Past Honor

There were too many eyes to watch - yet the Outsider saw.

The City Looked Sick

Effie felt her face twist into a sneer as she looked at the ugly plates and towering leviathans of steel that made up Dunwall. She quickly turned back and helped Delilah slip from the ship to the shore. 

They were the only two entering the city of Dunwall.

Massive throngs of people pushed and surged trying to flee the city and the plague that had become almost one and the same. The whale ship stank of the mighty beast strapped to its superstructure. Dragged, kicking and wailing out from the deep the corpse now hanged huge and sickly over the ship. Jessop had left open a small hatch for the two stowaways to slip off.

The left - just like the whale could not. 

Effie wished she could say thank you to him one last time, he was risking a lot to help them. Risking a lot knowing he disagreed with what they were doing.

However, the work of a whaler only got busier in port. She had heard the ugly shanties of the ship for day upon day. As a musician it was almost funny to hear songs crafted not for the music or the joy of it. Songs crafted simply to survive the harsh work.

If one paid a mind one could pick out what job was being done, and who was working it, by those songs.

So personal to the pain each sailor lived with. As open to others as it was unique to the singer. 

In fact, if Effie listened, she would have heard Jessop's capstan shanty.

"There's a fire in the chart house, and cappy he don't know!"

"Fire! Fire! Fire down below!"

"Burn up all our maps, and hopes of going home!"

"Fire! Fire! Fire down below"

Delilah looked about. Somehow the city was uglier given that she had never seen it. However, looming above the city, as if apart from it, was the clocktower. At least something worth looking at. Delilah gently allowed herself to smile as she looked back at the clocktower.

"There's a fire in the galley and cookie he don't know!"

"Fire! Fire! Fire down below!"

"Burning up our food stuffs faster than we do!"

"Fire! Fire! Fire down below!"

Effie holds her hand a little tighter than necessary. It pulls Delilah out of her reverie.

She looks about at the surging throngs of people. They look like rats fleeing a sunken ship. Already half drowned. "Think any of them won't be disappointed?"

Effie looked back at her, "what do you mean?"

"They're all running from Dunwall... look at them. Do you think they'll be disappointed when they find out all of the Empire is dying too?"

Effie glanced about. "Well, I was. When I left."

"Oh...right."

Silence settles, like a vulture, between the two.

Effie shifts uncomfortably. "Hey... have you ever heard what the floor said when it filled a room?"

Delilah scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Another terrible joke?" She was pretending, very badly, to not be looking forward to the punchline.

"Done. Wall?"

There was silence.

Effie bit her lip.

Delilah blinked. "Is that the joke?"

Effie stretched. "Oh... uh... no?"

Delilah snickered, then began to giggle. "Effie... that... its..." She chuckles. "That is the worst thing I've ever heard. Done. Wall? Dunwall? Are you serious? Even for you!"

Effie let a small smile drift onto her face. It felt almost strange there. The two wander along the docks, Effie's hand growing more and more tense in Delilah's as she walked. Her feet knew where to go, even if she was not certain where the building was from the docks.

"Effie...we made it to Dunwall. Where next?"

"The...cult. They had a house in the city. Its where I was supposed to..." Effie trailed off, her free hand gently touching the edge of her eye. The small glass lenses covering her eyes had long ago felt normal –but comfortable is a hard thing to achieve. "There has to be a clue there."

Delilah nodded. "You know where it is?"

"Yeah..."

Delilah gently squeezed Effie's hand. "First... lets get some food in you. Okay?"

"But..."

"It's stood for years. It will stand a few more minutes."

"Is this why you came along?"

"To make sure my idiot of a lover wouldn't get herself killed? Yes."

Effie snorts softly.

Delilah smiled, "You only snort like that when you know I'm in the right. Come on. We'll find something not shut down in the quarantine."

"We won't find anything."

"There's black markets."

Effie snorted once more.

Delilah smiled again. "You know where one is?"

"I... know the symbols that'll lead us there."

"Well, you're going to describe them to me. I'm not so much a fool to let you lead."

Effie stops herself from snorting again. "I hate how clever you are."

"You're a terrible liar." Delilah teased gently kissing Effie's cheek. "Come on – maybe they'll have some broadsheets there."

Delilah led Effie off. Effie felt the fingers of her left hand gently drum on her hip. Delilah was saying something. Effie glanced down even though she was trying to ignore that tapping on her hip. Delilah was looking back, waiting for a reply. "I'm sorry – what did you say Del?"

 Delilah shook her head, "guess you'll never know." She said teasingly.