Clarissa Duranward by Lustgill (Patreon)

Clarissa was born on the streets of Bensay. Her father was the youngest son of a merchant family named Belland and a her mother was a woman called the 'Silk Sapphire' in underworld circles. Silk was a member of one of the Timberlands infamous thieving guilds and used her looks and charms to insinuate herself into the merchants household and set up his family for a score.  Clarissa's mother gained notoriety and infamy for seducing the young merchant boy and becoming his lover, even becoming pregnant with his child over the course of a year. When the time was right she assisted in the betrayal and murder of the Belland family, personally slitting the throat of her confused fiancee. She gave birth to Clarissa a week later in the back alleys of Bensay. She immediately sold the child to one of the slaving gangs and was never seen again.

Clarissa was bought by the 'Iron Coffin', a group of assassins who employ children for their jobs. She was trained as a killer, thief and prostitute. Her childhood was filled with brutal training that was both immoral and undignified. Like the other children of the 'Iron Coffin' she was given drugs in order to dull her mind and make her enjoy the things that were happening to her. As well as the pain she endured and caused others. By age ten she was one of the most well used tools of the organization. 

But with skill and usage comes notoriety, and her dark masters began to fear that she would outgrow her usefulness. At the age of eleven she was assigned a mission, but the drugs she was given were too potent. She was meant to live long enough to die after completing her task, but not near the target. Her life was meant to end on the streets where she was born.

But fate seemed to favor her that day as she was found by a young cleric who used her magic to nurse the young girl back to health. She repaid this kindness with a knife in the back. Fearing that she had made a mistake and was captured, she sought to silence anyone who had seen her. Luckily, she was unable to murder the cleric as she intended when the healers Mage and Rune Blade arrived. Clarissa stole away before she was seen by the two Librarium agents, planning to come back later to silence the cleric.

When she returned to her masters they were not happy to see her. They were not subtle in their admonishment of her survival and order her to end her own life. When she refused, she was set upon by her fellow child assassins. To survive, she had to kill her way through boys and girls she had grown up with. Kinlings that she endured countless trials and hardships with. One of which she considered her friend, another pine marten named Ketsy. She was forced to slit the girls throat in order to escape, but Clarissa did escape.

Clarissa would spend the next several months of her life using the tools she was taught to evade assassins from the organization and gain coin to escape the lower quarter of Bensay. She would seduce and murder travelers and common folk, in order to steal their belongings. She avoided capture and suspicion by only targeting those who would not be missed and never being active in places she knew her 'brothers and sisters' would frequent. 

She survived like this for a time, but eventually it began to wear deeply on her conscience. Without the 'Iron Coffin's' drugs to warp her emotions, she was able to tell the right and wrong of her actions. Growing quite aware of her weak justifications for murder and how messed up it was that she still enjoyed hunting, seducing and killing men. The idea that they were bad men if they would fornicate with a child, was no longer able to sway her guilt.

It was then that Clarissa decided that she would take the risk and target someone with a lot more notoriety. A foreign knight had come snooping around the lower quarter. He was a Courtian, from the south. A lion wearing very expensive looking grey armor and stylish dark purple robes.  She had never seen a knight like this one before and the whispers around the neighborhood named him as a Raven Knight. Not knowing what a Raven Knight was, she foolishly decided to try her charms on him. One last big score to settle things.

Sir Atreyu Duran was a young knight and a noble from Aslan's Barton's Field. A true knight, he was more confused by the young pine marten's behavior than anything else. He saw her as a lost child and attempted to try and find her parents, which amused Clarissa. She played a long hoping maybe to lure him somewhere in order to take him unawares. Clarissa told Sir Atreyu that she was an orphan living on the streets and that she had no home or family. She hoped the idea that no one would miss her, would get the knight to show his true colors. He instead, invited her to a meal.

That was all it took. Clarissa had never actually eaten in a restaurant. She'd never dined at a table or been treated like anything but a tool. She had stolen bread and skewers from street vendors to survive. She had not even thought to enter a restaurant or try to buy a proper meal. Sir Atreyu treated her much differently than she had been treated her entire life and she felt something for him she'd never felt before. An emotion she could not explain. She was happy to share a meal with Atreyu and listen to him tell her stories of the world outside the lower quarter and the adventures he had as a Raven Knight. For the first time in her life, she was properly happy.

This happiness would come to an end when assassins tried to kill her. The 'Iron Coffin' had hired more experienced adult assassins to do the job her 'brothers and sisters' had failed. In that moment she did not feel fear for herself, but for the lose of this man whom brought her such joy. She meant to fight fiercely to protect Atreyu from their would be killers, but the Raven Knight surprised her. Atreyu needed no protection. He drew a magic blade and took down two men with a single stroke. A lady assassin moved in to engage him, but he cut her down in less than three moves. Two others meant to escape, but she would not let them. If they got away they would inform her former masters. Surprising Sir Atreyu, Clarissa killed the first by throwing a knife from their table into the back of the dogs head. She would then run down the other, crashing through the window of the establishment. Atreyu would find her outside, stabbing the man several times. Not angry that her life was threatened, but upset that a wonderful moment in her life had been ruined. She was furious. They had exposed her for what she was to Atreyu and she felt true shame for the first time in her life.

Atreyu however, did not seem to flinch. He covered her in his cloak and lead her away. He did not ask about the assassins, believing of course that they were meant for him. However, Clarissa realized that she could not lie to him and told him the truth. Though she was afraid he'd be angry or disgusted with her, Atreyu was sympathetic. He held her close and shed tears for her tough life. He promised he would help her if she wanted; that he'd take her away from this place. She could only respond with, 'But I'm a murderer,'. Atreyu would reply, 'Yeah, bad parenting will do that.' She smiled at him then. Not the smile of a child, but of a woman who had just met her soul mate. Clarissa decided at that moment, no matter what, she would be with Atreyu, always.

When Sir Atreyu finished his business in Bensay, he took Clarissa back with him south to Lioncourt. There she was introduced to his family and House. She became a ward of House Duran, a minor nobility. Despite her troubles adjusting and the many trials of trying to appear normal, as well as not embarrass her new host family, Clarissa was happy. They called her, Clarissa Duranward, and though other nobles said it with an air of contempt; she wore it as a badge of honor. Clarissa would learn in the studies of Duran's Keep. She played in the grasslands of Barton's Fields and trained herself to be of use to Atreyu. Though old habits die hard, she tried to keep her predilections in check. Though when rival nobles or greedy merchants threatened House Duran or Atreyu, some times those people would go missing. Those who were less important. When confronted, Clarissa would not lie to Atreyu about her actions, causing him some distress. Unable to get her to promise to stop murdering people if she feels they are a threat, he instead takes her as his squire in order to teach her to fight nobly and with honor.

For six years Clarissa played the part of the the ward, the little sister, and squire to Atreyu; but her aspiration for him were much grander. Like the women of House Duran were to their men, she longed to be his sheath. The thing that would protect him, support him and keep him sharp. She wished for nothing more than to be with him as a woman was to a man. For six years she would study Atreyu, the women he was interested in, the things he liked. She would spy upon him at night and follow him when he lay with women. She would make sure when she came of age, that she would be able to have him. As her eighteenth birthday grows nears, she puts a new plan in motion. One that will assure that two of them will be together, always.

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