"So, if we want to find a trustworthy guide, ought we ask about in the churches?"

Anemone is not going to ask how any of this connects to his opinion of the nuns.

"I imagine the nuns might be helpful to travelers. In spite of their nonsensical opposition to potash mining."

Mordred is absolutely not having any opinions whatsoever on any of this at all!

"Thank you for the advice. Without your guidance who knows if we would have thought to ask the nuns to help us."

When Federico lets them go, it is the evening, a perfect time to bike to Adua without getting heatstroke or, for that matter, to talk to nuns.

Berhane Moti is lurking outside the building watching them.

Our favorite nun!

Admittedly, the only nun we know!

Ooh. Let's go say hi then.

Berhane Moti is visibly surprised when they approach. "Hello."

"Hello! Thank you again for telling us about the dig site, it was more than we'd hoped to be able to learn."

"You're welcome! I am glad you are not going to be going to Dallol. It's terribly dangerous. Outsiders who go there inevitably die."

"Have there been many out there, since 1926?"

"Well, no," she says reasonably, "because it kills them."

"Oh? What kills them?"

"The heat, the dehydration... The jackals and lions, if nothing else gets them."

"I see. We were actually still considering going up anyway, to see whether any traces of our friend's research have been left behind. I'm told it would be suicidal without a local guide, though, and we were thinking about going to Adua first. We understand that Acuna might be there right now."

Why would you LEAD with the dumb thing we're doing Anemone.

"It's best to stay away from Dallol. There's nothing there. Whatever they were excavating has been buried under lava."

Zoe, recently paranoid that maybe everyone is secretly in on evil cult stuff, tries to think of what the nun might be hiding and why she doesn't want them to go to Dallol. "It would be suicide" and "Everyone who goes there dies" are obviously just meant to scare them off.

Zoe tries to check herself. Surely not everyone is in on it. Probably this literal nun is just trying to dissuade the poor stupid foreigners from getting themselves killed like the last lot. She needs to stop being so paranoid.

Lev has some FEELINGS about the fact that his LOVER was BURIED under LAVA. Lev feels the world has it out for him specifically.

"We understand that there's probably nothing there. But - we've come a long way. The archaeologist who ran the dig was a close friend of Mr. Aarons, here, and if any scrap of his research can be recovered - "

"How did an expedition even get funded? What was there, and how did they find out about it? Or is it just outsiders who go there never to return?"

She gestures vaguely. "The Europeans will fund anything, I think. I don't know what they thought they would find. It is simply a desert. There is nothing interesting in the desert."

...From her body language, Berhane is very clearly lying her ass off.

Or, well, she is not. She is technically only saying true facts, arranged in such a way that she is lying her ass off.

Mordred, as a veteran liar, recognizes what is going on. Although he does not say only technically true facts he just lies. Easier that way, you don't have to speak around things.

Did you know it is a sin to lie but it is not a sin to say true things in a way that misleads people. This is an important theological fact.