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"You've continuously surprised me. Where other men would have painted the stones of the city red with blood, you have chosen mercy. But now your mission is over. What are you looking for, Corvo? Who are you, now that young Empress Emily no longer needs a savior?"
"I…"
Corvo wanted to speak up, but the words got stuck in his throat.
All the while those black eyes were watching him, gauging his every reaction.
"I… I don't know."
And just like that Corvo woke up.
The air was crisp in the morning, a salty breeze gently blowing in from the sea. Not many people were up and about in the streets; even though the rat plague slowly was getting under control now, thanks to the combined effort of Piero and Sokolov, the sense of fear still lingered. From his position on the rooftop Corvo could see sailors at the docks loading their cargo of whale oil onto a ship. Soon, the servants would start looking for him in Dunwall Tower. He wasn't used to being back there yet, the place held too many bad memories for him. Emily never complained, but he had noticed that she too avoided certain rooms, places where the past lingered too strong. The newly crowned Empress ruled over a city in disarray, a people recovering from a terrible tragedy and still piecing themselves back together. Corvo had done his part, now it was up to her. Oh, he would always be there to protect her and guide her, but he was no politician.
Sometimes it was hard for him to really understand that his months spent as a man on the run were over now. Dark as those days had been, the sense of purpose his mission had installed in him had granted his life a certain simplicity. He still carried the Heart, the clockwork heart with her voice. He still had all the powers gifted to him by the Outsider. But there was no place for a man like him anymore, no unique role that he and only he could fill.
He hadn't found himself back in the Void properly when asleep, not after that first experience at the Hound Pits, but the black-eyed man was still a constant in his dreams, always watching, always just around the corner. Asking him questions he'd rather not answer.
The sailors had finished their task now, and the scents of cooking that drifted from the apartments below signaled that the rest of the city was waking up. The position of the sun also told him that he had been lost in his thoughts for too long: he really should head back to the Tower.
*
As he was sneaking back into his room he immediately ran into Emily.
"There you are, Corvo," she said. "I've been looking all over for you." She had her arms crossed in that way that he knew meant that she wasn't really displeased but wanted to look like she was.
"I didn't know that empresses had enough time to spare to look around for lost old men."
"Servants, me, does it matter who looked for you. I was the one who sent them to find you, anyway. I'll always find you, just like when we used to play hide and seek, remember?"
She didn't wait for his answer before continuing.
"Did you know, Corvo, that the City Watch has confiscated more strange occult artifacts this month than ever before? You know, like that weird rune I found on the beach that one time? They're turning up all over the city."
He wondered at once how much Emily understood of his own ties to the occult, to the black-eyed Outsider. She could be very perceptive at times.
"You'd tell me if anything was wrong , right?" she asked.
Of course he reassured her that nothing was wrong. As grown as she sometimes seemed, she wouldn't understand the way he now faltered at the aimlessness of his new life.
*
That night, as Corvo laid down on his back on a bed of fine linen (so very different from what he had gotten used to sleeping on just months before), he raised his left hand to gaze at the mark on it. A tangible proof of his connection to the Outsider: if the Abbey knew of its significance he could be in major trouble, Royal Protector or not. The mark didn't look ominous however. He was no artist, but he thought that it was quite pleasing to the eye as far as tattoos came. The curved and jagged lines captured the gaze; the shape of the mark looked a bit like a drawn bow. Corvo didn't even notice that he was drifting into sleep until he'd already closed his eyes.
He was with the Outsider. They were in his old room at the Hound Pits, and the sun shining in through the filthy windows highlighted the shabbiness of the place. Instead of appearing more normal in broad daylight the Outsider was only the more eerie, his pallor and black, completely black, eyes more pronounced. Somehow it felt wrong to see him like this. He was standing right next to Corvo, so close that Corvo could have counted his eyelashes if he wanted to.
"This is where it all began for us two," the Outsider said.
Corvo didn't need to ask what he meant by that. Instead he tried to make sense of their current situation.
"Why are you here?"
"Because you want me to be here, Corvo."
Measured as ever, the Outsider's expression betrayed little of his thoughts.
"How many times have you not wondered what would have happened, had you not been marked by me that night. But you were marked, and you used your powers to accomplish great things. Because of you, a new era of prosperity is now on the horizon, when before there was nothing but despair in the future of Dunwall. But will this prosperity last? I've lived for a long time, Corvo. I have seen empires rise and fall, and the most idealistic of men and women descend into cruelty and bloodshed." Here, the Outsider paused. When he once again began talking, his voice held a peculiar emotion. "But you, Corvo, you've surprised me. Not many have surprised me during all these long years. No one would've begrudged you your revenge, yet you chose to show your enemies mercy."
Suddenly they were on the shore of the Wrenhaven river, and it was night. They were on the short stretch of riverbank next to the high cliffs, and behind them Emily's tower rose up in the darkness. Pale moonlight reflected on the slowly rolling waves, and Corvo thought he could hear the distant cry of whales. The Outsider started walking down towards the river, and without fear of hagfish, waded into the shallow waters. He was barefoot. Swallowing, Corvo removed his boots and went out to him until they were standing side by side, feet in the chilly water. For a change the Outsider's gaze wasn't fixed on him, but instead he was looking at the masses of moving water in front of him, his gaze distant. At once he seemed terribly sad. The moonlight caught on the edges of his dark hair, drawing Corvo's attention to how soft it looked, and how otherworldly his profile was against the calm blue sky. All was quiet around them, only the lapping of the waves and the distant whale song carrying in from the sea breaking the silence. Corvo didn't wish to speak for fear of shattering this moment.
They stood there for what felt like an eternity. Suddenly the Outsider sighed, a heavy sigh full of meaning, and turned towards him. "You feel adrift, Corvo, but you can't even begin to comprehend the weight of centuries. I've seen the dreams of countless people, visited them in the night and even given my mark to those who most catch my interest, but I am always, unfailingly, alone."
Then, before Corvo could formulate a reply, the Outsider reached for his left hand, the hand with the mark. It was the first time the Outsider had ever been in physical contact with him, and he didn't know what he had expected, but the black-eyed man's touch felt surprisingly normal— yet at the same time, Corvo felt a chill run down his spine. When the Outsider slowly traced the mark with his thumb, Corvo felt his breath catch in his chest.
"I am glad I chose you Corvo. You've proved most... interesting."
*
Corvo opened his eyes. For a moment he was disoriented, but then the room came into focus, and he realized he was tangled in the sheets of his bed. A dream. It had been a dream. But was it a normal one, or had the Outsider really been there? His heart was beating so hard that it seemed like it was trying to escape his chest. In the dim light of early hours, he stared at the plaster of the ceiling and forced himself to calm down.
Life was a matter of routine these days, and this day was no exception. He woke up and was summoned by a servant for breakfast with the Empress, during which she told him all about her plans for the upcoming day and he told her anecdotes from his travels around the isles. The dream began to seem as distant as another reality. Then she left to attend her classes for the morning, and he was free to roam the city. In the first few weeks after her coronation he had scarcely left her side, all too aware of the last time he had been too late to save an Empress. But life had to go on, and she couldn't be under his watchful eye constantly. That would've stifled her, and made her seem weak and scared in the eyes of her enemies. No, he had to trust in the carefully vetted guards who surrounded her, and in the new and improved security system Sokolov had outfitted the Tower with. He was of more use to her keeping an eye on things in Dunwall and bringing her information, than as a constant shadow beside her.
He was on his way toward an abandoned apartment building, blinking across the city, when the Heart made itself known in that way that indicated that there was a rune nearby. The city watch had systematically been clearing out plague ridden dwellings, but the apartment he was going to had been blocked so thoroughly from the inside that they had had trouble getting in. They wanted his help in accessing the apartment through a window and also with clearing out any possible Weepers in wait inside. Neighbors across the street had reported strange noises coming from that direction, and also a strange, purple light shining from the windows. Black magic, they had whispered. This should not have filled Corvo with excitement, yet it did. Secretly he hoped to find an Outsider shrine. He made his way across the rooftops quickly, making use both of his powers and his intimate knowledge of the streets. As he neared his destination, his blood started humming with a certainty that there was something of the Outsider within reach.
There were no Weepers, and also no hint of whomever had locked themselves in. Most probably rats had taken care of the corpse or corpses. There was also no shrine. A rune was hidden behind a painting on the wall, and a few short moments later after dislodging it from its hiding place Corvo was ready to leave the place as well as the rest of the cleanup to the guardsmen. He felt unaccountably disappointed. There must be something off with him, to so want to be in the black-eyed man's presence. Granted he did owe him his life, without powers he never would've been able to save Emily and life without her scarcely bore thinking about. But what came attached with those powers? "Outsider's eyes," people said when they wanted to curse misfortune and black magic. Corvo had seen firsthand how depraved some of the Outsider's worshippers were. He would never, could never, become like them. Yet he felt drawn to the man, like their connection wasn't a necessary burden but instead something to cherish.
That night, as Corvo was going to sleep, he wasn't sure if he anticipated the Outsider in his dreams or dreaded the possibility.
*
As soon as he woke up he knew that something was off. His room had never looked quite like this, the lighting had never been quite this off-worldly. He was in the Void.
"Hello, Corvo."
He jumped at the sudden greeting. The Outsider was standing right at the foot of his bed. He hadn't been there a second ago.
He looked more like his usual self this time, with that strange air of vulnerability from the previous dream gone. Had any of that really happened? Corvo still wasn't sure what to think. Was this ancient god really the same man as the one who gently had stroked his hand in the moonlight just last night? Was that man just a product of his own twisted imagination?
"Didn't think I'd be seeing you so soon," Corvo said, quickly rising from the bed to a standing position.
"Yet here we are," the Outsider conceded, and once again his all-black eyes were unreadable. "Did you know, that the rune you found today was one of two crafted by a young woman centuries ago? She used to lay out her nets right where we now stand, back when the river was wider and deeper and known by another name. She died, as they all die, but her runes have rested at the bottom of the ocean for hundreds of years, only to resurface now."
"What's so special about now?" Corvo couldn't help but ask.
At this the Outsider raised both eyebrows.
"Everything, Corvo, and nothing. Just like you."
"What do you mean by that?"
"You've been extraordinarily entertaining to watch. You fascinate me like no other has in a very long time. Yet, the time of action has now passed. You've finished the play, the curtain has come down, the actors have left the stage. Will you attempt to live an unremarkable, normal life from now on, filled with nothing but peace and quiet? Will you be happy?"
"What do you want from me?"
His voice was more gruff than he had meant for it to be. All these cryptic statements were just serving to confuse him more.
"What do you see when you look at me, I wonder?" the Outsider asked.
And then Corvo was being kissed.
To say that the kiss was unexpected was a severe understatement. Nothing in their conversation had prepared him for this. The Outsider's lips were not cold, as one might have imagined, instead they were almost feverishly warm. The kiss itself was tentative, a question. For a split second Corvo just stood there frozen, shocked into inaction. The Outsider took a step back, ending the kiss. He didn't look the least bit fazed, which was infuriating, because Corvo's thoughts were completely scrambled.
It was partly driven by that irritation that Corvo decided on his next action. He wanted to upset the Outsider's equilibrium just as much as he had been shaken, and so he threw all caution and rational thought to the wind and closed in on the other man. Grabbing him by his upper arms he kissed him, roughly, satisfied when he was rewarded with what might have been a gasp. The Outsider's arms settled on his back, and he opened his mouth to let Corvo deeper into the kiss. As Corvo pushed against him, the Outsider bumped the back of his legs against the bed. The Outsider fell down on his back onto the mattress, causing Corvo to also lose his balance and fall on top of him. They ended up half lying on the bed, Corvo pinning down the Outsider, and suddenly what he was doing —and who he was doing it with—became a whole lot more real to him. Corvo had never kissed a man before, and normally that aspects of the proceedings might've given him cause for panic, but now it all seemed to pale in light of everything else the Outsider represented. An ancient god, someone who had lived for thousands of years, someone people worshiped, someone they feared, and here he was in Corvo's arms and his flesh was as warm as any man's and his body just as solid. It was all happening too fast.
As if the Outsider was reading his thoughts he sighed and relaxed his hold on Corvo's back. He shifted, drawing himself more fully up on the bed, and Corvo rolled over so that he wasn't towering over him anymore.
"Do you now see what I mean?" the Outsider said, as they adjusted their positions on the soft mattress. For a while they just lay there, on their sides, facing each other. "I am who I am, as we all must be who we are. For a long, long time I have watched and waited for those moments that make existence worth it. You provided a most exquisite show."
Corvo swallowed. "I'm afraid I'm going to end up disappointing you." He realized now that that was true. The Outsider had once said that a man needed to be especially interesting to catch his attention. There was nothing interesting about Corvo now. He had been worried about that for a while now, even though he hadn't realized it before.
The Outsider just laughed at that, a strange sound, as if the man hadn't laughed in years and had forgotten how.
"I am afraid you won't be rid of me that easily, Corvo. The curtain has fallen on one adventure, but the story is not over for you and Empress Emily. I will be following you closely."
Suddenly overcome with an urge to kiss him again, Corvo did. As they kissed the room began to blur, and the sound of whales singing filled his ears.
*
When Corvo awoke the whale song still echoed in his mind. He rose from the bed, attended to his morning hygiene, and pre-empted the servant who was sent to fetch him for breakfast with the Empress.
Emily must have noticed that something was different about him today, because she kept throwing him curious glances in between the normal conversational chatter.
"Everything alright, Corvo?"
The future was no more certain today than it had been yesterday, in fact, everything was now thrown into disarray. Whatever he and the Outsider had begun tonight, it would not be easy, or simple. He still wasn't sure what it even was that they had, exactly. But where before the uncertainty would've filled him with trepidation, now it was exciting. It was merely a shift in perspective: he wasn't aimless, drifting, instead he was open to the future with all of its possibilities.
"Yes, everything's fine," Corvo said.
This time, he didn't need to lie.