"The sorcerer was son of a traitor. We could not put the fate of our entire army in the hands of that half-breed!" 

King Tyros could feel the backlash of his actions. Many of his advisors berated him for slaying the sorcerer, insisting that he should have left him alive and made him some kind of ally. Even Ramia, who was recruited as a high-ranking strategist despite being a woman, had challenged his leadership style.

He tried to explain his reasoning to her: "His father was a mercenary of Piran's father, and rather than coming back to Umbri, he was granted the Umbrian Gap as settlement."

Tyros knew everybody had already made up their minds about the situation, but the cause ahead was greater. He had no desire to negotiate and take the chance on this man's loyalty to a nation he had never known. Even in his talks in the copper house, Tyros had made up his own mind as the sorcerer spun the tale of his origins as the son of an Umbrian mercenary and a royal Dumnonian concubine his father received as payment. 

"Nonetheless, what's done is done. It is a shame the man knew nothing of the Dumnonian landscape. It may have been a sort of redeemable quality we could have implemented, but there is now no question that the Umbrian Gap is available to us."

"At dawn, we will continue our march. Eat and rest up, we will not stop again until we find civilization. Captain Kaylen Hunter and his Brass Boars will be marching at the head of the army, behind my guard."