8. Patient

(Mikhail POV)

It was the start of a new school week and I woke early for a run before my first class. My muscles took a little longer than usual to warm up today, probably because I missed my Zabóta routine yesterday, and the feeling of not being in control of my body bothered me. As I went through the motions I found myself dwelling on a problem that I'd been avoiding – novice rankings.

As novice guardians progressed through their training each year, their teachers were required to record students' progress and allocate rankings. The rankings were updated regularly, and would eventually lead to a formal recommendation for placement as the novices prepared for qualifiers, field experience and eventually graduation.

I taught mostly younger students but I did have the fifteen year old group for some classes. In less than two years they would need to pass their qualifier exams and a year after that they would be graduating. Any rankings made now were likely to change, but the royal families liked to know who was performing well so they could begin to follow the favourites. Not dissimilar to horse-racing really.

I had only joined the teaching staff at St. Vladimir's a few months ago so I was still getting to know the novices' true characters and limits, but most of them were easy enough to place. Eddie Castile was my pick of the bunch – strong, quiet and focused. Mason Ashford was in the running for a royal placement too, if he could stop himself from being distracted by Novice Hathaway. I had serious doubts about whether some students would be ready in time to pass qualifiers – Dean Barnes was one who instantly came to mind.

Then there were others who weren't so easy to pin down; Rosemarie Hathaway for example. Sometimes she presented herself as an excellent student with technical skills and determination far superior to her peers, but at other times she was prone to acting childishly. She was easily distracted by the thrill of competition and I doubted she had really made the connection that we weren't training her to win a friendly fight – we were preparing her to kill strigoi. One tiny slip in the field could place the moroi she was guarding in danger and that wasn't something I was willing to allow.

The trouble was, Novice Hathaway's mother was a well-respected guardian, and Rosemarie herself was a particular favourite of Alberta. If I disagreed with the opinion of the Captain of the Guard it probably wouldn't go down very well but, at the same time, I wasn't willing to ignore my principals just to please my superiors. Maybe I could talk it though with somebody who wasn't already personally invested in Rosemarie's career. But who? I smiled to myself as I realised exactly who to ask.

I finished my run early and headed over to the teaching wing that ran along the back of The Academy's main lecture hall and auditorium, striding purposefully towards the familiar classroom on the second floor. It was still an hour before classes were due to start, but I had a feeling Miss Karp would already be in her room and I was right.

Sonya was sitting at her desk with her head in her hands but she didn't seem to notice me as I entered. I paused at the door when I saw her, getting the awkward feeling that I was intruding on a private moment, and I almost turned to leave but then my guardian instincts kicked in - something wasn't right. There was something unusual about the way the teacher was sitting. Her shoulders shuddered slightly as they rose and fell but otherwise she was too still. I approached the desk quickly and knelt beside her, my pulse quickening as the adrenaline rushed through me.

'Miss Karp, are you okay?' I asked, keeping my voice intentionally calm.

She lifted her head from her hands and looked around with groggy, unfocussed eyes. Her shoulder-length hair had fallen forward over her face, making it difficult for me to ascertain if she was alright. I tentatively reached out to lift the strands that separated her from me and my hand froze as I discovered the secret underneath. Her skin had that same parched look I'd seen yesterday in the garden, but what concerned me more was the blood on her temples oozing from deep, fresh scratches.

Sonya turned her head at the sound of my voice but it was like she couldn't see me – like she was somewhere else.

'Miss Karp. It's Guardian Tanner. Can you hear me? Are you alright?'

I looked closely to check for any response and watched her surface gradually from the strange trance but she still wasn't quite herself. Sonya's eyes darted around the room in agitation while her hands flew to cover her face and she moaned softly – I wasn't sure if it was from pain or something else.

'It's okay, Miss Karp. You're okay. Let's go and get you cleaned up and then you can tell me what happened.'

When I bent down to help her rise from the chair she swatted me away, but then her balance failed and she clutched weakly at my jacket sleeve to stop herself from falling. I hurriedly wrapped an arm around her shoulders to support her and then led her towards the door, improvising a plan as we walked.

I didn't want to alarm any students who might be walking the halls before class, and the staff lounge wasn't an option. I paused for a moment before deciding on the small guardian supply room at the end of the hallway. The school was dotted with storerooms that were each stocked with a small cache of weapons, food and medical supplies in case of emergency, but they were rarely used except for the purpose of taking inventory or restocking the shelves. In any case, most of the other guardians would be out training or eating breakfast before their daily duties began so if we were in luck I would be able to tend to my patient without being disturbed by prying eyes.

We entered the storeroom and I closed the door quietly behind us. As there were no chairs in the room, I lifted her up to sit on the counter-top that ran along one wall, above a row of low cupboards and a small fridge stocked with fresh blood and a range of basic medicines. As soon as I let go of her waist Sonya sank down into herself like she had the weight of the world on her shoulders, and I hurried to grab a medical kit from the shelf on the far wall. I got out the alcohol swabs and carefully moved her hair back so I could clean up the wounds on her face.

'The girl fell out of the window,' she rambled incoherently, trying to explain herself. 'I had to help her. Then they started following me. Why won't they leave me alone?' she pleaded feebly.

I thought Sonya looked troubled yesterday when I found her in the garden by the lake but this was so much worse. She seemed frightened and lost, on the brink of hysteria, and I knew it was going to take more than a few plasters to solve whatever this problem was. I looked at the beautiful, damaged woman with tenderness and concern, holding her firmly but gently as I finished tending to her injuries.

'Calm down, Miss Karp. You're in shock. I need to treat your wounds to prevent infection. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm here to help,' I spoke in low, soothing tones and she gradually returned to me from the cloud of confusion that had taken hold of her. I was just about finished when I felt a hand wrap around my wrist and I looked down in surprise. It was as though somebody had flicked a switch and my Sonya was back, gazing at me with recognition and an openness I'd rarely seen.

'I'm okay now,' she whispered, squeezing my arm. 'Thank you.' She pushed my hand away and hopped down off the bench-top, before self-consciously combing her hair forwards to hide her face.

I wished she wouldn't hide from me like that. Whatever she was going through wasn't enough to scare me away. I just wanted her to trust me so I could help her, but I had a troubling suspicion Sonya's wounds were self-inflicted and I knew I had to tread very carefully. If she felt I was pressuring her to open up before she was ready she would probably shut me out forever.

'It was no problem at all,' I replied seriously, zipping up the medical kit and returning it to the shelf. 'I'm happy to help any time you need me. Here - you should have this before you go,' I added, grabbing a hydro-pack from the fridge and popping the straw for her.

She accepted it with a faint smile and turned to leave the room.

'Are you sure you're okay to teach today? I can run over to the admin building and organise a substitute teacher if you like?' I offered, concerned the pressure of teaching all evening might trigger another episode.

'No, I'll be fine thanks,' she said, sipping at the water I'd given her as we walked back towards her classroom.

'Well, at least let me bring you a cup of tea,' I insisted.

She waved off my suggestion but i saw her expression lift a little at the offer of a hot drink so I delivered her to the classroom door then moved quickly to the kitchenette on the ground floor. There were already a lot more students walking the hallways and I didn't have much time before I was required at my own class.

By the time I returned to Miss Karp's classroom with the tea and a muffin it was clear that she was back to her normal self again.

'You look better already,' I smiled at her as I placed the drink and muffin on her desk.

'Yes, thank you. I'm a quick healer.' Her lips curved into a strange smile, which she hid in her teacup.

'Well I'm glad. Not many people look cute with sticky plasters on their face but you manage to pull the look off very nicely,' I joked lightly, trying my best to make her feel comfortable. 'But still, I don't recommend it as a regular fashion accessory. Do you have a particularly vindictive cat?' I asked, nodding pointedly to one of the dressings that peeked out from under her hair.

'No cat,' she smiled sheepishly. 'It was silly really... I had an argument with a rosebush.' Sonya glanced away, suddenly becoming very interested in her muffin.

'That sounds nasty,' I empathised with her, but secretly my brain was going a hundred miles an hour. If she fell into a rosebush then why didn't she have any scratches on her hands? And when she was rambling she said something about helping someone who fell out of a window – the stories didn't match up. Sonya clearly wasn't ready to talk to me about what really happened, but I'd done all I could for now.

'Well, if you're sure you're okay I'd better get going or I'll be late for my first class,' I crossed the room as I spoke, pausing at the door to look back at her. 'Remember you can always come to me… if you have another run-in with an angry rosebush,' I teased gently, hoping she would understand that I was concerned about her and willing to help whenever and however she needed me.

'Thanks, but I'll be fine,' she flashed me a genuine smile and I left the room feeling slightly more at ease.

It wasn't until I was half-way across campus that I realised I'd completely forgotten to talk to Sonya about Rosemarie Hathaway and the novice rankings. I picked up my pace as a hopeful feeling rose in my chest. At least now I had an excuse to see her again.

Author's Note:

The supply room scene is a call-back to Dimitri treating Rose's hands after their training session in Book 1.

While novice rankings weren't specifically mentioned in the book, it makes sense to me that the trainers were tracking the novices' progress before the official qualifiers etc. This idea also references the leader-board concept used for Dauntless initiates in the Divergent series.