"You're exhausted, and you're stressed. I'm sure that's all it is."

Despite Dr. Mari's dismissive-sounding words, her tone was entirely sympathetic. And Basyl wasn't all that surprised by that. Given her position of being a totally-licensed-and-official doctor, she'd gone through everything that Basyl was now. Well, in terms of intensive study and life-altering examinations. She may not have had to deal with all the supernatural good versus evil war that Basyl also engaged in. Probably.

Not that he could say all that. "Y-yeah, I know. You're totally- totally right. I just... feel off."

He'd nearly toppled over in the hallway. For literally no reason. He wasn't sprinting to catch up with anyone, and he hadn't had his eyes glued to a clipboard. He'd just been walking, completely normally, and then for no apparent reason, dizziness had struck him so hard that he'd seen sideways.

Maybe he could've passed it off. Anyone could be clumsy sometimes. But hot on the heels of the dizziness came vertigo and a headache that had really put him on the floor. Stress and exhaustion were common factors in a lot of ailments. Basyl wouldn't argue that, but... It had been so sudden and so persistent and not like anything he'd felt in his med school tenure. And he'd taken terrifying exams before. He'd passed the first USMLE nearly two years ago, and though he'd definitely had a couple bouts of nausea, that hadn't felt as out of place as this did.

Dr. Mari helped him to his feet and gave him a little flick of her fingers to dust off his green scrubs. "I'm sure you'll do fine," she told him. "Though I know it doesn't really help you to say so."

It didn't. He gave a sheepish sort of shrug, so she went on:

"I really hope you feel alright enough to finish up this last week. Truthfully, you probably won't be tested on anything you haven't already seen and extensively studied, but this is sort of the last in-person review you'll get before the Boards. If you need to take a break this week, I certainly wouldn't stop you, but..."

"N-no, no! Of course I plan on being here. I w-wouldn't miss it, ever!" Which was true, and he could've stopped there, but his tongue never quite seemed to know when best to be silent. "If I wasn't here, I'd just be at home, and even if it is a good place to rest, and I'd be able to study- If I was going to be ill, I would stay at home, but I don't think I'm sick, so there's really no reason to. And I wouldn't want to miss my last week of watching you work, though I kinda hope it's not my last-last week. I just- I think I'm better off here than sitting at home worrying about this exam."

She patted his shoulder. "Look, it's alright. Whatever you need to do, go ahead and do it. Just be careful. You really can't be falling all over the place in a hospital."

"R-right, right, no, of course I won't..."

But it didn't really matter what he said. Even if Basyl didn't 'fall all over the place,' he didn't really feel better. The vertigo never quite went away. A steady sort of fatigue crept into his limbs. There was a persistent pressure in his chest. And it all developed within the day. It could be stress and fatigue... But Basyl somehow doubted it.

He also somehow doubted that it would be anything that a doctor could identify. He couldn't explain why the pressure felt like it stemmed more from his starseed than his heart, but it did. Which would've been completely nonsense if anyone had mentioned it to him a year ago, but seemed easy enough to believe now.

As he sat on the bus, waiting to be dropped off near his apartment, Basyl rubbed a hand over his chest.

Magic could do pretty much anything, and it seemed to do so with such inconsistencies that still left it feeling extremely inexplicable. He didn't want to pass off every discomfort as being "magic," and he wasn't sure what he'd been in proximity with that may have caused it this time, but something definitely felt off in an extremely uncomfortable way... And he didn't really know what to do about it.

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