"Did you-- get any sense of where he is? What he's doing?"

She slides over a note. "I don't know what this means and I don't care! Deal with it!"

Ruby,

I am going to Scotland to DeVil’s house on Lake Mullardoch. Please meet me there as soon as you possibly can. Things will move very quickly now. On December 7, the stars will be right. We will bring Carcosa. You will see that I was not chasing a phantom.

With all my love, forever,

Your Alexander

He reads the note. This is not the type of thing he could explain to Ruby, even if she wanted to hear.

"You've got good sense to stay away from this," he says after a pause. If only everyone Oscar knew were the same. "Did anyone else you know get a letter like this? Any idea?"

"I don't think so and-- he wouldn't, with anyone else, he loves me--"

"Of course," Oscar says without conviction. Roby-- tends to have this effect on people, huh, disproportionate to his apparent charms. The thought gnaws on him for a second, but he pushes it away.

"I appreciate your giving me this, Ruby. I think-- you know Roby is not well; it's not a good idea for you to meet with him. But I have some friends who might be able to figure this out. To deal with it."

"Good."

She considers this problem to be solved and stands up to go cry somewhere else.

Oscar's going to need to talk to someone-- probably Inaaya-- about this very soon.

Meanwhile, in between soundless grief for a woman she will never meet and fury at murders blamed on people who didn't commit them, Inaaya finally finds a time when it is neither way too public nor incredibly emotionally wrong to say to Sal, "...so what actually happened with Nessa Clapper, I don't think anyone ever said."

"...Well. It ended up a rather embarrassing note for everyone, I think. But before that, uh, let's see..."

"We discussed some goings-on in other worlds which was mostly not really relevant to anything, and Terrence got some book recommendations and one drug recommendation, and then... well."

"I don't -- no, I should tell you, the others heard too, I would've wanted it secret but if some of us are thinking about it it's much better as common knowledge. And I also don't know if Ms. Clapper is right about anything, really. But. I asked her if any of us were likely to betray our group, and she told me that one of us already has."

"--And then the whole thing devolved into an unfortunate discussion of everyone's sexual proclivities which I think we are all pretending we weren't there for."

"Well. Shit."

"Most likely candidate is Terrence, obviously, since he's-- eaten-- but I don't know of anything specific--"

"I don't either. ...Jing Yi's fiancée can control cats. I ran into her outside their building and she demonstrated."

"Christ."

"So wrong or lying, I guess is the question there."

"I wish there was a clearly safe way to get information on Chris Parker, I don't know what their relationship is but it certainly is strange that she showed up basically out of nowhere and happens to be unhappily engaged to one of Roby's friends."

"And can mind control people and is living in Terrence and Jing Yi's flat. That also."

"So Terrence has two avenues toward getting his head screwed with and Jing Yi has one."

"--She also said the person in question is making a habit of betrayal. I'm not really clear which things that changes."

"Hm."

(Obviously she's wondering if it's Sal, because you can't just not wonder, that's how you walk directly into something you really should have seen coming. She doesn't think it is though? The first version of this thought was 'if it's Sal why would he tell me,' but if Oscar and Terrence were also there then obviously you'd want to tell the others as soon as you could, because of that very reasoning; the more stable version if 'if it's Sal, why ask Clapper that at all, when you could just as easily not?')

"Neither am I. I was going to wonder if there were obvious times for it to have happened but none of us have exactly been sticking together, that won't help..."

"...yeah, I don't have any better ideas than to continue keeping secrets from the boys until we have a better idea what's going on. Oscar's paranoia is going to be through the roof, that'll be fun."

"I'm not even sure what specific scenario the word 'betrayal' is pointing at. Is it something to do with Roby or Parker or Sano or Clare Melford or Donovan or honestly any of the deaths..." He sighs. "She said she wouldn't tell us who because it wouldn't result in enough drama and suspicion. I hope she's enjoying herself."

Yes.

"At least someone is, I suppose."

"Also on the subject of things Nessa Clapper said, do I remember correctly that you know anything about black liao? That's what she told Terrence to take."

"Takes you to the Dreamlands, if you can't go yourself or if you want to be awake for it."

"Sano had some in his back room when Oscar poked around but mostly it's very expensive and from Tibet, it's not easy to get ahold of."

"So if he wants some the most obvious way to get it is through Sano? Joy." Sal almost wants to be a fly on the wall for that interaction.

"I mean, I don't think he knows Sano has any, Oscar hasn't really been mentioning it... but also yes it's a way."

Updating towards 'Terrence is not going to get the Dreamlands back on his own,' she supposes.

That afternoon,

"...One of Roby's friends showed me a note from him." Oscar presents the letter for Sal and Inaaya to see.