[ Well, there's no harm in answering now, is there? To Emily, the fact that it would be a curiosity is a curiosity in and of itself, but her situation is only well-publicised in the Isles. Outside of it... ]

My father.

[ Not that she even has access to the full breadth of skills he passed down. That, like many other things, is locked away under the dulling ink stamped across the back of her hand. Each day, the murmurings of the Void get a little quieter; and with it, her gaze gets less sharp.

She'll explain -- ]

When my mother died, she was defenseless. She couldn't lift a single hand against her assailant.

[ Daud, his Whalers. They had the Outsider's gifts too, and rendered Corvo irrelevant because of it. It's still the worst day of Emily's life - worse than any too-long meeting, scolding, hangover or fussy dignitary.

Dodging an incoming blow, she hooks a leg around her attacker's foot, and pulls him right down. Her knee ends up digging into his back. ]

It was important that I not share the same fate.

[ She would not rest on careless expectations like Jessamine, or so Emily told herself - until she did exactly that and Delilah swept in. Maybe she isn't so different from her mother, after all. ]