A new roof once again appeared before her as she opened her eyes. This time it was a rough concrete celling with lights that burned her eyes making it difficult to see the rest or the room.

Her bed was not a comfortable one, as she rose her back strained, her body stone like felt like it would crumble if she exerts to much force.

“Seems like you are awake” Said a soft female voice. “Don’t stand too quickly honey. You have been sleeping for almost two days now”

Astrid recoiled at the words. For two days? What could cause her to sleep for that long? She tried to remember what had happened but nothing made sense.

“Where am I?” She managed to say with a coarse voice, her dry throat throbbing with each word.

“You are in the infirmary, east wing, ninth floor” Replied the woman. “You were brought up from the training grounds in the level below after what happened”

She could now see the entire room. With her eyes adjusting to the brightness, she distinguished the too white floor and walls contrasting with the grey roof. The room was divided into two rows of twelve blue beds divided by white curtains, most of the other beds were empty aside from one on the corner where she could see a man sound asleep.

This infirmary was smaller than the main one on the third floor and had much less equipment. It was normally used to handle training accidents and as such it was equipped with less advance medical tools and most of the nurses were trainees or the teachers.

The woman speaking to her was a teacher judging by her appearance; she looked to be on her late forties, her face tanned and a small scar ran along her cheekbone. She was wearing the nurse uniform of pure white, long sleeved wide dress going down to the ankle with a white apron in front and a white hat with a red cross. She was carrying water on a bowl.

“Everything will be all right” She said as she placed the bowl on a counter and turned to face her showing a red band on her right arm marking her as a teacher.

“My name is Helena, I am chief nurse down here; and let me tell you, you are a lucky gal.” As she spoke, she helped Astrid sit upright placing a big fluffy pillow on her back. “Normally people who mess with the leaders don’t live to tell the tale. Besides, you still have the bracelets and last time Eigil electrocuted someone that hard those things went off, it was a mess.” She gave Astrid a glass of water and sat on the chair placed on the side of the bed.

She noticed none of the other beds had a chair beside it.

“Thanks” She responded before taking down the entire glass in one go. “So, I am here because of Eigil?” She asked calmly, no surprise of being sent to the infirmary by him. “Did he knock me out with a shock or did I pass out of the pain?”

“Neither” She answered and paused for a second

“He…. Ummm…. Stopped your heart fo…”

“HE DID WHAT??” She practically screamed interrupting Helena “I’m going to make him pay one day” She mumbled; her anger visible on her face.

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“Honey you should not say things like that, people could take it the wrong way” She responded placing a hand on her leg. “It was for less than a minute, he restarted it after that and you seem to have no brain damage so you did fine. Besides you did a number on him yourself; that scar will accompany him for the rest of her life” She smiled at that last part. It seems the chief nurse did not like the leader of assassins, at least that was logical.

“Wait, what scar?” Sad she used one of the weapons on him? Had her memory failed with the shock?

“You burned him, badly” Helena signalled her forearm. “A third degree burn all around his wrist. Thank the maker it is not shaped as a hand, that way he can pass it as an accident or something during his jobs” She patted her twice on her shoulder as stood.

“You will have to stay here today but tomorrow you can go back to your old routine. If you need anything just tell me or any student, although there are only two at the moment. Most my students arrive in some hours; after all it is two am” She went back to the bowl taking it with her to the other patient and closing the curtains.

The time in the infirmary passed slowly; during the first hours she just stared at the celling, her mind drifting, she had slept for two days and still she felt exhausted.

She tried to sleep but was unable to, her mind racing trying to understand how she had used her power. Her life depended on her learning how to use it; she started to recall every instance when she used it and tried to understand what connected them together.

The only connection was emotion. Maybe the ability was triggered by anger and when she lost herself in anger the heat started to flow. But how can she control this? Meditation? No, that was for peace and serenity, wasn’t it? She needed to hone her anger, focus it so the power start, to activate.

For the next hour or so she sat in her bed with a tissue on her hands, trying to light it up. In her mind she thought of every moment of anger and humiliation but she felt no change on the tissue.

She could get angry; her temper was always on a short fuse but remembering would not let her get as angry as the actual event. At the end she gave up, called a nurse to ask for a glass of water and asked about the chair beside her.

The nurse came in less than a minute, placing the glass of water on a table beside her while carrying a basket with clean covers for the beds on her left.

“Mister Goze came to visit you every day at around one thirty and again around eight” She looked at her clock. “He seems to be late today. I hope she arrives soon; I was hoping to ask him about a skirt he had yesterday. Anyway, want me to throw that away?” She signalled at the tissue she was holding on her hands.

Astrid was a little distracted, Cadem had been looking out for her even if he did not have to do so, she was starting to like the big guy. She nodded to the nurse and added a “Thank you” as she handed the tissue.

The nurse received it and looked at her puzzled.

“Do you have coal heated blanket or heat pack?” She asked before she placed her things on the table.

“No, nothing like that. Why?” Astrid responded. The nurse placing a hand on her forehead.

“The tissue is really warm. Not hot enough that would burn but much hotter than it should de if it was just on you hand.” She stood upright placing her hands on her hips. “Well, you don’t have a fever so I am going to ask the chief nurse. Do you need anything else?”

“No, thank you I’m pretty good right now” She said as she shook her head and raised a hand.

The nurse left in a hurry but noticing she had left the blankets she came back; pointing at the basket, took it and did an apologetic bow before going once again.

Astrid was gleaming, happy as she could be with the test she had done. For some reason she was not noticing the change of temperature of the tissue but she had managed to heat it up.

She had to train it but she had discovered how to use her ability only a little. She started to plan a training routine, she needed some thermometers, old school mercury ones to measure the change of temperature and some stop watches to measure the time.

With that information she could tell how much she could heat up an object and how fast; training accordingly to increase this two was vital to her wining this competition.