Meamnar:For Mariah - Cort's Background

On the surface, Cort is a scout for the Northern Army. Not attached to any particular Corps, he operates under very few restrictions. He answers only to General Octavius of Galden, who is singularly responsible for Cort's unique situation. In reality, Cort is the best spy in the Empire.

At the age of ten, Cort was picking pockets on the streets of Lirath. He made the mistake of trying to lift a coin purse from the General's overcoat, and was caught completely by surprise when the General spun on his heel and grabbed the boy firmly by the wrist. Panicked attempts to break free only succeeded in a tighter grip.

Instead of disciplinary action, though, the General quickly pulled the boy off the street, to a dark nearby alley. Staring him down with cold eyes, the General pointed back toward the street, at a pair of officials engaged in conversation. "The one in the blue cloak," he said, "has a scroll in his belt. Get it for me." The command perplexed Cort, but only for a moment. Quickly, he realized this was his chance for escape. Just before letting go of his wrist, though, the General brought his face close, adding, "I have over a dozen men within 50 feet of this spot, six of them with slings. Do not run." Looking around, Cort could see several soldiers in the vicinity.

The General's eyes, more than his words, kept the boy in line. He did as was asked, returning in a few short moments, scroll in hand. "Good," the General commented in an entirely different tone, patting him on the head. "Want to learn another trick?" he asked, grinning mischeviously.

It wasn't until four years later that Cort realized that the soldiers he'd seen in the area were oblivious to the General, that he could have easily escaped into the crowd. He thanked the gods that he'd been fooled though, as his life would undoubtedly been much different.

In that time, the General had become a father figure to Cort. He quickly became Octavius' errand boy, and soon found himself in more interesting 'errands'. Though the tools of his trade were always subversive (theft, forgery, bribery, sabotage, to name a few) the General always went to the trouble afterward to explain his justification for Cort's missions. In one case, a poisoned drink eliminated a Hylarean spy. In another, a kidnapping of a corrupt official's daughter led to his eventual resignation. In every mission, though, Cort saw a noble cause.

By the time he officially enlisted in the Imperial Army at 16, he knew most of the officers under the General's command. By 18, he knew the whole northern frontier better than any man in the Empire.

Now 20, and by far the youngest of the men assembled back in Galden, Cort knows his decision is the easiest. Had he not tried lifting the General's coin purse that day so long ago, only the gods know where he would have ended up. Perhaps he would have still been in the Lower Ward when it burned down. Cort also made another realization about that fateful day. It surely must have been the day Octavius escorted Mariah into the city that would become her grave. "My daughter has eyes like yours," he had said to Cort later that day, an offhand remark he never repeated, never even acknowledged he'd made. Indeed, Cort's decision, whether from simple gratitude or a poetic twist of fate, is certainly the easiest.