Orion, the Hunter

Chapter 1: The Tides

Orion ordered another glass of wine with a beguiling smile and the lightest touch of magic to ensure that the bartender forgot to ask for their ID. They hadn’t used magic on a mundane since they were a child but it was necessary for the mission. It was a violation of everything they had been taught…but desperate times and all that rot.

Orion kept their gaze light as they scanned the bar. Rafael had yet to make an appearance and Orion wasn’t sure how much longer they could keep coming to this bar without drawing unwanted attention.

It was easy to see why satyrs liked this bar. The Green Dragon had an interesting mix of magicals and mundanes. Orion was grateful — it made it easy for them to hide their own aura with other magicals around. There were two satyrs at a table in the center of the bar who were barely hiding their goat legs in the dim light. Orion felt the urge to reprimand the satyrs, to let their aura flex and reveal themself as a powerful demimortal and Hunter, to show the satyrs that Orion would not let them get away with straining the Shield but…

Orion wasn’t here tonight as a Hunter. And it was very, very important to keep a low profile until Rafael showed his stupid face. Orion took a deep breath, remembering their father’s lessons in hunting, traditional hunting. Patience. Wait for the prey to walk into the crosshairs.

And at the moment, this was the only hint, the only lead Orion had on their father’s disappearance. The God’s Council had been frustratingly useless when Orion told it their father was missing. Their father was the Commander for the North-East Americas and he was missing. That should have warranted a full-scale operation and Orion should have been at the center of it all — but instead, the Council shuffled Orion to the side with a tap on the head and said, “We’ll handle it.”

Orion would sooner throw themself off Mt. Olympus before they just let someone else handle it. They were lucky that Yang had pulled them aside. Yang had always been a mentor to Orion, as neither a demigod nor demigoddess but a demimortal like themself. Yang, though, was a child of wisdom. Orion hoped it was a sign that the goddess herself thought Orion should be included in the hunt for their father but Orion suspected that Yang was acting on their own accord.

“A satyr named Rafael was the last to see your father,” Yang had said.

It was their only lead. So here they were, for a third night, in a bar favored by most satyrs in the city, waiting for Rafael to show up. Again.

Orion had to order a third glass of wine before Rafael showed. They were careful not to thank any immortals— for the fear that they unduly got the immortals’ attention. Their half-brother, the god of sexual desire, loved to show up at the worst times whenever Orion was foolish enough to accidentally say his name.

Orion tracked Rafael’s movements over the rim of their wine glass. Rafael was tall for a satyr but still a few inches shorter than Orion in socked feet so he disappeared from Orion’s sight. His thick black hair was not groomed and matched the untidiness of his beard. He looked about thirty but satyrs were long-lived so Orion didn’t bother trying to guess his age. He had a typical build of satyrs, sturdy and thick, and his aura was unsurprisingly wild and unchecked. Younger than most, Orion thought as they felt Rafael’s aura mix and move with the others; it was untamed to a degree that spoke of either inexperience or carelessness. With a satyr, it could be both.

Rafael stopped at the table with the satyrs and spoke to them for a few minutes without sitting down. He moved from them and walked quickly through the bar. He was heading to the back. A plan flickered into formation in Orion’s mind and they sprang from their stool at the bar.

Orion’s heeled boots clicked through the bar decisively and a path opened before them. With their shoes, they were easily six feet and such height had its advantages. They moved confidently — Orion had already scouted out the location so they knew all entrances, exits, and the layout of all rooms.

With Rafael’s direction, either something had spooked him and he was going for the exit through the kitchen or he was meeting someone in the back office. If it was the first, Orion would follow them out. If the second…well, Orion needed to know what that meeting was about.

Orion pushed through the kitchen door seconds after Rafael. The asshole was already sprinting to the exit.

“Fuck.”

Orion sprang into action, jumping on the counter and sprinting over the length of it, avoiding the packed galley of confused and angry workers. Orion burst through the exit seconds after Rafael and immediately rolled away from the satyr’s goat feet aimed for their face.

Orion grinned as they spun up, shifting seamlessly to block Rafael’s exit to the street and letting their carefully banked aura free—no need to waste mental energy on controlling that anymore and they doubted the satyr was adequately trained to read the nuances in their aura…more likely just felt its intensity that told him: demimortal.

Rafael flinched. “What do you want with me, Hunter?”

“Just wanted to ask you a few questions.” Orion relaxed their posture, hoping to lull him into a false sense of security. They were surprised that Rafael called them a Hunter, but maybe he just assumed all children of immortals were Hunters.

He pawed his hooves on the ground. “Well, get on with it.”

They smiled and kept their voice soft with the barest hint of beguiling magic. Orion didn’t want to risk more and put Rafael on guard. “You met with a Hunter a few weeks back, didn’t you?” Two weeks and three days ago, actually, but he didn’t need to know how much they cared.

“Yeah, so what if I did?” Rafael shuffled on his feet, glancing towards the door and then to the street behind Orion.

“Do you remember what you talked about?” Gentle, Orion decided. A gentle interrogation because for some reason Rafael was talking to them and Orion had no idea why.

Rafael shifted on his hooves. Orion saw the sickly yellow pulse through his aura — nervous and scared. “What’s this about? He solved the issue so—”

Orion’s heart leaped to their throat. Was ‘he’ their father?. “What was the issue?”

“There was a hippocampus, in the Hudson,” Rafael waved his hands about, “thought that I should, you know, do my civic duty and report it.”

“When did you see the hippocampus?” None of this was making any sense. Father had left a note per family protocol with the time he was leaving, where he was going, and when he had expected to be back. But he never said why he was going. That wasn’t normal. And a misplaced hippocampus was so far below Father’s position…he would have sent another Hunter, a new graduate like themself to deal with it.

“What’s going on?” Rafael checked the door again. “It’s not there anymore. The Hunter took care of it.”

“Where did you say the hippocampus was?”

“Up the river, near, near Yonkers.”

Orion suppressed a shudder. That was where Father had said he was going. “Did you show him?” Orion asked quietly, “Did you show him where the hippocampus was?” Did you kidnap my father, they wanted to ask. Did you kill my father?

“No, I told him where I saw it and—” He raised his hands in the air. “Fucking Hunters! Your lot is all the same…well, most of ya.”

Orion heard that plenty so it was easy to ignore. Not everyone agreed with the hiding of the magical side of the world and Hunters got a lot of grief for maintaining the divide. Orion, more so than others, knew how necessary the divide was — the havoc they and all their half-siblings could wreak on the mortal world if there was no one to hold them all accountable alone made it worth it.

Orion took a deep breath and beguiled Rafael a little bit more, taking advantage of the apparent honesty Rafael was willing to shout and ignore it more. “So, what did you tell the Hunter?”

Rafael smiled, a nasty mean sort of grin that was meant to strike fear. Orion pushed down their own smile — the day they were afraid of a satyr of all things would be a hot day in the Underworld. But more, it was just another sign Orion’s magic had got to them.

“I told him exactly what I just said. A hippocampus in Yonkers.” Another arrogant grin. “You should be asking what I didn’t tell him.”

“Tell me,” Orion ordered, infusing more beguiling magic. “What didn’t you tell this other Hunter?”

Rafael growled and shook his head. “Fuck you!” He rubbed his eyes viciously and Orion saw his aura flex as he fought off Orion’s magic. Dammit, they pushed too far. “I know what you are — a son of love.”

Orion rolled their eyes. “A child of love. A demimortal. I’m not a man.”

“Whatever,” Rafael growled, “You’re all fucking Hunters at the end of the day and I’m not telling you shit.”

Rafael lunged for them, jumping and twisting to use his only real weapon — his hooves — to kick Orion in the chest. It was an attack Orion would’ve seen a mile away and it spoke to Rafael’s desperation.

Orion rolled their eyes as they twisted out of the way and drew two of their favorite daggers from the holster they strapped to their back. It had been hidden by their long coat and had been a gift from their mother. Since their mother was, of course, obsessed with all things beautiful, the pummels of the daggers were a luminescent pearl with several embedded gems purely for decoration. But, since Mother had asked for her husband the blacksmith to make the weapons, the daggers were deadly and divine.

Rafael barely stumbled as he landed but he didn’t have time to twist around for another attack. Orion kicked the back of his knees and jumped on his back as he stumbled to the ground. Orion held one dagger to his throat and another to the back of his neck.

“Please, please don’t kill me.”

Orion swallowed against the rush of fear from Rafael’s aura. It wasn’t part of the plan and went against everything Father had taught them but…it was Father’s life in danger. Orion drew blood with the slightest pressure.

Orion tried to take a steadying breath but their words were still growled, “What didn’t you tell the Hunter?”

“Okay, okay! Listen, please,” Rafael tripped over his words hurriedly, "Erasmus…he’s…he’s a centaur and he told me to get Alexander — the, the Hunter, you know — up the river and he’d take care of him.”

“Take care of him?” Orion fought the shudder in their voice.

“Not, not that way!” Rafael shouted, “Well, maybe. But —”

“What did Erasmus want with him?” Orion felt control of their aura slip away into nauseating pulses of fear; suddenly it was hard to tell the difference between their own aura of fear and Rafael’s.

“To talk! I swear, just to talk!” Orion heard the desperation in Rafael’s voice but there was some truth in his words. It didn’t make sense.

“About what?”

Orion felt along their dagger Rafael’s nervous swallow. “I can’t,” he whispered, “I can’t share the mission.”

“Who do you work for? Who else is a part of this? What’s your purpose?” Orion fired the questions off as they came to their mind. What was this? A criminal ring to kidnap and kill Hunters?

“You should join,” Rafael said, his voice trembling, “I could…I’ll talk to Erasmus. He’d want to meet you…you should…”

“Join what?” Orion snarled.

Orion felt a shift of magical auras. The two satyrs from the bar. Oh. So this was a diversion tactic then. Maybe the two satyrs in the bar were calling for backup? Or were they the backup? Orion remembered the two satyrs as rather slight, one with unruly dark hair similar to Rafael, and the other had attempted to artfully tousle their blonde air.

The two satyrs from the bar slammed open the kitchen door, followed by a human-sized cyclops. Human-sized technically, but still almost seven feet tall. Orion spun off Rafael as the cyclops rushed at them.

The cyclops was clumsy, even for a demimagi as he had to be given his size. He slammed into one side of the alley as Orion took their original position, blocking any escape for the four magicals.

“Kill him,” the blonde satyr ordered the dark-haired one.

Orion thought he was referring to them but the dark-haired satyr sputtered and hesitated. “What? You can’t just kill Rafael!”

The cyclops had no such reservations. Rafael stood slowly, gathering his wits and shaking off what remained of Orion’s magic, and unwittingly turned his back to the cyclops. Maybe he thought as Orion did, that they were on the same side.

The cyclops took one small step forward and, with the ease that came with brute strength, snapped Rafael’s neck.

The dark-haired satyr yelped. “What the fuck Nick? How could you…” He spluttered to a stop as Nick, the blonde satyr, raised a hand.

“Shut up. It’s operational security.” Nick turned glittering black eyes to Orion before eyeing the cyclops and nodding to Orion. “Him too.”

The cyclops charged them without a thought. Orion ducked and spun underneath the flying fist until they were behind the cyclops. Two quick slashes to the tendons at the ankles had the cyclops howling in pain and tumbling to the ground. Orion jumped quickly onto his back and drove the two daggers right through the neck, severing the spine and killing him instantly.

As merciful a death as they could deliver in the circumstances.

They heard the choked gasps of horror behind them from the satyrs and turned to face them.

Orion stumbled to the side, dodging a knife attack from Nick. The knife sliced against their jacket sleeve with no effect.

Nick recovered quickly and spun around, aiming twin hooves for Orion’s face. Orion rolled on the ground and swung out their dagger, connecting with the calf of Nick’s goat leg. Nick howled and kicked wildly out, jarring Orion’s wrist and breaking their grip on their dagger.

“Fucking son of a bitch!” Nick yelled, “I hate Hunters!”

Orion jumped to their feet, twisting their only dagger in their hand as Nick hopped around and lunged for another knife attack, this time aimed for Orion’s heart. They deflected easily and on muscle memory alone, twisted and struck their own dagger into Nick’s chest. A sharp upward thrust and twist and Nick was dead.

Orion slid to their knees. Nick stared lifelessly above them as Orion watched the dark-haired satyr sprint out of the alleyway without a second glance.

“What a mess.”

Orion flinched at the sound of their mother’s voice. Aphrodite looked out of place in this dark alleyway, wearing a chic satin gown with champagne heels. She had the same appearance as that which they were raised with but it had been years since Orion had seen the long wavy black hair that matched their own. Or the gray-blue color of their own eyes. Mother changed her physical appearance like the tides she rose out of.

“Mother,” Orion choked in greeting.

Their hands were covered in blood. Covered in the blood of demimagi and magi who they had sworn an oath to protect.

She stepped daintily forward and frowned at the dead satyr. “I can’t believe this one called me a bitch.” She waved a hand and Nick disappeared. The cyclops next. And then the blood from their hands.

Orion swallowed thickly, clenching their hands to fists before taking a deep breath and looking up to their mother.

She appraised them seriously. She snapped her fingers and Orion felt their clothes tidy themselves up and saw the blood stains disappear. “Much better.”

Orion opened their mouth to say something, anything, but closed it hopelessly a moment later. Was Mother really paying that close attention to them that even an off-hand insult to their patronage was enough to draw her to their location? They thought not; Mother definitely had plenty of other things to occupy her attention and no one had dared say her name.

So why was she here?

Orion opened their mouth to voice the question, heedless to the danger and impudence of questioning an Immortal, when she silenced them with a severe look.

“The tides are changing.”

And then she disappeared in the same silent way she appeared, from one blink to the next.

Orion slouched, exhausted, confused, and for a single moment, feeling absolutely hopeless.

What the fuck did that mean? And how did that have anything to do with their missing father?