The Blight Chronicles: Odalia & Alador

Blight Night

The competition day came and to nobody's surprise, Darius won by a landslide. For his presentation, he displayed a new spell that he had developed which allowed him to morph his arms into abomination goo. Odalia had to admit that it was incredible and it was hard to say whether Alador’s invention would have been able to beat that display. Though the good thing was that they did not have to find out. Having Alador banned from the competition just kept on proving to be the most beneficial possibility for them. Had they entered and lost that would have put a damper on their reputation. There was also the added benefit that a lot of the parents that had stood up for Alador were quite influential. When they heard how Alador had been banned a lot had refused to show support for the event and encouraged others to do the same. Compared to previous years the Abominations Competition was a complete bust. Hardly any people showed up meaning that Darius didn’t get as much attention as he normally would have. 

Of course, Odalia had been the one to personally notify the parents on the list provided by principal Bump about Alador’s punishment. She had also invited them to their own show which she had arranged to go on at the same time as the abomination competition at Hexside. 

Once she had gotten the list of parents who stood up for Alador it hadn’t been hard for her to figure out why principal Bump had been under so much pressure. There were several well-known figures on the list which she was going to make sure to use to their advantage. She quickly sorted through them and made a list of all those she knew and what their positions were and set aside the ones she didn’t know. As soon as she saw the name of the owner of the convention center a plan started to formulate and she knew exactly what needed to be done. 

That was the first parent that Odalia decided to go thank personally for standing up for Alador. When Odalia had expressed how heartbroken Alador was at not being able to showcase his invention the owner of the convention center immediately proposed they hold their own event on the same day. This had been Odalia’s plan all along but it was always best to make people think they came up with the idea. She pretended to be surprised by the idea and suggested that maybe allowing other students to participate would make the event even better. She explained how only seniors in the abominations track were allowed to showcase their creations and normally it was only those in the advanced classes that got any attention. Not to mention that students from other tracks did not get the same opportunity as those on the abominations track. The owner of the convention center immediately jumped at the idea and offered to oversee the preparations for the event herself. Some people made things just too easy. Odalia was well aware that the owner's child was part of the abominations track and was very vocal about their distaste for the competition for being unfair. Of course, she feigned ignorance and showered the doting parent with appreciation and praise for their generosity. Odalia also let them know that she would be reaching out to other families and students to try to get as many people as possible to participate to make it a grand event. 

After the convention center was secured everything that followed was simple. She had arranged the list of parents in the order in which she would be contacting them. A lot of the parent’s on the list had children on the abominations track which made things even easier. They were all quick to accept the event seeing that their own child will be offered a spot in the event. A lot of parents even offered to be sponsors for the event so they did not have to worry about vendors. Then there were the parents that were part of the abominations coven who offered to bring along other members so that the student’s could have their work admired by their future peers. This had been Odalia’s intention. She wanted to get Alador out there in the limelight. Seeing as he would now have to go through the entrance program it would be good for him to get some notoriety from people already in the field. She also hoped that someone would take enough interest to offer to be a mentor for him. Though Alador was capable of managing things on his own there was nothing wrong with having someone that could open a few doors for you.