Marcus knew of Cassian well before they properly met. Hell, everyone had. It was never one of Marcus's greatest ambitions to make it to the status of someone as Prestigious as the Ballads, but his prospects were blurry from the beginning.

He formally met Cassian when Marcus was about 2 years into his cadet training. Cassian had just enrolled. Marcus personally never liked the man - he knew he wanted to do anything else other than be there, and saw Cassian as taking up someone's hard earned spot in the school. Simply for being the son of the headmistress.

They were far from competing against each other in terms of skill, though. Marcus couldn't understand how someone who despises and disrespects the job of enforcers (or at least how he saw it,) so much, could perform so effortlessly. Cassian was the 1st year which everyone was mumbling about in the halls, and Marcus found it ridiculous. When he found out Cassian graduated valedictorian of his year, but refused to wear a badge, Marcus simply scoffed incredulously.