[Jacky laughed, a tad bitter but mostly just sad.]

I had two boys under my command once. Midshipmen. I called them my Knights Errants. I had to tell them something similar when I came aboard. I don't think they listened to me, either. [Truth told, she didn't know if they'd really learned it until it was too late, poor Tom Wheeler the only one to make it out as the ship sunk beneath them.]

I find that most men, be they boys or full grown, don't truly understand battle unless they've experienced it. It's not glorious, or honourable--it's pain and fear and people you know dying.