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The only thing that sucks more than the Scholomance is not going to the Scholomance
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"Um. No, I haven't. The math at the start threw me," there are in fact some very brutal math calculations about long term effects of malia siphoning and ratios and whatnot, both in regards to harm towards the siphoned and in regards to the maleficer, and how safe the margins are for even being able to do the ritual at all, "... and my affinity means that I... basically just can't. Why, is it hard?"

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"I cannot do it alone," she explains, softly. The maths isn't the hard part, she can do that part, from skimming the book a solid 70% of the stuff in there was stuff she had already been practising (but the other 30% would've been really really valuable especially outside to her family).

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...Alexei sits next to her.

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Yvette stays standing, still a bit awkward.

"Oh. Um. Well, if you want help, you have it."

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"I will need to... get rid of all of my malia. In a stream." It's a very painful process, according to the book, but she doesn't mention that part. "And while I do I need someone else to be feeding me a small amount of mana. Not enough to replace the malia. Just enough to... patch over it?"

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"Sounds straightforward enough. Do you um, want to? Because I'd be happy to help."

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"It's not that straightforward," she says, shaking her head. "The mana needs to be freely given, with no thought to recompense, and no trading involved. The person—or people, it can be more than one—need to fully believe that I will never," short hitch, "use malia again. Of any kind. No, no holes in headboards or, um, anything. I need to intend that. I'm, in the ritual I'm... making a promise. To myself, and to that person. I'll need to be pure mana, forever.

"If I break that promise I'll get all of that malia back, with interest... and I'll never be able to produce mana of my own again."

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"Sounds straightforward enough," Alexei repeats, firmly. "We would both be happy to help."

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She stares at him. "Why?"

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Never be able to make mana of her own again... that explains a lot about her mother, and how resigned she always seemed about the whole affair.

"... Well, why not? You clearly hate it, and I just. I don't want you to suffer. Have to keep suffering. Have to keep..." and she still can't quite say it, but it's clear all the same. The mouse habitats are clearly lovingly maintained, with full thoughts towards enrichment and happiness and their value as living creatures that life and love in their own little mousey ways. And then, after all of that care, Liu has to then drain them. "I want you to be okay."

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Alexei looks at the mice. "They're your affinity. Right?"

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"...yeah. Animals. In general."

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"I believe in you."

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God. An affinity for animals, and she had to use it to kill them. Like her mother's affinity for plants, but magnified and made all the more horrific for it.

"Yeah," agrees Yvette, nodding firmly, blinking tears back from her eyes. "You're so strong already for, for managing to do all of this. Just think if you were doing something you wanted." She gives a little wry smile. "You'd be unstoppable."

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"Then. Okay. I want to."

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"Okay. What do we need to do?"

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Well, Liu needs to do the maths, first. ...and, well, maybe she'd already started doing it. It was a waste of time, she should've been doing homework instead, but...

Anyway, she can show them the rest of the ritual here on the book.

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It's straightforward enough materials, though they'll need time to gather, or in most cases grow, them all. She'd think it was fortunate she had a sunlamp, but, well. This book was meant for her, wasn't it, and she'd always planned to get together something to grow plants in her room. Not really fortunate when it's forward planning from her mother.

"I should have the herbs ready in a couple days," she says, after reviewing the list. "I have seeds or cuttings of all of these already, some of them already growing, so we can skip raiding the alchemy stocks entirely if we need to. Mmm. Do we want to shoot for Thursday's work period?"

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"...yeah. I think that works."

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"Okay!"

She beams, pleased.

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And then her brain catches up with her to inform her of the Scholomance social dance.

"... And this isn't contingent on anything or, um, if you want someone else to help with the ritual itself that's also fine, and I'm, babbling again oh no help."

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Alexei rolls his eyes, stands up, and squeezes Yvette's hand before looking at Liu and asking, "So entirely separate from the ritual, do you want to join our alliance?"

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"Is Scorpius not... with you, too?"

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"...no?"

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"So the three of you are just together without an alliance...?"

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