Path Of The Broken

14. Failure

14

Failure

Before The Sundered War

Katrina frowned, staring at the data in front of her, flipping from one page to the next, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. It made little sense and a lot of the data seemed to be contradictory. It wasn’t what she’d thought she would see, nor what her initial small-scale trials had shown her should be the result. She raised her hands to her temples, using her fingertips to massage before she loosened her hair from its strict bonds. Her face screwed up and she flung herself up from the chair with such force the plain wooden chair clattered to the ground. Katrina moved from behind her desk, her pace short and sharp as she moved back and forth across the room. It didn't make sense. It wasn't supposed to be like this. The internal monologue ran through her mind, over, and over again in a litany she couldn't stop. There was what she had intended, what should have happened. Yet the results on the pages of the report did not agree.

Katrina stopped halfway across the room, her hand moving from her temple to cover her face, trying to hide her tears. She didn't even know who she was trying to hide from, it's not like anyone could see her right now. Since this trial had started, she’d had her own office. She flung her head back and laughed, the sound bitter, even to her own ears. It was her brother’s shade she had failed. She had wanted to set out something that would be his legacy, his gift to the talented. Instead her medication was making it worse. Obviously something vital was missing.

Unaccountably, many of her trial participants had sickened, and when they continued with the treatment, many of those had died. Others had suffered extreme pain, screaming for release. Then there were the ones that at first she’d thought responded well to the treatment, only for her to learn that instead of improving they’d gone mad, murderous, in the process.

Katrina closed her eyes, and took a deep long breath, holding that breath at her maximum capacity before slowly letting it out. Usually the exercise calmed her agitation. She opened her eyes, certain she of what she needed to do. No matter what it meant to her, to her career, she needed to present her findings to the Masters. Her trial had to finish until she could establish what she had missed, why it had gone so horribly wrong. Her lips firmed and she nodded, then turned and stooped to gather results of her research one piece of paper at a time from her desk. After gathering them all up she rearranged them back into an order that made sense, even if the findings didn't.

She opened the drawer to the right, pulling out a fresh piece of paper and placing it on the desk in front of her. Without thinking or having to look, her hand tracked across to the pen off to one side of the desk and she made notes for herself. Brief, short, distinct; the highlights, the most important parts of her research to date that the Guild Masters needed to inform their decision.

Katrina laid down her pen and pushed her chair back, her hands rising to cover her face as tears tracking down her cheeks. The last thing she wanted to admit to was failure.