"- 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."

Liu winces a bit at the 'fingernails' thing.

"--How hard should I be avoiding bringing that up. I meant it, about not having tact."

Liu shakes her newly shorn head. "I - it's fine."

"Okay. Cool. Uh, also, I, um--my power sharer had a block on it. I just pull power in if I have access to it," she says all in a rush, and before they can form reactions about this embarrassing fact, "turns out! My mana capacity! Is at least as big as all of the power that New York has at a time. I gave it right back but everyone freaked out a lot." 

"Wow. But you're filling up that crystal all right?" Aadhya indicates the one El gave her.

"Yeah. I can not draw anything. What I can't do is draw only a little."

"So you'd need storage with lots of discrete units?"

"Yeah! --Also, I'm pretty sure my storage is, like, at least significantly bigger than what I was holding during The Incident, but El is worried I still might get mana poisoning if I kill, like, everything in the graduation hall, so backup storage that's leaky enough that I can just use it as a vent might be useful. That was her idea, my idea was a deliberately inefficient spell built to tolerate way too much overcharging." 

"That one I can't help you with but I might be able to get somewhere on non-networked storage beads, especially since it's fine for it to leak."

"Yeah! Ooh, they could be bone beads, lots of the things I kill have bones, and your affinity was--exotic materials, right?"

"That's right! If you have any bones lying around that'll be peachy."

"Not right this minute but I will be sure to harvest some next time it comes up. --You should make me a wishlist. It wouldn't be practical to just drag every carcass I make up to your room, but, like, I wouldn't have expected the siren-spiders, if there's something in particular that'd be really useful you should let me know so I can keep an eye out." 

"- yes, absolutely. Though I can often improvise with stuff I wasn't expecting."

"If I come across anything that looks interesting that you didn't think of I will definitely grab it. Oh--speaking of things people aren't expecting--" she goes to her desk, opens a drawer, and pulls out two large glass jars of healing ointment. "I don't know if either of you already have anything for injuries, but here." 

"Oooh, thank you!"

Liu smiles and takes her jar with both hands, echoing "thank you".

Beam. "You're welcome.

There's a knock at her door. 

She crosses warily over to open it. 

It's someone from New York. Not Chloe or Magnus. Lucia scowls. "Are you here to tell me about a mal attack currently in progress." 

"Well, no--" 

"Then fuck off." She closes the door in his face abruptly. 

"It... might be a good idea to have some line of communication? Maybe indirectly, if they'll talk to me or Liu once our names are on the wall."

"I did ask him if there was a mal attack first. --I guess there might be something else worth listening to them about even if I'm not, like, immediately thinking of it." 

"What, like if they're very stupid and need to be told five thousand times in small words I'm not mind-controlling you lest they try murdering me again?"

"Hopefully the blackmail should be enough to deter murder attempts, I really don't want to have to explain that you're not mind-controlling me five thousand times in small words just because they're very stupid!"