//------------------------------//
// War: Unexpected Arrival 
// Story: Skyrim: The Faces of Death 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

After taking on the role as the Empress of the new empire, something that actually inspired hope in the people of Cyrodiil, even those who initially disagreed with it before trusting in the judgement of the Divines, Za'kera found that she had to spend the rest of the day with the Elder Council. It was to learn of her new responsibilities, duties, and everything else that was a requirement of being a ruler of an entire empire, and her first action, which really got the attention of everyone in the city, was the burning of the White-Gold Concordat, showing them that the Dominion's decree was no longer valid. She was acting upon what she told Ulfric and the rest of their allies, people were allowed to believe in whoever they wanted to, be it Talos, Akatosh, one of the old nordic gods, the Divines, or even the Daedric Princes, even though she knew that many would be secretive if they worshiped one of the Princes. Most of Skyrim was overjoyed and fell in with her because of that, more than they had been before this point in time, because many had been upset over the worship of Talos being outlawed by the Dominion, while certain individuals weren't affected by her actions, like they were planning for grander things once they had taken down their foes.

Amaryllis knew they would have to keep any eye on Ulfric and his most trusted retainers, as she had a feeling that one or more of them might try something during the events of this war, but she kept her thoughts to herself, because Za'kera did seem to know what she was thinking and kept an eye on them as well.

Zoravoir, of course, spent her time talking with the scholars, as many were interested in the newest Prince and wanted to know more about her, so they could edit their tomes and spread the word that there were now eighteen Daedric Princes, which included admitting that Jyggalag actually existed, as many had question whether or not he existed. The other thing that happened was that the Prince of Order tried to speak with his daughter, only to find that Durum had, while none of them had been looking, switched back to her Mad state, who had no desire to go back to her father's side, as she was Sheogorath's kid at heart, much to the Mad God's twisted joy. Of course that had an interesting effect, due to the Mad side of Durum returning the Moomer Wand was empowered once more, an artifact Amaryllis refused to hand over since one wrong move could spread untold chaos among their forces, especially with how potent the curse was, thanks to what they had seen back on Solstheim, due to Neloth's experiments. Lydia, of course, refused to return to her nordic form, rather she was at home with her bovine form and marked the start of a new species on Nirn, even if the others were careful of her after discovering that she was altered thanks to some of Sheogorath's power.

While not the whole truth, Amaryllis was unwilling to admit that it was her fault for bringing this form to Tamriel, due to her visit in Solitude, even if Sheogorath might have been looking for a way to make it happen at some point in time, but at least people weren't running from Lydia when they learned the truth. Of course, much to her dismay, she found that some of Sheogorath's followers weren't troubled by this new form and even embraced Lydia's bovine form without delay, where she sighed and ignored the people in question, leaving the mad people to their fate. Durum did alter the curse to make it more like Lydia's form, so all of the newly transformed wouldn't be useless in a fight, but Amaryllis didn't want to hear her talk about it, given that the mad Demiprince only wanted to spread her father's will upon the world, or just drive people around her insane, a favorite pass time of the Prince of Madness. Her only saving grace was that the Princes of Order and Madness wanted her with them constantly, as Jyggalag wanted to spend some time with his daughter before they started the war again, though she departed from where they were wandering and focused on her own task.

Her task was a self imposed one, the very same that she took on after seeing that vision from the Elder Scroll, of them and their army, lead by a warrior empress, and that was to protect Za'kera from her enemies, hence why she remained in her shadows, completely unseen by those that were around her friend. As an assassin and an infiltrator Amaryllis was used to remaining in the shadows, out of sight from allies and enemies, and the power of Sithis, combined with her powers, made it impossible for anyone to see her, even if she was leaning against a wall, observing the room around Za'kera. She tuned out the conversation between Za'kera and the Elder Council, as it was of no interest to her, not when she understood what her friend wanted to do, to bring back everything the White-Gold Concordat took away from the empire, including finding additional allies to join them in saving the other provinces. Amaryllis wasn't expecting a Dominion spy to appear after the retaking of Cyrodiil, since not a lot of time had passed since that point in time, but they had to be careful, as there was no telling what their enemies were capable of, not when they were planning on destroying the Adamantine Tower with the power of the Numidium.

As such her time lurking in the shadows was rather boring, given the uninteresting topics they were talking about, due to them not applying to her at all, but she gladly did it and watched over Za'kera without fail, even if her friend might regret accepting Akatosh's position in the end, despite the hard work she was putting into her new station, all while both of them kept their eyes open for what the future held.





Three days after their conquest of Cyrodiil, days wasted by the Elder Council based on Amaryllis' thoughts on the matter, they got an interesting report during one of the council sessions, where Za'kera was speaking with the leaders of her now enlarged army, so she could figure out where to go next and who to talk to first.

"Empress Za'kera, our scouts have spotted a fleet of ships out on the water outside Anvil," the scout stated, where she knelt before the table that the council was being held at, though Amaryllis felt that she was speaking the truth and wasn't lying to get them out of here, so they didn't have to worry about a Dominion spy, even though her words caused them to stop for a moment, "but they aren't flying the Dominion's colors, they're... well, they're flying multiple colors: the navy blue of the Maormer Fleet, along with an icy blue flag, a flag with a brown color and a yellow stripe, a blood red flag that has four unknown sigils on it, and a flag with tiger stripes."

"A fleet from the island of Akavir, with flags from Kamal, Tang Mo, Tsaesci, and Ka Po'Tun, no doubt led by the war leader Tosh Raka, the 'Tiger Dragon' himself," Ma'jera commented, where she tilted her head for a moment, showing Amaryllis that this had to be an unexpected development that she and her father didn't see coming, or rather they did but felt that there was a slim chance of this happening, not without Za'kera making the first move, "This is both good and bad... if he's here to become allies we won't have anything to worry about, but if he's here to declare war on us, well, there's a chance our forces will decimate each other... he's not called the 'Tiger Dragon' for nothing."

"Meaning he knows how to Shout." Za'kera said, as it was just that easy for someone to figure out what the Demiprince meant, especially after dealing with her for the amount of time she and her friends had been traveling with her, so all of them were used to her words and thoughts on whatever manners they encountered, "In the off chance that he's come to speak with us, and not lure us into a trap, I'll ride out to meet him and his forces, see if we can't talk and figure out what he's trying to do... and if he's here to invade, well, we should have a small force on the road near Anvil, with scouts ready to sound the horn of war to gather our remaining soldiers."

Amaryllis could tell that this was something they didn't need right now, not with them planning their war against the rest of the Dominion's forces, since they were trying to figure out which provinces were still fighting back and which might have fallen already, in which case the latter needed reclaiming, but said nothing. A few moments later she joined Za'kera and a small force of soldiers, probably around fifty, that would be riding towards Anvil, with Ma'jera, Zoravoir, and a few others coming along for the ride, to see the fleet with their own eyes. With the two mages beside them Amaryllis knew that they would be able to move a decent number of soldiers to their side if a fight broke out, possibly giving them time to hold off Tosh Raka's forces before the main force emerged from the fleet, but her attention was on their potential enemies and the information they had on each race. Once more Ma'jera proved to be a font of knowledge for them to tap into, as she told Za'kera, and everyone else at the same time, that the Kamal were snow demons, the Tang Mo were monkey people, while the Tsaesci were supposedly snake people, or people who wore armor that made them look snake-like, and the Ka Po'Tun were tiger people, meaning they were similar to Khajiit.

The other thing she told them was that the Tsaesci worshiped four deities that symbolized the elements, those being Ilni, Myn, Nfya, and Zisa, standing for air, fire, earth, and water respectively, where Amaryllis determined that the symbols on the Tsaesci flag had to be the symbols of their gods.

It took them a while to get to Anvil, given that it was on the western end of Cyrodiil, and upon their arrival Za'kera stopped on a hill that allowed them to look out over the harbor, seeing past it to the large fleet of ships that were resting close to the city, where the people had to be freaking out by this sight. Amaryllis could see the races in question from where they had stopped, several ships, those made to resemble frozen vessels, had some tall individuals standing on the deck, who looked like they were either wearing armor made to resemble ice, like Stalhrim, or were ice that had been molded to look a lot like humanoid warriors. On another couple of ships she found some brown furred people who carried staffs, as in the ones that people would spin around and served no magical purpose, and wore monk-like clothing, but since they looked like anthropomorphic monkeys she knew they had to be the Tang Mo, like how the ice warriors were the Kamal. After that she spotted the Tsaesci ships, looking ornate and ready for war, while the soldiers looked more like samurai, based on the armor they were currently wearing, though Amaryllis was sure that there were both men and snake people standing side by side, as one ship had a fair amount of men and people who had the lower body of a snake. The Ko Po'Tun were the last ones she focused on, where it was rather easy for her to tell that their ships were full of anthropomorphic tiger people, all looking ready for war with their plate armor and weapons, a vast array from spears and pikes to swords and battleaxes, before she laid eyes on someone she suspected was Tosh Raka.

Her reasoning was because he stood at the front of everyone, even those on his ship, though while most of his body was like the rest of his people she found that from his arms, from the elbows to his hands, were covered in dragon scales that matched his body, something that was echoed on his legs, from the knees down to his feet, and he also possessed a pair of wings and a dragon tail, possessing the tiger stripes.

"So, that's why he's called the Tiger Dragon." Za'kera commented, as she had no idea what sort of tales revolved around the figure in question, about how he obtained his new body, before they noticed that he also had a pair of curved horns on his head, the helmet molded to fit over the additions, making him look like an imposing figure, where she sighed and started down the hill, "Well, let's get down there and see what he wants... with how armored everyone is, I have a feeling this might be a warning before a new battle starts, even though I'm hopeful that doesn't happen."

Amaryllis said nothing as they rode down the hill and entered the city, the force of soldiers remaining on the hill while they were joined by Ma'jera and Zoravoir, who would summon the soldiers in case an attack happened, and when they reached the harbor they found a single ship approaching the docks, Tosh Raka's to be exact. Since Anvil didn't have any defenses against pirates, or if they did the Dominion had disabled them to make it easier to move their own troops when the time came to invade the provinces of Tamriel, there wasn't much they could do but wait for his ship to reach the harbor, while the people backed away. As that happened Amaryllis also noted that there were a fair number of Daedra on the outskirts of Anvil, no doubt guarding it until their Princes told them otherwise, meaning they had some reinforcements in case Tosh Raka attacked them, but it didn't ease her mind at all, not when it was Molag's forces. Based on what she was seeing there were thirty ships out in the harbor, which was counting the one coming towards them, meaning that there were six ships per race, and if the main ship was this decked out she had a feeling the others were as well, meaning an army was resting in front of them, a force that would do some damage if they attacked Anvil, all while it looked like the Maormer fleet were staying back for now.

As the ship docked she also noticed something else, there were three other figures on the ship that seemed important, as if Tosh Raka had ordered that the leaders of the other races of Akavir join him on his ship, as each one seemed far more important than those who were on the other ships. One of them was an imposing ice warrior who appeared to be either a general or a lord, because his helm had several points that could be mistaken for a crown, or maybe it was intentional to make his position as a ruler known to those who saw him, and it looked like he had a large mace on his back. The next one in the lineup was the Tang Mo leader, a warrior who wore red baggy pants with a blue sash, a blue cape wrapped around his neck, a golden sash that looked like a half shirt wrapped around his left shoulder and side of his body, and a pair of golden bracers on his wrists, with an elegant wooden staff as his melee weapon. The last one was a slim lady whose lower body was that of a snake, as in her legs had been replaced by a snake's tail, like a Lamia, though her upper half looked like a snake as well, a royal blue with crimson stripes, and she wore some metallic armor to cover herself in battle, though she also had four arms, instead of two, with four swords on her back.

These four were the rulers of Akavir, with Tosh Raka standing above the other three, and based on how they walked it was clear that he held all the power of the continent, meaning if he wanted to declare war on Tamriel the other three would no doubt follow his orders, especially when they came to a stop and he did the same in front of Za'kera, who climbed off of Frost and stood at the ready.

"I take it you're the one in charge of the forces of Cyrodiil?" Tosh Raka asked, his tone confirming that he was who both of them, and those observing this situation, thought he was, and he was far more imposing than what any of them thought when they heard about the Tiger Dragon that ruled over Akavir.

"I am Za'kera Saratamil, the new Empress of the empire that spans Tamriel," Za'kera replied, though while Amaryllis could feel that she was nervous about this situation, and to be fair who wouldn't when one looked out at the mass of ships that could burn Anvil to the ground in a matter of moments if Tash Raka wanted to, she forced herself to stand like she was the reincarnation of Tiber Septim, back when Talos walked Tamriel, "You're Tash Raka, the Tiger Dragon that rules over all of Akavir, aren't you?"

"That's correct!" Tash Raka stated, where he let out a light chuckle, as if he was pleased by this turn of events, given that it saved them some time in terms of conversation, before he turned his head for a moment and beckoned back to those that were right behind him, "I am joined by Jotuun, Lord of the Kamal, Sun Wukong, King of the Tang Mo, and Vata-Perwa, Mistress of the Tsaesci... and we are here to offer you an alliance, against the Aldmeri Dominion. They tried to invade my domain some time ago, along with the domain of the Maormer, hence why Lady Seirhy has decided to remain on her own ships, so they can keep an eye on our enemies, and we're eager to get some revenge for their actions."

A fleet this massive was a boon none of them were expecting, as not only did it mean they wouldn't have to worry about the Dominion knowing of their actions until it was too late, but it also gave them a way to get their forces to the island that their enemies called home, to which Za'kera welcomed them and moved so they could talk, all while Amaryllis followed as she waited to see what the next few days held for them.