What a Difference a Year Makes (Revised)

Chapter 36

Chapter 36

The last five weeks have been stressful but not all of it was bad stress. After our meeting with the Queen, Dimitri and I sat down with the others and discussed how we could provide the training of the teachers from the academies. We hashed out a few ideas and finally, together as a group, we put together a solid contract. We had to think about where the training could be held because part of the problem for lack of skills was the equipment and facilities available at the Academies. Our gyms contained state of the art equipment that would help in the process of bringing them up to standard so it was agreed that groups of guardians would be trained at our gyms; location depending on which Academy they were coming from. For instance St Basil's teachers would attend the gym in Baia but guardians from St Vladimir's could attend either the LA or New York gym.

Obviously, taking guardians away from the academies was going to cause a shortage of security, therefore we wrote into the contract that we would supply guardians from our agency rosters to cover those guardians that were attending training and that the training would indeed happen during vacation times so that there was no disruption to the teaching schedule.

When the Queen first brought the contract to the attention of the royal council they were up in arms about it, stating that they should demand that the unsanctioned and exiled guardians return and be reallocated. However, she reminded them that it was their fault in the first place that there were so many unsanctioned/exiled guardians out there and that she had no jurisdiction over them anymore. Needless to say the argument went on for a long time but finally the agreement was made. I am also amused to say that some royal moroi have approached us about using our guardian services. We accepted of course but we made them sign our Terms and Conditions and rules of conduct before we would allow any guardians to be contracted and we also made sure they paid for the privilege.

While we were making various trips to court for the contract negotiations, I also spent time with the doctors taking care of Lissa. She woke up after a week of unconsciousness but remained outwardly unresponsive. I helped the doctors as much as I could, informing them of what her mind felt like when they tried out different stimuli or treatments. I felt so sad seeing her like this; she was as much a victim of Tasha's diabolical schemes as we were but, where our hurts could be healed by setting up a business in the human world, her hurts couldn't be solved so easily, if at all. However, she did improve with someone sitting with her and talking or even playing music to her. A week ago she managed to start feeding herself if food was put in front of her, so we can only hope that she will continue to respond.

Chris visited Lissa with me on one occasion. He had been so distressed in the beginning and like me feeling guilty about not noticing but both of us realised that we were not to blame. Chris came to see how she was but ultimately came to say goodbye. Even though it was hard, he had to let go of the past and move on. I had noticed for some time now that he and Tessa were getting closer and she had helped him through a lot of his guilt and pain over both Lissa and Tasha. They really did make a great couple, I hate to say it but more so than Lissa and he ever were. They seemed to have an understanding of each other, not unlike Dimitri and I; I was happy for them.

Another surprising thing that happened after being at court was, Mia, on speaking to Eddie asked if she could have the job of teaching magical fighting techniques at the gym in Baia, seeing as they had an arena but no one to fill it. We knew she was itching to get out of court so we decided to give her a trial run to see whether she would like living in Russia because we had no reservations about her magical skills. So when our family, Eddie and Alberta returned to Russia they had a new house mate.