Skyrim is the property of Bethesda Softworks. Happy new year everyone. Thanks for the follow Chaotic.
All you history buffs out there might have noticed by now that this story and the Elder Scrolls series in general are an anachronistic mess. Since I'll be using seveal historical ranks and titles in an inaccurate way, I feel I should outline roughly what they are and their function so far as this story goes.
Optio: A non-commissioned officer in the Imperial Legion. Functionally similar to a modern Sergeant or mid-level NCO.
Decanius: A squad leader in charge of nine soldiers.
Centurion: A low level commissioned officer in command of 100 soldiers.
Tribune: A middle-rank officer commanding a cohort of 5 centuries.
Legate: A general officer in command of one Legion.
Quaestor: An officer given assignments unsuitable to the normal legionary formations. While outside the normal chain of command, they are ranked between Centurion and Tribune, but ordinarily are commanded directly by a general officer.
General Tullius and Legate Rikke were arguing again when Lydia, Aela, and I stepped quietly into their offices in Castle Dour. Tullius was leaning on the table in the room and looked up at me in the dim light, a silhouette of menace in his armor.
"Your ceasefire nearly cost me all of Skyrim," he scowled at me.
"Ulfric violating my ceasefire nearly cost you all of Skyrim," I corrected. "I'm here with an offer: The Companions are available for the Empire to hire for the duration of your Skyrim campaign. At the usual rates of course."
The General and his Legate blinked in unison. "And why in the name of the Divines would I want to spend the Emperor's money on your mercenaries?" The General demanded.
"Because you only have a single intact legion. The other two are broken and scattered. Because the Companions are the best warriors in Skyrim. Because if you do, the Dragonborn fights for free," I replied evenly.
Tullius looked over to Rikke, "Legate, that problem Hadvar was sent to solve? The Dragonborn here will catch up and solve it while he supervises," the general looked back at me, "Consider this your evaluation. Fill him in Legate."
With that the formidable man left the room for his quarters.
"So after all this time the Companions are picking a side?" Legate Rikke asked.
I nodded, "Staying out of the war was good policy but when Ulfric attacked our hall, he declared war on us. More than that, I have nearly four hundred people to feed and pay. The men and women of the Companions might think it's an honor to fight by me, but if I can't justify their faith by seeing to their needs, they'll leave."
Rikke nodded appreciatively, "No wonder Tullius likes you." She pointed at a fort on the map almost due west of Solitude, "This is Fort Hraggstad. A lot of these old forts could be used by the Legion this winter, but we don't have the manpower to clear out the bandits that occupy the best ones. I've sent Hadvar with a detachment to secure this one, but now I want you to do it."
I looked at the roads leading to the mark where the old castle was located. "It occurs to me Legate that Hraggstad is pretty remote, and what's left of your legions are already well camped."
Rikke smiled tightly, "You're an observant man Dragonborn. Get the Empire this fort, and we'll hire your Companions."
"Hadvar!" I called to a familiar face in the small camp just out of sight from Fort Hraggstad.
The man's face was confused for a moment until recognition set in. "Ieago!" he shouted, rushing forward to clasp my arm, "What are you doing here? Are the rumors about you true?" His curious men were coming out from their tents and away from their fires to see who their officer was speaking to.
"Rikke and Tullius want me to take the fort to see if I'm worth the Legion's time," I explained, "And which rumors? I've been away for a while."
"That you're the Dragonborn! That after the Battle of Whiterun you flew off to Sovngarde on the back of a dragon! That Alduin is dead by your hand!"
"Where did you hear all that?" I asked, not denying a single word.
"The dragons were shouting it a few weeks ago, 'Alduin is dead! The Dragonborn is his slayer!' Did you really do it?"
"I had a lot of help, but yes it's true. But what about you? You're a Centurion now?"
Hadvar and a few of his troops just shook their heads in awe. "Not quite, a Quaestor. General Tullius thought my surviving Helgen was a sign of resourcefulness and promoted me. Until winter came on I was doing everything I could think of to harass Ulfric's armies." The main fairly glowed with pride. "I was the one that warned Whiterun that a second battle was coming after you disappeared. Now I'm supposed to be clearing out a few of these old forts for the Legion to use." He beckoned us to follow him to the low rise from where we could see the fort a quarter mile away.
"Most of these places are in rough shape. What's the issue here?" I asked. Hraggstad looked like any of the countless dilapidated piles of rock that lined the roads of Cyrodiil and Skyrim.
"This one has intact walls and a good door," Hadvar explained.
I instantly thought of Revenant and what the blade could do. "If you can get me to that door, I can have it open in seconds," I pronounced.
Hadvar shrugged nervously, not sure if he should believe me. "One last rumor Ieago: It's said that you've taken a shield-maiden of the Companions as your wife."
I started in embarrassment, "Oh! I forgot my manners! Aela, this is Hadvar. He was part of the Empire's 'welcoming committee' when I first came to Skyrim. Hadvar, this is my fiancé, Alea the Huntress and Lydia is my housecarl and particular friend from Whiterun."
The brilliant sun dawned in a sickly white sky above the bare trees of Haafingar. My friends and I assembled before Hadvar's century on the road to Fort Hraggstad. There was no point in concealing ourselves any longer.
"You're positive about this?" Hadvar asked me for the tenth time. Like many officers in the Legion, he held a deep-seeded distrust of all magical weapons.
After I first outlined my idea, I had needed cut down a tree with the white-hot blade to convince Hadvar and his soldiers that Revenant would work as advertised. My unvoiced concern was whether or not the defenders barred the doors with iron instead of wood. If it was held with iron, we would be spending minutes beneath the defenders' missiles while Revenant melted through the iron instead of seconds of cutting through wood.
For the tenth time I nodded. "Get me to that door Hadvar, and I can get your men into the fort," I replied.
He looked warily at me one last time before nodding to his optio, a towering orc brandishing a spear. "Century!" she called, "Century will form line!"
The eighty soldiers stood in a single line before their commanders.
"Form two lines!" she called.
By turns Hadvar's century was formed into six lines of thirteen soldiers and a few odd men in a seventh. Aela would join that rearmost group, for without a shield and heavy armor she was not equipped for what we were about to attempt. It worried me that Aela insisted on joining the assault. At least Lydia was equipped for what we were about to do. But Aela is not a woman to cross lightly, so apart from a worried glance I kept my misgivings quiet.
Aela gave me a kiss for luck and Lydia and I shouldered our way into the press next to the optio. Yesterday's giddiness among the legionnaires was gone. As I outlined what I would need of them, they stopped seeing me as a hero and looked on me instead as a part of their mission. They were eager and ready to advance before their optio even opened her mouth to order the march. I was honored to be among such professionals.
"Century will advance!" the optio bellowed when I nodded to her.
The march began. It was not as precise as a parade-ground drill or anything close to the rhythmic lockstep of the Stormcloaks' approach march, but there was no wasted motion or kicking of heels as Fort Hraggstad loomed ever larger over the shoulders of the men and women in front of me.
My stomach fluttered when we were fifty yards out and the first arrows leapt high up over the wall before us.
"Testudo!" Hadvar and the optio called as one. Lydia's shield was instantly over my head, touching its neighbors and creating the shell of shields that gives the formation the name and appearance of a tortoise. Our pace slowed to a crawl and our steps became precise. I found myself quietly thanking my instructors for all those hours drilling with the other Kvatch guards on how to work with the Legion. The darts of the bandits clattered and thumped inches above my head. Occasionally someone would grunt as a shaft struck squarely and lodged in a shield. We were ten yards away when Lydia's ebony shield shuddered and for the first time someone cried in pain. Worry shot up the back of my neck, but the voice didn't belong to Aela.
Straining arms held in an unnatural position were beginning to wobble under the assault. Now axes were among the missiles being thrown at us, finding their way between the wavering shields.
"Wounded fall out! Close up! Decani, keep their shields up!" the optio bellowed between the cries of agony.
We approached to within a few paces of the wall. The first two ranks split and wheeled to either side of the century, leaving me staring at the door and its huge oaken beams. I was now in the center of the first rank. Amidst the screaming of the defenders and the rain of falling shot, the simple oaken doors of the fort looked like the gates to Oblivion itself.
The optio threw me forward. Lydia spun and pressed her back to me as a second shield while I did my work. I peeled my face off the door and lit Revenant, thrusting the white blade into the seam and pushing down. Beside me soldiers pushed and a thread of fragrant smoke rose from my cut. If it was not such a heavy thing, I would tell you that the doors popped open under the weight of the soldiers as Revenant finished cutting through the wooden beams holding the fortress shut. For a bewildered second I stood there, looking at the array of shields and weapons leveled at me.
The optio flung me aside like a toy and brought Hadvar's century forward, an eighty person animal bent on revenge for the pelting it had just taken. The bandits' feeble shield wall scattered almost immediately. Splitting mauls and sledges forced the doors of the keep and towers one by one. By midmorning the last of the holdouts were dead.
Hadvar left half his soldiers there and accompanied the three of us back to Castle Dour. It was a pleasant day's hike, filled chiefly with his retelling of our escape from Helgen for the benefit of Lydia and Aela, who only knew my version of the events that day. I was surprised to see a legion disembarking on the docks beneath Solitude.
We passed beneath the gates of the city. Hadvar looked awkward and spoke to me again once we stepped back out into the sunlight. "Be careful where you reveal what you are Ieago," he said, a large hand rubbing the back of his muscular neck.
"What do you mean?" I asked, already having a vague idea of what he meant.
"You're the Dragonborn. For what you did there's not an Imperial-leaning inn or tavern where you would be allowed to pay for your own drinks…" He paused again, looking embarrassed.
"But…" I prompted.
He sighed and got on with the awkward moment, "The Dragonborn is one of our most important heroes. Especially in Stormcloak-sympathizing places, the idea that the Dragonborn is an Imperial and an imperialist is a bitter thought. I'm just worried about the trouble that could come up."
I nodded, briefly touching the red diamond on my pauldron, "It is was it is Hadvar, but I'll take your advice."
With that we stepped into the dark chambers of Castle Dour.
"The Second Nienayan has a fort until spring," Tullius grumbled in acknowledgment of Hadvar's report. I was to find that the man had a way of making even resounding successes sound like mistakes. He turned to me and drew his sword. "Do you know the Oath of Fealty?" He demanded.
I looked to Aela and Lydia, both members of the Circle I was about to commit by association. They nodded their assent. I knelt before the general and placed my hands about the hilt of his sword. He clasped his hands tightly over mine. "Then say it," he commanded.
"I, Ieago Decre of Kvatch, upon my sacred honor do swear undying loyalty to the Emperor, and unwavering obedience to the officers of his great Empire. May those above judge me, and those below take me, should I fail in my duty. Long live the Emperor! Long live the Empire!"
Tullius let me up and continued, "The Legate here started to explain to me what the Companions are to Skyrim. A large group of auxiliaries to police our territory would free up my soldiers for the campaign and keep your men away from the politics of Ulfric's rebellion. I've decided that Rikke will be the one choosing the jobs we hire your men for." I nodded to Rikke with a sense of relief that everyone in the room felt. "Get to the arsenal and pick up your armor. Come back when you're in uniform for assignment."
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