It doesn’t show on her face but Meredith is glad for the topic change.

“Oh, I just jumped off the bus’ roof.”

Well, that sure does explain it.

"When did you get on the bus roof? And were you already on there when you spotted me, or did you get on specifically to follow me?"

She hopes Sanna won’t get upset again because of this! Lying won’t help if she doesn’t get away with it though. And she’d rather not risk it at this point when she’s not even sure which answer would upset Sanna most.

“I got on it after you did. I was following you when I did it.”

Should she sigh out loud about that? Eh, what's the point.

(She wants to chastise herself for apparently not being paranoid enough, but even she can't convince herself that she should have been expecting Death From Above while getting off a bus.

…Should she start looking up every time she gets off a bus now? …No, she shouldn't, that way lies madness. Unless? No, she shouldn't. But maybe if NO. …She will never forgive Meredith for making her seriously consider this. The answer is no, brain.)

"So you got on in Savoy. Is that where you normally live?"

Is Meredith skilled enough at reading expressions to understand that Sanna is upset about that? Nope, not at all. (She can guess that stalking her again would have consequences —like never getting answers to her questions— she’s not completely oblivious, just a lot.)

“Kind of? Not in the city proper, my house is in the nearby woods, but yes.”

Hm. Okay.

"How come I couldn't smell you until you were about to approach me? It's not just distance, you were closer than that when you first started following me."

“Oh, that’s a vampire ability. Let me show it to you.”

At that, she gradually ramps up said ability. As it starts, Sanna might realize that Meredith is becoming less noticeable. She’s still fully visible but it’s like she’s not important. This effect increases and, eventually, she just becomes fully invisible.

Meredith waits another second and then drops the effect completely.

Wow. Okay.

So there's no point in telling her not to stalk her again, because she won't be able to enforce it. Fuck.

…Actually…

"If you can do that, then why did you let yourself be noticeable at all before you approached me?"

“If you could feel magic it would have been more noticeable for me to be fully invisible. And I think I was hoping to approach you more straightforwardly but changed my mind? I’m not entirely sure, curiosity was getting the best of me.”

It seems like Sanna's revealed that she can't in fact sense Meredith by magic or see past her 'glamour'. But she knew that was the chance she was taking when she asked the question; and it was probably already pretty obvious anyway, from how Sanna reacted when Meredith turned the glamour all the way off earlier. Besides, in exchange she has learned about an ability Meredith has.

It's really starting to sound like Meredith's fixation often gets the better of her even when that harms her own selfish goals. That's… kind of a bad sign, actually. It means that Sanna perhaps can't trust her to act right even when she's actually trying her best. It means motivation isn't enough. Maybe nothing is enough.

For God's sake, why did it have to be her? Why couldn't it have been the safety–comfort guy? They would have gotten along great, probably! Possibly she is being too optimistic

…Will it be too obvious if she asks that question now? Maybe not, but better play it safe. What to ask instead…

"Are vampires smarter than humans, after you factor out things like being faster and having a better memory?"

“We’re a bit smarter, I think. Although it could just be that having learnt much more since becoming a vampire has given me that impression. I wasn’t literate when I was human, it was the 1700s. And most of us aren’t living lives where it’s easy to test our intellect. Might be a good idea to set up some sort of experiment next time someone wants to be turned…” new project ideas! Always great! Even if this is one she won’t be able to act on just now (forcibly turning people does not give you collaborative vampires), she’d need to do some research for it anyway.

Oh yeah, the 1700s. She should ask about that. Where is Meredith even from? Not important right now, though.

"Do vampires get more powerful as they age? Factoring out things like just being more knowledgeable or more experienced. Like… Have you ever played an RPG? I'm basically asking if vampires 'level up'."

“None of the supernatural creatures in this world ‘level up’. We can learn more and some abilities become stronger with use but it’s just not like that,” Meredith has lots of free time, she’s had the opportunity to get to know modern-day fiction and games. “It isn’t quantifiable and it has limits. It’s just training, discovering things and becoming more attuned to magic. We also don’t gain entirely new abilities. And magic is species based so there’s no spells to learn, you have to be born a witch.”

…Why did she say 'this world'.

…There's no way she suspects, right? Surely she wouldn't be able to hold back from flooding her with questions if she suspected. Right?

Maybe she was just being emphatic?

By the time she's done internally panicking, she's missed most of what Meredith said. She caught enough to gather that the answer is 'No, there's no levelling up', but that's about it. Oh well, not really a big deal.

"Do you need to breathe? Do you need to sleep?"

“No to both. Although I still need air to talk. We can’t sleep even if we want to. Which is great for not wasting time but can get a bit annoying when you’ve actually got too much time and nothing to do.”

Does Meredith have some suspicions about Sanna’s origin? Yes, absolutely. She’s explored this world as much as she could, she doesn’t really believe she could have missed an entire species. Plus, the fae sort of have a separate dimension (they insist the world ‘realm’ is better), so it’s not like there are no precedents. (Hell, however, does not exist.)

So she bores easily and she can't sleep. Great. Great combination. Sanna spent years being mind-numbingly bored too, but at least she could sleep! And it was 'only' 3–5 years! And it still sucked a whole hell of a lot!

…Even given that Meredith couldn't possibly know why she's asking, Sanna's kind of surprised she just told her whether she needs to breathe, just like that. Does she not realize strengths can be as important to hide as weaknesses?

Oh well. It's not purely to Meredith's disadvantage that Sanna knows that. There are upsides and downsides. And it's probably never going to be relevant unless Sanna has to defend herself. Which she kind of wishes would happen just to see how it would shake out, she wants to know what the real pecking order is.

Of course, Meredith could be lying. If they ever see each other after tonight, maybe someday Sanna can ask for a demonstration. (She doesn't really expect Meredith to agree, but that's mostly because she wouldn't agree, and it's becoming very clear that Meredith doesn't know what 'fearing for your life' is.) That's not a priority, though. Not yet, anyway.

Should she ask this one? Last time she asked a question she wasn't sure she should ask, it kind of blew up in both of their faces. …But, it blew up in a way she needed to know about. It sucked, but it was still information she'd rather have than not. So…

"What's a way that I can defend myself from you without permanently hurting or disfiguring you?"

"Well, I can't know all the options, since I don't know all about your abilities," she might be pouting slightly, though it's not intentional, "and vampires are hard to permanently harm outside of killing. A good strategy might be for you to carry a UV torchlight? That obviously wouldn't help right now, but in case of future encounters. If you turned it on and pointed it at me, the light would both weaken me and distract me, since it's pretty painful." She hesitates a bit while speaking, eager enough for a chance to learn more, even if it's not tonight, that she's making the effort, but still not entirely pleased with openly stating such a big vulnerability. Meredith could add some more details... but does she really want to? (No, not unless she's asked.)

…Ah, right. The sunlight thing.

If that's a real weakness, Sanna was assuming it only applied to real sunlight. It's not that it doesn't make sense for any UV light to work, but that's the sort of thing where she'd expect magic to draw a distinction between UV light that actually comes from the Sun and UV light that doesn't.

Knowing she can deter Meredith with a UV flashlight would be extremely comforting, but…

"Earlier, when you said sunlight hurts you, do you have any inkling about why I was surprised?"