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Little Emily Kaldwin came to power at the age of ten, ready to face the world. She was not alone, no, she fought through corruption with a wise figure, guiding her young mind. A wise figure once masked, yet no longer. Corvo Attano was determined for his young Empress to succeed. He would do right this time, and Emily would do the city right in return.
Fourteen years into her reign, she had grown into something bright, something unstoppable. Hope was brought to even the darkest crevices of Dunwall city through her gentle and disciplined rule.
Callista Curnow was long gone, retiring to start a family when she realized she had nothing left to teach. She left with great pride in her chest and Emily missed her dearly. The woman was kind enough to fill an empty part of her with a motherly touch.
When Emily stepped off the ship, Corvo looming behind her, and onto Serkonan soil, something felt wrong. She glanced quickly to Corvo, and she could tell by the slight frown on his hardened features that he knew it too.
When his eyes met hers, they held a look of suspicion. He leaned in and whispered stay sharp in her ear. She nodded slightly at this.
The diplomatic banquet goes well, albeit boring. Boring was good. Boring was safe. Perhaps she and Corvo were wrong to feel a threat.
She had never called Corvo father but she knew, and she knew he knew, and that was enough. If both she and Corvo were suspicious about that evening, there must have been at least something wrong.
But there wasn’t.
And that was what was wrong.
The excursion ended dryly, with the clinking of glasses and (sometimes genuine) smiles. Emily and Corvo returned to Dunwall.
They were right to be worried. A coup had taken place during their departure. The guards on their ship were quickly slaughtered killed upon arrival. Before anybody could lay a hand on another Empress, Corvo grabbed Emily and they gone in a blink.
Later, in hiding, they would find out that a certain Serkonan duke had been conspiring with someone in Dunwall.
Emily, blood-boiling, falls asleep in the abandoned whaler base in the Flooded District, Corvo keeping a look out.
Something familiar and black-eyed brands her in a dream.