Chapter 25 The Surgery

“Miss, you are under arrest for the suspected assault of a mage. Please do not resist. It will only look worse for you.” Announced the female officer.

Evernya’s eyes landed on the shackles, causing alarms to go off in her head, prompting her to enter flight or fight mode. Evernya blurred right past the officers so fast that neither could react in time. Within a second, she sprinted the thirty meters to the door.

Just as she was within reach of the door handle, her body seized up. Evernya collapsed onto the floor within a meter of the door, unable to move. Before she could recover, someone roughly yanked her arms behind her back. Immediately after, the cold and unyielding shackles clicked into place, locking her wrists behind her back. A familiar suffocating pressure exerted itself on her mana veins, ripping a pained whimper from her throat. Next, rough hands forced her legs together, eliciting a scream of pain as red hot lava shot through her legs. Her cries of pain silenced after another set of shackles lock her ankles together, paralyzing her from mana suppression. The only sign of her consciousness was her tear-filled, dilated eyes swiveling in terror.

Through the pain-filled haze, she felt big and rough hands lift her to her feet. However, the combination of her injuries and the mana suppressing shackles caused her legs to buckle, forcing the male officer to catch her before she fell to the floor.

The male officer glanced at his partner, asking, “What is wrong with her? She should weaken, but not this much. She can’t even stand on her own.”

“I don’t know she was screaming before you locked the leg shackles. Did she hurt herself when she slipped? It’s very dangerous to run at that speed barefoot on this floor. Maybe she twisted an ankle.” The female officer responded before noticing the hospital ID band.

The female officer paled as she exclaimed, “We may have made a terrible mistake! She isn’t some random shifter! She is a Mage’s ward patient, and that’s not the worst of it! Look at her legs! Legs don’t band at the shin! I’ve seen injuries similar to this on mages when they overstress their bodies, but never this bad! No wonder she moved so fast she pushed her body past its limits. If we don’t get her medical attention immediately, we may cripple her. One of the first things they told us in training is to never restrain an injured shifter with mana suppressing shackles because it messes with their self-healing.”

The male officer’s eyes shot down to the deformed black and blue legs of their suspect as the door to the Commons burst open. The crowd of people’s attention turned to the woman who appeared to be in her mid to late thirties with shoulder-length brown hair as she strode in on a mission.

“What is going on here?” Demanded the new arrival.

Upon recognizing the new arrival, the female officer reported, “Dr. Adams, we received a call on a suspected assault of a female mage patient. When we arrived, we found this shifter next to an unconscious female patient. We suspect she is the culprit. We told her she was under arrest for suspected assault, but as soon as she saw us, she tried to run.” In fear of losing her job, she omitted the current condition of the suspect.

“Where is the victim of the suspected assault?” Dr. Adams inquired, only taking a brief glance at Evernya.

The female officer pointed toward a couch where someone moved the still unconscious Emily. Dr. Adams rushed toward Emily upon recognizing her. After running a few scans, she breathed a sigh of relief when she found Emily was only unconscious from mana loss. She gently nudged Emily awake to get her side of the story.

Emily awakened with a groan but suddenly burst up to a sitting position and frantically looking around, becoming confused. When her eyes landed on Dr. Adams at her side, she immediately relaxed.

“What is going on, Dr. Sarah?” Emily asked.

While holding onto her patient’s hand, Dr. Sarah Adams stated, “That is what I would like to know. I rushed down here as soon as I got the alert from your mana core monitor. When I get here, I find you unconscious and low on mana, but otherwise fine. The officers said someone assaulted you, is that true?”

Confusion flashed in Emily’s eyes as she recounted, “The last thing I remember is my new friend Evernya helping me with my latest mana attack.”

“How did Evernya help you overcome your mana attack?” Sarah inquired curiously.

Emily went through her hazy memories before responding, “I don’t know she said she might be able to help me. At that point, I was in too much pain to turn down any offer of help. She sprouted fangs, then bit into my wrist, allowing her to suck my mana. The more mana she drained, the less painful my mana attack became.”

Unable to confirm Emily’s story without running some tests, Sarah smiled as she delivered the good news. “Whatever she did seems to have worked. Your mana attack stopped before any damage. Even better, your mana system’s awakening process restarted. I can’t say for sure, but I think that was your last mana attack.”

“Wait, I’m finally awakening!?” Emily exclaimed ecstatically.

“Yes, you are. I estimate in about a month you will fully awaken.” Responded Sarah, bracing herself as her patient engulfed her in a hug.

“I can’t wait to tell Evernya! She will be so happy! I may be able to join her in college sooner than I thought! Wait, where is Evernya?” exclaimed the hyper girl.

Emily scanned the gathered crowd, excited to tell the news to her new friend. However, her previous excitement shattered upon spotting her friend held by a DIOM officer near the door.

“What have they done to you!?” Screamed Emily with tears in her eyes.

Dr. Adams followed where Emily was staring, finding the shifter in a rapidly worsening state, prompting her to rush over.

Upon taking in the shifter’s ruined legs, Dr. Adams ordered, “I need a stretcher now!”

A nurse who also recognized the Evernya’s injuries bolted out the doors to fetch a stretcher. She returned less than thirty seconds later, having found one just outside the Common doors probably meant for the victim of the suspected assault.

“Gently lay her on the stretcher. Be extra careful of her legs,” ordered Dr. Adams to the male officer.

He unlocked her shackles, having confirmed she was innocent, but Dr. Adams stopped him. “If you remove the shackles before we are ready, she could heal too quickly for us to correct the damage done by them. Relock her wrists together in front of her and lay her on her back.”

The male officer did as instructed. He gently laid Evernya down on the stretcher, careful not to jam her tail under her body or aggravate her injuries more. Once he safely laid Evernya on the stretcher, both officers backed off to await their punishment, knowing they made what could be a career-ending mistake.

Dr. Adams grabbed her scanner from her pants pocket to scan in Evernya’s ID wristband for her medical information. Upon reading her information, she pulled out her phone to call Elizabeth, who answered on the first ring. “Hello, Sarah, what do you need?”

“I am with your patient named Evernya in the Commons. I’m not clear on the details, but from my initial observations, she has severe injuries to her legs, most likely requiring surgery.” Reported Dr. Adams.

“What is she doing down the Commons? She should be in her room on the 3rd floor.” Elizabeth commented, followed by silence as she pulled up Evernya’s tracking data.

After confirming Evernya was indeed in the Commons, Elizabeth inquired with barely concealed worry, “What happened to her?”

Dr. Adams then summarized what she had put together about what happened to Evernya. After she finished, there was silence on Elizabeth’s end again as Elizabeth tried to rein in her anger at her hospital yet again, failing her patient.

After calming herself down enough to speak, Elizabeth inquired in a professional tone brimming with barely concealed anger, “How extensive are her injuries?”

“I haven’t scanned her yet. I called you immediately after pulling up her medical information. I suspect she has several shattered bones in her legs and bruising over most of her body with possible internal bleeding.” Dr. Adams reported.

“Move her to room S–112 and prepare her for surgery. Ensure there is ample supply of mana bags as she may need them. I will be there in under five minutes. We will perform surgery immediately. I will review the security footage to punish those responsible for this inexcusable mistake properly after we save my patient.” Elizabeth ordered before hanging up.

Dr. Adams turned to the only helpful nurse of the dozens present. “Please help me roll her to room S–112. She is to undergo immediate surgery.” Dr. Adams ordered.

After Dr. Adams made her announcement, the crowd that had been rudely observing everything murmured amongst themselves. Some staff members glanced at each other, worry etched on their faces, having stood by doing nothing to help. Dr. Adams said nothing more as she and the helpful nurse rushed out of the Commons, pushing Evernya’s stretcher to S–112.

Two minutes later, they arrived at the room. They rolled Evernya stretcher in before turning on the various monitoring equipment. The nurse cut away Evernya’s T-shirt and shorts, leaving her underwear exposed, which allowed them an easier time to connect the sensors to her body.

After connecting dozens of electrodes to Evernya’s body, the nurse stepped back, allowing Dr. Adams to survey the worsening state of the shifter as she pulled up an internal view of the damage on the large screen hanging above the stretcher.

Elizabeth arrived a minute later, frowning upon taking in the damage. “It is worse than I thought, you poor girl. My hospital has failed you again,” Elizabeth whispered with rage bubbling up under the surface.

Elizabeth’s brow scrunched in confusion as she read over the scans. “Her mana system activity is all wrong, even with the suppression put on her mana veins from the shackles. It’s almost like she’s, oh no, she’s conscious!” Elizabeth exclaimed after observing the screen.

Elizabeth rushed to Evernya’s side. “Evernya, can you hear me?” Asked Elizabeth, hoping she’s wrong.

Upon hearing a familiar voice, Evernya cracked her eyes open slightly, receiving a blurry view of Elizabeth standing over her.

“I am going to put you under now. We will perform surgery to fix your injuries. The next time you wake up, you will be in your hospital room again.” Elizabeth informed, trying to keep a smile on her face.

She pressed her palm to Evernya’s forehead, pushing her healing magic into her brain. A moment later, Evernya’s eyes drifted closed as she willingly gave in to unconsciousness.

“Connect a mana bag to her IV, but don’t open the valve yet.” Ordered Elizabeth after materializing crate full of mana bags in front of the nurse.

Elizabeth turned to Dr. Adams, dictating her instructions. “Sarah, you are in charge of her mana veins. I am going to set her bones and guide her body to heal her injuries.”

“You’re not healing her injuries directly?” Dr. Sarah Adams questioned.

“I suspect we won’t have enough time to guide and heal all of her injuries once I remove these shackles impeding her healing. With how extensive her injuries are, it would take all day to heal everything ourselves properly. So we will guide her to heal her body properly. Fortunately, her mana system seems to be perfectly healthy. She shredded the muscles and tendons in her legs and has multiple fractures plus bruising and minor muscle tears throughout the rest of her body. If it weren’t for how unique she is, I am not sure we could heal her completely.” Elizabeth explained while leaving out several confidential details.

Elizabeth materialized a 40-gallon barrel of sterile water from her storage ring. With her water magic, Elizabeth drew the liquid through the one-way opening, floating it above Evernya’s body before ordering. “Please unlock her shackles now, ankles shackles first, and back away. We have to be quick about this.”

The nurse used the key given to them by the officers to unlock Evernya’s shackles. The moment the nurse gently lifted the heavy ankle shackles out of the way, Elizabeth engulfs her patient’s legs in water. Using the water, Elizabeth applied precise pressure on Evernya’s legs, setting and holding her broken bones in place.

The nurse glanced at Elizabeth for confirmation before unlocking Evernya’s wrist shackles. Upon receiving a nod, the nurse gently removed the shackles, causing a sudden spike in mana activity throughout Evernya’s body.

After confirming her patient’s active healing, Elizabeth covered the rest of Evernya’s body with her water, leaving only her head uncovered while she focused on guiding Evernya’s rapidly healing body.

Sarah was on the opposite side of Evernya, keeping watch on her mana system with astonishment, unable to believe what she was seeing. As if having a mind of its own, Evernya’s mana rushed out of her mana core, systematically targeting her injuries based on severity.

The surgery continued for almost an hour before Elizabeth pulled back her water into the barrel and collapsed to her knees on the floor, huffing. After catching her breath, Elizabeth ordered the nurse to open the valve for the mana bag.

Between gasps of breath, Elizabeth reported, “She will make a full recovery. All remaining injuries will heal before she awakens. She will need eight more mana bags to help replenish the mana she used to heal herself. It is dangerous for her to be this low on mana for long. Ironically, those shackles may have helped her. If she tried to heal her legs without someone’s guidance, I don’t think they would have set correctly.”

After checking her patient’s healing progress, Elizabeth ordered the nurse to disconnect the monitors. She materialized a blanket to protect Evernya’s modesty before directing the nurse to transport Evernya back to her room to finish her recovery.