Name: Cantilena Kokuchou
Meaning: Cantilena = Latin for song or melody; Kokuchou = black swan
Age: 27
Height: 6.7" (5'7")
Subspecies: Cygnus Atratus
Hair: Dark violet, pulled into a ponytail on top of her head. Her bangs are longer than usual, but her eyes are visible.
Eyes: dark brown
Likes: Using magic, winning, being left alone
Dislikes: Close-mindedness, people who talk too much, losing
Hobbies: Practicing with her glaive, practicing her magic
Family: Parents, deceased; raised by Hakuchous [white swans] of no real relation to her.
Where she hails from: Tobokeru Pond

Appearance: Cantilena has long, black wings tipped with white and dark-golden skin. Like all other swan talasiths, her neck is a bit longer than usual. Her eyes are usually lined somewhat heavily in black, and her hair would fall past her waist if she didn't tie it up. She is on the tall side and slender, and has two obvious scars; one across her left cheek, and one that stretches from her neck down almost to the center of her chest.

Attire: Cantilena prefers to wear long white dresses composed of many layers of fabric, some with a very pale, pastel color to them. Her shoes are more like dark stockings that are held up by a string that she tightens just above the knee, but are made of a strong enough material that they won't easily rip or break. She has a pair of earrings made of silver in the symbol of the ancient Kokuchou clan, and a silver ring carved with a dragon and a swan that symbolizes her relationship with Korana.

Character Description: Cantilena's parents died of a plague that wiped out most of the Kokuchous when she was only a few weeks old, and she was entrusted to the care of Risoteki and Shirushi Hakuchou, a pair of white swan talasiths who were unable to have children. For some time, Cantilena didn't know that they were not her real parents, and didn't know why she had dark skin and black wings when everyone around her was pale with white wings.

She was a social outcast among the purebred Hakuchous, and although her foster parents tried to treat her well, they both had drinking problems and fought each other regularly. Usually, Cantilena hid during their fights, but occasionally she ended up receiving a beating as well. The other children called her a freak, sometimes even saying she was evil, and the priest of Awai in Tobokeru always treated her with fear and distrust. She became afraid to show her face. Sometimes, when she was extremely angry, she would lash out with dark energy, but this only made the others fear her even more.

When she was sixteen, Cantilena attempted to escape her life by running away from Tobokeru with a leopard talasith named Kage Hyou, but that relationship turned sour. It was Cantilena who began the fight, but she was not as strong as Kage and ended up beaten and left for dead. She was so certain that she would die that she began to talk to herself, despairing of a cruel world that had no place for outcasts and had no happiness for her. A young dragon-talasith healer heard her song, and helped her, nursing her back to health. Her name was Korana Akaryu [Red-dragon], and she stayed with Cantilena even after she recovered.

Kora was the first person Cantilena had ever met that didn't care that she was a black swan, and liked her for herself. For the first time, she had someone she could trust, and became happy for the first time in her life. Despite the dragon-talasith dislike of relationships with talasiths who were "beneath them", not to mention the swan disdain for same-sex relationships, they loved each other, and didn't care about what anyone else thought.

Kora taught Cantilena how to defend herself using a glaive, and discovered that the black swan had a strong potential for the magic of darkness, especially when she was angry. She taught Cantilena all she could, but her talent was for healing, and she knew Cantilena would have to find another teacher if she were to reach her full potential for magic. They traveled around the forest, Kora earning her keep as a healer and Cantilena as her assistant, doing other odd jobs when they needed to. They were happy, even though they weren't always accepted everywhere they went.

Once, a man became furious when he found his child had been delivered by a couple of accursed lesbians, and in the fight that resulted Cantilena received the scar on her cheek. The man was seriously wounded in the fight, but Kora healed him anyway, saying he wasn't to blame for the way he was raised. Even after he recovered, though, he ordered Cantilena and Kora never to come near his family again. Still, other than that one incident, Kora and Cantilena lived in uneventful peace for a few years.

Finally, Kora found someone willing to teach Cantilena how to use her magic. Cantilena was now twenty-two; both she and Kora had left their pasts far behind, but now the past came back to haunt them. Kora's parents had found another Akaryu talasith that they wanted her to marry, to continue the pure red dragon race. Kora refused, and her parents hired mercenaries to kidnap her. Cantilena fought them off, leaving two of them dead-and horrifying Kora with her indifference to the lives she had taken. She wanted nothing to interfere with their lives, and would go to any length to ensure that her wish was fulfilled.

After that incident, Kora tried to make an agreement with her parents; she would conceive a child with the other red dragon talasith, but she would raise it with Cantilena. Reluctantly, her parents agreed, and although Cantilena was furious, she would not go against Kora's wishes. Still, she followed Kora in secret, to make sure that nothing happened to her.

Too late she realized that it was a trap. Kora's parents had planned with her chosen husband to drug her and take her far away from Cantilena, but the drug had a greater affect on Kora than they realized. She went into a coma, and Cantilena took action. In her anger and hatred, she killed Kora's parents as they slept, and then went after her husband-to-be. During their battle, Cantilena received the scar on her chest, but she won, her strength fueled by her magic and anger even after the wound nearly killed her. She then took Kora to every healer she could find, but no one could wake her up. One of them helped her to set up a system to keep Kora from starving to death while she slept, and she has now slept for five years, hidden in a safe place by Cantilena.

Cantilena still refused to give up on her, even after the healers told her they could do nothing. She looked for any way to revive her; finally, she found out about the legend of the Dragontears. She believes that if she could possess them, she can bring Kora out of her coma.

Before she met Kora, Cantilena was cold, bitter, and cynical; after Kora is gone, she is much the same as she was before they met. Now, however, she has a glaive and magic that she knows how to use; she isn't afraid to threaten someone to get what she wants, and she believes that if you're not willing to fight and kill for something, you must not really want it. She hates hypocrites, cowards, and unfaithful people, and has remained faithful to Kora since her death. She doesn't like killing, but knowing that she's taken lives doesn't keep her up at night, either. Her life revolves around one thing: reviving Kora, and she will let no one get in the way of that goal.

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