Back in the famous twelve labors of Heracles, the hero was sent to fetch Cerberus forth from the Underworld. The spittle from the three-headed beast dripped upon the earth, and from there sprang the very first aconite plant, more commonly called today as wolfsbane. Hecate, who was said to be the first one to use it, managed to collect the first of its poisonous flowers. According to her, the very first aconite was the most lethal of its kind, being able to kill anyone with the mere ingestion of it in an instant. Along with some of Cerberus’ spittle, she kept and guarded these ingredients. Soon, they were passed down to her descendants and followers, the most prominent being Circe and Medea.
Medea, a powerful witch, used the aconite plant in poisoning Princess Cerusa and the people of Corinth in a terrible vengeance against Jason the Argonaut after breaking her heart. Circe, on the other hand, perfected the toxic properties of the aconite and Cerberus’ spittle in order to concoct countless potions, which drove the unfortunate and unwitting victims of her island to a gruesome death. However, that wasn’t always the case.
It was around 1994 when a freak storm ravaged the Sea of Monsters. During the terrible weather, Oung Yeong-Sik was alone on his ship looking for his halfblood friends who went on a smaller boat to scout the area. They haven’t come back for the past few hours and he was already anxious on their whereabouts. However, the strong winds only brought his ship in circles, and he somehow ended up at Circe’s island. Hoping that his friends were on the island, he explored it.
Yeong-Sik ended up stumbling upon a bathing Circe, and the latter didn’t like it at all. However, she intended on not killing him yet, and even though it was against her will she invited him to have a meal with her. True enough, she planned on poisoning him slowly with a cup of aconite potion, yet Yeong-Sik was wise. He talked his way through and unexpectedly, he lowered Circe’s guard down. And before she knew it, the goddess was already intrigued with him and decided to let him stay for a while.
As soon as he found out he was on Circe’s island, he had the strong feeling that his friends ended up somewhere in the place. And he used his cunning wiles to stall for time while he looked for them; everything went normal for a few days. One night, Yeong-Sik stumbled upon an underground prison where the people he looked for were found. Fearing that Circe may kill them sooner or later, he and his friends planned their escape.
A fortnight later, Yeong-Sik used an aphrodisiac to drug Circe and slept with her. As soon as she was in a deep slumber, he broke his friends free from their jail, boarded the ship and sailed away, bringing with them a large quantity of magical loot. Unbeknownst to them, the union of the goddess and the son of Persephone bore none other than a demigod child several months later. In an attempt to kill the newly born offspring out of anger, Persephone stopped her, assuring that she would bring the infant to its father.
Persephone, disguised as any other mortal, brought the baby to camp, and when Yeong-Sik found out that it was his son to Circe, he was reluctant in receiving it. But his mother persuaded him long enough for him to hear his conscience. So after a day of packing up, he left camp without the knowledge of his friends because if they knew about his secret, they may think he was brainwashed by the goddess all along to use their son to cause trouble. He settled down in Atlanta, Georgia to live his life as a single parent. He gave his son the name Seong-Ho, all the while vowing to never reveal the true story for his own sake.
Seong-Ho’s childhood was as bland and plain just like any normal children. Although Yeong-Sik let his son do what he wanted, he was still wary of what might happen to him if he didn’t look after him. They moved from place to place at irregular intervals, which caused some difficulties for Seong-Ho to cope up with whole new environments being forced into him. As Yeong-Sik didn’t have a permanent job, the flow of finances wasn’t that good, and he could only afford a public school for Seong-Ho.
When Seong-Ho was 11, he was sent back to South Korea to be with his aunt, Eun-Ju because Yeong-Sik found it a tad harder than before to balance work and take care of his son at the same time. However, there was an underlying cause to why Seong-Ho was sent back. In actuality, his father was called back by one of his friends, Ji-Hun, to camp, because strange events were going on. Most of their co-questors back at Circe’s island turned up dead after disappearing for a few weeks. But before they disappeared, they experienced either visual or auditory hallucinations. Yeong-Sik and Ji-Hun suspected that it was Circe’s doing, and they knew they were next.
Yeong-Sik and Jin-Hun decided it would be best to go to Circe’s island itself to settle the matter once and for all. They knew Circe was vengeful for what they have done, and it was clear they needed to die to quench her anger. But of course they did put up a fight, only to succumb to the spells of the sorceress in the end.
Meanwhile, Seong-Ho lived alone with his spinster aunt, who was a very strict teacher. Eun-Ju sought to reform his way of living by suddenly forcing into him a lot of her norms. Seong-Ho found it as a sort of punishment, wherein he had to live every day of his life doing the very same thing over and over. He felt extremely restrained from what he called the “perfect” society, which caused him to be on a rebellious streak, whenever and wherever he can. He and Eun-Ju were always on a clash for their thoughts were exactly the opposite.
It was almost a year before Seong-Ho and Eun-Ju found out about Yeong-Sik’s death, which “turned out” as a maritime accident, according to the coast guards. From there, Eun-Ju took custody over Seong-Ho, and it seemed she had other plans for him, not considering the grievous loss he felt at the time over his father.
Eun-Ju was a sorceress all along, a descendant from the family of Medea herself. She was an agent of Circe, and the one actually responsible for the disappearances of Yeong-Sik and Jin-Hu’s friends. She was some sort of a puppet of the goddess, orchestrating the flow of events so that she could finally get her hands on Seong-Ho. But before Eun-Ju delivered him to Circe, she was ordered to train Seong-Ho in the ways of magic. Ultimately, she told him that he was the son of a goddess, something that Yeong-Sik hid from him his whole life.
As soon as his scent was strong enough to be caught by monsters, he was trained to fight them in a mere matter of seconds. Although he proved himself to be proficient, he was still pressured to be better than before. Under harsh instructions, Eun-Ju commanded him to kill a mortal every time he refused to fight, and the sight of death sickened Seong-Ho.
In due time, by around the age of sixteen, he was brought to the island of Circe. In the presence of her own son, the product of trickery and plunder, she told him what his father did to her back then, and blatantly told him how much she hated him. However, she wanted him to be of use. Finally, she made him his own sentinel, obligated to watch over her island while she indulged in torturing the people that were lured to her. Seong-Ho initially refused, but after witnessing the horrible death of Eun-Ju at the flick of Circe’s hand, he knew better.
Over the next three or so years, Circe tested Seong-Ho on how long he could survive without the aid of immortality, and when he did push through, he was given the gift or rather, curse. Any means of escape were proved futile, until a certain vessel was shipwrecked on the island. From it came a demigod daughter of Aeolus, Paige Boyd. She too was enslaved by Circe to be one of her servants of what people called a “spa resort”.
From time to time, Seong-Ho and Paige talked to each other about their life before being brought to the island. Although she didn’t trust him at first for being a child of Circe, she eventually warmed up to him after hearing his side. A very strong friendship was made between the two of them, yet no romantic feelings arose. Before being shipwrecked, Paige was sent by Camp to retrieve the sole bottle containing the spittle of Cerberus. She didn’t want to fail her quest, so they planned everything out, including their escape attempt. Now that he had a friend and a demigod at that, Seong-Ho knew they could flee.
Over the next few weeks, Seong-Ho kept Circe busy in his company while Paige repaired the ship to the best of what she could do. On the day of their escape, he swiftly stole the prized spittle and met up with her at the shore. The wind was strong and the ocean calmer than usual and since Paige was a child of Aeolus, their trip would be easier.
However, they were discovered by Circe. In a matter of seconds, their ship was burned to ashes by magical bursts of Greek fire. They knew it would be a matter of living for Circe or dying for freedom. Hand in hand, they chose the latter, and they drank the spittle of Cerberus. Before breathing his last, Seong-Ho confessed his love for Paige. At an interval of just ten seconds, he died after her. Circe, however, foresaw the things yet to come following Seong-Ho’s death, and she cursed him of turning pure water into poison, in order to remind him of the mistakes he and his father committed to her.
Persephone, as we all knew as the mother of Yeong-Sik, pitied the terrible outcome the stemmed from her son’s schemes. She knew she couldn’t undo Circe’s curse, but she still wanted to give him a second chance to live life as he wanted it. So she turned Seong-Ho into a flower spirit. Because he drank the spittle of Cerberus, he became the spirit of the aconite plant, just like how the same substance poured upon the earth and created the first of its kind. Seong-Ho was brought to camp, and has been residing there ever since.
Oung Seong-Ho
