Anita comes back with some kind of useless but at least extant notes about the effects of nectar as described by Dr. Solazzio.

"Talked to the hospital people. They're claiming it's like an amphetamine, but with zero side effects and no addiction risk. Not that they believe this, mind you."

"And, apparently, their most interesting cases are two eight-year-old girls, a Tereza Doe and a Lela Donovan. I think we want those medical records, if anyone can think of a way to get at them."

"--Eight-year-olds? Did they give any kind of explanation for that?"

"Well, there are no side effects. Of course.

She said she didn't think either of them would be alive without the drug. - and that the only thing resembling a side effect was being 'too happy'. She was leaving stuff out, though."

"What does it mean for an eight year old to be 'too happy', I wonder."

"I mean. I would describe the one person high on Nectar I've known that way."

Araari does NOT look happy. “Eight year olds. That’s—”

She shakes her head. “Do you think she was lying, when she said neither of them would be alive without it, or just—omitting?”

"Dunno. Wanna find out."

"Is 'Doe' a common surname, or is this a 'Jane Doe' sort of situation?"

“It is not a common Maltese surname, it is not nonexistent as an English surname but certainly it’s more common in its capacity as placeholder.”

"Why give a fake name for one if you're gonna give a real one for the other? Maybe they don't know it? Orphan or something?"

"They did make a habit of collecting homeless people in LA."

Shudder. “That could explain why she might be dead if they had not made her a test subject, as well. I do wonder about Lela Donovan—when we check for information on Portia Sapenzia, we should look for her too, and anyone else who might be related to Montgomery Donovan.”

(Now that they've thought about it, Malta seems to have a perfectly normal number of homeless people. That's Sure Better Than The Alternative.)

Meanwhile:

Inaaya's note said: Want to look at rocks nonprofessionally today? Wear something you can climb in a cave in.

"Hello!"

"Hello!" He isn't carrying a notebook and it feels extremely strange. "I understand we are nonprofessionally looking at rocks?"

"Yep! There's a cave called Ghar Dalam not far outside Valletta. Full of fossils. There's a natural history museum in front and then you can go look at the cave."

"Cool." He will... follow her to however they are getting to this cave?

(She'd hired a taxi.)

"Louise tells me you like languages."

"Louise is correct."

"What was it you said-- what's the question I could ask you that could get the most interesting answer?"

Sincere smile. "I am so glad you asked."

Mordred's ability to infodump about auxiliary languages, like a gas, expands to take up any available space; he can do that for as long as Inaaya seems remotely interested.

She is so very interested.

Inaaya herself likes math. Would Mordred like to hear about an interesting math discovery?

Mordred would definitely like to hear about an interesting math discovery.

WELL. This man called Godel has proved that you cannot have a system of axioms that results in all of math and is also internally consistent.

Everyone is very excited because inventing that thing has been the goal of mathematicians for decades, and so it is very exciting if it is impossible in principle.

Here's the proof. First, you figure out how to represent any math equation as a number--

His thing isn't math -- there's only so many things one person can study as a passion project -- but he has enough of a background to follow Inaaya's explanation and enough to ask questions that aren't incredibly stupid.

Inaaya is EXTREMELY excited by this fact.