"If it were an emergency they'd be using a different tone of voice and banging a lot harder on the door, but - yeah, we'd better talk to them." 

Marian goes over and opens the door. 

A tall, muscular girl, who looks about eighteen so probably one of the higher grades, is standing in front of the door. She looks healthy - very fit, in fact - but tired, and she's swinging a battle-axe loosely in one hand. "You're the school nurse," she says, her intonation flat. 

.....Okay at some point someday she'll get used to WEAPONS in her HOSPITAL. Well. Not much of a hospital to speak of. Tiny infirmary. Marian wonders if it's magic. 

"Uh, yes. Hi. I'm Marian. Do you - need something, have a question -?" 

"It's for my brother. This is Vanya." The girl takes a step to the side, and nudges forward a younger boy. 

The younger boy looks...probably fifteen? He also looks very underfed, almost to the point of emaciation. His dark hair, unwashed and uncombed, hangs into his eyes, which are fixed on the floor. 

"- Uh, come in, sorry." Marian beckons to the two of them, and then firmly shuts the door behind them. "I - sorry, this is Wen Qing, she's apprenticing with me. Okay if she's here with me for this? I want her to, uh, get practice with this, since -" Vague hand gesture. She is really tired of specifying the 'since she is going to DIE' part. 

"Seen you around," Larisa says to Wen Qing, again in a flat tone. "Shanghai?" 

"Yes, ma'am."

"Anyway. This is my brother Vanya and he - had a bad time last year and he's...um." 

Proooobably where she's going with that is 'depressed and traumatized?' Marian doesn't want to jump to any false assumptions though? 

"Why don't you have a seat?" She gestures at the cots, since the room doesn't exactly contain any other seating. 

"Oh. Thanks."

The girl does not sit down. 

"He - honestly I guess we should tell you the full story? In case it's relevant. He nearly had his entire life-force drained by a maleficer, who was also....romantically involved with him. Uh, before he went maleficer, to be clear. And - he had an affinity for emotions, and was a junior in artificing track, so he - made Vanya an artifact to - emotionally link them, so he'd know if Vanya was in trouble and needed help. Only it....worked both ways." 

The girl looks really shaken just TALKING about it and Marian doesn't exactly want to ask prodding questions but also she has very little idea what any of that meant! 

"...Thank you for telling me," she says on rote. "Uh, I need a moment to talk to my apprentice."

And she drags Wen Qing into her bedroom and shuts the door. "What did that mean?" she hisses. 

"Maleficers get their power from killing the animals or the humans. It makes you much stronger in the short term but in the long term it's addictive and it kills you horribly. An artifact is a physical object that does magic. For example"-- she takes out her acupuncture needle from her pack-- "I can throw this with more dexterity than most people can throw a needle and if it breaks the skin it paralyzes the muscles nearby. The Vanya's boyfriend started to use humans to power his magic and then almost completely killed Vanya and Vanya felt his emotions the entire time." 

"....Shit. So the boyfriend was - murdering people? That....sounds pretty bad." 

"Yes. It's not uncommon in the Scholomance. The respectable enclaves have nothing to do with it, of course."

Okay. Wow. Shit. She is SO out of her depth right now. 

"Have you, uh, ever used healing magic with someone who almost died from a maleficer taking magic from them?" 

"No, I haven't. The maleficers target the weak indies and none of them can afford to pay for my healing."

Shiiiiiit why is her first actually-sick patient something she has no idea how to deal with! 

"Okay. I...guess we'd better just go ask them more questions." 

And she takes a deep breath, and steps out again.

"I'm sorry about that. Can you, uh, tell me - when this happened? And what the main problem is that's bringing you here?"

Wow that sounded so scripted and ridiculous. Awkward. 

Larisa is actually thinking that those are helpful clarifying questions, and she appreciates this nurse clearly taking the situation seriously but also not freaking out. 

"It happened five months ago." 

...Okay it's also really awkward to talk about the kid like he's not there. 

"Vanya?" Marian says, cautiously. "Do you - think you've been getting better, since then?" 

He seems surprised to be addressed, but for half a second he actually makes eye contact with her. 

"....I mean, yeah? I couldn't get out of bed for two weeks." 

Marian tries to communicate to Wen Qing solely by eyebrows that she's asking if that's normal???

"Because of the drained lifeforce or because of the sadness?"

Vanya shrugs and doesn't answer. 

"I think at first it was the drained lifeforce? He wasn't really conscious for a week. ...We're mostly coming to talk to you about the sadness part, though."