The Captain has spent his life inside the law. Rising through work rather than privilege, he commands men in one district of the great city and believes that order matters precisely because rules must stand above individual will.
At first, the hunt for the Castaway changes little. Then the searches grow harsher, his men begin striking first and asking later, and ordinary people are dragged into a campaign driven increasingly by fear. The arrest of Marek, a trader he knows to be no threat, forces the question he can no longer avoid: is he still enforcing the law, or merely carrying out the king’s demands?
His answer is not rebellion for its own sake. It is loyalty to the oath he actually took.
Related perspectives:
The Waitress shows doubt spreading among ordinary citizens, The Scribe follows the crisis within the royal administration, and The Apprentice experiences the repression from the other side.