The Shadow of Dunwall

Chapter 5 – In The Darkness of Dreams

"Hello, Corvo,"

Corvo's broad back blocked much of Robyn's view of the Outsider but it didn't mean that His voice didn't send a chill down her spine or leave a cold feeling in her left hand where the Mark had been branded. She could feel Him as if He were an extension of herself in this world, like an ever present spirit that touched her back to lead her forward.

It was a bit unsettling.

"Your life has taken a turn, has it not? The Empress is dead, her precious daughter Emily is lost somewhere in the city, and you and your little bird will play a pivotal role in the days to come. For this I have chosen you and drawn you both into the Void,"

Corvo remained silent, ever vigilant in the eyes of a predator.

"I am the Outsider," He greeted, His voice deceptively welcoming. "And this is my Mark,"

Robyn watched as Corvo twitched once, raising his hand to reveal the glowing Mark as it burned into the skin on the back of his left hand. He made no noise that it had hurt him or even surprised him to have suddenly gained this mark, but Robyn could see the shaking in his hand as he lowered it back to his side. His eyes moved to meet hers over his shoulder and at his glance she raised her own hand to reveal the black-blue mark that had been burned there just this morning. His face darkened into a frown as he returned his attention to the Outsider.

"There are forces in the world and beyond the world, great forces that men call magic, and now these forces will serve your will,"

Robyn shivered again at the idea of employing such monstrous gifts as the ones she'd seen during her time as the Shadow. She could still smell the bite of sulfur and the stink of sewer water in the air as she'd witnessed Daud's assassins flash in and out of existence as they made where way through Dunwall towards a target. She could still feel the cold chill in the air as she'd watched Granny Rags sing happily to herself while petting a rat or a chunk of bone. She could almost feel the sting in her lung from the gunshot that had made her the Apprentice Protector all those years ago. If it hadn't been for a Tail that had been touched by the Outsider and shot through the chest, she'd still be the Shadow.

"Use this newfound power, my gift to you both," the Outsider continued, bowing to them at the waist as the darkness surrounded him, fading from existence. Only a second later, a chilled hand touched Robyn's back as lips ghosted over the shell of her ear. "Come find me,"

Corvo spun around to face her, eyes harsh as he looked for the voice that had surprised him, but Robyn know the Outsider was already gone by the time Corvo was facing her.

"Robyn?"

She nodded. "I'm alright,"

His face didn't clear any but he seemed to accept what she'd said with a nod as he turned to look around. She could tell he was trying to make some sense of what was happening to the two of them, examine and explain. But Robyn knew better than that, turning to look down at the Mark on her hand.

It was glowing, even darkly, it glowed with an energy that made her feel jittery. It was as if the Mark was buzzing with the need to be used now, waiting for her to… do something. But she didn't know what needed to be done, all she knew was that she had magic and that she was supposed to be finding the Outsider. But how was she supposed to do that when there was nowhere else to go. The only way to go was back towards the building they had previously been in. Otherwise, there was a fifty yard gap between them and the next platform which…

"Oh no,"

Robyn was staring at the floating platform nearest to them, a broken mound of cobblestone that had once been the gazebo that the Empress had loved to frequent… the same place she'd been assassinated. And what was worse, was that Robyn could see a bloodied body strewn out in the center of the gazebo. It stole the air from her lungs as she started at the feminine figure lying in its own blood.

She felt Corvo come to stand beside her, ever the silent figure as he looked across the distance to the gazebo. She felt him stiffen beside her, painful energy wafting off of him as he stared at the body of the woman he had no doubt loved.

"Corvo, I-"

"We need to get out of here," he interrupted, looking down at the mark on his hand. "Do you know how to use these marks?"

Robyn frowned up at him but decided to let him ignore the horrible memory literally in front of them. If that was what Corvo needed, that's what she'd give him. After all, he needed so little that if felt like a sin not to allow him a simple change in conversation just this once.

Robyn shook her head. "No. I know the witches use the Outsider's power… and I know for sure that Daud has one. That's how the assassins get around Dunwall but…" Robyn shrugged, glancing across the distance while trying to ignore the body of the Empress. "I was never a part of his gang of assassins and I stayed as far away from Brigmore manor as I could possibly get,"

Corvo frowned but didn't say any more.

"Do you have any ideas?"

"No,"

Robyn rolled her eyes at him. Well, at least he was straight forward about his answers. "Well… when I was the Shadow I saw assassins pop in and out of existence, just like the Tail I had all those years ago who attacked the Empress. Maybe we can replicate that?"

When Corvo didn't say anything, she took it as approvals.

She looked between the Mark and the closest point on the gazebo. Squeezing her hands, she imagined herself standing there, her feet flat on the stone, secure and unwavering. She felt the buzz in her hand turn into a steady burn that made her gasp, dropping the fist she'd made with a hiss of pain.

"Damn it,"

"Robyn!"

Corvo's voice shouldn't have sounded so far away, but as she brought her eyes up from her hand, she suddenly understood why. She was standing in the gazebo, the flat stone firm beneath her booted feet, the Empress's body not five feet away. It brought a gasp up Robyn's throat as she spun around to see the sudden distance between her and Corvo.

She tried it again, imagining the raised cobblestone beneath her feet, Corvo's warmth at her shoulder as she closed her hand into a tight fist against the tense burning. She suddenly came to the realization that the burning was in fact magic, magic that pulled from her core in a way she'd never felt before. It made her smile as she released her fist, appearing at Corvo's side again.

"That was…" Robyn trailed off, staring down at her hand. "That was amazing,"

She met Corvo's eyes with a bit of awe at the power of the Mark. If only she'd had this power when she'd been a street rat in Dunwall, moving through the shadows like she belonged. With the power to… blink in and out of existence… she could have avoided the eyes of many, climbed to places that would have otherwise possibly broken her limbs, and even avoided killing all together. It would have made her younger years so much easier.

But Corvo was patiently waiting for her to come back to herself and tell him how to use the Mark. So Robyn took a breath and did just that, pushing her excitement and awe back into her mind where she could think up maniacal uses for it at a more appropriate time.

"Sorry,"

It didn't take long for Corvo to pick up the trick of Blinking. With only one explanation, a suggestion or two, and a moment of concentration, he was suddenly standing within the gazebo. Robyn followed after him, warily watching him as his eyes lingered on the Empress and the note beside her body. The note was a taunt, one that she knew hit home with Corvo more than it would have anyone else who would have read it.

YOU CANNOT SAVE HER.

"Corvo-"

Again, he interrupted her, walking past the Empress's body. "How are we supposed to trust this… Outsider?" he asked her without looking back. "The stories I heard of the Outsider as a child were horrors that frightened us into clinging to our mother's skirts,"

"True. But those were cautionary tales," Robyn tried, stepping up beside him. "As horrifying as some of them could be, they were warnings. The Outsider never causes harm Himself, He just comes into stories to tip the balance rather than purposely destroy lives,"

"And how do you know that?"

"My mother," Robyn told him easily, not bothering to hide her smile. "She told me stories of the Outsider. He's a force of nature, not a man that wants to rule the world or watch it burn. He's just there to observe what people will do with the power given to them,"

"People like us?"

"I suppose. I mean, He did say we'll play a pivotal role in the days to come," She held up her marked hand between them. "We're going to find Emily and bring those who murdered the Empress to justice… maybe this is the push we need to accomplish that,"

Corvo's expression didn't change as he walked up to the edge of the gazebo to Blink away to the next platform, leaving her to follow.

As they continued to blink from platform to platform, blindly moving towards some unclear direction, Robyn knew they were headed in the right direction. She wasn't sure how she knew that this was the right way to go but she didn't down that a lot of unnatural things happened here, things that she had no hope of explaining.

Eventually they came upon another scene, one that starred two weasely looking men and Emily herself. The scene was frozen in place, leaving Emily's scared figure caught between running away and tethered to one of the men, a letter flying from her hand. Robyn Blinked so fast that she didn't bother worrying about the dry burn in her hand as she appeared next to the girl. She wanted nothing more than to have a sword in her hand to dry into the chests of these men, but she doubted that even a death here would mean a full death in the real world… or maybe it was the other way around?

Robyn picked up the note as Corvo appeared beside her, stepping up to look into the faces of the men that held Emily. She herself didn't recognize either of them so turned to the note, something that she hoped would help her find Emily.

Corvo,

I am very sad. They say that you and Robyn are dead like Mother, but I'm going to put this note in a bottle and throw it into the river because I do not believe them. Maybe Robyn can become the Shadow again and steal me away from here like in her stories when she took things from people. Living here is very strange. I do not like it, so please come for me if you can.

"I recognize these men," Corvo suddenly grumbled, causing Robyn to look up at him. "We are working for their brother, Treavor Pendelton,"

"Pendelton?" Robyn repeated, testing the name on her tongue. "When I was young, I remember hearing about the twins that used to set rats on their little brother for fun," Robyn frowned at the two identical looking men standing here before her, one with their hand wrapped around Emily's wrist. It made her stomach turn at the thought of her being in their grimy hands. "And we're working for their youngest brother?"

Corvo didn't look back at her, just frowned as his eyes looked over Emily, frozen as she was.

With a sigh, Robyn held out the letter, allowing him to take it from her. As he read over it, multiple times, his face remained the neutral mask she'd come to know over the years as his eyes flashed across the worn paper. It was only the tenseness of his hands and the way he slipped it into his jacket that told her how much this all distressed him. She knew him better than anyone ever had since he'd come from Serkonos all those years ago, no matter what you wanted to say about the Empress. Robyn knew that Corvo was hurting, no matter how much he wished to hide it from her and himself.

So Robyn turned her eyes to their surroundings, examining the small corner that seemed familiar to her. The large plant and the bench that pressed into the wall, the extravagant decorations that lined the edge of the platform… and the painting on the wall. If only she hadn't visited every apartment, mansion, and establishment in Dunwall so many times that they mixed together in four year old memories.

"Do you recognize this place?"

Robyn grimaced. "Yes, which is the problem. I recognize it but I couldn't tell you where this is,"

She didn't bother looking over at Corvo as she stepped up to the edge of the wooden floor and Blinked to the platform. Her hand stung again, drawing her eyes to the floating vile that nearly caught her in the face. It was a medical vial that she recognized from her time as the Shadow, drinking remedies and elixirs to keep the plague at bay. This one glowed the same blue-ish purple tint that the Void seemed to, a tell that made this particular vial one of Piero's Remedies. The sight of it making her hand cool while buzzing with longing.

"Piero's Remedy,"

Robyn glanced over at Corvo and nodded. "I think these have something to do with our powers… maybe replenishes energies? I read an article by Piero claimed such things," Corvo didn't say anything to her, just plucked the vial out of the air to look it over. "Do you think he knows?"

"Possibly, but he's never been accused of black magic. He's a man of science, if a bit unsettling,"

Robyn took the vial from him and flipped the top open. Giving the liquid inside a tentative look, she took a sip, feeling a now familiar chill run through her that calmed the buzzing sting in her hand.

"It works,"

Corvo frowned as he took the vial from her, finishing it off with a tilt of his head.

The two continued Blinking through the floating, broken world with little more conversation no matter what they passed. Even passing the Royal Spymaster himself sparked little conversation as they observed the map he was destroying or the charts on his invisible wall. The continued wordlessly past a pair of Tall boys that were in the midst of killing two sick civilians, no matter how sick it made Robyn feel to see it.

"How do you seem to know so much about this place?" Corvo suddenly asked, ducking under the foot of a Tall boy to follow after her. "Your mother? And how did she know?"

Robyn shrugged. "It was all just stories to her. My uncles were sailors that traveled around, hearing these stories and traveling with people who told them. My mother used to get books that told of fantasies and miracles along with horrors when there was a dark figure involved,"

Robyn blinked to the next platform which had a fancy chest sitting on it. With quick hands, she has the lock open and removed two Remedies.

"I remember nights when my mother would lay in bed with me, telling me about the Outsider and a woman who once loved him so much that it drove her mad," Robyn smiled, looking back over her shoulder as Corvo Blinked beside her. "She was a lost girl who was loved by all who looked upon her until one night when she heard the singing of bone and fell in love with the blackest eyes that saw who she truly was. He cared not for beautiful but for the voices of souls who twisted the world's fate like a cord. She fell for him and branded herself with his Mark, calling to him every night in the hopes of being called to his side,"

"And?"

"Her love grew as her mind decayed. She was no longer the beauty that drove men to their knees nor the siren that could call their names. She was no longer interesting, and so she was forgotten, left with nothing but His mark and the taint of madness,"

"The Outsider left her?"

Robyn nodded. "He did not need her nor want her anymore. So he moved on," Again, she Blinked to the next platform, kicking a stone with her boot that floated up through the air. "My mother told me stories of those who dabble in the black arts, how they used this place to draw power to weave the world how they saw fit. She told me of how people would fall asleep and be lost here, unaware that mere seconds here could mean their bodies had long since rotted in the real world. Time is meaningless here. Neither seconds, nor centuries. And someday it will devour all the lights in the sky," Robyn recited, an echo of her mother's story telling voice in her own as the words sang in the Void. "Each story was a lesson to keep away from the Outsider and his Mark… or maybe a lesson to not expect too much of whatever He chooses to bestow on us,"

"A warning,"

Robyn smiled over at Corvo. "A good thing we are nothing if not wary,"

They continued until they came to another, larger and connected, platform that darkened the closer they got. Robyn knew He was there even before her feet touched the stone and the cold smell of the sea filled her nose. She looked up and He was suddenly there.

"In the days that follow, your trials will be great," He told them as Corvo appeared beside her, his black looking at both of them and neither of them. "Seek the ancient runes bearing my Mark in the lonely places of your world and at shrines raised in my name. These runes will grant you powers beyond those of other men. To help you find these runes I give you my sight,"

A sting behind Robyn's eyes left her gasping as her sight faded into blackness. Fear froze Robyn's heart and left her gasping for breaths of air, blinking rapidly to try to clear her vision again. What had He done to her? Why couldn't she see anything?

"Robyn,"

Corvo's harsh voice stopped her fear for a moment, long enough for her to be able to realize that she wasn't truly blind. As she took a second to breathe she realized that she could see shapes around her, the shape of the stones and broken buildings materializing before her. And what was more, she could almost see the darkness of something shining in the distance, a soft song drawing her towards whatever it was in the distance.

"Robyn?"

"I can see something…" She didn't know how to describe it. She was seeing something shining like a star in the distance? Something she could hear singing to her? She doubted Corvo would understand it, much less not think she was going insane. "I don't…"

"With this Dark Vision, you will be guided toward my runes, no matter how they may be hidden, and you will be able to see what was not supposed to be seen with simple eyes," the Outsider explained to them, appearing as a flowing purple figure that hovered above them to Robyn. "Follow the little Robyn, guide her through the Void and find another rune,"

He faded from Robyn's sight, leaving her in a world of blackened shapes and a lightless star.

"Corvo?"

"I'm here,"

"It's hard to see," she told him, hating the shivering fear in her voice. "He wasn't kidding when He said you'd need to guide me around,"

Corvo's hand slipped around her waist as they walked up steps that Robyn was steadily getting better at picking out through the darkness of her vision. She wondered curiously whether this… Dark Vision would leave her so crippled when she was outside of the Void. After all, this vision seemed to illuminate not only these runes that the Outsider spoke of, but delicate intricacies in the world around her that she would have never noticed before. The sneaking Shadow side of her could see a myriad of uses for sneaking over crooked ground and sneaking into places otherwise unseen. It would be interesting to test outside the Void.

"Which way, Robyn?"

"Left," she told him, her body reacting to the proximity of the rune. "It's somewhere below us. Either we'll have to climb down or Blink,"

Corvo remained silent as he led her the rest of the way to the rune, stopping when they came to the sudden drop to the next few platforms that led to the last one. Robyn could barely make it out beyond the strange shape it had to it and the black star that shone from it. But she didn't take too long to wonder what it looked like before this Dark Vision had been forced on her, she was now worrying about how she was going to get down to it.

"Hold on,"

"What?" Robyn gasped, feeling his arm tighten around her waist. "Corvo, we don't know-"

Light blinded her as the world shifted beneath her feet, leaving only Corvo as the only stable thing in her reach. He Blinked again and she was suddenly sped through the world again, appearing several platforms below and feeling disoriented as soon as they finally settled. She held onto his shoulder for good measure, trying to keep the annoyance at him out of her face and failing.

He even had the gall to chuckle at her.

"Shut up, Corvo,"

He didn't even dignify her annoyance with a response.

"That would be the rune, by the way,"

He slowly let go of her waist before stepping the rest of the way towards the black star that now felt like it was blinding Robyn. But after a few harsh blinks she realized that the humming in her head was dulling as vibrant purples replaced the blackened shapes. After a long moment, colors and shapes returned to her sight, leaving her to stand before a shine to the Outsider full of vibrant purple fabrics that flew up into the air like bright brushstrokes on a canvas.

Robyn turned back to Corvo to find him looking at her. "Yes?"

"Your eyes were completely black before,"

Robyn smiled. "Seems the Dark Vision has run its course," She let out a sigh of relief as she stepped up beside him, looking down at the hovering rune of bone before the two of them. It wasn't like anything she'd seen before, which was saying something given her time as the Shadow in Dunwall. Or maybe they just hadn't seemed so important to her before? Only being a chunk of bone before today.

Corvo reached out and picked it up, studying it as his hand glowed as if reacting to the bone.

"How you use what I have given you-"

Corvo and Robyn looked up to find the Outsider suddenly there, looking down on them with what might have been perceived as little interest. But Robyn, with a memory full of stories about this figure, knew better than to believe that completely.

"-falls upon you, as it has to the others before you. Each rune will sing a story to you, a story of power that will be yours to use. Whether it sings of a flurry of rats which you murder a man with or distract a host of guards with, each rune will gift you with new songs and powers,"

Robyn glanced down at the rune in Corvo's hand, curious about what "song" it held to teach them… was it the power to call upon rats? Or give Corvo the same vision she had?

So she reached out and took it from Corvo, feeling a freezing sting in her hand as she saw people she didn't know. She could see a hunched man cradling the rune in his hands as he looked out upon a city she'd never seen before. He looked out on a city of black and white, seeing spots of sickly yellow that scuttled at his feet. Rats. And then farther away, she could see shining yellow figures that stood out as men and women of the city.

"And now I return you to your world," the Outsider told them, his black eyes capturing Robyn's attention, drowning everything around her out. "But know that I will be watching with great interest,"

The cold and darkness surrounded Robyn like a blanket left out in the wind. The smell of incense became overwhelming as her mind drifted through the dark and away from the Void.

Goodnight, little bird.

Author's Note: There was no way that I was going to have Corvo carrying around a heart in the middle of Dunwall, let alone the heart of his lost Empress that whispers to him. Instead, FantasyMind231 inspired me with the idea to do something a little different. (Sorry I didn't use your idea exactly though.) So, I've gifted Robyn the same Dark Vision that Daud has in The Knife of Dunwall and Brigmore Witches. I hope you guys don't mind.

Review about what you think?