Chapter 91: After the Fall
The first hours after the fall of Eastwatch were quieter than the battle had been, but they were not peaceful.
Viridian banners flew above the government hall and several major towers, yet scattered fighting still broke out in isolated streets where Caldris soldiers had either not received word of the surrender or refused to believe it.
Small groups remained inside barracks, wall towers, storehouses, and fortified houses throughout the city.
Some laid down their weapons when they saw goblin patrols carrying captured Caldris banners and shouting crude surrender commands.
Others fired crossbows from windows or blocked doors with furniture until larger Viridian formations surrounded them. The city had lost its command, but thousands of people inside it had not yet accepted what that meant.
Grand Marshal Rakhar Veyr entered the government compound only after the western commander confirmed that the main buildings were secure.
Varek walked beside him while engineers, infantry officers, and messengers followed at a short distance. The compound looked entirely different from the orderly government center it had been before the assault.
Broken doors hung from hinges, furniture lay shattered across the receiving hall, and blood marked the staircase where General Cedric Halvern and the last professional soldiers had fought.
Viridian troops had already begun separating wounded humans from the dead and stacking surrendered weapons in guarded piles.
The western commander approached Rakhar in the courtyard and gave his report without ceremony. "Governor alive. General dead. Main hall secured. Northern and southern entrances held. Scattered resistance remains throughout the city, but there is no organized command left."
Rakhar glanced toward the hall. "Halvern?"
"Confirmed. Died at the staircase."
"And Rusk?"
"Under guard in the eastern administrative wing."
Rakhar nodded once. "Good. Keep him alive."
The western commander hesitated. "The soldiers are asking whether the city has officially fallen."
"It has fallen when we control it."
Rakhar moved through the courtyard and began issuing orders. The northern force would hold the northern gate and surrounding district.
The southern army would do the same in the south. Western troops would secure the government quarter, western roads, and central approaches.
The eastern army would control the shattered gate, main wall sections, and the roads where the most intense fighting had occurred. Patrol routes would connect all four sectors so no commander could become isolated from another.
Varek listened as the orders were repeated to runners. "You are treating the city as if another army might attack tomorrow."
Rakhar looked toward the streets beyond the compound wall. "A city this large can become another army if we let it."
Engineers were sent first toward the gates.
The northern and southern mechanisms had to remain usable, while the destroyed eastern entrance required barriers of its own so nobody could enter freely through the shattered doors.
The western wall stairs and siege-tower approaches were placed under guard. No large group would enter or leave Eastwatch without permission, whether human or goblin.
The next problem was the surviving Caldris soldiers.
Several hundred prisoners had already been gathered near the government compound, but more were appearing every hour.
Some came in groups under white cloths tied to spears. Others were brought from barricaded buildings after short negotiations. Officers were separated from common soldiers, while wounded men were moved to a guarded courtyard where Viridian healers could at least prevent unnecessary deaths.
Weapons were counted and placed under guard rather than left scattered throughout the city.
Rakhar eventually stopped near the staircase where Halvern’s body still lay among the dead.
The general’s armor was damaged, and blood had dried along the stone beneath him. Several surviving Caldris prisoners had already identified him through gestures, insignia, and repeated use of his name.
Rakhar studied the body for a moment. "Record him as their commanding general."
Varek looked toward him. "Anything else?"
"Do not strip his body with the rest."
A nearby officer raised an eyebrow.
Rakhar continued before the question could be asked. "He held the city until he had nothing left to hold it with. That does not make him our friend."
From there, Rakhar crossed toward the eastern gate. The route through the city showed the cost of the siege more clearly than any casualty report could.
Goblin bodies still lay along the battlements, beneath siege towers, around broken barricades, and inside streets where the fighting had compressed into brutal close quarters.
Recovery teams moved steadily through those areas, carrying the Viridian dead toward designated collection points while wounded soldiers were sent to field hospitals established in captured warehouses and courtyards.
The eastern entrance was the worst.
The shattered gate still stood open, but the passage beyond it was filled with broken wagons, splintered timber, abandoned shields, blood, and bodies from the repeated assaults.
This was where Viridian had tried again and again to force a narrow path while Caldris had concentrated its strength directly in front of them.
Varek looked over the ruined barricade. "We lost too many soldiers here."
He turned away before the conversation became reflective for its own sake. There was too much work left.
Fires had started in several districts from catapult strikes, overturned lamps, and burning siege material. Rakhar ordered engineering crews and occupation troops to organize water lines immediately.
Civilians were allowed to help where the fires threatened residential streets, but Viridian guards supervised every group. Eastwatch was too valuable to burn after they had spent so much blood capturing it.
Looting was forbidden at the same time.
An officer suggested allowing controlled spoils for soldiers who had fought through the siege. Rakhar rejected it. Supplies needed by the army could be seized and recorded. Government warehouses could be inventoried. Military stores belonged to the occupation now. Private houses were different.
"If soldiers start breaking doors because they think victory means ownership, we will spend tomorrow fighting every street again," Rakhar said. "No unauthorized looting. No attacks on civilians. Punish anyone who ignores it."
The order spread quickly.
As the fighting faded, civilians slowly began emerging from buildings. Some searched for missing relatives. Others carried wounded people toward improvised aid stations.
Many simply stood at corners and watched goblin patrols pass beneath Viridian banners. Fear remained obvious in every face. These people had spent weeks hearing reports about goblin attacks in villages and roads.
Now those same creatures occupied the provincial capital in organized ranks, guarded intersections, counted prisoners, and issued orders through hand signs and badly pronounced Caldris words.
Food became another immediate concern. Eastwatch had been preparing for siege, which meant its granaries still contained large stores, but Rakhar refused to let soldiers raid them freely. Warehouses were sealed and placed under guard.
Officers were ordered to begin counting grain, preserved meat, water stores, and livestock while supply routes from the occupied countryside were reopened toward the city.
Starving civilians would produce disease, unrest, and rebellion, none of which helped Viridian.
Government records were treated the same way. Tax ledgers, land registers, supply inventories, military maps, and administrative documents were collected rather than burned.
Most goblins could not read the writing, but Rakhar understood that destroying information simply because they could not yet use it would be foolish.
By late afternoon, he finally agreed to meet Lord Governor Marcellan Rusk.
Rusk was brought into a smaller administrative chamber under guard. He looked exhausted, his clothing stained with dust and blood that was mostly not his own.
Beside Rakhar stood a goblin translator named Sevrek, one of the few soldiers who had learned enough Caldris speech during the campaign to recognize common words. His ability was limited. He knew military terms, titles, simple questions, numbers, directions, and fragments of everyday speech, but anything complicated forced him to guess from context.
Rakhar looked at Sevrek first. "Confirm his identity."
Sevrek turned toward Rusk and spoke slowly in rough Caldris. "Name. You... ruler? Eastwatch ruler?"
Rusk frowned at the broken phrasing but understood. "Marcellan Rusk. Lord Governor of Eastwatch."
Sevrek recognized enough to turn back. "Rusk. Governor. Eastwatch."
Rakhar nodded. "Ask whether soldiers still fighting obey him."
Sevrek struggled with the sentence, then faced Rusk again. "Soldiers... you order? They hear you?"
Rusk glanced between them. "Some will. If they know I am alive."
Sevrek caught only part of it. "He say... some soldiers. Hear him if know alive."
Rakhar kept his answer short. "He tells them weapons down. Fighting stops."
Sevrek repeated the idea with gestures. "You speak. Soldiers stop. Weapons down. No fight."
Rusk understood immediately. His expression tightened. Issuing that order meant admitting that Eastwatch was no longer merely losing. It meant acknowledging that it had fallen.
He asked something longer.
Sevrek frowned and made him repeat it twice. Eventually he caught several words. "People... city people... what do us do?"
Rakhar understood the question despite the broken translation.
"People obey. People live."
Sevrek turned and rendered it as best he could. "People no fight. People live. Fight... bad."
Rusk looked at Rakhar for several seconds, measuring whether the promise meant anything. "And my soldiers who surrender?"
Sevrek recognized soldiers and surrender but missed the rest. He looked toward Rakhar uncertainly. "Soldiers... surrender. He ask soldiers."
Rakhar answered simply. "Prisoners. Alive if they obey."
The translation came out rougher. "Soldiers drop weapons. Live. Prisoners."
Rusk slowly nodded.
Rakhar then pointed toward him. "You stay. Not free. You help city quiet."
Sevrek managed that nearly word for word.
Rusk understood enough to know exactly what his new position was. He was still governor in name only because the goblins found that title useful. He was alive because his authority could stop more fighting and keep the city functioning.
He asked one final question, mentioning the king.
Sevrek caught only that word. "He says king. Something... king."
Rakhar shook his head. "Later."
There was no value in attempting politics through a translator who understood only fragments.
Rusk was given writing materials and ordered, through Sevrek’s awkward translation, to issue a surrender command to surviving Caldris troops.
Messengers would carry it through the city under Viridian escort. By evening, isolated groups began emerging from barracks and towers with weapons placed on the ground before them.
Not everyone surrendered immediately, but resistance declined until only a few pockets remained surrounded and irrelevant.
When night approached, Eastwatch was no longer a battlefield in any meaningful sense.
Viridian patrols moved through the streets. Prisoners sat under guard. Recovery crews collected the dead. Healers worked by lamplight.
Civilians cautiously returned to wells and markets under watch. Above the government hall, the Viridian banner remained visible against the darkening sky.
Rakhar stood in the courtyard and looked over the city they had spent so long trying to break. The conquest of Eastwatch had ended, but the occupation had only begun.
The walls, gates, roads, granaries, records, prisoners, civilians, and surviving officials were now Viridian’s responsibility whether the army wanted them or not.
Victory had given them the city.
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