Well, Terrence thinks this letter sounds awfully familiar, right off the bat. He wonders how many other academically-minded people there are out in that sea of glittering masks at the Servant's Ball, and why they're all there, and what they all may be trying to escape from.

But he's certainly willing to help - sounds interesting, and no reason not to do a favor for Kaplan, anyhow - and that fellow at the party seemed to really care about getting it right. And even if it's not him, the law of synchronicity suggests the same attitude is worth attending to.

He decides to collect the four weirdest people he knows.

...That's probably fair, honestly. Though of course he'd rather say he's a Bohemian's Bohemian, but overall... that's a fair assessment.

It's very nice to be thought of for things like this. Questions of sanity aren't the most captivating thing in the world but visiting an asylum does sound like a lovely excursion.

She's enthusiastic about being part of the People Not Being In Asylums initiative and is, admittedly, extremely weird.

Inaaya Ramanujan Sinope, who named herself after a moon of Jupiter, spends most of her time reading math books and hanging out with bookstore cats, and claims to be a materially-minded skeptic while also reading the future with tarot cards for a living: cannot exactly claim not to be super weird.

Oscar is surprised Terrence has three other bohemians to send a letter to.

(Hannah insisted that he GO TO BED as soon as he went home and read the King in Yellow in the MORNING. By the morning, it no longer seems at all appealing to read. Probably for the best he'd slept through it.) 

A few days later--

Sano's office is too tasteful to have anything you can point to-- it's decorated in soft gentle blues-- but overall it gives the general sense that whomever owns this makes more in six months than Inaaya will in her entire life.

Well, she already knew that.

She informs the person at the front desk that she doesn't have an appointment but she does have an invitation and can wait until Mr. Sano is free.

His secretary says that Mr. Sano is busy but he left a selection of books about math he thought she might like and some money in case she's hungry.

.............that's extremely thoughtful of him.

She is not currently hungry but she's going to take the money anyway, because Joan will be, and head out for long enough that they can maintain plausible deniability that she got herself a meal with it, and then she's going to come back and curl up with one of the books.

About forty-five minutes later, the secretary says, "Mr. Sano will see you now."

Forty-five minutes later Inaaya has folded herself into a position more commonly seen among cats than people and is absolutely not using the chair the way chairs are supposed to be used. She's ready!

And goes where she's directed which is, presumably, the office proper.

"Miss Sinope!" Sano says. "How lovely to see you."

Very genuine smile. "Hello Mr. Sano, I'm here about the book of star charts?"

"Of course." Sano takes it out. "It's a very lovely book-- you'll have to wear these gloves to touch it--"

Okay!!! She's never had a chance to touch a book this old before but she is 100% capable of Wearing Gloves and Following Instructions.

Mr. Sano points out interesting features of the book. "This book is so old that when it was printed we didn't know about stars that couldn't be seen. All the stars they drew are the stars they knew about."

!!!!!

There's nothing that leaps out at her from the astronomy she already knows but she listens very intently and -- it's fascinating, all knowledge is, but specifically maps of the stars that are incomplete because of knowledge humanity as a whole didn't have but no less beautiful for it are a particular point of interest.

The star charts are beautiful. They drew pictures of the constellations behind the charts: a bear, a hunter, a snake.

"The constellations are different in Japan," Sano says quietly, pausing at one. "This one we called the dragon."

"They're different in India too. This one I grew up calling the two chariots."

"It is strange to be here where even the stars are divided differently, even if it's the same night sky."

"In some ways it's stranger than if the sky itself were different."

This is a hypothetical statement, note the 'if,' but it's...... kind of not a hypothetical statement.

"The adjustment can be quite difficult," he says, which is not not a question.

"It can be," which is not not an answer. "I've been here for nearly four years now and my friends are very patient with me, which helps."

"My friends were very helpful to me when I first visited. It was so strange not to have rice. And their tea--!"

Tiny laugh. "The tea barely tasted like anything to me at first. --although I've gotten used to nothing having spices since then, of course."