Today has been quite long, like most days recently, but it was still a great success. We're moving in on the final stages of our plan now, and I'm prepared to do what must be done to see Hiram Burrows thrown out of Dunwall Tower and put Emily on the throne. We're so close now, we just need a little more time. As for where I left off…
I did a short walk around the Hound Pits Pub before bedding down for the night. I went to visit Emily and Callista in the tower connected to my room to find Emily tossing and turning violently in her sleep. I spoke with Callista about it and she said that's just how Emily has been. It takes her quite some time to fall asleep and then she has these terrible nightmares. It's sad to see her in this state. During all of her waking hours, Emily keeps her composure and says all the right lines to play her part perfectly. It seems the toll of the damage she took is visible mainly in sleep. I suspect that she's been haunted by nightmares ever since her mother was killed right before her eyes. Hopefully things will take a turn for the better now that I'm around. She thought I was dead earlier, a horrible thing to think about, so maybe this could be her turning point. I'll speak with her in private when all of this is over. She's comfortable when she's talking about these things with me. I'm not sure if she trusts anyone else to confide in them. Oddly enough, the Heart agreed with me on this matter, saying that Emily was desperately searching for someone to trust in the midst of all this. Hopefully she can muster up the strength of will and the courage required to place her trust in me for the time being.
I left them alone and went through the rest of the Pub. Cecilia was there looking for me. She brought me a drink to help calm me down a bit after the long day, which was appreciated. She also brought me a key. There's an abandoned apartment building next door to the Pub and this was the key to one of the rooms, she pointed out which one. Cecilia told me that if anything ever goes wrong here at the Pub she will go wait for me there. It's nice to have another place to hide out just in case all hell breaks loose in our midst. Sometimes the best place to hide is right under your enemy's nose. That's what we've been up to this entire time, I suppose, hiding so close to places like Clavering Boulevard and Dunwall Tower.
I thanked Cecilia for the key and the drink and made my way up to Havelock's office. He wasn't there, but an open journal was. I couldn't help but take a peek while I had the chance. Reading over the pages certainly wasn't comforting, I can tell you that. It almost seems like Havelock isn't even listening to my reports from the field. All of these entries say that I murdered the targets so far even though I clearly told him that I took care of them all in nonlethal ways. Even the Lord Regent's announcer broadcasted through the city that High Overseer Campbell received the Heretic's Brand. I didn't like where this was going, and I certainly didn't like where it ended up.
The latter pages of the journal had more schemes in them that Havelock never told me about. Plans that he, Martin, and Pendleton were cooking up together. Apparently Martin has been dubbed as the next High Overseer, though that hasn't been mentioned in any of the citywide announcements. Something strange is happening behind the scenes here, and I'm uncertain as to what to think of any of this. One of the latest entries even has Havelock musing over the idea of taking the title of Lord Regent for himself…
I shouldn't take all of this so seriously. It's a diary of all things. Besides, Martin is definitely going to be the next High Overseer seeing that he's remained loyal to the throne and lent his talents to the cause. Even if it's not official yet, it will be done soon after the tower is retaken and the Lord Regent removed. But Havelock, Martin, and Pendleton have enough brains between the three of them to know that trying to take the title of Lord Regent for themselves would be an idiotic move. The only reason we've gotten this far is because we're united under the same cause and if we were to disband and wage war against each other, nothing would end well. Honestly, if that happened, the city would most likely collapse. Dunwall would die. They can't be that stupid. Even then, after all I've done, I can't bring myself to believe that any of them would actually be stupid enough to betray me. They have a strong fear of me after seeing the results that I bring them. And even if the fear was nonexistent, they wouldn't want to get rid of the man that made their plans possible in the first place. I'm too useful of a pawn to them, under the right circumstances.
The thinking was making me dizzy. I was about to walk out the door when I heard footsteps coming towards me. It seems that the Admiral was done taking care of Sokolov. I still had enough time to climb out one of the windows without being noticed before the door opened. I didn't even have to Bend Time or Blink. Regardless of what he was dreaming up in the back of his mind, I wouldn't want Havelock to see me snooping around. Paranoia is running high among the entire crew as it is. This would only make things that much worse. I gave up from there and went to my quarters to retire for the night.
I awoke to Emily's voice and her attempts to shake me. I pretended to be asleep as long as I could, but I couldn't keep myself from smiling at her attempts. She laughed and jumped on me, that got me moving. She said Callista was in the bath and that she just wanted to spend some time with me. I agreed and she showed me all kinds of drawings that she'd started since coming back to the Pub. A Golden Cat (which I didn't approve of), a ship sailing the open seas, her tower in the daylight, and a picture of me without my mask with the word "Daddy" written above. Bless the poor child. I can't imagine what a toll our relationship has had on her. My family and I weren't exactly close, to be sure, but at least I had them around until I was shipped off from Serkonos. Emily had everything put together, but everything had to have been kept a secret. The Empress having an affair with her own bodyguard wasn't the kind of news that you wanted to have spread. While neither Jessamine or Emily referred to me as family of any kind, Emily had figured it all out. She's a bright girl, that one. I kissed her forehead and she gave me a hug, squeezing as much as her little arms would allow her to. She deserves a better life than this. I'll make sure she gets that.
I got up after some time had passed, telling her that I was off to see Sokolov. She cringed when she heard the name, saying that he was pretty weird, maybe even more weird than Piero. I laughed and said that wasn't too far from the truth, though hardly the kind of thing you would say when you're face to face with them. She laughed, agreeing with me. Emily decided to stay in my quarters while I went off to handle business. She said that she'd wait for Callista to finish taking her bath and then go study with her. I patted her head and walked off. I did remind her to keep her portrait of me hidden away for the time being. She nodded, although somewhat sadly, but then I told her we'd build a secret room for her in her room once we returned to the Tower and hang it up there in a beautiful frame. That picked her spirits up significantly. My work was done. I went off to see Anton Sokolov.
Our prisoner wasn't very happy with his living conditions. He complained relentlessly as Havelock pressed him for information. There were swears, threats, and spit flying in all directions before I had my fill and stepped in. Sokolov would definitely give in to torture, sure, but that would still damage him quite severely. We needed him for the days, weeks, months, and years to come, so I didn't want him to have a memory like that with us to look back on. Instead, I asked him if he could give us the identity of the Lord Regent's mistress in exchange for some King Street Brandy. Sokolov perked up instantly, his curious, wandering eyes filled with a glimmer of hope. He asked if I had some, I told him I could go get it if he would be willing to trade me for it. He agreed and I went off to Piero. He had a bottle of the stuff, it was quite expensive and didn't really taste that great (according to him), so he let me purchase it from him and I brought it back over to Sokolov. He took it and gave us all of the information we needed.
Our next target was only known to him as Lady Boyle. That was a bit of a problem in and of itself since there were three different women in the Boyle household that went by that title: the wife of the late Lord Boyle and her two sisters. Sokolov had painted a portrait of her, but it was from behind and he never got the chance to get her first name. He was supposed to be introduced to her tonight, of all nights, at a masked ball happening at the Boyle Estate.
We were in luck! Not only did we now know the identity of Hiram's biggest financial backer, we also had the perfect opportunity to get to her and take her down. In a meeting with Havelock that happened minutes after we received the information, I revealed to him the invitation I stole from Mister Bunting at the Golden Cat. That was the first time I have heard Havelock laugh. He said that things were too perfect, that it was all falling into place and that we were getting so close to our end goal. I was certainly excited, too, and I went off to tell Samuel to get his boat ready for the night. I took some more time to study with Emily and rest at the Pub before heading out to the illustrious Boyle Estate.
Samuel brought me in close to an automated gate in the streets near the estate. It was close enough and safe enough for now, though we agreed to meet up on the other side of the wall just in case things started getting a bit hairy in the streets. There were Tall Boys out on patrol that night. This was the first time I had seen them in the flesh. They stood maybe four or five meters off the ground and were locked into place with these armor plates that would make any attack all but useless unless you somehow managed to go at them from above. My plan was to avoid them entirely, but it was also certainly nice to know that I could easily get above them if I needed to with Blink. Before I departed, Samuel mentioned that Granny Rags used to live around here. That was fascinating news to hear, indeed, and that made my first stop change from the party to the old dwellings of Granny Rags.
The apartment wasn't difficult to find in the slightest. The Heart pointed me in the right direction and took me across some rooftops, beyond the Tall Boys, and to an open balcony that was also inhabited by a weeper. I took him out with a sleep dart from my crossbow and found two others standing on the rooftop above the balcony, overlooking the area around them. Knowing I couldn't shoot one of them without the other making a huge racket of it, I used my power to Bend Time and made both of my darts hit them simultaneously. It worked like a charm and I was down in Granny Rags' old apartment.
There was a shine erected there to the Outsider, as I could have guessed, complete with a Rune. I took it and the Outsider appeared before me. He told me that he saw all of the possibilities of the night ahead of me and commented on how numerous they were. But he did say that all of them led to the same two endings. One, I kill Lady Boyle. Two, I send her away to a place where she will live out many, many more years of her life. I had no idea what this second option could have been, but it did pique my interest. It was another thing to look out for when I arrived at the party, a way to make things a little less bloody would be perfect.
With that, the Outsider disappeared, leaving me alone in that apartment room. I found a journal in the corner written by Granny Rags herself, who knows how long ago. It was from the days leading up to her leaving the place behind. I wouldn't blame her. The plague has hit this part of the city quite severely, and things were much nicer in her place on Clavering Boulevard anyway. Until it was boarded up, at least. I shrugged and climbed back up onto the roof where I made my way across the river back towards the Boyle Estate.
I came down in an alleyway just around the corner from the entrance. I walked out and socialized a bit with the nobles awaiting entry. It was nice to have this as a masked ball specifically. It meant that I would walk right in through the front doors and nobody would be the wiser. I did have to put on a bit of an act to make sure I didn't raise suspicion, though. My invitation claimed that I was Mister Bunting, so I did my best to impersonate him with my limited knowledge of his character. Since he's an art critic, I went for an air of distaste with the world around me. I would look at decorations and sigh, ask certain women around the party if they were certain their mask matched the rest of their outfit, and be generally standoffish and snide overall. This turned out to be quite accurate for the most part, I suppose, since nobody gave me any trouble for the entire evening.
I made my way inside the courtyard and snuck off while nobody was looking. I could access the three rooms of the Ladies Boyle from the balcony upstairs. I climbed and Blinked my way up there, choking out a guard patrolling the area, and made my way inside.
Before all of this, though, I did get a nice bit of gossip. There was a sort of guessing game happening tonight between the three sisters. They each dressed in identical ways with identical masks but in different colors. One was in red, another black, and the last one white. If you could guess who was in which color, then you would be the winner of some elaborate prize. I figured I could use this as a chance to find out who my target was and there was no better chance at doing this than sneaking through their rooms above and finding any clues I could find from journals, notes, and the like.
It turns out luck was on my side yet again since the first room I happened upon was the correct one from the start. Esma Boyle was the name of my target. She was dressed in black that night, her sister Lydia in Red, and Waverly in white. And she had the reputation for being a bit… Experienced when it comes to men. I thought about how I could use this to my advantage as I went back outside, climbed down in silence, and walked right in through the front doors of the Boyle Estate.
There were all kinds of people to talk to at the party. It took me a while before I even saw one of the Boyle sisters, though it was Waverly. She was just as snobbish as I could have guessed from Treavor's stories. I made my way over through the crowd before I was stopped by a man wearing quite a strange looking mask. He introduced himself as Lord Brisby, a man with connections to our cause and who has helped us out considerably in the past few months. He said that he could take care of our target tonight, Esma, in a private, hush-hush type of way. Brisby explained that if I could take Esma to him in the cellar, then he would take her from there and we would never see or hear from her again. At first, I was quite alarmed at this kind of request, but upon further questioning it seems like Lord Brisby just doesn't want to see her blood spilled. This is a terrible plan for him as far as I'm concerned, but at least he has her best interests at heart. I understood what he meant when he said that he had enough killings recently. I empathized with him enough to tell him to go and wait for me to return later on in the night.
Shortly after talking to Lord Brisby, I ran into Esma Boyle herself. She was already feeling quite hot and bothered by the look of things. She kept virtually no distance between the two of us as we spoke. Her breathing was heavier than I feel it should have been, and she was laughing far too much. She had her fair share of alcohol that night to say the least. I guessed all three sisters' identities correctly and instead of simply letting me go with some kind of prize, I played to her interests a little bit, making a few comments I shall not repeat here, but suffice it to say I pandered to her needs and she took me upstairs to her quarters. When we were there, I knocked her unconscious, picked her up, and made my way back downstairs through a convenient staircase hidden to the side of her bedroom. It brought me down right next to the kitchen and the cellar where Bristy was waiting for me. I took a deep breath, used Bend Time, and ran down through the kitchen and the servants quarters with just enough time to spare before time began to flow normally again. I handed off Esma Boyle to Lord Brisby rather reluctantly, but he insisted that he wouldn't be doing anything nefarious with her. He promised to tell her the whole truth of what was going on and then do everything he could to keep her safe and away from the public eye. For good measure, I told him that I would know if he didn't keep his promise to me and that I would go back and repay him for it dearly if it were broken. I showed him the mark on the back of my left hand for good measure. He recognized it, gulped, and nodded firmly, saying no harm shall come to Esma Boyle. And with that, he left.
I did have some loose ends to tie up before leaving the party, though, including a note that Treavor gave me before I left, telling me to deliver it to Lord Shaw. Long story short, Pendleton used me to fight one of his duels for him. Shaw had been challenged by Treavor, it seems, which made me roll my eyes from underneath my mask. I took the pistol from the guards and assumed my position for the duel. On the count of three, I used Bend Time, drew my crossbow with a sleep dart, and fired it right into Lord Shaw's chest. He stumbled backward and fell to the ground, unconscious, and his pistol wasn't even fully drawn yet. The guards didn't notice what I had done and remarked that I would make a great soldier if I was interested. I kindly declined their offer and went back inside the estate. There was one thing that I wanted to do before I left.
After settling my affairs at the party, I Blinked up to a balcony up on the guard's quarters and made my way back into the streets. The gate had been lowered since I left, but I found Samuel on the other side intact after slipping past both Tall Boys again. He asked me if there was anything I had left to do and I said no, letting him pilot us both back to the Pub.
We arrived at dawn to our usual welcome party. Havelock, Pendleton, and Martin were overjoyed and started talking about taking down the Lord Regent on this very night. After speaking with them for far too long about little detail and bits and pieces of the night's journey, they agreed to send me off to Dunwall Tower later on tonight to deal with Hiram once and for all. The end of this whole twisted affair is finally in sight and I can't wait to be done with this myself. I did pull Pendleton aside, though, and the look on my face told him everything he needed to know. He gave a slight apology and a Rune for my troubles. It wasn't payment enough, but it was payment nonetheless.
Now I've just been wandering around the Hound Pits again. I'll be settling down for a few hours to nap before the big mission tonight, though I think I'll put some contingency plans in place just in case…
I did speak with Emily for a bit, though. She ran out on her studies with Callista and I found her in the alleyways near the Pub. Emily demanded that I tell her of the night's trials. I did, and her face broke out into a huge smile when I told her the final detail, just as I knew it would.
Before I departed the Boyle Estate last night, I signed my name in the Guest Ledger for all to see.