Wen Qing, who has her priorities in order, is too busy monitoring Sophie to track any of this conversation except that a maleficer maybe drained this girl. Ugh. She hopes they catch him.

" - yeah, we're not going to arrest anyone who didn't do anything."

Sophie slumps back onto the gurney a bit. Remembers to keep breathing, without being told, this time.

"...he was... scared," she manages, vaguely. "For me. Said... I should be more dangerous."

Oh no. This is breaking her heart. 

...That does sort of sound like the kind of thing Xue Yang would say. Marian is SO TORN. On the one hand he...literally told her he did crimes? And he's definitely a maleficer and this is perhaps relevant information to the investigation. On the other hand, there's medical confidentiality to think of, and she apparently can't kick out the NY kids for a private chat with Wen Qing. 

Also she's very very busy and distracted and really not in the mood to be running a criminal investigation at the same time as a patient crashing on her. 

She pats Sophie's arm. "Mmm," she says, for lack of any actual content to contribute. And - oh, right, patient history, that's a thing. "Sophie, do you remember when you first started feeling sick? ...Wen Qing, can you write down anything she tells us please." 

"I went to bed and - woke up feeling bad. Drank water, but it kept coming up. I was - working on his suit - he wanted a suit and I wanted him to have it - he never had anything - poor boy -"

More coughing. "And, and I just... fell into the stitching... you know how it is, when you're doing what you love... and I looked up and I didn't... didn't know when it was... I would go to the loo for water but it's, it's dangerous, you know, and it was easier to keep going..."

That also sounds like Xue Yang. Marian hadn't realized he had befriended more than one freshman girl? Apparently he's just very cute when he's on drugs?

(....If he did in fact malefice Sophie then this is 100000% Marian's fault and she's going to feel so terrible about it.) 

"That makes sense. Did you, um, have him come see you to check how the clothes fit or anything?" 

She grins. "I never needed to before and I didn't need it now. It's part of me, my sewing - I can look at you and see how it'll fit."

Oh no this girl is sweet and adorable and she's going to die and it's going to be Marian's fault. 

"That's amazing," she says, making eye contact and squeezing Sophie's hand because even in the worst emergencies you can almost always spare three seconds to be reassuring and kind. "You just - hang tight and rest, focus on breathing, okay?" 

And she turns to Bella, who's being much more helpful and less obnoxious than the New Yorkers. "Hey. I need - to consult someone about this. Do you know anyone from the Sacramento enclave?" 

"Yes, I can go get Raleigh if you don't want me to keep squeezing this bag?"

"I've got it." Marian takes the now half-empty bag back from her. "Tell Raleigh that he needs to get, uh - Larisa? The senior from Sacramento. Tell her about the, uh, suspicions we have about Sophie's illness, and - that I need her input on that." 

"Okay..." Off Bella treks to look for Raleigh or another Sacramentan.

Most of the enclave is currently in their reading room in the library, but both seniors are conspicuously absent. 

Raleigh scrambles up. "Bella! What's wrong?" 

"The school nurse is looking for Larisa, for some reason having to do with the possibility that a dying girl in the infirmary was maleficed rather than solely having the flu real bad, do you know where Larisa is?"

:I - shit - again? ...Sorry, I have no idea where Larisa is, some New York student came in and grabbed her for an urgent secret meeting." 

"Drat. - what do you mean again."

Oh. Shit. He's so bad at infosec. 

Raleigh takes a few steps closer to her and lowers his voice to a whisper. "Please don't spread this around, but - I don't know how much you've heard rumors about the maleficer incidents last year? Um, Vanya was - involved, in one of them. His - boyfriend, at the time - drained most of his life force while he was on a maleficing spree. It's why..." 

And he gestures vaguely at Vanya, who's currently curled up in a corner, miserably glaring at a calculus textbook. 

"Oh. I bet that's why the nurse wanted to know if I knew anyone from Sacramento. Uh, can you tell Larisa when she gets back?"

"I don't know when she's going to get back! How, uh. Urgent. Is this. Is the girl going to....?" He trails off. 

"She's been able to talk, which I think is probably good? But the nurse doesn't exactly have a whole hospital behind her and she might not be able to save her."

Aaaaaaaaaaaaah why is he trying to handle this, he's a freshman, this is way over his head. 

"I - should we send someone to New York and find out where they're meeting and when they'll be done? I don't - want to just sit here and wait, if she might not make it..." 

He glances over at Vanya again. 

"I - I mean, we could ask him. But it's - he's really traumatized about it, you know?" 

"I have no idea what Larisa's doing so I don't know how reasonably she can be pulled away from it! Just send her to the nurse's office and we'll hope it's before Sophie dies."

"I, yeah, okay– Wait. Shit. It's Sophie? ...Oh my god." 

"Is that significant -?"

"I - I just mean - I've met her, she was on our supply run - Shannon said she was really sweet..." Now Raleigh is feeling incredibly ashamed of how apparently he wouldn't be as upset if it were just some freshman girl he HADN'T met and he must be such a heartless person. "I - does she have anyone there with her? I should - maybe Shannon can help - and they're not friends friends but I wouldn't want to be in the hospital alone..." 

"It's already pretty crowded but if Shannon wanted to sit on the bed with her maybe the nurse would allow it?"