Full Name: Lady Kivrin, Lady and Champion of Tenku
Height: 5' 5"
Weight: 140 lbs.
Hair Color/Length: Reddish-brownish-blondish/Long
Eye Color: Brown
Date of Birth: 06.16.1135*
*note* - this fictive is not from Earth-as-we-know-it
Place of Birth: a small village on the Tenku Estate
Parents: [Unnamed Merchant] and [Unnamed Mother]
Siblings: Touma
Current Place of Residence: Tenku Manor
Kivrin grew up the youngest child of a fairly prosperous merchant and his loving wife on the Tenku Estates. From the start, she was a tomboy, but she was also a bright young girl. Her parents were hoping for her to have a good marriage, but did not want to eschew her education. Besides, she spent so much time with her older brother, Touma, that whatever he learned she soon picked up on as well. So they sent her to school with him, where she became an avid reader and was soon seldom seen without ink-smudged hands and at least two books on her wherever she went.
Her father, however, died when she was very young. Her older brother took up the family business and did the best he could with it, considering that he had had NO practical training. Kivrin, her head full of romantic notions of noble self-sacrifice, set out to find a job. And the best place to find employment was at the manor of the Lord of Tenku. Disliking the idea of being a scullery maid, and being an awful hand with a needle and thread, Kivrin cut her hair short and applied for a job as a stablehand.
She worked as a stableboy for several months, dutifully sending half her wages home to help. It wasn't much, but it was something. Eventually she revealed her actual gender to her co-workers and immediate boss; they were all amazed, but she did such a good job, they certainly weren't about to let her go. They considered her a lucky oddity and she continued working.
All the while, she was busily studying the knights, the Lords' fighters. She watched every practice and mimicked them as best she could when she was alone. She wanted to be a Knight, at first because the pay was better, but also because of the romantic ideal it represented in her mind.
One day, while joking around, one Knight shoved another into her accidentally. The Knight that had fallen into her, being an arrogant jerk, demanded an apology from her. She refused and he grabbed hold of her arm in order to "teach this impudent young whore a lesson" (she had by this time grown her hair out - it was now just below shoulder length). She had him flipped and on the ground so quickly he hardly knew what hit him.
She was soon thereafter invited to join the Knights.
She trained hard, worked and sweated, and still sent half her wages home every payday. Her mother and brother were amazed and proud of her. They were prouder still when Kivrin entered the Trials, the series of tests and matches designed to elevate the best of the Knights to the position of Champion. They were shocked when she won.
Kivrin, who had been born of a low-level merchant and his homemaker wife, was now Lady Kivrin, Champion of Tenku. She served Lord Inazuma, the son of the Lord of Tenku that had been in residence when she had first been hired on as a stableboy. In the interim, Lord Inazuma had been married to a woman he dearly loved - who had been kidnapped, raped, beaten and tortured to death. That had been shortly before Kivrin had joined the Knights, but she had heard. She had met the Lady Yukiko, just once, briefly, and had respected the noblewoman very much.
When Kivrin became Champion, the estate was in sore need of help. Lord Inazuma had let things slip in the years since his wife's brutal murder. Kivrin convinced him to hire a new chatelaine, and he chose the Lady Dakota. With the imperious and impeccable Lady Dakota working on setting the manor to rights, Kivrin looked to the rest of the estate. Under her guidance, the farmlands prospered and the raiders looked twice on invading Tenku lands.
Ten years had passed since Yukiko's death by the time of the Conference, the yearly gathering of the Lords of the various Estates of Kikoutei. This time, it was held at the Tenku Manor. The other Lords, including the Grand Lord of all Kikoutei, were most surprised to see a woman as Champion. They, and their own Champions, did not take her seriously at first.
It was during the Conference that Kivrin realized that her duty to her Lord went beyond mere oaths to serve and obey; she'd fallen in love with Lord Inazuma, but had never let herself acknowledge it, due to the respect she had for his late wife. Meanwhile, Inazuma had reached the same conclusion, but, like Kivrin, had overlooked it, writing it off as appreciation for what a great Champion Kivrin was.
At the end of the Conference, after a major mystery involving DarkWorlders (Demons) had been solved and dealt with, Lord Inazuma married Lady Kivrin, the only woman he'd loved since his wife's passing. The two are terribly in love, which is good, as Inazuma, used to the housecat that Yukiko had been (with claws, yes, but still a housecat), was not quite ready for the tiger he married, and Kivrin, used to a Champion's relative freedom, was not quite ready to lead the restricted life of a Lady.
Stories
My Lord's Champion: Author's Notes and Prologue
My Lord's Champion: Day I
My Lord's Champion: Day II
My Lord's Champion: Day III
My Lord's Champion: Day IV
My Lord's Champion: Day V
My Lord's Champion: Day VI
My Lord's Champion: Day VII
My Lord's Champion: Day VIII
My Lord's Champion: Day IX
My Lord's Champion: Day X
My Lord's Champion: Day XI
My Lord's Champion: Day XII
My Lord's Champion: Day XIII
My Lord's Champion: Day XIV
Epilogue - My Lord's Bride
Copyright 2000 - J.L.Roberts, aka Socks, aka Lina no Miko - My fictives are MY creations. All others mentioned belong to their respective creators. Songs belong to their writers/singers/owning corporations, etc. Respect others' property, ne?