"I happened to Westing."

He's not proud. He's not sorry, either. He just - isn't.

"Good job." It's genuine. "Why didn't you tell anyone?"

"People liked Westing. People don't like me. I don't think it's tribunal material, but I wouldn't get a medal."

This is not the reason. This is absolutely not the reason. This could not be farther from the reason.

Scorpius feels... like he maybe knows what the reason is.

"...well. Sorry about your door. Do you, ah, want help fixing it?" Then he is reminded of the smell as a particularly large bubble on the oozing fluid bursts and wafts its aroma in their direction and adds, "And maybe cleaning this? I suck at cleaning spells but I can spot you the mana." He eyes the books then amends that with, "If you've got any good spells for that, yourself."

Lex sighs. "Oh, guess."

He heads over to the void wall. Inhales deeply - coughs violently. Inhales deeply through his mouth. "I would like a spell to clean the remains of a soul-eater off my floor. Please."

The book that is spat out onto his bed is leather-bound, and the ink is red. It opens to a page.

"Organic matter disintegration," he diagnoses. "Expensive, but thorough."

He offers Lex a hand, looking up expectantly at him.

Lex looks startled. "- I was joking. Or - no. I wasn't joking. It's expensive. I was going to try again."

"I pull from the mals I kill. Not even malia, just straightforward mana."

"What the fuck."

Scorpius shrugs, and looks down at his hand then back at Lex again. "If you use this matter disintegration spell on an actual person I will be forced to hunt you down and disintegrate you but..." He glances at Lex's headboard, in perfect condition with zero holes from having pulled malia from it, which virtually everyone else does. Not someone who is strict-mana, though.

Lex caught that glance.

"Damn, you've caught me."

"Take my mana or pull for another spell, the offer's here either way."

Lex touches Scorpius' hand.

And here is an amount of mana that... for anyone with regular mana capacity would be Rather A Lot, but Scorpius does take note of how this is definitively not the case with this boy.

Curiouser and curiouser.

It's not enough to sting, but it's enough to widen his eyes. He shakes his head minutely.

"Alright. This is going to be in Coptic."

And, after a polite moment in case Scorpius wants to cover his ears, he begins to incant. The puddle of slime is consumed by smokeless fire within seconds.

Lex attempts to surreptitiously touch a perfectly transparent crystal on a pendant around his neck. It having been thus brought to his attention, Scorpius might recognize the make.

"...ah," is what he says, because he does recognize the make. "It all begins to make sense."

"Sorry?"

"The Radiant Mind crystal around your neck. Which you somehow have despite not being from any enclave or famous family or anything. Which is not unheard of, of course, Gwen Higgins gives those out whenever she thinks they are going to be put to good use. Doesn't she?"

"...she can do whatever she wants."

"Mmhm. Well, I believe I have intruded enough, so I should probably get going..."

"Yeah. Thanks for the mana. And for breaking my door. You realize I'll have to go to workshop to get enough raw material to make-and-mend the handle? If you really wanted to help out you could walk me down and kill the argonet that's presumably waiting for me to poke my head in. Unless that's too much for the conquering hero."

Scorpius covers his lips with a hand to hide his grin. "I suppose I could come with you after dinner. I am told if you try to take anything from the workshop before then it'll try to eat you."

"Shockingly, I knew that, not having gotten myself killed in the past three years. I suppose you wouldn't have cause to know if it's common knowledge, since if the workshop tried eating you it'd give itself indigestion."

"It's more a case of never having had need for it. And if I try to get it from the New York stash Magnus might try to eat my head and it would be terrible for my image if I had to stop him."

"Ah, yes, the stash. ...I've never heard of it before but in retrospect it's the least surprising thing I've learned since 'Americans invented sliced bread'."