"I can see in the dark. Some dark I can't see through, which is magic, is currently being misdirected by an illusion of me in the bathroom, but I don't know how long it will be fooled by me being amazed by my own reflection and not making any sound when I breathe. Hoping you know what the fuck."

" - I do not know what the fuck. Em?"

"No. That sounds bad."

"Kind of don't want to be here when it notices."

"We can leave. It's late enough."

She starts packing papers, rapidly.

"No guarantee it can't follow us to our room."

"I'll notice, if I'm looking, but I don't actually know what to do about it."

"My instinct's either get in the dark or get in extreme light, depending on what sort of shadow it needs."

"I couldn't tell you."

"Dark's easier to get. Less suspicious. Might give it an easier time, though. But also eliminating all shadows from a room is hard."

They finish packing.

"If I can't see in it, it's not normal dark."

"And it might not behave how we'd naively expect."

"Yeah. I don't really even have any guesses."

"We could just leave the city? Might not be able to follow us onto a train." Bellona's also been - antsy, lately, to get going.

"Heading straight for the train station would reveal we saw it, likely..."

"Reveal it to whom?"

"I'm assuming there's some kind of intelligence behind the shadow, or that the shadow itself is intelligent. It's possible we could just safely report this to our guards, and they'd escalate it appropriately."

"I don't think we need to necessarily panic - it could be infiltrating the library for something unrelated to us. It could be after our notes. It could be the government's, and it routinely monitors all state alchemists - possibly just in Central - and we've just never noticed. It could be an assassin, targeted at us or someone else, in which case 'surrounded by the military' is a better position to fight it from. It could be a lot of things. If it was heading away from us, it might've already decided we're not interesting to it, or it might've already gotten what it was after."

"It was watching my illusion when I looked. That lasts only as long as I concentrate on it so I'm not in top conversational form at the moment."

"Right. So we'll get you out of the library - but Bellona and I won't be able to see if it's following us..."

"Don't have a spell to give you darkvision."

"I think our options are pretty much just head back to our room, head for the train station, or ditch our guards and just stay in the city - last one we'd be able to have you out to look around fastest."

"How about I just get in the armor now before I lose my concentration and you do - something -"

Armor: open.

In she gets. Her image is SOOOO interested in its reflection.

They head out, back to their dorm - which, once Belmarniss is out, turns out not to contain any suspiciously under-visible shadows.