Systems In Chaos: Dissention

Chapter 27

Chapter 27

* * * 8am, Kalorin Standard Time * * *

Sura was sitting on a bench at the far end of the hospital wing, inside the Royal Palace, fidgeting nervously as she waited for something to happen. She was red faced and angry, though it was probably more sadness than rage and it was mostly at herself. She had tried to get the doctors and nurses to give her something to do to help but they insisted that things would be done faster without her in their way, so she had just walked off to the far end of the wing and sat down out of everyone’s way. I’m in everyone’s way, she thought to herself, and nothing I can do will change that. I’m the doctors’ way, I’m in Teran’s way and I was even in my old Mentor’s way when I was still a Learner. Even though she thought that she was a constant hindrance to everyone around her, she couldn’t help but think of all the good times she’d had with her Mentor before the war. “You’re old Lord asked me to keep you safe,” is what Teran had told her before sending her away to ‘help’ the surgeons. She knew that it was just his way to get her away from the battle because he thought she couldn’t be of any help to him or anyone else. If Teran had thought that she could be of some help he would have asked her to fight and not even bothered to tell her about her Mentor’s request, or would have simply asked her to help after telling her. After all, the requests and commands of their past teachers were of little meaning to any of them out here and yet he still told her to leave.

Sura sighed as she looked up at a clock on the wall, time seemed to be moving at a dreadfully, agonisingly slow pace. Every few minutes she would look up only to find that it had only been a handful of seconds. How am I going to prove myself if they won’t let me fight? I know I can never mean as much to him as Sasha did, but... won’t he give me a chance? It killed her to know that she didn’t measure up to the memory of a dead girl. Though she understood, she didn’t like it. Sasha and she had been friends as well, even if they were only little more than class buddies. She was always the one at the front of the class, always the one putting her hand up to show how well she could perform, not like Sasha or Vrik or Teran. They knew they were good. They knew they were better than the rest of them, and they never sought to prove it. The three of them would never participate unless asked, though they were asked by the Mentors a lot. Usually only to show the rest of the Learners how things were done, but that was all. The three of them were good friends with everyone in the class, even her, which was why many of them looked up to them as role models. But she knew that no matter how hard she tried she would never become like Sasha.

“You have a kinder heart than most, Sura.” Her mentor, Diade, had told her once. “That is not a disadvantage, you just have to go about using your talents in different ways.”

She sighed again at the memory of the woman that had been like a mother to her, then the wailing and screams began as the first of the wounded struggled into the hall. She shook away all of her thoughts with a shake of her head and got to her feet and rushed over to the injured soldiers. The doctors and nurses were there before she was and were already placing them on stretchers and taking them away, all the while putting pressure and cooling agents on their bleeding and burn wounds. The injured from the Red Falls were streaming in within minutes of the first pair that had arrived. The surgeons seemed to be everywhere at once. The hospital turned into a chaotic mass of blood and people running with tools or bodies.

Sura ran up to a table which had a man that had lost the lower half of his left leg in an explosion. His howls of agony and the sight of the flesh and bone of his leg was enough to make her gag but she kept whatever had wanted to come up, down. “How can I help?” she asked as she wiped the corner of her mouth of a little spittle. “Tell me what to do.”