Game Of Thrones Joffrey Baratheon Purple Days

Joffrey eyed the huge, half empty underground storage cellar in mild shock as the Greatbeam by his side shuffled nervously. "…And the rest of the cellars?" Joffrey asked, his voice dangerously quiet.

"They… ahh… Cellar three has a bit less than this, but Cellar seven is quite full" the Greatbeam said as he nodded again and again, sweat pouring down his neck.

"… so… bit less than two full cellars then" Joffrey pondered out loud.

"Yes General" confirmed the Greatbeam.

"I see…" Joffrey commented as he suddenly whirled around and grabbed the Greatbeam by the neck, lifting him and pinning the man to the cellar's wall.

"There should be enough supplies here to last us five years! We will be lucky if we last six months!!!" he roared as he slammed him against the wall again and again. "Where is the rest?!" he bellowed right at the Greatbeam's ear.

"Ahh! AAh!!" grunted the Greatbeam as Joffrey kept slamming him against the wall.

Right…

He stopped for a moment, letting the man get his bearings for a second.

"They're… they're gone okay?!" the man finally pleaded, his eyes vaguely unfocused.

"What do you mean gone…?" Joffrey asked, his voice barely stronger than a whisper.

"Th- the soldiers sell them all the time! The stores haven't been full in years!!!" he finally confessed.

Joffrey was struck speechless as the man kept blabbering, "Its been this way for decades! How could we possibly know the returned-- how could we have known…" he mumbled.

"And the officers..? What about the Colonel in charge of supply?" Joffrey asked.

"They all knew! They all took their cut! They were never going to be used anyway! They--"

"You mean we took the cut, don't you Greatbeam? As the Greatbeam your cut must have been quite generous… no?!" Joffrey shouted as he slammed him against the wall again.

I… I thought I had escaped the corruption and the pettiness when I arrived at the Five Forts…

Gods, how could I have been so stupid… Even after all this time I've learned nothing…

He slammed the Greatbeam against the wall one more time before lifting his mace prostheses and cutting the piece of cloth that held the man's twin iron rays, using one of the mace's flanges.

He let him go as the man collapsed over the hard stone floor. "Take this scum to the work crews, he'll feel right at home" he told one of Threerays that stood at attention beside the cellar's door.

The soldier saluted respectfully before kneeling and carrying the vaguely conscious ex Greatbeam out the door.

"I told you the situation was desperate, even with half rations we could last less than a year, assuming they don't storm us" Valyon said as he looked at the piles of crates and foodstuffs.

Joffrey grunted as he tossed him the Twin Beams "Congratulations Greatbeam Valyon, now I want you to round up any scrap of food you can find both within and outside the Dawn Fort, conditions permitting. Half of the civilians already left, and half of what remained has accepted my offer of escort to whatever river barges remain at the Swamp Docks... That should leave fewer mouths to feed…" he said as he walked outside the cellar and into a long corridor lit by oil lamps.

"That combined with some aggressive foraging before the siege starts should help a little" he pondered out loud as he kept walking, Valyon accompanying him alongside Loh and the rest of the soldiers that had been waiting for him outside. "Loh, what's next?" he asked as they took a great staircase up.

"Major Fengge at the Outer District sir, he's been having trouble tearing down some of the bigger houses" Loh said as he shuffled a bit of paper and handed it to Joffrey. He felt as if he hadn't slept for three days… and that was probably true. The preparations for the coming siege were titanic, so much so that Joffrey had discovered he didn't have enough hours in a day to keep up with all the various tasks. Loh had taken to annotating a queue of concerns in paper so that Joffrey didn't forget anything. The thing was useful, but watching as Loh kept annotating stuff on it faster than Joffrey could complete them threatened his sanity.

"Right, send a runner for Shah and tell him to meet me at the Outer District, we'll talk on the way before reaching Major Fengge. I'll need him to lead the foraging parties" He commanded as they emerged from the shadows and out into the open air.

-.PD.-

"Bo, I brought you some apprentices" Joffrey said as he arrived at the horribly understaffed Bastion Hospital, bringing a dozen men and woman with him.

The great healing hall was full of beds and patients… and precious Body Scribes. Most had been killed when the Combined Legions were massacred, and Bo had taken charge of the ones that had been left at the Dawn Fort…

"Apprentices..?" Bo asked, confused as he kept working.

"Yes, we'll need all the healers we can get, make use of them and teach them as you work" he said as he shuffled a bit of leather that had been scratching his neck. Joffrey had taken to wearing Scout armor whenever he left the room he had appropriated near the top of the Dawn Fort, within one of the towers that surveyed the entire Bastion District and the rest of the Fort.

Bo stopped mixing herbs on the nearby alchemical alembic and promptly looked up "A-A-apprentices?! They haven't even been inducted into the Bronze Scribes! It takes years of training just to prepare oneself for an apprenticeship! Do they even know anything?!" he asked.

"Well, Jingfei here knows a bit about herbs, Boqin and Peng know how to read and write… the rest… well the rest are very eager to learn" Joffrey finished lamely.

"B-but--"

"No buts! Get me more healers Bo! Or a reasonable facsimile of one, the casualties will start piling up soon and the bottleneck here needs to be expanded!" Joffrey commanded, serious.

Bo had no time to respond as Joffrey was already outside the room, leaving the confused would-be apprentices staring at Bo.

He didn't have time for spluttered denials, the dead were coming.

-.PD.-

The day was clear if a bit cold, and the rest of the trebuchets had long stopped with their training.

"Again" commanded General Joffrey.

"Crew! Prepare three hundred! 25 degrees North!" Bellowed Sunbeam Wei.

The loaders grunted as they placed stones inside the counter weight basket before winding up some pulleys and turning the wooden platform below the trebuchet slightly to the right. Then they started to retract the winch, slowly turning the gears with their long rods as the trebuchet's long arm gradually bent down. The great trebuchet sat atop one of the many towers that adorned the Outer Wall, a piece of heavy artillery no different than the scores of twins that crowned the dozens of towers located along both the walls of the Inner and Outer districts.

What distinguished the crew of Piece 24 was not the trebuchet they manned, but what they did with it.

"LOAD!!!" bellowed the Sunbeam.

Groups of Onerays grunted as they carried the great stone projectile inside the small cart, stopping by the great sling and placing the big stone within it.

"Ready!" shouted a Twobeam after securing the stone.

"LOOSE!" shouted the Sunbeam after examining the piece briefly, his eyes franticly looking for any defects or failures.

A Oneray grunted in exertion as he lifted a big hammer with both hands and brought it down on the metal lever. The lever screeched as the pulleys winded down, the rope making a sizzling sound as the great counterweight fell back towards the piece's center and the arm was lifted up, the sling giving the stone even more momentum as the projectile was released for a long flight.

The General brought the far eye up to his head, leaning its far end on his hammer's steel shaft as he adjusted the eye piece with his hand. The Sunbeam did the same with his own far eye and saw a brief plume of smoke as the big stone tumbled for a few seconds before stopping well before reaching the blue flag. And way to the right of it too.

Shit, another miss, thought the Sunbeam as another drop of sweat travelled down his forehead.

The General lowered the far eye as he contemplated the horizon once again, scratching the part of his right arm where leather met flesh before speaking once more.

"Reset the piece" he said as his belly suddenly rumbled.

The crew looked mortified as they got to work, exchanging wary glances as they reset the trebuchet to its starting position.

When the Silver Lion had told them to land a stone within thirty meters of the flag (like the rest of the crews had finally managed a few days ago after weeks of intensive training) he'd warned them that he'd personally supervise them until they either did it or the sun gave way to night.

That had been five hours ago.

The General didn't seem to mind, he had skipped his meal alongside the rest of the crew, though that hadn't stopped him from working. He'd spent most of his time atop the tower dispatching and receiving messengers, sending orders and organizing the work crews that were tearing down some of the buildings of the Outer District or receiving manifests of supplies and unit readiness. In between messengers the General would sometimes give them pointers or observations, never losing his patience as he calmly waited for them to finally get it right.

Wei had never seen anything like it… the officers of the Dawn Fort had, for the most part, never been very interested with the artillery units. The prospect of a war that managed to get all the way to the Dawn Fort was almost unheard of since the last siege had been more than half a thousand years ago. Before most of them deserted, the majority of the officers had been content to see that the pieces were well cared for and the ammunition supplies filled.

The Silver Lion though… he was has cut from a different cloth. In the two weeks since he'd taken command the Scout General had overseen the transformation of the Dawn Fort into a veritable beehive. Work crews, intensive training, foraging runs… He'd somehow managed to meet every Sunbeam under his command and briefed them on tactics and tips for dealing with the wights, and even the Demons…

Beyond the skill, Sunbeam Wei had felt something else within his commander. He'd cautiously breached the topic with his peers and many had said the same thing. The man seemed possessed by a drive, a will that was almost overwhelming, a vision that shined through even the smallest of moments, be it when he ordered the execution of a deserter, when he asked for a bowl of food at the great barracks or when he simply commented on a job well done.

An expectation to do their jobs to the best of their ability. A vision of a grand whole which encompassed them all, a shared endeavor that seemed make them one will, one purpose that the Sunbeam knew, somehow just knew, the wights and the Demons would never have.

"LOOSE!" he suddenly found himself shouting, before shaking his head and cursing.

What?! The General hadn't even called the target flag… had he?

But he had. 'Red flag, two hundred meters' the General had ordered, he could remember it now. Wei had gone through the motions automatically… same as the rest of the crew, he suspected.

He scrambled for the far eye again and barely managed to spot the red flag as the stone landed right beside it, almost slamming into it.

He turned back and saw the General slowly lowering his own far eye with a slight smile.

"Excellent work gentlemen" he said, and Wei could somehow feel how he and the rest of the crew slotted into the Silver Lion's Vision.

-.PD.-

Joffrey had taken to eating in the great barracks so that the men could see he was not taking more than his share of rations, but today circumstances called for another location.

Him and his officers, both the veterans from the ridiculously named 'Lion's Army' and the somewhat recently promoted officers from the Dawn Fort were seated around a great wooden table as they discussed the plans for the coming siege, finishing their breakfasts as they turned their minds over to tactics and strategy. Joffrey preferred to confer in the evenings, but for some reason almost all of his officers had been too busy last night, they had all insisted that they could only meet at breakfast, before dawn if Joffrey did not want the meeting to disrupt the ongoing preparations for the coming siege.

He was a bit sleepy as a result, but he didn't care that much.

"We have plenty of oil, so that's not a concern. I've got a special project I've been discussing with our resident Architects" Joffrey said as he nodded at one of the Majors from the surviving Wooden-Irons before continuing "that will make use of a portion of it. Even so, we have so much of it that the firewall is looking like a real possibility" he said.

The assembled officers muttered in consideration before Major Hu spoke up. "Is that wise, General? We may have a lot of it now, but after a year of siege…" he trailed off awkwardly.

"A valid concern, the short answer is that we will worry about it when the time comes. The longer answer is that we need some kind of break to keep the waves of undead from swarming us. A break in which we can burn our own dead, take a few breaths, bring more projectiles from the warehouses to bear and more importantly force them to once again run through our bows and artillery so we can pepper them before they get into melee range again. We need a way to cut off the wight's rear every now and then so they can't reinforce the assault immediately… that way our our men can take a breather and not get killed out of sheer exhaustion" he said.

"Hence the firewalls" said one of the Garrison's Majors.

"Indeed. Now, the Dragon Choirs from the Architect's Long Strike units will help with that, but their ammunition is hard to make, we don't have a whole lot of it and most importantly of all their reload rate is horrible. The firewalls will make a good complement" Joffrey said as he got up and walked to the huge map that adorned the entire east wing of the room.

"We'll need deep ditches here, here and here" he said as he marked the approaches to the Dawn Fort from the East. "A dozen smaller ones before the Iron Cemetery will help too" Sabu commented thoughtfully as he pointed and Joffrey drew a few more lines. "Especially given the fact that after the siege starts we won't be able to make more outside of the walls" he added.

"Good point, the only one we will be able to refill, maybe, will be the Iron Cemetery itself. The iron spikes will be almost useless, but the ditch itself is huge. I reckon that a climbing hazard which is on fire will make the Demon commander's life just a little more difficult. Not-life, I mean… how do you even say that? Unlife??" Joffrey commented, extracting a few smiles or amused grunts from his audience.

The planning session went on for half an hour before Joffrey dismissed them, but curiously enough not a single one of the officers left.

"I thought we'd gotten through all the questions? What is it?" he asked, confused.

The men were still seated, but their expressions were solemn and their backs ramrod straight.

One of them, Major Hu, had walked to the window and was looking at something outside.

Joffrey was going to ask what the matter was before Shah suddenly spoke up.

"The Dawn Fort cannot Stand without its commander" he intoned.

Joffrey raised an eyebrow as he spoke, "It damn well can, Fei-Pi may have fallen in battle but that doesn't mean we'll just roll over the--"

"Night has claimed our Commander… but Dawn rises again, to lead us against the darkness" Shah intoned again.

Joffrey was completely bewildered as he regarded the men, shaking his head in confusion before Hu nodded to himself and opened the heavy curtains.

Joffrey could see light slowly enveloping the room as the sun rose from the east.

What the hells is--

"Dawn is upon us, but we cannot Stand without our commander. Suns of the Dawn Fort" Shah asked solemnly, using the old forms. "Who shall lead us?" he asked.

A heartbeat later, Major Sabu spoke. "Joffrey, the Silver Lion shall lead us" he said.

Suddenly, Joffrey understood.

They can't—

"If any find him unworthy, if any knows of another strong enough to take this burden, speak now" Shah intoned.

"Stop this idiocy right fucking now!" Joffrey shouted as he walked towards the table's head.

There was silence as no one else spoke, and Joffrey could feel the burden of crushing responsibility enveloping like a mantle.

It was stupid, irrational even, he understood that. He was already in command of the Dawn Fort and he was probably the highest ranking surviving officer within the Dawn Legion. To make it official would change nothing.

But he was still afraid, the faces of his dead friends kept flashing right in front of him, brothers and legionaries left on the pale sands of the Beyond. Past them Joffrey could see the dead faces of Sandor and Jon, of Nakaro and Ned, of all the people he had failed before.

Please don't stand, Joffrey wanted to say, to scream. But wasn't that what he'd been trying to get them to do this whole time? To stand against the darkness as one, to Stand Together?

The burden of hypocrisy weighted against the urge to scream, to run away.

He took a deep breath…

Then slowly let it out as he collapsed on his chair, holding his forehead with his left hand.

"Then, in the name of the Silver Lion, Stand" Shah finished.

All the officers, the whole two dozen of them stood up as one, their chairs pushed back as they stood there, backs straight and eyes unwavering.

The deed was done.

"Rise, Dawn Commander Joffrey" Shah said.

… An unshakable pillar, a beacon to his men… Whispered Jin inside his head.

His men needed him. He was not going to let them down.

Dawn Commander Joffrey stood up as the morning light finally reached him.

-.PD.-

"But if we place two smaller bags right below the tip instead of one to the side, the bolt should have a much, much better range" Joffrey commented as he drew on the parchment. The three Twosuns that presided over what was left of the Wooden-Irons inside the Dawn Fort hummed as they stared at it before one of them grabbed the parchment and drew a few modifications on it, which prompted the other two into outraged counterpoints and general hair pulling. Soon the sketch was filled with annotations as the Majors communicated with each other in the arcane tongue of the Architects. Joffrey didn't have the heart to tell them he'd already done the calculations himself… he preferred to watch them argue and snipe at each other as they evaluated the design.

Their mannerisms were remarkably similar to Xon-Mi's, and every time he saw them like that he'd felt a bittersweet tang in his chest.

The Beyond and the undead have taken so many friends…

The bolt, designed to be fired by a heavy ballista had already been named by the artificers working in the Bastion's siege works. They'd named it the bumblebee, to Joffrey's amusement.

"And the charges for the mangonels?" He suddenly asked them.

"Almost done sir, though their efficiency will remain unproven until they are actually used in battle" said one of them.

Joffrey nodded distractedly as he thought about the unusual countermeasures he and the Architects had devised. Some would have called him insane for using a mangonel in such an absurd role, but after what everyone in the 'Lion's Army' and the Combined Legions had seen…

They were going to need quite a bit of that creative thinking.

He shook his head again. The mangonel charges, both of them, are almost done, no use in worrying about them… he thought as he looked back at the corrected sketch of his newer creation.

Bumblebee indeed, he thought with a snort as he closed his eye, trying to chase that elusive state of consciousness Archmaster Benedict, the smith, had found so easy to achieve.

When he opened his eye he quickly started to add a few finishing touches, mainly to ensure the fuse would not light up the sacks of heavy oil when the bolt was shot. It had to be in midflight for the weapon to be truly effective. He was somewhat proud to note that his handwriting was legible despite it being written with his left hand.

He handed back the sketch and the Architects grunted in acceptance as they saluted, eager to test the latest version.

"What next , Loh?" he asked as they made their way through the buy workshop, trying to avoid frenzied artificers and hurried apprentices as they worked on a multitude of projectiles, weapons and spare parts.

"…Nothing actually, nothing which requires attention before midday at least" said his aide, vaguely surprised as he looked at his notes.

"…Really?" he asked.

"It does appear so, sir" he said.

Joffrey almost couldn't believe it, but he had 'free' time.

And there was one thing I've been putting off for a while, he thought as he left the big workshop, the Bastion's black stone somewhat glossy below the morning sun.

-.PD.-

The small, black rock had almost certainly been an obelisk in the deep past, but after the ravages of time not much more than an angled stump remained. The rock stood at the center of a very small park, not much bigger than his old room at the Red Keep. It was flanked by small trees and bushes, giving the place a calm atmosphere.

The small gusts of wind had been steadily getting stronger throughout the last week, and Joffrey was sure the enemy was not far. The attack would be coming any day now, a swift, brutal strike to see if they folded under the brutal shock and thus saved the Walkers a lengthy siege. They didn't seem to require many supplies, but every corpse spent guarding the Dawn Fort was a corpse that wasn't butchering people throughout the rest of the world.

He approached the jagged stone and kneeled, hanging Jhos' silver medallion alongside the dozens of others that blanketed the black rock. High Moon Vhenzi, commanding officer of the Jade Scribe's Northern Hemisphere had been killed alongside the majority of the Legion's Jade Scribes at the 'Fall', when the combined Legions perished under the might of the Demons. He had been Jhos' nominal superior, and the man he was supposed to give the medallion to.

Barely a few full Moons remained under his command, and they had refused to accept the medallion. Instead, they had directed him here.

It was a memorial of sorts, perhaps an acknowledgment of expectations fulfilled, or a symbol of duties remembered… Joffrey did not truly know, and hadn't asked. He knew it was important for him to do this, and that was all there'd been to it.

"You did well Jhos… you did well…" he whispered.

He regarded the slightly swaying medallions for a while, feeling the peace of the small garden.

He felt the tension and the questions slowly erode as the small trees and bushes swayed with the wind, questions about cycles and lions fading from his mind as his muscles relaxed.

He smiled sadly as he sat down and closed his eyes. It had been a while since he'd last meditated.

-.PD.-

The sun had hidden to the west some hours ago, and the usual bustle that had characterized the Dawn Fort for the past month was muted, almost tranquil.

Joffrey had retired to his room, but he'd been unable to sleep for more than an hour now. He'd lighted up a couple of oil lanterns and tried to read a bit of Fol-Fing, despite knowing the book by hard by now…

It hadn't helped. After that he'd donned his customary heavy boots and walked in a circle around his room for twenty minutes as something inside his mind refused to be let go.

He didn't quite know why, but he'd found himself standing in front of the big mirror that adorned his room. It was big and enameled in gold, and besides the superior, almost Myrish quality of its glass it would have not been out of place in Westeros.

Oh Sansa, if you could see me now… Joffrey mused as he gazed at the person in the mirror. Whatever illusions of beauty the redhead had seen in him were long gone.

His left ear was missing a part of its rear, bitten off by a flying wight. His right ear was missing its top half after an arrow from a fiery zealot had grazed him, many years ago. His right eye was gone of course, claimed by the icy blade of a White Walker. He lifted his shirt as his eye kept going down, gazing at the angry scar in the middle of his belly. To its right was a section of burnt skin, courtesy of the powerful blow the White Walker had delivered on him. Both of them were surrounded by scabs and scars, a legacy of wounds from a thousand swords, claws, sabers and arrows. He lifted his right stump, gazing at the gnarled ending, eye unfocused.

If I stay here…

If I stay here… I'll die.

I'll die and I'll never wake up again… he thought as he tilted his arm, studying the contours of the stump.

It was obvious really, Joffrey knew of only one thing powerful enough to rank in the same tier as the Purple.

The White Walkers. Beings capable of bringing back the very dead as their perpetual slaves.

If he was killed here, he would be Returned… but not to his old room in the Red Keep. He would be reanimated as a wight. How could he be reborn in the purple if his very soul was trapped by the eldritch beings, bent to their will. His individuality gone, his memories gone, the very essence that made him himself all replaced by the undying hunger of flesh and eternal hatred of the living.

He could still run though, there was still time. It would be so easy, to load a couple of horses with supplies and ride through the West Gate just like High Command had done. He would have to sneak through the Red Marshes and beyond so that the roaming bands of wights wouldn't kill him, but sooner or later he would reach the coast. There he could steal a small boat and row until his arms gave out. He didn't know just how great the range of the monsters was, but it couldn't be that big. A swift stab to the neck and he'd be safe again, free to rest, free to seek the ever elusive answers…

He closed his eye.

All he had to do was betray his men. Just like the others had done. To break all bonds of fellowship, to betray his brothers, to leave every man for himself…

To die like a scared rat.

He could imagine their faces, the despair as the news settled. The anguish and the all-consuming panic that turned men into animals slamming against the Dawn Fort like a thick miasma. He could see the grand army poised to destroy them sail by unopposed, hitting Yi-Ti and the world like a sledgehammer before they could even begin to prepare an adequate defense.

The choice threatened to break him, and he could feel his whole body shivering.

Last chance.

They wouldn't even remember that betrayal, and the rest of the world would be reset thanks to the Purple. All would be washed away, all would be as it was. He didn't need to die here.

…

…..

It was easy to be 'brave' when he knew he would always come back. For years, decades now he'd been telling himself that he'd changed, that he'd transcended that shell of a child, that he'd left behind the monster he'd been. He had spent years trying to justify to himself just exactly why he was a different man.

If he turned back now, wouldn't that mean it had all been for nought? Wouldn't it mean it had all been one big excuse, merely a varnish, a coat of paint he'd used to dress up the fact that the purple made him effectively immortal? That when the stakes were real… he was revealed as nothing more than a fake?

Wouldn't it mean he had not really changed at all?

Wouldn't it mean that he was not the master of his fate?

…

...

...….

The shivering stopped.

I am going to die here.

The thought hit him like a warm breeze, a deep feeling of wellbeing as if he'd just woken up from a long afternoon below the shade of a heart tree.

He found he was not afraid of it. To be lost forever in the darkness, to never experience again.

Because he'd die as himself. Not as a scared rat, not as the spoiled prince, but as him.

Joff.

Joffrey.

Just… Joffrey.

The serenity that enveloped him for a few seconds after that realization was too strong to put into words… it was like a mix of memories. Ned's encouraging smile, a gust of chilly wind at the top of the world, a splash as a ship trundled through another wave, the sound of dice rolling inside a cup, a vast field of stars, the warm laughter of a friend.

Joffrey took a deep breath as the feeling purged him, as a deep weight he'd carried for so long was slowly lifted.

He opened his pale green eye and saw himself in the mirror.

Joffrey was smiling.

He lost himself looking at his own eye, loosing himself in the pale green serenity that enveloped him like a comforting blanket.

bbbbboooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU bellowed a deep horn in the distance.

-----

Its time, he thought to himself as the man in the mirror gazed back, serene.

bbbbbooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU bellowed the great horns of Dawn, a low pitched thrum which seemed to reverberate through the stones themselves.

"Commander!" said Loh as he opened the door and entered quickly. He snapped a perfect salute before giving him the news.

"Scouts report a great horde of wights to the North East, moving fast towards us… they've spotted Demons amongst them" he announced.

The masters of their fate…

"… they're here sir" he added as Joffrey kept silently staring at the mirror.

The ones who stand in vigil…

"Bring my armor" he commanded.

Joffrey kept staring at the mirror as two soldiers carried a big chest to his side before opening it up. One of the soldiers grabbed something before he bent down and strapped a black, steel grieve below his left knee as the other one did the same to his right leg.

"Sometimes… sometimes men have to become something greater than themselves… whispered Jin inside his head as Joffrey lifted his arms and Loh fitted him with a gambeson piece, followed by a coat of mail.

"A beacon of light and hope…" whispered Jin as the soldiers fitted plates of black armor to his thighs.

'bbbbboooooouuuuuuuuUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU' thrummed the horns of Dawn, signaling the arrival of the Enemy.

The man in the mirror lifted his stump to the side as Loh strapped a long mace to it, strapping and securing leather to flesh and removing the covers off the flanges.

"…An unshakable pillar…" Jin whispered as one of the soldiers fitted a gauntlet to his left hand and then a vambrace, a black piece of polished steel with a slight reddish tint that covered his fore arm. The man in the mirror lifted both arms to the sides as Loh and the soldier placed a breastplate over his chest, closing the back end and securing it in place. The black breastplate slowly acquired a stronger reddish tint the farther up it went until it reached the neckline in a splendor of dark red. On its center, the breastplate depicted an angled, distorted Fortress eerily reminiscent of a face. The huge Fortress's gatehouse was open as if it were screaming, and the towers which flanked it seemed slanted, with lines of enameled ruby cascading downwards.

It was crying, shedding furious tears of burning fire.

"…that father to his men…" Whispered Jin as the two soldiers wordlessly secured black, steel braces to his arms, followed by two big pauldrons, one for each shoulder. Both pauldrons depicted the Dawn Fort in miniature, one slanted downwards as if saddened while the other seemed straighter, perhaps reminiscing of happier times, content.

'bbbbboooouuuuuuuUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU' bellowed the horns of Dawn.

The two soldiers moved to the sides as Loh stepped behind Joffrey, placing a grey eye patch where his right eye used to be, covering his empty eye socket. He tied the knot at the back of his head tightly as a soldier secured an obsidian dagger to his left, level with his hip.

"Sometimes… men have to become something greater than themselves… something... grander" Whispered Jin, his voice almost lost in the silence as Loh pivoted to his right, buckling a heavy saber to his hip as the two soldiers once again emerged from behind, carrying a crimson red cloak. They secured it to his pauldrons before letting it hang down, where it fluttered slightly as a gust of bone chilling wind gently shuffled it about. It hanged to his thighs, leaving his legs free to move.

bbbbboooouuuuUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU thrummed the Dawn Fort as the soldiers stepped back and stayed there, still as statues.

Loh stepped to his side, his back straight. His expression was serious, solemn as if made of chiseled marble. In his hands he had a red helmet whose back and sides slanted downwards in a stepped pattern. The helmet had two golden horns vaguely shorter than his forearm which jutted up, holding a blood red metal circle in between.

Joffrey tilted his head down, letting Loh secure the helmet. His aide secured the straps firmly before stepping back to Joffrey's flank, leaving the room eerily quiet.

Joffrey took in a deep, slow lungful of air before letting it all out, slowly tilting his head back up to gaze at the man in the mirror.

The sun seemed to shine from above the man's head, illuminating the top of the armor with the light of dawn. The light it brought was wrong though, not the color of a natural morning. It was dark red, the color of spilt blood, blood shed during dawn. The shuffling cloak behind the man made the dawn seem alive, shifting at the edges of the armor with each gust of wind… It gave the Fortress on the breastplate an eerie effect. The windowed towers that flanked the gatehouse, the eyes, seemed to move slightly with each flutter of the cloak as if it too gazed back.

"…Through Dusk and Dawn…" suddenly promised the man in the mirror.

"…Through Light and Dark…" promised Dawn Commander Joffrey.

'BBBBBOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU' answered the Dawn Fort, its deep pitch reverberating through the stones.

-.PD.-

The wind blew strongly as Joffrey strode through the walkways of the Outer Wall. In lockstep behind him walked Greatbeam Valyon and Sunbeam Loh, followed by a dozen heavily armored Shock Irons. Their heavy battleaxes and Dai-Katanas glinted below the moonlight as they passed scores of rushing men carrying stones, ballista bolts and buckets of oil.

All around him Joffrey saw soldiers stopping for a second or two and saluting, gazing at him in awe as he made his way to the gatehouse's top. He knew he didn't deserve such admiration, but when he'd donned the Armor of Dawn he'd made a choice… he was now their beacon, their hope. And he would not let them down.

So he nodded back after each salute, "Dawn Commander" said a Sunbeam preparing a trebuchet's crew. "Commander!" snapped a wide eyed Oneray which couldn't be older than fourteen years old as he carried a bundle of arrows to the forward positions along the thick wall. "Silver Lion" murmured a Ranger in deep respect as he slowly walked behind a unit of mixed heavy infantry right at the edge.

Joffrey nodded back curtly after each salute. All along the Fort's Outer Wall he could see torches and blazing piles of kindling, illuminating the huge structure like a beacon in the night.

He ascended three flights of stairs before reaching the most elevated portion of the fortification right behind the East Gatehouse, where a veritable redoubt had been built vaguely atop it. It was the Commander's Stand, a raised, fortified keep right behind and above the East Gatehouse which gave him a clear view of the entire Eastern side of the Fort as well as a command center to keep himself informed of whatever happened around the huge fortress. One of its two main areas, the War Room, served the latter function, a great hall full of shouting and shuffling that made up the command center for the coming battle. Around the center, arrayed in concentric circles were soldiers and Bronze Scribes behind tables receiving reports from various units. The veritable flood of messengers was quickly sorted by Sunbeams at the entrance, directing them to the relevant tables were they left their reports and took offered water canteens, waiting to receive back orders.

"DAWN COMMANDER!!!" Bellowed one of the Sunbeams as Joffrey strode through the room's open doors and the soldiers stopped what they were doing to salute.

"At ease" Joffrey commanded immediately with a clear voice as he stood at the center of the room, left hand behind his back and his mace leaning over his saber's pommel.

"Gatehouse Garrison" he called out as he turned.

"Gatehouse manned and secured, commander!" said one of the soldiers at the tables.

"Wall Sections!" Joffrey called out the big table that was arranged as one big circle around the room, divided into segments of four.

"North East, secured and reinforced!" called out one of the Bronze Scribes.

"South East, secured and reinforced!" said a Captain with a bandaged arm.

"South West, secured!" called the scribe next to him.

"North West, un--" started the Bronze Scribe but quickly stopped when a runner emerged from the doors and almost crashed against the table, quickly handing a slip of paper.

"North West, secured!" called the Bronze Scribe.

Joffrey nodded curtly as he turned to the other side, "Reserve?" he called out.

"Colonel Sabu reports the Inner East Gatehouse is secured and his troops are ready to sally out at a moment's notice sir!" called out a wounded Ranger.

"Good" said Joffrey as he turned towards the corner where a few cushions had been arrayed, "Arcanum?" he asked the stern Quarter Moon that sat there with his eyes closed and his back as straight as steel. "All three Constellations are ready and the ritual is stable, Commander" he said with ironclad certainty, never opening his eyes nor moving anything beyond his mouth.

"Excellent" Joffrey said before he finally turned to the last table, this one manned by a Scout. "Force estimate?" he asked quickly.

"Captain Zo-Hui estimates at least twenty five thousand wights moving in formation and around two dozen Demons, Commander" the Scout delivered the apocalyptic numbers with aplomb.

Joffrey's eye hardened.

"I'll take those odds" he said as he strode towards the reinforced double doors that crowned a wide if brief set of stairs. The Threerays keeping guard there opened the doors and Joffrey was hit by a blast of chilly wind as he walked out.

The Observation tower was the Stand's highest point, a crenelated bastion where the Commander could view the entire Eastern side of the Plains of Dawn. The fortified position was surrounded by ballista and mangonel crews, as well as groups of soldiers manning great horns and huge flags which Joffrey could use to direct the flow of battle.

He took the final set of steps before he arrived at the top of the little fort-within-a-fort. Joffrey could see the great Plains of Dawn stretching from North to South before crashing into the Mountains of the Morn very clearly despite the night. The retreating Scouts had lit some of the many oil holes the work crews had dug and filled, illuminating the plains as far as the vast tree line a few kilometers from the Dawn Fort itself. From there to the Gatehouse there was no cover except for the occasional ditch filled with oil, and Joffrey could see the soldiers manning the wall to his sides as they hurriedly moved supplies and projectiles about... or they readied katanas, sabers and axes in preparation for the coming melee.

He could hear a steady rumbling coming from the North East, an earth pounding shuffling that slowly increased in volume.

"A probe or a swarm, sir?" Loh asked as the pounding kept rising and his Shock Irons spread themselves around the Observation tower.

----

"Swarm. They'll hit us hard, to see if we break at the first battle…" Joffrey mused as the wind picked up speed, his crimson red cloak fluttering wildly as he raised his far eye with his mace hand and looked through it.

He saw a single White Walker emerge from the tree line, clad in indistinct blue armor and wielding a great hammer with a big grey rock atop it. The monster seemed to be staring straight at Joffrey as the rest of his companions emerged from behind.

He saw dozens of White Walkers emerging from the tree line, each quite separate from the other as they leisurely marched into view, almost in mechanical lockstep, their movements calm and precise, synchronized with each other.

The Demons gave no speeches nor rallying cries. They just stood still as a grey tide emerged from behind them.

They stood still as shoals of undead emerged from behind them, like the sea during a tempestuous storm. The wights screamed harrowing screeches as they ran like demented, tormented souls as they kept emerging from the forest like ants, filling the entire horizon with grey as they spread all over the plains, not stopping for a moment.

The fires illuminated them clearly, and Joffrey could see Shrikes and Legionnaires, Horse Chiefs and Cultists all united in death with the same goal, to spread their misery far and wide, to bring the world down in ice and death.

Their combined shrieking was a sound come from the hells itself, filling the entire plain and beyond… It too, was a promise. They shambled at a dead run, wielding weapons of all kinds or none at all, their jaws hanging wide open as if already tasting the flesh of those to be consumed as a terrible sandstorm picked up behind them, a whirlwind of jagged grey sand that suddenly seemed to rush directly at the Dawn Fort, its own sibilant whistling adding its tune to the melody of the damned.

His pale green eye slowly scanned the great mob from end to end as the all-consuming curtain of grey sand bared upon them all like living Leviathans, the skies themselves turning grey as the multitude of banners behind him fluttered wildly, the Starwatching Silver Lion the tallest of them all.

The sandstorm crashed abruptly as if against an invisible curtain, still quite a distance away from the wall itself, spilling to the sides and continuing around the Dawn Fort in a perfect circle as the wights themselves kept charging without the shrouding embrace of the sandstorm.

Joffrey lowered the far eye.

"Burn them" he said, still gazing at the grey tide of undead.

"Aye Commander!" Loh snapped by his side as he turned back to the soldiers by the great horns, "FORWARD BATTERYYYYYYYY! LOOOOOOOOSE!" he bellowed as he signaled with his arm.

The horns of dawn thundered, cutting off the shrieking of the undead as the stones themselves trembled.

"Trebuchets! Make ready!!!" shouted a Half Sun in the bastion to Joffrey's far right.

"Ignite!" bellowed Sunbeams as soldiers jutted torches into the great stones which rested in the slings, wrapped in soaked rags.

All along the Outer Wall bursts of orange fire screamed to life as soldiers stepped back and officers shouted almost as one. "CLEAR!!!" shouted a Threeray as he quickly inspected the piece and the soldiers stood back.

"LOOOOOOOSE!!!!!" roared a Sunbeam as he slashed his saber down, the soldier next to him grunting in effort as he lifted a great hammer and slammed it against a thick metallic lever. Ropes spun too fast for eyes to see as counterweights swung down with deceptive force, the inertia strong enough to make the wind whistle as long wooden arms were raised to the sky all over the wall.

Dozens, hundreds of flaming projectiles flew in a long arc over the Plains of Dawn, they seemed almost sluggish as they completed their arcs before gaining speed and slamming downwards into the grey sea. Clumps of wights screamed as they were tossed to the sides in flames, many stones rebounding on the ground and searing great paths of fire as they purged through the ranks of the undead.

The grey tide seemed barely diminished, still rushing with wild abandon as soldiers grunted in pained effort, still undeterred even as the trebuchets along the wall loosed as fast as they could, the initial volley morphing into a constant rain of fire as stone after stone crashed against the Legion of the Night.

Joffrey grasped one of the black crenellations as he kept watch over the swarm, his eye unflinching despite the frequent flashes as fireballs kept crashing against the undead left and right. He tilted his head slightly towards Loh, still looking at the burning plains. "Let's see if they like the Bumblebees" he commented.

"HEAVY BALLISTA! LOOSE!" thundered Loh, soon followed by the thrumming horns of Dawn.

Soldiers along the Outer Wall scrambled as long bolts with twin hanging pouches were slammed into heavy ballista pieces all along the wall and the bastions that jutted out of it every thirty meters.

"CLEAR!" thundered the crew leaders as soldiers and sometimes even boys lit small lengths of fuse and stepped back.

"PURGE THEM!!!" thundered one of them as he slashed down with his katana and the ballista loosed with a strangled sight. All along the battlefield hundreds of sizzling projectiles flew over the wight's heads. Some of them tumbled down almost immediately after clearing the wall, but many others flew straight as the fuses lit up their charges and viscous, heavy burning oil rained from above, disintegrating the projectiles in midair before raining down like a hail of burning snow.

Clusters of wights burned under the red rain while many others tried to avoid the sudden pools of fire and the tumbling balls of flame, clumping and bumping against each other and slowing down their progress. Even so they charged on, some of the luckier ones almost reaching the Iron Cemetery.

"Rear Battery, loose" Joffrey commanded, his voice cold.

"REAR BATTERYYYYY!!!" bellowed Loh, signaling the horn crews with his hand.

"SHOW 'EM THE LION HAS CLAWS!!!" snarled a Sunbeam atop the Inner Wall as orange glows emerged all over it and soldiers slammed hammers against levers.

"LOOOOOOOSE!!!!!" the roar echoed throughout the Dawn Fort.

Scores of flaming projectiles erupted from the Inner Wall, sailing over the heads of the defenders before crashing into the wights. Joffrey could feel the intense heat as dozens of flaming stones passed above him, smashing into corpses like the fists of gods, tossing them aside like broken toys.

Even so, the tide seemed unrelenting. More and more wights emerged from the tree line as gaps in the grey sea closed again and the clusters of fire were extinguished by the sheer pressure of bodies piling over it, even if it burned many to ashes.

"Commander, the mangonels-!" started Loh.

"Not yet" Joffrey said, studying the sky. The clouds, the smoke and the monstrous, whirling sandstorm beyond it had blanketed the horizon almost completely.

"Start peppering them" Joffrey commanded as he kept looking at the sky with a frown.

"ARCHERS!" shouted Loh. The horns thundered as Greatbeam Valyon walked to the edge of the Stand and bellowed down at the archers stationed on the wall section nearest to them, giving the orders personally.

"BY VOLLEYS! SEND THEM BACK TO THE ABYSS!!!" he bellowed.

Bows resounded by the thousands as arrows leapt throughout the Outer Wall like eager hounds, many of them on fire, whistling throughout the air before slamming into wights like a gale of razors. Hundreds of wights collapsed as arrows took out skulls and chests, many of them standing back up again despite the furious pounding, crawling with their arms if necessary.

The wights finally reached the Iron Cemetery and leapt, trying to jump over the huge, staked ditch. Hundreds fell down and impaled themselves on the iron stakes as thousands more grappled with the mud and climbed up like spiders, first up the ditch and then the great black walls.

"RED SECTION, STAND BACK! ORANGE SECTION, LOOSE!" Bellowed a Sunbeam as archers stepped back, others immediately taking their place and loosing flaming arrows down the wall.

Wights were returned to eternal rest by the hundreds. They got their skulls smashed as they neared the top, pushed back to the ditch by half pikes or had their chests burst open like grapefruits under the heavy hammering of battleaxes, Dai-Katanas, one handed maces and sabers at the hands of the infantry stationed atop the wall. But for every one that fell, two more reached the crenellations, and soon the whole Eastern side of the Outer Wall was under assault as wights kept climbing by the hundreds.

Joffrey's frown deepened as he strained to listen beyond the roar of battle, beyond the snarls of trebuchets and ballistas, beyond the screams of dying men.

He whipped back suddenly, hollering at the soldiers by the Horns. "LOAD MANGONELS WITH SKY BURNERS!" he bellowed powerfully, the soldiers rushing as flags where quickly raised and the Horns thrummed.

He turned back as thousands of figures emerged from the sandstorm, their silhouettes lit by the moon above and the fierce fires below as they flew high over the air. Their great wings flapped wildly as they approached the Dawn Fort at great speed, each flying wight haphazardly carrying another undead with their feet, blue eyes crazed and mouths agape.

Joffrey stared at them as the dark cloud quickly cleared the distance to the Dawn Fort, their great leathery flapping slowly drowning all other sound as the overwhelming buzz resounded all throughout the Dawn Fort.

Joffrey didn't look back as his roar cut through the great buzz as clear as lighting, his voice almost as powerful as the Horns behind him as they followed his command.

"MANGONEEEEELS! SET THE SKIES ABLAZE!!!" he roared.

Hundreds, thousands of the heavy catapults loosed almost at the same time, the trajectory of the barrels barely discernable by the wild sparkling of their fuses as they arched over the battlefield right as the flying wights neared the Outer Wall.

Scores of explosions thundered over the battlefield every second as the barrels burst in midair, the great concussive force of the firepowder charges making wights tumble in midair and lose control, falling down from the skies and smashing themselves against the hard ground or the crenellations. The incendiary charges lit the skies red as the fire made the wights shriek and jerk away, losing their grip on most of their passengers even if some of them managed to break away whole.

Hundreds of wights still rained throughout Outer Wall, shrieking as they crashed against stone or men, never stopping their fumbling arms or their deadly mouths.

The mangonel crews that surrounded the Observation tower loosed desperately as more and more of the flying undead came crashing down, loaders grunting in effort as they loaded charge after charge and Onerays pulled cranks and levers franticly.

One of the crew members stumbled back in horror as a flying wights crashed right next to his mangonel, shrieking as it tried to bite the man's leg and the barrel's fuse kept sparkling wildly, already loaded atop the piece. The two other soldiers manning the piece, neither old enough to have a beard, stumbled clumsily as they tried to get their weapons out before a snarl startled them.

A red and black figure leapt from above, his heavy boots landing on a crouch right atop the wight's back as the thing shrieked and its broken wings tumbled wildly. He shoved his saber's side against the thing's back, holding it still while he shoved his mace hand brutally against the wight's spine, twisting brutally before standing back up.

"KEEP LAUNCHING!" bellowed the Dawn Commander as he slammed his mace hand against the mangonel's release lever, the piece letting out a strangled, minute screech as its arm moved up and the heavy catapult released a sparkling barrel. It travelled a short distance before exploding right beside a cluster of flying wights, forcing some of them to tumble down to their doom while others barely reached the Outer Wall.

"Eyes on the horizon! Use your spotter as close in defense; you don't need him for aiming right now!" he shouted at them, shaking his boot as the wight on the floor tried to grab it with a torn, broken hand.

The crew stared at Joffrey in mild shock, still as they gazed at their commander and the undead struggling to grasp his boot.

"Fire's down on the left flank, loose ten charges that way" he said as he pointed with his saber, shaking his boot in annoyance as the thing barely managed to grasp it, trying to pull itself with it as its mouth hanged open, "Before turning—Godsdamnit!" he huffed as he stared down and stomped the wight's skull with his other boot, again and again as the thing finally broke and the corpse stayed still. "Before turning back to your assigned area, four Sky Burners for each Fire Hail" he said as he looked back to them.

…

"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!?" he snarled, startling the crew into action as they started to turn the artillery piece around.

Joffrey turned around and strode to the edge of the observation tower. He could still see hordes of undead pouring out of the forest even though the casualties amongst the wights were already enormous.

They really want us out of the way… Joffrey thought before a Flying wight with a broken wing landed right on the crenellation next to him, its hands struggling to find a better grip as its legs hanged down.

Joffrey smashed his saber against the thing's skull before turning back and quick walking towards the Horns of Dawn, the wight's screech cut short as it fell. Even atop the Observation tower battle had been joined as mangled wights managed to reach the Fort's command center. The Fort's fires and the frequent flashes of light above illuminated the same picture all over the Outer Wall as legionnaires fought in a furious melee that was very slowly pushing them back.

"LIGHT UP THE FIRST FIREWALL!" he roared at the soldier leaning against the great horns, over the sound of the explosions above.

"CHOU! SIGNAL THE TREBUCHETS TO LIGHT--" he repeated as he grabbed the man's shoulder and turned him around. Blood seeped from his mouth as the body tumbled to the side, a short sword rammed up his throat as the small wight he'd been pinning with his weight jumped at Joffrey.

The undead rammed its other short sword against his chest, the black plate stopping the blade on its tracks as Joffrey dropped his saber and grabbed the Shryke wight by the neck, pummeling its head with his mace, snarling as he hammered the thing's skull again and again.

He tossed the broken thing sideways before taking a lungful of air and placing his mouth over the fixed horn's blowhole.

'Bbbbouuuuuuu.... BbbboooouuuuuuUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU' thrummed the tower itself as Joffrey blew. He turned back to look at the sky as four flaming projectiles leapt ahead of the rest, two of them managing to crash against a ditch nearby the Iron Cemetery.

The entire ditch burst into a flaming conflagration almost instantly, mobs of wights burned down in seconds even as the ones behind them stopped, shrieking and snarling as the ones behind them shoved forwards all the same, feeding the fire with their bodies.

It seemed that had been too much, even for the Demons of the Night. The wights behind the firewall suddenly turned around and fled back to the forest, the Walkers that had been surveying the battlefield turning as one and walking towards the tree line, their steps synchronized.

The one that wielded the mace stayed there for a half second longer before turning too as the sandstorm that raged around the Dawn Fort slowly dissipated.

The wights that had been past the firewall kept attacking, but without the great press of bodies behind them they were quickly decimated by the Fort's artillery.

Something moved in the corner of his vision and Joffrey turned quickly, only to find the remains of the wight he'd pummeled trying to crawl its way to the crenellations.

"And where do you think you're going..?" Joffrey asked the wight as he grabbed him by the back of the neck. He walked back to his position as the men started on a ragged cheer, weapons raised defiantly to the air as a bloodied Sunbeam Loh greeted him with a relieved half smile.

"Lost sight of you for a moment sir" Loh commented as he assumed his position to Joffrey's left again and Greatbeam Valyon emerged from the double doors with two dozen more Shock Irons as reinforcements.

"Had to take care of a few things" Joffrey muttered distractedly as he watched over the rapidly clearing Plains of Dawn and the broken thing he held in his hand twitched desperately.

Suddenly, he raised the wight over the battlements, the fires all over illuminating its twitching figure as Joffrey roared.

"They can be defeated!!!" he bellowed as the soldiers on the battlements turned to look at him.

"THEY! CAN! BE! KILLED!!!" He roared as he tossed the wight down. It gave a desperate shriek as it plummeted down from the Commander's Stand before slamming against the hard black stone below, at the same time as the men roared back.

"Secure all munitions and ready for a standing watch" Joffrey commanded before turning back and going down the short set of stairs from the raised platform to the Observation Tower proper. "Just missed it, Greatbeam" he called out to Valyon as the Shock Irons spread out and made sure the downed wights stayed down.

"Sorry sir" he said belatedly as he walked with Joffrey, both of them descending again down a set of stairs, through the double doors back into the War Room.

"Don't worry about it. Start giving the men some food, if nothing happens for the rest of the night I'll want the rotations we discussed ticking over by morning" he commanded as he reached the middle of the great room.

"Wall Sections! Report!" he bellowed over the controlled chaos of messengers, soldiers and walking wounded.

-.PD.-