Yeah, Araari can hold onto it for a bit. She needs it more than Zoe.

Thank you, Zoe.

The next morning--

"So as far as I can tell buying nectar doesn't actually help us any? I guess we could tail one of the Faldetta Peaches and see if they lead us to anyone higher up the food chain. Might take a while for them to make contact again, though."

“We have an address for the warehouse, if that might be useful. It is supposedly storing textiles, but...”

"Probably we want to tail some women in peach hoods before we break into the warehouse."

Nod. “Probably a good idea.”

"A couple of the girls should tail them, specifically. I think they're more likely to notice a foreign man trying to follow them home."

"Magnificence could probably tail them without being too conspicuous."

"If we could get him to understand that's what we even wanted him to do, which isn't impossible but is a gamble."

"Anemone used to tell him to go do stuff like that all the time. It's worth a shot."

"We could check out the warehouse too today, I suppose, without breaking in? Or look up any new names you found. Or spend more time in the records if there's anything we feel we overlooked."

Magnificence can TOTALLY follow people in peach hoods and see where they go. He gives a little salute.

GOOD monkey.

“I’m—better than average, at being quiet? I could go if we want more people than just Magnificence to go. Magnificence on his own might be less conspicuous, though. Peter Lukas is a new name, he ships textiles, I thought it was nothing until I saw that textiles are the cover story for the warehouse. And it might be worth looking again at the newspapers to see if there’s anything we missed.”

"Possibly we should split up and all follow people and see who happens to meet with someone? We've definitely gotta avoid engaging, though. Or, not all of us, but several of us. People who think they can pull that off."

"We didn't find anything in the newspaper archives but it's worth another try."

At the morgue--

Mordred is going to look up Montgomery Donovan, Peter Lukas, the four ships owned by Peter Lukas, and anything else Oswald or Zoe come up with that they should look for.

He mostly discovers that Miss Donovan has kept herself almost entirely out of the newspapers.

Oswald, however, finds something.

Valletta-- The Royal Opera House on the Strada Reale conducted a very special premiere of Kurt Weill’s Der Jasager, which Mro Luigi Cantoni describes as being based on a libretto by the German writer Bertolt Brecht. 

“The theme of this beautiful opera is made quite explicit by Brecht,” Cantoni says. “When you agree to a course of action, you must fully understand it.” 

In the opera, a young boy asks to join his teacher on a dangerous journey over the mountains to see a great physician who might be able to cure his ailing mother. The teacher reluctantly agrees, but when the boy becomes ill during their journey, the other members of the party remind the teacher of a strict old custom which demands that anyone who becomes ill during the journey must be hurled into the valley. The teacher reminds them that the sick person can instead demand that the entire party should turn back. The boy, however, decides he knows the risk he was undertaking and decides to throw himself into the abyss, asking in return only that they bring back a jar of medicine to his injured mother. 

“It’s a cautionary tale,” Cantoni continued. “Appropriate for a time where the world has great need for caution.”

No such caution was to be seen among the wealthy dignitaries who were assembled to enjoy the premiere. The Royal Opera seized the opportunity of the high profile premiere of the highly popular German opera to reach out to the finest of Malta’s upper and (Continued on page 11 column 2)

The evening’s fundraising efforts raised record amounts from remarkable glitterati at a gala affair. Portia Sapienza (left) and Montgomery Donovan (right) are premiere donors, on the red carpet at the Royal Opera House.

The Royal Opera House! Their hotel is near there!

Wow that's a creepy opera plot. Which Donovan apparently funded. No idea how or whether it connects to the cult, though.

"Themes of self-sacrifice vs controlling others sounds culty to me."

Something about a weakening boy hurling himself into an abyss... Porria Sapienza might also prove relevant or might just be a fan of Bertolt Brecht.

"Oh it definitely sounds culty, I'm just not sure that's useful information for us." Mordred is just simply not thinking about a weakening boy hurling himself into an abyss; he does, however, put Sapienza's name into his notes, along with all the names involved with writing this opera, just in case they come up again.

Mordred is distracting himself so thoroughly from Gale that he looks up and sees something.

There's a man in the newspaper archive. He looks totally normal. Mordred's eyes just seem to gloss over him. He seems as completely part of the environment as the furniture.

But the way he's moving is... not right. Too precise, too careful.