"Sure, you can say that -" She smiles faintly.

"I'd guess convergent changes?  This dates back to the 1700's, and I don't think any mages were involved in muggle psychiatry, at least till the last few --"

The front of the cap swells and bubbles over Mira's head.

Aeslin abruptly falls silent and swoops down to tap the circle between them; it brightens.

And then Aeslin freezes in place for a moment, staring.

"...Well that doesn't seem like a particularly good outcome...does it?"

"I'm legitimately confused now - that's not what should've happened if it did find something - and even if a geas was preemptively defending itself, how could it -"

...

Oh, she realizes after a moment, there's one possibility she was forgetting.

She raises her wand, but then realizes the hat is going to interfere with magic-detection spells here.  She could ignore her own circle, but not a device like that.

"It's probably not safe for me to cross the circle right now," (half because of the circle itself, but half because of the chance that some dangerous magic might be on Mira - and she's not going to mention that because she's learned caution dealing with unknown magic) "but can you carefully take the hat off and set it down somewhere inside the circle?"

She can do that.  Very, very carefully do that.  Like the hat might be about to explode, do that.  Eep.

And Aeslin weaves her wand in a simple magic detection spell, looking for the delay-triggered magical gems or devices some unknown mage had hidden in Mira's hair, which would explain everything.

(She hopes Mira didn't consciously know about them herself?  That'd be less painful at least.)

Except they aren't there.

There's no magic on Mira.  Except the spells Aeslin herself put there a minute ago.

"Well, that just became more confusing.  I don't detect any magic on you at all.  But something happened!  And I'm pretty sure it was magical!"

"Well, that's strange...  Can you, like...  Widen the filter to - not just structured, but any, magic?  Because my next guess is 'maybe there's not a spell on me'."

"You think you might be... part rock-fay?  Or were-beast?  But you would've noticed before now... unless you got bitten in the last moon, but then you would've presumably noticed that -"

She reaches in her pocket, picks out a coin, and tosses it across the circle.  "Truesilver, if you want to test that."

She'll test it!  "I don't know what could be happening, except as that there Is Magic, and there Should Not Be Anything Setting Off The Magic-Detector without a source of magic, you know?  But as far as I know the only thing that could've bitten me without notice is a were-mosquito and it isn't even the right season for those."

No, no blistering or other unusual reaction!

"Were-mosquitoes aren't a thing.  Fortunately.  Only were-mammals and were-rodents, outside Australia where you get were-marsupials.  No idea whether it's a biological reason or land-magic reason - though if it's land-magic you'd think you'd get were-birds somewhere."

She grins.  "So I could do several things like that, and I really want to do them - but I can't do them here.  I was planning to study a building, not to study you!

"So... want to come see my apartment?"

She yawns.  "I really should get some sleep...  Buuuuuut I don't want to go back to the dorms, I want to find out what's going on with the weird magic readings!  So yes, I would love to see your apartment, so long as you don't mind if I accidentally fall asleep on your couch or something."

The thoughts of morning classes and possible roommates don't even cross Aeslin's mind. 

"Sure, I can move the books off the couch.  I think I put away everything that'd be dangerous... long as you don't touch that cursed sword, of course..."

Aeslin weaves her wand up and down around the circle around Mira to untie it; the sparkling vanishes.  "Circle's broken now.  Just need to clean up here and we can head out."

She, for one, has deftly evaded having morning classes this semester.

(...The thought of roommates hasn't crossed her mind, either.  And she doesn't think her dormmate will even notice.  They barely talk.)

"Don't...touch...swords.  Got it.  Anything I can help with for the cleanup?"

"Uh..." She glances around, trying to judge what would be safe for Mira to handle.  "... Books go in that pack over there; don't move any existing bookmarks.  Chalk can go in that bag there."

And then she turns to de-power the circles and smudge enough diagrams to leave them indistinguishable from sidewalk art.

Sure, she can do that.

Aeslin carefully puts away her spare wands and other magical devices, hoists her staves over her shoulder, and leads the way past the building with mysterious stones and off-campus.

"It isn't too far," she says.  "Not sure how much that was luck and how much just that I was asking early, but it's going to come in handy for late nights like this."

(A few other college students pass the two girls as they go, including one guy who does a double-take at Aeslin's staves but doesn't say anything about it.)

"Yeah.  Can't say much is good about the dorms, but they are at least convenient."

"I do wish I had my own backyard - there're some spells that work better outside - but at least I've got a window in the right spot to get sunlight and moonlight sometimes."

"...I'm either going to sound like an idiot or a genius, but couldn't you stick the spell out the window?  I guess it depends on how it opens, and whether you need to be outside to benefit from the outside-ness..."

"Awkward, but yeah, it works sometimes.  Not for spells that need something like a circle, or anything more than my wand and maybe head."

"Well, if you could get a really tiny circle...  ...Does size usually matter to these things?"

"It matters if I'm inside or outside it.  Or whatever it is I'm casting on - like when you were in the second circle.  But sure, I suppose if some Fay shrank me down, I could be in a super-small circle."