"I have been my entire bloody life, so, congratulations, next time someone rhetorically asks why anyone would even whip up a mal in their shop in the first place, I can tell them to ask you!"

“Even if you’re telling the truth, I didn’t know!”

”Magnus.”

”And if it did turn into a mal, Lucia was right there, it would have been—ow!”

Chloe has stepped on his foot, hard. “Magnus stop making things worse you are here to apologize.”

"So you only wanted to give me the ague, which as we know never kills anyone here in our safe haven."

“You’re Lu—ow!”

”What Magnus is trying to say” Chloe says, glaring at him, “is that it was stupidity and not malice,” she pauses, evaluating the plausibility of what she just said, “mostly not malice, and he is very sorry.”

"I acknowledge that you are stupid. Was there anything else?"

Chloe gives Magnus a warning look, and says, “Yeah. Two things. One, we promise to keep Magnus on a shorter leash from now on. Two, we’re offering you this year’s spot.”

"I don't want it."

Chloe takes a deep breath and nods. “Okay. Magnus? Go ahead to the library, I’ll catch up.” He frowns stubbornly. “Go, I mean it,” Chloe hisses at him. He goes, looking distinctly put-upon. 
“I’m sincerely sorry about him,” Chloe says.

"It's amazing how easy it is to get to be sincerely sorry about something once it's inconvenienced you."

She looks away. “Yeah. And easier to say it when everyone’s agreed that something else matters more than enclave solidarity.”

"You don't need to shove Magnus into the Void to get me on side, it won't help. It's not about the company - not mostly. I don't want the slot."

“…I didn’t think you would, I just have to offer anyway. I just want you and Lucia to graduate with as small a grudge against New York as possible.”

"I'll tell her you said so."

She holds up her hands defensively. “I said you and! Nobody who’s not stupider than Magnus still thinks she’s carrying you as dead weight, not since the two of you started bleeding off graduation mals together.”

"Yes, well, I don't think she'll talk to you, so. I'll tell her."

“…Thanks. I mean it.”

"No doubt."

She nods and walks away before Magnus can get too much closer to the library than her.

El faithfully reports on the contents of this conversation to Lucia.

"...Huh. Well. Do you want to, separate from everything else, end up Domina of a Radiant Mind enclave? Because she was totally talking to--in her mind--'Future Domina of the Blank Enclave.' And she wants a good relationship between that enclave and New York."

"- I don't reckon I'll be slowing down on making new ones soon enough to settle in one myself anytime soon."

"That's about what I was thinking, but it would, like, make any amount of sense to have one as a home base and, like, Aadhya and our moms could live there, and anyone else we wanted to onboard, and stuff." 

"Mum's friends are all mundanes."

"--Okay, valid, but the point about like Aadhya stands. I guess she could hang out with Liu's family probably? They've got to be relatively high up the list." 

"Yeah. Liu's family are saving up for the enclave spells. We could build them one and Aadhya could move into it if she doesn't mind picking up Mandarin."