"I'll stay with him," Mordred says to Ayers. "Thank you. That -- doesn't feel like enough but it's what I have."

Lev and Ayers go out far enough that Mordred and Oswald can't hear them. They can see them hugging, though.

When Lev comes back his face is a blotchy red and his shirt is stained with tears.

This would be heartrending except for how Oswald is strategically not feeling anything at all.

Fortunately Mordred is very good at setting aside his emotions when there's a task in front of him. He takes Lev somewhere shady and sits down.

Oswald and Ayers and handgun can presumably find a place that will cause a minimum amount of disturbance to everyone else. Which is not at all zero disturbance.

Lev cringes when he hears the bullet.

...hugs?

Yeah. Hugs.

When the body collapses Oswald comes back to the progression of time enough to think that he ought to go back to the others now, or figure out how to bury him, or something. Instead he sits down and stares blankly at it for a while.

Lev starts to cry on Mordred's shoulder. "I miss him."

"I know. I'm sorry. I can see why you love him so much."

After some time he stands up and walks back and asks what they should do with the body. He seems very, very distant. His voice is flat.

"We can leave it out for the carrion birds to eat. Seems cruel to deny them food."

Just leaving it feels wrong but Lev's the obvious person to make the decision, here.

"Sure, okay. If that's -- that's what makes sense." He sure doesn't know what else to do. He's not at all sure they have a shovel.

"We should-- probably head back soon." He doesn't move.

"Yeah." He drags himself into motion and starts mechanically making sure their supplies are packed.

Packing. Packing is good, it's a concrete thing that needs to be done, Mordred can do concrete things that need to be done. At some point he is going to need to stop putting off having feelings but that point doesn't need to be now, and in fact can't be, because there is a concrete task that needs to be done.

Lev is not going to do concrete tasks. He is going to trace eyes into the sand.

Meanwhile--

Magnificence has decided to STEAL the six of swords, because it is Anemone. He is aware that this is not really how things work. But he wants it anyway.

Magnificence is TRYING to be STRONG and do what Anemone would want him to do, but he can't show any of his pictures to her, and it just makes him more distraught that she isn't here anymore.

Araari doesn’t move much while she’s in Kolluli. She sits with her back against the wall. She sleeps lightly and wakes often.

She doesn’t eat or drink anything between midnight and 3pm; she eats two (vegan) meals a day. She breaks her fast on Christmas.

She prays for hours. She doesn’t use the name Azathoth. It feels safer, like that. Sometimes she asks for guidance. Sometimes she thanks God. Sometimes she begs His forgiveness.

She spins thread until her hands ache and then she keeps going. She wishes she had a loom.

Zoe tries to keep her mind off of her worries by chatting with the people in the village. The language barrier makes it difficult, and she often resorts to pantomime, body language, and just being a companionable presence. She tries to help out, where her injury will let her. She tries to keep her wound clean and dressed and checks on its healing often, and wishes she knew more about how to help it. She spends time with Araari, but mostly avoids subjects like mouths and strange gods, often resorting to small talk or lapsing into silence. She does her best to care for Magnificence, but suspects he doesn't really want to spend a lot of time with her, and doesn't push the matter. She wonders how long the others will be, out in the desert. She wonders how Frank is doing, back at the airplane. She misses Anemone.

Araari has nightmares of the cultists. Of the volcano. She runs and runs. Sometimes she’s fast enough, and she has to watch their children die screaming, engulfed in lava. Sometimes she’s not fast enough, and she feels her flesh burn and crackle and melt.

When she wakes up, she runs. Not thinking, just moving. It’s hot. It is not hot enough. It feels like penance. Her feet hurt. Her legs hurt. She keeps running.

She runs for six hours before she collapses, gasping for air, on the hot sand. It hurts. Everything hurts. It almost feels like it’s enough, maybe.

Magnificence SEES IT HAPPEN and he's gonna have to go run to Zoe and desperately try to communicate that Araari is abandoning them to go run out into the desert!!

(Rude!!)