The Unskillful Thaumaturge

XXI

Lillian pulled her intro thaum notebook off of her desk and dropped it into her backpack, rising as she zipped it up and heaved it onto her shoulder. Sighing, she began to walk out the door, turning the key to lock room eighty before she started heading for the thaumaturgy building. Her phone began to buzz in her pocket, and, rolling her eyes, she pulled it out and tapped the button to answer it.

"Lillian, look, I know it sounds like we were being really stupid and not very cautious, and I can't tell you that everything's okay, because we don't really know, but there's been a little bit of a problem concerning our prisoner..." Diane trailed off.

"Now? I'm walking to class!" Lillian protested. "What happened?"

"Galena's eye was twitching and she said she was going to check on him and then go. Well, we thought she just left. But we just went to do our morning check on him and...

"And what?" Lillian demanded.

"And the lights were out, the door to the cell was open, and Galena was lying on the floor against the wall."

"Is she okay?"

"Well, about that..."

"Tell me!"

"She's in the hospital, unconscious. No head trauma, no traceable thaumaturgy. The doctors haven't been able to figure out what happened. And she hasn't woken up."

"Do you think she's going to be okay?"

"Medically, she's fine. She'll probably wake up eventually. But the camera footage is... well, it's strange, and I really don't know what to make of it. Can you come by later and take a look?"

"At what, Galena or the footage?"

"Preferably both."

"I'm free after one."

"Does one o'clock work?"

"Sure, I'll be there."
Diane breathed out a sigh of relief. "Okay, good."

"I hope Galena wakes up." Although Lillian had known the Assistant Director for only a week, she was quite worried about her.

"Yeah, we do too, trust me. We're hoping she's going to be okay. And when she does wake up, she might be able to tell us something about what actually happened."

"Sorry, Diane, but I kind of have to go to class..." Lillian prompted.

"Oh, yeah, go ahead and do that, I'll see you at one."

"See you at one," Lillian replied, hanging up.

Her eye began to twitch.

❧☙

Dakota placed a pillow on the floor of his office and eased himself down facing the file cabinet, using the key to open the bottom cabinet and gaze at the computer screen inside. Just as he had done many times before, he reached back to carefully flip the switch in the corner of the cabinet, watching the dark blue dot bloom in the center of the screen and spread to the edges. It reminded him of a well of ink pouring onto a page. But this time, instead of waiting for the screen to dim, Dakota concentrated hard, staring at the screen. And instead of shifting ever so slightly, without any white flecks darting across the picture, the screen resolved into a hospital room. A heart monitor in the corner of the room displayed regular, healthy-looking pulses. In the center of the screen, a woman lay peacefully on the bed, her eyes shut, an oxygen mask fit snugly over her face. Dakota knew exactly what the diagnosis would be- no medical issues, no health problems, no thaumaturgical intervention. The woman was in perfect health- apart from the fact that she was unconscious.

A knock at the door pulled Dakota out of his reverie, and he quickly shut the file cabinet door and walked over to the source of the knocking. Pulling open the door, his eyes traveled up to Dr. Hests's face.

"Dakota."

"Uh... hi," he responded, suddenly realizing how terrible his hair must look, sticking out at all angles from underneath his beanie.

"I'm free at lunchtime." She paused, as if waiting for a response. "Would you like to come to that café in the park?"

"Okay," Dakota replied, catching her off guard. Dr. Hests had been asking regularly for several months, and this is the first time he had said yes. "I- I have some... dietary restrictions... can I just bring my own food, do you think that's okay?"

"That's what was stopping you from coming all those times I asked?" Dakota nodded slowly and sheepishly. "You should have told me. I don't mind that at all. What time works?"

"How about around one thirty?"

"Sure. I'll make the reservation."

"Thanks," Dakota replied shortly.

"See you there." Dr. Hests began to walk away, and Dakota shut the door. Now he was burdened with the challenge of finding a suitably inconspicuous menu item at a suitably inconspicuous restaurant somewhere nearby before noon. But first, there was one more thing he had to do. He reopened the file cabinet door and gazed at the screen determinedly.

This time, it was the woman's eye that twitched ever so slightly.

❧☙

Galena arose with a start.

Her lips were dry, there was an oxygen mask over her face, she had a terrible headache, and her predominant emotion was confusion. She wasn't sure how she had come to be in a hospital (or at least what she assumed was a hospital) or why she had been asleep (if she had been asleep) in the first place. The last thing she remembered was the prisoner's escape, and even that seemed like it would have been ages ago.

As her headache slowly began to diminish, it dawned on her that she didn't know any details of her situation: where she was, what she was being treated for, even what day it was. She slowly lifted a hand to look at her watch for the date, sighing in relief when she realized it was only nine on January 25, a day after the escape. She had only been asleep (or whatever that had been) for less than a day.

She attempted to move her head, noticing immediately with a grimace that her muscles were sore, then taking a moment to wonder why. The position she was currently in wouldn't account for her being sore. She suddenly recalled passing out in the interrogation room. Galena began to remember what had happened before the escape. Both her and Lillian's eyes had been twitching; she had been suspicious and had gone to check on the prisoner; he had been breaking out. Didn't Erica put a barrier on that door? she wondered hazily. I'm not even sure if there's any thaumaturgy that can burst through other people's barriers... or, for that matter, knock people out... even if you do have a high efficacy...

She realized suddenly that sensors- which she recognized as heart monitor sensors- had been affixed to her chest. Turning her head and ignoring the twinge of pain, she noticed the screen of the heart monitor next to the bed. It was showing the familiar shapes of healthy regular pulses. Okay, so I'm probably fine. With this realization, Galena pulled the oxygen mask off of her face and tossed it aside, then attempted to sit up. She gasped when she realized just how sore she was, having spent over twelve hours in a heap on a tile floor. And how thirsty. She tried to cry out, but her voice cracked. Painfully twisting her neck, she wondered if there was a button to call a nurse somewhere in the room. She finally found one on the table with the heart monitor, stretching out her arm to press the button.