Past Honor

The Outsider blinked.

He watched Effie at the pier side. Just as he watched Adelaide find Lucian and Vetiline. Just as he watched River try to puzzle out what he could do with himself. He looked about in his empty void and spoke. He knew he could not be heard – but he wished to be. "They say Dunwall breeds rats. That that is the greatest export next to whale oils. In truth, it breeds fear, the virulent strain that makes people truly monstrous. Hurt and pain hardened into steel. I have watched... I have suffered at that steel. Their horror stories do not feature rats. Not as much as they want them to. Their monsters aren't something else. Dunwall creates a brutal world, one that lays its jaws on those who live in it. Makes them just as brutal as itself. Round and round they go, in a dance - or a duel - where no one gets to escape. No one able to remember anymore who began it. I watched it begin and I've still no idea who made the first few fatal steps. No one could leave the dance... I thought. Getting the pieces here, the game should have flowed. Like tossing a leaf into a river. A story to watch the details of, the whole action already chosen. The choices made for them long ago. Dunwall is a hungry place – feasting on people like them. Could it be that a place such as this has grown full? Even Dunwall can surprise me. Oh, how I hate surprises." He watched, for the first time in a long time, with real interest.