Captain Markus

Captain Markus is a captain serving under the major Lucius Cardoor at Sınır Sapı in the campaign Zincirsiz ("Unchained"). By Master Otto's account he has served fifteen years in the army, the last four or five in this district, and had several times left the town with only a few men, which Otto found suspicious; the dwarf Fundin put the name Markus to the officer Otto described.¹²³

As the town saw him

Fundin says the captain did not bring his family with him and took an interest in the village women. The old elf Ektelyon says that Markus lives alone, buys books from him and once invited him to dinner.³⁴⁵

The search

At the witch hunters' camp, where wounded men were being tended, Otto asked Jonathan River and Olaf to search the captain's house in secret; any firm proof was to go to the major, and if the search forced them to flee the hunters would not follow.⁶¹²

In Markus's likeness Jonathan entered his house and found a hidden box, notes of places in the district and an unopened, enchanted envelope; opened later from afar in the forest, the envelope turned into a bomb. The pair found the hidden money, the notes and the envelope suspicious, yet allowed that the captain might have come upon the letter in an inquiry of his own. Olaf, watching unseen, reported that Markus went to his hiding place, lifted the board and left in anger.^7891011

Suspicion grew when the map Otto's men had taken from the drow marked the same places as the captain's notes. Jonathan thought of bribery and dealings with the drow; Otto thought Markus might have sensed the envelope's magic and hidden it out of fear. A hooded man whom Jonathan met at night passed on word, from Teresa through her friends, that an imperial officer whose face no one had seen had met with the drow.^12131415

Taken and questioned

One evening Markus came home tense, looking about him. He seemed to resist Jonathan's Sleep spell for a moment, then fell. Olaf carried him to a lower room and bound him hand and foot to a chair, gagged and with a sack over his head; Olaf covered his own face, and Jonathan sat down before him wearing Markus's own likeness. Seen up close, the captain had bitten nails, a shave days overdue, white hairs and scratch wounds, again and again, on his arms and neck.^1617181920

Jonathan lifted and slid the chair with his mind and threatened torture that he never carried out. When Jonathan said that his own face was false and spoke of mind flayers, Markus reacted sharply, and asked whether they could do anything worse to him than the other side could.²¹²²²³

Spoiler: What Markus saidRevealSpoils: Zincirsiz #12 · Say what you have read

Markus admitted that he had taken money. He spoke of pressures he could not refuse, of something that entered his dreams and his mind, and said that Jonathan could not understand what it was; he said he had tried to resist. On learning that Jonathan had the box and the letter, he guessed that the letter might have been left for Jonathan. He was sure the hunters would burn or kill him once they knew; Jonathan offered to present him as a victim whose bonds of control had been broken.^24252627

Spoiler: What followedRevealSpoils: Zincirsiz #12; Zincirsiz #13 · Say what you have read

Then Markus bowed his head and shivered, drops fell to the floor, and he looked up with blazing red eyes and a grin, saying that now he wished to meet them. A forked voice came out of the bound body and bargained at length with Jonathan, speaking of its own aims and ordering V to wait outside; Jonathan took it for a mind flayer speaking through another's body.^28293031

As they parted, the red light went out of his eyes and he slumped forward senseless. The voice said that he would sleep deeply until noon, and agreed to make him forget the talk.³²³³