(The night after Clare Melford, Inaaya goes home, and that night she curls up on her Joan, and-- doesn't, actually, cry. She talks through everything that happened, including the parts where she froze up or made stupid choices or abandoned something that mattered because she was panicking, even though she's pretty sure Joan is going to be pissed about her taking unnecessary risks or about her leaving Clare Melford without even trying to do anything, and--

--and then Joan just. Isn't mad about it. Is scared, but she's not mad, not even a little. It turns out to actually just be okay.

It's... really nice. Both not having her girlfriend be pissed, and finding out that no, really, there are in fact some things in her life that are actually just okay.)

Sal thinks that they should avoid each other for a week, and has said as much.

She is planning to go out dancing every night for the next several days. Though events are perhaps going to conspire not to let her. (She got home and took something and slept for several hours and then spent the rest of Saturday out dancing until sunrise, as planned.)

Terrence has a full-on panic attack in his bedroom once he gets home, as soon as he stops ruminating on The King In Yellow, and it IS bad and does suck immensely. But he does feel better after a day of rest. He sees Sal's reasoning; maybe they can stay in touch in writing, or just meet up in twos and threes as necessary, so they're never "that one distinctive group of oddballs that were spotted in that village." That just seems like good sense.

The Roby news is on a deadline, though. Maybe they can meet up in he and Jing Yi's apartment again, and just come and leave slowly. He proposes writing to Aarons and asking to talk with Roby again first.

Oh boy is this not the time. On the one hand: they have no good reason not to release him. On the other: if they could explain the Clare Melford thing, that would be a great reason to get more time to investigate, at least.

Why has the timeline been sped up. Why now.

"If we could come up with a story for why he's not safe because of Clare Melford that sounds sane--"

Inaaya is so so so so so tired. She was tired before Clare Melford and it's not exactly better now.

"Do we need a story. Can we not just say that people keep mysteriously dying around him. Aarons knows the murders weren't conventionally explicable."

"But he might not believe those were Roby's fault."

"--Nigel knew Roby, and Roby wanted to show him the 'nine teeth' in Clare Melford. And, well, guess what there are nine of that we ran into."

"Right but I think then we just run back into the problem of 'how do we say this to Aarons in such a way that it's both clearly Roby's fault and not completely insane.'"

"Now, I know this is counterintuitive, but - are we sure it is Roby's fault? For all we know, he was trying to destroy whatever ritual was performed at Clare Melford. If someone summoned such beasts to Roby's home, it's more likely that they were trying to kill Roby as well, than that Roby summoned them and believed he could control them."

"--I don't think he would have wanted to show off the rock pillars if that was the case?"

"He's obsessive. His writings are the ramblings of a madman. He told Way exactly how he was going to die, he may well have arranged that in advance. His pillars..." He grimaces. "...You know what would be a terrible idea. What if one of us took Dr. Aarons to Clare Melford."

"...Obsession is not the same thing as murderous."

"It does sometimes mean crazy, though."

"I really wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt too. But--"

"Showing an asylum doctors something crazy at least be amusingly ironic. Though probably still also a terrible idea."

"We should have gotten pictures."

"Anyway, I don't know if Roby is insane, but I am worried that he's dangerous."

"Terrence, Roby confessed to the murder, remember? Aarons mostly had reservations because Roby couldn't explain how he'd done it." 

"I - see what you mean, Inaaya. But, but confessions are not an art - he couldn't explain how he'd done it. Maybe he couldn't explain what else had happened either. Or thought it was his fault. Or - or he thought the asylum could offer him physical protection.

I'm just saying. There are ways he might be innocent and still have felt pressure to say that."

"I think it is very obvious why he couldn't explain how he'd done it!" 

"I am saying that the case can be easily made that he is insane, and that is all we need to convince Aarons of."

"He's insane because he's convinced he did a murder he physically could not commit. Watertight, that is."

"I wouldn't be surprised if other magic users pressured him. Given what we've seen of them so far."

"I think you're all being remarkably callous. We were asked to assess if a man is merely eccentric or is, is deserving of being locked up for life. We weren't even asked to assess if he'd done the crime, although - obviously that's a relevant factor. We can't stop just because we're in over our heads. It's a man's life! His freedom! Who's to say what a sane or insane reaction to all, all of this, ought to be? Well, not us, but we can't - we can't give up on him."

"There's more here. You know that. We all know that."

"It's more than one person's life, Terrence."

"I'm not giving up on him!"

"The important question at the end of the day isn't 'is Roby normal Bohemian levels of eccentric, or is he barking mad?' it's 'is Roby safe to be out in the world?' And-- if he had anything to do with Clare Melford..."

"Well, then. We had better find out."

"In nine days. Somehow."

"I imagine we might do better at speaking with him now that we know something about his - his world."

"...'We found something in Roby's background we are concerned about, and we would like some more time to investigate' wouldn't be a lie."\

"We can even be specific. It's not like the Clare Melford deaths aren't relevant to Aarons' decision here."

"That's true, that's true."

Sal moves over next to Jing Yi.

"I had a thought," he says quietly. "You said your fiancée can make animals friendly. We have a very dangerous animal we need not to attack us if we go anywhere near it. What does that include? How much can she do?"

"I think she can only do animal-animals. I can ask, but I really doubt it."

"...Jing Yi what is an animal-animal. Are you... are you saying you think that the thing we're dealing with isn't a proper animal."

"Even if he did it-- I think understand where Terrence is coming from. I don't know if I feel good just leaving him there to rot. Is there maybe some way we can help him regain--" pointedly averts his eyes from Terrence-- "sanity? Even if we can't get him out?"

"Well, she can't do people, so if it's sentient we're going to have trouble."

"How do we know she can't do people."

"--she said as much?"

"Okay but cats are people and most humans don't know that."

Even if she's not lying, which is a possibility Inaaya's not mentioning but she's thinking about! Honestly!

"Has she mentioned doing it on cats?"

"...I could ask about the cats. I have only personally seen her do it on birds."

"Okay, but my point isn't just 'does it work on cats,' it's 'we really do not know what is and is not people.' If birds had a language I do not think I would necessarily know it!"

Meanwhile, Terrence brings out his beloved typewriter and starts drafting a letter to Aarons, suggesting that while they're hopeful, they have found a connection (of unclear nature) to some deaths in Clare Melford and would like to ask him some questions about it, and will that work for his schedule.

Also, what happens in 9 days? He solicits feedback from the others as he types.

The thing that happens in nine days according to the letter is Roby's hearing.

Jing Yi puts his head in his hands. "There's no way we're going to be able to delay the legal system."

Oh, right. Well. "Then we shall have to work quickly.

...I think that if I can show him that I'm on the level, so to speak, he might tell me some more about his friends, who could perhaps give us a better sense of - ah - of how culpable Roby or any of them are in all this."

"I also want to talk to Valentine Donovan again, we've acquired more questions about Shub-Niggurath and she unlike Roby actually talks about things sometimes."

"...it would probably be worthwhile asking for another description of the devil. Considering recent encounters."

"I do think you should note that the degree of his obsession is unusual even for Bohemians, and that the book he wrote on the subject is rather disturbing. By itself that isn't conclusive but it is the question we were originally asked to answer and omitting it might be taken as evidence that we didn't notice anything of that type at all."

"Feels a bit dirty to write him up for a disturbing work of literature. Even though we know it's not-- just that. But, I don't know, on principle?"

"I'm inclined to agree," says Terrence, frowning.

"So leave out the book but note that the degree of obsession is contextually unusual."

"I - suppose." He rewrites a bit to note that.

He's inclined to understate it a little. I mean, he doesn't think it's a big deal. But he does include it.

"Maybe mention a concerning past history, though one that isn't necessarily a sign of being insane."

This whole exercise feels a bit dirty to him, actually, but he's not going to push it. "I hope we can get a greater sense of, say, Parker's involvement. I remember Carter mentioned Roby being-- a sweetheart, I think?-- and I don't feel great about his sanity but I can't help but feel he's in with a bad crowd."

It's also very possible that using magic changed Roby's character in a fundamental way but he doesn't want to raise that especially in present company.

I mean, that just seems unlikely.

He! Confessed! To! The murders! There have been two more mysterious murders around him! Why are Oscar and Terrence insisting on bending over backwards to argue that the murders must have actually been someone else's fault!

It is kind of funny how they could throw principles out the window yesterday when there were people they could have been dooming because of it but they're all-important now when playing dirty might help save lives. He doesn't say it. He is not brave enough to pick that many fights.

"Well, being in with a bad crowd is no indictment either - but I follow you. I certainly hope he hasn't killed anyone. I will simply ask to speak with him once more. We can present our full conclusions to Aarons closer to 9 days."

"I'm happy to go with you."

"--oh, I also want to ask around about whether there was a whistling sound when the orderlies were killed."

"I think talking to him and Valentine is our best plan at the moment."

Maybe the King in Yellow fanatic is actually getting in the way of proper reasoning about this. Maybe letting him control the narrative is going to fuck them over.

"I would rather talk to Dr. Aarons in person about this."

Terrence finishes the letter and hits send folds it up for mailing.

In the interim between that conversation and leaving for the asylum--

To talk to Evie, one must first find Evie. Which might just involve hanging around outside the apartment for a bit. At hours when one might expect a fiancée to come home.

"Hello?"

"Hello. Nice day out, isn't it." Is there any hint of a whistle on her person. "Been seeing you around a bit recently."

If there is, Sal can't see it.

"William and I had a whirlwind romance," she says.

"Good for him. Does he know about..." Sal gestures.

"About what?"

"The magic." He shrugs like this is a perfectly reasonable thing to discuss. "I've got some friends who do it too. You learn to pick up on things."

Mostly things like spooky whistles and warnings about youth-devourers and second-hand talk of spells, admittedly.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Listen, I'm not gonna run around telling anyone about it. I'm just looking to make connections.

What's your thing? Books? Dreams? Hypnosis? Weather? Animals? Got a friend who does stuff with animals, she's real sweet."

"Animals. I showed William. They eat off my hands."

"Ah, that's a nice one. Any animals? Even feral ones, like street cats? I can't get them to go near me, they hiss and run."

"Even stray cats!"

"Wow.

I saw one across the street just a minute ago, can you show me? I've always liked cats."

"...why not, for a friend of William's."

She makes a high sort of trilling noise. A cat emerges and winds itself around Sal's feet.

"Aw, hey there!" Gentle pat. "This is amazing. Are you and William planning on lots of pets?"

"I'm not sure! It depends on what he wants."

"Well, if you can get children to listen like that you're all set either way!"

Ha ha aren't we funny.

"...Is it really... any animal? Even... wild beasts?"

Teasing: "Why, is there a lion you'd like me to tame?"

Suddenly more serious: "I don't know what it was, exactly. Just that it was big, and wild, with massive wings. Out in the countryside. It's been causing a load of trouble."

"I think you'd probably rather talk to animal control about that."

"Probably. Say hi to William for me."

"I will."

Meanwhile--

It feels weird going to meet up with Ruby just to go "Good Awful news! You were right not to go to Clare Melford!" But it seems like the sort of thing he should know.

"Hello, darling."

"Hello, it's lovely to see you again."

"Lovely to see you too."

She taps him with a fan.

"You've been busy, darling. I have seen neither hide nor hair of you."

"I've been very selfish."

...and he should explain where he has been gone. "And also chasing after Roby."

"Is he all right?

I mean, he's not, he's in the asylum. You know."

"I ended up going to Clare Melford. I'm pretty sure I ran into "the teeth.""

"...what happened."

"Do you want the short and reasonable sounding version, or the insane sounding but detailed one?"

"The insane one, obviously, darling."

"There are some big granite monument things, put up by a group of people a few years ago who sound remarkably like Roby and his friends. They've made the land around them barren and--" How the hell do you describe bats to someone who hasn't ever seen them. "--They attract dangerous flying things, that will attack you."

"And, they-- well. Did."

"Are you all right?"

It's hard not laugh out of the sheer horror of it all and sound incredibly callous.

"I'm fairly alright. Just... not so much other people. If I get arrested for a murder in Clare Melford-- well, at least you'll know what actually happened."

"I know a very good lawyer, darling, he got me out of it last time there was a mixup at a public bathroom."

"If it comes up, I may have to avail of his services."

He does not make a joke about said lawyer presumably being good at coming up with palatable explanations for things, even if it's very tempting.

"Surely you could just tell them about the dangerous flying things."

"And get put in asylum myself? ...it's probably better than hanging."

"Can't they-- go to the place where the flying dangerous things are and get attacked by them? Or you can describe it to a member of the Royal Society and they can identify it. There aren't animals in Britain no one knows."

"Getting a pre-eminent scientist nearly killed would be one way to prove my innocence.

But I really don't think it could have been described before, or we would have heard about it. You don't get secret man sized aggressive flying things."

"It's lucky that I know you're a reasonable person."

"Could Roby have-- released them somehow? From darkest Africa?"

"The teeth seemed to be drawing them in, somehow."

"I'll have to admit my investigations were not as thorough as they could have been, but I'd like to think I had an excuse."

"Due to the flying things."

"Attacking us aggressively, yes. ...there was one drawn by a whistle, but I didn't even directly see that one, so I can't be as sure as I'd like about that one."

🤨

"It tried to crash through the window, and gave Terrence and Oscar an awful fright, but I was trying to make sure the building wasn't collapsing."

Everything about Clare Melford sounds insane when he tries to describe it out loud!

🤨 🤨

"...so you're going to get Roby out and then ignore all of this going forward, right?"

"Well, first I was going to let you know, so I could tell you you were right to trust your gut and not go to Clare Melford.

...as for Roby... I don't want him out until we know more at the very least. But I'm not sure if I can convince Dr Aarons."

"Because if he's out he might put more dangerous flying things places?"

"Even the ones that are out there are bad enough! There's some... mad things about whistles, too, which Roby seems associated with."

"Oh?"

"There are some whistles that supposedly 'increase your magical power.'"

Ruby may read that as however sarcastic as she wishes to read it.

"They keep popping up around Roby. There was even the sound of one the night his family died."

"I suppose someone might blow them before they commit a murder. If it's a human sacrifice, or something like that."

"...I hadn't even thought of that. God, I hope not.

It'd be so much nicer if this was all some sort of... callous accident."

"Someone released mysterious dangerous flying creatures by accident?"

"Or didn't realise they were so dangerous, or... something."

"A lot of occult people are interested in the deviant.

Most of them are just posturing, trying to look cool. Using it as a way to trick other people into bed with them."

"If only they were all doing that, it seems. Flirty flim-flammery is so much nicer than... this."

"I rather like being tricked into bed, myself."

More serious: "Don't get caught up in this, William."

"I certainly don't intend to get into spells or summonings."

He sighs performatively. "I'll just have to seduce people with my charm and wit."

"I mean it. There is no good to come from getting involved in these people. You already almost died-- and don't tell me you didn't."

"I don't intend to join them.

...I don't think I can completely avoid this, not with how far I've gone. But I'm not going to go start putting up monoliths. I promise that."

"Why not? What is stopping you from going back to failing to get acting gigs?"

"I do feel like I should at least see the Roby case out--it pays very well, at least-- and...you're aware of Chris Parker, yes?"

"The antiques dealer? One of Roby's more unpleasant friends."

"That's the one. His fiancée needs out, and, well. You know me. I can never say no to a damsel in distress."

"No! Say no to this one! You can find a perfectly good damsel somewhere else."

"I've already promised her."

"Was it not enough that you almost died to the Triads?"

"--I'm not planning to die. But I can't leave her to die, or to have her spend the rest of her life with him, which may as well be a very similar thing!"

"Yes! Yes, you very much can! Nothing is stopping you!"

"--maybe I physically can. But I'm not going to throw her to the wolves, I don't want to be cruel."

"I saw you almost die once and I don't want to see it again."

"I'm sorry.

...I promise I will do my utmost to not die?"

"Except stay away from the people trying to kill you."

"I will stop Roby from getting out and hurting more people. I'm getting Evie away from Parker. Then I'll stay away from all this."

"I'm not going to help you kill yourself."

"--I don't expect you to? And-- I'm being much more careful than I was, when I was younger."

Snort.

"Look, I'm sober and clear headed. That's a start."

She laughs. "I'm not."

"We are on average just the right amount of not-sober."

"You're the right amount for what you're doing, which is danger, and I'm the right amount for what I'm doing, which is art and trying not to think about you dying."

"I'll be finished with it soon, and then I can spend the rest of my life not dying."

Meanwhile--

Inaaya is... well, mostly she's tired, and would like for things to stop from keep happening constantly, but that's not going to happen any time soon now is it. And in the meantime she is probably the only one of them who can talk to Oscar without there being fireworks. Except for Terrence but you can't outsource thinking clearly about things to Terrence.

So she heads to the park. Hopefully there will not be more things happening today. There have really been enough things to last several months in the last week.

It's easy to find Oscar at his regular lakeside spot. He looks disheveled and tired-- even his beret looks unkempt somehow-- though it's a modest improvement on his demeanor in Clare Melford. He starts a little as he notices Inaaya.

"Hello," he says. Inaaya probably knows Oscar enough to notice he's not giving off much warmth but his smile, awkward as it is, suggests he wants to.

Yeah, it does. "Hey."

There isn't a good way to say this so she's just going to say it the terrible way. "I-- wasn't sure how much of the stuff everyone was saying stuck with you, you seemed pretty out of it, so-- I wanted to check, I guess. And make sure you were doing better."

"I don't think I'm any good at being around disturbing magical things."

Or horrifying things in general, honestly.

"Are any of us? Everyone panicked about the bat."

"Terrence passed out and I couldn't help him."

Shrug. "And I froze up and Sal had to drag me to get me to move, I wasn't exactly helping anything."

"I guess it was bad for everybody. I'm sorry for complaining." He feels pretty bad about getting comfort from Inaaya whenever anything bad happens. "You could tell me about whatever you guys figured out at the tavern when I was freaking out about the sky."

That... wasn't the point but she can take a hint and stop trying with the feelings parts of this.

"So the upshot is that we all know magic exists and had for at least a couple of days, although I think William was the last to find out."

(She is not actually sure of this but she's sure enough that it seems worth saying, given Oscar's worries about everyone thinking he's crazy and refusing to tell him anything.)

"Good to know, given my curse." It feels a bit melodramatic using the word curse in reference to a condition of his life but it's possibly technically accurate.

--right, Oscar has the inabaility to speak thing. At some point she's going to need to integrate that into her model of how Sano but she hasn't really found time yet.

"Yes. Anyway, William's engaged and forgot to mention it to anyone. Which is, uh, not the biggest secret any of us were keeping, but. His fiancée is engaged to Chris Parker and can control animals; she also has one of the whistles that keeps turning up, with a bat-thing carved on it, and meanwhile, William had been dreaming about the bat-things for a while before they showed up."

"Chris Parker?"

"Yep! I assume William has some sort of plan for dealing with this but we didn't exactly get into it, things were tense."

This is the understatement of the decade. Oh well.

"That's a hell of a coincidence," Oscar says. "Poor woman."

He doesn't like the sound of the whistle or her strange powers but he doesn't want to jump to any conclusions!

"I guess if it is a coincidence is sure is a hell of one."

Yeah, it doesn't actually sound like a coincidence to him either.

"Trying to think what else came up that I'm not sure if you already know... oh, right. I speak Cat-- that's not a magic thing they just have a language and I've learned it, because cats are just as intelligent as humans are. As of last week we also know that this applies to everything feline, including zoo lions, and I have no idea what else might be a person with a language that I just don't happen to know."

(This is, she has to say, a moderately terrifying thing to have no idea about, and by moderately she means extremely. But she's not really sure that's a conversation she wants to have with Oscar, as opposed to Joan or Sal or ideally both.)

Oscar considers this for a moment. It's a long shot, but... "...Were you ever able to talk to Goethe," he asks.

He knows they met-- in previous years Goethe was a gregarious extravert around the shop-- but maybe Inaaya hadn't learned Cat.

"--yes, I was."

"I hope he didn't talk your ear off."

He's smiling a bit now.

"He did but it was fine." She's smiling too. "Taught me everything I know about epic poetry of feline Babylon. Which is not a sentence I have occasion to say very often."

Oscar beams. "Well, I'm glad he was cultured. Though I can't take much credit for it.

I can't believe you speak a Cat language on top of everything else! Best thing I've learned in a long time. Thank you."

"Yes, my life is very strange and always has been." She's still smiling. "You're welcome. It's.... good, I think, knowing that what's out there isn't all horrible."

"It really is. If it's safe I'd like to study the Cat language. Though I guess we don't have time for that right now."

"It never hurt me but I might just be unusual about that, Sano was very surprised my psychic powers hadn't already driven me mad."

"It's probably not for me, then. Or Terrence. Do not let Terrence learn the Cat language."

He's strictly joking but there's an undercurrent of sincerity.

"I sort of think that if Terrence wants to take that risk it's his choice to make?

Although he hasn't in fact asked, so it's a bit academic."

"You're probably right." He sighs. "Maybe I shouldn't be so hard on myself if learning about so much of this stuff seems reliably terrible for you? I guess I know that intellectually but it's hard to remember in the moment. Especially when we're getting stalked by bat-beasts and I'm afraid of the sky."

"Yeah. It's... I know you don't like Sano and I know you have good reason for that but he's the only person I know who knows much about any of this and will admit to it?"

"And what he said was that-- magic, gods, all of it, it's traumatizing just to know about. He didn't want to tell me and Sal much of anything, because he thinks that just as a policy if you don't need to know something you shouldn't."

"I don't know if I think he's right about that last part, my experience is that what you don't know very much can hurt you, but-- I don't think there's anything wrong with you, for being hurt by things people are consistently and reliably hurt by."

"Is it like... shell-shock, then? I found out some pretty bad things about him at the same time I found out magic was real. It doesn't excuse him-- being really into nationalism or getting people to read the books. I don't think I trust him but I wonder if I feel so wretched about him because of the magic."

"It was like-- every decent or safe thing had been taken right then, and the only things that remained were ugly."

She shrugs. "I don't know how you'd tell or test it, whether it was that or just-- more mundane finding out that someone wasn't who you thought they were."

(She's just... sort of not bringing up how complicated and touchy her own feelings about nationalism are, right now.)

"I shouldn't have tried to hit him, honestly. I don't think he cared but I-- I guess they used to say 'flew into a passion'. Not proud of it."

"I... don't think he blames you, he was very careful about how he described it to me."

"Fair to not be proud of it, though."

"It was a damn graceful dodge."

"Enough about me going mad, though. Is that everything you talked about? I feel like a schoolchild who fell behind on lessons."

"Well, none of us have exactly been telling each other what's going on-- The fiancée's name is Evie MacQueen. Parker is a sorcerer who steals life from people to stay young forever and he's at least a century old. I also separately have other psychic powers, I can pick up impressions from objects. Some people, including me and William, visit the Dreamlands when they're asleep but that hasn't actually turned out to be relevant to anything."

"I think that was all we got to before I shut down the whole topic on the grounds that it was about to become a King in Yellow fight and we had a corpse to deal with."

"Psychic powers. Wow, congratulations?"

He's sincere in tone but not sure what one says. It seems like good evidence that active magic users aren't corrupt and evil.

"Terrence is actually pretty good-natured about criticism of the play given the effect it's had on him. I think he's convinced of his ability to win us all over. Kind of concerning. Good on you for avoiding an argument though."

"I wouldn't say I avoided an argument so much as repeatedly yelled 'different time that is not now' whenever anyone said anything but better that than nothing, I guess. Thank you."

"Thank you for taking the time to talk to me. I still can't get over that you spoke with Goethe about poetry. That's going to keep me going for at least a week."

Meanwhile, after that somewhat shredding conversation with Ruby, it's nice to go home to someone who at least approves of him taking risks in the service of Evie, on account of, well, being herself.

"How was your day, my love."

"Sal knows about magic, I don't know if you know."

"We ended up all having a big clarifying chat about it. Apologies for dragging you into it."

"It was no trouble. He wanted to see a stray cat."

"You managed to lure one in?"

"Yep!"

"I bet he appreciated that. He's a bit cat mad."

There's no way to confirm that she meant 'lure it in magically', but it's a pretty reasonable assumption. "Evie can control things with human level intelligence and just doesn't know" and "Evie knows she can control humans and lied" both feel wrong. Like the can't be true.

(They slot in uneasily around the fact he loves her, and that expression he saw on her face when she asked for his help.)

"He did."

"I'm hoping you don't mind my friends being aware of you.

...not that we would be able to keep it a secret for very long anyway."

"I want everyone to be able to know we're together. That's why I want to marry you."

"And I'm glad of that." He smiles fondly. "I don't want to keep you a secret, anymore than we need to keep Parker off our trails.

Anyway, I don't think I'd last long doing 'So sorry, I need to go spend some time with this mysterious woman I talk about like she hung up the stars, who mysteriously has a kid who looks like me.'"

She laughs. "It'd be a bit obvious."

"All my acting subtlety, undone by my own wife--"

"Soon I won't have to keep us a secret from anyone."

A few days later, they're on the train back to the asylum.

The cops have not come to investigate Sal as a murder suspect yet. It is now as safe as it was previously to be seen with these people.

(Or so he is telling the part of himself that is stupidly terrified of the consequences of poking one's nose into things.)

Jing Yi had at one point been looking forward to this trip, where he could explain how Roby was Very Safe and should be let out. But now... Convincing Dr Aarons he's dangerous is going to be even more difficult.

Terrence is wringing his hands. He is torn AF.

If Sal has to privately throw Terrence under the bus to keep Roby off the streets so help him God he will do it.

Sorry Terrence but sometimes people who like your favorite book turn out to be a danger to the people around them. Inaaya would try to say it doesn't reflect on you or the book but in fact it totally does in this specific instance reflect on the book.

He's not sure what to say to Roby about how opinion has turned against him and so he'll probably be indefinitely imprisoned as a menace to society... But it seems worse to not show up.

"Do we have any plans for what we'll tell Dr Aarons? Seeing as showing up to an asylum and ranting about evil obelisks may be a touch unproductive?"

Terrence sighs. "I get the sense you all have made your minds up," he says, aloud, lowly, "and that I probably won't be able to sway it. But - well, to be honest all the same...

We don't know what Roby's involvement in the deaths was - although he sure appears to have had some - we don't know much of anything, save that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophies. But we were called here to determine if a man is insane, and he does not seem to be insane. I feel dreadful."

That's your argument? Of course that's your argument.

"He doesn't seem insane, but that didn't mean he's safe."

"Whether or not he's insane, repeatedly killing people and not showing any signs of intending to stop is about as good as reasons to imprison someone get. He doesn't have to be insane, and we don't have to have dreamt of all the things in heaven and earth, for it to be a bad idea to let him out."

"We don't - we don't know that he killed people. Or - or for what reason. We do know that there are evil sorcerers afoot all over the place. Maybe he was -

...I don't know, I just don't like the idea of committing a man indefinitely who may well have more reason for what he did than we do."

"He's obsessive, incoherent, distrurbed, he is viewing all reality through the lens of a single work. All of which are individually seen but all of them together paint much less encouraging picture."

That Terrence Markham experienced a major shift in personality several months ago associated with an all-encompassing fixation upon a single book to which he has been ascribing world-changing and someone mystical properties, and that any of his arguments that Alexander Roby's very similar behavior is perfectly normal are deeply tied up in his own internal experience of what from the outside was an objectively abnormal development. If Sal possesses any courage whatsoever to say any of this to Dr. Aarons.

"Also, he confessed to the murders, and we have no reason to believe it was in self-defense except that you desperately want it to have been."

"The real trick would be if we could coherently present the case for how the murders were committed."

"We could say we don't have proof, as such, but that we keep finding him associated with unnatural deaths."

"What do you mean desperately? I - we've also been associated with unnatural deaths! He - he wouldn't have been able to say that an evil sorcerer did it, or what have you. Maybe he was trying to hide from someone. I just - Hrmgm."

He grumbles and looks away, squeezing his hands, aware that he is losing this argument.

"Well, if he wants to convince someone an evil sorcerer did it, now's his chance."

"Do we want to tell him that we... know?"

Terrence looks up. "I - think the least we could do is give him the chance to explain himself. If he has nothing to say, then - then you're probably right."

"...I mean, if we get the chance to speak to him at all." :(

"...Depending on how much he is or will be able to do or communicate I'm not sure how much information about us he should have."

"Terrence might be safe. Terrence has the best case for claiming to be on his side."

"I mean, if he starts telling Aarons we all believe in evil sorcerers, is anyone going to believe him?"

"I'm not concerned about Aarons. I'm concerned about if he has some unknown way of contacting Parker."

"...if he gets out, and he knows that we know--" He can't be sure of what retaliation will happen, or if Roby would, but...

"You know... I don't think we ought to give up on Roby, even if he's a murderer? If we keep finding out information about the supernatural... maybe we can find out ways to help people like Roby. But for now I really don't know. I don't want to imprison him but I don't want more supernatural murders."

"...That's reasonable. I suppose."

Out of all the people in the world trapped in cages, the one who even while imprisoned keeps having people mysteriously and horrifically die around him is the one you don't want to give up on? Seriously, Oscar?

(She is aware that this is the kind of thought you have if you've been spending the last few weeks considering and rejecting plans for rescuing every zoo lion in the world but goddammit she's right.)

"I think that has to take a backseat to making sure people in the short term don't die horribly more than we can prevent," is what she actually says. "In the long term-- I would love to find ways to help people like Roby. But we can't rely on that happening and we certainly can't rely on it happening before he kills more people."

Not like Oscar has any personal stake in "people whose minds have been fundamentally altered by reading magic books".

"Yeah. I mean the alternative that comes to mind is Chris Parker and Parker is acting atrociously. We don't have any good options, do we."

"And the monuments look more like intent than horrible unpredictable accident."

"Okay, but just - suppose I'm right, suppose we talk to Roby and he realizes we know what's what, and he.... tells us that... say, Chris Parker did the murders and threatened him, and actually he's been trying to stop further deaths, and he confessed in order to get a small amount of protection the asylum afforded him - I'm making up a story here but something like that - well, he could be lying and we won't know. But we'll have about two minutes to decide between all of us what to tell Aarons. If he has a plausible story, can we rally behind him now and dig into it later?"

"That's the other thing, that we kind of only get one chance at this. I hate it."

"I am not promising before I hear the story that I'm going to rally wholeheartedly behind it."

"We can dig into it while he's imprisoned?"

"I'd like him to be convincing, at least."

"Certainly. If it's a good story."

"Even if it's a good story I'm not promising that!"

"If he has a story, I'll hear it out and evaluate it, and won't dismiss it out of hand. But I can't promise to have a particular belief about it, and even if I could I wouldn't."

Terrence stares at her. "Alright. You know, I trust you to be fair."

"...Just - well, broadly speaking I'm inclined to err on the side of not keeping people locked up indefinitely, rather than keeping the innocent or downtrodden imprisoned. And right now, today, before giving our piece to Dr. Aarons, we will not have the time to assess it properly."

"I'm just saying, to all of us, recall that those are the stakes here."

Yes we know those are the stakes Terrence.

Personally Sal thinks murder is much much much worse than imprisonment. But arguing with Terrence is feeling like a losing game.

He isn't unsympathetic to 'they would kill me if I didn't kill them first' but... He knows the experience. He also knows how easy it is to rationalise everything you do because of it, too.

"If the stakes were just that, and not significantly higher than that, I would agree with you. But in fact there is more than one life in the balance here and you can't ask me to not weigh that."

Most of her other thoughts are extremely bitchy and wildly unfair so she's keeping them to herself. But that one she's willing to actually stand by.

I mean, I can, thinks Terrence, but he doesn't say that, since that would be unreasonable and she doesn't not have a point.

He settles for looking torn and thoughtful and grumpy instead.

Not long after they arrive, Dr. Aarons invites them into his office.

"What are your findings?"

"We have found some things, but we'd like to talk to Roby to... Contextualise them, if possible."

"Of course, you'll be welcome to."

Terrence nods. "...If he's free. Thank you."

Nurse Edwards escorts them to Roby.

Roby stares at his desk.

What even is their opening gambit here. "We went to Clare Melford."

Roby looks up. "Did you see him? Did you see the King?"

"Did you cross over to lost Carcosa?"

"...No. We saw... bats."

He had forgotten how hard it was to talk to Roby. "We saw the monuments, and the... Things summoned by them."

"Didn't exactly have a chance to do much else, after that."

"The byakhee."

(This time she brought a bit of charcoal -- not sharp, so she gets to keep it -- and can take notes as much as she wants. She writes down that name.)

No one recognizes the word "byakhee", except Terrence who recalls that it was in one of the less coherent and more beautiful passages in the second act of the King in Yellow. Terrence tilts his head curiously, intrigued.

... Well, at least those things have a name now.

"...Perhaps."

Terrence kneels by where Roby is sitting - not, like, getting into his space too much, just getting on his level. "Alexander. We know - more things than the last time we talked. About... Clare Melford, and Chris Parker, and whistles with certain purposes, and... well, more things. Your hearing about your further ... stay here... is coming up very soon. The deaths - well, do you have anything you can tell us now? That you might not have been able to before? Please."

"Soon I will be free."

Oh??

"What does that mean."

"He rises. Aldebaran is high."

"... The king rises?"

He concurs with Inaaya: what the hell does that mean.

"If you're very certain of that I suppose you don't need to present us with a compelling explanation of how and why all those people died."

"I never meant to kill Georgina."

"No?"

So you did mean to kill everyone who wasn't your sister, she thinks.

"What happened, then? And what were you meaning to do?"

"I never meant to kill Georgina."

(why this.)

"Then what did you mean to do that ended with her dead."

Magic is really awful.

Roby doesn't answer.

😬 but it's a GOOD question. Unfortunately. Terrence hates being reasonable.

"Did you mean to kill other people?"

"...And could you tell us, if you wanted to?" Terrence asks curiously. A slim possibility but maybe worth checking out.

"Yes," Roby says, in answer to one or possibly both questions.

Well, there goes that idea.

Terrence just stares at Roby with big eyes, instead. He's realizing that Roby is not going to help himself. Terrence is reminded of how very much he wants to help Roby. He kind of hopes that Roby's right and that he doesn't need their help after all.

"Why did you do it?" Oscar asks.

"Song of my soul, my voice is dead;
Die thou, unsung, as tears unshed
Shall dry and die in
Lost Carcosa."

His voice is broken.

Why is magic capable of doing this to people.

"What happened to her? Did she walk in at the wrong moment? Did you lose control of the byakhee?"

"...Did you ever have control of the byakhee?"

Roby doesn't answer.

Will a different tack work? "Did you have a byakhee whistle?"

"Yes."

"What did you use it for?"

Silence.

"What are the byakhee? What relation do they have to the pillars?"

"They are His heralds."

"They fly to lost Carcosa..."

"Oh."

--Well that just sounds wonderful!

"Why do they kill?"

"When He commands."

Cool! Terrence is filled with anxiety.

"Did they kill the people in Clare Melford? Or was that something else?"

"To see Him is to die in ecstasy."

"Sometimes."

"But is it also to die by having your entrails ripped out," he mutters.

Nothing about this is encouraging and she's writing it all down.

Terrence is committing all of this experience to memory.

Hey, at least 'lots of people seem to die around Roby, and he thinks a made up entity is ordering these deaths' is at least something that will sound coherent to Dr Aarons!

"What was it that killed the nurses on our last visit?"

Silence!

"You said sometimes to see him is to die in ecstasy. What happens other times?"

"You see Him."

"What were the pillars designed to do?"

"Bring Carcosa."

This conversation just keeps getting worse better!

"What happens then?"

"Do you know how we could find Barnes? Or Deville?"

Roby doesn't answer.

"I'm sorry we can't help you leave. Is there anything you want us to know? Anything we can do for you?"

Silence.

"When will you be free?"

Silence.

"...Alright." He gets up.

"I think we may be ready to go?"

"I've heard what I had to hear."

Back to Dr. Aarons they may go.

"Well that was pretty damning."

"....Yeah," Terrence admits in a small voice.

"I'm almost impressed."

Nurse Edwards escorts them back to Dr. Aarons.

"Did you find what you were looking for?"

"As much as we were going to, I suppose."

"We got what we needed."

"Our investigation found a pattern of unnatural deaths around Roby. And he claims a fictional entity is ordering those deaths."

"...He does appear to be connected. We don't understand the details but he doesn't deny it, so... it's probably for the best that he remains here."

Terrence feels like just the worst person on earth saying that.

"Did you find out anything about how the murders are accomplished, or...?"

"Our research into the object of his fixation was strange and incoherent; when we asked him about it, the parts resolved into a complex set of firm beliefs around the murders. The king from the play he obsesses over, he says, caused them; he claims he can summon the heralds of that king, massive flying things, to kill people; he says this is how he killed his family. It seems like this belief of his goes back a few years."

"He additionally admitted involvement in the deaths of five people in the town of Clare Melford shortly before he was brought here, although his explanation for how the murders happened is... similarly strange."

"I... feel horrified that I missed this."

"It's the sort of thing you would only spot if you had time to talk to friends of friends of friends of his, and didn't have much else to do."

Terrence shrugs. He has the inclination to reassure Aarons that it was hard to find but he can't find it in him.

"He doesn't seem particularly... open about things, in addition to the things he says being obscure and disjointed. We had to come across all the individual pieces on our own, I doubt if we hadn't he would have brought it up on his own."

"Well, that is why I hired you."

"What details can you tell me? I don't want you to violate anyone's privacy."

"He ran with a surprisingly violent crowd. And he-- wanted people to join him in going to dangerous locations, without telling them that it was dangerous."

Why are we even having this conversation. Inaaya stands awkwardly behind everyone else, holding her notebook and not participating.

"I suppose we can tell you about the people who are already dead."

"There's... a surprising amount of them."

"There was a farmer in Clare Melford he paid to let him build a circle of pillars on his land. We had already been coming across depictions of monstrous birds but a lot of the substantial information about them we found out there."

This seems awfully close to telling Aarons about supernatural stuff.

Yes Sal is mentally debating whether to bring up William Way like at all.

"What happened?"

This poor guy has no idea how deep this goes.

"We talked. I can't say he liked us much. He and Roby hadn't got on at all. I think he thought we were working for him."

Terrence shrugs a little helplessly. He's not saying much. The group hadn't talked about how much to tell Aarons - he was so focused on maybe winning here - but he's not inclined to tell Aarons things that could incriminate them or Roby. He thinks the others probably shouldn't be either but hey, he's been wrong before.

But Aarons does seem sympathetic, at least, kind of looking for the truth, so that's something... "...We're not certain on Roby's intent there," he throws in, for the sake of participating in the conversation.

Deflect deflect deflect "And then there was -- well, I suppose Mr. Way didn't tell us much, but among other things he was able to direct us to Roby's manifesto, which revealed a deeper and stranger obsession with the King in Yellow that we'd realized. --Though I didn't read it, I only talked to Way, Oscar did the reading."

"...I am not sure of the relevance of the farmer?"

WHY ARE WE EVEN HAVING THIS CONVERSATION.

"Roby and his friends threatened him, and had apparently caused other trouble, too." He's not going to mention he died, on account of not wanting to get arrested himself!

"And that is how we found out about some of the stranger parts of Roby's belief system. I'm sorry, it was all rather disparate bits of information until it was all collected together."

"I'll listen."

"Um - again, we really don't know the whole scope of it. He was interested in rituals and has some kind of apocalyptic fixation."

Terrence starts wringing his hands again.

"Also his friends unprovably-but-almost-certainly murdered some people, and while we don't have evidence that ties Roby himself to the scene... it's a concern."

"Sadly it's almost impossible to find the manifesto even if you can read German," Oscar says a bit too firmly.

(Terrence gets a great idea. He perks up a little but is still downtrodden enough that it's not super obvious.)

"--In general a lot of what we found is fairly... Circumstantial? Which is a little maddening but is what we have."

"I understand, and I trust your judgment."

"And we highly appreciate that."

Terrence nods. "Thank you for bringing us in. And for your foresight. I feel that a lot of people would have left the poor man to rot and not bothered to check further, and... you did want to check."

"So, well. You are a credit to your profession."

"Seconded."

After that slightly harrowing conversation--

"Hello?" says Nurse Edwards.

"I don't want to pry about something so sensitive, but I've found a pattern and I have to check-- the night of the murder, did anyone hear a whistling noise?"

He looks concerned. "I didn't."

That sure is an expression Nurse Edwards has! It might even mean something to someone other than him! "That's-- I don't want to say it's 'good to hear.' It's better than the alternative."

Warning him is potentially going to sound crazy but he would feel awful not warning him if he's at risk. (And being near Roby puts him at risk.)

"But if you do hear a high pitched whistle-- I'd recommend getting out of there quickly."

"I will."

"That's-- good."

"I'd love to give you a more coherent warning, but I don't know much more than that it's a... Calling card."

"What is it a calling card for?"

"It's associated with people going missing... And a few confirmed murders."

He grimaces. "I'll keep an eye out."

"I appreciate that. And I'm-- sorry about it, too."

Meanwhile--

"Sorry about your shiny new magic powers!" Nessa says, to the assembled crowd that is Sal, Oscar, and Terrence.