Gideon
Gideon is a newly promoted Swordmaster squad leader in the City, and one of the narrators of The Marked Ones. He keeps having the same dream: that one day he will lead the Paladins against the Immortal Lord Hezekiah, with the formidable Commander Jackal as his right-hand man, and a wife fighting beside him whose face he never sees.
The squad leader
Gideon leads a newly formed squad of six that most Swordmasters write off as misfits: his sharp-tongued friend Kang Yu, his cousin Sharon, and three recruits with troubled pasts, Lionhart, Jega and Tori. He suspects someone in the high ranks put them together on purpose. He believes in them anyway.
“Everybody in this world just needs someone to believe in them and they will rise above your expectations.”
He is fiercely protective of the people he leads. When Commander Jackal raises a hand against Sharon, Gideon blocks it, defying a direct order and earning a promise of severe punishment. When his squad is trapped, he will not leave without them: “I will never ever abandon you all.”
Gideon and Jackal
Gideon and Jackal were good friends in their teenage years, until “an unforeseen circumstance tore us apart.” Now Jackal is one of the City's most powerful Commanders, and he makes no secret of wanting Gideon's squad to fail.
The dream
In the Prologue, the dream becomes a glimpse of the future. Two decades into the war, Gideon leads the Paladins to the door of Hezekiah's throne room, with Jackal at his side. His wife commands the 1st Division alongside the Monk, the one person who may be able to defeat the Immortal Lord, and their three-year-old daughter waits for them at home. Then his wife sends word that she has seen the Witch, alive, and Gideon must decide whether to risk her life to end the war.
Spoilers up to Chapter 4Tap to reveal
Inside the abandoned mansion, Gideon recognises Paladin gear (a sword, gloves, armour and a shield) like the pieces he once saw his mother keeping. He also feels he has met the mysterious “creature of terror” before, but cannot remember when.
Spoilers up to Chapter 11Tap to reveal
The young Swordmaster who captures Kiera at the end of Chapter 10 is Gideon. Through Kiera's empathy link, he faces a memory he had buried. Twelve years ago, when Hezekiah's Undead attacked his former city, thirteen-year-old Gideon went back into the schools to rescue trapped students. At the third school, his best friend Xing was killed by a Wraith while Gideon froze in fear. He blamed himself, and had played it safe ever since.
His mother was a Paladin who left to fight Hezekiah when he was about ten. She told him he had “the heart and courage of a true Paladin,” and gave him the Paladins' code: “To live is to serve.”
With Kiera shielding his emotions, Gideon overcomes his fear and kills the Wraith.
Spoilers up to Chapter 13Tap to reveal
Spoilers up to Chapter 15Tap to reveal
Back in the City, Gideon tells Commander Jackal a different story. He is celebrated as “the Wraith Slayer,” the first Swordmaster ever to kill a Wraith, and Lord Wrazen takes notice, while Jackal suspects him of working with New Haven. Then Gideon realises that Kiera, now awaiting public execution, is the little girl he rescued from a locked school basement twelve years ago. He makes up his mind: “I will help Kiera. I will not let her die.”
