"He was upset before he even knew it was Toronto," Annisa notes, numbly, because why Sacramento cares is a safer topic than what Annisa knew and on precisely what timeline she knew it. 

Marcy feels like she has puzzle pieces she ought to be able to put together but she's too confused. "It doesn't add up. Why did she come in the first place? What did she want?"

Because Toronto has too many fucking slots, that's why she came here instead of someone who was planning to make it more than one day.

"It's... a pretty bad way to go I'd imagine. Could be why he was so upset."

"Why?" seems like half a step from 'it wasn't suicide' and it's not fair it's not fair it's not fair stop having that thought process it's a dead girl's thought process and Annisa needs all of the North American enclavers to not conclude she's suspicious, that'd be enough, if they don't think they have enough to act on but they think she's suspicious she's dead - 

"She didn't mention but - maybe she was expecting an older sibling or something, or an older friend, who was already dead -"

Sulking about how no one is explaining anything to him is not going to be a good look. 

“Maybe she had a really bad time during orientation, somehow?” But there were barely any mals, and she can’t possibly have known the Shanghai freshman who apparently died before even making it to the cafeteria. “I dunno, Annisa’s idea makes sense…”

He pinches the bridge of his nose. “I just don’t get why Landon was in such a hurry to chase down a weird rumor! He would’ve known it wasn’t anyone from an enclave we’re close with, or he’d’ve found out before the rumor mill.”

Because, fucking obviously, he thinks someone murdered an enclaver and all the enclaves have an interest in deterring that.

Annisa does her best confused face.

Toronto should have figured out she was fragile and done something about it, selling her slot would be terrible for their morale but this has to be even worse. She's not supposed to say that, it sounds horrible and she knows that, but she can't not think it. 

Marcy's not saying anything probably because Marcy's pretty bright and is piecing together that the obvious conclusion from 'that doesn't make sense' is 'that isn't what happened'.

Annisa's thoughts are distracted chasing irrelevant questions like 'who other than Malak knew I was involved at all?' and 'how do they execute people in the Scholomance' and 'can Malak maybe make our backpacks really uninteresting -" no, wait, that's a relevant question  - she can try to catch Malak's eye -

The only mystery here is why Shanghai and Toronto are sending such absolutely pathetic students that despite the best preparation possible show up and die before their first class. In Shanghai's case that's not even a real mystery, they've got slots to spare for shanghai enclavers.

Malak notices Annisa trying to catch her eye but gives no sign that she did because there is nothing she can do here but try to look innocent herself, (Sorry Annisa, you'd do the same for me)

Marcy gets up and walks over to the upperclassmen and and they have a brief conversation in very quiet Greek.

[Anything you can share about what's going on?]

[I don't know what happened or why but I know Sacramento doesn't need any more hits to morale right now. Keep it under your hat.]

[Roger wilco.] Because of Sadness McDeathwish what was his real name, Vanya, right.

Then she comes and sits back down in her own seat, less confused but not about the main question of what in the shit Toronto was thinking. 

(Annisa obviously doesn't expect Malak to do her a favor but the backpacks incriminate the both of them, Malak must just not be thinking of it. Oh well, if Malak is aware Annisa wants something and isn't thinking of it repeating the gesture won't change anything. She stops it.)

That sounded Greek and Malak is desperately wishing she had hearing good enough to actually parse it.

Raleigh tries to catch Marcy’s eye and communicate by eyebrows and telepathy that he has no freaking idea why this is such a big deal or what explains the Boston upperclassmen’s mutters and he would really appreciate if SOMEONE would ever keep him in the loop.

Annisa is grabbed by the sudden suicidal impulse to say to Raleigh "you blonde American moron, they think she was murdered and they're trying to coordinate on responding". She doesn't do it.

Several tables away, Landon has a brief conversation with the Toronto seniors, then leaves and quick-marches back to the Sacramento table, where he appears to be having a quick conference with Larisa.

Annisa has no further snarky commentary because she's just pure internal screaming.

Marcy is fighting with her entire mind not to ask what Toronto was thinking out loud and especially not to walk over to Toronto and ask them. She will not do that. She will also not tell Raleigh what's going on even though it's extremely his business because when a fellow Bostonian tells you something is a secret it is a secret. She will sit in her seat and eat her breakfast and wait for someone to tell her what Landon said Toronto said. And give Raleigh one (1) sympathetic glance about it.

Malak is trying to figure out if it is more suspicious to mention that she also talked to Chantal yesterday or to risk having it come out later. Probably the ship has sailed as far as mentioning it early enough to not be suspiciously hiding things goes.

The one part of Annisa's mind that's still inexplicably online is the one contemplating how you execute people in the Scholomance. The appropriate thing for this occasion would probably be to say 'oh, you claim she walked into the void on her own? well, why don't you do that, and if it works then we'll know you were innocent, actually'. 

After a few minutes, Larisa strides over with Landon on her heels, looking intensely frustrated. 

Landon mostly looks incredibly incredibly tired. “Talked to Toronto. They’re…basically confirming it, the girl handed off all her enclave-shared supplies yesterday. And no one’s seen her. I don’t know why no one did anything, but.” Shrug. 

Marcy runs out of willpower. "Were they surprised?"

This is... a trap, right? - except Toronto would confirm it, if she returned her power sharer and other shared stuff -

Confused. Confused is a fine way to look right now.

Annisa's brain is not working well enough to tell if it has reason to stop the internal screaming.

“Dunno how much they were putting up a front, but - they didn’t exactly seem shocked, no.”