"She... can't mind control people. And is still under the impression we're all working for the cult in Los Angeles."

And doesn't randomly torture her friends for no reason, and also thinks the cult is evil and torture is evil, but if he tries to say that now there is zero possible way it is going to help literally anything.

"The invitation is for two days from now."

"They said that it doesn't eat you up that way at first! First it just makes you smarter and better and only later does it make you..." She is not really sure how to express the thing where lots of cultists seem to think that stabbing people is a fun and friendly activity. "And she said she can't mind control people but the cult is literally called Liars."

"Do you think she knows who we are and is, like, pulling a long con when she says she doesn't? Or that she's influencing Mordred's thoughts in some way he can't notice? Or..."

"I don't know but that doesn't mean I'm wrong!"

"Even... even if she just thinks he's a cultist like her and is trying to be cultists with him, we've seen what cultists do together!"

She's gonna smoke a cigarette. "I think that if you have an organized crime ring after you should avoid being in positions where they can easily grab you. Whether Inaaya herself is trustworthy is only an issue if you're still thinking of it as safe to go out without backup in the first place."

"...She does have a point there. And just because Inaaya doesn't know now doesn't mean there isn't a chance she'll figure it out at any given time, while you're alone with her and still trusting you're safe."

He feels deeply hypocritical about this past week but in his defense the cultist he keeps ending up alone with is not only not psychic but also an airhead.

"When Oswald did that... thing with the Thai lady, back in Ethiopia? it was stupid but at least he knew I was outside the tent ready to do something if things went bad."

"...She actually dragged me out again a few days ago. Could've sworn I'd mentioned."

Eyeroll.

"Anchisa doesn't exactly... ask questions, though. Or have mental superpowers. Or, uh, any kind of..."

Okay that's a bit rude even for him.

"Aaaaaugh." More aggravatedly running her hands through her hair, this time while pacing. "Does no one here have a survival instinct? I don't run off on dates with cultists at any moment I have free time! It's... do they just not teach men not to go off with suspicious characters??"

Honestly that is extremely fair of Zoe. It's not like Mordred didn't have the explicit thought 'Zoe is going to kill me' over a dozen times over the course of the last week.

"I'm doing my best here," he says, under his breath, because he doesn't want to have a trial on whether he is doing his best.

"I just... don't understand what's so hard about not getting all cozy with the people who do literal human sacrifice and mutilate children and whatnot."

"I would not call Anchisa cozy! I would call her very overwhelming and bad at listening to people!"

"Have you tried not talking to her?"

"The part she's bad at hearing is 'I do not want to talk to you'."

"Still think you need to stop thinking of everything in terms of which people are suspicious and think more about whether you're leaving yourself open to attacks from anybody watching you. Some people are known to be dangerous, sure, but that's not the only point when you're in danger, is it. Were you hanging out with someone you knew to be dangerous when you got kidnapped the first time?"

"When I got kidnapped the first time everyone in the group knew exactly where I was, and I was with Araari. So unless you're arguing that I should never leave the hotel room at all, I don't know that we can collectively take many lessons from it."

"--That none of us should ever leave the hotel room at all, honestly, at which point why are we even doing this."

Zoe refrains from mentioning that it turns out staying in the hotel room is apparently also dangerous, given Oswald's bed.

It would undercut her point.

"Honestly having Araari and Mordred go somewhere alone probably was kind of stupid, if neither of them'll carry a gun."

"I am concerned Anchisa will decide she hates me and find some petty awful way to retaliate if I start a huge argument with her instead of keeping my head down but I am perfectly happy to do that if it seems safer than continuing to go along with her."

Zoe is pressing the heels of her palms into her eyes.

VALID OF ZOE.

"I am concerned that if we don't ever interact with the people who keep showing up wherever we are we will have no idea what's going on with them or what they're doing or why and they won't stop showing up wherever we are."

"There's a difference between interacting and," she gestures at Mordred and Oswald, "whatever you're doing alone with them all night."