"At least there's that," he agrees. It's remarkable how even when they're not interrogating each other he still learns a fair amount.

A pause.

"I don't want to know shit." Joan tips the ash off her cigarette. "Knowing shit is bad for the lifespan."

"I mean. Working for the cult at all seems bad for the lifespan."

"My chickadee's here and she won't quit."

......oh.

Some of the things Inaaya had said snap into place.

"Ah."

"...actually," does he have a piece of paper and a pen on him, yes he does because he always does, "can I ask you to give Inaaya this -- you can read it if you want there's nothing secret --"

"Sure."

The note says

--knowing that better men would come,
And greater wars: when each proud fighter brags,

and then stops.

"Looks like code."

"It's a quote, she knows the other half."

He wars on Death—for lives; not men—for flags. Or, in other words, I love you, we are not enemies.

"Never had a head for poetry.

Course, my chickadee never had a head for staying alive, so it balances."

"She's very good," Mordred says, lets his voice go soft.

"She is."

"You know, you're not a bad kid."

"...thank you."

"It'd be good to have more than one person trying to keep her alive."

Smile. "I can do my best, anyway."

And then to the car, with Oswald.

When Zoe is dragged out of the hospital, they both see it.

Mordred feels awful about leaving her-- which is hypocritical as hell given his own stated preferences about what the team should do if he's kidnapped-- but-- they haven't shared anything with each other, he hasn't written down almost any of the events of the last few days, he can't just die--

And it's kind of been enough harebrained plans for one night.

Lev spots Tereza and immediately hugs her and begins to sing her to sleep. Somehow this works.

Oswald collapses. Once it looks like she's asleep he says softly, "Anita is dead, Lela is probably dead, Zoe got kidnapped. --We got some info at the party but I kinda need a minute, it all seems... very far away now."

"Montgomery Donovan is an incredibly powerful sorcerer and has agreed to help us cast Cast Out the Black Pharaoh," Mordred says, because he is too fucking tired to come up with the convincing version of this statement.

"Also, Inaaya at least believes that Savitree thinks the Mouth is evil and is working against it, and everything I've seen from the rest of her team does not lead me to think they're aiming for something different. I think that's all the information I have that it would be disastrous if we lost."

"I -- can come up with a version that doesn't sound quite as insane as that version when it is not," and he makes a vague gesture at the entire world.

"...You know what, sure. Donovan wants to help us. Her daughter's dying, she killed the love of her life, she hasn't been on Nectar in a year maybe, we found a suicide note in the secret room off of her bedroom, this all feels very logical. Also definitely insane, admittedly."

He has stopped being able to be surprised or have emotions about things.

"Yeah, it's. She is very very miserable and wants a way out and doesn't have a plan or the ability to form plans and is, I think, grabbing the first halfway decent plan that presents itself. Neither Inaaya nor Montgomery knows what I just told you about the other, Zoe knows about Montgomery but not about Inaaya."

That's very valid of Oswald. Emotions are exhausting.

Then the bit about Inaaya catches up with him.

"Wait. If Savitree is against the Mouth, and Inaaya is against the Mouth, and Joan and Louis and Mariam are against the Mouth, and Montgomery is against the Mouth, then who -- then -- I mean, there's something screwy going on there, right? That's a lot of ostensible cultists who are against the object of their cult."

"Montgomery was not against the mouth until, uh, a couple of hours ago, Montgomery was miserable and mostly only taking actions if prodded to take them. If Joan and Louise and Mariam and Inaaya and Savitree are against the Mouth that's one unified pocket of cultists not a whole lot of individuals -- I'm not disagreeing that this sounds really unlikely but also the context helped a lot --"