Eventually Orion is going to get himself killed fighting a mal. It just seems inevitable since all he wants to do with his life is fight mals and even if he's rolling a loaded die he's planning to roll it very frequently until he can't anymore. Everyone thinks his chances in school are good, and maybe they are, but he doesn't especially prioritize having the mal that eventually gets him being an outdoorsy one he encounters after the age of eighteen, himself. It's fine.

He packs what his parents give him and he's wearing the power-sharer and he nods at last minute advice and he's finally not going to have to learn people's names on flashcards in order to get shifts guarding the doors, finally not going to have to wait for a mal to lunge at one of a handful of New York kids, he'll be able to go scrub them out of existence every single day. Till he can't anymore.

He hugs his mother and he goes to the happy hunting ground.