Mentor

The morning light crept softly through the blinds, casting long rays of gold across Emi’s bedroom floor.

She sat up slowly, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. The house was quiet – no sizzling from the kitchen, no news playing on the TV. Just birdsongs outside and the gentle hush of wind brushing against the windows.

Putting on her slippers and tiptoeing downstairs, she was careful not to disturb Orion as she hadn’t expected him to be awake yet.

But there he was, like he was already up for hours now.

Standing by the window, silhouetted against the pale morning sun, Orion was completely still – a little too still, unnaturally so. Still dressed in his dark leather gear, red scarf around his neck, faintly fluttering from a draft sneaking through the frame.

Emi stopped midway on the staircase, her hand cupping her mouth as she peeked into the room. Only to then spot what it was that he was holding.

A bird.

A white one. Small and soft-looking, its feathers glowing faintly in the sunlight. It was perched in the cradle of his hand, not struggling. Just simply… waiting.

Orion stared at it, with an empty motionless weight coming from inside what seemed like a dark husk of what once was. But the peculiar thing was that there was still a warmth inside, a fire that was burning. But this fire was not soothing, nor was it comforting. It was sharp, jagged, impossible to hold except for the one radiating that fire.

Then, after a long moment of stillness, almost as if lost deep inside hesitation – Orion closed his hand around it.

Firm – with no mercy.

There was no resistance, not a single chirp of pain. It simply ceased to be.

Emi didn’t move, didn’t breathe. She didn’t know why she was holding her breath, but the aura emanating from his skin made the air thicker than it was before. She didn’t understand it. Not yet. But she felt it. A strange, dense gravity around him.

She knew he was depowered when he got here on Earth, but it was almost as if that very reality was being contested, physics and laws crumbling before her very eyes. This was not supposed to be.

Turning around, Orion looked back at Emi, almost as if he had known she was standing there this whole time – and he simply did not care. And for the briefest flicker, less than a blink of the eye, his eyes sparkled with something not entirely human. A flash of purple lightning deep within the black.

Locking eyes with one another, Emi did not know what to say. And Orion himself said nothing back. Merely brushing the feathers off his hand and out of the window, letting the remains be carried into the wind.

The rest of the morning passed in a daze.

Emi had eaten breakfast without tasting it. Brushed her teeth without thinking. Walked to school with Orion in total silence, not because they had nothing to say – but because something unspoken was clinging to the air between them.

She didn’t bring up the bird, and neither did Orion. Maybe it was better that way. But even hours later, that moment still lingered in her chest like static noises on TV. She couldn’t shake the feeling that she had seen something she wasn’t meant to.

By the time they were sitting in homeroom, the usual chatter of the classroom barely registered to her.

All of which came to a halt as their teacher snapped her out of her thoughts with an announcement:

“Alright, listen up, everyone. I know this is sudden, but I won’t be taking you for your first period today. One of the other teachers will be stepping in as a substitute.”

A ripple of surprise spread through the room. It was unusual, they all thought. Substitutes weren’t unheard of, the other teachers would take each other’s classes all the time, but random schedule changes first thing in the morning?

Then the door slid open, and there he was.

Tall. Clean-cut. Dressed in an unassuming blazer and tie, like any other teacher. The other students already knew who this man was, they could spot his white beard from a mile away.

But for Orion – something stirred inside him as his eyes locked toward this old gentleman. A look of recognition, realization, and even a bit of bitter anger was beginning to surface.

The man smiled gently, and it was not entirely clear whether he even noticed Orion. So he simply continued on and said:

“Good morning, class. I’ll be covering for a bit today. You already know who I am. But for those who don’t, you can call me Sterling.”

The class passed by like a blur, because all of Emi’s attention was glued to the uneasiness of Orion’s finger tapping on his table, eagerly waiting for the moment he could step up and leave his seat. Which came sooner than they all expected with the ringing of the bell signaling their lunch break.

Orion stood up before the other students had even begun to pack their things. He was already at the door, silent but swift. Emi jumped up to follow him, calling his name, but he didn’t stop.

In the corridor, stopping before the towering old teacher, Orion called out:

“What are you doing here?”

The man turned, and for a long moment, the two of them simply looked at each other.

Sterling gave him a smile, this time not as a clueless teacher. But as a trickster god, someone who was pleased someone had finally caught up to his disguise. Not that he was putting in much effort to hide. Though, he certainly seemed happy to enjoy being unrecognized.

Until now – here, where he could drop the act.

“Hello, Orion. It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?”

The ghost of his past – teacher, mentor, old friend.