still I think she could have asked you that out of revenge toward the man…"
"I know that you and well most of them think I had been killing in cold blood but the truth is that when I can't find another solution I engage the guards and finished them off, if not I leave them unconscious. Buy maybe you were right, and I'm paying a toll for all I had done. Just had wished that it wouldn't have been her, I lost Jessamine and now I lost Emily… I must be most cursed person in this dam city," Corvo pressed his hand against his face.
"You should sleep Corvo, you had been through a lot lately, maybe with that doll she will remembered how things were and she will start acting as she used to… I will take the first watch, you should sleep while you can, who knows what we will be facing in the upcoming days…"
Corvo nodded and grabbed tightly the doll, he had wished to tell Samuel all that had happen, how Emily had been acting strangely and what the Heart had told him, but no one knew about the Heart. It was already annoying sometimes when Martin asked him about the mark and even jokes that he go to the Outsider's shrine, thing that he hadn't deny at all, and then there was always the gossips he heard regarding himself in the hallways, either being Lydia and Cecelia or any of the Loyalist taking to each other. So telling Samuel about the mechanical heart that had the soul of the late Empress trapped inside wouldn't even help, probably all the people in the Hounds Pits were already thinking that he had gone mad or was going mad, by insisting that Emily was acting as is she wasn't herself anymore. He wondered if what the Heart had told him would be true, yet so far the Heart hadn't lie to him, but of course she had never lied to him when she had lived. He wondered who was the one that was walking in Emily's image.