"- Is someone dying?" Marian asks Julia, because she can't help herself. "I - sorry - your sister's making the face that I make when one of my patients is trying to die on me." 

"I don't think she'd be that upset if it was just that someone was dying! Maybe if it was one of ours? Is one of our people dying?" she asks the room at large. 

         "They're doing an investigation," one of the juniors says irritably. "We haven't put out a don't-be-surprised yet so don't spread it around."

"I see." 

She really doesn't. An investigation of what? 

...She can't help here, Marian forcibly reminds herself. Her job is to be the school nurse. Not less, not more. Just doing that is going to be hard enough. 

"Thanks," she says to Julia, with a lot more weariness in her voice than she meant to let slip. "I guess I should go do a screening with Zeke now?" 

"Have some tea first!"

Well, that's almost like coffee. 

"- Sure! I'd love to." 

Someone pours her a cup. 

The reading room is ...actually quite nice? The Void is visible past the mezzanine, but it's warmly lit and the couches are comfortable and the students look - relaxed, not totally miserable, as they work through their homework assignments, pouring over impressive leather-bound books. In the distance other kids are sitting in worse seats with worse lighting, but this table here is cozy. Julia has pulled up a pillow to sit on and is reading the Iliad.

Marian eagerly takes the opportunity to SIT DOWN. 

(You would think that being a school nurse required less standing and running around than being an ICU nurse, and this might be true if her infirmary had any...seating...other than the stupid cots. However, her feet still hurt.) 

She also takes the opportunity to make some discreet observations. There...sure do seem to be some bizarre class dynamics here? The New York group is clearly the elites. She's not totally sure about Shanghai's relative status, but - they're better off than the independent kids? And definitely better off than the random mundanes who didn't know magic was a thing until today. Like - what was her name, oh, right, Wendy. 

...right, she should find Wendy and tell her that her stash of Adderall is going to find buyers in the Shanghai enclave. Maybe. Unless getting it from the void saturates the market, but the void isn't exactly an infinite supplier of controlled substances... 

Trying to simultaneously track what's medically justified and appropriate versus what will keep Marian herself alive versus what will benefit various other specific students is making Marian's head hurt. She decides to take a break from thinking about it and read titles of library books while she sips her tea. 

Most of them are in languages she doesn't speak but some English titles include Alchemee By Artificial Light and Practical Potions for the Modern Home and All You Need To Know About Ancient Magical History.

...She kind of wants the one about ancient magical history, actually? It seems - relevant, to understanding this bizarre hidden world she's fallen into. And also it'll be something to do when she's not seeing patients. 

"Julia?" she says quietly. "Am I - allowed to take out books from the library?" 

"It's not disallowed but they're really picky and tend to vanish on you and then you won't ever be able to find them again."

Well that's not creepy at all! 

Marian would maybe risk it for something really important. A random history book she just happened to spot is not that. 

"....Oh. Uh, I - probably shouldn't actually stay here and read it, I need to get back to the infirmary in case anyone's looking for me needing medical attention." Maybe later once she's in a more stable position - if she's not dead - she can trade favors and have someone hand-copy the relevant sections. Or she can see if the void is willing to be nice and give her a non-medical book. "Any chance Orion or someone could walk me back down?" 

"Don't you need to screen Zeke so you can give him Adderall? I bet he'll go back with you for that."

"Sure, yeah, that works if you think he's up for taking on any mals that bother us." Marian feels awkward even pushing back that much, but it would also be so stupid if she died because she felt socially awkward about asking teenagers for favors. 

"It's the first day, and mostly the recommended thing to do about mals is to run away from them rather than fight them anyway. I think you'll both be fine."

"Cool, good to know. Thanks for the tea!" And she really hopes it doesn't keep her up tonight. "If I get any neat Buddhist meditation or therapy books, I'll let you know." 

She looks around for Zeke. 

Annaka trots back a few minutes later. "Julia!" she says in brisk-rushed-voice. "You're not in trouble and no one's dead but we need to talk with you. Is this a good time?"

"You're going to have grey hair by the time you're, like, twenty-three. Is this about the smelly -"

"Julie, please come with me."

"Have fun nursing people," she tells Marian, and stands up with great annoyance to go join her sister.

Zeke is located over in that direction and seems to be only somewhat occupied by staring vaguely at a section of wood grain. It’s very wood and very grain.

Marian goes to join him - 

- and then stops, and pokes the wood with her ivory magic knife. "....Is that a death monster disguised as wood." 

Zeke edges away from the wood.

“- I don’t think so is there like an eye stalk poking out or something -“

"What? Oh, no, I - it looks normal to me? I just got nervous because you were paying a lot of attention to it and you've got magic." 

“Oh, okay, cool - I was bored and there’s a weird knot in the wood and I thought it looked super neat!” he says, pointing at the weird knot in the wood that looks super neat.

Huh, okay, maybe this kid actually literally has ADHD. 

"I guess," Marian says, not sounding very convinced. "Uh, I - would've thought it wasn't a great idea to get really focused on looking at something neat, in here? Because you'll miss seeing the death monsters?" Her fingers semi-involuntarily tighten on the hilt of her ivory knife, which she's barely let go of during the last 24 hours.