Claude was a killer, a very good one.
Blood had been on his hands since he was a youth, clever hands that perhaps could have led him to a very different life. A butcher of animals for a noble household, both nurtured and taken life as long as he could remember. Under his father's tutelage, he had used soap of wood ash to clean infant lambs and sharpened the butcher's blade until he could see his cursed reflection.
It was his appearance that had given way to his family's misfortune, a unique beauty at odds with the coloring of the south - flame colored copper curls and matching eyes that could fascinate both men and women alike.
He had once enjoyed the favoritism it had once brought, the way he alone was summoned to the main castle to assess which farm animals needed to be purchased and later, assisting with the preparation of feasts.
