chapter 14:
Kara found Ania eating early at the cafeteria by herself. Her face was downcast and she was playing with her food. With a quick scan of the room, Kara saw that if Ania had wanted the company of her grisha comrades, she could have. Igor, sitting with the other heartrenders and the healer apprentices, looked worriedly at Ania from across the room. Kara took a bowl of vegetable broth, a piece of bread and an apple and started to cross the cafeteria. She stood in front of Ania who raised her head startled. " May I sit with you?". Ania looked around nervous, " Grisha don't usually meddle with non-gifted Otkazat'sya. People will talk". Kara sat on the bench across from her and placed her meal in the table, " let them. It will mean they have nothing better to do with their time". Ania looked tired and sad. She barely nodded in acceptance.
She was playing around with her broth, not eating. Kara wanted to lighten the mood, " You know you would do a better job of eating if you brought the spoon up to your mouth like so". She mimed bringing her own spoon to her mouth and exaggerated a satisfied smack of the lips after she swallowed. Ania barely registered, " I'm not hungry". Kara dropped her spoon and leaned forward, " Ania don't listen to that sexist pig of a doctor. If he does not care for you to help out here, then let if fly. We will leave this place soon enough". Ania was shredding her bread between her fingers, " When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a nurse, even before I was tested. Before I knew I was grisha. I lost my parents when I was very young and my grandmother who fostered me was relieved that I would be taken care of in the little palace. I found a family and purpose there."
She threw her bread angrily on the table and leaned towards Kara, " After our work together on Vasily, I felt so comforted in being were I belong. That man found a way to shatter my confidence in a heartbeat. Why?". Kara placed a hand on Ania's, " Because it feels good to be needed and terrible to be a burden. That's what he insinuated because he only sees your Small Science as witchcraft. Don't let his small mindset get to you." Ania looked at her hopefully, " you think so?". Kara smiled, " Sometimes, I'm jealous of what you can do. I have to accommodate with a patient's capacity to heal himself once I've done all I can."
Ania looked startled, " I envy YOU! You have a way of thinking without any limitations that makes you brilliant on new cases. It's easy using Small Science once you get the hang of it. It's the same as breathing. It has nothing to do with thinking outside of the box." Kara was blushing with pride, " Then that is settled. We can agree that we are both good healers". Ania smiled faintly and started eating her broth slowly.
Kara wanted to make her laugh, " You know what General Kirigan thinks of Doctor Grishin?". Ania smiled, anticipating a joke, " No, do tell". Kara grinned at her, " a self important boot kissing imbecile. His words not mine". Ania almost choked on her soup, her shoulders shaking with laughter. The tables of soldiers around them stared in awe at the two of them, a friendly diner between two worlds. Igor seemed relieved to see Ania happier and turned to his comrades to participate in their conversation. Ania wiped a happy tear from her eye, " I have not laughed like that in a long time. Thank you". Kara nodded, pleased. Ania finished with her soup, began to play with her apple. "You know, when we left camp near the Ferdjan border, I wanted to invite you to join us in the carriage." Kara was surprised, " And what stopped you?". Ania was sheepish, " I was afraid of what my Grisha comrades would think of it. I'm sorry". Kara bit into her apple, " you don"t have to apologize. I understand things are tense between our people. I hope it doesn't bother you that I joined you for supper." Ania looked around and saw that the stared had subsided. If some did not approve, they did not show it.
She turned back to Kara, " It doesn't bother me as much as I thought. Thank you for sitting with me."
Kara finished her apple and place the core in her empty bowl. " You've heard that we are to be summoned before the king on the prince's suggestion?". Ania nodded, " General Kirigan warned me. Are you nervous?". Kara tried to hide her trembling fingers below the table, " A little". Ania gathered the crumbs of her shredded bread and poured them in her empty bowl, " I've never met with the king either. He's more interested in the summoners who can make an impression at parties. lighting fires, pulling water or blowing wind is more spectacular than healing". Kara felt less alone with her fear and let out a sigh, " So it means that the meeting will be quick, good."Ania nodded and whispered, " It is best not be noticed by the royal family. You either become their pet or a thorn in their foot. Neither is a good thing".
They stayed for a week at the military base. It was uneventful compared to the rush of an infirmary during a battle. However, Kara enjoyed the slower pace. She knew well enough that it would become fast paced again after they left Os Alta. Doctor Grishin had refused that Yurii and Seraphine be present in the infirmary, indicating that it was no place for children and decrepit women. Kara was outraged and had marched into her general's office to explain that his behavior was unacceptable. Unfortunately, General Biryukov could do nothing. " Be patient", He told Kara as she seethed in his office, " we will leave soon enough". Artyom seemed to be tolerated by the doctor and was therefore busy in the infirmary tending to coughs, cuts and bruises. Kara had decided she would heal outside of the infirmary if needed but that she would not set a foot in the doctor's infirmary.
Some of the soldiers from their unit saw Kara, Ania, Seraphine, Yurii and the two apprentices playing cards at a table in the courtyard and were intrigued. " why are you not in the infirmary?", they would ask. They would take turns in answering, " We are not welcomed there". They found out soon enough that Doctor Grishin was despised by most of the soldiers. He was critical of the very competent nurse, complaining that everything she did was wrong. He would linger over her shoulder as she worked or shut himself in his office. When he tended to soldiers himself, he was negligent or rough. When Kara and Ania heard this, they were appalled. After some discussion, they moved the infirmary wagon outside of the fort, close to the dormitories. They spread word through Vasily and his comrades, that anyone who wished to be treated outside of the infirmary, could do so by coming to the wagon.
After two days, most of the soldiers deserted the infirmary to come to them. Depending on their preference, they were either healed by Kara or Ania. Seraphine had a small table set up for the mixing of herbs and oils beside the wagon and Yurii watched asking questions. Sometimes, on a few complex cases, Kara and Ania would work together to heal a patient. It was the case for a soldier whose foot had been crushed by one of the wagons. The horse had cantered wildly away after having been stung by a bee and had run over the man. Ania was able to trigger a sleep-like state in the soldier while Kara operated the foot. She grafted muscle from the soldiers leg and skin from his lower back to reconstruct the destroyed foot. Once she was finished, Ania healed the muscle tissues, bones and skin, leaving the man with only a small stiffness in his ankle and calf. He was prescribed some physical therapy and sent back to his dormitory, grateful and stunned to be walking. After that, their healing exploits spread like wildfire. It did not help that Vasily boasted loudly that he was the first patient having benefited from Ania's and Kara's joined efforts. The two women new the rumors would make Dr. Grishin a foe.