#joshthewitch

It is moments before his door is pushed open. Corvo stands behind it, captains of the guard either side of him. Behind him is the face of the assassin. The man who in one thought and one action tore down his entire plot. Daud follows behind Corvo like a shadow, and Borrows has the right mind to laugh. A belief that Daud turned himself in as well. They lock him in a cell, and Daud stands on the outside. His laughter dies and turns to hate and spite. Angry words turned to his turncoat.

The shock of entering her office to find an assassin bowed to her is still clear on Jessamine's face. She hasn’t a clue what to do next. In ten minutes she lost a Spymaster to the words and letters of that assassin. Now she holds the letters in her hands. The most incriminating information she has seen in all her years as Empress. She lets him go. Allows the assassin to run back to his hideout without repercussion. He just saved her life by, not taking it himself. How else is she to respond?

Time goes on, with Corvo trying to take over the work of the Spymaster and Jessamine being handed more and more incriminating evidence until enough is enough and she orders Hiram’s execution. His head rolls and many who came to watch tell of seeing the whalers lurking in the shadows. Jessamine wouldn’t be surprised. It becomes extremely clear Corvo does not have the ability to hold the label of lord protector and Spymaster at the same time. One or the other, but not both. This brings about many discussions between the pair. Jessamine prefers Corvo at her side. He needs to stay with her protector.

That raises the idea of the assassin. He was wound so tightly in Hiram’s work, he must know enough. The high overseer fights the notion of bringing in a heretic, but can not deny Daud’s ability. To the best of what they know of the underbelly, with help of captains and watchmen they find a couple of smugglers that are willing to talk about Daud in return of staying out of coldridge.

He’s in the flooded district. Don’t deal with him, he’ll backstab ye. Comes from Serkonos, say he’s the Outsider’s boy. Heard his mas a witch.

Daud is given the right to interrogate the man. A furious assassin is something to fear more than the Void and the Outsider. Especially when that assassin is the Knife of Dunwall, a man that studied in the Academy of Natural Philosophy, and has exceptional skill with a blade, one who is said by many to be driven by pain and blood.

The interrogation room is a disgusting mess when Daud is done. The man has admitted to everything, cleared up inconsistencies, and begged for mercy, something that Daud never gave. One of the man’s rib bone settled on the metal plate proves the lack of mercy. Only two holes are in the man, one at his spine and another where his ribs connect. Corvo cannot so much as make a guess as to what or how Daud had done it. Blood pools on the floor from a broken nose and bleeding cuts. The man is dragged back to his cell crying. Daud meticulously wipes clean his instruments.

Daud and Corvo listen to the recording, sorting and matching names. Many connections are made, all written and marked on boards. There are names Corvo knows all too well, names of council members. He and Emily meet with them weekly…

He clings to her shoulder in court, not once releasing her. She can feel his stress, his anger, and it makes her short with her council. Emily snaps and shuts them down if Corvo’s hand tightens on her shoulder. She knows something is happening but has yet to ask what. It seems very bloody, and frankly, it scares her, yet she trusts Corvo to handle it. Corvo is more trustworthy than anyone else she has met, as her father and protector. Her mother trusted him with more than their lives, and Emily believes she can do the same.

Those council members whose names were found in the papers are no longer permitted to speak to their Empress outside of court. Perhaps they are picking up on what is happening, that Corvo has caught on to their scent. They stay quiet and hide behind each other like scared children.

Emily is taken to her classes, and Corvo returns to Daud; finding him looking grim, even though he looks at home so deep in piles of paper. He has found something, he is digging through papers Corvo had not authorized him to touch. Papers with Hiram’s signature look as if they could be every paper the man ever so much as touched maybe only looked at. Did someone have to touch something for it to criminalize them? Corvo feels as if he will have to ask that question very soon.

He does not speak and pushes a paper towards Corvo. An officially royal signed document, allowing a shipment of goats, kids, into Dunwall. There is no proof of goats, there have been no goats through Dunwall for years, and the weight is wrong, size more fitting for children. Then Corvo notices the significance of the paper, who had signed it - Hiram Burrows. Daud pushes more papers toward him. Notes, similar to those that were sent to Daud requesting shipments of these goats, all royally signed, a handful had been written before he was Lord Regent.

He was not an innocent member of this trafficking ring, signing papers he did not realize the true nature of. The more Daud hands over to Corvo, the more obvious it is that Hiram knew exactly what he was signing. The man knew exactly what he was doing.

Corvo knows what these papers mean, and is just as furious as Daud had been. It is his turn to play interrogator.

Hiram is dragged across the cold flooring of Coldridge by the back of his collar. Corvo’s boots echo louder than any yelling, not that there is any. Every prisoner is silent. They duck to the backs of their cells, cowering in fear that they may be next. Hiram can feel what is coming to him, his execution edging closer, weeks at a time.

Corvo is not nearly as clean or precise as Daud. He is a man of harsh moves, not smooth flickerings that cause more pain than a brand. Corvo burns Hiram’s skin and tears at his teeth until he is screaming his guilt to the dust-filled air.

He is spilling confessions admits to the trafficking rings, that he was allowing them, that he was taking some of their coin as payment to allow them to function. Hiram cries that if all went his way, even if Emily was following her given orders, she would have been sold off to them. That when they were done with her he would bring her body from the plague pits, claim they found her there, that Corvo had dropped her there. The plague pits for children is another matter, so many of the poor young souls did not have the plague when tossed in. They were wrapped and thrown in the piles once they served their use, or if their parents refused to sell them off.

The offending man’s luck is still going. There is a guard standing by the autophone, Corvo cannot simply claim the man died in interrogation, he has a witness. Hiram, much to everyone’s dismay, lives to see another day.

Hiram shakes in his cell waiting for his execution. Positive that he will share the fate with the others found guilty of trafficking. His head will roll by the assassin’s hand, an old partner of his.

The ring is shut down in a week. A visit from a Whaler, with a knife and a paper expressing their guilt. That is all it takes to fill Coldridge. Many are executed shortly after arrival, they have less need to feel fear than Hiram and the high class. Every one of them spilled their confessions like the guts of a whale.

They clean Dunwall of any found relating to the ring. Living cargo slows, and Corvo passes a law that all cargo must be checked. Many ships protest, Corvo demands them to be searched. His men may not find what they are looking for in every ship, but it makes sure the point reaches the places it needs to.

This law is the first Emily hears of what is actually happening. The first she hears that people would do such things to children as buy and sell them. The first she hears her father is working with the man who murdered her mother.