Prologue — The west gate

The opening takes place twenty-four years earlier. There is no playable assassination and no spectacle of a threatened infant. The player follows Mara through an unusually quiet palace after she has finished pleading for her son's life. A servant returns her possessions in a plain cloth bundle. Among them is a small silver clasp that once marked a private favor from the king. The servant cannot meet her eyes.

Edric allows exile under conditions: Mara must leave Menelea's court, accept a modest maintenance payment through an intermediary, and never publicly name the child's father. He calls the arrangement mercy. Mara asks whether the child will be safe if he grows into a man who looks like him. Edric says the boy's safety will depend on her discretion. It is the first example of the king placing responsibility for his own choices on someone weaker.

At the west gate, Halven checks a travel warrant whose destination is deliberately vague. Mara realizes that a vague warrant can be challenged at any checkpoint. He adds a village name in his own hand and gives her a second, ordinary cloak. It is a small act of disobedience with consequences that will reach the entire kingdom. A younger soldier notices and pretends not to.

Mara does not leave with a prophecy. She leaves with food for three days, a terrified child's future, and no certainty that the money will continue. The camera follows her wagon beyond the palace lights, then cuts to a much older wagon on the same road. Adult Pyrrhus is underneath it, swearing at a broken axle while Halven tells him that complaining has never repaired a wheel.