"I bet."

To the library? Or one of their rooms?

Library, how about.

Alright; they'll sit somewhere private.

El still hasn't let go of Jialin, and positions the girl in her lap as they sit.

She's very stressed out, so the snuggling is nice.

"What did you do when you killed that thing?"

"Ripped the spell that creates the obstacle course off its scaffold."

"...And somehow used it to kill a mawmouth?"

"I used it to change the rules. A way to get my spells inside the mawmouth, without having to go through its hide."

Right. "How permanent do you think the damage to the course is?"

Shrug. "Dunno. Depends what the mawmouth did on the way in and if the school is smart enough to recast before the scheduled time."

"We'll have to check it..." She frowns, troubled. "That's two mawmouths that've gotten through the wards now." 

"We might want to expect more."

To El: "Your spell - that looked a lot easier, was definitely quicker than the first time. Can you - simplify it? Make it something other people can use?" Possibly that wouldn't destroy a significant chunk of the building.

"I would have to spend some time thinking about it." Probably consult the Golden Stone Sutras, there were some correspondences, in retrospect. "Not sure it'd come out cheap. Or easy."

"...We're going to need to set up a way for you to respond quickly to emergencies like that, if it'll keep happening and if no one else can respond."

"And we'll need to think about - what if this continues in future years. Even one mawmouth a year..."

"There won't be a school left to worry about."

"...We can't let that happen."

"No kidding."

"So how do we prevent it?"

"Find out how they're getting in, to start with."

"Finding maintenance track kids willing to go looking for mawmouth holes with us might be difficult."

"There's got to be someone."

"I'll ask around..."