Ixa wasn’t having the best of days. She missed her bus and had to run to a different stop to change to another line that traveled in the direction she needed. It wasn't a perfect fit and she had to hurry for half an hour longer than she'd have to go if she caught the connection she intended. Thankfully she always planned enough of a time reserve to avoid running late if anything came up, but the whole ordeal definitely did not help with her nerves.

Diagnostics was a crucial subject to pass on the first try and one of the few where the grade truly mattered. Her performance would be evaluated, noted and later, if she finished medical school, added to her medico record. Failing because she came late would not reflect well.

She stumbled into the waiting room of the lecturer’s office with fifteen minutes to spare and spent ten of them putting herself together. Mentally and visually.

As she left the bathroom she caught sight of Zev entering the room and called out to him.

He turned around and wave to her. "Morning, heard you made algebra as well. Congrats. Here for diagnostics too?"

"Yeah, and you would not believe the morning I just had. I hope I used up all the bad luck that was put aside for me for today. If not, I'm doomed," she said and began telling him all about her misfortunes of the day. Zev was listening intently and made all the right noises at all the right times. After her outpouring, the conversation turned to mundane chatter and general complaining only students are capable of.

They were cut off as an assistant poked her head out of the office's door. "Ah, good, you're both here. Have you seen mister Nocek, he was supposed to be here an hour ago. No? Mister Tarris, then, if you would?"

Zev nodded to Ixalia and disappeared behind the door. She sat in an armchair that seemed too comfortable to be anywhere close to a school and waited her turn. Half an hour after her conversation partner left, a ragged Preston Nocek stumbled into the waiting room. Red in the face and clothes soaked in sweat.

He huffed and puffed as he caught himself on a chair and heaved as he gulped great mouthfuls of air. “I… did…it. I am… in… time.” Only then did he seem to notice the girl in the room with him. “Ixa? Aren’t… you… a little… early?” he asked in between breaths.

“Nope, you’re,” she looked at her pocket watch, “an hour and a half late.”

“Fuck!” he exclaimed and immediately shrank from the volume before looking around as if to see if anyone heard him. His breathing was coming in a bit more even now and he sank into a couch, defeat and despair fighting with exhaustion for a place on his face.

“What happened to you? You look like you ran a marathon,” asked the girl.

"That's cuz I did, or something like that. My train got canceled," he lamented.

“So you ran?” she looked at him incredulously.

“Not all the way, I’m not crazy. But a good portion of it, yes. Found a train that stopped at the outskirts and made my way from there,” a small smile formed at the corners of his mouth.

“You’re from, what? Plinswick? Doesn’t the train run every hour or so? Couldn’t you get on the next one? You’d be here like forty minutes earlier,” Ixa questioned carefully.

"Nah, some idiot had to go out big style. Jumped and took the locomotive and railways with him. The whole track is unusable for at least two days," Preston answered and cursed the late man.

“Damn. Talk about unscrupulous,” the young woman muttered.

He glanced at her, confused. “Un- what was that?”

She chuckled softly. "Something I read recently. Unscrupulous. I find the word fun to say without many opportunities to do so. Means to act without morals.”

The man nodded slightly. "Huh, that's a new one for me. Wouldn't indifferent fit better?"

“Just so.”

At that moment the door to the office opened and the same assistant, who spoke to them before, accompanied Zev out. "Good work mister Tarris, we'll let you know the final evaluation by evening, but just between us? You did great," they shook hands. Just then they both noticed the still-wet Preston. "Ah, mister Nocek, I am afraid you are late and have been given an F."

"I am sorry mister assistant, sir. There's been a jumper, I mean a suicide, at my regular route and I had to take an alternate route that is much more time-consuming. I have a confirmation from the train company to corroborate and I am sure they will confirm if called," the man in question said as he produced a slip of paper.

The assistant said a final goodbye to Zev and looked at the proffered note. His brown shot up as he read it. "Most unusual, but if true, outside of your control. Would you mind waiting a little longer, miss Moore? No? Well then, mister Nocek, come inside while we decide what to do," the man ushered Preston into the office.

When the door closed behind them Ixa looked Zev over. “So what did they have you do?”

Her classmate sat on a chair and stretched lazily. She was about to resort to violence when he chuckled at her expression promising murder and finally spoke. "They had the usual simulator out, you know, the one Preston blew up during the final lesson? I wonder if we are about to see a repeat. Anyway, they had me go over a couple of scenarios and then suggest a course of action for each of them. Similar to what we did in class, only with a slight twist here and there, nothing overly complicated.”

“So,” Ixalia drew the word out, “what did they have you do?” she asked again.

"First a case of pink eye. A bad one, didn't look fun at all. Next, a flue mixed with something else, can't remember what right now. Then they threw a-" He was interrupted by a muffled crack coming from the office.

“You can’t be serious, please don’t tell me he did it again.” The girl exclaimed.

“Oh. You think?”

“What else could it have been? He blew up another one!”

“That’s not going to look good on his resume,” Zev joked.

“Forget his resume, they’ll kick him out of the school for this,” Ixa said.

“More importantly, wasn’t that the last working simulator? He blew up one before, one broke last week if I remember what Jerry said correctly, and now this one. How will they make you do the exam?”

"Oh crap. You're right," she spoke in alarm. She started working herself up into a full-blown panic when a slightly smoking Preston was carried out, an assistant under each shoulder.

“Mister Tarris, you’re still here, great. Could you give Kerrum a hand? I need to get back in there,” the same assistant as before asked Zev.

"Of course, sir. Hang in there Ixa," he squeezed her arm and replaced the man under Preston's shoulder.

Ixalia was left all alone after that. She waited for ten minutes without anything happening. Half an hour later and still nothing. When she was in danger of collapsing from stress, the office door opened up to reveal the class' lecturer, Thomas Lorney. He walked over to her and sat down. “I am sorry, miss Moore, but we've been unable to get any of the training aids working."

She thought she'd have a stroke right there when the words registered. "But.. but... I needed to have the exam finished this week. I am supposed to have another one in a follow-up subject, that requires this one's completion, next week," she said weakly the first thing that came to her mind.

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“I wasn’t quite finished, miss Moore. I was going to ask if you’d be up to taking up an alternative. I am well aware that the fault, although not entirely,” he threw a spiteful look at the door Preston was carried through, “lies with us. And we are unsure when we’ll get the simulators working again. As such, we came up with something else for the exam. Thankfully you are the last one that needs to take it.” He cast another glance at the door.

All the tension in her just ballooned out at the words. “What would you have me do?” she asked.

Lorney looked her up and down before answering. “Now, I do understand this is highly irregular to ask of a fourth year. But, as I was left with no other choice and you are practically a fifth year already. Not to mention you are my best student." Ixa blushed at the admission. "We, assistant Clarke and I that is, would take you to the faculty's hospital wing and have you do diagnostics on live patients. Would you be up for it?”

It wasn’t just irregular, it simply was not done. To have her diagnose live patients was something she’d do the following year at Diagnostics II, but even the exam she spoke of earlier would have her act as an assistant to a real diagnostician during her rounds.

There was a reason people generally did not allow aspiring magicos access to patients without first being thoroughly vetted. Preston was a shining example of that. Use too much mana in exactly the wrong way and even a diagnostics spell could inflict serious harm, not to mention the dangers of true magical healing.

This was almost too much for her already fragile mind. She was speechless and it took her a moment to restart her brain. She’d have thought about it, but there was nothing to think about. This was the chance of a lifetime. Imagine how it would look in my record. It was an opportunity to distinguish herself, make a name. There was the danger of things going wrong, but she practiced relentlessly for this, first on her own body and then on her family. She was ready, scared, terrified even, but ready.

At least that was what she used to convince herself before she gave her answer. “I’d be honored, sir.”

“No, Ixalia, none of that. Don't be honored. Ask yourself if you can do it, if it’s in you. And if the answer is yes, only then do it.” The lecturer chastised her.

“Yes, sir. I did think about it and I believe I can do it and I’d be happy to take you up on the offer.” Ixalia said after a moment of thinking.

“Good, if you’re ready, please follow me.”

The lecturer got up and led Ixa out of the room, then out of the building's wing and into the faculty's hospital area. There were separate entrances from the outside and from inside the university and multiples of each. She was taken to the clinic waiting area and into one of the examination rooms, where the lecturer had her sit down and wait for a few moments.

He soon returned accompanied by a man in a white doctor’s coat and a genial sparkle in his eyes, that were hiding underneath white bushy eyebrows. A gentle smile was plastered on his wrinkled face. He had the appearance of a grandfather, who loved telling his grandkids stories of his adventurous youth.

He nodded to Lorney before addressing Ixalia. “Good morning, miss Moore. While Thomas here has told me about the situation, I wanted to meet with you before allowing you to see any of my patients. If I do, I am going to be the one supervising and stepping in, should anything untoward happen. The ones you’d be examining have all been diagnosed already so there would be no harm in getting it wrong. And they have all agreed to this course of action and I know many of them personally, as such you do not have to fear any…. How do I put this mildly?” The medico scratched at the corners of his beard and a crease formed on his forehead. “Unsociably behaved personages, shall we say.” His smile returned immediately after as he looked her over. “Now, miss Moore, tell me about yourself.”

Ixa was still a bit overwhelmed from all that was happening and she had to process the word salad that has been spilled her way for a little bit. She shook slightly to pull herself together and slapped her cheeks. She had to blush as she took a little too long to answer and the man in front of her was now looking at her with one eyebrow raised. "Um, sorry. This all just came a bit abruptly and I am still coping," she said and earned another smile and a nod from the man. "Uhm… what would you like to know, mister… sir… doctor…? She realized she did not catch the man's name. Did he even introduce himself at all?

“Ahh! How rude of me,” the man slapped his forehead before proffering his hand. “Medico Kert, but Jack will do, or simply medico if it makes you more comfortable. What are you capable of and what experience do you have, tell me in your own words. I might change the course of the exam a little based on what you say.”

She had to smile at his friendly approach. “In that case, Jack, Ixalia is fine for me," the girl said. She always dealt better with informal settings. "I'm a fourth year, as you probably know. Mister Lorney says one of the more skilled in medical classes. I've always had better than average control of my magic than most but I suffer from low conductivity and a shallow core. I've never let that stop me though, and I've always tried to overcome it by approaching problems in a somewhat roundabout way, thinking of how to do it differently, leveraging my channels' malleability in just the right way. And I've…" Stopping herself, she glanced at Lorney.

Kert took notice of both the pause and her look and his brows went to shake hands with his hairline. He pondered for a bit before giving her a knowing look and turning to the other man. “It seems she’s a bit shy, would you mind giving us a bit of privacy, Thomas?”

Lorney looked from the medico to his student. “I don’t think I should. I am supposed to oversee the exams after all.”

“But the exam is not underway right now, is it? We are just talking as I determine this young lady’s capabilities. Don’t worry, I’ll call you back before we start anything serious.” Kert insisted and the lecturer left them alone soon after. “Now, whatever you say stays between us, you have my word. It’s not like I don’t have a clue what you were about to say. If I am right, I did the same thing myself.”

Ixalia looked away sheepishly and mumbled to herself for a moment. “Right. I was about to say that I have practiced the diagnostic spells on myself and my parents,” she eventually said and then hurried to add. “With their express permission, after I briefed them of the dangers of course.”

Her haste served only to put a grin on the man's face. "I can guarantee you are not the first, nor will you be the last, to play with magic, Ixalia." Jack put out a hand. "Show me what you can do," he said as he placed it in front of her.

Anxious once more, she looked between him and the hand. “What exactly are you looking for?”

“To see your capabilities, so please, anything and everything you can get. No need to think about it too much, we’re basically trying to have a bit of fun with all this,” he tried to calm her a little and failed abysmally.

With bunched-up shoulders and stiff posture, Ixa hovered her hands over his and cast a simple spell designed to find anything too far out of the norm. Things like big shards of metal stuck in flesh, bones protruding where they're not meant to or blood leaving the body in unhealthy quantities.

It was obvious at first glance that she'd not find anything so drastic, but it was a good spell to start with, which she was trying to make into a habit. Always cover your bases. It was a fast and easy-to-produce magic so there was no reason not to use it first.

Moving on, she began a cycle of increasingly detailed and localized spells with more time spent on each subsequent one. Not only did some of them take longer to cast as she had to contort her channels in elaborate ways and guide the mana outside herself in even more confusing tracks, but she was taking her time in properly analyzing the feedback she was getting.

It wasn't as exact as looking at a monitor with a readout, instead, it was akin to the body telling her what was happening, the various biological processes humming in her ears, blood whooshing along her sense of touch with each heartbeat, she could sort of smell cells dying and if she squinted her eyes, she imagined she could see new ones grow in their place.

For an untrained person, such inputs would be extremely confusing and even harder to explain, Ixa wouldn’t be able to describe the feeling of the diagnostic spells to save her life. And she had been learning to interpret them for three years.

She took her time and talked through what she was doing, explaining what she discovered and how she came to conclusions through her interpretations. Half an hour later she finished this barrage of magic, the results were all boring and mundane as the medico was fit as a fiddle and took care of his health.

Kert nodded at her when she finally paused to wipe her now sweaty brow. “Speaking frankly, some of what you’ve done took longer than I would expect and some things were duplicate and unnecessary, but you’ll get the hang of that as you go. Overall, I have to say I am somewhat impressed, have you exhausted your repertoire?”

Praise, and such a direct one from a professional, always left the girl somewhat at a loss. Never knowing how to respond or act, it made her uncomfortable. She steeled her nerves and answered his question with a bob of the head of her own. "Yes, three more, two somewhat lengthy ones. I wouldn't want to keep you too long from your other duties. Not to mention I am not proficient in them enough. It's general mapping, which is better to do with machines anyway, and two outside the curriculum that I have been tinkering with."

An unhappy look appeared on the man's face for the first time. "Those kinds of spells are not taught for a reason, miss Moore." If his tone was not enough indication of his suddenly foul mood, his use of her surname would clue all but the most obtuse of a person.

Shaking her hands in front of her she hastily explained. "No, no, no, no. Nothing like that. Please don’t misunderstand. One of them is a newer technique developed for examining artifice with specific and harsh requirements to accomplish that I found myself fascinated with in medical use and the other is something I came up with based on my experiences with the former, the benefits of which I am unsure of. Both were just something I have been tinkering with after reading about them in Liber Medicinalis Magicae.”

The crease on the medico’s forehead disappeared in an instant and his jovial mood was back. “Good. Sorry about that but I have very strong opinions on that subject. LMM? Heavy reading for a student, but your interest speaks favorably. I have the time if you want to go ahead, but I won’t force you. If Thomas complains that this is taking too long, it’s his own fault for having his toys get broken.” He said the last sentence with a boyish smirk, confirming further that the men were friends.

Ixalia thought it over and without much hesitation decided to continue. I won't get many other chances to pick a medico's brain any time soon. Reaching for his hand once more, she began the next procedure.