[hider=The Russian Brute]

Appearance: Kseniya is a tall woman with dark red hair, bright baby blue eyes and a professional dancer’s willowy physique. She keeps her red hair long but most always ties it back. In the conventional sense she’s something of a bombshell: heart shaped face, pouty lips, perfect cheekbones, but this is mitigated by the scars around her neck, the one running down her right eye, and a myriad of similar marks running down her forearms. She rarely wears makeup save for a deep red lipstick and prefers the comfort of jeans tank, tops, and when in the presence of Lord Balthasar Sokolov, a pant suit.      
Name: Kseniya Ivana Sokolov 
Age: 34
Gender: Female 
Nationality: Russian 
Birthday: December 1st 
Height: 6’2”

Magic Circuit Quality: D

Magic Circuit Quantity: C

Background: Kseniya began her tumultuous life as an orphan in St. Petersburg, and never knew her real parents. She was discovered by the Sokolov Mage family and taken in to act as the Heiress’s Czarina’s bodyguard due to her relative street smarts and apparent tenacity (she’d amassed the trophies of several fights before entering into the orphanage Balthasar found her at. What’s more she had the glimmer of a powerful set of magical circuits already in her system. She was adopted and made the adoptive sister of Czarina and together the pair were trained in Magecraft like the pair were to both receive the Sokolov Crest. From basic magecraft to understanding the Sokolov family’s brand of Ice Magecraft, Kseniya learned well, mostly happy to have a free meal. She’d heard of people like the Sokolov’s, strange people who made orphans disappear, but Czarina’s openness, kindness put Kseniya’s mind at ease and the pair became fast friends despite their differences. 

Together they were a cunning pair with Czarina’s sharp tongue and abundant curiosity and Kseniya’s pragmatic nature and agile mind, they proved a devilish pair of girls for the maid staff. Kseniya managed to barely keep up with the well learned heiress in magecraft, but where learning to fight was involved, Kseniya excelled at, even picking up the nuances of Self Reinforcement Magecraft with the skill of a natural. Balthasar often had the girls spar, more for the pair to learn the other’s idiosyncrasies than to determine who was better. And they appeared evenly matched. Czarina’s superior spellcraft matched Kseniya’s superior fighting skill and soon they learned each other's habits to the point their sparring matches turned into a dance. The next challenge they would face would be to spar with Balthasar himself, together. Most days they couldn’t land a blow near him and for their troubles would receive a stinging slap on the back or arms but they learned to work together better and by the time they were sixteen, managed to land a blow on Balthasar. 

It was here their paths diverged as Czarina was sent to the Clocktower to learn more advanced magecraft, while Kseniya was further trained in fighting. Her training turned dangerous as she was trained in knife fighting, combat tactics, marksmanship. She received assignments as well such as infiltrating high security prisons, taking out deadly targets, even walking the slums at night in nothing but a shift. Kseniya was molded into a proficient, deadly assassin under Balthasar. She managed to keep in touch with Czarina through letters and found herself relying on them as the months wore on. She hated the training she was going through and Czarina’s beautiful script and flowery letters were a light at the end of the tunnel. She knew she was being molded to become Czarina’s bodyguard and loyal soldier when she came of age, but as their letters became more frequent and the distance between the in the moment she read them disappeared she found herself feeling more than sisterly affection for Czarina.   

When Kseniya turned eighteen, three months before Czarina’s return from England, Balthasar gave her a name. This was nothing new, she received a name and it meant this person needed to be killed but this time he wanted the target alive. A strange request as Balthasar prefered his rivals dead and buried. Kseniya shrugged off the oddness of the assignment and went  to work. Her target: Nathaniel Berenberg. Her mission was successful, though a challenge. Upon delivering the rival Mage to Balthasar, she was immediately prepared to receive Nathaniel’s Crest. 

Flabbergasted, she learned the truth of Nathaniel’s purpose. He’d entered into a Geas with Balthasar, one that was open ended in what Balthasar could ask for. Nathaniel was powerless to resist the contract and so the Berenberg family crest became Kseniya’s, and with it the secrets of a family once Sokolov’s ally and friend. Her purpose was now set, to remain by Czarina’s side, to bear children and provide strength to the Crest she has received. 

Upon her return from the Clocktower, Czarina’s and Kseniya’s reunion was one of tears and laughter but they'd both changed drastically. Czarina had become more pragmatic and less scatterbrained, while Kseniya had grown calloused and numb. Still, together they became strong. Kseniya became Czarina’s bodyguard but a longing developed between them, and soon they became lovers. 

Balthasar became furious of their union, believing it a betrayal from both. A civil war was sparked when he tried to force them apart. Czarina had prepared allies among her cousins, while Kseniya’s skills made her Gerard among Sokolov allies. In the end Czarina and Kseniya won, killing Balthasar, it came atva price, Czarina was poisoned, a slow creeping thing, slowed only by Czarina’s considerable power as a healer. There was no way to stop it, and Czarina was told she had a year, at best. 

Personality: Kseniya is guarded, ruthless, and without mercy. She approaches human life much like a real mage does, as a means to an end. She’s calculating, and often quiet, enjoying the silence. 

Abilities: 

Back Alley Tactics: Kseniya learned how to brawl, knife fight, and use sleight of hand when in combat from St. Pertersburg’s professional criminal element. Enhanced by her Magecraft, Kseniya’s fighting style is a brutal, chaotic grab bag of knives, boxing, and trickery. 

Marksmanship: Trained in the KGB as a sniper, Kseniya found her calling as a crack shot, capable of hitting a target a mile away. She keeps a collapsible silenced .308 rifle in a suitcase. She stays away from smaller caliber guns and sidearms, exercising a disdain for them.  

Magecraft/Mysteries:
 
Berenburg Family Crest: A stolen crest but now Kseniya’s, the Berengurg Crest grants her access to Lightning Magecraft, Reinforcement Magecraft and Basic Magecraft. It also gives the weirder knowledge of the Berenburg Treasure, a specialized spell, Lightning Vigor. 

Lightning Magecraft: through the application of mana, the caster manifests the lightning element for a variety of spells. 

*Reinforcement Magecraft: A low ranked elemental Magecraft that allows the wielder to reinforce the body or objects with mana. 

*Basic Magecraft: Encompasses the mundane arts of a mage: Basic Alchemy, Basic Bounded Field Creation, Basic Mental Manipulation, and Basic Familiar Creation. (These she was trained with from the start and is proficient in each at.) 

Lightning Vigor: A blend of reinforcement and lightning magecraft, this spell wraps the caster’s body in lightning infused mana to greatly enhance their speed in quick bursts. For a split second they appear as a bolt of lightning, a blur to the naked eye. 

Глаз Oрла: A bounded field taught to her by Balthasar, perfected for the Grail War, and the only practical application of Magecraft her own, Kseniya crafts this bounded field on the fly, boasting a long range border that creates a three dimensional mapin her mind. Mana within concentrates around living beings, allowing her to mark their position in her mind. 

Разрушенный Pазум: It is unclear if this is a manifestation of Magecraft or a minor Miracle, but what drew Balthasar to Kseniya is her unique ability to split her consciousness one of three ways. A phenomenon that allows her split her mind to coordinate on their own, process the information her body intakes and act accordingly. Normally, she has one shard of her mind handle controlling the body, another her Magecraft, and the last plan or wait in the background. 

Azreal’s Knuckles: a special pair of spiked knuckles forged from a variety of metals and a shard of metal extracted from the Middle East by the Sokolov Family decades before. Thought have been part of the blade the Old Man in the Mountain once wielded, Kseniya had them metaled down and forged into the spikes for a pair of knuckles. They are cursed with the Origin of Death that causes the flesh the make contact with whither and die. 

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