Chapter Three: Sensation

"Sensation, experience…what more to seek out than those things that offer some sort of primal memory – what more do you have than your mind as time ekes by? Memories come to be worth far more than coins when one is on the deathbed – they are the currency of the aged."

The Outsider –

The world was louder than when I observed it from the void. While I knew the general expectations of the senses, I didn't experience them on the same level as I did now that I was as close to mortal as I could ever expect. I had spent much of the morning gathering rare supplies from areas of the city and I was close to the last but it was within a building still condemned with blood flies and their surrogate protectors of humans turned slave. The building was bound to be disorienting so I was taking a break in an abandoned apartment not far from the site.

I'd stolen some meat and bread along with a container of water…I'd return the container later with a few coins I'd found. The family probably needed it more than I would. I was sitting on a ledge that to anyone else would appear precarious at best but I knew it could hold. Now that I'd taken a break in my wandering I had turned to observing the street below. The people peddling legal goods or trying to smuggle illegal ones past the guards, the workers around them cutting fish or cleaning the streets. Above the busy road, a woman was putting one of her children to bed, the boy had only a cold but the mother fretted over memories of the rat plague. I smiled a bit at the boy when he saw me and stared, winking to him just before he nodded off to sleep.

He would get better rest than I had. Not that there had been nightmares or disturbances in the vault where Emily had dropped me off. There had been nothing. That alone was enough to disturb me more than the visions would. This mortal guise was one I'd lost for so long that growing accustomed to it was far from something I wanted. I needed no sleep in the void, what sort of god needs to rest? And that thought was far from comforting, for if I was no longer a god, and no longer a mortal…then what had I become? What had this wayward ritual forged me into until I retrieved the void, until the very thing most humans feared called me home?

But it wasn't home…not originally…

Whatever I had become, I had been born mortal. I was younger, so much younger, in those days before the shadows started to eat away or blend what was nightmare and what had been my life. I remembered little anymore of my time before the sacrifice, as though my very history had been forfeit with my blood to forge this pact that made me what the mortals called the Outsider. To what was I the Outsider of now? I sighed at the circular motion of my thoughts and shook my head, taking another bite of the dry bread and meat…it wasn't heavenly but it would sustain me while I was stuck in this form. I smirked a bit as the window curtain was pulled over my view of the sick boy and instead watched as a older woman tried to get through one of the checkpoints. She wouldn't make it, she was carrying illegal poison on her cart – the guards would find it and she would join many of the bodies dumped into the sewers. Given her intent of murdering the man that had married her daughter…and that she wasn't a good mother in the first place, I wasn't about to get involved.

If I watched someone or something I could still see them in the stream of time, see what was the truth of them, past and future. It was only minutely clear however, only if I focused on them. I finished my meal, washing it down with the stale water I'd acquired before gathering my bag full of supplies and standing on the ledge, considering the next building I would need to look through. The only easily accessible area was on the third floor but that was easy enough for me. I was there a moment later, gesturing at a gathering of the blood flies that began buzzing wildly and glowing at my sudden and nearby appearance to the large hive.

With a small gesture a wind cut through them so harshly that it burst holes through the hive and the wall behind them, cutting as deeply as any bullet could at my command. I lacked the sort of equipment that Emily or Corvo would have carried, but I didn't have a need for it. In only a few moments the room closest to my entry was clear of any threat. It was however, as expected, disorienting. The coppery tinge of blood mingled with the dust and decay caused by years of neglect, a thousand stories flitting through my mind as I used the magic to clear out this small part of the infestation. My hand caught the rail, I doubted a 30-foot drop would kill me but I'd rather not actively try and find out how much it would hurt.

After a moment, the dizziness faded and I stepped into the mostly destroyed room, there were two doors but one was covered in the remains of a large chunk of the hive so I doubted I'd find much there. The other was shut, and a hallway lead to stairs down as well as another open archway and further blood flies. It wasn't particularly difficult even if I had to take a break between clearing areas. This apartment complex was once nice, it reminded me a little of the same architecture used in the palace quarters, and slipping into a bedroom I cleaned it out with the same summoned winds before leaning on the frame, closing my black eyes as I saw the dots of darkness in front of them.

I'd seen Emily that morning in a bedroom similar, it wasn't covered in blood flies, but out of time the two rooms would have matched up well. She'd still been sleeping when I'd slipped out and I didn't wish to wake her when doing so would mean little to my plans. For as frustrated as I was that Emily had failed to simply kill Delilah I felt the girl had earned her rest. Other mortals wouldn't view the oblivion of sleep with the same trepidation I did. I glanced through the room, but this didn't have what I wanted either. I wondered where the woman had kept the herb I needed, it was a rare thing but it would have flourished with the blood flies around so getting it now would be easy once I figured out what room it had ended up in before the pests had taken over. Moving on I paused to purse my lips in amusement at a bit of graffiti in one of the halls. It read clearly: 'The Outsider Walks Among Us.' I smirked a bit at the irony of the statement. Apparently, I wasn't the only one that could predict the future...

Emily –

Where the hell did everybody go?

I had requested a large breakfast since I figured I could offer something to the outsider after I was finished with father. He often came in the morning and we used the meal to discuss plans for the day and what we needed to do for the city. His visits had helped me keep a grasp of the city, even though then I'd pushed off more on him and the advisors than I ever should have. I still wished for council now, I had so much I needed to do before I could take any sort of trip and I had been hoping he would help me figure out what to do first.

However, instead I spent the meal eating alone, writing up a list of things that needed doing and running low enough on paper that I had to send for more. I did give father's plate to the servants, they looked hungry and while it wasn't the usual etiquette I could tell they appreciated the gesture. Everyone was probably hungry after Delilah and the blood flies ravaged the area and few ships seemed to want to import. Convincing people to start importing ships again and writing letters to that effect would be one of my first orders of business, without food none of Dunwall would survive – citizen or politician alike.

Despite my misgivings, I had rested well through the night. I was too exhausted for the concerns to seep in and cause me to be overly restless. That was, until I woke and all the things facing me came to bare. There was so much I had to do, so many people counting on me to set things right and fix all of the problems that Delilah had caused – to fix problems that were there that I either ignored or was ignorant of before she started all of this. Then there was my other issue…

Something I addressed as I looked at the third plate of food I'd gotten. I'd spent the time to eat myself and get clean and dressed. I expect it looked strange to order three plates of food and not eat two of them but no one had said anything about it. I had planned to give the third plate to the Outsider unsure if he even ate or needed to. I expected to find out that morning, but when I entered my vault he was gone. He and father both had seemingly vanished and that was only making my morning all the more stressful?

Had father figured out the outsider was here? He had always been quick and protective of me, perhaps he'd heard us speaking yesterday evening? I had gone to my room instead of staying after dinner which wasn't what I would normally do. If father had figured out the Outsider was here, then what? Did they decide to just go the two of them to finish this task of getting the woman the Outsider needed?

This all seemed too surreal to be happening. What had I done exactly to render the Outsider with the need for help from us humans at all? It couldn't be good, and it was one more thing I had to fix as soon as possible. Not that I could now…and if what I was worried about was true then perhaps they planned not to let me help at all.

"Just one step at a time…" I could hear the advice in father's voice, even in my mind. I forced myself to calm down so I wouldn't get overwhelmed by it all. I couldn't do anything if I got so stressed I couldn't focus on my letter writing. We needed to reassure the ships that our ports were safe again, at least as safe as any port ever was. Besides, fears that I would be excluded were far from warranted, the Outsider specifically stated that I was needed if he was to reverse whatever had gone wrong.

I managed to get through one whole letter before I continued to consider the Outsider. If it wasn't for his eyes he could be taken for human easily enough. Perhaps I could get Sokolov to craft him some sort of lenses? Out of the void the Outsider didn't have power floating about him in visible shadows so he would be passably human if his eyes looked normal. He was handsome enough as well, chiseled features, dark hair, a sense of confidence and refinement. It was little wonder that in the stories some people spoke of becoming obsessed with him. There was an energy around him even lacking a visual clue that spoke on a spiritual level to him being something more. Still, it wasn't enough that anyone would simply guess his true nature.

Now that I was only making copies of the same thing I had gotten through a few more letters but I was still trying to decide on what role then I should have him play? There would be no easy way to have him travel with us without some sort of story to go along with it. A new advisor? One that helped save the crown? The best lies are steeped in the truth…that's what Calista used to tell me as a child…it was advice I should have paid better attention to. I missed her still at times, my childhood tutor…she'd moved with her uncle to one of the outlying cities, and I couldn't blame her…Dunwall was turning out to be a deathtrap…

Then again, Dunwall had pulled together the castle in a faster time than I thought possible. There were large areas that still needed to be cleaned but even the city was quickly fixing itself now that the witches had been either killed or frightened into quiet at Delilah's disappearance. It made me want to do well by my citizens more – they were a tough, resilient group that survived. They survived the plague, the blood flies, and now the tyranny of Delilah's madness. They deserved better than what I had been for them before now, I had to admit while part of me still hated Delilah for what she had done, I couldn't totally resent her for it. She'd also shown me things I would have never seen otherwise.

I leaned back, a dozen letters to the closest ships still waiting out of port with the freshest possible goods…it was a good immediate solution and the scribes could work on getting word out to the other cities.

Delilah and the Outsider…what more was happening there. She'd stolen a piece of a god and somehow survived. Despite my own hesitation to resent the girl I doubted the Outsider was feeling as generous. He'd complimented her before, but no such words had come from him since he'd been stuck here with us mortals. I guess it was harder to appreciate Delilah being clever and cutthroat when yours was the throat being cut.

Where had they disappeared to? Father and the Outsider, it was nearly noon and I seemed unable to do much more than write letters in their absence. I took a break to glance at the sky. It looked a lot different here than in the void…but it was still probably the closest thing to the open area he called home. Were the pair of them watching it somewhere as well? No, probably not, they were more useful than I was, they were probably getting something worthwhile done while I worried over them. With a sigh I returned to penning, it was what the city needed and all my distractions would not help anyone, I had to trust both father and the Outsider would return before the day was out.

The Outsider –

There, I'd finally found it, it was of course in one of the last rooms I'd taken time to clear but it would still do what I needed it to. All that was left was to travel and get the final ingredient. It had been a long day but a worthwhile one, I'd finished what likely would have taken the others many days or weeks to finish and certainly with less injury than humans would have in a place like this. I was resting against another door frame when I felt the thin metal press against my neck.

A memory of another time, a less pleasant time, flickered through my thoughts, and before I'd opened my eyes the offender that would put a blade to my throat was flying across the apartment, likely would have gone through the wall had it not been a major support for the entire structure. I relaxed a moment later, closing my eyes again and ready to get outside once I'd had a moment to rest. Too much here was still overwhelming my senses. I sighed as the man I'd tossed started to move.

I admit, the man's attempt to intimidate me was amusing, he never ceased to be entertaining. "I expect you would know better, Corvo Attano."

End Chapter

Been busy with the holidays coming up but wanted to get another chapter up. I really like the idea of this pairing a lot but they're a bit hard to work with. Emily is funny, sort of chastising herself for even considering the Outsider XD.

-Aura

To my reviewers:

Tigerfur – thanks again for the review. I'm glad you like the changes in POV, I don't write first person often so I always worry I'm not doing well.