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It was a calm and warm night with soft breeze, lit by stars and distant city lights. Samuel yawned. He was sitting in his boat by the shore, a slightly bent stick in his hand, fishing hagfishes.
Samuel was bored. The former Lord Protector sure took his time on missions, leaving the boatman alone with only his boat and boredom for hours. The old man sighed and raised his eyes to the sky. Somewhere in those stars leviathans floated, watching them from far up above and maybe the Outsider himself was among them. The deity had taken an interest in Corvo, after all.
Suddenly he heard a thump and knew that it was the assassin – appearing out of thin air, as always, dark thick shadows marking his footsteps.
„Hey, Cor—oh.“
The man was dirty, bloody and panting, his coat torn even more than before the mission. There was a faint smell of something rotten in the night air that Samuel was sure he couldn't smell before. The boatman raised an eyebrow.
Corvo was looking at his own feel, smiling sheepishly. „I...fell?“, he tried, glancing up. „...into a trash bin.“, added when Samuel's eyebrow didn't lower a bit. „Someone spilled jelled eels on the windowsill...“
Samuel couldn't help but giggle at that. The master assassin the man was called now, one of the best bodyguards in the history of Dunwall. Could easily take on three men with a sword. Slipped on jelled eels and fell into a stinky trash bin.
„Corvo, how did you not notice jelled eels on the windowsill?“, he asked.
The assassin looked a bit lost and...embarrassed even. He looked down at his boots again. Unwittingly his hand touched the left pocket of his coat. „It was dark... and...“, he started. Samuel could see the oh shit what to say on his face, but kept silent.
„...I was watching the guards.“, finished Corvo and gave the man a guilty smile while fiddling with a sleeve of his coat.
The old boatman was sure that in that pocket and most likely somewhere else in that torn coat there was a reason of this fall – a book, or books, now hidden safely to be read later. Having learned not to lecture a serkonan on the common sense and work safety, he stayed silent again, just nodded with a half smile.
Corvo looked at the fishing rod then, steady and abandoned. A bunch of hagfish were swimming around the boat, almost unseen in the dark, not paying any attention to a piece of rat attached to the string.
„I can catch that fish for you.“, he said, relieved that the talk about his little accident was over. The mark on his hand shone for a moment and without waiting for an answer he loaded his crossbow and fired almost aimlessly into the dark water. There was a splash and one of the hagfishes stopped moving and slowly floated to the surface in a blood darkened water. Then he stepped into the river, took the fish and got into the boat. Samuel sighed and shook his head with a smile.
„Thank you, Corvo.“
The assassin just nodded and sat on the bench. „Let's go home.“, he said.