"Ah, one of those, okay."

"--One of which, sorry?"

"Oh, I've read a lot of fantasy novels over the years and 'magic responds to how people think about it' is a recurring theme. I will do my best to go on expecting the air to behave in a convenient fashion."

"Oh! Yes. This is why the blueprints are posted on the walls at regular intervals, is to make sure everyone expects all parts of the place to continue existing and in the correct orientation and such."

"That's surprisingly adorable."

"There are some adorable things. It's not quite an unrelenting horror show. Agglos are cute. And everyone's so excited when the new freshmen come in with news from the outside world at Induction."

"I am glad that agglos are cute. The other thing sounds like it's mostly just the horror relenting rather than being a pleasant thing that does not depend on horror."

"Admittedly this is true. The Scholomance is still better than the alternative." 

"Maybe you guys should move to the moon or something. Are there monsters on the moon?"

"Doubt it. There probably would be if we moved there, though."

"Really? Why?"

"--They get in here," she points out. "This place isn't spatially connected to Earth at all. If we sealed off every possible connection between Earth and the Moon, killed all the mals that had gotten to the moon with us like rats riding the conquistadores' ships, and managed not to make any more, then the Moon wouldn't have mals on it. But it's a tall order."

"People are making these things?"

"Mostly not on purpose."

"Mostly, she says!"

"Quattria are created by alchemists because if you starve them and then feed them certain alchemical reagents they shit more useful alchemical reagents. And then they decide this is bullshit and go feral and breed. Chayenas are possibly the worst origin story, some European wizards went to Africa, went, 'hm, we want bigger more dangerous game,' and paid an African wizard to create this bullshit cheetah-hyena-rhinocerous-some other stuff I'm forgetting hybrid, and the African wizard was like 'wow fuck you guys' and did as they asked except he gave them a paralytic bite too, which did for the would-be big game hunters. Chayenas are actually maybe technically not mals, they domesticate nicely if you treat 'em well, but, uh, generally people do not do that. Generally people are smart enough not to go 'I'm going to create a horrible monster for the hell of it' and then unleash them on their enemies, there are ways to strike at your enemies less likely to fuck over your own descendants."

"Ah-huh. Okay, so maybe the moon isn't better than this thing here."

"This thing here will be a hell of a lot better if you manage to clean out the graduation hall!"

"Which I am happy to do!"

"I appreciate it and genuinely hope you don't die or worse!"

"I am indestructible. I would be fine if I fell into a black hole. If you fail to hear back from me after some troubling amount of time, you can try dismissing and resummoning me."

"Whoah, you could make a black hole, couldn't you."

"I mean, yes, but I'm not going to, it'd be rather friendly fire."

"No, no, yeah, I wasn't accusing you of anything, it's just, wow, that's--a perspective. To have. On your powers."

"I could make a planet, too. Take me a few weeks though."