Orion Lake

AI Generated with Gencraft

## Biography

### Early Years

Orion Lake was conceived right about the time that the Scholomance graduated only a dozen seniors and they had all become Maleficers. They'd called themselves the "Hands of Death" and had banded together to take out the rest of the senior class for a massive dose of malia just before graduation. After they were the only graduates of the Scholomance that year, the adults realized what had happened and had hunted them down. El suspects that Orion's heroism is a result of the universe balancing out their evil.

Ever since he was in preschool, Orion's whole attention has been focused on killing mals rather then playing with the other children. Whenever his mother would send him to a playdate he would escape as soon as possible and go to the gates to help keep mals out of the enclave. When he was in second grade, his mother worked with him using flash cards so that he would recognize the people in the compound, especially the children around his age.

Orion never had any true friends growing up as everyone treated him like a hero / savior. They set him up on a pedestal and never got to know him as a person. There was more then likely a fair share of jealousy amount the boys, too, that held them back from treating Orion as a normal boy. Orion knew Chloe not only because they're both from New York, but because their fathers are both artificers who know each other. After Orion saved Chloe from being eaten by mals on a playground, she followed him around and tried to be his friend.

Before going into the school his mother told him he had to look out for the other New York enclaver kids. His power-sharer also has an alert on it to let him know if any of the other New York kids are being attacked by mals.

## Summary

### A Deadly Education

Orion doesn't believe in the principles of balance, he initially considers it just a theory, but El seems to have convinced him otherwise by the end of the book.

He is in the alchemy track at school and is just doing the minimum, so that schoolwork won't interfere with hunting down mals. Mals never attack him but when he kills them, he gets mana in return; if he freezes them, he doesn't get mana from it, so he hasn't learned any freezing spells. As a result he feeds a lot of extra mana into the New York enclaves power-sink that can be used by all of the rest of the New York enclave. However, his power sink has a block on it so that if he needs to pull any of it out, he has to ask Magnus or one of the other enclavers first.

When he saves Galadriel from a soul-eater he sees going under her door, he barely knows who she is, despite that they had already been in the school together for nearly three years. When she doesn't fawn over him or act the way that all of the other students did when he saved them, he is confused and unsure what is going on with her. After El loses her temper and temporarily pulls on his magic like a maleficer would do before letting it snap back, he starts wondering if she killed Luisa, a missing student, for malia. Luisa was a girl from a mundane family that was caught up in the induction spell without knowing anything about the magical world and dropped into the Scholomance without a clue. Her room was near to Orion's so he frequently protected her and she in return followed him around worshipping him. Luisa made him uncomfortable and he avoided her whenever he could. Luisa disappeared early in their junior year and Orion has been carrying the guilt around with him that he didn't protect her.

Orion decides to follow El around, suspecting that she will become a murderer, and sticks close to kill her if she does. Orion questions other students if anyone knew what happened to Luisa. In following her around, he unknowingly convinces everyone in the school that the two of them are dating. Since Orion is hanging around El and asking questions about Luisa, Jack becomes suspicious that El has or will tell Orion about him. Jack decides to eliminate or turn El to the dark side before that can happen and stabs her in the gut. Orion knocks on El's door right after that and El is able to open the door, with magic, so that Orion bursts in on them. Orion kills Jack and then helps El apply her mother's magical patch to the wound. He then stays in the room all night protection El from the Mals that would sense "blood in the water" and come after her.

The next morning when they leave her room together a few students see this and start spreading the word that Orion was seen leaving El's room that morning, both of them looking very tired. This starts the New York enclave students into panicking and when Orion continues to hang around El and eat all of his meals with her, they panic even more.

As the year comes closer to graduation of the seniors, more and more of the major mals start breaking into the main part of the school, and the seniors start panicking about any of them making it out of the school. Orion has killed so many of the minor mals that feed the Graduation mals that they are more hungry and desperate than usual.

## Skills and Abilities

### Affinity

Orion's affinity is for heroism and combat magic. He can cast powerful combat spells as well as pull mana from the mals he kills. Orion enjoys practicing his affinity and frequently hunts down and kills mals. When deep in his combat magic Orion gets very focused on only the combat, something El describes as his head emptying out. He often needs to be pulled back from this focus.

### Languages

* English
* French

### Spells

Most of Orion's spells are for combat magic. They are usually one line or only a few words, ideal for casting in combat situations.

### Artifices

* A power-sharer that looks like a watch with the letters *NY* engraved on it. The power-sharer is connected to the New York power sink. It also alerts him if other kids from the New York Enclave are attacked.
* Shield holder. Also functions as a belt buckle.
* Fire Rod. Magical artifact used in combat. Can be magically set on fire, causing more damage to targets.

### Potions

* Silver potion used to make a magic mirror. Orion created this for El.

## References

1. ↑ Novik, Naomi. A Deadly Education (The Scholomance) (p. 17). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.