Game Of Thrones Joffrey Baratheon Purple Days

"We're not going to make it" Sabu said as he drank from a small cup, taking care not to spill the precious water.

"We will not give up" Joffrey said as if it were a law of nature, his pale green eye as hard as stone.

He tried to grab his own cup but instead his stump just bumped it over the small crate. It landed on its side, spilling.

"Fuck" Joffrey cursed as he tried to stand up to grab the cup, grimacing as the pain in his chest intensified.

"It's okay, its okay…" Shah said as he stood up from his own, smaller crate and picked up the spilled cup.

"Again…" Joffrey sighted as he dropped back down, grimacing as he looked at his right stump.

"You know, both are not mutually exclusive…" Shah said as he grabbed the cup and tried to refill it, only to be stopped by Joffrey.

"Don't, I spilled my share… save it for the men" he said as he kept gazing at his stump, as if something in it confused him.

"Joffrey, you-"

"Captain" Joffrey interrupted him, lifting his eyes from the stump to look directly at him.

"… Aye sir" Shah said with a sight as he left the kettle and the empty cup atop the crate.

The surviving officers of the Expedition were all sitting around the crate, as the small tables and chairs they'd used before had long since been converted to fire wood.

Joffrey sighted as the shrieking outside got louder, the tent shaking with the force of the gusts.

"It's the damned sandstorm, isn't it?" He asked, weary.

Captain Biju nodded reluctantly, "It is Colonel, while the men and the… officers" he said, vaguely trying not to look at Joffrey's eye, "Have been making a superhuman effort, and the distance we've covered has indeed been tremendous for this weather… this never ending storm is slowing us down too much"

Shah nodded as he left his own cup atop the crate, "We simply do not have the supplies to keep going at this rate. If the storm doesn't clear up soon we'll never make it back to the Greytower" he said.

Joffrey dispelled the miasma of defeat as his fist slammed into the crate. "There's got to be something we can do… we need to get the news back to the Dawn Fort, whatever the cost… do you understand?!" he said as he stood up and paced furiously. "Whatever the damned cost! We must stop the legions of the damned and their masters before they breach the Five Forts. If they're breached… they'll devour the entire north east of the empire before a sufficiently big army can be assembled… and by then it will be too late! All those corpses…" Joffrey sighted again as he stopped and placed a hand on his forehead.

Why? Gods be damned, the world was sufficiently screwed without… without… this…

Jhos suddenly stood up, his face pale as he looked at Joffrey. "There is something I can do…" he said.

Joffrey looked at Jhos, thinking hard.

Fight magic with magic… its better than nothing… he thought, grasping at straws.

"Some sort of ritual I presume… How soon can it be done?" He asked him.

"I can prepare it overnight… tomorrow by dawn" he said before taking a deep breath.

"Alright, do it" Joffrey said as he looked at the rest of the men. "Unless anyone else has a better plan..?" he asked, hoping.

The silence was deafening, only punctuated by the slamming of sand and wind against the tent.

"Very well, I want the men prepared by dawn. Without the sandstorm in the way we can more than triple our rate of advance, make sure the men know I'll personally shove forward anyone who strays behind" he commanded, and the officers knew he meant it.

We must bring the news… whatever the cost…

-.PD.-

The sandstorm was still in full swing as Joffrey strode through the assembled men, speaking with Sunbeams and a few of the painfully young Captains he'd promoted recently, making sure the men were in order. The only tent which was still standing was Jhos', it was surrounded by the few surviving Glimmers and a Quarter Moon, all sitting in the sand. They seemed oblivious to the sandstorm around them, as still as statues as they meditated.

Or concentrated on the ritual…

It was strange though, Jhos had told him it would be ready by dawn… as it was the sun had peeked over the horizon more than an hour ago.

He stopped in front of the tent's entrance, unsure if it would be dangerous to step in now. There was a lone Glimmer by the side of the tent's entrance, hand on his sheathed short sword as he stood guard.

"Threesun" he said, preferring to use Joffrey's traditional title rather than its reformed counterpart.

"Glimmer" Joffrey responded as he walked slowly towards the flap, waiting for the soldier's warning.

None came though, and Joffrey walked inside.

He hadn't known what to expect, perhaps tendrils of darkness swirling in strange patterns, or dazzling patterns of rainbow colored beams like some of the legends said the Children of the Forest used to wield.

Instead, he found Jhos kneeling on the ground with his back facing the entrance, his robes covering only his legs. Joffrey kept walking slowly, giving him a wide berth just in case.

He was looking at a silver dagger in his hand, his expression a mix of frustration and sadness. His chest was pockmarked with tiny slashes and half a dozen bigger pinpricks which centered around his heart.

Jhos looked up from the dagger when he heard him, giving him a sad smile. "This is… harder than I thought… I've been trying all morning but every time I get close I…" he shook his head as he looked at his dagger.

"Jhos, what the hells?!" Joffrey bellowed as he dashed and took the dagger from his unresisting hands.

His Jade Captain took a deep breath as he looked at him, "Whatever the cost… that's what you said remember?" he said. Joffrey gasped, looking at the dagger in hand in disgust.

"So what?! You were going to kill yourself?! Great plan Jhos! What a fucking great plan!!!" Joffrey shouted as he shook his head, pacing around like a caged lion.

"You were right too. The threat that is feasting on the carcass that used to be the Beyond is greater than any other the Five Forts have ever faced in recorded history… they need to be prepared, whatever the price… remember?" he said.

"Fuck that! I'm not letting you kill yourself! We'll find another way" Joffrey said as he shook his head.

"There is no other and you know it. Every single settlement we've come across was already looted or in ruins, and we haven't spotted another caravan in two months… there is no other way Colonel" he said, using his rank to remind him of his responsibility.

"Jhos… please… please don't" Joffrey said, reduced to begging when reason compelled him to say yes.

"Magic always has a price, one way or another. Think of your men Colonel, think of Shah, Hu, Sabu and all the rest, think of all the people under your responsibility… they'll all be dead within the week. You know this…" Jhos said as he took a deep breath, centering himself before taking off a large, silver medallion inscribed with arcane runes and leaving it to his side. "Give that to High Moon Vhenzi back at the Dawn Fort… tell him I did not falter" he said.

"I can't do it alone though… I realized that today… I don't have the willpower…" he said with a sad smile as he left the medallion and looked at the dagger on Joffrey's hand.

Joffrey stared at the medallion before shaking his head. He walked right towards him and kneeled in front of him, "I'll do it… I'll be the sacrifice" he said, a calm certainty enveloping him.

A calm certainty that was soon shattered by Jhos' amused laugh.

"Oh Joffrey… may you never change" he said with a wistful smile before he shook his head. "Won't work though, it must be me" he said as grabbed Joffrey's hand and placed the dagger, still grasped firmly in Joffrey's hand, right over his heart.

"I can't do it by myself though… no matter how hard I tried… you will have to do your duty as my commanding officer…" he said

Joffrey gazed at the dagger in his hand, he realized it was shaking again.

"Everyone… everyone is leaving me alone Jhos… first Han, then Xon-Mi… then the General… And I might as well have killed Yham… all the men… Jehi, Zhei, Dong… names upon names… Gods please… Jhos… please… not you as well" Joffrey pleaded as the dagger kept shaking.

Jhos however was unmoved, staring right at his eye as he grabbed both of Joffrey's shoulders, bracing himself. "I've lived my life the way I wanted, and I have no shame in ending it like this… do it for the men Joffrey… do it for your men" Jhos said, pleaded even.

Joffrey kept staring fixedly at the dagger as it kept shaking, his eyes paralyzed.

"Joffrey… do it for me… do it for a friend…" Jhos whispered.

Friend.

Joffrey looked up to Jhos' eyes, serene and at peace.

His hands stopped shaking.

Friend…

He stabbed the dagger into Jhos' heart with unexpected strength, twisting it and severing several veins and arteries in one quick, instant motion.

Jhos grunted at the sudden pain, but his grateful eyes were already halfway closed when Joffrey carefully held his back with his stump, letting him fall quietly to the ground as the Jade Sun's arms stopped grasping his shoulder, falling limp by his sides.

Joffrey's breath became erratic against his will, taking in air at random as his eye stung. A gentle breeze seemed to surround them both for a little while before dissipating to nothing.

I must be strong… I can't break down… not here…

Joffrey closed his eye with force, taking in a deep breath as he calmed himself, not letting a single drop fall.

He closed Jhos' eyes fully before taking the medallion and walking slowly out of the tent. Outside, the sandstorm seemed to have lifted entirely, revealing only the grey expanse.

"Dawn" said one of the Glimmers, looking at Joffrey in both sadness and gratefulness.

"Dawn" repeated the other Glimmers in unison.

Joffrey looked at the medallion on his hand before slowly raising it his chest and saluting back, slamming his left fist to his chest, not having the strength to answer back.

-.PD.-

The Expedition was a far, far cry of what it had been. The men didn't even have the strength to cheer as they marched below the raised portcullis of the Greytower's gatehouse. Less than a third had made it back, a bit less than four hundred men.

Joffrey rode at the head of the column, carefully getting off his horse. He was still a bit unfamiliar with the basics of riding one handed, but his previous training with horse archery had helped immensely with the task.

"By the gods… you are a sight for sore eyes…" Joffrey muttered to himself as he gazed up at the tower. The Sunbeam that had been manning the gate was hastily jogging towards him with the look of a man that had gazed salvation.

"… Major Joffrey?! Thank the Maiden-of-Light!!! We thought you'd been…" he stopped when he saw the extra sun on Joffrey's chest. He then took a moment to really look at him and the rest of the expedition.

"Colonel…" he muttered, saluting as he tried to get his thoughts in order.

"Sunbeam" Joffrey saluted back, "The men are starved and thirsty, please make the suitable arrangements" he said as he gazed back upon his weary men.

"Of course Colonel… but… where is General Yu?" he asked, shaken.

Joffrey took a deep breath as he looked back at the Sunbeam, "The Night Hawk fell in battle…" he said before quickly continuing, determined on accomplishing the Foursun's final order. "Colonel—now General Jin leads the Dawn Scouts…" he said before shaking his head. "Where is he by the way?" Joffrey asked as he looked around, puzzled that his old friend and mentor wouldn't be out in the courtyard already.

The Sunbeam's pained flinch and his deafening silence might as well have been a dark spell as Joffrey felt his small, budding hope be crushed like Robert's warhammer to a pebble.

-.PD.-

"Joffrey..! You look like shit…" Jin chuckled as Joffrey kneeled by his bed, grasping Jin's hand with his own as he swallowed.

"You too Jin… you too…" Joffrey said with a raspy half-smile as he slowly lowered his gaze. The heavy blanket couldn't hide the fact that below the waist there was nothing left of Jin to cover.

"I see you met the… tender mercies of the saw as well… eh old friend?" Joffrey said with a small chuckle, blinking rapidly.

"You could say that…" Jin said before coughing a bit, settling his head back over his pillow as he still grasped Joffrey's hand. "I was inspecting the inner wall's repair crews when the whole fucking section gave way… I still can't believe it…" Jin said as he shook his head slowly, "Fifteen freaking years in the Scouts… and it was a damned brick that killed me…" he said with a snort.

Joffrey swallowed again before snorting halfheartedly, trying to smile and failing. "Come on Jin… you paid the price, now it's time to get better…" Joffrey told him, the pungent, rotten smell that filled Jin's room giving away the lie.

"Didn't stop the infection… the damned Body Scribes have had me sedated for quite a while trying to slow the cursed thing… the bastards…" Jin snorted again, with less strength. "I threatened them with eternal pain if they didn't wake me up after the expedition returned though" he said, summoning a chuckle from deep within. "Luckily I still had it in me… I still… had it… in me…" he murmured as his gaze steadily unfocused.

"Bo" he said suddenly, looking up to the Body Scribe in the corner. The healer's white, long whiskers twitched in distress "Colonel… You'll die--"

"Bo..." he whispered again before somehow summoning some inner force. "Bo! Another one…" he commanded. Even in death's door, the Laughing Tiger still had claws.

The Body Scribe stood up and slowly filled up a cup with a dark brown liquid. He sat on the bed's side before slowly tilting it, letting Jin drink at his own pace.

"Ahh… tastes like grey sand… only worse…" he said as he shook his head, his eyes already looking more alert. "Another one" he commanded.

"You won't last the night Jin…" Bo said as he refilled the cup, resigned.

"A night… a week… what's a few hours between friends eh?" Jin chuckled before drinking again.

Bo silently retreated, shaking his head as he carried away his implements. "I'll be outside" he said as he opened the door.

Jin looked revitalized, color flooding his face as he gazed at Joffrey, now serious. "How bad is it?" he asked, bracing himself.

Joffrey sighted, "It's bad Jin… very bad…" he said. "The Demons of the Night… what my people called the White Walkers… they're coming, and they've got an army of undead bigger than the legions combined… an army that only grows victory after victory… They are more than an army… they are a sea of death and destruction Jin… and I fear nothing can stop them…" Joffrey whispered, his despair growing as he kept talking. He blabbered almost incoherently as the tale from the hells escaped from his mouth, telling Jin about the horrors he had seen, the horrors that came for them all.

"…I see…" Jin said, looking at the ceiling, taking a bit of time to process the world shattering revelation. "Did General Yu fall?" he suddenly asked, gazing back at Joffrey.

"He did…" Joffrey murmured as he took out a pouch from his belt, cursing when his stump uselessly fooled around the strings. He finally got it open before taking out two things.

One of the Night Hawk's suns and the Scout's Horn.

"He ordered me to give you these…" Joffrey said. His hand tightly grasped the gold rimmed iron sun and the string from which the Horn hanged as he slowly moved it towards Jin.

"No" Jin said as he suddenly lifted his own hand and stopped Joffrey's. "I am unable to continue my duties…" he said as he gently pushed the hand back toward Joffrey's chest.

"Jin…" Joffrey whispered, feeling the weight of the sun in his hand.

"You lost more than just an arm and an eye out there Joffrey… but you gained something too…" Jin said with a small smile. "Sometimes… sometimes men have to become something greater than themselves… something… grander" he said as he gazed back at Joffrey's eye.

"Jin…" Joffrey said again, voice half strangled. Jin however, was unrelenting. "Night approaches Joffrey… You have seen it better than I ever could, you understand what is to come… You understand what needs to be done…" he continued as Joffrey shook his head in denial.

"A beacon of light and hope, an unshakable pillar, a father…" Jin trailed off as his eyes seemed to bore on his friend.

"You must become that, Joffrey… if our civilization can withstand the coming storm you speak of… you must become something grander… you need to be that beacon to our men, to our brothers… You must become that unshakable pillar, that banisher of despair, that father to the men… you must lead… you must lead them Joffrey…" Jin continued, still pushing back Joffrey's fist.

"I am unable to continue my duties as leader of the Dawn Scouts…" he said.

"Jin…" Joffrey half whispered, looking as his own fist finally touched his breastplate.

"Open it" Jin said.

Joffrey felt as if his entire being were made of needles as he opened his fist and looked at the Horn's strap and the lone, gold rimmed iron sun.

"General Joffrey… May you serve the Scouts through Dawn and Dusk, through Light and Dark" Jin recited, his voice echoing inside Joffrey's skull like a command from Fate.

He slowly closed his fist, taking a deep, long breath.

Jin smiled as he let his arm fall back down, "Now... I do believe we still have a few hours before dusk… and you do owe me a game you barbarian bastard…" he said.

Joffrey took another deep breath, "I do believe you are right" he said with a slight smile.

"Dice?" Joffrey asked, barely keeping the stinging in his eye under control.

"Of course not! The damned brick fell on my legs not my head! And thank the gods for that…" Jin exclaimed, laughing outright.

Joffrey chuckled alongside him, grasping his hand again. "Cards then?" he asked him.

"Cards it is" Jin said with a satisfied nod.

It was one of the best games they played, full of both outrageously skilled moves and embarrassing blunders. Joffrey and Jin laughed at old stories and fallen friends, and a whole lot of Siwine was drunk. And as the sun slowly settled in the west, the game slowly came to an end and Joffrey snorted in disbelief.

"I can't believe you've won yet again Jin… no one can be that skilled…" he mused as he gazed at his cards in shock. "Jin?" he asked as he looked back up.

The Laughing Tiger sported an amused, satisfied half smile, his eyes half lidded and still. His limp hand held only a few of his cards, the rest had slipped. He had more cards than he should though, and many of them seemed to be concentrated around his left sleeve.

Joffrey blinked a few times as he saw the cards, the corner of his mouth lifting in amusement against his will. "You cheating bastard…" he said as he shook his head, unable to contain the strangled chuckle that emerged from his throat.

He took in a deep, halting breath as he looked at the window, dazed by the last rays of the setting sun. He blinked rapidly before closing his eyes and breathing once more.

The sun was almost gone when Joffrey placed his hand on Jin's shoulder. "Through Dawn and Dusk Jin… through Light and Dark…" he promised him as he grasped him tight and the sun hid completely, giving way to a dark, starry night.

-.PD.-

…and I'll be personally leading the Dawn Fort's contingent. What few obsidian shards we have managed to find are being turned into arrow tips as you read this, for if the Enemy is as tough as you've seen ranged combat may be the only way to take them out. The rest of the Fort Commanders agree with your assessment given the Reanimated's characteristics, our defense in depth will be useless against such a foe. The best of the Legions will assemble at the Noon Fort and meet the enemy in open battle as I stated before, where we will make use of our mobility and superior might to our advantage and crush them.

You and your men's sacrifice shall not be forgotten General Joffrey, and I look forward to personally meeting you once this is all over.

Still We Stand.

Signed,

General Fei-Pi, the Green Elephant, Dawn Commander.

Joffrey sighted as he read the letter yet again, promptly unleashing sounds of protest from his right. "Is it ready?" he asked as he tilted his head to the right so he could see what was going on.

"Not quite General, though it would go faster if you didn't move so much" grumbled the old armorer as he kept fidgeting with the metal piece and the harnesses, jumbling Joffrey's stump about and making it itch terribly.

"You can keep reading it again and again, the orders there won't change" Said Sabu as the burly man took a drink of water from his canteen. Him, Joffrey and a few other officers were inside the Greytower's smithy, mostly passing the time and weary about it after the maddened race throughout the Beyond.

"I can't believe they're leaving us here… They're assembling the might of the Five Forts to take out the Demon's out in the open and end this once and for all… and they're leaving us here…" Joffrey spitted as he shook his head.

"In all fairness, almost all the units here are at half strength or worse, and that's not counting the Expedition Remnants…" Hu said as he shrugged.

The scouts that had been left garrisoning the Greytower and the surrounding Outkeeps hadn't had it much better than the expedition. The Wight raiding parties had only increased in frequency since the time the expedition left, though their attacks had almost completely stopped shortly after Joffrey and the rest of the survivors arrived.

It was obvious the White Walkers were concentrating their strength, it seemed they knew the Legions was prepared to face them in open battle… and they were willing to oblige.

"I know…" Joffrey muttered as the itch on his stump became almost unbearable, "It's just… after the hell we went through… to not see the bastards faces when the Legions smash them…" he shook his head. "It doesn't matter, we did our part… the Legions now know how to fight them" Joffrey said, hoping.

"And done, despite the constant movement… you will have to use the strength in your torso even more now though…" said the elderly Sunbeam as he stood up, not an ounce of respect and not the least bit intimidated by Joffrey's new rank. A refreshing attitude after seeing the more green recruits stopping what they were doing and gazing in awe every time he strode by.

Shah and the rest have been spreading too much tales…

"Hold this for me" he said as he handed Sabu the letter and gazed at his prosthesis. It was a short steel pole that connected to what was left of his forearm, making his new 'arm' just a bit longer than what it was before. Instead of a hand though, it ended in a mace head with wickedly sharp flanges.

He moved it around awkwardly, giving it a few experimental swings. It was uncomfortable and a bit heavy, but being able to use both hands in battle was well worth it. Joffrey would have preferred a blade, but the mace was simply more effective at crushing wight skulls. He didn't have the dexterity he used to with the saber, but he could swing the thing from any direction and one of the flanges would still connect with the enemy, assuming it didn't dodge it.

"Major Yham would weep if he could see you know…" Sabu said with a small smirk, looking at Joffrey's clumsy swings.

"Your style is evolving in quite the different manner from the norm…" Yham mused as he helped Joffrey up, the icy blade still piercing his chest.

Joffrey stopped mid swing, before shaking his head harshly.

"He would weep even harder if he saw what Sabu and I will do this afternoon…" Joffrey said with a snort, trying to leave the sudden image behind quickly.

"What?" Sabu asked suddenly.

"Helping me train in saber fighting with my left hand of course" Joffrey answered glibly.

"Gods… we'll be at it all day" Sabu murmured in between exasperation and amusement as he stood up.

"All week, rather" said Hu as he raised his eyebrows.

"Not that we have much else to do. The scouts can at least patrol the usual routes, the expedition survivors that weren't scouts were ordered by high command to stay here and recuperate… a little bit of entertainment should make their lives a little bit less miserable" Joffrey said as he grabbed his saber with his left hand. "Alright" he said as he promptly fumbled with it and dropped it to the ground, "This might take a while…"

"Oh and by the way" he said as he walked out of the smithy with Sabu, "I'm making all of you Majors" he said with a smirk.

"What?!" "But Jo--General!" "Huh" various cries followed him outside as Joffrey chuckled.

"They didn't think I was going to sit at the head of this disaster without dragging them in too right?" Joffrey asked himself as he kept walking.

He suddenly stopped.

"What are you smirking at, Major Shah?" he asked the Long Scout as he lounged on the smithy's entrance.

"Oh" was the only thing the normally deep meaning officer said before Joffrey strode outside into the sun.

"Gods this thing itches!" he yelled, flailing the mace about and startling some of the newest recruits around him as they ducked.

-.PD.-

The Expedition remnants and the rest of the Scouts used the next two months well. The ample supplies at the Greytower seemed to do wonders for both morale and weary bones as their bodies took their time recuperating from the harsh mission.

Apparently, word of 'The Silver Lion and his Men' had spread around the Dawn Legion, as the resupply caravans carried with them the strange and often amusing rumors that had spread through the Dawn Fort unleashed by Joffrey's outlandish, no nonsense report, signed by all surviving officers in the expedition to boot. Tales that only seemed to grow as the caravans returned to the Dawn Fort carrying with them the Scout's take on the events, which were obviously even more outlandish. Tales and whispers of the 'unshakable' officer which had led his men out of hell itself, climbed down alone into the abyss in search of answers, made war against legions of cultists, corpses and raiders. The man which had blown up a Demon of the Night at the cost of his own arm… managing to exaggerate those events even more left Joffrey stunned, stunned and assaulted by the urge to clobber the heads of his men and the greener recruits. It sickened Joffrey that they whispered in awe of him of all people, and not the courageous friends that had left their lives out in the Beyond so that he could live.

Joffrey thought that by interacting little with the resupply caravans he'd be able to keep the stupid rumors to a minimum, but that proved to be a fatal mistake. His few appearances served to entrance the wagon drivers, loaders and escorts even more… His grey eye patch now glowed with pure sunlight and was capable of spotting lies, and apparently his mace prosthesis doubled as a coiling dragon in times of emergency, just in case he had to blow another Walker to smithereens and there wasn't another artillery piece on hand. And of course, there was always someone who claimed they'd seen the silver lion itself prowling nearby the General, always vigilant and apparently fed up of eating shadow demons for lunch.

He very much doubted Jin had meant this sort of thing when he'd told him to lead, but Joffrey didn't have it within him to smash the optimism the caravans (and quite a few of the recruits) departed with.

They needed all the hope and optimism they could get.

Joffrey didn't spend the two months idly by, however. Besides training every morning and every afternoon with his left hand and a saber, he made sure they made the most of the obsidian they had recovered, making a dozen daggers and two hundred arrow tips from the big shard. The Expedition survivors shared their hard earned lessons with the rest of the Scouts, both soldiers and officers, and tactics for how to counter them were discussed and demonstrated in mock battles.

Mostly they waited for the both hoped and dreaded condor which would carry the latest news from what the supply caravans had called the coming 'Battle for the Light'.

The Five Legions marched against the great enemy.

Joffrey knew sheltering within the network of keeps and forts wouldn't work against the kind of enemy they were up against. There would be little or no supply routes to cut, nor lines of communication to sever without copious use of the Jade Scribes, which were already overstretched. Their heavy arrows were not exactly useless, but their effectiveness dropped sharply against enemies who didn't bleed.

All in all, Joffrey thought that meeting them out in the open, in a terrain of the Legion's choosing, was the best course of action… but that didn't stop the nightmares and the anxiety, and as the days kept passing by and the winter kept getting colder and colder, Joffrey shivered at the thought of what exactly would happen if the Combined Legions couldn't stop them.

All of that apprehension skyrocketed at the third month after their arrival, a month where there was no supply caravan, no riders, and no condors.

Twenty seven days after the last known contact, the tension around the Greytower was so thick it could have been cut with a dull knife…

And then the 2nd Long Patrol found a raving, sobbing wreck of a Legionnaire running from the north.

He was clad in the tabard of the 143rd Dusk Garrison.

-.PD.-

"Tell me again, from the beginning this time" Joffrey said. He was sitting in front of one of the Kitchen's tables, right in front of the ghost of a soldier, bone thin and almost crying as he gulped the small bowl of soup he had been given.

The soldier kept eating, eyes shifting from side to side as if distrustful of the room's corners, as if waiting for some beast to appear out of nowhere and pounce on him.

Joffrey's aide, Sunbeam Loh, was at his side as always. He frowned as he walked around the table. Just like his superior, the Sunbeam had seen too much shit already to mince words. Just as his commander, Loh had returned from the Beyond differently from how he had departed. The hard work he'd done during the expedition had left his frame bigger and meaner. His long, black beard made him look larger than he already was, and his closed scars had a tendency slightly swell when he scowled.

"The General asked you a question Tworay!" Loh said as he slammed his hand on the table. The soldier looked startled, but quickly shook his head, almost maniacally. "The Generals couldn't save us… no one can…" he gibbered as he kept eating from the bowl.

Loh lowered himself to the man's ear, his face red. "Mind your words Garrison scum! That's the Silver Lion you're talking to!" he threatened.

"Loh! That's enough please…" Joffrey scolded him, holding up his palm.

"Aye sir" said his Sunbeam, standing back and at ease to the side of the Tworay.

But somehow, he had shaken the Tworay out of his trance, "The… the Silver Lion..?" he asked dumbly, raising his head from the bowl again.

"That's what I was acclaimed as…" Joffrey nodded, waiting for the soldier to get on with it. The man opened and closed his mouth repeatedly as the rest of the officers arrived, taking seats around the table and murmuring between them before Joffrey silenced them with a look.

"I have seen them… seen them and killed them… There's nothing to fear here, you are under my protection" Joffrey told him, holding the man's eyes with his own and meaning it.

The Tworay swallowed before reluctantly leaving the bowl on the table, a smidgen of determination struggling to take control of him.

"I… I.. I was there… the combined might of the Five Legions all arrayed… arrayed in a splendor of color… gods… the swirling banners and the horses and the camels--" The Tworay jabbered.

"The Legions had assembled… they marched to meet the enemy..?" Joffrey prodded before the tangential details threatened to break the man's sanity again.

The man nodded maniacally as he was seemingly entranced by Joffrey's eye, "Yes yes… we marched… we chose the field of battle… we fortified the valley's entrance… near a dozen miles away from Iron Hill… but they were so many… so many of them…" the man said as a sob escaped from his mouth and he started to tear up, rocking slightly.

"What happened then..? Tworay… Tworay, we need to know what happened…" Joffrey pleaded with him, leaning forward and willing the man to talk.

He was shaking as he stared at Joffrey, his mouth moving haltingly as the words poured out of him.

"The.. The corpses kept hitting us in waves… like the ocean in an autumn storm… and… and then… the legions of flying creatures… oh gods…" the Tworay whispered as his eyes grew wild, "Whole swarms, armies of them, they fell from the sky with swords and axes and claws, the buzz was so loud I couldn't hear my own voice..!" he said, starting to hyperventilate as he raised a hand to his mouth in dead horror.

Joffrey stood up, the rest of the officers looked on in dread as the soldier's rocking doubled in speed. Joffrey walked to the man and kneeled beside the chair, holding the side of his head with his left hand as he kept staring at his eyes, "And then… what happened then soldier? What happened then?" he asked him.

"…They… they took out our artillery… and then the waves of undead doubled, no, tripled… and then…" the soldier's crazed rambling stopped while he looked at Joffrey as if he had suddenly remembered an incredible idea.

"Where are they now? Where did the Legions regroup..? Where's the frontline now?" Joffrey asked as the man kept staring at him. The soldier's gaze twitched slightly, his face white.

The silence in the kitchen was deafening, and Joffrey's steadily controlled voice sounded vaguely muffled under its heavy weight. "How many units made it to the rally point..? Soldier… How many units..." He calmly questioned the soldier again.

His rocking had lost all momentum and he was staring at Joffrey in pure dread, the bowl of food long forgotten. His voice sounded mechanical as he let out the rest in regular intervals. "Then they came… from everywhere… at the same time oh gods… ice and white… oh gods white—white-white… mounted atop… shambling beasts with cold eyes and a… a… cursed breath that tore the skin out of Sunbeam Gheh and Tei screamed as his face--- oh gods oh gods oh godsohgodsohgodsohgods--- " he started screaming as he leapt out of the seat and fell on the floor, shaking and raving as he rocked back and forth.

"Bo, please give him something…" Joffrey told the Body Scribe as he slowly stood up and gazed at his officers, his vision a bit slow as something slowly crawled up his throat. The silence was overwhelming when the Tworay promptly fell asleep to Bo's concoctions and the officers gazed at the now still man, some confused, others in pale white shock.

Joffrey closed his eye as he thought, slowly shaking his head.

He opened them to find his officers, both survivors and newly promoted additions staring silently back at him as Bo carried the Tworay out of the kitchen.

"…We have no choice…" Joffrey said with a sight, the newer hands shaking their heads in disbelief and the older survivors closing their eyes.

"Our position here became untenable around a month ago…" he said as he gazed at every one of them, regretting what he was about to do but finding no way around it.

His tongue tasted of acid when he commanded, "We depart for the Dawn Fort tomorrow at first light, get the men ready" he commanded, the wound behind his grey eye patch twisting ominously.

With the bulk of the combined legions gone… The corpses will swarm the forts like a high tide…

…We have to get back… we have to get back now…

The officers were unmoving as they took a second to digest the order. "Move it men! Weapons and food have wagon priority, let's get it done now!" He bellowed at them as he gestured with his hand, unleashing a chorus of orders and muffled shouts as the officers and their seconds scrambled out of the kitchen, conferring between them and bellowing for aids and Sunbeams.

"… it's this it sir..?" suddenly asked Loh when the kitchen was emptied, still behind and slightly to the left of the empty chair.

Joffrey turned back, his eye narrowing in concentration. "No Loh… this is barely the beginning…" he muttered as if to himself. "Come on, let's get the obsidian tipped arrows out of the armory, I'll want them at the middle of the convoy…" he ordered as he suddenly turned and started walking out of the kitchen at a fast pace.

"Aye sir" said Loh as he effortlessly caught up with him, gesturing for the couple of soldiers that had been guarding the kitchen doors.

"Give ten arrows to each of Shah's men, and tell the smiths to turn the rest into arrow tips as well, time's up for any kind of fancy glass battleaxes…" Joffrey said without looking as he kept walking. The two soldiers jogged past him and Sunbeam Loh quickly, barely managing to open the keep doors as Joffrey strode past them.

"Aye sir. Shui, tell the Forgemaster to turn the rest into heads, and get Yazhu here. Each man in the first long and the seventh are to get ten arrows each, go!" bellowed the Sunbeam at one of the accompanying soldiers.

The soldier dashed to the side as Joffrey walked out to the courtyard, stopping for a second to let four frantic soldiers carrying a crate go by. "…and I want the tents dispersed, by several wagons at the back and center…" He said as he walked to the middle of the big courtyard, surrounded by bellowing officers and grunting soldiers, moving crates and animals around in controlled chaos as more men kept pouring out of the barracks and the noise and the shouting rose exponentially.

"What about the furniture, General?" Loh asked, already anticipating his next request.

"Wood… Yes, turn it into kindling and assemble it by the stables, we'll need all we can get… and where the hell is Hu?!" he said, turning around the middle of the courtyard and deftly dodging a camel pulled wagon.

"Nuan!" shouted his aide to a nearby Threeray.

"Sunbeam!" the Threeray snapped as he jogged quickly beside Loh as Joffrey kept scanning the area with his eye.

"Find Major Sabu and tell him the General wants every bit of nonessential furniture piled beside the stables and cut into kindling! Go! Now!" he ordered.

"Yes sir!" the Threebeam saluted quickly before dashing towards the keep.

"There he is…" Joffrey muttered as he walked towards the Gatehouse. "Dust open the storage and fill every canteen you can find, we'll carry them on the hospital wagons… there's bound to be more survivors out there…" he told his aide as they rapidly approached Major Hu.

"Aye sir" Loh said as split to the right and quickly spoke with a few soldiers. "Hu!" Joffrey bellowed as he cleared another scrambling wagon. "General!" Hu shouted as a soldier gave him a helmet which he promptly put on after gesturing at a few scouts with it.

"Where were you? Never mind, do you know what's going on?" Joffrey asked as he reached him.

"Close enough sir, Shah told me just a minute ago. I'm doing inventory with Ho-Xeng just now" Hu said, his own aid briefing a few Threerays as he jotted something down in a slip of paper.

"Not anymore, you're taking the 17th and the 21st out north for a long sweep, find and bring any stragglers or survivors you can, try to corroborate their stories…" Joffrey told him.

"Aye sir, we'll find as many as we can" Hu said as he nodded, "Xeng, get the men saddled and ready for a quick sweep" Hu ordered the Sunbeam to his side.

"Yes Major!" the Sunbeam saluted as he turned back.

Joffrey was already walking back, Sunbeam Loh by his side again. "Tell Bo to ransack the hospital tower, we're taking everything that's not nailed to the wall. We'll be needing those supplies…" Joffrey said as groups of two men emerged from the armory, carrying small chests full of obsidian tipped arrows. "Get half of those to Hu's men by the Gatehouse, move!" He commanded as he kept walking at a quick pace, his stump itching slightly as his mace hand tingled.

"This is barely the beginning Loh… barely the beginning…" he whispered as the men parted ways in front of him, taking a moment to nod or bow slightly as they carried on with their duties.

-.PD.-

The morning sun was radiant as it rose from the east, a red-yellow blob that illuminated the green-grey hills as far as the eye could see. The rolling plains extended far to the north and east until the horizon itself turned pure grey, its color barely touched by the orange dawn. Joffrey was standing upon one of the hills, not too far from the Greytower. He was crouched, feeling the swaying, rough clumps of grass between his hands as the wind shuffled them about. He took a deep breath as the wind picked up again, driving the clumps of grass down with force.

I wonder if after we're all gone, someone will remember them?

Yham… Jhos… Xon… Han… Jin... Jehi… Yu… so many… so many of them gone…

Will they be forgotten in time? Will their sacrifices be evaporated by my death? Wouldn't it be better that the world be consumed by ice and death rather than be reset..? If the Walkers win, at least their sacrifice will have meant something, at least its existence will not be violated… but if the world is reset yet again… no one else will remember them, their courage, their unshakable loyalty, their last defiant cries... they'll be lost like howls in an autumn storm, faded from existence itself…

…But… if I gave up now… wouldn't it be even worse..? A betrayal before dissipation…

To leave a whole world to be consumed… to leave my brothers in their time of greatest need…

No.

"Sir… they're ready" Lho said, standing a respectful distance to his left and back.

Joffrey took another deep breath before standing up, grasping a bunch of grey sand with his left fist.

The sand is moving… soon all that was the Lands of the Shrykes shall be Grey. Soon the world itself shall be white and grey…

He squeezed his fist, grey sand slipping past his fingers and flying away with a strong gust of wind as he gazed at the Beyond.

He turned back and walked towards Lho, taking the horse's reins from his hand and mounting up. "Let's ride Lho" he said as his aide mounted his own horse.

"Aye sir" Lho said as he rode behind him, hefting a long pole with a banner attached to it which flew defiantly over them. It sported a silver lion sitting atop a mountain, gazing up to a field full of stars bigger than the lion and the mountain combined.

"Let's ride for Dawn" he said as he spurred his horse towards the line of bristling steel and well-worn plates, of hardened eyes and firm grips.

-.PD.-

The marching line of men and wagons was tense, but well disciplined. They marched steadily through the dirty road, faces stern and eyes alert. Most of them were veterans from the Expedition, men who had walked through the hells to deliver a strike against their hated enemy. The distinction between their branches had slowly lost meaning throughout the last half year, and they marched with an easy grace that was beyond the physical, a grace of mind and soul.

Joffrey was with the van, his horse cantering at a quick yet measured step. He was eying the shrubbery to the sides of the road warily as an itching sensation tingled from his nonexistent right arm.

The hairs at the back of his neck were tingling as he tried to listen beyond the sound of moving men, grim but determined to fight for life and dawn.

Suddenly he raised his left fist to the air, steady.

"LEGIONARIES! HALT!" Lho bellowed back.

The column snapped to a standstill as the wagons halted, and Joffrey used the sudden silence to listen as he turned his head slightly.

Shah approached slowly atop his own horse, face weary as he halted beside Joffrey.

"Do you hear that?" Joffrey asked him abruptly.

"… I do…" Shah said, his voice barely louder than a whisper.

It was a dull, low level thump repeated a thousand times, as if a crazed bed servant were shaking a corrugated leather blanket again and again.

Joffrey stood atop his stirrups, his eye squinting against the sun as he looked towards the north. On the horizon he spotted a dark cloud moving towards them, accompanied by the dull, leathery sound which was now a continuous buzz.

"MEN!!! PENITENT TURTLE NOW!" Joffrey roared back as his new horn scout sounded out the order. He spurred his horse back to the center as the column contracted, the men taking out half pikes or other heavy weapons as they made a circle around the many wagons. "ARCHERS AT THE BACK! EYES ON THE HORIZON!" he bellowed as he drew his saber, the men nocking arrows as the frontline kneeled.

Joffrey could see the individuals within the dark cloud as it got steadily larger, revealing hundreds, thousands of flying men, the combined flapping of their wings steadily drowning all other sound.

His horse whined in near panic as the men shuffled, some of the half pikes trembling as the all-consuming roar of the wings seemed to drown even their own breathing.

"STEADY!!! STEADY MEEEEEEN!!!!" Joffrey's bellow cut over the incipient panic, his voice somehow being heard over the buzz that surrounded them as the legions of Flying Men kept going, their course unmoving as they flew towards the Southwest. They didn't even look down as they flew through the skies above them, their course strangely steady even if many of them struggled to stay aloft, broken wings and hollow, blue eyes single-mindedly following their unknowable objective.

They were Flying Men no more. They were flying wights.

The overwhelming buzz slowly died down as the last of them passed by, and soon their hazy forms were vaguely distinguishable against the glare of the horizon. Joffrey watched them go as his eye swiveled back to Lho with frightening intensity.

That course will not take them to the Dawn Fort. Was the thought that dominated Joffrey's head as he looked at his aide.

"Where?" he asked simply.

Loh was pale as he looked at his map, slowly tracing a line with his finger. "Assuming they don't deviate… most likely… the Free Imperial City of Lanzhou" he said.

Joffrey looked back south at the foothills of the Mountains of the Morn, and slowly stared back down. "May the Gods be with them, if there's any left…" he whispered before looking up again.

"What are you gawping at?! We'll reach Hulang Keep by the morrow at this pace!" he shouted at his men, startling them. "Stop envying the wings and get your feet moving again, you'd think I'm in command of a snail trail!" he shouted in overt exasperation. The men laughed nervously as some of the shock slipped by and Joffrey rode forward again, bellowing. "Officers! Get your men in order! And Lho!" he shouted.

"Sir?" Lho asked by his side as he rode.

"Get me some of that damned ointment again, this thing itches harder than Sabu's ass!" he shouted at him, waving his mace prosthesis about. The men behind him chuckled despite themselves, and Joffrey's mouth tugged slightly in a private smile as his men's demeanor lost a bit of the shock and they started to march again, a few scout's eyes vigilant on the horizon.

-.PD.-

"OPEN THE GATES!" shouted Lho as Joffrey and his retinue stopped in front of the gatehouse. Hulang Keep was a respectable fort that dominated Rockbowl vale's southern entrance. The vale itself was nothing too special, as the hardy soil was hard to grow crops upon, but beyond it was the only road that would lead to the Dawn Fort in anything less than months.

"Who commands so?" a voice bellowed back from the tower.

"General Joffrey, Commander of the Dawn Scouts!" Joffrey shouted back, his voice clipped and formal. The guards atop murmured confusedly between themselves before Lho bellowed again.

"OPEN THE GATES FOR THE SILVER LION!" he shouted as he soldier to his right hefted Joffrey's personal sigil.

Joffrey sighted as that made them move, quickly raising the portcullis.

"This is going to be fun…" he murmured as he rode past it.

-.PD.-

"…What do you mean annihilated?!" shouted Major Genshua of the 331st Iron Garrison as Joffrey supervised his men, watching them prepare their tents in the big courtyard.

"I mean destroyed as an effective fighting force, scattered survivors may have reached as far south as Rockbowl Vale by now" Joffrey commented as he surveyed his men.

"But—but-but the Legions..! They… they can't be gone!!!" he almost shouted.

Joffrey pivoted perfectly to face him, his eye as hard as granite as it bore on Major Genshua, "When you address a superior officer, you will do so as 'sir'" he said, his stare unwavering.

Genshua snapped straight despite being twice as large as Joffrey, adding a halfhearted 'sir!' as Joffrey kept staring at him.

"Have you received any condors from the Dawn Fort? Any resupplies?" he asked the Major.

"N-none, sir… and the riders I've sent back have not yet returned" he said.

"Must have been the roving bands of flying wights" Major Sabu said as he reached Joffrey, "Supplies are good, but the men here seem green and shaken. They won't last a week against a concerted attack" he told Joffrey.

"Agreed, Major Genshua" he said as he looked back at the commander of Hulang Keep.

"Sir!" said the Major, feeling slightly burned by Joffrey's eye.

"You and your men will come with us on the morrow, back to the Dawn Fort" he ordered.

Major Genshua spluttered as Joffrey suddenly strode forward, grabbing a soldier which was howling on the ground, "Get that crate up!" he commanded as he reached him, two other soldiers lifting the crate that had tipped over from the nearby wagon. "Can you feel the leg soldier?" Joffrey asked him as he helped him up.

"Augh… aaaaah… I… Yes sir…" said the soldier as he shut his eyes in pain.

"Take him to the local infirmary" he told one of the Body Scribes that had arrived a second before, helping him limp towards one of the healers. They promptly took him by the shoulders as Joffrey turned back to a still stunned Major Genshua.

"Why aren't your men moving Major?" he asked as he strode forward dangerously.

"I-I cant abandon my post just like that! W-We have rations and strong walls and--"

"You have nothing, Major!" Joffrey cut off the man's stutter brutally as he tore off his grey eyepatch and grabbed him by the collar, shoving his vacant eye socket at the man's face. "The last Demon I met gave me this before I killed him. And it took my arm to do that. Do you have heavy artillery here Major? No? Perhaps a Hemisphere of Jade Scribes then? Hmm?! How many units of heavy shock? How many armorers?! How many piles of wood to burn the dead!?!" he asked brutally.

Genshua looked pale as he stared at Joffrey's empty eye socket, muttering incoherently as the restrained, heavy weight in Joffrey's voice seemed to drag him into an abyss he'd only heard of before.

Joffrey let him loose as he took a step back, extending a hand to his left. "I know where all those things are Major. They're at the Dawn Fort. There we shall make our stand, there will shall win or die, there We! Will! Stand!" he roared as Lho handed him his eye patch.

He turned back to the sea of faces that stared at him in silence, veterans and recruits, serious expedition members and pale Iron Garrisons.

"We shall not go quietly into the Dark! We will not whimper as the monsters come! Through Dawn and Dusk! Through Light and Dark! WE! WILL! STAND!" he bellowed at the top of his lungs as he lifted his mace arm to the air and the expedition veterans gave a vaguely restrained growl of defiance, slamming swords against shields, spear shafts against ground. The Garrison Irons still seemed scared, but the zeal of the Silver Lion and his men seemed to infuse renewed vigor into their backs.

He turned back as he shook the dust off the patch before placing it back over his empty eye socket, deftly tying it to the back of his head one handed. Genshua was already ordering his men about, bringing their stores out to the open.

"Orders, sir?" Sabu asked as he looked at Joffrey strangely.

"Help them clear the keep, we move tomorrow at dawn" he said, looking at his men again as they prepared.

-.PD.-

The 'Lion's Army', as the men were starting to call it, made its way through Rockbowl Vale at a vaguely slower pace than before. They encountered small clumps of terrified survivors all over it, men who had fled south in the hopes of escaping certain death. Their stories corroborated the ones they heard from the survivors that had reached the Greytower two weeks before…

The Five Legions were gone, their corpses added to the Army of Darkness.

The mishmash of somewhat starved survivors swelled Joffrey's forces to more than a thousand men, straining but not yet breaking the ample supplies they had raided from the Greytower and Hulang Keep. Joffrey spoke with the shattered and terrified men from the 32nd Noon Garrison, hollow stared Half Moons from the Hiding Tiger Constellation and even a couple of almost mute Dusk Long Scouts. They all told the same story.

It was readily clear that the Forts had been stripped bare, with only the worst equipped or least reliable forces left behind, and few of those at that. Joffrey made sure to speak with each group of survivors personally, trying to transmit the urge to fight back against the despair and stand once again with their brothers. To fight for the living and the world itself.

He was not sure if he'd succeeded, but after dozens of skirmishes against roving gangs of wights without the survivors breaking he was sure that at least something had gotten through.

They left Rockbowl Vale a week after departing from Hulang Keep, their force numbering almost two thousand men as Joffrey spread out mounted foraging parties and linked up with isolated outposts and their supplies, outposts that were occasionally ruined, the food and supplies spoiled or destroyed… with no sign of bodies present.

It was clear the Walkers did not want them to reach the Dawn Fort, and Joffrey's suspicions about the enemy's strategic acumen were confirmed when his forward scouts found a group of scared and wary Iron Garrisons manning a makeshift barricade on the road.

A barricade which faced the direction of the Dawn Fort…

-.PD.-

"There was nothing we could do, by the gods it was all so fast…" jabbered Lieutenant Jiki, the commanding officer of what was left of High Watch.

"Calm done Half Sun, take it from the beginning again, okay?" Joffrey asked, trying to calm him down by example.

"Y-Yes sir… I… We were returning from a routine patrol around Rockbowl Vale in search of survivors from the Fall when we saw them attack the castle…" Jiki said before taking a steadying breath.

Joffrey took a moment to stare at High Watch, biting his lower lip in an annoying tick he had picked up somewhere he couldn't remember. They were camped on the road, right behind the barricade. In front of it the cobbled way kept going up and up, winding through the mountains as it left Rockbowl vale behind until it reached the top. There, guarding the only mountain pass between the vale and the Plains of Dawn was High Watch, a formidable redoubt which had, somehow, been stormed by the undead. The command tent's walls had not yet been rolled down, giving a clear view of the winding path, offering no protection against the sudden gusts of cold, chilly mountain breeze.

"They came from the air sir… Flying Men with blue eyes and terrible claws of bone. Each of them carrying a wight with their feet, but only barely…" Jiki said, shaking his head slowly.

"Must have marched until they were on a nearby hill before lifting them up for a short ride over the walls…" Hu muttered, looking intently at the nearby hills which only seemed to rise higher the longer one marched up the road.

"Yes… there were hundreds, each carrying a fallen Legionnaire…" Jiki muttered, as if struggling to believe it.

"Gods…" muttered Shah, the tale too much for even his silent demeanor.

"No one made it out, they didn't even manage to open the portcullis before getting slaughtered… and the few times we tried to storm the place with makeshift ladders we were bloodied hard, that's when Captain Aqu got an arrow in the eye… We've been trying to hold them here for half a week now…" Jiki said, ending his tale with a desperate sight.

Joffrey had been listening with half an ear, looking intently at the lumbering tower.

An 'air assault' using their superior mobility to pin us down…

"Major Genshua" he suddenly said.

"Sir?" asked the Major, looking up from the map on the table and back to Joffrey as a small gust of wind entered through the opened tent flap.

"Do you have any men who can climb worth a damn?" he asked as he turned.

"Hmm… A couple dozen sir, they find it useful for lookout duty over the vale…" he said, trailing off when he realized what Joffrey was thinking.

"It'll be a hard climb, but I'll lead with the rope. Wights can't see worth a damn and their hearing is barely any better… if we climb the east side at night we can open the portcullis before they even realize there's an attack…" Joffrey said, a vague smile showing through as he nodded to himself. "Yes… yes… have the men ready by tonight Major. Sabu, I'll want our heavy infantry ready to ride like the damned and help us hold the gate while the rest of the men…" he trailed off, confused at the strange looks the assembled officers were giving him.

"What?" he asked.

"… sir…" Hu said, vaguely uncomfortable.

"Your arm Joffrey" Shah said grimly.

Joffrey looked down at his right stump.

"Oh" he said simply.

…Fuck…

"I can get a good Half Sun that can climb sir" said Major Sabu, his tone of voice completely at ease as usual.

"…"

"Sir..?"

"Joffrey?" he suddenly asked.

"Do it" Joffrey said suddenly, looking back at the table. "Lets get this one in order then" he said as he approached the map.

Half an hour later the various officers had dispersed back to their men, all except for Shah.

"What's the problem Shah?" Joffrey asked him as he twiddled with the disassembled mace arm, looking at the leather straps.

"Have you thought what would happen to the men if you died Joffrey?" he asked him suddenly.

Phase out of existence? Be smashed against the shores of the purple just like me but having their memories stripped from them like hide from a pig?

He shook his head, trying to banish the despairing thoughts. "They would carry on, as they always have Shah…" he said half heartedly.

"Wrong" Shah said as he took one of the stools and sat in front of Joffrey. "They would despair and panic, the whole unit would disintegrate… perhaps the scouts and the expedition survivors would stay together, but in between the resulting mess… we would all be prime pickings for the undead" he said.

"So what, you're saying I'm some sort of hero?" Joffrey asked him angrily.

"No Joffrey, you are their leader. You are the one that has brought them together and carried them this far, you are the one that has carried them so close to safety, you are the man with whom they have deposited their trust and their hope, even their dreams. I was speaking with one of the Fire Lances from what's left of the 12th… you know what he told me?" Shah said, staring straight at Joffrey.

"What?" Joffrey asked despite himself.

"He said he was more afraid of disappointing 'The General' than facing the Demons of the Night" Shah said with frightening intensity.

"Please…" Joffrey scoffed as he laid back, snorting hard.

More afraid of disappointing ME?! More afraid of Joffrey Waters than a freaking White Walker!?

He snorted again, and again as his incipient laughter could not be contained.

He chuckled for a good long five seconds before looking back at Shah, "By the gods Shah! I hadn't laughed this hard in what feels to be ages ago! 'More afraid of--"

"NOW LISTEN CLOSELY YOU SELF DEPRECIATING IDIOT!" Shah roared as he grabbed Joffrey by his armor's collar and slammed him down on the map table in a frighteningly rare display of rage.

"Shah what the hells-!"

"SHUT UP!" he roared as he pinned him there. "You may as well believe you are the scum of this earth not worthy of being stepped on by a dog!" he shouted as he leaned closer. "But the men believe in you, we all believe in you! You brought us back home from the edge of hell! You've made certain we've kept fighting and dying with our heads held high and with a purpose in our hearts! You have made us remember we are soldiers! Legionaries! Not panicked sheep's to be led to the slaughterhouse!!!" Shah roared as he let him go, standing back as he took a deep breath.

Joffrey stood uncertainly, too shocked to say anything.

"Even if you've had your hand, hells if you'd had four hands to help you climb, to do so would have been the greatest stupidity I would have ever witnessed! You are no longer a mere Major Joffrey, not even a General. You are more than that! You are the talisman that the men out there fervently believe will lead them to victory, and if not…" Shah suddenly trailed off.

Joffrey swallowed before asking despite himself, "and if not..?".

"And if not… they believe that under you their deaths shall have meaning" Shah finished.

"… I see…" Joffrey said, genuinely trying to understand but failing all the same. He just couldn't get it, he genuinely couldn't understand.

"Lead them Joffrey, please, whatever you think of yourself, think of them… lead us to the end. Stop trying to do everything yourself and stop jutting your thick barbarian head into every conceivable danger under the sun… if you can't see for yourself what you truly are, what you mean for all of us… then look at their eyes and see your reflection upon them, for that is where the truth lies now" Shah said, his voice getting steadily quieter as he wound down.

Joffrey munched mechanically for a few minutes, staring hard at the floor.

"I won't lie Shah… I won't say I understand but… I'll be more careful…" he managed, shaking his head.

"Sir!" Shah saluted rigidly after a few seconds of quiet.

Joffrey saluted back as he sat back down looking at his lap, confused as Shah took his leave.

I don't know why they all believe in me, but I can only try to make sure they don't find me wanting…

He was genuinely more afraid of failing them than being permanently killed by a White Walker.

The irony of that thought was lost on him though.

-.PD.-

In the end, Joffrey commanded the attack from the middle of the formation, safe from stray arrows. His nonexistent right arm tingled every time he heard a roar or a scream, and he was about to spur his horse into a gallop when a bloodied, mounted Ranger found him.

"The wights are destroyed, High Watch is ours sir!" The man almost shouted.

The men around Joffrey did shout, in both joy and relief.

Joffrey took a deep breath before nodding, "Send the officers my regards and get some water" Joffrey commanded, a vague smile adorning his features despite the hole he felt at his heart for not being there in the thick of it with his men.

From here on out its nothing but plains for two days… and then…

And then, the Dawn Fort beckoned.

-.PD.-

The last stretch of the journey seemed almost eternal to Joffrey, but just as the sun rose from the east the 'Lion's Army' finally arrived at the Dawn Fort, the last line of defense before the Beyond gave way to the Empire and the lands of the living.

The enormous, black fortress was burning.

-.PD.-

"MEN! WITH ME!!!" Joffrey roared as he galloped forwards, riding past the huge unmanned gatehouse, the triple portcullis and the double iron doors wide open.

They emerged from the other side of the thick, great black wall to a sight that stunned Joffrey. He was ready for legions of undead, or perhaps masses of White Walkers, but not…

Looting. Looting and raping.

He saw men clad in legion armor dragging women out of their houses, their breeches down and their expressions crazed. He saw soldiers… no, animals storming into stores, some killing the inn keeps and merchants while others just grabbed every ounce of food they could before dashing outside.

"Shah, with me, Sabu, secure the East Gate" he barked as he spurred his horse onwards, followed by a dozen Threerays plus Loh and his signal scouts, including his standard bearer. The mounted soldiers quickly crossed the big plaza that surrounded the East Gate, the various looters stopping what they were doing as they spotted him. To his left was Shah and two dozen of his Long Scouts, all taking out their bows.

Joffrey reined in his horse brutally as he got within ten meters of the plaza's center, where a big amount of food and sobbing women had been deposited, surrounded by armed soldiers.

"Well well well… An officer which isn't a complete coward! That's a sight…" bellowed a man out loud as he walked past a few of the soldiers, a Sunbeam by the look of it. The stench of alcohol was coming so strong from him that Joffrey could smell it from where he was. "Well, there's bound to be a few wenches around that are still alive, we can share, soldier to soldier!" he bellowed as he wielded a hand axe about.

Joffrey's remaining eye might as well been made of ice as he stared at him for a second.

"Major Shah, kill that man" he commanded, his voice devoid of emotion.

"Aye General" Shah said almost leisurely as he whipped out an arrow from his quiver and loosed at the speed of lighting. The heavy broad head slammed against the Sunbeam's neck, unleashing a fountain of blood as he fell on his back, gurgling. The rest of the looters took out their weapons menacingly, shaken but already beginning to close down on Joffrey's men.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Joffrey bellowed as he stood upon his stirrups, scanning the whole plaza and daring them to move, "I AM GENERAL JOFFREY, THE SILVER LION, COMMANDER OF THE DAWN SCOUTS! AND I SWEAR BY ALL THAT IS HOLY THAT I WILL PERSONALLY RUN YOU DOWN IF YOU DON'T DROP YOUR WEAPONS RIGHT FUCKING NOW!" He bellowed, a red fury threatening to overtake him as his eye bored on the looters, his mind still struggling with what he was seeing.

He bellowed again as the rest of his men emerged from the gate, serried ranks of iron already spreading throughout the plaza, being directed by the Sunbeams and the officers.

"I'LL IMPALE YOU MYSELF AND THEN SMASH YOUR SKULLS AFTER YOU REANIMATE! THIS I SWEAR BY ALL THE GODS UNDER THE SKY!!!" Joffrey screamed in fury, a part of him begging them to refuse.

Something about what they'd heard or seen must have frightened them, because they dropped their weapons almost at once, raising their hands and vaguely cowering on the floor. Joffrey took several quick breaths, struggling under the red blanket that seemed intent on enveloping.

"Joffrey!" Shah snapped him out of it.

"Major" Joffrey managed.

"Orders, sir?" he asked.

That served to lift him out of the trance, "Sweep the entire Fort with whatever men you need, imprison those that surrender, kill the rest" he ordered.

"Understood" He said as he spurred the horse back and shouted to a few of his units.

"General, we have the East Gate" Sabu said as he rode at his side, followed by roughly half of the formation's heavy units, an eclectic mix of dismounted Heavy Camelry, Iron Guards, Rangers and Shock Irons.

"Good, take the south mainway and secure the West Gate, no one comes in or out without my say so" he commanded.

"Aye sir! Heavy Formatiooooon!" he bellowed as he waved his battleaxe in the air and spurred his horse, his own horn scout relaying the orders by sound.

"And Lho" Joffrey said as he spurred his horse into a canter.

"Sir?" asked his aide.

"Clap these animals to some irons and get someone to guard them, I'll deal with them later" He said as his retinue assembled around him once again and the black and silver banner swayed in the wind, "VAAAAAAN!!!" He bellowed as he looked back, "With me! We're going traitor hunting!" he said as he took out his saber and maneuver his horse with his knees, in direction of the East Inner Gatehouse. They had three rings of walls to secure and Joffrey's stump was tingling with blood thirst.

-.PD.-

The Outer and Inner districts were, to varying degrees, a mess of mutinies and looting. Joffrey encountered a few groups trying to maintain order but they had been reduced to fixed positions trying to defend refugees. His mace smashed more than a few skulls as his retinue galloped past the second wall and into the Inner District, his saber reaping a bloody harvest from the backs of those that refused to surrender. Soon word started to spread that the Silver Lion was back from the Beyond itself with reinforcements, boosting the morale of the loyalists while most of the deserters lost hope and surrendered.

He dreaded the scene that would greet him in the Bastion District, the most heavily fortified redoubt within the Dawn Fort, its third wall the last line of defense if the enemy managed to storm the other two. If the looting had gotten out of control there then it was very possible that the Dawn Legion's siege supplies had been lost… which would mean certain doom for any kind of armed, organized resistance north of the Red Marshes.

When he reached the third wall's gatehouse though, he found it manned and armed, its towers flying the banner of the Dawn Legion: a peeking red sun over a black fort. Joffrey rode past houses and barracks up to a respectful distance from the gatehouse, ready to gallop back at the first sign of hostility. The archers up there didn't look ready to kill him, though they seemed wary.

"I am General Joffrey, commander of the Dawn Scouts, acclaimed as the Silver Lion! Who's in command up there?!" Joffrey bellowed, warily eying the archers, the ballistas, the mangonels and the murder holes spread around the wall. Quite a few of those were manned.

That unleashed speculative whispers and agitated shouting before someone bellowed back, "We are under the command of Sunbeam Valyon of the 87th Dawn Garrison!"

What?!

"Joffrey!!! Is that you sir?!" shouted the familiar voice of his old chief as a figure appeared amongst the archers.

"By the Old Gods Chief! You are a sight for sore eyes!" Joffrey shouted. The figure stormed out of sight and soon the triple portcullis was rising.

-.PD.-

The smoke unleashed by the sporadic fires still lingered throughout the cold chill of the night, giving the charged air around the Dawn Fort a grim aura. The looting and the pillaging had been stopped by the 'Lion's Army', Valyon's loyalists and the other scattered pockets of defenders. For Joffrey though, the whole event still had him somewhat shell-shocked.

"Valyon… how..? No, Why..?" Joffrey asked in confusion as they walked through the Inner District's great courtyard, the Bastion District's gaping gatehouse a dark maw that towered over the assembled men in the great plaza.

His old Chief was looking sadly at him as Joffrey kept asking as they walked towards the assembled army. "How could they?! At a time like this… to betray their brothers… my brothers…" Joffrey muttered, shaking his head again and again.

Valyon took a deep breath as they neared the wooden stand, stopping for a moment as he eyed Joffrey. "General… Joffrey…" he said as he looked at him, as if searching for something in his eyes. "You really don't know?" he suddenly asked.

"Know what?!" Joffrey asked, feeling something freezing inside his stomach as his stump itched.

"After the Legions were slaughtered… the White Walkers didn't regroup Joffrey, they swarmed the Five Fort's center like a hurricane… the Noon Fort is gone, slaughtered to the last man… and like an avalanche they used the corpses of the slain to swarm the Sunrise Fort two days ago… the undead have already invaded the Red Marshes"

Joffrey felt as if his vision was slowly being reduced to a pinprick as his heart hammered inside his chest like the bells of King's Landing.

The Sunrise Fort…

With the fall of the Sunrise Fort, their entire left flank was gone. The Dawn Fort was the southernmost of them all, flanked by the Sunrise Fort to the north and the foothills of the Mountains of the Morn to the south.

But with them and the Noon Fort put to the sword and added to the army of the damned…

The Five Forts have been breached. Forward elements and Flying Wights are probably reaching the Yitish Hinterlands right now…

And we must be days away from being swallowed and consumed ourselves. The Walkers will not leave such a sizeable force at their backs for long now that they've secured the area, logistics or not.

Joffrey took a deep breath as the pieces of what happened here started to fall in place inside his head. "Where is High Command?" he asked Valyon, his mind strangely calm.

"When they heard the news…" Valyon stammered as he looked downwards.

"Where is High Command Valyon?!" Joffrey almost roared as he stepped closer.

"They deserted Cap'n" Valyon whispered, the stress bringing out old forms and old dreams from the older man. "Dawn Commander Fei-Pi had been slain in the battlefield, the few broken remnants that survived the battle and made it here carried the news. Two days after that, High Command read the frantic script carried by one of the few condors that made it here… the Sunrise Fort had released all of them at the same time, all carrying the same message… that their Bastion had been breached and the dead roamed free…"

"And they left their men… the officers in charge of defending the realm.. no, the world against this apocalyptic menace…" Joffrey interrupted, shaking his head in incomprehension.

"They loaded up a train of horses with supplies and left before dawn. When the Garrison found out that their officers had deserted them in their hour of greatest need… they are only men Joffrey, they are only men…" Valyon muttered.

…that beacon to our men, to our brothers… Echoed Jin's voice inside his head.

…that unshakable pillar…

Joffrey shook his head violently. Everyone was shaken, and morale was close to a breaking point. The chief instigators of the mutiny had been executed, along with the worst offenders, but with the coming storm Joffrey was not sure if what remained of the Dawn Legion could hold itself together.

…that banisher of despair…

Joffrey walked again, taking the makeshift platform's wooden steps two at a time and rising above the assembled troops below, both mutineers and loyalists standing at attention. The worst of the deserters, the rapists and the murderers, had been either summarily executed or taken to the dungeons depending on the severity of their crimes.

The men were quiet as Joffrey surveyed them, slowly scanning the assembled men with his good eye.

He regarded the disciplined veterans, the scared new recruits, the soldiers that had been too old to accompany the Legions out and those that had been deemed to mediocre to join the march against the Demons of the Night. He looked at the hundreds of different remnants under his nominal command, from the Wooden-Irons to the Scouts to what was left of the Dawn Fort's Jade Scribes and more, a disorganized and eccentric mix. They were now his men, whether he wanted it or not.

It was his duty.

When Joffrey finally spoke, he seemed to take them by surprise. "The rumors are true" he suddenly shouted. "The Noon and Sunrise Forts have fallen" he said, the shock and abruptness of the statement leaving a window of silence even deeper than before, one that would give way to incipient panic in seconds if left unattended. "We are the last coherent fighting force north of the Red Marshes, and if we fall… the Demons of the Night will have an uncontested corridor straight into the heart of Yiti, and from there to the rest of the world" he said.

His powerful voice cut through the budding, panicked whispers like a blade, "I will not lie. Forward elements of the enemy are already invading, and any kind of reinforcements from the Empire will most likely be far too late to save us" he shouted from the stand. The men and the surviving officers were looking at him in confusion and fear as Joffrey paced atop the wooden platform, his eyes constantly scanning the army of men below.

"No matter what we do, there's a high chance we will fall all the same. In a way, we are already dead, all of us" He bellowed.

The men looked absolutely shaken by the strange madness that had seemingly possessed their commander, almost breaking lines at the accurate summary of their position.

Joffrey seemed to be possessed by an inner fury all of a sudden, stopping his pacing as his lone eye surveyed the Legion like a loaded ballista. His voice rose to a fevered pitch, acquiring the tone of a promise or an oath. "We may be dead already, but we have something that the wights will never have. A choice! We can choose to betray all our bonds of fellowship, brother against brother, every man for himself as the worst of us already did! To die like scared rats!!! To say yes to the melody of despair!!!" he bellowed.

He let the silence build for just two seconds before plunging himself metaphorically into the fray, speaking from his heart like the serene conversations he had with Shah, staring at the horizon.

"But there is another choice…" he almost whispered, his voice still somehow carrying itself all over Great Plaza. "To stand with our brothers, to fulfill vows muttered from times immemorial" he said, his voice raising in intensity as he barely thought about what he was saying. Joffrey had somehow given up on orders or morale raising proclamations somewhere along his speech, instead he was now conveying pure emotion, pure will, the essence of what he dreamt of, the essence of a spirit that tasted of raw meat and beautiful sunrises, of awe and serenity, of courage and determination.

"We can stand together! Stand as one against the madness and the chaos!!! To delay as much as we can an enemy that would see our civilizations extinguished! Our monuments torn asunder! Our cities turned to ash! Our families forever made slaves!!!" he bellowed, feeling a deep thrumming inside of him as he spoke.

"Yitish or barbarian! Man or woman! High born or peasant! Those distinctions are now meaningless! In front of the apocalypse we are but one people! For every minute We Stand, more of our people will live, husbands and wives, sons and daughters, friends and lovers!" he shouted, his voice resonating throughout the plaza like a powerful horn. Some of the soldiers were entranced, others stood still as statues while others blinked rapidly and swallowed hard as Joffrey's voice reached its peak and the will within him seemed to flood the plaza.

Joffrey could barely see the plaza and the men as he devoted all of his strength to what was struggling to come out of his chest, looking at the dark sky and gripping the wooden hand rail with his hand and bracing himself as the words poured out of him like a powerful stream.

"For every Wight we destroy, a life shall be saved! For every Demon we kill, a Wonder shall be seen!!! For every minute We Stand, our people shall be free!!!!!" he bellowed before tilting his head back from the sky and gazing at his men once more.

"What will you Choose!? To lay down our arms and go quietly into the Long Night!?" he said, his heart hammering wildly as he finally couldn't hold it any longer and he raised his fist to the air and he roared his dream, his will.

"OR TO STAND TOGETHEEEEEEEEER!!!!!!!!!" he bellowed with all his might at the same time as an ear shattering, primal roar erupted from his left. From the corner of his vision he saw the silhouette of the Silver Lion in all its glory as it stood on its haunches, silver fur and black mane bristling as it roared the very same message, the very same will Joffrey was trying to convey.

Joffrey own bellow hadn't ended yet when the men raised their weapons almost as one with a battlecry fit to tear down walls, slamming spears and swords, shields and axes.

"TOGETHEEEEEEEEEEER!!!!" roared the Legion as they raised their weapons. It was not a bellow of cheer, nor was it a cry of victory.

It was a promise.

"STILL! WE! STAAAAAAAND!!!" Joffrey roared as he punctuated each syllable with his now unsheathed saber, raising it up and towards the coming storm.

"STAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND!!!!!!!!!" roared the men, officers and soldiers, the echo rebounding through the Fort's walls and up to the night sky.

When Joffrey lowered his saber and took in a lungful of air, he realized the Silver Lion was gone. As the men kept bellowing and slamming their weapons against shields and armor, Joffrey looked back towards the North East.

He had a promise to keep.

-.PD.-