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The shrine is small. No matter, it's his and his only. There weren't many places in Dunwall where the Lord Protector could keep a heretical altar, and even less places in the Tower ; though it was widely known there was something strange going with him. The rumors of him being the Masked Felon, the villain who abducted Sokolov, or of him getting help from a certain god are not discreet enough not to reach his ears. He ignores them.
Not many want to confront him now.
Still, it would out of question to expose his mark again, or to let anyone gather proof of his affiliation with the Outsider. This isn't about him, it never was, and he will never forgive himself if he stained Emily's reign.
Thus, the secret room was the only place he could think of. It was cramped, but intimate. Almost too much. Sometimes, he wonders if Jessamine would disapprove. Sometimes, it feels as if the shrine doesn't belong here. The room is hers, it always kept a piece of her, and perhaps it should remain this way.
Corvo was never a worshipper, except for Jessamine.
And the Outsider.
He prays as he sits in silence, deep in thoughts, lulled by the song of the whale bones. In the late hours, when he knows his absence won't be missed, or in the earliest hours, before the sun warms up the horizon. He needs it, the time to find himself again. The Void's influence on him. He doesn't wear the bone charms anymore, and hides the mark. He resents doing so. It had been months since he last saw the Outsider, despite his calls for him. Perhaps the god is angry he suddenly stopped showing off his mark.
Corvo misses the rush of his powers, the adrenaline. He is so tired and wary after everything, and he hopes never again. But the call of the Void, he cannot ignore it.
There is no more sleep without, so he embraces it.
Most of the time, the Outsider doesn't come. He takes Corvo out of his dreams (blood, death and desperation) and leaves him to wander in the Void, in the blankness of his world. And Corvo lets the Void take the pain, the sorrow, the relief, everything. Until he is as hollow as the place.
But the Outsider doesn't come.
Corvo thinks he's grown as fascinated in the Outsider as the being claimed he was in him.
Corvo wants to see the Outsider. He wants to be with the Outsider. He refuses to see him disappear from one day. What is it, court life is too common?
He brings more cloth to add to the shrine, more whale lamps. He spends hours perfecting the shrine that now takes the entire room. Jessamine's letter and audiograph were relocated to his room. The secret room is only for the Outsider.
He gathers every bone charm in his possession, gets more. The whale song is deafening when he sits in front of the shrine, and he loses himself and he worships.
He leaves the Tower more often now, always with his mask. He blinks across rooftops, falls and catches himself at the last moment by possessing a guard, shows himself just before stopping time, only to disappear not far and receive shouts of "witchcraft!". He grins too wide, and he's not quite pleased.
The rush is there, but the sense of purpose isn't.
His god once said he wanted a good show. Wasn't it enough?
Never enough.
He starts using again his most offensive powers. The rats loom over the streets again, but it is not enough. A guard patrolling at the Tower dies, crushed by stones a hundred feet below.
The posters displaying the Masked Felon fill up the streets.
Corvo doesn't know what the Outsider wants of him. He wants to understand why his actions used to be interesting but no longer are. He needs to know what to do, to make his god appear again.
He doesn't know why he's doing this.
He has no obligation. He doesn't even have any purpose left.
Still, he tries.
Still, he wakes in the Void. But still, the Outsider doesn't come.
Corvo thinks he's grown obsessed with the Outsider.
Awful
Corvo is angry, and when he isn't he is desperate. Why doesn't the Outsider answer anymore? He used to show up at every shrine, but he never came to the only one Corvo built.
Perhaps it still isn't enough.
He builds more shrines in forgotten corners of the city, and one in the Estate District. But no, his god doesn't answer. Is there anything wrong with his shrines?
Yet no, Corvo knows it isn't about his shrines. He visited many others, and where the young man used to appear, there is only silence and emptiness now.
He wants the Outsider's company. He desires. He is lonely, and he wants.
(He never did before)
He misses the Outsider. It isn't a secret, it isn't something he can deny in any way.
He wants him, he hungers for him, for his presence, for his taste, for the unforgiving touch that will shatter him but the answer is only silence and ignorance.
He wants his own destruction. He wants something, anything. For the darkness to swallow him. For the Void to consume him.
The Outsider isn't willing.
Corvo realizes he's grown boring.
He burns with want, but he doesn't seek the shrines anymore. He understood. He won't get anything. He was mistaken.
The Void doesn't give.
He stops waking in the Void. He stops walking in the Void, and he finally realizes he has nothing left to offer to the hungry waters, to the starving emptiness.
He is empty.