"Wake-up wards are much more mana-efficient, for freshmen something you can do every night is tricky without an affinity helping. So, you have paper? These are both English..." and he relates the basics to her.

Lissa pulls out a collection of folded-together sheets of paper, writing down the basics. "The book's ward didn't feel that hard...I don't know what my affinity is, actually, maybe that's a hint?"

"Could be! Lucky break, if it is. Have you asked the Void for anything? Supposedly assignments you get, and if you just ask it for a spellbook, or 'something in English', or whatever, you get something that's at least a little specific. Which could be just for your situation, but it could be your affinity, too. Like, my affinity likes books, especially reference stuff, and I got something for enchanting a library."

"I've asked it for spellbooks, mostly? Like the warding one, and a way to deal with mals, and when I asked it actually did give me a spell to change the flavor of things though that one is too expensive." She blinks. "Huh, if your affinity is books, does that mean it's easier for you to keep them around too?"

"Not sure yet, but without casting anything, probably not, usually affinities wouldn't do that. I have a simple artifice to make them stick around, and I know that was enough with the family library, but family books usually don't run off too much anyway. So last night I put it on a good Mandarin to English dictionary, if it's still around by Field Day then probably I'll sell the service."

She blinks a little. "Field Day? I'm guessing it's not just a friendly competition like out there in the...'normal' world?" It feels weird to use that word, but it also feels weird to treat this as her "normal" right now.

"For some reason, right after fall midterms we have a Field Day. The only holiday that exists inside. Everyone goes down to the gym and participation is the only way to get cafeteria food that day. Also, it's when the school gets really deadly, especially for freshmen. One in seven dies between Field Day and New Year's."

"...just participating? You don't need to win or anything?" Then again, maybe by that time all this mana-building exercise will mean she can compete. On the other hand, a lot of people here have been exercising for way longer than her already.

"I think if you lose badly at everything you might be a little hungry that day, I don't really remember the details. Save up some snack tokens, probably."

"Yeah, I can do that. Are the competitions just normal stuff like any other field day or do they have special magic competitions too?"

"Probably normal stuff? But I don't think I know what mundane field days are like either."

"I think mostly it's just a lot of racing? And some jumping contests."

"There's some team sports, I'm pretty sure. I heard a funny story about tug of war, I think that was during field day. Maybe... soccer? Football? Probably not baseball, I don't think there's enough height for it."

"Oh yeah, tug of war, they definitely do that." She pokes at her egg. A bit more rubbery than she prefers, but mostly acceptable. "Oh right! There was also this game where you throw an egg back and forth and whoever's breaks last is the winner. Though I think here everyone would rather just eat the egg."

"Don't think I'm hungry enough for that... Yet. Maybe in a year. Anything else that's been confusing you?"

"Well, you mentioned power-sharers. What exactly are those?" Lissa chews her egg. It tastes like it would bounce, if she threw it.

"So, mana storage I assume you've already heard about? It's possible to build much bigger mana storage than any one person can fill, and that can be much more efficient - loses less mana when you transfer into it or out of it, doesn't leak over time, generally closer to the ideal of 'I put mana I can't hold into this box and take it out later', though if I understand it right you can't actually hit that target, just approach it. Every enclave who can manage it - well, there are a couple weird exceptions - has one of those in the Scholomance, hidden somewhere in the upper levels safe from thieves and mals - they're called power sinks. A power sharer is an artifice that's linked to a power sink, and lets you pull from the sink or push your extra in. Seniors generate way more mana than freshman, something like two hundred times as much, so they fill the sink, and freshmen can use it in emergencies. And then seniors use a lot of it at graduation, but usually some is left over, so every year the sinks get more full and the safety margin for the enclavers gets larger."

"Oh, wow. Enclavers really do have a lot of advantages, don't they?" notes Lissa, with a slight tinge of jealousy. "It seems like every time I think I understand what they're like it gets...bigger? More?"

"Yeah. Yeah, they - we - really do. Depending on who you ask, everyone else is only invited to the Scholomance at all to make it so there are easier targets for the mals, because no amount of advantage is enough, apparently. Don't have to outrun the tiger..."

Lissa stabs another bit of her food. At least this is less rubbery. "Technically, I wasn't invited at all," she notes around a mouthful of food. "Although I'm guessing this year's kind of an outlier."

"Just a bit. I mean, trying to be fair: if you'd stayed outside, you'd probably have died to a mal and never known what hit you, so you have a better chance inside. Enclavers can tell a story where indies and mundane-borns are invited to the Scholomance because it improves their chances of survival. That's even the- mission statement? "To offer sanctuary and protection to all the wise-gifted children of the world." But I don't think many people really believe that. It's a pleasant side effect that lets us justify it to ourselves."

She flinches a bit at his frank assessment of her survival odds, but nods. "I guess I'd rather spend four years in here where it's easier to survive and where I can actually get an idea of what I'm up against," she says. "And this place isn't even big enough for 'all the wise-gifted children,' is it?" She recalls Julia mentioning something about trying to expand the available size.

"Yeah. In Africa and South America and some other places, not even all enclavers get in. New York might expand it, and Shanghai and India have been talking about building their own for a decade or two now, and if it's as big as this one, maybe we'd start catching everyone. If you just look at the consequences, that's... good, I guess? But by accident.

I hate the way our world works. Not that there's shit to do about it, nothing that really matters. Just stupid charity on the margins."

Lissa sighs as she pokes at her food. It's not something she's really thought about much, the idea of the world being inherently unfair. "Well, if it helps someone, I don't think it really counts as stupid," she says at last, after poking and nudging her food around for a while.

"I don't regret it, that's for sure."