"Just before her mother and father married her off, so many years ago, she found Delilah instead. It was all highways and graveyards after that, never looking back."
Corvo or Emily awake on board the Dreadful Wale to another trip to the Void, this time arranged by Delilah rather than the Outsider in a demonstration of her power. She shows them her childhood. A child of a kitchen maid and the vaunted but philandering Emperor Euhorn Jacob Kaldwin, she grew distraught at her younger sister Jessamine's inclusion at court while she was hidden away. Here we see the sad, cruel upbringing that embittered Delilah against her half-sister and caused her to be obsessed with surpassing her. Blamed for something that Jessamine had broken when they were children, she was thrown out with her mother. They lived in a debtors' prison until her mother's death.
Delilah is not just a fairy tail villain to scare Gristolian children along with the Outsider. She is an embodiment of the visions of inequality throughout the Dishonored series; plague victims hacking blood in streets illuminated by the fireworks from aristocratic parties across the river, beggars sat in the shadow of ornate brutalist monuments to excess and authoritarianism, labourers in the whale trade killed with buzzsaws for joining a union. Delilah is not just Emily Kaldwin's enemy - she is an inverse mirror to her. She has lived through poverty and degradation where Emily has almost always known comfort and an ascension to power; she has fought bitterly for influence instead of inheriting it, and - interestingly - she shares the gifts of the Outsider with her followers, rather than using them only for herself.
None of this is to paint Delilah's actions and end goal as justifiable, but her early life is certainly more sympathetic than that of the royal she usurps. Before seeking out and eliminating her oldest and most trusted friend, we learn of the new Empress' motivations and a little of her inner life, in a way that adds colour to her relationship with Breanna Ashworth.
The Royal Conservatory has been closed by Ashworth a year prior, to allow the returned Delilah and her coven to use it as a base while the Duke has contributed a large patrol of the Grand Guard outside. The papers report a mite infestation in the famed venue as a cover. Among the treasures and artifacts within is the Oraculum, a device Breanna Ashworth and Kirin Jindosh have created, combining science and magic in a contraption that will allow the witches to influence the Sisters of the Oracular Order.
To reach it another substantial chunk of Karnaca must be traversed, Cyria Gardens, after Meagan Foster drops the protagonist off at the waterway. The district is situated in an ancient forest that long predates Karnaca. Although the current residents do not remember it, inhabitants in the forest's distant past used to dabble in rituals between the trees. Perhaps it is no mistake that Breanna Ashworth has found her way here, drawn by the forest's memories of magics immemorial.
These sections are important for the pacing and flavour of the game, because the key locations - Jindosh's mansion, the Conservatory, and later the Grand Palace - are so distinct and so representative of the targets. Meanwhile, the streets, parks and various buildings of Karnaca itself let you learn about the city and the country that both Corvo and Daud came from.
Almost immediately upon climbing up from the waterway the guarded entrance to the Conservatory district can be seen, complete with a Wall of Light. The quest at hand is getting to the other side without going through a bloodbath at the security checkpoint. You are most likely to emerge onto street level in one of two ways that immediately present a solution. First, by taking the stairs which put you near a building where the Grand Guard and an Overseer working for Vice Overseer Liam Byrne have taken up occupation, and on the roof of which the windmill powering the Wall of Light can be shut off. Second, by climbing up on the right side, which draws your eye to a series of balconies that ascend the opposite building like helpful stairs. If you really wish to stay on ground level, a gate will take you on another route. The game very quietly pushes you to the sides, away from the most dangerous place even though that's where you need to go, and funnels you towards alternate routes and - in the case of the Overseer building - side quests.
I have discovered many routes around this level playing it repeatedly here (and its back half in Death of the Outsider), and more recently realised that almost all of them are available even without powers. This isn't just a game where you can be violent or stealthy - it is a game where you can be either in lots of different ways, and where multiple paths can be accessed by teleporting 12 metres at a time or by examining each alleyway for a path up and around. As such the level design lends itself to enabling the play style you have chosen rather than directing you into one of two or three approaches. A balcony immediately presents an opportunity, catching your eye as it is lit by a lamp and draped with flowers; you can Blink instantly to it and then to the next rooftop, which you notice as it is now below you and also lit up. But you can also trace back from the balcony to where you are and observe the crates, slopes and other pieces of geometry that will get you there as well, which you didn't immediately see because they are in shadow. Once at the balcony you can continue on as I mentioned, or take advantage of the fact you now have the drop on the guards below, putting yourself back into the direct, more violent route through the guards rather than over them but now with an edge. The combination of very communicative level design that gives you an idea of how to proceed, mixed with a constant presentation of options for how to do so is very strong in this area.
It is good that getting around and back across this level is so accessible, as it features a couple of side quests including one that you might have to backtrack for when you find it. The black market shopkeeper has access to a safe combination for a safe in a Bloodfly-infested apartment that overlooks the Conservatory, and he will also ask you to retrieve an item from inside the location. Meanwhile following the side mission to find what information the Overseers have on Ashworth brings you to an Overseer asleep in a chair, but behind a doorway that is blocked and trapped incentivising you to get to him from the roof. There are quite a lot of alarm clocks and metronomes in this game, which you can set and then hide or reposition yourself to fuck with sleeping enemies; setting off the metronome or the audiograph before ambushing the Overseer seems like something they want you to do here.
Once you listen to his audiograph you'll hear Vice Overseer Byrne's concerns that he has heard almost imperceptible irregularities in the speeches of the Oracular Sisters, but fears that to raise his concerns will be taken as heresy. It seems Delilah and Breanna's plan is in place already, and you can find various notes from the witches on their progress scattered around the mission area.
The Conservatory is heavily guarded, with a Grand Guard presence far more fearsome than you might expect for what the Karnaca Gazette claims is a mite infestation-related closure. Once inside you'll find yourself confronted with enemies and gameplay elements returning from The Brigmore Witches. Firstly, the witches themselves, who were present in small numbers otuside in Cyria Gardens and in Lower Aventa on the return from the Clockwork Mansion. They share some of Delilah's powers, being able to use a version of Blink to evade or get close to enemies as needed. They can cast thorns from their hands and emit a scream that has a similiar effect to Corvo's Windblast power. This makes them substantially more challenging if engaged one-on-one than the standard guards, and continues the pattern of the previous mission in putting tougher enemies in the back of the level. They are encountered on patrol should you enter via the main doors, relaxing and talking if you go in through an upstairs window, or can be mostly bypassed by navigating the window ledges until you are past the courtyard and can infiltrate the uppermost floors.
Whatever your route into the Conservatory, the corridors, entryways and staircases will pretty quickly lead you to its main hall. This is a huge area with witches either patrolling or relaxing, with my favourite pair sat drinking a cup of tea on top of one of the light fixtures. The structure echoes the layout from the approach to the building; much like the Grand Guard was occupying a vast open area with their own security systems, here the witches have made the Conservatory their home. The level is largely a series of three large rectangular areas surrounded by corridor-based paths and interconnected hidey-holes to me, with escalating danger.
This combination of a wide open area and a lot of enemies of varying types is likely to have the effect of pushing you to the sides into those routes, either up or down, and these are the places where you can find the information you've come for as well as additional readables that tell you about the place.
Inside there are a lot of different rooms to explore, many of which featuring artifacts, exhibits and information about Karnaca as well as maps. There is a lift that will get you to each floor with a minimum of danger, encouraging exploration of the entire area no matter what your point of entry was, and the main objectives are respectively the highest floor-but-one to neutralise Breanna and the basement where her records are.
Breanna Ashworth herself is in her office and can be heard talking to a statue of Delilah; another concept that was introduced in Daud's story, as far back as the 'Eminent Domain' mission in The Knife of Dunwall. Delilah is confident that Dunwall is "in hand", and plans a trip to see Breanna. At this point Breanna can be confronted directly and a boss fight will ensue. She is resistant to Possession and Mesmerise, and cannot be choked out. Perhaps since the witches are so invested in powers that deal with the animal world, illusion and glamours some of the most powerful in the coven understand these abilities so well they are not vulnerable to them. She will cast Thorns and the Windblast-like Scream, while arguably the biggest threat is from one or two Gravehounds nearby as you have to destroy their skulls to make sure they stay down.
A non-lethal elimination can be achieved by getting up to the highest point of the Conservatory and retrieving Jindosh and Ashworth's first, faulty lenses for the Oraculum, which have been abandoned as they disrupt Ashworth's connection to the Void. If these are placed in the Oraculum and it is turned on, the curator's connection to the Void will be severed entirely, and she will be stripped of her powers. No longer a witch, Breanna Ashworth will sink to the floor in despair. This is tantamount to the non-lethal solution for Jindosh, not only making sure a person is no longer a threat but fleecing them of the very essence of who they are. If we've visited the Outsider shrine then we know that Breanna's relationship with Delilah and her place in the coven is literally what she lives for; taking that away is unquestionably an act of barbarity.
Delilah's reaction will drive this home. Should you fight and kill Breanna in front of her statue she will be aghast and enraged, saying that you have no idea what she meant to her. If you speak to her after removing Breanna's powers, Delilah will be morose, saying that she can't bear to see her friend in this state. The relationship between these two women is shown as genuine and based in real friendship, very different to the alliances of convenience they formed with people like Jindosh. The care taken in portraying the emotional truths behind what is ultimately a campaign of destruction on Delilah's part is extremely well done and this level does a lot of work to show what sort of person she is, not just what sort of enemy she is.
Significantly, this is the only level where the non-lethal elimination of the main target also renders every other enemy in the area non-hostile. Every witch will be unconscious after you activate the Oraculum, and the Gravehounds and Bloodied Briars will disappear. This makes it more likely you'll return to the curator's office, since there are no enemies now, and get that conversation with Delilah. It also means that after that, as you explore and potentially do your other objectives and side quests, you'll have plenty of opportunities to consider what it really is you just did.
The mission in the very middle of Dishonored 2, the fifth of nine, is about who Delilah and her allies are and why they have been drawn to one another. The scheming conspirators of the first game were blackmailers and authoritarians who leveraged high office and status to make a grasp for power, deliberately unleashed a plague that ravaged Dunwall and acted in self-interest, for all that they are interesting and layered in their presentation they were undoubtedly villains. The gallery of targets in Dishonored 2 has a wider variety of motivations and personalities in my view, ranging from the outright villainous again like the Duke, to the deceived and controlled like Hypatia, to the broken and exploited like Aramis Stilton and someone like Breanna who found meaning in her life through black magic. Then there's Delilah, who has come from a childhood of horrendous poverty, became the best painter of an age and has used the gifts of the Void to cheat death and steal an Empire. There is a lot to unpack with these characters, and this mission spends time examining how all these people ended up on a crash course with the inexorable force that is the Kaldwins and their allies.
The key revelation within the Royal Conservatory is that Delilah's return was orchestrated three years ago via a seance at the house of Aramis Stilton, whose bust can be seen in the building and who will become the next key target. After reuniting with Meagan Foster, who reveals that years ago she knew Delilah and Ashworth and ran with them for a time in Dunwall (recalling the reveal at the end of The Knife of Dunwall that Lurk had betrayed Daud), it is time to return to the Dreadful Wale and find out what has become of Stilton.
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