Days passed slowly for Jeniah. She took the missions she was given, but when she wasn't running around Dunwall, she was near Daud, keeping a watchful eye on him and any other Whalers planning a sabotage.
The one person she couldn't account for, though, was Billie Lurk. Billie was always the closest one to Daud, never letting Jeniah get too close lest she want a blade to the throat. And so Jeniah kept a respectable distance, and only caught Daud to speak to him while his stubborn second-hand wasn't present.
It wasn't a pleasant schedule, but she could handle it. One day when she had spoken to Daud, she had been sure to express her concern of Corvo's expected arrival to seek revenge. Her master had put up one hand in response.
"Whatever Corvo brings my way, Jeniah, I can take care of it. I am well-deserving of any sort of punishment he doles out to me." He had turned his back to her then, something he had never done before to her.
It was then that she knew she had truly gained his trust.
"You care very much about your master, yes?", an unknown voice spoke, echoing throughout the gaping chasm of darkness. Jeniah's eyes eventually adjusted, the sudden bleary cold biting through her undershirt and trousers, nipping at her skin underneath. Around her, large jagged hunks of black shining rock hovered as if strung up on invisible wire. This place was new, unfamiliar, yet she had heard feverish descriptions of it so many times before. Whispered through alleyways so the Abbey of the Everyman could never hear. The reason behind so many deaths throughout the Isles of the Empire.
The Void.
She frantically turned her head this way and that, searching for the Black-Eyed Bastard supposedly seen only in the dreams of the faithful.
"Searching for me would be quite difficult, I presume. I can be everywhere or nowhere at all.", the Outsider's voice echoed again. The very sound of his voice caused her to contort, even in the slightest way. "I suppose you'd like to see me though. The minds of man can better place voices with a certain face."
With a whirl of inky black smoke, a man appeared. Or rather, a boy. She'd heard the tale countless times, a young street urchin about 15 years of age, throat slit and offered up to the Void over four thousand years ago.
"Why have you brought me here? What could you possibly want with me?", Jeniah snarled. Her steel gray eyes scanned the Outsider's icy features, his short, brown leather duffle coat, his faded blue trousers tucked widely into high-rising black boots. His dark hair was matted unceremoniously over his forehead, and his eyes were two deep featureless pits of Void that she felt she would never escape if she stared long enough to get lost in them.
"Whoever said I wanted anything with you? Tell me this instead; what great lengths would you go to to protect Daud from peril? Would you expose the potential treachery of Billie Lurk? Would you search out and eliminate all enemies in his path? Just how loyal are you to him?" The Outsider paced slow circles around Jeniah, and her mind immediately flickered to an image of vultures circling their next prey. She quickly shook away the thought. "This is all I wonder for now.", he finished off, stepping back to look at her like he was admiring a work of art.
She turned to him, as she had learned to never turn her back on anyone. "I'm loyal enough. Not that I can say the same for you. Have you inquired to all the Whalers about this or just me?"
The Outsider sighed. "I am mostly interested in you, Jeniah, and your fondness for Daud. What do you really see him as to you?"
Jeniah paused. "...I see him as a hero, in his own cryptic way. He's like a father to us Whalers, and that's something I will not soon forget."
The black-eyed boy nodded. "Very well. I shall keep your answer in mind. Now go, back to your world."
The desolate world around Jeniah crumbled, and she slipped into darkness.
She rolled off her cot, stretching quickly and stumbling to her feet. Had she really seen the Outsider, or was it some sick trick of her mind? She chose to believe the first option, but why would the Outsider ask such questions? While dozens of these thoughts were racing through her mind, a fellow Whaler appeared in the doorway to her quarters. She turned her attention to him. "Yes?"
It was Rafael. "Ready?"
She nodded. Training time. 'Wonder what it's going to be this time.', she let herself wonder, not for the first time in the last two years. She didn't say anything aloud of course, Rafael was 30 years of age and she wasn't going to be disrespectful towards him.
Walking down to the training room, they made small talk. The plans for the day, any possible Weeper sightings nearby among the plague-dead, whether or not it may rain that day. Just things to say so they weren't walking in silence. Occasionally another Whaler would pipe into their conversation on the way, before Rafael would snap at them to focus on their job.
Rounding the corner, there was shouting, the sounds of swords being drawn too. On alert, Rafael and Jeniah drew their weapons as well.
"What's going on?", Rafael shouted. Another Whaler shouted back indistinctly. Jeniah moved from beside Rafael and shifted towards an opening to the outside of the base. People were still shouting, and there were loud bangs and dogs barking nearby. In a glimpse she caught a flash of shining gold, and she realized what was happening.
Overseers were raiding the base. A foolish plan but still a threat nonetheless. There was chaos in a moment's pass. Whalers were attacking, a few Warfare Overseers cranking away on music boxes attempting to disable some of the assassins, other Overseers attempting to return attacks. Jeniah leapt out from hiding, gripping the hilt of her sword tight. Mentally reaching out through the amount of space between her and an enemy, she moved quickly, magically closing the gap in an instant and shoving her blade through a few of the Overseer's ribs. She heard him let out a pained noise, but didn't relent as she shoved the blade all the way through and back out again, then shoved the body to the ground.
She heard a surprised yelp behind her and ducked just in time to avoid another Overseer being thrown over her head. His mask was split down the middle, red pouring from a large stab wound through the center of his forehead. She turned to see Rafael blinking out of sight, and smiled. Turning again, she transversed towards yet another Overseer - this one cranking a music box - and drove her sword into the gap between the rotating tube and the framework of the box, then wrenching the hilt downwards, disjointing the metal tube and stopping the arcane music that cancelled out the Whalers' magic.
The disgruntled Overseer retaliated, dropping the music box and drawing his own blade. Before he could react any further, Jeniah disappeared again and rematerialized behind him, hooking her foot around his ankle and tripping him up. She lunged forward and wrapped her arm around, catching him by the chin, then ripped his mask off and slit his throat with deadly precision. Blood sprayed forward as she let him go, her gloved hands slick with it as she watched him convulse and still in a matter of seconds. Satisfied with her work, she moved on to the next. As she watched her second Warfare victim squirm and choke and spit up his own blood, the music from another music box seemed much closer now, the sound piercing her eardrums, and she doubled over in pain, clutching the sides of her head. She dropped to her knees, though the music didn't stop.
As if the pain already ripping through her entire head wasn't enough, another sharp crack hit her in the skull, lights flashing in her vision. Hit by the pommel of an enemy sword, she crumpled to the ground, everything going black.