"159B, I think that's close?" He looks up and does some mental math. "Yeah, I think that's the same hallway."

"All right." She should invite Malak to eat dinner with her. If she says it like a statement then maybe it won't come across like she's begging for dinnermates and instead like she thinks they obviously are sizing each other up as allies? But maybe that's too presumptuous - indirection. Indirection time.

"I'm delighted to have acquired both some scrap and some leads on people who trade fairly. If you're not far too stealthy for that perhaps I'll see you at dinner."

- oh that was friendly. She must not have messed up that badly.

"I suppose that depends on how much you're paying attention. I know I'll see you."

She can't think of a response at all so she just smiles and shuffles away with her books. 

Suc...cess??

Success! She thinks. Maybe.

Well, she is going to split off from the rest of the group and go find her room so that next time she meets someone cool she doesn't have to awkwardly dodge the question whenever room numbers come up. And without calling too much attention to the fact that she's going off on her own.

(Actually, finding the room - 565B - turns out to be easier than she'd feared, because in her dehydrated stupor she had forgotten to even close the door. There are some small blobby mals inside but she has a knife and can deal with them without even burning mana.)

Thank you, God, for sparing me the costs of my errors, and for watching over me and keeping me safe on this first day.

She unpacks her bag and organizes her artificing materials, then puts the mice back in, singing them back to sleep. (She still needs to hand the mice off to Safiyah, she doesn't have a place to keep them herself.) She opens all her drawers (checking for mals, which there aren't except for a very determined agglo that has refused to relinquish one of the hinges.) and leaves them open. She doesn't have time to disassemble them now and if they're closed when she gets back she'll know there's something inside. She locks her door and heads off to dinner.

Artificing is easier. Ghassan just grabs a few things he knows Dubai might want. Speaking of his enclave...

"Can Lagos make a room for a few more during dinner? Dubai has some artificers who would love to rub elbows with another enclave."

Who wouldn't. The answer will probably depend on how much Lagos wants to preserve its reputation.

"I think we're eating with Ethiopia and Zanzibar, it's gonna be pretty full between all the grades," he says, looking up at the Ethiopian kids, who are honestly weird in that they have not said a word that wasn't quietly to each other this whole time. 

(The Ethiopian kids don't actually acknowledge him; looks like they're helping each other look through pieces of metal. He sort of has some doubts about this whole 'pretend that all of Sub-Saharan Africa minus Johannesburg is the same enclave on the inside' plan, but also it might keep him from dying? So he's not gonna be the one to break it up.)

"I understand."

If there's nothing else anyone wants from this supply run, Ghassan supposes he should rejoin Dubai for dinner.