"What?!" Noble covered her scream with her hand.
While none of the Sleepers would hear her, she didn't want the guards around the corner to come running for a false alarm.
"What do you mean, fear paralyzes her?"
Rock rubbed the back of his neck. "Perhaps paralyzes is the wrong word. It saps her of her strength. She can move, but only weakly and with great difficulty."
"How did you know that? That wasn't in her file." Noble had gone over her group before meeting with them that evening.
"Sleeper Gisel came to me with her concern at the start of the fall. She thought I looked brave and wanted a way not to feel afraid, or at least a way to fight through it. I directed her to all the available resources of the Academy, including our excellent counselors."
Rock shook his head as he continued.
"She wanted a magic trick to no longer have fear, but it's never that simple."
A knot formed in Noble's stomach. She quickened her step to the healer's station.
"Noble?" Rock was accustomed to slowing down for everyone else's smaller stride, but now he was moving next to her in a slow jog.
"I have to know…"
As they rounded the corner to the main hub of the wing, monitors were already beeping chaotically. Two orderlies moved expeditiously past Noble and Rock.
Behind the counter, a beautiful woman was tapping on keys with a tense expression.
'Umbei!' Noble knew better than to interrupt the healer. She looked around for anyone else to help her, but the only other person was also trying to deal with the chaos.
"What in the…" Umbei's words fell away.
Making her way around the desk, Noble peeked at what was going on.
The orderlies appeared on the screen. They hurried into a room and crowded around a pod, though Noble couldn't tell which one.
Umbei bent over and spoke into a microphone. "Status?"
"Still investigating, ma'am."
Umbei pressed her lips together.
Her readings were erratic. Something was wrong, and she hoped their getting eyes on the issue would solve the problem.
The healer sensed the people behind her, but was too focused on the task to pay them any mind. Unless they needed medical attention, they would have to wait.
Tense moments passed. The beeping stopped, but that did not seem to make Umbei any calmer. If anything, the tension in the room continued to mount.
"Status?" The healer repeated more urgently. She didn't want to leave her post in case something else went wrong, but the silence was suffocating.
"She's still breathing. But I cannot get the reading you want, ma'am... I can't get any reading at all. Our machines aren't malfunctioning."
Umbei's jaw clenched. "Are you certain?"
"Yes, ma'am. I am sorry to say I am. Alan just did the prick test."
The healer rested her face in her hand. She drew a deep breath before answering in an even tone. "That's it then. Prepare her for transport."
"Yes, ma'am."
Umbei leaned back, obscuring the screen from Noble's view. "It never gets easier…"
"A hollow? Already?" Rock's question prompted the healer to spin around in her seat.
"She may yet fully pass away. The prick test only tells us if their soul has died. We have no way to predict if or when the body will go with it. We will keep her body comfortable until then." Umbei spoke clinically.
Noble could feel the other woman's distress. She was breaking too. The floating woman hadn't even made it back to begin her search for the Sleepers, and already one had died. While that had happened before, it was uncommon. The shock of the proximity to the Solstice stung extra.
"Who was it?" Noble held her breath.
Umbei frowned. "It all happened so fast. I didn't check the logs. One moment."
The healer turned around, and the camera where the orderlies were bringing in the wheelchair came into view. They opened the pod, and long, lustrous hair came tumbling out.
Noble felt an invisible knife turn in her stomach. The world seemed to flip on its head. As the young hollow was loaded into her wheelchair and taken into the hall, Umbei found the record in her manifest.
"Her name was…"
"Gisel," Umbei's and Noble's voices overlapped on the final word.
The healer turned around to see the tears streaming down Noble's face.
"I'm sorry." Umbei reached out and took her colleague's hand.
"Not as sorry as I am…" Noble tried to hold it together. This wasn't the first student she had lost, and unless she quit right here and now, it wouldn't be the last. It was just a fact of life under the tyranny of the Spell.
Noble knew all of this in her head, but her heart…
A squeaking wheel drew Noble's attention as the orderlies came around the corner. In their care, a lovely green-eyed girl looked out at the world. Those eyes, once so vibrant, were lifeless and void.
Noble took a step toward the chair. "I'm sorry, Gisel. I'm so sorry!"
Rock gently pulled his colleague out of the way to let the wheelchair pass.
"Gisel's Nightmare is over. It isn't your fault."
'You don't know that! She asked me for help! I could have given it to her, but instead I loaded her into her coffin and sent her on her way…' Noble wanted to scream these things, unburden herself. She deserved their condemnation, not the pity both her colleagues were now directing her way.
Their sympathy made things worse, not better. She needed to get away.
"Excuse me." Noble dropped her bag and disappeared from sight.
The cold at the Jade Palace was nothing compared to the dark feeling in her soul.
Noble leaned beside the gateway and retched.
"Are you alright?" A voice came from the guard beside the gate.
Noble didn't have the time or inclination to explain. She took the sky.
The professor plunged into the dense cloud cover, ignoring the cold that clung to her clothing. Higher, higher, higher than she ever had thought to fly before. The air grew thin, but Noble didn't care. She didn't need to breathe much anyway. Finally, the clouds gave way, and the moons overhead glistened on the frozen tears clinging to her cheeks.
Noble let out a gut-wrenching scream.
Why hadn't she listened to Gisel's final request? Noble had been so quick to dismiss it, choosing her own comfort over the student she had chosen to serve. And now Gisel's final wish would never be fulfilled.
Her heart and soul felt like breaking.
But just as she thought they might, a protective barrier formed around Noble's core, solidifying it. Noble closed her eyes, feeling a strange, comforting warmth from inside her soul.
"Thank you, Nectar."
With a determined nod, Noble brushed the icy tears from her face. She could not let what happened to Gisel affect her mission for the evening. If anything, it made her more resolute.
So, like a falling star, Noble dove towards the ground and extended her emotional sense far and wide. The world of ice and snow spread out before her, ready for her perusal.
Her search for survivors of the Solstice had begun.