Ramel relays this line of thought. :He's - taking this impressively well given how disorienting it must be: he adds. 

A Chelish child wouldn't even look distressed. ....Carissa is aware this does not uncomplicatedly say good things about Chelish childhood. 

"We want to learn more about what's going on back in your school," she says. "We're likely going to try to scry it with magic. For that, we need a description of a specific person in the school. Is there anyone there you know well and can tell us about?"

Masozi considers this. "Lan Xichen. And Wei Wuxian, I guess, and Lan Wangji. What sort of things should I tell you about them."

"How old are they, what do they look like, what are some things that are true about them and not true about any other people...Do you happen to have anything on you that is theirs?"

"They're - I think Wei Wuxian is the same age as me, because he's a new student? And Lan Xichen is older, but - I don't think he's a senior - so two years older than me? Lan Xichen has black hair, it's very straight, it's - long like so?" He gestures to indicate hair a few inches long. "Wei Wuxian doesn't have any hair because he's a new student. They both have sort of...light brown-yellow skin? And their eyelids are - tucked in, sort of?" Masozi can't think of a better way to describe this. "I...don't have anything that belongs to them, these clothes - belonged to the same enclave? But the kid who was going to have them either died or got stuck outside the school. Probably died. Since there's a murderer." 

"Is it the kind of school where the most incompetent kids tend to be killed or the kind of school where a fairly random selection of kids tend to be killed."

"- I think the most incompetent. Because if you're good at things you can protect yourself." That seems like just...how things work? 

"Okay. And if everyone had more ways to protect themselves they'd almost all be fine? I assume it doesn't do them any good if they're so protected they don't grow stronger?"

"I mean, you need to learn spells, that's why it's a school. ...And the homework attacks you if you don't do it. To make sure people do it, I guess." Masozi personally thinks this is very baffling. The homework is interesting and important, too, he doesn't see why further incentives would be needed. 

"All of that seems reasonable if you have a nice afterlife setup! But if you don't we're going to have to change a lot of it and I am not sure what changes will make things better for people instead of just - making them safer but less capable, say, that wouldn't be any good."

Masozi continues to be really confused about this person's priorities here! This is significantly because he's still not really processing the situation, not fully. Confusing and terrifying things keep happening and he hasn't, yet, managed to shift himself into a mental stance where 'try to understand see how the puzzle pieces fit together' is a direction he can take. On some level he's noticed this, and he knows he has to orient, sooner or later, if he wants to survive this and especially if he wants to go back and help anyone else. But he can't quite find purchase, not yet. 

Ramel observes this train of thought. Then leans in closer, stretching out his Thoughtsensing to get a better close-up of the details there...

:Huh: he sends to Carissa, semi-involuntarily. 

Hmmm?

:Nothing wrong. Just - the way he thinks is interesting. Reminds me a little of Leareth: 

Carissa has a hard time imagining Leareth looking like a kicked puppy no matter what you did to him. Huh, she says back. 

Ramel agrees this is true but he's pretty sure that Leareth also hates feeling powerless and disoriented, and it's just that almost no one who knows him now has ever seen him in that situation. 

Masozi shifts his weight. Looks at Carissa with his head tilted a little to one side, and almost a searching expression. 

(He's being kept forcibly calm, and this makes it much, much easier to notice how confused he is, right now.) 

"I - still don't think I get why you care, about - what will make things better for people or not?" 

"That is a very reasonable confusion! I care because it will be good for me personally if the forces of Good triumph and the forces of Good can only have triumphed when everyone in all the universes is rich and safe and immortal. Which is going to take a while but you know, we will get to learn lots of magic in the meantime."

This is the point at which Nayoki arrives. She sweeps into the room. Pauses near Carissa, looks at the kid huddled in front of her - 

:Oh: 

Hmm? she says again, this time slightly irritably. 

:- Nothing urgent. Or fast to explain. It can wait for Leareth, I think. Updates on the last few minutes?: 

He has some descriptions of people we can try to scry, and is confused about Good, which is very understandable.

The new person is scary. Masozi holds very still.