Her answer comes again with hesitation: a lie wouldn’t be believable but, if she introduces Sanna to someone else, why would she ever talk with her again?

“Yes… I could.”

Yeah, Sanna expected her to be reluctant. (It's kind of hilarious that she's visibly reluctant, as if that'll improve her position, but whatever. Sanna's not the affect display police.)

"Okay. Well, if you do that, it'll certainly put me in a grateful mood." Hopefully the implication is clear. "And if you were to give me someone's contact info before we part ways tonight — only if you know they'd be fine with that, of course — I'll be in an even more grateful mood. But I'll take your word for it if you say you don't know anyone who would be okay with that." It would be ridiculous for Sanna of all people to be skeptical about someone valuing their privacy.

"…Oh, I should add that I would strongly prefer that this person not be a vampire. In fact, I'd prefer that they be a human, but I'll settle for 'a species that is decidedly less dangerous than vampires'."

Let’s see… who does she know that will not kill a squishy-looking creature, probably won’t anger her more than Meredith has already managed to and will both ask Sanna many questions and be willing to tell Meredith everything or almost?

Her thought process gets interrupted when she hears the last requisite. “There’s a small problem with that. There aren’t any sentient species, humans aside, that are significantly weaker than a vampire. They’re just differently dangerous. And the humans I know could barely even answer basic questions about magic.”

"…I see." Big if true. (She's kind of skeptical, but she's hardly in a position to check.)

Meredith proooobably won't secretly introduce her to a shapechanging demon and then sic it on her? Meredith is here because she wants information, which means she wants Sanna alive. That doesn't rule out torture though

"You could pick one that wouldn't view me as prey? Or you could pick one that uses e-mail? …Or both, actually, let's go with both."

If she asked Meredith, she’d discover that that couldn’t happen for one more reason too. ‘Demon’ is a misnomer and there aren’t any species currently going by that word (and, again, Hell isn’t a thing). There are, though, shapeshifting creatures with an appetite for flesh, so Sanna probably wouldn’t consider the difference in terminology relevant.

“Uh… top three contenders, Luelle, a witch coven leader who is more likely to wipe your memories than answer your questions” -hey, that would give Meredith a change to try to start this on better footing- “but won’t view you as prey and can use e-mail; Íkos, a centaur who isn’t usually carnivorous but still thinks that wax tablets are all the rage for writing; and Lythren, a fae lawyer, he can use e-mail but will probably show up in person anyway.” Meredith makes a point of pronouncing Lythren’s name with as little intentionality as possible to avoid having him appear already.

…Okay that's more information than she was honestly expecting.

"Can I get more clarity on how likely Luelle is to wipe my memories?" To her that kind of contradicts the statement that Luelle 'won't view her as prey', but maybe Meredith thought she only meant literal consumption. She mostly did, but… Well, it doesn't actually matter. "And would she do it unprovoked, or would I have to give her a reason? And is it something she can do through e-mail?

"Does Íkos have a phone?

"Will the fae lawyer" — she's definitely not going to speak the name of anyone described as 'fae' — "pose a danger to me if he shows up in person? And is there a way to convince him to not do that in the first place?"

“It’ll depended on how similar to a human and unlikely to fit into magical society she finds you. Witches are the main balance keepers for secrecy. Yes, she can target you with her magic having only communicated with you through mail, she’s a coven leader for a reason.”

“I doubt he knows what a phone is.” She half-joking at most.

“No more than through e-mail, unless you think that seeing the person you’re talking with float while you hold a conversation will be harmful to you. And, if there’s a way to convince him of that, I haven’t found it.” Although she hasn’t tried particularly hard either.

Okay, well Luelle is obviously out, Jesus Christ. Why even mention her. Luelle should not even know Sanna exists.

"If I met Íkos in person, could he be convinced ahead of time to not hurt me, and do you expect he'd abide by such an agreement?

"In what ways could the fae lawyer pose a danger to me through e-mail alone?"

Luelle was mentioned because she doesn’t eat people and can use e-mail but Meredith also doesn’t like having her memories erased, so that’s understandable.

“He can probably be convinced and he wouldn’t break his word unless he feels insulted.”

“He’s both a fae and a lawyer, you shouldn’t make any deals with him that you aren’t prepared to fulfil.”

"How does one avoid insulting Íkos?

"Is that the only danger the fae lawyer presents? And is making a deal with him something one can do by accident?"

“I know how many stomachs he has, not how to not offend him.”

“Yes, I think so.” It’s just that it’s a very broad danger. “And of course you can make a deal with him by accident. You can do that with anyone, it’s just that it doesn’t matter with most people.”

Sanna just barely manages to avoid rolling her eyes. "Yes, I know one can make a deal by accident with ordinary people. But fae aren't ordinary people, and I don't know how they operate. For all I knew, maybe you'd have to be intending to make a deal in order for it to count, or even perform some kind of ritual. I wouldn't know. That's why I asked."

God, can this conversation please be over already so she can go inside a fucking building. She's freezing. How long have they been out here? (Miles would know exactly how long, down to the second.) She was dressed for the short walk home from the bus stop at 6 pm temperatures, not for sitting outside for fucking ages at 8 pm temperatures.

"And presumably you've managed to avoid offending Íkos so far, how did you do it?" Is she being unhelpful on purpose, or does she only know of him through a mutual acquaintance or something? Or maybe she met him for five minutes and then he kicked her out for offending him.

“Well, between fae the effect of the difference in intentions is weighed in favour of the more powerful one. Which is generally, but not necessarily, the oldest of those involved. Between a fae and a non-fae there does need to be some sort of exchange for it to count as a deal but the fae’s perception is much more important than the other person’s.”

If Sanna had asked whether Meredith could go into the library to start with, they could now be in there and she wouldn’t be freezing. However, she hasn’t and Meredith doesn’t care much about the temperature, so she hasn’t said anything either.

“Oh, I’ve offended him many times. I’m just faster than him so I let him chase me around until he calms down.”

It's not like Sanna's avoiding the library just for shits and giggles!

"Oh, so offending him doesn't permanently bar you from interacting with him again, it just means he's pissed off for a while?"

Internal sigh. The fae lawyer is starting to sound like not a viable option after all. She'll ask some more questions about him, but she might as well focus on the centaur for now.

She shrugs. “It does if he kills you. I don’t know how fragile you are.” (This, like pretty much all of Meredith’s side of the conversation, comes with a strong sub-message of ‘you should tell me more’.)

Amazingly, Sanna genuinely doesn't pick up on that sub-message. "Right, but assuming he doesn't kill you, he eventually calms down and lets you talk to him again?"

“That’s been the case for me at least, yes. I guess a bad enough insult would make him not want to speak to you afterwards but I doubt you’ll do that by accident.”

"Okay. Supposing you were to introduce me to him, would you be willing to keep me away from him if he gets mad and starts chasing me?" She's assuming Meredith is strong enough to carry her around for several minutes without that slowing her down.

That’s a correct assumption, however, Meredith hasn’t expected to be there and, in fact, it takes her a moment to decide whether she wants to. If Sanna wasn’t going to be in danger, she wouldn’t want to be there, it’s harder to resist her curiosity when she’s so close, couldn’t she just test if compulsion works on her. However, a dead Sanna can answer no questions.

“Yes, but I don’t know if your body could handle the speed necessary.”

…Huh? "Is he… faster than a horse?" Is he magically fast…?

"Also, in your experience, what sorts of things have offended him? And how long does he chase you for?"

“Yes, he’s faster than a horse, and, probably more importantly, arrows are also faster than horses. Also, vampire running tends to look like—“ she goes from sitting still to moving faster than the human eye could track, to standing about ten meters away, in less time than a blink would take “—this.”

“I’m not sure, I didn’t find that very interesting. Likely things related to whatever family drama he had going on at the time, centaur herd politics are like that. On average… I think he chased me for about fifteen minutes? It depended on how irritated he was.”