"Doesn't sound that bad to me. Want me to reattune your empties?"

"Why... would you do that."

"You're my boyfriend's boyfriend, I still feel guilty about not being able to help with the maw-mouth, and you deserve nice things."

"Entirely beyond me, 'thread of mana', but I can snuggle you two while you do it. And I can do the mana transfer to you whenever, Lex, just tell me when you're ready."

"...ready," Lex says.

(Edmund appropriates the drained crystals and starts concentrating on one. It glows faintly.)

Here's a light tap of mana.

Lex starts filling his non-drained spares.

"So, now that we're good and settled down: what is that book?"

"Oh. Um."

He sets down the crystal and picks up the book and flips open the inside cover.

"Behold the Masterwork of the Wise One of Gandhara. Is what it says on the title page. So..."

Edmund sucks in a breath.

"The—isn't that the title of the guy who invented the first enclave-building spells?"

Edmund squeezes his eyes shut for a second. "Yes, Lake, the Wise Man of Gandhara was putatively the contemporary title of Purochana, the inventor of the Golden Stone Enclaves. We have here a book, decorated with pure gold, written by Purochana, with no library stamp, meaning that it is now Higgins' actual property. Lex, what... what are you going to do?"

Lex is flipping through, whispering to the book. He comes to a certain page and almost drops it, his hands shaking.

Scorpius has been mouthing "what the fuuuuuuuck" but he stops short when Lex nearly drops the book. "Is it them? Is it the actual spells? Did the library actually just give you enclave-building spells?"

"Well, that was the phase-control spell. The one that enclaves still use to this day even though it's been thousands of years. So."

Half-consciously, he takes a rag from his shelf and starts wiping down the book, removing trace amounts of dust from the gilt. He's moving only slightly robotically. 

"Holy shiiiiiiiiiit," Scorpius whispers.

"Why do you look like it killed your cat."

"I've dreamed about this book," Lex says. "I have literally had dreams wherein I learned the Golden Stone Sutras and wandered the land, building enclaves for everyone who wanted, being the next Purochana. The enclaves would fear the change I brought, but everyone else would love me."

He breathes in. "Then I grew up. This is a beautiful, powerful book. It has many incredible spells. I will use them well, and sell them to people who will pay me for them, and I will never be the man in that dream, because that man would never survive the Scholomance."

"...wouldn't he? Even if his boyfriend is Scorpius Lake the mal-killing machine? Because I gotta say I like the idea. Everyone gets an enclave—no more wise-born children needing the Scholomance for a one-in-four chance to survive, everyone in their little tucked-away corner of Void, sleeping safely..."

"Can you protect me when your mother and all of her golfing buddies send assassins after me?"

"Of course I can. I was better at this than anyone she has ever hired to protect our enclave when I was eight, I have an amount of mana capacity that makes absolutely no sense by anyone's understanding of magical theory, I may not be able to lay waste to multitudes like you but when it comes to fortifying behind a tripwire and a barrier and raining down destruction on incoming enemies this is my jam."

Lex has tears dripping down his cheeks. His eyes are wide open, though, and he's gritting his teeth.

"I can't - you can't promise that. We could go down in flames tomorrow."

He chews on his lower lip then shakes his head quickly. "I'm going to be your friend even if we don't stay together. And—and I told you what I want out of my life. Didn't I? When I pretended it was okay to talk about what comes assuming we leave this place. It's that, it's—Lex, even if I hate your guts tomorrow that could change everything. I can't... what I can't promise is that we'll live to leave this place. But if we do, I can promise you that."