Together, we heal | Levi Ackerman

༅ 19. Wonders Of Laudanum

Under the Light, Part 2: Wonders of Laudanum

Year 844

Upon further diagnosis done by Dr. Jaeger, Vanya discovered that the intense fit she had experienced a week ago right before her three best friends left her was called an "attack". Or at least that was what medical experts had tentatively coined. Apparently, knowledge and studies revolving episodic disorders were still scarce with the primitive technology humanity had within the walls.

Never had she experienced these attacks before nor had she witnessed a case during her days as a medic in the Underground. And the limited research on the nature of its occurrence and remedy hardly did anything to pacify her malaise.

The feeling of having all her air getting knocked out of her lungs, the wrenching burn in her chest, and the ceaseless whispers of death beckoning her made her in every way paranoid. Each and every second of the day Vanya lived in fear of the next moment the attack would strike.

Because the attacks didn't just happen once -- it striked two more times in the most inconvenient moments within the week that followed. The second time happened the day after the trio had gone to Wall Rose. Vanya was tossing and turning aimlessly in her bed to sleep that night when it rattled her out of nowhere that she was forced to stay awake all night, hyperventilating and crying until the weariness and exhaustion dozed her to a restless slumber.

The third time was the tipping point -- most especially for Victoria who had been rigidly warding the girl from a distance.

"What is that?" Vanya observed her personal nurse, named Maya, who came into her private room with Victoria. The nurse, who looked a few years older than Vanya, brought in her tray of the medications she had to take regularly.

"Your supplements, Miss Vanya," answered Nurse Maya promptly as she played the tray on the bedside table.

"No, I mean," the curious patient pointed at the small corked glass bottle beside the pills. "That."

Vanya squinted her eyes to read the label that was almost wearing off. "Mother Bailey's Quieting Syrup... Huh."

"A miracle remedy, this little guy," Victoria smirked.

"For what? Why would you want to quiet me?"

"Think of it as a tincture that can aid you in your... mental impairment."

Vanya was taken aback, drawing an offended look. "You think I've gone mad?"

"I think your episodic reactions have greatly disrupted your daily functioning and I cannot allow that in my hospital most especially when I have my most respectable surgeons doing their duties while you throw a fit behind them," Victoria rebuked.

Vanya squinched into the covers of her bed in shame.

Victoria continued, sounding much more stern. "I granted you a rare opportunity for you to observe a very complicated bypass surgery as a prelude to your formal medical training three day ago. Not everyone gets the chance to observe these procedures. Amongst the interns and the residents who had shed blood, sweat, and tears just to have your slot in that operating room, I expected you to be in your best behavior. Not for you to have one of your attacks at the most taxing time. Have you any idea how you almost jeopardized the procedure? The patient, coming from a well-off family, almost died and had that happened, you would be shouldering accountability."

Vanya's head fell with sheer disgrace, her lips quivered as she mumbled, "I'm sorry..."

She remembered how bright it was in the operating room days ago. The large room itself with rustic accents was round, the mahogany walls were sleek, and the ceilings were high with glass panes to let the sunlight peak through the grand space. It almost resembled a theater; it was filled with wooden elevated rows of seats surrounding the operating table at the center and Vanya recalled the faces that occupied those rows, other than the primary surgeons at the center of the room. There were observing doctors, nurses, bright-eyed medical students aspiring to be the one performing the surgery, and for some reason, noble men with their expensive coats and top hats who watched the whole scene for entertainment instead of educational purposes. Vanya didn't know why or how a group of rich men, who had nothing to do with the practice, were even present in the room but they were sat at the last top row, far behind everyone else.