Humiliation is a raw and burning emotion that can brand people forever.
I have just started watching the K-drama Hyena on Netflix. It’s never been on my to-watch list because Netflix does a terrible job at showing decent synopses. If you don’t know the drama, the first few episodes show a privileged male lawyer being constantly humiliated by a street-smart (and ready to cross the line) female lawyer. They will end up working together, but nevertheless, the main point is the burn of the humiliation.
How do you react when someone puts you in the spot and burns you?
Humiliation is public. It is done to you by others, and more importantly, it rarely leaves you unscarred. Not all scars are bad, but some do tell a story you would rather have never experienced. Humiliation is one of those. It is a scar of a time you were powerless and exposed.
So, of course, reacting with grace isn’t always possible.
But, no matter how you choose to respond, your reaction is a reflection of who you are.
So, in order to introduce the Phaedrus characters a little better, here is how they would react if you humiliated them.
Rhode & Humiliation
Rhode is the youngest character at the time we start Phaedrus’s story in The Dead Shadow. She is a thirteen-year-old Earthling girl.
Would it be unfair to expect emotional maturity from her?
Yes, 100% unfair.
However, she is on a mission. She is so focused on avenging her brother that she is unlikely to be overly bothered by humiliation. Mind you, it’s not that she wouldn’t notice. She wouldn’t want to engage with it because she’s got enough on her plate already. It’s not easy to go against a magician when you’re a defenceless child. So, if being humiliated means she’s going to get closer to her goal, she’ll welcome it without batting an eyelid.
She may, and I say may, consider petty revenge at a later time, preferably when you’re not looking. She might be the kind of person who comes back later to burn your favourite rug. She’s got a thing for fire, even though she can’t control it.
The Shadow & Humiliation
The Shadow becomes Rhode’s partner in crime and justice, and magical education. He is old, as a magical Shadow, but the truth is he is a former magician who died even before he could turn twenty. His experience among people is much longer than Rhode’s. Nevertheless, despite his many decades, even centuries as a Shadow, he is nothing like the wise presence you’d expect from old creatures. If anything, the Shadow is a playful being with an exacerbated sense of ego.
So, what would happen if you humiliated the Shadow when he is a Shadow? Would he care? Yes, he probably would. He would be furiously trying to prove you wrong, potentially making himself a laughingstock in the process.
Would the humiliation become a long-lasting trauma? Nope. He’s seen people come and go; he’s seen them die and be reborn as Shadows. He knows that eventually you would forget. But he’d hold a grudge, one of those never-dying grudges.
Helena & Humiliation
Helena has made her way into our hearts from the moment she appeared on the page. She’s from a magician family, but she hasn’t become a magician herself. She is the recluse clairvoyant, living in a rocky cave on top of a mountain. She is a little strange to start with. But this isn’t anything new. She has always been a little bit of an oddball.
Helena has a close connection to the spirit world. Despite not having one herself, she can hear Shadows and talk to them. She can freak people out a little bit (a lot), so she is much more used to spending time eavesdropping on Shadows’ conversations.
How would she react if you humiliated her? She wouldn’t even notice. She’s constantly tuning her inner ear to listen to magical beings. She wouldn’t even hear you. She’d probably start talking about saucepans or her favourite book, the Unicorn Diary.
Pamphilos & Humiliation
Pamphilos is a tricky character to describe. He stands on the good side, but he isn’t afraid of exposing others to danger if it helps him. He wants to uncover the reason behind the magical troubles, aka the many mishaps that occur all around the world where magic backfires. He trained to join the Astronomers, the Earthlings who assist in giving each magician a magical Shadow. But, many years ago, he interfered to save Helena’s life and has seen been at the receiving end of the Astronomers’ fury.
Not that he cares much about it, though. He believes the Astronomers are not to be trusted. Instead, he has dedicated his life to understanding the magical world. As such, he has become the only person who has enough knowledge to heal Shadows, even though he is an Earthling himself. They call him the shaman. What would the shaman’s response to humiliation be?
Pamphilos is a pragmatic man. He isn’t blinded by rage or fear, as, just like Rhode, he is a man on a mission. Nevertheless, he is a man who understands magic better than magicians themselves, so I wouldn’t poke him too much if I were you. He may appear calm on the surface, but if you stand in his way, he most probably knows your weaknesses already and isn’t afraid to use them to his advantage.
Alexis & Humiliation
Alexis is a military-trained magician of the Dynamis Lands. He is the Shadow’s magician. He has a passion for maps, as they’ve been a crucial part of his career negotiating peace in foreign Lands. He is Helena’s father, and he also acts as Rhode’s mentor when it comes to exposing her to magic. He has a special bond with Pamphilos as he first reached out to the novice Astronomer to thank him for saving his daughter and also give him a staff that Pamphilos still carries everywhere with him.
So, at first, Alexis might seem to be the last person to get annoyed or hurt by humiliation. In reality, while Alexis knows how to approach the negotiation table, he is a lot less practical when feelings are involved. If you were to humiliate him, he would turn bright red from embarrassment and anger.
Would he attack you? Not physically. Alexis is a man who works for peace. But he wouldn’t mind telling you exactly what he thinks of you. He may work for peace, but he is pretty sure that you don’t.
So, I hope this brief overview can give you a better understanding of the characters in Phaedrus. You will get to meet them very soon as we already have a cover for the first book, The Dead Shadow.