Two months before he was due, Abel was born to Lilith Clément and an unknown father in the Palais de Clément. Though the last checkup indicated two heartbeats, two children, only one was born; it was quickly deduced that the other twin had been vanished—absorbed—by the living child, and he was thus named Abel, with the nonexistent twin being given the name Cain. His birth came with surprisingly little scandal, as his mother—not only unwed, but a lady of high society, a scion of one of Celestia’s noble houses—had taken to self confinement as soon as she realised she was pregnant. The courts of celestia were vicious and vapid, after all, and were no kinder to her considering her practice of witchcraft.

As such, the first few years—the first six, to be exact—was spent in the safety of Cornois at the Palais de Clément; a handful of visits were made to Schneewittchen to see his other side of the family, but other than that, he remained in the family’s home. His education was spearheaded primarily by his mother, who was naturally quite fixed on having a perfect son and heir for her father. He learnt English, of course, as well as the Celestian and Schneewittchen tongues—French and German in the mortal realm, as he would come to learn. The history of his family, kingdom and the realm in general was taught to him in great detail, as well as basic courtly decorum.

As a legacy of Grimhilde, it was expected that Abel would obtain an ability of some sort. At five, his ability revealed itself as he ran through a mirror in an attempt to get out of bathing and entered his grandfather’s study. As opposed to the anger they would usually bear, the Cléments were rather excited, with Lilith recognizing it as an ability she herself possessed. She took it upon herself to train him in its use, and in reward for his compliance, Abel was given a black kitten. He named it Cain, a name he had heard muttered throughout the house several times.

On Abel’s seventh birthday, it was decided that his foundational education was complete and he, along with his grandfather and mother, left Cornois for Le Petit Diamant, Celestia’s capital; Cain accompanied them, of course. At a hall hosted by Henri (II) and Ella Charmant, Abel was introduced to the nobility of Celestia, alongside a handful of other noble children—one being Alexandre de la Tour, who Abel saw as overly eccentric. It was at this affair that the Comte de Edessa referred to Abel as the Ghost of Cornois, given that his birth and very existence was kept a secret. Many viewed his lack of a father as sufficient reason for him to be kept out of the public eye; Abel, on the other hand, simply assumed that the man had died. That was what his mother had told him.

As most noble children did, the heir of House Clément was housed under the patronage of the Charmants, being tutored, fed, dressed and invited to balls at their whim. Lilith stayed with her son, and though it was somewhat uncommon, it was not at all unacceptable, given her status in the nobility. Abe was generally disinterested by the glitter of court, however, much more interested in the vast realm, strange land that was the Mortal Realm; besides, what good was it to strive for power when one was at the top of their pinnacle? Abel had a similar view toward his appearance and perfection—he could understand the braces he was forced to get, at least, but if he was already perfect, what was the need to strive harder? To maintain it, perhaps, but Abel found that it came naturally, thanks in no small part to the elixirs his mother had taught him to brew or those his grandmother had given him whenever they visited Schneewittchen.

The view was one that Abel adopted in every avenue of life—if something was not broken, there was no purpose in trying to fix it; he had very few exceptions to this, such as the court’s treatment toward himself and his mother because of their lineage. Abel grew quite resentful of his peers as a result, with the only exception being Alexandre de la Tour. The pair grew especially close as Abel grew especially distant from others, eventually resulting in the other noble boy being the only companion he had. With the exception of Cain, of course. Most of the pair’s time was spent in the library researching topics that interested Abel more than the other, but he did not exactly care to cater to anyone else’s interest. The legacy was self important, something only further supported by his mother. Said daughter of Grimhilde did not exactly approve of Alexandre, well aware of House de La Tour’s feelings toward those opposed to Henri (I)—the Cléments included—but would not deny her son happiness.

Months of companionship and hours of friendship melded into a relationship, in which one clearly domineered the other. Alexandre followed Abel around much like a dog, much to the dismay of the former’s peers. Already holding strong resentments for them, the legacy of curses made it his point to ensure his boyfriend no longer spoke to them; friends that did not support him were not friends worth having. The behaviour was only made worse by Lilith, who supported him in his endeavours, and his grandfather who did nothing to put an end to his behaviour. Slowly yet surely Abel isolated Alexandre, tearing the boy apart from the comfort of their adjoining rooms, which existed thanks to Ella Charmant. To say that it was toxic would be an understatement, but it was all that Abel knew.

The second Grimm War came to a head at the very same time Alexandre and Abel’s relationship reached its peak. Tensions had been rising in Celestia for quite some time, but with the bloody departure of the Tremaines in March of 2020 from Le Petit Diamant, all hell quite frankly broke loose.

On March 17th, armed Tremaine forces invaded the palace in the dead of night and set out to slaughter members of the most loyal houses—houses Cigny, de la Tour and Lavigne. Abel escaped by the skin of his teeth, running through a mirror that was shattered shortly thereafter. Unbeknownst to him—for a while, anyway—he was covered in blood, the blood of Alexandre de la Tour. The palace was forcefully evacuated by the heirs of Celestia and when news returned of those lost, of Alexandre being lost in the fighting, Abel was not the sobbing mess many expected him to be. Instead, he remained the Ghost of Cornois—sombre, sullen, silent.

It did not take long at all for rumours to circulate about the Cléments’ involvement in the plot, for noses already upturned to be made even worse, for invitations to funerals and whatever social events that continued even as war began to break out around them happened to be lost in the post. There was no question as to who spread such rumours either, as no attempts to suppress them were made. Lilith and Adam, her father, were understandably infuriated by the slander of their innocent family, their innocent Abel who was at the brunt end of much of the negative remarks; Alexandre’s mother, the Comtesse de Villiers, was never fond of Abel, and even less so following her son’s death.

At the courts of the kingdom, tensions continued to rise, culminating with the attack of Cornois on March 27th. Suspecting citizens of the city to be in league with the villains—particularly Tremaine and Grimhilde—the de la Tours attacked the city. Both Abel and his mother were caught in the bloodshed, with Lilith utilising her witchcraft to protect her people. Such an act was taken as cause to kill her, which Armaund de la Tour, the newly ascended head and elder brother of Alexandre, did with delight. Abel watched the light fade from his mother before his eyes, only to be dragged back to the Palais de Clément by household guards that failed to protect Lilith.

Abel’s first action upon returning to the safety of his home was poisoning each and every one of the guards that had been out with him and his mother. He had very little knowledge of poisons out of the basic to-do, but used an amalgamation of native, poisonous plants to .. handle the guards, all of whom had returned, despite one of their two charges having not. One was injured, and happened to be the only one Abel showed mercy to; said mercy came in the form of a dagger plunged through his neck in his sleep. The other dozen guards were all made to suffer for six days, experiencing a new symptom of their potion on each one, before passing on the seventh, rather painfully. The idea was one Abel took from the Bible—taking the seven days of creation and twisting them to his own wicked whims. His grandfather did nothing to reprimand him, too unable to cope with his daughter’s death and especially the fact that Arnaud went without punishment—acting in the interest of the people he damned—for her brutal murder.

Abel, on the other hand, spent the war within the Palais de Clément, seldom leaving his mother’s room, which he had begun to sleep in following her death. The furthest away from her bedroom Abel would ever go was to the family’s crypt, built deep in the heart of the palace. Time spent here was spent in silent solemnity as Abel counted the days until Arnaud would be brought to justice. Until his mother’s death would be vindicated. Days bled into months, and months neared a year, Abel lost faith in the King and Queen of Celestia to do anything; he should have known that they never would have done anything. Once more the Ghost of Cornois, the legacy of jealousy has not done so much as accompany his grandfather to the reopening of court in January of 2022. Instead, he has taken to silently plotting his revenge on the de la Tours. Unbeknownst to him, his grandfather has other plans.