"Right. ...Uh, do you have any idea why you have history class but not biology? Is it, like, magical-people history specifically?" 

"I assume that is how school works? We learn the Five Classics before the Scholomance, we don't learn biology."

"- Uh, sorry, I feel really stupid now but - what are the 'Five Precepts'? ...Honestly I think the only stuff I remember from school is, like, chemistry and biology and stuff." 

"I am not sure I know the English-- the basic texts of the Confucianism?"

"- Uh, that's - the Chinese religion?" 

Aaaaaaaaaaaah that was probably SO RACIST to say out loud but it's too late now. 

"Yes. But we also practice the Taoism and the Buddhism as is appropriate."

"Oh." 

Pause. 

"....Uh, is - Buddhism and stuff - real....?" Marian isn't even sure what that would MEAN, but apparently MAGIC is real so ???????

"I don't understand what you mean."

Welp. This is maybe officially the most awkward conversation of her ENTIRE LIFE.

Then again, social awkwardness is...just not that important, when weighed up against the life-or-death stakes in this horrible magic death school. 

"....Um. I, just... So, most Western religions talk about there - being a God, or gods? Who, like, love and care about humans? And...as far as I know there, uh, aren't. I think maybe Buddhism doesn't say that but I don't actually know much about it." 

"I have no reason to believe Guanyin is any more real than Jesus."

Awkward! Aaaaaah! 

"...So, um, in - Canadian schools, religion classes, uh, aren't mandatory? I guess we take history but we also get a lot of biology even in middle school?" 

"We don't attend mundane school because of all the past historical atrocities in China. We're tutored by our parents."

"- I guess that's a pretty good reason. I wish you'd gotten some biology, though, I, uh, feel like that'd have been more useful?" 

"I think they haven't changed the curriculum since the 19th century?"

"....Seems not great? I - uh, I guess I would tell you to tell them, except you - don't have any way of doing that unless you make it out of here alive, so, uh..." 

"I don't know much about the education in other countries?"

"I don't know anything about the magical education in other countries! My regular high school was, like, decent?" 

"I think mostly they go to the mundane school because mundanes don't believe in mals so around them mals turn into rats."

"- Right. ...Man, I wonder if I could just - think really hard about general relativity and how everything in the world follows physicals laws, and - have that make mals turn into rats. I don't know if it'd work, but, I mean, this whole magic thing is just bullshit." 

"It seems worth experimenting with?"

“…Yeah, probably. I - guess there’s no way to really blind it but I could, like, flip a coin to randomize—“

Pause. 

“Uh, sorry - do you know enough stats for what I just said to make any sense?”

"I learned the algebra and the calculus but not the statistics."

Marian tries to think about that for a moment— okay whatever this is not the time to try to reinvent a statistics curriculum off the top of her head. 

"...Right. Uh, are there any other meds that you think you'd need, like, before tomorrow? I can try asking the void." 

"The first few weeks of term are pretty safe."

Which bodes well for her own survival. Maybe. Sort of. Assuming she can trust anything this kid says wait why is she even having that thought, how paranoid has she gotten - 

".....It sounds like antidepressants - uh, drugs that help with people being sad because of bad parents - would just be useful in general? I can try getting more of those." 

And she marches over to the void wall and glares at it.