St. Petersburg's in the main reading room. Annaka looks for them.
Top-line summary:
Masozi is a freshman indie from Africa, here on a Johannesburg spot. He obtained his spot when a Johannesburg inductee died shortly before induction, during an incident where Masozi was also present and impressed Johannesburg adults by protecting younger students. The incident involved an attack by a kvenlik. Kvenliks are not endemic to Johannesburg. Masozi has stated that his affinity is mal sensing. He has been observed in using magic to control the behavior of mals, and evaluators consider it likely that his true affinity is for mal control spells. He has stated that he draws malia from animals, that drawing malia from rats is not difficult or painful for him, and that he did not know that drawing malia was dangerous, addictive, or taboo. He has stated that he might consider stopping because the Scholomance is so much safer than the outside world. A freshman who went on a supply run with him on Thursday and was noted by other participants in the supply run to be particularly friendly and trusting towards him vanished after the supply run. She was found insensate in her room on Sunday, having made him a perfectly tailored suit of clothes while dying. She is delirious but stated that Masozi was her friend and that she merely collapsed from a sudden severe flu. It is unclear at this point if she will survive or recover.
The incidents that incited the investigation are two incidents of Masozi behaving in an aggressive and erratic manner towards New York freshmen after having been directed to leave them alone; they do not themselves constitute sufficient reason for action, but prompted further investigation. Masozi has swapped classes in order to take shop with the New York freshmen after having been told 'we don't trust you, go away' and 'stay the fuck away from the New York freshmen'.
Masozi told Johannesburg he did not speak Mandarin but is taking classes in Mandarin at the Scholomance. It has been claimed that Masozi is acting with the backing and support of Shanghai. Shanghai's presumed denial will be communicated as soon as it's available.
And a dozen neatly indexed interviews follow. Highlighting and underlining is used to note which things are corroborated.
"No. I know I need to. But - it's a different conversation if it's like 'hey, everyone's freaked out about this', versus if it's 'hey, the Americans are freaked out about this' - if Seoul's willing to give them a hard time about it then they don't have to back down to us." Annaka isn't sure this is good strategy but at least it sounds like strategy rather than just the thing that kind of happened by accident.
"None of this makes any fucking sense. Why would he lie about speaking Mandarin and then immediately try to attach himself to Shanghai? Why would Shanghai want a freshman malificer three days in who's stupid enough or out of control enough to try drain someone the first week? I guess if he was also bothering your freshman he might've just been trying all the big enclaves to see who bites, but that doesn't explain why the hell they did bite. Shanghai hasn't quite had their head screwed on straight recently but not in the way where they're suicidal idiots, or for that matter homocidal idiots."
"Yep, I'm confused too. My immediate guess was that - there's some connection with the destruction of Chicago, he has something valuable and that's why he was inclined to have a run at us and Shanghai, and why they scooped him up. But - that's wild speculation, there's no evidence of a connection at all. It's just, you know, at the top of my mind."
"If we've got a consensus behind us, we'll go to Kyoto and tell them to talk some sense into Shanghai. If everyone's divided and no one wants to stick their neck out, then as a practical matter whoever's the most offended will probably stab him, but it won't be us, that'd be incredibly destabilizing. Frankly I hope it's Jaipur, Shanghai can't make that about 'New York has a grudge', but I can think of some people who might beat them to it."
"After last year I'd think Japiur would stay out of it unless he looked too closely at one of the Indian enclaves," says the Novgorod senior.
"At this point the way you've been running around if anyone stabs him it'll be incredibly destabilizing," adds the St. Petersburg senior. "I guess you could get an indie to do it and hope no one looks too closely, except everyone's going to be thinking that at this point."