There's a pause as she chews on the inside of her cheek for a moment before speaking up. "I'm glad you tried to warn me. Even if you didn't need to warn me about El. And...thanks for sitting with me and explaining more stuff, I guess."

"You're welcome. Uh. I should warn you about something. In the Scholomance, people don't give things away. Just about ever. There's two exceptions: graduation alliances, and... romantic relationships. Normal people would treat this like I was asking you out. Which I'm not. But if someone else just gives you stuff... that's the subtext."

"Oh, er-wow. Really?" Lissa rubs the back of her neck, flushing a little. "Um, okay, I'll make sure not to lead people on by accident or anything..."

"If that helps you remember. Pretty much everyone needs any advantage they can get, none of us can afford to give stuff away. So everything's transactional in here. Even friendship. I'm from a well-established enclave and I still probably can't afford to give anything away. But I'm... ethically challenged. So I'm doing it anyway."

Man, wizard ethics are weird, she does not say. Since technically she's getting an advantage from it, after all. "Well, um, now that you said that I feel like I should give you something. Like, just as a thank-you gift or something."

"I'll take it if you want. But... I told Wendy, I'm a rich idiot and you should take advantage of me. Same goes for you. Hearing that El's legitimately not a maleficer is... definitely useful and I doubt I would have heard it otherwise, so it's not like I got nothing out of this conversation, if that makes you feel better about it."

"Oh, really?" Lissa sounds surprised, but she supposes that is a bit of useful information, and information is a trade good here. "I guess that's good to know. Actually, do you want me to draw you something?" She's heard one of the Shanghai freshmen is apparently selling art, though she doesn't know if anyone actually took him up on it.

"Hmm. Nothing I want now, but I might take you up on it later?"

"Sounds fair to me. I'll owe you then." She's probably going to doodle a personal portrait of him in her sketchbook anyways, but that'll pretty much just be for her.

"Sounds good. I should probably get back to the library..."

Lissa nods. "Don't let me keep you, then. Thanks for the advice."

"Happy to give it. Good luck, Lissa."