Chapter 2: Smooth Criminal

The palace had long since gone quiet. Only the faint hum of arc pylons outside the walls broke the stillness, their low current buzzing in the distance like restless insects. Those were made by Anton Sokolov, the Royal Physician and are a lethal defense technology, disintegrating any living thing that they have not been able to recognize.

Most of Dunwall laid asleep under the weight of its own grime and secrets as Corvo remained awake, seated in the dim light of his quarters, the spymaster's letter still resting on the desk before him.

He read it again in his mind, each important line recalled with precision. A shadow near the High Overseer's room. A hand caught reaching for confiscated runes, heretic relics, dangerous enough in the wrong grasp. The man had nearly been cornered, only to vanish at the last moment. Not the work of a common thief.

Corvo's jaw tightened as he leaned back. If he risked a strike like that, then he's desperate. Desperate men make mistakes, but they also make noise before they fall. This wasn't a case to hand off to the guards with their clumsy questions and predictable routines. Too much was at stake.

The thief, spy, traitor, whatever title fit, would not walk away from runes empty-handed. He'd return, more cautious, seeking another route and chance. That was certain. Corvo had hunted men long enough to know when something drove them back to the same ground.

But this time, it wouldn't be the Overseer's patrols waiting for him in the halls. It would be him this time.

Corvo rose, pulling the straps of his armor even tighter just in case, and crossed to the window to cut the possible disturbance of servants in the Dunwall Tower. Beyond the palace walls, the night stretched over heavy and black. Somewhere in that dark he could find peace.

The man moved with precision, already used to go with that route. His main intention was to go down from the tower without breaking his neck and move to the Holger Square, a place in the middle of John Clavering Boulevard that would lead him to the Office of the High Overseer. Corvo moved quickly, his hands rough against the cold metal sheets of the tower as he climbed down, using any obstacle in his way to grip and continue.