Marco was a companion of the company in the NOV chronicle, handed over by his own companions at a skull pit in the barrows. It was the first time the group paid with one of its own.
| Type | Character |
| Chronicle | NOV |
| Spanish entry | Marco (Los Condenados) |
History
In the barrows (Barrowmaze), a false floor swallowed Klemidius and another of the company into a cell with no practicable roof and no exit. A hooded captor set a price: “denme dos compañeros cada uno —cuatro— y los salvo” (“give me two companions each, four, and I will save them”). They bargained down and gave one name: Marco.
A figure went to the skull pit, held out a skeletal hand and drew him in, and he had to be killed. Marco died as a sacrifice agreed by his own companions. His body was not recovered; it lay unburied in the pit among the thorns and the bones of others.
There was no heroic funeral: heroic would have been covering the companions’ retreat on the bridge, and this was treason and tragedy. It also came out that those at the pit held wishes of high magic and chose to spend none on bringing their dead back.
Later the company found, loaded on the mule unseen, the platinum canopic jars with remains of companions. A message was already circulating: each time they go down, they look more like death.
Significance
His handover opened an account that continued with Silas and the Pact of the Nobeliares and was settled in full when all became Los Condenados.