That would obviously be harm, so no.

Do you have any interest in killing or maiming people?

I've been contracted to make ritual sacrifices before, but you get that being summoned by Hespatians. I kink on violence but I don't particularly enjoy doing permanent damage. I don't really have compunctions against it, but practicality and being civilized generally outweighs.

...so you don't expect to be malign, as per your best understanding of how I'd see it, if there were no restrictions on your behavior?

She doesn't want to be asking this many questions, but.

Also there is no way, she calls bullshit. It's not obvious how Cytherea would spoof that, but it seems more likely than a friendly demon.

To be clear, I have personally soul-killed over a hundred people over the centuries. I have the defense that I was just following orders, but to be blunt, there's a lot I'll do to stay out of Hell.

With no restrictions on my behavior I'd probably go set up an immortality and retire to have a lot of sex and play with naïve witches for my own amusement. I like breaking people's hearts. And it's less likely to get you killed than doing something unsubtle and vicious. I enjoy social games and sex and hurting people, but in witch society that means you join Hawthorne if you're sane and get people to pay you to hurt them. The Hespatians have better parties but they have a nasty tendency to soulkill half the attendees, and I have no reason to believe they'd spare me in particular.

I don't pretend to be nice. But I've survived this long by knowing how to play the game in such a way that I'm never considered responsible for my own actions. With no summoner to blame bad behavior on, I'd play it quiet. Never going back to Hell is worth exercising some restraint.

Making Marianne feel like she's playing High Stakes Spy Games that aren't being reciprocated isn't a bad tactic for evil!Cytherea. At some point she will need to stop fretting about stray murders or dismiss her entirely, probably that point is getting the covenant checked over by a professional. They used standard wording whenever possible, but there was very much some improvisation.

Thank you for answering! I do not hold your crimes against humanity against you.

Anyway there is a suitcase on the top shelf of the bedroom closet and you can pack other things you want. I don't know how far Hawthorne's amenities will extend to you.

It is none of my concern whether you operate a business out of the apartment on account of my no longer living there. I will fill out the form right now.

Is there anything else?

I don't think so, no. I'll go pick up your stuff. You'll have to come to the front hall to accept it, the wards on the Student Tower would fry me if I tried to enter without being verified. See you in an hour or so?

Let me check if the amulet can send you mana while I'm inside the bubble.

She checks.

When she steps out again:

No interruption.

Huh, okay. It is actually kind of weird that that goes through but not telepathy. Later then.

She heads back in, up the elevator, room 1273, and flings herself on one of the beds.

Lily comes in twenty minutes later, a stack of books in hand, and sits down at the kitchen table and starts reading. 

There is a lot of material to get through. She has acquired school supplies from the market as well, high-quality black-bound notebooks and mechanical pencils. 

She starts going through the table of contents of each of the books, just to get a broad understanding of what exactly she's getting into.

Marianne remains faceplanted, lingering on the bleary edge of sleep. There's a stimbar with a bite taken out of it near one hand, which seems to have failed her.

Lily does go and check the bedroom after fifteen minutes of flipping through books; she just draws the covers up around Marianne, though.

Back to studying.

She jots notes as she goes.

Focuses

Mothergifts
- Soulbound charmed equipment handed down from an ancient witch
- It is possible to bind new equipment through a high-level ritual or customize your own within some limits
- many, many ways to enhance the result, though raw skill also helps
- rods can be turned into broomsticks or with more skill flying carpets
- I am at least R3 in Witchery (use of mothergifts), because I have a pocket dimension in my robes

Gems and Threads
- Different kinds of spiritual thread make more or less stable/controllable types of connection between the gem and the substrate. 
- Gem properties vary, generally unique per gem type.
- Using lots of gems together creates resonance, which is bad
- resonance decreases efficiency and can lead to failures of the mana transfer = your wand explodes
- the accepted style uses only one gem as a capstone, thus eliminating gem-based resonance 
- capstones are the "nexus" or "seed" of the spirit-work, everything radiates out from it

Runes
- Fragments of the First Language
- require attunement and focus to be used, you can't just write them like normal letters
- "Debased" runes calling on mixed energies allow for more effects but inscribing more than one on an object produces resonance
- Five major types of debased runes - aether, entropy, prana, wither, soul
- listing of accepted debased runes on pg. 127 of "Soulbinding and the Implement"

Seals and Familiars
- All witches can do a simple ritual to bind an animal familiar
- More complex rituals can bind more unique familiars 
- "Seals" are a ritual done as part of binding a focus that uses it as an anchor for a familiar (generally spirits, not animals)
- Investing mana and time in your familiar improves its intelligence and gradually rubs off on you, giving you animal traits
- R5 familiarity is its own whole topic with a host of rituals for different forms of Familiar bond that can utterly transform the original

Cantrips and Set-Spells
- Set-spells use a gem as a focus, stabilizing the spellform with the crystalline structure
- Not all set-spells are known; Earth gems are best-understood
- Advanced foci can be used to store complex enchanted effects of varying potency; this is another whole field of magic
- Most of the spells Professor Ravi cast earlier when she came in were probably cantrips stored in her cane - very flexible, powerful

Crafting Techniques
- many different rituals and methods for sealing runes, gems, seals and cantrips together into a single object
- good crafting techniques reduce resonance or allow for the limits of the object to be pushed
- unique techniques produce many unique results

Overall Notes:
- There's like five whole advanced fields involved here
- And we're supposed to figure this all out in a week?
- YIKES
- I'm going to need my lack of sleep

Forty minutes after Isabel begins her survey of literature on creating magical tools, there is a double-knock on the door. A practiced sound like a hotel maid's.

Outside can be found a pair of suitcase-sized boxes: black wood, interior cushioned with black velvet. Inside one box is a fist-sized shimmering pearl and bars of lightweight silver metal. The other contains heavy dark grey, nearly black metal and a large jagged jade stone.

At the bottom of each box is a crisp receipt of expected contents and their monetary values.

Lily goes to see who's at the door, and blinks at the lack of anyone. 

She brings in the suitcases and carefully lays them out on the table. There is... a lot of materials. The jade in particular is larger than she expected.

Marianne feels tender, limbs-at-odd, head almost ringing, as is typical for waking up in a new bed. She pats around for her stimulant bar with a blind hand, then chokes through the rest of it.

It is chalky-chewy, crumbling instantly in her mouth, chocolate applied as desperate masking. There's something in it though. It's not instant but she feels its kindles snaps sparks. That she is happy to eat sand for.

"Package!" she crows, sitting up as tall and astonished as though crying 'assassin!' It doesn't do to show your subordinates a lack of energy, lowers the standard they set for themselves. She sweeps her legs off the bed and hops onto the floor, shoes striking with an even sound. "Package x2 combo even! Our indentured servant is coming with laptops etcetera, I'm going to go receive her."

"Alright. Let me just... figure out what the fuck we actually do with these ridiculously expensive ingredients."

Marianne was hoping her choice of phrasing would make Isabel flinch, but it seems not to be.

She steps out of the room, the elevator, into the lobby. Is there a demon abouts?

There is in fact a demon with a suitcase waiting in the hall. 

"Package for you," she says.

"X fucking 3! Iiiii forgot to fill out your form let me do that!"

She scurries off to bother a doll about this.

The doll pulls out a contract about a dozen pages thick. "Have your succubus sign this."

She pulls out a second smaller form that simply affirms Marianne is responsible for any damages caused or crimes committed by an inadequately bound succubus. "Sign this yourself after she signs the first. You don't, actually, need to sign this to be bound by the law regarding summonings, but it's a faculty requirement that you affirm you understand the relevant law if you're going to have a succubus on the premises."

"Yes ma'am, thank you ma'am."

She signs and hands in her form — gives the second and a Hawthorne pen to Cytherea. No good apologies, for the paperwork or for the course of her entire life, so she stays quiet, hands folding and fidgeting at her waist.

Cytherea reads it, nods to herself, and signs it. She hands the doll back its pen.

"Have a plesant stay, Cytherea Sintongue. You are reminded there is a bounty on information leading to Red Mother's arrest. Kilea also says hello. This doll has refrained from notifying the Frivolous Sorority of Hêlak. This doll hopes you are appropriately grateful."