Across The Pond

Once Strillian and his four men were properly armed they walked down to the docks. Strillian looked around to find none of the ships have left the docks. All the ships were still in port but the docks were almost empty save for a few legionnaires moving final boxes and one legionnaire with a clipboard at the beginning of the docks. Strillian approached the man with the clipboard who seemed to be distracted.

"Something troubling you friend?" Strillian asked. He had come up to ask which ships were to be in the thick of the fight but the trouble on the legionnaire's face was enough for Strillian to ask.

"No reason to trouble you with them Blade" the legionnaire told Strillian.

Strillian stared at the Legionnaire. Upon a closer look Strillian noticed that the legionnaire seemed to be sweating, which was odd considering it was yet to be noon and the air was still crisp.

"Anything that pertains to the fight at hand it reason enough for me to bother my self with, now spit it out legionnaire" Strillian said sternly.

"It's just worry sir. I mean half the people on these ships haven't held a sword before a few days ago and now they stand against the might of the Thalmor forces. Leyawiin and Bravil already fell, what chance do we have if we aren't even using our walls? We are outnumbered ten to one and most of our men aren't nearly at the standards. I just don't know how we are going to win" the Blade told Strillian with a look of fear.

"Well yes, all of that is true. But we have something that the Thalmor doesn't" Strillian said.

"What? Those ponies? Please, even you can't expect them to be enough. Even if they could fight competently, six well trained surprises wouldn't be enough" said the Legionnaire.

"Well first off, I saw to the training of those ponies myself. There is no doubt in my mind they could fair well in a fight. But that is not what I was talking about. Something else that the Thalmor doesn't have" Strillian told the legionnaire.

"Please don't say it's strong hearts or something like that. All hearts bleed, strong or not"

"Well no, something a little more than honeyed words" Strillian said with a little smile.

"Then what? The only thing we have that they don't is inexperienced soldiers" the legionnaire looked worried despite hostile tone his voice was taking on.

"First off, calm down. Second, if you shut up for five seconds I'll tell you" Strillian said, fanning his opened hands up and down to motion the legionnaire to steady his nerve. "What we have is the element of surprise. They won't be expecting use to leave the safety of the walls."

"We shouldn't be leaving the walls. Sure we have men inside but we have a lot out here. At best most of the men here are fodder. It'll take a lot more than surprise to stop them."

"Yes but you don't know Pinkie Pie" Strillian said, walking up to the legionnaire and patting a hand on his shoulder. "She is very powerful. She even destroyed a good part of our temple and even now we have no clue how it happened. They will be shocked by the offensive attack, shocked at the ponies, then shocked a third time at the destructive power of the Pink one."

"I don't know how you can have so much faith in this plan but if a Blade can have faith in this pitiful army then who am I to disregard it so easily?" said the legionnaire. Though Strillian noted a less than hopeful tone in his voice.

"Anyway the reason I originally approached you was to find out which of this lovely vessels will be closest to the fight. I want to be able to jump onto their boat" Strillian told the legionnaire.

"That one their, I assume all of you will be on that one" said the legionnaire as he wrote something that Strillian could not read on the clipboard.

"You have my gratitude" Strillian told the legionnaire before motioning for his four men to follow and said "Alright the rest of you come on."

When Strillian got on the ship he noticed the sailors were sitting around rather than moving about like the rest of the ships.

One of the sailors, a Breton, noticed Strillian and stood up and saluted him. A gesture Strillian returned before saying "Blade Commander Strillian requesting permission to come aboard."

The Breton sailor blinked at Strillian for a moment before saying "uh, by all means come aboard sir."

"You look confused? Not expecting the Blades to be here today?" Strillian asked.

"Well there's that. I did expect you to be with the Emperor but what took me off guard is your knowledge of the proper way to ask permission to enter a ship."

"I was once a sailor before I was recruited by the Blades" Strillian said as he walked over and took a seat next to the sailor he was talking to. The rest of the Blades walked around the ship to find someone they could chat with or to be alone with their thoughts as the person varied.

"What is your name stranger? I just introduced myself it is only fitting you return the kindness" Strillian said with a slight smile.

"I am called Theodane, although I am afraid I own no fancy title like yours, Commander of the Blades. You must be a hell of a fighter" said Theodane.

"One could say that, yes. Though I am not one for boasting" said Strillian.

"You can boast all you'd like so long as you can back up the claim with your sword I will not stop you" said Theodane.

"Theodane, I'm old enough to know that no matter how good you are at something. No matter how much you train and you train, there will always be someone better than you. Now, you may never meet this person in your life but there are too many people in the world for one person to claim to be better than the rest. Leave that kind of decision to the gods" Strillian said with a smile.

"Well we are gonna need all the help the gods have because right now the Thalmor are calling themselves the best. If only Vallius were here" said Theodane.

"You knew Vallius? There are men searching for him, you know this right? For the murder of a Blade and for treason against the Empire" Strillian asked.

"Yes, and I don't believe a word of it. Vallius was many things but a traitor was not one of them. Everything that he has every done in all the time I've known him has been for the Emperor. If he truly killed a Blade then I'm sure he had his reasons, and I don't think treachery was the motivation."

"You honestly believe that. Can you really justify the murder of a Blade. A man who has dedicated his life for the Emperor and the Empire?" asked Strillian.

"No, that is a ridiculous thing to think. Yet if you had known Vallius you'd think the same of him being a traitor. He might as well have been a Blade. He handles a sword like no one I've ever seen and follows all orders to the letter. What would posses him to do such a thing is beyond me" Theodane said.

Strillian shrugged "who knows. Besides if it is his skills with a sword you wish from him perhaps I can serve as help. I'm pretty handy with a Blade myself" Strillian said, trying to change the topic, perhaps inciting anger in the man he had just met who was to fight beside him in the fight. Where the fighting would be the thickest and confusion was bound to ensue isn't a great idea.

"Prove your worth and then we'll talk. I might envy Vallius' skills with a sword but I'm no stumbling fool with one myself. Twenty  Septims says I can kill more Thalmor than you" Theodane said with a smile. War wasn't enjoyable to him but making a game of it always made it easier for him to take in.

"Deal" Strillian said, shaking Theodane's hand.

Just then the ship they were on jumped forward, causing everyone on board to stumble to keep their footing. before anyone could ask a voice called out from the higher platform where the steering wheel sat.

"Everyone, steady your nerves. We'll need souls of thunder and hearts of steel if we want to return home. But if we do we'll be heroes, so I forbid any of you to die like idiots."

That last part cause a few chuckles from the Sailors before they got to grabbing their weapons and double checking their armor.

Strillian looked around as he slowly stood up and drew his sword and said "and so begins the siege party."