"Where's Isha by the way?" Orion asked, looking around searchingly.
"Ah, she's laid out on the couch downstairs," Vi answered, gesturing toward the stairs. "She fell sick after you left."
Vander nodded and added, "She's getting better. I'm figuring it was just from all the stress."
"I'm going to go check on her," Orion grimaced, heading downstairs with the other kids following.
When he opened the door, Isha was stretched out on the couch with multiple blankets piled atop her. Her bleary eyes peered toward the door, a little hand poking out of the covers.
"Hi! You're back!" Isha croaked.
"I'm back! How are you feeling?"
"Sick," Isha mumbled as he sat on the table next to her. "My eyes got really heavy and my head felt like it was going to pop. Explode, like, BOOM! But it didn't."
Orion chuckled and placed the back of his hand against her forehead. It was warm, but if she was getting better now, that meant it had been worse before.
"Good thing it didn't. It would've made the others sad."
Giggling, Isha wriggled beneath the blankets and lifted her other arm, pointing toward Powder and Vi's bunk bed.
"Powder made a bomb with my face on it. She showed me how they worked and I was like, 'that's my head right now!' So she made another for me."
Powder was already moving, grabbing it and showing it off with silent pride. Isha's crayon-drawn head scrawled across it, with sharp, shark-like teeth. "She'll tear through anything when she explodes!"
"Uh-huh," Orion chuckled again.
'She's going to turn into Jinx 2.0,' Orion thought as Isha continued, "She's going to show me how they work and we're going to try and build one together."
Their small chatter and happy reunion carried on until the evening. When he stood up to leave, everyone's eyes tracked him, and Vi asked, "You're not going to stay here?"
"It's… better if I don't. Not yet, anyway."
"Hmph. I knew it," Vi grumbled, but Mylo and Claggor looked almost eager.
"Is there anything we can help with? Y'know we're pretty good at hiding stuff and breaking into places!" Claggor offered.
"Best lockpicker in all the Undercity," Mylo added smugly, brushing off his shirt like he was special.
Orion smiled, gesturing calmly at them. "I'm all good, guys. I'm just going to rest up at home."
"Where is home?" Powder asked. Immediately, all of their gazes fixed on him.
'Damn it. Powder, your questions are too good. Stop it!'
"Across town," Orion answered vaguely. This time, all of their faces frowned and not just Vi's. "Look, I'd love to show you guys my place, but I don't know if Enforcers will come looking for me! They saw me running away from the crossfire!"
"But you didn't do anything," Mylo arched a brow skeptically.
"If you don't want us there, just say it," Claggor added slowly. "But y'know, you keep eating here and we show you our places. We'd like to see yours at least once."
Vi just kept staring, her face scrunched, until Orion sighed.
"Give me a few days. I just… want to be alone for a bit."
"Promise?" Powder asked, her eyes wide as orbs.
"Promise."
-------------------
//Evening//
"You can't keep pushing everyone away," Janna sighed in her bird form, hopping across the table in front of him in his home. "It's good to have friends and people to fall back on."
"They're kids. They're not anyone to fall back on yet and I'm already abusing Vander's help."
Orion groaned as he sat in the chair, still full from his meal at Vander's tavern and, for once, relaxed.
It was completely quiet with only the hum of electricity in the background breaking it. Secretly, he'd been craving a beer and almost asked Vander for one, wanting to flick on a TV or relax on a computer as if he was back on Earth. His pastime for relaxing after a stressful day.
Those days were now gone. Now he stared at a blank wall with no noise or music to drown out his thoughts. Nothing to distract him from his own mind and the world around him.
"You said you've been struggling to keep me hidden before, right? How do you get your power as a goddess? The normal worshipping and prayer?"
"In short, yes," Janna chirped. "The more believers I have, the stronger my powers grow."
Orion exhaled, staring up at the gray, metal ceiling. "Follow me to the tavern next time then, we can start there. You becoming stronger helps my survivability. You'd also be able to help out your people more."
"My children," she hummed, "are both Piltover and the Undercity's people. Showing myself in the Undercity will create an impression that I favor one child over the other. But your appearance has forced my hand to make exceptions, I suppose."
Hopping over onto the bed, her form materialized back into her beautiful appearance. Orion glanced over at her, crossing her legs and smiling expectantly.
"Let's do some training."
She visibly deflated but nodded with an upbeat tone, placing a hand on his back. "Lean forward and begin."
When Orion first began using magic, he visualized it as countless rivers flowing harmoniously in a single direction, bundled together like a rope of thin threads. Unable to discern the types of magic, he would pluck one at random, experiencing varying results depending on how he used it.
This inconsistency persisted until he finally discovered that each thread, or river, of magic possessed unique traits.
Some were gray and formless, the most versatile but weakest, while others held darker or more brilliant colors. Some emitted violent, aggressive energies while others radiated more gentle, warm energies.
These differentiations became clearer the longer he used magic, whereas before they had all blended together without individual identity.
Orion exhaled, his focus narrowing on two threads that he had avoided trying to master but now felt pushed to.
One was a deep blue with subtle undertones of red, like blood swirling in water, shimmering and trembling with untapped potential. The other shared the same arcane blue as rune magic, but it radiated a calm, protective sheen.
He chose to start with the safer-looking magic, imbued with protective qualities.
The magic, Orion discovered, regardless of the type, flowed more easily through his blood vessels. This was a double-edged sword. Losing control often brought intense pain, sudden bursts of blood, or dark discoloration of his skin. Injuries he would have to mend hastily with healing magic.
It was why he chose not to use it during his scuffle with C and the Enforcers. He had only lightly touched on it with Janna helping him and didn't know how he would handle the backlash during the chaos if he was shot with a bullet.
Orion understood that even with its deceptively calm appearance, this magic fortified his body. To test it, he started punching the metal wall.
His strikes were light due to his nervousness, but by the end, Orion was striking with full force. There was no pain, bruising, or damage to his body. Only the sensation of having struck it with force. His offensive power, however, showed no noticeable improvement.
Another perk of this magic thread was the ability to channel it beyond his body in close proximity. With focus, he could turn it into a shield. A shimmering arcane barrier of blue-hued mana that screamed, 'Look here! I'm a mage!'
From an onlooker's perspective, it looked like waves crashing and bending around an invisible rock, with that being Orion himself, hands outstretched as he channeled it.
Cutting the channel, Orion expelled the remaining mana out of his body before turning his attention to the more unstable thread.
"Be careful with this one," Janna warned, ghosting his movements with her hand still on his back. "The backlash is far greater if you lose focus."
Orion nodded. "I can sense it. It feels violent."
His instincts, sharpened after studying these threads, told him this red-laced thread served the opposite purpose. A violent purpose.
Opening his eyes, Orion focused on the same undented metallic wall where he struck previously and struck again.
CRUNCH.
A clear dent marked where his fist struck, showing a significant increase in offensive power. Grinning confidently, he channeled it through his body and noticed his increased speed as well, darting across the room with Janna's ghostly appearance tracing him.
There was a limit.
He couldn't amplify it further without his body protesting under the strain, and when he released the mana, his muscles and tendons screamed in pain.
"Backlash?" Orion groaned.
"No," Janna answered as he channeled green healing mana through himself. "The thread allowed you to become stronger and faster but increased the fatigue on your body. I'd only recommend using it in short bursts."
He continued training more with the protective mana thread and occasionally switched to the red-laced mana. As the hour passed, he tried practicing switching as fast as he could between the threads.
'It takes too long to drain one mana thread and switch to the other,' Orion mused internally. 'I can't maintain offensive and defensive traits at the same time… or can I?'
The thought of channeling both threads simultaneously crossed his mind more than once, but Orion's instincts warned him against it.
'Can't hurt to try once.'
Reducing the channel to a faint drizzle as he approached the dented wall, Orion grew nervous. His instincts screamed at him to stop, but he chose to ignore it. He pushed the hesitation aside and reasoned again, 'You can't progress if you don't try.'
Still, he hesitated once more, cocking his arm, ready to punch if he succeeded.
'Just a light punch,' Orion reassured himself.
"What are you doing?" Janna asked, tilting her head.
The channel opened. The protective, archaic blue defensive thread flowed into his body, intertwining with the reddish-hued dark blue offensive thread. He could see it, he could feel it, the two threads twisting and winding through his veins like coiling serpents, straining his body.
"Orion stop! Stop channeling immediately!"
Everything tensed. He was able to control it until—
ZZZT-ZZZT.
Discolored sparks flung out from his body. He winced in pain and his entire body seized as a sharp jolt ripped through him when he tried to separate the flows and direct the red-laced mana to his fist.
Deep blue, tinged with a sickly mix of red, purple, and black, jutted out violently, spraying blood across the floor.
"AAA!"
Orion screamed in intense pain. Trying not to panic, he felt more violent surges sparking inside of him, causing him to cough up blood. It splattered the wall not as normal red, but tinged with purple and black goop.
"Bring the threads back together!" Janna shouted, the winds in the room violently swirling and displacing the furniture. "You will die if you don't!"
'Together, TOGETHER!' Orion screamed mentally, forcing the defensive thread to catch up and re-intertwine with the offensive one before pushing it out through his fist. Such a small amount of mana but with it came tremendous pain and agony the entire way.
ZZZZZZT!
A brilliant flash of light erupted upon impact. Orion shouted in pain and fear as massive jaws exploded from the point of impact on the wall. A loud, snarling growl filled the room, accompanied by the snapping of teeth as the beast lunged toward his neck.
The shockwave and the wolf's sudden appearance sent Orion flying backward, crashing to the floor. His breaths came in short, painful rasps, the room now looking like a crime scene with blood and foreign substances everywhere.
Orion's vision blurred.
Sitting up slightly, he looked at the wall. There, faint but unmistakable, was the outline of a black wolf's head. Its eyes were blackened orbs, swirling like galaxies, radiating unfathomable energy. Its voice was a mixture of beastly snarls and something disturbingly human. Yet oddly, there was no scent.
"It struggles! Keep struggling!" the wolf spoke with a mixed snarl and twisted glee. Its massive figure prowled out from the wall, twice the size of any human.
Between rasping breaths, Orion could feel his heartbeat quickening.
"Kindred," Orion croaked.
Orion did what he could only hope would work. He took the risk to channel a gentler, light-green thread of magic filled with warmth and attempted to heal his insides. Through all the pain and internal chaos, Orion's fearful gaze remained fixed on the wolf.
"This soul does not belong to you yet," Janna commanded, her wispy figure hovering above Orion's collapsed form. "Return to your den."
Contrasting the deep growl of the wolf, a light, feminine voice echoed from behind it.
"It is not its time, dear wolf."
A faint shimmer rippled above the wolf. A black, pristine, and otherworldly mask emerged and tilted its head. "This soul has two faces. Strange, one is not ours."
"Is this the power that fell from the sky?" Kindred asked, her head tilting back to Janna.
Janna remained silent, strong winds bellowing through his home like a storm as she glared them.
The wolf chuckled darkly and slowly, and with a chuckle of her own, the two faded into mist.
Orion stopped channeling and gasped for air again. Where his head had been, upon glancing at the wall after the surreal experience, a sharp, corrupted arcane spike jutted out.
"That," Orion coughed weakly. "Was a mistake."
Janna's berating tone followed him as his consciousness faded, "Do not channel two threads at once again. You are not ready..."