Far to the east a man was reading a parchment with the Imperial seal. Sitting behind his massive ornate desk, Leon Seabane count of Seawall and Admiral of the Imperial Fleet had to exercise the full measure of his restraint not to rip the parchment he had just received into a thousand pieces. With implacable blue grey eyes long grey streaked hair and beard he exudes an air of authority. His bulging muscles that strained against his fine clothes spoke volumes of the pure strength the man wielded together with his political power.

Taking a deep breath the Admiral leaned back into his large ornate chair making it creak and looked the Imperial messenger in the eyes. His fierce eyes caused the young messenger to shrink back unwittingly.

“Are these orders...” He waved the parchment in the air for emphasis. “From his majesty?” The messenger was about to respond when the angry look from the count caused him to swallow his words. “Well.” He said with words laced with impatience.

“T-they… they are from the senate but it was approved…” The messenger stopped speaking when the count raised his hand and glared at him.

“You.” His tone was laced with threat and the messenger felt cold sweat from on his back. “You should be glad that I’m loyal to the emperor. Had my loyalty been even remotely questionable your message...” He shook the scroll once more. “Would have sadly never reached me.” The messenger swallowed. “However I AM loyal.” He stressed to words and standing up he spoke in a dark voice. “So I will instead give you a response that you will deliver to the emperor DIRECTLY.” He paused and waited until the messenger nodded. “Tell him that I will follow my order, but not only will this weaken our coastal defences. It will also cripple our ability to escort the merchant fleets. Got that?” Under the count's furious gaze the messenger could only nod and made his escape as soon as the count dismissed him. Sitting back down the Admiral rested his arms on the desk and rubbed his temples as he quietly seethed. After a short time the room's other occupant who had been silent since the messenger arrived spoke up.

“Admiral, are the orders truly that bad?” His voice sounded quite similar to the counts and was less than amused as he imagined what kind of orders could have put his brother in such a bad mood.

“They are indeed.” He paused, leaning back arms crossed. “We have been ordered to raid the broken coast.” His flat statement made the other man blink.

“What?” Doubting his ears the slightly smaller and younger man could not help but utter this involuntary remark.

“Oh you heard me brother.” He tossed the scroll over to the man who deftly caught it.

Reading the scroll the younger man just stood there blinking with his mouth open. The count could understand his brother’s response. He wanted nothing more than to forget these orders and pretend he had never gotten them in the first place. Yet he was now in a position where he had to follow these idiotic orders. It took his brother well over a minute to recover and when he finally put down the scroll the Admiral spoke.

“So, how do we follow these orders with as little damage to our fleet and while keeping the eastern region from burning to the ground?” His words were close to what one could have called treason, yet neither man even considered following the orders blindly.

“Well...” the younger brother said, rubbing the stubble on his chin. “We could easily send out a token number of ships to the northern part of the broken coast without much of the risk, though… any potential gains of such a venture would be meagre at best. Likely they would not even match the cost of such an expedition as any ships we send are unlikely to return.” He said this shaking his head.

“And any benefit we could expect needs to be weighed against not only the unavoidable risk of losing good sailors and ships.” The Admiral exhaled angrily. “But we most also consider the possibility of the Khan choosing to retaliate.” the Admiral groaned. “What if…” The Admiral looked at his brother with tired eyes. “What if we manage to prepare the fleet without the Broken Empire and the Khan finding out?”

“IF, we could. Then we would be able to raid from Yllan to Kaos, with some luck we might even be able to burn the shipyards all along the Blackwood.” The younger Brother shrugged and chuckled “Since we are already fantasising we might even be able catch the Broken fleet at port with their pants down a crippled the entire fleet.” He laughed unamused and gave the Admiral a meaningful look. “Why do you ask? We know that three of the families are already working for the Broken Empire and the black bone family is neutral in name only. It is not possible for us to ready the fleet for such a massive undertaking without the pirates sniffing it out, much less the spies from the Broken Empire. Their lack of mages will only aid us so far.”

“I’m well aware brother. I am just trying to figure out the senate's expectations.” The Admiral said drumming his fingers on the table

“They expect us to ignore the order or fail so that they can take away our admiralty and possibly remove us from Seawall.” He almost spat this in a caustic voice and cursed in a way that would leave even sailors gaping.

“That much is clear, I’m trying to figure out their justification to the emperor, as far as I can tell the emperor is not in the least hostile to us. So what did the senate tell him?”

“Maybe they didn’t say anything?” the younger man said sourly.

“They must have, that man despite his age and nervousness was a bona fide Imperial messenger. We both know that it is impossible for them to lie.” The Admiral sighed. “Well no matter, we still have some time.” He looked out the massive office windows at the dark clouds gathering over the ocean. After a few moments of quiet contemplation the Admiral spoke.

“Let’s spar.” He said standing. “I need a workout to clear my head. Would you do me the honour brother?” He smiled at his younger brother.

“Fine.” The younger brother said clearly somewhat reluctantly.

It was not long before the sound of wood crashing against wood echoed through one on the courtyards in Seawall keep. To an untrained eye it would probably look like it was a completely one sided affair with the older man chasing the younger around with the latter being unable to muster a proper defence. Yet to a trained eye it was not as uneven a fight as one was led to believe. It was simply a clash of styles, one highly offensive and one defensive, the older man still had the edge.

Due to the high pace of the fight both brothers were breathing heavily and sweating in no time. Their swords clashed once more and as the two separated the Admiral rose out of his stance and stretched.

“I think that I might have an idea of how to get us through this.” He wore a confident grin and wiped the sweat of his forehead.

“Oh?” The younger brother raised his eyebrows at that.

“Yes, let’s head back to the office first.” He handed his training sword to a nearby servant and strode off. When the two men had wiped off the worst of the sweat and returned to the office they had the servant bring some chilled wine before the Admiral spoke.

“We might be able to use this to our advantage.” His eyes flashed.

Looking at the Admiral one would easily be led to believe that he was a man of singular focus, yet below his bulging muscles lay a keen mind which was something many of his opponents had failed to take into account.

“If we use this raiding as an excuse to clear Blackport.” The Admiral gave a devious smile.

“That…” The younger brother had to stop and think before answering. “If we manage to keep our true purpose under wraps.” He became quiet as fell into deep though. The younger brother was silent as he ran though the possibilities in his mind and the Admiral simply waited, watching his younger brother with a vicious grin.

“We might be able to lure the Broken fleet and the pirates into setting up a defensive line by the coast…” He finally said looking up. “If we do, it would likely leave Blackport with only the minimum number of defenders.” Here he paused. “If we can manage that it would be a race against time. Can we capture and destroy the port before the Broken fleet or the pirates can return to defend.” Rubbing his temple he contemplated for a bit before giving his brother a sharp look. “Even if we succeed would this not just end up pushing the Blackbone family into the Broken Empire.”

“They are already fighting for the Broken Empire even if they claim neutrality!” The Admiral almost shouted. “Besides…”He smiled, eyes glittering. “If they have no port and no way to repair their ships or build new ones, would the Broken Empire really be kind enough to take them in?” The younger brother did not answer, as he could not refute his brother’s statement. The Broken Empire was neither a gentle nor a forgiving Master. Taking in a bunch of pirates down on their luck was not something they were likely to do.

“And the raiding?” Not refuting the Admiral the younger brother chose to focus on the issues.

“We can simply say that the enemy somehow caught wind of our plans and was prepared for a full out battle, leaving us no choice but to withdraw. However.” He raised a finger arrogantly and leaned back taking a deep swig of his wine glass. “They could hardly blame us for not wanting to fight to the death against a far greater fleet and if we somehow managed to take Blackport in our painful retreat would that not be quite the achievement? Might even be enough to warrant a reward instead of punishment, don’t you think brother?” His wicked grin grew wider as he sipped his wine.

There was a long moment of silence where the younger brother considered the ramifications of this bold plan. To deliberately ignore the intent of an Imperial order was quite the risk. Yet like all risks it had to be weighed against the possible gains, unlike the raiding orders that could only kindly be described as wishful thinking. Even if the Admiral’s plan was unsuccessful as long as they were not caught with their pants down taking Blackport they would only risk losing a handful of ships and a few thousand gold Imperials. Not the entirety of the Imperial fleet that the raiding order called for. So as long as they could avoid a worst case scenario the scales of risk to reward were clearly tipped in their favour. Removing or just crippling Blackport would be exceptionally impactful. It would considerably ease the pressure of the merchants trading with the southern isles and almost completely eliminate the risk of raids against Empires south eastern coast for the foreseeable future.

“It is possible.” The words of the younger brother made the Admiral laugh excitedly. It was well known that the Admiral was a man who preferred bold stratagems and would propose the most outrageous stratagems at times. It was his brother’s job to be the realist and to reign in the Admiral when necessary. As he had not done so this time the Admiral started to construct a more concrete plan in his mind.

“Inform the family of the plan and make sure they understand our orders and intentions.” He ordered. “After that inform the commanders of the Imperial orders and stress the necessity of secrecy.” He said this and snorted. “That way we can be sure that the Broken Empire is informed by midwinter.”

“May I use this as an opportunity to catch a few rats?” The younger brother said with gleaming cold eyes.

“As long as it doesn't interfere with our plans you may do as you like.” As his brother left to execute the Admiral’s orders the Admiral leaned back in his chair and spoke in a low angry voice.

“Let’s see who the Emperor sides with after this senator.” In his mind's eye he saw the fake smile of the slimy third senator who he was certain was behind these ridiculous orders.