Well,

[ he meets her eyes. be nice if he could hide it: the flicker of someone abruptly out of their depth. there's a place where training unspools, where procedure and education go to die. cedric knows how a circle's meant to solve this; the circles are a decade gone. dead longer than he ever stood in one.

hierarchy isn't. ]

We're gonna talk to leadership, [ if she already has, and it's been kept from them, he's going to strangle marcus rowntree with his bare hands * ] Let 'em know you need help. They're clever folks, seen a lot, might be they got ideas to fix this. And we'll make sure you're safe. There's — draughts you can take.

[ magebane. gotta be temporary, or someone'll fuss. but could've been anyone in the baths tonight. in the library. ]

Let you breathe a little easier while we figure this out.

[ * here meaning: get very drunk and bitch to keen ]