"In their somewhat limited defense, when I say I'll drain the whole thing dry, we found that out empirically. By accident. With the New York enclave's own main pool of mana." 

That startles a giggle out of her. "Bloody hell, you can hold all that?"

"Apparently I can! I mean. I glow. But I don't...feel strained, or anything." 

"I, uh...I think I could probably hold a lot more than that, if I had to." 

"I don't know how much your average quattria comes out to in lilims, or whatever..."

"I dunno! I've never killed a quattria." Plus how much mana a mal has is...related to how well-fed it is, isn't that a depressing thought. 

"- so I don't know if you should be planning for emergency mana venting protocol on graduation day."

"--Ooh, hm, there's a thought. ...I wonder how much mana the put-yourself-right spell can hold in a pinch." 

"- I don't know, but it had some remarkably surprising effects when you made me put a ceiling tile's worth of flingers into it!"

"--Yeah, that was pretty distracting, wasn't it. It'd be a bad thing if some other alliance got killed because their plans were disrupted by a sock full of okayness to the face. Liu's creative writing, right? Maybe she can write something designed to tolerate over-powering instead of to be efficient." 

"Or maybe Aadhya can design you extremely leaky storage that dumps mana as fast as you put it in."

"--Ooh, hm, that might work. I've never tried to make mana storage, I have no idea how leaky you can make it before it...isn't..."

"And if you're with me I can probably burn through it fast."

"There is that. --I think we've reached the point where we should loop them in, though." 

"Bloody stereotypical. Alliance with our hallmates."

She laughs. 

"I'll take it! It's a completely new thing for people to make baseless generalizations of us about!"

"I just hope Chloe doesn't get ideas about it. I'll get Aadhya and Liu, where should we talk?"

"My room?"

So El brings Aadhya and Liu over to Lucia's room.

Lucia's room is less elaborate than most enclavers' would be. In addition to her standard-issue bed, desk, and cupboard, she has a lovingly-polished weapons rack with a number of fully functional artifice weapons on it, and a small wooden chest. On her desk are a number of Sanskrit books, and her notes and the flashcards she's made for studying. 

"So. Hi! Uh, there are some things you guys should know about me, if we're going to do this. El already knows them, but I know her better." 

Aadhya permits this remark to distract her from weapon admiration.

"The first part is--remember the thing I told New York I'd tell everyone, if they hurt anyone trying to get to me? That does need to not get out, so I can continue holding it over them, but you guys should know." 

Deep breath. 

"My dad? Is a maleficer. I'm pretty sure the reason I'm, you know, the way I am, is that I'm part mal." 

"- is that a thing? Couldn't you be magicked to hell and back without being some kind of hybrid?"

"I mean, in theory, sure, but generally when maleficers create weird magic organisms they're mals! Plus--I don't kill mals because I want to help people. I mean, I do, and I prioritise what mals to kill based on helping people, but when I was a little kid who didn't get any of that, I was hunting agglos and anything else that got in. I mean, I'm pretty sure it's a philosophical distinction--a chayena isn't technically a mal, but that doesn't change which side of the graduation hall either of us are on." 

"Why would your dad do -" Liu begins, and then she realizes that's kind of a silly question.

"Yeah. --The mal thing is just conjecture, though, and not actually part of what I'm blackmailing New York with, that part's just the one where the maybe-future-Dominus is a maleficer. And not the black fingernails kind, the kind that's come through to the other side so they look friendly again, like Jack Westing had."