2 The Trait
Time crawled by as Persephone Odius eagerly anticipated her name being called up. Of course with the initial of her same name being in the latter half of the alphabet, Persephone ended up spending a lot of time in dreadful anticipation of what her trait will be. Maximillian had it worse, with the initial of his royal surname "Vasilas" being at the back end of the pack. Nevertheless Persephone continued to wait eagerly until...
"May Persephone Odius stand up and come foward!"
Smiling in her heart, Persephone rose from her seat and proceeded towards the front.
She felt her heart rate rise as the moment to finally know what her hidden magical trait will be.
Will it be honour?
Will it be glory?
Will it be mercy?
Will it be determination?
Will it be patience?
What will it be?
At the front she found a glass bowl filled with a clear mysterious liquid surrounded by three hooded men.
Standing in front of the bowl, a hooded man instructed her what to do.
"Simply place your hand inside the bowl and concentrate all of your thoughts into that hand."
Following the man's instruction's she placed her hand inside the bowl. [Concentrate all of my thoughts in that hand? What is that supposed to mean].
Thinking to herself, Persephone was confused by the vague set of instructions left to her by the man. Closing her eyes, Persephone pushed all of her thoughts into her hand. Or at least she imagined she was doing so.
She pushed her hopes and dreams, her worst fears and nightmares and everything she believed that was what makes Persephone, Persephone.
After a short while there seemed to be a growing commotion amongst the people, opening her eyes, she glanced around to see a surprised and somewhat fearful look in the crowd. Turning back to the hooded men, their eyes wide open and hands trembling. She finally turned to look at the bowl her hand was in.
The bowl had several cracks etched across it, as if it will shatter at any moment but thanks to some god given miracle was able to keep itself together. However, the most alarming change was the colour the clear liquid has turned into. She gazed upon the liquid which has been dyed a bright red colour.
A bright crimson red which radiated unceasing hatred.
...
Persephone stared aimlessly towards of the academy's water fountain.
She did not know when she got there.
Nor how she got there.
Nor when she got there.
She was just there.
After the professor announced her trait as "hatred" it was as if she was no longer part of this world. As if she was simply an aimless spectator that just exists and nothing more. She didn't know what happened after her trait was revealed nor what she did during that time, if anything at all.
Maximillian seemed to have understood the message and was off with a couple friends he just made, leaving her alone to stare aimlessly towards the water fountain.
"Hatred." A rare trait that almost always belonged to a villain. People with said trait gain strength against people and objects which they despise, which they scorn, which they hate. The more the hate, the more powerful their magic becomes. The magic with the hatred trait are often volatile, unpredictable and chaotic, further exaggerating its infamy.
Which such infamy belonging to the trait, naturally that infamy would linger on to the people with that trait as well. Now, Persephone was one of those people.
Persephone expected that she would have a trait which was associated with glorious warriors and merciful angels who brought grace both in and out of the battlefield. She never expected to be part of a group of people who were seen as harbingers of death and heralds of chaos.
The rhythmic tapping of water droplets from the fountain hitting the stone floor was especially loud to Persephone who could only think of one thing. Why?
Why did this have to happen to her?
Why did she have such a horrendous trait?
Why is she behaving like this?
Why?
Why?
Why?
As Persephone looked downwards, she found that the sound water hitting the floor didn't come from the fountain, but her own tears.
...
The loud chatter of the pub patrons were especially ear piercing to the cloaked woman's ears. Normally she would try her best to ignore the incessant chatter of the people she despised if not for the topic they had brought up that had piqued her interest.
"I hear that the Kingdom's Magic Academy picked up another magic caster with the "hatred" trait."
"Really now? You'd think they would have learnt their lesson about people like that since the incident a couple years ago... I guess they might have thought it was a one-time event but I doubt it."
"I agree with you there, how could someone sit calmly in the same room as someone who literally hates things as their main personality? Certainly not me that's for sure."
"Well, did you hear the name of the hatred magic caster?"
"Yeah I did actually... from what I heard her name was Persephone Odius."
"Odius? You mean famous matyr war-hero that saved the kingdom Odius?"
"Yes that Odius, I wonder what he would think about his daughter's trait if he were still alive..."
The cloaked woman began to ignore the patrons once again once she realised that there conversation has returned to the trivial, unimportant matters which they seem to enjoy bathing themselves in.
However, that no longer mattered to her.
She engraved into her heart the name of the new hatred magic caster.
She smiled as she finally found a new comrade that can help her destroy this world that she hated so much.
