Halls of Ivory

Chapter 17 - War in Kryta

When the Captain's Council of Lion's Arch formed to replace its former leadership and declared it a multiracial city state independent from Kryta, the Krytans were not the only ones to take issue. Seeing Charr bear arms side by side with other races was a disturbing sight to the legions. They were not okay with this and especially not when that independent city state began imposing themselves and dictating policy to the Iron Legion. Peace with another race was completely alien to them. Something that had never happened for as long as they had recorded their history.

Much more recently, under the pressure of the Flame Legion's vastly superior numbers, the other high legions were forced to concede to negotiating peace and agreed to sign a treaty with Queen Jennah at legions were so rife with discontent, they were on the brink of revolting against their leaderships. But then word came out, that not only would the legions break from the ways of the Charr in a way that was completely unprecedented, but that this peace treaty would be drafted on terms dictated by Lion's Arch, many Charr decided that they wouldn't stand for it.

All the rhetoric about "cooperation" and "working together" sounded hollow to the legions and the fallout from the entire ordeal took a toll on even the most devoted legionnaires' loyalty. Members from all three legions stationed in the Black Citadel broke ranks and formed a separate warband, larger than most others. They called themselves the 'Charr Renegades' and made it their mission to undo the treaty of Ebonhawke, whether it was by pressuring the high legions further through warfare or by sabotaging negotiations between Kryta and the legions. To them and more quietly, to many Charr, conceding to peace with humans was tantamount to abandoning everything they ever stood for. The Renegades would sooner give up Ascalon than do that.

The joint army assembled to assault Divinity's Reach, put together from Seraph, Separatists and small additions from Sylvari, Charr and two Asuran golems had firmly settled itself within the valley of Queensdale, confident enough to make camp under the open sky. Their path was clear, but it was still a long and arduous journey through the vast Heartwood and a lot of spread out, abandoned farmland.

The plan was to march straight northeast, square across most of the valley and to cross the river, where many caves housed locally assembled siege weapons waiting to be trained on the walls of Shaemoor and the city itself.

It wasn't long though before their plan would face first signs of adversity. The Commander, Logan and Rytlock had joined Grell and Aldryn at the front of the vanguard, where the first group of scouts came running back from atop a hill they were sent to. "Stand down! Take cover! Enemy airships!"

They relayed the order to take cover to the rest of the army and sure enough, within less than a quarter of an hour, several airships - flying boats with an inflatable air tank mounted directly onto their roofs - sailed over the peaks of the mountains to the southeast. "Is the pact fielding an assault against us?"

The Commander wasn't sure, something was off about this. Their windows were designed differently than the ones he knew and unlike the pact airships he knew from the fight against Zhaitan, these had cannons embedded in the lower hull. But the first question that occurred to him, he said out loud: "If this is the pact attacking us, why are there only three of them? They should have an entire fleet up and ready. And they look different…" It had to be the Lionguard acting independently from the Pact. At least this possibly meant that Trahearne wasn't on board with sending reinforcements to Anise.

The airships stopped their advance and began to shift rudders to adjust their direction so that their cannons pointed roughly towards where the army was. "Take cover!" Everyone who wasn't in hiding already did so. Parts of the army that overlapped into the ruins of a rural village hid inside the buildings, others hid behind large rocks or for lack of something better, beneath trees.

The ships began their bombardment immediately. The Commander and other head members of the vanguard slid down a pit to a cave entrance where they could take shelter. "We're sitting ducks here." The Captain concluded. "Aldryn, do you have anything to deal with this?"

Lord Aldryn seemed annoyed. "I was hoping we wouldn't have to resort to this at this early a stage. Nightblade..."

Grell was peeking out from their hiding place but shifted to the opposite side when soldiers from another hiding place nearby shouted something new: "Smoke signal! Smoke signal to the south!"

The other two were confused. "Smoke signal? What does that mean?"

"Not sure." The minister shouted in the other soldier's direction: "What color is the smoke?"

"Green!" he replied.

The briefly absent smile on the minister's face returned. "Great! That means our allies from Ascalon are already in position!."

He rushed outside, followed by Logan, the Commander and the other outlaws in their group. While still running after him, the Captain asked: "Ascalon? Is Ebonhawke on our side?" Leaving them no time to brace themselves, the minister ran until he reached another rock to take cover behind and pointed at a cliff wall along the mountains to the south. A little further east from the green smoke, something surged through the sky, straight towards the airships. Drawing a small trail of smoke in its path. Then, more such objects soared up into the air, all converging upon the airships, which were in the middle of turning their hulls to aim their cannons at where the smoke signal was and were thus unable to move out of the way.

Upon colliding with the ships, the projectiles exploded in bursts of flame, ripping the airships to pieces mid-flight and sending them crashing down. The ground shook with each one hitting the ground, dust and pieces of metal were launched all around from where they struck.

It seemed too far-fetched for it to occur to the Commander at first, but as the dust settled, it eventually occurred to him: Those were rockets - the kind fired from a Charrzooka. And as if on cue, the minister replied to Logan: "Ebonhawke? I was referring to the Renegades."

The Captain was in complete disbelief. "Renegades? You're allied with the Renegades?"

Aldryn raised his eyebrows. "Our ties to them are closer than you'd believe." The Renegades were a rogue faction of Charr. When the Imperators of the high legions submitted to a peace on terms that were - with all pretenses around Jennah's and Smodur's involvement out of the way - dictated by the Captain's Council of Lion's Arch, the Renegades were formed drawing from all four legions in opposition to it.

"SAFE!" One of the scouts shouted, prompting the army to come out from all their hiding places.

"Spoke too soon." the minister added, pointing up at the sky where the airships had been prior to being shot down. Something was still in the air, though it was too small and too far away to make out. For one, it was definitely not a ship - or anything large and solid enough to mount cannons for that matter, so they ran towards it.

Upon looking at it from a closer distance, it wasn't one object, but multiple. After waiting for it to lower itself further, it appeared that they weren't objects, but people. On currents of wind conjured beneath their feet, five Norn, wrapped in pelts lowered themselves slowly onto the ground. The Commander and the others ran towards them but before the Norn even reached the surface, one of them roared with a commanding tone: "Halt! Proceed and we will strike you down. You shall no longer harm any innocents!"

The minister answered promptly without a hint of guilt: "Among those who oppose us, there are no innocents!"

The apparent leader of the Norn, a broadly built hulk of a man with deep red, braided hair, landed calmly on the ground with his arms crossed. "I won't have your word games! We are the followers of Owl and Ox - masters of air and earth - and It was no lesser than Scarlet Briar, sole head of Lion's Arch, who recruited us in the strike force to aid Divinity's Reach. She has told us all about you!"

"Scarlet Briar sent you against us?" the Commander asked. It took a moment for him to remember that the 'expert' sent to testify in favor of the treaty of Gendarran Fields was appointed by Scarlet as well. "Wait a minute…what exactly did she tell you?"

"That you seek to march upon Divinity's Reach to kill all the humans, man, woman and child!"

All the humans listening to this began to shrug and throw their hands up in complete and utter confusion. "What in Balthasar's name are you talking about? Why would we do this?"

A woman of the same stature stepped out from behind the leader and pointed at them.: "Because you hate all other races - and women!"

Lord Aldryn rolled his eyes. "Those are some highly simplistic ideas. Not to mention internally inconsistent."

The Commander, barely aware of him, was wound up in questions of him, emphatically gesticulating his failed attempts at piecing together how they got this idea. "That makes no sense whatsoever! If we hated non-humans, why would we go to the only human city left on this continent and kill all the humans?"

The leader of the Norn raised his finger in their vague direction and began formulating a response. "Because - you see - " But he could only stammer with as little sense as his idea had. " - killing humans helps you with - uh -" He exchanged looks with the other norn and took a few moments to wrap his head around the whole thing. "I'm not sure, actually. Come to think of it, you're right, that does not make any sense."

"If we just had a dislike of people, why would we go through the trouble of risking our lives in a battle to the death with our kin? That seems hardly enough of a motivation if you ask me. Might we offer you a more nuanced outlook on what is going on?"

So once the army had time to assume formation again, the Norn sat down together with the leaders and Logan, the Commander, Rytlock and Minister Aldryn spent several hours explaining to them everything that led up to this, starting from the searing of Gendarran Fields all the way to the battle outside of the Skritt caves and including Rytlock's woes about Imperator Smodur's strange behaviour.

In the end, the leader of the Norn summarized his take on it: "So this Countess that you entrusted your safety to, seeks to turn all humans into slaughter cattle, to be flayed and plundered at the whim of any Charr?"

Logan was a little taken aback by his brashness. "That's - that's a rather unflattering way of putting it, but…I can't say it's wrong."

Lord Aldryn added: "As of right now, she already did. And every step along the way, she insists that she is morally superior over anyone who opposes it and intellectually superior to those who question it."

The Norn, Bardulf his name, smashed his fist against a nearby tree, leaving a visible dent in its bark. "This is an unbearable injustice! I'm surprised it took you this long to rally a force to strike her down!"

The Commander tried to reel the agitated giant back in. "'Striking down' is a bit much - I was hoping we could make her stand trial for her crimes."

"Speak for yourself." the minister said. He went on drawing a finger across his neck. "We have a more thorough approach in mind."

"Either way!" The Norn raised his voice to stop the bickering between rivaling factions of the army. "I empathise with your plight. We cannot let this Countess Anise get her way." He bent his chest forward and knocked against it with his fist. "I will gladly join you if you will have me! Who else is with me?" He looked to the other Norn who all appeared to agree with him.

So with little more effort than to explain their situation, the army managed to recruit five prolific elementalists from the Shiverpeaks for their cause. From the unhindered arrival in Queensdale to the shot-down airships to the recruiting of new hands for their army, the events on their path falling in their favor gave them several boosts to their morale which caused a surge in the perceived momentum.

With new enthusiasm and strength, the forces marched forward faster and with a stronger step. Now that the few airships the Lionguard sported were destroyed, one obstacle was out of the way - at least for the time being. They moved fast and made camp more rarely. The faster they got to the city, the longer they had before any ground troops from Lion's Arch had a chance to catch up with them.

Even a single extra day of besieging Divinity's Reach unhindered could be the deciding factor of whether they could take it without the risk of getting flanked by Lionguard troops.

When they got to the point where they would travel through the Heartwood uninterrupted, they crossed the last third within a single day. The Blade warband joined the scouts on the hills above the river and from what the Commander heard, they spotted a Shining Blade scouting party and were able to take them out from a safe distance.

They generally relied much more heavily on scouts, once they actually got to the river, as crossing it with such a huge army forced them to put themselves in a vulnerable position, climbing up the meadows where the inclination allowed it with only a small troop consisting only of the Commander, Logan, Rytlock, Grell, the minister and a handful of Separatist footsoldiers. The rest of the army made preparations for the final stretch to Shaemoor and the inevitable battle that would follow. Some rolled out all the catapults and ballistae hidden in nearby caves and prepared them for their advance.

Right up the path from the river was a wide and wide field of grass. The field was elevated so highly above the river that besides a sloped segment of the field handmade during Queensdale's better days, the ground beneath it formed an outcropping that towered over the river like a wall. The westmost of the meadows above ran under the shadow of a steep mountain in the middle of the valley. As usual out front - but this time even ahead of the scouts, the Commander and the other leaders went up around the mountain west of the Queen's Forest. High above, right across the lake on the other side of the forest, stood the city. The only thing protecting them from being spotted or fired at from above being the sheer distance.

Formerly the Breezewood, aptly named because of the cold winds that carried their way through from Lake Delavan, Queen Jennah saw fit to rename this forest in honor of herself. In hindsight, blusterous acts like this should have been a giveaway of how full of herself she was.

"Enemy Contact!"

Around the mountain, far ahead, at an angle the scouts didn't cover, the Commander and the others spotted enemies - and for the first time, it was more than a mere scouting party. An entire troop of Shining Blade soldiers, armed and donning their signature armors, marched down the open fields from the west. Upon spotting them, their squad leader, a woman with impractically long brown hair, caked in powder and eyeshadow that must have taken at least an hour to apply, pointed at them and screamed: "Enemies! Regressives marching upon Divinity's Reach!"

With their swords drawn, they ran towards them until they were close enough for both sides to understand each other clearly. "Backwards and mindless oafs from the south, you have one chance to submit yourselves to the custody of her grace, High Countess Anise - or to be cut down by the Shining Blade!"

The minister saw fit to go at this with a boisterous approach: "I hope you brought more than swords and a bow, because whatever you did with your face does not impress me."

"That's it!" She shrieked. "I will not take mockery from a brutish sausage fest like you! Shining Blade! Attack! For Queen and Countess!"

The minister had no choice but to return the gesture. He sighed and drew his broadsword. "For Kryta and its people!"

Between Grell's gunshots, Aldryn enchanting and throwing his broadsword at them and the Commander spinning his axe to carve away at the enemies' throats, a major chunk of that squad never made it to them. When their leader charged at Logan and struck his already held-up shield with her sword, it not only didn't give in, but Logan actually pressed forward through any momentum she leveraged at it and the gasping squad leader seemed genuinely surprised at how ineffectual her attack was.

The Captain of the Seraph slammed her sword out of the way and before she had time to stop him, plunged his own sword straight through her, with little hindrance from the glorified chainmail her armor was.

Several other soldiers had their bones crushed and their armor heavily dented under the blows of Rytlock's burning sword. Several Shining Blade tried to descend upon one of the Separatist outlaws that were part of their group, before being suspended in motion by the minister. Another charged right at a less confident looking Separatist. A man in a plain white shirt with a belt with various pieces of equipment swung around his shoulder. The Commander tried to summon tendrils and freeze his body, but it served only to slow his movements, not halt them completely.

When the enemy actually swung at the Separatist though, the young man backing away struck at his assailant's blade with a sudden surge of speed and force within his blade. Accompanied with familiar sparks of pink light. The surprise on the enemy's part was barely enough time for Grell to turn his attention to him and slit his throat, before proceeding to do the same with one of the ones frozen by Aldryn.

By the time two thirds of the enemy squadron was already dead, the rest backed off and then turned around and ran.

While they made sure that there was no-one trying to sneak past them, Logan was left scratching his head. "Why did they think attacking us was a good idea?"

The minister placed a foot on one of the bodies to pull his greatsword back out and then turned around to answer him. "Hubris. They spent so much time telling each other how strong and smart they are, they've taken to believing it in full. Seeing their strength tested outside of their usual games of play-pretend is a complete shock to them. When they go around decreeing upon the people how superior they are to them, they're technically not lying, but rather suffer from a collective delusion."

The Commander stayed in place, never taking his eyes off the Separatist he'd helped during the fight. When Logan and the minister were done, he asked the latter: "Of the soldiers in this group, how many are mesmers?"

No-one had an idea what he was on about, except for the soldier he was staring at, who got increasingly twitchy. The minister asked him: "You mean beside me?"

"Yes?"

"None, why?"

"Because I could have sworn I had seen this one use mesmeric magic to speed up his sword."

As Logan and the minister turned their looks to the man in question, he turned around and with a swishing sound, disappeared into thin air. The minister put his hands together for a more advanced incantation and within a moment's notice, a dome enveloped in fragments of purple light formed around where the soldier had vanished. The moment it did, the man resurfaced, but very different in appearance.

The surprised young man stumbled and fell to the ground and Logan rushed to place his boot on his back to hold him in place before he could escape.

It was Rolan Meade, the young noble-turned-prince, dressed in his fine, hand-tailored purple attire. "By the gods, what are you doing here?"

Rolan sighed, impotently plunged his fist into the grass and took a moment to accept that he wasn't getting away. "Freeing our country, like you guys."

Logan had to be stern with the boy. "We're soldiers, willing to die for the cause should things go south. We're supposed to be here. You being here…that's just irresponsible. Your parents are worried sick and here you are, putting your life at risk."

The Commander joined him. "If that Shining Blade had gotten to you, what would we tell your parents? That you died on our watch?"

Rolan mumbled something barely intelligible, so the Captain had to urge him: "Speak clearly!"

"I said you weren't supposed to find out. I thought I had it under control."

"Well you didn't, you were one wrong move away from getting stabbed."

"Isn't that the same for you every day?"

Logan pressed him further into the ground. "Don't try to make this about us!"

The minister joined them as well. "Don't take this the wrong way, young man. Sneaking away to join the frontline and fight the good fight - What you did was noble and courageous. But also reckless, inappropriate and very, very stupid. The qualities of a warrior, but not the qualities of a king. Remember that you have applied for princehood. The moment you did, your duty has become the first order of any monarch: To do what it takes to remain alive and well, long enough to secure an heir. Jennah failed to understand this and now we all pay the price for it."

Without further ado, they called for one of the Separatist mesmers to take the boy and see to putting together a small team to escort the boy safely back to his parents.

And to prevent further surprises like their encounter with the Shining Blade, they also sent scouts to ascend the mountain to peek across, where they could see even onto the ramparts of Shaemoor Garrison. The moment he did though, he almost lost his grasp and climbed a little further down to put more of the mountain between him and the other side. "Enemy contact! Enemy things!"

Well that was ominous. "Things?"

"Machines - but they walk on two legs, like humans, but they're not. They're like golems, but thinner!"

The men of the vanguard exchanged looks. Everyone immediately knew what this was. "She must have deployed the Watchknights."

The minister called back up to him: "How many?"

"Lots and lots of them! It's an entire army! The field - the plateau - even the garrison, it's all full of them!"

All the glory from their first won skirmish vanished, making way for a looming sense of dread. They were prepared for Anise to have an ace up her sleeve, but if that scout was to be believed, the scale of that ace outdid their expectations.