Lan Xichen enters the room. 

"We want to interrogate Masozi privately," he announces to the guards. "--Do you want guard?" he asks Annaka. 

Masozi holds perfectly still on his bed and does not look at Lan Xichen, 

"I'd like it if Olivia could stay; she leads New York with me, and I trust her." 

Excellent. Second-in-command identified and it's not Frank. 

"Yes. We both take people who lead our enclaves with us."

Lan Wangji, who was very concerned that "guard" meant he might have to do more politics, is very relieved.

"Right," Annaka says briskly. "Masozi? I'm Annaka Sanderson and this is Olivia Mandel. We're here to figure out what's going on."

Masozi is going to continue watching this as though from a great distance, rather than letting himself have any feelings, since the feelings would inevitably be panic and horror.

He looks at Annaka with a blankly neutral expression; he’s still carefully not making eye contact with Lan Xichen. “Okay.”

"Thank you for your time," he says to Rin, Lan Wangji, and Unnamed Shanghai Senior.

"They were good company," says Olivia, "and had some insights I'll hold dear as we proceed."

No. Stop that. No more subtext.

Lan Wangji decides this is a dismissal and flees to his room, where he piles up every piece of fabric he owns on his bed and then crawls under it and bites himself so hard he bleeds.

"Do you need food or water or anything," Annaka says to miserable curled-up kid. "We have a long list of questions and it'll be better if you can explain yourself clearly."

Masozi lifts his chin. Forces himself to uncurl and sit up straighter. “No. S’fine, I can answer questions.” 

"Okay. You can also ask for food or water later. Do you understand what's going on, has anyone explained."

Olivia is transcribing, neatly, in her notebook.

Lan Xichen says gently, "Masozi, I think you need to eat and drink." 

Masozi looks blankly at the wall a yard sideways from where Lan Xichen is. Why is he saying things in that gentle comforting voice, again, it doesn’t make sense and it’s not helping. 

“Okay,” he says flatly.

He looks at Annaka. “Sophie’s dead.” A flicker of fresh grief and misery and confusion, quickly folded away. “You think I killed her.”

"We need to check. You're the last person seen with her."

Masozi gives her an empty look. “I haven’t seen her since Thursday. What…happened to her…?”

"We don't know. She - collapsed and deteriorated suddenly. It looks - sort of like the flu and sort of like a maleficer drew from her."

- right, he should probably explicitly say the true thing. “I didn’t kill her. I didn’t kill anyone— I guess I knifed a guy once who tried to hurt my sister. I never killed anyone for malia. People dying is bad.”

"We're going to give you a truth potion and then you can confirm that for us, all right?"

Nod.

"Food and water first. --Meng Yao, get food from Yanli, please."

Annaka politely sits back and waits for the food and water.