Someone nudges Luca when they don't recognize this guy, and he looks up. Oh, him, yeah, he's important. Glances at the seniors - Nico's less busy.

"Niccolo, you should take this, he's second in command for Shanghai," he says, in quick, deliberately accented Italian.

Niccolo gestures a sophomore out of the seat next to him and responds in English.

"Of course, have a seat. What can we do for Shanghai?"

He bows. "Privately, if I may?"

"I can give you two a white noise field, if that's sufficient."

"It's sufficient." He'd trade for that for Wen Ning to use if Wen Ning could cast spells in high-stakes situations.

Luca nods, mutters in English. Background noise makes a sphere around the two leaders, and the air around them looks slightly turbulent, like a mirage.

Niccolo gives his cousin a smile and then turns back to Meng Yao. "What do you need?"

"I'm sure you're aware that during the recent... unpleasantness... Shanghai allied with a former maleficer."

"Yes. I actually checked him personally during one of the Intro Shop checks, just to see firsthand."

"He invented maleficing independently! He's quite a prodigy. Unfortunately, because of this, he knows... very little... about the long-term effects of maleficing."

"Well, we certainly know more about that than most. Our family tricks to avoid the long-term effects are very secret, but there is a lot which we could share."

"I suspect he'd benefit a lot from just having someone... unbiased... to speak to him about it. Since so much of what people say about maleficers is superstition."

"I could see that being very helpful, yes. I'd be happy to arrange it."

"Of course this will have to be done discreetly. The political situation is delicate, we don't want New York to get wind of it and think we're planning to slaughter our way through the freshmen."

"I don't think they'd jump to that conclusion. But discretion is wise anyway. Did you have a suggestion for how? I could just send one of my freshmen his way, she's been talking to everyone anyway... but while that's not suspicious, it would still be noticeable."

"Perhaps they could arrange to meet somewhere quiet?"

"'Quiet' and 'safe' work against each other... but it's early in the year, it can be arranged."

"Of course all I want is to reassure him that he's not going to wake up one morning a serial killer, but people can misunderstand this kind of thing so easily."

Subtext: he better not pull malia while he's in the Scholomance proper, but he'd better not too squeamish to pull malia from a rat when he graduates if it's the choice between that and Wen Ning dying. 

"It's true, we still occasionally have that kind of misunderstanding, despite our track record of almost never throwing murderers and catching them when they do show up. I'll arrange something - day after tomorrow, beginning of work period, I'll pass you a room number somehow."

"Thank you. Shanghai enclave is in your debt."

"You're quite welcome, and we'd be pleased to help you with other matters in the future, if you need anything." Assuming he's leaving, Nico also bows.

Meng Yao bows. "Thank you for your time." 

That worked out quite well. He should definitely keep the Pisans in mind for next time he needs their... particular skillset.