"Mm.  ...Probably couldn't kill?"  She's never used it on a person, or even the kind of mal that runs mostly on biology, but people are 70% water, right, so it'd probably take a lot of fire to get to the important bits.  "At least not fast."  She goes back to pulling bits off the muffin and assembling some more sentences.

"Force-net takes two and a quarter seconds to cast.  Fire spell takes one and a half.  Both in the same day... could maybe pin him for three seconds.  Maybe five if placing it wasn't tricky."

Okay. He can do this, he can talk tactics, he's been imagining this specific scenario for months. "Counterspell cast time is variable, but not longer than whatever it's countering. It's also doubly the most mana-efficient option I'd have - cheaper if I'm the target, cheaper than what it's countering. I have decent self-buffs for my age but I don't have the mana budget to cast and maintain them preemptively, and only skin-hardening is fast enough to use in a fight against a wizard." There's the ice spike spell but it needs more practice... 

"A few seconds is long enough for a good stabbing, and I have ever practiced knife fighting. It's also long enough to run around a corner, I guess, but all things considered I'd rather not have my back to an angry maleficer." 

"Me neither."  They're actually doing this.  They're planning how to kill an actual person.  If he attacks her first, granted, but she should probably be feeling some kind of way about it.  But no, she's mostly just glad Alexius hasn't given up on her and stressed about failing at language again. 

"He'd go for me first.  So- fireball, counterspell if you need it, I try to pin him?"

He might not go for her first if Alexius is in the way. Not this fucking time. Not again. 

...did he seriously just think that? Crap. It takes him a moment to form words again. 

"...yeah. And unless you're handy with a blade or have mana left, that's when you skedaddle. If I think I have a shot, I'll take it, otherwise I'll be right behind you. How fast is the fire to cast?" 

"Good enough for mals.  Uh.  Some mals."  She pulls her knife out to show off- not the little blade on her multitool or Baby's First Shop Project, she has a single-purpose dagger she clearly brought in with her, handle just fitting her hand.  

"Fire's a second and a half mostly.  ...and it's only three seconds on the pin if I'm all the way full up."

"...so, maybe long enough for an attack, but not long enough to flee. Stabbing is Plan A, then." 

And...realistically, that's about all the planning they can do, here. Schedule swap and logistics time? 

"Yep."  Connie puts her knife away and pulls out her schedule to compare; they've only got the two classes together, but a few more are near each other, so if they both spend work period in the library they could cover about half the week without Alexius going more than half a hallway's worth out of his way.

"And then I can probably go down to shop and lab with the Harbin girls- uh, city, not enclave- and everybody comes up to lunch in a pack from there anyway-"  Words are starting to come more easily now that she's got the practical schedule-wrangling problem in front of her, and can shove away for later the prospect of trying to fight an actual maleficer and the looming question of what Alexius might want in return.

Alexius sketches out his schedule from memory and gives Connie a copy. (If you've got it, flaunt it.) "Okay, looks like we have a decent plan."

He has been neglecting his awffle while they talked, so he takes an absent bite and his face contorts in a grimace of instant regret. The things he does for mana. 

"Yeah.  Here's hoping we don't need it."  

Alexius, seeming to consider the matter closed, proceeds to mildly torture his taste buds. 

Okay.  She has to actually ask, she can't be ambiguously dating two boys.

"So- did you- do you want-"

Goddammit.

Alexius blinks. They figured out the plan, that's pretty much all they need to work out. What else could he possibly...?

Oh. Shit. He just made an offer without demanding a trade. His father had warned him that was, like, Scholomance code for propositioning someone. Alexius immediately feels like an absolute dirtbag. 

Okay, okay. This is easy to fix. Just tell her you'll take a trade in mana per hour or something and clear everything up. 

Alexius inhales a chunk of waffle imbued with the essence of agony and goes into a coughing fit. 

"Oh no, are you okay?"  That came out without thinking and sounding perfectly normal, thank you stock phrases, but of course he can't answer right now- she goes around to his side of the table and thumps him on the back in case it helps.

Alexius has the presence of mind for a reassuring nod as his coughing winds down. His tongue and throat are burning. Ow. Eventually, he wheezes, "Shorry. Din't mean. I wathn't..." Augh. Augh. Cannot word. 

Connie can, extremely, relate. 

She grabs her orange juice, but it's empty- and isn't there something about acids and spice anyway- right, fats and starches.  She pokes the less-destroyed muffin over to his side of the table instead.

"Um."

He's just gonna, uh, not engage with the shredded muffin. A muffin is too complicated a concept for his freaking out brain. He sips some water when he can swallow again. Now he's not choking, his mouth is just on fire. 

"Okay. 'm okay." cough "Sorry. No. Not...Scholomance thing. Not that thing. We can actual. Trade." Bad word is better than no word, right? 

"Oh- okay, yeah.  Right.  Just- friends, then?"  It feels simultaneously too daring and not enough, what do you call someone you just met who's willing to fight a maleficer with you and talk payment after.  She pushes muffin crumbs together into a little pile.

"You still need, uh, mana, right?  Shop help?"

Oh, good. Communication. "Yes. Both." Deep, non-choking breaths. "We could...treat it sort of like an insurance premium? Fee of X hours mana or shop work, and if we actually fight the maleficer," and survive, he does not say, "then owe a big favor, like a weapon?" 

"...huh, yeah, that makes a lot of sense."  Is the yes to both mana and shop help, or to both mana and friendship, is this one of the things you're not supposed to talk about out loud or you'll ruin it- she needs to focus.

"I haven't done a lot of metalwork at home, just wire, but I bet I'm gonna get some once shop starts specializing... actually, I wonder if your affinity would be friends with my glove..."  She taps her fingers on the edge of her tray, staring at the table like the puzzle is laid out there.

The conversation is slowly becoming one he knows how to have! 

"My affinity tends to abhor artifacts unless they are made of parts of me. I have a tooth-and-hair necklace I use for backup mana storage, but I don't advertise it because I don't want to look like a witch doctor. I don't need affinity-friendly weapons, though that'd be nice, just something that's useful for throwing, stabbing, deflecting, or otherwise helping in combat. I'll be able to make myself plenty strong and fast as an upperclassman, just need equipment that can keep up. That's the long-term plan, anyway."