One of their seniors looks up from her books. "- Annaka. Is this about whatever you've been running around whole school for?"

"Yes. There is a problem, or there might be. May I speak with you privately?"

"How long should I expect this to take?"

"Ten minutes, plus some reading - I'm sorry, about the reading, but it seemed like the only way to make sure everyone got the exact same information -"

"Readings, that's fancy." She looks at the other St. Petersburg seniors for a moment. "Sure, let's go."

New York reading room is presently empty. 

Annaka takes a deep breath. 

"Shanghai has a pet maleficer, who they say has stopped. We're not sure if he's stopped, and we're unhappy even if he has. This came to our attention because the kid was stalking our freshmen, and we - not knowing Shanghai had any interest - did a tidy little investigation that ambiguously implicates -" ugh, she's been trying not to talk like that with kids whose third or fourth language is English - walking it back now suggests she thinks they're stupid, though - "implicates the kid in a couple of murders, one to get his slot and one on the first day. We were planning to publish that, just to avoid situations like last year where no one knows if anyone else is on the ball. But when we discovered the second murder and went to arrest the kid, we learned of Shanghai's involvement. Their plan appears to be insisting that he's repented and he's sorry and they'll handle it if he steps back."

"Do you mind if I go get someone from Novgorod."

"Go ahead."

When they comes back they're whispering furiously to each other in Russian, and switch to English and raise the argument to a normal volume as soon as they close the door.

" - either it's important enough that everyone has to be there and then she should be, or it isn't a big deal in which case why the fuck am I being dragged away from my homework?" the Novgorod senior is saying.

    "She's a freshman."

"Okay, sure, when we graduate you can be the one to explain to Valentina Chernova that we kept Kiev out of the loop when three more enclaves blew each other up."

    "Kiev is, may I remind you, a single freshman you haven't seen since she was ten."

"How about Annaka explains whatever the hell is actually happening and then we can talk about it."

Annaka repeats her explanation. "For what it's worth I'm leaning myself 'everyone has to be there' - Shanghai's not going to back down because we're mad at them, but if everyone is then it doesn't look like an old rivalry it looks like they've gone completely insane and people see it."

"Why would a maleficer kill someone on the first day? Is the theory that he's insane, or what?" says the St. Petersburg senior.

"He's fourteen, my best guess is that he meant to just take a little and took more than that and then the girl collapsed and he ran away. And - I do think he's insane, or at least not using normal procedures to make decisions? You can read the transcripts, if you'd like, he's erratic and threatening and nearly picks a fight with a New York senior when told to go away - I meant to copy them all but then we found out about Sophie and things started moving faster..."

"I have a good copying spell," says the Novgorod senior, "I can make us copies."

"I would be very grateful." She's going to owe so many people so many favors if she avoids a war.

He meant for himself, but it's not actually that much harder to make thirty copies than it is three. He taps the transcripts and mutters to himself in Russian, takes two copies off the resulting stack, and starts reading.

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.

"Have you talked to Shanghai yet?" says the St. Petersburg senior when she's about a page in.

"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.

"Who else knows?"

"It's not a secret. We've talked to -" she would like it to not be conspicuous that she mostly talked to Americans first, they'll be annoyed about it - "Seoul, Kyoto, Buenos Aires, Sao Paolo, London, Paris, the other Americans..."

So a couple of the biggest enclaves and all the Americans including the ones no one else cares about, that sure sounds like New York. "Is anyone in danger from the kid right now?"

"We figured not until an hour ago, when we learned about Sophie; she's guarded at least, but we'd absolutely arrest him at this point if not for the Shanghai complication."

"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."

"An indie from Johannesburg that by all reports pulled himself straight out of a dump before coming here has something to do with Chicago?" says the Novgorod senior, looking up from his reading. "That seems, uh, unlikely."

"An enclave gets destroyed and Shanghai adopts a freshman maleficer in the same three days, it's hard not to try to figure out if there's any connection. But yes, I haven't got one."

Not everything has to do with you, thinks the St. Petersburg senior. "Well. We appreciate the warning about the malificer. What are you planning on doing about it other than running around the library letting everyone know that half the school might blow up again?"

"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."

"The kid's in Monday morning shop class. Even odds he's dead by mid-semester even if no one tries a damned thing. If Shanghai wants to start a war over that, then they're looking for an excuse and would find a different one."

"- aren't all your freshmen also in Monday morning shop?" says the St. Petersburg senior.

"It wasn't my idea," she says tiredly. "But yes. Most of them, anyway.  Maybe if something also eats three of them it won't spark a war."

"Do you have a plan for when he notices that half the school wants him dead."

This happened an hour ago, Annaka wants to protest. "Not yet."

"Great. I'm telling my freshmen to stay away from him and looping in Kiev. If you want to keep it secret I can tell them not to talk about it but it's a lost cause by now."

"No, I knew that was hopeless as soon as I told anyone. Go ahead and warn off your freshmen and - should I plan to talk to Kiev separately, or do you want to handle that, I thought they all  graduated -"

"They did. Kiev clusters, but they mistimed one so there's a freshman this year. I didn't think we should tell her when it seemed private but it looks like all the decision-making has already been done."

    "I can talk to her," says the Novgorod senior.

"Great. Thank you. Let me know if you need anything or think of anything."

And off she goes.