Lucia glances over at where Todd Quayle is slightly less shunned than yesterday, the freshmen starting to creep in at the edges. "It would be mean and not accomplish anything to chase them off." 

"He probably doesn't make them less safe by his mere presence."

"The point of chasing them off would be to emphasize to Todd that this isn't going to just blow over, even if his parents are powerful enough that it doesn't ruin his life." Sigh. "Unfortunately, he officially does not qualify as the biggest problem." 

"Oh, what is?"

"In the immediate term, hungry critters bullying their way up from the graduation hall." 

"Well, that's no great complicated mystery, just feed each one a freshman or two and they'll calm right down."

"Ah, but consider: I'm not going to do that." 

"Well then, you do have a quandary."

"So far my plan is to keep killing things and see how that goes. But I can only be in one place at a time, it's very annoying." 

"Well, you should have taken Bilocation 101."

"Couldn't fit it into my schedule around the Sanskrit, and I didn't want to compromise there." 

"Heh."

After breakfast, Lucia waits for El just outside the cafeteria. 

"I want to talk. Privately, without an immediate time crunch. Feel free to tell me to fuck off, but if not, is there a time and place that works for you?" 

"Uh. Work... period?"

"Yeah, sure." 

Time to FLEE. 

El sits with her at lunch as usual and then hangs back afterwards.

Lucia clasps her hands together, knuckles white. 

"Willyoubemygraduationally." 

"I don't know if I can do it again."

"Taking out Patience and Fortitude was a long shot anyway." 

El chooses this moment to vomit into the nearest floor drain.

You know what, that's totally fair. 

(...Hopefully she won't go unresponsive again? But if she does, Lucia has the setting-yourself-right spell, now, and enough mana to make it ranged.)

She's done after she's retroactively deprived herself of lunch and relocated the conversation to the closest loo in order to get some water. "I don't want to go to New York," El continues, when she's talking again.

"Good. I'm not planning to ask Magnus for the power-sharer back." 

"I don't want to be murdered by dunces who can't read the subtext on that."

"I think that I made it clear to him and the others that killing you is not a viable path to keeping me but I can spell it out in smaller words. --What do you want."