"She's beautiful, but her figure....."
Kiernan smiled as she shook her head. She was used to such comments while she was walking the marketplace- well, striding would be a more appropriate term. She had a noble air about her despite her humble parentage, made even more so by the way she held her head high, black boots almost floating over the dirt, blood red hair flowing behind her. She knew some despised her for daring to carry herself like high-born lady, that she would dream of dressing to accentuate her curves by wearing black denims and tank top rather than hiding them under baggy homespuns and tunics.
"Why doesn't she hide that flab?" they would sneer. "That's disgusting!"
But she would just smile sweetly as if she'd never heard the whispers. Then charge double the price when they needed something- anything. For no matter how they would talk and jeer about her behind her back, these fools needed her expertise.
An Intelligence Broker was always in demanded, especially one as good as Kiernan. Though she had been accepted into Coven Celtasia as a Solitary, some hated her there- hated her mixed blood- but they knew they couldn't survive without her.
So, she got used to the comments, ignoring the periodic sting as some went too far for too long. Usually those brave enough to utter something particularly insulting found out what the back of a fist looked like. Yet- tough as she was on the outside, she was still a wounded child on the inside, wondering why she was such a bad person simply for being different.
It was those times her paranoia was at its worst, that she felt no one loved her, no one cared: she was simply a tool to use over and over until she was rusted and weathered, then tossed aside like so much rubbish. She knew that all the chaos that assaulted her brain wasn't true, though. She knew of at least one who held her down when she raged, was not fearful or disgusted with her manic episodes, that accepted her "flab" and all.
For him she was most thankful to whichever of her Goddesses that saw fit to bestow his heart in her hand. Kiernan could not imagine herself without Boche, knew that she could not mentally survive without his power and love keeping her afloat. For this alone she loved him, for this alone she would be his forever.
