Despite the unusual sewer man's request, Therelo continued his research. He had to figure out what could possibly create an epidemic such as the one that was destroying Dunwall. It couldn't be the Bottle Street Gang or any other low ranked punks... this was just too widespread. As if something else was telling him to stop his research, a heavy pounding came across his door.

"Who is it?" Therelo questioned.

"An old friend," the voice replied. "I warned you to stop."

"I don't listen to threats."

"Well, now you're going to pray you did."

A window shattered on the other side of the house, startling Therelo. He saw a black-masked man staring back at him when he went to investigate.

"Aagh!"

He quickly turned around as if to run away, only to meet another black-masked man.

"Wakey, wakey..." a voice commented.

"Huh?" Therelo slowly woke up. He was bound to a torture chair, with the Lord Regent looking at him.

"How was your rest?"

"Fuck you. I know you have something to do with the epidemic."

"But, me and my friend here are here to make sure you forget about all your little escapades in the sewers."

"You..."

"I'm sorry," Sokolov replied. "I deeply am. I wish I could've told you..."

"Enough! Anton, give me the rod."

"I..."

"Give me the rod!"

"But..."

"Do you want to be like Therelo here, bound to a chair, with no fucking hope?"

"No, sir, but..."

"THEN GIVE ME THE ROD!"

Sokolov reluctantly gave him an iron rod, with a red tip.

"I'm warning you: Mommy won't be here to kiss this little mess."

He applied the rod to Therelo's arm, which was responded to with much screaming.

"Now, did that hurt? Much more hurt will follow, in the days to come."

Therelo was in a dreamlike state, somewhere with floating land and frozen time. He was greeted by a mysterious man.

"Therelo, through these next few days, you will be physically and mentally tried. Your best friend and the Lord Regent's physician, Anton Sokolov, has betrayed your very name. He has been trying foolishly to uncover the secrets of my mark. He should know better than that to sadly attempt to be interesting. But you, you're special. You told the Lord Regent himself to fuck himself, and accepted the penalty for doing so. I like you. You have guts. You'll need them for the next few days. Fair warning." The mysterious man proceeded to vanish.

Therelo woke up behind bars, no doubt in Coldridge. The very rats that he tried to protect from the Regent's epidemic were scouring his arms for meat. He promptly killed them, snapping their little necks. While snapping the necks of these filthy vermin, he noticed a symbol on his left hand. An unusual symbol, no doubt from another language.

"Man, they sure have beefed up security here since that escape a week ago."

"Yeah. Why wasn't the security any tougher? I mean, it was the murderer of the Empress we were holding; shouldn't we have known he was going to break loose?"

"I know, right? Tobio would still be alive if we had a few tallboys, instead of two men."