Chapter Thirty-One
The drive from her parents' home back to her apartment was at once the longest and quickest trip Nadia had ever made. Long in that every light she had to wait at, alone in her car, was another inescapable opportunity to stew over what had just happened between her and her parents. Quick in that she barely noticed the drive itself, largely because of the aforementioned debate running rampant through her conscious thoughts. Arriving at her parking space, she snatched her purse from its resting place between the front seats and stormed through the apartment's first set of doors, glad of the late hour of her return; she was in no mood to be dealing with people right now. Fishing through her purse for her key, she jammed it into the lock and wrenched the interior door open as soon as it would let her. Throwing her keys back into her purse, she strode to the elevator and took up a spot tucked into its corner. Several floors up, an elderly man stepped inside with her, then promptly thought better of it when he saw the look Nadia had thrown his way upon his intrusion. Needless to say, the added helping of guilt at having scared a perfect stranger off did nothing to improve her mood.
Banging her apartment's door open, she slammed it shut again and stormed into the living room. Orion was seated at her computer, but was blinking in her direction in a manner that suggested he expected her to be running from some unknown assailant and not standing in the middle of the hallway glaring at him.
"Miss Lawson?" he ventured, tentatively. "Are you all right?"
"Oh, absolutely," she snapped. "I'm fan-friggin'-tastic. If you gave me those answers you promised, I think I'd be downright ecstatic. You may even get a prize if you tell me how you got in here ahead of me without a key."
Orion blinked at her once or twice. "I borrowed the spare that you keep in the wheel well of your vehicle. Would you like it back now, or at another time?"
She looked at him flatly. "Do I look like I'm in the mood to go all the way back downstairs?"
He shook his head and she snorted in general affirmation of his answer. She was obviously upset, possibly more than he had ever seen her. Rather than risk antagonizing her further, he decided that it was better to relocate to the couch for their imminent discussion. Grunting in vague acknowledgement of his cooperation, Nadia kicked her shoes from her feet and left them where they landed. Fetching a glass of cold water from the kitchen, she sat facing him at the opposite end of the couch.
Noting that his hostess' expression was not softening in any great rush, Orion coughed quietly and took the initiative. "Do you have any preference as to where I should begin?"
"Nope," came the deliberately unhelpful reply. "I mean, I'd sort of like to know if you've killed anyone, but I expect we'll get to that, since you're telling me everything. Right?"
"Everything would make for a very long tale, Miss Lawson."
"Well, it's a good thing we can order out if we run out of food then, because we're not going anywhere until I'm satisfied. Not after getting into a huge fight with my parents because I didn't know enough about you to convince them you weren't a murdering arsonist."
Orion sighed. "Very well. In that case, I will begin where your knowledge ends."
Nadia raised an eyebrow. "And what does that mean?"
He smiled patiently. "Miss Lawson, I know much of what you had done while in the company of Mr. Carmichael, including the research you undertook in the hopes of learning something of me."
She frowned. "Look, I get you're used to talking like that, but I'm tired, cranky and not really in the mood for keeping track of the circles you're weaving. Thomas and I looked up the Orion from ancient Greece, the mythological one. We were trying to guess what sort of person you were."
He smiled cryptically. "Yes, Miss Lawson, that is what I meant when I said that you had hoped to learn something of me. And you did, so I will resume your lesson where your research left you. There is, after all, little point in telling you the things about me you already know."
Nadia, at this point, was clenching her glass of water rather tightly. Taking a long sip, she smiled thinly at her captive tutor. "Meaning what, exactly, since you're ignoring what I said about talking straight?"
"Meaning that I and the Orion of Greek mythology are one and the same."
She looked at him for a moment, the tension and anger of the evening keeping her face straighter than an ironing board for an entire ten seconds. Then she began laughing; it felt good, too. Orion said nothing as he waited for her to finish and, when she did, she wiped the tears from her eyes and smiled.
"Look at you, practising your sense of humour. Okay, you got me with that one. And thanks, I needed the laugh."
He returned the smile, but it was a patient one. "I was not joking, Miss Lawson."
Nadia blinked. "But you can't be. Myths aren't real."
It was his Orion's turn to chuckle. "Then what was the purpose of your original investigation into the supernatural?"
She shrugged. "I was looking for government cover-ups, conspiracies, that sort of thing. Ancient stories about figures that were placed in the stars are something entirely different."
His smile came dangerously close to honest amusement. "The ways that an individual can find to believe in one thing and refute the existence of something remarkably similar never cease to amaze me."
She stuck her tongue out at him. "Belief has nothing to do with it. Even if you're being honest with me, you'd have to be... what? Several thousand years old? More? It's just not possible."
Orion tilted his head contemplatively. "I do not make a point of counting, Miss Lawson, but I believe the first recorded mention of me was attributed to a work dated between seven and eight centuries before your modern calendar began, with the work itself based off of an oral tradition already decades or centuries old. So yes, you are correct; by that reckoning my age would be placed somewhere between two thousand seven hundred and three thousand years of age."
Nadia stared at him for a moment. He's serious, she realized. Actually serious. Gathering herself with a slight shake, she voiced the obvious question. "How?"
He chuckled softly. "That is a more complex question than you realize, Miss Lawson, but in the interest of keeping our discussion from growing confused, I will answer the specific question of how I have lived for so long. Put as simply as possible, age means practically nothing to me. After all, I can control the age of my appearance."
She shook her head. "It can't be that easy, that's just wrong. Time has to affect you; you can't just ignore it outright."
"It does, Miss Lawson. If I remain in one form for any amount of time, I age normally. That does not mean that I cannot alter my appearance to be youthful once again."
"It still sounds wrong. There has to be some kind of catch, right?"
Orion's face clouded for a moment and she saw she had indeed struck close to the mark. Sighing, he nodded. "Yes, there is a cost. It is not one I am fond of paying."
Nadia frowned. She had the sudden impression that she wasn't going to like this 'cost', whatever it was. Well, girl, you wanted answers. "What cost is that, then?"
He sighed. "It is difficult to accept without the proper context."
She shifted her position a little; there was no point to listening to a long story if you weren't comfortable. "All right, give me the context, then."
He blinked at her, as if half-expecting her to be joking. Just to be safe, he decided to confirm that she knew what she was getting into. "The entirety of my story?"
She looked him in the eyes; yeah, she was serious. "The entire story."
Taking a deep breath, Orion repositioned himself as well. "As you wish."
Despite the still somewhat mind-boggling idea that Orion predated the modern era, Nadia could feel herself crowing inside at the progress she was beginning to make. All I have to do is keep him talking, and I'll have all the answers I need to get my parents to come around.
Her thoughts were put on hold as he began. "As you know, the mythology surrounding my life h
as several contested endings."
She nodded. "I'm guessing the legends are wrong? At least the parts about you dying, anyway?"
He chuckled wryly. "No, they are not. Misinformed, perhaps, but not incorrect. They are, however, relevant to the story I am about to tell you. The day I was killed was, initially, wonderful. The sky was blue, the air was warm and the breeze was cool. Artemis and I had spent the morning together and... What is it?"
Nadia gave herself a shake, realizing her eyes were beginning to bug out. "Sorry, just wrapping my head around how casually you talk about taking a stroll with a Greek goddess thousands of years ago. Continue."
"Thank you. We had spent the morning together and parted for the afternoon. She had had a previous engagement with her twin brother and I decided to while away the time in the water."
Nadia raised her hand slightly. "Apollo was her brother's name, right?"
Orion sighed patiently. "Yes, that is correct."
Waiting for her to lower her hand, he then continued. "You know what happened during that afternoon. I only know the details of what happened due to events I am still coming to. Apollo tricked Artemis into shooting me with an arrow. Directly in the head, no less." He smiled wistfully at that, as if unsure if he should be proud of Artemis' accuracy or bitter about the bad luck of the situation. "She was, understandably, quite upset."
Nadia felt a flash of satisfaction pass through her; she remembered mentioning to Thomas that she had thought it odd the story said nothing of any anger on Artemis' part.
Orion, unaware of her internal smugness, continued. "She cursed her brother and refused to speak to him, except when specifically required to by the remainder of their pantheon. He gave her the space she required, but I suspect it was only because he felt she would come around in time. During this period, she pleaded with Hades to release me from the underworld. He refused, stating that if the Olympians began flaunting the rules so openly then it would be demanded too often."
"I'm guessing it would have saved everyone a lot of trouble if he'd made that exception?"
He chuckled softly. "Perhaps. I do not hold it against him. The rules are there for a reason and I agree with his logic, no matter what came of it. Frankly, the Olympians did have a fairly whimsical nature as it was, so perhaps it was a rare burst of responsibility taking hold."
She nodded slowly. "I guess. But I'm interrupting again, sorry. What did come of it?"
He looked sad, for a moment. "Pain. With the most obvious route closed to her, she resorted to the second most obvious. The Moirai, or as you are more likely to know them, the Fates. She searched Greece for them, though she did not honestly expect an answer different than the one she had received from Hades. After all, they were responsible for nudging fate on its way and, apparently, my fate was already complete. She was surprised when they told her of an old magic, as well as where to find it. I believe it had been of the Titans' design; possibly Iapetus', being the symbol of mortal life, though that is mere conjecture and we are likely never to know for certain."
Nadia, stuck in the midst of a prolonged sip from her glass during the deluge of mythological figures, swallowed and smiled sheepishly. "You obviously know more about it than I do; I'd never really done much research into Greek myth until I had to look you up."
Realizing his segue, he inclined his head towards her slightly. "I apologize for getting off of the main subject; it would take rather a long time to explain the entirety of what I just made reference to. Returning to the matter at hand; undertaking a journey to recover the magic she was directed to, Artemis travelled from Olympus in search of it. Unfortunately, as the Moirai were wont to do, they did not give her all of the details. After securing the stone tablet the magic was inscribed upon, she recovered my body and attempted the ritual it described. It... did not go as she expected."
She felt a pang shoot through her chest, realizing that Thomas' references to having lost his family must have come from this. "Artemis?"
Orion nodded slowly. "The ritual allowed for one soul to be brought back and required one soul to perform the ritual. But it was not a revival; it was an exchange."
Nadia covered her mouth. "So... she died so you would live?"
"Yes, though I believe she would rather have had us both live. It is what I would have wanted." His iron-clad neutrality was slipping now; she could see the pain in his eyes, the tightening of his jaw as he spoke. "What I did want. Worse still was that the nature of the magic was strictly an impartial one and had not been made with mercy in mind. I felt the life draining from her body and returning to mine. I was on both sides of death at one time. It had... consequences beyond the obvious."
Taking a deep breath, he gave himself a slight shake and, in that moment, the chink in his armour was gone again. Upon noticing her questioning gaze, he gestured to his eyes, pale skin and abnormally dark hair, filling in what he had meant by 'consequences'.
Nadia shuddered involuntarily. "I had wondered why the myth never mentioned you with eyes like that... I'm sorry, Orion. Really. I can't imagine what it would be like to watch someone you love die." She felt her thoughts turning and abruptly saw Thomas' fearful, panicked face as he lay in the oppressive gloom of that awful parking garage. Swallowing the emotions down, particularly those lingering ones that resented the man sitting in front of her, she concentrated on being supportive. "Well... I can't imagine what it would be like to feel it, anyway."
He chuckled dryly. "It is an event long since passed, but your concern is noted."
Nadia was surprised that she did not bristle at his remark. Perhaps it was because she saw Orion in a different light than she had a few minutes ago. He wasn't the soulless boogeyman that McClane had convinced her parents he was, nor was he the distant and aloof enigma that he tried to be. He wasn't even the cautious-but-sweet young man that she had gotten to know when he had first appeared to her as Thomas. What he was, exactly, she wasn't quite sure yet; but the pieces of the puzzle were steadily falling into place.
She smiled at him. "Hey, it's what friends are for."
Orion looked at her strangely. "Is that what we are, Miss Lawson?"
She rolled her eyes, but felt her smile widening. "Well, maybe we shouldn't get carried away just yet. You're handling your audition pretty well so far, though, if it helps." He began blinking again and she giggled quietly. "You're just too easy. All right, I'll stick to the subject at hand; how did you become able to do what you do? Transforming, I mean."
"There is no definitive answer to that question. Magic rarely bothers to explain itself. However, my theory is that it stemmed from the nature of the exchange. Artemis was an immortal, worshipped by many as a goddess. She possessed an affinity for the wild and its creatures that surpassed any talent or skill. It was simply a part of her, some inner magic of her own. And when her spirit, her essence, was transferred to me, that inner magic came with it. But no two immortals shared an identical gift and, I suppose, a mortal could not simply inherit that magic."
Nadia frowned, mulling this over. "So it changed into something completely different, all by itself?"
Orion smiled quietly. "Magic is often described as having a will of its own. And I believe that, in a way, it does make sense. Artemis' gift was for things pertaining to the hunt; when her soul was transferred to my body, that power manifested itself in a new way. You yourself can attest to the fact that I am incredibly hard to locate if I do not wish to be found."
She nodded slowly. "That's certainly true. So instead of having an uncanny ability to hunt, your gift is that you're nearby impossible to be hunted."
"I suppose that that would be an accurate way to describe it."
She cocked her head to one side. "You mentioned, though, that you were getting to the part that explained how you knew what had gone on while you were, uh, away?"
He nodded. "So I did. During the time when Artemis' life was being transferred to my corpse, I was assailed with the contents of her mind; memories, knowledge, exp
eriences. I seemed to know everything she had known, from what she had done to revive me to events long before she had met me. I had, for lack of a better term, inherited her essence in its entirety."
Nadia felt the dots connecting in her mind. "You knew everything she did, from her perspective. But that's exactly like what you did to me in my car earlier. How is that possible? You didn't enact a ritual or do any chanting or anything like that and you certainly didn't suck the life out of me."
Orion fidgeted slightly. "I mentioned previously that magic often seems to have a will of its own, yes?"
Her nod answered his question and he continued. "Well, the older the magic is, the more powerful it becomes. A sufficiently potent form of magic rarely allows itself to merely fade away after being used. It finds a new vessel."
She felt her eyes being drawn to his crimson gaze again and suddenly felt a chill crawl up her spine. "It's inside you?"
His reply was very simple. "Yes."
Nadia took a deep breath; the dots were connecting again. "So, when you looked into my eyes and learned everything about me... that was the same thing that happened when Artemis' soul was wrenched out of her and put into you, except that you didn't take it to its conclusion?"
He nodded, and she felt the last piece click into place. "That's the catch, isn't it? That's the cost you have to pay to live forever. You need to... to..."
Orion's voice left no room for her to doubt him, or the awful truth it confirmed for her. "I need to draw the essence out of a living person to sustain myself."
She downed the rest of her glass in one go; she dearly wished it was something stronger than water all of a sudden, the memory of her recent hangover be damned. It all made sense, now. The alter egos left to their own devices while Orion rendered himself utterly numb to his surroundings. The 'curtain' drawn closed around every different self's memory, isolating them; not from each other, but from him. And she finally knew what he was. Addicted. Not to alcohol, mind-altering substances or anything else one could conventionally expect, but to being someone else. Anyone else. The ultimate method of shutting out the memories you did not want to face. Along with everything else, for that matter.
She nearly started giggling when her mind finished processing all of this and produced a response.
I could really go for something that effective right now.
In Icarus' Shadow Page 47