"I don't like the sound of a lot of that," he says, frowning, turning it all over in his head. "Some of these are - weasel words, too." He sighs. "I'll have to look at it all, though. Maybe sleep on it..."

"Do you think Kyubey's working against us?"

He frowns deeper. "Not necessarily. He started offering more information when you pushed, but... I think he has his own agenda. Most people do. And that agenda probably only sometimes aligns with human interests - the variable here's how often."

"Yeah. I'm - not good at reading people, though. Especially not aliens."

"We'll work on it. For now... Maybe back off on him. Get to know the other girls. They might've seen things you haven't, though if he's introducing you to them he's probably at least a little sure of their loyalty."

She nods, quietly and slowly.

He's going to keep an eye on her, but - possibly the best he can do is space, right now.

He turns to keeping up with his school work.

She tries reaching out to the other four local girls more. But Mal - Sue kind of likes Mal, but Mal's convinced Kyubey can do no wrong. And Sue, well. The only authority Sue's ever trusted is her sister.

An Hu, the Chinese magical girl, just blows her off. Felicity Summers, the other newish girl, is nervous and high energy and unsure and knows nothing at all.

Sue has yet to successfully meet Delilah Reeve, the only one who lives in Charlottesville full time.

She keeps up with her studies. She hunts, occasionally. The odd energy that protects her keeps popping up every time she'd be injured. It feels like being hugged and knowing she's loved. (She hates it, she thinks.) She keeps the grief seeds instead of giving them to Kyubey.

And then her sister's seed hatches.

Sue wins the fight. Her sister's tactics haven't changed at all.

She spends the next day staring into space, blank.

Shisui comes to sit beside her, pulling her into a sideways hug.

"It's not fair," is all she can say, voice muffled and weak.

"Then we'll change it."

She nods.

And the days roll on.

It doesn't take very long, before Sue's stash of grief seeds starts hatching and needing to be fought down one a week. She's hesitant to get more, because she hasn't had two hatch at once yet and even though the witches never change - it's the same motions, over and over and over, and she can almost beat her sister with barely any magic now - she's hesitant to risk that. Sue... Super doesn't know what to do, here.

She contacts Mal, for a meeting with Sue, Mal, and Shisui.

Mal accepts, and sends over her schedule for the next week. It's pretty packed, but there's some availability Thursday afternoon.

Well, that runs slightly into Shisui's classes but if they push it back a bit it works?

She's perfectly alright with that.

Shisui's there at the scheduled time.

Sue's with him.

Mal's waiting for them.

"What's up?"

"I had some questions about grief seeds and - strategy."

She nods. "Can't promise I'll be able to answer everything, but I've run into most problems there before."

She nods and pauses, trying to marshal her thoughts.

Mallory waits, expression patient.

"I don't want to let my grief seeds get destroyed," she starts, then pauses.

"Why not?"