Whitebridge

Whitebridge brings the country's tensions into one place. Provincial delegates arrive with armed escorts. Royal officers count every weapon. Yselle is present to negotiate transport guarantees for House Veyr. Seris represents marchland settlements whose grain has been requisitioned even though their autonomy was supposedly protected by treaty. Neither woman enters as a love interest waiting to be recruited; each has a constituency and an immediate objective.

Ciro treats Pyrrhus as the captain responsible for humiliating a royal collector. Pyrrhus sees a polished officer defending orders whose consequences he has not witnessed. Xeno, surrounded by guards, attempts a prepared speech about shared sacrifice and falters when a delegate asks how much grain has left the palace stores. His embarrassment is human rather than comic. He had believed the figures he was given.

The ambush begins when a signal fire appears upriver. Mercenaries wearing mismatched provincial colors attack the delegates while another group moves directly toward Xeno's pavilion. The tactical objective is to keep the truce participants alive long enough to open an escape route. Ciro has to abandon formal lines to protect his brother. Pyrrhus knows the ferry paths. Seris guides civilians through marsh ground the guards consider impassable. Yselle identifies that the attackers are using privately purchased military bolts from a recent crown shipment.

In the ruined tollhouse afterward, Ciro notices Mara's silver clasp on Pyrrhus's gear. Halven realizes concealment will now look like conspiracy and names him. Ciro's first question is whether the attackers knew. Xeno's is why nobody told them they had another brother. Pyrrhus cannot answer either. Outside, the truce flags continue burning. Their first family conversation occurs while they are deciding who can safely leave the room.