Chapter Eight
No More Light
I leaned down, picking up the bloodied rose in my hand and glancing at it.
The witch pricked her thumb to write the message in blood.
But how did she get the power to release herself from this prison?
It shouldn't have happened this soon. It was an improbability.
…
Troublesome…
Troublesome, indeed…
…
Should I warn the mortal? Do I speak of what has transpired here this day?
The mortal has not been heeding the lessons I have been teaching…
Why?
Has the mortal already been corrupted by the prospect of even more power?
…
I cannot allow this to continue.
The mortal must be chastised.
It is the only way…
…
How quaint. Here comes the mortal now.
…
"I've had enough of your games, Outsider!" the mortal said, crossly. "Tell me why you bestow your Mark on people."
How rude, mortal. I didn't even say hello.
"I don't care! Tell me!"
I cross my arms and tilt my head. No, mortal. You haven't learned, therefore, you do not deserve the answer.
"I have been learning!"
I shake my head, disappointedly. If you were learning, you would have picked the Tale of Redemption first. Coin leads to obsession. Obsession leads to power. Power leads to madness. Madness leads to revenge. And love is the catalyst, the means to the end.
"Then what leads to redemption?"
Acceptance.
"Acceptance of what?"
One's heart.
"Then tell me the story of redemption next. I'll listen!"
No, mortal. It's too late for that.
Time has changed. It has dictated a new direction. And now, I must tailor these lessons to Time.
"What…What are you talking about?"
You once pleaded me to leave you a candle.
And I left you that candle, didn't I?
But this time, there will be no candles.
I once told you that I could subject you to unending nightmares, if I so desired. Consider this one of those nightmares.
Yet, I won't allow you to wake up.
Not until you comprehend the reasons behind my tutelage.
…
"No, let me go! Please!"
I had taken the mortal by the arm. Taken the mortal to the witch's prison.
"Why am I here?"
The woman who was imprisoned here has now escaped. You should know who she is, after the Tale of Power.
What you don't know is why she was put here.
"I thought it was to save Lady Emily?"
It was. However, there is more to it than that.
It was an act of redemption, as much as it was an act of revenge.
"How was it redemption and how was it revenge?"
It was redemption, because the Crown Killer, the Knife of Dunwall…Daud…was a broken man after he killed Empress Jessamine Kaldwin, and sold her daughter to the Pendletons. He was haunted by nightmares due to his actions, his choices. It was revenge, because he wanted to dispose of the witch for turning his lieutenant against him.
Daud once told me that Billie Lurk was his finest pupil, and I found it no accident that she was the only woman he ever trained. In some ways, Lurk was like a daughter to him. He thought he could trust her. Yet, he thought wrong, and his Whalers paid the price for it.
Do you know why Billie Lurk betrayed her master? No. Of course you don't. I haven't told you that story yet. I will give you a hint, however. She was wracked with obsession. And she paid a different kind of price for that obsession.
"But what does any of this have to do with me?"
I gesture for the mortal to sit. Will you listen this time?
The mortal nodded. "Yes…"
Then sit, mortal. We are going to be here for a long, long while.