Oh it's Asian kid from class, huh. Weird? Raleigh is pretty sure this is weird. Also awkward because he doesn't actually know if Asian Kid - who totally has a name, he's introduced himself and Raleigh will almost definitely remember his name in thirty seconds - he can't remember if he's from Shanghai and also isn't sure if the current policy is still that they're avoiding Shanghai. 

"Good to see you," he says, much more noncommittally. 

Xian cannot, in fact, read Raleigh's mind! He can sense that Raleigh is somewhat uncomfortable and also generate a totally nonmagical aura of This Is Your Friend Who You Should Trust, and indeed usually does this at all times, with some consequences in people who have too much experience with con men fleeing, but that is all he can do.

"I had heard of Vanya's troubles," he says, "and thought, if it could be managed, that I might offer Taipei's support in his difficulties."

Aaaaah? How do they know, have rumors somehow spread so far around the school that even random Sinosphere kids know? 

...Larisa and Landon are going to want to know that. Whether they're going to want support from Taipei is a different question, but he can let the seniors decide.

"Um, sure, I can introduce you." 

If other enclaves haven't built spy networks among the maintenance kids, they have only themselves to blame.

"Thank you."

(If Sacramento did have a spy network, either among the maintenance kids or somewhere else, it's not as though Raleigh, a brand-new and untested freshman, would know about it.) 

This is definitely above his pay grade and Raleigh is happy to lead Asian Kid (who is apparently from Taipei but this is not helping Raleigh retrieve his actual name) over to the Sacramento cafeteria table. 

Larisa notices and reacts first, of course. She - freezes, almost imperceptibly, to think - glances at Landon - exchanges some brief obscure flicker of facial expressions - 

- and waves to the entire quarter of their table that's still open. "Raleigh. And your friend is...?" 

Aaaaaaaaaaaah he is going to DIE of AWKWARDNESS because he still has no idea what this kid's name is! 

"This is– he's in my History of Magical Conflicts class, he's from Taipei. He - wanted to ask you about something." 

Landon gives Larisa a warning look, and then turns and smiles warmly at the newcomer. 

(He is not expecting anything more organized or Scholomance-savvy than that, from Raleigh, who is after all still a freshman in his second week at the school.) 

"Have a seat. Welcome - I'm Landon, one of the seniors with Sacramento." Expectant pause. 

Raleigh is frantically looking around and confirming that yep Vanya is not currently at this table. 

Xian bows and accepts the proffered seat. "Cai Xian, freshman alliance leader for Taipei. Thank you for having me."

He's not sure just what Larissa's reaction meant; she had one, but it was over surprisingly quickly. He's guessing 'she knows about Taipei,' but it could be 'she can tell he's not totally incompetent' or just 'she can tell he's as geared as his enclave could make him.'

Larisa is, in fact, pretty sure that this kid is not totally incompetent! Good for him. That's an impressive trait in a freshman. Also Landon is the one who would be sufficiently on top of the most recent inter-enclave politics to know if they ought to avoid Taipei for Suspicions Of Maleficing, and instead it seems like all of Landon's warning looks (which Larisa can sort of just barely interpret, after spending their entire childhood together plus three whole years in the Scholomance) have been warning her to be less of a bitch. 

She smiles. 

"You're welcome." 

What does he want???? She is going to leave it up to Landon to ask about that. Larisa is aware of just how much she is unsuited for diplomacy. 

They're not worried about Taipei. Landon doesn't know that much about them, but he's pretty sure it's been verified that none of their freshmen are maleficers, and he can certainly tell using his own senses that this one isn't. 

Landon resettles himself in his seat, and offers Cai Xian the most welcoming smile that he can manage under the circumstances. And waits, expectantly. 

(If the Taipei freshman doesn't volunteer why he's here, which would not be all that surprising, then he'll redirect his significant look to Raleigh, but he's not in a hurry.) 

"I had heard of last year's troubles," he says, "and wished to offer my condolences for the losses all of you had suffered."

He waits half a second, and then says, "And, if it could be managed, my assistance with those you are still enduring."

(Taipei isn't maleficers. Being a maleficer would shorten your lifespan, and corpses can't conquer the world contribute to their enclaves, now can they?)

Landon is not surprised to hear this.

Landon is pretty sure that someone who's been around in the Scholomance for longer than ONE WEEK coached him through those words. They're - graceful and inoffensive and diplomatic, to an extent that isn't quite surprising but is definitely at least a little impressive. 

"What kind of assistance could you offer?" he asks, still smiling. "And - what would you ask to trade for it?" 

(Larisa honestly cannot tell if Landon is being Good At Diplomatic Negotiation far beyond her own skill, or if he's just being insufficiently paranoid.)

Technically it has been a week and a half thank you very much.

"Even distant Taipei has heard that Vanya Lipovsky -" and he dips his head to Larisa "- has had protection while he sleeps." More specifically, they've heard that Larisa is sleeping in his room, is seen walking down the hallway from it shortly after curfew ends, with him, and he doesn't appear to be dead. "Thinning the horde before graduation." A smile of thanks.

"One guard, no matter how skilled, may have difficulties against great numbers or surprise attacks. Two... well, I have never heard that mals can be more enraged than by one person sharing another's room."

And he can bring up the question of pay after he sees what his plan does to their expressions.

It's not surprising that someone would have noticed what Larisa was doing. 

It is surprising that someone would have considered doing anything about it.

(Doing anything helpful, that is. It would be not at all surprising if some other senior from another enclave noticed and took the apparent opportunity to either murder Larisa and hope to take the empty spot left in her graduation alliance, or else to publicly and dramatically rescue Larisa and accrue the favors recognized for that.) 

....Either way, if Cai Xian is carrying out some plot looking more than one or two steps ahead, it's surely not one that he himself came up with, alone. In which case, he has the support of his enclave, and that fact in itself makes it much more costly to antagonize him unnecessarily. 

"I appreciate your perceptiveness," Landon says, serious and unsmiling yet somehow still conveying warmth. "Your offer is noted. However, whatever our needs, I - would not be comfortable pointlessly endangering the life of a student from another enclave. So I want to know if, one, you have the support of the Taipei seniors in making this offer, and two, we'd like to have proof of your mal-fighting abilities. Word-of-mouth from someone trusted by Sacramento would suffice, but a demonstration would be better." 

(Xian is dramatically rescuing Larisa, for certain very low values of rescue. He's just doing it in a manner that doesn't piss anyone off.)

"The Taipei seniors have no objection," says Xian calmly. "And if you want a demonstration..." his eyes flash over the rest of the cafeteria. "Is here the place?"

(And he takes the chance to scan Larisa's face, since he's somewhat curious how she responds to his offer. Anything visible?)

Larisa looks intrigued! The kid is...definitely at least a bit crazy, but it's the kind of crazy she respects. The kind of crazy she might have been, if her cousin Sabina hadn't been only three years older and, thus, still in the Scholomance during her freshman year, and determined to keep her alive. By stopping her from ever doing anything fun, or at least that's how it felt at the time. 

She's not sure what to think of the Taipei seniors who are apparently not objecting to this, but that's their problem. 

Landon shrugs. "Depends if you want your demonstration to also get the attention of half the school, or if you'd rather not advertise so broadly." 

Xian is fine with that, as it happens, but - 

focus. He has Landon's last eight words to pick a target. Scan the room. Orion Lake isn't in the room so there will be mals in the cafeteria, there's the cafeteria line, any mals there? There's always mals waiting for people to eat, the only question is who, where - there's an unoccupied spot in the line that people are carefully avoiding - his eyes trace a path around tables for his muscles to follow -

"I have no objections to advertisement," says Cai Xian, and then he's standing a foot back from his chair with his wand in his right hand and his knife in his left (trained-fast, not inhumanly fast) and then he chants a line under his breath and he's next to the food-line (there's a slight blur of motion and of wind and he still cannot be seen moving), and a force-bolt from the wand sends a small ooze that replaced half the pudding flying up and back and a lightning bolt from his left hand (directed with his knife) fries it and he turns the knife and stabs some small unidentifiable skittering creature and hooks it into the cleaning-fire -

(And that was a good part of his capacity, even in-affinity lightning magic takes a lot out of you, but a worthwhile investment if he can make them pay for it.)

He strolls back calmly cleaning his knife.

"No very good targets, I'm afraid."

Larisa is pretty sure that she likes this kid and they're going to get along very well. Which, you know, seems like a good trait for someone to have if you're going to stay up all night with them fighting mals. She may not desperately need the backup but she would appreciate company. Vanya doesn't count. If it's one of the nights where she and Landon judged it necessary to babysit Vanya overnight at all, it's also one of the nights when he is really terrible company. 

"Impressive," she says dryly. "What was that spell? The movement one, I mean." 

"Thank you." He sits down again, trying to conceal the slight shaking in his legs.

"Chinese. The name roughly translates to -" he considers a moment - "'The Thunderbolt General's Thousand-Mile Stride?' It lets your muscles move as quickly as lightning." Downsides: Cannot think as fast as lightning, cannot react as fast as lightning, cast time, mana consumption, you still just ran the length of the cafeteria in under a second. Upsides: Speeeeeed. "Lightning is my affinity."

And his preferred graduation plan is to find some decent artificers who can build him a lightning-fast flying tank, load it up with as many people as he can fit inside it, and see if Jin-mei and Zhe-di can invent a version of the Thousand-Mile Stride that works for vehicles. Assuming he hasn't come up with anything better by then.

"That sounds like an excellent affinity! And it stretches to non-literal lightning, it sounds like." She smiles warmly at him. "Mine is fortifications. Not wards - it's pretty opinionated that physical structures and barriers should be involved, though they can be portable - it certainly doesn't approve of offensive spells, so I whenever I can manage it, I take out the mals that make it past with this." She fondly pats the handle of her enormous battle-axe, which is resting on the table beside her tray. 

"Yes, though not to electronics." It's 'sudden striking blasting force', he thinks, that's central, swift and destructive shifts of energy, with lightning being only a central example. "That sounds like an extremely useful affinity outside of the Scholomance. Does your axe have a name?"

"Not really. S'just my battle-axe. It's a very high quality battle-axe, though." Pat pat. "Landon made it for me - well, it was a collaboration. He got shop credit for it. His affinity is making personalized artifacts bonded to someone specific." 

It looks it. "Impressive. Does it do anything aside from being a very effective axe?"

"It gives me more stamina while I'm holding it, I don't get tired as fast. And it helps with dexterity, some, it's easier to hit whatever I'm aiming for. Also it works a lot better than you'd expect for, like, shop work - whenever we find any really big boards of wood or something, I'll chop them up so we can actually carry them to Cassie's shop setup in her room." 

... More stamina? Better coordination? Well, now he knows what he wants for Christmas.

"Very impressive. I understand why you were so interested in the Thousand-Mile Stride."

Larisa smirks, still absently stroking the handle of her axe as though it's some sort of odd pet. "You know, I still think you're one crazy bastard, but you're offering a size of favor that you could easily trade for Landon making some artifice of your choice for you." 

"The thought had crossed my mind," he murmurs drily. "Though if I do drain the enclave mana sink too low I suspect the seniors may have words with me."

(Or, in other words, "we are now in price-negotiation territory.")

"Sacramento can probably reimburse you for mana you use helping us. Mana...is one thing that we're not especially short on, right now." Thanks to Vanya. Which means that if anything happens to him it would cost them a lot, and so - in Larisa's mind - this justifies spending mana to keep him alive. And Cai Xian is still a freshman, with a freshman-sized mana capacity, so it wouldn't be that absurd an amount even if he's casting spells all night.  

"Landon?" she checks. 

"Hmm? Oh. Yes, we can cover his mana expenditure. For one night and then reassess, at least." 

Cai Xian nods. This sounds reasonable. Mana expended in the fight, plus his guandao if he does it - how many days?

Well, that's something that can be negotiated after the first night, once they see he can actually contribute.

"That sounds very reasonable, then." He'll lift a glass quietly collected from the cafeteria line (after doing a quick not-a-mal check). "To the friendship between Sacramento and Taipei."

"Indeed." 

It's too bad that crazy kid is probably going to die before New Years and maybe even before Field Day. Larisa likes him. 

He's not reckless, Landon thinks on reflection. It's - clearly a risk he thought through, and a gamble he decided to make, hoping to collect the reward. Which...means he has more information about Sacramento than you would expect a random freshman to have. Landon tries to remember if he's ever spoken to any of the current Taipei upperclassmen. Nothing jumps clearly to mind, though of course Sacramento's position in last year's...incident...would have been hard for anyone with eyes and ears to miss. 

This is REALLY WEIRD!!! How did this end up happening. 

(It ended up happening, from Cai Xian's point of view, because he wasn't going to beat out all the other candidates for power in Taipei if he took no risks, and out of all the visibly insanely brave things to do that would give him a reputation as a great hero who others could come to for support and advice, a paladin of the Scholomance whose graduation alliance would attract invokers and artificers and alchemists of genius, this was the only one he actually expected he'd survive. He'll take Sacramento's pay because if he didn't look like he was getting something out of it he'd look like an idiot, but Cai Xian is not paid in mana or in weapons. Cai Xian is paid in glory.)

(Operation Complete Lunacy, Stage One: Success.)