Abruptly Inaaya closes her eyes and her face goes blank and empty.

It looks a little like she's in a coma and a little like she's dead.

He tries to focus on how upset he is about his sister and Ayers and Lev, the events in Trammel's estate, Ayers wasting away in the desert, the facts and goals of these things more than the feelings, in case this helps whatever she's doing.

(Mordred loves her and trusts her and is incredibly scared right now and not everything he told her in words over the last two weeks has been true but the general gestalt impression of his personality he's given was and he's telling nothing but the truth now.)

She opens her eyes.

"They're telling the truth."

Meanwhile--

"Hello! Lovely weather we're having."

Zoe glances up at the sky.

"That's very rude. Do you think I'm going to summon a rainstorm to troll you."

"--Troll isn't a word yet, is it. Too bad, it's a good one."

"I just wanted to check whether the weather really was lovely. I hadn't thought about it until you mentioned it."

"Personally, I think Cast Out The Black Pharaoh is also very rude."

"...don't like parties where you're not invited?"

"I don't go around learning Cast Out The Extraordinarily Lucky Acrobat With A Hero Complex."

"I expect you wouldn't have to.

Honestly, I think all the huge slavering mouths eating people and producing creepy drugs are pretty rude but to each their own I suppose."

"They're very rude."

"No style at all."

"I'm glad we agree on something!"

"All of the"-- he gestures-- "saliva and the tongues and the addiction. Ew. Have some taste."

Zoe suppresses the urge to make a tongue joke.

"You could at least put in some maggots. Maggots are cool."

"That I am going to have to disagree with you on."

What exactly were they hoping Casting Out the Black Pharaoh was going to do? It was for dealing with the Maw, right? That sounds like a mouth thing.

"I suppose," he sighs, "the Thing with a Thousand Mouths has just committed to its aesthetic. And you can't fault that."

"However... vulgar... an aesthetic it is."

"At least it's not Y'Golonac."

Zoe has no idea what Y'Golonac is but she assumes it must be very vulgar.

"The whole point of learning Cast Out The Black Pharaoh was the whole Maw business. Is that not a you thing?" Not much point casting him out of something if he's not in it in the first place.

"Now, why would I tell you that?"

"Much more fun to see how it plays out. I certainly don't approve of the aesthetic sense of all of me."

"That tentacle monster in the Congo. Ugh."

"I get the sense you don't feel as much need for consistency."

"Well, if you know Cast Out The Thing With A Thousand Mouths I'd happily trade that one for the Black Pharaoh one. The Mouths are much less personable than you are."

"Well, what will you give me in return?"

Guess he can't literally take the knowledge of the spell she already has from her? That's good to know.

"Private show?"

"Worth considering. You seem a little busy right now, with the"-- he gestures towards the rest of the group; Inaaya is looking through Mordred's notebook-- "human mating drama and so on and so forth."

"Also, all the mortality."

"The three most common human activities. Sex, dying, and being fucked over by the Great Old Ones."