Calling the hospital still seems like the best bet when it starts approaching time to leave, since they're the ones with the facilities set up for this sort of thing and the ability to transport comatose people and Jing Yi still isn't waking up.

Yeah, alas. Terrence can make the call to the hospital and is willing to put his name on paperwork and such.

The hospital takes Jing Yi and says that they'll keep him comfortable.

Back in London, Inaaya goes through the newspaper archives, looking for where one would find Valentine's lover's grave.

And, back in London, Terrence and Sal find a small article in the back page of the newspaper saying that Alexander Roby wasn't the person murdered. The body was identified as belonging to Thomas Clark, who was white like Roby, unlike Montague Edwards, who was Indian. Montague Edwards and Alexander Roby himself continue to be missing.

Time to review every impression Sal has ever had of Montague Edwards!

A grain of hope sparks in Terrence's heart.

"Roby may not be dead," he says aloud, upon rereading the article and parsing this.

.....well, Inaaya's pretty sure she can guess how a knife was found with Valentine. Not sure sure. But pretty sure.

It doesn't make her feel any better. Honestly it just makes her feel worse.

"Edwards was the one who gave him a pencil, wasn't he."

"...Yes. I believe he was. Do you think they were both - possessed of - the same ideas?"

She swallows a couple sentences for the crime of being rude.

"It's possible, I don't think we have evidence that it's true."

"I suppose they may all be dead," Terrence acknowledges. He is aware this is logically "more likely to be true" but doesn't believe it.

"He could be someone who tried to be kind to Roby and got himself dragged into whatever's going on with him. He could've been manipulated, or controlled. But -- they could well have been allies in all of this madness, too."

God, Terrence probably ought to write Aarons again. He drafts a letter.

a) Heard the news! That's fucked up.

b) There is a lot of occult interest around Roby and your facility. You know the dangers of your work better than I do but I would advise being maximally cautious - if you see or hear something fucked up that doesn't seem like normal patient activity, run away first and investigate later.

c) What do you know about Montague? We ask because it seems possible he has ties to the same fringe beliefs as Roby and they want to see if this is likely before they share the information with the police. [Editor's note: Terrence does not actually plan to get the police involved. Just, you know, this sounds like a sensible thing a normal person might say.]

d) Let me know if you want to talk more or anything. Condolences best of luck etc.

He shops his draft around.

Aarons is not going to take seriously the bit about occult interest but she already told Terrence that and doesn't really feel the need to rehash it.

God she's tired of having feelings. Can she curl up on Joan and/or Sal and avoid feelings-having for a while.

Terrence is thinking that if he frames the threat as, like, dangerous humans, maybe that'll go over better.

But, like, yeah, fair. Poor kid.

Joan is available for curling!

So is Sal, though she has also had enough time to herself to process what Nessa said and is now kinda grappling with whatever this has awakened.

Terrence puts the letter in the mail. He hasn't gotten a reply from Aarons (re: his previous letter suggesting he read the King in Yellow to understand his patient better) or Estus, has he?

He has not gotten a message from Aarons because it was two days ago and Aarons is BUSY.

Estus has written back his thanks for the information; he has had his own trouble with Sano, who has been completely preventing him from putting on any more performances of The King in Yellow.

The fact that Sano is attacking people is terrifying to Estus and he is considering moving somewhere where there are less violent antique dealers.

Yeah, that's fair. Well, Terrence squees a bit about getting a reply from his guy Estus anyhow, and is glad he could help in the scenario where Estus somehow hadn't known. Hypothetically. Whatever.

His mind does drift several times to what Clapper said - he's not really sure what to make of it. He vaguely decides he should cut back his smoking, but that's about as far as he gets, except for the part about the books. Can Terrence find a copy of (or arrange an inter-library-loan with his university connections): Edward Pickman Derby's work, the Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan, or the Necronomicon?

Yes. Yes he can. The Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan are in Chinese, but the Necronomicon is at the Oxford library and so is Edward Pickman Derby's work.

Okay, Terrence has very Chinese, so reading the first one isn't gonna go great. He's down to give it a shot if it's nearby, but planning a trip to check out the others might be more useful.

Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan is going to take a while because it is overseas. He can check out and read Azathoth And Other Poems, as well as reading the Necronomicon in the rare book room, but they will both take a long time to work through.