Fenris is fully aware that this is extremely unsafe and says so. It's unclear if the word even had the chance of reach Scorpius where he is leading the group. The other freshmen definitely are ignoring the advice.

Well, everyone wants safety so Felix can't blame them for sticking to Scorpius. Including the enclavers like themselves.

And it's not like Felix (or Fenris) managed to do much, even as enclavers they didn't manage to break off a smaller, less targetable group, everyone wanted to be with Scorpius after all. Who wouldn't want to? Having the two of them on their own wouldn't be safe for themselves - they promised their parents to stay safe - and wouldn't make Scorpius's group much safer. And Trevor was likely already at the cafeteria waiting at a table for them.

Once they got moving they really didn't have much of a choice. Deciding to stay behind or going ahead was more likely to attract mals, not less. And there aren't that many other ways to get from the freshmen dorms to the cafeteria anyway.

Theydies and gentlefolk if it isn't clear by now that the Vasilises are right about how much of a bad idea this was, I don't know what to tell you.

Neither does Scorpius Lake, because they haven't even properly all gotten to the corridor that leads to the cafeteria before something slams the grating from the air vent above, breaking it off cleanly. The something then drops, with agility that belies its size and number of limbs and especially heads—it has six of them—and takes its first step towards the group. Which is being led by Scorpius Lake.

"Shit," is what Scorpius Lake says, but he's not dumb and he knows that when he turns around—ah, there it is, yet another mal that they have yet to learn about in Maleficaria Studies, holding the flank and not letting the kids at the back run back to the safety of their rooms: a large ooze with thin pink tendrils running along its tentacles and a pulsating red core in the middle. "Shit shit shit," he says again, then turns to a boy—a specific boy in the throng—and says, "Thibaut—"

    "On it, cap'n," he says with a faint accent—French, probably—before casting a German incantation that creates a wall of energy behind the group and another wall in front of the group. Just in time, too, as the hydra vomits something green that smokes on contact with the floor.

The fleeting joy of being right. Hopefully, not too fleeting. Fenris recites an ancient incantation against poisons and other chemical attacks; it manifests as a shimmer that starts expanding outwards from his skin to cover the people nearby.

Felix follows Scorpius's suit and says several expletives. He is not the only for sure, but he reaches for Fenris' hands and helps with the incantation.

Scorpius moves, and now thirty kids including the two Vasilis get to see what exactly all the fuss is about.

The fuss is in fact very warranted, as such things go. He grabs a little metal rod that was sheathed between the back of his trousers and his skin and a pretty dagger he had sheathed on the side of his hip, one with each hand, and then pushes mana into them. Causing them to glow.

Well, no, not true. The dagger glows. The metal rod becomes a fucking light saber.

He sends one incantation of fire in the ooze's direction and goes to town with the hydra and his two weapons. "Thibaut, can you—"

    "On it," says Thibaut, before looking around, spotting the twins, and saying, "You. Run to the cafeteria, now, get us some seniors. I'll cover you there."

Thibaut spoke to Fenris, but they - having trained exactly for this - don't need to speak to figure out that Felix should be the one to make the run. He is faster even without the help of the spell that makes his steps almost like jumps. He also uses another spell to distract the nearest mal with a rain of projectiles that curve around and hit them from the other side, not a heavy damage attack, but a great distraction.

Fenris heard the stories, but had assumed that they were school gossip or even propaganda by New York. But Scorpius is adept enough with his weapons that he even fails to consider the merits of a lightsaber.

With his own cover plus Thibaut's shield spell covering him halfway up, he can somewhat easily dodge the maleficaria attacking the freshmen and get to the cafeteria in short order. It's on the same floor as the freshmen dorms, too, so that's another blessing. The breakfast queue is not yet open for them, though, it's still only letting sophomores in.

The seniors, meanwhile, are already all seated and eating, some of them even done with their food. They're the ones who afford to give the running Felix a glance when he shows up at the doors looking like he's running from Hell itself, they and the kids who are seated closest to the doors, all of whom suddenly tense up and look ready to bolt if it turns out Felix is bringing something nasty on his heels.

One of the freshmen is more interested in the fact that Felix is running there by himself and is immediately standing up from his table and going towards him.

It's reassuring when Felix makes eye contact and there is sheer panic, but no tears.

Felix barely acknowledges Trevor there, and instead makes a line for the nearest senior cluster. "Two mals are attacking thirty," oh, right breathing in, you use that both for running and speaking, "freshmen. Scorpius is fighting them. One is a hydra and the other is some kind of ooze."

The seniors look up at him and most of them look back down at their food, except for one, who says, "Less for us to worry about then." And back to his food.

Yeah, they have been told that that's what would happen. And that insisting wouldn't help. It still stings being here to witness.

Trevor drags Felix away and... well, he doesn't think that they will have any luck, but goes towards the New York table.

New York is ostensibly lightly allied with Athens, so they're willing to give these kids the time of day. There are even a couple of freshmen among them, sitting there waiting for the freshman queue to open.

After the situation is explained, though, one of the seniors says, "I've seen Lake deal with mals before. He'll be fine."

"He asked for help. From seniors in specific, I don't think he can deal with the two while keeping the thirty other kids safe."

"Well, no, of course he can't keep the thirty kids safe."

Then get your ass out of that chair and help save them.

Felix doesn't say that, which is good because there is nothing to be gained by antagonizing New York seniors as a freshman from anywhere.

He looks at the rest of the table, even the other freshmen, and then over at where Trevor had been sitting with the small Athens contingent.

There is no help to be found here, so he just turns around and goes straight towards the door.

Trevor follows. He gives a look back at his table one last time - Yeah, suddenly they are avoiding eye contact. Fuck.

His shield is up before they are out of the cafeteria.

Felix actually bumps into a couple of freshmen coming the other way—they were from the group of thirty. And there were a handful more over that way.

When they get back, the situation seems both worse and better. Scorpius has torn the hydra-like mal to pieces, but unfortunately this seems to be a mal where the pieces can still do stuff so now it's multiple mals harassing the kids. The ooze is dead—one of the kids recognized it and explained you gotta freeze those—but they're still boxed in and surrounded by the pieces of the hydra.

By the time the two thirds of triplets return, there are only twelve freshmen leftover including their brother, Lake, and the boy he'd called "Thibaut". But the kids don't really have much of a way to help Scorpius; no one other than him in the group has good enough spells to meaningfully damage the mal, and it's all he can do to keep it at bay while he tries to create openings for the kids to run in small groups.

Oh, shit. Okay they can at least try to help.

"The seniors are not coming!"

Felix tries to pelt and distract the mal bits. Or take advantage to help a student through an opening.

Fenris keeps the defenses up and even tries to share mana so the other students can keep up their own defenses. But they are being attacked from multiple sides.

"Get out of the way," Lake shouts, using a frankly unreasonably strong telekinesis spell to push Felix away just as one of the hydra pieces nearly falls on top of him, teeth gnashing. He continues using the spell to pull Felix into the group of freshmen as they are more well-defended than the spot Felix and Trevor were in, but Trevor seems to have a pretty solid personal shield of his own so Lake doesn't try to go through it to bring Trevor in. "You—fuck I forgot your name," he says, in Trevor's direction, as he bodily shoves one of the mals away from the group, "one of the Vasilises, you, can you share that shield?"

Trevor looks as Felix is telekinetically dragged into the packed group of cornered freshmen with obvious concern.

"Only at touch range!"

"Then come over here and grab—however many people you can grab—no you don't!"

That last part is directed at a piece of hydra that was trying to sneak past him and who gets thoroughly incinerated.

"Sure, great hero!" Trevor doesn't add that would be easier with Felix had stayed beside him so they could work together on the jumping maneuver they trained for this purpose. But maybe some of that subtext is conveyed in the sarcasm.

Then they perform the other trained maneuver to pull Trevor to his brothers with enhanced jump and dampen impact spells.

Then Felix and Trevor take a freshman and jump out of the hurdle at the nearest opening.

Yeah as if he's gonna just trust random people to know what they're doing.

The more charitable version of that thought is that independent thinking is a terrible idea on a battlefield, you follow your acting commander's orders even if you think they're wrong or bad because if everyone who thinks they know better does their own thing you don't have an army you have a pile of corpses. And yes he has placed himself as acting commander here, how nice of you to ask.

Anyhow, he doesn't waste any time bothering, they seem to have stuff well in hand for when he does provide them with an opening. Two more freshmen follow them regardless of whether Felix and Trevor are actively taking them and Scorpius swears under his breath and burns the piece-of-hydra that tried to get them. Okay that's five fewer people—no, just three, Felix and Trevor were extra and now will hopefully leave—so they're nine, and the hydra pieces are very much starting to rethink their life choices. This is no longer a group of thirty and half of the mal's pieces have been killed already; the freshmen are all going to survive.

If they can't argue about chains of command later, it will be because they won't be here to argue. So they limit to inner dialogue for now.

At some point it even looks like they are going to take their leave, but instead Fenris jumps alongside Trevor while Felix covers with his distracting projectiles.

"—what are the three of you doing just go—Trevor, your name is Trevor, I remembered—the mals are gonna—"

And just then there is a loud banging sound from the vent and another hydra-like thing drops from it, this one with four heads instead so Scorpius shuts up and starts casting something much longer than his usual quick combat spells. It's in French and seems to be a lot about fire.

That sudden new guest to this impromptu party wipes Trevor's mind of any answer.

Felix takes a couple steps for the nearest freshman and uses the spell to jump, super-changing it to the point the two land several feet behind Fenris.

Fenris manages to extend his incantation, so it cushions part of the impact, which is better than none of the impact.

"Don't go back," Fenris tells Felix. "We should try fishing out the others instead."

No you dumbasses—!

He's too busy casting to react though and then his spell is complete and he's

on

fire.

It doesn't seem to hurt him, though, and he leaps for the newcomer mal and hugs it. It screeches, high and keening, as all of the fire on Scorpius quickly goes out and transfers itself to it, burning it to a crisp. That's definitely better than slicing it.

"Thibaut, get them out!" he cries while he's finishing with the fire, and Thibaut doesn't even reply, just gets one of his shields to wink out and strengthens the other one to give the kids more space to go.

All of them do go, then, a single group moving together towards the cafeteria, leaving only Scorpius and Thibaut behind and—

—there's a third asshole coming out of a vent right behind the kids and Scorpius has to go for it—

—Thibaut's shield fails, the first hydra's pieces converge on him—

—Scorpius has to choose—

—he chooses. He loves Thibaut—his first actual friend—

—and the other kids have friends, too, people who will miss them, and he goes for the mal threatening them instead of the ones going for his friend and he ignores his friend's scream and he extra ignores the way his friend's scream dies too quickly, too short, and by the time he turns back the pieces of the mal are each carrying a piece of Thibaut in their mouths and he turns to a corner and vomits.

Fenris is very gladly that his stomach is empty, so he just needs to swallow back the bile that started to come up.

Instead, he helps Felix stand up. While being very much on alert, because that would be the worst possible time for yet another mal to come after them again.

Felix steals a look at the... pieces and hides his face.

Trevor is really not going to look in that direction. Fuck. Instead, he will walk over to where Scorpius is.

Scorpius is leaning against a wall—glowing faintly—and all of the other freshmen have left by now. He's got his eyes closed and every other breath sends a shiver up his spine.

When Trevor gets close enough he immediately whirls around, assuming a combat stance, but he slumps back down when he sees the other boy. "Trevor. Hi." He's soaked through with sweat, but it doesn't look like he's crying. He seems to just be in—shock.

"Hi... we should go to the cafeteria if you want. Is that okay?"

"—right." Of course they would want an escort, after that. He wipes his forehead with the neck of his shirt, nods almost to himself, and straightens up to go with them.

"You shouldn't be wandering the halls alone." Trevor indicates his identical brothers.

Fenris watches as they approach, still very mindful of his surroundings. He is even looking at the direction that the other three are making an effort not to look, to avoid it being a vector of attack.

Felix's face is turned away from everyone.

"It's fine, I'll notice if anything comes," Scorpius tells Fenris, still not looking.

Fenris looks at him with an extremely blank expression, like someone's perfectly anatomically correct picture of a human face without any emotion behind it. He nods. And doesn't go completely out of vigilante mode, but turns towards Felix. He sort of shields Scorpius from seeing Felix's face.

Trevor quietly nudges their group forward because he really thinks this is one of those situations where they will both stay stuck here forever if they don't.

The cafeteria isn't even very far is what's most tragic.

And what's extra tragic is the senior bell sounding, and the host of seniors getting up from their chairs to go to their first class of the day. Most of the freshmen have already gone through the queue, too, and they are the last, left to scrape the bottom of each tray.

(Scorpius doesn't look at the NY enclave table right now where he's sure the other kids have gotten him some extra food. He doesn't. He doesn't want to know, right now.)

Felix is... it's pretty obvious that he cried, but there is enough plausible deniability that maybe it's just the haunted and traumatized look that any healthy student eventually manifests one way or another.

(Because unhealthy students don't get the chance to look like that.)

Fenris makes eye contact with the sophomore minion to their Athens enclave. Long enough to make it clear he should hold their table.

He gets a food tray in Felix's hands. And starts the process of how to keep themselves fed under the constraint of whatever was left alone by both students and the mals.

Trevor does the same, handing Lake a tray.

"Thank you," Scorpius says, sounding almost entirely steady again. People are staring—the story of how Scorpius heroically just saved thirty freshmen from certain death by stupidity has percolated.

"Don't mention it," Trevor says absently.

Well, not absently, because he is hunting for unpoisoned calories. But he is not even thinking about the whole 'every conversation with someone powerful is an opportunity' because fuck that.

It's still the first month of term, so the maleficaria have not thoroughly infested the food lines yet and there is enough food for... like eighty percent of a meal for them all. Probably.

Scorpius himself is less talkative than usual, and just focuses on grabbing nourishment.

Trevor mentally notes how they will need to make it up in the next meals. Or gamble with their few snack tokens.

He points at their table, apparently assuming Lake is going to sit with them and not giving it much thought.

Scorpius does not want to sit with his enclavemates today.

Sure, he'll go with the Athenians. It'll be novel.

Athens is a small enclave, the triplets being literally half of their current host. Their only senior left.

When Thunder takes a sit, he says "Scorpius, those are Aika, Ioannis - they are juniors - and Patrick, sophomore."

"It's Aikaterine. Where is Livie?" Felix asks while all three of them offer hands to shake, or "You can call me Aika."

"Traded an early breakfast in exchange for help with maintenance work," Patrick tells him, having dropped his hand as soon as the other two - obvious enclavers while he was not - clearly wanted to have Scorpius' attention first.

Scorpius will shake hands with every one of them, Patrick first because none of that nonsense in this house. "Scorpius Lake," he introduces himself. "A pleasure to meet you all."

By now he has recovered enough he looks... almost normal again.

Patrick looks at the offered hand, visibly makes the mental calculations of taking it and spiting Athens, or not taking it and spiting Athens and New York. So he takes it very shyly.

Aika for her part doesn't actually look bothered. Ioannis looks oblivious, maybe because the position of the table just made it natural for him to have his hand shook last.

"What happened?" Ioannis asks.

"I don't think they want to talk about it right now," Fenris says flatly.

"It's fine," says Scorpius, sitting down properly. "A group of freshmen got ambushed by some mals. We were, uh, thirty, I should... have been more vehement about not letting that many people show up but they..." He swallows and clears his throat. "They wanted to come all together like that anyway."

Aika flinches, but somehow doesn't look surprised. The rumor mill being fast enough to spread this sort of news while also being unreliable enough to leave room for doubt? She doesn't say that was her working theory.

"That's terrible," Aika says, "but sometimes people just get clingy."

Felix is stabbing at his food mechanically.

Fenris finishes swallowing and says. "We tried to get at least a second group, but people weren't interested, so we failed."

"Everyone's alive," Scorpius says levelly, being less mechanical with his food than Felix. "—well, almost everyone." And the way his fork trembles a bit on the way to his mouth as he says that could just be your imagination. "And it will be a cautionary tale."

Felix opens his mouth to say something.

"Eat it."

Scorpius laughs, with the food already in his mouth, and has to cover it and grab some juice to not embarrass himself. "I assume you mean the food," he says lightly, smiling up at Trevor from the corner of his eyes.

"Of course, breakfast: the most important meal next to lunch and dinner."

"I hope this sense of humor stays nourished by the end of the week," Aika deadpans.

"Just stay away from any groups of thirty you see," Scorpius says lightly to his plate.

"Yeah, noted."

"Maybe we should try to organize groups to wa-"

"It doesn't work," Aika interrupts, in the tones that betray that this is not the first time that idea has been proposed.

She then looks at Scorpius, remembering that maybe this is a topic he would disagree with and making the relevant social calculations in her head, regarding the difference of status between the two of them.

"No, it's a terrible idea," he agrees. "Three to six people is best, if I'm not around."

"Most things have been tried already," Aika says neutrally, "we got stuck with what works."

"Unless it turns out New York has secret duplication magic, so we could have you all around the school," Trevor adds non-seriously.

"Not yet," he says, shrugging. "So, three-to-six it is."

"Too bad. Despite the appearances, Athens has yet to figure that out, but we are doing our best."

"Let us know what you come up with," Scorpius says with a roll of his eyes. "But I would not call the three of you duplicates." Without taking his eyes from his plate he points at each triplet in sequence—Trevor, Felix, and Fenris—and says, "Shielding affinity of some kind, you have something related to speed, and you were doing some pretty nifty stuff extending the shields and attacks, there. Not duplicate at all."

"Impressive. I wish I could say that I also noticed your affinity, but it was already known even before school, and I was distracted at the time. My affinity is about prolonging and magic that lasts longer, and Felix is the opposite. Trevor is for fortifying shields and wards."

"I am at the Goldilocks zone of the principle of Balance. Not too slow, not too fast, just right."

"Don't think that's how it works," he says lightly, as he finishes up his food. "But what do I know? I'm just muscle."

Says the scrawny fourteen-year-old.

"Yeaah, why don't you flex for us a bit?" Trevor asks jokingly.

"Trevor!" Aika admonishes.

"Do you want help with bussing your tray?" Since he has been quiet, he had already finished his meal.

"Maybe Trevor and Patrick can do it," Aika suggests.

Scorpius does absolutely flex for Trevor, doing some poses to boot. But he is still a scrawny fourteen-year-old.

"It's fine, given the way today is going I'm sure something will jump at us from the conveyor," he tells Felix. "I'll take point."

Felix nods. The junior bell rings and Ioannis gently nudges Aika to get up.

"I don't mind helping out," Patrick says, taking the trays the enclavers left.

...right, minions and maintenance-track kids, those. Well, Scorpius will help, too, but he'll keep one hand free so he can deal with—ah, yes, there it is, some ooze pretending to be pudding in one of the trays another kid left there, he gestures and says something in Latin and it melts with a disgusting noise.

Patrick was more taken by surprise by how fast Scorpius melted it than by the thing's presence itself; possibly he even had spotted it.

"Thank you, sir." The smile is convincing, at least.

"Uh," Felix starts saying as Patrick puts the trays away. Clearly, Felix feels that the 'sir' didn't have any business sounding that unironic.

"I am sorry," Felix whispers.

Scorpius looks genuinely surprised. "Whatever for?"

"I didn't get any help. From any seniors. Or anyone but Trevor."

"'S not your fault," he says, shrugging. "I knew it was a long shot, here."

"I also knew it was a long shot, but I panicked and didn't think what else to do? Or even how to improve my odds of succeeding. I didn't even try to bribe anyone into coming."

"...I mean I didn't either. Not sure they'd take it, anyway, people being altruistic is suspicious."

    And here's a girl, walking up to them apparently coming from a small contingent of New York enclavers. "Scorpius, what happened?" Then she remembers her manners and turns to the others: "Sorry, I'm, um, Chloe Rasmussen. From New York."

Felix wants to reply, but the appereance of New Yorkers pauses whatever complicated thing he was going to say and leaves him mouth open like a moron.

Patrick had turned around by then and even if he wasn't good at taking opportunities while Scorpius Lake was at the table, he managed to smooth the pause by speaking.

"This is Felix Vasilis, grandson of the Athens' Dominar. I'm Patrick," the last part added while he takes a step back, making it clear that he is just a minion that knows his place and no one needs to acknowledge him further.

"Yes, uh, nice to meet you," Felix adds automatically.

"Anyway, the rumors are probably accurate there. Thirty kids, big mals, the works."

    "Do you wanna be more informative? People are saying you fought a grogler plus anywhere between one and twenty harrers!"

"Oh is that what they're called?"

    "Lake," she whines.

"Look, Chloe, I'm fine, the kids are fine—most of them—now they'll know to not go out in groups of thirty anymore, it's fine."

    "Just—be careful, okay, we can't—can't lose you because you stretched yourself too thin and—"

"I was never in any danger," he grumbles.

"You really shouldn't..." 

Felix doesn't know how to complete that sentence because all the obvious options are things that everyone drilled into him as things that are not done at the Scholomance.

"She is right about you being careful."

He shrugs and shoves his hands into his pockets. "Anyway we should go to class."

"Alright, uh... yes, alright. I will get back to my brothers.  Thank you for saving our lives, I should've said that sooner. And it was nice meeting you, Rasmussen."

    "Likewise," she says, giving them a wave.

Scorpius waves, too, but Chloe almost bodily drags Scorpius over to the enclave table to try to stuff some more food into him.

Patrick nods his head like he is trying really hard to find the balance between not ignoring any attention sent his general direction while not assuming he is getting any undeserved attention.

At any rate, the two return to the Athenians' table.

"Hey, Patrick, my beautiful man. I know that the whole deal with being a sponsored minion is that you get to sit with at our table and hear the sensitive information, but we need to do a family reunion. I will even actually pay you with something instead of just promises."

He raises his hand to offer some mana. And of course, Patrick takes it with a very still expression, even if it was at least twice as much as he expected.

"Don't get used to it, some day we will figure out telepathy to avoid this sort of thing."

"Trevor," Felix protests while Patrick is already turning away.

"I approved of the plan. The broad strokes, at least."

"Okay, okay. What did I do wrong?"

"For a start, assuming that we were going to start by criticizing you, instead of - just a random guess - asking if you are alright."

"I am fine," Felix says miserably. "If anything, we should be asking about everyone else. Fenris was there longer, and-"

"I am fine," Fenris says in the tone that wouldn't be out of place coming out of a computer who just ran a diagnosis program.

Trevor groans and rubs his temples. "Okay, I guess this is an emotional tangle that we won't unravel before class. We can at least discuss strategy or something?"

"Strategy? You mean, how I made myself look like a fool? Or how they might have noticed my..."

"The second one."

"Lake figured out the details of our affinities pretty fast and talked about it out loud. Like sensitive information wasn't a big deal for him. Maybe it isn't."

"Ah." Blink. "He probably wasn't threatening us." Felix really doesn't think he was, but he didn't want to be wrong again when exposing his disadvantage could put his family on the line.

Sigh. "We should go to class."

Scorpius and Fenris are both alchemy track, and 'tis a Monday, which means they turn out to have double Intro to Lab together.

Since Fenris and his brothers stayed behind a bit, Scorpius is already there by the time he arrives.

Scorpius is sitting alone. Which isn't that surprising if you consider the very visible air vent right above his head. The exact opposite of the typical display of power at this school.

Fenris runs a mental calculation and figures that he might seat himself next to Scorpius this time (but nearer to the door). At the very least it's one less independent without a shieldholder as good as his in the immediate line of fire even he is taking the least horrible spot. He doesn't know much about the relevant social calculations but figures this is the best day to take that approach.

"Hello, again," says Scorpius with a smile. He hasn't picked which of the three assignments the school is offering him he'll go for, yet, but he doesn't seem to be too pressed, looking at his ingredients list leisurely. "Alchemy track, I guess that makes sense for you."

"Hi. Yes it does. And both my grandmothers happen to be alchemists."

"That's pretty cool, you must have some interesting family recipes." He finally decides on something to make, picks the appropriate set of instructions, and pushes the other sets off the desk where they can disappear unobtrusively. No need to force the school to waste mana trying to counter their instinctive disbelief when you can just guarantee no one's looking.

Fenris is not good at not paying attention to things, but he can just redirect his attention to the points of danger more dangerous than vanishing paraphernalia.

"Mhmm," Fenris mutters before focusing his attention in Lake's direction, "Very well-rounded, Grandmother Jo, perfected the malia-purging potion most commonly in use, not that I am hoping to use it. We will brew a large batch of her antidotes when we have the free time."

Scorpius has to cover his smile for a second for some reason. "While I'm sure people would be willing to pay fairly handsomely for 'Grandmother Jo's antidotes, I would not have expected you to need it."

"To sell? Not necessarily, no." Fenris is mildly confused. "It has a long shelf life, so it is practical to make a large batch." He shrugs. "There is always a need for antidotes."

"Is there?"

"Yes... in here? Malnutrition because you had to empty your stomach probably causes as many problems as being poisoned, even if the effects are not as dramatic. I doubt we can make a batch big enough that we couldn't empty it even if it was going bad in a few days and not make a profit. Granted, that last part is in fact because it is a good recipe."

"I just figured, not something enclavers typically worry about very much."

"Ah. It's not really a concern. Just a practical solution. Also, good practice. I am planning to be an alchemist as my career."

"Any specific specialty or not decided yet?"

"Whatever it takes to invent the Fountain of Youth." Is that a joke? Hard to tell.

"Hundred and sixty years not enough for you?"

"No. There is always a need for time."

"I wish you all the luck on it. Sounds like one hell of an ambitious project."

"I have been told." Pause to figure out if Scorpius is being sincere. "Thank you."

"What made you go for it?"

"The absence of Fountains of Youth. If my affinity was sufficiently incompatible, I would have to content myself with funding the research."

"'The research'? Is it an active field, then?"

"I don't think people outright call it 'Fountain of Youth' but I am sure any enclave that can dedicates some funding to halt aging or its effects. New York doesn't?"

"I wouldn't know," Scorpius says, shrugging. "I'm just the muscle."

Fenris looks at Scorpius' not particularly muscular frame. "Right. I guess the people around me had more reasons to talk about the topic. And people in the field tend to be more technical on the approach than calling it 'Fountain of Youth' even if they are trying to patch up the human body one way or another that still contributes to that end goal."

"And is it just youth? Not trying to get to, like, diseases and cancer and whatnot while you're at it?"

He sounds amused, but at the same time... not really unserious? If anything his amusement is because they are fourteen and have neither the mana capacity nor the skill to make much headway.

(Well. He has the mana capacity, but he doesn't share that fact very widely.)

They are fourteen year old wizards, the entire topic is just borderline not-crossing the border of not making plans after graduation. And only borderline because they are both enclavers and technically no dates have been added.

"Ah, solving that and the other problems is also on my list, and part of the process. Biology is complicated enough that you get around to fixing many things on the way of keeping people youthful, and once you prolonged life a little, it can be prolonged for longer and so on. I just want to hurry up already and get us to the part where time is not a concern."

(It doesn't sound that he is thinking of mana capacity as a limitation).

"I feel like time will be a concern for as long as we have mals around eating children and sometimes not-children."

"Yes, but your not-children are more likely to help if they are fit and capable for longer." He looks at Scorpius's arms. "The muscles of the world may fight better."

Scorpius grins and turns back to his potion—well, not potion, it's Intro to Lab before the first month of school is out, they're making glorified soap and shit like that (a bit more advanced because it's the session for alchemy track kids but still). "Get me out of a job while you're at it, won't you?"

Fenris has been working on his (separating a solution into its constituting elements) while they've been talking, still paying careful attention despite the distraction. "Not my goal, but hopefully you will have time to pick up a few hobbies."

"I have plenty of hobbies other than killing maleficaria, I'll have you know! I like food, and exercising, and talking to people, and sometimes kissing them if they're down for that." He is not looking at Fenris as he says that at all, but he's sure he does not need to be for his meaning to be fairly clear.

"I didn't mean to imply you didn't have hobbies," Fenris says with uncomplicated sincerity. "But good to know. Trevor will definitely be interested."

"Oh I knew that Trevor would be interested, already," he says casually. He also understands that Fenris is probably not the type to object to his casual flirting in class like that, from the ten seconds they've interacted for in total so far. Or at least he thinks so.

"Good. We will invite you over when relevant, exercising at the gym or hanging out at the library." Well, that second place is known as being safe for some activities.

"'We'?" he asks archly.

"Are you only interested in Trevor as a hobby partner?" Fenris asks with an eyebrow raise.

"Certainly not."

"Great!" Fenris says, taking a moment to focus on an apparently important step of his class assignment.

Scorpius laughs and shakes his head. "Thibaut is not gonna believe—" he starts, and then he remembers, and his words die in his throat, his hands frozen in place where they were mixing something in the cauldron in front of him, eyes staring fixedly at the concoction. His fingers tremble a bit as he clears his throat and says, "Uh, never mind."

Fenris stays quiet for a long moment. In part because he was already at a delicate part, but once the solution starts forming distinct layers of opaque and clear parts, he looks over. "I am sorry for your loss."

Scorpius waves a hand vaguely, not looking at Fenris. "Thanks, but it's, you know, fine. We, we gotta get used to this kind of stuff. In here. And I only met him here, not like there was a lot of time for us to really be friends or anything."

Fenris looks at him quizzically.

"Please, tell me if I am not picking up on hints that you want me to back off of your personal business, I am terrible at both noticing and caring about those. But that sounds like a terrible attitude to nurture, even here."

"Any given person you meet here, fifty-fifty chance they'll die before graduation, and then another fifty-fity at graduation," Scorpius sighs, still not looking up. "That's averages, of course. Enclavers like you, something like four in five chance you survive," and people like me, he doesn't say, will just straight up survive because mals flee from me rather than the other way around, "but people like Luisa three doors down one flight of stairs up from my dorm who didn't even know magic existed before they came here, they're going to die by the end of the year. And that's not getting into politics, I'm son and heir to Magistra Rhys of New York and everything I do matters." He does not sound bitter, but only because he has grown ever-more-toneless as he kept talking, something Fenris himself might be familiar with. "And you know all that, of course, so I'm not really sure where you are getting this idealism."

"I had heard that there was a mundane born this year, but not much more concrete details than that." Fenris notes down where her room is. "Additionally, four in five chance means that there is a 59% chance that my parents will mourn at least one child." He takes a deep breath, which only makes his previous tonelessness more prominent. "I am not the best person to talk to about this, and might actually need a moment to think. And I believe you should add the saponified oil at this moment of the process, but consult your recipe first."

He does consult it, and adds said oil with a, "Thanks." Then he chews on his lower lip and says, "Sorry about being a downer like that. Kind of a crazy day."

"I am not myself a cheerful person, so don't worry. And, yes, it was a crazy day."

"It's not even lunchtime yet, I feel like such a meme," he says, shaking his head to himself.

Scorpius takes a second to notice Fenris's face and asks, "What?"

"I'm really not sure if describing your current self as a 'meme' counts as another instance of your apparent downplaying of your own emotional state, or just something people say because the average human is more likely to cope by joking than I do."

"Yes," Scorpius says confidently as he stirs and pours a tiny bit of mana into his potion.

"Very mathematically correct of you," Fenris deadpans.

"Well, to be fair, it could be that there is something you haven't thought of that should be in that list, too."

"I am aware. And will accept constructive criticism."

He is at a part of the process where he needs to separate the elements of the solution into small vials and label them.

"Maybe after our fifteenth conversation. You need to level up in friendship before unlocking my tragic backstory and innermost feelings."

"You and Trevor will get along wonderfully."

"I got that feeling, yeah. He's incantations? Is Felix rounding you guys out with artificing?"

"The other way around. Felix is much better at languages than either of us, and Trevor wants to build shields and armor."

"Ah, of course. His affinity lends itself to that, too, then?"

"Correct, and it even rounds us off, as you put it. Has the downside that we are less able to cover for each other's classes, but that shouldn't be a problem either."

"I've been told at some point my alchemy assignments will start throwing more in-affinity things but these 'generally useful' intro things are cramping my style. But I wonder to what extent the school considers things generally useful."

"I think that is kind of a complicated question similar to how it assigns grades. People all seem to agree that you need some amount of effort to get what you want. I guess you'd want physical enhancing potions?"

"—oh, yeah, I guess those would be handy."

"Were you thinking of something else?"

He gets to the end of his recipe, which is basically glorified body wash that is extra good at its job for the mana he put into it. The whole cauldron's batch is meant to last a while, if you ration it well and don't use too much of it. And there are still ten minutes before the first period's bell but if he looks away from his desk and makes sure to not pay attention to it the school might give him the options for the second period's assignment before that.

"Yes but never mind that," he says, half-smiling. "The girls get their period potions as mandatory assignments here, too. I wonder if there are contraceptive ones? I heard that contraceptive spells don't work great, but don't know about potions."

Fenris still is labelling his work, but it's possible he is going for extra-credit? Or doing it semi-automatically. It certainly requires a level of practice, given the look Scorpius is getting from him.

"They don't. Even if you don't account for how most parents aren't comfortable with the topic in general, I don't think it's part of a misinformation campaign. Mom didn't expect to get pregnant both times she did." Pause. "Your family didn't educate you on that?"

"My mother told me in no uncertain terms I was 'not to give her any untimely heirs' in here," he says, with air quotes, "and then said that if I must be the degenerate that I am even in here I should stick to boys only." He sounds like he takes some glee in being called a degenerate. "Given all of the above, you will excuse me if I don't extend Magistra Rhys the benefit of the doubt when it comes to what she has or hasn't told me about how good contraceptive magic is."

"Oh."

Well, he already suspected that Magistra Rhys was not the best example of parenting. Add that to the pile of evidence.

"I see. That is a reasonable suspicion given the circumstances." Pause thinking about whether he should mention that his maternal grandfather did give similar advice, but better framed - to think they reacted badly to that. "I was more concerned that your upbringing was less cosmopolitan than being from New York implies. I am sorry about your mom. But contraceptive magic really is considered impossible to make reliable. Supposedly, it's one of the few things where adding mana causes efficiency to go down. That part I am less sure of my source, but condoms made with magic are allegedly less reliable."

"I got the standard spiel about how the magic gets your intent all mixed up, doing a baby-making activity while terrified that you'll make a baby will not be good for a spell to stop babies from happening, but when I asked people about whether alchemy was better for that—since it is easier to not be terrified of making babies while making potions—there was a lot of hand-wringing and looking at Magistra Rhys and Magistra Rhys looking at me the way she looks sometimes when I get away with something I shouldn't and then she said it was a terrible idea and I should keep my dick in my pants."

"That is good to be aware of."

"I'll still, you know, avoid it, there are boys around and also the kinds of sex that make babies are just a tiny fraction of the kinds of sex you can have with girls anyway, but you see why I do not fully trust Magistra Rhys's advice on the matter." Oh there he did get distracted enough that his second period's assignment options are on his desk now. He starts looking through them absently; the bell for second period hasn't sounded, yet. "She does want more heirs eventually, though. I am sure I would have led a whole litter of little Lakes if my father hadn't died when I was like three months old."

"I am sorry about your father. In Sex Ed I got told it is extremely easy to get carried away during any kind of pleasurable activity, which is dangerous because mals love distracted targets. And also it's easy to do the fraction of sex you shouldn't." He shrugs. "Your mother's advice is definitely laced with her own intentions, so I understand the suspicion."

He has since finished his labelling and is waiting for the second period.

"In my experience it's just really not that hard to stick only to the sex I want to be having, people keep talking about getting carried away but I think they're just making that up."

Fenris gives a meaningful shrug. "I don't expect it to be that hard either? But teen pregnancies are a thing that happens to mundanes."

"I'm sure they'd happen a lot more often to us in here too if we weren't afraid for our lives all the time. Being constantly malnourished can't help either."

Ah there's the bell, Scorpius starts actually properly looking through the descriptions of his assignments now.

"True."

Fenris looks over to find his previous assignment gone and his new options waiting for him. He doesn't take long picking one. Liquids go into beakers and the bunsen burner is lit.

"Now on the other hand," he continues, picking his own assignment and starting on his own work, "the downside of boys is that we need extra lubrication and hygiene, which is closer to what I meant when I was wondering about some other types of general-purpose potions."

"Aha. My parents are pretty liberal, but not that liberal. But it sounds like a solvable problem."

"It's a problem that has been solved by mundanes but here and now hygiene is unfortunately at a premium when everyone is afraid to tempt fate by going to the bathrooms too often and getting eaten by a swarm of amphisbaena. Maybe spells are better. I wonder if I can ask the Void for something or if the school is going to be puritanical at me, too."

"Worth trying, just be very specific about all the failure modes you want to avoid. Or you could trade with upperclassmen."

"True! Maybe Trevor and I could go hunting for other likeminded people." Sluts. Scorpius means sluts.

"Don't get my brother into danger. I am sure there are like-minded people around, but not everyone is from accepting backgrounds. And some people will want discretion."

"Yes, sir, I'll take good care of him."

"Great. You're a great conversationalist, but I didn't forget everything we talked about, I am just waiting for," he checks the note, "our fifteenth conversation."

Scorpius snorts. "This whole thing only counts as one."

"Of course."

The rest of their double lab is spent in much the same spirits, and once they're done with their respective assignments they have enough time to take them to their dorms before going to the cafeteria for lunch. Since this is true of pretty much everyone in the room, though, they can move in staggered groups away—they don't want a repeat of this morning.

No one wants a repeat of this morning. Fenris has an easy time to find a group that is going in the direction of his dorm, giving Scorpius a wave before leaving.

By the time he gets to the cafeteria Scorpius will not be there, yet.

Fenris didn't exactly have expectations on the topic, or even if Scorpius would be at their table again so soon. He spots Patrick and Aika, plus a couple of girls from Aika's non-enclave group of friends. They pounce on him for gossip, and are generally put off when he doesn't give them any juicy details.

It is not even just that Fenris is not willing to gossip, but all the obviously public details are... well, already public. He is surprised, but not by much that they knew about the alchemy lab session, but it's not like people hide whatever tracks they are, and it's easy to figure out freshman schedules with just that information.

So he mostly tries to act like Patrick and pretend he is a piece of the scenery.

Felix and Trevor show up alongside their senior enclaver - Nico - a brief while later. While Nico goes to the food line, Felix joins the table and is even less willing to share details. The girls are apparently more willing to back off at his downturned face.

Trevor just spends his time staring daggers at their senior's back, so the girls don't even bother with him. Clearly, these freshmen don't understand the value (practical and for entertainment) of gossip at the Scholomance.

Scorpius Lake arrives at lunch surrounded by the other New York freshmen, who seem to have gotten their share of gossip and are just smalltalking or spending time in silence as they go to the queue.

And Nico pushes the three of them "to build connections with New York to correct this morning's terrible behavior". So the three get up to join the queue and as they're passing by, Trevor says, "Hey, Scorpius, just so you know, Nico - the Athens senior - has a major raging boner for your political connections."

Well, that is sure a way for Felix to come out of his funk, because he doesn't look sad while facepalming.

Scorpius sporfles when Trevor says that and one of the three boys in the group with him snickers, while the other boy rolls his eyes and the girl looks somewhat mortified. "Tell him if he has a boner for anything else of mine we can come to a better agreement."

"I can't say I would recommend. Not that I have any personal experience with him in that regard. Thank goodness."

"We swear we tried our best to domesticate him," Felix says to the girl, waving at Trevor.

"Unless he is actively evil I am sure his d—"

    "Lake," says the boy who rolled his eyes. "Must you? In public?"

"Sorry, Magnus," says Scorpius, sounding completely unrepentant. "But I figure the gossip is gonna find out who I am sooner or later so I might as well get it out of the way."

    "Or you could try to be more proper."

"All I am seeing is a proper level of sincerity here."

"We should get to the back of the line before it gets too long," Felix says, dragging Trevor by the arm.

The New Yorkers wave 'bye (except for Magnus who just turns back to the others).

"I think I caused an impression. Definitely on Magnus."

"That's a factual statement. Oh, that reminds me, but Scorpius is interested in you, and likely the three of us."

"Huh."

"I already knew that, but thanks for letting me know." And now they are in the queue proper and spending their time playing a game of find-the-safe-food.

Scorpius the budding school hero can be seen from a distance dealing with some maleficaria that has infected their food, even stuff he's not particularly interested in getting. At this point in the year that even leaves a good 80+% of the food still available for them!

Awesome, especially because their breakfast was subpar today. Trevor makes sure to wink at Scorpius and make a "call me" gesture. Of course, they don't have phones, but that is not the meaning he wants to convey.

When Scorpius sees that he actually waves them over to the table—the seniors are getting up anyway. Magnus shoots him an incredulous look but then schools his expression into something more magnanimous.

Oh, yes, Trevor is definitely going to think that Magnus is being magnanimous. The three naturally come over.

"Hey there, handsome."

Felix is resigned, but flashes a distractingly good smile. He has not recovered from this morning's events, but he already knew that it is a good idea to practice being pleasant and cordial. Even if you don't account for Trevor.

"Thanks for inviting us over." He is not a suck-up, but he does sound sincerely thankful.

Easy, because he doesn't want to hang around Nico at the moment.

"Hello," Fenris says, simply taking a seat and ignoring any social whatever.

"Let me actually introduce you guys. Trevor, Felix, and Fenris Vasilis," he says, gesturing at each in turn, "from Athens. And these here are Chloe Rasmussen," the girl from earlier, "Jermaine Thomas," the snickering boy, "Magnus Tebow," magnanimous boy, "Scott Harris, Anna Brisbol, and Jackson Newman," gesturing at three freshmen who had not been in the queue with them, "from New York. He," and now he's pointing at non-enclavers, "is Geoff Martin, from Atlanta, that one's Theodosia Richmond, from Portland, and that one's Violet Carlson, from Florida."

Felix smiles all around, with some added polite questions relevant to people's families when he has the relevant knowledge.

Trevor can be friendly too. Jermaine gets an eyebrow wiggle.

"Are you doing better?" Fenris asks Scorpius.

Jermaine raises an eyebrow at Trevor but shrugs it off and, after a wave to the Athenians, resumes his conversation with Geoff and Theodosia.

"—hm? Yeah, I'm alright," says Scorpius to Fenris. "Helping out with the politics and all that, I bet Nico will be so proud of you guys."

    "You're Jomanah Vasilis's grandkids, right?" asks Chloe. "That must be so cool, I bet she had a lot of stuff to teach you all."

"We are and yes she did. Mostly to Fenris who is the alchemist of our trio, but both she and our other grandmother came up with some recipes and Fenris got some advanced theory."

"I already mentioned the antidote to Scorpius, but they invented brand-new recipes that combined their purification and coating affinities. There is a drain cleaner that wards off mals and a spray meant to go on surfaces that should glow if anything with malice touches it that they developed."

"Don't go sharing the trade secrets with any pretty face, you two."

Felix pinches his index and thumb together. "Just try not to make people uncomfortable for five minutes."

    Magnus perks up at that list, whistling low. "Can those even be made by freshmen? That would be pretty great to trade."

        "I'd guess not," says Chloe, "but still useful to have for when they can make them."

"Don't worry about that," says Scorpius to Felix. "Discomfort is very easy to dispel when you present people with something to induce greed."

    "It's not greed," counters Magnus while Scott sniggers. "It's just business sense."

"Nico and our juniors are going to do it for us, closer to Field Day because applying the drain cleaner once before and after is the most efficient."

"It works pretty well on only just your room, but if your neighbors also apply it, it's an extra layer of separation between you and the mals. We might offer a bulk discount."

Fenris doesn't say that the mals would want to eat the neighbors instead of you. But that is just the default in the Scholomance. Which might be why his voice got flat again.

"Boys, boys," Trevor tells both Scorpius and Magnus, "you're both right. It just makes good greedy business sense."

"I'm just the muscle," shrugs Scorpius, which seems to really irritate Magnus for some reason.

"Don't say that. There are also so many other parts of you that are attractive."

    "What Lake means to say," says Magnus, "is that he's too stupid to have a real conversation."

        "He's not—" starts Chloe, but Magnus interrupts immediately with, "I know he isn't but that's what he's saying."

Scorpius is just grinning a bit idiotically there.

"Aha, at least he is not fishing for compliments."

"Why... are you saying that?" Felix asks Scorpius.

Fenris doesn't mention when Scorpius used the same term earlier, but he gives him Scorpius a look while thinking about it.

Scorpius waves a hand. "Magnus is exaggerating. I just don't have patience for politics or all this enclave stuff. You're much better at this than I am, Tebow."

    "Granted," shrugs Magnus, "but Magistra Rhys would still be irritated."

"Pretty sure 'irritated' is just Magistra Rhys's resting emotional state."

    "...also granted," agrees Magnus, and the other enclavers all nod along with that, "but you're dodging my point."

"Sure am!"

Felix exchanges meaningful looks with his brothers. "It's pretty understandable to be put off by it? And anyone aiming for Dominus of New York is going to be... really devoted to the goal," he says diplomatically.

"Very much. It might shock you guys, but I really don't want to be the political enclaver."

    "I never would have guessed," drawls Magnus.

"You really shouldn't complain, Magnus. You want it, I don't, pretty much everyone else is fine handing you it, just keep it."

    Magnus looks like he wants to come up with a retort but can't really think of one so he shrugs and returns to his food.

"So, how is everyone finding your classes?" Felix says in the tones of 'crazy weather' but it's less awkward than the silence. "No jokes about finding spells," he tells Trevor.

Pout.

    "They're kinda nice. And terrifying," says Chloe.

        "Understatement of the century," mutters Jermaine.

"What's that about finding spells?" asks Scorpius.

"That is a very good way to describe them," Felix tells Chloe. "I didn't want Trevor to interrupt with a dad joke about using a finding spell."

"I take offense! My jokes are not dad jokes, they are mildly-drunk-uncle jokes."

"Aside from history, I can't say they are much worse than expected. The worst scare we got... in a class, was when someone found a dead husk beneath something and someone else was trigger-happy enough to throw an iron bar at it and hit the wall."

"A dead husk... of a person?" asks Chloe, looking queasy.

    "Well, couldn't be a mal, they'd just dissipate or get eaten," says Magnus.

        "People get eaten too, anything that was well-hidden enough to not be eaten could be a person or a mal," argues Scott.

"Mal... or we assumed it was a mal until now."

"It looked really dry, and we just decided to get it out of the room. The person who found it did that, and we went back to business. It was probably too small for a mal."

Fenris thinks, then decides to take a bite of toast instead.

"This is definitely not a mealtime conversation," decides Chloe. "What classes does everyone have after lunch?"

"Sorry, it definitely isn't. And we've got history."

She grimaces. "Ew, history after lunch is the worst."

    "At least it's not shop, if you fall asleep in history nothing bad happens but in shop you burn a finger off," says Scott.

"Shop keeps you awake!"

"We take turns paying attention."

"Teamwork for the win! Though, I would take extra shop time if I could."

"We have not slept during class for longer than a second, but mostly to not create the habit and grind the little mana that grants you."

"I guess that makes sense," says Chloe, but she still sounds dubious.

"We couldn't get a better time with the three of us together. What do you guys have after lunch then?"

    "New York has Language Hall," says Chloe.

        "Except this nincompoop," amends Magnus, hiking a thumb in Scorpius's direction, "who's cramping our style and doing his own thing."

"My schedule is optimized for mal hunting," says Scorpius primly.

"That is definitely more exciting than after lunch History, that much you have to admit."

"I figure it is more useful, given your ability to get mana from it. Which, how does it work?"

    "You told them about it?" moans Magnus.

"It was relevant," shrugs Scorpius. "And anyway to answer the question I got a work period after lunch now so I'm going patrolling."

    "Patrolling!" wails Magnus.

        "You're gonna get a rep, Magnus," says Scott.

"If it helps, the school was full of rumors about that ability of his."

"Of course, they are hard to believe. I was assuming it was just the kind of exaggeration that you guys didn't want to dismiss because it was useful or something."

Fenris frowns. "It is also obvious when he fights."

"It's only obvious when the fight is that long," he says, shrugging.

    "Well it's not the secret we want to be public," sighs Magnus, massaging his temple. "And what do you mean a rep?"

        "Nag," shrugs Scott. "Nag nag nag. You're not his mother."

"Thank any gods there are for that," murmurs Scorpius.

Fenris decides to not pursue what he was thinking. "I think it is pretty much public by this point? Does this mean I can't ask how it works?"

"I think you underestimate how perceptive other people are," says Scorpius. "And sure you can ask."

    "Oh, he can?" drawls Magnus.

"Yes, I just won't be able to answer since I don't know!"

"Fenris definitely is very perceptive, and all the secrecy is making me extra curious."

"I don't expect a cohesive explanation of the underlying magical mechanisms because magic seems to be content with working based on twigs held together by spit and hope. But I figure someone could have a guess if the mana you get was somewhat sourced from a mal's previous meal? At what distance can you absorb their mana and does it need to be you that does the killing? At what point is the mana accessible, and could you absorb some of a mal's energy to finish killing them?"

"Don't know, don't kow, and also don't know," says Scorpius cheerfully.

    "We should get going, probably," says Chloe. "Class will start soon for everyone here but him."

"Way to kill the mood."

"Have a nice class," Felix says apologetically.

Fenris looks even more unimpressed than usual. "I highly recommend you to acquire at least the most tactically relevant answers to those questions."

"Will do," says Scorpius with a slight roll of his eyes.

The kids all get up at approximately the same time, and Scorpius leads the host towards the conveyor belts for their trays. There seem to be no mals in sight there this time, which is grand, so after everyone's bussed their trays they can go to their respective classes.

The triplets go to their joint history class. They take turns paying attention and passing notes. It's not a good class for out loud conversations, but that's partially why the notes.

Trevor pretends to fall asleep a couple of times, but by now his brothers won't fall for it. Someone else in class does and after their updating gets going he is too interested in the conversation. He definitely shares hobbies with Scorpius.

Felix just wants them to have enough social finesse to no antagonize New York. Also, help poor Scorpius. It sounds like he has it rough.

His mother looks like a piece of work.

And no one researched his ability to get mana from mals? Is New York stupid or is Scorpius' mother already ruling it with an iron fist and lack of scientific and parental acumen?

People are stupid. They're at the class that documents many of history's greatest moments of people being that.

They're doing their best.

History is one of the safest classes, and nothing attacks them nor does anyone bother them for its duration.

Great. Once they're free for the day, maybe they can find Scorpius for a more private conversation before dinner.

Maybe he's at the library or the gym? Those are the default places people hang out at between the last class of the day and dinner.

Have they seen Scorpius at the library? At any rate, the three of them should be able to navigate safely down to the gym and take a look around, then go up.

The gym has a few groups of students, mostly juniors and seniors, doing some of their daily exercise. Scorpius is not there, no.

(And if Scorpius has ever frequented the library, the triplets have sure never run into him there. He's certainly never sat with New York.)

They have a time-share agreement with Rio to keep a room for them, so they spend a lot of time away from the general mass of students. Still, they would have seen them among the New York contingent, the enclave gets the best shiniest spot for a reason.

They could go patrolling, or generally go where the mals are.

Trevor smirks when his brothers stare at him.

They will just wait to run into Scorpius by luck or set up an appointment for some alone time.

They go up library wards. Keeping an extra eye out for mals in case that leads them to Scorpius.

Group of three freshmen, they will be ambushed by a couple small starved things but nothing that gives them trouble and nothing Scorpius himself is troubling with.

They get to the library without running into him, and he is also not sitting with New York there.

Yeah, Felix can easily deal with anything that comes their way.

They aren't sure how much goodwill they have gained or lost with New York and this is the sort of situation where you'd rather not be outright rejected. So they go to their semi-private reading room. The only problem with that is that Nico shows up and tells them off over the entire incident.

Of course, Trevor is the one responsible, but he doesn't care. And Nico decides to punish them - like he is their parent or something - by forcing them to do a maintenance shift and forbidding Patrick and Liv from covering for them.

Patrick will just be extra part of the wall over here and not make eye contact or comment on it.

These people have influence over his and his sister's futures. He can't antagonize either side.

Maintenance shifts happen during class hours, so they have a while still until whenever they're meant to do it.

New York typically stays in the library until dinner, and today looks to be no different.

Trevor tries to storm out to do the maintenance shift right now, which actually makes Nico go pale. But his brothers talk him out of just going and doing the repairs right now, and push him out of the room.

Yeah, they will just go find a corner and study until it's close to dinner and then hope they get to see Scorpius there.

Scorpius is indeed at the cafeteria for dinner! He seems to have arrived reasonably early and taken out a mal or two that had been haunting the food lines, and now he's sitting with a group of indies from South Africa.

They get there early themselves. "Hey, so my brothers and I want to talk to you, maybe after dinner?"

"—sure? I don't have any, uh, plans."

"What? No last minute patrolling before curfew?"

"Oh I'm assuming you guys are following me for that."

"Nah, Felix wants to, like, talk. I guess Fenris might be up for experiments with that. I just want to make out to be honest." He smiles at the South Africas indies.

    The two girls roll their eyes and the boy just ignores him.

"We can talk while killing maleficaria, I'm sure."

"Great! We'll see you then."

Scorpius and the South Africans pace themselves and finish eating at the same time, as everyone has been taught to do by their parents or other caregivers prior to coming to the Scholomance, and once again Scorpius heads the line to the conveyor belt. There is a mal waiting there, this time, an annoying semi-corporeal little thing that takes some work to kill. By which this author means that it takes him like twenty seconds.

Triplets get up at around the same time too and approach him.

"Hey, handsome."

"Hello yourself."

"Are you free now?" Felix asks fidgeting.

"If you don't mind following me around while I kill monsters with extreme prejudice, sure."

"Works. Fenris wanted to see how your abilities worked."

"Give us a warning so we get our shields up."

"Tebow is going to be mad that I am giving away all of my impossible-to-copy innate secrets," Lake says with a grin.

Out the cafeteria, then, and Scorpius makes a beeline for the stairs.

The triplets follow like a trio very dutiful bees.

"Do your innate gifts include a 'maldar'?"

"I honestly don't know. I—am pretty perceptive, I think, of my environment, mals or no mals. But I don't know if the 'mal' part of this is part of my affinity or what."

"As long as you catch anything coming to us. Oh, speaking of that, our strategy tends to have Felix on the offense while Fenris and I do defense."

"I can do fire, but not nearly as good as yours... and we haven't had the chance to brew some fire-extinguisher."

"My fires don't really stay," he says, shrugging and taking the steps down rather than up. "Flare and gone."

"Ah, okay."

"For some reason, Felix here doesn't like to set things on fire without a good way to make them stop. Apparently all the talk about spell safety stuck with him."

"At least most of the Scholomance is not really flammable. It wouldn't survive the twice-yearly mortal flames otherwise, after all."

"It doesn't mean it's not affected by it. Metal deforms under heat."

"Oxygen from the air would be consumed faster. And... other things are flammable."

"Pretty sure the metal around the school is enchanted to not really deform under heat. ...well, at least the metal that's not materials for shop. Also," and a short incantation in German with a fingergun pointed in the direction of a shadowy alcove shoots lightning at a pair of eyes that turns out to have been a tiny baby scratcher.

Before Fenris can argue that the school is maintained by scared teenagers the sudden encounter gets his mind to change tracks.

"Did you get any mana from that?"

"'Course."

"Sure. Did it take extra mental effort? Do you have any sensory feedback besides the increase of mana?"

"More importantly, nice shot. Is the fingergun necessary because of the spell or even more necessary because it looks cool?"

"Spell needs me to point, but how I do the pointing is up to me." To Fenris: "No extra mental effort, not sure what you mean by sensory feedback?"

Felix decides to answer. "I guess he means if you can tell if the mana came from a mal instead of effort. Maybe sense or direction?"

"Felix guessed correctly. I was wondering if you could use that in case of multiple mals, figure out which are still alive without looking. Or the kind of mal."

"I... don't think I get any extra information like that. I've never done science to it but it just feels like mana."

"And by that do you mean that New York hasn't done any science to you as well? Or at least tried to?"

"...yeah, I do mean that."

"I hope you're okay with Fenris thinking your enclave is run by idiots."

"The word I was thinking was 'incompetent', actually."

"Hey, I am sure they had their reasons. It's not like most people think of testing anything that involves putting mals near kids."

Scorpius laughs and shakes his head. "I had to beg to be let near them. Spending time with the gate guards was a ton of fun but I had to attend a bunch of etiquette classes and what have you for magistra Rhys to let me."

While the other two are silenced, Trevor says, "Oh, I am so sorry. No one should go through something as terrible and dangerously boring as etiquette classes."

"I would have gone anyway, I just don't like the way she's so obviously grooming me into her heir." Pause. "...don't tell that to anyone else though I do actually care about New York and image is important."

"I don't think your mom did the exact same thing as our grandparents, but we can relate."

"Our grandparents are very nice to us," Felix quickly adds, "but we won't tell."

"I don't think you've told us anything that isn't easy to extrapolate?"

"It's only easy to extrapolate because you guys keep catching me in my moments of weakness, you're not meant to be hearing all about my tragic backstory."

"But it is such a fascinating backstory combined with very immersive gameplay."

"It sounds like you need someone to talk to."

"Not any more than everyone else in this school, but we manage."

"That is hardly a reason not to talk to someone."

"Sure, we can talk. Nice weather we've been having, huh? Very void-y."