Cole

Cole first shows up (by name) in Blood & Bond, chained beside Luca in a slave caravan to the Wakari Coast, and we meet up with him again in Kin & Kind. We did see him briefly in Shard & Shield, but he was not introduced then. There was originally a lot more to him than made it into the final releases.
As readers of Blood & Bond know, Cole was a slave who worked his way up to an overseer position and then fell from grace, becoming a lowly draft slave. He explains to Luca that he was earning money toward purchasing his freedom and lost it, first in gambling, then in bribing the overseer hired to beat him, and then to the master who claimed it when selling the troublesome Cole. Luca feels deep sympathy for the slave, both for his story and for their shared experiences in harness.
But Luca doesn't know the whole story.
There are still bits in the final manuscript to hint at the rest of the truth. Cole has long chafed under his slavery and longed for freedom. On the Wakari Coast, he could hire out for additional work and save that money toward his own purchase, but that is a slow and laborious process, requiring years of both effort and careful management of the savings -- even more difficult when the goal is so distant, and there are so few pleasures in life, and the temptation to purchase more with the money in one's hand is so powerful. Cole, like many, hoped to shorten the process by gambling to increase his savings. His results were mixed, but it was not a complete disaster until he accused another slave of cheating. The resulting fight got both slaves into trouble with their masters, who were happy to overlook the slaves' usual gambling until it began interfering with their work. Cole injured the other slave too badly for useful service, too much to ignore.
But even before then, Cole had been wondering about other options for freedom. It took years to purchase oneself, but a slave's rebellion could happen in minutes. Yes, most were unsuccessful, especially in Chrenada where these were put down swiftly and mercilessly, but the Wakari Coast did not keep such a military presence and had fewer rebellions. Some rebellions were successful, letting slaves slip away in the chaos to escape into obscurity and liberty. And even if one did not escape, wasn't the chance of striking back worth the risk? Was it perhaps better to die in killing one's oppressors than living under their oppression?
So Cole was open to rebellion, and actively considering joining or organizing violent revolt. This was abated for a time in his overseer's position, where he felt some sense of power and could vent his frustration and anger on targets more accessible than his masters, but it returned in force when he became a draft slave, and one particularly hounded by those who could now bully him as he had bullied others.
Andrew, the kitchen drudge who was also sold into the same caravan, did not have the confidence or the rage to consider violence revolt. Still, in an early draft, Cole felt out Andrew's conviction and tried to recruit him. By this time Cole was already Luca's slave, but he had little expectation of that mattering so much -- he was still a slave, and he knew Jarrick distrusted him, and he had many more decades of typical slavery than his few days with Luca, and he knew how reversals could strike without warning, and again, he was still a slave -- and he was willing to overturn it all for a chance to escape his hopeless situation.

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