"Your mother seems like a wonderful person." Kora commented a few minutes after Orion just appeared in the car next to her. He glanced at her.
"She is the goddess of night and darkness to the Greeks. A goddess of death to the Egyptians." Kora raised an eyebrow.
"I've heard the name Nyx before in stories and such." He just gave a kind of nod.
"You have a lot of siblings?" She asked as they drove, curious if others were going to crawl out of the woodwork.
"I used to. There are a few left, though not here in this plane. I am her last child here. Last of the keres. Though they were normally born female. So when they came to destroy the keres I was overlooked as a child."
"Guess one time being male paid off in history huh?" He gave a shrug.
"History is written by the winners, rarely the losers. Never goes how they say." Well she guessed that was true and she gave a sigh.
"What is a kere?"
"Dark beings that do dark things. Many were responsible for plagues or grand scale destruction."
"You don't say." She said with a slight humorless smile.
"We were born a certain way, our personalities and general nature is hard to ignore. Doesn't matter though, no others exist and a great number are now dead and gone of all races. There aren't that many gods left." He told her looking out the window.
"Your mother is."
"She is a primordial goddess, she was one of the first. She also gave rise to those that protected the light, not just the dark. She is more than just a mundane god of earth."
"Sorry, I wasn't taking a shot at your mother." He looked at her and gave a shrug.
"It's not me you'd have to worry about if you were. She takes care of things herself." Yeah Kora got the sense of that. She stopped at a red light and tapped her fingers for a moment.
"What would you want to be doing if you weren't as you are?" He was silent as the light turned green and they moved forward.
"I haven't thought of that in a long time, and at this point I don't know. I'd have to figure out a place I'd want in this world if I wanted one. I'd want control of whatever it was. I'll make sure I'd never have to do another's bidding again." Yeah she'd probably want the same thing. She started to go again and turned her head to look at him for a moment.
However she didn't get to ask her next question. They were slammed into by another car. The front ends colliding as the person who had swerved and clearly hadn't been paying attention to the red light. It all just seemed to happen so fast. They whipped sideways before the car turned slightly and they came to a stop up on the sidewalk against a light pole there.
"Jesus." Kora said her heart was beating really fast. There were shouts and people were running over.
"You okay?" She asked him.
"I'm not the one that is mortal." He responded as she touched the side of her head. She'd smacked the window slightly but not horribly. She'd probably have a bruise and headache in a bit. She heard more shouting and someone was getting out of the small pick up that hit her car. She looked forward and ripped her seatbelt off. There were people down on the sidewalk and she felt her heart drop.
"Oh my god." She got out immediately and the other driver was clearly panicking and apologizing but there were a couple people having the driver stand back. A few asked if she was okay as she came over and there were three people that had been hit on the sidewalk. Two men and a teenage girl. The one man was down bleeding horrible from the leg, clearly broken. The other didn't seem in as bad of shape. Though the girl was bleeding horribly and not really moving. One of those on the ground with her said he was a paramedic, though clearly off duty.
"Is she going to be okay?" Kora asked, wincing slightly at the feel of her ribs. Clearly she was going to be feeling a lot of things later.
"She's bleeding too much." She also looked pale and she felt a touch to her side and all the pain left her body, even if her adrenaline was masking any minor things she might have. She glanced at Orion who looked over the scene dispassionately as he touched her.
"Can you tell what is wrong with her? Is she going to be okay? I hear others calling for an ambulance." Kora was biting her nails, she looked at the cars it was hard to tell which one hit her. What if it had been Kora's? Oh lord, was she by proxy the reason this girl was laying on the pavement dying? She wasn't responsible but that wasn't how she was starting to feel.
"Not really, she took a direct hit from the car. Chances are she has internal bleeding and will most likely die before the hospital. She doesn't look good now." He said dispassionately and clearly not affected the same as she was. He could see the energy in the young woman was bleeding out as well, never a good sign.
"She's going to die?" Kora asked him and he shrugged.
"Probably. People die." Was his cavalier answer.
"She's so young that's not right! You sure? How long until the ambulance?" She kind of looked around and noticed that the man with the broken leg was starting to get really upset. It seemed that the girl was his daughter.
"Such is the way of life, it's that man's fault. All actions have a reaction." She pushed at his arm.
"That young woman is dying there, this is serious."
"I didn't say death wasn't serious, but it happens." She saw that cold uncaring being inside of him right then. Having conversation with him had dulled that a bit, but she noticed it now because he didn't care. The girl didn't matter to him. Kora didn't know her either but she was clearly more empathetic.
"Can you help her? Heal her?" He looked at her and shrugged.
"She is supposed to die, if not her another will. Others still will today, what is the importance of saving her?" Orion was being serious.
"That's not what I asked you!" She snapped at him, and with the chaos of the scene no one was paying attention to her speaking to an invisible man. The paramedic was checking her pulse and didn't seem happy with what he felt and called out for someone to grab something.
"Probably, what I'm telling you is that it doesn't change the fact she is still going to die someday."
"I don't want to watch her die today in front of me!" He shrugged, he really didn't see why she should care. The girl wasn't important to her. Something he guessed he shared with his mother. That emotionless attitude toward others and their plights. Maybe years as a slave had also changed him, plus the fact he killed so many just turned off his empathy. He just kind of watched for a second and then looked back at Kora as her grip tightened on his arm. He met her hazel gaze that seemed more green.
"Save her." Another second passed and he felt a push in his chest.
"Is that a command?" He asked. Though he knew this time it was, but he wanted to hear it from her.
"Yes." He leaned a bit toward her.
"I didn't stand by to make you. I still don't see a point." Orion felt like he needed to tell her that for some reason.
"I know, death is clearly not the same to us." No it wasn't, but he moved forward between the people. They moved out of his way unaware that he did so. Kora moved a bit closer watching him. He knelt down and put a hand on her chest and then moved it lower to her abdomen. His other hand went to her forehead and he leaned so his face was over hers. No one else saw this but Kora, and the girl took in a horrid breath. Her eyes opened and it seemed like she could see Orion there but her gaze was also unfocused.