Time always passes in the ordinary; sometimes when you look back you realize that, in truth, not so many world-shaking events occur that directly involve everyone.
At least, not that often.
Ordinariness is usually the norm.
And many people meet the end of their lives within that ordinary existence.
Their night has come.
[Arje: 2916–2995]
[Yavin: 2918–2996]
Standing before two relatively new gravestones set beside each other, Garrett closed his eyes and sighed softly.
"Yet my night seems endlessly far off."
He placed a flower on each of their graves.
The first time they met, the two young Men were only in their twenties. They were free Rangers then, had crawled and fought on the front lines, had traveled across wastelands and mountains, had passed the Black Gate with caravans and with him... They had also fought fiercely for the title of Legion Champion, giving everyone a spectacular duel.
They represented an era, and at the end of that era they died one after another.
That day he went into the warehouse to select some basic materials.
Then he constructed a memorial hall on a vacant lot near the cemetery and arranged some sober, solemn furnishings inside.
When everything was finished, he placed the sword Yavin had once given him into a stone plinth; behind the plinth was a memorial wall.
After doing that, he inscribed a small line on the first row of the first memorial wall behind that first plinth:
Champion of the First Legion Tournament: Yavin (2918–2996).
And just like that, a sword had its history.
It would be displayed here until the next wielder arrived. Every sword had its own plinth and memorial wall.
When the memorial hall opened, all the champions made time to return. They found the place for their weapons and had their names engraved on the corresponding memorial walls.
Subsequent new legion champions would come here to claim their inheritance and to pay respects to their predecessors.
A few months after that, Garrett went to walk along the northern fortifications and then made an in-depth inspection inside Angmar.
"About time."
In the year 2997 of the Third Age, Wayfort convened a meeting of a scale that could be considered the largest in recent years.
Attendees included the commanders of Wayfort's various legions, both garrison and Rangers, company captains, legion champions, as well as representatives of the Dúnedain and some instructors.
Also present were Wayfort's internal coordinators and managers, including representatives of each community, project leaders, and custodians and managers of key facilities like the armory and supplies.
The meeting's theme was the "final extermination operation against Angmar."
After a long campaign, the matter had finally entered its final stage and could begin to be concluded.
Garrett personally took charge of this operation.
He was no longer the uninvolved leader from decades earlier who knew nothing about administration. After Bard's death he became studious; he secretly learned all those things Bard had tried to teach him, things he had once pretended not to hear and didn't want to learn.
The meeting lasted a considerable time.
Under Garrett's characteristically conservative influence, the final decisions and the drafted plan were also relatively cautious.
Logistics went without saying: supplies and weapons were never a problem. Department managers were mostly excellent graduates who had been on the battlefield and were capable both in letters and in arms; they knew what the front needed and were skilled at coordination, able to manage everything well.
As for the offensive itself...
The preliminary plan was: aside from necessary garrison forces, Wayfort and the City of Waters would together deploy ten thousand elite troops and march north.
Garrett himself would serve as overall commander, assisted by two Wayfort commanders; under them were five legion leaders and over a hundred company commanders.
The basic configuration was two thousand men per legion; a legion comprised ten companies, each company two hundred men.
Within every legion, there was to be at least one Legion Champion. They would fight at the forefront and stay close to the legion commander to provide protection and ensure that the commander would not fall unexpectedly.
Each company within the legion had to include at least two elite Rangers, and among those two, at least one needed to be skilled in management and tactics, responsible for coordination, planning, and execution.
Lastly, none of these positions were fixed; when necessary, roles could be interchanged or filled as needed.
Ten thousand elite soldiers would certainly suffice to deal with Angmar's remaining forces, especially since Garrett himself would be participating.
After all, the term "remnant forces" said it all: by the time this campaign began, the region had already been worn down over more than a decade of warfare. The enemy's numbers were greatly reduced, and the difficulty of conquest was no longer the extreme challenge it once had been.
This campaign had been in preparation for a long time.
After the meeting ended, he passed through the Nether portal, located a bastion fortress, and spent several months there fighting blazes, gathering large quantities of blaze rods. From those, a vast supply of healing potions was brewed, enough to sustain an entire large-scale war.
By mid-2997, the conference had concluded.
By the end of 2997, all preparations were complete.
The following year, in the spring of 2998, after the lively New Year celebrations, when the winter snow melted and tender buds sprouted on the trees, the army officially began to assemble.
Because the preparation period had been long enough, even the Rangers who had been roaming afar or living within their settlements received the call and came before the campaign began.
Led by Aragorn, who served as their representative, the Dúnedain gathered a separate legion of over a thousand troops to join the campaign.
This was nearly every fighting member their people could muster. Even many of their women took up arms.
It could be said that the entire tribe had mobilized.
Their decision and action surprised no one; after all, the Dúnedain had a thousand-year-old blood feud with Angmar, born of their homeland's destruction.
Now that such a chance for vengeance had come, their absence would only raise suspicion that something terrible had happened to them.
And so, the total army grew from ten thousand to eleven thousand. Believing that talent should never go to waste, Garrett appointed Aragorn as the third commander.
"Wait..."
Just as everything was about to be finalized, he narrowed his eyes and looked toward the Dúnedain legion.
"What are you hiding for?"
Halbarad, who had been trying to remain inconspicuous, was drawn forward by him.
This Man was no ordinary figure. After his journeys and trials in the East, his courage was such that he could face a Nazgûl alone, and his strength was at the level of a Legion Champion.
As for experience and tactical skill, well, Halbarad was already over one hundred and fifty years old, with more than a century of combat experience. He was a true veteran.
His life had been rich and varied: over a hundred years of warfare, service as an instructor in Wayfort's military camp, lecturer at the academy, commander defending a city, even slayer of Nazgûl...
Among the Dúnedain, Halbarad's reputation was second only to Aragorn's.
Such an elder was far too valuable to remain idle.
Thus, Garrett appointed him to fill the position of legion commander for the Dúnedain legion, a decision that met with everyone's approval.
Regarding this arrangement, he said Halbarad had no objections.
"This time, everything is in order."
"Move out!"
Everything began to proceed in an orderly fashion.
Angmar's doom was approaching. It was about to face a complete reckoning. The hidden dangers that lingered within would, after this campaign, finally be wiped away.
After the army's departure, the city grew noticeably quieter.
Some might think that Wayfort and the City of Waters were now under-defended. But if anyone attempted to take advantage of the situation to make a move against either city...
They would soon discover that there were, in fact, more troops guarding the cities than those who had marched out.
That was Garrett's cautious nature. Whether in offense or defense, he would never neglect either side.
Even if the cities once again faced an invasion like the one from Khazad-dûm decades ago, an enemy army of over fifteen thousand strong, even without Garrett, and even with the expeditionary force away, both cities could still defend themselves independently, without the need for reinforcements from elsewhere.