Rue Cortez

Rue is the half-sister of Carolina Trace and a crew member on Omen. She sought out and reunited with Carolina after finishing her training with Sovereign.

## History

### Early Life

Rue was born under less than ideal circumstances to Maria Cortez, who traded sex for medicine in order to cure an illness that a young Carolina had contracted. Because of the nature of her birth, Rue wasn't planned or wanted by her mother, and while Maria was never cruel, Rue experienced that lack of love through neglect. In many ways, Rue looked to Carolina for maternal care and affection, as Carolina was home with her while their mother was out working, and for all intents and purposes, it was Carolina who raised her.

Her connection to and reliance on Carolina made it that much harder for Rue when Carolina turned sixteen and chose to run away from home rather than taking an indentured contract. Only being nine years old at the time, Rue felt abandoned, and grew to have some resentment toward Carolina for leaving without taking her along. This sense of abandonment was exacerbated by the way Maria's neglect increased after Carolina left, as Carolina's departure had left Maria heartbroken. Maria died six years later, leaving Rue alone at the age of fifteen.

Rather than be shipped off to an orphanage where she'd be forced to work to earn her keep, Rue learned to survive on the streets. She learned to fly under the radar in that dangerous environment, and kept herself sheltered and fed by stealing and sneaking into shipping warehouses at night. When she was sixteen, she decided to join Sovereign instead of staying on the streets, as Sovereign offered food, shelter, pay, and education. In 1742, she completed her three years of training with Sovereign and then deserted, leaving the island to track down Carolina, whose reputation as a pirate had spread.

### 1742

It didn't take Rue long to find and reunite with Carolina, and while she was happy to be with her sister again, she was also conflicted. She still harbored feelings of abandonment and resentment, especially at seeing how well Carolina was doing for herself when Rue had spent so much time being alone and homeless. When she learned of Carolina's curse, she felt vindicated that Carolina should spend some time suffering for her selfishness. For the next few years, Rue watched passively as Carolina tried everything she could to break the curse, including meeting with defected witches in hopes that more magic would help. It wouldn't be until the year 1745 that Rue actively interfered with Carolina's quest for freedom.

### 1745

Having spent so much of her young life at the mercy of the economy Sovereign had created, and having had a taste of the inner workings of Sovereign during her training as a soldier, Rue was acutely aware of how Sovereign abused its power. So when Carolina's newest search for freedom pointed them in the direction of Ascension, Rue feared how power like that could be abused if it ever fell into the wrong hands. Thus began Rue's active role in trying to impede Carolina's search. Her first act was to make contact with the head archivist on Clerwood, Henry Marsh, before Carolina could get to him. She threatened him by telling him that Sovereign was aware of the fact that he'd been sneaking unauthorized people into restricted archives, and caused him to flee. This didn't prevent Carolina from gaining information the way she'd hoped, and so their search for Ascension led them to Remigan, where Carolina hoped to meet with the Fortuna.

Remigan was in the process of being harvested when they arrived, and when tensions mounted and the civilians on the island began to riot, Rue took the opportunity to sneak away from Berkeley. She spotted a soldier running from an angry mob and rescued him, seeing the perfect opportunity to loop him in on Carolina's plan and form an alliance with him in order to stop anyone from Ascending. This soldier was Wyatt Kim. Over the course of Carolina's search for Ascension, Rue kept Wyatt and his crew on Omen's tail, secretly meeting with him in taverns or leaving him messages about where Omen was heading next. It was also during this time that she developed feelings for him.

Rue kept Wyatt and his ship, Sky's Honor, on Omen's trail until everything came to a head at Trayward, where they failed to keep Simon Beecher from Ascending. Wanting to keep track of Simon and try to figure out another way to stop him, Rue snuck away from Carolina and the others to return to Sky's Honor with Wyatt, where Simon accepted her as loyal to Sovereign because of her aid throughout the journey. Unfortunately, Carolina noticed that Rue was missing, and chased after them to try and rescue her. Because Rue couldn't run or keep Carolina from being captured without giving herself away, she had to stand by while Sky's Honor crew arrested Carolina and locked her in the brig. After returning to Glasoro, Rue visited Carolina in the palace prison, where they were finally forced to confront the betrayals and remaining tension between them.