And indeed on the day of, for an audience of interested parties, El liquefies the lignin in her piece of wood, curves it, clamps it in place, and then resolidifies it. When released from the clamp, the curve holds.

Eeeeeee.

Lucia does not clap her hands like a mundane child presented with a magic trick, but she’s thinking about it.

(Following the spirit of El’s injunction and not just the letter, she’s cut down on after-curfew sojourns over the past few days, and has even more energy than usual.)

El responds to followup demo requests with a liquefying silver inlay.

EeeeEeeeee. 
THIS IS SO COOL.

Someone is trying to fetch a canister of nitrogen for a third demo when the school gears start moving.

Everybody hates it when that happens!

Oh, crap—

The weak spot in the walls—

Lucia is the first one who bolts from the room, but not the first up the stairs.

The problem with Lucia running for it is that either something is very very bad and everyone else should be hot on her heels, or the very bad thing is wherever she's running toward and no one should follow her.

El snarls and follows her.

IT’S DEFINITELY THAT SECOND ONE.

Specifically there is a grogler! El gets there just as Lucia is figuring that out, her first sword-stroke having been worse than useless.

”I fucking hate things that are only weak to ice.”

"Do you not have an ice spell??"

“I have, like, one—“ she starts hissing it under her breath.

"Oh for fuck's sake," growls El, and she solidifies a shell of nitrogen around the grogler, which doesn't look like much in itself but has dramatic effect on the grogler.

Oh, fuck.

That’s so hot.

Lucia shatters the frozen grogler, scowling at it to hide the flush in her cheeks. “—Thanks. I’m bad at ice.”

"Well then perhaps that is something you should work on in your copious spare time, you nutter, as it is entirely tractable unless you're planning to tell me you've some kind of anti-affinity."

“Nnnno, it’s just not usually necessary and I can’t get mana from frozen mals. Sooo I slacked off after the one—I’ll ask the void for better ice spells tonight sorry.”

"Miraculously, we seem to have survived! Next time you could do us the courtesy of explaining what has you taking off running when there have not been any audible shrieks of terror so as to spare me the trouble of guessing and checking."

“—I didn’t want to alert the seniors who were there to bid on the spell abut the weak walls.”

"Then say 'nobody follow me' or 'I need so and so for backup' or some such thing! You don't have to say 'attention all and sundry I am concerned about a hull breach'."

"--Yeah, I'll do that next time. I'm not used to being on a team, I don't have the right habits built, but I need to learn fast."

"Shall we go reassure the masses that you have not gotten yourself killed?"

"Let's slap a quick patch on the wall, first." 

"Ah yes, I'll just reach into my pocket for the sheet metal I carry on my person. We're going to need to go to the shop to get anything to use as a patch, Walsh."

"I was--yeah, okay."

Down into the shop again.

Lucia assures Aadhya and the bemused seniors that everything is fine, and then goes through the cupboards for as eclectic a selection of items as she can manage. One of them is a sheet of metal with which to patch the wall; the rest are there to make it look like the sheet of metal isn't her main objective. She stacks them on it like a tray and carries them out into the hall. 

Aadhya grabs a few things as long as Lucia's cleared the cupboards, transfers them into her shop locker, and follows along.