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While he did trust the officers to do their jobs properly--especially since he’d appointed or promoted almost all of them himself--it was still good to take a hands-on approach with these sorts of things, from time to time. If he didn’t, then he might begin to lose his touch.

And on this particular occasion, all this paperwork was helping to give him a better view of the war effort than perhaps anyone else in the world, right now.

Thus far, the war front in the best logistical position was clearly the defense of northern Melmoore against Ostra, though the southern defense against Corrico was a close second.

Most of the public credit for that seemed to be going to the Surgeon Saint, and judging from the books here, that wasn’t undeserved.

In fact, most of these invoices had been signed by Fen personally. Jackson also noticed copies of numerous handwritten letters by the man, sprinkled among all the accounting records. Each one was providing detailed instructions to his men about where to go next, what to do, and how to do it. He gave information on enemy movements, their numbers, and their access to local resources.

Oil seemed to be of particular concern to Fen. And with good reason, of course. That region was famous for its oil reserves and mining operations, so keeping Abolish off of those deposits was an understandable priority.

It hadn’t taken long for Jackson to begin questioning how Fen was acquiring his information. Usually, such impressive intel was an indication that Sparrows were being deployed, totally unimpeded by the enemy.

But Fen didn’t have command over a team of Sparrows. Or not at first, anyway. Jackson had since sent him one, which indeed only improved things further.

And... maybe he’d also wanted that team to report back to him on Fen himself. To answer that important question about how the Saint was pulling off these not-so-minor miracles.

The answer, according to the team, was something quite unexpected.

Fen had somehow acquired for himself a privileged status within the Old Wardens.

A prestigious reaper enclave. In fact, the prestigious reaper enclave. The most famous one, to which many reapers in the world longed to become a part of.

And so Fen had been using this newfound status as leverage to turn enemy reapers away from Abolish with the promise that they could one day join.