Forward into the sewers.

Forward.

She stays alert, eyes scanning for potential assassins - especially snipers.

There's not really much room to hang back in the confines of the underground space-

-and when the next group of assassins does come, seemingly boiling out of empty darkness, the fight spills into a melee almost immediately. "For Lord Dagon!" they shout.

"For the Emperor!"

She hits one in the face with her torch then slashes his gut open as he stumbles.

These dumb prisoner rags don't have any of the subtle magic that makes armor, like, work, but she very quickly confirms that none of their robes do either, and she's faster than them, and a very fortunate feature of melee is your enemy has to be in stabbing range to stab you. 

She gets a bare moment of space between herself and the next assassin - there's no one she cares about behind him - she hits him with a fireball, and he goes flying into one of his allies. He's not dead yet though, and she blasts the ally he stumbled into then throws herself back into dagger range and stabs them both. 

Those three dispatched - she rolls herself out of the crush of melee and starts harassing anyone trying to overwhelm the guards from behind. No fireballs in the emperor's general direction, but she can use those on anyone split off from the pack, and she can stab anyone who turns their back to her to focus on the guards - and, hopefully, the guards can do the same in reverse. 

The Blades stick to swords, no magic, but they are excessively competently wielded swords. The emperor is fenced off by their flashing steel.

This time, they fight the assassins off without losing anyone.

Good. Doesn't seem they have more to lose. 

She heals herself - it drops her to pretty low magicka, but she should recover fast - and makes sure the assassins are dead, checking for valuables as she goes, then retrieves her torch. 

"Keep going?"

"Are you uninjured?"

"Am now."

"I can't heal others, but... I can keep myself going."

"Good."

The Emperor needs a minute to catch his breath, so: "Where did you learn to fight?"

"...Lots of places. A big one was just - ended up on the street as a kid, then figured out I could make some septims letting college students practice on me and playing training dummy for arena fighters. Some of them even answer questions."

"That sounds... difficult."

"I learned a lot, though."

"You must've."

"You're very good."

Grin! "So're you. That was some really nice sword work."

"That's why we're the Blades."

"You live up to it."

"That is our duty."

Serious nod. "Did you learn to fight from the Blades?"

"Yes. We train from childhood."

"Huh. How are people picked for it?"

"That is not information we share."

Slow nod. 

Time to get moving again.

Onward.

She keeps to the same alertness, ears swiveling around at the slightest noise - and attunes herself a little more to the others in her party. (She doesn't know much, yet, about tuning herself to the flows of aetherius like that one freshman was rambling about - but she's got a knack for it she thinks, and if the assassins are using magic to get around, maybe she can make enough of a difference on catching them...)