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skaald-of-the-hearth-fires · 1 year ago

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DoF:RefTE chapter 1 - Centaurs in Shaemoor

Dreams of Freedom: Reforging the Edge

Chapter one: Centaurs in Shaemoor | (AO3 link)

“CAPTAIN!”

Logan looks up from his desk in surprise, startled, mind running through all the possibilities of what can it be now? and already thinking of who he can assign to protect Queen Jennah. As always, of course, he wonders if he should just do that himself and not leave it up to chance (however miniscule). Then he sees that it is only Lieutenant Groban, who had been to Shaemoor Garrison, just outside the city, to get a report.

But Groban is standing in the massive door of Seraph Headquarters with wind-blown hair and a desperate expression on his face, and Logan blinks, this time just confused. Shaemoor is only just outside of Divinity’s Reach, nothing could have scared him too badly. To be fair, Logan reflects bemusedly, he doesn’t leave the walls of the city that often… perhaps he was frightened by something relatively mundane. “Yes, Lieutenant?”

“Centaurs, Captain! At the garrison!”

Logan raises an eyebrow in surprise and not a little confusion - the nearest centaurs are quite a ways southeast of Shaemoor. He checks the reports scattered around his desk. Out in the Krytan Freeholds, in fact. The centaurs couldn’t have got past the Seraph forces in the area without a lot of effort, manpower (or horsepower? Logan never knows), and most importantly, time - nearly two days’ travel, assuming they didn’t flat-out gallop the whole distance. There’s no way the Seraph wouldn’t have had warning. "How did they - ?”

“I don’t know, Captain, but they’re there. If they get past the garrison, Divinity’s Reach itself will be in danger.”

Logan furrows his brow. That's true... he admits reluctantly to himself, finally accepting the gravity of the situation. He nods at Groban. “Thank you, Lieutenant. Send runners to the Krytan Freeholds. We need to know how the centaurs got past the Seraph there without being stopped… or even noticed.” Logan pauses and frowns. The Wintersday festival was just yesterday, which might be enough to explain any lack of attention… but a whole troop of centaurs passing right outside the walls? That’s hard to miss.

The whole situation is… fishy. But Logan needs more information - he doesn’t know if the centaurs at the garrison came from the Krytan Freeholds at all, and if not, how they did get to the garrison. He doesn’t know how many centaurs there are at the garrison, or - well, he doesn’t know much of anything yet. That is easily remedied.

Logan glances at the lieutenant. He seems to have calmed down a bit. Groban could do with more time in the field anyway, Logan reflects. “Correction: go yourself, and get me a timeline of the centaurs’ movements. Handle the disposition of the troops stationed at the Freeholds once you’ve gathered all relevant information. Dismissed.”

Lieutenant Groban comes to attention and salutes, thumping his chest, before turning and striding out of Seraph Headquarters.

Logan speaks to the other Seraph in the room. “Someone send to Shaemoor Garrison for a report on the strength of centaur forces there and the ability of the Seraph stationed within the garrison to withstand the attack.” A corporal salutes and hurries off. Logan calls after him, “find out how soon their shift changes, too!” Logan himself had been looking forward to heading home to Rurikton soon, but it seems those plans will have to be delayed.

In any case, Shaemoor Garrison had not, in Logan’s memory, ever had to withstand any attacks. The centaurs had never pressed so far north before, and the garrison, as a result, is only lightly defended. Logan usually sends new graduates of the Seraph Training Academy there for some risk-free experience ‘in the field.’ The centaur attack, however, may be similarly light. Hopefully.

Logan glances across his desk, looking for anything on the small village that Shaemoor Garrison defends, then turns to one of his aides. “Get me the files on Shaemoor and the surrounding fields. I need to know the significance of the land we’re defending.”

The man nods, rummaging through some papers on the long desk Logan shares with his aides, and finally comes up with a stack of papers. Shuffling through them all briefly, he says, “Lieutenant Francis is the ranking officer in Shaemoor, sir, and the village’s primary complaint is bandits. It’s mostly farmland and there aren’t many Seraph on patrol except in the village itself, so the outlaws are… unrestrained. I believe Shaemoor’s fields are the primary source of food supply to Divinity’s Reach."

“Ahh.” Logan sits back thoughtfully while his aide goes through the papers more thoroughly. Valuable land, then - to be protected at all costs. Divinity’s Reach wouldn’t survive a siege without it - Shaemoor Garrison is the last defense. Logan's breath hitches momentarily. “Is the garrison the village's only defense?”

“The only man-made defense, sir. Shaemoor Garrison straddles the river - Altar Brook - which goes around all the east and south side, and there’s a mountain to the southwest… that the civilians have nicknamed the Bandithaunt Caverns… I…” he tilts his head at the paper. “I guess it’s got caverns in it…?”

Logan tunes him out for the moment. He doesn't need to hear about the bandits - he'd done what he could about them long ago. Between a mountain and a river, Shaemoor Garrison is a quite tactically useful choke point for holding off the centaurs… but if it fails, not only do the civilians in Shaemoor get trampled over, but Divinity’s Reach could be sieged easily and starved out within five weeks - less, coming out of winter and with no spring crops in production yet. Logan realizes his heartbeat had sped up in anxiety, but he forces himself to hold his leisurely position. His men can't see him worried. A siege is not a likely possibility, Logan reminds himself. A large enough force to achieve that could not have gotten this far without being noticed.

Logan takes a deep breath. “Who’s the ranking officer at the garrison itself?”

“Lieutenant Ryder, sir.”

“Ah, an experienced man, then." Logan nods decisively. "And he has Lieutenant Francis in the village for backup. They’ll do fine, with sufficient manpower.” He'll have to keep an eye on the situation, of course. IT wouldn't do to let such a strange threat go unmonitored so close to home.

A minute later, the massive doors of Seraph HQ open to admit a Seraph soldier. “Captain, I have a report on Shaemoor.”

“Continue,” Logan says, leaning back in his chair.

“Centaurs are currently attacking the garrison. They seem to have a temporary camp on the southern edge of Scaver Plateau and are only sending forces in small waves. It’s a sizable force at the camp, but the garrison is holding - for now at least. Our lieutenant requests replacements for the newer soldiers so he can get them out of the frontline fighting, and reinforcements to handle the centaurs when they decide to mount a full-scale attack. He’ll need more than the command stationed in the village, and he’s already using twice the manpower.”

"Where'd he get extra manpower from already?” Logan questions with a frown.

“The centaurs hit us right at our shift change, Captain. The lieutenant kept the day shift on guard to help the night shift with the defense.”

Logan grimaces, but otherwise doesn't let his worry show on his face. That’s over half the men on duty tired from a day of service. These centaurs have far too much information on Seraph troops and movements. More than Logan’s own active information, at that. “Send as many men as he needs,” Logan says aloud to his aide, who scribbles notes frantically. “Call in men from Altar Brook Crossing, even Claypool if need be. We may need them - we still don’t know how the centaurs got here or where they came from.” There may also be Seraph forces incoming from Krytan Freeholds, too, depending on Groban’s findings.

“Yes, Captain!” The man salutes with a thump of his fist to his chest, and leaves.

Logan takes a deep breath to settle his nerves and stretches slightly. He had never been built for desk work, and rather itches to be on the battlefield where he can actually be helping instead of gathering information. But, alas, such are the trials of love. With that thought, Logan rises from his desk. “I need to report to the queen. Send Lieutenant Groban to me when he returns.”

~oOoOo~

Logan enters Queen Jennah’s throne room and bows with a flourish. Jennah would not have minded if he’d strode right up to her - and Logan certainly would have preferred to - but appearances must be maintained, for nobles, ministers, and commoners alike. They need to see the Seraph Captain showing proper respect and deference. Logan hides a smile; showing the Chamber of Ministers that the queen has the full support of her military is one of his favorite pastimes. It wouldn’t do to let them forget, after all. So he follows the forms with all the respect and dignity he can muster. Passionate embraces can be saved for… less public spaces.

Jennah meets his eyes with a warm smile from across the room. "Ah, Logan!” She beckons him come closer.

Logan approaches gladly. “My queen,” he murmurs, kissing her hand. Now, that part of the ritual… well. But there is business to be done.

Straightening, he goes on, “I’m afraid there’s no time for pleasantries. Centaurs are sieging Shaemoor Garrison as we speak - threatening the Village of Shaemoor and the Shaemoor Fields, farmland that provides for most of Divinity’s Reach. Even more worrying, we don’t know how they got so far into Kryta.”

Jennah frowns. “Where were they before?”

“At closest? Krytan Freeholds, beyond the Eldvin Monastery. Our usual battle lines are drawn even further out, past Beetletun and Guardian’s Pass.”

“And you say they threaten the city?”

Logan forces himself to let go of the tension between his shoulders. “The lieutenant at Shaemoor Garrison isn’t certain he can hold out for long. I’m gearing up the Seraph to assist them already. The centaurs also have displayed an uncanny knowledge of our operations - shift changes particularly. I’m confident we can handle it, but it’s a worrying development.”

“I agree,” Jennah says softly. She sighs. “I do not see the point of continuing to spend lives on this war. Is there any chance of a parlay?”

"I wish," Logan mutters resentfully. How do they know our shift changes?? He takes a deep breath to calm himself. “You know we’ve tried before, Your Majesty. They won’t settle for anything, reasonable or unreasonable - they want to claim all of Kryta and do who knows what with humanity. Kill us all, possibly; or enslave us. Most generously, I can imagine they’d pack us off to some remote corner of the country while they have free rein of the rest.” He shakes his head, anger bubbling in his chest. The centaur war had been taking its toll on the people for far too long.

Countess Anise speaks up from Queen Jennah’s right hand, almost like the lady-in-waiting she pretended to be. “Their view is understandable. By nature, we shouldn’t even be here - we’re relative newcomers to this world, and the centaurs know it best of all. They have better reason to than most - well, save the charr, and we’re at war with them, too. Excuse me, ceasefire. Of course the centaurs resent our presence on their land.”

“We can’t exactly leave,” Logan replies sharply.

“Of course not, Captain,” Anise says easily. “It is a tragedy that we’ll have to beat them into submission the hard way, but one that must be endured. What concerns me more is their appearance out of nowhere - right at twilight and the day after Wintersday, no less.”

“I have scouts on the problem already,” Logan says, speaking more to Jennah than her advisor. “They’ll take longer to report in, but I thought you should know of the situation. I’ll let you know when I know more. Also, I may draw Seraph from the city to supplement our ranks in Shaemoor.”

“That is good to know,” Jennah tells him. “Thank you.” She hesitates. “Might I suggest going to the garrison yourself? You’ve seemed restless of late - the combat will do you good.”

Logan frowns. “I’d like to, but I should stay where I can coordinate things…” He's still waiting for Groban to report in about where the centaurs came from, and then he has to make executive decisions from there; he needs to find out where the centaurs got their information and plug that leak; he has to be able to reallocate men to the garrison as needed; he needs to be able to respond quickly to any new information that might come in - surprise attacks elsewhere in the kingdom, for example -

Countess Anise grins at him. “You mean you should stay where you can keep an eye on the queen? Don’t worry your head, Captain - nothing will befall her.”

“With Divinity’s Reach itself in danger from a threat that materialized out of nowhere, I’ll ‘worry my head’ until I’m one hundred percent sure she is safe,” Logan snaps. “As should you.”

“Oh, I do," Anise says with a slow smile. "Concern yourself first with the centaurs at the gate, Captain, and leave me to handle our… internal affairs.”

That means Anise suspects an information leak or inside job of some kind. Logan wishes he could investigate and manage everything. But Anise has her job, he has his, and…

Jennah smiles at him. “Go, fight your battles, Logan. I’ll be here when you return.”

Logan bows, then turns and leaves the throne room. He really should stay at Seraph HQ and coordinate... But a command from his queen is a command from his queen.

But he won’t stop worrying about her.

#logan thackeray #queen jennah #logan/jennah #jennah/logan #countess anise #gw2 #salt and light #divinity's reach #centaur #gw2 human #lieutenant groban #seraph #defending shaemoor #writing #fanfiction #fanfic #guild wars 2

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