22:45
Daniella sat in the conference room, staring to the point of glaring at the time displayed on her x-watch.
A few days ago, Danielle was contacted by her direct superior while she was on emergency standby duty, asking if she was willing to supervise an assessment. Her first thought was whether the message was sent by mistake.
Then, she received a follow-up message about who the assessment was for. Since she had nothing to do but wait around anyway, she opened the message.
The first sentence caught her immediate attention - 'The person coming in for the assessment is a patient who recently woke up from Hibernation Syndrome. The purpose is to only determine whether the mana particles inside their body have completely assimilated.'
Without a second thought, Daniella replied to her direct superior that she accepted the task.
"ETA ten minutes, ma'am, " the association employee assigned to assist Daniella reported.
Daniella turned the chair around before getting up to the window.
"Is the assessment room ready for our guest?" She asked with her back to the association employee.
"Yes, ma'am. The device is already set up."
"What about those on duty tonight?"
"They've been informed to stay away from the assessment room."
Earlier this evening, a message was sent to every employee who came to work the night shift at the Awakeners Association - 'ATTENTION TO ON-DUTY AWAKENERS - THE FLOOR ABOVE AND BELOW THE ASSESSMENT ROOM ARE OFF-LIMITS FOR THE ENTIRE EVENING.'
The night-shift association employees who received the attention-grabbing message did not inquire further and focused on their own respective tasks.
An additional message was sent to the security guards by the Head of Security - 'DO NOT LEAVE YOUR POST UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.'
"They've arrived, ma'am."
The large monitor in the conference room turned on, displaying the real-time security footage. On the screen, an ambulance was seen entering the association through the restricted access gate.
Though Daniella agreed to be the assessment supervisor, she couldn't supervise the assessment in person because she was an Awakener.
To prevent the risks of any unprecedented accident, Daniella personally selected two non-awakened employees she had worked with before to be her eyes inside the assessment room while she remotely monitored the situation in real-time.
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Doctor Timur was welcomed by a young female employee when he stepped out of the ambulance.
"Welcome to the Awakeners Association. My name is Bella and I will be guiding you this evening."
"I'm Doctor Timur. Thank you for agreeing to the request concerning my patient. I understand the association very rarely grants this kind of exception."
Per the rule of the Awakeners Association, anyone who comes for the assessment must reserve a time during office hours. Cutting the queue or taking over someone else's time was not tolerated. Unless there were reasonable circumstances, not even the son of a famous influential figure was given an exception to this rule.
Because of that rule, Doctor Timur initially thought it would take at least four months for the Awakeners Association to consider granting their request regarding Lea's visit, even with Alan's connection within the Awakener circle. For once, it was fortunate that Lea's case was treated as one of those rare exceptions and they were able to do the assessment much sooner.
"We will do our best to help in any way that we can," said Bella. "If there is something you need or something we need to be aware of, please do let me know."
Doctor Timur didn't hesitate and said, "As much as possible, we've been careful in minimising the patient's exposure to mana technology."
"Please wait a moment."
Bella immediately understood the underlying meaning behind the doctor's words and stepped away to communicate with someone.
Meanwhile, at the back of the ambulance, Dan swiftly secured an unconscious Lea to the wheelchair with a blanket placed over her lap.
Shortly after, Bella returned and informed Doctor Timur that the matter with mana technology had already been accounted for.
The association employee also added, "We'll be taking an elevator that takes us directly to the floor where the assessment is going to be held."
Led by Bella, the four people including an unconscious Lea entered the building through the side entrance not only because it was closer to the elevator but also because they needed to avoid going through the security scanner in the lobby.
Under the watchful eyes of Doctor Timur, Dan pushed Lea in the wheelchair into the elevator.
The short elevator ride was filled with heavy tension.
When they finally reached the floor, Bella unconsciously swallowed a deep breath because as soon as the elevator door opened, it would be the most challenging part of this entire operation rather than the assessment itself.
Doctor Timur and Dan exchange a glance.
"Miss Bella, is there a considerable amount of mana technology outside this door?"
The answer to that question was very obvious, however, the doctor needed to know to be sure.
Bella nodded with her mouth pressed together.
The entire building was installed with the latest mana technology from the facial recognition locks to the water dispenser. And since mana technology is powered by fairy crystals which have been proven to be the condensed form of mana particles, that meant there are traces of mana particles in every corner of the building.
If Lea were still under Hibernation Syndrome, this would be the most dangerous place for her to be in.
"Okay. Dan, you need to stop if Miss Carter shows signs of the slightest tremor," Doctor Timur instructed with a stern gaze. "And Miss Bella."
"Yes?"
The association employee was startled when her name was called.
"There are no Awakeners on this floor, I assume?"
"Yes, we blocked off the entire floor including the floor above and below us."
Doctor Timur was impressed that the association took such measures for one person but didn't show it.
Under the doctor's order, Dan very slowly pushed the wheelchair out of the elevator while Bella held the elevator door open.
The walking distance from the elevator to the assessment room would normally take no more than five minutes depending on the average person's pace. But because they had to stop every five steps or so to check to see if Lea's unconscious body reacted in any way, it took them half an hour until they finally reached the assessment room.
For the first time since she started working at the Awakeners Association, Bella personally never felt this much anxiety at her own workplace.
It was also the most nerve-racking moment for the people watching through the security cameras. Even more than the time a Grade S Awakener made an unannounced visit to the association.
Contrary to the worry (and anxiousness) of everyone watching, Lea only showed a peaceful sleeping face the entire time without even a slight twitch from her thin fingers.
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In the assessment room, there was only one person present to operate a device that looked almost identical to an MRI scan.
The device to assess mana particles was initially developed to detect rifts in places that weren't easily accessible by Awakeners. However, the first working prototype was too bulky and inconvenient to be carried anywhere so it was repurposed by the Awakeners Association for what was now called the assessment.
It's basically an assessment to gauge the potential strength of an individual who recently awakened purely by the amount of mana particles found inside their body.
After Dan carefully placed Lea on the device, everyone stepped to the back of the room.
"Scan commencing," the device operator signalled to the room.
The assessment didn't take that long, about seven minutes to do a full body scan.
Doctor Timur stood and watched behind the device operator with his arms crossed.
While they waited for the result, Bella took out a mini tablet to make a call. Once the video call connected, the face of a short-haired woman with tanned skin appeared on the screen.
Bella held the mini tablet to face Doctor Timur.
"Good evening, Doctor Timur. I'm Daniella, I've been assigned to supervise Miss Carter's assessment. First of all, I'd like to apologise for not meeting you in person."
"Like I told Miss Bella earlier, thank you for your consideration towards my patient's condition," Doctor Timur responded.
After the short exchange of greetings, Daniella directed her words to the device operator whose back was only seen through the video call.
"What's the result of the assessment?"
"So far, there are no anomalies found inside her body."
"And the mana particles?"
"Seems to be stable."
Doctor Timur raised a concerned brow and repeated what he just heard, "Seems to be?"
"The scan is not finished yet," Bella intervened to reassure the doctor. "The final result will come out in a couple of minutes."
Five minutes of long awkward silence filled with bated breath, the scan was complete and the device operator relayed the final result.
"Mana particles have completely assimilated with the Awakener's body."
Doctor Timur closed his eyes and lowered his head to the ground. The look of relief on his face was caught by Daniella through the video call.