"You could inform them that you are sick?"

There will be no social engagements or visiting tourist attractions today. Today is for Lying In Bed And Groaning. And drinking lots of water.

That receptionist was right that they were stupid to come here.

"Zoe and Mordred are both sick, Anemone and Lev have both left, that leaves, uh, me and Araari -- I was planning on just refusing to talk to anyone tonight, but--"

Zoe has no idea about any dinners but ALSO she is not going to any dinners.

"You and Araari are not going to dinner with Mariam Soliman. Sorry but we need people who can and will lie."

"Who's that? What do we need to lie to her about?"

"The group that wasn't at the church met a group of deeply suspicious archaeologists who got them through social pressure to agree to having dinner with them. At least one of them, Mariam, probably knows something's up. I think. I wasn't there."

"Yeah. What Oswald said. They said there was nothing to find here and it was super boring and we should just leave but they were lying. --not that I blame them, we were also lying."

"Yeah, I don't think anyone here is up to the scrutiny of actual archaeologists right now. So... we truthfully tell them that half of us are sick and the rest will have to miss dinner to take care of them."

Mariam Soliman wishes them the best of luck in their recovery! She too became sick her first time in Ethiopia. She hopes that they can reschedule when they feel better.

(There is absolutely nothing suspicious about the content of Mariam's message but Oswald is suspicious of it anyways. On principle.)

Eighteen hours later--

He's on a motorcycle. He's carrying a person with malaria to Massaua and he is on a motorcycle and his life has gotten significantly more interesting in the past two months, if not more pleasant.

"Hey, Mr. Aarons," she says, weakly, a few hours in. She's so hot and so cold and so weak, even weaker than usual. She's trying to hold on, but it's very hard, and she doesn't know whether she'll fall off if she stops. "I dunno if I'm gonna make it."

"You've gotta make it. We can rest for a bit-- help you gather up your strength--"

Weak laugh. It's not bitter. "'ve never been very good at gathering my strength."

"Yeah. Same. I mean-- not recently, but."

"Mama said that when I was a baby everybody thought that I would die. I got very sick. Dunno what with. And later, I got sick again, and they kept thinking I would die. But I didn't. Mama said - maybe somebody was watching out for me. But I dunno if - "

She's quiet for a while.

"You know where the books are? The notes I took on everything? Most of them are in the plane, and some earlier ones in the office in New York, and then there's the journal I have on me. I don't want you to read them, but - they should be there, for people to read, if they - if I don't - "

"Yeah. I'll make sure everyone else gets your notes."

Nod.

"I wonder what my brother would say, if I died of - nothing, really, no ridiculous mythical thing, just - malaria. What armies get for poking their noses in where they shouldn't. Maybe he wouldn't say anything. Maybe he wouldn't even think it was anything, just - too much borrowed time. You'd have to - Zoe'd have to be the one to find him, circus people are hard to find sometimes. But she'd know people who could."

"Okay. Do you want me to-- take a note to him, or--"

"I guess. If I - I dunno what I'd even say to him. Isn't that weird? Always know what to say to everyone. But I can't think what - " She blinks back something that threatens to be a tear. "He'd want to know that - my whole life I was always poking into weird stuff. Always looking for things that we didn't understand. He'd wanna - consultant on an archaeological expedition into a great ancient mystery. That's not a bad way to go. Not a bad way to go if you find something."

"We're going to find something. Something big. Something that will help us defeat the cult of the Thing with a Thousand Mouths once and for all."

Nodnodnod. They're not very strong nods. "Yeah. That's how the story goes. The evil thing never gets to eat everyone. It takes a sacrifice - two, three, four sacrifices - but the band survives. The band finds a way. People find a way, in every story."

"It takes a lot of sacrifices."

"Sometimes. Sometimes it's hard. But we always survive, in every story. That's what stories are, you know. They're records of the ways we found to survive. Even when everybody in them is long dead, the story goes on, telling other people how to survive. They've just got to - find the pieces.

"They're telling us a story, you know. All the ancient peoples we're looking at. They survived. They survived, and left the thing in a way where it had to be awakened. So they must have found a way to put it to sleep. And then - no more eating.

"So if you put the notes next to the other books, then - they'll go with the other stories. A piece of how we're going to survive."