Right there on the stone, amidst a deep blue glow, was the word "Supreme". Amelia had the talent of a Supreme, hard to find even in capital cities. It wasn't super rare, Argonaut was rarer of course, but still very hard to find.
Argon cleared his throat.
"Congratulations young lady, you have a Supreme grade talent. You'll have a very good future. Just stand next to Samuel till we finish checking everyone here, then you can spend some time with your friends and family. We can leave for the capital after"
Amelia nodded with a smile, waved at Marcus and their friends, and stood next to Samuel. Samuel grinned.
"Never thought we would find a hidden gem here. Welcome!"
Amelia smiled.
After a few more names, Eli, another friend of theirs, was also confirmed to have a Supreme talent, and was made to stand beside Amelia. Samuel was sweating at this point. He must have been flabbergasted, since they found not one, but two Supreme talents in a backwater village.
Finally, it was Marcus's turn. He walked up to the crystal with steady steps. He was both anxious and excited at the time. He told me that at that time, he believed he would also have a Supreme talent since he always just barely lost while arm wrestling Amelia.
He touched the orb and it shone, not with a blue light, but a red one. On it was one word, one oh-so-unfortunate word.
Damned
The people of the village and the Order all had serious expressions, they were all frowning. At that time, Marcus didn't know why everyone seemed so wary of him. He didn't know what the Damned were, he hadn't ever heard of this talent grade.
Argon just cleared his throat again.
"You may go"
His voice seemed a bit harsh to Marcus, but he thought maybe it was just his imagination. He glanced at Amelia and Eli, who gave him confused and worried expressions. Not wanting them to worry, he gave them a smile and a small wave and walked off the stage. Argon and Samuel looked on with wary expressions, while the villagers all gave him a wide berth.
He made his way to his home, to where his sister was. She would tell him what's going on, she would help him understand. His sister always protected him, and he trusted her unconditionally. She had raised him alone and was always on his side. She would fix this. He knew it.
But when he opened the door to his house, he found his sister on the floor, crying. He rushed toward her.
"Sis! What's wrong? What happened?"
His sister pushed him away with a terrifying face he had never seen directed to him before.
"Get away!"
He stumbled back.
"Sis?"
She continued to look at him with those hateful eyes.
"Why did you have to be a Damned? Anything, anything other that that would have been fine! Why?!"
He just looked at her, his chest tightening as tears fell from his eyes. He was confused. Why was his sister acting like this? Why was she not explaining things?
"Do you know what I've gone through for you?! Do you know how long I waited for you to bring me out of this? Do you even know how much worse I'm gonna have it now?!"
He continued to stand there, just shocked. It felt like he forgot how to breath, his heart pounded against his chest.
"What....? Burnice..."
Burnice started to throw whatever she could get her hands on at him. They struck every part of his body, but he didn't even feel them. For the first time in his life, he wished he could get hurt, he wished he could bleed like the other children, but his body remained tough, and the items thrown at him were damaged instead of him.
She kept screaming.
"Get out! Get out Get out Get out Get out Get out!"
Marcus ran. He ran out of there as fast as his legs could carry him. He didn't know where he was going, he just ran. His tears blurred his vision anyway, so it didn't even matter. He didn't know for how long he ran, but since he told me that the talent hunt had long been over by the time he finally came to his senses, I can deduce that he must have run for around 4 hours.
Now I'm not a bad person with bad intentions, so I hope you can forgive me for being a little nosy. For the sake of giving you all the details, I may have interviewed a few people from the village and I was lucky enough to find someone who saw what Burnice did after Marcus was gone. Marcus doesn't know this but she regretted everything she said to him that day.
She curled into a ball and kept muttering "What have I done? I'm so sorry, I'm sorry dear, I'm so sorry" over and over again.
The Order had decided to rest at the village today, and were occupying a large house which was made for guests. Most of the kids were at the playground in their own little groups, talking about their talents.
He walked past the playground, seeing all his friends sitting together, along with Amelia and Eli, looking at them with admiration, as they talked about their powers. At that time, Marcus could've gone there and talked with his friends. I'm sure they would have accepted him, since they wouldn't know what a Damned is either, but at the time, he didn't even care.
He kept walking, until he reached the guest house. He could have gone inside and asked about his talent grade, but he didn't care about that either. He just stood there, wondering why his life fell apart as soon as there people came.
Voices drifted from inside. He heard Argon's voice.
"We will rest here for the night, then take the talented children to Lumiere tomorrow. We will ser off in the morning. I expect everyone to prepare for the long journey. It will take at least a week"
"Yes sir!"
Marcus stood there for a bit more, before turning around and walking away. He continued to walk, straight out of the village. None of the guards stopped him, they even tried their best to pretend he didn't exist. Marcus didn't care. He just walked.
He didn't look back even once.