Draven's POV
I hear Marcus shout my name from approximately fifteen feet away and I do not respond to it.
This has never happened before. In four years of combat training and two years of running academy operations and every crisis of the last six weeks, Marcus has never had to shout my name twice. My response to his voice is so thoroughly conditioned that I have answered it in the middle of training sessions without breaking form. It is one of the most reliable reflexes I have.
I do not respond to it.
I am standing at the junction of the west corridor and the main hall and I am looking at my mother.
She is older. That is the first thing my brain registers and files because it is factual and facts are easier to process than anything else available to me in this specific moment. She is
