Chapter 24: Training
A day came and went before Billie saw the Outsider again. Yesterday was spent dealing with, a sudden Overseer assault on the Rateaters, and meeting the new High Overseer. Chopin was a pleasant and reasonable enough person; he certainly was eager to work with the City Watch and the Spymaster. But there was something about him that felt off to her. Perhaps it was his unsettling blue eyes, or his disarmingly easygoing manner. Like the Outsider, Billie decided to keep a personal eye on Pavel Chopin.
Billie was eating late morning snack and listening to an audiograph from her main Morley agent when the black-eyed bastard quite suddenly appeared in her office. Immediately she removed her feet from her desk and stopped the audiograph, privately embarrassed by her need to be presentable.
"Good morning Billie Lurk," the Outsider greeted calmly. "I realized that I neglected to give you the bonecharm that I saved for you."
He stood on the other side of her desk, hands folded behind his back. The bruise on his jaw had completely faded, leaving no indication of his recent misadventures.
"Oh, thank you," she replied, somewhat at a loss with what else to say. He inclined his head and reached into his pocket, pulling out the bonecharm and dropping in onto her desk. She picked it up, feeling its warmth and hearing its hum. The Outsider tucked his hands behind his back. The expression on his face was one of discomfort.
"I feel," he began reluctantly. "we must talk about you training me."
Ah, this. "Yes, we should," Billie agreed. "I have not given it much thought yet. Strangely, there is no place for training within the Tower. It makes me wonder where Corvo trained Emily."
"He trained her on the Tower grounds," he answered. "Which I do not presume is an option for us."
"Good grief no," Billie replied with a snort. "While we will be starting with the basics of fighting, I am also planning on guiding you on more effectively using your powers to fight."
The Outsider nodded in approval and understanding, and remained silent as Billie thought. The fort on Kingsparrow Isle was rarely used and visited, and it had a rather nice training room with all the amenities.
"Not Kingsparrow Isle." Billie jumped at the Outsider's sudden, certain rejection of that idea. "There are three guards there who are dreadfully nosy and terrible at keeping secrets. And there is no point in trying to remove them; all nosy guards get relocated to Kingsparrow."
She sighed and rubbed her temples. "Alright, where else would you suggest?"
He blinked and tilted his head. "Why the Dreadful Wale of course."
Billie sat up and considered it. The Dreadful Wale was docked at a sea-side wharf on the outskirts of Dunwall. Very few people visited the area, and those that did were not the sort that gossiped.
"That could work," she murmured. "The only issue would be getting there in a timely fashion…"
"I can bring us there," he said.
"Alright!" Billie clapped her hands, suddenly eager. "Let's go then."
The Outsider was clearly startled. "Right now?"
"Why not now?" Billie got to her feet, grabbing her gun and dagger. "I have a free hour, and I doubt you have anything better to do."
The deity grumbled something about audiographs, but even as he did so Billie could see the Void lick at his frame and hers. The world bent and darkened, and she could feel an impressive heat before the world reformed. The gulls called and a brine-filled breeze combed through her short hair. They were on the deck Dreadful Wale.
"So, now what?" The Outsider had his arms folded across his chest, and was valiantly trying to hide his nervousness behind a mask of disinterest.
Billie put her weapons down. It was strange having someone so powerful nervous of her. In any case, he was her student now.
"First I must assess how you are in a fight, no powers." Billie stood opposite of him, arms akimbo. "Let's start with how you stand. Show me how you would stand if someone challenged you to a fight."
To her surprise he fell into a proper wide stance, his right foot off towards the back, his left foot forward. He brought his left hand up before his face, and kept the right mid-chest. His fists, however, were not formed correctly.
"If you make a fist like that you're going to break your thumb and wrist," Billie adjusted his thumb and turned his wrist until his hand was at the right angle. "Other than that, you have a good stance, not a bad start."
The Outsider looked less nervous, and she watched his eerie eyes follow her as she stood ahead of him and held up her hands.
"Throw a punch to my palms, don't hold back."
A look of concentration overcame his face, and with a small amount of skill and a surprising amount of force he hit her palm.
"Again," she commanded, feeling her palm sting from the impact.
This time he threw a punch with his left fist, this time much more skillfully and with even more force, causing Billie to wince and give her hand a shake.
"So you're a lefty huh?"
The Outsider made a face. "It was one of the things that marked me for the Void."
"Marked you for the Void?" Billie had not meant to ask, truly, she didn't. But it just slipped out.
"I was chosen to be the next representative of the Void," he replied with biting sweetness. "For most of my existence it was not something I resented. After all, I went from starving beggar to god. But there is only so much one can take before they crack." His hands dropped to his sides, still curled into tight fists. "I was never made to know as much as I do… I have suffered and bore witness to suffering. For thousands of years my physical form was trapped within the Void in an endless scream. It. Was. Agony." The Outsider spat out the last three words, and his horrible black eyes looked into her very spirit. "In another time you would have freed me from my cursed prison, one way or another. Not long after Emily disposed of Delilah, you would reunite with Daud and plot to kill me."
Billie gaped at him. It certainly was true that after Emily had earned her victory and Solokov was settled back in Dunwall, she returned to Karnaca to find her old mentor. And find him she did, running a small vineyard alongside his old lieutenant Thomas. The reunion was bittersweet, and it was while she was there that she received the call to service from Emily. Not once did they ever discuss any kind of killing, not even of vineyard pests.
"But you are free now?" she croaked, unsure what else to say.
The Outsider turned away from her, his eyes closing as he faced into the wind. A small smile grew on his face.
"Am I free?" he murmured. "Not truly. The Void asks three things of me, and I am still bound to deliver them. But I am free to shut my mind off from the endless stream of life; I am free to feel the wind on my skin, to feel love for another person and receive it. I am free enough to attempt to make a life for myself, something that was taken from me so long ago."
Billie smiled and also turned her face into the wind, inhaling the salt and seaweed. Together they listened to the call of the gulls for a few minutes.
"Thank you," she said quietly. "For trusting me enough to tell me."
The Outsider did not say anything, but she could tell that he appreciated this thanks.
"Now," she clapped her hands. "Let's see how good you are at dodging."
The next time they were able to meet up again for training was three days later on 20th day of the Month of Rain. It was an uncommonly sunny day, but a brisk wind rolling off the sea had Billie pulling out her warmer jacket. She was glad for it when they materialized on the deck of the Dreadful Wale and were hit with a blast of cold wind. The Outsider shivered mightily in his threadbare brown jacket and his teeth chattered.
"Do you have a warmer jacket?" Billie asked, concerned. "If it is too cold we can return to the Tower and fetch you one."
He shook his head. "I should warm up once we start moving around."
"Alright, if you insist," she replied, skeptical.
Billie had spent most of the last session assessing the Outsider's abilities, and he had potential. Whatever ancient fighting he had seen practiced, he clearly absorbed some of its principles. With enough practice he would become a decent fighter even without powers. But as she drilled him through stances, Billie could see the Outsider shivering with each cold breeze that flowed across the deck. She opened her mouth to suggest that they could move below deck, but a stubborn glare from her pupil shut her up.
So they spent the next thirty minutes learning and practicing disarming. She finally called for a stop when his hands began trembling so badly he could no longer hold the practice dagger.
"Alright that's it," Billie put her hands on her hips, feeling like a mother as she stared the Outsider down. "We are going back to the tower and getting you a warmer jacket."
"No we are not," he retorted stubbornly, his commanding look undercut by his shivers and chattering teeth.
"Look, you are clearly cold, and I cannot in good conscious keep you out here when we can get you a warmer jacket."
"I do not have a warmer jacket," the Outsider looked down, his cheeks turning red with embarrassment rather than cold. "My only other jacket was stolen when the Rateaters jumped me."
Billie stared at him. She wondered for a moment how she never noticed that he wore the same two things over and over, and now the same patched up jacket every day.
"Well we can just borrow a jacket from Corvo," she suggested.
He pulled a face of disgust. "I am not wearing Corvo's clothes."
Billie sighed and brought a hand to her forehead. The Outsider was choosing an odd moment to show his proud side.
"I would have asked Emily but I do not fit in any of her jackets," he added with an embarrassed mutter.
"You know you could ask her for a new jacket, or for money to buy a jacket yourself," Billie replied, rather frustrated.
The Outsider looked genuinely horrified at the idea, prompting her to roll her eyes.
"Oh come on," she scoffed. "Emily would be more than happy to get you a damn jacket, especially because she wouldn't like to see you freezing to death."
"I know," he replied through his chattering teeth. "But I already eat too much; I looked at the kitchen inventory and budget and they are spending five hundred more with me in residence than they were before the coup- OW!"
Billie, tired of listening to such truly infuriating sentiment, grabbed the Outsider by the ear and dragged him over to her.
"Do I have to get Emily here and have us beat into you that you are worthy of having a full stomach and being well clothed?"
A sudden wolf whistle caught her attention. "HEY OWEN!"
Bemused, Billie let go of the Outsider, allowing him to stand up and clutch his sore ear with a pout. They both looked to the wharf to see two skinny young men waving up at them, bundled up in colorful coats. It was two of the Outsider's drinking buddies, whose names Billie never bothered to learn.
"Is that your gal?" yelled one, fellow with curly honey-blonde hair.
"Are you daft Roger?" the other elbowed his friend. "Owen's gal looks kinda like the Empress. That's Billie Lurk ya knucklehead."
The Outsider leaned on the edge of the ship, looking down at the two. "What are you two doing all the way out here?"
"My uncle runs this wharf!" Roger replied cheekily. "I should be asking you what you are doing here!"
Billie joined the Outsider at the edge of the boat. "I'm training my assistant here," she proclaimed to the two Hatters.
The two made a noise of delighted interest.
"Why don't you both come down for tea!" invited Roger. "It's certainly good weather for it."
"We would love to!" the Outsider replied, cutting off Billie who was ready to decline. Before she could chide him he vaulted over the side of the Dreadful Wale and landed rather impressively on the wharf below. He looked up at her rather expectantly, glasses materializing upon his face. With a roll of her eyes, she walked over to him via the gangplank. He waited for her to catch up before they joined the two Hatters, still shivering.
"My uncle won't mind if we borrow his cabin for a bit," Roger explained cheerfully as he led them to a plain wooden building. "He'd be tickled pink to learn the Royal Spymaster and her assistant were over for tea."
"Speaking of that," Todd said as they entered the warm cabin. "You (he wagged a finger at the Outsider) were playing coy about being an assistant to the Spymaster."
The Outsider shrugged while Billie quietly took a seat at the small table near a potbelly iron stove.
"Is it not the job of someone working as a spy to play coy about their profession?" he replied with matter-of-fact innocence. Todd laughed and the two joined Billie at the table. Roger went around the nearby kitchen, removing chipped tea cups and a battered tin of tea leaves from the cupboards. The kettle was already atop the stove, merrily piping away.
Roger hurried back to the table, depositing the four teacups and tin onto the table with the speed of someone who was about to drop the lot.
"Tea should be ready soon," he announced with a smile as he sat between Todd and Billie. His eyes turned to the Outsider and he looked at the deity up and down with a sudden frown. "What on earth happened to your nice coat Owen?"
Billie watched the Outsider, wondering how he was going to explain his missing jacket.
"A group of Rateaters jumped me and stole it." He tried to keep his tone light, but an echoy hiss of anger seeped in at the word "Rateaters". Billie unwillingly shuddered, as did Roger and Todd.
"Man, that bites," Todd said sympathetically. "It's a bit odd though. Your jacket is nice but not so nice that it deserves being jumped for."
A flicker of realization bloomed in Roger's light eyes. "Wait a second, was this tied with the incident that happened last week?"
"You mean the fire in the Distillery District?" Billie interjected, feeling that it would be suspicious not to say anything at all.
Roger turned to her, somewhat bewildered. "No, I meant the boat ending up in Lady Boyle's walls. But now that you mention it, it is rather peculiar that a fire broke out in a Rateater hideout the same time their riverboat appeared in the Boyle mansion."
Todd brought his hand to his chin, stroking the stubble that grew there. "Then the Overseers raided the area the next day, which is long overdue if you ask me. Rateaters are an occult bunch, I heard whispers that they seized one of Delilah's witches from Coldridge and skinned her alive for some ritual."
The two men turned their gaze to the Outsider, peering at him with analytical eyes.
"You certainly have a witchy aura around you Owen," Todd continued thoughtfully. "Is that why they took your jacket?"
Billie snorted. "What ritual would call for a witch's jacket?"
"Actually it is a key ingredient in one recipe for making clothes that are impervious to blades," the Outsider added quietly. "But no, that was not why they jumped me. They mistook me for a witch and were planning on skinning me for their ritual."
Roger and Todd winced, sucking in air between their teeth. A moment later the kettle began to whistle and rattle, prompting Roger to get to his feet and take the kettle from the stove to the table.
"Alright, tea's ready," he announced. "Should have enough water for eight cups in there."
Billie spooned some tea leaves into her cup and poured the freshly boiled water into the chipped porcelain.
"So how did you escape?" Todd asked, his voice brimming with curiosity.
The Outsider shrugged as he fixed his cup of tea. "The ritual went wrong for them, and I was the only one that lived."
Roger held up a finger, his eyes narrowed. "So, was that ritual the thing that caused the boat to appear in Lady Boyle's wall?"
"Mmhm," the Outsider blew on his steaming tea before taking a careful sip. "I was on the boat when it happened. It was a very odd thing."
The table rocked as Todd slammed his hands down in surprise. "You got into the Boyles?!"
That pulled a laugh from Billie. Rather than focus on their friend surviving a ritual in a teleporting boat, the youths instead fixated on the fact he ended up in the famous family's house.
"Oh don't be like that Ms. Lurk," Roger remarked with a pout. "Owen here got to go to one of those famous parties! Since it's a given he survived and all it's only fair for us to ask him what the party was like."
"It's far more entertaining and far less heretical," added Todd eagerly. "Magic just makes me shudder."
The Outsider chuckled and put down his teacup. "I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I rather late into the event, and I was unconscious for a quite a bit. Not to mention I was effectively blind at the time. Esma Boyle did give me a shirt to replace my missing one though."
"You lucky bastard!" cried Roger, a look of astonished delight on his face.
Todd sighed wistfully. "What I wouldn't give to have Esma Boyle give me a shirt."
Billie raised an eyebrow and the Outsider gave her a knowing look. She looked back at the two Hatters while taking a sip of her tea. They certainly were Esma's preferred age for sexual partners.
"I can put you both in touch with her if you would like," the Outsider offered. The two men looked at him in surprise.
"You would do that for us?" Roger's voice was hushed with disbelief. Todd's jaw was practically scraping the table. The Outsider nodded and took a sip from his cup.
"It will certainly keep her from grabbing my ass the next time she sees me," he grumbled into his tea.
Billie inhaled her tea and began to choke, prompting her to thump her chest. Did Esma do that really do that when she first met the Outsider, and in front of Emily? Or was he simply looking into the future?
The two Hatters laughed. "We will gladly protect you from unwanted molestation," Todd declared with jesting sincerity.
"And I thank you for your sacrifice," the Outsider returned with similar humor.
Everyone chuckled, and sat for a few minutes in silence enjoying the warm cabin and surprisingly good tea.
Billie glanced at the beat up clock tucked by the door. It was getting around time for them to leave. She finished her cup and stood up.
"Thank you very much for the tea," the two looked at her and the Outsider stood up as well, realizing what was happening. "But we must get going."
"It was my pleasure Ms. Lurk!" Roger replied with a smile and a flourish. "Don't worry about the cups just leave them on the table."
"Oh, and before we forget!" added Todd. "Owen, Fergus is going back to Morley to get married so be at the Boiled Mermaid on the 23rd at 8:00 sharp!"
The Outsider gave the two a thumbs up. "Thank you for letting me know, I will see you there."
They left the cabin and were immediately hit with a cold breeze, causing the Outsider to shiver.
"Will we be returning to training?" he asked as Billie lead them back to the Dreadful Wale.
"No," Billie replied with a shake of her head. "Practice some of the moves on your own, I need to get back to the Tower. Reports don't just write themselves."
He shot her a grateful look, and with a swirl of magic he took them back to the Tower.