Desmond breathed a heavy sigh. He couldn't even enjoy the sweet breeze as it caressed his face. "You have named this creature a 'Fallen one', but he is much like the rest of us. That being said, he was tortured. That much is clear. What else is clear is that he was [i]running[/i] from something, or someone." 

He lit a cigarette and stepped over a misplaced stone he could hear was blocking the breeze, "We need to find out what is coming, if they're like him, and for that matter, what [i]he[/i] is capable of. Thankfully, I believe we can get him to fight on our side, or at least provide intel as to what we're dealing with in exchange for room and board." 

He drew deep on his cigarette, letting the cloves and nicotine fill him before he released the smoke. "I just hope the others see things like I do. For now keep an eye on him. If he seems benign, release him. Give him a room, feed him if you can, but don't let him gain too much strength. I must have words with the Queen." He released her arm, and made off for a secluded area as he pulled out a flip phone with brail buttons. 

Watching the other Moroi disappear behind a tall oak, the Chancellor paused to think over what he'd just said to her before making for the academy. The boy, harmless or not, was now being held inside the academy and therefore under Dolorante's guardianship. Figuring that Desmond probably had a reason to be concerned about the boy, the Chancellor decided to give the boy the benefit of the doubt -- unless something happened to her students.

[hr]
"Oh," Nia said, dropping her eyes. As a royal, she'd been sheltered from most of the violence in the world, and Nia couldn't imagine being so hungry as to need to kill a person. Thinking back to the nursery rhyme, she realized that Orion hadn't just killed the man; he'd eaten him, flesh and blood. That was what the little rhymes alluded to -- full consumption of flesh and blood. "A ghoul," Nia echoed, nodding. "Although I haven't met one before, I know that hunger does terrible things to the brain. It's alright. If the Chancellor let you put the donor to rest, I trust her judgement."

Orion calmed and looked at the spot on the floor that was still dark from the mop. "At Anteiku, we ate the remains of people who committed suicide. People who weren't alive to look you in the eye with that fear..." 

He wasn't necessarily talking about the donor, but the others he had eaten whilst with... 

He was taken out of his thoughts by a smell he hadn't noticed before, but he was closer now. He could smell the sweet aroma that was Nia. His eyes darted and locked on her, but not her eyes. He was looking at her skin. It looked delectable. So soft and- 

He slammed against the far wall, cracking the concrete. He dropped to the table-like bed with fear in his eyes. "Donor was too weak, I can't be around other people right now. I'm still-" his stomach growled loud enough she had to hear it. His body had already processed the frail meat of the man from before. He could have been satisfied for a week from what he had eaten, but the tissue was not that of a healthy person. 

His eyes pulsated and glowed faintly as he couldn't pull them away from her, but the look was of pain, "I don't want to hurt you." He choked out. 

Nia flinched when Orion slammed intot the wall, alarmed at how fast the boy had moved. Despite her enchanced speed, it seemed like the boy was extremely fast. [i]Night Stalkers eat Moroi,[/i] she thought with a burning sense of dread. Still, she didn't feel like she had to fear the boy. While her heart pounded with fear seeing Orion's black-red eyes, Nia could see her own fear mirrored there, different but still similar enough to know that Orion was afraid too -- of himself.

In childhood, the possibility that she was a monster had never occurred to Nia -- she'd been raised in a society where she was the definition of normal, of better than normal. When she finally learned about humans and how they were more populous than Moroi could ever hope to be, she asked herself for the first time: Was she a monster? The answer to that question had been -- after some thought -- an unsure "no." She hadn't wanted to be born as a being that lived off blood, and Moroi society had found ways of dealing with ethics through donors. Unless it was better for all Moroi to die, there was no reason why she was a monster at all. 

The same applied here, to Orion. He seemed to have convinced himself that he was a monster, meaning that he wasn't raised thinking that "normal" was being whatever he was like Nia was. From what he'd told her of his past, she figured that he'd tried his best to eat decently. However monstrous as it may seem to those who didn't have to drink blood and eat flesh, Nia could empathize.

"You won't, Orion. You just ate," she told him gently, coaxing the fear out of him. "You can control this, just like you have before. Or you would have died long ago."

Slowly, hesitantly, Orion came back forward. His movement was in complete opposition to his previous motion. He was like a frightened child as he approached the bars. Without taking his eyes off of hers, he reached through this cage with one hand in offering. 

****

"Yes, Your Majesty. Yes I know you said to call you 'Lissa'. Yes. Thank you, your-- Lissa." Desmond ended the call, and dialed the chancellor's office. Whether she answered or he got voicemail, he would say the same thing. 

"Let's let him out." 

The chancellor was a little taken aback at how quickly a decision had been made, but she didn't falter in her reply. "I'll send the guards down right away. Did you want us to wait for you, or?"

****

Nia watched as Orion approached the bars, unafraid. Her only hesitation came when she took in the boy's outstretched hand, but even that was brief. Reaching forwards, Nia took his hand with both of hers. "Nice to meet you, Orion," Nia said with a gentle smile. "You have beautiful eyes -- very distinct, very unique."