Annaka Sanderson is tall, thin, obviously an enclaver even if you somehow miss the New York power-sharer on her wrist; her senior clothes are in breathable, well-fitted long-sleeved fabric practically sparkling with protective enchantments, her athletic shoes and backpacking backpack both look brand-new, so she must have brought extras, and when her eyes sweep across a room they're mostly looking for people, not mals; the kids jogging alongside her are looking out for the mals. 

She sweeps this room and then narrows in on a freshman from Chicago. People scramble out of her way as she heads over to them; other people don't, and she doesn't step on them but she does step on their homework.

"Eliza Godfrey, right?" she says, and it would be 'pleasantly' except there's a little too much briskness to it. "You're not in trouble and no one's dead, but we need to talk to you about something - is this a good time?"

"Now's fine." This is a New York upperclassman, she'd say it was fine no matter how not fine it was. 

Yeah, it was mostly just a courtesy. Annaka walks at the same pace out of the library and into a classroom. "We've checked it, it's safe," she says over her shoulder. Her entourage doesn't follow them in. "I'm sure you're very busy with class. We are - concerned about a maleficer in your year, and we're trying to make sure we have an accurate record of the interaction between him and New York that happened on orientation day. Do you mind sitting down and telling me how you remember it?" This is no more of a genuine question than the last one.

"Of course." She sits. "Uh, I was helping Julia with a run to the senior dorms to pick up some hand-me-downs, and this smelly guy with garbage clothes and freaky vibes came up to us wanting to come along, and Julia tried to tell him to fuck off but he didn't seem to take the hint, and he said he could spot mals and I asked if that was his affinity and he said yes, and Julia said if he came along and didn't get his stink on anything then she would make sure he got clean clothes later, and then he came along and waited outside and then one of the seniors was like, 'Julia, you can't let maleficers hang around you,' and then went out and told him to fuck off harder than Julia had earlier? And he was gone when we came out again. ...I didn't, like, take notes on what happened, I didn't realize it would be important later and I was pretty distracted by--you know, what just happened. I can't swear I'm remembering everything right." 

"Yeah, of course. We're asking everybody and we're expecting some variance in the accounts but things that are in all of them probably happened, you know? Did you see him do any magic?"

"I think he did in fact successfully spot a couple mals? Aside from that, no."

"When Julia agreed he could follow your group, did that seem - natural to you, like she changed her mind, or like something else changed her mind?"

"It seemed like she decided it would be less of a hassle to let him come along than to get rid of him? She told the senior later that she didn't wanna be a bitch and he said if the situation ever came up again, she should be a bitch. It seemed less like changing her mind and more like, 'ugh, whatever,' you know?"

She's writing all this down. "All right. Thank you. I'm sure you have lots of homework, I'll walk you back to the library. We're - keeping this investigation private, at this time."

"Okay. Uh, my friend Justinian, he's the other Chicago survivor I know of, he was there too, if you wanna ask him what happened. He's less gregarious than me so I think he didn't actually talk to the guy and I did."

"Surname? Can you point him out to me in the library?"

"Justinian Fermi. Yeah, sure."

In that case Annaka would like to talk to Justinian Fermi, too, please. 

Justinian is pretty findable; he was in the stacks when they found Eliza and is now standing around where she was sitting at the time. He spots them before Eliza has done more than wave in his general direction and walks over carefully. 

"Is everything alright?" he asks, concerned. 

"You're not in trouble and no one's dead that I know of but I'd like to talk to you, if you have a moment," Annaka says. New Yorkers talk fast and she talks fast for a New Yorker. 

"--Okay," he says, exchanging glances with Eliza. His shoulders relax. "However I can be of service."

Same classroom, same speech. "Do you remember when you first saw the kid?"

"I was part of Julia's supply run to the senior dormitories, along with Eliza. He looked like he was looking for Orion Lake--he introduced himself by saying he had spotted one for him to kill earlier."

"Did he introduce himself unprompted, or only once he'd been challenged on following you - it's okay if you don't remember -"

"Only once he'd been challenged--it was Eliza who asked who he was, actually--but he was challenged pretty promptly so I don't know if that means anything?"

"Did Orion recognize him?"

"I don't remember? I think Orion wasn't paying much attention to any of us, he seemed pretty intent on hunting mals. He did run off kill a couple the guy pointed out, he couldn't find any that were going to directly threaten us but there were, like, a couple."

"Did Orion invite him to join the group?"

"No, I don't think so...I think he also didn't tell him to go away either, maybe that undermined Julia a little bit? I'm not sure."

"So Eliza asked who he was, Julia told him to go away, Orion chased a mal, no one else said anything? And then how did he end up following the group after all?"