Reforging the Edge

Chapter 1: Centaurs in Shaemoor

"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 and (as always) wondering if he should just do that himself and not leave it up to chance (however miniscule), when 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. 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. "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. Beyond the Queen's Forest, 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. "How?" Logan asks simply.

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

Logan nods seriously. "Thank you, Lieutenant. Send runners to the Krytan Freeholds. We need to know how the centaurs got through the Queen's Forest without being stopped... or even noticed." Logan pauses and frowns. This is... fishy. But he needs more information - he doesn't know if the centaurs at the garrison came from the Queen's Forest 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 Groban. He seems to have calmed down a bit. He could do with more time in the field anyway, Logan reflects. "Correction: go yourself, and get me a timeline of the centaurs' movements. Do something sensible with 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.

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.

Logan glances across his desk, looking for anything on the small village that Shaemoor Garrison defends, then turns to Lieutenant Groban's substitute. "Get me the files on Shaemoor and the surrounding fields. I need to know the significance of the land we're defending."