Eventually, I forced myself to make a coffee and go through my morning routine. Having something to do helped a little. When I was done, I put on my uniform and headed out to work. It was early, and I knew that the office would be mostly empty, but I didn't mind. I welcomed it, even.

My limp had gotten worse lately. No wonder, considering my activities with Vivienne . . . and the lack of rest didn't help, probably. My knee was throbbing in agony, and by the time I got to the office door, all I could think of was the soft chair at my desk.

"Ah, Connor, what a surprise!" Adam stepped in front of me just as the door to the teachers' office swished open. He looked much older than I remembered, but maybe it was just the weight loss. He seemed to be in a bad mood today; his strained smile didn't reach his eyes.

"Morning."

"Getting up early for work, huh? How unusual, how unusual..."

"I just couldn't sleep, Adam. I'm not up to anything unusual. Now, would you let me through?"

"Of course, of course," he said, but as I stepped past him he grabbed my arm. "Be careful, Connor, you're threading on thin ice. I've looked into the failed experiments, specifically the malfunctioning Vessels. You've had way too many failures lately."

I raised an eyebrow. "And what does that have to do with me? It's statistics, Adam. There is always a possibility that their biology will fail. Some trainers have more failures, some less. It depends on pure chance."

"You can say what you want," Adam said, "But I'm keeping an eye on you."

I scoffed. "Do what you want."

I pried his hand off my arm and limped inside the office. I tried to keep my face calm, but it was proving to be difficult. I had no idea what to do with Adam's baseless accusations. He saw evil in every shadow. No matter what I did, it was always suspicious for him. He was a security guard, but he had absolutely no right to keep pestering me, or anyone else for that matter. I didn't know why he was allowed to work here, when he clearly wasn't right in the head. I was quite sure he had some kind of chronic paranoia.

I sat down at my desk, drumming my fingers on the armrest. On a second thought, the fault probably didn't lie with him. It was just me being tired and frustrated at the moment. Adam wasn't actually mentally ill, and I should have been able to tolerate him better.

I opened Class E14's dossier and leafed through their assignments. It did nothing to improve my mood, but at least this kind of shit I had already expected. The kids were no scholars, but it wasn't their grammar I was grading anyways. Ages ranging from fourteen to eighteen, all of them were volunteers because they chose this kind of life over starving on the streets. They were barely literate, and I didn't even know why I had to bother them with pen and paper. They were being trained to become killing machines, not philosophers.

Still, I went through their assignments, mostly because I had nothing else to do. They were so terrible that I seriously considered postponing today's arena fight. It would have been a fitting punishment. In the end however, I decided to keep my plans for today, but with slight changes. It would be brutally difficult for some of them, but that was their life in a nutshell.