"Okay. That - does make him scarier, right. You see why that makes him scarier. Because it seems like it'd go really well with maleficing."

"Yes. --If it helps, insufficient mana is not problem I expect Shanghai enclave to have? Our deadweight is surprisingly good at collecting mana. It's using it that's the problem. I think maleficing would solve wrong problem. I also think it's not in his interests to pull malia again. Even if he keeps Wen Ning and Nie Huaisang alive, Shanghai enclave outside does not employ maleficer. He gives up essentially guaranteed spot at one of best enclaves in world."

Annaka stares miserably off into the middle distance thinking about the Allies chopping up Europe between them. And the alternative wasn't getting all of Europe and governing it nicely, it was - well, she doesn't know actually? She hasn't taken a mundane history class since she was twelve and Transportation Logistics On the African Front (readings in Italian and Arabic) was a great class with some kickass spells but a different emphasis.

"Okay," she says. "Here's how we'll do this. I'll give you a list of questions. It'll be long, it'll include, like, to get Shanghai out the door in four years, would you use malia, have you used the mind-control affinity on people, what happened in Johannesburg, etcetera. We'll go give him a truth potion and I get to ask all of my questions. Then, if I think you should get to keep him, I will narrow the list down to enough questions to satisfy everyone else, while leaving out all the ones where the answer is embarrassing or terrible for message or whatever, and while still making it clear that this is an enormous burden and enclaves tempted to follow can't reasonably do it. And we'll do the truth potion thing again, in the auditorium. Without putting about that we got the answers in advance, I think more people will come if it's high drama. I need to think about how we'll prove to everyone it's a real truth potion but I know someone who might have some ideas. And that way - you claim this is a wildly exceptional circumstance, and doesn't set as appalling a precedent as it looks like. There are some Anglo enclaves that agree with you, or I wouldn't even consider this. But an enormous to-do about an edge case of a taboo can firm it up, if we do it right -" Shit is he even following her, his English isn't great. Well, if he's a bit off balance, all the better.

"And you take a truth potion and tell me you don't know a damned thing about Chicago."

"I'm happy to. I suspect Shanghai may be victim of whatever caused Chicago as well. Do you like me to do it now or wait until you've verified potion?"

As it happens they don't know anything about Chicago but Meng Yao can't help but think that it would be so easy for Lan Xichen to get around one of Meng Yao's truth potions if he wanted to! Annaka is so insufficiently paranoid about this!

"The latter. I'll get back to you when I have a plan for verifying the potions; maybe someone in the Anglosphere can provide one of their own and everyone can drink both, that's symbolic and hard to quibble about. I'm willing to do the initial conversation with the kid as soon as you're ready, though; if you fake the potion for that one you'll just be embarrassed in the auditorium."

"I like to talk with you about exact questions-- maybe I see some questions you want to bring up."

"Yes, all right. We can work those out now." Flip swiftly past the angry rant pages, Lan Xichen probably can't read English but if he can it'd be super awkward. "Okay. I want to ask, broad categories, under what circumstances would you use malia, what has Lan Xichen told you about malia, why'd you decide to go clean, if you were going to die would you pull malia to save your life, stuff like that - not everything is obviously disqualifying, but I have to actually know what's going on if I'm going to keep my people safe. I want to ask what happened to Sophie and what happened in Johannesburg and what he's done with the mind control affinity. I want to ask what he was after when he picked a fight with our freshmen in the hallway, and how he got interested in Orion Lake, and whether he plans to mess with our students. I want to press him on what he'll do if things look desperate at graduation time - he might not know himself that well, but it's a place to start. I want to see if he has, you know, life goals incompatible with being a maleficer. I want the answer to a bunch of random confusing things - the mal grubs, the Monday morning shop class, why he didn't tell Johannesburg he speaks Mandarin..."

"He doesn't speak Mandarin. He gets advice on taking classes from Wei Wuxian who says 'oh, yes, absolutely, you can take math class in language you don't speak, it is fine' because Wei Wuxian is genius who believes everyone else is genius. Fortunately class is not very language-heavy."

" - I see. 

I'm not - expecting the kid to be a saint, there's a reason I didn't suggest doing it in public first. But if he's a serious threat to the other students, then - even if I were inclined to give you a pass on that, the rest of the Anglo enclaves wouldn't be. There'd be a hundred people coming up with assassination plans. So he's going to have to be reassuringly committed, and the situation is going to have to be genuinely different enough no one can claim theirs is like it, or you and I do not actually have the power to put this to rest."

Honestly, an assassination is better than a war. Fewer people die in assassinations. If it looks bad he'll pick the best of the assassination plotters and make sure they succeed well enough that Shanghai doesn't have to notice and take offense at it.

"It is unfortunate he is ally," Lan Xichen says sadly. "It is inconvenient timing. If he is not, we say 'oh, as a favor to our good friends New York, we leave him to survive on his own, in eighteen months if he uses no malia perhaps we explore possibility of alliance again.' But Shanghai is reliable with alliances. My word is good, you understand. If only we talk sooner."

If only I hadn't assumed that THREE DAYS was soon enough because who the fuck allies with someone in THREE DAYS, Stalin. 

"I understand. It is unfortunate. But we will determine what can be done."

Lan Xichen is going to look through Annaka's list of questions and suggest his own, aiming for suggesting questions which hint to Masozi the way that he's supposed to be thinking about things without tipping off Annaka that he's doing this.

Annaka is not sure whether to expect them to use a truth potion for this or not! If not, they're going to be humiliated in front of the whole school tomorrow, and she's fine with that outcome too. Lan Xichen can propose his questions with weird phrasings either because he's up to something or because he's not a native English speaker, sure. 

...Can he just rewrite Masozi's thoughts?

If he has a few hours alone where he can concentrate he can rewrite Masozi's propositional beliefs and replace them with the beliefs he prefers Masozi has. Not for a long time, just for long enough to throw off the truth potion. But his affinity is for controlling minds, not reading them. And the results he gets when he doesn't know someone well are-- weird. If Lan Xichen were going under a truth potion, he'd be able to rewrite him so flawlessly no one would notice. But with three hours and an incomplete idea of what he'd need to stop Masozi from saying... Annaka is good enough that she'd notice something was off.

He hates it though. This problem has such a simple solution that is under his control and instead he has to rely on Annaka's good judgment. 

What happens if Masozi fucks it up? They can't let New York threaten war and break up one of Shanghai's alliances. That's a terrible precedent, New York has to know it can't interfere in the internal governance of Shanghai by threatening war, that's not safe for anyone. They can aim for a face-saving excuse if Annaka is unconvinced-- if Annaka knows that she needs to give them a face-saving excuse, that she needs to signal that this is an exceptional circumstance and it's not going to happen again--

She seems scared, he thinks. She doesn't seem like she's trying to get control over Shanghai, except that she is scared and wants to make sure she's safe. If he knew who their second-in-command was he could talk to them, second-in-command to second-in-command-- look, we're happy to back down on this but you have to make it clear this is an exception, you can't dictate our internal matters by threatening to go to war with us, I know this is exceptional and you know this is exceptional but I have Beijing to think about, they have to know we're not rolling over whenever you give orders-- but he doesn't know who theirs is and he has the sinking suspicion it's Frank. Frank doesn't seem like the sort of person who's interested in letting Shanghai save face.

He's going to have to improvise. He hates improvising. 

"Hey Annaka!" calls a voice. "Annaka I have a note for you!"

" - oh. Hi Orion. A note from who?"

"Olivia! She did Morse code but I forgot about Morse code so as long as I was there she gave me this for you."

"Right. Thank you," Annaka says to Orion. If Annaka were a terrifying superweapon she'd do so much more with it. Maybe that's why she isn't.

She shows him out. Reads the note.

"Beetles were discovered in Masozi's room, everyone thinks we should be apprised of this. ...should we head on down there before more things happen."

"Yes, it seems wise."

Great. Off they go. People are staring but Annaka will have to figure that out later.