Ruma has a narrow, weather-browned face, a blunt fringe hacked with a knife, and dark curls that spring loose from a leather tie whenever the weather turns damp. Their green-brown eyes keep checking the edges of a room, even during conversation. They move with the economical, heel-first caution of someone used to approaching skittish animals. They smell distinctly of crushed juniper and wet wool, a scent they know and deliberately use to cover the smell of blood on their gear. A small wooden bird hangs at their throat, its beak polished nearly flat from years of anxious rubbing.

Ruma is disciplined enough to follow a plan through danger, yet tender enough to break that plan for a frightened child. They can be dryly funny around trusted companions and stiffly dutiful in Ciena's presence. When angry, they become blunt and decisive rather than loud. Their loyalty is genuine, but it is divided between the person who raised them and the people that person keeps under control.

Ciena took Ruma from a wayside settlement during a winter raid when they were six, along with other children who were told their families had abandoned them. Ciena gave each child a new name, a bow, and a place in a disciplined band of hunters. She taught them to survive, to protect one another, and to treat affection as a weakness that could be used against them. At thirteen, Ruma found a burned-out wagon where a child had been left alive beneath a dead horse. They carried the child to safety instead of following Ciena's order to pursue the raiders. Ciena beat them for disobedience, then quietly made sure the child survived. That contradiction changed Ruma more than the punishment did. They now obey Ciena in public but secretly help children escape the band's reach. Ruma remembers their birth-name, but has not yet dared say it aloud. They are close to Shess, a fellow huntsman who has begun asking what freedom would cost, and distrustful of Thalen, who reports every doubt to Ciena. Their current problem is an order to track a group of runaways before they cross the river.