The price of a name

Rumors of Pyrrhus's parentage reach the provinces. Some councils see a protector with access to the royal family. Some lords see a rival claimant they can sponsor. Others regard him as another nobleman asking common people to risk their lives in a family quarrel. Pyrrhus discovers that refusing a title does not prevent other people from using it on his behalf.

An assembly of towns asks him to become Protector of the Roads for one winter, with authority over shared garrisons and relief convoys. The proposed charter includes limits, accounts, and a right of recall. Rusk's envoys offer immediate military support if those limits are removed. A desperate province may pressure the player toward accepting the stronger army. A well-managed coalition can afford more constraints, connecting earlier care to later political freedom.

The public ceremony is interrupted by a royal proclamation calling unauthorized levies treason. Ciro is ordered to disband Pyrrhus's coalition. He tries to negotiate a narrow recognition that would keep his brother within royal law, but Saye ensures the offer requires handing over the witnesses from Whitebridge. Pyrrhus refuses. Ciro now has a lawful order he cannot obey without helping conceal a crime.

The resulting battle is a tense confrontation at a causeway, with surrender and withdrawal conditions for both sides. The brothers do not need to spend several turns trying to kill each other to create drama. Ciro can lose the field while preserving his regiment; Pyrrhus can win and still damage their trust by humiliating prisoners. Their private language of brotherhood begins competing with public obligations neither can simply abandon.