Alexander is a former comrade of Alemdar Mustafa Pasha who has quit the Ghost's forces to take service under Ahra. His pedigree is not unlike that of Jean-Zera, who counts an elephant among her parents. Alemdar would dearly like to know what drove the man away — some grievance or falling-out, he supposes — and he bids Jean-Zera seek Alexander out and learn the reasons for his leaving.
More lately it has emerged that Alexander, a man in his early thirties, went over to the Janissaries. He was caught up in a quarrel that ended in the death of his wife, Nadia, slain for the working of magic. A day or two before the present business he ventured into a certain quarter of the catacombs and has not come out again; where he is, none can say — though he is much wanted, being thought a fit mentor for Shehrazat, a young girl whose magic runs beyond her governing.
When the company met him in the catacombs, Alexander warned them off, swearing they had seen nothing, and clung to his repeating pistol when Gizem Faruki rushed to take it from him. Once subdued, he agreed to school a young person of ungovernable magic, on the condition that his feud with Opera be kept quiet and his whereabouts concealed. He let fall that there had been four defectors in all, some of whom had come to grim ends in the catacombs, and spoke of the need to keep the corpses in the tunnels from rising further as walking dead. He lent his hand against a Giant Skeleton, loosing a shot that misfired before he found his mark from the flank; and afterward he was led to a safe house in the undercity, where Papa Mert furnished him temporary lodging, a disguise-kit, and a shared cloak to cover his going.
Since then the party has looked in upon Alexander by way of Scheherazad, and found him kept behind a strong ward of concealment. He is expected to aid the Ghost of March, word to be passed to him through a calico alley cat.