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“There are two rules for this examination,” Shani said, standing in the middle of a handful of students. Behind her was a body on a table, covered with a sheet. She held up two fingers, waiting with a raised eyebrow for the teenagers to give her their full attention.
“One. You may not remove the patient’s bandages even temporarily. Two, you may not attempt any kind of treatment without my explicit allowance. Got it?”
A hand went up in the back of the group and Shani gave a knowing smile. “Yes, Adrien?”
“Professor--what kind of treatment? It’s a corpse, isn’t it?”
“No, actually. He is quite alive. I just didn’t want you looking at him prematurely. I have a point to make and if you’re all studying the subject ahead of schedule I won’t get to be as dramatic.”
There was a laugh and Shani’s eyes twinkled. She turned to the table and pulled the sheet away. The man laying on the table didn’t react, but he was clearly far from a corpse. His skin was healthy-looking if crossed with scars and his chest rose and fell evenly under a thin shirt. There was a snug wrapping of gauze around his head that obscured his eyes, but otherwise he was undamaged.
Shani turned, gesturing to him. “Have at. The first one to diagnose him correctly gets an A on the next test.”
That really set them scrambling, and Shani crossed her arms, watching with a fond amusement as they set upon their patient with all the tools and checks she’d taught them.
“Temperature seems high,” Holly said, moving her hand from forehead to throat. “Yeah...definitely warmer than he should be.”
“Extremly slow breaths too--” another student said. “Even if he’s sleeping they shouldn’t be that lethargic. Some kind of drug?”
“What drug--how about blood loss? Or a concussion? He does have his head bandaged.”
“Theo you’re an idiot.”
“Says the guy who forgot his tool kit the entire first week of class.”
“Uh….guys? Did anyone think to check his pulse because I’m pretty sure this guy is….on the brink of death,” Sorra said suddenly, actual worry and a twinge of fear in her voice. She was holding the patient’s wrist in a nervous grip, her fingers accurately pressing into his artery.
That got their attention extremely quickly, and Shani crossed her arms and bit the inside of her cheek to help keep a straight face.
Noah picked up the patient’s other wrist and counted, alarm sparking in his eyes as well. “Professor--”
Shani shook her head. “I said no treatment.”
“Yeah, without your permission!” Dar said, his eyes wide. “This guy’s heart is going to stop any second.”
“You still haven’t diagnosed him,” Shani said evenly. “Give me a diagnosis, then we can move forward.”
“Diagnosis will be dead. What good is a diagnosis if he dies while we figure it out?”Sorra said, grabbing for her stethoscope anyway. She looked genuinely scared and upset, and Shani’s expression softened somewhat in sympathy.
“If you don’t diagnose correctly, you can’t treat correctly, and more patients will die because you tried to fix something that wasn’t broken and missed the real issue in the process. Diagnose him, then I will allow you to propose treatment.”
Sorra worked her jaw but she put her stethoscope in, frantically pressing the bell to the man’s chest before thinking better of it and slipping her hand inside his shirt. “Wow he’s warm and….woah okay. Not what I was expecting to hear at all.” Her eyes were wide and she looked up at Shani from across the patient's body, the stethoscope still pressed to his chest. “That’s way louder than anybody dying should be.”
“Do you have a diagnosis yet?”
Someone snorted and shook their head, a muttered ‘freak’ under their breath. Shani shot a look their direction but she sighed and crossed her arms, gesturing once. “Okay Eskel, you can sit up.”
Eskel sat up, pulling the gauze from his head and blinking his eyes open. There was no wound to be seen, only two vibrantly gold split iris. A gasp rippled through the students and two even took a step back.
“The correct diagnosis,” Shani began, “is ‘Witcher’.”
She moved through the students to stand at Eskel’s side where he was sitting on the edge of the bed. She rest a hand on his arm, looking at her very captive audience. “Eskel is in perfect health. His temperature is higher than most regular humans, which is why he feels somewhat feverish. His lung and cardiac systems are both streamlined to be as efficient as possible, so he was only breathing intermittently because he was relaxed. It was the same with his heart. Witchers posess incredibly strong hearts, and Eskel’s at meditative rest beats barely fifteen times a minute.”
That got another astonished wave of murmurs, and Shani let that happen for a moment before pressing on with the lesson. “Eskel’s eyes were bandaged only so you couldn’t check pupilary response and give the twist away. He’s not actually injured so you can all breathe easy. I admit I cheated a little keeping some of the clues hidden but do any of you have an idea why I decided to do this?”
Nobody raised their hands.
“It’s because, as a doctor, you’re going to have a lot of patients where you have almost no answers. You won’t know their histories, their allergies, or even previous medical anomolies. It is vital that you train yourselves to understand as much as you can about your patient before you jump in with treatment.”
She places a hand on Eskel’s leg, patting it affectionately as she continues. “If you had tried to treat Eskel the way you’d treat a human, it could have actually thrown his heart into an abnormal rhythm and actually done him harm. I know you’re all angry at me for the new lab design and the upcoming exam, but please don’t take it out on my husband,” she joked.
A few students gave nervous chuckles, but many were still watching Eskel with a mixture of awe and fear. Eventually, someone in the back raised her hand and Shani nodded. “Go ahead.” She’d known from the start this lesson wouldn’t be easy, but she did feel it was necessary.
“Why a witcher? We’re all here to learn to work on humans, aren’t we?”
“You are. The university doesn’t have the knowledge or the desire to teach you anything else, if I’m honest. I have both. And a perfect specimen who’s patient about being poked at. Eskel was once human. He’s only mutated, and has all the same requirements and organs a normal human has. He just lasts a lot longer doing almost anything.”
“Professor,” another student ventured, looking uncertain. “Why teach us inhuman medicine at all? Isn't that...helping the enemy? Not with Witchers,” she scrambled to add when Eskel's eyes flicked her direction “But the others.”
“By others you mean elves,” Shani said bluntly. The girl nodded, looking flustered. Shani sighed and nodded, folding her arms.
“You think like that, you're better off in the army. We're called to help. No matter what, no matter who. If you can't share that then being a medic is not your path. A lot of people disagree with me. It's why I'm taking it on myself to teach this, but an elven life is worth just as much as yours or mine.”
That got a few ducked heads and Shani sighed, not realizing how much of her disappointment was showing until Eskel started rubbing her back.
“If you don't agree, you won't be punished for it and you are welcome to leave my class right now without consequence,” she said, keeping her voice level. “I will write you a recommendation to any other professor and you can transfer to them. All you have to do is walk out now. If you stay, it's with the understanding that not all of your patients will be fully or even partly human, and I will expect you to treat them with the same dignity and care. Eskel will be your first step, and if you can't treat him with respect, I don't want you here.”
Some more murmuring went on and a few students looked like they were having a hard time processing. Shani folded her arms and waited, grateful for Eskel's warm hand on her back.
Eventually, one student shook her head. “I'm sorry professor.” She walked out.
The action hurt Shani, but she didn't let it show. She just clenched her jaw and waited.
Nobody else moved. She was about to continue the class when a girl near the front raised her hand.
“Professor?”
“Yes?”
“Can I have first go….if Eskel is alright with it? I've….I've always loved witcher eyes but never got to look well. Yours, sir, they're so beautiful.” She looked over at Eskel, a light blush highlighting her shy request.
Shani smiled softly and turned to Eskel, who nodded once, his expression kind.
“What's your name?” he asked.
“Amara.”
“Then thank you for the compliment Amara. You can go first.”