"- cheers, there's more in the box," El says blearily.

Lucia gives her a thumbs-up. 

(She absolutely goes for the box, before very long.)

"Is your power sharer having a spigot problem, or what," El asks, after having blinked enough times to think she isn't dreaming which direction the mana's going.

"When I kill mals, I get all their mana. Like when mals eat each other. Or us. 'S part of why I didn't want to kill Jack, I didn't want to know if I'd get his, too."

"You know you're proper bullshit, right?"

"Oh, I'm well aware." Stab stab stab. "My dad? The one who's in line for Dominus?" Stab slice blast that thing that won't care if she lacerates it. "He's a maleficer." Very emphatic murder. "I've never asked him, 'hey dad, am I a mal in human form' because I'm pretty sure the answer is yes and I don't want to deal with that."

"Isn't that a happy thought. My mum on the other hand is perfect and has never done anything wrong, ever, in her life, and if I sound like I'm one-upping you it's because you have no idea how annoying that is."

"I do not. I can think of questions I could ask about it but most of them seem like they might land badly." 

"Well, I don't know how much of this I'll recall come morning which might be any which way from your perspective." She breathes wrong and winces a bit. "You're a damn sight more useful than a quattria, any road."

"Well, that's certainly true. And a damn sight happier about it. My utility doesn't come from not eating things. My dad might be a creepy maleficer, but at least he's competent at it." 

"Veritable role model for anyone who might want to be a creepy maleficer, s'pose. Do you just tell everyone this?"

Snort. "No. But most people I don't give a rat's ass what they think of me beyond if they'll cooperate if I ask them for things. I actually like you on a personal level."

"You're joking."

"I don't want fanboys!"

"Nobody likes me! And furthermore I've been nothing but a snip to you!"

"I like you being a snip to me, it's fun. What, nobody?"

"My mum loves me, but likes, I wouldn't count on it, to say nothing of every other person I grew up around. Yi Liu'll sit with me. Aadhya doesn't rip me off. Nobody likes me. You're off your trolley."

"I cannot be the only person who likes snippy. I mean, sure, people who aren't from enclaves don't have to worry that anything else is empty flattery, and most of the enclavers I know like the flattery, but--I mean," bitter laugh, "it's not like it's news that I'm nuts." 

"I think some people manage snippy in a way less globally off-putting, but I suppose you are clearly extraterrestrial, what else is new."

"I guess asking people why you're so universally disliked would be thoroughly unproductive. They'd just say you were a maleficer or something, because most people have the introspection of a gnat." 

"Well, as long as we're oversharing in between spates of mortal danger, I'm a prophesied dark sorceress? Though I don't know for sure that my cousins have let on to everyone else as opposed to it just giving me a light patina of doom."

"A prophesied dark sorceress? I don't think I've ever heard of a strict-mana dark sorcerer before, but I guess you learn something new every day."

"Yes, well, it's like I was born an alcoholic, and worse than that, a mean civilization-razing drunk, and everyone around me is constantly spiking their punch and laughing at the idea of having to be quite so teetotal."

"And also the fermentation process produces a byproduct that's killing everyone's children." 

"Maybe if you torture the metaphor a little harder it'll give you mana."