Okay, so I got through this chapter kind of quickly and I wrote it cause I wanted to really capture Corvo's mental state and what he is having to endure now. The second half of this chapter has explanations of his history with Emily and Jessamine, so I'm sure I like to add a lot of sad and happy thoughts in every one of these chapters.

His head was to roll by tomorrow. Six months ago he held Jessamine in his arms, his attire being stained by her blood as he cried into her fallen and lifeless form. Then the Royal Spymaster and High Overseer came with the guards who were all conveniently missing during the assassination; despite seeing him hold the Empress, they had the nerve to accuse him of murdering her and kidnapping Emily, as unlikely as it was to them.

But what was he to do? The Whalers that he killed while defending her had vanished before they even hit the ground, so there was no evidence of a struggle or the assassins even being there. Despite that, the Lord Protector argued, claimed he didn't kill her and that assassins did, but the Spymaster and High Overseer pressed on their accusations, and Corvo knew he was rendered powerless. The guards seemed to believe everything the two old men told them and were quick to hold him at sword point. Then they ordered his arrest, based on just the evidence of his presence with her when she died; they didn't even consider his argument. Next thing he knew, one of the guards had taken the pommel of their sword and bashed Corvo's face, knocking his world to black.

When news of the Empress' death was announced, 'long live the Empress!' the masses cried, even among worse threats of their plagued doom. When they heard '…killed by her own trusted bodyguard, Lord Attano…' many called for his blood in rage, even if that is all they heard; no questioning among the majority, no wondering why or how he had done it, they only acted on their emotions for their beloved Empress.

Corvo was sent to Coldridge Prison, where he endured six months of harsh treatment, moldy rations, and physical and mental torture. The torture was sometimes out of mourning for the Empress, the hatred for the dishonored Lord Protector; for the executioner, it was for the fun of it, and the guards would act as an entertained audience. Sadistic freaks they were; city watch brutality had always been a relevant issue and in her early rule, Jessamine took small steps to figuring solutions but did little as a result.

Several times had Hiram Burrows visited one of Corvo's torture sessions, first couple as Royal Spymaster, and the rest as newly appointed Lord Regent, as voted in by Parliament. When he is present, they would vacuously call these torture sessions 'interrogations'. These interrogations lasted hours every time they happened, yet no questions were ever demanded of him. All that came from him being strapped to a chair and 'interrogated' were some nasty and painful scars to appear on his skin; no words or answers from his mouth, for they asked nothing. Still, every time they would spread word around about a torture session, they would claim Burrows demanded to know the whereabouts of Emily Kaldwin, and Corvo refused to answer in his own defiance.

Corvo heard this when guards were talking just outside of his cell, and he began to wonder if he was possibly set-up, judging by the obvious misinformation being deliberately spread around. If they weren't really interrogating him, then why would Burrows go so far as to continue torturing him? Is he trying to break his spirit? Is he trying to break the voice he had that could possibly save him, if it could at all?

Who knows? But what Corvo does know is that there is something extremely wrong about this situation. Whalers come and kill the Empress, and kidnap their daughter while the guards had temporarily disappeared; just minutes after the attack, the guard comes back behind Burrows and Campbell, and they both point to him as the culprit. The guards follow their orders and arrest him, then throw him in Coldridge, where they would have him tortured there for six months for reasons he doesn't know. All of a sudden, the same man who had ordered his imprisonment was elected as Lord Regent; from the talk that Corvo had heard outside his cell, Burrows in the past several months has passed numerous executive orders that showed signs of radically conservative intent. A fortress lighthouse is built on Kingsparrow Island? Numerous walls of light and checkpoints are constructed through every street? Guard patrols are much more prominent, and even possibly being militarized? Corvo even heard that Tallboys have been given free rein to use deadly force on any infected by the plague. What in the void has compelled the Lord Regent to take such authoritarian action against the populace? Corvo always thought he was an asshole, yet before he was at least somewhat reasonable; but this?

His false imprisonment, his accuser hailed as Lord Regent, and martial law is called…

There is something wrong.

Some nights, when Corvo would be given some bread to eat for dinner, he would sit criss cross in the middle of his cell and take only little nibbles of it; he would tear off a chunk and feed some to the rats, and then throw it on the opposite side of the tray. He imagined on that side would be little Emily sitting like he would, and she would laugh with him as they ate together; yet the reality he lived held him back from laughter…forever.

He would feel regret, sometimes over letting his lover die, or at least he scolded himself in a defeatist attitude, saying that he let her die when he really had no power to save her. Sometimes he would feel regret that he watched as Emily was taken from him, again powerless. Sometimes he felt regret that he had failed in his duty; sometimes that he failed in his promise to Jessamine…

More so, confined to these enclosed walls of darkness, he felt hopeless, that he'll never see his daughter again; and the last thing he would remember is the terrified look on her face when the Whalers took her from him. He regretted more that he never, in he and Jessamine's life together, revealed the truth about her. He so wished now that he had revealed to Emily his place as her father, not just a father figure, her REAL father; he wanted her to know now that she was his own flesh and blood, and that he wanted her to know with full love that he lived to see her grow and he would be nowhere else if it meant he could guide her as father forever. He wanted her to know of the promise he had made to her mother…

Corvo would sleep on the cold stone floor, his skin scraping at the degraded rock, leaving scratches and irritation over the torture wounds that were already there. He was tired, however, and for so long he could never sleep until he found that his condition had forced him into rest. Nights upon nights, he had dreams of him and Jessamine in happier times, loving each other after a council, after a ball, or meal; at the beach, in her private chambers, in his private chambers, during the Fugue Feast. His dreams of her held memories of their activities beyond their love; he taught her once how to dance the Serkonan Step, in which they have become masters at. During parties, they would take at least one dance in which they immediately became the most interesting people in the room; their skill in the dance is described by the people that would gather around them to be captivating, and they were almost always encouraged to dance for an audience. More than they were just lovers, they were also the best of friends; it was the greatest any one can ever ask for.

Sometimes he dreamt about Emily, holding her as a baby and feeding her milk from a baby-bottle. Then he would watch her grow up, carrying her on his shoulders like a real father would. Beyond her private tutors, he would butt in and teach her things of his own, in which she was much more enthusiastic about. Just like he taught her mother, he had given her dance instructions as well; sometimes he would playfully dance with her at the few parties she was actually allowed to.

More prominent than his dreams were his nightmares; recurring dreams of watching his lover be impaled by the red coat assassin's blade, Emily being taken away from him, and even worse, Emily suffering the same fate as her mother and he failing to keep his promise. Then there were his night terrors, paralyzing sleep in which he could barely wake up from. Vision of…black eyes, on every form of person, staring into his soul; then they reached their out their hands and grabbed at him, tearing him apart. He would spasm awake and realize that what he saw was still here on this earth, where he would be confined to this cold place to be tortured until they decide the end of his days.

His imprisonment was the true nightmare, and he had lost hope of ever upholding his promise to Jessamine. He now wondered if he would even find her in the afterlife when he dies soon, if he truly deserves to love her for eternity after failing her and their daughter.