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Kenna: Girl has been through some shit. When she was sent away, her memories of her life hidden by magic blocks set in her mind, she was sent to train with assassins. Her trainer was harsh, and whipped her into shape (literally). He would chain her and leave her until she could figure out how to get out of them, this could take days. She would be denied food if she disobeyed, or she would be whipped, or beaten to a pulp. She was twelve at the time, and extremely traumatized by all of this. But she met a young boy, around the age of eight, sent to train with the instructor. Kenna took a liking to him and the two began to bond. She began to care for him as an older sister/ mother would. She would fix up his wounds, help him train, try her hardest to keep him safe from the instructor. His name was Angel, and he was the only family she knew at the time. The walls she had built up over her time alone fell for Angel, and she truly loved him. Their instructor, Enzo, did not care for Angel. He kept him around only because it would be more of a hassal to get rid of him, as Kenna would raise all hell. Kenna grew to be a powerful assassin, and she was good at what she did. But Enzo began to see the bond between Angel and Kenna. Kenna began to become desperate for a way out of Enzo's clutches. She did not have money to pay off her debts, and Enzo had begun to be more brutal towards Angel. She began to plan a way to escape for the both of them. The night they enacted this plan, they were caught by another assassin living in the Keep. She turned them into Enzo, and Enzo, needing a way to really punish Kenna, beheaded Angel in front of her. She was fifteen then, and completely broken. She was frozen in grief, she could barely eat, she didn't move from her bed for weeks. Only to relieve herself. When Enzo forced her to move, she began to use self-destructiveness as a coping mechanism. Pit fighting became a hobby, and she would take out every ounce of her bottled anger on strangers in dingy taverns. She also began to drink, heavily, to drown out pain. To honor Angel, she took his last name, and began to go by Kenna Blackwell.
When Verena Winterbourne discovered Kenna and paid off her debts, she was introduced to the Elite and the rebellion. She kept her distance from most of the other members of the Elite, not wanting to get close to anyone. But despite her best efforts, two people were able to break through her defenses. Verena herself, and Dimitri Apex. Verena took on a role as almost a motherly figure to Kenna, and Kenna became, in a way, her second in command. She was the one Verena trusted to tell plans to, to send on the most important missions. Kenna never really knew why Verena trusted her so much, but she would not take it for granted, and she began to love Verena as a parental figure. Dimitri Apex was a member of the Elite, and older than her by a year. He became her dearest, most trusted friend, and she loved him platonically. When Kenna finally let her walls down enough, their bond became deep, and some thought them to be connected as soul mates were, but not romanticlly. She trusted him with her life, and he with hers, and Kenna knew she would die for him. She began to become more sober with his help, she began to learn how to grieve Angel's death properly, it was slow progress but it was some. When Verena was found out for her rebellion, and for knowing Kenna's true identity, Adeline Winterbourne, the Queen, had her executed, and had Kenna thrown in the dungeons. She was in and out of the dungeons for months, grieving Verena's death. Adeline would use her as a prop, bring her out in public and humilate her, to make an example out of her, until the Elite managed to break her out and free her. Dimitri found her in the dungeons, and the two were hopeful for their escape. But Dimitri did not see the guard behind him, and as he unlocked Kenna's final chain, the guard took his sword and beheaded him. Kenna killed the guard, and the Elite managed to get her out of the palace, but any progress she had made with Dimitri in healthy grieving was lost. She began to rely heavily on alcohol. She had always had acute bipolar disorder, but with the death of Verena and Dimitri, she fell into a state of constant depression which turned into mania. She was always drunk, and would either experience sudden bursts of energy where she would be able to accomplish so much, or she would have no energy and could do nothing but lay in bed and drink. No one knew how to help her, and she didn't know how to help herself. She was angry a lot, and usually took it out on the closest person to her. She was numb to emotions, and would purposely put herself in positions where she would get hurt, just so she could feel again.
She then met Nakoa, and at first she wanted nothing to do with him. He was to train her in her magic, and she didn't want to know how to use it. But Nakoa made her do what she had to, at first with aggressive words and screaming matches, and eventually with understanding. Nakoa was able to help Kenna, and her mental health slowly started to get better. She did not feel so lost with him, she felt at home. When she began to quit relying on alcohol, he sat at her bedside and held her hand as she went through withdrawals. Her angry words or physical aggressiveness never scared him away. He saw her for what she was, and he understood her pain, and he did not fear her. He helped build her up, he calmed her down or stayed by her side during meltdowns and PTSD episodes, and never made Kenna speak of her past until she was ready. Kenna began to deeply care for Nakoa, but she was scared of her own feelings. So when Nakoa confessed how he felt, she was too scared to let down that final wall, to let herself love him. Nakoa said he would wait for her, and he did. But Kenna ended up dying young, without ever telling Nakoa she loved him.