"If there isn't anything there, I guess our next step is probably to track down Acuna; the college in Rome thought that he was investigating the Obelisk of Axum, which Hickering also seemed to think might be related. Or - weird and interesting, anyway."

"Acuna's the one who survived, right? We should definitely try to find him."

"Yeah, he's the one who got away from the dig in 1924. I don't think we have evidence that he's a member of the cult himself, but we should be careful dealing with him anyway. Probably our best lead at this point, though."

"Alright. Did Hickering say anything else about the Obelisk, or cult stuff, or anything like that? I wasn't really all back yet the day you all spoke with him."

He talked about the Orkney Islands, Mordred considers saying, but he's still not actually sure it isn't just a slightly eerie coincidence, unlike the Ethiopia thing there's no actual evidence it's connected.

"Uh, he said it was really weird? That it depicted structures many more stories tall than those known to be built by the ancient Aksumites? And he also said some stuff about another big monolith thing in - Hungary, I think, that might be connected with the Children of the Night, from one of the books we got from Ayers's stash, although those were legends from Mexico, so I'm not entirely sure how they're related, if they are - "

She pages through her notes for a while.

"And he said there was a group of people in Bangkok who were interested in it."

"Bangkok keeps coming up. If the Bangkok drug-cult sect is interested in it, it's gotta be important. They keep showing up any time there's something important. Okay, so, we go to Dallol, we see if there's a huge Obelisk, we look around the Obelisk for -- weird culty stuff? And then we see if we can find Acuna?"

"Oh!" she says, looking up from skimming. "Axum ministry of culture. Hickering said that the Axum ministry of culture might have more information about the obelisk."

"The Obelisk is at Axum, not Dallol, the aim at Dallol is to see if we can figure out what the dig was looking for and to check if there's anything important still there."

"Oh, Axum is a place, not a weird god. Whoops."

"And yeah, the obelisk is a separate thing from Ayers's dig site. Ayers's old dig site is right near here, still, so I think we should probably still check it out before we head off to Axum. Probably we should talk to the CMC first, though?"

"So... we go to the Dallol, see if Ayers' notes help us find anything at the lava-covered dig? And then go to Axum and talk to the ministry of culture and look for an Obelisk, and then we try to find and talk to Acuna? --Right, and the CMC. Which is here and we should go poke around."

"I think so, yeah."

"Yeah, that sounds like a plan." Mordred is still flipping through his notes. "Uh, other things Hickering talked about...... oh, he knew the name Nyarlathotep, it's in something called the Necronomicon. A Pharaoh who allegedly ruled for two hundred years called Nephren Ka. An island similar to Atlantis. At this point I'm writing down anything that comes up next to the things we already know about and I'm starting to wish I had a corkboard and string."

"Nyarlathotep was that word that Winston put on Henslowe's letters, right? Did he say anything about -- wait what? Nephren Ka? Is that like... a really popular Egyptian name or something?"

"I don't... think so? I wouldn't necessarily know if it was but when Anemone said the name he thought of a specific Pharaoh so I'm guessing probably not?"

"Pretty sure it's not a common name. Why, have you heard it somewhere before?"

"It's just weird because I met a guy with that name just like... a week or two ago? Back in New York. Well, met might not be the right word - he used to come to the circus a lot." Like, at shows all over. He was some kinda groupie. You might also know him, actually?"

Oswald notices Zoe seems to be reacting to something in some way and tries to figure out from this alone if she's going to also have a breakdown.

"I never spoke to him before but I ran into him while we were the city and he wanted an autograph. And he said his name was Nephren Ka. He had to spell it out for me and everything. I gave him my picture... I signed it and thanked him for being a fan. I figured Nephren Ka was probably a normal name where he was from."

"Well that's.... moderately concerning."

"It could just be a coincidence," Mordred says, unconvincingly and unconvinced.

"Maybe he's just named after the supposedly immortal pharaoh tied into all the other... weird cult stuff we're nosing around in."

"What, and he shows up right now?"