“Oloth-Waaq. It also says ‘I renounce now all flesh and shut my mouth’.”

"Oloth-Waaq is a dream god that was worshiped by the obscure Carrom tribes that once lived in the area near Adua. The 'Dream-Scourged Halls' are a geological formation in the deserts near Adua, viewed with superstitious dread by a variety of local cultures. George was going to study there before--"

"........I think maybe he did."

Was that the exact wrong thing to say? HE DOESN'T KNOW. ALL HIS EMOTIONS ARE OFF.

Zoe bets that if Anemone were here, she'd recognize the handwriting. But she's not.

"Would you recognize his handwriting, on stone?"

“Whoever wrote this stone, I am—likely glad that they decided to shut their mouth, given the significance that mouths can hold, though I regret that they were driven to it.”

Zoe's recent interactions with mouths and flesh leave her inclined to shut her mouth as well.

Has nobody else remembered that Ayers didn't die in the explosion and his whereabouts afterwards were unknown. It seems really likely he wrote this and went and died in a dream place! 

He kneels and examines the rock closely. "Yeah. Yeah. That's... that's his." He looks like he is about to cry.

Lev is failing to process much of anything. He's touching the rock over and over again.

Not sure there is anything much he can do except carefully sit and stare at the crater and have a moment of silence.

Anything more concrete than that feels like it'd be more uncomfortable than comforting here in the hottest place imaginable, mysterious health or no.

Zoe's brain is not functioning enough to consider facts like Ayers maybe didn't die. There is a stone cairn with an epitaph and a bereaved loved one RIGHT HERE.

"What do you think. Happened to him." He is very carefully not using the present tense.

Zoe glances at her hand. She is very worried about what lusts might bring someone to renounce all flesh and shut their mouth. "It sounds like, maybe. He stopped eating?"

"Oh. That's. Not a good way to die."

"At least... if that's what happened... it was his choice?"

"If the Dream-Scourged Halls are near here he might have meant it literally. It's not... not the worst way to go, visiting a sacred site."

"It's not. He always wanted to see it. I think... it's not far from here. A few days."

"We should go."

“...I am...unsure if that’s a wise choice.”

"I want to see it. Where he."

"If we recover any from the heat. We should. Not go in, obviously, but--"

"I feel like travelling a few more days from here is a terrible idea."

"If we're still getting hit badly by heatstroke then we maybe shouldn't."

Imagine if Lev came all this way to find out what happened to George and then stopped just a few days short of his final resting place because ZOE couldn't handle the heat. She hates the idea.

"I'll be okay. I just need to rest and get some water before we go."

"In any case -- even if -- there's nothing left, of the dig site, nothing we can use -- even if we have to turn back right away -- I still think it was worth it. Coming here."

"Do we want to. Look at the dig site first. See if there's anything we can."

He is not very good at the "complete sentences" thing.