The Portal Effect

Chapter 8

Two days later the nurses cleared us to leave the infirmary. Millie was my favorite lead nurse, and she had chosen to treat me specifically. Her shadow, Kaia was always there too. Kaia had been the sixth member of my team until three years ago when a fire had broken out and left her face scarred and blind in one eye.

She also had a slight limp, which became more prominent when she was moving a lot, or a storm was coming. Kaia was the medic of the group, so she fit in in the medical area quite quickly when she recovered.

"Harley, these burns will take a while to heal, so be careful. You are quite lucky these are simple topical burns. As long as you don't overwork and break the scabs too much, there will be minimal, if any, scars." Millie warned me.

"Yes ma'am." I said, saluting. She was an army medic who was honorably discharged after serving for twelve years and had lost her entire squad to a bomb that had not been cleared. She was able to save several civilians, even disobeying a direct order to get a young man who would eventually become the next president of the Republic of America ten years later.

"Don't 'ma'am' me." she smiled, giving me a firm clap on the shoulder. The bandages around my shoulder were well fitted and almost felt like they weren't even there.

"How long do you think it will take?" I asked.

"As long as you change the wrapping before bed and when you wake up, as well as using the solution, it will take about a week and a half. As long as you..." she started, waving a finger at me. I was well known in pushing my luck.

"Behave. I get it." I chuckled. She tried to give me a firm look but both she and Kaia broke out laughing, and I followed suit.

"Kaia, how's the final exams going?" I asked as Millie went to work on Sarge.

"Professor Carmen was sick today, so the exams were moved to next Sunday. Which is in two days." Kaia said dismissively.

"Kaia, not when." I chortled. I knew she was nervous. She was wringing her hands and biting her lip.

"Yeah, I know. I'm just nervous. All the other students had years with her, and I came in hot three years ago with all that knowledge and at the least a four year age difference." she muttered. Many of the other students were in their mid-twenties and had felt attacked when Kaia walked in and began showing what she knew.

She was really smart and well mannered. It had unnerved them to the point of threats for the first three weeks. Those threats ended when she singlehandedly knocked out three men with pressure point tactics and one well aimed kick.

"Well, you are really smart, and are top of the class. If you fail, then the rest of them are knockouts who don't know anything." I assured her with a pat.

"So you really didn't feel the fire on your shoulder?" she asked as she grabbed her cane. We walked to the door and out to the doors leading to the courtyard.

"Adrenaline does that sometimes. And the fire hadn't actually touched me. The heat was quite hot. How's Andvari?" I looked at the daisy bed and sighed.

"He'll be fine. A concussion and some scratches, as well as a well disguised bullet wound. He's got some medical talent, as he removed the bullet and stitched it crudely." Kaia said, some respect lacing her voice. I chuckled as she looked back at the door to the infirmary.

"What's wrong? You keep looking over there." I pointed out as I put on a sweatshirt.

"He seems so familiar. I don't know why though." Kaia sighed.

"Like you met him before?" For a moment, I wondered if it was like with how I felt when we first met Sarge and his men.

"I don't know. I mean, I have Norwegian blood. He could have been someone I knew from my old family." She shrugged and walked away to the bench.