"Um."

Opalyn is not entirely sure how to answer that part.

She does really want to learn wizardry, and does not particularly have anything else to bargain with... but also she was told this was free, and wonders if he's just seeing what he can get away with?

(Also... would she fuck him? Like, just for fun? Hard to tell, they just met, and there's no spark so far.)

"Is that standard?" she stalls.

"All the math classes that teach magic are like that.  Maybe that's why your family tried to keep you out of them."

Opalyn now suspects the wizard of trolling her. After all, Boring prison exists.

(Wait. Was Boring just a synonym for Drilling?)

"I'm not entirely sure I believe you about that! If I check with all of your other students, will they confirm that you're fucking all of them? And will they say they're happy with the deal they're getting, that they're actually learning?"

"Some may tell the truth.  Some may lie to you because they don't want even more students competing with them for my desperately desired attentions.  Some may lie because they consider that to be more fun.  If you wanted true answers, you'd somehow need a way to reward or punish them that depended on the truth of what they were saying."

Opalyn is currently amused, offended, skeptical, and intrigued. It's really unclear whether she wants to do business with this guy! Probably her best move is to leave the option open for later and find another way to make progress for now.

"Could you provide the names of a few students who are happy to have been drilled by you?" Opalyn will figure out the incentive stuff later.

"Grewlin, Neyvos, and Spleen.  Be sure to tell 'em that if they don't give a good report of me they're suffering the individualized consequences."

"Noted."

"And another teacher who's any good, while I'm checking your references?"

"Nobody around here meets my standards.  No students, no teachers, not even me actually.  No one has passed in any class I've taught, ever."

"The second least awful and third least awful practitioners operating here are Morbledainen and Necva the Eyeless.  I can't speak to how good they are at teaching, but they both know their material."

This is a very relatable attitude!

"Thank you for the recommendations! Will you have room for me, if I decide to go ahead with you later?"

"I won't have room for you immediately unless you can prove yourself a very special case.  Frankly, I was not ready myself for the amount of lewd drama in the lewd dramatic section of the Farm.  I tell one sorceress that she is 'not that pretty'--in a kindly and supportive context to be clear--and it sets off a chain of events that gets out of the Facility, out of the Farm, that eighteen million people end up hearing about and gets into week-books, and as a result--I would not have predicted this as the result--there are now several dozen sorceresses ahead of you in line.  Not even for the educational part, just to fuck me."

"I hope you're enjoying that state of affairs."

"Eh."

(Smiling.)

Opalyn knows herself to be a very special case, but explicitly doesn't want to explain that out loud! So off she'll go.

"Thank you for your time! Remember to stretch frequently!"

He pulls out a space-distorting bubble, shrinks it down to a much tinier bubble, and flicks it over to Opalyn--no, to her collar.

"Fill out my 'Get Failed By Nait' survey and hand it in to my secretary.  You could always turn out to be perfect."

Opalyn has no idea what's going on with this bubble! She starts to ask and then thinks better of it. If she asks, he'll deduce her middle name and her favorite color.

"Thanks!"

And she hastens out.

"I hope you didn't get him off because that is going to require me to rework his entire fucking schedule for the evening."

"Good news! I didn't!" Opalyn smiles brightly.

"As I was leaving he flicked this... bubble?.. at me? Said something about a survey? What was that and how does the survey work, actually?"

"You pull it off your collar, expand it, it turns into some papers and a pen, you tick off the multiple-choice questions and fill out the essay parts.  If the Facility catches you with it in-hand, you get spanked for having violated their prohibition on written records."

Paper and a pen! Opalyn might just keep the survey and use it for record-keeping, if she can figure out where to stash it!

"How do I send it back in? Do I need to come back in person? Can I re-bubble the survey?"

"Last one folded up the papers and hid them inside a book when she brought them in.  Pen's edible."

"Got it. Thanks."

People must really want to fill out that survey.

And Opalyn sets off, retracing her steps through the twisty passages, and back to the lounge where she found the other students hanging out before.

Are any of them Grewlin, Neyvos, or Spleen, or know where they might be found? Or are any of them also students of Nait's? Or do they know where she might find those two other tutors that Nait mentioned?

None of them are Grewlin, Neyvos, or Spleen.  However, Nait's other student Tibbleding is teasing her boyfriend in a nearby alcove to punish him for the bad grade she got in a recent class (not Nait's).  Tibbleding is probably interruptible about that, Tibbleding loves having excuses to stop.

Morbledainen is a teacher, not a tutor.  His class isn't in session, but he'll have a secretary on duty who could probably be found... on the opposite side of the hallway from where Opalyn found Nait, roughly.

Opalyn will go and interrupt Tibbleding, then, and ask about her experiences with Nait as a teacher.

She doesn't make any particular attempt to incentivize honesty or disincentivize lying; she'll just ask directly.

Tibbleding is wearing quite a lot, either a Duchess or a Countess who spends a lot on clothes-licence.  She doesn't remove her hand from inside the pants of the muscular guy massaging her chest while she answers.

"He-Who-Soars is... what's the word I'm looking for... harsh?  Not exactly.  Abrasive?  Inimical to lesser lifeforms?  I wouldn't be surprised if he came here more to filter on powerful masochistic students than for the sex.  Don't enter into his presence unless your spirit is truly unconquerable, like mine, or your ego needed crushing anyways."